archelogia philosophica nova, or, new principles of philosophy containing philosophy in general, metaphysicks or ontology, dynamilogy or a discourse of power, religio philosophi or natural theology, physicks or natural philosophy / by gideon harvey ... harvey, gideon, ?- ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h _entire wing h _partial estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. 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tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng philosophy. natural theology -- early works to . science -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion archelogia philosophica nova , or new principles of philosophy . containing philosophy in general . metaphysicks , or ontology . dynamilogy , or a discourse of power . religio philosophi , or natural theology . physicks , or natural philosophy . by gideon harvey , dr. of phys. and phil. late physician to his majesties army in flanders . london , printed by j. h. for samuel thomson at the bishops-head in st pauls church-yard . . dr. harvey's new philosophy . imprimatur geo. stradling , s. t. p. rev. in christo pat. gilb. episc. lond. a sac. domest . ex aed. sabaud . octob. . . to the right honourable thomas earl of ossory , one of his majesties most honourable privy council in the kingdom of ireland . my lord , although the interval of several years past might easily have blotted out the memory of any obligations , yet it is the impression of your lordships most obliging civilities conferred upon me , when fortune had blessed me with the honour of your good company in my travels in france , that incites me to make the least recompence ( yet the greatest within my power ) of their remembrance and acknowledgement . but what can this add ? since countries and cities , that have been honoured with your abode , describe your fame with characters of all perfections concurring in a person of so noble , prudent , valiant , heroick , and so affable a spirit : whence i cannot but be confirmed of your lordships candour , that encourageth me in this my enterprize of offering to you a piece of philosophy , so much below your acceptance ; however questioning not but that your honours endowments will raise the use of it ( if any may be made ) to the greatest height . and now being conscious of my presumption in aspiring to make choice of so eminent a personage for a patron , do humbly beg your pardon , and the favour of subscribing my self most noble sir , your honours most humble , and obliged servant , harvey . to the reader . reader , i was concerned in my mind , what to call you , courteous , or kind ; but since the scene of this our orb represents men moving so erratically , and varying in that extremity from the ecliptick of a fixt judgment , certainly i should have been frustrated in wooing your candour or gentleness ; dayly converse gives me the occasion of observing the variable fates of authors works , which although indited by accurateness it self , and accomplisht with herculean labours , are oft termed stuffe by some ; and to others again , the works of a divinity scarce seem to surpass them : but to render lines harmonical to every ear is one of the humane impossibilities ; and no small difficulty to a divine pen. however all volumns sail through an ocean so terrible by oricanes from mens tongues , the more by reason they are tossed to and fro without the conduct of their pilot , yet it is not this charybdis of a carping momus , or that scylla of a livid zollus shall prevail to keep these upon the stocks , but rather precipitate them upon a voyage , with a venture of their whole lading full of novelties , suspending my thoughts in the interim for a return : not a recompence of vain glory , nor a reproof relished with contempt , neither being placed in one scale of a ballance over powers the other containing no more than an empty air ; and should not that be far short of my scope , marked with a single character of truth , and advancement of learning , setting aside any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the faces of most things appearing yet clouded , many but partly unmask ; as many , although of themselves clear , covered under a vail of dark terms and absurd notions of philosophers , cannot but spur any sensible genius to discuss that muddiness of some , and redeem the light of others , in the performing whereof i have here ingaged my self in these treatises , taking what advantage long time , hard study , and laborious experiments would contribute thereunto . the only instruments , that i have imployed in the sounding of the natures of beings , are the external senses , assuming nothing , or concluding no inference , without their advice and undoubted assent , whether in metaphysicks , theology , or natural philosophy . those terms or notions , that only give a confuse testimony of their being to the understanding , escaping the evidence of external sence , we have declined as rocks , whereon any one might otherwise easily make shipwrack of his sensible knowledge . wherefore whatever subject insisted upon within these narrow pages , doth not crave a necessary , evident , plain and demonstrable assent , as being only attempted by external sense , mediately or immediately , my desire is the reader would apprehend it to be no part of my book . but to give you a more particular account of my design , i shall first discover to you my intention in annexing natural theology : my thoughts fluctuating in a mist , astonisht at the multiplicity of all kinds of bodies moving about me , advised to stear their course to some immoveable , whereupon they might fix themselves , and thence to ponder upon others ; here they certainly concluded one universal immoveable , whereon and whereby all moveables are moved ; because there can be no moveable , but must necessarily have its respect to an immoveable , they being relations , which are constituted at the same time . my next assumption following the chorea of the first , and drawn from the relation interceding between an immoveable and moveable , resolved me , that a moveable must necessarily be derived from an immoveable ; whence i was soon confirmed of an universal creator of the whole universe : thence i made a digression into the reason and cause of the creation of all moveables , particularly of my self , and so keeping strait on my road , behold my steps , markt and digested in the fourth book of my philosophy , which by reason of their prius ought to have been ranckt in the front , all men naturally converting their first thoughts thither ; but for orders sake have inserted them elsewhere . here i found the camp , whereon atheism and natural faith were to encounter each other ; but the former being intrencht within the flesh , to have much the advantage of the latter standing bare upon so slippery a ground , whence it is , that the greatest part of the world , yea , of christendom render themselves up captives and eternal slaves to the obedience of the devil , in the service of atheism , engaged in actions of abomination , horrour , and blasphemy . notwithstanding since the ruines of those lines of blessedness and innocency , yet discernable in the souls of all men , are possible to be raised up again , whence they may easily demolish and batter down those strong bulworks of pernicion , it is that part of fortification i have endeavoured to delineate , the knowledge whereof is absolutely necessary for salvation , and is a key wherewith to unlock the mysteries of eternal happiness , revealed to us by the holy scriptures , which being founded upon the greatest and truest reason , must certainly require a gradual ascent to it from natural theology , being a rational discourse inferring theorems of salvation from humane reason , subordinate to the highest of the scriptures . wherefore all evidence doth direct us to make this our mark or circle , whence we are to run to that blessed meta of the other . but how preposterous and rash is it for men to slip over this part , and to cast themselves without a bottom into the very depth of divine theology ? alas their apprehension is immediately drowned in it ; their understanding amazed at those fathomless pits of reason ; in what different and monstrous acceptions do most divines attach the genuine sense of scripture , through ignorance of its precedents , scope , & dependance ? and more than this , each invokes the holy ghost for a witness for to attest those various interpretations . but what is this , but their heavy dull imaginations hallucinating in the appearance of the scriptures , like several eyes in apparent objects of the sky , some framing this , others that likeness of them ? i am not now to be confirmed in my belief , that the worst of atheism is latent in many supposed divines , their sinister ends , cheats , and vile secret passions of the flesh betraying their hypocrisie . certainly , were i put to pick ( out of any profession ) some that were to surmount all others in wickedness , i should not need long time to ponder upon my verdict . the cause of this perversity i can state none but presumption in those , who after a twelve-moneths dosing upon ursin's cat. or ames . medul . do apprehend they should know the whole drift and connection of the fundamentals of sacred writings , which to the same appearing upon a reflection , dishering , and strange in expressions , have soon confounded their small relicts of natural faith into a detestable atheism , however cloathed with a dissembled time-holiness under their dark habits for to feed their covetousness out of their benefices . had these but conferred with their innate principles of natural theology , and arrived to the habit therof before they had applied themselves to the top of inspired learning , beyond all surmising , the fundamentals of this latter would have been evidenced to them to be the alone absolute wisdom , plain truth , and most certain infallibility . notwithstanding so universal a neglect of this part , yet i question not , but many may be found so well principled in both , that their undoubted faith , expressed in their most holy life and actions , will prove a great happiness to their followers and hearers in such leaders and teachers . next touching my scope in the metaphysicks , which was principally the substitution of such theorems in them , as might be demonstrated by sense , and had their sole dependance upon it , in order to a confutation of those absurd notions purely logical , ( although sold for real ones , ) that aristotle proposed in his metaphysicks ; in the interpretation and ambiguities whereof schollars do usually consume a whole age in vain , reaping no better fruits thence , than that after seven years study they are enabled to say formaliter , or materialiter to every thing . but lastly , my chiefest design ever since the seventeenth year of my age , when i had just finisht my course in physick , and taken my last degree , consisted in elaborating such demonstrations in natural philosophy , as might serve to unfold the natures of beings in relation to the art of physick , hitherto so uncertain , blind , and unfounded on art , that i dare confidently assert , that the cure of many ( if not of most ) diseases is rather to be imputed to the strength of bodies , than the application of vulgar remedies , as the precipitation of patients to their extream fate by the ordinary courses of physick more than to the cruelty of their distempers , setting aside those frequent mistakes in discovering them and their causes ; all which are so much subordinated to natural philosophy , that whatever rare invention in practice , or infallible distinction of any disease , is deprehended in the art of medicine , must be demonstrated by principles of physicks . difficulties of nature , that formerly seemed so uneasie to be explained , i find very obvious and evident through them ; many things that have hitherto lain hidden in the bosome of nature , and such , as no philosophy could yet discover , you will meet with here . besides these you are like to read the quotation of a book of souls or psychelogia , formerly intending its insertion in the second part of philosophy . but since i apprehend my self to be much scanted of my time , and that this volumn would swell up into too great a mole , i am compelled to omit the publishing of it , although it hath been long since ready for the press . before i take my leave of my reader , i must not forget to crave your permission of using some kind of terms in my books , which although somewhat alienated from their proper signification , yet can give you a reason of their figurative or tropical acception , such are catochization , grove , besides many others . i must also acquit my self to you of my default in such plain and unpolisht lines , which i have made use of ; certainly , whoever is acquainted with philosophy will know , that it is philosophical so to write ; neither , had i been ingaged in any other subject , could i have gratified your expectation herein , since it was never my fortune to read two sheets of any english book in my life , or ever to have had the view of so much as the title leaf of an english grammar . i have also varied in the orthography both of spelling and pointing from the ordinary , and so the printer hath varied from me ; my own part herein i can easily protect , and so i may the printers , since his unacquaintedness with the matter and hand-writing , and the dazling of his eyes , ( which a pair of spectacles might easily have mended , ) in the smalness of my letters , hath set him upon the lee shore of accurateness ; however you may prevent the danger of some mistakes ( although not of all , since i have not the opportunity of so much as casting a superficial eye over half this volumn , ) by directing your self to the errata , which you will find set down at the end of each book . in fine , not to detain you longer in preambles , i shall only commend to you one of grave cato's distichs thus inverted , non hos collaudes , nec eos culpaveris ipse , hoc faciant stulti , quos gloria vexat inanis . condemn thou none , neither give them praise , let fools do so , who love peoples gaze . and advise you to suspend your verdict upon these writings , untill you have perused them twice , and then if disrelishing , dishering , false or contradicting to give your self the trouble of letting me know my errours in the sense of them , which , since my only scope is to promote learning , to be taught my self , and to excite others to the study of things , that are yet imprisoned in darkness , i shall take for a very friendly office , not valuing the hearing or acknowledging my mistakes ( although attended as usually with some reproof ) provided , that at the same time i may be furnished with better principles in lieu of mine , or otherwise i shall think it much below me to take notice of such scripts , intended for nothing more than libels : moreover , that my further duty may not prove a regret to me , the answering of such desires in latine will obliege me to remain , courteous reader , your humble servant . to momus . thou cross-grain'd mome , 't is time forbear to squint , if not , i 'll coin and cast thee in the mint ; bodel be stamp a dog gnorring at a bone , more stupid , more dull than any dunghitl stone ; if now thou shouldst grow civil , beyond what i can hope , then thou art no more a beast , but a true man. the contents of the principles of philosophy . the first part . the first book . chap. i. of matters preceding and following the nature of philosophy . . the derivation of philosophy . pa. . . what it was first called , and why its name was changed . ibid. . the original of philosophy . the first inventers of it . p. . . what dispositions are required in a philosopher . the difficulty in attaining to philosophy . the pleasure arising from the possession of it . ib. . the esteem and worth of philosophy and philosophers . p. . . the use and fruits reaped from philosophy , and redounding in general to every one : in particular , to a divine , civilian and physitian . p. . chap. ii. of the nature of philosophy . . whether philosophy can be defined . p. . . various definitions of philosophy . how plato did define it . the definition of damascen . ib. . the authors definition of it . that the essence of god is as sensibly apprehended as the essence of his creatures . p. . . what is implyed by knowledge . . . the subjectum circa quod , or object of philosophy . p. . . the subjectum inhesionis , or subject wherein philosophy is inherent . ib. caap. iii. of philosophers . . what a philosopher is . four properties necessary in a philosopher . that nothing is more hatefull , and noysom than a man but half learned . p. , . . the first universities . the rise and number of sects sprung from these universities . the fame of socrates . p. . . what means philosophers made use of to procure themselves a repute and fame . p. . chap. iv. of the distribution of philosophy in parts . . in what manner philosophy contains its subjected parts . p. . . how objects move the understanding by their first and immediate representation . ib. . that the supreme and immediate division of philosophy , is into practick and theorick knowledge . . . an objection against the subdidivision of practick and theorick knowledge . ib. . how knowledge is subdivided . ib. . that the subdivision is adequate to all its inferiour parts . p. . . why practick and theoretick philosophy are not treated of separately , their inferiour parts are . ib. . that the common quadripartition of philosophy is too strict . p. . chap. v. . what method is requisite in the ordering of the particular treatises of the several parts of philosophy . p. . . what order is observed in the placing of the general parts of philosophy . ib. p. . the first part . the second book . chap. i. of the nature of metaphysicks . . of the etymology and synonima's of metaphysicks . p. . . the authors definition of metaphysicks . that a being is univocal to an objective and a real being . p. . . the true formal and adequate object of metaphysicks . p. . . wherein metaphysicks differ from philosophy . ib. chap. ii. of precision . . what precision is . p. . . that a real precision is not properly a precision . p. . . that precision constitutes a positive and negative . ib. . the difference of precision . that all precisions are formal . ib. chap. iii. the manner of precision . . how a more universal being is precinded from its less universal beings . p. . . how an universal being is equally abstracted from an ( ens rationis ) objective being , and ( ens reale ) a real being . ib. . how a common concept is precinded from a substance and accident . ib. chap. iv. of the definition of a being . . what the proper name of the nature of a being is . the improbation of several definitions of a being . p. . . objections against the common definition of a being received by most late philosophers . p. . . that there is no common concept to a possible real being , and an actual real being . ib. . that there is an univocal concept to all immaterial and material , objective and real , substantial and accidental beings . p. . . the authors definition of a being . that our knowledge is comparatively as perfect as adams was . ib. chap. v. of the formality of an objective being . . the authors definition of a ( ens rationis ) being of the mind , or an objective being . wherein a real being differs and agrees with an objective being . p. . . the proof of the fore-given definition . that whatever we think , when we do not think upon a real being , is an objective being . that whatever we think or can think , when we do not think upon a real being , is like to a real being . p. . . another argument to prove the formality of a mental being to consist in likenessto a eral being . . . the division of an objective being . p. , . chap. vi. queries concerning a real and an objective being . . whether an objective being and a real being differ essentially one from the other . p. . . whether a rose in the winter is a real being . ib. . if impossibility be the formality of an objective being . ib. . whether the ratio formalis of an objective being consists in a conjunction of many beings , which in that conjunction are impossible to exist really . p. . . that an objective being is not existent before it is understood . a confutation of smigl . ib. p. . . that an objective being is only proper to the understanding . p. . chap. vii . the manner of forming an objective being . . that all formations of an ens rationis are single . that the second operation of the understanding , is the same in specie with the first . a division of an objective being into single and complexe . p. , . . that a non ens cannot be known . two acceptions of a non ens , p. . chap. viii . of the formality of a real being . . what a real being is according to the author . the derivation of res and aliquid . that it is very improper to call it a real being . the cause of that denomination . p. . . that the phansie is the immediate subject of an ens reale . p . . that the understanding is only the mediate subject of real beings . ib. chap. ix . of the division of a being into universal and singular . . a being is divisible into univerversal and singular . p. . . what an universal being is according to the author . ib. . what an universal real being is . . . what an universal objective being is . ib. chap. x. of universal and singular beings . . that there are no platonick idea 's that universal beings are not really different from their singulars . wherein an universal is distinguisht from a singular . that singulars being abolisht , universals thence abstracted , are also abolisht with them . p. . . that universal beings are formally distinct from singulars . p. . . singulars are primum cognita . p. . . universals are notiora nobis . ib. chap. xi . of the extream division of a being . . another division of a being . p. . . what the greatest or most universal is . ib. . what the greater universal is . ib. . what a less universal is . ib. . what the least universal is . ib. . how the fore-mentioned members are otherwise called . ib. chap. xii . of the modes or parts of a being . . what a mode is . whence a part is named a part. whence a mode is termed a mode . the scotch proverb verified . p. . . the number and kinds of modes . what an essence or a whole being is . p. . . that a mode is the summum genus of all beings , and their parts . ib. . the vulgar doctrine of modes rejected . ib. . that a substance is a mode of a being . p. . . that a mode is an univocal gender to a substance and an accident . p. . . that a substance is an accident , and all accidents are substances , the difference between subsistence and substance . ib. chap. xiii . of the attributes of a being . . why a property is so called . p. . . the difference which authors hold between passion and attribute . ib. . that passion and attribute , as to their names imply the same thing . ib. . that attributes are really the same with their essence . that all attributes of a being , as they are united , are the same with their essence or being . p. . . that the attributes are formally distinct from one another . ib. . that that , which we conceive beyond the attributes of a being , is nothing . ib. . what an essence is . ib. chap. xiv . of the kinds and number of the attributes of a being . . whence the number of the attributes of a being is taken . p. . . the number of attributes constituting a being . ib. . all attributes are convertible one with the other , and each of them , and all of them in union with an essence or being . ib. . that all the attributes of a being are equall in dignity and evidence . ib. . that the order of doctrine concerning these attributes is indifferent . ib. chap. xv. of essence and existence . . that essence and existence are generally received for principles . p. . . that essence is no principle . ib. . that existence is no principle . ib. . that existence is according to the opinion of the author . p . . that existence is intentionally distinct from essence . ib. . that essence is perfecter than existence . ib. . that existence is formally distinct from substance . ib. chap. xvi . of unity . . that unity superaddes nothing positive to a being . p. . . what unity is . that unity properly and per se implies a positive ; accidently and improperly a negative . what is formally imported by unity . ib. . that unity is illegally divided in unum per se , and unum per accidens . ib. chap. xvii . of truth . . why truth is called transcendent . p. . . what truth is . ib. . an objection against the definition of truth . that a monster is a true being . that god although he is the remote efficient cause of a monster , neverthelesse cannot be said to be the cause of evil . p. . . austin 's definition of truth . p. . . that fashood is not definable . how it may be described . ib. chap. xviii . of goodness . . what goodness is . the improbation of several definitions of goodness . p. . . the difference between goodness and perfection . ib. . what evil is . ib. . what the absolute active end of goodness is . ib. . that goodness is improperly divided , in essential , accidental , and integral goodness . p. . . how goodness is properly divided . ib. . that the division of good in honest , delectable , &c. doth belong to ethicks . ib. chap. xix . of distinction . . the authors description of distinction . that the privative sense of not being moved is a note of distinction , whereby the understanding distinguishes a non ens from an ens. that the positive sense of being moved in another manner , than another ens moves the understanding , is a note of distinction between one being and another . p. . . how distinction is divided . what a real distinction is . p. . . what a modal difference is . ib. . that the vulgar description of a real distinction is erroneous . ib. . that the terms of a distinction between two or more real beings , are requisite both or more to exist . p. . . that one term of distinction although in existence , cannot be exally predicated of another not existent . oviedo and hurtado reamined . ib. . what a formal distinction is à parte actus , and how otherwise called . ib. . what a distinctio rationis is . how otherwise called . p. . chap. xx. of subsistence . . what subsistence is . what it is to be through it self , from it self , and in it self . p. . . that a nature cannot be conservated by god without subsistence . that the transubstantiation of christs body and bloud into bread and wine , according to the supposition of the papists , is impossible . oviedo 's argument against this position answered . ib. . the kinds of subsistences . p. . . what termination is . ib. . what perfection is . ib. chap. xxi . of remaing modes of a being . . what quantity is . p. . . what the kinds of quantity are . ib. . what quality is . ib. . what relation is . ib. . what action is . ib. . what paspon is . ib. . what situation is . ib. . what duration is . ib. chap. xxii . of causes . . what a cause is . that the doctrine of causes belongeth to metaphysicks . p. . . wherein a cause and principle differ . ib. . what an internal cause is . what matter is . ib. . what a form is , and how it is divided . p. . . what an external cause is . ib. chap. xxiii . of the kinds of causes . . the number of real causes that a final cause is no real cause . the causality of matter and form. p. . . the division of an efficient . p. . . that an efficient is erroneously divided in a procreating and conservating cause . ib. . that the division of a cause into social and solitary is illegal . ib. . that the division of an efficient cause into internal and external is absurd . p. . . that all forms are material . . . that there are no assistent forms . p. . chap. xxiv . of the theorems of causes . . that a cause and its effects are co-existent . p. . . that there are but three causes of every natural being . ib. . that there is but one cause of every being . ib. . that all beings are constituted by one or more causes . p. . . that all causes are really univocal . ib. . that all natural causes act necessarily . ib. . that the soul of a beast acteth necessarily . p. . . that all matter hath a form. that matter is capable of many forms . p. . the first part . the third book . chap. i. of powers , according to the peripateticks . . the opinion of the peripateticks touching the souls action . that according to the same opinion , a substance is said not to act immediately through it self , but through superadded powers . p. . . that a substance acteth through as many different powers , as it produceth different acts. p. . . that the said powers are really and formally distinct from the essence of the soul. ib. . that powers are concreated with the soul , and do immediately emanate from her essence . p. . . that immaterial powers are inherent in the soul , as in their agent ; material ones in the matter , as in their subject . ib. . that powers are distinguisht by their acts and objects . the authors intent in treating of the faculties of the soul. ib. chap. ii. of all the usual acceptions of power . . the etymology of power . the synonyma's of power . p. . . the various acceptions of power . ib. . what a passive natural power , and a supernatural passive or obediential power is . ib. . various divisions of power . p. . chap. iii. of the nature of power according to the author . . the analogal concept of power as it is common to all its analogata . p. . . whether there be real powers . . . certain conclusions touching powers . p. . . that all substances act immediately through themselves . p. . . that a peripatetick power is a non ens physicum . p. . . that all powers are really identificated with their subject . ib. . that powers are distinguisht modully from their subject . p. . . how powers are taken in the abstract . ib. . the manner of the remission and intention of powers . p. . . the number of the formal acts caused by a singular substance . ib. . the number of the formal acts caused by an organical substance . p. . . the solutions of several doubts touching powers . ib. . that all creatures have an absolute power secundum quid of acting . p. . . in what sense hippocrates and galen apprehended powers . ib. the first part . the fourth book . chap. i. of the nature of natural theology . . what theology is . p. . . that theosophy is a fitter name to signifie the same , which is here intended by theology . that in knowing god we become philosophers . p. . . what a habit is . ib. . what it is to live happily . that there is a mean or middle way of living , which is neither living in happiness , or living in misery . p. . . how theology is divided . ib. . what natural theology is . what supernatural theology is . the first doubts of a natural man. ib. . the dignity of theology . p. . chap. ii. of the end of natural theology . . wherein moral philosopy differeth from natural theology ; and wherein it agreeth with it . that the heathen philosophers were no true philosophers . aristotle his dying words . epicure his miserable death , after so pleasant a life . p. . . a description of the greatest happiness . queries touching the greatest happiness . p. . . whether the greatest happiness is the neerest and principal end of theology . ib. . how the greatest happeness is otherwise called . p. . chap. iii. of good . . what good is . p. . . that aristotle 's definition of good is erroneous . ib. p. . . diogenes his definition of good . . the explanation of the definition of good. how the several kinds of good differ from one another . ib. . what moral good is : what moral evil is . p. . . what theologick good and evil is . ib. chap. iv. of moral good and moral evil. . an explanation of the definition of moral good. what is understood by a natural state. the ambiguity of the word natural . p. . . what moral good it is , which doth respect the body . what moral good it is , which respecteth the soul. p. . an explanation of the definition of moral evil. that god doth not properly bend to his creatures . p. . . the distinction between these two predicates , to be good , and to do good. ib. . how moral good turns to moral evil. p. . . that man , as he is in a neutral state , is in a middle state , between supernatural and preternatural . ib. chap. v. of theologick good , and theologick evil. . an explanation of the definition of theologick good. p. . . an explication of the definition of theologick evil. ib. . what honest , usefull and pleasant good is . p. . . what natural , sensible and moral good is . ib. chap. vi. of the greatest and highest good. . a further illustration of the greatest good. p. . . that the highest good is the neerest end of natural theology . ib. . what the summum bonum is otherwise called . that the greatest good is our last end . p. . . the inexpressible joy , which the soul obtains in possessing the greatest good. ib. . two great benefits , which the soul receiveth from the summum bonum . p. . chap. vii . of the false summum bonum . . the summum bonum of the epicureans unfolded and rejected . p. . . that wealth is a greater terment than a summum bonum . the riches of seneca . that we ought to follow his example . p. . . that to be taken up in merry discourses is not the greatest happiness . ib. p. . . that it is not the greatest happiness to be merry twice or thrice a week at a mans country house . p. . . that honour is not the greatest good . ib. . that swearing is no happiness . ib. . the author's ground why he was compelled to make use of so light a style in this chapter . p. . . that all these enumerated instances are highly to be embraced as good , but not as the greatest good. that meat and drink are to be taken with temperance . ib. . that riches are not absolutely to be rejected . p. . . that mutual converse is commendable . ib. . that a constant society is necessary to man. ib. . that we ought to give honour to whom honour is due . p. . . that we ought not to refuse an oath tendred by the magistrate . ib. chap. viii . of the subject of natural theology . . man consisting of body and soul is the adequate subject of natural theology . p. . . reasons proving the soul to be the original and principal subject of theology . ib. . that the understanding and will are really and formally one . the confutation of the vulgar definition of will a full explication of the will , and the manner of its acting . what speculative and practical signifie . p. , &c. . what the will is in a large sense . p. . what the will is in a strict sense . ib. . an explanation upon the first description of will. p. . . the effects of the will. whether appetibility doth not equally imply volibility , and appetibility in a strict sense . p. . . whether mans appetite is distinct from his will. ib. chap. xix . of free-will by reason . . wherein man doth most differ from animals or naturals . p. . . to what acts the freedom of man's will , in reference to its acting , doth extend . what the freedom of will is , quoad exercitium actus , and what libertas contradictionis is . ib. . what the second kind of freedom of will importeth . p. . . that the speculative understanding in the act of speculation is practick . ib. . that the will is not constrained to will a good thing , although present : but hath a power of rejecting it . ib. . that the will willeth evil for an evil end . that some men are worse than devils . p. . . what the will 's freedom is in specifying its acts . ib. . what free-will is in refference to its faculty . ib. . velten rejected for asserting that the will is not indifferent to each contrary . that the will is indifferent to each contradictory opposite . p. . . that the will is free to act , or not to act . p. . . that the will is free to act upon particular objects , whether good or evil . the state of the controversie . ib . that man as he is in a natural and corrupt state hath a free-will of doing a moral good , or a moral evil act . ib. . that man hath not a free-will of doing a theologick good act immediately through him self without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . p. . . man hath a free-will of doing a theologick good act with an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . that he hath a free-will of election . ib. . that man , as be is in a natural state , hath a free-will , through himself , and without gods extraordinary concurrence , to procure gods extraordinary concurrence and assistance to him in his actions . that our being and conversation in it , and all our actions depend from the ordinary concurrence of god. reasons , why god did not conferre upon him an absolute power of acting without his ordinary concourse . the cause of man's fall . that that which is only morally good will prove theologick evil at last . ib. . . arguments to prove a free-will in man. a reconciliation of the calvinists with the arminians . that man hath a rement of theologick good surving in him . the state of the controversie . the division of it . , &c. chap. x. of free-will from scripture . . objections from scripture against man's free-will . p. . . an answer to the said objections . p. . . objections proving that moral good is evil . ib. . the first objection answered . p . . the second objection removed . ib. . some other texts produced against free-will in man. p . . the first text reconciled . ib. . the second objection removed . . arguments deduced from faith . an answer to the said arguments . ib. . the first argument drawn from scripture , to prove man's free-will to good and evil . p. . . a second argument proving the same . ib. . a third argument . ib. . many other texts inferring the same . p. . . texts proving a remnant of good in man. ib. . texts proving that a natural man cannot do a theologick good act through himself , and being only assisted with the ordinary concurss of god. ib. . scriptures inferring , that a supernatural man hath no free-will to direct contraries , that is , to do theologick good and evil . an answer to some texts produced by bellarmin , p. , . . scripture proofs concluding , that the means , whereby god's extraordinary concurrence is procured , is in man , and adheres to his free-will . p. . . whether man's actions performed with god's extraordinary assistance are to be taken for the actions of god , or of man. ib. . a reconciliation of the ninth to the romans . the unfolding of predistination , or of god's eternal decree . p. , &c. chap. xi . of the command of the will. . whether the will can be forced . . . what elicited and imperated acts are . p. . . what command the will exreciseth over the inferiour faculties . what a politick and despotick command is . ib. . that the irascible and appetitive faculty are under a politick obedience to the will. p. . . that the locomotive faculty is not alwayes under a servile obedience to the will. ib. . that the will doth not command over the practick understanding . ib. chap xii . of voluntary and involuntary . . that the understanding , as it is speculative and practick , is the internal principle of the ultimate and intermediate actions . that god or angels are improperly said to be external principles . that god is the coefficient of man's actions . how angels , whether good or evil , wizords and witches concur to the specification of man's actions . p . . what a humane action is . p. . . that it is absurd to assert man to do a thing ignorantly . ib. . whether evils of omission through ignorance are to be termed involuntary . ib. . how humane actions are divided . p. , &c. chap. xiii . of natural faith. . that faith is the sole means , through which we are to attain to our greatest good . what faith is . the definition confirmed by arguments deduced from reason . p. . . the two-fold object of faith. a proof from reason , that god is the creator of man. that god and nature are one . p. . . an enquiry into the end of man's creation . p. . . that man doth know the summe of god's law through the light of nature . a summary enumeration of the law of god , as it is imprinted upon every man's heart . ib. . . moral virtues compared with the moral law. a comprehension of all moral virtues . p. , . chap. xiv . of man's fall , and of atheism . . a rational enquiry into man's primitive estate . the manner of man's fall . p. . grounds , whence a man may rationally collect hopes for his restoration . p. . . that atheism is the worst of sins and that an atheist is unable of performing the least good act . wherein the goodness of an action doth consist . ib. . . a character of an atheist . that confirmed atheism is the onely sin against the holy ghost . a full discovery of an atheist . ib. . chap. xv. of the means and manner of man's escape and restauration . . what is requisite for a man to consider in order to his escape and restitution . p. . . how a man may naturally find out a means tending to his restitution . ib. . the description of god's mercy . . . the explanation of the precedent description . p. . . the act , through which god's mercy doth succour a natural soul in her contention . ib. chap. xvi . of the light and darknesse of man's practick understanding . . that light and darknesse are analogal to principles of good and evil. p. . . queries concerning light and darknesse . ib. . the two kinds of light. what the first light is , and how it produceth the second light. ib. . what the habit of light is . that the first man acted without habits . how a habit is acquired . ib. . that the first man acted through a natural disposition , and not through any habits . p . chap. xvii . containing rational discoveries of man's primitive and second estate . . that man was created most perfect . a proof from reason , inferring god to be a most rational spirit . p . . that man by means of his first and second light , understood all beings perfectly in their proper natures as they were . p. . that the first man did not sleep during his incorrupt estate . ib. . that the first man did eat and drink . ib. . that the first man would have generated in the same manner , and through the same parts , as he did afterwards , but without that shame and sinfull lust . that there were no co-adamites . the absurdity of that blasphemous opinion touching prae-adamites . ib. . that the first man was beyond danger of erring in any action proceeding from his soul. p. . a rational inquiry into the first sinne , and knowledg of the first commandment . ib. . the manner of man's fall proved by reason . his punishment for the breach of the first commandment . p. . . a further collection of man's pupunishment for his first sinne . that a present unavoidable temporal death was part of man's punishment , and not a present unavoidable eternal death . ib. that man after his fall was not become utterly evil . p. . . an enumeration of the relicts of good in man. p. . chap. xviii . of the manner of the suppression , extinction , predominance and triumph of the habit of good. . the repetition of some of the principal principles of this treatise . . . what it is that hindreth the habit of good. ib. . how the good habit happens to be deaded , and overcome by the evil habit . how the good habit happens to suppresse and vanquish the evil habit . ib. . that we are apt to incline most to those things that are forbidden . p. . . a proof inferring darkness to proceed from the prevalence of the corporeal appetite . ib. . why it is , that a man must necessarily die . the ground detected upon which the papists were induced to state a purgatory . their error rejected . p. . . that the propertion of these two habits is various in every individual subject . ib. chap. xix . of original sinne. . how it is possible for two contrary habits to inhere in one subject . . . the absurdities that follow this assertion , viz. that the evil habit inheres in the soul perse . ib. . in what manner the habit of good is taken to inhere per se in the soul. p. . . that god created every man theologically good . several objections relating to the same assertion , answered . ib. . how the soul partaketh of the guilt of original sinne. the opinion of the synod of rochel upon this matter . p. . &c. chap. xx. of the manner of man's multiplication . . the state of the controversie . . . that the rational soul is not generated , or produced by generation . that there are three kinds of productions out of nothing . ib. . that the soul is not propagated either from the father or mother . ib. . . that impious opinion concluding the rational soul to be generated tanquam ex traduce , confuted . . . an objection against the authors opinion answered . ib. . that the foetus before the advent of the rational soul is informated with a form analogal to a sentient form . p. . . that god is the remote cause of man's generation . ib. . that man doth generate man naturally and perse . ib. . the opinion of austin , jerome , and others upon this matter . p. . chap. xxi . of practick natural faith. . what a man is to consider to prevent his downfall . p. . . man's danger and folly : the devils policy . a certain means whereby to be delivered from this imminent danger . the whole mystery and summe of man's salvation . ib. . . the main question of this whole treatise decided . p. . . scripture proofs ( accidentally proposed ) inferring implicit faith in a natural man to be justifying . ib. . the general rules of practick faith . p. . the occasion of man's fall briefly repeated . ib. . fifteen reasons against all passions . p. , . . arguments against all bodily pleasures . p. . . the military discipline of a natural man , instructing him to warre against all his enemies that oppose him in his way to his greatest happiness . p. , . . the greatest and most necessary rule of this military art . a scandal taken off from physicians . p. . . another great measure of the said art. p. . . whence a natural man is to expect assistance in case he is weakned by his enemies . p. . . whether the soul expiring out of the body is to be an angel , or for ever to abide without office . what the office of a separated soul is . . . how long she is to continue in office . the consummation and description of the change of the world . the resurrection proved by reason . the description of the second paradise concluded by reason . ib. . to what objects the faculties of men , when possest of the second paradise , will extend . that they shall remember and know one another . that they shall eat and drink , that they shall not generate , that the same person , who redeemed man from his misery , shall reign over him in paradise . p. , . chap. xxii . comprizing a brief account of the religion of the heathen philosophers . . socrates his belief of god p. . . what god is according to homer . p. . . what plato thought god to be . ib. . thales his saying of god. ib. . instances proving the heathens to have known gods attributes ; particularly , that thales believed god's omniscience , and god's unchangeable decrees . ib . that socrates asserted god's omniscience , omnipotence , his creating of the world in time , his iustice and mercy , god's omnipresence . ib. . the articles of plato 's faith , p. , . . aristotle 's belief . p. . . virgil's opinion of divine things . ib. . the divine song of orpheus . p. . . trismegistus upon the creation of the world . ib. . natural philosophy . the second part . the first book . chap. i. of the nature of natural philosophy . . the etymology and synonima's of natural philosophy . p. . . the definition of natural philosophy . p. . . an explanation of the said definition , ib. . what a natural being is . ib. . what a natural essence is . ib. . what nature is . ib. . the various acceptions of nature . ib. chap. ii. comprehending an explanation of the definition of a natural being . . what is meant by disposition . p. . . an objection against the definition of a natural being answered . p. . . what it is to act according to truth . ib. . that the subject of this science is more properly named a natural being , than a natural body . ib. . aristotles definition of nature rejected by several arguments . p. . . that nature is a property of a natural being . p. . . the difference between nature and art. ib. . that nature in respect to god acteth constantly for an end. p. . . the division of nature . ib. chap. iii. of the principles of a natural being . . that privation is no principle of a physical generation , or of a physical being . that union might be more properly termed a principle , than privation . p. . . the principles of a material being stated by pythagoras rejected . p. . . that to treat of matter and form is more proper to metaphysicks . . . that the materia prima of aristotle is a non ens. ib. . that the chaos had a form. p. . . the authors materia prima . p. . . that it doth not appertain to physicks to explain the nature of the first matter . ib. . what the first form of all natural beings is . ib. . chap. iv. of the nature and essence of the elements . . the nearest definition of a natural being . p. . . the definition of an element that all physical definitions ought to be sensible . the proof of the existence of the elements , and of their number . p. . . an exposition of the definition of an element . it s etymology and honomony . p. . . what distinction the author makes between principle , cause , and element . p . . what a natural cause is . that the elements are no single real beings . that they are treated of separately and singly ratione only . ib. . that there are but three natural causes . their necessity proved in particular . ib. chap. v. of new philosophy and the authors of it . . helmontius his arrogance and vainglory . how , and wherein he rejected the peripatetick philosophy . his own principles . p. , . . the life and death of the said helmontius . p. . . a confutation of all his physical principles in particular . p. . . some few arguments against renè des cartes his principles in general . p. , , . chap. vi. of the material principle of natural beings . . the causes of the elements . p. . . that the elements are really compounded natural beings . ib. . that matter and quantity are really identificated . ib. . what quantity is . what its ratio formalis is . p. . . that in rebus quantis there is a maximum and a minimum definitum . p. . . experimental instances proving that there are actual minima's , and that all natural beings do consist out of them . p. . . the pursuit of the preceding instances , inferring a continuum to be constituted out of actual indivisibles . some geometrical objections answered . p. . chap. vii . of the natural matter and form of the elements . . that the elements are constituted out of minima's that they were at first created a maximum divisible into minima's . p. . . that , supposing there were a materia prima aristotelica , yet it is absurd to essert her to have a potentia essentialis , or appetitus formae . p. . . that the natural form is not educed è potentia materiae . ib. . that the actus of local motion is the form of the elements . ib. . the manner of knowing the first constitution of the elements . that there was a chaos . p. . . that there was conferred a distinct form upon every element . whether a form is a substance . 't is proved that it is not . ib. . chap. viii . of the absolute and respective form of earth , water , ayr , and fire . . what form it is the author allots to earth . that driness is not the first quality of earth . p. . . the respective form of earth . . . that coldness is not the first quality of water . that water is not moyst naturally , neither doth it moysten . what it is to moysten . why water acuated with spirits of vitriol , sulphur , or of salt-peter , doth moysten and abate thirst more than when it is single . ib. . the form of water . what gravity is , and what levity . what density is . the form of water proved . why water disperseth it self into drops . why sea-men cannot make land upon the cap-head , when they may upon the top-mast-head . why the stars do appear sooner to those in the east-seas , than to others in the west . p. . . that water is thick but not dense . whence it is that water is smooth . why ayr makes a bubble upon the water when it breaks forth . that the least atome of ayr cannot break through the water without raising a bubble . why the same doth not happen to earth . p. . . that moysture is not the first quality of ayr , neither doth the ayr naturally moysten any body , but to the contrary dryeth it . p. . . the form of ayr. what tenuity is . why feathers , cobwebs , and other light bodies do expand themselves when thrown through the ayr. why grease , oyl , wax , &c. do make splatches when poured upon the ground . why gunpowder , smoak , breathes of living creatures , vapours , exhalations , dust , &c. do diffuse themselves in that manner . whence it is that the least breath moves and shakes the ayr. the relative form of ayr . why spirits of wine mix easier and sooner with water , than one water with another . p. , . . the first quality of fire . what rarity is . whence it is that a torch or candle spreads its beams circularly , as appears at a distance . that fire is rough : the cause of it . fire's relative nature . a comparing of all the first qualities of the elements one to the other . p. , . chap. ix . of the beginning of the world. . whence the world had its beginning . what the chaos is . that the chaos had a form . a scripture objection answered . that the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters did informate the chaos . p. . . that the chaos consisted of the four elements , is proved by scripture . the etymology of heaven . what moses meant by waters above the waters . the derivation of the firmament . that the ayr is comprehended under the notion of waters in gen. p. . . that the elements were exactly mixt in the chaos . that all the elements consist of an equal number of minima's . p . . that none but god alone can be rationally thought to be the efficient of the chaos . how this action is expressed in scripture . p . . what creation is . thom. aq. his definition of creation disproved . austins observations of the creation . p. . . that god is the authour of the creation , proved by the testimonies of scripture , of holy men , and of philosophers . p. . . an explanation of the definition of creation . whether creation is an emanent or transient action . creation is either mediate or immediate . scotus his errour upon this point . the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherein mediate creation differs from generation . p. , . . of the place , magnitude , tangible qualities , colour , temperament , time , figure , extent in figure , duration , quantity , and number of the chaos . p. , , . chap. x. of the first division of the chaos . . why the chaos was broken . p. . . that the chaos could never have wrought its own change through it self . the efficient of its mutation . p. . . the several changes , which the chaos underwent through its disruption . the manner of the said disruption . ib. . how light was first produced out of the chaos . what a flame is . p. . . a perfect description of the first knock or division of the chaos . by what means the earth got the center , and how the waters , ayr , and fire got above it . why a squib turnes into so many whirles in the ayr. ib. . the qualifications of the first light of the creation . a plain demonstration proving the circular motion of the heavens , or of the element of fire to be natural , and of an eval duration . ib. chap. xi . of the second division of the chaos . . an enarration of effects befalling the elements through the second knock . the proportion of each of the elements in their purity to the peregrine elements . p. . . the ground of the forementioned proportion of the elements . , . . that fire and ayr constitute the firmament . p. . . a grand objection answered . ib. . chap. xii . of the third division of the chaos . . the effects of the third knock . why earth is heavier than water . why water is more weighty near the top than towards the bottom . why a man when he is drowned doth not go down to the bottom of the ocean . why a potch'd egge doth commonly rest it self about the middle of the water in a skillet . why the middle parts of salt-water are more saltish than the upper parts . p. , . . whence the earth hapned to be thrust out into great protuberancies . how the earth arrived to be disposed to germination of plants . a vast grove pressed into the earth . p. . . the cause of the waters continual circular motion . ib. . . the cause of the rise of such a variety of plants . p. . chap. xiii . of the fourth , fifth , sixth , and seventh division of the chaos . . an enarration of the effects of the fourth division . that nature created the first bodies of every species , the greatest is instanced in bees , fishes and fowl. that all species are derived from one individuum that adam was the greatest man that ever was since the creation what those glants were , which the poets faigned . p. , , . . how the sun and moon were created . that a lioness is not more vigorous than a lion. p. . . how the stars of the firmament were created . p. . . how the durable clouds of the ayr were created . ib. . the effects of the fifth division . ib. . the effects of the sixth division . ib. . the effects of the last division . ib. chap. xiv . of the second and third absolute qualities of the elements . . what is understood by second qualities . p . . what the second quality of earth is . p. . . aristotle's definition of density rejected . ib. . the opinions of philosophers touching the nature of density . p. . . the forementioned opinions confuted . p. . . the description of indivisibles according to democritus disproved . that all figures are divisible excepting a circular minimum . that strength united proveth strongest in around figure : and why . ib. , . . what the second quality of fire is . cardan , averrhoes , zimara , aristotle , tolet , and zabarel their opinions touching the nature of rarity confuted . p. , . . the second quality of water . aristotle , joh. grammat tolet , zabarel and barthol . their sence of thickness and thinness disproved . p. . . what the second quality of ayr is . p. . . what is intended by third , fourth or fifth qualities . an enumeration of the said qualities . what obtuseness , acuteness , asperity , levor , hardness , rigidity , softness , solidity , liquidity and lentor are , and their kinds . ib. , , . chap. xv. of the respective qualities of the eements ; particularly of fire , earth , and water . . what is meant by the respective qualities of the elements . why they are termed second qualities . p. . . that heat is the second respective or accidental quality of fire . that fire is not burning hot within its own region . that fire doth not burn unless it flames , is proved by an experiment through aq. fort . ib. . that heat in fire is violently produced . the manner of the production of a flame . what it is which we call hot , warm , or burning . how fire dissolves and consumes a body into ashes . p. . . that heat is nothing else but a multiplication , condensation and retention of the parts of fire . the degrees of heat in fire , and how it cometh to be warm , hot , scorching hot , blistering hot , burning hot , and consuming hot . p. . . a way how to try the force of fire by scales . why fire doth not alwayes feel hot in the ayr. ib. . . plato and scaliger their opinion touching heat . p. . . the parepatetick description of heat rejected . how fire separateth silver from gold , and lead from silver . p. . . what the second respective quality of earth is . what cold is the manner of operation of cold upon our t●●ct . p. . . the second respective quality of water . that water cooles differently from earth . ib. . aristotle and zabarel their wavering opinions touching cold. that earth is the primum frigidum . ib. . chap. xvi . of the remaining respective qualilities of the elements . . the second respective quality of the ayr. that water cannot be really and essentially attenuated . the state of the controversie . , . . that ayr cannot be really and essentially incrassated . why a man whilest he is alive sinkes down into the water and is drowned , and afterwards is cast up again . that a woman is longer in sinking or drowning than a man. the great errour committed in trying of witches by casting them into the water . p. , , . . that a greater condensation or rarefaction is impossible in the earth . p. . . in what sense the author understands and intends rarefaction and condensation throughout his philosophy . p. . . the third respective quality of fire . what driness is . the definition of moysture . the third respective qualities of water and ayr. aristotles description of moysture . that water is the primum humidum . in what sense ayr is termed dry , in what moyst . p. . chap. xvii . of mixtion . . what mixtion is . three conditions required in a mixtion . p . . whether mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ really . p. . . aristotles definition of mixtion examined . whether the elements remain entire in mixt bodies . . . that there is no such intension or remission of qualities as the peripateticks do apprehend . the authors sense of remission and intention . p. . . that a mixtion is erroneously divided into a perfect and imperfect mixtion . p. . chap. xviii . of temperament . . that temperament is the form of mixtion . that temperament is a real and positive quality . p. . . the definition of a temperament . whether a temperament is a single or manifold quality . whether a complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality . p. . . vvhether a temperament be a fift quality . a contradiction among physitians touching temperament . whether the congress of the four qualities effects be one temperament , or more . ib. . . that there is no such thing as a distemper . what a substantial change is . p. . . vvhat an alteration or accidental change is . that the differences of temperament are as many as there are minima's of the elements excepting four . p. . chap. xix . of the division of temperaments . . vvhat an equal and unequal temperament is . that there never was but one temperament ad pondus . that adams body was not tempered ad pondus . that neither gold nor any celestial bodies are tempered ad pondus . p. . . that all temperaments ad justiriam are constantly in changing . that there are no two bodies in the world exactly agreeing to one another in temperature . p. . . the latitude of temperaments . how the corruption of one body ever proves the generation of another . p. . . that there is no such unequal temperament as is vulgarly imagined . that there is an equal temperament is proved against the vulgar opinion . that where forms are equal , their matters must also be equal . p. , . . vvhat a distemper is that galen intended by an unequal temperature . p. . . vvhen a man may be termed temperate . that bodies are said to be intemperate . ib. , . . the combination of the second qualities of the elements in a temperature . their effects . p. . chap. xx. of alteration , coction , decoction , generation , putrefaction , and corruption . . vvhat coction and putrefaction is . the difference between putrefaction and corruption . p. . . the authors definition of alteration . the effects of alteration . ib. . the division of alteration . p. . . that the first qualities of the peripateticks are not intended by the acquisition of new qualities without matter . wherein alteration differs from mixtion or temperament . ib. . the definition of coction . why a man was changed much more in his youth than when come to maturity . p. , . . the constitution of women . which are the best and worst constitutions in men . that heat is not the sole cause of coction . p. , . . the kinds of coction . what maturation , elixation and assation are . p. . . vvhat decoction is , and the manner of it . p. . . the definition of putrefaction . . vvhat generation imports in a large and strict acception . whether the seed of a plant or animal is essentially distinguisht from a young plant or new born animal . that heat is not the sole efficient in generation . p. . . vvhether the innate heat is not indued with a power of converting adventitious heat into its own nature . whether the innate heat be celestial or elementary . p. , , . . the definition of corruption . why the innate heat becomes oft more vigorous after violent feavers . whether life may be prolonged to an eval duration . what the catochization of a flame is . by what means many pretend to prolong life . that the production of life to an eval duration is impossible . whether our dayes be determined . the ambiguity of corruption . whether corruption be possible in the elements . p. , to . chap. xxi . of light. . vvhat light is . the manner of the production of a flame . p. . . the properties and effects of light. p. . . that light is an effect or consequent of a flame . whence it happens that our eyes strike fire when we hit our foreheads against any hard body . that light is not a quality of fire alone . that light is not fire rarefied . that where there is light , there is not alwayes heat near to it . how virginals and organs are made to play by themselves . p. , . . that light is a continuous obduction of the ayr. that light is diffused to a far extent in an instant , and how . why the whole tract of air is not enlightned at once . p. , . . the manner of the lights working upon the eye-sight . that sight is actuated by reception , and not by emission . p. . . the reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction . that light cannot be precipitated . ib. . that light is not the mediate cause of all the effects produced by the stars . that light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick spirits . how the air happens to burst through a sudden great light . that a sudden great light may blind , kill , or cast a man into an apoplexy . p. . . how light renders all objects visible . why a peice of money cast into a basin filled with water appears bigger than it is . the causes of apparent colours . why a great object appears but small to one afar off . the difference between lux and lumen . what a beam is . what a splendour is . that the lights begot by the stars , and other flames are not distinguished specie . how the coelum empyreum is said to be lucid . p. , . chap. xxii . of colours . . the authors definition of a colour . that light is a colour . aristotles definition of colour examined . p. , , . . scaligers absurdities touching colours and light. p. . . what colour light is of ; and why termed a single colour . that light doth not efficienter render an object visible . how a mixt colour worketh upon the sight ; and how it is conveyed to it . ib. . . the causes of the variations of mercury in its colour through each several preparation . p. . . that colours are formally relations only to our sight . that a mixt colour is not an intentional quality . that besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original subjects . how the same fundamental colours act . p. . . that there are no apparent colours , but all are true . p. . . the differences of colours . what colour focal fire is of . the fundamental colours of mixt bodies . p. , , , . . what reflection of light is . what refraction of colours is . aristotles definition of colour rejected . the effects of a double reflection . the reasons of the variations of colour in apples held over the water and looking-glasses . the variation of illumination by various glasses . p. . . the division of glasses . the cause of the variation of colour in a prism . ib. , . . the nature of refraction . why colours are not refracted in the eye . p. , . chap. xxiii . of sounds . . the definition of a sound . that the collision of two solid bodies is not alwayes necessary for to raise a sound . p. . . whether a sound be inherent in the air , or in the body sounding . the manner of production of a sound . p. . . whether a sound is propagated through the water intentionally only . that a sound may be made and heard under water . p. . . that a sound is a real pluffing up of the air. how a sound is propagated through the air ; and how far . why a small sound raised at one end of a mast or beam may be easily heard at the other end . why the noise of the treading of a troop of horse may be heard at a far distance . p. , , . . the difference between a sound and a light or colour . that it is possible for a man to hear with his eyes , and see with his ears ; likewise for other creatures to hear and see by means of their feeding . p. , . . the difference of sounds . why the sound of a bell or drum ceaseth as soon as you touch them with your singer . why an empty glass causes a greater sound than if filled with water . p. , . . the reasons of concords in musick . p. . . the causes of the variation of sounds . why celestial bodies , rain and hail do make but little noyse in the ayr . p. . . how sounds are reflected . how intended and remitted . p. . . the manner of refraction of sounds . what an undulating sound is . p. . . how a voice is formed . p. , . chap. xxiv . of tasts , smels and tangibles . . a definition of a tast. the difference between the tasting and hearing faculty . the manner of a tasts action and passion . p. . . the differences of tasts . whether tasts are not communicable through a medium . p. . . what a smell is . the manner of a sents action and passion . ib. . vvhether sents be nutritive . how many have been kept alive without eating or drinking . how sents revive one in a swoon . the distance requisite in sents from the faculty . that the sent of excrements smell sweet to a dog. how a dog sents a bitch at a great distance . the manner of a dogs winding the sent of a hare . that fishes do sent by means of their gills or palate . p. , , . . the causes of a sweet smell . why most beasts are pleased with the smell of a panther . what a stinking smell is . the other kinds of sents . whether the plague gives a smell , and whether perceptible by a man. whether it be possible to poyson one by a perfume of gloves , or of a letter . p. , . . what the tact is , and the manner of its sensation . p. . . the differences of tangible qualities . whether titillation be distinguisht from the ordinary tact . whether man hath the most exquisite tact . ib. . what a tangible quality is the causes of pleasing tangibles . why a kiss feels pleasing to ones lips . that a dog takes delight in kissing . what pain is , and its cause of titillation . why ones proper feeling doth not tickle , but anothers doth . p. , . the second part . the second book . chap. i. of the commerce of the earth with the other elements . . the authors purpose touching his method in the preceding book , and a further explication of some terms made use of there . p. . . that the earth is the center of the world . copernicus his astronomy examined . p. , to . . the earths division into three regions , and their particular extent . p. . . what bodies are generated in the third region of the earth ; and the manner of their production . that the coldness of the earth is the principal efficient of stones and mettals . how a stone is generated in the kidneyes and in the bladder . a rare instance of a stone taken out of the bladder . the generation of a flint , marble , jaspis , cornelian , diamond , ruby , gold , copper , iron , mercury , silver . the places of mines . p. , to . . of the transmutation of mettals . whether silver be transmutable into gold. whether gold may be rendered potable . the effects of the supposed aurum potabile , and what it is . p. , . . of earthy saltish juices . the generation of common salt , salt-gemme , saltpeter , allom , salt-armoniack and vitriol , and of their kinds . p. , . . of earthy unctious juices , viz. sulphur , arsenick , amber , naptha , peteroyl , asphaltos , oyl of earth , sea-coal and jeatstone ; of their kinds and vertues . p. , . . of the mean juices of the earth , viz. mercury , antimony , marcasita , cobaltum , chalcitis , misy and sory . whether any of these mean juices are to be stated principles of mettals . p. , to . chap. ii. of stones and earths . . a description of the most precious stones . p. , . . a description of the less precious stones that are engendred within living creatures . p. . . a description of the less precious stones that are engendred without the bodies of living creatures . p. , . . an enumeration of common stones p. . a disquisition upon the vertues of the forementioned stones . an observation on the effects of powders composed out of precious stones . whether the tincture of an emerald is so admirable in a bloudy flux . ib. , , . . a particular examination of the vertues of a bezoar stone , piedra de puerco , pearles , &c. p. , to . . the kinds of earth , and their vertues . p. , , chap. iii. of the loadstone . . the various names of the loadstone , and its kinds . p. . . the physical essence of the loadstone . p. . . an enumeration of its properties . p. . . the demonstration of the first mechanick property of the loadstone . p. , , . . the demonstration of the other mechanical properties . p. . . of its nautical property . what is intended by the poles of the loadstone . p. , . . the division of the loadstone into circles . p. . . an enumeration of the nautical properties of the magnete . p. . . a demonstration of the said nautical properties . p. , , . . the cause of the deviation of the compass needle . p. . . an objection answered . p. . . cartesius his doctrine examined touching the loadstone . p. , , . . the fabulous property of the loadstone . p . chap. iv. of life , and living bodies . . what life is . p. , , . . the form of life . why vegetables are generated no where but near to the surface of the earth . p. . . the properties of a vital form. p. , . . the definition of nutrition , and the manner of it . whether food is required to be like to the dissipated parts . p. . . what accretion is , and the manner of it . p. , . . the manner of the generation of a plant. p. , , . . the manner of the germination of a plant. a delineation of all the parts of a plant , p. , to . . what the propagation of a plant is , and the manner of it . p. , . chap. v. of the particular differences of plants . . the differences of roots and their vertues . p. . . the differences of flowers . p. . . the differences of leaves . p. . . the three cordial vegetables . p. . . the three cephalick vegetables . ib. . the three hepatick vegetables . . . the three splenick vegetables . ib. . the three pulmonick vegetables . ib. . the three stomachick vegetables . ib. . the three lithontropick vegetables . p. . . the three uterin vegetables . ib. . the three arthritick vegetables . ib. . the specificks for the parts destined for the continuation of the species . p. . . the description of some rare plants . ib. . chap. vi. of water in order to her commerce with the other elements . . the etymology of water . that water naturally is hard and consistent , and not fluid . p. . . the division of water . p. . . vvhat a lake is . the strange vertues of some lakes . , , . . vvhat a fountain is . the wonderfull properties of some fountains . p. , to . . of physical wells . p. . of baths . p. . . of rivers and their rare properties . ib. . . of the chief straits of the sea. p. , . chap. vii . of the circulation of the ocean . . that the disburdening of the eastern rivers into the ocean , is not the cause of its circulation ; neither are the sunne or moon the principal causes of this motion . p. , . . the periodical course of the ocean . the causes of the high and low waters of the ocean . p. , , . . how it is possible that the ocean should move so swiftly as in hours and somewhat more to slow about the terrestrial globe . p , , . . a further explanation of the causes of the intumescence and detumescence of the ocean . the causes of the anticipation of the floud of the ocean . , to . . that the suns intense heat in the torrid zone , is a potent adjuvant cause of the oceans circulation , and likewise the minima's descening from the moon and the polar regions . p. , to . chap. viii . of the course of the sea towards the polar coasts . . what the libration of the ocean is . that the tides are not occasioned by libration . the navil of the world. whence the seas move towards the north polar . why the ebb is stronger in the narrow seas than the floud ; and why the floud is stronger than the ebb in the ocean . why the irish seas are so rough . p. , , . . vvhy the baltick sea is not subjected to tides . the rise of the east sea or sinus codanus . p. . . the cause of the bore in the river of seyne . p. . . the causes of the courses of the mediterranean . the rise of this sea. ib. . chap. ix . of inundations . . of the rise of the great gulphs of the ocean . the causes of inundations . that the deluge mentioned in genesis was not universal . the explanation of the text. p , . . the manner of the deluge . that it was not occasioned through the overfilling of the ocean . p. . . that there hapned very great deluges since ; when and where . p. . . the effects of the first deluge . ib. . inland inundations . p. . chap. x. of the causes of the before-formentioned properties of lakes . . whence the lake asphaltites is so strong for sustaining of weighty bodies , and why it breeds no fish. the cause of qualities contrary to these in other lakes . the cause of the effects of the lake lerna . p. . . whence the vertues of the lake eaug , of thrace , gerasa , the lake among the troglodites , clitorius , laumond , vadimon , and benaco are derived . ib. . whence the properties of the lake larius , pilats pool , and the lake of laubach emanate . p. . chap. xi . of the rise of fountains , rivers and hills . . that fountains are not supplied by rain . p. . . aristotles opinion touching the rise of fountains examined . p. . . the authors assertion concerning the rise of fountains . the rise of many principal fountains of the world . ib . . why holland is not mountanous . p. . . that the first deluge was not the cause of hills . ib. . whence that great quantity of water contained within the bowels of the earth is derived . p. . . whence it is that most shores are mountanous . why the island ferro is not irrigated with any rivers . why the earth is depressed under the torrid zone , and elevated towards the polars . the cause of the multitude of hills in some countries and scarcity in others . ib. . . how it is possible for the sea to penetrate into the bowels of the earth . p. . chap xii . of the causes of the effects produced by fountains . . whence some fountains are deleterious . the cause of the effect of the fountain lethe , of cea , lincystis , arania . the causes of foecundation and of rendring barren of other fountains the causes of the properties of the fountains of the sun , of the eleusinian waters , of the fountains of illyrium , epirus , cyreniaca , arcadia , the holy cross , sibaris , lycos , of the unctious fountain of rome , and jacobs fountain . p. , . . the causes of the effects of ipsum and barnet wells . p. . . whence the vertues of the spaw waters are derived . ib. . of the formal causes of baths . . chap. xiii . of the various tastes , smells , congelation and choice of water . . various tastes of several lakes , fountain and river waters . p. . . the divers sents of waters . p. . . the causes of the said tastes . that the saltness of the sea is not generated by the broyling heat of the sun. the authors opinion . ib. . the causes of the sents of wates . p. . . what ice is ; the cause of it , and manner of its generation . why some countries are less exposed to frosts than others that are nearer to the line . ib. . . the differences of frosts . why a frost doth usually begin and end with the change of the moon . p. . . the original or rise of frosty minims . why fresh waters are aptest to be frozen how it is possible for the sea to be frozen . p. . . what waters are the best and the worst : the reasons of their excellency and badaess . p , . chap. xiv . of the commerce of the ayr with the other elements . . how the air moves downwards . vvhat motions the elements would exercise supposing they enjoyed their center . vvhy the air doth not easily toss the terraqueous globe out of its place . how the air is capable of two contrary motions . , . . that the air moves continually from east through the south to west , and thence back again to the east through the north. p. . . an objection against the airs circular motion answered . p. . . the poles of the air. ib. . the proportion of air to fire ; its distinction into three profundities . p. chap. xv. of the production of clouds . . vvhat a cloud is , how generated , its difference . how a rainbow is produced . whether there appeared any rainbows before the floud . . the generation of rain . p. . . how snow and hail are engendred . p. . . the manner of generation of winds ib. to . the difference of winds . of monzones , provincial winds , general winds , &c. of the kinds of storms and their causes . what a mist and a dew are . p. , to . chap. xvi . of earthquakes , together with their effects , and some strange instances of them . . vvhat an earthquake is . the manner of its generation . the concomitants thereof . p. . . the kinds and differences of earthquakes . ib. , . . the proof of the generation of earthquakes . p. . . their effects upon the air . p. . chap. xvii . of fiery meteors in the air. . of the generation of a fools fire , a licking fire , helens fire , pollux and castor , a flying drake , a burning candle , a perpendicular fire , a skipping goat , flying sparks , and a burning flame . p. , . . of the generation of thunder , fulguration and fulmination , and of their effects . of a thunder stone . p. , . . of comets . of their production . p. , , . chap. xviii . of the term antiperistasis and a vacuum . . whether there be such a thing as an antiperistasis . p. . . whether a vacuum be impossible ; and why . p. . . experiments inferring a vacuum answered . p. , . . whether a vacuum can be effected by an angelical ; or by the divine power . p. . whether local motion be possible in a vacuum . a threefold sense of the doubt proposed . in what sense local motion is possible in a vacuum , in what not . ib. . chap. xix . of physical motion . . what a physical motion is . the kinds of it . the definition of alteration , local motion , and quantitative motions . the subdivision of local motion . p. , . . that all alterative and quantitative motions are direct . p. . . that all externall motions are violent . ib. . that all weighty mixt bodies , being removed from their element , are disposed to be detruded downwards from without ; but do not move from any internal inclination or appetite they have to their universal center . p. , . . the causes of swiftness and slowness of external local motion . . that light bodies are disposed to be moved upwards . ib. . that airy bodies , being seated in the fiery region , are disposed to be moved downwards . p. . chap. xx. of attraction , expulsion , projection , disruption , undulation , and recurrent motion . . how air is attracted by a water-spout or siphon . p. . . the manner of another kind of attraction by a sucking leather . . . how two slat marble stones clapt close together draw one another up . ib. . how a wine-coopers pipe attracts wine out of a cask . ib. . how sucking with ones mouth attracts water . p. . . how a sucker attracts the water . ib. . the manner of attraction by filtration . p. . . the manner of electrical attraction . ib. . how fire and fiery bodies are said to attract . p. . . . what projection is , and the manner of it . p. . . what disruption , undulation , and recurrent motion are . ib . chap. xxi . of fire , being an introduction to a new astronomy . . the fires division into three regions . p. . . the qualification of the inferiour region . what the sun is . what his torrid rayes are , and how generated . ib. . how the other planets are generated . ib. . how the fixed stars were generated . p. . . a further explanation of the stars their ventilation . that there are many stars within the planetary region that are invisible . of the appearance of new stars or comets . of the galaxia or milk-way . p. . . that the fiery regions are much attenuated . p. . chap. xxii . of the motion of the element of fire . . vvhere the poles of the heavens are . p. . . the opinions of ptolomy and tycho rejected . p. . . that the planets move freely and loosely , and why the fixed stars are moved so uniformly . ib. . the suns retrograde motion unfolded , and the cause of it . ib. . how the ecliptick , aequator , and the zodiack were first found out . p. . the manner of the fiery heavens their ventilation . p. . . whence it is , that the sun moves swifter through the austrinal medeity , and slower through the boreal . how the sun happens to measure a larger fiery tract at some seasons in the same time than at others . p. . . vvhence the difference of the suns greatest declination in the time of hipparchus , ptolomy , and of this our age happens . p. . . an undoubted and exact way of calculating the natural end of the world. the manner of the worlds dissolution . the same proved also by the holy scriptures . the prevention of a calumny . ib. , . chap. xxiii . of the magnitude and distance of the sun and moon , and the motion of the other planets . . that the magnitude of the sun hath not been probably , much less certainly , stated by any . the arguments vulgarly proffered for the proof of the suns magnitude , rejected . p. , . . that the sun might be capable enough of illuminating the world were he much lesser than the terraqueous globe than i suppose him to be . p . . that the shadow of the earth is to some extent cylindrical . ib. . that the sun existing in the aequator doth at once illuminate the whole hemisphere of the earth . ib. . concerning the diminution or increase of the shadow of the earth within the polars , together with the cause of the prolongation and abbreviation of the dayes . that the sun is much bigger than he appears to be . p . . what the spots of the sun and moon are , and their causes . ib. . that the arguments proposed by astronomers for rendring the moon lesser than the earth , and proving the distance of the sun , are invalid . p. . . that the moon is by far lesser than the earth . ib. . several phaenomena's of the moon demonstrated . p. . . concerning the motion of venus and mercury . p . . of the motion of the fixed stars , and their scintillation . p. . chap. i. problems relating to the earth . . why two weighty bodies are not moved downwards in parallel lines . p. . . why a great stone is more difficultly moved on the top of a high hill than below . p. . . why a pair of scales is easier moved empty than ballanced . ib. . whence it is that a man may carry a greater weight upon a wheelbarrow than upon his back . ib. . why a weighty body is easier thrust forward with a pole , than immediately by ones arms : besides . other probl. more . p. , , . why a stick thrust into a hole if bended is apt to be broke near the hole . what the cause of the relaxation of a bowed stick is . p. . . whether gold doth attract mercury . ib. . why the herb of the sun , vulgarly called chrysanthemum peruvianum , obverteth its leaves and flowers to the sun wheresoever he be . p. . why the laurel is seldom or never struoken by lightning . b. chap. ii. containing problems relating to water . . why is red hot iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water ? p. . . whence is it there fals a kind of small rain every day at noon under the aequinoctial region ? p. . . how glass is made . ib . whence it is that so great a mole as a ship yeelds to be turned by so small a thing as her rudder . p. . . what the cause of a ships swimming upon the water is . p . . whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire . ib. chap. iii. comprizing problems touching the air. . whether air ●e weighty . p . . whether a bladder blown up with wind ●e heavier than when empty . ib. . why water contained in a beer glass , being turned-round with ones hand , doth turn contrary against the motion of the glass p. . . why a breath being blown with a close mouth doth feel cool , and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm . ib. . why an armed point of an arrow groweth hot in being shot through the air . ib. . why beer or wine will not run out of the cask without opening a hole atop . ib . what difference there is between an o●i●●e and a travada . ib. . whether it be true that winds may be h●red from witches or wizards in iseland p . . why is it quieter in the night than in the day ? ib. chap. iv. containing problems touching the fire . . why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling . p. . . why doth common salt make a cracking noise , when cast into the fire . ib. . who were the first inventers of gunpowder . ib. . what are the ingredients of gunpowder . . . whence arrives all that flaming fire , that followeth the kindling of gunpower . ib. . whence is it that gunpowder being kindled in guns erupts with that force and violence . ib. errata . pag. . l. . r. did produce . p . l. . & p . l. . r. properties . p. . l . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. . l. . r. taught l. . r. others . p. . l. . r. invectives . p. . l . r. quadripartition . p. l . r. into . p. . l . r. upon our senses . p. . l. r. those beings . l . r. hircocervus . p. . l r. those . species . p. . l. . r. those two p. . l. . r. those yearly . l. . dele ad . p. l. , r. into . p. . l. . r. those men . p. . l. . r. into . l. . r. needs p. . l. . r. into unity . p. . l. . r. transcendence philosophy in general . the first part . the first book . chap. i. of matters preceding and following the nature of philosophy . . the derivation of philosophy . . what is was first called , and why its name was changed . . the original of philosophy . the first inventers of it . . what dispositions are required in a philosopher . the difficulty in attaining to philosophy . the pleasure arising from the possession of it . . the esteem and worth of philosophy and philosophers . . the use and fruits reaped from philosophy , and redounding in general to every one : in particular , to a divine , civilian , and physitian . i. philosophy is a word of a mixt signification , and thereby soundeth love to wisdom , both which being implied in its composition out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdom . ii. this name was politickly framed by pythagoras , to cover the genuine and first denomination of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to hide its secrecy and excellence , the fame of which did attract so numerous a body of contenders ( who being ambitious to be renowned by the possession of it , before they had scarce made their first attempt , abusively stiled themselves ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) wise-men ) that through their multitude , they overclouded a few others , who might justly have challenged their title from it . since then this new imposed word implied but little fame or worth , the greater part soon deserted it , whose eager pursuit being more after the shadow , than the thing it self , they freely resigned both to the real deservers thereof . iii. knowing nothing more certain , than that all , which we do enjoy , redounds to us by inheritance , we cannot doubt , but that philosophy was also a relict of the forefathers , successively conveyed to us , who did attribute the original acquisition of it to the first man adam : for he in his primitive and incorrupt state , being adorned with a full and perfect knowledge of all beings , it is probable , that after his fall , he retained a measure of the same knowledge ; which , although being different from the former in perfection , yet by his industry had much promoted it , and so having committed it to the further accomplishment of his antediluvian successors , to wit , seth , enos , cainan , malaleel , jared , enoch , methusalem and noe ; it did attract such increase and degree of perfection from their experience that we have no great cause to admire , whence the profound learning of the postdiluvian fathers did arive to them ; who were either sacred , as abraham , moses , solomon , &c. or prophane , as the magicians among the persians , the chaldeans of babylon , brachmans in india , the priests of egypt , the talmudists and cabbalists among the jews , the druids among the ancient britains and gauls , with whom many of the famous poets , homer , hesiod , as also the seaven wise men of greece were coetaneous ; after which , pythagoras flourished , who lived much about the time of nebuchadnezzar , and spread his doctrine throughout italy , whence it was soon propagated through most parts of the world , and yet is over all the east-indies . iv. as there was an apt capacity required in these lovers of wisdom to receive the discipline of their masters , so there was also necessary in them an indefatigable study , to add to the inventions of their predecessors , which to cherish and excite , they proposed the greatest pleasure and contentment of mind , thence undoubtedly resulting to themselves ( according to that trite saying , arduum quod pulchrum , that which is lovely , is hard to be attained unto ) which did abundantly satisfie their labours . this is verified by the relation , which the mathematicians give of archimedes , who was so much enamour'd with his speculations , that at those times which most did dedicate to the rest of their minds , and intermission from their studies , he was most busied in his thoughts ; insomuch , that when for his healths sake , anoynting his body with oyl ( which was an ordinary preservative in those dayes ) he used to make geometrical figures with it upon his breast , and other parts of his body , that so he might avoid the depriving of his soul from one moments happiness , when he was inevitably forced to consult the safety of his body . at another time sitting in a bath , he observed the water to be much swelled through his immersion in it , collected thence a way , whereby to find a proportion of silver to gold , when both united in one mass. this contemplation did profuse such a joy in him , that he brake out into these words ( inveni , inveni , ) i have found , i have found : no less effect will it produce in us , when finding that in our nebulous state of ignorance , which we lost in our perfect state of knowledge , by falling from our integrity . this seemeth incredible , unless attempted by the serious and diligent application of our minds to it . v. the scales , whereby to weigh the worth of a thing , are frequently judged to be the subject , wherein it is inherent , or the possessors of it , whose worth found , is the production of the worth of the thing proposed . the assent of this doth infer philosophy to be the worthiest and most transcendent of all : for kings and princes , whose worth is not to be parallel'd to any but to themselves , have affected philosophy , and preferred its worth above the esteem of all others . david and solomon the greatest of kings , extolled the pleasure and contentment flowing from their contemplations , above them of glory and honour , and other secular pleasures , which they enjoyed in greater measure , than any before or since . ptolomy philadelphus king of africa , having weighed triumphs , or the glories following conquests and victories ( which in their splendor do overtop all other kinds of glories , and are reputed among the greatest of contentments and joyes ) judged them to be more troublesom than pleasing : for he had observed them to have been attendants in their highest eminence to his late predecessors alexander the great , and ptolomy lagus his father , and that their contentments and joyes ( supposed to slow thence ) were subject to a continual eclipse , through their immoderate aspiring to greater , and through every alarum of an enemy , and through the daily news of their revolting subjects ( although but lately vanquished ) discomposing their spirits : wherefore he composed himself to a peace , and applied his mind to the study of philosophy , which did so much cultivate his understanding , and please his thoughts , that he endeavoured to procure the helps of men most renowned far and near , by an universal invitation . vi. a man naked and unpolisht doth more resemble a brute , than himself : what proprieties are there in wild beasts , but which you may find in west-indians ? i mean , those which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or men-eaters : they slay and devour one another ; the shadow of each of them is a terrour to the other ; nothing begetteth tameness in them , unless it be the presence of a male with a female , which the instinct of nature , and not their reason , doth compel them unto . nothing different from these should we be , were it not , that philosophy did rectifie and redintegrate our understandings : to this we owe our right reasoning , morality , and knowledge of all natural and supernatural beings ; and without that we are nothing else but ignorance and barbarism . a divine will hardly reach to theologick vertues , unless he be first endowed with morals : neither is he like to compass the knowledge of god , unless he first admireth him in his creatures , and natural beings . civilians ( those who really merit that name ) grow expert in composing differences between others , by regulating contentions arising between their own soul and body . a physitian incurreth a suspition of being a mountebank , or astrologick impostor , in case he be not more than ordinarily versed in natural philosophy , and questionless will be frustrated in his cures , unless he be exactly skilful in knowing the proportion of animal , mineral , and vegetable natures to the nature of man , which is demonstratively treated of in natural philosophy . to this doth the great hippocrates in his book of elegance , elegantly exhort his auditors : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherefore we ought to apply wisdom to the art of physick , and the art of physick again to wisdom : for a physitian , who is a philosopher , is like unto god. chap. ii. of the nature of philosophy . . whether philosophy can be defined . . various definitions of philosophy . how plato did define it . the definition of damascen . . the authors definition of it . that the essence of god is as sensibly apprehended as the essence of his creatures . . what is implyed by knowledge . . the subjectum circa quod , or object of philosophy . . the subjectum inhaesionis , or subject wherein philosophy is inherent . many perswade themselves , that philosophy doth not admit a definition , that requiring an unity in the definitum , or thing defined , which is not inherent in the nature of philosophy , but rather a multiplicity ; wherefore it can only be described . to the contrary , all beings have an unity : for ( ens & unum convertuntur ) a being and one are identificated : so that , whatever hath no unity , is no being : but they granting philosophy to be a being , cannot deny it an unity : and if it hath an unity , it is definible . a being may be materially manifold , and yet formally one , and of that nature is philosophy . philosophy is a knowledge of beings by their causes , which is the modus considerandi , or ratio formalis of it , to wit , of philosophy : but this is one . beings , as they are the materia , are many ; nevertheless their universal form in philosophy is but one , which is to be known by their causes . ii. the definitions of philosophy are variously propounded by several authors , who disagree more in terms and words , than in the thing it self . others again , who seeming to define the essence of a thing , rather describe it by its properties and effects : some of which serving to illustrate its nature , i shall not think amiss to produce . among these , that of plato is most cried up . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . philosophy is a meditation upon death . this meditation upon death , is that which goeth under the notion of a platonick extasie , which is nothing else , but a qualification requisite in a philosopher , whereby he doth withdraw his thoughts from singular and material things , applying them to universal and immaterial beings : or whereby he inclineth his reason to his fancy , and diverteth his mind from his senses : so that in this rapture , a philosopher hath his eyes open , and seeth not , and may be environed with noyse , and hear not . another definition the said divine philosopher recommends , approaching somwhat nearer to its essence . philosophy is a likeness to god , in as much as it is possible for a man to be like to god. god is a pattern to man in his actions according to the greatest perfection of vertue , and in speculation or knowledge of all natural and supernatural beings , the habitual imitation of which is the true philosophy . damascen in his dialect , chap. . states this following definition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , philosophy is the art of arts , and the science of sciences , and the beginning of all arts ; all which amounts to this : philosophy is a comprehension of all arts and sciences . iii. philosophy is the knowledge of all cognoscible beings . by knowledge , understand a habit of knowing a thing by its definition or essence , that is , by its internal and external causes ; namely , matter , form , and efficient . by internal cause , i intend a principle through which a being is constituted . some beings having only a single internal cause , as god and angels are constituted by their forms * without matter , and for that reason are nominated immaterial . others are constituted through a double internal principle , and from an efficient cause ; as all natural beings . some obtain a single internal principle , and one efficient cause ; as angels . god only consisteth of a single internal principle , which is his form , which is that which he is : hence god declares himself , i am who i am . here may be offered an objection , that god cannot be known by the same ratio formalis cognoscendi , as naturals are , since that these are considered in a distinct manner in their matter and form , the existence of which is incurrent into our senses : wherefore the essences of these we may perfectly apprehend . on the other side , god is not known to us , unless indistinctly , and by his attributes , not by his essentials . my answer to this , is , that our knowledge of god is no less distinct , evident , and sensible ( i term it sensible , because according to the dogmatical institutions of aristotle , the root and evidence of our knowledge is , and sloweth from our senses ) than of naturals : and to speak truth , we neither understand certainly the essence of god , nor of his creatures , only their existences , and other accidents and modes , under which the peripateticks imagine the essentials of a being to be latent : so that only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doth appear unto us . whence my inference is , that the ratio formalis of knowing immaterial and material beings is the same , whereby we know the essences of both in an equal manner . we doubt no less of the being of god , than of the being of his creatures ; because as we know these to have a being and essence by their sensible operations and effects ( for omne quod est , est propter operationem ; all which is , or hath a being , is or hath it for an operation ) so we are also certain of the being and essence of god by his operation and effects upon our senses . we know that a material substance consisteth of matter , because we apprehend a trinal dimension of parts in it , which is an accident concomitant to matter , or rather matter it self . we are also sensible of a form inhering in that matter through its qualities and distinct moving . we gather from experience , that ( nihil fit a seipso ) no material essence receiveth a being from it self ; but from an efficient . by which three causes a natural being is generated , and from them derives its definition . in like manner do our senses declare to us , that god's nature is immaterial : for we cannot perceive a trinal dimension of parts in him , only that he consisteth of a pute , single and formal being , because we cannot but perceive his formal and spiritual operations , and effects upon all material beings . wherefore the knowledge of god proveth no less evident to us , and in the same degree and manner of perfection , then of elementary and created substances . iv. knowledge in the forementioned definition doth equally imply a practick and theoretick knowledge , the ground of which division is founded upon the matter and not the form of philosophy : so that according to the same sense , the understanding is called either practick or theoretick ; not formally , as if the understanding were twofold in man , but because it apprehendeth an object according to its double representation of being practical or theoretical . v. subjectum circa quod , or object of philosophy , are all beings comprehending real and objective beings , essences , and their modes , which latter are not specifically distinct from the former ; but identificared , and considered here as real , notwithstanding partaking of a modal distinction ; wherefore it makes no formal distinction in this universal knowledge . in the like manner are the ( phaenomena ) appearances in astronomy supposed and taken for real , and move the understanding as distinctly , as if they were real beings , strictly so termed , otherwise they could not be referred to a science . vi. the subjectum inhaesionis , or subject wherein philosophy is inherent , is the understanding . the understanding is either divine , angelical , humane or diabolical . in god philosophy is archetypick ; in angels and men ectypick ; in devils neither , they apprehending and discerning all things depravately and erroneously . chap. iii. of philosophers . . what a philosopher is . four properties necessary in a philosopher , that nothing is more hateful , and noysom than a man but half learned . . the first universities . the rise and number of sects sprung from these universities . the fame of socrates . . what meanes philosophers made use of to procure themselves a repute and fame . i. a philosopher , or a wise man , is a great artist , and all-knowing : he is an artist , in that he can direct all his actions to a good and true end : and all-knowing , since there is nothing existent , but which he may know definitely . wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is well derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clear ; because a philosopher understandeth all things clearly , which condition makes up one of the three proprieties of a philosopher , which are , . to know all things . . to have a capacity of teaching all which he knoweth . . to teach and divulge his knowledge liberally ( not for loan , which is mercenary , and not suiting with the dignity of a philosopher ) and freely . scire tuum nihil est , nisite scire hoc sciat alter . alas thy knowledge is scarce worth a pin , if thou keep secret what thou hast within . hence slow these trite sayings , libere philosophandum . amicus socrates , amicus plato , sed magis amica veritas . non est jurandum in verba magistri . we are to deliver philosophy freely , that is , with a socratick liberty , or without adhering strictly to authorities of wise men , since that all men are subject to errours , and the contrary of many of their assertions are found to be true , we have cause enough to doubt of all , which they have commended to our studies , and not to be tied , as if by oath and slavery , to believe our masters words in every tittle : an abuse equal to popery , enjoyning all men , upon danger of their soules perdition , not to question the least sillable of the dictates of their priests . it is no less errour , to reject all which wise men have published , their works testifying their immense parts and abilities . so that our securest course is , to walk in the middle path , and close with the body of philosophers in this saying , socrates is my good friend , plato is my good friend , but the truth is my best friend . to which this doth also allude , plato is ancient , but the truth is more ancient . to these three , i will add a fourth ; philosophandum est , sed paucis . we are to prove our selves philosophers in short , or in few words . this was one of the famous precepts of ennius , whereby he reproved those disturbers of learning , who through the abundance of their futil arguments , aery words , and tedious probo tibi's might have raised anger in socrates himself , which disposition to nugation and pratling you cannot miss of in a man , who is but half learned , who generally hath depravate conceptions of most things which he meets withal . such are they , who strive to defend and propagate most absurd and pseudodox tenents , many of which do secretly contain atheism : as assertions of the pre-existence of souls ; multiplicity of worlds ; the souls being extraduce , and infinite others , which necessarily are concomitants of these before-mentioned . in a word , homine semidocto quid iniquius ? what is there more detestable and hateful , than a man but half learned ? which apothegm may be justly transferred to a physitian , medico semiperito quid mortalius ? what is more mortal than a physitian but half experienced ? ii. the first schooles of fame , or universities , where philosophy was publickly and orderly teached , were two : the italian and ionick schooles . the italian or rather the calabrian school was most renowned for mathematicks , and ethicks , where pythagoras was professor . in the ionian school natural philosophy and astronomy were most professed by anaximander , a scholar of thales . the italian university encreased in fame by breeding of renowned disciples : as zeno , democritus , epicurus , and others . anaximander's school was no less advanced by the succession of socrates , the prince of philosophers , and as the oracle of pythias stiles him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , socrates of all men the wisest . and to give him his due , he was the ocean of all humane and divine learning , out of which scattered these four sects : of academicks , cynicks , peripateticks , and stoicks ; of whom may justly be pronounced , that whatever truth they had retained in their doctrine , it was derived from divine socrates ; whatever falshood they taught , was from their own innovation , and depravate judgment . the academicks , so called from their abode at the academy or university , next succeeded the doleful loss of great socrates , whereby they were exposed to the innovations and erroneous opinions of plato , an elder scholar of socrates . plato having finished his course of philosophy by an untimely death , put also a period to the sect , which his doctrine had raised and fomented , and moved many to withdraw from the university , giving their minds to wandring , and divulging their opinions or dogmatical dictates in their travels : among which aristotle was most taken notice of , whose scholars , to wit , which he had begot in his wandring , were thence called peripateticks , or wanderers , which name his scholars still retained , although most of them received their learning from him after his settlement in lyceum , a school not far distant from athens , or according to other , in athens : the scholars of greatest note bred in lyceum , were theophrastus , who succeeded aristotle , and pyrrhon , the first author of the scepticks . the cynicks were so called from their master cynosarges ; whose scholars were diogenes the cynick , and zeno ; whose disciples afterwards were called stoicks ; his doctrine was for the most part moral . to these may be added two sects more , which these late years have produced , to wit , the paracelsians and cartesians . the bombastin sect derived their name from their master , phil. aur. theophrast . paracelsus , bombast , born at bohenheim , an obscure place in germany , whose doctrine treated most of natural philosophy , innovated by principles drawn from the fire ; hence he and his followers are called ( philosophi per ignem ) philosophers through the fire . . the rotarians , or cartesians , a sect of the latest standing , reaped their discipline from ren. des cartes , a frenchman , whose study was most mathematical and physical , or rather a mixture of a pythagorean and democritean philosophy . iii. the principal means which each of these grandees made use of to procure a repute and fame to themselves , were , invections against their masters dictates , and phantastical proposals of their own , dasht over with a multitude of apparent reasons , and probable arguments , wherein they did not only shew their ingratitude and vain ambition , but their dishonesty to the world , by commending falsehoods under the shape of apparent truths , harnessed by their subtil fallacies . chap. iv. of the distribution of philosophy in parts . . in what manner philosophy contains its subjected parts . . how objects move the understanding by their first and immediate representation . . that the supreme and immediate division of philosophy is in practick and theoretick knowledge . . an objection against the subdivision of practick and theoretick knowledge . . how knowledge is subdivided . . that the subdivision is adequate to all its inferiour parts . . why practick and theoretick philosophy are not treated of separately , as their inferior parts are . . that the common quadripartion of philosophy is too strict . i. philosophy hath been defined , and considered as a totum universalissimum , comprehending all sciences , and arts , as a ( magis vel potius mexime universale ) more universal , or rather a most universal , containeth ( minus universalia ) less universals : or also , as in the manner of an ( totum integrale ) entire integral being , a countrey consisteth of cities , and cities of streets , and streets of singular houses , so is the entire body of philosophy constituted by its contained parts . ii. the distinct motion or habit of an object sub ratione universali formali , to the understanding specifieth the kinds of knowledges , an object moves the understanding ( ut primum movens ) through its first motion in a twofold respect : . as it is good . as it is pleasant and admirable . as it is good , it excites a desire and appetite to it in the intellect : for the understanding conceiving an object to be good , in that it judgeth the objects convenience , and sutableness to it self , and is naturally carried forth to that object , by which natural motion wrought first upon the animal spirits in the phansie , it moves the other spirits lodging in nerves throughout the body , by drawing of them to that object which it draweth it self unto ; to which attraction the other spirits are naturally obedient , because they are a continuous body , or joyned in continuity , and in the strongest coherence unto the first moving spirits of the phansie ; but of this more largely in its proper place . this motion of the mind upon the phansie , is called the will. as it is pleasant and admirable , it moves the understanding to its perserutation and contemplation , in a double manner . . in a less universal , more concrete , and material manner , in which representation it constitutes physicks , or natural philosophy . . in a more universal , abstracted , and immaterial manner , which specifieth metaphysicks . iii. whence we may gather the supreme and immediate division of knowledge , as it is most universal , and is philosophy it self , to be either practick or theoretick , because practick and theoretick are the first and immediate habits or respects of objects , whereby they move the understanding . practick knowledge is , whereby the understanding is determined to practise . practise ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) denotech the production either of a fluent or permanent work : the production of a fluent work is called by the general name of practise : the production of a permanent work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the making of a work . theoretick knowledge is , whereby the understanding is only moved to contemplation , and is not determined to practise . iv. against this partition of knowledge may be objected ; that practise is not the object of the understanding , but of the will , which by all peripateticks is affirmed to be materially distinct from the understanding : wherefore knowledge being the object of the understanding , is only speculative , and in no wise practick . i grant the premises , but deny the syllogism , there being a fallacia consequentiae hidden in it , or particularly there is more contained in the conclusion , then was in the premises . wherefore i judge it strange , that they should really divide the will from the understanding or mind , which of its own nature is formally indivisible : so that the forementioned objection doth not conclude any thing against my assertion , since it infers not the will and understanding to be distinguished formally , but to differ only in matter , from which our division is prescinded . v. practick knowledge is divided in logick , moral philosophy , and the art of nature , whereby she is helped , and may otherwise be called the art of physick in a large sence : these tripartited parts being less universal , and less mediate , are drawn from a triple end or effect of philosophy , determined by a triple object . . the soul. . the body . . the manners . the end of philosophy upon the soul is to help it in its defect , consisting in its subjection to errours , which constitutes logick . the effect of philosophy upon the body is to relieve its defects , consisting in nakedness , want of conveniences , and subjection to diseases . to this the art of physick prescribes remedies and helps . . the effect of philosophy upon the manners ( which are actions produced by soul and body joyned in unity ) is to regulate them in their extravagancies and depravations , which specifieth moral philosophy : note that logick and moral philosophy are here taken in their largest signification . theoretick knowledge is divided according to the universal formality ( i mean formality in respect to one another of the subdivided members , and not to philosophy it self , to which these are only material subdivisions ) of the speculative object ; which is threefold . . a material object inherent in material essences , which limits it to natural philosophy . . an immaterial object depending from immaterial beings , which determines it to pneumatology . . an object communicable to both , or abstracted from each , which is a being in general as it is communicable to material and immaterial objects , which constitutes the subject of metaphysicks . vi. all inferiour and less universal knowledges must be comprehended in some one of the divided members of philosophy , otherwise it would be an erroneous distribution : wherefore some of the liberal arts , as arithmetick , grammar , rhetorick , are reduced to the art of logick , as it is taken in a large sense , implying a habit of guiding reason being defective in its judgment , and in elocution or utterance . the arts of musick , geometry , astrology are comprehended in the art of nature , as also the art of physick , strictly so called , and the servile arts , as the art of husbandry , of weaving , of warring , &c. likewise are oeconomicks and politicks referred to moral philosophy ; astronomy to natural philosophy . vii . the most universal parts of philosophy , namely theoretick and practick , are treated of inclusively , as far as their inferior parts do contain them : so that thereby authors save the labour of discoursing of them separately , and of repeating the same matters in vain . nevertheless was that partition necessary , because through it philosophy is contracted to its less universal parts . viii . the common quadripartited distribution of philosophy is too strict , the subjected members exceeding its extention ; for example , to what part of philosophy will you reduce the art of medicine ? possibly you may refer it to natural philosophy , which may not be , because the one is practick , and the other speculative . the like question may be demanded concerning all the servile and liberal arts : wherefore it was requisite to add the art of nature to the practick knowledges . pneumatology hath been abusively treated of in metaphysicks , because its object , namely , spirits , is more contracted , then a being in general ; if you answer , that it is a part dividing a being in general , and therefore it ought to be reduced to its whole ; then by vertue of that argument , natural philosophy ought to be referred to the same science , because that is the other opposite dividing part ; for a being in metaphysicks is treated of , as it is abstracted from a material and immaterial substance . chap. v. . what method is requisite in the ordering of the particular treatises of the several parts of philosophy . . what order is observed in the placing of the general parts of philosophy . i. the method requisite in the ordering of the particular treatises of the several parts of philosophy is not indifferent , most preferring a synthetick in theoretick , and an analytick method in practick knowledges , all excluding an arbitrary method in matters necessary , and such are philosophick ii. the order observed in the placing of the general parts of philosophy , is drawn from their dignity , or primality of existence . if from their dignity , pneumatology is the first , because of its most excellent object . the next metaphysicks , because of its most general object . moral philosophy is the first , in respect of time , because our will is the first faculty we exercise next after our production , whose first act is , to incline a child to suck , which being subject to be immoderate in it , is learned by use and direction of its nurse , to be better regulated in its appetite , and to know the rule of temperance ; hence it is an universal saying , disciplinae fuerunt prius in usu quam in arte , disciplines were in use before they were in art . the will being the first , which required the help of prudence , and moral philosophy , was the only cause which moved socrates to teach morals first , and not because the science of physicks were , or seemed to be obscure , and hard to be known : for even in them he was more skilful and learned than any ever was among the heathens . the first in nature and respect to knowledge , is metaphysicks , comprehending all the others in it self . the first quoad nos , is logick , which doth dispose our understanding for the discipline of the other parts . each of these parts obtain a distinct consideration . metaphysicks are considered as abstracted , and immaterial , that is , most remote from singulars ; not properly immaterial , as a spirit , but as inherent in its less universals , and by contraction may be material . physicks are considered as a less universal , and nearest to singulars , which by their common habit and representation , exhibit a common unity , which constitutes a less universal ; wherefore whatever cannot be proved by experience , that is , by our senses , to be existent in singulars , makes an opinion , or errour in the universals : so that the proof of pneumatology , as well as of natural philosophy , depends from our senses , and experience in singulars . wherefore every philosopher ought to make probation of all assertions , in whatever part of philosophy it be , by arguments drawn either mediately or immediately from singulars , and especially in natural philosophy ; which way of arguing produceth a certainty and evidence or demonstration . metaphysicks . the second book : chap. i. of the nature of metaphysicks . . of the etymology and synonima's of metaphysicks . . the authors definition of metaphysicks . that a being is univocal to an objective and a real being . . the true formal and adequate object of metaphysicks . . wherein metaphysicks differs from philosophy . it will be needless to propound any thing further concerning the antiquity , worth , and pleasure of the study of metaphysicks , since you may justly apply the general fruits and ends of philosophy to it in particular , wherefore i proceed to what is more requisite . i. metaphysicks was so called from its etymology out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , physicks , which in composition imply as much as a knowledge above physicks , and from its transcendence it appropriates to it self the most transcendent name of the whole , namely , wisdom , or a universal knowledge , which it retains , although improperly ; because it is next compared in universality to philosophy . it is called also the first philosophy , from its nearest approximation to philosophy , its most proper denomination is ontology , or a discourse of a being . metaphysicks is a knowledge of a most universal being . knowledge imports the unfolding of a thing by its causes , effects , proprieties and affections . by a most universal being understand , a being abstracted from more universal , and mediately from less universal , material and immaterial beings , prescinded from real ( strictly so termed ) and objective beings , or from real and modal beings , to all which a being in general is a genus univocum : for were they not univocal parts of a being in general , they could not be treated of ( per se ) in this science , but per accidens , which is erroneous . but suppose i granted that modal or objective beings had their places here per accidens , to what science are they then referred per se ? for as they are cognoscible , they come under the notion of philosophy , and have a distinct unity and essence , which must be considered per se in some part or other of philosophy . since then they cannot be reduced per se to any form else , their proper place must be here . i prove that a being in general , as it is the subject of metaphysicks , is a genus univocum to an ( ens rationis ) objective being , and a ( ens reale ) real being . all beings are capable of being the subject of philosophy , so far as they are cognoscible only ; not as they are real essences , but as they really move the understanding to their knowledge : this is evident hence , ( quicquid recipitur , recipitur per modum recipientis , ) because knowledge in the understanding ariseth from the knowledge in the senses ; and the senses know objects by their distinct moving of the sensories ; the understanding by being moved by the sensories ; wherefore the understanding , which is the subject of philosophy , knoweth no things further , than it is moved by the internal and external senses . a genus univocum is , which is equally constituted by its species ; that is , at the same time , and in an equal manner . univocal species are , which constitute a genus equally . this premised , i frame my argument thus ; an objective being , and a real being do equally constitute an universal cognoscible being . ergo , they are univocal parts . i confirm the antecedent . an objective being doth as * really move the understanding , as a real being : ergo , they are equally cognoscible beings : so that an objective being is neither more or less a cognoscible being , than a real being , and as to the understanding , they are formally one , differing only materially . if two different essences were reduced to one science , to wit , one per se , the other per accidens , they would constitute a formal difference in a science , and cause a duplicity in it , which should be but one . iii. the object of this science is a being , as it hath a cognoscible essence ; so that whatever hath no cognoscible being , is excluded without its denomination : wherefore a non ens reale ( excusing the impropriety of speech ) or that , which hath no real being or existence , may be cognoscible , provided it hath but an objective being . * but for a ( non ens objectivum ) a being , that hath no objective existence , that hath no being , and is impossible , neither can it any wise be positively considered . iv. a being here is conceived , as it is a most universal being , and abstracted from its more and less universals ; herein it differeth from philosophy , the formal object of which is taken for a being as it is a most more and less universal being , prescinded from practical and theoretick beings , and treating of them in their most , more , and less universalities : whereas a being in metaphysicks , is also a most universal being , abstracted from more and less universals , but treating of it only , as it is most universal . chap. ii. of precision . . what precision is . . that a real precision is not properly a precision . . that precision constitutes a positive and negative . . the difference of precision . that all precisions are formal . i. precision is an operation of the mind , whereby in distinguishing the parts of a being from one another , we do apprehend them , which really cannot exist asunder , as existing separately in our minds , in such a manner , as if they were really existent out of our understandings : for example , a singular blackness in an aethiopian , although it cannor exist really out of that aethiopian , yet we may conceive that blackness by it self in our minds , and the aethiopian by himself , as if they were really and separately existent . ii. hence it followes , that properly there is no real precision or abstraction , as authors generally have imagined ; for that which was really distinct from another , is so ( according to their doctrine ) without the operation of the understanding , and therefore it is no precision ; because a precision is an operation of the mind . where observe , that this precision superaddeth nothing to the ( ratio formalis intelligendi ) to the understanding , but to the thing understood , or matter intelligible . wherefore objective and modal beings are made equal objects to real beings by the forementioned precision , and move the understanding as properly as real beings . iii. a precision constitutes a positive and a negative : a positive unity , and a negative distinction . that same unity is not a non ens : wherefore the negative , which is concomitant to all precisions , is not understood by us , only we judge by experience , that one being hath but one unity , and spying a being , we judge , that that being hath unity , and therefore is not a non ens . the difference arising between two real beings or essences is simpliciter called a distinction : the difference between a real being , and its mode , or habit , or representation , is a formal precision : so that all precisions are formal . i call it formal , because we give it a distinct definition , which is the form of a being : as in an aethiopian , we precind his blackness from his humanity , and define it a colour , which doth concentrate our sight ; his humanity to be a rational living substance . which beings are formally distinct from one another , because they have distinct definitions . iv. a formal precision is either really modal or objectively modal . a real modal precision is whereby an accident is precinded from a real essence . an objective modal precision is , whereby an accident is abstracted from an objective being ; an objective being is that , which doth not exist really , but in the mind only , although it is grounded upon a real being . that , which is called a formal precision of beings in the understanding , is termed a real distinction in real beings , which are not distinguisht from one another without the operation of the understanding , for it is our understanding perswades us that they are distinguisht really from one another . chap. iii. the manner of precision . . how a more universal being is precinded from its less universal beings . . how an universal being is equally abstracted from an ( ens rationis ) objective being , and ( ens reale ) a real being . . how a common concept is precinded from a substance and accident . a being in its greater universality is precinded from beings in their less universality ; when we conceive a common representation to two or more less universalities , & apprehend them united in that commonness , and distinct from each less universal , from which it was abstracted ; for example , an immaterial and material being have each an essence : in that , they have each an essence , they are like to another , and constitute a commonness , this commonness abstracted from each , and distinguisht from their materiality and immateriality is the formal precision of a being in its greater universality . the same rule is also held in abstracting a common concept from an ( ens rationis ) objective being , and a real being ; each of them having a commonness in their essence , which is , in that they move the understanding , although one existeth really without the understanding , the other only in the active understanding : the abstracting of this commonness from the objectiveness , and reality constitutes a precinded unity of an ens rationis , and an ens reale . in the like manner is a common concept precinded from an accident and substance , each of these having a commonness of moving the understanding , which abstracted from their realities , precindes a more universal unity from each . note that the doctrine of precision doth not properly belong to this place , which notwithstanding i thought good to insert , for to explain the specification of the subject of metaphysicks ; namely , how a being in its greater universality is abstracted from its lesser universalities : how it is univocal to an objective and real being ; to a substantial and accidental being ; to a material and immaterial essence ; and summarly , how that a being precinded in the forementioned manners , and univocal to every one of them beings , is specified to the subject of this science . chap. iv. of the definition of a being . . what the proper name of the nature of a being is . the improbation of several definitions of a being . . objections against the common definition of a being received by most late philosophers . . that there is no common concept to a possible real being , and an actual real being . . that there is an univocal concept to all immaterial and material , objective and real , substantial and accidental beings . . the authors definition of a being . that our knowledge is comparatively as perfect as adams was . the quiddity of a being in general goeth more by the name of the concept of a being , that is , as it is a conceived being , or as it is an object of our knowledge , than the nature and formality of a being ; and that justly and properly , because a being is a being ( as to us ) only from being conceived by us , that is , from its cognoscibility . as the common name imposed upon the quiddity of a being is very proper , no less improper are the common definitions of it , as they are rendred by most aristotelian commentators : whereof some proposed this definition : a being is that , which is not nothing ; or ( according to others ) which is no chimaera . the first is not so much as a description , which is cognoscible , but nothing is not cognoscible per se , but per aliud , to wit , by a being ; if so , then a being is apprehended by a no-being , and a no-being by a being , which runs in a blind circle , like a horse goes round in a mill. the latter definition is a description of a real being , and is not freed from all objections : . it is described by a negative . . all that , which is no chimaera , is not a real being : for a hircocerous is no chimaera . but possibly by chimaera is meant an ens rationis , in a larger sense ; which although granted , yet there are beings , which are neither strictly an objective being , neither in the same extent a real being ; such are all modal beings , which are distinguisht from a real being , as parts from their whole . ii. this definition is more generally received by most latter philosophers . a being is , which hath an aptitude to exist ; or to which existence is possible . this definition is also involved in scruples and repugnances : for here a possible being is only described , and not an actual being ; wherefore it is not a general definition of a being . others , to clear that objection , proposed the same definition with a tayle to it . a being is , which hath an aptitude to exist , or is that , which doth exist . this is a plain division of a being existent , and possible to exist ; where halts the definition then ? . essence is nearer to a being than existence ; wherefore illegally defined . . that which hath an aptitude to exist , is no real being , because it hath no real essence , not cognoscibility from without . . it is too strict : for it doth not comprehend an objective being ; wherefore we have occasion enough to doubt of the whole dispute of smiglecius de ente rationis , since that he proceeds upon a definition falsly supposed , and defined by existence , which is only a mode of a being . iii. there is no common concept to a possible real being , and an actual real being ; because the one is a negative , the other a positive , which being contrary , cannot constitute an unity , which is an effect of similitude , or commonness of concept . a possible being is a negative ; because it is that , which is no real being in a strict sense : for real in a large sense , is taken , for whatever doth move the understanding . neither can i apprehend , how a possible being may be called real , according to the ordinary acception ; which imports real to be that which doth exist without the understanding ; wherefore that which doth not exist , but only can exist , is not real . and this is past mending , notwithstanding the enlarging of it thus . real is that , which is , or can exist without the understanding . to define two formal natures in one definition , is absurd . for that which is , is one formality , that which is not , but supposed to be in the divine idea , is another formality . that these two are contraries , is evident : because that , which is , we may perceive by our senses , that , which is not , but can be , or is in the divine idea , we can neither perceive by our senses , or understanding . lastly , possibility relates to existence , and therefore ( if granted ) it would be but an accidental definition , or rather a division . iv. that there is a common and univocal concept of god , and his cteatures , of accidents and substances , of objective and real being ( ex parte actus ) in the understanding , is sufficiently proved , by supposing certainly , that god is as sensibly known by us , as his creatures are , and consequently the concept in the understanding may be univocal ; that accidents and substances differ modally : and , that an objective being is as much a being to us , as a real being ; all which hath been demonstratively proved in the precedent chapters . besides , the manner of precision , which is the ground of an univocal concept , i have so plainly and briefly set down in the two chapters of precision , that you have thence an easie entrance , to go through all the difficulries of metaphysicks ( which arise from an omission of an exact explication of precision ) and to understand with more ease the subtilities of suares , arriaga and oviedo , than they can understand themselves , and dissolve all objections against the univocal concept of the forementioned beings . v. a being is that , which hath an essence ; not that which can have an essence ; for it hath none . to have an essence , is to be existent ; to be existent , is to have an essence , which reciprocation is not the same , that hapneth to synonima's , but to a formality , and its propriety ; so that existence is not really distinct from essence , but only modally . an essence is that , whereby a being is cognoscible to be that , which it is . where observe , that as to us , cognoscibility is necessary and formal to a being ; for a being , as to us , is no being , unless it be cognoscible . notwithstanding this relative essence , we do grant an absolute or fundamental nature , whereon this relative essence of a being is grounded . that which man never perceived by his senses , or like to any thing , which hath been perceived by him , is no being , neither objective or real . this i prove ; whatever we can say is real , can be perceived by cur senses ( or otherwise , how could we say it were real ; for saying proceeds from our knowledge , and our knowledge from our senses ) and whatever is perceived by our senses , is real , that is , is existent from without . ergo , there is no real thing , but it is perceptible by our senses , mediately or immediately , and consequently as to us , is real from its cognoscibility . you may object , that there are many beings existent , which an individual man cannot perceive : ergo , by that they should not be real . i answer , that man is taken here in the universal , for the plurality of men , and therefore i added , by our senses ; so that whatever man in general is not capable of knowing , it is a non ens ; for otherwise , if any thing should be said to be real , and no man could perceive it , or did ever perceive it , we should say a most palpable untruth , which another would reply unto , that it was no being : because no man ever saw any such thing , or did ever hear of it . . according to the supposition of the objector , the material beings , which we may imagine to be existent without the tenth or eleventh orb , are real ; which all confess to be imaginary , and therefore not real . it is certain , that whatever is cognoscible to man , is a being ; but whether a being may not be somthing beyond what is cognoscible , is a doubt . . the subjectum in quo of cognoscibility ( viz. man ) is differing from himself now to what he was before his fall , and therefore he apprehending a being then further and beyond what man doth apprehend it now , seems to alter the formality of a being , which should be inalterable : yea , let us go on and question , whether angels do not know a thing beyond what may be perceptible to man ? if they do , then beyond all opinion , cognoscibility in man is not the formality of a being . to answer to all these , we must state , that a being is that , for which it is known to be : for it is impossible to imagine , that a being should be any thing else , as to a rational creature , but what it may be apprehended by him to be ; supposing a man to know certainly what a colour , smell or any thing else is in it self , that thing , as to , or in that man , can be nothing but what he knowes it to be : or asking a man , what such a thing is , he will answer you , it is such a thing , that is , he apprehends it so to be . again , suppose an angel told you , such a thing is such ; this is no otherwise , than that he knows it to be such or such . i might almost state the same case of god , but fearing i should offend , i rather omit it . supposing then that that , which is cognoscible to man , is a being , i do affirm , that an infinite being , as far as it is cognoscible to man , is a being , and is perceived by him to be a being ; but since that being is not terminated in mans knowledge , he cannot out of consequence but think and believe , that that being is indeterminate , or at least is more than he knows or is capable of knowing , so that this is a very palpable ground to man , to induce him to believe ( for know it he cannot , since it is beyond his knowledge , and therefore must believe it , which is an assent beyond knowledge ) that god is a being , because he knows him to be a being , and that he is infinite , or indeterminate , because he is not terminated within his knowledge , and because god declares the same of himself ; wherefore it is well said , that we know god partly only , and as through a glass . herein is an infinite being distinguisht , and we know it to be distinguisht from a non ens , which is also ( although improperly ) termed infinite , because we know a part of the former , but no part of the latter , and therefore we conclude the one to be somthing beyond what we know it to be , and the other to be nothing beyond what we know it not to be . finite things , as far as they are cognoscible , are nothing beyond what they are cognoscible , and although one man may erre in his knowledge , yet the universality of men , it is probable , do not , especially in immediately sensible objects . in relation to the second doubt and objection , i affirm , that man in his present state , cannot discern the essence and modes of a being so clearly at once , so swiftly , so certainly , and so easily as man did before his fall , because of the depravate and contrary habit , since befallen to man ; nevertheless his principle of knowledge is the same , and may through it perceive , and know the same things , and in the same degree , although with subjection to errour , difficulty , by length of time , study and experience . wherefore if adam knew all things as they were ( as doubtless he did ) and that cognoscibility of beings in him , were their formality , as to him , certainly the same cognoscibility must be their formality as to us . i could render this point much clearer , but this may suffice to an attentive mind , and therefore shall spend no more time or paper about it , deferring it until such time , which i may happily employ for the answering of such objections , that probably others will make against it . hence we collect one member of the division of a being , namely a real being , which is that , which our understanding doth apprehend to exist without , in the same manner as it doth apprehend it within . chap. v. of the formality of an objective being . . the authors definition of a ( ens rationis ) being of the mind , or an objective being . wherein a real being differs and agrees with an objective being . . the proof of the fore-given definition . that whatever we think , when we do not think upon a real being , is an objective being . that whatever we think or can think , when we do not think upon a real being , is like to a real being . . another argument to prove the formality of a mental being to consist in likeness to a real being . . the division of an objective being . . that , which a man doth apprehend to be like to what he perceives by his senses , is an ( ens rationis ) objective being , which is like to some one , or more real beings . and this makes the other opposite dividing member of a ( ens ) being in general . an ens rationis or an objective being , is that , whose essence existing in the mind only , consisteth in a likeness to a real being . that an objective being as to us , is as much a being , as a real being , it appeares hence , because a being , like to another being , is as much cognoscible in its existence , and other modes or accidents , as a real being , to which it may be like . it is called objective , because its essence is immediately grounded upon the passive and active intellect , which gives it to be objective or representing : so that you may observe , that the sorce of the word objective , doth confirm the truth of my definition , which is , that an objective being is , which represents a real being , or is like to a real being . likeness doth not imply a single or immediate idea in the active intellect ; for that is only proper to real beings , but a reflexe or double idea , or the framing of another idea , like to the single idea of a real being . a being conceived to be like to a real being , is partly different from it , and partly the same with it . it is the same with it , or identificated in their superiour gender , which is a being . it is different , in that it moves the passive understanding differently from a real being , that moving the understanding by its present motion through and from it self : whereas it self moveth the passive understanding through its intelligibility or internal cognoscibility , which it hath in the active intellect . this intelligibility is nothing else but the same idea of a real being , conceived again in the absence of that real being , which made that first idea by its own present motion in the understanding : in a word , it is not else , but a recordation of a real being ; and a real being it self is nothing else , but a being apt to move the senses by its own single and present motion . ii. i prove the fore-stated definition of an objective being to be adequate to its essentials . if whatever we think or can think , be only like to a real being , and that at such times , when we are not employed in understanding a real being , is no real being ; that concept must be of an ens rationis , or objective being : but what ever we think , or can think , is like to a real being , and that , at such times when we are not employed in understanding a real being , is no real being ; ergo , whatever we think , or can think to be like to a real being , and that at such times when we are not employed in understanding a real being , must be a concept of an ens rationis , or objective being . i confirm the major proposition , which cortaines an argument a necessario . the necessity flowes from a maxime , which is that an objective being and real being are contradictorily opposite ; and between contradictories there is no mean or medium . but of this more hereafter . i prove the minor , which is , that all which we think , or can think is like to a real being , at such times when we are not employed in understanding a real being . stop your ears , and shut your eyes , or compose your self to a platonick extasie , and try , whether you can think of one or more beings , which is , or are not like to a real being or beings ; let that thought be of a being most impossible to exist really . i am certain , i could never . you will say , that you can think of an atlas , or a man holding the world upon his back : i grant , that an atlas is an ens rationis ; but this ens rationis is like to a real being : namely , the man is like to a man , the world like to a globe ? had we never seen a globe , or a man , we could never have thought upon them joyntly : so is a hirco-cervus , a goat-stagge , an objective being , representing a goat and a stagge . this axiome doth also infer the same ; nihil est in intellectus , quin prius fuerit in sensu ; there is nothing in the understanding , but it proceeds from our senses . if then we know nothing , but that , which we receive from our sensation , and the knowledge in the understanding is nothing , but a representation of what is recommended to it by the senses , that which we alwaies think , or can think , must be like , or must represent a real being ; because we perceive nothing , but what is really existent without the understanding . here may be objected , that then all real beings are objective beings ; because all real beings cause a representation or likeness to themselves in the understanding . the solution is easie . in a large sense all real beings are objective , if objective be taken largely , for that which moveth the understanding , as smilec . also , disp. . q. . well observes , non quaecunque existentia objectiva sufficit ad ens rationis ; nam etiam entia realia existunt objective in intellectu . it is not every objective existence doth suffice to constitute an objective being ; for real beings exist also objectively in the understanding . so that i say , that it is not every likeness in the understanding specifieth an objective being , but only a mediate and reflexe likeness , which is formed out of the immediate or direct likeness or idea of a real being , by abstracting another or mediate likeness from that first likeness . the likeness of a real being is immediate , and therefore needs its own real presence to impress this likeness upon the understanding ; whereas the likeness of an objective being is formed mediately from the first real likeness ( as i may call it ) and is abstracted , when the real object is absent , that is , at such a time ( as i inserted above ) when we are not employed in the understanding of a real likeness . i call it a reflexe likeness , because the understanding doth abstract it by a reflexe action upon it self . neither is that first or immediate likeness of a real being properly a likeness , but rather an impression made by its presential action ; whereas a likeness is properly that , which is abstracted from the impression already made by a real being , and in the absence of it , that is , when we are not employed in the understanding of a real being . so that a proper likeness is between two beings , formally different from one another . i will illustrate this by an example : frame a likeness upon an impression of a real being : as of a dog ; as long as that impression lasteth , you cannot make a likeness upon it ; for we can exercise but one act of the understanding faculty at once ; for one formal power exerciseth but one formal act . it is then necessary that the impression should be finished , by the cessation of the alteration of that real being upon the sensories ( which i call the absence of a real being , a parte rei , or the intermission of understanding a real being a parte actus intellectus . ) the impression being finisht by the absence of that real being , namely , of the dog , the understanding by a reflexe and mediate likeness upon that impression , may by another action relate that likeness abstracted from that impression to that same dog again ( which action is a distinct operation of the mind , formally differing from that first action of receiving an impression ) and so that dog framed in the understanding is like to the first impression of that real dog again . where observe , that this likeness is not the same impression , which that dog made upon the sensories , but a being abstracted in the passive understanding , by the active , of the same likeness to that same impression . iii. another argument to prove the formality of an objective being to consist in a likeness to a real being , is this . as beasts and men are formally distinct in their essence , so also they are formally distinct in their formal operations . hence i proceed thus . the perceiving of a real being is proper to a beast , the perceiving of an objective being is only proper unto men . wherefore as them two operations are formally different , so are their acts , which is the perceiving of a real being , and of a formal being , and consequently , an objective being doth differ from a real being . these operations being supposed to be formally different , i say , that that which makes them formally different , is the ratio formalis of each . that which argues or makes a being to be real , is its perception by the animal senses . this is evident , because beasts , who do perceive and discern real beings ( for they discern grass from water , their own stable from another ) which they cannot perceive , but by their senses : ergo , the perception by animal sense is the ratio formalis of a real being . that which makes an objective being , is that , whereby a man is distinct from a beast , which is a power of framing likenesses by a reflexion upon the animal perception or impression , and is an act whereby a man is formally distinct from a beast : for a beast cannot frame any likeness : ergo , the formality of an objective being doth consist in a likeness to a real being . you may object , that you can apprehend a being existing in your mind , to be a real being : ergo , whatever is thought , is not thought to be like to a real being , but somthing may be thought to be a real being . i answer , that that , which you think to be a real being , you think it to be like to a real being , and because of that , you say it is a real being : for example , suppose you think the pope to be a real man , your thinking of him to be so , is nothing else , but your thinking him to be like to a man , and therefore you say he is a man. moreover , although an objective being consisteth in a likeness to a real being , the conclusion thence is not , that that which is an objective being , is no real being , that is , that hath no real being for its foundation : for the definition doth imply it : neither are you to conclude , that an objective being is a contradictorily opposite to a real being : that is , that an objective being doth not respond to a real being , because a real being doth not exist in that manner of conjunction , as an objective being is somtime conceived , viz. a dog-cat is an ens rationis : now the apprehending of these both together , that is , one a top the other , doth not make them formally and essentially distinct from each other , supposing them to be conceived distinctly ; for that is but accidental to them , and in effect , they are conceived distinctly in the same manner , as i have declared in the sixth chapter . this then being granted to be accidental to an objective being , we must necessarily suppose each of them singly ( viz. the dog and the cat ) existing at present only in the understanding , to be an objective being : what , will you call them beings real beings , which now , are existent only in your understanding , and cannot move your cognoscible faculty really from without at the same time , when you know them from within ? further , supposing , that each component of a compounded ens rationis , is an ens rationis ( as formally it is , for how can a whole compounded ens rationis be said to be an whole ens rationis , unless its parts are likewise entia rationis ? ( nihil est in effectu , quin prius suerit in causis ) there is nothing contained in the effect , but what was before existent in its causes , and such as the effect is , such must the cause have been ) it is impossible , that you can think or conceive any such components , but which are respondable to a real being . neither is it proper to call that being , which you have conceived in your mind , to be like to a real being , although that real being be before you , a real being , because now it is objective , and existent in the active intellect , moving the passive intellect actually : but in case you leave that objective being , and reflect your senses to that same being which is before , then that being , which doth now move your sensual cognoscibility , is said to be a real being . but here you may say , that an objective being is formally different from a real being , wherefore an objective being ought not so much as to have a power of existing really , which according to this discourse it hath , and therefore the fore-stated definition of an objective is not to be allowed . i answer , that an objective being is formally different from a real being , and is impossible ever to be formally a real being : for , in that i assert a being to be objective , i assert that it is not real , neither can an objective being quatenus objective , be real , quatenus real . lastly , is a mule more or less an ens rationis , because it is generated from different species , or constituted in unity by part● of a different species ? certainly no. so , neither is a ( hirco cervus ) goat-stagge more or less an objective being , although consisting of parts of different species : and as a mule is not termed an ens reale , because it consists of different species ; so , neither is a hirco-cervus an ens rationis , because it consisteth of different species . but you reply , that a hirco-cervus is impossible to exist really . why ? because it doth consist of different species . and what doth that hinder ? that it may , is plain in a mule. wherefore i say again , that it is impossible for a man to think a single notion , which should be impossible to exist really . but more of this elsewhere . an objective being is twofold , modal , and essential objective . a modal objective being is , which is like to a modal real being . an essential objective being is , which is like to an essential real being . what a real modal , and real essential being is , we shall deliver in the next chapter . chap. vi. queries concerning a real and an objective being . . whether an objective being and a real being differ essentially one from the other . . whether a rose in the winter is a real being . . if impossibility be the formality of an objective being . . whether the ratio formalis of an objective being consists in a conjunction of many beings , which in that conjunction are impossible to exist really . . that an objective being is not existent before it is understood . a confutation of smigl . . that an objective being is only proper to the understanding . i. vvhether an objective and real being differ essentially one from the other . my answer is affirmative : because they are constituted by powers formally different from one another . here may be objected , if a man hath powers in him , formally differing from one another , a man must also have two forms . i answer again , that these formal powers are not called formal in respect of the soul ; for in that respect they are all formally one ; but they are different from one another in respect to one another , and both different from the soul materially , or , ex parte ob-jecti . ii. whether a rose in the winter be a real being . no doubt it is not ; for it moveth the understanding by a mediate and reflexe likeness . . it doth not move the understanding from without . for a rose in the winter is supposed impossible to be actually in the winter ; ergo , it hath only an objective being . iii. if impossibility be the formality of an objective being . impossibility is twofold . . it is that , which cannot exist without the understanding . . it is that , which cannot exist in the understanding : that which hath no cognoscibility , is no being : wherefore the latter of these is no being , and doth not appertain to this query . the first kind of impossibility is not the formality of an objective being ; because impossibility is a negative , and therefore having no unity , cannot be the form of a positive . . state the question thus ; whether possibility in the understanding , which is a positive , is the formalis ratio of an objective being : neither , for a possible objective being is that , which can move the understanding , but doth not ; that which doth not move the understanding , hath no objective cognoscibility : ergo , it is a non ens objectivum . iv. whether the ratio formalis of an objective being consists in a conjunction of many beings , which in that conjunction are impossible to exist really . in no manner : because of the reasons alleadged in the precedent paragraph . neither is an objective concept of a conjunction of many beings essentialy different from the objective concept of each single being . as one being is produced , so are two or more ; for example , as the species of a mans head is conceived , in the like manner is the species of a drakes body apprehended ; as union is conceived by apposing one as close as may be to another , from seeing of it done by real things ; so also doth the species of objective union , appose the head of the man to the body of that drake , and so it is a man-drake , which is a whole objective being . its parts of production are three ; namely , the species of a man , a drake , and union . this supposed , it followes , that they are essentially one : because all parts united are essentially identificated with the whole . lastly , it is not the union which makes an ens rationis ; for that is ab extra to them species , which are already conceived , to wit , from the understanding , which is distinct from the object understood . as the mingling of oyl with water doth not formally alter the essence of the water , or the water the essence of the oyl ; so neither doth the joyning of a mans head to a drakes body , formally alter their essences ; if only joyned , that is , by contiguity ; but if united , which includes a continuity of parts , then they are formally one . v. whether an objective being may be existent before it is understood . if cognoscibility is the form ( as to us ) of a real being , much more is it essential to an objective being . that it is so , is already proved . . an objective being as far as it is objective , is not fundamentally before it is known ; and this is against smigl . disp. . q. . i prove it . if an objective being , as far as it is so , was fundamentally , before it was formally , as to us : ergo , a being ( as to us ) is before it is ; but that is absurd : for impossibile est , idem esse , & non esse . . to be fundamentally formal , and to be absolutely formal , are two forms different in essence : but it is impossible to a being to have two essential forms : ergo , a being cannot be fundamentally a being , and an objective being at once . i prove the major . to have a being in another , as upon its basis or foundation , is a relative essence , which cannot exist separately without its basis : but a relative essence is formally different from an absolute essence , which in a manner is the proper essence of an objective being : ergo , essentially and formally different . that the essence of an objective being is absolute , i prove , that which doth formally exist without a real present foundation , is an absolute being ; but an objective being doth exist without a real present foundation ; for it existeth when a real being is removed , and hidden from our senses : ergo , an objective being in a manner is an absolute formal being . nevertheless , as i asserted before , it is respondable to a real past foundation . an objective being cannot be so much as known in its foundation , as it is so founded . i prove it . to know a being , and to know it to be in its foundation , are two distinct knowledges at once . but the understanding cannot know two things at once . this minor is a maxim. ergo. we may know an objective being to be , and to have its essence derived from a real being , as its foundation , but at distinct times , ●nd by distinct acts of the intellect , and that but improperly . had smigl . said so , he would have escaped the forementioned inconveniencies . i prove the conclusion . an objective being is a likeness in the understanding to a real being . ergo its essence is derived from thence : for had there never been a real being , there could not have been an objective being . a real being is the foundation of an objective being : because it is referred to a real being . neither is this properly a foundation ; because an objective being can exist without a real being ; so that a real being is rather to be supposed , as a conditio sine qua non , or a pattern of an objective being ; if a pattern , then it is no foundation : for a thing abstracted from that pattern doth exist , when the pattern is abolisht : we may see the picture or representation of alexander , although he hath long since quitted his real being . according to this we may metaphorically define an objective being to be a picture of a real being , painted in the mind . the said smigl . in the next page , recals his notion , and doth again affirm the contrary , with as little proof , as the other was . ens rationis formaliter non potest esse nisi cognoscatur . primo probatur in iis entibus rationis , quae sine ullo fundamento finguntur ab intellectu : ut hirco-cervus . mark , he allowes some beings not to be inherent in a basis , whereas before he granted , that all beings were fundamentally ; but he could not tell , whether their foundation was the understanding , or realities from which they were abstracted . if he took the understanding to be the foundation of an ens rationis , then he confounds the foundation of a being , and the subject of it , into one notion ; for the understanding is properly the subject of an objective being , and not its foundation , which rather may be attributed to the real impression , upon which an objective likeness is founded . nevertheless supposing his mistakes to be true , and allowing either of these acceptions , he contradicts himself . : for here he asserts , that an objective being cannot be formally , unless it is actually understood ; before he saith , that it can be fundamentally ( that is , inherent in the understanding , or else in the first impression of a real being , take him either way ) in the understanding , before it is known , can there be any thing in the understanding , but what is understood ? if there may , then the understanding is no understanding ; neither will this excuse , in saying , that a being is fundamentally one , and formally one ; for to be fundamental includes a formality in a foundation . . he affirms , that the fiction of a hirco-cervus hath no foundation , which is erroneous also : for it is grounded ( or doth properly resemble a real buck or a stagge ) upon a real buck and a real stagge . the like contradictions are frequent throughout the whole dispute . whether an objective being is only proper to the understanding . if an objective being is a being , because it is intelligible , it is necessarily only appropriated to the understanding . as for a being in the will or rational appetite , it is ( as all desires or beings desired are ) appropriated to the understanding ; because the understanding and will are formally one , as to the rational faculty ; neither can the will will any thing , unless it be first represented in the understanding . sensitive powers cannot frame an ens rationis , because their proper object is a real being . chap. vii . the manner of forming an objective being . . that all formations of an ens rationis are single . that the second operation of the understanding is the same in specie with the first . a division of an objective being into single and complexe . . that a non ens cannot be known . two acceptions of a non ens. all formations of an ens rationis are from a single and first operation of the understanding . wherefore hereby i would infer , that the speculation of the understanding upon these two impressions upon the phansie , is one formally and numerically ; but the acts of impressing of the understanding are many , differing only materially . . that the first operation of the mind , which here i take for an act or impression of an idea by the understanding upon the phansie , is no wise formally different from another ( as the second or third may be ) succedent upon it . hence i infer the division of an objective being into a single objective and complexe objective being . what they are may be collected from the precedents . a non ens cannot be known , because it cannot be impressed : for it hath no figure . we say it or that quiddam is a non ens , not because we know that quiddam which we speak of , to be a non ens , for a quiddam and a non ens are contradictories ; but because we conceive that quiddam not to be like to another quiddam , which we had expected it should have been like to , and therefore we say , it or that quiddam is a non ens ; so that a non ens in that signification is only a difference of one being from another ; and in this sense , we say one thing is not another , as a man is no beast , or no bestial thing that is , is a nothing bestial ( non ens bestiale ) or not that , which doth represent a beast . . a non ens is taken for that which hath no resemblance to any thing real , nor consequently to any thing we can know ; for we can know nothing , but what hath a resemblance to a real being , wherefore we call a non ens that , which cannot or doth not move our sense or understanding . a non ens reale is that , which cannot or doth not move our cognoscible faculty from without . a non ens objectivum is , whatsoever cannot or doth not move our understanding from within . so that a non esse implies little more then ( quies ) rest of the understanding from action , hapning through a not moving non-cognoscibility . chap. viii . of the formality of a real being . . what a real being is according to the author . the derivation of res and aliquid . that it is very improper to call it a real being . the cause of that denomination . . that the phansie is the immediate subject of an ens reale . . that the understanding is only the mediate subject of real beings . a real being is that , which move ; the understanding from without . res and synonima's of a real being : for it is called real from res ; and aliquid from aliud quid . let us enquire why res and aliquid should more be synonima's to a being from without , then to an objective being . certainly res and aliquid rather imply a being in general , then any of its species in particular . and it is probable , that ens was framed out of res , by leaving out the r , and placing n. between e and s. how absurd is it then to say ens reale , which is the same , as if you said ens ens. for reale is nothing else but an adjective changed out of the substantive res . aliquid might rather be called unumquid , and it is likely , that it was first so called , which others probably did change out of a wantonness of speech , coveting new words , and rejecting old ones , as it is observable at present among most nations , who frame new words every year , which although are but few in a year , yet all them yearly words , being retained in use for a hundred years , beget a great change of speech , until at last , the whole language seems to be changed : wherefore in stead of unum , they prefixt ali - & made the word aliquid . it may be you will divide its etymology in aliud and quid , and then it will signifie the same with somthing else . however its intended signification was something , which in english seems to be composed out of one and thing ? leaving the s out , and changing m in n. from which premises it followes , that ( ens ab extra ) a being from without , would more properly denote the same which is intended by a real being . and ( ens ab intra ) a being from within , might more properly denominate what is expressed by objective : because objective may as well be attributed to a real being as to it . nevertheless there may be a reason given why res or a real being was imposed to denominate a being from without . that which man perceived first , was a being from without , and consequently did first impose the name of a thing or res upon it , which without distinction did then properly denote that being from without ; for the name of a being from within was as then not yet conceived : wherefore that name was originally and immediately intended to denominate a being from without , and hath since been retained in use . ii. the immediate subject of an ens reale is the phansie . i prove it : that which doth distinguish real beings one from the other , is also the subject of their inherence ( that is , quoad ad cognoscibilitatem ) but such is the phansie : ergo. i confirm the minor : the immediate subject must be either the understanding , or animal phansie . but not the understanding , because beasts , which are void of understanding , do distinguish real beings from one another . ergo , the phansie is the immediate subject of real beings . iii. the understanding is the mediate subject , because the understanding perceives the same real beings by mediation of the phansie . i prove it : if the understanding cannot perceive a real being , when the phansie is tied , which is , when a man sleeps , then the phansie is the mediate cause of the perceiving of a real being . but the understanding cannot perceive real beings , when the phansie is tied . ergo , the phansie is the mediate cause , by whose mediation the understanding becomes the subject ( subjectum cognitionis ) of a real being . chap. ix . of the division of a being in universal and singular . . a being is divisible into universal and singular . . what an universal being is according to the author . . what an universal real being is . . what an universal objective being is . . in the foregoing chapter hath been treated concerning the next division of a being ; now followeth the remote division of a being in universal and singular . this division is communicable to each of the next divided members : thus a real being is either universal or singular . so again an objective being is either universal or singular . the proof of these divisions you will read below . ii. an universal being is a being common to two or more singulars . commonness here is a likeness in idea of two or more beings . i prove the definition . . that there are common beings . if two or more singulars do move the understanding in likeness of idea , and the understanding doth perceive two or more motions of singular idea's to be one in likeness ( for a being must be one , and cognoscible in that unity ) then there are common or universal beings . but two or more beings move the understanding in likeness of idea , and the understanding doth perceive two or more motions of singular idea's to be one in likeness : ergo there are common or universal beings . i confirm the minor : two horses move the understanding in likeness of idea ; they both having one shape & commonness in external habit , make a like impression in the phansie , & by that hoth are distinct to the understanding from other beings ; as from fishes , birds , &c. ergo , two or more beings move in likeness of idea . . there is not only a commonness required , but also an unity , or how could they be beings else ? nam ens & unum convertuntur . i prove that this commonness is one : if this commonness of idea be indistinct from it self , and distinct from all others , then it hath an unity ; but this commonness is indistinct from it self , and distinct from all others . ergo. the concept or impression of two shapes of horses are indistinct from themselves ; for you find no distinction in a likeness , as far as they are like , otherwise they would not be alike . it is distinct from all others , because no other beings can represent the same likeness of figure , and not be horses . ergo. iii. a real universal being is , which moveth the understanding from without . i have proved , that there are common unities moving from without ; if so , ergo , there are common real unities . beasts discern common real beings . i prove it : a beast , as a horse discernes an edible being from a non edible being : but edible beings and non edible beings are commonnesses : ergo. the minor is undoubtable ; for hold forth a stone and hay to a horse , he will refuse the stone , and take the hay . you may say , a horse doth not know hay as an universal but as a singular . i deny that , for a horse knowes hay , because that hay , which he takes now , is like in externals to the hay , which he used to eat . . a horse knows oates from hay ; for hold oates and hay to him , he will take oats before the hay : now he doth not take oates before the hay , because they are such individual oates , but because they are like to oates , which he used to eat . you will reply again , that a horse knowes oates and hay from a natural instinct . i deny that also : for had a horse no senses , his natural instinct would not make him chuse hay before a stone . besides , it is apparent in a dog. suppose a dog were between a rank of men , and a rank of beasts , he would leave the beasts , and run to the men : ergo , he knowes men from beasts : he runs to men in general , as they have all a commonness of men in them . the reason , why the dog runs to men , is , because a dog having been accustomed to live with one singular man , he runs to all them men , because they are like to that singular man : ergo it followes that a dog knowes resemblances . iv. there are universal objective beings . an universal objective being is , which doth represent an universal real being in the understanding . if there were not universal real beings , how could we apprehend universal objective beings ? for nihilest in intellectu , quin prius fuer it in sensibus . for example , man conceived in the understanding , is an universal objective being : because he represents a commonness of two or more men . if the understanding apprehends a man ; ergo there are objective universal beings : because the apprehension of a man in the understanding is an objective being : but the understanding apprehends a man : ergo. by this discourse i may seem to have mistaken my self in giving the definition of an objective , whose formality consisted in a likeness to a real being , whereas now again i assert , that the formality of an universal real being consists in a likeness between two or more singulars , wherein then ( may you ask ) is a single objective being different from an universal real being ? i answer , . in that the likeness of an objective being is formed by the understanding , but the likeness of real beings is perceived by the phansie or common sense . . the likeness of an objective being is a single likeness compared by the understanding to a single real likeness , whereas the other likeness is a plural and common likeness . . the likeness , which intercedes between real singular beings , is between beings of the same rank and gender , whereas the likeness of an objective being to a real being is between beings of different formalities ; the one existing without and moving from without ; the other existing within , and moving from within . chap. x. of universal and singular beings . . that there are no platonick idea's . that universal beings are not really different from their singulars . wherein an universal is distinguisht from a singular . that singulars being abolisht , universals thence abstracted , are also abolisht with them . . that universal beings are formally distinct from singulars . . singulars are primùm cognita . . universals are notiora nobis . . there are no universal beings really distinct from singular beings , as was the opinion of plato , in that he stated idea's really distinct from singulars , because singular beings when they are abolisht , the universals are also abolisht in them . as for the arguments of plato against it , they are very futil ; whereof this is one of the primest . there are sciences : ergo , there are universals . i grant it , but not really distinct from their singulars . you may reply , that sciences are necessary ; therefore their subject , which are universals , must be necessary : but they cannot be necessary , if inherent in singulars ; because singulars are contingent . to this i answer , that if all singulars were so contingent , as to alter their habit and shape , so as that they had one shape now , another tomorrow , i confess singulars would be contingent ; but singulars in their quidditative shape or habit are not changeable , so as to change all in singular from that quidditative shape . 't is true , some singulars may be abolisht , yet as long as there are two left , the universality , which they did constitute , is not abolisht , but maintained by them two , there must be two at least , because if there was but one , it could have no commonness ; for commonness relates to another or more . many singulars may change in many accidentals , as in one or more particular moodes ; yet this doth not change the quiddity of a being , unless all accidents together ( which i call a quidditative shape ) change in all singulars . since then that these changes are not observed in singulars , they are not to be counted contingent , but as necessary as their sciences . another argument he proposes , is this : all singular men being abolisht , yet there is a science of man , as he is an universal : ergo. the falshood of the antecedent appears from the truth of the contrary ; to wit , that there is no science of man , man being abolisht in all his singulars ; for a science is a science as to us only : not but that there is also a science in spiritual beings , but that not concerning us farther than is revealed by the holy bible we consider all things besides only as to us . . suppose that fishes were all abolisht , yet you may say , there remains a knowledge of fishes in us . 't is true , there doth remain a knowledge of fishes , but not of real fishes , but of imaginary fishes , like to those which have existed . . universals , as they are subjects of sciences , are entia rationis , which do remain after the existence of real universals . ii. universal beings are formally distinct from their singulars joyned all in one number , because they differ in their definition . a singular being is that , which hath a single essence . by single is to be understood incommunicability ( that is , quoad accidentia omnia collecta co , quo sunt , modo ) according to all its accidents collected in the same manner as they are ; for although their prime and most obvious accidents are common to them of another being , as they are abstracted from accidents less obvious ( which kind of abstraction constitutes an universal being ) yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the accidents of a singular being collected , is only proper to that singular being , and incommunicable in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i cannot but strange at the conceit of most peripateticks , who take an universal being to be only a communicable and abstracted unity . this communicable unity is the matter and form of singulars abstracted from their individual accidents . pray , what concept can you have of matter and form without accidents ? what can you conceive the matter and form of an ass to be without his accidents , as hairy skin and long eares , and singular figure of body ? iii. a singular is primum cognitum , because we must know these first , before we can conceive an universal being . iv. a universal being is notitu nobis , or is better known to us then a singular ; for we can discern the shape and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an universal being , before we can know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of its singular beings . for afar off we know that a man is a man , that is , is like to the universal being , before we know , what man he is , or know his individual connexe of accidents . . it is easier to know an universal being than a singular ; for oftentimes when we see a singular person , we doubt whether he be the same which we have seen before , yet at that time we know him certainly to be a man , and like to his universal being : besides , we do less forget an universal being , then a singular , and so consequently it is more known . the reason why an universal being is more known to us then a singular , is because the modes of an universal are the most eminent and evident modes of singulars , abstracted from their more obscure and inferiour modes . v. one singular is not enough to constitute an universal , because there can be no resemblance abstracted from one . you may object , that the understanding may abstract an idea from one singular , and frame another like to it within its self ; that granted , it could be no universal being , neither real or objective ; not real , because there is no resemblance of one real idea to another , unless there be another existent ; but of an objective idea to one real idea : not objective , because the resemblance of idea's are of different natures . vi. an universal nature is by meanes of abstraction , as it doth also include comparation . smigl . in his th . disp. q. . proposes his opinion of the manner of production of an universal . universale fit per potentiam abstractivam rerum , non cognoscitur nisi per comparativam . an universal being is constituted by an abstractive knowledge , but it is not known unless by a comparative knowledge , wherein he asse t s that an universal being is capable of an essence before it is known . that this is not , is evident by what hath been proved in the th . chapter . you may plainly observe a contradiction in these words of his . fit ( saith he ) per notitiam abstractivam : ergo cognoscitur . etenim quomodo potest universale dici fieri per notitiam , & non cognosci ? quippe fieri per notitiam abstractivam , & cognosci abstractive , sunt idem re & nomine . siquidem cognoscatur abstractive co ipso cognoscitur ; ergo cognoscitur eo ipso , quo sit puncto . to this he annexes a triple principle , contributing to the production of an universal being , to wit , negation of abstraction of unity , and of non-repugnance : which being stated , an universal is also stated . by negative abstraction is meant , an universal nature abstracted from its singulars by predicating it negatively of the singulars . i wonder how a thing can be negatively predicated of another , and it not known . if known , ergo it is , before it is predicated of another . therefore it is no negative abstraction . unity is inseparable from a concept , for all concepts are one , and of one ; so that that is implied in a concept . his third condition required a non-repugnance ; which is co-incident with the whole falshood of his imagined universale . a non-repugnance is a negative , and therefore is not essential to an universale ; that being positive . ergo , it must rather import a positive relation to its inferiours . here again you have another contradiction . first , he saith that an universal being cannot be known by a comparative knowledge . what is a comparative knowledge , but a common nature actually and positively resembled and compared to its inferiours ? this by the way , and now i return to my proposition . by abstraction is intended the apprehension only of commonnesses in singulars ; which apprehension of commonness doth per se only apprehend what is common in singulars , and thereby doth exclude the apprehensions of non-commonnesses : wherefore . abstraction doth per se imply a positive , and per accidens a negative . . abstraction doth include comparation , because commonnesses cannot be abstracted unless compared to one another . chap. xi . of the extream division of a being . . another division of a being . . what the greatest or most universal is . . what the greater universal is . . what a less universal is . . what the least universal is . . how the fore-mentioned members are otherwise called . i. an universal being is either most universal , greater universal , less universal , or least universal . ii. the greatest or most universal is , which is common to all beings ; as a transcendent being , or a being , as it is the subject of metaphysicks . iii. a greater universal being is , that which is comparatively abstracted from less universals ; as a living being is abstracted from men , beasts , and plants , because they have a commonness of idea , as far as they are living : this commonness is abstracted from men , beasts , and plants , as they are less universals . iv. a less universal being is , which is abstracted from the least . v. the least universal is , which is immediately abstracted from individuals . vi. among logicians the greatest universale is termed universale universalissimum , or genus summum . a greater universal is called genus intermedium or subalternum , or majus universale . a less universal is known to them by the name of species subalterna or media . the least universal is also named species specialissima or infima . these terms are of great use in logick , and being proper to that art , they are considered there in a different manner to what they are here ; wherefore i shall omit any further discourse upon them . chap. xii . of the modes or parts of a being . . what a mode is . whence a part is named a part. whence a mode is termed a mode . the scotch proverb verified . . the number and kinds of modes . what an essence or a whole being is . . that a mode is the summum genus of all beings , and their parts . . the vulgar doctrine of modes rejected . . that a substance is a mode of a being . . that a mode is an univocal gender to a substance and an accident . . that a substance is an accident , and all accidents are substances . the difference between subsistence and substance . . it is time i should propose somwhat touching the modal division of a being , which is its partition into modes . a mode is that , whereby a being is incurrent into our knowledge . i have oft told you , that a being , as to us , is a being from its cognoscibility , that is from our perceiving it to be somthing . our perception is either sensual or intellectual : the latter whereof is obliged to the former for all its knowledge . wherefore a real being is a real being from its sensible cognoscibility ; and an objective being is an objective being from its intelligible cognoscibility . we know a being either in its whole or parts . the parts are called parts , divisions , and partitions ; because they are apprehended by us divisedly or parted , as they are inherent in a being ; or because they part or divide our perception , that is , move it in a distinct manner . the distinct motions , partitions and divisions of parts are otherwise termed modes or manners , because they do modificate the senses ; that is , move them in various manners . these we say are real , because we imagine them to be just so in nature , as we apprehend them to be . we must then give credit to that trite maxim of the northern people of this island , who vulgarly cry out , ouut awaa al tings ar bot nootiens . modes are little else but the various faces of a being , through which it makes it self known to us as it were in various manners . we know a being in the whole , when we know it in all its parts or modes . ii. as many several maners as a being doth move the senses through , so many several modes there he . a being moves the senses through its unity , truth , goodness , existence , substance , quantity , &c. their number you will find in the th . chapt. attributes , accidents , properties , and modes are synonima's . they are called attributes ( a parte actus ) because our intellect doth attribute them to the various motions of a being upon the senses . accidents are imposed upon a being , because they befal to it accidentally , or by chance from our understanding . properties are so called , because they are proper to a being , and without which a being cannot consist . we cannot say , that a being is any thing else but its modes united ; for if we say , it is something beyond them modes , we say more then we know ; for we know a being no further then its modes , or no further then it moves our senses . besides , take away unity , truth , substance , quantity and the remaining modes from a being , what can any man imagine to be the overplus ? even nothing . but more of this in the next chapter . iii. hence i gather , that a mode in a large sense is the summum genus of all beings , because it predicates of all beings and their parts . it predicates of a whole being , because in a large sense it imports the manner of representation of an entire essence . a mode is more or less universal , or singular . an universal mode is a commonness of singular modes . a singular mode , is inherent in every singular being . the more and less universal modes i have enumerated in the chap. their descriptions you may read in the following chapter . iv. the vulgar of philosophers state a different description of a mode . a modal entity or mode ( say they ) is that , which cannot be separated through the divine power from that , which can be without it , in respect to which a thing is said that other thing , which is separated from it . wherefore that , which can be separated in two entities , but not reciprocally , is said to be a thing : and that which cannot exist without , is called a mode . you have an example in matter , which is united , and in its union , through which it is united , that same matter can through the divine power exist without the same union to that individual form , in union to another distinct form : but that union cannot through the divine power exist without that very same matter . whence it is , that the union is said to be the mode of matter , and the matter is said to be the thing in respect to that union . the same distinction i conclude from this doctrine to be intercedent between action and the agent principle ; as also between passion and the patient principle : between subsistence and its nature . by this they seem to suppose a real difference between a mode and its being or nature ; but withal they assert , that this real difference of existence is not natural , but supernatural . if then there is no natural real difference between a thing and its mode ; ergo , according to their own opinion , a mode is identificated naturally and really with the thing , and consequently a thing must be constituted out of the congress of its modes . v. i say that a substance is a mode of a being . for it is evident from their own words , that it is naturally inseparable from its nature ; ergo , a substance is naturally and really the same with a nature substant or subsistent . . a substance doth as much and as properly modifie its subject as any other mode : for by it a being appears to our sense to be subsistent or substant . . a substance hath no other subject to inhere in , then them other modes united , but more especially it inheres in quantity : that is , a being doth become a substant to other accidents or modes by meanes of its quantity : for if you take away quantity from a being , whereby shall that being become a substant to other modes ? . to subsist of it self is not the essence of a being : for they confess that supernaturally it is separable from its essence ; ergo it is somwhat else , and can be nothing but a mode . . a mode is that , whereby an essence is in part made known to us : but an essence is in part made known to us by its subsistence or existence per se : ergo , it is a mode . or thus : the parts of an essence are distinguished from one another by their modes or distinct manner of representation to sense , but a substance is distinguished from another mode through its distinct manner of representation ; ergo. . if a substance agreeth in moving the senses , in inseparability , in time or duration , with other modes ; ergo , it is neither more or less a mode then they . but the antecedence is true , ergo the consequence is true also . any other mode is as little separable from its essence without the destruction of it as a substance : for take away quality or quantity , it will destroy the essence as much as the separation of a substance ; the like conceive of their quality , duration , &c. as all other modes are variable , so is a substance , which may be augmented and diminished ; for a substance sometime becomes a greater or lesser substance , from the augmentation or diminution of quantity . lastly , you say that a substance is that , wherein all the nine accidents do inhere tanquam in subjecto . but then tell me what that thing is wherein all the nine accidents do inhere ? possibly you will say , that that wherein the accidents are inherent is latent ; that is , is not cognoscible . but again , if it be not cognoscible , how do you know it then to be a thing ? ergo , you speak more then you know : if so , wherein is it distinguisht from a chimaera ? vi. a mode is an univocal gender to a substance and the other modes ; because it is equally predicated of them . vii . the consequence of this discourse doth infer the division of a being in a substance and accident to be erroneous ; because an accident is affirmatively predicated of a substance ; for a substance is nothing else but a notion , which accidently or by chance is attributed by us to a being . every mode of a being is predicable of a substance , and a substance of it . for every mode is subsistent through it self , that is , it need not another to constiture its formal modality . to subsist through it self , is not to subsist through another , but every mode subsisteth through it self , and is through it self , that which it is ; for quality doth not owe its subsistence to quantity , nor quantity to it ; but each of them subsist through themselves , and are modes through themselves . each singular mode cannot subsist of it self , as needing the concurrence of all the other modes ; & therefore they subsist or depend from one another . this dependance from one another might rather be termed substance ( quia unum alteri substat i. e. unum alteri est fulcimento ) because the one doth stand under the other as a pillar to uphold it . subsistence doth more properly denote the subsistence of a mode through it self . chap. xiii . of the attributes of a being . . why a property is so called . . the difference which authors hold between passion and attribute . . that passion and attribute , as to their names , imply the same thing . . that attributes are really the same with their essence . that all attributes of a being , as they are united , are the same with their essence or being . . that the attributes are formally distinct from one another . . that that , which we conceive beyond the attributes of a being , is nothing . . what an essence is . i. a property or propriety of a being is so called , because it is not the essence of a being , but doth concomitate it , as a proprium quarto modo , flowing from its quiddity . these in physicks are termed passions , which are properties physically derived from their essence , and are individually concomitants to it out of the nature of the thing . in metaphysicks the same are named attributes , because they are attributed from our understanding to a being . ii. although passions and attributes do formally signifie the same thing , nevertheless have late authors retained a formal distinction between them : to wit , in that attributes are physically identificated , but formally distinguisht from their entity ; but passions are both physically and formally identificated with their entities . iii. passion and attribute , as to their names , are identificated , and imply the same thing ; for it is called a passion ( a patiendo ) from suffering , because a being doth suffer such a distinction from us , that is , from our mind and understanding . so attribute is imposed from our understanding , because it doth attribute such a distinction from our concept to a being . wherefore to be attributed unto from our understanding , and to suffer from our understanding , imply the same thing . iv. attributes are really the same with their essences , because they cannot exist asunder . all the attributes of a being , as they are united , are really and formally the same with their essences . a real formal distinction ariseth from a specified concept in our minds of two or more real entities . the understanding cannot have a formal specified concept of two or more real entities , unless they are really distinct , that is , move the understanding distinctly from without . wherefore all the attributes united , moving the understanding in the same manner as the being or essence it self , must be really and formally the same . that the being it self and its attributes move the understanding in like manner , is evident : for wherein doth a being move the understanding , but by its attributes united ? and wherein do the attributes united move the understanding , but by their being and essence ? you may enquire , why then attribute doth in its formal concept signifie distinctly from the signification of a being ? i answer , that a being , as to us , is an essence composed out of the congress of all its attributes or distinct manners of moving the understanding , which if considered separately are called attributes , if united , a being or essence . v. attributes are formally distinct from one another , because each moves the understanding in a distinct manner , which causeth a distinct concept ; which concept ( a parte actus ) defines their formalities or quidditative representations distinct one from the other . attributes are not really distinct one from the other , because they cannot exist asunder . attributes may also be called modes in a strict sense , as they do signifie a distinct manner of moving the understanding . vi. that which we conceive of a being beyond its attributes , is nothing ( a non ens ) for we can neither describe or define it . vii . hence we may conclude , that essence ( as to us ) is a representation of all the cognoscible attributes of a being in unity . chap. xiv . of the kinds and number of the attributes of a being . . whence the number of the attributes of a being is taken . . the number of attributes constituting a being . . all attributes are convertible one with the other , and each of them , and all of them in union with an essence or being . . that all the attributes of a being are equal in dignity and evidence . . that the order of doctrine concerning these attributes is indifferent . i. the attributes of a being are as many , as are requisite to make it cognoscible . ii. the conditions or attributes concurring to the cognoscibility of a being are , unity , truth , goodness , existence , subsistence , distinction , termination , perfection , necessity , quantity , quality , relation , action , passion , situation , duration . these do all concur to the cognoscibility of a being , because one of them being defective , we cannot know a being perfectly . iii. all their attributes are convertible one with the other , and each of them with a being . thus all , which is true , is good ; all what is good , is existent , &c. so all what hath quantity is a being ; all , what hath quality , is a being , &c. wherefore one of these : attributes being stated , they are all stated : and one being abolisht , they are all abolisht . iv. they are all of an equal dignity and of the same evidence , ( quoad naturam & quoad nos ) if any may be said to be the root or foundation , it must be unity ; for a thing must be one , before it can exist : but since there may be replied , that nothing can be one before it is existent ; there can be no ground stated . v. neither is it any matter , which is treated of first , they being all of one dignity and evidence : nevertheless , i shall observe the received method in discoursing on them . chap. xv. of essence and existence . . that essence and existence are generally received for principles . . that essence is no principle . . that existence is no principle . . what existence is according to the opinion of the author . . that existence is intentionally distinct from essence . . that essence is perfecter than existence . . that existence is formally distinct from substance . i. essence and existence are generallly received for the two principles of a being : but how they are principles , and why so received , is not so generally explained . principles are internal and original causes ; namely , the first causes of all the passions and attributes , which do concomitate their position ; internal , because they through their presence constitute the whole . ii. internal principles are constituted at the same time ; so ( materia secunda ) the second matter ( according to arist. ) is constituted at the same moment of time , when the form doth advene . but an essence is an essence ( according to the same philosopher ) although existence is not advened to it . wherefore they are no constitutive principles . you may say that essence is like to ( materia prima ) the first matter , and therefore may be like to it , in that it is a ( principium generationis ) principle of generation , to which it is not improper to be before the advent of a form : wherefore essence may be taken for a principle of generation . suppose that granted , to wit , that it is like to materia prima , in that it can be without a form , it is no consequence , that it should also be a principle of generation , because a principle of generation is changed into another thing , by the advent of a form , as materia prima is no longer a materia prima at the advent of a form , but a materia secunda . but as for essence , although existence is adjoyned to it , it remaineth essence still , and is in no wise changed . iii. existence is no principle , by reason it is no original cause through it self of all the affections of a being , but a concomitant affection of an essence . you may object : that through existence , all the other passions are attributed to the essence ; so that if an essence was not existent , none of the other passions could be related to it . i answer : the same objection may be applied to any of the restant attributes : as , if an unity was not adjoyned to an essence , the other attributes could not be related to it . wherefore all the attributes of a being are equal one to the other , and all together are equal to the whole , which is the essence . iv. existence is an attribute , whereby a being is actually constituted . by existence a being is seated beyond generation , and reduced to an ens constitutum , vel generatum , so that existence doth follow the position of all the attributes in union : or rather is , whereby the position of all the attributes in union is produced . wherefore essence without existence is only a chimaera , and impossible to be . v. existence is distinct from an essence ( intentionaliter ) by the operation of the mind ; because it moves the understanding in a manner different from the motion of an essence . actus essentialis and existence are synonima's : for they denote the same thing , neither is there any distinction between them , either ex parte objecti , or ex parte actus ; that is , really , or intentionally . essence is perfecter then existence ; because essence comprehends in it existence , and all the other attributes . existence is formally distinct from substance or subsistence , in that the latter is an attribute constituting a being independing from another : but existence denotes only a position of all the attributes in union . this question doth somwhat puzzle oviedo , fol. . met. cont. . where he doubts wherein existence is distinct from a substance . he is forced to answer , that the existence of a substance is a substance , and the existence of an accident is an accident : although a little before he admits of a formal distinction between them . by this answer it would follow that a substance were an accident , and an accident a substance ; because they agree in uno tertio incommunicabili : for existence is only communicable to a being ; ergo a substance and accident are one being . chap. xvi . of unity . . that unity superaddes nothing positive to a being . . what unity is . that unity properly and per se implies a positive ; accidently and improperly a negative . what is formally imported by unity . . that unity is illegally divided in unum per se , and unum per accidens . i. unity doth superadd nothing positive to a being . for unity is essential to a being ; that is , it constitutes part of its essence : without which unity , a being is no being . wherefore nothing can be said properly to be superadded to a being , unless a being were a being without it , and before it ; or unless it be no part of a being . ii. unity is an attribute of a being , by which it is one in it self , and distinct from all others . to be one in it self , is to be not many , and to have but one definition , or one formality . a being may be divided into many , notwithstanding each of them many are one still after their division : and if you proceed to an infinite division ( as it were ) each particle divided will be one still in it self , before its division . wherefore unity is inseparable from a being . by one in it self , understand a positive unity , not negative : for a negative is a non ens. unity formally is not an indivision of a being in it self ; because indivision is accidental to it : for if division be accidental to a being , indivision must also be accidental to it . unity doth rather include or imply an identity of parts to the whole . by unity a being is distinct from all others : that is , each being by its unity moveth the understanding terminatively , by which terminative motion one being is distinguisht from another being . by terminative understand a positive , a negative being incognoscible . iii. unity is illegally divided in unity through it self ( unum per se ) and unity by accident ( that is through another ) or unum per accidens : because all real unities are one through themselves ; and consequently all formal unities ( that is , unities ex parte actus ) are also one through themselves . you may object , that a heap of corn , a house are unities per accidens . i answer , that a heap of corn , as far as it is a heap , is one through it self ; because it doth represent it self by an unity : which representation is the ground of a formal unity , or unity ex parte actus . i prove it to be a formal unity , because the understanding can define it : ergo , it is one : for whatever is definible , is one . why cannot a heap of corn represent an object one in it self , as properly , as a multitude or heap of individual men represent an universality ? why cannot a house , although it consisteth of parts , when divided from their whole ( namely from that house ) differing one from the other , constitute an unity in its object , as justly , as an individual man , who consisteth also of parts , when divided , different from one another ? unity is either numerical , specifical , or generical ; that is , more or less universal or singular . chap. xvii . of truth . . why truth is called transcendent . . what truth is . . an objection against the definition of truth . that a monster is a true being . that god although he is the remote efficient cause of a monster , nevertheless cannot be said to be the cause of evil . . austins definition of truth . . that falshood is not definible . how it may be described . i. truth here is called transcendent from its constituting a being in its transcendence . ii. truth is an attribute of a being , whereby it appeareth to us to answer its end , or to that , which it was intended for . to answer its end consisteth in the conformity of a being to the pattern or idea in the divine mind . all beings are created by the all-creating god for an end ; and therefore are necessarily true , because they must necessarily obey their end , as having a necessary cause , which is gods ordination . iii. against the definition of truth , as it is transcendent , may be objected : that a monster is a being ; but a monster is not answerable to its end ; because its end was to be perfect : therefore all beings are not true , that is , answerable to their end : to this i answer , that a monster is a true being , in that it answereth to its efficient and material cause ; as in this case , a child born without a head , is a perfect natural living being , but is not a perfect humane being that is , it is imperfect as to its humane body : nevertheless it is perfect as to its natural and vegetable being , which sufficeth . here a further reply may be made , that god did not only ordain beings to be perfect , as to their natural perfection , but also as to their vegetable , animal , and rational perfection ; for his ordination upon herbs was , that they should encrease by bringing forth seed of the same kind ; that beasts should multiply after their own kind . to the clearing of this doubt , we are to observe , that gods ordination was related either to the species , or to every individual future being , or to both . it is most probable it was to both , particularly to man , for whose sake the same extended also to other creatures . we are likewise to remember man in his twofold state , to wit , of integrity and deficience . gods ordination then upon man was , that he , and all other animals and vegetables for his sake , should encrease after their own kind , during mans integrity . this ordination upon gods creatures is answered and effected by powers and dispositions created by him in them : according to which powers , all creatures acted . all the actions of man did therefore depend from his powers ; to wit , his propagation from his generative power , which again was subjected to his phansie , and that to his will and understanding : wherefore as long as his will and understanding did will and understand nothing , but what was perfect , his phansie could receive no other impression , but of perfections , which could not cause any errour in the generative power , and therefore had man abided in his entire state , he nor any other creatures could have generated monsters . man having through his deficience corrupted his faculties , no wonder if their acts are also corrupted , and their effects corrupted , and corruptible : hence then it is beyond scruple , that gods ordination did immediately relate to the powers of all creatures , and herein are all beings true , and answerable to their end , and therefore perfect . you may urge an inconvenience to follow this solution ; because thereby god seems to be the original cause of monsters or evil : for if god had conferred perfect powers upon man , man could not have changed them of himself : wherefore god must be supposed to alter them dispositions and faculties . i answer , that god was not the original cause of this alteration , but man himself through his sin : which therefore was the first impulsive cause . 't is certain , that god was the efficient cause of this alteration of powers ; yet gods act was not evil therein , but good and perfect , because his justice did require it : for this change upon man was his punishment : if so , none can or will attribute the evil following a punishment of a malefactor , to him that punisheth , or to the punishment it self , but to the malefactor , whose default and crime was the cause of that evil , which befel him after his punishment . iv. austin in the th . chap. book of his soliloquies states the description of truth . truth is that , which it is ; and in the same chapter openeth his meaning . truth is that , which is so in it self , as it appeareth to him that perceiveth it , if he will and can perceive it . hence do hurtad . disp. . met. sect. . and soar . disp. : sect. . infer the nature of truth to consist in a cognoscibility of a being to the understanding of that , which it is . this opinion as it is obscure , so it is expos'd to doubts , if not to falshood . the truth of a man doth not consist in my knowing a man to be a man , and that he is no other thing but a man ; for that is a quidditative concept of a man , namely to know him to be a man ; but to know a man to be that , which he was intended for , is the concept of his truth : wherefore soar . in the same chapter , doth well recal himself , in asserting that truth is relative to created and increated knowledge . truth doth not superadd extrinsecally ( ex parte actus ) any denomination really distinct from a being , since it is concurrent to the constituting of the nature of a being : for take away truth , and you take away the essence of a being . v. falshood is defined by most philosophers to be that , which appears to be that , which it is not . it is strange that falshood , which is not in rerum natura , should be defined . it is not in rerum natura , because all beings are true . if it can be defined , it is a being , for nothing is definible unless it is a being ; had it been described by a negative , then indeterminatively we might have perceived it ; as thus , falshood is , which doth not appear to be that , which it is , or which it was intended for : i say indeterminatively , because we know a ( falsum ) falshood to be a falshood , because it doth not determinate our concept through its truth ; so that this is a privative or accidental knowledge . chap. xviii . of goodness . . what goodness is . the improbation of several definitions of goodness . . the difference between goodness and perfection . . what evil is . . what the absolute active end of goodness is . . that goodness is improperly divided in essential , accidental , and integral goodness . . how goodness is properly divided . . that the division of good in honest , delectable , &c. doth belong to ethicks . i. goodness is an attribute of a being , whereby it is for an end . many philosophers do omit the definition of goodness , because they can find no distinction between truth and goodness . others define it to be a convenience of a being with the appetite ; which is erroneous , for goodness is in a being , that is , a partial being , without the appetite . . goodness is absolute , a convenience is relative . timpl. chap. . of his metaph. book , defines goodness to be an act of good , as far as it is good ; or is a quality , from which a being is denominated good. this is idem per idem , and obscurum per obscurius . ii. goodness is formally distinct from perfection , because a being , according to what it is good only , is not perfect . wherefore goodness is erroneously defined by some to be a perfection . iii. evil ( malum ) is that , which doth not appear to us to be for any end. iv. the absolute active end of goodness is to constitute that , which it is . the passive is to be constitured that , which it is . v. goodness is improperly divided into essential , accidental , and integral goodness ; because good is that , which is essential of it self to a being , and therefore cannot be accidental , as it is opposite to essential : it may be an essential part , because it concurs with the rest of the attributes to the constitution of the essence of a being . vi. goodness is divisible according to the divisibility of a being , which is either natural , animal , or humane . vii . the division of goodness into honest , delectable , and profitable or useful , doth not appertain to this doctrine , but is referred to ethicks . chap. xix . of distinction . . the authors description of distinction . that the privative sense of not being moved is a note of distinction , whereby the understanding distinguishes a non ens from an ens. that the positive sense of being moved in another manner , than another ens moves the understanding , is a note of distinction between one being and another . . how distinction is divided . what a real distinction is . . what a modal difference is . . that the vulgar description of a real distinction is erroneous . . that the terms of a distinction between two or more real beings are requisite both or more to exist . . that one term of distinction although in existence cannot be really predicated of another not existent . oviedo and hurtado examined . . what a formal distinction is a parte actus , and how otherwise called . . what a distinctio rationis is . how otherwise named . i distinction is an attribute , whereby a being doth terminate the understanding : or distinction is the termination of the cognoscent power made by the term of the cognoscibility of a being . distinction , as it doth concomitate a positive , is intrinsecally identificated with unity , as it doth privatively imply a negative , or as much as it doth imply beyond unity , it is a non ens , and not cognoscible ; for example , peter is cognoscible to me , in that i know him to be peter : the said peter doth terminate my cognoscible faculty by his terminated accidents or modes , because beyond them accidents of peter , i conceive either nothing , or somthing , which doth not move my understanding by its accidents , as the accidents of peter did : so that by not being moved in my understanding , or by being moved in another manner , i know that one being is not another , that one being is not nothing . i know that one being is not nothing , because it moves my understanding . i know that one being is not another , because it moves my understanding otherwise then another being doth ; which knowledge is called a distinction . a distinction therefore is nothing else but a non ulterior cognoscibilitas rei , sive ex parte objecti , sive ex parte actus ; or a non cognoscibilitas simpliciter . wherefore a non ens may be properly called ex parte actus a non cognoscibilitas . distinction here , as it is relative to a being in its transcience , is , whereby we know it not to be nothing : we know a being not to be nothing , because it moves the understanding terminatively : wherefore that , which we apprehend without , or beyond the term of the modes of a being , is nothing . distinction , as it is a positive , is coincident with unity , and is not to be referred to it as a different mode . ii. a distinction is either real or modal . a real distinction is , whereby an entire essence moveth the understanding differently from the entire essence of another being . what essence is , hath been declared at large , and thence may easily be conceived , how one essence differeth from another . iii. a modal difference is , whereby one mode of an essence moveth the understanding differently from another mode contained in the same essence : so that a real difference is between things and things , and a modal difference is between modes and modes . iv. a real difference is generally taken to be between two beings , which can exist asunder ; as two essences or beings : but two accidents or modes of one being cannot exist asunder ; which notwithstanding are counted by them to be really different ; wherefore they must either mistake in their definition , or in supposing two accidents inherent in one essence , to be really distinct . besides , this is rather a property of a real difference , and not its description or definition ; for were it derived from the essence of a being , it would be a definition ; but since it is deduced from existence , which is only a property of a being , it is no definition or description . v. the terms of a distinction between two or more real beings are requisite and necessary both or more to exist . i prove it in this proposition ; bridget is not mary : we cannot say , that bridget is not mary , unlesse both existent ; for the species of bridget moving the understanding in a distinct manner , and mary moving the intellect in another manner , are two terms of distinction : now how can these two terms move the understanding as two real beings , unless existent ? you may say , that although bridget is not existent , yet she hath existed , and by that species she moves the understanding : that is impossible ; for how can bridget move the understanding from without , and she not be existent from without ? . if this improper motion were granted , yet bridget not being in existence , we cannot say , bridget is not mary , but we may say , bridget was not mary ; for is denotes a presence , and an actual existence . vi. we cannot really predicate one term of distinction , although in existence , of another not existent : which if otherwise we do , then that term , which is not existent , is equivalent to a non ens : as is evident in this enuntiation ; paris is not troy. here paris doth really move our understanding from without , but troy doth not ; for it is not in rerum natura . wherefore these two cannot be predicated really of one another . but if each considered as objective , then they may objectively be denied of one another . . paris taken as a real being , and enunciated of troy as no real being , amounts to a non ens , and is the same , as if you said , in stead of paris is not troy , paris is not nothing . in the same sense is a chimaera taken for a non ens , because it doth not move the understanding from without : as , a man is no chimaera , that is , a man is not nothing , or a non ens . vii . authors have involved themselves in such absurdities , and strange terms , that they do thereby render themselves and their opinions inexplicable ; whereas there is no ordinary capacity , but may easily attain to the understanding of these metaphysicks , which all along i have demonstrated by sense : what barbarous discourse do we find in hurt . and ovied . upon this very subject ; which for to unlock , i have studied to unfold the doctrine of precision and distinction , in a plainer discourse . oviedo makes it a great difficulty to distinguish the concept of peter and a horse : and no wonder , if it proveth so unto him , since he proceeds upon an obscure foundation of distinction : neither can he light upon any at all ; for in his met. contr. . p. . he writes thus ; some say , that the objective concept , by whose force this positive being is not another formally , doth imply a negative : but hurtado , and many others teach better , that the same positive essence of a being is signified in a negative manner . i have said more of this contr. . where i have proved that or this being not to be another : as peter not to be john , doth imply a positive concept of a being , without importing formally any other negative : thus far oviedo . here you have the foundation of distinction stated by the forementioned author ; but if narrowly examined , will prove no foundation . and as to the first opinion , which is , that the objective concept , &c. what force is it , which a positive being hath , whereby it is not formally another ? this is not propounded by them , and therefore it is no foundation . the answer to this , i have plainly and briefly set down in the first paragr . of this chapt. . how can an objective concept imply a negative ? the resolution of this is also by them omitted . the second opinion asserts , that the same positive essence of a being is signified in a negative manner . this is no ground of distinction ; because a positive being is signified negatively : therefore it is distinct . this is idem per idem ; a positive being is signified negatively , therefore it is a negative , or is distinct . oviedo himself reaches somewhat nearer to the truth of the matter : he saith , that for a being not to be another being , doth imply a positive concept ; and so it doth : but how , or in what manner , he omits . it is by moving the intellect ( as i have proved before ) in a sundry manner , or by several modes . but to return to the resolution of the distinction proposed : wherein peter is distinct from a horse . oviedo imagineth , that peter is distinct from a horse through his unity : which doth distinguish him from another , in that it doth represent that it is not that unity . this is a mistake ; for peters single unity doth only make him distinct from a non ens , and not distinct from another being , unless that being moves the intellect about the same time one after another : wherefore two unities are compared in the intellect , which being different in their idea , cause a distinction between themselves : for how can i deny , that one unity is not another , unless both conceived and compared to another . viii . that , which is a real distinction a parte objecti externi , or rei , is named a formal distinction a parte actus : it is named formal , because the intellect conceiveth a distinct form of each being from another , and thereby formes the definition of it , which is nothing else but the explication of the form of a being . ix . the same , which is denominated an objective distinction a parte objecti interni , is signified a parte actus , by a ( distinctio rationis ) distinction of the mind , whereby the mind doth distinguish internal objects otherwise , then they do exist really or without , or otherwise , then they move from without . here i may seem to contradict my self , although i do not , in saying here , that the intellect doth , or may understand objects from within , different from them which move from without : and in another preceding place of this book , i concluded , that the understanding could not understand or conceive any being from within , but what was like to beings from without . to reconcile these two places ; you are to observe , that an objective being may be like to a real being , either in some of its modes , or in all : if in all , then the being from within is like to the whole essence of the being from without ; but if in some , then them some are unlike to the whole , in the same manner as a part is unlike to the whole . wherefore in this , the understanding may perceive an object from within distinctly from an object from without . . the understanding cannot perceive any being , but what is like to an entire being , or one or more modes of a being from without . . the understanding may also conceive some modes of one being , and some of another , which modes both united , cause a distinct objective being in that union , to what they were from without in disjunction . . in this example the understanding cannot perceive but what is like to externals , for each of them modes are like to some one mode or other of beings from without , although here they are disunited , yet are united in the understanding . how modes or objects are or may be united in the understanding , i have shewed in the th . chapter of this book . as for other divisions of distinction may be easily collected from what is contained in the foregoing chapter . chap. xx. of subsistence . . what subsistence is . what it is to be through it self , from it self , and in it self . . that a nature cannot be conservated by god without subsistence . that the transubstantiation of christs body and bloud into bread and wine , according to the supposition of the papists , is impossible . oviedo's argument against this position answered . . the kinds of subsistences . . what termination is . . what perfection is . . subsistence is an attribute of a being , whereby it is through it self . there are many locutions of this nature ; which , although they seem to be the same , yet are much different ; as , to be from it self , through it self , and in it self . to be from it self , denotes a non-dependance from any pre-existent cause : and according to this sense god is only subsistent , that is , is a being from himself . in this acception did cartesius very well deny , that a substance could not be an univocal genus to god and his creatures . to be through it self , expresseth a being consisting of its own parts , and not of anothers parts ; and in this sense are all beings subsistent or substances . to be in it self , signifieth a singleness of existence , which is to consist only of a single unity , and of no parts ; so is god said to be in himself : did a being consist of parts , then it must be said to exist in its parts ; for it would be very improper to say , that a compound being did exist in it self : but a being consisting of no divisible parts , we are compelled to say , that it is in it self . ii. a nature cannot be conservated by god without subsistence . it is contradictory : for take away the subsistence of a being , you take away its parts ; for subsistence is nothing else , but the essence of a being , through or in its parts . this is a very necessary tenent , for to defend this assertion , viz. that the subsistence of the bread cannot be the corporal subsistence of christ ; and therefore it implieth a contradiction , that christ should be really and essentially changed in the subsistence of bread , and the essence of both remain . the lutherans have stated a more probable opinion , that christ's substance was united to the substance of bread : which is something less erroneous than the other . oviedo strives to prove the contrary , in contr. . p. . his argument is this : nature is before subsistence in respect of causality : therefore nature is understood to be existent , before subsistence is understood . i deny the antecedence , which is palpably false ; for take away the subsistence of a thing , and you destroy the being of it : and state a subsistence , and you must necessarily state a being . iii. subsistence is divisible ( as all other attributes of a being ) in a first subsistence , and in a second subsistence . the first is proper to individuals and singulars : the second to universals . iv. termination is a property of a being , whereby it is terminated . termination is in all beings , in spiritual and natural beings : in god , and in his creatures . gods termination is not to be termined , and therefore he is infinite . a non ens hath no termination , wherefore authors say very improperly , that a non ens is infinite . all other beings are termined , and therefore are finite . v. perfection is a property of a being , whereby it is compleated with all , or in all , belonging to the constituion of its essence . chap. xxi . of remaining modes of a being . . what quantity is . . what the kinds of quantity are . . what quality is . . what relation is . . what action is . . what passion is . . what situation is . . what duration is . i. quantity is an attribute of a being , whereby it hath extension of parts . ii. quantity is either formal and immaterial , which is the extension of the form , beyond which it is not , and within which it acteth : or material , which is the extension of a material being . iii. quality is , whereby a being doth act ; as from a cause . iv. relation is , whereby one being is referred to another . v. action is , whereby one being acteth upon another , as through a meanes . vi. passion is , whereby one being receiveth an act from another . vii . situation is , whereby a being is seated in a place . a place is , which doth contain a being . viii . duration is , whereby a being continueth in its essence . chap. xxii . of causes . . what a cause is . that the dectrine of causes belongeth to metaphysicks . . wherein a cause and principle differ . . what an internal cause is . what matter is . . what a form is , and how it is divided . . what an external cause is . i. a cause is , whereby a being is produced . it doth appertain to metaphysicks to treat of causes ; for else it would be no science , which requires the unfolding of a being by its causes . ramus did much mistake himself , in denying a place to the doctrine of causes in this science , and referring it altogether to logick : 't is true , that the doctrine of causes may conveniently be handled in logick , as arguments by which proofes are inferred : yet as they are real , and move the understanding from without , they may not ; for logick is conversant in notions only , and not in realities . ii. a cause differeth from a principle , or is synonimous to it , according to its various acception . in physicks it is taken for that , whose presence doth constitute a being ; and in that sense it is the same with an internal cause , to which a cause in its late extent is a genus , and consequently is of a larger signification . a principle sometimes denotes that , whence a being hath its essence , or production , or whence it is known . in this sense did aristotle take it , in the th . book of his met. chapt. . whereby he did intimate a threefold principle ; to wit , a principle of constitution , generation , and of knowledge , or of being known . a principle , as it is received in the forementioned sense , is of a larger signification , then a cause . it is usually taken for a word synonimous to a cause . in this acception is god said to be the principle ( that is , the cause ) of all beings . iii. a cause is either internal or external . an internal cause is that , which doth constitute a being by its own presence . an internal cause is twofold . . matter . . form. matter is an internal cause , out of which a being is constituted . so earth is the matter of man , because a man is constituted out of earth . matter is remote and mediate ; which is , out of which the nearest and immediate matter was produced or constituted ; or nearest and immediate , out of which a being is immediately constituted , for example ; the nearest matter of glass is ashes : the remote : is wood , which was the matter of ashes . but this distinction doth more properly belong to logick . iv. a form is a cause , from which a being hath its essence . a form is remote or nearest . a remote form is , from which a being consisting of remote matter , had its form. the nearest form is , from which the nearest matter hath its essence . the remote matter is either first or second . the first is , out of which the first being had its essence . the second is , out of which all other beings had their essence . a form is divisible into the same kinds . the first form was , from which the first being had its essence . the second , from which all other beings have their essence : these divisions are rather logical then metaphysical . v. an external cause is , by whose force or vertue a being is produced . the force whereby a being is produced , is from without : for a being hath no force of it self , before it is produced : therefore that force , whereby a being is produced , is necessarily from without . this cause is only an efficient cause . other divisions of causes i do wittingly omit : because some are disagreeing with the subject of this treatise , and belong to another part of philosophy : as , to treat of the first cause , belongeth to pneumatology : of final causes , to morals : others are very suspicious . chap. xxiii . of the kinds of causes . . the number of real causes . that a final cause is no real cause . the causality of matter and form. . the division of an efficient . . that an efficient is erroneously divided in a procreating and conservating cause . . that the division of a cause into social and solitary is illegal . . that the division of an efficient cause into internal and external is absurd . . that all forms are material . . that there are no assistent forms . i. there are only three real causes of a being ; a material , formal , and efficient cause . wherefore a final cause is no real cause . i prove it : a real cause is , which doth really effect or produce a being : but these are only three : ergo. . a final cause doth not cause any effect concurring to the constitution of a being , as each of them three forementioned do : for matter causeth an effect by giving her self , out of which a being may be constituted : a form doth produce an effect , by giving through her presence unity , & distinction from all others , to matter . an efficient cause effecteth by educing a form out of the matter , and uniting it to the matter : which three causalities are only requisite to the production of a compleat being ; and they constituted in actu , constitute a being at the same instant : if so , what effect doth a final cause then produce ? certainly not any contributing to the essential constitution of a being : these three being only necessary , any other would be frustaneous . possibly you will object , that the final cause moveth the efficient . suppose i grant that , it doth not infer , that it concurs to the real and essential production of a being . the causality , which it exerciseth , is in contributing per accidens to the constitution of a being : which if only so , it doth not appertain to this place ; neither can it be equally treated of with causes , which do act per se. ii. an end moveth the efficient : an efficient is either natural or moral . natural efficients are moved necessarily , or act e necessitate naturae : hence we say , a cause being in actu ( to wit , a natural cause ) its effect is likewise necessarily constituted in actu . it is not so with a final cause ; for that may exist without producing an effect . all natural causes move for an end per accidens , in that they answer the ordination of the creator , who hath created all things for an end ; which accordingly act for the same out of necessity of nature . moral efficients are moved by an end : yet it is not the end , which produceth the effect , but the efficient it self . you may demand , to what science or art it belongeth to treat of final causes ? i answer , that they are treated of in logick , and moral philosophy , but in a different manner : logick discourseth of final causes as notions , thereby to direct the understanding in enquiring into the truth of things : and ethicks treats of them , as they are dirigible to good and happiness . iii. an efficient cause is erroneously divided in a procreating and conservating cause . a procreating cause is , by whose force a being is produced . a conservating cause is , by whose vertue a being is conservated in its essence . i prove that this division is not real , but objective only . the dividing members of a real division , must be really distinct from one another . but these are not really distinct , &c. ergo. the major is undeniable . i confirm the minor : all beings are conservated by the same causes , by which they were procreated : therefore really the same . i prove the antecedence . nutritive causes are conservant causes . but nutritive causes are the same with procreative causes : ergo. the minor is evidenced by a maxim : iisdem nutrimur , quibus constamus . we are nourished by the same causes , by which we do subsist , or have our essence . wherefore nutritive or conservant causes are really ( for by nutriture we are conservated ) or a parte rei the same ; differing only objectively a parte actus . here you may answer , that these instances are of material causes , but not of efficients . to this i reply ; that no cause can be a conservative cause , but a material cause . as for an efficient cause , i prove it to be no conservating cause . that , which conservateth a being , must conservate its essence : namely , matter and form : but matter and form are conservated only internally by apposition of that , which is like to what was dissipated , or which is like to themselves . wherefore an efficient can be no conservating cause , because it acteth only externally or from without . a being might be conservated externally , if its impairment did befal it from without , that is , from an external agent ; which is only accidental to it . an efficient then may logically be called a conservative cause per accidens . iv. an efficient is likewise divided in solitary , and social . a solitary efficient is , which produceth an effect alone , or without the assistance of another cause . a social cause is , which produceth an effect joyntly with another : as , two watermen rowing in one boat , are social causes of the moving of the boat through the water . this division is no less illegal then the other . i prove it : all beings act alone and in unity , as far as they are causes ; and although two or more concur to the effect of a being , yet they two act formally , but as one , and their ratio agendi is one ; ergo formally they are but one , as far as they are causes yet in the foresaid instance , as they are men , they are two , which duplicity is accidental to a cause . the same argument may be urged against the division of a cause in a cause perse , and a cause per accidens , in univocal and equivocal , in universal and particular . v. an efficient is internal , or external . an internal efficient is , which produceth an effect in it self . an external efficient is , which produceth an effect in another . this division is stranger then any of the rest : the strangeness consisteth in this , that thereby a being is capable to act upon it self , and consequently upon its like : which if so , what can it effect , but that , which was before ? it cannot produce a distinct being , because it doth not act distinctly , but identificatively : this granted , infers , that the soul being the internal cause of its faculties ( as they affirm ) cannot produce any thing , but what is like to it self : consequently , that the faculties are identificated with the soul , and thence that a substance is an accident , and an accident a substance . . a substance acting upon it self , that is , upon its ( sibi simile ) like ( for what is more like to a substance , then it self ) produceth a distinct effect , and not its like ; which is another absurdity following the forementioned division . i● will also follow hence , that a substance doth act immediately through it self , which is against their own dictates . to remove this last objection , they answer , that a substance may , or can , and doth act immediately through it self by emanation , but can or doth not act by transmutation . they describe an emanative action to be , whereby an effect is produced immediately , without the intervent of an accident . this description doth not distinguish transmutation from emanation ; for transmutation is also , whereby an effect is produced without the intervent of an accident ; and so transmutation may be as immediate to its agent as emanation . if there is any difference , it is this , in that emanation is an action not terminating or influent upon any other being , but in and upon it self . transmutation is the termination of its influence upon another being . pray tell me , why emanation may not be as properly called transmutation , as not ? for there is no effect , but which is different from its cause , and changed by its cause : for if it is not changed , it remaines the cause still ; ergo emanation is also a transmutation . the faculties of the soul are said to be emanative effects ; ergo they must be its understanding faculty only : for this only doth not terminate in any other being , but in it self : as for the other faculties , to wit , vital and sensitive , they are effects of the soul terminated in other beings ; ergo these are no emanative actions , as they affirm them to be . that , which hath the most probability of being an emanative action , and distinct from transmutation , is the understanding faculty of the soul. neither is this action distinct from transmutation . that , which doth change the soul , is an object , but the soul of it self alone doth not act or cannot act upon it self , unless it be changed by an object ; for were there no object , the souls rational faculty would be nothing and frustraneous ; wherefore it is generally held , that angels , when created , had also notions or species ( which are objects ) concreated with their understanding ; ergo emanative actions are also transmutative . all matter is transient : wherefore the division of matter in transient and immanent is erroneous . transient matter is , out of which a being is constituted by transmutation ; so bloud is the transient matter of flesh . immanent matter is , out of which a being is constituted without any transmutation ; as wood is the immanent matter of a ship. here one part of the division is referred to a natural production , the other to artificial . how is this then a regular distribution , since its dividing members ought to be of one species or kind ? the same improbation may be applied against the distribution of matter in sensible and intelligible ; which distinctions are accidental to matter ; and therefore may be justly omitted ; for we ought to insert nothing in a science , but what doth essentialy relate to its subject : hence aristotles precept is , in b. of the parts of liv. creat . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that we ought to divide a being by them parts , which are contained in its essence , and not by its accidents . the division of matter in metaphysical and physical may be rejected upon the same ground . these divisions , as they are objective , appertain to logick , where only second notions are treated of , and are very useful to the directing of reason . vi. forms are divisible in material and immaterial . if material is understood to be that , which doth inhere in matter ( which is its most frequent and ordinary acception ; for most philosophers take it in that sense ) then all worldly beings are material ; what being is there , but which doth inhere in matter ? you may say , mans soul. the soul of man according to this acception , is material . but if you take immaterial for that , which can or doth exist out of matter , then there are immaterial forms . neither can this be naturally : for a natural form is , which giveth an actual specification and numerication to matter : if so , how can a form give an actual specification and numerication to matter , when it is not united to it ? i prove that the form giveth an actual specification and numerication to matter . forma dat esse ( i. e. specif . & numer . ) non posse esse materiae . a form giveth a being , not a power of being to matter . for matter hath the power of being from it self , and not from the form. this is true : for most peripateticks hold , that potentia is essential to matter . the soul of man , when once freed from its tye to the body ; ceases to be a form ; but therefore doth not cease to continue a being . so that i conclude , there are immaterial beings , but no immaterial forms . it is ridiculous to doubt , whether the soul of man , when separated , hath an appetite or inclination to its body , or to that matter , which it did once informate : because the soul in its separated estate is a compleat and perfect being , and doth not need a body : neither is the soul a form in that state ; wherefore should it then have an appetite to its body ? such an appetite would be in vain . you may answer , that it wanteth a subject to inhere or subsist in . i grant it , and therefore it subsisteth in god. vii . a form is improperly divided in an assistent and informating form ; because one being is satisfied with one form ; for had it two forms , it would be a double being . . that , which they intend by an assistent form , is coincident with an efficient cause . chap. xxiv . of the theorems of causes . . that a cause and its effects are co-existent . . that there are but three causes of every natural being . . that there is but one cause of every being . . that all beings are constituted by one or more causes . . that all causes are really univocal . . that all natural causes act necessarily . . that the soul of a beast acteth necessarily . . that all matter hath a form. that matter is capable of many forms . i. a cause and its effect are existent at one and the same time . this theorem is received among most philosophers , who render it thus ; posita causa , ponitur effectus . the cause being stated , that is , reduced into action , its effect is also stated , or produced . the reason depends upon their relation one to the other , to whose relata it is proper to exist at one and the same time , according to that trite maxim , relata mutuo sese ponunt & tollunt . relations do constitute and abolish one another . ii. there are three causes of every natural being , whereof one reduced to action supposeth the others also to be reduced to action . the proof of this is demonstrated by the same axiom , by which the next forementioned was inferred : iii. there is but one cause of all beings . a cause here is taken in a strict sense , for that , which produceth an effect essentially and really distinct from it self : in this acception is an efficient the only cause of all beings . matter and form are no causes , according to this interpretation , but principles ; because they do not constitute an effect essentially different from themselves . a cause sometime is taken in a strict sense , for that , which produceth an effect different from it self modally ; and so there are two ; to wit , matter and form. lastly , a cause , as it signifieth in a middle signification , participating of each acception , comprehends a triplicity of causes ; viz. an efficient , matter , and form. iv. all beings are constituted by one or more causes . god is of himself , and not from any other , as from an efficient cause ; and consisteth of one pure formal cause . by formal cause , understand an immaterial being . angels are constituted by two causes ; namely , by an efficient and a form. all other beings are constituted by more . v. all causes are univocal . this is to be understood of efficients only . whatever effect a cause produceth , it is like to its form , and is formal only : for it cannot generate matter , that being created . wherefore it cannot produce any thing else , but what like to it self , and consequently produceth alwaies the same effect ; whereas an equivocal cause should produce different effects . you may demand , why it hapneth , that many effects are different , as we observe in the sun , which by its heat , doth produce vegetables and animals , which are different ? i answer , that the difference doth result from the diversity of the matter , upon which it acteth , and not from the causality ; that being ever one and the same . the diversity of effects is accidental to the efficient , and therefore not to be allowed of in sciences . vi. all natural causes act necessarily . hence derives this maxim ; natura nunquam errat : nature doth never erre ; because she acts necessarily . against this maxim may be objected , that nature erreth in generating a monster . this is no errour of nature : it might rather be imputed an errour , if , when it should produce a monster , it doth not . that , which acts after the same manner at all times , doth not erre ; but nature doth act in the same manner at all times ; ergo she doth never erre . i prove the minor. if she acts differently at any time , it is in a monster : but she doth not act differently in a monster ; as in the example forenamed , of a dog without legs , she doth through the efficient cause educe a form out of the matter , which she extendeth according to the extent of the subjected matter ; the matter therefore being deficient in quantity , it is accidental to nature , if thereby a being is not brought to the likeness of its species . the soul of man may be considered , either , . as a natural cause ; and so it acteth also necessarily , in giving a being and life to the body : for as long as it abideth in the body , it cannot , but give life to its parts . . as it is above a natural cause , in that it hath a power of acting voluntarily without the necessity or impulse of nature . vii . the soul of a beast doth act necessarily , and by instinct of nature . this conclusion may seem to contradict , what is set down in the precedent paragraph ; containing , that to act necessarily , is to act alwaies in the same manner : whereas beasts act in sundry manners , and produce various effects : as , sometimes they feed , other times they run , or lie down ; which are all various acts , and performed in various manners . these acts are called spontaneous , which generally are received as differing from natural and voluntary , and constituting a mean between necessary and contingent , although improperly ; for there is no mean between necessary and contingent ; because whatever is necessary , cannot be contingent , and whatever is contingent , cannot be necessary . these acts must be either the one , or the other . they are not contingent , for then a beast , as a beast , could not act necessarily . since then it is more evident , that they act necessarily at most times , it is an invincible argument , that they do not act contingently . this by the way ; i return to the forementioned objection , and to reconciliate them seeming contradictions : i say , that , . nature doth act alwaies in the same manner , through the same principles , and upon the same object . . nature doth not act alwaies in the same manner , through different principles , and upon different objects : for example ; opium raises fury in a turk , and layeth it in an european : these are different effects , because the objects are different . coral is heavy and weighty from its earth , and thence proveth obstructive in the body of man : coral is also informated by a sublime spirit , through which it is aperitive and cordial . the difference of these effects proceeds from the difference of principles . i apply this to the acts of a beast , which are different , because they proceed from different principles : nevertheless them acts are alwaies the same , as far as they proceed from the same principles , although different from one another . but as for a voluntary principle , that acteth effects different from it self , as it is one and the same principle . the proprieties of voluntary are , . to act different effects through one and the same principle . . to have a power of suspending an action . . to act with election . the proprieties of naturals are , . to act the same acts through the same principle . . to act alwaies , and withal necessarily , without having a power of suspending its action . . to act through an impulse of nature . a brute doth feed from an instinct of nature , and therefore cannot but obey it , at the same instant of that instinct , provided there be food for it to feed upon . neither can it suspend that action for a moment , but as soon as it is impelled , it moveth towards its food . this is evident in a dog ; if he be very hungry , and have a bone in his sight , he will move towards that bone , although you beat him never so much . a brute moveth locally either to avoid pain , or to search for food . if a beast move after it is filled , it moveth to avoid pain , ( and in that it answereth to the impression of nature , whereby all natural beings move to avoid that , which is inconvenient to them , or disagreeing with them ) which it feels in lying long , through the weight of his bones , one pressing the other , and therefore moves , to else himself , either by standing , going , or running . he goeth or runneth so long until he is pained by it ; and then to ease himself , and to avoid that pain , he lieth down again . viii . all matter hath a form : because it would be nothing , if it had no form : for from thence it is thought to receive unity ; now without unity a being is no being . all matter hath but one essential form ; for had it two essential forms , it would be two beings , and consequently no being ; because whatever is not one , or is more then one , is no being . the form giveth unity , and distinction to the matter . matter is capable of many forms successively , that is one after another : as for example ; the matter , which is in an herb , is capable of receiving the form of chyle , of bloud , and of flesh : or if burnt , of ashes ; if then melted , of glass . in like manner man receiveth first the form of a plant , afterwards of an animal or sensible living creature , lastly , of a man. a form doth act without intermission : for should its action cease at any time , at the same moment would the form cease also with it . the doctrine and controversies of povver . the first part . the third book . the doctrine and controversies of power . the third book . chap. i. of powers , according to the peripateticks . . the opinion of the peripateticks touching the soules action . that according to the same opinion , a substance is said not to act immediately through it self , but through superadded powers . . that a substance acteth through as many different powers , as it produceth different acts. . that the said powers are really and formally distinct from the essence of the soul. . that powers are concreated with the soul , and do immediately emanate from her essence . . that immaterial powers are inherent in the soul , as in their agent ; material ones in the matter , as in their subject . . that powers are distinguisht by their acts and objects . the authours intent in treating of the faculties of the soul. it is an universal truth , that all essences which have a being , have it for an operation : wherefore there is nothing idle within the creation , but all its parts from the center of the earth , to the circumference of the heavens , are found to perform some action or other without intermission ; which ceasing , the essence , from whence it issued forth , ceaseth with it : when fire and water cease from diffusion and concentration , then their being ceaseth withal . hence it is evident , that the soul of man , since it hath a being , performeth an operation , or action , the which , according to the sense of the peripatetick school , is impossible to be effected through the substance of the soul ; their reason being grounded upon that dictate of their great master , viz. no substance acteth immediately through it self , but by a superadded power . this they do illustrate by this instance ; the elements do not act through their substance or form , but through their heat , coldness , &c. which are qualities distinct from their form and substance . hence doth aristotle conclude , . that nothing is contrary to a substance , but to its power and qualities : because a substance cannot act through it self . . that no substance can be affirmed to be more or less a substance then another , that is , no substance can be either remitted or intended : for example , one fire cannot be said to be more a fire , then another , because it doth cast a greater heat , which proceedeth from its stronger power , and heating quality , and not from its being more a fire then another fire is : but one fire may be said to be hotter and greater then another , which happeneth ( as i hinted before ) through the intention of its quality , and access of quantity . ii. a substance being adorned with that variety of accidents , it is probable , that nature hath bestowed them for action ( say they ) and not for nought . they do not only allow one power to a substance , which might suffice , but a multitude ; yea , as many as there are varieties of acts , specifically differing from one another , effected through a substance . this leaneth upon an argument of theirs , thus framed : the soul being indifferent to divers acts , there must be somthing superadded , by which it is determined to produce certain acts. neither is this opinion deficient in authorities of learned philosophers , averrhoes , thomas aq. albertus magn . hervaeus , apollinaris , and others consenting thereunto : dionysius also in his book concerning divine names teacheth , that celestial spirits are divisible into their essence , vertue or power , and operation . iii. the said powers are not only affixt to the souls essence , but are also formally and really distinct from it . they are perswaded to a formal distinction ; because else we might justly be supposed to will , when we understand , and to understand , when we will ; or to tall , when we smell , and so in all others . they are moved to a real distinction , by reason that all powers in a substance are really distinct from its matter and form. weight and lightness , which are powers inherent in the elements , whereby they encline to the center , or decline from it , are not the matter of earth and fire , nor their forms , and therefore they are really distinct from their essence . iv. these powers are concreated with the soul , and do immediately flow from her essence . an argument whereby to prove this , is set down by thom. aq. among his quaest. powers are accidentary forms , or accidents properly belonging to their subject , and concreated with it , giving it also a kind of a being : it is therefore necessary that they do arise , as concomitants of its essence , from that , which giveth a substantial and first being to a subject . zabarel de facult . an . lib. . cap. . sheweth the dependance of the powers from the soul to be , as from their efficient cause , from which they do immediately flow , not by means of a transmutation , or physical action , which is alwaies produced by motion . others add , that the soul in respect to its faculties , may be also counted a material cause , because it containeth her faculties in her self : and a final cause , the faculties being allotted to her , as to their end. v. immaterial powers are inherent in the soul as in their agent or fountain . material faculties , as the senses , nourishing faculty , and the like , are inserted in the matter ; yet so far only , as it is animated : hence doth aristotle call the latter , organical powers , from their inherence in the organs . vi. powers are distinguisht through their acts and objects , to which they tend , and by which they are moved to act . for example : any thing that is visible , moveth the fight , and is its proper object , which doth distinguish it from the other senses and powers , which are moved by other objects . thus far extends the doctrine of aristotle touching powers , which , although consisting more in subtilities , and appearances , then evidences and realities , notwithstanding i thought meet to expose to your view , since most modern authors do persist in the same , and thence to take occasion to examine the contents thereof , in these brief subsequent positions . by the way , i must desire the reader to remember , that the distinction of powers from their subject , is commonly treated of in the doctrine of the soul , and solely applied to it , there being not the least doubt made of it elsewhere : wherefore i have also proposed the same as appliable to the soul , but nevertheless shall make further enquiry into it , so far as it doth concern all matters in general . chap. ii. of all the usual acceptions of power . . the etymology of power . the synonima's of power . . the various acceptions of power . . what a passive natural power , and a supernatural passive or obediential power is . . various divisions of power . i. the unfolding the name is an introduction to the knowledge of the thing it self : and therefore it will not be amiss to give you the etymology of power . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , power , is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i can , or have in my power : so potentia from possum , signifying the same . power in english hath its original from pouvoir in french , noting the like , viz. to can or be able . power , vertue , might , strength , and faculty are synonima's , or words of one interpretation : thus of ●ntimes we make enquiry , what vertue , strength , power , or faculty hath such or such an herb ? that is , what can it effect ? ii. the acception of the word power is very ambiguous . . sometime it is understood passively , for a disposition , whereby a substance is apt to receive the strength of an agent . . actively , for that , through which a being can act . . it s signification doth vary much , according to the subject , which it doth respect : as , when we say a being in power , that is , a being , which is not actually , but yet may or can be . so likewise a cause in power is , which doth not actually produce an effect , but which can produce one . zabarel remarketh a double acception of power . . improperly it is taken for a power , which is joyned to its act : thus we say of a man , who actually walketh , that he can walk . . properly it is attributed only to a power , which doth precede its act : thus we say a man is a logician , when he can be one . iii. a passive power , as it is capable to receive a natural act , is called a disposition : as it may receive a supernatural act , that is , an act from a supernatural cause , it is then named an obediential power . the power which was inherent in lots wife of receiving the form of a pillar of salt , was an obediential power . iv. again those powers are either natural , violent , or neutral . a natural power is such , which is agreeable to its nature ; as the power in fire of ascending is natural to it . a violent power is , which is disagreeing to the nature of its subject ; as , in fire , there is a violent power of moving downward . a neutral power is , which is neither the one or the other , but participates of both . such is the power in fire of moving circularly . a power may be understood either for a logical power , which is nothing else , but a non-repugnance : or , for a physical power , which is the same with a natural disposition : or , for a moral power , which is nothing else but the will. lastly , in metaphysicks it is that , which is presupposed to be in an actus entitativus . there is also mention made in philosophy , of an objective power , which is not much different from a non-repugnance , or a logical power , but expresly it is a possibility of existing in a being , which the understanding doth give it before its existence . many more additions of power might be proffered : as , that a power is either created or increated ; accidental or substantial ; essential or modal ; material or formal , &c. chap. iii. of the nature of power according to the author . . the analogal concept of power as it is common to all its analogata . . whether there be real powers . . certain conclusions touching powers . . that all substances act immediately through themselves . . that a peripatetick power is a non ens physicum . . that all powers are really identificated with their subject . . that powers are distinguisht modally from their subject . . how powers are taken in the abstract . . the manner of the remission and intension of powers . . the number of the formal acts caused by a singular substance . . the number of the formal acts caused by an organical substance . . the solutions of several doubts touching powers . . that all creatures have an absolute power secundum quid of acting . . in what sense hippocrates and galen apprehended powers . . to make a safe inroad into this large channel of acceptions of power , without being misled through its ambiguities , it is adviseable to pitch upon a single mark , which we shall do , in stating a single concept of power , common to all these . power , as it is opposite to an act , is whereby a being can be that either in its essence , or accidents , which it is not . this is the first imposition , and immediate signification of power , from which all the others are deduced , and are so called , so far as they have a resemblance to this single and immediate concept of power . a being is pronounced to be in power , in that it can be that , which it is not : so active power is conceived to be a power , because it can act that , which it doth not act , &c. i said essence , whereby i denote a substantial power ; by accidents , i intend a power befalling either to quantity , quality , relation , &c. for in all these there may a like power be discovered . ii. the first doubt , which we must sound into , is , whether there is really or ab extra , and a parte rei , such a power as was before-mentioned . this is a scruple , which possibly at first sight may seem ridiculous , especially to them , who take it for a piece of learning , to receive with an undoubted assent , whatever is proposed by their master . this supposed piece of learning to me rather seemeth a piece of ignorance : for never to doubt , is never to know : knowing is but a discerning truth from falshood , and how can this be performed without doubting ? doubting exposeth truth and falshood equally to our view . since then it is so , let no doubt seem ridiculous , for fear we become ridiculous through not doubting . but to the matter in hand : we must repeat some of our principles . . that that is only real , which moveth the understanding from without . . that nothing moveth the understanding from without , but what is either an essence , or mode of an essence . if then a power , whether of an essence or accident , moveth the understanding from without , it is to be accounted real , if otherwise , it is to be thought a non ens reale . this premised , i conclude , . a power is not a real being , because a power doth not move the understanding from without . i confirm the argument . imagine your self to be alone , it is possible that a ghost may appear unto you in your solitude . this possibility is the power of the ghost its existence , or apearance to you . now i demand from you , whether the power of a ghost's existence moveth your understanding before it doth actually exist ? you will answer me , yes ; for you know , that a ghost can exist before it doth exist . to the contrary , you cannot imagine or know , that a particular ghost can exist , before you have seen its shape , figures , modes , or accidents ; but after it hath once appeared , then you may imagine or know , that a ghost can exist in the same form and shape , as it did heretofore ; and that but dubiously neither . now what followeth hence ? first , that a power doth consecute a real being ; for before you had seen that particular ghost , you could not imagine or know that it could exist . this makes against the received opinions of philosophers , who say , that a power doth precede all acts. here you may reply , that although you did not know the power of a being , before you did perceive its actual existence through your sense , yet this doth not infer , but that , when you do apprehend a beings actuation , you can think , that that being , which you perceive to be actuated , had a power of being actuated , or how could it otherwise be actuated ? so that your knowing or not knowing doth not cut off the real power , which doth precede its act : and so you deny my supposition ; to wit , that a being is real through its cognoscibility from without . to rectifie your judgements in this particular , you are to observe , that it is not your particular knowing or not knowing of a thing , makes it real , but it is the cognoscibility from without makes a thing real , that is , its being in a capacity of moving mans understanding in general . that body which is existent without the world , is it a real body or not ? probably you say it is : i ask you then what kind of body it is ? you tell me it is an imaginary body , or that you do not know what body it is . if then it is an imaginary body ; ergo it is no real body . again , it is not an imaginary body , for you say it is an unknown body , how can you then imagine it ? but supposing you imagine aristotle to be existent without the last heaven ; aristotle although existing there really , is but an ens rationis , or imaginary being as to you , because he is not cognoscible to you from without , but only from within . . he is cognoscible to be like to an actual real being ; ergo he is no more then an ens rationis . in the same manner , why should an ens in potentia be accounted to be more real then aristotle actually and really existing without the world ? wherefore a being in power is no more then an ens rationis , and in no wise real . if a being in power were real , real beings would be infinite ; because beings in power are indeterminated , and consequently must be infinite . lastly , i would willingly know wherein a being in power is distinguisht from a non ens , or nothing ? a being in power hath no essence , neither is it definible , unless considered as an actual real and cognoscible being . a poor man is a rich man in potentia , that is , he may be rich , but to may be rich , doth include a non ens , to wit , poverty or no riches . besides , all beings act , but a being in potentia doth not act . power , denoting an actual vertue and principle of acting , is proper and adhering to all beings . a power in this sense is synonimous to actual strength & force , or is an actual disposition , through which a being doth operate , and produce effects . it is the same with the first acception of zabarel . in this sense are the forms of the elements said to be powers , which without doubt are actual . nutritive and vital powers are actual vertues of nourishing and cherishing life . obediential powers are actual dispositions , whereby beings are capable of receiving new forms from god , at ove or beyond their natural forms . that all natural powers are and must be actual , this ordinary saying doth plainly infer ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . all things , that are made by nature or art , must be made from that which is actual , that is , in actu . against this may be objected , that the power of seeing remaineth in a man , who is asleep , although he doth not actually see . i answer , that that power is as much actual from within as it was before , but its acts depending upon objective motions from without , are secluded by the intervent of the eye-lids , or retraction and incrassation of the optick ayr : in the same manner a candle actually burning in a dark lanthorn , is not abolisht in its enlightning power , by the being shut in , upon which a darkness ensueth ; for the candle burneth actually still . the stomach is not deprived of its actual concocting power in not seeming to concoct in the defect of victuals , for the same principle is stirring still in the stomach , although there is no external object to work upon . wherefore scaliger , exerc. . d. . saith well , non enim tollitur potentia per objecti ablationem , quia fluit ab internis principiis essentialibus . for a power is not removed by the removing of the object , because it flowes from internal essential principles . to assert , that a power although actual , is the cause of an act , and not the essence wherein this power is inherent , may justly be disgusted by any natural philosopher , who collects his knowledge of mixt bodies by means of his senses , and apprehends its affections and properties together with the body it self , and not as if they were really distinct from it : although in metaphysicks a distinctio rationis , or a distinction of the mind is allowable , by which the notions of partial beings are totally abstracted from one another , and from their essence : but in physicks it is so absurd and perillous , that the assent thereunto hath missed many physitians into a labyrinth of errors , which have proved very fatal and ominous to their unhappy patients . in an ardent feaver , where a great heat and inflamation broiles the tormented body of the decumbent , a peripatetick aesculapius argues thus with himself : this is not the fire kindled within the nutritive or vital vessels , but its power , quality , and heat inherent in that fire : whence he is perswaded to prescribe a whole kinderken of ptysan and juleps , to subdue this heat , imagining all this while , that the heat and fire are two really distinct things , omitting in the mean time such helps , which might remove the burning or flaming essence , by substracting the entire body of fire ; which done , the heat is also removed with it ; which may be performed by evacuations , as phlebotomy and purges . from this same tenent spreads another , no less erroneous , concerning humours : humores peccant vel substantia , quantitate , vel qualitate . humors ( say they ) become vitious either in their substance , quantity or quality . humors become vitious in their substance , when they variate ( tota substantia ) in or through their whole substance from themselves : as , in the plague , where the blood is changed throughout its whole substance , and become venomous , which is , when it doth in a small quantity and short time extinguish our vital flame . now , whether to extinguish our natural heat , doth not proceed from a power inherent in that venomous bloud , let them confess : how then according to their own maximes can bloud be vicious in its substance , no substance acting immediately through it self ; for bloud ( sanguis dicitur vitiosus , quia labem partibus inurit ) is said to be vitious , when it acts by injuring the parts . it remains then , that humors according to their own principles , cannot be vicious in their substances , but powers or qualities . . humors are pronounced to be peccant , when they do through their abundance wrong the parts in their functions . this is contradictory to their own received doctrine : for whereas quantity being an affection and passion of matter , can be in no wise active , because nothing ( as they say ) is contrary to it . how then can it act , since all action is affirmed to tend to its contrary , according to this maxim : nihil agit in simile . nothing can act upon its like . . it remaines , that humors must only be peccant in their quality . not so neither ; for then we should only have need of alterative medicines , and evacuations would seem to be in vain . what numerous absurdities do scatter from this spring of falshood ? a part of democritus , and ana of heraclitus his philosophy , and of socrates his dictates ad pondus omnium , would make a better misce for a recipe to introduce us unto a sound doctrine of physick . from all which , i argue , that powers are neither really or formally distinct from their subject ; and to avoid these forementioned absurdities , i state that , . all substances act through themselves , so far as they have a power of acting . . all powers are really identificated with their subject . . powers may be distinguisht from their subject modally , and through operation of the mind . . powers are intended and remitted through the access and detraction of degrees of the same kind : and are facilated or retarded through habits , or the defect of them . the first proposal containes three assertions : . that all substantial essences do ( as they term them ) act , which is evidenced through this axiom , all which is , is for to operate . . that all substances , ( or according to my metaph. essences ) act immediately through themselves . . that substances act through themselves , so far as they have a power of acting . iv. that all substances act immediately through themselves , popular speeches do testifie : as , fire burnes , a horse runs , &c. certainly these actions are predicated of the substance or essence of fire , or of a horse ; not of their powers , as if they were really distinct from them ; for then they should say , the fires power burnes , a horses faculty runs . these predications would be absurd . how can a power ( according to the vulgar peripatetick acception ) be a power , and yet be said to act ( it would be a contradiction ) since that a power , whilst it doth act , is no more a power , but is changed into an act ; hence they say , that a power and an act are privative opposites , so that the one cannot be categorically predicated of the other . here may be replied , that a substance acts through its power ; wherefore it is not the power that acts , but the substance . to this i answer , that it may be granted , that a substance acts through its power , but then it is not to be understood , so as if the substance acted through another thing , or being , which is superadded to its essence , as they do vulgarly conceive ; but that a substance acts through a power , as one of its parts ( for as i proved , a power is a mode of a substance , or one of its parts ) and therefore it is to be counted , as if it acted through it self immediately , because the act of the part is attributed to the whole . so they say , a horse runs , because he runs by meanes of some of his parts , namely , his legs ; nevertheless it is attributed to the whole thing . but take it how you will , that , which a substance doth effect through one or more of its parts , is effected immediately through it self , because its part or parts are it self . wherefore if a substance acted through its power as a being really distinct from it self , these inconveniences would necessarily ensue . . that a being should exist without an operation ; for if a substance did not act through it self , but only through its superadded power , then it self must exist without an operation , which thwarts that maxim , omne quodest , est propter operationem . . substances would be censured less noble then their accidents ; for that which acteth , is more noble then that which acteth not . . an accident then would be supposed to be the efficient of a substance , which contradicts another maxim , qualis causa , talis effectus . such as the cause is , such is its effect . . it supposeth , that a substance should be generated for an accident , and not an accident for a substance ; for since that all beings are for an operation , it remaines , that its operation can be nothing else , but to be a subject to an accident . . accidents are said to be superadded to a substance ; ergo according to their philosophy , its power was also superadded . the antecedence and consequence are false . i prove the falsity of the antecedence , which supposes , that a substance is a substance without accidents ; and therefore they say , that accidents are superadded . i shew the contrary , granting their supposition , that accidents are superadded , there must necessarily be accidents , to wit , powers , allowed to substances , before the superaddition of other accidents is possible : for accidents cannot be superadded , unless a substance had a power of receiving those accidents ; but that power is an accident ; ergo a substance is not imaginable without an accident . hence it is , that aristotle was forced to grant a coeval power to his materia prima . or lastly , thus ; if a substance acted through its power ; ergo that power must be either an efficient , or instrumental cause , or a causa sine qua non of its acts . it is irrational to state it an efficient , because then a power produces a nobler thing then it self , and an effect different from it in specie . it cannot be appropriated to an instrumental , because it doth not differ really and specifically from the principal cause ; besides , an instrumental cause is moved from its principal , but a substance ( as they say ) doth not move . suppose i grant it to be a causa sine qua non , then it cannot be capable of producing an univocal effect . v. a peripatetick power is a non ens physicum ; for it hath neither matter or form , and therefore cannot act physically . hence it is shifted off to an ens metaphysicum , and so they say , it hath an actus entitativus : a plain contradiction , what , can a potentia be an actus ? aristotle teaches , that a power doth alwaies precede its act ; which i prove to be false . the elements acted at the same moment , when they were created ; fire was actually light , earth weighty , &c. possibly you reply , that their power was obediential to god ; that is improper , for there could be no obediential , or any other entitative power without a substance , or a subject , wherein it should in here . a substance doth act so far as it hath a power of acting . by power understand an actual virtue , or an internal and modal principle of a being or essence , from which its acts do flow . this principle is a derived and congenited disposition and limitation of a being to action , or is a being termined and disposed to act such and such acts ; for otherwise it would be indifferent to all acts . this limitation causes every being to act within its own sphere , beyond which it cannot naturally excur to act any acts dissentaneous and improportionate to its nature . the forementioned disposition is the same , which in physicks is nominated the form and activity of a being , and is nothing else , but a certain temperament and proportionated mixture of the elements in a substance , the predominance of which doth dispose the body , constituted by their congress , to determinated acts . but of this more at large in my physicks . vi. all powers are really identificated with their subject . a power ( as i shewed before ) is that , whereby a substance is disposed and determined to certain acts , and is nothing but the form exalted to a certain degree . i shall make it plain by this example of wine or brandy , either having a power of heating the body , as the sectarists of ceres and bacchus witness , by drinking small beer after a deb●uch . that , which effects their heat , is the fiery parts predominating over the others , which predominance is the power disposed to that certain act . is then fire predominating through its access of parts over the other constituting elements really distinct from it self , because it is greater ? . the power of moving a leg or arm is inherent in the spirits disposed and determined to motion : are these spirits , when they do not move ( for then they are counted a power of motion ) really distinct from themselves , when they do move ? you may object : if substances act through themselves , then alterative medicines are exhibited in vain . a mistake ; for although i assert , that a substance acts through it self , i do not deny , but that it alterates , moves locally , or produceth all other acts immediately through it self . vii . powers are distinguisht from their subject modally and by operation of the mind . a power may be taken in a double sense , either in the concrete or abstract . . if in the concrete , then it is no longer to be called a power of a being , but a powerful being ; it proving impossible to apprehend the one without the other , unless with intention to make a chimara of it ; for if you consider them apart , to wit , a being , and powerful , each by themselves , you must needs imagine an accident denoting extrinsecally , and from its first imposition , an actual qualification of its subject , not to denote an actual qualification , and consequently that a concrete accident is not concrete , powerful is not powerful , and that a being is not it self . . in perceiving powerful separated from its being , you do apprehend power in the abstract ( which i grant to be possible ) but not powerful in the concrete , which is repugnant ; so that in considering powerful in the abstract you do absurdly confound it with power in the abstract . viii . power conceived in the abstract is taken for an universal entity , abstracted by the operation of the mind from its singulars , and in this acception it is in no manner of a physical , but of a pure metaphysical consideration . metaphysical here i understand in the same meaning , as it was intended in by aristotle . the same philosopher defines heat , cold , moysture , and dryness , by first qualities , not first powers , because ( according to his doctrine ) they were actually inherent in the elements at the instant of their production ; for power with him , presupposeth a non existence of the act thence flowing . wherefore it is apparent , that powers in the concrete are not distinguisht from their substance either really , formally * , or by any other operation of the mind : but if by any at all , it is ratione rationante , quae absque ullo fit fundamento . powers in the abstract are distinguisht from powers in the concrete , in that they offer a common mode and manner of qualifying , and accidentally specifying their subject in the concrete , to the understanding , which occasioneth a modal distinction . philosophers not daring to desert the principles of arist. and yet finding , that natural substances act through themselves , and not through powers really distinct from them , are constrained to assert , that a substance acteth and is either through or in actu signato , ( which had they rendred it otherwise , to wit , that a substance is and acts through a power , it would have been a contradiction ; for to act , and to be in actu signato , are opposite to being in potentia , and to act through a potentia ) or in actu exercito . ix . powers are remitted and intended by subduction and addition of parts of the same nature , as it is evident in canary wine , which is hotter then rhenish , because it containes more dense and united fiery spirits . one fire is hotter then another , because its similar parts are augmented by access of parts of the same nature . that powers are facilitated and slowed , through habits and defects of them , is demonstrated elsewhere . x. one similar substance acts but one formal act ( per se ) through it self ; and ( per accidens ) by accident , that is , through meanes of extrinsick causes , many . the first part of this theorem is proved by this maxim. una numero efficiens producit unum tantum numero effectum . one and the same efficient can produce but one and the same effect at one and the same time , and in one and the same manner . but a similar substance is but one efficient : ergo it can produce but one and the same effect , &c. the major is undeniable . i confirm the assumtion . a substance is effective through its form , which being but one , must also determinate its efficiency to one . . fire is a substance : but fire hath but one power ( per se ) ergo . i prove the minor. that whereby the fire doth act , is its penetrable lightness ; but that is single in fire ; ergo. you may object , that its heating , burning , and locomotive powers are more then one . to this i answer , that the similar parts of fire exercises but one power naturally and in its natural place , but if extrinsecally ( that is , by an efficient from without ) united and condensed , it becomes of a burning nature . pray take the paines to peruse my positions of fire in my natural phil. they are satisfactory to all objections . as for its locomotive faculty , it is the same with its rare lightness . a second objection may be ; mercury is a similar substance : but mercury hath several powers of heating , cooling , fluxing , killing the worms , &c. 't is true , the effects are various , nevertheless the power , from whence they descend , is but one , which unity seems to be multiplied materially , that is , through the variety of its objects . mercury cooles in laxe and weak bodies , because through its thickness and density it expels the loose heat of the said laxe bodies . it heats in hot , strong , close bodies , because it is retained in such bodies , and being retained , its parts are opened by the strong heat of the said bodies , whereby the fiery hot spirits break forth , and unite themselves with the heat of such bodies , and so it becomes hotter . in like manner fluxing and its other effects are wrought all through one power , their difference hapning from the difference of the object . obj. . if every similar substance obtaines one power of acting , then in every dissimilar or mixt body there should be four powers , because it consisteth of four similar substances . i answer , that the elements , when mixed , limit their power within one temperament , and one formal power . the latter part of this theorem is , that a substance obtaineth many powers ( per accidens h. e. in statu violento , eâdem quidem a principio , formali , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agente , nec non a causa efficienti ab extra impulsa , plane quod rei naturae contrariatur ) by accident , that is when a substance is seated in a violent state , and although acting from its formal principle , yet it is against its first nature , as being opposed by an external efficient . xi . an organical and dissimilar substance exerciseth naturally as many formal powers , as it containes similar substances in it self , really different from one another ; and but one formal power , so far as these similar substances tend to the constituting of one formal substance . all similar substances contained within the sphere of an organical substance tend naturally ( e naturae quadam necessitate ) and from a certain necessity of nature ( for they could not exist separately , because then they would be imperfect ) to its constitution . a hand is an organical substance : in a hand are comprehended , . a locomotive power , . a sensitive power . . a nutritive faculty . these various powers depend from the variety of similar ( scilicet ad sensum ) parts , to wit , the first from nerves ; the second the membranes ; the third from the vital heat : notwithstanding all of them constitute but one formal locomotive , sensitive , and vegetative power . actus and potentia in the concrete are really identificated ; for potentia denotes an actual virtue and power in a substance . this may be called actus activus , and so anima is defined actus by arist . . it imports action . . it sometime implies an effect , otherwise called actus passivus . it is an actus , because it doth act through a power , which it had from its first act , a different effect . it is passivus , because it receives its power from that first actus . wherefore you must take notice , that it is not termed actus passivus secundum idem ad idem , for that would imply a contradiction . xii . from this discourse we may easily be resolved in these doubts . . whether it be not repugnant , that any accidental or substantial power should be superadded to its subject ? aff. . whether the volitive power in the concrete be really and formally identificated with the soul ? aff. . whether the soul acteth immediately through her self , and not through super added powers ? aff. . whether the augmentative power be really and formally distinct from the nutritive power , and the nutritive from the generative power ? there is a modal distinction , or a parte rei a material one , but none real . xiii . besides all this , there is an absolute power conferred upon gods creatures in general , and upon man in particular . i do not mean absolute simpliciter ; for that were repugnant , as i have proved in my theol. but secundam quid . i will further explain it to you . the power , which all creatures have of being and acting at that present moment , wherein they enjoy their being , and do act , is absolute , because they cannot but enjoy that same being , and act at that moment , wherein they have a being , and do act , ergo it is absolute : but not simpliciter , for were it so , then they would obtain that absolute power of being from and out of their own nature , which we know is dependent from gods power ; and according to this sense none consisteth of an absolute power , but god alone , because his nature is alone independent . it is then absolute secundum quid , because god hath ordained that , which is , to be , and that , which ever hath been , to have been , and that which shall be , to come to pass . in short , absolute secundum quid , i take for that , which is unchangeable , as all beings and their actions are in that sense , as i have proposed . they are unchangeable , because gods ordination in creating , giving , forbearing , and in all other particulars , is unchangeable . this distinction is of that use , that many points in divinity cannot be resolved , but by its being applied to them . i shall content my self with the having named it , since i have treated of it at large in another part of my philosophy . xiv . the absolute ( secundum quid ) powers , which god hath conferred upon his creatures , are by physitians otherwise termed faculties ; ( facultates ) which are derived from ( a faciendo ) doing , that is , they are actual dispositions , whereby effects are done . hence galen , lib. . de natur. facult . par. . prima euim actionis ipsius potentia causa est . the first cause of an action ( saith he ) is the power . and in another place of the same book , he renders himself thus : facultatum quatuor naturalium essentia in partium singularum nutriendarum temperie est : that is , the essence of the four natural faculties consisteth in the temperament of the parts , that are to be nourished : which is nothing different , then if he had said , the faculties , ( facultates sunt temperamenta facientia ) are temperaments actually doing effects . now it is evident , that galen held the temperament of bodies to be their forms , which if so , then questionless , his opinion tended to assert , that powers and their subjects were really identificated , and that all powers were actual . moreover we shall find throughout all his tomes , that his sense touching powers and faculties doth e diametro agree with what i have set down in this present treatise . as for hippocrates , i cannot read a word throughout all his works , but what tends against aristotle in every particular , forasmuch as it relate ; to our subject . in the conclusion , i must remember you to observe , that many terms , as , formal , substance , accident , and divers others , i have somtimes made use of in the same sense , as i have proposed them in the foregoing chapters , other times i have intended them in the same acception which philosophers vulgarly receive them in ; but herein the sense of the matter will easily direct you . finis . religio philosophi , or natural theology . the first part . the fourth book . by gedeon harvey doctor of physick and philosophy . london , printed by a. m. for samuel thomson at the sign of the bishops-head in st paul's church-yard . . to his most honoured mother elizabeth harvey . dear mother , among those serious admonitions , which from your singular affection and care , you have so oft repeated to me , this i remember hath been one of the most earnest of them , that above all i should mind things of eternity , such as alone can make me eternally happy . herein i cannot but acknowledge your greatest love , tending to invest me with the greatest happinesse , returning you all thanks , that so great a benefit is worthy of . moreover to shew my entire obedience to so important a command , i have here drawn up a few heads touching the greatest happinesse , and the means whereby to procure it , which i do with all humility present unto you , as a debt due to your self , in regard i have extracted the principal rules from the rudiments , which your constant practice and wholesome precepts had in my younger years infus'd in me . the cause and object , which alone can afford us this infinite happinesse , is the summum bonum , whereunto we are to direct all our aim ; which that we may with successe attain unto , are the continual prayers of your most affectionate and obedient sonne gedeon harvey . religio philosophi , or natural theology . the first part . the fourth book . chap. i. of the nature of natural theology . . what theology is . . that theosophy is a fitter name to signifie the same , which is here intended by theology . that in knowing god we become philosophers . . what a habit is . . what it is to live happily . that there is a mean or middle way of living , which is neither living in happiness , or living in misery . . how theology is divided . . what natural theology is . what supernatural theology is . the first doubts of a natural man. . the dignity of theology . i. theology is a habit of enjoying the greatest good , and living in the greatest happiness . this practick science might from the eminence and transcendence of its end and object , crave a more excellent name : for theology signifieth only a discourse of god , and expresseth a theoretick science , and therefore is too strict to adequate the whole and full concept of what is generally intended by theology . this name is fitter to be imposed upon the doctrine of god , as he is theoretically discoursed of in pneamatology : the parts of which doctrine might be aptly denoted by theology , angelology and psychelogy : whereas this noble science is better expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or wisdome of god , because wisdome comprehendeth an universal collection of all practick and theoretick sciences ; all which we know by knowing god , and we know them to be in , and from god : for , do we not know , that all natural beings are in and from god ? they are in god , because god comprehendeth and conserveth them in , and by his power . is not god the pattern of our actions ? and do we not know that our actions are good or evil , from knowing them to have some likeness to his actions , or to be altogether different from them ? do we not know our selves in knowing god ? wherefore without knowing god we know nothing . in knowing god to be the first cause , and creator of all natural beings , we know natural philosophy , and become natural philosophers . in discerning good from evil in our actions , by comparing them to the most perfect actions of god , we attain to moral philosophy : in knowing him to be the being of beings , we reach to the knowledge of supernatural philosophy or metaphysicks . this name doth in a large sense expresse philosophy , and in a strict sense denotes theology , as it is defined here above . the wise apostle james seemeth to impose this very name , in that place of his epistle * , wisdome that is from above , is , &c. what is wisdom from above , but the wisdom of god ? ii. the genus of the definition is a habit , which is a rooted disposition , whereby we are inclined to operate with ease . it is not the enjoyment of one single happiness , which can make a man happy ; for one act is transitory , and is not at all durable : but it must be a rooted happiness , the possession of which doth make us happy for ever . since we are to live for ever , we must either be rooted in happinesse , if we intend to be everlastingly happy , or else rooted in evil , whereby we continue in misery without end . iii. the happinesse which we reap from this philosophy is not an ordinary happinesse , but it is a happinesse in its highest degree and perfection ; or it is a durable contentment accompanied with the greatest joy that is possible to be enjoyed by us in this world . on the other side , the misery which attends the habit of evil , is no lesse tormenting , dismall and dolefull , than the other is joyfull . iv. the differentia of the definition is , to possesse the greatest good , and to live in the greatest happinesse . all practick sciences do operate for an end , and therfore are to be defined by that end. to live happily is to live in contentment and joy . there seems to be a medium between living in joy , and living in misery , which is to live for a passe-time : for there are many , who do all things for a passe-time ; they play at cards , dice and bowls ; they discourse and all for a passe-time : some take tobacco , and drink themselves drunk for to passe away the time . certainly these can neither say , that they are affected with joy or misery , but seem to be in a neutral state . of these doth sallust justly give his opinion : multi mortales dediti ventri , at que somno , indocti , incultique vitam , sicut peregrinantes tranfiere . quibus profecto , contranaturam , corpus voluptati , anima oneri fuit . eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestumo : quoniam de utraque siletur . there are many men , who being given to their gut , and to sleep , continuing unlearned and rude , have passed away their dayes like unto travellers . to whom indeed against nature their body was a pleasure , and their soul a burden . these mens life and death i judge alike ; for there is no notice taken of either . v. theology is natural or supernatural . vi. natural theology is a natural habit of possessing the greatest good , and living in the greatest happinesse , that a natural man may attain unto in this world , and in the world to come . supernatural theology is a supernatural habit of possessing the greatest good , and living in the greatest happinesse , that a man may supernaturally attain unto in this material , and in the next spiritual world . it is not my drift to treat of supernatural theology in this volume ; neither do i pretend more in that , than a christian disciple , and not as a teacher , to which a special call , and an extraordinary spiritual disposition must concur : but my chief design and aim is rationally to demonstrate a natural theology ; such , which a man through his natural gifts of reason and understanding , may reach unto , without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . the benefit which is hence expected , serveth to convince those desperate and carnal wretches from their affected atheism ; yet must be lesse affected with it , than to be rooted and confirmed in it , in which , if otherwise they are , reasoning will not take any effect upon them . the first doubt or query , which a natural man doth , or may propose is , whether it is possible for him to know through his reasoning , if his soul be immortal : for saith he , if my soul is mortal , it will prove in vain to make further search after happinesse , then is or can be enjoyed in this world . the second scruple which a man ( or rather the devil ) doth foolishly move to himself , is , whether ( the soul now being demonstrated to him to be immortal ) there is a god : for whence can he expect any happinesse after death , but from god ? thirdly , whether it is possible to a natural man by his own power , and gods ordinary assistance or concurrence , to procure the possession of the twofold before-mentioned summum bonum . but , before i apply my self to the solving of these doubts , i must explain what the greatest happinesse is , which i intend to perform briefly and clearly in the next chapter . i need not adde many words to the illustrating of the eminence and worth of this divine science , since the name it self doth speak it . the eloquence of cicero doth thus set forth the dignity of wisdom in his . offic. by the immortal gods what is there more to be desired than wisdome ? what is better to a man ? what is more worthy of a mans knowledge ? the same may be better applyed to the wisdome of god , that is , concerning god. god ( saith austin ) is wisdome himself , through whom all things are made , and a true philosopher is a lover of god , in that he is a lover of wisdom . if we are ignorant of god , we are no philosophers , and through that ignorance we fall into great errors . lactantius in his third book , doth expresse himself much to the same tenour , where speaking of philosophers , he saith , it is true , they have sought for wisdome , but because they did not search after it , as they should have done , they fell further into such errors , that they were ignorant of common wisdom . chap. ii. of the end of natural theology . . wherein moral philosophy differeth from natural theology ; and wherein it agreeth with it . that the heathen philosophers were no true philosophers . aristotle his dying words . epicure his miserable death , after so pleasant a life . . a description of the greatest happinesse . queries touching the greatest happinesse . . whether the greatest happinesse is the neerest and principal end of theology . . how the greatest happinesse is otherwise called . . one or other may object against our definition of natural theology , that i do confound it with moral philosophy . i answer , moral philosophy is taken in a large sense for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse here and hereafter , and then it is synonimous to natural theology . or in a strict sense ; for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse only in this world : which may be tearmed an epicurean moral philosophy , and is such whose object vanisheth with the expiration of the soul out of the body . this last is grounded upon a false maxime of its end ; to wit , that the greatest happinesse , which ●●● be enjoyed in this world , is essentially different from 〈…〉 , which we may enjoy hereafter . it is essentially different ; because , according to their folly , there is no happinesse to be expected any where else , but where we are at present . the falshood of this theorem is evident : because that greatest happinesse which we enjoy in this world , is like ( but in an inferious degree ) to that , which we expect in the other . neither is any happinesse to be parallel'd to the greatest , but which is a true theologick happinesse : if so , then a theologick happinesse must be our summum bonum . no wonder therefore if philosophers being destitute of this theologick habit were false philosophers . this is the reason , why aristotle , and other supposed philosophers , never arrived to the possession of the greatest happinesse ; because they were ignorant of god. and is it not therefore unworthy of a philosopher to be a slave to their dictates ? which affected slavery , hath proved an obvious cause of the greatest errours in church and state. how full of anguish , fear , jealousle , and uncertainties were their souls through their not knowing the true god ? they could never enjoy any durable happinesse , as long as their minds were perplexed with them doubts . in what perplexity did aristotle die ? even when his languishing soul pressed out these words : in doubts have i lived , and in more anguish do i die ; whither i shall go i know not ; wherefore thou being of beings have mercy upon me . what did the joys and pleasures of epicure amount unto , when he was tormented with such miserable pains of the strangury , as chased his soul out of his body ? ii. the greatest happinesse is , which of all things makes a man most happy . happinesse is a concomitant of a joyfull thing , or an effect wrought by a joyfull object upon man , the reception of which makes him truly happy . here we will first enquire , whether the greatest happinesse is the neerest end of natural theology . . how it is otherwise called . . what it is . . which is the subject of this habit . . how it is to be procured . in answer to the first : i say , that the greatest happinesse is not the neerest and principal end of theology . i prove it : that which doth not chiefly and immediately move a man in theology , is not the neerest and principal end : but the greatest happinesse doth not chiefly and immediately move a man in theology : therefore it is not the neerest and principal end of theology . . it is the next end to the neerest , and an inseparable concomitant of the neerest end : i prove it , that which we do enjoy next after the possession of the habit of natural theology , and of the summum bonum , is the next end to the neerest : but we do chiefly enjoy the greatest happinesse next after the possession of the habit of theology , and of the summum bonum : therefore it is the next end to the neerest . there is none , which ever did possesse the habit of theology , but confirms the truth and assurance of the minor. . the greatest happinesse is sometime called summum bonum , or the greatest good from its causality ; because it doth through its presence confer the greatest happinesse upon that subject , which it doth irradiate . hence austin . de civ . dei , lib. . cap. . finis autem boni appellatur ; quo quisque cum pervenerit , beatus est . that is called the end of good , which maketh every man happy , that doth attain to it . note that the greatest happinesse is only tropically named summum bonum , from a metonomia causae pro effectu . chap. iii. of good . . what good is . . that aristotle 's definition of good is erroneous . . diogenes his definition of good. . the explanation of the definition of good. how the several kinds of good differ from one another . . what moral good is : what moral evil is . . what theologick good and evil is . bonum , good is that which doth make the subject , which doth possesse it perfect . or good : is that , which all beings do incline unto , for to perfect themselves . the highest and greatest good must then be that which makes a man most perfect and happy : or that which all men need to perfect themselves with the same perfection , which man had , when he was first created . i said , need , and not desire or incline into : because all men do not desire the summum bonum : for all men do not come to the knowledge of it : yet all men need it for to perfect themselves . ii. there are many definitions of good spread among philophers : whereof some are false either in not adequating the whole definitum , or else in attributing falsities by it to the definitum or subject defined . among these that of aristotle is counted most authentick* : good is that , which all things do incline unto , or covet . this definition must either agree with good , as it is proper to all beings , and transcendent : or as it is restricted to rationals and animals , in which only there is an appetite and coveting : or as it is most limited to rationals only . if we take it according to the first acception , the definition is not formal , but only accidental : for it is accidental to beings as they are good , to be coveted or be desired from another being . neither doth it hold true in the last acception : because we desire many things , which are evil , and hurtfull to us . to this may be answered , that a being , so far as it is desired , is good , although it prove accidentally hurtfull . this answer is not satisfactory : for we do oftentimes desire things knowing them to be evil ; and therefore we do desire them as evil : for the will doth covet things as they are understood : if then the understanding doth understand them to be evil , the will must consequently will them as evil . possibly some do reply , that the understanding doth conceive them very things , which a man afterwards doth covet , to be good , otherwise he could not desire them : for , did he desire them as evil , then he would desire his own destruction , and be inferiour to all other creatures , which are onely bent to that , which doth perfect their nature : or you may return your answer thus ; that good is either apparent , or real and truly good ; and that the understanding doth understand all beings to be good apparently or really : or otherwise you may distinguish good , in good , which is honest , or profitable and usefull , or pleasant , and state that the understanding doth conceive all things either as they are honest , useful , or pleasant . this doth not remove all objections : as to the first ; the will of man is not restrained to a certain object as naturals are , but is also extended to contrary objects ; to wit , to good and evil . neither is it singly limited to contradictories , as to will evil , and to leave it , because to desist from an action is no action , and for that reason we cannot properly say , that the actions of the will are free ( quoad contradicentia tantum ) only in willing evil and ceasing from it . secondly , should god punish us for doing evil , when we cannot act any thing but evil , it would appear somewhat severe : for punishment is to punish a delict , and sinne , in doing that , which we should not do , and not doing that which we should do : if we should do a thing , it supposeth we can do it , otherwise it would seem absurd . no dispute , but we do and can will evil as evil , and consequently the definition is erroneous . . the second solution doth not clear the point , in supposing that the evil , which we do will , we will it not as evil , but as apparent good . this is futil : for what is apparent good , but a real evil ? a thing must either be formally evil , or formally good ; betwixt these there can be no medium . the third is grounded upon a false distinction : because good , as it is good , doth not imply formally honesty , usefulnesse , or pleasure : neither is it universally coveted by all bodies , as it is affected with any of these accidents , but as it doth perfect them . so that a pleasant good is frequently not coveted , as a pleasant good , but as a pleasant evil , and we do know that same pleasant evil to be so , before we do will it . the same may be said concerning good , as it is usefull . neverthelesse may good be also coveted sometime , as it is pleasant , or usefull , or honest , but these are only accidental to good . iii. diogenes the stoick defines good to be that , which is perfect in its own nature . herein he confounds perfection with good , which are formally different one from the other , as i have shewed in my metaphysicks . besides good is here considered as it is relative , or related to another being , although in metaphysicks it is treated of , as absolute to a being . iv. good is , whose end is to perfect that , which doth bend to it , all beings bend to each other , because they perfect one another . by perfection understand the further constitution and conservation of a being ; for all beings are further constituted and conserved by other beings . this end may prove frustraneous to many bodies , but that is not through the default of good , but of that body , to which it proveth frustraneous , although bent to it . note , that it doth not follow , that all , which a being is bent unto , is good for it , although it followeth , that all which doth perfect a being ; is good . all beings are essentially bent to what is good , but accidentally they bend also to what is evil . a depravate will is accidental to man , and therefore man doth accidentally covet evil . this evil although it is coveted accidentally by man , yet by his will it is desired formally , and per se. iv. there are several degrees of good , which do not differessentially from one another , but have a resemblance and proportion one to the other ; so that one can become the other , or change into the nature of the other . according to this , good is gradually distinguisht into moral good , and theologick good. v. moral good is , whose end is to perfectionate man , as he is in a natural state . moral evil is , whose end is to corrupt man , as he is in a natural state . vi. theologick good is , which doth perfectionate a man in a supernatural state . theologick evil is , which doth corrupt a man as he is in a preternatural state . of these i purpose to treat of distinctly in the next ensuing chapter . chap. iv. of moral good , and moral evil. . an explanation of the definition of moral good. what is understood by a natural state. the ambiguity of the word natural . . what moral good it is , which doth respect the body . what moral good it is , which respecteth the soul. . an explanation of the definition of moral evil. that god doth not properly bend to his creatures . . the distinction between these two predicates , to be good , and to do good. . how moral good turns to moral evil. . that man , as he is in a neutral state , is in a middle state , between supernatural and preternatural . first , it is requisite to unfold the ambiguities of the terms contained in the definition of moral good. what it is to perfectionate i have already declared : it remains to amplifie , how man is understood to be in a natural state. a natural being is frequently taken for a being , which is in the same state wherein it was created or produced . a man then is said to be natural , when he is in the same state wherein he was created . there is a two-fold creation : . there is an immediate creation of man , whom god did create immediately through himself , no other mediate effect being interposed . . a mediate creation of man is , whereby he is , mediately through his parents , created by god. man being created by an immediate creation , as long as he continued in that nature and state , wherein he was created , was natural : but having corrupted that state through his appetite after evil , he became counter-natural , in respect to his former state . a natural being is also understood for that , which continueth in the same state , wherein it is , as it is produced by a mediate creation ; and in this sense we are to apprehend it here . here may be offered an objection , that a being cannot be said to be created by a mediate creation , and yet be counter-natural . pray observe me well here in this place : i say , that man , who is created by a mediate creation , is counter-natural ; but i do not say that god , who created him , did create him counter-natural : for he created him natural . of this more at large elswhere . and to return to my purpose : man , as he is natural according to the latter acception , doth perfectionate himself by that moral good , which he doth bend unto , and that same moral good doth conservate and further constitute a man in that nature , wherein he was created by a mediate creation . man is sometimes taken disjunctly , for his body and soul : or else joyntly and integrally , as he doth consist of both united . ii. according to the first distinction there is moral good , which chiefly concerns the body of man : as meat , drink and cloaths . there is also a moral good chiefly respecting the soul : as speculative and practick objects are morally good to the soul. you may demand , how practick and speculative objects do perfectionate the soul ? i answer , that they by their objectivenesse do conservate the souls action in its goodnesse ; for had the soul no moral good object to act upon , it would be without a moral good action , which is repugnant to that maxim , omne quod est , est propter operationem . all which is , is for to operate . in like manner do food and cloaths conservate the body of man in its natural state . iii. moral evil doth corrupt a man , as he is in a natural state , and mak●● him counter-natural , that is , worse than he is in a natural state . i am required here to illustrate two obscurities : . how moral good can be said to be good . . how moral good turneth to moral evil. in reference to the first , we are to call to mind the definition of good , which is , whose end is to perfect that , which doth bend to it . if then moral good obtains a virtue to perfect that , which bendeth to it , it argueth that it is good . you may reject my definition of good : because according to it , it follows , that god is conserved by his creatures , since he is known to bend to them . in no wise , for god doth not properly bend to his creatures : because he is every where with them : but gods creatures may be properly said to bend to him : because bending doth follow a need ; and want of conservation , which need being in all his creatures , but not in god , they do bend to their creator . iv. to avoid falsities and errors in this nice point , it will not be amisse for you , to observe a distinction between these two predicates : to be good , and to do good . these are oftentimes confounded by many divines , and so thereby they fall into gross errors . to be good denotes a formality of good , as it doth concur to the further constitution of a being by its modality . to do good is an action whereby effects are produced from a good being : now these actions are called good , because they proceed from a good being ; and not because they are essentially good , and constitute an essential difference from its being . so that good actions are signs of goodnesse in a being , and not the goodnesse it self . to do good therefore is onely to act from a good principle , and to give signs of the goodnesse of a being . this distinction proveth very usefull and expedient to the discussing of the doubts touching free-will . annex to this observation , that in a large sense moral good is taken for good , as it is defined above , and extendeth to other creatures than unto man onely , for this reason : because moral good , as it is synonimous to a mean , and inferiour good , is become so to all , in being changed from the highest good , through the deffecting of man from his highest good , to a mean or moral good . in a strict sense , it is taken for the goodnesse of man in his actions , or manners onely . v. how doth moral good turn to moral evil ? this question may be variously understood : first , as good importeth a natural good in the second acception , and as it denotes a goodnesse in the being , and not in its action : in this sense moral good cannot change into moral evil , because nothing doth corrupt it self , i mean its own being and essence . if moral good is taken for a moral good action , then it is coincident with a true action , which is such as god doth require from us , and is conformable to that action , in which god did create us : i say in which : for all beings are created to be in action ; and not through which , because that specifieth creation . according to this acception then are morally good actions said to be such , as are true or conformable to their pattern . if these actions are false and difformable from their pattern , then they become evil . these actions do proceed from a free cause , and not necessary ; for then man could never have committed any evil . the freedome of this causality consisteth in an indifferency to good and evil. the state of man , wheren he is at present is neutral , that is , natural , which is a state neither supernatural or preternatural . i prove it ; a supernatural state is , wherein man is most good , or consisteth of good in the highest degree . a preternatural state is , wherein a man is at the worst , or consisteth of evil in the lowest degree : but a man in a natural state is neither most good , nor worst in evil . therefore he must needs be in a neutral state . vi. man , as he is in a natural state , is in a middle state , between super-natural , and preter-natural . i prove , it is a property of a middle or medium to participate of both extreams . but man in a natural state participates of both the others , ergo , he is in a middle state : i confirm the minor. the good which man doth act is not the best good , neither is the evil , which man acteth the worst evil : for the devils act worse . ergo , it participateth somewhat of good in the highest degree , and of evil in the worst . or the actions , which a natural man performeth , are neither the worst or the best : therefore it participates of each . another property of a natural or middle state , is to have a disposition or capacity of becoming to be either of its extreams . this i prove also to be in man , as he is in this present state . many natural men are glorified , and many are damned . ergo , a natural man hath a disposition to either . moral evil doth corrupt a man , in that it partially destroyeth his perfection . moral evil is either an evil of the soul or body , or of both . chap. v. of theologick good , and theologick evil. . an explanation of the definition of theologick good. . an explication of the definition of theologick evil. . what honest , usefull and pleasant good is . . what natural , sensible and moral good is . . theologick good doth perfectionate a man in a supernatural state only : for a natural man as long as he doth continue in a natural state , cannot be theologically good , or do a good act , that is theologically good . a supernatural state is , wherein a man is above his natural state , and is at his greatest perfection . ii. theologick evil is directly contrary to theologick good , neither is it possible that both these should be in one subject , there being no greater contraries , than theologick good , and theologick evil. they are most remote from one another : so that there is an infinite proportion of distance between them . theologick evil doth make a man worst ; he cannot be worse , than when he is theologically evil ; neither is there then any capacity or disposition remaining in him , whereby he may be changed into good : so likewise a man , who is theologically good , hath no disposition to theologick evil. theologick good implieth a triple good : . it imports a theological good cause , or which doth make a man perfect in a supernatural state ; and so god is the only theologick good. * . it is taken for a being which is theologically good , or for a being which is at its greatest perfection ; and so may man in his entire state be termed theologically good. . it may be understood for an action , which is theologically good , that is true and conformable to its pattern , and of this good is man also capable in a supernatural state . the theologick good which is in god is called good through it self , or bonum per se. this bonum is otherwise called summum bonum objectivum , or beatitudo objectiva : but the joy which we receive from that objective happinesse , is called beatitudo formalis . the theologick good , which was in all his creatures , is a derivative good , or bonum per participationem . the peripateticks divide good in that , which is honest , usefull and pleasant . honest good ( bonum bonestum ) is , which is agreeable to right reason ; and therefore they say , it is desirable through it self . . useful good is that , which is desired for its usefulnesse and convenience . pleasant good is , which is coveted for its pleasure and delight , which it affordeth . these two are not to be desired for their own sake , but for their covenience and pleasure , which do accompany them . this division is erroneous upon a double account , . because good doth not formally include in its formal concept any delight , usefulnesse or honesty , but onely a perfectionation . . the dividing members cannot be equally attributed to all the kinds of good , and therefore the distribution is illegitimate . iv. good , according to the subject , wherein it is inherent , or according the appetite , through which it is coveted , is either natural , sensible or moral . natural good is , which is coveted from a natural being . the appetite , through which natural beings do covet good , is commonly called a natural propensity or inclination . sensible good is , which is coveted by living creatures . their appetite is called a sensitive appetite . moral good is , which is coveted by man. his appetite is otherwise known by the word will. before i conclude this chapter , i must intreat you to remember and take notice of the several acceptions and distinct significations of natural , supernatural , counter-natural , preter-natural , of good , moral good , and theologick good. for you are to interpret their significations variously , otherwise you will much mistake my meaning . chap. vi. of the greatest and highest good. . a further illustration of the greatest good. . that the highest good is the neerest end of natural theology . . what the summum bonum is otherwise called . that the greatest good is our last end . . the inexpressible joy , which the soul obtains in possessing the greatest good. . two great benefits , which the soul receiveth from the summum bonum . i. it was necessary for you first to know , what good was in general , before you could conceive what the highest good is . so then , having laid down the doctrine of good in short , it now remains to open to you , what the greatest good is . the greatest good is that , which doth make us most perfect , and that is god alone . i prove it ; there is nothing can perfectionate usmost , but god alone : wherefore he is the onely summum bonum . ii. the highest good is the neerest end of natural theology . i prove it . that which we do immediately and neerest incline unto and covet , is the neerest end : but we do immediately and neerest covet and incline unto the summum bonum : wherefore the summum bonum is the neerest end . i confirm the minor we do immediately covet that , which doth perfectionate us , because it is out of necessity . the necessity appears in this ; in that we must live to god ; for without him we cannot live or exist , and consequently we cannot be perfectionated without him . now that which is most necessary , must precede that , which is lesse necessary ; for it is possible for us to live without happinesse , and only to enjoy our being , if god had so pleased . and therefore happinesse is not absolutely necessary , but is superadded to this our appetite meerly from gods bounty . we ought first to bend and incline to god ; because he is our summum bonum , and doth perfectionate us ; and not only , because he doth make us happy . in this bending to god ; we answer to our end , and are true beings . the same is also witnessed by scripture , prov. . god hath made all things for himself . iii. summum bonum is otherwise called our last end , because it is that , in which all our good actions seem to terminate : i prove that the greatest good and happiness is our last end. all trades and professions tend to make provision for mans life . this provision , as meat and drink , &c. serveth to keep the body in repair , that so it may continue a convenient mansion for the soul , and serve her through its organs . the prime organs are the inward and outward senses , which are subservient to the soul , in advertising her of all things , which may be prejudicial to man ; and in pleasing her by conveying the objects of all external beings to her ; and commending them to her contemplation , which doth chiefly consist in the discovery of the causes of all things . the soul , being now brought and seated in the midst of her speculations , doth not come to any rest or satisfaction there , but still maketh way , and passeth through them , untill she arrives to the last object , and its last end , which is the farthest she can dyve . this last object is god , because he is the last end of our contemplations ; for beyond him we cannot conceive , or think any thing . it is also certain , that all beings have their end , and are terminated by it . this doth infer , that the actions of man must also have their end : the principal actions of man are them of the soul ; to wit , his understanding . the understanding is not terminated by any material substance : for it can think and understand beyond it : neither are created immaterial substances objects , beyond which the soul of man cannot imagine : for it doth imagine , know , and understand god : but beyond god it can imagine nothing . all beings have their causes , them causes have other causes , these other causes at last must owe their being to one first cause : otherwise causes would be infinite , which is repugnant . wherefore we cannot think beyond the first cause . iv. the soul having sublimed her self into a most sublime thought of god , there she resteth , and admireth his great power in giving a being to all sublunary and superlunary things . she admireth his wisdome and providence in preserving them all . she is astonisht at his infinite love towards mankind , in breathing his essence out of his own brest . the joy and acquiessence which the soul findeth in the contemplation of this last end and first cause , is so great , and unexpressible , that there is nothing in this vast world to resemble it unto , but to it self . thus i have demonstrated how all the actions of man tend to one last end , and summum bonum . v. from the greatest good , we receive two benefits : first , it makes us most perfect and most happy : secondly , it terminates our faculties ; for in all other things we can find no rest , but in the summum bonum only . all other things can give us no rest , because they are ordained for a further end , and subject to changes and alterations every moment ; but the summum bonum is the same for ever and ever . as for the happiness which doth redound from the possession of the summum bonum , it is a joy and contentment beyond expression . none is capable of conceiving what it is , except they who are the possessors of it . the joy is such , that if a man hapneth to it , and is confirmed in it , he can never desert it : a moments want of it , would seem to be the greatest misery . chap. vii . of the false summum bonum . . the summum bonum of the epicureans unfolded and rejected . . that wealth is a greater torment than a summum bonum . the riches of seneca . that we ought to follow his example . . that to be taken up in merry discourses is not the greatest happiness . . that it is not the greatest happiness to be merry twice or thrice a week at a mans country house . . that honour is not the greatest good . . that swearing is no happiness . . the author's ground why he was compelled to make use of so light a style in this chapter . . that all these enumerated instances are highly to be imbraced as good , but not as the greatest good. that meat and drink are to be taken with temperance . . that riches are not absolutely to be rejected . . that mutual converse is commendable . . that a constant society is necessary to man. . that we ought to give honour to whom honour is due . . that we ought not to refuse an oath tendred by the magistrate . the error and mistake of the epicureans , cannot but startle any one , who is but irradiated with the least glimpse of the summum bonum . they do foolishly conceit that the greatest good and happinesse consisteth in pleasures , that are taken by these two external senses ; of tasting , and of the tact : which pleasures primarily are gluttony , and its companion . what are these pleasures but momentany ? the enjoyment of them makes a man more restless , than he was before : a gluttons stomack is no sooner filled ; but his pleasures are past and vanished : his next wish is ; that his stomack were empty again , for to enjoy new pleasures . this vice is endemick to some people , whose custom it is , to take it for an affront , if their guests rise from the table , before they have filled their crop twice or thrice , and discharged it as often by vomiting their lading up again , which perhaps , if it light into their neighbours lap , is only taken for an act of necessity , and an endeavour to make amends to the master of the feast : for the greatest thanks he expects , is to hear a man relate the next day , that he did not spare to make himself a beast yesterday through his noble and liberal entertainment . a man who intends to follow the mode of these treatments , is not to call simply for ( trincken ) drink at table ; but ( zuzauffen ) for a draught , ( rather for a traffe like hogs ; ) that is as much as he can well swallow down with an open throat , or no lesse than will swell him to that bigness , as forceth him to unbutton two or three buttons of his doublet , and so drink as long , untill all his buttons are dispatcht : and by that time they are got to their greatest happiness , which is to lie dead drunk one a top the other . wherein , are these men different from so many hogs , lying one upon the other ? they grunt in that dead sleep like hogs . they be fowl , kick and tumble over one another like hogs : were there hogs among them , they could not distinguish themselves from those hogs . and is this then a happinesse to be a hog ? they are worse than hogs , for hogs discern one another ; but they are blind , dumb and deaf : these men are more fit to receive the devil than happiness , like unto the herd of swine which the devil enterd . as for the other summum bonum of the epicureans , it is so far from an acquiessence and joy , that aristotle makes a detestation of it . look in his probl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ii. no lesse are they mistaken , who make their wealth their god , oftentimes not regarding how they come to it , whether by craft or overreaching of others . these misers instead of imbracing a perfect joy , they precipitate themselves into a miserable and tanteleon covetousnesse , being tormented with insatiable pangs after more money , thirsting with a fiery drought , not to be quencht by the pouring all the west-india mines upon them . if many in their tun-bellies , were but sensible of the torments and unquietnesse , which do accompany their summum bonum , they would soon desist from grapling after their tuns of gold . the experience of the great moral philosopher seneca , might well perswade them to imitate his dictates of competency : for he , although his estate was computed to the value of threescore hundred thousand pounds , as justus lipsius recordeth of him ; yet being sensible of the great weight in keeping of it , and tormented with burning desires to increase it , did contemn it all , being fully perswaded , that contentment was of greater worth , than all his treasure . iii. in some countreys the greatest accomplishment of a gentleman is counted to be his breeding and good behaviour , which in france is called bonne mine , wherein the more a man can please his madame , the braver gentleman he is accounted : so that all their education , as their dancing , their study in pleasing discourses , tends only to delight their ladies , and themselves : insomuch that in their confabulations with them , they imagine themselves to be possest of an unparalel happinesse : which , their having a countenance marked with smiles and joy : their eyes sparkling with lustre : their bodies being altogether transformed into an air : the continual gesticulations of their bodies , and trepidation of their voices , do abundantly testifie . the plurality of the world doth unanimously agree herein , that it is a great happiness , and no lesse contentment to passe away the time in mirth and pleasant discourses , wherein a man's mind seemeth to be much satisfied , wishing the night to be spent , that his wonted mirth might be disclosed again through the presence of the ensuing day . the whole troop of poets seem to be sworn to bend their wits only to extoll the happinesse and joys with which this bonum is endued , and to make it analogal to the summum bonum ; for may they say , here are persons taken up with a contemplation , surprized by an admiration : not only so , but they receive thence great satisfaction , and joy ; whence it appeareth , that there is some resemblance , and more than there is in any other bonum : this is the ground , why poets descant thus upon their gods , in feigning to be ravished by one anothers discourses , and to be stupified through amorous joys : this they assigne upon them , as being the greatest happinesse , and therefore worthy of gods. on the other side , this bonum may be numbred among transitory felicities , and therefore is not the greatest : for a man here is , as it were , in a dream , wherein he phansieth multiplicity of passages , and when he awakes , all is vanished . the like is observable in this case : we talk of sundry subjects successively , which serveth only to drive away the time , and therein it pleaseth the mind , there being nothing more tedious to it , than idlenesse . this is fickle , and alterable , satisfying the soul at one time , and not at another ; for a while only , and not for always ; we may admire one person for his discourse to day , to morrow we may admire our selves for admiring the same person yesterday . the discourse being once ended the happinesse vanisheth , and is the same with a dream : for in a dream we seem to be as joyfull in discoursing with any pleasant person , as we are , when we are awake ; but the dream being discussed , all vanisheth with it . pray , what difference is there between a joy apprehended in a dream , and a joy perceived when one is awake ? yea oftentimes the profusion of joy is greater in a dream than when we are awake . well may we thence proclaim , that all is vanity . iv. no small number are they , who place their greatest happines in being merry once or twice a week with their wives at their country-houses . all their toiling and moiling tends only to procure so much wealth , as to be thereby in a capacity of purchasing themselves a country-house , where a man may leave ' his consort , and after a few moments absence return loaden with joy , as if newly arrived from a japan voyage . this meeting after some hours parting doth so extreamly transport him , through the sudden spying of his female second self among the green leaves and odoriferous flowers , that he imagineth himself to be no less than an angel admitted into a mahomets paradice . this may be a happinesse if prudently managed ; but to compare it to a summum bonum , is to make it appear a summum malum . assuredly that , which a man at several times doth leave and return to : doth love and hate : doth trust and suspect : doth agree and disagree with : doth esteem and revile : doth please and displease him , is far distant from a summum bonum , which at all seasons and minutes is * semper idem . that which depends upon a man's humour , being disposed to alteration , and variety every moment , cannot be the greatest happinesse , which alone lasteth to all eternity . v. what shall i say of honour ? a gift , which is at the disposal of every bumken , and sometimes a liberal bounty of the vilest persons : for it depends upon their pleasure , whether they will confer it upon a deserving person , or not . honour is a thing , wherewith men are often clodded , and so come to loathe it . they have so much of it sometimes , that they do not regard it at any time . men need not to make a summum bonum of an air , of a shaking of a hat , of a bow , of a curtzy , of a leg , of a gaze : all this is but a flash . and what are the fruits and effects of it ? possibly they may perceive a swelling of their mind , and a puffing up of their spirit , which may put them into a bridegroom posture , wherein he doth more admire himself , than a bridegroom doth his bride . vi. many thereare , who take a wonderfull delight in swearing ; each third word must have a s'wounds , or by god , or a god damme me for its attendance , otherwise the language would seem to be imperfect , or at least to want its natural eloquence . this interjection of speech is so much practised , that some masters of languages in france make it the third lesson to their scholars . a germane newly arrived at paris , and applying his mind to the study of that language , shewed me his third lesson , which his master had recommended to him , to learn by heart . this piece of doctrine did contain no lesse than thirty or five and thirty oaths ; some of which he said were of the last years invention , which his master had particularly marked . i asked the gentleman , how he would come to know their proper places and insertions ; he answered me , that that was the first question , he asked his master , who resolved him , that a little converse with the french would soon make him perfect in that businesse . o tempora , o mores ! what is there more abominable ! how is it possible for men so to mistake , and not know , that this is belzebubs rhetorick , the devils mother tongue , satan's mirth . this is the only language wherein the devils and men , wizards and their spirits understand one another . vii . i doubt not , but by this time you are better resolved , and fully perswaded , that none of these before-mentioned instances are a summum bonum . and before i put a period to the enumeration of the adulterin greatest happinesse , i must tell you my scope in having declared them by a prejudicial style , or rather a style , which may seem to partake of a lightnesse , being altogether unbecoming to my intended purpose . in reference to the first , i confesse , i have a prejudice against them , as they are falsly taken and supposed to be the greatest happinesse , and may beguile us of the true happinesse ; and therefore i have detected and enquired into their height and highest degree of their good , delight or happinesse ; which to perform , i was compelled to make use of such kind of flashy and light expressions . viii . as they are good , and bear onely a representation of good , they are necessarily and highly to be imbraced : because they conduce to the enjoyment of the greatest good , and are effects , tokens and signs of it . meat and drink are preservatives of man , and therefore conduce to the enjoyment of the greatest good. they are created and ordained through the goodnesse of the greatest good , which is an effect , token , and sign of the greatest good. to imbrace these as good is to imbrace them with temperance ; whose potential parts are four : . abstinence , which consisteth in a moderation of eating . . sobriety , which consisteth in a moderation of drinking . the other two parts are chastity and shamefac'dnesse , which do consist in moderating the affections of man and woman towards one another . ix . riches , as they are external good things , are not to be absolutely rejected , if moderated according to the rules of liberality . they are the necessary means , through which all humane policy is exercised . x. affability , mutual converse and society , conduce much to man's edification in knowledge . hence doth aristotle define man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . man is a politick living creature . politick is to be inclinable to a mutual conversation . were it not , that man had the benefit of converse , he might require methusalem's years , for to furnish himself with a competent knowledge . xi . man , as he is alone , is a melancholly creature , and therefore needs a sutable companion to cheer him , whereby he is the better disposed for to receive a greater happinesse . the sutablenesse and delight , which he findeth in his fellow , doth fix his thoughts and his actions , and thereby diverteth him from infinite occasions of falling into evil . on the other side , men , that are single , are much inclined to wandring , and exposed thereby to all manner of temptations ; to covet illegal objects ; to act unlawfull actions , to the hazard and danger of their lives ; and above all to evil thoughts , which the devil doth suggest to them . if every man did adhere to a sutable companion , he could hardly commit evil : i mean sins of commission : for being prepossest through the pleasing fellowship of his consort , he could not covet any thing which was illegal : for did he covet any thing else above that which he doth enjoy , it supposeth a greater convenience in that object , which he doth covet : but since that , which he hath made choice of , is , next to the summum bonum , most sutable to him , he cannot let his desires slide another way . the worst actions , which men do act , are either when they are alone , or when they are in other company , and absent from their partner . when they are in other company , they are apt to be drunk , to swear , and to project base designs , which a man seldome or never doth perpetrate in the presence with his mate . or if he did , it is an hundred to one , if her fear , modesty , or some other vertue did not prevent him . man could seldome think evil thoughts , because his companion is supposed to divert him in proposing pleasant or usefull discourses . what woman is there , which can be inordinate in any of these fore-instanced actions , if she is suted to a mate , and adheres to his fellowship onely . 't is true , women and men , although both joyn'd in a constant adherence , have sometimes agreed in wicked designs ; but this hapneth alwayes in a couple unsutably paired , and consequently much given to wandring ; so that they did not contract that evil habit from themselves , but from others . had the first man and the first woman continued constantly together , it would have been a far harder task for the devil to have deluded them : but they being separated , although but for a few moments , and either of them admitting conference with the devil , were soon corrupted . what an easie task of government would it be , if most men were paired so , as never to be asunder from their fellow . they could hardly assent to mischief ; or if they were bent to it , law might sooner work upon their joint-interest , than if it were single . but take this only as by way of discourse . xii . it is necessary among men to give honour to whom it is due . and to return it with thanks , when they do deserve it . were it only to cause a distinction of persons , in respect to civil government , it doth imply a necessity . it is proper for us to know what honour is ; for how could we else acquit our duty in this part to god , to the supream magistrate , or to our parents ? xiii . we are not to be over-scrupulous in taking of an oath , provided it tend to the preservation of the commonwealth , and that the supream magistrate ( be it the king , prince , or plural magistrate ) do require it . we are obliged to it upon a double consideration : . because the magistrate doth command , or imposed it , which is obliging among all nations . . because it tends to the preservation of the whole body of the people . and this common reason doth convince to be binding . chap. viii . of the subject of natural theology . . man consisting of body and soul is the adequate subject of natural theology . . reasons proving the soul to be the original and principal subject of theology . . that the understanding and will are really and formally one . the confutation of the vulgar definition of will. a full explication of the will , and the manner of its acting . what speculalative and practical signifie . . what the will is in a large sense . . what the will is in a strict sense . . an explanation upon the first description of will. . the effects of the will. whether appetibility doth not equally imply volibility , and appetibility in a strict sense . . whether mans appetite is distinct from his will. i. the fourth question proposed is , which is the subject of natural theology ? by subject i mean the subjectum inhaesionis , wherein this habit is inherent . to answer you in general , the whole man , as he consisteth of soul and body , is the subject of theology ; for the effects of it , to wit happinesse and joy , are as sensibly received by the body , as by the soul : for the body receiveth its essence , conservation , and bodily pleasures from it * . the soul cannot alone be properly said to be the subject , because the soul without the body is not man. ii. the soul is originally and principally the subject of theology . i say originally , because the soul is the original cause of the pleasures of the body : yea , and of its constitution : for the body was created for the soul , and not the soul for the body . the soul is the original cause of the pleasures of the body , in that the soul doth make choice of them , and applieth them to the body : for example , meat , drink , and other pleasures are applyed to the body , in that the soul makes choice of them , and conceiveth them to be pleasant to the body ; otherwise the body could not attain to them . the soul can enjoy pleasures , when the body is in paine ; but the body cannot , when the soul is in paine . the soul is the principal subject of theology , because the greatest happinesse and good is enjoyed by it , the delights of the body not being comparable to them of the soul , the soul receiveth its pleasure by instants of time ; the body onely by succession . iii. the operation , whereby the soul doth imbrace the greatest good and happinesse , is from the understanding , as it is speculative and practick , and not as it is a two-fold faculty , formally distinct through the understanding and the will ; for these are not really and essentially distinct . i prove it : if the understanding cannot understand without the will , or the will without the understanding , then they are not really and essentially distinct : because it is proper to beings , which are really and essentially distinct , to operate without each other . but the understanding cannot understand without the will ; neither can the will will without the understanding . therefore they are not really distinct . i prove the minor : the will is primarly a bending of the understanding to an action of the mind ; but the understanding cannot understand , unlesse it bends to that action of the mind : so neither can the understanding be bent to action , unlesse it understandeth . wherefore the one doth imply the other . the most there is between them is a modal distinction . you may object , that it follows hence , that a man may be said to will , when he understandeth , to understand when he willeth : which predications are absurd . i answer , that it includes no absurdity at all : for a man , when he understandeth , doth will every particular act of the understanding , which he understandeth , or otherwise how could he understand ? on the other side , a man understandeth , when he willeth according to that trite saying , ignoti nulla cupido , that which a man doth not know , he cannot desire or will. wherefore i argue again , that the one includeth the other , the will implyeth the understanding , and the understanding the will. possibly you may deny my supposed definition of will , which is a bending to an action of the mind . if you refuse it , propose a better . your opinion , it may be is to wander with the multitude , and so you commend this : the will is , through which a man by a fore-going knowledge doth covet a sutable or convenient good , and shunneth an inconvenient evil . i will first account the absurdities of this definition , and afterwards prove them to be so . first , you affirm , that there fore-goeth a knowledge before a man willeth . secondly , that a man doth alwayes covet a convenient good . thirdly , that a man shunneth all inconvenient evil . fourthly , that the will alwayes either coveteth or shunneth . fifthly , the definition containeth superfluous words , as inconvenience and convenience . sixthly , you assert that two contrary acts proceed from one formal habit . seventhly , this definition is a division of a habit into its acts . eighthly , you do positively affirm , that the will is really and essentially distinct from the understanding . many more i might deduct , but these being sufficient , i shall now direct my pen to them particularly . first , you say , that there fore-goeth a knowledge before every act of the will. upon this i demand from you , how cometh the understanding to know ? you may answer , through her self : and what is it else , to know through ones self , but to know through ones own will ? ergo , the will is a concomitant of the understanding , and the understanding of the will , and consequently the one doth not precede the other . or thus , can the understanding know against her will , or without her will ? if so , then man is no voluntary creature , in that he acteth , without a will. secondly , you declare , that a man doth alwayes covet a convenient good . herein you contradict your self : for before you said , that the understanding did understand a volible object without or before the will : but to understand a volible object , is to will to understand it , and yet not covet it : therefore according to your own words , a man did not always covet through his will. . a man doth covet evil as evil : wherefore he doth not alwayes covet good . the antecedence i have proved above . . a man doth sometime covet an inconvenientgood : for he covets arsenick to kil himself . you will answer to this , that he doth covet it as a convenient good , for to ease him from some trouble or grief . by this solution you confound your self , in taking objective good and formal good for the same thing , which according to aristotle are different . if so , then your answer will not hold : for the question is concerning objective good , whereas your answer relates to a formal good . the ease , which a man findeth through the removal of trouble , is the formal good ; the arsenick is the objective good : this presupposed , the arsenick is good in it self , but relatively it is inconvenient to that man , for it destroyeth his essence . you may reply , that a man doth not take it to destroy his essence , but to release himself from his misery . notwithstanding i say , he knew before he took the ratsbane , that it would kill him ; wherefore this knowledge of inconvenience fore-going the willing of inconvenience , doth according to your own definition infer that he willed it , as inconvenient , because he fore-knew it to be inconvenient . thirdly , i say , that a man doth not alwayes shun an inconveent evil : because he doth not shun sicknesse , when he is diseased : neither can he shun all inconveniencies ; for he falleth into many . so likewise in the fore-given instance , he cannot shun sicknesse or death , although he may wish it remote from him , but that is not shunning of it : wherefore shunning is an improper term to be used in this definition . fourthly , you conceive , that the will alwayes doth either covet or shun . this is against most peripateticks , who say , that the will can suspend its action , which suspension is neither coveting or shunning . fifthly , since that good implieth convenience , and evil inconvenience , what need you to adde convenience and inconvenience : wherefore both must be superfluous . sixthly , to shun evil and to covet good , are two acts formally contrary : if so , how can these flow from one habit ? possibly you endeavour to escape the force of this objection , in saying , that the one may proceed per se , and the other per accidens from a formal habit . if i should grant this , your definition will prove illegal , because there must nothing be inserted into a definition , but what agreeth per se with the definitum . seventhly , this is rather an accidental division of a habit into its acts : wherefore this division is not so much as essential ; because it is not grounded upon the form of the divisum . eighthly , you conclude the will to be really and essentially different from the understanding . you make too much haste ; you should first shew , that the will and understanding are real beings ; and how will you do that according to your own received doctrine of real beings ? which teacheth , that they onely are real beings , which exist , or can exist without the understanding : if so , then the understanding , for to be a real being , must exist without its self ; and is not this absurd ? having made appear to you the falsity of the common doctrine of will , i come now to explain , how the understanding is made practical , and how speculative . wherefore in the first place , mark , what the understanding is . the understanding is the discerning , apprehending , or judging faculty of all objects , which are objected from without , or from within . the understanding judgeth of these objects according to their distinct representation . objects represent themselves in a two-fold manner : . essentially , when the essence consisting of all its modes united is represented to the understanding . . modally , which is , when one mode or more , is , or are singularly represented to the understanding . you may apprehend this better by an example . the essential representation of a bull is , wherein you perceive him by , or in all his modes united ; particularly in perceiving him in that shape , of having such a figure , of bearing horns , of being hairy and cloven-footed , of having unity , truth and perfection , &c. but when i conceive onely one of his modes , without conceiving any of the others , that is a modal representation ; as in conceiving his horns only , or the goodnesse of every mode by it self , or the goodness of the whole essence . observe then , these several concepts are several actions , because they are of several objects : which difference of action is called a material difference . again , this action is but one formally , and depends from one formal power ; so that one power can promote but one formal action : as in this instance ; the power , which my hand hath of writing , fitteth it to write several letters , as i. d. &c. the writing these several letters are distinct actions , because they differ in figure , which is a material difference : but then again , the action of writing is but one formally , flowing from one formal power of writing . so likewise a knife cutteth paper , wood , &c. the cutting of these are materially distinct actions ; but again the cutting is also but one formal action ; for a knife cutteth these through one vertue of sharpnesse , and therefore its power is but one formally . in the same manner , i say , doth the soul understand or perceive several objects ; as , in conceiving the entire essence of a being ; or its modes in particular ; as its goodnesse , unity , &c. these are all several actions differing materially one from the other ; for the conceiving of unity is not the conceiving of good , &c. again , the action of understanding or conceiving is but one formally flowing from one mind , or one understanding faculty , otherwise were it double , it would require a double name . moreover , there is but one first and formal faculty of all beings ; because all second faculties are derived from one : and what is this faculty in man , but the understanding ? whence it appeareth , that the understanding faculty is one formally , and manifold materially : or rather to speak more properly , the understanding faculty is but one , and its acts are many . according to this last caution , the understanding cannot be said to be speculative , or practick ; but its acts are either speculative or practick . or thus , the understanding is formally only speculative ; i mean speculative , as it is taken in an universal , indifferent and unlimited sense . further , the understanding is materially also speculative and practick . by speculative i mean an absolute and single habit of conceiving an essence or mode , without any other duplicated and relative action . * practick is attributed to the understanding , when it acteth ( that is understandeth ) upon an essence or mode by a duplicated and relative action . a relative action of the understanding is , when it considereth , and understandeth an object relatively , or related to another object , which among the most universal attributes of a being is goodness . so that to understand a being practically , is to understand it to be good , and related through that goodnesse to another being : as when i understand an ox to be good for plowing , carrying , &c. i consider him relatively , as related to another being : now then , this i call a practick act of the understanding , and from such acts is the understanding termed practical . hence let us examine , what difference there is between these two objects being variously acted upon by us , and wherein they do agree . the difference which there is between them ariseth from themselves , and is that the one is understood not to be the other : they agree in that they were apprehended or acted upon by one faculty of the mind , or that they are objects of one and the same faculty of the mind . the distinction , which there is imagined in the faculty is none , for it is the same faculty that understandeth a thing to be good , to be true , &c. a looking-glasse is not changed from being a glasse , because it represents several essences and modes ; as faces , hands , or legs : so neither is the understanding different or changed , because it discerns several objects . it may be one may say , that this is not the case ; but whether this practical understanding is the will , or not , is the doubt : for the will , you may imagine , is actually to move , or to act that , which the understanding hath conceived convenient : when a man conceiveth a thing to be good ; as in the before-mentioned instance of an oxe to be good for the plow , it is the action of the understanding , as it is practick ; and this cannot be called the will ; but the will is , when you act that , which the understanding hath conceived expedient to be acted ; as , when you put an oxe to plow after you have apprehended him to be good for it , doth issue from the will ; and is , as it were , a command of the soul upon the inferiour faculties to do that , which the understanding hath perceived to be practick : so that practick is that , whereby we act , and not whereby we may act . the understanding is named practick , because thence the soul may act that , which the understanding apprehendeth practick . the will is more properly termed practick , because thereby the soul doth act : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth action , which ( according to aristotle ) is either immanent or transient : so that praxis in a large sense , is predicated of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which is vulgarly referred to a transient action ) and of praxis , as it is strictly limited to an immanent action . to remove this objection , you must consider these notions : . that the soul is a single being , and therefore hath but one formal single power , which formal power seemeth ( but really is not ) to be different from it self , in that , in the brain it understandeth ; in the liver it sanguificateth ; in the muscles it moveth . these are onely external and material differences ; not formal ; for it is one and the same faculty of the soul , which moveth , understandeth , &c. . this question may be taken in a double meaning : . whether the will and understanding , in respect to the soul , are different faculties ? that is , whether the soul doth understand and will by two powers differing in themselves ? this is made clear in the discourse of powers . . whether these faculties in respect to themselves are really different : to wit , whether to refuse or imbrace an object , which are the acts of the will ; and to judge or apprehend it to be imbraced or refused , which is the act of the practick understanding , are different acts ; and consequently proceeding from habits materially different . now , take my answer . i say , that to will and understand an object practically , are acts really identicated , and proceed from one faculty of judgement or understanding . i prove it . to make an impression from within , upon the phansie , is an act of the intelligent faculty ; but to will and understand practically is caused by an impression from within upon the phansie . ergo , they are caused or proceed through one and the same act , from one and the same faculty , which is the understanding . i confirm the assumption by this instance : when a man doth will meat : . he makes a practical science upon it , and judgeth it to be good or convenient for his body : next after this , he doth judge it necessary for him ; as , to eat , when his stomack is hungry : . he judgeth the means , whereby to procure it , to be a local motion ; as , through which a man doth move towards his meat , and moveth it unto his stomack . . he judgeth , that to make a motion to an object , is by moving the spirits of the phansie towards that object , which motion excites all the other spirits , contained in the external members , to move to the same object . lastly , to judge is to be moved by an impression of any species upon the phansie , which the agent understanding made thereon : so that these four judgements of the understanding are impressions and motions upon , and in the phansie , which being constituted , the will is also constituted . you may then observe , that the will is not a single act , but one act composed out of many single acts , and united one to the other by a subordination . all these four motions concurring to a will are effected by one faculty , and therefore are not different . these four acts are ( as it were ) parts , which constitute a will : for one being deficient , a man cannot will , unlesse he judgeth an object to be good ; he cannot covet it , neither will he covet it , unlesse he judgeth it necessary to make up a pleasure , or to supply a need ; for there are many things , which are good , and yet we do not covet them , because we do not judge them necessary for to make up a pleasure or need . these two are to no purpose , if the apprehension of means be not framed , the understanding being now bent and inclined to an object , makes an impression upon the animal spirits lodged within the feat of the phansie : for how can the understanding otherwise judge of means , unlesse it makes an impression of them upon the phansie ? which is no sooner done , but all the members move . the phansie is like unto the spring of a watch , which being moved , all the wheeles are moved by it . all these acts , we see proceed from one agent intellect , and are all acts of that faculty , and why should they then be counted to be really different from one another ? iv. . the will is , whereby the understanding of man is inclined to action . the will , as i have shewed , is an act of the understanding , wherefore i do define it by the understanding faculty . note that will here is the same with the practick underderstanding . v. . the will ( in a strict sense ) is an action of the understanding upon an object , as farre as it is appetible , or inappetible . will in the first definition is supposed to be the inclination or motion of the understanding to action : that is to any action in general ; whether to good or to evil ; to a single , or reflex action ; to one single or many actions subnected to one another . the understanding , when it doth understand , it first willeth and inclineth to that action , before it can be said to understand : if then , there be any priority imaginable between the understanding and the will ( as scarce there is ) the will must precede the understanding . but , as i said , there is none : because inclining to action , and to be in action are the same thing : neverthelesse we may suppose them to be distinguisht ratione : and a parte rei they are distinguisht materially . here may be objected , that that , whereby the understanding is inclined to action , is the object : for it is the object , which doth incline the understanding to action : wherefore the object is the will , which is absurd . you have almost rightly apprehended my meaning ; it is true , that through the object the understanding is moved to action : for without an object the understanding could not act : and from the object is the understanding said to act , and receiveth the denomination of acting from it : but now , it doth not follow , that the will is the object : yet materially it is in the object ; formally in the understanding . you may furnish your self with another objection , which is , that it followeth hence , that the understanding is alwayes practick , and never speculative . to this i answer , that practick either implieth action , and a bending to action , whether the object , in which that action doth terminate , be within , or without : or the acting and bending only to an external object , which action upon an external object is not single but many ; besides it must be also related to the goodnesse of an object : according to the former implication the understanding is alwayes practick , when it doth understand ; according to the letter it is not . vi. the second definition is more strict and limited , the will here being determined either to an appetibility ( which denotech either a convenience primarly , or a farther constitution , preservation and perfectionation , pleasure , or goodnesse in the object ; secundarily and per accidens , an evil and imperfectionation ) whereby the understanding is incited to a second and farther action ; or inappetibility . scaliger in his cccviith exerc. . d. defineth the will very consentaneous , to what it is set down for here . the will ( saith he ) is the understanding extended to have , or to do that , which it apprehendeth . by this he consenteth , that the will and understanding are the same really . that , which he intendeth by an extended understanding , is before implyed by a farther and second action of the understanding . it is a true saying of his , that the will is the understanding extended , or judgement prolonged : for when one doth ask you , whether you will go to sleep ; first , you judge what sleep is , then you prolong your judgement in judging sleep to be necessary ; thirdly , you extend your concept , untill you conclude that you will go to sleep ; and what is this , but the understanding prolonged . by a farther action , the will is distinct from speculation , whereby an object is conceived only by a first intention , without the consequence of any farther action : by action , i intend effection , or doing . vii . the acts of will , in a strict sense , are to imbrace , or to reject an object . the object of the will is a being , as far as it is appetible , or unappetible . this faceth somewhat against the customary speech of philosophers , who attribute appetite primarly to animals and naturals : and secundarily to man ; if so , then appetibility is not the ratio formalis of the object of the will , but of the appetite . so that volibility ( if such a word might be suffered ) is rather the proper object of the will. herein are two questions contained . . whether appetibility be not a word equally denoting volibility and appetibility in a restrained sense . . whether man's appetite is distinct from his will. to the first i answer , that appetibility is equally attributed to man , and to other creatures : i prove it : aristotle defined good to be that , which all beings have an appetite unto : if so , then appetability is common to man , since that man is a being , and hath an appetite unto good. ix . the second doubt is somewhat more involved in bryan . scaliger in the same exerc. alledged in the next fore-going paragraph , states a difference between the appetite of man , and his will. for appetites ( saith he ) are propensities to natural conveniences : with which we are born , like as with our senses : wherefore the appetite is moved either from our sense , or fancy , or memory ; from which again that power is moved , which we call the will. wherefore the appetite is before the will , that is , before that act , whereby we will a thing . thus farre scaliger . if this be true , it is a paradox , that one and the same object through one formal manner of moving should move two formal powers of one being . how can this be ? one being hath but one formal power , whereby it is distinct from all others . so man hath but one formal power , which is his power of reasoning , through which he is distinguisht from all other beings : wherefore the appetite of man is not distinct from his will. but scaliger saith , that the appetite is sometime checked by the will. ergo , they are different . the antecedence is evident in this instance : a man doth frequently long for a thing , which his will doth contradict ; as in coveting for drink , when he hath a drowth , or in longing for sack in a feaver , the will doth not alwayes assent to it : wherefore the will is different from them appetites , because the one can be existent without the other in answer to this i say , that these are not properly appetites , to which ( namely appetites ) a knowledge doth necessarily concur ; but they are only improperly and analogically termed appetites , because they agree with a proper appetite in having an inclination to a thing . wherefore a proper appetite being alwayes concomitated by a knowledge , these fore-mentioned instances cannot be denominated appetites , but natural inclinations and propensities : for if a man is predicated to have an appetite for any thing , it is equivalent , as if he were predicated to have a will to a thing : wherefore there is only one proper appetite in man , as he is man , which is his will. chap. ix . of free-will by reason . . wherein man doth most differ from animals or naturals . . to what acts the freedom of man's will , in reference to its acting , doth extend . what the freedom of will is , quoad exercitium actus , and what libertas contradictionis is . . what the second kind of freedom of will importeth . . that the speculative understanding in the act of speculation is practick . . that the will is not constrained to will a good thing , although present : but hath a power of rejecting it . . that the will willeth evil for an evil end . that some men are worse than devils . . what the will 's freedom is in specifying its acts . . what free-will is in reference to its faculty . . velten rejected for asserting that the will is not indifferent to each contrary . that the will is indifferent to each contradictory opposite . . that the will is free to act , or not to act . . that the will is free to act upon particular objects , whether good or evil . the state of the controversie . . that man as he is in a natural and corrupt state hath a free-will of doing a moral good , or a moral evil act . . that man hath not a free-will of doing a theologick good act immediately through himself without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . . man hath a free-will of doing a theologick good act with an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . that he hath a free-will of election . . that man , as he is in a natural state , hath a free-will , through himself , and without gods extraordinary concurrence , to procure gods extraordinary concurrence and assistance to him in his actions . that our being and conservation in it , and all our actions depend from the ordinary concurrence of god. reasons , why god did not conferre upon him an absolute power of acting without his ordinary concourse . the cause of man's fall . that that which is only morally good will prove theologick evil at last . . arguments to prove a free-will in man. a reconciliation of the calvinists with the arminians . that man hath a remnant of theologick good surviving in him . the state of the controversie . the division of it . i. the chief respect , through which a man doth differ from animals or naturals , is his will , which is a free principle , through which he acteth freely , that is , without any irresistable impulse ; for there is no object , whether good or evil ; pleasant or sorrowfull , but it is left to the wils freedom , whether it will imbrace it , or reject it . ii. the freedom of man's will , in reference to its act , is either a determination or assent , of man to act , or not to act : or else it is an assent to act upon a certain object , or not to act upon that certain object : o●to act upon a certain mode of an object , or not to act upon that certain mode : or to act upon the goodnesse of an object in common , or particular , or not to act upon the goodnesse of such objects : or to act upon the evil of an object in common or particular , or not to act upon the evil of rhat object ; or to act upon good , or upon evil . these are the particulars , whereunto the freedome of man's will doth extend . and first , a man hath freedom of acting , or of not acting , through his will. a man in willing to sleep , he willeth to will no more , before he hath refreshed himself by sleep . so that herein a man hath a will of acting or not acting indeterminately , which sort of willing freedome is termed , libertas quoad exercitium actus . such a freedom of will there is in man : for a man in willing to sleep willeth not to will , that is , not to act through his will. a man in willing not to sleep may will to will , or to continue in action of willing or understanding . this is a plain libertas contradiction is ad actionem , & non actionem , sive ad agendum & non agendum : for it is between an ens and a non ens . iii. the second kind of freedom in the will is to act upon an object : i mean a whole essence or object , as it doth consist of all its modes united : as for instance , a man may covet a whole tree , or only a branch of it ; a whole house , or only a room . now in coveting a whole tree , or a whole house , he coveteth an entire essence with all its modes : or else a man may also reject a whole tree or house ; and so rejecteth a whole essence . iv. thirdly , the will may choose to act upon a particular mode , as the truth or quantity of an essence , &c. for it makes choice to act ( that is to apprehend or contemplate ) upon these modes particularly . neither let it seem strange to you , that the understanding or will in contemplation should be termed willing or practick : for in that very contemplation the understanding is practick , for it doth both act and will that action . v. fourthly , the will may act upon the goodnesse of an object in particular , or it may refuse it . herein i do thwart some authours , who strive to prove the contrary , to wit , that the will , when it doth act upon a good object , it cannot refuse it , but doth alwayes covet it . others do with more caution assert , that the will of man cannot reject or refuse the most universal good ; for which purpose they quote austin , . b. . chap. of confes. were it possible ( saith he ) to ask all men at once , whether they would be happy ? they would answer without any further pa●sing upon it , they would . but suppose this were granted ( as really it is disputable , there being many in the world so wicked , that if they were invited to imbrace the true summum bonum , either for to bid adieu to their own spurious happinesse , or to wave their obstinate opinions , they would rather excuse themselves ; as i once heard a jesuite cry out in a dispute , that he would sooner choose to be damned with st. austin , then go to heaven with a protestant . ) yet they need arguments to prove that a particular good may not be waved , although perceived by the understanding : how many are there , who neglect and revile many good things , such as are convenient for their souls and bodies ? besides , this granted infers a necessity upon man's will , whereby he is cut off from not willing ; which implyes a contradiction in the will of not to be the will. vi. fifthly , the will acteth upon the evil of an object , in that it can refuse or imbrace it , as it is evil , and as it knoweth it to be evil , without having an apprehension of any goodnesse in it . a man can hang himself , or kill another , without apprehending any thing good in it , and he can also refuse it . since that all beings act for an end and purpose , it may be demanded , what end and purpose can a man have in coveting an evil object , as it is evil ? i answer , an evil end . the devils covet evil , as it is evil ; for none can imagine the least good in devils : if so , why may not men covet evil as evil , many among them being worse than devils . it is worse to persevere in evil and wickednesse in the midst of the enjoyments of good things , than to affect evil without the least enjoyment of good ; but atheists persevere in the greatest evil in the midst of good things ; wherefore they are to be accounted worse than devils , who affect evil without the least enjoyment of good . vii . lastly , a man may will either a good object or an evil one . this is an action of will , as it is free to contraries , and is called among philosophers ( libertas quoad specificationem actus ) a freedom of will in specifying an act , that is , an affecting an object in particular , as it is opposite to another appetible object in contrariety ; which is to will an object , as it is good , or as it is evil ; pleasant , or sorrowfull , &c. the preceding distinctions of the acts of will , proceed from her , as she is free quoad contradictoria , or quoad exercitium actus . viii . hence you may know , that free-will ( liberum arbitrium ) in reference to its faculty , is an indetermination or indifference in the will of man of acting or not acting , and of acting upon good or evil . neverthelesse it is a controversie among moralists : . whether the will be indifferent to each opposite , which opposites are either between contradictories , as between acting , and not acting : or between contraries , as between acts upon good or evil . . whether the will is free in all its acts . vilsten . cent. . dec. . q. . states two conclusions for the resolving of these doubts . . saith he , the will is not indifferent to each contrary , to wit , to good and evil . his reason is , because the will cannot covet evil as evil ; but when the will doth covet evil , it is rather forced than free , because it is an evil disposition doth compell her to it : wherfore that being against nature , it is rather to be accounted violent than free . first , he saith , the will cannot covet evil , as evil : next he affirms , that the will can covet evil , but then she is forced . this is a manifest contradiction , that the will can covet evil , and cannot covet evil . again , that the will should covet evil by coaction from within , is to contradict most philosophers , whose tenent is , that the will cannot be forced from within : besides , to grant this , would be to suppose that man did act necessarily , like unto naturals . further , it would be very severe , should god punish us , for doing an act , when we cannot do otherwise . ix . his second conclusion is , that the will of man is indifferent to each contradictory opposite : because she can act upon a good object in particular , and forbear . herein he speaks the truth : but this is no more truly concluded , but it is as fallaciously opposed by others : their argument is ; because souls in heaven cannot but love god , and the damned cannot but hate him : both these acting freely , it followeth that the will is not indifferent to contradictories . this infers nothing to the present dispute of man's will , only of souls in heaven and devils . but i passe to the second doubt proposed , whether the will of man is free in all her acts . inorder to the clearing of this doubt , you are to observe it . . that the acts of the will are of acting , or not acting ; or of acting upon a particular object , so as to covet it , or to reject it . . that the act of the will after its whole assent or conclusion , is not the will it self , and therefore freedom is not to be attributed to the act , but to the power or faculty . this premised i po●● , x. . that the will is free to act , or not to act . if man is free to think , or not to think , he is free to will , or not to will ; because a man's thought is alwayes concomitant to his will. but a man is free to think , or not to think . ergo , he is free to will or not to will. the assumtion is confirmed in the second paragraph . xi . . the will is free to act upon particular objects , as they are good or evil . by will i mean the will of man , as he is in a natural and corrupt state , not as he is in a supernatural or preternatural estate ; for in the first he cannot covet evil ; in the last he cannot covet good . neither is it to be understood of man , as he was in an incorrupt state , most granting , that he could covet good and evil : but the question is , whether man as he is in a corrupt condition , and prone to evil , cannot do a good act , as much as the first man being prone to good did an evil act . observe also that good is either theologick good , or moral good ; and so is evil . the question here is concerning moral good and evil . lastly , you are to understand here the freedom of man's will , as he acteth with the ordinary concurrence of god : and not , as he acteth , with an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . xii . man , as he is in a natural and corrupt state , hath a free-will of doing a moral good act , or a moral evil act . what moral good and evil , and theologick good and evil is , i have already set down in the d , th and th chapters . i prove this position . what ever a man doth act with the fore-knowledge of his understanding , doth proceed from his free-will : but man acteth moral evil , and moral good , with the fore-knowledge of his understanding : ergo , man doth act moral evil , and moral good through his free-will . i confirm the minor : there are none that deny , that man doth moral evil with the fore-knowledge of his understanding . that man doth act a moral good act from himself without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him , it appeareth ; in that he can and doth covet meat and drink in moderation ; and in that he can and doth help the poor and needy ; and in that he can moderate his passions : all these are moral good acts . they are good acts , in that they do perfectionate man in his essence : they are moral , in that they proceed from man's free-will , and foreknowledge . xiii . man hath not a free-will of doing a theologick good act immediately through himself , and without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . a theologick good act is such , as god doth require from us , and as he first gave man a power of acting it : since then we have not such a power , as god first gave unto man of acting good : it followeth , that we cannot act such good acts through our selves , as god doth require from us . xiv . man hath a free-will of doing a theologick good act with an extraordinary concurrence of god with him . if god doth concur with man in his actions in an extraordinary manner , no doubt but god can and doth make them theologically good , that is , good in the highest perfection ; and such , as he himself doth require from us . man , being so assisted through the extraordinary assistance of god , acteth freely notwithstanding ; for it is still in his choice , whether he will do such a theologick good act or not . when god doth assist us in an extraordinary manner , it is not without our free-will ; for we must first will and desire it with a burning desire , before god will assist us , which burning desire doth move him to assist us ; neither will god refuse us , because he is most good , and most mercifull . now then , when this desire ceaseth in us , then gods extraordinary assistance ceaseth with it ; if then we can forbear this desire , and continue it , we have still our free-wils . besides , we also have a free-will of election , that is , of making choice of one good object before another . xv. . man as he is in a natural state hath a free-will through himself , and without an extraordinary concurrence of god with him , to procure gods extraordinary concurrence and assistance with and to him in his actions . the means , whereby a natural man doth appropriate it , is by fervent prayer : so that man having a free-will of procuring gods extraordinary concurrence , hath a free-will mediately to act a theologick good act . before i prove the first branch of this sub-conclusion , you are to mark , that we can do no action at all , through our selves alone , without the ordinary concurrence of god with us : for god hath not given us an absolute power of being and acting , without the concurrence of his preservating and assisting power ; if he had , he would have given all the power over us out of his hands , which is impossible and unsuitable to the king of kings to give away all his glory , honour and dominion . again , had he done so , we should have returned the thanks due for so great a goodness , in envying and reviling of him . wherefore it followeth , that god hath reserved a preservating and assisting power to himself , without which we cannot continue in our beings , or do any action . if the first man could have been , and acted through himself , and that without gods assistance , he could never have died , but since that he died , and could not maintain himself in his being , and in that most perfect essence , wherein he was created , without adhering to gods power ; therefore he having deserted that power but for a moment , and confiding upon his own , immediately fell , and was almost utterly corrupted and lost : if then that the first man in that perfect essence could not subsist or act through himself alone without gods aid , much less can we in this deflected state , and weak nature , subsist or act without gods assistance . this assistance is gods ordinary assistance , for were it extraordinary , we should then act as perfectly as the first man did before his deficience . . after the probation of the necessity of gods ordinary and extraordinary concurrence , i come now to prove , that man , being assisted with gods ordinary power , can and doth procure gods extraordinary concurrence . man , as he is in a natural state * , may and doth know , that he hath still some spark of theologick good remaining in him ; for all men can and do know naturally , that there is a god ; that there is a law enjoyned by god upon men , as his subjects ; that that law is perfect ; that his actions are observed and acknowledged by him to be evil and sinfull ; that through himself , without gods extraordinary aid , he cannot act that , which god doth require from him ; that god is almighty , good , and mercifull , and therefore god will not deny any request of good , proceeding from a spark of theologick good , because therein man hath still something in him , through which he resembleth god , which god will not abolish , and hath tyed himself through his bountifull promises not to destroy . all these acts and knowledges proceed from a theologick good principle , and therefore man is partly theologically good , to whom , if he useth that natural power and means remaining in him , god will not deny a supply against his defect . the natural power and means , which a man doth naturally and ordinarily put in action to procure gods extraordinary assistance , is his power of praying with zeal and earnestness : for a man whenever he is in danger , great need , and intollerable pain , doth naturally beg and implore help . therefore a zealous and earnest praying is a natural power , ( which nature doth prompt us to ) and means to procure gods extraordinary assistance . lastly , from all this it is undoubtedly true and evident , that man through himself , and with the ordinary concurss of god with him , doth and can procure gods extraordinary assistance , which having procured , he hath a free-will of acting theologick good . . that which is only morally good , will prove theologick evil at last . a thing may properly be said to be good , although at last it changeth into evil and corruption ; for as a tree , which is a good natural thing , changeth to an intire corruption , when it dieth : so a natural man whilest he liveth is morally good , and doth moral good acts ; but when he dieth , he becomes entirely corrupted , and altogether evil , that is , theologically evil . xvi . . to shut up this succinct dispute of free-will : i say , that man without free-will is no man , but a beast : that man might justly be excused for his evil acts : for had he no principle , whereby he acted freely , but did act necessarily and by compulsion or coaction of the divine power , he could not act evil , it being impossible to god to act evil ; or if man did act evil , it would be without a will , and therefore it could be no sinne : that man could not be termed the cause of his moral actions , but god. many other inconveniencies and absurdities do ensue in denying this truth , which to produce will prove tedious . by this we may easily reconcile the calvinists with the arminians . the calvinists may rightly say , that man through himself cannot act a good act , that is , cannot act a theological good act , with the ordinary concurrence of god only . the arminians may with no lesse confidence assert , that man hath a free will of doing good through himself , that is , hath a means and principle resting in him , whereby he may mediately do a theologick good act through himself , and by that means may procure god's extraordinary concurrence : but the greatest controversie , probable to arise between them , in my opinion is , whether a man hath a free-will , or a remnant of theologick good in him , whereby he may procure god's extraordinary assistance through himself ; or whether god doth stirre up that spark of good , being moved through his own mercy , and not by what can proceed from man : for many hold , that man hath no spark of good remaining in him , and consequently cannot be thence supposed to have a free-will to beg god's extraordinary assistance ; but it is god , who doth out of his singular goodnesse , free-will , and pleasure , towards singular men , cast , and infuse a measure of theologick good in them , through which they are made capable of having accesse to god , and of praying to him : and this they say scripture implies by a new creation , regeneration , conversion , or the becoming of a new man. no doubt but this latter tenent is erroneous and absurd . first , they affirm , that man hath no spark of theologick good remaining in him . this is false , as hath been proved already , and shall be demonstrated more at large elsewhere . secondly , hereby they imply , that man doth alwayes act evil , and consequently acteth evil necessarily without a free-will : and wherein doth he then differ from a beast ? thirdly , should god cast his mercy or goodnesse upon that , which is altogether evil ; it followeth , that god should love that , which is altogether evil ; but that is repugnant to god's nature , that being most good doth necessarily reject that from it , which is most evil . fourthly , should god stirre up that spark of good in man , it proveth , that that good is of no efficacy , and for no purpose , which is repugnant to common reason , concluding , that all things , which are , are for to operate , and for an end , and are not in vain : therefore this spark of good doth , and can operate for an end , to save it self , and glorifie god : especially being accompanied with god's ordinary concurrence , it is directly , as by a guide , led to god's extraordinary concurrence and assistance . so then , if there be a spark of theologick good remaining in man , as without doubt there is , it is of the same nature with that , which was in the first man before his fall , who having a free-will to good and evil , infers , that this spark must necessarily retain the same free-will to good and evil , but in an improportionable manner , since that man's will is much more habituated to evil , which doth much dead that weak remnant of good in him . it is certain , god doth equally impart his mercy and goodnesse to natural men , because they are of an equal state : then again i object ; if so , then all men would become theologically good , which is erroneous : wherefore i say , god is no more good or mercifull to one natural man , than to another , and consequently there must be somewhat in men , whereby one doth move god to mercy before another ; and what is that , but that spark of good ? notwithstanding this inference holds good only ordinarily , and doth not infer , but that god extraordinarily may be pleased out of his free-will and pleasure to conferre bounties and mercies upon those to whom he will be bountifull and mercifull . xvi . . it is a simple question to demand , whether the will is free at that instant , when it acteth ; which is as much , as if you enquired , whether the act of the will were free . certainly , there can be no freedom allotted to the act or effect of an efficient : for that followeth necessarily . posita causa ponitur effectus . the cause being stated , the effect is also stated . by the act of the will i mean the consent of the will , or the last execution of it : which is named actus imperatus . but if the question be understood de actu eliciendo , then no doubt , but the will is free at the same instant , when it acteth : for when would it be free else , were it not when it acteth ? this query may be apprehended thus , whether the will is free : that is , whether it doth not act necessarily è suppositione . necessitas è suppositione is , through which the will cannot act otherwise than it acteth , when it doth act . according to this supposition it doth act necessarily : nam impossibile est idem simul esse & non esse : for it is impossible , that a thing should be , and not be at the same instant . neverthelesse this doth not clip any whit from the freedom of man's will : for freedom of the will is properly in actum eliciendo , and in actum imperando , but not in actu elicito , vel imperato : that is , before the act is consented unto : for the will , before she consenteth to any act , can determinate it freely to either opposite . in short , the will is free in its faculty , but its acts are necessary . chap. x. of free-will from scripture . . objections from scripture against man's free-will . . an answer to the said objections . . objections proving that moral good is evil . . the first objection answered . . the second objection removed . . some other texts produced against free-will in man. . the first text reconciled . . the second objection removed . . arguments deduced from faith . an answer to the said arguments . . the first argument drawn from scripture to prove man's free-will to good and evil . . a second argument proving the same , . a third argument . . many other texts inferring the same . . texts proving a remnant of good in man. . texts proving that a natural man cannot do a theologick good act through himself , and being only assisted with the ordinary concurss of god. . scriptures inferring , that a supernatural man hath no free-will to direct contraries , that is , to do theologick good and evil . an answer to some texts produced by bellarmin . . scripture proofs concluding , that the means , whereby god's extraordinary concurrence is procured , is in man , and adheres to his free-will . . whether man's actions performed with god's extraordinary assistance are to be taken for the actions of god , or of man. . a reconciliation of the ninth to the romans . the unfolding of predestination , or of god's eternal decree . i. the precedent dispute touching free-will , is not so much held among natural men , as between them , who conceive themselves to be gifted . as for the first , i have already endeavoured to satisfie them . and as for these last , they alledging sacred texts for their opinions , plead with more force than the former : wherefore it will not be amisse to examine their arguments , and afterwards to produce such others , as most orthodox divines do urge for the proof of their tenents . the first scripture , which they seem to produce against us , is that in the prov. . . a mans heart deviseth his way ; but the lord directeth his steps . and in chap. . . the kings heart is in the hand of the lord , as the rivers of water : he turneth it whither soever he will. and in the next fore-going chapter , vers . . mans goings are of the lord ; how can a man then understand his own way ? jer. . . o lord , i know that the way of man is not in himself , it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps . phil. . . for it is god , which worketh in you both to will and to do , of his good pleasure . ii. in answer to these , i confesse , they are most undoubted truths ; but they are so farre from making against us , that they prove part of what i stated in the fore-going chapter . without god , we cannot act , will , or live : that is , through our selves alone , and without god's ordinary concurrence with us : so that solomon saith well , that man may devise his way , that is , god hath given man a power of acting , but the lord directeth his steps ; that is , he hath not given man so absolute a power , but that he needs god's ordinary concurrence . so st paul : god worketh in you both to will and to do : that is , hath given us a will and an essence , through which we do act ; and god doth conservate us in that will and essence ; for without his continual influence we cannot abide in our being , or actions . but that , which they ought to prove , is , that god's concurrence with man in his actions taketh away his free-will . iii. they may also oppose against the . subconclus . of the . conclus . in the ninth chapter , to wit , that moral good is absolutely evil . rom. . . because the carnal mind is enmity against god , &c. but moral good is effected by them , who are carnally minded : therefore it is enmity against god , that is absolutely evil . rom. . . for whatsoever is not of faith is sin : but moral good is not of faith . ergo , it is a sin or evil . matth. . . but in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men . but moral good acts are onely such , as the doctrine of man teacheth : therefore they are in vain , and evil . iv. i answer to the first , and except against the major , which is , what ever proceeds from a carnal mind is absolutely evil . i distinguish , that evil is two-fold : . evil in particular ( malum in particulari ) which is effected from an evil individual , or particular man. . evil in common ( malum in communi ) or absolute evil , which is evil in it self , and is evil if performed by any man , whether good or evil . take my solution thus : what ever proceeds from a carnal minded man , is evil in particular relatively , as it proceeds from him , because it is from an evil man in particular : but this evil in particular doth not make that evil in common , that is , evil to all . for example : eating and drinking in an evil man , or what ever an evil man doth is evil : but because eating and drinking is evil in an evil man , it doth not follow that eating and drinking is evil to all , so as to extend also to good men ; now , eating and drinking , and what ever an evil man doth , is evil , because he eats and drinks unworthily and ungratefully , in not acknowledging god to be the creator of the food , which is set before him , and in not returning thanks for it , thes. . . so that i say , whatever an evil man doth is evil , because he doth it unworthily . hence i may deny the minor , and say , that a moral good act , which is effected by an evil man , is evil in particular , neverthelesse it abides moral good , that is , good in common , tit. . . wherefore this concludes nothing against my assertion ; viz. that a natural man can do a moral good act ; that is , if he be a good natural or moral man : for it is possible to a natural man to be good and evil , and yet be natural . v. as to the second , i deny the minor : because moral good in a good natural man is of faith , yet not of entire faith : for he believeth that god gave him his being , and power of acting : he believeth in god , that he will supply him in all defects . of this more elswhere . so that the major is most true : for whatever is not of faith , is sin . all our actions must be good , that is , such as god doth require from us : but if we do not believe god or believe in him , we cannot perform such actions , as are pleasing to him : for in not believing him is to rob god of all his attributes , of his mercy , goodnesse , power , &c. therein they make god a liar ; and no wonder then , if men's actions are evil in god's sight , when they perform them without faith . the last objection doth require little else for answer , than what was made to the first . vi. further , there are other texts offer'd , arguing that man hath no free-will to do good or evil . that he hath no free-will to do good is proved by the th chapter of gen. . vers . and god saw that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth , and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely evil continually . gen. . . for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth . rom. . . for i know that in me dwelleth no good thing . job . . how much more abominable and filthy is man , which drinketh iniquity like water , cor. . . eccles. . . hence they conclude , that man doth alwayes act evil , and consequently hath no free-will to good . vii . i answer , that these texts do not imply man in general , that is , all men , but only wicked men , or the most part of men . i prove it . were all men implyed by these texts , then there never were any good men : but there were many good men then , as moses , abraham , &c. therefore all men are not implyed by the said texts . . and particularly to the first text : i say , that there were many men ( but they were not natural : for had they been natural they could not have been so perverse as quite to have forgotten god and to have denied him ) who were preternaturally evil : that is , confirmd atheists , who plainly deni'd god's essence , or existence . no doubt these cannot doe a good act , or think a good thought ; because they act and think with an entire and absolute unbelief : wherefore it is a certain moral saying , that none can do good without faith . again , that man hath no free-will to evil , is inferred by that scripture of the th to the romans : for the good , that i would do , i do not ; but the evil , which i would not , that i do . jer. . . can the ethiopian change his skin , or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good , that are accustomed to do evil . hence they infer , that a man acteth evil necessarily . in the first place , the question is not of an evil action , but of a free-will to will good and evil : wherefore the first quotation makes for us : that a man doth will good , although he doth not alwayes act it : for saith he , the good , which i would do , i do not , here the apostle speaks of himself , as he is a natural man , for as otherwise no question he could will good and do good . if as a natural man , then a natural man can will good , although he doth not act that good , which he willeth ; the reason hereof the apostle doth immediately after expresse in these words ; i find then a law , that when i would do good , evil is present with me ; and a little after : but i see another law in my members , warring against the law of my mind , &c. which amounts to this , that man in a natural state hath a free-will to good and evil , yet much more to evil ; because the will is moved by a two-fold principle . . by it self , when it doth represent a certain object to it self without being moved by the inclination of the body . . by the inclination of the body , which is a strong appetite , which men are subjected unto through the forcible propensities of their body's : yea oftentimes this proveth so strong , that it easily bendeth the will to its aim . now , when the will is moved through it self without being incited by the appetite of the body , it doth and can do good , and leave it . viii . the second scripture proveth the impossibility of good in atheists , or in any without the ordinary concurss of god. ix . there may be farther urged , that a natural man naturally hath no faith , and consequently cannot do a good act . rom. . . so then , faith cometh by hearing , and hearing by the word of god : wherefore a natural man cannot believe , because he doth not hear the word of god. i answer , that the apostle speaks of the extraordinary means of faith , and not of the ordinary . a natural man then believeth naturally , or by ordinary means . or thus , the word of god is either written , or imprinted in men's hearts : i say then , that in the first sense faith doth come by attending and hearkning to the word of god , which is imprinted in all men's hearts , except in atheists , in whose hearts the law of god is quite blotted out . phil. . . for unto you it is given in the behalf of christ , not onely to believe on him , &c. ergo , faith is not natural . i answer , that faith through christ is given , and is supernatural ; but faith , whereby we believe there is a god , and that he is mercifull , and therefore will find a means to save us , is natural : although we cannot actually know or believe the assigned means , whereby he will save us . wherefore there is onely a partial faith in natural men , and not a compleat and entire faith : for they cannot believe naturally in christ , unlesse it be given to them from god , as the text doth evidently expresse . many more are produced : as that of acts . . rom. . . heb. . . all which may be easily answered from what hath been explained just now . x. it is time , that i should prepare to defend my own positions with the same force , as was used by them of the contrary opinion . that there is a free-will of doing good and evil in natural men , i prove by the cor. . . neverthelesse he , that standfast in his heart having no necessity , but hath power over his own will , and hath decreed so in his heart , that he will keep his virgin , doth well . first , the apostle teacheth that a man doth not act necessarily ( having no necessity ) but contingently , that is , voluntarily . secondly , that he hath a free will : what is to have a power over his will else , but to enjoy a freedom of will ; and that either in acting or not acting ; and not only so , but in acting good or evil , and quoad specificationem actus : as expresly in keeping of his virgin , which is a good act . xi . acts . . whiles it remained , was it not thine own ? and after it was sold , was it not in thine own power ? here is particularly implyed a free-will of doing evil or good . either ananias might have given the whole price of the possession , or part . in choosing to give a part under pretext of the whole , he chose evil : or otherwise he might have chosen to give the whole , and so might have chose good ; for it was in his own power , as the text holds forth . xii . deut. . . for this commandment , which i command thee this day , is not hidden from thee , neither is it farre off . it is not in heaven , nor beyond the seas , that thou shouldest say , who shall go up for us to heaven , and bring it to us ? or , who shall go beyond the seas for us , and bring it unto us , that we may hear and do it ? but ( saith moses ) the word is very nigh unto thee , in thy mouth , and in thy heart , that thou mayest do it . what is more plain , then that hereby is intended a free-will , which a man hath of doing good or evil . xiii . prov. . . deliver thy self as a roe from the hand of the hunter , and as a bird from the hand of a fowler . this holds forth , that a man can deliver himself from evil , yet not without god's concurss . psal. . . understand ye brutish among the people : and ye fools , when will ye be wise ? ergo , a natural man hath a power of understanding , if he will ; or else may refuse it . or an ignorant man hath a will of being wiser and knowing ; or of rejecting wisdome and knowledge . matth. . . how often would i have gathered thy children together , even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings , and ye would not : ergo , man had a will of coming to god : for other wayes god would have called upon them in vain , which is impossible . the same may be inferred from prov. . . isa. . . if ye be willing and obedient ; ye shall eat the good of the land , but if ye refuse and rebell , &c. ergo , man can will and refuse . rev. . isa. . . eccles. . . zech. , &c. xiv . the next thing , i come to prove , is , that man hath a spark or remnant of good in him . rom. . . for when the gentiles , which have not the law , do by nature the things contained in the law : these having not the law are a law to themselves . which sheweth the work of the law written in their hearts , their conscience bearing witnesse , &c. what is here meant by doing by nature the things contained in the law , but that a man naturally hath a remnant of good in him ( for how could he other wayes do the things of the written law ? ) through which he may know the law , and doth what the law commands , and hath a conscience bearing witnesse . this text makes good my distinction , that there is a two-fold law , one expressed or written ; and the other impressed in mens hearts , or the law of nature . the same we have also in ezek. . . luc. . . rom. . , , . because that which may be known of god is manifest in them : for god hath shewed it unto them . what can be more clear ? xv. i do farther prove , that a natural man cannot do a theologick good act through himself , and being onely assisted with the ordinary concurss of god. a theologick good act is , which doth fully and entirely satisfie and please god. there is also a partial theological good act , which differeth from the other in degree , and pleaseth or satisfieth god onely partially : as for instance , moral good is a partial theologick good , because it doth incompleatly and partially agree with the will of god. act. . . when they heard these things , they held their peace , and glorified god , saying , then hath god also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life . cor. . . for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation , not to be repented of , but the sorrow of the world worketh death . phil. . . being confident of this very thing , that he which hath begun a good work in you , will perform it untill the day of jesus christ. all which allegations testifie , that man , with god's ordinary concurss only , cannot do a theologick good act . for the first text declares , that god granteth repentance unto life to the gentiles . the next confirmeth , that god worketh repentance to salvation . the last manifestly sheweth , that god doth begin and continue a good work in us . by good work is understood a compleat and theologick good work . if then man cannot do a theologick good act without repentance unto life or salvation , which is through god's extraordinary concurrence , he cannot do a theologick good act through himself , and by god's ordinary assistance only . man being assisted with god's extraordinary concurrence hath a free-will of doing a theologick good act . tit. . . this is a faithfull saying , and these things i will that thou affirm constantly , that they , which have believed in god , might be carefull to maintain good works . here it appeareth , that to maintain good works ( which good is theologick good ) man must believe in god : and what is it else to believe in god , but to confide and hope in god's extraordinary assistance and concurss . ephes. . . ephes. . . xvi . i remember i asserted in the subconclusion of the first conclusion , in the ninth chapter , that man , when assisted by god's extraordinary concurss , hath still a free-will , not to extream contraries ; but a free-will of election , that is a freedom of making choice of one good thing before another . that a supernatural man hath no free-will to extream contraries , that is , to do theologick evil and theologick good . i prove it , heb. . , , . john . , . john . . ephes. . , . cor. . , . rom. . . john . , , . matth. . . tim. . . rom. . . esay . . rom. . , , . phillip . . . the texts , which are produced by bellarmin against this position are marc. . . luc. . . john . . hebr. . , , . hebr. . . pet. , . all these instances prove only that initiates , hypocrites and superficial saints have deflected , but not that confirmed and truly profound saints have fallen off and done the worst evil . besides , them sins or backslidings were not theologick evils , but moral : so that , had they been confirmed saints , it would have concluded nothing against us . a supernatural man ( supernatural is , when a man can act supernaturally through the extraordinary concurss of god , that , which a natural man cannot act naturally by the ordinary concurss of god ) hath a partial free-will to moral evil and moral good : but he doth moral evil accidentally , and moral good per se , and is more inclined to moral good , than to moral evil . herein doth a supernatural man differ from a natural man , in that the one sinneth with a partial reluctance of his will , and accidentally through the forcible and mighty inclination or drawing of his flesh , rom . . the other commits sin per se with his whole will , and also with a pleasure . thus did david , solomon , and peter slide back , and committed moral evil ; yet it was with a partial reluctance of will , with a fear and trouble , far from doing it with a pleasure or entire will. after the same tenour are these texts to be interpreted , proverbs . . john . . expresly rom. . . who knowing the judgement of god ( that they who commit such things are worthy of death ) not onely do the same , but have a pleasure in them that do them . a supernatural man hath an entire free-will of election of doing a theological good act : for a supernatural man may pray with faith , praise god with faith , help the poor with faith , &c. all which are theologick good acts , in choosing of which a man imployeth his free-will , john . , , . rom. . , . xvii . after this there remaineth still to prove , that the means , whereby god's extraordinary concurrence is procured , is in man himself , and adheres to his free-will . zech. . . therefore say unto them , thus saith the lord of hosts , turn ye unto me , saith the lord of hosts , and i will turn unto you . had man not had a free-will and means in himself of procuring gods assistance , it would have been said in vain : turn ye unto me . but that is impossible . ergo , a man hath a free-will and means in himself of turning unto god. to turn to god is to apply our selves to him , and to beg his extraordinary assistance ; and so i prove , that prayer is the first means , whereby we turn to god. in the first place , turning to god cannot be to believe savingly in him , or to serve god as he requireth : because we of our selves cannot believe savingly , before god doth assist us in an extraordinary manner . therefore god by commanding us to turn to him , commandeth us to pray to him for his assistance . but this is apparent by other scriptures , as psal. . , . psal. . . deut. . . matth. . . luke . . james . . pet. . . xviii . man being thus inabled by god's extraordinary concurss , the question will be , whether the actions , which man so performeth , are to be taken for the actions of god or of man. divines usually say , that such actions are wrought from man , but man doth not work them of himself ; that is , man doth them actions from himself , but he doth not do them of himself alone , but by god's extraordinary assistance to him . wherefore the actions thus effected from man are rather to be called the actions of man , than the actions of god ; because man is the neerest efficient of them actions . the sacred texts appear to hold forth the same . mat. . . let your light so shine before men , that they may see your good works , and glorifie your father which is in heaven . here you may observe , that good works , or actions effected from good men , are called mans good works , and not gods. the like expression you have in john . , . good actions are wrought from man , but not of man. cor. . . not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves ; but our sufficiency is of god : the apostle saith here , that our sufficiency is of god ; that is , our power of acting is of god. gal. . . rom. . . so then , it is not of him that willeth , nor him that runneth , but of god that sheweth mercy . wherefore man cannot will or do a theological good act of himself ( although he may from himself ) but of god. xix . before i leave this controversie , it is requisite to examine that scripture of the ninth to the romans , which seemeth to evert most of what hath been posed in this chapter , vers . , , , . as it is written , jacob have i loved , but esau have i hated . what shall we say then ? is there unrighteousnesse with god ? god forbid . for he saith to moses , i will have mercy , on whom i will have mercy , and i will have compassion , on whom i will have compassion . so then it is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of god that sheweth mercy . . hence they may argue . if god hated esau , then he hated also all his actions , and consequently hated his prayers : wherefore there was no means left in esau , whereby to procure god's extraordinary concurss . ergo , all men have not the means in them , whereby , &c. this also proveth , that esau had no spark of good in him , and therefore god did totally hate him ; for had he had any good in him , god could not have hated that good . . jacob have i loved . ergo , jacob had never any evil in him : for had he had evil in him god could not have loved him . . the scripture makes enquiry , whether it is unrighteousnesse with god to hate esau and love jacob. ergo , it is not severe , that god should hate one , and love another ; to damn one justly , and to save another gratis velex gratia . . moses saith , that god will have mercy on whom he will have mercy , and whom he will he hardneth . ergo , man hath no free-will to do good . in answer to the first inference , i deny the sequel . for it doth not follow , that god , because esau had no good in him , or means to procure god's favour , hated esau ; but god hated esau for not using the means , which was in him . rom. . . here may be urged that god hated esau from all eternity . ergo , esau could never have had the means to salvation . i deny the consequence . god hated esau from all eternity , because he fore-knew his actions and intents from all eternity . here may be demanded , how god can fore-know mans actions , since they are contingent ; were they necessary , he might . let the scripture answer you in this rom. . . we are not to dive into god's manner of working farther , than he hath revealed to us , and nevertheless we must believe , that all things are possible to god , and that he is elohim , heb. . . luc. . . phil. . . chron. . . matth. . esay . . jer. . . gen. . . & . . ruth . , . cor. . . revel . . . & . . tim. . . neither is it a legal inference , that because god hated esau ; therefore esau had no remnant of good in him : he might have had good in him , and yet god have hated him ; not for having that good , but for not exercising it . god might also have hated esau from all eternity for his sins and evil actions , which god foresaw from all eternity ; and yet he might have had a principle of good in him . as for the second argumentation , i deny the consequence : for it doth not follow that jacob had never no evil in him , because god did love him : for god loved david , and yet it is apparent enough , that david had evil in him , rom. . . paul calleth himself wretched ; yet it is certain , that god loved him . god pardoneth their sins , because they are committed by them , not with an entire will , but with a reluctancy , romans . , . to the third i answer : it is no severity in god to love one and hate the other , supposing that god can fore-know all man's evil actions ; and therefore hateth him . he may also fore-know his good actions , and come to love him from all eternity : yet not because his actions are absolutely good in themselves , luc. . . rom. . , . john . . esay . . psal. . . but because god out of his grace and mercy doth impute his actions to him for righteousnesse , rom. . , , , . ephes. . , . phil. . . col. . . tim. . . but it would be severe should god hate us from all eternity , if we should falsly suppose that god did not fore-know our actions : so that herein you conclude nothing against me . if ( in the fourth place ) god sheweth mercy to those onely , to whom he will , and hardneth their hearts , whose he pleaseth to harden : it will prove in vain to man to work good works , or to will good , neither can he will or do good without god's grace and mercy . all this i grant to be a certain truth , that we can do no good work without god's grace and mercy : and no doubt but god hath also a free-will to conferre grace and mercy on whom he pleaseth , and harden those whom he pleaseth to harden , working all things according to the counsel of his own will , ephes. . , , . revel . . . psal. . . psal. . . matth. . , . neverthelesse this is no ground , why we should argue , that man hath no free-will , because god hath a free-will : we rather ought to surmise the contrary ; that man hath a free-will , because god hath a free-will , gen. . . god doth work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure or will , phil. . . ergo , god's will doth not abolish our wils : but his will is , that we should have a will. but possibly you do farther urge this argument by subducting predestination from thence , thus : if man is predestinated , ergo , he hath no free will of doing good ; for a free-will in him would be in vain . this text doth apparently teach god's eternal decree , predestination or ordination to save some , and damn others : but for what ? for to manifest his glory , mercy and justice , acts . . and as many as were ordained to eternal life , believed , isa. . . mal . . hereunto i answer , that god's predestination is in no wise coactive ; for , were it so , then predestination and fate of the stoicks would not differ : what is fate , but an irresistable and forced impulse upon man , through which he doth necessarily and unavoidably perform all his actions , and especially such , which concern his life and death , his ruine or advancement in politick affairs , his marriage , or any other extraordinary change of life ; for in all these fate was most taken notice of , and therefore more particularly attributed to them cases ; although fate in general denoted an unchangeable and necessary ordination upon all beings . whether this ordination was imposed by jupiter as the poets feigned , or caused from a necessary bending and disposing of the heavens , and its constellations , as the chaldeans thought , doth not much concern us in this treatise . cicero was not a little puzzeld in expounding , how free-will might be allowed : and yet not be repugnant to gods fore-knowledge ; for thought he , doth god fore-know our actions , then man must act necessarily , and consequently infers the truth of fate ; but since he could not grant a fate over men , because he saw they acted contingently , therefore he did impiously rob god of his fore-knowledge . hence saith austin . de civ . d. lib. . cap. . atque it a , dum vult facere liberos , fecit sacrilegos , and so since he endeavoureth to make men free-willers , he makes them commit sacriledge . as for this doubt , it is little touched upon by christians , who certainly know , that god fore-knoweth contingent things , as contingent , and to fall out contingently : necessary things as necessary , and to fall out necessarily , psalm . . sam. . , . prov. . . exod. . . prov. . . matth. . this subject is very well treated of by anselmus in his book of god's fore-knowledge and predestination . this by the way . and now i return to prove , that god's predestination is in no wise coactive upon the will of man : for then the will of man would be a not willing , voluntas esset noluntas . god is most just in predestinating man through election , and of his grace and mercy to salvation , eph . , . and in predestinating others through reprobation , and of his justice , to damnation , cor. . . because his predestination is founded upon his fore-knowledge : god therefore fore-knowing the evil , wherein man is enhardened , doth predestinate him to damnation . this i prove . god damneth man of his justice , and god's justice hath a particular respect to man's evil actions . wherefore it is of god's justice , and for man's sinne , or evil actions , that he is damned . that god's justice hath a particular respect to judge and punish man with damnation for his sins , the scripture doth evidently testifie , luc. . , . aud that servant , which knew his lords will , and prepared not himself , neither did according to his will , shall be beaten with many stripes . ergo , man is punished for not doing the lord's will : and not because he was predestinated without god's fore-knowledge of his evil and unbelief , matth. . . mat. . , . here christ pronounceth the sentence of everlasting damnation against the wicked , because they had not done his will in feeding the hungry , and cloathing the naked , gen. . . deut. . . exod. . . so then , if god doth damn man onely for his trespasses and sinnes , he doth also for the same reason predestinate him to damnation . again , were god's predestination the sole and first moving cause of mans reprobation , then adam could have had no free-will of remaining in the state of innocency , or of deflecting to the state of sinne ; but must necessarily and coactively have deflected to the state of depravation , because god had predestinate him to it : this assertion is impious : ergo , god's predestination is not the first moving cause of man's reprobation . what ? should god predestinate man to damnation without fore-knowing his guilt , or without being thereunto moved through the fore-knowledge of his sinne , then these texts would be written to no purpose . hos. . . ephes. . , , , &c. john . , , . john . . rom. . , . ezek. . . as i live , saith the lord god , i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his way and live : turn ye , turn ye from your evil wayes ; for why will ye die , o house of israel ? wherefore it is not of god's purpose to damn any , unlesse being moved to it of his justice through their unbelief . likewise the scripture doth reveal , that predestination to life eternal is of god's grace and justice , being thereunto moved by the saith of the righteous , mat. . . rom. . , . ephes. . . mat. . . gal. . . ephes. . , . first , summarily i say , that god's will , decree , and predestination , is the efficient cause of reprobation and election : his grace , mercy and justice , are the moving causes : man's unbelief and belief are the objects of this motion , in which , or upon which , and by which the fore-mentioned moving causes are moved : which objects god fore-knowing determinates mans salvation or damnation from all eternity : wherefore we may observe , that in many places of scripture , where predestination is held forth , that god's fore-knowledge of mans belief or unbelief doth precede . rom. . . for whom he did fore-know he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. what can be more evident ? secondly , faith or good works ( for saith it self is the best of works , and the fountain of all good works ) are the means , whereby we are saved ; yet it is not faith or good works , which d● meritoriously or efficiently save us , but god is the efficient cause of our salvation . rom. . . so likewise unbelief ( which is the worst of works , and the original of all evil works and sins ) or atheismis the means , through which we are damned ; yet it is not that , which is the principal moving cause of our damnation , but god's justice , which doth reject and predestinate man to damnation . rom. ● . . thirdly , god's will is either absolute , whereby he can will all things ; and this is concomitant to gods absolute power , whereby he can do all things , although they never are effected ; for if he can do them , he hath also a power of willing them , although he doth not will all them things , which he can will : or his ordained will , whereby he willeth that , which he doth will. this ordained will is unchangeable : hence god is said to have loved , because he loved : that is , when god willeth to love , he cannot but love , because he willeth it ; and therefore his will is unchangeable . god's ordained will is , that man shall be saved through his belief : and therefore cannot but save a believer , because his will endureth for ever , and is unchangeable . wherefore i said in the first assertion , that man's belief moved god's mercy : because god hath willed it through his ordained will ; otherwise were it not for this , what could man's belief avail in meriting salvation ? for at the best , we are but unprofitable servants , luc. . . and so man's unbelief moveth god's justice to damne him , because god willeth justice . wherfore i conceive that belief and unbelief are remote moving causes , as from us , by which we move god's mercy and justice : and that god's mercy and justice are moving causes as from himself . fourthly , man hath then a power of disposing and preparing himself partially to , and for the admission of god's extraordinary concurss , and to a conversion from the state of sinne to the state of grace ; for to what effect or end would all the reachings of ministers serve ? all their exhortations , their labour and pains would be to no purpose . . they strive to bend men into a care for their salvation , by working that carnal security out of them , according to that of acts . . & . . . they lay the law of god open to men , in quickning the print of it in their hearts , which was almost deaded , and exing them to examine the course of their lives , james . , , . . the immediate effect of this search is the conviction of a mans conscience , rom. . . & . . rom. . . . this conviction of conscience bringeth them to a desperation of their salvation , they finding that ●mp●●nesse and unablenesse in themselves , rom. . , , . . this begetteth a humiliation in their hearts , grieving for their sins , fearing the guilt , and dreading the punishment , and so they are brought to a confession of their sins , mat. . . all these effects are produced through the insight of man into his own heart , where all men contain the moral law , and may through the light of nature , and god's ordinary grace , or ordinary call unfold it in the same sense , which the quoted texts do expresse . chap. xi . of the command of the will. . whether the will can be forced . . what elicited and imperated acts are . . what command the will exerciseth over the inferiour facultin what a politick and despotick command is . . that the irascible and appetitive faculty are under a politick obedience to the will. . that the locomotive faculty is not alwayes under a servile obedience to the will. . that the will doth not command over the practick understanding . i. i have digressed somewhat beyond my bounds in the last chapter , in alledging scripture to prove many fundamental assertions of this treatise ; the which although i ought to have performed by reason onely , neverthelesse to gratifie some ( whose education teacheth them not to give credit to any reason , unlesse confirmed by scripture ) i contracted the fore-mentioned quotations in one little space . and now to keep on my road : there remains one question more relating to the freedome of will , which i shall first endeavour to answer , and then go on in adding what is requisite . the question is , whethen the will can be forced . this is a strange kind of doubt , whether the will , when it doth not will ( for when it is forced , it doth act against its will ) be a will : however this seemeth an absurd query , if understood in so many plain words ; yet supposing that act to be forced or against the will , which is willed through the will , but with a reluctancy , and fore-knowledge of inconvenience thereon ensuing ; the question may be conceived in a safe meaning . the will is termed forced , when it doth will through compulsion or impulsion , or through a positive or privative violence ( as others explain it ) without which it would not have willed that , which otherwayes it willed . the question might rather be proposed thus ; whether the will , when it is forced , is free , or acteth freely : for no doubt the will of man can be forced in all her acts , whatever authors say to the contrary . i prove it . man can be forced in his imperated acts . ergo , a man can also be forced in his elicited acts , because there is no imperated act , but it derives from an elicited act ; for it is the elicited act , which commandeth the other act . here may then be enquired , wherein a forced elicited act differeth from an absolute free act . i answer , that both these acts proceed from the will with a consent ; but that , which the will acteth with an absolute freedom , it acteth without any remorse , and with an entire consent : that , which the will acteth , when she is forced , she acts with a remorse and partial reluctancy , for to avoid a greater inconvenience or evil ; and were it not for that , she would not have acted it . the will cannot properly be said to be forced through a privative violence , because the will doth not act at all , when she is hindred . ii. the acts of the will , according to moralists , are either elicited , or imperated . an elicited act of the will is , when she doth act within her self , by proposing the goodnesse of an object , and consenteth to the covering or rejecting of it . the imperated act of the will is , whereby she doth execute that , which she had concluded and agreed to by the elicited act , in commanding the inferiour faculties . iii. the command , which the will exerciseth over the obeying faculties , is politick , or controlable . the obeying faculties are the internal and external senses , the locomotive faculty , the irascible and appetible faculty . i prove it . the internal senses obey the will from a politick obedience ; for a man willeth oft-times not to think , or to remember this or that thing , which neverthelesse doth force into his mind : besides , the phansie worketh in a dream without being commanded by the will : wherefore the wils command is not despotick , but politick . the external senses do not obey the will from a despotick obedience , because the will frequently cannot per se hinder them in their functions : as for instance , she cannot at all times hinder the hearing from perceiving a noise , or the sent from smelling a bad sent , &c. iv. the irascible and appetitive faculty obey the will politickly , because our natures are ofttimes prone to envy , anger , or revenge , when we would not be so . so our natures * are as oft propense to covet evil objects , which our will doth contradict . v. the locomotive faculty doth frequently refuse a servil obedience to the will ; for in wearinesses and convulsions she is rebellious and unable : besides , the locomotive faculty being in some cases more obedient to the sensitive appetite , she obeyeth it , before she obeyeth the will. lastly , the locomotive faculty is oftentimes at work in a dream , and at other times , when the will doth not command her ; and thence it is evident , that the locomotive faculty doth not obey the will from a despotick obedience . vi. it is absurd to affirm , that the will commandeth the practick understanding ; for it is the same thing , as if you said , that the will commanded her self , the will and practick understanding being one and the same . chap. xii . of voluntary and involuntary . . that the understanding , as it is speculative and practick , is the internal principle of the ultimate and intermediate actions . that god or angels are improperly said to be external principles . that god is the coefficient of man's actions . how angels , whether good or evil , wizards and witches concur to the specification of man's actions . . what a humane action is . . that it is absurd to assert man to do a thing ignorantly . . whether evils of omission through ignorance are to be termed involuntary . . how humane actions are divided . i. hitherto we have declared the internal principle of man ( namely the understanding , as it is speculative and practick ) through which he acteth in order to the attaining the summum bonum , and arriving to his last and ultimate action , the immediate fruits of which is the greatest happinesse . furthermore , we are not only to state the understanding to be the internal principle of our last and ultimate action , but also of all intermediate actions , and of such as are called humane , moral , or voluntary actions . we need not augment the number of internal principles , by adding habits to them , these being supposed to alter the forestated principles accidentally only , and not essentially . how habits ' are acquired , and how intended , remitted , and corrupted , we have set down elswhere . neither are god or angels properly said to be external principles , since all principles strictly are required to be internal . but god may be justly termed the coefficient of the actions of man , since god worketh in us to will and to do . angels , whether good or evil , wizards and witches cannot concur efficiently to the effecting of humane actions , to which an infinite power is onely sufficient , whereas they , consisting of a limited power , are therefore render'd uncapable . they may concurre to the specification of an act , as persuasive causes in bending man's will to this or that act , by changing the phansie , in stirring up the humours and spirits of the brain , whereby it may represent objects otherwise than they are , or by presenting objects through a false image or representation , or by changing the external sensories . whence we may observe , that it is not in the devils power to make or force us to doe a thing against our wils , but that we may discover , resist , and refuse his deceitfull motions ; or otherwise we might be justly thought excusable ; wherefore , if we do at any time commit evil through the perswasion of an evil spirit , we must not onely accuse the wicked spirit , but our selves also . after our discourse upon the will , there remains alone to appose a word or two touching humane actions . ii. humane actions , otherwise called moral and voluntary , are such , as are effected by man , as farre as he is a man , or are produced by his will , or practick understanding . wherefore whatever man acteth with the fore-knowledge and fore-command of his practick understanding is humane and voluntary . a voluntary action may be purely voluntary and free ; or mixt out of a voluntas , and noluntas , that is , willed with a reluctancy . the first acception of voluntary , aristotle terms voluntary strictly so called ; the latter he denominates involuntary ; but improperly . iii. it is absurd to assert man to do a thing ignorantly , since it is impossible for a man to do any thing , which he doth not fore-know . wherefore it must be an errour in the peripateticks to affirm , that man can act an involuntarium quiddam ex ignorantia , because he acteth nothing , but what is consented unto partially , or totally by his will , which cannot will any thing ( as the peripatetick definition holds forth ) without the foreknowledge of the understanding . hence i conclude , that nothing is to be termed involuntary or mixtly voluntary , unlesse a man is forced to it violently , or by a cause acting from without . iv. here may be demanded , whether evils of omission of duties ( required by a law ) committed by man , when he is ignorant of the said law , are to be termed involuntary ? no certainly , for they are voluntary , in that the omission of an act is as much an act of the will as the effection of it . but whether such omissions or commissions , which a man doth will , are to be termed evil , in regard he willed them through ignorance , which had he not been ignorant of he would not have willed , is to be decided from the circumstances of such actions , and not from the imputing such actions not to be the actions of man , or not to be voluntary . moreover i answer , that no kind of ignorance doth make an action neutral ( that is , neither good or evil ) and excusable , but an invincible ignorance . what invincible ignorance and other kinds of ignorances are , i do wittingly omit the inserting , since they are vulgarly enough known . as for such circumstances , which are required to render humane actions good or evil , i have set down in the latter end of this book . v. the action of the will is accidentally divided in fruition and intention . fruition is the continuated coveting and willing of an object , already before coveted and now enjoyed . intention is a mediate coveting of means , whereby to covet an object immediately , or to arrive to the fruition of it . intention contains in it three inferiour actions . . election , whereby the practick understanding doth by a preceding deliberation covet one or more objects for a means out of many . . consent , which is a further coveting of that or them objects , which it hath elected , so as to be confirmed and pleased in that election . . usus , or usance , otherwise called execution , which is the application of the means , now elected and consented unto , to a further action . chap. xiii . of natural faith. . that faith is the sole means , through which we are to attain to our greatest good . what faith is . the definition confirmed by arguments deduced from reason . . the two-fold object of faith. a proof from reason , that god is the creator of man. that god and nature are one . . an enquiry into the end of man's creation . . that man doth know the summe of god's law through the light of nature . a summary enumeration of the law of god , as it is imprinted upon every man's heart . . moral virtues compared with the moral law. a comprehension of all moral virtues . i have just now finisht my discourse upon the subject of this tract ; that , which fals next under our consideration , is the means , through which we are to attain to our greatest good and happinesse . the sole means is faith. faith is a certain knowledge of god and the law , and an assurance in , and of god's mercy and goodnesse . the genus proximum , and differentia proxima , are signals , that their definitum , or thing defined is not an historical or temporary faith , or saith of miracles onely , but a justifying and glorifying faith , necessarily comprehending in it self the three other kinds , as degrees , by which the soul doth gradually ascend to an exalting faith . among other school-divines it goeth under the name of an explicite faith. fides the same with the definitum , deriveth its denomination from fidere , a word not in use among the later latinists , whose signification the verb confidere hath since supplied , which is to rest contented and fully satisfied : wherefore assurance implying a certain practical knowledge freed from all doubts , and causing this rest and satisfaction , doth justly and properly deserve the place of the genus in this definition . the certainty , which faith doth bring with it , depends upon the certainty and necessity of its premises , which being necessary and certain infers a certain and necessary conclusion . if god is mercifull , he will save them , that beg mercy . but god is mercifull , and i do beg mercy . therefore god will save me . this conclusion , as depending upon unchangeable and certain premises , holds forth , that faith is an undoubted assurance of god's mercy , and that he will save a zealous believer . no wonder then , if faith doth create this quietnesse , rest , and satisfaction . austin . de civit. dei , lib. . cap. . tels us no lesse : to the acadamicks all things are uncertain : but the city of god doth quite detest such kind of doubting , like madnesse : having a most certain knowledge of them things , which it comprehendeth in it's mind and reason . ii. the object , about which faith is conversant , is double : . god , and the law. . god's infinite mercy and transcendent goodnesse . this duplicity is necessary ; because , first , we must know our present state : secondly , how to get out of that state into a better . our present state is made known unto us through knowing god and the law. the way , whereby to change this state for a better , is through an assurance in god's mercy and goodnesse . a natural man , after having made enquiry , what he is , and finding , that he is a man , a rational living creature , above all other creatures in the world , and of a most excellent and admirable essence , cannot but straight way admire and search from who , or whence , he had this noble being . certainly although if he hath never heard of god , or attained to the knowledge of him , yet his reason will direct him to observe daily experience , which sheweth him , that every man descends from his parents , and they from their progenitours , or that man is continuated by propagation : by the same rule of experience he is also instructed , that all things in the world are finite , and have a beginning and ending : if so , then there must be one first cause , from which all beings derive their essence : this cause is an universal cause , by reason that all things have received their being from it : if all things are derived from this universal cause , then certainly the race of man had its beginning also thence . some of the ruder sort may object , that all things are by nature . in answer to this , i demand , what they mean by nature ? they will reply an universal cause , which acteth most uniformly and unchangeably . secondly , i demand through what principle all things are continued ? they say , through the same nature . nature , say they , acteth most wisely and most providently , and hath so acted from all eternity . this is so farre from an objection against us , that it is an argument for us : for by these very words they expresse god , who is nature ( natura naturans ) and the sole universal cause acting most uniformly , unchangeably ( secundum volunt atem ordinatam ) most wisely , providently , from all eternity , and continuating all things from the beginning , untill the ending . let an atheist therefore answer never so perversly concerning the first cause of all beings , yet nolens volens he doth plainly confesse , that there is a god , although under another name of nature . iii. man knowing , that god hath created him , he cannot but wonder , for what end . for god ( thinks he ) acteth nothing in vain . he is sure , it is not for to eat , drink , and live ; for were it so , god needed not to have conferred a reasoning or understanding faculty upon him , because he could have eaten , drunk and lived without an understanding . the end therefore , for which he was created , must be that , to what his understanding makes him capable . his understanding is capable of knowing god , and his laws , of praising , serving , obeying god , and living according to his commandments . as for his commandments he will find them written in his heart . iv. . he may easily gather , that there is but one true god , because he is almighty , and can work all things : if then there were more gods than one , it supposeth , that they are not almighties , but must work sociably one with the other ; or if they are almighties , that , as many as are more than one , are in vain : for one is almighty , and can do all things ; if he can do all things , then there is nothing remaining for the others to do , who must then be in vain . but to imagine otherwise is absurd . ergo , there is but one true god , and all the others are false gods . . god is a spirit , and therefore will only be worshipped in spirit . this was not unknown to the heathens . si deus est animus , nobis ut carmina dicunt , hic tibi praecipue sit pura mento colendus . if god a spirit be , as most of poets say , in purity of mind we must unto him pray . what a vain thing is it for man to worship an image ? as if god could not perceive or know our worship without that image ; or as if we could not know god without an image . if we can truly make an image of god , then god is no spirit , but an old man , as the papists picture him . . a lord's servant seldom speaks of him , without naming of him his lordship , or his honour , or tho right honourable , and so doth reverence and homage his very name ; and no doubt , but a lord would conceive himself much provoked , should his servant take his name in vain : much more ought man , who is the meanest servant of the lord of lords name his name with all reverence and humility ; for god is most highly provoked in hearing of his name taken in vain . . there is an ordinary manner of serving god , which ought to continue at all times in doing all things to his glory . god doth permit man to do that , which tends to his conservation ; neverthelesse at those times we ought to praise god for giving us strength and means , whereby we are preserved . there is also an extraordinary manner of serving god , when we for bear from all temporal and corporeal actions , and abide wholly in spiritual exercises for a day , a week , or a moneth . assuredly this is acceptable to god , and therefore we ought to repeat it often . these are the duties which a man may gather are to be performed to god. but this is not all , there are other duties remaining respecting to ones self and others . among others , some are particularly related to us , as our parents ; some in a common and general relation only , as our neighbours . . the duty , which we owe to our parents , nature teacheth us , as to honour , love and obey them . . the duty to our selves and others is , to do what we can to preservate our selves and our neighbours , not to injure or kill our selves or others : to do to others , as we would have other do to us . we must shun all envy , anger and hatred . . a man is not to defile himself or another . modesty , unchast thoughts , carnal desires , wanton gestures are by the light of nature adjudged evil and sinfull . . we ought to render to every one what is his . we are not to wrong our neighbours in his goods , houses , cattel , or corn , &c. we must detest cheating , defrauding , or crafty over-reaching of our neighbours , whether by lies , false measures , else weights , or moneys , and usury , &c. . a false oath is unjust and injurious ; the like are slanderings , lies and backbitings , the harbouring of bad thoughts of others without a manifest cause . . we are not so much as to have the least desire to what is not our own , if it be to the wrong of another , unlesse we desire withall to give full satisfaction and contentment to the owner , which is only possible in unfixt and untied matters . v. i have briefly enumerated the contents of the moral law , according as it is engraffed upon all mens hearts . this law is perfect and compleat , because there is no moral precept belonging to any moral virtue , but is contained herein , neither is there any vice , but is hereby checked and condemned : wherefore i shall compare them together , to wit , moral virtues with the moral law. a virtue is a habit of acting good : on the other side , vice is a habit of acting evil . virtue or vice may be termed moral or theologick according to the act , which it produceth , which is either moral good or evil , or theologick good or evil . so holinesse is a habit of acting according to the law of god. sin is a habit of acting contrary to the law of god , according it is written in all mens hearts . that this law is known to all men , it appears hence , because all men are checked by their conscience at one time or another for their sins . there are four cardinal or principal virtues : prudence , justice , temperance and fortitude . prudence is a habit , through which a man is directed in exercising particular virtues . it s integrant parts are three . . the remembrance of things past . . the knowledge of things present . . the fore-sight of things to come . thomas aquinas counteth eight . . memory . . knowledge . . aptnesse to learn. . cunningnesse . . reason . . fore-sight . . circumspection . . caution . the subjected parts of prudence are four . . kingly prudence , in governing his subjects . . politick prudence of the people , in obeying the magistrate . . oeconomical prudence , in governing a family . . military prudence , in ruling an army . the potential parts of prudence are three . . inquiry for means . . judgement concerning the means invented . . command , that them things be effected , upon which judgement is past . justice is a virtue of giving every one , what is his . it s integral parts are three . . to live honestly . . to give every one what is his . . to wrong no man. the subjected parts of justice are two . . general justice , through which a man deals justly with the commonwealth . . special or particular justice , through which a man deals justly with every particular person . special justice is two-fold . . commutative justice , through which a man is just in his trading with others . . distributive justice , which is either recompencing every one for his good deserts ; or punishing every one for his crimes : in which there is observed a geometrical proportion : and in commutative justice an arithmetical proportion right is that , which agreeth with the law or justice . it is either natural , or positive : humane , or divine : ecclesiastick , or civil : written , or not written . a law is a rule , command , or precept of justice containing in it , what is just , and what ought to be done . there are three conditions required to the constitution of a law. . equity . . authority . . promulgation , or the publishing of it . a law is either external , or participated . the participated law is divided in natural , humane , and divine . the humane law is either civil or canonical . the divine law is divided into the old and new law. temperance is a habit of moderating the senses , particularly the senses of feeling and tasting . the integral parts are two . . bashfulnesse . . honesty . the potential parts are four : continence , clemency , humility and modesty . the subjected parts are abstinence , sobriety , chastity , and shamefac'dnesse . fortitude is a virtue in attempting terrible matters . its acts are two . . to uphold . . to go on . the integral parts of fortitude are magnanimity , magnificence , patience and perseverance . a man must not only have a bare knowledge of god's law , or of the moral virtues , but also a practick knowledge , that is to know them in himself so as to practise them chap. xiv . of man's fall , and of atheism . . a rational enquiry into man's primitive estate . the maenner of man's fall . . grounds , whence a man may rationally collect hopes for his restoration . . that atheism is the worst of sins , and that an atheist is unable of performing the least good act . wherein the goodnesse of an action doth consist , . a character of an atheist . that confirmed atheism is the onely sinne against the holy ghost . a full discovery of an atheist . the other part of the object of faith is gods mercy and goodnesse : how a natural man comes to find out god's mercy , i shall instantly demonstrate . man , having compared the difficulty of the law with his unablenesse of performing obedience to it , cannot rest satisfied or assured , unlesse relieved and assisted by these two attributes of god : for he , being conscious of his pravity and corrupt state of nature , must imagine , that he was not so created , but good and blessed ; because the creator is good and blessed , and being left to his free-will , knowing what was good , and what might be evil , he through a wanton curiosity and alurement of an evil spirit ( which spirits were created before man , and whose nature it hath alwayes been to tempt man and draw him into evil ; as shall be proved by reason elsewhere ) was overswayed to try evil ; one act of which , had not god through his grace prevented it , might have been valid enough to corrupt his nature in such a manner , that he would have been rendred uncapable of ever recovering his former state , or of acting a good act ; by reason that the commission of one evil act must needs have effected a privation of that habit , which he once had of working good : for they being acts proceeding from two contrary habits , the latter must have expelled the former , which would have remained unrecoverable ; because à privatione ad habitum non datur regressus . after a privation a habit cannot return : put out your sight once , and you will never recover it . wherefore it must have followed , that man being arrived to this depraved state of nature must have become a meer alien from god , in whose former resemblance his happinesse did consist . furthermore , the immortal spirit , expiring out of the body in that condition , abideth eternally in absence and dissemblance from god , which two cases makes its state most wofull and dismal . thus you may remark , that it is possible to a natural man by way of a sorites to collect his first beatitude , deficience , guilt , and punishment . ii. is it not then a man's greatest concernment to bestir himself in this need and defect for a means of restoration ? here may be demanded , how can a man hope for restoration , if the habit of acting good is quite extirpated , and that from a privation to a habit , there is no returning ? . why may not a man have the same hopes of restoration here in this world , as well as out of it , as the papists hold ? to the first i answer , that extirpation may be understood in a two-fold representation . . as it represents a total extinction and annihilation , nihil remanente sui . . as it doth represent not a total , yet almost a total annihilation , there still remaining some part of the thing : thus a man saith his eye is out , when he can see but a little . it is possible for a man to be in either of these conditions : if he is in the first , questionlesse he is in a lost condition , and is uncapable of recovery , for the objected reason . the continual acting of evil produceth a total habit of evil ; wherein if a man be habituated , that small portion of the remaining good is totally extirpated : as in an atheist , who is one , wherein the habit of good is totally extinct , which maketh him affectately and perversly ignorant of god , and in whom the habit of evil is radicated , whereby he becometh a blasphemer against god in denying his being . iii. an atheist hath not so much virtue or power in him , as thereby to do one good action . a good action is , which doth resemble its pattern ( bona censetur actio , quae suae ideae fuerit conformis ) and therefore must , . proceed from a good principle . . be imployed about a good object . . be intended to a good end . a good action here taken in a moral , not physical signification , whose principle and object is right reason and moral good : its end is to be agreeing with a good will. so that an atheist cannot work a good work ; his principle of good ( to wit right reason ) being totally depraved and corrupted ; for he in denying god denieth his right reason , when , as i have proved in the doctrine of souls , right reason cannot , but must necessarily retain an impression of god's existence , goodnesse and omnipotence , from whom she received her production : or he in denying god denieth his own being , his being consisting in a resemblance to the image of god , the perfect pattern of his once perfect essence ; which doth argue , that his right reason is totally extinct , and that there remaineth a plenar possession of corruption and depravation in his understanding and will , through which he judgeth of all things , otherwise than they are . and this is farther evident ; because our understanding judgeth of all things in ordination to action , all our actions are performed in ordination to our last end , which being positively denied by him , proveth the truth of the fore-stated conclusion . the second qualification of a good action is , that its object must be good . a mans will is carried forth to a triple object , whereof two have respect to the body , the other to the soul. of the two respecting the body , one is desired for the conservation of the body ; the other for conservation of the species or kind . these as being physical objects are physically good to all natural bodies ; for ens & bonum convertuntur , a being and good are convertible . wherefore this maxime , omnia appetunt bonum . all beings covet good , and cannot covet evil , is onely to be understood of physical good objects . the third object relating to the soul is moral good , whose objectivenesse is only proper to rational essences . the last condition required in a good action is its direction to a good end ; which is , to god's glory and praise , to the admiration of his wisdom , omnipotence and all others of his attributes . if we compare the actions of an atheist with these three qualifications , we shall find them infinitely different , and deffective from them , they proceeding from the worst of principles , and being imployed about improportionate and bruitish objects , and directed to a wicked , malicious , and hellish end , namely to gods greatest dishonour . iv. summarily to give you a character of an atheist an atheist is a most horrid monster ; once a man , now worse than a brute ; a devil in the shape of a man ; ungratefull beyond the expression of a tongue ; rigidly injurious to god and man ; a sinner beyond the worst of sinners ; a fit object for god's vengeance , and the greatest torment , that the depth of hell and envy of devils are able to spue out . is there a sinne , which god , although he is infinitely mercifull , hath resolved not to pardon , it is confirmed atheisme ; this is the only treason , which man can commit against god. the injury which he doeth unto god , is in blaspheming his sacred name ; robbing him of his honour , and of all his attributes ; and that , which doth infinitely augment his sinne , is his persistence in it after such an unexpressible indulgence . it is impossible , that all vices should lodge and center in one man : for i could never hear that any natural man was so vicious , but he had some good ( i mean good , as the vulgar calleth it ) quality in him . many have accused such a one for being a drunkard , another for a robber , or a cheat ; yet some there will be still , who you may hear say , although such a one is a drunkard , yet he is honest , or kind , or civil , &c. or of another , although he is a robber , yet he is no murderer ; although a cheat , yet he is no drunkard : so that i say , there is no natural man so vicious , but there is something in him , which people will say is good : but an atheist hath a nest of all vice in him ; there is not a vice so detestable or deform'd , although it be against nature , but he dares make tryal of it ; because he dreads neither god , or his law. an atheist will wrong , cheat , revile his own parents ; he will murder his own relations , friends , or others , if it be for his interest , or pleasure ; he will rob , steal , defame , blaspheme , and what not ? 't is true he doth not alwayes do these acts , because he fears the law of man , nevertheless his will is not backward , but prone to all manner of wickedness , what should hinder him ? his conscience will not , because that is deaded : but it quickneth again a little before his death , and then beginneth his rage and torment , then the devils come about him , each busied in increasing his woe and misery , then hell and eternity is at hand . there are many , who seeming to judge charitably of all men , cannot be perswaded there are atheists . in these i shall soon correct their tendernesse . there was never a subversion of a legall government , but there appeared hundreds of atheists ; they at such times are called subtil politicians , who finding such successe by making scripture and religion , or rather hypocrisie , a cloak for to cover all their wicked designs , imagin thence , that religion and scripture were invented for that same purpose , because it hath so well served their turns . pray what is this but absolute atheism ? yea more than this , if they see it is for their interest , to murder an innocent person or persons , yea were it a whole nation ; they will not stick to do it out of hand : if they stand in want of treasures , they will steal and rob it from the people , and tell them , it is for the good of the commonwealth in general , although their intent is to make it good to themselves alone in particular . what crime is so great , but is committed at such times . there is no history that treats of rebellion , but may be a president of atheism . here may be questioned , since that an atheist hath utterly lost his right reason , whether god cannot be moved through his goodnesse or mercy , to create a new understanding or reason in him ? the solution of this question take out of these two subsequent conclusions . . there is nothing imaginable to be created , which exceed ; gods absolute omnipotence . god as he is infinite in power , his acts are also infinite : as he is omnipotent , he is all-creating . hath he not created angels , men , the world , and all things therein contained ? i conclude then , that the restitution of an atheist , is possible through god's absolute omnipotence . . god is infinitely perfect whose perfection is revealed to us through his most perfect attributes , which are , his omnipotence , justice , mercy , goodnesse , &c. it is certain these are all perfections in the highest degree . the concordance or agreeing of these attributes one with the other is no lesse a perfection : for should they disagree , it would be an imperfection not to be conceived in the most perfect being . this premised , i infer , that god is omnipotent according to the concordance of his attributes ; what is there but god can effect it if agreeing with his attributes ? possibly you may object , god cannot recall a thing , which is past ; as that a man , who is now , should not have been ; or that a man , who died this day , should not have died ; or that he can not make a devil an angle &c. i answer , that the effecting of these acts is disagreeing with gods attributes * namely with his unchangeable or ordained will. his ordained will is , that man should die at a certain minute , that the devils should remain damned to all eternity , that a thing should passe without being recalled ; for should god recall his will , he would cantradict himself , and therefore such is not to be supposed . god , no question , can do greater things , and therefore his power is not to be doubted in lesser . i conclude hence , that it is disagreeing with gods ordained will and justice to restore an atheist , gods profest and greatest enemy , who therefore deserveth the rigor of gods justice ; and although god's mercy is infinite , yet it must agree with his justice . can god's mercy extend to an atheist , or can he have compassion with that , which is altogether evil and contrary to his nature ? no certainly , for the object of god's mercy must be good , be it never so little . an atheist onely is a sinner against the holy ghost , he is such whom to sanctifie is disagreeing with the nature of the holy ghost . what shall or can the holy ghost cast its beams upon that , which is altogether evil ? here may be demanded , how doth the holy spirit then manifest it self to any , since all men are sinners , and all sinners are evil ? i answer , that all men , except atheists , have some spark of good lodging in them , upon which the holy spirit doth work , and which it doth increase and cherish , whereby at last a man weakneth the habit of sinning . object ▪ an atheist may save a man from drowning , but in so doing he doth a good act . ergo , an atheist hath still some spark of good resting in him . i answer , that it is in no wise a good act , neither doth it proceed from a good principle , or is it directed to a good end . the ground upon which he doth it , is upon consideration , that were he in the same case , or the like , he would be glad another should do the same to him ; so that it is for his own ends ; for otherwise did he imagine , that a man's drowning might conduce to his benefit , doubtlesse he would never prevent it . the second representation of the extirpation of a habit is , when there yet remaineth some spark of good ; which is inherent in all natural men , though in an unequal proportion , according to the prevalence of the evil habit . what soul is there so rooted in iniquity , which doth not sometimes a good act ( per se ) through it self ; and this is a sign , that there is a good disposition latent in all men . a murtherer , soon after he hath committed that hainous crime , is immediately checked through the sting and light of his conscience , reasoning that god is just , and thence dreads his wrath . now to dread god is a good action proceeding from the instinct and remaining light of the soul , which is also a good principle , and consequently is a mark , that he is not totally evil . you may reply against the consequence , and argue , that the devils dread and fear god ; but the devils are unable of effecting a good act ; and therefore fear in a murtherer is not a good action . i answer , that the fear of god naked , and not cloathed with a repentance , and effluence from a good principle , doth not imply a good act , and therefore the naked fear in devils a bateth nothing from their evil : but as to a murtherer in fearing god's justice , wisheth he had not committed the fact . fear brings with it a great unquietnesse of mind , but a man naturally wisheth the removal of any unquietnesse of spirit , and therefore a murtherer wisheth his crime undone , with a resolution , questionlesse never to attempt the like again , which is a kind of repentance . but here you seem to charge me with a second objection , that many murtherers after so villanous an enterprise are not possest with any fear of god's justice , unquietnesse of mind , or any other kind of repentance , but persisting in their pravity and wickednesse , and affirming untill the last , that were it to do again , they should not omit the doing of it . i answer , that these wretches are in no tittle differing from atheists , since they wilfully blot the remembrance of god and his laws out of their consciences ; for otherwise ●● were impossible , but they must be surprised with fear . chap. xv. of the means and manner of man's escape and restoration . . what is requisite for a man to consider in order to his escape and restitution . . how a man may naturally find out a means tending to his restitution . . the description of god's mercy . . the explanation of the precedent description . . the act , through which god's mercy doth succour a natural soul in her contention . i. it is not enough for man to be sensible of the danger , wherein he is , but it behoveth him further to lay out for a means of escape and recovery ; wherefore it will be requisite to explain , . that there is a means for man's recovery . . how those means are to be procured . . the disposition of will whereby a man is to procure that means . ii. man , being awaked through the resentment of his perilous condition , makes a search ( omnibus naturaliter sui salutem molientibus . all beings naturally endeavouring their preservation , ) through a spark of that dusky light still glowing in him into all probable means , and infers from that ordinary maxime , ( simile simili conservatur . all beings are preserved by their like ) that the soul being a spirit , she must also expect her preservation from a spirit ; hence concludes , that the same spirit , to whom he acknowledgeth his creation and existence , must be the onely means of his preservation and restitution . the soul having now discovered a means , she directs her next aim to a further search . how and whereby to procure the said means , she argues with her self ; god through his goodnesse hath given me a being ( summum bonum est sui maximè diffusivum ) and the same attribute , which moved him to confer an essence upon me , will certainly move him to preserve it from perishing , and restore it to its primitive state . this produces a hope in the soul , which is a middle passion between a certain knowledge , and an utter despair , partaking somewhat of an assurance , and as much of a despair . during this anguish , the soul further disputes with her self , god is good , and therefore will save her ; on the other side her conscience accuseth her , in that she hath put her happinesse at a stake by offending against the goodnesse of god , and deflecting from her primitive perfection , which ( no doubt ) but god's justice will be satisfied for . god's justice is an attribute , whereby he separateth all those from his presence , that are unlike to him . the soul now in a tempest surrounded with innumerable waves of doubts and commotions of spirit , laboureth with all her strength to come to an anchor , or to make for a harbour ; here she beats against the rock of god's justice ready to founder , then beats off again to gods goodnesse , and saves her self from danger of the first stroak ; yet the same perill being imminent upon her , she agreeth with her self to steer another course , whereby to consult her safety , at last lighteth upon an infallible pilot god's mercy , which brings her clear off to a harbour of assurance and quietness , which is a natural faith . iii. god's mercy is an attribute , through which he is moved to succour a perishing soul labouring for its own recovery . this attribute ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) according to the capacity of humane reason , is called compassion and pity . compassion in us is an endeavouring to help a man grappling with his misery . the same compassion hath a resemblance to that , which is in god , although infinitely inferiour to it : for we spying the misery wherein a man is involved bearing down and overcoming his happinesse , do endeavour from a principle of love ( through which we incline to what ever is like to us , and reject what ever is unlike ) to support and aid him by adjoyning a force of the same nature to that , which is suppressed . but when a man is render'd altogether miserable and unsupportable , then we reject him , and our compassion towards him ceaseth , because his misery hath overcome his happinesse , or his evil hath totally expelled his good ; and so he remains in a desperate state : for instance , a man who is a going to be hanged for sacriledge , and he persisting in his crime untill the last , is desperate and quite lost , as having no good in him : now our compassion cannot be moved towards such an one , because he is totally evil , whom to pitty proveth in vain . iv. but to return to the exposition of the definition of mercy : first , i say it is an attribute . god's attributes are principles and perfections , whereby we conceive him ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) to effect acts really distinct one from the other . they are called attributes , because we attribute them to him , thereby to make a distinction in our understandings of the several acts , proceeding as it were from distinct powers , which really do not : for in god there is no distinction to be imagined , that supposing a composition , and a composition an imperfection : so that what ever we attribute to any of god's attributes , is to attribute it to god himself . nihil est in deo quin sit ipse deus . there is nothing in god , but what is god himself . v. the act , which floweth from god's mercy , doth succour and strengthen the soul in this contention , by expelling the cloudinesse , which the material species and depravate appetite of the body have cast about it , whereby they draw the soul from god , and inchant her to sottish pleasures . god's mercy is distinguisht from his goodnesse , because through his goodnesse he acteth that , which is good ( totâ suâ naturâ ) in it self , or acteth upon good having no part of evil opposing it , as to create man or the world , or to preserve man in his innocence . his mercy hath a respect to good , as it is opposed by evil ; as to redeem man is an act of god's mercy . chap. xvi . of the light and darknesse of man's practick understanding . . that light and darknesse are analogal to principles of good and evil . . queries concerning light and darknesse . . the two kinds of light. what the first light is , and how it produceth the second light. . what the habit of light is : that the first man acted without habits . how a habit is acquired . . that the first man acted through a natural disposition , and not through any habits . i. we have sometimes made mention of good and evil , light and darknesse , which being in this treadse stated the two principles of mans actions , whether good or evil , it will not be impertinent to unfold the nature of each . by the way you are to take notice , that light is analogal to the principle of good , and darknesse to the principle of evil , which analogy containing a clear and expresse emblem of good and evil , we shall therefore the rather retaine its analogata for to explain . ii. concerning light and darknesse may be inquired , . what light is , or what the habit of light is . . what darknesse is , and how it is to be taken in this place . . how it is otherwise called . . how it got its first footing in man. . what proportion there is between the remaining light , and this habit of darknesse . . how two contrary habits can both inhere in the same subject at the same time . . whether the habit of light is a habitus per se , and the habit of darknesse a habitus per accidens . how one contrary habit doth act against the other . . how the one at last happens to extirpate the other . iii. light , as you may know further in the second book , part . is either primitive or derivative : the first is called lux , and through its emanative power is by some said to cause the second , otherwise named lumen : or in english the former may be rendred a light , the latter an enlightning . the soul her self is the primitive light , which irradiates or enlighteneth the whole body . this illumination is more splendid and of greater lustre in the brain and animal spirits , than in any other part , because the lumen is reflexed through a repercussion against the arterial and membranous parts of the brain . iv. the habit of light is nothing else , but the facility or easinesse of the first light in actuating the second , which hapneth through a lesse opposition of the organ , and of the contrary habit of darknesse . but i shall explain my meaning more amply . the first man in the state of his integrity had no habit in him , whence his acts proceeded , but were effected through a natural disposition and principle of good , which god through his bounty had conferred upon him . this natural disposition produced its first acts as perfect , or with the same facility , as it did the following acts ; for otherwise man could not be supposed to have been created perfect . v. hence it appears , that man at his first creation had no habit ; for a habit according to philosophers , is ( habitus est qualitas adventitia ad operandum cum facilitate ) an acquired quality , through which a substance is inclined to act with ease . observe then , . it is an acquired quality , that is , not natural . . that through a habit we do operate with ease , which supposeth there was a difficulty of working before we had acquired this habit . but wherein lay the difficulty ? either in the power of acting , or in the instrument , or in the object upon which it acted . there could be no difficulty in the power , for that inhering in the substantial form is unalterable . ergo in the instrument and object . now then the difficulty in the instrument and object is removed by often fitting the organ to the object , and the object to the organ , and so you see a habit is acquired through many repeated acts . wherefore the first man in his entire state needed no habit , he acting all things naturally , and with ease : his organs were all perfect , and had no resistance in them against the power , or no unfitnesse to the object ; so likewise the objects were all fitted to their several organs . chap. xvii . containing rational discoveries of mans primitive , and second estate . . that man was created most perfect . a proof from reason , inferring god to be a most rational spirit . . that man by means of his first and second light , understood all beings perfectly in their proper natures , as they were . . that the first man did not sleep during his incorrupt estate . . that the first man did eat and drink . . that the first man would have generated in the same manner , and through the same parts , as he did afterwards , but without that shame and sinfull lust . that there were no co-adamites . the absurdity of that blasphemous opinion touching prae-adamites . . that the first man was beyond danger of erring in any action proceeding from his soul. . a rational inquiry into the first sinne , and knowledg of the first commandment . . the manner of man's fall proved by reason . his punishment for the breach of the first commandment . . a further collection of man's punishment for his first sinne . that a present unavoidable temporal death was part of mans punishment , and not a present unavoidable eternal death . . that man after his fall was not become utterly evil . . an enumeration of the relicts of good in man. to tell you how darknesse first ceased on man , it will be necessary to examine and dive into his first creation , the state and manner of it , and hence , by way of consequence , to deduct the casualties and accidents , to which he was exposed . first , beyond all arguments man was created most perfect in his essence and operations , because whatever is immediatly created by god must be perfect ; the reason is , in that god is a most perfect cause , and therefore his immediate effects and acts cannot but be most perfect ; and man above all , he being created according to god's own image . you may demand how i come to know that ? i answer , that man may easily apprehend , that god is a spirit , because his substance is immediatly imperceptible through any of the external senses : were he material , his body would be perceptible through its trinal dimension of parts , neverthelesse his acts upon material objects are but mediately , every minute perceived by us through the said intermediate actions upon material objects . secondly , we know that he is most rational and understanding , because right reason cannot but judg all his acts to be most rational : on the other part , the soul knoweth her self to be a spirit , because her essence is also immediately imperceptible by any of the external senses . that she is rational needs no proof . wherefore hence it is apparent enough , that man was created after god's image . ii. the first light then , being most perfect , produced also its second light in no lesse perfection ; particularly that , which is instrumentall to its reasoning , which made man capable of understanding all things in the world in their own nature : besides there was no resistence or obscurity in any of the objects ; because they , being all created for the service of man , had their natures ( as it were ) writ upon their breast , so that herein they were at the command of the understanding : not only so , but his will exercised a free and despotick command over all god's creatures , whether inanimated or animated , which latter , and particularly beasts , were all of a meek and obedient nature , otherwise they could not have fitted man's occasions . iii. whether man in this state naturally slept or not , is dubious : yet it is more probable , that he did not ; because sleep ariseth from an imperfection of the body , and wearinesse of the animal spirits , which is not to be supposed in so perfect a creature . besides sleep would have detracted part of his happinesse , because an intermission from joy is a kind of misery ; and a total abolishment of joy is a total misery . iv. man did eat and drink ; for otherwise many parts of his body , as his stomack , gutts , liver , spleen , kidnies , bladder , &c. would have been formed in vain . v. man , had he continued in his primitive state , would have generated , and in the same manner through the same parts , as he did since , although without that sinfull lust and shame : the reason is , because the sparmatick parts , or genitals would else be supposed to be superadded for no end . it is probable that adam did not generate in his incorrupt state ; for if he had , he would have begot children ( since that through his entire perfection , he could misse of no end in any of his actions ) who not participating of original sinne would in like manner have continued their race to this day , and have remained in paradice ; but finding , that no such paradice can at present be discovered upon earth , and that all the best parts of the earth are known ; we may justly inferre the probability of the fore-stated conclusion . possibly you may object , that paradise is in another material world , as supposing every star to be a world . i answer , that your objection is absurd , and hath no apparent foundation , as i have proved in my physicks . the same reasons do also shew the absurdity of that blasphemous opinion touching pra-adamites and co-adamites . vi. there was no action or pleasure , if immediately proceeding from the soul , wherein man could erre : because the soul , having a resemblance to the divine nature , had in it self no contrariety or principle of error . neither could he sinne in the pleasures of his mind , they deriving from the contemplation of his creator . vii . it is also certain , that god , as he is creator and king of , and over all his creatures , did require obedience from them , whereby they should expresse their subjection , humility , and love to him : wherefore ( no doubt ) he imposed some one commandment upon them , which would be sufficient to testifie their obedience and subjection . this command did not reach to the immediate or pure object of the soul , but necessarily to the object of the body . the command upon the object of the body must have been aninterdiction of some one of its pleasures , to which it was inclined : otherwise had there been but little difficulty in it , it would have expressed but an indifferent observance , or love . the pleasures of the body consists mainly im●ating ; so that it is probable some edible thing was interdicted , from which man was to abstain . and although this command did immediately extend to the body , yet there being that sympathy between the soul and it , the one could easily move the other , whereby it did also mediately reach the soul also . the breach of this commandment must have threatned some punishment for to imprint a fear upon man. viii . this punishment was imposed upon that , which should be the first inticer , which necessarily was the body through its appetitive faculty . no question but man sustained also the force of the devil ( because we are yet minutely attached by him ) who wrought upon him in a disguise ( for had he appeared to man in his own shape , man would have shunned him ) more by cunning and stratagems , than as an open enemy ; by diverting him from thinking upon god , in drawing his understanding to a sensual object , so that he wrought first upon man's body , in proposing some pleasant object to its appetite , which did soon entice the soul's will. wherefore man could not have deflected from god without yeelding to this attraction of the devil , and ceasing for a while from contemplating god , to whom had he but returned in time , it would soon have recalled him from all the allurements of the evil spirit . however man went on in hearkning to the evil spirit ; and so much the more , because it is probable , the devil appeared to him , professing an entire friendship in proposing somewhat , which might conduce to the amendment of his condition , and pleasure of his body . this done , the devils work was the better half finisht . hereupon man yeelding to the devils persuasion , and to please his lust , soon after forfeited his happinesse : his distinct knowledge of things failed him ; his fruition of god was lost ; his bodily appetite was now more increased than ever , and thence committed the same sinne a thousand times over . all god's creatures disobeyed him ; beasts grew fierce , herbs poisonous . the elements lost their purity , the sun yeelded of his light and brightnesse , the starres of their virtues and influences . this great alteration immediately hereupon succeeding , he soon perceived that he had sinned , and at the same instant felt the punishment for sin : he needed no trial , for his conscience yeelded . now let us collect what man 's punishment was for this alone first sin . ix . it was not a present , unavoidable , eternal separation from god ; for then god would have cast him into hell immediately , like he did the devil , whose crime was unpardonable , since he aspired to have been god himself , and in whom there remained not the least spark of good , but being rendred altogether evil , there remained nothing in him worth saving . hence by the way i confirm my former proposition , that man had a principle of good remaining in him after his fall : for otherwise god should have cast him into hell immediately . . it was a present , temporal , unavoidable death , namely a separation of the soul from the body ; which he soon concluded from the alteration of his body and disposition to sicknesse , through which his body at last must necessarily be brought to a temporal death : yet this temporal death did not exclude an eternal one , in case he neglected the most gracious means destained for his restitution . . it consisted in a partial unlikenesse to god : for before he knew all things distinctly by one operation of mind , now by many , then without errour , now subject to mistakes and errours . . the losse of paradise . the seat , wherein he was first constituted , was before full of all perfections , abounding of all things for the good of man : all herbs were nourishing ; flowers fragrant ; beasts of a soft , pleasant , and delightfull nature ; the elements in their splendour ; the earth fruitfull ; the waters sweet ; the air clear and wholsome ; the fire pure . soon after all was changed ; some herbs became venemous , others still reserving some goodnesse in them ; some flowers changed into a stink , others retained yet some sweet odour ; so some beasts became wild , others remaining tame ; a part of the earth remained barren , and a part fruitfull , &c. x. had man then become quite evil through this one act , all that , which had been subservient to him before , would now have become noxious and destructive to him . his knowledge of god was not totally blotted out , his knowledge of all other things was not quite abolisht : for he knew them still , although not with the same distinction and evidence . since then it was so , that part of mans enjoyments were yet remaining , and that part changed into crosses , it is probable , that a part of the good in man remained , and a great part of evil entred ; for had man not retained some good in him , god would have taken all good away from him . now after the shipwrack of man's happinesse and admission of evil , let us also examine what remained in him , that might still be termed good . . there remained in man after his fall a knowledge of his creator . . a reasoning faculty . . his body as yet in health , but disposed to sicknesse and death . . a place wherein to live ▪ all these relicts were much impaired to what they were ; neverthelesse god left them for some end : namely , that they might serve man as a means for his restitution . i had almost forgot to insert among man's remains his free-will : for no question the first man had a free-will to good and evil , which it is probable remained also partially in him after his fall . chap. xviii . of the manner of the suppression , extinction , predominance and triumph of the habit of good. . the repetition of some of the principal principles of this treatise . . what it is that hindreth the habit of good. . how the good habit happens to be deaded , and overcome by the evil habit . how the good habit happens to suppresse and vanquish the evil habit . . that we are apt to incline most to those things that are forbidden . . a proof inferring darknesse to proceed from the prevalence of the corporeal appetite . . why it is , that a man must necessarily die . the ground detected upon which the papists were induced to state a purgatory . their error rejected . . that the proportion of these two habits is various in every individual subject . i. by what hath been proposed in the fore-going chapter you may now fully comprehend the nature of darknesse or habit of evil , and how man fell into it . you may further remember , that man had no habit of good , because nothing resisted his natural powers : wherefore it is no absurdity to assert , that man acteth now good and evil through acquired or infused habits . moreover let me desire you to take notice , how man fell into sinne : viz. that it was through the inclination and enticement of his corporeal or sensual appetite , and that thereby his reason was not drawn aside violentè or coactivè , but inclinativè and dispositivè : that through this the body , as it were , got the upperhand of the soul , insomuch that after the soul had submitted her self once to the command of the body , she thereby forfeited her superiority : that the body after the fall being corrupted and grown lesse serviceable to the soul , it had stronger influence upon the soul than ever : that the habit of the soul is nothing else , but an easinesse of working its acts , whether good or evil ; which is attained through frequent repetitions of the same acts , and through it at last makes the organs easie , and the objects fitted . ii. where as all habits presuppose a difficulty , through which the former acts have been hindred , that , which hindreth the good habit , is the forcible drawing and prevalence of the sensual appetite , whereby it is set on and inclined to sensual acts , which for the most part prove to be evil . iii. wherefore this good habit is nothing else , but the same principle of good somwhat deaded and diverted by the sensual inclinations of the body ; for as a flaming fire may be deaded and choakt through black smokes , whereby it is hindred from flaming , and yet continue a fire , and may blaze again , were the smokes but discussed ; in fire we see , when it begins to blaze a little , by degrees it blazes more and more , untill at last it gets to a flame , which keeps its life the better , and expelleth the smoke more vigorously ; but if it begins to leave flaming , and come to blazing , and from blazing return to a deadish light , then the smoke overcometh it , and deads it again : even so it is with the habits of the soul ; man's light keeps blazing , untill it is deaded and choakt through the dark smokes of his inordinate sensual appetite ; but if it be ventilated , and stirred up by frequent repetitions of good acts , it is vivified , and lasteth . this light , if it is once come to an intyre flame , it can never be totally darkned : possibly it may now and then remit somewhat of its lustre ; but in case this light doth only blaze a little now and then , or it may be flame a while , yet if it rise not to burn clear quite through , neverthelesse it will perish , and is to be counted for a flash . iv. it is then the inordinate appetite of the body , which smothereth up the light of the soul , because through it she is led aside by harkning altogether to its motion , and suffering the understanding and will to bend to its pleasures , and especially to such which are forbden . nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata . that , which the law doth most from us require , is most gain-said by our perverse desire . herein is the habit of the soul deaded and overcome by the evil habit of the body . the soul may produce good acts although with difficulty , because she is opposed by the evil habit of the body : but the oftener those acts are repeated , the more the soul doth triumph over the body , and subdueth it under her command , yet not so as to tie up its whole force ; because the body being once corrupted cannot be redintegrated in this world , there remaining a debt to be paid ; to wit , death , which was contracted , as hath been shewed , through guilt of the first transgression . you may here enquire , why god through his infinite mercy doth not forgive man this debt of death ? i answer , that god through his justice cannot , that requiring plenary satisfaction , otherwise god's threatnings and ordinances might be supposed to be in vain . v. from all this it appeareth , that the darknesse of the soul proceeds from the predominance of the corporeal appetite misleading the soul , and consequently that the good habit of man is per se , and the evil habit : per accidens ; for the same perfections , which the soul of the first man was indued withall , are also conferred upon every individual soul , because each of these doth immediatly emanate from god , and therefore is most perfect : ergo , the perfection or good of every soul is inherent in her per se , and the evil , which doth assault her is per accidens ; for it is from the body . by the way let me tell you in case you doe maintain originall sinne , and assert it to be propagated through infection , you must agree in this very tenent , viz. that it is propagated through the infection of the body , which is per accidens to the soul : for it cannot be propagated through the infection of the soul ; for that was created pure and perfect : or otherwise you must affirm , that the soul is ex traduce , which is impious and atheistical . vi. the body , since it is so corrupted , must be purified , which cannot be , unlesse the soul leaveth it for a while : but as for the soul , if it deserteth the body with an assurance of , and in god's mercy and goodnesse , it needeth not to die , because it was not essentially corrupted , but accidentally ; and expiring out of the body arrives to god's presence in the same purity , and perfection , as it was indued with at her first infusion . wherefore the papists do most heretically mistake in arguing , that the soul for to be purified must abide a while in purgatory . here may be objected , if the soul remaineth good per se , and the evil be per accidens , then the soul of every wretch being dissolved from the body is entirely pure and holy ? i deny the consequence ; for as long as god's justice is not satisfied for their sin committed in the flesh , both their body and soul must necessarily be damned : but as for the soul of a regenerated man , the guilt of his sins being taken away , and god's justice satisfied in this world , the soul when dissolved from the body remaineth essentially and naturally good without any further purification . vii . the proportion , which there is between these two habits , is very various and different in most persons : for we see , that some persons their bodies and appetites are more depraved than others , and consequently their good habits more deaded , and that some have much more ado to rebuke their sensual inclinations than others . chap. xix . of original sinne. . how it is possible for two contrary habits to inhere in one subject . . the absurdities , that follow this assertion , viz. that the evil habit inheres in the soul per se. . in what manner the habit of good is taken to inhere per se in the soul. . that god created every man theologically good . several objections , relating to the same assertion , answered . . how the soul partaketh of the guilt of original sinne. the opinion of the synod of rochel upon this matter . i. now we may easily explain how two contrary habits can inhere in one and the same subject . no question it is impossible two contraries should inhere both per se in one subject ; for the nature of contraries is to expell one another out of the same subject : yet it is not repugnant but that two contrary habits may inhere both in one subject , provided the one exist in it per se , and the other per accidens , or that they be not inherent in one partial subject , although they may in the total : for it is possible for a man to be afflicted with two contrary diseases in two parts of his body , yet both are sustained by one total subject . in like manner may the evil habit be principally and originally inherent in the body , and the good habit in the soul , yet both these are contained in one man. ii. notwithstanding all this , there are some , who obstinately do affirm , that the evil habit inheres in the soul per se , but how do they prove it ? certainly upon these suppositions . . that the habits may be altered , and the substance remain the same . . that the first man acted through habits . . that the good habit being removed the evil habit succeeded in its steed , and consequently that an accident doth migrate è subjecto in subjectum . which is against their own maxims . these suppositions being all false , as hath been proved at large , cannot be a firm foundation for any conclusion whatever they have built upon them . and therefore i conclude again , . that in the first man there was a natural disposition of acting good , but no habit . . that there became two habits in man after his fall , the one of good , and the other of evil . iii. that the habit of good inheres in man per se ( quatenus actionis principium dicatur anima , inest ei habitus bonus per se , aut prout habitus sit accidens , secundum istud potest animae attributi inesse per accidens , quia ipse habitus est accidens ; quae tamen mihi est in usitata locutio . ) and the habit of evil per accidens ( non quatenus proficiscatur ab anima tanquam à mali principio , sed duntaxat quatenus sit animae instrumentum . ) here one may object , if an evil act proceed per se from the soul , than the evil habit is also inherent in her per se. as to this , the same i may argue from a good act , and thence infer the inherence of the good habit per se. but it is certain , that two contrary opposites ( secundum idem ad idem ) cannot exist together at the same instant in the same subject ; so that the one habit must necessarily inesse per se , and the other per accidens . before i go farther , let me tell you once for all , when i say that the good habit is per se in man , i do not imply , that it is ex se , but è dei gratia , è voluntate & potentia divina ordinata ; to deny this is to rob god of his honour , and is no lesse than a blasphemy : wherefore it ought to be a great caution to all men , how they assert good habits per se , or good works per se , lest they offend . iv. god creates every man theologically good , that is , god infuseth the soul theologically good into the body being good also : for otherwise god would be supposed to joyn good to evil . how could the body be evil before the advent of the soul ? if it were evil , it must be morally evil ( for there is no doubt but it was and remaineth physically good ) but that cannot be admitted , because there is no moral evil without a rational will. good and evil is taken in a double sense : . good or evil is that , which is agreeable or disagreeable with the law of god. . good or evil is , which is convenient and sutable , or inconvenient and unsutable to a being . according to the first acception , the soul is infused good into a good body , because of the reason fore-mentioned . but according to the last it is not . here may be demanded , whether it agreeth with god's goodnesse , to infuse a good soul into an unsutable body . i answer , that it doth not detract one title from god's goodnesse : for he hath ordained , that man should multiply and increase , and therefore hath given man a power of increasing and multiplying . the power , which man exerciseth to multiply , is through propagation of his body only , and uniting the soul to it . the body being then prepared for the souls reception , the soul at that instant is raised out of the body ( è potentia materiae receptiva ) not out of it , as è materiali principio eductivo , like unto material forms , but by the divine power , which is ever present where god hath ordained his benediction : so that god doth not withdraw his power of creating a soul , when ever a body is prepared for it , although that body is generated by the worst of men , because god hath ordained it ; for god doth create a soul , not because a wicked man hath disposed a body for the reception of it , but because of his ordained blessing to mans increase . v. the soul being united to the body , immediately partaketh of the guilt of original sinne . what original sinne is , me thinks , is not distinctly expounded by our ordinary institutionists . they say , it is a natural disposition to evil , naturally descending from adam to all men ; it is that , which is called , the sinne dwelling in man , the law of our members , the old man , the flesh , the body of sinne , &c. first , i demand , what sinne is ? i shall be answered , that it is a breach of god's law. ergo , a sinne is an act : for to break god's law is to act against god's law. a disposition , say they , is , whereby an agent can act . ergo , a disposition to sinne is no sinne , because a disposition is no act , but whereby we can , or do act . so that original sinne is the first act of sinne , which the first man acted , who comprehending in him whole mankind , since all men were to descend from him , the sinne , which he acted , was also acted by whole mankind , and consequently the guilt of that sinne is imputed to every man. the habit of sinne being entered through one act , whereby we are render'd prone to evil , and commit actual sinne , or do act sinne , the same habit and disposition hath also ceased on all mankind . so that original is rather the first actual sinne , after which followed the habit of sinning ; and with the original or first sinne of man , the habit of sinning is withall communicated to mans posterity . this very sense may be dtawn from their own words , although it was against their intentions . the synod held at rochel in the year . in the moneth of march , rendreth her self in these words , as further appears by their confession . we believe , that whole mankind , ever since adam , is corrupted with such an infection , as original sinne is , to wit , an original defect . and in the th artie we believe , that this defect is a sinne , and is sufficient to damn whole mankind from the highest to the lowest , yea moreover the infants in their mothers womb . what can any body apprehend by this original defect , but an actual sin , or how could infants be guilty of it ? chap. xx. of the manner of man's multiplication . . the state of the controversie . . that the rational soul is not generated , or produced by generation . that there are three kinds of productions out of nothing . . that the soul is not propagated either from the father or mother . . that impious opinion concluding the rational soul to be generated tanquam ex traduce , confuted . . an objection against the authors opinion answered . . that the foetus before the advent of the rational soul is informated with a form analogal to a sentient form . . that god is the remote cause of man's generation . . that man doth generate man naturally and per se. . the opinion of austin , jerome , and others upon this matter . . i had almost in the last chapter fallen unawares into that intricate controversie about man's multiplication and increase , but fore seeing the extent of it , i thought it fitter to retire my self to this chapter , and treat of it here singly . man consisteth of body and soul : as touching the body , there is no doubt made of it , but that it is propagated tanquam ex traduce . all the stumbling is at the rational soul , whether she be infused or propagated in like manner as the body : or i may state the question thus , whether the soul of man is created or produced by generation ? conclus . the rational soul is not generated or produced through generation . i prove it . that which is indivisible is produced in an indivisible part of time , namely in an instant . but the soul of man is indivisible , and therefore is produced in an instant . again , that , which is produced in an instant , is created and not generated : because generation doth follow alteration , which is by succession . ergo , the soul would not be constituted in an instant , but successively , and consequently would be corporeal . . if the soul had a power of generating a soul , it had also a power of destroying it by means contrary to those , wherby she had produced it . . generatio unius est corruptio alterius , & vice versa : ergo , quicquid est generabile est corruptibile . the generation of one form or being is the corruption of another ; and the corruption of one is the generation of the other : ergo , what ever is generable is corruptible , and what ever is corruptible is generable : so then when ever the soul is generated another soul or form is corrupted ; and when the soul is corrupted another form or soul is generated , which may be , as the indians hold , the soul of an horse , or of an asse , &c. and so the soul is made material . to this possibly your answer will be , that it is so in natural productions , but not in supernatural . i ask you then , why do you object this for an argument to prove the propagation of the soul , viz. that man ( homo generat sibi similem ) doth generate his like , otherwise he would be inferiour to a beast . ergo , you assert that man doth generate naturally like unto other creatures . . if otherwise to generate its like were a property belonging to supernatural beings , then angels would have a power of generating other angels , which they have not . or if this power of generating were onely superadded to one kind of supernatural beings , namely to souls , then a soul would be more noble than an angel. . there are but two wayes of producing a substance , to wit ( è materia praeexistente , vel è nihilo ) out of a preexistent matter , or out of nothing . what , is the soul produced out of a preexistent matter , as out of a potentia eductiva ? if you grant this , you expose your self to be suspected for a plinianist , and to assert the soul to be material . ergo , it must be created out of nothing . now there are three kinds of productions out of nothing : . enihilo termini ulterioris , sed aliquo materiae . . enihilo materiae , sed aliquo termini . . enihilo materiae , & nihilo termini . here you must take terminus for forma : for what is it , that doth terminate the matter , but the form ? and so the world was created ex aliquo materia , sed nihilo termini : for it was created out of the chaos , which was a rude matter without an ulterior forma , or terminus . after the same manner was the body of man created : for neither the chaos , or dust , out of which man was created had an ultimate form . neither are you to imagine here , that generation , and this kind of creation is one : for although in generation there is not that form existent in the matter , which is intended in it , yet generation is ab aliquo formae ultimae in eadem materia praeexistent is . the last kind of creation is exemplified by the creation of the chaos , of the dust , of angels , and of souls . this manner of production is proper only to an infinite power : but you may demand , why cannot god invest the soul with this power ? i answer , it is impossible to god ( non simpliciter sed secundum quid ) and to the nature of the soul. as to god it is impossible ; because should he confer his infinite power upon man , he would make him equal to himself . . it is impossible to the nature of the soul ; because she being limited , cannot be unlimited or infinite at the same time . omne quod est , idem quod est , necesse est esse . iv. were the soul extraduce , then she would be propagated either from the father , or mother , or from both . not from the father : for then the rational soul would be inherent in the geniture at the same moment of conception , which all grant is not : then from the mother ( as james hostius his opinion was ) which is absurd ; for all grant that the mother is a passive , and the father an active principle ; besides if so , men's souls would be extreamly weak : not from both ; for then the soul would be of a mixt nature , which is no lesse absurd . give me leave here to examine sealiger's notion , which sennert , kyper , and others do assume to demonstrate the manner of the souls propagation . seal . exerc. . d. . an anima catelli sit pars animae patris . cur non ? dividitur ad materiae divisionem material is anima : totaque est in sui parte , quod in plant is manifestum est . gignit autem animam anima sui promotione , eadem sanè ratione , quemadmodum à lampadis flamma flammam excipimus , illa nihilominus integra remanente . he moveth a question , whether the soul of a whelp is a part of the soul of the dog that begot him : and why not ? for a material soul is divided according to the division of the matter , and she is whole in its part ; which is most evident in plants . wherefore a soul begetteth a soul by protruding her self , much after the same manner as we kindle a flame with a flame of a lamp , the which neverthelesse remaineth entire . here scaliger explains the propagation of beasts and plants ; and others do impiously apply the same to the rational soul , and consequently make her material . but to the point , the rational soul cannot protrude her self in this manner , because she is indivisible : as for a flame , that protrudes its self ; because it is divisible , and communicateth a part of its self to another combustible matter , and so raiseth a flame ; but this is not so in the soul. v. after the confirmation of my opinion , it is requisite i should answer to what may be objected against it . if the soul cannot generate a soul ( may one say ) or cannot generate his like , then man is inferiour to other living creatures , which do generate their like . i answer , that man doth generate his like ( for it is apparent , that the sonne i● like the father ) and that in a nobler manner than animals or vegetables , who do naturally generate their like as to matter and a corruptible form ; but man doth generate the matter , and disposeth it for the reception of an incorruptible form : which done , the form is immediately united to it in instanti , not from the soul singly and originally , but from the divine power , which is alwayes concomitant to god's benediction , by which he hath through his ordained will freely tied him . self . the divine power , being then alwayes present and concomitant to the generating soul , doth , as it were , give a rational soul to the plastick faculty of the genitures , when she is ready to unite it to the body : where observe , that the generating soul is a subordinate and mediate cause of the infusion of the other rational soul. the creating power of god is the primar , principal , and immediate cause of man's rational soul , and its production . it is the primar and immediate cause of the soul , because it createth her : god of his goodnesse and blessing doth give the soul now at that instant created to the generating soul , as to a subordinate and instrumental cause . vi. by the generating soul i intend a material and divisible form , inherent in the genitures mixt out of that , which is contributed from the father , and that other from the mother . this form is analogal to a sensitive soul ( but notwithstanding must not be counted to be of the same species ) and doth informate the body of the infant , untill the advent of the indivisible , immaterial , immortal , and rational soul , and then it doth acquit the name of a form , and becomes a faculty , power , and instrument to the said rational soul. vii . god is the remote cause of man's generation and production , because god doth notimmediately unite and insuse the soul into the body : for were god the next cause of uniting the soul to the body , then true enough , man could not be said to generate man ; because the introduction or eduction of the form into , or out of the mattor is the generation of the whole . now then man is the subordinate cause of the soul and its infusion , by reason his propagature receiveth the soul , which is to be infused , from god , who is the primar and original cause of it . viii . conclus . . man doth generate man naturally and per se , although he doth not propagate the soul from himself . i prove it . he that uniteth the form to the matter , as in this instance of uniting the soul to the body , doth produce the totum compositum , as , to generate or produce the whole man : but man uniteth the soul to the body ; therefore he generates or produces the whole man. . man generateth man naturally and per se , because he hath an absolute ( secundum quid ) power of uniting the soul to the body : for otherwise he were inferiour to other creatures . this power is given him in these expressed words of scripture ( saving my purpose ) let man multiply : how could man multiply had he not this power ? for did god infuse the soul immediately , as divines generally hold , man could not be said to multiply , but god. the generating soul therefore is the causa proxima of the infusion of the soul into the body . wherefore there are alwayes souls ready ( that are created at the same moment , when needfull ) which are given to the generating soul : otherwise were its uniting power in vain . v. it is well expressed by austin : if the soul be seminated with the flesh , it shall also die with the flesh . and by jerome : if the soul of man and of beasts be ex traduce , then consequently both must be corruptible . plato in his dialog . phaed. infers the soul's advent from without , as an herculean argument to prove her immortality . coelius rhodoginus lib. . antiq. lect. doth wittily expresse aristotle's meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the first whereof was asserted by him to be mortal , the latter to be immortal : and if i mistake not , he seems to affirm no lesse , lib. . d. gener . cap. . viz. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is inherent in the sperm ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a divine rice , and immortal . well may tho. aquinas pronounce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon all those , that should maintain the rational soul to be extraduce , since most heathen philosophers did believe otherwise . what ? because those dull lutherans had not the wit to know that original sinne was propagated through the body , therefore they must revive that bombastin opinion , concluding the soul to be propagated likewise , for to demonstrate her to participate of the said sinne . this we have shewed with more probability already ; and therefore let us henceforth beware of so dangerous and atheistical an assertion . chap. xxi . of practick natural faith. . what a man is to consider to prevent his downfall . . man's danger and folly : the devils policy . a certain means whereby to be delivered from this imminent danger . the whole mystery and summe of man's salvation . . the main question of this whole treatise decided . . scripture proofs ( accidentally proposed ) inferring implicit faith in a natural man to be justifying . . the general rules of practick faith. . the occasion of man's fall briefly repeated . . fifteen reasons against all passions . . arguments against all bodily pleasures . . the military discipline of a natural man , instructing him to warre against all his enemies that oppose him in his way to his greatest happinesse . . the greatest and most necessary rule of this military art . a scandal taken off from physicians . . another great measure of the said art. . whence a natural man is to expect assistance in case he is weakned by his enemies . . whether the soul expiring out of the body is to be an angel , or for ever to abide without office . what the office of a separated soul is . . how long she is to continue in office . the consummation and description of the change of the world . the resurrection proved by reason . the description of the second paradise concluded by reason . . to what objects the faculties of men , when possest of the second paradise , will extend . that they shall remember and know one another . that they shall eat and drink , that they shall not generate , that the same person , who redeemed man from his misery , shall reign over him in paradise . i. art thou not stupified , or hast thou not lost thy reason through a confirmed atheism , then what hath been hitherto delivered may take place in thee , and gain , thee a full insight into thy past , present , and future state . on the one hand , you know your misery and pravity by comparing the course of your life with that rule , which is imprinted in your heart : on the other hand you may fadom your own strength , and since that is decayed and weakned , you may spie god ready to assist and succour you in this contention and strife against your enemies , labouring all to pull him down . but how to procure god's aid and succour , 't is that , which i am about to advise you in . in the first place consider whose enemy thou art , and ever hast been , and what associates thou art adjoyned unto ; under whose banner it is thou fightest ; to what end , or what victory it is you expect . ii. as to the first , thou art god's enemy , and hast been so from the minute thou wast conceived in . the associates among whose company and number thou hast ranged and listed thy self , are infidels , atheists , wretches and devils . the banner , under which thou marchest , and fightest , is satans , or the prince of devils . the end and victory , which thou fightest for , ( were it possible ) is to throw god out of his throne : now , bethink thy self ; art thou not a fool , that fightest against the mighty one , who is able to destroy thee in a moment ? art thou not blinded to fight with such associates ? were that mote but removed out of thy eye , thou wouldst soon be astonisht at their wickednesse , and detest their company . the banner is as a vail cast before thy eyes to keep thee ignorant of the devils aim and craft , which tends to lead thee into utter destruction . the design , whereunto thou hast subscribed , is the greatest piece of rebellion and treachery . now then , is it not time for thee to flie , and make thy escape ? yet a moment and god soundeth his alarm , and so ye are all laid in the ground , and cast into an everlasting dungeon . but whither canst thou flie , but god will pursue thee ? thou canst not cast thy self immediately upon god : for his justice doth judge thy crime high treason , and therefore unpardonable , so that thou art condemned to execution . first , satisfie god's justice , and then submit . but how may you enquire ? certainly , o man , if thou art to satisfie god's justice and to appease his wrath , then thou art lost , and cast away for ever , and yet since man hath sinned , man must surely expect god's wrath . now , the means for thy escape is to cast thy self upon god's mercy , which is infinite , and therefore of an equal weight to balance his justice : and believe assuredly , that god's mercy will move his infinite-wisdome to find out some way or other , whereby to satisfie his justice . 't is true , we have all sinned in one man , to wit , the first man ; but if god doth send one righteous man into the world , who through his perfect obedience to the law doth intirely recover god's favour , through his sufferings doth satisfie god's justice , through his death acquit us from the guilt and punishment of , and for the first or original sinne , and he afterwards rise again from the dead , as a conquerour of death and sinne ; this one man's satisfaction and obedience is sufficient to blot out all men's guilt , and merit god's favour and acceptance for all men ; because as the sinne of one first man is the original cause of all our sinnes , and as his sin is imputed to us , so the satisfaction of one second man ( provided he be of the same stock , that we are of ) is enough to satisfie for the sinne of that one first man , and consequently also for the sinnes , which we have committed , through the participation of that first sinne ; and his plenar obedience , if it be imputed to us , as the first sinne was , is sufficient to compleat and perfect all our imperfect good actions , and to make them theologically good . but some may reply , that it is repugnant to man's nature , if he be of the same stock , that we are of , to undergo death and rise again , or to be born without sinne , which is requisite ; for otherwise how can he be throughly righteous ? you have great reason to doubt of this ; for it is a mystery , which doth exceed man's capacity , and is impossible for a natural man to dive into , or ever come to any particular knowledg of it , unlesse immediatly revealed by inspiration to some men , from whom it should descend to us . neverthelesse this very thing is possible with god , and therefore we ought not to doubt of it in the least , but according to that divine saying of solon , de deo non est inquirendum sed credendum : we are not to enquire of god , but to believe in him , and particularly in his mercy and wisdom . this is the great mystery , ground and summe of our salvation . iii. but the main question , that may be moved here , is , whether this implicit faith may be termed justifying , that is , whether man in believing inclusively in god's mercy and goodnesse , as including that god is most wise , and therefore can order or appoint a means for his restoration and redemption , and that he is mercifull , and therefore will order and appoint those means of salvation to such , who earnestly desire it , and believe in him . mark i said also goodnesse , for that is necessary to be believed into , because although that through god's mercy we are redeemed and restored to our primitive perfection , yet it is through his goodnesse , or grace as divines usually expresse it , that we abide with him to all eternity . to this may be answered , that it is not improbable : for , since it would be impious to affirm , that all children are damned , because they have not an actual faith , we may safely suppose , that god being infinitely mercifull will save them as farre as they have an inclinative faith , or a disposition to it : an actual faith cannot be required , because of their immaturity . if then children are saved through their inclinative faith , certainly this fore-mentioned actual faith doth counterpoize that of children . besides , man in believing according to the state of this question , doth his uttermost , and that from a good principle to a good end , which questionlesse god will accept of . lastly , men's consciences are even in this faith at rest and satisfied , and their hopes are fixed : but all this cannot be in vain . ergo. iv. i thought it not amisse ( although beyond my purpose ) to adde a scripture or two . ezek. . , . but if the wicked will turn from all his sins , &c. rom. , . because that , which may be known of god is manifest in them ; for god hath shewed it unto them . for the invisible things of him , from the creation of the world , are clearly seen , being understood by the things , that are made , even his eternal power and god-head , so that they are without excuse . is not this a plain text , testifying , that there is a natural faith in the hearts of all men , or at least may be . luc. . , . acts . . corinth . . . psalm . . prov. . . john . . galat. . , &c. this implicit faith is generally called faith in god , heb. . . cor. . . and many other places . now to believe in god is to believe in him implicitly and inclusively , that he is mercifull and wise , and therefore can and will find out a means of redemption . lastly , what was the faith of the patriarchs in the old testament , but an implicit or inclusive faith ? v. this accidentally , and now i go on to finish what belongeth to practick faith : for observe , that faith is either contemplative , which is a contemplation or bare knowledge of the precedent , present , and future state of man , and of a means of redintegrating his nature . . or practick , when we institute , that theory in action , which doth principally consist in applying its rules and theorems to our selves in particular . now faith in general and absolutely implieth both in the same manner ; as logick , which is a practick science comprehends theoretick logick and practick logick ; the first being ordinarily called , logica docens ; the latter logica utens ; and so we may say fides docens , and fides utens . the general practick rules of faith are these : . by such wayes and means , as are like to those ( in matter , but not in form ) whereby man fell into evil , man is to recover himself from it . . a man is to recover himself by insisting in the same way , but by contrary steps , and using the same means , but in a contrary manner . . this contrariety of insisting and use , is a conformity to the insisting and use of means of the first man before his defect . vi. man fell first by omitting the contemplation of god , but for a few minutes , and by yeelding to his sensual appetite , and the perswasion of the evil spirit . pray observe here , that the condescending of the soul to the body was not a sinne : that being necessary ; for how could man have eaten else ? but the condescending of the soul to the body to a bad end , or so , as to be taken with the pleasures of it more than with its own , was a sinne and caused his fall , because the pleasures of the body , and those of the soul are contrary , the one expelling the other ; if you take delight in the meditation of divine things , then the pleasures of the body are laid aside ; or if in them of the body , then god is put by . again , pleasures or delights of the body , when the soul is habituated to them , turn into passions : as for instance , if a man takes delight in drinking , and often repeats that act , at last he will be besotted with a doting love upon it , so as he will scarce be content , but when he is a drinking . there are some men , whom it is no easie matter to find sober although betimes in the morning ; they drink all day , and go drunk to bed ; they awake in the morning half foxed , with their brains , yet dulled , scarce being cleared of the last nights intemperance : presently after they call for a mornings draught , and drink untill noon , then sleep all dinner ●●ne , and in the afternoon go to it again , and tipple untill night , and so drink they the whole year about ; if at any time they are reproved for it , they will answer and swear to it , when ever they leave off drinking they shall die . the like turning to passion you may observe in all other pleasures . vii . a man is to return by stepping backward out of the same wayes and means : as . above all things he must bridle and constrain his passions , as love , anger , hatred , &c. for by these the soul is altogether smothered up . . a passion seldom ceaseth on a man , but it leaveth a cindar , so that it easily blazeth again . . a passion is abominable in god's sight : or nothing is more agreeing with the nature of devils , than alwayes to be in a passion . . a man is no lesse justly taken for a beast , than so called in the vulgar language : as when a man is taken notice of to dote upon a thing , people compares him to an asse , and say , he is a doting asse : or when he is incensed with hatred , they say , he is as full of hatred or venom as a serpent : or when he is inflamed with anger , they resemble him to the devil , in saying , he is as angry as a devil . . the greatest advantage , which the devil ever takes of men , is in their passions . how many are there , that hang and murther themselves in wrath , love , sadnesse , & c ? how many are there killed through jealousie , hatred , or anger ? . one passion seldome ceaseth on a man without being accompanied with many other vices and sinnes ; in anger , love and hatred they are apt to lye , abuse , murther , and what not ? . a passionate man is by wise men accounted a fool : for it was one of the tenents of the stoicks , that no wise man was passionate ; and a very true saying it is ; for what foolish thoughts are men suggested with that are in love , sorrow , anger , & c ? you may object , that it is wisdom to love god. i answer , that that love is no passion , because it lasteth : besides , it is a necessary property inhering in the soul , whereby it inclineth to god with all her faculties : therein she answers to her end , for which she was created , which is to love god , or to be carried forth naturally to god. neither is a saints hatred against the devil a passion , but a natural aversion from him . compassion in a wise man is no passion , for it doth not alter him , it is rather a quality analogal to it , through which he succours a man in misery . a passion is violent , and not lasting ; the fore-mentioned seeming passions are natural , and therefore lasting : so that a wise man cannot be a wise man , and yet passionate , because it perverts his reason , and detracts him from his meditations ; and if at any time a wise man happens to fall into a passion , for that time he is no longer wise , but foolish , in declining towards his passions . . there is no passion but what is full of pain . all passions cause a violent alteration , which doubtlesse must prove painfull . joy , which is supposed the best of passions , is painfull , it rendring a man restlesse , and full of anguish , not knowing where to bestow himself . the like may be attributed to fear , love , anger , sorrow , hope , &c. . passions are vain , fading away , and leaving no real good behind them . a man , when his passion is over , wondreth how he could have been drawn into such a passion . one that hath been lately in love with any thing , after a while , when that love to such an object is ceased in him , admireth at himself , how he could have loved it ; and so of all the rest . . all passions , whether good or evil , are redoubled with sorrow and melancholly . . all passions are hurtfull both to soul and body : to the soul , because she thereby is taken off from her summum bonum : to the body , because passions do dissipate or suppresse the vital and animal spirits : whence we may observe , that a passionate man is seldom long lived . . a passion is a great sinne . . most men are apt to shun others , that are passionate , or seem to be so . for we commonly say , i care not for such a one , because he looks like an angry , or spitefull man , or he looks like a doting fool . . atheism is a collection of the habits of all passions in one man. wherefore it is necessary for a man , who endeavoureth to live eternally in happinesse with his creatour to wean himself from all passions whatsoever , and shun them , as being most detestable . viii . secondly , pleasures of the body are to be waved and contemned as much as possible : because by these man's soul was first drawn aside : are we not apt to shun and be a verse from any thing , that offended our bodies , or caused a sicknesse ? much more ought we to shun that , which cast our souls into a mortal disease . pleasures of the body consist in the enjoyment of objects coveted by our sensual appetite : but these are beyond necessity , or more than our bodies require : for instance , to eat and drink of variety , or more than our natures require , is counted a pleasure ; but that is beyond necessity : so that all pleasures are beyond necessity ; wherefore when we say such an one eats or drinks for pleasure , that is , he eats or drinks beyond necessity , or more than his nature requires . we must then also forbear going to see idle showes or playes , for they rob our souls of her pleasure , and diverts her from contemplating her summum bonum . pleasures in the fore-mentioned sense differ from passions only ( secundum magis & minus ) more or lesse , since that each of them , if often repeated may easily turn to a passion : how detestable they are hath been shewed already . the pleasures of the body destroy both body and soul : their natural effects enervate our strength ; their moral ones damn our souls . bodily pleasures belong only to beasts , to those of the soul to men : let us not then be so foolish as to make an exchange . pleasure is the devils bait , whereby he sweetly draweth us to hell. a bodily pleasure is also a great sinne , because thereby we do not answer the end of our creation : had the first man not eaten more , than his nature required , or had he abstained from variety ( both which being pleasures ) he could not have sinned ; but eating beyond necessity , he fell into a pleasure , and afterwards into a passion by repeating the same over and over again . ix . thirdly , you must resist the devil with all your force , who , since you are fallen back from his party , will prove no mean enemy to you ; and therefore . . consider where he intends to attack you , and be sure always to have a sentinel abroad , who may give you a timely alarm , when he approaches for to make an assault upon you . then , as a prudent captain you are to know your strength , and view your whole fort ; first , where you are the weakest ; . wherein your greatest strength lies , that so you may alwayes be in a readinesse of relieving your fortresse . besides , it will be a piece of prudence in you to know whence to procure assistance , if upon occasion you should be fiercely set upon . your greatest weaknesse is in your out-works , which are your external senses , and some of your in-works , as your sensual appetite , and internal senses . your greatest strength consisteth in your soul , namely in her reasoning faculty and will. your aid and assistance is god , whom you are constantly to implore for succour and relief . consider withall your enemies weapons , wherewith he intends to encounter you : and lastly , take notice of his strict discipline and policy in managing of his affairs , and therefore how much the more ought you to bestir yourself , and look about you ? now i will take leisure to unfold your weaknesse to all . there is never a sense , but it hath its weaknesse attending it . . the eyes they are apt to be inchanted with shows and playes , and especially such as are obscene : your ears with immodest discourse : your taste with gluttony and drunkennesse : your sent with noxious perfumes : and lastly , your other sense with lust . all these are great and dangerous weaknesses . are not some people so corrupt and slavishly tied to see shows and playes , that there is n●●●r a day , but they must see either a show , or a play ; they dream of playes ; they do constantly talk of playes ; and if there was but a fine show or play to be seen , the next discourse is , what have you not seen such a show , such a rare play ? now mark the devils policy , there is never a tempting play or show , but the devil sets it off either by casting a lustre upon their eyes , or a pleasantnesse upon the gestures , a splendour upon the habit , and a clangour upon the speech of the actours : you cannot imagine how dead and simple a play would seem without the devils vernishing of it ; and this is evident , many having seen rare playes , upon whose eyes the devils could not work , and to them they appeared as nauseous and simple , as it proved admirable and rare to others , upon whose eyes this glosse would take . the like may be said of painted or patcht faces ; how strangely are they set off with a glosse upon some mens eyes , and how ugly they appear to others , whose eyes are uncapable of a glosse ? to these they seem like a picture , or a patcht thing made up by art ; like to a hansome doublet with a patch upon the elbow . and is not this a pretty stratagem of the devils ? what a harmony doth an immodest tale strike upon some mens ears ? o pray , say they , tell that once over again , it is one of the best that ever i heard ! do you not think that the devil gives a little touch here to , to set off this melody ? to others again it proveth a harsh discord : so that while men play thus upon the organs , the devil he blows the bellows . the pallat or taste is as ready to be enticed as any of the others . pray listen to a drunkards story ; i was yesterday , saith he , at such a tavern , and there i had my fill of the best canary in town , and yet my head doth not ach , a sign of its excellency ; come , let us go , and have another taste of it . surely the devil did not neglect his opportunity in putting his paw into the cask to set off the wine with a relish ; and when he hath caught a man in drunkennesse , how doth he serue blasphemy out of his mouth ? how doth the devil then ride him ? leads him by the nose whither he list ; it may be directs him to a ditch , and so he is drowned ; or leaves him in a dead sleep in the high-way , and there he is robbed or murthered ; or puts a sword into his hand to kill one or other , and so he comes to the gallows , and thence home ; or sends him to a naughty house , and there he is infected with the devils leprosie . how doth the devil perfume womens looks to enchant mens nostrils ? or what a nitour doth he overshade their faces with to raise mens lusts ? as for the weaknesse of your appetite , it is not hidden , when you do every day feel its force and bending to evil objects : and lastly , how wickedly are mens thoughts for the most part imployed ? in all these lieth your weaknesse , and there doth the devil most attack you . now then the defensive part of this military art will lie in making your sallies upon the devil , when you ever spie him moving towards you . if your eye is enticed with any thing , shut it or look another way , go from it : and so do in the case of the other senses : for a retreat in these assaults is as honourable as a resisting . do not willingly or wittingly runne into these temptations , for your strength is but weak at the strongest . if neverthelesse thou art ex improviso encountred by any of the fore-mentioned accidents , and that thou art forced to withstand a repulse , direct your thoughts to the summum bonum , and so undoubtedly you are in salvo . remember then that thou shunnest , contemnest , and goest back from all such objects , and persist in contemplating the summum bonum untill the last : for since the first man fell through waving this happinesse but for a moment , thou must surely he open to thy enemies , and be devoured by them , if thou settest it aside . think that all bodily pleasures are torments in comparison to the enjoyments of the soul. x. fifthly , we must return to our first operation of mind , which consists mainly , as i hinted just now , in contemplating god , and admiring his attributes either immediately , or mediately through his wonderfull works : so that what ever object we behold , meditate or discourse of , we must behold , meditate , and discourse of it , as created from god , and having a mark upon it of his omnipotence , wisdom and goodnesse . if we consider our selves , as first our bodies , we cannot but remark its admirable structure and variety of organs , one subserving the other , which revealeth god's omnipotence and goodnesse , and cannot but be a great happinesse , if we do but reflect , that this god , who is so omnipotent , so wise , and so good is our god. when one heareth that another , who is his friend , and hath a kindnesse for him , is promoted to great dignity and power , how is he rejoyced at it , because now he is assured he hath a friend in power ? but how much the more ought that man to be transported with joy , who hath god for his friend , whose friendship and power is infinite beyond expression ? are we now so much astonisht at the formation of the body , what may we then be at the soul , by far exceeding the body ? this consideration will be enough to carry forth a man into an extasie . so likewise there is nothing existent in the world , but its nature is so admirable , that we cannot but admire god in it . here you may take notice of the erroneous and hard opinion the vulgar harbours of those , that study nature and natural bodies , meaning only physicians . what do they say of them ? they study nature so much , that they imagine that all comes by nature . what a foolish saying ? they would speak truer if they said , they study nature so little , that they imagine , that all things rise from themselves , and not from nature . so that it is not the study of nature , but the ignorance of it protrudes them to atheism . i have likewise ever observed , that such , as asserted that blasphemy , were rash foolish fellows , having neither skill or learning in them . this is a more frequent ignorance among chirurgeons , who thinking they know something , yet obstinately affect ignorance . what shall i say , are there not some among them , who have not thought it a crime to speak the greatest blasphemy of god and christ , that tongue can expresse ? have the same atheists spared of spitting out their venemous treason against their supream magistrate and countrey , although afterwards excusing themselves by pretending it was out of policy ? the pestilence of these fellows breaks out in fiery heats , and botches in their butcherly faces . but god forbid all should be so , many of that profession being as knowing and religious as of any others . xi . sixthly , we are to persist herein untill we are arrived to a compleat habit , for before we have attained to it , every evil act , although we have made some progresse , sets us very much back ; yea sometimes renders us in as bad a condition , as we were in before : in the same manner as when we are a rolling up a great stone towards the top of a mountain , if we slip but a little , or do not continue in our strength and roll on , the stone tumbles down again to the bottom . wherefore think that the least evil act , which you commit , sets you back , and may endanger you of returning to your old condition ; for as a stone inclineth naturally contrary wayes to the force of the driver , so do we naturally incline contrary wayes to the motion of the good that is yet remaining in us . be sure then to persist and persevere in your labour , lest you do labour in vain . let what ever you think , speak , or do , have a relation or a reflexion to god , and so you shall soon come to the top of the hill , where you shall have rest enough . xii . if you perceive your strength begins to fail , which seldome is otherwise , then pray to god , and constantly implore his aid and assistance ; for without it all our labour is labour in vain . here you may enquire , how one may know that god will be sought by prayer ? i answer , nature doth shew us as much ; for when ever misery doth surprize us , we do naturally , as if stirred through a necessary and forcing principle , call upon god : and what is nature but god's intended work ? . it is consentaneous to the nature of misery , for that needs relief and succour , which is no other way procured , than by zealous prayer : possibly you may suggest to your self , that it is to be got by praising god. by no means god is not pleased with any praises , but of such , as are like to him ; as for others , they are an abomination to him . praising denotes a gladnesse or joy , which cannot he in any one , who is yet detained by his original misery . we must therefore desire god to help us in striving and resisting against all bodily pleasures and passions . i say strive ; for we must labour hard , or else god will scarce help us . and this was not unknown to the worst of heathens , as their common saying doth witnesse , dii laboribus omnia vendunt . the gods sell all things for labour . when now you begin to feel your misery to be lessened , then praise god with all your heart , and with all gladnesse for his mercy and goodnesse extended towards you ; and herein you are to abide for ever ; for as god's mercy is without end , even so must you continue in praises without end . lastly , beg of god to illuminate your understanding , that you may understand all things more distinctly , thereby to admire god the more . and now you do begin somewhat to resemble the first man in all his mental operations and felicities . but the body still remaining unclean , it is necessary for the soul to leave it for a while , that it may be purified through fire , with the rest of the elements , and so be made a fit palace to receive the soul in again . the soul needs no purification , and therefore ascendeth directly to god's bosome . so that i do much agree herein , that there is a purgatory for the body , but none for the soul. xiii . hereupon enquiry may be made , whether the soul expiring out of the body , and carried to god if good , ( or to the devil if evil ) is to be an angel , or to live with god for ever without any office : or , whether she is to be re-united to the body , when purified . it is probable , that the soul deserting the body is to be immediately an angel , and to continue in office , untill such time , that the compleat number of souls have likewise finisht their course . i prove it . it is improbable , that the soul should desist from serving god , and professing its duty , because she was created for the same end . secondly , her condition would exceed that of angels , were she exempted from all duty , these being also created for god's service : for spirits are called angels from their office , which is to serve god. the word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , denoting a messenger , which again from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i send . the office , which the separated soul is capable of exercising , is of taking care of souls yet in the body , in helping and assisting them ; for as the devil doth seduce us by depraving our appetites and fancies , so to the contrary do angels enlighten our understandings , and suppress our immoderate appetites . xiv . this office they shall remain in untill the consummation of the world , at which time every soul shall be re-united to its body now purified by fire , and transformed into a splendid substance . all the elements shall then be sublimed into a pure nature , and all other things else shall return to what they were at the time of the first man's innocency . beasts shall receive new natures , their wild ones shall become tame and obedient to man as formerly . the poisonous herbs shall be changed again into wholsome . all flowers shall re-indue their primitive fragrancy : summarily all men , that shall escape the terrour of that great day of judicature , shall be placed in the same state and paradice , which the first man enjoyed , and the same law shall be imposed upon men , as before . man shall abide eternally in paradise : he shall eat and drink , but he shall not generate . the great instrument and cause of man's redemption shall eternally reign over him . here i have described man's second paradise ; there remains only the proof of its particulars . . that the separated soul shall be re-united to its body is apparent , because god created her at first with a natural propensity to the body , and that she should be a perfection to it , which propensity is yet remaining in her , because god doth not recall any thing , that he doth , or hath done . this propensity is a certain sign , that god will raise up its body again otherways it would be in vain . the body ( 't is likely ) will be the same ( quoad formam accidentalem & figuram ) according to its precedent form , shape and figure , because thereby the saved souls may know one another again , when they meet in paradise , and rejoyce together , alwayes praising god for his mercy and goodnesse . xv. the soul being now returned to its body , must be contained by a corporeal place . this corporeal place must be a paradise upon earth , because god did first bestow it upon man , as being agreeable to his integrity and perfection ; and of the other side , as being consentaneous to god's infinite goodnesse , through which he conferred a compleat and entire happinesse upon man. the same now remaining , to wit man's perfection and god's goodnesse , it is certain , that he will conferre the same happinesse upon man , namely paradise ; because god in his wisdom finding it to be suitable to man then , will ordain the same again now , his wisdom being the same . if god then is pleased to conferre the same paradise upon man , it is evident , that all the elements shall be purified , otherwayes how could it be a fit place for to imbrace so pure a substance ? the same law , 't is probable shall continue , because the same obedience and duty will be required from man as before . beasts , herbs and flowers the second paradise shall abound with ; because god judged it convenient before , and therefore his wisdome being unchangeable will judge the same then . he shall eat and drink , because otherwayes the fruits of paradise , and mans nutritive organs should be in vain . he shall not generate , because the number of men will be compleated . the cause and instrument of our redemption was an entirely righteous and effentially holy man ; yet more than a man , for it was impossible , for man alone to satisfie god's justice : since then the chief instrument of our salvation was a man , his body being of the same nature with others , must require a corporeal place : but of this little can be said , since man through his reason cannot dive unto it , neither is it revealed , unlesse obscurely . * what shall i say more to you , o , that most splendid second paradise , abounding with innumerable springs of ineffable joys ! this is the palace , whither the victorious soul shall be conducted by a number of glorious angels to the greatest of kings , attended by myriads of cherubims , there , in the sight of them all to receive the laurel , and to be installed into an everlasting dignity , office , and possession . thence she takes her place among those illustrious attendants , and sings hymns to the melodious ear of the chief musician . o hear their sweet noise ring , gloria , gloria deo in excelsis . te deum laudamus in aeternum . o the harmony of their quavering wings and smooth voices ! o the glorious order in their moving ! o the splendour that encompasseth them ! o the glistering of their appearances ! o those bright stars moving swister than the heavens ! o the ●lustery descent of the myriads of seraphims , then of cberubims , and of thrones ! o but what misery is it to be shut out from this celestial consort , and have ones brains dashed against the fiery pins , and burning stakes of hell ? wo the most horrible sight of that monstrous arch-devil satan , piercing the most tender sinews of man with his serpentine tongue , haling each limb of him with so many . drakes heads : scruing his conscience , by trusting his eyes into that dread magnifying glasse of hell , which serveth him to shake his shattery bones , through seeing the monstrous greatnesse of his sins . wo that multiplying glasse expressing the vast number of his detestable wicked deeds . wo the fearfull thunder of those innumerable legions of wretches roaring out through the most intollerable pains of their sinews , the rigid torments and the gnawing , fretting , distracting , inflaming gangrene of their sad consciences . wo the everlasting pricking , pinching , convulsion , rotting of their sinews . wo the deformity of their ulcer'd , swelled , rankled bodies . wo the fearfull spectacle and disorder of hellish monsters ! here is a fiery serpent , there a roaring lion ; here stands a dreadfull drake formed out of the body of an atheist , there a raging crocodile grown up out of the body of a traitor . wo the unexpressible innumerable torments and dreads of hell. and this you see is the end of good and evil , and of this treatise . chap. xxii . comprizing a brief account of the religion of the heathen philosophers . . socrates his belief of god. . what god is according to homer . . what plato thought god to be . . thales his saying of god. . instances proving the heathens to have known gods attributes ; particularly , that thales believed god's omniscience , and god's unchangeable decrees . . that socrates asserted god's omniscience , omnipotence , his creating of the world in time , his justice and mercy , god's omnipresence . . the articles of plato 's faith , . aristotle 's belief . . virgil 's opinion of divine things . . the divine song of orpheus , . trismegistus upon the creation of the world . after the proposal of a rational divinity , and its evidence through humane reason , it will not a little conduce to the proof thereof , that heathens have through the light of nature attained to the same . i. socrates , who might more justly be surnamed divine , than his scholar plato ( who received most of his learning from him ) constantly used to say , that the only amiable wisdome was to know and understand god and nature ; which knowledge ( saith he ) was not be got in men , but it was called to mind ; as if he would have said , the soul must needs retain some impression from whence it was derived . he asserted also , that the supream god was the father and maker of all things . ii. homer declared god the father of all the gods which are created , and maker of beasts , and all other things that had no souls . by gods here he meant men , who for their excellency of wit and parts , were after their death remembred with sacrifices , and honoured with the name of gods . neither did men really take these for gods , but only in the same manner as papists do their saints ; for they were not ignorant that these had been men , and could then perform no more than men . hence heraclitus affirmed , that this world was not made by any of the gods or men . iii. plato his assertion was , that god of all causes was the most excellent , and the first . iv. god , saith thales , is the most ancient of things , for he never had beginning or birth . v. now i come to produce , that they had attained a particular knowledge of god's attributes . thales being demanded , whether a man might do ill and conceal it from god : no nor think it , said he . stobaeus relates of thales , that he being asked what was the strongest , answered necessity , for it rules all the world . necessity is the firm judgement and immutable power of providence . a golden saying inverting fate into god's unchangeable decree . vi. socrates his knowledge of god was after this tenour : viz. that god knoweth all things , said , done , or silently desired . that god through his care sustains all his creatures , in providing light , water and fire for them . but particularly for man , for whose service and subjection he hath ordained plants and all other creatures . that god is one , perfect in himself , giving the being and well-being of every creature ; what he is i know not , what he is not i know . that the way to true happinesse is philosophy , whose precepts are two , to contemplate god , and to abstract the soul from corporeal sense . that god , not chance created the world and all creatures , is evident , through the reasonable disposition of their parts , as well for use as defence , from their care to preserve themselves , and continue their kind : that he hath had a particular regard to man in his body , is no lesse apparent from the excellency thereof above others ; from the gift of speech , from the excellency of his soul in divinations , and fore-saying dangers : that he regards particular beings , from the care of their whole kind : that he will reward such as please him , and punish others that displease him , from his power of doing it , from the belief he hath ingraffed in man : that he will do it : that he is professed by the most wise and civilized cities and ages : that he at once seeth all things , from the instances of the eye , which at once over-runs many miles ; and of the mind , which at once conceiveth things done in the most remote places : lastly , that he is such , and so great , as that he at once seeth all , hears all , is every where , and orders all . plato maintains , that god is incorporeal and an unchangeable light. that the knowledge of god was the true wisdom , and that we are render'd like to god through our justice and holinesse . what saith austin concerning plato ? that his followers would have been christians , a few words and sentences onely being changed . that the greatest happinesse consisted in knowing god , and in being like to him . but possibly you may reply , that plato ( according to what is asserted by justin martyr ) had read some books written by an inspired pen , as the books of moses and the prophets . unde plato ( inquit ) currum volantem jovem agere in coelo didicit , nisi ex prophetarum historiis , quas evolverit ? intellexit enim è prophetae verbis , quae de cherubim it a script a sunt , & gloria dom ini ex domo exivit venitque in cherubim , sumserunt cherubim pennas suas , & rotae eorum cohaerebant , dominique dei israel eis in coelo coharebat gloria . hinc profectus plato clamat his verbis : magnus in coelo jupiter currum volantem incitans ; alioquin à quo alio nisi à mose & prophet is haec didicisset ? whence ( saith he ) had plato learned that jupiter rid in a flying chariot , but out of the histories of the prophets , which he had over-lookt ? for out of the books of the prophets he understood all those things , that were thus written concerning the cherubims : and the glory of the lord went out of the house , and came to the cherubims . the cherubims took their feathers , and they hung together in circles , and the glory of the lord of israel , did abide upon them in heaven . hence plato descending cries out these words : iupiter great in the heavens driving his flying chariot . otherwise from whom should he else have learned these things , but from the prophets ? and so clem. alexand. lib. . strom. orat . ad gent. speaking as it were to plato . leges , quaecunque verae sunt , tibi ab hebrais suppeditatae sunt . what ever true laws thou hast set down are supplied thee by the hebrews . to this i answer , that it is very improbable , that plato should have collected his divinity out of moses or the prophets , their writings being in his time not yet translated out of the hebrew . i should rather believe with others , that he had sifted his divine notions out of hermes trismegistus an aegyptian , who according to suidas , flourished before pharho , and was called trismegistus , because he had through a divine inspiration written of the trinity . and sugul saith , that he was called ter optimus maximus , the thrice best and greatest , because of his greatest wit , or according to others , because he was a priest , king , and a prophet . 't is not only thought of plato , that he had gathered some riddles of god from the aegyptans , but also of theodorus , anaxagoras , and pythagoras . but i continue plato's sentences . the body being compounded is dissolved by death , the soul being simple passeth into another life , and is uncapable of corruption . the souls of men are divine , to whom , when they goe out of the body , the way of their return to heaven is open , for whom to be best and most just is most expedient . the souls of the good after death are in a happy state , united to god in a blessed inaccessible place ; the wicked in convenient places suffer condign punishment . but to define what those places are , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : whence being demanded , what things were in the other world ? he answered , neither was i ever there , or ever did speak with any , that came from thence . viii . we must not forget aristotle , who lib. . de anim . c. . closes with homer in these verses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and homer agreed in the same , that the minds of mortal men were such as the father of gods and men did daily infuse into them . moreover lib. . de anim . cap. . t. , . he calleth our understanding divine , and asserts it to be without danger of perishing . and lib. . de gener cap. . delivers his sense thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherefore it remains , that the mind alone doth advene from without , and that she alone is divine ; for the action of the body hath not at all any communication with her action . ix . virgil . georg. wittily sets down god's ubiquity , — deum namque ire per omnes et terras tractusque maris , coelumque profundum . hinc pecudes , armenta , viros , genus omne ferarum , quemque sibitenues nascentem arcessere vitas . et . aeneid . principio coelum , ac terras composque liquentes , lucentemque globum lunae , titaniaque astra . spirit us intus alit totamque infusa per artus mens agitat molem , & magno se corpore miscet . that is , for god doth go through all the earth , the tracts of the sea , and the deep of the heavens . hence do beasts and men and what ever is born draw their thin breath . and in the sixth book of his aeneids . in the beginning god created heaven and earth , and the melting fields , and the shining globe of the moon , together with the titanian star. a spirit doth nourish it within ( speaking of the world ) and a mind being infused through its members doth move its mole , and mingles its self with that great body . x. the admirable poesie of that divine orpheus , lib. de mundo , is worth our observation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . jupiter is the first , jupiter is the last . jupiter is the head , jupiter is the middle . god made all things . jupiter is the foundation of the earth , and of the starry heavens . jupiter is a male , jupiter is an immortall nymph . jupiter is the spirit of all things , jupiter is the mover of the unruly fite . jupiter is the root of the sea. jupiter is the sun and the moon . jupiter is a king. jupiter is the sulminating prince of all , for he covereth all , he is a lighr to all the earth , out of his breast he doth wonderfull things . xi . trismegistus lib. . pimandr . renders himself very divinely . the mind of the divine power did in the beginning change its shape , and suddenly revealed all things , and i saw that all things were changed into a very sweet and pleasant light . and below in another place : a certain shadow fell underneath through a thwart revolution . and serm. . pimandr . the shadow was infinite in the deep : but the water and the thin spirit were in the chaos : and there slourished a holy splendour , which impelled the elements under the sand and the moist nature , and the weighty bodies being submerst under the darkness did abide under the moist sand . empedocles defined god a sphere , whose center is every where , and circumference no where . vincent . in spec . hist. l. . c. . pythagoras described god to be a mind diffused throughout the universal parts of the world , and the whole nature , out of which all living creatures that are born , do draw their life . in another place he cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the soul of the universe . heraclitus being at a certain time of the winter crept into a cottage for to warm himself , and being enquired for by some , who were ashamed to come into so mean a place , called to them to come near ; for ( said he ) the gods are also to be found here . athenagoras an athenian philosopher expresseth himself very profoundly : god ( saith he ) hath given man a judgement of reason and understanding for to know intelligible things , the goodnesse of god , his wisdom and justice . errata . pag. . lin . . read of their . l. wisdom it self . p. . l. . r. with those . p. . l. . r. those . l. . r. into good . p . l. . r. wherein . p. . l. . r. into that . l. . r. according to . p. . l. . r. those of the. l. . r. these causes p. . l . r. a man doth . p. . l. . r. impose . p. . l. . r. what is . p . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. l . r. latter . p. . l. . dele it . p l r. and exciting . p. l dele it . p. . l. . r. others . l. . r. immodesty . l. . r. ells , weights . p. . l. r eternal . p. l. . r. spermatick . l. ult . dele also . p. . l. . r. coactè . p. . l. . r. forbidden . p. . l. . r. attribui . finis . archelogia physica nova . or nevv principles of natural philosophy . the second part . the first book . by gedeon harvey , dr of phys. and phil. late physitian to his majesties army in flanders . london , printed by j. h. for s. thomson , at the bishops head in st pauls church-yard , . natural philosophy . the second part . the first book . chap. i. of the nature of natural philosophy . . the etymology and synonima's of natural philosophy . . the definition of natural philosophy . . an explanation of the said definition . . what a natural being is . . what a natural essence is . . what nature is . . the various acceptions of nature . natural philosophy is so called , because it treateth of nature , and natural beings . it is also known by the name of physicks , which is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nature . aristotle in his metaphysicks , book . chap. . calleth it the second philosophy . cicero in his book of divin . nameth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , a discourse of nature . ii. natural philosophy is a knowledge of a natural being . iii. this definition stateth a natural being to be the subject of physicks , which is somewhat restricted from a being in general , as being less universal , and therein it is distinguished from metaphysicks , where a being is discoursed of , as a most universal entity ; but here , as a less . natural in the definition doth lay a restriction upon a being , and giveth it a specifick consideration ; and therefore it proves trustraneous to add ( quatenus naturale ) as far as it is natural : for otherwise , what need would there be to appose natural , did it not imply the same ? or in case you omit natural , you may define natural philosophy to be a knowledge of a being so far as it is natural , and so it is the same again . here you may take astronomy to be coincident with physicks , because it treateth of the heavens , which are natural beings . herein i do resolve you thus : astronomy is not a knowledge of the heavens ; for a knowledge doth explain a thing through its causes and affections : but astronomy doth not treat of the causes of the heavens ; wherefore it followeth that astronomy is not a proper science of the heavens . although astronomy containeth the doctrine of the motion of the heavens , which is only an affection or property of the heavens ; yet therein it doth not constitute a science , unless in an improper , although usual signification , wherein science is taken for any kind of knowledge , be it of the causes , or affections of a thing ; be it theoretick , or practick ; and according to this acception is the art of grammar frequently called a science . astronomy is a partial science , or it is a part of the science of physicks , as discoursing of one of the affections of a natural being , which is the motion of the heavens . but since each of these partial sciences , if treated of all in one volume , would grow to a vast mole , philosophers do therefore handle them in several books , and treatises . iv. a natural being is that , which consisteth of nature , or which hath a natural essence . v. a natural essence is that , which consisteth of natural parts ; namely , natural matter , and natural form. vi. nature is a disposition of an elementary being , whereby it doth act according to its truth . i say it is a disposition , and therefore no power , because all dispositions are actual . vii . nature is variously taken . . for a single essence , exempted from all composition , according to which sense god is only called nature ; and for to distinguish his nature from others , he is called ( natura naturans ) nature naturating ; or nature , which giveth nature to all other natures . . it is also taken for a derived being , which is distinctly specified by ( natura naturata ) nature naturated ; or for nature , which hath obtained its nature from the naturating nature . . for the quiddity and essence of a natural being ; and according to this last acception it is to be taken here . as god alone is called nature according to the first acception , so are angels and soules , that are separated from their bodies , called in a sense common to elementary beings , nature . but nature in the third signification is only appropriated to elementary beings . i omit the mentioning many other acceptions of nature , because they are inclusively contained in these before-mentioned . chap. ii. comprehending an explanation of the definition of a natural being . . what is meant by disposition . . an objection against the definition of a natural being answered . . what it is to act according to truth . . that the subject of this science is more properly named a natural being , than a natural body . . aristotles definition of nature rejected by several arguments . . that nature is a property of a natural being . . the difference between nature and art. . that nature in respect to god acteth constantly for an end. . the division of nature . i come now to explain the definition of nature , which explanation is the more necessary , because through its obscurity many doubts , and mistakes might otherwise be occasioned . the genus is a disposition or vertue , which you are to take here in a concrete consideration , according to the sense expressed in the third chapter of powers . by vertue i intend an actual strength and power of acting , as it is inherent in a natural subject . ii. against my definition may be objected , that nature its substance : but a disposition or vertue is an accident : therefore it cannot be the right genus . to this i answer , that vertue is a property of a being , not really distinct from it , but modally only : now since we can only know a thing by its modes , as doth appear in my metaphysicks ; therefore beings for the understandings sake are to be explained by them , and are to be taken to be the same really with their subject . a disposition then is the same , as if i had said a subject , or being disposed and powerful . through elementary being is meant , a being constituted by the elements ; wherein i do distinguish natural beings , as they are the subject of this science , from the nature of angels and separated souls , which are immaterial , and not constituted through the elements , as origen did falsly suppose . iii. to act according to its truth , is to act conformably to the divine purpose and idea , whereby beings do act the same , and are the same , which god did purpose they should act , and intend they should be : to be the same being , is to be that , which they are , and act that , which they do act ; where observe , that nature is the seal and impression of gods will and omnipotence upon every being , through which they are that , which they are . hence nature is called the hand of god. hence it is also called the order and universal government among all natural beings , through which one being doth depend upon the other , and is useful and necessary to the other . this is evident in many moving living creatures , as most cattel , whose dependance and preservation is from and through vegetables ; as from herbs ; their 's again is from the juyce of the earth ; and that from a mixture of all the elements . the same subordinate use and good is also observed among all other beings in the world . hence nature is called the strength and vertue of a being ; for their strength and vertue is nothing else but an actual disposition and propension in beings ; in this sense we say the nature of fire is to levitate , of earth to gravitate . iv. i did rather chuse to say a natural being , then a natural body , for to avoid an improperty of speech ; because a body is properly and ordinarily taken for matter ; and so we usually say , that man consisteth of a soul and body , and that a natural being consisteth of a form and body , or matter . neither is it a motive , rather for to say a natural body , then a natural being : because a being is of too large an extent ; for a being is restricted from that latitude of signification by adding natural . v. after the exposition of this definition of nature , it will not be amiss to compare that of aristotles to it . nature is the principle of motion and rest of a being , wherein it is existent through it self , and not by accident . it was the opinion of aristotle , that nature was a substance , and nevertheless here he seemeth to make an accident of it ; for that , which acteth immediately through it self , is not a substance , but an accident , because according to his dictates , a substance doth not act immediately through it self , but through its accidents ; if then a natural being acteth through its nature , that is , its matter and form , then nature must be an accident , and consequently matter and form are also accidents , which he did in no wise intend . . suppose that nature were a substance , it would be absurd to assert , that a natural being did act through a substance of rest and motion , which doth inhere in it self ; for then there would be a penetration of bodies , and an identification of subsistencies . you may reply , that nature is not a substance of motion and rest , but a substantial principle . pray , what is a substantial principle but a substance ? . it is plainly against the principles of aristotle , to say , that a principle is no substance ; for matter and form are principles , but these he granteth to be substances . . if again granted , that these are substances , and not vertues , then it must necessarily follow , that a form being an active principle , doth act through it self , and thence a form is called active . it must also follow , that matter , which is another principle of motion , acteth efficiently withal , because motion proceedeth from an efficient or from a form , and wherefore is matter then called a passive principle ? your answer to this will be , that matter is not the principle of motion , but of rest. i take your answer , but what kind of rest do you mean ? is it a rest from local motion , or a rest from alteration , or augmentation ? it must be a rest from some of these three . it cannot be a rest from local motion , because all beings are not capable of a rest from local motion : then it must be a rest from alteration , or augmentation . neither can it be a rest from any of these ; for all beings are constantly and at all times in alteration , and consequently are either augmented , or diminished . what rest can it then be ? it is no rest from action , for then matter could be no principle or cause , for all causes do act . . how can matter and form , which are principles , before their union , be substances , since that a substance is a perfect being , which doth subsist in unity through it self , and thereby is distinct from all other beings : but matter or form can neither of them subsist through themselves , or have any unity , or distinction . . a form is not a principle of rest in all natural bodies through it self , but by accident : for all bodies are through themselves continually in motion , as will further appear in its proper place . vi. wherefore for to avoid all these absurdities , contradictions , and improperties of speech , it is necessary to assert ; . that nature is a property of a natural being , through which it acteth . . that a property is really identificated with its subject , and consequently , that natural is not really differing from a natural body . this property denotes a propension , or actual disposition , through which the said body is rendred active . by activeness i understand whereby all is constituted , whatever is actually inherent in a being , as , existence , subsistence , and all its other properties ; so that nature or natural in physicks is a property equivalent to the modes or attributes of truth , and goodness in metaphysicks . vii . nature differeth from art , in that she acteth conformably to the divine idea or intention , but art acteth conformably to the intellectual idea : wherefore nature is infallibly immutable , constant , perpetual , & certain , because it dependeth from an infallible , immutable , constant , perpetual , and certain cause ; but art is fallible , changeable , inconstant , and uncertain , because it dependeth from the humane intellect , which is fallible , changeable , inconstant , and uncertain . as man is uncapable of acting without god , so is art incapable of effecting any thing without nature . nature is infinitely beyond art : what art is there , which can produce the great world , or any thing comparable to the little world ? whatever excellent piece a man doth practise through art , it is no further excellent , then it is like unto nature ; neither can he work any thing by art , but what hath nature for its pattern . what is it a limner can draw worthy of a mans sight , if natural beauties are set aside ? viii . whatever nature acteth , it is for an end and use : it is for an end in respect to god , who created all things for an end ; it is for an use , in respect to one another , because all beings are useful to one another , as i have formerly demonstrated : but we cannot properly say , that all things act for an end in respect to one another , because that , which doth act for an end , is moved by that end , and doth foreknow it ; but natural beings do not foreknow their ends , neither are they moved by them . ix . nature is either universal , or singular . an universal nature may be apprehended in a twofold sense . . for the universe or whole world , containing all singular natures within it . . for a nature , which is in an universal being , and so you are to take it here . a singular nature is , which is inherent in every singular and individual being . i do willingly pass by other observations concerning nature in general , because i have touched many of them in my metaphysicks . chap. iii. of the principles of a natural being . . that privation is no principle of a physical generation , or of a physical being . that union might be more properly termed a principle , then privation . . the principles of a material being stated by pythagoras rejected . . that to treat of matter and form is more proper to metaphysicks . . that the materia prima of aristotle is a non ens. . that the chaos had a form. . the authors materia prima . . that it doth not appertain to physicks to explain the nature of the first matter . . what the first form of all natural beings is . i. in metaphysicks it is made known , that all created beings consist of parts , and that no being , except god alone , is single , but all are compounded . this is also proper to a natural being , whose composition is to consist of matter and form. i need not tell you the diversity of opinions among philosophers upon this particular , they being fully related by aristotle , in his physical auscultations ; wherefore i shall only examine his , as being thought the most authentick by modern philosophers . the said philosopher states three principles , which do necessarily concur to the production of a natural being : namely , matter , form and privation . as for two of them , no doubt , but they are principles , but the third is disputable . privation is logical , that is , it is imaginary , and assinged to a being by a second intention of the mind , and therefore his commentators do generally teach , that it is to be counted no other then a principle per accidens . if per accidens , it is no part of a being : if it is any thing , it is a part of generation , for this doth immediately presuppose a privation , but a being presupposeth it mediately only , through , and by meanes of generation . if the , call that a principle of generation , which doth necessarily concur to the constitution of a natural being , then that should rather be termed a principle , which doth concur to it per se , as for instance , union . union doth necessarily and per se concur to the generation of a natural being , but privation doth only concur to it per accidens . union is not only necessary at the moment of generation , but also after a being is constituted ; it is that , without which a being cannot consist . so that i say , that union is infinitely more proper to be termed a principle then privation , and why did not aristotle dream of that ● to speak properly , neither of them can be taken for a principle of a natural being , whereby it should be constituted to be that which it is . union is unnecessary , because unity doth imply it ; since then that all beings are metaphysically constituted by an unity , which can be also applied to physicks , it is needless to mention union in this science , otherwise we might aequo jure refer all the modes of a being to it . i much strange , why aristotle omitted the inserting privation in metaphysicks among the universal causes of an universal being , and why he did not as justly refer it to that part of philosophy , as he did matter and form ; it being of as large an extent and universality , as either of these . possibly you will deny it to be of an equal extent with them , or assert , that it is of no larger universality then a natural being is . herein i deny your denial and assertion ; for it is of a larger extent then a natural body is , since it is appliable to angels , and devils , who must as necessarily have had a privation for a principle of generation as naturals , for even they were not before they were . wherefore since he referred angels and devils to metaphysicks , he ought aequo jure to have placed privation in the same rank . the same argument i may use against his eight books of physicks , there being little else contained in them but what is as common to spiritual beings as to corporeal ; as for instance , time , finiteness , motion , &c. all which are common to immaterial beings . wherefore had aristotle treated of these particulars in his physicks , doctrine gratia , it might have deserved an excuse , but since he t●eated of , them there per se , it can be accounted no less then an errour . ii. pythagoras taught a trinal number of principles , constituting a material being . . a point . . a line . . a superficies , or surface . these are rather sorts and kinds of quantity , which for that reason do more properly appertain to metaphysicks ; for besides these , there are many others concurrent to the constitution of a material being , as hath been disputed of elsewhere . yet this is observable in this opinion , that pythagoras and many other wise men did collect the principles of a being , by means of their senses ; for it is in vain to talk of essences and forms , in such a manner as aristotle did , which a man cannot apprehend , what they are ; and for this reason he stated three principles of a material body , because these three could be evidently perceived by sense . iii. to treat of matter and form doth rather belong to metaphysicks , because they are principles remote from physical bodies ; i say they are remote , because they are applied to natural bodies by means of the elements : for natural bodies consist of matter and form , so far as they consist of the elements , and the elements are really and properly the matter and form of a natural being . now , in every science the principia proxima are only to be treated of , for otherwise you might draw all metaphysicks to this tract . aristotle did erroneously discourse of these things in physicks , since he had treated of them in metaphysicks . my purpose was no other then to rehearse these matters for an introduction , and to shew the mistakes of others herein . iv. matter in a natural being is either first or second . the first matter is , which is not produced out of any other , and therefore is termed to be ingenerable and incorruptible . the second matter is , which is produced out of the first , and is said to be generable and corruptible . aristotle in his book of phys. c. . t. . defineth the first matter to be the first subject of every thing , out of which remaining , a being is generated through it self , and not by accident . the ancient philosophers could hardly understand , what this first matter was , because of its difficulty ; wherefore aristotle himself was forced to describe it negatively , in the b. of metaph. ch. . t. . the first matter is that , which through it self hath neither essence , nor quantity , nor any thing of that , by which a being is determined : which is as much as if he said , i know better what it is not , then what it is ; and this kind of knowledge is common to fools and wise men . so that from this description we may collect , that it is not cognoscible , since it is not determined , and consequently it is nothing . notwithstanding aristotle recollects himself in his physicks , where we have the forementioned definition set down . the first matter , saith he , is the first subject of everything : ergo every thing is generated out of the first matter : how can that be ? then it followeth , that every natural being , when it is dissolved , is dissolved in its first matter ; or , how can the next being be generated out of it else ? this most of his followers do deny , affirming the contrary , viz. that a natural being through its corruption is not dissolved into the first matter . this they prove by aristotle his own dictates ; the corruption of one being is the generation of another . generation , saith aristotle , is in an instant : that is , assoon as one form goeth out , at the same instant , another enters . . if a being in its dissolution is dissolved into the first matter , then it must be deprived from all its accidents : but we observe the contrary , for when a beast dieth , there still remain accidents in that body : ergo a being is not dissolved into the first matter . this moved aristotle to assert the forementioned theoremes , to wit , that generation is in an instant , and that the corruption of one being is the generation of another , because there are accidents remaining at the same instant , when the precedent form is expelled ; which accidents remaining , do necessarily suppose a form , from which they are depending . all which infers , that every thing is generated out of the second matter , and not out of the first . how then can materiaprima be said the first subject of every thing ? the other part of the definition is , out of which a being is produced : this is no less strange then the other . how can a being be produced , and yet the first matter be remaining ? for assoon as a being is produced , the first matter is not remaining , but it is now become a second matter with accidents , which were not in the first . v. it is more then probable , that naturally and really there is no such first matter . . because all natural beings are generated out of a pre-existent matter ; this our sense doth testifie ; as for aristotles first matter , that hath no existence , but an imaginary essence only . . all , that which doth really exist , is a compounded being . if there is any such single matter , how do you know it ? sense never perceived it , how can you then tell it ? whatever doth exist , or did ever exist , it hath , or had a form. you may say , that the chaos existed without a form , because a form doth distinguish a being from all others , and giveth it unity : now , when the chaos existed , there was no other being , and it was rude and without form . to this , i answer , although there was no other being , yet this did not hinder , but that the chaos had its numerical and positive unity , existence , determination , goodness , truth , &c. all which accidents could not be without a form. 't is said , that the chaos had no form , that is , not its formaultima , for which it was intended , notwithstanding it had its forma prima . it remaineth then , that the materia prima is neither an objective being , nor much less a real being : it is no objective being , because we cannot frame an object of it , or like to it . for what can we think of it ; it is confessed it hath neither essence , or quantity , &c. the greatest absurdity is , that they give it no limitation , and consequently must affirm it to be infinite , which of all absurdities is the most absurd : for nothing is infinite , but god alone . then again , to maintain that it is ingenerable and incorruptible , is impious : for god only is ingenerable , and incorruptible . vi. there is a first matter , which was produced at first , and out of which all second matters were and are generated . this first matter had also a first form comproduced with it . a second matter is , which is produced out of the first . the first matter is the matter of the elements , which are four in number . you are to note here , that by the first matter is not meant a matter formally different from the second matter , but accidentally only in respect of time : it is called first , because it was first produced . vii . it doth not ( as i hinted before ) appertain to physicks to explain abstractly what the first matter is , that being proper to metaphysicks : wherefore arist. books of phys. auscult . deserve rather the name of metaphysicks . that , which is requisite in this place , is to unfold the nature of the first matter , as it is a concrete to natural substances , & contracted to inferiours . in metaphysicks it is treated of as a more universal , here as a less : for matter and form constitute the elements , as more universals constitute the lesser . again , matter and form derive their essence from the elements ; for these being abolisht , they perish likewise with them . so that without or beyond the elements there is neither matter , or material form. viii . the first form of a natural being is the form of the elements ; how they further constitute the matter and form of every body , shall be demonstrated as we go on . the elements being produced all at once , and at the same time , it followeth , that there never was any peripatetick first matter existent without a form ; for their form and matter were both created together : but the alledging some principles of the mosaick philosophy , will soon make this case plain . . god created heaven and earth . but how ? not separately or distinctly , at several times , but united into one , and confused , at once , by one act of his almighty power . moses sets down heaven and earth disjunctly , not because they were constituted as distinct bodies , but because heaven and earth were next formed out of that confused matter , as the text doth afterwards clearly explain . we call one part of that body , which ascended , that is , expanded or moved from the center to the circumference , heaven , because it was heaved up from the other remaining part , which was named earth , or as it were tearth , from terre in french , which again is derived from terra , a terendo , quia partes suo pondere sese invicem terant . so coelum a cernendo quod homines intuitu coelum versus cernant . this rude substance was hit upon , doubtless by guess , by the ancient poets , calling it chaos , which although rude in regard to the more express form , which it was to receive afterwards , yet it was a perfect being consisting of matter and form , through which it had a positive unity , whereby it was one in it self , and distinct from nothing . it was a true being , in that it was conformable to the divine idea . it was no less perfect , because god created it . it was good , for it was convenient and apt to have other beings produced out of it : so that having all the attributes of a being , it must necessarily be a perfect being , consisting of matter and form : if then the first created being , out of which all other being were afterwards created , was a perfect being , where was then the materia prima of aristotle ? which is said to be without any form , and nothing but a pura potentia . you cannot reply , that the chaos was produced out of a materia prima ; for if i grant that , then materia prima is a ( non ens ) nothing , because the text mentions , that god created heaven and earth out of nothing . the objection , which may be offered against us from gen. . and the earth was without form , is not matterial : for by form here is meant an ulterior forma , and not a prima forma . ix . the f●●m , which did informate the chaos , was that , whereby it was that , which it was , namely , a confusion of the elements ; this confused form , or forma confusionis being expelled , there immediately succeeded a less confused , or more distinct form , arising from a partial solution and separation of the elements : i term it distinct , because it was distinct from that first confusion ; and a more distinct form , because the elements were yet more separated , untied , loosened , and distinct . but as for a most distinct form , whereby every element should exist separately one from the other , and every element have a form of it self , whereby it is , that which now it is , namely , earth , a weighty , dense , and massie substance : fire , a penetrable , rare , and diffusive essence , &c. before i sound into the depth of this mystery , give me leave to expose to your view the admirable manner of this divine artifice . first , god created a chaos , or a confused mixture of the elements , in like manner to a potter , who , having several sorts of earth , mixes them all together into one exact mixture , afterwards he again diducts or draweth its parts from one another , and each part again after that he draweth more and more from one another , until at last it acquires that form , which he doth ultimately intend in it . so that the more he draweth it asunder , the more compleat form it receives through each several and further diduction : so god draweth the chaos more and more asunder , and every drawing , diduction , expansion , or opening , giveth it another and a perfecter form . after the same manner is the production of the foetus in the mothers womb perfected : where there is first a chaos or exact confusion of genitures , then again its parts are more and more diducted , which finisheth it with a perfect form. i shall therefore delineate each part of the creation accomplisht by gods several and distinct ( as to us ) diduction , which was performed by gods command upon an obediential subject , of let there be . the effect resulting through vertue of this command , was immediately answered by , and it was so : the perfection and excellency of it by , and god saw that it was good . there are two forms observable in the elements : one absolute , which is , whence the particular force , power , and vertue of each element derives . this is essential to every element . there is also a respective form , which doth naturally derive from the first , and is , whereby every element doth essentially encline to the other for its existence and conservation ; for without each other their absolute form could not subsist ; which flowes from their truth and goodness . neither did they ever exist singly , but were at the same time created together . these two forms are really and essentially one : but modally distinct from each other . what finiteness , unity , durability , or place are the elements capable of single ? the earth through its gravity would be incited to an infinite motion , so would also fire , and consequently neither could possess any place , or be of any duration : but the earth and water being occurred by fire and ayr , their gravities are ballanced by the lightness of these latter : and so become withal to be terminated , and to be placed ; but of this elsewhere . chap. iv. of the nature and essence of the elements . . the nearest definition of a natural being . . the definition of an element . that all physical definitions ought to be sensible . the proof of the existence of the elements , and of their number . . an exposition of the definition of an element . it s etymology and homonymy . . what distinction the author makes between principle , cause , and element . . what a natural cause is . that the elements are no single real beings . that they are treated of separately and singly ratione only . . that there are but three natural causes . their necessity proved in particular . . i have hitherto given you the remote definition of a natural being , and now i state one somwhat nearer to our senses , and such as is through it self perceptible by sense . a natural being is an essence constituted out and through the elements : or thus , a natural being is that , which is constituted out and by natural causes : but none are natural causes , but elements only ; wherefore the former definition being the nearer , and proved by the latter somwhat more remote ; we shall rather commend it , as being perceptible by sense ; for none can deny , but that the elements are the sole natural causes : shew me by any of your senses what natural being there existeth in the world , but what is elementary . possibly this definition may disrelish you , as being different from aristotle's . let me tell you , that most part of the perepatetick definitions in physicks are too remote from our senses , which causeth a difficulty of apprehending them , and proves a doubtful way for to lead us into errour . ii. an element is an internal natural cause out and through which a natural being is essentially constituted . in metaph. we have defined a natural being to be internally consistent of matter and form , which are also called natural causes in general , but remotely : because we cannot apprehend matter and form , unless by a nearer thing representing both to our senses ; as , through the elements we know what matter and form is : were it not that our sight perswaded us , that a being was produced out of the elements , we should be ignorant what matter were ; and so the like of the form. here you may take notice of the difference between a metaphysical definition , and a physical one ; the latter being immediately perceptible through our senses , and abstracted from sensibles , the former being proper to reason and the mind , which doth mediately abstract its notions from these , according to that trite saying : nihilest in intellectu , quin prius fuerit in sensibus . the understanding knoweth nothing but what it hath first perceived by the senses . now i will make clear to you , that all natural beings do ( proxime ) immediately owe their essence to the four elements . herbs spring forth , out , or from the earth ; but not , where there is no water : for there it proves sandy or barren , unfit to protrude any vegetable . . although earth is sufficiently moistened by attenuated water , yet unless the sun can or doth through its beams cast a fire to it , or by the same fire raise and excite that fire , which is latent in the earth , it remaineth nevertheless barren . lastly , ayr is comprehended by water attenuated , that is , water and ayr mixt together in such a proportion , that the tenuity of the air may render the water attenuated and fluid , that so it may be apt to penetrate through the depth of the mixture ; for otherwise water of it self is of that thickness , that it exceeds ice or chrystal . now this ayr incrassated , or water attenuated doth open and expand the density of the earth , makes way for the fire to enter , and at last retaines the whole mixture in a coherence and compactness . of this more hereafter . again , a body consists of the same principles or elements into which it is dissolveable ; but all natural bodies are dissolveable into the first elements : therefore all bodies consist of the said first elements . i shall only instance in some few examples for proof of the minor. milk in its dissolution is changed into curds , which through their weight go down to the bottom , & are analogal to earth . . into butter , which containeth in it incrassated ayir and fire , for it is also inflammable , a sign of fire . lastly , into whey , which is responding to attenuated water . the like is observable in blood , dividing it self into melancholy , expressing earth in its weight , colour , and substance ; for drying it , it becomes perfect sand : into choler , agreeing with fire in its motive and alterative qualities : into pure blood , through its gluing quality or lentor , not unlike to incrassated ayr : lastly , into flegm or phlegme , resembling water . doth not the ordinary division of mans body in spirits ( impetum facientes ) humors and solid parts , demonstrate its composition or constitution out of the elements ? for the spirits are nothing else but fire and ayr , humors contain most water , and the solid parts most earth . the spagyrick art proves the same by distillation , through which water , spirits and oyl ( the two latter being made up most of fire and ayr ) are separated from the caput mortuum , sal fixum , or earth and subsidencies . 't is true sal , sulphur and mercurius are different names , but re ipsa are the elements : what is sal but earth ? sulphur but fire and ayr ? mercurius but water ? hereby i have not only proved the existence of elements , but also their number nominatim atque in specie . iii. give me leave to expound the definition in the first place quantum ad nomen . in the word element is considerable its etymology , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , capio : quod element a in sese omnia capiunt mixta . it s name is likewise homonymous , in a large sense promiscuously ( convertibiliter ) denoting a principle , or cause . in a strict sense , it is differing from both . eudemus , alexander , and thomas aq. opiniate , that through principle ( principium ) is only meant an agent cause : through cause , a formal , and final cause : through elements , matter . averrhoes and albert. by principles intend an efficient cause : through causes , final causes : by elements matter , and form. generally principles are understood to be of a larger extent then causes , and causes then elements : so that aristotle b. . of metaph. ch. . describes a principle to be that , from whence a thing is , is made , or is known : by this you see , that a principle is of a more large signification then either of the others : but a cause is , which contributeth to the being of a thing , either by substituting it self for a subject , as the matter : or through actuating and giving it an essence , and its consequence , as the form : or by determining it to an end , as the final cause . iv. the distinction , which i have made between them , is , that cause is of a larger extent , then principles are taken in physicks ( but in theology a principle is larger then it ) these denoting the internal causes of a natural being , as matter and form , but remotely , as i have already hinted : elements point out to sensible and immediate internal causes of a natural being . v. a natural cause is , which hath a vertue of acting naturally , or which acteth according to that power which god hath conferred upon it at its first creation : so that van helmont saith well in his physic. arist. dist. . ego vero credo , naturam jussum dei , quo res est id quod est , & agit quod agere jussa est . but i believe , that nature is gods command , through which a thing is that , which it is , and acteth that which it is commanded to act . they are causes , to wit , internal causes or principles of a being , because they contribute themselves to the constitution of that being . i said out of which , because they are the matter of all natural beings : and through which , because they are also the form of all the said beings . how they are or become so , you may expect to read below . the elements are described and taken singly or separately , ratione only , or ex supposito , and not realiter : for they never did exist singly ( neither could they exist so , supposing they were created in that nature , in which they were , because of their relative forms ) but confusedly in the chaos . aristotle nameth the bodies constituted by those mixt bodies , as if they were different from naturals : but that was only to make good the first part of his metaphysical physicks , and thereby to distinguish them from the others , namely his proper and elementary physicks . vi. three causes do concur to the production of a natural being , whereof two are internal , to wit , natural matter and form ; the other is external , namely , the efficient . i prove the necessity of these three : first there must be a subject or matter , out of which a being is produced : for ( ex nihilo nihil fit ) out of nothing nothing can be produced . but i instance in some particulars ; the good wives know , that for to make a pudding , they need matter ( namely flower , eggs , &c. ) to make it out of ; or to build a house , a mason will require stones for his matter , &c. now when they have these materials , they endeavour to make somthing of them , that is , to introduce a new thing , shape or face into it , or educe a new thing out of it ( which locution is more proper then the , former , it being the efficient doth ex intrinseco quasi formam educere ) and what is that but the form ? and lastly , experience tels us , that ( quod nihil fit a seipso ) nothing is produced from it self , but from another , which is the efficient : as in the building of a house , you may have stones and morter for your matter , yet unless a mason ( who is the efficient ) place them together , and introduce or rather educe the form of a house , the matter will abide matter . chap. v. of new philosophy , and the authours of it . . helmontius his arrogance and vainglory . how , and wherein he rejects the peripatetick philosophy . his own principles . . the life and death of the said helmontius . . a confutation of all his physical principles in particular . . some few arguments against rerè des cartes his principles in general . i. i thought fit to make a stop in my discourse , and before i proceed any further , to propose the opinions of others concerning the first principles , elements , and constitution of natural bodies . baptista van helmont impropriating the knowledge of true philosophy and physick to himself alone , cals hippocrates , galen , aristotle , and all other wise men fooles , and terms their dictates figments ; but withal propounds new foundations of philosophy and physick , threatning a great danger to those , who did obstinately adhere to their tenents , and promising an infinite treasure to such , as should receive his . wherefore i shall first contractly relate his philosophick principles ; then examine them . fol. . of his ort. med. dist. . he reproves the heathens for falsly teaching the number of elements to be four : as also for asserting three principles , to wit , matter , form and privation . all things ( saith he ) are idle , empty , and dead , and therefore stand only in need of a vital and seminal principle , which besides life , have also an order in them . he denieth the four genders of causes , the first matter , the causality of a form , receiving it for an effect alone . further he states only two causes , namely matter , and her internal agent , efficient , or archeus . in the same place he terms matter a co-agent , not a subject , which , he saith , was improperly attributed to her by philosophers . and in dist. . he denieth the congress of the four elements , yea not of two of them , to concur to the constitution of mixt bodies . his two causes or principles , he cals bodies in one place , in another ( as you may read below ) he detracts it from the latter . the first of the said principles is called ex quo , out of which , the latter , per quod , through which . dist. . he concludes water to be a beginning out of which ( initium ex quo ) and the ferment to be the seminal beginning through which , that is , disposing , whence the semen ( seed ) is immediately produced in the matter , which it having acquired , becometh through it life , or the media materia ( the middle matter ) of that being , extending to the period of the thing it self , or to the last matter . dist. . the ferment is a created formal being , which is neither a substance or accident : but neither , in the manner of light , fire , magnal , forms , &c. created from the beginning of the world , in the places of their monarchy , for to prepare and excite the semina ( seeds ) and to precede them . i consider the ferments to be truly and actually existing , and to be individually distinguisht through species ( kinds . ) wherefore the ferments are gifts and roots establisht from the lord the creator to all ages , being sufficient and durable through their continual propagation , that they might raise and make seeds proper to themselves out of the water , to wit , wherein he gave the earth a virtue of germinating , he gave it as many ferments , as there are expectations of fruits , wherefore the ferments produce their own seeds , and not others . that is , each according to its nature and properties : as the poet saith ; for nature is underneath the earth . neither doth all ground bring forth all things : for in all places there is a certain order placed from god , a certain manner and unchangeable root of producing some determinate effects , or fruits , not only of vegetables , but also of minerals and insects . for the bottomes of the earth , and its properties differ , and that for some cause , which is connatural and coeval to that earth . this i do attribute namely to the formal ferment , that is created therein . whence consequently several fruits bud forth , and break out of themselves in several places : whose seeds we see being carried over to other places , come forth more weakly , like to an undercast child . that which i have said concerning the ferment cast into the earth , the same you shall also find in the ayr and the water . the difference , which there is between the ferment and efficient , is , that the former is the remote principle of generation , and produceth the latter , which is the semen , which is the immediate active principle of a thing . here you have a synopsis of his philosophy , which in the progress throughout his book , he repeats ad nauseam usque . ii. when i first took a view of the title of his volume , which was , the rise of medicine , that is , the unheard of beginnings of physick . a new progress of medicine to a long life for the revenge of diseases , by the author john babtista van helmont , governour in merode , royenlorch , oorschot , pellines , &c. he might be governour of himself in those places , but not of , &c. i wonder what those places signified , since the people of brussel admired upon what his heir liveth . this old man in his life-time was strangely melancholy , and by fits transported into phanatick extasies ; questionless had he been of a religious house , he would much have added by help of these raptures , to the incredible bulk of the golden legends ; but his daemon turned them to physick : he had a great design in christening his son , mercurius , to have made another trismegistus of him : and not unlikely , for wherever he is , he is all-knowing . i was much abused by the title of his tract , hoping to have found a new sound archologia ; and lighting upon ignorance of terms , abuse of words , but a most exact orthography , limiting almost every second word with a comma , or a stop , as being measured by his as●matick breathing . the fame , which he deserved from his countrey-folkes , was equal to a famous mountebank : the church-yard was the surer register of his patients : his arrogance and boastings were symptomes of his depravate conceptions : his cruelty fell it last upon his own bowels , through which he lost his life for the neglect of very ordinary means . this is the account i had at brussels of his life and transactions , which i thought was not unworthy of my insertion in this place , thereby to disadvise some from a rash belief to his vain words , that so they might avoid the same dangers and cruelties upon their own and other mens lives . iii. but in reference to his dictates : he rejects the number of four elements , without proposing any argument for confutation . he denieth the existence of a first matter , also without giving proof for the contrary . both which we have already demonstrated . the form is an effect ( saith he ) and not a cause : this argueth his misseapprehension of a cause and effect : for most authors agree , that a cause ( in a large sense ) is , whatever produceth an effect ; now the form produceth an effect , in giving a specification to the whole . it seems he intends nothing for a cause , unless it be really distinct from its effect ( which in a strict and proper sense may be allowed ) but if granted , nevertheless he is in an errour , for asserting matter and the archeus to be causes ; neither of which are really distinct from the being constituted by them . further , it is no reason , that , because the form is an effect , therefore it can be no cause ; for all beings in respect to their own production are effects , and yet are causes of the constitution of others . all things ( saith he ) are idle , empty and dead , without a vital principle : judge his absurdity : what are all idle , empty and dead things without a life , but a materia prima aristotelica ? for he himself affirms , that there are but two principles , matter and a vital principle : yea those very words idle , empty and dead , square with these of arist. materia prima est nec quid , nec quale , nec quantum . he allots only two causes , matter , and her internal efficient to the generation of a being . first , as i have proved , it is impossible for this internal efficient to be reduced in actum , unless an extrinsick efficient , be it the sun , or some other particular efficient , excite it by contributing some of its own virtue to it . secondly , would not all philosophers deride him for saying an intrinsick efficient ? since that all have consented to term an efficient extrinsick , in contradistinction to intrinsick or internal , which is ever a part of the being constituted by it , whereas an efficient is named extrinsick , because it doth not constitute a part of that being , to whose production it was concurring . thirdly , wherein is his archeus or internal efficient different from a form , which he doth so much detest ? is not this archeus an effect also of its preceding cause ? doth he not affirm , that this internal efficient giveth life to its matter , and what is a form , but which giveth life or a being , distinction , and specification to its matter ? here again he saith , that matter is a co-agent , and before he stated , that she was idle and dead , certainly idle and dead things do not use to act , or to be agents , or co-agents . that matter is not a subject he asserts , and before and afterwards he granted , that she contained the archeus ; what is a subject , but that which doth contain a thing ? here again he addes a note of distinction to his archeus , which is to be per quod , and is not this also an inseparable attribute of a form ? dist. . here again he delivers a new foolosophy , in stating water to be the sole material principle ( although below he adjoynes earth to it ) the ferment to be the remote efficient , and the semen to be the immediate efficient : so then , now there are three principles , yea four ; water , earth , and a double archeus ; whereas before there were but two . besides here he vaunts out with a threefold matter , a materia prima , which is a co-agent with the fermentum , or first archeus , a materia media , a subject of the semen , or second archeus , and a materia ultima , quickned through life it self . so now he is got beyond the number of the peripateticks ; three distinct matters , and three internal efficients , make up just six principles . surely the old man was climed up into one of his raptures . well let us go on in making disquisition upon the h. dist. the ferment is a created formal being : just now there were no forms , and now the ferment or the prime archeus is metamorphosed into a form : where was his memory ? it is not a substance or accident ( saith he ) but neither , in the manner of light , fire , &c. how ? neither a substance or accident , neither spirit or body : neither quid , quale , or quantum : ergo it is nothing , but a merum figmentum . if it be in the manner of light , or fire , it is in the manner of a quality , or substance . now i think , i may let him run on in telling out his tale. iv. cartesius , a great proficient in the mathematicks , laboured much to reduce all philosophical conclusions to demonstrations , depending from certain hypotheses ; but wherein they excelled the ordinary , or peripatetick ones , either in truth , certainty , or evidence , i have hitherto not yet learned . if they may be comprehended within the limits of demonstrations , they must be a posteriori , concluding only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things , or their effects by improper and affinged causes : so that the causes remaining still under a cloud , we cannot be satisfied in any such science . 't is true , did those forementioned suppositions appear to us as phaenomena ( appearances ) like unto others in astronomy , there might thence some ground be afforded , but they being mera figmenta and entiae rationis , must necessarily prove very sandy for to build real truths thereon . neither do his suppositions cohere in all places , he admitting many supposita non supponenda , yea contradicentia , to their number . besides to frame , think , or imagine , that god ( like unto a potter , turning his wheel round with a staffe , and grinding the clay thereon into many pieces , figures and whirles ) should grind the materia prima into several pieces , whirles , figures and shapes , is no small absurdity , especially when scripture doth so positively teach us the contrary . would a mans mind be carried forth to such chimaera's , furer and evidenter principles might be proposed by the means of numbers . but tell me what satisfaction can any one expect , from such conclusions , as long as their premises are not granted , but thought figments and falsities ? for it is not the effects we enquire into , but into their real and adequate causes . doth he make any thing more plain , or doth he thereby escape all falsities ? certainly no ; for many of those assertions that are thence deduced , do manifestly partake of falsities and errours ; as , . that the nature of a body doth not consist in weight , hardness , colour , or the like , but alone in extension . . he speakes a word or two only of rarefaction and condensation , and so away : i conceive the rest did surpass his mathematical demonstrations . . that a corporeal substance , when it is distinguisht from its quantity , is confusedly conceived , as if it were incorporeal . . he disproves a vacuum by an idem per idem , thus ; there is no vacuum , because the extension of all bodies is equal to their internal and external places . the question is the same still ; viz. whether all external places are filled up with extensions of internal places of bodies ? . he denies real atomes . . that motion taken properly , is only to be referred to the contiguous bodies of that , which is moved ; neither is it to be referred , but to those contiguous bodies , which seem to lie still . a fundamental errour . . that matter is infinite , or divisible into infinite parts . . that the world is of an indefinite quantity . . that the second matter of heaven and earth is one and the same . . that all matter is really single , and obtaineth its diversity of forms from local motion . . that in one body innumerable motions are possible . . that the moon and the other planets borrow their light from the sun. . that the earth is in nothing different from a planet , and consequently that the other planets are inhabitable . . that the moon is illuminated by the earth . . he assumes most of the erroneous opinions of copernicus . . that all the parts of the earth are light . . that water is convertible into ayr. neither are his definitions ( if he hath set down any ) of the elements , as of fire , ayr , water , or earth , plainer then aristotle hath explained them : his demonstrations are altogether remote from sense : besides the confusedness of his method . in fine , i cannot imagine what practick use may be made of them . as for these particulars which i have here cited against him , i shal prove their falsities in the progress of my following discourse . chap. vi. of the material principle of natural beings . . the causes of the elements . . that the elements are really compounded natural beings . . that matter and quantity are really identificated . . what quantity is . what its ratio formalis is . . that in rebus quantis there is a maximum and a minimum definitum . . experimental instances proving that there are actual minima's , and that all natural beings do consist out of them . . the pursuit of the preceding instances inferring a continuum to be constituted out of actual indivisibles . some geometrical objections answered . somewhat hath been heretofore stated , touching the matter and form of natural bodies , which being remote , we must descend lower , and adde a few notes respecting the matter and form of the elements . wherefore remember ; i. that the elements are natural beings , and therefore consist of natural matter and form , and are constituted from an efficient . ii. the elements arising from the conjunction of matter and form , are not to be counted single bodies in that respect , nor in any other , but as much compounded , as any other body derived from them : that is in this phrase : elementa sunt majora composita , ac caetera ab ipsis orta entia , quanquam haec illis censenda sunt magis composita : so that it was an errour in aristotle to define an element by a single body , or being . they could not be thought to be single in any other respect , but in their real separate existences ; but such they never had any * , their relative form contradicting it . iii. it is a property in matter to be an internal cause , which through its quantity is capable of receiving a form : so the elements were affected with a quantity , through which they received their forms . i do here strive as much as may be , to reserve that old custom of termes and phrases in physicks , which aristotle hath assigned to us ; but again reflecting upon the abuse and improperness of them , i am compelled to call to mind a rule of my metaphysicks ; to wit , that the essence of all things are but modes united : and for that reason , counting quantity a mode , i cannot make any thing else of matter , but a mode , ( i mean matter in a concrete sense ) for what is matter really , but quantity it self , they differing only ratione ? and how that ? thus ; quantity is only notional , or a term assinged by the understanding to a res quanta , for to explain that a thing is made out of it ; and yet that whereout the thing is made is quantity still . so form is nothing else but a notion , whereby we express the activity and quality of a thing , and beyond that activity and quality it is nothing : wherefore observe , quantity and quality being the two essential , principal , and eminent modes of a natural being , and fit terms and notions , they are usually treated of distinctly in this part of philos. under the name of matter and form . now do not take either of them separately for a substance , unless they be both joyned together . you may also remember , that quantity is the only accident allowed to matter by the peripateticks , but this quantity not being possible to exist through it self , others did confer a forma quantitativa upon matter : for a forma they imagined it needed , because through it quantity was distinguisht from nothing ; now that which makes a distinction is the form only . besides , what is quantity without form ? even nothing , because without a form it is not that which it is , as further appears by the definition of a form . since then we have proved , that matter is primarily nothing else but quantity , we shall easily make it appear , that it cannot exist without the other modes , as place , duration , &c. iv. quantity is a mode of a being , through which it is extended , that is , through which it hath one part existing beyond the other : or thus , quantity is the mole , magnitude , or dimension of a being . that which doth immediately follow this magnitude , is the extension of parts , and that which doth follow this extension , is internal and external place , and habit , &c. i say , these affections follow one another , not really , for they are existent all at once ; but intentionally only , because the one doth represent it self to the understanding before the other . now , when the dispute is about the ratio formalis of quantity , whether it be divisibility , mensurability , mole , magnitude , extension of parts , &c. it is to be understood , which of them doth primarily represent it self to the mind , not which of them is re prius ; for they are really co-existent , and identificated . in answer to the question thus stated , i hold , that the extension of one part beyond the other , or its repletion and possession of place , is the potissima ratio quantitatis . that which we do first conceive through the perception of a res quanta , is , its repletion of place , or extension of one part beyond the other : for at the first sight of a body , we judge it to be a body , because it appeares to us to have one part extended beyond the other , or to possess a place ; this is presently after confirmed to us , because it seems to be a bulk , mole , magnitude , or to be divisible , and by that we conclude , it is no spirit , or nothing , and ( as i said before ) because it doth replenish that place , and is commensurated by it . as for extension of parts one beyond the other , it is the same with the repletion of an internal place : which that it hath , we come to know through its repletion of an external place . take quantity concret● for a res quanta , or res extensa sive locata , mensurata , divisibilis ; it matters not which , as long as we agree inre , although differing in nomine . v. in quantity or rather rebus quantis , or in materialibus , there is a minimum definitum , and a maximum definitum . wherefore all beings must be one of those , or interjacent between them : for that , which is less then minimum , is nothing ; that which is more then maximum is infinitum ; neither of which is natural . fire , we see , if it be less , then it can abide in its least quantity , it goeth out , and becomes nothing . so whatever is less then a sand of earth , or the least drop of water is nothing of the said species . that which is actu greater then the world , is infinite ; neither is there any thing bigger ( quantitate materials ) then it ; ergo there is a maximum . further , were there not a minimum , or a maximum , there must be an infinitum actuale granted , which the finiteness of all things in the world perswades us to deny . all grant quantity to have a terminus a quo and ad quem ; and what can these termini be else , but a minimo ad maximum ? if otherwise a thing be supposed ultra minimum and maximum , it is ultra terminum , and indeterminatum , or infinitum . all quantitative beings are dissolveable into their minimum quod non , as we may observe in distillations , where water is dissolved into its least vaporous drops , beyond which it vanisheth ; and in sublimations , where the subtillest and finest points of earth are carried up to the capitellum in the least parts , that nature can undergo . fire ascending pyramidally , first disperseth it self into its least points , after which , into nothing . the ayr is divided into its least parts , as it is seated within the pores of bodies . all these instances imply parts divided into minima actualia , realia & physica : so that they are not minima potentialia , or negationes , as peripateticks and nominalists do obstinately obtrude . vi. well then , let us pursue these instances : water being dispersed into its least parts in the head of a limbeck , they come to unite again into one body ; which is a manifest argument , that a continuum is composed out of indivisibles alone ( for minima's are indivisibles , otherwise they could not be minima ) in this following manner . when the whole head of a still , or only part of it , is so thick and close beset with vaporous points , that they come to touch one another , then they do unite into a continuum , and make up a body of water . the same is observed in subliming earth into its indivisible points , which sticking to the capitellum of the sublimatory , do no sooner return into a clot of earth , then these sands come to touch one another . is not a line also made through union of points in the same manner ? as appeares in this example , take a round ball and cast it upon a plane , it first toucheth the plane upon a point , and bending further to the plain , it makes another point close to the first , and so on many more ; all which together , describe a line upon the said plane . numbers are notional characters of real beings , but they do likewise contain a minimum , to wit , one ; ergo also those real beings whereunto they are applied . is not time composed out of instants united , and motion out of ( ex impetibus ) spurts joyned to one another ? that there are instants and spurts , the operations of angels do confirm to us . divide a line into two parts by another line , the divided line is divided in its least part ; where again the divided particles joyned to the dividing line is also in their least points , or indivisibles , which three points must necessarily make up a continuum : the reason is this , because that , which through its being taken away , doth take away the continuity , must also constitute that same continuity by its re-addition . lastly , grind any matter upon a porphir into an alcool , which if you grind longer , you shall sooner grind it into clods and bigger pieces then lesser ; the reason is , because nature is irritated by the violence and heat of grinding , to call the ayr to its assistance , which glueth its body again together . i could adde many other experiments confirming the same ; but to avoid prol●xity , i shall omit their insertion . we may then without danger of any further cavil , state , that indivisibles are actually contained in their whole , since the whole is both constituted out of them , and dissolved into them at its dissolution . . that there is a minimum and maximum in all natural bodies , whether animated or inanimated . i cannot but strange at the stupidness of authors , who object certain propositions of euclid against this kind of doctrine , as , . that of el. prop. where he teacheth , that upon every right line given there may be an equilateral triangle described : whence they infer , that all lines are divisible into equal parts ; if so , then it contradicts the aforesaid positions : for ( say they ) suppose a line consisted of three points , it could not be divided but in unequal points , or parts : it cannot be divided into a point and an half , because a point according to this definition is indivisible . . euclid demonstrates in the b. p. . that a line , be it never so little , is divisible in as many parts of the same proportion , as the greatest line may be . now then supposing a line consisting of three points , and another consisting of ten , or more , the former line is divisible into three parts only , the other in many more . granting the truth of these propositions , it concludes nothing against us ; for these prove against the composition of a mathematical line out of mathematical points , which we all know to be infinite , and in a continuum drowning each other , they cannot make up its length ; but these are only notional , and therefore we may not thence deduct any certain rule appliable to the natura rerum : for if we should , why might we not likewise infer thence , that the world being a continuum , consists of infinite parts , and that its duration is eternal , because that being a continuum , must in the same manner consist of infinite parts : or thus , we might infer , that the numbers framed by man being infinite , all things , upon and for which they were imposed , are also infinite : but this doth not hold in naturalibus , although in conceptibus . it is certain , that man can & doth conceit millions of notions , especially in the mathematicks , which never have been , or shall be ( to wit , in that same manner ) in nature . our case at present is concerning physical points , such as have a determinate longitude , latitude , and profundity , but the least . the forementioned propositions are related to continuities , as they contain indivisibilities potentia ; but these are contained actu in theirs . the points , which we treat of have a magnitude and mole , which although minima , yet apposed one to the other , constitute majora , and being augmented to the greatest number , produce a maximum . they remain divisible mathematicè , but naturaliter indivisible . here may be objected , if these minima are quanta , they are also divisible . i answer , that they are divisible quoad nos , but indivisible quoad naturam : or as i said before , they are divisible mathematicè , not naturaliter . we conceive them to be divisible , because they appear mensurable although with the least measure , they are mensurable because they are located , they are located because they have magnitude . chap. vii . of the natural matter and form of the elements . . that the elements are constituted out of minima's . that they were at first created a maximum divisible into minima's . . that , supposing there were a materia prima aristotelica , yet it is absurd to assert her to have a potentia essentialis , or appetitus formae . . that the natural form is not educed e potentia materiae . . that the actus of local motion is the form of the elements . . the manner of knowing the first constitution of the elements . that there was a chaos . . that there was conferred a distinct form upon every element . whether a form is a substance . 't is proved that it is not . i. and now give me leave to apply what hath been stated in the preceding chapter to the elements , which as they are constituted out of indivisibles , points , or minima's , so they are dissolveable into the said indivisibles . at their first creation they were each created a maximum . their matter is nothing else but their concrete quantity , mole , or magnitude . neither are we to imagine , that god did create all the minima's of the world , before he united them to one mass , but created the whole mass at once , divisible into indivisibilities , that so they being divided into indivisibilities might become a fit matter for mixture ; and therein he imposed an order and law upon the elements of generation and dissolution : and without this law , what order is there imaginable ? ii. supposing these points coagmented into one mass , were created before the advent of a form ( which is impossible secundum quid ) and being without any determination , figure , motion , or any thing , that descends from a form , it would be nothing differing from aristotles materia prima : now then i demand what potentia essemialis , or appetitus formae could there be rationally conceived to inhere in her ? certainly no essential one , but obediential ; neither an appetite to a form , for she being blind , how could she perceive a form , to covet it ? or being destitute of motion , how could she have an appetite ? since appetite is nothing else but a natural motion , or inclination . iii. matter having brought quantity , place , habit , and duration along with her , let us further enquire what company the form hath attending it . a form , as we said before , is little else but a mode of activity and quality : for quantity without her is nothing of her self ; it is the same that doth constitute her , and addes distinction and action to her . that , which giveth activity and quality to matter and quantity is an actus of local motion . this actus of motion is not raised out of quantity or matter , for then it would remain quantity , neither is it educed out of the disposition of matter ; for even so it could be nothing yet but matter disposed . wherefore it is a strange saying to assert , that the form is educed out of the power of matter : either this may be taken properly , and then it is equipollent , as if you said , the form is educed out of the matter , as she is potent , that is , as having a disposition or propension unto ; and this is impossible : or improperly , when the power of matter is taken for a being , which as yet is not , but may be ; neither can the form in this sense be educed ; for she then would be educed e nihilo , or e privatione . iv. that the actus continuus of local motion is the form of the elements : i prove it . that , which is the first cause of all the effects acted by the elements , must needs be their form : but such is the act of local motion . wherefore , &c. i shall omit the proving of the minor here in general , since i have proved it below in particular . v. the particular production of each part of the world holds forth the manner of the production of the whole , since they are all derived from one universal efficient , nature naturating . we observe then daily ; as for instance , in the production of man , beasts , fowls , minerals ; that these draw their first original from a confusion of principles of elements , which is an assured note , or mark that the elements of the universe were first cast into a confusion ( quia pars totius naturam aemulatur . ) . it is no less undoubtable , that as the activity and qualities of these fore-instanced formations were latent , and contained in their confused elements , and gradually extracted , inacted , and exalted to their ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) perfection , through the vertue of an efficient , in like manner were the activity , and qualities , or forms of the elements latent in their chaos , and afterwards gradually extracted , expanded , divided and exalted into their fulness by the same nature . . it is hence apparent , that the elements underwent several changes , but total , not partial ones , and therefore require a particular disquisition upon each . vi. let us imagine many millions upon millions of minima's of quantity , or matter divided into four equal parts , whereof each is set apart to be the matter and subject of every one of the four elements . each of these , 't is necessary should be vivified and actuated by a distinct form , for otherwise they could not in their dissolution from the chaos , prove apt substances for the constitution of distinct bodies . or simply , a form is needful , or how , or by what power could they act ? but the question will be , whether this form is not an incompleat substance , as the philosopher states . the question , me thinks , is rather , whether it is not a bull to name a substance incompleat ? for a substance is a substance because it is compleat , and its completion or perfection gives it a subsistence : so that were a form a substance it might subsist per se : besides , would it not according to aristotle make an unum per accidens , or could it be directly referred to a predicament , were it united to another real substance ? neither is it sufficient to distinguish it from an accident , because it doth constitute part of the compositum : for so doth every other accident or mode , as appears in metaphysicks : doth it not inhere in subjecto per modum accidentis , or can it exist out of it ? and wherein is it then different from an accident ? . it is frustraneous for the form to be a substance , since that a being through its quantity only is capable of receiving quality , and activity or vertue of acting * . a form then is a power of acting in a substance , but not a substance ; it is essential to a being , but modally only distinguisht from it , not really ; for an activity in a substance is nothing else , but an active substance . the concomitants of this activity , or form are many , as alterative qualities , colour , figure , and all determination and distinction : in a word , it renders its subject hoc aliquid . although the form is not educed e potentia materiae , it hinders not from being educed e potestate actuali agentis , vel efficientis , as scaliger delivers . chap. viii . of the absolute and respective form of earth , water , ayr , and fire . . what form it is the author allots to earth . that driness is not the first quality of earth . . the respective form of earth . . that coldness is not the first quality of water . that water is not moyst naturally , neither doth it moysten : what it is to moysten . why water acuated with spirits of vitriol , sulphur , or of salt-peter , doth moysten and abate thirst more then when it is single . . the form of water . what gravity is , and what levity . what density is . the form of water proved . why water disperseth it self into drops . why sea-men cannot make land upon the cap-head , when they may upon the top mast-head . why the stars do appear sooner to those in the east-seas , then to others in the west . . that water is thick but not dense . whence it is that water is smooth . why ayr makes a bubble upon the water , when it breaks forth . that the least atoms of ayr cannot break through the water without raising a bubble . why the same doth not happen to earth , . that moysture is not the first quality of ayr , neither doth the ayr naturally moysten any body , but to the contrary dryeth it . . the form of ayr. what tenuity is . why feathers , cobwebs , and other light bodies do expand themselves when thrown through the ayr. why grease , oyl , wax . &c. do make splatches when poured upon the ground . why gunpowder , smoak , breathes of living creatures , vapours , exhalations , dust , &c. do diffuse themselves in that manner . whence it is that the least breath moves and shakes the ayr. the relative form of ayr. why spirits of wine mix easier and sooner with water , then one water with another . . the first quality of fire . what rarity is . whence it is that a torch or candle spreads its beames circularly , as appears at a distance . that fire is roof : the cause of it . fire's relative nature . a comparing of all the first qualities of the elements one to the other . . the form lately mentioned may justly be surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , perfection ; because it confers a perfection upon matter . but to return where i left : after sufficient evidence , that each of the elements are actuated by a distinct form ; i begin first with the earth , whose form and first quality is weight ( pondus ) with density . . because through it , it performeth all its operations and effects . . the form , or first quality of a body is unremoveable ; but dense weight is unremoveable from earth ; ergo it is its form , and first quality ; whereas dryness , which is brought in competition with it by all peripateticks , is removeable ; for earth may be moystened with water . this is an herculean argument , if well weighed . . a privation cannot be the first quality of earth , because it is accidental to it ; but dryness is only a privation of moysture , and consequently accidental . i confirm the minor ; had there never been any moysture , who could ever have thought of dryness ? again , in the ordinary ideom of speech , we say , such a thing is dry , because we feel no dampness in it : for first we feel , and gather it together to try whether we can feel any moysture ; but perceiving no moysture , or dampness , we say it is dry : ergo , because of the privation of moysture . further , moysture and dryness are privative opposites , because the one being removed , the other also vanishes : for take away sight , and you take away blindness ; it being improper to say a thing is blind , unless in opposition to sight . the same is appliable to dryness and moysture ; take away moysture , and then it will be improper to say dryness . lastly , the peripatetick description of dryness proves no less : dryness is , whose subject is easily contained within its own bounds , but difficultly within anothers . now unless there were water , within whose bounds it could not be contained , there could be no dryness , since that dryness is , whose subject cannot be contained unless difficultly within the bounds of water ; or ayr either . ii. all elements and each of them are actuated by a respective , or relative form , that is , their being and conservation consisteth in a relation of a dependence from each other ; for instance , the earth is inconsistent of it self ; for through its incomprehensible gravity it would move to an infinitum , which is repugnant to its truth ; so that through its pondus it inclineth to the fire ; which again through its lightness bendeth to it ; and so meeting one another , they embrace and constitute each other in their being . well may authors term their close and entire union a discors amicitia , or amica discordia , since their motion to each other is so fierce , and eager , that it doth as it were appear a fighting , or discord , but it tending to so mutual a good and benefit , proves the greatest friendship . but should coldness and heat be stated to be the form or first qualities of the elements , they could not subsist one moment , because they are the greatest contraries , and therefore would not cease from their most incenst hostility ; before each were expelled from their common subject ; as we see plainly in water and fire . iii. this makes way to free water from coldness , to which it is neither but a privation of heat : for suppose there were a dish of water placed without the sphear of the elements , it would be improper to say , it were either hot or cold . neither is moysture the first quality of water ; for water of it self ( per se ) doth not moysten any thing absolutely , that is freed from all mixture . i prove it : to moysten , is nothing else but to be thinly covered , or dasht over with water , or its vapours ; but water , when it is in its absolute state , is of so thick parts , that it is unapt to adhere to any thing . we observe that quick-silver ( or rather quick lead , for so it is in effect ) and melted lead , although liquid , yet they do not moysten , because their parts are thick . by thickness i do not intend a depth of quantity , or of matter only , but such a depth of quantity that is not porous , or a crassitude , whose parts are diducted and drawn out into a continuity , and that throughout all its dimensions , and therefore through defect of tenuity doth not adhere to whatever is immerst in it : even so it is with water , which supposed in its absolute , or separated state doth by far exceed quick-lead in thickness , and consequently is unapt for humectation : but in the state wherein it now is , which is mixed and attenuated with much fire and ayr , it doth easily adhere to whatever body , that is dipt in it . this is the reason , why water in hot countries doth sooner quench thirst , then in cold ; or wine sooner then water ; because the watery parts are more subtilized by the indivisibilities of fire , that are dispersed through them . now water abates drought but little , because of its crassitude . experience tels us , that one little measure of water acuated with spirits of vitriol , of sulphur , or of salt-peter doth moysten the body , and abate thirst in a feaver more then a pint of water single , because the water is subtilized by the forementioned ingredients . but physitians vulgarly adscribe this effect to the penetrability of the admixtures ; a blind reason : because water doth penetrate to the internals , therefore it moystens the more ; this is not all ; for suppose that water did penetrate , yet it would not moysten , because it doth not adhere to the parts , which it doth touch ; wherefore it is only to be imputed to its subtilization . all which demonstrates , that water in its purity , that is , in its absolute state , doth moysten less then quicksilver , which is not at all . iv. the form or first quality of water is gravity with crassitude . there is no single word i can think upon in any language , that i know , full enough to express what i do here intend , and therefore am compelled to substitute these . i explain them thus : you must apprehend that gravity is a motion from the circumference to the center . levity is a diffusion or motion from the center to the circumference . now there is a gravity with density , that is , which hath density accompanying it . density is a closeness of minima's not diducted into a continuity , but potentialiter , ( that is logicè ) porous , and such is proper to earth . there is also a gravity with crassitude ; which is a weight , whose parts are diducted into a continuity , or i might rather express my self , whose parts do concentrate , or move from the circumference to the center with a continuity , that is , without any potential pores dividing its matter ; as in quicksilver , diduct its body to the circumference as much as you can , yet its part will concentrate with a continuity : but if you diduct earth , you will perceive its porosity , so that its body is altogether discontinuated . water is then weighty with a crassitude . i prove it . first , that it is weighty , or that its parts move from the circumference to the center : water when divided through force doth unite it self in globosity , as appears in drops , where all its parts , falling from the circumference close to their center , form a globosity . . water doth not only in its divided parts concentrate , but also in its whole quantity . this is evident to them that are at sea , and approaching to the land , they first make it from the top-mast-head ; whereas standing at the foot of it upon the deck they cannot . the reason is , because the water being swelled up in a round figure , the top is interposed between the sight of those , that stand upon the deck , and the land-marks , as hils , or steeples ; but they , that are aloft , viz. upon the yard arm , or top-mast , may easily discover them , because they stand higher then the top of the swelling of the water . the same is also remarkeable in a bowl filled up with water to the brim , where you may discern the water to be elevated in the middle , and proportionably descending to the brim to constitute a round figure . archimedes doth most excellently infer the same by demonstration ; but since the alleadging of it would protract time , and try your patience , i do omit it . lastly , the stars rising and going down do plainly demonstrate the roundness of the water ; for to those that sayl in the eastern seas , the stars do appear sooner then to others in the western ocean ; because the swelling of the water hindreth the light of the stars rising in the east , from illuminating those in the west . the same argument doth withal perswade us , that the earth is round , and consequently that its parts do all fall from the outside to the center . v. secondly , that water hath a crassitude joyning to its gravity , sight doth declare to us ; for it is impossible to discern any porosity in water , although dropped in a magnifying glass ; which in sand is not . it s levor or most exact smoothness expressing its continuity , & accompanying its weight , is an undoubted mark of its crassitude , whereas roughness is alwaies a consequent of contiguity and porosity . there is not the least or subtilest spark of fire or ayr can pass the substance of water , unless it first break the water , and so make its way to get through ; this is the reason , why the least portion of ayr , when inclosed within the intrailes of water , cannot get out , unless it first raises a bubble upon the water , which being broke , it procures its vent . nor the least atome of fire cannot transpire through water , unless it disrupts the water by a bubble , as we see happens , when water seeths : or disperse the water into vapours , and carry vapours and all with it . but ayr and fire do easily go through earth , because its parts being only contiguous and porous , have no obstacle to obstruct them : for sand , we see , in furnaces will suffer the greatest heat , or fire to pass through , without any disturbance of its parts . lastly , its respectiveness or relation doth require this form , both for its own conservation , and for others : for the earths relative form being to meet and take hold through its weight and porosity , ( this porosity is necessary for admitting the fire within its bowels ; for were it continuous , as water is , it would expel fire , and dead it ) of the fire , and by ballancing its lightness to preserve their beings mutually , it needs the assistance of water , for to inclose the fire , when it is received by the earth , and through its continuity to keep it in , otherwise it would soon break through its pores and desert it . so that you see , that water by doing the earth this courtesie , preserveth her self ; for were she not stayed likewise in her motion through the fire and ayr , she would move to an infinitum . vi. moisture is not the first quality or form of the ayr . i prove it . moysture ( as i said before ) is nothing else , but the adhesion of a moyst body to another , which it doth affect , or touch . now , in this moyst body there must be a certain proportion ( or ratio substantiae ) of quantity ; it must neither be too thick , or too thin . water therefore in its purity is unapt to moysten , because it is too thick ; so ayr in its absolute state is too thin to adhere to any body , that it reaches unto . if ayr in its mixt nature , through which it is rendred of a far thicker consistence , is nevertheless not yet thick enough to adhere to the sides of another substance , much less in its purity . who ever hath really perceived the moysture of ayr ? i daily hear people say , hang such a thing up to dry in the ayr ; but yet i never heard any say , hang it up in the ayr to moysten , but wet it in the water . this drying faculty of the ayr peripateticks assert to be accidental to it , namely through the permixtion of exhalations with the ayr . alas , this is like to one of their evasions : do we not know , that the ayr in its lowest region is rather accidentally moyst , because of its imbibition of vapours , copiously ascending with the fire or heat , tending out of the water to its element ? is not the heat more apt to conveigh vapours , that do so narrowly enclose it , then earth , which of it self permits free egress to fire ? yea where an ounce of exhalations ascends , there arises a pint of vapours . waving this , i state the case concerning the second region of the ayr , or of the top of mountains , where according to their own judgment , neither vapours , or ●xhalations are so much dispersed , as to be capable of drying or moystning any ex rinsick body ; even here do wet things dry quicker then below , because the ayr here is much freed from that irrigation of waterish moysture , which the vapours contribute to the lowermost region , as impelling all extraneous vapours and exhal●tion to a body . moreover , i will give you a reason for it . to dry is to dissipate and disperse moysture or dampishness adhering to any substance ; but the ayr being a most subtil body , doth through its subtility attenuate the water , which attenuated fals off from that body , whereunto it first hung , and is then imbibed by the ayr , which it doth afterwards detrude to its proper place . lightness with tenuity is the form and first quality of ayr . what lightness is , i have set down before . tenuity is a continuous exparsion and diffusion into all dimensions . as water is weighty with crassitude , so contrariwise ( as it were ) is air light with tenuity . i prove that ayr is light , because all aerial bodies , as cobwebs , feathers , although they are complicated , yet being cast forth into the ayr , their parts are diffused from the center to the circumference . grease , tallow , oyl , wax , &c. these bodies , because they do much participate of ayr , when melted , and dropt upon the ground , do spread themselves into broad splatches , not contracting themselves like earth or water , into close round bodies , but rather contrariwise . gunpowder , when kindled , smoak , breathes of living creatures , vapours , exhalations , dust , &c. are all diducted from their center to the circumference , through the natural motion of the air inclosed within their bodies . the ayr , if condensed ( as they say , but improperly ) is in a counter-natural state ; for then it makes use of violence ; ergo its diffusion to the circumference is natural to it . that the air is tenuous , or confisting of thin parts expanded in continuity into all dimensions , its rupture doth signifie ; for were it contiguous , every subtil , exhalation , or wind would not move it , but might easily transpire through its porosity without concussing it ; but it being continuous , is compelled to break ; which rupture causes both its commotion , and sound . hence it is that the least breath moves the air , and makes a sound in it . the reason why the water is moved , or at any time a sound is made in it , is , because it being continuous , is subject to ruptures , which disposeth it to both ; but neither happens to fire or earth , because they are porous , and only contiguous . lastly , it s being and preservation is impossible without this relative form : for through it the ayr doth moderate , balance , and is subservient to it self and other elements . water is weighty with crassitude , and through its so being , it compasses the earth so narrowly , that the fire is unable of striking through its continuity for to meet the earth ; wherefore ayr being light with tenuity doth diffuse and expand the body of water , and so the fire is led to the earth by the conduct of the ayr. again , water being of that weight would move to an infinitum , and the lightness of fire is insufficient to stay it , because water is heavy and thick ( and therefore contrary to fire , which is light and rare ) and through that quality must necessarily expel the fire ; wherefore air is requisite for to balance its weight , and having partly the same nature with water , and partly different ( yet not contrary ) is alone capable of mixing with the water . ayr is partly of the same nature with water , because they are both continuous , and so do thereby immediately at their first conjunction pervade each other , and come to an exact union . this i will illustrate to you by an example . affuse spirits of wine to water , you see they will mixe exactly in a moment ; for you may presently after tast them equally at the bottom of the glass , and at the top . now , it is evident , that spirits of wine are very ayry and fiery , and therefore , because continuous , mingle instantly with the water . but fire refuseth to mixe with it , because it is contiguous and light , and altogether contrary as it were . it is different , because it moves to the circumference , and water to the center ; pray observe the wisdom of nature : this is most necessity ; for although they are both continuous , how could they mix unless the one did move to the center , and the other from it , whereby they come to meet one another in an instant ? did they move both to the center , they could not mix or meet together ; for being then supposed to be of an equal weight , that , which was undermost , would remain undermost ; much in the manner of two horses going both one pace , one before the other , about in a mill , who will hardly meet , unless the one turnes its gate , and go contrarily to the other , and so they do immediately confront one another . hence it is that wine mixes quicker by far with water , then one kind of water doth with another . by this you may discern the absolute necessity of these motions in the elements , both for mixtion , and their mutual conservation . viii . the first quality of fire is levity with rarity . rarity is a subtility , or minority of parts , whereby its minima's are contiguous one to the other . who ever doubted of the lightness of fire ; doth not fire diffuse its heat equally from its center to the circumference ? doth not the fire in a torch cast its light circularly from its center ? that fire abhors a continuity , we perceive by its burning ; for we see that the flames in spirits of wine do terminate into points , which points make a roughness , whereas were the fire continuous , its terms would be smooth , like unto those of water and ayr. doth not the fire work through the smallest pores ? ergo through its contiguous points . hence it is that fire passes , where ayr is shut out . it s relative nature is constituted by its contiguity of parts ; for through it , it is fitted for the embracing of earth ; were it continuous and light , it would shun the earth ; or if admitted into the earth , the earth would disrupt and expel it , like as it disrupts and expels ayr. wherefore through its porosity and contiguity it enters the earth , and the earth enters it , each opening its pores at this friendly reception : nevertheless , supposing that contiguity had no contrariety to continuity , yet would the ayr not be light enough to sustain the weight of the body of earth ; besides , there must be two gravities conceived for one lightness , and two or three continuities for one contiguity ; so that of absolute necessity a fourth element must be added , that might be answering to the earths gravity and density , through its levity and rarity . that , which is light and rare , is more vibrating , and by far of greater activity and energy , then that , which is light and thin . summarily , let us take a view of all their first qualities , and compare them together . water and ayr do communicate in a perfect friendship , and so doth earth and fire ; water and earth , ayr and water , fire and ayr , are all beholding to one another , yet not in the same respect , but divers . water and fire at an immediate contact are absolutely disagreeing , but mediately accompanying other elements , prove good friends ; the same law is between earth and ayr. observe , although i have explained their forms by more words then one , yet apprehend that in their sense they move a single concept . levity with rarity is really distinct from levity with tenuity ; their operations , and manner of operating being also different ; for levity with rarity is more penetrating , vibrating , and of a stronger force ; and therefore fire exceeds the ayr in levity . the like is to be understood of the earth and water : to wit , that the former is more weighty then the latter . these concur equally to the constitution of one another , of the world , and of its parts ; the one contributeth as much as the other , and therefore they are of an equal dignity , and time . chap. ix . of the beginning of the world. . whence the world had its beginning . what the chaos is . that the chaos had a form. a scripture objection answered . that the spirit of god moving upon the face of the waters did informate the chaos . . that the chaos consisted of the four elements , is proved by scripture . the etymology of heaven . what moses meant by waters above the waters . the derivation of the firmament . that the ayr is comprehended under the notion of waters in gen. . that the elements were exactly mixt in the chaos . that all the elements consist of an equal number of minima's . . that none but god alone can be rationally thought to be the efficient of the chaos . how this action is expressed in scripture . . what creation is . thom. aq. his definition of creation disproved . austins observations of the creation . . that god is the authour of the creation , proved by the testimonies of scripture , of holy men , and of philosophers . . an explanation of the definition of creation . whether creation is an emanant or transient action . creation is either mediate , or immediate . scotus his errour upon this point . the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherein mediate creation differs from generation . . of the place , magnitude , tangible qualities , colour , temperament , time , figure , extent in figure , duration , quantity , and number of the chaos . thus much shall suffice concerning the matter and form of the elements , as they are considered supposedly separated from each other ; but notwithstanding are the particulars last insisted upon really in them primatio & per se. now let us proceed . since these elements are perfections , and as it were forms to each other , the one being constituted , doth suppose them all to be constituted ; and but one of them being abolisht , they are all abolisht : wherefore it is a simple question to demand , which of the elements we could best miss , or which of them is most necessary for the preservation of life , they being all of an equal necessity ? i. the first formation of the world took its original from the creation of a chaos : which that it did , hath been demonstrated in one of the precedent chapters . the chaos is a great and vast natural body , consisting of an exact mixture of all the four elements : it is generally explained to be a confusion of all the elements . hereby confusion is not meant an imperfect mixtion ; but it is called a confusion , because it is an universal mixtion of all the elements . the chaos was a natural body , because it was constituted by the natural matter and form of all the elements . that it had matter is little doubted of by any , all derived natural substances being thereout materiated . but a form is not so universally allowed to it ; moses telling us in the first chapt. of gen. that the earth was without form . for the reconciling of this , you must know , that a form is not alwaies taken in the same sense . a form is somtimes taken for the compleat and last perfection of a thing ; so we say , that the confusion of genitures in matrico is rude and hath no form , that is , it hath not that compleat , further , and last perfection and shape , which is intended in it . ly . form is more commonly taken for that , which giveth specification and distinction to matter , or that , whereby a thing is that , which it is ; so as in this acception the chaos of the microcosmus is termed not to be without a form , neither is the chaos of the macrocosmus void of form ; although in the former sense it is . i prove it . the chaos was either a thing , or nothing . it was not nothing , for the text mentions it consisted of heaven and earth . was it a thing ? ergo it must have had a form to be that thing , which it was , or to be distinguisht from nothing . it was not only distinguisht from nothing , but also from an infinitum , and from a single essence , it consisting of heaven and earth , which constituted both a finitum and a compositum : but all distinction derives from a form ; ergo it ha● form . further , the scripture doth reveal to us , that the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters , and what was the spirit of god here , but the form of the chaos ? again , the spirit of god moving upon the waters doth evidently confirm my former assertion , namely , that the form of the elements is nothing else , but a local moving vertue impressed by nature , that is , god , upon their matter . ii. that the whole clot of each element contributed to the matter and form of this first created body , the same scripture makes clear to us in enumerating them distinctly , viz. chap. . . in the beginning god created heaven and earth . and the earth was without form , and void , and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters . first , you see here is heaven , comprehending fire and air ; for as i proved before , ayr cannot exist without fire , nor fire without air . secondly , both these being near companions and relations , the text comprehends them in one : for if you observe , the scripture doth all along in this chapter enumerate the elements by paires ( as it were ) under one name , because of their near affinity : so by the deep is meant earth and water ( strictly or properly so called ) and by waters the two fluid elements , which are those , that before are explained to be continuous elements . that this is the genuine interpretation of the said divine text , the ensuing words do clearly make it out ; for in v. . god saith , let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters , and let it divide the waters from the waters : here the water and ayr being both alike in fluidity , and confused together , are both called water : the ayr then being light , and the water weighty , god expanding them , the ayr through its lightness heaved up from the water , and thence constituted a part of heaven , as the text hath it in v. . the water through its weight descended under the ayr , and thence it is called in v. . the waters under the heaven . this must necessarily be so ; for water , strictly so named , had it been heaved up , it would have been against its first nature , and been moved violently , which is improbable , since that ( nullum violentum est perpetuum ) no violent motion is lasting . the nature of air certifieth us , that it must be it , which moved above the waters under it . lastly , the waters above the waters , strictly so termed , are called the firmament ; from its firmness ; because they are as a deep frame , or a strong wall about the waters underneath , for to keep them together in a counterpoise , from falling to an insinitum : but it is ai● that is above the waters , and is a firmament to them ; ergo the ayr must be comprehended under the notion of waters . or thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the hebrew is by the rabbi's and hebrews expounded , an expansion , or thing expanded : for its root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to attenuate : if so , then by the waters above must be implied ayr , whose nature it is to be expanded , as i shewed before . so whether you take the word according to the interpretation of the septuagints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , firmament , or of the rabbi's , expansion , there can be nothing else intended by it but ayr . i say then , as by waters , a duplicity of elements is implied , so by the heavens , ayr and fire are implied : i prove it : light is fire flaming ; but the light was drawn from the chaos ; if from the chaos , ergo not from the earth ; for by earth there is only meant earth single ; but from the heaven , which imports a conjunction of elements , viz. of ayr and fire . secondly , is light , being a flaming fire , drawn from the heaven ; ergo there was fire , latent in it : so let this serve to answer van helmont his objection , who denieth fire to be an element , because its name is not set down in the first chap. of gen. neither is ayr mentioned among the elements in so many letters , yet it is comprehended among them . 't is true , fowl are called fowl of the ayr , but what of that ? this doth not infer that ayr is an element , because fowl are named fowl of the ayr. secondly , earth and water are there expressed in so many letters , ergo the chaos was made up of all the four elements . iii. the elements in the chaos underwent an exact mixture ; because each being a stem and perfection to the other , they required it : for had they been unequally mixt , then that part which had not been sufficiently counterpoysed by its opposite element , would have fallen from the whole . hence it followeth , that they must have been of an equal extent and degree in their first vertue or quality , and not only so , but also in their quantity ; that is , they consisted all of an equal number of minima's , that so each minimum of every element might be fitted , sustained , and perfectionated by three single minimum's of each of the other elements . now was there but one minimum of any of the elements in excess above the other , it would overbalance the whole chaos , and so make a discord , which is not to be conceived . but here may be objected , that the earth in comparison with the heavens , beares little more proportion to their circumference , then a point . i confess that the air and fire exceed the earth and water in many degrees , but again , as will be apparent below , there is never a star which you see , yea and many more then you see , but containes a great proportion of earth and water in its body , the immense ( to our thinking ) region of the air and fire are furnished with no small proportion of water and earth : so that numeratis numerandis , the earth and water are not wanting of a minimum less then are contained either in the fire or ayr . iv. the efficient of this greatest and universal body , is the greatest and universal cause , the almighty god. i prove it . the action , through which this vast mole was produced , is infinite ; for that action , which takes its procession ab infinito ad terminum finitum , sive a non ente ad ens , from an infinite to a finite term , or from nothing to somthing , is to be counted infinite ; but an infinite action requireth an infinite agent ; therefore none but god , who is in all respects infinite , is to be acknowledged the sole cause , and agent of this great and miracuious effect . it was a golden saying upon this matter of chrysippus the stoick , if there is any thing , that doth effect that , which man although he is indued with a reason cannot : that certainly is , greater , mightier , and wiser then man ; but he cannot make the heavens : wherefore , that which doth make them , excels man in art , counsel , and prudence . and what saith hermes in his pimand ? the maker made the universal world through his word , and not with his hands . anaxagoras concluded the divine mind to be the distinguisher of the universe . it was the saying of orpheus , that there was but one born through himself , and that all other things were created by him . and sophocles , there is but one true god , who made heaven and the large earth . aristotle , lib. . de gen. & cor. c. . f. . asserts . god to be the creator of this universe . and lib. . metaph. c. . he attests god to be the first cause of all other causes . this action is in the holy texts called creation , gen. . . mark . . psal. . . mal. . . creation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is not alwaies intended for one and the same signification ; sometimes it implying the creation of the world , as in the scriptures next forementioned ; other whiles it is restricted to mankind , mark . . mat. . . luke . . in other places it is applied to all created beings , mark . . gen. . . job . . prov. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to create is imported by divers other expressions . . by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to form , gen. . . esay . . . . by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make , gen. . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath establisht , psal. . . psal. . . mat. . . heb. . . pet. . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stretch or expand , psal. . . es. . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prepare , or dispose , prov. . . psal. . . v. creation is a production of a being out of , and from nothing . tho. gives us this definition in sent. . dist. . quest. . art. . creation is an emanation of an universal being out of nothing . by an universal being , he intends a being , as it comprehends all material and immaterial beings . so that this is rather a definition of the creation of the material and immaterial world , then a definition of the formality of creation . . his definition is defective and erroneous ; for he adds only out of nothing . this is not enough , it being possible for a thing to emanate out of nothing , and yet not be created : the immaterial operations of angels and rational soules emanate out of nothing , because they do not emanate out of matter , and yet they are not created , but naturally produced . 't is true , although they emanate out of nothing , yet they emanate from something , to wit , from their immaterial essence : and therefore they are not to be judged to be created . it is also possible for a thing to be created from nothing ( anihilo sui ) and yet out of something ; so are all beings created that are created by a mediate creation . wherefore my definition hath an immediate creation to its definitum . now if you would define creation , as it doth in a large extent comprehend also a mediate creation , 't is only to substitute in the room of , and from nothing , or from nothing : thus creation is a production of a being out of , or from nothing , or from and out of neither . austin , lib. . de civitate dei , c. . commends a threefold observation upon the creation . . who is the efficient of it ; and that is god. . whereby , or through what he proceeded to creation ; through that he said , let there be ; and all things were . . for what reason , because he is good . we read something not unlike to this in diog. laert. lib. . the stoicks ( saith he ) state two principles of things , an agent , and a patient . through an agent they understood matter ; and through a patient , the word of god , which did adorn that matter . that god is the author of the creation , besides the reason fore-given , the testimonies of the sacred bible , of holy men , and of philosophers , do confirm it to us . psal. . . & . . mal. . . es. . , . job . . jer. . . & . . job . . john . . col. . . rom. . . rev. . . heb. . . that creation is the production of a being out and from nothing , the scripture doth also reveal to us . gen. . prov. . . psal. . . john . . rom. . . heb. . . austin lib. . de gen. contra manich. although all things are formed out of that unform matter , notwithstanding is this same matter made out of nothing . lactan. lib. . cap. . let none ask out of what matter god made so great and wonderful works ; for he hath made all things out of nothing . neither are we to give hearing to poets , who say , that there was a chaos in the beginning , that is , a confusion of things , and of the elements , and that afterwards god did divide all that mass , and having separated every thing from the confused heap , and described them in order , he did build the world , and also adorn it . 't is more credible , that matter was rather created by god , which god can do all things , then that the world was not made by god , because without a mind , reason , counsel , nothing can be made . here our author reasons against the eternity of the chaos , as the poets feigned to themselves : whose song was , that the chaos being an immense , rude , and voyd mole , did fluctuate without any form from all eternity , and that god in time did confer a form and shape upon it , and brought it to what it is . yet nevertheless he states a finite chaos under the name of matter , created by god out of nothing . hemingins teacheth us , that creation is the primar production or formation of things , whereby god the eternal father of our lord jesus christ , together with the holy spirit did produce and form heaven and earth , and the things therein contained , both visible and invisible , out of nothing , to the end that he might be acknowledged and worshipped . hermes trismegistus , lib. . pimandr . that ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , declares himself ( seemingly ) more by inspired words then acquired ones . the mind ( saith he ) of the divine power did in the beginning change his shape , and suddenly disclosed all things , and i saw all things changed into a light , most unspeakably sweet and pleasant . and in another place , serm. . pimandr . the infinite shadow was in the deep : and the water and thin spirit were in the chaos : and the holy splendor did flourish , which did deduct the elements from under the sand , and moist nature , and the weighty lay drowned in darkness under the moist sand. the same divine mercurius , lib. de piet. & phil. renders himself thus ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the first is god ; the second the world ; the third man : the world for man : and man for god. another philosopher speaks with no less zeal and eloquence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it is an old saying , and revealed by the ancients unto all men , that all things were constituted out of god , and through god : and that no nature can be enough accomplisht to salvation , were it committed to its own tuition without gods help . thales being sometimes demanded , what of all things was the most beautiful ? he answered , the world ; for it is the work of god , which nothing can exceed in beauty . plato in tim. attested gods love to be the cause of the making of the world , and of the rise of all beings . clemens alex. said , that the creation of the world was gods hand-writing , whose leaves were three : heaven , earth , and the sea. vii . the genus of the definition is production ; which is either supernatural or natural . a supernatural production is called creation : a natural one is termed generation . observe that supernatural and natural are remote differences of creation and generation ; wherefore i did not appose the foremost of them to our definition , because i substituted its differentia proxima . whether production , by others called efficiency , is an emanant or transient action , is controversial . thomas , as you have read , terms it an emanation . on the other side , why should it not be conceived to be a transient action , since it doth terminare ad extra ? but then again why so ? for all transient actions do presuppose the pre-existence of their object , which here was not . wherefore to avoid all scruples , i conclude it ( if actively understood ) to be apprehended per modum actus emanantis ; if passively , per modum actus transeuntis . creation is either so called strictly , and then it imports only an immediate creation , according to which sense you have it already defined : or largely , and then it is divisible into immediate or mediate creation . an immediate creation is the same with creation in a strict sense , whereby a being is produced out of nothing ; neither out of a pre-existent , or co-existent matter : but a nihilo termini , i. e. formae , vel materiae : sive e nihilo privativo , vel e nihilo negativo . wherefore i say , that this immediate creation is no mutation , because mutation presupposeth pre-existent matter . but it may be you will side with dun● , who for to maintain it to be a mutation , did impiously assert the thing , which was to be created , ( res creanda ) to have had its essence pre-existent in the divine mind : so that creation must be the mutation of an essence not existing , into an essence existing . in the first place , scripture doth plainly contradict him . . he did mistake the nature of essence and existence , as further apppears out of my metaphysicks . . it infers an absurd definition of creation , to wit , that it is the mutation of a being a non esse accidentali ad esse accidentale , & consequently an accident only is produced de novo , and not a substance . . that the essences of things are eternal ; a great absurdity . i grant they are from all eternity , that is , from an eternal being . . did god contain the essences of things in himself , it followes , that he also contained their matter in himself ; a great blasphemy . a mediate creation is the production of a being a nihilo termini , vel formae , sed ex aliquo materiae : a nihilo formae , supple ultima . this kind of creation is expressed by two different words . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or making , is whereby god created a being ex aliquo materiae , sed a nihilo formae ulterioris . in this sense did god create the fishes and fowl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or an artificial formation is , whereby god formed man also a nihilo formae ulterioris . mediate creation differs from generation , through that thereby a form is introduced in an instant : hereby successively by a preceding alteration . . thereby a being is constituted a nihilo formae ulterioris : hereby ab aliquo formae ultimae , tanquam a termino a quo . that is effected by the immediate causality of god , this by a mediate one . viii . the chaos being so equally mixed and balanced abided in one place . the place , which did contain it , was not corporeal ; because it would have been needless , since its own balance did sufficiently preserve it in its own internal place . it s magnitude was equal to the present magnitude of the world : for although through its expansion and opening , the fire and ayt were heaved up , yet they were heaved up no further then the weighty elements descended : so that what space was left by the one , was taken up by the other : but had there been a vacuum left by any of their egressions , then indeed it must have possessed a larger place . as for the tangible quality which it had , it must needs have been soft ; because it being temperated ad pondus , could acquire no other then a temperate one , and such is soft . colour it had none ex accidenti ; because there was no light to discern it : nevertheless that doth not hinder but that it had a fundamental colour in it self ; which must have been red , that being the only colour issuing out of a temperamentum ad pondus . tast is also detracted from it ex accidenti , but in it self it must have been sweet for the same reason . we cannot edscribe any smell to it per se ; because being close shut , or not yet opened , none can grant that it could have affected any supposed smell , since it could not have emitted any exhalations from it . that it had a finite time , scripture testifieth , gen. . . in the beginning , &c. but the beginning is a distinction , and note of finite time ; ergo. reason proves no less . that which was finite in all its other modes , could not be capable of one single infinite mode : but such was the chaos , and such is the world now ; ergo. whose parts are subject to a beginning and ending , its whole must also have been subject to the same : but our daily experience confirms to us , that all things are subjected to a beginning and ending ; ergo. it s figure is round we know from the form of the elements . besides rotundity is a figure of the greatest , equallest , and perfectest extension ; but such is most sutable to the greatest , equallest , and perfectest body ; ergo. the chaos was also finite in its globosity and extent of parts . i prove it . the compleated world being finite in its globosity and extent of parts , doth necessarily infer the finiteness of the chaos in the same particular ; because the compleated world was framed out of it . now that the world is terminated in magnitude , the circumvolutation of the aplane and the planets in a finite time , to wit , in hours , doth certainly demonstrate ; for were the world infinite in magnitude , they must then also require an infinite time to rowl round about it ; the contrary of which is doubted by none . here that trite axiom may be objected qualis causa , taelis effectus . such as the cause is , such also is its effect : but god is an infinite cause ; ergo his effect , namely the world must also be infinite . i answer , that this maxim holds only in univocis , and naturalibus , but not in their opposites . . it is a character of gods infiniteness , that he can act finitely and infinitely ; for could he act only infinitely , then might he be supposed to act necessarily , which is a note of finiteness and limitation in a cause . . the action , whereby he effected this finite work , is infinite , as i have observed before , wherefore in this he acteth both finitely and infinitely . and since i am about answering objections , it will not be amiss to insert some objected by bodinus , in theatr. nat. and cajetan , against the pre-existence of the chaos before the compleated world . . eccles. . . where god is said to have created all things at once ; ergo there was no pre-existent chaos . i answer , that creation here doth imply an immediate creation , through which god created the matter of all things at once . . they resume the words of austin , asserting , that to god there is nothing before or after another , no past or future time , but that all things are like as it were in one moment , filling that , which hath a most perfect being . wherefore say they , moses did distinguish the creation into several sections and divisions , to accomodate things created in an instant , to our capacity . i answer , that had moses writ , that god had created all things in a moment , we could have understood him as plainly as he hath writ otherwise ; for we know that scripture containes many harder sayings then this would have been . so that it is a great levity in them to retort the genuine sense of sacred words to their oblique brow . as for that of austin , it hinders not , but that all things past , present , and future , are as in an instant to god , and yet to us may be past , present , and future . the chaos is not only finite in duration and continuated quantity , but also in discrete ( as they term it ) quantity or number . it s quantity is the least and the greatest : it is the least in discrete quantity ; for there was but one chaos . . but the greatest in continued quantity . the proof of these depends reciprocally from one another . the chaos is but one , because it is the greatest ; were there then more then one chaos , but two , three or more , or infinite , it could not be the greatest , but part of the greatest , and so the whole must be greater then the part : on the other side , it is the greatest , because it is but one . . were there more then one , all the others would be created in vain , because the chaos being the greatest , is sufficient to produce a thousand worlds ; for otherwise it could not be said to be the greatest . . or thus in other terms : the chaos is an universal quantity ; but were there more then one , it could not be universal , . unity is the beginning and root of all plurality : but the chaos is the beginning and root of all plurality of bodies ; ergo it is but one . . the scripture mentions but of one chaos , gen. . , . . the chaos is eval naturally , like as the soul of man is eval , and also immortal . eval , that is , of sempiternal duration , yet counting from a beginning . i prove it . eccles. . let the dust return to its earth , and the spirit return to god who gave it . here the body first returns to dust , thence to earth , but not to an annihilation ; for then the scripture would have mentioned it . eccles. . . . the chaos is to remain , were it but to retribute the matter of humane bodies , in order to their resurrection . . annihilation is the greatest defect or imperfection ; for it supposeth an imperfect matter and form , which cannot be imagined to be immediately created by god. . goodness lasteth for ever ; but the chaos was good , gen. . . tim. . . ergo. . should the chaos be annihilated , then god would have created it in vain : but that is impossible ; ergo. chap. x. of the first division of the chaos . . why the chaos was broken . . that the chaos could never have wrought its own change through it self . the efficient of its mutation . . the several changes , which the chaos underwent through its disruption . the manner of the said disruption . . how light was first produced out of the chaos . what a flame is . . a perfect description of the first knock or division of the chaos . by what means the earth got to the center , and how the waters , ayr , and fire got above it . why a squib turnes into so many whirles in the ayr. . the qualifications of the first light of the creation . a plain demonstration proving the circular motion of the heavens , or of the element of fire to be natural , and of an eval duration . i. it was an elegant expression of clem. alex. lib. . de recogn . like the shell of an egge , although it seemeth to be beautifully made , and diligently formed , nevertheless it is necessary , that it should be broken and opened , that the chicken may thence come forth , and that that may appear , for which the shape of the whole egge seems to be formed : wherefore it is also necessary , that the state of this world do pass , that so the more sublime state of the heavenly kingdom may appear in its brightness : the same i may aptly apply to the chaos , that it is to be broken and opened , that so a more glorious substance may thence appear , and come forth . ii. one substance can have but one first power or vertue of acting ; and therefore the chaos having no more , could not act any effect , but which it did act , and so had no principle of changing it self from that which it was , and consequently would have remained in that shape for ever . for this reason we must grant , that the creative power and universal efficient wrought a mutation upon it . this mutation was gradual a perfecto ad perfectius . it was not by way of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or creation of the first manner , but of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or as moses sets down , through that he said , fiat , let there be ; and this was the note of the mediate creation . the manner , as we may best conceive to our selves , was by expansion , division , or opening of the chaos . iii. through the first diduction and opening , the fire and ayr being light elements , and so entirely knitted into one , must necessarily have diffused themselves above the superficial weighty elements , these falling nearer to the center . the fire having hereby acquired a greater liberty , and more force , by being less oppressed by the water , its contiguous parts were notwithstanding united and suppressed through the continuity of the ayr , and conveyed a great part of earth and water with them ; the ayr also could not be detracted from the universal mixture without the adherence of some water and earth ; wherefore that appeared also very thick . iv. the fire being the lightest , and of most activity towards the circumference , must have been vented in the greatest quantity , yet not ( as i said ) without incraffated ayr , which united to the vibrating parts of the fire , were both changed into a flame : a flame is a splendent heat ( flamma est calidum splendens ; ) wherefore by this two new qualities were produced , to wit , heat and splendor . by ( calidum ) heat , understand a red hot fire . ( ignis candens ; ) fire is named candent , quod candorem efficiat , because it begetteth a candour , that is , the brightest light . but how fire became at once through this division burning and candent , i shall distinctly evidence hereafter . the representation of the chaos after its first division . v. through this concussion the waters being also somewhat freed from the minima's of the earth , tending to the center , were continuated a top of the earth , like unto a fleece or skin ; , for the points of the earth , which did before discontinue the water being through their more potent gravity descended , the water getting a top , must needs have acquired its continuity , which ( as you have read ●●fore ) is the first quality of water . the water therefore got above the earth , not because it is less weighty per se , but per accidens , through its continuation . the flame of the first division was yet thick and reddy , not exalted to that brightness , which afterwards it was . the heat of this division was hot in the first degree , because there was not yet so much fire drawn out as to make a greater heat . this flame i may compare to the flame of a torch or candle , which is either but newly lighted , or near upon going out ; the heats , which these flames then cast forth , are in reference to their highest state ( as it were ) but in the first degree . their light is a dusky red . the first motion of this fire being to diffuse it self to the circumference of the ambient ayr , is there arriving , beaten back and reflected through the external surface or coat of the ayr ; not through the thickness of it ; for no doubt that was rather thinner there then below , but through its own natural motion , whereby it moves to its preservation ; for a same cannot subsist but by the help and sustenance of the ayr . it so , whither can it move ? not directly back again , retorting into it self , that being its extream contrary motion ; but rather to the sides , moving circularly about the surface of the ayr , in the same manner as fire in a rooft furnace , where we see it first diffuseth its self directly towards the circumference of the furnace , and beating against the roof of it , doth not reverberate into it self , but reflects to the sides , and so moves along circularly about the sides of the wall , which doth more evidently appear in a globous furnace ( fornax reverberatoria . ) the same is also manifested by the fire of kindled gunpowder in a squib , which thickneth the ayr by impelling the vapours and exhalations therein contained one upon the other , and augmenting them by its own fumes , is almost every way resisted and beaten back , whence therefore we observe it betakes it self to a circular motion : the reason is , because through a circular motion it is less resisted ; for one part of it preceding the other , doth not stop the following parts , but rather one part draweth another after it , or bears another before it , and moving alwaies round , it never meets with any other resistance ; for the one part is gone , before the other can overtake it : or what should resist it ? it is just like un to two horses going both one pace round in a mill , the one can never be a stop to the other , but rather the one draweth the other after him , because they move both one way . was this motion any other but circular , it would meet with resistance . this motion is , as it were , natural to the fire , and therefore is also of an eval duration ; for its nature is ever to move from the center , which it doth in moving circularly , not primarily , but secondarily , it moving first directly to the circumference , and thence reflecting to the sides , it creeps ( as it were ) all about the surface of the ayr , one part drawing the other after it , or pushing and thrusting it before it , or both waies . did not the fire continue in motion , it would soon lose its flame : for the flame is continued by being united ; that which unites it , is , besides its own motion , the crassitude of the ayr , which the fire impelling one part upon the other , renders thicker , and so unites it self the more . so that in all particulars this motion is natural to the fire , & necessarily of an eval duration , because the said motion preserves it in its being , and is its proper nature . now were this motion the effect of heat , it must be violent , and consequently of no long duration ; for what is violent , destroyes the essence of a being . it would he violent , because heat is produced by a violent cause from without , namely the opposition of the ayr . . we read of no burning heat in the mosaick philosophy , but only of a moving spirit , which is that i call fire , or at least an effect impressed upon part of the chaos . by which it moved to the surface ; for you read that this moving vertue was upon the face of the waters , before there was light , that is , it was drawn out from the chaos before it could raise a flame to give light . what can be more plain ? lastly , it was necessary that the elements should be of an eval duration : for they were created to exist the same duration , which adam , had he abided in his primitive state of innocency , would have existed . by all which it appeares , that there is no other principle , whence its eval duration is deducible , but from hence . chap. xi . of the second division of the chaos . . an enarration of effects befalling the elements through the second knock. the proportion of each of the elements in their purity to the peregrine elements . . the ground of the forementioned proportion of the elements . . that fire and ayr constitute the firmament . . a grand objection answered . i. let us pass to the second division , and speculate the effects of that . through this vibration did the earth yet more concentrate , and the waters gulped also upwards equally from all parts : for ( as i said ) the chaos was equally mixt , otherwise how could the waters equally cover the earth , as they did ? the waters being got atop , the ayr got loose in a far greater measure then it did before , which being expanded , constituted this great tract of the air , which now we breath into . this breach , although in a manner agreeable to the absolute propension of fire and ayr , could not , since they were soexactly mixed with the weighty elements , but give occasion of conveighing a greater proportion of both with them . neither was that little remaining bowl of the great mole , whereon we now tread , destitute of all her former adherents , there still being immerst in her the same proportion of the light elements to the weighty , as there is a proportion of weighty elements attending the separated light ones . consider now the proportion of each to it self . . although the earth doth harbour some of the other elements in her , yet she is triumphant over them in the fourth degree , that is , there are three parts pure earth to one part of the others ; and amongst these others , that constitute a fourth part in her own bowels , it is to be conceived , that water doth transcend the ayre , and so the ayre the fire . supposing then the earth to-consist of parts , thereof are pure earth , / ● pure water , / ● pure ayr , and / ● fire . hence from its predominance it is called earth , and so the like of water , ayr , and fire : to wit , water reserves parts of pure water , / ● of ayr , / ● of earth , of fire . ayr is called ayr also from its greater predominance over the other elements , not from its purity , as if it should be all pure ayr , that is impossible . it s purity appropriates . water and fire each ● / ● , earth . fire is pure in . ayr in / ● , water in / ● , earth in / ● . the proportion of these forementioned elements , take thus : parts is the whole , three fourths of it , which are , denote the proportion of each element in its purity . then there remains , which is the last fourth , signifying the proportion of the admisted elements to the principal element , as it is considered to be in its purity . again , there is another proportion observable among the perigrine elements , as they are sharers of the last fourth , which is . wherefore in earth parts and a third is taken up by water , one less , to wit / ● by ayr , and also one less , namely / ● by the fire . in water five and a half is equally attributed to earth and air , one less ( that is , the overplus fraction of each compleat number of earth and air makes socially one more ) to fire . the last fourth or of the air is supplied in five and a half by each of the ingress of fire and water , in five by fire . fire is tied to / ● of ayr , / ● of water , to / ● of earth . ii. the ground and reason of this proportion is , . that the least predominance , whereby an element may acquire its name , must be triple , that is , thrice as many times more in quantity , then the elements affixed to it : for did an element in its purity overbalance the others but in two parts , then it could hardly retain a form , whereby its nature might be sufficiently distinguisht from the others ; if in more then in three parts it would be apparently discernable that that element was mixed ; if so , then it must also be denominated by a mixed name ; for the cause , why men generally impose a single name upon some beings , that are mixt and compounded , is , because there is so little of the extrinsick body discernable , that it doth not deserve to be named : but if discernable , then a compounded word is applied : for instance , there is none would say , that water whereinto only a few drops of wine were instilled , was wine and water , or oinolympha : but they would nominate it water alone , because there is so little wine in it that it is not gustable ; but supposing there were so much wine mingled with water , as to make it perceptible , either by tast or smell , then no doubt they would say it was wine and water . even so it is here ; was there more then a fourth part of extrinsick elements admitted to a single pure element , it would be perceptible : if so , then we should not nominate the elements by a single name , but by a compound one . now that it is not perceptible is evident ; for who can perceive water , ayr , or fire in the earth ? or who can distinguish water , earth or air in fire ? &c. was there less then a fourth part , it would disaptate the principal element from being an ingredient in a mixture : the reason is , because there must be some parts adhering to such an element , whereby it may be received by the other : for example , had fire no ayr affixed to it ( as i have formerly noted ) it could not be received by water , but would be immediately expelled : neither could the earth be disposed to receive fire and ayr , but by the admisture of some parts of water , some of ayr , and others of fire ; but less then a fourth of these adherents would be insufficient . that this is really in effect thus , the separation of the elements is a testimony . distil sea-water , and rectifie it often , but weigh it before distillation ; the residence or fixed salt , wherein fire , ayr and earth are contained , will in little less then a th . or th . ( considering that the water , which is separated , is not so pure yet , but that it retaines some part of the perigrine elements , and that another part is dispersed through the ambient ayr ) respond to the whole body of water . or thus ; weigh sea-water with distilled water , and the one shall be a sixth part heavier then the other ; then imagine that the leasts which are evaporated of the peregrine elements are the remaining parts . lastly , the elements being four in company , it is very consentaneous to their number that each should be separated by the others in a fourth . the reason , why water constituting part of the fourth part of earth doth superate the ayr in one degree , is , because water is more agreeing , and that immediately , with earth then ayr , because of its weight . . because it is nearer to the earth then the tract of ayr . fire is least in proportion , because it is the remorest . in the supplying the fourth of water , earth and ayr are in an equal proportion , because they are equally consentaneous to water ; for earth is agreeable to it through its weight , and ayr through its continuity , and because they are also of the same propinquity to water . fire is less in quantity then these through its remoteness : it is more then it is in earth , because it is nearer to it . ayr containes an equal part of fire and water , by reason they are of an equal approximation , & of an equal concord with ayr , the fire agreeing to it in levity , water in continuity . earth is in ayr in the same proportion , that fire is in water , because they are equidistant to each of their allied elements , and retain the same degree of concord . fire hath the same proportion of earth , which earth in its proper region hath of fire . it is sociated to more air in one degree then water , to more water in the same degree then ayr , to more water then earth in one degree also , because their several situation is nearer to fire in one degree . iii. summarily through this division the firmament was establisht . the firmament was the circumvallation of ayr and fire about the waters , which made the earth and water firm in their present situation , that is , bound them up together , and hindred them equally from all parts , from falling from the universal center : for the ayr and fire being both light elements , do as well diffuse themselves from their own center towards the universal center , as above it towards the imaginary vacuum : and so by this means come to sustain the mass of the weighty elements . iv. here a grand objection , and no less mystery offers it self , viz. that it is improbable , that the points of earth should be of an equal number and efficacy with the other elements , which by this section are so much expanded , that their magnitude is divisible into infinite points ( as it were ) in comparison to the points of earth , and which in respect to the minima's of ayr and fire are but as one point to a million or more . to the answering of this , call to mind that the absolute form of earth is concentration through dense weight , and the form of ayr and fire diffusion from the center ; all these absolute forms are met and balanced ( thence seem to be checkt and obtused ) by their reciprocal relative forms . now the more these relative forms are degraded from their related form , the more they acquire of their absolute forms , and consequently greater and stronger motions . well then , observe this great mystery , and the hitherto yet unknown labyrinth of the greatest philosophers . the earth being degraded from her respective form , through that the fire and the other elements are abstracted from her , hath acquired the more of her absolute form , which is to fall to her center : this then being her form , no wonder if she doth come to so small a quantity . the same apprehend also of water . so on the other side , fire and ayr being also as much advanced from their relative to their absolute forms , do as much diffuse from the center , as the earth and water fall to their center : so that did not fire and ayr in diffusing from their center possess as great a place , as earth and water in moving to the center possess a little place , or the earth and water possess as little a place , as the fire and ayr a great place , it would be dissonant to their natures . besides the little place taken up by the earth and water , is as much to them , as the great place taken up by the fire and ayr ; their activity to the center is as much , as the activity of the others to the circumference . were the earth imagined to be pure without the admixture of any of the other elements , its supposed place would yet be one fourth less , and likewise fire and ayr would in their supposed purity possess a place , yet one fourth larger : the reason is , because the fourth part of the admisted elements to each pure element , doth so much the more augment or diminish its quantity , which being prescinded , must necessarily either enlarge , or lessen their places . wherefore you see , that it doth not hinder , but that the minima's of the earth and water may be equal in number & activity to the minima's of the others . neither doth it hinder but that the earth and water being expanded by the support of the light elements ( as appears in the chaos ) might have constituted so great a mole as the chaos was , notwithstanding it appeares so small now : for every natural point of water was almost half as much diducted ( violently as it were ) by the thin levity of the ayr , as such a proportion of ayr is now naturally through its absolute form expanded . so likewise was the air then half as much cohibited and incrassated through its relative form by the water , as the water is now incrassated . the like conceive of fire and earth . through these abstractions did all the temperate qualities of the chaos cease , each element did arrive almost to its absolute nature . the greatest commerce , which they then exercised , was with each their nearest adjacent , as the fire with ayr , ayr with water and fire , water with earth and ayr , earth with water , and fire with ayr . in this scheme you may see the apparition of the second division , which was the third act of creation . the fire moves circulatly , by reason of the ayr ; the ayr is cast equally over the water ; the water over the earth , both pursuing a circular course . the representation of the chaos after its second division . chap. xii . of the third division of the chaos . . the effects of the third knock. why earth is heavier then water . why water is more weighty near the top then towards the bottom . why a man when he is drowned doth not go down to the bottom of the ocean . why a potch'd egge doth commonly rest it self about the middle of the water in a skillet . why the middle parts of salt-water are more saltish then the upper parts . . whence the earth hapned to be thrust out into great protuberancies . how the earth arrived to be disposed to germination of plants . a vast grove pressed into the earth . . the cause of the waters continual circular motion . . the cause of the rise of such a variety of plants . . the third division , or the fourth act of creation , was whereby the most universal nature ( naturans ) did yet more purifie , and as it were clarifie the elements , in abstracting each element from its nearer , and congregating it to a proper place of its own . these several acts of purification and exaltation are not unlike to the operations of an alchymist in purifying a mineral : . he reduceth it to a powder , and mixeth it exactly ; and so it was with the chaos : . then it is either put into a retort , alembick , or a sublimatory , whereby the light parts are separated and abstracted from the heavy ones ; this hapned also in the first division . . he rectifieth the light parts in repeating the former operation and exalts it to a more sublime and pure nature , and so separates the lightest parts from the light ones ; even so it was here , god did yet more separate the fire from the ayr . touching the caput mortuum , as the earthy parts , that he dissolves in water , and afterwards to purifie it , he coagulates the earth , and so separates it from the water ; in the same manner did god here coagulate the earth , and parted it , from the waters . further , how this is effected i shall in brief explain to you . the water through her gravity with crassitude , doth obtain a vertue in her of squeezing , which is performed by a body that is weighty and continuous : for by its weight it presseth downwards to the center , and through its continuity it impedes the body , which it presseth , from entring into its own substance , and so forceth it to give way , which is the manner of squeezing . now was this body weighty and contiguous only , then it would be uncapable of squeezing , but would rather press another substance into its own pores . through this squeezing vertue is water rendred capable of collecting her own parts , by making groves into the earth , especially being thereunto impelled by the divine architect . but possibly you may object , that water cannot squeeze or press the earth , because the earth is weightier then it . i answer , that earth is weightier then water ( caeter is paribus ) supposing that neither is obstructed , or violently ( as it were ) detained : for instance , imagining that the mass of earth , and of water were each of them placed in scales , no doubt but earth would be heavier , and its parts make a greater impulse to the center , because they are single in every minimum , and not continuated one to the other , and therefore one part doth not hinder the force of the other , but rather helpeth it : as for water , her impulse is lesser , because her parts are continuated one to the other , and so are a mutual hinderance to one another : this i prove , take an hour-glass and fill it with water , never a drop shall pass through the center-hole ; the reason is evident , because although its parts are weighty , yet their continuity hinders them from stilling through , and so one part naturally cleaving to the other , doth preclude the way ; but sand you see easily passeth , because it being weighty and contiguous only , the one part giveth way to the other , and impels the same through . wherefore , i conclude , that ( all conditions being equal ) earth is heavier then water . but the one being violently detained , may prove weightier then the other , and so water is detained by earth ; for water is impeded from concentrating through the protuberance of the mass of earth , which therefore causeth a more forcible innixe in water upon the superficial parts of the earth . i prove it , water weigheth heavier upon the top of high mountains then in the lowermost region of the ayr , because there it is remoter from its center . . water presseth more atop then underneath , because it is more remote from the center : this is apparent by mens experience in the water ; for if they suffer themselves to sink down , they feel the greatest force to press them from the supream parts of the water , but the lower they descend to the bottom , the less force they perceive . also there are many things , as an egge dropt out of the shell into the water in a skillet , and others , go no deeper then half way to the bottom ; the reason is , because the superficial parts being most remote from the center , press more forcible then the parts under them . men when they are drowned in the sea , do not descend so low as to reach the ground , but so far only as the superficial parts of the sea thrusteth them ; besides there is reason for this , a mans body , although alive , must needs be less weighty then the thick water at the bottom of the sea. i do not speak of the seas depth near shoars , but where it is of an ordinary profundity , as in the ocean . dissolve salt into water , the middle parts shall be more saltish then the superficial parts for the same reason . besides these experiments , the understanding affords also an argument to demonstrate the same : if the natural propension of water be concentration , then the further it is remote from its center , the more it must incline to it : but the natural propension of water is concentration , ergo . ii. since then it is yielded that water is violently detained and remote from its center , no wonder if it doth squeeze the extime parts of the earth , whereby the earth giveth way in rotundity , and is protruded either into longitude or latitude . water having formed but a small dent into the earth , a greater quantity of water must needs depress thither , and so through a continuated force , bores a greater cavern into the earth , until at last it hath perduced into her a vast grove , whereinto the body of water did retire , and so constituted the ocean . the earth being thus impacted by the waters , must of a necessity be protruded above some part of the waters ; and hereby was the earth disposed to germination of plants , she being now exposed to the celestial influences , and moderately irrigated and foecundated by the remaines of the water . the representation of the chaos after its third division . iv. through this division was the earth in part detected , whereby ( as i said before ) it was rendred capable of germination , or protruding plants . god did also congregate the earth , and separated her body from heterogeneous elements , yet not so , but that there remained still some small part of them . these heterogeneous elements ( as i may call them for doctrines sake ) were coagulated into small bodies , of divers figures . these bodies were of a different size and proportion , according to gods intent and purpose , for to effect various and divers kinds of mixt bodies . the different proportion was , that in some there was a greater quantity of fire , in others of ayr , &c. the coagulation of these small bodies , was a close and near compaction of the elements within one small compass . through this compaction each element was pinched in , ( as it were ) which caused the same violent detention of each ( as you have read to be in water ) necessarily augmenting the force and activity of each element ; in fire it effected a heat , which is nothing else but a greater and condensed motion of the fire ; ( look below in the chapt. of d qualit . ) in ayr it agitated a thin swelling or bubling , which proceeds from a coarctation of the ayr , whereby it is constipated in its motion towards the circumference by water moving to the center . water again is incitated to a stronger motion through the detention of ayr swelling up against its compression . the earth is no less compelled to require her natural place , the center , then she is opposed by the fire . were all these violent motions ( as it were ) equal in their elements being formed also in one figure , they might continue so for ever , like as if they were all surprized by a catoche : but being coagulated in an unequal proportion and unlike figure , they break through one another in some progress of time , and being confused in various figures , they effect also protrusions of no less variety in figures . observe that in these commistions the elements are confused in a contrary manner then they are placed without in their entire bodies . for here the fire against its nature ( as it were ) is constituted in the center , next the ayr , then earth , and water is outermost . there the earth is the center , next to it is water , &c. herein appeares the wisdom and providence of nature , which although casting the elements into a fight , yet directs & terminates them into a most perfect friendship . these coagulated bodies are called seeds , which are multiplied according to the number of the kinds thence budding . seeds understand in a large sense , as they denominate the rudiments and first beginnings of all mixt bodies . otherwise seeds are strictly attributed to living creatures alone ; as to plants and animals . although hearbs and plants are alone nominated by moses to be produced through this division , yet the seeds of minerals , and of their recrements ( as they erroneously term them ) and of stones were also implied , since their creation is no where else mentioned . chap. xiii . of the fourth , fifth , sixth , and seventh division of the chaos . . an enarration of the effects of the fourth division . that nature created the first bodies of every species the greatest , is instanced in bees , fishes and fowl. that all species are derived from one individuum . that adam was the greatest man that ever was since the creation . what those giants were , which the poets faigned . . how the sun and moon were created . that a lioness is not more vigorous then a lion. . how the stars of the firmament were created . . how the durable clouds of the ayr were created . . the effects of the fifth division . . the effects of the sixth division . . the effects of the last division . as there was a coagulation of the waters and earth , so god did in the same manner through the fourth division coagulate and further purifie the elements of fire and ayr . this coagulation was of the heterogeneous elements , namely of part of the adjoyned parts of the peregrine elements . these being congregated , did condense and unite a great portion of fire , which condensation , through a mixture of ayr , water and earth , constituted it into a flame . earth giveth a body to fire , and staies its light parts ; ayr and water keep in the flame : look below , where i have particularly illustrated the generation of a flame . . these coagulations consisted of parts differing variously in quantity ; some greater , others less . nature did also observe a most exact order among them : to wit , she first coagulated one greatest body , afterwards some greater bodies , lastly , many little ones . i prove this , in all kinds there is one greatest , because there is the least ; for where there is a least , there must necessarily be a greatest . among bees there is one , which is the greatest ; and therefore he is the leader and king of all the rest : among fowl , we see the same , namely that there is one greatest in each kind of them , which all the rest follow and fly about . in a multitude of fishes , they all swim after and about one , which is the greatest among them , &c . the greatest of all kinds were created at the beginning of the world , because that being the superlative degree , and therefore excelling the others , must have been created immediately by god , he creating immediately nothing , but what is the most excellent . since that all beings have their rise and origine from one , it is necessary , that this one should be the greatest . that all beings derive their rise and original from one , is evident , in that all beings arised from the chaos . . in their several kinds ; as in man , all men took their original from one first man adam . god proposes among the perfectest living creatures a pattern of all the rest , which is man : now , he being multiplied through one , although not from one man , it is not improbable that all other species of living creatures multiplied through one . . we read in the first chap. that god did first create the moving creatures , that is one of every kind ; for otherwise moses would have written that god immediately and primarily had created two of every kind . in v. . let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures , and fowles . in v. . he plainly expresseth that god created every living creature that moveth , that is , one of every kind , as i said before . and in the th . let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind , not living creatures after their kind . and in the v. every herb bearing seed , not herbs : so that this is not to be doubted of . you may object , that in the th . v. it is said , that god created great whales ; ergo more then one . i deny the consequence ; for whales here denotes the plurality of species of great fishes , to wit , porposes dolphins , whales , strictly so named , &c. not the plurality of individua in every kind . . nature is uniform , and not various in acting , ergo since she created the first man single , and out of him a woman , it is apparent , that she observed the same order and manner of creating every other perfect moving creature . you may object , that according to the antecedence , which i offer as a maxime , man should be created in the same manner as beasts . i answer , if you consider him only as a moving creature , having a sensitive soul , he was ; but if as he is man , that is , mens , sivo substantia spiritualis & rationalis in corpus hominis vivens & sensitivum a natura infusa ; a mind , or a spiritual rational substance infused by god into a living and moving body : then no doubt but the action is various , since it is in diversa actionis specie . . god acteth by the fewest meanes ; but one is fewer or less then more ; ergo . if then all beings are multiplied through one , then this one must necessarily be the greatest . i prove the consequence . you are to apprehend , that man as he is an animal is propagated in the same manner as other animals . being then propagated through one , that one must have been indued with the greatest and strongest vertue of propagation , because that wasting and weakning in progress of time could not be sufficient to last out a whole race : this greatest vertue must be assixed to a proportionate subject or body , which must then be the greatest body ; for the greatest vertue cannot be contained in a less subject then the greatest body : this is evident in a great flame , which must be maintained in a great place . . we may remember out of history , that the nearer men lived to the first man , the greater and stronger bodies they had ; the longer they lived ; the more numerous issue they had ; and the more generous , and the less exercised in wickedness , all which proceeded from a stronger vertue and a greater body . if so , then it is not improbale , that the first man , and all the first of other kinds of animals were the greatest , for the same reason . besides we read in joshua . . that arba ( in some bibles written adam ) was the greatest among the anakims . which most interpreters judge to be spoken of the first man adam . but possibly you may reply , that if adam was the greatest man , he must have been thought to be a giant , but a giant is monstrous : wherefore adam was not the greatest man. i deny the minor ; for monstrous is that , which doth degenerate from the species , so that it makes a difference between that which is adjudged to be a monster , and the species ; as the abundance or defect of parts , or a deformation in some or all parts , through which its subject is rendered different from the species , to which it was intended ; but a great , greater , or greatest man is no more a monster then a little , less , or least man ; because there is no difference between either in number , form or figure of parts . 't is true , giants have been generally received for monsters , but then they were differing from other men , in number and figure of parts ; as the cyclopes , a great sort of people , faigned by the poets to have had but one eye in the midst of their forehead , and to be vulcans journeymen , employed in making weapons for jupiter . grandeur of body , if actuated by sufficiency of vigorous spirits , is a perfection denoting strength of all the animal and vegetative faculties , fitted for long life , and propagation , which therefore must not be detracted from the first of all kinds . ii. hence i may then safely infer , that in the firmament the greatest part of the heterogeneous elements , and a great proportion of fire were coagulated into the greatest flame , which was the sun. out of the courser part of the sun , god created another great body ; next to the greatest the greatest , which was the moon . for as earth , waters , and animals were defaecated by having other bodies formed out of their courser matter , so it was also in the element of fire . this is most obvious in animals , whose female was formed out of the courser part of the male , whereby it becometh more excellent and vigorous in all its actions . this may be contradicted , in that a lioness is taken to be more vigorous and fierce then a lion. i answer , that this kind of sierceness and apparent vigour is in all females , but it is not lasting , more a spurt and shew of vigour and fierceness , then real and durable . iii. these two great flames did by their hourly motion produce other great ones , which again propagated ( as it were ) lesser , and thence little ones , which were those , by us now called stars . but of these more particularly hereafter . iv. in the ayr the like coagulation formed the thin clouds consisting of a great part of ayr , incrassated through a smaller quantity of water , and punctually divided by the same proportion of fire , balanced and incorporated with the least measure of earth . these cloudes have their continual abode in the ayr , seldom vanishing . their colour is blewish , arising from its incrassation through water , and incorporation with earth : for the ayr of it self is so thin , that it is insufficient to unite a light , or cause reflection , but being reduced to a thicker consistence by the co-expansion of water with it , it becomes capable of uniting , reflecting and propagating a light ; now were there no particle of earth affixt to this mixture , the colour would be transparent , lucid , or chrystalline , but being somewhat obtenebrated through the density of earth , is changed into a light blew , or light sky-colour . v. thus did the great arcess nature make her process in the elaboration , purification and exaltation of the elements ; neither was she yet arrived to her ultimate intention or end , but proceeded in her scope by a more arct and pure coagulation of parts in dividing the heterogeneous parts yet more from the body of water , and so knitting them together again . this was the fifth division , whereby god divided the purest and subtilest part of the elements before divided and coagulated from the course and impure parts , and promoted them to an arcter coagulation ; this was , as it were , a fourth rectification of the elements . in the water the coagulated bodies through the vivification of the planetary influences , became fishes : in the ayr fowl. vi. the sixth division respected the earth , out of whose more purified and rectified parts protruded to her superficial region , cattel and beasts were animated by the same influences . lastly , by vertue of the seventh division man was created , and formed out of the most exalted quintessence of the purest coagulalation of earth , animated through the benigne vivifying beams of the sun , after which a ( mens , sive spiritus , sive lux rationalis ) a mind , or a rational spirit , or light was inspired or infused from god into this most sublime tabernacle . the representation of the chaos after its latter divisions . how a creature is vivified and animated , i shall demonstrate in its proper place . man again was further purified and defaecated by having a woman created out of his grosser and less digested parts . chap. xiv . of the second and third absolute qualities of the elements . . what is understood by second qualities . . what the second quality of earth is . . aristotle's definition of density rejected . . the opinions of philosophers touching the nature of density . . the forementioned opinions confuted . . the description of indivisibles according to democritus disproved . that all figures are divisible excepting a circular minimum . that strength united proveth strongest in a round figure : and why . . what the second quality of fire is . cardan , averrhoes , zimara , aristotle , tolet , and zabarel their opinions touching the nature of rarity confuted . . the second quality of water . aristotle , joh. grammat . tolet , zabarel and barthol . their sence of thickness and thinness disproved . . what the second quality of ayr is . . what is intended by third , fourth or fifth qualities . an enumeration of the said qualities . what obtuseness , acuteness , asperity , levor , hardness , rigidity , softness , solidity , liquidity and lentor are , and their kinds . . the second qualities are those , which do immediately descend , or emanate from the first without any neerer interposing . their number is adequated to the number of the first qualities , and therefore are only four : because an immediate and univocal cause cannot produce more immediate and univocal effects then one . second qualities proceed from the elements either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . second qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or per se , are such as emanate primarily from the absolute forms of the elements . second qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or per accidens , emanate primarily from the respective forms of the elements . in the precedent chapters hath been indistinctly treated of the first and second qualities united into one , as really they are , but they are tow , and distinct from each other ratione , because we conceive them distinctly , and apprehend one to be the cause of the other . the reason why i did then propose the first and second qualities as one form of the elements , is , because there i handled them as they were really inherent in their subjects . here my purpose is to describe them as they are successively apprehended by us one after the other . ii. the first quality , power , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth is gravity with contiguity : the second or next quality emanating nearest thence is density ; for conceiving a thing to be weighty and contiguous in its parts , that , which we apprehend next , is density ; for if a thing is weighty , or pressing to the center , and its parts contiguous , it cannot but be pressed very close , since its parts are contiguous whereby they give and make way to and for one another ; which closeness of parts emanating from a contiguous weight is called density . iii. aristotle describes density to be that , whereby a substance containes much matter in small dimensions . i cannot well guess what he cals much matter ; whether he means much matter only without the intention of its form , or much matter with much of its form . the first is not possible ; for whenever matter is augmented , its form is alwaies intended with it ; and likewise the diminution of matter attendeth the remission of its form , which is evident in fire ; cast more fewel to it , and its first quality will also be intended . if he implies the last , where then consists the difference between density and rarity ? for dense bodies contain no more matter then rare ones ; for each their matter is adequately extended to the extension of their form . doth a lump of earth contain more matter then a tract of ayr of the same proportion ? no certainly , for there is as much matter in that proportion of ayr , as there is in the same of earth . matter is that , whereout a thing is made ; but there is as much of that , whereout the ayr is made , in the ayr in the same extent of place , as there is in earth , whereout that is made . but answer me , whereby will you know , what hath much matter in a little place or dimension , and what hath little matter in a great place ? you will say , by its weight : so that whatever is weighty , that containes more matter then that which is light . why shall a body be said to have more matter from its gravity , then another from its levity ? or why shall a light body have but little matter , and a weighty one much ? if a weighty body hath more matter , because it is weighty ; then it is more a body then a light body , but that is absurd . by more matter , i mean magis materia . but you answer your meaning to be major materia ; neither that ; for as i said before , the least particle of ayr hath as much , whereout it is made , as the least particle of earth : it is true , it hath not so much weight ; for it hath none , but weight is not the matter of a thing , but its form ; how then can a weighty thing be said to have much matter , because of its weight ? wherefore let me tell you , that density doth not derive from the matter of a thing , but from its form , and that it is not the modus solius materiae , but totius . the same may be urged against the paripatetick definition of rarity , which is , whereby a body containeth little matter under great dimensions . the matter , which is to be contained under great or little dimensions , must be of that quantity as to fill its place , which rare and dense bodies do equally under the same proportion . but doubtless these definitions cannot be defended , unless they be likewise free to defend a penetration of bodies . iv. we find a very dense contest among philosophers about the manner of condensation and rarefaction . . scotus in . distinct . quaest. . opiniates , that there are new parts of quantity produced in rarefaction , and other old ones corrupted . . marsilius in his metaph. quest. . art. . asserteth , that in rarefaction and condensation the whole or entire old quantity is corrupted . . others to salve their doctrine of condensation and rarefaction , are constrained to affirm a penetration of quantity , which they say , may naturally happen , provided it be not of all , but of some parts only . . hurtado , phys. disput. . sect. . subject . . laies down a principle invented by his master , which according to his judgment proveth an expedient to expound the nature of rarity and density . there are ( saith he ) certain indivisibles contained in bodies , through the inflation or puffing up of which , bodies do acquire a greater or less place . but to avoid all inconveniences , they allow these indivisible points not to be formally only , but virtually also divisible and extensible according to place and force impelled upon them . to this opinion doth arriaga also subscribe , disp. . sect. . . the j●suits of conimbrica , lib. . cap. . q. . art. . state , that rarity and density are consistent in a certain quality , inherent in quantity , through which that quantity is contracted or extended to a greater or less space . in fine , after a long sweat , they are forced to confess ingenuously with hurtado , that this difficulty is not to be cleared . v. the subtil doctor runs far beyond his byas in admitting a natural corruption in parts , and that happening almost every moment ; wherefore he is rejected by all in this particular . what the assertors of the third opinion have stiffely affirmed in their whole philosophy , that they are now reduced to deny , and exposed to a probation of a penetration of quantity : which if a quantity is consistent of potential parts only , and indivisible into indivisibilities , then no question , but it will go for them ; for then it remains indisputable , that in a line the points do all penetrate one another , and consequently must consist out of infinite potential parts . hurtado and arriaga do now yield to actual formal indivisibles , but yet virtually divisible : how an indivisible can be inflated , they do omit the illustration . this is most certain , that contiguous indivisibles are inextensible , and therefore may not be inflated . . this inflation is violent , but there are many bodies naturally dense , as the earth , and therefore inflation being violent , is not a means tending to addensation . besides , they pass by to express their meaning of indivisibles , whether such as zeno and democritus teached , or others . vi. if they side with democritus , they fall into a greater errour ; for his indivisibles were , . infinite . . fluctuating in a void place . . of various figures . all three most notorious contradictions : for can a thing be infinite , and yet be terminated with figures ; a plain contradiction . . can finite bodies be produced out of infinite material causes ? if material causes are infinite , the body constituted by them must also be infinite . wherefore another contradiction . . there is no real vacuum , but an imaginary one . . can a thing be indivisible , and yet be under various figures ? there is no figure indivisible , but a round minimum ; because all its parts are fallen equally so close to the center , that they escape a real division thereby , although not a mental one ; but other figures , as triangles , must of necessity be devisible ; because all figures are made out of a circle or rotundity , for take away the angles of a triangle , quadrangle , &c. and there remaines a circle . the reason why a round minimum escapes division is , because there is nothing sticking out , whereupon an extrinsick agent can take hold , because its extream imaginary parts are strongest in being equally united to the center ; and therefore one imaginary part is so strengthned by the other , & fastened to the other , that any real division is impossible upon them ; but a triangular , or any other angular figure is divisible , because its real parts are unequally allied to the center , whence there ariseth a strong opposition in one respect , and yet a small resistance in another ; for the angles do receive the force of an extrinsick agent , but a round minimum shoves it off , and so makes but little resistance , and yet a great opposition ; we see that a small round bullet shall pass where a great angular body shall not , although impelled with the same force , and do consist of the same matter : the reason is , because in a round figure there is less resistance , and the opposition is the greater , because of the union of parts . i have oft thought upon the intention of that ordinary saying , vis unita est fortior : strength united is made stronger . this holds good only in a round figure ; for therein force is most united ; for all its parts are equally allied to the center , and every part helpeth the other , and makes no resistance , but great opposition . this appears in your round short-arst fellowes , who shall carry a greater burden , then the biggest and tallest men . i do remember that i have seen at a sea-village called scheeveling in the low-countries , a dozen men or fewer , remove and carry a pink of no very small burden , upon their backs from the shore into the sea. their strength was very improportionable to move so great a body , but the placing of themselves in a round figure , did soon square their force to the bulk . three of them were placed before at one side of the bowes , three on the other side , three more on each side of the ship , and so those twelve moved with their backs one against the other circularly , not thrusting the ship forward or from them , for then they could not have done it ; but every man moved circularly to the center , and against the force of his diametrical opposite , and so lifted the fore parts of the ship up upon their backs , which being a little raised from the ground , fell or moved forward through her own declining weight . touching the men themselves , each of them put himself into a circular posture , applying his back against the ship , resting his hands and arms upon his knee , and inclining his head and neck towards his breast . but this by the way . the conimbricenses endeavour to help the matter by shifting it off to a quality inherent in quantity . indeed i had alwaies apprehended a quality according to the peripateticks , to have inhered in a substance , and not in quantity ; for it is absurd to assert in their philosophy , that one accident inheres in the other . nevertheless they intend matter by quantity ; wherefore by the way you may observe , that nolentes volentes , they cannot apprehend any thing by matter but quantity , as i have proved before . further , to patch the cause of density upon quality , is a blind shifting ; for quality is so remote a name , and there are so many qualities , that unless they indigitate to a particular sensible quality , they effect little . their vain groapings , guessings and ignorances depend upon the cloud , which they leave upon the nature of density and rarity ; for did they but study the true definition of either , it would not a little contribute to their information . in the first place , they imagine density to be a violent quality , whereas you see it is natural . . they make no distinction between density & thickness ; for thickness doth in the same sense ( although improperly ) contain much matter in little dimensions , & notwithstanding they are different : & so doth thinness contain little matter under great dimensions , as improperly as rarity ; wherein is rarity then distinct from thinness ? nevertheless do authors affirm that many thin bodies are dense . the same is attested by cardan . how then can the above-given definition stand good ? a thing shall then contain at once much matter in small dimensions , and little matter in great dimensions , ergo a thing is thin and thick , rare , and dense at once . no question it is also an erroneous assertion , that some thin bodies are essentially dense , or that any thick bodies are essentially rare ; neither is tenuity or crassitude the cause of density ( as scaliger doth well infer in his exerc. ) but a contiguous gravity . vii . the first power or form of fire is levity with contiguity . the second next slowing thence is rarity , which is an expansion or diduction of a body that is light with contiguity . this followeth levity with contiguity , because a thing which is contiguously light cannot but be diducted . scaliger doth justly except against cardan in exerc. . you say that the reason or manner of a rare and dense body is taken from the multitude or paucity of matter . moreover it is not the multitude , or paucity of matter makes density or rarity , neither doth density cause the multitude of matter , or rarity the paucity of it . the demonstration is the same for both ; because the same body may be rarified or condensed without the encrease or decrease of matter . averrhoes , lib. . phys. comment . . doth hesitate very much in this particular , as appeares by his contradictory affirmations ; for in that place he asserts , that rarity and density are contraries in quantity : again in the next following comment . he saith , that rarity and density are not of the essence of quantity . in lib. . phys. com. . he affirms , rarity and density to be qualities : but in lib. . metaph. com. . he refers them to the predicament of situs : and lib. . phys. com. . he saith , that rarefaction and condensation are local motions . zimara doth labour to draw all these various dictates of averrhoes to a good sense . when he seemed to place them in the category of situs ( saith he ) his intention was only to relate the opinion of other men . in saying that rarefaction and condensation were in the predicament of quantity , he meant that quantity did consecute them , but not formally ; for a greater quantity doth follow rarity , and thence the possession of a greater place : wherefore rarefaction is primarily and essentially an alteration , and a motion to quality , but secondarily and by consequence it is to a greater quantity , and a larger place . tolet. lib. . phys. cap. . text . tels us the opinion of aristotle upon this intricate point . he expounds his judgment upon rarefaction , which ( in short ) implies , rarity and density to be two contrary qualities , educed out of the power of matter , as others also are ; for when a thing is condensed or rarified , that doth not happen properly , because something is expelled , or something doth enter , or because the parts are conjoyned among themselves , or are separated by reason of a ( vacuum ) voidness ; but because such a quality , rarity , or density is educed out of the power of matter , so as that its subject should be changed ; as when it is made hot or cold : for the ancients said , that no part of a thing was changed in rarefaction or addensation , but that its parts came only somewhat nearer , or were removed from between themselves . however aristotles dictates contain nothing of this : but when a thing is rarefied or condensed , the whole and the parts too are changed by an accidental mutation , in receiving a quality educed out of the power of matter ; which is apparent , because in a rare body every part is rare ; which if rarity hapned only through the separation of parts among themselves , the parts doubtless would remain dense , which is false , as appeares in things that are rare , and most in the elements . a great deal ado about nothing . that which through it self is most obvious , they involve into obstruseness through their cavils . whether averrhoes intended his words in that meaning , as zimara comments , or not , ( which is more probable , because he doth not give the least hint of an indirect sense of his words , and therefore they are to be understood in their direct intention : as for zimara his reconciliation , that alledging no reason , and since the same might be guessed of his words , although he had purposed them for a contrary signification , it doth not merit any acceptance ) is not material , either promising no truth or evidence . tolet. rejects the judgment of the ancients upon this particular , but hath not the ingenuity to add reasons , to consute them , only from an inbred school-bending to aristotle , saith as he is told . he declares then with the philosopher , that in rarefaction and addensation the whole and parts are changed by an accidental mutation in receiving a quality educed out of matter , because in a rare body every part is rare . in the first place , his reason is weak ; for in a rare body every part is not rare , as appeares in the ayr , which they term to be rare ; wherein many dense parts , as black clouds , are contained , nevertheless the whole body is called ayr a majori . . supposing that every part of the whole is rare , he infers nothing , but that every part , or the whole is rare , which is idem per idem . . if rarity ( saith he ) were caused through separation of parts among themselves , the parts would remain dense . it seems by rarity and density he apprehends nothing else but the diminution or augmentation of quantity ; for in the same comment . he writes thus , you must note that to be made little out of great is to be condensed , and out of little great to be rarified . here he contradicts himself ; before he stated them qualities , now they are changed into quantities . but to his reason . 't is true ( as he saith ) if rarity were caused through separation of parts in a mean body among themselves , the parts would remain dense , supposing that the light parts were separated from it . but supposing the dense parts of a mean ( that is equally consistent of dense and rare parts ) body , the remaining parts would be rare . . a dense body is not rarefied through any separation of its parts , or inflation of its minima's , but by the adjoyning of light and rare parts to it . i wonder what accidental change it is he means ; it must be either to quantity , and then it is the same with augmentation and diminution ; or to quality , and then it is an alteration , or a locomotive quality : but he mentions none . supposing it to be a quality , the question is , whether this doth arise in that subject with the adherence to its primitive matter of the extrinsick agent , or whether it doth migrate out of its own subject into another . it is not the latter ; for i have proved in my dispute of powers , that an accident doth not migrate out of one subject into another . if the first , then it is by the entring of another body between the parts that are separated , and what body is that but fire ? it is that , which through its contiguous lightness doth render a dense body rare , and so condensation is by expelling the light parts , or admitting more parts of a dense body , as of earth , which doth condensate through its contiguous gravity . wherefore we are not forced to grant a vacuum in rarefaction , because a body is rarefied through the supplying of the supposed voyd spaces by the presence of fire . neither need we to assert a penetration of bodies in condensation , since that those parts , which are supposed to be penetrated into the substance of others , are expelled . it is not then , as tolet writes , that rarefaction is become great out of little without the apposition or detraction of a new substance ; for were it so , then of a necessity there must be allowed a penetration of bodies in condensation , and a vacuum in rarefaction : wherefore scaliger saith well in his th . exerc. that there can be no addensation or rarefaction ( although rarity and density are really in them ) in any single body . ergo dum inter unum minimum naturale ignis puri , & minima continua circumsita nullum medium corpus intercedat , quonam igitur modo queunt esse propius ant longinquius sine intervallo , mutuave cor porum penetratione ? wherefore since between one natural minimum of pure fire , & the surrounding continuated minima's ( which are the minima's of the ayr ) there is no middle body interposed , how then can they be nearer or further without an interval or mutual penetration of bodies ? the reason ( as i said before ) is , because without the adjunction of another body to a single one , there is no rarefaction or condensation . observe by the way , that many of the parepateticks make a two-fold rarity in bodies . the one they confound with a thinness , as you may read in arist. lab. . de part . anim. cap. . and grammat . lib. . de ortu & inter . context . . this they refer to the category of quality , and doth consecute heat . the other , which is the more frequent and proper acception of rarity ( as they say ) is , which doth not consist in a tenuity of a substance , but in the distance of parts between one another , and so they call a sponge rare , because it hath parts distant from one another through an interposed space , not really void , which containes no body , but is filled with another thin and insensible body ; as in a sponge , whose parts are called void , wherein notwithstanding ayr is contained . this kind of rarity they refer to the category of situs . i take them in this last acception , and demand , whether it is not the ayr , which causes that situation and distance of parts ? for the sponge is condensed , through expressing the ayr by compression of the sponge : if so , then it is not a single quality educed out of the power of matter , but the entring of the ayr into its pores , which doth rarifie ( as they term it ) the sponge . zabarel , lib. de calore coelest . cap. . attributes rarity to the causality of heat , and density to coldness . but before he had proposed an objection , which was , that heat is produced by rarefaction and attrition : to this he strives to answer below , but finding he could not go through with it , recants , and states , that in the elements , as they are simple , their heat doth produce rarity , and so doth rarity reciprocally produce heat . an absurdity , to affirm the effect to be the cause of its cause , and the cause to be the effect of it self . . heat is not the cause of rarity , because fire is the rarest of all in its own region , and yet , as they confess , fire is not hot in its own seat. viii . the first quality of water is gravity with continuity : the second emanating thence is crassitude , which is a thick consistence , exporrected through all its dimensions . you will grant me , that crassitude proceeds from an arct and near union of parts , or from a close compression of the said parts . this compression and union derives from gravity ; this gravity being continuous , doth necessarily cause a crassitude ; for were it contiguous , it would effect a density . there is nothing , unless it be water , or waterish bodies , that is thick , as oyles , gums , rozzens , fat , tallow , are all waterish so far at they are thick , yet not without the admistion of most ayr , ice , chrystal , diamonds , and most precious stones are waterish , and therefore thick . choler , pepper , the stars , &c. are rare , because they are fiery , that is , participate more of fire , then of any other element . flies , cobwebs , clouds . &c. are thin , because they are ayery . all earthy bodies are dense ; as minerals , stones , &c. now as it is necessary , that all the elements should meet in every body , so it is necessary , that there should concomitate rarity , density , tenuity and crassitude in each mixt body . wherefore do not think it strange that thinness and thickness should be in one body , although they are counted contraries among authors . i cannot but admire that all philosopers to this very day should have confounded the signification of these words , thick , dense , thin , rare , naming thick bodies dense , thin ones rare , and so reciprocally , as if they were one , whereas there is a great distinction between them . aristotle , johan . grammat . tolet , zabarel , and many others take thinness and rarity to be the same , as also thickness and density ; whereas you may now evidently know , that they are altogether distinct , and wherein they are so . it is erroneous to say , that water is dense , or fire thick , ayr rare , &c. but water is alone thick , ayr thin , earth dense , and fire rare . bartholin . lib. . phys. cap. . defines thickness by an adulterine cause : thickness ( saith he ) is thought to derive from coldness and density . and a little before he described density to be derived from coldness and thickness . mark his thick dulness in asserting thickness to be the cause of density , and density of thickness . the cause must be prior causato natura saltem , but here neither is prior . he makes a difference in their names , but in re he concludes them to be one . ix . the first quality of ayr is levity with continuity ; its second is tenuity , which is a thin consistence of a substance ; wherefore thinness and thickness are ( as it were ) modi consistentiae . heat is not the cause of tenuity in ayr , because heat is accidental to ayr , and tenuity is essential , or at least co-essential ; but that , which is accidental and extrinsick , cannot be the cause of that , which is essential and intrinsick . the next effect we can imagine to emanate from lightness with continuity , or the greatest diduction , and yet remaining continuated , must needs be tenuity . besides these , there are some more qualities restant ; as obtuseness and acuteness , asperity and levor , solidity and liquidity , softness and hardness , lentor and friability . it is a mistake in authors to derive the original of these qualities from the elements , as they constitute a mixt body , and thence to term them qualities of a mixt body . to the contrary , they do emanate from the elements as they are conceived in their absolute form , as hath been proved . these qualities you may nominate third , fourth , and fifth , according as the understanding doth apprehend the one to be before the other in nature , although not in time. the third qualities of the elements are obtuseness , acuteness , &c. i prove it : because we apprehend them next to the second qualities ; for the understanding , in discerning these sensible qualities , is lead by the senses as its pilots ; now our tact or feeling being the first in esse & operari , is also imployed in distinguishing those first , second and third qualities : and for that reason they are all called tactible or tangible qualities . the first action made by any of the elements upon the tact is local motion , as gravity and levity : for feeling any element , its weight or lightness would be the first thing we should perceive : the next would be its rarity or density . the third , acuteness or hebetude : the fourth , asperity or levor , the fifth , hardness or softness ; the sixth , solidity or liquidity ; the seventh , lentor or friability . there is a twofold acuteness formally differing from one another : . an acuteness deriving from density . . an acuteness emanating from rarity . acuteness is a quality whereby our tact is most divided . obtuseness is a quality whereby our tact is least divided . acuteness is in fire and earth , but in a different manner . acuteness in fire is a rare acuteness , whereby it most divideth our tact , through its parts being contiguously diducted , or spread from the center . the acuteness inherent in earth is a dense acuteness , whereby it divides our tact through a dense acuteness , or minima's moving through their pressing weight to the center . obtuseness is a quality following crassitude and tenuity , whereby its subject compresseth our tact : or divideth it less or least and in longer time . obtuseness in ayr is a quality immediately produced by its tenuity and continuous expansion ; for were it contiguous , it would be acute , but being continuous , one part hindreth the other from penetrating or dividing any objected body ; and so its parts acting together and equally , they effect a compression . this compression or obtuseness in the ayr is thin and subtil , and more potent then that in water , because it resisteth less , and therefore is also less opposed , and through its subtility is capable of making stronger opposition . obtuseness in water issueth out of a thick quality , or from its continuous depressing vertue . this obtuseness , and that in ayr , as also acuteness in fire and earth , are altogether different ( as i said before ) but through the narrowness of the language , i am compelled to attribute each to two several beings , adding some notes of distinction . the same understand of all the other derived qualities . asperity is a quality immediately consecuting acuteness ; and levor is a quality emanating from hebetude or obtuseness . asperity ( more plainly ) is an inequality or roughness in the surface of a body ; this , experience , tels us , proceedeth from a sharpness or acuteness . levor is an equality of the surface descending from hebetude , or a continuous pressure or diduction . asperity in fire is a rare , diffusing and vibrating asperity : that in earth is a dense , heavy contracting asperity . i prove it , our feeling certifieth us that fire is a rare , diffusing and vibrating roughness ; and so feeling earth , we feel a dense , heavy and contracting roughness . from a contiguous and dense asperity spreades hardness : which is a quality , where by its subject is difficulty pressed down into it self . so thin levor begetteth softness , which is a quality , whereby its subject easily giveth way into it self to pressure . hardness in earth may properly be termed rigidity , or a rugged hardness , because the earth doth only of all the elements possess its center , and therefore cannot introcede into it self . that rigidity is caused by asperity , its ordinary definition among physitians doth testifie : rigidity ( say they ) is a hardness with asperity , or a roughness , that is from asperity . from a continuous and thick obtuseness derives a smooth hardness , such as is conceived in chrystal or ice , and is alone proper to water . softness in fire being unequal or rough , is , whereby it giveth way towards its circumference , if pressed from without . softness in ayr being equal and smooth , is , whereby it giveth way towards its circumference , if pressed from without . solidity is an effect of hardness , through which a body is consistent , that is , uncapable of flowing ; so water is a smooth solid body , because of its peculiar hardness : and earth is a rugged solid body , likewise because of its proper hardness . liquidity is an effect of softness , whereby a body is apt to flow , or to be diducted . in fire it is rare and acute ; in ayr thin and obtuse . solidity produceth friability , which is a quality , whereby its parts are separable from one another in minute particles ; wherefore since solidity cannot give way by flowing , it giveth way through friability . lentor is a quality produced by liquidity , and is , whereby a body is rendered deductible by reason of its continuity of parts . we may otherwise apprehend these qualities to differ from one another secundum magis & minus thus ; asperity is a greater acuteness of parts : hardness is a greater asperity , or thick levor : solidity is a greater hardness : levor is a greater obtuseness : softness is a greater thin levor : liquidity is a greater softness . chap. xv. of the respective qualities of the elements ; particularly of fire , earth , and water . . what is meant by the respective qualities of the elements . why they are termed second qualities . . that heat is the second respective or accidental quality of fire . that fire is not burning hot within its own region . that fire doth not burn unless it flames , is proved by an experiment through aq. fort . . that heat in fire is violently produced . the manner of the production of a flame . what it is which we call hot , warm , or burning . how fire dissolves and consumes a body into ashes . . that heat is nothing else but a multiplication , condensation and retention of the parts of fire . the degrees of heat in fire , and how it cometh to be warm , hot , scorching hot , blistering hot , burning hot , and consuming hot . . a way how to try the force of fire by scales . why fire doth not alwaies feel hot in the ayr. . plato and scaliger their opinion touching heat . . the parepatetick description of heat rejected . how fire separateth silver from gold , and lead from silver . . what the second respective quality of earth is . what cold is . the manner of operation of cold upon our tact. . the second respective quality of water . that water cooles differently from earth . . aristotle and zabarel their wavering opinions touching cold. that earth is the primum frigidum . . the . respective qualities of the elements are such , as do consecute the congress of the same elements : they are called qualities per accidens , in respect they are supposed to befall them after their production in their absolute form. they are withal termed second qualities , because they are produced by the first qualities of the elements in their congress . ii. the second accidental quality emanating from fire in its concurse to mixture is heat . the manner of production of heat is accidental and violent : that it is accidental , is evident , because fire in its own region ( as the parepateticks themselves allow ) is seated beyond all degrees of heat , or at least doth not burn . it doth not burn , because it flames not ; for nothing doth burn unless it is exalted to a flame , or contains a flame within it self . a red hot iron burneth no longer , then the flame of the fire lodgeth within its pores : nay it doth not so much as effect warmth , unless the fire , that is contained within its pores , flames a little ; but this flame is so lit●le , that it fleeth the eye-sight . if a red hot iron burneth strongly , because it containes a great flame , and the same iron burneth less and less , as the fire flaming diminisheth , it is a certain sign , that where its flame is extinguisht , its heat is vanished with it . again , none ever doubted , but that in a flaming torch there is an actual burning fire : now tell me , when the flame is ready to go out , whither that fire goeth . your answer must be , that it is dispersed through the ayr ; but then the fire being dispersed through the ayr is no more hot ; no , not warm , because it doth not flame : wherefore fire naturally and per se is not hot . i ask you again , whether there is not fire contained in aqua fortis ? you will answer me affirmatively ; but then , doth this fire burn ? no , it doth not so much as warm your hand through a glass . if you make the fire in the aqua fortis flame , you will find that it shall not only warm , but also burn your hand . powre aqua fortis upon any mettal , as upon the filings of brass , contained in a precipitating glass , you will soon see it change into a flame , smoak , and burning heat through the glass . that it flames , the light , which appeares within the glass , testifieth . possibly you may object , that aqua fortis if powred upon cloath or your hand , will burn , and yet not flame . to this i answer , that cloath through the subtility of its haires doth open the body of aqua fortis , which being opened , the fire cometh forth , and it withheld by a thickned ayr adhering to the cloath , which causeth a subtil flame , yet seldom visible , although sometimes there appeares a glance . the like is effected by powring it upon your hand , and then we say , it doth enflame the hand , because there appeares a subtil flame : wherefore physitians say well , such a part is enflamed , when it burnes , because there is no burning heat without a flame . nevertheless the fire contained within a mixt body may burn , and yet its heat may not be sensible , but then its flame is withal imperceptible : the reason is , because the thickness and density of the circumjacent elements do hinder the penetration of heat out of that body , as also of its light . iii. it is violent , by reason its production is depending upon an extrinsick and violent detention . the manner of it is thus : fire being violently concentrated in a mixture , striveth to pass the pores of the earth , which it doth with little difficulty ; but being arrived to a thick ayr , the fire is there detained by it , notwithstanding do the other parts yet remaining within the pores of the earth continually and successively follow one another , and being all united and condensed ( which is violent to the fire ) they make a greater force ( for strength united is made stronger ) whereby they dilate and expand the incrassated ayr ; this dilatation and expansion of the ayr by fire condensed within its belly or bladder , is that , which we call a flame . now how fire begetteth heat , and becometh burning , i shall instantly explain . first let me tell you what heat is . you know that we name all things according to their natures , which they manifest to us in affecting our senses : so we call that a sound , which affecteth our eares , and according as it doth divide our auditory spirits and nerves , we nominate it harsh or shrill , &c. even so we name a thing hot , when it doth in a certain manner divide our tangent spirits and membrane ; or shorter , we say a thing is hot , when it feeles hot . when our spirits are a little shaked , or moved by small and loose particles of flames , then it seemes to be warm ; but when our tangent parts are divided by dense and forcible particles of fire , then we say , it burns ; so that it is only a division of our tangent parts by the dividing and penetrating parts of fire , which we call burning . this division is different from a cut or incision , which is made by a dense acute body , and therefore it separates the whole part ; but through the acuteness of fire , its ayry and waterish parts only are divided contiguously , because the fire is contiguous . now the more the parts of fire are condensed , the stronger it penetrates , divides and consumes . the reason , why burning fire doth consume or dissolve a body into ashes , is , because it breakes through the ayry and waterish parts by its great force of contiguous lightness , which parts being discontinued and expelled , the earth is left alone , because the ayry and waterish parts were the gl●w of that body . fire doth only break through the ayry and waterish parts , because they only do resist ( as it were ) the fire ; as for the earthy minims , they do not so much resist the fire , because being contiguous , they give way to its passing . iv. secondly , that heat is nothing else but a multiplication , condensation , & detention of igneous parts , i prove also hence : hold your hand at a certain distance to a fire , at the first application of your hand , you will feel no heat or warmth , but having held it there a little while , you shall begin to feel warmth , and continuing your hand somewhat longer at the same distance , you will feel heat : the reason is , because at your first application , the fire not yet being sufficiently detained or condensed by your hand , you felt no warmth , but after a certain condensation and gathering of the hot parts of the fire , it begins to move and stir the ayry parts contained within the pores of your hand , and after a further condensation , it makes force , and penetrates through the ayry parts of the hand . hence when you feel a pricking pain , then you cry it burnes ; this pricking is nothing else , but the passing of the fire through the ayry parts , and dividing it in points and pricks . the reason , why it doth force so through your hand , is because the ayry parts of it doth condense the parts of the fire . so that according to the multiplication , condensation and detention of the fire , warmth becometh hot ; hot , scorching hot ; scorching hot , blistering hot ; blistering hot , burning , and burning hot becometh lastly to be consuming hot ; and these are all the degrees of condensation of fire . v. i shall not think my labour lost , if i propose a way , whereby to balance and know the force of fire , and to distinguish exactly what fire giveth the greatest heat . in my road let me tell you , that balancing is a way , whereby to know and compute the force of a thing . the balancing of weighty bodies , as of earth , earthy and waterish bodies , they call weighing , because it is the trying of the force of weight , that is , how much stronger one thing moveth to the center then another . upon the same ground one may as justly term the balancing of light bodies , as of fire and ayr , lighting , which is the measuring of the force of bodies from the center . * the scales hung perpendicular over the fire a. b the scales inverted . d flatness upon the gibbous side of the scale for to place the weights upon . from what hath been discoursed upon a reason may be drawn , why fire , that is inherent in the ayr , is not sensibly warm ; namely , because it is not enough condensed through the ambient ayr. vi. now that you shall not conceit that what hath been proposed is altogether my own notion , i will adduce the judgment of plato upon this particular , who although hitting right upon many things , yet they were soon dasht out by the arrogance of the peripateticks . in the first place ( saith he in timaeo ) let us consider for what reason fire is said to be hot , which we shall soon come to know , if we do but observe the division and separation made by it : that it is a certain sharpness and passion is manifest almost to all ; we must consider the subtility of its angles , the thinness of its sides , the smalness of its particles , the swiftness of its motion , through all which it is forcible and penetrating , and that which it doth swiftly meet , it alwaies divides and dissipates : considering also the generation of its figure , that dividing our bodies through no other nature , and dividing it in smal parts doth induce that passion , which is justly called heat . here you see plato hath hinted right at many things appertaining to the notion of heat . he saith , heat is a passion , that is ( as i said before ) that , we call heat a certain sensation , induced by the division of fiery minims . . you may observe , that his opinion asserts heat to be a quality migrating out of fire into the body , which it heateth ; but that it heateth by dividing and penetrating through the diffusion of its small parts . scaliger exerc. . d. . maintains the heat , which is in red hot copper , not to be a quality raised in it by the fire , but to be fire in substance contained and condensed between its pores . arist. lib. . de gener . cap. . describes heat to be that , which congregates such bodies , as are of one genus : for ( saith he ) to segregate ( which is that which they say fire doth ) is to congregate congenited bodies , and such as are of the same genus : for it is accidental that it removes strange bodies . his followers propose the same in other words , viz. heat is a quality , through which homgeneous bodies are congregated , and heterogeneous disgregated . i object against this , that fire is hot ; but fire doth through liquation mix brass and silver together , grease and oyl , wine and water , &c. but these are not bodies of one nature ; wherefore fire doth not alwaies disgregate heterogeneous bodies . . the heat of a potters oven congregateth ayr , water and earth together ; but ayr , water and earth are heterogeneous bodies ; ergo. . if heat congregates homogeneous bodies , then the hotter a thing is , the more it must congregate homogeneous bodies : but the consequence is false , and therefore the antecedence is false also . the falsity of the consequence appeares hence , that if the body of man be hotter then its temperamentum ad justitiam requires , then it gathers and breeds heterogeneous humors in the bloud , as choler , and adust melancholy . . the heat of the sun raises mud and other heterogeneous bodies in the bottom of waters , and causeth them to congregate and unite with the body of the same waters . . some of his sectators demonstrate the reality of this effect of fire , in that it congregates gold through liquation , and so separates silver and other metals from it . to this i answer , that the same heat having exactly mixed them before , can as well , if intended , re-unite them again , as it hath separated them . neither is this separation any other but per accidens , although the union is per se. i prove it , it is true , at the first melting there is a kind of separation of silver from gold , and of lead from silver : but this befalleth accidentally only ; for the silver is separated from gold , and silver from lead , because silver being melted before gold , and lead before silver , and the gold remaining as yet unmelted , and silver also after the liquation of lead , they must of necessity sink down through the first melted parts of silver and lead , as being yet unmelted : for silver , which is contained within the body of gold , will be melted and attenuated within its body , before the gold it self is scarce mollified , whose parts being now mollified , through their dense weight squeeze the silver out of their pores . wherefore this separation is effected by the fire per accidens ; but augment your heat to such a degree as to melt your gold , then cast some more silver to it , and see whether they will not mix . i believe you will find it so . lastly , this is not a description of heat , but the mentioning of one of its effects ; for heat formally is another thing . vii . the second quality per accidens of earth is , a punctual violent compression to the center . as the earth doth meet the fire in its first quality , so it doth also in its second . earth when it is violently detained from its center , it doth punctually compress that body , which doth detain it , towards its center . if you take up a handful of sand from the ground , doth it not compress your hand downwards ? likewise the pressing downwards in all bodies proceeds from the detention of earth in their bodies . observe ; cast earth upon earth and it will hardly compress its parts any more then it was compressed before ; but a stone , or other mixt heavy body lying upon the ground presseth a hole into the ground ; yet if as much more earth , as there is contained in such a stone , were cast upon the same place , it would not make any sensible cavity or impression : the reason is , because in a stone or mixt body the earth is violently detained , and therefore useth the greater force or compression to the center : but earth being in its natural seat doth not . this quality may be called coldness , supposing it to be a passion wrought upon the tact by the earth punctually pressing to the center : in this sense coldness is an absolute quality ; in another it may be taken for a privation of heat , because it seizeth upon the tact only in the absence of heat . according to the former sense doth the poet elegantly explain the nature of cold. — nam penetrabile frigus adurit . for the penetrating cold doth burn . by penetrating , its compression is intended . that the cold is penetrating and pressing , none that ever hath been in greenland will deny , wherefore in that it is an absolute quality . in the latter sense it may be taken for a privation : for it is the absence of heat , which effecteth coldness , yet not per se , but per accidens , because as long as the heat is in a body , it doth through its motion ad extra , balance and temper the motion of cold ad iutra ; but the heat being departed , then coldness doth through its compression punctually divide the continuous parts of the body , as the ayry and waterish parts of it , and so coldness is reduced to action through the defect of heat to balance it . this we are sensible of in the winter , at which time there being a detraction of the ambient heat , the earthy parts contained in the ayr , do then through their weight press down upon us , and being arrived to our skin , they repel the heat , which being repelled , they joyn with the earthy parts of our body , and so cause a greater punctual compression ; whence we soon feel a dense acuteness , thence an asperity , and thence a hardness or rigidity . when again we approach the fire , then its heat joynes with our internal heat , and expelling the extrinsick cold parts , it doth force the intrinsick ones back to the circumference , and so we grow hot again . viii . there is also a compression observeable in water , but much different from that caused by earth , water compressing the tact with a continuation , and not punctually , and therefore the compression made by water is equal , thick and obtuse ; whence it is , that when we have newly washt our hands with cold water , we feel a thick levor upon them , caused by the continuous pressure of the water . the division , which produceth this cold passion in our tact , is not by separating or disjoyning its continuous parts , but by squeezing the ayr contained within its pores , which being squeezed , impelleth also the fiery spirits seated about these pores ; from which impulsion we feel a punctual and acute division , so that the passion raised by water doth per se only compress obtusely the continuous parts of our tact through a squeezing , and per accidens it disuniteth them punctually by impelling the fiery spirits effentially inhering in the said tangent parts ; besides , water containing some earthy points , doth by reason of them excite withal a small acute compression . arist. lib. . de ort . anim . cap. . and in lib. . de meteor . cap. . seemes to assert , that coldness is nothing else but a privation of heat : for ( saith he ) the two elements ( implying water and earth ) remain cold by reason of the defect of circular motion making heat . zabarel , lib. . de qual . elem. cap. . makes good my opinion , although by guess : or at least we must say that coldness is really in it self a positive quality ( but wherein this positive quality consisteth , he knoweth not ; ) but that it ariseth from a privation of heat , and in respect of heat it may take place among privations . this tends to the same purpose as i have stated before , namely , that coldness cannot act , unless heat be absent in such a proportion , as that it may have power over it . the same is appliable to heat and the other qualities , viz. that they are privations , in regard they cannot act without the absence of their opposites , but that they are positive , because they act sensibly in the absence of the said opposites . but what shall i think of aristotle , who hath soon altered his opinion in lib. . de ort. & inter. text. . cold is , that doth equally conjoyn and congregate bodies , that are of the same gender , as well as those of a differing gender . a plain contradiction ; for that , which doth conjoyn and congregate bodies by condensation , must be positive , according to his own words : yet nevertheless above he asserted it to be a privation . i wave this , and proceed in making disquisition upon his definition ; broath , as long as it remaines boyling hot , the fat of it is contained within it , being exactly mixed with the water ; but assoon as it cooles , it is separated and cast forth to the top ; ergo cold doth segregate heterogenea from homogenea . earth separates her self from water , and water segregates her parts from fire and ayr ; but water and earth are cold , and yet do not congregate their own parts with others of another gender ; ergo. . this is no more but the mentioning of one of its remote effects ; for they themselves grant that it produceth this effect through condensation ; ergo cold is not formally defined , but described through one of its effects . it now proves easie to us to decide that inveterated dispute concerning the primum frigidum . that , which doth most divide the tact by compression , is the primum frigidum , or the coldest ; but the earth doth most compress our tact or tangent parts ; for it doth compress the tact acutely , and water obtusely only ; ergo it is the coldest . . according to their own tenents ; that , which doth most condense , is the coldest , but earth condenses most ; for it condensates her own parts into metals and stones ; but water , although it incrassates , yet it cannot condense bodies into that consistence which earth doth ; ergo . . that , which is heaviest , is the coldest ; for condensation is an effect of weight ; but earth is heaviest ; ergo . lastly , if it be your pleasure to name earth a frigidum in summo , and water a frigidum in remisso ; fire a calidum in summo sive intenso , and ayr calidum in remisso , you may without offence . chap. xvi . of the remaining respective qualities of the elements . . the second respective quality of the ayr. that water cannot be really and essentially attenuated . the state of the controversie . . that ayr cannot be really and essentially incrassated . why a man whilst he is alive sinkes down into the water and is drowned , and afterwards is cast up again . that a woman is longer in sinking or drowning then a man. the great errour committed in trying of witches by casting them into the water . . that a greater condensation or rarefaction is impossible in the earth . . in what sense the author understands and intends rarefaction and condensation throughout his philosophy . . the third respective quality of fire . what driness is . the definition of moysture . the third respective qualities of water and ayr. aristotles description of moysture rejected . that water is the primum humidum . in what sense ayr is termed dry , in what moyst . . the second respective quality of ayr is a continuous expression towards the circumference , as we see in water , viz. in bubbles , within whose body ayr being contained doth express the water to the circumference . when water is thus expressed to the circumference , we say then , it is water attenuated or rarefied , and when ayr is contained within the body of water , so as it is not strong enough to come forth , we say it is ayr incrassated : but these are no real transmutations . for can any body imagine that ayr is really and essentially incrassated or condensed , as they call it , or that water is attenuated , or essentially changed into a thin substance by ayr ? i prove that a real incrassation of the ayr is impossible . peripatecicks generally conceive the incrassation of the ayr to happen , when that ayr having thinly or naturally filled up a cavity , there is as much more impacted in that cavity upon the preceding ayr , as the cavity contained before : through this impaction the former ayr must needs give way into it self for to admit that ayr , which is last entred ; wherefore , say they , there must be a penetration of bodies , whereby that former ayr doth introcede into it self . the ayr then thus introceding into it self , is called ayr incrassated . water is attenuated when a pint of water is diducted to a pint and a quarter , or more , without being insufflated by the ayr or any other admitted body . so rarefaction of earth is , when the earth possessing the space of a pistol bullet , is diducted to the extent of space of a musket bullet without the admission of any other element . fire is supposed to be condensed in the same manner as ayr is incrassated . this is the true and evident state of the controversie touching rarefaction and condensation , attenuation & incrassation ; which never any among the peripateticks did yet truly state . they supposing and taking it for granted , that such a condensation & rarefaction , artenuation and incrassation is possible , and hapneth every moment , do proceed in debating , whether a penetration of bodies be not necessary in rarefaction and condensation . as for insufflation , that is not to be called in question , because we stated incrassation and rarefaction to happen without the admittance of any other body . wherefore proving such an incrassation and attenuation to be impossible and absurd , their further surmising of penetration will seem ridiculous . supposing that a glass were filled with pure water , all the arts of the world could not distend it without the admission of another body , through the force of which , its parts might be divided and lifted up : since then that water is said to be attenuated , because its parts are lifted up & diducted through ayr and fire retained with their body , this cannot be a natural and proper attenuation of the real parts of water , but only a violent diduction of water through the ayr which is under it . here may be objected , that water , when it is thus lifted up and expanded , is stretcht , and through that stretching its parts are attenuated , and its quantity is increased ; because after the retching it possesseth a larger place . to this i answer , that the encrease of quantity about the surface is not through a single extent of water without access of other parts of water to it , but the encrease is from the access of those parts , which did possess the center , and now are beaten away and impelled to the surface , where arriving they must be extended in greater quantity , and possess a larger place . so that , what is encreased in the surface is decreased from the center , and its adjacent parts . a chord of an instrument is producted in length , because it is diminished in thickness , and not from a meer quality without the access of other parts . . were the natural thickness of water transmutable into thinness , then one extream contrary would be transmutable into the other ; for thinness and thickness are as much contrary as coldness and heat , or dryness and moysture ; and who ever knew the same coldness changed into heat , or the same heat into coldness ? that would be , as if one said , one and the same was both cold and hot at the same time . i guess your reply , to wit , that through thinness is not meant an extream thinness , but a less thickness only . i answer , that if a thick element is transmutable into a less thick , then certainly through the continuance and intention of the cause of that less thickning , it might become least thick , that is , most thin : wherefore your reply is invalid . . were thickness transmutable into thinness , then every rarefaction would be a creation secundi modi , or a new generation ; because such a transmutation is a non esse , vel a nihilo sui ad esse aliquid : for thickness is a positive ( if i may be suffered to term it so ) privation and negation of thinness ; because when we affirm a thing to be thick , it is the same as if we said it is not thin . . thickness is a property quarti modi of water , but a proprium quarti modi is inseparable from its subject , and that to remain in being . ii. the same arguments prove the impossibility of incrassating ayr , and such a supposition is so far absurd , that it is impossible and contradictory to nature , that one minimum more of ayr should enter into a cavity already filled up with it ; and the ayr would sooner break the world then admit incrassation , although but in one minimum . if the nature of ayr is to be thin , then in taking away tenuity , you take away the nature of ayr. and if ayr could be incrassated in one minimum , it might be incrassated to the thickness of water . lastly , was there any such incrassation , there must of necessity a penetration of bodies be allowed ; but a penetration is impossible : ergo incrassation also . i prove that a penetration is impossible : suppose a hundred minima's of ayr were through penetration incrassated to fifty , and these fifty to possess but half the place which the hundred did fill up : i conclude then , that through continuance and intention of the same incrassating cause they could be reduced to one minimum ; and from one minimum to the essence of a spirit or to nothing ; for since they through penetration have lost the space of ninety nine unities of points , through the same reason they might the easier lose the last unity , and so become spirits and thence nothing ; if there was a penetration of bodies , then the less body , into which the greater quantity is penetrated , must have the greater weight , or as great as it was under the greater quantity , or else part of its matter and form must be annihilated ; but bodies , that are incrassated or condensed have by much a less weight then they had before , because the light elements , which did before distend their bodies , and through that distention their force of weight was intended ( as i have shewed before ) are departed . besides experience speakes the same , especially in this instance , the true reason of which was never laid down by any : a man yet living , or any other creature when alive , is much heavier , then when he is dead ; and this appeares in a man , who whilst he was alive sinks towards the bottom into the water and is drowned ; the reason is , because through the great heat , which was inherent in that man , the heavy and terrestial parts were the more detained from the center ; they again being thus detained , moved stronger towards the center , & therfore make the body heavier during their violent detention through the great heat , which was in the said man when alive ; so that through this great weight the alive body sinkes down to the bottom : now when a man is suffocated , and the heat squeezed out of him by the thick compressing parts of the water , then he is rendered less heavy , and immediately leaves the inferiour parts of water , as being less weighty then the said profound parts . nevertheless although the vital flame was soon extinguisht , yet there remain ayry and some fiery parts in man , which detain the earthy and waterish parts of his body ; so that although the vital fire is expelled , yet these ayry and restant fiery parts not being overcome before a certain term of dayes , in some sooner or longer , occasion that a man doth not grow lighter then the water before a prefixt time varying according to the proportion and texture of the light elements ; and then being grown lighter then the water , he swimmeth atop . every day after a man is drowned , as the heat and ayry parts are expelled , he is more and more elevated from the ground , until he cometh to the top . a strong compact well set man is at least or daies in ascending , because his heat was deeper , and in greater quantity impacted into his body ; but therefore sinkes sooner to the bottom , as i have heard seamen relate , how that some of their men falling overboard , were gone under water in the twinckling of an eye , but then they were big , lusty strong men , as they told me . on the contrary we hear , how that weak and tender women have fallen into the river , and have swom upon the water until watermen have rowed to them and taken them up ( and many weakly women that were suspected to be witches , being cast into the water for a trial have been wickedly and wrongfully adjudged to be witches , because they were long in sinking , and alas it is natural ) the reason was , because they were comparatively light : for their earthy parts were not so much detained , & consequently moved not so forcibly downwards , no doubt but their coats conduced also somewhat to it . whence i collect that an ordinary woman is almost one third longer descending to the bottom then an ordinary man , because a man from being a third stronger ( because he is a third heavier through the force of the light elements , but i mean not through fat or corpulency ) then a woman , is conjectured to have one third more heat then a woman . in case a man or woman is drowned in the sea where it is deep , if he be suffocated and dead before he comes to the ground , he will not reach the bottom . but to make this more clear , i will demonstrate it through another principle , viz. the lightness of fire , and ayr ; which is , whereby they spread themselves equally from the center to the circumference . now , that great heat burning within the body of man doth potently press down all the heavy parts of the body towards the circumference . the ambient or external parts of man are the circumference , which being so vigorously pressed , must needs be very much intended in their motion downwards : hence it is , that , when a man is in sinking , he feeles a pressing within his own body , whereby he finds himself to be violently ( as it were ) precipitated to the bottom : and add to this the violent detention of the weighty parts , and the depression of the superficial parts of the water , and judge whether all this is not enough to draw him down to the bottom . pray now judge a little at the simplicity of the reason which the peripateticks give for this : they say that there is a fight between mans heat and the water , and therefore the water draweth him to her innermost part , where she detaines him until his heat is overcome , and then the water casteth him up again : others say , that mans lungs being filled with ayr underneath after he is drowned , is lifted up by it . what groapings and absurdities ? first , they suppose that the water draweth , and that the fight is between the heat of man and the moysture ; whereas the water doth not draw , neither is the fight so much between the water and heat , as it is between the heat and earthy parts of the body , which with the natural declination of those terrestrial parts , and the assistance of the water from without doth depress a man or other living creature downwards . . why a man is detained such a time and no longer or shorter before he is cast up again , they cannot conceive . . how man is cast up is unknown to them : it is not , because his lungs are filled with ayr ; for it is more probable they are stopt up with water . the reason and manner of his being cast upwards is , . his body is rendered less weighty by the expulsion of the heat . . his body is retcht out and diducted through the coldness of earth and especially of the water , and therefore is rendered lighter , for as compression and condensation is a mark of weight , so diduction and extension of lightness . wherefore every particle of water being thicker and heavier then the extended body doth depress underneath it towards its center , and so much the more , because the dead body doth as it were detain the parts of water about it from their center : and so through this depression of the water under the corps , it is lifted up by little and little : besides , it is somewhat puft up with winds and vapours underneath the water , which thence do lift it up towards the element of ayr. the reason why a dog , cat , hare , fox , horse and other living creatures , are longer in being drowned , although they have more heat inherent in them , and as much earth comparatively as a man , is because their haires being light , close and divided , do sustain them : for the water being continuous , doth strive against its being divided by contiguous parts , which being light , strive also against their depression . this by the way . iii. neither is the earth subject to such a rarefaction , or greater condensation , because it consisteth ( as i have proved ) out of indivisible minima's . if then we should grant a rarefaction or greater condensation , we must allow the minima's of earth to be divisible : for how could they either be retcht or give way into themselves else ? and so it would be divisible and indivisible at once , which is absurd . the same argument serves against the condensation and rarefaction of fire : but more of this in our discourse de vacuo . iv. condensation , rarefaction , attenuation and incrassation although impossible in this sense , yet in another , are usually received , and may be allowed . condensation in a tolerable acception is , when a rare body is united to a dense body , and because it is then ( as it were ) made one body with the dense substance , it is said to be condensed . thus when fire is united to earth , it is said to be condensed , but through this condensation there is nothing detracted from , or added to the natural rarity of the fire . . condensation is also taken for the frequent and constant following of one particle of fire upon the other . now , you must not conceive , that the fire hereby is condensed or impacted in its rarity ; no , but that one part pusheth the other forward , and being so pusht forward one before the other , they are said to be condensed , that is following one another so close as that they just come to touch one another . thus we say that condensed fire warmeth or heateth the hand , because many parts follow one another , and so push one another forward into the substance of the hand ; so that condensation of fire in this sense is nothing else but an approximation of the parts of fire that were dispersed before . . fire burneth the hand , when its parts being condensed according to both these two acceptions are received and collected , following close upon one another , and so do burn the hand . the reason is , because as the force of earth and water is intended by violent detention , so is fire , which being violently detained by earth and water , doth move with greater force . besides through the latter of these condensations , the parts of fire are more collected and united . the fire is violently detained , when it is detained from moving from the center to the circumference . besides , according to these two latter acceptions , you are to understand condensation above , whereas i have attributed it to fire . a body is said to be rarefied , when it is affixed to a rare element ; thus they conceive earth to be rarefied , when its minima's are diffused by a portion of fire . a body is attenuated , when it is united to a thin element ; so water is attenuated , when its parts are diducted through the renuity of ayr. a body is said to be incrassated , when it is adjoyned to a thick element . thus ayr is understood to be incrassated , when it is cloathed about with water . remember that i have made use of these words in my foregoing discourses according to the said interpretations . v. the third relative qualities are such as do immediately emanate from the second . the third respective quality of fire is dryness . a dryness is an expulsion of moysture , which fire doth by forcing it to the circumference , and dividing ad extra its continuity . dryness in the earth is an effect of coldness , through which it divides ad intra the continuity of moysture inwards , and forceth it to the center . moysture is an effect of water , through which it overlaies a body with its own thick substance expanded : in ayr it is a quality , whereby it overlayes a body with its thin substance . aristotle in stead of describing these qualities , he sets down one of their attributes . moysture is that , which is difficultly contained within its own bounds , and easily within others . this is openly false : for the ayr is difficultly contained within the bounds of others , insomuch that it striveth to break through with violence , and therefore is more easily contained within its own bounds . so water is easier contained within its own bounds ; for when it is poured upon the earth , it vanisheth presently , which is not a containing of it . besides granting this attribute to them both , it is only a mark of moysture , and not the description of its formality . no doubt but water is moyster then ayr , because it is more apt to cleave through its thickness , and adhere to a body then ayr , which by reason of its tenuity is not so tenacious . wherefore it is idleness in th●se who say that the ayr is moyster then water , although water moistneth more , because of its thickness . and as concerning the primum siccum , it belongeth to the earth , because that obtaineth greater force in detracting waterish moysture , which is the moystest . that it doth so , appeares hence , because the waterish moysture through its weight is more obedient to the impulse of earth then of fire . but if you agree to term nothing moyst but what hath a palpable dampness ; and that drying , which removeth the said dampness , then water alone is moystning , and ayr drying , because ayr through its tenuity divides the crassitude of the water , and so disperseth it . chap. xvii . of mixtion . . what mixtion is . three conditions required in a mixtion . . whether mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ really . . aristotles definition of mixtion examined . whether the elements remain entire in mixt bodies . . that there is no such intension or remission of qualities as the peripateticks do apprehend . the authors sense of remission and intention . . that a mixtion is erroneously divided into a perfect and imperfect mixtion . hitherto we have sufficiently declared the absolute and respective qualities of the elements : that which i must next apply my self unto , is to enarrate the qualities befalling them joyntly in their union one with the other . i. their union is called mixtion , which is an union of the elements in minima's or points , observe that mixtion sometimes is taken for the union of parts , not in points , but particles , and is termed union by apposition ; as when you mixe barly and oates together into one heap . anaxagoras , and many of the ancient philosophers did opiniate , that mixtion consisted only in the apposition of little parts to one body ; but aristotle hath justly reprehended them for this assertion , and confuted their opinion , lib. . de gen. & corrup . cap. . properly mixtion is effected through an exact confusion of parts , and their union in minima's , or the least particles : the exactness consisteth in this , that there must be an equal measure ( sive ad pondus , sive ad justitiam ) of parts . parts are either little or great . the great are constituted out of little , and the little out of the least . in mixture ( to wit , an equal one ) are generally three condititions required : . a mutual contact , without which there must be a vacuum in ( misto ) a mixt body . . this mutual contact must be in points , whereby every point of an element toucheth the minimum of another ; hence they say well ( mixtio fit per minima ) that mistion is caused through minima's . a reaction of each of the elements , whereby the light elements receive the weighty ones , and the continuous the contiguous ones . these three conditions are implied in my definition by union in minima's ; for union cannot happen without a mutual contact : a mutual contact is attained unto through the first qualities of the elements , whereby they move one to the other , and so there passeth a mutual embrace or reaction between them . ii. here the peripateticks setting aside the reality of the thing , begin again to move a notional question : whether mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ from one another . doubtless there is no real difference between them ; for where the elements are mixed , there the generation of a mixt body is accomplishr , and where there is a generation of a mixt body , there is also a mistion of the elements . wherefore it is a sound definition , that mistion is the generation of a mixt body out of the elements . zabarel , i remember , makes an intentional difference between them , in attributing mistion to the elements alone , because mistion hath a particular respect to the elements , as they are apprehended through this mixture to be the termini a quo : but the generation of a mixt body hath more a respect to the terminus ad quem . this is simple ; for since that mistion is by them counted a motion , it must then equally have respect to the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem , because there is no natural motion , but it moves a quo , and ad quem ; and besides , do they not define generation to be a mutation from non esse to esse ? wherefore according to their own words , generation doth equally regard the terminus a quo and ad quem ; ergo there is no distinctio rationis between them . but they reply , that mixtion is not the mixture of a mixt body , but of the elements ; and generation is not the generation of the elements , but of a mixt body . how sinisterly ? this is not the question , but the doubt is , whether by mixture a mixt body is not as much implyed as the elements : yes , for a mixture is the union of the elements : by union understand a perduction of the elements into an unity , that is one body ; and is not this the terminus ad quem ? iii. aristotle defineth mistion to be an union of alterated miscibles ( to wit , bodies . ) here the word alterated is cast as a bone among his disciples , which each of them falleth a gnawing in interpreting it , and a knorring at it in raising altercations and cavils about it . alteration say they , is a mutual action and passion of the elements through their contrary qualities , through which they obtund , hebetate , refract , immutate one another , and what not ? and not understanding the nature of obtusion , refraction or immutation , but erroneously conceiving the forms of the elements to be diminished ( by reason they think that the heat of the elements is expelled , refracted and diminished by cold ; and so of the other elements ) they fall a quarrelling , whether the forms of the elements remain whole or entire in their mixtures . if any body now should ask them , what they mean by form : they would reply , that it was the first principle of motion in a body ; and if you ask them further , what that principle of motion is ; they will tell you it is hidden ; if it is hidden , i wonder how they come to know it ; ergo they tell you what a thing is , which they do not know . but to the question , i affirm that the elements remain actually and entire in their substantial forms in mixt bodies . i prove it , the substantial form of a thing is inseparable from its matter , supposing the thing to remain that which it was : for if a property is inseparable , much more is the form : besides the form giveth a thing to be that which it is : but the elements remain elements in a mixt body ; because their qualities are sensible , not in gradu remisso , in a remiss degree , but in an intense degree ; who ever doubted , but that earth in gold or lead is as weighty , and more then it is in its own region ? for being laid upon the earth it makes a dent into it ; ergo it is heavier . questionless focal fire is hotter then fire in its own region ; oyl is moyster then ayr or water , ergo according to their own principles these qualities , which they call first qualities , and are forced to acknowledge to be forms , are inherent in the forementioned bodies in an intense degree . as for the refraction , intention , remission or immutation of the elements , which they take their refuge unto in declaring the reasons of mixtion , as to a sanctuary , are meer notions , there being in reality no such intension or remission of the elements , unless through access or recess of new parts . iv. but let us make a deeper search into this nicety so much disputed upon by all ancient and modern philosophers : and that which makes me the more willing to examine this scruple , is , because it hath hitherto been one of my main principles , that an element being violently detained is intended and corroborated in its strength and power . this is the deepest and furthest doubt that can be moved , it being concerning the most remote power , and first cause of action in the elements . i have already taken away the difficulty touching incrassation and attenuation , and shewed , that the matter of a thick element was not really attenuated in its own substance , or increased in matter , because it possessed a larger place , although seemingly it was ; wherefore i did assume the use of those words but in an improper acception . in that place the question was about the increase of matter ; now it is concerning the increase or intention and remission of forms or qualities , strengths and vertues of the elements . the same i said in relation to condensation and incrassation , i must apply to intention and remission : that properly they are to be taken for a real increment or decrement of qualities in themselves , without the detraction or addition of new parts containing the same vertue ; as if the same heat in the third degree should be supposed capable of being intended to the fourth degree without the additament of new heat . this is impossible , because of the same reasons , which were given against the possibility of a proper and real condensation and incrassation . . a quality may be said to be intended or remitted , but improperly and per accidens ; as when a force or quality is accidentally intended ( as by a more convenient position ) and yet the quality or force is neither more or less , but the same it was : as for example , take hold of a hammer about the middle , and strike with it with all your strength , and take hold again of the same hammer about the end , and strike although but with the same force , yet the last impulse shall be stronger then the first : here you see is an accidental intension of force hapened through a more convenient position of your hands . so water , when it is violently detained , is intended in its gravity : because its expansion ( which is a more convenient position ) doth intend its motion , and yet the same strength and force of gravity was latent in the water , when it was in its natural position . water doth alwaies affect and covet a globous figure ; now through this globosity the water is rendered disadvantageous to exert its weight , because all its parts cannot joyn together in opposing the body , which it is to depress ; but being in a globe the undermost parts of that globe do partly sustain the force of the uppermost and centrical parts , and the same undermost parts being interposed between the other body , and the other parts , cause that the others parts cannot come at the body . that this is so , the trial of this experiment will soon certifie you ; weigh some long pieces of iron or wood in a payr of scales , and observe the weight of them ; then divide them into less pieces , so as they may lie closer , and weigh them again , you will find that the last shall be much lighter then the first ; besides i have tried it many other waies . this reason will also serve to illustrate the manner of intention of weight in earth , when it is violently detained . ayr moveth stronger upwards , when its parts are more divided and expanded ; for then every particle of the ayr contributes its motion ; and so in fire . nevertheless the same force was actually in the ayr and fire below : in this sense it is i have made use of intention of qualities above in the precedent chapter . wherefore it appeares hence , that there is no such refraction or intention of qualities , as the peripateticks imagine to themselves . v. a mixt body is usually divided into a body perfectly mixed , and a body imperfectly mixed , and as usually received among the vulgar ; but whether this division be lawful is doubted by few . an imperfectly mixed body they describe to be a body , whose mixture is constituted only by two or three elements ; a great errour , there being no body in the world , excepting the elements themselves , but their mistion consisteth of four ingredients . this i have proved before . others think to mend the matter by saying , that an imperfect mixed body consists of ingredients but a little alterated , and therefore its form is not different from the element , which predominates in it . to the contrary , the ingredients in imperfectly mixed bodies are as much alterated as there is vertue in them to alterate one another : and who will not assert the form of a comet to be different from the form of fire , or snow from the form of water ? &c. there is no mixed body , but it is perfectly mixed ; for if it be imperfectly mixed , it will not constitute a mixt body . 't is true , some mixt bodies contain a fuller proportion of elements then others , and therefore are more durable , and may be of a more perfect proportion , yet the mixture of a body , which lasteth but a moment , is as much a mistion as that , which lasteth an age , and consequently as perfect in reference to mixture . chap. xviii . of temperament . . that temperament is the form of mixtion . that temperament is a real and positive quality . . the definition of a temperament . whether a temperament is a single or manifold quality . vvhether a complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality . . vvhether a temperament be a fifth quality . a contradiction among physitians touching temperament . whether the congress of the four qualities effects but one temperament , or more . . that there is no such thing as a distemper . what a substantial change is . . what an altsration or accidental change is . that the differences of temperament are as many as there are minima's of the elements excepting four . . the form of mistion is temperament . i prove it . that must be the form of mistion which doth immediately result out of or with the union of the elements ; but a temperament doth immediately result out of or with union of the elements ; ergo. . since there is no deperdition or refraction of the absolute forms of the elements , that must needs be the form of misture , which the union of those absolute forms doth immediately constitute : but that can be nothing else but a temperament ; ergo. . that is the form of mistion , which chiefly causeth all the operations and effects produced by a mixt body ; but the chief cause of all the operations and effects of a mixt body is the temperament ; ergo . the minor is asserted by all ingenious physitians . hence we may safely infer , that a temperament is not a relative only , but a positive and real quality ; for were it only a relation , its essence would wholly depend from the mind , and be little different from an ens rationis . ii. a temperament is the union of the forms of the elements . by union apprehend the forms of the elements united into one quality . the name of temperament soundeth a temperating or mixing , yet not primarily of matters , but principally of forms ; for none doubteth of its being a quality , or formal power . kyper , in his medic. contract . lib. . cap. . alledgeth this doubt , whether a temperament be a simple or manifold quality : but before i apply my self to the solution of it , observe that simple may either have respect to the matter ( materia ex qua ) out of which a temperament is constituted , which are the four first qualities or forms of the elements ; or to the form of a temperament , which is one quality resulting out of the union of its materials . wherefore if simple be taken in the former respect , doubtless a temperament is a manifold quality ; if in the latter , it is simple . i prove it : simple in the latter respect is equipollent to unity : but a temperament is but one quality , and not manifold ; although out of many , yet united into one ; ergo a temperament is a simple quality . . were a temperament formally a manifold quality , its effects would be equivocal and manifold ; but to the contrary the effects per se of a temperament are univocal and simple , the one not differing in specie from the other . the said kyper proposes the very words of my solution for a doubt in the next paragraph : whether complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality : which he determines very well : in metaphysicks ( saith he ) there is not only allowed of an unity of simplicity , but also of an unity of composition ; wherefore it is not repugnant , that there should be an unum compositum of qualities , since there is an unum compositum of substances . iii. this puts me in remembrance of another controversie , which i have formerly read in mercat . his works , lib. . part . de elem. class . . quaest. . whether a temperament be a fifth quality , or rather a concord or harmony of the four elements ? avicen defines it a fifth quality , to which the said author subscribes ; but fr. vallesius , lib. . cap. . contra med. & phys. fernel . and others oppose it . to decide a controversie agitated by the greatest of philosophers and physitians , needs a deep inspection : wherefore i demand what they understand by a fifth quality ? whether a quality really , or modally only differing from the four single qualities of the elements ? . whether the authors of the contrary opinion intend by harmony or concord any thing distinct from the single qualities of the elements ? there is none i find answereth to this ; which compels me to handle the question , in supposing the one party to mean by a fifth quality , a quality really distinct , and the other by harmony of the elements , to intend nothing distinct from the elements being united in a proportion . a temperament is not a fifth quality really distinct from the qualities of the elements ; because a temperament cannot exist without the four qualities of the elements ; for take away but one of those qualities , and you take away the temperament . a temperament formally is not a harmony or concord only , because a harmony or agreement of the four qualities is an accident or condition following or attending the union of qualities : wherefore a harmony of the said qualities is an accident or mode differing modally from a temperament ; for when we conceive a temperament , we do not conceive a harmony , although we conceive a harmony to be a conditio sine qua non of a temperament ; because without it they could not be united . a temperament is not a proportion of the elements , but the union of the elements in a proportion . a temperament is a fifth quality modally distinct from the elementary single qualities , but not really ; for a temperament is the union of four qualities in one ; wherefore this one quality is the same really with the four united , although modally different . . a totum is modally only , and not really distinguisht from its parts united ; but a temperament is a totum , and the qualities united are the parts united ; ergo. i cannot but strange at many physitians , defining a temperament to be a harmony , and yet asserting the first qualities to be contrary . a contradiction : for if the first qualities be contrary , they expel one another out of the same subject , but if they are harmonical , they will embrace and preserve one another in their beings , which that they do , is abundantly demonstrated above . others again assert , that a temperament doth include an union , not only of the first qualities , but also of the substances of the elements . a dulness ! wherein would a temperament then differ from mistion ? had they affirmed that mistion did imply or include a temperament , it would have been an heroick saying not to be expected from them . whether from the congress of the four qualities there result two temperaments , one out of the active qualities , the other of the passive , is a further doubt objected by them . in the first place , they are deceived in distinguishing the first qualities into active and passive qualities ; because among them the one is no more active or passive then the other , they being equally active and passive . . it is a contradiction to define a temperament to be the four qualities united into one harmony , and afterward to conceive one harmony to be two , that is , two temperaments . iv. properly and absolutely there is no distemperament , or intemperies , because the form of every mixt body is a temperament : wherefore a distemperament sounds nothing else but a non-temperament , and consequently there is no distemper . i confess a mutation or change of the proportion of the elements there may happen in a mixt body , yet notwithstanding that change the temperament remaines a temperament . if then you intend by an intemperies nothing but such a change , it may be defined to be the alteration of the form of a mixt being . alteration is the intention or remission of one or more of the vertues , powers or forms of the elements as they are temperated . intension and remission take in the senses formerly set down . although in a strict sense every intention or remission of a first quality in a mixt body changeth the form of it , yet because that every change is not durable , but many are soon expelled again , through which a mixt body returnes to its former form ; wherefore such changes are only counted substantial changes , or mutations , whereby a body is so much changed , that it is irreducible to its pristine form , and whereby it produceth accidents altogether sensibly differing from those , that were produced by its foregoing form : for example , when the temperament of a man is so much subverted and changed by the appulse of another temperament , that it is rendered uncapable of reduction to its former temperament or form , and the accidents produced by it are altogether sensibly differing from those that were produced by the foregoing temperament ; as when a mans heat is subverted by the appulse of cold , so as he is deprived thereby of life , sense and motion , then his form is changed into the form of a ( cadaver ) dead corps : because now other accidents are produced , being altogether sensibly different from the former , and the lost accidents are irreducible . this is a substantial change or mutation , because the entire essence of the thing is changed . v. an accidental change or alteration is , when the temperament of a body is so far changed , as that its modes or accidents appear to be sensibly changed , yet not totally , but partially , and when the change is gone no further then it is expulsible , and the former temperament reducible . i said sensibly changed , because it is not every insensible increase or decrease of any of the first qualities of a mixt body , deserveth the name of alteration , although in a large sense it doth . it will not be amiss to give you an instance : a man when he is feaverish , is alterated , because fire is intended more then it was in his precedent temperament , which therefore produceth a sensible burning , pains and weaknesses ; but since his old temperament is reducible , it is only to be counted an alteration , or accidental change. another distinction between a substantial change , and an alteration is , that a body by a substantial mutation is so much changed , as that you do not know it to be the same thing it was : but an alterated body , although it is somewhat changed , yet it is not so much changed , but that you may know what it was . if there be any infinitum in the world , none is liker to be it then the number of temperaments ; for there are as many temperaments possible , as there are elementary indivisibles , excepting four , to which one indivisible being added , changeth the temperament , and again another and another ( and so on , until all the indivisible be apposed ) admitted to that changeth the temperament again and again . chap. xix . of the division of temperaments . . what an equal and unequal temperament is . that there never was but one temperament ad pondus . that adams body was not tempered ad pondus . that neither gold nor any celestial bodies are tempered ad pondus . . that all temperaments ad justitiam are constantly in changing . that there are no two bodies in the world exactly agreeing to one another in temperature . . the latitude of temperaments . how the corruption of one body ever proves the generation of another . . that there is no such unequal temperament as is vulgarly imagined . that there is an equal temperament is proved against the vulgar opinion . that where forms are equal , their matters must also be equal . . what a distemper is . what galen intended by an unequal temperature . . vvhen a man may be termed temperate . vvhat bodies are said to be intemperate . . the combination of the second qualities of the elements in a temperature . their effects . i. a temperament is divided into an equal temperament or a temperamentum ad pondus , or unequal , otherwise called by philosophers a temperamentum ad justitiam . an equal temperament is constituted out of an equal proportion of the forms of the elements ; and therefore it is called a temperamentum ad pondus , because it is so equally tempered , that if it were weighed , one element would not over-balance the other . this temperament consisteth of an arithmetical proportion : it is otherwise called an anatick temperament . an unequal temperament is , where the elementary forms are united in an unequal proportion . it is called temperamentum ad justitiam , because there is just such a proportion of the forms of the elements as to fit it to act such an act , or to exercise such offices . the proportion observeable in this temperament is a geometrical proportion , whereby one element overtops the other , or is elevated above the other in such a degree or measure , as to produce such certain effects . nature never appeared in more then in one temperament ad pondus , but ever after in temperaments ad justitiam , as i have shewed a little before . i have proved that the chaos was the only temperament ad pondus , which its nature and end did require ; thereby it was rendered capable of existing in a ( vacuum ) void space , and needed no external place to contain it , because it contained it self . the body of adam in his innocency was not temperated ad pondus , because it would have rendered him immoveable ; for the elements being supposed to be in an equal proportion , and counterpoysing one another , local motion must have been impossible . celestial bodies , although of so long a duration , or gold ( whatever alchymists say to the contrary ) are neither tempered ad pondus , because the one could then not be heavy , or the others light . ii. since that a temperament ad justitiam ever obtaines one element , or two , or three , predominating over the others , its force being greater then the others , doth by that means free it self daily from their detention , by which a temperament is constantly in changing , increasing in one , and decreasing in another quality : this experience tels us , viz. that every being after its first production in a sensible time undergoeth a sensible change of its temperament , and consequently undergoeth an insensible change of temperature in an unsensible time , in such a manner that there is no body but doth at least change every minute of time in the detraction of a minimum . hence we are supplied with a reason , why there are not two bodies to be found exactly like unto one another in temperament , because bodies are alwaies a changing . you may object , that many substances produce effects diametrically like to one another ; ergo their temperament must be alike withal . i deny the antecedence ; for although their effects are alike according to their appearance to our senses , notwithstanding reason perswades us , that there must be an insensible dissimilitude between their temperaments , and consequently between their effects . iii. the degrees of changes , or latitude of temperaments in bodies are these ; . there is an insensible change or alteration , which our senses cannot discern ; but it is only discoverable through reason . . the second degree is a sensible alteration , which is evidently discernable by sense , in that its effects are sensibly different , yet they must not be so far deviated from the wonted preceding effects , as to be judged entirely unlike to them . . a total change and mutation of form , to the reception of which the two forementioned alterations are previous dispositions . this degree of change in respect to the expulsion of the preceding form is taken for a corruption ; in regard of the subsequent form it is accounted a generation . hence derives this maxime , generatiounius est corruptio alterius : & vice versa . the generation , of one is the corruption of another . i cannot resemble the expulsion of a form out of a body , and a reception of another into the same subject , to a better example , then to a ship in sight to one standing on the pierhead at dover , but out of sight to those that are at calice , whither the ship is bound ; now the further this ship sailes , the more it appeares in sight to them at calice ; and the less to the others at dover , until it is come quite into sight to them at calice , and then it is quite gone out of sight from the others . even so it is in alteration ; for as the ship fore-instanced groweth insensibly less , and recedes from one coast to another ; so an alteration likewise is insensible . but after a sensible time the ship appears sensibly less , and more remote , so after a sensible time an alteration groweth sensible , and as the ship at last after these insensible and sensible diminutions , and recesses , is suddenly quite gone out of sight and vanished , so a mix body after all these insensible and sensible alterations is suddenly changed into another form and become another substance , the former being vanished . the same is observeable in man , who altering insensibly every day in his temperament , draweth nearer and nearer to his bed of rest , and after some years expiration , findes sensibly that he is altered in his temperament , both which alterations dispose him to his last sudden change and substantial mutation . galens delineation of the latitude of temperaments doth tend to the confirmation of what i have proposed : lib. . de temper . he writes thus , if a quality is exuperant , it becomes an intemperies ; if it be yet more augmented , it turnes to a disease ; if it be most increased , it is death , or a substantial mutation . iv. a temperament is vulgarly likewise divided into equal , or a temperament ad pondus ; and unequal , or a temperament ad justitiam . they define an equal temperament to be that , which is equally and exquisitely tempered : and an unequal temperament to be that , which is unequally and inexquisitely mixt . if this be their meaning of equal and unequal , then their division is illegal , because a temperament ad justitiam is as exquisitely and equally mixt as a temperament ad pondus : for gold is tempered ad justitiam ; but none will deny that gold is equally tempered in particles , although not in great pieces . that it is equally tempered in particles , its equal colour , equal consistence of body , equal weight , &c. do testifie . can any assert otherwise , but that man is equally tempered in particles ? to the contrary , an unequal temperament is no temperament , or in the least tending to the generation of a mixt body , but to its corruption , as you shall read below . had they by an equal temperament implied an equal proportion of the elements equally mixt , then their definition would have been beyond controuling . but give me leave to make somewhat a further disquisition upon their subtilities : others state a twofold equal temperament . . when the elements concur in a mixt body in equal weights , and in equal mole and bigness : this temperament ( say they ) may be better faigned , and if it be found at any time , it doth not abide long , but passeth in a moment : their reasons are , . because a mixt body would rest in no place ; for if it rested upon the earth , then the earth must predominate ; if in the fire , then the sire must predominate , &c. . neither could it be moved ; for if it moved downwards , the heavy elements would prevail , if upwards , the light ones . . the most active quality would overcome & consume the others . . there can be no mistion unless some of the first qualities conquer , and others be conquered . . when the elements concur with equal force , but not with equal mole , which temperament may also be better conceived in our mind , then imagined to be real . those forementioned arguments seem to disprove a possible real temperament ad pondus , but how depravately , i shall instantly discover . . i affirm that a mixtum ad pondus would rest in its own internal place , because it contains it self , neither doth it stand in need of an external place ; for only mixta ad justitiam do necessarily require a place to rest in , because they having one element prevailing over the others , which moves them to the region of that element , whereof it self is a part , where being arrived , are contained by that entire elementary body ; which is called a place , because it contains those bodies that are arrived to it . . their second argument only deducts a true inference from a true supposition ; for doubtless a body tempered ad pondus could not be moved to an external place from any internal principle , because none had so much prevalence over the other as to move it . and for what they assert concerning the not duration of a mixtum ad pondus , is erroneous ; for an eval duration may be proved by their own words : thus , that which contains no contrary principle of motion in it self , is incorruptible , and consequently of an eval duration ; but according to their own words , such a body cannot be moved ; ergo . . this argument is drawn from a false supposition ; for in a mixtum ad pondus all qualities are equally active , wherefore it is uncapable of dissolution or being overcome . . the last argument is absolutely false . as to the latter part of their distinction , it is grounded upon a supposition not to be supposed , which is , that there should be a possibility of the equality of qualities or force in a mixt body , and not of quantities . i prove the contrary , viz. that where ever there is an equality of qualities , there must also be an equality of matter . suppose that to balance one minimum of earth , there needs a hundred times as many , or more minima's of fire , these hundred minima's if they were deprived of their lightness or form , and that one minimum of its gravity , the remaining matter of those hundred would be no more then the matter of this one : look below ; for according to the philosopher himself it is the forma quantitativa that causes a quantum in matter . all temperaments in respect to the proportion of the ingreding elements are equal : but all temperaments in respect to the manner of mistion are not equal . wherefore according to the manner of mistion a temperament is divisible into equal and unequal . an equal temperament there is , whose parts are equally mixt one with the other throughout their whole substance or subject : for example , suppose the same as before , that minima's of fire were a sufficient number to balance one minimum of earth , and that a thousand centenaries or proportions of fire were to be mixt with a thousand minima's of earth , now to make this an equal temperament , there must between every hundredth minim of fire be interposed one minim of earth , and so throughout their whole subject . but supposing that in one particle of that substance there was admixt one minim of earth between a hundred , and in another particle but one between two or three or four hundred , this would cause an inequal temperament . an equal temperament is ( simpliciter ) called a temperament or temperature , and its intire being is called a mistum temperatum , or a temperate mixt body . v. an unequal temperament is called an intemperies , or distemper , because it is not equally tempered ; hence galen writes , lib. . aphor. that an unequal temperature causes a difficulty . by an unequal temperature questionless he means an intemperies , or distemper . but the same galen , lib. de intemper . inequ . towards the latter end , seems to acknowledge an aequalis intemperies , in these words : but if all ones members are wholly ( tota per tota ) altered and changed , they are immediately freed from their pain : they are then seated in a difficult state . i distinguish an intemperies into one , that is a beginning ( intemperies inchoata ) and another that is confirmed ( intemperies confirmata ; ) or into a primar and secondary distemper ; it is of a confirmed and secondary distemper that galen speaks of here ; but all beginning & primar distempers are unequal , neither is a confirmed distemper equally mixt , but only equally spread ; for were it equally mixt , the body containing would be rendered more durable by it , as in vinegar , where the hot adventitious parts first causing an intemperies in wine , is afterwards equally mixt with its fixed spirits , through which its body is become more durable . vi. a man is said to be temperate , whose temperament doth dispose him to perform his actions and functions perfectest . this temperament is not a temperamentum ad pondus ; for through it he could not have been hot enough to have executed his natural or vital offices . hence such a one is said to be perfecte temperatus , whose temperament ad justitiam is the perfectest , that is , executes its offices most perfectly . the heat of this temperament is a mild and gentle heat , or calor blandus . a cholerick man is as properly said to be tempered ad justitiam , but then his temper is comparatively less perfect , and his heat more sharp ( calor acris . ) now when a perfectly tempered man is distempered , his heat is sharp , which in a cholerick man is temperate , but that heat is unequally mixt with the qualities of the first temperate party , and equally in the latter ; wherefore the same heat , which is counted temperate in one , is intemperate in another . fernelius , lib. . cap. . excepts well against the denominating a man to be of a cholerick or melancholy temperament , because the heat or coldness , which choler and melancholy do produce , is unequally mixt with out temperatures , and therefore do not constitute a temperament , but an intemperies ; wherefore it is more proper to state a man to be of a hot , cold , moist and dry temperament , or to deduct temperatures from the elements , and denominate them according to their exuperancies , fiery , waterish , &c. it is very proper to state the temperament of ayr to be moist and hot , or cold and moist , &c. because its various situation disposes it to mixtion with fire and water for a moist and hot temperament ; or cold and moist , if with more water and earth then fire , &c. but aristotle spoke very improperly , when he said , that the ayr was of a moist and hot temperature , when he supposed the ayr to be simple and unmixt . now if it was unmixt , how could it be said to be tempered ? for according to his own words , temperamentum est plurium ; a temperament consists of more then one . the division of temperaments is manifold , . there is a single temperament , wherein one element redounds above the others , and thence according to its eminence , is called fiery , waterish , ayry , or earthy : light with contiguity , light with continuity , heavy with contiguity , or heavy with continuity : rare , dense , thin or thick : hard , soft , &c. . a compounded temperament , when two elements are eminent above the others in a temperament , as , fiery and waterish , fiery and ayry , fiery and earthy , earthy and waterish , earthy and ayry , ayry and waterish . . when three exceed the restant one . according to which a subject is said to be waterish fiery and earthy , earthy ayry and waterish , fiery ayry and waterish , fiery ayry and earthy . in the same manner can a substance be named rare and dense , rare and thin , rare and thick , thick and thin , &c. the number of distempers are agreeable to the number of temperatures , which since they have been already enumerated , i shall not trouble you with the rehearsal of them . the temperatures and distemperaments of the parts of mans body are much different to what authors have described them , but their particular relation appertaining to another treatise● , i do wittingly omit their insertion in this place . a temperament is further divisible into an universal and particular temperament . an universal temperament is effected by the conforming of all the parts of an heterogeneous body into one temperament . a particular temperament is the temperament of every particular part in a heterogeneous body ; so a bone is of a temperament differing from a ligament , a ligament from a membrane , &c. but a bone and a ligament agree also in an universal temperament , viz. of the whole body . a temperament is considered either absolutely in it self , or comparatively with another , as one species with another , according to which the species of man is most exactly tempered , as galen hath it , lib. de opt . corp . constit . above all other species . this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of man is the rule whereby to measure the vertues of medicaments , which if they do neither cool or heat , moisten or dry , they are accounted to be temperate , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but if they alter it either in heat , coldness , &c. they are taken to be of a hot , cold , &c. temperament , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . one individual may be compared with another in temperature , whereby one man is said to be more or less temperate , hotter or colder then another . . an individual is compared to it self , and so a man is said to be more temperate in one age , time of year , climate , &c. then in another . . when one part is compared to another , one is adjudged to be more temperate , hotter , moyster , &c. then another : so galen , lib. . de temper . towards the end , states the skin of a mans hand to be of an exquisite middle temperament between all sensible bodies , and the most temperate of all the parts of man. authors propose another division of temperament into actual and potential ; but since i have declared my opinion in the dispute of powers , i shall pass it by . vi. it will not be useless to adumbrate the combination of the second qualities one with the other , and delineate their effects . heat is either thin or dense . a thin heat doth attenuate and mollifie ; for molliaction is an action proceeding from a subtil attenuating heat , through which it attenuates the thick moysture , and elevates the body of earth and water , whereby it is disposed to softness : hence it is that the inward crums of hard stale bread are softned by loosening its moysture , and admitting the ayry fire . a dense heat is drying and burning . a thick heat is obtuse , not penetrating , but dampish , like unto the heat of damp hay . cold and thin is neither a powerful or piercing cold , but gentle and meek , like unto the cool quality of a summers brize . cold and dense is a piercing and potent cold , striking through the central parts of a body . a thick and dense cold is condensing , congealing , and coagulating . a dense thin moysture doth moysten very much , because it penetrates through the pores of a body , and lodgeth it self there , whereas a single moysture is too thick to moysten or to penetrate . a rare moysture moystens less by far , and is soon expelled . a thin moysture moystens somewhat more then a rare moysture ; but both do mollifie . chap. xx. of alteration , coction , decoction , generation , putrefaction , and corruption . . what coction and putrefaction is . the difference between putrefaction and corruption . . the authors definition of alteration . the effects of alteration . . the division of alteration . . that the first qualities of the peripateticks are not intended by the acquisition of new qualities without matter . wherein alteration differs from mixtion or temperament . . the definition of coction . why a man was changed much more in his youth then when come to maturity . . the constitution of women . which are the best and worst constitutions in men . that heat is not the sole cause of coction . . the kinds of coction . what maturation , elixation and assation are . . what decoction is , and the manner of it . . the definition of putrefaction . . what generation imports in a large and strict acception . whether the seed of a plant or animal is essentially distinguisht from a young plant or new born animal . that heat is not the sole efficient in generation . . whether the innate heat is not indued with a power of converting adventitious heat into its own nature . whether the innate heat be celestial or elementary . . the definition of corruption . why the innate heat becomes oft more vigorous after violent feavers . whether life may be prolonged to an eval duration . what the catochization of a flame is . by what means many pretend to prolong life . that the production of life to an eval duration is impossible . whether our dayes be determined . the ambiguity of corruption . whether corruption be possible in the elements . i. in the precedent chapter i have spoke at large concerning temperaments in general , and their divisions ; to which ought to be annext the distinctions of intemperatures . an intemperature * moves either to an equal temperament and generation of a mixt body , or from a temperature to corruption and dissolution of a mixt body . the former motion is called coction , the latter putrefaction : the end of the former is an equal and durable temperament , and the generation of a mixt body ; the end or rather terminus ad quem of the latter is a most unequal temperature ( that is , when a mixt body returnes to its first elements ; now when its several ingredients are dissolved into their several elements , then they become most unequal , because every element in its own region superates the peregrine elements in three fourths , and yet there remains a temperature , because a fourth part of the alien elements is united to each of them ) and corruption of a mixt body . the difference then between putrefaction and corruption is , that the one is a motion to dissolution , and the other is an entire dissolution it self . the same difference is observable between coction and the generation of a mixt body . alteration is a genus to them all ; for coction and putrefaction are alterations in a lower degree ; but generation and corruption are alterations in the highest degree . ii. alteration is a motion of the elements , through which , they move unto , into , through and from one another in a mixt body . the motion unto one another i have formerly called their mutual embracement , the manner of which you have read before . they move from one another accidentally and secondarily , after they have embraced one another so close , that the contiguous elements break through the continuous ones . i say alteration is a motion ; the same is attested by galen , in his tom. of his works , fol. . . by motion understand a local motion : for the elements change their places in alteration , and therefore a local motion . so that alteration is a species of local motion . through this local motion the elements do divide and penetrate one another , which division through local motion doth fully comprehend the nature of alteration . abra de raconis in disput. de corp. mixt . sect . secund . asserts , that alteration doth not terminate into qualities of the first spec. to wit , habit and disposition , because neither of them are acquired by motion . . he states , that alteration doth not extend to natural faculties and powers ; because these are produced in an instant . . there is no alteration concurrent to the production of figure and form : because these emanate from matter . to the contrary , alteration constitutes habits and dispositions , natural faculties , form and figure ; because all these are produced by the forms of the elements acting through alteration upon one another . but to answer to his reason : i deny the first ; for habits and dispositions are acquired through motion . . i dislike his second reason also ; for they are produced in many instants . . figure and form are in or out of matter , but not from matter . iii. alteration is either successive or instantaneous . it is called successive , because it is made up by many instantaneous alterations ; like as successive time is said to be successive , because it is constituted out of many instantaneous times following one another ; and nevertheless an instant is no less properly time then successive time ; for time is nothing else , but the measure of one motion by another : even so is an instantaneous alteration no less an alteration then a successive alteration , because a successive alteration is made up by many instantaneous ones . an alteration is called instantaneous , because it happens in the least time ; which is called an instant . or an instantaneous alteration is the least alteration , whereby one element altereth ( that is , divides ) the other in one minimum . now since the beginning of action is from a minim or the least substance , the action it self must be also the least , which among the elements specifieth an instantaneous alteration . alteration is to be termed continuous , when a continuous element altereth a contiguous one ; and contiguous , when a contiguous element altereth a continuous one . iv. fr. eustach . in tract . de elem. quest. . makes a query how the elementary contrary qualities are intended and remitted through a successive alteration . . he states it for a truth , that heat , cold , &c. do acquire new qualities in their subject . . that these new qualities are entitative perfections , whereby heat , moysture , &c. are intended . . the doubt is now , how this entitative perfection is possible to any of these forementioned qualities : his opinion is , that it is through addition of new degrees of heat , cold , &c. to the former degrees of the same quality , which are procreated out of the same subject . . i deny that the forementioned qualities do acquire any other quality but what they are ; mixe water with wine , and the mixture will have something of the qualities of water , and something of the wine , but no new quality that should be neither . . i reject his second position as false . . it is erroneous that other degrees should be superadded out of the subject ; for if they are superadded , they are superadded either from the foregoing quality , or an extrinsick efficient ; they cannot be superadded through themselves ; for then a thing would be supposed to generate it self , which is absurd , because ( a seipso nihil fit ) nothing is made by it self . they cannot be superadded by another , unless it be by the same qualities , by reason the cause must be of the same nature which the effect is of ( qualis causatalis effectus ) if by the same qualities , then the same again would generate it self ; ergo they cannot be superadded , or if superadded from without , it is no new quality , but agreeing with that which is intended . alteration is different from mistion or a temperament in general , because it is an action , which disposes and prepares the elements & their forms for mistion and temperature . the union of the elements and forms thus altered or disposed is a mistion and temperament . wherefore aristotle defines the nature of mistion very well : mistion is the union of miscibles alterated . authors usually divide alteration in perfective and corruptive , which are equivalent to coction and putrefaction . v. coction is an alteration tending to a temperament ad justitiam . suppose at the first confusion of the elements in order to a mixtion and temperament , the fire and ayr to be unequally mixt with the others about the remote parts , but to be equally mixt with the central parts . now coction is nothing else but the promotion of the light elements , which are yet latent about the center , to an equal mixture ( secundum partes , sed non secundum totum ) with the heavy ones ; and although at present they are not so equally mixt * , yet through alteration , that is by dividing or embracing one another , the earth dividing the fire , the water the ayr , the fire again moving to the earth , and the ayr to the water , at last they become altogether entirely altered , embracing one another , which constitutes a temperament ad justitiam . they being all thus reduced to a temperament , the alteration is much abated , but still continues , although in a very small and insensible manner , which causes a stability for a while in the body so temperated : the reason of that great abatement of alteration is , because the elements being now dispersed and divided into small parts , retain a less force , and exercise a less opposition one against another , and therefore the temperament becomes stable . observe then that coction is swift , because of the greatness of alteration . . the temperament ad justitiam is stable , and ad tempus quasi consistens . . putrefaction is the swiftest , because its alteration is the swiftest , as you shall read by and by . hence you may easily collect the reason , why a man in his youth alters or changes so much , and at his adult years is seated in a consistent temperament , and changes not for a long while , whereas a youth , we see , changes every day , or at least it is observable every moneth ; for stay away from a known youth but a moneth , and when you see him again , you will mark that he is altered . this every mother can spy out after she hath been gone forth from her child but an hour or two , and at her return , cry out , oh how is my child altered . the reason is , because the calidum innatum is copiously shut up within the central particles of each part , and therefore moves strongly by alteration : hence authors conclude infants to be perfused with a more copious calidum innatum then when they come to be grown up in years . the force of this ( ●●nr●● ) promogenious heat is such , that it altereth children almost every moment ; hence we may know why every external alteration of diet , weather , or climate doth so easily injure them ; because ( besides that ) they are much altered internally ; wherefore the least alteration from without , if durable , soon disperseth and inflames their heat , and proves a frequent cause of so numerous deaths of children , whereas men and women their heat being now consistent , and making but small force , their flesh closer , &c. are not so much subjected to diseases , and such sudden deaths . vi. women die faster , that is , thicker then men , and are more disposed to sickness then they , because their innate heat and ayr do effect greater alterations upon their bodies , as having but little earth or compressing density , in comparison to men , to resist the light elements , and moderate their irruptions ; and therefore women seldom reach to any equal or consistent temperature , but are alwaies in changing , which in them after , , or years expiration , is particularly called breaking , because then they alter so fast , that they swiftly put a period to their dayes ; and that because their bodies being lax and porous , their innate heat shoots through in particles , and now in minima's , without which there can be no durable temperature . were their bodies heavier and denser , the minima's of earth would divide their heat into minima's , and reduce it to a temperature . if then their innate heat doth constantly cohere in particles , and is never dirempted into minima's , it retaining in that case stronger force then otherwise it could do in minima's , it alterates their bodies continually , and so they never attain to any consistency of age . many sexagenarian widowers or men of threescore years of age do alter less and flower then most women do from their five and thirtieth year ; wherefore they do rather cover a wife of twenty , because she will just last as long in her prime , or will be as fast in breaking , altering and changing her temperament , form and shape in one year , as the old man shall alter or change in three or four years ; and so they grow deformed in an equal time . wherefore a mans consistent age may last out the beauties of two or three women one after the other : and because of this , some in their mirth have proclaimed a woman after her th . year to be fitter for an hospital , then to continue a wife . no wonder if a woman be more fierce , furious , and of a more rash swift judgment then a man ; for their spirits and heat moving in great troops and confluences of particles , must needs move swift , which swiftness of motion is the cause of their sudden rages , nimble tongues , and rash wits . to the contrary , a mans heat being tempered to minima's , moves more flow , & therefore is less passionate , and of a surer judgment . a cholerick man with a soft and glabrous skin , is likest to a woman in temperament , and is undoubtedly tied to all manner of passion , as fear , love , anger , to rashness of opinion , forgetfulness , hazarding and foolish venturing , and at other times because of his fear , is as obstinate and refractory in hazarding . he is perfectly unfortunate , of a short life , and disposed to continual alterations , fitter for nothing then to fill up a church yard in a short space of time . a man of a cholerick and melancholy temperature with a soft skin and somewhat rough , is likewise of a short life , but somewhat longer in his course then the former . his fancy is contrived for plotting of base and inhumane designes , his opinion is atheistical , his heart full of cheating and murderous thoughts , he is merciless and cruel to all , his nearest relations are as great a prey to him as strangers . among men of this temperature is a twofold difference , the one is more cholerick then melancholy , the other more melancholy then cholerick . the colour of the first is yellowish , of the last swarty . the former exceeds the latter by far in conditions , and is correctible , but with great pains , and notwithstanding is of a detestable nature ; but as for the latter , his pravity is abominable , only fit to make a hangman , or else is most likely to come to the gallowes himself . the best temperature of all is a sanguine tempered with melancholy ; this portends all honesty , modesty , faithfulness , pleasingness of humour , long life , great fortunes , pregnancy of wit , ingenuity , a rare fancy for new inventions , tenacity of memory , a sifting judgment , profoundness of meditations , couragious and generous ; in fine , fit for all things . wherefore it was a true saying of arist. that none could be wise , unless he was somewhat melancholy . a pure sanguine temperature is of all humours the most pleasing , lovely , perfectly innocent , of a long life , and very fortunate . i could set down here demonstrable and certain rules whereby to know infallibly the particular inclinations , passions and faculties of every person , but apprehending that the art might be abused by the vulgar , and that the knowledge of it might prove as prejudicial to some , as profitable to others , i judge it more convenient to preserve its rarity and admirableness by secrecy . authors do successively attribute the causality of coction to heat alone ; but how erroneously you may now easily judge , since that i have explained the elements to move each according to their proportion ; as in coction , earth doth as much conduce to it through its contiguous and punctual motion to the center , as the fire doth in moving to the circumference ; wherefore the elements are to be adjudged equal causes of coction . vii . thus far we have spoken concernig coction in general , and as it may be supposed applicable singly to the elements : what remaines , is to treat of the species of coction , depending upon the combination of the elements , to wit , upon heat incrassated , heat condensed , water rarefied and attenuated , earth rarefied , &c. the objectum circa quod of coction is crudity . the species of coction are accounted to be three : maturation , elixation and assation . maturation is a coction performed by a thin and moderately condensed heat together with the co-action of the other elements , whereby immaturity is overcome , and its subject perduced to maturity or a temperament ad justitiam . this kind of coction takes place in man , who in his younger years is said to be immature , and by process of time to be perduced or come to maturity . all animals are perduced to their consistent coction by maturation . maturation takes its beginning from the center ; whence it is that the innermost flesh of beasts is the sweetest , because it is the first , soonest and best concocted . maturation renders a mixt body more compact and solid then it was ; because it consumes and expels the ayry & waterish parts , which being diminisht , the remainder is left more solid and compact . through maturation a body becomes sweeter , as we may observe in all fruits growing sweeter through maturation , whereas they before were acerbous and austere . a body through maturation is exalted to a greater purity . elixation is a coction performed by a rarefied and attenuated moysture , that is an ayry and fiery water , and the co-action of the other elements . thus the equality of temperament in fishes , and other waterish bodies proceeds from elixation . through this thin and rare moysture all the parts of a mixt body are equally laid , and through its fluor thick parts are attenuated , dense ones diducted , and rare ones condensed . assation is a coction effected from a dense heat acting socially with a just proportion of the other elements . thus hung beef , and dryed neats tongues are concocted . all metals are likewise concocted or purified by assation . i shall not spend more words to shew the manner of the variety of coction , since it is apparent by what hath been said before . viii . a decoction is an equal wasting of a concocted body , hapning through the continuation of a concocting alteration . or otherwise it is an overdoing or an overcoction of a mixt body , through which it must necessarily be wasted , which notwithstanding remaines the same thing , or according to aristotle , remanet idem subjectum sensibile . but in putrefaction a body doth not only wast , but makes way also for a dissolution , and the subject is sensibly changed . . putrefaction derives from an unequal alteration , caused by an immoderate and unequal adjunction of an extrinsick , influent or adventitious quality to the least parts of one or more of the elements . but decoction is equal , and performed by the same causes that coction was . or in a word , the one is a violent and sudden motion to dissolution of the parts of a mixt body into their first elements ; the other is a gradual , successive , flow , durable , prolonged , and natural dissolution of a mixt body into its elements . as for the manner of decoction , it is thus . you must conceive that in coction the innate heat or whole temperament suffereth but little loss or dislocation , because at the formation of any body , the heat is so arctly joyned to the central parts , that although it is attenuated through the ayr , yet firmly adhering to minima's of earth , and surrounded with minima's of water , it cannot be entirely loosned from its adherents , before it is minutely divided and spread equally through all the body . . the minutes of weighty elements arctly compassing the fire , do detain the same fire from exhaling . . when the coction is perducted to its height , and the elements are equally laid , their forcible alteration ceaseth , but nevertheless a smal alteration doth still continue , every minim yet pressing against the other , whereby the superficial heat doth by little and little exhale , * whose vacuity the nearer light parts do succeed to fill up , and afterwards those of the central parts next following . when now the heat is so much dispersed & expelled , that it is grown invalid to balance the other elements , it is suddenly suppressed in an instant ; after which instantaneous suppression , another form succeeds at the same nick of time , and verifieth that maxime : quod substantia generetur in instanti , that a substance is generated in a moment . the reason , why a form is so suddenly and in the least time expelled , and another received , is , because when the heavy superficial parts , and those next to them are freed from their light elements , they move all together with one force , which force fa●●ing suddenly and violently upon that small part of the remainder of the light elements , doth then violently and suddenly chase and expell them . by this it appears that decoction is natural , because it is from an intrinsick principle . ix . putrefaction is a violent alteration of the elements in a mixt body from too great an irruption of an extrinsick elementary quality , which joyning with its like , overpowers the mixtum , and frees that element from its nearest alligation to the minimal parts of the other elements , and so do both easily overcome the mixture . wherefore the cause of putrefaction is an unequal temperature or distemper effected by the superaddition of an extrinsick elementary quality . the causes in particular are four : . when the intrinsick earth is impowered by the adjunction of external pressing terrene minims , which overpressing the innate heat , and dividing it from the ayr , first extinguisheth its flame , and then presseth it out from its body . this species of putrefaction may be called a tendence to petrification and terrification . i will give you an example : a man who is frozen to death is properly said to have been putrified by a tendency to terrefaction : for the external frosty minims pressing hard upon him together with the intrinsick earth of his body , do at last extinguish his vital flame . ly and ly , when external moysture is adunited to the internal moysture , it doth also cause a putrefaction of that mixtum , through over-relaxing and opening the body , whereby the light parts easily procure a vent . * this may be otherwise signified by a tendency to moulding . those small filaments that do usually adhere to the surface of a moulded body are nothing else but a diduction of the circumjacent moysture into length and tenuity by the egress of fire and ayr. the greenness or grayishness of the said filaments is nothing but the fire splending and glistering against the circumjacent moysture , the refraction and reflection of which ( arising from the proportion of crassitude or tenuity of the body reflecting ) causes a greenish light ; and if it be more transparent , the splendor appears grayish . . when fire is intended by addition of new degrees of external fire , and so moves more forcibly towards the circumference ; * its name may aptly be implied by a tendency to combustion . i have formerly asserted that coction was a tendency to generation , wherefore order and method require from me at present , that i should illustrate the nature of generation and corruption , both which in a strict sense are the termini ad quem and end of coction and putrefaction . x. generation in a large sense imports the constitution or production of a mixt being ; but since that all generated beings are in a continual motion , it is strictly attributed to the middle term , or a term of reflection , as i may call it , where the exceeding quality doth augment its force , afterwards insensibly and sensibly decreasing . notwithstanding a mixt body at its first production is an entire mixt body , although it is not yet arrived to its full extension of parts : an infant is as much a man as a giant , or is as perfect a mixt body consisting of matter and form as the same giant . here i fall into a doubt , whether the seed of a plant or animal is essentially distinct from a young sprig or plant , or a new-born animal . is there any more difference between a seed and its germined body , then between an infant and a man ? what is a man but an infant , thrust out into length , breadth , and depth ? and so what is a young plant but its seed protruded into all dimensions ? we say an infant is a man , because it bears all the figures and shape , and acts rudely the same actions which a man doth . doth not the seed within its pellicle bear all the marks , shape , figures , and exerciseth the same actions rudely that a plant doth ? doth it not attract , retain , concoct and expel in the same manner as a plant ? is there any substance or new quality advened to it , and essentially joyned to its minims ? to this opinion i find hipp. lib. de diat . galen , lib. . de sem. cap. . argenter . lib. de art . par . tit . de temper . zabarel , de anim . fac . ult . cap. . picolhomin . lib. . praelect . anat. . prael . jonbert . licet . and many others consenting . you have this controversie discussed more at large by that painful collector of collections , sennert . in his hypom . phys. authors assert strongly , that nothing can be computed to the number of efficients of generation , unless it be hot , where if they do not find a particular hot efficient , they accur to an universal one , the suns efficiency , or other astral influences . pray , let them answer me , by what efficient many mixt bodies , as plants , bears and others are generated in the winter in greenland ? which that they are , is undoubted to many ; but supposing them to be generated in the summer , which is colder then our coldest winter , they cannot comprehend the suns heat for an extrinsick efficient , because the cold doth by far exceed the heat in those countries , as appeares by the great islands of ice ; wherefore the efficiency is rather to be imputed to an acute cold , which through its acute weight doth divide and spread the included heat into the parts . i do not deny but that there is an admitted efficient in the juyce and food which they do suck in and ingest into their bodies , which here , as in all other coctions , stirs up and diducts the innate heat , and being adunited to it , strengthens and augments the same : but i pass by this to what is more plain . ice and many bodies generated thereon , as stones , &c. are mixt bodies , and is it the heat of the sun that doth effect these ? ergo cold with the other qualities are equally to be stated efficients . xi . before i take my leave of this subject , i must discuss one controversie more , whether the innate heat be not indued with a power of changing extrinsick heat being admitted within the quantity of the containing body into its own nature , and to convert it into innate heat . on the one side we might judge it impossible that so little heat , as is contained within the seed of a vegetable should be sufficient to perduce a tree to that great bigness which many are of , and continue so for many years . on the other side , authors do unanimously conclude , that the innate heat is destitute of such a vertue , and that the heat advened to it is an influent and admitted heat essentially differing from it , the one being of a celestial origin , the other of an elementary . arist. lib. . de gener. animal . cap. . declares his judgment upon this matter : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for in the seed of all things there is that contained which makes them to be fruitful , to wit , that which we call heat . neither is it fire , nor any such faculty , but a spirit , which is contained in the seed and in the spumous body , and the nature , which in the spirit is respondent to the element of the stars : and a little further he repeats his mind ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it is evident that the heat in animals is neither fire , nor any thing arising from fire . if then it is according to the mind of arist. to state the innate heat to be astral , and the influent heat to be elementary , there must intercede a quidditative difference between them , and consequently being of so distant natures , the one cannot beget the other . before i conclude , it will not be amiss to enquire what they intend by ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) innate heat . galen , lib. advers . ly. writes , that the innate heat is a body , whence most authors make a distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , caliditas , heat , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hot ; the former importing a nude quality , the latter a body . this body is constituted out of a primogeneous ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) moysture , celestial heat , and insited spirits , according to which fernel . lib. . physiol . cap. . sets down this definition ; innate heat ( calidum innatum ) is the primogeneous moysture perfused throughout all parts with an insited spirit and heat . but why ought this mixture not rather to be denominated a primogeneous moysture from the substance , then innate heat from the quality , since that a substance is counted to be more noble then an accident ? . what difference is there between an insited spirit and innate heat ? certainly none ; a spirit consisting of heat and moysture , and so doth the other : or if you make a difference between them , you are like to fall into an errour ; for if a spirit be a compleat substance , as all philosophers do grant , and that be united to another substance , namely a primogeneous moysture , they must constitute a totuns per accidens , but none will assert the innate heat to be a totuns per accidens ; ergo. . i find a variance among them in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , connate , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , innate ; some taking them for one , others limiting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heat , that is only proper to living creatures , and applying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heat , that is common to all mixt bodies , and is subjected to putrefaction , as if connate heat were not subjected to putrefaction as well as the innate : doth not the connate heat of man suffer putrefaction in a hectick feaver ? you may further read of a fourfold difference of innate heat in argenter . his treatise of the innate heat . . i conclude that the connate heat is elementary , and not astral . i prove it . there was connate heat before the stars were created ; ergo its original was not thence . the antecedence is plain from scripture , gen. . for there it appeares , that herbs , which questionless were actuated by connate heat , were created the third day ; whereas the stars were not created before the fourth day . . where the effects and operations are alike , there the causes cannot be unlike ; but the effects and operations of astral heat are no others then of elementary ; ergo although i granted it to be astral , it must also be elementary . . innate heat is said to be a spirit , because its rarest substance is adunited to the least bodies of the other elements , whereby it is fortified , and becomes more potent , and is constituted a most subtil moveable body . the purest and most potent spirits are about the center ; they next to them are not so subtil ; others yet more remote are grosser . . the connate heat hath a power of converting influent heat into the same nature it self is of . i prove it . hippocrates teacheth , that the maternal bloud and the sperm are perfused with innate heat ; if then advenient bloud can be united to primogeneal bloud , ergo influent heat may be united to the innate heat , and converted into the same nature . . flesh contains a part of connate heat in it , but cut off a piece of flesh , and nature will restore it again ; if restore it again , then innate heat must be restored with it : if so , then this innate heat must be generated out of the bloud by the innate heat of the next adjacent parts . . childrens teeth are regenerable , but teeth contain innate heat in them ; ergo innate heat is regenerable . . that , which the fore-quoted opinion stated a putrefactible innate heat is a volatick and moveable heat , which not being subtil enough to be united to the fixt or connate heat , is protruded to the external parts , and is subjected to putrefaction ; so that in the body of man the food that is daily ingested , its subtilest part serveth to be converted into innate heat , and to be substituted into the room of the last consumed innate heat . the courser parts are converted into moving and external heats : by heats calida understand hot particles . . how is it possible , that so little innate heat , as is contained within a dram or two of sperm should be sufficient to heat the body of a big man ? xii . corruption is the dissolution of a mixt body into the elements , or into other bodies more resembling the elements then it . the cause of corruption , as i said before , is the greatest putrid alteration , whereby the innate heat is violently dissolved . in putrefaction the moving heat alone is altered , which is reducible ; but if it continues to a great putrefaction , then the innate heat suffers danger , and is yet likewise reducible ; but if the greatest putrefaction seizeth upon a body , then the innate heat is strongly putrified , and is rendered irreducible , because through it the greatest part of the innate heat is corrupted , which to expel , the remaining innate heat finds it self too impotent . but if only a less part be corrupted , and the greater abide in power , it may overcome the other , and reduce it self . hence a reason may be given , why many men having been oft seized upon by feavers , yet have been cured , and their innate heat is become more vigorous then ever it was , yea some live the longer for it . the reason is , because in most curable feavers , the moving spirits alone are affected ; neither doth the alteration reach so deep as greatly to disturb the innate heat , but oft times the body being foul , and the bloud altered by peregrine humours , the body is cleansed , and by its fermenting and expelling heat the bloud is freed from these noxious humours , after which the primogenious heat is less oppressed , and acts more naturally then before , through which life is prolonged . here we may answer fundamentally to that so frequently ventilated doubt , whether life may be prolonged to an eval duration ? paracelsus and many of his sectators do maintain it affirmatively , to whom three hundred years seemed but a slight and short age , and in stead of it promising a life of nestor to those as would make use of his ( arcana ) mysterious medicines , yea a life to endure to the resurrection . but these are but fables and flashes ; for since that a man is unequally mixt , and that one element doth overtop the other , questionless the predominant element will prove a necessary cause of the dissolution of that mixtum ; but was a man tempered ( ad pondus ) equally , and as galen hath it , tota per tota , his nature would become eval , all the elements being in him composed to an equal strength in an equal proportion . if then otherwise the radical heat and moysture do sensibly diminish , certainly old age or gray haires cannot be prevented . possibly you may imagine a medicine , the which having a vertue of retarding the motion of the vital heat must of necessity prolong its life in the same manner , as i have read in some author , i cannot call to mind which , a candle hath been preserved burning for many years without the adding of moysture to it , by being placed in a close and cold cave deep under ground . here ( if true ) a flame was retarded in its motion by the constringent cold of the earth , and thereby the tallow was saved by being but a very little dissipated through the motion of the fire . i say then , could the natural heat be retarded by such a constrictive medecine , as to catochizate it , and hinder its motion , life might be protracted to some hundreds of yeares : but again , then a man could not be suffered to eat or drink in that case , because that must necessarily stirre up the heat , which excited , if it were not then ventilated by the substracting the forementioned constrictive medecine , whereby it might dissipate the acceding moisture , must incur into danger of extinction . but this prolongation of life pretended by theophrast . par. is attempted by hot medecines , such as they say do comfort and restore the natural balsom of man , which is so far from retarding old age , that it rather doth accelerate it ; for if the heat is augmented , then certainly it must acquire a stronger force , whereby it procures a swifter declination , as hath been shewed . besides , experience confirms this to us : many having accustomed themselves to take a dram or two of the bottle every morning , viz of aq. vit . matt. hoping thereby to fortifie their heat , and so to prolong their years , have by that means enflamed their heat , & soon kindled it up to a corruptive fire : & to this purpose , i remember a notable instance , which some or years ago i observed at leyden , where visiting the hospital weekly with the publick professor of physick , i took notice of a patient , being a man of about . his temperature cholerick , his habit of body thin and rough , his skin changed to a brownish tawny , and full of wrinkles ; his complaint was only of an universal faintness when he went ; his urine was overcocted ; enquiry being made into the constitution of every particular part , they were found to be like affected with an atonia calida , or intemperature towards heat : a further search was made into the cause of so universal a heat ; his diet and course of life had been very moderate , only he confessed that by advice of a physitian he had accustomed himself to take half an ounce of aq. vit . matt. every morning for years together : here the cause was found out , namely , the over-comforting and augmenting of his vital flame , which was now become so potent , that it had penetrated all the body , and was ready to diminish and decrease every day , whence through its dayly progress it had wrought such strange effects in this man , that he although but young , appeared to be as old as a man of . even almost such another patient i saw in the charitè hospital at paris . wherefore it is evident , that by such means life is not prolonged but shortned : neither will the oximel squillit . of galen , so much commended by him to keep back old age , do any more then the forenamed aq. vit . . i conclude then that old age may be retarded , and life prolonged , but by other means , then ever hath been derected hitherto by any man ; however lactantius writes , that adam used a most excellent and admirable magistery in his family , through which their years were much prolonged . many describe the length of life of the patriarchs to the same mysterious medicine , which was successively discovered to them by adam . i have read of artephius , and others in the daies of old , who are said to have protracted their daies to a thousand years by help of art , and means of using the tincture of gold , and sometimes the tincture of steel . i have also read of a maid , who had lived for many years without eating or drinking , she was not any thing sensibly altered in all that time , but lay constantly a bed , or moved seldom , unless it were to turn her . as i think , you may find the relation of it in schenckius his observ. here you have a plain retardation of age by a catochization of heat and the other qualities : for she being phlegmatick , her radical moysture was thereby incrassated , which incrassation kept her innate heat in the same flame for a long time , until that it was loosened by procatartick causes . i shall speak more at large concerning the catochization of fire in its flame below . through the same catochization of the elementary qualities other inanimated bodies were likewise preserved and retarded in their alteration , insomuch that the bodies so catochizated have not undergone the least sensible alteration or change in hundreds of yeares . the aegyptians had a way of preserving dead bodies three thousand yeares , as we read concerning their mummies , in such a manner that the corps could not suffer any sensible change in an age , or otherwise how could they have lasted so long ? the search into their manner of embalming leads us unto the knowledge of such a durability . they dipped close woven linnen into a melted mixture of gums , rozins , wax and spices , in which they wrapped the corps , rowling it sundry times close about , which afterwards they put into a thick leaden coffin , & shut it up in another oaken coffin , and placed the same in a deep , cold and dry celler or cave , being closely environed with dry sand and marble stones . all which caused a greater condensation of the earthy parts , incrassation of the moysture , and seisure upon the fiery and ayry parts , and a detention of the said parts in the same situation as they were seized upon : or it may be , they were a little more divided , whereby their force was somewhat clipped and stopped in their motion ; however there remained so much force as to keep the fire safe from being violently expelled by the weighty elements ; in such a manner that there passed no opposition between them , but they were seized upon , and so derained as a man is in a catoche , upon which ground i call it a catochization . did there pass any remarkable action between them , then the light parts must acquire a vent , whereby the body must necessarily change and approximate to a dissolution . . the greater incrossation of moysture doth keep in the heat , and indurates the body ; for were it thin , it would mollifie and open the body , and give occasion to the egress of the intrinsick heat . . the shrowding of the corps in many folds of gummed linnen doth hinder the ayr from penetrating to it , which if it did , it would soften the body , and make way for the effuge of the light parts . . the spices consolidating the body through their drying faculty , conduce to the detention of the heat . . the coldness and dryness of the place , and of the coffins do contribute to the same action , and preclude the way to the ingredient ayr. all other inanimate solid bodies are preservated and prolonged in their duration by detaining them in quicksilver , snow , wax , shining amber , honey , syrrups , gummes , oyles , wet and dry sand. as for a burning flame , it cannot be so rigidly detained as to have its smoke totally kept in , which reverberating upon the heat , and joyning with the other weighty elements , would violently expel the heat : but as i said before , the detention by condensation and incrassation must be no more , then that the smoak may pass ; yet in small flames this is not so much necessary . there is another means , whereby to prolong life by keeping the heat in a flame , and is performed through averting the heavy elements , and attenuating and lightning them by art ; for otherwise they would violently extinguish the flame . wherefore by the combination of these two means , namely catochization and aversion by way of detention , there may be an infallible medecine compiled for the prolongation of life , and retardation of old age. but of this more particularly in my principles of physick . . concl. production of life to an eval duration is impossible . were it that the necessity of mans dissolution was independent upon an improportionate temperament of the elements , yet gods decree , and judgment would necessarily bring it upon him , gen. . . but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die . job in the th . chap. declares the necessity and certainty of mans death , particularly in v. . seeing his dayes are determined , the number of his moneths are with thee , thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass . i cannot here omit the detecting of that dull vulgar errour and doubt arising about these very words of job . their way of argumentation is , if the life of man is determined to a year , a moneth , day and minute ; ergo it will prove in vain for me to have that care of my health , and caution of hazarding my life at sea or at land : in fine , there is neither anticipation or posticipation of life . man acts voluntarily , that is freely , without any necessary or fatal impulse ; wherefore one who is drowned at sea , was not compelled to go and be drowned , but went thither freely , or might have stayed away ; if then he might have stayed away , ergo his life might have been prolonged by staying away . or otherwise , suppose a man is diseased with a gangreen in some one extreme part of his body : cannot we say that this man , if he lists , may have his life prolonged by ampntating the gangrenous member , or if he will , that he may accelerate his death in suffering it to increase and creep on ? but to answer to the text. determination of dayes is twofold . . of the natural course of mans life : as , suppose that the temperament of man will last and endure ( if it run off in a natural course ) to a hundred and twenty yeares , some more , some less ; now this term may be said to be gods determination of the dayes of man , when he hath determined that his temperament shall endure no longer then he hath made it to endure naturally . . there is a determination of life before it hath run out his natural course , as when god doth manifestly cut down a man in the full strength of his years . again there is an ordinary determination of the duration of beings , by which god hath determined , that all things shall have their natural course of being , acting and continuing . were it not for this ordinary determination of god , he would never suffer the wicked to live , or that any natural thing should be serviceable to them . . there is also an extraordinary determination , through which god hath determined to act beyond his ordinary determination in , through , or upon things , which are ordinarily determined . this determination is secret , and called gods hidden will. neither doth his extraordinary determination contradict , or clip , or change his ordinary determination , but that god may or doth sometimes determinate beyond it . this premitted , i do assert , that the determination of mans dayes in the text , is to be understood of gods ordinary determination of the natural course of mans life . i confess although god according to his ordinary determination hath determined the natural course of mans dayes , yet he may through his extraordinary determination prolongate the same mans life to many years , and notwithstanding thereby he doth not contradict his ordinary determination ; for a man having run out his full natural course of life , hath therein answered gods ordinary determination , which being expired , god may , and sometimes doth supernaturally and by his extraordinary determination superadd other natural principles , through which his life is prolonged ; thus was the life of king hezekiah prolonged by god superadding new principles of life , whereby his life was protracted years longer ; for through gods ordinary determination he must have died fifteen years before ; because all his natural heat was spent through his disease , and his temperament run off : wherefore , as the text saith , kings . . he must have died of a necessity ; but god extraordinarily superadding a new heat , and a new life prolonged his dayes . in the same manner doth god oft-times through his extraordinary determination cut down the wicked , and shorten their dayes , psal. . look back to the and chap. of my natur. theol. here may be demanded , how adam and eves bodies could have been of an eval duration , supposing they had remained in their innocency , their bodies being tempered ad justitiam only , and not ad pondus . i answer , that ( according to all probability ) their primogenial temperature was by far more perfect ( compariativè ) then ours , and therefore did not consume faster then their natures could adunite other parts in the room of the dissipated ones ; besides that heat which was dissipated , was only part of the moveable heat ; as for their fixt heat , that was so arctly united and tempered , that its nexe was indissoluble , which through their fall is become soluble . this controversie is stated and handled more at large by beverovit . lib. de vit . term . and gregor . horst . lib. . de nat. human . exerc . . quest. & . whom you may peruse at your leisure . as generation did import a twofold signification , so doth corruption . . in a large sense , it implies a natural dissolution together with the declining alteration thereunto tending . . strictly it signifies a violent dissolution of a mixt body through a preceding putrefaction . hence those may be advertised , who do erroneously confound putrefaction and corruption , taking them for one . its species are combustion , petrification , corruption by waterish moysture , and corruption through ayry moysture . you may easily understand the natures of them by what hath been spoken before . whether corruption is possible to the elements , as they are now consisting mutually mixt one with the other , is a doubt moved by some . i answer , that a total corruption is impossible , a partial one happens every hour ; for we see ayry bodies , as clouds , dissolved every day : the like happens in the region of fire , where fiery bodies are dissolved every day , and others again generated . in the earth and water some bodies are likewise corrupted , and others generated every day ; so gold , silver , and all other hard metals , are sometimes violently corrupted under the earth , from an extrinsick potent and putrifying heat . chap. xxi . of light. . what light is . the manner of the production of a flame . . the properties and effects of light. . that light is an effect or consequent of a flame . whence it happens that our eyes strike fire when we hit our foreheads against any hard body . that light is not a quality of fire alone . that light is not fire rarefied . that where there is light , there is not alwaies heat near to it . how virginals and organs are made to play by themselves . . that light is a continuous obduction of the air. that light is diffused to a far extent in an instant , and how . why the whole tract of air is not enlightned at once . . the manner of the lights working upon the eye-sight . that sight is actuated by reception , and not by emission . . the reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction . that light cannot be precipitated . . that light is not the mediate cause of all the effects produced by the stars . that light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick spirits . how the air happens to burst through a sudden great light . that a sudden great light may blind , kill , or cast a man into an apoplexy . . how light renders all objects visible . why a piece of money cast into a basin filled with water appears bigger than it is . the causes of apparent colours . why a great object appears but small to one afar off . the difference between lux and lumen . what a beam is . what a splendour is . that the lights begot by the stars , and other flames are not distinguished specie . how the coelum empyreum is said to be lucid. i. vve are now to ennumerate and unfold the remaining qualities risen from the mixture of the elements ; such are light , colours , sounds , odors , and sapors . we will first begin with light , as being the excellentest among them . light is a quality emanating from flaming fire . a flame is nothing else but incrassated air expanded and deducted in rotundity by condensed fire , which is detained and imprisoned within the foresaid qualified air. the difficulties requiring illustration are , . how the fire comes to be condensed . . how imprisoned . . why the air doth immediately surround it . . how light is propagated , and the manner of its action . as to the first : fire i have told you will not burn unless it be condensed ; for being naturally rare , it penetrates through the incrassated air with ease : but being condensed it doth not , because it is adjoyned to a heavy gross body ( namely , the minima's of the earth and water ) which doth put a stop to its pass ; but nevertheless the force of fire is stronger by reason of those adjoyned heavy minima's : for fire being violently detained by them is grown stronger . . fire being to divide another thick body makes use of the compressing accuteness of earth to divide it , which it effects by protruding those dense parts before it ; for through its single rarity it could not . . fire flying out and being expulsed out of a mixt body , if it doth not meet with incrassated air to retain it , will pass and vanish ; but hitting against incrassated air it strives to pass ; the air again being continuous doth maintain her continuity with all her force ; and thirdly , the fire moving circularly makes a circular dent into the mass of the said thickned ayr , which it beats against , the advenient ayr also striving from all parts to recover its situation , and therefore necessarily surrounding the fire . the ayr again is also become stronger , because of its violent detention , notwithstanding the fire being the more potent doth diduct it into an oval or round figure , in the same manner as wind striving to pass the water doth blow it up into a bubble . fire being thus condensed , imprisoned , and surrounded with thick ayr , and diducting the same ayr into an oval or round figure is called a flame . ii. the properties of a flame are . to be burning hot , . to be an ( lux illuminans ) illuminating light . the burning proceeds from the particles of condensed fire violently striking through the moisture of a mixt body , whereby it divides it into ashes , or a black crust tending to ashes . before i shew the manner of emanation of light , let us first examine , what it is we call light * . light is that which is visible , and renders all things about it visible . wherefore you do mark , that light is nothing but that , which affects and moves the eye-sight . if then i make it appear to you , whereby it is that fire doth affect the eye-sight , therein i shew you the manner of emanation or operation of light. you must apprehend the optick spirits to be a thin continuous body , equally interwoven through all its parts with a proportion of thin yet a little condensed fire , ( for were it not a little dense it could not heat ) so that it is very like to the ambient ayr in substance and its other qualities . . supposing it to be an ayr , we must conceive it to be continuous with the ambient ayr , when the eyes are open . this premitted , i infer light to be nothing else but a continuous obduction of the ayr caused by a flaming fire . but let me here intreat your serious intention upon what i shall discover concerning the nature of light , it being one of the difficultest mysteries of all philosophy , and although its effects are luminous to the eye , yet its nature is obscure to the understanding . the search of this moved plato to leave athens and set saile for sicily to speculate those flames of the mount aetna . empedocles the philosopher hazarded himself so far for to make a discovery of the nature of a flame and its light , that he left his body in the mongibell fire for an experiment , although much beyond his purpose . it is almost known to all , how that the learned pliny took shipping from the promontory misenas to be traversed to the mount pomponianus , whither curiosity had driven him to fathom the depths of the vesuvian flames , but before he could feel the heat the smoak smothered him . iii. first then i prove that light is an effect of a flame . there is no flame but it causeth light , and by the light we know it is a flame ; ergo , light is an inseparable accident , and a propriety quartimodi of a flame , the antecedence is undoubted ; doth not a candle , a torch , a focall flame cause lights ? or did you ever see light and doubted of the flame of it ? what is the reason , when we hit our fore-heads against any hard thing , we say there strikes a light out of our eyes ? it is , because the violence of the stroke did discontinuate the optick ayr , through which the condensed fire * did unite and diduct the intrinsick ayr , which was incrassated through the same stroke , and so made a flame , or rather a flash , which is a sudden flame , that is quickly lighted , and quickly laid . secondly , light is not a single quality , inhering in fire alone : for were it so , then where ever fire is , there should be light ; but to the contrary we find , that there is fire inherent in the ayr , and many other bodies , yet the ayr remains dark after the descent of the planets . . were fire naturally light , we could never be in darkness , because the vast region of fire is so large , that it could not but illuminate thrice the extent of the ayr . thirdly , light is not fire rarefied and exporrected throughout all the dimensions of the ayr : for who could ever imagine , that a candle , being so small a flame , should serve to be drawn out through the ayr , and fill it with light to the extent of six or eight leagues ? for a candle may be seen at sea in a clear dark night six or eight leagues off or further , so that it is absurd to imagine this , and unworthy of a philosophers maintaining it . . it is impossible that fire could be so exactly mixt with ayr in an instant for so large an extent . . there is never a particle of illuminated ayr , but it is light to the full extent of the illumination , if so , then there must be a penetration of bodies . fourthly , light is not fire rarefied ; for were it so , then that fire which is most rarefied should be lightest , but the consequence is false , ergo , the antecedence also . i prove the falsity of the consequence : fire in brimstone , or flaming brandy is more rare than the fire of a candle , and yet it doth nothing near enlighten so much as the flame of a candle . fire most rarefied , as it is naturally , is not at all light . * lamps have burned in tombs for many years together , and have enlightned the same for as many years ; but it is absurd to conceive , that fire could have lasted , or been sufficient to be rarefied through the ayr for so many years ; some simply deny the possibility of it , although the same may be brought to pass at this present time . . where light is there is not alwaies heat near to it ; for if the contrary were true , then an equal light must have an equal * heat ; but this is averred to be false in greenland , where in their day-season it is as light as it is in the east-indies , and lighter th●n it is in the indies in the winter , and yet the heat in the indies is infinitely more intense than it is in greenland ; for here it is never hot , although less cold at some times above others . some author makes use of a musical instrument of cornel. drebbel to prove against all sense and reason that where ever light is , there is also heat . these kind of instruments are common enough now adaies ; they were organs and virginals that played by themselves ; all which ( saith the author ) depended upon the rarefaction and condensation of some subtil body , conserved in a cavity within the bulck of the whole instrument : for as soon as the sun shined , they would have motion and play their parts . and there is no doubt , but that grew out of the rarefaction of the subtil liquor he made use of , which was dilated as soon as the ayr was warmed by the sun beams . was ever a wise man so much wronged as to be made to believe , that a little subtil liquor could blow the bellows of organs , and that the beams of the sun should penetrate through boards and iron and rarefie the liquor contained therein ; and that the interposition of a cloud should lessen the sound of the instrument ; if so , why should not the interposition of a board rather lessen the sound ? for a boord shall keep away more heat from a thing than the interposition of a thin cloud . the business is this , there was no heat required to the motion of the said instrument ; for had there been so , a fire made in the room could have supplied the action of the sun after its descension . the instruments were made to move by a piece of clock-work , which was placed near to the keyes ; the work it self was moved by weights hung to it , or otherwise by a thing made within it like to the spring of a watch ; now when the wheels are almost run about , then the keyes strike feebler , and so the sound is diminished ; this he calls the interposition of a cloud ; neither is there any such rarefaction as he imagines to himself , and therefore is infinitely mistaken throughout his book in the nature of rarefaction and condensation : wherefore this is no proof that the suns light is alwaies hot . . the same philosopher argues , that the reason , why we do not feel the warmth of light , is because it is not hot enough to move our tact ; for that , which moves our tact by hear , must be of the same warmth , or hotter . this is another supposed subtility of his . that , which is not warm , cannot be said to be hot , because heat is a degree above warmth ; now in case there is so little warmth in a mixt body , that the cold of earth or water doth overcome it , that body is not to be called hot , or warm , but cold ; even so it is here , in case that light hath not so much heat as to warm , but rather cools , as we feel it enough in the winter , it is not to be said to be hot , but cold . vvho could imagine that a candle should heat the ayr twenty or thirty leagues about , its light extending about in circumference to little less ? iv. light is a continuous obduction , or thrusting up , or puffing up of the ayr , which puffing up is , as it were , an opening to the whole body of the ayr , in the same manner almost as wind being puffed under water raises and puffs up the whole body of it to a large extent , by which the water seems to be opened throughout all its body . i say it is continuous , for were it a disruption of the ayr and not continuous , it would cause a sound . a continuous obduction is an equal drawing up or support of the ayr to the circumference : that , which doth originally cause this obduction , is the fire condensed , which bears the ayr up equally and circularly , like as when you blow sudds up into bubbles , which likewise seems to create a light . the ayr being obducted originally about the light , its whole body is also obducted to a far extent at the very same moment : for supposing that the ayr is continuous , and that there is no such condensation ( as the vulgar imagines ) as is effected by penetration of parts or diminution of quantity , the ayr being trust up at one place , must also be trust up all about to a certain extent : the same is manifest in water , by puffing a thick wind through a reed underneath it , which little wind ( although unproportionate to the heavy body of water , which it raises ) puffs up all the parts of water at once , that is , in a moment ; the reason is , because the water being continuous , and nothing between it throughout all its dimensions but what is continuous , lyeth as continuately close ( which is the nearest closeness ) as can be conceived ; wherefore puffing one part up , you must necessarily at the same instant puff up all the other parts about it ; because they cannot introcede into one another . or otherwise , the reason why so improportionate a body should suffice to bear up so heavy a body as the water , ( for a puff of wind , if it be blown deep under the water , will raise fifty pounds of water , more or less , according to its force ) is , because the wind having moved the neerest parts of water , they bear one another up continuately unto the very surface . so it is with the ayr being puffed up by the fire , which at the same instant doth puff up all its parts about . here you may object , if the ayr be obducted in that manner by the flame of the fire , and that it giveth way continuately throughout its whole body without an intrinsick incrassation , then the least fire must stir the whole tract of air about it . i answer ; that the air is partially incrassated * , and not thorowly throughout all its dimensions ; wherefore when it is so puffed up it is only obducted in its extent according to the force of the flame : and when it is so stretcht ( as it were ) through the fires obduction , it receives the force of the flame partly only , because it is contracted by expelling the extrinsick bodies contained within it , & so yields to the fires obduction . the clearer the ayr is , the greater light it makes , because it containing no extraneous bodies cannot contract it self from the obtension of the fire by expelling such bodies , but being totally continuous it is obtended so far as the said ayr is continuous * , and according to the force of the fire . the reason then , why a light is terminated , is through the contraction of the ayr , and oft times through the density of an intermediate body as of thick vapours and exhalations . according to the diminution of the flame , the ayr relaxes and so the light diminisheth . v. the cause why a dense body is uncapable of generating a light , is by reason it is contiguous , and cannot be obducted , or stretcht , as it were . i have said , that that is light which moves our eye-sight : even hence i wil sensibly prove to you , that light is nothing but a continuous obduction of ayr . suppose that the optick spirits are for the greatest part an ayr , to which the external ayr , when the eye-lids are open , is joyned in continuity and becomes one continuous body with the optick ayr , in a manner as when one float of water toucheth another they become continuately one . wherefore then , when the ayr is continuously obducted , as far as where it is continuated to our optick ayr , it must necessarily also obduct and stretch the same optick ayr , because it is continuous to it . that light moves the sight by stretching the optick ayr is evident , in that when we look against the light , although its origin is far off , we feel a stretching in our eyes . . vvhen we have wearied our selves by seeing we complain that we feel a stretching in our eyes . in case the ayr is not obducted so far as to reach our eyes , then we do not see it ; as when a thing is out of sight , the reason , why we cannot see it , although nothing is interposed to hinder , is because its stretching doth not reach as far as our eyes . hence you may observe , that ( visus non fit emittendo sed recipiendo motum flammae , ) sight is not actuated through the emission of beams from our sight , but through the receiving of the motion of a flame , and more through suffering ( patiendo non agendo ) than acting . vi. the fire of a flame is to some extent dispersed through the ayr , and so far it heats the ayr : nevertheless its enlightning is much further extended . the sun , which is the greatest flame , its heat in the summer reaches to us in a very intense quality , its light would reach a hundred or more times further then it , were the tract of the ayr extended to a larger quantity ; but because it is not , therefore its heat in the torrid zone , and in the temperate ones in the summer , reaches as far as its light , which although it doth , is not therefore to be accounted the essence of light , as some have simply imagined . so that it was no less mistake to believe that the sun's light could be precipitated in a glass , and some to have collected of it no less then two ounces and half a day : the vertue of this precipitate is described to penetrate into the substance of the hardest metal . i do believe that it is very possible to precipitate such small bodies constituted out of the fiery emissions of the sun , whose vertue cannot but be very penetrative through the predominance of fire in them ; but nevertheless it is not the light which is precipitated , but fiery substances , neither is fire the light it self , but the cause of it . light is a property following the union of a flame with the ayr , wherefore the ayr is rather to be taken for the principal subject . vii . light is not the primar cause of all the effects produced by the stars , but their temperament and exsuperating heat . accidentally or privatively their remoteness and remission of heat may be a cause of coldness , and incrassation of the ayr , and consequently of its obscurity . the light of the sun doth not comfort the vital spirits , neither doth it act immediately upon them at all , although through its heat it may help and excite the vital heat of some frigid temperatures . the light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick spirits , and through altering them , may prove a mediate cause of vital and animal alterations . i prove it . if you go forth out of the dark into the light , you feel a distention , or rather an obtension of your visive spirits ; return again out of the light into the dark , and you will first perceive a relaxation , and afterwards a contraction of your sight . the mediated effect of light is a quickning of the vital and animal spirits , which are moved by continuation from the obtension of the optick ayr. a sudden great light causes a bursting of the air ; which happens , when the air is so much obtended , that it can stretch no more , and then , of a necessity it must burst . a bursting is a sudden breaking of a body throughout all its dimensions and parts as it were . the air is bursted through a great lightning or a flash before a thunder , which if the same bursting do reach diametrically to the optick air of an open eye , it will certainly blind yea sometime kill a man , because the same bursting is continued unto and upon the optick spirits , and sometimes is also further continuated , that it bursteth the whole treasure of the animal spirits , which necessarily must effect an apoplexy . a man coming forth suddenly out of the dark into a great light , is often struck blind , because his optick spirits are bursted through the sudden and strong obtention ; or if it obtends the optick air to the next lower degree , so as it may not cause a bursting , it then produceth a dazling of the sight , that is , an over-stretching of the optick spirits . viii . how light renders all things visible is a matter worthy of enquiry . the air being thus obtended and made visible through light , is terminated every where about by the surfaces of terminated bodies . these terminated surfaces resist the obtended air , and according to their several degrees of mixture or of fundamental light and darkness do attenuate , refract , diminish , contract or condensate the obtension . if the surface of the resisting object is continuous and weighty , it attenuates and refracts or reflects the light of the air ; and of that nature is water , for water being adunited to air in continuity , doth not only sustain the obtension of the air , but also through its reflexion obtends the obtended air yet more , and so the obtension upon the water must be greater , by reason it stops the obducted air more then any thing else ; wherefore its light is thinner , but withal greater , & makes all bodies therein contained shew greater . besides , water containing much air in her body , suffereth also an obtension of that , whereby bodies must necessarily appear bigger then they are . the reason why a piece of money in a bason with water appears bigger then it is , is because the water through impregnation with peregrine air , proper thickness and continuity doth reflect , and admit much obtended air or light , which being altered by the colour of the money , doth appear much bigger , then if seen through thin air alone . light is diminisht , because the air is condensed , so that whatever doth condense the air must diminish its light and obduction . whatever body light appulses against , it is thereby darkned , because the body , which it strikes against , condenses the air . according to this degree of condensation , the light is gradually diminisht , and darkned ; if it be terminated in a most dense earthy body , then it appears black ; if against a body , that hath less earth , or density , it appears brown , that is to say , at the point of reflection against an object ; and so gradually in all other . this change being wrought upon the terminating obtension by an objected body , it is repercussed to a certain distance , namely , as far as the repercutient action of that object can reach , which is as far , as until the air doth recover its proper station . if we are far off from an object , it appears less then it is , because its action doth diminish gradually like unto the streams of water , which about the center of action are greater , but the more remote they are , the less they grow . a flame is called a light ( lux ) because it begets light . the light begot in the air is called ( lumen ) an illumination . wherefore these lights are not really distinguisht , but ratione . neither is a flame to be called a light , unless when it doth obduct the air ; neither is the air to be termed a light or illumination , unless when it is obducted by a flame . radius , a beam is a diducted line of a flame tending directly from the center to the circumference . a splendor is the intention of light by a reflection or refraction upon a thick continuous smooth body . the lights begot by the stars , and other flames , are not distinguisht specie , because they depend upon the same causes , namely , upon fire and air. their difference consists in consistency , purity , bigness , &c. the coelum empyreum , or heavens of the angels are said to be lucid ; which may be understood tropically , or properly . if properly , possibly it hath a vertue of obducting the air like unto a flame . if tropically , lucid is equipollent to glorious . the bodies of the risen saints shall appear glorious and splendid , possibly because they shall be more ayry and fiery , that is flammy . chap. xxii . of colours . . the authors definition of a colour . that light is a colour . aristotles definition of colour examined . . scaligers absurdities touching colours and light. . what colour light is of ; and why termed a single colour . that light doth not efficienter render an object visible . how a mixt colour worketh upon the sight ; and how it is conveyed to it . . the causes of the variations of mercury in its colour through each several preparation . . that colours are formally relations only to our sight . that a mixt colour is not an intentional quality . that besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original subjects . how the same fundamental colours act . . that there are no apparent colours , but all are true . . the differences of colours . what colour focal fire is of . the fundamental colours of mixt bodies . . what reflection of light is . what refraction of colours is . aristotles definition of colour rejected . the effects of a double reflection . the reasons of the variations of colour in apples held over the water and looking-glasses . the variation of illumination by various glasses . . the division of glasses . the cause of the variation of colour in a prism . . the nature of refraction . why colours are not refracted in the eye . i. colour is a mode or quality of a mixt being , through which it moves the sight : if so , then certainly light is a colour : for , . it proceeds from a mixt body . . it moves the sight primarly , immediately and per se. i prove it . we do distinguish light from darkness , and a light body from a dark one by our sight ; ergo it moves the sight . probably you may deny my definition of colour ; wherefore i shall for your further satisfaction compare it with that of aristotle , and prove it to be consentaneous to it , differing only in precision , ours being less universal and nearer to sense then his . lumen ( which is equipollent to colour ) est actus perspicui quatenus perspicui . light or rather illumination is the act of a perspicuous body : quatenus perspicui is redundant . by actus is implied an actuation or motion . . by perspicuous is intended a body , that is capable of receiving or rather of reflecting light ; and is not the sight capable of receiving or reflecting light , and of being actuated by it ? or if you will take colour for a quality , following the temperament and mistion of the elements , the difference is not great , this being a definition of colour as it is considered in it-self a priori ; the other described a posteriori relatively and accidentally ; for it is per accidens to it to move the sight . i cannot but reflect at scaligers boldness , who pretending to exceed cardan in subtility , so as he seemed to reprehend and correct him in every distinction , but with more absurdity then he supposed cardan to be less subtil ; and particularly about colours and light , exercit. cccxxv . d. * . here he infers a real and formal difference between an accident and its subject ; the contrary hath so plainly been demonstrated . . that an accident is constituted out of a power and act. the falsity of which is detected in my disp. of pow. these assertions are not exempted from absurdities . . an accident and a substance being really and formally different , and owing their production to one substantial efficient , it follows that a substance produceth effects differing from it self in specie . . that a substance is an efficient of a power and act. power and act being two positive contraries , one substancial efficient is inferred to be an efficient secundum idem ad idem of two positive contraries ; for a power according to aristotle is not a privation ; for then it were a non ens reale , but a positive . . neither is power or substance the true matter of colour . not the power ; for that is like to the matter : not the substance , that being the sole whole substance : wherefore if neither power or substance be the true matter , it cannot be any real thing ; because whatever is real consists of matter and form : wherefore ( saith he ) we should say that it hath a substance for its subject , wherein it is inherent ; but in it self it hath a power and act out of which it is made one in the subject , and distinct from the subject , out of which essence that property of visible is produced . a manifest contradiction : first he saith , that an accident hath alwaies a substance for its subject , and yet in it self it hath a power and act . assuredly none will affirm a power to be in an accident , but in the subject for to receive such an accident ; this he alloweth himself : for an accident ( saith he ) is alwaies in a substance as its subject ; ergo it hath its essence from a subject : if then a subject giveth its essence , it giveth praecedentia and consequentia esse : it is then the power that is from the subject , as also the act ; ergo an accident is nothing but the subject modified . . constituting principles , as matter and form , are required to exist at one time : but the power and act cannot exist at one time ; for assoon as the act is advened , the power is fled . if then you assert it to be a principium generationis , then the subject thus constituted doth consist of a principle perse , and another per accidens : besides it followes , that an accident is an actus purus ; if so , then an accident is more perfect then a man or an angel. wherefore it appears that a colour is nothing else but a modification of a subject , and of the same rank that other accidents are of ; besides , that colour is exempted from a power and act , and that the substance is rather to be conceived to be instructed with a power of being coloured . the subsequent distinction confirms my interpretation of his words : for ( saith he ) light is an act of visibility : that is , it is an action upon a visible substance ; for visibility in the abstract being invisible , he ought rather to have declared how a lucid substance acted through its modality , or action upon our sense . the same scaliger in the said dist. asserts , that light is neither white or whiteness . no doubt it is no whiteness ; for that he never saw existent without a body , unless it was a spirit in his fancy : but the question is , whether it is not white ? his argument alledged against it is , because it cannot be seen in the air , and doth not terminate the sight . the former condition of his reason is simpliciter necessary : the latter is only necessary ( necessitate consequentiae ) by consequence . i reply to his argument : . that light is visible in the air , as i have shewed before . . light were it imaginable to inhere in an infinite subject , it would be interminate , and yet move the sight terminately ; for a man who is blinded by a thin cataract , knowes when it is day , and when night , because the light of the sun moveth his optick air , although very obtusely , and yet he neither sees the termination of the sun , or of the air. . light is not invisible , because of the thinness of the air ; but visible , because of its obductibility . . the airs intermination is falsly supposed to be the cause of its invisibility : for it is really terminate , because a being and termination in the concrete are convertible . further it is evident , that light must be necessarily terminated both in the body , whence it is derived , and in the body wherein it is received ; notwithstanding it is not alwaies necessary for us to perceive or see the lights termination in it self ; for that we seldom do , although it is terminated in and by our sight . according to our forestated definition light is accounted a colour , but most single , that is , without any composition , or reflection . ii. i call light a single colour , not absolutely , as if it were so in its own nature and constitution , but because it moves our sight singly without representing any mixt colour with it to the sight . this single motion of light is only its obtension continuated in the optick air , & is otherwise known by the name of an interminate pellucid . * in case light be reflected and gathered in great quantity by air thickned and somewhat condensed by thin and by a little condensed clouds , it produces a thick pellucid or whiteness in the air , which continuated to the optick air , produces the same whiteness there . this we perceive when the sun is said to shine , which it doth ever , when no thick dense clouds are interposed , & that its raies are condensed by thin clouded air being a little condensed . that the thin shining light is whitish , is further apparent by the peripatetick description of white . white is a colour , which doth most disperse the sight ; but so doth the sun shining light ; ergo it is whitish . or according to others , white is that , which containeth much light : ergo light is most white : because ( propter quod unumquodque tale est , illud magis tale est ) light being the cause and fountain of white , must be most white in it self . iii. light ( lumen ) is actus visibilitatis ( saith scaliger ) that is , it renders a visible thing visible : but how ? not efficienter ( for then without light in the air there should be no fundamental colours , and every colour must be produced through light at the moment of its appulse ) but as a medium or causa sine qua non . as a medium in that it doth defer the ratio obductibilitatis of every object to the eye . the manner of it is thus ; every mixt colour is nothing else but the degree of the alteration of the mixt objects wrought upon the air by their greater or less pinching , contracting , or deading of it : supposing that the greatest extention of the ayr causes a pellucidness , that which gathers , contracts , or deads the ayr a little and staies its obtension is white ; that which gathereth it yet more is yellow . that which doth gather it most is black , that which gathers it less is brown , and so gradually . this gathering of the obtended ayr by the objected mixt colour is a kind of a pinching , whereby the ayr is continuately pinched , to the extent of a certain sphaere . the ayr being pinched doth continuately pinch the optick ayr , which if it be a little pinched by an objected colour , it discerneth it to be white , or if very much it discerneth it to be black ; hence when we enter into a mourning room hung about with black cloath we perceive a perfect pinching or contraction in our eyes . here may be demanded , whence this various manner of pinching proceeds , since that pinching is caused by a solid object , if so , then the solider an object is the more it should pinch , and consequently the blacker it should be , which seems erroneous ; for gold is of a yellow colour , which otherwise should be blackest , because it is the most solid of all bodies . i answer , that this various manner of pinching * depends upon the degrees of the gathering of light or obtended ayr . that which doth most gather or deads the ayr , being a continuous or fluid body is a dense and contiguous body ; so that the more dense that a body is , the more light it gathers , and pinches the stronger , and consequently is the deeper coloured . but that , which is continuous although very thick yet it gathers nothing near so much as a continuous body , because its continuity hinders its pass , and so the light reflects upon it and produces a splendor , whereas a contiguous body divides the ayr and giveth way for its entrance , and so it pinches , and next darkneth it . wherefore gold being continuous , that is , consisting of much water condensed , and ayr incrassated , reflects the light , and so produces a splendor . now , that gold consisteth of those moist parts ; i prove it , because gold contains a lentor in it , ( which is a concomitant of water and ayr , as i shewed you before ) for cast a piece of gold into the fire , and let it lye there for some proportionate time , and being taken out you may diduct it into any form or figure , and turn or bend it any way . since that gold consisteth of a proportion of continuous parts , it is thereby rendred splendid , and yellow from the proportion of contiguous parts contained within it . wherefore if you reduce gold into a calx , you deprive it of its splendor ; because you have taken away its continuity of parts . iv. give me leave to demonstrate to you the reasons of all the various colours which mercury attains to through its various preparations ; and thence you may collect the reasons of colours befalling all other bodies , ( whether mineral or vegetable ) through their several preparations . mercury is . splendid , because of its thick continuity of parts . . it s silver-like colour derives from its paucity of contiguous parts , which it containing in that small quantity doth render it a little darker than white , and is the cause , why it is not pellucid like unto water . . the reason why mercury becometh white like unto a white frost by being dissolved by aqua fort. is , because it is diducted and attenuated through all its dimensions , and therefore collecting and pinching the light a little only , it appears white * . . mercury changeth into a yellow colour after it hath been dissolved by oyl of vitriol , and being separated from the dissolvent by exhalation it abides white , but being cast into water it changeth yellow . the whiteness , which remains in mercury after the evaporation of the oyl , is , the colour of the corosive salt coagulated into an attenuated body by the mercurial vertue . the casting it into water doth deprive it of the forementioned salt , which is dissolved into water ; that , which doth remain , is the courser part of the salt incorporated with the mercury , whose substance contains such a proportion of earth as to gather somuch of the obtended ayr and to pinch it into a yellowish colour . . the whiteness of mercury sublimate corrosive , and of mercury sublimate dulufied derives more from the attenuated salt , than the body the mercury . . the same corrosive mercury sublimate dissolved into fair water and precipitated by oyl of tartar changeth into a clay red ; here you must not imagine that it is the oyl of tartar in a drop or two doth colour the whole substance of the precipitated body ; for it self is of another colour , besides were it of the same it is improportionate to colour a whole body by a drop or two . it happens then through the deprivation of the thinner parts of the corrosive salt swimming in the water . that , which the oyl of tartar performed in this preparation , is nothing but to free the body from its detaining spirit , which it doth by attracting it to its own body , and uniting it self with it into a small body ; the red colour depends upon the quantity of thickned earth of the precipitate . i shall not importune you with the relation of colours befalling through other preparations , since you may easily infer a reason of them from what hath been proposed concerning the variation of colours in mercury . v. from this discourse i do further infer , . that the formality of colours doth mainly consist in a respectiveness and relation to our sight , and is no hing else but what man by his sight discerns it to be , for had man no sight there would be no colours , although there would be an alteration upon the ayr extended . likewise light would not be light but ayr obtended : so that i say the absolutum fundamentum relationis suppositae would be there , but not ipsa relatio , because the correlatum is defective . the like understand of sounds , sents , or tasts , which as to us are nothing but certain realities moving our animal spirits by certain respective modes , which realities moving the senses in certain modes are called such or such sensible qualities : what they may be further really in themselves we know not , because we perceive no more of them , than what we call such and such ; the others , although real , yet we suppose them to be non entia , because we do not perceive or know them . but i prove the proposition , all positive and absolute beings perform their actions responding to their modes ; but none of these fore-mentioned qualities may be so termed sensible qualities ( to wit , colours , sounds , & unless modifying the senses . . that a mixt colour is not an intentional quality produced by the coloured object in the ayr , but a real quality , really inhering or effected in the ayr by the original action of a fundamental colour . what shall an intentional quality act really ? ergo , quiddam esset in effectu , quod prius non fuerit in causa , which contradicts that maxime concluding the contrary . besides , colour would be affected with two sorts of accidents , one really inherent in the object , the other in the ayr . . it supposeth accidents to migrate è subjecto in subjectum , which is impossible . nevertheless scaliger pretends to prove light to be a quality produced in the ayr and distinct from the efficient ; that is , that lumen is really distinguisht from lux , if so , then lumen could exist , when lux is separated and removed from it ; but that cannot be , ergo there is no real distinction between them . according to the same rule we might raise a real distinction between the coloured object immediately altering the ayr , and the colour or lumen produced in the ayr from that colour being a lux in comparison to the other . this real distinction is rejected by the same arguments : because a colour in the ayr or a lumen cannot exist , when the colour ( or lux ) in the object is removed . . that notwithstanding the respective formality , there is a real foundation in coloured bodies , which is a certain degree of temperature , whereby they being somewhat contrary to our sense move and act , but mediately , upon its temperament . . that through this absolute foundation a colour doth move or act really upon the ayr , and through it upon other inanimate bodies , yet not as it is a colour , but as it is an absolute foundation or a degree of temperament . this motion is not very considerable ; for although it may move a light thin body out its place , yet it will hardly move locally a thick or dense body , wherefore it is ridiculous to opinionate , that lumen of the stars , otherwise termed their influences , should be the causes of so great effects upon great bodies , as are adscribed to them . vi. colours are generally divided by the peripateticks into two sorts , viz. into true , and apparent . true colours are such as do really inhere in their subjects in the same manner , as they are represented to the eye . apparent ones are those , which are not really inherent in their subjects in the same manner as they seem to be to our sight ; such are the colours of a rainbow , or of a peacocks feathers , or of the sea-water : because these according to the several distances and position of the eye seem divers . the cause they impute to the light ( lumen ) which according to its various aspects renders the said colours various : the errour of this doctrine will appear from these conclusions . . all apparent colours are real and true colours ; as for their being real colours but few do doubt of it , because they do really move the sight . that they are true colours i prove hence : that , which is a real colour , must be a true colour , because a being and true are convertible ( ens & vernm convertuntur ; ) wherefore if it be a colour it must be a true colour , or else none ; for it doth as really and truly move the sight as that which is strictly called a true colour , or how should we see it else ? to this you reply , that you do not deny it to be true a colour in one sense , namely metaphysically ; but in another , and in respect to a true colour strictly so called , it is not true . i answer , that all the difference i find between them is , that the one is more durable or less changeable than the other , which doth not make the one more or less true than the other ; for did an apparent colour move the sight otherwaies than it doth , it would be no true colour , but it moves the senses as it is , and to most mens sight it is the same continuing its duration : for when we see a rainbow , its colours do appear the same to all standing in the same place ; but were they not true , they would appear in one shape to one , and in another to another . as for their different appearances and shapes at several distances and positions is as well incident to those , which they call true colours , as to apparent ones ; for a picture , where the colours are all real and true , will vary at several distances and positions . you will say , that a picture will not vary in colour , if you look upon it from the right opposite place , where the light is cast in a due proportion . i answer , neither will that , which you call the apparent colour of a picture vary , keeping the same place and distance : and what difference can you then make between them ? the only difference between them is their more or less durability and changeableness which proceeds from its greater or less compactness of mixture . the colour of a rainbow is as true a colour at that position and distance , as of any other object , it differing alone in durability ; for suppose a colour to be altered by a reduplication or over-casting of another colour in substance , but the same in appearance ; as for instance , a painted face having its natural colour hid under a painted colour , certainly you will say that the latter is only an apparent colour ; if so , wherein is the latter different from the former being a true colour ( as you call it ) but in durability ? to wit , the paint wears off , and the other abides . the same is observable in the clouds , whose lasting colour is blewish , their fading or painted colours are the rayes of the sun incorporated with their bodies , really and truly altering their lasting colours ; nevertheless this latter is as true a colour , as the paint was upon a painted visage . vii . the differences and number of colours are various and many ; for every temperament hath a several colour attending it : but as it was not every insensible alteration of temperament , that constituted a new temperature , saving that alone , which is sensible ; so neither doth every insensible alteration of colour constitute a new colour , but only such a one as is sensible . colours are either durable and less mixt , ( mixti è paucioribus ; non vero minus mixti ) or changeable , and more mixt , that is , with extrinsick heterogeneous bodies : so that a durable colour arises from a compact temperament of the elements included by extrinsick bodies ; the other depends upon a less compact union of the elements . changeable colours are various also according to the lights reflection , or refraction , and its various incidencies upon objects which causeth them to appear either whiter or blacker , or otherwise lighter or darker . a changeable colour is sometimes accidental to a persistent colour , as appears by the fore-mentioned instance of a painted face . colours are extreme or intermediate . extreme ones are such , as cannot be intended or heightned in their action , as black ( i mean that , which is blackest ) cannot be heightned ; that is , it cannot be supposed to pinch and drown the light more than it doth . these extreme colours depend upon the extreme or greatest proportion of the superating element in reference to the whole : so that in case fire is the greatest predominant , its body is white ; if the earth , its subject is black . according to this supposition there are four extreme colours , because there are four extreme proportions of the elements : which are these ; white , black , crystalline , and pellucid . this is made known to us , . in that sea-coal consisting of most earth is black . . a flame consisting of most fire , is white , to wit , the sun. . the ayr consisting most of ayry parts is pellucid . . ice consisting most of waterish parts is crystalline . i will further prove this by reason : if blackness be proper to earth and earthy bodies , whiteness must be proper to fire and fiery bodies , they being opposite correspondents to one another in all qualities . the colour , which is in water and waterish bodies , is neither white or black , ergo it must be an extreme colour of it self ; for since that each element obtains distinct extreme qualities , the same must also be in colours . who would say that water is white or black , or partakes of any white or black from fire or earth ; wherefore theophrastus was to be blamed for adscribing yellow to fire , and white to the three others . that , which moved him to appropriate yellow to focal fire , was , because for the most part in flaming or burning it seems yellow and reddish . to this i answer , that the colour of focal fire is not an extreme colour , because fire is not inherent in focal fire in its greatest proportion and predominance , it having much earth to obscure its extream whiteness , and so it is turned to a yellow or red , but where fire is in his greatest predominance and least counterpoised by earth , there it seems alwaies white , as appears in the colour of the sun , and in oyl or fat cast into focal fire burning white . here may be objected , that snow is white ; ergo , it should consist most of fire , which it doth not . i repeat my distinction of durable and changeable colours , and affirm that whiteness depending upon fire is deprehended only in durable and compact permixt bodies ; the other inherent in changeable subjects and thin open bodies derives more from the ingredient light entring their pores , where being a little pinched and collected appears white , so that this may be thought to be as much the colour of the condensed light as of the body , which lasteth no longer , than it is condensed by condensed water , and that being melted the colour vanisheth withall ; possibly you will turn your objection to a bone , which being white , doth not contain fire predominating in it . i answer , that a bone consists of much fire and ayr as appears in its flammability , and therefore is white . lastly , you may object , that a marble stone or alabaster is white , but neither are fiery . i answer , that both do consist of a condensed and attenuated water , and not without a little rarefaction caused by the fire . suppose that marble were only a natural water , which as i have demonstrated is naturally thick and consistent like unto ice , and condensed with a little earth , certainly it would be of a transparent and crystalline colour ; this ice being yet more condensed by earth pinches and collects the light a little , and so appears white . wherefore observe , that this white is primarily an extrinsick colour depending on the incidence of light , and not fundamental alone wrought by the internal temperature of the mixt body . so that this objection doth conclude nothing against our assertion mentioning intrinsick colours acting from a compact mixt body . the reason why marble and alabaster are shining is , because their body is consistent of a continuated substance , to wit , thick water . intermediate colours are such , as arise out of the descent of the elements from their extreams : to wit thus , the less there is of fire , the less it is intrinsecally and fundamentally white ; the less there is of earth , the more an object diminisheth in blackness : which degradations constitute the intermediate colours . intermediate colours are almost infinite , but enumerating them according to the above-stated condition of latitude of colours ; they are vulgarly counted ten in number : . yellowish , subflavus , . yellow . . reddish ; subruber . . red. . greenish . . green. . blewish . . blew . . brownish . . brown. red is an equal mixture of black and white , and is the center and middle of all colours being equally interjacent between the two extreams : so that all colours are between red and white , and between red and black , as appears in the subnext scheme of colours . before i proceed , i will commend to you a very necessary distinction of intermediate colours , which are either fundamental or extrinsick . the fundamental intermediate colours are those , that are constituted by the internally proportionated elements in temperament , and are compactly permisted . the extrinsick colours are such as are as much imputable to the external incidence and ingredience of light. this premitted , i say , that a fundamental red doth only consecute a body mixed and temperated ad pondus , which was alone in the chaos , the noblest of colours befitting so noble a body . of those red colours which we now have , a sanguine cometh nearest to it , because it proceeds from the exactest temperature ad justitiam , which is nearest to that ad pondus . the change from this towards the extreams ( as before ) constitutes a different colour : if to water , its change is into a green , as you may observe in the bloud of hydropick bodies appearing greenish ; if to air , blewish , as you see it doth in the clouds , which is changed out of a red cloud being dispersed into a greater measure of air ; if to harth , brown : if to fire , yellow , which is manifest in bloud turning to a yellow , if predominated by fire or choller ; to brown if predominated by melancholy or earth ; to blew if attenuated or incorporated with predominant air . besides these , there are many others , which because approaching to some one of the forementioned , i shall not think material to relate , but refer you to scaligers cccxxvth . exerc. where you have the names of most colours set down . what splendor and the cause of it is , you know already : its opposite is a deadishness , which as splendor is effected upon a smooth and continuated body , so is this effected upon a ruggid and contiguous body . luminous and opake are also opposites . the latter is distinguisht from black , in that this is taken for a fundamental colour , the other for an extrinsick privation of light . viii . reflection of light is the beating back or reaction of a splendid or thick body upon the obtended air , which reflection obtending and stretching the air yet more , then it was before makes it apdear much lighter . that it is made lighter , is discerned by the eye , which is more forcibly obtended by the reflected light , which if it be much , causes a dazling in the eyes , and is nothing else but an over-retching of the optick air and membranes , and sometimes is so great that it presses water out of the eyes . reflection is only upon continuous bodies , as gold , silver , brass , steel , precious stones , glass , and water , &c. ix . refraction of colours is a reflection seeming to be broke ; as when you put a stick into the water , the colour of it seems to be broke . by an internal reflection its colour seems to be more augmented in quantity and extent of parts , then really it is . the manner of it is thus : mark that a superficial reflection doth not augment the extent of a colour , which reflects the light ; for gold or crystal is not augmented in extent of colour , that is , seems not bigger then really it is by reflecting light superficially , neither do they render a colour in the air bigger then it is . . a double reflection is the continuation of a reflection * ; for there is also a reflection of light within the very body of an object , as you may see by a piece of money cast into the water , or big sands lodged sometime within the center of a diamond or crystal , causing a reflection although remote from the surface ; wherefore a colour is not well described by arist. lib. de sens. & sensil . to be the extremity of a terminated perspicuous body ; for i have told you where and how it may be visible in the intrinsick body of an object . notwithstanding this , scaligers objection , in exerc. . d. . against colour stated to be the extremity of an object , is invalid . his objection is , because a chesnut is coloured in the middle as well as in its extremity ; ergo , saith he , colour is not the extremity . but how did he know a chesnut to be coloured in the middle ? questionless by seeing it cut through ; if so , then that middle cut through is now come to be the extremity , & so there appears no great subtility in his argument . wherefore i do grant that a fundamental colour is also in the center of an opake body , but then it is no formal colour , that is , it is not actu visible , except in the surface * . crystalline bodies are internally visible throughout all their parts , and do augment the extent of a colour . to augment the extent of a colour is to dilate it , or to make it less pinching upon the air , then it was without reflection : for example , an apple seen through the air appears no bigger then it is ; but if held over the water , and its colour perceived reflected , seems much bigger : the reason is , because the colour of the apple pincheth the air , which air thus pinched beating against the water , is reflected , that is , is beaten back again , which reflection is a greater obtension of that air so pinched , and the same obtension or stretching must needs dilate that air thus pinched , which dilation is the augmentation of the colour of the apple . the colour of the apple impressed upon the air by its pinching seems to be rendered paler through the said reflection , because the dilatation of the air being through it made lighter , doth through that light somewhat expel the obscurity of the colour of the apple . here observe , that this reflection is not a single reflection , but a reflection upon a reflection , which i call double . i will more amply explain it to you : a single reflection is , which doth reflect upon the extream surface , and descends no deeper ; thus it is upon gold or brass . the double reflection is , when this extream superficial reflection is continued and propagated by the circumferential parts next adjacent to the extream surface , which makes the first reflection stronger , and therefore more dilatating the coloured air , which more dilatating of the coloured air makes the colour appear sensibly larger , although the colour is somewhat dilated by a single reflection , but it being insensible , we do not state it to be larger . the reason , why an apple held over the water and seen at a certain distance obliquely from the side , appears much more enlarged then seen directly , is , because the light is reflected in a larger extent , and consequently the colour impressed upon it must be more dilated . hence you may also be resolved , why some looking-glasses render ones face bigger and paler then it is . this happens through the thickness of the glass , wherein the second reflection is continued from some depth , and therefore doth more obtend the air , and dilate its impressed colour . thin and gibbous glasses render a face less and swarthy , because they do less reflect the light , and rather loosen its obtension through their thinness , a little piece of a plain looking-glass doth represent no more of the face then its bigness will permit ; so that if it be no bigger then your eye , you will see no more in it then your eye . a gibbous or spherical looking-glass , be it never so little , doth represent the whole face of a man , although but obscurely . now let us enquire into the ground and cause of these different representations . alhazenus and vitellio seem to assert , that all colours are represented in a pyramid , that is , by being equally fastigiated from their extream circumference unto a point of reflection ; and therefore they term this optick pyramid simpliciter an optick figure , as if all colours whether radial or luminous , were represented through it . but this is contradicted by the experiment of a plain looking-glass , where the figure of an object is not at all augmented or diminisht , but reflected in an equal extent , as it is represented through a simple vision . notwithstanding it holds true in objects reflected upon spherick looking-glasses , where ( as i have proposed just now ) objects if circular , are reflected in a conical optick figure , and if lineal , their radiature is reflected in a triangular or pyramidal optick figure . the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of these is vulgar enough ; but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i could never hear from any . . it is certain that all colours are represented through their direct rayes , or in direct lines . . these rayes are nothing else , but the pinchings of the luminous air by the objects . . these pinches being plain or sometimes bubbly are equally and plainly reflected by a plain looking-glass , and therefore the object reflected seems equal to the object when perceived by a simple vision . but in case the object be reflected by a spherical glass , then the central parts of it are reflected by the extream protuberance of the glass in a sloping manner ; not plain , because the body reflecting is not plain ; for it is the reflecting body , which gives it its extent of figure , as i said before ; if it be plain , it reflects that bubble plain , that is , stretches it out to a plainness , which must be full as big as the bubble can stretch out . but the reflecting body not being plain , but falling slopingly , the coloured air fals down with it , and is thereby contracted into a lesser extent in the same manner , as when you spread a handkerchief upon a plain table , the handkerchief thus extended is of a larger figure then when you cover your head with it , where its figure is contracted to a less compass , because of the declining figure of the head . ix . robert flud tract . . part . lib. . sets down this division of glasses : a glass is either regular , or made up out of regulars . a regular glass is plain or difform . the latter is . a concave , which causes a thing to seem bigger then it is . . convexe , which causes a thing to seem lesser then it is . , & . pyramidal and columnal , making a thing to appear longer then it is . . spherical , which causes a thing to seem broader then it is . to these difform glasses , cylindraick , conical and parabolical glasses are to be referred . the causes of their various reflections you may easily deduce from our discourse ; wherefore i shall spend no more time about it . the obliquated radiatures of an object are propagated to a certain distance and sphere , beyond which the said object is invisible . hence you may know why a piece of money being placed in a bason , and going back from it until it is out of sight , comes to your sight again , if you cause water to be powred upon it . the propagation of an object reflected is circular , and therefore to as many as can stand about that bason where money was placed in , the same will appear . the various colours appearing to the eye looking through a prism are effected through the gradual diminutions of light passing through the depth of the said prism , and modifying the sand contained within the body of the glass , the same colours do also appear to us when we see against the light through a glass full of water . x. but to pursue my discourse of refraction . there must not only be a reflection , but also a discontinuation or abruption of planeness or equality of the body reflected , and thereby it becomes as it were , two bodies , and is reflected also in a double species ; but were it continued in equality , it would be expressed but as one single species . the reason , why an inequality in one continuous body causes a refraction , is , because every protuberance contracts the species of an object reflected upon it , and consequently must represent each of them in a several species . wherefore a prism doth represent the same colours of each side of its angle , because of the refraction of the light arriving through the inequality of the angle . the ground of the other appearances of a prism you may easily collect without any further repetition . the sun appears as manifold in the water , as the water is rendered unequal through undulation . there is no refraction without a reflection ; wherefore refraction is erroneously divided into simple and mixt , supposing simple to be a refraction without a reflection , which is scarce imaginable . the eye of man consisting of continuated equal crystalline parts as membranes and humours , doth not refract objects reflected upon it , because of the said continuous equality , but in case any of the humours are discontinuated by an interjacent body , objects appear double , because of the refraction in the eye happening through the inequality of the said interjacent body . a scheme representing the derivation of colours . chap. xxiii . of sounds . . the definition of a sound . that the collision of two solid bodies is not alwaies necessary for to raise a sound . . whether a sound be inherent in the air , or in the body sounding . the manner of production of a sound . . whether a sound is propagated through the water intentionally only . that a sound may be made and heard under water . . that a sound is a real pluffing up of the air. how a sound is propagated through the air ; and how far . why a small sound raised at one end of a mast or beam may be easily heard at the other end . why the noyse of the treading of a troop of horse may be heard at a far distance . . the difference between a sound and a light or colour . that it is possible for a man to hear with his eyes , and see with his ears ; likewise for other creatures to hear and see by means of their feeling . . the difference of sounds . why the sound of a bell or drum ceaseth assoon as you touch them with your finger . why an empty glass causes a greater sound then if filled with water . . the reasons of concords in musick . . the causes of the variation of sounds . why celestial bodies , rain and hail do make but little noyse in the air. . how sounds are restected . how sounds are intended and remitted . . the manner of refraction of sounds . what an undulating sound is . . how a voyce is formed . i. sound is a quality , whereby a natural body moves the hearing . this is a formal and relative definition of a sound , because we call that a sound , which moves the auditory spirits or internal air of our hearing . besides this , it hath a fundamental essence , which is nothing else but a concussion and conquassation of the air ; or otherwise , it is the air suddenly and violently concussed or conquassated , vibrated or rather pluft up by an extrinsick continuous body , be it hard or sof , liquid or solid , single or double , that is , between two . in the first place i might here question , whether a soft or liquid body is apt to make a sound , since aristotle in his . t. de anim. chap. . states a sound to be the percussion or collision of two solid hard bodies , and particularly that soft bodies , as a sponge , or wool do make no sound . notwithstanding this assertion of arist. which afterwards i shall make appear to be false , i prove that liquid and soft bodies make a sound : poure water to water , and hearken whether they make no sound ; beat one sponge against another , and listen to their sound ; throw one pack of woollen cloath upon the other , and hearken whether they make no sound . ii. next let us enquire whether a sound be a quality inherent in the solid bodies , or in the air . not in the solid bodies , because they give very little sound in a small compass of air , and consequently none without air . wherefore it must rather inhere in the air . i prove it , a sound is a passion , but it is the air that receives this passion ; ergo the sound is in the air . the passion is to be krutcht , pluft up , or shaked . . a sound sometimes is made when the air is immediately pluft up by one body , as when we make a noise by switching the air , we hear a sound is made in the air . the definition of a sound asserts it to be a violent and sudden concussion ; for if you do concuss the air , although pent between two hard bodies , softly and retortedly , it will make no sensible sound , because the air gets out from between them , by pressing gradually upon its adjacent parts without being pluft up , or being kept in by them , and so escapes making a noyse . but when it is suddenly and violently pressed upon by one or two bodies , it is forced to pluffe up , because the adjacent air doth not give way fast enough . the air being pluft up or concussed , is continuated to the ear , by reason that one part pluffes up another , & so the parts of air lying close in continuation one upon the other , are soon pluft up & continuated to the auditory air , within the ears , which it moves likewise with the same degree and property of pluffing , as the degree of percussion was first made upon it by the property of the percutient . how air is pluft up , may easily be aprehended , viz. by two bodies suddenly & violently squeezing out the air , which was between them , by their sudden collision against one another : for instance , clap your hands hard together , & you may by the subtil feeling of your face perceive the air pluft up from between them . or else a pluffing may also be caused by a smart impulsion of the parts of air upon one another by a stick , board , or any other single continuous body . the reason of a sounds celerity and extent of motion to such an improportionable distance you may apprehend from the cause of the swiftness of the lights diffusion treated of in the foregoing chapt. but withal mark , that light and diffusion of colours are by far swifter then sounds , because a flame being a most subtil and forcible body , doth much swifter obtend the air ; besides the air doth rather accur in an obtension to prevent its disruption , then recede ; whereas in making a sound the air is longer in being obtruded or pluft away from the percutients , because it retrocedes , and the force percussing doth not compass it circularly from all sides , but adversly only . hence it is , that at a distance we see a hatchet driven into wood long before we hear the sound of it ; or that we see lightning before we hear the thunder . iii. i remember , it is an ordinary doubt moved by the peripateticks , through what medium a sound is deferred to the hearing . their solution is , that a sound is really deferred through the air , as through a medium , but intentionally through the water . this seems to partake of no small absurdity ; for many of them do assert , that a sound is subjectively * in the air ; if so ; then a sound would be said to be its own medium , which is absurd ; for a medium is ever intended to be a different thing from that , to which it is a medium † . touching their solution , it is partly false in that they affirm a sound to be intentionally only deferred through the water : but why more intentionally through the water then through the air ? i will first propose an instance inferring water to be capable of receiving a sound , and then enquire further into the case . frogs croaking under the water make a sound there , which we hear above the water ; likewise we hear the sound of a pole hitting against a stone under water . certainly none will deny , but that the sound of these is really propagated by obtruding the air through its bursting upwards ; for we see the water plainly burst or pluffe upwards a little before we hear the noyse made by a frog , or pole ; ergo the action of a sound is real , as well in or through the water , as through the air . possibly they may grant me , that the noyse made in the water is a real action , but deny the noyse made in the air and propagated through the water to be real , asserting it to be intentional only . i prove it to be reall . a great sound made in the air doth sensibly cause a streame in the water ; ergo , its action is really continued upon the water . but again , a sound being made in the air , its action is much obtused , because of the improportion between water being very thick , and air being very thin ; so that a great noise in the air will make but a little noise in the water ; and a little noise in the air will make no sensible noise in the water . but were this audible quality in the water intentional , then the least sound in the air would be perceptible in the water : but the one is false , ergo , the other is false also . that a great sound in the air is audible in the water , yet but very obtusely is testified by duckers or divers under the water ; the same is seconded by pliny in his natural history , . b. . chap. attributing hearing and tasting unto fishes , and relating that fishes have been called together by a certain sound to take their food . gellius lib. . noct . attic . c. . doth also recite out of herodotus , that arion , being cast over-board by the sea-men , did through the harmonical sound of his musick draw the dolphins to him , whereof one took him upon his back and carried him safe to a harbor : supposing this to be but a story , nevertheless the allusion of the famous inventor witnesses that fishes can hear under the water . iv. certainly few will require any proof from me , that a sound is a real concussion or pluffing of the ayr , since there is no great sound but it shakes air , houses and the earth too whereon we stand , and that sometimes to a very great distance . some years past it hapned that the magazine of delf , a town in the low-countries , was blown up , by an accidental fire sighted upon the gunpowder , the great sound or concussion of the ayr caused through this blast was extended to many miles , insomuch that it was very perfectly perceived at amsterdam . the same blast forced open one of the windows of the chamber where an acquaintance of mine lay then at the hague , with that violence , that its rebounding against the wall broke most of the panes . at dunkirk the sound raised by blowing up of two or three barrels of gunpowder killed a boy although at some distance from it ; which accident hapned because the concussion or pluffing of the ayr was continuated with that force , that it did in that manner violently concusse or rather disrupt the animal and vital spirits of the boys body , which in a manner are ( as i said before ) a continuous ayr intermixt with some contiguities of fire and earth . i have formerly told you , that the propagation of ayr or any quality or effect inherent and impressed in and upon the ayr reaches no further than its continuity is extending , and works only upon other continuous bodies : the reason is , because the same action is continued only upon bodies , which are of the same nature , and which receive that action in the same manner : wherefore ayr and water being both continuous and united in continuity do receive the effects acted upon their continuities alike and in the same manner , that is to say , as far as they are both continuous , and the effects are acted upon their continuities in a like manner : saving that the tenuity of the one , and crassitude of the other , doth hinder or facilitate , augment or diminish the said action thus continuated from one to the other . further as much as one is deprived from its continuity by having its body intermixt with contiguous indivisibles , so much there is detracted from the intenseness of the act continuated unto it by another continuous body . thirdly , as the various incidence of light doth alter the face of colours , so doth the various continuation of other various bodies variously qualified in their continuity by having other contiguous bodies immixt in them alter the property of the sound continued in them . lastly , since a sound is an effect impressed upon the continuity of the ayr , nothing is more averse to it or drowns it sooner than a contiguous body . by help of these theorems you may now resolve the node of several difficulties touching sounds . . why doth earth or fire dead a sound more than water , glass , or paper ; or why is a sound propagable through water , glass , or paper , and is quite deaded by earth , in a manner that by how much earth or fire * there is contained in a body , by so much a sound is deaded by that body ; and by how much water or ayr there is contained in an intermediate body , by so much a sound is propagated further . the reason is , because a propagated sound is nothing else but the vibration of ayr continuously continued upon a continuous body , to which continuity contiguity is contrary . i will explain it to you by a conquassation of water , whereby it is concussed into streams , these streams so concussed are propagated into other more remote streams ; but if you interpose a board near the centrical streams , in will hinder the propagation of the same streams , because it doth divide the continuity of water . even so it is with water , glass , and paper , those being continuous do propagate the ayrs quality in as much as they are continuous . but let us dive a little further into this , and question whether the continuity of the thick waterish substance of glass , and of water be the cause of the propagation of this continuity in sounds , or of the ayr admitted within the subtil invisible pores of glasse , or of both : i answer , of both , but of the one primarily and perse , of the other secundarily and per accidens . first , i prove it is of the thick waterish parts ; for a great noise , as perhaps of a gun , will bend the glass of a window , which glass through its continuity again communicates the same impression to the adjacent ayr . in little sounds the waterish part of a glass is not moved , but the ayry parts contained within it , which propagate the same motion into the next adjacent parts : for it is improbable the motion of every small sound should move so solid a body as that of glass , unless it were the ayr contained within its subtil porosities . likewise in water it self as it is now , the sound which is propagated through it or from it , is not alwaies the motion of water it self , but of the ayr contained within the water ; for it is also improbable that every slight sound should be sufficient to move the weighty body of water : besides , were it not through the ayr but through the water a sound could not be propagated in so short a space . the reason , why the sound caused by a soft percussion of the ayr upon one end of a long beam , or of a mast , is so readily heard by another applying his ear to the other end of it , is , because that sound is propagated by the percussed ayr slyding down along the surface of the said beam or mast , not because the sound is propagated through the internal continuity of the beam or mast ; for that were impossible for the sound to reach to the other end through so thick a body in so short a time , or by so gentle a percussion . but were the sound made by the force of a great hammer , it is not improbable but the sound would pass through the body of it . the noise of a troop of horse marching over a plain hard sandy ground may be heard at a far distance , because the sound is continuately propagated by the ayr impelled along the surface of the earth , there being no contiguous body interposed to dead its sound or interrupt its continuation ; for otherwise any length of grass or quantity of corn standing in the fields between the hearers and the horses would interrupt and dead the sound . the same reason may be applyed to resolve one , why a sound made in the ayr by one upon the water is heard from a further distance , than if made upon the land : because the earth being contiguous doth somewhat dead and interrupt the propagation of a sound ; but the water being continuous and smooth doth rather further it , because it doth slide and reflect the sound from her , and so makes it greater and swifter than otherwise it would be if propagated through the ayr alone . water attenuated by the ayr makes a real sound to those that are under water , because it concusses the auditory ayr . v. this plussing up of ayr in a sound is distinguisht from the obtension of it by light , . in that in obtensions the ayr moves to the body obtending , whereas in plussing the ayr moves from the percutient . . a plussing is a more course action , whereas the other is much more subtil ; for they are both motions almost of the same kind differing only in tenuity and crassitude : whence i infer , that there is no other difference between the optick and auditory spirits or ayr , than that the optick ayr is by far subtiller , the other more course , both having membranes to qualifie their objects . hence let us examine whether it be possible for a man to see or discern a voice or sound with his eyes , or to hear a colour . a man , who hath all his senses well qualified , if he make trial of the query will bring in his verdict for the impossibility of it . wherefore let us propose the doubt in a more probable state , to wit , whether a man , whose optick spirits be thick and his membranes thin and somewhat denser is capable of perceiving and discerning a voice or sound through his sight . . whether a man , whose auditory spirits are very thin and membrane more thick and transparent than ordinary , be capable of perceiving colours and light . i affirm it , and will make it appear to you by experience and reason . i have oft been told that the constable of castile his brother could perfectly discern sounds and voices by his eyes . how this came to pass i shall easily demonstrate , by considering first the disposition of his ocular membranes and optick spirits . the membranes of his eyes were somewhat thin and course , not overmuch transparent , standing deep in his head . whence this hapned i do farther explain to you ; he was deaf in such a degree , that the greatest thunder could not be perceived by him when his eyes were shut . this deafness arose from a total coalition of his auditory passage , and want of a tympanum . the matter of this tympanum was converted by the plastick vertue in his formation to the constitution of the membranes of his eyes , whence the said membranes appeared deadish , course , and skinny ; in short , the tympanum of his eare was in a manner transferred to his eyes : his optick spirits must then of a necessity be thicker or less thin than ordinary for to be proportionable to that membrane , for all parts of the body are informated with spirits proportionable to their consistency , and in effect their modus consistentiae is caused from the modus consistentiae spirituum fixorum . his eyes stood deep in his head , and so thereby framed a grove , wherein the sound was congregated . in fine his eyes , were the greater half eyes , and the less half eares . that all this is agreeable his other acts did testifie ; because his sight was imperfect , he could not see at a distance ; objects unless they were great and lustrous could not be perfectly discerned by him ; on the other side his hearing through his eyes was by far more imperfect , a moderate sound he did not perceive ; a loud sound or voice he was alone sensible of . since then he was capable of perceiving sounds through his eyes , no wonder if he learned his speech from thence ; for speech is nothing else but an ecchoing of a voice spoken by another and perceived by spirits disposed to receive its impression , by expressing the same impression again by the tongue in the same manner as it was impressed . now his speech being very imperfect and unequal , did testifie that the voices perceived by his eyes were imperfect and unequal . that it is possible for an animal to see colours with its eares is evident in a mole , whose ears not being very deep , but its tympanum somewhat transparent , is thereby disposed to distinguish light from darkness , and one colour from another ; that it perceives colours and light is granted by all , which it cannot do by its eyes ; for it hath none , ergo , it must be by its ears alone , which as i have shewed are disposed to seeing almost as well as to hearing . but you may object , that authors do assign eyes to a mole , which are imagined by them to be in some places upon their heads , where the skin seems somewhat thinner and glabrous . i answer , that this is a great mistake , for were those places distinated for their eyes they would be pervious , which they are not ; for underneath the common bone of their head is obducted . besides this of the mole i have heard of men , who could discern light by their ears . let us still proceed in searching further into the niceties of founds and colours , and examine whether it be possible for an animal to perceive colours and sounds by its tact . certainly yes ; for if its membranes be moderately thin and transparent , and the spirits fixt in them be moderately course , questionless it will see colours by its tact . flies , fleas , worms , &c. do perceive colours and light : for flies in the day time we see they fly to and rest themselves in a definite place , without hitting against any opposite body beyond their aime : or again , if one goes to catch a flie , the noise which the hand makes by concussing the air in moving to her , scares the flie and makes her slee away . the first instance is an example of a flies perceiving colours , objects , and light , which must needs be perceived by her tact , since it hath no other visible eyes , although lookt for in a magnifying glass . the last testifies its perceiving of noise by the tact , because it doth equally perceive it from all parts ; but had it ears , it would perceive it more from one part than another . the same is also apparent in fleas , worms , and other insects . fishes , it is certain , hear a sound under water , but not by their ears , for they have none ; but by their eyes , which are almost equally disposed to hearing and seeing : more then this , i believe that colours and sounds are smelt and tasted by some creatures . vi. the reason , why so many several kinds of objects are perceived by one faculty in some insects , is , because their bodies are so little , that it is impossible secundum quid that nature should have destined distinct organs for the perceiving of each object , and therefore those several faculties are confounded into one . the difference of sounds is taken from their quantity , which is threefold : longitude , latitude , and profundity . the longitude of a sound is the duration of it . the latitude is its sharpness and smoothness . the thickness is its altitude and profundity . a sound is said to be long or short from its longitude . a long sound is a sound continued in length or in the same tone ; so holding your finger long upon the key of an organ , makes it to be long ; if you keep down the key but a little while , it makes but a short sound . the cause of a long sound is the keeping the air in the same concussion or pluffing . hence it is that as long as you keep your finger upon the key of a pair of virginals the sound doth last , because you keep the air up in one and the same concussion , but as soon as you withdraw your finger , the sound vanisheth presently after ; because the cloath , which is fastned at the top of the jack , by touching the string doth stay its concussing motion by interrupting its continuity , and by that means the ayr is quieted . the same reason resolves , why the sound of a bell , or of a lute string is shortned or presently deaded as soon as you touch either with your finger : namely , because the ayr of the bell being vibrated by a concutient its propagation is shortned and deaded by dividing its continuity , and staying the propagating sounding ayr through interposing a contiguous body , whereby the ayr is relaxed and driven back . the reason , why sounding upon one side of a drum , the motion of that sound is prolonged to the other side , is , because the ayr is not stopt by any contiguous body , but holding your finger upon either side the sound is forthwith shortned . why is the sound of an empty drinking glass more prolonged , than if it were filled up with water ? because the water being thicker and heavier is not so easily percussed as the ayr . a sound is said to be smooth or harsh from its crassitude , which depends upon the levor and asperity , equality and inequality of the percutient , and upon its smartness and softness in concussing . from its profundity and altitude a sound is termed base or course , and trebble or high , or equal and unequal ; thus they say la is high and fine ; ut course and base . sounds are termed equal , if they are of the same profundity or altitude , and so unisons are called equal ; all other intervals of sounds are called unequal , as a diapason , diapente , a diatesseron , a third , a sixt , and a second , &c. notwithstanding this inequality and rice , there is between several tones from one to eight a concord observable , which doth very much affect and please the ear ; the cause of it hath appeared to be very abstruse to many , which in effect is obvious enough . a diapason strikes a sweet concord , because that distance of tone doth affect the ear ; the ear is affected with it , because sounds of that distance move it in such a manner , as that the one sets off the other very much , in the same manner as four sets off a sweet taste , or as a white sets off a black , or a summers heat of the body is set off by coming between a pair of fine cool sheets ; or as the heat & drought , hapning when a man hath made himself hot and dry by running , is much set oft by a draught of cool drink . so that you may take notice , that there 〈◊〉 extreme concords belonging to every sense in particular ; not only so , but you may also observe intermediate concords between their objects ; as a black suit is well set off by a pair of scarlet hose , and is pleasing to the eye ; this is a mediate concord between the extreams , namely white and black , as a diapente is a middle concord to a diapason . a black suit is a concord to a pearl-colour stockin ; so is a diapason a concord to a diatessaron . moreover there are also discords in colours and objects of other senses , as well as in sounds . as a seventh is a discord to an unison ; so is a pair of brown mill'd hose to a black suit , or a pair of black hose to a grey suit. in fine , you may perceive as many discords and concords between the objects of all the other senses , as between sounds . hence i infer , that the same reason , why a pair of black hose is a discord to a light gray suit ( for most peoples fight is disaffected with such an opposition ) or why vinegar is a concord to sugar ( for the palat is as much affected with their concord , as the hearing with a concord of sounds ) will prove satisfactory to the disquisition upon the cause of discords and concords between sounds . the reason of concords in colours is , because such a distance or opposition of colour doth set off another ( according to that maxime , contraria juxta se invicem posita magis elucescunt ; ) whereas were this distance but of one degree , it would rather detract from one another , as being defective in setting one another off . so a little sour added to much sweet makes an unpleasant tast . likewise in sounds an unison and a second make discords , because there is too little treble or altitude in a second to respond to the deep base of an unison , and hence you may easily conceive the grounds and causes of all concords and discords . the cause of the different sounds of trebles and bases , is the thickness of the string or percutient vibrating the air in such a degree of obtuseness , or such a degree of thinness of the string percussing the air acutely : or thus , the bubble which a course string plufs up must needs be thicker then that of a fine one . viii . sounds vary according to the qualification of the percutient in consistency , bigness and action . a percutient being thick , makes a thick sound ; so the base string of an instrument makes a thick or course sound . a thin percutient beats a thin or sharp sound ; hence a smal string sounds sharply . so that according to the greater or lesser courseness or thickness , thinness or sharpness of a percutient , the sound is made more or less course and sharp . the rarity of a percutient or its density cause little or no noyse : if any , a very dumb one , because the air is obtruded by neither of them , but is only percolated through them . a great percutient makes a great noyse , a small one little . the percussion of a percutient being continuous , or interrupted , slow or quick , smart or feeble , raises a continuous or interrupted , slow or quick , smart or feeble noyse . the heavens , that is , the fiery bodies , moving with a rapid motion through or with their own region of fire , make some noyse , but so little , that it would scarce be audible , supposing a man were near to them . they make some little noyse , because they being bodies somewhat continuous , and obtruding that little ayr , which is admitted to the fire in some measure , they must consequently make a noise , but such as is soon deaded through the contiguity of the fire . among these bodies , the moon makes the greatest noyse , because its body is more continuous , & its situation is neerest to the region of the air . supposing two celestial bodies should extraordinarily meet & dash against one another , they would make an indifferent audible noyse , because the peregrine air being thereby more pent , its obtrusion must necessarily be the greater . a stella cadens ( or a falling star ) yields no noyse , because the air gives way in it self as fast as the other can make way down ; but did it fall down swifter then the air could give way , then of necessity it must obtrude it , and raise a sound ; or did it fall upon air being pent by it and another body , it would do the same with more efficacy . clouds , rain and hail make a small noyse in the air , although not very sensible , because the air is loose and free , whereby it giveth way : but where ever it is pent by them and other bodies , they raise a sound ; hence hail and rain make a noyse , when they shrowd the air between themselves and the earth ; hence it is also , why streams or a channel of water is not heard , unless where it beats smartly against it self , or against shallows of gravel or pebble . focal fire glowing or any thing within it , makes no noyse in it self , unless its body being rendered more continuous in a flame is beated against the air , or the air is obtruded against it by another continuous body ; as by a fan or wind out of bellows . a hissing noyse is made in the air , when it is smartly percussed without being pent by any other body , but by its own parts and the percutient . hence it is that a bullet shot or the switching of the air with a switch make a hissing noise ; but their noyse is much altered , where the air is pent by it and another solid body . a quaking noise , as of an earthquake , or the quavering upon an instrument , proceeds from the interruption & repetition of the percussion . by how much the more the air is pent from all parts , the greater and violenter sound it makes . hence it is , that the noise of a gun , or of any thing bursting is of that lowdness . this also proves a cause why a soft whispering , or blast of wind makes a great sound improportionable to so soft a percussion , in a trunk , or any other close , round long passage . hence a trumpet , or a hunters horn do make so great a noyse , and is so far propagated . ix . a sound is either reflexe or refracted . a reflexe sound is , when it is propelled against a continuous body , by which it is repulsed , or whence it doth rebound ; so that the reflection of a sound is nothing else , but a rebounding of it from a continuous body . sounds acquire an increase or a lowder noyse from their rebounding , in a like manner as light is intended by its reflection . the greater this reflection is , the greater noyse it makes . the greatest reflection is , when a sound is reflected by a circular reflecting continuous body ; because the sound being circularly propagated , ( for a noyse made in the open air is heard round about ) is equally reflected from all parts ; and its parts do as it were reflect back again against one another , whereby the sound is majorated to its greatest intention . hence it is that chappels being circularly rooft reflect a great sound , and were their bottom also circular , the sound would be by far more intended . by the way , take notice that an eccho is not a reflection alone of a sound , neither is it caused by it alone ; for all grant , that there is a great reflection of a sound in chappels , and yet there is no eccho . all sorts of metals formed into a concave , as pels , bowls made of metal , & all sorts of drinking glasses give a great sound ( for their tinging noise is nothing else , but a great intended reflext quaking noise ) because the percussed sound is reflext circularly within upon the connuated parts of the said metals & glasses : from the same reason it is , that all hollow continuated bodies , as most sorts of instruments , viz. virginals , viols , lutes , &c. make so great and improportionable a sound , to so small a percussion . a man would imagine , that the sound caused by striking of a string of an instrument , should come all from within the instrument , and that there were no sound at all above ; but it is otherwise : 't is true , the greater sound is protruded from within ; nevertheless there is a sound also without , but it being the lesser , is overcome and drowned by the protrusion of the greater sound from within . this is evident in a metal being struck or sounded in an upper chamber , sometimes happening to make a greater sound in the next room underneath it , ( provided that the lower room be more concave , and that the metal do stand upon the boards ) but notwithstanding there is some little sound in the same room above . as a sound is majorated by these forementioned occasions , so it may also be minorated by their contraries . besides all this , there is also a contraction or abbreviation of a sound , whereby the species of a great sound is fully perceived , collected and contracted into a smal space ; and this is only possible in long hollow passages and pipes , and often the longer they are , the more and plainer the sound is contracted , provided that their length is not too far extending : hence it is , why the species of a great sound is contracted and plainly perceived by the ear , and is yet more and plainer contracted , when a man holds his hand being inverted like a trunk before it . the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this theorem is the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the contraction of a visible object upon a rotundity . as a remote visible object can be rendered more visible by the help of magnifying glasses , so can a remote audible object be rendered more audible by majorating or contracting instruments , as sarabatanes , or long trunks , &c. refraction of a sound is , when it is reflected upon several cavities or continuous concaves . wherefore every concave contracting the sound in a determinate species , there must necessarily be as many sounds reflected and rendered , as there are perfect cavities ; this is otherwise called the ecchoing or resonance of sounds . compare this with the refraction of light and colours , the reasons of both being the same . an undulating sound is an imperfect refraction , and is when a sound is but half ecchoed or resounded , arising from the imperfection and obtuseness of the cavity ; for the sides of a perfect cavity are required to be acute for to divide the sound from its next cavity , or for to make a compleat refraction . this resonance of sounds doth only rebound to a certain distance and determinate sphere , within which compass if the ear be seated , it may hear the eccho . the sound being propagated circularly may be ecchoed all about the circumference ; wherefore two men standing in several places may each hear a distinct and several eccho of one and the same sound , and according to the difference of the situation of the cavities , the one shall perceive the eccho , and the other shall not . many do imagine that the multiplicity of resonances in sounds is caused by an eccho upon an eccho ; but erroneously , it being rather to be imputed to the diversity and multiplicity of perfect cavities ; which although it be not impossible , yet it happens very seldom . in many pillared round churches a loud voice doth resonate by several eccho's near upon at the same time , which if it happened through an eccho upon an eccho , their motion would be much slower one after the other . the same is perceptible among some bils , whose several vallies being perfect cavities , sometimes make a multiplicity of eccho's . the reason , why one eccho is frequently heard after the other , is , because of the greater remoteness of the cavities , which greater remoteness is also the cause of the minoration of the sound . the chappel at pont charenton refracts or eccho's a sound sixteen times , which is caused through sixteen perfect cavities constituted by the two rowes of pillars built of each side of the said chappel . we read also of the seaven times answering eccho of the gallery of olympia , a city in greece , and thence was called heptaphonos , or returning seven voyces ; which was effected through the refraction of the sound between the pillars . there was also a famous eccho within cyzecum a city of bithynia , returning a sound many times . lucretius in lib. . speaks of another eccho , which multiplied a voice seven times . sex etiam aut septem loca vidi reddere voces , unam cum faceres . — xi . hitherto hath been discoursed on natural sounds , it remaines i should add a word or two touching animal sounds or voices ; which are either inarticulate , as such as are common to beasts and men ; or articulate , which in their perfection are only proper to men . the articulation is nothing else but a continuated unequal sound , being moderated in longitude , latitude and profundity , through the help of the lungs , throat , tongue , pallat , lips and teeth : all these serve to pent and screw the air according to any intended modulation . if the throat be very hollow , and that the uvula be wanting , the sound reflecting against that imperfected hollowness makes its voice hollow and loud . there cannot be any sensible eccho of the voyce within the mouth , although a perfect hollowness were supposed to be there , because there must be allowed a proportionable distance , otherwise a sound must rebound again into and against it self , whereby its ecchoing is drowned ; this is the reason , why a voyce or sound doth not eccho , when it is made too near to a perfect cavity . we will shut up this discourse of audibles with the mentioning of one absurd question generally moved by the peripatet . viz. whether a sound can be made in a vacuum , that is , where there is no air , they conceiving that a sound is made immediately by the percussion of two solid bodies one against the other : the absurdity is obvious , since it hath so evidently been demonstrated that sound is nothing but a passion of the air. chap. xxiv . of tasts , smels and tangibles . . the definition of a tast. the difference between the tasting and hearing faculty . the manner of a tasts action and passion . . the differences of tasts . whether tasts are not communicable through a medium . . what a smell is . the manner of a sents action and passion . . whether sents be nutritive . how many have been kept alive without eating or drinking . how sents revive one in a swoun . the distance requisite in sents from the faculty . that the sent of excrements smels sweet to a dog. how a dog sents a bitch at a great distance . the manner of a dogs winding the sent of a hare . that fishes do sent by means of their gills or palate . . the causes of a sweet smell . why most beasts are pleased with the smell of a panther . what a stinking smell is . the other kinds of sents . whether the plague gives a smell , and whether perceptible by a man. whether it be possible to poyson one by a persume of gloves , or of a letter . . what the tact is , and the manner of its sensation . . the differences of tangible qualities . whether titillation be distinguisht from the ordinary tact . whether man hath the most exquisite tact . . what a tangible quality is . the causes of pleasing tangibles . why a kiss feels pleasing to ones lips . that a dog takes delight in kissing . what pain is , and its cause of titillation . why ones proper feeling doth not tickle , but anothers doth . i. a tast ( sapor ) is a quality , whereby a mixt being moveth the tasting faculty . the tasting faculty is inherent immediately in the fixt animal spirits , and mediately in the influent ones of the tongue and palat. these spirits are in two degrees thicker then the auditory spirits , there being the olfactive spirits intercedent , differing but one degree in thickness from the said auditory spirits . the object of this faculty is required to be respondent to it in consistency ; wherefore the faculty , viz. the spirits being dense and thick , the objects of the tast do move the same faculty by a greater density and thickness then those of visibles and audibles . otherwise if the object be thinner and rarer then is requisite , it is uncapable of moving the tast ; hence it is , that we cannot tast air , or warmth proceeding from fire . that , which is thick , moves the tast by a kind of continuous compression of the spirits in the tongue : thus fair water affects the tast , which the more ayry and thin it is affects the tongue the more . water being tempered with spirits , makes a kind of a sharp and brisk tast ; for instance , wine . dense bodies move the palat by a contiguous compression , and therefore make a more distinct and forcible tast . summarily , tast is nothing else but the discerning of the several temperatures of mixt bodies effecting several passions in the tongue and upon its gustative faculty , which several passions are said to be several tasts . hence it is also obvious that the quality , whereby a tast moves the gustative faculty , is nothing but its action , whereby it acteth distinctly in several subjects , wherein a different gustable quality is inherent . since the gustative spirits are deeply latent within a porous and spongie body , nothing can move the tast , unless it be of that thinness or small quantity , as that it may pass the pores of the tongue , the passing of which subtilities waterish moysture doth very much facilitate , which proves in stead of a vehicle to them , and makes those passages slippery . hence it is , that no great bodies have any tast , unless they be first attrited and diminisht by the teeth , and the more they be diminisht , the more their tast becomes perceptible . dry bodies are not so gustable as when they are a little moistened , whereby they reserate the pores of the tongue and procure a passage to the seat of the taste . ii. as many different waies as objects move the taste , or cause severall passions in it , so many different tasts there be . that , which doth only gently shake the taste , and as it were doth but tickle it , is sweet , and deriving from a temperateness , yet so as that water is abounding in it . that , which doth sensibly alterate the taste , is an intermediate sapour ; that , which doth most alterate it , so as it may not pervert the faculty , is an extream sapour . extreme sapours depend upon the greatest predominance of each element in a several mixt body , which being four do also constitute four extreme tastes . . a fiery hot taste , as in pepper , ginger , &c. . an earthy taste . . a waterish taste . . an ayry tast , not such as theophrastus cals a fat taste , like there is in oyl . the rest are intermediate , as bitter , acerbe , acid , and salt , for that is a tast mixt out of a waterish and ayry tast . peripateticks assert , that tastes for to move the gustable faculty are to be immediately applyed to it ; and there they assert , that tastes are only real among all the sensible qualities . but this doth not alwaies hold true ; for tasts may be communicable through a medium , ( and if the air is at any time to be allowed to be a medium , it is sometimes in tasts , and alwaies in odors ) to wit , the air , as apothecaries do all testifie ; for when they are powdering , or a peeling of colocynthis , its bitter taste doth very sensibly reach their tongue . iii. a smell or scent is a quality or action , whereby a mixt body moves the olfactive faculty . the difference between this and the gustable faculty is none other , but that the one consists in a degree of a finer and thinner consistency of spirituous air ; and the same difference is between their objects , viz. a taste is of a thicker body than a scent , in manner that the scent is too subtil to strike the gustable faculty , and a sapour is too thick to strike the olfactive faculty ; wherefore that , which through its subtility passeth the sence of taste doth thereby reach to the sense of smelling , moving its faculty withal . it is th●n apparent ; that the objects of both these senses are the same , differing only in subtilty of body , and that they are nothing but temperaments of bodies comminuted and moving the said powers immediately , yet not so , but that the subtiler parts for to move the sense , are requisite to be separated from the courser , and more then that , each needs a vehicle or a medium for to be carried and directed through the subtil passages to the deep latent sensory . the vehicle of tasts is water ( to which spittle and drink are equipollent , ) as being through its thickness respondable to receive so thick and course an object ; a thinner vehicle , as the air , could not receive it , because it is too thin to support it . the vehicle of scents is air , as being through its thinness proportionated to receive and convey such subtil bodies ; were this vehicle thicker , it would through its gravity expel or express bodies of that subtility , that smells are of . you may here observe the depravate judgments of the peripateticks concerning the mediums of sensible objects , where they ought to grant a medium as to scents and tastes , they withhold it , where they should allow no medium , there they grant it ; as to audibles and visibles . i stated temperaments of bodies to be the objects of sense , by which you are to understand the subtiller and volatick parts of substances reduced to a certain degree of temperament , and obtaining certain vertues of acting : so that hereby i do not intend any quality distinct from a substance for the objects of sense , but real bodies so qualified as to move sense ; where ( mark ) qualities are not really distinguished from their bodies , but really identificated with them in the concrete ( although in the abstract they are distinguisht ratione ; ) for what is a quality in a body else but a body qualified ? wherefore the action performed through the quality of a body is not to be taken as if the body were one thing , and the quality another , but as one , and that action proceeds from the body qualified ; of this i have discoursed more at large in my metaphysicks . iv. smels do nourish no more than tastes nourish the animal spirits ; none doubts but that neither nourishes the solid or humoral parts , because of their unsutableness in consistency and temperament . wherefore although some are said to have sustained their life for a long time through smels alone , as it is recorded of democritus , who sustained his life three daies through the smell of hot bread , and of others , who are said to have lived many daies upon the sent of tobacco chawed , or smoaked , yet this is not to be understood as if their parts had been really nourished , for they grew leaner and leaner ; but their life was maintained by keeping the spirits alive , which is performed by scents , that do gently stir them , as hot bread , rose water , &c. as for tobbacco , that maintains life accidentally also , by taking away the sharpness of the hungry spirits knawing upon the stomack , and obtusing and thickning them through its sulphuriousness , and by attracting slegme to the stomack from the head and other parts , which the stomack in time of need turns into nutriment ; yet some question , whether they do not nourish the animal and vital spirits , since they are so apt to revive the spirits in faintness and other weaknesses . i grant they revive the spirits , but whether this hapneth through stirring up of the spirits , or through nourishing or increasing them may be doubted . certainly , not by increasing of the spirits , because that smells are crude exhalations , differing from the vital and animal spirits ; wherefore they ought first to be concocted and fitted for assimulation by gradual elaborations of the stomack , liver , and heart , and must be purified through the same members from their suliginous excrements . who would say , that the spirits of vinegar should revive through nourishing the spirits , and not through their exciting or irritating of the said spirits ? certainly , such sharp spirits do decline from a capacity of nourishing the spirits of the brain , but nevertheless are very fit to revive by stirring and moving of them : in a like manner do pinching and rubbing of the skin revive in a swoun , not by nourishing of the spirits , but by moving and stirring of them up . likewise crying loud into the ears , and holding a bright light to the eyes opened by force , doth as soon revive and recal swouning patients as any thing ; but assuredly the working of these is by exciting and stirring the spirits , and not by nourishing of them . the more thin the olfactive membranes and nerves are , and the more subtil the spirituous olfactive air is , the further odours or scents are perceived : but then it is requisite , that those objects , which are to move such a sense should be more subtil , because of being proportionated to the faculty : for if they are course , they will exceed the perception of such a scent ; hence it is , that those , who excell all others in exquisiteness of scent cannot attain to the smelling a thick smell near by , unless they go so far off as that those thick exhalations by moving through the air may be grinded less , and so be the better fitted for to strike the olfactive faculty : hence it is then that a vulture being blinded and placed suddenly in a room where dead stinking flesh is , shall not find it through his sent , although his smelling is the most exquisite of any living creature ( according to the usual verse : nos aper auditu , linx visu , simia gustu , vultur odoratu praecellit , araneatactu . a boar in hearing , a linx in sight , a vulture in his smell . an ape in taste , a spider in feeling do us far excell . ) because the scents being thick are not thin enough to strike his subtill smell ; but then again , he shall perceive those scents at the greatest distance , where these thick scents are so much subtiliated through the length of passage , that there he perceives them very sensibly , as being fitted to his scent . the smell of a tallow-chandlers shop doth little offend or move our olfactive power , when we are in the shop , yea , not at all , but at our first approach before we come near to it , the smell may direct any one thither blindfold . neither do dogs or hogs smell thick scents , as of excrements or other rotten stinking smells of corrupted flesh , when they are near to them ; for did they , they would certainly abhor them ; yet it is certain they smell them at a great distance , but then that smell at a distance is not a stinking smell to them , but sweet and pleasant , for otherwise they would not be so much inticed by them ; for although such objects stunk near by , through their thick pernicious and strong motion , yet through the grinding of the air they are mollified , and their putrid temperature is laid and equalized , and their stink is quite taken away : this appears in musk , civet , or ambergreece , which if held close to the nosthrils strike as unpleasing a stink as excrements , but again how fragrant and sweet a scent do they emit at a distance ? even so it is with the scent of excrements to dogs and hogs . a dog scents a bitch a great way off , although lockt up , without seeing of her , and apprehends the scent under her tayl to be no ill scent : wherefore i say , that in many , if not in most scents , that , which smels sweet to a man , sents stinking to most beasts , and that , which sents stinking to us , smells sweet to most beasts . it will not be difficult now to give a reason , why and how a dog winds the scent of a hare at so great a distance ; it is , because there are some exhalations or evaporations emanated through the habit of a hares body , and especially of her belly and inguina , inhering in the ground and in the air near about it , over which the hare hath taken her flight , the which although they be very subtil & thin , yet they do sensibly and perfectly move the olfactive power of the dog : this sent is as intirely pleasing to the dog as the sight of his eagerness in pursuit pleases the hunters , and so they are both equally inticed to the pursuit of the hare . fishes are said by aristotle lib. de histor . animal . to have a smell , in that they are inticed by the smell of food cast to them into the water . i do wonder , where he found out their organ of smelling , for my part i could never discern it , nor any body else . it is true , fish doth perceive the taste of food through its continuous dissolution through the water by their gills or pallate , at a great distance ( because the particles of the food are diducted into a large extent ) which * being the more exquisite do serve them for to taste and to smell . v. that , which doth gently shake or move our olfactive air , is only that , which we call a sweet smell , and therein the sent of man is much pleased . wherefore sents being of a different temperature , all smells do not equally please all men ; or every creature is most pleased in different objects : so most beasts , as theophrastus writes , are pleased with the smell of a panther , and therefore do all follow him . cats are delighted by the smell of a mouse or a rat , which she ketches in the dark more through guide of her sent , ( she having a most exquisite sent as appears by her finding the larder , or victuals hidden in any part of the house or room ) than of her sight . flies are delighted in the sent , or rather taste ( for they have no organ particularly destined for smells , ) of honey . that , which doth most offend and almost pervert our sent , is a stinking smell . this offence of sent is various in degrees according to the degrees of the ingrate motion of smells , and thence according to the property of those degrees , we specifie and distinguish smells , whose kinds are named by the same names that tastes are , as being consentaneous to them not only in the thing it self , but also in name : viz. they are either fiery sharp as pepper , bitter , salt , acid or sour , acerbous , putrid , which subvert and offend the sent , and are various according to the subject , whence they are emitted , and do receive their names also thence , so we say it smels like a carrion , like excrements , like piss , like stinking fish , like rank meat ; it smells as if it were musty , &c. as several scents are offensive to man , so are beasts offended with several sents , which they do naturally flee , because they are dissentaneous to their olfactive ficulty . so flies are offended with the smoak of brimstone ( rathe i suppose because it choaks them ; ) serpents with the sent of galbanum , and mise with the sent of an asses claw burnt . some people will say , that the plague doth oft carry a sent with it not unlike to the smell of a mellow apple , or according to others like the scent of may flowers . it is certain that infected houses do smell so , because they are moist and dampish , and thence putrid , and therefore the fitter to receive the venome of pestilent air , but it is not a sent , which the plague brings along with it , but which it finds in the house ; for i have oft smelt such scents in garden houses , which proceeded from the dampness of the boards . the plague is so subtil a venome , that it passeth the grosseness of mans sent , and therefore cannot be smelt ; nevertheless it is sented by dogs , cats , flies , and other creatures , which are so much offended by it , that they usually flee such houses . i have been in several towns , where the plague did rage very violently , but when ever i was occasioned to go into strange houses , i generally took notice whether there were any dog or cat in the house , or whether i could see any flies about the room , which if i did i was the better satisfied . let me tell you , could the plague be sented by man , the plague would be no plague ; for as i told you , that which doth move our sent must be of a certain essential thickness , which , if concommitant to the venome of the plague , were impossible that it should work such pernicious and potent effects , unless it were of so subtil a body , that it should flee our sent . hence i do also infer , that it is impossible for a man to be poysoned through a sent , because if a thing be so thick as to move out sent , it is impossible it should produce such an effect in that thickness . probably you may object , that the italians have attained to a way of poisoning men by the smell of perfumed gloves , or by a sent impressed upon the inside of a letter , which if a man do open , and receive the sent of it through his nosthrils , it will certainly kill him . in the first place it is doubtful , whether they have attained to that perfection of cowardly murder through sents ; if they have not , questionless their genius doth lead enough that way , & it is more for want of industry , knowledge , and skill , than inclination ; however it being possible enough , and supposing it to be so , i answer , that it is not the smell doth kill a man , but something , which being of that subtility that it fleeth the sent , is mixed with some perfume , wherewith the fore-mentioned gloves are perfumed : the like answer doth dissolve the objection of poyson contained within the letter . vi. the coursest of all the senses is the tact , or feeling faculty , to which the coursest kind of objects without any comm●nution are appropriated : so that the courser an object is the more tangible it proves : this must also be applied immediately to the organ , because no medium is course enough to carry or convey it to the sensory . had the peripateticks proposed that question here , which they moved concerning seeing and hearing , viz. whether we are capable of sensation in a vacuum , they would have shewed themselves to have had some skill in the matter : but let us referre the same question to the sense of feeling , and question , whether it be possible to feel a thing in a vacuum . i answer affirmatively , what should hinder the tact from feeling , supposing the object to be applyed to the sensory ? for it needs no air for its vehicle . vii . themistius , averrhoes , aegidius , jandunus , apollinaris , marcellus , avicenna , albertus magnus , cardan , and others do seem to state as many different kinds of feeling , as there are different objects , that do move the tact differently , according to which rule they may allow almost infinite kinds of feeling . their mistake is gross ; for according to the same rule , there should be as many kinds of seeing , hearing , &c. but this is absurd . the case is this : it is not every distinct act or object , which , causes a difference in the faculty , for one faculty may perceive many different kinds of objects , and yet not be multiplied in its faculty , but remain one and the same : look in my first book of phil. and in the metaph. where i have insisted more largely upon this point , and illustrated how a faculty may be one formally , and manifold materially . scaliger exerc. cccxxxvi . d. . is so much taken with his ve●ereal titillation , that he honoureth it with the name of a sixth sense . alas his subtillity could hardly reach to maintain the dignity of it . what ? because it pleased his phansie , therefore it must be called a sixth sense . or did he specifie it from the common tact , because it was proper to the membranes of the genitals ? then upon the same account the tact of his head is specifically distinguisht from the tact of his knee : or is it , because it is a titillation ? no certainly , for every sensible part of the body may be tickled ; but the subtiller the part is , the more exquisite , acute , and piercing the titillation is , and therefore no wonder , if those parts being circumvested with thin membranes , being of a most exquisite sense , perceive so acute and piercing a titillation . man is generally cried up to have the most exquisite tact of all creatures ; but why should he be said to be only excellent in feeling and not in all his other senses ? for he judges more distinctly of all sensibles , than other creatures , although he doth not perceive them at such a distance as other animals , the excellency of sensation not consisting in remoteness of its action . viii . tangibility then is a quality , whereby a mixt body moves the tact. the principality of the tact consists in a thick course spiritous air , the moving of which is the raising of a feeling . it is moved by being diducted either by depression or weight , or any other thick continuous diduction : so that whatever is thin , light , or rare doth effuge the sense of the tact ; hence it is , that the air , thin vapours , exhalations , or spirits , are not immediately felt . that which doth gently stir & quaver these tangent spirits is said to feel pleasing and delightful : hence it is that kissing seems to feel so pleasing to many , because that hapning to a thin part , being withal of an exquisite feeling , where the spirits being gently stirred and quavered by the application of other lips doth cause a delightful feeling . that this is so , is testified by most , who kiss for a delight , in that they do at that instant of the application of lips feel a creeping quaking spirit in their lips . the same delightful feeling happens also to a dog , applying his chops to a bitches taile . a soft object doth gently stir the tangent spirits of the extremities of the fingers , and is perfectly pleasing , and therefore many men love to handle and feel boys and girles cheeks . that , which doth so much diduct the tactile spirits as to divide and burst them , doth subvert the tact and causes a pain . as for the other differences of tangibles , they are taken from the degree and property of raising feeling in tangibles ; so we say , a thing feels heavy , light , hot , cold , moist , dry , fiery , waterish , earthy , hard , soft , rough , smooth , &c. the description of all which i do omit , as having set them down above . a gentle titillation is one of the delightful tangibles , which gentleness , if otherwise exceeding and inferring violence , doth become painful ; as appears in the french scab or manginess . titillation sometimes insers violence , not by dividing the tangent spirits through it self and immediately , but by accident through gathering the spirits too much together through its light appulse , to which they do accur in great quantity , and oft do as it were thereby overstrain or overreatch themselves . it seldom happens , that ones proper feeling doth tickle any part of his body , as his knee , or palm of the hand : but if another do gently touch it , it tickles him : the reason is , because that , which toucheth a part must be of a certain distant temperament from the part felt , which is not in a mans own self , but in every other man ; besides ones fansie adds much to it . natural philosophy . the second part . the second book : chap. i. of the commerce of the earth with the other elements . . the authors purpose touching his method in the preceding book , and a further explication of some terms made use of there . . that the earth is the center of the world . copernicus his astronomy examined . . the earths division into three regions , and their particular extent . . what bodies are generated in the third region of the earth ; and the manner of their production . that the coldness of the earth is the principal efficient of stones and metals . how a stone is generated in the kidneyes and in the bladder . a rare instance of a stone takenout of the bladder . the generation of a flint , marble , jaspis , cornelian , diamond , ruby , gold , copper , iron , mercury , silver , the places of mines . . of the transmutation of metals . whether silver be transmutable into gold. whether gold may be rendered potable . the effects of the supposed aurum potabile , and what it is . . of earthy saltish juices . the generation of common salt , salt-gemme , saltpeter , allom , salt-armoniack and vitriol , and of their kinds . . of earthy unctious juices , viz. sulphur , arsenick , amber , naptha , peteroyl , asphaltos , oyl of earth , sea-coal and jeatstone ; of their kinds and vertues . . of the mean juyces of the earth , viz. mercury , antimony , marcasita , cobaltum , chalcitis , misy and sory . whether any of these mean juices are to be stated principles of metals . i. hitherto i have discoursed of the elements , their production , forms , second and third , single and mixt qualities , with intention to have declared their dissolution from the chaos , and separation from one another , and therefore i did only mention so much touching their nature , as might suffice to discover the reason and causes of their effects produced by them through their dissolution . at that time and place i thought it unseasonable to demonstrate the causes of their only apparent contrary motions and effects , whereby they return to one another , and exercise a mutual commerce between each other , and seem ( but really do not ) to change into one anothers nature , all which together , with the particular relation of each element , as they are consisting at present , of local motion in general , and in particular of attraction and repuision , and of meteors , i shall endeavour to propose to you by a sensible demonstration . why i judged it unseasonable to treat of these particulars above , was because i would not oppress your phansie with seeming contrary notions ( but really agreeing to a hair , ) and so might have endangered the conception , and retention of the precedent ones , which now i may with more safety attempt , supposing you to have weighed the reasons , and to have narrowly searcht into their meaning . neither shall i repeat any thing of what hath been set down already , but proceed where i left off ; only since now i may with security discover my meaning of these expressions of moving from the center to the circumference , and to the center from the circumference , both which i have hitherto made use of for to perduce you to a true apprehension of the chaos and its dissolution . by moving from the center to the circumference was not intended a deserting of the proper center of those elements that were said so to move , but , . to move so from their center as to tend and be diffused thence to the circumference into the greatest tenuity or rarity , but not to desert their proper center ; for then they could not move at all , because all motions are peracted upon an immoveable , which must be a center . . to move from the circumference to the center , is not to desert the circumference , & be reduced by penetration into a central point ( as mathematicians do imagine , ) but to be contracted to a center from a circumference for to gain the greatest dense weight or weighty crassitude , like others are diffused for to gain the greatest rarity or tenuity ; and that naturally , for density or crassitude cannot be attained by any other manner then by a contraction to a center ; and rarity and tenuity but by a diffusion from a center . . intending by moving from a center to a circumference to signifie a tendency to the greatest contiguous rarity or continuous levity , i do not exclude but that such light elements in a confusion with opposite elements as it happened in the chaos , may also tend from a center of magnitude , because they are expelled by the overpowering weighty elements expelling them from their center , and so in this signification i have sometimes intended by moving from the center a deserting of the center of magnitude , or sometimes of the universal center . . none but the whole body of the elements do tend to , or strive for the universal center ; but particular or mixt bodies for their own particular center , as you may read further in the chapter of local motions . ii. the earth is , and must necessarily be the center of the world , or of all the other elements , within which it is contained like the yolk of an egge within the white and the shell . i prove the proposition : if the nature of earth be to move conically from the circumference to its own center through a contiguous gravity , and the nature of air & fire be to be equally diffused from the center through their levity ; ergo the earth must needs fall to the midst of them all , its parts tending circularly and conically to their center . the earth being arrived to the center , it resteth quiet and unmoveable : the reason you shall know by and by . return back to the explanation of the manner of the dissolution of the chaos , which cannot but demonstrate the evidence of this point to you . nevertheless let us consider that old phansie of pythagoras , plato , aristarchus , seleucus , niceta , and others upon this matter , revived by copernicus in the preceding centenary , and weigh its probability . . he imagineth the fixed stars and their region to be the extremity of the world , and both to be immoveable . . that the figure of that region doth appear to us to be circular , but for what we know , our sense may be deceived . . that the sun is the center of the aspectable world , being immoveable as to its ex ernal place ; notwithstanding since through help of the telescopium is observed by the discerning of the motion of its spots to change his face about ( although still remaining in the same external place ) its own axis in daies . . between these two immoveables the planets are said to move , and among them , viz. between mars and venus , the earth is imagined as a planet to move about the sun , and to absolve her circuit in twelve moneths . . that the moon is seated between the earth and venus , and is thought to move through its own particular motion about the earth between that space , which there is granted to be between her and venus , and between her and mars : besides the moon doth also move with the earth , as if she were her page , about the sun , absolving her course much about the same time . in like manner are the four stars first discovered through a telescopium * by galilaeus , said to follow the motion of jupiter , and to move with it about the sun in twelve years , there being besides another motion adscribed to them , whereby they move about the same jupiter between the space which is between it and saturn , and between it and mars ; the innermost whereof absolves its course about it in a day and a quarter ; the next in three daies and a half ; the third in three daies and four houres ; the last in sixteen daies and eight houres : besides these , they have found out by the help of the said telescopium stars , which are concomitants to each planet . . that the space between saturn and the fixed stars is almost immense . that the region of the fixed stars is immoveable , he takes for granted without giving any probable proof for it ; for which notwithstanding may be urged ( omne mobile fit super immobili ) that all moveables do move upon an immoveable ; which if granted , doth not inferre that therefore the region of the fixed starres must be immoveable , since he hath stated one immoveable already , namely , the sunne ; what need is there then of more ? further , if we do grant two universal immoveables , we must also grant two universal contrary motions ; whereof the one is moved upon one immoveable , the other upon the second ; but the universal diurnal motion of the stars we see is one and the same ; ergo but one universal immoveable is necessary . lastly , he cannot prove it by any sense , only that it must be so , because it agrees with his supposition , and what proof is that to another ? the holy words in eccles. do further disprove his position ; where it is said that god moved the heavens about within the compass of his glory . his second position denotes him no great naturalist . the third position infers the sun to be the immoveable center of the world . . this doth manifestly contradict scripture , which doth oft make mention of the suns rising and going down : and in isaiah . . the sun is said to have returned ten degrees back . and in another place , let not the sun move against galbaon . . the sun is accounted by most , and proved by us to be a fiery body , or a flame , and therefore is uncapable of attaining to rest in a restless region , which if it did , its flame would soon diminish through the continual rushing by of the fiery element tearing its flames into a thousand parts , whose effects would certainly prove destructive to the whole universe , but especially to all living creatures . . were the sun immoveable , and enjoying its rest ; ergo that rest must either be a violent detention , or a natural rest ; not the first , because that could not be durable ; or what can there be thought potent enough to detain that vast and most powerful body of the sun ? for that must also be sensibly demonstrated and cleared , otherwise you do nothing . neither can it be the latter ; for were it natural , it must not only have a natural principle of rest , but also be contained in a vacuum , or else in a region whose parts have likewise attained to a natural rest through the enjoying of their center . it is a property of a center to be as a point in comparison to the circumference ; but nothing can be contracted to a point but earth and water , as i have shewed above ; whereas according to their own confession the sun is a vast great body , and its beams spreading and dilating ; ergo it must be only earth and water . now what sign of predominance of earth and water is there apparent in the sun ? for were it so , the sun would shew black , and give no light . the moon is liker ( if any ) to be the center , it consisting by far of more earth then the sun , as her minority in body , motion and degree of brightness do testifie , lastly , is it not more probable that our sight should hallucinate , or be deceived in judging the sun not to move , then in judging it to move , all astronomical phaenomena's being so consentaneous to this latter judgment ? besides , how is it possible for us to judge , whether the sun doth move or rest , since that according to this supposition we are carried about with that swiftness ? by the same reason we may doubt of the motion of all the other planets . the fourth position concludes a most rapid motion of the earth . what principle of motion can the earth consist of ? of none certainly , but of fire and air , which are admitted into her body in so improportionable a measure , that they cannot be thought to impel the earth to the least local motion . moreover earth is of so heavy a body , that it is rendered altogether incapable of circular local motion : otherwise were the mass of earth so prone to such a swift circular motion , certainly its parts , as terrestrial mixt bodies would retain the same inclination to the same motion , which we find to be contrary according to the perip . & this supposition all light bodies ( ordinarily so called ) must be said to be heavy , and all heavy bodies light ; for bodies by them are counted heavy , which move downward , that is , towards the center ; ergo fire must be said to be heavy , & earth light , because the one moves upwards to its supposed universal center , & the other from it : but this is absurd , can a point move through so vast or almost immense a region , and with that velocity ? in all other natural things we find that a point of any element hath no force or proportion to move through a span of another element , although that point be supposed to be detained violently . take a particle of earth , which is no point , and let it fall out of your hand , it will hardly move down to the earth , or if it doth , it is so slow , that is hardly perceptible ; but much less would a point move . if then the earth be but as a point to so immense a region , it cannot be supposed to move . possible you do reply , that it is impelled by an extrinsick movent : suppose i granted it , its motion being violent , could not be durable ; besides the proportion of a point is insinitely too little for to receive such a most swift impulse , which through its littleness it would doubtless effuge . were the earth a planet or star , it is supposed it should cast a light , which is repugnant to its nature , through which , as i have shewed before , she is rendered dark , and is the cause of all darkness . were this absurdity admitted , all our knowledge , which hitherto wise men have so laboured to accomplish would be in vain ; for as i said before , earth and earthy bodies must be light , fire and fiery bodies must be heavy , and enjoy their rest : water and waterish bodies must be likewise heavy , the air and ayry bodies must be weighty , and enjoy their rest ; for if the earth moves , it is certainly moved through the air , the which according to that supposition must be immoveable , because all moveables ( omne mobile sit super immobili ) are moved upon an immoveable subject : all dark colours must be supposed light ; all astronomical appearances , shadows , sounds , tasts , sents and all mixt bodies must then be understood to be contrary to what really they are . scripture is likewise plain against it , job . . psal. . . for he hath founded it ( namely the earth ) upon the seas , and est ablisht it upon the flouds . job . . whereupon are the foundations there of ( to wit of the earth ) fastened ? or who laid the corner stone thereof ? psal. . . who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be moved for ever . what need there more words to consute so absurd an opinion ? but to return to my proposition ; that the earth must necessarily be the center of the world . i proved it above , where i did defer the reason of its rest to this place . the earth of all the elements doth alone enjoy her rest ; because she alone doth possess a center , whereby she enjoyes her own natural internal motion ; but suppose another element to possess the place of her center , & the earth to cover it immediately , then doubtless the earth would continue in external motion ( because its parts are violently detained from a center ) & press upon that body ( which doth oppose it by keeping her out of her place ) until she had removed it , which being removed , it could not be thought to be longer in external local motion , since she had recovered her natural place , unless we should absurdly imagine , that one part should move against the other for to gain a penetration of bodies . if then n. copern . d. origan . and others , who strive to maintain the threefold motion of the earth ( viz. of inclination and declination , its dayly and yearly motion ) had discovered , that the earth were violently detained by some other element or body , then they might have thence demonstrated a motion ; but then this motion could have been no other , than the motion of water is about the earth , whereby the earth would have moved about its detaining body , which if it had it would have been immoveable nevertheless as to its external place , only it would have turned about , and have made several appearances of faces , or spots : in brief it would have had the same motion , which copernicus adscribed to the sun. hence it is more than apparent that the earth is the center of the world and doth enjoy her rest . the reason of its rest is so demonstrative that no rational body can deny it . i proceed . iii. the earth may commodiously be divided into three regions , differing from one another in purity of body , weight , density , &c. the first region i call the central region , because it extends nearest about the cencer . it s periphery is about . degrees , its diameter is ● / ● . this region consists of most pure earth , and most freed from the peregrin elements ; wherefore its weight and density , is the weightiest and most dense . it contains no mixt bodies within it self , because it is so remote that the peregrin elements cannot move thither ; besides , that smallest proportion of peregrin elements , which may happily be supposed to be detained in the central region is so much depressed and firmely detained by the weight of the earth , that it is impossible it should come to any head to constitute a mixt body . it s colour must be conceived to be a pure fundamental black . the second , or the middle region contains in its circumference degrees ; its latitude * is / degr . this region is less weighty and dense than the central , as being accompanied with a greater proportion of extraneous elements . it harbours some mixt bodies , as imperfect stones , but no metals . the reason of this assertion is drawn from the proportion of the elements , which there are not enough in quantity to constitute the body of metals or perfect stones ; besides , we cannot imagine that the earth should contain any hollownesses in the second region * , which are requisite ( as i shall shew by and by ) for the generation of perfect stones and metals . iv. the third region of the earth comprehends in its circuit degrees , in its latitude ( not its compleat diameter ) / . this last or extreme region consists of most ( that is , more than the two former regions ) extraneous elements , because it is situated nearer to the proper regions of the said extraneous elements , which do violently strive to enter her body ( as you shall read anon ) whereby and through which the earth , especially near to her surface is rendred of a very unequal temperature , where the extraneous elements uniting together do raise a hollowness in the earth , and infinuate into one anothers substance or body , to which the coldness of the earth is very much conducing , thereby gathering or coagmenting the said elements together , and impelling them into one anothers body , and then closing them firmly ; all which it performs through its coldness . through coldness understand its compressing weighty minima's . wherefore , do not still abide in your obstinate conceit that it is the sun , which is the efficient cause of minerals and stones : for that is absurd . i prove it . that , which is the main efficient of stones and metals must be a contracting , condensing , and indurating substance ; but the sun is no contracting , condensing , or indurating substance ; ergo the sun cannot be the efficient of stones and metals . the major is undeniable . i confirm the minor by proving the contrary , namely , that the sun doth mollifie , because its flame is soft , and all heat is soft ; for softning is nothing else but to dispose a body to bend easily into its self if pressed from without : but earth rarefied by fire doth easily bend into it self , if pressed from without . ergo , the minor is evident , because whatever is throughly hot & fiery is soft , as we see in red-hot iron , in alive flesh , and all vegetables . so that , by how much the more heat a body hath , by so much the softer it is , provided quod caetera sint paria . further , what heat is there under the earth ? i confess there is more and less coldness under it , but no predominating heat . what heat can there be in greenland , especially under the earth , and yet it is certain that many rocks and stones are generated there ? they may as well say , that fire is the efficient cause of all those islands of ice . again , so much as a substance consisteth of coldness and earth , by so much it participates of hardness ; or by how much the less heat a body consisteth of , so much the lesse hardnesse it partakes of . the matter of a stone in the kidneys or in the bladder was sofe when it fluctuated within the vessals , but being detained in the kidneys its heat is diminished either through the intense heat of the kidneys , which doth dissipate and attract the lesser heat from the matter retained in the cavity of the kidneys , through which ecess of heat the terrestrial and thick waterish parts are coagulated and are closed together through the depressing coldness of the intrinsick earth and water . the same matter being retained in kidneys of a cold temperament , doth immediately through that degree of coldness coagulate and grow hard . the stone in the bladder is generally harder than the stone in the kidneys ; because the one is of a far colder ( that is less hot ) temperament than the other . that in the kidneys is more friable , whereas the stone in the bladder is affected with a continuous firm thick waterish hardness . this i can witness by a stone being taken from a patient by section , which that most learned and expert physitian dr. george bate shewed me six or seven years ago : this stone was perduced to that hardness , that i am confident an ordinary smart stroak of a hammer could scarce break it : yet when it was within the bladder it was far distant from such a hardness ; for a piece of the catheter was unawares run into the body of the stone and broke in it , which was afterwards taken out with it ; but after it had been exposed a little while to the air , it grew immediately to that hardness : what could be the cause of this but the hotter parts of the stone exhaling into the air , whereby the cold parts fell closer and thereby arrived to a greater hardness ? the errour of fernelius is obvious in that he stated the intense heat of the kidneys to be the cause of a lithiasis ; for it happens as freqently in kidneys of a cold temperament : neither is it an ( insita renum arenosa calculosaque dispositio a parentibus contracta ) hereditary , fixt , fabulous , and calculous disposition ( as the same author conceives , ) which doth consist in a degree of temperament of the solid parts of the kidneys ; for stones have been generated in kidneys of all kinds of temperaments : neither can it be said to be hereditary , for many a man hath been troubled with the stone , whose issue never was so much as disposed to it ; and on the other side , many a man hath been miserably tormented with the stone or duelech as paracelsus terms it , whose parents never discerned the least symptom of a stone within their bodies ; nevertheless , as i said before , the temperature of the kidneys adds much to the accelerating of a lithiasis . it is then certain that the greatest cause of lapidation or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is internal , depending upon the predominance of earth or coldness over the other elements in a mixture . the focus ( or uterus as van helmont terms it , that is the place where a stone or gravel is generated ) must be a close hollow place ; wherefore nothing can arrive to this close hollow place , unless it be liquid ; for a thick or course body will be intercepted before it can reach thither . this liquid matter being now lodged within this cavity , the hot parts do exhale , because now through the hollowness of the place they have got liberty to dislate , and free themselves from the heavy terrestrial and thick aqueous parts , whereas before when they were kept close together through channels and lodges shutting close upon them the hot parts were firmly contained within and bound up . this is necessarily and certainly demonstrative , and infers , that where ever close hollownesses are groved , and that liquid matter containing terrestrial and aqueous parts in it may reach to them , there certainly stones and metals can and may be generated . by vertue of this position i shall prove and shew by and by , that stones and metals may be generated in most hollow parts of the body of man. but to persue my discourse : the hot parts being now freed from the terrestrial parts , and inhering in subtil ayry serosiries do with more ease and force procure their passage through this close and hollow prison than they made their way thither , leaving the terrestrial and aqueous parts behind them for a ransom , which by degrees are coagulated more and more according to the expulsion of the fiery and ayry parts . understand also the reasons of the qualification of the focus or womb of stones and metals . . it must be hollow , the reason of this is set down already . . it must be close ; for were it not close but open the terrestrial and aqueous matter could not be detained there , but would have as free a passage as the thin parts . besides , closeness conduceth to keep out extrinsick heat , which otherwise would again dissolve and mollifie the work ; wherefore the hardest stones and metals are found some degrees below the surface of the earth , and i dare confidently assert , that if metals were digged for deeper under the ground their labour would be richly answered by finding purer and better metals . . the coldness of these places must be a proportionable coldness ; for if the places be too cold , then the liquid parts will be detained from arriving to cast up hollownesses by being too much incrassated and condensed , whereby the energy of their rare and subtil parts is suppressed . . the liquid matter must also have a due proportion of the elements whereby to constitute certain kinds of stones and metals . if the matter be thick and terrestrial not containing many subtil and rare parts , then it will generate into a course stone . the reason of the courseness is , because the terrestrial and aqueous elements are but rudely mixed , by reason they wanted internal heat , whereby their parts might be divided into lesser particles , and so become the more concocted and harder . in case the matter be more subtil and rare , and that the course parts are united in less particles , then the said stone will according to its degree of fineness and concoction prove flinty , marble , jaspis , cornelian , &c. in case there be more thick water than earth , the body thence generated becomes crystalline ; as crystal , diamonds , rubies , &c. in these water doth retain almost its natural consistence , as i shall tell you immediately . in case there be an equal part of earth and water , and these well concocted and intirely mixt together , it produces gold. if there be something more of water than earth , and they well percocted and permisted , they ingender silver . if there be an equal proportion of water and earth , and they only rudely concocted and but half mixt , it generates copper . if there be more earth than water , and but half mixt and concocted , it constitutes iron . if there be more water than earth , and they but rudely mixed and rawly cocted , the effect will prove lead , or according to the proportion of the ingredients and coction pewter . mercury is generated out of water being rendred fluid through much air and fire , containing withall a small part of earth . these do not only differ in proportion of materials , but also in degree of internal heat and of the temperament of their matrix , otherwise termed a vein from its cylindrical figure . gold had the strongest heat , whereby the parts were firmly united in minima's , which heat did after the performance of its office exhale by degrees ; nevertheless suppose that there was a degree of heat left : the matrix of gold must be very close for to retain that intense heat so long until the constituting parts are well permisted and concocted . as for the external temperament of the climate , it is little material to the business , since we see that gold , silver , &c. are generated in cold countries as well as in hot , in moist as well as in dry . it is the internal temperament of the earth , which supplies fit matter for the generation of metals . the matrix of silver is less close , the matrix of brass more open than it , and so gradually in the others . mines or mineral veines are usually found to be in hills or mountains , because these do generally contain hollownesses , especially if they appear dry and sandy without . those mountains are for the most part best disposed for the generation of metals , that are situated at a convenient nearness to a pure crystalline river . easterly mountains are most to be suspected , provided the river which is not far distant from them be easterly withall . the clearness of sky is no small token . a long bar of iron thrust into the ground after having digged to some depth , if it changeth whitish or yellowish , gives no small suspition of gold or silver . a long trunk peirced likewise into the ground where suspected as deep as may be , and afterward applying the ear to it , if it renders a tinging or sibulous boyling noise , is a sign of some hidden treasure under that soile . that the generation of metals is such as i have proposed may be demonstratively proved by sense from their colour , consistency , difficulty of liquation , from the theorems of concoction , the which since you may easily collect from what hath been hitherto discoursed upon , i shall omit any further proof . v. the present occasion doth urge me to touch somewhat upon the transmution of metals . the difference , which there is between them you may collect from their matter , degree of coction and disposition of matrix : however there is more agreement between themselves , than there is between them and stones ; wherefore the question is , whether silver is transmutable into gold. here i propose the doubt according to its most probable appearance , there being less difference between gold and silver than between gold and any of the others . i answer , that naturally it cannot be , because it is impossible that after silver hath once acquired its form , it should be convertible into a perfecter form : because heat is deficient , for it is exhaled ; neither was there ever at its highest internal heat enough to have concocted it into the nature of gold ; or had there been heat enough there would have been too much water and air : the case is less probable after its constitution , specification , & individuation that it should change into another species , or another individuum . if the transmutation to a greater perfection of all other species and individua be impossible , so must this also : but the antecedence is true , ergo the consequence likewise . i grant that it is possible to reduce it to a more imperfect and base species , that being plain in all corruptions . wherefore i say that it seems more possible to reduce gold into silver , silver into brass or pewter , brass into iron , and iron into mercury , by means of an artificial corruption , because the finer metal may be thought to contain the courser as an inferiour degree , whence it is ascended ; but the finer cannot contain that in it self , which is finer than it self is . neither can our proposed transmutation be effected by any art of man , unless he knew a means , wherby to detract such a proportion of the redundant waterish parts of the silver , as that there might remain just as much as is required to constitute gold ; besides the work will need a strong and vehement internal concoction , and that to a certain degree , and for a certain duration . it will require also a justly disposed matrix , all which i conceive impossible to art . they may as well strive to make a ruby or a diamond out of a flint . happily you will object , that some have converted silver and brass into gold through the admission of some volatil subtil penetrative particles , which were of that force , as might be supposed to have divided the whole mass of silver and penetrated into and through all its minima's , whereby the gross parts fell closer to one another and become perfectly concocted , so as through their consistency to represent the true weight and colour of gold , which might really pass our censure upon a touchstone . i answer , that it is possible to change a courser metal so , that it shall be like to gold both in weight and superficial colour ; but then this colour will not be equable throughout all its parts , neither are the parts so digested , concocted , and closely united as they should be . in fine , this artificial gold is no more real gold , than an artificial pearl is like to a true oriental one , or a glass diamond to a true one . at the best it is but counterfeit gold , which immediately shall be dissolved by aq. fort. whereas the other will not suffer it self to be toucht by it , unless it be fortified by a rectification upon salt armoniack . chymical furnace hunters do strangely boast of their secrets of preparing aurum potabile , or tincture of gold. others do through ignorance of the art and want of skill assert the said preparation to be impossible . questionless were the thing of a harder nature , these laborious vulcans would work it out ; nevertheless their arrogance and immodesty in proclaiming of the transcendent and admirable effects of it doth forfeit their modesty and wrong that noble art. aurum potabile ( say they ) is an universal medicine curing all diseases , restoring youth , and retarding old age , prolonging life to an eval duration ; in fine aurum potabile is good for all things ; or rather aurum portabile is . here you have a great many rash and vain words , the contrary whereof i have so oft seen come to pass . i have known it to cause a dysentery through its corrosive spirits , which it retains either from its last menstrunm , or from its first dissolvent , viz. aqua regia . it provokes sweat and urin , but withall is very offensive to the liver and heart , because of the said adventitious spirits . that , which they call the tincture or quinta essentia of gold is nothing but the outward rust of gold , which the aquaregia begot upon it through its corruptive quality . in summa , the natural fixt spirits of gold are inseparable , or at least those that are separable are corrupted by the poysonous spirits of the dissolvent . suppose they were separable from its body without being stained , the most we can conceive of them is , that they are a subtil diaphoretick ; and then hardly comparable to others , whose nature is more consentaneous to ours , as spir . c. c. tinct . croci . lilium antim . paracelsi , &c. besides these forementioned hard bodies the earth doth also ingender others less hard , and some soft ones , consisting of a more ayry and fiery nature . these are in like manner conceived in matrices or wombs , differing from the others in length , exility and shape . of these there is a double sort observable , the one being more fiery and waterish , the other more ayry and fiery . the first is saline , the other unctious . stones and metals being more earthy and consentaneous to the nature of earth are retained and cherished within the earth ; but the others being much distant from its nature are expelled nearer to its surface . i shall first begin with the salin bodies . vi. there is a certain fermentation within the earth , which is nothing else but the contraction of the earth by the compression of its parts upon one another , whereby the extraneous elements are expelled ; but since these cannot be abstracted from the body of the earth without the firm and close adherence of some earthy minima's , they do draw them along ; the proportion of which earthy minima's , and their degree of closeness of union do constitute the differences of all earthy mixed bodies . the salin juyces are attenuated waterish bodies permixt with condensed fire , and a small proportion of earthy minima's , which do concrease by the evaporation of the greater part of air , leaving behind it water thickned naturally through its absence . fire is closer united to these salin juyces , than it is to the unctious ones , to which air is more close united than to these . many of these salin juyces are transparent through the predominance of water , others are of other colours according to the proportion of earth . we see that among these many concrease in an angular form , as appears in allume , vitriol , &c. which happens through the degrees of the airs evaporation ; for the air evaporating unequally causes such an angular induration . the air doth evaporate unequally , in that it doth sooner desert the extream parts , as being less thick and dense , & more remote from the centrical ones , which do retain the air the longest . the first evaporation leaves an acuteness for an angle , the second subtilities , is being more slow , evaporate by degrees , so causing a greater obtusion from the foresaid acuteness . the evaporation it self is caused by the weighty elements expelling the light parts through their weight . the earthy salin juyces are principally these , common salt , salt gemmae , saltpeter , allume , salt armoniack , and vitriol . common salt is nothing but the relict or residence of sea water , or of saltish fountain water being evaporated . this kind of salt contains more loose air , but less fire than others . salt gemmae is a fossil salt digged out of the earth , and is somewhat more fiery and consistent of closer ayr than the former . saltpeter is threefold . . is drawn by coction from nitrous earth . . sweats through stone walls and concreaseth upon their surface , like unto a white frost or mould . . is gathered from the rocks : this salt consisteth of more dense parts of fire pent in by close air , which again is enclosed by subtil minima's of earth . allume comprehends five sorts . . roch allom , which is drawn from rocky stones . . which is digged out of mines . . which remains after the evaporation of mineral waters . this salt is of a courser nature , consisting of more water and earth than the others . salt armoniack is a salin juyce sweating out a certain earth of libya , and concreased under the sands . that which we use instead of it is an artificial salt , by far of a lesser efficacy , made out of five parts of mans urine , one part of common salt , and half a part of wood soot , being boyled together and evaporated to a consistence . this sort of salt is stronger than any of the others , consisting of a dense fire closely knit with air and incorporated with a watered earth . vitriol is known in several sorts , . there is hungary or cyprian vitriol of a sky colour like unto a saphir , compact like ice , and dry . . is of a greenish colour concreased in grains or crums like unto common salt , but withal or somewhat unctious . . white vitriol , like unto loaf-sugar . vitriol may justly be censured half a metal , it consisting of the same course parts , of which iron and copper do consist of . it contains much earth mixt with a dense fire . vii . the unctious and bituminous bodies generated and cast forth by the earth are sulphur , arsenick , amber , naptha , peteroil , asphaltos , oyl of earth , sea-coal , and gagates or jeat stone . sulphur is an unctious juyce of the earth concreased within a particular matrix , and consisting of dense fire inhering in a loose incrassated air . arsenick comprehends three sorts . . is yellow , and is otherwise named auripigmentum . . being red is called sandaracha . . is singularly named arsenick , or crystalline arsenick , being of a whitish colour . their body is constituted out of a most dense fire united to a thick air ; from this extreme density of fire it happens to be of that corrosive and venomous nature , that it proves an immediate poyson to man , because through its intense dense heat , it extracts , expels , and suffocates his natural heat , in which respect it is but little less corruptive and hot than focal fire . of these three sorts arsenick is counted the least caustick and malignant , the next auripigmentum . amber is known by three sorts . . there is that , which is particularly called amber . . is called succinum . . is whitish amber , otherwise called sperma ceti . whether there is any black amber is doubted : some do affirm it as having seen it . a mistake certainly , either they took jeat , or some other substance made out of musk , lign . aloes , styrax and ladanum for it . grayish amber ( otherwise called ambergreece ) is thought to be the purest , smoothest , and of the best sent. succinum is of two sorts , viz. white and yellow . spermaceti is by many deemed to be found supernatant atop the sea , who assert it to be rather the seed of a whale ; if so , then it must have been generated in their stomacks or throats , some having found some quantity sticking in their throats : but this doth more probably argue , that it was supernatant atop the sea , and devoured by the whale . but for what i know , this may be a story , nevertheless it is certain it hath been gathered in the indian and aethiopian seas near to the shore , where whales have scarcely ever appeared . neither can i imagine this to be that , which ancient physitians called the flower of salt , there being too great a difference between their descriptions . flower of salt is described to be reddish and liquid , and to be of a detergent nature and saltish tast , whereas the other is a white furfuraceous famess , being of an emollient nature , and of a fat tast , and in all particulars directly contrary . ambergreece happens to be supernatant upon the sea , and some fountaines too , from being communicated by the earth in bituminous and lixivious exbalations , and exalted and purified by the motion and subliming faculty of the sea , coagulated atop through the exhaling of the hotter spirits and concreased by the ambient coldness . the succinum or common amber wanting that exaltation and sublimation , is found in germany and italy in mines to be of an inferiour nature . it is also gathered from the sea. the spirits of amber are rare and subtil , consisting of a thick ayry body . naphtha and peteroyl differ from amber in consistency and greater quantity of fire and air , these being liquid and more inflammable , but in all other particulars agreeing , peteroyl and naptha having oft been found to lodge in liquid substances within the body of common amber . naptha is gathered in great quantity about babylon , the earth there being so tempered with the peregrine elements , that it protrudes abundance of this kind of bitumon . peteroyl is most frequently collected flowing out of rocks . asphaltus is a hard black and splendent bitumen , like unto shining pitch , heavy , and of a strong sent. it is gathered swimming atop of lakes ; in other places it is taken out of the earth near to its surface . the mare mortuum in judaea affords the best and greatest quantity . this is different from the others through its containing a greater proportion of earth , and greater density of fire . as peteroyl flowes out of the rocks , so doth oyl of earth out of the earth and hils in some parts of east-india . it is of a transparent red , and a strong sent like unto peteroyl , but more pleasing . the vertues of all these bitumens , excepting arsenick , are praysed for their emollient , discutient , comforting the brain , the nerves and membranes , thence healing wounds by comforting the calidum innatum of the said parts when wounded , and for their anodine nature , thence giving ease to the joynts in arthritical pains : all which they perform through a subtil and balsamick spirit . sea-coal is called by the latinists carbo petrae , and terra ampelitis ; notwithstanding the latter name denotes a thing somewhat distinct from the former , in that it is more bituminous and less hard . the other is nothing but earth and sulphur concocted and conglutinated into a stonish substance , and is no where ingendred , but where the earth is hollow , and foecundated with store of a sulphureous bitumen . gagates , or jeat , is a bitumen of a more concocted body , and more sulphureous . the proverb speaks it to be very black . it is kindled and burnes assoon as brimstone if toucht by fire , and gives a bituminous scent . it s vertue is the same with other bitumens . viii . besides these , there are some other mean bodies generated within the earth , which are neither metals , or saline , or unctious juyces ; they are not so hard , nor so much concocted as metals , neither are they so loose and rare as saline and unctious bodies . they are particularly these : mercury , antimony , marcasita , cobaltum , chalcitis , misy and sory . the first we have treated of above . the next is marcasita , otherwise bismuthum , which is a heavy , hard , brittle , whitish body , shining within with little points of gold and silver . it s matter is too course to generate gold or silver , but is as it were the dross of them both , and is separated from them as a natural excrement , which is concocted into a body of a courser substance . its spirits are more dense , and earth is more in proportion ; water less . this hath endued the nature of venom , because of its dense heat . you are not to conceive that this is only an excrement of gold and silver , but that it is also a perfect body primarily generated out of the same proportion of the elements within a proper matrix , and therefore is to be found in mines , where there is no sign of gold or silver . it is repercutient from its earth , dissolving and detergent from its dense fire , if applied externally . it s water is a very potent dissolvent of gold and silver . cobaltum , otherwise called natural cadmia , is the courser body or excrement of copper . it is weighty , and of a black colour . it s fire is extreamly dense , in such a manner , that it is thence rendered to be the strongest poyson . it s caustick and corroding quality penetrates so violently through the gloves and shoes of the diggers , that it ulcerates their hands and feet . chalcitis , misy and sory differ from one another in courseness of substance , and are oft found to grow one atop the other . chalcitis is like copper , and brittle ; in consistency of courseness it is between sory , which is thinner , and misy , which is somewhat thicker then it . misy is of a brass colour , glistering through its body with sparks like gold , growing about chalcitis like an outermost crust , or like rust about iron . sory is a mineral , hard and thick like to a stone , glistering with yellowish sparks . these three are of a causting quality , thereby burning scars and crusts into the flesh ; besides they are somewhat adstringent . misy is the strongest , and sory is the next to it in strength . antimony is a mineral of a blewish colour , shining throughout its body like streeks of silver , its mixture is out of course earth and dense fire , yet less dense then any of the foregoing . it s vertue is internally vomitive and purgative , externally it is discutient , detergent and adstringent . all these are natural recrements of metals , yet not recrements alone , as i said before . bombast and his sectators analyze all metals and minerals into sal , sulphur , and mercury ; as if they were all generated out of these , as their first principles ; for say they , our art instructs us to reduce every metal or mineral into each of those foresaid principles . either this is to be understood , that it is possible to reduce all minerals really into sal , sulphur & mercury , or into some certain more concected beings analogal to them . generally they seem to pretend to educe real mercury out of all minerals ; but as for the others they are only analogal . why should they more expect to extract real mercury then real salt or sulphur ? wherefore it will be more consisting with reason to conclude them all equally analogal , that is like in consistency to ordinary mercury , sal and sulphur , but not in effects . it is a madness for any one to imagine , that gold is constituted by the same mercury , but more concocted , that is usually digged out of mines ; and that mercury is convertible into gold , if thereunto intended by a strong concocting preparation . they might as well say , that gut-excrements were convertible into flesh , and that flesh consisted out of the said real excrements . the case is thus : mercury is by them accounted to be an excrement of metals , wherefore as an excrement is a body really different from those bodies , from which it is rejected , and in no wise convertible , unless it be some of the purest parts of it , that have escaped natures diligence ; so neither is mercury any part of metals , nor convertible into them , unless it be the smallest purest parts , which had fled the earths metalliferous quality . possibly you will object that gold feeds upon mercury , and mercury upon it , wherefore they are convertible into one anothers nature . i deny the antecedence : for gold is dissolved and destroyed by it ; as appears in amalgamation , or dissolving gold by the fume of mercury , ergo it is not fed by it . mercury effects no less in the body of man ; for it dissolves his humid parts , yea his solid parts too , as mercurial salivations testifie . all which is a sufficient argument to induce us to forbear from explaining the causes of natural beings by sal , sulphur & mercury . probably you reply , that this is not the meaning of bombast , who intended these names only to be analogal to those things vulgarly so called . wherefore by mercury is understood a thin pure liquor , by sulphur , a subtil spirit , by salt , the gross substance of a body . i answer , either you must take these for first principles , or for mixt bodies ; they cannot be the first , because his mercury is constituted out of water reduced from its greatest hardness into a subtil fluor through admixture of air and fire : his sulphur consists of fire condensed by earth , and of air ; ergo they must be mixt bodies ; if so , they are no first principles of metals , because even these are reducible into more simple bodies , viz. his mercury into thick water , a thin air , and a rare fire ; sulphur into air , fire , &c. this i will grant them , that all metals are dissolveable into such kinds of analogal substances , which are not bodies less mixt , but only changed into bodies of several consistencies , viz. thick and thin , course and fine . chap. ii. of stones and earths . . a description of the most precious stones . . a description of the less precious stones that are engendred within living creatures . . a description of the less precious stones that are engendred without the bodies of living creatures : . an enumeration of common stones . . a disquisition upon the vertues of the forementioned stones . an observation on the effects of powders composed out of precious stones . whether the tincture of an emerald is so admirable in a bloudy flux . . a particular examination of the vertues of a bezoar stone , piedra de puerco , pearles , &c. . the kinds of earth , and their vertues . i. our method hath led us to propose the demonstration of universal natures before that of particulars , and that of metals before the other of imperfect minerals and stones , as being more excellent through their perfection of mixture ; wherefore we have next allotted this chapter for the treatise of the particular natures of stones . stones are either known under the name of most precious , less precious , or common . the most precious stones are ordinarily called jewels , being in number . . an agathe . . an amethist . . an asterites . . a beril . . a carbuncle . . a chalcedonie . . a chrysolite . . a diamond . . an emerald . . a jaspis . . an jacinth . . an onyx . . a ruby . . a sarda . . a saphir . a sardonix . . a topaze . . a turcois . an agathe is a stone of divers mixt colours , and in no wise transparent . an asterites is a stone somewhat resembling crystal , and within the moon when she is at full . an amethist is a stone of a violet colour . a beril is of a sea-green colour , and sometimes is found to have other colours mixt with it . a prase is not unlike to it , only that it is not of so deep a green , neither so hard ; for it wears away by much usage . a carbuncle is esteemed for the most precious of all stones , and is of a gold or flaming colour . it is said that there is a kind of a carbuncle ( called a pyrope ) to be found in the east-indies , which shines as bright in the night as the sun doth in the day . a chalcedonie is a stone of a purple colour . a chrysolite is of a golden colour , hard and transparent . a chrysoprase is hard , and of a greenish colour . a diamond is thought to be the hardest of all stones . an emerald is hard , and of a perfect green colour . a jaspis is of a greenish colour , sported here and there with bloudy spots . an jacinth is of a gold or flaming colour . some of them decline from a yellow to a deep saffron red , or sometimes to a blewish colour . they are neither perspicuous or opake , but between both . an onyx is of a brownish white , but of a dull transparency . an opale stone is by pliny , lib. . c. , accounted for the best and rarest of stones , as participating of the rarest colours of the rarest stones : its fire is more subtil then of a carbuncle , shining with a purple of an amethist , greenish like to the sea-green of an emerald , &c. a ruby is a reddish stone . a granate is a worser sort of rubies . a sarda is of a transparent fiery red colour : a cornelian is comprehended under it . a sardonix is composed ( as it were ) out of a sarda and onyx ; it is scarce transparent . a saphire is opake , but of a clear sky or blew colour , and very hard . a turcois is opake , and of a colour between green and blew . a topaze is transparent , and of a colour between a grass green and a saffron yellow : it is falsely confounded with a chrysolite , there being a very discernable difference between them . ii. the less precious stones are found either within the bodies of living creatures , or without . those that are found within the bodies of living creatures are , . the bezoar stone , which is found in the belly of an indian goat-stag , a beast in some parts like to a goat , in others to a stag. the stone is for the most part of a dark green , yet some are found of a yellowish , others of a brown and olive colour . they are brittle and friable , containing oft-times a straw , or a small kernel in the midst of them , about which there concreaseth a slimy matter baking to it in blades . there are two sorts of them , viz. oriental and occidental . . a tair of a stag is a little stone engendred in the corner of a stags eye . it is very bright , smooth , round , very small and light . it s colour is yellowish , mixt with a few black streaks , and gives a strong sent. . the stones of a goat are taken out of its stomack or gall. . there are also stones found in the stomack and gall of an oxe . . the german bezoar stones are taken out of the bellies of some does that haunt the alpes . . the stone of an indian hogge , or as the portugueses call it piedra de puerco , is found in the gall of an east-india hogge , or in the stomack of a porcupine ; it is soft and fat to feel to , just as if you felt a piece of castile sope. pearles , that are generated within the bellies of sea shell-fish , as of cockles , muscles , or sea-oysters . these do most gather to the sea-shore about the spring , where they , ( or rather the sun through its drying faculty ) do open their shels , whereby that glutinous and clear moysture , which they had retained undigested a longtime in their bellies , and now being freed from its ayry parts , doth congeal through compression of the remaining thick waterish substance : which , if they do happen to be engendred , when the sky is dampish and cloudy , are affected also with a cloudiness , as not being sufficiently purified through the driness and heat of the sun and the ambient air . as long as they be under water , they are soft ; but after a short time lying in the dry air , they do soon grow hard . when they are taken out of the shell some of the fishes flesh cleaves to them , which they usually bite off by covering them for a while with salt. . the alectory stone is taken out of a cocks maw . this stone is more frequently found in cocks , when they are in their fourth or fifth year . . a bufonite is a stone found in the head of an old toad ; its shape is for the most part long or round . . a chelidony is taken out of the maw or liver of a young swallow ; its colour is a black mixt with a little red . sometimes they breed two together , whereof the one is more blackish , the other enclines more to a red . . the carp-stone is white without , and yellow within , being found in the throat of a carp. there is also another triangular stone engendred in the head of it , besides two long stones more sticking above its eyes . . the stones of a crab , otherwise called crabs-eyes , are white and round . . a saurite is found in the belly of a lizzard . . a limace-stone is engendred in the head of a house-snaile . . the perch-stones are taken out of the head of a perch , near to the back-bone . iii. the less pretious stones found without the bodies of living creatures are , . the aetites , or eagle-stone , which is found in an eagles nest , and is of a light red colour . . coral , which is a shrub of the sea , being green and soft under water , but assoon as it is plucked from the bottom of the sea , and exposed to the air , it becomes red and hard like unto a stone . hence ovid. lib. . metam . nunc quoque coralliis eadem natura remansit , duritiem tacto capiant ut ab aere , quodque vimen in aequore er at , fiat super aquore saxum . there are several sorts of it , viz. red , green , white , yellow , brown , black , and of a mixt colour . some pieces of coral appear to be half wood and half stone . crystal waxeth upon the snowie hils ; it is oft found upon the alpes that divide italy from helvetia . it s shape is hexagonal , the cause is the same with that of the angular shape of alume . authors are at great variance whether it is generated out of ice . no certainly , for ice is nothing near so clear , neither can it be purified after its concretion . it s matter then is the subtiler and purer part of snow concreased and congealed : for what is more crystalline and pure then the liquor of snow , as being purified from all gross parts through its first evaporation from the waters to the heavens , and thence precipitated pure , and freed from its greater part of terrestrial admixture ? i need not add more for to explain its generation , since it is generated in the same manner that all other stones are generated . the haematite or blood-stone is of an iron colour permixt with bloudy streakes : some are more blackish , others yellowish . the galactite , or milk-stone is of an ash colour . a marble is a smooth shining stone , admitting of sundry colours . it is known by three sorts . . alabaster , which is a white transparent marble . . the porphirstone , which is drawn through with red and white streakes . . an ophirstone whose colour is a green , spotted with spots like unto those of a serpent . a sarcophage , or flesh-eating stone is of an ash colour . it derives its name from eating mans flesh away without pain . a lazul-stone is of a blew colour , speckt within its body with golden specks like unto so many stars . an armene stone is of the same colour , excepting that in stead of golden specks , it is marked with green , blew , and blackish spots . the themeade is a stone which driveth iron from it , wherein it proves contrary to the attraction of the loadstone , upon which we shall insist particularly in a chapter by it self , as requiring a more distinct and nice search . the nephritick stone is sent hither by the inhabitants of nova hispania ; it loo●s greasie about , as if it were besmeated with oyl . i●s colour is for the most part a light green , others are of a mixt colour . it is hought to be a kind of a jaspis . the judaean stone , so called because it is frequently found in judaa , and in some parts of silesia , being friable , and round like to an olive , of a pale ash colour , having even streaks running down its length , as if they were artificially marked upon it . the greater of them are called masculine , the lesser feminine . the leopard-stone is of a long , round and pyramidal figure , whereof some are whitish , or of an ash-colour ; others blackish , and transparent , like to muscadine wine . iv. common stones are either porous and spongy , or solid and compact . the first kind comprehends a tophe , a pumice stone , and a sponge stone . the latter is divided into a rock , a rock-stone , a flint , an emrod , a whetstone , a gravel-stone , an amianth , a chalck-stone , a talck-stone , a glass-stone , a calaminar-stone , and an ostiocolla . a tophe is a stone something harder then clothy sand , and friable like to it . a pumice stone is cavernous like to a sponge , fit to make a thing smooth with . a sponge stone is concreased in a sponge , being of a whitish colour , but friable ; it is otherwise called a cysteolithe . a rock is vulgarly enough known , and therefore needs no description . rock stones are great stones cut out of a rock , wherewith they build houses . a flint is unknown to none . an emrod is a stone wherewith glasiers cut glasses into pieces . a whetstone declares it self through its name , whose finer sort is called a touchstone , and serves for to try metals upon . gravel-stones are found every where upon the sides of rivers , and upon hils . an amianth is somewhat like to feather alume , nevertheless differing from it in aptness to take fire , whereas fire will not take hold of the amianth ; besides alume is of an adstringent tast , the other not . a chalck-stone is , whereout they burn lime for to build houses . a talck-stone is only commended for a cosmetick . the glassestone , otherwise called muscovy glass , is transparent like to an ordinary glass ; and may be cut into very thin leaves . it is of various colours , viz. white , yellow , brown , black . the calaminar stone is of a yellow colour , or rather a yellow mixt with ash , red , or brown : it is of no great hardness . v. pbysiologists do usually adscribe great vertues to most stones , especially to the most precious of them , possibly because they are bought at a dear rate , and therefore they ought to respond in their internal virtues to their extrinsick value . but let us make a just disquisition upon their natures . the agathe is said to be good against all venom , particularly against the bite of a scorpion : it makes a man wise , prudent , and eloquent . i should be loath to rely upon the vertues of an agathe were i bit of a scorpion , or to undertake to cure a fool with it of his phrensie : its strength , whereby it should produce these effects , is very ocult . venoms admitted through the pores , are to be expelled with the strongest diaphoreticks ; but i could never hear an agathe commended for any such effect . to the contrary , it hinders the cure of all poysons , because it is obstructive , unless it be exhibited in a large dose . an asterite comforts the brain , and cures all its distempers . how can it , since its spirits are fixed , and do never reach the brain ? an amethist represses vapours flying up from the stomach , and hinders drunkeness : this may be true , supposing they take a great dose of it , and that they do not drink above a glass or two . a beril is good to cure a superficial wound of the eye ; but tutia is much better . a pale carbuncle , chrysolite and topaze are registred to resist venom , to comfort the heart , and to drive away melancholy , and lust : i suppose it will scarce work upon a satyre . a chalcedony is good against melancholy , and makes a man merry ; but not comparable to a glass of sack. a crysoprase is thought to be good against the trembling of the heart , and to conduce to the cure of a misty and dim sight : to the contrary , it causes a palpetation of the heart , and in a small quantity it is obstructive ; and for the sight i alwaies apprehended a green colour , as of a beril or emerald , to be more agreeable with it . a diamond is praised for its vertue of removing the palpitation of the heart , and of producing mirth : but not through any intrinsick vertue , but extrinsick value , especially to a poor mans eye . they say , that it obtundeth the attractive power of a loadstone ; very probably that it doth , in case it is included close within the body of a great diamond . an emerald and an jacinth are commended for their alexipharmacal vertues against poyson , and for curing the falling sickness . a jaspis , saphir , topaze , onyx , sarda & a sardonix for chearing the heart , flopping a fluxe of bloud , preserving chastity , and promoting travel . a ruby and a turcois for clearing the sight . how these kinds of precious stones should produce these admirable effects is unknown to me . first let us enquire into the truth of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them , then of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . as touching the certainty of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsely ascribed to them , i must evidence from my own experience that i have oft prescribed the chiefest of them , being besides artificially prepared viz. magist. perl . powders composed out of fragm . of granates , jacinths , rub. &c. in extream weaknesses , and have very diligently observed their effects . the effects , which i perceived to flow from these immediately after the exhibition of them , were a present refocillation of the vital spirits , and as it were a more vigorous motion of the arteries ; but then such pulses caused by the foresaid motion were very unequal , sometimes remitting , other times intending in their strength . besides , this alteration of motion would last in some not above an hour or two at most , in others not longer then a score of pulses , or frequently not above a pulse two or three after the taking of it . in the next place , let us search into their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . we gather that the heart was affected by them , but how ? not primarily and immediately , ( as if some volatil spirits had been united to the arterial spirits , and so communicated to the heart ; ) because the spirits of these kind of stones are so much fixed to their matter , that they are in a manner inseparable , although endeavoured by chymical diligence ; that they are so , is undoubtedly true to those that have made trial of it . if the real tincture of coral or of gold is so difficult , if not impossible to attain unto , much more of these , which exceeds the other by far in fixation of bodies . that the spirits of these precious stones are so entirely fixed , their not wearing though much used , is a manifest argument , which , if their spirits were volatil , would as much befall to them as to others . they are much of the nature of gold , which although you expose to the strongest heat of fire , will not yield a minim of its weight ; if so , then we cannot imagine , that any whit of their volatil nature should be separated by our weak heat ; if aq. regia is too inferiour to separate their spirits from their earth , much less our mild ferment . but supposing an impossibility to be possible , viz. that by length of time this might be effected , yet it cannot answer to the cause of so immediate an effect ; neither must we fly to that worn out sanctuary of ignorance ocoult qualities ; for it is denied to these also to act at a distance * . but to keep you nolonger in suspence , the truth of the matter is this ; the heart , the brain and the liver do alwaies sympathize with the stomack ; the one through commonness of membranes and nerves of the sixth pair , the other through the branches of the coeliacal artery , the last through the mesenterical and other branches of the vena portae , especially in extream weaknesses . this is evident , drink but a glass of wine , and immediately your vital spirits will pulsate more vigorously your animal motion will be rendered stronger , and your veins will swell upon it . wherefore the stomach being much relaxed in most weaknesses , and filled with damps and vapours , and sometimes partaking of a malignancy , doth through the same relaxation by continuation relaxe the arteries , nerves and veines inserted into her body , whence their spirits are necessarily rendered feeble and moist . now then , the stomack being somewhat cleared of these moist evaporations , doth recover a little strength , which in like manner the foresaid channels and spirits do immediately grow sensible of : which if so , the case is plain ; to wit , that the benefit , which the noble parts receive , doth derive from the depression of these damps , through the weight of those precious powders ; the same sinking to the bottom to conglomerate and contract the stomach , by which contraction they expel the aforesaid vapours . exhibite any weighty powders , as of coral , crystal , bole armen , &c. they will refocillate the spirits , and prove as suddenly cordial ( although ex accidenti ) as others of the most precious carbuncles , or magistery of pearl ; which is an undoubted sign , that it is nothing else but their dense weight whereby they operate those effects . neither must you infer hence that i assert , that all weighty bodies are cordial ; no , but only such as are densely weighty , and have no noxious quality accompanying of them ; provided also their weight be not so excessive , as to overpress the stomach . by all this it appears , how far jewels may be said to be cordial ; as for any other effects that are adscribed to them , they are fictitious and deceitful . you may object , that the tincture or rather magistery of emeralds is commended for its miraculous vertue of stopping a looseness . i answer , that it is not the emerald , which is the sole cause of this effect , but its being impregnated with spirits and volatil salt of urine , which being very detergent , and almost as adstringent as alume , do principally work that miracle , as you call it ; for digest its powder with any other menstruum , and its operation will vary : or abstract the tinctures of any other stone or mineral earth , ( provided they partake of no noxious quality ) with the same menstruum of spir of urin , and you will assuredly find the vertue to be the same . thus much touching their intrinsick vertue : as for their external effects , they are more certain and evident . . they do clarifie the sight through their lustre and splendor , by obtending the optick air . they do cheer the visive spirits by moving them gently , and as it were quavering upon them through their flashes and glisterings of light. this is very true ; for when you look suddenly upon a great jewel , the sparkling of it will immediately quicken your eye-spirits , and as it were by consent cheer you . the same effect we do plainly perceive in our selves , when wecome suddenly out of a dark room into the sun-shiny light ; wherefore i say the production of stones are ordained by god for to remain entire , and to please the eye by being lookt upon , and not to be broken into pieces and spoiled , when they are become scarce worth a bodel , whereas before their value was of a great price . before i leave this subject , i will only insert a word touching the cause of their glistering and splendor . a carbuncle , and particularly a pyrope is alone said to shine in the dark , although sennert . in his phys. doth ignorantly deny it . the cause of its actual light in the dark is an actual flame kindled within the body of the stone , and there remaining catochizated , whose light is further intended by a reflection upon the thick waterish parts of the stone , and glisters through its refraction by angles adherent to the matter and dividing the intrinsick light. the same , to wit , reflection and refraction , is also the cause of the shining and glistering light of the other most precious stones . vi. among the less precious stones , the bezoar , or as the persians call it , pa zahar * , a word compounded out of pa against , and zahar , venom ; that is , a stone against all kinds of venom or poysons . but we here in these parts have a way of commending a thing far above what it is esteemed beyond sea , and quack-like , of extolling it against all putrid and malignant feavers , the plague , small pox , measles , malignant dysenteries , and what not ? there are many of these goat-stags in persia * , which are fed in fields near a place called stabanon , two or three daies journey from laza , a great city of that countrey . these fields protrude a great quantity of an herb very like to saffron or hermodactyls , whereon those beasts do feed , out of the subsidence and faeces of whose juyce remaining in the stomach , the foresaid stone concreaseth , which doth very miserably torment their bodies : but if the same beasts seed upon other mountainous herbs , this stone doth happen to dissolve , and comes away from them in small pieces . now , that a stone engendred out of an unwholsom and poysonous herb should work such miracles , doth by far exceed the extent of my belief . moreover physitians are very conscientious in dispensing the dose of it , imagining that or graines must be sufficient to expel all malignancy out of the humoral vessels through a great sweat ; but i have taken a whole scruple of it my self , to try its vertues , and found it only to lye heavy at my stomach , and that was all . besides i have several times prescribed it to patients , in whom i never could observe the least effect of it . supposing this stone were exalted to such faculties , there is scarce one amongst a hundred is right ; for those mahometical cheats have a trick of adulterating them , and so thrusting two or three one after another down a goats throat , they soon after kill him , and take the same stones out before witness , who shall swear they are true ones ; for they saw them taken out . the tair of a stagge doth expel sweat extreamly , and may be used against poysons and all contagious diseases . horstius commends it besides to facilitate hard labour in women . the german bezoar stone is fained to excel in the same faculties that were adscribed to the oriental bezoars . piedra de puerco some six or seven years ago had acquired a fame , through the false imposition of a knavish jew , of excelling all other stones in vertue , insomuch that there was no disease , but would give way to it . this jew sought all the means imaginable to set out the vertues of the said stone , that so he might intice some one or other to buy it from him at a high price . it fell out ( as the learned dr. bate related to me ) accidentally , that he came to one mr. m. n. house , whose wife had some hours before taken a vomit ( i suppose it was a dose of the infus . of croc. metal . ) against a double intenmittent tertian ; the last vomit made her very sick , as usually it doth : the jew imagining her to be in an agony , ready to give up the ghost , called in great haste for a glass of wine and infused his stone in it for a moment or two , then gave it to the patient , perswading her it would stay her vomiting ( which had then already stayed of it self ; for the operation begun to tend downwards ) and infallibly cure her of the ague . she drunk it off and her vomiting staid , ( as i told you of it self ) and her sickness ceased withall , because the vomit had done working ; her ague left her because she had discharged the continent cause of the disease by her vomiting . immediately this stone was cried up for curing a woman like to die , and for taking away her paroxisms or fits in an instant . soon after one bade him a hundred pounds for the stone , but as soon again slited it , when he heard the case stated by a physitian . even so is the vulgar through the forwardness of their belief cheated and deceived every day by every quacks medicine , among whom some pay dear enough , and oft purchase it with no less than the loss of their lives . this stone is good for nothing else but for curing the yellow jaundise , and particularly against the cholera or cholerick passion , which is very frequent amongst the east-indians , who usually take the infusion of this stone to appease it . pearls are accounted for the greatest cordial in the extreamest weaknesses , and to have an alexipharmacal vertue against all putrefaction , venome , and the plague , and to chear the mind ; all this is to be apprehended no otherwise than i have described the same properties to be imputable to the most precious stones . the alectorite is thought to encrease courage , raise lust , and quench a great drought , if a man do but carry it about him : but this is fabulous . a bufonite is praised for a present antidote against all poysons , insomuch that some do assert it to change its colour when ever a venemous draught is present . casp. bauhin . doth discourse very superstitiously upon this , the bezoar , and other stones , and adds ( i doubt ) something more of his own than ever he tried , nevertheless i should be loath to confide upon it . a chelidony is said to cure convulsion fits in children if only worn about their neck ; but it is hard to be believed . the two long stones and the throat stone of a carp cure convulsion fits ; the triangular stone extends its vertue against the collick . crabs eyes are cooling , drying , detergent , discutient , break the stone of the kidneys , dissolve bloud bruised within the body , and are good in a plurisie , ptysick , and in the collick . besides , they are used to cleanse the teeth . a sourite is said to be an antidote against all poysons . a limace stone is used against the ptysick , and consumption of the lungs . perch stones are taken to break the stone of the kidneys , and to cleanse the reines ; externally they use them for dentifrices and the drying of wounds . the eagle stone is by some believed to further labour , if tyed to the thigh , and staies it , if tyed to the arm . * coral is cooling , drying , and adstringent : it comforts the heart , stomack , and liver ; it púrifieth the bloud , and is good against all kind of malignant feavers , the plague and poyson ; it chears the mind , ( but that is doubtful , ) stops a gonorrhoea , menstrua , and all loosenesses ; it prevents convulsion fits in children ; outwardly it heals ulcers , and brings them to a cicatrix ; it dries up the rheumes of the eyes . paracelsus doth madly use it for an amulet to prevent being bewitcht , or ridden by devils , lightnings , frights , convulsion fits , melancholly , and poysons . crystall is adstringent , good against any looseness , or abundance of flowers in women ; it is further commended for conducing to the abundant increase of milk ; it breaks the stone , and dissipates any tartarous matter ; whence it is used against the gout . the bloud stone is of a cooling , drying , and restringent nature ; it stops the spitting of bloud , and binds the belly in a bloudy flux , or looseness ; externally it cures the ulcers and rheumes of the eyes ; it consolidates the ulcers of the lungs . the galactite comforteth the infant in the mothers belly , increases milk , and externally cures ulcers and rheumes of the eyes . the marble stone is only used for building , and to cut statues out of it . the ophite internally breaks the stone of the kidneys ; if tyed to the body , it cures the head-ach , and preserves the body from the plague : there are cups made out of it , whose liquor infused in them they say expels venome , cures all agues and consumptions . the stone warmed and applied outwardly cures the chollick , pleurifie , gout , stone : all this is but fabulous . the lazul stone purges meiancholly , hence cures all melancholy diseases , viz. a quartan , falling-sickness , apoplexy , all diseases of the spleen . it is hung about childrens necks for to prevent fights , and to strengthen their sight ; women wear it about them to prevent miscarriages . an armene stone is commended for the same vertues against the same diseases , but is counted more efficacious . the nephritick stone breaks the stone of the kidneys if only tied to the arm ; this seems to be dubious . the judaean stone is said to provoke urin instantly , and to break the stone of the kidneys . the leopard stone is used for the same intent . a tophe is of little or no use in physick . a pumoise is cooling , drying , and adstringent ; it gently mundifies ulcers , and particularly those of the eyes , and perduces them to a cicatrice ; it serveth besides for a dentrifice . a spunge stone is used against the stone of the kidneys , and against the kings evil . a rock stone serves only for building . a flint is the great preserver of fire ; it provokes urin above all other things if oft heated red hot and quenched in white wine . an emrald is of little use in physick , except in chymistry ; its tincture precipitates and fixes mercury in a moment . the glasiers make use of it to cut glass with it . the amianth resisteth witchcraft ; externally it is detergent and cures the itch ; internally , if dissolved with a little sugar in aqua vitae , it cures women of the whites . a chalck stone is fiery , and knawing , and in length of time burns a crust . the ostiocolla is internally and externally used for to conglutinate broken bones . talck we have spoken of before . the glass stone doth whiten womens faces , and maketh them look smooth . a calaminar stone is drying , detergent , adstringent , sarcotick and cicatrizing . vii . before i close this mineralogy , i will but name the kinds of mineral earths : viz. terra sigillata ( so called because it is usually selled , ) which is either turkish , being sealed with turkish characters , and is sold to us for terra lemnia ; or of maltha , sealed with the stamp of that island ; or german , which comprehends two kinds ; the one being of a clayish colour is found about triga , a town in silesia , prepared and sealed with their seal ; the other is of three colours , white , ash , and red , and sent from a place in wetteraw , known by the name of terra wetteracensis , or lubaicensis . all these earths are drying and restringent , resisting putrefaction , dissolving bruised bloud , moving sweat , and cordial . these vertues depend upon a subtil spirit , which is permixt through the said earths . bole armene is a red kind of earth , brought hither from armenia ; it is also found about wittenberg in germany . it is drying and adstringent ; hence stops all fluxes of bloud , loosenesses , womens menstrua , and expels putrefactions . marle is a kind of fat earth , inclosed within great stones : internally it dissolves bruised bloud ; externally , it proves adstringent , sarcotick , and cicatrizing . red chalck is commonly known ; it is adstringent and emplastick . oaker is much of the same nature . red chalck is detergent and adstringent . jappan earth is of a purple colour , here and there speckt with white specks , and of an austere taste ; it is commended for drying up catarrhes , and strengthning the brain , if held in ones mouth . tripolis is a kind of earth of a deep yellow , good for nothing but to scoure brass kettels . dioscorides and galen do make mention of other earths , as terra samia , melia , terrachia , cimolia , selinusia , eretria , pnigitis , and ampelitis , but their vertues being much inferiour to those foregoing , they are little taken notice of by physitians of this age. among these earths we must not forget that whereout porcelaine dishes are made : there are three sorts of it , the one is of a transparent green colour , like to a jaspis or an emerald , yielding to neither in price or beauty , and is alone to be bought in bengala , guzurate , decan , but at an extraordinary rate . the other is of a transparent white colour , like to crystal , and is artificially made up out of a certain paste in the island carge , near the mouth of the euphrates . the paste consists out of oyster shels , and egg-shells of some birds , called by the inhabitants teze , and beyde & of many others , which being stampt and mingled with some other materials are buried under ground , where they are to lye forty , fifty , or sixty years long ; parents shewing their children where such a mixture was laid , who at the time of its perfection and maturity do take it out and make dishes or pots of it . the third sort is of a pearl colour , but somewhat more dusky , and is made out of a certain white earth in the great province of china , which being well cleansed , sifted , mingled , stampt , and duly prepared , serveth them to make pots and dishes out of . for a corollary i will insert my sense upon libavius his mineral flesh , which he in his singular . part . . fol. . infers to be very possible . i shall add but one argument : earth we observe ( supposing it to be somewhat below its surface ( destroyes and consumes all kinds of flesh , as appears in dead bodies buried . how then can she be thought to conceive apt matter for such a vital substance ? for living creatures are generated no where , but where the heat of the sun may reach in such a measure , as to stir up , mollifie , and vivifie the substance conceived . nevertheless near the surface the aforesaid flesh is generable , as appears in many square worms whose shape and form is in nothing differing from the supposed mineral mole . theophrastus lib. de lapid . describes mineral ivory , and bones ; but you must not imagine these to be distinguisht from stones , supposing them to be generated below the surface of the earth ; however i will grant you , that real bones are generated near to the surface budding out like sprigs ; for in thuringia the same are oft found sticking out of the earth : and linscot in his voyage to the east indies tell us that the inhabitants of goa cast the horns of beasts killed for provision into a certain place within a mile or two from the town , where they soon take root and spread themselves into branches . chap. iii. of the loadstone . . the various names of the loadstone , and its kinds . . the physical essence of the loadstone . . an enumeration of its properties . . the demonstration of the first mechanick property of the loadstone . . the demonstration of the other mechanical properties . . of its nautical property . what is intended by the poles of the loadstone . . the division of the loadstone into circles . . an enumeration of the nautical properties of the magnete . . a demonstration of the said nautical properties . . the cause of the deviation of the compass needle . . an objection answered . . cartesius his doctrine examined touching the loadstone . . the fabulous property of the loadstone . i. the loadstone is otherwise called a magnete from the first inventor thereof magnes , a driver of cattel , who garding his heard upon the mount ida , felt his slip-shoes , being fastned with iron pegs , to stick fast to the ground , and his driving staffe , which was pegged at the bottom with an iron peg , to stick first likewise , whereat he was much astonisht , but searching narrowly into the cause he found they were a sort of stones that held him . the greeks named this stone sideritis , which pliny , lib. . c. . derives from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , iron ; and not without a just ground , it having a vertue of attracting iron to it . others knew it by the name of lapis heraclius , not derived from hercules , or heraclius the supposed inventor , but from heraclia a city of lydia , where the best were found in great number . the germans call it ein seilstein , or a sail-stone , because the mariners sail by it . this stone changes its name by the places , where it is usually found . . the magnesian loadstone is engendred about the city magnesia . . an alexandrian loadstone is taken up about alexandria . . it is found in echio , in boeotia . . the worst of them , being spungy and loose , are found near the cape verlychi in natolia . . the best are those of aethiopia , being the blewet , heavier , and drawing iron stronger . taisnierius supposing them to grow in the bottom of the aethiopian sea , relates an odd story , that some ships crossing the aethiopian sea , and bearing near to the promontories should have been drawn to the bottom of the sea , by some loadstones taking hold of their iron pins . ii. before we apply our selves to the enumeration of the properties of the loadstone , let us in the first place search into its internal principles . the loadstone is ( as it were ) imperfect iron , but not so neer resembling it as iron resembles steel . it is between a stone and a metal , and therefore in a manner is not perfectly concocted . it s material principle is a loose earth rarefied by dense fire and incrassated air , being unequally mixt * and tempered . it s forma ultima is sometimes a compleat metal like to iron , other times like to a hard reddish blew stone . both these have been found by many , not knowing what to make of them , which in all probability were concocted loadstones . that they were loadstones is evidenced by the remaining vertues , although but very weak of attracting iron . it s body being throughout porous ( that is loose and not very solid , ) its intrinsick parts must of necessity partake of a certain figure as all porous bodies do , although in some more , in others less . iron it self ( as also a lyzzard stone ) consists of intrinsick parts cuspidally or pyramidally formed , that is with streaks transcurring as it were into pyramidal points . in alume likewise we see its parts are hexagonal ; in crystal the same ; and so in all bodies , although it is not alwaies visible , however appearing in our present subject . the cause you know is from the manner of exhalation & proruption of the ayry and fiery parts , that have left it , and minutely do still leave it . between these triangular pointings we do imagine insensible cavities or pores , through which those emanations do continually pass , and by whose figure they are directed to their passages outward ; those i say are continuous and very potent . iii. now we have declared enough to demonstrate most of its properties , which i shall instantly enumerate . they are either mechanical , nautical , medicinal , or fabulous . it s mechanical property is of attracting iron : nautical , of inclining or moving towards the north pole , and thereby of directing mariners in steering their course , of which more anon ; medicinal , of adstriction and strenching blood . aetius lib. . tetrabl . cap. . gives us this account of its medicinal vertues : the magnete or herculean stone hath the same vertues which a blood stone hath : they say that it doth asswage the pains of the gout in the feet and in the wrist , if held in the hand . this is fabulous , but if applied being mixt with other ingredients in a plaster , it doth really give ease in some kinds of gouts . serapio , lib. de simpl . part . . cap. . commends the magnete for curing wounds , befaln by a venomous weapon ; it is to be powdered and mixt with other oyntments and applied to the part affected ; besides , the patient is for some daies to take a dose of it internally untill the venom is purged away by stool . parey lib. . chir. cap. attributes a very memorable cure of a bursted belly to it . fabr. hildan . cent. . observ. chir. . obs . rehearses a famous cure luckily done by it by the advice of his wife ( at a dead lift i suppose ) upon a merchant , who was tormented with a miserable pain in one of his eyes caused by a little piece of steel that was accidentally peirced into it . all kind of anonynes were applied , but to no purpose , at last the loadstone was thought upon , which he caused to be held near to the eye , whereby it was soon drawn out . the fabulous properties of this stone are of losing its attractive vertue by the apposition of a diamond ; of curing wounds at a distance , for which purpose it is added to bombasts sympathetical oyntment ; and of preserving youth , for which end they say the king of zeylan causes his victuals to be dressed in magnete dishes . i return to its mechanical property , about which authors are very various , some , as nicander , pliny , anton. mercat . lib. . de occult . prop. cap. . matthiol . in dios. lib. . cap. . encel. de re metal . lib. . cap. . fabr . hildan . in the late quoted observ . asserting it to attract iron at one end , and to repel it at another . others affirming the contrary , viz. that it attracts iron from all parts , but by several impulses as it were , moving in several figures , some being direct , others oblique . it is true in an oblique motion the steel at the first impulse seems to recede , because of its changing its position towards the loadstone ; besides this change the steel also varies according to its diverse position towards the stone ; we need not confirm the truth of this by arguments , the experiment it self ( viz. placing small pieces of filings of steel round about the stone ) , will g●ve you a further proof of it . wherefore these forementioned authors imagining the north part of this stone to be alone properly the loadstone , accused pliny of an errour for affirming the theamede stone to reject iron , which they affirmed was no other but the south part of the magnete : whether the theamedes doth repel iron or no , i know not , only thus much i know , that the description of it is altogether differing from that of the loadstone ; neither can i believe that pliny , being so well versed in stones , should so easily mistake in this . letting this pass , it is certain : . that in the north hemisphere it doth attract iron most at its north part , and more directly ; at the other sides its attractive vertue upon iron is less potent and draws more oblique . . one loadstone doth not draw the other , unless the one be more concocted than the other , and then it doth . . that a loadstone capped with steel attracts more vigorously than when naked . . that it draweth iron stronger at some places than at others ; at some seasons than at others . . that it attracts steel more potently than iron . . that it doth also attract copper although but weakly . . that its mechanick and nautical vertue is communicable to iron . . that the magnete loseth its vertue by rust ; by lying open in the air ; by moisture ; by lying near to hot spices , as the indian mariners , who transport pepper and other spices , do testifie ; by fire ; by being touched with the juyce of garlick or onions . that in length of time its vertue doth intirely exhale , leaving only a course rusty stone behind it . . that a loadstone being intersected by a section almost perpendicularly incident upon the supposed axeltree of the said stone , and its pieces placed one against the other , so that the faces of each section may constitute a side of an acute angle , terminated by a common point of their south or north pole , doth attract iron more potently by far than otherwise . iv. i should now begin to demonstrate the first effect of the loadstone through its proper cause , but before i can arrive to its solution , it will be requisite for you to know what is ordinarily meant by its north part . the said part is otherwise by authors termed the north pole of the loadstone , because it doth look or lye towards the north pole of the heavens ; or of the earth , because it tends downwards withall . poles are ( vulgarly ) described to be the two extremities of an ( axis ) axeltree , about which a globe or wheel moves round . if so , then properly a loadstone cannot be said to have either axis or poles , because according to the vulgar opinion it doth not move round . wherefore the former denomination is improperly attributed to it , viz. the extreme central point of its tendency towards the arctick pole is termed the north pole of the stone , and the opposite extremity is called the south pole of it . next remember out of the ch. of coct . that all bodies in their decoction do run off their temperament through streams or small mixtures of the elements gradually deserting the decocting bodies , and taking their egress or fuming through their pores . these pores * tend most from the transcurrent axis towards the north. that its pores tend most towards the north is evident by its intrinsick parts within ( as you may see when it is cut through ) running variously intorted towards the north in streaks ; these streaks are distinguisht from one another through interjacent porosities , otherwise they would be continuously one . that the loadstone emits fumes , is testified from its looseness and inequality of mixture : for all parts , ( as i have shewed before , ) that are unequally mixt , suffer a discontinuation of their mixture , because one element being predominant , and having its force united through the said unequal mixture , must needs make way for its effumation , and afterwards break through by egressing fumes : but such is the loadstone . ergo. . that these fumes or effluvia do effumate through their northerly pores , the experiment it self doth confirm to us ; for we see that they attract steel most at the north side † ; besides , they usually rub the cross wires of sea-compasses at the north side , as being most effumous there . thus much for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . now for the manner of its attraction ; and here it is disputed whether the loadstone attracts iron , or iron the loadstone . hereunto i answer , that neither the loadstone doth properly attract iron , or iron it : however since iron is moved toward the loadstone ( but accidentally ) by means of his effluvia or steames , therefore the loadstone is said to draw iron to it . . iron doth ( improperly ) move it self to the loadstone , being incited to the same motion through the steames of the loadstone entring through its pores into its substance . the streams of the loadstone are through their particular form and external shape or figure fitted to enter into the pores of iron , which are in like manner fitted to receive the streams of the loadstone ; they being admitted do reserate the substance of iron , or through their specifick penetrability do free the volatil parts of that iron from the fixt ones , whence they do immediately through their fiery principle dilate and diffuse themselves towards that part of the circumference , where they feel the continual effumations of the loadstone yet more to unite them , which reeking out , and being further diducted by a continuation of succeeding parts , do draw the course parts along with it , as being still continuatly united to them . or plainer , the said fumes of the loadstone having entered the pores of iron do immediately loosen the spirits of the iron , which being dilated and united to the fumes of the loadstone must needs covet a greater place , the want of which causeth them both to spout out at those holes , which are most patent ; which must necessarily be those , through which the magnetical fumes entered . this sudden spouting out must cause an attraction of the iron , because the extrinsick air doth suddenly enter its pores on the opposite side , for to recover a place within the iron which it had lost without by being driven back out of its place by the prorupting fumes : this sudden irruption of the air on the opposite side drives the iron forwards to that place whence it was first repelled : this you will the better understand if you compare it with our discourse set down in the chapter of local motion , and of a vacuum . these steams of the iron do effumate through all the pores , where the vertue of the loadstone hath touched it , especially at the center of opposition to the stone , whence they breaking out in great quantity , do draw the body of iron directly towards the loadstone : but if the objected iron be defended by being besmeared with oil or any other greasie substance , or by being dipt into water , it puts by and obtuses the fumes of loadstone . that the loadstone doth effuse fumes from it , is further made known to us , . through its inequality of mixture and looseness of substance , as i hinted before . . either it must act , that is , attract at a distance , or else operate through steams ; it cannot at a distance , that being only proper to supernatural agents , and denied to all natural ones ; ergo the last . . if you burn it , it will cast a visible blew sulphurecus smoaky flame . . it is not the iron doth primarily effuse steams towards the loadstone , because it is more compact , and less exhalable . hence scaliger might now have resolved his doubt , whether the loadstone drew iron , or iron it . why these fumes do exhale most towards the north , we have told you already . do not let it seem strange to you , that the emanations of this stone should reserate the mixture and temperament of iron ; it being common to many other bodies , although authors are not pleased to take notice of it . the fumes of mercury do open the body of gold. the heat of the sun opens the body of water , and attracts vapours thence . amber through its emissives attracts dust , paper , &c. but of these elsewhere . why the stone moves steel variously according to its diverse position happens through the variety and obliquity of its pores variously and obliquely directing its steames , and variously withal entring the pores of the objected steel . v. the reason of the second property is , because two loadstones being alike in mixture of body , and in effumations cannot act upon one another ; for all actions are upon contraries . but in case the one be more concocted then the other , and in some wise dissembling in their mixtures , then doubtless the one will act upon the other , and the more concocted will attract the less . the cause of the third is , that the emanations of the loadstone being appelled and harboured in an extraneous body , as that of steel , do with more ease and in greater smoakes ( as i have said before ) exhale out of it , and consequently attract iron stronger , and work with a greater bent towards the northern pole. besides steel collects all the egressing steames of the stone , which being concentrated in the body of the said steel , and consequently received in greater quantity , must prove more forcible . the solution of the fourth is containned in the first . the reason of the fifth is , because steel is purified from its grosser parts , which did before somewhat hinder the ingress of the influence of the loadstone , and cohibite the effluvia of the affected body . sixthly , it attracts copper or brass , because of the likeness of its pores and mixture to iron , whence it doth aptly receive the energy of the loadstone . the reason of the seventh may be drawn from the third . . the magnete happens to lose its strength through rust , because its decoction is thereby stayed , and its temperament subverted . moysture , and its being exposed to the air do lessen its vertue , because the latter doth so much disperse its emanations , and accelerate its decoction ; the former dissolves its temperament . spices weaken its attraction , because through their heat they disperse and discontinuate the emanating spirits ; the like may be said of the juyce of garlick and onions . mercury doth also destroy the temperament of the stone . it s vertue happens at last to relinquish it , through the natural course of decoction . the reason of the eighth is , because the emanations do in that position easily joyn together , slowing in like course and figure from their bodies . many more conclusions might be deduced from the experiments of the loadstone , whose solution may easily be stated from what hath been already proposed . vi. it s nautical vertue is the great wonder of nature to all naturalists , to whom the cause is no less stupendious . this property is , whereby one part of the stone moveth towards the south , the other to the north. bodintu , lib. . theat . nat. proposeth an experiment relating to this property , somewhat different to what others have observed : an iron needle ( saith he ) being gently rubbed against that part of the magnete , where it lookt towards the north , whill● it stuck to the rock , and placed in a balance , doth place that extremity , which was rubbed against the stone , towards the north. the same vertue it exerciseth towards the south , if the needle be rubbed against the south part of the loadstone . neither is the strength of the magnete less in its eastern and western part , although the stone cannot turn it self towards the regions of the world , yet the iron needle can . what we have said cannot be understood unless it be experimented ; for if you lay a piece of the magnete upon a board swimming in the water , and lay that side of the magnete which looked towards the south before it was removed out of its natural seat , against the side of another loadstone , which before it was cut out , lookt likewise towards the south , then will the swimming stone flee to the other side of the vessel in the water : if you should turn the north part of the magnete , to the south part of the other magnete swimming in the water , the swimming part would suddenly come near and through a wonderful consent be both joyned to one another although the wood of the vessel be between : the same will also happen if you put an iron needle into a glass full of water being run through a piece of a reed , and hold a piece of a magnete in your other hand , one side of the magnete will attract the needle , the other will repel it . thus far bodinus . the last property of attraction doth not appertain to this place , the cause of which may nevertheless be made clear to you by what is foregoing . the former touching its vergency , is observable , if it be true ; but i doubt he hath not made tryal of it : besides , none else do make mention of it , which were it real , they would not omit the observation . that , which may next be disputed upon , is , whether the loadstone turns to the south , or north pole of the earth , or to the said poles of the heavens , or to neither . in the first place , i wonder what they intend by a north and south pole of the earth . those that agree to copernicus , hold that they are the extream points of the axeltree whereon the earth doth move : others , who deny earth a motion , affirm them to be those points of the earth that are responding to the poles of the heavens , that is , which do lie perpendicularly or diametrically under the said poles . the former opinion states the poles of the earth different from those of the heavens . among the latter , some have consented to believe the poles of the earth to be where the extremities of the compass-needles do diametrically point to the arctick and antarctick poles ; that is , where the length of the needle is according to a right line coincident with the imaginary axletree of the poles of the world . the onely place of coincidence is concluded to be near the tenth degree beyond the fortunate islands ( but that is false , since the same coincidence is also observed in other places , ) from whence for that reason most do continue their mensuration of the earths longitude . but grant , the poles of the earth be at the points forementioned , why shall we apprehend the loadstone rather to move towards the poles of the earth then of the heavens . what ? the earth say they , attracts the points of the loadstone to her poles : an absurdity , why should not the earth through the same principle of attraction draw other terrestrial bodies to it ? or what is it they intend by a principle of attraction ? i had thought that among the wandering philosophers nothing but fire and air had been attractive . moreover , did the magnete alwaies incline towards the poles of the earth then it must be exempted from all deviation , which it is not ; for in divers meridians it hath divers respects to the poles of the world , and consequently to those of the earth . in nova zembla it deflects degrees towards the east . in norway . about neurenburgh . so in the southwest climates its deviation is no less various . wherefore after all this we must be constrained to assert the magnete not to incline directly either to the south or north pole of the heavens or of the earth , although , as i said before , its vergency is towards the north and south . the points of the magnets vergency are directly tending to the poles of the air : that is , the poles of the loadstone are directly coincident with those of the air. you see its poles are primarily neither perpendicular to those of the heavens or of the earth : ergo its poles do appropriate a particular situation . but before i prove their seat , it will not be improper to prefer the probation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their poles . the emanations of the loadstone move circularly ; ergo they must have real poles or immoveable points , for a body is uncapable of a circular motion in all its parts . a real axis is no less necessary : it being impossible to conceive two extream immoveable points in a globous body without being fastned or continuated to other fixt points , ( which must likewise remain void of the same circular motion ) and so on from one extream point to the opposite extream point . that the steames of the said stone affect a circular motion is evident , in that the continuous effluvia of all bodies convert themselves into a like motion . doth not the thick smoak of coales , of gunpowder , of boyling water , in fine of all things in the world turn themselves round in the open air ? what is it you can cast up into the air but it will incline to a circular motion ? do not those little atoms , that are seen by us in the rayes of the shining sun ( the same which some author is pleased to term light it self , probably because the sun through its reflection and refraction upon them engrosses its light , so as to render them , to be light glistering bodies to the eye , ) make choice of a turning and winding motion ? which if so , what reason is there to move us to detract the said motion from the continuous steames of the heraclian stone ? authors i remember , as gilbert , cabeus , kircher , and others are accustomed to pronounce the loadstone to contain a collection of all the properties of the earth in her , and reciprocally the earth to partake of the qualifications of the loadstone , but without reason : nevertheless i may justly set down that the loadstone is enricht with all the dignities and vertues of fire and air ; for as fire and air attract , move circularly , are diffused to the periphery , even so doth this stone . here we may equally imagine poles , axis , polar circles , aequator , meridian , horizon , a common and proper motion , &c. vii . i shall begin with its poles , whose axis in most places interfects the axis of the fiery heavens into oblique angles , which in some climates happen to be more or less obtuse , or acute , except that about the tenth degree beyond the fortunate islands , and in some few other meridians its axis and poles are coincident with those of the firmament . the stone may be justly compared to a planet , which as it doth in some stations of the heaven seem to be eccentrical , in others concentrical , so this may be termed eccentrick or concentrick , or rather conpolar and expolar . it s greatest expolarity or declination from the poles of the firmament is by mariners deprehended to be extended to seventeen degrees . dr. gilbert makes them up . that is within min. equal to the greatest declination of the poles of the zodiack , but he omits the proof . it s center is the body of the stone , about which the steames move round , like the wings of a mill do rowl about their axeltree . it s polar circles may be conceived to be those , that describe the distance of the poles of the stone from those of the firmament and of the air. the aequator is the middle circle imagined to divide the orbe of the steams into two equal parts , viz. of north and south . it acquires a new meridian in as many places as its poles vary in their declination or ascension . it s horizon is the circle equally dividing its upper hemisphaere from the lower . next we will propose certain theoremes of the compass needle . . the mariners needle , if gently rubbed against the magnete throughout its length , and especially about both the points , doth imitate the nature of it , particularly of attraction , and of inclining towards the north and south . . if the needle be touched throughout its whole length it doth tend northwards and southwards with more force than if only rubbed at one end or point . . the needle being only touched at the south end will only in the meridional plage incline towards the south ; and if at the north point , it inclineth to the north in the septentrional parts . . the needle being rubbed about the middle doth incline towards the north and south although very weakly and slowly . ix . these theorems , together with the foregoing ones , we shall instantly endeavour to demonstrate . you must observe , that the motion of the emanating fumes of the magnete is from east to west , and from west to east , and consequently its poles or immoveable points must be north and south , as you may more plainly understand by this scheme , where a is mark for the south pole of the streames , and b for the north , γ for east , and δ for the west . that the magnete moves circularly in the manner aforesaid is evidenced by its circular attraction ; for small pieces of steel being placed about it are all obliquely attracted and forced to it , and not directly ; which is an undoubted sign of the stones circular motion . . these effluvia issuing forth in great fumes are through a superabundance protruded into small bodies of steames , which through an overforcing impulse of the air , do as it were reverberate & move back again , but circularly towards the stone , ( like as we see thick smoaks do in a chimney ) still reserving their naturall motion from east to west . wherefore it is through their circular motion that steel is impelled to them obliquely , and through their reverberating impulse it is forced directly to the body of the loadstone . likewise the extreme part of the compass needle , being impregnated with the steames of the magnete , which in the foresaid manner affecting a circular motion from east to west make choice of the extreme point of the needle n , for one of its poles , viz. its north pole , which necessarily must remain immoveable and look towards the north , supposing its motion to be from east to west . but if those steames were rowled from south to north as cartesius imagined , then the needle would constantly be shaken by a motion tending upwards and downwards , which it is not . to the contrary we see , that the said needle is very inclinable to move eastward and westward , if but lightly toucht because of the steams moving from east to west , and from vvest to east ; for the motion of the needle excited by a conquassation moves circularly in raising it self and moving towards the east , and thence depressing it self and returning to the vvest . . how can it be rationally conceived , that these steames should rowl from south to north since they cannot move the needle that waies , it being fastned at the middle ? . hence you may be resolved , why the needle being only toucht at one extremity doth tend northwards with a greater force ; because its rowling requiring a freedom of circulating eastward and westward , fixes the point northerly , as being one of its poles . besides this motion obversing about its extremity urgeth a greater force upon the whole needle , because there it and all other bodies ( viz. at the extremity ) are the weakest and least potent to resist . likewise the same needle being affricted at its southerly part in southern regions verges to the south ( because of the southern pole of the air , ) as that of the north point to the north in northerly countries , because of its imitating the north pole of the air . but if touched about the middle its vergency is the same , although with less force , because the weight of the needle doth most resist the impulse of the magnetical effluvia at its centrical parts . next for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to wit , through what it is , that the magnete together with the nautical steel do accline to the south and north pole. here take notice that the steames of our stone , consisting of predominating fire and air , do therefore also imitate the nature of both : wherefore it being natural to fire and air , if detained from their center , to continue a circular motion , and to move upon two poles of north and south about an axeltree from east to west , and from west to east , it cannot but it must also be the nature of all steams as being likewise detained from their center to affect the same motion and in the same manner : for fire and air flowing from east to west like the ocean , which hath also made choice of the same motion , do carry all igneous and aierial bodies along with them , as the said ocean bears all swimming bodies with it . that fire and air obtain such a motion we shall in the ensuing chapters evidently demonstrate . these herculean steames are also assisted by the protrusion of the flowing ambient air , because they being continuous and cohering do give way to the airs propulsion : for if they were contiguous and their particles dishering , they would scarce be moved by the air , but would break through . so that it is more than probable , that the steames move with the air eastward , besides , those miasmata being aerial do of their own nature strive for rest against the earth , which causeth them to move circularly . lastly , we are to evidence how the air may be assisting in moving the steames back from east to west about the needle ; for the air doth in our hemisphaere continue a westward floud ; but this is easie enough . all flowing bodies do whirl , when appelling against a body that lyeth or standeth in their way : as for instance , where you hold your finger in a flowing water or river , there the water whirles or moves round about your finger ; or where there are heaps of gravel or sand lying in the water , there you see the like effect : even so it is with the air , which being alwaies in a floud , doth whirl about any weighty body , that lyeth or standeth in its way : wherefore then the floud of the air hitting against the weighty iron of the needle lying in its way doth turn and whirl round about it , and so doth withal impel the chalibeat and magnetical steames to the same course , whereunto they do also of their own nature seem to incline . moreover , iron wrought into a thin long shape , and insisting moveably and lightly upon an immoveable sustaining point doth inclinatively turn its extremities towards the arctick and antartick poles of the air : the reason is , because its steames are led with the stream of the air , which ever tending from east to west doth convey the steames of iron ( although but weakly , because they do not emanate very copiously from it ) westward , and consequently its poles must then necessarily be coincident with those of the air . a needle swimming in the water ( but then it must be still and thin ) doth obvert it self to the same poles ; the reason is evident . supposing that those steams did cease , and were quite exhaled , nevertheless would a long piece of steel , insisting lightly upon a sustaining immoveable point be caused to stick out its poles north and south , because the air moving in a great , swift , and full steame enters the pores of the steel , and drives it cross or long waies , just as we see in a river , which carrieth a boat or any long piece of wood ( as a mast ) being adrift , athwart or with its cross sides against the stream , and points its ends to the borders of the said river , which being ( as it were ) immoveable in respect to the cross drift of the mast are instead of its poles . x. there wants yet the inserting of the cause of the deviation of the mariners needle : which being accidental to it , happens through terrestrial and aqueous bodies condensing and incrassating the air * , whereby they do somewhat stop and retard the airs swift course only in its lowermost region , which being retarded there makes an obliquity in its stream , since the other part of the air flowing in the second and third region is forced to leave the lowermost streams a little behind , which makes the essluvia of the needle and loadstone choose another pole. so then about the fortunate islands the lower region keeps touch with the others and therefore is conpolar , rendring the essluvia of the stone and needle likewise conpolar . the reason is , because the air being very thin there , is not thick enough to retain any gross bodies , such as might hinder its course . besides , that climate being temperate and but little infested with heat is not so much obnoxious to the imbibition of vapours or exhalations ; neither is it subjected to receive any dense minimas falling down from the coelestial poles , which do likewise retard the inferiour region of the air . under the line , and within some degrees of it the air is likewise retarded by being discontinuated below through the torrid minimas raining down from the heavens and reflecting there , whereby it is compelled to be expolar in a degree two or three , whence also the needle varies in the same number of degrees . about neurenburgh the air in its lower region is retarded bear degrees , and consequently differs in the distance of its poles from those of the d & d region in degrees . in nova zembla . and very probably the further mariners steer to the northward the more degrees they find their compass needle to linger , because the more remote they go from the universal flame * , the more they find the air condensed and incrassated with earthy and waterish minima's , whereby it is flowed in its fluor . and doubtless directly under the poles of the heavens the inferiour region of the air is altogether immoveable , and consequently its poles must likewise be admitted to be at the same places . further , these deviations of the needle do signifie the altitude and declination of the poles of the air , which altitudes and declinations are to be conceived nothing else but the degrees of the airs retardation and acceleration in the inferiour region , or the degrees which the superiour regions of the air exceed the lowest in swiftness of motion , which various excess of degrees seems to us to make choice of sundry poles , but in effect doth not , it hapning through nothing but through the airs addensation . against what i have here proposed may be objected , that although granting such a motion to the universal tract of the air , yet it is dubitable , whether the air being separated from its whole body , and included within the limits of a compass box doth continue the same motion ; for water contained in a porringer , and seperated from its elementary body doth cease imitating the course of the great ocean ; likewise pools and other standing waters desert that actual motion , which , if united to the ocean , they would reserve . hereunto i give my answer , . that water in a porringer , poole , or lake striving no longer for a center , ( for it enjoyes one there ) doth not move downwards of it self , or is thence circularly reflected as water is , when it is deprived from its center ; wherefore that motion downwards , which is in the water in a porringer , lake , or pool , is not caused intrinsecally through a bent for a center , but by an extrinsick impulse of the air striving downwards for it center , and meeting with thick water , which it cannot easily pass , it bends and forceth the stronger upon it , that so it may give way . but the air in a compass box is still detained from its center , especially by the intercurrent emanations of the needle , about whose * extremity both air and magnetical steames move circularly together , as upon one of the poles . more than all this , the air within the box is still continuated to the whole tract of the air , whereby it is assisted and furthered in its circular motion : whereas water is discontinuated from its intire body . but you may instance , that the box together with the glass atop doth interrupt the continuation of the air within the compass from its elementary body without ; or if that did not , certainly the whole compass box being thrust deep under water would , and nevertheless the needle would point south and north. i answer , that a thousand glasses or boxes would scarce be sufficient to hinder the communication of the air , since they are all pervious : yet i cannot but grant that the water may ; which if it doth , it doth only diminish the strength of the needles vergency , but doth not quite abolish it ; unless the air within begins to be incrassated by water entring in vapours , and then its circular motion and consequently the needles vergency is quite lost and abolished . wherefore i conclude , that the air in the box , although under water doth continue in a circular motion ( because of its detention from a center , ) untill it is incrassated by water . xii . but before i come too near to the conclusion of this chapter , let me take the leasure to balance what cartesius sets down upon this matter . after the enumeration of the properties of the magnete , he observes that there are striated particles , that are sent down from the south part of heaven , and bowed quite into another kind of shape , different from those that rain down from the north ; whence it is that the one cannot enter into those channels and passages , which the other can . he further observes , that the south particles do pass directly from their seat through the midst of the earth , and when passed return back again with the air that is cast about the earth , because the passages through which they pass are such , that they cannot return back again through the same . the like is to be understood of those particles , that press through the earth from the north. in the mean time as many new parts as there do alwaies come on from the south and north part of the heavens , so many there do return or fall back through the east and west parts of the heavens , or else are dispersed in their journey , and lose their figures , not in passing the middle region of the earth , because there their passages are made fit for them , through which they flow very swiftly without any hinderance , but in returning through the air , water , and other bodies of the outward earth , wherein they find no such passages , they are moved with much more difficulty , and do constantly meet with particles of the second and third element , by which they labouring to expel them are sometimes diminisht . now in case these striated particles hit against the loadstone lying in its natural position , then they find a clear passage and go through , because ( he saith ) a loadstone is pervious in the same manner as the earth is , and therefore calleth the earth also a magnete . the poles of the loadstone he states to be the middle points of its passages on both ends . that , which is the middle point between those passages , that are disposed to receive the particles descending from the north part of the heavens , is the north pole , and its opposite point is the south pole. but when the striated particles , that come from the poles of the earth , hit against the passages of the magnete lying athwart , then they do by that force , which they have of persevering in their motion according to right lines , impell it untill they have reduced it to its natural position , and so they effect that its south pole ( provided it be not detained by any external force , ) turns towards the north pole of the earth , and its north pole towards the south pole of the earth : because those particles that tend from the north pole of the earth through the air to the south , came first from the south part of the heavens through the midst of the earth , and the others that return to the north , came from the north. here you have the chief of the forementioned authors fansie upon the demonstration of the properties of the loadstone . in the first place , how can any one probably conceive , that there are striated parts sent down from heaven ; for consider the immense distance , ( which he agrees to ) the interposition of thick clouds filled up with dense exhalations , and the continuous depth of the air . is not the air potent enough to dissolve all bodies contained within its bowels , doth it not dissolve the thick frozen clouds into snow , hail , and thick rain ? doth it not dissolve the coagulated exhalations of the earth , that are so tenacious ? much more those striated parts , which he himself confesses are dissipated at their return through the force of the ambient air , & that in so short a time & passage . why should these striated particles descend more from the polar regions of the heavens , than from the east and west parts ? are not the poles of the heavens immoveable , of the least efficacy ? are not those parts of the firmament alwaies discerned to be clearest , and most freed from obscure bodies ? is not the north and south air so much condensed and congealed , that it is impossible for it to give passage to such subtil bodies as the pores of the magnet do require ? i say impossible to subtil bodies , because they need force to press through ; and so much the more , because they are discontinuated . but had our author asserted them to rain down from the east and west parts , where the air is thinnest , and less nebulous , and where the coelestial bodies exercise their greatest influences , it would have deserved a freer reception ; but then his chimera would have been rendred monstrous , and unfit to explain the reasons of the magnetical vertues . the south streaks ( saith he ) are intorted in a form different from those of the north : whence had he that news ? what ? because one pole of the magnete inclineth to the north , and the other to the south , therefore these streaks must needs be sent down from the north and south : is this a mathematical demonstration to conclude the cause ( and a false one too ) by the effect ? a notion by far inferiour to those of the wanderers , and that which adds to this absurdity is to imagine that these streaks should retain their shape notwithstanding their continual and long grinding against the air in their descent , and not change their shape a hundred times over . doth not a cloud , which must be supposed to be of a firmer consistency than those particles , make choice of a new shape every moment ? but how much the more these small tender bodies ? and that which is most absurd is , to propose that such a vast number or troops of these particles should arrive hither into our north hemisphere from the south so obliquely without changing their shape ; further he supposeth them to come bearing down directly through the earth , and through the magnete , which is impossible , unless it be in a right sphaere ; whereas we here are situated in a very oblique sphere , and consequently the magnet is also obliquely seated here , wherefore it is requisite that these streakes should alwaies beat against the magnet in these regions obliquely , and change their shape very oft . but how monstrous is it to maintain these particles to flie through the diameter of the earth and water , being bodies most dense , close , & thick in many places shutting out fire and air , being substances by a million of degrees exceeding des-cartes in subtility ; or how is it possible they should pass the most icy and deep thick body of water ? well , and yet through all this difficulty they should retain their shape ; this is an absurdum absurdissimorum absurdissimum . the earth is pervious in such a manner as to fit the shape of the coelestial streakes : and were it so , certainly it moving about the sun according to his assent must change its passages and so thwart the entrance of the coelestial subtilities . as for the passages of the magnete , we grant them to be numerously seminated through its body , but their shape is quite different . my time doth even weary me in making disquisition upon so dishering and monstrous a chimera ; i should easier give credit to rablais his pantagruel , or the fables of aesope , than to so obtuse a phantasm . xiii . there remains yet a word or two touching the fabulous property of this stone , which you have described by famianus de strada , libavius and others , viz. that two loadstones , although at a great distance , do so sympathize with one another , that they move at one anothers passive impulsion , and that towards the same place ; as , for two friends residing in different countries , and intending to signifie their meaning or desires to each other , they are only to make use of two steel needles , of an equal size , & to rub them both against the same side of the magnete , and afterwards to place them in a compass box , and so turning either of the needles to any point of the compass , the other is thought to obey to the same motion , whereby they come to know one anothers meaning , as having mutually at their last meeting agreed to impose a certain signification upon each point of the said compass . hence they deduce a magnetical ( or like to it ) sympathy in curing of wounds , a sympathy in the affinity of bloud , a sympathy between the guts and their excrements , between superlunary & sublunary bodies , between men and men , men and beasts , men and parts of beasts , men and plants , beasts and beasts , beasts and plants , some natural bodies and others : so that whereas formerly philosophers used to excuse their ignorance by occult qualities , now having worn them out they accur to magnetical sympathies . there is not a surgeon or apothecary so ignorant , but he will as cunningly find out a cause , whereby to explain the most abstruse effect of nature , and instantly tell you such or such an effect happens through a magnetical sympathy , as the most learned mr. doctor . but is this the great advancement of learning and philosophy , which our age doth so much boast of ? is it not rather a grand piece of impudence to propose such absurdities , and much more to give credit to them ? if loadstones are subjected to such a necessary sympathy , then one magnet being retracted to a certain point of the compass , all must yield to the same point . but the consequence is ridiculous , ergo the antecedence is no less . . this sympathy is either communicable through means of the air , or through it self without any intermediate body , and consequently a natural action must agere in distans : not the first ; for it is impossible , that its steames should be conveighed to such a distance in their full vigour ; not the second , that sounding absurd in the ears of all naturalists . the other kind of sympathies i intend to treat of elsewhere . chap. iv. of life , and living bodies . . what life is . . the form of life . why vegetables are generated no where but near to the surface of the earth . . the properties of a vital form. . the definiton of nutrition , and the manner of it . whether food is required to be like to the dissipated parts . . what accretion is , and the manner of it . . the manner of the generation of a plant. . the manner of the germination of a plant. a delineation of all the parts of a plant. . what the propagation of a plant is , and the manner of it . . hitherto we have proposed to you the nature of earths , minerals , and stones , which are the lowest degree of natural bodies , and therefore do most of all resemble their predominating element in nature and properties ; the next degree to this is , wherein vegetables or plants are constituted , and through whose prerogative a more noble essence and dignities are allotted to them , consisting in life , accretion , and propagation . the life of a plant is its singular nature , through which it is nourished and accreased , and doth propagate . as generation and corruption in a strict sense are only appropriated to in animated naturals , so are life and death restrained to animated ones ; namely , to plants , animals , and men. peripateticks seem to observe a twofold difference of life , viz. substantial and accidental . the former is taken for the principle of the vital operations ; the latter for the actions of life , as nutrition , accretion and propagation . we here intend neither abstractly , but define the life of a plant concretely , that is a living body , substance or plant , to be a being composed out of a physical matter , specified by a distinct form from pure naturals , and through its essence to be qualified to nourish it self , accrease , and to generate : wherefore aristotles followers do justly condemn cardan . lib. . de subtil . and cornel. valer. cap. . instit . phys. for maintaining life it self to be an action , that is a quality or property really distinct from its subject ; but withall stumble into no small an inconvenience in defining it to be an actus , which is no otherwise distinguished from an action than a concrete from an abstract : so that in inserting actus they must mean an ( substantia agens ) acting substance , which if so , then an accident is not really distinguisht from a substance , and a substance must be conceived to act immediately through her self . aristotle lib. de respir. describes life to be the permansion or abiding of the vegetable foul with the heat . from which that of scaliger , exercit . . sect . . is little different : life is the union of the soul with the body . here the philosopher appears only to describe life to be a duration , which is but an accident ; neither doth scaliger's union signifie any thing more . . they distinguish the soul really from the heat and body , which in the same sense are identificated . the matter and form of life , of a living substance , or a plant , are originally the matter and form of the elements . that the matter of living substances is elementary , there are few or none among the wandring philosophers but will assert it with me , yet as for their form their great master hath obliged them to deny it to be elementary , and to state it to be of no baser a rice than coelestial . give me leave here to make inquiry , what it is they imply for a form : is it the vegetable soul , which aristotle makes mention of in his definition of life ? or is it the soul together with the heat , wherein it is detained , which is accounted of an extract equally noble with her ? be it how it will , the soul is really distinguisht by them from the matter and from the celestial heat ( here they take heat in a sense common with physicians , for calidum innatum , that is heat residing it the radical moisture ) its subject , and acknowledged for a form . so likewise the heat ( calidum innatum ) is diversified from the matter and from the soul , wherefore it is neither matter or form , what then ? their confession owns it to be a body celestial , and therefore no elementary matter . were i tied to defend their tenents i should answer that there was a twofold matter to be conceived in every living body , the one celestial , and the other elementary : but then again one might justly reply , that beings are not to be multiplied beyond necessity . they do answer for themselves , that it is to be imagined a tye ( vinculum ) whereby the soul is tied to the body . so then according to this doctrine of theirs i should understand the vegetable soul to be immaterial , and of the same nature in respect to its rice and immortality with the rational soul ; for even that is in like manner tied to the body by means of the calidum innatum , and are both apprehended by aristotle to be celestial , of no mixt body , and really differing from their matter : if so , the vegetable soul must be received for immortal as being subject to no corruption or dissolution because it is celestial and consequently a single essence , without any composition , and to which no sublunary agent can be contrary . but again , how can it be a single essence since it is divisible , and therefore consisteth of a quantitative extension , and is a totum integrale ? such is their philosophy , full of contradictions and errours . in the next place i would willingly know , how this innate heat together with its primogenial moisture may properly be termed celestial , since it is not freed from corruption and dissolution , whereas all celestial bodies are exempted from dissolution , and therefore the philosopher takes them for eternal ? are not coldness and dryness as much necessary per se for life , as heat and moisture ? are heat and moisture sole agents without coldness or dryness , or are fire and water sufficient principles for actuating life ? in no wise , for as you have read , they are uncapable of existing in one subject unless accompanied by air and earth . ii. wherefore i say , that the form of life is spirits or subtilities of the elements united in mixtion and a just temperament . spirits are derived from the word spiro , i breathe , as being bodies no less subtil than a breath . their constitution is out of the best concocted , temperated , and nearest united parts of the elements , in which parts the elements embracing one another so arctly , minutely and intimately , do of a necessity separate themselves from the courser parts of the mixture , and so become moveable through the said course parts ; they acquire withal a great force through the predominancy of fire condensed by earthy minim's , and glued together by incrassated air . the force and agility in motion of the influent spirits depends upon the compression of the weighty parts of the body , depressing the said spirits out of their places ( because they hinder the weighty parts from their center , ) which being through their incrassated air naturally gendred glib and slippery do the easier yield to slip out and in from one place to another . the efficient of spirits is the universal external heat , viz. the celestial heat , mainly proceeding from the greater mixt bodies contained within the heavens : for although the peregrin element's contained within the earth are capable enough of uniting themselves , and constituting a mixt body through their proper form , yet they remain unable of uniting themselves so arctly , as thereby to become spiritous and constitute a living substance ; wherefore they do stand in need of the external efficiency of the celestial bodies , which through their subtil heat do accelerate their most intimate union , in uniting the internal heat ( before dispersed through the parts of a body ) to a center , whereunto they could not reach without the arct and firm adherence of some incrassated aerial and terrestrial parts , which here are yet more closely united into one , and refined from their grosser parts . hence it is , that vegetables are no where generated but where a sufficient influence may arrive from the celestial bodies ; and for this reason , the earth at a certain depth doth not harbour any living creature , as any vermine , or plants , but only near to its surface . the qualification or gradual distinction of this heat partially effects the difference of living bodies ; for to such a vegetable , only such a degree and qualification of celestial heat is requisite , and to another another : and withal observe that this efficient heat doth not become formal , neither doth it unite it self to the intrinsick heat of a plant , but exhales after the execution of its office ; the reason is , because it is in many particulars unlike to the internal spirit of a vegetable , and therefore being unfit to be united to it must consequently after the performance of its function expire . the spirits predominating in fire reside in an incrassated air , the which being continuated throughout the whole matter is the immediate subject , whereby the spirits are likewise extended throughout the same body , and are ( although mediately ) rendred continuous . iii. the properties of a vegetative form are to be moveable , forcible , actually warm , mollifying , attractive , recentive , concocting , expulsive , nutritive , accretive , and plastick . the two former i have touched just before : touching the third , i say those spirits are actually warm , but not sensible to our touch , because their heat is of a lower degree than ours ; however we feel they are less cold ( for in comparison to our warmth they are cold ) than pure naturals , as earths , stones , or metals . this befalls through their fire condensed , in such a degree and manner , that it kindles the least flame , whose greatest effect is but the remissest warmth . how fire mollifieth i have formerly shewed : besides , that which adds much to this is the incrassated air , whence its parts are rendred tenacious and cohering . living spirits are attractive , but how ? not as novices have hitherto imagined through the fires egress and appulsion to a portable body , and thence returning as it were loaden with a burden : but through dissipating and feeding upon its incrassated air , which diminishing , other air ready prepared touching it succeeds and bends into its room , being impregnated with some parts of the exhaling fire , which it imports along with it . this new advening incrassated air you must conceive contains also some earthy minima's and condensed fire ready to take flame , through which it moves much stronger inwards . that air strives thus to enter into the cavities left by a precedent air , i shall make good to you in its proper place . spirits are retentive through continuing their accidental attraction , & by means of their courser parts , which being extensive and tenacious are by the succeding air blown up into the middle parts , where swelling must needs constrict the upper and lower filaments or containing parts . they exercise their concocting vertue upon the succeeding ayry moisture , by melting its body , which done its purer parts succeeds the dissipated thickned air , because it is compressed upwards through the constriction of the weighty elements . the grosser parts being left behind , as not being subtil enough to follow their finer , are expelled by the exhaling heat , which being somewhat condensed and corporeal is forced to drive the excrementitious parts of the incrassated air before it , before it can procure its egress , which is the manner of the spirits exercising their expulsive faculty : here we need no musculs , nor alwaies right , oblique or transverse fibres , or what not , to attract , retain , concoct , and expell ? for what use could the vital flame of a tree make of them , since they cannot be extended and contracted into requisite shapes . the truth of all this i will confirm to you by the burning of a candle , where you may in like manner observe one and the same flame attracting , concocting , retaining , and expelling its nutriment or incrassated air , namely , the tallow , and doubtless vegetables are not differing from these in exercising the same faculties . the flame of a candle doth attract the tallow not by right fibres , or by fiery parts egressing and returning with their load ; for that is contrary to the nature of fire , whereby it is diffused from its center , but the unctious parts adhering to the cotton , and retained within those smal villi of it , which being dissipated , the nearest adjacent parts of the tallow do naturally succeed , not to avoid a vacuum , but because their parts are continuated , which so being , one part attracts the other ; besides those adjacent unctious parts being expanded are diffused by their ambient air compressing for a center into the cavities between the cotton , where they are retained . these retained parts are concocted , that is dissolved by liquefaction , where only the subtiler and purer parts succeed the dissipated preceding ones , through means of the beforesaid compressing air ; the courser parts are elevated and expelled by the expiring fire into the form of smoaks . the same may be instanced to you in the burning of spirits of wine , wherein the same particulars are observable . here i do with purpose leave out the principal part of this notion , whereby to demonstrate the motion of food to the parts , because i have reserved it ( god willing ) for another volume . iv. by these four actions nutrition is performed , which sounds nothing else but the conservation or maintenance of the vital form to wit , the spirits or vital flames in their matter , or being , by supplying them with new parts against the defect of the dissipated ones . in this definition you have set down the in ernal active principle of nutrition , viz. the vital form , spirits , or living flames , which according to your pleasure you may term anima vegetativa , in contradistinction to anima naturalis , so that anima here is synonymous to a form or internal active principle : the subjective internal principle is the matter : the end , or rather the bent is to conservate the form in her matter ; the action and means whereby , is generally by supplying it with new parts , particularly by attracting food or aliment , retaining , concocting it , and expelling the excrements . as for the food , it is required it should be aerial and igneous , or like to the parts that are to be nourished ; hence they say simile simili conservatur ; like is preserved by like : here may be objected the relation of the king of cambaia his son , who was fed with poysonous meats , in a manner that when he was grown up , his bloud or rather his skin was so intirely stayned with poyson , that flies sucking it immediatly swelled and dyed : and of a girl , that was sent by an indian king to alexander for a gift , which being fed and brought up with poison killed the king alone by her looks . the history of mithridates king of pontus is universally known , and of the ducks of the same country , that feed altogether upon poyson . the inference hence is , that poyson although unlike to the vital spirits ( which at most times it doth usually destroy , ) yet sometimes becomes a food to them . i answer , that it is no wise unlike to them , because it doth nourish them ; possibly at its first eating , it might be unlike , and therefore it then making them sick was rejected by their natures ; but they by degrees accustoming themselves to it , their spirits were gradually assimilated to it , and also brought to be poysonous , as appears by the history of the king of cambaia his son , and of the forementioned girl . hence it follows , that pure elements are insufficient for food , as likewise all other substances , that are not igneous and aerial , or such as are unapt of being converted into a flame . this resolves us that the chameleon doth not live upon air , nor the aquarels upon water , nor toads upon earth , nor salamanders upon fire . v. accretion is an action of life , through which a living body is intended in form , and extended in matter . this action is performed by the same form , and the same nutriment , but the former growing more vigorous becomes through that degree of intention of vigour yet more vigorous , and the latter being more and more dissipated through the gradual intention of heat doth likewise gradually increase through a greater accesse of nutriment , than was dissipated . this instance may serve to make a further illustration of it to you : focal fire doth accrease in form , ( that is , intense heat ) and in matter or extension of its quantitative parts by greater apposition of fewel ; this fewel at its first apposition to the fire is not yet attracted or become a fit nutriment for it , before it succeeds the incrassated air by a continuation , and through an impulse of the ambient air , and then being attracted it is concocted , and its aerial parts are gradually adjoyned to the former air , where its formal parts , to wit its latent fire being adunited to the form of the former fire doth accrease the former fire and form , which accretion must necessarily attract yet more nutriment , which nutriment acceding doth each time increase its form and matter . even so it is with plants attracting much nutriment , the which the gradual increasing of their form and matter doth dispose to a greater attraction , which again a greater supply of formal & material parts do necessarily consecute . but seeing that all plants do accrease no further than to a determinate quantity of formal and material parts , it will not prove amiss to give the reason of it , which we shall do hereafter . in order to a further explanation of this definition let us first shew you the homonymia of accretion . . it is taken for an augmentation of number in naturals , animals or others : thus a heap of corn , of beasts , or of men is said to be augmented , because it is increased by access of a greater number of individuals of the same species . . it is strictly appropriated to the augmentation of an element through the apposition of another element , or of its own , namely to rarefaction ; for example , water is said to be accreased , when it is rarefied ( according to my intention attenuated ) by the apposition of air . . it is understood , for an accrease proper to living creatures , that is such , as is performed through an introsusception ( as they vulgarly term it ) of nutriment , whereby a body is increased throughout all dimensions . . erroneously , for an accretion by adgeneration or apposition ; so fire is said to accrease by apposition of fewel ; but this kind of accretion is the same with that caused through rarefaction . . philosophers intend it sometimes for an increase of vertue or perfection in a body , as of heat in a fire , or cold in a frost , whence they term it a vertual accretion . . for the accretion of material parts only , or of the mole or body of a thing , wherefore it is vulgarly agreed to call it a dimensive accretion . to distinguish accretion , as it is treated of here , you are to apprehend it for the accrease of a vegetable in matter and form , or as they term it both for a dimensive and virtual accretion . accretion is otherwise called auction , or augmentation , which notwithstanding in a proper sense do differ from one another in largeness and strictness of signification . auction is common to all the forementioned kinds of accretion . augmentation is restricted to that , which happens through apposition , but accretion is only proper to living substances , or to such as is performed by an introreception of elementary parts , and whereby they are extended into all dimensions . accretion comprehends in it all the kinds of motion , viz. alteration , auction , and local motion : a vegetable is increased virtually or in its qualities , and likewise the nutritive actions are performed by alteration : that it is related to auction the name and definition it self doth convince . local motion is likewise necessary for the effecting of accretion , because by its means the aliment is attracted to the central parts of a living substance . by the precedents we may easily be resolved , whether a vegetable accreaseth through a penetration of dimensions , or by the admission of a vacuum . i answer through neither , but by the giving way of the parts , and their being extended by the succeeding aliment : notwithstanding you may reply the doubt to remain the same still ; for the succeeding nutriment is either received in a full body , or in an empty or void one : if in the former , then a penetration of dimensions must be allowed , if in the other a vacuum must be admitted . i answer , that in one sense the nutriment is received in a vacuum , that is void of such nutriment as is to be next received , but not in a vacuum simpliciter , for it is replenisht with vapours , or air , or excrements , which are protruded by the advent of the nutriment , and so it is received in pleno . . whether augmentation be effected through extension of parts , or pulsion . i answer through both ; the first is requisite , because without it accretion is impossible , since thereby a body is extended into all dimensions ; neither can the second be wanted , since the succeeding parts may be conceived to impel one another forward , and the formost of them to propel the preceding nutriment . vi. the first and last of a plant is its first generation , and its last propagation . by the first generation i intend the first rice and production of a plant out of the earth without being derived by propagation from any preceding vegetable , or in one word its sementation . although by course of my method i ought to have treated of this before , yet knowing that the premitted notions would add much to the explanation of this matter , it did prevail with me to subjoyn this to them . the earth we spy to be the universal mother of all vegetables , being within her self divided into several wombs , within which she is apt to conceive divers genitures or seeds , and retaining he fame untill their perfection , she then casts them forth from her . i shall first make observation upon the wombs of the earth , next upon her conception , then upon the protrusion of her foetus . the surface of the earth is divided into numerous wombs of various figures , and various dispositions of temperament , bigness , &c. the wombs of the earth that are destined for vegetables , are small and narrow cavities , formed by the transcursions of exhalations and vapours , though their passage impressing that variety of figures . these formed are actuated with a prolifick heat ( calidum ) consisting out of part of the heat of the through passed subtilities , and part of the influent heat . the cavities graven within are left rough , and close , filled up with air , or other thin substances , as vapours ; these must needs be rough , because where ever we see the earth excavated , it alwaies appears rough , which contributes much to the conception and retention of the seed or geniture , and so doth its closeness . these wombs do not remain long ventous , without being gravidated with some spermatick matter , which is constituted out of the most subtil and active parts or spirits of passing exhalations , being so arctly knit and united into a subtil temperament of their elements , that they might be termed volatil bodies , actuated most by fire and air . these spirits or volatil bodies cannot divagate without meeting with some moisture , which doth unite them and cohibite them into one body ; nevertheless they continue in making their way untill they arrive to some cavity , where they may be harboured ( or else they may be stayed by so much moisture as may force them through their intumescence to raise a womb where they meet , ) where being arrived they are immediately cherished and further actuated , united , and condensed by the close and cold temperature of the womb . this actuation conceives a flame , because through it the fire happens to be united , and thence dilated by the incrassated air , whose immediate effect is a flame ; now being come to a flame they attract nutriment out from their matrix in the same manner as was set down before . the spiritous parts of this advening nutriment is united to the central parts of the flame , which it doth increase ; it s other parts that are more humorous and less defecated are concreased by the lesser heat of the extreme parts , or a heat lessened through the greater force of the extrinsick cold . that which is worthy of inquiry here is , why the heat or vital flame strives to maintain the central parts ; moreover , this seems to thwart what i have inserted before , viz. that it is the nature of fire to be diffused from the center . . whence it is occasioned , that the weighty parts , as the dense and humoral ones are expelled to the circumference . for solution of the first you are to call to mind , that the elements in that stare , wherein they are at present , do war one against the other for the center , which if each did possess , this motion would cease in them ; the fire then being now in possession of the center contracts it self , and strives to maintain its place ; nevertheless it doth not forbear diffusing its parts circularly to the circumference , because through its natural rarity it is obliged to extend it self to a certain sphere . the reason of the second is , because the igneous and ayry parts being united into a flame and into a greater force do over-power the other elements and impell them to the periphery , where they being strengthned by the ambient coldness of the matrix are stayed , and do concrease into a thick skin ; by this also the internal flame is prevented from dissipating its life , and the better fitted to elaborate its design , which is to work it self into shapes of small bodies , of several figures , and of various properties , and in those shapes to diffuse each within a proportion of other elements likewise variously tempered . and so you have in brief a perfect delineation of the earths conception and formation of seeds , whose spirits being now beset with thick dense parts are catochizated , that is , the flame is maintained in such a posture which it had , when it had just accomplisht the plasis of the internal organical parts ; or in some the flame may be extinguisht through the near oppression by heavy parts , which * afterwards being stirred and fortified by an extrinsick heat relaxing its parts returns to a flame . whence it happens , that seeds may be kept several months , yea years , without protruding their parts , but being committed to the ground , especially where the mild heat of the heavens doth penetrate , perfused also with a moderate moysture , do soon after come to a germination . the same may be effected by any other mild heat , like we see that many seeds are perduced to a growth before the spring of the year in warm chests , or in dunged ground ; eggs are frequently harched by the heat of an athanor , or by being placed between two cushions stuft with hot dungs ; silk-worms eggs are likewise brought to life by childrens heat , being carried for two or three weeks between their shirts and wascoats , all which instances testifie that the heat of the sun is no more then elementary , since other elementary heats agree with it in its noblest efficience , which is of actuating and exciting life within the genitures of living bodies ; possibly it may somewhat exceed them as being more universal , equal , less opposed , and consequently more vigorous and subtil . the time , when the earth is most marked with matrices , is in the spring and fall , because the astral heat is then so tempered , that it doth gently attract great quantity of exhalations and humours ; neither is it long after before they conceive , the influences of the stars being then pregnant in subtilizing and raising seminal matter . the cause of the variety of seeds and plants thence resulting i have set down above , and withall why it is that ( non omnis fert omnia tellus ) every kind of earth doth not produce all kinds of herbs ; but why herbs of the hottest nature are sometime conceived within the body of water might be further examined . in order to the solution of this probleme , you must note that the seeds of such herbs as do bud forth out of the water , were not first conceived within the water as water , but where it was somewhat condensed by earth , as usually it is towards the sides , where those plants do most shew themselves ; for water in other places , where it is fluid , is uncapable of receiving the impression of a womb , excepting only where it is rendred tenacious and consistent through its qualification with glutinous or clayish earth . and this shall serve for a reason to shew , that herbs germinate out of water , although they are not conceived within it * . the ground , why the hottest herbs , as brooklime , watercresses , water crowfoot , &c. are generated in the water , is , in that the spirits informating those plants are subtil and rare , easily escaping their detention by any terrestrial matrix , as not being close enough by reason of its contiguity of parts ; but water , be the spirits never so subtil or rare , is sufficient to retain , stay , congregate , and impell them to a more dense union ( whence it is that such substances prove very acre and igneous to the pallat ) by reason of its continuous weight . next let us enumerate the properties of a vegetable seed . . is , to be an abridgment of a greater body , or in a small quantity to comprehend the rudiments of a greater substance , so that there is no similar or organical part of a germinated plant , but which was rudimentally contained within its seed . . to be included within one or more pellicles . . to lye ( as it were ) dead for a certain time . . to need an efficient for the kindling of its life , whence it is , that the earth was uncapable of protruding any plants before the heavens were separated from the earth , through whose efficiency , to wit their heat , living substances were produced . . to need an internal matrix for its production and germination , which is not alwaies necessary for the seeds of animals , as appears in the eggs of fowl and silk-worms . . only to be qualified with a nutritive , accretive , and propagative vertue . . to consist intrinsecally of a farinaceous matter . vii . the germination of a plant is its motion out of the seed to the same compleat constitution of a being or essence , which it hath at its perfection . motion in this definition comprehends the same kinds of motion , which accretion was said to do , and withall is specified by its terminus a quo the seed , and a terminus ad quem a perfect living being , that is a being responding to the goodness and truth of its formal and material parts . a plant at its perfection generally consists of divers parts , whereof some are said to be similar , others dissimilar : the former are such as do partake of one matter , and one partial form , and are destined for one single action , use , or end as they call it . the latter are distinct from one another in matter , partial form , action , or use ; whence they are also termed organical , because two or more dissimilar parts being conjoyned prove a convenient organ for performing a compounded action . the similar parts are either fluid or consistent ; the first , being otherwise known by the name of liquid , are succulent , or lachrymal : the succulent ones are unctious or balsamick fluidities , contained within the venal porosities of vegetables for their nutriment . that their fluidities are unctious appears by the breaking of a vegetable and squeezing its juyce out , which doth manifest it self to be glutinous between ones fingers . the venal porosities are discovered by the humours pressed out of a discontinuated plant , and appearing to proceed out of the o●●ices of long exill channels . the colours of these juyces are various , some delighting in a milky colour as tithymal ; others in a dark yellow , ( as celandine , ) waterish ( as a vine , ) purple , green , and many others , which do all depend upon the diversity of temperament and degree of concoction . lachrymal humours are fluidities proceeding out the pores of a plant through a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or transudation * , pressed out either through the abundance of nutriment contained within the channels , or expelled by means of irritating external heat ; among these some are more aqueous , concreasing afterwards into a gumme , others like pitch changing into rozin . the consistent or solid parts are either the fleshy or fibrous parts of a plant . the fleshy ones are the parenchymous substances of a plant . by parenchymous understand parts , which being fleshy and of an equal consistency are extended equally into all dimensions . fibrous parts are like strings diducted into length , and seminated through the parenchymous ones for the firmness of the body , and retention of nutriment . these are most right ones , some few oblique , and as few transverse . the medullar substance is a similar part , being spungy , concreased within the innermost places of a plant out of a peculiar matter . the rind or bark is a similar part concreased out of the grossest part of the material principle of a plant . dissimilar parts comprehend the root , trunck and boughs or branches . the root of a plant is the part defixed within the earth , consisting most of fibrous parts , little flesh , and a rind , and destined for to attract and prepare the nutriment for the whole plant . the trunck is the middle body of the plant between the root and the boughs , formed most out of flesh , some fibres , a vein of marrow , and a bark . the boughs are the body divided into many dissimilar substances of the same kind . sprigs are the same with boughs , and differ only from them as diminutives . the excrescent or abounding parts of a plant are the leaves , flowers , and fruits . a leafe is an abounding dissimilar part of a plant , consisting of a loose and moist flesh , and tender sinewes , strings or fibres produced out of the courser and less concocted part of the abounding nutriment of a vegetable . a flower is an excrescent dissimilar part , consisting of a smooth fine flesh , subtil fibres , and a thin pellicle , formed out of the siner and better concocted part of the abounding nutriment of a plant . fruits are excrescent dissimilar parts , containing stones or kernels , gores , flesh , and a skin , some , although but few , having fibres . the excrements of plants are either thick or thin : the thick adhere to the bark , and are worn off by the wind , rain , air , or are propelled by the succeeding excrements , which force the preceding to fall off . these are called the moss of a tree , whereof some is dry , sticking fast to the bark like bran , other is moister , 〈◊〉 and villous ; the thin expires and vanisheth through the air . recremental or deforming parts are knobs , nodes , and warts . knobs are hard recremental parts of a tree , some sticking out in the bigness of a head , or fist , some greater , others less ; some being latent are also various in their extensions ; others having a cavity within the knob , others not . nodes are plain hardnesses of a plant , and usually orbicular . warts are likewise swelling hard recremental parts differing from knobs only in smalness . thus far of the integral parts of a plant , which i thought necessary to premit , and thence to take occasion to explain their particular germination out of the seed , which continued in its matrix , or dimitted into another doth soon after either receive its flame a new by having its body opened , whereby the fiery parts return to an union , and being diducted by an incrassated air , return to a vital flame , which the celestial efficient , together with the internal disposition of the matrix , being perfused with a gentle and piercing moisture , and indued with a sharp heat do concur unto by relaxing , mollifying , rarefying , and attenuating the intrinsick parts of the seed . . the seed is relaxed by a thin piercing humour , or in short by incrassated air , whereby the close parts are diducted , the heavy ones lifted up and balanced by other light ones ; between every diduction or space between two diducted parts the flame doth vegetate and assume nutriment , being every where diffused throughout those spaces . the flame it self in the mean time inheres radically in the consistent parts like the flame of a candle in its wieck or cotton , into whose pores it attracts nutriment : whence these flames being of an unequal and various intention , and their subjects of an unequal and various extension , do each according to their intention intend themselves and extend their subjects into a dayly accretion of parts , whereby in time they arrive to their just and definite magnitude , which is stented by the extream expansion of their radical or spermatick solid parts , and greatest intention of the spermatick spirits : for the spermatick matter or the seed it self is of that nature , that being very close tyed through its spirits . and radical moisture , and withall intertext with terrestrial minima's is capable of degrees of extension and rarefaction , until it appells to the highest degree ; within those degrees of extension and rarefaction it takes in gradually other matter , both solid , spiritous , and humorous , whereby it discovers its gradual accretion ; not unlike to gunpowder , which within its bowels contains much fire densely united , but oppressed and hindered from flaming through the salin parts ; yet being stirred , excited , and somewhat freed from its said oppression , so as to reach to a flame , it acereaseth in body and flame by the access of the ambient air being permixt with a proportion of fire , which it draweth in for nutriment , untill it hath reached to the height of accretion . whence you may plainly gather , . that the total vertue of accretion lyeth hidden in the spermatick substance . . that the accretion of living parts happens through increasing their flame and extending their solid substance , and by being united to the radicall ones . this observation containes the greatest secresie of the art of medicine , and is the sole basis of most of the theoremes therein expressed , and withall detects a fundamental errour of galen , whose tenet distinguisheth the influent heat essentially from the innate heat , whereas the former is nothing else but the flame of the latter increased by spirits lately advened and united to it by the last concocted nutriment . but of this more expressely in my archelogia iatrica . notwithstanding i shall continue the history of accretion in each part : through the fore-mentioned expansion , rarefaction , and intumescence , the circumduced pellicles , being two in number , differing from one another only in crassitude , are gradually distended , untill at last all the parts being perfectly formed by the mechanick or plastick spirits in the manner beforesaid , break their membranes first ( naturally ) at the top next towards the surface of the earth , but counter-naturally at the sides . the cause of this first eruption through the top depends upon the swifter and more forcible turgency of the light elements tending upwards ; besides , upon the upper parts being more rarefied and attenuated through their greater nearness to the influential heat . the root erupts soon after its having pierced through the membranes by means of its weight strengthned by course heat , groweth downwards , and spreads into branches , like the upper parts grow upwards spreading likewise into boughs : these are more rare and thin , as consisting of a thinner and rarer flame , and of a thin ( yet solid ) sperm , which according to the capacity of the same principles now mentioned do form themselves into boughs and leaves , attracting every day nourishment proportionable to what was dissipated . the root doth in the same manner accrease by attracting weighty nutriment , being impregnated with a dense heat , and therefore can clime no higher ; but as for that which is more rare and thin , it ascends higher or lower according to its proportion of tenuity and rarity . the similar parts are accreased out of the more humorous parts of the attracted nutriment ; the solid ones out of the grosser parts of it . the barke is accreased out of the grossest reliques of the aliment ; the fibres out of the grosser ; the fleshy parts out of a mean substance , between gross and subtill , solid and liquid ; the medullar once out of the more unctious and rare parts ; the boughs out of nutriment somewhat more subtil and rare than that of the middle body or trunck . the redounding parts draw matter for their accretion fro●e cav● more waterish parts of the plant abounding in her , which 〈…〉 contain a remnant of all the similar & dissimilar parts of the whole . that these are abounding parts , their appearance only at such times when a plant is not alone filled but over-filled with nutriment doth restifie , which usually hapneth in the spring , summer , and autumn . leaves do germinate , when the said matter is less concocted however supplied in great abundance ; whence it is , that they make choice of a green colour , and are expanded into latitude . flowers appear , when the said matter is somewhat more concocted , and are only protruded out of the better and subtiller part of it , whence many of them become odoriferous . fruits are engendred out of the same subtil matter being yet more concocted , whence it is that most do take their beginning from a subtility for to acquire a crassitude , ( according to this trite one substantiae coctione evadunt crassiores ) whose more terrestrial part falling through its weight to the center concreaseth into a kernel or stone , whereupon the other parts do fasten as upon a foundation , increasing dayly by apposition of new matter . the recremental parts i call so , because they are generated out of the greater part of such matters as ought to be excerned , but containing some alimentary ones are retained and agglutinated , whence they chance to be somewhat like and dislike to the other parts . plants are variously divided , . into three species , viz. an herb , which is a plant , some consisting of a root only ; others of a root stalk , and leaves , whereof some comprehend ( fruges & olera ) corn and potherbs . . a shrub is a plant fastned to the ground by a root , and spreading into many boughs without a trunck . . a tree is a plant obtaining a root , trunk and boughs . in respect to their place of conception some are said to be terrestrial , others aqueous ; some wild , others garden plants : according to their bigness , some great , others small . and in regard of their fructification , some fruitfull , others barren ; or to their germination , some to bud forth sooner , others latter . for instance the turnip , basil , and lettuce , shew themselves within three or sour daies , others in five or six daies , as a gourd , the beete , &c. some in eight daies , as the orach ; some in ten , as the cabbage ; 〈…〉 in twenty daies , as leeks ; parsly in forty or fifty ; piony 〈…〉 scarce less than within a year : many other diffe●… taken from their colour , figure , &c. i do wittingly omit . the propagation of a plant is , whereby it doth generate its like in specie through semination . this is the last function , that a plant exerciseth ; for it must be nourisht and accreased to a just magnitude before it can attain to this most perfect and compleat action . semination is the means whereby it performeth the same , and is a plants bringing forth of seed ; this name in the english otherwise soundeth a seeding . seed is the abridgment of an intire plant , whereby it doth multiply it self into many of the same kind . but the great question will be , whence it is , that a plant obtaineth this power , and what seed properly is . here you are to observe , that seed is twofold . . it is that , which is casually ( as it may seem to us ) constituted within the earth through the concourse of the elements into one body being particularly so temperated , as to be disposed to germinate into a plant. of this i have spoken sufficiently before , where it appears that it precedes the constitution of a plant , whereas the other whereof i am to treat at present , doth consecute a preceding plant , and is generated by it . seed in this second acception is a dissimilar substance , consisting of the rudiments of all the parts of a plant , that are to liken the propagatrix ( or from which it was propagated ) in specie . the manner of semination is thus : a plant having already disburdened it self of its fulness or abundance of nutriment by casting forth leaves , flowers , and fruits , there is still a remnant of abundance of the best nutriment , which a plant being now exalted to its vigour in its operations through the preceding spring and summers heat doth concoct to the highest degree , and a just consistency , wherein the spirits are united with the solid parts so as it may be requisite for them to become seed , each part of the propagating plant discharging its abundance that waies , where the passage is most free , which is towards the top , whereunto the external heat , being attractive , seems also to contribute : downwards it cannot tend , because the passage is stopt by nutriment , that is impelled upwards from the root . the said abundancies meeting in one cavity or passage towards the top of the stalk of an herb or branch of a tree unite into one , where the contiguous parts consisting most of a vital heat possess themselves of the center , impelling the continuous ones to the circumference , which tye them all close into one , and are as it were a firmament about them , their extream parts concreasing into pellicles . this union is confuse , that is , each dissimilar part is not mixed with the other , but only glued and tyed , ( because their arct composition * doth impede it , ) in a confuse manner , that is no distinct shape , figure , form , or exact order : these they acquire within their spermatick cavities , but after conception in a womb , where their body being soon loosened , then each dissimilar part through its degree and proportion of levity and gravity falls naturally into its own ranke and order . besides this natural manner of propagation , there is another artificial one practised among gardeners , by planting a sprig of a tree into the ground , or ingraffing of it into another tree between the wood and the bark , whereof the former groweth up to a tree , the latter spreads it self into boughs and branches . the s●me is also effected by thrusting some roots into the earth , as a liquorish or lilly root : or by planting some kind of leaves into the ground , as of indian figgs or opuntia . this hapneth by reason those forementioned plants are indued with very extensible spermatick parts and copious innate spirits , each bough being sufficient to accrease to a tree , were it near enough to the earth to attract proportionable nutriment , but being remote must be satisfied and increase according to the quantity of access of aliment . . each sprig of most trees , as also the foresaid roots and leaves containing the rudiments of all the dissimilar parts , which the whole doth , doth accrease into other parts , viz. roots , trunck and branches by the qualification of the aliment : the courser accreasing about the lower part into a root , the mean into a trunck , the finer into branches . nevertheless this is observable , that trees propagated out of sprigs are nothing near so fruitful , or so long lived as those from the seed . after a plant hath done her endeavour in producing fruits and seeds , she decreaseth , some yielding yearly , others monthly and dayly of their magnitude , vigour , and nitorous complexion , shrinking by degrees by reason of the wasting of the spermatick matter and innate spirits , untill at last they naturally die through extream driness and coldness , or rather through an entire dissolution of their temperament . counternaturally a plant is further exposed to many diseases , and a violent death distinguisht into two sorts , the one hapning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whereby a plant is frozen to death ; the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , through an immoderate extrinsick heat , extracting , dissipating , and consuming the innate spirits of a plant. either of these may befall a part or a branch alone of a tree , and then a part of it is alone said to be dead . chap. v. of the particular differences of plants . . the differences of roots and their vertues . . the differences of flowers . . the differences of leaves . . the three cordial vegetables . . the three cephalick vegetables . . the three hepatick vegetables . . the three splenick vegetables . . the three pulmonick vegetables . . the three stomachick vegetables . . the three lithontriptick vegetables . . the three uterin vegetables . . the three arthritick vegetables . . the specificks for the parts destined for the continuation of the species . . the description of some rare plants . . roots differ in figure , some being long and round , others round like a ball , some straight , bowed , flat , others like to some fruit or other ; so a parsly root resembles a pear , the root of kingspeare an acorn , the root of anemone and of cypress an olive ; besides infinite other varieties of figure . . in number ; grass , asaraback , white masterwort , hemionitis , insist upon many roots ; aloes upon one , the mandrake , sword-flagg , most of the kinds of satyrion upon two , nightshade upon three or four ; vervain , mallow , and grass of parnassus upon five or six ; the greater celandine upon one , divided below into many . . in colour , some being red , purple , white , black , yellow ; others of various colours . . in inconsistency , some choosing a hard root , as the greater centaury , chim , &c. others a soft one , as alexander ; some again are hollow in their root , as pistolochia ; others being unequal or knobby , as polypody , sweet garden flag , flowerdeluce . . in taste , some are sweet , as liquorish ; others bitter , as birthwort : others bitter at ones first tasting of it , and afterwards changing into a sweet taste , as the root of cachou . . some are big , as the roots of a caper shrub , mandrake , wild cowcumber , briony ; others small , as the roots of grass , asarabacca , &c. stalks do likewise alter : . in figure ; some being round , others consisting of two angles , as daffodile ; some being triangular , as cypress ; quadrangular , as horehound ; pentagonal , hexagonal , as trifole , purple willow weed ; some are nodous , as some indian canes , soap-wort , carnations , &c. others are hollow as canes , and elder . . in number ; so oreosolinum , and most trees , usually emit but one . alica a kind of wheat gourts sprouts out three or four stalks . rie six or seven from one root . deadly nightshade ten or twelve . . in colours ; some are red , black , white , green , &c. others speckt , some are glabrous , others clad with a wool , as rose campion . ii. flowers differ in their leaves , some being round , as the flowers of woodbine ; others bent in , as those of a flowerdeluce ; the leaves of the flowers of smooth bindweed are set round in a circle , resembling a clock ; the flowers of lions mouth are like to a gaping lions mouth ; some resemble a cone , a navil , a ball , as bowlwort flowers . the flowers of foxglove are like to a womans thimble ; many flowers resemble a butter-fly , &c. some grow from the stalk , root , or top ; some grow single , and others double , four , five , or six , or a heap together , as wall-flowers : other differences are commonly known , as their colour , consistency , smoothness , &c. the differences of seeds and fruits are as many as of roots , stalks and flowers , which since you may easily gather thence , i shall save my labour of rehearsing them . iii. leaves differ , . in colour : bramble leaves and those of some kinds of blites are of various colours in their leaves : the leaves of horehound , campion , and mullein are gray with a kind of wool atop of them . the leaves of lamium verum have a long spot in the middle of them : the leaves of othonna and st. johns-wort are bored through with holes like to a five : some are hard , as some kind of grass and ditch dock ; others harsh , as wild cowcumber leaves ; others tender , as celandine ; others feel fat , as bears-breech , purslane ; some are glibe and smooth , as mandrake and bears-breech ; others curling , as some sorts of cabbage . . in shape ; some being round and long , as some sorts of housleek ; venus navel , monywort , trefoile , &c. are round ; nettles , coltsfoot , &c. are angulous or dented about their extremities . the leaves of venus novel and of wild teasel are hollow . grass leaves , flower-de-luce , and sword-flag are pointed : leaves vary much in their incisures , some being deeper , as those of radish leaves , licebane , bucks-horn , plantain , red poppy , vervain ; others more shallow , as those of nettles . hercules wound-wort is markt only with five incisures ; others have few or none . . in number : the unifoil is contented with one leafe , the satyrion with two , the tulip with three ; herba paris and tetraphylon with four : other plants are full of leaves , as thime , asparagus ; others are bare . besides , some come forth after the flower , as the peach-leaves . others come out before the flowers : some come forth soon , others late ; some in one month , others in another , viz. asarabacca , asparagus , chast tree leaves , ground-ivy , violet leaves , willow leaves , in the month of march : common avens , barbery leaves , colts-foot , lettuce , plantaine , scurvy-grass , sorrel , petty sorrel , saxifrage , yellow violets , in april . agrimony , bears-breech , borrage , bugloss , betony , celandine , fumitory , germander , marigold , purslane , rosemary , self-heal , wormwood , southernwood , in may. camomile , succory , endive , fennil , marsh-mallow , melilot , mercury , piony , rue , sage , water-lilly , water-germander , in june . bay leaves , lavender , lovage , mallow , mugwort , marjerom , garden-cresses , strawberry leaves , savin , thime , tansie , vervain , are in their prime in july . burnet , baume , card. bened. elder , eyebright , mullein , oake leaves , in august . angelica , butter-burre , cypress , cumfry , cinquefoile , ellicampane , ellebor , polypody , solomons seal , valerian , in september . because we will not be deficient in what may appertain to natural philosophy , we shall insert a short description of the choicest herbs , appropriating three to every principal , and less principal part of the body . iv. the three cordials are , . baume is cordial beyond all vegetables , excelling in faintnesses and extream weaknesses , particularly in fainting fits proceeding from an uterin suffocation , and is a singular herb in most uterin distempers . in melancholy , convulsion fits , and an apoplexy it is admirable . . as the foregoing vegetable is so much commended in cold distempers of the heart , so is a pome citron in hot diseases , cherishing the heart beyond expression when beset with fiery smoaks in an ardent feaver , resisting putrefaction , defending the heart from all malignancy and poyson . . goats rue is a most famous cordial , alexipharmacal resisting and expelling all poysons , pestilential malignancies , and of an unparallel vertue in sported feavers , small-pox , measels , convufsion fits of children , and the worms . v. the three cephalicks are , . male piony all ages have observed to be stupendious in curing distempers of the brain , particularly the falling-sickness in men women and children , chronical head-aches ; melancholy of the brain , frights of children , palsie , night-mare : it is of a moderate sharp heat and driness , and somewhat adstrictive . . garden rue hath been in great esteem among the greatest of physitians for its admirable effects upon epileptick , apoplectick and paralytick brains ; and for curing inveterate head-aches it is incomparable ; it is very hot and dry , sharp , attenuating and discutient , and flourisheth in june . . sage we may admire for its rare properties upon all moist brains , in curing catarrhes , palsies , a lost memory , dulness of the understanding , and quickning all the senses to admiration , being in its prime in july . vi. the hepaticks are , . agrimony is the strength , life , and preservation of the liver , removes its obstructions , engenders the purest bloud , cures all dropsies , and any kind of bad habit of body ; it is moderately hot and dry , subtil , apertive , detergent and subadstringent . . succory nature particularly created for the liver , and indued it with the greatest vertue of preserving and comforting its sanguification , opening obstructions , and of curing all its distempers . it is moderately cool and dry , detergent , and attenuating . . fumitory never failes of removing all obstructions of the liver , purifying the bloud from its dross and melancholy , curing the itch , scurvy , and yellow jaundise , and comforting the liver through a specifick property ; it is gently hot and dry , detergent , and attenuating . vii . the spleneticks are , . polypody is the great specifick against all splenetick distempers , as obstructions , scurvies , black jaundise , hypochondriac melancholy . it is hot and dry , mundifying and gently purgative . . the bark of the caper shrub being dry and hot , bitter , attenuating and somewhat adstringent , doth thence exert its most noble faculties against all splenetick distempers , particularly against hypochondriack melancholy , the scurvy , and all obstructions of the spleen . . spleen-wort is dignified with that name from the certainty and excellency of its effects in all the forementioned diseases of the spleen . it is moderately hot and dry , aperitive and detergent , and is in its prime in september . viii . the pulmonicks are , . coltsfoot is a most singular simple in helping expectoration , thence curing all coughs , ptisicks , and all other difficulties of breathing . it is gently hot and dry , and somewhat sharp . . ellicampane is very effectual in all difficulties of respiration , coughs , and comforts the lungs . it is very hot and dry , cutting , sharp , and detergent . . red poppy is the sole cold pulmonick , whose vertue is more then admirable in a pleurisie . ix the stomachicks are , . roman wormwood was never doubted to cure weaknesses of the stomach , and to cleanse it from all its slimy and tartarous dregs . it is very hot and dry , bitter and adstringent . . ze●doary is very hot , dry and adstringent , thence proves a most excellent specifick to strengthen the stomach . . cinamon is commended beyond all spices for a most excellent comforter of the stomach . x. the nephriticks are , . saxifrage : the great benefit which nephritick patients have received hence occasioned the imposition of its name sounding an undoubted breaker of the stone , being the quickest and most forcible diuretick of all vegetables , whence it doth much conduce in all obstructions of the kidneys , and stoppages of urine . it is very hot , dry , and attenuating ; and is an april herb . . winter-cherry berries are of most subtil parts in a moderate cold and dry temperament , and are purposely selected by nature for those nephritick patients that are of a hot temperament , breaking the stone in the kidneys most powerfully , and expelling urine with no less force . they are most effectual in august . . marsh-mallow is an herb of a third sort of nephrocatharticks , being moderately moist , hot , emollient , discutient , mitigating all pains of the kidneyes , and abating the sharpness of urine : even this vegetable is in nothing inferiour to either of the foregoing , effecting the same effects through its dissolving moisture . xi . the uterin specificks are , . dictamnus cretius , or dittany of candia is a most excellent uterin vegetable , comforting the complexion of the matrix , reserating its greatest obstructions , expelling all excrementitious humours through facilitating the menstrua , producing withal a swift and easie labour in women , and is admirable in forcing a dead child out of the matrix : besides , it is much conducing in all hysterick suffocations , being very hot and dry , and penetrating . . mugwort is hot and dry , aperitive , and discutient ; cleanseth the matrix , and excels in the same vertue that dittany doth . . fetherfew is very hot , dry , penetrating , and aperitive , yielding to neither of the precedents in vertues : it is most efficacious in june . xii . the arthriticks are , . sassafras . if there be ever a neuritick under the canopy of the heavens it is the bark of the root of this tree , strengthning weak joynts , and relaxt sinews , drying up catarrhs beyond all belief , and in the gout it is miraculous , being hot , dry , aromatick , sudorifick , discutient , and aperitive . . ground pine is a certain and most efficacious neuritick , and admirable in curing the gout : it is very dry and hot , aperitive and cutting . . germander although the last of the three is not therefore inferiour to the first , but agreeing in the same vertues and qualities with it . both these latter are in their greatest strength in july . xiii . lastly , to please all parties i shall beyond my purpose recommend three of the most approved vegetables to help the languor of the parts destined for the preservation of the species . the first is dog stones , being of a moist and hot temperament , comforting those parts to admiration , and rendring either sex very lusty . the second is green ginger , which is only fit to be eaten by those that are of a frigid temperature , whom it will soon put into a contrary passion . the third is rocket , an herb whose seed is potent enough to change the coldest temperament into a satyrs lasciviousness . if now your mind tends to the contempt of this beastiality , then certainly spirit or sugar of saturn will put you into another kind of devotion , and better sute with your temper . here i have proposed to you a select number of simples , sufficient to cure most internal diseases , that are incident to the body of man , whereby you may be guided out of those dangers accompanying the making choice of them out of that infinite number of vegetables , whose vertues you must be forced to take upon other mens words , oft disagreeing with the expected effects : wherefore know that each of these ( excepting the latter four , ) i have experienced many and many times upon several bodies , not only so , but have had them formerly in my travels recommended to me by the eminentest of physitians abroad as the greatest and most certain vegetable specificks . xiv . for a corollary take the description of some rare plants . the parisatico , alias singady , or the mournful tree groweth only at goa , malacca , and some few other places ; in shape it resembles a pium-tree ; it doth within half an hour after the suns going down shew it self white all over with most pleasant and fragrant flowers , like to those of an orange tree , whereas at the suns going down there was not one to be seen upon it . these flowers stick fast all night untill the rising of the sun , and then they do all fall off , but towards the evening others are spread forth again , and so this continues all the year long . arvore de rays , or the root tree , is an east-indian shrub growing up to a certain height , and spreading it self into branches , from whose top roots do grow down into the earth , whence they spring out again into other shrubs of the former height , which again at their top emit other roots downwards in a manner , that in some space of time this shrub spreading it self near half an english mile round becomes an intire for●est formed ( as it were ) out of one continuous tree . the herb sentida , or sensitive plant may be a pattern of chastity to all ; the which if you do only touch or cast a little sand upon it , its leaves do immediately retract and shut themselves up , and do open no sooner again , than your finger or what you have cast upon them is withdrawn . the she palm-trees it is observed do not yield any fruit unless planted near to a male palm tree , to which they seem all to incline having their boughs more extended towards it at that side than at any other , whence the aethiopians do usually plant them so , that the wind may carry steams from the male to the female ; but in case the male tree be taken away from between the others , they become barren and give over bringing forth fruit . the fruits of the indian palm tree are called coquos , being filled within with water ; the wight within is very tender and soft , and tastes like to an artichoke , but after a longer maturation groweth harder , and eats like a haselhut . the water , which each of them contains in the measure of a pint or two , is very clear and pleasant to drink . this tree contains materials for a whole ship : its wood being light and spongy they cut into planck , which they tie together with cords that are drawn off from the said coquos ; the sails are made out of the leaves , which the indians call olas . it is reported , that there is a tree in java major , whose innermost marrow is iron , being very thin , and running through the whole length of the tree : its fruit is likewise as hard as iron . in the island of tylos there are cotten trees , whose gourds being of the bigness of quinces are found to be full of cotten when they break through over-ripeness . there is a tree in the island cimbubon , whose twigs being fallen down to the ground do move themselves forwards as if they crept , having two small legs of each side ; and if they be toucht they creep back . chap. vi. of water in order to her commerce with the other elements . . the etymology of water . that water naturally is hard and consistent , and not fluid . . the division of water . . what a lake is . the strange vertues of some lakes . . what a fountain is . the wonderful properties of some fountains . . of physical wells . . of baths . . of rivers and their rare properties . . of the chief straits of the sea. . vvater seems to be derived from washing , from its use , because people make use of it to wash their foul things with . so leau in french from laver to wash , and wasser in high dutch from waschen denoting the same . aqua in the latine was imposed upon it for to express its excellency , and its absolute necessity for the preservation of humane life . aqua dieitur quasi a qua vivamus , nutriamur , & a qua nobis plurima supersint commoda : pisces nobis alit , navium vehiculo inservit , quibus non pauca nobis afferuntur necessaria , ignisque est pardomitrix , terram foecundans , aeremque spirabilem nobis reddens . formerly we have discoursed of water and its form absolutely considered , now we are to apply it as it relates to the other elements and is the proper cause of her commerce with them . water although appearing fluid , yet naturally , that is absolutely conceived by it self is void of all fluor , but partakes of the greatest weight , hardness , crassitude , smoothness , and consistency that is imaginable . i prove it , water the more it is remote from the intense heat of the sun the more heavy , thick , hard , smooth , and consistent it is : have you not mountains of ice of great weight , thickness , &c. in greenland in the summer , much more in the winter , yet more directly under the poles , and most of all if apprehended absolute by it self , and deprived from extrinsick air and fire , when we cannot but judge it to be of the greatest weight , thickness , and consistency that is apprehensible ? the scripture seems to attest the same , job . and the waters are hid as with a stone , and the face of the deep is frozen ; by the deep here is meant the chaos , ergo the waters were naturally at their first creation thick and hard . lastly , as there are two fluid elements , viz. fire and air : so it is also necessary , that they should be balanced and met with two opposite consistent ones , namely , earth and water . the first being contiguous and hard responds to fire ; the other being continuous and hard responds to air being continuous and soft . whence we may safely conclude , that it is the advent of the fire together with the air that renders the water thus thin and fluid , as we see it is . ii. how water first gained such a body together as the sea is , our exposition of the worlds creation will advise you . the sea is the greatest collection of water ; by the latinists it is called mare , from meare to go or to flow , and not from amarum , or the word marath among the caldeans signifying bitter , as some have thought ; so it is likewise called oceanus , the ocean from ocior amnis , a swift current . it procures various distinctions from its beating against several shores ; from those of the east and west india it is surnamed the east and west indian ocean ; of the mount atlas the atlantick ocean ; from those of sarmatia , the sarmatick ocean ; near madagascar the rough sea , from the quicksands that are frequently thereabout ; of spain and brittain , the spanish and brittish ocean , &c. and from the plage whence it doth flow it is called the east , west , south , or north ocean . the same spreads it self into many particular seas , or great bayes , whereof these are the more principal . . the mediterranean sea , so named , because it flows through the middle of two great parts of the earth , viz. between a great part of europe , africa , and asia : or more particularly between spain , france , italy , dalmatia , greece , and natolia of the one side , and aegypt and barbary of the other . where it toucheth the spanish coast it is called the iberick sea ; and more forward the french balearick * ; ligustick near genoa , tyrrhenian or tuscan ; about sicily sardinian , sicilian , adriatick , cretick , libyan , phoenicean , cyprian , syriack sea , &c. its mouth is called the straits . . pontus euxinus , the euxian sea , otherwise named the black sea or mare majus , whose mouth is called the hellespont from its narrowness , its throat propontis and the thracian bosphor , so called from bos an oxe , as if an oxe were too big to pass through that narrowness . . the arabian and persian sea . . the gangetican sea , so named from the river ganges , which is disburdened into it . . the red sea , deriving that name not from the colour of the sea , but of the red sand , over which it floweth . the baltick * sea , alias the sinus coddanus , or suevick sea , from the suevi , a nation that formerly inhabited those coasts ; at the mouth it is called the sound flowing leagues far between denmark , finland , sueden , prussia , liefland , pomerania , and saxony . the pacifick sea is so called from the gentleness of the waves ; or the south sea , because it lyeth to the southward of the line , limited by the coasts of asia , america , and terra australis , or the country of megallan . iii. a lake is a great and perennal collection of water cirrounded by the earth , whereby it is cut off from the sea ; it is distinguisht from a pool , in that the one is perennal , the other is apt to be dryed up sometime by the heat of the sun and driness of the earth , and to be filled up again with rain : some of these being famous for their extent , others for their admirable qualities i shall willingly insert . . the greatest lake in the universe is the caspian sea in asia , otherwise called the great sea , the albanian , hircanian , pontick , tartarian sea , the sea of sala , bachu , abachu , terbestan , or giorgian . it diffuseth it self into three bayes or gulph , viz. near the mouth into the hircanian , on the right side into the caspian , and on the left side into the scytick gulph . it bears the name of a sea very improperly , since it is incompassed by the earth : nevertheless it is saltish and full of fish . . the lake asphaltites in judaea , ( otherwise called the dead sea from its immobility , because as corn. tacit. relates that scarce any wind be it never so violent is strong enough to lift it up into waves ) is noted for sustaining weighty bodies ( especially if anointed with alume water ) that are cast into it , in a manner that a man his hands and legs being tyed and cast into it shall swim ; it breeds no fish nor any other living creatures . the lake of the lesser armenia , and the lake aposcidamus in africa , and of sicily are almost of the same strength . on the contrary the lake avernum in campania and that of aethiopia are unable to sustain the weight of a leaf fallen into them from a tree ; and according to pliny , there is no fowl that flies over them , but falleth dead into them . there is a lake near lerna , and another in portugal , which are so attractive and depressing , that they do immediately draw and press down to the bottom whatever is cast into them , in such a manner , that a man having thrust his hand into either , must use force to draw it out again . pomponius mela , and solinus make mention of a lake in aethiopia , which to the eye appearing crystalline , and sweet to the pallat , doth so besmear those that bath in it , as if they had been duckt into a bath of oyl . in the west of the isle of iseland travellers have discovered a great lake , fumous & very cold , in a short space changing whatever is cast into it into a stonish or rockish body : a stick being thrust right up into the bottom , that part which is under water is in two daies changed into an iron substance , the other above remaining what it was . hect. boeth . writes of another in ireland , which after some months renders that part of a stick that is thrust into the ground iron ; the other part that is under water fliuty , the upper part above the water continuing wood . in thrace it is said there is a lake , whose water proves mortal to any that do drink of it , or do bath therein . many of the troglodites have forfeited their reason for venturing to taste of the water of a pernicious lake in that country . the lake clitorius effects sobriety in men , and excites them to a hatred against wine and drunkenness . the lake gerasa in the country of the gadarens , whereinto the herd of swine , animated with those dispossessed devils , ( of whom we read in luk. . . ) violently ran down , is at present so venomous , that it causes the hair and nails of all those to come off , that have at any time drank of it . the lake laumond in scotland , imbracing thirty islands breeds fish without finnes , and is cast sometimes into a most raging tempest , although there be little or no wind stirring : one of those islands is said to fluctuate up and down in her . the lakes of chirchen in china is said to change iron into copper . scotland is noted for a lake , whereof the one half yieldeth to be hardned by the frost , the other maintaining her fluidity the whole winter . so likewise in norway , although saturn is felt to be very furious there , yet many lakes lye open all the winter . the like is observable in a lake near new castle , which in some part refuseth concretion , although in the coldest weather . there is a lake near nidrossa , whose waters atop are extreamly cold , but the mud near the bottom is constantly boyling hot , insomuch that if you tye an egg to a string and let it sink down to the bottom , you may soon draw it up ready boyled . not far from jensu , a city in china , is a lake , which is very cold in the summer , and scalding hot in the winter : the same is said of the lake jen near chinchen in the same country . the waters of the lake anien , at first feel extream cold , but after a little while they begin to feel warm ; they also generate stones out of any matter received from without . the lake of vadimon shews it self sometimes suddenly very turbulent , without giving any manifest token of the cause of it . the same is said of the lake of geneve or lausanne . italy is dignified with one of the most famous lakes in the world called benaco ; its plaisance is supplied by a sight of olive trees , growing upon its borders , and beautified about the sides with gardens planted with citron and pomgranate trees , fertilized with rare fish , having its water so bright and clear , that you may plainly see the bottom through it , except in the middle , where it is almost not to be fathomed ; but notwithstanding so fair a complexion in good weather , yet appears much more humourous in foul , in such a manner that it doth then cast it self into raging high waves , whereby it proves no less dangerous and dreadful than a tempestuous sea . the lake larius , by the hetrusces styled the prince of lakes , is much swelled in its belly through the swallowing up of the river abda , alias abdua , tumbling down from the rhetian alpes through the valley voltilena , boaring with a swift stream through the said standing water , which gives it passage without the least commotion of its body , neither permits it self to be mingled with those rapid and most limpid streams : the said river persisting in its velocity breaks out again near leuk a village . in like manner doth the river rhene stream through the lake acronius , and the river danow through part of the surian sea. hispaniola is watered with a great lake named by the inhabitants haneygaban , into which many great rivers are disburdened , and to the admiration of many is nothing engrossed , although visibly venting no part of what it hath imbibed : the same is observed of the caspian sea , receiving the copious evacuations of the rivers volga , janick , abiamu , chesel , and many others . lucerna a town in switzerland is situated near to a lake , whereinto a stone or piece of wood being cast doth set it into so vehement a commotion that it fluctuates upwards in roaring waves , and surmounting its borders happens somtimes to cause an inundation of the next adjacent fields ; wherefore for the prevention of such inconveniencies it is decreed by the magistrate , that none shall offer to cast any thing into it upon a severe penalty . the inhabitants impure the foresaid exestuation to the pernicious infection , which the lake received from the pestilent carcass of that hellish judge pontius pilate , who after his banishment was thought to have drowned himself therein , whence it is , that they vulgarly call it pilat's pool . there is a lake not unlike to this upon the mount tidalu near chaoking in china , whereinto if one throws a stone or any other heavy thing , he will immediately hear a roaring noise like thunder , and soon after the sky about it grows gloomy and casts down rain . in carniola near the chief city laubach every year about the autumn there appears a pool between some mountains , about a league and half in compass , and abounding with fish , none apprehending whence this quantity of moisture should derive , and towards the spring it begins to dry up , after which the ground is copiously fertilized , and is haunted with a number of deer . iv. a fountain or spring is a pereunal eruption of water out of the earth . the differences of these is no less various , than of lakes ; to wit , in quantity , quality , motion , and situation . furthermore some are artificial , others natural . we shall only instance the admirable properties of some of the latter . aristotle writes of a fountain in thrace ( whereunto another in arcadia named styx , as also one in sarmatia , and that of armenia , lydia , and sicilia , are like in vertue ) which casteth the drinkers of it into a mortal syncope ; breeding fish working the same effect upon those that eat them . the waters of the founts of valentia in spain , wolchenstein , trecha , the kingdom of crobus upon the alpes , berosus , and of manglo in china , are all deleterious , corrosive , and extreamly venomous . boeotia spouts out two springs , whereof the one called lethe effects forgetfulness , the other cures it . the water of the fountain in the island cea , ( as pliny relates , ) being drank dulleth a mans understanding and makes him sottish . the fountain of susa in persia loosens the teeth , and causeth them to fall out ; pliny speaks also of another in germany on the other side of the rhene effecting the same . a draught of the water of lyncistis filleth a mans brain and makes him drunk . the fountain of arania , a part of arcadia , makes one loath wine . isidorus and solinus write of two fountains , whereof the one procures fruitfulness in women , the other barrenness . the garamants make mention of a fountain among them , called the fountain of the sun , whose extream coldness in the day renders it importable , and in the night is so excessive hot , that it proves scalding . aristotle relates of the fountain elusine , which naturally being quiet and clear , is affected with the noise of any musical instrument , in a manner , that at its sound it is apt to sieth and run over as if it were for joy . baptista fulgosius affirms to have seen a fountain , which appears very clear and still to one walking about it , and looking therein without speaking ; but if speaking , although but a few words , it is immediately put into a commotion and siething , appearing very turbulent . the same author makes mention of another in france , which being for the most part of a very cold nature doth nevertheless not fail of casting flaming fire from it . there is a fountain in illyrium , that like fire burns into ashes whatever is cast into it . epyrus and cyrenaica are noted for fountains , which in the morning and evening feel warm , at noon hot , and in the night scalding . the same is said of the fountain ammonius . for springs to be cool in the summer , and warm in the winter is not extraordinary . in arcadia springs a certain fountain out of the mountains , whose water is so extream and piercing cold , that no golden or silver vessel is capable to hold it , but is forced into pieces by it ; nevertheless it suffers it self to be contained in a mules hoof. not far off from the danow there is a fountain surnamed the fountain of the holy cross , which sometimes casts out abundant streams of perfect bloud very useful for the curing of sundry diseases . a fountain in the island tenedo doth during the summer alwaies overflow from three in the night to six in the morning . there are three fountaines in cantabria , that sink dry in twelve hours , and fill up again in the same space of time . the fountain cyane among the syracusans , as also another in hungaria increase and decrease with the course of the moon . the same is said of the fountain of hucune in china . the fountain of jupiter in dodan is said to sink and rise thrice of a day . another in epirus doth begin to ebb in the morning , is dry at noon , fills up again towards the evening , and at midnight is risen to that fulness that it runs over . there is a fountain near weenen generating stones out of any thing that is cast into it . many waters , as they drop from the hills , concrease into stones as soon as they arrive to their rest ; and these drops being multiplied concrease at last into pillars of stone . the fountains of herbogia , veroniuns in france , zepusium in dacia do all breed great abundance of stones out of and within themselves . fulgosius speaks of another in england of the same nature . the water of sibaris causeth sneezing if drank ; those of clitumnus in umbria , cappadocia , and of cesiphus in boeotia make the hair of the cattel that drink of it grow waite , but that in arabia ( as aristotle doth arrest ) changeth them into a reddish colour . theophrastus , writing of the fountain lycos , reports it to be of the same property that oylis of , and to burn in a lamp , although within the well appearing limpid . but that which is more admirable , we observe in the church history of euseb. whom paulus orosius , and eutropius do second , viz. that near upon the incarnation of our blessed saviour , in the reign of caesar octavianus , there brake out a fountain in a tavern at rome , floating a whole day with abundant streams of pure oyl . isidorus and solinus in his polyhistor . make observation of a fountain , whereon those , that were to depose their oath , were to lay their hand , whose eyes in case they had forsworn themselves were withered , and brought to a blindness . had god pleased that such a fountain might have appeared near the hals , it is to be feared that an honest man could hardly walk the streets without being affronted by a blind man. one of the same authors doth also witness of jacobs fountain in idumaea , that every three months it groweth troubled and becomes red and green , afterwards returning to its primitive clearness . likewise it is said of a fountain in cherronesus that it sieths and ferments once a year , purging it self of all filth and uncleanness . the same is observed of many other fountains . from the likeness of the subject i shall take occasion to appose a word or two touching the properties of some eminent wells and baths , differing in little else from fountains , than that these spout out of the earth with a great force and in greater abundance . iv. near to this city there are three wells much cryed up for the cure of diseases , whereof two are purging by stool and urine , viz. barnet and ipsum wells ; the other of tunbridge is only diuretick or moving urin . of the two first the latter is counted the stronger , both being much approved for the curing all chronicall diseases ; particularly a tertian ague , obstructions of the mesaraick vessels , of the liver and spleen , crudities of the stomach , the yellow jaundise , and catarrhs . that of tunbridge is more profitable in quartanes , inveterate head-aches , dropsies , gouts , hypochondriack melancholy , black jaundise , melancholy of the brain , leprosie , cancers , malignant and inveterate ulcers , kings evil , convulsion sits , sits of the mother , stoppage of courses , vvhites , phtisicks , palpitation of the heart , stoppage of the kidneys and bladder , the gravel and stone , the impostume of the kidneys , of the mesentery , of the liver and spleen . but as for those that are troubled with the french leprosie , let them beware from these waters as from poyson ; for there is nothing in the world that sets those virulent humours more into rage and fury than mineral waters . next to these the spaw waters are very famous , divided into four several wells , viz. savenier , opening at the foot of a hillock three miles from spaw , its faculty is most diuretick and somewhat eccoprotick . . pouhont bursts out in the middle of the village , and agreeth much in vertue with that of savenier , excepting that it is somewhat more eccoprotick . they are both much coveted for their pleasing sharpness of taste . . geronster is distent from spaw near three miles , but is much less in esteem than others , because of its unpleasing nauseous sharp taste , causing a disturbance of the brain , stomach , bladder , and guts . . tonnelet retains some faculties like to the before mentioned , but much inferiour to them in strength . v. baths are hot wells : hence in latine they are called thermae ( hot ) scil●aquae , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hot . this island affords some inferiour to none : especially those in somersetshire , whose fame hath deserved the name of baths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the town , where they erupt out of the earth . they are . cross-bath , pouring out in a mild temperate heat . . hot bath , being about two hundred foot distant from the former , and differing from the other in intenseness of heat , whence also it derives its name . . kings bath , which is near to the cathedral , and is less hot than the hot bath , but hotter than the cross bath . their vertues are excellent in curing of most chronical diseases incident to the joynts and sinews ; as gouts , lamenesses , numnesses , palsies , hard nodes and cold tumours of the joynts , rickets in children , &c. they dry up the superfluous moisture in dropsies , expel gross humours by sweat , and by that means curing inve●erate headaches , aches of the limbs ; they procure womens courses , consume their whites , cure the green-sickness and many other diseases . vi. a river is a collection of waters descending from a fountain , and streaming through a tract of the earth towards the sea , whereof some are long , others short , broad or narrow , deep or shallow , swift or slow , straight or winding ; some ebbing and flowing , as the thames , elb , mase , seyne , &c. others for the most part following one course , &c. most of the river waters about the alpes , if usually drank of are apt to breed a great swelling in the throat , called by physitians bronchocele . vitruvius affirms the same of a river called silar , changing the roots , leaves , and boughs of the trees that grow on its banks side into stones . pliny adduces another of the same property , whereunto the river near laodicea , and those of the country of barcia in hungary may be adjoyned . about the borders of norway , near a castle called new castle , flowes a river , whose streams seem blackish , breeding also fish of the same colour . philostratus , in his book de vita apoll. recites a fountain , wherein if a forsworn person doth wash his hands or feet , he is soon infected with a shameful leprosie . diodorus the sicilian makes mention of another of the same nature . the water of the river of jordan doth still retain its great fame among the papists of working miracles : pilgrims do oft bring quantity of it along with them thence , obtesting that it is impossible it should fail curing dropsies , consumptions , malignant ulcers , kings evil , barrenness , in fine all diseases that surpass cure by art. it renders the face beautiful and nitourous , and for cuting spots and deforming rednesses of the face it is taken notice of by most women in spain , france , and italy . the east indians do adscribe the same vertues to the river ganges , which they do believe with such an assurance , that as soon as ever they fall dangerously sick , they cause themselves to be carried to the river side , where they sit under a hutt with their legs half way in the water so long untill they are either dead , or perfectly cured ; and if they die they leave in their last will that their cinders may be cast into the same river , for to be purified ( i suppose ) against their resurrection . the aegyptians used to take their prognostica ions of sundry important things from the river nilus , which if it failed overflowing their country , portended barrenness , and consequently famine , and oft times a pestilential disease , and sometime change of government . thus its inundation was deficient two years together before the death of antonius and cleopatra ; the same hapned also before the great famine and change of government under claudins . on the other side , if the said river happen to overflow beyond its usual limits , it proves likewise an occasion of barrenness , because the length of time , before the country can return to a just driness through the decrescence of the water , is protracted beyond the season of sowing . usually and naturally ( as i may so say ) the nile overflowes once a year , being forty daies in increasing , arriveth to its height ( which is unto cubits ) about the seventeenth day of june , and is forty daies more after that in decreasing . the countrey being much fatned by this inundation produces great abundance of pasture , corn , and other fruits . the increase , height , and decrease of the nile they know from the observation of a pit made out of one stone , whose water increases and decreases with the nile . this river doth also dispose women for conception , whence it is ordinary with them to multiply by twins , and three at one birth : moreover it is a very healthfull water preserving the body in a good disposition , and curing many diseases . notwithstanding the subtility of the water and heat of the climate , yet it never emits vapours , whence it is that there falls no rain in that country . the same is also attributed to the river boristhenes and the anouros in thessalia , viz. not to rick or to occasion the air to be nebulous . the river ganges is likewise apt sometimes to exceed its bounds , through which inundation the country is very much fertilized . the river arrius of florence , the danow , the eridanus or padus , the tiberis , and the athesis of verona , have oft caused a submersion of the neighbouring fields . viii . the chief straits * or narrownesses of the sea are , . the straits of gibraltar , where the sea floats through betwixt the two pillars of hercules , viz. the two promontories of calpe and abila , and divides spain from fez ; it is otherwise called the straits of caliz from the island caliz , near adjacent to it . it s breadth is about seven leagues . . the straits of anjan passing from the outermost western parts of america to the eastern coasts of tartary . it is very probable that some of the posterity of sem crossed these straits to inhabite the west-indies , where they are since multiplied into those several nations . . the straits of magallan , so called from him that first passed them ; but since they have found another way into the pacifick sea more commodious to sail through , called the straits of le maire . . the straits of davis towards greenland . . the straits of nassow or waigats near nova zembla . the mediterranean is pinched by these straits : . the sicili●n straits . . the tuscan straits between sardinia and corsica . . the calydonian straits . . the straits of euripus between achaia and euboea . . the straits of the hellespont . . the thracian straits . . the cimmerian or meotian straits . . the straits of cilicia or caramania between cilicia and cyprus . a gulph is an arm of the sea , or the sea broken into the earth in the form of an arm. the principal gulphs of the oriental ocean are : . the great gulph passing betwixt maugi and india extra gangem . . the gangetican gulph streaming between the golden chersonesus and india intra gangem . . the persian gulph . . the gulph of arabia , or the red or eruthrean sea deriving its name from the red sands over which it floats , or according to q. curtius from the king eristhra . . the gulph of canthus . . the gulph of barbary , or progloatis , or di melinde . the principal gulphs of the western ocean : . the sarmatian gulph . . the granduican gulph , or white sea. . the gulph of mexico . . the bay of biscay . the mediterranean sea is chiefly dispersed into these gulphs : . the gulph of france reaching marseilles . . the adriatick or venetian gulph . . the ionian gulph floating towards epirus and macedonia . . the corinthian gulph , alias the crisean or alcionian sea. . the gulph of naples . . the pamphilian or issican gulph . . the thermacian or thessalonian gulph . . the argolick gulph . . the black gulph . chap. vii . of the circulation of the ocean . . that the disburdening of the eastern rivers into the ocean is not the cause of its circulation ; neither are the sun or moon the principal causes of this motion . . the periodical course of the ocean . the causes of the high and low waters of the ocean . . how it is possible that the ocean should move so swiftly as in hours and somewhat more to flow about the terrestrial globe . . a further explanation of the causes of the intumescence and detumescence of the ocean . the causes of the anticipation of the floud of the ocean . . that the suns intense heat in the torrid zone is a potent adjuvant cause of the oceans circulation , and likewise the minima's descending from the moon and the polar regions . i. having in one of the chapt. of the precedent book posed a demonstrative and evident ground of the universal course of the great ocean , and the straitness of that chapt. not permitting the finishing of the fabrick intended by us upon it : therefore this present plain shall serve for to compleat the delineation thereof , but encountring with some rocky stones thereon , it is requisite they should be rowled aside , before the said atlantick waves may procure a necessary assent of the true cause of their dayly circular floating . the conceit of some philosophers hath induced them to state the copious irreption of many large and deep rivers into the eoan sea for the principal cause of its circulation , the which tumefying its body do thereby press it westward . this solution seems void of all reason , the evacuation of the presupposed rivers having no proportion to the replenishing of so extended a body as the ocean , scarce of a lake or an inland sea , as we have observed of the lake haneygaban , and the euxian sea. besides many great rivers disburdening themselves into the occiduan sea might upon the same ground return the course of the ocean eastward . but imagine it was so , why should not the said tumefaction rather incline the sea westward , than further eastward ? others rejecting the former opinion have in their fansie groven the ground , whereon the sea beats , deeper and deeper towards the west , and so the ground being situated higher in the east , shelving down gradually to the west , the sea doth through its natural gravity rowl it self to the deeper & lower plane ; but then the eastern waters being arrived to the west , how shall they return to the east again for to continue the said motion ? wherefore this opinion may take its place among the castles in the air . shall we then ascribe the cause of this motion to the rarefaction of the sea through the beams of the sun , which as it is successively rarefied doth swell and press its preceding parts forward ? as touching the moon she cannot come into consideration here , as being rather noted for condensation than rarefaction . first , i deny that the sun doth any whit rarifie the eastern ocean ; because according to their tenent the rarefaction of the sea happens through the commotion of the subsidencies and terrestrial exhalations contained within the bowels of the sea and scattered through its substance , whereby it becomes tumefied , which i grant in case the sun casts its beams obliquely into the depth of the ocean ; but i prove the contrary , supposing the sun doth cast its beams directly into the eastern waters . in aegypt it seldom rains , because the sun casting its beams directly into the waters doth through the same degree of heat , through which it might raise vapours , dissolve them again , likewise in the east ocean the sun subtilizing the waters doth doubtless through its heat commove exhalations and subsidencies , but the waters being through the same heat attenuated are rendred uncapable of sustaining those terrestrial bodies , wherefore they sinking deeper to the ground rather cause a detumescence of the sea . i have alwaies observed that waters swell more through the cold than heat , and that inundations happen for the most part after a frost ; besides it is obvious that rivers are much tumefied when they are frozen , and that by reason of the foresaid tumefaction inundations happen more frequently in the winter than at any other time of the year . des-cartes imagineth the compression of the moon ( together with the earths motion about her own axis ) to be the cause of the waters circular motion , pressing it from east to west , and the variation of this pressure to depend upon the various removal of the moon from the center of the earth effecting the anticipation and various celerity of the waters motion : so that where the earth is obverted to the face of the moon there the waters must be at their lowest , being pressed towards the next quarter of the surface , where they are at their highest , whence they are carried about through the earths proper motion , &c. . i deny his supposition of the earths motion , as being fabulous , which we have confuted elsewhere . he might as well assert , that there be as many neptunes under water moving it circularly , as aristotle stated intelligencies to drive the heavens , for even this he might excuse by saying it was but an assumption to prove a phaenomenon of the water . . what needs he to affirm a tumour of the water ? for since he assumes the earth to move circularly , we cannot but grant that the water must also move with it as constituting one globe together . . why doth he in vain reassume in the sect. that out-worn doctr. of aristotle touching the moons driving of the water , which argues him to be very unconstant with himself ? . his stating the air to be so complicable and soft a body renders it very unfit for compressing and driving so vast and weighty a body as the ocean . . can any one rationally or probably conceive , that the sun , much less the moon , being so remore , and whose forcible effects are so little felt by sublunary bodies , should be capable of driving so deep , so large , and so heavy a body as the ocean , which is as powerful to resist through its extream gravity , as all the celestial bodies are potent to move through their extream lightness ? what , because the ocean and the moon move one way , therefore the one must either follow or move the other ? what , can a passion so durable and constant , and so equal depend upon a violent cause ? since then such phansies are ridiculous , and not to be proposed by any philosopher , let us now proceed in the unfolding of so difficult and admirable a matter as the course of the ocean , which we have formerly demonstrated to flow about the earth once in hours and somewhat more . ii. moreover , besides this single motion making a sharper inspection into the drift of the ocean , it will appear to us to absolve a compounded periodical course in a perfixt time , namely , in daies , which space may be called a marinal or nautical month . the meaning hereof is , imagining a part of the ocean to flow circularly from a certain point , or more plainly , a bowle to rowl circularly under water over the bottom of the sea along with the course of the ocean , from any noted point , that the same part of the ocean or bowl shall in the space of natural daies * arrive to the same point , and exactly at the same time begin its next periodical course thence , when it departed from that term the month before . nevertheless the ocean doth not omit its single course in fluctuating about the earth in somewhat more than twelve hours , but then it doth not dayly arrive to the supposed point of a compounded periodical course at the same minute , when the latter ( viz. the compounded ) begins its progress . expresly , the great ocean through its diurnal course flows the length of degrees about from east to west , performing also the same circuit through its nocturnal course : that is , every twelve aequinoctial hours it absolves degrees of the terrestrial aequator : wherefore for to flow degrees it requires / ● minutes of an hour above the foresaid twelve hours : that is , the ocean flows about the terrestrial aequator in twelve hours , and / ● minutes , absolving every hour degrees . * how this swiftness is possible to the ocean we shall make further declaration of it anon . besides a single diurnal , and a periodical compounded monthly motion , another must also be added , which i call an augmentative motion , through which the ocean doth gradually accrease every high water to some certain cubits ; of which more fully hereafter . since that time is nothing but a measure of motion , and that one time is made known to us by another , it is thence occasioned that we come to know the time of the ocean by comparing it with the time of the moon and of the sun , as being general marks whereby to calculate the seasons of the ocean . this premised it states a ground & reason of the measure of this great sea , viz. that it is usually high water in the ocean under the aequinoctial and ecliptick , as also upon the shores of the same at six in the morning and evening , when the moon is in opposition to , or conjunction with the sun , and at the same hours about the moons quarters the waters there are at their lowest . on the other side , it is as common among mariners to measure the motion of the sun and moon by the tides or motions of the seas , they being exquisitely skill'd in discerning the hour of the day and night , or the season of the several aspects of the moon by the said tides ; wherefore it may be thought as equal a consequence that the moon in her motion depends upon the course of the ocean as pressing the air through her tumefaction , which again doth impel the moon forward , as that the moon should tumefie the air , and thereby impel the waters forward : but i pass by this as ridiculous . although the ocean keeps so constant and exact a rule and measure in its course , as likewise the sun and moon , yet we must not therefore conceive the one to depend upon the other , because two great marks of their time ( that is one of either , viz. the greatest height of waters and the greatest aspect of the moon ) are concurring in one day , that rather happening , because the ocean began its course at that instant , when the moon after her creation being placed in opposition to the sun began hers . but possibly you will propose this instance to evince that the highest water doth depend upon the greatest compression of the moon , because when she is at her full , she may cause some compression and commotion of air and water , she then being in her greatest strength , and situated in perigaeo of her eccentrical aspect , and therefore nearest to the water , and so may add somewhat to the enhightning of its stream . i answer , that it is a mistake to apprehend the moon to be nearest at the full , most astronomers asserting her rather to be remotest then , and to be nearest when she is in her quarters : ergo according to that rule the highest waters should happen at the moons quarters , and the lowest at the full of the moon : or otherwise , how can the moon further the said motion , when she is upon the extremity of her decrease , her rayes drowned by those of the sun , and she in apogaeo deferentis ? certainly , none can be so obtuse as to maintain her in that capacity to have a power of compressing the air , when she being most remote the air doth most enjoy its freedom ; yet nevertheless some are so obstinate to assert , that the greatest altitude of the sea because it hapneth then , doth likewise depend upon the compression of the moon . what is more constant , certain , periodical , and equal than the course of the sea ? whereas the moon is vulgarly maintained to be subjected to anomalies ; then in this part of the heavens , then in another ; now in apogaeo , perigaeo , concentrical , excentrical , then swift , slow , &c. if so , then a constant and equal effect cannot consecute the efficience of an unequal cause . iii. against our discourse touching the diurnal course of the ocean might be objected , that it seems very improbable , that the sea should move so swift , as in a little more than hours to overflow the whole terrestrial globe ; whereas a ship through the advantage of her sails and a prosperous wind and weather , being supposed to out-run the tide , can scarce accomplish that course in a twelvemonth . hereunto i reply , that the water takes the beginning of her motion from underneath ; for as i have formerly proved , that the formal cause of the waters perennal motion is her gravity , which bearing down upon the earth for to gaine the center , is resisted by her , and nevertheless continuing in its motion is necessarily shoven there * to the side ; and so the same hapning to the succeeding parts are all impelled through a natural principle of gravity sidewards , like unto an arrow being shot against a stone wall , and there resisted , is shoven down the side . vvhence it is apparent , that the waters take beginning of their motion underneath not far from the ground , where being pressed by the great weight of many hundred fathoms of water lying upon them , must needs cause a very swift course of waters removing underneath and withdrawing from that of the surface , which is prevented of a swift motion , because it sinks down to that place whence the subjected parts do withdraw themselves ; which gives us a reason , why the superficial parts of the sea do not flow by many degrees so swift as the subjected ones . nevertheless some small motion is visible upon the surface , which may accelerate or retardate the course of a ship , but not comparable to the waters in the deep . this instance will further certifie you touching the truth of the matter before said ; a flat-bottomed kettel filled up with water , having a hole at the bottom near to the side of the said kettel doth emit the water underneath spouting out with a very great swiftness through the hole , whereas the water upon the surface moveth but very slowly towards the side near the hole , because the water moving so swiftly underneath doth cause that atop to sink upon it which prevents its swift motion towards the side , and that which causeth the water underneath to spout so violently out of the hole is the weight of the water atop pressing violently and forcibly downwards . this occasions me to call to memory that apposite phrase of the dutch sea-men , who instead of saying the water ebbs , say het water sackt , that is , the water sinks , as if they would signifie the water to move from underneath . the ocean then originally and primarily moving from underneath in a very swift current , as the forementioned instance may easily confirm to us , hath not that extent to overrun there , which we might conceive it would have atop , but is above the half shortened in its periphery through its depth , and consequently through the deep excavation or extenuation of the earth : wherefore observe , . that the ocean underneath doth well absolve so many degrees as we have writ down before , but then they are much abbreviated and lessened in comparison to those degrees , whereby the superficial circumference of the water is measured . . i say , that the ocean absolves the foresaid course of in equal hours only in its lower parts ; but as touching its superficial ones it is certain they are slow , absolving the same compass in no shorter time than six months , which may be named a marinal year . this slow progress is evidenced to us by the slow drift of a piece of wood floating in the ocean . . although the superficial parts of the ocean do not slow with so rapid a course , yet it hinders not , but that they may tumefie as they do throughout their whole circuit about the earth in the space of hours . . since it must necessarily follow , that where the water tumefieth in one place , it must sink in another , therefore the water tumefying once every hours in the east houres long , ( in which space it arriveth to its height ) it must sink as much in the vvest , because that moisture , which causeth the intumescence in the east , doth slow underneath from the vvest . by the same rule the eastern ocean must also sink hours in every for to cause a tumefaction in the vvest : vvhence it is , that every hours we perceive a change of the tide in the ocean . . vve are not to perswade our selves , that the eastern floud is occasioned by water returning from the vvest , and the western floud through the refluxe of the same water from the east , because the ocean doth continually pass from east to west by way of the south , not returning the same way through the south from west to east , as appeareth by the quick voyages of those , who setting sail with a good wind and weather from spain towards the west-indies do usually make land in three or four weeks , whereas returning from thence can scarce recover spain , although having the wind very favourable , in less than three or four months . likewise a voyage from moabar in the indies to madagascar , otherwise called st. laurences island , may be accomplisht in daies , but from madagascar to moabar scarce in less time ( although with a very prosperous wind ) than three months : in the same manner one may much sooner make a voyage from this island to spaine , lying hence more eastward , than from spain back again hither , or in sailing from alicant ( a city of spaine , situated upon the mediterranean coast ) towards palestina , they usually make less speed than in returning . all which are undoubted marks of the perennal course of the ocean from east to west . vvherefore philosophers have been misled in imposing the names of fluxus and refluxus upon the course of the ocean as if returning the same way it went. i have taken notice , that as the dutch used a fit word for to denote the ebb , so the french have imposed another no less elegant upon the floud , viz. la montè de la marè , or the rising of the sea , exactly squaring with our foregoing discourse : thus when it is floud they usually say , lamarè il monte , that is , the sea rises . the latinists call it aestus maris , or heat of the sea , because when the sea begins to be filled with hot exhalations , it is wonted to be hot , through which it swelleth , ( like hot bloud flushing into our faces and glowing causeth a puffing up and a rising ) whence it is impelled to flow some part of it one way , and another another way , which caused the floud , observed through the rising of the waters upon the shores : these exhalations being dissipated , the sea beginning to cool withdraws it self again into its former compass , and leaving the shores puts them in mind of the ebb. but this dictate being proved to be absurd doth justly advise us to reject the forementioned name . . vve need not to doubt being fully informed of this doctrine , but that every floud brings in new water , that of the last ebb flowing forwards with the course of the sea towards the accomplishment of its annual period . . let none be offended at us for granting an internall cause of the seas motion against scalig. exer. . asserting the sea to be an animal in case it should be moved from an internal cause ; were this a paradox , we must then believe that the air , fire , heavens , and stars are animals , they all moving through an intrinsick principle . iv. my method doth now lead me to demonstrate the several phoenomena's of the ocean by their proper causes . . the ocean flowing from east to west cannot be thought to be the sole cause of the diurnal intumescence and detumescence of the sea , since it may be supposed to slow equally over an equal ground : wherefore a second cause must concur , to wit , an unequal ground , or an unequal grove , through which it passeth . the waters being through the second division of the creation separated from the earth , which then lay in an equal round figure under the waters , these consequently equally covering it in the same figure , were afterwards through the third division collected into one place , where they must have pressed their great weighty body into two great universal groves * , whereupon the earth must necessarily be pressed up into two great universal eminences , which are divided from one another through the said waters , and consequently constitute two great islands , viz. of the new world or america , and the old world , or asia , africa , and europa . the sea after this working through its great weight deeper and deeper into the earth must necessarily thereby have formed many other deep and great cavities within the sald universal groves . the earth , through whose recess or giving way , the said other cavities were impressed must needs have been compressed to some other part : not towards the center , because the earth was so very densely beset there , that it was impossible it should give way : ergo towards the surface , where it was moulded and compressed up into all those great mountains , which we see every where about the sea-shores , and into all those great banks and rocks which sea-men do meet withall every where ; yea , some being stuffed up a great way from the shore , as witness many ships that have run aground in the atlantick ocean above , , or leagues from the shore ; likewise a great banke lying off the cape of st. austin , and extended near leagues long . lastly , a great part of the receding earth was cast up into great and small islands , especially those numerous ones in the east and west indies . let us then suppose those said small isles , together with the great ones of the east indies to be accompanied with great and large banks or shelves , whereof some are visible , others not ; this supposition must needs force another from us , viz. that the waters passing from west , by the north to the east , are retarded and partly stopt by the said isles , shelves or banks : in the mean time during this retardation and partial stoppage , the waters flowing from east by the south to west do decurre , decrease , and evacuate themselves unto the west grove , untill such a degree , that they are run off as low as possible , at which time the other * is at its highest , and then they overflow the borders of the eastern shelves , and free themselves from the retention of the isles , by which means the eastern grove begins to fill and encrease , whose swift decurrence of waters being stopt and retarded by the western borders and banks fils up until high water . this discourse may seem strange to you since the waters are never visibly stopt by any shelves or banks , these alwaies lying covered ; but were it so that they proved a stoppage , it must be imagined they should lye dry . hereunto i answer . that supposing the waters to move from underneath , they arriving at a deep grove must needs be retarded through its shelving sides , as being against their natural inclination to move upwards . this retardation of the water on the bottom of the grove must necessarily cause the waters atop to swell and become turgid or tumide , ever framing a round figure atop , which is a certain sign denoting the grove to be of a parabolical figure . this tumefaction the ancients did abusively term an exestuation , as if proceeding from a fermentation within the water . the water underneath being depressed on the bottom of the grove according to its greatest capacity , and having withall elevated the waters atop to their greatest height , doth now begin to strive to clime up the shelves of the grove , being thereunto moved through its own force continuated against the earth , but reflected by the same upwards , and propelled by the succeding parts of the water , as also compressed and squeezed by the greatest weight of the waters atop lying upon them , which compressing is much augmented by the great force of the air and fire bearing against the water and earth for to gain the center : whence the waters do now begin to flow over the banks of the said shelves , making a tumefaction and gradually a high water wherever it comes , and so evacuating it self out of one great grove into another happens to cause a low and high water in the ocean . hence now you may easily collect the reasons and causes of these several properties befalling the ocean in its diurnal course . . every twelve hours there appears a rising of water in either of the universal groves * , viz. south and north grove continuating the space of hours , because the bottom of either grove is hours in filling out of the one into the other . likewise every hours the ocean falls for hours , because its water beneath is so long in evacuating it self . . the beginning of the swelling of the ocean is ever slow for two hours ; much quicker the next two ; for one hour before the last is quickest of all : and the last moves in an equal velocity with the latter of the two first ; it is at its slowest a little before the pinch of high water & at dead low water . the beginning is slow , because that part , which causeth the beginning of the tumefaction of the water , is weakest as being most remote from the central parts , and employing its greatest force in making way and mounting over the shelves loseth its strength , which it recovers when it is backt by the body or central parts of the water following it , and so promoting its course with a greater swiftness : and being with its whole body arrived to the bottom of the grove it doth as it were rest there for to recover its strength , which doth occasion its greatest slowness , the same consequently causing the greatest diminution of motion at low water in the other grove . . high and low water of the ocean is retarded every natural day near three quarters of an hour , that is ● / ● minutes of an hour in every single period or hours , because it accomplisheth but degrees of the terrestrial aequator in every hours , which doth want degrees of its compleat circuit , and before it can absolve those degrees through the beginning of a new period , there passeth / minutes of an hour , which gives us the true reason of the oceans retardation every day near three quarters of an hour . this course lingring every natural day so many minutes , doth in periods or daies stay back full degrees , being the total circumference of its circuit , and so , as it were , absolves a compounded period through its retardation in daies , which space agreeing with the time of the moons middle motion between her conjunction and opposition , no wonder , if the ocean also agrees to be at its height at a prefixt and constant time , alwaies being one and the same , when the moon her aspect is new or full. . the ocean happens to be augmented or elevated higher than ordinary every full or new moon , because every thirtieth or middle period , ( which ever falls accidentally , but not as if only depending upon the moon , as upon her new or full aspect ) it hath acquired its greatest force of flowing , whereby it drives before it and carrieth along with it a greater confluence of water than at any other season . this intension of course it procures gradually more and more every period , untill at last it comes to its highest , after which in like manner it decreases again , untill it is descended to its least remission , which is upon every thirtieth circuit coincident for the most part with the moons quarters ; that is , the ocean at its high water is in comparison to the high waters of the other precedent or following courses at the lowest , when the moon appears in her quarters , because the force of the oceans course is then most remitted . here we may observe the beginning of this intending or periodical compounded course to be , when the ocean moves with the least force , causing the lowest high water , and the highest low water , which frequently happens near to the moons quarters , whose middle is marked by the moons full and new aspect , being when it flows with the greatest force causing the highest high waters , and the lowest low waters , and tends towards its ending , when it remits from its height and intends in lowness . this augmentation and diminution may be resembled to the fermentation of wine or beer , swelling gradually untill its height , and thence decreasing again . touching the beginning and ending of the seas single diurnal circuit , if we consider it simpliciter , it hath none , because it is ever in motion , as never being eased by a total rest ; but if agreeing to state the beginning , where the ocean is slowest in its course , and thence tending to a swifter motion , then the proposition is resolveable : and according to this supposition , the beginning and ending must be moveable , differing every single course near degrees ; this by the way : returning to explain the cause of the gradual augmentation of water , and intention of force , i am to remember you of the great proportion of the oceans peregrin elements consisting of most earth , then air , and lastly fire , of whose close coherence with the waters , their saltness is an undoubted argument : these salin particles violently detaining the waters from recovering the center , must necessarily add force to the gravity of the waters , and consequently in intending their force they must also augment them in quantity , because the more force the waters use , the more in quantity they bear along with them . the detention of the said salin particles being at their beginning of no great strength , or in no great quantity , do therefore cause no great intention of the oceans force , but every single period piercing gradually by rarefaction upon the waters , must necessarily also augment their tumefaction gradually higher and higher every day , untill at last being arrived to their height of penetration , which ordinarily happens in circuits , the ocean is likewise elevated unto its height . some of these salin particles , being penetrated through the body of the waters , are gradually depressed to the ground through their own disposition , and the weight of the ocean , others being attrited and confused through their passive motion against the water , and the decess of their heaviest particles do more and more gradually desist from their violent detention , every circuit , returning to the bottom , and so the ocean doth also gradually every day incline nearer and nearer to its natural force and detumescence of its water , untill it is returned to its own proper course , at which season its force and intumescence are equally at their lowest . during this space those subsiding particles begin again to be expanded , rarefied and attenuated , because of the grinding of the water against them , and through the expansion of the aerial and igneous parts adunited to them do bear up again : the others elevated atop beginning to concentrate through the conquiescence of the sea , are ready to be compressed downwards both which gradually striving a reciprocal meeting do in the foregoing manner gradually reunite the force and augmentation of the water . v. here we cannot but admit the suns intense hear , every day beating down the torrid zone , to be a great instrumental and adjuvant cause to the stirring of the aforesaid salin particles : but this continuing in one measure , equality , and station in respect to the torrid zone all the year long cannot in any wise be thought the principal cause of a motion varying twice every day . likewise the moon being beset with a great quantity of dampish and heavy particles , doth every day spread down some of those particles , whereby the ocean is also gradually filled more & more every day : and like as these said particles are most apt to rain down , the nearer the moon doth appropinquate to the ecliptick , because the air enjoyeth a greater subtility there from the rarefaction of the sun ; hence it is , that the moon frees her self most of these heavy concomitants near her conjunction and at her apposition : so they are most apt to ascend the further the moon is declined from the ecliptick , as happens in her quarters , when for that reason the waters are also at their lowest . that these two lights are accidental causes of the intention of the oceans force and daily augmentation of its waters is plain enough , and their mutual concurrence to the effecting of the same effect we have confirmed beyond all doubting , whereby the absurdity of the moons compression proposed by des-cartes , and so disagreeing with his own position of the nature of the air , is likewise set before you . the moon near her conjunction makes very high waters , because conversing with the hot rayes of the sun sends down a great number of the foresaid bodies , and not because she is impregnated with the light of the sun , whereby she should be grown more potent to excite vapours and exhalations : this is ridiculous , for we find other bodies to be swelled near that time not only through exhalations raised out of themselves , but particularly through particles demitted by the conveyance of the air into their pores . the like happens , although in a weaker manner , when the moon is in her full aspect , because of her nearer approximation to the ecliptick : but much more in a lunar eclipse , because she is then found directly in the ecliptick . and most of all , yea twice higher than ordinary at the full moon of march and september , because the sun being then in the aequinoxial , and most directly over the torrid zone , under which the greatest body of the ocean floats , and the moon in the same way near the ecliptick , must needs joyntly cause a vast decidence of the forenamed bodies intending and augmenting the waters . or to declare the matter plainer to you : the continuation of the seas motion forward is not only depending upon the pulsion of succeeding parts bending by refraction naturally forward , but also by a kind of attraction or suction of preceding parts , thus : suppose the earth to be excavated into certain great cavities , like to great pipes , whereof of those that are formed from the east towards the west by the south the furthermost are alwaies deeper and longer than those , which are nearest to the east ; likewise conceive such cavities framed in the same proportion to one another from west back again to the east by the north ; now i say , that the deepest and furthermost cavity must alwaies attract the water out of the shallower and lesser , in the same manner , as the longer pipe of a sucker ( a siphon as some do call it ) must attract all the moisture of the shorter , because the parts of water being continuous , and consequently cleaving to one another , the lesser part must follow and yield to the greater , the which through its crastitude being pressed forwards must also draw the lesser part after : since then the water is no sooner arrived into one cavity but is thence drawn into another , hence it is that this tumefaction of waters is not sensible to us in the ocean . the number of these cavities we must suppose to be fifteen on each half of the terrestrial globe ; because the sea doth in every periodical compounded course make thirty stations , or so many tumefactions , by which it must needs work it self into so many cavities . this supposed , it doth infer another assumption , viz. that since the ocean moves over so many borders or shelves of cavities , it must necessarily move in bores : a bore ( or more properly a bare ) is a tumefaction of water underneath moving very swift , and elevating the waters atop into a tumefaction proportionable to it underneath : an example of bores you have in the river of seyne , and many other rivers , where great shallows obstruct the floud of the waters underneath : but of this more hereafter . the ocean then moving in a great bore must raise a tumefaction , wherever it passeth : this tumefaction being originally in the middle parts causes the floud by sending a proportion of waters ( falling through their gravity from the top to the sides as being lower situated ) to the coasts on both sides which it passeth . hence we may collect that where ever the borders of the foresaid cavities do respect the coasts , there the inhabitants must have a swise appulse of the floud . the ebbe is nothing else but the waters returning from the sides to the middle parts , being left lower through the recess of the oceans bore or tumefaction : but this by the way . it is most certain , that the western ocean directs its waves towards the east ; but whence this continual course of water is supplied may justly be doubted , and although the eastern ocean doth constantly flow towards the west , yet how and where mar del nort meets with mar del zur remains to be made to appear . their visible communication through the straits of magallan , or of le maire , or the straites of martin forbisher , and of anjan , cannot be imagined to conduce any thing considerable towards the presupposed evacuation ; that of magallan little exceeding a league in breadth , or above or fathom in depth , besides the many turnings and windings and length of near or leagues hindering any considerable course of water : the others not much surpassing these either in breadth or depth seem to conduce as little . but to make the course clear beyond all dispute the west-indian earth is boared through deep underneath by the former compression of the ocean , through which immense perforation the great bore of the sea enjoys a free passage , and rowles along under the peruvian ocean . by means of this vast perforation the indian earth is much elevated , and in most places hath acquired the full height , which it obtaineth being clome up atop the sea by many leagues , whence it is that the land by far overlooking the ocean doth appear to mariners three or fourscore leagues off at sea. chap. viii . of the course of the sea towards the polar coasts . . what the libration of the ocean is . that the tides are not occasioned by libration . the navil of the world. whence the seas move towards the north polar . why the ebb is stronger in the narrow seas than the floud ; and why the floud is stronger than the ebb in the ocean . why the irish seas are sorough . . why the baltick sea is not subjected to tides . the rice of the east sea or sinus codanus . . the cause of the bore in the river of seyne . . the causes of the courses of the mediterranean . the rice of this sea. i. hitherto we have followed the main course of the ocean westward : in the next place let us cast an eye towards the northern coasts , where we shall meet the sea rowling contrarily , now from the south to the north , then from the north back again towards the south . this contrariety must not perswade us , although authorized with scaligers subtility , that the sea is an animal , neither need we to lay hold upon that notion of the libration of the universal waters for to salve this doubt : however i will not think it much to tell you the meaning of it . the libration of the ocean is the projection of its parts from the center to the circumference through a diurnal fermentation raised by the torrid rayes of the sun , or according to libavius his droling , through a diurnal-egurgitation of water out of a bottomless pit of the ocean ( called its navil ) and projected toward its extream parts . as this kind of spouting should be the cause of the floud , so its returning back into the earths tun belly , or the cessation of the foresaid fermentation should be the cause of the oceans reflux from the said parts , be they northern or southern , &c. the exposition it self of this subject will evert its supposed reality , for if such a fermentation were granted , the ocean must at one and the same time move to all the points of the compass , and at the same time return from the same points to the center ; but what expert mariner is there that will not testifie otherwise ? and where is this center ? possibly in the torrid zone between madagascar and los romeros , where a very strong tide is generally observed , but not moving eastward and westward at one time ; if so no ship could pass without yielding her self to the bottom . neither can libavius his fansie be admitted , because such a gurges spouting out would cast ships from it at one time into all parts with an unimaginable force , and likewise would attract ships from those parts back again with no less force and swallow them down into her belly . that these properties would necessarily accompany such a vast whirl-pool is proved by that dangerous whirl-pool in the north sea near the coasts of norway , by mariners called the navil of the world , through its egurgitation casting ships to a great distance from it , and through its ingurgitation drawing them from the same distance into her throat . these hypotheses insisting upon no sparke of appearance , we are forced to make choice of our precedent one , whereby to demonstrate the different flowing and ebbing of these narrow seas towards and from the septentrional polar . there be few but knows , that the narrow seas undergo a gradual tumefaction & a rowling up of their waters , being withal very swift , and arriving successively from one coast to another ; as also a successive detumescence and decurrence of the said waters . now the reason why these waters do not accompany the ocean from the east towards the west , is their shallowness and inclosure between narrow borders : for the bore of the ocean coming rowling down the aethiopian ocean towards mar del nort is discontinued ( as it were ) in its depth through the shallow bottom of the polar seas , and therefore doth only give them a cast or throw in passing : for the bore arriving and swelling gradually doth through that gradual swelling squeeze the shallow polar seas towards the poles in passing by notwithstanding continuing its course westward : the bore being passed the ocean beginneth to wax detumescent , whereby the shallow waters being deserted of the squeezing ocean do return into the ocean . the universal intumescence passing twice every naturall day doth cause a double change of the polar tides in the same time . that swiftness , which befalls our tides in these parts , is likewise caused through the shallowness of waters , which are necessarily impelled swifter forward , than if they being imagined to be deep , where consequently waters being in a great confluence more weighty must move slower . hence we may learn the reason , why the tide in some places doth move swifter than in others , namely , because the sea is more shallow there , and therefore ships arriving near the shore make a greater benefit of the tide , than far from it . the floud is commonly weaker and slower , near the shores , and within the compass of these narrow seas ; but the ebb is stronger and swifter , because the waters do clime upwards being forced against their natural impulse , and therefore resist more potently , but returning do descend fortified with their own natural inclination into places detumefied , and therefore meeting with no resistence . on the contrary , in the middle of the ocean the floud or rather intumescence is stronger and swifter than the ebb or detumescence , because the universal bore , which is the cause of the floud or intumescence of the water doth cause a greater impulse of the water atop through her presence than when she is quite passed ; hence it is that ships sailing from east-india westward do over run a larger tract in one six houres of the intumescence , than the other six of detumescence . those seas , which are derived directly northerly from the ocean do suffer a greater commotion of tides than others , than are indirectly thence descending . hence it is , that the irish seas being directly opposite from the north to the ocean do undergo more violent tides than others , because they receive the squeezing or impulse of the ocean directly upon them , whereas in the channel , north sea , and the bay of biscay , the waters do perform their tides more moderately , because they floating under the north , the oceans universal impulse is much mitigated by the defence of the promontories of france , england , and spain . that , which doth further augment the violence of tides in the irish seas is the shallowness of the water , and the meeting of tides , viz. first they receive the impulse of the ocean directly from the southwest , passing between the west of england and the east of ireland towards the north ; then the same ocean continuing its impulse against the west coasts of ireland , the sea sets about the northwest cape of ireland , towards the vvest of scotland , and the stronger , because it is refracted , and , as it were , somewhat pinched by the shallowness of the hebrides and other islands ; through this thwart setting off of the tide it meets with the tide passing through between england and ireland , which it beats back , and that more forcibly towards the latter end of the floud . the tides then meeting here and reflecting must necessarily cause very rough seas ; besides this , the german seas seem to set off somewhat towards the northwest of scotland , where meeting with the irish sea do much intend the aforesaid roughness . this also causes the duplication of tides in several parts of the irish seas . it will not be unprofitable to observe the streams of the tides , where sea-men do state a general rule , viz. that the tide sets off athwart , wherever it beats against a great promontory : hence it is , that throughout the channel the tide sets off athwart in many places from the french coast towards the english , where the land sticks out in great nooks : as from the great promontory of france in the mouth of the channel , and from that which is opposite to the isle of wight , and from before calis , &c. ii. the promontories do very much weaken the tides , and clip them off from waters streaming in the no theast ; whence it is , that there is no tide in the east or baltick seas ; besides : . because the tide of the german sea is clipt off by the peninsule of denmark or jutland and the narrowness of the sound . . the course of the german sea is the easier kept off , because it floats to the northward , whereas the baltick sea opens into it from the east . hence it is also , that a great part of these seas consists of fresh waters , because the north sea is not disburdened into it . touching the first production of this sea , ( to wit the east sea ) it is very probable that it derived its rice from a great lake , risen in the deepest and broadest place of the said sea , which by continuance of pressure hath bored through that large tract vvhich novv is : that this is so i prove . . had the german ocean b●red this cavern , then a greater part of it vvould have been salt , and heavy like unto the same . . it would then have been more deep than it is , and have had a greater opening ; vvherefore it must needs have had its beginning from a lake , and for that reason is very improperly called a sea , more justly deserving the name of a sinus or gulph . iii. in many places the sea is taken notice to rise to the height of a pike , as before the river of seyne , vvhose rising they vulgarly call the bare , or bore , taking its beginning vvith the advent of the floud , and aftervvards overflovving a great length of that river as far as roan in a great height , but gradually diminishing . the cause of this is to be attributed to the depth of a cavern encompassed by shelves and banks , wherein the sea is collected and stayed until such time that it doth gather it self into a bare , whereby it lifteth it self up and climbs up the banks , and being attended with the same force , whereby it did elevate it self , is protracted as far as roan . here again we have an evident testimony of the seas moving underneath , confirming what i have proposed touching the universal bore . if the waters here took their beginning of motion from their superficial parts , then a bare were impossible to arise here , because the waters are free and in no wise stopt in their motion atop ; ergo being stopt underneath it is undoubted , that the waters take their beginning of motion thence . the same bares you have here and there in the seas , which occasion the oversetting of many a ship , or the casting of them upon rocks and shelves , which they could not escape , because of the violence of the same bores . this bare is seldom visibly perceived in the seas , because it seems to be drowned by the waves , nevertheless in many places it is . the cause of the breaking of the sea upon banks you may easily know out of the precedents . iv. the mediterranean sea undergoeth an intumescence and detumescence , although not very strong or swift ; the reason of the latter is , because it being situated easterly escapes the strength of the course of the ocean flowing westwards : only , the ocean through its continual passing by doth continually impell the waters of the straits of gibraltar or the pillars of hercules inwards . this impulse of the waters inwards is much stronger at the intumescence of the ocean , but weak at the detumescence , nevertheless the current of the sea runs constantly inwards , because of the constant diurnal course of the ocean from east to vvest ; so that this constant current into the pillars of hercules is an herculean argument , confirming the constant diurnal motion of the ocean . that , which causeth the floud or intumescence here , is the ocean impelling the sea strongly underneath at its intumescence : the cause of the detumescence is the water falling from underneath the mediterranean into the universal cavern , because of the detumescence of the ocean . moreover , observe the property of the ebbing and flowing of this sea : through the intumescence the water is impelled eastward , as well near the shores as in the middle : through the detumescence or waters falling from underneath the waters of the shores do fall towards the central or middle parts of that sea , yet somewhat westward , because the sea doth fall from underneath westward ; and notwithstanding the detumescence doth the middle of the mediterranean float constantly inwards , although but weakly , because of the aforesaid impulse . hence it appears that the mediterranean is an exact emblem of all the motions befalling the ocean . touching its original it is certain , that the ocean did not form its cavern through its constant motion ; because were it so , that sea would be largest at its mouth , as having withstood the first violence of the ocean . . because it is situated out of the reach of the course of the ocean floating alwaies westward . . vvhere this sea communicates with the ocean , it seems rather to be its ending than the mouth of its narrowness , and it is very probable that near the creation the extremity of spain and the kingdom of fez joyned in an istmus , which since through violence of the ocean and the pressure of the mediterranean is bored through . the rice then of this sea must be adscribed to the peregrin element of water breaking out of the earth through the concussion of the third division , which afterwards was contained within a great rent or sinus of the earth : neither did the euxian sea derive its original from the mediterranean , because of the narrowness of the channel , through which they have access to each other : but this with most great lakes of the world , as the maotis , haneygaban , &c. were formed through accidental protrusions of the peregrin element of water , as you shall read in the next chapter . among the various courses of the sea we must not forget the inserting the causes of currents , whose waters although communicating with the ocean , do notwithstanding make choice of a distinct motion , varying withall at certain seasons : thus mariners observe a strong current from cabo delgado towards the cape of good hope streaming southwest : and another floating westward from cabo das correntes to the river aguada of boapaz . near aguada de san bras the current runs towards the land. the cause is the different position and degree of depth of their cavity , which varying from that of the ocean do suffer their waters to be squeezed to a different course : neither must any imagine that the wind is the principal cause of these currents , and much less of the universal tides of the ocean , because the stronger the wind blowes against them , the stronger they float against the wind . chap. ix . of inundations . . of the rice of the great gulphs of the ocean . the causes of inundations . that the deluge mentioned in genesis was not universal . the explanation of the text. . the manner of the deluge . that it was not occasioned through the overfilling of the ocean . . that there hapned very great deluges since ; when and where . . the effects of the first deluge . . inland inundations . . the ocean and others of its arms , through their continual violence against the earth do in time bore great caverns into her body , whence the great gulphs of bengala , persia , arabia , mexico , most great bayes and straits took their beginning , and no wonder since they were moulded by the strong stream of the ocean floating westward . neither is the ocean satisfied of the earth for possessing the center ( for which they have both an equal claim ) in making such assaults upon her , but is still striving to enter and begin new irruptions into her , whereby it oft grows victorious of some of her plains , as appears by those frequent inundations sustained in england , ( particularly , that of somersetshire , extending to miles in length , and in breadth , whose fury had drowned several towns , and swallowed up many hundreds of men , some making their escape upon deales and pieces of timber of houses , that were washt away ; rabbets fled their lodges and got atop sheeps backs swimming as long as they could for their lives : corn and straw floated up and down in abundance , being filled with rats and mice endeavouring their escape , besides a great number of dead creatures that were seen adrift ) holland , many places of asia , africa , &c. among these none was ever more furious , than the deluge hapning in the year of the creation , mentioned in the seventh chapter of genesis , whose eminence above the earth reached to cubits , destroying all living creatures ( except some few only ) that had thitherto fed upon the fruits of the ground . i must not forget here to rectifie peoples judgments perswading themselves that this inundation should have been universal . i grant it was universal in two respects : . to all the earth that was inhabited by the patriarchs and their tribes . . in respect to the universal damage and loss ; for it had destroyed all that was upon earth , excepting those that were miraculously preserved for the preservation and use of the race of man. but pray can any one rationally conceive , that the height of cubits of water above those hills of asia should have exceeded the tops of all the mountains of the world ? what proportion is there between those hills & cubits , and the peak of taeneriffe , the mount venpi in queticheu , or jekin in chingutu , or kesing , mung , hocang , juntay , loyang , kiming , ( where they are nine daies in getting up to the top ) funghoan , being all mountains of china reaching higher than the lower clouds ; the olympas , athos , or those high mountains upon the west-indian coasts ? no more than there is between a man and a steeple . or is it probable that forty daies rain should drown the whole world , when a whole six months rain falling every winter upon the east-indies scarce increaseth the intumescence of the ocean . but observe the scope of the scripture , gen. . . and the waters prevailed greatly , and were greatly increased upon the earth , &c. here the divine text seemeth to intend nothing further than a great prevailing and increase of the waters , which could effect little more than a partial inundation ; for otherwise to have caused an universal one , none less than the greatest prevailing and increase of waters would have sufficed . wherefore the words of ver . . viz. and all the hills , that were under the whole heaven , were covered , are to be understood only of all the hills , that were covered by the whole heaven described by their horizon : and still in the popular speech , when we say the whole heaven , we mean no more than the horizon , that is as far as we can see round about us . ii. next let us consider the manner of this great deluge . . it was not caused through the irruption of the ocean into the earth , because then the said deluge would have been extreamly sudden , viz. in six hours time the floud must have brought in the waters , and it must have left a large gulph , where it brake in : neither was the sea high enough to have made such an assault . . the beginning of it was taken as the text holds forth , v. , . from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep , and the opening of the windows of heaven , and the violent rain : these sudden impetuous tempests must needs have caused a great astonishment and anguish upon those who had so justly deserved . the breaking up of the fountains were the bursting of the peregrin elements , contained within the bowels of the earth , especially of water , air and fire out of the great deep , that is the vast mediterranean sea , by men of that age called and accounted the great deep . the great occasion of this bursting out of the waters were . the heavy innixe of earth in the shallows of the mediterranean pressing the waters underneath from its center . . the air and fire forced through the earth of the said shallows to pass to their own element . . the tearing winds sent down through the opening of the windows of heaven , which piercing the pores of the earth contributed not a little to the stirring up of the air and fire contained within the earth , and to the vibration of the terrestrial mass. . the impetuous showers of rain breaking down and dividing the earth . through this tempest the waters of the mediterranean got above the earth , and a great proportion of the tract of air brake into the earth , having so fair an opportunity as at the nick of bursting to get nearer to the center : but being inclosed by water & separated from its element was by the potent compression of the said water forced to return , whereby the waters must necessarily be much tumefied , listed up , and cast out of their mole , whence they were constrained to float over the earth : but the air being most returned , the rain restrained , and the winds directed to pass over the earth , the waters setled and retired into their cavern leaving the earth very much disposed to germination of plants ; and so the stopping up of the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven was accomplished . iii. not many years after there hapned another deluge somewhat less than the former , caused through the bursting up of those waters , that now constitute the mare majus or euxiun sea , and the lake maeotis . some hundred years after another deluge came upon persia and tartary by the bursting up of the hircanian or caspian sea. the west-indians have successively retained in their memory a great inundation , which they imagine was universal , came upon them through the bursting up of the lake haneygaban , or perime in guiana . through these before-mentioned deluges a great part of the island cea , half of the town tyndarida in sicily , acarnania ( being drowned in the gulph of ambracia ) and achaia in the gulph of corinsh , and other great countries must have been swallowed up and laid even with the bottom of the said waters ; as likewise hapned to pyrrha , antissa , elice , bura , and many other places : others must have appeared through the thrusting up of that land , in whose stead the waters succeeded . this occasioned the new appearances of delos and rhodus , of nea situated between lemnus and the hollespont ; of abone , thera , therasia , hiera , and anaphe . iv. through the said discontinued and unequal bursting up of the waters and breaking of the land , sicily was separated from italy , cyprus from syria , besby from bithynia , atlas and macria from euboea , euboea from boeotia , leucosta from the sirenian promontory , and many other islands comprehended within the mediterranean from the continent : likewise have many sea port towns in europe been separated from the continent , as witness many ships that have run a ground upon their steeples and houses : thus in the year many towns and villages of holland and freezland were swallovved up by the sea ; and the sea-men to this day are forced to take notice vvhere such and such of their tovvns vvere drovvned , for fear of inhabiting them again . the vvaters through their pressing vveight do sometimes decline from one place , vvhich they then leave dry , to another , vvhere they have moulded a deeper cavern ; by such an occasion vvere the islands of antissa left dry , and so united to the continent of lesbos , zephyrius to halicarnassus , ethuso to mindus , dromiscon and peres to miletus , narthecusa to the parthenian promontory ; hybanda , epidaurus , magnesia , and oricon to the continent : the same hath arrived to many other places ; namely that some part of a shore hath been deserted through the seas declination , ( as hapned to the country about ambracia , ephesus , the plain of arabia , and above memphis as far as the aethiopian mountains , having been all over covered by the sea ) in such a manner , that ships vvhich had been cast avvay upon the sands near to that shore vvere after some hundreds of years found some miles off from the sea , deeply covered vvith earth by length of time , cast upon them partly from the adjacent hills by the vvind ; and partly by the heaving up of the sand through the seas diurnal tides . hence vve may easily knovv , vvhence that mast came , that vvas found vvith a pulley to it sticking out of the top of one of the steep hills of spitsberg in greenland near vvhere they usually fish for whales . before i go further i must convince those of their mistake , that state earthquakes the occasion of the disappearance of some islands , and appearance of others , formed through the violent and unequal bursting up of earth . . let them take notice that earthquakes are fresh enough in mens memories in the west-indies , and those great ones too , yet they never , or very seldom have protruded any islands there ; neither is their eruption large enough for to compass such an effect . . earthquakes happen most through the earths belching up of wind , that hapned to be inclosed vvithin her belly , but it is impossible that a wind should drown a country , or raise an island : possibly you may reply , that together with a wind there oft bursteth out a floud of water . i grant it , and what is this else but a deluge ? thus many towns and villages in holland and friesland have been formerly swallowed up by such deluges , as their great lakes are still testimonies of ; and to my apprehension all that country must necessarily be subjected to such deluges , since it swims upon the water . touching inland inundations , as that which befell friesland in the year , where near persons were buried in the water ; and that of holland and zealand in the reign of charles the fifth emperour of germany , in the year . and several times since , as that of the last year , when a great part of the country all about gorcum was seized upon by inland waters . their causes are to be attributed to torrents streaming down out of the melted snow , as also to the swelling of the inland waters , through receiving a great quantity of frosty minima's , pouring down from the north in a cold winter . the river of nile proves yearly extravagant in aegypt for two months and ten daies , because being situated very low it is obliged to receive the superfluity of water falling from above out of severall great rivers and lakes , as the lakes zembre , saslan , nuba , and the rivers cabella , tagazi , ancona , coror , and many others , besides the water which it draweth from the hills and other grounds . these rivers and lakes do constantly swell every year by reason of the great rains , that fall there at certain times of the year . besides the heat of the sun exercising its power very vigorously near the latter end of may , doth very much subtilize and rarefie those waters , whereby they are rendred more fluid , penetrating and copious ; and lastly the sun conversing in the northern declination doth impell the ocean stronger against the northern shores , whereby the waters are also much increased . hence it is , that the waters of the nile are so subtill , that they deceive the air in carrying of them up in vapours , viz. because they are so subtilly strained : no wonder then if they prove so healthy . the same causes are appli●ble to the excessive increase of the rivers ganges , padus , arrius , danow , tiber and athesis . chap. x. of the causes of the before-mentioned properties of lakes . . whence the lake asphaltites is so strong for sustaining of weighty bodies , and why it breeds no fish. the cause of qualities contrary to these in other lakes . the cause of the effects of the lake lerna . . whence the vertues of the lake eaug , of thrace , gerasa , the lake among the troglodites , clitorius , laumond , vadimon , and benaco are derived . . whence the properties of the lake larius , pilats pool , and the lake of laubach emanate . i. vvhat the cause of those effects of the lake asphaltites should be , the name seems to contain , viz. the water glued together by an incrassated air and condensed fire , constituting the body of a certain bitumen , called asphaltos , whence the said lake doth also derive its name : it is uncapable of breeding fish , because through its sulphureous thickness it suffocates all vitall flames . on the contrary the lakes avernum ( although deep fathom ) and that of aethiopia are so much subtilized through the passing of rarefied air , that they are uncapable of sustaining the least weight . touching their pernicious quality to fowl , it must be attributed to the venomous spirits permixt with that rarefied air , infecting the whole element of air as far as it covers them . the lake lorna and the other in portugal cause their effects through the permixture of a quantity of crude nitrous bodies , which prove very depressing . that lake of aethiopia is unctious through the admixture of incrassated air . ii. the lake eaug in ireland acquires a sideropoetick vertue under water from the imbibition of crude aluminous juyces , by means of their indurating and constrictive vertue changing wood sticking in the mud into an iron-like substance ; that part which is under water into a stone-like substance , because of the diminution of the said aluminous juyces , which through their weight are more copious in the mud ; the part of the wood that sticks out of the water remains wood , as being beyond the reach of the said heavy juyces . the lakes of thrace and gerasa prove pernicious through admixture of crude arsenical exhalations . the lake among the troglodites being mercurial is infestuous to the brain . the lake clitorius through its nitrosity disturbs the stomach , and attracts a great quantity of moisture to it , and infecting it with an offensive quality , causes a loathing of all liquors . the sudden tempests befalling the lake laumond and vadimon are caused through winds breaking out of the earth through the water . lakes resist induration by frost through igneous expirations pervading them . the lake benacus shews its fury , when its internal winds are excited by external ones , causing a concussion and a rage in the water , like unto an aguish body , which is disposed to a shaking fit by every sharp wind raising the sharp winds within . iii. the river abda passeth freely through the lake larius without any commotion of its body , because the waters of the lake through their extream crassitude are depressed downwards , and so are constituted atop in a rigid posture , whereas the river is impelled forwards , and very little downwards : but were it to flow through a shallow water , whose quantity doth not bear any proportion to receive the pressure of the air downwards against the earth , they would soon communicate in streams . . the waters of a lake differ much in crassitude and density from those of a river , and therefore do exclude its streams . the lake haneygaban doth not visibly disburden it self of those waters , but thrusting caverns underneath into the earth , raises all those hills through the intumescence of the said waters , that are near to her , out of which some rivers do take their rice . pilats pool is stirred into a vehement fermentation by flinging any pressing body into it ; because thereby those heterogeneous mineral juyces ( viz. vitriolat and sulphureous substances ) are raised , mixt together , and brought to a fermentation and working : through this fermentation the water swells and exceeds its borders ; but the water being clarified the commotion ceaseth . neither needs any one wonder , that so small a matter should be the cause of so great an exestuation , since one part of the water doth stir up the other , and so successively the whole pool comes to be stirred . pools owe their rice to great rains or torrents , which sometime do slow visibly over the meadows , or through rivers causing inundations : sometimes through caverns of the earth , as that near laubach . chap. xi . of the rice of fountains , rivers and hills . . that fountains are not supplied by rain . . aristotles opinion touching the rice of fountains examined . . the authors assertion concerning the rice of fountains . the rice of many principal fountains of the world . . why holland is not mountainous . . that the first deluge was not the cause of hills . . whence that great quantity of water contained within the bowels of the earth is derived . . whence it is that most shores are mountainous . why the island ferro is not irrigated with any rivers . why the earth is depressed under the torrid zone , and elevated towards the polars . the cause of the multitude of hills in some countries and scarcity in others . . how it is possible for the sea to penetrate into the bowels of the earth . i. the opinion of fountains , scattering out of the earth and supplied by waters rained down and collected within caverns of the earth , as it hath vulgarly taken place among many , so it is very suspitious ; experience tells us , that many perennal fountains spring forth out of sandy and every where about dry mountains , whereunto notwithstanding but little is contributed by the moisture of the heavens , since the rain falleth but seldom , ( as in aegypt , and other places , ) and the sun is very hot , the country very dry , insomuch that did the rain fall in twice that quantity , it would scarce be sufficient to irrigate the soile , much less of supplying moisture for fountains . . many fountains draw their water very deep , near a hundred foot , yea two or three hundred deep out of the earth : whereas rain seldom penetrates deeper into the earth than ten or eleven foot . . some fountains break forth out of rocky mountains , which are uncapable of imbibing rain : ergo their rice and continuation are not from rain . ii. the opinion of aristotle is much more absurd , asserting subterraneous air converted into water to be the cause of springs , since we have formerly made it appear , that the conversion of air into water is impossible ; or were it not , it would seem very irrational to suppose the earth to be so hollow as to be capable of containing such an infinite quantity of air , as to continuate the course of a fountain ; because a great quantity of air condensed ( as they call it ) would produce but little more than a drop * . iii. . in brief fountains owe their beginning and continuation to great quantities of water collected within great caverns of the earth . this the diggers of mines confirm to us , who sometime through digging too deep meet with great and sudden burstings out of waters , which oft do prove perennal . such mischances have hapned not once in the coal-pits near newcastle , to the drowning of many a man. moreover there are no great hills , but which rest upon great gulphs of water underneath them , insomuch that a hill is nothing else but the raising of the earth through a great gulph of water lodging underneath it . hence it is that hills are generally the store-houses of rivers , and their sides or tops their springs . how many slouds of water are there discovered to break out of the sides of several great hills in kent , surrey , and innumerous other places of the world ? whence should those pregnant pewter mines in cornwal , or lead mines in derbishire , and all other mines in the world be supplied with a sufficient quantity of water for their matter , were it not that the hills afforded it out of their caverns ? whereout should all those vast stony and rocky mountains of the universe consist , but out of water derived from the earths bowels ? whence should those great perennal rivers , that spout forth from under the alpes and peruvian mountains take their rice , but from those gulphs of water , whereby they are raised to that height ? whence should all the water of those great lakes upon hills arrive ? as that between the middle of the three tops of the hill taihu in china , whose depth was yet never fathomed ; and that upon the mount jenkin near the city so , being of no less depth , and near a quarter of a mile in compass ; likewise that of tieuchi near mien ; that deep lake upon the mount tienlu called the lake of the drake , because it is so horrible through its depth and commotion , that if any should cast a stone into it , it would render a great noise like unto a thunder : besides many others in europe ; as those in ireland , &c. in fine , do not all the greatest rivers of the world , viz. ganges , nilus , senaga , nuba , tana , nieper , morava , garumna , thames , &c. yea , and all others spout out of hills , or are they not derived from lakes ? lakes usually are environned by a plain , because those waters , which should thrust up hills about them are collected in an open cavern . notwithstanding are the same waters of lakes through the ait's pressure forced underneath into the earth , where at some distance they do cast up hils , for to disburden the earth , whereat they spout out rivers ; for a lake is uncapable of it self to spout out a river , because being situated low wants force to spout it out from it , whereas waters , that are protruded and continually impacted and crusht very thick or close into caverns of hills , do by a renitency press against the earth above and below , and swallow up the air contained within the said caverns into their substance , and the earth doth reciprocally press against them ; but the air being thin , smooth and glib , is at last violently protruded by both their gravities , which erupting with a great force and discontinuation of the earth , doth make way upwards for the water to be pressed out the easier by the earth with such a force , as may square to the protruding of a long river : wherefore it is necessary , that rivers should derive either immediately or mediately from hills : thus immediately the rhein springs forth out of the mount adula aliás vogel ; the danow out of a mount within the black wood some leagues off from tubingen ; the necker out of another near the same town ; the garona out of one of the perinean mountains ; the jaxartes out of the sogdian mountains , as ptolomy names them ; the dnieper out of some mountains near dnieperco ; the river of jordan out of two issues of the mount lebanon , viz. jor and dan , both which meeting communicate in one name of jordan ; the river euphrates out of the mount standing in the midst of the garden of eden ; the boetis in spain , out of the mount orespeda near castao ; the anien out of the mountains among the trebani ; the zepusium out of some mountain in poland ; and so a million of others . mediately , the river of nile descends out of some hills , that draw their water out of the lake zembre . the river niger salies vigorously out of some hills near the lake borno , whose caverns are filled the length of threescore leagues under ground by streams flowing out of a lake between guidan and vangue : the river nuba out of mountains deriving their water from the lake nuba , and in like manner many others . touching narrow short rivers , that flow from their head downwards to a low place , they may draw their rice immediately from a lake , because they need not that vigour of impulse . iv. holland and zealand although very rich in water , yet are poo● in mountains , because their ground is so much thorow soakt and masht with water , that being changed into a mud , it would sooner break into crums , than be raised up into hills . wherefore the name of holland was very aptly imposed upon that countrey , since that underneath it is hollow , filled up only with water , the ground swimming atop it in the forme of clay or mud , they having little or no sandy ground within their dikes or bankes . hence it appears , that towards the constitution of a hill these conditions must be required . . a great quantity of water must be bored underneath the earth ; for a small quantity would prove invalid to lift it up . . they must form their cavern very deep ; for near the surface they would sooner break through than raise the earth . . the ground under which they bore must be very dense , dry and sandy for to keep in the water ; for were it moist or loose , it would not rise , but sooner break : besides , this density and sandiness of the earth doth serve to concentrate and conclomerate the earth into one body , whereby it is gradually raised and lifted up . from this discourse observe , why hills are sandy and dry , although containing such a bulk of water underneath them , viz. because of the closeness or density of the minima's or sands of the earth compelling the water under them . . the reason why all hills do not emit fountains of water , is because the water is lodged very deep under them , or because of the extream density of their terrestrial minima's . v. this cannot but confute that improbable opinion , asserting hills to be formed through the violence of the waters after the deluge , carrying great pieces of the earth along with them in returning to their receptacle : another reason against this is , because great torrents , tumbling down with a tempestuous fury , and causing an inundation or deluge wherever they touch , scarce leave any sign of inequality of the earth behind them . . here may then be demanded from them , how and whence those hills before or after the deluge of noah , or of og●ges , or deucaleon ( it is the same ) received their formation ? hills there were before ; for besides the bible , josephus , abydenus , berosus and others make mention of a very high hill in armenia major called barin , by others chardaeus , whereupon a pious man should have saved himself in an ark. so ovid speaks of the mount parnassus , whose height should have preserved deucaleon with his wife pyrrha from the rage of the deluge . others to save the matter have conceited the stars to have attracted lumps out of the earth , and so raised them into hills ; but this opinion is so absurd , that it needs no confutation . the vulgar observing most hills to be sandy do beyond all reproof believe , that they are nothing else but congestions of sand or earth , heaped up by the winds . i shall not think it much to insert their judgment touching a very high hill in holland situated a mile off from the hague towards shiveling , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called the high clift , which about a hundred years ago , they say was of that height that one might have washt his hand in the clouds upon the top of it , but now is diminisht to one third , to what it was , and i my self can remember that it was much higher than now it is . the cause of this diminution they adscribe to the winds , blowing down the sands , out of which they say all those small hills , that are about it , were formed . but to rectifie their apprehensions ; who can rationally judge , that winds are forcible enough to remove hills of that weight and bigness , or that winds should be strong enough to heap up such a mountain ? any one would sooner imagine the winds to blow them down : if then winds have not the power to raise a mountain , certainly they are too weak to pull one down . or thus , if winds be so powerful , why did they not blow down such hils before they came to that height ? . hills in many islands of the west-indies are raised much higher , where the winds are much more out ragious : wherefore the cause of the diminution of the fore-mentioned high clift must be adscribed to the removal of the water underneath ( whereby the hill doth gradually sink and grow lesser , ) and boring further into several places about hath raised those other hills . vi. but since hills are so numerous , lakes and rivers not scarce , a disquisition must be made , whence and how such a vast quantity of water doth redound within the bowels of the earth . the peregrin element of water within the earth bears no proportion of affording a competent moisture towards the casting up of so many monstrous mountains , or scattering such large perennal fountains and rivers , or of depressing the surface of the earth by such vast lakes : wherefore i say nothing appears full enough to effuse such dimensions of water but the ocean alone , whose belly being oppressed with an inexhaustible plenitude is constantly irritated to vomit up its superfluities into the weaker and lower parts of the earth . reason will incline us to this truth : that must be the original of waters , whereinto they are disburdened ( for otherwise if the sea did retain all those waters evacuated by rivers , it would manifestly increase , but since it doth not , it is an argument that the sea expels as much as it receives ; ) but that is the ocean , ergo. . many lakes , fountains and rivers , although remote from the lips of the sea , do notwithstanding participate of the flowing and ebbing thereof , as that fountain in the island gades , another near burdeaux , &c. ergo the sea doth press water thither . . the divine words of solomon confirm the same to us , eccl. . . unto the place from whence the rivers come , thither do they return again , but that is into the sea , ergo. . the ancient church-men do also subscribe to this , viz. isidor , lib. . de orig. cap. . basil. hom. . hex . jerom upon eccles. . damasc. lib. . de sid . orth . c. . hugo de s. vict. upon gen. dionys. upon prov. . &c. the manner of the seas conveyance or passage to the innermost parts of the earth is by screwing , pressing , and penetrating through the lowermost parts ; for there the sea is most potent , exercising its weight refracted to the sides , whereas atop it is too weak , or were it strong enough , it would break forth before it had passed any considerable way . besides its own weight the saltness of the sea doth very much conduce to the intending of its force ; for those salin particles are apt to undergo a dividing and cutting pressure . vii . places , that are bordering upon the sea , are alwaies and every where cast up into high hills or mountains , because they receive the first impulse of the sea waters pressing underneath ; hence it is , that every where about , the coasts are encompassed by hills . mountains are oft higher and greater within the land than near the sea , because they are raised by the meeting of great quantities of water impelled from two seas ; so the alpes are cast up by the water impelled from the venetian gulph of the one side , and the tyrrhenian sea of the other , both meeting under them . the peak of teneriffe is thrust up to the height of threescore miles through casting up all that ground , into whose room a great depth of water is succeeded undermining it all about . the island ferro is not irrigated atop with any fluent moisture , as lake , river , or springs ( except only with the abundant droppings of a tree drawing moisture from a great depth , or by collecting the dew of the air , which sufficeth to quench the thirst of all the inhabitants and their cattel ; ) because consisting throughout of high mountains , their sand lying very close deep , and heavy , doth detain the water underneath them . the earth is much more depressed under the torrid zone , and as much more raised towards the poles , because the ocean being gathered into a vast body under the forementioned zone depresseth all the land under it and near to it with one collected and united force of weight towards the poles , which doth undoubtedly assure me that under both poles artick and antartick the firm land doth stick out far above the waters : and questionless greenland is protracted quite throughout the northern polar region . the mountain serra leona in aethiopia bearing up to the height of the clouds ( wherewith the top is alwaies beset , ) although raised within the torrid zone , is suffulted by a great gulph collected through the meeting of two or more parts of the sea under ground ; and whole africa seems to be inflated into high mountains from the limits of aegypt until the farthest part of the atlantick mountain through communication of lakes , which again arise out of the concourse of waters propelled from the mediterranean , eruthrean , aethiopian , and atlantick seas . arabia is likewise lofty through hills vaunting upon waters immitted from the persian and arabian gulphs . muscovia and lithuania are for the greater part champian countries , because their soil is too much soakt for to be raised up into hills . . by reason of the multiplicity of lakes and rivers , through which the subterraneous waters are vented . sweden , norway , scania are very abundantly watered with lakes and rivers ; the sea upon those coasts exceeds in depth the length of ships cables : the reason is because those waters are very much intended in their pressure downwards through the vast number of cold and frosty minima's raining down from the north pole. viii . before i digress from the subject of this chapter i am only to shew you the possibility of marin waters their pressure out from the depth of the ocean in to the innermost parts of the earth . this i shall easily accomplish in mentioning , that the force of fresh waters within the land have moulded through the ground the length of many leagues ; if so , the same is much more possible to salt water . the river niger bores through a heavy , dense and deep ground the length of miles , before it evacuates it self into the lake borno . the river nuba doth likewise force a cavern many miles long into the earth . the spaniards vaunt excessively of a long bridge , whereon ten thousand goats and sheep reap their pasture , and is nothing else but the passing of the river anas ( alias guadiana ) the dimension of or leagues underground , beginning to disappear near medelina . the tigris runs her self under ground on one side of the mount taurus , and comes up again on the other side , and beyond the lake thorpes hides it self again within the earth miles further . camden in his britannia makes observation of the river mole in surrey diving under ground near white hill , and appearing again a mile or two thence near letherhed bridge . historians tell us that the alphaeus floats secretly under ground as far as sicily , where with its appearance makes choice of a new name , viz. arethusa , famous for gulping up of offals , that had been cast into the alphaeus at the olimpick games usual every fifth year . the danow runs some miles under ground , before it flows into the sava . upon the top of the mount stella is a certain lake near leagues distant from the sea , which oft vomits up wracks of ships , that were cast away at sea. chap. xii . of the causes of the effects produced by fountains . . whence some fountains are deleterious ; the cause of the effect of the fountain lethe , of cea , lincystis , arania ; the causes of foecundation and of rendring barren of other fountains ; the causes of the properties of the fountain of the sun , of the eleusinian waters , of the fountains of illyrium , epyrus , cyreniaca , arcadia , the holy cross , sibaris , lycos , of the unctious fountain of rome , and jacobs fountain . . the causes of the effects of ipsum and barnet wells . . whence the vertues of the spaw waters are derived . . of the formal causes of baths . . the fountains of thrace , arcadia , sarmatia , armenia , lydia , and sicilia are deleterious through the permixtion of crude arsernical juyces , transpiring out of the earth . the same causes operate the same effects in the founts of wolchenstein , valentia , berosus , &c. the lethe of boeotia owes its effects to crude mercurial vapours immixt within its substance : another in the same countrey produceth a contrary effect through a succinous exhalation . the fountains of cea and susae differ little in causality from the lethe . the lincystis inebriates the brain through repletion by sulphurous exhalations . the fountain of arania makes use of crude nitrous juyces for the accomplishing of its effects . the fountain , which solinus affirms to conduce to foecundity , must be a thorowly attenuated and well concocted water , like to that of the nile . the other opposite to this in operation must be very saturnal . a sulphureous nitre , or a mixture of sulphur and nitre into one close juyce , dispersed through the waters of the fountain of the sun among the garamantes , renders them very cold in the day time , because the nitre then predominating condenseth and incrassates the waters , the more because its sulphureous parts , which do otherwise rarefie them , are through the suns beams extracted , disunited , and dispersed : whereas in the night season the sulphureous parts , ben●g united through the condensing cold of the night and condensation of the nitrous particles , turn into an internal flame , causing that fervent heat . the eleusinian waters are irritated to a fermentation of heterogeneous mineral juyces through the percussion of the air by a sharp musical string , whereby through continuation the waters are likewise percussed and its contenta stirred . in the same manner is the next related fountain cast into an exestuation through the shrill acute vibrating and penetrating percussion of the air by the lips , whereas the walking about stirring the air but obtusely cannot effect such a penetrative or acute motion . the fountain of illyrium contains secret vitriolat sulphureous flames within its substance , whereby it proves so consuming . the fountains of epyrus and cyreniaca vary in heat , by reason of the greater or lesser dispersing and rarefying , or uniting and condensing of their sulphureous flames . springs remain cool in the summer through the rarefaction of their fiery spirits exhaling and passing out of the ground in the summer ; they produce a small warmth through the condensation of their igneous particles in the winter . that fountain of arcadia exerciseth such a penetrable concentrating force upon gold and silver through the quantity and strength of its nitrous spirits , which are only obtused by a mules hoof , through the lentor and obtuseness of its body , and therefore may easily be contained in it . the fountain of the holy cross appears red through the admixture of red bole . the overflowing of fountains for a certain space depends upon the pressure of a greater quantity of water thither , which in the summer time may prove more copious through the attenuation of the water and rarefaction of the earth . the reason of their detumescence after their repletion is the waters further impression towards other parts , or repression thither whence they came , through the expiration of the air flatuosities out the mouths of the fount , whence the earths gravity depresseth them back again . those that increase and decrease with the course of the moon , or rather of the ocean , vary through the change of the universal tides , of which hath been sufficiently treated above . touching the lithopoetick vertue of waters , it is much agreeing with that of the earth , of which above . the sibaris causeth sneezing through its acre and vitriolat spirits . some waters are apt to change the temperament of the body into a cold or phlegmatick disposition causing the hair of cattel to be protruded with a faire colour ; others into a cholerick habit , causing the hair to be of a reddish colour . the fountain lycos is unctious , and therefore serveth to burn in a lamp. whether to adscribe the egurgitation of that oyly spring , discovered near the incarnation of our saviour , to the collection of unctious exhalations permisted with water , or to a miracle , both being possible , i leave to the inclination of your belief : but the disclosing of a false swearer ( if there be a fountain of that vertue ) is an extraordinary impression of god upon the waters . jacobs fountain changeth in colour and motion through the fermentation of various heteregeneous bodies contained within it . ii. wells are distinguished from fountains , in that the former do oft appear in a plain or valley , as the foot of a hill , & are subject to fill up and after to be dried up again ; neither do they spout out water with a force like unto fountains . ipsum and barnet wells operate their effects through a thick chalchantous or vitriolat juyce , which through its sulphureous particles irritates the belly to excretion , and through its subtiller spirits to urine . by the way you must not imagine that their admixture is right and true vitriol ; for in distillation by the colour of the subsidence it doth appear otherwise : neither is the taste a perfect vitriolat taste , or their operation so nauseous as vitriol dissolved in water . besides those juyces are indisposed to concretion into vitriol , since these are more sulphureous and less digested : nevertheless they are somwhat like to vitriol in taste , operation , and grayness of colour , as being nearest to green . although the main effect is adscribed to a vitriolat like juyce , it hinders not but that some ferrugineous and aluminous juyces may be commixt with them . tunbridge waters are impregnated with a thin chalchantous spirit , wherby they are usually pierced through with the urine , except in some delicate fine bodies , whose bellies partake likewise of their effect . iii. among the spaw waters as pouhont and savenier agree in vertue with those of tunbridge so likewise in their causes ; and geronster with ipsum . nevertheless hendricus van heer doth not forbear , lib. de acid. spadan . cap. . imputing their effects to red chalck , which he found , together with some oker and a little vitriol , upon the bottom of the body of the still after distillation of the waters . i wonder how he guessed those substances so readily , which had nothing in them like to the said bodies but their colour . besides the red chalck he named the mother of iron : a wise saying . in effect those subsidences were nothing else but the caput mortuum of the forementioned chalchantous juyces , whose subtiller parts being abstracted and exhaled left the courser insipid , like to what the caput mortuum of vitriol useth to be . but pray who ever knew ●ed chalck or oket to be eccoprotick or diuretick ? particularly he found geronster to leave dregs , which being cast upon a red hot iron would not yield to liquefaction ; ergo it must be steel he concluded . neither would his oker or chalk have melted presently , because they were deprived of their sulphur . but will the infusion of steel purge by stool and urine like those waters ? certainly no. ergo their purgative ingredient must have been a crude chalchantous juyce . fallopius beyond him attests to have found alume , salt , green vitriol , plaister , marble and chalk in those waters , which they cal physical waters : a meer guess , these partaking in nothing but colour , and scarce that , with the forenamed minerals . doubtless nature had never intended them for such bodies . touching the commistions of these juyces with the waters , they do immediately mix with them as soon as they are exhaled out of the earth , which had they been intended for those pretended kind of minerals , nature would have lockt them up in a matrix . iv. baths derive their natures from the actual hidden flames of a thick and dense sulphureous and chalky matter , the proportion of which do cause a greater or lesser ebullition . the waters of the rivers descending out of the alpes breed such congestions under the throat through a permixture of coagulating and incrassating particles , to wit , of nitrous juyces . touching the other properties of rivers we have already treated of them , and therefore judge their repetition needless . chap. xiii . of the various tastes , smells , congelation and choice of water . . various tastes of several lakes , fountain and river waters . . the divers sents of waters . . the causes of the said tastes . that the saltness of the sea is not generated by the broyling heat of the sun. the authors opinion . . the causes of the sents of waters . . what ice is , the cause of it , and manner of its generation . why some countries are less exposed to frosts than others that are nearer to the line . . the differences of frosts . why a frost doth usually begin and end with the change of the moon . . the original or rice of frosty minims . why fresh waters are aptest to be frozen . how it is possible for the sea to be frozen . . what waters are the best and the worst : the reasons of their excellency and badness . i. vvater besides its own natural taste , of which we have spoken above , is distinguished by the variety of adventicious tasts , viz. some are sharp and sowre , as the savenier , tunbridge waters , and those near gopingen in suevia and others near lyncestus in macedonia . others are of a sweet taste as the water of the river himera in sicily ; those of the river liparis have a fat taste . some waters in the isles andros , naxos , and paphlagonia do taste like wine . the waters of the fountain campeius are bitter , and flowing into the river hipanis in pontus infects it with the same taste . there are other fountains between the nile and the red sea that agree with the former in taste , likewise those of silicia near corycius . the pit waters of galniceus are acerbous . the salt taste of waters is unknown to none since the ocean is pregnant enough with it . some inland lakes and fountains are of the same taste , viz. three in sicilia , the concanican , agrigentinian lakes , and another near gela. there is another called myrtuntius of the same relish between leucades and the ambracian gulph . the taus in phrygia , thopetis in babylonia , asphaltites in judaea , sputa in media atropacia , mantianus in armenia , one in cyprus near citium , another between laodicea and apamia , two in bactria , another near the lake moeotis , and that of yaogan , forrien , besides many more are all of a saltish taste . touching fountains there is one in narbone exceeding the sea in saltness . there are six more of the same taste near the adriatick gulph , where it bends towards aquileia ; besides several other salt pits in italy , illyris , cappadocia , &c. ii. waters vary no less in their sent : some stinking , as the lake between laodicea and apamia , the fountain among the phalisci , another near leuca in calabria , and those rivulets near the lake asphaltites , &c. others give a sweet sent as the fountain of cabara in mesopotamia . the pit methone in peloponesus smells like a salve . iii. next let me make address to the causes of these qualities : a sharp taste is derived from those acute and vitriolate particles immixt in the water . a sweet taste is produced in water through an exact aerial mixtion or percoction with it . the waters of paphlagonia afford a vinous taste through the admixture of tartareous exhalations , or such as are like to the mixture of tartar of wine . bitterness flows from adust terrestrial particles admixt to waters . aluminous exhalations dispersed through water render it acerbous . the saltness of the sea and other inland waters is communicated to them from the admixture of saltish particles exhaling out of the mud . touching the generation of salt and its mixtion i have inserted my opinion above , i shall here only have a word or two with those that state the sun the efficient cause of the said saltish particles , broyling and aduring those exhalations contained with the body of the waters ; whence they assert the superficial parts of the sea to be more saltish than the lower parts of it , because the suns heat is more vigorous there . if the broyling sun be the efficient , whence is it then that some lakes and fountains are very salt , where the sun doth not cast its aduring beams ? . it is very improbable , that so vast a number of saltish partiticles should be generated in the torrid zone , ( where the sun doth only broyle ) as to infect the waters within the polars , that are so remote thence : how then is it , that the waters prove as saltish there , where the cold is as potent as the heat elsewhere , as in greenland ? or absurdly supposing the sea to be so far communicative of its savour , why doth it not obtain a power of changing those sweet waters , which it is constrained to harbour within it self ? as those , which columbus relates to have found in the american sea , near to the road of the drakes head : moreover he attests to have sailed through fresh water a hundred and four leagues far in the north sea. pliny , lib. . c. . affirms the same , viz. to have discovered fresh water near aradus in the mediterranean , and others by the chaledonian islands . and in lib. . c. . he reports that alexander magnus had drank a draught of sea water that was fresh , and that pompey when he was employed against mithridates should have tasted of the same . . the ocean being alwaies in such an agitation cannot be a fit matrix to concrease or unite such mixtures . . the broyling sun doth rather render salt waters , fresh as hath been experienced among seamen by exposing pails of sea water upon the deck to the torrid sun under the line , which after a while standing do become much fresher . an open heat doubtless sooner dissolves a mixture than it generates one ; for boyl sea-water long upon the fire , and it will grow fresh ; or distill it , and you will find the same effect . beyond all scruple these saltish particles must be united into such mixtures out of earth proportioned to the other elements in a close place or matrix ( yet not so close as to concrease them into a fixed subterraneous body or mineral ) whose coldness doth adact , impact , and bind the said elements into an union and mixture , which through defect of an entire closeness do soon exhale or transpire . in a word , the saltness of the sea is generated within its mud , whose closeness impacts and coagulates the exhalations of the earth into salin particles , whence they are soon disturbed through the motion of the sea , and the attracting heat of the sun. hence it is , that old mud , clay , and such like bodies prove generally saltish , so that the sun adds little excepting in the stirring up of the said exhalations . and touching the foregoing instance of the waters greater saltness atop than below , it is fictitious ; for the sea is much fuller of salt below than above , because of its weight . nevertheless the sea doth taste more saltish atop than below , because the subtiller parts of the salt are attracted or forced by the heat of the sun towards the top , which meeting there are apt to strike the tongue more piercing than otherwaies . but whence these fresh waters do burst up into the sea is worth our inquiry : to resolve you , you must know that the earth in many places under water is raised up into hills , or shallows analogal to them , whose earth atop lying very close doth hinder the water above it from passing , especially in the northern climate , where the sea is somewhat thicker than under the line : but is nevertheless bursted through propulsion of the waters underneath , which evacuated into the body of the sea do cause that extent of fresh water without suffering themselves to be infected with the saltness of the sea , because the sea-water is so thick and closs , that it excepts the fresh water from making an irruption into its continuity : hence it is , that the river of the amazons , besides many others although irrupting into the sea many leagues far , yet is maintained impolluted and fresh . but why those salin particles should be generated near to those fresh springs , and not close about them may seem strange : it is because one ground is muddy and disposed to generate salt , the other about the said spring is sandy , dry * ( as it were ) and close , and not at all masht through as mud is . the sea-water deposeth its saltness in being percolated through the earth suffering the subtiller parts alone of the waters to pass , but keeping back the grosser and salin ones . iv. sents are materiated out of the subtiller parts of the matter effecting tastes ; wherefore all waters , that are discernable by tastes , emit their subtiller parts for sents ; but of this abundantly before , whither i must direct my reader . v. ice is water congealed , or incrassated , indurated , or rather reduced to its natural state . that which congeales the water or reduces it to its natural state is the absence or expulsion of those elements , that render it fluid , viz. fire and air . these are expelled by frosty minima's falling down from the poles , and compressing or squeezing them both out of the body of water , whence it is also that all waters swell through the frost , viz. through their repletion with the said minima's . these are nothing but unites or points of earth adunited to so many unites of water freed within their body from all air and fire , and detruded from the polars towards the earth , whither they are vigorously forced down in a very close order into the surface of the waters , where arriving they press out the air and fire , which being expelled , the superficial parts of the water cleave naturally to one another about those frosty minima's . the first beginning of a frost is taken from the first decidence of frosty minima's , which in their passing cause a vehement compression , and lighting upon our tact make us give them the name of cold ( because they compress our external parts with a smart continuous compression ; ) thence falling upon the water ( if in a smal quantity only ) do thicken it a little , if in a greater do forcibly expel the air and fire , which being expelled a concretion of the water near its surface must naturally follow . if now it grows no colder , and that these minima's fall in no greater quantity , the ice continues at a stand ; but if otherwise , then it proceeds to a greater induration and a larger concretion : and the deeper the waters do thicken , the more acute the cold must be , or the greater quantity of acute and dense minima's must follow for to further and continuate the said concretion , because unless they are acuter than the former , they will not be minute enough to pass the small porosities remaining in the surface of the ice . ice swimmeth atop the water , as long as it freezeth , not because it is less weighty , ( for it is heavier ; ) but because its continuity and concretion together with the support of the air tending from the ground of the waters towards its own element do detain it . when it thawes the ice sinks down , because it is somewhat discontinued and melted , and by reason of the same proportion of air descending and bearing down upon it , that was ascended before . notwithstanding the thaw people do oft complain of a great cold two or three daies after , and especially in their feet , which is nothing else but the same frosty minima's repassing out of the earth and water towards the element of air for to give way to the melting entring air and fire . the frosty minima's that begin to fall with a red evening sky denoting the clearness of the air and passage , do oft bring a furious cold with them , because finding no obstruction they fall very densely and acutely upon us ; but those , that fall through a cloudy air seldom cause violent colds , because they are partly detained by the same clouds : hence it is , that most countries , that are beset with water ( as islands , peninsuls , &c. ) and thence attain to a nebulous air , are warmer , than other countries although the former be remoter from the ecliptick than these , because their clouds obstruct and detain a part of the frosty minima's , and break the rest in their motion downwards : whence it is also that england is less cold in the winter than most parts of france or germany , although both are of a less northern declination than it . the same clouds do likewise in the summer break the violence of the fiery minima's descending , whence it is also less hot here than in the forementioned places , no wonder then , if geographers do so much extoll this island for the temperature of its climate . vi. this language is supplied with a very apt distinction of frosts , viz. a black frost , a gray , and a white frost . the first of these is felt to be of the greatest fury , insomuch that if it proveth for any time lasting , it deads the roots of young plants and old trees , kills all vermine , and penetrates through the very periostium of animals , and depth of rivers . it derives its violence from the extream number of the descending frosty minima's , whose density makes the skies even look black again . a gray frost is between a black and white one , consisting likewise of a dense proportion of descending minima's . a white frost is the incrassation of vapours in the lowermost region of the air . among these a black frost is of the least continuance , because the frosty minima's tumbling down in such vast quantities are soon purged out of the air . here may be inquired , why a frost usually begins and ends with the change of the moon . for solving of this , you must observe ; that the causes of the decidence are , . their great number . . their congregating or congress . touching the first , unless their number is proportionable to bore and press * through the clouds and resistance of the air , they are uncapable of descension for to cause a congelation : and although their number be great and dispersed , they are nevertheless retained through the over-powering of the clouds : wherefore it is necessary a great quantity should be united into heaps , and so make their way through . to these principal causes add this adjuvant one , viz. the compression of the moon , she at her changes driving the frosty minima's more forcibly towards the poles , through which impulsion they are withal thrusted one upon the other and united into a body , whence it is that they at those times do oft take their beginning of decidence . again the moon near the same terms impelling the clouds and thick air thither doth prove as frequent an occasion of dispersing those frosty minima's , especially if much diminished of their body through preceding decidencies . moreover these frosty minima's , although they are sometimes broken & dispersed in their decidence through the said impulses , yet sometimes they do recover a body , and make a new irruption downwards : and thence it is , that oft times a frost holds for a day or two , then thaws for as long , and afterwards returns to freezing again . vii . in the next place i am to set down the original and rice of these frosty minima's . you may easily apprehend , that the sun in the torrid zone and somewhat in the temperate one doth dayly raise a vast number and quantity of vapours * , ( consisting of most water , then air , next fire and earth ) which through the diurnal motion of the air , are carried along from east to west . and through daily successions of new vapours they are compelled to detrude their preceding ones towards the poles , whither they seem most to tend through the disposition of water and earth contained within those vapours , and the greater force of the heavens driving them towards the poles as the weaker places , ( for there motion is least observed , ) where being arrived , are by the privative coldness of that region assisted to free themselves of the fire and air ; the water now cleaving to the earth and divided into millions upon millions of minima's make up a dense body , whence through the depression of the air they are devolved down to the earth . waters , that are least in motion , less fiery and aerial , are most disposed to concretion : hence fresh waters are aptest to be frozen : whereas the sea is seldom reduced to concretion , because of its continual motion expelling the frosty minima's as fast as they are received , or precipating them to the bottom , or by melting their body through the fiery salin and aerial particles contained within it . notwithstanding is the sea reduced to concretion in some climates , viz. within the polars , where you have the oceanus glacialis or icy ocean , whose ice is in some places or fathom deep , in others reaching from the bottom of the sea to the top ; insomuch that the tops of many of those icy mountains stick out as far above the surface of the liquid sea , as the same sea is deep underneath : the properties of that ice is to be clear and transparent like glass . herodotus doth likewise make mention of the freezing of the bosphorus , so beda lib. de natur . rer . c. . writes , that within a daies sail from the isle tyle towards the north the sea is frozen . olans magn. tells us of the gothiek sea being frozen : but this hapneth , because the sea thereabout may be deprived of its saltness , ( yea some assert , that those mountains of ice are most fresh water concreased ) which being precipitated to the bottom through the density of the frosty minima's constantly descending like showers under the pole , the remaining surface of fresh water is soon congealed . before i close this paragraph , i shall only adde the cause of a strange passion befalling the glacial sea , where sometimes of a sudden and in a moment a whole mountain of ice is melted away , causing a dangerous current , subverting or carrying away many a ship , and yet the frost continueth : the cause of this is not the broyling and melting heat of the sun , for the sun is never so kind there , but the union of those fiery salin particles , precipitated ( as we told you above ) by the frosty minims down into the mud , whence working or bursting with an united condensed force upwards do occasion such sudden degelations . viii . lastly , waters in respect of wholsomness differ very much in excellency and choice : spring water , and those of rivers are commended above others of pools , lakes , and pit waters , because these latter through their standing still contract a muddiness and filth out of the earth , and sometimes noxious particles co gulated out of exhalations transpiring out the said mud ; besides that they are disposed to putrefactions through the abundance of peregrin bodies , protruding venomous herbs , and generating toads , frogs , leeches , snails , eeles , and other filthy insects . snow waters are no less noxious than the former , because of their crudity , nitrosity , and thickness . waters gathered and kept in a leaden cistern through leaden or tin spouts are crude and windy , because they descend out of the cold region of the air ; moreover as galen doth well except , they contract a pernicious quality from the lead . wherefore fountain or river waters carry the bell before them all ; but which of these two excells the other we must next distinguish . fountain waters , as they spring out of the mountains , are yet filled with wind and earthy minima's , and therefore must yield to river waters , i mean such as are derived from a fountain : in these the waters through their rapid streams depose those earthy crude and windy bodies , which they brought along with them out of the fountains cavern , and are attenuated and clarified through the sun beams , and lastly depose their dregs into the earth through being strained through its dense and clear sands . and among these there is a great difference ; those that take their rice from a standing water or a lake , and flow through a muddy ground are much inferiour to many fountain waters . but others , that stream rapidly from a bright fountain and take their course through a pure sandy or gravelly ground , and meet the east , sun are the best . river waters in hot countries , where the air is clear , are preferred before others in cold climats : hence rivers of a continent take place , before those of an iland , because the latter is generally beset with a nubilous air , filling the said waters with mud , and keeping off the rayes of the sun from concocting them : wherefore river waters in the southeast parts of france are esteemed before any in england ; those of the southeast parts of spain before others of the same continent , where the river tago is much extolled for its wholsomeness of water ; in persia the choaspis affords the best waters ; in india the ganges , &c. the rivers of thames affords the best water in england , but further up towards the woodmongers gallows & oxford ; not about london where the ground is muddy , besides that it is infected by the tides flowing out of the sea with many saltish particles , dirt , dung , carkasses , &c. there must also notice be taken of the rice of a river , viz. that it do not spring out of a mine ; and of the countries through which it passeth , whether chalky , gravelly , or clayish . insumma waters , that are the lightest , thinnest , clearest and most limpid , of no strong tangue , but of a sweet & pleasing rellish , are the best . the weight of waters is known by weighing one with the other in scales : by letting them run through a small sieve or thick close linnen : their tenuity is known by dropping them upon a looking-glass , whereof that which drops the least drops and makes the greatest splatch is the subtillest ; by distillation , boyling , dissolving salt or soape in them ; by their shaking , smalness , and number of streams ; by the swimming of a piece of wood in them , viz. that wherein it smimmeth deepest is the lightest and thinnest , &c. chap. xiv . of the commerce of the air with the other elements . . how the air moves downwards . what motions the elements would exercise supposing they enjoyed their center . why the air doth not easily toss the terraqueous globe out of its place . how the air is capable of two contrary motions . . that the air moves continually from east through the south to west , and thence back again to the east through the north. . an objection against the airs circular motion answered . . the poles of the air. . the proportion of air to fire ; its distinction into three profundities . . air is a debtor for its name to aer in latine , which again to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to lift up , because it was lifted up ( as it were ) from the chaos . how it was freed from the oppression of the weighty elements i formerly declared . the remainder is to treate briefly of its commerce with the neighbouring elements , viz. with earth , water , and fire . daily observations make appear to us , that a cavity is no sooner ready to open within the earth or water , but the air is as ready to strive to enter , not only for to fill up that vacuity , but out of an eagerness , strife , and necessity for to gain a center for its whole body : for how can any body enjoy rest without being sustained by a foundation ? that , which is alone apt for such a work , is the center , which is a basis , upon which all its parts do rest . i prove it : the parts of a body being met about the center , cannot use any force or violence against one another , because they are of one nature , and therefore agree in the same effect : which is of resting about a center . hence it is , that the air ( besides its own interest being streightned atop through the fires inclination also for to recover its center ) doth so much infest , pierce , attenuate , and divide all bodies , that lye in the way to its center ; and that so vast a proportion of air is entered into the body of water , as from a solidity to reduce it to a perfect fluor : and although the body of air ( as i have stated before ) is of that softness , yet through succession of its parts and want of vacuities , whereinto to convey it self , it cannot yield to any compression into it self , but being successively backt by its own parts and those of fire , is capable of working the same effects , which the hardest body can . but now supposing the air to have accomplisht its aime , let us inquire what motion it would then exercise ? certainly of it self no other but it s continuous lightness , whereby it would maintain its parts diffused from its own center into the greatest tenuity imaginable . likewise the other elements would exercise no other action , but the maintenance of their bodies in the greatest density , crassitude , or rarity , and that through the use of their formal contiguous weight , continuous weight , & contiguous levity ; and as the earth through her concentration would not leave the circumference , although tending hence thither ; so neither would the light elements desert their center although moving thence hither . wherefore let me advertize you in time not to mistake my former definitions of levity , or gravity , implying the former to move from its center to the circumference ; that to move here from the center is not to leave it ; but to move thence as from a basis : but now the air being dispossest of its genuine center is forced to make use of a violent center , situated about the extream parts of the earth and water , and thence its parts do take their original to the circumference , not leaving their force in the mean while of pressing violently downwards . here may be inquired , why the air , seeming so far powerful above the earth and water ( both in extent of compass and energy or activity of parts ) that its extream subtility should seem more than potent enough to pervade & dispossess that small clot of water and earth , doth not become victorious . i resolve you ; the energy of the air is much refracted through having its center ( upon which all its strength doth consist ) divided into that dimension , which the circumference of earth and water do make ; or otherwise it would soon toss that small footbal out of its place , and make no more of it than the heavens may seem to do of the moon . so fire , although a great part is flaming and burning , hath not the power of invading the earth ( as many do imagine it would do , were the heavens all a burning fire ) because it is much more refracted in its center through the surface of the air : do we not see that a durgain is able to wrastle with a great giant , because his low stature doth put him in a capacity of taking the other about the middle , where he easily lifts him from his basis or center . but possibly it may seem strange to you , that the air should exercise two contrary motions , one upwards , and another downwards . . you may likewise demand , how fire can apply any force to earth or water , since it is extended into its greatest rarity , and possesses a place full large enough to contain its body , and consequently is not violently detained . to the first i answer , that naturally a thing cannot obtain two contrary motions , but violently it may . as to the second , this violence is caused here below . . through the incrassation of the air , that is , water ascending and mingling with the body of air doth force so much of it to strive for another place , as it hath taken up of the air , which since it cannot procure upwards is forced to effect downwards upon the earth and water , and make a violent irruption upon them . . the air being essentially thin in the second region as well as it is above , must of necessity press down upon the incrassated air , because all its parts being to take their suffulsion and basis from somewhere , ( which it doth from the hither extremity of the air ) and not proving strong enough to sustain such a force must necessarily depress into the water and earth , where neither of these finding themselves strong enough about their surface , do necessarily yield and give way to the air pressing downwards for a basis. the same contrary motion is apparent in a man , who is to lift some weight from the ground upwards : first he must move all his strength towards his feet , which is the center , whereupon this weight must be sustained and lifted up from ; then doth he reflect all his strength upon that basis upwards , where we observe his center to make a hole into the earth , because it is not firm enough to sustain his pressure ; even so it is with the twofold motion of air , which you may easily apply to this in every particular . ii. the airs innixe being shoved off or refracted through the repercussion of the weighty elements chooses to turn round , that is to bear to the sides , rather than to retort into it self : and that which irritates this with no obtuse spur is the fire , forcing circularly upon the air . . the universal waters flowing from east to west is no small cause of directing of the airs motion towards the same aime , because the air reflecting against the waters flowing from underneath must needs be shoved off thither whither the water flowes : i prove it ; cast a ball from the shore upon a piece of timber , driving down a rapid river , its refracted motion will tend towards the drift of the said river . . the fire moving from east to west , and forcing upon the air must beyond all scruple prescribe the air a road in its motion . in the next place i prove that the air is agitated in a circular motion . . if waters that are thick are impelled to a circular motion , much more air , whose fluidity and coherence is much more disposed to a circular motion . . fire is a contiguous body , but that moves circularly ; ergo air much more , because it is continuous . . the uppermost clouds are alwaies observed to move circularly , ergo the air , that doth contain them . . comets ( whereof some are seated near to the extremity of the supream region of the air ) do move circularly , ergo the air must also move circularly . iii. against the airs circular motion may be objected , that the clouds swimming in the air like a ship in the water , are carried about with the air ; but the said clouds do move variously , sometimes eastward , southward , or northward , & c. ergo the air is also various in its motions . i answer , . that the clouds only near the polars are various in their motion , which variety is only befalling the inferiour clouds : herein it bears a resemblance to the motion of water near the polars varying ( although but accidentally ) from the course of the ocean . besides that there is a difference in motion between the superiour middle and inferiour clouds is manifest by the moons light about her quarters , disclosing the inferiour clouds to move one way and those above another way . . the clouds do oft stream against the tide of the air , as you shall read by and by . . the clouds in the torrid zone , namely the superiour ones , are very uniform in their motion , constantly floating from east to west . iv. the air taking its beginning of circular motion underneath about the center , the globe constituted by the weighty elements must needs be thought to be its axletree whereupon it moves : its poles must be corresponding to the north and south extremities of the said globe , which together with the axis are doubtless immoveable , and consequently must only be apprehended in the earth , because that alone is immoveable . here observe , that the air in the torrid zone moves swiftest , because it is equidistant from its poles , and hath the most space to accomplish : where it is near the poles its motion is of the least vigour , and nearest seems to be immoveable . v. the proportion of the element of air to the element of fire is the same as water is to earth : because air is the same in its respective nature comparatively to fire , that water is to earth ; for as water is a continuous heavy body immediately superadded to earth , being of a contiguous weight , so is air a continuous light substance annext to fire being of a contiguous levity ; wherefore then the same reason infers air to have the same proportion to fire , that water hath to earth . hence we must conclude that the profundity of the tract of air is much larger than it is stated by vulgar astronomists , and the profundity of fire much less than it is computed by the same phantasticks ; otherwise it would seem an improportion and disorder in the elements , not to be supposed . the profundity of the air we may aptly distinguish into three equal sections or regions . . the first or supream is constituted by air most infested by fire . . the middle region is , where the air is lightest and thinnest , and enjoys its greater purity . . the third region comprehends those thick visible clouds . i will begin with the description of the first region : as far as the uppermost region of water is attenuated by the air , so far ( considering the diversity of proportion ) is the air also rarefied by fire ; and as the air doth press down to the bottom of the waters , even so doth the fire in it strive for the center to the extream depth of air , but is much more in proportion in the supream region . the middle region is purest in her own parts because of the equidistance from her neighbouring elements , but is nevertheless somewhat nubilous . the lower region is as much incrassated with clouds or vapours concreased , and reduced from its extream tenuity , as the waters are attenuated and reduced from their extream crassitude to that degree of attenuation through air ; because those parts of water , whose places are replenisht with others of air , must recede into the air for to place themselves somewhere . against this discourse nonius lib. de crep . alhazen . lib. . perspect . vitell. li. . pr. . and others may seem to set themselves , as appears by their demonstrations although obscure enough , inferring the tract of air not to exceed leagues in profundity , because comets being generated in the air , and keeping their station there , do seldom or never clime up higher . but on the contrary , will they assert the maculae or spots of the moon , ( which doubtless are aerial and near to the supream region of the air , ) and other clouds that seem not to be far distant from the moon , to be no higher than leagues ? an absurdity . neither are comets so near , some appearing but little lower than the moon , some higher , others in the same degree of altitude ; so that comets if any while durable are not seated in the air , but in the region of fire , because they move from east to west with the same swiftness that other lucid bodies do , that are contained in the fiery region . chap. xv. of the production of clouds . . what a cloud is , how generated , its difference . how a rainbow is produced . whether there appeared any rainbows before the floud . . the generation of rain . . how snow and hail are engendred . . the manner of generation of winds . . the difference of winds . of monzones , provincial winds , general winds , &c. of the kinds of storms and their causes . what a mist and a dew are . i. nubes a cloud is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to swim , because a cloud seems to swim in the air . a cloud is an aerial body engendred out of air incrassated by water , and somewhat condensed by earth . its kinds are very various differing in mixture , magnitude , equality , colour , situation , and motion . some appear disrupted , discontinuated ; others intire , uniform ; some are great , others small ; some even , flat , hollow , unequal ; others are black , red , blew , brown , luminous , dark ; others of various colours reflecting rainbows ; some are situated in the north , south , &c. others move uniformly , difformly , swift , slow , eastward , westward , &c. their generation is thus ; the air and fire irrupting incessantly into the earth and water are after their arrival thither shut in and cut off from their bodies , and being violently compressed from all sides , are forced by the over-powring of the weighty elements to return to their former region , whereunto they after some contention do yield , yet not without carrying away a measure of water and earth , closely adhering to them . these retroceding particles , as they come out , give entrance to other air attempting an irruption with its body , whereby * they are elevated continually untill they are arrived to that part of the region of the air , where it is least infested with the fiery element ; here the air finding it self strongest and least oppressed with bodies discontinuating its substance , doth press those heterogeneous bodies together into clouds through its vertue of moving to an union , and not through its coldness , for air of it self where it doth in any wise enjoy its purity is estranged from cold , and is naturally rather inclined to warmth . the reason , why clouds are less apt to concrease where the sun hath power , is , because the parts of the air there are weakned through the rarefaction and discontinuation by torrid minima's . these clouds according to their mixture vary in continuation , viz. some are thicker and more concreased than others , which through their greater renixe are propelled from the others of a less renitency . clouds containing much earth , and thence rendred dense , appear black ; if they are much expanded , according to their diduction , they refract the light variously , appearing red , white , blew , &c. the clouds through their gradual proportion of renitency being disrupted and sinking gradually under one another ; refract the light of the sun according to their graduall situation , seeming to be illuminated with several and gradual colours , ( whose appearance is called a rainbow : ) viz. the lower being more thick and dense than the rest refract the light blackish ; that above it , being less dense , brownish ; that above this , purple or greenish ; the other reddish , yellowish , &c. a rainbow is not seen by us , unless we be interposed between the sun and the clouds reflecting and refracting , that is we must stand on that side of the clouds that is irradiated . in thomas's island the moon doth sometimes cause a light kind of a rainbow after a rain . touching the figure of a rainbow , it is semicircular , because the air is expanded in a circular figure , and moved circularly towards us . many do make a scruple , whether there ever appeared any rainbow before the floud , gathering their ground of doubting from gen. . . i do set my bow in the cloud , and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth . hereunto i answer , that these words do not seem to make out any thing else , but that god did assume the bow for a sign , rather implying that the heavens had been disposed to the susception of rainbows from the creation : for even then were the heavens filled up with clouds fit for the reflection of such a light . that a morning rainbow doth portend wet , and an evening one fair weather is vulgarly reported , which nevertheless is very uncertain : for the most part it either doth precede rain or follow it ; the reason is , because the forementioned gradual declination and incrassation doth cause a rain . rain is the decidence of clouds in drops . clouds although incrassated and condensed , gathered and compressed by the ambient air striving to be freed of them , yet cannot be expelled , and protruded all at once , because their extent is too large , and their circumference obtuse , whence they are unfit to be protruded at once , unless they were most condensed into an acute or cutting surface ; why they cannot be compressed into a less compass and a greater acuteness is , because of a great quantity of air contained within them . touching their diruption into drops , it is to be imputed to the external compression of the clouds , squeezing the internal air into particles , which as they burst out do each protrude a drop of rain : or thus , suppose the clouds at such times to be puft up with bubbles of internal air , and the diruption of each bubble to send down a drop of rain . oft times with rain a great wind blows down along with it , which is nothing else but the air pent within the said clouds and bursting out of them . a windiness doth oft hold up the rain , because it shatters and disperses the parts of the said dense clouds , wherby their consistency is broken . rains are very frequent in the autumn and the winter , because the sun casting its rayes obliquely towards those countries , where the seasons of the year are manifestly observed , doth raise a greater abundance of vapours more than it can dissolve or disperse ; besides , a great number of clouds are sent from other places , where the sun doth through its summer heat raise such a great quantity of vapours , which meeting and being impacted upon one another and etruded cause great rains at those times of the year . the moon hath also great power in dissolving a cloud into rain , for she sending down and impelling great abundance of dense weighty minims doth very much further the descent of drops . frosty minims exercise a strong vertue in stifning the air , whereby it is rendred more firm to contain the clouds , and hinder their precipitation , besides they do also disperse the clouds through their effective crassitude ; whence it is , that it rains so seldom in frosty weather : but as soon as the thow is begun likely the clouds meet and fall down in a rain ; which if sometimes pouring down in great showers is called a nimbus : if in small drops , but descending close is called an imber . the cause of this difference depends upon the density of the clouds , and the proportion of air pent within them . those rainy clouds do sometimes contain a great quantity of earthy minims , which meeting , are through a petrisick vertue changed into stones , raining down at the dissolution of the said clouds . other contents consisting of reddish or whitish exhalations drawn up from the earth may give such a red or white tincture to the clouds , which when dispersed into rain may appear bloudy , or milky . frog or fish-spawns have sometimes been attracted up into the air , being inclosed within vapours , where within the matrix of a close cloud they have been vivified , and afterwards rained down again . a nebula is a small thin cloud generated in the lower region of the air out of thin vapours : the reason , why those vapours ascended no higher , is , because they were concreased in the lower parts of the lower region of the air , through the force of the air in the night , being rendred potent through the absence of the suns discontinuating raies . a mist is the incrassation of vapours contained in the lowermost parts of the air . the dew is the decidence of drops from subtil vapours concreased through the privative coldness of nocturnal air . iii. snow is the decidence of clouds in flocks , whose production depends upon the concrescence of drops by frosty minima's and their attenuation through aerial particles , whence they are soft and do reflect the light whitish . it usually falls after a degelation , when the congealed clouds are somewhat loosened . it dissolves or melts through deserting the frosty minima's . hail is the decidence of drops in hard small quadrangular bodies : their congelation is also occasioned through the detention of frosty minima's within the drops of water : their hardness is from a less commixture of air , whence the water doth the more enjoy her own crassitude and hardness . iv. wind is a violent eruption of incrassated air pent within the clouds , puffing , disrupting and taring the element of air asunder . hence when it blows hard the vulgar renders it , that there is a taring wind abroad . that it is a puffing and disruption is sensibly perceived , since the aerial element is divided , and being continuous it is subjected to no other violent separation of parts but to a disruption . if so , that which doth disrupt or puffe up certainly can be no other but a continuous body ; because a contiguous one would pass with a single perforation of parts , as the rain , fire , &c. whereas a disruption and puffing is continuous . what can this disrupting body be ? it is not water ; for that would be perceived by its weight . ergo , it must be incrassated air . . the air puffed is continuated unto the earth : for we feel its puffing effects , in that we perceive it to cause a light compression or a puffe upon our faces . . that it is oft a disruption of the air , our face and lips do testifie , being subjected to be cut and cloven in windy weather . . the causality of winds may not be imputed to exhalations , as aristotle and his peripateticks did strangely imagine , because those are never so cohering and continuous as to cause continuous disruptions or puffings throughout a whole zone . besides exhalations according to the philosopher are described to be sulphureous , hot and dry : whereas black cold winds in the winter and wet winds in september are quite opposite , and have no sign of sulphur or heat . winds according to the forementioned supposition should be most frequent and highest in the torrid zone , and that when the sun is in the aequinox , which falls out quite contrary . lastly , vvho would be so simple as to conceive , that such a vast proportion of exhalations should be excited as to continuate wind a whole half year or longer together , as monzones , provincial , and etesian winds , & c ? neither are winds generated out of vapours , as most do now adaies believe ; because then all winds would be moist , whereas most winds are drying . neither will the grosseness of vapours permit themselves to pass with such a fury , violence and incomprehensible swiftness , ergo nothing but air a little incrassated can quadrate to the subtility , fierceness , swiftness , and long continuation of winds . the manner of their generation is thus . in the clouds ( being as i said before water incorporated with air ) each element striveth for the center within them , viz. the air by sinking down , and water by pressing downwards : air having the advantage ( if inclosed in a great proportion ) through its tenuity recovers the central parts ; water unites in continuation all about , the air now being slipt away ; but the air without , sinking all about upon the besieging water , especially from above ( because the whole element of air sinks downwards ) adds no small force to its pressure , whereby it is enabled to squeeze out the inclosed air ( being somewhat incrassated , and thence rendred unlike to the ambient air ; for otherwaies they would unite , and so its force would be stayed , ) with a violence into the extrinsick air * , through which it taires it to some extent , and aftervvards puffs it up further , not unlike to the wind squeezed out of bellows , or a bladder . a fan raises a wind by puffing the air . an aeolipile doth evidently confirm to us the foresaid discourse of generation of winds : i shall first describe it , then subnect the manner of using of it . an aeolipile is a hollovv ball made of brass ( or any other matter that may resist the fire ) whereinto a little hole is pierced . this laid to the fire and heated is cast into a bowl of water , of which it draws in some part : this done , the hole is to be stopped very close , and the ball afterwards laid to the fire untill it grows hot , then unstop it , and it will emit a durable wind , considering the proportion of the water ; for a half quarter of a pint of water will suffice to maintain a wind for an hour long . this instance tells us , that wind is nothing else but air incrassated , or a little water attenuated by much air , squeezed out by the compression of the extrinsick air entring with the fire through the pores of the ball. the difference between the eruption of incrassated air detruding rain , and that which causeth winds , is that the former is much thicker than the latter , less in proportion , and more dispersed in particles between the thick and dense clouds ; the latter is less incrassated , more in proportion and cohering . air incrassated and vapours differ in consistency secundum magis & minus . v. the differences of winds are taken either from their duration and type , whence they are said to continue long or short , to be typical or erratick . the former are again distinguisht into trade winds , provincial winds , etesian winds , land winds , and general winds . trade winds or monzons are winds blowing one way for six months together , and another way the other six months . they are called trade winds , because they serve to carry ships up to and fro the indian coasts for to trade , or to make trading voyages , as they are usually termed : they ordinarily meet with them in the channel of mozambique in the month of august , whence they make their voyage to goa , cochin or other places of the east indies in thirty daies ; in march and april the wind begins to serve them to return from the indies to the said channel . provincial winds are such as do particularly perstate a country and do not exceed beyond the length of it . thus the west-north-west wind , according to seneca his relation , lib. . nat . quaest . cap. . is proper to calabria , tataegis to pamphylia , atabulus to apulia , north northwest to narbone in france , west northwest to athens , a west wind to this island for the greater part of the year ; an east wind to portugal during the summer , &c. to these common winds are opposites , such as perslate a whole zone or climate at any time of the year . annual winds are such , as do return at certain times of the year , and last for a certain term of daies . these are observed to be three . . the ornithean , ( so called from birds ) or chelidonian ( from swallows ) or rose winds are westerly winds , which usually begin to blow ( but calmly ) at the first appearance of certain birds , as storkes or swallows , or the budding of roses . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or forerunners are north northwest winds blowing for the space of eight daies before the appearance of the dog star. they are called forerunners , because they precede the etesian winds . . the etesian or annual winds ( derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a year ) are north northwest winds blowing forty daies every year , beginning two daies after the appearance of the dog-star : they usually rise about three a clock in the day , and are laid again at night . land winds are such , as blow from the land at a certain season of the day or night , and are opposite to those that blow from the sea : they are otherwise by the portugeses named terreinhos , as those from the seaward viracons . they meet with both upon the coasts of guiny , congo and coramandel . general winds are those , that blow one way throughout the greater part of the year ; thus off the cape of good hope a southerly wind is general , and thence westward towards brasil between and deg . south lat. a south southeast and southeast wind is general . to these you may add the fiery winds , which the spaniards call bochornos , derived from boca de horno , i. e. the hot steam of an oven . common winds are distinguished into cardinal and collateral winds . the former are such as blow from the principal corners of the world , viz. east , blowing from the rising of the aequinoctial ; west , blowing from the going down of the aequator ; north , erupting from the arctick pole ; and south , deriving from the meridies . the latter are such as erupt from those parts of the horizon , that are interposed between the four principal corners , their number is , viz. next to east towards the south you have east and by south , east southeast , southeast and by east , southeast , southeast and by south , south southeast , south and by east . between south and west are inserted south & by west , south southwest , southwest and by south , southwest , southwest and by west , west southwest , west and by south . from west to north are accounted west and by north , west northwest , northwest and by west , northwest , northwest and by north , north northwest , north and by west . between north and east do blow north and by east , north northeast , northeast and by north , northeast , northeast and by east , east northeast , east and by north. among these collaterals the northeast , northwest , southeast , and southwest are termed principal collateral winds . from their temperature winds are distinguisht into cold and dry , as the northern and western winds , above all the north northeast in the winter ; or in warm and moist winds , viz. the southern and easterly winds , and beyond the others the south southeast in the summer . a west southwest wind is for the most part moist , damp , rainy , cloudy , and sometimes tempestuous . north northwest winds are stormy , cold , bringing oft snow and hail along with them . a south wind is unwholsome , putrid , pestilential , rainy , hot in the summer , raising thunder and lightning , and makes a thick cloudy sky . the south southwest wind in the summer is temperate and warm , moist , and sometimes a concomitant to thunder . the south southeast wind is moist and warm . touching the wholsomness of winds , those that are of a warm and dry temperature are the wholsomest and the pleasantest , because they attenuate , clarifie , and rarefie the air , disposing it to the ventilation and quickning of our vital and animal spirits . next to these cold and dry winds are the wholsomest , because they purge and serenate the air , descend from a pure and clear corner , void of all putrid and pestilential vapours . next , those that are simply cool or warm come into plea. all moist winds are feaverish , putrid , and sometimes pestilential , causing catarrhes and rheumes , stirring all the excrementitious humours in the body . very cold winds are better than the next foregoing , yet do oft cause a constipation of the pores and of the belly : but let us take in the opinion of hippocrates upon winds , lib. . apho. . now what concerns the dayly winds , the north northeast ones do render bodies solid and firm , and fit for motion , and well coloured . they sharpen the hearing , but yet they dry the guts , moreover they bite the eyes . and if any one hath been troubled before with a pain in his breast , they make it sharper . but the southern ones do quite dissolve bodies , and render them moister , besides they occasion dulness of hearing , and heaviness of the head and darkish meagrims , moreover they cause a difficulty of motion both to the eyes and to the whole body , and do moisten the guts . vvinds do also vary much in wholsomness according to the climates or places which they pass through : for if they are infected with putrid vapours and exhalations arising from dead carkaffes after a field battel , stinking caves , corrupted pooles , &c. their remperament is soon changed , although blowing from the east or north. vvinds blow equally or unequally , continuately or interrupted , high , stormy , or a moderate gale , or a small brife . some winds rise in the day and are laid again or decrease at night , as the north winds : others are laid in the day and rise in the night , as the south winds . the north winds raign on the land , the south at sea. now concerning their causes . trade winds are generated out of eruptions of incrassated air , bursting through even and continuated clouds , situated in the middle , or at least the upper part of the inferiour region of the air ; for only there clouds are diducted in continuation , out of whose various spouts the winds are continuated for six months : viz. out of the north , north northeast or northeast side of the clouds of the south hemisphere blowing to the north , north northwest , or northwest , whilst the sun is passing through the north from aries to libra ; and out of the south , south southwest , or southwest side of the clouds of the north hemisphere , blowing to the south , south southeast , or southeast , whillt the sun is measuring that tract from libra to aries through the south . the cause of the copious elevation of vapours uniting into clouds in the south hemisphere during the suns peragration through the north must be imputed to the suns oblique rayes raising a vast measure of vapours out of the oriental and occidental ocean , which excited are beyond the sphere of the suns direct rayes , whereby they might otherwise be dissolved . . or because they are most apt to be gathered and concreased in a region that is privatively cold , through the continuation of the air forcing the vapours more potently together . so likewise the sun conversing in the northern declination of the ecliptick occasions ventous clouds in the south hemisphere through the same efficiency . next we shall tell you why , the sun existing in the north declination of the ecliptick , the winds burst out from the south . . namely , because that side of the clouds , which is obverted to the sun , is discontinuated by the suns rarefaction , or fiery minims demitted from him . . because the air is strongest in its compression from the polar side , as being less discontinuated by the fiery minims , and inforced by the cold minims from the pole wards . likewise for the same reason the winds burst out from the north , when the sun is seated in the opposite hemisphere . this is observable in those monzons , that near the aequinoxes they blow but little or not at all , because the sun through its burning rayes , which he spreads , when he is perpendiculan over the middle of the torrid zone doth so much rarifie the air , that it is rendred unfit for the concretion of clouds : but the further the sun declines , the more high & strong those winds grow , and are at their strongest , when the sun is near his remotest declination , because through his greater remoteness the air is aptest for concretion . . those winds blow stronger in the night than in the day : because the internal air of the clouds is then strongest squeezed and least dispersed through the suns heat . . the monzones that blow from the south blow usually stronger , and somewhat longer than the others , because the sun being then got into the arctick declination is now obliquely imminent upon the waters , and therefore raises the greater quantity of vapours : vvhereas on the other side a greater part of its oblique rayes are taken up by the land. . they are oft intended by the moons demission of weighty minima's upon them . the common winds are deprehended in the temperate and rigid zones . the east winds blow , when a cloud opens at its vvest side in the east ; the north wind blows , when it is vented at the south side in the north , &c. the winds , if any thing durable must spout out of great long clouds , otherwise they would soon be emptied , besides clouds through the commotion of the air do succeed one another , and are united , when the former is suckt out as it vvere . sometimes the vvind seems to come dovvn from over our heads , because a cloud is opened there : more frequently from the finitor , because clouds do most usually meet in union thereabout . sometimes the vvindes blovv from the north and south at once , because tvvo clouds in those regions are a venting . sometimes besides the continuation of a durable vvind , there breaks out suddenly another vvind upon us by a blast ; because there is a cloud breaks out underneath those great ones , that cause the durable vvind . provincial vvinds are occasioned through bursting out of those clouds , that surround the respective provinces . for example , if a country is apt to be most beset vvith clouds on its north sides , then northerly winds vvill prove its provincials . annual vvinds are caused through the particular aspects of the sun at such a time of the year , raising vapours tovvards such a plage or corner , and rarefying their clouds at such a side . winds accidentally and violently are most of them coole and dry , because bursting out with a force , they must necessarily cause a compression upon objected bodies , and through their tenuity must rub off the dampness from the same bodies : yet some winds prove more particularly very cold and dry , because many earthy minims , that are incorporated with the imprisoned air , break forth along with them , causing a strong punctual compression or acute cold : hence north winds happen to partake so much of coldness , because they are incorporated with many terrestrial minima's transmitted from the polars . north northeast winds in winter feel very pinching and nipping cold , yea numming , because of the commixture of frosty minims with their air . south winds are moist , because their production depends upon clouds transmitted from the meridies , whose body is very damp and waterish ; they are hot besides , because they have been smitten with the suns torrid rayes . these are noxious and pernicious , because through their warm moisture communicated to the ambient air they move , relaxe , swell , and dissolve all the humours of the body , whence there must necessarily arise an exestuation or fermentation of the bloud . by the way let me tell you the reason , why many clouds move against the stream of the air : because their winds bursting on the contrary side draw them , like fire bursting out of a squib draweth the same after it . winds blow equally through their equal eruption , high through their greater union and force directed outward , and being augmented by the violent detention of the ambient cloud . some winds rise in the night , because the internal breath of their clouds is now united through a privative and positive coldness . others are intended by the help of the dissolving sun ; for the cloud being too close outwardly , and the inward breath not very strong , needed the rarefaction of the sun. hence northern winds are raised in the day , because the faces of the clouds are objected directly against the heat of the sun : whereas south winds are laid in the day , because the sun rarefying the back parts of their clouds attracts their breath backwards , and disperseth it . tempestuous winds are distinguisht by five names . . ecnephias , ( from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of the clouds ) or an oricane , which is a sudden and most impetuous wind bursting out directly from above out of the sky , and breaking in upon the sea and ships , cause it to rise into mountainous waves , and these oft to be overset , if their sails be up ; wherefore mariners in the east * and vvest indian ocean as soon as they spy a small cloud in the heavens seemingly not much bigger than the top of ones hat , take in their sails immediately , or if at anchor they are forced to cut their cables and expose themselves to the free waves of the sea for to prevent foundring . the cause of so sudden a fury is questionless a great quantity of incrassated air , admitted to condensed fire , pent in hard within the stiff clouds , and so setting force against force , the air and condensed fire are forced with one violence to break through the thick clouds , which although strongly striving to keep themselves in continuation , yet at last choose to give way , and to suffer some parts of them to be gathered into a small cloud , whereupon that furious aeolus soon puts the whole climate into a commotion , scattering withall a spout of hot water , kindled through the great sight , rotting whatever it touches , especially wollen cloaths , and breeding worms . . turbo , typhon , ( from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to beat ) or a violent whirlwind is caused through the same condensed fire and incrassated air violently bursting out of several spouts , whose circular refraction meeting upon the surface of the water or land , oft carries a ship sheer out of the water , or any other moveable bodies from the land . i have oft been told of ships , that have been lifted out of the water and cast upon the shore by such winds as these * , but how true i know not , although it seems probable enough . . praester , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i kindle , is a surious wind caused through the violent eruption of exhalations , or a condensed fire kindled within the clouds , and incrassated air , which doth not only ruinate houses and trees , but oft burns them down to the ground , and puts the sea into a boyling heat . . exhydria is a vehement bursting out of wind attended with a great shower of rain and hail . but none of these violent winds prove lasting , because the flatuosity contained within the clouds , erupting in so great a measure , must soon be exhausted , whereas were it evacuated in a less proportion , they must necessarily prove more durable . among all the winds none delights more in the greatest and longest furies and storms , than the south southwest in the winter , because it derives from the meridies , or torrid zone , where vapours are drawn up in very great measures , and that constantly , because of the suns continual torrid beams , and the multitude of waters underneath . it is reported , that in the northern countries winds are sometimes so furious , that they cast horse and man down to the ground ; and in tartary the winds blow so violently , though in the summer , that there is no travelling at such times . likewise about china and japan tempests are out ragious beyond belief . tercera one of the azores or flemish islands , suffers such violences from winds , that the bars of iron that are fastned to the houses , although of the thickness of an arm or two , are grinded away to the smalness of wier , and holes are eaten into the rocks about the said island of the bigness of a horse through such tempestuous winds . . statarian winds rage commonly every fryday in the indies , insomuch that ships are provided with an anchor more on that day ; on the sunday it groweth calm again . it will not be amiss to add the cause of the variation of winds perceived by ships that are in sight of one another , and why the wind at sea differs oft a point or two from the wind at land : viz. because the wind bursting out low doth reflect against the tumour of the sea interjected between the two ships , or against the promontories and hills of the lands reflecting the wind , some larger , others narrower . the seas grow oft very turbulent and incensed : . through the eruption of winds descending from above and piercing through their body , which they raise into high waves by their swelling , and strife of passing . . the said winds do raise other winds and flatuosities within the body of waters , partly out of their own substance , and partly out of their mud . the sea is much more disposed to disturbations in some places than others : as off the cape of good hope , likewise between china and japan , where sea-men oft are forced to pawn their ships and lives to the ocean . chap. xvi . of earthquakes , together with their effects , and some strange instances of them . . what an earthquake is . the manner of its generation . the coucomitants thereof . . the kinds and differences of earthquakes . . the proof of the generation of earthquakes . . their effects upon the air . i. since we have lately discoursed upon eruptions of incrassated air out of the clouds , we shall next insert a few words touching the eruption of incrassated air out of the earth , whose egress causeth that , which we call an earthquake , and is nothing else but the trembling of the earth , ordinarily following or preceding the bursting thereof , through subterraneous winds vio ently breaking forth . the manner of its production is thus : a proportion of air and water being lodged in a cavern underground is further attenuated into subterraneous clouds , thence into vapours , and thence into incrassated air through fiery minims entring and penetrating through the pores of the earth , whereupon the earth pressing strongly suffers a diruption , in the same manner , as we see a bottle filled with water being close stopt and exposed to the fire is broke through the force of incrassated air , or attenuated and rarefied water within . whence we observe these concomitants to be necessary in an earthquake . . a strange great noise . . a trembling of the earth . . a great blast . . a spouting out of water . . sometimes an unequal discontinuation and excavation of the earth . . sometimes a flame . ii. the kinds of earthquakes are taken , . from their effects and manner of motion ; some causing a shaking or quaking of the earth , ( named by some an inclination , by aristotle a tremor , ) through which houses , walls , or other buildings are weakened in their foundation , and thence are occasioned to fall down ; thus many cities of asia , in the fifth year of tiberius , of bithynia near the extream passion of our saviour ; the city nyssena , bâle , and particularly ferrarae a city in italy were demolished : this last was surprized on martins day in the year , beginning about ten a clock at night with most terrible sounds , as if the city had been battered with great pieces of ordnance ; next a very horrible shaking or trembling followed , raising all the citizens out of their beds , putting them to their beads , pouring out their prayers thrice louder than ordinary , and forcing them to quit the city and to behold the ruine of their houses in the fields ; the palace of the duke and other great buildings yielded to this violence ; many were frighted out of their lives , others killed through these prodigious accidents , not ceasing before the next day at night . no less were the citizens of constantinople amazed by those most raging earthquakes , in nothing less terrible than the former , described by agath . lib. . de la guerre gothique ; the strange kinds of noises , sounds , thunder , whistling , howling , cracking , that were then perceived , are incredible . campania in the time of the consulship of l. cornelius and q. minutius , was infested with a trembling for many daies together . many do write of such earthquakes as these , that lasted a month , a year , some two years , but by fits i suppose . in parthia above two thousand villages have been demolished by earthquakes ; besides many others in sicily in the th year of charles the fifth , in the month of april ; in october of the th year of his reign another hapned near puteoli in campania . others have been observed only to cause a single elevation or puffing up of the earth , afterwards sinking down again without the appearance of any other violence , and are by aristotle named pulses . by these the earth and houses upon it have been lifted up to a great height , and sunke down again without the displacing of one single stone : thus the houses of a town in switzerland called friburg were twice at several times lifted up in the year , once in the night , the other time in the day . by the same accident some houses about burdeaux , in the year , in the month of august were lifted up , and sunke down again into their former places . others cause a bursting and excavation of the earth , swallowing up its whole surface where it bursted , with the houses , men , and cattle upon it ; as when a part of the island lango or coos ( famous for being the country of hippocrates ) was swallowed up , at which time the inhabitants were not a little amazed by an incredible thunder and fury of its commotion . camden gives a relation of a very stupendious earthquake , that befel the east part of herefordshire in the year in march , where the earth and a rocky hill ( called marcley hill ) was removed to a far distance thence with the trees and all the sheep that were upon it . some other trees were cast out of the ground , whereof many fell flat upon the ground , others hapned to fall into the seams of the hill , and closed as fast , as if they had taken their first root there . the hole which this eruption made was at least foot wide , and yards long , lasting from saturday in the evening untill munday at noon . likewise a whole town was swallowed up in the island aenaria , another in thrace , one in phaeuicia beyond sidon , and another in eubaea . others protrude a great piece of earth and cast it up into a kind of mountain , but a very uneven one , as for instance the mount modernus near the lake avernus : this sort is called egestion . some cast forth a flame withall , as hapned in the mount vesevus , alias the mount of somma in campania , and the mongibell in sicily . earthquakes have sometimes removed two opposite fields and placed them in one anothers room , as those two fields in italy where the marrucini were seated in the reign of nero. for rivers to burst out , as the river ladon in arcadia did ; and others to be stopt up by earth cast into them by such accidents is very possible . oft times earthquakes make way for deluges , which may be also incident upon the earth at the bottom of the sea or near to the shore ; or may happen to the same places without a deluge , whereby the waters have been swallowed up and ships left dry upon the shore ; as that which hapned in the time of theodosius ; or that vvhen m. antonius and p. dolabella vvere consuls , leaving great heaps of fish dry upon the sands . in the reign of emanuel there vvas a very great earthquake perceived about lisbon , scalabis , and other tovvns of portugal , vvhereby the vvaters of the river tajo vvere so much diffused , that the bottom appeared dry . there is another kind of earthquake called arietation , vvhen tvvo subterraneous vvinds vibrate against one another : sometimes this hapned vvithout any dammage , there being some earth betvveen to hinder their conflict ; other times meeting in cavernous places have subverted mountains and all that vvas upon them ; as those mountains near modena , vvhich pliny , lib. . cap. . relates to have been bursted against one another vvith a very hideous noise , subverting many villages , and swallowing up a number of cattel ; yea whole countries and armies have been devoured by these kinds of accidents . . from their duration , some lasting a day , a week , a month , &c. . from their violence some inferring little or no dammage , others being contented with nothing less than ruine . . from the sounds that accompany them , being various , as i have related before . . from their places : some more frequently infesting islands , others the continent : thus sicily , aenaria , lucara , the moluccas islands , tyrus , eubaea , phrygia , caria , lydia , italy , and many countries in the west-indies have very oft been molested by earthquakes . cold countries , as the septentrional ones , or others that are very hot , as aegypt , are very seldom invaded by them . . from their efficient , some being extraordinarily raised by the almighty out of his wrath for to punish the sons of men for their sins ; an instance of this we have in kings . likewise that , which hapned about the time of the passion of christ , supposed by many , as didymus , and others , to have been universall , and to have shaken the whole earth ; but since ecclesiastick historians make no mention of it , none is bound to give credit to the foresaid supposition : however beyond all dispute it was a very great one , if not the greatest that ever the earth underwent . neither is paulus oros , to be thought more authentick , relating lib. . hist. cap. . an universal earthquake in the time of valentinianus , since the holy scripture and reason do tell us , that the earth is altogether immoveable . . from the consequents , viz. some after the earths eruptions are followed by vehement winds , emptying out of her ; others by hot boyling waters ; others again by damps and stinking sents ; also by vomiting up of stones , clots of earth and other strange bodies . . from their extent , some reaching farther , others nearer : thus there hapned an earthquake in the year , on the th day of september , that began from colmar in switzerland , and reached as far as bern , being near upon miles distant , &c. iii. now it is requisite , i should proffer proof for the forementioned causes of earthquakes . . i prove that they are caused by winds ; because they alone are of a capable force to burst out suddenly through the earth . . because winds bursting out of the earth do alwaies precede and consecute earthquakes ; whence we may certainly collect , when waters in pits and rivers begin to be turgid and continually raised into a great number of bubbles , that an earthquake is near at hand , as appeared by the swelling and bubling of the river po a little before the before alledged harthquake of ferrara . . that these winds are principally raised out of peregrin water collected within a cavern of the earth is evident by the great spouting out of water , that doth follow the eruption . . it is further made evident in a bottle half filled with water and exposed to the fire , which doth also make good to us , that the sun through its fiery minims doth press in a great proportion of air into those subterraneous waters , whereby they are attenuated ; whence those waters , that are cast forth presently after the diruption , are also rendred boyling hot ; so that countries remote from the energy of the sun are seated beyond danger of having winds generated within their bowels ; however subterraneous fires may supply the office of the suns beams in attenuating the waters into winds by impelling air into them , whence it is that near the mount hecla in iseland concussions and arietations happen frequently . earthquakes are disposed to eruption in the night season as much as in the day ; because as the erupting force of the internal winds is intended by the suns rarefaction , so is the compressing vertue of the earth intensed by the more potent sinking down of the air in the night , being freed from the discontinuating fiery minims , and by the decidence of the weighty minims inherent in the air. the spring and autumn are seasons of the year qualified for the attenuating and rarefying of the peregrin waters , whence also they prove most frequent near those times . why hills and hilly countries are subject to tremors and concussions , and other moist ones , as holland and zealand , less , may easily be understood from our discourse upon the generation of hills . iv. that earthquakes portend famine , pestilential feavers , and other contagious diseases is believed by most grave authors , but whence such a putrefaction causing the said distempers should arrive to the air cannot vvell be deduced from their assigning exhalations to be the causes of earthquakes , since they hold them to be hot and dry , being qualities according to the peripateticks resisting and expelling putrefaction beyond any ; wherefore it will be most agreeable to hold with us , that it is derived from those moist damps and vapours , that are the material causes of the disrupting winds . chap. xvii . of fiery meteors in the air. . of the generation of a fools fire , a licking fire , helens fire , pollux and castor , a flying drake , a burning candle , a perpendicular fire , a skipping goat , flying sparks , and a burning flame . . of the generation of thunder , fulguration and fulmination , and of their effects . of a thunder stone . . of comets . of their production . i. those vapours , that are elevated into the air , oft contain no small proportion of sulphureous particles within them , which if concreasing through their own positive coldness , and privative coldness of the night , into a low cloud ( nebula ) in the lowermost parts of the lower region , do compress those sulphureous particles ( otherwise termed exhalations , and distinguisht from vapours , because in these water and air are predominant , in the others condensed fire and incrassated air ) towards the center , where uniting are converted into a flame by extending the incrassated air through their condensed fire . this flame possibly appears like unto a candle , playing and moving to and fro the air , and thence is also called a fools fire , or ignis fatuus , seu erraticus , because it proves sometimes an occasion of leading travellers that are belated out of their road ; for by their coming near to it the air is propelled , which again protrudes the flame forwards , and so by continuing to follow it , imagining the same to be some candle in a town or village , are oft misled into a ditch or hole : or if they go from it , when they are once come near , the light will follow them , because in receding , they make a cavity , which the next succeeding air accurs to fill up . the generation of these lights is more frequent near muddy pools , church-yards , and other putrid places , that abound with such sulphureous bodies . the said sulphureous parts , if being of a less density , condensed and united by the dense wool of a mans cloathes , or hair , or the hairs of a horse or oxe and the foresaid coldnesses , it takes fire at the forementioned places , but flames so subtilly , that it is uncapable of burning : this sort of meteor is called an ignis lambens , a licking fire , because it slakes then here then there , like to spirits of wine flaming . helens fire ( sidus helenae ) so called , because as helen occasioned the ruine of greece and asia , so this kind of flaming fire , adhering to the shrowds or yards of a ship , is usually a messenger of the ships perishing . if this flame appears double , it is distinguisht by a double name of castor and pollux , which are generally construed to bring good tidings of fair weather . but these kinds of prognostications are very uncertain : they may precede storms , and may appear without the consequence of tempests : for there is no necessity for either . this generation depends upon exhalations condensed and united between the ropes and the masts , or the yards . a flying drake ( draco volans ) is a flame appearing by night in the lowest region of the air with a broad belly a small head and tail like unto a drake : its matter is the same with the former , differing in quantity alone and figure , so framed through the figure of its containing cloud . in the upper part of the lower region of the air are produced , . a falling star , representing a star falling down from the heavens . . a burning lance , expressing the image of a flaming lance. . a burning candle ( fax . ) . a perpendicular fire , or fiery pillar , ( trabs seu ignis perpendicularis , seu pyramis ) representing a flaming beam , or pillar . . a flaming arrow ( bolis . ) . a skipping goat ( caprasaltans ) is a flame more long than broad , glistering , and flaking about its sides , and variously agitated in the air like the skipping of a goat . . flying sparks , moving through the air like the sparks of a furnace . . flamma ardens seu stipulae ardentes , or a great burning fire , suddenly flaming in the air like those fires , that are kindled out of a great heap of straw . all these depend upon a grosser material cause , being somewhat more condensed and united than the former , through a greater privative coldness , and therefore they are also more durable . a falling star obtains its production near the permanent clouds , and being somewhat weighty through earthy minims , and rarefying the air through its heat breaks through * and falls down lower , untill it is arrived to a thicker cloud , where nevertheless it doth not abide long in its flame . the others procure their figure from their proportion of mixture , and shape of the ambient cloud . ii. thunder is a great rebounding noise in the air , caused through the violent bursting out of incrassated air and condensed fire , being suddenly kindled into a flame * ; the manner & cause of this eruption you may easily collect from the manner of the eruption of winds . how a sound is produced i have set down before . the differences of thunders are various : some are only murmuring without a multiplication of sounds , caused through a less proportion of fire and air , bursting through a less dense and thick cloud . others raise a great cracking noise , hapning through the acuteness of the sound , smartly dividing the air and clouds , wherever it reaches . lastly , some are great hollow sounds variously multiplied , hapning through the reflection and refraction of other dense and thick clouds driving in the way . besides these there might be accounted many more differences of thunders , raised through the proportion of air and fire that burst out , and the various mixtures of clouds . fulguration or a flashing is fire condensed , raised into a flame through incrassated air within a cloud , and breaking out from it . this scarce effects any great noise , because of its subtility , although in some it doth . fulmination or lightning differs from the former only in intention , in that it is much more forcible , reaching to the ground , and piercing into it and other terrestrial thick dense bodies , and is more augmented in matter . it is ordinarily a concomitant of thunder , both being produced at once , although not perceived by us together , we seeing the lightning before we hear the thunder , because a visible object is much swifter communicated to the eye than a sound to the ear , as appears in spying a man a far off chopping of wood , we seeing his axe go down before we hear the noise ; the reason of this i have inserted above . a lightning is either vibrating , and is next to fulguration in intention , passing more subtilly : or discutient , consisting somewhat of a denser fire , and causing a greater thunder . . or burning , consisting of the densest fire , causing the greatest thunder , and oft melting a sword in the scabberd or moneys in a bag , and the scabberd and bag remaining undamaged : the reason is , because the rarity of these gave a free passage to the lightning , whereas the crassitude and density of the others did stay and unite the passing aduting flame . strong men and beasts are oft killed through an aduring lightning , whereas women and children do escape ; because the bodies of these latter being laxe and porous suffer the said flame to pass without any great resistance , whereas the crassitude of the other bodies do unite and collect it , through which their vital heat is quite dispersed , having no other apparent sign either within or without their bodies of so sudden an alteration . wolfgang meverer , in his com. meteor . p. . makes mention of a man being suddenly seized upon on the way between leipsich and torga , and lifted up into the skies by a lightning , never appearing again to any ; wine hath sometimes been bound up together with a thin skin through the like accident , the cask being broke asunder : this doubtless depended upon the incrassation and condensation of the external parts of the wine , through the compressing force of the lightning , impelling the aerial and igneous parts to the center . wine thus affected becomes very noxious and poysonous through the infection of the celestial sulphur . i must not forget to insert a word or two touching thunder stones , differing in hardness and figure , some being pyramidal , others globous , oval , or like to a wedge , &c. touching their generation authors are much at variance . sennert . opiniates , that they are generated upon the earth , through the great heat of the lightning melting , and afterwards concreasing the sands into a very hard stone . a gross mistake : . these stones are observed to fall down from the heavens after a thunder with such an acute pressing weight , that they are forced ( according to pliny , lib. . c. . ) five foot deep into the earth , according to others yards , and some would have them press to the center of the earth , but that is ridiculous . . a stone of that hardness is not generated in so short a time . . these stones must then be supposed to be generated without a matrix . but to the matter : they are generated within very dense and thick clouds , whose denser and thicker part is sequestred into a closer seat for a womb , where after some time it concreases into a stone : and lastly its greatest hardness is accomplisht through the intense heat of the fire united within the same clouds , and happens to fall down through the great concussion and disruption caused by a thunder . iii. to these igneous meteors a comet is likewise to be referred , touching whose seat and production a deal of dispute is made : but before i direct my pen to those particulars , it will not be amiss first to set down its description : a comet or blazing star is a fiery meteor ( that is a mixt body of no long duration sublimed into the air , ) generated out of some dense fiery and thick airy parts contained within the clouds of the second region of the air . it chuseth a difference from its figure , colour , time , motion , duration and place , whence some are globous , beset round with fiery hairs , and therefore are called cometae criniti : or others seem to be barded ; whence they , are termed cometae barbati : or others again appear with a tail , and for that reason are named cometae caudati . some appear in a light golden or yellow flame , others redish , bloudy , dusky , red , &c. some are moved slowly , others swiftly , some are moved more regularly than others . some appear in the spring , others more frequently in the autumn , rarely in the summer , more rarely in the winter : some are of a weekly , or monthly duration , others remain six months in sight . commonly they keep their station without the tropicks , and but rarely some do appear within the tropicks . but in reference to their place of production , many believe their seat to be in the elementary region , viz. the upper region of the air , that is according to their meaning , near the concave of the moon , where the actual flame of the stars may the better kindle them , judging the coldness of the second region to be very unapt for the generation of these bodies . others again allott the celestial plage for their reception : and among these anaxagoras and democritus thought them to be the appearance of several planets united in company and in their lights . pythagoras , asserted them to be planets ( but none of the seven common ones ) that had remained hidden all this while under the beams of the sun , and through their digress from him came now into sight , in the same manner as oft befals to mercury . the first opinion owned by the peripateticks doth somewhat thwart their own tenents . . they asserted that the kindling of all the preceding fiery meteors was occasioned through the intense coldness of the air in the second region , effecting a violent commotion upon exhalations contained within its jurisdiction , whereby they were inflamed or took fire , and that in the night , because its season doth superadd somewhat to the cold : whereas here they contradict themselves and maintain the second region to be too cold for to kindle a flame . . there they proclaime the solar or other intense heat to discusse and disperse the exhalations in the torrid zone , and therefore fiery meteors appear seldom there ; here nothing but a flaming actual heat will do it . what inconstancies are these ? . can any one probably imagine , that such great heaps and mountains of exhalations , as the great mole of a comet requires at that distance , should be attracted to the highest region of the air ? it is a question , whether the whole earth can afford so much sulphureous matter , were it all exhausted . or if she could , would that intense coldness ( as they imagine ) of the second region of the air , or those thick dense clouds of the lower region give passage to such numerous and thick passengers ? or do you not think , that they would be sooner discussed through the intense heat of the upper region , than concrease into a body ? neither can astronomers with their telescopes discern in them such a propinquity to the fiery region or moon , but to the contrary a very great distance . as for democritus his opinion , it is scarce worth the time to confute it ; but let me confirm my own . i say they are generated in the second region of the air ; not that second region , which the peripateticks have chalckt out , but the middle between the lower and upper region , where those stiff and permanent clouds are swimming ; not beginning from the tops of the mountains , but from the tops of the erratick clouds . the said permanent clouds move with the body of the air from east to west , and so do the comets * . . the permanent clouds are alone capable of condensing and uniting those subtil exhalations , that are escaped the thick dense clouds of the inferiour region , into a compact flame , durable for a certain term of daies , weeks , or months , according to the seat of that region , and the quantity of exhalations . neither is this flame apt to spend it self much , because it is ( as it were ) partially catochizated through the privative coldness of the air and positive coldness of its clouds . . it is supplied with pure incrassated air , not infected with many dense terrestrial or thick waterish particles . touching its hairs , they are nothing else but the light of its flame illustrating or obtending the air contained within those clouds in so many streaks ; for it cannot obtend it equally all about , because it is permixt with water , whose crassitude will not bear obtension , wherefore it divides the water or vapours into small or narrow lanes obtending the air between them . now if the water or clouds are equally pliable all about it , it appears hairy all about its circumference ; if the fore-part of the cloud be somewhat dense , and thence indisposed to give way , but resists , and only the back-part be pliable it formes streaks backwards seeming like a tail , and so according to the pliableness of the air it flashes out in figures . if you are free to understand by a comet any new appearing star , descending from its former seat , or lately generated , i must agree with you , that these are only seated in the lower fiery region , some below or above the moon ; and in this acception i have made use of the name of comets in some of the preceding chapters . authors in treating of comets seldom forget the inserting their predictions , which are . storms . . great drinesses . . tempestuous seas . . earthquakes . . great alterations to befall a country by the death of their king or prince . all the former are no more frequently consequents of comets , than of all other fiery meteors , because with those great stores of vapours and exhalations , there cannot but be a great proportion of slatuosities attracted , whose bursting out proves the efficient of the now mentioned effects . but as for the last , there can little reason be given for it , saving only that such a constitution of air causeth commotions of humours , and thence may cause diseases in general , but why it should light more upon such great personages than others , is beyond all guess , & therefore the truth of it is suspicious . likewise the fabulous presages of other fiery meteors may be placed in the same rank of dubiousness . chap. xviii . of the term antiperistasis and a vacuum . . whether there be such a thing as an antiperistasis . . whether a vacuum be impossible ; and why . . experiments inferring a vacuum answered . . whether a vacuum can be effected by an angelical , or by the divine power . . whether local motion be possible in a vacuum . a threefold sense of the doubt proposed . in what sense local motion is possible in a vacuum , in what not . . i could not conveniently without interruption of my subject insist before upon the examining that term of the schools , so oft assumed by them to expound the manner of generation of the fiery meteors , viz. antiperistasis , being described to be the intension of heat or cold in bodies , caused through the cohibition , repulsion or reflection of their own vertues by their contraries , without the addition of any new formal parts , or retention of their steams . thus many wells are cool in the summer and warm in the winter ; and exhalations grow hotter in the cold region of the air , because of the antiperistasis of the ambient cold against their heat , and of their heat again against the external cold ; in effect it is nothing but the condensation ( if such a term may be improperly used ) or rather union of the qualities of the elements by the resistance and collecting of their vertues by their opposites . but since the collection or uniting these qualities depends upon the condensation or incrassation of their substances , there is no need of introducing another frustraneous notion . but suppose an antiperistasis or intension of qualities without the condensation of their substances were granted , how do fiery meteors become flames ? never a word of this . and when flames , why do they cause a disruption of the air in a thunder ? because ( say they ) of avoiding a penetration of bodies : a good one , what fear is there of a penetration of bodies , when there is only an intension of qualities through an antiperistasis , without an augmentation of bodies ? possibly they will take their refuge to a contrary assertion , and tell me , that the foresaid disruption happens , because of avoiding a vacuum . this is just like them to run from one extremity to another : but how a vacuum ? because the flame pent close within consumes , or hath consumed or expelled its ambient air , which done , there must needs follow a vacuum , if nature did not prevent it , by causing the extrinsick air to break in , or the internal to break out for anguish . this is improbable ; for the vacuum may be filled up by the concentration of the ambient clouds . since i am accidentally here fallen into the discourse of a vacuum , i will think it worth my labour to inquire , whether such a thing be naturally possible within the circumference of the universe . i do not mean an imaginary vacuum without the heavens , neither a space void of any gross body , although filled up only with air , but a place or external surface freed from air , or any other body . for answer , i assert a vacuum to be repugnant to nature , because the nature of the elements is to move towards one another , with the greatest force imaginable , through their respective forms , because of their own preservation : hence the elements would sooner change into a confusion , than be debarred from one minimum , without having its space filled up with another . wherefore it is not enough to assert ( as usually they do ) that there is no vacuum possible in nature , because she doth so much abhor it , as if nature was an animal sensible of any hurt , and why doth she abhor ? that they know not . however some state the cause of her abhorrence to be natures providence , in ordering that sublunar bodies through mediation of interposed bodies should be disposed to receive the celestial influences , which a vacuum would otherwise eclipse from them ? how frivilous ! as if a moments partial vacuity , ( which could through its being violent not prove lasting ) should hinder a communication of the elements , or as if the said influences could not be transmitted to sublunars by mediation of bodies , that limit the said supposed vacuity . arriaga holds it to be for to prevent a penetration of bodies : that is idem per idem ; for one might as well demand , why nature doth so much abhor a penetration of bodies , and be answered , because of avoiding a vacuum . vasquez a jesuit is of opinion , that nature can never attain to a vacuum , because every body is impowered with an attractive vertue , attracting the next body that is contiguous to it , in such a manner that no body can be stirred , except it attracts its next adherent with it ; oh how grosly ! doth fire attract water , or earth air ? they all apprehend attraction to be violent , and notwithstanding they affirm nature to abhor a vacuum naturally , and how can this hang together ? iii. arguments for the proof of a vacuum , many are offered , but none of any strength , however for your satisfaction i will propose some few . . a bason filled up with ashes contains as much water poured into it , as if the same vessel were void ; ergo there must either be allowed a penetration of bodies , or a pre-existent vacuum : but so antiquity hath found the antecedence , ergo the consequence must be admitted . i must needs assert this ancient experiment to be an ancient falshood ; for a bason filled with ashes will scarce contain four fifths of the water , that it will do , when it is empty : as for the water that is imbibed by the ashes , it possesses the spaces left by the air , contained before between the particles of the said ashes , and now thence expelled . . warm water stopt close in a bottle doth possess more room , than when being set in a cold place it is concreased into an ice : ergo there must be some void space left within the bottle . i answer , that the supposed vacuity is filled up with frosty minims , whose presence expelling the air and fire from between the pores of the water , doth withall reduce it to a smaller body , as being before insufflated with air and fire : but when the same frosty minims do return , then the air and fire do fill up their vacuities again , by insufflating the body of water through their succession . . an aeolipile being filled up with water and air , doth notwithstanding slow as much fire , as will cause its wind to blaze a whole hour or longer according to the bigness of it : ergo there must have been a vacuum contained within the wind bale , or else we must admit a penetration of bodies by condensation . i answer , that neither is necessary ; for the advenient fire expels so much of the contained air as its presence doth take up , & diducts the body of the aeolipile somwhat into a larger continent , wherein a greater part of fire may be contained than there is air expelled . pecquet in his exper. nov. anat. hath endeavoured to borrow all experiments possible for to divide the universe with a vacuum , and so to abolish the natures of the elements . i shall only propose the first , which he hath from monsieur roberval , professor of the mathematicks at paris , and is alone performed by a glass blown in the form of a bolts head , open below and atop at its capacity , where it contains an empty bladder , that is usually taken out of a carpes belly , being tied close with a thread , as likewise the top of the capacity with a sows bladder : this done it is filled up to the brim of the orifice of the neck with mercury , which being close stopped with ones finger is immitted into a vessel half filled with mercury , and thrust deep into it , where the finger is to be withdrawn : hereupon follows the descent of the mercury as low as half way the pipe , and the bladder is puft up . hence he deduces a vacuum between the rarefied parts of the air , blowing up the bladder contained within the empty capacity . what a gross mistake is this ! first , he must know , as i shall prove by and by , that it is the air that presseth the mercury down ; for whatever is moved locally is moved by an extrinsick agent . secondly , he doth against reason and experience state the rarefaction of some air : but whence came that air ? there was none , whilst it was filled up with the mercury ; ergo it must have pierced through the pores of the glass ; if so , what needs he admit only a smal quantity , which he supposeth to be rarefied after its ingress by an elaterick vertue , since a greater may as easily pass ? and why then a vacuum ? wherefore i say he must necessarily grant some air to pass the pores for to blow up the bladder : besides i prove , that it is easie for the air to pass through the pores of glass ; because we see , light doth easily pass the thickest glass ; but light is the air illuminated or obtended , as i have proved before , ergo . that glass is pierced through with subtil pores is evident a little before it beginneth to concrease or indurate after its melting * moreover we see , that the liquor it self of aquà fort. being poured upon the filing of brass , penetrates through the pores of a thick precipitating glass : the same is observed about the glass at the ●ffusion of oyl of vitriol to oyl of tartar ; but air is much more subtil than these liquors . do we not observe the air to press by the spurring of fire through glasses of the greatest thickness ? for expose a thick glass of water to the fire , and you may observe it to be raised into millions of bubbles , when it begins to siethe , which is nothing else but the air forced through the pores of the glass by the fire : in fine there is nothing that is imperforated by pores , except water and air in their absolute state . i omit the rest of his borrowed experiments , and shall only insert two words touching the conclusion , inferred from the pomping of the air out of a large round glass receiver , ( in that manner as you have it proposed by casper scott , ) which they conclude must afterwards remain void ; on the contrary it is rather more filled by air , attracted from without , and impacted so closs , that the pores of the glass seem to be filled and insufflated with it , as appears by the venting of the receiver so pomped into a vessel of cold water , where it causeth a very great commotion and siething by the air bursting out ; certainly this is different from pomping the receiver empty : or thus , they may pretend a vacuum , because there is more air attracted into the receiver than it contained before ; ergo there must either a penetration of bodies be allowed , or a vacuum . to this i need propose no other answer for solution , than what i gave for the solution of the eruption of air out of an aeolipile . how or in what manner air is attracted into the said receiver by this magdenburg experiment , you shall read in the next chapter . as for other arguments they being as vacuous as vacuum it self i shall neglect the mentioning of them . iv. but the jesuitical philosophers do further propose to themselves , whether a vacuum could not be effected by an angelical power , or if not by angels , whether by the divine power . this is as like them as if it were spit out of their mouths : those vile impostors and the devils saints will name god almighty , and notwithstanding to his face doubt of his power in so mean a thing as a vacuum is ; what , if god can destroy the elements intirely , cannot he displace them partially ? angels i confess cannot effect it naturally and ordinarily , although extraordinarily being virtuated with an extraordinary power from god they may . v. next they rommage , whether local motion be possible in a vacuum ; and if it be , whether it must not happen in an instant . i shall not weary my self to produce their opinions , but only appose what reason doth direct me . but let us first state the question right : the problem may be understood in a threefold sense . . whether a local motion be possible in a vacuum as through a medium , through which a body being locally moved passeth , taking its beginning of progress from without the said vacuum . . whether a body can take its beginning of motion outwards from a vacuum . . whether a spiritual substance obtains the power of moving it self locally in a vacuum , or through it , without taking its first impulse from against a body , whence through reflection it might pass through . this premitted , i answer that according to the first intention a vacuum is capable of giving a passage to a body locally moving through it , provided it takes its progress from without upon an immoveable center . i prove it , air , fire , and the other elements move through a vacuum ; for otherwise did they move through another body , it would infer a penetration of bodies : if then the elements obtain such a power , ergo consequently their mixt bodies . . this maxim omne mobile sit super immobili . i. e. all moveables move upon an immoveable body , is alone to be understood of the foundation of motion , viz. that all moveables must move from an immoveable center , that is , take their beginning thence , either by impulse , reflection , refraction , or continuated protrusion . . that motion , whereby a moveable passeth through a vacuum , is continuated upon its own center , or upon another body instead of a center ; for all motions must take their beginning upon an immoveable , or at least upon that which is not inclined to the same motion , in the same swiftness that the body , which moves upon it doth . . a single body can neither press through , not move ( that is out of its place , ) locally in a vacuum , because it enjoying its center , and not being violently detained , would rest upon that center . . neither can a mixt body move locally , that is , change its ubi in a vacuum , because the reason of a bodies changing of its ubi is the impulsion of another body , striving for its center upon it : for example , water moves upwards , because the air striving for its center protrudes it out of its seat upwards , as hath been mentioned ; air being compressed within the body of water is moved out of it , because of the waters compression downwards , whereby it is squeezed upwards ; but not through its own motion . now in a vacuum there is no external body to strive or to impell upon it . . a body would not cease to move locally internally , because of the violent detentions of the elements contained within , pressing one another away from the center . . suppose there were a confusion of the four elements as big as a fist cast without the universe , they would change their internal places , as the elements changed theirs in the chaos , viz. the weighty elements being less in extent would sooner gain the center , than the others , and as for the rest they would move in the same manner , as the elements move here , but of this more in the next chapter : and now you may easily comprehend that the present world doth not at all change it s ubi , but is immoveably fixed , although continually changing its internal places . . angels , if conceited to be pure spirits may move in and through a vacuum , but if apprehended to be of a circumscriptive quantity , they cannot . chap. xix . of physical motion . . what a physical motion is ; the kinds of it ; the definition of alteration , local motion , and quantitative motions . the subdivision of local motion . . that all alterative and quantitative motions are direct . . that all externall motions are violent . . that all weighty mixt bodies , being removed from their element , are disposed to be detruded downwards from without ; but do not move from any internal inclination or appetite they have to their universal center . . the causes of swiftness and slowness of external local motion . . that light bodies are disposed to be moved upwards . . that ayry bodies , being seated in the fiery region , are disposed to be moved downwards . . the same reason , that perswaded me to treate of a vacuum and antiperistasis in the preceding chapter , is also a motive why i deferred the treatise of physical motions hither . physical motions are so called in opposition to hyperphysical or metaphysical , and are proper to natural bodies . a physical motion then is a change of a natural body in any one or more of its physical modes , or in all : a change is a ( transitus ) passing from that which is not to that which is to be : whence we may plainly collect the differences of it to be as many , as it may vary in its modes , and intirely in its essence : viz. physical motion is either to quantity , quality , action , passion , relation , situation , duration , to a new essence , &c. and particularly to a greater or less quantity , to colour , figure , heat , coldness , &c. this infers , that there are many more universal differences or kinds of motion than aristotle stated : however i shall only insist upon these three , as being most taken notice of : viz. alteration , which is a change of a quality of a physical being : external local motion , which is a change of the external place wherein a natural being is seated : and auction and diminution , which are changes of the quantity of a natural being . alteration ( as i said before in the chapter of coct . ) is nothing else , but the change of internal places of the elements in a mixt body : thus a body grows hot , when the intrinsick fire of a mixt body begins to be more united and condensed ; and is nothing else but the change of internal places , which by this fire were dispersed , and now are reduced in o a lesser number , or into places more united and less remote . so a mixt body happens to grow colder , when the earthy minims within it change their places , and are reduced to nearer places , and so grow more piercing to the center ; apprehend the same of the other qualities . external local motion is either understood in a large sense , as it comprehends alteration or change of internal places , or as it denotes a single internal motion from an internal place to an internal place , and in this acception we have made use of the word above in assigning the forms of the elements ; or strictly it is restrained to external local motion , which is the change of an external place in natural bodies : that is , whereby natural bodies are moved out of one external place into another . the universal elements naturally and strictly are not subjected to local motion , since their change of place is only internal , to wit , within one another : whereas external local motion is restricted to the change of an external place , however we may improperly or in a large sence conceive them to move locally . neither are the elements capable of auction or diminution , because their quantity and forms are definite ; wherefore they are only apt to undergo alteration , or change of their internal places , like we have hitherto demonstrated . mixt bodies are disposed to the change of their external and internal places : of their internal it is apparent , since they are never exempted from alteration ; their external is no less obvious . auction or diminution are changes of the elements in a mixt body both of internal and external places : that is , do comprehend a local motion and alteration . the subdivisions of these three are various ; but for brevities sake we shall here only appose that of external local motion : which is either direct , reflex , or circular . a direct motion tends singly from one point to another in a right line . a reflex motion is either strictly so called , and is whereby a moveable is reflected or beaten back towards the point ( either perpendicularly or obliquely ) whence it first moved ; or refracted , ( as they vulgarly term it ) whereby a moveable is moved in an oblique line to a terminus ad quem . a circular motion is an oblique motion into a circle : this is either singly circular , whereby a motion is contorted into one circle ; or manifold and reflected , whereby it is either spirally , or vortically ( that is , like a whirl-pool ) contorted into many circles ; each inferiour circle being reflected into a greater superiour one , or each superiour greater circle being reflected into somewhat a lesser inferiour circle . lastly , motion is either swift , slow , or mean : the first is , which in a short time doth absolve a long space ; the next , which in a long time absolves but a short space : a mean motion is , which in a long or short time absolves a mean motion . these definitions and divisions premitted we shall next adscribe some useful theorems . ii. all alterative and quantitative motions are absolutely and per se primarily direct : that the primar and natural motions of the elements are direct , their definitions testifie ; for since they do each primarily move from their center to the circumference , or from the circumference to the center , and that all motions from the center to the circumference , and from the circumference to the center are direct , it must necessarily follow , that those said motions primarily adscribed to them are direct . . all external local motions proper to mixt bodies being moved with an element , that enjoys its center are direct , because such bodies being moved by the said presupposed element must be directed to the same term , that the element is , which as hath been proved is likewise direct . iii. all external local motions are violent , or moved by an extrinsick movent : that is , no natural body , whether mixt or simple , can or doth move it self locally . * i prove it : external local motion is caused by expulsion ; but all expulsions ( as the name it self doth import ) are caused by an external principle , expelling the body , that doth disrupt or dispossess it of its place : ergo. i confirm the minor : what , can a body be said to expel it self ? expulsion is caused by the body injured , but that is the discontinuated and external body only ; ergo. . the body expelled enjoys a center ; ergo it cannot move for one , since all motions are for a center . . external local motion is caused by compression , but a natural body cannot compress it self : ergo. possibly you may say , that a body may compress the extraneous body , and so lift it self up : no , for if so , then it is rather lifted up by the renitency of the extraneous body . but how is a natural body capable of compressing an extrinsick body ? what ? by rarefaction ; well , if so , a body cannot rarefie it self : possibly you will suppose a vertual rarefaction proceeding from the internal form of a body , and such a quality is not in rerum natura . . the name it self makes the same inference : viz. external local motion is a change of external place ; ergo the vertue changing must proceed from without or externally ; because it is impossible , that an internal power should reach beyond its sphere of activity , which extends no further than its internal body or matter . all bodies do naturally covet rest from external local motion ; ergo the same external motion must be violent , or from without . doth earth ( that is in particles ) ever move locally out of its place ? no , but is attracted or forced upwards ( as in exhalations ) by extrinsick efficients , as external air and fire : in summa all instances in the world do confirm to us , that external local motion is from without . but i instance in particulars : a bullet being swallowed down by any living creature is detruded downwards and evacuated by stool ; but if thrust down its throat , when it is dead , resteth in the body ; ergo it is the depressing vertue of that living creature doth extrinsecally move it locally , since when it is dead the bullet is not affected by any such motion . iv. all weighty mixt bodies , being removed from their element , are disposed to be detruded downwards from without ; but do not move from any internal inclination they have to their universal center . i prove the latter part ; because all bodies can obtain but one motion for their preservation ; but that is of moving to their own center , whither , whence and whereupon they move ; ergo. the minor is confirmed , by that we see , that water and earth in an extraneous element , as in the air or fire , do move to their own particular center , as appears in drops of rain , that fall down from the air . doth not mercury move directly to its own center , although it be never so many times divided ? do not air and fire erupt out of the water in a round bubble ? ergo their motion was from their own center , as appears by their rotundity . doth noth a flame in a candle strive to maintain its center ? i shall add one argument more : a part retains the nature of the whole , which in a weighty body is of moving to its own center , ergo all weighty bodies do primarily move to their own center : amputate any member of a living creature , and you will find it to shrink immediately into a rotundity , or towards its own center ; whereas had it any inclination or appetite to that body whence it was prescinded , it would remain in the same shape and form it was cut off , for so it would be aptest to be reunited . if then all weighty bodies do primarily move to their own center , how can they then existing in the air move or have an inclination of moving down to the earth , since they in moving to their own particular center do manifestly move from her ? ergo there can be no such thing as an appetite or inclination in mixt bodies to an universal center , when separated from it ; although when united , they have a particular respect to it as a part hath to the whole . next i prove the first branch of the conclusion , viz. that all weighty mixt bodies being seated without their element , are disposed to be moved downwards . downwards , quasi to it ( namely to the center ) wards , or into it wards . upwards quasi outwards , that is , from the center to the circumference : likewise the german synonyma's confirms this etymology , viz. nach beneden ( or downwards , ) quasi nach binnen or inne , that is into wards : or nach boven ( upwards ) quasi butenwarts , and that quasi ouswarts or outwards . whence we may learn , that in every particular mixt body there is as properly a downwards , and an upwards , as in the universal body : so then the fore-stated downwards is to be understood to the earthwards , ( that is to the terraqueous globe ) and upwards from the earthwards . i say they are disposed to be moved downwards , because they cannot move themselves thither , but concur to that motion only by their disposition . v. this disposition is nothing else but the renitency or stubbornness of the weighty mixt body discontinuating the air or fire , and resisting their motion to the center-wards ; the intension and remission of the said renitency depends upon the greater or lesser density or crassitude ; whence it is also , that some bodies are moved swifter downwards , because they consist of a greater density * , sustaining a more violent impulse of the air , which were they less dense , would be moved slower , because of a less renitency . . or thus , the air being discontinuated by an interposed weighty mixt body doth primarily strive from all parts to a reunion by its expansive vertue , especially from above , because of its greater strength there , as being less discontinuated and weakened by exhalations and vapours ; whence the greatest force descending doth also direct the impulsion downwards . wherefore a weighty body , as mercury or any other mineral , is moved much swifter downwards or ( according to the ordinary ideom of speech ) weighs much heavier , on the top of high hills , than below . but you shall read more in the next chapt. vi. all light bodies being seated in a weighty element are disposed to be moved upwards , whence it is that subterraneous air is oft forced upwards by the earths compressing vertue : likewise a piece of cork depressed under water is by the waters gravity closing underneath ( in the same manner as we have explained it in the . part. the . book . chap. . . par. ) squeezed upwards , without any intrinsick propensity ; for otherwise the same cork being also disposed to be pressed downwards in the air must be supposed to have two internal propensities , which is absurd . a flame burning in the ayry regions is forced upwards by its disposition of levity , tenuity and rarity : thus ; the air sinding it self injured by the discontinuating flame presses upon her and strives from all sides to squeeze her away ; the flame being over-powered is forced to slip or slide away , whether its disposition may best yield ; downwards it cannot tend , because there it is resisted by the courser air infested with weighty peregrin elements ; ergo upwards , because there it finds the way most open to give free passage to its light rarity and tenuity : on the contrary , a weighty body , because of its density and crassitude , finds the passage clearer downwards , by reason it is most driven from the tenuity of the air atop : but supposing the air to enjoy its center doubtless those weighty bodies , would be cast forth upwards to the circumference . vii .. ayry bodies , that are seated in a fiery element , are moved downwards , because the rarity of the fire , sinking downwards for a center , doth impell them also thither , whose disposition being continuous and thin are the better disposed to slide away from the fire ( compressing them all about ) downwards , because upwards the said bodies striving to maintain their particular centers would be more discontinuated , where the force of fire must also be strongest : whence you may observe , that weighty bodies and light bodies are both moved to one terminus ad quem in the fiery regions . touching the causes of refraction and reflection you shall read them in the next chapter . hence a great part of the first book of the second part , will be rendred much plainer , which i did forbear to illustrate further , because of avoiding needless repetitions , intending to treat of these by themselves , viz. why water or any other weighty body , being violently detained , is much intended in its strength ; or why water is more depressing atop , or when it is most remote from her center than underneath , namely because of the depression of the air , adding much to the drowning of a man , as we have mentioned in th . and th . chapters , and so many other passages . chap. xx. of attraction , expulsion , projection , disruption , undulation , and recurrent motion . . how air is attracted by a water-spout or siphon . . the manner of another kind of attraction by a sucking leather . . how two flat marble stones clapt close together draw one another up . . how a wine-coopers pipe attracts wine out of a cask . . how sucking with ones mouth attracts water . . how a sucker attracts the water . . the manner of attraction by filtration . . the manner of electrical attraction . . how fire and fiery bodies are said to attract . . what projection is , and the manner of it . . what disruption , undulation , and recurrent motion are . . i thought fit to subject these remaining kinds of motion to the preceding , and to treat of them in a distinct chapter : viz. attraction , expulsion , projection , disruption , undulation , and recurrent motion . i shall only insist upon some particular kinds of attraction . what attraction is , the name doth explain . how air is attracted by water , and water properly by air , hath been proposed in the foregoing chapters ; attraction is further evident . . in a siphon or water-spout , wherewith they usually cast up water for to quench a fire . here the water is attracted by the drawing up of the sucker ; not through a bending for to avoid a vacuum ; but through the natural cohesion in continuancy of the air to the sucker or aerial parts contained within the sucker : now the air doth cohere more strongly , because there is no body to discontinue it within the siphon , but is rather assisted in a continuated cohesion by the continuity of the sides of the siphon and of the sucker . or otherwise if the air did strive to separate , how could it ? for suppose it should be discontinuated from the sucker , then through that discontinuation there must be some certain void space effected : if so , then that air , which did before fill up that void space , must have been withdrawn into some other place , or else it must through penetration have sunk into its own substance ; besides the air that was expelled up vards must have penetrated into its own body by condensation , or into the body of the water , all which is impossible , since a penetration of bodies is an annihilation . but here inquiry may be made , whether it is the continuated cohesion of the air with the water causes the succession of the water upon the air ; or whether the air , which through haling up of the sucker is expelled upwards out of the siphon , doth for to procure a place protrude the air cohering about the external sides of the siphon downwards into the water , through whose insufflation the water is propelled upwards into the siphon . i answer both waies ; for it is impossible , that such a great weight of water should ascend so easily with so little a force as the attraction of the sucker , unless it were assisted by the strong force of the air pomped out , out of a necessity and impossibility of shrinking pressing down , and protruding the water upwards . that this is so , the external circular pressure and dent , which we see about the outsides of the water about the lower end of the siphon , and the internal pussing up of the water within the siphon do testifie . ii. another kind of attraction not unlike to this is observable in boyes their sucking leathers , being wetted and clapt flat upon a stone , and afterwards drawn up with a packthread fastned in it attracts the stone with it . the cause is alone the continuous cohesion of the water to the stone , defending it self from the disruption of the air , the which as soon as breaking through occasions the separation of the leather from the stone . iii. two smooth flat equal marble stones clapt close one upon the other , the uppermost attracts the lowermost , if equally lifted up from their center , by a ring fastned to it , because of the air through its continuity sticking fast to the lowermost and the undermost stones ; but if disrupted through an unequal lifting the lowermost stone falls . in the same manner doth a plain board cast upon the water attract it into a rising , when lifted up by the central part . iv. a wine-coopers pipe attracts wine out of the bung-hole of a cask : the pipe is somewhat long , and narrower towards the bottom and the top , but wider in the middle , which thrust open at both ends into a cask full of wine through the bung-hole , and afterwards applying one 's thum close to the hole atop may attract a competent quantity of wine out of the vessel , which with the opening of the upper hole runs out again . but methinks that this and the forementioned attractions might rather be termed cohesions or detensions , since that which doth attract is the extrinsick attractor , viz. ones arm . the cause of its attraction is the immission of the pipe into the cask , to a certain depth , where the air being excluded from it and closed with your thumb , you will find a drawing or sucking to your thumb , which is nothing else but the weight of the wine pressed downwards , and notwithstanding cleaving fast to the continuity of your thumb , which being continuous and obtuse doth sustain the liquor continuated to it ; whereas were it subtil , that it could give way as the free air , it would not be contained so . but suppose you thrusted a beaker with the mouth downwards under water , and stopt a small hole made on the bottom of it with your thumb , the water would not keep in there , because the air would enter underneath , through which the parts of the water would be disunited , and so desert the supposed cohesion of parts : why the wine descends at the opening of the upper hole , is through the impulse of the air entring . v. the sucking of water through a reed by the mouth is effected , by causing a flat closs cohesion of your tongue and lips with the continuous parts of water or air ; for what is contiguous cannot be suckt ( unless by means of its inherency in continuous bodies , ) because its parts are unapt to cohere . to all these kinds of cohesions or adhesions the closeness of sides of those external bodies , that cohere together through the internal cohesion of air , doth mainly contribute by keeping off the discontinuating air ; as the closeness of the sucking leather sticking , of the two marble stones , of the sides of the wine-coopers pipe , of the lips in sucking , &c. vi. a sucker , otherwise called a siphon , being a pipe consisting of two arms of an unequal length , meeting in a curvilineal angle , attracts water out of a vessel untill it be all run out , provided it be set running by sucking the water down to the lowermost part of the longer arm , being placed without the said vessel . this instance gives us a plain demonstration , that attraction is caused by the means of the cohesion of continuous parts to other continuous ones , especially if separated through a close cane from dividing bodies ( as the air ) and by the same cause kept close together ; for water as i said before , will alwaies through its weight and continuity cohere and keep close to its next central parts , and never separates unless through a disunion by the air or other bodies . hence it is also , that water is easily led to any height * , if impelled by any force through a close pipe , or by a sucker . but why water contained within the shorter arm should yield to water contained within the longer may justly be doubted : the reason is , because the water contained within the longer pipe being more in quantity is heavier than the other , and therefore prevails , and is more disposed for to be pressed downwards : but then you might reply , that the water of the shorter pipe is assisted in weight by the other proportion contained within the capacity of the vessel . i answer , that the water of the shorter arm is impelled forward through the pressure of the said water contained within the capacity of the vessel : but not through its own gravity pressing downward towards the center of the world ; for every proportion of water ( as i said before ) retaining the nature of their universal element only strives for to maintain its own center , and therefore water if enjoying a center within its own circumference , wherever it be , doth not press or weigh , but strives to maintain its nature in rest : but that , which doth cause a force upon water downwards in the vessel , is the strong sinking down of the air tending downwards for its center : for otherwise water in a vessel would contain it self in a round figure , which it cannot , because it is reduced to a flatness by the sinking air . vii . attraction by filtration is performed by causing one end of a piece of flannell or other wollen cloath to hang into any liquor over the brim of the containing vessel , and the other end into an empty one , whereby the light parts of the water ascend up the cloath , and distill into the other vessel . this is effected by separating the thick parts of water and rarefying it through the labels subtil fibres , whence the other heavy parts of the water by descending downwards and being pressed by the air do over-press its subtiler and aerial parts upwards , the grosser and heavier remaining behind . by this it appears , that filtration and other kinds of attraction already mentioned are not so much attractions as violent expulsions . as the water of a sucker will not run out unless the longer arm exceeds the depth of the water in length , so neither will water attracted by a filter distill down into the empty vessel , unless the distilling label be lower than the water contained within the other vessel for the same reason . viii . attraction effected by amber or other bituminous bodies , otherwise called electrical attraction , depends on emanations or continuous steams emitted from amber ( especially if rubbed ) consisting of incrassated air and fire , being impelled circularly untill where they are gathered by a continuous body , which if light do return with those emanations upwards ; for the said emanations being diducted , expansive and light , are by the weighty ( comparativè ) vapourous air of this lower region striving to keep their nearness to the center squeezed and propelled upwards , which commonly tends to the emitting body , because the greater quantity of those steams are gathered perpendicularly under the said emitting body , and so do return the same way . hence observe , that amber doth not attract so potently on the top of high mountains , because its steams , being weightier than the air is there , do spread themselves further , whereby they are deprived of a return : neither will amber attract in a thick vapourous air , because its steams are detained from dispersion . ix . fire and fiery bodies , as onions , soap , &c. are said to attract ; but improperly , because their attraction is nothing else but an expulsion of those bodies , which they are imagined to attract ; for instance : fire is said to attract water , air , &c. this is nothing else but fire piercing into the substance of water or air , whereby it doth expel them into those places , which it leaves , or which are near to it : hence vapours are seldom attracted , or rather expelled into the places where fire doth continually pass , as directly under the aequator , because it fills those places with its own presence , but are reflected towards the sides as towards the north and south pole , whose spaces are not filled up with its torrid rayes . now judge a little of that most barbarous practice among physitians in applying reddishes , salt , leaven , yea epispastick plasters to the wrists and feet of feaverish patients : what rage , what torments are poor men put to , how are their feavers , paraphrensies exacerbated through their diabolical practice ? these things do not attract without piercing into a mans veins and arteries , and through their greater force of heat and violence do protrude the less heat of the body , and by a short stay do put the whole body into a consuming fire ; how many men have i seen murthered in that manner ? 't is true in malignant and pestilential feavers they have their use , but not in single putrid ones . now by what hath been proposed in this paragraph we may easily apprehend the manner of all water-works , and of raising water higher than its source , as that which is performed by the invention of archimedes through a brazen or leaden serpent , or by wheels impelling water into pipes , &c. hence we may also conceive the manner of the attraction , or rather expulsion of the degrees of water in a thermometer , or invention to measure the degrees of heat and cold , and the differences of them in several rooms , towns , seasons of the year , &c. the instrument is nothing but a long glass pipe , towards the end somewhat turning up , being left open for to poure in any liquor , which according to the rarefaction or condensation of the air contained within the pipe above will either ascend or descend in so many more or less degrees , as the air is altered by rarefaction through the heat of the ambient air , or condensation through the cold minims of earth within the said ambient air compressing the water more or less through its increase of quantity . touching the magdenburg invention ; the air is attracted outwards in the same manner , as we have explained the attraction of water by a water-spout , namely by a continuation , cohesion , and adhesion to the sucker : the air attracted out of the capacity of the receiver doth also through the same means attract air and fire , inhering in the rarefied and attenuated water without in the koop ; that again in the koop attracts air from without for to fill up its spaces , which is as ready to press in , because that air , which was pumped out of the capacity , wants room without . this succession of air is continuated by pumping , untill the air within is quite filled up with the incrassated air attracted from without , whose thickness will not suffer it self to be pumped out any longer ; so that , as the air within begins to be incrassated , so the pumping without falls harder and harder . towards the latter end there seems to be a forcible retraction of the sucker making a great noise through its return , because the capacity of the receiver being replenisht to the very pores of the glass , which being rendred somewhat flexible through the passing and tumefying of the incrassated and rarefied air , afterwards beginning to condense through greater access of fire , is violently through the great external force of the pumping somewhat forced to bend or yield inwards , whose renitency and force to return retracts the sucker through continuation and cohesion of the incrassated air . next we are to pursue the manner of acceleration of weighty bodies downwards . it is certain that a natural mixt weighty body , falling directly down from atop without interruption to the bottom , doth acquire a greater celerity the further it recedes from the beginning of its descent ; because the lower or farther it descends through propulsion of the superiour air , the more and the greater body ( viz. of air under it ) it compresses , which for to prevent the penetration of its own body is the more and violenter irritated to run round about the descending weighty body for to recover the place left by the said body , where arriving doth as it were rebound against the superiour parts of the air , which doth very much intend the celerity of the said bodies motion , and the same gradually increasing doth also gradually accelerate the descending body the further it falls . some are of opinion , that the acceleration of descending bodies is caused by atoms falling down from the celestial orbs , which as they do more and more encrease by being retained by the descending body , do likewise more and more accelerate its descent . this can scarce be , because those atoms , reflecting and returning from the surface of the terrestrial globe , are in greater number underneath the body than above ; ergo according to that manner of reasoning a body falling from on high should rather be gradually retarded . . a body should also fall swifter in the winter than in the summer , in cold countries than in hot , because those atoms are most numerous there ; but the contrary is true . ergo no true consequence . in like manner do light bodies acquire a greater swiftness in ascending , the higher they are propelled , whence it is that fowl flying high move much swifter than below . retardation is caused through causes opposite to these now mentioned . x. projection is , whereby a body is moved swifter by the forcible impulse of the projector , than it would do otherwise . thus an arrow is swiftly moved out of a bow , or a stone being cast out of the hand ; because of the force of the impulse of the projector . the cause of the intention of this impulse is the great swiftness of the said impulse * at the beginning , whereby the air is swiftly propelled before , whose most swift return about the sides of the body projected causes the continuation of the swiftness of the first impulse , but gradually diminishing by how much the further it recedes from the beginning . a ball projected out of a canon is propelled with that swiftness , because of the swiftness of the first smart impulse . the truth of the foresaid reason and manner is apparent in shooting a pole through the water , where we may see the water at the farther end raised into a tumor , which running * about the sides to the other end causeth its propulsion : whence it is also that when there appears no more of the tumor of the water before the pole , its motion doth instantly cease . xi . disruption or bursting is a sudden separation of the parts of a body through a violent force moving from within . this we see happens oft in canons , when over-charged ; or in bottels filled with water being frozen in the winter , o. wine in the summer being close stopt : the cause of these latter must be imputed to frosty or fiery minims , entring through the pores of the bottels in greater quantity than their capacity can take in , and disrupting them for to avoid a penetration of bodies . bodies are oft said to burst through driness , ( as instruments , &c. ) but very improperly , since it is the fiery or frosty minims entring their pores and filling their capacities , and afterwards disrupting them because of avoiding a penetration of bodies : so instrument-strings are apt to break in moist weather , because their continuation is disrupted through penetration of moist bodies into their pores . undulation is a motion , whereby a body is moved to and fro , like to water shaken in a basin , or to the motion of a bell. the cause is likewise adscribed to the first motion of the impulsor , which being terminated at the end of its return is beat back through the direct descent of the air impelling it , by reason it lieth athwart . recurrent motion being but little different from this , i shall therefore say no more of it . the cause of reflection is the return of the impulse impressed upon the air or water ( both being media deferentia ) perpendicularly or obliquely upwards from a hard and plane reflecting body : of refraction , the cause is the shuving off of the impulse downwards by the shelving sides of an angular hard body . chap. xxi . of fire , being an introduction to a new astronomy . . the fires division into three regions . . the qualification of the inferiour region . what the sun is . what his torrid rayes are , and how generated . . how the other planets were generated . . how the fixed stars were generated . . a further explanation of the stars their ventilation . that there are many stars within the planetary region that are invisible . of the appearance of new stars or comets . of the galaxia or milk-way . . that the fiery regions are much attenuated . i. the ground of the fires tending downwards you may easily collect from what i have set down touching the waters and airs commerce with the other elements . it s profundity we may likewise divide into three regions ; the first whereof containing the planetary bodies , the next the fixed stars , and the third consisting most of purefire . ii. the inferiour region , through its nearer approximation to the air and its immersion into it , is cast into a subtil flame , whose subtility doth effuge our sight and tact. the sun is a great body generated out of the peregrin elements contained in the inferiour igneous region , consisting most of condensed fire and incrassated air , extended and blown up into the greatest flame , and conglomerated within the greatest fiery cloud . these igneous clouds are like to the windy clouds of the air , which as they do daily blast down wind upon the earth , so do these cast fiery rayes , among which that , which surrounds the sun , doth vendicate the greatest power to it selfe . the manner of casting of its fiery rayes is the same with that of winds : viz. the region of fire forceth up * every day or continually a great quantity of air , somewhat incrassated and condensed , into its own sphere through its descending force striving for a center : this incrassated and condensed air is impelled violently into the body of the stars by other subtil flames , as being more forcible to drive the said adventitious matter from them , because their parts are so closely ingaged , that they can scarce slow a minim without a penetration . wherefore they must necessarily be impelled gradually into the bodies of the stars , because these are mixt bodies , that give way so much in themselves by expelling fiery or torrid minima's down into the air , as to be capacious enough of receiving so many airy particles , as the elementary fire doth force up every moment . but before i proceed in unfolding the manner of the celestial mixt bodies their ventilations ; i must insist somewhat further upon their constitution . iii. the celestial mixt bodies are not only like to clouds in their daily and minutely ventilations , but also in their constitutions : viz. the inferiour ones ( as the planets ) are constituted out of the courser and more mixt matter of the finer cloudy air in the inferiour region of the element of fire , like the clouds of the inferiour region of air are constituted out of the courser part of vapours . their coagulation is effected through the force of the fiery element crushing their matter from below upwards , and again is repelled back from the superiour parts of the said fiery elements , because through its being pressed up are scanted of room , and therefore do press downwards not only for room , but also because of reuniting where they are divided by the said coagulated bodies . now it may easily appear to you . . whence that rotundity , or rather globosity , doth arrive to them , viz. because they are circularly crusht . . because the air and fire of the said planets do naturally spread themselves equally from the center to the circumference , whence a circular figure must needs follow . also , . that stars are nothing else but the thicker and denser part of the heavens , coagulated into fiery mixt bodies ; to wit , flames . . that as they do decrease by ventilation every day , so they do also increase by the introsusception of new aerial particles . . that they must necessarily be very durable , because of the duration of their causes : for as the great force of the inferiour parts of the igneous heavens never desist from striving for the center , and do every day cast up great proportions of aerial matter , so do the superiour parts never cease from compressing them into the bodies of the other condensed flames being disposed ( as i said before ) through their ventilation to receive them . . because the aerial parts , being got into the center of the flames , cease from all external local motion , striving only to maintain their center in rest . iv. fixed stars are generated out of the subtiler parts of the forementioned aerial evaporations , * , being through their less resisting gravity ( redounding from water & earth in them ) rendred capable of being screwed up higher to the second region , where they are coagulated through the same motions of the heavens that planetary clouds are . these are responding to the permanent clouds of the second region of the air , which as they are spread into more large extended bodies , wherein many knobs seem to be unequally coagulated through the unequal proportion of the mixture of the vapours , even so are these evaporations coagulated into long large bodies , within which again other coagulations are effected , of unequal proportions , rising like so many knobs of various magnitudes , which constitute the fixed stars , well deserving the epithete of being fixed or fastned in those vast igneous clouds . we diduct hence : . that the fixed stars are smaller than the planets , because their matter is the overplus of the planets . . that they were formed after the planets , because their matter must be arrived to the first region , before the subtiler parts could appel to the second region for the matter of others . . that the difference between the loose and fixed stars is no other , than that these latter consist of a more compact flame than the others , and thence we may also collect them to be more durable . v. but to make pursuit of the manner of ventilation of the stars : the fiery minims striking down vehemently upon them , because they are screwed up more and more by the continual access of new coagulations impelled into the said stars , must necessarily be intended in their force upon them for to recover their place and continuation : these then striking from all sides through those celestial mixt bodies do expell , shake down , and effuse * continually great showers of those torrid minims consisting of condensed fire , which are accelerated likewise in their descent through the depression of the air . these as they pass do heat the air , especially in the lower region , because of the density of the clouds and air staying their beams . and . because of their reflection from the earth . these fiery showers do scarce reach any farther than the temperate zones : where they rain down perpendicularly there they leave marks of their heat ; where obliquely , there of warmth only ; but the air within the polars is not sensible of so much as their warmth . these showers do fall down sometimes in a greater confluence than others , whence they cast a greater heat , which happens through their meeting and being united with more aerial matter or igneous clouds , or else through want of shelter under dense clouds in the air ; or thirdly by uniting their showers with those of other planets . hence we may observe , that the sun is the hottest body in the heavens , and therefore the loosest and the softest . . that the moon and the other stars consist of a less soft consistency . . that the fixed stars , as they do heat but little , so they dissolve but little , and therefore must be of a yet less soft consistency . . that the fiery clouds being supposed globous , and therefore profound , do harbour many invisible lights ; whereof some do happen sometimes to be detruded out of their seat downwards ( that is towards the earth ) through the continuated and exuperant force of the superiour parts of the element of fire : this is seldom observed but in the lower region of the fire , because that element doth use its greatest force there , as being near to the place of strife for its center , and most pincht there by the obtruded igneous clouds . these new appearing lights do sometimes keep within sight for eight or ten months , some longer , others shorter , and afterwards disappear again , whence they come under the notion of comets , agreeing in nothing with them except in their disappearing after a certain times lustre . the cause of their disappearance i impute to the bearing up of the air upwards by the inferiour fiery rayes , and carrying those dislocated stars out of sight again , where they are included within a dense igneous cloud . . new stars are oft generated within the bulk of the foresaid clouds , whose smalness and close inclusion doth render them invisible ; others again are dissolved through being over-powered by the force of the fiery element . . the galaxia or milky-way is nothing but a great number of small dusky lights or inequalities coagulated out of the grosser part of the peregrin elements of the lower igneous region . vi. lastly , like as you see that the element of water , which naturally consisteth of the greatest thickness , is reduced to that tenuity through such a great proportion of air , and that the air is from the greatest tenuity incrassated through such a quantity of water and earth into clouds throughout its whole body , even the same we must imagine of fire ; viz. that it is reduced from the greatest rarity to a condensation and attenuation into large igneous clouds * throughout its body , through the vast admixture of air somewhat incrassated and condensed . these clouds in the lower region are diducted and separated into many thick and profound ones ; in the second region into those of a great tenuity , but more cohering . thus we have briefly exposed to your view the commerce of fire with the other elements , and for your better understanding have caused this scheme to be inserted , where you have the universal flames striking downwards for a center , whereas after the first knock it flamed upwards in the chaos ; because it moved from its own center . the proportions of fire and air to both the other elements , although not very exactly cut according to my copy , yet comes near to it . the stars are there represented according to their several regions wherein they are seated . the motion of the heavens is likewise there exhibited as we have demonstrated it in the preceding paragraphs ; all which , with many others insisted upon in this and the subsequent chapter , you have here plainly proposed . chap. xxii . of the motion of the element of fire . . where the poles of the heavens are . . the opinions of ptolomy and tycho rejected . . that the planets move freely and loosely , and why the fixed stars are moved so uniformly . . the suns retrograde motion unfolded , and the cause of it . . how the ecliptick , aequator , and the zodiack were first found out . . the manner of the fiery heavens their ventilation . . whence it is , that the sun moves swifter through the austrinal mediety , and slower through the boreal . how the sun happens to measure a larger fiery tract at some seasons in the same time than at others . . whence the difference of the suns greatest declination in the time of hipparchus , ptolomy , and of this our age happens . . an undoubted and exact way of calculating the natural end of the world. the manner of the worlds dissolution ; the same proved also by the holy scriptures . the prevention of a calumny . i. i have formerly discoursed upon the motion of the heavens from east to west , assigning the violent detention from their center for the cause of it , i shall repeat nothing more of it than put you in mind that nothing can move circularly except upon two immoveable points , which are therefore named the poles from sustaining their body . the immobility , which we observe in this our hemisphere near the bear stars , perswades us to take it for the north or arctick pole , to which the south or antartick pole is opposite , visible only in the other hemisphere . between these the heavens move from east to west , and where they measure most space , there they mark out the aequinoctial line , a greater circle imagined or described by us to be in the heavens equidistant from each pole , that is , elevated above either of them degrees . ii. touching the motion of the stars let us enquire , whether according to ptolomy they are affixed to orbs , and move along with them , or whether they move free and loose like fish in the water , as tycho brahe conceived . it is strange to consider how the ancients oft assumed false suppositions , builded for many ages upon them , and retained them as oracles : all this doubtless befell them through neglect of making further search and triall into their realities . what stupid fixions did they harbour touching the solidity of the orbs , excusing the defect of their noise by their remoteness , imagining their harmony to be most pleasant to any ear that could hear it . their variety ( were they not excused by being imaginary only ) would exceed all probability of belief : some they imagine to be concentrical or excentrical , which latter are either greater excentrical , or lesser excentrical , alias epicycles . some again are both concentrical & excentrical , and others are concentrical within a concentrical . some are deferring , others equalizing , and what not for to drive away their time ? in summa they were at least in number . certainly no natural philosopher can be adduced to believe these kinds of fictions , knowing those bodies assigned for orbs to be soft , and therefore unfit to cohere in so many sections . but brahe's dream is much more disagreeing , since it is impossible , that such loose bodies could move in such an exact and equal order , as the fixed stars do ; for otherwise were they loose , as planets are , they would move as variously and disorderly as they . iii. wherefore i conclude , . that the planets , particularly the sun and moon do move freely and loose , being included within great fiery clouds , because their motions are very different one from the other , which otherwise could not be , supposing they were affixed to orbs. . the fixed stars cohere in large igneous clouds linked together , out of whose bodies they are constituted , and with them they are also moved : this their equal and regular motion makes clear to us . but i will take the pains to explain their motion to you more particularly , and begin with the sun. iv. the sun we observe appears once in hours to all the inhabitants of the torfid and temperate zones , being moved from east to west . i suppose you to remember and assume that maxime so oft repeated , viz. that no body whether mixt or single hath a power of moving it self locally to an external place , although from an external place it may , so long as it obtaineth an internal center . whence i conclude , that the sun doth not move through himself from east to west , but is carried along with the fiery heavens , as a cloud with the air , or ship with the flowing ocean , and so they both happen to measure almost an equal space in an equal time , saving in one degree of time and space every day of a tropical year , consisting of solar daies ; which depends upon some resistency or renitency the sun hath to external local motion or vection , like we observe in a ship driving with the stream , yet not so fast as the stream , because there is some resistance in the ship : whence it is apparent that the sun is moved forward every natural day only degrees , which occasioneth the suns staying back one degree every day , whereby in daies it must necessarily stay back the circumference of the whole fiery heavens ; and hence it is , that the sun doth appear to us every day one degree sooner or latter , as you may apprehend it . this staying back or retrograde motion astronomers are pleased to call the proper motion of the sun , whereby he moves through himself through the succession of the signs , or against the motion of the primum mobile ; which is absurd , for then he must needs be an animal ; because only animals can move to an external place through themselves . this retrogradation of the sun is naturally directed from west towards east , but through the unequal access of cloudy fire dayly driven up from one of the poles spouting out strong showers of condensed fire , is shoven and driven every day somewhat to the side , viz. northerly , when the said fiery clouds are impelled from the south side , which lasteth as long as untill that tract hath vented its burden , and cast it down towards the other side , and impelled the sun to his greatest northern declination , and by that time the northern hemisphere is so much filled with fiery clouds , that it is necessitated to vent it self through casting its condensed fire towards the south , whereby the sun is impelled again to the other side . the way , described through the suns being thus shoven from one side to the other , and yet gradually staying back from west to east , is called the ecliptick , whose greatest declination towards either side north or south is distant from the aequator ½ degrees . v. the ancients observing the daily and monthly staying back of the sun , in that he appeared now in such a declination or amplitude , a month after degrees further , and the next month as many further , and so on , untill they had found out the romb of the sun , viz. the ecliptick , phansied another line much broader than this directly above among the stars of the firmament , apprehending them all along that road , ( to wit , through the septentrional and meridional declination , ) so many as would constitute a twelfth part of the ecliptick , to be like to some living creature or other , that so they might know them again ; hence they imagined one twelfth part of those stars to be situated in such a position as to be like unto a ram , wherefore they did all agree to name it aries ; the stars next following this twelfth part to be like a bull , whence they called that taurus ; and so on with the rest . afterwards this whole road was called by the name of zodiack , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a living creature , as if they would have termed it a circle of living creatures , that is like to them . so you see they did not pass through any great difficulty to make these observations and describe all the circles of the heavens ; for after they had once found out one pole , they must needs have concluded there must be another : then they cold not but observe the firmament moving between these poles ; next that the middle must be the greatest course , and therefore a rule and measure of all other phanomena's , which for that reason they called the aequator or equinoctial : now having found out these three great marks for their guide , namely the pole , equinoctial , and the zodiack , the other circles and observations of the motions of the planets were easily made . this by the way . vi. before i go on any further , i will prove , that such a vast measure of fiery winds blows down from each of the polar regions for six months together . it is certain , that a great proportion of fiery clouds is cast from the middle or equinoctial of the fiery heavens towards the poles , because there they are the strongest , as appears by their strong and swift motion , measuring more way by far there than about the polars , wherefore the greatest part of those fiery clouds must necessarily be detruded towards the polars , as being the weaker parts of the heavens , and therefore the apter for their reception . these clouds being obtruded thither in great quantities are compressed by the force of the superiour heavens , whereby the condensed fiery minims break forth in great showers , which blowing constantly for six months do alwaies blow the sun from them towards the opposite side . . if clouds of the air are most detruded towards their polars , and blow thence constantly for a long season * , as mariners tell us they do ; ergo the same must happen in the fiery region , since the efficient causes and materials are corresponding . . the fiery region pressing strongly about the middle parts must needs cast up most air towards the polars . . before there can be an eruption of these fiery clouds , there must a certain abundance or proportion be collected , through whose over possession and exceeding swelling they may sooner give way to burst out ; and then being opened they continue their fiery winds for six months , and by that time they are quite evacuated . in the mean time the other polar side is a filling , and is just grown swell'd enough for to burst out against the other is exhausted . here may be objected , that whilst one pole is evacuating , it should attract all the matter from the other pole , because it gives way , whereas the other cannot . i answer , that those fiery clouds through their giving way are still daily somewhat supplied by the continual casting up of the heavens ; for otherwise their ventilation could hardly be so lasting ; but however that * is sooner evacuated than the clouds can be shut up again , so that the ventilation lasteth untill all its contained matter is expelled . . it is impossible that the air should be attracted from the opposite side , since the greatest force of the middle parts of the inferionr region is between , which screweth the matter up equally towards each pole. vii . the suns deficient motion ( that is , when he is accidentally moved through the succession of the constellations of the zodiack , ) if compared to himself is observed to be regular ; that is , in comparing one tropical or deficient course with another both do agree in the measure of space , being over-runned in an equal time , viz. of solar daies ; and in an equal velocity , moving in the same swiftness through the same constellations in one year , that he doth in another . but if the particular motions of one defective or tropical course be referred to others of the same annual motion , we shall find that the sun is more potently withheld under the meridional signs than under the septentrional ones : that is , moves swifter through the austral mediety in the winter , consuming but daies hours and minut . in that peragration , and flower through the boreal signs in the summer , spending daies hours minutes ( computing with the vulgar daies hours , min. sec. in the year , ) so that the difference is daies and hours . . the sun appears sometimes at some seasons of the year higher then at others , that is , sometimes nearer to us , and other times farther from us ; or otherwise the sun is at the highest and farthest in the summer in the month of june , being then in cancer , and at the lowest or nearest in the moneth of december , being then in capricorn . viii . the greatest declination of the sun hath formerly in the daies of hipparchus & ptolomy been observed to be of deg . mi. which according to copernicus his observation is reduced to min. by others since to . the cause is evident , and is to be imputed to the suns , or rather the fiery regions gaining upon the inferiour elements ; namely , the water gains upon the earth , and diducts her mole , the air gains upon them both and insufflates their bodies , and lastly the fire gains upon the air , through which means it must necessarily incline nearer to the center of the earth , which approximation must cause a diminution of the suns declination : for instance , suppose the sun in hipparchus his time to have been at the height of o , being then in his greatest declination from the equinoctial a b ; if then since through the fiery regions having gained upon the other elements , the sun is descended from o to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being there nearer to the center of the earth , his greatest declination in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must needs be less to ε than it is from o to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ix . hence we may easily collect the duration of the world thus : if the fiery region hath gained from the time or years of ptolomy to copernicus so many minutes of the other elements , in how many years will the fire gain the restant minutes ? this being found out by the rule of proportion will resolve us , when the world shall be returned again into a confusion or chaos ; so that you may observe , as at the beginning of the world the weighty elements did gradually expell , and at last over-power the light ones , so the light ones do now gradually gain upon the weighty ones , and at last will again over-power them : and so you have a description of the long year consisting of thousand solar circuits , gaining near a degree every years , but towards the latter end will prevail much more , because the nearer they incline the more forcibly they will make way . and so you see all things are like to return to what they were , viz. the immortal souls of men to god , and the universe in o the same chaos ; which as i said formerly will abide a chaos to all eternity , unless god do divide it again into a new world , and raise new bodies for the souls that have of long been in being . at the latter end of this descent you shall have christ descending in the greatest triumph , glory , and splendor , appearing in a body brighter than the sun : here must needs happen a very great noise and thunder , when the elements do with the greatest force clash against one another , which cannot but then strike the greatest amazement and anguish into the ears of the wicked . this doctrine may prove a plain paraphrase upon those mysteries mentioned in the revelation of st. john : for instance chap. . v. , . where a star is described to fall down from heaven , namely the sun ; opening the bottomless pit and raising a smoak , viz through his burning and consuming rayes , &c. no wonder if mens fancies are so strongly missed in constructing the obscurities of the late quoted book of divine predictions ; some imagining a plenary abolition of the elements , others their conversion into a hell for the damned ; some thence deducting christs personal reign before the consummation of the world , others judging quite contrary ; what strange phanatick deductions and constructions do some spirits suggest to themselves , expecting every moment a subversion of the world ! and alas god hath ordained the world to run out its natural course , which doubtless he will in no wise contradict ; and how long that is like to last may be infallibly proposed from what i have here stated , where we cannot but note that all those depravate conceptions do derive from mens ignorance in philosophy and nature , gods great work . but me thinks i see some ready to condemn me for stating assertions touching things of the divine purpose , and such as god hath reserved within himself ; and therefore none ought to dive into those secret counsels . i answer , that we are to make a search into all things as far as our parts will bear us out in , and we are commanded so to do ; because we may the more admire god in all his attributes . . god hath given a man power of searching into all intelligible things , and therefore ought to make the greatest use of it he can . . it is impossible for man , so much as to make an attempt to search into gods secrets , because god hath limited him with a finite power : so that there is little fear that any should search into any such mysteries . but this by the way . chap. xxiii . of the magnitude and distance of the sun and moon , and the motion of the other planets . . that the magnitude of the sun hath not been probably , much loss certainly , stated by any . the arguments , vulgarly proffered for the proof of the suns magnitude , rejected . . that the sun might be capable enough of illuminating the world were he much lesser than the terraqueous globe than i suppose him to be . . that the shadow of the earth is to some extent cylindrical . . that the sun existing in the aequator doth at once illuminate the whole hemisphere of the earth . . concerning the diminution or increase of the shadow of the earth within the polars , together with the cause of the prolongation and abbreviation of the daies . that the sun is much bigger than he appears to be . . what the spots of the sun and moon are , and their causes . . that the arguments , proposed by astronomers for rendring the moon lesser than the earth , and proving the distance of the sun , are invalid . . that the moon is by far lesser than the earth . . several phaenomena's of the moon demonstrated . . concerning the motion of venus and mercury . . of the motion of the fixed stars , and their scintillation . . the body of the sun is by far exceeded in mole and bigness by the weighty globe ; but before i insist upon the proof of this , i will repeat the arguments produced by those , who assert the sun to be many times bigger than the said globe . in the first place i must take notice of the great variance , which there is between those great coryphaeans in astronomy touching the magnitude of stars , many of them differing from each other in their compute , , or more diameters of the earth , which is accounted but a slight disagreeance . now if these grandees are disagreeing from one another in so many thousand leagues in defining the magnitude of a star , what shall we judge of their most certain ( as they pretend ) demonstrations ? . let us examine their instruments , whereby they aspire to fathom the body of a star ; such are an astrolabe , semicircle , quadrant , &c. these being divided according to the proportion of degr . contained in a celestial orb , are well enough fitted to explain the number of such degrees , but then the difficulty remains the same still , viz. what proportion a degree of longitude in the heavens bears to any certain known longitude of the earth . neither are they wanting in this , asserting a degree of longitude of the solar orb to be equal to german leagues ; because the sun doth remove the shadow of leagues from the earth through the progress of each degree . but suppose this were granted , it followeth that a degree of longitude of the solar orb is equal to a degree of longitude of the firmament ; because the firmament doth likewise make leagues by its gradual progress , or how could it absolve its diurnal circuit in hours ? but this is false : so neither doth the sun's removal of the shadow from the earth infer the said proportion ; because the sun ( according to their supposition , ) far exceeding the earth in bigness , cannot describe a true and equal longitude of its progress upon the earth , but only his light being terminated by the earth is alone denoted to vary its termination so many leagues by moving one degree . . if astronomers do vary so much from one another in assigning the earths longitude , whereunto we are so near , we have greater reason to suspect their conclusions of the stars their mensuration ( which are so remote from us ) to be void of all foundation . aristotle pronounced the circumference of the terrestrial globe to contain miles , assigning / miles to every degree . hipparchus allowed miles responding in ●● / ● miles to every degree . eratosthenes stated miles , allowing ½ miles to a degree . ptolomy granted . alphraganus . fernelius . others who have sailed about it state miles for the circumference of the earth . judge what a vast difference there is between them ! . another argument proposed by them is , because the suns absence or opposition to us effects a conical shadow or darkness ; ergo the sun must be greater than the earth . but how can the shadow be conical , since it drowns the moon ( whose diameter according to their own confession contains a th part of the diameter of the earth ) which extends to a greater largeness than a conical figure should do ? . were the shadow of the earth cylindrical , then they would confess the sun to be of an equal bigness with the earth ; but that , they say , it is not ; ergo . i deny the minor , and prove the contrary . the sun existing in either of the equinoctial points makes day and night equal the whole earth over ; ergo the shadow of the earth must be columnal , because the obverted surface of the earth doth clip or stop the light from the other opposite surface to the extent of half the globe . wherefore the terraqueous shadow of the one side of the earth , being equal to the light of the other side , must needs be columnal . and although this columnal shadow is not extended further than above half way to the region of the fierie element , where it begineth to be contracted and gradually diminisht , yet that hinders not , but that the said shadow may be columnal to some certain extent . if now the said shadow were conical , then the sun at once must illustrate more then the mediety of the globe , and consequently the nights would be shorter then the daies , although under the line at the season of the aequinoxe ; but that is false ; ergo . again , were the sun greater than the earth , ergo its heat would be communicated in an equal violence upon all the parts of it ; for why should it not as much powr out showers of heat conically , as you say it doth its light ? here you cannot accur to excuse your self by the distance or remoteness of the sun , thence contracting its heat ; for then it must likewise contract its light . . they assert , supposing the shadow of the earth to be conical , that therefore the sun must be necessarily greater . but for what reason ? not because the sun is greater , but because the light is larger : wherefore the largeness of the light doth not conclude any thing touching the bigness of the sun. i not the light of a candle or touch much larger than its flame ? is not the same candle apt to overcast an object much bigger than it self with light that shall exceed its mediety ? and consequently the shadow of such a body must be conical . whence it is , that a body ten thousand times less than the air , is capable of illuminating its whole tract , because a body of that proportion is big enough to obtend the air throughout its whole depth . but if you should imagine with the peripateticks , that light is efficiently produced by the lucid substance of the sun ( i know not how , ) then indeed the body of the sun must be many times bigger than the earth , because the lumen would be but just of the same extent with the lux. but i need not to answer to this , since the contrary hath been plainly proved . after all this , i state , ii. . that the sun , were he so much lesser than the terraqueous globe , than i suppose he is , would be big enough to illuminate its whole hemisphere at once ; for if the light of a candle doth illuminate the air thirty leagues round , much more would the sun the whole hemisphere , whose substance is by far more pure , lucid , and bigger in that proportion in comparison with the aerial region , then a focal light being of an impure , dark substance , is in comparison to the circumference of leagues . iii. . the shadow of the earth is to some extent cylindrical . i prove it ; is not the shadow of a man standing in the sun cylindrical to some extent ? is not the shadow of a pen or other small body , being held at some distance * before a candle ( whose lux is bigger than the body objected ) cylindrical to some extent ? besides , as i proved above , it is evident in the equinoxes : the reason is , because a dense body doth obscure and dead the light as far as it is dense ; now the earth being dense all about the entire horizon , no wonder if it doth dead and obscure the suns light to the extent of its hemisphere . iv. . the sun existing in the equinoctial , doth at once illuminate the whole hemisphere of the earth from one pole to the other . if the sun existing in the meridian , is seen at once by those under the torrid zone from the ascension of the aequator , that are degrees off eastward , and as many westward from its descension ; then the sun must also be seen as many degr . off to the southward as to the northward , that is to each pole , because the sun being globous , doth obtend the air equally about to all the parts of the compass . but the sun in the meridian is seen at one time by those that are degr . eastward or westward ; ergo . v. . by so many degrees as the sun declineth to the north , by so many degrees doth a perfect shadow or darkness cover the south polar earth ; and the like conceive of the south declination . . the suns gradual declination causes a prolongation or abbreviation of its diurnal light and shadow , or the equality and inequality of the daies and nights . . the sun is much greater than he appeares to be , because the clouds and depth of the air do diminish its species , in the manner of a great fire appearing but like a small spark at a great distance . astronomers are not only forward in prescribing the bigness of the stars , but also their distances ; and how is that possible , since they cannot sensibly demonstrate the diameter of the world , or define any certain extent in the heavens for to compare another terrestrial length unto ? neither can they ever find out an exact account of any length upon the earth responding to a degree of any of the orbs of heaven : if so , what do all their observations touching the stars paralaxis amount unto ? vi. the body of the sun is usually expressed as resembling a mans face , whose marks and signatures are nothing else but certain protuberancies and spots ; the like is apparent in the moons face . these protuberancies are nothing but inequalities of their cloudy bodies appearing like unto clouds in the air , thicker or more compact in one place , and thinner and looser in another . the telescopium or prospective glass discerns those spots to be moveable : and not unlikely , since they , being the external parts of those gross and looser clouds , are apt to be displaced and change their situation through the obtrusion befalling them by the most rapid motion of the heavens . these do sometimes increase and accrease either through dispersion or apposition of new clouds floating here and there in the planets their way as they move , which oft causes a distinction of their bigger or lesser appearance at some times than at others . vii . the moon is by all astronomers believed to be less than the terrestrial globe , because the shadow of the eclipse of the sun is much too little to obtenebrate all the earth . but supposing the sun to be of so inapparent a bigness and distance from the earth as the vulgar of astronomers do receive him to be of , and the moon to be of a far greater distance from the earth than she is , certainly the shadow , which she would cast must be much less than her body , although it were forty times bigger than it is , because the sun being greater than she must according to the ordinary doctrine of shadows only suffer her to cast a conical shadow , whose extreme point not reaching to the earth , or if it did , could not be a certain token , whence to draw the proportion or distance of stars . wherefore according to their own principles , the moon may be conceived to exceed the earth far in bigness , since they cannot attain to any probable account of the distances of the stars . . we must also suppose the moon to be a lucid body , ( although yielding to the sun in that particular ) and therefore to illuminate the earth somewhat ; for otherwise in every total perfect eclipse it would prove as dark as pitch ; if so , what ground doth there remain to take measure of her shadow , since her light , ( or shadow , that is a lesser light in comparison to that of the sun ) doth according to our rule of light extend to a far greater bigness than her self is ? whence it appears , that for all their mathematical demonstrations the moon may be bigger or lesser than the earth . viii . however the moon is by far lesser than the earth ; because of its small light , which it casteth , and other reasons produced from the minorating of the sun , which do likewise conclude the moon to be lesser than the sun , but bigger than any of the other stars . the moon is the lowest of all the stars ; because she is the least lucid of any , and consequently must be most terrestrial and aqueous , through which principles she must doubtless yield to be lowest depressed by the fiery region , in that manner as i have formerly setdown . . because she moves the quickest ( or in another sense the slowest , as you may read before ) through the zodiack , which must needs suppose the circumference of her circuit to be the least . . because she cannot be seen , unless at a nearer distance than the others may . ix . the moon through her diurnal course from east to . west absolves no more than deg . min. sec. third . four . fif . that is , is so much retarded * , or is moved so much slower than the fiery region : so that in daies , hours , min. sec. th . she is retarded deg . or the extent of a whole circle . she is in the same manner , as we have proposed concerning the sun , shoved from north to south , and from south back to north a degree and some minutes every day , her greatest declination being . deg . min. and her greatest latitude degrees . but you must not apprehend , although i say , that the moon is removed from the ecliptick deg . that therefore she is seated degrees beyond the sun , notwithstanding her greatest digression from the ecliptick , yet she is and appears nearer to the equinoctial bbbb than he : suppose one standing upon the surface of the earth any where between m and p ; i say that the moon existing in the merid. eq ; and in her greatest latitude near e , viz. from the ecliptick , is and appears nearer to the equinoctial bbbb , than the sun doth in o , because the line from o to b is longer , than from the center of the moon near e o b. whence you may conceive , that the moon is nearer to the lquinoctial , although seated beyond the ecliptick . . that the degrees of the orb of the moon are so much less proportionally , as the orb of the moon is less than the orb of the sun. but to pursue the moons motion into latitude : star-gazers do observe her to appear sometimes higher and lowe in her perigao and apogaeo ; not because of her epicycle , but because of the aspect of the sun , which doth sometimes reflect its light stronger upon her , and so makes her to seem higher * , besides the medium of the air being by means of that aspect so attenuated † , it must needs produce a prolongation of the object , like to a thin glass representing the object to be much farther distant than it is . as the said attenuation renders an object more distant , so it renders it also less , whence it is that the moon appears lesser in her pro longation . that the moveth swifter sometimes than other times is likewise a meer appearance , hapning through the extension and prolongation of the object and medium : so on the contrary the incrassation of the air through the remoteness of the sun causeth the moon to seem to move slower , and to be bigger and nearer ; as when she is in her perigaeo . the same hapneth , when we see through a thick glass , or in looking upon an object through the water , seeming nearer and bigger , and to move slower . i am not to describe you here the meaning of solar and lunar eclipses , alone the cause of their variation : viz. depending upon the difference of declination in the sun , and of declination and latitude in the moon ; for he being constantly in making his progress cannot be ever met or overtaken by the moon at the same place and time . i shall spend no more time in discoursing upon the motion of the three superiour planets , since their motion and manner of it may easily be apprehended by what hath been proposed . xi . what concerns the constant , equal , and ranked motion of the fixed stars , it is to be attributed to the cohesion or linking of those equal large clouds of the second region of fire , wherein the said lights are fixed , moving them equally and constantly in that fixation . their scintillation is nothing else but their flames quavering upon the obtended air , hapning through their recurrent motion , or quavering accurss to one another . an appendix of problems resolved by our principles . chap. i. problems relating to the earth . . why two weighty bodies are not moved downwards in parallel lines . . why a great stone is more difficultly moved on the top of a high hill than below . . vvhy a pair of scales is easier moved empty than ballanced . . vvhence it is that a man may carry a greater weight upon a vvheel-barrow than upon his back . . vvhy a weighty body is easier thrust forward with a pole , than immediately by ones arms : besides other probl. more . . vvhy a stick thrust into a hole if bended is apt to be broke near the hole . vvhat the cause of the relaxation of a bowed stick is . . vvhether gold doth attract mercury . . vvhy the herb of the sun , vulgarly called chrysanthemum peruvianum , obverteth its leaves and flowers to the sun wheresoever he be . . vvhy the laurel is seldom or never struoken by lightning . i. why are not two or more weights depressed down to the earth in parallel lines , but in flead thereof come nearer and nearer to one another the lower they descend ? ii. it is confirmed by many trials , that a great stone is more difficultly moved on the plain of the top of a high hill , than on the plain of a low level ground ; and that a great mass of any mineral may be easier rouled out of its place deep in the mines by one , than by three or four on the surface of the earth . you demand the reason . i answer , that the air being more forcible ( as we have shewed before ) on the tops of hills , doth more potently depresse the stone against the plain of the hill , and so detains it there ; no wonder then if it prove so slow in motion . likewise is the air of a greater energy on the surface than deep under the earth , where it is discontinuated by weighty minims forced out of the earths bowels in expelling the perigrin air , whose contiguous depression ( to wit of the air , being discontinuated by the said weighty minims ) doth also contribute much to the rouling of a mineral , because we roul a weighty body by depressing it against the ground , in which action our force is not only strengthned , but the weighty body is also impelled forward ( but by refraction ) by the aid of the said weighty minims . here you may reply , that the air doth also depress the body downwards , and consequently detain it . i answer , ( besides what i have stated in the solution of the six problems at the art. ) that as far as the air is continuous , and so depresseth a body , it doth detain it within its continuity , but being rendred contiguous by the discontinuating weighty minims grants passage to any impelled body . the first part of the solution is apparent in drawing any weighty body under water through it , where you may perceive a very forcible detention by reason of the continuity of the parts of the water ; the latter in drawing it through fire . what concerns dr. gilberts magnetick effluvia , & monsieur gassendy his rigid cords or hooks , which are by some borrowed to explain the differences of intention of gravity , are sutil , since they are only pulled out of their phanfies without any probable proof for either . iii. the precedent solution may also be applied to this problem , viz. why a pair of scales are easier moved being empty , than when balanced by equal weights . iv. whence is it , that a man may carry a greater weight upon a wheelbarrow than upon his back ? i answer , because in carrying a weight upon a wheelbarrow he only thrusts it forward , and is assisted by the contiguous pressure of the air , qualified as we have proposed in the problem . . because the wheel being circular is easily propelled . a circular body is easier propelled , because it is thrust forward upon single points , which it is certain yield obedience with the least resistance to the force impelling . . because of the reason of the fift problem . v. a man impelling a weighty body from him , shall easier impel it by making use of a pole to thrust it forwards , than if he tumbled it along with his arms only ; whence it is , that they usually affix a long iron handle to those great rouling stones , that are used in gardens for to even the ground . . one shall cast a stone further with a sling , than without it . . likewise a stroke given with a hammer with a long handle , is much more forcible , than if made by one with a short handle ; or striking with a long handled hammer , the stroke shall be of a greater force if held by the farther end of it , than if otherwise taken hold nearer to the hammer . . a cuff given with a swing of ones arm , makes by far a greater impression than a thump . . a stick is easier broken upon ones knee the farther the hands are removed from it * ; and the harder , the nearer they are applied . . the longer an oar is , the swifter the vection of the boat is , although impelled with the same force that a shorter may be . all these being problematically proposed are resolved by one and the same answer : viz. supposing the air to press so potently downwards , i say , that it being shoven and elevated before at the body propelled , ( supposing it also to be continuous , and consequently not complicable , that is contiguously introceding , as i have told you before , ) is forced to rise up , and to sink down again behind at the place , out of which it was propelled but the instant before , where through that violent and most swift descent and refraction against the body of the propulsor and of the backward air , must needs shove hard between the body propelled , and the propulsor , and backward air , and so by that means must add a great force to the impulse of the said weighty body . this premitted i say , . that the more or the greater body of air is moved by the greater or longer impelled body , the stronger , swifter , and easier the said greater or longer body must be impelled . hence we must also deduce the reason , why a body being already in motion , is easier moved forwards , than one that is at rest . . i say that a globous body is easiest impelled , because the air meeting with no resistance or stay by angles , slides quicker over it , and consequently driveth the faster : besides an angular body having many plain sides , ( breaking the force of the air , ) doth not force the air so much as a globous body , that inverting the air quite contrary into a circular figure upwards , ( whereas naturally it striveth in a circular figure downwards , ) whereby the air is much irritated and intended in its force . why an angular body resisteth an impulse stronger , is , because the air in depressing downwards takes faster hold of it in pressing upon its plane , being thereby and its angles hindred or cut off from sliding off , as appears in the quadrangular stone exhibited in this apposed scheme , where you may plainly see the difference of the figures of the air in its elevation by bodies of various figures . here may be objected against these subconclusions , that the air , were it of that force , as to superadd so much to the impulsor and impulse , would evidently press down the loose coat of the driver , and be plainly felt by him . touching the force of the air , no doubt but it is very great , according to the commotion and irritation thereof , as appears in expelling the flame out of a gun ; in bursting thick glass bottels , &c. . it doth not press down the loose garments of the impulsor , because they are supported by air underneath , and being very pervious , and therefore not resisting gives passage to their meeting . . it s force is not felt , because it is equal and presseth the propulsor forward with a gradual , equal and smooth force . vi. why is a stick being thrust some part of it into a hole apter to be broke near the hole , if bended , than any where else ? i answer , that through the bending of the stick , the moveable parts of it , viz. the air , water and fire that are perfused within throughout its pores , are compressed towards the other end , where being stopt through the compression of the sides of the hole , do tumefie the stick there , whereby together with the continuation of the force bending it is disrupted . the said spirits recurring in a stick bowed only , and not broken , cause the relaxation of the inflexion , forcing the solid parts of the stick into their pristine position by their return . vii . whether gold doth attract mercury ? answ. the vulgar imagineth it to be so ; because a piece of gold being held in a patients mouth , that is a salivating , or lately hath salivated by mercurials , is changed white through its attracting the mercury . but how should it attract ; by its volatick spirits possibly ? no certainly ; for the whole rabble of chymical vulcans finds its spirits to be fixed beyond those of all other bodies . how then ? not by acting a distanti ; ergo it is fallacious , that gold attracts mercury , and more probable , that the spirits of mercury being ordinarily termed fugitive , cannot be coagulated or collected , but by the densest body , whence it is that only gold doth collect and coagulate its spirits about its surface . viii . why doth the herb of the sun vulgarly called chrysantemum peruvianum , or crowfoot of peru , ( because its leaves and flowers resemble those of our crowfoot ) turn the faces of its leaves and flowers about with the sun ? answ. because the sun through its igneous beames doth rarefie that side of the leaves and flowers which is obverted to it , whereby he doth expel their continuous streames , whose egress doth attract or incline them that way whither they are expelled , in the same manner as we have explained the attraction of the loadstone . ix . why is the laurel seldom or never struck by lightning ? answ. because it is circumvested with a thick slimy moysture , which doth easily shove or slide off the glance of a lightning . chap. ii. containing problemes relating to water . . why is red hot iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water ? . whence is it there fals a kind of small rain every day at noon under the aequinoctial region ? . how glass is made . . whence it is that so great a mole as a ship yields to be turned by so small a thing as her rudder . . what the cause of a ships swimming upon the water is . . whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire . i. vvhy is red hot iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water ? answ. because the water doth suddenly pierce into the pores of iron , being now open , and violently expel the fire and air , ( both which , as we have shewed in b. . part . are the sole causes of the softness of a body , ) and being expelled , leave the same indurated by the weighty elements pressing more forcibly and harder to their center . ii. whence is it , that there fals a kind of small rain every day from or of the clock to or in the afternoon , under the aequinoctial region ? answ. the sun at his rising and descending , doth through his oblique rayes excite a multitude of small vapours , which through the privative coldness of the air in the night are concreased into small clouds , but reduced into drops of rain through the suns rarefaction or fiery minims when he is perpendicularly imminent upon them . iii. how is glass made ? answ. the matter of ordinary glass is generally known to be ashes , or chalck burnt out of stones , or both . the venice glasses , differing from others in clearness and transparency , are made out of chalck burnt out of stones , which they fetch from pavia by the river ficinum , and the ashes of the weed kall , growing in the deserts of arabia between alexandria and rossetta , which the arabians make use of for fuell . in the first book , second part , i have told you , how a body was reduced into ashes through the expulsion of its thinner glutinous moisture by the vibrating fiery minims . the same fire being intended doth through its greater violence enter , mollifie , diduct , and thence melt and equallize the courser thick remaining glutinous moisture by its own presence together with the air , which it imports along with it , whereby the terrestial minims , that were before clotted , are exactly and equally spread throughout the foresaid thick glutinous moisture . the fire and air being only admitted from without , & not incorporated with the said bodies through want of a matrix , & because they being in that extream overpowring quantity , that they may as easily free themselves from the said body , as they entered , are expelled again as soon as they are exposed to the cold ambient air , and so desert the body , leaving it glib , smooth , continuously hard , friable , rigid , and transparent . so that it appears hence , that glass is nothing but water reduced nearer to its absolute nature , ( which we have shewed is hard and clear , ) by freeing it from the thin glutinous moisture ( or air and fire incorporated with a small proportion of water ) through barning its first subject into ashes , and afterwards by uniting , diducting , and equallizing its own parts contained in the ashes . by the forementioned thick or course glutinous moisture i intend a mixture of much water incorporated with a little earth , and least air and fire . that glass is water nearer reduced to its absolute nature i shall prove by its properties . . that glib smoothness of glass depends upon the continuity of the parts of water , necessarily accompanied by a glib smoothness , because it doth not consist of any contiguous rough minims . . it is continuously hard , because water of her absolute nature is continuously hard . . it is friable , because the water is throughout divided by the minims of earth , which render it so brittle and rigid ; whereas were it all water , it would be harder than any stone : it is transparent , because it is but little condensed by earth , whose condensation renders all bodies obscure . . because it is luminous , that is , apt to receive the lumen from any lucid body , as being throughout porous , through which it is rendred capable of harbouring the obtended air . glass is distinguisht from crystallin hardness and transparency , because this latter appropriates more of water in her absolute state , and less of earth . iv. whence is it , that so great a mole as a ship yields so readily in turning or winding to so small a thing as a rudder ? this problem will make plain , that an impulse is intended by a medium , or deferens . a ship swimming in the water , and being impelled by the wind or a board-hook , raiseth the water into a tumour before at her bowes , which is violently impelled , what by the air lifted up by the tumour , what by her own bent to recover that place behind at the stern , whence it was first propelled , ( and where you shall alwaies observe a hollowness in the water , proportionable to her rising before , ) and therefore , as you may see , runs swiftly about both the sides , and meeting in both the streams abaft doth propel the ship forward by a reflection ; and this you may also perceive in taking notice of that most eager meeting of the streams of water from both sides behind at the rudder , which being removed to either side , viz. to star-boord , or lar-boord side , directs the ship towards the sides ; because the force of the water in returning doth beat hard against that side of the rudder , which is obverted to her , as resisting most and collecting her force is shoved towards the opposite side of the stern , whereby her head comes too to the other side ; whence we may plainly observe , that a ship doth not begin to turn before , but alwaies abaft . this i prove , a ship hitting her breech against the ground at sea usually striketh abaft , because she draweth more water there than before ; now the shoving of the helm to the other side brings her off immediately , and brings her head too ; which is a certain sign , that a ship is moved from abaft , and begins first to turn there . if it is so , it is beyond doubting , that the force of the water is forcible behind beyond imagination , and thence adding that intention to the impulse . v. what is the cause of the swimming of a board or ship upon the water ? because the water being continuously thick coheres together and will not suffer her self to be divided , whereby they happen to be lifted up by the water . vi. whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire ? no , for although a slame is extinguisht by them , yet that hinders not , but that fire may be contained within them in particles , and close shut up between their pores ; this appears in crystal , which being smartly struck by another hard body , doth emit sparks of slaming fire from it , like unto a flint . so neither is ice it self bare within its pores of some small particles of fire . chap. iii. comprizing problems touching the air. . whether air be weighty . . whether a bladder blown up with wind be heavier than when empty . . why water contained in a beer glass , being turned round with ones hand , doth turn contrary against the motion of the glass . . why a breath being blown with a close mouth doth feel cool , and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm . . why an armed point of an arrow groweth hot in being shot through the air . . why beer or wine will not run out of the cask without opening a hole atop . . what difference there is between an oricane and a travada . . whether it be true that winds may be hired from witches or wizards in iseland . . why is it quieter in the night than in the day ? i. vvhether air be weighty ? answ. air considered as enjoying its center , is light and doth not participate of any weight , since it would only move from the center to the circumference , and ever force extraneous bodies upwards ; ergo air absolutely conceived is only light . . air in its present state is also weighty ( but accidentally only , and not essentially , ) because of its sinking downwards towards the center . ii. whether a bladder blown up with wind be heavier than when empty ? answ. there hath been trial made of this ( to wit , of the weight of a bladder blown up by bellows atop of a high hill ) in a pair of scales , and it was found that an empty bladder weighed heavier than one filled with wind ; the same is also deprehended by casting them both into the water , where we shall find the empty bladder first to be equal with the surface of the water , and afterwards to sink down a little , whereas the windy one swimmeth atop . the cause is , by reason a bladder extended by the air within is supported by it , and being rendred more porous and subtil through its obduction the air doth easily pass without any resistance , and therefore doth not depress it so much as an empty bladder , which through its corrugation and lesser diduction is more dense , and therefore receiving the depressing force of the air much stronger , besides being more acute , is apter for to cut through the inferiour air ; whereas a bladder blown up is obtuse and doth as it were swim in the air : but if a bladder be blown up with ones breath , then doubtless it will prove heavier than an empty one , because of the vaporous or heavy waterish air contained within . iii. why doth the water , contained in a beer glass being turned round with your hand , turn contrary against the motion of the glass ; the same is observed in rouling a barrel full of water , where the liquor turns contrary against the barrel ? ans. the water is here detained flat , or held fast by the air sinking down , whence it is , that the water seems to move against the motion of the vessel , being glib , or slippery and smooth , and therefore not detaining the vessel in its motion . iv. why doth a breath being blown with a close mouth feel cool , and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm ? answ. because the breath or incrassated air of a close mouth is more united and longer continuated , whereby it doth vigorously puffe the ambient air , whose compression felt , causes cold , as i have explained it in book . part . now through the union of the incrassated air that is efflated , the hot minims of the breath are deeply and equally impressed into the substance of the vaporous air , whence their vertue is also suppressed ; but in breathing of the said air out of an open mouth the fiery minims do come forth in troops unequally and but superficially mixt in or supported by the said incrassated air , whence they abide energick ; besides the air being but little puffed makes little or no compression : hence you may also collect a reason , why the air doth refrigrate being agitated with a fan. v. why doth an armed point of an arrow grow hot in being shot through the air ? answ. because its body and pores are somewhat opened by the air grinding against it , whereby its fiery parts procure an occasion of being unired and condensed . this doth also resolve us , why a knife being smartly whetted emits sparks of fire ; or why a flint being struck hard against a piece of steel doth likewise sparkle fire from it , viz. because its solid parts are opened and disjoyned through the concussion , whereby the fiery minims happen to be united and condensed . likewise many cold bodies by being chawed or contrited do afterwards grow hot . vi. why will not beer or wine run out of the cask without opening a hole atop ? answ. because of the continuous adhesion , or cohesion of the continuous parts of the liquor to the continuous parts of the cask ; but as soon as it is averruncated , divided , and impelled downwards by the air entring at the upper hole , it runs freely out of the tap. that it is the air entring atop which presseth out the liquor is apparent by the cavity atop , which the fore-impulse of the air entring causeth . vii . what difference is there between an oricane and a travada . answ. an oricane is usually much more violent , and therefore also much less lasting , bursting down circularly from all parts like to a whirlwind . a travada is more lasting and less violent , and erupts directly down , from one tract , and in no wise circularly , which as it oft rages upon the seas off the shores of coramandel , manicongo , guiny , &c. so the former is more frequent in the west-indian climates . viii . whether it be true , that winds may be hired from witches or wizzards in iseland ? answ. it is certain , that the winds blow very variously and manifold about that island , insomuch that it is not rare to see ships sailing several courses at once , all of them being equally favoured by a good wind . the cause of this being vulgarly not known , hath occasioned people to brand the old men and women there with witchcraft , whom the roughness of the air may cause to look rugged like the devils correspondents , selling the winds by retail . the causes of this variety are great winds , erupting oft out of several holes of the earth about the island , especially about the mount hecla , which many believe to be the mouth of hell , because of those prodigious thunders and murmurings of winds that are perceived thereabout . ix . why is it quieter in the night than in the day ? answ. because in the day the air being fluid and continuous is agitated into waves by the suns fiery beams , whose bodies clashing together cause a small noise in the day , which the night season is freed of . chap. iv. containing problems touching the fire . . why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling . . why doth common salt make a cracking noise , when cast into the fire . . who were the first inventers of gunpowder . . vvhat are the ingredients of gunpowder . . vvhence arrives all that flaming fire , that followeth the kindling of gunpowder . . whence is it that gunpowder being kindled in guns erupts with that force and violence ? i. vvhy doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling ? answ. because fire in lime is detained or imprisoned within a thick glutinous moisture , which being attenuated through the thinner moisture of water , is forced to suffer the igneous parts before dispersed and imprisoned to unite , whence being condensed and incompassed by a thin glutinous air is changed into a hidden flame , whereby the water is rendred boyling hot . ii. why doth common salt make a cracking noise , when cast into the fire ? answ. because the flaming fire exufflating the spirituous air of the salt within its body , doth also force it to burst out , the report whereof is not unlike to a cracking noise . iii. who were the first inventers of gunpowder ? answ. in the first place touching the dispute , whether the invention of it is to be adscribed to the chineses or the europeans , it is very probable , the chineses were the first authors of gunpowder , because they were found practising upon it at the same time that it was first invented in europe . next , who was the author of it among the europeans is uncertain , but certain , that he was a german , whose name some would call berthold swarts a monck of friburg , said to have found it out accidentally , by leaving a mixture of saltpeter and sulphur in a mortar , covered with a stone , whereinto a spark of the candle lighting by chance , forced the stone up with no small report ; from this he was also supposed to have taken the fabrick of a gun. iv. what are the ingredients of gunpowder ? answ. its materials are ordinarily saltpeter , sulphur , and dust of charcoal : all which being very igneous do very much intend one anothers force in blowing up a fire . v. whence arrives all that flaming fire , that followeth the kindling of gunpowder ? ans. the saltpeter , which is the chiefest of the ingredients , consisting of very weighty dense and waterish parts , contains a great proportion of fiery minims within its body , but dispersed through those weighty parts and suppressed by them ; these being somewhat diducted and opened through the rarefying and expanding vertue of an external actual flaming fire , give occasion to the fiery minims interwoven with incrassated air to unite , and through the compression of the weighty parts to be condensed , whence erupting into the air doth attract other fire latent ( or rather is forced to it by the accurss of the ambient air ) and dispersed throughout the air , whereby its flame is much amplified and continuated ; for it seemeth very improbable , that so much fire should have been latent in the gunpowder as the flame requires . . the dilatation of the said erupting flame is also attenuated by the accurss of the air , expanding the thick and course erupting flame gradually into a thinner larger flame ; whence it is that the flame near where the powder was kindled appears dusky red , and further off light and flashy . vi. whence is it , that gunpowder being kindled in guns erupts with that force and violence ? answ. the powder being kindled into a flame at the touch-hole , divides or discontinuates the air more than any other body imaginable , whereunto the air accurrs from all parts , especially from above , with the greatest velocity and force , for to expell the flame , which being propagated further , partly by its own force , partly by the intrusion of the air , causeth a more violent discontinuation of air within being pent up , whereunto again a greater power of air accedes from without and attenuates the flame within , whereby together with the compression of the sides of the gun , and the great access of air from without the flame is violently expelled , effecting a great report through its disrupting and pluffing of the air . here observe , . how the flame is augmented within the gun ; not by a vertual rarefaction , as if the parts of the gunpowder could be augmented without access of other matter from without ; for that would suppose either a vacuum , and a new creation of parts , or a penetration , and an annihilation of foregoing parts . wherefore , i say , it is augmented by attracting fire out of the acceding air ; and secondly , by being attenuated and diducted into a large flame by the parts of the irrupting air . . that it is the air entring at the touch-hole , that doth expell the flame , is evident . . because the air is shut out before by the bullet and tow . . the touch-hole being stopt at the next instant after the powder begins to kindle , the flame is immediately suppressed and extinguisht , or at least bursleth up behind . whence it doth appear , that it is the air entring doth attenuate ( vulgarly termed rarefie ) and expand the flame , which the advenient fire doth augment ; and that the said air doth expell the flame out at the muzzel . . that the air doth make use of the weighty minims of the salt-peter in compressing and expelling the flame outwards . . why is a hot glass bursted by casting a drop of cold water upon it ? answ. because the fiery minims contained within its pores are condensed and violently compressed by the gravity of the water , whereby they are forced to disrupt the glass . why doth a woodden arrow , being shot out of a gun , pierce deeper than an iron one ? answ. because the woodden one gives way into it self , or shrinks as it makes a hole , whence being rendred lesser passeth the easier through : whereas an iron one is stubborn , and is rather somewhat flatned against the body aimed at , whence being rendred more obtuse and bigger at the point , is hindred in penetrating . labore & constantia . soli deo triuni gloria & honos in saecula saeculorum , amen . errata . page . line . dele that . p. . l. . read into . p. . l. . after pellines , &c. must be inserted those words below , beginning l. . i was much abused , &c. ending at l. . at breathing . p. . l. . r. fire is rough . p. . in marg . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundo . p. . l. . r. a man couragious . p. . l. . r. medicine . p. . l. . r. procatarctick . p. . l. . r. it s naturall . p. . l. . r. the lumina . p. . l. . for are r. is . p. . l. . r. cyzicum . p. . l. . r. in oyl , for that is a tast mixt out of a waterish and ayry tast . the rest are intermediate , as bitter , acerbe , acid , and salt . p. . l. . r. assimilation . p. . l. , . r. lynx . l. . r. very near . p. . l. . r. fish. l. . r. do . l. . r. a cat is delighted . p. . l. . r. an opale . p. . l. . r. white chalck . p. . l. , . r. rise . p. l. . r. perinaean . p. . l. . r. within . p. . l. . r. river . p. . l. . r. . p. . l. . r. doth . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e hence ovid , ingenuas didicisse sideliter artes , emollit mores , nec sinit esse feros * take form in a large sense , as it doth imply an essence or entire being . notes for div a -e * by really understand effectively & properly . * so a possible being , which is a non ens reale may be concelved to be an ens rationis . by figure understand ; the habit of modes in one essence notes for div a -e aver . met. . c. . tho. a. p. . q. . . art. c. . herv . qual . . q . apol. de an . q . thom. p. . q. . art. . that is . a parte actus . * that is , by a formal reality , or such , as any other operation of the mind might adjudge to be formally real , or to respond from without to that distinct formality , which it conceiveth from within . notes for div a -e * chap. . v. . and chap. . v. . lib. . cap. . ethie . * luc. . none is good but god alone * l a. ty. * namely from theology , that is , from its neerest , end , or summum bonum . * mark that practick here imports practick strictly so called , and poetick . * for even then he is assisted with god's ordinary power . * not as we are like unto men , but rather unto beasts . * take attributes here in a large sense col. . , . col. . , . * a description of the second paradise you may also read in isa. . , , , &c. and in the next ensuing chapter . pet. . and in the , and chapter of the revelat . stob. serm. . xen. mem. , . plat. dc repub. l. . lib. de relig . c. . phaed. just. mart. or at . paraenet . ad gent. plat. phaed. cicer. do amic . plat. phaed. lactant. l. . c. . arist. l. de par . animal . c. . notes for div a -e arist. met. b. . c. . text. . * that is , intirely separated existences . that is , beyond its points it is nothing . * that is , an actual vertue , or continuated act . hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundo , sive consundo . * that is , an inequality of the elements in respect to parts or the whole , whereby the central parts are perfused with more hear or spirits then the circumferential ones , but notwithstanding the mixture is equal in particles . * that is , in the whole , yet in parts , or if not in parts , they are in particles . * or rather is expressed by the overpowering gravity of the weighty clements , as you may read below in the chap. of vacuum . * or rather are the easier expelled by the down pres●ing earth . * hereby the earthy & waterish parts are divided from the light ones and cast aside ; hence it is that we spy such a clodding together of waterish & earthy particles , and their separation from the light humours in bloud drawn from a feaverish patient . * by taking advice from our sense . * that is the spirits dispersed through the optick ayr . * that is lucid . * that is equal in proportion . * to wit extrinsecally by peregrin water . * that is homogeneously continuous . * compare the quoted place , other wise you will scarce apprehend the sense of these consequences . * because it is represented without being terminated by any mixt colour . * by pinching here do not understand a greater obtension , but rather a relaxing or withdrawing from , or a contraction of the light , and drawing of it from the sight by being relaxed , drowned , & deaded by a dense weighty body . * or rather by coagulating the white salt of the aq. fort. * or a reflection continuated . * namely of an opake body . * that is inheres in the air like an accident in its substance . † whereas an accident and its substance are not really different , as hath been proved in my metaph * that is fire not converted into a flame . * viz. the pallate and gills . notes for div a -e * or a perspective-glass first invented some or years ago by jacobus metius of alcmaer , although accidentally by holding one piece of glass before another to his eye , whereof the nearest was somewhat thicker thē the other . * to wit , from the extreme circumference of the second region , to the circumference of the first . * because of its depressing weight . * viz. to operate presently from the stomack upon the heart , as soon as the medicament is swallowed down . * the beast it self wherin it is found they call pazan . * and in the island vacquas , near the mouth of the gulph of cambain , likewise in the country of pan near malacca . * i have wittingly omitted the inferring the draconite , as being dubious whether any such be in nature . * in the iense ex pressed in the chapt. of temp . * suppose them to be transversly contorted inclining from east to west , & most to terminate obliquely into the poles , especially the north pole in its north hemisphere . † that is in the north hemisphere * to wit most in its lower region . * to wit , the sun. * namely , of the needle . * to wit , the latent fire into which the extinguisht flame was dissolved . * except where it is condensed . * or by incision * of each dissimilar part in particular . * from the buleares ilands , to wit , majorca & minorca . * from baltheus a belt , because it environeth sconen like a belt. * these should have have been inserted in the preceding chap. * or single periods . * hence you may collect the cause of the retardation of the tide every day . * namely at the bottom underneath : ergo the waters must also begin to move from underneath * viz. the east & west grove . * namely the west grove . * take notice by the way , that by grove i do not intend any thing like to a grove of trees , as the word is derived from growing ; but a cavern , as the same word is derived from groven or to grave into the earth . * for one drop of water in an aeolipile is attenuated into a great blast of wind or air as the vulgar may call it : ergo , &c. * that is underneath some what what remote from the reach of the water atop . * or rather to be bo●ed or pr●fied through . * and likewise the air about the poles irrupting into the water as you may read in the next chapter . * to wit , by the crushing of the air tending downwards . * add hereunto the rarefying beams of the sun , intending the force of the internal air towards the circumference , in the same manner as you shall read it to be intended within the earth in the next chapter . * these are very frequent off the cape de bona esper. where sailers term them travadas . * namely , off the short of cuba and hispaniola . * or rather is detruded . * like gun powder suddenly taking fire , & causing a violent noise , when discharged out of a gun , or any other close hollow body . * except they be descended so low , as to find themselves seated within the upper erratick clouds . * besides it appears plainly in a thermometer . * to wit externally . * besides acutenesse , as we have observed in the b. par. as a concomitant of density , whereby a weighty body is also the better disposed to cut through the inferiour part of the air , when pressed from the superiour . * as in fountains that are led over a mountain , or in machins that raise the water higher than its source . * to wit , impressed upon the air by the projector . * namely , for to recover its place and to avoid a penetration of bodies . * in the same manner as we have described the air to force up water in vapours . * to wit , being incorporated with fire . * compare the generation of winds hereunto , for the manner is the same of both . * that is , is bound up by the continuous tenuity of the air . * witness the ●…sones . * viz. the adventitious matter : * otherwise if held near to it , it is conical . * viz. as there are restant deg . from deg . min. &c. to degr . * that is , remoter . † but accidentally , by expelling those vapours that incrassate it . notes for div a -e * to wit , from the knee . of the principles and duties of natural religion two books / by the right reverend father in god, john, late lord bishop of chester ; to which is added, a sermon preached at his funerals, by william lloyd ... wilkins, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w wing l _partial estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) of the principles and duties of natural religion two books / by the right reverend father in god, john, late lord bishop of chester ; to which is added, a sermon preached at his funerals, by william lloyd ... wilkins, john, - . lloyd, william, - . sermon preached at the funeral of john, late lord bishop of chester. tillotson, john, - . pts. ([ ], , [ ], p.) : port. printed by a. maxwell for t. basset, h. brome, r. chiswell ..., london : . preface signed: j. tillotson. "a sermon preached at the funeral of ... john, late lord bishop of chester" has special t.p., separate paging, and is cataloged separately at reel : . page faded in the filmed copy. pages - photographed from newberry library copy and inserted at the end. reproduction of original in rutgers university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng wilkins, john, - . natural theology. funeral sermons. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion of the principles and duties of natural religion : two books . by the right reverend father in god , john late lord bishop of chester . to which is added , a sermon preached at his funerals , by william lloyd , d. d. dean of bangor , and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . london , printed by a. maxwell , for t. basset , h. brome , r. chiswell , at the george in fleetstreet , the gun at the west-end of st. pauls , and the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard , . the preface . the ensuing treatise is sufficiently recommended to the world by the name of the author , and needs nothing else to make way for its entertainment . i shall only therefore give a short account of these remains of that learned and excellent person , and of the particular design and intention of them . he was pleased by his last will to commit his papers to my care , and out of his great friendship , and undeserved good opinion of me , to leave it wholly to my disposal , whether any , or what part of them , should be made publick . this treatise , i knew , he always designed for that purpose ; and if god had been pleased to have granted him but a little longer life , he would have published it himself : and therefore though a considerable part of it wanted his last hand , yet neither could i be so injurious , to deprive the world of it , because it was less perfect than he intend ed it ; nor durst i be so bold , to attempt to finish a piece designed and carried on so far by so great a master . the first twelve chapters were written out for the press , in his life-time . the remainder hath been gather'd and made up out of his papers , as well as the materials left for that purpose , and the skill of the compiler would allow : so that it cannot be expected , that the work should be of equal strength and beauty in all the parts of it . however , such as it is , i hope it may prove of considerable use and benefit to the world , and not altogether unworthy of its author . the design of it is threefold . first , to establish the great principles of religion , the being of god , and a future state ; by shewing how firm and solid a foundation they have in the nature and reason of mankind ; a work never more necessary than in this degenerate age , which hath been so miserably over-run with scepticisme and infidelity . secondly , to convince men of the natural and indispensable obligation of moral duties ; those i mean , which are comprehended by our saviour under the two general heads of the love of god and of our neighbour . for all the great duties of piety and justice are written upon our hearts , and every man feels a secret obligation to them in his own conscience , which checks and restrains him from doing contrary to them , and gives him peace and satisfaction in the discharge of his duty , or in case he offend against it fills him with guilt and terrour . and certainly it is a thing of very considerable use , rightly to understand the natural obligation of moral duties , and how necessarily they flow from the consideration of god and of our selves . for it is a great mistake , to think that the obligation of them doth solely depend upon the revelation of gods vvill made to us in the holy scriptures . it is plain that mankind was always under a law , even before god had made any external and extraordinary revelation ; else , how shall god judge the world ? how shall they to whom the word of god never came be acquitted or condemned at the great day ? for where there is no law , there can neither be obedience nor transgression . it is indeed an unspeakable advantage which we who are christians do enjoy , both in respect of the more clear and certain knowledg of our duty in all the branches of it , and likewise in regard of the powerful motives and assistance which our blessed saviour in his gospel offers to us , to enable and encourage us to the discharge of our duty : but yet it is nevertheless very useful for us to consider the primary and natural obligation to piety and virtue , which we commonly call the law of nature ; this being every whit as much the law of god , as the revelation of his vvill in his word ; and consequently , nothing contained in the word of god , or in any pretended revelation from him , can be interpreted to dissolve the obligation of moral duties plainly required by the law of nature . and if this one thing were but well consider'd , it would be an effectual antidote against the pernicious doctrines of the antinomians , and of all other libertine-enthusiasts whatsoever : nothing being more incredible , than that divine revelation should contradict the clear & unquestionable dictates of natural light ; nor any thing more vain , than to fancy that the grace of god does release men from the laws of nature . this the author of the following discourses was very sensible of , and wisely saw of what consequence it was to establish the principles and duties of religion upon their true and natural foundation ; which is so far from being a prejudice to divine revelation , that it prepares the way for it , and gives it greater advantage and authority over the minds of men . thirdly , to perswade men to the practice of religion , and the vertues of a good life , by shewing how natural and direct an influence they have not , only upon our future blessedness in another vvorld , but even upon the happiness and prosperity of this present life . and surely nothing is more likely to prevail with wise and considerate men to become religious , than to be throughly convinced , that religion and happiness , our duty and our interest , are really but one and the same thing considered under several notions . j. tillotson . the contents . first book : of the reasonableness of the principles and duties of natural religion . chap. i. concerning the several kinds of evidence and assent . pag. . chap. ii. two schemes of principles , relating to practical things , whether natural or moral ; proposed in the method used by mathematicians , of postulata , definitions and axioms . p. . chap. iii. some propositions necessary to be premised for the removing of several prejudices in debates about religion . p. . chap. iv. concerning the existence of a deity ; and the arguments for it . . arg. from the universal consent and agreement of mankind : and the objections against it answered . p. . chap. v. . arg. from the original of the world. p. . chap. vi. . arg. from the admirable contrivance of natural things . p. . chap. vii . . arg. from providence , and the government of the world. p. . chap. viii . concerning the excellencies and perfections of the divine nature : and first , of those which are commonly called incommunicable ; namely , simplicity , unity , immutability , infiniteness , immensity ,   eternity . p. . chap. ix . of the communicable perfections of god : and first of those which relate to the divine understanding , viz. knowledg , wisdom , particular providence . p. . chap. x. of the perfections relating to the divine will ; goodness , justice , faithfulness . p. . chap. xi . of the perfections belonging to the powers and faculties of acting , viz. power , dominion , distribution of future rewards and punishments . p. . chap. xii . concerning the duties of religion naturally flowing from the consideration of the divine nature and perfections : and first , of adoration and worship . p. . chap. xiii . of faith or affiance . p. . chap. xiv . of love. p. . chap. xv. of reverence and fear . p. . chap. xvi . of active obedience to the laws of god. p. . chap. xvii . of passive obedience ; or patience and submission to the will of god. p. . second book . of the wisdom of practising the duties of natural religion . chap. i. shewing in general , how religion conduces to our happiness . p. . chap. ii. how it conduces to our present happiness in this world : and first to the happiness of the outward-man . . in respect of health . p. . chap. iii. in respect of liberty , safety , and quiet . p. . chap. iv. in respect of our estates and possessions ; riches . p. . chap. v. in respect of pleasure ; or the chearful enjoyment of outward blessings . p. . chap. vi. in respect of honour and reputation . p. . chap. vii . how religion conduces to the happiness of the inward-man . as it tends to the perfecting and regulating of our faculties ; and to the peace and tranquility of our minds . p. . chap. viii . how religion conduces to our happiness in the next world. p. . chap. ix . the conclusion of the whole , shewing the excellency of the christian religion and the advantages of it , both as to the knowledg and practice of our duty , above the mere light of nature . p. . the first book : shewing the reasonableness of the principles and duties of natural religion . chap. i. concerning the several kinds of evidence and assent . i intend , by gods assistance , in this first book , to treat concerning the reasonableness and the credibility of the principles of natural religion , in opposition to that humour of scepticism and infidelity , which hath of late so much abounded in the world , not only amongst sensual men of the vulgar sort , but even amongst those who pretend to a more than ordinary measure of wit and learning . in my entrance upon this work , i am sensible of what ill consequence it may be , to lay the stress of a weighty cause upon weak or obscure arguments , which instead of convincing men , will rather harden and confirm them in their errors . and therefore i cannot but think my self obliged in the management of this argument , to use my utmost caution and endeavour , that it be done with so much strength and perspicuity , as may be sufficient to convince any man , who hath but an ordinary capacity , and an honest mind ; which are no other qualifications than what are required to the institution of men , in all kinds of arts and sciences whatsoever . in order to this , i judg it expedient to premise something concerning the several kinds and degrees of evidence and assent , and to lay down some common principles , which may serve as a foundation to the following discourse . the several ways whereby men come to the knowledg or belief of any thing without immediate revelation , are either by such evidence of things as is more simple , relating to the senses , outward . inward . understanding , arising either from the nature of the things in themselves . testimony of others concerning them . mixed , relating both to the senses and understanding . i. by senses i mean those faculties whereby we are enabled to discern and know such particular objects as are present . these are either . outward , by which we can apprehend external objects , as when we see , or hear , or touch any thing presented to us . . inward , by which we can discern internal objects , and are conscious to our selves , or sensible both of the impressions that are made upon our outward senses , and of the inward motions of our minds ; namely , our apprehensions , inclinations , and the power of determining our selves , as to our own actions ; and by which we can at any time be assured of what we think , or what we desire , or purpose . ii. by understanding , i mean that faculty whereby we are enabled to apprehend the objects of knowledg , generals as well as particulars , absent things as well as present ; and to judg of their truth or falshood , good or evil. that kind of evidence may be said to arise from the nature of things , when there is such a congruity or incongruity betwixt the terms of a proposition , or the deductions of one proposition from another , as doth either satisfie the mind , or else leave it in doubt and hesitation about them . that kind of evidence is said to arise from testimony , when we depend upon the credit and relation of others for the truth or falshood of any thing . there being several things which we cannot otherwise know , but as others do inform us of them . as namely matters of fact , together with the account of persons and places at a distance . which kind of evidence will be more or less clear , according to the authority and credit of the witness . besides these , there is a mixed kind of evidence relating both to the senses and understanding , depending upon our own observation and repeated trials of the issues and events of actions or things , called experience . these are the several kinds of evidence , whereby we attain to the knowledg or belief of things . the kinds of assent proceeding from them are reducible to these two heads . i. knowledg or certainty , which may be distinguished into three kinds , which i crave leave to call by the names of , physical . mathematical . moral . ii. opinion or probability . i. that kind of assent which doth arise from such plain and clear evidence , as doth not admit of any reasonable cause of doubting , is called knowledg or certainty . . i call that physical certainty which doth depend upon the evidence of sense , which is the first and highest kind of evidence , of which humane nature is capable . nothing can be more manifest and plain to me , than that i now see somewhat which hath the appearance of such a colour or figure , than that i have in my mind such a thought , desire or purpose , and do feel within my self a certain power of determining my own actions , which is called liberty . to say that we cannot tell whether we have liberty because we do not understand the manner of volition , is all one as to say , that we cannot tell whether we see or hear , because we do not understand the manner of sensation . he that would go about to confute me in any of these apprehensions , ought to bring a medium that is better known , and to derive his argument from somewhat that is more evident and certain than these things are , unless he can think to overthrow and confute that which is more plain and certain , by that which is less plain and certain , which is all one , as to go about to out-weigh a heavy body by somewhat that is lighter , or to attempt the proving of ten to be more than eleven , than which nothing can be more absurd . . i call that mathematical certainty , which doth more eminently belong to mathematical things , not intending hereby to exclude such other matters as are capable of the like certainty ; namely , all such simple abstracted beings , as in their own natures do lie so open , and are so obvious to the understanding , that every man's judgment ( though never so much prejudiced ) must necessarily assent to them . 't is not possible for any man in his wits , ( though never so much addicted to paradoxes ) to believe otherwise , but that the whole is greater than the part ; that contradictions cannot be both true ; that three and three make six ; that four is more than three . there is such a kind of connexion betwixt the terms of some propositions , and some deductions are so necessary as must unavoidably enforce our assent . there being an evident necessity that some things must be so , or not so , according as they are affirmed or denied to be , and that supposing our faculties to be true , they cannot possibly be otherwise , without implying a contradiction . . i call that moral certainty , which hath for its object such beings as are less simple , and do more depend upon mixed circumstances . which though they are not capable of the same kind of evidence with the former , so as to necessitate every man's assent , though his judgment be never so much prejudiced against them ; yet may they be so plain , that every man whose judgment is free from prejudice will consent unto them . and though there be no natural necessity , that such things must be so , and that they cannot possibly be otherwise , without implying a contradiction ; yet may they be so certain as not to admit of any reasonable doubt concerning them . under each of these heads there are several propositions which may be styled self-evident and first principles . self-evident , because they are of themselves so plain , as not to be capable of proof from any thing that is clearer or more known . first principles , because they cannot be proved à priori ; that which is first can have nothing before it . only they may receive some kind of illustration , by instances , and circumstances , and by such universal effects as do proceed from them ; and from the monstrous absurdities that will follow upon the denial of them . such deductions as do necessarily flow from these principles have the same kind of certainty , whether physical , mathematical , or moral , with the principles themselves from which they are deduced . the two first of these , namely , physical and mathematical certainty may be styled infallible ; and moral certainty may properly be styled indubitable . by infallible certainty , i do not mean absolute infallibility , because that is an incommunicable attribute . and it were no less than a blasphemous arrogance , for any man to pretend to such a perfect unerring judgment on which the divine power it self could not impose . but i mean a conditional infallibility , that which supposes our faculties to be true , and that we do not neglect the exerting of them . and upon such a supposition there is a necessity that some things must be so as we apprehend them , and that they cannot possibly be otherwise . by indubitable certainty , i mean that which doth not admit of any reasonable cause of doubting , which is the only certainty of which most things are capable ; and this may properly be ascribed both to that kind of evidence arising from the nature of things , and likewise to that which doth arise from testimony , or from experience . i am from the nature of the things themselves morally certain , and cannot make any doubt of it , but that a mind free from passion and prejudice is more sit to pass a true judgment , than such a one as is byassed by affections and interests . that there are such things as vertue and vice. that mankind is naturally designed for a sociable life . that it is most agreeable to reason and the common interests of those in society , that they should be true to their compacts , that they should not hurt an innocent person , &c. and as for the evidence from testimony which depends upon the credit and authority of the witnesses , these may be so qualified as to their ability and fidelity , that a man must be a fantastical incredulous fool to make any doubt of them . and by this it is that i am sufficiently assured , that there was such a person as queen elizabeth ; that there is such a place as spain . and so for the evidence of experience , i am by that to a great degree assured of the succession of night and day , winter and summer . and have no such reason to doubt , whether the house wherein now i am , shall this next minute fall upon me , or the earth open and swallow it up , as to be in continual fear of such accidents . ii. that kind of assent which doth arise from such evidence as is less plain and clear , is called opinion and probability . when though the proofs for a thing may preponderate any thing to be said against it , yet they are not so weighty and perspicuous as to exclude all reasonable doubt and fear of the contrary . and this doth arise from a more imperfect and obscure representation and conception of things , either by our senses or understandings , by testimony or by experience . when the evidence on each side doth equiponderate , this doth not properly beget any assent , but rather a hesitation or suspension of assent . chap. ii. two schemes of principles relating to practical things , whether natural or moral , proposed in the method used by mathematicians of postulata , definitions and axioms . having premised these things in general , concerning several kinds of evidences and assents : i shall in the next place offer some particular schemes of principles , relating to practical things , whether natural or moral , in the same way and method as is used in the mathematics , consisting of postulata , definitions and axioms . a scheme of natural principles . every thing is endowed with such a natural principle , whereby it is necessarily inclined to promote its own preservation and well-being . that which hath in it a fitness to promote this end is called good. and on the contrary that which is apt to hinder it is called evil. amongst which there are several degrees , according as things have more or less fitness to promote or hinder this end . the lessening or escaping of evil is to be reckoned under the notion of good. the lessening or loss of good is to be reckoned under the notion of evil. that which is good is to be chosen and prosecuted , that which is evil to be avoided . the greater good is to be preferred before the less , and the lesser evil to be endured rather than the greater . such kinds of things or events , whether good or evil , as will certainly come to pass , may fall under computation , and be estimated as to their several degrees , as well as things present . because when such a space of time is elapsed , that which is now future , will become present . which is the ground of mens dealing for reversions . and thus likewise is it for such things as may probably come to pass ; though this probability should be somewhat remote . it is counted a valuable thing , and may be estimated at a certain rate , for a man to be one amongst four or five equal competitors for a place , to be the fourth or fifth expectant of an inheritance ; though in such cases there be the odds of three or four to one , yet the price that is set upon this , may be so proportioned , as either to reduce it to an equality , or make it a very advantageous bargain . a present good may reasonably be parted with , upon a probable expectation of a future good which is more excellent . which is the case of merchants , who have large estates in their own possession , which they may safely keep by them ; and yet chuse to venture them upon a thousand hazards , out of an apprehension that there is a greater probability of their gaining , than of their losing by such adventures . and this would be much more reasonable , if besides the probability of gaining by these adventures , there were the like probability of their being utterly undone and ruined , if they should neglect or refuse to venture . the greater the advantage is , the more reasonable must it be to adventure for it . if it be reasonable for a man to run the venture of l. for the gain of a hundred pounds , much more for a thousand . the reason why men are moved to believe a probability of gain by adventuring their stocks into such forraign countries as they have never seen , and of which they have made no trial , is from the testimony of other credible persons , who profess to have known those places , and the advantages of traffick thither by their own experience . and this is generally accounted a sufficient argument to perswade others unto the like trials . the reason which moved men to adventure for the first discovery of unknown countries , is , because they had fair probabilities to perswade them , that there were such places , which would probably afford very gainful traffique . and upon the same ground , if any considerable number of men , such whom we esteem the most wise and the most honest , should assure us , that they did firmly believe , ( though they did not know it by experience ) , that there was such an undiscovered country , to which if men would make any ventures , their gains would be a thousand times more than could be expected by any other way of traffique ; and that upon this perswasion . they themselves did resolve to venture their estates , and should withal offer such arguments for the reasonableness of what they assert , as to any men , whose judgments were unprejudiced , would render it much more probable than the contrary : in this case , he that would act rationally , according to such rules and principles as all mankind do observe in the government of their actions , must be perswaded to do the like , unless he would be counted foolish , and one that did affect singularity . a present evil is to be endured , for the avoiding of a probable future evil , which is far greater . which is the reason of mens undergoing the mischiefs and hardships of war , the charges and vexations of law-suits , the trouble of fasting and physick . a man will endure the pain of hunger and thirst , and refuse such meats and drinks as are most grateful to his appetite , if he be perswaded that they will endanger his health , especially if he believe that they are poisoned . he will chuse to take nauseous offensive physick , upon a probable expectation , that he may thereby prevent or cure a dangerous sickness . the greater the evil is , the more reason is there to venture the loss of a less good , or the suffering of a less evil , for the escaping of it . a scheme of moral principles . there are several kinds of creatures in the world , and several degrees of dignity amongst them , some being more excellent than others , animate more than inanimate , sensitives more than vegetatives , and men more than brutes . it is a greater preheminence to have life , than to be without it ; to have life and sense , than to have life only ; to have life , sense , and reason , than to have only life and sense . that which doth constitute any thing in its being , and distinguish it from all other things , is called the form or essence of such a thing . that state or condition by which the nature of any thing is advanced to the utmost perfection of which it is capable according to its rank and kind , is called the chief end or happiness of such a thing . the nature of plants doth consist in having a vegetative soul , by which they receive nourishment and growth , and are enabled to multiply their kind . the utmost perfection which this kind of being is capable of , is to grow up to a state of maturity , to continue unto its natural period , and to propagate its kind . the nature of brutes ( besides what is common to them with plants ) doth consist in having such faculties , whereby they are capable of apprehending external objects , and of receiving pain or pleasure from them . the perfection proper to these doth consist in sensitive pleasures , or the enjoying of such things as are grateful to their appetites and senses . the nature of man ( besides what is common to him with plants and brutes ) doth consist in that faculty of reason , whereby he is made capable of religion , of apprehending a deity , and of expecting a future state of rewards and punishments . which are capacities common to all mankind , notwithstanding the utmost endeavours that can be used for the suppressing of them ; and which no other creature in this visible world , except man , doth partake of . the happiness of man doth consist in the perfecting of this faculty ; that is , in such a state or condition as is most agreeable to reason , and as may entitle him to the divine favour , and afford him the best assurance of a blessed estate after this life . that which every man doth and must propose unto himself , is the being in as good a condition as he is capable of , or as is reasonable for him to expect . and the desire of this is not properly a duty or a moral vertue , about which men have a liberty of acting , but 't is a natural principle , like the descent of heavy bodies , it flows necessarily from the very frame of our natures ; men must do so , nor can they do otherwise . the customary actions of men , considered as voluntary , and as capable of reward or punishment , are styled moral . as that which hath a fitness to promote the well-fare of man considered as a sensitive being , is styled natural good ; so that which hath a fitness to promote the well-fare of man as a rational voluntary and free agent , is styled moral good. and the contrary to it moral evil. that which is morally good is to be desired and prosecuted , that which is evil is to be avoided . the greater congruity or incongruity there is in any thing to the reason of mankind , and the greater tendency it hath , to promote or hinder the perfection of mans nature , so much greater degrees hath it of moral good or evil. to which we ought to proportion our inclination or aversion . there is in some things such a natural decency and fitness , as doth render them most agreeable to our reason , and will be sufficient to recommend them to our practice , abstracting from all considerations of reward . as in loving those who are kind to us , and from whom we receive benefit : in compensating good with good , and not with evil. it is most suitable both to the reason and interest of mankind , that every one should submit themselves to him , upon whom they depend for their well-being , by doing such things as may render them acceptable to him . it is a desireable thing for a man to have the assistance of others in his need and distress . and 't is not reasonable for him to expect this from others , unless he himself be willing to shew it to others . the rational nature and the perfection belonging to it being more noble than the sensitive , therefore moral good is to be preferred before natural , and that which is morally evil is more to be hated and avoided , than that which is natural . a present natural good may be parted with upon a probable expectation of a future moral good . a present natural evil is to be endured for the probable avoiding of a future moral evil. chap. iii. some propositions necessary to be premised for the removing of several prejudices in debates about religion . besides what hath been already suggested concerning the first foundations to be laid , in order to a discourse about natural religion , i shall in the next place offer to consideration these seven following propositions , as being very proper to prevent or obviate the cavils of sceptical captious men . . such things as in themselves are equally true and certain , may not yet be capable of the same kind or degree of evidence as to us . as for instance , that there was such a man as king henry the eighth , that there are such places as america , or china . i say these things may in themselves be equally true and certain with those other matters , that we now see and are awake , that the three angles in a triangle are equal to two right ones . though for the first of these we have only the testimony of others , and humane tradition , whereas for the other we have sensitive proof , and mathematical demonstration . and the reason is because all truths are in themselves equal , according to that ordinary maxim , veritas non recipit magis & minus . and therefore nothing can be more irrational than for a man to doubt of , or deny the truth of any thing , because it cannot be made out , by such kind of proofs of which the nature of such a thing is not capable . a man may as well deny there is any such thing as light or colour , because he cannot hear it ; or sound , because he cannot see it , as to deny the truth of other things because they cannot be made out by sensitive or demonstrative proofs . the kinds of probation for several things being as much disproportioned , as the objects of the several senses are to one another . . things of several kinds may admit and require several sorts of proofs , all which may be good in their kind . the philosopher hath long ago told us , that according to the divers nature of things , so must the evidences for them be ; and that 't is an argument of an undisciplined wit not to acknowledge this . he that is rational and judicious will expect no other kind of arguments in any case than the subject-matter will bear . h●w incongruous would it be for a m●●●●●atician to perswade with eloquence , to 〈◊〉 all imaginable insinuations and 〈◊〉 that he might prevail with his hearers to believe that three and three make six . it would be altogether as vain and improper in matters belonging to an orator to pretend to strict demonstration . all things are not capable of the same kind of evidence . though the conclusions in mathematicks , by reason of the abstracted nature of those sciences , may be demonstrated by the clearest and most unquestionable way of probation to our reason , yet it is not rational to expect the like proof , in such other matters as are not of the like nature . this he himself applys to moral things , which being not of such simple abstracted naturès , but depending upon mixed circumstances , are not therefore capable of such kind of demonstrative proofs . 't is a saying of jamblicus , that demonstrations are not to be expected in matters concerning god and divine things . nor is this any greater prejudice to the certainty of such things , than it is that god is invisible . and thus likewise it is , for the same reason , with many particular conclusions in natural philosophy . and as for matters of fact , concerning times , places , persons , actions , which depend upon story and the relation of others , these things are not capable of being proved by such scientifical principles as the others are . now no sober man can deny but that several things in moral and in natural philosophy are in themselves as absolutely and as certainly true , and as firmly believ'd by us , as any mathematical principle or conclusion can be . from whence i infer this , that it is not , ought not to be , any prejudice to the truth or certainty of any thing , that it is not to be made out by such kind of proofs , of which the nature of that thing is not capable , provided it be capable of satisfactory proofs of another kind . . when a thing is capable of good proof in any kind , men ought to rest satisfy'd in the best evidence for it , which that kind of things will bear , and beyond which better could not be expected , supposing it were true . they ought not to expect either sensible proof , or demonstration for such matters as are not capable of such proofs , supposing them to be true . because otherwise nothing must be assented to and believed , but that which hath the highest evidence : all other things being to be looked upon , as uncertain and doubtful , and wholly excluded from all possibility of being known . and at this rate , men must believe nothing at all in story , because such things cannot be demonstrated ; and 't is possible that the rest of mankind might have combined together to impose upon them by these relations . and how abhorrent such sceptical principles must needs be to common reason , i need not say . those who will pretend such kind of grounds for their disbelief of any thing , will never be able to perswade others , that the true cause why they do not give their assent is because they have no reason for it , but because they have no mind to it . nolle in causa est , non posse praetenditur . and on the other side , when we have for the proof of any thing , some of the highest kinds of evidence , in this case it is not the suggestion of a meer possibility , that the thing may be otherwise , that ought to be any sufficient cause of doubting . to which i shall only add , that we may be unquestionably sure of many things as to their existence , and yet we may not be able to explain the nature of them . no man in his wits can make any doubt , whether there be such things as motion , and sensation , and continuity of bodies : and yet these things are commonly esteemed inexplicable . so that our not being able to see to the bottom of things , and to give a distinct account of the nature and manner of them , can be no sufficient cause to doubt of their being . . the mind of man may and must give a firm assent to some things , without any kind of hesitation or doubt of the contrary , where yet the evidences for such things are not so infallible , but that there is a possibility , that the things may be otherwise . ( i. e. ) there may be an indubitable certainty , where there is not an infallible certainty . and that kind of certainty which doth not admit of any doubt , may serve us as well to all intents and purposes , as that which is infallible . a man may make no doubt , whether he himself were baptized , whether such persons were his parents , of which yet he can have no other evidence than tradition , and the testimony of others . who is there so wildly sceptical as to question , whether the sun shall rise in the east , and not in the north or west , or whether it shall rise at all : because the contrary is not impossible , and doth not imply any contradiction ? suppose that in digging of the earth amongst some ancient ruins , a man should find a round flat piece of metal , in the exact shape of an old medal , with the image and inscription of one of the roman emperours . or suppose he should dig up a large stone , of the shape of an ancient tomb-stone , with a distinct inscription upon it , of the name and quality of some person said to be buried under it . can any rational man doubt , whether one of these were not a piece of coyn , and the other a grave-stone ? or should a man be bound to suspend his assent and belief of this , barely upon this ground , because 't is possible that these might have been the natural shapes of that particular metal and stone , and that those which seem to be letters or figures engraven or embossed upon it , may be nothing else but some casual dents or cavities , which by the various motions and temper of the matter did happen to them , amongst those many millions of other figures which they were capable of ? who would not think such a man to be strangely wild , and irrational , who could frame to himself any real scruples from such considerations as these ? why , 't is the same kind of absurd dotage that scepticks in religion are guilty of , in suspending their assent meerly upon this ground , because some arguments for it do not so infallibly conclude , but that there is a possibility things may be otherwise . he that will raise to himself , and cherish in his mind , any real doubts , according to the meer possibility of things , shall not be able to determine himself to the belief or practice of any thing . he must not stay within doors , for fear the house should fall upon him , for that is possible : nor must he go out , lest the next man that meets him should kill him , for that also is possible . and so must it be for his doing or forbearing any other action . nay i add further , that man is sure to be deceived in very many things , who will doubt of every thing , where 't is possible he may be deceived . i appeal to the common judgment of mankind , whether the humane nature be not so framed , as to acquiesce in such a moral certainty , as the nature of things is capable of ; and if it were otherwise , whether that reason which belongs to us , would not prove a burden and a torment to us , rather than a priviledg , by keeping us in a continual suspense , and thereby rendring our conditions perpetually restless and unquiet ? would not such men be generally accounted out of their wits , who could please themselves , by entertaining actual hopes of any thing , meerly upon account of the possibility of it ; or torment themselves with actual fears , of all such evils as are possible ? is there any thing imaginable more wild and extravagant amongst those in bedlam , than this would be ? why , doubt is a kind of fear , and is commonly styled formido oppositi , and 't is the same kind of madness for a man to doubt of any thing , as to hope for , or fear it , upon a meer possibility . . 't is sufficient that matters of faith and religion be propounded in such a way , as to render them highly credible , so as an honest and teachable man may willingly and safely assent to them , and according to the rules of prudence be justified in so doing . nor is it either necessary or convenient , that they should be established by such cogent evidence , as to necessitate assent . because this would not leave any place for the vertue of believing , or the freedom of our obedience ; nor any ground for reward and punishment . it would not be thank-worthy for a man to believe that which of necessity he must believe , and cannot otherwise chuse . rewards and punishments do properly belong to free actions , such as are under a mans power , either to do or forbear ; not to such as are necessary . there is no more reason to reward a man for believing that four is more than three , than for being hungry or sleepy ; because these things do not proceed from choice , but from natural necessity . a man must do so , nor can he do otherwise . i do not say , that the principles of religion are meerly probable , i have before asserted them to be morally certain . and that to a man who is careful to preserve his mind free from prejudice , and to consider , they will appear unquestionable , and the deductions from them demonstrable : but now because that which is necessary to beget this certainty in the mind , namely , impartial consideration , is in a mans power , therefore the belief or disbelief of these things is a proper subject for rewards and punishments . there would be little reason for the scripture so much to magnifie the grace of faith , as being so great a vertue and so acceptable to god , if every one were necessitated to it , whether he would or no. and therefore god is pleased to propose these matters of belief to us in such a way , as that we might give some testimony of our teachable dispositions , and of our obedience by our assent to them . ut sermo evangelii tanquam lapis esset lydius , ad quem ingenia sanabilia explorarentur , as the learned grotius speaks concerning the doctrine of the gospel , whereby god was pleased as with a touch-stone to prove and try what kind of tempers men are of , whether they are so ingenuous as to accept of sufficient evidence , in the confirmation of a holy doctrine . and the scripture doth in several places make use of the word faith , according to this notion of it , as it consists in a readiness of mind to close with and give assent unto things upon such evidence as is in it self sufficient . to which purpose is that expression of our saviour to thomas , blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed , joh. . . signifying it to be a more excellent commendable and blessed thing for a man to yield his assent , upon such evidence as is in it self sufficient , without insisting upon more ; it denotes good inclinations in men towards religion , and that they have worthy thoughts of the divine power and goodness , when they are willing to submit unto such arguments in the confirmation of a holy doctrine , as to unprejudiced persons are in themselves sufficient to induce belief . it was this disposition that was commended in the bereans , for which they are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , more ingenuous , teachable and candid , more noble than others , because they received the word with all readiness of mind . ( i. e. ) were ready and willing to assent to the gospel , upon such evidence as was in it self sufficient to convince reasonable and unprejudiced men . and on the other side , it was the want of this disposition which is condemned , mat. . . where 't is said that our saviour did not many mighty works in his own country , because of their unbelief : ( i. e. ) that prejudice which there was upon them , by their knowledg of his mean parentage and birth , and their ignorance of his divine commission and high calling , did indispose them for an equal judgment of things , and render them unteachable . and having tried this by doing some mighty works amongst them he would not do many , because of their incapacity of receiving benefit by them . wicked men are in the scripture phrase styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , filii insuasibilitatis , unperswadable men , such as no reason can convince . and else-where they are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we translate unreasonable men . but the word may signifie absurd , contumacious persons , who are not to be fixed by any principles , whom no topics can work upon , being directly opposite to this vertue of faith , as appears by the next clause , for all men have not faith. supposing mankind to be endowed ( as all other things are ) with a natural principle , whereby they are strongly inclined to seek their own preservation and happiness ; and supposing them to be rational and free creatures , able to judg of , and to chuse the means conducing to this end : nothing can be more reasonable in this case , than that such creatures should be under the obligation of accepting such evidence , as in it self is sufficient for their conviction . . when there is no such evident certainty , as to take away all kind of doubting ; in such cases , a judgment that is equal and impartial must incline to the greater probabilities . that is no just ballance , wherein the heaviest side will not preponderate . in all the ordinary affairs of life men use to guide their actions by this rule , namely , to incline to that which is most probable and likely , when they cannot attain to any clear unquestionable certainty . and that man would be generally counted a fool who should do otherwise . now let it be supposed , that some of the great principles in religion , should not seem to some men altogether so evident as to be wholly unquestionable , yet ought their assent still to incline to the greater probability . when it is said to be a duty for men to believe any thing , or to acquiesce in such kind of evidence as is sufficient for the proof of it : the meaning is not , as if there were any moral obligation upon the understanding , which is proper only unto the will ; but the meaning is , that men should be careful to preserve their minds free from any wilful prejudice and partiality , that they should seriously attend to , and consider the evidence proposed to them , so as to take a just estimate of it . for though it be true , that the judgments of men must by a natural necessity , preponderate on that side where the greatest evidence lies ; supposing the mind to be equally disposed , and the ballance to be just ; yet must it withal be granted to be a particular virtue and felicity to keep the mind in such an equal frame of judging . there are some men , who have sufficient abilities to discern betwixt the true difference of things ; but what through their vicious affections and voluntary prejudices , making them unwilling that some things should be true ; what through their inadvertency or neglect to consider and compare things together , they are not to be convinced by plain arguments ; not through any insufficiency in the evidence , but by reason of some defect or corruption in the faculty that should judg of it . now the neglect of keeping our minds in such an equal frame , the not applying of our thoughts to consider of such matters of moment , as do highly concern a man to be rightly informed in , must needs be a vice . and though none of the philosophets ( that i know of ) do reckon this kind of faith ( as it may be styled ) , this teachableness and equality of mind in considering and judging of matters of importance , amongst other intellectual virtues ; yet to me it seems , that it may justly challenge a place amongst them ; and that for this reason , because the two extremes of it by way of excess and defect , i mean the assenting unto such things upon insufficient evidence which is called credulity , and the not assenting unto them upon sufficient evidence , which is called incredulity or unbelief , are both of them vices . now where the excess and defect do make vices , or such things as ought not to be , there the mediocrity must denote something that ought to be , and consequently must be a virtue , and have in it the obligation of duty . . if in any matter offered to consideration , the probabilities on both sides be supposed to be equal : ( in this case , though an impartial judgment cannot be obliged to incline to one side rather than to the other , because our assent to things must by a necessity of nature , be proportioned to our evidence for them ; and where neither side doth preponderate , the ballance should hang even ) yet even in this case , men may be obliged to order their actions in favour of that side , which appears to be most safe and advantageous for their own interest . suppose a man travelling upon the road to meet with two doubtful ways , concerning neither of which he can have any the least probability to induce him to believe that one is more like to be the true way to his journey's end , than the other ; only he is upon good grounds assured , that in one of these ways he shall meet with much trouble , difficulty , danger , which the other is altogether free from : in this case , though a man be not bound to believe that one of them is a truer way than the other , yet is he obliged in prudence to take the safest . nay i add further , if the probabilities on the one hand should somewhat preponderate the other , yet if there be no considerable hazard on that side which hath the least probability , and a very great apparent danger in a mistake about the other : in this case , prudence will oblige a man to do that which may make most for his own safety . these are those preparatory principles which i thought fit to premise , as a necessary foundation for any debate with captious men about these first grounds of religion . and they are each of them ( i think ) of such perspicuity , as to need little more than the bare proposal of them , and the explication of their terms , to evince the truth of them . chap. iv. concerning the existence of a deity , and the arguments for it . the i. argument , from the universal consent and agreement of mankind ; and the objections answered . these things being premised , i betake my self to that which was at first proposed as the chief design of this book , namely , to prove the reasonableness and the credibility of the principles of natural religion . by religion , i mean that general habit of reverence towards the divine nature , whereby we are inabled and inclined to worship and serve god after such a manner as we conceive most agreeable to his will , so as to procure his favour and blessing . i call that natural religion , which men might know , and should be obliged unto , by the meer principles of reason , improved by consideration and experience , without the help of revelation . this doth comprehend under it , these three principal things : . a belief and an acknowledgment of the divine nature and existence . . due apprehensions of his excellencies and perfections . . suitable affections and demeanour towards him . concerning each of which i shall treat in order . i. there must be a firm belief of the divine nature and existence . primus est deorum culius , deos credere , saith seneca . answerable to that of the apostle , he that comes to god , must believe that he is . now that this is a point highly credible , and such as every sober rational man , who will not offer violence to his own faculties , must submit unto , i shall endeavour to evince by the plainest reason . in treating concerning this subject , which both in former and later times hath been so largely discussed by several authors , i shall not pretend to the invention of any new arguments , but content my self with the management of some of those old ones , which to me seem most plain and convincing . namely , from . the universal consent of nations , in all places and times . . the original of the world. . that excellent contrivance which there is in all natural things . . the works of providence in the government of the world. . from the universal consent of nations in all places and times , which must needs render any thing highly credible to all such as will but allow the human nature to be rational , and to be naturally endowed with a capacity of distinguishing betwixt truth and falshood . it is laid down by the * philosopher as the proper way of reasoning from authority , that what seems true to some wise men , may upon that account be esteemed somewhat probable ; what is believed by most wise men , hath a further degree of probability ; what most men , both wise and unwise , do assent unto , is yet more probable : but what all men have generally consented to , hath for it the highest degree of evidence of this kind , that any thing is capable of : and it must be monstrous arrogance and folly for any single persons to prefer their own judgments before the general suffrage of mankind . it is observed by aelian , that the notions concerning the existence and nature of god , and of a future state , were more firmely believed , and did usually make deeper impression upon the illiterate vulgar , who were guided by the more simple dictates of nature , than upon several of the philosophers , who by their art and subtilty were able to invent disguises , and to dispute themselves into doubts and uncertainties concerning such things as might bring disquiet to their minds . that all nations of men now do , and have formerly owned this principle , may appear both from present experience , and the history of other times and places . and here i might cite abundance of the best authors that are extant , concerning the truth of this in all other ages and nations . but for brevity's sake i shall mention only two , tully and seneca . quae gens est , aut quod genus hominum , quod non habeat sine doctrinâ , anticipationem quandam deorum , quam appellat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 epicurus . what kind of men are there any where , who have not of themselves this prenotion of a deity ? and in another place : nulla gens est , neque tam immansueta neque tam fera , quae non etiamsi ignoret qualem habere denm deceat , tamen habendum sciat . amongst all mankind there is no nation so wild and barbarous , who though they may mistake in their due apprehensions of the nature of god , do not yet acknowledg his being . and elsewhere : nulla est gens tam fera , nemo omnium tam immanis , cujus mentem non imbuerit deorum timor . there is no nation so immensely barbarous and savage , as not to believe the existence of a deity , and by some kind of services to express their adoration of him . so seneca , nulla gens usquam est , adeo extra leges moresque projecta , ut non aliquos deos credat . there is no where any nation so utterly lost to all things of law and morality , as not to believe the existence of god. he that shall traverse over all this habitable earth , with all those remote corners of it , reserved for the discovery of these later ages , may find some nations without cities , schools , houses , garments , coin ; but none without their god. they may , and do vastly differ in their manners , institutions , customs : but yet all of them agree in having some deity to worship . and besides this universality as to nations and places , it hath been so likewise as to times . religion was observed in the beginning of the world , before there were civil laws amongst men , i mean any other than the meer wills of their princes and governours . the works of moses are by general consent acknowledged to be the most ancient writings in the world . and though the design of them be to prescribe doctrines and rules for religion , yet there is nothing offered in them by way of proof or perswasion concerning the existence of god ; but it is a thing taken for granted , as being universally acknowledged and believed . nor do we read that any of the other ancient law-givers or founders of commonwealths , who thought fit to prescribe rules for the worship of god , have endeavoured to perswade the people concerning his being ; which yet had been most necessary , if any doubt or question had then been made of it ; as being the very foundation of religion , and a disposition so requisite to qualifie men for society and government . and as it hath been thus in former times , so is it now amongst the nations more lately discovered , and not known to former ages . 't is excellently said by tully , opinionum commenta delet dies , naturae judicia confirmat : that time wears out the fictions of opinion , and doth by degrees discover and unmask the fallacy of ungrounded perswasions , but confirms the dictates and sentiments of nature ; and 't is a good sign that those notions are well established which can endure the test of all ages . there are two things may be objected against this argument . . that there is no such universal consent as is pretended . . if there were , this would signifie but little , because it may as well be urged for polytheism and idolatry . . that there is no such universal consent as is pretended , because there are some nations in the world so wild and savage , as not to acknowledg any deity ; which by several historians is reported of the cannibals in america , and the inhabitants of soldania in africk , who are so sottish and grosly ignorant , that they differ very little from brutes , having scarce any thing amongst them of civil policy , and nothing at all of religion , or any publick assemblies for worship : besides such particular persons , pretending to learning and philosophy , as in several ages have openly asserted , and professedly maintained atheistical principles , as diagoras , theodorus , pherecides , and others are said to have done . to this it may be said , that supposing these reports to be true , there may almost in all kinds be some few instances , besides and against the general course of things , which yet can no more be urged as prejudices against the common and most usual order belonging to them , than prodigies may to prove , that there is no regularity in the laws of nature . is there any equity or the least colour of reason in this ? for a man to take an essay of the nature of any species of things from such particular instances , as in their kinds are monstrous ? because beasts may sometimes be brought forth with five legs , and it may be two heads , is it reason therefore to conclude , that no other shape is natural to their kind ? specimen naturae cujuslibet , a naturâ optimâ sumendum est , ( saith tully ) the essay of any kind is rather to be taken from the best and most usual , than from the worst and most depraved part of it . will it therefore follow , that honey is not naturally sweet to our taste , because a sick palate doth not judg it to be so ? such dissolute persons , as are altogether immersed in sensuality , whereby they have besotted their judgments , cannot be looked upon as the most competent instances of what belongs to humane nature . where there is either a defect of reason , or a gross neglect in exciting a mans natural faculties , or improving his reason , by a due consideration of such consequences as do most naturally result from it : in such cases , it cannot otherwise be expected , but that he must come short of that knowledg which he is naturally capable of , and should have , were it not for these defects . some men are born blind , or have lost their sight , will it hence follow , that there is no such thing in nature as light or colour ? others are lunaticks or ideots , should any man from hence infer , that there is no such thing as reason ? no man may raise any doubt from such instances as these , but he that will make it a serious question , who are the mad men , whether those in bedlam , or those out of it ? whether ideots are not the wisest of men , and all others the veryest fools , according as they are at the widest distance from them ? can that man be thought to need any further confutation or pursuit , who is forced to fly to such a retreat ? as for those instances of particular persons , whom stories deliver down to us , as being professed atheists , it may be said . . 't is plain , that some of these were counted atheists and despisers of religion , because they did endeavour to confute the fopperies of the heathen worship , and deny the sun and moon , and the several idols that were adored in their countries , to be true gods : the loose and vitious poets , having so far debaucht the understandings of the vulgar , in those darker ages , as to make them believe vile and filthy things of their gods , unsuitable to all principles of sobriety and common reason . upon this , several men , who were more judicious and virtuous than others , thought themselves obliged to reclaim the people from such mischievous fopperies : in order to which , besides the more serious arguments which they made use of , they did likewise by jeers and scoffs endeavour to render these vitious deities contemptible , and to deride them out of the world . and for this were they by the foolish superstitious multitude counted atheists , which was the case of anaxagoras , socrates , and others . . let it be supposed , that some men have declared a disbelief of the divine nature in general ; yet as there have been always some monsters amongst men , in respect of their bodies , so may there be likewise in respect of their minds . and this no prejudice to the standing laws of nature . and besides it ought to be considered , that the same stories which mention such persons as profest atheists , do likewise give an account of divers signal judgments , whereby they were witnessed against from heaven . . but i add further , there never yet was any such person , who had any full and abiding conviction upon his mind , against the existence of god. mentiuntur qui dicunt se non sentire esse deum , nam etsi tibi affirment interdin , noctu tamen & sibi dubitant . they lye who say that they believe there is no god ( saith seneca ) though they may profess this somewhat confidently in the day-time , when they are in company , yet in the night and alone they have doubtful thoughts about it . 't is their wish , but not their opinion . the interest of their guilt doth make them desire it . but they are never able with all their endeavours wholly to extinguish their natural notions about it . witness those continual fears and terrors , whereunto such kind of men are above all others most obnoxious . the second objection was , that if the consent of nations be a sufficient evidence to prove the existence of god , it may as well prove polytheism and idolatry , for which the like consent may be pleaded . to this two things may be answered : . though the unity of the godhead , and the unfitness of worshipping him by idols , be discoverable by the light of nature ; yet these things are not so immediate , and so obvious to every ones understanding as the being of god is , but will require some deeper consideration , and some skill in the rules of reasoning . now it could not be reasonably expected , that either the generality , or any considerable number of the vulgar , should attain to such a degree of knowledg as their own natural reason , duly exercised and improved , might have furnished them with . partly by reason of the prejudice of education , which must needs incline them to acquiesce in what is delivered down to them , as the belief or practice of their forefathers ; and consequently hinder them from an impartial enquiry into the nature of things : but chiefly for want of sufficient leisure to apply themselves to the business of contemplation , by reason of their being immersed in the affairs of the world , either pleasures , ambition , riches , or else being wholly taken up with cares , about providing the necessaries of life for themselves and their families ; which must needs much divert them , from the serious consideration of things , and hinder them from the improvement of their natural light to all the due consequences of it . . the most considering and the wisest men in all ages and nations , have constantly differed from the vulgar in their thoughts about these things , believing but one supreme deity , the father of all other subordinate powers : — hominum sator atque deorum . whom they called jupiter or jove , with plain reference to the hebrew name jehovah . and to this one god did they ascribe several names , according to those several virtues they suppos'd to be in him , or benefits they expected from him . bacchus , and neptune , nature , fortune , fate : omnia quidem dei nominasunt , varie utentis suâ potestate , saith seneca . so likewise pythagoras , socrates , plato , aristotle , &c. and they advise men , to worship this god not so much by images , or by sacrifices , as by inward goodness , by endeavouring to be like him ; as i shall shew more largely afterwards . now though the opinion of the vulgar , with the consent of the wise , may be of great authority ; yet being separated from or especially opposed unto , their opinion , who are best able to judg , it must needs signifie but little . if the question should here be proposed , how comes it to pass , that mankind should thus consent and agree in the notion of a deity , and to what ground or cause may it be ascribed ? to this i shall suggest something by way of answer , both negatively , and positively . . negatively , from what hath been said it may appear , that this belief doth not proceed from any particular infirmity , or occasional prejudice in the judgment , because it hath been so constant and universal amongst mankind . and besides , there is not the least probability for those things which are assigned as the grounds of this prejudice , namely , fear , policy , stipulation . . not fear , or a certain jealousie of the worst that may happen . for though it must be granted natural to the minds of men , to be possessed with an awe towards such things as are able to hurt them ; yet 't is much more probable , that the fear of a supreme being , is rather the consequence and effect of such a belief , than the cause of it . for this reason , because the notion of a deity doth comprehend under it infinite goodness and mercy , as well as power and justice ; and there is no reason why fear should dispose a man to fancy a being that is infinitely good and merciful . . not policy or the device of statists , to keep mens consciences in awe and oblige them to subjection . . because the greatest princes and politicians themselves , have in all ages been as much under this conviction of a deity , and the lashes of conscience , as any other persons whatsoever ; which could not be , had they known this business of religion to have been a device or state engine , whereby their subjects were to be imposed upon . . because this belief is amongst the more rude and savage nations , such as in all other regards are ignorant and wild and utterly destitute of all common policy . . not stipulation or mutual agreement , for the same reason ; because 't is amongst those barbarous and savage people , who decline all kind of commerce with others . nor is it imaginable , how such kind of persons should agree together to promote any opinion , who are wildly separated from one another , by seas , and mountains , and desarts ; and yet not at so great a distance in their habitations , as in their customs and manners . from all which it may appear , that this opinion or belief which is so general amongst men , doth not arise from any prejudice or partiality upon their minds ; but rather the doubting or questioning of these things , which belongs but to few . there is reason enough to believe , that this may be founded in prejudice . nor is it difficult to determine whence their prejudice doth arise , namely , from the vitious inclinations of men , which will corrupt and byass their judgments . when once men are immersed in sensual things , and are become slaves to their passions and lusts , then are they most disposed to doubt of the existence of god. whereas on the contrary , the more just and honest any man is , the more willing and careful he is to walk up to the dictates of his natural light , by so much the more firmely are such persons convinced of this truth . 't is the conscience of guilt which makes it the interest of some that there should be no god. and consequently being desirous to have it so , this makes them studious how to find out some doubt and obscurity about it . . affirmatively . it is a known rule , that the cause must be as universal as the effect is . if this belief have been one and constant in all places and times , then must the cause of it be so likewise . and what is there imaginable that hath a fairer pretence to this , than the very nature of our minds , which are of such a frame as in the ordinary exercise of their faculties , will easily find out the necessity of a supreme being . and it seems very congruous to reason , that he who is the great creator of the world , should set some such mark of himself upon those creatures that are capable of worshipping him , whereby they might be led to the author of their being , to whom their worship is to be directed ; as is observed in a late discourse , wherein there are many other things to this purpose . such kind of notions as are general to mankind , and not confined to any particular sect , or nation , or time , are usually styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , common notions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , seminal principles ; and lex nata , by the roman . orator , an innate law , in opposition to lex scripta , and in the apostles phrase , the law written in our hearts . which kind of notions , though they are of themselves above all other matters most plain and perspicuous , yet because learned men do somewhat differ in their apprehensions concerning the first rise and original of them , i shall therefore take this occasion to suggest briefly , that which to me seems the most easie and natural way for the explaining of this , namely , by comparing the inward sensation of our minds and understandings , with that of our outward senses . it hath been generally agreed upon , and we find it by sufficient experience , that the acts of our minds are reducible to these three kinds . . perception of such single objects as are proposed to them , which is called simple apprehension . . putting together such single objects , in order to our comparing of the agreement or disagreement betwixt them , by which we make propositions , which is called judging . . the discerning of that connexion or dependence which there is betwixt several propositions , whereby we are enabled to infer one proposition from another , which is called ratiocination , or discourse . now as there is an universal agreement in the sensation of outward objects ; the eye and the ear of all sensitive creatures , having the same kind of perception of visible and audible things . those things which appear green , blew , or red to one , having the same appearance to all others . so must it be with the understandings of men likewise , which do agree in the same kind of perception or simple apprehension of intelligible objects . and as in making of propositions , or compounding our apprehensions about sensible things , we determine that the green in this object is like the green in that other , and unlike the yellow or blew in a third ; that it is more , or less , or equal , to something else , with which we compare it : so likewise is it for compounding other simple notions belonging to the understanding , by which we judg one thing to be like or unlike , agreeable or disagreeable , equal , or more or less , in respect to something else compared with it . now those kind of apprehensions wherein all men do agree , these are called natural notions . and of this kind are all those opinions which have in them such a suitableness to the minds of men , as to be generally owned and acknowledged for true , by all such as apply their thoughts to the consideration of them . as for such doctrines as depend meerly upon institution and the instruction of others , men do frequently differ both from themselves , and from one another about them ; because that which can plant , can supplant . if meer institution be able to fix such opinions , it may be able to unsettle them again . whereas no kind of institution will be sufficient to eradicate these natural notions out of the minds of men . but now , though the understanding have naturally this power belonging to it , of apprehending , and comparing , and judging of things ; yet is it not to be expected , either from infants or from dull sottish people , or from such as are destitute of all the advantages of education , that they should improve this natural ability , to all the due consequences of it . but in order to this , 't is necessary that men should first be out of their non-age , before they can attain to an actual use of this principle . and withal , that they should be ready to exert and exercise their faculties to observe and consider the nature of things , to make use of that help which is to be had , by the instruction and experience of those with whom they converse . nor can this be any just exception against the naturalness of such notions , that they are promoted by the experience and instruction of others ; because mankind is naturally designed for a sociable life , and to be helpful to one another by mutual conversation . and without this advantage of discourse and conversation , whereby they communicate their thoughts and opinions to one another , it could not otherwise be , but that men must needs be strangely ignorant , and have many wild and gross apprehensions of such things as are in themselves very plain and obvious , and do appear so to others . for the better understanding of this , let us suppose a person bred up in some deep cavern of the earth , without any instruction from others , concerning the state of things in this upper surface of the world : suppose this person , after he is arrived to a mature age , to be fetched up from this solitary abode , to behold this habitable world , the fields , and towns , and seas , and rivers , the various revolutions of seasons , together with the beautiful host of heaven , the sun , and moon , and stars : it could not otherwise be , but that such a person must at first view have many wild imaginations of things . he might conceive those useful and beautiful contrivances of houses and towns , to spring up and grow out of the earth , as well as trees ; or else that trees were made and built by men , as well as houses . but supposing him to be a man , he must be endowed with such a natural faculty , as upon further consideration and experience will quickly satisfie him , that one of these was natural , and the other artificial ; and that the buildings were framed to that elegance and convenience by the art and skill of men . it would not at first seem credible to him , that a large tree should proceed from a small seed or kernel : that an egg should produce a bird. and as for man himself , he would not be able to have any conception of his true original ; how it could be possible , that a young infant should be bred in his mothers womb , where it should continue for so many months inclosed in a bag of water , without breathing ; yet upon experience these things would appear to him unquestionable , and of natural evidence . from what hath been said , it will follow , that such things are evident by natural light , which men of a mature age , in the ordinary use of their faculties , with the common help of mutual society , may know and be sufficiently assured of , without the help of any special revelation . and when it is said that the notion of god is natural to the soul , the meaning of it is , that there is such a faculty in the soul of man , whereby upon the use of reason he can form within himself a setled notion of such a first and supreme being , as is endowed with all possible perfection . which is all i shall say as to this first argument . i shall be briefer in the rest . chap. v. . arg. from the original of the world. nothing can be more evident , than that this visible frame which we call the world , was either from all eternity , or else that it had a beginning . and if it had a beginning , this must be either from chance or from some wise agent . now if from clear principles of reason , it can be rendered more credible , that the world had a beginning , and that from some wise agent , this may be another argument to this purpose . i cannot here omit the mention of a late discourse , wherein this subject hath been so fully treated of , that i shall need to say the less of it , having little that is material to add to what is there delivered . in the discussing of this , i shall purposely omit the mention of those arguments which relate to infinity , as being not so easily intelligible , and therefore more apt to puzzle and amuse , than to convince . let it be supposed , that each of the two theories , whether about the eternity of the world , or its having a beginning , are not impossible , and that neither of them does imply a contradiction . and further , that neither of them can be infallibly demonstrated by the meer principles of reason . in this case the question must be , which of them is most credible . he that would rationally fix his opinion and belief about this matter , hath but these two kind of proofs to enquire after . . testimony , or the tradition of the most antient times . . reason , or such probabilities as do arise from the nature of the thing . for the first of these opinions , concerning the eternity of the world , there is very little to be said from either of these . . as to testimony . aristotle , who was a great patron of this opinion , and held that the world was a necessary emanation from god , as light is from the sun ; doth of himself acknowledg , that the philosophers before him , were of opinion that the world had a beginning ; which acknowledgment of his , is no small prejudice to the autority of his opinion , as i shall shew afterwards . and then , . as to reason , it is a meer precarious hypothesis , having no sufficient argument that i know of , to render it probable . but now for the other opinion , namely , the beginning of the world , there are as fair and convincing proofs for it , of several kinds , as the nature of the thing is well capable of . . from tradition . if the world were made and had a beginning , it is but reasonable to expect , that so memorable a thing as this , should be recorded in some of the most ancient histories ; and that some extraordinary means should be used to perpetuate the memory of it , and to convey it down from one generation to another by universal tradition : and if it shall appear , that all the evidence of this kind is for this opinion , this must needs render it highly credible . now the history of moses , hath been generally acknowledged , to be the most ancient book in the world , and always esteemed of great autority , even amongst those heathens who do not believe it to be divinely inspired : and there is no man of learning , but must allow to it ( at least ) the ordinary credit of other ancient histories ; especially , if he consider what ground there is for the credibility of it , from the theology of the darker times , which is made up of some imperfect traditions and allusions , relating to those particular stories which are more distinctly set down in the writings of moses . now moses doth give such a plain , brief , unaffected account of the creation of the world , and of the most remarkable passages of the first ages , particularly of the plantation of the world by the dispersion of noah's family , so agreeable to the most antient remains of heathen writers , as must needs very much recommend it to the belief of every impartial man. though the jews were but a small nation , and confined to a narrow compass in the world ; yet the first rise of letters and languages is truly to be ascribed to them . it is attested by several of the best and most antient heathen writers , that the hebrew alphabet , or ( which is all one ) the phaenician , is that from which both the greek and the latin , and consequently the generality of the rest now known , are derived , so herodotus , plutarch , pliny , curtius , lucan , &c. from whence it may be probably infer'd , that the account given by the first language , is the most ancient , and therefore the most likely to be a true account of the first original of things . the usual course observed by all nations to preserve the memory of things most remarkable , which might otherwise in tract of time be forgotten , especially amongst such as are not acquainted with letters , hath been by some practical institution , as by appointing some festival for the commemoration of such things . and thus likewise hath it been in the present case ; the sabbath ( as moses expresly tells us ) was instituted for this very purpose , to keep up the memory of the creation . and though perhaps it may be difficult to prove , that this day hath upon this account been observed by any other nation , but the jews ; yet the division of time by weeks , hath been universally observed in the world , not only amongst the civiliz'd , but likewise amongst the most barbarous nations . and there being no foundation in nature for this kind of distribution of days , it must therefore depend upon some antient general tradition , the original whereof , together with the particular reason of it , is preserv'd in the most ancient of all other histories , viz. that of moses . as for the derivation of this from the seven planets , whose names have been anciently assigned to them ; this being well considered , will appear to be so far from invalidating what i now assert , that it will rather contribute to the probability of it . it is commonly believed , that the assignation of the names of the planets to the days of the week , was by the chaldeans , who were much devoted to astrological devices , and had an opinion that every hour of the day was governed by a particular planet , reckoning them according to their usual order , saturn , jupiter , mars , sol , venus , mercury , luna ; that planet which was ascribed to the first hour , giving name to the whole day ; supposing saturn to belong unto the first hour of saturday , then the second hour will belong to jupiter , the third to mars , &c. and according to this order , the fifteenth hour will belong likewise to saturn , and so will the twenty-second , the twenty-third to jupiter , the twenty-fourth to mars ; and so the first hour of the next day must belong to sol , which must accordingly give the denomination to that day ; and so for the other days of the week . now if it may appear , that in this very account , which all sorts of learned men do agree in , there is such a special regard to the jewish sabbath , or seventh-day , as cannot be pretended for any other , this will still render it more credible , that the tradition of the sabbath did precede these astrological names . if we suppose these astrologers to reckon from the first day of the creation , and to begin with the most noble planet the sun ; then the seventh-day will be saturday , or the jewish sabbath : or ( which is more probable ) if we suppose them to begin their computation , from the first day after the creation was finished , and from the highest planet , of slowest motion , and so more proper to signifie a day of rest ; according to this way of computation , there is a peculiar priviledg belongs to the jewish sabbath , which cannot be said of any of the other days . the testimony of greatest antiquity next to the books of moses , must be sought for amongst those ancient nations , the egyptians , chaldeans , phenicians , from whom the grecians derived their learning , and amongst whom the first and most famous philosophers of greece were wont to travel , for the improving of their knowledg ; it being probable that some memorials might be preserved amongst those ancient nations , concerning the first beginning of things ; and that they were acquainted with what was the universal tradition of the first ages . upon which account , those grecian philosophers before aristotle , such as thales , anaxagoras , pythagoras , &c. who by their travel were conversant amongst these nations , must by this advantage be more competent judges than he was , concerning the general belief and opinion of former times , and what grounds they had for it . now it is well known to have been a general tradition amongst these nations , that the world was made , and had a beginning . and though there be some prodigious accounts amongst them , which may seem inconsistent with the writings of moses , as namely that of the chaldeans , who reckon forty-three thousand years from the beginning of the world to the time of alexander : yet this way of computation is acknowledged by diodorus siculus and plutarch , to be meant of lunary years , or months ; which being reduced to solary years , will fall out to be much about the time assigned by moses for the creation . but besides these testimonies of the ancient nations , and the first grecian philosophers who conversed amongst them ; this hath been likewise believed and professed by the most eminent writers since , socrates , and plato , and tully , and seneca , and the generality of the rest , whether philosophers or poets , of greatest repute for their learning , who have asserted , that god was the maker of the world. there are several passages to this purpose amongst those ancient greek poets , linus , hesiod , orpheus , epicharmus , aristophanes , which relate to the creation of the world ; and ovid particularly , who fetched his matter from the grecian writers , doth give such a plain description of it , as if he had been acquainted with the books of moses ; in those known verses : ante mare & terras , & quod tegit omnia coelum , &c. nor hath it been thus only amongst the more civilized nations ; but the barbarous indians likewise have owned this tradition , and professed the belief of it . now it is not easie to imagine , how any such tradition could arise so early , and spread so universally , if there were not a real ground for it . as for the arguments from reason , i would offer these things to consideration : . if the world had been either without a beginning , or else very old , much older than the time assigned for it in the history of moses ; 't is not likely , but there should be some kind of memorials of those former ages , or some real evidence that there had been such . quis dubitet , quin mundus recens ac novus sit , cum historia graeca , bis mille annorum historiam vix contineat ? saith macrobius . the world cannot be very old , because the grecian history doth scarce extend to two thousand years . this was that which convinced lucretius , that the world could not be eternal , because there were such obscure footsteps or reliques in any credible story , either amongst the grecians or romans , concerning any persons that lived , or any considerable action that was done , much before the trojan wars . . the first rise and progress of arts and sciences in the world , may likewise afford another fair probability to this purpose . seneca asserts , that there was not above a thousand years since the beginning of arts and sciences , to the time wherein he lived . there is scarce any one of them so ancient , but that the original and first inventors of them are recorded in story . nor is there any nation in the world , now accounted civil , but within the memory of books , were utterly rude and barbarous . now it is not imaginable , that so sagacious , so busie a creature as mankind is , could all of them have lived an infinity of ages , destitute of those arts , so advantageous for the comfort and benefit of human life , without some successful attempts for the supplying of their wants by them . if it be said , that it is possible there might have hapned many general inundations , by which former inventions might be lost and forgotten , and such a kind of simplicity introduced into the world , as is proper to the first and ruder ages of it . to this , i have shewed before , that a meer possibility to the contrary , can by no means hinder a thing from being highly credible . to which i shall presently add something further . . if the world had been eternal , how comes it to pass , that it is not every-where inhabited and cultivated ? how is it , that very probably a considerable part of it is yet unknown ? it is not yet two hundred years since , that one half of that which is now known lay undiscovered . whereas if we judg of its beginning by the present plantations and fulness of it , according to those proportions wherein men and families are now multiplied , allowing for such kind of devastations , by war , famine , pestilence , inundations , as are recorded in credible story to have hapned in former times ; i say according to this , it will appear highly credible , that the beginning of the world was much about the time mentioned by moses for the creation of it ; whereas had it been eternal , it must long ere this have been over-stocked , and become too narrow for the inhabitants , though we should suppose the addition but of one man every year . nay , though we suppose but the addition of one man for every thousand years , yet long before this time there should have been a far greater number than there could be sands in the earth , though the whole globe were made up of nothing else . if it be said , that there may have been great checks given to the encrease of mankind by wars , famines , pestilences , and inundations . to this it may be replied , that either these extraordinary devastations of mankind , must fall out regularly , so as not to be too much or too little ; and in this case , they must be ordered by some wise agent , which is god ; or else they must be purely casual ; and then it is by no means credible , but that the world must long ere this have been wholly wasted , and left desolate of inhabitants , or else frequently too much replenished . but the most plausible shift against the force of this argument , is fetched from the instance of noah's flood , by which the whole world was destroyed , excepting one family . the like whereto may frequently have hapned before , when perhaps one only family did escape , and those such ignorant persons , as could give no true account of what was before . but neither will this shift serve the turn . because no man can give any rational account , how 't is possible that such a general flood should come , by any natural means . and if it be supernatural , that grants the thing i am proving , namely such a supreme being as can alter the course of nature ? but let it be supposed natural , how comes it to pass that so much as one family doth escape . such kind of deluges , as must prevent the over-stocking of the world , must be necessary once every ten or twenty thousand years . and there must have happened many millions of them , from all eternity . and who shall take care for the adjudging of them to their proper season ? or for preventing the total destruction of mankind ? though we should grant this possible casualty , yet he who can believe that to be a probable casualty which hath never come to pass in an eternal duration , must not pretend to be an enemy to credulity . by what hath been said it may appear , that there is a very great advantage in the proofs for this opinion , concerning the beginning of the world , above the other for the eternity of it . now for the difficulties on each side : those relating to the eternity of the world , have been already discussed , in the proofs i have lately insisted upon . and as for the opinion , concerning the creation of it , the chief difficulty which aristotle doth mention , is from that principle of his , ex nihilo nihil fit , which is generally acknowledged to be true concerning natural generations , but must not necessarily be extended to supernatural productions . it is one of the natural notions belonging to the supreme being , to conceive of him that he is omnipotent . and it is very reasonable for us to believe , that our finite understandings cannot comprehend the utmost extent of omnipotence . and though the making of something out of nothing do argue an inconceivable power , yet there is no contradiction in it . and if such things must be denyed which our reasons cannot comprehend , we must then deny that any thing can be self-existent , which yet is and must be supposed , on both sides ; it being altogether as difficult for us to conceive , how any thing should be of it self , as how any thing should be made of nothing . so that this difficulty is not sufficient to overthrow this opinion , and withal it doth extend equally to both sides . so then if it do appear , that betwixt these two opinions the least and fewest difficulties do lye , on that side which hath the plainest and strongest proofs , there is no question to be made , which way every impartial man will determine his opinion . i do not pretend that these arguments are demonstrations , of which the nature of this thing is not capable : but they are such strong probabilities , as ought to prevail with all those , who are not able to produce greater probabilities to the contrary . as for that other opinion , concerning epicurus his atoms , it is so extravagant and irrational , and hath been so abundantly confuted by others , that i cannot think it expedient to spend any time in the discussing of it . chap. vi. . arg. from the admirable contrivance of natural things . . from that excellent contrivance which there is in all natural things . both with respect to that elegance and beauty which they have in themselves separately considered , and that regular order and subserviency wherein they stand towards one another ; together with the exact fitness and propriety , for the several purposes for which they are designed . from all which it may be inferred , that these are the productions of some wise agent . the most sagacious man is not able to find out any blot or error in this great volume of the world , as if any thing in it had been an imperfect essay at the first , such as afterwards stood in need of mending : but all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation . tully doth frequently insist upon this , as the most natural result from that beauty and regularity to be observed in the universe . esse praestantem aliquam , aeternamque naturam , & eam suspiciendam adorandamque hominum generi , pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum caelestium cogit confiteri . the great elegance and order of things in the world , is abundantly enough to evince the necessity of such an eternal and excellent being , to whom we owe adoration . and in another place , quid potest esse tam apertum , tamque perspicuum , cum coelum suspeximus , coelestiaque contemplati sumus , quàm aliquod esse numen praestantissimae mentis , quo haec regantur . what can be more obvious than to infer a supreme deity , from that order and government we may behold amongst the heavenly bodies ? the several vicissitudes of night and day , winter and summer , the production of minerals , the growth of plants , the generation of animals according to their several species ; with the law of natural instinct , whereby every thing is inclined and enabled , for its own preservation : the gathering of the inhabitants of the earth into nations , under distinct policies and governments ; those advantages which each of them have of mutual commerce , for supplying the wants of each other , are so many distinct arguments to the same purpose . i cannot here omit the observations which have been made in these later times , since we have had the use and improvement of the microscope , concerning that great difference which by the help of that doth appear , betwixt natural and artificial things . whatever is natural doth by that appear , adorned with all imaginable elegance and beauty . there are such inimitable gildings and embroideries in the smallest seeds of plants , but especially in the parts of animals , in the head or eye of a small fly : such accurate order and symmetry in the frame of the most minute creatures , a lowse or a mite , as no man were able to conceive without seeing of them . whereas the most curious works of art , the sharpest finest needle , doth appear as a blunt rough bar of iron , coming from the furnace or the forge . the most accurate engravings or embossments , seem such rude bungling deformed works , as if they had been done with a mattock or a trowel . so vast a difference is there betwixt the skill of nature , and the rudeness and imperfection of art. and for such kind of bodies , as we are able to judg of by our naked eyes , that excellent contrivance which there is in the several parts of them ; their being so commodiously adapted to their proper uses , may be another argument to this purpose . as particularly those in humane bodies , upon consideration of which , galen himself , no great friend to religion , could not but acknowledg a deity . in his book de formatione foetus , he takes notice , that there are in a humane body above several muscles , and there are at least ten several intentions , or due qualifications , to be observed in each of these ; proper figure , just magnitude , right disposition of its several ends , upper and lower position of the whole , the insertion of its proper nerves , veins , and arteries , which are each of them to be duly placed ; so that about the muscles alone , no less than several ends or aims are to be attended to . the bones are reckoned to be ; the distinct scopes or intentions in each of these , are above forty , in all about . and thus is it in some proportion with all the other parts , the skin , ligaments , vessels , glandules , humors ; but more especially with the several members of the body , which do in regard of the great variety and multitude of those several intentions required to them , very much exceed the homogeneous parts . and the failing in any one of these , would cause an irregularity in the body , and in many of them , such as would be very notorious . and thus likewise is it in proportion with all other kinds of beings ; minerals , vegetables : but especially with such as are sensitive ; infects , fishes , birds , beasts ; and in these yet more especially , for those organs and faculties that concern sensation ; but most of all , for that kind of frame which relates to our understanding power , whereby we are able to correct the errors of our senses and imaginations , to call before us things past and future , and to behold things that are invisible to sense . now to imagine , that all these things , according to their several kinds , could be brought into this regular frame and order , to which such an infinite number of intentions are required , without the contrivance of some wise agent , must needs be irrational in the highest degree . and then , as for the frame of humane nature it self . if a man doth but consider how he is endowed with such a natural principle , whereby he is necessarily inclined to seek his own well-being and happiness : and likewise with one faculty whereby he is enabled to judg of the nature of things , as to their fitness or unfitness for this end : and another faculty whereby he is enabled to chuse and prosecute such things as may promote this end , and to reject and avoid such things as may hinder it . and that nothing properly is his duty , but what is really his interest : this may be another argument to convince him , that the author of his being must be infinitely wise and powerful . the wisest man is not able to imagine how things should be better than now they are , supposing them to be contrived by the wisest agent ; and where we meet with all the indications and evidences of such a thing as the thing is capable of , supposing it to be true , it must needs be very irrational to make any doubt of it . now i appeal unto any considering man , unto what cause all this exactness and regularity can be reasonably ascribed , whether to blind chance , or to blind necessity , or to the conduct of some wise intelligent being . though we should suppose both matter and motion to be eternal , yet is it not in the least credible , that insensible matter could be the author of all those excellent contrivances which we behold in these natural things . if any one shall surmize , that these effects may proceed from the anima mundi ; i would ask such a one , is this anima mundi an intelligent being , or is it void of all perception and reason ? if it have no kind of sense or knowledg , then 't is altogether needless to assert any such principle , because matter and motion may serve for this purpose as well . if it be an intelligent wise eternal being , this is god , under another name . as for fate or necessity , this must needs be as blind and as unfit to produce wise effects , as chance it self . from whence it will follow , that it must be a wise being that is the cause of these wise effects . by what hath been said upon this subject , it may appear , that these visible things of the world are sufficient to leave a man without excuse , as being the witnesses of a deity , and such as do plainly declare his great power and glory . chap. vii . . arg. from providence , and the government of the world. . from the works of providence in the government of the world ; and that continual experience which we have of some wise and powerful being , who doth preside over and govern all things ; not only by his general concourse , in preserving all kinds of things in their beings , and regulating them in their operations : but chiefly in his wise and just government over mankind and humane affairs , which may appear by such effects as are ordinary ,   extraordinary . . for the more common effects of it , namely that general success which in the ordinary course of things doth accompany honest and virtuous actions : and the punishment and vengeance that doth one time or other in this world usually befall such as are wicked : both virtue and vice being generally , and for the most part , sufficiently distinguished by rewards and punishments in this life . there are indeed some instances to the contrary , concerning the miseries of good men , and the prosperity of the wicked ; but these have been by several of the wisest heathen , plato , plutarch , tully , seneca &c. sufficiently vindicated , by the clearest principles of reason , from being any prejudice to the wise government of providence . it is not either necessary or convenient , that happiness and prosperity in this life , which is the usual reward of virtue , should have either such a physical or mathematical certainty , as could not possibly fail . because , . it would not be consistent with our dependent conditions , that worldly prosperity should be so infallibly under the power of our own endeavours , as that god himself might not sometimes interpose for our disappointment . if i may have leave to suppose , what i am now proving , namely a wise and omnipotent providence , it must needs appear highly reasonable , that it should be left to his infinite wisdom and power , to make what reserved cases he pleases , from the ordinary course of things . from whence it will follow , that these unequal dispensations can be no sufficient ground for the disbelief of providence . . it would very much prejudice another great principle of religion , which is of mighty influence for the regulating of mens lives and actions in this world , namely , the belief and expectation of a future state of rewards and punishments . . if temporal prosperity did infallibly attend all good actions , this would be a diminution to virtue it self . men would do good by a kind of natural necessity , which would abate just so much from the virtue of their actions , as it does from the liberty of them . it is sufficient , that moral actions should have moral motives . and that virtue doth generally and for the most part , make men prosperous and happy in this world . we know by experience , that all mankind do in their most weighty affairs , think it sufficient to depend upon such causes as do commonly and for the most part prove effectual to the ends for which they are designed . so that this very thing which is usually looked upon as the greatest objection against providence , is really and truly an argument for it . . for extraordinary effects of it . if we give any credit to the universal history of all ages and nations , it will by that appear , . that there have many times happened such special signal providences for the punishing of obstinate sinners , and for the deliverance of such as were religious , in answer to their prayers , whereby the supreme governour of the world hath so visibly pointed out his will and meaning , and so plainly manifested his power , that every impartial man must be forced to say , doubtless there is a god that judges in the earth . . that sometimes miracles have been wrought , which could not be effected without the help of some superior power ; and sometimes there have been plain prophesies and predictions concerning such future things , as in their various circumstances were contingent . of which the annals of all ages and nations , as well heathens as christians , do give very particular and large accounts . and though we may safely grant , that some of the stories to this purpose , delivered either from the more ancient or later times , were fabulous and vain ; yet for a man to deny that ever such things happened in the world , but that they were all meer forgeries and designs to cheat posterity , this were to subvert the credit of all history ; which is so immodest a thing , as any sober man would be ashamed of . these arguments are more largely discussed by others , who have writ upon this subject : but there is one particular which to me seems very considerable to this purpose , though but little notice of it be taken by others : and that is , the state of the jewish nation , who for these years have been driven out of their own countrey , having now no particular place of abode , belonging to them as a nation ; but are scattered and dispersed over all the habitable world , hated and despised where-ever they are permitted to dwell ; very frequently persecuted , impoverished , banished , murdered in vast multitudes ; and notwithstanding all this , they are not yet so mixed and blended with other nations , as to be lost amongst them ; but are still kept up a distinct people , there being no instance like this in any story . as if they were intended for a standing memorial and example to the world , of the divine power and vengeance . to me it seems , amongst rational arguments one of the plainest , not only for the proof of a deity , and a just providence in pursuing that nation with such exemplary vengeance ; but likewise for the autority of scripture , and the truth of the christian religion . i might here add another argument to the same purpose , from natural conscience , which is gods deputy , and doth internally witness for him , as other creatures do externally . 't is plain , that all mankind are in some measure endowed with this ; and one may as well assert , that hope and fear are not natural to men , as that conscience is not . to this purpose i might further argue , from those natural notions of our minds concerning good and evil , the bounds of which are fixed in the nature of things , and do not depend either upon custom or positive law. those things which have in them a fitness to promote our chief end , being styled good , and implying in the very definition of them , comeliness and reward ; those things which have in them a natural aptitude to hinder our chief end being styled evil , and implying in the definitions of them , turpitude and punishment . from whence it will follow , that there must be some superior power , who by framing things with such respects towards one another , may be said to have declared this law of nature , and to have taken care to enforce the observance of it ; both these belonging to the nature of a law. but i may perhaps have occasion to speak more particularly to this afterwards . these things put together , are so strong an evidence , and so sufficient to convince the existence of a deity , that that man must be very wilful , who doth not submit and acquiesce in it . and for this reason is it ( saith a noble author ) that god never yet wrought any miracle to convince an atheist ; because to a man that is capable of being convinced , his ordinary works are sufficient to this purpose . and i should think it much more easie and rational ( saith the same author ) to believe all the fables in the poets , the legend , the talmud , and the alchoran , than that this universal frame should be without a creator and governour . and now it may not be improper to look back , and take a review of what kind of evidence hath been produced in this matter . as for any immediate proof from our outward senses , this cannot be pretended to for the demonstration of such a being as is supposed to be a pure spirit and invisible ; but for the mediate proofs from the effects of a wise omnipotent agent , we can look no where about us , but every object doth afford evidence of it . there is no conclusion in philosophy ( not immediately apparent to the sense ) that is capable of so full and unquestionable an evidence from plain effects , as this . as for that kind of inward sensation , whereby we can discern the impressions of our own minds , they that have any sense of a law written in their hearts , or any natural notions about good and evil , must by these effects be convinced of a supreme being . and as for that kind of evidence which belongs to our understandings , if the universal consent of mankind be of any autority : if this visible world , replenished with such admirable variety of creatures , preserved and governed in such an excellent order , be any evidence of infinite power and wisdom : if besides what we our selves have known by our own experience , any credit be to be given to universal history , attesting to many signal providences that have happened in the world : besides the several miracles and prophesies , that have been taken notice of in several ages and nations . i say if any , or all of these things be of any force , they must needs render the thing i am proving to be credible in the highest degree , and even altogether unquestionable . in so much , that if a deity be supposed , it is not imaginable by what other kind of evidence we should be assured of it , than what we are now furnished withall . and it was before laid down as a principle , that when a thing is capable of good proof in any kind , men ought to rest satisfied in the best evidence for it which that kind of things will bear , and beyond which better could not be expected supposing it were true . if any should imagine , that frequent miracles might be a more powerful means to convince men of this principle . to this it may be said , . that this is not fitting : the proper work of miracles being for the confirmation of such doctrines as are not knowable by natural light , not for such things of which men may be sufficiently convinced by reason . . 't is not so certain , that this would be effectual . those frequent miracles in the passage of israel out of egypt , the dividing of the red-sea , the waters out of the rock , the cloud and pillar of fire , the mannah , the quails , the destruction of korah , &c. did not prevail with the generality of the israelites . those constant miracles under the mosaical dispensation ; the waters of jealousie ; the extraordinary plenty of the sixt year ; the urim and thummim ; the special protection of the coasts of israel every third year , when all the males were to go up to jerusalem to worship ; which custom of theirs must needs be known to their enemies , who lived round about them : none of all these , did prove effectual for the conviction of obstinate men . those occasional miracles wrought by our saviour , though they were so many and so great , as were never before wrought by any one , yet did they not prevail with many of the jews . if it be said , that none of these proofs do so infallibly conclude , but that there doth still remain a possibility that the thing may be otherwise . to this i have shewed before , that there may be an indubitable certainty , where there is not an infallible certainty : and that a meer possibility to the contrary , is not a sufficient cause of doubting . to which i now add , that if it should be supposed , that a man could not be sure of the being of god , yet 't is most evident that he could not be sure of the contrary : for this plain reason , because no man can be sure of a pure negative , namely , that such a thing is not ; unless he will either pretend , to have a certain knowledg of all things that are or may be , than which nothing can be more monstrously and ridiculously arrogant ; or else , unless he be sure that the being of what he denies doth imply a contradiction , for which there is not the least colour in this case ; the true notion of god consisting in this , that he is a being of all possible perfection . if it be supposed , that notwithstanding all that hath been said , there may yet be some probabilities to the contrary . to this it may be answered , that unless these probabilities were greater and stronger than those on the other side , no man who acts rationally will incline to them . and if there be any such , why are they not produced ? where are they to be found ? if men shall yet pretend , that though they cannot answer these arguments , yet they do really find some doubt in their own minds . i would ask such , have you seriously and impartially considered , what is alledged in this case ? it should be no prejudice to any proposition in philosophy or mathematicks , that an ignorant man who never applied his thoughts to such things , doth pretend to doubt of it . if you do in some measure understand , and have considered these arguments , i would then ask , have you not as much reason for this , as you your selves would think sufficient , for the proof of any thing you were not unwilling to believe ? do you not knowingly and wilfully entertain prejudices against such things ? have you been true to so much light as you have received ? or have you not rather with-held it in unrighteousness ? if so , 't is plain that you have dishonest minds , that you measure by an unjust balance , and therefore cannot be competent judges of truth or falshood . if it be supposed yet further , that the probabilities on each side should be equal , or that those on the other side should somewhat preponderate ; yet if there be no considerable hazard on that side which hath the least probability , and a very great and most apparent danger in a mistake about the other : in this case , every rational and prudent man is bound to order his actions in favour of that way which appears to be most safe and advantageous for his own interest ; as i have shewed before . so that in such cases , as may seem unto us not altogether free from some kind of doubt , and which we could not so far clear up to our selves , as to make them appear wholly unquestionable ; i say , in such cases , men that would act prudently , should enquire , where lies the danger of mistaking ? why , on the one side , all the inconvenience of believing this ( if it be not so ) , will be , that we are hereby occasioned to tye our selves up to some needless restraints during this short time of our lives , wherein notwithstanding there is as to the present , much peace , quiet , and safety ; and as for the future , our error shall dye with us , there being none to call us to an account for our mistake . but now on the other side , what if there should be a deity so holy , and just , and powerful , as is supposed ? if this should prove to be a real truth ( and no man can be sure of the contrary ) , what vengeance and indignation may such vile miscreants and traitors expect , who have made it their business to banish him out of the world , who is the great creator and governour of it , to undermine his being , to eradicate all notions of him out of the minds of men ; to provoke his creatures and vassals to a contempt of him , a slighting of his fear and worship , as being but such imaginary chimaera's as are fit only to keep fools in awe ? certainly , as this is the highest provocation , that any man can be guilty of , so shall it be punished with the sorest vengeance . there are two things that atheistical men propose to themselves by their prophane loose principles , namely , to avoid the imputation of credulity , and the fears and perplexities of mind , to which religion makes men obnoxious . but their principles are not more irrational , than their design is foolish ; for of all mankind these prophane persons are , . the most credulous , who can believe themselves to be wiser than all the world , who can believe the eternity of the world , or its production by a casual concourse of atoms , without any kind of argument for it , against the many reasons that are urged to the contrary . who if they should demean themselves about matters of the world , as they do about religion , would be counted ridiculous , senseless persons , and altogether unfit for humane conversation . . the most timorous . tully hath observed , that no kind of men are more afraid of god , than such as pretend not to believe his being . these are the men who above all others are most liable to be affected with dread and trembling , at thunder and lightning , at solitude and darkness , and more especially then when it doth most concern them to be freed from such disquiets , namely , in the time of sickness , and the approaches of death . from whence it will follow , that upon all accounts atheism may justly be accounted folly ; both as it is directly contrary to the principles of reason , and the rules of wisdom . i have now done with the first thing required to a state of religion , namely , a belief and an acknowledgment of the divine nature and existence . chap. viii . concerning the excellencies and perfections of the divine nature : and first , of those which are commonly called incommunicable , namely , simplicity , unity , immutability , infiniteness , immensity ,   eternity . i proceed to the second thing proposed as a principal part of natural religion , namely , due apprehensions of the divine excellency and perfections . without which , the meer belief of his being , will contribute but little to a true state of religion . a man may have such unworthy notions of a deity , that it would in some respects be as good , nay much better , to be without a god , than to have such a one , as he may frame . it would be better ( saith a great author ) to have no opinion of god , than such a one as is unworthy of him ; the one is but meer unbelief , the other is contumely . 't is a common saying cited out of plutarch's book of superstition , where he professeth it much more desirable to him , that posterity should say , that there never was any such man as plutarch , rather than that he was a fierce , unconstant , revengeful man , one who upon the least omission of any small circumstance towards him , by men otherways virtuous and worthy , would tear out their hearts , destroy their families and children , blast their fields , spoil their cattel with lightning and thunder . this would be such a representation as would make the notion and remembrance of him hateful ; and it were better to be forgotten , than to be remembred with infamy . now there are some opinions which do thus reproach the deity , and render him under such a notion , that if the gyants had prevailed in their attempt against heaven , that place had not been worse supplied . this therefore ought to be most carefully avoided . whereas the divine nature is supposed to be the first and supreme good , therefore the idea of all absolute perfection must be essential to the notion of him . and though it be very difficult for us to raise our minds to any due apprehensions of this ; yet we must endeavour in our thoughts of him , so far as our finite understandings are capable , to remove and separate from him whatever is in any kind evil or unworthy , and to ascribe unto him the utmost degree of all goodness and perfection . the most general notion that men have of god , is that he is the first cause , and a being of all possible perfection . some of his principal excellencies discoverable by the light of nature , may be reduced to these heads ; namely , such as are incommunicable ; absolute simplicity . essential unity . immutability . infiniteness , both in respect of place and time. immensity . eternity . communicable ; belonging either to the divine understanding , knowledg . wisdom . particular providence . will , namely , his goodness . justice . faithfulness . faculties of acting , his power . dominion over us in this life . distributing of future rewards and punishments . each of these attributes are upon this account of very great consequence to be believed and considered , because they are the foundations of those duties of religion which we owe to him . according as a man apprehends god to be , so must his esteem be of him , and his demeanour towards him . and whereas these great and necessary points , of so much influence to religion , have been usually treated of by others either too largely , by the inserting of several things less pertinent ; or too obscurely , by offering such proofs concerning them as are less intelligible , or intermixing the discourses about them , with such niceties as are neither very easie to be solved , nor material for men to know : i shall therefore in this place endeavour to avoid both these inconveniences , by treating concerning each of them with all imaginable brevity and plainness : observing this method . first , i shall endeavour to explain and describe , what is meant by each attribute ; and then prove , that these attributes so explained , must belong to the natural notion of god. which i shall make out , both by the consent of the wisest heathen , expressed by their declared opinions , and by their general practice suitable thereunto : and from the nature of the things themselves ; their congruity to the principles of reason , and the absurdities that will follow upon the denial of them . those are called incommunicable attributes , which are proper to god alone , and not communicated to any creature . the first of these i have proposed to treat of , is his absolute simplicity . by which i mean his freedom from all kind of composition or mixture , either of principles or of parts : and that this doth belong to the natural notion of the deity , may be evident , . from testimony of the heathen philosophers , who do generally acknowledg him to be the first cause and the most simple being , and do frequently style him mens pura & sincera segregata ab omni concretione mortali , &c. and not only scripture , but the very heathen likewise do express this attribute by the similitude of light , amongst all visible things the most pure and simple . . from natural reason , by which it will appear , that god cannot be compounded of any principles , because the principles and ingredients which concur to the making of any thing , must be antecedent to that thing . and if the divine nature were compounded , it would follow that there must be something in nature before him . which is inconsistent with his being the first cause . and here i shall take occasion to speak somewhat concerning the spirituality of the divine nature , as having some affinity with this , though it be none of the incommunicable attributes . i know it hath been said , with confidence enough , that the notion of a spirit , or immaterial substance , doth imply a contradiction ; and that there is an utter impossibility of any other being besides matter . but though this hath been said , yet was it never proved , nor can it be , till either a man be able to evince , that the notion of the word substance , according to the most general use of it , ( which gives signification to words ) , doth necessarily imply corporeity , than which nothing can be more false ; or unless a man shall pretend to the certain knowledg and comprehension of all things that are or may be , than which nothing can be more vain . what the positive notion of a spirit is , is not so necessary to enquire after , or determine . 't is sufficient , that we conceive of it by way of negation , namely , that it is a powerful intelligent being that is not matter , without figure or parts , not capable of rarefaction or condensation , not visible to our bodily eyes , and therefore not to be represented by any kind of sensible image : not subject to those necessary laws of matter , which cannot move unless it be moved , and cannot but move when impelled by another . i say , it may be sufficient in our apprehending the spirituality of god , to remove all corporeity and figure in our conceptions of him . now that this attribute doth belong to the divine nature , may be made evident both by testimony and by reason . . it hath been generally owned , by the wisest and most learned heathen . pythagoras is often cited for this ; by whom ( saith lactantius ) god was wont to be styled incorporalis mens , an incorporeal mind ; and by plato frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without a body ; by other graecian philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the mind that made the world . plutarch styles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a separated form , not mixed with matter , without any thing in him that is passible . the latin philosophers do frequently give him the attribute of mens divina , mens pura & sincera , mens soluta & libera , segregata ab omni concretione mortali . . by reason . that spirituality is a perfection , and therefore to be ascribed unto god ; or rather , that corporeity is an imperfection , and therefore to be removed from him , may appear from hence . because the supposing of him to be matter is inconsistent with divers of his other most essential perfections ; as , . his immensity , if we do suppose these two reasonable postulata . . that there are some other things in the world besides god. and . that two bodies cannot be both at the same time in the same place . from whence it will follow , that wherever any other body or matter is , from thence god must be excluded ; and so many chasmes or breaches must there be in the divine nature . . his knowledg and wisdom , it being not imaginable , how meer matter should be able to comprehend , much less to contrive all that variety of things in the world , past , present , and to come . . his liberty and freedom , and consequently with his goodness . that action not being properly good , which is not done freely and out of choice . now the laws of matter are necessary , there can be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or arbitrary principle in meer matter . and it is worth observation , how this very argument puzzled epicurus and his followers , as is represented by lucretius . if all material things move by necessary laws , and the parts of matter be naturally so dispos'd , that they do not move unless they be moved , and cannot but move when press'd upon by other parts that are in motion ; whence comes that liberty which we may by an inward sensation perceive to be within us ? unde est haec inquam fatis avolsa voluntas ? to which he gives so wild and irrational an answer , from the motion of declining atoms , as doth sufficiently manifest him to be baffled by this objection . the second incommunicable attribute to be treated of , is the essential unity of the divine nature . by which i mean , his being one and no more . and that this perfection doth belong to the natural notion of god , may be made evident both by testimony and by reason . . by testimony . i have shewed before , how that notwithstanding that polytheism which did so generally abound amongst the heathen , yet the wiser and more considerate persons amongst them , have in all ages acknowledged one supreme deity . the egyptians of old , though of all others the most infamous for their multiplicity of gods , yet did assert one maker and chief governour of the world , under whom they did suppose several subordinate deities , who as his deputies did preside over several parts of the universe . the first occasion of these lesser deities , was probably from a desire that men had , to express their gratitude to , and to honour the memories of , such heroical persons , as in those first and ruder ages of the world , had either by their inventions or their prowess , been highly beneficial to mankind , or to their own countries ; who thereupon were for such publick services , thought fit to be advanced to the highest honour after their deaths , and admitted in a subordinate way , to some share of government , especially in taking care of the welfare of their countries . and to this doth the apostle seem to allude , cor. . , . where he saith , we know there is no other god but one , for though there be that are called gods , both in heaven and in earth , ( as there be gods many , and lords many ) : but to us there is but one god , the father , of whom are all things , and we in him . there are many attestations amongst the heathen writers concerning this attribute , the unity of the godhead . it is observed , that orpheus was the first amongst them that wrote concerning the genealogy of the gods , where he reduces them to the number of . but he was afterwards so sensible of this impious folly , that he writes a particular discourse to his son musaeus , and his other friends , wherein he doth solemnly recant these wild absurd fables , professing to them , that he thought himself obliged to rectifie these errors and abuses , which his former poem might have occasioned . and here he doth in the first place admonish them , that there is but one god , of himself , and none besides him ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by whom all other things are made , and upon whom they depend . and then he goes on to shew , that god is invisible , and yet sees and knows all things ; that as he is merciful , so is he just , being the author of those judgments which befal wicked men , with several other things to this purpose . and though homer do too often follow orpheus in these fictions , concerning a multitude of deities , yet when he is most serious , he supposes but one , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so sophocles , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . there is but one god , who made the heaven and the earth . so pythagoras , and several others after him , style god by the name of monas or unity . it is commonly said , that socrates was put to death for his endeavouring to undeceive his country-men in that vanity they were addicted to , of worshipping a multitude of deities ; and that this made the writers after him , more shy in speaking their thoughts about this matter : but though plato do in some places ( for fear of incurring the same danger ) seem to favour this popular error , by defending polytheism , yet he acknowledges these subordinate deities to be begotten ; and he lays it down in another place as a principle , that whatever is begotten is corruptible , and therefore incapable of being properly a god. and ( if the th epistle be truly his ) , there is a remarkable passage in it to this purpose , where he gives this note , that in those epistolary discourses , where he designs to be more serious , he doth mention the name of god in the singular number ; but when he is not so , then he mentions gods in the plural . hierocles in his comment upon pythagoras golden verses , doth style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god of gods , the only maker of all things . arrian in his dissertations of epictetus , doth assure us , that in his time ( which was about years after christ ) , it was an usual form in the prayers of the heathen , to say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lord have mercy upon us , whereby they did acknowledg the unity of that god whom they did invoke in their prayers . which clause is thought to be from that usage taken into the liturgies of the christians . so far then as the consent of the wisest and best men , in former times , is of any autority , so far is this attribute rendered highly credible . i shall only add that remarkable passage in maximus tyrius : though men differ much in their opinions about other matters , yet in this they all agree , that there is one god , the king and father of all ; under whom there are subordinate deities , his offspring , who are admitted to some share of government with him . in this the grecian consents with the barbarian , the inhabitants of the continent with the islanders , the wise with the unwise . . but besides the testimonies to this purpose , it may likewise be made evident by reason , that a plurality of gods is not only unnecessary , and therefore improbable ; but that it is such a supposition as doth imply in it many inconsistencies , and therefore is impossible . . 't is unnecessary , and therefore highly improbable . those have been always esteemed good rules , frustra fit per plura , &c. entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate . it is most suitable to that common analogy to be observed amongst natural things , even in lesser matters , that there is nothing amongst them superfluous or redundant ; and therefore much more ought it to be so , in the greatest and highest matters of all . now nothing can be more evident , than that one infinite being may be sufficient to all purposes whatsoever ; for if it had any limits , it were not infinite ; and nothing can be more absurd , than to suppose more gods than are necessary . . 't is not possible , that there should be two such infinite beings . because either they must have several perfections , or the same : neither of which is consistent with the most obvious notion of god , that he is a being of all possible perfections . to suppose two gods , with several perfections , some belonging to one , and some to another , will plainly prove , that neither of them can be god , because neither of them have all possible perfections . to suppose two gods of the same and equal perfections , would likewise prove , that neither of them can be god , ( i. e. ) , not absolutely perfect ; because it is not so great a priviledg , to have the same equal perfections with another , and in a kind of partnership , as to be alone and superior above all others . and to suppose one of them , whether of several or the same kinds of perfections with the other , but only in an inferior degree , may sufficiently evince that one of them is not properly god , because not supreme . . the third attribute to be discussed , is the divine immutability . by which i mean a freedom from all kind of change or inconstancy , both as to his nature and his purposes . and that this attribute is likewise very suitable to those natural notions which men have of god , may appear , . by testimony . plato having proposed the question , whether god be mutable and inconstant , answers expressly . 't is most necessary that he should be always the same and alike . his words are most emphatical , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he is never in any wise capable of any kind of change whatsoever . and in another place , he mentions these two things , as being the grand principles of religion . . that god is the cause of all good , and in no wise of any evil . . that he is constant and immutable , and cannot deceive by making various representations of himself . so seneca , speaking of the necessity of ascribing this attribute to the divine nature as to his purposes or counsels , hath this passage ; statuerunt quae non mutarunt , nec unquam primi consilii deos paenitet . god is always constant to his own decrees , and doth never repent of his purposes . and in another place , necesse est ei eadem placere , eui nisi optima placere non possunt ; nec ob hoc minus liber ac potens est , ipse enim est necessitas sua . 't is necessary that he should be always pleased with the same things , who can be pleased with nothing but what is best : nor can this be any prejudice to his liberty or his power , since he is his own necessity , i. e. nothing from without , but his own natutural perfection lays this necessity upon him . . by reason . there is an excellent argument to this purpose , in that place before-cited out of plato , which according to his manner , he delivers in a more copious way of expression . but the substance of it is this ; all change must be either involuntary and upon necessity , or voluntary and upon choice . now god being the most powerful being , cannot by any thing be necessitated to an involuntary change . and for any voluntary change , whereas it must be either for the better or the worse , it is not imaginable , that any wise being should be willing to change for the worse ; nor is it possible that any perfect being should change for the better . and therefore 't is necessary that the divine nature should be immutable . we esteem changeableness in men either an imperfection , or a fault . their natural changes , as to their persons , are from weakness and vanity ; their moral changes , as to their inclinations and purposes , are from ignorance or inconstancy . and therefore there is very good reason , why we should remove this from god , as being that which would darken all his other perfections . the greater the divine perfections are , the greater imperfection would mutability be . besides , that it would take away the foundation of all religion , love and fear , and affiance and worship : in which men would be very much discouraged , if they could not certainly rely upon god , but were in doubt that his nature might alter , and that hereafter he might be quite otherwise from what we now apprehend him to be . . infiniteness is another attribute most natural to the notion of god. by which is meant , his not being bounded by place , or space , or by duration , but being immense and eternal . . this attribute of gods immensity doth signifie his not being so confined by any bounds of space , but that he doth spread himself to all places that we can see or can imagine , and infinitely beyond : so as we cannot say , he is here and not there , thus far he reaches and not farther . some have thought , that it is not absolutely necessary to believe such a kind of omnipresence of the divine substance , as to be actually present in every place . but this is most necessary to be believed , that god is every-where in respect of his power and providence , whereby he doth influence and govern all things , ( which is hardly possible to conceive without his actual presence in all places ) and in respect of his knowledg , whereby he doth see and take notice of every thing , though never so secret ; and that he can pierce through all these created things , with greater facility than the light doth through the air. and that this doth belong to the natural notion of god , may appear , . by the general consent of the heathen , testified by their praying to him at any place or time , which shews that they were perswaded that he was always and every-where present , at least by his knowledg and his power . tully cites pythagoras affirming , deum esse animum per naturam rerum omnium intentum & commeantem , that god is a spirit or mind , which doth pass through all things . and in another place , he cites it as thales his saying , which he commends , homines existimare oportere , deos omnia cernere , deorum omnia esse plena , that men ought to think , that god beholds every thing , and fills every place . plato affirms , that god doth see and take notice of all our actions , words , and thoughts . so virgil , — jovis omnia plena . and in another place , — deum namque ire per omnes terrasque tractusque maris , coelumque profundum . so seneca speaking of god , saith , ubique & omnibus praesto est . he is every-where , and always at hand . and in another place , quocunque te flexeris , ibi illum videbis occurrentem tibi , nihil ab illo vacat , opus suum ipse implet . we can turn our selves no-whither but we shall meet him , no place is without him , he fills his own work. . by the principles of reason . if it were otherwise , and the divine nature should be limited , this would contradict his universal providence , and render all worship of him vain and useless . why should a man either fear him , or serve him , if he could neither hear our prayers , nor take notice of our wants , nor receive our acknowledgments . . for the attribute of eternity , whereby is signified gods being of infinite duration , without beginning or end ; that this likewise doth belong to the natural notion of god , may be evident , . by the general consent of the heathen philosophers . and though there have been disputes amongst them , about some of his other attributes , yet in this all of them have agreed . they do indeed describe the genealogies of their heroes and subordinate gods , but for the supreme deity , he is constantly acknowledged to be without beginning of time or end of days . epicurus himself , who had the lowest and meanest opinion of god , and robbed him of as many of his other perfections , as by the utmost straining of his wit he was able to do ; yet is forced to leave him this attribute . so tully relates of him , speaking to those of that sect , ubi igitur vestrum beatum & aeternum , quibus duobus verbis significatis deum ? where is that blessed and eternal being of yours ? which are the two usual words whereby you describe the nature of god ? and lucretius , who made it his design to represent to the world the doctrine of that philosopher , doth from him give this account of the divine nature , omnis enim per se divum natura necesse est immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur . it is essential to the notion of god , that he should be happy and immortal . the poets themselves , who amongst all others had the wildest thoughts of god , yet do continually give him the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and seldom mention his name without it . and the oath most usual amongst them , was in this form , deos testor immortales , i appeal to the immortal gods. aristotle doth in several places , make eternity to be essential to the notion of god. and tully asserts it impossible to conceive of god without this perfection ; nos deum nisi sempiternum intelligere quî possumus ? how is it possible for us to conceive of god , but as being eternal ? there never yet was any man , that had any conception of god , who did not esteem him to be everlasting . to speak of a god that should be corruptible and mortal , is so monstrous an absurdity , that a man could not , though he should purposely study for it , devise any thing more wild and extravagant , saith plutarch . . there is very good reason , why this attribute should not by the most sceptical atheistical men be esteemed impossible , because they themselves are willing to grant it to the world , or at least to matter . and if we suppose god to be the first cause or mover , it will thence necessarily follow , that he must always be , and could not have a beginning ; because if he ever were only in possibility , he could not from thence pass into actual being , without some precedent cause and mover , which is inconsistent with his being the first cause . and if nothing could cause his being , then nothing can take it away , and consequently he must be everlasting . it would be a great abatement to all the other divine perfections , if they were finite and perishing . besides , that it would be altogether inconsistent with some of them , namely , his self-existence , and necessary existence . and withall , it must needs take off from the obligation to duty on the creatures part , if they were uncertain of the continuance of his being , by whom rewards and punishments were to be distributed in the world . chap. ix . of the communicable perfections of god : and first , of those which relate to the divine understanding , viz. knowledg , wisdom , particular providence . besides those incommunicable attributes already insisted upon , there are others styled communicable , because they are in some lower degree , and by way of participation , communicated to other inferior beings . and concerning these , there is a necessity that we should make an estimate of them , by such rules and measures as our natures are capable of . and because the chief perfections that we can apprehend in any reasonable essence , must refer to one of these three things , the understanding , the will , the faculties of working ; for this reason , these divine perfections may be reduced to these three heads . and whatever is the most excellent of rational beings , must excel in each of these , ( i. e. ) , there is no kind or degree of perfection that our imaginations are able to conceive , but these excellencies of the divine nature , must run out still beyond it , so as not to be determined by any real or imaginary bounds . i purpose to treat particularly concerning each of them , beginning with those perfections that belong to the divine understanding , namely , his knowledg , wisdom , and particular providence . . by the knowledg of god , i mean that perfection or faculty whereby he understands and considers things absolutely and as they are in their own natures , their powers , properties , differences , together with all the circumstances belonging to them . and 't is necessary to the notion of god , that this should be ascribed to him , in the utmost perfection of it , infinitely beyond what the most knowing and the most learned men can pretend unto . . his knowledg is most deep and intimate , reaching to the very essence of things , ours but slight and superficial . . his is clear and distinct , ours but confused and dark . . his infallible , ours doubtful and liable to mistakes . . his easie , and without labour and difficulty , always present and actual ; ours gotten by sore travail , and easily lost again by the defects of memory or age . . his universal , extending to all objects ; ours short and narrow , reaching only to some few things , that which is wanting cannot be numbred . he hath a perfect comprehension of all things , that have been , that are , or shall be , according to all the various relations , dependencies , circumstances , belonging to each of them . so that this attribute of his must be infinite and unbounded , both extensivè , with respect to the several kinds of objects which it comprehends ; and likewise intensivè , as it sees every single object with a most perfect infallible view . he doth not only understand all particulars ; but he knows every particular so exactly , as if he were wholly taken up and intent in his thoughts upon that alone . there is a vast difference betwixt the wisest of men , and such as are grosly ignorant and sottish ; and much greater betwixt men and other creatures , the little insects , ants and worms , which are no ways fit to pass a judgment concerning humane counsels and designs . and yet these things hold some proportion to one another , being both finite ; whereas betwixt gods knowledg and mans , the distance is infinite . and that this attribute doth belong to the natural notion of god , may appear , . from the acknowledgment of the heathen . tully mentions it as an usual saying of thales , deos omnia cernere , god beholds all things . so seneca , nihil deo clausum , interest animis nostris , & mediis cogitationibus intervenit . nothing is hid from god , he is intimate to our minds , and mingles himself with our very thoughts . besides , that general practice amongst them of swearing by him , and attesting him in their most solemn compacts , doth sufficiently imply their belief of his omniscience . . from natural reason . nothing can be more manifest , than that knowledg is a perfection , and therefore ought to be ascribed to that being which is supposed to have all possible perfection . 't is a perfection that we know to be in some of the creatures , and therefore must be much more in the creator himself . he that made the eye , shall be not see ? he that gives to men understanding , shall not be know ? besides , that the denial of this perfection , would necessarily infer many other imperfections in the divine nature . it would destroy his wisdom , providence , dominion . where there is no knowledg , there can be no forecast or provision for the future , nor any kind of regular government . in brief , the denial of this attribute must take away his goodness , veracity , justice . that being cannot properly be said to be good , which doth act either out of ignorance or blind necessity . . as knowledg doth respect things absolutely ; so wisdom doth consider the relations of things one to another , under the notion of means and end , and of their fitness or unfitness for the various purposes to which they are designed . and this likewise doth belong to the natural notion of god , may be evident , . by testimony . the heathen writers are full of expressions to this purpose . plato asserts wisdom to be a thing of that excellency , that it cannot properly be ascribed to any , but god. it is a saying of tully , sapiens est homo , & proptereae deus ; man is wise , and therefore much more god. and in the same book , deo tribuenda est ratio recta , constansque ; to god is to be ascribed right and steady reason ; and a little after he says , it must be such as is perfect and absolute . nothing more frequent in seneca , epictetus , antoninus , than to perswade men to an acquiescence under all the dispensations of providence , because they are ordered by the highest wisdom . . by reason . the want of wisdom is counted a very great imperfection , and one of the worst defects belonging to men ; and that which every one is most unwilling to own , being content to be counted any thing rather than a fool. and therefore there is very good reason , why we should remove this imperfection from that being , which is supposed to have all possible perfections . and what was said before concerning the denial of his knowledg , must be equally true likewise in this case , that it must necessarily destroy his other perfections , or render them insignificant . what reason would there be for men to trust either to his goodness , or his justice , or his providence in the managing of things , if he were not withall infinitely wise . and as for his power , that without wisdom , would be but a kind of a blind force , as much to be feared and hated , as loved and trusted to . . the third attribute to be considered is his particular providence , whereby he does superintend and take care of every individual thing in the world ; continuing them in their beings , disposing of their operations and effects in such a wise order , as may be most suitable to those ends and purposes for which they are designed . this likewise doth belong to the natural notion of god. though it must be granted , that the belief of this attribute hath met with some opposition from several of the philosophers , chiefly epicurus , who in truth was an atheist , and out of a pretended respect to the deity , did think it to be below his greatness ; and for the trouble of it , inconsistent with his happiness , to have any regard to these inferiour things , which he therefore imagined to be left to their own courses , whilst the divine nature is wholly taken up in the contemplation of it self . semota a nostris rebus sejunctaque longè . as lucretius speaks . but because this might seem to argue too slight and narrow apprehensions of the deity , therefore others to mend the matter , have thought that he might have leisure , and perhaps an inclination , to extend his providence to heavenly things , but not to earthly . others yet more bountiful , will allow it to reach both to celestial and terrestrial things : but then it must be only to the general kinds of them , which are to be put into a natural course ; not to every particular of each kind by it self , which they conceived must needs prove too great a trouble and distraction to his mind . but 't is evident that all these wild conceits did proceed from a misapprehension of what kind of knowledg or wisdom does belong to the deity , namely , infinite and absolutely perfect , not to be limited , nor capable of any difficulty to be put upon it , by the nature or number of things . any particular man , whom we know to be a person of diligence and sagacity , may without any trouble to himself undertake the management of any single business . why , god can with far greater facility provide for all , than any single man can for one . though we should suppose that the particulars to be taken care of , are infinite , yet so is his wisdom likewise ; and there is the same proportion of infinite to infinite , as of one to one . and that this attribute doth belong to the natural notion of god , may be made evident , . by the more general consent of the wise and learned heathen writers ( notwithstanding the dissent of some amongst them ) . aristotle himself , or whoever else was the author of that book de mundo , amongst other testimonies he gives of the divine providence , hath this for one , that as a governour is to a ship , as a law to a city , as a general in an army , so is god in the world ; but with this difference , that they perform their business not without labour , care and difficulty ; whereas the divine providence doth dispose of all and every particular thing , without the least kind of trouble . tully doth acknowledg that the providence of god doth extend not only , universo generi hominum , sed etiam singulis , to mankind in general , but likewise to every particular person . and in another place , deorum providentiâ mundus administratur , iidemque consulunt rebus humanis , neque solum universis , sed etiam singulis . the whole world is governed by divine providence , and not only human affairs in general , but likewise every particular business . seneca speaking of such as denied particular providence , hath this remarkable passage , sunt qui putant , &c. there are some who think so well of their own minds , that they are able to take care of their own business , and to provide for other mens affairs likewise ; and yet are so absurd as to question , whether this great universe , whereof they themselves are but a very inconsiderable part , be managed by any kind of wisdom or counsel , and not left wholly to chance . hierocles doth acknowledg , that the providence of god doth extend to contingencies . and to say no more by way of testimony , this may sufficiently appear , by the general practice of swearing by him , and praying to him , which doth sufficiently evince their belief of his particular providence . . by reason . the denial of this attribute will evacuate several others , namely , his goodness , justice , dominion , which must all signifie nothing without providence in the application of them . and withall , the denial of this , doth take away the ground of worship . the belief of a particular providence , being necessary unto that adoration which we owe to the divine nature . the greatness and the excellency of the deity in it self , abstracted from any concernment of our own , will have but a very flat and jejune operation upon our hearts . do we not find by experience , that men have but little regard to the great mogul , the cham of tartary , the emperors of china and persia , and such other potentates of remote countreys ? who though they are princes of great power and magnificence , able to bring many hundred thousands of fighting-men into the field ; yet they having nothing to do with us , nor we with them , we have therefore but a small regard for them . whereas the next ordinary gentleman , who is but lord of a mannour , or justice of peace , with whom we are concerned to deal , and who hath any power of punishing or rewarding , of doing us either a kindness or a discourtesie , we use to be accordingly affected in our esteem and veneration towards him . and thus must it be likewise for our adoration of the divine nature , which will be either more or less , according as we conceive our selves more or less concerned in his providence towards us . chap. x. of the perfections relating to the divine will ; goodness , justice , faithfulness . . the perfections belonging to the divine will , were before reckoned to be , . his goodness . . his justice . . his truth and faithfulness . . his goodness . by which word is sometimes signified , the notion of perfection in general ; and sometimes it denotes moral goodness , in opposition to all kind of moral imperfections . of both which kinds of goodness , god is the fountain and author , the rule and measure , from whom all created goodness is derived , and by conformity to whom it is to be estimated . but that more particular sense of this word , according to which it is now to be treated of , doth respect the inclination of the divine will toward his creatures ; that propension of his , whereby he is generally disposed to procure their happiness : in opposition to envy or malice , which delights in withholding good from others , or doing mischief to them . and that this attribute is natural to the notion of god , may appear , . by testimony . there being no one perfection about which the generality of men are more agreed than about this , ( excepting only the epicureans ) , who attribute nothing to god but everlasting happiness and blessedness , which yet cannot be without goodness . plato styles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the best being . and his common title amongst the latins , was deus optimus maximus . and our forefathers in this nation , seem to have given this very name of god from good. that is a known and an excellent passage in seneca , primus est deorum cultus , deos credere ; deinde reddere illis majestatem suam , reddere bonitatem sine qua nulla majestas . the most fundamental thing in religion , is to acknowledg the being of god , and then to demean our selves towards him suitably to the greatness of his majesty , and to his goodness , without which there can be no majesty . and in another place , he that doth not acknowledg the goodness of the divine nature , doth not take notice of the general custom amongst men , of praying to him in their distress , and making vows both publick and private , which would not be , unless they had this perswasion well fixed within them , that god was ready to hear and to help them , and that he is in his own nature propense to kindness and pity . nec in hunc furorem omnes mortales consensissent , alloquendi surda numina & inefficaces deos. nor is it possible , that all mankind should so unanimously agree together in so great a madness , of praying to such deities as they did not believe could either hear or help them . and in another place , quaedam sunt quae nocere non possunt , &c. some things there are of so benign and helpful a nature , so mild and beneficial , that nothing of evil or hurt can proceed from them : such is the deity , who neither can , nor will , do any thing that is mischievous ; being as remote from any action , that is injurious to others as to it self . and elsewhere , ecce sceleratis sol oritur , & piratis patent maria . he causeth his sun to shine upon the just and unjust , and the seas are open to pirates as well as merchants . he communicates his bounty to us in our infancy and childhood , when we can have no sense of it : nor doth he presently withdraw and cease his favours towards such wretches , as make a question and doubt concerning the author of them : nor is there any person so miserable and wretched , who hath not in several respects had experience of the divine bounty . hierocles asserts , that god is essentially good ; not by accident and from external motives and considerations . . by reason . it is so plain , so fundamental a notion , that goodness must belong to god , that i know not how to go about the proof of it . 't is the brightest ray of the deity , the first and clearest notion we have of god. we may see every day many thousand visible effects of this goodness in the world . and there are some glimpses and weak impressions of it amongst the creatures , and therefore much more must it be in the creator himself . this is the foundation of all worship and religion amongst men , the reason of their prayers to god , and praises of him . without this , his other attributes would not afford any sufficient ground for our love and adoration of him . knowledg and power without goodness , would be but craft and violence . he can by his wisdom out-wit his creatures , and easily impose upon them ; and by his power he could tyrannize over them , and play with their misery ; but that he will not do thus , we are assured by his goodness . this is so essential to him , that to imagine him without goodness , were to imagine a god without a deity , i. e. without that which chiefly constitutes him what he is : nay , it were to imagine instead of a god , a worse devil , and more qualify'd to do mischief , than any is now in the world . . the second attribute belonging to the divine will , is his justice . by which is meant not only the rectitude of his nature in general , but more specially his dealing with his creatures according to the desert of their deeds . and that this perfection is natural to the notion of god , may appear , . by testimony . it is an assertion of plato , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , god cannot be said in any kind or respect whatsoever to be unjust , but so far as is possible to be most just . tully lays it down as a principle , that before men are fit to associate under government , they ought to be first convinced , that god is the supreme governour of the world , and doth take particular notice , qualis quisque sit , quid agat , quid in se admittat , quâ mente , quâ pietate religiones colat , piorumque & impiorum habere rationem ; what kind of person every one is , what he doth , and what he thinks , how his heart stands inclined to the duties of religion , and will deal with every one according to his reality or hypocrisie in such matters . and that this was the general belief amongst them , may appear by the universal custom of attesting him by solemn oaths ; whereby they did-appeal to him as a righteous judg , who would certainly revenge all falshood and injustice . . from reason . and that not so much because justice is a perfection , as because injustice is so great a blemish and imperfection ; especially in the great soveraign and judg of the world , who having all power and authority in his hands , can have no temptation or byass imaginable to do any thing that is unjust . . his truth and faithfulness . by which is meant , the congruity of his words to his intentions , especially in respect of any promises which he hath made . and that this doth belong to the natural notion of god , may be made evident , . from testimony . plato asserts , all kind of lying and falshood to be imperfections most odious both to god and man , and that the divine nature is absolutely free from all kind of temptation to it ; so that there can be no imaginable reason why god should falsifie . porphyrie in the life of pythagoras tells us , that it was one of his precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that men should most of all endeavour after truth , because this only can make them like god. and he adds afterwards , that truth is so great a perfection , that if god would render himself visible to men , he would chuse light for his body , and truth for his soul. . from reason . it is one of the greatest reproaches , and an argument of baseness amongst men , to be counted a lyar : and therefore must it necessarily be removed from that being which is supposed to have all possible perfections , and to be the father of truth , as the devil is of lyes . that which tempts men to falsifie , is usually either the fear of some evil , or the hope of some advantage . the reason why they break their words , is either because of their rashness and inconsiderateness in making promises , or their forgetfulness in not minding them , or their inconstancy in not keeping to them , or their impotence to perform them . but now the divine nature being infinitely wise and allsufficient , can have no temptation to be otherwise than true and faithful . his infinite knowledg and wisdom doth secure him , from being deceived himself ; his omnipotence doth exempt him , from standing in need of deceiving others ; and his goodness secures us , from the lest suspition of any inclination thereto . chap. xi . of the perfections belonging to the powers and faculties of acting , viz. power , dominion , distribution of future rewards and punishments . those perfections which are essential to the notion of god , with respect to his faculties of working , are likewise three fold : . his power or omnipotence . . his dominion or right to govern us in this life . . his distributing of future rewards and punishments after this life . . by the power or omnipotence of god is meant , an ability of doing all such things , the doing of which may argue perfection , and which do not imply a contradiction , either in the things themselves , or to the nature and perfection of the doer . some things are repugnant to the perfection of god , either naturally , as that he should be sick or dye ; or else morally , as that he should lye or deceive : both which imply imperfection . and some other things may imply contradiction , either directly , or by plain consequence . and of such matters it is not so proper to say , that he cannot do them , as that they cannot be done . as the object of the understanding , the eye , and the ear , is that which is intelligible , visible , audible : so the object of power , must be that which is possible . and as it is no prejudice to the most perfect understanding , or sight , or hearing , that it doth not understand what is not intelligible , or see what is not visible , or hear what is not audible ; so neither is it to the most perfect power , that it doth not do what is not possible . every kind of faculty being necessarily determined to its own proper object . but as for all possible things , it is natural and necessary to apprehend of god , that he can do whatsoever any other single thing , or a combination of all other things put together , can perform , and infinitely more ; and that without any kind of labour or difficulty : so that his power must be infinite extensively , with respect to all objects ; and intensively , with respect to the acts of it , together with the manner and degrees of them . that this kind of omnipotence doth belong to the natural notion of god , may appear , . by testimony . it is a frequent title given unto god by the grecian philosophers , who style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , omnipotent . and nothing is more frequent amongst the latines , than the titles of jupiter omnipotens , optimus-maximus : he is generally acknowledged to be the creator and governour of the world , upon which account they call him , opifex rerum , and rector mundi . it is an acknowledgment of tully , nihil est quod deus efficere non possit , & quidem sine ullo labore . there is nothing which god cannot do , and that without any kind of labour . . by reason . if the power of god could be limited or circumscribed , it must either be by something of greater power , which is inconsistent with the notion of his being supreme and soveraign : or else by the difficulty and repugnancy which there is in the nature of things ; which could not be in the first creation of them , because there was nothing then to make any resistance , and since that , there is nothing but what was made by him , derived from him , and is dependant upon him , and therefore must be subject to him . and besides , all such things being finite , must therefore be at a vast distance of inequality from the infinite power of god. to which may be added , that all his other perfections would be insignificant and ineffectual , if his power of acting , whereby they were to be communicated to inferior natures , were not answerable to them . meer knowledg without power would be but an idle speculation ; wisdom to contrive , without power to effect , would be but vain and useless . what could his goodness and mercy signifie to us , if he were not able to give any proofs of it . and so likewise for his justice and faithfulness , which there would be no reason to fear or to depend upon , if rewards and punishments were not at his disposal , and he had not sufficient power to perform what he promises . nor could there be any sufficient ground for his being acknowledged the supreme lawgiver . for why should any one take upon him to intermeddle in the affairs of the world , and to prescribe laws to others , who had no power to dispose of things , and were not able to enforce obedience to his own laws ? in brief , without the belief of this attribute , there can be no foundation for religion , amongst men ; because there could be no ground for our faith or trust , no reason for our hope or fear . . besides this absolute consideration of the divine power , there is likewise a relative notion of it , respecting that dominion and jurisdiction which he hath over reasonable creatures , his right to govern them in this life ; to command , prohibit what he pleases , to reward and punish as shall seem good unto him . and that this doth belong to the natural notion of god , may appear , . by testimony . plato , and tully , and plutarch , do often style him , the lord of all things , the eternal god , father and creator of the world , and all things in it . deo nihil praestantius , ab eo igitur necesse est mundum regi , saith tully , god is the most excellent being , and therefore is it necessary that he should be the governour of the world . and in another place , deorum immortalium numine , omnia regi gubernarique credimus . we believe that god is the governour of all things . to which i shall add that testimony of a heathen king , nebuchadnezzar , in that remonstrance which he published to all people , nations , and languages , that dwell in all the earth , viz. that gods dominion is an everlasting dominion , and his kingdom is from generation to generation , and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing before him . and he doth according to his will , in the armies of heaven , and amongst the inhabitants of the earth , and none can stay his hand , or say unto him , what dost thou ? and as this was their declared opinion , so was their practice suitable to it ; by owning that to be their duty which they supposed to be agreeable to his will , and which would render them acceptable to him . . by reason . if we consider those several titles which can give right to dominion amongst men , we shall find them all to concur in god. now men claim a right of government , either by conquest , or purchase , or compact , or by having others born in a state of subjection under them , or by their having oblig'd others with any special bounty or favour ; but above all these , there is another ground of subjection , which men cannot pretend to , namely , the giving of being to a thing . and this must needs , above all other claims , be the greatest imaginable right , for the government and disposal of that thing , according to the pleasure of him that made it . it is he that made us , ( says the psalmist ) and not we our selves ; and therefore we are his people , and 't is reasonable that we should be under his dominion and government . . the distribution of future rewards and punishments to men , according as their lives and actions have been in this world . that this likewise doth belong to the natural notion of god , may appear , . by testimony . from all kind of heathen writers . nothing hath been more universally believed in all places and times , not only amongst the civilized nations , the grecians and romans ; but likewise amongst such as were most wild and barbarous . all sorts and professions of men , of any special eminence , as princes , statesmen , souldiers , philosophers , poets , artists , have had great impressions upon their minds concerning a future state . and it may be reasonably presumed ( as tully observes ) , that those who do so much excel others in their parts and their virtue , are not generally mistaken in their judgments about a natural truth . whereas several other opinions and doctrines , which at some times have prevailed , have afterwards been rejected ; this hath still kept up in its vigor and authority , amidst all the various revolutions of government and religion , of nations and churches . the most ancient philosophers amongst the grecians , who reduced that people to civility , were thales , pherecides , pythagoras ; the last of whom was for a long time of so great authority , that no others were counted learned but such as were his followers . and each of these have most expresly asserted this doctrine . and besides there are many other testimonies to this purpose , cited out of plato , empedocles , plutarch , together with homer , euripides , sophocles , for the grecians ; the ancient druids amongst the gauls ; the brachmans amongst the indians , who are all mention'd as bearing witness to this truth , by justin martyr , clemens alexandrinus , and others . and as for the latines , i shall mention only two testimonies ; that of tully , permanere animos arbitramur , consensu nationum omnium . we do believe that the souls of men do abide after death , by the consent of all nations . and that of seneca , cum de animarum aeternitate disserimus , non leve momentum apud nos babet , consensus omnium , aut timentium inferos , aut colentium . when we dispute about the immortality of the soul , the general consent of men , either fearing or worshipping the infernal powers , is of no small moment with us . that common practice amongst the heathen , of worshipping their departed heroes , doth suppose a general belief that their souls did remain after death , and were advanced unto a higher state of happiness and power . in brief , all the attestations amongst them , concerning the souls immortality , are founded in their belief of the necessity of this principle , that there must be a future state of rewards and punishments . though it must be granted , that this state as to the manner of it , is by them described in such a poetical way , as is more fit to amuse and make impression upon the vulgar , than to satisfie the reason of the judicious . they tell us , that good men shall after their death be received into the elysian fields and gardens , which are always flourishing and pleasant , where men shall be continually exercised in such kind of employments as are most suitable to their inclinations ; some in combats , running , wrestling ; others in philosophical discourses ; others in dancing or musick ; where such kinds of actions or things , whether in themselves worthy , or meerly innocent , in which good men during the time of their lives , did find any special pleasure , should be enjoyed by them in the utmost perfection . and as this shall be the state of such as have been virtuous , so those who have been wicked shall be thrust down into the infernal regions , into prisons and dark caverns , where furies are appointed for their tormentors , who shall inflict upon them various kinds of punishments , according to the nature and quality of the crimes of which they have been guilty . and though such kind of enjoyments wherein these heathen placed their future happiness , be not altogether so sensual as the turkish paradise , yet are they too earthly and gross for any rational man to rest in as his chief felicity . and must , even to the judgment of meer reason , seem altogether despicable in comparison to the christians heaven ; which consists in the raising of our natures to the highest perfection of which they are capable , in a perpetual vision and fruition of the supreme good. it must be granted , that the principal evidence for this doctrine concerning a future state of rewards and punishments , is to be derived from scripture , especially from the new testament , where 't is said that life and immortality is brought to light by the gospel . not but that there is evidence for it , both from the old testament , and from the light of nature . 't is true indeed , that temporal things are more expresly insisted upon in the promises and threats of the old testament , upon account of the grosness and dulness of the people of the jews , who being more immersed in sensible things , were therefore more easie to be wrought upon by such considerations . but that these things were not then intended for the chief motives of religion , may appear from the histories concerning such religious persons as lived in those first ages . amongst whom , there were but very few ( if any ) that did attain to any such perfect felicity in respect of worldly things , but that they might very well apply to themselves the words of old jacob , and say with him , few and evil have the days of my life been . and if god had intended these temporal enjoyments , for the chief felicity which that religion was to entitle them unto ; those very histories upon record , where these promises are mentioned , concerning the sufferings of the best men in those times , must needs have been a disparagement and confutation to these promises themselves . but besides the testimonies to this purpose from scripture and revelation , it is not imaginable that in a point of so great moment , and so universal consequence as this is , god should have left himself without a witness unto all the nations of the world ; but that all men should be endowed with such natural capacities and notions , as being improved by consideration , will afford sufficient evidence for the belief of this great and fundamental principle . as for such men who live under the sense of guilt , whose interest it is that there should be no future account ; it cannot be otherwise expected from such , but that they should be willing to disbelieve this . and from hence it is , that some of the ancient philosophers have employed their learning and subtilty , to dispute themselves into some kind of doubt and uncertainty about it . and yet the generality even of these , have been forced to acknowledg it much more probable than the contrary . and as for the vulgar sort of people , who are guided by the more simple dictates of nature , these have in all ages and nations submitted themselves to this doctrine , and professed a firm belief of it . and though vulgar opinion be but a very bad topick , about such matters as may gratifie men in their ease and sensual appetites ; yet in such other opinions as are cross to their worldly interests , it may argue such things to be from some natural impression upon their minds , which they must believe , and cannot otherwise chuse . the arguments i would make use of to this purpose , may be reduced to these three general heads : . the suitableness of this principle , to the most natural notions of our minds . . the necessity of it to the government of mens lives and actions in this world . . the necessity of it for the vindication of divine providence . . i begin with the first , the suitableness of it to the most natural notions of our minds , and those kind of impressions which belong to us , as we are reasonable creatures . we see by experience , that all other things ( so far as we are able to judg ) minerals , plants , beasts , &c. are naturally endowed with such principles as are most fit to promote the perfection of their natures , in their several kinds . and therefore it is by no means credible , that mankind only , the most excellent of all other creatures in this visible world , for the service of whom so many other things seem to be designed , should have such kind of principles interwoven in his very nature , as do contain in them meer cheats and delusions . and therefore whatsoever those things are , which the generality of mankind , especially the most wise and the most considerate part of them , do agree in , ought to be allowed for highly credible ; otherwise it must follow , that we are framed with such kind of faculties , as in our most cautious exercise of them , are more likely to seduce us and expose us to error , than to direct and lead us to the truth . but i shall endeavour to manifest this more particularly , by these three considerations . . this principle is most suitable to the general apprehensions of mankind , concerning the nature of good and evil . . to those natural hopes and expectations which the generality of good men have , concerning a state of future happiness . . to those natural fears and expectations which the generality of wicked men are possessed with , concerning a future state of punishment and misery . . this principle is most suitable to the general apprehensions of mankind , concerning the nature of good and evil . all men heretofore have agreed , that there is such a thing as the law of nature , whereby things are distinguished into good and bad ; according to which , the actions of men are determined to be either virtuous or vicious . and as the one of these doth in the essence of it imply comeliness and reward , so doth the other denote turpitude and punishment ; these things being implied in the very definitions of virtue and vice . and from hence it will follow , that as there is some superiour power who hath put this law into our natures , so will he take care to enforce the observance of it , by rewarding and punishing men accordingly . this being implied in the nature of a law. if there be nothing in the naked essence of things that makes them to differ , but what doth meerly arise from custom and positive laws ; why then custom and law would be able to render it a very virtuous and commendable thing , for a man to be ingrateful , a breaker of compacts , a false witness , a perjured person ; which is so monstrous a position , that the common reason of mankind will abhor it , upon the first proposal . nothing is more obvious , than that there is an universal desire amongst men , of seeming honest : the most impudent and profligate wretch being loth to be esteemed what really he is . the very sin of hypocrisie , so general amongst men , doth give a large testimony to the beauty of goodness , and the deformity of vice . nor is there any account to be given , why there should be impressed upon the nature of men such a value for the one , and dislike for the other , if there were not in the things themselves , something suitable to those contrary affections . we see by experience , that there is such a kind of rest and acquiescence in the mind , upon the discovery of truth , and the doing of virtuous actions , as belongs to natural bodies when they are in their proper places ; which may argue these things to have some peculiar suitableness to the soul of man , and that the opposites to them do offer violence to some natural principle belonging to it . . this principle is most suitable to those natural hopes and expectations , which the generality of good men have concerning a state of future happiness . from whence doth arise that confidence and courage , whereby those of meanest quality and abilities ( if otherwise virtuous persons ) can support themselves in their sufferings for that which is good ; which doth necessarily suppos● in them a strong and even a natural belief and perswasion of such a future state , wherein their sufferings shall be considered and rewarded . besides that , there is a strong aversion amongst men , against a dark state of annihilation , which no man can think of without great regret of mind : and likewise a natural desire in all men after a state of happiness and perfection . and no natural desire is in vain . all other things have somewhat to satisfie their natural appetites . and if we consider the utter impossibility of attaining to any such condition in this life , this will render it highly credible , that there must be another state wherein this happiness is attainable ; otherwise mankind must fail of his chief end , being by a natural principle most strongly inclined to such a state of happiness as he can never attain to ; as if he were purposely framed to be tormented betwixt these two passions , desire and despair ; an earnest propension after happiness , and an utter incapacity of ever enjoying it ; as if nature it self , whereby all other things are disposed to their perfection , did serve only in mankind to make them miserable . and which is yet more considerable , the better and the wiser any man is , the more earnest desires and hopes hath he after such a state of happiness . and if there be no such thing , not only nature , but virtue likewise must contribute to make men miserable ; than which , nothing can seem more unreasonable , to those who believe a just and a wise providence . . this principle is most suitable to those fears and expectations which the generality of wicked men are possessed with , concerning a future state of misery . witness those natural suggestions of conscience in the worst of men , that upon any wicked actions ( though never so private ) are oftentimes startling of them , with the apprehensions of another judicature and tribunal , before which they shall be called to an account for the closest sins . all that secret regret , and those inward smitings , laniatus & ictus , which are so often felt in the minds of men , upon the commission of any great sin , do argue some common intimations , even in the light of nature , of another judgment after this life , wherein they shall be accountable for such actions as men do not punish or take notice of . and these natural fears do usually seize upon all kind of men promiscuously : even those who are most potent , who by their own will can give laws to nations , and command mighty armies ; yet cannot they avoid these checks and lashes of conscience , but that they will seize upon them , and shake them as well as the poorest meanest subject . nor can such as are most obstinately wicked , who with their utmost study and endeavour , apply themselves to the suppressing and disbelief of these notions , so wholly stifle them , but that they will be continually rising up in their minds and pursuing of them . now as there is no man whatsoever , that is wholly freed from these fears , of future misery after death ; so there is no creature below man , that hath any fears of this kind . and if there be no real ground for this , then must it follow , that he who framed all his other works with such an excellent congruity , did yet so contrive the nature of man , the most noble amongst them , as to prove a needless torment and burden to it self . if it be said , that these notions may proceed from such principles as men have derived from institution and the teaching of others , but that they do not imply a necessity of any such natural impressions . to this it may be answered , that it is sufficient to denominate them natural notions , if they have such a suitableness to the minds of men , as makes them to be generally owned by all those who apply their thoughts to the consideration of them : and that they have such a natural suitableness , may appear , because institution cannot so easily eradicate these notions , as it can fix them . now if the meer teaching of others were it self sufficient to impress these notions , without any such peculiar congruity in the things themselves , it would be as sufficient to deface them again : especially considering the advantage on this side , from that natural repugnancy which we have to any thing which brings disquiet to our minds . and nothing is more troublesome in this kind , than the fear which follows upon guilt . but now , though there have been several men of no mean abilities , in several ages , who have made it their business to root out of the minds of men all such troublesome notions about a future state , endeavouring to perswade themselves and others , that as there was a time before they were born into the world , when they were not ; so at their dying or going out of it , they shall exist no more . and yet , though it be their interest to believe this , though they make it their study and business to perswade themselves and others of it ; it may reasonably be doubted , whether ever yet there hath been so much as one person , that hath hereby become absolutely free from these fears : but for the most part , those who would have them esteemed vain and imaginary , without any foundation in nature , these are the persons who are most assaulted with them . hi sunt qui trepidant , & ad omnia fulgura pallent . so powerful and unconquerable are these impressions , and therefore natural . . the second reason i proposed to speak to , was from the necessity of this principle , to the right government of mens lives and actions in this world , and the preserving of society amongst them . nothing can be more evident , than that humane nature is so framed , as not to be regulated and kept within due bounds , without laws ; and laws must be insignificant , without the sanction of rewards and punishments , whereby men may be induced to the observance of them : now the temporal rewards and punishments of this life , cannot be sufficient to this end ; and therefore there is a necessity , that there should be another future state of happiness and misery . all the rewards and punishments of this life are to be expected , either from the civil magistrate , who by virtue of his place and calling is obliged to the duty of distributive justice : or else from divine providence , according to that most usual course which we find by experience to be observed by him , in his dispensation of these temporal things . now neither of these can afford sufficient motives , for the government of mens lives and actions . . not all that may be expected from the civil magistrates , because there may be many good and evil actions which they cannot take notice of ; and they can reward and punish only such things , as come under their cognizance . and if this were the only restraint upon men , it could be no hinderance from any such mischiefs or villanies which men had the opportunity of committing secretly . nor would it extend to those , who had power and strength enough to defend themselves from the law , and escape the penalty of it , but that such might without any kind of check or fear follow the inclinations of their own appetites : nor would it afford any remedy in the case of such wicked magistrates as should invert the order of their institution , proving terrors to well-doers , and encouragers to those that do ill . . not all that may be expected from common providence : for though it should be granted , that according to the most usual and general course of things , both virtuous and vicious actions are rewarded and punished in this life ; yet there may be many particular cases , which this motive would not reach unto ; namely , all such cases where a mans reason shall inform him , that there is far greater probability of safety and advantage by committing a sin , than can be reasonably expected ( according to his experience of the usual course of things in the world ) by doing his duty . suppose the case of the three children , or of any other called to martyrdom , who may be threatned with torments and death , unless they will blaspheme god and renounce their religion ; if it appear to them very probable ( suppose a hundred to one ) , that upon their refusal , their persecutors will really execute what they threaten : and if on the other side , it prove very improbable ( suppose ten thousand to one ) that they shall be delivered by a miracle : in such cases , it is not to be expected , that the consideration of the ordinary course of providence in the dispensation of rewards and punishments , should be sufficient to restrain a man from any kind of blasphemy or villany whatsoever . but the thing i am speaking to , will more fully appear , by consideration of those horrid mischiefs of all kinds , that would most naturally follow from the denial of this doctrine . if there be no such thing to be expected as happiness or misery hereafter , why then the only business that men are to take care of , is their present well-being in this world. there being nothing to be counted either good or bad , but in order to these : those things which we conceive to be conducible to it , being the only duties ; and all other things that are cross to it , being the only sins . and therefore whatever a man's appetite shall incline him to , he ought not to deny himself in it ( be the thing what it will ) so he can have it , or do it , without probable danger . suppose it be matter of gain or prosit he is disposed to ; if he can cheat or steal securely , this will be so far from being a fault , that it is plainly his duty , that is , reasonable for him to do . because it is a proper means to promote his chief end . and so for other cases of anger , hatred , revenge , &c. according to this principle a man must take the first opportunity of satisfying these passions , by doing any kind of mischief to the person he is offended with ; whether by false accusation and perjury , or ( if need be ) by poysoning or stabbing of him ; provided he can do these things so , as to escape the suspition of others , and humane penalties . now let any man judg , what bears , and wolves , and devils , men would prove to one another , if every thing should be not only lawful , but a duty , whereby they might gratifie their impetuous lusts ; if they might either perjure themselves , or steal , or murder , as often as they could do it safely , and get any advantage by it . but these things are so very obvious and undeniable , that the most prophane atheistical persons do own the truth of them . and upon this they are willing to acknowledg , that religion and the belief of another life , is a very politick invention , and needful for the well-governing of the world , and for the keeping of men in awe , from the doing any secret mischiefs . which ( by the way ) is a concession of no small advantage to the honour of religion , considering that it proceeds from the greatest professed enemies to it . whereby they grant , that it is fit these things should be true , if they are not ; or at least , that it is fit that the generality of men should believe them to be true . and though themselves pretend to believe otherwise , yet are they not so far out of their wits , as to be willing that those with whom they converse , their wives , and children , and servants , should be of the same opinion with them ; because then they could have no reason to expect any safety amongst them . what security could any man have of his estate , or honour , or life , if such with whom he is most familiar and intimate , might think themselves at liberty to do all the secret mischiefs to them which they had the opportunity to commit ? but there is one thing more , which those who profess to disbelieve this principle , should do well to consider ; and that is this , that there is no imaginable reason , why ( amongst those that know them ) they should pretend to any kind of honesty or conscience , because they are wholly destitute of all such motives as may be sufficient to oblige them to any thing of this nature : but according to them , that which is called virtue and religion must be one of the most silly and useless things in the world . as for the principle of honour , which some imagine may supply the room of conscience . this relates only to external reputation , and the esteem which we have amongst others ; and therefore can be of no influence , to restrain men from doing any secret mischief . from what hath been said it will follow , that those who have any regard to their own safety , ought to abandon all kind of society with such pernicious persons , who according to their own principles , must take all opportunities of doing any mischief to others , which they are able to effect with any advantage to themselves . now if this be so ( as i have proved ) , that the nature of man is so framed , as not to be effectually perswaded and wrought upon , without the consideration of such a future state ; if it be necessary , to add everlasting motives , as the sanctions of that law , by which the humane nature is to be governed ; this must render it highly credible , that there is such a state , because it must needs be very unworthy of god , to conceive of him , that he hath contrived the nature of one of his best and most noble creatures after such a manner , as to make it incapable of being governed without falshood and deceit . the necessity of this principle to the government of mens lives and actions , is the ground of that saying amongst the rabbins , that paradise and hell are two of the seven pillars upon which god is said to have founded the world. as if it could not be upheld without such a support . . the third and last argument , i proposed to speak to , was from the necessity of this principle to the vindication of divine providence . nothing is more universally acknowledged , than that god is good and just ; that well-doing shall be rewarded , and evil actions punished by him . and yet we see , that his dispensations in this life are many times promiscuous and uncertain , so that a man cannot judg of love or hatred , by all that is before him . the worst of men are sometimes in the best condition , if in this life only we had hope , we should be of all men most miserable , saith the apostle , speaking concerning those primitive times of persecution , when the better any man was , the more was he exposed to suffering . nor is it thus only in the case of particular persons , or in the success of private differences betwixt men and men ; but likewise for some of those decisions that are made by the sword , in the publick contests of princes and nations ; these may sometimes be so stated , as to the event of them , as may in the judgment of wise and good men seem unequal , and not according to justice and the right of the cause . now the greater uncertainty there is as to the present affairs of this world , by so much greater is the certainty of a future judgment . it is true indeed , that virtue may be said to be a reward to it self , and vice a punishment ; in regard of that satisfaction , or that regret of mind which doth accompany such things . but these are not such kind of rewards and punishments , as lawgivers are to take care of ; by which they are to excite those under the government , to overcome the labours and difficulties that they may sometimes meet with in doing their duty , and to restrain others from wicked actions . it would seem a wild extravagant law , which should propose by way of reward , that those who had upon account of religion or virtue , undergone any great dangers and troubles , should for their reward be put again to undergo more and greater . that they who had been guilty of robbery , should by way of punishment be obliged to commit murder . besides those moral advantages or mischiefs , which are properly the effects of virtue and vice ; there is likewise some physical good or evil , that may be expected as the reward and punishment of them . would it become a just governour , to permit his rebellious subjects , those who contemn his laws , to persecute such as were obedient to him , with all kind of scorn and violence , stripes , imprisonment , torments , and death it self ; and that for this very reason , because they were willing to do their duties , and to observe the laws ? would it be a reasonable excuse for such a ruler to say , that one of these had received sufficient , punishment in the very commission of such crimes ; and that the other had a sufficient reward , both in the doing of his duty , and in his suffering for it ? what could be more inconsistent with the rules of justice , and the wise ends of government ? what could be a greater disparagement to divine providence , than to permit the calamities and sufferings which good men undergo in this world , many times upon the account of religion , to pass unrewarded ; and the many mischiefs and prophanations , which wicked men take the advantage of committing by their greatness and prosperity in this world , to go unpunished ? what great glory would it be , to preside over this material world , stars and meteors , sea and land , plants and beasts , to put these things into such a regular course as may be suitable to their natures , and the operations for which they are designed ; and in the mean space to have no proportionable regard , either for those that reverence the deity , or those who contemn him ? 't is very well said to this purpose by a late author , that not to conduct the course of nature in a due manner , might speak some defect of wisdom in god ; but not to compensate virtue and vice , besides the defect of wisdom in not adjusting things suitably to their qualifications , but crosly coupling prosperity with vice , and misery with virtue , would argue too great a defect of goodness and of justice . and perhaps it would not be less expedient ( saith he ) with epicurus , to deny all providence , than to ascribe to it such defects : it being less unworthy of the divine nature , to neglect the universe altogether , than to administer humane affairs with so much injustice and irregularity . and therefore 't is necessary for the vindication of divine providence , that there should be a future state , and day of accounts , wherein every man shall be forced to acknowledg , that verily there is a reward for the righteous , doubtless there is a god that judgeth the earth . chap. xii . concerning the duties of religion naturally flowing from the consideration of the divine nature and perfections : and first , of adoration and worship . having dispatched the two first things i proposed as the principal ingredients to a state of religion , namely , . a belief and an acknowledgment of the divine nature and existence . . due apprehensions of his excellencies and perfections . i proceed now to the third , namely , suitable affections and demeanour towards him . which must naturally follow from the former . the serious belief and consideration of those incomparable excellencies which there are in the divine nature , ought not to be terminated in meer speculation , but must derive an influence upon the heart and affections ; it being natural for men to proportion their esteem of things , according to that worth and dignity which they apprehend to be in them . and therefore that being which hath in it all possible perfections , may justly challenge all possible esteem and veneration , as due to it . in the enumerating of those several affections and duties , i shall observe the same method which i have formerly used in reckoning up the attributes themselves . . gods incommunicable excellencies should dispose our minds to adoration and worship . . the communicable attributes , which belong to the divine . understanding , namely , his infinite knowledg and wisdom , and his particular providence , should work in us , faith , affiance , hope , confidence . . will , namely , his goodness , justice , faithfulness , are naturally apt to excite in us , love , desire , zeal . . eaculties of acting , namely , his power , which should produce in us reverence and fear : his dominion over us , and distributing of future rewards and punishments , which calls for our obedience , both active and passive . though i cannot say , that each of these affections and duties are so to be restrained to those respective attributes unto which i have ascribed them , but that the consideration of any of the rest , may have a proper influence to dispose men to any , or to all of them ; yet that there is some more peculiar reference and correspondence betwixt these attributes and these affections and duties , as they are here conjoined , i shall endeavour to shew in treating concerning each of them . . those incommunicable and superlative excellencies of the divine nature , whereby god doth infinitely transcend all other beings , are naturally apt to work in us , a high esteem and admiration of him ; a readiness of mind , upon all occasions , to express our adoration and worship towards him . that worship is due to god , hath been universally acknowledged , in all ages and nations . and aristotle asserts , that whosoever doth doubt of , or deny this , ought not to be dealt with by arguments , but by punishments . that it is the excellency of any being which is the proper ground of the worship we pay to it , hath been generally acknowledged . the philosophers have owned this . so tully , praestans deorum natura , &c. the nature of god may justly challenge the worship of men , because of its superlative excellency , blessedness , eternity . for whatsoever excels , hath upon that account a veneration due to it . so seneca , deus colitur propter majestatem eximiam , singularemque naturam . god is therefore worshipped , because of his excellent majesty and incomparable nature . and to this the scripture likewise doth attest . all nations whom thou hast made , shall come and worship before thee , and shall glorifie thy name , for thou art great , and dost wonderous things , thou art god alone . and again , psal. . , having said , for the lord is a great god , and a great king above all gods , it is presently subjoined , o come let us worship , and fall down , and kneel before the lord our maker . and yet again , psal. . . worship him all ye gods : and the reason is given presently after , for thou lord art high above all the earth , thou art exalted far above all gods . by worship , i mean in the general , the highest esteem and admiration of him in our minds , whereby we do continually bow down our souls before him , in the acknowledgment of his excellencies ; depending upon him , invoking of him in our necessities , making our acknowledgments to him , as being the author of all the mercies we enjoy ; together with such external services , as may be fit to testifie unto others that inward veneration which we have for him , whether by the humblest gestures , of prostration or bowing our selves before him , kneeling , lifting up our hands and eyes unto him ; being always ready to speak good of his name , to make his praise glorious . which must be accompanied with a hearty zeal and indignation , against all such things as reflect dishonour upon him . besides this general habit of worship , with which our minds should always be possessed , there are likewise some particular actions and services , which by the light of nature , and the consent of nations have been judged proper to express our honouring of him : as the setting apart of particular persons , and places , and times , peculiarly for his worship . it hath been the general practise of all nations , to have amongst them a distinct calling of men , set apart to officiate in sacris , to assist the people in their publick worship , to instruct them in their duties , and to excite them to the performance of them . which being a work of so publick usefulness and general necessity , common reason will assure us , that the best way of providing for it , is by such persons as are bred up to it , and set apart for it . such men are like to have the greatest skill , who have made it their business and their greatest care , and who are obliged to it by way of office. it is natural for men who are joined together in civil societies , to join likewise in religious worship . and in order to this , 't is necessary that there should be publick places , and solemn times set apart for such assemblies . which hath accordingly been the practice of all civilized nations . and in the manner of performing their publick worship , it was still required to be done with all imaginable submission and reverence . this the stoick commends , and cites aristotle for it ; egregiè aristoteles ait , nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere , quam cum de diis agitur , &c. men are never more concerned to be humble and modest , than when they have to do about god. we should enter the temples , with an humble and composed demeanour . when we approach to sacrifice , it should be with all imaginable expressions of reverence and modesty , in our countenance and carriage . as for the chief matter and substance of natural worship , unto which the light of reason will direct , i know no other , than invoking of the deity , returning thanks to him , and inquiring after his will. those things which are superadded to these , in that most acceptable way of worship revealed in the gospel , are not proper to be discoursed of here , because they depend meerly upon revelation . it is true indeed , that all nations pretending to any religion , from the most ancient times to which any record doth extend , have agreed in the way of worship by sacrifice . and from this general practise , there may seem to be some ground to infer , this way of worship to have been directed by the light of nature . but when 't is well considered , what little ground there is to perswade a man , left to his own free reason , that god should be pleased with the killing and burning of beasts , or with the destroying of such things by fire of which better use might be made , if they were disposed of some other way ; i say , when it is well considered , what little reason there is to induce such a man to believe , that the killing or burning of beasts or birds , or any other thing useful to mankind , should of it self be a proper and natural means to testifie our subjection to god , or to be used by way of expiation from sin ; it will rather appear probable , that the original of this practice was from institution , and that our first parents were by particular revelation instructed in this way of worship , from whom it was delivered down to their successive generations by verbal tradition ; and by this means was continued in those families , who departed from the church , and proved heathen in the first ages of the world ; amongst whom this tradition was in course of time , for want of care and frequent renewals , corrupted with many humane superinducements , according to the genius or interests of several times , or nations . as for the reasons , why god was pleased to institute to his own people this way of worship , there are these two things may be suggested . . sacrifices had a typical reference unto that great design which was to be accomplished in the fulness of time , by the sacrifice of christ upon the cross , which is at large explained and applied in several parts of the new testament , particularly in the epistle to the hebrews , from whence many strong arguments may now be deduced , for confirmation of the truth of the gospel . . because this way of worship was most suitable to those ages ; the providence of god having purposely adapted his own institutions of worship , unto the abilities and capacities of men in several times . discovering himself to his people in divers manners , according to sundry times . and therefore in those first and ruder ages of the world , when people were more generally immersed in sensible things , and stood in need of somewhat to raise and fix their imaginations , god was pleased to amuse them with external pomp and solemnities , and to employ that time of their nonage , about these plainer rudiments or elements of the world . but when they were grown up from this nonage , when the generality of men became more notional , better able to consider and abstract things ; when by the spreading of the roman conquests , which extended to the most considerable parts of the world , they had likewise spread their arts and civilities , reducing the provinces which came under their power , from that savageness and barbarism with which they had formerly been overspread , to the love and desire of all peaceful arts , and the study of all useful knowledg , whereby the minds of men were rendered more rational and inquisitive than before they had been , and consequently better prepared for the reception of the christian religion : in this fulness of time ( as the scripture styles it ) did the providence of god think fit to introduce christian religion , a more rational and spiritual way of worship , whose precepts are most agreeable to the purest and sublimest reason ; consisting chiefly in a regulation of the mind and spirit , and such kind of practices as may promote the good of humane society , and most effectually conduce to the perfecting of our natures , and the rendering of them happy . and that the most rational kind of worship doth consist in such kind of qualifications and services , besides the attestation of several scriptures to this purpose , may likewise be made evident by the acknowledgment of the wisest heathens . eusebius quotes menander a greek poet to this purpose , ( sometimes cited by st. paul ) , men do in vain , saith he , endeavour to make the gods propitious by their costly sacrifices ; if they would have the divine favour , let them love and adore god in their hearts , be just and holy in their conversations . and in another place , he cites the like sayings out of porphyrie , in his book de sacrificiis , & apollonius , &c. so maximus tyrius , speaking concerning those divers solemnities wherewith several nations did honour their gods , saith , he would be loth , by denying any of these , to derogate from the honour of the deity ; but men should chiefly labour to have him in their minds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they should principally endeavour to know him , and to love him . so seneca , having discoursed concerning those external adorations and ceremonies , whereby several men were wont to express their devotion , he says , humana ambitio iftis capitur officiis , deum colit qui novit ; such formalities may be acceptable to the ambition of men , but he only can truly worship god who knows him . the first step ( saith he ) unto divine worship , is to believe the being of god , and then to demean our selves towards him suitably to the greatness of his majesty . vis deos propitiare , bonus esto ; satis illos coluit quisquis imitatus est . would you render him propitious to you , endeavour to be good ; that man only doth truly worship him , who labours to be like him . so tully , cultus antem deorum est optimus , idemque castissimus , atque sanctissimus , plenissimusque pietatis , ut eos semper purâ , integrâ , incorruptâ mente & voce veneremur . to which i shall only add that saying of persius , where he prefers an honest and a virtuous mind , above all other costly sacrifices and offerings . compositum jus fasque animi , sanctosque recessus mentis , & incoctum generoso pectus honesto , haec cedo , ut admoveam templis , & farre litabo . if true worship did consist only in costly sacrifices , then such alone as were rich , could be religious ; whereas god is more ready to accept the meanest offering , from a person of a just and worthy and generous mind , who doth truly love and devote himself to him , than of the most pompous costly sacrifices from others . and thus have i done treating of those kind of affections , which naturally follow from due apprehensions of the incommunicable attributes belonging to the divine nature , namely , adoration and worship . chap. xiii . of faith or affiance in god. i proceed to those other affections whereby we are to give unto god ( so far as creatures are capable ) that honour which is due to those communicable perfections belonging to the divine understanding , will , faculties of acting , namely , his wisdom , goodness , power , dominion , and superiority over us , and his distribution of future rewards and punishments ; which should respectively excite in us , affiance , love , reverence , and obedience , both active and passive . and though each of these graces , have sufficient foundation in every one of the divine excellencies promiscuously , yet there is some more peculiar reference and correspondence amongst them , according to this order . i purpose to speak to each of them , severally and briefly . first , concerning affiance ; by which i mean an acquiescence of the mind , whereby it is supported against all unnecessary doubts and fears , upon account of the divine all-sufficiency in general , with more special respect to his knowledg and wisdom and providence , whereby he doth take notice of our conditions , and is able to order all things for the best , and doth not permit any thing to befall us without his knowledg of it , and being concerned for it . this grace , according to its different relations , is usually distinguished into these three branches : . as it respects an act of the judgment in assenting to all divine truths , whether discoverable by reason or by revelation , so 't is styled faith. . as it imports a resting of the will and affections in the divine goodness , whether discovered to us by the light of nature or by revelation , so 't is styled trust ; and according to the greater measure or degree of it , confidence and plerophory . so the heathen , who have no revelation , can support themselves in their sufferings for that which is good , with the consideration that god will take care of them . . as it relates to the expectation and desire after some future good which we stand in need of , or the escaping of some evil we are obnoxious unto , so 't is styled hope . but i shall treat of these promiscuously , because they agree in the general nature of affiance . and how reasonable and proper this affiance in god is , will appear from these considerations . . 't is necessary to our present state in this world , that there should be something for us , to lean upon , and have recourse unto , as our support and refuge . . god alone is an all-sufficient stay , upon which the mind of man can securely repose it self in every condition . . 't is necessary to our present state in this world , that there should be something for us to lean upon , and have recourse unto , as our support and refuge . this the ancient poets have signified in their fable of pandora's box , which when epimetheus had opened , and saw all manner of evils flying out of it , he suddenly closed it again , and so kept in hope at the bottom of it , as being the only remedy left to mankind , against all those evils to which they are obnoxious . every man at his best estate , is but a feeble infirm creature ; what from the impotence of his mind , and the disorder of his passions from within ; together with the troubles and difficulties that he shall meet withall from without ; the great obscurity which there is in the nature of things , that uncertainty which attends the issues and events of them ; the mutability of all humane affairs , which cannot possibly be secured by all the imaginable wisdom and foresight which men are capable of . from all which it sufficiently appears , that faith and hope and trust are altogether necessary to the state of men in this world ; and that they must always be in an unsafe , unquiet condition , unless they have somewhat to support and relieve them in their exigences . 't is observed of the hopp , and other such climbing plants , which are not of strength enough to bear up themselves , that they will by natural instinct lean towards and clasp about any thing that is next , which may help to bear them up ; and in the want of a tree or a pole , which is their proper support , they will wind about a thistle or a nettle , or any other weed , though in the issue it will help to choak and destroy the growth of them , instead of furthering it . the application is easie , all flesh is grass , and the glory thereof , as the flower of the field , of a fading impotent condition , standing in need of something without it self for its protection and support . and a mistake in the choice of such helps , may sometimes prove fatal . our conditions in this world are often in scripture represented by a state of warfare , wherein the virtues of faith and hope are said to be our brest-plate , our shield , and our helmet , the chief defensive arms , whereby we are to be guarded against all assaults . and sometimes by a state travelling by sea , wherein hope is our anchor , that which must fix and keep us steddy in the midst of all storms . . god alone is an all-sufficient stay , upon which the mind of man can securely repose it self in every condition . for which reason he is in the scripture phrase styled the hope of israel , the confidence of all the ends of the earth , and of such as are afar off upon the sea , the god of hope . which titles he hath been pleased to assume unto himself , to teach us this lesson , that our faith and hope should be in god. the principal conditions requisite in that person , who is fit to be a proper object of our confidence are these four : . perfect knowledge and wisdom , to understand our conditions , and what may be the most proper helps and remedies for them . . unquestionable goodness , love , faithfulness , to be concerned for us , and to take care of us . . sufficient power , to relieve us in every condition . . everlastingness , that may reach to us and our posterity to all generations . all which are only to be found in god. from whence it will appear , that as he is the only proper object of our trust , so by not-trusting in him , we do deny to him the honour which is due to these divine excellencies , and consequently are deficient in one of the chief parts of religion . . he alone hath perfect knowledg and wisdom to understand our conditions , and what may be the most proper remedy for them . his understanding is infinite . our most secret thoughts and inward groanings are not hid from him . he knows our diseases , and what physick is fittest for us , the best means of help , and the most fitting season to apply those means . he is infinitely wise to contrive such ways of safety and deliverance , as will surmount all those difficulties and perplexities which would put humane wisdom to a loss . he doth sometimes accomplish his ends without any visible means ; filling mens bellies with his hid treasure , making them to thrive and prosper in the world , by such secret ways as men understand not . and sometimes he doth blast the most likely means , so that the battel is not to the strong , nor yet bread to the wise , nor riches to men of understanding , nor yet favour to men of skill ; but it may happen to them , as the prophet speaks , that though they sow much , yet they bring in but little , they eat and have not enough , they drink but are not filled , they are clothed but not warm , earn wages but put it into a bag with holes . and therefore upon this account , there is very good reason why god should be the object of our confidence . . he is likewise infinite as to his goodness , love , truth , faithfulness , whereby he is concerned for our welfare , and doth take care for us . the nearest and dearest relations which we have in the world , in whom we have most reason to be confident , our father and mother may forsake us : and as for such whom we have obliged by all imaginable kindness , they may deal deceitfully with us , and prove like winter brooks , which in wet seasons , when there is no need of them , will run with a torrent , but are quite vanished in a time of drought . whilst we are in a prosperous condition they will be forward to apply themselves to us , with great professions of kindness and zeal ; but if our condition prove any way declining , they presently fall off and become strangers , forgetting and renouncing all obligations of friendship and gratitude , rather than run the least hazard or trouble to do us a kindness . that man hath had but little experience in the world , to whom this is not very evident . but now the mercy and goodness of god is over all his works , and more especially extended to such as are in a state of misery , the fatherless and widows , the prisoners , the poor , and the stranger . he is the helper of the friendless . that which amongst men is usually the chief occasion to take off their affection and kindness , namely , misery and affliction , is a principal argument to entitle us to the favour of god , and therefore is frequently made use of by good men in h. scripture to that purpose . o go not far from me , for trouble is nigh at hand , and there is none to help me ; i am in misery , o hear me speedily . . he is of infinite power , for our relief and supply in every condition ; being able to do whatsoever he pleaseth both in heaven and in earth , and in the sea , and in all deep places . he is the first cause of every thing , both as to its being and operation . we depend wholly upon his power , not only for the issues and events of things , but likewise for the means . and therefore 't is in scripture made an argument why we should not trust in riches , or in any worldly thing , because power belongs to god. and 't is elsewhere urged for a reason why we should trust in the lord for ever , because in the lord jehovah is everlasting strength . and upon this consideration abraham is said to have hoped against hope , being fully perswaded that what god had promis'd he was able to perform . . he is everlasting , whereas all other helps and comforts which we can propose to our selves are transient and fading . as for our fathers , where are they ? and do the prophets , or princes , live for ever ? their days upon earth are a shadow that fleeteth away , their breath goeth forth , and they return to the earth , and then all their thoughts perish : whereas he is from everlasting to everlasting , god blessed for ever ; and his righteousness extendeth to childrens children , even to all generations . we see by daily experience , persons of great hopes and expectations , when their patrons dye upon whom they had their dependance , to what a forlorn and helpless condition they are reduced : but now this can never befall the man who trusteth in the lord , and whose hope the lord is . and 't is one of the greatest priviledges of religion , that it doth furnish a man with such a sure refuge and support against all kind of exigences , whereby he may bear up his spirit under those difficulties wherewith others are overwhelmed . 't is true indeed , it cannot be denied , but that god doth expect , and the nature of things doth require , that men should be suitably affected with joy or sorrow , according as their conditions are ; but yet with this difference , that those who believe the providence of god , should not be so deeply affected with these things as other men , they should weep as not weeping , and rejoice as not rejoicing . they should not upon any occasion fear or sorrow as men without hope , but should demean themselves as persons that have an higher principle to be acted by , and to live upon , than any of these sensible things . i cannot omit to suggest one observation concerning this duty of affiance , which i have now been insisting upon ; that though this particular virtue , and others of the like affinity , be evidently moral duties , our obligation to them being clearly deducible from the light of nature and the principles of reason , and consequently must be owned by the heathen philosophers ; yet they do in their writings , speak but sparingly , concerning those kind of virtues which are of a more spiritual nature , and tend most to the elevating and refining of the mind . and on the other side , the scripture doth most of all insist upon the excellency and necessity of these kind of graces . which is one of the main differences , betwixt the scripture and other moral writings . and for this reason it is , that in speaking of these graces and virtues , i do more frequently allude to scripture expressions . chap. xiv . of the love of god. secondly , as for those perfections belonging to the divine will , namely , his goodness , his justice , his truth and faithfulness : the due apprehension of these , should excite in us the virtue of love , with all the genuine fruits of it . by love , i mean an esteeming of him , and a seeking after him as our only happiness . so that there are two ingredients of this virtue of love , estimation and choice . . an estimation of the judgment ; a due valuation of those excellencies which are in the divine nature , whereby we look upon god as the supreme being in genere boni : from whom all created goodness is derived , and by conformity to whom it is to be measured . and this notion is the proper importance of the word charity , whereby we account a thing dear or pretious . and in this sense doth our saviour oppose despising to loving , either he must hate the one , and love the other ; or he must hold to the one , and despise the other . now these perfections of the divine nature may be considered , either absolutely or relatively . . absolutely , as they are in themselves , abstracting from any benefit that we our selves may have by them . and in this sense they can only produce in us an esteem of our judgments , without any desire or zeal in our will or affections . the devil doth understand these absolute perfections of the divine nature , that god is in himself most wise , most just , and powerful : and he knows withal that these things are good , deserving esteem and veneration ; and yet he doth not love god for these perfections , because he himself is evil , and is not like to receive any benefit by them . . relatively , with reference to that advantage which may arrive to us from the divine goodness . when men are convinced of their infinite need of him , and their misery without him ; and that their utmost felicity doth consist in the enjoyment of him : this is that which properly provokes affection and desire , namely , his relative goodness as to us . there is scarce any one under such transports of love , as to believe the person whom he loves , to be in all respects the most virtuous , wise , beautiful , wealthy that is in the world . he may know many others , that do in some , if not in all these respects , exceed . and yet he hath not an equal love for them , because he hath not the same hopes of attaining an interest in them , and being made happy by them . so that this virtue doth properly consist in such a kind of esteem , as is withal accompanied with a hope and belief of promoting our own happiness by them . and this is properly the true ground and original of our love to god. from whence will follow . our choice of him , as being the only proper object of our happiness , preferring him before any thing else that may come in competition with them . not only ( as the scripture expresseth it ) loving him above father and mother , but hating father and mother , yea and life it self for his sake : counting all other things but dross and dung , in comparison of him . now it cannot otherwise be , but that a due apprehension of the divine excellencies in general , especially of his particular goodness to us , must excite in the soul suitable affections towards him . and hence it is , that the misapprehension of the divine nature , as to this attribute , doth naturally produce in men that kind of superstition styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which imports a frightful and over-timorous notion of the deity , representing god as austere and rigorous , easily provoked by every little circumstantial mistake , and as easily appeased again by any flattering and slight formalities . not but that there is sufficient evidence from the principles of natural reason , to evince the contrary ; but the true ground of their mistake in this matter , is from their own vitious and corrupt affections . 't is most natural for selfish and narrow men , to make themselves the rule and measure of perfection in other things . and hence it is , that according as a mans own inclinations are , so will he be apt to think of god ; thou thoughtest that i was altogether such an one as thy self . those that are of ill natures and of little minds , whose thoughts are fixed upon small and low matters , laying greater weight upon circumstances , salutes , addresses , than upon the real worth of persons and substantial duties , being themselves apt to be provoked unto wrath and fierceness , upon the omission of these lesser circumstances , and to be pacified again by any flattering and formal services ; such men must consequently think themselves obliged to deal just so towards god , as they expect that others should deal with them . and according to the different natures and tempers of those men who do mistake this notion of the divine goodness , so are the effects and consequences of this mistake various ( as a learned man hath well observed ) when it meets with stout and sturdy natures , who are under a consciousness of guilt , it works them to atheism , hardens them to an opposition of him , to an endeavour of undermining and destroying the notion of that deity , by whom they are not like to be safe or happy . if with more soft and timorous natures , men of base and slavish minds , it puts such men on to flatter and collogue with him , and to propitiate his favour by their zeal in lesser matters . and though in this kind of temper and carriage there may be a shew of religion , yet the terminating of it in such things is most destructive to the nature of it , rendring all converse with the deity irksom and grievous , begetting a kind of forced and praeternatural zeal , instead of that inward love and delight , and those other genuine kindly advantages which should arise to the soul from an internal frame of religion . and that the perfections of the divine nature , and particularly his goodness , should excite our love of him , may be made evident by all kind of proofs . there being no kind of motive to affection , whether imaginary or real , but 't is infinitely more in god than in any thing else besides . i shall mention only these three things . . his absolute goodness and excellency . . his relative goodness and kindness to us . . the necessity we are under of being utterly lost and undone , without an interest in his favour . . his absolute perfections are infinite , being the original of all that good which we behold in other things . whatever attractives we find diffused amongst other creatures , by which they are rendred amiable , they are all derived from him , and they are all , in comparison to him , but as little drops to the ocean . there is much of loveliness in the fabrick of this beautiful world , the glorious sun , the moon and the stars which he hath ordained ; which is abundantly enough to render the notion and the name of him excellent in all the earth . we may perhaps know some particular persons so very eminent for all kind of accomplishments , virtue , and wisdom , and goodness , &c. as to contract an esteem and veneration from all that know them . but now the highest perfections that are in men , besides that they are derived from him , are so infinitely disproportionable to his , that they may be said not to be in any of the creatures . there is some kind of communicated goodness , and wisdom , and power , and immortality in men ; and yet these perfections are in scripture appropriated to the divine nature in such a manner , as if no creature did partake of them . there is none good , or wise , but he . he is the only potentate ; who only hath immortality . no man can take a serious view of the works he hath wrought , whether they concern creation or providence , but he must needs acknowledg , concerning the author of them , that he is altogether lovely , and say with the prophet , how great is his goodness ? and how great is his bounty ? the comeliness of them is upon all accounts so eminent and conspicuous , as cannot but be owned by every one who considers them . for any man to ask , what beauty is , this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle speaks , the question of a blind man. every man who hath eyes , may judg of it at first view . not to discern it , is a sure argument of blindness and darkness . and that the divine nature is not more amiable to us , shews the great imperfection of our present condition . it shall be the perpetual employment of our future state in heaven , to celebrate these excellencies of the divine nature . the blessed angels , and the spirits of just men made perfect , do receive a chief part of their felicity , by contemplating these divine perfections in the beatifical vision . . his relative goodness and kindness to us ; testified in so many particulars , that when we would reckon them up , they are more in number than the sand . he is the author of our beings and our well-beings . it is he that made us , and not we our selves . he spreads our tables , and fills our cups , in him we live , and move , and have our beings . he doth daily follow us , compass us about , load us with his benefits . he gives us all that we enjoy , and he is willing upon our repentance to forgive us all that we offend . and to whom much is given , or forgiven , they should love much . to love them that love us , is a duty but of a low attainment , the publicans and sinners do the same ; nay , the very beasts will do it , the oxe knows his owner , and the ass his masters crib . that person must be void of the reason of a man , who will not admire and love god for his excellencies ; but he that doth not love him for his kindness , must be more stupid and senseless than the brute creatures . . we are utterly undone , without an interest in his favour . so that if the apprehension of his absolute goodness cannot work upon our reason , nor the sense of his relative goodness or kindness upon our ingenuity and gratitude ; yet the consideration of our undone estate without him , ought to prevail with all such , as have not forfeited the first and most universal principle of self-preservation . the not having him for our friend , and much more the having him for our enemy , putting a man into an absolute incapacity of all kind of happiness . 't is a question proposed by st. austin , why we are so often in scripture enjoyned to love god and our neighbours , but have no-where any precept commanding us to love our selves ? to which he gives this answer , fingi non potest major dilectio sui , quàm dilectio dei ; the highest and truest self-love , is to love that which can alone make us happy . men do not need any motive or argument to perswade them to love themselves . 't is a natural principle , rather than a moral duty ; they must do so , nor can they do otherwise . only this is that wherein they stand in greatest need of direction , how to set this natural principle on work upon its due object . felicity must be every mans chief end , there is no need of perswading any one to that ; all the difficulty is to convince men , wherein this happiness doth consist . and there is no rational considering man , but must needs grant it to be in the fruition of the first and supreme good ; so that to love god as our happiness is to love our selves , beyond which there is nothing to be said or fancyed by way of motive or perswasion . 't is a duty this , upon all accounts , so plain and reasonable , that no man whatsoever can pretend to any kind of doubt or dispute about it . and therefore i shall add no more by way of proof or confirmation of the necessity of it . i shall only offer two considerations , which should engage mens utmost diligence and caution in this matter . . 't is a business of greatest consequence , to know whether we truly love god. . 't is a matter wherein we are very liable to mistake . . 't is a business of unspeakable concernment , to understand whether we love god or not : it being the same thing as to enquire , whether there be any thing in us of true religion , or not . 't is not a question about the fruits or the branches , but about the root ; not about the degrees , but about the very essence of grace and holiness . there being no medium betwixt loving god and hating of him . he that is not with me , is against me , ( saith our saviour ) , luke . . . and then 't is a matter wherein men are liable to mistake . there is naturally in all nations of men , who dwell on the face of the earth , a kind of confused inclination towards god , whereby they seek the lord , if haply they might feel after him , and find him , as the apostle speaks . and men are apt to mistake this natural propension for the grace of love ; whereas this is rather an inclination , than a firm choice and resolution ; rather a natural disposition , than an acquired or infused habit . none could have more confident perswasions of their love to god , and their zeal for him , than the jews had ; and yet our saviour tells them , but i know you , that you have not the love of god in you . 't is not an outward profession , though accompanied with zeal , that is a sufficient argument of our love . though there are many in the world , who both live and dye under this delusion , mat. . . many will say unto me in that day , lord , lord , have we not prophesied in thy name , and in thy name have cast out devils , and in thy name done many wonderful works . and then will i profess unto them , i never knew you , depart from me you that work iniquity . 't is not the being gifted and called , for these extraordinary works of prophesying and miracles ; 't is not an ability to undergo the flames of martyrdom , and the giving our bodies to be burned : neither gifts nor priviledges , nor some particular acts of duty , though of the most noble kind and greatest difficulty , can be a sufficient evidence of this love . so that 't is a matter wherein men are very liable to mistake , and where a mistake will prove of infinite consequence . and therefore will it concern us , to be very considerate and cautious in our enquiry about it . there is one kind of affection seated in the rational part of the soul , the understanding and will ; and another in the sensitive , the fancy and appetite . the one consisting in a full conviction , deliberate choice , and firm resolution ; the other consisting more in some sudden impetus and transport of desire after a thing . the first of these may be styled the virtue , the other the passion of love . now though a man should , in some fits of devotion , love god with as great a degree of fervor , as to passionate sensitive love , as some martyrs have done ; yet were it possible for him in his judgment , to esteem any thing else but equally , or never so little more than god ; such a kind of affection , though it were sufficient to make the other a martyr , yet could not preserve him from being an apostate , and renouncer or blasphemer of religion ( as a learned author hath proved more at large ) ; nay , i add further , from the same author , though a man should love god with an equal degree of affection , yet because the objects are so infinitely disproportionable , and 't is the nature of moral duties to be measured from those motives by which we are to be induced to them ; therefore of such an one it may be affirmed , that he doth not love god. he that makes him but equal to any worldly thing ▪ may be said infinitely to despise and undervalue him . for the further explication of this , i shall suggest to you a distinction , not commonly ( if at all ) taken notice of by others , betwixt natural principles and moral duties . the misunderstanding of which is the occasion of many difficulties and confusions , about this and some other points . . by natural principles , i mean such kind of impressions as are originally stamped upon the nature of things , whereby they are fitted for those services to which they are designed in their creation ; the acts of which are necessary , and under no kind of liberty of being suspended : all things must work according to their natural principles , nor can they do otherwise ; as heavy bodies must tend downwards . the beauty of the world , and the wisdom of the creation , is generally acknowledged to consist in this , that god was pleased to endue the kinds of things , with such natures and principles , as might accommodate them for those works to which they were appointed . and he governs all things by such laws , as are suited to those several natures which he had at first implanted in them . the most universal principle belonging to all kind of things , is self-preservation , which in man ( being a rational agent ) is somewhat farther advanced to strong propensions and desires of the soul after a state of happiness , which hath the predominancy over all other inclinations , as being the supreme and ultimate end , to which all their designs and actions must be subservient by a natural necessity . . whereas on the other hand , those rules or means which are most proper for the attaining of this end , about which we have a liberty of acting , to which men are to be induced in a moral way , by such kind of motives or arguments as are in themselves sufficient to convince the reason : these i call moral duties ; duties , as deriving their obligation from their conducibility to the promoting of our chief end ; and moral , as depending upon moral motives . so that self-love , and the proposing of happiness as our chief end , though it be the foundation of duty , that basis or substratum upon which the law is founded , yet it is not properly a moral duty , about which men have a liberty of acting . they must do so , nor can they do otherwise . the most vile and profligate wretches that are , who are most opposite to that which is their true happiness , they are not against happiness it self , but they mistake about it , and erroneously substitute something else in the room of it . so that if men were upon all accounts firmly convinced , that god was their chief happiness , they would almost as necessarily love him , as hungry men do eat , and thirsty men do drink . i have enlarged somewhat the more upon this particular , the better to manifest the true cause or ground of this love , to consist in this perswasion , that our chief happiness is in the favour of god , and the enjoyment of him . chap. xv. of reverence and the fear of god. thirdly , as for those kind of affections , which should be wrought in us , more especially from the apprehension of the divine power ; these are reverence , fear , humility , a submissive and filial awe , which is so suitable to the notion of omnipotence , and so necessary a consequence from it , as not to be separated . by this reverence , i mean , such an humble , aweful , and ingenuous regard towards the divine nature , proceeding from a due esteem and love of him , whereby we are rendred unwilling to do any thing which may argue contempt of him , or which may provoke and offend him . 't is a duty which we owe to such as are in a superior relation , and is in the fifth commandment enjoined under the name of honour ; which in the notion of it doth imply a mixture of love and fear , and in the object of it doth suppose goodness and power . that power which is hurtful to men , and devoid of goodness , may raise in their minds a dread and terror , but not a reverence and an honour . and therefore all such doctrines as ascribe unto god what is harsh , and rigorous , and unworthy of his infinite goodness , instead of this filial , do beget a servile fear in men . this is the meaning of that citation in st. austin , where he mentions it as varro's judgment , deum a religioso vereri , a superstitioso timeri . the passion of fear and dread belongs to superstitious persons , but the virtue of reverence to those that are religious . and that of seneca , deos nemo sanus timet , furor enim est metuere salutaria , nec quisquam amat quos timet . no man in his right mind will fear god in this sense ; 't is no less than madness to have frightful apprehensions of that which is most benign and beneficial ; nor can true love consist with this kind of fear . but as for this reverence , or filial fear , it is so essential to a state of religion , that not only the scripture , but the heathen moralists likewise do describe religion it self by this very name of fearing god. and men who are pious and devout , are by the gentiles styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men of reverence and fear . now though every one of the divine perfections may justly challenge this affection as due to it , particularly his infinite wisdom and goodness , yet doth it more particularly belong to his power . i shall speak briefly of each of these . . for his infinite knowledg and wisdom , which are things that have been always counted venerable . he knows all our infirmities and most secret faults , and therefore ought to be feared upon that account . 't is a notable saying in cicero to this purpose ; quis non timeat omnia providentem & cogitantem , & animadvertentem , & omnia ad se pertinere putantem , curiosum & plenum negotii deum . who would not fear that god who sees and takes notice of all things , so curious and full of business , as to have a particular concern for every action and person in the world . and in another place he makes this notion of the deity , and the fear consequent thereupon , to be the chief basis of government , the first foundation of that civil policy whereby men are gathered together and preserved in regular societies . sit persuasum civibus , deos , qualis quisque sit , quid in se admittat , quâ mente , quâ pietate religiones colat , intueri ; piorumque & impiorum habere rationem . this is one of the first principles , which men who would associate under government , ought to be convinced of , that god takes particular notice , what kind of person every one is , with what mind and devotion he applies himself to the duties of religion , and will deal with men according as they are pious or impious . from whence will follow , such a fear of offending him by any dishonest action , as must make men capable of living under government . . his goodness , holiness , kindness , and mercy , do afford another reason why he ought to be feared ; though these are the most immediate objects of our love and joy , yet will they likewise afford ground for our reverence . we read in one text , of fearing the lord and his goodness ; which is , when men have such a sense of his goodness , as thereby to be affected with an holy awe and fear of offending him . and elsewhere 't is said , there is forgiveness with him , that he ought to be feared . the meaning of which place may be this , we stand in continual need of pardon and remission , being utterly undone without it ; and god only doth give this , and therefore upon this account we ought to reverence and fear him . . this duty doth more especially refer to that attribute of his power , together with the effects of it , in the judgments which he executes in the world . now nothing is more natural to men , than to fear such as have power over them , and are able to help or to hurt them . the civil magistrate is to be feared and reverenced upon this account , because he bears the sword , and is a revenger : much more the supreme governour of the world . men can but kill the body , and after that must dye themselves ; but god lives for ever , and can punish for ever ; he can cast both body and soul into hell : and therefore we have very great reason to fear him . 't is mentioned in scripture , as one of those attributes and titles whereby the divine nature is described , the fear of israel , he that ought to be feared . and that by those who need not to fear others , the princes and potentates of the world . those very persons , whom others are most afraid of , ought themselves to stand in fear of him ; for he cuts off the spirits of princes , and is terrible to the kings of the earth , as it follows in that place . the great prejudice which ignorant men have against this affection of fear , is , that it is a check and restraint to a man in his liberty , and consequently brings disquiet to his mind ; which is so far from truth , that on the contrary it may be manifested , that one of the greatest priviledges belonging to a state of religion , doth arise from this true fear of god , as being that which must set us at liberty from all other tormentful fears . that which hath the greatest influence upon the troubles and discontents of men in the world , whereby their conditions are rendred uncomfortable , is their inordinate fear , those misgiving thoughts and surmises , whereby they are apt to multiply their own dangers , and create needless troubles to themselves . and whatever a mans outward condition may be , as to the security and flourishing of it , yet whilst such fears are in his mind , his soul doth not dwell at ease , as the phrase is ; whereas , he that fears the lord , his soul shall dwell at ease , i. e. such an one need not be afraid of any thing else . discat timere , qui non vult timere ; discat ad tempus esse solicitus qui vult esse semper securus , saith st. austin ; he that would not fear other things , let him learn to fear god ; let him be cautious and solicitous for a time , that would be everlastingly secure . and in another place , homo time deum & minantem mundum ridebis ; o man , learn to fear god , and thou wilt despise the threatnings of the world . and again , exhorresce quod minatur omnipotens , ama quod promittit omnipotens , & vilescet mundus sive promittens sive terrens ; he that hath a true fear of what the omnipotent god doth threaten , and a love to what he promises , to such an one the world whether smiling or frowning will seem contemptible . the heaven , and earth , and men , are all but his instruments , and cannot do any thing otherwise than as they are permitted or acted by him . though they should seem to be angry with us , yet he can restrain their wrath , and when he pleaseth can reconcile them to us . but if he himself be offended , none of these things will be able to afford us any comfort or relief . 't is above all other things the most fearful to fall into the hands of the living god. that 's a notable speech to this purpose , which i find cited out of plutarch ; they that look upon god as the chief rewarder of good and evil , and fear him accordingly , are thereby freed from other perplexing fears . such persons , minùs animo conturbantur , quam qui indulgent vitiis audentque scelera , have more inward peace than others who indulge themselves in their vices , and dare commit any wickedness . and as on the one side , the more men have of this fear towards god , the less they have of other fears : so the less they have of this , the more subject are they to other fears . amongst the many judgments denounced against the want of this fear of god , the scripture particularly mentions a fearful mind , if thou wilt not fear that glorious and fearful name , the lord thy god , the lord will make thy plagues wonderful , &c. and this is reckoned as one of them , the lord shall give thee a trembling heart . and if we consult experience , there are none more obnoxious in this kind , than prophane atheistical persons , who by their vile doctrines and practices , endeavour to harden themselves and others against this fear of god. none so cowardly and timorous as these , none so easily frightened with the least appearance of danger . the satyrist of old observed it of them : hi sunt qui trepidant , & ad omnia fulgura pallent . none are so fearful , as those that pretend not to fear god at all . and 't is but justice , that those who will not reverence him as sons , should be overwhelmed with dread and astonishment towards him as slaves . and this consideration ought to be no small inducement to men , to labour after this disposition . as abimelech said to the men of sichem , judg i pray you , whether it be better for you , that threescore and ten persons reign over you , or that one reign over you . so in this case , consider whether it be better for you , to be distracted by the great variety of worldly cares and fears , which as so many tyrants , will domineer over you , and keep you in perpetual slavery , or to submit your selves to this one fear , the fear of god , which is perfect peace and liberty . to all which may be added , that it is by this fear that we are to give unto god the glory of his power and justice . 't is this that must make us pliable to his will , and effectually remove all such obstacles as may hinder us from submitting to him ; subdue our reluctancies , and make us bow down before him . upon which account this expression of fearing god is frequently used in scripture for the whole business of worship and religion ; because where this fear is well fixed in the heart , all other parts of holiness and righteousness will naturally follow . it hath a more peculiar influence to stir up in us watchfulness and caution , and like a wary friend is apt to suggest to us the safest counsel and advice . 't is the vigilant keeper of all virtues , that which must fortifie us in our temptations , and restore us in our lapses . he that will but seriously ponder upon what the meer light of nature dictates , concerning the omnipotence of him who is the great creator and governour of the world , his infinite holiness and justice , and that wise providence which extends to every particular person and action , whereby he takes notice of them , and will be sure to reward or punish them , according as they are good or evil : such an one , must needs have his heart affected with a great awe and dread towards the divine nature . the very heathens were wont upon this account , to paint their jupiter with a thunderbolt in his hand ; to strike an awe into men , from daring to offend him who stands always ready armed with vengeance against such as provoke him . chap. xvi . of obedience : and first of active obedience to the laws of god. having dispatched the duties we are more especially obliged to , with regard to gods wisdom , goodness , power ; i shall now treat concerning such other duties , as refer more particularly to his dominion and superiority over us , his right to command and govern us , which are comprehended under the general name of obedience . the habit of which may be described to consist , in such a submissive frame of spirit , whereby a man doth always devote and resign up himself unto the disposal of his maker , being ready in every condition , to do or suffer that which he apprehends to be most reasonable and acceptable , and whereby he may best express his love and subjection . by which description it may appear , that this obedience is of two kinds active .   passive . . active . which consists in a readiness of mind to do what god shall injoin . . passive . in an acquiescence of mind under what he shall inflict . both which do necessarily flow from the apprehension of gods dominion over us , his right to govern and dispose of us as he pleaseth . obedience , in the true notion of it , being nothing else but that homage which we owe to such as are in a superior relation , who have a right to command us . every relation of superiority and dominion being a distinct engagement to subjection ; whether oeconomical , as that betwixt parent and child ; political , as betwixt magistrate and subject ; moral , as betwixt benefactor and beneficiary ; or lastly , that which is natural , which above all other things gives the highest title to dominion , as that betwixt the maker and his work , the first cause and that which he bestows being upon . and god by all these titles , and many more , may justly challenge dominion over us . under this first kind of obedience , styled active , are comprehended these three particulars : . a knowledg of , and an acquaintance with those laws which we are to observe . . a consent to them , or an approbation of them . . a conformity to them . . an acquaintance with the laws of god ; whether discovered to us by revelation ( the principles of nature obliging us , to observe and submit to all things which we have reason to believe do proceed from god ) ; or by natural light , abstracting from scripture and revelation , as the substance of that which we call the moral law is . now though such persons only , are under the obligation of those laws which depend upon revelation , to whom a revelation is made and sufficiently proposed ; because promulgation is essential to a law : yet the moral law being discoverable by natural light , to every man , who will but excite the principles of his own reason , and apply them to their due consequences ; therefore there must be an obligation upon all men , who have but the use of their reason , to know these moral laws ; and the ignorance of them must be an inexcusable sin . ignorantia juris can be no plea in this case , because the law is written in every mans heart by nature , and the ignorance of mankind , as to any part of it , hath been wilfully contracted . the duties concerning natural worship , our adoration of the deity by affiance , love , reverence , praying to him , expecting mercies from him , returning to him our thanks and acknowledgments , being reverent and solemn in all our addresses towards him , our thoughts and speeches of him , and of the things that refer to his service , may be evidently inferred from those natural notions , which we have concerning the excellencies of his nature , and our own dependance upon him . the duties which concern the promoting of our own and our neighbours wellfare , that mutual justice , charity , helpfulness , which we are to exercise towards one another ; these may each of them be deduced from that common principle of self-love , whereby every one doth naturally seek his own well-fare and preservation . we are all of us desirous that others should be just to us , ready to help us , and do good to us ; and because 't is a principle of the highest equity and reason , that we should be willing to do to others , as we desire and think them obliged to deal with us , this must therefore oblige us to the same acts of charity and helpfulness towards them . now the drawing out of these general rules , and fitting them to particular cases ; a studious and inquisitive endeavour , to find out what our masters will is , in several relations and circumstances , this i call the duty of knowing the commandments . and 't is necessary , that they should be thus distinctly known , before a man can keep them . . a consent to them , or approbation of them , as being haly , just , and good . which will necessarily follow from a true notion of the ground and reason of them , and must necessarily precede a genuine obedience and conformity to them . he that looks upon them as fetters and bonds , doth rather indure them out of necessity , than obey them out of choice and love . i consent to the law , that it is good , saith the apostle , that is , i do in my judgment own the fitness and reasonableness of the things therein injoined , as being the most proper means to advance the perfection of our natures . the law of the lord is perfect ( saith the psalmist ) ; not only formaliter , in it self , but also effectivè as to us , it makes us to be so . and in another place , thy law is the truth , namely , such as it ought to be . there is a congruity betwixt our well-beings , and the nature of the things enjoined . and it is this conviction alone , that must beget in us , a love of it , and a delight to practise it . he that harbours any prejudice in his mind against the ways of god , as if they were unprofitable , or unequal , can never submit to them willingly , but out of a constraint ; he may look upon them as his task and burden , but not as his joy and delight . our external submission to the law , can never be kindly and regular ▪ till our minds be cast into the same mould with it , and framed unto a suitableness and conformity to it . and such a temper doth , in the judgment of seneca , render the mind truly great and noble , hic est magnus animus qui se deo tradidit . and in another place , in regno nati sumus , deo parere libertas est . such a man hath a truly great and generous mind , who can resign up himself to gods disposal . the greatest liberty is to submit to the laws of our soveraign . his service is perfect freedom . . an observance of them , and conformity to them in our lives . this is the end both of the commandments themselves , and likewise of our knowleldg and approbation of them , namely , the practice of holiness and virtue in the conduct of our lives ; whereby we are to be advanced unto that state of happiness , wherein the perfection of our natures , and our resemblance of the deity doth consist . and because the best of men do frequently fall short of that obedience , which is due to the laws of god ; therefore in case of transgression , natural light doth direct men to repentance , which is an hearty sorrow for our neglects and violations of the divine law , accompanied with a firm and effectual purpose and resolution of amendment for the future . which though it do suppose the commandments of god not to have been duly observed , yet is it the only remedy left in such cases . some have questioned , whether there be any obligation upon us for this , by the light of nature ; partly , because the stoicks deny it ; and partly , because reason will tell a man that it cannot afford any compensation to divine justice . to which i should say , that the stoicks indeed do deny this , because it implies passion , which their wise man must be without ; yet they will admit a man to be displeased with himself for any error or mistake , which is much the same thing with sorrow , though under another name . and though this be not enough to satisfie infinite justice , yet it is that which reason doth oblige us to . we expect from those who offend us , that they should profess their sorrow and shame , beg pardon , and promise amendment . and the men of nineveh did upon a natural principle betake themselves to this remedy , and with good success , though they were doubtful of it , who can tell if god will turn and repent ? this conformity to the law of god requires a twofold condition , universality . regularity . . universality ; both as to the time , and the duties themselves ; without any such picking and chusing amongst them , as may bend the laws to make them suitable to our own interests and humours . . regularity ; in the due proportioning of our love , and zeal , and observance , according to that difference which there is in the true nature and consequence of the things themselves ; preferring mercy and obedience , before sacrifice ; and the weighty matters of the law , before tything of mint and cummin ; righteousness and peace , before meat and drink . 't is true , the least commandment is not to be neglected , as having stamped upon it the autority of the great god : but then we are to consider , that the same autority by which that is injoined , doth oblige us to prefer other things before it . so that a man doth disobey in doing a good thing , when upon that account he neglects what is far better . and the mistake of men about this , is the true cause of that which we call superstition which is one of the opposites to religion , and so destructive to the true nature of it . men being apt to think themselves priviledged for their neglects and failings in some greater matters , by their zeal about lesser things . now nothing will contribute more to banish this superstition out of the world , than a sober enquiry into the nature and causes of things , whereby we may be able to take a just estimate of their evidence and importance , and consequently to proportion our zeal about them . i mention this the rather , because it hath been by some objected , that humane learning and philosophy doth much indispose men for this humble submission to divine laws , by framing their minds to other notions and inclinations than what are agreeable to religion . but that this is a false and groundless prejudice , may be made very evident ; the true knowledg of the nature of things , being amongst natural helps , one of the most effectual to keep men off from those two extremes of religion , superstition and prophaneness . . for superstition ; this doth properly consist in a misapprehension of things , placing religion in such things as they ought not for the matter , or in such a degree as they ought not for the measure ; which proceeds from ignorance . . for prophaneness ; this doth consist in a neglect or irreverence towards sacred things and duties , when such matters as ought to have our highest esteem , are rendered vile and common . and this likewise doth proceed from ignorance of the true nature of things . now one of the best remedies against this , is the study of philosophy , and a skill in nature , which will be apt to beget in men , a veneration for the god of nature . and therefore to those nations who have been destitute of revelation , the same persons have been both their philosophers and their priests ; those who had most skill in one kind of knowledg , being thought most fit to instruct and direct men in the other . and if we consult the stories of other places and times , we shall constantly find those nations most solemn and devout in their worship , who have been most civilized and most philosophical . and on the contrary , those other nations in america and africa , whom navigators report to be most destitute of religion , are withall most brutish and barbarous as to other arts and knowledg . it cannot be denyed indeed , but that a slight superficial knowledg of things , will render a man obnoxious either to superstition , or to atheistical thoughts ; especially if joined with a proud mind and vicious inclinations . he that hath made some little progress in natural enquiries , and gotten some smattering in the phrases of any theory , whereby ( as he conceives ) he can solve some of the common phaenomena , may be apt to think , that all the rest will prove as easie as his first beginning seems to be ; and that he shall be able to give an account of all things : but they that penetrate more deeply into the nature of things , and do not look upon second causes , as being single and scattered , but upon the whole chain of them as linked together , will in the plainest things , such as are counted most obvious , acknowledg their own ignorance , and a divine power ; and so become more modest and humblé in their thoughts and carriage . such inquisitive persons will easily discern ( as a noble author hath well expressed it ) that the highest link of natures chain is fastened to jupiter's chair . this ( notwithstanding it be a digression ) i thought fit to say , by way of vindication and answer to those prejudices , which some men have raised against humane learning and the study of philosophy , as if this were apt to dispose men unto atheistical principles and practices . whereas a sober enquiry into the nature of things , a diligent perusal of this volume of the world , doth of it self naturally tend to make men regular in their minds and conversations , and to keep them off from those two opposites of religion , superstition and prophaneness . chap. xvii . of passive obedience , or patience and submission to the will of god. thus much may suffice concerning the nature and duty of active obedience . i proceed to that of passive obedience , or patient submission under the afflicting hand of god. and though this may seem one of the most difficult of all other duties , and most repugnant to humane nature ; yet is there no subject more excellently discussed by the heathen moralists , and wherein they seem more to exceed themselves , than this . i shall mention out of them some of those passages , which seem to me most apposite and material to this purpose , under these four heads , which contain the several arguments to this duty ; viz. . such as refer to god , by whose providence all our sufferings are procur'd , or permitted . . such as concern our selves . . such as may be derived from the nature of affliction . . and lastly , such as refer to this grace of patience . . there are many arguments to convince us of the reasonableness of this duty , from the nature and attributes of god , who either sends affliction , or permits them to fall upon us . i shall rank them under these three heads : . his infinite knowledg and wisdom . . his goodness and patience towards us . . his power and dominion over us . . from the consideration of his infinite knowledg and wisdom , whereby he takes notice of , and doth concern himself about every particular event in the world , making all things beautiful , and in their time , disposing of all to the best . which is an argument , that divers of the heathen philosophers do very largely insist upon . particularly , antoninus , who hath this passage : if god ( saith he ) do not take particular notice of , and care for me and my affairs , why do i at any time pray to him ; and if he doth exercise a special providence towards all events , no doubt but he doth consult well and wisely about them , nor would he suffer any hurt or prejudice to befall me , unless it were for a greater good upon some other account , and in this i ought to acquiesce . and in another place saith the same author . i refer every thing that befalls me to god , as the contriver of it , by whom all events are disposed in a wise order . there are also many great and excellent sayings in epictetus to this purpose . that must needs be much more desireable , which is chosen by the wisdom of god , than that which i chuse . a reluctancy against the divine will , is the ground of all irreligion and atheism in the world . why may not a man refuse to obey god in what he commands , as well as to submit to him in what he inflicts ? and then what ground can there be for any pretence to religion ? we should all ( saith he ) conform our minds to the will of providence , and most willingly follow whither ever he shall lead us , as knowing it to proceed from the best and wisest contrivance . i do in my judgment more consent to that which god would have , than to that which my own inclinations lead unto . i would desire , and will just so , and no otherwise than as he doth . and in another place , use me as thou pleasest , i do fully consent , and submit to it , and shall refuse nothing which shall seem good unto thee . lead me whither ever thou wilt , put me into what condition thou pleasest , must i be in a private , not in a publick station , in poverty not in wealth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i will not only consent to it , but make it my business to apologize for it , to justify and maintain before all men , such thy dealing with me to be most fitting and prudent , most suitable and advantageous to my condition . and besides the reasons to this purpose from natural light , which are so excellently improved and urged by some of the philosophers , there are likewise several attestations of this nature in scripture , wherein god is said to afflict out of faithfulness . to be wise in counsel , and excellent in working , signifying all the works of his providence to be most excellent , because they proceed from the wisest counsel . and though some particular dispensations may seem unto us to be difficult and obscure , his judgments being unsearchable , and his ways past finding out ; yet we may be most sure that there is an excellent contrivance in all of them . though clouds and darkness may be round about him , yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne . and besides the more general assertions which the scripture doth frequently mention to this purpose , it doth likewise more particularly insist upon those special reasons and ends , whereby the wisdom of such dispensations are to be justified ; as namely , to make us partakers of gods holiness ; to work in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness ; to save us from being condemned with the world ; to preserve in us a holy awe and reverence , they have no changes , therefore they fear not god , psal. . . to quicken our rellish of those mercies which we enjoy , and our thankfulness for them : to wean our affections from the things of this world ; to prevent the surfeits of prosperity , to enlarge our experience , to contract such a kind of hardiness , and courage as may become a militant state ; to keep up in our minds a continual sense of our dependent condition ; which are some of the principal things , wherein our happiness doth consist . to which may be added , that the scripture doth likewise contain several express promises , to assure us of the benefit and advantage to be had by the crosses that befall us . that all things in the issue shall work together for our good , rom. . . so that there is not a trouble or affliction that we meet with , which we could be without , but it hath its necessary place and work , in that frame and design of events , which the providence of god hath ordained , for the bringing of us to happiness . and though all of them may for the present seem grievous , and some of them perhaps not suitable to the divine goodness and promises ; yet of this we may be most assured , that all the ways of the lord , are mercy and truth , to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies . and there are few persons who have been observant of gods dealings towards them , but are able to say from their own experience , that it is good for them , that they have been afflicted . . a second argument to this purpose , is from the consideration of gods goodness and patience towards us . i have shewed before from several acknowledgments of the heathen , what apprehensions they had of the divine goodness and forbearance towards sinners , from whence 't is easie to infer the equity and reasonableness of our patient submission under his afflicting hand . he is merciful and gracious , longsuffering , abundant in goodness and truth . the apostle speaks of the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering . he doth indulge us in our failings , and infirmities , with such a kind of tenderness , as nurses use to their young children . now there is all imaginable equity in this consequence , that if he bear with us in what we cannot lawfully do , that we should bear with him , in doing what he will with his own . if he be patient towards us in our sinning against him , when we oppose and provoke him , 't is but reason that we should be patient in our sufferings from him , when he endeavours to heal and reclaim us . it is of the lords mercies that we are not consumed , and because his compassions fail not . 't is a great argument of favour and tenderness , that god is pleased to spare us in the midst of our provocations . 't were but justice if he should suddenly snatch us out of this life , and cast us into hell : if he doth abate any thing of this , he doth then punish us less than our iniquities deserve , and we have more reason to praise him , than to complain against him : for he hath not dealt with us after our sins , nor rewarded us according to our iniquities . he that considers the mercies he injoys , as well as the evils he suffers , and will impartially compare them both together , may find that though his afflictions do abound , yet his consolations do much more abound ; and that upon the whole matter , when his condition is at the worst , 't is much better than what he himself deserves , or what many others enjoy . they that are sensible of every thing they enjoy as being the free gift of god , will not murmur against him , when he is pleased to resume any thing from them . there must needs be much unreasonableness and want of equity in that disposition , which cannot bear with some sufferings from that hand , from which we receive all our enjoyments . shall we receive good at the hand of god , and shall we not receive evil ? the evils we suffer are much short of our desert , the good we enjoy is much beyond our deserts . and therefore upon either account , it must be highly unreasonable for a man to be guilty of impatience and murmuring . iniquus est qui muneris sui arbitrium danti non relinquit , saith seneca ; that man must needs be unjust and unequal , who doth not think fit to leave the giver unto the liberty of his own gift , to resume it again when he pleaseth . and such an one may justly be reputed greedy , who is more sensible of loss in the restoring of a thing , than of gain in the enjoyment of it . he is an ingrateful wretch , who complains of that as an injury , which is but restitution of what was freely lent . and he is a fool , who knows not how to receive benefit by good things , any otherwise than by the present fruition of them . so epictetus , speaking concerning the unreasonableness of murmuring at any cross events , he hath this passage . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . what reason have i to fight against god ? why should i desire things not desireable ? he that gave hath power to take , and why should i resist ? this would not only be great folly , to oppose one that is much stronger , but great injustice likewise , to fight against a benefactor . you have received all that you have , and your own very being from him , and why should you take it so heinously , if he is pleased to resume something back again ? . the consideration of the divine power and dominion over us , must needs engage us to a quiet submission under his hand . there are many excellent discourses to this purpose amongst the heathen philosophers , as particularly in seneca . there is nothing ( saith he ) more desireable than for a man to arrive unto this temper of mind , to be able in all troubles and afflictions , to quiet himself with this thought , diis aliter visum est ; god thinks not fit to have it so , and therefore i ought to be content ; which is the same sense with that in the scripture , it is the lord jehovah , let him do what seemeth good unto him . i was dumb and opened not my mouth , because thou didst it . in all those conditions which seem hard and grievous to me ( saith the same author ) i do thus dispose my self . i consider they come from god , et non pareo deo sed assentior , ex animo illum , non quia necesse est , sequor : and i do endeavour not meerly to submit , but to assent to him in his dealings , not to follow him only out of necessity , but out of choice . and in another place , giving counsel to such as were in an afflicted estate , he thus adviseth , quaecunque fiunt , debuisse fieri put et , nec velit objurgare naturam : optimum est pati quod emendare non possis , & deum ( quo autore cuncta proveniunt ) sine murmuratione comitari : let such a man think that nothing comes to pass , but what ought to be ; and let him not take upon him to reprehend providence : 't is best for a man to bear what he cannot mend , and to follow god ( by whom all events are disposed ) without murmuring . let us ( saith he ) bespeak god as cleanthes did , duc me parens , celsique dominator poli , quocunque placuit , nulla parendi mora est . assum impiger ; fac nolle , comitabor gemens , malusque patiar , quod pati licuit bono . let the great governour of the world , lead me into what condition he pleaseth , i am most ready to follow him ; or suppose i should find a reluctancy against his dealings with me , yet i will still follow him , though it be sighing , and suffer that as an evil and wretched man , which i ought to bear as a good man , with patience and submission . and a little after , sic vivamus , sic loquamur — hic est magnus animus qui se deo tradidit , & contra , ille pusillus ac degener , qui obluctatur , & de ordine mundi male existimat , & emendare mavult deos quam se. it becomes men both to speak and live up to this principle . he only is a truely generous man , who doth thus resign up himself to god , and on the contrary he is a little wretch of a degenerate mind , who struggles against him , having a hard opinion of the government of the world , and thinks it fitter to mend god than himself . where is there any thing amongst those who professchristianity , better and more becomingly said to this purpose ? or how can the wit of man frame any sense or words , that do more fully express this self-resignation , and submission to the providence of god , than is done in these excellent speeches of a heathen philosopher ? epictetus likewise , speaking concerning the reasonableness and fitness of mens resigning themselves up to gods disposal , hath this passage . quis verò es tu ? aut unde venisti ? aut quare ? do you consider what you are , and whence you came , and upon what business ? did not he give you a being in the world ? endow you with such a nature ? put you into such a condition , wherein you should be subject to his government and disposal ? did not he appoint the time , and place , and part you are to act upon the theater of this world ? and this is properly your business , to apply your self to the fittest means of representing the part allotted to you , not to take upon you to murmur or repine against it . hoc tuum est datum personam bene effingere , eam autem eligere alterius : it doth not belong to us to chuse our parts , but to act them . would it not better become us to go off the stage with adorations and praises of him , for so much as he hath permitted us to hear and see , rather than mutinying against him , because we had no more ? and in another place , he suggests this consideration , that our condition , whilst we are in this world , is militant , wherein every one is without reluctancy to submit to the orders of his great captain or general , in whatever he shall appoint ; whether or no it be to digg in the trenches , or stand upon the watch , or to fight . every man cannot be a commander , and a common souldier is to obey , not to dispute or offer counsel . if thou mayest refuse the condion or work assigned thee , why may not another do so , and according to this , what order could there be in the world ? to the same purpose antoninus . that man ( saith he ) is to be esteemed a fugitive and an apostate , who runs away from his master . now the great law-giver who governs the world , is our common master and ruler , and his will is the only law we are to submit unto . and therefore for a man to be angry or grieved , because things fall not out according to his will , what is this but revolting from him , and declaring enmity against him ? besides these testimonies from some of the wiser heathen , the scripture likewise doth abound in several attestations to this purpose , as particularly that in job . , surely it is meet to be said unto god , i have born chastisement , i will not offend any more ; that which i see not teach thou me , if i have done iniquity , i will do so no more . and chap. . , , god is greater than man , why dost thou strive against him ? he gives not account of any of his matters . as if he had said , that man doth strangely forget his condition , who by his murmuring and repining doth think to call god to an account ; why , he is the supreme lord of all , and may do whatever he pleaseth . should not the potter have power over the clay ? there is no man but must think it just that the potter should dispose of his clay as he pleaseth , giving it such a shape , and designing it to such a use as he shall think meet . and can any one judge it reasonable , that god should have less power over us , than we have over the works of our hands ? behold o lord thou art our father , we are the clay and thou art the potter , isa. . . wo to him that striveth with his maker , shall the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth ? shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it , what makest thou ? or thy work , he hath no hands ? isa. . . this sin of impatience and murmuring is here styled striving against god ; contesting with his wisdom and his power , saying to him , what makest thou , which reflects upon his wisdom ; and he hath no hands , which reflects upon his power , as if he were not able extremam apponere manum , to finish what he had begun ; both which are not only high affronts to the divine nature , but exceeding foolish and mischievous in the consequence of them . the mutual contention of men amongst themselves , testa cum testis , one potsheard with another , may prove fatal to them : if two earthen vessels dash together , they can get nothing by it , they may both be broken ; but for the clay to strive with the potter , that is so foolish and so unequal a contention , as nothing can be more , and must needs expose it to the worst of dangers . murmurers are in the scripture-phrase styled children of rebellion , numb . . . because they that speak against god , would actually resist him likewise , if they could . if we receive all that we are or have , our beings and our well-beings from god , nothing can be more evident , than that he may justly resume any thing again , or inflict upon us any evil , that is either short of , or but equal unto , the good he hath bestowed upon us . thus much shall serve for the first kind of arguments , referring to the divine nature and attributes . . i proceed to the second sort of arguments to this purpose , from the consideration of our selves ; which i shall treat of in these three particulars . . we are men . . we are sinners . . we are living men . upon each of which grounds it will appear a very unreasonable thing , that we should murmur and complain against god. the prophet hath put these three considerations together . why doth a living man complain , a man for the punishment of his sin ? . we are men , which is a mercy far above any temporal affliction that we can suffer . god might have made worms instead of men , such despicable creatures as are below common notice . whereas in being men , we are become lords of heaven and earth , having an excellency above all other creatures that ever god made , excepting the angels . and is it not a shame for such an one , to be a slave to every slight trouble ? that any light affliction , which is but for a moment , should make our souls which are immortal to bow down under it ? should not the nobility of our natures advance us to a more generous temper , and make us erect and chearful under such troubles ? see how david was affected with this thought . lord ! what is man that thou art mindful of him , or the son of man that thou visitest him ? 't is a mercy and a condescension to be admired , that god doth so much as take notice of us , though with his chastisements , and therefore ought not to be the ground of our complaint . he might suffer us to go on securely in our sins , without any restraint . we do not think our selves concerned to take notice of every little fly or insect , or the poor worms under our feet . and therefore when he shall take such special care of us , as to restrain us in our wandrings , to administer physick to us in our diseases , we ought upon this account , rather humbly to thank and admire him , than to murmur against him . again , we are but men ; creatures of a dependant being , not lords of our own happiness . and who art thou o man that repliest against god ? how vile and despicable in comparison to him , and how unfit to judge of his ways ? it is the common condition of humanity to be exposed to sufferings . for man is born to troubles as the sparks fly upwards , that is , by a natural unavoidable necessity . and there is no temptation or trouble that befalls us , but what is common to men . we are born into , and must live in a troublesom tumultuous world , where luctus , & ultrices posuere cubilia curae , pallentésque habitant morbi ; tristisque senectus . which is the proper place of grief , and care , and diseases , and the infirmities of age ; and therefore we cannot expect a total exemption from these things . omnia ista in longâ vitâ sunt , quomodo in longâ viâ , & pulvis , & lutum , & pluvia . these things in a long life , are like dust , and dirt and rain in a long journey , which it were a vain thing for a man to think he could wholly avoid , but that he must sometime or other have his share of them . now men usually vex and repine at that which is extraordinary and unusual , not at that which is general and common to all . . we are sinners , and so afflictions are our wages , our due ; and there is no reasonable man that will repine at just and equal dealing ; there is a special emphasis to this purpose in the very phrase of that text forecited : a man for the punishment of his sins , implying , that if he be but a man , if he have but rational principles , he must needs acknowledg the equity of being punished for sin . the thief upon the cross had so much ingenuity , as to confess it reasonable , that both he and his fellow , should submit to just punishment . now the apostle tells us , that every man is by a natural conviction concluded under sin , for this very reason , that every mouth may be stopped , and that god may be justified in his saying , and clear when he judgeth . one chief reason which makes men apt to complain , that gods ways are unequal , is because they do not consider that their own are so . it is the pride and folly of our natures , as to ascribe all the good we enjoy to our own endeavours and merit , so to murmur and complain against god for the evil we suffer ; than which nothing can be more false and unequal . the wise man hath observed it , that the foolishness of man perverteth his ways , and his heart fretteth against the lord. we first run our selves into mischief and then complain against god ; whereas according to common reason , the blame should be where the fault is . it would be a much more befitting temper , to demean our selves upon this consideration , as elihu advises ; surely it is meet to be said unto god , i have born chastisement , i will not offend any more , &c. and upon this ground it is , that the prophet having in one verse , in the forecited place , disswaded from murmuring and complaints , he doth in the very next verse , exhort to self-examination ; let us search and try our ways ; implying , that he who rightly understands his own sinfulness , will find little reason to repine at his sufferings . . we are living men , whereas the wages of sin is death ; all the plagues that we are capable of , either in this or the other world , being but the due reward of sin . and we have no reason to repine at kind and moderated corrections . he might have struck us dead in the act of some sin , and so have put us out of a possibility of happiness . it was davids comfort , that though the lord had chastened him sore , yet he had not given him over to death : and the advantage which he enjoyed in this respect , did abundantly silence him against any complaints in regard of the other . it is of the lords mercies that we are not consumed , because his compassions fail not . the words are very emphatical , mercies in the plural , for the number , intimating a multitude of a favours in this one act of his forbearance . and 't is compassions or bowels for the nature of them , which signifies tender affectionate mercy . . from the consideration of afflictions , which in themselves are neither good nor evil , but secundùm modum recipientis , according to the disposition of the subject . to wicked men they may prove curses and judgments , testimonies of gods hatred and anger . but to others they may upon these two accounts prove benefits ; from their indication , what they signifie . end , what they effect . . from the indication of them , what they denote and signifie ; not gods hatred of us , but his special care towards us . they may be testimonies or earnests of gods favour , for whom he loves he rebukes and chastens , even as a father a son in whom he delighteth . blessed is the man whom thou chastenest , o lord. ye are the children of god ( saith seneca ) and therefore sicut severus pater duriùs educat , he carries a stricter hand over you , as having a special regard to your wellfare , that you may not miscarry , or , as the apostle expresseth it , that you may not be condemned with the world . the holy ghost esteems afflictions to be a special priviledg , speaking of st. pauls being a chosen vessel , to bear his name before the gentiles and kings , in the next verse it is reckoned up as another priviledg , that he should suffer many things for his name sake . and therefore the same blessed apostle speaks of afflictions as a gift ; to you it is given , not only to believe on him , but also to suffer for his sake . if ye are without afflictions , then are ye bastards and not sons . 't is reckoned upon as a curse to have our good things in this life . and that was one of gods severest punishments , which he threatens to those , hos. . , that he will not punish them for their whoredoms and adulteries . not to be troubled like other men , may be a sign of neglect and disfavour . 't is necessary to our conditions in this world : and god doth afflict his own children out of faithfulness . he hath so appointed , that the way to the heavenly canaan shall be through the wilderness . . from the end of them , what they are designed for and effect , namely , our profit and improvement ; being intended either for our correction or probation , for our amendment or trial , as i have shewed before . . this virtue of patience and submission is highly reasonable , upon account of those advantages which do follow such a temper of mind . . it keeps our happiness in our own power , by bringing our minds to our conditions , which is the only remedy things are capable of , when we cannot bring our conditions to our minds . hanc rerum conditionem mutare non possumus , id possumus , magnum sumere animum , & viro bono dignum , quo fortiter fortuita patiamur . it is not in our power to change our condition ; but this is in our power , to attain unto such a greatness of mind , as becomes worthy men , whereby we may be lifted up above the hurt of outward crosses . if a man would be sure never to meet with any impediment in the thing he desires , never to be forced to any thing against his will , his only way is to conform his mind to the will of god , and to let him do with us what seemeth good unto him . if he would have me ( saith epictetus ) to be sick or poor , i will be willing to be so ; whatever employment he will design for me , i will not decline , and whatever he would not have me be or do , i will be against it likewise . . it will be a means to promote our peace , comfort , quiet , and to alleviate our troubles , and make our yoke more easie . ducunt volentem fata , nolentem trahunt . the strugling with our yoke will but make it gall us so much the more ; 't will be a greater ease for us , to follow it willingly , and to be led by it , rather than to be dragged along with it . nullum tam arctum est jugum quod non minus laedat ducentem quàm repugnantem . unum est levamentum malorum ingentium , pati , & necessitatibus suis obsequi . there is no yoke so streight and hurtful in it self , but will prove more hurtful for our strugling with it . the only allay under great sufferings , is to bear them quietly , and obey necessity , to submit to what we cannot remedy . it may be in the power of others to disturb our outward conditions , but it should be in our power , that they should not disturb our minds . and so long as we can preserve our tranquillity there , we may be said to be truly happy . an impatient man is in the scripture phrase , compared to a wild bull in a net , being full of the fury of the lord , isa. . . as that fierce creature , being muzled in the huntsman's toyl , doth by all his strugling but further intangle himself ; so do men increase their own perplexities , by their impatience under them . there is no one thing wherein the folly of men doth more appear , than that foolish exchange which they make of their inward quiet and peace , for outward trifles ; both as to their impatience under the things they suffer , and their impetuous desires after the things they want . ex eo stupor noster apparet ( saith seneca ) quòd ea sola putamus emi , pro quibus pecuniam solvimus , ea gratuita vocamus , pro quibus nos ipsos impendimus . herein appears the stupidness of men , that they esteem those things only to be bought , for which they pay money ; but count such things of free cost , for which they pay themselves , their inward quiet and tranquillity , which is far more to be valued than their outward possessions . whereas if they were but as wise in this kind of merchandise as in others , they would consider the just rate and value of every thing , and pay no more for it , either in the purchase of it , or parting with it , than it is really worth . . 't is very much for our honour and reputation to bear afflictions decently . ' take away from a good man ( saith maximus tyrius ) the honour of his sufferings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and you rob him of his crown , you hide and obscure his glory . si hominem videris , interritum periculis , inter adversa felicem , in mediis tempestatibus placidum , ex superiore loco homines videntem , ex equo deos , non subit te veneratio ejus , &c. if thou seest a man undaunted in the midst of danger , happy in adversity , placid and serene in a tempest , placed in a station equal with the gods , whence he looks down upon other men , as being in a vale below him ; art thou not presently possest with a high reverence and veneration for such a person ? and in another place ( saith the same author ) , quam venerationem praeceptoribus meis debeo , eandem illis praeceptoribus generis humani . speaking of such persons , saith he , such veneration as i owe to my master and tutor , such and much more ought i to pay to these teachers of mankind , who set them such excellent lessons for their imitation . god himself upon this account , seems ( as it were ) to glory and to triumph over the devil , in the behalf of job : seest thou my servant job , that there is none like him upon earth ? 't was an high elogium that , and tended much to his honour . and the apostle tells us elsewhere , that a meek and a patient spirit is with god of great price . the spirit of glory , and of god resteth upon such as endure sufferings . men think to set out themselves , and to get repute amongst others , by their haughtiness , looking upon every little injury as a high indignity ; but of such a frame of mind , it may be truly said , non est magnitudo , tumor est ; it is not greatness , but a swelling of mind . it shews a narrowness and littleness of soul. invalidum omne naturâ querulum . the more weak any thing is , the more apt to complain . whereas on the other side , patience doth enlarge the minds of men , and raise their esteem , making them triumphant without fighting . the heathen and their idolatries were heretofore subdued , non à repugnantibus sed à morientibus christianis , as st. austin speaks , not by the resistance , but by the patient sufferings of the dying christians . so mightily did this grace conduce in the primitive times , to the spreading and propagation of christianity through the heathen world . but are all complaints then in affliction unlawful ? to this i answer : . natural expressions of grief are allowable . a man must be sensible of his sufferings , and consequently cannot but grieve under them . that stupor and benummedness of spirit , whereby men are made unapprehensive of their afflictions , is in it self both a great sin and a great judgment . . but then these expressions of our grief must be rightly qualified with their due circumstances : . they must not be disproportionable to the occasion . a great complaint for a little cross , like jonah's trouble for his gourd . . not unsitting for the manner ; not accompanied with bitter invectives against second causes and instruments ; they should rather express our humility , than our anger . . they must not be immoderate for the degree ; as if we were without hope , like davids passionate complaints for the death of his son absolom . . they must not be sinful for the nature of them , blaming gods justice , and reviling his providence . and now that i have so abundantly shew'd the reasonableness of this vertue of patience and submission , i am still sensible how hardly men are brought to it when there is real occasion for the practise of it ; and therefore i think it may be of great use to add some directions which may help to prevent , or at least abate our impatience under afflictions , and to promote this submissive temper and disposition . and accordingly they shall be of two sorts , some negative , others positive . i begin with the negative . . take heed of aggravating afflictions , beyond their due proportions . do not fix your eye or your thoughts , chiefly upon the smart of them , without regarding the benefit of them ? 't is true indeed ( as the apostle tells us ) no affliction is joyous for the time , but grievous , nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness , to them that are exercised thereby . 't were an unreasonable thing and an argument of great frowardness , for a patient to mind only the bitterness of his potion , the corrosiveness of his plaister , without having any regard to the remedy and the health which may be procured by them . for a man always to have his hand upon his sore , will encrease the pain , and hinder the cure of it . to insist upon every particular circumstance whereby men may aggravate their afflictions , is the ready means to add fuel to their impatience , and to drive them to despondency . this is a sure way to bring upon our selves much needless trouble . 't is all one as if a man should chew the pills which ought to be swallowed whole , which will make us more sick , and thereby rather hinder the due operation of them than promote it . . beware of refusing comfort , or rejecting the means that are afforded us for our relief and support under the troubles that befall us . this were to take part with our disease against our selves , to refuse the physick , and to pull off the plaister that should heal us ; which argues much frowardness , besides the folly and ingratitude of rejecting the consolations of god , as if they were but small to us , as eliphaz speaks . whatever our losses or disappointments are , he can be ten times better to us , than those things are , by the loss of which we are provoked to discontent and murmuring . . do not give liberty to passions ; which of all other things belonging to the soul , are most impetuous and unruly , if not restrained within fitting bounds , the sensitive appetite ( to which the passions belong ) is the inferior and brutish part of the soul , answerable to the dregs of the people in a political government , of themselves apt to be heady , tumultuous , rash , mutinous , if not restrained by some superiour power : so is it with the passions of the soul , which therefore ought to be watched over , with great circumspection ; and the rather , because they have usually the empire over us , during our younger years , before reason comes to exercise its soveraignty : and if once we give way to them , 't will be a business of no small difficulty , to reduce them into order again . those very thoughts which occasion much discontent and trouble to the soul , whilst they lay in the brest in a huddle and confusion , if they be but distinctly considered , and coolely debated , will seem much less , if not vanish into nothing . 't is the nature of disorder , to make things appear more than indeed they are . which is one reason that philosophers give why the stars seem innumerable , because they are commonly looked upon , as being wildly scattered up and down , out of all regular form . 't is so likewise with mens inward discontents , which are exceedingly multiplyed by the confusion of them ; and would appear much less , if but distinctly reduced and examined . most of those which occasion much perplexity , whilst they are mixed with many others in a crowd , would upon a clear view and severe examination , appear much less considerable : and that 's another good means for the preserving of our minds from this impatience ; to put a stop to our passions in the beginning of their course , before they be in their full carrear , and then grow too hard for us . . do not chiefly regard the instruments of your troubles , which will be apt to provoke impatience and distemper ; but rather upon the supreme disposer of them . though men may deal very unworthily with us , yet god is just in all his ways . this was that which satisfied old eli , it is the lord , let him do what seemeth him good . though the sabaeans had spoiled job of his oxen and asses , and the chaldeans plundered him of his camels ; yet we find no complaints against them , he takes notice only of god as the author of these sufferings . the lord gives and the lord takes away , and therefore blessed be the name of the lord. 't is worth your notice to observe the strange variety of davids carriage , according as he was either mindful or forgetful of this consideration . how meek and humble upon the rebellion of absolom : if the lord shall say , i have no delight in thee ; behold here i am , let him do to me as seemeth good unto him . and so in the next chapter , when shimei did so bitterly revile him , that which pacified all impatient revengeful thoughts , was this consideration , the lord hath bid shimei curse . whereas at another time , when he was not so careful to fix his thoughts upon this , how strangely is his carriage altered ? how furious at the churlishness of nabal ? how passionate at the death of absolom ? such great power is there in this one meditation , if seriously fixed upon , to subdue the natural rage and distemper of our hearts . when he looks upon god , he submits , and is silent . i was dumb and opened not my mouth , because thou didst it . but when he considers the instruments , his heart begins to rise , and his passions to tumultuate and ferment into a strom . . take heed of engaging your desires upon these transient perishable things . learn to estimate every thing , according to its just rate and value ; and this will be a means to work in us weaned affections from the world . they that love too much , must grieve too much . if we would weep as not weeping , we must rejoice as not rejoycing . they that think the greatest gain to be but small , will think the greatest loss to be so too . neminem adversa fortuna comminuit , nisi quem secunda decepit . those that are most apt to be deceived and puft up by the flatteries of prosperity , will be most apt to be dejected by the frowns of adversity . and therefore one of the surest ways , to make all crosses easie to us , is to have a low esteem of these temporal things ; for which we shall find reason enough , if we consider the vanity and vexation of them . there being a thousand ways of fraud and oppression and casualties , whereby we may be deprived of their possession ; and as many , whereby they may be rendered useless to us in their possession ; as in the case of pain and sickness , either of body or mind : and as many whereby they may be rendered hurtful , and expose us to the envy of others , to many kind of temptations unto sin , and particularly to many kind of griefs and vexations upon the account of our unwillingness to part with them . all which are to be provided against , by our entertaining such thoughts of them , as may be suitable to their value . . take heed of being solicitous about the issue of things , and of determining your selves too peremptorily to particular events . 't is our business indeed to serve providence in the use of means , but the issue of things belongs to god. we have nothing to do with them , and that which is not within our power , should be out of our care . every mans great end is happiness . the various events that befall us in the world , are but several ways to this end . and therefore 't is very reasonable and congruous , that every one should have a travellers indifferency towards them . a man upon the road , who is travelling to such a town , and comes to some doubtful turnings , is not concerned either for the right or left hand way , hath not an inclination to one more than the other , any farther than to be directed to that which is the true way , and will bring him to his journies end . now that way which the providence of god doth lead us into , must needs be the best and the surest way to this end . thou foolish man ( saith epictetus ) dost not thou desire that which may be most convenient for thee ? and can there be any thing better than what god appoints ? do but then consider ( saith he ) what is the meaning of being eagerly solicitous about particular events , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , thou dost thereby as much as in thee lyes to corrupt thy judge , and seduce thy counsellour : than which there cannot be a greater folly . these are the negative directions . i proceed to those that are positive ; and . labour for true apprehensions of the divine nature and excellencies ; his infinite power , and wisdom , and goodness . when our hearts are once possest with right notions , and a due esteem of these perfections , they will not be so apt to break out into murmuring against him . that which benhadad spake proudly to ahab ; thy silver and thy gold , thy wives and thy children are mine : that may god truly say to us ; what hast thou that thou hast not received ? and if we have received it , as we have no reason to glory in the possession , so neither have we to complain at the loss of it , when he that hath lent it us doth resume it again . it is , or should be our daily prayer , that gods will may be done on earth as it is in heaven . and it were a most unreasonable thing , for men to murmur at the grant of their petitions . 't was a notable saying , which is commonly reported of luther , when philip melancthon was much disquieted in his own thoughts , at the confused state of things in the first reformation ; monendus est philippus , desinat esse rector mundi : melancthon is to be admonished that he would cease to take upon him the government of the world , as if the issue of things did belong to his care . god is infinitely wise and faithful , and will proportion our sufferings to our abilities . he hath promised that all things shall work together for our good . . consider the mercies you enjoy , as well as the evils you suffer . that was a most unworthy temper in ahab , and in haman , to receive no satisfaction in all their great possessions and enjoyments , because they were disappointed in some one small particular . 't is the advice of the wise man , eccles. . . in the day of prosperity rejoice , in the day of adversity consider . but what is that which we should consider ? why , that god hath set the one against the other : and so should we too , set one against another ; and then we shall find , that we have as much reason to be patient under our sufferings , as to rejoice in our mercies . 't is a remarkable passage that , concerning mephibosheth ; when ziba had by his false accusation , caused the king to confiscate his goods , and bestow them upon himself ; this had been enough one would think , to provoke mephibosheth unto high complaints , both against the injustice of david , and the baseness and unfaithfulness of his servant ziba : but see how he demeans himself , i have been slandered unto my lord the king , but do what is good in thine eyes . thou hast set thy servant amongst them that eat at thine own table , what right therefore have i to cry any more unto the king ? where he makes the kindness that david had formerly shewn him , to weigh down and satisfie for the wrong that he then suffered . and if men had but such a grateful temper of spirit , they would not be so apt to murmur . those that deserve least , do usually complain most . the most unworthy are the most impatient . suppose all manner of evils and afflictions , which are now promiscuously seattered up and down in the world , whether they concern soul or body ; spiritual blindness and obduracy , poverty , slavery , reproach , sickness , pain , maimedness , deformity , &c. i say , suppose all these were now to be distributed amongst mankind , so as every one were to have an equal share of them : would you be content to stand to this new distribution ? i suppose there are not many persons in this nation , in so miserable and forlorn a condition , that upon serious consideration of the special advantages they do or may partake of , above many other millions in the world , would consent to it . and if this be so , certainly then it must be both an unreasonable , and a very ungrateful thing for such men to be impatient , who enjoy more than their share comes to . . consider the deserts of your sins , and then it will easily appear , that your condition is not at any time so bad , but you have deserved it should be worse . that you have more reason to commend the care and wisdom of the physician , than to complain of the bitterness of the potion . tantò quis patientiùs ferrum medici tolerat , quantò magis putridum esse conspicit quod secat ; the more the patient doth discern the corruption and danger of his sore , the more willingly doth he endure the launce of his chyrurgion . that is a remarkable story in genesis , chap. . to shew that this consideration of the desert of our own sins , is a very powerful means to pacifie us against all impatience under sufferings . the story concerns joseph's brethren , who coming into aegypt to buy corn , were there roughly treated , accused for spies , clapt into prison ; so that one would have thought , they had reason enough to fret and murmur at that hard unjust dealing . and yet we find their carriage to be very humble and patient ; but what that was which made them so , you may see , ver . . they remembred their cruelty to their brother . joseph , and that brought them to acknowledg this distress to be deservedly come upon them , because they had not pityed their brother , when he besought them in the anguish of his soul. the like consideration did stop job in his complaint , after all his high contestations and arguings with god ; he no sooner thought upon his own vileness , but he was presently silenced . behold i am vile , what shall i answer thee , i will lay my hand upon my mouth . . be careful whilst you are in a prosperous estate , to prepare for trouble and afflictions , by a prudent consideration of the mutability of things . this will be a means to alleviate the burden of them . praecogitati mali mollis ictus venit . and in another place , inexpectata plus aggravant , novitas adjicit calamitatibus pondus ; that stroke will have less force which is foreseen and expected , whereas the suddenness and surprize of it , will add to the weight and smart of it . in tantâ rerum sursum ac deorsum euntium versatione , si non quicquid fieri potest , pro futuro habes , das in te vires rebus adversis , quas infregit quisquis prior vidit ; in that various change and revolution of events which we behold in the world , if we do not look upon possible dangers and troubles as future , we do thereby strengthen our adversaries and disarm our selves . when we see at any time the losses and imprisonments , or poverty , or funerals of others , we ought presently to reflect this may be our case . cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest . one loses husband , wife , children , estate : we ought from all such spectacles to infer , that though this be not at present , yet it may shortly be our condition ; and accordingly by expectation to fortifie our selves against it . hic nos error decipit , hic effoeminat , dum patimur , quae nunquam pati nos posse praevidimus . aufert vim praesentibus malis , qui futura prospexit . this is the error which doth deceive and effeminate men , whilst they suffer such things as they did not expect , and are not prepared for . it breaks the force of evils when they come , to foresee they will come . . often reflect upon your former experience . that will be a means to prevent all despondencies , to work in us hope and confidence . there is no man so mean and inconsiderable , if he will but take an impartial view of what he hath formerly seen and observed , concerning gods dealing with himself and others , but may upon this account find reason enough to allay all murmuring discontented thoughts . we have frequent examples to this purpose in scripture , jacob , david , jehosaphat , the apostle st. paul , in several places , who all have had recourse to this remedy , when they would strengthen themselves against discontent and despondency . and i suppose , there is scarce any serious man of so little experience , but hath taken notice of , and can remember how some crosses and disappointments , have in the issue proved mercies and benefits to him . and if it have been so formerly , why may it not be so again . . and lastly , labour after those particular vertues , which are of near affinity to this of patience ; whereby it will be very much strengthened and promoted . there is a certain chain of them mentioned , gal. . , and styled by the apostle the fruits of the spirit , as belonging more particularly to the spirit of christianity . the first is love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which beareth all things and endureth all things : the next is joy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a chearful temper of mind , in opposition to moroseness and frowardness : then peace , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a composedness and sedateness of spirit , free from all inordinate perturbations , and without any kind of itch of quarrelling with others : and next long-suffering , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whereby the mind is not easily provoked or tyred , but is easily appeased : then gentleness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , generosity , benignity , which signifies ' a mind most ready to part with any thing , towards the help and relief of others in their necessities : then goodness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( i. e. ) such an equal and ingenuous simplicity of manners , whereby men are rendred easily tractable and placable , and most amiable in the whole course of their conversations : then faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dependance upon god for our support and deliverance : then meekness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whereby we put a restraint upon our anger , so as not to be provoked for any lesser cause , or in a greater measure , or for a longer time , than may be fitting for the occasion ; always preserving our minds free from any sudden gusts of passion . and lastly , temperance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , continence , whereby we contain all our passions with their just bounds , either of joy in the affluence of things , or of grief in the loss , or of desire in the want of them . a mind that is modelled and prepared with these kind of virtues , will thereby be rendered generous and couragious , fit for the undergoing of any kind of trouble or suffering , which the providence of god shall think fit to call a man unto . i have now done with the first thing i proposed to treat of , namely , the reasonableness and credibility of the principles of natural religion ; in which i have endeavoured to establish the belief of gods being , to clear the natural notions of his excellencies and perfections , and to deduce the obligation of moral duties , from the belief and acknowledgment of the divine nature and perfections . the second book , of the wisdom of practising the duties of natural religion . chap. i. shewing in general how religion conduces to our happiness . i proceed now to the second part of my design , which was to shew the wisdom of practising the duties of natural religion . in which i shall endeavour to convince men , how much it is , upon all accounts , their chief happiness and interest to lead a religious and virtuous course of life . solomon , who is so much celebrated in scripture for his wisdom and knowledg , hath purposely written a book , the main argument whereof is to enquire , wherein the chief happiness of man doth consist : and having in the former part of it shewed the insufficiency of all other things that pretend to it , he comes in the conclusion to fix it upon its true basis , asserting every mans greatest interest and happiness , to consist in being religious . let us hear the cnclusion . of the whole matter ; fear god , and keep his commandements : for this is the whole of man. that is , the serious practice of religion is that which every considerate man after all his other disquisitions , will find to be his chief interest , and that which doth deserve his utmost care and diligence . and because these words of solomon , do so fully express that , which is to be the main argument of my following discourse , i shall by way of preface or introduction to it , more particularly consider the commendation which he here gives to the practice of religion , in that full and significant expression , this is the whole of man. which words are by the septuagint and vulgar thus rendered , this is all , or every man. the word duty which is supplied by our english , being not in the original , or in other translations . this ought to be the way and course of all mankind , so the targum . this is the course to which every man is designed , so the syriack . this will be most profitable and advantageous to men , so the arabick . hoc est totum hominis . this is the whole of man ; so some of our later interpreters , mosg properly to the scope of the place , it being an usual enallage in the hebrew , totius universalis pro toto integrante , all for whole . so that according to these various interpretations of the words , they may contain in them a threefold reference . to the essence , the happiness , the business of man. according to which the sense of them must be , that religion , or the fearing of god and keeping his commandements is a matter of so great consequence to humane nature , that . the essence or being of man may be said to consist in it . . the great business or duty of man , is to be conversant about it , and to labour after it . . the happiness or well-being of man doth depend upon it . these particulars i shall endeavour to make out by such clear principles of reason , attested to by several of the wisest heathen writers , as may be enough to satisfy any serious man , who is able to understand the reason and consequence of things , and will but attend and consider . first : religion is of so great importance , that the essence of man may be said to consist in it . man may be considered under a twofold notion : . in his single capacity , according to that principle whereby he is constituted in such a rank of creatures . . in society , for which man seems to be naturally designed , and without which he could not well subsist . now religion will appear to be essential to him , in both these respects . . as considered in his single capacity , according to those principles by which he is framed . that which doth constitute any thing in its being , and distinguish it from all other things , this is that which we call the form or essence of a thing . now the things which distinguish humane nature from all other things , are the chief principles and foundations of religion , namely , the apprehension of a deity , and an expectation of a future state after this life : which no other creature , below man , doth partake of ; and which are common to all mankind , notwithstanding the utmost endeavours that can be used for the suppressing of them . as for what is commonly alledged in the behalf of reason , it may be observed that in the actions of many brate creatures , there are discernable some footsteps , some imperfect strictures and degrees of ratiocination ; such a natural sagacity as at least bears a near resemblance to reason . from whence it may follow , that it is not reason in the general , which is the form of humane nature ; but reason as it is determined to actions of religion , of which we do not find the least signs or degrees in brutes : man being the only creature in this visible world , that is formed with a capacity of worshipping and enjoying his maker . nor is this any new opinion , but what several of the antient writers , philosophers , orators , poets , have attested to ; who make the notion of a deity , and adoration of him , to be the true difference betwixt man and beast . so tully : ex tot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem , quod habeat notitiam aliquam dei ; ipsisque in hominibus , nulla gens est , neque tam immansueta , neque tam fera , quae non etiamsi ignoret , qualem habere deum deceat , tamen habendum sciat . amongst all the living creatures that are in the world , there is none but man , that hath any notion of a deity ; and amongst mankind , there is no nation so wild and barbarous , but pretends to some religion ; whence it should seem that this is the most proper difference betwixt man and beasts . and in another place , he makes this to be the character of that reason , which is the form of man , that it is vinculum dei & hominis , which imports both name and thing . of the same sense is that of the satyrist , who speaking of religion and a sense of divine things , saith this of it . — separat hoc nos a grege mutorum , atque ideo venerabile soli sortiti ingenium , divinorumque capaces . 't is this , saith he , which doth distinguish us from brute creatures , that we have souls capable of divine impressions . there are abundance of expressions to this purpose in several other of the heathen writers . that in plutarch , where he styles irreligion , a kind of stupor whereby men are as it were deprived of their senses . and in another place , he asserts it to be an exceeding improper thing , to ascribe true reason to those , who do not acknowledg and adore the deity . so again tully , esse deos qui negat , vix eum sanae mentis existimem . i can hardly think that man to be in his right mind , who is destitute of religion . and in another place of the same book . quis hunc hominem dixerit ? &c. why should any one style such an one a man , who by what he sees in the world is is not convinced of a deity , and a providence , and of that adoration he owes to the deity ? non modo non philosophos , sed nec homines quidem fuisse dixerim , ( saith another ) . men that are destitute of religion , are so far from being learned philosophers , that they ought not to be esteemed so much as reasonable men . 't is true , nothing is more ordinary than for such persons as are sceptical in these first principles , to entertain great thoughts of themselves , as if they had considered things more deeply , and were arrived unto a higher pitch of reason and wit than others . but yet the plain truth is , they who have not attained to this conviction of placing their chief interest in being religious , they are so far from exceeding others in degrees , that they come short of the very nature and essence of men , as being destitute of those first notions concerning truth and falshood , good and evil , wherein the essence of a rational being doth consist : besides their palpable deficiency in such plain consequences and deductions of reason , as would become those , who in any measure pretend to that principle . so that , by what hath been said , it may appear , that the definition of man may be rendered as well by the difference of religiosum as rationale . as for that inconvenience which some may object , that atheistical and prophane persons will hereby be excluded : why , so they are by the other difference likewise ; such persons having no just pretence to reason , who renounce religion : and it were well , if they might not only be reckoned among beasts ( as they are by the psalmist , where he styles them brutish ) , but driven out amongst them likewise , and banished from all humane society , as being publick pests and mischiefs of mankind , such as would debase the nobility of our natures to the condition of brute creatures , and therefore are fit only to live amongst them . which brings me to the d . consideration of man as a sociable creature . religion is essential to him , in this respect also ; as being the surest bond to tye men up to those respective duties towards one another , without which government and society could not subsist . there is a remarkable passage in plutarch to this purpose , where he styles religion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the cement of all community , and the chief basis of all legislative power . and in another place he says , that 't is much more easie to build a city in the open air , without any ground to found it upon , than to establish government without religion . a city ( saith he ) may make some shift to subsist without walls , schools , theatres , houses ; nay , without money , but not without religion . if it were not for this notion of a deity , and those natural impressions which we have concerning justice and probity , so necessary for the conservation of humane society ; instead of those well-ordered governments and cities which are now in the world , mankind must have lived either wild and solitary in caves and dens , like savage beasts ; or else in troops of robbers , subsisting upon the spoil and rapine of such as were weaker than themselves . pietate sublatâ , sides etiam , & societas humani generis , & una excellentissima virtus justitia tollitur , saith tully . take but away the awe of religion , and all that fidelity and justice , so necessary for the keeping up of humane society , must perish with it . 't is this fear of a deity , and the sense of our obligation to him , that is the onely effectual means to restrain men within the bounds of duty . and were this wholly extinguished , there would follow such wild disorders and extravagancies amongst men , as would not leave so much as the face or least shadow of virtue or honesty in the world . there being no kind of vice which men would not abandon themselves unto , considering the impetuousness of their own natural appetites , and the power of external temptations , were this restraint from religion once removed or abolished . the two chief opposites to religion , are prophaneness and superstition . both which are prejudicial to civil government ; the one by destroying conscience , the strongest obligation to political duties ; the other by perverting and abusing it ; introducing in the stead of it a new primum mobile , which ravisheth the spheres of government , and puts them into a praeternatural course , as a noble author expresseth it . the two grand relations that concern society , are government and subjection : and irreligion doth indispose men for both these . . for government . without religion magistrates will lose that courage and confidence belonging to their stations , which they cannot so well exert in punishing the offences of others , when they are guilty of the same or the like themselves . those that sit on the throne of judgment , should be able to scatter away evil with their eyes , as solomon speaks , prov. . . by their very presence and looks to strike an awe upon offenders . which will not be so easily done , if they lye under the same guilt themselves . sine bonitate nulla majestas , saith seneca ; the very nature of majesty doth denote goodness as well as power . and without this , governours may easily lose that reverence which is due to them from others , and consequently that authority which they ought to have over them . when they cease to be gods in respect of their goodness , they will soon diminish in their power . and though they should be able to keep men under , as to their bodies and estates , yet will they decline as to that awful love and reverence whereby they should sway over the hearts and affections of men . the philosopher in the fifth book of his politicks , doth lay it down as a rule for magistrates , that they must be careful to give publick testimonies of their being religious and devout ; for which he gives this double reason : because the people will be less subject to entertain any jealousie or suspition of suffering injury , from such whom they believe to be religious : and withal , they will be less subject to attempt the doing of injury against such ; as knowing that good magistrates are after a more especial manner under the divine favour and protection , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , having god to fight with them , and for them . . the want of this will indispose men for the condition of subjects , and render them loose and unstable in those duties of obedience and submission required to that state . how can it be expected from that man , who dares affront and despise god himself , that he should have any hearty reverence for his deputies and vicegerents ? he that is subject only upon the account of wrath , and the power of the sword which is over him , will be no longer so , when he hath an opportunity of escaping or resisting that power . nor is there any possible way to secure men in their quiet subjection and obedience , but by their being obliged for conscience-sake . and therefore such kind of persons , as by their open prophaneness and contempt of religion , do endeavour to destroy conscience from amongst men , may justly be esteemed as the worst kind of seditious persons , and most pernicious to civil government . that temper of prophaneness , whereby a man is disposed to contemn and despise all religion ( how slightly soever men may think of it ) is much worse than infidelity , than fanaticalness , than idolatry ; and of the two , 't is much more eligible for a man to be an honest heathen and a devont idolater , than a prophane christian. whatever disputes have been raised , concerning the lawfulness of punishing men for their dissenting consciences in matters of religion ; yet never any man questioned the lawfulness of punishing men , for their prophaneness and contempt of all religion . such men as renounce conscience , cannot pretend that they suffer for it . and certainly this vice doth upon many accounts deserve the greatest severity of laws , as being in its own nature destructive of the very principles of government , and the peace of all humane societies : besides the mischiefs consequent upon it , from divine vengeance . 't is an observation of seneca , that several countries do appoint several punishments for the violation of religion , but every country appoints some , and it doth not any where escape unpunished . plato in his book de legibus , would have it punished capitally , as being a thing of most pernicious consequence to government . 't is a rule in the civil law , that religio contaminata ad omnium pertinet injuriam ; the abuse of religion is to be looked upon as being a common injury , and every man is concerned , to endeavour a vindication of it . and there are some instances in story , of wars that have been undertaken upon this very account , to bring a nation to punishment for that prophaneness they have expressed towards the religion they professed and pretended to , as being injurious to mankind , quod orbis viribus expiari debuit , as justin the historian speaks , which the whole world ought to vindicate and expiate by their common forces . there can be no assurance from loose irreligious persons , that they will be faithful in the ordinary duties belonging to their several ranks and stations . and as for any extraordinary heroical action , by which the publick welfare is to be promoted , men that are without conscience of religion , and a sense of virtue , can never apply themselves to any thing of that kind , as having their minds destitute of all such principles as are sublime and generous , without any the least seed of honour , and piety , and virtue ; and therefore they can have no sparks of magnanimity , nor any the least inclination to actions that are truly great and noble . so that upon all these accounts , it is very evident , that religion is totum heminis in this first sense , as it refers to the essence of man , considered either in his single capacity , or as a member of society . . 't is so likewise as it refers to the business and duty of man , that which he ought to be most intent upon , and conversant about , as to his employment in this world : that general calling , in which every man of what rank or quality soever , is to be ingaged . men are distributed under other particular callings , according as their education , abilities , friends , and several opportunities do dispose of them . but the obligation of religion , being of universal concernment , doth extend to all and every particular , there being none exempted from it . hoc est omnis homo . every man is concerned in it . and it is totum hominis likewise ; 't is his calling , the chief business about which he is to be employed . i do not say , that a mans thoughts are always to be taken up about the immediate acts of religion , any more than a traveller is always to have his mind actually fixed upon the thought of his journies end . this would be inconsistent with the infirmity of our natures , and the necessity of our conditions in this world . but yet , as he that is upon a journey , doth so order all his particular motions , as may be most conducible to his general end ; so should men habitually , though they cannot actually , in every affair have respect to their chief end , so as to observe all the duties of religion , and never to allow themselves in any thing against the rules of it . and he that hath this care continually upon his mind ( though he be but a secular person ) may properly be said to make religion his business . the wise man in the beginning of his book , had proposed it as his great question to be discussed , to find out what was that good for the sons of men , which they should do under the heavens , all the days of their lives . ( i. e. ) what was the chief employment or business , which they should apply themselves to in this world ? and in the conclusion of his discourse , after an induction and refutation of all other particulars , which may seem to have any claim or pretence to this , he asserts it to be the business of religion , fearing god , and keeping his commandments : suitably to that precept of moses , deut. . . and now , o israel , what doth the lord thy god require of thee , but to fear the lord thy god , to walk in his ways , and to serve the lord thy god , and keep his commandments : and the practise of st. paul , who made this his daily exercise , to keep his conscience void of offence , both towards god and towards man. to the reasonableness of this , several of the wisest heathens have attested . that 's a remarkable passage in aristotle to this purpose , where he states that to be the most desirable proportion of all worldly felicities and enjoyments , which is most consistent with men's devoting themselves to the business of religion : and that to be either too much or too little of wealth , or honour , or power , &c. whereby men are hindred in their meditating upon god , or their worshipping of him . so epictetus , discoursing concerning the work and business he was designed to , hath this excellent passage : if i had been made a nightingale or a swan , i should have employed the time of my life in such a way as is suitable to the condition of those creatures : but being made a man , capable of serving and worshipping that god , from whom i had my being , 't is but reason that i should apply my self to this , as being my proper work and business : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and therefore hereunto will i devote my self , as being the chief employment to which i am designed . i am now as to the condition of my body , lame and old ( saith he in the same place ) to which he might have added that he was sickly and deformed ; and as for his outward quality , he was poor and under servitude , being a slave to epaphroditus , one of the roman courtiers ; which are conditions that usually expose men to repining and discontent ; and yet he concludes it to be his duty , wholly to devote himself to the praises and worship of that god , who was the author of his being . which upbraids so many professors of christianity , who have both more advantages of knowing their duty , and greater engagements upon them to exercise themselves in the duties of religion . there is another apposite testimony to this purpose in antoninus . every thing ( saith he ) is designed for some kind of work . beasts and plants , the sun and stars ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and what do you conceive your business to be ? sensual pleasures ? bethink your self a little better , whether this be suitable to your natural sentiments , to the nobility of your mind , and those excellent faculties with which you are endowed . now 't is the usual course of men to apply themselves to that as their chief business , by which their interest is most promoted , and which may most conduce to that main end which they propose to themselves . and can any thing be more reasonable , than for that to be the chief business of a man's life , which is the chief end of his being ? . religion is totum hominis , with respect to the happiness and well-being of man. that is properly said to be the chief end or happiness of a thing , which doth raise its nature to the utmost perfection of which it is capable , according to its rank and kind . this is the chief end which he ought to propose , that alone wherein his true felicity doth consist , that which doth advance his nature to the utmost perfection it is capable of . the chief good belonging to a vegetable or plant , is to grow up to a state of maturity , to continue to its natural period , and to propagate its kind , which is the utmost perfection that kind of being is capable of . and whereas sensitive creatures , besides those things which are common to them with plants , have likewise such faculties , whereby they are able to apprehend external objects , and to receive pain or pleasure from them : therefore the happiness proper to them , must consist in the perfection of these faculties , namely , in sensible pleasures , in the enjoyment of such things as may be grateful to their senses . but now mankind ( if we allow it to be a distinct rank of creatures , superior to brutes ) being endowed with such faculties , whereby 't is made capable of apprehending a deity , and of expecting a future state after this life ; it will hence follow , that the proper happiness of man must consist in the perfecting of these faculties , namely , in such a state as may reconcile him to the divine favour , and afford him the best assurance of a blessed immortality hereafter : which nothing else but religion can so much as pretend to . 't is true indeed , the nature of man , by reason of those other capacities common to him with plants and brutes , may stand in need of several other things , to render his condition pleasant and comfortable in this world , as health , riches , reputation , safety , &c. now herein is the great advantage of religion , that besides the principal work which it doth for us , in securing our future estates in the other world , it is likewise the most effectual means to promote our happiness in this world . in my discourse of this i shall first suggest something more generally , concerning the nature of our chief end ; and then descend to those particulars , which are esteemed to be the chief ingredients to a state of happiness . under the first of these i shall speak briefly to these three things . . there is a necessity that every man who will act rationally should propose to himself some chief scope and end . . the chief end of every thing must be of such a nature , as may be most fit to promote the perfection of that thing in its rank and kind . . this in rational beings which are capable of it , must consist in a communion with , and a conformity unto the chief good , and consequently in being religious . . there is a necessity that every man who will act rationally should propose to himself some chief scope or end . the having of an end , is not so much a moral duty , which supposeth a liberty of acting , as a natural principle , like that of the descent of heavy bodies ; men must do so , nor can they do otherwise . such is the principle of self-preservation in all things ; and this of acting for an end , in all rational agents . the most loose and profligate wretches that are , do and must act for an end , even in those very courses , wherein they put the thought of their future state and their last account far from them . the very suppressing and hardening themselves against the thought of their true end , is in order to their present peace and quiet , which they do erroneously substitute in the room of their chief end . that wherein men are commonly defective , is in not exciting the thought of their chief end , and not sufficiently considering and stating in their own minds , the most proper means for the attaining of it . there are too many in the world that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , live ex tempore , without any particular reference to their chief end , being immersed only in present matters , animalia sine praeterito & futuro , without any regard to what is past or future ; like ships upon the vast ocean , without any compass or pilot , that do rather wander than travel , being carried up and down according as every wind or tide doth drive them . and this the philosopher doth worthily brand with the name of folly ; vita sine proposito , stultitiae argumentum est ; no greater argument of foolishness , than for a man not to be fixed upon some particular design . proponamus oportet , finem summi boni , ad quem omne factum nostrum dictúmve respiciat ; veluti navigantibus , ad sidus aliquod dirigendus est cursus , saith the same author . there ought always to be some particular scope and mark proposed , as the main end and drift of all our actions , as the star by which we are to be guided in our voyage . non disponet singula , nisi cui jam vitae suae summa proposita est . 't will be a hard matter to proportion out particulars , till we know what is the main sum . this is the true ground of the common mistakes amongst men , whilst they deliberate concerning the several parts of their lives , but neglect the stating of what should be the main design of the whole . he that intends to shoot at any thing , must so manage the whole action , in levelling his arrow , and regulating his hands , and exerting his strength so as may be most advantageous for hitting the mark . as the efficient is in natural , so is the end amongst moral causes , of principal efficacy . 't is this which is the chief rule of all our actions . and therefore there is a necessity that some end be proposed and fix'd upon . . the chief end of every thing must be of such a nature , as may be most fit to promote the perfection of that thing in its rank and kind . any thing that is short of this , may be a means , or a subordinate end ; but cannot be the chief and ultimate end , if there be any thing desireable beyond it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith aristotle ; that is truly the chief end , which is desired for it self ; which being once obtained , we want no more ; that which doth satiate and fill up the desires . haec nihil vacare patitur loci , totum animum tenet , desiderium omnium tollit , sola satis est , ( saith seneca ) . in brief , 't is that state , wherein a thing enjoys all that good that 't is capable of , and which is most suitable to its nature . . this in rational creatures must consist , in a communion with , and a conformity to the supreme good ; and consequently , in being religious . which is the meaning of those scripture-expressions , of walking with god , and as becomes the sons of the most high ; being followers of him ; holy as he is holy ; being made partakers of a divine nature . and to this the philosophers do likewise consent . this is the meaning of that speech in pythagoras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every mans chief end should be a resemblance to god , a being made like to the deity . so plato and epictetus will have it to consist in following of god , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and another , imitari quem colis , in imitating him whom we worship . so seneca , summum bonum est , quod honestum est , & quod magis admirêre , solum bonum est quod honestum est . not only the chief , but the only good doth consist , in what is honest and virtuous . now the fruition of god cannot consist in any external union or contact of our souls with the deity , which spirits are not capable of ; nor in any meer speculation , or intellectual gazing upon his excellencies : but in such an influence , whereby he doth communicate to us , such divine qualities , as will exalt our faculties beyond their natural state , and bring them into an assimilation and conformity to the most perfect idea of goodness , together with an inward sensation of the effects of this in our selves . having thus dispatched what i had to suggest concerning the nature of happiness in general , i proceed to speak to such particulars , as are esteemed to be the most usual ingredients into such a state , and which do conduce to the compleating of it : whether they concern our present condition in this world ; either our external well-fare ; consisting in . health . . liberty , safety , quiet . . possessions ; with respect either to the sufficiency of them , for answering our necessities ; which is called riches or profit : or to . the delight or satisfaction we receive in these enjoyments , in the use and suitableness of the things we possess ; which is called pleasure . . the esteem which we have amongst good men , whereby we are rendered acceptable and useful to others ; styled honour or reputation . internal well-fare , or the happiness of our minds ; which doth consist in these two things . . the due regulating and exalting of our faculties to their proper function . . the peace , joy , contentment , consequent thereupon . the happiness of our future state . this doth consist in such a fruition of the supreme good , as our souls are capable of ; and must depend upon such courses , as can afford us the most rational assurance of blessedness and glory hereafter . now i shall endeavour to make it out by plain reason , that the happiness of our condition , in all these respects , doth depend upon religion . and that not only morally , upon account of that reward , which virtuous actions do entitle a man unto , from a just and wise providence ; but naturally also , by reason of that physical efficacy which the duties of religion have , to procure for us all those things wherein our temporal happiness consists ; to promote the well-fare , not only of particular persons , but of publick communities of mankind in general , and of the whole universe . chap. ii. how religion conduces to our present happiness in this world : and first to the happiness of the outward man. . in respect of health . and because these things i have mentioned , ( especially those of them which concern our external happiness in this world ) are the great aims and designs , by which the generality of men are chiefly swayed in their actions ; and therefore like to prove very powerful motives to make men religious , if they could be once effectúally perswaded , that religion is the most proper means for the attaining of these things : i shall therefore endeavour to make out this truth , by the plainest and most convincing ęvidence that may be . and the rather because in such kind of assertions , as are besides the common opinion , and seem paradoxes , men will be apt to be jealous of their being imposed upon by some kind of sophism or fallacy . in order to this , i shall observe this method : first , i shall endeavour to state and define the nature of these things , and to shew wherein the true notion of them doth consist . and then proceed to the proof of this proposition , that religion is the most proper means to procure and promote these ends . and besides the evidence to this purpose , from the concurrent opinions of wise men , in several ages ; i shall likewise make them out both by reason , and by experience , which are all the kind of arguments that such matters are capable of . only i must premise one caution ; that when i say religion is the cause of these things , the meaning is not , that it is so necessary and so infallible a cause , as can never fail of its effect . this would not be consistent with our dependent condition , there being nothing in this world so much under the power of humane endeavours , but that the providence of god may interpose for the disappointment of it . to whom it must be left , to make what reserved cases he pleases from the ordinary course of things . but though it be not an infallible cause , yet is it such a cause as doth generally and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , produce its effect : and all mankind do think it a sufficient inducement , to apply their endeavours unto such courses for the procuring of any thing , as are the best means to be had , and do for the most part effect the ends they are designed for . this being premised , i doubt not but to offer such arguments for the proof of these things , as shall be sufficient for the conviction of any man who will but understand and consider them . i begin with the first . the wellfare of our present condition in respect of our outward-man doth depend upon religion . first , religion is the best means for health . by health i mean such a constitution of our bodies , whereby our members and faculties are inabled for the due performance of their natural functions , and freed from pain ; 't is properly opposed to sickness or disease . as for the infirmities of old age , these are so essential to all living creatures , so necessarily spring from the very principles of our natures , that though they may be somewhat lessened and alleviated , yet are they not capable of any complete remedy . this blessing of health is so necessary to our well-beings in this world , that without it , we cannot enjoy any thing else , no not our own selves ; insomuch that men do , and may justly put a great value upon it , and are willing to purchase it at any rate . and therefore to all such , this consideration must needs be a very powerful motive . now i shall make it plain that this doth depend upon religion morally . naturally . . morally , by reason of those blessings of this kind , which by the light of nature men may reasonably expect from the goodness of god , upon the observance of his laws ; besides the several assertions and promises in scripture to this purpose , where sin is often represented as the meritorious cause of sickness , and diseases are often threatned , and accordingly inflicted as the due rewards of sin : and on the other side , upon mens observing the duties of religion , god promises to take away sickness from the midst of them , to bestow upon them health and length of days . the fear of the lord and departing from evil , shall be health to thy navel , and marrow to thy bones . prov. . , . prov. . . as righteousness tendeth to life , so he that pursueth evil , pursueth it to his own death . chap. . , the wicked shall be cut off from the earth , and the transgressours shall be rooted out of it . . religion is the natural cause of health , which may appear upon this two-fold reason ; because it doth remove those things that will hinder it , and doth promote such things as will help it . . it doth removere prohibens , it is apt to prevent and remove such things as are the great impediments of our health . nothing is more evident , than that there are several vices which have a physical efficacy in the producing of diseases , as all kind of intemperance of body , all inordinate passions of mind ; to one of which , the greatest part of the sickness amongst men may be ascribed ; and consequently the virtues opposite to these , temperance , sobriety , moderation , must needs have a natural causality for the hindring of these diseases . 't is by religion that men are inabled to prevent all such excesses as are prejudicial to nature , to repress all such violent transports of passion , hatred , anger , fear , sorrow , envy , &c. as are in themselves very pernicious to our bodily health , and by that violent commotion , which they are apt to put the humours into , do sometimes cause present sickness , and always lay in us the seeds of future diseases . . it doth promovere adjuvans , promote all such things as may most effectually conduce to the improving of our health ; by obliging us upon the account of duty and conscience , to a careful observance of the most proper means to this end : keeping us within due bounds in our eating , drinking , exercise ; preserving our minds in an equal frame of serenity and calmness ; supporting our spirits with contentation and chearfulness under every state of life ; so that nothing can be more true than that of solomon , that a cheerful mind doth good like a medicine , and makes a healthy countenance ; whereas heaviness and cares will break a mans spirit and make it stoop . i know there are other means to be made use of in order to the procuring of health , various kinds of medicaments to be applyed by the art of physick , according as the nature of several diseases shall require , which religion doth oblige a man not to neglect : but yet this i think may be truely said , that those who are most expert in the profession of physick , are not able to prescribe any catholicon , which shall more effectually operate , both by way of prevention and cure , than the observance of those duties which religion and virtue do oblige us unto . nor is this true only in theory and speculation , but it may appear to be so upon common experience , to which i shall appeal for the further confirmation of it . what kind of persons are those who enjoy the best state of health and the longest lives ? are they not such generally who are most sober and regular in their conversations , most temperate as to their bodies , most free from all kind of inordinate passions , fierceness , anxiety , cares as to their minds ? 't is said of moses , that though he were exceeding old , yet his eye was not dim , nor was his natural force abated . which ( amongst other causes ) may be ascribed to those eminent virtues he was endowed with , the temperance of his body , and meekness of his spirit . that beloved disciple whose thoughts and writings seem to be wholly taken up with the divine virtue of love , is upon account of this temper of his mind , thought to have enjoyed a more vigorous old age than any of the rest : such a power is there in religion , though not wholly to prevent the infirmities of old age , yet in a great measure to alleviate and abate them . and on the other side , if we consult experience ; who are the men most obnoxious to diseases ? are they not such generally as are most vicious in their lives ? most given to surfeits , debaucheries and lewdness , whereby they do so far inflame their blood and wast their spirits , as not to live out half their days : insomuch that no man of ordinary prudence , who is to take a lease for lives , will be content ( if he can well avoid it ) to chuse such a one whom he knows to be vicious and intemperate . but these things are so obvious to common experience , that i need not enlarge upon them : only i would not be mistaken . i do not say that none of those are religious , who are liable to diseases , and are taken away in their younger years ; or that all such are religious , who are free from diseases , and live to old age . some may be naturally of so tender and brittle a make , that every little blow will break them ; others of so tough and strong a constitution , as to hold out against many batteries and assaults ; and yet neither of these to be ascribed , either to the vices of the one , or the virtues of the other , but do rather belong to their condition and temper , which being natural , and not falling under the choice of our wills , is not therefore capable of any moral good or evil . besides , there ought allowance to be made ( as i said before ) for such exempt cases , as shall seem good to the providence of god in the government of humane affairs . some good men may be taken away from the evil to come , others may be exercised with diseases in their bodies for the cure of their minds , or to make their patience and courage exemplary to others . and some that are good men for the main , may yet by their own carelesness in using the fittest means for the preservation of their health , expose themselves to sickness ; none of which can be any prejudice to the thing i have been proving . this being that which i affirm , that so far as the infirmities of our natural tempers are capable of remedy by any thing in our power , it is the observance of the duties of religion , that doth for the most part and generally prove the most effectual means to this purpose . which is all i shall say to the first thing i proposed to speak to , concerning the health of our bodies . chap. iii. how religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man , in respect of liberty , safety , and quiet . secondly , religion is the most proper means to procure our external safety , liberty , quiet . by safety , i mean a freedom from those common dangers and mischiefs which others are exposed to . by liberty , the being at our own disposal , and not under bondage , restraint , imprisonment . by quiet , an exemption from those many molestations and troubles by reason of disappointments , enmity , contentions , whereby the conditions of some men are rendered very burdensome and uncomfortable . i put these things together , because of their near affinity to one another . now religion is both the moral and the natural cause of these things . . 't is the moral cause of them , upon account of that divine protection and assistance , which the light of nature will assure us we are intituled unto in the doing of our duties ; besides the many assertions and promises in scripture to this purpose ; of being protected in our ways , and secured in times of danger . if you will keep my statutes , ye shall dwell in the land in safety . whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely , and shall be quiet from the fear of evil . there shall no evil happen to the just , but the wicked shall be filled with mischief . the lord delivers the righteous out of all their troubles . when a mans ways please the lord , he will make his enemies to be at peace with him . . 't is the natural cause of these blessings , by preventing or removing all such things , whereby the contrary evils are occasioned . the most usual and general cause of mens sufferings , is from the neglect of their duty , and the violations of law ; they are obnoxious to the punishments of banishment , imprisonment , loss of goods , or of life , upon the account of some illegal irreligious acts , murder , theft , sedition , injuring of others , needless contentions , medling in other mens affairs where they are not concerned . 't is observable , that in the legal form of inditing men for crimes , our law doth ascribe their guilt to their want of religion , their not having the fear of god before their eyes , which doth dispose them to commit such acts as makes them obnoxious to legal punishment . now nothing can so effectually prevent such things as religion . this will teach men to obey laws , and submit to government : this will keep them within the bounds of their duty , both towards god and man : this will remove all those dividing principles , of selfishness , and pride , and covetousness : it will teach them charity and meekness and forbearance , to study publick peace and common good , to be generous and large in their well-wishing and their well-doing : which are the most proper means to provide for our own quiet and safety . and the truth of this may be evident likewise from common experience ; by which it will appear , that for the general , no kind of men do enjoy so much external peace and freedom and safety , as those that are truly religious . the apostle seems to appeal to that common notion in the minds of all men , concerning the safety belonging to innocence , when he puts it by way of question , who is he that will harm you , if you be followers of that which is good ? implying , that 't is a thing generally known and taken notice of , that there is a kind of natural reverence and awe amongst the worst of men , towards such as are innocent and virtuous . and on the other side no men do incur so many hazards , molestations , contentions , as those that are vicious ; what from their violations of law , their needless provocations of those they converse with , being scarce ever free from danger and trouble ; which the wise-man seems to appeal to , as a thing evident from experience , in those short questions which he proposes : who hath wo ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions ? who hath bablings ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? 't is particularly spoken of the drunkard , but 't is proportionably true of other vices likewise . there is one objection that lyes very obvious against what i have been proving ; and that is from those scriptures where 't is said , that whoever will live godly in christ jesus , must suffer persecution , and that the world should hate them ; besides what may be alledged from common experience to this purpose , concerning the sufferings of some that are good men . to this two things may be said by way of answer . . every thing is not persecution for religion , which men may be apt to style so . some persons who for the main may be truly religious , may yet by their own follies and imprudence , expose themselves to needless sufferings . and in such cases , religion is not to be charged as being the cause of their suffering , but their defect in it , and mistakes about it . . there may be ( as was said before ) some exempt cases from the general rule , and such must those be granted to be , which concern times of persecution ; when religion will be so far from protecting a man , that it will rather expose him to danger and sufferings . and such were those primitive times to which these scriptures do refer , when it seemed good to divine providence , to make use of this as one means for the propagating of christianity in the world , namely , by the suffering of those that professed it . and in such cases , when men are persecuted properly upon the account of religion , god doth usually compensate their outward sufferings with some inward advantage , supplying them with such patience and courage , as will support them with joy and comfort in their suffering for that which is good . but then it must withall be granted , that these scriptures are not equally applicable to such other times and places , when and where the true religion is publickly professed and encouraged , when kings are nursing fathers , and queens nursing mothers to the church ; because in such times and places , the profession of religion will be so far from hindering , that it will rather promote a mans secular advantage . chap. iv. how religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man in respect of riches . thirdly , as to our estates and possessions , i shall shew that religion is the cause of riches . in order to the proof of this , the first thing to be enquired into , is , what is the true nature of wealth or riches , and wherein it may properly be said to consist . and here it is to be noted , that the word riches is capable of a twofold sense , absolute , relative . . in the more absolute sense , it may be defin'd to consist in such a measure of estate as may be sufficient for a mans occasions and conveniencies ; when his possessions are so proportioned , as may fully answer all the necessities of his condition , and afford him a comfortable subsistence , according to his quality , the station wherein he is placed . in which sense men of all ranks and degrees are capable of being rich . a husbandman , or an ordinary tradesman may be as truly styled a rich man , as he that is a gentleman , or a lord , or a king. though perhaps what these can very well afford to fling away upon their diversions , be more than all the estate and possessions which the other can pretend to . and upon this ground it is , that all men will grant , one person to be as truly liberal in giving but a penny , or a poor mite , as another in giving a hundred pounds , because these things are to be measured by the different conditions of the givers : and a man may as well be rich with a little , as liberal with a little . . in the more relative sense , riches may be described to consist in the having of large possessions , when a mans estate and revenue is of such a proportion as is commonly esteemed great ; whether with relation to the generality of other men , and so only those at the upper end of the world are capable of being counted rich ; or else with respect to others of the same rank and order , and so all such are counted rich , who do in their possessions exceed the common sort of those that are of the same rank with them ; this kind of wealth consisting properly in comparison : there being not any one determinate sum , or proportion of revenue , to which the name of riches may be appropriated , but that it may be as much below the occasions of some persons , as it is above the condition of others who yet live plentifully . now the first of these is the only proper notion of riches , because this alone is agreeable to the chief end of wealth , which is to free us from want and necessity . and the other may be rather styled , the being proprietour of great possessions , the meer having of which cannot denominate one a truly rich man for this plain reason ; because though such possessions be in themselves great , yet they may not be sufficient to free the owner of them from want and poverty , whether in respect to his real or imaginary occasions for more : and that is not riches which cannot free a man from being poor . and want of necessaries , is as truly poverty in him that hath much , as in him that hath but a little . he that in any one condition of life , hath enough to answer all his conveniences , such a man is more truly rich than he whose revenue is a thousand times greater , if it be not equal either to his occasions , or to his mind . now when it is said , that religion is the cause of riches , the meaning of this cannot reasonably be understood of riches in the second sense , as if he that were religious should be thereby advanced to the greatest possessions that any man else doth enjoy , from the condition of a peasant or a tradesman to that of a prince . because this would no more consist with those several degrees and subordinations required to the order of the universe , than it would for every common souldier to be a general , or every private man to be a king. but the meaning of this proposition must be , that religion will be a means to supply a man with such a sufficiency as may denominate him rich ; and to free him from such necessities , whether real or imaginary , as others of his rank and station are liable unto . so that by what hath been said , it may appear , that the true notion of riches doth comprehend under it these two things . . a sufficiency for a mans occasions and conveniencies . . an acquiescence of mind , in so much as is in it self really sufficient , and which will appear to be so , supposing a man to judg according to right reason . and that this is not a meer fancy or notion , but the most proper sense of the word riches , wherein all mankind have agreed , may be made very evident . concerning the first of these there can be no colour of doubt . all the scruple will be concerning the second ; whether that be necessary to make a man rich . and to this the philosophers do generally attest . aristotle in particular , doth affirm that the true nature of riches doth consist in the contented use and enjoyment of the things we have , rather than in the possession of them . those that out of penuriousness can scarce afford themselves the ordinary conveniences of life out of their large possessions , have been always accounted poor ; nay , he that cannot use and enjoy the things he doth possess , may upon this account be said to be of all others the most indigent , because such a one doth truly want the things he hath , as well as those he hath not . that man who is not content with what is in it self sufficient for his condition , neither is rich , nor ever will be so ; because there can be no other real limits to his desires , but that of sufficiency ; whatever is beyond this , being boundless and infinite . and though men may please themselves with an imagination , that if they had but such an addition to their estates , they should then think they had enough ; yet that is but a meer imagination , there being no real cause , why they should be more satisfied then , than they are now . he that is in such a condition as doth place him above contempt , and below envy , cannot by any enlargement of his fortune be made really more rich , or more happy than he is . and he is not a wise man , if he do not think so ; nor is he in this either wise or worthy if he be so far solicitous as to part with his liberty , though it be but in some little servilities for the encreasing of his estate . these things being premised , it may be made very evident , that the design of being truly rich , that is , of having enough and being contented , will be most effectually promoted by religion ; and that both morally and naturally . . morally , upon which account this is by the philosophers owned to be one of the rewards belonging to virtue ; good men only having a moral title to wealth upon account of fitness and desert . there are many assertions and promises in scripture to this purpose , of being prospered in our stores and labours , and all that we set our hands unto , of lacking nothing that is good for us . 't is this that must intitle us to the blessing of god , and 't is the blessing of god that maketh rich . solomon speaking of religion under the name of wisdom , saith , that in her left hand are riches , durable riches , that she causes those that love her to inherit substance , and doth fill their treasures . and the apostle tells us , that godliness hath the promises of this life . . religion is a natural cause of riches , with reference to those two chief ingredients required to such a state ; namely , the supplying of us with a plentiful sufficiency as to our possessions , and a satisfaction as to our minds . . a sufficiency as to our estates and possessions . there are but these two ways that can contribute to the improving of mens possessions , namely , the art of getting and of keeping . now religion is an advantage to men in both these respects . nothing can be more evident than that there are many virtues which upon these accounts have a natural tendency to the increasing of mens estates , as diligence in our callings , the diligent hand maketh rich ; heedfulness to improve all sitting opportunities , of providing for our selves and families , being provident in our expences , keeping within the bounds of our income , not running out into needless debts : in brief , all the lawful arts of gain and good husbandry , as to the exercise of them , are founded in the virtues which religion teaches . on the contrary it is plain , that there are many kind of sins , which have a direct natural efficacy for the impoverishing of men : as all kind of sensuality , and voluptuousness , idleness , prodigality , pride , envy , revenge , &c. of all which may be said what solomon says of one of them , that they bring a man to a morsel of bread , and clothe him with raggs . . and as for the second requisite to riches , satisfaction of mind with our conditions , and a free use of the things we enjoy . this is the property of religion , that it can inable a man to be content with his estate , and to live comfortably without such things as others know not how to want . and the ability of being content with a little , may be much more truely called riches , than the having of much , without being satisfied therewith . 't is better to be in health with a moderate appetite , than to be continually eating and drinking under the disease of a voracious appetite or a dropsy : and in this sense , a little that the righteous hath , is better than great riches of the ungodly . but this may appear likewise from experience . let any man impartially consider , what kind of persons those are amongst the generality of men , who in their several degrees and orders are counted most able , and most wealthy , and it will appear that they are such as are most serious in the matter of religion , most diligent in their callings , most just and honest in their dealings , most regular and sober in their conversations , most liberal towards any good work ; upon which account it is , that such places , where men have the opportunity of being instructed in , and excited to the duties of religion , do thereupon thrive and flourish most ; it being one property of religion to civilize men , and make them more inquisitive in learning , and more diligent in practising their several professions . and as for contentment of mind , this being in it self a virtue as well as a priviledg , it is not to be attained but upon the account of religion ; nor are there any that enjoy it , but such as are truely virtuous . there are several objections that may be made against what i have been proving , but all of them capable of a plain and satisfactory solution . . there are some kind of virtues that seem to have a contrary tendency ; as charity to those that want , bounty and liberality to any good work , which in aristotles judgment is scarce consistent with growing rich . by that saying of aristotle , may be meant riches in the second sense , as it denotes large possessions , which this virtue of liberality doth not naturally promote ; but it may very well consist with riches in the first and most proper notion of it , as it denotes sufficiency for our occasions ; and the ability of contributing in some proportion , towards any worthy and charitable work , is in the esteem of every good man one of those occasions and conveniencies required to such a sufficiency , and cannot any more be a prejudice to it , than it would be for a man to lay up some part of his wealth in the safest place , to lend it out upon the best interest , to part with it for the purchase of the same favour and assistance from others in the like exigencies ; to lay it out upon his pleasure , with respect to that inward comfort and satisfaction , which doth accompany the conscience of doing worthy things . and besides all this , experience will assure us , that there is a secret blessing which doth for the most part accompany such actions ; so that men grow the richer and not the poorer for them : and they that in this kind sow bountifully , do very often , even in this world , reap bountifully . . there are some kind of vices that seem to have a tendency to the enriching of men , as fraud , extortion , sordidness , all kind of unlawful ways of getting and keeping an estate . but to this it may be said , . these vices may tend to the encreasing of mens possessions , but not to the making of them truely rich : and 't is a plain argument that such persons do not think themselves to have a sufficiency , who can apply themselves to such wretched courses for the getting of more . . 't is commonly seen upon experience , that there is a secret curse attends such practises , a canker that eats into such gain , a hole in the bottom of the bag , by which it insensibly dreins out and wasts away . as the partridg sitteth upon eggs and hatcheth them not , so he that getteth riches , and not by right , shall leave them in the midst of his days , and at the end shall be a fool . as that silly bird doth sometimes take much needless care and pains , in sitting upon and cherishing subventaneous eggs , such as can never be fruitful , which ( as naturalists observe ) that creature is very subject unto , or as the fecund eggs of that bird being laid upon the ground , are many times trod upon by passengers or wild beasts , after it hath bestowed much pains for the hatching of them : so are the wicked designs of gain often disappointed in the embryo ; and the contrivers of them , instead of approving themselves to be more wise and subtile men than others , do appear at last to be fools . he that will carefully observe the usual course of things in the world , may from his own experience find instances enough , to confirm those sayings of the wise man ; there is that scattereth , and yet increaseth , and there is that withholdeth more than is meet , but it tendeth to poverty . wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished . the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just . he that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches , shall surely come to want . he that by unjust gain increaseth his substance , shall gather it for him that will pity the poor . . there are some good men that are poor . and 't is said that god hath chosen the poor of this world , to receive the gospel and to be rich in faith . to this it may be said , . the providence of god may so order it sometimes , as to reduce good men to great exigencies , to wander up and down in sheepskins and goatskins , being destitute , afflicted , tormented . but then these are such particular exempt cases , as are not suitable to the most usual and general course of things . and besides , such as are good men , may sometimes be defective in several of those duties which religion doth oblige them to , diligence , caution , &c. and the poverty of such may justly be ascribed to their defect in religion . . as for that scripture that god hath chosen the poor in this world , it is not to be understood in the more absolute sense , for such as want necessaries , because 't is plain from other texts , that though some of the primitive believers , were by reason of the persecution of those times reduced to great exigencies ; yet the generality of the rest were very liberal in their contributions towards them . but it must be understood in the relative sence , concerning such as might be styled comparatively poor , ( i. e. ) such as are of a lower rank and meaner condition than others , and consequently had less temptation to corrupt and seduce them , than those that did more abound in these earthly things . chap. v. how religion conduces to the happiness of the outward man in respect of pleasure ; or the chearful enjoyment of outward blessings . fourthly , religion is the most proper means to promote the interest of pleasure . in the handling of this , i shall first endeavour to state the true nature of pleasure , and to shew what is the most proper notion of it . now pleasure doth consist in that satisfaction which we receive in the use and enjoyment of the things we possess . it is founded in a suitableness and congruity betwixt the faculty and the object . those are called pleasant tastes and smells , which are apt to excite such a gentle motion as is agreeable to the nerves appointed for those functions . now it cannot be denyed , but that beasts and insects may be said to be capable of pleasure proper to their kind , as well as men . only this must withall be granted , that the more noble and the more capacious the faculties and the objects are , the greater will the delights be that flow from the union of them . upon which account all intellectual delights , do far exceed those that are sensual ; and amongst persons that are capable of intellectual pleasures , their enjoyments must be greatest , whose faculties are most enlarged and most vigorous . 't is true indeed , men of vitiated and depraved faculties , though they are thereby disabled for passing a true judgment upon the nature of things , being apt to mistake sowre for sweet ; yet will it not thence follow , that they are incapable of pleasure : they may have such peculiar kinds of gusts , as will be able to find a satisfaction and sweetness in such things as appear nauseous and loathsome to others . and 't is the congruity of things that is the foundation of pleasure . but then such persons are beholding to their ignorance and their delusion , to the distemper of their faculties , for their relish of these things . none but those that are foolish and deceived , and under the servitude of divers lusts , devoting themselves to such kind of things for pleasures . supposing a man to have sound healthy faculties , such an one will not be able to find any true satisfaction and complacence , but only in those things which have in them a natural goodness and rectitude . they must be regular objects that have in them a suitableness to regular faculties . this being premised by way of explication , i shall proceed to prove , that religion is the most proper means for the promoting of this interest ; and this it doth morally , naturally . . morally ; as it is one of the rewards belonging to virtue , which alone upon its own account doth deserve all such advantages , as may render its condition pleasant and comfortable in this world . besides the several assertions and promises in scripture to this purpose . prov. . . speaking of religion under the name of wisdom , it is said , that her ways are ways of pleasantness . the yoke of it is easie , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gracious and sweet , and the burden light . the commandments of it not grievous . the fruits of it are love , and joy , and peace . the duties of religion are in several places of scripture compared to musick and to feasting ; and are said to be sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb . i delight to do thy will , o my god , psal. . . . religion is the natural cause of pleasure . which i shall endeavour to make out by reason and experience . . by reason ; religion hath a natural efficacy in promoting the interest of pleasure , teaching a man a chearful liberal use of the things he enjoys ; how to make his soul enjoy good in his labour ; how to sweeten and allay all the difficulties and troubles of this life . nor doth it restrain men from any such sensible pleasures , as are agreeable to reason , or our true interests . it only prohibits mistakes and excesses about them , teaches us so to regulate our selves in the use of them , that they may truly deserve the name of pleasure ; how to provide against that natural emptiness and vanity , which there is in all such things , whereby they are apt quickly to satiate and weary us ; and upon this account it may be said to promote rather than hinder the interest of pleasure . as for the pleasures of the appetite , these abide no longer than till the necessities and conveniencies of nature are satisfied ; and so far religion doth allow of them . when our hunger and thirst is well appeased , all that follows after is but a faint kind of pleasure , if it be not rather to be styled satiety and a burden . as for those kind of things , which we call by the name of sports and diversions , religion doth likewise admit of a moderate use of these ; and what is beyond such a moderate use , doth rather tire men , than recreate them : it being as much the property of such things , to weary a man when he is once sufficiently refreshed by them , as it is to refresh him when he is wearied by other things . we read indeed of the pleasures of sin ; but besides that they are of a baser and grosser kind , 't is said also , that they are but for a season , but for a moment , and the end of them is heaviness . the ways of sin may seem broad and pleasant , but they lead down to death , and take hold of hell . there are some vices that seem sweet to the palate , but do after fill the mouth with gravel . there are several sins which have very specious and tempting appearances , which yet upon trial do bite like a serpent , and sting like an adder . by what hath been said , it appears , that religion is a natural cause of promoting these sensible pleasures ; besides , that it affords delights incomparably beyond all these corporeal things , such as those who are strangers to religion cannot understand , and do not intermeddle with . . but besides the reasons to this purpose , it may appear likewise from experience , that the great pleasure of mens lives is from the goodness of them ; such only being capable of a free and liberal enjoyment of what they possess , who know how to regulate themselves in the fruition of them , to avoid extremities on either hand , to prevent those mixtures of guilt and fear , which will imbitter all their enjoyments . such persons only who have good consciences being capable of having a continual feast . the great objection against this will be , from the difficulty of the duties of mortification , repentance , self-denial , taking up the cross , &c. all which do imply in them a repugnancy to our natures , and consequently an inconsistency with pleasure . for answer to this it must be observed , that difficulty doth properly arise from a disproportion betwixt the power and the work ; as when a person of little strength is put to carry a great burden , when one of a mean capacity is put to answer an hard question in learning . now supposing men to retain their vitious habits , it must be granted , to be as difficult for such to perform the duties of . religion , or to forbear the acts of sin , as for a lame and impotent man to run , or for a man under a violent feaver to be restrained from drinking . but suppose these men cured of these maladies , and their faculties to be rectified , then all this disproportion and unsuitableness will vanish ; and those things will become easie and delightful , which were before very difficult and unpleasant . now it is the property of religion , that it changes the natures of men , making them new creatures . it puts off the old man , which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts , and puts on the new man , which after god is created in righteousness and true holiness . it removes our vitious habits , and endows the mind with other kind of inclinations and abilities . and though there should be some difficulties in the very passage from one state to another , yet this ought not to be objected as a prejudice against religion ; because there are far greater difficulties and pains to be undergone in the service and drudgery of impetuous lusts . the trouble of being cured , is not so great as that of being sick ; nor is the trouble of being sober comparable to that of being debauched and intemperate . that godly sorrow which is required as one of the first acts in the change of our condition , is always accompanied with secret pleasure : and as it is said of wicked men , that in the midst of laughter their heart is sorrowful ; so may it be said of good men , that in the midst of their sorrow their heart is joyful . and when the conditions of men are once changed , when they are passed over to another state , it will then prove as easie to them to observe the duties of religion , as it was before to follow their own sinful inclinations . an evil tree doth not more naturally bring forth evil fruit , than a good tree doth bring forth good fruit . as for that moroseness and sowreness of carriage which some men , who pretend to religion , are noted for ; this is not justly to be ascribed to their religion , but to their want of it : joy and chearsulness being not only a priviledg , but a duty which religion doth oblige men to , whereby they are to adorn their profession , and win over others to a love of it . chap. vi. how religion conduces to our honour and reputation . fifthly , for the interest of honour and reputation . this is one of the greatest blessings which this world can afford , much to be preferred before riches or pleasures , or life it self . a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches , and loving favour rather than silver and gold . one that is a generous virtuous man will chuse to dye , rather than do any thing that may expose him to infamy . st. paul was of this mind ; it were better for me to dye , than that any should make my glorying void . and because it is a thing of so great excellency , therefore we do pay it , as the best service we can do , to god , and to his deputies , magistrates and parents . 't is by this that we are rendered useful and acceptable to others . and besides the advantage we have by it while we live , 't is one of those things that will abide after us , when we are gone out of the world ; and for that reason a special regard is to be had to it . and the more wise and virtuous any man is , the more care will he take to transmit a grateful memory of himself to future times ; and since he must be spoken of after his departure , to take care that he be well-spoken of , that his name may be as a precious oyntment , leaving a perfume behind it , that men may rise up at the mention of it and call him blessed . nor can any man despise honour , but he that doth either despair of it , or resolve against doing any thing that may deserve it . now honour is properly the esteem and good opinion which men have concerning the person or the actions of another , together with such external expressions of respect as are suitable thereunto . and i shall make it appear , that this kind of happiness doth depend upon religion both morally , naturally . . morally . nothing being more generally agreed upon amongst all the philosophers , than that honour is the peculiar reward of virtue , and doth not properly belong to any thing else . and that shame is the proper reward of vice , nor can it belong to any thing else . the scripture is very copious in expressions to this purpose . such as are religious , are styled the excellent of the earth , psal. . . and said to be more excellent than their neighbours . prov. . . they are gods peculiar treasure , the dearly beloved of his soul. he sets apart the man that is godly for himself . though such persons may be but low in their outward condition ; being put to wander up and down in sheepskins and goatskins , being destitute , afflicted , tormented , seeking for refuge in desarts and mountains , in dens and caves of the earth ; yet are they , upon the account of religion , of such an excellent value , that in the judgment of the holy ghost , the world is not worthy of them , heb. . , . the wise-man speaking of rellgion , saith , that it shall be an ornament of grace to thy head , and as a chain about thy neck . exalt her , and she shall promote thee , and bring thee to honour . she shall give to thy head an ornament of grace , and a crown of glory . god hath engaged himself by promise to those people that are religious , that he will set them above other nations ; they shall be made the head and not the tail . he will honour those that honour him . and certainly , he who is the king of kings , must needs be the fountain of honour , and be able to dispose of it as he pleases . and on the other side , shame is in scripture said to be the proper reward and consequent of sin , especially in the writings of david and solomon . religion is styled by the name of wisdom , and sin by the name of folly . and the wise-man having said , prov. . , that the wise shall inherit glory , 't is added , but shame shall be the promotion of fools : it shall be their promotion ; the utmost that such persons shall ever attain to , will be but disgrace ; when they are exalted and lifted up , it shall prove to their disparagement , to make their shame more conspicuous . and prov. . . 't is said , a wicked man is loathsome , and cometh to shame . the word translated loathsome , properly denotes such kind of persons to be as nauseous and offensive to the judgments of others , as the most loathsome unsavoury things are to their tasts or smells . they are styled by the name of wolves and bears , swine , dogs , and vipers , things both hurtful and hateful . men that are truly virtuous , have a reverence paid them by all that know them . and on the other side , vicious men are despised . not but that wicked persons may be inwardly honoured , by such as do not know them to be wicked ; and on the other side , those that are good , may by others be esteemed and used , as being the rubbish and off-scouring of all things . but this is to be ascribed chiefly to their mistake and ignorance of them , whilst they look upon such persons as being the most dangerous pernicious persons . but the generality of mankind have heretofore , and still do pay a reverence to any person whom they believe to be innocent and virtuous . . religion is the natural cause of honour and reputation , so far as such things are capable of any physical efficacy . this i shall endeavour to prove , both from reason and experience . i. by reason . for the better understanding of this , we are to take notice , that honour may be considered under a twofold notion . . according to the desert and foundation of it , in the person honoured . . according to the acknowledgment or attribution of it , in the person honouring . now religion doth by a natural causality influence both these . . according to the foundation of it , in the person honoured , which is true virtue and merit . i have shewed before , that the essence of man may be said to consist in being religious , and consequently this must be the rule and measure of a mans real worth ; it must be our excelling in that which makes us men , that must make us better men than others . all other things have some kind of standard , by which the natural goodness of them is to be measured ; so is it with men likewise . and this is usually from their suitableness to that chief end they are designed for . quae conditio rerum , eadem & hominum est ; navis bona dicitur , non quae pretiosis coloribus picta est , &c. ( saith seneca ) we do not therefore esteem a ship to be good , because it is curiously painted and gilded , or carved and inlay'd but because 't is fitted for all the purposes of navigation , which is the proper end of a ship. nor do we therefore count a sword to be good , because it hath a rich hilt and an embroidered scabbard but because it is sit for the proper use of a sword , which is to cut , &c. in homine quoque nihil ad rem pertinet , quantum aret , quantum foeneret , a quàm multis salutetur , sed quàm bonus sit . it should be so likewise in our esteem of men , who are not so much to be valued by the grandeur of their estates or titles , as by their inward goodness . the true stamp of nobility is upon the minds of men , and doth consist in such virtuous habits , as will enable a man for worthy designs and actions ; when the image of god , who is the rule of excellency and the fountain of honour , is in any measure restored upon it . every man is endowed with a natural principle , inclining him to a state of happiness , and hath in some measure both an ability to judg of , and a freedom and liberty for applying himself unto , those duties which are the proper means for the promoting of this end : nor is he upon any other account to be justly praised or blamed , but according to the right or wrong use of this natural liberty . and therefore as such a man doth find either in himself or others , a constant and firm resolution to make a right use of this , so should he proportion his esteem accordingly , preferring this inward greatness , this rectitude of mind , whereby a man is resolved in every condition , to do that which shall appear to be his duty , before any kind of external greatness whatsoever . there is a respect and honour due to all kind of virtues whatsoever , as rendering men amiable and lovely . but amongst the rest , there are two , which are by general consent esteemed venerable , and such as do greatly advance the reputation of those who are endowed with them ; namely , wisdom , courage . because they have a more intrinsick rise , and do less depend upon external advantages , but seem rather to be rooted in the inward frame and temper of our minds ; and withall are most beneficial both to our selves and others : the former signifying a man to have those inteltellectual abilities which are proper to his kind , whereby the humane nature is to be distinguished from other things : the other , because it argues a rectitude in the will , and a power to subdue the passion of fear , which is most natural to our present state of infirmity ; and withall doth support a man against difficulties , and enable him for those two great services , of doing and suffering as he ought . and for this reason , the vices that are opposite to these , are amongst all others counted the most shameful ; there being no greater reproach to be cast upon any one , than to be esteemed a fool or a coward . now a man that is irreligious cannot justly pretend to either of these virtues . . for wisdom . this is so essential to religion , that in the scripture-phrase they both go under the same name . and there is very good reason , why it should be so ; because there is such an intimate agreement between the natures of them . the philosopher doth define wisdom to consist in an ability and inclination , to make choice of right means in the prosecution of our true end . and nothing can enable a man for this but religion , both as to the subordinate end of temporal happiness in this world , and chiefly with respect to that great and supreme end of eternal happiness in the world to come . . and then for courage . 't is not possible for a man to be truly valiant , unless he be withall truly religious : he may be bold and daring , and able in a fearless manner to rush upon any danger ; but then he must stifle his reason from considering what the consequences of things may be , what shall become of him hereafter , if he should miscarry : there being no man whatsoever so totally free from the apprehensions of a future state , but that when he is serious and considerate , he must be startled with doubts and fears concerning it : so that there cannot be any rational , sedate , deliberate courage , but only in such as have good hopes of a better estate in the other world ; and 't is religion only that can enable a man for this . . honour considered , according to the acknowledgment or attribution of it in the persons honouring ; which is the external form , or as the body of honour , being much in the power of others . and this may be distinguished into these two kinds , inward , outward . . inward , honouring is properly an act of the understanding , in passing judgment upon the nature of things : when we do in our minds , own and acknowledg the real worth or virtue of a thing or person . and every one who will act rationally , not miscalling good evil , and evil good , must proportion his esteem of things , according to the real value of them . nor is it in any mans power , so far to offer violence to his own faculties , as to believe any thing against evidence ; to esteem that man to be either worthy or unworthy , whom he knows to be otherwise . he may call him and use him as he pleases , and he may be willing to entertain prejudices , either for or against him ; and in this sense , honor est in honorante : but he cannot inwardly think or believe otherwise than according to his evidence . for men of no real worth to expect this inward honour from others , as it is very unequal , requiring brick without straw ; and very unlawful , it being as well a mans duty to contemn a vile person , as to honour those that fear the lord ; so neither is it possible , because men must necessarily judge according to the most prevailing evidence ; nor can they esteem such a one to be worthy whom they know to be otherwise , any more than they can believe that to be white and streight which they see to be black and crooked . there are indeed some other things that do commonly go under this name , as the several degrees of nobility , titles , and places of dignity , which are usually called by this name of honour ; but these things ( as they are abstracted from magistracy ) being wholly extrinsecal , have no more due to them , but a mere external respect : they may challenge from us that we should give them their due titles , and demean our selves towards them with that observance and ceremony which becomes their quality : but then as for that inward esteem and valuation of our minds belonging to good men ; such persons can challenge no greater share of this , than according as their real merit and virtue shall require . the royal stamp upon any kind of metal may be sufficient to give it an extrinsick value , and to determine the rate at which it is to pass amongst coyns ; but it cannot give an intrinsick value , or make that which is but brass to be gold. 't is true indeed there are some callings and particular relations of men , to which an inward veneration is due , though the persons themselves should not be virtuous ; namely magistrates , and ministers , and parents , and benefactors ; who having somewhat of a divine stamp and impress , may therefore challenge from us , that we should demean our selves towards them , both with such an outward respect as becomes their places , and with such an inward respect too , as may be suitable to that image which they bear ; to our dependance upon them , and obligations to them . but then we cannot be obliged to think such persons good men , unless we have some evidence to believe them to be so , or at least , not to be otherwise ; so that they are beholding to something extrinsecal to their persons , namely to their callings and relations , for that honour which is paid to them . . outward honouring is , when men do by their words or actions testify that esteem and respect which they have for the worth of others . and this indeed may be truely said to be in the power of others , because men have a greater command over their words and actions , than they have over their belief . now all men that are truely virtuous and religious , will be ready to give unto every one his due honour ; and such are the best judges of it . upon which account tully defines true honour to be consentiens laus bonorum , the concurrent approbation of good men ; such only being fit to give true praise , who are themselves praise-worthy . as for vitious and irreligious persons , 't is not to be expected that they should be forward to commend that which is opposite to them . but then 't is to be considered , that these are no competent judges of such matters : and for a man to resent deeply the contempt of unworthy persons , were overmuch to honour them , as if their esteem could add any thing to his reputation . and yet , even these persons cannot avoid having an inward veneration for goodness and religion , which is the reason why they are so forward to dissemble it , to disguise themselves under the shew of it . men do not use to counterfeit common stones and metals , but such as are precious , jewels and gold ; nor would any one take the pains to counterfeit being religious , if he did not think it a matter of some value , and a means to procure esteem from others . and when such men do revile and persecute any one for being religious , yet is there such a natural veneration belonging to the thing it self , as makes them to disguise it under the name of hypocrisy , heresy , superstition , &c. whereby they may justify themselves in their opposing of it . ii. but this is only general discourse , and in the notion . the best argument to this purpose would be from experience ; by which i mean that practical knowledg , which every man may attain by his own observation of the usual course of things in the world . and by this it will appear , that no kind of persons have been more highly reverenced in the hearts and consciences of others , than those that have been most eminent for their virtue and religion ; which hath been always true , both with respect to publick communities , and private persons . . for nations . if we consult the histories of former times , we shall find that saying of solomon constantly verifyed , that righteousness doth exalt a nation , but sin doth prove a reproach to it . and more especially the sin of irreligiousness and prophaneness ; as this doth increase in any nation , so must the honour and reputation of that nation decrease . the roman empire was then at the highest , as to its name and greatness , when it was so as to its virtue ; when they were most punctual in observing the rites of their religion ( though that were a false way of worship ) most heroical in their justice , courage , fidelity , gratitude ; then it was that they deserved to govern the world , and to be had in greatest honour above all other nations . and not only cicero , and polybius , two heathen writers , who , upon that account , might be thought more partial ; but st. austin also and lactantius , two of the fathers , do ascribe the flourishing of that empire , when it was at its height , to the religion and piety and virtue of those times ; and as they did afterwards degenerate from this , so did they decline likewise in their greatness and honour . . thus also hath it been with particular persons ; amongst the heathen , what elogies do we find in the honour of socrates , aristides , cato , epictetus ? the last of whom , though but a poor slave , had yet such a veneration paid to his memory , that his earthen lamp by which he was wont to study , was , after his death , sold for three thousand drachms . nor was it otherwise amongst the christians ; the apostles were but poor fishermen , illiterate mechanicks ; many of the martyrs were but of mean condition , much opposed and persecuted in the world ; and yet these men , during the time of their lives , were highly reverenced amongst those that knew them ; and since their deaths , what can be more glorious than that renown which they have amongst men , when the greatest kings and princes will not mention their names without reverence , when whole nations are willing to set apart , and to observe solemn days and festivals in honour of their memories ? and as it hath always been thus formerly , so i appeal to every man's breast , whether it be not so now . let them but examine what their inclinations are towards such persons whom they believe to be truly virtuous ; not only to such among them , as are their particular acquaintance and friends ; but likewise to strangers , nay to very enemies , whether they do not esteem and love them and will-well to them . it cannot be denyed , but that there are too many in the world , who propose to themselves such ways and courses for the promoting of their honour and reputation , as are quite opposite to that which i have now been discoursing of ; namely , prophaneness and contempt of religion , despising that which other men stand in awe of ; by which they think to get the reputation of wit and courage ; of wit , by pretending to penetrate more deeply into the nature of things , and to understand them better than others do ; not to be so easily imposed upon , as other credulous people are : of courage , by not being so easily scared at the apprehension of danger at a distance . but the plain truth is , such persons do hereby prove themselves to be both fools and cowards . fools ; in mistaking their great interest , in making choice of such means , as can never promote the end they design . there being no kind of men that are more exposed ( whatsoever they themselves may think of it ) than those that seek for credit by despising of religion . fools , in venturing their future estates and their souls upon such hazards , as all mankind would cry-out-upon , for the most palpable folly and madness , if they should do the like towards their temporal estates , or their bodies . cowards ; in being more afraid of little dangers , because they are present , than of greater , because they are future , and at a distance . as that souldier , who doth more dread the present danger of fighting , when he is obliged to it , than the future danger of suffering by martial law for running away , may justly be esteemed a notorious coward ; so may that man , who is more afraid of a present inconvenience , by incurring the prejudice and displeasure of his loose companions , to whom he would be acceptable , than of a future mischief from the judgment of god. no man will esteem another to be truely valiant , because he is not afraid to do such vile unworthy things as will expose him to the displeasure and punishment of the civil magistrate ; much less should he be so accounted , for daring to do such things , as will in the issue expose him to the divine vengeance . chap. vii . how religion conduceth to the happiness of the inward man , as it tends to the regulating of our faculties , and to the peace and tranquillity of our minds . as for the internal well-fare of our minds , this ( as i observed before ) doth depend upon these two things . . the perfecting and regulating of our faculties , inabling them for their proper functions , and the keeping of them in due subordination to one another . . in the peace , quiet , contentment consequent thereupon . and both these do likewise depend upon religion . . for the perfecting and regulating of our faculties , and inabling them for their proper functions . these things do depend upon religion , both morally , naturally . . morally ; as these things are blessings and priviledges , so do they belong to religion as the proper reward of it . those men only being fit to have free and large minds , and refined faculties , who are willing to improve them to the best use and advantage . to this purpose there are several expressions in scripture : a good understanding have all they that do his commandments . thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies . he that doth the will of god shall know it . . naturally , as these things are duties , so are they the proper effects of virtue . the generality of the heathen philosophers have agreed in this , that sin is the natural cause of debasing the soul , immersing it into a state of sensuality and darkness , deriving such an impotence and deformity upon the mind , as the most loathsome diseases do upon the body . and therefore it must be religion and virtue , on the other side , that must enlighten and enlarge the mind , and restore it from the degeneracy of its lapsed estate , renewing upon us the image of our maker , adorning us with those beauties of holiness , which belong to the hidden man of the heart . 't is the proper work of religion , to frame the mind to the nearest conformity unto the nature of god ; upon which account it is said in scripture to consist in a participation of the divine nature . other things may be said to have some remote resemblance to the deity ; but man only amongst the visible creatures , is capable of those more immediate communications from him , by religion : and all kind of perfection is to be measured by its nearness or remoteness to the first and chief pattern of all perfection . as all kind of vice doth go under the name of impotence , so religion is described to be the spirit of power , and of a sound mind . because it doth establish in a man a just empire over himself , over all those blind powers and passions which of themselves are apt to raise tumults and commotions against the dominion of reason . that which health is to the body , whereby the outward senses are enabled to make a true judgment of things , that is virtue to the mind , whereby the inward faculties must be fitted and disposed to discern betwixt things that differ , which those who are under the power of vicious habits are not able to do . but to speak more particularly , religion doth , . enlarge the understanding , enabling it to see beyond the narrow bounds of sense and time , to behold things that are invisible ; god being in the intellectual world , as the sun is in the sensible world ; and as natural blindness doth disable men from seeing the one , so will spiritual blindness for the other . . it doth exalt and regulate the will , to a desire after , and acquiescence in such things as will promote the perfection of our natures , and consequently will beget in the mind , the truest liberty , ingenuity , generosity , which are altogether inconsistent with the servitude of lusts and passions . . it doth reduce the passions , unto a due subordination to the superior faculties ; restraining the violence and impetuousness of them , from whence the greatest part of the trouble and disquiet of mens lives doth proceed . as he that is of a healthy constitution , can endure heat and cold and labour with little or no prejudice to himself ; so can one of a virtuous mind undergo various conditions without receiving any hurt from them . such an one is not lifted up by prosperity , nor dejected by adversity : he is not a servant to anger , fear , envy , malice , which are the great occasions of disturbing our inward peace and quiet . . the second thing wherein the wellfare of our minds doth consist , is peace , tranquillity , joy , confidence , in opposition to inward disquiet , anxiety , grief , fear , diffidence . and these do depend upon religion likewise , both morally , naturally . . morally , as these things may be considered under the notion of blessings and priviledges , so they belong to the rewards of religion . all philosophers having agreed in this , that inward serenity and composedness of mind is the proper reward of moral virtue . to which the scripture doth attest , in those expressions where 't is said , that a good man is satisfied from himself ; in the fear of the lord is strong confidence . the righteous is bold as a lion. thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee . that the fruits of righteousness shall be peace , and the effect of righteousness , quietness and assurance for ever . that tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul that doth evil ; but to him that doth good , glory and honour and peace , serenity and composedness of mind , peace that passeth all understanding , joy that is unspeakable and full of glory . . naturally ; as these things are considered under the notion of duties , so they are the most genuine fruits and effects of religion ; which doth oblige us to them , and enable us for them . . religion doth oblige men to joy and peace and confidence . the very heathens have acknowledged these to be such things , as all good men are bound to upon the account of duty . and the scripture doth abound in precepts to this purpose . rejoice in the lord always , and again i say rejoice . commit thy ways unto the lord , and he shall bring it to pass . be carful for nothing . cast thy burden upon him , as knowing that he takes care for thee . these kind of duties do formally and in the very essence of them , contain in them the nature of happiness . and on the contrary , the opposite vices do contain in them the true nature of punishment , and render men formally miserable . such a man must needs be unhappy , who lives under the power of continual anxieties , sorrow , fears , diffidence , selfwill , malice , envy , &c. of several of which , that may be said which the poet speaks concerning one of them . invidiâ siculi non invenêre tyranni tormentum majus . the sicilian tyrants , who were of old famous for inventing engines of torture , as that of phalaris his bull , were not able to find out any kind of torment for the body , equal to that which some of these vices do occasion to the mind . . and as religion doth oblige us to , so likewise doth it enable us for this kind of happiness , and that upon a two-fold account . . from the general nature of religion and virtue considered in it self . . from the most natural effects and consequences of it . . from the general nature of religion considered in it self . all kind of vertues containing in their very essence , these kind of inward felicities , either formally or virtually : the very foundation of happiness and misery , reward and punishment , being laid in the very nature of these things themselves . that natural appetite , whereby men are carried out after a state of happiness , is for the nature of it so universal and radical , so closely fixed to our first principles ; and for the degree of it so ardent and impetuous , that 't is not possible for men to be disappointed in it , without a very quick sensation , and some proportionable trouble for it . the more eager men are in their desires , the more sensible must they be of gain or loss . now all such courses as have a natural tendency to the satisfying of this appetite , are upon that account parts of our happiness . and on the other side , those which are cross to it , must needs make us miserable . and if it be so ( as i have already proved ) that our happiness must consist in such a similitude and resemblance to the supreme good as we are capable of ; it must hence follow , that religion is formally happiness . he that lives under the power of godlike dispositions in his mind , and doth accordingly exercise them in the course of his life , may be said eo nomine to be a happy man : holiness and happiness being but two distinct names for the same thing . i shewed before that the true nature of pleasure was founded in a suitableness betwixt the faculty and the object : from whence it will follow , that reasonable actions have in them a suitableness to reasonable minds ; and the more virtuous and religious any man is , the more delight must such a man take in such kind of actions . that man who hath a just sense of his own impotent dependent condition , and how much it is for the interest of the world , and the good of all humane affairs , that there is a supreme governour , who is infinitely wise , and powerful , and gracious , and how reasonable it is that men should demean themselves towards him suitably to this belief : he that is convinced how necessary it is for the promoting his own private , as well as the publick wellfare , that men be forward to do all good offices of justice and friendship towards one another : i say , he that is under this conviction , must needs find much satisfaction and pleasure in such kind of actions . as for first table duties which consist in acquaintance with god , communion with him , in meditating upon his wisdom , goodness , power , in affiance , love , reverence ; if these were not acts of the highest pleasure , they would never have been appointed for the happiness of our future state in heaven . and as for second table duties , what greater pleasure and satisfaction can there be to a generous mind , than to do worthy things , to be employed about acts of justice and charity and beneficence , to promote publick peace and good-will amongst men ? eating and drinking is not a more proper satisfaction to those natural appetites of hunger and thirst , than the doing of good is to the rational inclinations of a good man. as all light , and love , and joy are from above , from the father of lights ; so all darkness , sorrow , fear , disquiet , must be from below , from the prince of darkness . wicked men are well compared to the troubled sea , which cannot rest , but by reason of its being tossed to and fro by contrary winds , is still casting up mire and dirt . he that lives under the servitude of lusts and passions , must always be in an unquiet restless condition ; because such masters can never be satisfied in any one service they employ us about ; besides the interfering and contrariety of those employments which they will exact from us . vice is multiform , scelera dissident , and therefore must they needs be inconsistent with rest and quiet . one principal requisite to a state of serenity of mind , doth consist in an uniform agreement about that chief end which we are to pursue , together with the means conducing to it ; whereas they that have many and contrary things in design , must needs be distracted about them . the soul that cannot fix it self upon the enjoyment of god , who is the only all-sufficient good , and consequently the only center of rest , must be like those disconsolate spirits , which our saviour speaks of , who being cast out of their habitations , were put to wander up and down through desart places , seeking rest , but finding none . . from the most natural effects and consequences of religion , in respect of that inward confidence , peace , joy , which must follow the conscience of well-doing ; insomuch , that there is not any kind of tree which doth more naturally produce its proper fruits , than the habits of virtue do bring forth joy and serenity in the mind . when a man shall sit down and take a serious review of what he hathdone , and finds it to be most agreeable both to his duty and interest , from hence there must needs arise an inward satisfaction of mind . and on the other side , a fountain doth not more naturally send out waters , than vice doth punishment and misery . nor is this any meer notion or fancy , which some severe melancholy divines would impose upon the world ; but it is most agreeable to those natural sentiments which the very heathen have had and do frequently mention : seneca in particular ; res severa est verum gaudium ; unde sit , interrogas ? dicam , ex bona conscientia , ex honestis conciliis , ex rectis actionibus . all solid comfort must arise from a good conscience , and honest actions . i appeal to the experience of all considering men , whether this doth not appear to them , that the generality of those who live most pleasantly in the world , are the most religious and virtuous part of mankind ; such as know how to regulate themselves in the fruition of what they have , how to avoid the extremities on either hand , to prevent those mixtures of guilt and fear , which are apt to sowre and imbitter all our enjoyments ? whether lawful pleasures , which a man may reflect upon without any sense of guilt , be not much to be preferred before others ? whether those intellectual delights that flow from the conscience of well-doing , be not much better than any sinful sensual pleasure ? whether the doing of any worthy action , such as all good men must think well of and commend , do not afford a more solid lasting pleasure than can be had from any sensible enjoyments ? whether any thing can be more suitable , and consequently delightful to a generous mind , than an opportunity of being grateful to those by whom a man hath been obliged ; the making of an ample return for the favours he hath received ? whether that noble way of conquest , overcoming evil with good , surprizing an enemy by kindness , when we have it in our power to be severe towards him , be not a far greater pleasure than that which is by some counted the sweetest of all other things , revenge ? religion doth likewise advance the soul to an holy confidence , concerning the divine favour and good-will towards us . if our hearts condemn us not , we have confidence towards god. a good conscience will set us above all those fears and doubts and cares , whereby the lives of men are rendered uncomfortable . when in decrepit age a man cannot find comfort in other things , when the grinders shall be few , and appetite cease , then will this be a continual feast . the most rational , solid , sublime , complete , durable delights , of all others , do flow from the conscience of well-doing . 't is a chief part this , of that heaven which we enjoy upon earth , and 't is likewise a principal part of that happiness which we hope to enjoy in heaven . next to the beatifical vision and fruition of god , is the happiness of a good conscience , and next to that the society of saints and angels . whereas on the other side , he that lives under the sense of guilt , and a consciousness of his obligation to punishment , must needs be destitute of all inward peace and comfort : such an one can have nothing to support him , with patience , under a state of affliction in this world , nor can he have any rational grounds to expect a better condition hereafter ; and therefore must needs have very dreadful apprehensions of dying , and be all his life time subject to bondage through the fear of death . and that man must needs be very miserable , who can neither have true joy in life , nor any hope in death . this the heathen philosophers have acknowledged , that there is always a secret dread which doth accompany guilt . so seneca in particular , speaking of wicked men , he saith , tantùm metuunt quantùm nocent , that such men must have fears proportionable to their guilt . and a little after , dat paenas quisquis expect at , quisquis autem meruit expect at ; those men do really suffer punishment , who live under the expectation of it , and whoever doth any thing to deserve it must needs expect it . 't is not easie to express the torment which those men undergo , — quos diri conscia facti mens habet attonitos , & surdo verbere caedit , occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum . — mens sibi conscia facti praemetuens , adhibet stimulos , terretque flagellis . 't is the unsupportableness of this , that many times doth cause men in the bitterness of their souls , to chuse strangling and death rather than life . the heathens do set forth such a mans condition , by the fiction of furies continually haunting and scourging him : but zophar doth better describe it , where he saith , terrors are upon him , all darkness is hid in his secret places , a fire not blown shall consume him . though some men are so hardened against the sense of guilt , as to go on in their sinful courses , without feeling any of this remorse for them ; yet is their peace so far from being a priviledg , that it doth render their condition more desperate , because it supposes them to have a reprobate mind , and such a stupidity upon their consciences , as makes them past feeling , being seared as it were with an hot iron . which though it may preserve them from those present lashes which others are tormented with , yet doth it argue their conditions to be more remediless and desperate . all the difference is , the one is sick of a calenture or burning feaver , the other of a lethargy or apoplexy ; the former more painful for the present , but both of them very dangerous , only the latter less capable of remedy than the former . chap. viii . how religion conduces to our happiness in the next world . as religion is the true cause of our present happiness in this world , whether external , internal . so likewise is it the cause of that happiness , which we expect in our future states : which must depend upon such courses , as can give us the most rational assurance of blessedness and glory hereafter . i shall speak but briefly to this subject , because 't is scarce possible for any man to be so strangely infatuated , so wholly lost to common reason as to believe , that vicious courses , despising of religion , walking contrary to god , can be the means to entitle him to this future happiness , any more than contempt and hatred of any one , is a proper means to procure his favour . what kind of happiness this is , which belongs to our future state , and wherein the glory of it doth consist , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a thing unspeakable , altogether above the expressions of humane orators , and passeth all knowledg , the heart of man being not able to conceive it : nor can it be expected that we should be able , in this state of flesh and mortality , to comprehend what kind of irradiations , glorified souls are capable of . only in the general , 't is said , we shall be like god , and see him as he is . this state of future happiness , as it is above all other things of greatest moment , so ought it to be proportionably laboured after , with the greatest care and diligence . there are several varieties of metaphorical names or expressions whereby this state is described in scripture , but all of them do imply something of more than ordinary care and industry to the qualifying of men for it , as bellarmine hath observed in his tract de aeternâ felicitate sanctorum . 't is styled . the city of god , the heavenly jerusalem . and it requires some care and diligence for one that is a citizen of this world , to be a fellow-citizen with the saints ; it being no easie thing for one that lives in this world , not to be of it . the house of god , where there are many mansions ; but streight is the gate , and narrow is the way to it . an hid treasure , a pretious pearl . not to be obtained without putting such a value upon it , as will make a man ready to part with all that he hath , for the purchase of it . a penny . the wages of our daily service , not to be given but to such as labour in the vineyard , and hold out to the end . a feast or rich supper ; which they are altogether unworthy of and unfit for , who do wholly devote themselves to the affairs of this world . the joy of our lord and master ; which they only are admitted to , who are careful to improve the talents they are intrusted withal . the solemnity of a royal wedding ; from which all lazy , slothful people , who have not oyl in their lamps , and do not watch for the coming of the bridegroom , shall be shut out and excluded into outter darkness . 't is a prize ; which they only obtain who accomplish their race , and run to the goal . 't is a crown ; which is due only to such as fight valiantly and overcome . 't is an inheritance ; and therefore belongs only to sons . 't is an inheritance of the saints ; and therefore unsanctified persons can have nothing to do with it . 't is an inheritance of the saints in light ; and therefore cannot belong to such as still remain under the powers of darkness . heaven may be considered under a twofold notion , either as a state , place . . in the first sense , 't is the same with holiness , consisting in such godlike dispositions , as may make us partakers of the divine nature . . in the second sense , it denotes that other world , where we hope to enjoy the beatifical vision , in the blessed society of saints and angels . which religion only and holiness can qualify us for , by working in our natures such a suitableness and congruity as must make such things to be felicities . in brief ; that salvation and glory , which the christian religion doth so clearly propose to us , is , as to the nature and essence of it , but the very same thing with religion ; consisting in such a conformity of our minds to the nature of god , whereby we are made capable of the fruition of him in heaven . so that in this respect also , religion is the whole of man , that is , the whole happiness and well-being of man doth depend upon it . i have now dispatcht what i intended in this discourse , namely to prove the reasonableness and credibility of the principles of natural religion ; which i have made appear to be in themselves of so great evidence , that every one , who will not do violence to his own faculties , must believe and assent unto them . i have likewise made it plain , that 't is every mans greatest interest , to provide for his present and future happiness , by applying himself to the duties of religion , which upon all accounts will advance the perfection of his nature and promote his true wellfare , both in this world and the other . insomuch that if we were to chuse the laws we would submit unto , it were not possible for us to contrive any rules more advantageous to our own interest , than those which religion doth propose , and require us to observe , upon pain of everlasting damnation , and in hope of eternal life which god that cannot lye hath promised , to all those who by patient continuance in well-doing , seek for glory and honour and immortality . chap. ix . the conclusion of the whole , shewing the excellency of the christian religion , and the advantages of it , both as to the knowledg and practice of our duty , above the meer light of nature . i have now at large considered the credibility of the principles of natural religion , and our obligation to the several duties resulting from those principles . the purpose of all which is to shew how firm and deep a foundation religion hath in the nature and reason of mankind : but not in the least to derogate from the necessity and usefulness of divine revelation , or to extenuate the great blessing and benefit of the christian religion ; but rather to prepare and make way for the entertainment of that doctrine which is so agreeable to the clearest dictates of natural light . for notwithstanding all that hath been said of natural religion , it cannot be denyed , but that in this dark and degenerate state into which mankind is sunk , there is great want of a clearer light to discover our duty to us with greater certainty , and to put it beyond all doubt and dispute what is the good and acceptable will of god ; and of a more powerful encouragement to the practice of our duty , by the promise of a supernatural assistance , and by the assurance of a great and eternal reward . and all these defects are fully supplied , by that clear and perfect revelation which god hath made to the world by our blessed saviour . and although , before god was pleased to make this revelation of his will to mankind , men were obliged to the practice of moral duties by the law of nature , and as the apostle speaks , having not the law were a law to themselves , shewing the effect of the law written upon their hearts ; yet now that god hath in so much mercy revealed his will so plainly to mankind , it is not enough for us who enjoy this revelation , to perform those moral duties which are of natural obligation , unless we also do them in obedience to christ as our lord and law-giver . as we are christians , whatever we do in word or deed , we must do all in the name of the lord jesus ; and by him alone expect to find acceptance with god. how far the moral virtues of meer heathens , who walk answerable to the light they have , may be approved of god , i shall not now dispute . only thus much seems clear in the general , that the law of nature being implanted in the hearts of men by god himself , must therefore be esteemed to be as much his law , as any positive institution whatsoever : and consequently , conformity to it must in its kind , in genere morum , be acceptable to him . god loves the societies of mankind , and because of the necessity of justice , and virtue , and probity to the preservation of humane society , therefore he doth generally give a blessing and success to honest and good enterprizes , and blasts the contrary with signal judgments and marks of his displeasure . but we cannot from these outward dispensations infer any thing certainly concerning such mens eternal conditions . some of the fathers indeed , as justin martyr , and clemens alexandrinus and chrysostom , have delivered their judgments for the salvation of such heathens as live according to the light of nature : but the general stream of the rest is for the contrary opinion . i shall not now enquire into the particular grounds and reasons of this difference . it may suffice to say in general , that the goodness and mercy of god , as well as his judgments are a great deep ; that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy ; and that when god hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleased to deal with such persons , it is not sit for us to tell him how he ought to deal with them . only of this we are sufficiently assured , that in all ages and places of the world , all that are saved are saved by the mercy of god , and by the merits of jesus christ , who is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world ; the scripture having expresly told us , that there is no salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved . to be sure , there is no reason for any man , who lives under the dispensation of the gospel , to expect that he shall escape , if he neglect so great salvation . this is the tenour of that doctrine of the gospel , which christ immediately upon his resurrection doth commissionate his disciples to preach ; mark . . he that believeth shall be saved , but he that believeth not shall be damned . and joh : . . he that believeth not , is condemned already . and presently it follows , this is the condemnation , &c. and again joh. . this is life eternal , to know thee the only true god , and him whom thou hast sent , jesus christ. now that to us , to whom the christian doctrine is revealed and proposed , the belief and practice of it is the only way wherein we can hope to be accepted , i shall endeavour to make out by these two arguments : . from the evidence we have of its divine authority . . from the excellency of the things contained in it ; which are the two chief grounds of our obligation to it . . from that evidence which we have for the divine authority of this doctrine , above any other . it seems to be a principle of nature , to which all nations have consented , that god himself should prescribe the way of his own worship . all kind of inventions whatsoever , that have been any way useful to humane life , especially such kind of laws as concern civil or ecclesiastical associations of men , have upon the first discovery of them been still ascribed to the deity . as if the authors of them must needs have been first illuminated with some ray of divinity . nor is it probable , that ever any nation should , with any degree of zeal , embrace the respective ceremonies of their religion , unless they had first esteemed them to have proceeded from divine revelation . upon this account was it that lycurgus , and numa pompilius , and mahomet , and the rest of those kind of founders of nations and religions , when they would obtain a reverence and devotion to the things they were to establish , they were fain to pretend at least to divine revelation . which proceeding of theirs , though it did really abuse the people with gross delusions , yet was it founded upon this common principle , that none can think aright of god , much less serve him in an acceptable manner , unless they are first instructed by him in the true way of doing it . now that the doctrine of christianity is thus derived to us by divine institution , we have as clear and convincing evidence , as things of that nature are capable of . as for the old testament , that hath by the general consent of learned men , all the marks of purest antiquity ; there being nothing in the world which in this respect is equal to it , or which may pretend to be compared with it . all other the most ancient monuments of antiquity coming short of it by many ages . it was written in the first and most ancient language ; from which the very alphabets and letters of all other languages ( in the opinion of the most learned heathen , plutarch , pliny , tacitus , lucan , &c. ) were derived . the very number and order of letters most generally used in all kind of alphabets , being very improper and unnatural ; which it is not likely men of several nations would have all agreed upon , were it not barely upon this reason , that they were taken up by imitation , and so did retain the errors and imperfections of that first original from whence they were derived . this book contains as the most ancient , so the most exact story of the world , the propagation of men , and the dispersing of families into the several parts of the earth ; as i shewed before . and though this book were written in several ages and places , by several persons ; yet doth the doctrine of it accord together , with a most excellent harmony , without any dissonance or inconsistency . and for the manner of delivering the things contained in it , 't is so solemn , reverend and majestick , so exactly suited to the nature of things , as may justly provoke our wonder and acknowledgment of its divine original . insomuch that longinus , a great master of eloquence amongst the heathens , hath observed the decorum and majesty which moses useth in describing the creation , in those words , god said , let there be light , and there was light. and as for the new testament . those various correspondencies , which it bears to the chief things of the old testament , may sufficiently evidence that mutual relation , dependance and affinity which there is betwixt them . that in such an age there was such a man as christ , who preached such a doctrine , wrought many miracles , suffered an ignominious death , and was afterwards worshipped as god , having abundance of disciples and followers , at first chiefly amongst the vulgar , but a while after , amongst several of the most wise and learned men ; who in a short space of time did propagate their belief and doctrine into the most remote parts of the world : i say , all this is for the truth of the matter of fact , not so much as doubted or called into question , by julian , or celsus , or the jews themselves , or any other of the most avowed enemies of christianity . but we have it by as good certainty as any rational man can wish or hope for , that is , by universal testimony , as well of enemies as friends . and if these things were so , as to the matter of fact , the common principles of nature will assure us , that 't is not consistent with the nature of the deity , his truth , wisdom or justice , to work such miracles in confirmation of a lye or imposture . nor can it be reasonably objected . that these miracles are now ceased ; and we have not any such extraordinary way to confirm the truth of our religion : 't is sufficient that they were upon the first plantation of it , when men were to be instituted and confirmed in that new doctrine . and there may be as much of the wisdom of providence in the forbearing them now , as in working them then . it being not reasonable to think that the universal laws of nature by which things are to be regularly guided in their natural course , should frequently or upon every little occasion be violated or disordered . to which may be added that wonderful way whereby this religion hath been propagated in the world , with much simplicity and infirmity in the first publishers of it ; without arms , or faction , or favour of great men , or the perswasions of philosophers or orators ; only by a naked proposal of plain evident truth , with a firm resolution of suffering and dying for it , by which it hath subdued all kind of persecutions and oppositions , and surmounted whatever discouragement or resistance could be laid in its way , or made against it . . from the excellency of the things contained in it , both in respect of the end proposed , means for the attaining of it . . from the end it proposes , the chief reward which it sets before us , namely , the eternal vision and fruition of god. which is so excellent in it self , and so suitable to a rational being , as no other religion or profession whatsoever , hath thought of , or so expresly insisted upon . some of the learned heathen have placed the happiness of man in the external sensual delights of this world ; i mean the epicureans , who though in other respects they were persons of many excellent and sublime speculations , yet because of their gross error in this kind , they have been in all ages looked upon with a kind of execration and abhorrency , not only amongst the vulgar , but likewise amongst the learneder sort of philosophers . 't is an opinion this , so very gross and ignoble , as cannot be sufficiently dispised . it doth debase the understanding of man , and all the principles in him , that are sublime and generous , extinguishing the very seeds of honour , and piety , and virtue , affording no room for actions or endeavours , that are truely great and noble ; being altogether unworthy of the nature of man , and doth reduce us to the condition of beasts . others of the wiser heathen , have spoken sometimes doubtfully concerning a future estate , and therefore have placed the reward of virtue , in the doing of virtuous things . virtus est sibi praemium . wherein though there be much of truth , yet it doth not afford encouragement enough , for the vast desires of a rational soul. others who have owned a state after this life , have placed the happiness of it in gross and sensual pleasures , feasts and gardens , and company , and other such low and gross enjoyments . whereas the doctrine of christianity doth fix it upon things , that are much more spiritual and sublime ; the beatifical vision , a clear unerring understanding , a perfect tranquillity of mind , a conformity to god , a perpetual admiring and praising of him : than which the mind of man cannot fancy any thing that is more excellent or desireable . . as to the means it directs to , for the attaining of this end , they are suitable both to the goodness and greatness of the end it self . . for the duties that are enjoyned in reference to divine worship . they are so full of sanctity and spiritual devotion , as may shame all the pompous solemnities of other religions , in their costly sacrifices , their dark wild mysteries , and external observances . whereas this refers chiefly to the holiness of the mind , resignation to god , love of him , dependance upon him , submission to his will , endeavouring to be like him . . and as for the duties of the second-table , which concern our mutual conversation towards one another ; it allows nothing that is hurtful or noxious , either to our selves , or others : forbids all kind of injury or revenge , commands to overcome evil with good , to pray for enemies and persecutors , doth not admit of any mental , much less any corporal uncleanness ; doth not tolerate any immodest or uncomely word or gesture ; forbids us to wrong others in their goods and possessions , or to mispend our own ; requires us to be very tender both of our own and other mens reputations : in brief , it injoyns nothing but what is helpful , and useful , and good for mankind . whatever any philosophers have prescribed concerning their moral virtues of temperance , and prudence , and patience , and the duties of several relations , is here injoyned in a far more eminent , sublime and comprehensive manner . besides such examples and incitations to piety as are not to be parallel'd elsewhere . the whole systeme of its doctrine being transcendently excellent , and so exactly conformable to the highest , purest reason , that in those very things wherein it goes beyond the rules of moral philosophy , we cannot in our best judgment but consent and submit to it . in brief , it doth in every respect so fully answer the chief scope and design of religion , in giving all imaginable honour and submission to the deity , promoting the good of mankind , satisfying and supporting the mind of man , with the highest kind of enjoyments , that a rational soul can wish or hope for , as no other religion or profession whatsoever can pretend unto . what hath briefly been said upon this argument may suffice to shew the exceeding folly and unreasonableness of those men who are sceptical and indifferent as to any kind of religion . 't is a vice this , that if it may not be styled direct atheism , yet certainly it is the very next degree to it . and there is too much reason to suspect , that it doth in this generation very much abound , not only amongst the vulgar , but such also as would be thought the greatest wits , and most knowing men . it hath been occasioned by that heat and zeal of men in those various contrary opinions , which have of late abounded , together with those great scandals that have been given by the professors of religion on several hands . from whence men of corrupt minds have taken occasion to doubt of all kind of religion ; and to look upon it only as a political invention , which doth no farther oblige , than as the laws of several countries do provide for it . these common scandals have been the occasion , but the true ground at the bottom of such mens prejudice and dissatisfaction , is the strictness and purity of this religion , which they find puts too great a restraint and check upon their exorbitant lusts and passions . i know they will pretend for their hesitation and indifferency in this kind , the want of clear and infallible evidence for the truth of christianity ; than which nothing can be more absurd and unworthy of a rational man. for let it be but impartially considered ; what is it , that such men would have ? do they expect mathematical proof and certainty in moral things ? why , they may as well expect to see with their ears , and hear with their eyes . such kind of things ( as i shewed at large in the beginning of this treatise ) being altogether as disproportioned to such kind of proofs , as the objects of the several senses are to one another . the arguments or proof to be used in several matters are of various and different kinds , according to the nature of the things to be proved . and it will become every rational man to yeild to such proofs , as the nature of the thing which he enquires about is capable of : and that man is to be looked upon as froward and contentious , who will not rest satisfied in such kind of evidence as is counted sufficient , either by all others , or by most , or by the wisest men . if we suppose god to have made any revelation of his will to mankind , can any man propose or fancy any better way for conveying down to posterity the certainty of it , than that clear and universal tradition which we have for the history of the gospel ? and must not that man be very unreasonable , who will not be content with as much evidence for an ancient book or matter of fact , as any thing of that nature is capable of ? if it be only infallible and mathematical certainty that can settle his mind , why should he believe that he was born of such parents , and belongs to such a family ? 't is possible men might have combined together to delude him with such a tradition . why may he not as well think , that he was born a prince and not a subject , and consequently deny all duties of subjection and obedience to those above him ? there is nothing so wild and extravagant , to which men may not expose themselves by such a kind of nice and scrupulous incredulity . whereas , if to the enquiries about religion a man would but bring with him the same candour and ingenuity , the same readiness to be instructed , which he doth to the study of humane arts and sciences , that is , a mind free from violent prejudices and a desire of contention ; it can hardly be imagined , but that he must be convinced and subdued by those clear evidences which offer themselves to every inquisitive mind , concerning the truth of the principles of religion in general , and concerning the divine authority of the h. scriptures , and of the christian religion . finis . a sermon preached at the funeral of the right reverend father in god , john late lord bishop of chester . at the guildhall chappel london , on thursday the . of december , . by william lloyd d. d. dean of bangor , and one of his majesties chaplains in ordinary . london : printed for henry brome , . heb. . . remember them which have the rule over you , who have spoken to you the word of god ; whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . in handling this text of holy scripture , that we may mingle nothing of humane affections , that our passions may give no interruption to you in hearing , or to me in speaking ; i should desire to suppress them quite , if it were possible . and possible it is , where they are slightly raised , as upon common and ordinary occasions : but where they are grounded and strong , where they dare argue , and seem to have reason on their side , as there is too much in sight for ours ; there i think it is in vain to endeavour it : the only way in this case , is to give them some kind of vent , to discharge them in part , and to govern what remains of the affections . you will i hope the rather bear with my infirmity , that i cannot contain from deploring the loss , the irreparable loss that we suffer , i think all suffer , in the death of this eminent person . he was the man in whom his friends had experience of much good , and had hopes of much more ; not so much for his greatness or power , as abstracting from these , for what they found in himself , which was a great and manifold blessing to all that lived within his conversation . he was a father , a counsellor , a comforter , a helper , a sure friend : he was all they could wish in every relation , and by the course of nature , might have been for many years . but for our sins , ( though for his unspeakable advantage ) the great and wise god was not pleased to continue that blessing ; he took him out of this world , when for ought we could judge , there was most need of such men to live in it ; and when we had much reason to expect more good than ever by his living in it . oh the unsearchable ways and counsels of god! oh the blindness of humane hopes and expectations ! while we please our selves with the good we have in hand , while we reach out for more , as if there would never be an end , within a few days all withers , all vanisheth to this : we have nothing left , but what it grieves us to see ; we have nothing remains , but what we are willing to be rid of , a poor shell of earth , that we make haste to bury out of our sight . yes ; of wise and good men , which is their priviledg above others , there remains after death , a memory , an example which they leave behind them , as a sacred depositum for us to keep and use until we see them again . are these things nothing in our sight ? they are above all price in the sight of god ; who , that they may be so to us , both telleth us the worth , and recommends them to our esteem , and requires the fruit of them in many places of scripture : but in none with more application to our present occasion , than in my text. i shall sufficiently justifie my choice of it , if i can but make it be understood : i shall shew the full import of it , in those duties which it contains : i shall endeavour to stir you up to practise them with respect to this present occasion . first , for the understanding of my text , we are to look for no help from what goes next before it , or after it : for the whole business of it is contained within it self . it lies in the heap among other directions , which without any certain connexion between them , were given by the writer of this epistle to the hebrews , that is , to those jews who were converted to be christians . for the time when it was written , we are certain of this , that it was while timothy lived ; for he is mentioned as living in the verse of this chapter . and he being there said to have suffered imprisonment for the gospel , this brings us a little nearer to the knowledg of the time : for then it must be after both s. pauls epistles to timothy . in the last of those epistles , which was some years after the other , s. paul speaks much of his own imprisonment for the gospel : he warns timothy oft , that he must suffer for the gospel : he instructs him what to do when god shall call him to suffer . not a word of any thing that he had suffered already : nay , he counsels him as a young man , that had never been tried . he invites him to rome , which was the great place of tryal ; in which place , as it appears in the close of this chapter , timothy did suffer that imprisonment for the gospel , from which he was deliver'd , when this epistle was written . it appears , that after the epistle to timothy , how long after we know not , he did go to rome , as paul will'd him . how long he staid there we know not , ere he did suffer imprisonment . how long he was in prison , we know not , ere he was set at liberty . only we know , it was a considerable time , we have reason to think it might be some years ; it might be many years that this epistle was written after the second epistle to timothy . and if so , then it was written , not only as theodoret says , long after the death of james the brother of john : but account it how you will , this epistle was written , after the death of james the brother of our lord : which james being the first bishop of jerusalem , and the other james an apostle , that is , a bishop at large , and both these being put to death at jerusalem ; not to search into church-history for those others of their order , who dyed before this time in other places ; nor to guess how many others were dead , that are not recorded in church-history : if we think of no more but these two eminent servants of christ , we cannot be to seek of the understanding of this text , nor of the application to our particular purpose . i say not , but it may have a more general extent . there is a memory due , not only to the apostles of christ , and to the bishops their successors ; but to all other good ministers of christ , yea to all other exemplary christians . but if the apostle had meant this only of bishops , i cannot guess that he would have it exprest otherwise , than he hath done in my text. to prove this , i must have recourse to the original , and not wholly depend upon our english translation . for that he meant this of bishops , it appears not sufficiently , and of them being dead , not at all , in our translation . and yet from the original , i see no reason to doubt , that our apostle in this text , meant no other but bishops , and those departed this life . for the order of bishops , it is described by those acts of ruling and teaching , in the words of our translation ; but it is much more expresly by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original . for the meaning of which word , to whom should we resort , but either to the greeks , in whose language ; or to the jews , for whose immediate use this was written ? among the greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a general word , it signifies rulers ecclesiastical or civil . in this verse they take it for ecclesiastical rulers : so chrysostom on my text ; and oecumenius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the apostle speaks of bishops in this verse . if the jews would say so too , what could we have more ? they do say it , as much as we have reason to expect . in their traditional language they call one of our bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in effect is the word in my text. so then we have the consent both of greeks and of hebrews , that is , of them who had most reason to know the meaning of the word , that bishops are meant by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my text. that the apostle here speaks not of living , but of dead bishops : of them that had the rule before that time ; though 't is rendred , that have , in our translation ; it appeareth by other words in my text. remember them , says the apostle : what , those that are present ? they are not the objects of memory , but of sense . remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the good bishops you have had : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , them that have spoken to you , that have spoken their last , and shall speak no more in this world : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , considering , looking back , or looking up to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the end of their conversation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the whole course of this life , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the end or period of it . look back , says the apostle , to your bishops deceased , consider their end , or exit , or going out of this world . to confirm this , if any doubt , i shall desire him to compare this verse with the of this chapter . in both verses the apostle speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , of bishops , as i have interpreted and proved . in the . he shews our duty to the living , obey them , says the apostle , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls . in this verse he shews our duty to bishops deceased ; remember them , and follow their faith , considering the end of their conversation . i think more needs not be said , to shew the scope of my text , and how applicable it is to our present occasion . it being clear that the apostle speaks here of bishops , and of them being departed this life . i now proceed to the duties required at our hands ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , remember and imitate . first , remember . 't is a natural desire that men have , to be remembred when they are dead . we do not find it is so in any other creature : they desire to live as long as they can ; but for ought we can judge , by any indication , they have no regard to what shall come after . the reason is plain , for their being determines with their life . but for man , among many other tokens of immortality , he hath by secret instinct , a natural desire to be thought of , and spoken of in after-times . we see this , not only in them that are inflamed with the hope of a future life ; but even in those , that , for ought appears to us , know or think little of any more but the present . what else made the egyptian kings lay out their wealth on pyramids , and the like stupendious buildings ? what moved the old greeks and the romans , with so much care and expence to leave statues and other monuments , with inscriptions of their names ? what meant those in the unlettered nations , by the much harder shifts they have made to convey any thing of themselves to posterity ? i need not seek for instances of this in remote times and countries , when we see 't is so frequent in our age , and perhaps no-where more than in this city ; for men of design , that think long before-hand , above all other things , to provide for this kind of immortality . some venture their lives , others wear out themselves , they do and suffer any thing to get estates : not for themselves , that might be happier without them ; nor so much for their known heirs , whom they load with entails , as for men whom they know not , but only hope they will be in after-times . for their inward thought is , that their houses shall continue for ever , and their dwelling-place to all generations : they call their lands by their own names . this their way is their folly , and those that see it are such fools to take after them , says david , psal. . . but if this design take , it must be in spite of god , who hath declared it shall not do . he will thwart wicked men . they that provide not for the true immortality , shall lose their design in this shadow of it . either their name shall be forgotten ; god hath threatned he will cut it off , he will blot it out , their memory shall perish with them : or if it survive , it shall be to their shame , their name shall rot , prov. . . what they build for fame , shall be like absoloms pillar , which remains to this day ; but the passers by throw stones at it , in detestation of his memory : such is generally , though not always , the curse of god that pursues wicked men . whereas contrariwise it is the promise of god to the just , that they shall always be had in remembrance , psal. . . and that their memory shall be blessed as far as known , prov. . . promises which , as all other of temporal things , are to be understood with reservation to the divine oeconomy , to that wisdom of god which orders all things in the government of the world . it becometh not the majesty of him that governs all things , to break his course , and to work miracles upon every particular occasion . 't is enough that he generally provideth that the same thing may be done otherwise , and declares it to those by whom it ought to be done . if they do it not , if there be a faileur in them ; his promise is not void , his word is not broken , since it was given with that condition : which being not performed by them that were to have done it , he can make reparation to those that suffer by it ; yea he hath done it already in this , that he hath given them that which this typifies . and what if they fall short of the shadow , when they have the substance , in a better and true immortality ? the mean while we see what is required on our parts . as the servants of god , out of that store which he hath given us , we are to pay what he hath promised good men . 't is that which all naturally desire , but wicked men shall not attain ; only to the just , god hath promised that we shall remember ●●em , and he commands that we should do it , especially for good bishops departed this life . our remembrance of them doth not differ in kind , but in degree , from what we owe to the memory of others . 't is a duty we are to pay them above others , in our thoughts , in our affections , in our words , and in our actions and lives . first , in our thoughts ; 't is not a simple remembrance that god requires ; for that being an act of the sensitive soul , as i conceive , doth not directly fall under precept . for it is not in our power , to remember or forget , either what or when we please . but it is in our power , to do those acts which conduce to the exciting , or to the helping of our memory . this is that which god requires at our hands , that we should endeavour to turn our minds towards such objects , and contemplate in them the gifts and graces of god : that as oft as we think of them , we should acknowledg that good which was in them , and which we have received by their means : that we should pay them that honourable esteem which we owe to our spiritual parents and benefactors . if we think upon them heartily in this manner , it will work something upon our affections . we cannot but be sensible of the want of such men , and therefore grieved for our loss , when they are taken from us ; as the asian bishops were at those words of st. paul , when he said , they should see his face no more . though god intend it for their gain , whom he takes to himself , and he takes them in that time , which suits best with their circumstances : yet , even then , we have cause to grieve for our selves , and for the church , who are deprived of the presence and use of such men . how much more , when for ought we know , they are taken away for our sins ? when for ought we know , it was because the age was not worthy of them ? for ought we know , 't is in order to some judgment of god , which will come the sooner when they are gone , when we have filled up the measure of our iniquities ? when elijah was taken away in a very evil age , elisha cryed out , o my father , my father , the chariots and horsemen of israel ! what will become of israel now thou art gone ? we dare not think so highly of any one man. we have no such cause to despond of our nation . when it is bad , we are to do our parts to make it better , to pray that god would send more labourers into his harvest , that he would double his gifts and blessings on those that are left . and for those we have lost , we must resign them to god ; both acknowledging his bounty in giving them to us , and submitting to his will , in taking them to himself . so s. bernard on the death of his brother gerard , lord , says he , thou hast given , and thou hast taken away ; though we grieve that thou hast taken away , yet we cannot forget that thou didst give him . yea , we owe not only submission to god , but thankfulness too for their sakes who are delivered by this means from so great and such manifold evils , as continually hover about us in this life . from sickness and pain , from labour and danger , from sorrow , and fear , and care , and what not ? being delivered from sin which is the cause , and from that flesh which is the center of all this . they are past all evils else , that have overcome death : they leave sorrow to us , who call our selves the living : their life , the only true life , is immutable joy , eternal rest , peace , and felicity . which if we seriously believe , if we desire to be with them , we cannot sorrow for our loss , without joy for their gain , and thanksgiving on their behalf , to that good god , who hath given them the victory through our lord jesus christ. but thus much we owe upon the death of every true christian , though of never so mean a rank and condition . we are to be thankful to god for his mercies , and to profess it , as we are taught in the offices of our church ; which have the same words of burial , for the meanest of our communion , as for those that are highest in their graces and gifts . but there is a remembrance in words that is due to these , and not to the other ; namely , the due praise of those their excellent graces and gifts ; which though they have not of themselves , but through the bounty and liberality of god , who is therefore to be chiefly respected and glorified , in all the praise that we give to his creatures : yet since he is pleased to do them this honour above others , and to make choice of them whom he so dignifies ; we are bound to allow it them , we are to follow gods choice , to give them praise whom he hath so qualified for it . only with this care , that we do it truly , not to flatter the dead ; and profitably , for the example and imitation of the living . we have so much reason to do this , that they who had only reason to guide them , the gentiles , upon the death of any eminent persons , had orations made publickly in their praise . the jews , without any particular law for it , had honour done to the memory of worthy persons at their funerals , chron. . ult . the rites of it are partly described , chron. . . they laid their dead in a bed full of the richest perfumes , which also were publickly burnt at the interment . to which i conceive the preacher alludes , eccles. . . where he says , a good name is better than precious oyntment , and the day of ones death than the day of ones birth . when one cometh into the world , none knows how he may prove ; if he do well in it , he goes out with this publick testimony . after which the jews never mentioned such persons without a blessing on their memory . but above all others , the primitive christians were very observant this way . they saw it was the will of their lord and master , that the good work which was done upon him by mary , should be kept in perpetual memory , and is therefore recorded in the gospel . they saw how the works of dorcas were shewn at her death , the coats and garments which she made for the poor . they saw what need there was of great incentives , in those days , when christianity was a most dangerous profession . it is of no small force , to make men love a religion , when they see it infuses excellent principles , that it excites so suitable practises , that it is proof against suffering and death . and the experience of that power it hath in some , provokes and animates others to the same . upon these and the like considerations , and perhaps with allusion to that text , where s. john is said to have seen the souls of the martyrs under the altar ; they had their memorias martyrum , their places of worship , where they placed the altars over the bodies of their martyrs . what , with any intention to worship the martyrs ? it was so suggested by the adversaries , and as vehemently denied by the christians of those times . by those of smyrna , in the undoubted acts of polycarpus : we cannot ( say they ) worship any other than christ ; we love the martyrs as being followers of christ ; we celebrate the days of their passions with joy ; we do it both in remembrance of those champions of god , and to train up and prepare others for the like conflicts . besides this , which was peculiar to the martyrs , they had a lower degree of remembrance , for bishops , and confessors , and all other eminent persons departed this life : whom they not only praised in orations at their funerals , but writ their names in their diptychs , or two-leaved records , which contained in one page all the names of the living ; in the other , the dead that were of note in the church . all these were recited in the communion-service : where , as the living for themselves ; so for the dead , came their friends , and gave oblations and alms. which , before they were distributed among the poor , were first offered up to god in a prayer , like that which we use for the church militant here on earth . these doles were their only sacrifices for the dead : only alms to the poor , with which sacrifices god is well-pleased . and their prayers were not for any deliverance from pains ; unless the patriarchs , and prophets , and the apostles , and virgin mother of christ , were in the same pains too , and needed the same deliverance . for they were all mentioned alike , and together , as it is to be seen in the ancientest liturgies . among all these innocent offices and rites of the primitive christians , was there any thing of prayer for souls in purgatory ? was there any thing of prayer to saints departed this life ? was there any foundation for those superstitious observances , of adoring their reliques , of prostration to their images , of pilgrimage to their shrines , of making vows , of saying masses , of offering to them , and the like ? the papists say there was , they plead the practice of the church for it , they wrest places of scripture to their purpose . nay the rhemists and others , alledge this very text , without which i should not have mention'd them at this time . but as the learnedst men among themselves have been so just not to charge this upon my text , and some of them confess they have no ground for these things in any one text of canonical scripture : so they would do us but right to acknowledg , that none of these things was practis'd for some hundreds of years after christianity came into the world . in those primitive times all their offices for the dead , were , either to give testimony of that faith in which they died , and that death had not dissolv'd their communion with the living : or they were to bless god for their holy life , and happy death : or to pray to him , not for their deliverance from purgatory , of which there was no faith in those times ; but for the increase of that good which they believ'd them to be possest of already , or for the attainment of that farther good which they thought they were sure of , namely , for their speedy and happy resurrection , for their perfect discharge at the day of judgement , for the consummation of their bliss with their own in the kingdom of glory . not to say how the fathers differ among themselves in these particulars ; or how many of these particulars are omitted in the roman church as well as ours ; it is enough that here is nothing makes for them , but much against those their errors and corruptions . all that is agreed on all hands , or that we find in the practice of the first ages , being sufficiently contain'd in those offices of our church ; in the prayer for the church-militant , in the collect on all-saints day , and in the office for the burial of the dead ; where we pray , that it would please god of his gracious goodness , shortly to accomplish the number of his elect , and to hasten his kingdom , that we , with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy name , may have our perfect consummation and bliss , both in body and soul , in his everlasting glory . lastly , remembrance in action is the other duty enjoyn'd in my text , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , imitate their faith , that is , their christian profession and practice , their whole life and conversation , according to their own belief of that word which they have spoken . the reason of this duty is plain : for it is our business in this world to recover the image of god in which he created us ; to be like him here in righteousness and holiness , that we may be like him hereafter in glory and happiness . to this end , god has given us those lineaments of himself , which are written sufficiently in our nature , but more fully and distinctly in scripture . in which scripture , he so oft and so vehemently requires us , be ye holy , as i am holy ; be ye just , as i am just ; be ye merciful , as i am merciful ; be ye pure , as i am pure ; be ye perfect , as your heavenly father is perfect . this good word of god , which was given by the prophets and apostles , is still inclucated on us by them that speak to us the word of god. which office being primarily of bishops , as appears in my text , they are first and above all others to conform themselves to it , to shew others how possible and how practicable it is . our apostle suppos'd this in those primitive bishops in my text. god requires it of all that succeed them in the church . so of timothy , though he were young in age , yet being in that place , be thou an example to believers in word , in conversation , in spirit , in faith , in truth , tim. . . and in the last verse , take heed to thy self , and to thy doctrine : do this constantly and continually , and so thou shalt save both thy self and them that hear thee . whether they do this or no , they are our teachers and rulers ; therefore in the verse of this chapter , while they live , we must obey their word , and submit to their government . when they are dead , both for what they are , and were , we may do well to say no ill of them ; and since we can say no good , e'en forget them , and leave them to god. but if they are such as they ought , which the apostle supposes in my text , if they live as men that believe themselves what they say : 't is our duty , not only to submit and obey them while they live ; but also to remember them when they are dead : remember them , in our thoughts , with that honour they deserve ; in our affections , with a due sense of our loss , and their gain : remember them in words , with the just praise of their actions and lives : in our prayers to god , with due thankfulness for their graces and gifts in this life , and for the glory they receive after death : lastly , remember to follow them in that holy way , which leads to so happy an end : in our apostles words , follow their faith , considering the event , the blessed end of their good conversation . what my text says in general of bishops deceased , 't is most easie to apply . i know it hath been done all this while , by them that knew the virtuous and great mind that lately dwelt in this body . they know the truth of all i shall say , and much more that might be said in his just commendation . but the little i can bring within the time i have left , being said from many years experience , will at least stir up those that knew him not , to enquire ; and if they find these things true , they know their duty of remembrance and imitation . i shall not be minute , in drawing all i say under these heads : for i speak to them that can distinguish and sort things , as they belong to the one , or to the other . to begin with the natural endowments of his mind ; i cannot think of him without just reflection upon that paradox , of the equality of souls . he was surely a great instance to the contrary ; having that largeness of soul in every respect , which was much above the rate of ordinary men . he had an understanding that extended to all parts of useful learning and knowledg ; a will always disposed to great , and publick , and generous things . he had a natural aversion from all idle speculations , and from the eager pursuit of small and frivolous designs . in great matters , he judged so well , that he was not usually surprized with events . he pursued his intentions with such equalness of mind , that he was never carried beyond the calmness of his natural temper , except through his zeal for publick good , or where his friend was concerned . what he was in his studies , i have reason to know , that have often been tired with studying with him . he was indefatigable , and would have worn himself out , if he had not been relieved with multiplicity of business . however , he impaired by it , a body which seemed to have been built for a long age , and contracted those infirmities that hastened his death . the effect of his studies , in his preaching and writings , are sufficiently known , and would have been much more , if god had given him time . as for his preaching , it was sometimes famous near this place ; though he sought rather the profit , than the praise of his hearers . he spoke solid truth , with as little shew of art as was possible . he exprest all things in their true and natural colours ; with that aptness and plainness of speech , that grave natural way of elocution , that shewed he had no design upon his hearers . his plainness was best for the instruction of the simple ; and for the better sort , who were in truth an intelligent auditory , it was enough that they might see he had no mind to deceive them . he applied himself rather to their understanding than affections . he saw so much of the beauty of goodness himself , that he thought the bare shewing of it was enough to make all wise men , as it did him , to be in love with it . in his writings he was judicious and plain , like one that valued not the circumstances so much as the substance . and he shewed it in whatsoever argument he undertook ; sometimes beating out new untravel'd ways , sometimes repairing those that had been beaten already : no subject he handled , but i dare say is the better for him ; and will be the sier for them that come after him . if in these he went sometimes beside his profession , it was in following the design of it , to make men wiser and better , which i think is the business of universal knowledg . and this he promoted with much zeal and sincerity , in hope of the great benefit that may accrew to mankind . it was his aim , as in all things , so especially in that which , i conceive , is much more censured than understood ; i mean , in the design of the royal society . he joined himself to it with no other end , but to promote modern knowledg , without any contempt or lessening of those great men in former times . with due honour to whom , he thought it lawful for others to do that which , we have no reason to doubt , they themselves would have done if they were living . i would not seem to excuse that which deserveth commendation and encouragement ; or to commend other things , for want of subject in him . therefore leaving this theme in better hands , i proceed next to speak of his virtues and graces ; and these the rather , as being both to be remembred and followed . and in speaking of these , where shall i begin ? nay when shall i end , if i say all that may be spoken ? i think it not worth while to speak of those that are vulgar , though he had them also in no common degree : nor would i seem to make any virtue a propriety . but there are those which are not common to many , and were generally acknowledged to be in him ; though they appeared not so to some other men , as they did to those that intimately knew him . his prudence was great , i think it seldom failed in any thing to which he applied himself . and yet he wanted that part , which some hold to be essential ; he so wanted dissimulation , that he had rather too much openness of heart . it was sincerity indeed that was natural to him ; he so abhorred a lye , that he was not at all for shew ; he could not put on any thing that look'd like it . and presuming the same of other men , through excess of benignity , he would be sometimes deceived , in believing they were what they seem'd to be , and what he knew they ought to have been . his greatness of mind , was known to all that knew any thing of him . he neither eagerly sought any dignity , nor declined any capacity of doing good . he look'd down upon wealth , as much as others admire it : he knew the use of an estate , but did not covet it . what he yearly received of the church , he bestowed in its service . as for his temporal estate , being secured against want , he sought no farther , he set up his rest ; i have heard him say often , i will be no richer , and i think he was as good as his word . as for revenge , how could it enter into the breast of him that hated nothing but that which makes us hateful to god ? i say not but he had a sense of personal injuries ; and especially of those that reflected upon his name , when they proceeded from those that had good names of their own . what others said , he despised ; but by those he would often wish he had been better understood : that he was not , he bore as his misfortune ; he would not requite them with the like , but mention'd them with all due respect , and was always ready to oblige them , and to do them good . yet it was not so desirable , ( i say not to be his enemy , for he did not account them so , but ) to be at those terms with him , as to be his acquaintance or friend . they that were never so little familiar with him , could not but find , as well benefit as delight in his conversation . his discourse was commonly of useful things ; it never caused trouble or weariness to the hearer . yet he would venture to displease one for his good ; and indeed he was the man that ever i knew , for that most needful , and least practised point of friendship . he would not spare to give seasonable reproof , and wholesome advice , when he saw occasion . i never knew any that would do it so freely , and that knew how to manage that freedom of speech so inoffensively . it was his way of friendship , not so much to oblige men , as to do them good . he did this not slightly and superficially , but like one that made it his business . he durst do for his friend , any thing that was honest , and no more . he would undertake nothing but what well became him , and then he was unwearied till he had effected it . as he concerned himself for his friend , in all other respects , so especially in that , which went nearest to him of all earthly concernments . he would not suffer any blot to be thrown , or to lye upon his friends good name , or his memory . and that office i am obliged to requite , in giving some account of that which has been spoken by some to his disadvantage . i shall neglect , for he did so , any frivolous reports ; but that which seems to have any weight in it , as far as i have observed , is , that he had not that zeal for the church , that they would seem to have that object this . he seemed to look upon the dissenters with too much favour to their persons and ways . as to the persons : no doubt that goodness of nature , that true christian principle , which made him willing to think well of all men , and to do good , or at least no hurt to any , might and ought to extend it self to them among others . but besides , he was inclined to it by his education under his grandfather mr. dod , a truly pious and learned man ; who yet was a dissenter himself in some things . not that he had any delight in contradiction , or could find in his heart to disturb the peace of the church for those matters : he was so far from it , that as i have frequently heard from this his grandchild and others , when some thought their dissents ground enough for a war , he declared himself against it , and confirmed others in their allegiance : he profest to the last a just hatred of that horrid rebellion . now his relation to this man , and conversation with those of his principles , might incline him to hope the like of others of that way . and when he found them farther off from the unity of the church ; he might possibly overdo , through the vehemence of his desire , to bring them off of their prejudices , and to reduce them to the unity of the church ; in which his grandfather lived and dyed : why might he not hope the same of other dissenters ? as for himself , he was so far from approving their ways , that in the worst of times , when one here present bewailed to him the calamities of the church , and declared his obedience even then to the laws of it : he incouraged him in it , he desired his friendship , and protected both him and many others , by an interest that he had gained , and made use of chiefly for such purposes . how he demeaned himself then , is known in both universities ; where he governed with praise , and left a very grateful remembrance behind him . how in the next times since , i cannot speak in a better place . and when i have named this city , and the two universities , i think he could not be placed in a better light in this nation . there were enough that could judg , and he did not use to disguise himself ; i appeal to you that conversed with him in those days , what zeal he hath exprest , for the faith , and for the unity of the church : how he stood up in defence of the order and government : how he hath asserted the liturgy , and the rites of it : he conformed himself to every thing that was commanded . beyond which , for any man to be vehement , in little and unnecessary things , whether for or against them , he could not but dislike ; and as his free manner was , he hath oft been heard to call it fanaticalness . how this might be represented i know not , or how his design of comprehension might be understood . sure i am , that since he came into the government of the church , to which he was called in his absence ; he so well became the order , that it out-did the expectation of all that did not very well know him . he filled his place with a goodness answerable to the rest of his life ; and with a prudence above it , considering the two extreams , which were nowhere so much as in his diocess . though he was , as before , very tender to those that differed from him ; yet he was , as before , exactly conformable himself , and brought others to conformity , some eminent men in his diocess . he endeavoured to bring in all that came within his reach , and might have had great success , if god had pleased to continue him . but having given full proof of his intentions and desires , it pleased god to reserve the fruit for other hands , from which we have great cause to expect much good to the church . he was in perfect health in all other respects ; when a known infirmity , from an unknown cause , that had been easier to cure , than it was to discover , stole upon him , and soon became incurable . he was for many days in a prospect of death , which he saw as it approached , and felt it come on by degrees . some days before he died , he found within himself , as he often said , a sentenoe of death . in all this time , first of pain , then of dreadful apprehension , at last in the presence of death ; who ever saw him dismaid ? who ever found him surprized ? or heard a word from him , unbecoming a wise man , and a true christian ? it was my infelicity to be so engaged , that i could not duly attend him ; and so deceived with vain hopes , that i believed him not dying , till he was dead . but at the times i was with him , i saw great cause to admire his faith towards god , his zeal for his church , his constancy of mind , his contempt of the world , and his chearful hopes of eternity . i have heard much more upon these heads , from those that were with him . some of you may have heard other things from other men . it hath been the way of our adversaries to entitle themselves to dying men , even those , whose whole life was a testimony against them . thus after the death of our famous jewel , the papists were pleased to say , he dyed of their religion . militiere hath ventured to insinuate the same , of our late king of blessed and glorious memory . mens tongues and pens are their own ; but lest they should abuse them and you , and the memory of this worthy prelate , as they have abus'd others , ( though nothing needs to be said to such groundless calumnies ) i declare , and that upon most certain grounds , that he died in the faith of our lord jesus christ , and in the communion of the church of england , as it is by law established . he died only too soon for the church , and for his friends : but for himself he had lived long enough . he has lived long enough that dyes well . for whatsoever he wants of that which we call time , it is added , though it adds nothing to eternity . as for us that are now to try how we can bear the want of those many blessings we enjoyed in him ; what shall we say ? we must submit to the will of god. our comfort is , that we shall follow , and come together again in due time . till when , farewel pious and virtuous soul , farewel great and excellent man , farewel worthy prelate and faithful friend . we have thy memory and example , thou hast our praises and our tears . while thy memory lives in our breasts , may thy example be fruitful in our lives : that our meeting again may be in joy unspeakable , when god shall have wiped away all tears from our eyes . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e vid. dr. h. more . postulatum . definition . def. . axiom . postulatum . defin. . desin . . defin. . defin. . ax. . ax. . ax. . ax. . ax. . . aristot. eth. lib. . cap. . metaph. lib. . cap. ult . protrept . in symbol . . . . . grot. de verit. lib. . act. . eph. . ● , , . col. . . thes. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . . heb. . . * aristot. top. var. hist. lib. . c. . nat. deor. lib. . . de legib : lib. . tusc. qu. lib. , epist. ● . de nat. deorum , lib. . de benefit . lib. . c. . the wisdom of being religious . dr. tillotson's i. sermon . de coelo lib. . c. . metam . lib. . saturnal . lib. . de divinatione , lib. . de natur. deor. lib. rom : . acts . . psal. . l. bacon . essays . chap. . prop. . prop. . prop. . natura d●or . lib. . c. . lord bacons essays . de ira dei. cap. . tus●●ul . qu. lib. . dissert . . in phaed. de republ. lib. . de benefic . lib. . nat. quest. . praef. de natur. deor. de legib. lib. . de legib : lib. . eclog. . georg. lib. epist. . benefic . lib. . nat. d●or . lib. . de coelo . lib. . against colotes . eccl. : . phaed. natur. deor. lib. . cap. . nat. deor. lib. . de 〈◊〉 . nat. quaest. lib. . praef. py●●● . carm. amyraldus . d● benefi● . lib. . de ira. lib. . cap. . ibid. lib. . cap. . de benefic . . . de benefic . lib. . pythag. carm. theatetus . de legibus lib. . de repub. lib. . de divinat . symposiac . lib. . q. . nat. deor. dan. . , . psal. . . tuscu . q. lib. , tuse . lib. . epist. . tim. . . cor. . . amyraldus . psa. . topic. . . nat. deor. lib. . psal. . , ; sen. nat. qu. lib. . cap. . heb. . . gal. . . prepar . evang . lib. cap. . lib. . cap : . dissert . . epist. . de nat. deorum , lib. . satyr . . isa. . . thes. . . eph. . . heb. . . psal. . . prov. . . rom. . . pet. . . psal. . . psa. . . eccles. . . hag. . . psa. . . job . . psal. . . . . . . psal. . . psal. . . psal . . psa. . , . isa. . . rom. . . . zech. . . jer. . . mat. . . mat. . . luk. . . philem. . psa. . . mr. smith of superstition . mat. . . tim. . . ch . . , . zech. . psal. . . psal. . acts . . joh. . . mr. pinke . benefic . lib. . cap. . epist. . de legib. lib. . hosea . . psal. . . rom. . mat. . psa. . . v. . psa. . . deut. . . ver . . judg. . . rom. . rom. . psal. . . . de vita beata , . ion. . . lib. . . lib. . . lib. . . . lib. . c. . enchyrid . dissert . . . . . psal. . . heb. . . cor. . . psal. . . exod. . . rom. . . lam. . . cor. . . job . . ad polyb. cap. . dissertat . lib. . cap. . sam. . . psal. . epist. . epist. . enchyrid . cap. . dissert . lib. . cap. . lib. . cap. . lam. . . psal. . . job . . cor. . . sen. ep. . luke . . rom. . . v. . ezek. . . prov. . . job . . lam. . . psal. . . lam. . . heb. . . rev. . . psa. . . prov. . . cor. . . acts . . phil. . . heb. . . luke . . psal. . . psal. . . sen. ep. . dissert . lib. . cap. . seneca de ira. lib. . c. . ep. . seneca , ep. . ep. . job . pet. . . heb. . . job . . sam. . . job . , . . sam. . ver . . sam. . . sam. . . psal. . sen. helv. cap. . lib. . c. . king. . . cor. . . rom. . . sam. . ver . , . greg. moral . chap. . . sen. ep. . ep. . s●● . tranq . a● . cap. . sen. ad . mutium , cap. . gen. . . sam. . . chron. . . cor. . . notes for div a -e eccl. . . de leg. lib. . jur. sat . . de superstistitione . nat. deor. lib. . lactant. against colotes . nat. deor. lib. . lord bacons essays . cap. . rom. . . de benef. lib. . c. . lib. . lib. . cap. de haeret. grotius de jure belli & pacis , l. . cap. . sect . . lib. . eccles. . . acts . . moral . . ad eudem . dissert . . . lib. . sect. . seneca . idem epist. . epist. . mag. moral . lib. . cap. . epist. . epist. . deut. . . exod. . . deut. . . prov. . . isa. . . prov. . . . . . . deut. . . lev. . prov. . . prov. . . psal. . prov. . . rhet. lib. . cap. . psal. . prov. . c. . , . . . psal. . . ethic. lib. . cap. . jer. . . prov. . . cap. . , . cap. . . cap. . . jam. . . tit. . . matt. . . joh. . . gal. . . job . . prov. . . . . . . prov. . . cor. . . cap. . . deut. . . exod. . . jer. . . psal. . . prov. . . chap. . , . deut. . . sam. . . joh. . . epist. . tusc. q. . prov. . . pet. . prov. . . v. . c. . . isa. . . isa. . . rom. . , . gal. . . isa. . mat. . ep. . job . , . rom. . eph. . , . tim. . . lib. . . . ephes. . matt. . matt. . matt. . luke . . matt. . matt. . cor. . cor. . rom. . , . col. . . the reasons of the christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of god ... : the second part, of christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the christian belief ... / by richard baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the somatists or epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the reasons of the christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of god ... : the second part, of christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the christian belief ... / by richard baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the somatists or epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers. baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. : port. printed by r. white for fran. titon ..., london : . errata on p. [ ]. reproduction of original in british library. marginal notes in latin. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng natural theology -- early works to . apologetics -- early works to . apologetics -- history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion portrait farewell vain world ! as thou hast been to me dust & a shadow ; those i leave with thee : the unseen vitall substance i committ to him that 's substance , light & life to it . the leaves & fruit here dropt are holy seed , heaven's heirs to generate ; to heale & feed : them also thou wilt flatter & molest but shalt not keep from everlasting rest . the reasons of the christian religion . the first part , of godliness : proving by natvral evidence the being of god , the necessity of holiness ▪ and a future life of retribution ; the sinfulness of the world ; the desert of hell ; and what hope of recovery mercies intimate . the second part , of christianity : proving by evidence supernatural and natural , the certain truth of the christian belief : and answering the objections of vnbelievers . first meditated for the well-setling of his own belief ; and now published for the benefit of others , by richard baxter . it openeth also the true resolution of the christian faith. also an appendix , defending the soul's immortality against the somatists or epicureans , and other pseudo-philosophers . london , printed by r. white , for fran. titon , at the three daggers in fleet-street . . to the christian reader . because there are some , who judging of others by themselves ▪ will say what need this labour among christians , to prove a god , a life to come , and the truth of the gospel ? or at least what need is there of it , after so much already written ? i take my self obliged to give you an account of this attempt : for my own reason is much against over-doing , and wasting our little time in things superfluous ; which is but enough for necessary things : but it hath recorded this among the indubitata ; boni rarò nimis ; optimi nunquam ; indifferentes saepissimè mali semper . the true reasons of this work , are no fewer than these following . . quod cogitamus , loquimur : that which is most and deepest in my thoughts , is aptest to break forth to others . man is a communicative creature . though it be to my shame , i must confesse , that necessity , through perplexed thoughts , hath made this subject much of my meditations : it is the subject which i have found most necessary and most usefull to my self . and i have reason enough to think , that many others may be as weak as i. and i would fain have those partake of my satisfaction , who have partaked of my difficulties . . i perceive , that because it is taken for a shame , to doubt of our christianity and the life to come , this hindereth many from uttering their doubts , who never get them well resolved , but remain half infidels within , whilest the ensigns of christ are hanged without ; and need much help , though they are ashamed to tell their needs : and prudent charity will relieve those who are ashamed to beg . . as the true knowledge of god , is the beginning and maintainer of all holinesse and honesty of heart and life ; so latent atheisme and infidelity in the mindes of hypocrites in the church , is the root of their prophanenesse , dishonesty and wickednesse . did they seriously believe as christians , they would not live as the enemies of christianity ! i take it therefore to be the surest and most expeditious cure of the security , presumption , pride , perfidiousnesse , sensuality , and wickednesse of these hypocrites , to convince them that there is a god , and a life to come , and that the gospel is true . . and this prophaneness and sensuality tendeth to greater infidelity . they that will not live as they profess to believe , may most easily be drawn to believe and profess , as they are willing to live . and therefore this prognostick commandeth me to endeavour , to prevent mens open profession of infidelity , lest the present torrent of ungodlinesse , selfishnesse , malice , uncharitablenesse , perjury , treachery , faction , whoredom , and other sensualities , should fall into this gulf , or one that is not much unlike it . . the best complain of the imperfection of their faith : and too many good christians , especially if melancholy surprise them , are haunted with such temptations , to atheisme , blasphemy and unbelief , as make their lives a burden to them ! and one that hath heard so many of their complaints as i have done , is excusable for desiring to relieve them . it hath many a time been matter of wonder to me to observe , that there is scarce one deep melancholy person among ten ( religious or not religious before ) but is followed with violent suggestions to doubt of the god-head , and of the truth of the gospel , or to utter some word of blasphemy against god. and he that must pray , [ lord increase my faith , and help my unbelief , ] must use other means as well as pray . . the imperfection of our faith ( even about the gospel , and the life to come ) is the secret root of all our faults ; of the weaknesse of every other grace , of our yielding to temptations ; and of the carelesnesse , badnesse , and barrennesse of our lives . so transcendent are the concernments of the life to come , that a certain , clear , and firm belief of them , would even deride temptations , and bear down all the trifles of this world , by what names or titles soever dignified , as things not worthy of a look or thought ! what manner of person will that man be , in all holy conversation and godliness , who believing that all these things must be dissolved , doth look for the coming of christ , and for the blessed consequents ! pet. . , , . thess . . . o what a life would that man live ! what prayers , what prayses ! what holy discourse would employ his tongue ! with what abhorrence would he reject the baits of sin ! who did but see , but once see , those unseen and future things , which every christian professeth to believe ? how contemptibly would he think and speak both of the pleasures and the sufferings of this dreaming life , in comparison of the everlasting things ? what serious desires , and labours , and joyes , and patience , would such a sight procure ? how much more holy and heavenly would it make even those that by the purblind world are thought to exceed herein already ? and if we took our belief to be as certain as our sight , believing would do greater matters than it doth . i oft think what one told me , that an infidel answered him , when he asked him , how he could quiet his conscience in such a desperate state ? saith he , [ i rather wonder how you can quiet your conscience in such a common careless course of life , believing as you do ? if i believed such things as you do , i should think no care , and diligence , and holiness could be enough . ] . the soul in flesh is so much desirous of a sensitive way of apprehension , and sensible things being still before us , do so increase this malady , and divert the minde from spiritual things , that we have all great need of the clearest evidence , and the most suitable , and frequent , and taking explication of them , that possibly can be given us , not only to make us believe things unseen , but to make us serious , and practical , and affectionate about the things which in a sort we do believe ; to keep drowsie hearts awaken . . the way of taking religion upon trust , without rising up to make it our own , hath filled the church so full of hypocrites who have no better than an humane faith , that thereby the complexion of it is much changed , from its primitive beauty : and thousands do perish by felf-deceit : and though some of their gifts be serviceable to the gospel , others of them do more effectually serve the devil , against the cause and servants of christ , than they could have done if they were professed infidels . . it makes me blush , and stirrs my indignation , to read and hear abundance of hot and vehement disputes , and tedious or critical discourses about many small lesse needfull things , by those men that never studyed the foundation , nor can with sense and reason defend their christianity against an infidel . such preposterous methods are perverse and nauseous . . i am much afraid lest many of those ignorant zealous christians , who now turn to that sectary whom they cannot answer , would turn to the infidel at last , when they finde themselves unable to confute them , through their own insufficiency and ungroundednesse in the truth . . but if they do not apostatize , what a shame will it be to the church of god , to have our religion thus betrayed , by such as are not able to defend it ? and how many others may it tempt to infidelity , to hear an ignorant christian baffled . . i am too sure , that too many teachers , that should be champions for the truth , are lamentably unfurnished for such a conflict , by neglecting the study of the foundation , and bestowing all their thoughts on the superstructure . . i know that it is gods method , to cause the growth of faith at the root , in proportion to its growth in tallnesse and in fruit : it is his mercifull providence , to keep those whose faith hath weaker roots , from the strong temptations which others undergoe . as the plant that is little , doth bear but little of the stroke of the windes ; which else would quickly overturn it : but the root growing downward , as the top groweth upward , the radication and the assaults are still proportioned : so faith must grow equally in its roots and branches while we live . had i felt as strong assaults against my faith while i was young , as i have done since , i am not sure it would have scap'd an overthrow . . i have in the anatomizing of the controversies which most hazard the church of christ , found so much latent atheisme and infidelity , that i think among many ( that do not observe it ) the true root of all the difference is , whether there be a god , and a life to come ? and whether the scriptures be true . and i think that a sound agreement in these , would do more to the ending of such controversies , and to the healing of our wounds , than any disputing of the controverted points . . we have had hot and scandalous disputes among christians , de resolutione fidei ; each party invalidating the others foundations , as if it had been our work to perswade the infidel world , that they are in the right . and i thought it the only way to end that controversie , to open all the causes of our faith. the roman party may here perceive our grounds , and better know into what we resolve our faith , than if we named only one sort of cause , and said , i resolve it into this : as if all the frame had but one wheel ? faith hath variety of causes and objects , into which respectively it may be said to be resolved : ( by those that will not use an insignificant word , to make people believe there is a difference , where there is none ; and to keep men from understanding the matter it self . ) augustine saith of his friend nebudius ( ep. . bonif. ) that he exceedingly hated a short answer to a great question , and took it ill where he might be free , of any that did expect it from him : [ answer me in a word ] is the command of an ignorant or a slothfull person , or of a deceiver , when a word is not capable of the necessary answer . . there is no more desireable work in the world , than the converting of idolaters and infidels to god and to the christian faith. and it is a work which requireth the greatest judgement and zeal in them that must perform it . it is a dolefull thought , that five parts of the world are still heathens and mahometans ; and that christian princes and preachers do no more to their recovery ; but are taken up with sad contentions among themselves : and that the few that have attempted it , have hitherto had so small successe . the opening of the true method for such a work , is the highest part of my design : in which though many others have excellently laboured , [ especially savonarola , campanella , ficinus , vives , micraelius , duplessis , grotius , and our stillingfleet , ] my zeal for the saving of mens souls hath provoked me to try , whether i might adde any thing to their more worthy labours , in point of method and perspicuity of proof . . lastly , i have long agoe written much on this subject , which is dispersed and buryed in the midst of other subjects , ( except my book of the unreasonableness of infidelity ) : and i thought it more edifying to set it in order together by it self . if these reasons justifie not my undertaking , i have no better . the lord have mercy on this dark , distracted , sensual world. christians , watch , pray , love , live , hope , rejoyce , and patiently suffer , according to this holy faith which you professe , and you shall be blessed in despight of earth and hell. octob. . . your brother in this life of faith , richard baxter . virtus fidei in periculis secura est ; securitate periclitatur . chrysost . in mat. . to the doubting and the vnbelieving readers . the natural love to knowledge and to my self , which belong to me as i am a man , have commanded me to look beyond this life , and diligently to enquire , whether there be any certainty of a better ? and which is the way to it , and to whom it doth of right belong . and what i have certainly discovered in this search , the love of mankind , and of truth , and of god , oblige me to communicate . but it was not a cursory glance at truth , nor a look towards it afar off , in my state of ignorance and diversion , which brought the satisfying light into my mind : nor can you reasonably expect it should do so by you . i saw that in one savonarola , campanella , ficinus , vives , mornay , grotius , cameron , micraelius , which i now see might satisfie all the world , if it were duly received . but it was not a bare reading of one or all of these and others , which was a due reception : i found that truth must be so long retained , and faithfully elaborated by a diligent and willing mind , till it be concocted into a clear methodical understanding , and the scheme or analysis of it have left upon the soul its proper image , by an orderly and deep impression ; yea , till the goodness of the matter become as nutriment , bloud and spirits to the will , before it is truly made our own . it expecteth ( i say not greater courtship , but ) more cordial friendship , than a transient salute , before it will unveil its glory , and illustrate , beautifie and bless the soul . it is food and physick : it will nourish and heal : but not by a bare look or hear-say , nor by the reading of the prescript . could i procure the reader to do his part , i doubt not but this treatise will suffice on its part , to bring in that light , which the sagae , the lemures and daemones of atheism , infidelity and ungodliness will not be able to endure . but i am far from expecting universal success ; no not if i brought a book from heaven . the far greatest part have unprepared minds , and will not come up to the price of truth . and nothing is more sure than that recipitur ad modum recipientis ; & pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli . these drones imagine , that they are fit to judge of a scripture-difficulty , or of an argument concerning the mysteries of religion , before they know what it is to be a man , or understand the alphabet of nature , even those points which supernatural revelations presuppose : such uncapableness in the reader is as a great hinderance , as the want of solid proof and evidence in the writer . most men are drowned in filthy sensuality , or worldly cares ; and their relish is vitiated by luscious vanities ; their reason is debased by subjection to the flesh , and darkned and debilitated by long alienation from its proper work : and yet they are so constituted of ignorance and pride , that they can neither understand plain truth , nor perceive that it is long of themselves that they understand it not . and ●othfulness and sensuality have so far conquered humanity it self , even the natural love of truth and of themselves , that they will take up with what their play-fellows have taught them , and venture their souls and their everlasting concernments , ●nless they can secure them by an idle , gamesome , ●leshly life , or grow wise by the short superficial studies of an alienated , unwilling , tired mind . unless the great things of god and immortality , will ●e savingly known by a few distracted thoughts of a discomposed mind , or the rambling talk of their companions , whose heads are as unfurnished and giddy as their own ; or by the cursory perusal of a few books , which cross not their carnal interest and humour in the midst of their more beloved employments and delights , they will neither be solid christians , nor wise and honest men . if god will be conversed with in the midst of their feasting , cups and oaths , in their pride , and revelling , and with their whores ; if he will be found of them that hate his holiness , and all that love it , and seriously obey him , then god shall be their god , and christ shall be their saviour , and if this be the way , they may become good christians : but if retired serious thoughts be necessary , and an honest faithfulness to what they know , they must be excused : they that know that it is not an hours perusal of a book of astronomy , geometry , musick , physick , &c. which will serve to make them skilful in these arts , do expect to attain far higher wisdom , by inconsiderable industry and search ; and will not be wise unless they can be taught by vision in their dreams , or in the crowd and noise of worldly business , and of fleshly lusts . i find that it is a difficult task which i have undertaken , to be the instructer of such men : if i be large and copious , their laziness will not suffer them to read it : if i be concise , i cannot satisfie their expectations ; for they think nothing well proved , if every objection be not answered , which idle cavilling brains can bring : neither have they sufficient attentiveness for brevity , nor will their ignorance allow them to understand it . the contradicting vices of their minds , do call for impossibilities for the cure . their incapacity saith , it must be a full explication , or i cannot apprehend the sense or truth . their averseness and slothfulness saith , it must be short , or i shall be tired with it , or cannot have while to read it . i cannot answer both these expectations to the full : but though the greatness of the matter have made the book bigger than i intended , the nauseating stomack of most readers hath perswaded me to avoid unnecessary words : and as big as the book is , i must tell the reader , that the style is so far from redundancies ( though some things be oft repeated ) that if he will not chew the particular words , but swallow them whole , and bestow his labour only on the sentences , i shall suppose that he hath not read the book . ficinus very truly noteth , that while children and youth are sufficiently conscious of their ignorance , to keep in a learning course , they may do well ; but when they first grow to a confidence of their own understandings , and at ripeness of age imagine , that their wits are ripe , and think that their unfurnished minds ( because they have a natural quickness ) are competent judges of all that they read ; then they are most in danger of infidelity , and of being undone for ever ; ( from to being the most perilous age . ) but if god keep them as humble diligent learners , till they have orderly gone through their course of studies , and sanctifie their greener youthful knowledge ; they then grow up to be confirmed christians . ficin . de verit. rel. cap. . it is therefore the diligence and patience of the reader which i still intreat , and not his belief : for i will beg nothing of his understanding , but justice to the truth ; but ( supposing god's help ) do trust to the cogencie of evidence . yet i must tell you , that i expect the reader , by the truths which he learneth , should be able himself to answer an hundred trivial objections , which are here passed by : and that in particular textual difficulties , he have recourse to commentaries and tractates on those subjects : for this book is long enough already . he that will diligently consider the connection of the consequent propositions to the antecedent , and will understand what he readeth as he goeth along , will see that i give him sufficient proof of all which i desire him to assent to . but i make no doubt but a hasty and half-witted reader can find objections and words enough against the plainest truth here written ; and such as he thinks do need a particular answer . when an understanding reader would be offended with me , if i should recite them . i had more compassion on the sober reader , than for the humouring of every brainsick sceptick , to stand proving that two and two are four . i write for such as are willing to be wise and happy , and that at dearer rates than jesting : for others , i must leave them , whether i will or no , to be wise too late . and for those capricious brains who deride our ordinary preaching , as begging and supposing that which we do not prove , when they have here , and in other such writings , found our fundamentals proved , let them hereafter excuse our superstructure , and not think that every sermon must be spent in proving our christianity and creed . in the first part of this book , i give you no testimonies from the christian writings or authorities , because i suppose the reader to be one that doth not believe them ; and my business is only to prove natural verities by their proper evidence : but lest any should think that there is not so much legible in nature , because the wisest heathens saw it not , i have cited in the margin their attestations to most particulars , to shew that indeed they did confess the same , though less distinctly and clearly than they might have done , ( as i have plainly proved . ) but , being many years separated from my books , i was forced to do this part less exactly than i would have done , had i been near my own or any other library . again , i seriously profess , that i am so confident of the just proofs and evidences of truth here given , that i fear nothing as to frustrate the success , but the reader 's incapacity , ( through half-wittedness or wickedness ) or his laziness in a cursory and negligent perusal of what is concisely but evidently proposed . it 's true that seneca saith , [ magna debet esse eloquentia , quae in vitis placet . ] i may adde , et veritatis evidentia quae caecis , malignis vel ignavis prodest . and who feeleth not the truth of hierom's words , ( ad paul. ) nunquam benefit , quod fit praeoccupato animo . be true and faithful to your selves , and to the truth , and you shall see its glory , and feel its power , and be directed by it to everlasting blessedness . this is his end , who is octob. . . an earnest desirer of mankind's felicity , richard baxter . to the hypocrite readers ; who have the name of christians , and the hearts and lives of andvnbelievers . it is the great mercy of god to you , that you were born of christian parents , and in a land where christianity is the professed religion , and under governours and laws which countenance it : but this which should have helped you to the intelligent and serious entertainment of religion , hath been abused by you to detain you from ●t : you have contented your selves to have religion in your princes , and your parents precepts , in libraries and laws , and to say over some of these by ●ote ; whilest you banished it from your hearts and lives , if not also from your sober thoughts and understanding ! and having indeed no religion of your own ( because the labour of understanding and obeying it , seemed too dear a price to purchase it ) you ●ve thought it most serviceable to your quietness and your reputation to seem to be of the religion of your parents or your king , be it what it will. this is indeed the common course of the rude and irreligious rabble , in all nations of the world. o that i might be your effectual monitor , to awaken you to consider what you have been doing ? and yet if you are men , to suffer your reason to look behinde you , within you , and before you , and seriously think what it is to be in heaven or hell for ever , and prudently to manage your own concernments ! can you think that that man hath any religion who hath no god ? or hath he indeed a god , who preferreth his lust , or wealth , or honour , or any thing in the world before him ? or that is not devoted to his obedience and his love ? is he a god that is not better than the pleasures of the flesh and world ? or that is not greater than a mortal man ? or is not fully sufficient for you ? did you know what you did when you owned your baptismal vow and covenant ? which is when you usurp the name of christians , and joyn in visible communion in the church ? do you know what it is to believe that there is a god , and a life to come , and to renounce the flesh , the world , and the devil , and give up your selves to a saviour and a sanctifyer ? or can you think while you are awake and sober , that perfidiousness will save you , and be taken by god instead of christianity ? will god accept you for a perjured profession ? to be that and do that which never came into your hearts ? is hypocrisie a virtue ? and will lying bring a man to heaven ? christianity is such a believing in christ , to bring us unto god and everlasting glory , as maketh the love of god the very nature of the soul , and thankefull obedience its employment , and a heavenly minde and life to be its constitution and its trade ; and the mercies of this life to be but our travelling-helps and provisions for a better ; and the interest of fleshly lust to be esteemed but as dross and dung . is this the life which you live , or which you hate ? i beseech you sirs , as you regard the reputation of your reason , tell us why you will professe a religion , which you abhorre ? or why will you abhorre a religion which you professe ? why will you glory in the part of a parrot , or an ape , to say over a few words , or move your bodies , while you detest the humane part , to know and love and live to god ? do you live only to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath , and the revelation of the righteous judgement of god , who will render to every one according to his deeds ? rom. . , . do you professe your selves christians only for self-condemnation ; to be witnesses against your selves in judgement , that you wilfully lived unchristian lives ? what is there in the world that you are so averse to , as to be seriously that which you professe your selves to be ? who hate you more than those that are that in heart and life , which you call your selves in customary words ? or that are serious in the religion which you say your selves you hope to be saved by ? read matth. . , , . why do you honour the dead saints , and abhorre the living ? and would make more martyrs , while you keep festivals of commemoration of those that others made ? quae est illa justitia sanctos colere , & sanctitatem contemnere ? primus gradus pietatis est sanctitatem diligere . chrysost . in matth. . christ hath not more bitter enemies in the world , than some of you who wear his livery : turks and heathens are more gentle to true christians , and have shed lesse of their blood than hypocrite christians have done . the zeal of the pharisees consumed many , whom the clemency of the romans would else have spared . be it known to all the infidel world , who detest christianity because of your wickednesse , that you are none of us ; christ renounceth you , matth. . , . and we renounce you . they may as well hate philosophy because some vagrant sots have called themselves philosophers , or have sailed with aristotle or plato in the same ship : they may as well hate physick , because many ignorant women and mountebanks have profess'd it ? they may as well reproach us for loyalty to our king , because there are secret traytors , that call themselves his subjects ? what are you to christians , that we should be reproached for your villanies ? o you turks and heathens , rather reproach us because there are wicked persons of your selves ; for you are not so cruel enemies to christians , as many of these hypocrites are . nullus enim christianus malus est , nisi hanc professionem simulaverit . athenagor . leg. pro christ . pag. . nemo illic ( in carcere ) christianus , nisi planè tantùm christianus : aut si aliud , jam non christianus . tertull. apol. c. . sed dicet aliquis etiam de nostris excedere quosdam à regulâ disciplinae . desunt tum christiani haberi apud nos : id. ib. c. . leg. twiss . vind. grat. l. e. . § . . p. . and my th disp . of sacraments . if any man have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his , rom. . . luk. . , . they are spies in his army : they are absaloms , chams and judas's in his family . try them by the character that christ hath given of his true disciples : and if they be such , then tell us of their lives and spare not . they are not of us , while they are among us . john . . they are more of your party than of ours , if the minde , heart , and life , be more of the man , than the tongue and knee . what if a celsus , or porphiry , or epicurus had called himself a christian ? must christ be answerable for him ? is it not enough that they abuse him by their hypocrisie , and living contrary to his laws , but he must be accused for their crimes , which he so strictly forbiddeth , and for which he will cast them into hell for ever ? would you have him do more than this is to disclaim them ? were they indeed christian princes , barons , priests and people , of whom abbas urspergensis speaketh , chron. pag. . ut omnis homo jam sit perjurus & praedictis facinoribus implicatus ; ut vix excusari possit , quin sit in his sicut populus , sic & sacerdos — et p. . principes terrarum & barones , arte diabolicâ edocti , nec curabant juramenta infringere , nec fidem violare , & jus omne confundere ? were they christian knights that erasmus speaketh of , colloqui pap. . ni sis bonus aleator , probus chartarius , scortator improbus , potator strenuus , profusor audax , decoctor & conflator aeris alieni , deinde scabie ornatus gallicâ , vix quisquam te credet equitem . it was cotta's proof , that there are atheists , in cicer. de natur . deor. li. . [ what shall we say of the sacrilegious , perjured , and ungodly ? if carbo , &c. had thought , that there are gods , he had not been so perjvred and vngodly . ] what more necessary to ungodly men ( whatever they call themselves ) than to convince them that there is a god , and life to come ? christ will not care for their image of religion , or deceitfull promises and professions : all wise men are of solon's minde [ probitatem jurejurando certiorem habe ] laert. in sol. believe it , hypocrites , your fornications , gluttony , drunkennesse , idlenesse , covetousnesse , selfishnesse , or pride , will finde no cloak in the day of judgement , from the christian name . you might better cheap have been sensual and wicked at a further distance , than in the family or church of god. nihil prodest aestimari , quod non sis : et duplicis peccati reus es ; non habere quod crederis ; & quod non habueris simulare : hieron . ep. ad fil . maur. or suppose your lives are more civilly and smoothly carnall ? to do no harm , is too little to prove you christians : much more to do evil with some bounds . nullum est aliud latronum beneficium , nisi ut commemorare possint , iis se vitam dedisse quibus non ademerint . cicer. phil. . non est bonitas pessimis esse meliorem . senec. my reasonable demand is , that you will be what you call your selves , or call your selves as you are . i am not inviting you to a new religion , nor to a sect ; but to be really and seriously what you are nominally , and what you have vowed and professe to be : jest not with god , and heaven and hell. you may mock your selves , but god will not be mocked . at last turn back , and study what that religion is which you professe : review your baptismal covenant ; and be true to that , and i have done . and cast out of your way the common block of hating those whom you should imitate . ita comparatum est , ut virtutem non suspiciamus , neque ejus imitandae studio corripimur , nisi eum in quo ea conspicitur , summo honore & amore prosequamur . plutar ▪ in cat. vtic. it was one of the roman lawes of the tables , [ impius ne audeto placare donis iram deorum . ] repent and pray , was peters counsel to one of your predecessors , act. . . judas hath a kiss for christ ; but it is hearty love , and a sober , righteous , godly life , which must be your evidence . i have faithfully warned you ; the lord have mercy on you , and convert you . r.b. octob. . . cujus aures clausae veritati sunt , ut ab amico verum audire nequeat , hujus salus desperanda est . cic. rhet. . prov. . . he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law , even his prayer shall be abominaton . antisthenes civitates tunc interire aiebat , cum bonos discernere nequeunt à malis . laert. in antisth . john . . he that committeth sin , is of the devil : for the devil sinneth from the beginning : for this purpose the son of god was manifested , that he might destroy the works of the devil . the contents . part i. of natural religion or godliness . chap i. of the neerest truths , and . of humane nature , or the knowledge of our selves : ( where note , that the question about the souls immaterial substance , is reserved to the appendix or conclusion ) , page chap. ii. of man as related to the things below him , chap. iii. of men as mutually related to each other , chap. iv. of man and other things as produced by the first cavse , chap. v. what this cavse is in it self : that it is god , chap vi. of god as related to his creatures , especially to man : and i. as his owner , chap. vii . of mans relation to god his owner , chap. viii . ii. of god's relation to man as his rvler , where it is proved , that god ruleth man morally by laws and judgement , chap. ix . of mans svbjection to god , or relation to him as our rvler , chap. x. of god's particular laws as known in natvre : what the law of nature is , chap. xi . iii. of god's relation to man as his benefactor and his end : or as his chief good : proved that god is mans end , chap. xii . of man's relation to god as he is our father , benefactor , and end or chief good : and the duties of that relation , chap. xiii . experiments of the difficulty of all this duty-before-proved from nature : and what it must cost him who will live such a holy life , chap. xiv . that there is a life of retribution after this , proved , chap. xv. of the intrinsecal evils of sin : and of the perpetval pvnishment due to the sinner by the undoubted law of nature , chap. xvi . of the present sinfull and miserable state of the world , chap. xvii . what naturall light declareth of the mercy of god to sinners , and of the hopes and means of mans recovery , part ii. of christianity , and supernatural revelation . chap. i. of the need of a clearer light , or fuller revelation of the will of god , than all that hath been opened before , p. chap. ii. of the several religions which are in the world , chap. iii. of the christian religion : and . what it is , chap. iv. of the nature and properties of the christian religion , chap. v. of the congrvities in the christian religion , which make it the more easily credible , and are great preparatives to faith , chap. vi. of the witness of jesvs christ , or the great demonstrative evidence of his verity and authority , viz. the spirit : in . parts : . antecedently , by prophecy . . constitutively and inherently , the image of god , on his person , life and doctrine . . concomitantly ; by the miraculous power and works of christ and his disciples . . subsequently ; in the actual salvation of men by renovation : opened : notes added , chap. vii . of the subservient proofs and means by which the forementioned evidences are brought to our certain knowledge , how we know the antecedent prophetical testimony ; and the constitutive , inherent evidence : how we know the concomitant testimony of miracles : . by humane testimony . . by evidence of natural certainty . . by divine attestation in the testifyers miracles . the proofs of that divine attestation with the witnesses : . in the holy constitution of their souls and doctrine : . in their miracles and gifts : . in the success of their doctrine to mens sanctification . how the churches testimony of the disciples miracles and doctrine is proved . . by most credible humane testimony : . by such as hath natural evidence of certainty : . by some further divine attestation . the way or means of the churches attestation and tradition . the scriptures proved the same which the apostles delivered , and the churches received . how we may know the th part of the spirits testimony , viz. the successes of christian doctrine to mens sanctification : what sanctification is , and the acts or parts of it . consectaries , from p. . to chap. viii . of some other subservient and collateral arguments for the christian verity , chap. ix . yet faith hath many difficulties to overcome : what they are , and what their causes , chap. x. the intrinsecal difficulties in the christian faith resolved : or objections against christianity answered , , to chap. xi . the extrinsecal difficulties , or more objections resolved , chap. xii . the reasonable conditions required of them , who will overcome the difficulties of believing , and will not undoe themselves by wilfull infidelity , the summ of all in an addresse to god , , chap. xiii . consectaries . i. what party of christians should we joyn with , or be of , seeing they are divided into so many sects ? chap. xiv . ii. of the true interest of christ and his church , and the souls of men , of the means to promote it , and its enemies and impediments in the world : ( which being only named in brief propositions , should be the more heedfully perused , by those that dare pretend the interest of religion and the church , for the proudest , or the most dividing practices ; and those which most directly hinder the successefull preaching of the gospel , the pure worshipping of god , and the saving of mens souls . ) . the conclusion , ( or an appendix ) defending the souls immortality , against the somatists , or epicureans , and other pseudo-philosophers . objection i. matter and motion only may do all that which you ascribe to souls , p. object . ii. by sense , imagination , cogitation , reason , you cannot prove the soul to be incorporeal , and immortal , because the bruits partake of all these , object . iii. humane souls are but forms : and forms are but the qualities or modes of substances ; and therefore perish when seperated from bodies , object . iv. the soul is material , and consequently mortal , because it dependeth upon matter in its operations , and therefore in its essence , object v. no immaterial substance moveth that which is material , as a principle of its operations : but the soul so moveth the body : ergo — object . vi. the soul in our sleep acteth irrationally , according to the fortuitous motion of the spirits , — ergo — object . vii . reason is no proof of the souls immateriality , because sense ( which the bruits have ) is the more perfect apprehension , object . viii . sensation and intellection are both but reception : the passivity therefore of the soul doth shew its materiality , object . ix . there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the sense , &c. ergo , the soul that can reach but things corporeal , is such it self , object . x. that which things corporeal work on , is corporeal : but , &c. object . xi . that is not incorporeal which knoweth not it self to be so , nor hath any notion but negative and metaphorical of incorporeal beings , object . xii . the soul is generated : ergo , corruptible , object . xiii . omne quod oritur interit : that which is not eternal as to past duration , is not eternal as to future duration : but , &c. object . xiv . you have none but moral arguments for the souls immortality , object . xv. you seem to confess , that it is not the endless duration of the soul , but only a future state of retribution , which you can prove from nature alone , object . xvi . both soul and body are like a candle in fluxu continuo : ergo , being not long the same , are uncapable of a life of retribution , object . xvii . the soul returneth to the anima mundi or element of souls , and so loseth its individuation , and is uncapable of retribution , object . xviii . the fictions of the platonists about their several vehicles , and such like , do make their doctrine the more to be suspected , object . xix . the souls actings will not be such as they are now by corporeal spirits , and idea's : ergo , it will be uncapable of retribution , object . xx. the belief of the souls immortality doth fill men with fears , and draw them to superstition , and trouble the peace of kingdoms , &c. in objection about the worlds eternity : what christianity saith about it , the testimony of socrates and zenocrates of the souls immortality , ●icero's doctrine , and his redargution of the somatists at large , the stoicks neerness to the doctrine of christianity , with their particular moral tenets , and their praises , by the learned and pious mr. t. gataker , the stoicks , platonists , and other philosophers opinion of the sufficiency of virtue to be mans felicity , against the epicurean doctrine of pleasure , vindicated . it importeth a great theological verity , that god is mans ultimate end ; and to be loved above our own pleasure ; opened , , &c. why i answer no more particular objections , as about scripture-texts , &c. an instance in some strictures on a late writing , called , inquisitio in fidem christianorum hujus seculi , readers , i intreat you , whatever you do by all the rest following , to correct with your pen these few greater errata , because they quite pervert the sense , and some of them turn it directly contrary to some of the greatest truths which i am defending . page l. . for no other end r. another end , p. . l. . for fire r. air , p. l. . for thousands r. themselves , p. . l. . for against i● r. of it , p. . l. . for intelligible r. unintelligible , p. . l. . blot out quoad formam , p. . l. . for words r. works , p. . l. , . for mortal r. immortal , p. . l. . for it is first good r. it is not first good , p. . l. . for impudencies r. imprudences , p. . l. . for or r. our , p. . l. . for see● r. serve , p. . l. . for or r. our , p. . l. . for accidentally r. antecedently , p. . for expurgency r. exurgency , p. . l. . for and r. is , p. . l. . for continues r. contrives , p. . l. . for superficial r. supernatural , p. . l. . for anatomized r. atomized , p. . l . for debased r. disposed , p. . l. . for missu r. injussu . in the first epistle p. . l. . r. indifferentis . page . l. . for or r. are , p. . marg . l. . for at r. ut , p. . l. . r. so full , p. . marg . l. antep . r. animi morbi , p. . l. . for sometimes r. 〈◊〉 minds , p. . marg . l. . r. eunapius , p. . l. . r. texeira , p. . marg . l. . r. simulata , and l. . r. his disciples , p. . l. . dele telesius , l. . r. behmenists , p. . l. . for aristippus r. aristotle , p. . l. . for hath r. have , p. . marg . l. . for speculum r. specimen , p. . l. . r. in the , p. . l. . r. the godly , p. . l. . r. asellius , p. . l. . r. these are the , p. . l. . for since r. sure , p. . l. . for wean r. turn , p. . l. . for most r. more , p. . marg . l. . r. nolint , and l. penult . for cartes . r. cortes . p. . l. . for one r. a● , p. . l. . for as r. an , p. . l. . r. contemperatio , p. . l. . r. gradually , p. . marg . l. . r cortes . p. . l. . for lud r. lod , p. . l. . for the r. that ; p. . l. . dele who , p. . l. . r. adiant●m , p. . l. . r. nor no substance , p. . l. . for arphad . r. aphrod . p. . l. . dele may , p. . marg . r. cortes . p. . l . for one reason , r. our reason , p. . l. . for what r. which . take notice also , that many of the marginal citations , are not put just over against the words which they referr to . part i. of natural religion , or godliness . chap. i. of the nearest truths , viz. of humane nature . resolving on a faithful search into the nature and certainty of religion , as being the business which my own and all mens happiness is most concerned in , being conscious of my weakness , and knowing that truths have their certain order , in which they give much light to one another ; i found it meet to begin at the most evident , from whence i ascended in the order following . § . . i am past all doubt that i have sense , cogitation , understanding and will , with executive operation . though i could not exactly define what these are , yet i am satisfied that i have them : and i discern , that a simple term doth better express one of these to me , than a definition doth : because they are known so immediately in and of themselves , partly by internal sensation , and partly by intuition . and words are but to make known my mind about them to another , and anothers to me ; but the things themselves are otherwise to be known . what it is to see , to hear , to smell , to taste , i know better by seeing , hearing , smelling , tasting , than by any definitions of them : and the bare denomination , when i understand the term , is my best expression . and if i could not answer a sceptick , who denied the certainty of my judgment by sensation and reflexive intuition , yet nature would not suffer me to doubt . or if any such should really make me doubt , whether i may not possibly live in a continual delusory dream , and all my senses and understanding be deceived ; yet would it satisfie me in the main , that i must judge by such powers as i have , and can do no better , and therefore should be no further sollicitous . if any would perswade me that i feel not when i am sick or wounded , or see not when i see , or taste not when or what i taste ; yet must i be persuaded , that fallible or infallible , this sense must be used , and serve for the ends to which it is given me . and that i have no better faculties to use . § . . by my actions i know that i am ; and that i am a sentient , intelligent , thinking , willing , and operative being ; or a wight that hath these powers . for ab operari ad posse & esse , the consequence is undoubted . nothing is no agent ; and none doth that which he cannot do . § . . this mind , or foresaid power , is found in , or conjunct with an organized body . he that doubteth not of his sense and intellection , need not doubt of his body , which is the object of both . § . . this body is a quantitative or extensive , nutrite , changeable , corruptible matter . of which my senses and experience will not suffer me to doubt . § . . this mind is fitted to the use of knowing , and is desirous of it , delighted in it , and the more it knoweth , the more it is able and disposed to know . all this our actions and experience testifie . knowing is to the mind as seeing is to the eye . one act of knowledge promoteth and facilitateth another . § . . being and verity are its direct objects . as light and colours are the objects of our sight . to these it hath power and inclination . § . . when i know the effects , i have an inclination to know the cause ; not onely the lower , but the very first . though it be possible that some sensual sluggish person , may be so taken up with present earthly things , as to drown these desires , and scarce to think of any first cause , or take any pleasure in the exercise of his higher faculties ; yet , as i feel it otherwise in my self , so i find it otherwise in multitudes of others , and in all that have free minds , and in the worst at certain times ; so that i perceive it is natural to man , to desire to know even the first cause , and highest excellencie . § . . yet do i find that my mind is not satisfied in knowing , nor is entity and verity the ultimate object which my mind looketh after ; but goodness . entity and verity may be unwelcome loathed things , if against my good . the thief could wish , that neither law , nor judge , nor gallows had a being , and that his sentence were not true . knowledge is but a mediate motion of the soul , directive to the following volitions and prosecution . § . . i find i have a will , inclined to apprehended good ; that is , both to that which hath a simple excellency in it self , and which maketh for the happiness of the world , or for my own . this maketh it self as well known to me , as my natural appetite . for my apprehensions do but subserve it , and my life is moved or ruled by it . § . . it is also averse to apprehended evil as such , as contrary to the foresaid good . though real evil may possibly be chosen , when it is a seeming good , & also that which appeareth proximately evil , for a higher good to which it seemeth a means , yet ultimately and for it self , no rational will desireth or chooseth evil. § . . while sensitive pleasure is apprehended as good by the senses , reason may discern a further good , which may cross at least the present sense . to take bitter physick , to corrode or cut off ulcerated parts , to use hard dyet and exercise , &c. may be ungratefull in themselves to sense , and yet commended by reason , and commanded by the will ( i yet forbear all higher instances . ) § . . my sense and bodily faculties , are naturally to be subjected to the guidance of my reason , and the command of my will , as the superiour faculties . for one is common to bruits , and the other proper to rational creatures : and rational agents are more excellent than bruits : and the most excellent should rule . reason can see further than sense : and the wisest is most fit to govern . they that deny this , should claim no government or power over their beasts , their dogs , or sheep . if reason ruled not sensuality , most persons would presently destroy their lives : even as swine would kill themselves with eating , if the reason of man did not restrain them . § . . the summ is , that man is a living wight , having an active and executive power , with an understanding to guide it , and a will to command it : and that there is a certain difference between truth and falshood , natural good , and evil. all this is quite beyond dispute . chap. ii. of man as related to the things below him . § . . there are other things , called inanimates and bruits , in being , besides man. my understanding by the help of all my senses , telleth me , that there are beasts and birds , trees and herbs , and that i live among a multitude of beings , inferiour to man. though i may be ignorant of their principles , and many things in their natures , yet can i no more doubt of their being than of mine own , nor of the inferiority of their natures , when i see their inferiour operations . § . . man hath a certain sub-propriety in them for his use . they that deny this , will not say their lands , their fruits , their money , their goods , and cattle are their own : nor question any one for stealing them , or depriving them of the propriety : nor may they possess and use them as their own . § . . man hath the right of governing the bruits , so far as they are capable of government . which is not by proper moral government , by laws and judgement ; but such an image of it , as is suitable to their several kinds . this is in order to their own preservation ; but especially for our use and ends : he that denyeth this , must not rule his dog , his horse , or oxe , or sheep ; but leave them every one to themselves . § . . man is also ( subordinately ) their benefactor , and their end : and they are more for him than for themselves . he is their end as he is better than they , and hath the foresaid propriety in them ; the cause will further appear anon . the beauty and sweetness of my flowers , is more for me than for themselves : and i do more enjoy them . my trees and herbs , and fruits , and mettals ; my horse and oxe that labour for me ; and all the creatures on whom i feed , i finde are for my use ; even their life and labour : mankinde accuseth not himself as wronging them , when for his own advantage he maketh use of both . and his care is necessary to their preservation ; planting , dressing , watering , feeding , defending , providing for them : without which the usefullest would perish . § . . the summ is , that man is the owner , the governovr , and the end and benefactor of the inferiour beings ; and so is lord among them in the world. chap. iii. of men as mutually related to each other . § . . i see that there are more men besides me upon earth . § . . the natural dignity of man , and their likeness to each other , maketh them all confess that it is their duty to love one another . he that denyeth this , will not expect to be loved himself by others ; nor will he pretend to any virtue , nor to merit the benefit of humane converse . § . . individual persons are commonly conscious of self-insufficiency , and of their need of others , and inclined to a sociable life . if birds and beasts will go together in flights and heards , with those of their own kinde , no wonder if man also have a naturall inclination to society , besides the knowledge of the necessity and benefits of it . § . . each individual in these societies must contribute his endeavours to the common good . for this is the end of the association : he that will be for none but himself , cannot justly expect that any should be for him : and he that would have all the society be helpfull to him , must to his power be helpfull to all . § . . the distinction of persons , and their interests and actions , foundeth a distinction of propriety and rights . for natural individuation maketh it necessary that every man have his own food , and his own cloathing , at least for the time : and therefore it is usually needfull to the good of the whole and the parts , that each one have also their provisional proprieties : and the difference of men in wit and folly , industry and sloth , virtue and vice , good or ill deserts , will also cause a difference of propriety and rights : though these may be in part subjected to the common good . § . . parents also may upon the merits of children ( if not arbitrarily ) make an inequality in propriety : and so may other donors and benefactors . as all children need not the same proportion , so all deserve not the same : and those parents that have great estates , may leave more to their own children than to others : so that many wayes both propriety and disproportion may certainly come to pass , and be allowed in the world. § . . therefore there is such a thing as justice due from man to man , for the preservation of these rights and order : and it 's injustice to violate them . this is confessed by all the world , that look for justice from others : and if it be not maintained , the world will be as in a continual warre or robbery : but better grounds and proofs of it , will be mentioned anon . § . . therefore there is a difference between good and evil , as respecting the benefit or hurt of others , beside that which respecteth men as to themselves . those that think they are bound to avoid hurting no man but themselves or for themselves , nor to do good to any but themselves or for themselves , have so far obliterated the laws of humanity , and so openly renounce the benefits of society , and bid defiance to mankinde , that i suppose them so few that i need not dispute against them : nor have i ever met with any defender of so inhumane a cause , whatever may be in their hearts and practice . § . . nature teacheth parents to educate their children in sobriety , obedience , justice and charity ; and to restrain their contraries . did parents make no difference between their childrens temperance and gluttony , drunkenness and unchastity , between their obedience and disobedience , and contempt of their own authority ; between actions of justice and charity , and actions of falshood , robbery , cruelty , and inhumanity , what a degenerate thing would mankinde prove ? even cannibals exercise some government over their children . § . . the means which nature teacheth all the world , to suppress iniquity , and promote well-doing , is by punishments and benefits , that it may turn to the hurt of the evil-doer himself , and to the benefit of the well-doer . thus parents do by children , yea men by beasts , on the account of prudence , though not of justice . without punishments and rewards or benefits , laws are ridiculous or deceits , and government is nothing . § . . for the just and effectual performance of this , nature teacheth the world to set up governments , that by setled laws and righteous judgement , it may be rightly done . though better principles should acquaint men with the nature and necessity of government , yet these are so obvious to all the world , that for their own preservation , together with some natural sense of justice , the most barbarous nations , that are nearest unto bruits , are for some civil government , ( besides oeconomical government , which none but mad-men ever question'd ) . § . . by this government , the liberty , estates and lives of offenders are destroyed , for the ends of the government , viz. for justice and the common good . that this is so , de facto , is so undeniable , that even those heathens ( the supposed relicts of the pythagoreans ) who will not kill a harmless beast , will yet kill those men who deserve to die . and if government had not the power over the liberties , estates and lives of offenders , it could not preserve the liberties , estates and lives of the innocent . § . . the combination of the power , wisdom and goodness of the individuals , and the eminency of these in the governours , is the cause of the order , strength and safety of these humane societies . all the parts are in the combination to contribute to the good of the whole , and that according to the nature of the parts : it is not a heap of stones , nor a forest of trees , nor a heard of cattle , which we are speaking of , but an association of men ; which must be promoted and blessed by the worth and duty of the individuals : and this consisteth in the perfections and right exercise of their power , intellects and wills. but as the place of the governour requireth more of the exercise of these , than is requisite in any individual else , so doth it therefore require , that these be in him in greater eminency and excellency than in others ; viz. that in himself he excel in wisdom and goodness ; and by his interest in the people that he excel in power or strength . take away power , and societies are indefensible , exposed to the will of enemies , and unable to execute their laws upon their own offenders , and so to attain the ends of their association and government . take away wisdom , and they are a rout of ideots or mad-men , and government can be none at all . take away goodness , and they are as a company of devils , or confederacy of robbers or pernicious enemies , who can neither trust one another , nor promote the common good , but are fit to destroy and be destroyed . § . . by all this it is manifest , that man is not only a living wight , having power , intellect , and will , and dominion over inferiour things , as their owner , ruler and end , but also is a sociable wight , or fitted for society where government is exercised , by power , wisdom and goodness , which are his perfections . i have looked thus long at the things that are seen , as nearest me , and most discernable , before i proceed to the cause , which is unseen . chap. iv. of man , and other things , as produced by their first cause . § . . i was not always what i am . it is not yet sixty years since i was no man : i had a late beginning , and though i now enquire not of what duration my soul is , my present composition is not from eternity : the same i see of others , that are born men , who were lately none : and so of all things that are here generated . § . . i did not make my self , at least as an independent uncaused being . i could not as i am , make my self what i am : for so my self as the cause should be before my self as the effect , which is a contradiction , unless the word [ self ] be used equivocally . when i was not i acted not . if it be said by any , that the soul did fabricate a body to it self , and so one part of me made the other , i answer , . my soul did not make the matter of that body : for if it did , it made it of something or of nothing ; if of something , either it made that something or not ; if not , then it made not the first matter of the body . if it made it of nothing , it must be omnipotent ; but it is conscious of impotency . . my soul did not make it self , for then it must be before it self , which is impossible . and if i made neither form nor matter , i did not make my self . if it be said , that my soul is an eternal uncaused being , and so did fabricate this body as a dwelling for it self : i answer , . as to the supposed fabrication , it is conscious it self of no such thing . and if my soul made my body , either it was as a causa subministra vel instrumentalis , by the direction and power of a superiour cause , or else of and by it self as the prime cause . if the first , then it is a caused and dependent being it self , and so leadeth us to a higher cause . if the second be affirmed , and so my soul an eternal , uncaused , independent being ; then , . that which is without beginning , cause and dependency , must needs be self-sufficient , and be the highest excellency ; it must have an infiniteness , and need no help from any other : but my soul is conscious of imperfection in knowledge , its ignorance is its burden and dishonour , it knoweth not so much as is here asserted of it self , it knoweth no such perfections or operations , it knoweth little comparatively of the universe , or of any particular thing in it . if it were an eternal , uncaused , independent being , it need not all the helps of evidence and argument in this dispute . moreover it is conscious of imperfection in goodness , and defilement of evil : it is defective in governing this flesh , which could never be able to make me a sinner or culpable , if it were animated with an uncaused independent being . moreover i am conscious of impotency in every thing that i go about : a thousand difficulties pose and stall me ! a thousand things i would do and cannot , and as many i would have and cannot : whereas an uncaused independent mind , should necessarily have an uncaused independent power , and wisdom , and goodness , and so should at least partake of infiniteness in all . and if my soul did thus fabricate my body , then what needed it pre-existent matter to make it of ? and why did it not make it sooner , seeing it hath such an inclination to it ? can an independent mind be ignorant what it was , and what it did it self from all eternity , before it entred into this flesh ? and why doth it not amend the infirmities of this body ? or why did it not make it self a body more excellent , more comely , more sound , more clean , and more durable ? could it choose no better ? can it not heal and perfect this ? can it not prevent the dissolution of it ? seeing i find it so much in love with it , and so unwilling to be separated from it , if it were an independent mind , and caused it at the first , it would not be unwillingly taken from it , and leave it to rottenness and dust ? and if my soul did thus independently make my body , did all other souls do so by their bodies , or not ? if they did not , then they had a superiour cause ; if they did , then it seems that every worm , and fly , and toad hath a soul , that is an eternal , uncaused , independent being . but why then have they no knowledge , no reason , no speech ? why did they not choose a more honourable dwelling ? why do they all stoop to the service of man , if they are equally excellent ? and then it would follow that there are as many eternal independent beings , as there are souls or living wights in all the world . and so instead of one true perfect god , there would be innumerable demi-gods , which all had the perfection of independencies , and none of them had a perfection of being and sufficiency : which would put us upon the further enquiries , whether they do all their business independently , or by a general council and consent , and how they all do to agree , and not fall into perpetual wars ; how the soul of an ideot , or a wicked man , or of a toad or serpent , came to be so self-denying as to be contented with that part , when the soul of aristotle , and seneca , and paul were so much better provided for . and if all this were so , who made the things inanimate , that have no souls of their own to make them ? for my part i made them not . and my soul is conscious that it is a dependent being , that cannot illuminate it self , nor know what it would know , nor be what it would be , nor do what it would do , nor can support its body or it self an hour . it looketh dependently to something higher for help , and protection , and supply , and mercy , and is past all doubt that it is no god. if it be said that all souls are but one , even parts of the universal soul of the world , and that individuation is by matter only , and that so though my soul be not the whole first cause and being , it is a part of it : i answer , . i note by the way , that this hypothesis acknowledgeth that which i am searching after , viz. that there is a god : and it asserteth higher things of man than i am proving , viz. that he hath not only an immortal soul , but a soul that is part of god himself . . and according to this , the soul of every heliogabalus , sardanapalus , ideot or toad , should be part of god. . and then all souls should be alike , if all be god ; the soul of a murderer , and of him that is murdered , of a nero and a saint , yea , of caesar and of his dog. and how then cometh there so much enmity between them , and so great disparity ? why is one wise , and another foolish or bruitish , and one the ruler of the other ? the soul of a bird or horse seemeth to be lodged in as good a kind of matter as mans ; or at least , the soul of a nero in as good a matter as the soul of paul ; or at least , the soul of one that turneth to villany from virtue , hath the same matter which it had before . and certainly it is not matter that principally individuateth , but forms . nor is the difference between good men and bad , and between men , and serpents or beasts , so much in matter as in the soul. moreover nature teacheth all men to seek felicity , and fear infelicity and calamity : which they need not do , nor could not do , if they were all parts of god : god cannot be miserable , but man can , as to his soul as well as his body , and the misery of his body is little to that of the soul even in this life . god cannot be evil , but the soul may be vitiated and evil , as experience teacheth . god may not be punished or afflicted , but a wicked man may be punished and afflicted , even in his mind or soul ; and a magistrate will not think , when he hangeth a thief , that he either punished bare flesh , or that he punished god. moreover god can wrong no man , but one man may wrong another . god need not fear doing any thing amiss , but the soul of man must fear it . no part of god can be so unhappy as to choose to be a toad , or a wicked or miserable man. god hath no body , but so have these souls ; else when men eat a plant , or bird , or any flesh , they eat part of the body of god. moreover i find , that it is bodies only that are quantitative or extensive , and so divisible into parts : many parts of one body may be animated by one soul , but not by many parts of that one soul , ( except the soul be material it self . ) but why ( may some object ) may i not hold , that all the orbs being one world , or one body of one informing soul , which is god ; and so that really those which you call individuals , are but parts of this one animated world . answ . this is confuted by what is said . whether the world be animated by one * universal soul , we are not now enquiring . but that god is not this informing soul is before disproved . in point of efficiency we grant that he is as the soul of souls , effecting more than souls do for their bodies , but not in point of constitution . he is much more than the soul of the world , but is not formally its soul. but , . those men that will think so , must acknowledge , that as they take the horse and the rider to be both parts of god , and the child and the father , and the subject and the prince , and the malefactor and the judge , and the flagitious wretch and the best of men ; so it is no other membership than what consisteth with the difference of moral good and evil , of wise and foolish , of governours and subjects , of rewards and punishments , of happiness and misery , which are the things that i am seeking after . but so few lay this claim to deity , that i need no further mind them . § . . my parents were not the first cause of my being what i am . as each individual cannot be the first cause of it self , so neither can their parents ; for they do not so much as know my frame and nature , nor the order and temperature of my parts ; nor how or when they were set together ; nor their use , or the reason of their location . and certainly he that made me , knew what he did , and why he did it in each particular . my parents could not choose my sex , nor shape , nor strength , nor qualifications . § . . the world which i see , and live in , did not make it self . as men , and beasts , and trees , and stones did not make themselves , so neither did they joyn as concauses or assistants in the making of the whole ; nor did any one of them make the rest : nor did any of the more simple substances , called elements , make themselves ; neither the passive elements , or the active ; the earth , the water , the air or the fire : for we know , past doubt , that nothing hath no power or action ; and before they were , they were not , and therefore could not make themselves . nor can they be the first cause of mixt bodies , because there is that exceeding wisdom most apparent in the generation , production , nature and operations of these bodies , which these elements have not . § . . the visible world is not an uncaused independent being . for all the generated parts we see , do oriri & interire ; they have a beginning , progress , decay and end . and the inanimate parts having less of natural excellency than the living , cannot infinitely exceed them , in the excellency of deity as uncaused and independent . and we see that they are all dependent in their operations . they shew in the order of their beings and action , that incomprehensible wisdom , which is not in themselves : the earth , the sea , the air and winds , are all ordered exactly by a wisdom and a will , which they themselves are void of . besides , they are many and various ; but their order and agreement sheweth , that it is some one universal wisdom and will which ruleth them all : and if they are dependent in operation , they are certainly dependent in being . and had they that excellency to be uncaused and independent , they would have had therewith all other perfections , which we see they want ; and they would not have been many but one in that perfection . § . . the first universal matter is not an uncaused independent being . if such there be , its inactivity and passiveness sheweth it to want the excellency of independency : and the ordination of it into its several beings , and the disposals of it there , is done by a principle of infinite power , activity and wisdom : on which having this dependence in its ordination and use , it must be dependent also in its being . § . . if it were doubtful whether the world were eternal , and whether it were the body of god as the informing soul , yet it would be past doubt that it is not uncaused or independent , but caused by god. that the world is not eternal we want not natural evidence : for , saith lullius , then there would be two eternals , the cause and its effects ; and then all things would be caused by natural necessity , and not by free will , and consequently always alike : and then there hath been evil eternally , and both the caused good and the evil would in all other aggravations be answerable to eternity , and the evil would be as soon , as great , as durable as the good . the same world which is finite in good and evil , and other respects , would be infinite in eternity ; and the evil would have an infiniteness in point of eternity , and this necessitated by the eternity of the world : and seeing no individuals are eternal , the supposed eternity of the world must be but of some common matter , or only intentional and not real . the corporeal part having quantity , is finite as to extension , and therefore cannot be infinite in duration . in eternity then there is no time , no prius & posterius ; but in the world there is . much more is said by many ; but this is not my present task , i shall say more of it afterward . but if it were doubtful whether the world were not eternally the body of god , yet would it be undoubted still that he caused it . and that there were the difference of a cause and an effect , in order of nature , though not in duration . as if a tree or a mans body were supposed eternal , yet the root and spirits of the tree , and the principal parts and spirits in mans body would be the causal parts on which the rest depend . § . . it remaineth therefore most certain , that something is a first cause to all things else , and that he is the creator of all things . for if the world be not uncaused and independent , it hath a cause ; and if it have a cause it hath a creator : for when there was nothing but himself , he must make all things of himself , or of nothing : not of himself , for he is not material , and they are not parts of god ( who is indivisible : ) he that thinks otherwise , should not kill a flea or a toad , nor blame any man that beateth , or robbeth , or wrongeth him , nor eat any creature ; because he doth kill , and blame , and eat a part of god , who is unblameable , and can injure none , and is to be more reverenced . § . . if there were any doubt whether the sun , or fire , or passive matter had a first cause , there can be no doubt at all concerning man , which is the thing which i am enquiring into at the present . for every one seeth that man hath his beginning , and confesseth that it is but as yesterday since he was not ; and therefore hath a cause which must be uncaused , or have a cause it self : if the latter , then that cause again is uncaused , or hath a cause it self . and so we must needs come at last to some uncaused cause . § . . if any second cause had made man or the world , yet if it did it but as a caused cause , it self would lead us up to an uncaused cause , which is the first cause of all , which we are seeking after . for what any cause doth by a power received from a higher cause , and consequently ordered by it , that is done principally by that first or highest cause . and if god had made the world by an angel or intelligence , it would have been nevertheless his creature , nor any thing the less to his honour than if he had made it by himself alone . § . . the summ of all is , that there is certainly a first uncaused independent cause of man , and all things else , besides that cause . chap. v. what this cause is , in it self . that it is god. § . . the first cause is known to us imperfectly , and by the effects . man is so conscious of his ignorance herein , and of the perplexities and diversities of opinions which follow thereupon , and of the necessity of beginning downward at the effects , and rising upward in his enquiry , that i need not prove this proposition to any man. § . . though god ( or the first cause ) is to be searched after in all his works , yet chiefly in the chiefest of them within our reach ; which is man himself . if any shall say , that the sun and other creatures are more excellent than man , and therefore god ( or the first cause ) is to be searched after rather in them , and his attributes denominated from them : i answer , there is no doubt but secundum quid , the sun is a nobler creature than man. but what it is simpliciter we cannot tell , unless we knew it better . the highest exellencies known to man in the sun , is the potentia motiva , illuminativa & calefactiva ; motion , light and heat , with their effects , do tell us , what we know of it . that which we are conscious of in man is , posse , scire , velle ; power , intellection and will , with their perfections ; which are an higher excellency than motion , light and heat . § . . he that giveth being to all else that is , must needs be the first being formally or eminently himself . entity must needs be in the noblest sense or sort , in the primum ens , the original of being , rather than in any derived being whatsoever . for it cannot give better than it hath : so that ens , or [ i am ] is his first name . § . . he that hath made substances more noble than accidents , is himself a substance either formally or eminently ; and a living substance , yea life it self . once for all , by [ eminently ] i mean somewhat more excellent , or transcendent , which yet man hath no better name for , or fitter notion of . god is thus a substance , life transcendently , if not formally . § . . he that hath made intelligences , or spirits , or minds , more noble and excellent than bodies , is himself a mind , intelligence or spirit , either formally , or transcendently and eminently . we find that corporeal , gross and dense beings are most dull and passive , and have least of excellency : the body of it self in comparison of the mind , is a dull and dirty clod . though we have no adequate conception of a spirit , we know not onely negatively , that it containeth a freedom from the baseness and inconveniences of corporeity , but also we know by its essential acts , that positively it is a pure active life , intelligence and will , and therefore a more excellent sort of being , than things meerly corporeal which have no such action . so that we have found , as to his being , that the first cause is ens , substantia , vita , spiritus . § . . there must needs be in the first cause an esse , posse , & operari . if there were no operation , there were no causation : if there were no power , there could be no operation : and if there were no being , there could be no power . not that these are things so various as to make a composition in the first cause ; but they are transcendently in it without division and imperfection , by a formal or virtual distinction . § . . seeing the noblest creatures known to us are minds that have a posse , scire , velle , active , executive power , with an vnderstanding to guide it , and a will to command it , god hath either formally , or eminently and transcendently such a power , intellect and will , which is his essence . for nothing is more certain , than that no cause can give more than it had to give : if the first cause had not power , understanding and will , either formally or eminently in a higher and nobler kind , he could not have endowed all mankind with what he had not . . that the first cause is most powerful is evident by his works : he that gave man his measure of power , and much more to many other creatures , hath himself much more than any of them : he that made this marvellous frame of all the orbs , and causeth and continueth their being , and their constant rapid motion , is incomprehensibly potent . whatsoever power there is in all the creatures visible and invisible set together , there must be more or as much in their first cause alone , because nothing can give more power than it hath . . his works also prove that the first cause is an vnderstanding : for the admirable composure , order , nature , motions , variety and usefulness of all his creatures , do declare it . he that hath given vnderstanding to man , hath formally or eminently more himself , than all men and all his creatures have . if intellection were not an excellency above meer natural or bruitish motion , man were not better than the inanimates or bruites ; but if it be , the giver of it cannot want it . not that his intellection is univocally the same thing with ours . but it is something incomparably more noble , which expresseth it self in humane intellection as its image , and is seen by us in this glass , and can be expressed by us no better than by this name . . and as it is a nobler nature which acteth by volition , or free-will , than that which hath no will at all , and so no voluntary choice and complacency ; so the first cause which hath given this noble faculty to man , hath certainly himself , though not a will univocally the same with ours , yet a will of a transcendent excellency , which expresseth it self in ours as its image , and must be something better and greater , but cannot be lower or less . and though such indetermination as proceedeth from imperfection , and consequently such liberty belongeth not to the first cause , which hath no defects , yet all that liberty which belongeth to perfection must undoubtedly belong to him. he that did what we see , hath done it willingly and freely . § . . what ever the first cause is , it must needs be in absolute perfection . it must needs have in it more than the whole world besides , because it giveth all that to the whole creation , which it hath received , and is . an imperfect cause could never have made such a world as we behold , and partly know . and were the first cause imperfect , there would be no perfection in being . § . . the perfection of the first cause in being requireth that it be eternal , without beginning or end of duration . nothing in the world can be more evident to reason , than that something must be eternal , without beginning ; nothing being more evident , than that nothing hath no power , no action , no effects , and so can make nothing . and therefore if ever there had been a time , when nothing was , nothing could ever have been : imagine that there were nothing now , and it is certain there never would be any thing . obj. something may oriri de novo without any cause , as well as god be eternally without any cause . answ . it s impossible : for he that is eternally , hath all perfection eternally in himself , and needeth no cause , being still in being , and being the cause of causes . but nothing hath no perfection or being , and therefore needeth an omnipotent cause to give it a being . obj. if the world may be created of nothing materially , it may be what it is without any thing efficiently . answ . impossible : pre-existent matter is not necessary to the first created matter : for matter may be caused of nothing by an omnipotent efficient , as well as the wonderful frame of all things be made out of matter . but without an efficient , no being can arise de novo . so that it is most evident , seeing any thing now is , there hath been something eternally . and if something , it must needs be the first cause , which is chief in excellency , and first in order of production , and therefore of existence . § . . the first cause must needs be independent , in being , perfections , and operations ; and so be absolutely self-sufficient . for it were not the first , if there were any before it : and being caused by nothing else , it was eternally sufficient in and for it self : otherwise that which it were beholden to , would have the place of a cause to it . and if it caused not all , or needed the help of any other , it is not absolutely the first cause to all others , nor perfect in it self . that which could be eternally without a cause , and it self cause all things , is self-sufficient and independent . § . . the first cause must needs be free from all imperfection of corporeity ( or materiality ) composition , passibility , corruptibility , mutability and mortality , and all other imperfections of defendent beings . there is such a thing as a living principle , and a pure spiritual nature in the created world : and the maker of it must be life and spirit in a higher purer sense than it , and therefore must be free from all its imperfections : and having no cause , hath no defect ; and having no beginning , can have no end . all this reason doth certainly apprehend . § . . this perfect first cause must be immense or infinite in being . not by corporeal extension ; as if god , as a body , were in a place , and being more extensive than all place , were called immense : but in the perfect essence of an eternall life , and spirit , and mind , he is every where without locality , and all things live , and move , and be in him . the thought of space is but a metaphorical help to our conception of his immensity . § . . therefore he must needs be omnipresent . not by extension quantitative , but in a sort transcendent and more excellent , according to the transcendent way of his existence : for if we must have conceived of him as no better than a body , and of magnitude as an excellency , we might well have concluded , that he hath made nothing greater than himself . nemo dat quod non habet ; and therefore he must be more extensive than all the world , and consequently absent from no part of it . much more when his being , which surpasseth corporeity , directeth us to acknowledge a more noble kind of omnipresence than extensive . § . . therefore is he incomprehensible as to humane understanding , or any other created intellect . of our own incomprehension experience sufficiently convinceth us here , and reason evinceth the same of all created intellects : for the less cannot comprehend the greater ; and between finite and infinite there is no proportion . we know nothing purely-intelligible so easily and certainly as that god is : but there is nothing that we are so far from comprehending : as we see nothing more easily and certainly than the sun , which yet we see not with a comprehensive , but a partial and defective sight . § . . this infinite being can be but one. for if there were many , they could not be infinite , and so indeed there would be none : nor would there be any one first cause of all things : for if one caused one part of the world , and another another part , no one were the first cause of all : and if they joyned in causing all together , they would all conjunctly make but one first cause , and each one several be but part of the cause . if there be no one that is sufficient to make and govern all the world , there is no perfect being , nor no god : but the effect sheweth the sufficiency and the unity of the world ( the orbs being one frame ) the unity of the first cause . perfection consisteth more in the unity of one all sufficient being , than in a voluntary concurrence of many beings . the most learned heathens , who thought there were many to be named gods , did mean but subordinate particular gods , that were under the one universal god , whom the stoicks and academicks took to be the universal soul , and the subordinate gods the souls of the particular orbs and planets . § . . the power of this god must needs be omnipotency . he that hath given so great power to the creatures , as is exercised by them , especially the sun and fixed stars in their several vortices or orbs ; and he that could make such a world of nothing , and uphold the being , and maintain the order , and cause , and continue the rapid motions of all the vortices or orbs , ( which are to us innumerable , and each of incomprehensible excellency and magnitude ) is certainly to be accounted no less than omnipotent . by his omnipotency i mean that , by which in it self considered in primo instanti he can do all things possible , that is , which belong not to impotency , but to power : and by which in secundo instanti he can do all things , which his infinite wisdom judgeth congruous and meet to be done : and in tertio instanti , can do all that he will do , and are pleasing to him . § . . the understanding of the first cause must needs be omniscient , and infinite wisdom . . he that hath given so much wisdom to such a worm as man , must have more than all the men in the world ! whatever knowledge is in the whole creation , being given by him , doth prove that formally or eminently he hath more . were it all contracted into one intelligence , it must be less than his that caused it . he hath not given more wisdom than he had to give : nor so much as he had ( or is ) himself . for if he should make any thing equal to himself , there would be two infinites , and there would be a perfect self-sufficient being , which yet had lately no sufficiency or being , and there would be a being independent in facto esse , which was dependent in fieri : which are contradictions . . the effects in the admirable frame and nature , and motions of the creation , declare that the creator is infinitely wise . the smallest insect is so curiously made , and so admirably fitted and instructed to its proper end and uses ; the smallest plants in wonderfull variety of shapes and colours , and smells and qualities , uses and operations , and beautifull flowers , so marvellously constituted and animated , by an unseen form , and propagated by unsearchable seminal vertue ; the smallest birds and beasts and creeping things so adorned in their kinds , and so admirably furnished for their proper ends , especially the propagation of their species , in love , and sagacity , and diligence to their young , by instinct equaling in those particulars the reasonable creature ; the admirable composure of all the parts of the body of man , and of the vilest beast and vermine ; the quality and operation of all the organs , humours and spirits : the operations of the minde of man ; and the constitution of societies , and over-ruling all the matters of the world ; with innumerable instances in the creature ; do all concurr to proclaim that man as mad as madness can possibly make him ( in that particular ) who thinketh that any lower cause than incomprehensible wisdom did principally produce all this ; and that by any bruitish or natural motion , or confluence of atomes , or any other matter , it could be thus ordered , continued and maintained , without the infinite wisdome and power of a first cause , superiour to meer natural matter and motion . what then should we say , if we had a sight into the inwards of all the earth , of the nature and cause of minerals , and of the forms of all things ; if we saw the reason of the motions of the seas , and all other appearances of nature which are now beyond our reach : yea , if we had a sight of all the orbs , both fixed starrs and planets , and of their matter , and form , and order , and relation to each other , and their communications and influences on each other , and the cause of all their wonderous motions : if we saw not only the nature of the elements , especially the active element , fire ; but also the constitution , magnitude , and use , of all those thousand suns , and lesser worlds , which constitute the universal world : and , if they be inhabited , if we knew the inhabitants of each : did we know all the intelligences , blessed angels , and holy spirits , which possess the nobler parts of nature ; and the unhappy degenerate spirits , that have departed from light and joy , into darkness and horrour , by departing from god ; yea , if we could see all these comprehensively , at one view ; what thoughts should we have of the wisdom of the creator ? and what should we think of the atheist that denyeth it ? we should think bedlam too honourable a place for that man , that could believe , or durst say , that any accidental motion of subtile matter , or fortuitous concourse of atomes , or any thing below a wisdom and power infinitely transcending all that with man is called by that name , was the first cause , and is the chief continuer of such an incomprehensible frame . § . . the first cause must needs be infinitely good. by goodness i mean all essential excellency , which is known to us by its fruits and appearances in the creature : which as it hath a goodness natural and moral , so is it the index of that transcendent goodness , which is the first cause of both : this goodness is incomparably beyond that which consisteth in a usefulness to the creatures good ; or goodness of benignity as relative to man. and it is known better by the meer name , as expressing that which nature hath an intrinsick sense and notion of , than by definitions . as sensible qualities , light , colour , sound , odour , sweet , bitter , &c. are known by the name , best , which lead to the sensitive memory , which informeth the intellect what they are : as the mention of things sensible entereth the definition of sense , and the mention of sense doth enter the definition of things sensible ; and yet the object is in order of nature before the act . and as truth must enter the definition of intellection , and intellection the definition of truth ; and yet truth is in order before intellection , and contemporary with the intellect : so is it between goodness and the will. but if we speak of uncreated good , and of a created will , then good is infinitely antecedent to that will. but the will which is created hath a nature suited to it ; and so the notion of excellency and goodness is naturally in our estimative faculty , and the relish of it , or complacency in it , is naturally in the will , so far as it is not corrupted and depraved . as if i knew a man that had the wisdom and virtue of an angel , my estimation calleth him excellent and good , and my will doth complacentially cleave to him , though i should never look to be the better for him my self : or if i onely heard of him , and never saw him , or were personally beholden to him . that god is thus infinitely excellent and good , the goodness of his creatures proveth : for all the goodness that is in men and angels , earth and heaven , proceedeth from him . if there be any natural goodness in the whole creation , there must be more in the creator : if there be any moral goodness in men and angels , there must be more in eminency in him : for he can make nothing better than himself , nor give to creatures what he hath not . § . . the goodness of the first being consisting in this infinite perfection or excellency , containeth his happiness , his holiness , and his love or benignity . § . . the happiness of the first being consisteth , . in his being himself . . in his knowing himself . . in his loving and enjoying himself . the most perfect being must needs be the most happy , and that in being what he is ; his own perfection being his happiness . and as knowledge in the creature is both his perfection and delight , so the transcendent omniscience of the creator must needs be both part of his perfection , ( as distinguished by our narrow minds ) and such felicity as may be called eminently his delight , though what god's delight is we know not formally . and as love or complacency is the perfective operation of the will , and so of the humane nature in man , and is his highest , final , and enjoying acts , of which all goodness is the object ; so there must be something in the perfection of the first cause , though not formally the same with love in man , yet eminently so called , as knowable to us by no other name . and this complacency must needs be principally in himself , because he himself is the infinite and onely primitive good ; and as there was primitively no good but himself to love , so now there is no good but derived from him , and dependent on him. and as his creature ( of which anon ) is obliged to love him most , so he must needs be most amiable to himself . self-love and self-esteem in the creature may be inordinate , and therefore called pride : but it is impossible that infinite goodness it self can be over-valued or over-loved by himself or by any creature . § . . the holiness of the first being consisteth , . in his separation from all creatures ; by that transcendency , which maketh him their end . . in the special perfection of his will , which willeth and hath complacency in that alone ad extra , which is agreeable to his perfect nature , and infinite wisdom . . and so being the fountain and rule of moral goodness to the rational creature . the holiness of man consisteth , . in his separation from common uses unto god. . in the rectitude of his will , as habitually thus inclined and bent to moral good , and hating evil . . whereby it is conform to the governing will of god. and hence we may learn what holiness is in god , though not formally the same with that in man. § . . the benignity and love of the first being is his essence or nature , as inclined to complacency in all created good ; and to benevolence or doing good to creatures , freely and agreeably to his infinite wisdom . the love of complacency to all created good , is necessary in god , supposing the continued existence of that created good , which is the object . but it is not necessary that such created good do continually exist . the love of benevolence is also natural to god in this sense , that it is his natural perfection as respecting the creature to be used agreeably to his perfect wisdom ; but the exercise of it is not necessary , because the being or felicity of the creature is not necessary ; but it is acted freely , according as the infinite wisdom seeth it fit , as to those ends to which all creatures are but the means . § . . the first being must needs be the onely ultimate end to himself , so far as he may be said to intend an end. god doth not intendere finem in defectiveness and imperfection as the creature doth : he wanteth nothing , nor is he in via as to his felicity . but eminently he may be said to intend an end , as he maketh one thing a means to produce or attain another , and doth nothing disorderly nor in vain , but ordereth all things in infinite wisdom . he is not wanting , but enjoying his end at all times , even in the midst of his use of means . to his essential goodness and blessedness , there is no means , nothing is capable of the honour of contributing to it . but his will is the beginning of all derived beings , and his will is the ultimate end of all . he is pleased to make and order all by his power and wisdom , and he is pleased in all things as so made and ordered . the complacency of his will then is the ultimate end of all his works , as the glory of his own power , wisdom and goodness shineth in them . and though complacency , or pleasedness , or will , be not formally the same in god , as in us , yet something eminently there is in him , which under this notion we must conceive of , and express . § . . the posse , scire , velle , the operative power , vnderstanding and will of god , according to their perfection , called , his omnipotency , omnisciency and goodness , by which he is maximus , sapientissimus , optimus , is a wonderful , yet an intelligible and certain trinity in vnity , viz. in the vnity of essence there is this trinity of principles or faculties , as they may be called from the manner of imperfect man , but deserve a higher name in god. § . . the essence of god is not the genus , and these three the species ; nor is it the totum , and these three the parts ; nor is it a substance , of which these three are accidents : but they are like the essential faculties in man , which are one with the soul in essence , but are not one and the same faculties , but truly distinct ( whether it be really , formally , or relatively and denominatively onely ) : gods power or omnipotency is not formally the same ( quoad conceptum objectivum ) with his understanding and wisdom , nor this the same with his will and goodness ; they are as three essential principles , and yet but one essence , and so one god. nor is it part of god that is omnipotent , and part that is omniscient , and part that is good ; or quae potest intelligit & vult : lut the whole godhead is omnipotent , the whole omniscient , and the whole is good , or power , wisdom and goodness it self : yet each of these notions by it self alone is not a total or full expression of the whole perfection of the deity . therefore we must neither confound the essential principles in god , nor divide the essence . the omnipotency is as one faculty , the understanding another , and the will another ; but the godhead and essence of them all is one , the glory equal , the majesty co-eternal . such as the power is , such is the understanding , and such is the will. the power uncreated , the vnderstanding uncreated , and the will uncreated . the power incomprehensible , the vnderstanding incomprehensible , and the will incomprehensible . the power eternal , the vnderstanding eternal , and the will eternal . and yet there are not three eternal gods or essences , but one eternal ; nor three incomprehensibles , nor three uncreated , but one. the power is god , the vnderstanding is god , and the will is god : and yet there are not three gods , but one god. so then , there is one power , not three powers ; one understanding , not three understandings ; one will , not three wills. and in this trinity , none is in duration before or after other , none is greater or less than other ; but the whole three principles be co-eternal together , and co-equal . so that in all things as aforesaid this unity in trinity , and trinity in unity is to be acknowledged as undeniable in the light of nature , and to be adored and worshipped by all . and because of the unity of the essence , these three may be predicated in the concrete of each other , but not in the abstract , because of their formal diversity . and so it may be said , that the power is an understanding or wise power , and the understanding is an omnipotent understanding , and the will a most wise and omnipotent will , and the power a good and willing power : but not that the power is the understanding , and the understanding the will , or the will is the power or understanding . so as to their order , the power , as in it self consider'd , as an active vital power , is first in our conception , and doth as it were act by the understanding , and the vnderstanding by the will , and in execution so go forth with the will , that the effect is immediately to be ascribed to it . § . . though all the divine faculties or principles are adumbrate ( or made manifest ) in the creation or frame of the world , yet the omnipotency is therein to us most eminently apparent . it is infinite wisdom and infinite goodness which shineth to us in this wonderful frame . but we first and with greatest admiration take notice of the omnipotency . to consider the innumerable number of the orbs , the multitude of the fixed stars , which may be called so many suns , and to think of their distances , magnitude , powers , orders , influences , communications , effects , &c. and how many millions of these , for ought we know , there may be , besides those which are within our sight , even though helped by the most perfect telescopes ; it striketh the soul with unspeakable admiration at the power that created and maintaineth all this . when we think of the unconceivable rapid , orderly , perfect , constant motions of all these orbs , or at least of the planets and circumjacent bodies in every vortex : all these thoughts do make the deity , or first being , to be just to the mind as the sun is to the eye , the most intelligible of beings , but so incomprehensible , that we cannot endure to gaze too much or near upon his glory . § . . whether the whole world be animated , or inanimate : whether the whole have one constitutive soul or not : whether each orb have its particular soul or not , are things unrevealed , and beyond the certain knowledge of the natural mind . but it is certain that the first being is not the proper constitutive form or soul of the world ▪ but yet that he is much more to it than such a form or soul , even the total , perfect first cause of all that it is , and hath , and doth . he is not the constitutive form or soul of the universe , ( as it seems cicero with the academicks and stoicks thought ) because then the creator and the creature should be the same : or else the creature should be nothing but dead , passive matter : and then man himself , who knoweth that he hath a soul , would either be god , ( which his experience and the conscience of his frailty forbiddeth him to imagin ) or else he should be a creature more noble than the universe , of which he is so small a part , ( which his reason forbiddeth him also to believe . ) but yet that god is much more to the world than a constitutive soul , is undeniable ; because he is the creating cause , which is more than a constitutive cause : and his continued causation in its preservation , is as a continued creation : as in man , the soul is a dependent cause , which can give nothing to the body but what it hath received , nor act but as it is acted or impowered by the first efficient . and therefore though we call not god the soul of man , because we would not so dishonour him , nor confound the creator and the creature ; yet we all know that he is to us much more than the soul of souls , for in him we live , and move , and have our being . so also it is as to god's causation of the being , motion and order of all the world . god is incomparably more to it than its form , as being the total first cause of form and matter . to be the creator is more than to be the soul. § . . the glory of all being , action and order in the creatures , is no less due to god when he worketh by means , than when he worketh by none at all . for when no means is a means , nor hath being , aptitude , force or efficacy , but from himself , he onely communicateth praise to his creatures , when he thus useth them , but giveth not away the least degree of his own interest and honour : for the creature is nothing , hath nothing , and can do nothing but by him : it useth no strength , or skill , or bounty , but what it first received from him ; therefore to use such means can be no dishonour to him , unless it be a dishonour to be a communicative good. as it is no dishonour to a watch-maker to make that engine , which sheweth his skill , instead of performing all the motions without that little frame of means : but yet no similitude will reach the case , because all creatures themselves are but the continued productions of the creator's will ; and the virtue which they put forth , is nothing but what god putteth into them . and he is as neer to the effect , when he worketh by means , as when without . § . . those that call these three faculties , or principles in the divine essence , by the name of three hypostases , or persons , do seem to me to speak less unaptly than the schools , who call [ deum seipsum intelligentem ] the father , and [ deum ut a se intellectum ] the son , and [ deum a se amatum ] the holy ghost . for that in god which is to be conceived of us , by analogy to our essential faculties , is with less impropriety called [ an hypostasis or person ] than that which is to be conceived by us , in analogy to our actus secundi , or receptions . § . . and those that say the first faculty , omnipotency , as eminently appearing in the frame of nature , may therefore be said to be specially therein personated , or denominated , the creating person , speak nothing which derogateth from the honour of the deity . § . . though we cannot trace the vestigia , the adumbration , or appearances of this trinity in vnity , through the whole body of nature and morality ; because of the great debility and narrowness of our minds ; yet is it so apparent on the first and most notable parts of both , as may make it exceeding probable that it runneth in perfect method through them all ; if our understandings were but able to follow and comprehend that wonderfull method in the numerous , minute and less discernable particulars . i shall now give no other instance , than in two of the most noble creatures . the soul of man , which is made after gods image ; from whence we fetch our first knowledge of him , hath in the unity of a living spirit , the three foresaid faculties , of vital and executive power , vnderstanding and will , which are neither three species , nor three parts , nor three accidents of the soul : but three faculties certainly so far distinct , as that the acts from whence they are denominated really differ , and therefore the faculties differ at least in their virtual relation to those acts , and so in a well-grounded denomination . to understand is not to will : for i understand that which i have no will to , even against my will ( for the intellect may be forced : therefore the same soul hath in it the virtue or power both of understanding and willing , and so of executing : which are denominated from the different acts which they relate to . there is some reason in the powers , virtues , or faculties of the real difference in the acts . so in the sun , and all the superior luminaries , there is in the unity of their essence , a trinity of faculties or powers , . motiva , illuminativa , . calefactiva ; causing motion , light and heat . the doctrine of motion is much improved by our late philosophers : when the doctrine of light and heat are so also , and vindicated from the rank of common accidents and qualities , the nature of the luminaries and of fire will be also better cleared . the sun is not to these powers or acts , either a genus , a totum , or a subjectum . it is not one part of the sun that moveth , and another which illuminateth , and another which heateth : but the whole sun ( if it be wholly fire or aethereal matter ) doth move , the whole illuminateth , and the whole doth heat : and motion , light and heat , are not qualities inherent in it ; but motion , illumination , and calefaction , are acts flowing immediately from its essence as containing the faculties or powers of such acts . he that could write a perfect method of physicks and morality , would shew us trinity in unity through all its parts from first to last . but as the veins , arteries , and nerves , the vessels of the natural , vital , and animal , humours and spirits , are easily discernable in their trunks and greater branches , but not so , when they are minute and multiplied into thousands , so is it in this method . but i must desire the reader to observe , that though i here explain this trinity of active principles in the divine essence , which is so evident to natural reason it self , as to be past all controversie ; yet whether indeed the trinity of hypostases or persons , which is part of the christian faith , be not somewhat distinct from this , is a question which here i am not to meddle with , till i come to the second part of the treatise : nor is it my purpose to deny it , but only to prepare for the better understanding of it . of which more shall there afterward be said . § . . and thus all creatures , and especially our selves , declare that there is a first being and cause of them all , who is a substance , life , a spirit , or minde , an active power , vnderstanding and will , perfect , eternall , independent and self-sufficient , not compounded , not passible , not mutable , corruptible or mortall , immense , omnipresent , incomprehensible , only one , omnipotent , omniscient , and most good , most happy in being himself , in knowing himself , and enjoying him ; most holy , transcending all the creatures , of a perfect will , the fountain of all morall good , love or benigne : having a trinity of essential transcendent principles , in unity of essence , which have made their adumbration or appearance on the world , whereof though he be not the constitutive form or soul , he is to it much more ; the first efficient , dirigent , and ultimate final cause of all : that is , there is a god. chap. vi. of god as related to his creatures : especially to man. and i. as his owner . passing by all that is doubtfull , and controverted among men truly rational , and taking before me only that which is certain , undenyable , and clear , and wherein my own soul is past all doubt , i shall proceed in the same method secundum ordinem cognoscendi , non essendi . the word [ god ] doth not only signifie all that i have been proving , viz. the perfect nature of the first cause , but also his relations to us his creatures : and therefore till i have opened and proved those relations , i have done but part of my work , to prove that there is a god. § . . god having produced man ( and all the world ) by his power , vnderstanding and will , is by immediate resultancy related to him as his creator . though he made his body of pre-existent matter , yet was that matter made of nothing ; and therefore god is properly mans creator , and not his fabricator only . and a creature is a relation , which inferreth the correlate , a creator , as a son doth a father . this therefore is gods first grand relation unto man , which hath no cause to produce it , but his actual creation , which is its fundamentum . § . . this grand prime relation , inferreth a trinity of grand relations , viz. that god is our owner , our rvler , and our benefactor , of which we are now to speak in order . that these three are justly distinguished from each other , is past doubt to all that understand what is meant by the terms . an owner as such is not a ruler or benefactor , a ruler as such is not an owner or a benefactor . a benefactor as such is neither an owner nor a ruler . and the enumeration is sufficient : all humane affairs , or actions of converse and society , belong to man in one of these three relations , or such as are subordinate to them , and meer dependents on them , or compounded of them . they are in some respect the genera , and in some as it were the elements of all other relations . and from the manner of men , they are applyed to god , with as much propriety of speech , as any terms that man can use concerning him . and he that could draw a true scheme or method of the body of morality ( or theology , for all is one with me ) would reduce all the dealings of god with man , which are subsequent to the fundamental act of creation , to these three relations ; and accordingly distinguish of them all : yet in the mixt acts , ( as most are such ) distinguishing only of the compounding elements ( i mean , the interest of these three relations , as making up the several acts . ) § . . a full owner or proprietor , is called dominus in the strictest sense , and is one that hath a jus possidendi , disponendi , & utendi ; a right of having or possessing , disposing and using , without any copartner , or superior proprietor , to restrain him . the meaning is better known by the bare terms of denomination , through common use , than by definition . we know what it meaneth , when a man saith of any thing , it is mine own : there are defective half-proprieties , of co-partners , and subordinate proprietors , which belong not to our present case . the word dominus , & dominuim , is sometime taken laxely , as comprehending both propriety and rule ; and sometime improperly , for government or command it self : but among lawyers it is most commonly taken properly and strictly for an owner as such : but lest any be contentious about the use of the word , i here put instead of it , the word owner and proprietor , as being more free from ambiguity . § . . god is jure creationis & conservationis , the most absolute owner or proprietor of man , and the whole creation . it is not possible that there should be a more full and certain title to propriety , than creation , and total conservation is . he that giveth the world all its being , and that of nothing , and continueth that being , and was beholden to no pre-existent matter , nor to any co-ordinate concause , nor dependent on any superiour cause in his causation , but is himself the first independent , efficient , total cause of being and well-being , and all the means thereto , must needs be the absolute owner of all , without the least limitation or exception . it is not the supereminency of gods nature , excelling all created beings , that is the foundation of this his propriety in the creature . for excellency is no title to propriety . and yet he that is unicus in capacitate possidendi , that is so transcendently excellent as to have no copartner in a claim , might by occupation be sole proprietor , in that kinde of propriety secundum quid , which man is capable of : because there is no other whom he can be said to wrong . but god hath a more plenary title by creation , to absolute propriety . § . . therefore it belongeth to god to be the absolute disposer of all things : to do with them what he please : and to use them to the pleasure of his will. every one may do with his own what he list , except the propriety be but limited , and dependent on another , or but secundum quid . who should interpose and any way hinder god , from the free disposall of his own ? not any copartner , for there is none . nor the creature it self , because it is absolutely his. § . . therefore also ( in hoc instanti , antecedently to any further relation or covenant ) it is not possible for god to do wrong to his creature , howsoever he shall use it : because it is absolutely his own , and he oweth it nothing : and where there is no debitum , there is no jus , and can be no injuria . it is to be remembred that i speak not here of god as now related to the rational creature as a rector and a benefactor , and as having declared his own will in his laws or promises , to the contrary . but i speak of god only in the relation of a proprietor simply in it self considered , and so of his absolute right , and not his ordinate will ( as it is commonly called ) . no man need to fear lest god should deal unequally with him , or contrary to that which true reason calleth justice . for god having made himself rector of the world , hath , as it were , obliged himself , that is , declared his will , to deal equally with all men , and judge them according to their works : and so hath created a debitum , & jus to man , which inferreth a certain justice on gods part . but considering him only in this first relation , meerly , ut dominus absolutus , or proprietor , it is not possible for any thing that he can do , to be an injury : a meer corporal pain ( including no contradiction or error , as consciences accusation of the innocent , doth ) could be no wrong : there being less appearance of reason to call it wrong , than for my burning my wood , or plucking a rose to be a wrong : for it is not the pain of one that can make it an injury , any more than the destruction of the other : where there is no jus , there can be no injuria : and where there is no debitum there is no jus. my rose hath possession of its life , but no right to it : therefore it is no wrong to destroy it . and yet in this , and in the killing of birds , and beasts and fishes , and labouring my horse and oxe in continual weariness and pain , my borrowed half-propriety secundum quid , excuseth me from doing them any wrong : which gods absolute propriety will do much more unquestionably by him . § . . though all gods three essential principles or faculties , power , wisdom and goodness , appear in each of his three grand relations , owner , ruler , and benefactor ; yet each one of these hath most eminently some one of gods essential principles or faculties appearing in it : viz. his power most appeareth in his propriety , his wisdom in his rule , and his goodness or love in his benefits given us . therefore propriety resulteth immediately from creation , as producing the creature as a creature ; but so doth not government , as we shall see anon . and as omnipotency is the most eminent attribute in the creation , so is it in that absolute propriety of the creator , acquired by it . chap. vii . i. of man's relation to god his owner . § . . god being our undoubted , absolute owner , it followeth undeniably that we are his own . the relations are mutual , and the thing needeth no proof . § . . therefore man being an intelligent creature , that can know this his relation to his maker , is bound by nature to consent to it , and absolutely resign himself to the will , dispose and use of his creator . for there is nothing more reasonable , than that every one should have his own : and the vnderstanding of man should conceive of things as they are , and the will of man should consent to his makers interest and right , or else it were most crooked , irregular and unjust . therefore it must needs be the duty of every reasonable creature to bethink him , that god is his absolute owner , and thereupon to make a deliberate resolved resignation of himself to god , without any exceptions or reserves . § . . therefore man should labour to know wherein he may be most useful to his maker's interest , ( which is his pleasure in our perfection ) and therein he should willingly and joyfully lay out himself . for it is undeniable that god should be served with his own , and that entirely without dividing : for we are not in part , but wholly his . § . . therefore no man can have any propriety in himself , but what is derived from his absolute lord , and standeth in full subordination to his propriety . for there can be but one full and absolute proprietor . i can have no other propriety in my self , but by derivation and trust from my creator . § . . therefore also no creature can have any propriety in another creature , but onely derivatively , subordinate , & secundum quid . no parent hath any propriety in his children , nor the most absolute and potent prince in his people , but as god's stewards under him ; no not in themselves , and therefore not in others . and a steward hath no propriety in his master's goods , but derivative , dependent , subordinate and improper , and onely the usum , fructuum , and such possession as is necessary thereto , and such an imperfect propriety as will justifie that possession . § . . and as i am not my own , so nothing is properly my own which i possess , but all that i have is god's as well as i. for no man can have more title to any thing else than to himself . he that is not owner of himself , is owner of nothing . and we have not any thing , nor can have , which is not as much from god as we , and therefore is not as much his . § . . therefore no man should repine at god's disposal of him , but all men should acquiesce in the disposing-will of god. for it is unreasonable and unjust to murmur at god , for doing as he list with his own , and using any thing to his ends . § . . and therefore all men should avoid all selfish affections , and partiality , and be more affected with god's interest than their own . for we are not so much our own as his , and our interest is not considerable in comparison of his . § . . therefore no man should do any thing for selfish ends , which is injurious to the will and interest of god , our absolute owner . § . . and therefore no man should dispose of his estate , or any thing he hath , in any way , but for the interest of his absolute lord. § . . and therefore all men should make it the very care and labour of their lives , to serve the will and interest of this their absolute owner . § . . and therefore no man should prefer the will or interest of the greatest mortal man , or the dearest friend , before the will and interest of god. § . . nor should the publick interest of states or kingdoms be pleaded against his will and interest . but yet we must take heed how we oppose or neglect this last especially , because the will of god doth take most pleasure in the publick or common benefit of his creatures ; and therefore these two are very seldom separated : nor ever at all as to their real good , though as to carnal , lower good , it may so fall out . all these are so plain , that to stand to prove or illustrate them , were but to be unnecessarily and unprofitably tedious . § . . it being a god of infinite wisdom and goodness , as well as power , who is our owner , his title to us is a great consolation to the upright . for as he hath taught men ( and bruits too ) to love their own , it intimateth that he will not despise his own : and therefore his interest in us is our comfort . § . . no man is capable of giving any thing properly to god , but onely by obediential reddition of his own : no nor to man , but as god's steward , and according to our propriety , secundum quid , in respect to other claimers . chap. viii . ii. of god's relation to man as his governour . sect ; . . god having made man a rational free agent , and sociable , among sensible objects , and out of sight of his invisible creator , and so infirm and defectible , it followeth necessarily , that he is a creature which must be governed by moral means , and not only moved by natural necessitation as inanimates and bruits . the thing that i am first to prove , is , that man's creator hath made him such a creature , whose nature requireth a government ; that he hath a necessity of government , and an aptitude to it . by government i mean , the exercise of the moral means of laws and execution , by a ruler , for the right ordering of the subjects actions , to the good of the society , and the honour of the governour . i distinguish laws from all meer natural motions and necessitation : for though analogically the shepherd is said to rule his sheep , and the rider his horse , yea , and the pilot his ship , and the plow-man his plow , and the archer his arrow : yet this is but equivocally called government , and is not that which we here mean , which is the proposal of duty , seconded with rewards or punishment for the neglects , by those in authority , for the right governing of those that are committed to their care and trust . so that it is not all moral means neither which is called government , for the instruction or perswasion of an equal is not such . laws , and judgment , and execution are the constitutive parts of government . but by laws i mean the whole kind , and not only written laws , nor those only which are made by sovereign rulers of common-wealths , which by excellency are called laws : but i mean , the signification of the will of a governour , making the subjects duty , and determining of rewards to the obedient , and punishments to the disobedient . or , [ an authoritative constitution de debito officii , praemii & poenae , for the ends of government . ] so that as parents , and tutors , and masters , do truly govern as well as kings ; so they have truly laws , though not in such eminency as the laws of republicks . the will of a parent , a tutor , or master , manifested concerning duty , is truly a law to a child , a scholar , or a servant . if any dislike the use of the word [ law ] in so large a sense , it sufficeth now for me to tell them in what sense i use it , and so it will serve to the understanding of my mind . i take it for such an instrument of government . the parts of it are , . the constituting of the debitum officii , or what shall be due from the subject . . the constituting the debitum praemii vel poenae , or what shall be due to the subject , which is in order to the promoting of obedience , though as to the performances obedience may be in order to the reward . now that man is a creature made to be governed , by such a proper moral government , i prove . . the several parts of government are necessary , therefore government is necessary . from all the parts of government to the whole , is an unquestionable consequence . it is necessary that man have duty prescribed and imposed ; else man shall have nothing which he ought to do : take away duty , and we are good for nothing , nor have any employment fit for reason : and take away all reward and punishment , and you take away duty in effect ; experience teacheth us that it will not be done , for a rational agent will have ends and motives for what he doth . . from the imbecility of our younger state : so weak is our infant understanding , and so strong our sensitive inclination , that if parents should leave all their children ungoverned , abused reason would make man worse than beasts . . from the common infirmity and badness of all the world . the wise are so few , and the ignorant so many , that if all the ignorant were left ungoverned to do what they list , they would be like an army of blind men in a fight , or like a world of men bewildred in the dark . what a confused loathsome spectacle would the world be ? and the rather because men are bad as well as foolish . would all the sensual vitious persons in the world be ordered like men , without any government , by such as are wiser than themselves ? . from the power of sensitive objects : the baits of sense are so numerous , so near and so powerful , that they would bear down reason in the most , without the help of laws : nay , laws themselves , even of god and man , do so little with the most , as tell us what they would be without them . . the variety of mens minds and interests and dispositions is such , as that the world ungoverned would be utterly in confusion : as many minds and ways as men . no two men are in all things of the same apprehensions . . from the nature of mans powers : he is a noble creature , and therefore hath answerable ends to be attain'd , and therefore must have the conduct of answerable means . he is a rational free agent , and therefore must have his end and means proposed to his reason , and is not to be moved by sense alone ; his chiefest end as well as his chief governour , being out of his sight . . the experience of all mankind constraineth them to consent to this , that man is a creature made for government . therefore even among cannibals , parents govern their children , and husbands govern their wives ; and in all the rational world , there are rulers and subjects , masters and servants , tutors and scholars , which all are governours or governed . few men are to be found alive on earth , who would have all men , or any men save themselves ungoverned . otherwise men would be worse to men , i say not , than serpents , and toads , and tygers are to one another , but than any of them are to men . every man that had strength and opportunity , would make a prey of the life or welfare of his brother . mens own necessity forceth them every where to set up governments , that they may not live as in a continual war , in danger and fear of one another ; nay , a war that is managed by armies , is also ordered by government , because many must agree for mutual defence : but else , every man would be against another , and they would be as so many fighting cocks or dogs , every one would fight or flie for himself ; for fighting or flying , injuring and being injured would be all their lives . he that denieth man to be a creature made for government , and consequently denieth god's government of the world , by moral proper government , doth own all these absurdities , ( which else-where i have heretofore enumerated . ) . he denieth that there is a god : for to be god includeeth to be governour of the rational world . . he denieth that man oweth any duty to god or man : for where there is no government , there is no proper duty . . he denieth the justice of god : for justice is the attribute of a governour , that is , distributive justice , which we speak of : for commutative justice god cannot exercise towards man , because of our great inferiority to him . . he denieth all the laws of nature : for where there is no government , there are no laws . . he denieth the virtue of obedience , and all other virtues concatenated with it : for where there is no government , there is no obedience . . he denieth that there is any such a thing as sin , or any fault against god or man : for where there is no government , there is no transgression . both the vicious habits and the acts , will have no more crime than the poison of a toad . . and then no man should forbear any act as sinful or criminal . . nor should any persons reprove sin in others , nor exhort them from it . . nor should any one confess any sin , or repent of it , ( because it is not . ) . nor should any man ask forgiveness of any crime of god or man. . nor should any man thank god for the pardon of his sin . . it will follow that there is no moral difference between men or actions , as good and bad , but all are alike , what ever they be or do . . he denieth all god's judgments , and all his rewards and punishments ; for these are all of them acts of government . . it will follow , that every man should do what his list . . and that all parents may forbear the government of their children , and all masters of their servants , and governours of their families . . it treasonably subverteth all kingdoms and common-wealths , and denieth that there should be any kings or subjects . . it denieth all humane justice , because it denieth humane government . . it maketh man a beast , who is uncapable of moral government . . it maketh him far worse than a beast , as corruptio optimi est pessima : for a beast hath an analogical improper government by man , but man must have such as moveth him rationally , according to his nature , or he must have none at all . and it would banish all order , duty and virtue out of the world , and make earth somewhat worse than hell , which is not wholly destitute of government . . but the best of it is , while it nullifieth right and wrong , it inferreth , that whosoever shall beat or hang the owners of this doctrine do them no wrong , nor offend any laws of god or man : for if there be no government , there is no transgression ; and if they are bruits , they may be used as bruits , who are incapable of titles , rights , inheritances , or of any plea as against an injury . § . . man being made a creature to be governed , it thence followeth , that his creator must needs be his soveraign governour , as being only fit , and having in his propriety , the only right . . a governour he must have ; for there is no government nor governed , without a governour . . if there be never so many inferiour governours , there must be some supream : or else each one would be absolutely supream , and none inferiour . but i will first prove that god is mans soveraign , and then shew the foundation of his right , and of this relation . the only objection made against it , consisteth of these two parts : . that god moveth man effectually per modum naturae as an engineer ; and that this is more excellent than moral government . . and that moral government being a less effectual way , is committed to angels and to men , viz. kings , and states , and magistrates , who are sufficient to perform it . this objection confesseth the government of one man over others , but denyeth the government of god over man , and instead of it substituteth his meer physical motion , or natural government , such as a pilot useth to his ship. i shall therefore against it prove , that not only man but god , doth exercise this proper moral government , by laws , and executions , and not a physical motion only . § . . i god hath de facto made laws for mankinde : therefore he is their governour by laws . the consequence is undenyable : the antecedent i further prove . § . . he that doth by authoritative constitution of duty , oblige man to obedience , doth make laws for him , and govern him by laws : but god doth by authoritative constitution of duty , oblige man to obedience : therefore he maketh laws for him , and ruleth him thereby . the major is not to be denyed ; for it only asserteth the name from the definition : the authoritative appointment of the debitum officii , obliging to obedience , is the definition of legislation , as to its first and principal act ; which the appointment of the debitum praemii vel poenae followeth . and i think that the interest of mankinde will not suffer him to be so erroneous as to deny the minor : i think few will believe that there is no such thing as a law of nature made by the god of nature ; or that there is no such thing as duty incumbent on man from god ; and so no such thing as an accusing or excusing conscience : few persons will believe , that it is no duty of parents to nourish their children , or no crime to murder them : or that it is no duty for children to be thankfull to their parents , and to love them , or no sin to hate , or scorn , or kill them : few kings will believe , that it is no duty towards god , for their subjects to obey them , and no crime to rebell or murder them ; and that conscience hath nothing to say against him for such things , that can but scape the judgement and revenge of man : and few subjects will believe , that it is no crime for a prince to oppress them , in their liberties , estates and lives : and few neighbours will think that he is innocent before god , who beateth them , or setteth fire on their houses , or murdereth their children or other relations . if man be under no duty to god , and if nothing that he can do is a sin against god , what a thing will man be , and what a hell will earth be ? deny the law of nature , and you turn men loose to every villany ; and engage the world to destroy it self , and set all as on fire about their ears . for if god only move us physically , there is neither virtue nor vice , good nor evil , in a moral sense : but what god moveth a man to , that he will do , and what he doth not move him to , he will not do ; and so there being only motion and no motion , action and no action , there will be no duty and no obligation , and so no moral good or evil . § . . ii. if god should rule us only by physical motion , and not by laws , he should not rule man as man , according to his nature : but god doth rule man according to his nature : therefore not only by physical motion . otherwise man should not differ from inanimates and bruits . a stone is to be moved physically , and a bruit by the necessitating objects of sense : but man hath reason , which they have not , and he is a free agent : and therefore though god concurr to his physical motion as such , yet he must move him as rational , by such objects , and such proposals , and arguments , and means , as are suited to reason . by presenting things absent to his understanding , to prevail against the sense of things present ; and by teaching him to preferre greater things before lesser ; and by shewing him the commodity and discommodity , which should move him ; god would not have made him rational , if he would not have governed him accordingly . § . . iii. if the way of physical motion alone , is not so excellent and suitable as the way of moral government by laws also , then god doth not only move man physically , and leave it to magistrates to rule as morally : but the antecedent is true : therefore so is the consequent . god doth not omit the more excellent , and choose a lower way of government , and leave the more excellent way to man. and that the minor is true appeareth thus . the way which is most suitable to the object or subject of government is the most excellent way : but such is the moral way by laws : the other beasts are as capable subjects of as men , and trees as either . wisdom and justice are eminently glorified in the moral way : and omnipotency it self also appeareth in gods making of so noble a creature , as is governable by reason without force . § . . iv. if god were not the soveraign ruler of the world , there could be no government of mens hearts : but there is a government of hearts : therefore god is the ruler of the world. man knoweth not the hearts of those whom he governeth : and therefore he can take no cognisance of heart-sins or duties , unless as they appear in words or deeds : and therefore he maketh no law for the government of hearts . but the heart is the man : and a bad heart is the fountain of bad words or acts , and is it self polluted , before it endeavoureth the injury of others . he that thinks all indifferent that is within him , is himself so bad , that it is the less wonder if being so indifferent , yea so vitiated within , he think nothing evil which he hath a minde to do . he that thinketh that the heart is as good and innocent which hateth his god , his king , his friend , his parents , as that which loveth them , and that it is no duty to have any good thought or affection , but only for the outward actions sake ; nor any sin to be malicious , covetous , proud , deceitfull , lustfull , impious , and unjust , in his cogitations , contrivances , and desires , unless as they appear in the acts , doth shew that he hath himself a heart , which is too suitable to such a doctrine . but nature hath taught all the world , to judge of men by their hearts , as far as they can know them , and not to take the will , which is the first seat of moral good or evil , to be capable of neither good nor evil. therefore seeing hearts must be under government , it must not be man , but the heart-searching god , that must be their governour . § . . v. if god were not the governour of the world , all earthly soveraigns would be themselves ungoverned : but they are not ungoverned : therefore god is their governour , and so the governour of the world. the kings and states that have soveraign power through all the world , are under no humane government at all . though some of them are limited by contracts with their people . but none have so much need to have the benefit of heart-government ; none have so strong temptations as they ; and no mens actions are of so great importance , to the welfare or misery of the world. if the monarchs of the earth do take themselves to be left free by god to do what they list ; what work will be made among the people ? if they think it no duty to be just , or mercifull , or chaste , or temperate , what wonder if they be unjust and cruel , and filthy , and luxurious , and use the people for their own ends and lusts , and esteem them as men do their dogs or horses , that are to be used for their own pleasure or commodity . what is the present calamity of the world , but that the heathen and infidel rulers of the world are so ignorant , and sensual , and have cast off the fear of god , and the sense of his government , in a great degree ; when yet most of them have some conviction that there is a god , who ruleth all , and to whom they must be accountable : what then would they be , if they once believed that they are under no government of god at all . if they should oppress their subjects , and murder the innocent , it would be no fault : for where there is no government and law there is no transgression : no one forbiddeth it to them , and none commandeth them the contrary if god do not : for the people are not the rulers of their rulers , nor give them laws : and neighbour princes and states are but neighbours : therefore if they should sacrifice peace and honesty , liberties , lives and kingdoms to their lusts , no man could say , they do amiss , or violate any sort of law. obj. but the fear of rebellions , and the peoples vindicating their liberties would restrain them . answ . only so far as they feel themselves unable to do hurt : as a man is restrained from killing adders lest they sting him : and the advantage of their place doth usually empower them , to make desolations , if they have a minde to it . and great mindes will not easily bear a popular restraint : and indeed the honester and better any people are , the more undisposed are they to rebell : and therefore tyrants may with smallest danger and fear destroy them . obj. but their own interest lieth in the peoples welfare ; and therefore there is no danger of such miseries . ans . did nero think so , that wished rome had but one neck ; that set the city on fire , that he might sing over it homers poem of the flames of troy ? that ript up his own mother , that he might see the place where once he lay ? did caligula think so ? did commodus , caracalla , heliogabalus , think so ? did the spaniards think so by the indians , who are said by their own writers , to have murdered in forty two years space , no less than fifty millions of them ? did king philip think so , who put his own son and heir to death , by the inquisition ? besides so many thousands more in spain and the low countreys , by that and other wayes ? how full of such bloody instances is the world. if it were a tyrants interest that kept him under some moderation to the people of his own dominions , it might yet possibly leave him a bloody destroyer of other nations , in his conquests . the world hath not wanted men that think the lives of many thousands , a little sacrifice to a proud design , or furious passion ; and are no more troubled at it , than a pythagorean would be to kill a bird. it hath had such as sylla , messala , catiline , and the conquerours of jerusalem , who as josephus saith , crucified so many thousands , till they wanted crosses for men , and place for crosses , besides the greater numbers famished . obj. but if chief governours be under no law , they are under covenants , by which they are obliged . answ . what shall make their covenants obligatory to their consciences , if they be under no government of god ? the reason why mens covenants bind them , is , because they are under the government of god , who requireth all men to keep their covenants , and condemneth covenant-breakers . but if god had never commanded covenant-keeping , nor forbad covenant-breaking , they could never be matter of duty or sin . so that this doctrin , that god hath made no laws for man , and is not his governour , doth leave all soveraigns from under the least conscientious restraint from any acts of cruelty or injustice , and tendeth to deliver up the world to be a sacrifice to their lusts : when it is the government of the universal soveraign that is their restraint . § . . vi. if god have not the soveraignty over all the world , then no man on earth can have any governing power : but princes and rulers have a governing power : therefore the soveraignty is in god. the reason of the major is , because kings can have no power but what they receive from some or other : there is no effect without a cause . and if they receive it , it is either from god or man as the original . not from man , for the people themselves have no governing power to use or give , as to the government of commonwealths : for their personal power over themselves is of another species , and cometh short of this in many respects , ( as else-where i have proved ) : and if it were otherwise , yet they have nothing themselves but derivatively from god , as is proved before : and therefore they themselves must have their power from him , from whom they are , and have all that they possess : but god cannot give that which he hath not himself , either formally or eminently : therefore he hath governing power formally or eminently , or else no prince , or man , or angel can have any , no more than they can have being or reason without him . and though his power be transcendent , his exercise of it must be according to the capacity of the subject : and therefore morally by laws and executions . so that as all things else in the creature are derived , so is power . and as in beings , aut deus aut nihil is an undeniable truth , so as to governing power , or soveraignty , either it is , primitively , supremely and transcendently in god , or there is none in any prince or parents : for if they have it not from him , they can have none at all . obj. governing by laws is caused by humane impotency , because man is not every where present , nor of power to effect himself in and by others , all the things which he commandeth : but were man omnipresent and omnipotent as god is , he would make all men do well , and not command them to do it : therefore it is so in the government of god. answ . it is granted that man is impotent , and god omnipotent , and omnipresent , and therefore that god could indeed do as is here intimated , even make all men do well , and not command it : but , . it is apparent , that de facto he doth not so . . and his wisdom being more eminently to be manifested in the work of government than his omnipotency , doth shew us partly , why he doth not so , even because the sapiential way is more suitable to his ends and to the subject . creation did most eminently glorifie ( or manifest ) omnipotency ; government doth most eminently glorifie god's omniscience or wisdom , as our perfection or glorification will most eminently manifest , and glorifie his love and goodness . each attribute shineth most eminently in its proper work : and mans conceits must not confound this perfect order . yet let it be here noted , that all this while i meddle not with the controversie of the liberty of man's will ; and so , whether god's sapiential government by laws , do operate also by necessitation , and physical causation , as the natural motions of the orbs , or the artificial motions of an engine . i only argue , that whether god thus operate by his government by secret necessitation or not , yet it is most certain , that he governeth morally , and useth the means of doctrin , laws and judgments : which might consist with physical necessitating efficacy in all that do obey indeed , if god's wisdom , and man's freedom of will did inferr nothing to the contrary . but if it had been granted , that all god's government is by physical efficacy , it would stand good nevertheless , that laws and judgment are part of the means which he maketh so effectual . but yet i shall go further in the next argument . § . . vii . experience satisfieth all the rational world , that there is , de facto , a course of duty appointed by god for men , which they do not eventually fulfil . therefore there is not only a moral government , which is effectual , but also which is separated from necessitating efficacy . they that deny this , and plead for physical government only , must affirm , that nothing is any man's duty , but what he actually performeth : and that nothing is any man's sin which he doth , or omitteth to do ; that is , that there is no sin or moral evil in the world : for all that god physically effecteth is good ; and they suppose him to have no law which commandeth any thing but what he physically effecteth , and he will not physically effect that which he forbiddeth . and if there be no such thing as moral evil or sin in the world , then no man should fear any , or avoid any ! let but a man leave any thing undone ▪ ( if it be nourishing his children , defending his king , loving god or man ) and he may thence conclude that it never was his duty : let him but do any thing that he hath a mind to , ( if it be killing father or mother , or his prince or friend ) and he may be sure that it is no sin , because he hath done it ; for if god forbid it not , it is no sin : nay , he may make it an effect of god's government . but this consequence is so false and horrid , that no nation on earth receiveth it , and cannibals themselves abhor it , who eat not their friends , but strangers and enemies . § . . viii . if god be not the governour of the world by laws , then no man need to fear or avoid any thing forbidden by the laws of man , who can either keep it secret by wit , or keep himself from humane revenge by power . but the consequent is false : therefore so is the antecedent . the reason of the consequence is evident ; because , where no humane revenge is to be feared , there no punishment at all is to be feared , if god be no governour of the world : but those that can hide their actions by craft , or make them good by power , need not fear any humane revenge ; therefore they need to fear none at all , upon the atheists grounds . and if that be so , . how easie is it for cunning malice to burn a * town , to kill a king , to poison wife or children , and to defraud a neighbour , and never be discovered ? if this be so , then thieves , adulterers , traitors , when they are detected , have failed only in point of wit , ( that they concealed it not ) and not in point of honesty and duty . . and then any rebel that can get enow to follow him , hath as good a cause as the king that he rebelleth against ; and if he conquer , he need not accuse himself of doing any wrong : and then there will be nothing for conscience to blame any man for , nor for one man to accuse another of , but witlesness or impotency . and then the thief must suffer only for want of strength or cunning , and not because he did any wrong . § . . ix . if there be no government by god , there can be no true propriety but strength : and he that is strongest hath right to all that he can lay hold on . but the consequent is false : therefore so is the antecedent . the consequence is undeniable : for if there be no divine government , there is no law but humane : and no man can have any right besides strength to make laws for any other whomsoever . for if god have no government and law , he constituteth no debitum vel jus , no dueness or right . and man can have no right to govern others , if he have no governour to give any . if god do give right to govern , he thereby maketh obedience to that governour a duty : and he that constituteth or instituteth right and duty , governeth . and if god give men no right to govern , they can have none . and then , if strength be all their title , any man that can get as much strength , doth get as good a title ; and may seize upon the lives , the lands and estates of prince or people , and give laws to the weaker , as others before gave laws to him . and so there will utter confusion and misery be let in upon the world . as in the poet's description of the degenerate age , vivitur ex raptu , non hospes ab hospite tutus , &c. reason would have nothing to say against strength : the great dog would have the best title to the bone . melior mihi dextera lingua est . dummodo pugnando superem , tu vince loquendo , ovid. met. the honest , poor and peaceable would have such a peace with thieves and strong ones , cum pecore infirmo quae solet esse lupis . ovid. § . . if god govern not the world , then meer communities are uncapable of right or wrong , and no man is bound in duty to spare his brother's life or state . but the consequent is false : therefore so is the antecedent . by a community i mean a company of men that have yet set up no government among them : if god be not their governour , such have none at all , and so are under no moral obligation : for covenants themselves cannot bind , if there be no superiour obligation , requiring man to stand to his covenants . obj. then god's covenants to man do not bind him . answ . not at all , by proper obligation , as if it were his duty to keep them , and his sin to break them ; for god is not capable of duty or sin . but yet improperly they may be called obligations , because they are the demonstrations of his will , which the perfection of his nature will not let him violate . it would be an imperfection , if god should break promise , though not a sin or crime : and therefore it is impossible for god to lie . obj. but suppose we say , that man is under no other obligations than a beast ; and that among men there is no proper right or wrong , duty or fault : yet men by confederacies , without any other government , would settle rules for the safety of cohabitation and converse , and for love of themselves would forbear wronging others . and this is all the law of nature that man hath above bruits . answ . those confederacies would no further oblige them , than their interest required them to observe them . still by this rule a man is left free to kill wife and children ; if he be weary of them , which no neighbour , being wronged by none , will seem obliged to revenge : still he that is the stronger is left to do his worst , without fault , to seize upon other mens estates , and to depose kings and destroy them , and all the world would be in a state of war. or if self-interest keep some quiet for a time , it would be but till they had strength and opportunity to do otherwise . he is not fit for humane society , who would tell all about him [ i take my self free to defraud and murder any of you , as soon as my own safety and interest will allow it me . ] and no man that thus taketh a man for a beast , can expect any better usage than a beast himself , any further than self-love shall restrain others from abusing him : nor can he plead any better title to his estate , nor exemption from the violence of the stronger . and it will also follow , that honesty is nothing but self-preserving policy ; and that blasphemy and impiety against god need not be feared or avoided ; nor any thing as a fault , but only as a folly , exposing the person himself to danger . incest , perjury , lying , might be impudencies , but not any crimes . obj. if you supposed them in god , they would be but imperfections , and not crimes , and why should you judge othewise of them in man. answ . because the absolute perfection of his nature is instead of a law to god , who hath no superiour . but man hath a superiour , and hath an imperfect nature , which is therefore to be regulated by the wisdom and will of that perfect superiour . and moreover , if man have reason and wisdom above a beast , which maketh him capable of knowing right and wrong , and of being moved by the things that are evident to reason , though not to sense ; and if he be made to be governed by laws , ( as was proved before ) then he is certainly governed accordingly ; or else his nature and reason were given him in vain , which could not be by the most wise creator . obj. god governeth the world as the soul governeth the body , which is rationally ex parte animae ; but not by giving reason or laws to the body : but despotically by the natural power of the will. answ . the flesh is not capable of laws , as having no reason , and therefore no proper laws can be given to it in it self by the soul : but the soul is capable of reason , and made to be moved by proposed reasons in a law , and not only by natural force as the flesh . the government must be agreeable to the capacity of the subject . though the rider rule the horse by a bridle and spur , and not by a law , it followeth not that the king must not rule the rider so . the soul and body constitute one suppositum or man ; and therefore the body is governed by a law , because the soul is so , which despotically moveth it : laws are for distinct individuals , and not for one part of an individual to give to another part . obj. if god be the constitutive soul of the world , then he need not give it laws . answ . because it is most certain de facto , that he doth give us laws , therefore it is certain that he is not the constitutive soul of the world , as is also further proved before : though he be much more to it than a soul. § . . xi . if man act , per media propter finem , and loth discerned by reason , then he must be ruled by a law. but the antecedent is sure : ergo , &c. for the end is ever something apprehended sub ratione boni , ( and the ultimate end , sub ratione optimi possibilis : ) and the means are chosen and used , sub ratione conducibilis , as apt to attain the end. this means and end are not to be discerned onely by sense and imagination , as in bruits every object is apprehended , but by reason ; this reason is defectible and liable to error , and therefore the rational evidences must be proposed to it , and that conveniently : for he that knoweth not reason , why he should chuse , refuse , or act , cannot do it rationally . and the will being as apt to be seduced by the sense , hath need of due motives to determine it . therefore there is need of the regulation of a law , containing the direction of a superiour wisdom , with authority and motives of consequential good or evil , proposed by one that can accomplish it . but the whole world doth so universally consent , that there is a difference between right and wrong , duty and crimes , good and evil , and so a necessity of some government ( humane at least ) and that man is not like the beasts , where strength is the only title , and good and evil is but natural , called jucundum & utile , with their contraries , that i need not plead that part of the cause any further , universal consent not only making it unnecessary , but also being a valid argument against it , as proving that it is against the common reason of mankind , and light of nature . § . . xii . if god be not the universal governour of the world , then error , malice , and tyranny , and selfishness will make injustice finally prosperous , and oppressed innocency remediless . but that cannot be , as shall hereafter be fullier made appear . there must be some infallible judge to pass the final sentence , and hear all causes , as it were , over again ; and some perfect righteous judge to set straight , all that mens unrighteousness made crooked ; or else unrighteousness will finally prevail . and this must be god , who being the fountain of all government , is also the end of all . § . . xiii . if god be not the supreme vniversal governour , there can be no unity and harmony in the moral order and government of the world. as all the corporations in the kingdom would be in continual discord with one another , if they were not all united in one king ; so would all the kingdoms of the world ( much worse than they are ) if they were not under the government of one god. § . . xiv . the last argument shall be à jure & aptitudine : if man be made a creature to be morally governed , and the undoubted right and aptitude , for supream government be in god alone , then god is actually the supream governour of the the world : but the antecedent is true , therefore the consequent . . that god only is able , is undenyable : men can govern but their particular provinces or empires : and none of them is capable of governing all the world , for want of omnipresence , omnipotency , and omniscience : and therefore the pope that claimeth the government of all the world , if all turn christians , doth thereby pretend to a kinde of deity . and if angels were proved able to govern the earth , it can be but as officers , and not in absolute supremacy : for who then shall be the governour of them : their being is meerly derivative and dependent ; and therefore so must be their power . god only is all sufficient , omnipresent , omnipotent , omniscient , and most good : sufficient to give perfect laws to all ; to execute righteous judgement upon all ; and to protect the world as his dominion : when princes cannot protect one kingdom , nor themselves . and gods title and right is as undoubted as his power : for he is absolute owner of the world. and who should claim soveraignty over him or without him , where he is sole proprietor . he hath undoubted right to rule his own . obj. propriety among men is no title to government . answ . absolute propriety in a governable creature , is a plenary title . but no man hath absolute propriety in another . yet parents , and the masters of slaves , who come neerest it , have an answerable power of governing them . but mans fullest propriety is in bruits and inanimates , which are not creatures capable of government . § . . the relation then of soveraign king or rector in god to man , is founded in the forenamed relation of a proprietor ; supposing the aptitude of the subject and the owner . having proved that god is the vniversal king , i come to shew his title to his kingdom ●itulus est fundamentum juris . soveraignty or summa potestas , is jus supremi regiminis . where this right is founded , great ignorance hath made a great controversie , the thing to men that are of competent understandings in such subjects , being most easie and past controversie . god having made man , is immediately his owner , because his maker . having made him a rational free agent , and so to be governed , he hath the jus regendi by immediate resultancy from his absolute propriety ; supposing the nature of the creature , and the perfection of the creator alone , which so qualifie one to be a subject , and the other to be the governour , that they are as it were the remoter fundamentum relationis . from the being of man hoc aliquid à deo creatum , resulteth the propriety of god : from the specifick nature of man , as a rational , free , sociaile creature , he is by immediate resultancy gubernandus : and being such , his creator , remotely for his infinite perfections and sole aptitude , and proximately , because he is mans absolute owner , is by resultancy his rightfull governour : and that he neglecteth not this his right , but actually governeth him , appeareth in the very making man such , and continuing him such as is made to be governed , as also in his actual laws and judgements . this is the true and plain resolution of the question of the title of god to his kingdom , or fundamentum of the relation of universal king. § . . humane government is an ordinance of god , and humane governours are his officers as he is supream : and he hath not left it free to the world , whether they will live in governed societies , or not . that humane government is appointed by god , appeareth thus : . in that the light of nature teacheth it all the world. . in that god hath put into mans nature a necessity of it , and therefore signified his will concerning it : it is , needfull to the very lives of men , and to their highest perfections , order , and attainments . if parents did not govern children , and teachers their scholars , and masters their servants , and princes their subjects , the world would be as a wilderness of wilde beasts , and men would not live like men , according to their natural capacities : i deny not , but some one or few by necessity or some extraordinary circumstances , may be exempted from this obligation , by being uncapable of the benefit : being cast into a wilderness , or such like place , where the benefit of government is not to be had . but that 's nothing to the commoner case of mankinde : as marriage is indifferent to those individuals that need not the benefits of it ; but it is not lawfull for the world of mankinde , to forbear procreation , to the extinction of it self . § . . therefore as all rulers receive their power from him , and hold it in dependance on him , so must they finally use it for him , even for his will and interest , which they must principally intend . he that is the original of power must needs be the end : he that giveth it to man , doth give it for the accomplishment of his own will. it is held in pure subordination to him , and so it must be used , or it is abused . § . . therefore no man can have any power against god , or his laws or interest : for he giveth not power against himself . that is , he giveth no man right , authority or commission to displease him , by the breaking of his laws ; for that is a contradiction , or chargeth his laws with contradiction . yet must not any subjects make this a pretence to deny any just obedience to their rulers , or to rebell against them , on supposition that their government is against god. for as private men are not made publick judges of the interest of god , but only private discerners , in order to their own obedience to him ; so may that government be for god in the main , which is against him in some few particulars . § . . the highest duty of man , is to him who is the highest : and the greatest crime is that which is committed against the greatest authority . this is suâ luce so evident , that it needs no proof : formally the chief obedience is due to the chief governour : ( to a king rather than to a justice of peace or constable : ) and consequently the greatest sin is against him . if god be above man , so is duty to god , and sin against god , the greatest in both kinds . § . . therefore there is good and evil , which respecteth god , and are called holiness and sin , which are incomparably greater , than good and evil so called from respect to any creatures , whether individuals or societies . therefore they that know no good but that which is so called from its respect to mans commodity or benefit , nor no evil but that which is so called from its respect to the hurt of creatures , do not know god , nor his relation to his works ; but make gods of themselves , and accordingly judge of good and evil. § . . the consciences of men do secretly accuse them , or excuse them , according to this sort of good or evil. when men have wrangled against religion never so long , there are very few so blinde and bad , in whom god hath not a resident witness , called conscience , which secretly telleth a man that he doth well or ill , as he keepeth or breaketh the laws of nature , and that with respect to the soveraign law-giver , and not only to the good or hurt of man. as conscience doth not accuse a man for being poor or sick , or wronged by another ( though about these we may have also inward trouble ) so it doth not justifie him for his prosperity in the world ( though it may be laid asleep and quieted by such means ) . but it is for morall good or evil that conscience doth accuse or justifie : if i make my self poor wilfully , my conscience will trouble me for the wilful fault , and breed in me repentance and remorse : and so it will if i hurt or impoverish my neighbour : but if i hurt my self or neighbour unavoidably without any fault of mine , i am sorry for it , but my conscience will not accuse or condemn me for it . § . . this power of conscience causeth all the world , to praise or dispraise men according to this moral good or evil. mark but the infidels themselves , or any whom vice hath turned into monsters , and they will commend men upon the account of that inward sincerity , and honesty , which god only can make laws for : and dispraise men for the contrary . if you say , that they do this only because such virtues make men fit for humane converse , and profitable or not hurtfull to one another ; i answer , we are not enquiring of the final cause , but the formal : though they praise sincere and honest men , and those that are loving , compassionate , kinde , and dispraise dissemblers , malicious , and men of hurtfull dispositions , yet you may observe that they speak not of these only as usefull or hurtfull qualities , but as morall good or evil ; as things that men ought or ought not to do ; which they are bound to do , or not do by some obligation : and what obligation can make it any mans duty , if there be no law of god in nature for it , when it is out of the reach of the laws of men . mark heathens , and infidels , and atheists in their talk , and you shall hear them praise or dispraise men , for some things which intimate a divine obligation ; which sheweth that the conscience of the world beareth witness to the supream universal government of god. no man who believeth that there is a god , can believe that the actions of his rational creatures have no relation to him ; or that the good or evil of them , which is the result of their relation to god , can be of less or lower consideration , than their relation to themselves or one another : therefore if it be laudable to perform duty to kings , and parents , and neighbours , conscience will tell the world , that it is incomparably more necessary to perform our duty to god : and it cannot be , that the world should stand related to god , as their creator , proprietor , governour and end , and yet owe him no duty . § . . gods government ( as mans ) consisteth of three parts , legislation , judgement , and execution . without laws , the subject can neither know his duty , nor his rewards and punishments . without judgement , laws will be uneffectual ; and without execution , judgement is a deceitfull ludicrous thing . § . . by a law i mean , an authoritative institution what shall be due from and to the subject for the ends of government ] or [ a sign of the rulers will instituting what shall be due to and from the subject , for the ends of government . ] the fuller reasons of this definition of a law , i have given in another writing . signum is the genus of it ; the will of a ruler being no otherwise to be known to subjects , but by signs : the relations of [ ruler and subjects ] is presupposed : it is therefore only an authoritative sign , or the sign of [ a rulers ] will , because a ruler only hath the power of government : i say of his [ will ] as that which is the neerest perfective efficient , or imperant faculty , including the understandings conduct . i call it [ an institution ] or [ instituting sign ] to signifie its efficiency de debito , and to distinguish it from [ the judicial decisive determination of the ruler . ] it is only [ to subjects ] that this signification is made , he being not a ruler to any others . the product of the institution or statutum , is only debitum , which is the immediate full effect of laws : this debitum is twofold , . officii , what shall be due from the subject ( or what shall be the subjects duty . ) . what shall be due to him , . if he keep the law , which is the debitum praemii : . if he break it , which is the debitum poenae : i say [ to the ends of government . ] for it is a relation which must have the end in the definition ; and seeing i only define a law in genere , i mention but [ the ends of government ] in genere : for several governments have several ends : the government of single persons only , as of a scholar , a son , a servant , by a tutor , parent , master , intendeth proximately but the good of the individual subject : the mandates of such rulers , have the true nature of a law , though it be of the lower sort , as is the government ; and custom hath appropriated the word [ law ] to a nobler species only . the government of societies is always immediately for [ the order of the society : ] but not always for their good ; much less chiefly : the government of a society of slaves ( as the spaniards over the peruvians and mexicans in digging their mines ) is for the order of those slaves , but for the benefit of the lords . the government of some armies , is for the order of the armies , but for the good of those they fight for . the government of a true common-wealth is for the bonum publicum , the common good , which includeth the happiness of the rulers with the subjects . the universal government of the world , is proximately for the order of the world , and for its good , but ultimately and principally for the fulfilling and pleasing the will of god , in the said order and good , and in the glory or operations of his own power , wisdom , and goodness therein . ( as shall be further proved afterward . ) § . . any signification of the will of god , that man shall be benefited on condition of his obedience , is the praemiant part of his law : and any signification of his will , that man shall be punished if he sin ( or that punishment shall be his due ) is the penal part of his law. if it only foretold that in a way of physical efficiency , obedience will produce good , and disobedience hurt to himself , this were not properly , praemiant or penal ; but when the good is promised upon the condition of obedience , and the hurt threatned upon condition of sin , as means to move a rational free agent to obey , this is truly a praemiant and penal act of law : and this is fulfilled also in a physical way of production ; the law-giver being also the creator and disposer of all the world , doth wisely order it , that morall good shall be attended with physical good , and moral evil with physical evil ; first or last . § . . the immensity ( or omnipresence ) the omnipotency , omniscience , and infinite goodness of god , with his total causation in the support of all his creatures , do most undoubtedly prove his particular providence , in observing and regarding all the actions of his subjects in the world ; and so declare his actual government . it is the gross ignorance of the divine perfections , which ever made any one question the particular providence of god as extending to the smallest things and actions . . it is proved by his immensity ( conceived of as without corporeal extension of parts as before said ) : he that made and upholdeth all the world , did never make that which is greater than himself , and excludeth his presence . though being a spirit he hath not corporeal quantity , yet analogically and in a way of eminency and transcendency , we must say that he is greater and immense : and it is his perfection which denyeth extension and dimensions ; and therefore in a nobler kinde he is every where present . and if he be here as certainly as i am , and in a more excellent manner , he cannot but observe all things and actions which are here . . he is omnipotent and all sufficient , and therefore as able to observe and govern every the smallest thing and action , as if he had but that one to look after in the world . and i think , if god had but one man at all to mind and govern in all the world , the adversary himself , that now denieth his particular providence , would confess , that god doth observe and regard that one individual . it is mens atheistical or blasphemous diminutive thoughts of god , who conceive of him as finite , though they call him infinite , which is the cause of all such kind of errors . . his omniscience infallibly proveth also his particular observance of all things and actions in the world : for his knowledge being his natural perfection is necessary : he cannot be ignorant of any thing that is . if i had but one thing just before my eyes to see , in the open light , i must needs see it , if it have the necessaries of a visible object , unless i wink . if the sun's illumination were an act of vision , ( as its like it is nothing more ignoble ) how easily would it at once discern all that is upon one half of the earth at once ? all things are naked and open before the eye of the omniscient being : he cannot but behold or know them , and therefore observe them and regard them . . his creation , causation and manutetency also prove , that he both knoweth and regardeth all things : for can he be either ignorant , forgetful or mindless of that which he made , and still doth so conserve , as to continue a kind of creation of it ? his omnipotent will which gave it a being , doth still continue it ; should he withdraw his active sustentation , it would turn all , not only to confusion but to nothing . and doth he not know and regard what is continually as in his hand , or by continual volition produced or maintained by him ? he is the universal cause of all the agency and motion in the world ; in him we live , move and be : and can he be ignorant or regardless of what he doth ? why will he make , maintain , and move that which he doth not regard ? . his relation of owner proveth his regard : all things are his own. . and his relation of a governour proveth his regard and his actual government of man and all his actions . for he taketh not on him a vain relation ; and he that maketh laws for every person and action , doth regard and govern every person and action : but so doth god. ergo. § . . those who think god doth nothing to all the rest of the world , but by those noblest creatures which are next him , and that he hath committed the government of all the rest of the world to the intelligences of the first order ; cannot without blindness and contradiction deny , that he is still himself no less the actual mover and governour of all , than if he used no officer or instrument at all . for . god ceased not himself to be omnipresent , omniscient , omnipotent , or most benign , when he gave that supposed power to those instruments . . he made them and ordered them under him , through plenitude of goodness , delighting to communicate power and dignity as well as being to his creatures , and not through impotency or insufficiency , to supply any defect in his own government , and to help him : he useth them to honour them , and not to dishonour himself . he gave away from himself no degree of perfection , nor deprived himself of the smallest part of honour , which he communicateth to them ; but honoureth himself in the appearance of his perfections by the said communications . as god can do that by himself without the creature , which he causeth the creature to do ; ( as to move , illuminate and beat the lower parts without the sun as well as with it , or any thing which importeth not impotency or contradiction ) for he ceased not to be omnipotent ; so that which he doth by any creature is as truly and fully done by himself , as if there were no created instrument or cause in it . for that creature which is nothing of it self , and hath not any being but in full dependance on its maker , can have no action of it self , but in full dependance upon him ; what ever it doth , it doth by him : though as to the specifying comparison , why this rather than that , god hath given men a power with liberty , yet the action as an action , being from the power which was totally from him , is so it self : there can be no less of god's agency in any action , because he doth it by a creature , than if he did it without ; though there be more of the creatures , there is no less of his : his communication of power is not by discerption , or division and diminution of his own . he that knoweth what a creator and total first cause is , needs no other proof of this . men indeed communicate power to their officers , through their own insufficiency , to be their helpers , and supply the want of their presence or action ; but so doth not god. therefore if angels or intelligences govern and move all inferiour things , they are all governed and moved no less certainly , proximately , honourably by god himself , than if he had never used such a subordinate agent ; and that immediatione essentiae & virtutis ; immediately , though not so immediately , as to use no honourary second cause . § . . justice is an attribute of god as governovr , by which he maketh equal laws , and giveth all their due according to them ; ( or judgeth them righteously according to his laws ) for the ends of government . as justice is conceived of in god according to the image in man , which we call the virtue or habit of justice , so it is his eternal nature , being nothing else but the perfection of his infinite wisdom , and his will or goodness , as respecting a kingdom of subjects as possible and future . for he may so be called just , that hath no kingdom , because he hath that virtue which would do justice if he had a kingdom . but as justice is taken either for the exercise of righteous government , or for the honourable relation and title of one that doth so exercise it ; that is , of an actually just governour , so formally and denominatively it is an attribute of god , which is not eternal , but subsequent to his relation of a king or governour . he that is not a governour , is not a just governour . a negatione est secundi adjecti ad negationem est tertii valet argumentum . the law is norma officii & judicii . he that maketh a law , thereby telleth his subjects , that according to this they must live , and according to this they must be judged . indeed the immediate sense of the words of a law , as such , is not to be taken as de eventu , but de debito : he that saith , thou shalt not murder , saith not , [ eventually it shall not come to pass that thou shalt not murder ] but [ it shall be thy duty not to do it . ] and he that saith , [ if thou murder thou shalt be put to death ] doth primarily , in the sense of the words themselves , mean no more but [ death shall be thy due . ] but in that he declareth that he will justly govern according to this law , therefore he meaneth secondarily and consequently , that ordinarily he will give to all their due . in what cases the letter and nearest sense of a law may be dispensed with , or the law-giver reserveth a liberty of dispensation to himself , belongeth not to this place to be disputed . chap. ix . ii. of man's subjection to god , or relation to him as our governour . § . . man being made thus a rational free agent , and sociable to be governed , and god being his rightful governour , is immediately related to god as his subject , as to right and obligation . there is no soveraign without a subject : subjection is our relation to our governour , or else our consent to that relation . in the former sense we take it here . a subject is one that is bound to obey another as his ruler . he that is a subject by right and obligation , and yet doth not consent and actually subject himself to his rightful governour , is a rebel . there cannot be greater obligations to subjection imagined by a created understanding , than the rational creature hath to god. § . . all men are obliged to consent to this subjection , and to give up themselves absolutely to the government of god. god's absolute propriety in us as his creatures , giveth him so full a title to govern us , that our consent is not at all necessary to our obligation and subjection-relative ; but only to our actual obedience , which cannot be performed by one that consenteth not . therefore god's right and our natural condition are the foundation of our subjection to him , as to obligation and duty ; and he that consenteth not , sinneth by high treason against his soveraign . as god did not ask our consent whether he should make us men , so neither whether he should be our governour and we his subjects as to obligation : nor yet whether he shall punish the rebellious and disobedient . but he asketh our consent to obey him , and to be rewarded by him : for we shall neither be holy nor happy but by our own consent . those therefore ( whom i have confuted in my treatise of policy ) who say , god is not our king till we make him king , nor his laws obligatory to us till we consent to them , speaking de debito , do not reason but rave , and are unworthy of a confutation . § . . all men therefore are obliged to subject their understandings to the revealed wisdom of god , and their wills to his revealed will ; and to employ all the powers of soul and body , and all their possessions , in his most exact obedience . subjection is an obligation to obedience . where the authority and subjection are absolute and unlimited , there the obedience must be absolute and most exact . the understanding of our absolute ruler is the absolute rule of our understandings . no man must set up his conceits against him , nor quarrel with his government or laws . if any thing of his revelation or prescription seem questionable , unjust or unnecessary to us , it is through our want of due subjection , through the arrogancy and enmity of our carnal minds . his will , de debito , must be the absolute rule of all our wills : so much secret exceptions and reserves as we have in our resignation and subjection , so much hypocrisie and secret rebellion we have . our subjective obligation is so full and absolute , and our ruler so infallible , just and perfect , that it is not possible for any mans obedience to god to be too absolute , exact or full . nothing can be more certain than that a creature , subject to the government of his creator , of infinite power , wisdom and goodness , doth owe him the most perfect and exact obedience , according to the utmost of his powers , without any dissent , exception , resistance , unwillingness or neglect . § . . all obedience which rulers require of their subjects , or subjects give to any governours , must be in full subordination to the government and will of god. for all powers under the absolute sovereign of the world , are derivative and dependent , and are no more than he hath given : they are from him , under him , and for him ; and can no more have any authority against him , than a worm against a king , or than they could have being and authority without him . he that contradicteth this proposition , must take down god , and deifie man , and so defie and conquer heaven , or else he will never make it good . as for the difficulties that seem to rise by allowing subjects to prefer god's authority before their parents or princes ; it belongeth no more to the clearing of the present subject that i resolve them , than that i resolve such as arise from our allowing subjects to disobey a justice or constable when he is against the king. § . . they that are obliged to such absolute and exact obedience , are obliged to use their utmost diligence to understand god's laws , which they must obey . for no man can obey a law which he doth not know of , and understand . subjection includeth an obligation to study our maker's laws , so far as we must do them : indeed those that concern others , we are not so much bound to know ( as a subject to know god's laws for kings and pastors of the church ) ; but for our own duty we cannot do it before we know it . those that are ignorant of their maker's will through unwillingness , contempt or negligence , are so far disobedient to his government . § . . there are many and great temptations to draw us to disobey our maker , which every one is bound with greatest vigilancy and constancy to resist . he that is bound to obey , is certainly bound to resist all temptations to disobedience . for that is far from absolute or true obedience which will fail , if a man be but tempted to disobey . kings and parents will not accept of such obedience as this ; they will not say , [ be true to me , and honour me , and obey me , till you are tempted to betray me , and to reproach me , and rebel . ] he that will be false to god when he is tempted to it , was never true to him . no temptation can bring so much for sin , as god giveth us against it , nor can offer us so much gain , or honour , or pleasure by it , as he offereth us on condition we obey him . and that the world is full of such temptations , experience putteth past dispute , ( of which , more anon . ) § . . no price can be offered by any creature , which to a subject of god should seem sufficient to hire him to the smallest sin . sin hath such aggravations ( which shall be opened anon ) that no gain or pleasure that cometh by it can counter-ballance . there being no proportion between the creature and the infinite creator , there can nothing by , or of the creature be proportionable , or considerable to be put into the ballance against the creator's authority and will. the command of kings , the winning of kingdoms , the pleasure of the flesh , the applause of all the world , if they are offered as a price or bait to hire or tempt a man to sin , should weigh no more against the command of god , than a feather in the ballance against a mountain . all this common reason will attest , however sense and appetite reclaim . § . . no man can reasonably fear lest his true obedience to such a governour should prove his final detriment or hurt : but if it did , it were nevertheless our duty to obey . . no man can reasonably think , that god is less able to reward , protect and encourage his subjects in their duty , than any tempter whatsoever in their disobedience . and no man can think that he is less wise to know how to perform it : nor can any think that infinite goodness is less disposed to do good to the good , than any tempter whosoever can be to do good to the evil . these things being all as clear as light it self to the considerate , it must needs follow , that no reason can allow a man to hope to be finally a gainer or saver by his disobedience to his maker , or to fear to be a loser by him . . but if it were so , obedience would be our duty still : for the authority of god , as his propriety , is absolute ; and he that giveth us power to require the analogical obedience of our horse or ox , though it be to our benefit only , and his hurt , yea though it be in going to the slaughter , if he did so by us could do us no wrong , nor give us any just excuse for our disobedience . for as sweet as life is to us , it is not so much ours in right as his , and therefore should be at his disposal . § . . the breaking of gods laws must needs deserve a greater penalty , than the breaking of any man's laws , as such . the difference of the rulers and their authority puts this past all controversie ; of which yet i shall say more anon . § . . what is said of the subjection of individuals to god , is true of all just societies as such ; the kingdoms of the world being all under god the universal king , as small parcels of his kingdom , as particular corporations are under a humane king. therefore kings and kingdoms owe their absolute obedience to god , and may not intend any ultimate end , but the pleasing of their universal soveraign ; nor set up any interest against him , or above him , or in coordination with him ; nor manage any way of government , but in dependance on him , as the principle and the end of it ; nor make any laws , but such as stand in due subordination to his laws ; nor command any duty but what hath in its order , a true subserviency and conducibility to his pleasure . chap. x. of god's particular laws as known in nature . the true nature of a law i have opened before . it is not necessary that it be written nor spoken ; but that it be in general any apt [ signification of the will of the rector to his subjects , instituting what shall be due from them and to them , for the ends of government . ] therefore whatsoever is a signification of gods will to man , appointing us our duty , and telling us what benefit shall be ours upon the performance , and what loss or hurt shall befall us , if we sin , is a law of god. § . . a law being the rectors instrument of governing , there can be no law where there is no government : and therefore , that which some call , the eternal law , is indeed no law at all ; but it is the principle of all just laws . the eternal wisdom and goodness of god ( that is , the perfection of his nature and will ) as related to a possible , or future kingdom , is denominated justice : and this justice some call the eternal law : but it is truly no law , because it is the will of god in himself , and not as rector ; nor is it any signification of that will , nor doth it suppose any governed subjects in being from eternity ; nor doth it make any duty to any from eternity : but all the laws which god maketh in time , ( and consequently which men make , which are just and good ) are but the products of this eternal will and justice . and whereas some say , that there is an eternall truth in such axiomes as these [ thou shalt love god above all , and do as thou would'st be done by , and the good should be incouraged , and the bad punished , &c. ] i answer , god formeth not propositions ; and therefore there were no such propositions from eternity : nor was there any creature to love god , or to do good or evil , and be the subject of such propositions : that proposition therefore which was not from eternity , was neither true nor false from eternity ; for non entis non sunt accidentia vel modi . but this is true , that from eternity there were the grounds of the verity of such propositions when they should after be : and that if there had been subjects from eternity for such propositions , and intellects to frame them , they would have been of eternal truth . § . . at the same time of his creation that god made man his subject , he also made him some laws , to govern him . for , subjection being a general obligation to obedience , would signifie nothing , if there were no particular duties to be the matter of that obedience . else man should owe god no obedience , from the beginning , but be lawless ; for where there is no law , there is no obedience : ( taking a law in the true comprehensive sense , as i here do . ) § . . all the objective significations in natura rerum , within us or without us , of the will of god , concerning our duty , reward or punishment , are the true law of nature , in the primary proper sense . § . . therefore it is falsly defined by all writers , who make it consist in certain axioms ( as some say ) born in us , or written on our hearts from our birth ; ( as others say ) dispositively there . it is true , that there is in the nature of mans soul a certain aptitude to understand certain truths , as soon as they are revealed , that is , as soon as the very natura rerum is observed : and it is true , that this disposition is brought to actual knowledge , as soon as the minde comes to actual consideration of the things . but it is not true that there is any actual knowledge of any principles born in man : nor is it true , that the said disposition to know is truly a law ; nor yet that the actual knowledge following it , is a law : but the disposition may be called a law metonymically , as being the aptitude of the faculties to receive and obey a law ; as the light of the eye , which is the potentia & dispositio videndi , may be called [ the light of the sun ] but unhansomly : and the subsequent actual knowledge of principles , may be called the law of nature metonymically , as being the perception of it , and an effect of it : as actual sight may be called , the light of the sun , and as actual knowledge of the kings laws , may be called his laws within us , that is , the effect of them , or the reception of them : but this is far from propriety of speech . that the inward axiomes as known are not laws , is evident , . because a law is in genere objectivo , and this is in genere actionum : a law is in genere signorum ; but this is the discerning of the sign : a law is the will of the rector signified : this is his will known : a law is obligatory : this is the perception of an obligation . a law maketh duty : but this is the knowledge of a duty made . . the law is not in our power to change or abrogate : but a mans inward dispositions and perceptions are much in his power , to encrease or diminish , or obliterate : every man that is wilfully sensual and wicked , may do much to blot out the law of nature , which is said to be written on his heart ; but wickedness cannot alter or obliterare the law of god : if this were gods law which is upon the heart , when a sinner hath blotted it out , he is disobliged from duty and punishment : for where there is no law , there is no duty or transgression . but no sinner can so disoblige himself by altering his makers laws : . else there would be as many laws of nature , not only as there are men , but as there are diversity of perceptions : but gods law is not so uncertain and multiform a thing . . and if mans disposition or actual knowledge be gods law , it may be also called mans law : and so the kings law , should be the subjects perception of it . it is therefore most evident , that the true law of nature is another thing : ( and is it not then a matter of admiration , that so many sagacious , accurate schoolmen , philosophers , lawyers , and divines , should for so long time go on in such false definitions of it ! ) the whole world belongeth to the law of nature , so far as it signifieth to us the will of god , about our duty , and reward , and punishment : the world is as gods statute book : the foresaid natural aptitude , maketh us fit to read and practise it . the law of nature is as the external light of the sun ; and the said natural disposition , is as the visive faculty to make use of it . yet much of the law of nature is within us too : but it is there only in genere objectivo , & signi : man 's own nature , his reason , free will , and executive power , are the most notable signs of his duty to god ; to which all mercies , judgements , and other signifying means belong . § . . the way that god doth by nature oblige us , is by laying such fundamenta from which our duty shall naturally result , as from the signification of his will. § . . these fundamenta are some of them unalterable ( while we have a being , ) and some of them alterable : and therefore some laws of nature are alterable , and some unalterable accordingly . as for instance , man is made a rational free agent ; and god is unchangeably his rightfull governour , of infinite power , wisdom and goodness : therefore the nature of god and man ( in via ) thus compared are the fundamentum from whence constantly resulteth our indispensable duty to love him , trust him , fear him , and obey him : but if our being , or reason , or free-will , which are our essential capacities cease , our obligations cease cessante fundamento . god hath made man a sociable creature ; and while he is in society , the law of nature obligeth him to many things , which he hath no obligation to , when the society is dissolved : as when a parent , childe , wife , or neighbour dieth , all our duties to them cease . nature by the position of many circumstances , hath made incest ordinarily a thing producing manifold evils , and a sin against god : and yet nature so placed the children of adam , in other circumstances , that the said nature made that their duty ( to marry one another ) which in others would have been an unnatural thing : nature forbiddeth parents to murder their children : but when god the absolute lord of life , would that way try abrahams obedience , when he was sure that he had a supernatural command , even nature obliged him to obey it . nature forbiddeth men to rob each other of their proper goods . but when the owner of all things , had given the israelites the egyptians goods , and changed the propriety , the fundamentum of their former natural obligation ceased . changes in natura rerum , which are the foundation of our obligation , may make changes in the obligations , which before were natural . but so far as nature , that nature which foundeth duty is the same , the duty remaineth still the same : the contrary would be a plain contradiction . § . . the authoritas imperantis is the formall object of all obedience : and so all our duty is formally duty to god as our supream , or to men as his officers : but as to the material object , our natural duties are either , i. towards god : ii. to our selves : iii. to others . § . . i. the prime duties of the law of nature are towards god , and are our full consent to the three relations , ( of which two are mentioned before ) : to be gods rational creatures , and not obliged to take him heartily for our absolute owner and ruler , is a contradiction in nature . § . . mans nature being what it is , and related thus to god , and gods nature and relations being as afore described , man is naturally obliged to take god to be what he is in all his attributes forementioned ( cap. . ) and to suit his will , and affections to god accordingly : that is , to take him to be omnipotent , omniscient , and most good , most faithfull , and most just , &c. and to believe him , seek him , trust him , love him , fear him , obey him , meditate on him , to honour him , and preferre him before all the world ; and this with all our heart and might , and to take our chiefest pleasure in it . all this so evidently resulteth from the nature of god and man compared , that i cannot perceive that it needeth proof or illustration . § . . it is a contradiction to nature , that any of this duty proper to god , may be given to any other , and that any creature or idol of our imagination should be esteemed , loved , trusted , obeyed , or honoured as god. for that were falshood in us , injury to god , and abuse of the creature . § . . nature requireth , that man having the gift of speech from god , should imploy his tongue in the praise and service of his maker . this plainly resulteth , from our own nature , and the use of the tongue , compared with , or related to gods nature and perfections , with his propriety in us , and all that 's ours , and his government of us . § . . seeing man liveth in totall dependance upon god , and in continual receivings from him , nature obligeth him to use his heart and tongue in holy desires express'd and exercised in prayer , and in returning thanks to his great benefactor , ( of which more anon . ) for though god know all our sins and wants already , yet the tongue is fitted to confess our sins , and to express our desires : and by confessing and expressing , a twofold capacity for mercy accreweth to us : that is , . our own humiliation is excited and increased by the said confessions ; and our desires , and love , and hope , excited and increased by our own petitions , ( the tongue having a power to reflect back on the heart , and the exercise of all good affections being the means of their increase . ) . and a person that is found in the actual exercise of repentance and holy desire , and love , is morally , and in point of justice , a much fitter recipient for pardon , and acceptance , and other blessings , than another is : and it being proved by nature , that prayer , confession and thanksgiving , hath so much usefulness to our good , and to our further duty , nature will tell us , that the tongue and heart should be thus imployed . and therefore nature teacheth all men in the world , that believe there is a god , to confess their sins to him , and call upon him in their distress , and to give him thanks for their receivings . § . . seeing societies as such are totally dependent upon god , and mens gifts are communicative , and solemnities are operative : nature teacheth us , that god ought to be solemnly acknowledged , worshipped , and honoured , both in families , and in more solemn appointed assemblies . it greatly affecteth our own hearts to praise god in great and solemn assemblies : many hearts are like many pieces of wood or coals , which flame up greatly when set together , which none of them alone would do . and it is a fuller signification of honour to god , when his creatures do purposely assemble for his solemn and most reverent praise and worship . and therefore nature shewing us the reasons of it , doth make it to be our duty . § . . nature telleth us , that it is evil to cherish false opinions of god , or to propagate such to others ; to slander or blaspheme him , to forget him , despise him , or neglect him , to contemn his judgements , or abuse his mercies ; to resist his instructions , precepts , or sanctifying motions : and that we should alwayes live as in his sight , and to bend all our powers entirely to please him , and to think and speak no otherwise of him , nor otherwise behave our selves before him , than as beseemeth us to the infinite , most blessed , and holy god. § . . nature telleth us , that in controversies between man and man , it is a rational means for ending strife , to appeal to god the judge of all , by solemn oaths , where proof is wanting : and that it is a hainous crime to do this falsly , making him the patron of a lie , or to use his name rashly , unreverently , prophanely , or in vain . all this being both against the nature of god , and of our speech , and of humane society , is past all doubt unnatural evil . § . . nature telleth us , that god should be worshipped heartily , sincerely , spiritually , and also decently and reverently , both with soul and body , as being the lord of both . § . . it telleth us also , that he must not be worshipped with sin or cruelty , or by toyish , childish , ludicrous manner of worship , which signifie a minde that is not serious , or which tend to breed a low esteem of him ; or which are any way contrary to his nature , or his will. § . . nature telleth us , that such as are endued with an eminent degree of holy wisdom , should be teachers of others , for obedience to god , and their salvation . as the soul is more worth than the body , and its welfare more regardable , so charity to the soul is as natural a duty as to the body : which cannot better be exercised , than in communicating holy wisdom , and instructing men in the matters of highest everlasting consequence . § . . yea , nature teacheth , that so great a work should not be done slightly and occasionally only , as on the by , but that it should be a work of stated office , which tried men should be regularly called to , for the more sure and universal edification of mankind . nature telleth us , that the greatest works , of greatest consequence , should be done with the greatest skill and care ; and that it is likest to be so done when it is made a set office , intrusted in the hands of tried men : for it is not many that have such extraordinary endowments : and if unfit persons manage so great a work , they will marr it , and miss the end : and that which a man taketh for his office , he is liker to take care of , than that which he thinks belongeth no more to him than others : and how necessary order is in all matters of weight , the experience of all governments , societies and persons may soon convince us . § . . nature telleth us also , that it is the duty of such teachers to be very diligent , serious , and plain , and of learners to be thankful , willing , studious , respectful , and rationally-obedient , as remembring the great importance of the work . for in vain is the labour of the teachers , if the learners will not do their part : the receiver hath the chief benefit , and therefore the greatest part of the duty , which must do most to the success . § . . nature telleth men , that they should not live loosely and ungoverned , but in the order of governed societies , for the better attainment of the ends of their creation , ( as is proved before . ) § . . nature telleth us , that governours should be the most wise , and pious , and just , and merciful , and diligent , and exemplary , laying out themselves for the publick good , and the pleasing of the universal sovereign . § . . it teacheth us also , that subjects must be faithful to their governours , and must honour and obey them , in subordination to god. § . . nature telleth us , that it is the parents duty , with special love and diligence , to educate their children in the knowledge , fear , and obedience of god ; providing for their bodies , but preferring their souls . § . . and that children must love , honour and obey their parents ; willingly and thankfully receiving their instructions and commands . § . . nature also telleth us , that thus the relations of husband and wife should be sanctified to the highest ends of life ; and also the relation of master and servant : and that our callings and labours in the world should be managed in pure obedience to god , and to our ultimate end . § . . nature teacheth all men to love one another , as servants of the same god , and members of the same universal kingdom , and creatures of the same specifick nature . there is somewhat amiable in every man , for there is something of god in every man , and therefore something that it is our duty to love : and that according to the excellency of man's nature , which sheweth more of god than other inferiour creatures do ; and also according to their additional virtues . loveliness commandeth love , and love maketh lovely . this , with all the rest afore-mentioned , are so plain , that to prove them is but to be tedious . § . . nature telleth us , that we should deal justly with all , giving to every one his due , and doing to them as we would be done by . § . . particularly it telleth us , that we must do nothing injuriously against the life , or health , or liberty of our neighbour , but do our best for their preservation and comfort . § . . man being so noble a creature , and his education so necessary to his welfare , and promiscuous unregulated generation tending so manifestly to confusion , ill education , divisions and corruption of mankind ; and unbridled exercise of lust tending to the abasement of reason , and corruption of body and mind , nature telleth us , that carnal copulation should be very strictly regulated , and kept within the bounds of lawful marriage ; and that the contract of marriage must be faithfully kept , and no one defile his neighbours bed , nor wrong another's chastity , or their own , in thought , word , or deed . this proposition , though boars understand it not , is proved in the annexed reasons : nothing would tend more to houshold divisions and ill education , and the utter degenerating and undoing of mankind than ungoverned copulation . no one would know his own children , if lust were not bounded by strict and certain laws ; and then none would love them , nor provide for them ; nor would they have any certain ingenuous education . women would become most contemptible and miserable , as soon as beauty faded , and lust was satisfied ; and so one halfe of mankind made calamitous , and unfitted to educate their own children : and ruine and depravation of nature could not be avoided . they that think their choicest plants and flowers fit for the inclosure of a garden , and carefullest culture , weeding and defence , should not think their children should be educated or planted in the wilderness . it is not unobservable , that all flying fowls do know their mates , and live by couples , and use copulation with no other : and that the beasts and more terrestrial fowl do copulate but only so oft as is necessary to generation . and shall man be worse than beasts ? § . . nature bindeth us , not to violate the propriety of our neighbour , in any thing that is his , by fraud , theft , or robbery , or any other means , but to preserve and promote his just commodity as our own . § . . government and justice being so necessary to the order and welfare of the world , nature teacheth us that bribery , fraud , false-witness , and all means that pervert justice must be avoided , and equity promoted among all . § . . the tongue of man being made to be the index of his mind , and humane converse being maintained by humane credibility and confidence ; nature telleth us , that lying is a crime , which is contrary to the nature and societies of mankind . § . . and nature telleth us , that it is unjust and criminal to slander or injuriously defame our neighbour , by railing , reviling , or malicious reports ; and that we ought to be regardful of his honour as of our own . § . . nature telleth us , that , both in obedience to god , the just disposer of all , and for our own quietness and our neighbours peace , we should all be contented with our proper place and due condition and estate , and not to envy the prosperity of our neighbour , nor covetously draw from him to enrich ourselves . because god's will and interest is above our own , and the publick welfare to be preferred before any private persons ; and therefore all are to live quietly and contentedly in their proper places , contributing to the common good . § . . nature teacheth us , that it is our duty to love humane nature in our enemies , and pity others in their infirmities and miseries , and to forgive all pardonable failings , and not to seek revenge and right our selves by our brothers ruine : but to be charitable to the poor and miserable , and do our best to succour them , and help them out of their distress . all these are our undeniable duties to god and our neighbours . § . . nature also telleth us , that every man , as a rational lover of himself , should have a special care of his own felicity , and know wherein it doth consist , and use all prudent diligence to attain it , and make it sure . § . . nature telleth us , that it is the duty of all men to keep reason clear , and their wills conformable to its right apprehensions , and to keep up a constant government over their thoughts , affections , passions , senses , appetite , words and actions , conforming them to our makers laws . § . . nature telleth us , that all our time should be spent to the ends of our creation , and all our mercies improved to those ends , and all things in the world be estimated by them , and used as means conducing to them . § . . nature commandeth us to keep our bodies in sobriety , temperance and chastity , and not be inordinate or irregular in eating , drinking , lust , sleep , idleness , apparel , recreation , or any lower things . § . . it commandeth us also watchfully and resolutely to avoid or resist all temptations which would draw us to any of these sins . § . . and it teacheth us patiently to bear our crosses , and improve our trials to our benefit , and see that they breed not any sinful distempers in our minds or lives . § . . and nature telleth us , that this obedient pleasing of our maker , and holy , righteous , charitable and sober living , should be our greatest pleasure and delight : and that we should thus spend our lives even to the last ; waiting patiently in peaceful joyful hopes for the blessed end , which our righteous governour hath allotted for our reward . all this is evidently legible in nature , to any man that hath not lost his reason , or refuseth not considerately to use it . and he that will read but antonine , epictetus and plutarch , ( who are full of such precepts , that i refer you to the whole books instead of particular citations ) may see , that he who will deny a life of piety , justice and temperance , to be the duty and rectitude of man , must renounce his reason and natural light , as well as supernatural revelation . § . . reason also teacheth us , that when the corruptions , sluggishness , or appetite of the flesh , resisteth or draweth back from any of this duty , or tempteth us to any sin , reason must rebuke it , and hold the reins , and keep its government , and not suffer the flesh to bear it down , and to prevail . chap. xi . iii. of god's relation to man as his benefactor and his end . or as his chief good . the three essential principles in god , do eminently give out themselves to man in his three divine relations to us . his power , intellect and will ; his omnipotency , omniscience and goodness ; in his being our owner , our ruler , and our chief good. the two first i have considered already ; our omnipotent lord or owner , and our most wise governour , and our counter-relations with the duties thereof . i now come to the third . for the right understanding whereof , let us a little consider of the image of god in man , in which we must here see him . it is man's will , which is his ultimate , perfective , imperant faculty ; it is the proper subject of moral habits , and principal agent of moral acts : and therefore in all laws and converse , the will is taken for the man ; and nothing is further morally good or evil , virtuous or culpably vicious , than it is voluntary . the intellect is but the director of the will : its actions are not the perfect actions of the man : if it apprehend bare truth without respect to goodness , its object is not the highest or felicitating or attractive object , and therefore the act can be no higher : if it apprehend any being or truth as good , it apprehendeth it but as a servant or guide to the will , to bring it thither to be received by love . the perfect excellency of the object of humane acts is goodness , and not meer entity or verity . therefore the excellentest faculty is the will : it is good that is the final-cause in the object of all humane acts : therefore it is the fruition of good which is the perfective final act ; and that fruition of good as good , is , though introductorily by vision , yet finally and proximately by complacencies , which is nothing else but love in its most essential act , delighting in its attained object . and for the executive power , though in the order of its natural being , it be before the will , yet in its operation ad extra , it is after it , and commanded by it . accordingly , while we see god but in this glass , we must conceive that his principle of vnderstanding and power , stand in the foresaid order as to his will : and his omnipotence and omniscience , to that eminently-moral goodness , which is the perfection of his will. ( the natural goodness of his essence filling all . ) therefore here note , that this attribute of god ( his goodness ) doth make him our chief good , in a two-fold respect , both efficiently and finally . in some sort it is so with the other attributes : his power is efficiently the spring of our being and actions ; and finally and objectively it terminateth our submission and our trust . his wisdom is the principle of his laws , and also the object and end of our enquiries and understandings . but his goodness is the efficient of all our good in its perfection of causality , and that end of our souls , which is commonly called ultimate ultimus . so that to submit to his power , and to be ruled by his wisdom , is , as i may say , initially our end . but to be pleasing to his good-will , and to be pleased in his good-will ; that is to love him , and to be beloved by him , is the absolute perfection and end of man. therefore under this his attribute of goodness , god is to be spoken of both as our benefactor and our end ; which is to be indeed our summum bonum . § . . man hath his being , and all the good which he possesseth , from god , as the sole first efficient by creation . § . . therefore god alone is the vniversal grand benefactor of the world , besides whom they have no other , but meerly subordinate to him . no creature can give us any thing which is originally its own , having nothing but what it hath received from god : therefore it is no more to us , but either a gift of god , or a messenger to bring us his gift ; they have nothing themselves but what they have received : nor have we any sort of good , either natural , moral , of mind , or body , or fortune , or friends , but what is totally from the bounty of our creator , and as totally from him , as if no creature had ever been his instrument . § . . as god's goodness is that by which he communicateth being and all good to all his creatures , and is his most completive attribute , in point of efficiency , so is it that attribute which is in genere causae finalis , the finis ultimate ultimus of all his works . god can himself have no ultimate end but himself : and his rational creatures can have no other lawful ultimate end : and in himself , it is his goodness , which is completely and ultimately that end. here i am to shew , i. that god himself can have no ultimate end but himself . ii. that man should have no other . iii. that god , as in his goodness , is ultimate ultimus , the end of man. i. . that which is most beloved of god is his ultimate end : but god himself is most beloved of himself : therefore he is his own ultimate end. the reason of the major proposition is , because to be the ultimate end , and to be maxime amatum , is all one ▪ finis quaerentis hath respect to the means of attainment , and is that cujus amore media eliguntur & applicantur . this god is not capable of , ( speaking in propriety ) because he never wanteth his end. finis fruitionis is that which amando fruimur ; which we love complacentially in full attainment : and so god doth still enjoy his end : and to have it in love is to enjoy it . the minor is past controversie . obj. but if god have not finem quaerentis , then in every instant he enjoyeth his end : and if so , then he useth no means at all : for what need any means be used for that end , which is not sought but still enjoyed . and consequently , where there is no means there is no end . answ . as finis signifieth nothing but effectum , viz. perfectionem operis , which is but finis terminativus ; so it is not always at present attained ; and god may be said to use means , that is , subordinate efficients or instruments to accomplish it . but as it signifieth causam finalem , scil . cujus amore res fit , so far as it may ( without all imperfection ) be ascribed to him , he must be said continually to enjoy it : and yet to use means for it , but not as wanting it , but in the same instant using and enjoying : that is , he constantly communicateth himself to his creatures , and constantly loveth himself so communicated . he is the first efficient and ultimate end , without any interposing instant of time , ( were eternity divisible ) but in order of nature , he is the efficient before he is the end enjoyed , but not before the end intended . he still sendeth forth the beams of his own glory , and still taketh pleasure in them so sent forth : his works may be increased and attain perfection , ( called finem operis by some ) but his complacency is not increased or perfected in his works , but is always perfect : as if the sun took constant pleasure in its own emitted light and heat , though the effects of both on things below were most various . god is still pleased in that which still is , in all his own works , though his works may grow up to more perfection . or if any think fit to say , that god doth quaerere finem , and that he may enjoy more of it at one time than another , yet must he confess , that nothing below the complacency of his own will , in his own emitted beams of glory , shining in his works , is this his ultimate end . . that which is the begining must be the end : but god is the beginning of all his works : therefore he is the end of all . he himself hath no beginning or efficient , and consequently no final cause of himself : but his works have himself for the efficient , and for their end : that is , he that made them , intended in the making of them , that they should be illustrious with his communicated beams of glory , and thereby amiable to his will , and should all serve to his complacency . if the end were lower than the beginning , there would be no proportion ; and the agent would sink down below himself . . if any thing besides god were his ultimate end , it must thereby be in part deifi'd , or his actions debased by the lowness of the end : but these are impossibilities . the actions are no nobler than their end : and the end is more noble than the means as such . . the ultimate end is the most amiable and delectable : the creature is not to god the most amiable and delectable : therefore the creature is not his ultimate end . the first argument was from the act , this from the object . . the ultimate end is that in which the agent doth finally acquiesce : god doth not finally acquiesce in any creature . therefore no creature is his ultimate end . . that which is god's ultimate end is loved simply for it self , and not as a means to any higher end : the creature is not loved by him simply for it self , but as a means to a higher end , ( viz. his complacency in his glory shining in it ) : ergo , it is not his ultimate end . the ultimate end hath no end ; but the creatures have an end , viz. the complacency of god in his glory shining in the creature . obj. but you confound the final object and the final act : god's complacency of love is his final act , but our enquiry is of the final object . answ . the finis cui , or personal end is most properly the ultimate , he for whose sake , or for whom the thing is done : but this is god only , and therein he is both the act and object . he that did velle creaturas , did velle eas ad complacentiam propriae voluntatis . the question is not of the actus complacentiae , but of the actus creandi vel volendi creaturarum existentiam : which he doth propter voluntatis impletionem , & inde complacentiam ; which is the final act , and the final object of the creating act ; but for the actus complacentiae it is not actus intentionis but fruitionis ; and therefore hath no end , above it self : and the final object of that complacency , is not the creature it self , but the impletion of the divine will in the creature ; yea , the image of his omnipotency , wisdom and goodness shining in the creation , is not loved propter se , ultimately ; but for the sake of that divine essence and perfection of which it is the image : ( as we love the image of our friend for his sake ; ) so that when all is done , god himself is his own end in all his works , so farr as ( very improperly ) he may be said to intend an end . or if you could prove the creature to be the objectum finale , that proveth him not to be properly the finis ultimus : for that is a difference between mans agency and gods : man is an agent made and acting for his final object , and more ignoble than his object ( as the eye of a flie that beholdeth the sun ) : but god is an agent more noble than the object , who gave the object it self its being , and made it of nothing , for himself ; and so the object is for his final act. obj. but god being perfect needeth nothing , nor can receive any addition of perfection or blessedness ; and therefore it is not any addition of good to himself which he intendeth in the creation , and consequently it is his ultimate end to do the creature good . answ . all the antecedent part is granted , and is anon to be further asserted : but the last consequence is denyed ; because there is no other end beside the addition of good to himself , which god may intend , so farr as he may be said to intend an end . he doth all the good to the creature which it receiveth , but not ultimately for the creatures sake . ii. that man should have no ultimate end but god , ( that is , ultimate ultimus as its called ) is proved in what is said : and the fuller opening of it , belongeth to the next chapter . iii. it is god in all his perfections , omnipotency , wisdom and goodness , that is mans ultimate end ; but it is the last which supposeth both the other , and to which mans will , which must perform the most perfect final act , is most fully suited : and therefore is in a special sort , our ultimate end . the omnipotency of god , is truly the efficient , dirigent and final cause of all things , but it is most eminent in efficiency : the wisdom of god is truly the efficient , dirigent and final cause of all things : but it is most eminent in direction and government : the goodness of god is truly the efficient , dirigent and final cause : but it is most eminent in being the perfective efficient , and final cause . § . . gods ultimate end in creation and providence , is not any supply or addition of perfection or blessedness in himself ; as being absolutely perfect in himself , and capable of no addition . but those who think that god doth produce all things ex necessitate naturae from eternity , say , that as the tree is not perfect without its fruits , so neither is god without his works : they say with balbus in cicero , and other stoicks , that the world is the most excellent being ; and that god is but the soul of the world : and though the soul be a compleat soul if it had no body , yet it is not a compleat man : and as the tree is compleat in genere causae without the fruit , yet not as a totum containing those effects ab essentia which are its part and end : so say they , god may be perfect without the world , as he is only the soul and part of the world ; but he is not a compleat world , nor in toto . answ . . that god is not the soul or constitutive cause of the world , but somewhat much greater , is proved before * : and also that it was not from eternity ; and consequently that he created it not by naturall necessity : the foundation therefore being overthrown , the building falleth . those that hold the foresaid opinion must hold , that god is in point of duration , an eternall efficient , matter , form and end ; and that in order of nature , he is first an efficient principle causing matter , and secondly , he is an efficient with matter , and in the third instant he is the form of the effected matter , and in the fourth instant he is the end of his operations herein . and if you call the efficient principle only by the name of god , then you grant what i prove and you seemed to deny : but if he be not god as the meer efficient and end , but also as the matter ; then you make every stone , and serpent , and every thief and murderer , and devil , to be part of god , and make him the subject of all the sin and evil , all the weakness , folly and mutations which be in the world : ( with the other absurdities before mentioned ) . and if you say , that he is god , as efficient , form , and end , and not as matter , then you contradict your self , because the form and matter are parts of the same being : and whether you call him god as the form only ( and so make him but part of being , and consequently imperfect , and consequently not god ) or as matter and form also , and so make him a compounded being , still you make him imperfect , in denying his simplicity or unity , and as guilty of all the imperfections of matter , and of composition : and you make one part of god more imperfect than the rest , as being but an effect of it . all which are inconsistent with the nature of god , and with the nature of man and every creature , who is hereby made a part of god. . if this had been true of the world as consisting of its constitutive causes , that it is god in perfection , and eternal , &c. yet it could not be true of the daily-generated and perishing beings . there are millions of men and other animals , that lately were not , what they are : therefore as such they were no eternall parts of god , because as such they were not eternall : therefore if god brought them forth for his own perfection , it would follow that he was before imperfect , and consequently not god ; and that his perfections are mutable and perishing . therefore at least some other cause of these must be found out . and as for the similitudes in the objection , i answer ; . that the fructifying of a tree is an act of generation ; and the ends of it are partly the use ( for food ) to superiour sensitive creatures , especially man ; and partly the propagation of its species , because it is mortall . fructification is indeed its perfection , but that is because it is not made for it self , but for another . sic vos non vobis , may be written upon all . but god is neither mortall needing a propagation of the species , nor is he subservient to any other , and finally for its use . and as for the soul , it made not the matter of its own body , but found it made , though in the formation of it , it might be so efficient as domicilium sibi fabricare . but god made all matter of nothing , and gave the world whatsoever it is or hath ; and therefore was perfect himself before : for an imperfect being could never have been the cause of such a frame : therefore he needed no domicilium for himself , nor as an imperfect part ( a form ) to concurr to the constitution of a whole . but he is the efficient , dirigent and final cause of the world and all things , but not the constituent or essential ; for then the creature and creator were all one , and god debased , and the creature deified : but he is to them a supra-essential cause ; even more than a form and soul , while he is a total efficient of all . . if all that is in the objection had been proved , it would not at all shake the main design of my present discourse , which is to prove that god is our grand benefactor and chief good ! and that he is mans ultimate end . for if the world were his body , and he both its efficient and its soul , he would be the cause of all its good ; and the cause would be more excellent than the effect : and if our souls that never made the matter of our bodies , are yet the noblest part of us , and far more excellent than the body ; much more would god that made or caused all the matter and order in the world , be more excellent than that world which he effected : and as the soul is not for the body as its ultimate end , ( though it be the life of the body , and its great benefactor , ) but the body is finally more for the soul , though the soul need not the body , so much as the body needeth the soul ; and as the horse is finally for the rider , and not the rider for the horse ; though the horse needeth his master more than the master doth the horse ; ( for the horses life is preserved by the master , when the master is but accommodated in his journey by his horse ; ) even so , though the world need god , and he needeth not the world , and god giveth being and life to the world , which can give nothing at all to him , yet the world is finally for god , and not god for the world. the noblest and first being is still the end. and the generated part of the world , which is not formally eternal , but doth oriri & interire , is it that our dispute doth most concern which the objection doth no whit invalidate . § . . the same will of god which was the free efficient , is the end of all his works ad extra . gods essence hath no efficient or final cause , but is the efficient and final cause of all things else : they proceeded from his power , his wisdom and his good-will ; and they bear the image of his power , wisdom , and good-will ; and he loveth his own image in them , and loveth them as they bear his image ; and loveth his image for himself . so that the act of his love to himself is necessary , though voluntary ; and so is the act of his love to his image , and to all the goodness of the creature , while it is such : but he freely and not necessarily made and continueth the creature in his image ; and needeth not the glass or image , ( being self-sufficient ) so that his creature is the mediate object , his image on the creature is the ultimate created object ; his own perfections to which that image relateth , is the objectum simpliciter ultimatum ; his complacency or love is the actus ultimus ; and that very act is the object of his precedent act of creation , or volition of the creatures : but all this is spoken according to the narrow imperfect capacity of man , who conceiveth of god as having a prius & posterius in his acts , which is but respectively and denominatively from the order of the objects . in short , gods free-will is the beginning of his works ad extra ; and the complacency of that will in his works as good in relation to his own perfections , is the end : and therefore he is said to rest when he saw that all his works were good. § . . whatsoever is the fullest expression , and glorifying demonstration of god in the creature , must needs be the chief created excellency . because he loveth himself first , and the creature for himself : and seeing the creature hath all from him which is good and amiable in it , it must needs follow , that those parts are most amiable and best , which have most of the impression of the creators excellencies on them . not that he hath greater perfections to imprint on one creature than another , but the impression of those perfections , is much greater on one , than on another . § . . the happier therefore god will make any creature , the more will be communicate to it of the image and demonstration of his own goodness , and so will both love it the more , for his own image , and cause it to love him the more , which is the chief part of his image . § . . the goodness of god is conceived of by our narrow mindes , in three notions , as it were in three degrees of altitude : the highest is , the infinite perfections of his essence as such : the second is , the infinite perfection of his will as such , which is called his holiness , and the fountain of morality ; the third is that one part of his wills perfection , which is his benignity to his creatures , which we call his goodness in a lower notion , as relative to our selves , because he is inclined by it to do us good : this is his goodness in condescention . § . . though all this is but one in god , yet because our mindes are fain to receive it as in several parts or notions , we may therefore not only distinguish them , but compare them , as the objects of our love. § . . man usually beginneth at the lowest , and loveth god first , for his benignity and love to us , before he riseth to the higher acts . and this is not an irregular motion of a lapsed soul , in its return to god , so be it we make haste in our ascent , and make no stay in these lower acts ; otherwise it will be privatively sinfull . § . . therefore god multiplyeth mercies upon man , that he might facilitate this first act of love by gratitude . not that these mercies being good to our selves , should lead us to love god ultimately for our selves ; but they should help us first to love him for our selves , as the immediate passage to a higher act of love , with which we must love him in and for himself , and our selves for him. § . . therefore god hath planted into our natures the principle of self-love , that it might suit our natures to the mercies of god , and make them sweet to us : not that we should arise to no higher an esteem of them , but that this sweetness in them which respecteth our selves , and is relished by self-love , should lead us to the fountain of perfect goodness from which they flow . our very senses and appetites are given us to this end , not that we should judge by no higher faculties , but that the delights of the patible or sensible qualities in the creatures , by affecting the sense , might presently represent to the higher faculties , the sweetnesses of infinite goodness to the soul ; and so we might by all ascend to god. § . . those mercies therefore are the greatest , which reveal most of god , with the least impediments of our ascent unto him : § . . therefore his love most revealed and communicated , and his perfect goodness most manifested to the soul , is the greatest mercy ; and all corporal mercies are to be estimated and desired but as they subserve and conduce to these , and not as they are pleasing to our flesh or senses . § . . the perfect goodness of the will of god , though it contain benignity , and mercy , yet is not to be measured by the good which he doth to us our selves ▪ or to any creature ; but its highest excellency consisteth in its essential perfection , and the perfect love that god hath to himself , and in the conformity of his will to his most perfect wisdom , which knoweth what is to be willed ad extra ; and in his complacency in all that is good as such . when self-love so far blindeth us , as to make our interest the standard to judge of the goodness of god , we do but shew that we are fallen from god unto our selves , and that we are setting up our selves above him , and debasing him below our selves : as if we and our happiness were that ultimate end , and he and his goodness were the means , and had no other goodness but that of a means to us and our felicity ! if he made us , he must needs have absolute propriety in us , and made us for himself : to measure his goodness by our own interest , is more unwise than to measure the sea in our hand , or the sun and all the orbs by our span . and to measure it by the interest of the vniverse , is to judge of that which is infinite , by that which is finite ; betwixt which there is no proportion . as god is infinitely better than the world , so he is infinitely more amiable , and therefore must infinitely more love himself than all the world ; and therefore so to do , is infinite excellency and perfection in his will. but the out-going of his will to the creature , by way of causative volition , is free ; and conducted by that wisdom , which-knoweth what is fit , and what degrees of communication are most eligible to god. god is perfect without his works : he had wanted nothing if he had never made them . he will not herein do all that he is simply able to do , but all that his wisdom seeth fittest to be done . he was as good before he made the world as since ; and those that think he caused it eternally , must confess him in order of nature to be first perfect in himself , and to have more goodness than all which he communicateth to the world. he was as good before this present generation of men on earth had any being ! he is as good before he bringeth us to the heavenly glory , as he will be after ; though before he did not so much good to us . it is no diminution of his goodness , to say , that he made millions of toads , and flies , and spiders , whom he could have made men if he had pleased ; or to say , that he made millions of men , whom he could have made angels ; nor that he made not every clod or stone a starr or sun : nor that he suffereth men to be tormented by each others cruelty , or by such diseases as the stone and strangury , convulsions , epilepsies , &c. nor that men at last must die , and their bodies rot and turn to dust . that these things are done , is past dispute : and that god is good is past dispute : and therefore that all this is consistent with this goodness , is past dispute : and consequently that his goodness is not to be measured by so low a thing as humane or any creature interest . if you say , that all this is hurtfull to the individuals , but not to the vniverse ; to which it is better that there be a mixture of evil with good , than that every part had a perfection in it self : i answer : . it seemeth then that the good which you measure gods goodness by , is not the interest of any individual creature , at least that is in this lower world. for you confess , that the good which would make it happy , is given to it limitedly , and with mixtures of permitted or inflicted evil ; and that god could have given them more of that goodness , if he would : god could have freed them from pain and misery ; yea , and have given the ignorant more knowledge , and honesty , and grace . so that it is not our interest that is the measure of his goodness : and if so , what is it that you call the vniversal interest . surely , the universality of rational creatures , hath no being but in the individuals ; and if it be not the welfare of the individuals , which is the measure , then is it not any interest or welfare o the vniverse , which is of the same kind : and for the insensible creatures , they feel neither good nor hurt ; and therefore by your measure should be none of the universe , whose interest is the measure . therefore it must be somewhat above the sensible interest of any or all the individuals , which you call the bonum vniversitatis : and that can be nothing else but that state and order of the vniverse , in which it is conform to the idea of the divine intellect , and to the volition of the divine will , and so is fittest for him to take complacency in , as being the measure and reasons of his own volitions and operations , which he fetcheth not aliunde ; or at least which are unknown to such as we . no doubt but it is more for the happiness of the individuals , that every dust , and stone , and fly , and beast , and man were an angel : but it is not so . . and surely they that believe the evil of sin , and that god could have kept it out of the world , and saved the individuals from it , will confess , that man's interest is not the measure of god's goodness : especially considering what consequents also follow sin , both here and hereafter . . and as to this lower part of the vniverse , how many nations of the earth are drown'd in woful ignorance and ungodliness : how few are the wise , and good , and peaceable ? when god could have sent them learning , and teachers , and means of reformation , and have blessed all this means to their deliverance . so that the far greater part of this lower world hath not so much good as god could give them ; and the infirmities of the best do cause their dolorous complaints . it is certain that god is infinitely good , and that all his works also are good in their degree : but withall it is certain , that god in himself is the simple primitive good , and that created goodness principally consisteth in a conformity to his will , which is the standard and measure of it . § . . god as considered in the infinite perfections of his nature and his will , is most amiable , and the object of our highest love . § . . but he is not known by us in those perfections , as seen in themselves immediately , but as demonstrated and glorified expressively in his works , in which he shineth to us in his goodness . § . . his works therefore are made for the apt revealing of himself as amiable to the intelligent part of his creation . they are the book in which he hath appointed us to read , and the glass in which he hath appointed us with admiration to behold the infinite power , wisdom and goodness of the creator , and in which we may see , that he is not only our chief benefactor , but the vltimate object of our love , and so the end of all our motions . § . . this third relation of god to us as our chief good , efficiently and finally , is the highest and most perfective to us , but is not separated from the former two , but they are all marvelously conjunct , and concur in the production of most of the subsequent effects of gods providence . as the elements are conjuct , but not confounded in mixed bodies , and in themselves , are easily to be distinguished , where they are not divided , and their effects sometimes also distinct , but usually mix'd as are the causes ; so is it in the case of these three great relations : though god's propriety extend further than his government ; because inanimates and bruites are capable of one , and not of the other ; yet as to the rational creatures , they are in reality of the same extent . god is as to right the owner and the ruler of all the world , and also their real benefactor , and quoad debitum their ultimate end . but as to consent , on their parts , none but the godly give up themselves to him in any one of these relations . in order of nature , god is first our owner , and then our ruler , and our chief good or end. his work in the first relation , is arbitrary disposal of us ; his work in the second is to govern us ; and in the third , attraction and felicitating . but he so disposeth of us , as never to cross his rules of government ; and so governeth us , as never to cross his absolute propriety ; and attracteth and felicitateth us in concent with his premiant act of government ; and all sweetly and wonderfully conspire the perfection of his works . § . . all these relations are oft summed up in one name , which principally importeth the last , which is the persective relation , but truly includeth both the former : and that is , that god is our father . as the rational soul doth ever include the sensitive and vegetative faculties , so doth god's fatherly relation to us include his dominion and government . a father is thus a kind of image of god in this relation : for , . he hath a certain propriety in his children . . he is by nature their rightful governour . . he is their benefactor , ( for they are beholden to him for their being and well-being ) nature causeth him to love them , and bindeth them again to love him . and the title [ ovr father which art in heaven ] includeth all these divine relations to us , but specially expresseth the love and graciousness of god to us . obj. but i must go against the sense of most of the world , if i take god to be infinitely or perfectly good : for operari sequitur esse : he that is perfectly good , will perfectly do good . but do we not see and feel what you said before . the world is but as a wilderness , and the life of man a misery ! we come into the world in weakness , and in a case in which we cannot help our selves , but are a pity and trouble to others : we are their trouble that breed us and bring us up : we are vexed with unsatisfied desires , with troubling passions , with tormenting pains , and languishing weakness , and enemies malice ; with poverty and care ; with losses and crosses , and shame and grief ; with hard labour and studies , with the injuries and spectacles of a bedlam world , and with fears of death , and death at last ! our enemies are our trouble , our friends are our trouble : our rulers are our trouble , and our inferiours , children and servants are our trouble : our possessions are our trouble , and so are our wants . and is all this the effect of perfect goodness ? and the poor bruits seem more miserable than we ! they labour , and hunger , and die at last to serve our will ! we beat them , use them and abuse them at our pleasure ! and all the inanimates have no sense of any good ! and which is worst of all , the world is like a dungeon of ignorance , like an hospital of mad-men for folly and distractedness ; like a band of robbers for injury and violence , like tygers for cruelty , like snarling dogs for contention , and , in a word , like hell for wickedness . what else sets the world together by the ears in wars and bloudshed in all generations ! what maketh peace-makers the most neglected men ? what maketh vertue and piety the mark of persecution and of common scorn ? how small a part of the world hath knowledge or piety ? and you tell us of a hell for most at last . is all this the fruit of perfect goodness . these thoughts have seriously troubled some . answ . he that will ever come to knowledge , must begin at the first fundamental truths , and in his enquiry proceed to lesser superstructures , and reduce uncertainties and difficulties to those points which are sure and plain , and not cast away the plainest certain truths , because they over-take some difficulties beyond them . the true method of enquiry is , that we first try whether there be a god that is perfectly good or not : if this be once proved beyond all controversie , then all that followeth is certainly reconcilable to it : for truth and truth is not contradictory . now that god is perfectly good hath been fully proved before : he that giveth to all the world , both heaven , and earth , and all the orbs , all that good , whether natural , gracious or glorious , which they possess , is certainly himself better than all the world : for he cannot give more goodness than he hath : this is not to be denied by any man of reason : therefore it is proved that god is perfectly good. besides , his perfections must needs be proportionable : we know that he is eternal , as is unquestionably demonstrated : we see by the wonderful frame of nature , that he is omnipotent and omniscient : and then it must needs be , that his goodness must be commensurate with the rest . therefore to come back again upon every consequent which you understand not , and to deny a fundamental principle , which hath been undeniably demonstrated ; this is but to resolve that you will not know . by this course you may deny any demonstrated truth in mathematicks , when you meet with difficulties among the superstructed consequents . let us therefore methodically proceed : we have proved that god is the cause of all the goodness in the world , in heaven and earth , and therefore must needs be best himself . and it is certain , that all the sins and calamities which you mention are in the world , and that the creature hath all those imperfections : therefore it is certain that these two verities are consistent , what ever difficulty appeareth to you in the reconciling them . thus far there is no matter of doubt . and next we are therefore certain , that the measure of god's goodness is not to be taken from the creatures interest . and yet we know that his goodness inclineth him to communicate goodness and felicity to his creatures : for all the good in the world is from him . it remaineth therefore , that he is good , necessarily and perfectly : and that he doth all well whatsoever he doth : and that there is in the creature a higher goodness than its own felicity , even the image of god's power , wisdom and goodness , in which his holiness and justice have their place . and that this goodness of the universe ( which consisteth in the glorious appearances of god in it , and the suitableness of all to his will and wisdom ) includeth all things except sin , which are contained in your objection ; and that punishment of sinners , though it be malum physicum to them , is a moral good , and glorifieth god's justice and holiness : and even the permission of sin it self is good , though the sin be bad . and yet that god will also glorifie that part of his goodness which consisteth in benignity ; for he hath an amor beneficentiae , of which the creature only is the object ; but of his amor complacentiae he himself is the chief object , and the creature but the secondary , so far as it participateth of goodness . ( and complacency is the essential act of love. ) think but what a wonderful fabrick he hath made of all the orbs , composed into one world ! and can you possibly have narrow thoughts of his goodness ? he hath placed more physical goodness in the nature of one silly bird , or fly , or worm , than humane wit is able to find out ; much more in plants , in beasts , in men , in sea and land , in the sun , and fixed stars , and planets : our understandings are not acquainted with the thousandth thousandth thousandth part of the physical goodness which he hath put into his creatures : there may be more of the wonderful skill , and power , and goodness of god , laid out on one of those stars , that seems smallest to our sight , than millions of humane intellects , if united , were able to comprehend . and who knoweth the number any more than the magnitude and excellency of those stars . what man can once look up towards the firmament in a star light night , or once read a treatise of astronomy , and then compare it with his geography , and compare those far more excellent orbs with this narrower and darker world we live in , and not be wrapt up into the astonishing admiration of the power , wisdom and goodness of the creator ? when the anatomizing of the body of one man or beast might wrap up any considerate man into galen's admiration and praises of the maker ! and how many myriades of such bodies hath god created ? and how much more excellent are the forms or souls than any of those bodies ? and how little know we how incomparably more excellent the nature of angels may be than ours ? and what glorious beings may inhabit the more glorious orbs ? and yet can you think meanly of the creator's goodness ? o but you say , that all these lower creatures have still the forementioned sorrows and imperfections . i answer you , . they were not made gods , but creatures , and therefore were not to be perfect . . it is the corrupt and blinded sensual mind which crieth out for want of sensible pleasure , and can see no goodness in any thing but this : but true reason telleth any man that hath it , that our sensible pleasure is a thing too low to be the highest excellency of the creature , and to be the ultimate end of god : and that the glory of the whole world , even the inanimate parts as well as the animate , shewing the glory of the infinite creator is the excellency of the world . what if the sun , and stars , and earth , and sea , the fire and air have no feeling ; have they therefore no goodness but what is a means to the sensible delights of lower things ? hath a worm more goodness than the sun , if it have more feeling ? these are the madnesses of sensual men . may not an excellent limner , watch-maker , or other artificer , make a picture , a watch , or musical instrument , meerly for his own delight ? and may he not delight in the excellency of it , though you imagine him to have no need of it , or of the delight ? and what is the excellency of such a picture , but to be the full demonstration of the author's skill , in the most full representation of the thing resembled ? will you say that he hath done no good , because he made not his picture sensible , and made not its pleasure his ultimate end ? those things which in particulars we call bad , are good as they are parts of the universal frame ; as many darknings and shadowings in a picture may conduce to make it beautiful . the eye is a more excellent part of the body than a finger or a tooth ; and yet it maketh to the perfection of the whole that there be fingers and teeth , as well as eyes : so it doth to the perfection of the world , that there be men , and beasts , and plants , as well as angels ; and poor men as well as rich , and sick man as well as sound , and pain as well as pleasure . our narrow sight that looketh but on a spot or parcel of god's work at once , doth judge according to the particular interest of that parcel , ( and so we would have no variety in the world , but every thing of that species which we think best ) ; but god seeth all his works at once , uno intuitu , and therefore seeth what is best in reference to the glory of the universe ; and seeth what variety is beautiful , and what each part should be according to the office and order of its place . and . doth not your own experience reprehend your own complaint as guilty of contradiction ? you would have all things fitted to your particular interest , or else you think god is not good enough to you : and may not every other creature say the same as justly as you . and then how would you have a horse to carry you , an ox to plow for you , a dog to hunt for you , a hare or partridge to be hunted ; yea , a bit of flesh to nourish you , yea , or the fruit of trees and plants , yea , or the earth to bear you , or the air to breath in , or the water to refresh you . for every one of these might expect to be advanced to be as high in sensual pleasure as you . he that compareth ( as aforesaid ) the elements and orbs which have no sense , with a worm that hath it , will think that sense hath blinded reason , when it is so overvalued , as to be thought the most excellent thing , or a meet measure of the goodness of the creator . . most of the calamities of the rational creature which you mention , are sin , and the fruits of sin : and when man bringeth in sin , it is good that god should bring in punishment . it is an act of justice , and declareth his holiness , and warneth others . therefore all your complaints against these penal evils , should be turned only against the sinner , and all should be turned to the praise of the righteous governour of the world . . and as for the sin it self , which hath depraved the world as fouly as you describe it , it is none of the work of god at all ; if you say , that he might have prevented it if he had pleased ; i answer , he hath declared his detestation of it : as our ruler he hath forbidden it : he deterreth men from it by his sorest threatnings : he allureth them from it by his richest promises of reward : he appointeth kings and magistrates to suppress it by corporal penalties . this and much more he doth against it , and more he could do , which should prove effectual ; but his wisdom saw it not meet , nor conducible to the glory of the universe , to make all moral agents of one size , any more than all natural agents : and therefore he made not man indefectible . do you think that [ a rational creature with free-will , being the lord of its own acts , and a self-determining principle , to act without force ] is not a thing which god may make and take delight in ? as well as a watch-maker taketh delight to make a clock that shall go of it self , without his continued motion , ( and the longer he can make it go without him , and so the liker to himself , the more excellent he thinks his work . ) if god may make such a free-agent , then is it no impeachment to his goodness , if it abuse its freedom unto sin ; especially when he will over-rule even that sin , so far as to bring good out of it by accident . and lastly , as for all the objections from sin and misery against god's goodness ; i answer you with those questions . do you know what number the holy and glorious angels are , in comparison both of wicked men and devils ? whether they may not be ten thousand to one ? do you know how many thousand fixed stars there are , besides planets ? do you know whether they are all suns ? and how much bigger they are than the earth ? and how much more glorious ? do you know whether they are all inhabited or not ? ( when you see almost no place on earth uninhabited , not so much as water and air ) do you know whether those thousands of more glorious orbs have not inhabitants answerable to their greatness and glory , beyond the inhabitants of this darker orb ? do you know whether sin and sorrow be not kept out there , and confined to this , and some few such obscurer receptacles ? do you know the degrees of holiness and glory which those superiour inhabitants possess ? and do you know that all these things set together , the demonstration of gods goodness by the way of beneficence , is not ten thousand times beyond the demonstrations of it in the way of justice , and all the other sorrows that you complain of ? till you know all these , do not think your selves meet , from your sensible troubles , to argue against that infinite goodness , which demonstrateth it self so unquestionably to all , by all the goodness of the whole creation . i may boldly then conclude , that god is our father , our chief good , our chief benefactor , and ultimate end . and so that in sensu plenissimo , there is a god ; that word comprehending both the foresaid trinity of principles in the unity of his essence , and the trinity of relations , in the unity of the relation of our creator . chap. xii . iii. of man's relation to god , as he is our father , or our chief good ; and of our duty in that relation . § . . god being to man efficiently and finally , his chief , yea , his total good , as is declared ; it must needs follow that man is by immediate resultancy related to him as his total beneficiary , and recipient of his benefits ; and oweth him all that which goodness conjunct with soveraignty and dominion can oblige him to . whether all obligation , which is truly moral , to a duty , do arise from soveraignty and rule , and belong to us as subjects only , in the neerest formal sense ? or whether benefits simply without any respect to government and subjection , may be said to oblige to moral duty as such , is a question that i am not concerned to determine ; as long as god is both governour and benefactor , and his government may give the formal moral obligation , as his benefits provide the greatest materials of the duty . though this much i may say to it , that i cannot see but the duty of a beneficiary as such , may be called moral , as well as the duty of a subject as such : and if it were supposed that two men were absolutely equals as to any subjection , and that one of them should by kindness exceedingly oblige the other , all will acknowledge ingratitude to be an unnatural thing : and why that vice may not be called properly morall in a rational free agent , i am not yet convinced . you will say , it 's true ; but that is because that both those men are subjects to god , whose law obligeth them both to gratitude , and therefore ingratitude is a sin only as against the law of god in nature . to which i reply , that i grant gods law of nature maketh ingratitude a sin : and i grant that a law is properly the instrument of a governour as such : and so as ingratitude is the violation of a law , it is only a sin against government as such . but i question whether as love is somewhat different from wisdom and power , and as a benefactor and an attractive good hath the highest and a peculiar kinde of obligation , so there be not something put by god into our nature , which though it be not formally a law , yet is as obligatory , and as much if not more than a law , which maketh it more than the duty of a subject , to answer love and goodness with gratitude and love : so that if per impossibile you suppose that we had no other obligation to god but this of love and goodness ( or abstract this from the rest ) i question whether it be not most eminently morall , and whether the performance of it do not morally fit us for the highest benefits , and felicity , and the violation of it merit not , ( morally ) the rejections of our great benefactor , and the withdrawing of all his favours to our undoing . but this controversie my cause is not much concerned in , as i have said , because the same god is our soveraign also . § . . the duty which we specially owe to god in this highest relation is love : which as such is above obedience as such . the difference of understandings and wills requireth government and obedience , that the understanding and will of the superiour may be a rule to the subjects : but love is a concord of wills ; and so farr as love hath caused a concord , there is no use for government by laws and penalties : and therefore the law is not made for a righteous man as such , that is , so far as love hath united his soul to virtue , and separated it from sin , he need not to be constrained or restrained by any penal laws : no more than men need a law to command them to eat and drink , and preserve their lives , and forbear self-destruction . but so far as any man is unrighteous or ungodly , that is , hath a will to sin , or cross or averse to goodness , so far he needeth a penal law : which therefore all need while they remain imperfect . nature hath made love and goodness like the iron and the load-stone . the vnderstanding doth not so ponderously incline to truth , as the will doth naturally to good. for this being the perfect act of the soul , the whole inclination of nature goeth after it . therefore love is the highest duty or noblest act of the soul of man ; the end and perfection of all the rest . § . . the essential act of this love is complacencie ; or the pleasedness of the minde in a suitable good : but it hath divers effects , concomitants and accidents , from whence it borroweth divers names . § . . the love of benevolence , as it worketh towards the felicity of another , is the love of god to man , who needeth him ; but not of man to god , who is above our benefits , and needeth nothing . § . . our love to god , respecteth him either , . as our efficient , . dirigent , . or final good : which hath accordingly concomitant duties . § . . i. our love to god as our chief good efficiently , containeth in it , . a willing receiving love : . a thankfull love : . a returning devoted serving love : ( which among men amounts to retribution . ) § . . . an absolute dependent beneficiary ought with full dependance on his totall benefactor , to receive all his benefits with love and willingness . * an undervaluing of benefits , and demurring , or rejecting them , is a great abuse and injury to a benefactor . thus doth the ungodly world , against all the grace and greatest mercies of god. they know not the worth of them , and therefore despise them , and will not be intreated to accept them : but take them for intollerable injuries or troubles , as a sick stomack doth its physick and food , because they are against their fleshly appetites . an open heart to receive gods mercies with high esteem , beseemeth such beneficiaries as we . § . . . thankfulness is that operation of love , which the light of nature hath convinced all the world , to be a duty : and scarce a man is to be found so bruitish as to deny it : and our love to god should be more thankfull than to all the world , because our receivings from him are much greater , than from all . § . . . though we cannot requite god ; true gratitude will devote the whole man to his service , will , and honour , and bring back his mercies to him for his use , so far as we are able . § . . ii. our love to our dirigent benefactor , is , . a fiducial love , . a love well-pleased in his conduct ; . a following love. though it belongeth to god chiefly as our sapiential governour to be the dirigent cause of our lives : yet he doth it also as our benefactor , by a commixture of the effects of his relations . § . . . so infinite and sure a friend , is absolutely to be tristed , with a general confidence in the goodness of his nature , and a particular confidence in the promises or significations of his good-will . infinite good cannot be willing to deceive or disappoint us . and if we absolutely trust him , it will abundantly conduce to our holiness , and peace . § . . . we must also love his conduct , his precepts and his holy examples , and the very way it self in which he leadeth us . all that is from him is good , and must be loved both for it self , and for him that it cometh from , and for that which it leadeth to . all his instructions , helps , reproofs , and all his conducting means should be amiable to us . § . . . love must make us cheerfully follow him , in all the wayes which by precept or example he is pleased to lead us . and so to follow him , as to love the tokens of his presence , and footsteps of his will , and all the signs of his approbation : and with an heroick fortitude of love , to rejoyce in sufferings , and venture upon dangers , and conquer difficulties for his sake . § . . iii. our love to god as our final good is , . a desiring love : . a seeking love ; and . a full complacential delighting love ; which is the perfection of us and all the rest : and accidentally it is sometimes a mourning love. § . . . man being but in via under the efficiency and conduct of love , to final love and goodness hath his end to intend , and his means to use , and therefore love must needs work by desire . § . . so far as a man is short of the thing desired , love will have some sense of want ; and so far as we are crossed in our seekings , and frustrate in any of our hopes , it will be sorrowfull . § . . . man being appointed to a course and life of means to his last end , must needs be employed in those means for the love of that end : and so the main work of this life is that of a desiring , seeking love. § . . . the complacential delighting love , hath three degrees : the first in belief and hope , the second in foretaste ; and the third in full enflamed exercise . § . . . the well-grounded hope of the foreseen vision and fruition of the infinite good which is our end , must needs possess the considerate minde , with a delight which is somewhat answerable to that hope . § . . . when the soul doth not only hope for its future end , but also at present close with god subratione finis , in the exercise of pure complacencial love , in prayer , praise or contemplation , he hath some measure of fruition even in via , and a sensible foretaste of his future perfection , according to the degree of this his love. there is a delight that cometh into the minde by the meer foresight and hope of what we shall be , and have , and do hereafter : and this cometh by the means of promise and evidence : and there is also a delight which cometh in upon the present exercise of love it self on god as present ; when the soul in the contemplation of his infinite goodness , is wrapt up in the pleasures of his love : and this is a degree of fruition of our end , before the perfect fruition of it . and therefore take notice that there are these two wayes of our comfort in this life : . exploratio juris , the tryall of our title : . exercitium amoris ; the feasting of the soul in the exercises of love. § . . . the final perfect act of love will not be in via , but when we have fully reacht our end . § . . this final act is not well expressed by the common word [ fruition ] because it intimateth that we are the finis cui our selves , and that our own enjoyment of god as our felicity , is the finis ultimatè ultimus , which is not true . § . . yet is [ fruition ] one ingredient into our end , because our final act of love is for our selves , though not principally . § . . all the difficulties de fine hominis are best resolved by understanding that it is finis amantis , and what that is : the nature of love is an inclination or desire of vnion or adhaesion : and therefore it includeth the felicity of the lover , together with the attractive excellency of the object ; and is both gratia amantis & amati simul . but when the lover is infinitely above the object , the lover is the chief end ( for his own complacency ) though the object have the benefit : and when the object is infinitely better than the lover , the object must be incomparably the chief end , cujus gratia potissimum : though the lover withall intend his felicity in fruition . § . . but if any soul be so far above self-love , as to be drawn up in the fervours of holy love , in the meer contemplation of the infinite object , not thinking of its own felicity herein , its felicity will be never the less , for not intending or remembring it . § . . therefore the final act of love , hath no fitter name than love it self , or delightfull adhaesion to god , the infinite good , with full complacency in him . § . . though god must be loved as our benefactor , yet the perfect goodness of his will and nature , as standing above all our interest or benefits , must be the principal reason and object of our love. that we must love god more for himself , than for our selves , is thus proved : . that which is most amiable must be most loved : but god is most amiable , and not we our selves : therefore he must be loved above our selves , ( and consequently not for our selves , but our selves for him : ) the minor is soon proved : that which is most good is most amiable : but god is most good : ergo. and goodness is the proper object of love. . that which the soul most loveth it doth most devote it self to , and adhere to , and rest in : but we must more devote our selves to god , and adhere to him , and rest in him , than our selves : ergo , we must love him more . . that which is an absolute good , and is dependent on nothing , must be absolutely loved for it self : but such is god : ergo. and that which is only a derivative , limited , dependent good , and not made ultimately for it self ; is not to be loved ultimately for it self : but such is man : ergo. . that which is the fountain of all goodness and love , must be the end of all : but that is god and not man : ergo. . to love god ultimately for our selves , is to deifie our selves , and take down god into the order of a means , that is , of a creature . § . . having proved , that god must be loved above our selves , we need no other proof , that not we , but god must be our ultimate end . § . . because we here see not god intuitively , but in his works , we are bound with fervent desire to study and contemplate them , and therein to feast our love in beholding and tasting of his love and goodness . as a man will look on the picture , the letters , the works of his absent friend , and retain the image of him in his heart ; so god , though not absent , yet unseen , expresseth himself to us in all his works , that we may studiously there behold , admire and love him . § . . therefore gods works must be more valued and studied , as they are the glass representing the image of his perfections , and shewing us his chief essential amiableness , than as they are beneficial and useful to us , and so shew us only his benignity to us . § . . yet must self-love , and sense it self , and the sensible sweetness and experience of mercies be improved to our easier taste of god's essential goodness , and we must rise up from the lower to the higher object : and this is our chief use of sensible benefits . doubtless as the soul , while it dwelleth with flesh doth receive its objects by the mediation of sense , so god hath purposely put such variety of sensible delicacies into the creatures , that by every sight , and smell , and hearing , and touch , and taste , our souls might receive a report of the sweetness of god , whose goodness all proceed from . and therefore this is the life which we should labour in continually , to see god's goodness in every lovely sight , and to taste god's goodness in every pleasant taste , and to smell it in every pleasant odour , and to hear it in every lovely word or sound ; that the motion may pass on clearly without stop , from the senses to the mind and will , and we may never be so blockish as to gaze on the glass , and not see the image in it ; or to gaze on the image , and never consider whose it is : or to read the book of the creation , and mark nothing but the words and letters , and never mind the sense and meaning . a philosopher , and yet an atheist or ungodly , is a monster ; one that most readeth the book of nature , and least understandeth or feeleth the meaning of it . § . . therefore god daily reneweth his mercies to us , that the variety and freshness of them producing renewed delight , may renew our lively feelings of his love and goodness , and so may carry us on in love , without cessations and declinings . our natures are so apt to lose the sense of a good that is grown ordinary and common , that god by our renewed necessities , and the renewed supplies , and variety of mercies , doth cure this defect . § . . those therefore that turn god's mercies to the gratifying of their sensitive appetites and lusts , and forget him , and offend him the more , and love him the less , do forfeit his mercies by their inhumane and irrational ingratitude and abuse . which is the sin of all proud , covetous , voluptuous persons ; the ambitious , fornicators , gluttons , drunkards , and lovers of sports , recreations , idleness , or any pleasure , as it turneth them from god. § . . above all other sin , we should most take heed of the inordinate love of any creature ( for it self , or for our carnal self alone ) because it is most contrary to our love to god , which is our highest work and duty . § . . those mercies of god are most to be valued , desired and sought , which shew us most of god himself , or most help up our love to him . § . . we must love both our natural selves and neighbours , the bad as well as the good , with a love of benevolence , desiring our own good and theirs : but at the same time we must hate our selves and them , so far as wicked , with the hatred of displicency : and with the love of complacency , must only so far love our selves or others , as the image of divine goodness is in us or them . i speak not of the meer natural passion of the parent to the child , which is common to man and beast : nor of the exercises of love in outward acts , for those may be directed by god's commands to go more to one ( as a wicked child ) that hath less true amiableness in him . but all holy love must be suited to the measures of the truest object . § . . the love of god should be with all our soul , and with all our might ; not limited , suppressed or neglected , but be the most serious , predominant action of our souls . how easie a matter is it to prove holiness to be naturally mans greatest duty , when love to god , which is the summ of it , is so easily proved to be so . all the reason in the world , that is not corrupted , but is reason indeed , must confess without any tergiversation , that it is the most great and unquestionable duty of man to love god above all ; yea , with all our heart and soul and might . and he that doth so , shall never be numbred by him with the ungodly , for those are inconsistent . § . . the exercises of love to god in complacency , desire , seeking , &c. should be the chief employment of our thoughts . for the thoughts are the exercise of a commanded faculty , which must be under the power of our will : and the ultimate end , and the exercises of love to it , should daily govern them . and what a man loveth most , usually he will think of , with his most practical powerful thoughts , if not with the most frequent . § . . the love of god should employ our tongues in the proclaiming of his praise and benefits , and expressing our own admiration and affection , to kindle the like in the souls of others . for the same god who is so amiable , hath given us our speech with the rest of his benefits , and given it us purposely to declare his praise . reason telleth us that we have no higher , worthier , or better employment for our tongues ; and that we should use them to the best . the tongues of men are adorned with language , for charitable and pious communication , that they may be fit to affect the hearts of others , and to kindle in them that sacred fire , which is kindled in themselves . therefore that tongue which is silent to its makers praise , and declareth not the goodness , and wisdom , and power of the lord , and doth not divulge the notice of his benefits , condemneth it self , and the heart that should employ it , as neglecting the greatest duty it was made for . § . . the lives of gods beneficiaries should be employed to his praise and pleasure , and should be the streaming effects of inward love . and all his mercies should be improved to his service , from a thankful heart . all this hath the fullest testimony of reason , according to the rules of proportion and common right . to whom should we live , but to him from whom and by whom we live ? what but our ultimate end should be principally intended , and sought through our whole lives ? a creature that hath all from god , should in love and gratitude bring back all to him ; and thus we make it more our own . § . . this life of love should be the chiefest delight and pleasure of our souls , which all other pleasure should subserve , and all be abhorred which contradicteth it . nothing is easilier confessed by all , than the desirableness of delight and pleasure : and the most excellent object , which most be most beloved , must be our chief delight : for love it self is a delighting act , unless some stop do turn it aside into fears and sorrows . nothing can it self be so delectable as god , the chiefest good ; and no employment so delectable as loving him . this therefore should be our work and our recreation , our labour and our pleasure , our food and feast . other delights are lawful and good , so far as they further these delights of holy love , by carrying up our hearts to the original and end of all our mercies and delights . but nothing is so injurious to god and us as that which corrupteth our minds with sensuality , and becometh our pleasure instead of god. § . . the sense of the present imperfection of our love should make us long to know god more , and to love him and delight in him , and praise him in perfection to the utmost extent of our capacities . if it be so good to love god , then must the highest degree of it be best : and reason teacheth us , when we feel how weak our knowledge and love is , to long for more ; yea , for perfection . § . . thus hath reason shewed us the end and highest felicity of man , in his highest duty ; to know god , to love him and delight in him in the fullest perfection , and to be loved by him , and be fully pleasing to him , as herein bearing his image , is the felicity , and the ultimate end of man. love is mans final act , excited by the fullest knowledge , and god so beheld and enjoyed in his love to us , is the final object . and here the soul must seek its rest . obj. but quae supra nos nihil ad nos : god indeed is near to angels , but he hath made them our benefactors , and they have committed it to inferiour causes : there must be suitableness as well as excellency to win love : we find no suitableness between our hearts and god. and therefore we believe not that we were made for any such employment . and we see that the far greatest part of mankind are as averse to this life of holiness as our selves ; and therefore we cannot think but that it is quite above the nature of man , and not the work and end which he was made for . answ . . whether god have made angels , or rulers , or benefactors , or what love or honour we owe them as his instruments , is nothing to our present business . for if it be granted that he thus useth them , it is most certain that he is nevertheless himself our benefactor , nor nevertheless near us . what nearness to us they have , we are much uncertain ; but that he himself is our total benefactor , and always with us , as near to us as we are to our selves , is past all question , and proved before . . there neither is nor can be any object so suitable for our love as god ; he hath all goodness in him , and all in the creature is derived from him , and dependeth on him ; and he hath given us all that ever we our selves received , and must give us all that ever we shall receive hereafter . he is all-sufficient for the supply of all our wants , and granting all our just desires , and making us perfect : all that he doth for us , he doth in love , as an intellectual free agent ; and he is still present with us , upholding us , and giving us the very love which he demandeth : and he created us for himself to be his own , and gave us these faculties to know and love him . and can any then be a more suitable object of our love ? . do you not find that your understandings have a suitableness or inclination to truth and knowledge , and would you not know the best and greatest things ? and know the cause of all the wonderful effects which you see : and what is this but to know , god ? and do you not find that your wills have a suitableness to good as such in the general ? and to your own felicity ? and do you not know that it should not be unnatural to any man to love the best , which is best , and especially which is best for him ; and to love him best who is his greatest benefactor , and most worthy of his love in all respects ? and can you doubt whether god be most worthy of your love ? all this is plain and sure . and will mens averseness to the love of god then disprove it ? it is natural for man to desire knowledge , as that which perfecteth his understanding ; and yet boys are averse to learn their books , because they are slothful , and are diverted by the love of play . what if your servants be averse and slothful to your service ? doth it follow that it is not their duty , or that you hired them not for it ? what if your wife and children be averse to love you ? is it therefore none of their duty so to do ? rebels are averse to obey their governours , and yet it is their duty to obey them . if your child or any one that is most beholden to you , should be averse to love and gratitude to you , ( as thousands are to their parents and benefactors ) will it follow that nature obliged them not to it ? . what can you think is suitable to your love , if god be not ? is it lust , or play , or meat and drink and ease ? a swine hath a nature as suitable to these as you ? is it only to deal ingenuously and honourably in providing for the flesh , and maintaining the fuel of these sensualities , by buildings , trading , manufactures , ornaments and arts ? all this is but to have a reason to serve your sense , and so the swinish part still shall be the chief : for that which is the chief and ruling object with you , doth shew which is the chief and regnant faculty . if sensual objects be the chief , than sense is the chief faculty with you . and if you had the greatest wit in the world , and used it only to serve your guts , and throats , and lusts , in a more effectual and ingenious way than any other men could do , this were but to be an ingenuous beast , or to have an intellect bound in service to your bellies . and can you think that things so little satisfying , and so quickly perishing , are more suitable objects for your love than god ? . what say you to all them that are otherwise minded , and that take the love of god for their work and happiness ? they find a suitableness in god to their highest esteem and love ; and are they not as fit judges for the affirmative , as you for the negative ? obj. they do but force themselves to some acts of fancy . answ . you see that they are such acts as are the more serious and prevalent in their lives , and can make them lay by other pleasures , and spend their days in seeking god , and lay down their lives in the exercise and hopes of love. and that it is you that follow fancy , and they that follow solid reason , is evident in the reason of your several ways . that world which you set above god is at last called vanity by all that try it : reason will not finally justifie your choice : but i have here shewed you undeniable reason for their choice and love ; and therefore it is they that know what they do , and obey the law of nature , which you obliterate and contradict . obj. but we see the creature , but god we see not , and we find it not natural to us to love that which we do not see . answ . is not reason a nobler faculty than sight ? if it be , why should it not more rule you , and dispose of you ? shall no subjects honour and obey their king but those that see him ? you can love your mony , and land , and friends when they are out of sight . obj. but these are things visible in their nature . answ . they are so much the more vile , and less amiable . your own souls are invisible , will you not therefore love them ? you never saw the life or form of any plant or living wight ; you see the beauty of your roses , and many other flowers , but you see not the life and form within , which causeth all that beauty and variety ; which yet must be more excellent than the effect . can you doubt whether all things which appear here to your sight , have an invisible cause and maker ? or can you think him less amiable , because he is invisible , that is , more excellent ? . in a word , it is most evident , that all this averseness of mens hearts to the love of god , is their sin and pravity ; and the unsuitableness of their nature is , because they are vitiated with sensuality , and deceived by sensible things : a disease to be cured and not defended . their sin will not prove the contrary no duty . . and yet while we are in flesh , though god be not visible to us , his works are , and it is in them ( the frame of the world ) that he hath revealed and exposed himself to our love : it is in this visible glass that we must see his image , and in that image must love him : and if we will love any goodness , we must love his ; for all is his , and as his should be loved by us . chap. xiii . experiments of the difficulty of all this duty , and what it will cost a man that will live this holy life . hitherto i have proved that there is a god , of infinite power , wisdom and goodness ; the creator , and consequently the owner , the ruler , and the father or chief good of man ; and that man as his creature is absolutely his own , and therefore should resign himself as his own to his disposal ; and that he is absolutely his subject , and therefore should most exactly and diligently obey him ; and i have shew'd particularly wherein ; also that man is his total beneficiary , and made to love him as his chief good and end ; and therefore should totally devote himself to him in gratitude and love , and desire him , seek him and delight in him above all the world , and live in his praises and continual service . all this is fully proved to be man's duty . and now let us see on what terms he standeth in the world for the performance of it . § . . there is in the present disposition of man a great averseness to such a life of resignation , obedience and love to god , as is before described , even when he cannot deny it to be his duty , and to be the best , most honourable , and most felicitating life . too sad experience confirmeth this . the bad are so averse , that they will not be perswaded to it : the godly have such a mixture of averseness , as findeth them matter of continual conflict . it is this aversness which serveth instead of arguments against it , or which is a pondus to the very judgment , and maketh it so hard to believe any arguments which go against so strong a contrary inclination . § . . we find that the senses of men are grown masterly and inordinate , and are too eagerly set upon their objects , and hold down the mind from rising higher , and cause it to adhere to things terrene . so that man's life now is like that of the bruits : it is things of the same nature that he valueth and adhereth to , and most men live to no higher ends but to enjoy their sensual pleasure while they may . § . . we find that reason in most men is so debilitated , that it cannot potently reduce it self into action , nor see that practically which speculatively it confesseth , nor clearly and powerfully observe those perfections of god in his works , nor those duties of man , which we are convinced to be true : but by inconsiderateness and dull apprehensions is almost as no reason to them , and falleth down before their sensuality . § . . hereupon men grow strangers unto god , and have no thoughts of him but dark , and dull , and ineffectual . § . . the world is full of allurements to the flesh , and those mercies which should raise the mind to god , are made the food of this sensuality , and the greatest means to keep it from him . sense is irrational , and fastneth on its object : and when reason faileth in its office , there we are left like dogs gnawing upon a carrion , and in greediness fighting for it with each other ; when we have separated the creature from god in our minds , and so deprived it of its life and beauty , which fitted it for another use . and when every place and state of life hath such baits as these , which hourly are allureing a mind so weakly fortifi'd against them , no wonder if they do prevail . § . . education , custom and ill example confirm these vicious habits with the most , and much encrease them . § . . the best have some of this inordinate sensuality and weakness of reason , and are imperfect in virtue , and are tempted by the world as well as others . § . . therefore no man can live to god according to his certain duty , who will not deny the desires of his flesh , and bring it into subjection , and live in vigilancy and daily conflict against its lusts . obj. but the appetite of meat , and drink , and sleep , and ease , and venery , and sport , and pleasure , and gain , and honour , is natural to us : and that which is natural is no vice , nor to be denied or destroyed . answ . it is natural to have the appetite , but it is the disease of nature that this appetite is inordinate , and no otherwise natural than the leprosie is to those to whom it is propagated by their parents . but is it natural to you to have lust and appetite , and is it not natural to you to have reason to moderate and rule them ? if not , it is natural to you to be bruits , and not natural to you to be men : what is more natural to man than to be rational ? is it not his essential form ? and whether is reason or appetite , think you , naturally made to be the predominant faculty ? should the horse rule the rider , or the rider the horse ? the soul and body are much like the rider and the horse ; bethink you which should naturally rule . § . . the inordinacy of the fleshly appetite and phantasie , maketh it a continual pain to the flesh to be restrained and denied . as it is to a head-strong wilful horse to be governed , the more inordinate the appetite is , the more it is pained by denial and restraint . § . . the far greatest part of the world do live an ungodly sensual life , and the interest of the flesh is predominant in them . sad experience puts this quite out of controversie . § . . vsually , the more riches and fullness of all provisions for the flesh men possess , the more sensual and vicious they are . it is not alwayes so ; but that its usually so , we need no proof but the knowledge of the world : nor need we take it from christ only as a point of faith , that its hard for a rich man to enter into heaven : and reason telleth us , that when the love of the world above god is the mortal sin , those are most in danger of it , to whom the world appeareth most lovely : and they that have most temptations are in the greatest danger to miscarry . § . . the rich are commonly the rulers of the world , who have the liberties , estates , and lives of others , much in their power . i never yet knew or heard of that place , where the poor long ruled . § . . commonly , the more averse men are to godliness , and the more prone to sensuality ; the less can they endure those that would perswade them to godliness from their sensual lives ; or that give them the example of a holy self-denying life . for as it seemeth intolerable to them to leave their sensuality , and to betake themselves to a contrary life , which they are so averse to ; so they take him as an enemy to them , that would draw them to it , and are furious against him , as a hungry dog against him that would take away his carrion . experience puts this past all doubt ( of which more anon . ) § . . hence it cometh to pass , that in all parts of the world , the fore-described life of godlyness , is the matter of the common hatred , scorn and cruel persecution of the sensual and ungodly . the more exactly any man shall set himself to obey god , the more he crosseth the lusts and carnal interest of the wicked ; and the more he commonly suffereth in the world. so full of malice and prejudice is the world , against such faithfull subjects of god , that they slander them and make them seem the most odious sort of men : and so unreasonable are they and unjust , that the fullest evidence for their justification , doth but seem to aggravate their faults ; and nothing is so great a crime as their highest virtues ! or if their justification be undenyable they rage the more , because they are hindered from making them suffer as deeply in their names as in their bodies . these things are no more questionable than the warrs of alexander or caesar , the world having longer proof and fuller evidence of them . § . . and ordinarily god himself so ordereth it , that his faithfullest subjects shall be the deepest sufferers in this life . § . . therefore self-denyal , mortification , contempt of the world , and patience under manifold sufferings from god and man , are necessary to all who will be faithfull to god , in the unquestionable duties before described . it is tryed friendship and obedience which is most valuable . and unwholsom pleasures though preferred by the foolish patient , are forbidden by our wise physician , that they hinder not our health , and greater pleasures . § . . therefore if worldly fleshly pleasures were our end and chief good , the best men would have the smallest measure of them . obj. but you restrain man further than god restraineth him , and binde him to more than god bindeth him to , and make superstition to seem his duty , and then raise these consequences from such premises . answ . what i mean by sin and duty i have so fully opened before , and proved to be such by the light of reason , that this objection hath no place . even the sober heathens , the greek philosophers , and romane worthies found and confessed all this to be true . if there be any thing in the life before described , which all sound reason doth not justifie and command , let him that is able manifest so much : if not , it is no superstition , * , to live as a man that is governed by god , and led by reason ; and to do that which all our faculties were made for . and for austerities , i have pleaded for none , which are not become needfull to our own preservation and felicity : as a patient will endure a strict dyet , and exercise , and blood-letting , and bitter physick for his health : it is not any affected unprofitable austerities , that i plead for ; but those which are for our good , and fit us for our duty , and keep the flesh from rebelling against reason , and keep man from living like a beast : even less than many of the philosophers plead for ; and he that useth but thus much which is needfull , will finde it both opposed as unsufferable by the world , and murmured against by his suffering and displeased flesh ; and that the soul cannot do its duty , but at a considerable cost and trouble to the body . though there may be an evil masked and cunningly moderated , which men call goodness , which may be had at a cheaper rate . but saith seneca truly , non est bonitas , pessimis esse meliorem . chap. xiv . that there is a life of retribution after this . to know whether there be a life after this , for men to receive rewards or punishments in , is a matter of greatest importance to mankinde , to be fully resolved in : upon which depend our comforts , and our religion , and without which we know not what to expect , to hope for , or to fear ; nor what to intend and seek after through our lives , nor how to order our hearts or actions . this therefore i shall inquire into by the help of reason and natural evidence , as one that would not be deceived nor deceive , in so great a matter . and i shall pass by those arguments which are commonly fetcht from the souls immateriality , and independence upon matter , and other such like , which are commonly to be found in physicks and metaphysicks , as being not such as my present method leadeth me to ; and shall make use of such as are the necessary consectaries of the certain truths already proved . object . but whatever rationalities may be drawn from the divine attributes , to prove a future state , yet it depending wholly on the divine will , and the divine will being absolutely free , we can have no rational inducements to bring us to any sufficient knowledge of it , but by a clear revelation of the divine will. answ . is the law of nature no clear revelation of gods will ? or is it a law without any rewards or penalties ? it depended on gods will , whether man should be his subject or no , obliged to obey him ! but doth it follow therefore that it cannot be proved ? by making him a rational free agent , and sociable , placed among occasions of good and evil , god did reveal that it was his will that man should be his subject , and obey him ! one action of god doth oft reveal his will concerning another . those attributes of god which signifie his relation to us , do reveal much of his will , concerning what he will do with us in those relations . and though his will be free , his perfections consist not with falshood and mutability . if in freedom you include [ indetermination ] then when we prove the determination of it ad unum , you will plead no longer that it is free ; no more than it is yet free whether he will make the world. § . . i. he that is the most righteous governour of the world , making a just difference by rewards and punishments , between the obedient and the wicked , which yet he maketh not in this life , will certainly make it after this life : but god is the most righteous governour of the world , making a just difference by rewards and punishments , between the obedient and the wicked , which yet he maketh not in this life : therefore he will make it after this life . that god is the governour of the world ( in a proper sense , by laws and moral government ) is proved : and that he is righteous , is contained in the perfections of his nature . to deny either of these is to deny him to be god. that his laws of nature have not only precepts of duty , but sanctions of reward and punishment , is also proved : and further may be thus . . if there be no rewards or punishments , there is no judgement or execution : but there is judgement and execution : for they are parts of government . ergo — . without rewards and punishments , precepts would be vain to such as us , and uneffectual as to their ends . but god hath not made his laws in vain , — ergo. obj. governours use not to give men rewards for their obedience : subjects must obey without reward . answ . it is not the name but the thing that we enquire of : call it a benefit if you had rather : all government is upheld by rewards and punishment . reward is either that which is common to all obedient subjects , or such as is specially proper to some : all subjects that are faithfull , have title to protection , and approbation , and justification against all false accusations ; and to their share in that peace and felicity of the common-wealth , which is the end of the government : and some commonwealths having far greater felicities than others , accordingly the subjects of them have their right and part : and this is the common reward or benefit of obedience and fidelity . besides which , some great exploits are usually rewarded with some special praemium . in humane kingdoms as such , the end is no higher than the beginning : temporal governours give but temporal rewards : the felicities of the kingdom , which are the ends of government , as they are from man are but temporal ; and our share in them is all our reward from men : but the original and end of the kingdom of god are higher , and of further prospect : the benefits of fidelity are greater , as shall be further proved . but let it be noted , that this objection saith nothing against a life of punishment . governours never leave their precepts without this sanction . and he that believeth future punishment , will easily believe a future reward . let it also be noted , that paternal government hath evermore rewards in the strictest sense ; that is , a special favour and kindness shewed to the childe that is specially obedient ; and so the rest according to their measures . but the kingdom of god is a paternall kingdom as is proved . that god will make in his retributions a just difference between the good and bad , is proved from his justice in government : if his laws make no difference , then men are left at liberty to keep or break them , nor can it rationally be expected that they should be kept : nor could he be said so much as to love or approve , or justifie the obedient more than the rebellious : but so unholy a nature , and so indifferent between sin and duty , and so unwise and unjust in governing , is not to be called god. either he justly differenceth , or he doth not govern. that god maketh not a sufficient differencing retribution in this life , is the complaint of some , and the confession of almost all the world : the bad are commonly the greatest , and the lords and oppressors of the just : the turks , the tartarians , the moscovites , the persians , the mogull , and more such brutish monarchs , who use the people as the slaves of their pride and lust , do take up the far greatest part of the earth . few places are so good , where goodness exposeth not men to sufferings , from the rabble of the vulgar , if not from the governours ; slanders and abuses are the common lot of those that will differ from the carnal , wilde , rebellious rout. and poverty , pain , sickness , and death , do come alike to all . the sensual , that have wit enough , so far to bridle their lusts , as to preserve their health , do usually live longer than more obedient men : and they deny themselves none of those fleshly pleasures , which the obedient do continually abstain from . obj. but do you not ordinarily say , that vice bringeth its punishment with it in its natural effects ? and obedience its reward ? is not the life of a glutton and drunkard punished by poverty , and shame , and sickness ? and is not godliness a pleasure in it self ? if it be our highest end and happiness to love god and please him , then sure the beginnings of it here , must have more good , than all the pleasures of sin ? and so god maketh a sufficient difference here . answ . some vices that are sottishly managed , do bring poverty , shame and sickness : but that may easily be avoided by a vicious wit : gluttony and drunkenness may fall short of sicknesses . fornication and adultery and incest may be managed with greater craft . pride and ambition may attain dominion and wealth : theft may be hid , and cheating and fraud may make men rich , and free them from the pinching wants , and cares , and the temptations to discontent and contention , of the poor . malice may delight it self in secret revenges , in poysonings , murderings , and such like , without any worldly hurt to the transgressour . a tiberius , a nero , a caligula , a domitian , a commodus , a heliogabalus , a sardanapalus , may be on the throne , when a socrates , a seneca , a cicero , a cato , a demosthenes is put to death ; yea , when a paul or peter , an ignatius , a cyprian , are sacrificed to their bloody rage . yet it is true , that all this while they want the dignity and comfort of the just : but while they value it not , and feel not the want of it , they take it not for a punishment , but choose it as a felicity . and as for the present rewards of virtue , to speak impartially , i verily think that if there were no life to come , virtue and holiness were rationally more eligible : but that is much because god is an end above our selves ! and for our own content , in many , holiness would give the minde more pleasure , than all fleshly pleasure , and worldly greatness could counterpoise . but with many others , whose afflictions are very heavy , and pains and poverty very great , and who are grievously tormented by cruel persecutors ; and perhaps a melancholy constitution may forbid them much delight , it is hard to say , that if they durst let loose themselves to all sin , which maketh for their fleshly interest , their pleasure would not be much greater . while the soul is in flesh , it unavoidably partaketh of the pain or pleasure of the flesh : therefore the torment of the stone , or strangury , or of a rack or strappado will reach the soul : and the operations of the soul being in and by the body , a tormented body will hinder those contemplations which should feed our joy , and also hinder the joy of those contemplations . most christians enjoy little comfort in holiness , through the very cares of this life , and the weakness of grace , and power of corruptions , and doubts and fears which do attend them : much less would they have much comfort , if they were here tormented , and miserable in body , and had no hope of another life . in some sense we may say , that heaven is begun on earth , because holiness is begun : but the heaven on earth is the hope and reflection of the heaven indeed , and is soon gone if that be gone , as the light here ceaseth when the sun is set . god seen and loved in a glass doth more differ as to us from god as seen and loved in the intuition of his glory , than the heart of man is now able to conceive . the difference may be well called specifical as to our actions , yea transcendently such . let any man in torment without any hope of heaven be judge . and though honesty without the pleasure and comforts of it , be still better and more eligible , yet while mans reason and virtue is so weak , and his sense and appetite so strong , and his body hath so much power upon his minde , it is very few that the meer love of virtue would prevail with , if that virtue were never to come to a higher degree than this . it is undoubtedly true , that the delights of holiness , are incomparably more desireable , as we have them in this life , than kingdoms and all the pleasures of the flesh : but that is principally because that this life is the passage to a better , and hath relation to so glorious a reward : the least fore-thought of future blessedness , may weigh down all the riches and pleasures of the world. but take away the respect to the life to come , and weak man would meet with no such comforts . it is true also , that virtue and piety is most desirable even for it self : but that is especially as it will be it self indeed , in a life of fuller perfection than this : for here it is so weak , and clogged with so many corruptions , and infirmities , that the comfort of it is little perceived : but as a childe in infancy hath less pleasure than a bruite , for all his reason ; and as young scholars for a time , do meet with more trouble than pleasure in their learning , and half-witted artists are oft more incommodious than none ; and no one would much seek after arts or learning for all its excellency , if they had not hopes to ascend above that troublesome smattering degree : even so in the present case , though the least virtue be in it self more valuable than all sensual pleasure , yet considered as good to us , we should never be able to preferre it , if we had not hopes of a higher measure , than most of the truly virtuous and obedient , do here attain . either it is fleshly , worldly pleasure , or it is the pleasing and enjoying of god in holiness and love , which is mans ultimate end . if it be the former , then certainly the sensual and wicked are in a better condition than the obedient : for they have much more of that kinde of delight ; while the best are oft tormented and persecuted by their cruelty . but if it be the latter , then it is sure to be enjoyed hereafter , seeing we have here so small a measure , and also finde that all the virtue and holiness of this life , consisteth much more in desire , and seeking , than in delightfull enjoying : and our delights are for the most part , the effects of hope , of what we shall possess hereafter , more than of the sense of our present happiness . there is no righteous governour on earth , that will suffer ( if he can help it ) his disobedient subjects to persecute those that most carefully obey him , and to make them a common scorn , and to imprison them , torment them , burn them at stakes , or banish them , and then say , that their obedience is in its own nature so much better than disobedience , that it is reward enough of it self . it is not the work of a ruler only to see that no man be a loser by him or his service in point of commutative justice ; but to see that by distributive justice such a difference be made between the obedient and disobedient , as the difference of their actions do require , in order to the ends of government . justice giveth every one his due . mercy it self when it remitteth a penalty , doth it for the same ends , and upon such reasonable considerations of repentance , confession , satisfaction , reparation , ( according to power ) that it may be called a just mercy : god is such a lover of holiness , that he will in his government manifest that love ; and such a hater of sin that he will signifie his hatred of it to the sinner . moreover , the body it self is part of the man , and that part which hath no small interest in the sin : it seemeth therefore unjust that the bodies and sensitive powers of the disobedient should have all kinde of pleasures , and the bodies and sense of the obedient have the pain of fasting , self-denyal , persecutions , cruelties , and no further judgement to make a more equal retribution . in a word , i think there are few that compare the life of an emperour of turkie , or tartary , or any wicked sensual worldling , with the life of many a thousand persecuted and tormented saints , but will confess , that no distributive justice doth make in this life , so sufficient a difference , as may make men know the justice of the governour , the desirableness of a holy state , or the danger of the contrary : it was the observation of this that made most of the atheists of the world think , that there was no god , or that he exercised no moral government over men : and that made even the innocent often to stagger , and tempted them to think their labours and sufferings were all in vain , till they look'd before them to the end . and if god's justice make not a sufficient difference here , it is certain that there is another life where he will do it ; because else he should not be just , his laws would be delusory , and his government would be defective , and successful only by deceit . obj. god is not obliged to do justice to men any more than to any other creatures : he suffereth the dog to kill the hare , the deer , and innocent sheep ; the kite to kill the harmless doves and chickens ; the ravenous birds , and beasts , and fishes , to devour and live upon the rest ; and man upon all : and he is not bound to do them justice . answ . the bruits are no subjects capable of moral government , and consequently of propriety , of right or of wrong . god that made them uncapable of government , thereby declared that he intended them not for it . let no man here play with ambiguities , and say , that god governeth all the creatures . the word [ government ] is taken equivocally , when it is applied to a dead or bruitish subject , a ship , a coach , a horse , a dog ; and meaneth not the same thing which we discourse of . it is moral government by laws and judgment which we treat of . when god had made man a governable creature , he thereby declared his will to be himself his governour , which is all the obligation that god is capable of , as to actions ad extra . he therefore that made the rational world his kingdom , did thereby engage himself to govern them in justice : there is therefore no comparison between the case of men and bruits , who never were subjects , but utensils in his kingdom . § . . ii. if there were no retribution in the life to come , the secret sins and duties of the heart and life would be under no sufficient government . but the secret sins and duties of the heart and life are under a sufficient government : therefore there is a retribution in the life to come . this argument is a particular instance , to clear the former general argument . the major is proved by experience ; the heart is the fountain of good and evil , man cannot see it , and therefore pretendeth not to govern it , or make laws for it ; if they did , it would be all in vain . the heart may be guilty of atheism , blasphemy , idolatry , malice , contrivements , and desires of treason , murder , incest , adultery , fraud , oppression , and all the villany in the world , and no man can know or punish it : and god doth not do it ordinarily in this life , with any sufficient act of justice . so also all those sins which men are but able to hide , as secret murders , treasons , revenge , slanders , fraud , &c. do escape all punishment from man. and god hath no observable ordinary course of outward justice in this world , but what he exerciseth by men , ( though extraordinarily he sometime otherwise interpose . ) and how easie and ordinary it is for subtil men to do much wickedness , and never be discovered , needs no proof . the like we may say in some measure of those secret duties of heart and life , which have neither reward nor notice in this life ; and if observed , are usually turned into matter of reproach . the minor needeth no more proof , when we have proved already that god is our governour : it is certain , that the secret acts of heart and life are as much under his government as the open , and therefore shall have equal retribution . § . . iii. if there were no life of retribution after this , the sins of the great ones and rulers of the world , and all others , that by strength could make their part good , would be under no sufficient justice . but the sins even of the greatest and strongest are under sufficient justice : therefore there is a life of retribution after this . the major is clear by experience : the sins of all the sovereigns of the earth are rarely under sufficient justice in this life . if there were no punishment hereafter , what justice would be done upon a tamerlane , a bajazet , a mahumed , a dionysius , an alexander , a caesar , a marius , a sylla , a sertorius , and many hundred such , for all the innocent bloud which they have shed , for their pride and self-exalting . what justice would be done on kings , and emperours , and states , that have none above them , for all their lusts and filthiness , their intemperance and sensuality , their oppression and cruelty ? i know that god doth sometimes punish them by rebels , or by other princes , or by sickness in this life : but that is no ordinary course of justice , and therefore not sufficient to its ends : ordinarily all things here come alike to all . and what justice would be done upon any rebels or robbers that are but strong enough to bear it out ? or upon any that raise unrighteous wars , and burn , and murder , and destroy countries and cities , and are worse than plagues to all places where they come , and worse than mad dogs and bears to others ? if they do but conquer , instead of punishment for all this villany , they go away here with wealth and glory . the minor is past question : therefore certainly there is another life , where conquering , rewarded , prospering , domineering sin shall have its proper punishment . § . . iv. if god rule not man by the hopes and fears of certain good and evil hereafter , he ruleth him not according to his nature : but god doth rule man according to his nature : ergo. the minor needeth no proof : the major is proved by experience : the nature of man is to be most moved with the hopes and fears of good and evil after death : otherwise death it self would comparatively seem nothing to us . no other creature hath such hopes and fears : if you ask , how i can tell that ? i answer , as i can tell that a tree doth not hear , and a stone doth not feel or see , because there is no appearance of such a sense , whose nature is to make it self manifest by its evidences where it is : bruits shew a fear of death , and love of life , but of nothing further ; of which there is evidence enough to quiet a mind that seeketh after truth , though not to silence a prating caviller . this will be further improved under that which followeth . § . . v. if the world cannot be governed according to its nature , and god's laws , without the hopes and fears of good and evil after death , then the objects of such hopes and fears is certain truth . but the antecedent is true : therefore so is the consequent . that the nature of man requireth a moral government , and not only a physical motion , is already proved . physical motion only determineth the agent to act , and produceth the act it self quoad eventum . moral government doth institute for the subject a debitum agendi , & habendi , and judgeth him accordingly . if there were no government but physical motion , there were no debitum in the world , neither officii , praemii vel poenae , vel jus possidendi , vel injuria : no right or wrong . for physical motion doth equally produce the act in perjury , murder , treason , adultery , as in good deeds : and it never produceth an act which eventually never is : therefore there should be nothing a duty but what cometh to pass , if physical motion were all the government . government then there must be ; and what god requireth of all by nature i have shewed before . now that there is a moral impossibility of the performance of this in any sincerity , so as to intimate any laudible government of the world , i shall further prove . . if according to the present temper of man , there be no motives , which would ever prove sufficient to resist all the temptations of this life , to keep us in true obedience and love to god , unto the end , without the hopes and fears of good and evil after death ; then cannot the world be governed according to god's laws , without such hopes and fears of futurity . but the antecedent is true : ergo , so is the consequent . if god had prescribed man a course of duty in his laws , ( as to obey and love him upon terms of fleshly suffering ) and had not given man such motives as might rationally prevail for the performance ; his laws had been all in vain . he that hath made holiness our indispensible duty , hath certainly left us motives and rational helps to perform it . but so many and great are the temptations of this life , and so strong is our sense , and so great are the sufferings of the obedient , that in this our imperfection we could never go through them , without the motives which are fetch'd from another life . . it would weaken the hands of the best , as to their duty , it would embolden them to sin , it would give victory to all strong temptations . let every reader but consult with his own soul , and ( though it be granted that virtue should be chosen for its own sake , how dear soever it may cost , yet ) let him without lying say , what he thinketh he should be and do in case of temptations , if he knew that he had no life to live but this . i am not sure , but i will freely confess what i think most that now are honest would be and do . first , they would observe how little difference god maketh between the obedient and disobedient in his providence , and how ordinarily his present judgements are not much to be feared . and hence they would think , that he maketh no great matter of it , what they either are or do : and so their very love of virtue would be much debilitated : nay , the sufferings of the virtuous would tempt them to think , that it is no very desirable way : and though still they would have something within them , which would tell them , that honesty , and temperance , and piety are good ; yet the natural love of themselves is so deeply planted in them , and so powerful , that in most great temptations it would prevail . they would venture upon lying and perjury , rather than lose their liberty , or livelihood , or reputation . they would do any thing which the rulers bid them , or any one that is stronger than they , rather than suffer much for their innocency . i think they would not scramble much for riches , or high places , because a quiet life best pleaseth them ; but if they had a fancy to any delightful seat , or pleasant accommodation , they would stretch their consciences hard to get it : and to escape poverty , and suffering , and death , they would do i know not what . and if their interest required them to do another mischief , in order to the publick good , ( for revenge i suppose them not much enclined to ) they would be as brutus's and would be confident of the success of subtil and concealed enterprises : they would no further resist any great temptation to please their appetites in meats and drinks ; or their flesh , in lust , or ease , and sports , and gaming , and such vain pastimes , than some other carnal interest contradicting did forbid them . and though naturally some men prefer knowledge before all worldly pleasures , yet considering how short a time they should be the better for it , and how many toilsome hours they must lay out for it , they would rather let it go , and take up with the ease and pleasure of the flesh . this , i fear , would be their life ; for when all the comforts of this life of flesh are laid in the one end of the ballance , what should weigh them down but something greater ? so that if some little restraint of villany might be made by lower motives , i appeal to the conscience of the reader , whether he thinks , that the fore-proved duties of resignation , obedience , and love to god above all , would ever be performed ( by any considerable number at least ) if they knew that they had no life to live but this . . yea , no tolerable government at all could be kept up , ( i speak not of god's physical motion by omnipotency . ) for , . the rulers of the world , that have none above them would have little or no restraint ; and their examples would form the people to all abomination . if they feared insurrections , they would oppress them the more to disable them . and what a world must it be , when lust is the law to all the governours ? and the people would have nothing but the hopes and fears of temporal good or evil , to restrain them from any treason or rebellion or villany . and all those that princes cannot please , would plot , revenge or play their game another way : and subtil men would think it easie to poison or murder secretly princes and nobles , and any enemy that stood in the way of their own designs , if once they were out of fear of a life to come . . and all secret villany would be committed without fear : ( secret adulteries , theft , lying , perjury ) and common honesty could not be maintained ; for every man's self-interest would be his law , and prevail against all the principles of honesty . and all that men would strive for , would be either to strengthen themselves in their wickedness , that they might be out of fear of humane justice ; or else to hide it from the cognisance of man : thus would the world be turned into a resemblance of hell , and men be as much worse than wild beast , as their natures were better which are corrupted , and all would be in wickedness and confusion , without the hopes and fears of another life . obj. but in all this you argue against experience : hath there not been government and order kept up among heathens ? and is there not a government at this day in all the kingdoms and common-wealths throughout the world ? answ . in all this i speak according to experience : for , . almost all the world believe a life to come : all the christians , all the mahometans , and all the jews , and almost all or most of the known idolaters and heathens : their very idolatry intimateth this , when they number their deceased heroes with their gods . and though the power of this belief is debilitated with the most , ( and therefore piety and virtue proportionably perisheth ) yet that common dull belief of it which they have , being in a business of unspeakable consequence , doth restrain them so far as they are restrained . . those that believe it not , are yet in an uncertainty ; and the possibility of rewards and punishments hereafter , keepeth up much of the order that is left . . those few countries which believe that there is no life to come , ( or rather those persons in some countries ) do proportionably increase or excel in wickedness : they give up themselves to sensuality and lusts , to pride , and covetousness , and revenge , and cruelty ; and are usually worse than others , as their belief is worse ; what maketh cannibals more savage than other people ? what made a nero , a heliogabalus , &c. such swine ? what made rome it self at that pass , that seneca saith , more died by poison of servants hands , ( and secret murders ) than by kings : ( even in days of such great and common cruelty . ) all was , because mens consciences were from under the hopes and fears of another life : and if all were so , then all would live accordingly . but it is another kind of life which the law of god in nature doth enjoyn us ; it is another kind of life , which i before proved to be all mens duty : and whether the world have sufficient means and motives to such a life , and could be governed but like men , without the hopes and fears of futurity , let sober and considerate reason judge ? obj. can it be any worse then it is already ? what vice or villany doth not every where abound , for all the belief of a life to come ? answ . if it be so bad for all that belief , what would it be without ? if the enervating of it by the lusts of the flesh do loose the reins , and leave the world in so much wickedness , what would it be if their hopes and fears of another life were gone ? now men have a secret witness in their breasts , which checketh and restraineth them : now they have kings and rulers , who having some belief of a life to come , do form their laws accordingly , and govern the common people with some respect to that belief . now there are many ( through the mercy of god ) who are serious in that belief , and live accordingly ; who are instructors , restraints and examples to the rest . and from these is that order which is kept up in the world : but if all were as those few , that have overcome this belief , the world would be a wilderness of savage beasts , and would be so full of impiety , villany , persidiousness , bloodiness , and all confusion , that we should think it a greater sign of goodness in god to destroy it , than to continue it ; and should think of his government according to the effects , or should hardly believe he govern'd it at all . i come now to prove the consequence of the major proposition , that the object of those hopes and fears are certain truths , which are so necessary to the government of the world : and this needeth no other proof but this . if god can govern the world without a course of deceit and lying , then the objects of these necessary hopes and fears are true : but god can govern the world without a course of deceit and lying : ergo. the major is evident , because to govern by the hopes and fears of falshoods , or things that are not , ( when those hopes and fears are not only of god , but made necessary to government ) is to govern by deceit and lying : or if it had not been by falshood uttered , but falshood permitted , the minor is certain . for if god cannot govern without such a course of deceit , it is either for want of power , or of wisdom , or of goodness ; that is , holiness , and benignity of will. but the omnipotent wanteth not power , and the omniscient wanteth not wisdom , to find out true and suitable means ; and he that is optimus , wanteth neither holiness to love truth and hate falshood , nor benignity to love his creature : and therefore needeth no such means . and he that believeth that god himself doth govern the world by a cheat , even by the hopes and fears of fictions , will sure think it best to imitate his god , and to govern , and trade , and live accordingly . this argument was à necessitate ad ordinem , the next shall be only from god's actual government . § . . vi. if god do de facto govern the world by the hopes and fears of good and evil in another life , then the object of those hopes and fears is certain : but god doth de facto so govern : ergo. the major is proved as before : for that which proved that god can govern without falshood , proved also that he doth govern without it . it belongeth only to the impotent , the ignorant , or the bad to use such means . obj. may not a parent or physician honestly deceive a child or patient for his recovery to health ? why then may not god do so ? answ . . they do it through insufficiency to attain their end by a better means : but the omnipotent and omniscient hath no such insufficiency . . they may not lie or utter any untruth to do it , though they may hide some truth by words which he is apt to mistake . but if the world be governed by such hopes and fears of futurity , it is hard to think whence they should fetch the object , but from some divine revelation in nature . . a whole course of government of all the rational world , by so sorry an instrument as deceit and falshood , is more inconsistent with the nature and perfections of god , than a particular act of deceit in a work of necessity and charity is with the nature of imperfect man. the minor is proved in the answer to the last objections , and by the common experience of the world . obj. how little doth the hopes and fears of another world do with the most ? do you not see that fleshly interest ruleth them , and therefore they are what the great ones would have them be , who can help or hurt them ? answ . . i have proved how much worse it would be , ● that restraint which these hopes and fears make were taken off . . that this restraint is general in all nations almost of the earth , though the prevalency of sin do much enfeeble it . . that rulers themselves are under some of these restraints , in their law-making and judgement . though fleshly interest much prevail against it , there are some remnants of secret hopes or fears in the consciences of sinners , which keep up so much good as is yet left , and keep men from those villanies , in which they might hope to escape all sufferings from men . § . . vii . if god himself kindle in the best of men desires to know him , love him , and enjoy him perfectly hereafter , then such desires shall attain their end : but god himself doth kindle such desires in the best of men : ergo — and consequently there is such a life to come . here . i must prove that the best men have such desires : . that god kindleth them : . that therefore he will satisfie them . . and for the first , the consciences of all good men are my witnesses ; whose desires to know god better , to love him and please him more , and to enjoy his love , is as the very pulse and breath of their souls . for this they groan , and pray , and seek ; for this they labour , wait and suffer : if you could help them to more of the knowledge and love of god , you would satisfie them more than to give them all the wealth and honours of the world. their religious lives , their labours , prayers , contemplations , and sufferings , prove all this , and shew for what they long and live . obj. but this is caused by the power of a deluded fantasie , which seeketh after that which is not to be had : what if you fall in love with the sun ? will it prove , that you must be loved by it , see it and enjoy it , in the life to come ? answ . . to the similitude : either the sun is a rational free agent , or not . if it be , it is either the chief agent , or a dependent instrument : if it were the first ( as it is not ) i should owe my self totally to it , in the exercise of all the powers given me , as is aforesaid : and if it gave me such desires , i might suppose it was not in vain . but if it give me nothing but as an instrument or dependent cause , i owe it nothing but in subserviency to the first cause : but in such subserviency , if god had commanded me to love and honour it , as a lover of mankinde , and a rational benefactor , and had placed any of my duty or felicity , in seeking perfection in that love and honour ; i should obey him ; and expect an answerable benefit : but if it be no intelligent agent , or i cannot know that it is so , then i can owe it no other respect but what is due to a natural instrument of god. . to the matter : that these desires are not from a deluded fantasie , but the work of god i prove : . in that i have fully proved them already to be our duty , by the law of nature : to love god with all the heart and might , and consequently to desire to love him , and please him , and enjoy him in perfection , that is in the utmost of our capacity , is a proved duty . . in that the best men are the possessors of it ; and the more all other virtues and obedience do abound , the more this aboundeth . and the more any are vicious , impious , sensual , worldly , the less they have of these desires after god. . they encrease in the use of holy means appointed by god : and they decay by evil means . all sin is against it , and all obedience doth promote it . . it is found most suitable to the tendency of our faculties , as their only perfection : the only true advancement of reason , and rectitude and felicity of the will. if it be not by god , that the love and desires of god are kindled in us , then no good is to be ascribed unto god : for we have here no greater good . now that god will satisfie these desires is proved ; in that he maketh nothing in vain , nor kindleth any such desires as shall deceive them , and make all their lives a meer delusion . yea , and do this by the very best of men . none of this is consistent with the perfections of god. § . . viii . if there were no life of retribution after this , obedience to god would be finally mens loss and ruine : but obedience to god shall not be finally mens loss and ruine : ergo , there is another life — the major is proved before : however it would be best in point of honesty , it would be worst to thousands in point of personal vtility . even to all those that forsaking all the sinfull pleasures of this world , do conflict with their flesh , and keep it under , and suffer the loss of all outward comforts by the cruelty of persecutors , and it may be through melancholy or weak fears , have little comfort from god instead of them ; and at last perhaps be tormented and put to death by cruelty . few will think this desirable for it self . and that our obedience to god shall not be mens final loss and ruine , needeth no proof but this ; that he hath made our self-love a principle inseparable from our nature , and maketh use of it in the government of the world ; and commandeth nothing but what is finally for our good ; and so conjoyneth the pleasing of him and our own felicity inseparably in our end : his regiment is paternal , his glory which he seeketh by us , is the glory of his goodness communicated and accumulated on us . this taken in with the wisdom and goodness of his nature , will tell any man , that to be a loser finally by our obedience to god , is a thing that no man need to fear : he doth not serve himself upon us to our hurt ; nor command us that which will undo us . he neither wanteth power , wisdom , nor goodness , to make us gainers by our duty . it is the desire of natural justice in all , ut bonis bene sit , & malis male : if i finde but any duty commanded me by god , my conscience and my sense of the divine perfections , will not give me leave to think that i shall ever prove finally a loser by performing it , though he had never made me any promise of reward : so far the law of nature hath a kinde of promise in it , that if he do but say , do this , i will not doubt but the doing of it is for my good ! and if he bid me but use any means to my own happiness , i should blaspheme if i suspected it would tend to my loss and misery , and was made my snare . § . . ix . the highest love and obedience to god , is never a work of imprudence or folly , nor ever to be repented of : but such they would be to many , if there were no life to come : ergo — by imprudence and folly , i mean that course which tendeth to our own undoing as aforesaid : no man shall ever have cause to repent of his fidelity to god , and say , i did foolishly in ruining my self by it . this argument being but a meer consectary of the former , i pass over . § . . x. if no man living be certain that there is no future life of retribution , then it is certain that there is such a life : but no man living is certain that there is no such life : ergo , its certain that there is . the major is proved thus : if all men be in reason obliged to seek the happiness and escape the punishments of another life , before all the treasures and pleasures of this world , then it is certain that such a life of happiness and punishments there is : but if no man be certain , that there is no such life , the bare probability or possibility that there is such , doth in reason oblige all men to seek it , above all the world : ergo , it is certain that such a life there is . my argument is from our obligation to seek it before all , to the certain being of it . . that no man is certain that there is no life to come , i need not prove , as long as no man ever proved such an opinion , and the boldest atheists or infidels say no more , than that they think there is no other life , but all confess that they have no assurance of it . . if so , then that the possibility or probability obligeth us to regard it in our hopes , fears , and endeavours before all this world , is evident from the incomparableness of them , or great disparity of the things . when most of the world think there is another life , and there is so much for it as we here lay down , and a few atheists say only [ we do not believe it , or it is not likely , though it be not a thing that we are certain of ] now reason commandeth every man that loveth himself , to preferr it before all earthly things . because we are fully certain beyond all doubt , that all earthly things are of short duration , and will quickly leave us : and when they are gone , they are to us as if they had never been : they are a shadow , a dream , a something which is next to nothing : to say , it will shortly have an end , doth blot out the praise , and embitter the pleasures of all below . what the better are all generations past , for all the wealth and fleshly pleasures which they ever received in the world ? there is no wise man , but would preferre the least probability of attaining full felicity , and escaping death and torments , before the certainty of possessing a pin or a penny for an hour . the disparity is much greater between things temporal and everlasting , than any such similitude can reach . all the christians , and all the mahometans , and most of the heathens of the world do hold the immortality of the soul ; and the perpetuity of the happiness or misery hereafter : the atheist is not sure of the contrary : and he is sure that a few years or hours will put an end to all his temporal pleasures , and equal those that lived here in pleasure and in pain : and therefore that at the worst his loss or hazard of the pleasures of sin for the hopes of eternal pleasure , is not a thing considerable : if those that dissent from him prove in the right , the sensualist is utterly undone for ever : he must live in endless pain and misery , and must lose an endless unspeakable joy and glory which he might have possest as well as others : but if he himself prove in the right , he gets nothing by it but the pleasing of inordinate concupiscence for a few years ; and will die with as much emptiness of content as if he had lived in continual pain . now this being the true case , no sober reason can deny , but that wisdom obligeth every man to labour for an uncertain , endless glory with angels more than for the certain pleasures of the world , which are of so short continuance ; and to do more to scape uncertain everlasting misery , than a certain trouble to the flesh for so short a time : and thus a life of godliness spent in seeking future happiness , and in escaping future punishment , is naturally made the duty of all men in the world. obj. but you seem here to forget that you had before made godliness to be a mans loss and undoing , if so be there were no life to come ? when now you make the loss and hurt to be as nothing . answ . . i spake before especially of those that suffer persecution for their fidelity : i speak here especially of all the multitude of the world , who get nothing but the pleasures of sin by their sensuality . . when i speak of all the pleasures , profits and honours of this world , and life it self as next to nothing , i do not say that they are simply nothing . they are nothing compared to everlasting joy or misery : but they are something to him that shall have no more : the ease and life of a poor bird or beast is naturally desirable to it : one of the best of christians said , that if in this life only we had hope in christ , we were of all men most miserable : and yet , that the sufferings of this present time , are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us . there is no contradiction between these two ; that these short-lived pleasures are not worth one thought in comparison of the life to come : and yet that they would be considerable , if there were no other to be had and hoped for . . and now the consequence is proved in what is said before : if it should by common reason and nature be made all mens duty in the world , to seek to attain a happiness which is not to be attained , and to scape a misery which never was or will be unto any , and this with the chiefest care and labour of their lives , then the whole life of man should be vanity and a lie : nature should have formed him for meer delusion , to tire him out in following that which is not : the world should not only be totally governed by deceit , but formed principally for such a life : and whereas indeed it is the worldling that pursueth vanity , and spendeth his life in a dream or shew ; this opinion would make mens wisdom , and honesty , and piety , to be the vanity , dream and shew . but none of this can be imputed to the most wise and gracious god : he need not set up a false deceitfull hope or fear before his creatures to keep them in obedience ; nor hath he appointed their lives for so vain a work . § . . xi . if the perfection of mans faculties to which nature formed him , be not attained in this life , then is there another life where it is to be attained . but the antecedent is true : ergo , so is the consequent . the reason of the consequence is , because god who maketh nothing in vain , made not man in vain , nor his natural inclination to his own perfection . his will is signified by his works : as a man that makes a knife , or sword , or gun , or ship , doth tell you what he maketh it for , by the usefulness and form of it ; so when god made man with faculties fitted to know him , and love him , he shewed you that he made him for that use , and that therein he would employ him . obj. it would perfect the wit of a bruit if it were raised as high as a mans ; and yet it followeth not , that so it shall be . answ . i deny the antecedent : it would not perfect him in his kinde , but make him another thing of another kinde . man is more than a perfect bruit , and a bruit is not an imperfect man : but i speak of perfecting man in his own kinde , according to his nature . obj. a chicken hath a desire to live to full maturity , and yet you kill it before : and grass and plants may be cut down before they come to perfection . answ . i speak in my argument of the species of man , and the objection speaketh only of some individuals : if there be no higher stature for any chicken or plant to grow up to , then that is the state of its perfection . it s natural inclination to a perfecter state doth shew that nature formed it for a perfecter state , and that such a state there is to be attained , however by accident it may be killed or cut down before it do attain it , which never befalleth all the kind , but some individuals . so i confess that by ill accidents ( by sin ) men may fall short of their natural perfection . but natures inclination sheweth that there is such a state . and the antecedent is manifest , . in our nature . . in all mens experience . . we feel in our natures a capacity of knowing all that of god which i have before laid down , and that it is improvable by further light to know much more : we feel that our hearts are capable of loving him , and of delighting in the contemplation of the glory of his perfections : and we find all other things so far below the tendancy of our faculties , and the contentment of our minds , that we know that this is it that we were made for , and this is the proper use that our vnderstandings and wills were given us for . . and we find that we attain not any such perfection in this life as we are capable of and do desire ; but that our encrease of virtue and holiness is an encrease of our desires after more ; and the better any man is , the more he still desireth to be better ; and the more he knoweth , and loveth , and delighteth in god , the more he desireth it in a far higher degree . and even of our knowledge of nature we find , that the more we know , the more we would know ; and that he that knoweth the effect , would naturally fain know the cause ; and that when he knoweth the nearer cause , he would know the cause of that , and so know the first cause , god himself . and the little that we here attain to of knowledge , love and delight , is far short of the perfection in the same kind which our faculties encline unto . § . . xii . another illustration or confirming argument may be gathered from the great disparity which god hath made between men and beasts : if god had intended us for no more knowledge and fruition of himself hereafter than the beasts have , then he would have given us no more capacity , desire or obligation to seek it than the beasts have : but he hath given us more capacity , desire and obligation to seek it : ergo. — a beast hath no knowledge that there is a god , no thoughts of a life to come , no desire to know god , or love him , or enjoy him ; no obligation to take care for another life , nor to provide for it , nor once to consider whether there be any such or not : because he is not made for any life but this . and if god had made man for no more , he would have disposed and obliged him no further : we have an understanding to know it , and thoughts , and hopes , and fears , and cares about it , which are not all in vain ; and we are plainly in reason obliged to this , and more than we do ; and that obligation is not vain . § . . xiii . if there were no life of retribution hereafter , man were more vain and miserable than the bruits by far , and his reason would but more delude him , and torment him : but the consequent is absurd : ergo , so is the antecedent . the major is easily proved by our great experience : for the world consisteth partly of men that believe another life , and partly of them that do not : and reason maketh them both the more miserable . for the former sort , which is the most of the world , their reason telleth them , that it is their duty to labour for a happiness hereafter , and to fear and prevent a future misery : and so their expectation would be their meer delusion , and their lives would be all spent and ordered in delusion : like a company of men that should run up and down to prepare for a transplantation into the moon , and should cut down timber to build there , and provide a stock of cattle to store the grounds there , and buy and sell lands there ; such would be the life of man in preparing for another world : and he would be under a double calamity : one , by all this fruitless labour , and another by his fear of future misery , if his labour by temptations should be frustrate , and he should miscarry . to have reason to lead a man in such a delusory life , and to torment him with the fears of what may befall him after death , is sure to be by reason more unhappy than the beasts , that have none of this . and for the atheists , they are more unhappy too , so far as they are rational and considerate . for they have no more happiness than the beasts to comfort them , while they look for none hereafter : and they have in all the way the foresight of their end : they fore-know their great probability of sickness , and painful tormenting diseases : they fore-know the certainty of their death : they know how all their sport and pleasure will end , and leave them in dolour , and how their corps must be rotting and turn to dust : they fore-see abundance of crosses in their way : they are troubled with cares for the time to come . a beast hath none of this fore-knowledge , and none of the fore-thoughts of pain or dying , but only fearfully flieth from a present danger . moreover the poor atheist , having no certainty of the truth of his own opinion , ( that there is no other life ) is oft haunted with fears of it , and especially when approaching death doth awake both his reason and his fears : he then thinks , o what if there should be another world , where i must live in misery for my sin ! in despight of him , some such fears will haunt him . judge then whether the use of reason be not to make man a more deluded and tormented creature than the bruits , if so be there were no life after this ? but this cannot stand with the methods of our creator : to give us so great an excellency of nature , to make us more vain and unhappy than the beasts . when he maketh a creature capable and fit for higher things , he declareth that he intendeth him for higher things . obj. but even here we have a higher kind of work and pleasure than the bruits : we rule them , and they serve us : we dwell in cities , and societies , and make provision for the time to come . answ . those bruits that dwell in woods and desarts serve us not : and our ruling them is a small addition to our felicity : pride it self can take little pleasure in being the master of dogs and cats . rule doth but adde to care and trouble : caeteris paribus , it is an easier life to be ruled than to rule . and if we take away their lives , it is no more than we must undergo our selves : and the violent death which we put them too hath usually less pain , than our languishing age , and sickness , and natural death . and it is as pleasant to a bird to dwell in her nest , as to us to dwell in cities and palaces ; and they sing as merrily in their way of converse , as we in our troublesome kingdoms and societies : if present pleasure be the highest of our hopes , they seem to have as much as we ; or if there be any difference , it is counter-ballanced by the twenty-fold more cares , and fears , and labours , and mental troubles which we are more liable to . and our knowledge doth but encrease our sorrow , ( of which next . ) § . . xiv . if there were no life of retribution , the wiser any man were , the more miserable would he be , and knowledge would be their plague , and ignorance the way to their greatest pleasure : but the consequence is absurd : ergo , so is the antecedent . the reason of the consequence is manifest in what is said : the ignorant have nothing to disturb them in their sensual delights . the liker to beasts they can be to eat , and drink , and play , and satisfie every lust , and never think of a reckoning , or of death it self , the more uninterrupted would be their delights ; the fore-thoughts of death or any change would not disturb them : their folly , which maketh them over-value all the matters of the flesh , would encrease their pleasure and felicity : for things delight men as they are esteemed , rather than as indeed they are . but the more wise and knowing men would always see vanity and vexation written upon all the treasures and pleasures of the world ; and in the midst of their delights would fore-see death coming to cut them off , and bring them to a dolorous end . so that undoubtedly the most knowing would be the most miserable ; and though nature delight in knowing much , it would but let in an inundation of vexatious passions on the mind . but knowledge is so great a gift of god , and ignorance so great a blemish unto nature , that it is not by sober reason to be believed , that so noble a gift should be given us as a plague , and so great a plague and shame of nature as ignorance is , should be a blessing or felicity . § . . xv. if the kings and temporal governours of the world do extend their rewards and punishments as far as to temporal prosperity and adversity , life and death , in respect to the present ends of government , and this justly ; then is it meet and just that the universal king extend his benefits and punishments much further , for good or evil , as they have respect unto his own laws and honour : but the antecedent is true : ergo , so is the consequent . kings justly take away mens lives for treason : they that look but to the present temporal good or hurt of the common-wealth , do think that no temporal punishment or reward can be too great for some crimes , and for some atchievments . read but the statute-books , and this will be soon found . and that the offences which are against the infinite majesty deserve incomparably sorer punishments , than any against men as such , is past all question . as also that love , and fidelity , and duty to god , is incomparably more laudable . § . . xvi . if there were no life of retribution after this , it would follow , that man is more to be feared and obeyed than god , and so hath the far greater and higher hand in the moral government of the world : but the consequent is absurd and blasphemous : ergo , so is the antecedent . the argument is clear and past all contradiction . the reason of the major or consequence , is , because ( though god can destroy any wicked man at his pleasure , yet ) all the world's experience sheweth us , that ordinarily in this life he doth no such things : if a strange judgment overtake some wicked man , it is an unusual thing , and next to a miracle : and usually all things come alike to all ; the good and the bad die of the same disease : the deceitful and the wicked prosper in the world as much as others ; if either suffer more , usually it is the best . videtis quam prospera navigatio à diis datur sacrilegis , saith dionysius . thunder-bolts strike so few , that it is scarce rational much to fear them . if one fall under some extraordinary judgement , many hundred scape . but on the other side , kings and states do ordinarily do execution on those that displease them , and break their laws : the case of a daniel is so rare , that it would be no rule to direct a rational course by : if the king should forbid me praying as he did daniel , or command me to worship his image , as he did the other three witnesses ; reason and self-preservation would require me to obey him : for its ten to one but he would execute his wrath on me , and its an hundred to one god would not deliver me here . god suffered thirty or forty thousand to be murdered at once by the french massacre under charls . he suffered two hundred thousand to be murdered by the irish papists : he suffered many to be burned in queen mary's days : he suffered yet greater havock to be made of the poor waldenses and alligenses : he suffered most cruel inhumane torments , and death , upon thousands of innocent persons , to change the new-planted religion in japan . he therefore that careth for his life and peace , will think it far safer to venture on the present executions of god , than of his king , or enemy , or any one that is strong enough to ruine him : if i lived under the turkish empire , and were commanded to deny christ , and to renounce my baptism , and to subscribe that my baptismal vow doth not oblige me , or any way to lie , or be perjur'd , or sin against god ; self-preservation would bid me , [ venture on the sin , for it is an hundred to one but god will spare thee ; and it is an hundred to one but that the prince will punish and destroy thee if thou obey him not ] how few that knew there were no life to come , would not rather venture to please a tyrant , or a robber than god , and more fear to displease them ? and would not by perjury , or any commanded villany , save himself from their fury and cruelty ? and would not study more to flatter and humour them , than to obey their god ? and so man should have the chief government of the world , while man's rewards and punishments were so much more notable than god's , man would be feared and obeyed before god : that is , man would be taken for our god. these things are clear undeniable truths . if there were no life to come , self-love and reason would make man more obedient to man than god , and so make gods of flesh and bloud . but whether this be the tendency of the government of god , let reason judge . § . . xvii . a very probable argument may be fetched from the number and quality of intellectual spirits : he that looketh to the vast , and numerous , and glorious orbs which are above him , and thinks of the glorious receptacles of a more glorious sort of creatures , and then considereth that we are intellectual agents , made to love and honour god as well as they ; and considers further both the benignity of god , and the communion which those other orbs have with us , will think it probable , that we are in progress towards perfection : and that we that are so like them , may be capable of their happiness . § . . xviii . if in this life god have little of the praise and glory of his works , from those whom he created for it , but contrarily be much dishonoured by them ; then there is another life in which he will be more honoured by them : but the antecedent is true : ergo , so is the consequent . what a glorious fabrick hath god set man to contemplate ? and how little of it is here known ? so that philosophy is found to be but a searching and wrangling about things which no man reacheth ; and yet an inquisitive desire we have . and therefore sure there is a state in which these works of god shall be better known of us , and god shall have the honour of them more than now . his laws also prescribe us excellent duties , and his servants are very excellent persons , according to his own description : but our infirmities , our errors , or divisions , our miscarriages and scandals do so dishonour him and his ways , that the glory of them is much obscured , and blasphemers reproach him to his face , and godliness ( which the law of nature teacheth ) is derided as a foolish thing , and as the meer effect of superstitious fear . now though all this doth no hurt to god , yet he is capable of wrong who is uncapable of hurt . and it is not to be believed , that he will finally put up all this at his creatures hands , and never vindicate his honour , not never more shew the glory of his grace , his image , his justice and judgments , than he now doth . § . . xix . the constant testimony of conscience in all men , that have not mastered reason by sensuality , and the common consent of all that are worthy to be called men , in all ages and countries upon earth , doth shew that the life to come is a truth which is naturally revealed , and most sure . § . . xx. the enemy of souls doth ( against his will ) give man a four-fold reason to judge , that there is a life of reward and punishment hereafter : viz. . by compacts with witches . . by apparitions . . by satanical possessions . . by all kind of subtil importunate temptations , ( which evidence themselves . ) . though some are very incredulous about witches , yet to a full enquiry the evidence is past question , that multitudes of such there be . though many are wronged , and some may be thought so foolish or melancholy , as not to know what they say against themselves ; yet against such numerous and various instances , these exceptions do but confirm the general truth , that such there are . i have said so much of them in * two other writings , that i shall now say no more but this : that those judges ordinarily condemn them to die , who themselves have been most incredulous of such things : that so great numbers were condemned in suffolk , norfolk , and essex , about twenty years ago , that left the business past all doubt to the judges , auditors , and reverend ministers , ( yet living ) who were purposely sent with them for the fuller inquisition . that the testimonies are so numerous and beyond exception , recorded in the many volumes written on this subject , by the malleus maleficorum , bodin , remigius , and other judges who condemned them , that i owe no man any further proof , than to desire him to read the foresaid writings : wherein he shall find men and women , gentlemen , scholars , doctors of divinity , of several qualities and tempers , all confessedly guilty , and put to death for this odious sin . and he shall find what compacts they made with the devil , promising him their souls or their service , and renouncing their covenant with god. all which doth more than intimate , that men have souls to save or lose , and that there is an enemy of souls who is most sollicitous to destroy them ; or else to what end would all this be ? when people are in wrath and malice , desirous of revenge or in great discontents , or too eagerly desirous after overhasty knowledge in any needless speculation , the devil hath the advantage to appear to them , and offer them his help , and draw them into some contract with him ( implicit at least , if not explicit ) i have my self been too incredulous of these things , till cogent evidence constrained my belief . though it belong not to us to give account , why satan doth it , or why upon no more , or why god permitteth it , yet that so it is in point of fact , it cannot be rationally denyed . and therefore we have so much sensible evidence , that there is a happiness and misery after this life , which the devil believeth , though atheists do not . . and though some are as incredulous of apparitions , yet evidence hath confuted all incredulity . i could make mention of many : but for the notoriety i will name but two ; which it is easie to be satisfied about : the one is the apparition in the shape of collonel bowen in glamorganshire , to his wife and family , speaking , walking before them , laying hold on them , hurting them in time of prayer ( the man himself then living from his wife in ireland , being one that from sect to sect had proceeded to infidelity if not to atheism , and upon the hearing of it came over ; but durst not goe to the place ) . the thing i have by me described largely and attested by learned godly ministers , that were at the place ; and is famous , past contradiction . . but ( to name no more ) he that will read a small book called the devil of mascon , written by mr. perreand , and published by dr. peter moulin , will see an instance past all question : the devil did there for many months together at certain hours of the day , hold discourse with the inhabitants , and publikely disputed with a papist that challenged him , and when he had done , turn'd him and cast him down so violently , that he went home distracted : he would sing and jest and talk familiarly with them as they do with one another : he would answer them questions about things done at a distance ; and would carry things up and down before them , and yet never seen in any shape : all this was done in the house of the said mr. perreand a reverend faithfull minister of the protestant church , in the hearing of persons of both professions , papists and protestants that ordinarily came in , for above three months at mascon a city of france ( and at last upon earnest prayer it ceased . ) mr. perreands piety and honesty was well known ; and attested to me by the right honourable the earl of orrery , now lord president of munster in ireland , and attested to the world by his most learned , worthy , honourable brother mr. robert boyl , in an epistle before the book ; neither of them persons apt to be over-credulous of such unusual things , yet both fully satisfied of the truth of this story by mr. perreands own narratives , with whom they were very familiar . see the other testimonies cited in my saints rest , part . q. but how doth this signifie that there is any future state for man. answ . . commonly , these apparitions do expresly referr to some sin or duty which are regardable in order to a further life . sometimes they come to terrifie murderers or other great offenders : and sometimes the devil hath killed men outright : ( which yet were no more painfull than another death , if it fetcht not their souls into a greater misery ) sometimes they are used to tempt people to sin , to witchcraft , to revenge , to idolatry and superstition ( to which use they are common among many of the indians ) : and all this intimateth some further hurt which sin doth men after this present life ; which they take not here for their pain , but their pleasure . . many of these apparitions say , that they are the souls of such and such persons that have lived here : if it be so , then the question is granted . and whether it be so , i suppose is to us uncertain : for why a condemned soul may not appear as well as satan , notwithstanding that both of them are in that state of misery which is called hell , i yet could never hear any sure proof . but ( because this is uncertain ) . at least it sheweth us , that these evil spirits are neer us , and able to molest us , and therefore are ordinarily restrained , and that their natures are not as to any elevation so distant from ours , but that a converse there may be ; and therefore that it is very probable , that when the souls of the wicked are separated from their bodies , they shall be such as they , or have more converse with them ; and that the good spirits shall be the companions of the souls of men that here were not far unlike themselves . when we perceive that we live among such invisible spirits , it is the easier to believe that we shall live with such of them hereafter , as we are most like . . i may adde to these the instance of satanical possessions : for though many diseases may have of themselves very terrible and strange effects , yet that the devil , i mean some evil spirit , doth operate in many is past all contradiction : some will speak languages which they never learnt : some will tell things done far off : some will have force and actions which are beyond their proper natural ability : most great physicians , how incredulous soever , have been forced to confess these things : and abundance of them have written particular instances . and the manner of their transportations , their horrid blasphemies against god , with other carriages , do commonly intimate a life to come , and a desire that satan hath to dishonour god , and destroy the souls of men as well as their bodies . . and lastly , the temptations and suggestions of satan , yea , and oft his external contrived snares , are such as frequently give men a palpable discovery of his agency , that there is indeed some evil spirit that doth all this to the hurt of souls . were there no such tempter it were scarce credible that such horrid inhumane villanies should ever be perpetrated by a rational nature , as histories credibly report , and as in this age our eyes have seen . that men should ever , even against their own apparent interest , be carryed on obstinately to the last , in a wilfull course of such sins as seem to have little or nothing to invite men to them , but a delight in doing hurt and mischief in the world. whence is it that some men feel such violent importunate suggestions to evil in their mindes , that they have no rest from them , but which way soever they goe , they are haunted with them till they have committed it , and then haunted as much to hang themselves in desperation . whence is it that all opportunities are so strangely fitted to a sinners turn , to accommodate him in his desires and designs ? and that such wonderfull successive trains of impediments are set in the way of almost any man that intendeth any great good work in the world ? i have among men of my own acquaintance observed such admirable frustrations of many designed excellent works , by such strange unexpected means , and such variety of them , and so powerfully carryed on , as hath of it self convinced me , that there is a most vehement invisible malice permitted by god to resist mankinde , and to militate against all good in the world. let a man have any evil design , and he may carry it on usually with less resistance . let him have any work of greatest natural importance which tendeth to no great benefit to mankinde , and he may go on with it without any extraordinary impedition : but let him have any great design for common good , in things that tend to destroying sin , to heal divisions , to revive charity , to increase virtue , to save mens souls , yea or to the publick common felicity , and his impediments shall be so multifarious , so far fetcht , so subtile , incessant , and in despight of all his care and resolution , usually so successfull , that he shall seem to himself to be like a man that is held fast hand and foot , while he seeth no one touch him ! or that seeth an hundred blocks brought and cast before him in his way , while he seeth no one do it . yea , and usually the greatest attempts to do good shall turn to the clean contrary , even to destroy the good which was intended , and drive it much further off . how many countreys , cities , churches , families , who have set themselves upon some great reformation , have at first seen no difficulties almost in their way ? and when they have attempted it , they have been like a man that is wrestling with a spirit ? though he see not what it is that holdeth him , when he hath long swear , and chafed , and tired himself , he is fain to give over ; yea , leave behind him some odious scandal , or terrible example , to frighten all others from ever medling with the like again . i have known that done which men call a miracle , a sudden deliverance in an hour , from the most strange and terrible disease , while by fasting and prayer men were present begging the deliverance : and presently the devil hath drawn the persons in such a scandalous sin , that god had none of the honour of the deliverance , nor could any for shame make mention of it , but it turned to the greater dishonour of piety and prayer , though the wonder was past doubt . i have known men wonderfully enlightened and delivered from courses of error and schisme , and being men of extraordinary worth and parts , have been very like to have proved the recovery of abundance more : and they have been so unresistibly carryed into some particular errors on the contrary extream , that all the hopes of their doing good hath turned to the hardening of others in their schism , while they saw those errors , and judg'd accordingly of all the reasons of their change . but especially to hinder the successes of godly magistrates , and ministers , in their reformings , and their writings for the winning of souls , it were endless to shew , the strange unexpected difficulties which occurre , and lamentably frustrate the most laudable attempts . nay , i have known divers men that have had resolute designs , but to build an alms-house , or a school-house , or to settle some publick charitable work , that when all things seemed ready , and no difficulty appeared , have been hindered in despight of the best of their endeavours , all their dayes , or many years : yea men that purposed but to put it in their wills , to do some considerable work of charity , have been so delayed , hindered and disappointed , that they were never able to effect their ends . by all which it is very perceivable to an observing minde , that there is a working invisible enemy still seeking to destroy all godliness , and to hinder mens salvation . perhaps you will say , that if this be so , you make the devil to be stronger than god , and to be the governour of the world , or to be more in hatred to goodness , than god is in love with it . i answer , no : but it appeareth that his enmity to it is implacable , and that he militateth against god and mans felicity , and that sin hath so far brought this lower world under gods displeasure , that he hath in a great measure forsaken it , and left it to the will of satan : yet hath he his holy seed and kingdom here , and the purposes of his grace shall never be frustrated , nor the gates of hell prevail against his church : and if he may forsake hell totally as to his felicitating presence , he may also penally forsake earth as to the greater number , whilest for ought we know , he may have thousands of orbs of better inhabitants which have not so forfeited his love , nor are not so forsaken by him . i have been the larger in proving a life to come , of retribution to the good and bad , because all religion doth depend upon it , and i have my self been more assaulted with temptations to doubt of this , than of christianity it self , though this have more of natural evidence . and i have set down nothing that i am able rationally to confute my self ( though every truth is liable to some snarling exceptions of half-witted and contentious men . ) no man that confesseth a life to come , can question the necessity of a holy life : but i have thought meet first to prove , that a holy life is our unquestionable duty ( as the prius cognitum ) and thence to prove the certainty of the future state : for indeed , though god hath not hid from us the matter of our reward and punishment , hopes and fears , yet hath he made our duty plainer in the main , and proposed it first to our knowledge and consideration . the eternity of the future state , i have not here gone about to prove ; because i reserve it for a fitter place , and need the help of more than natural light , for such a task . but that it shall be of so much weight and duration , as shall suffice to the full execution of justice , and to set all streight , that seemed crooked in gods present government , this nature it self doth fully testifie . three sorts of men will read what i have written : . some few ( and but very few ) of those whose consciences are so bloody in the guilt of their debauchery , that they take it for their interest to hope that there is no life but this . . those whose faith and holiness , hath made the world to come , to be their interest , happiness , hope , desire , and only joy . . those that only understand in generall , that it is the highest interest of humane nature , that there be a full felicity hereafter ; and see it a most desireable thing , though they know not whether it be to be expected or not . the first sort , i may fear are under such a curse of god , as that he may leave their wills to master their belief , as their lusts have mastered their wills , and lest they be forsaken of god , to think that true which their wicked hearts desire were true ; and that the haters of god and a holy life , should be left to dream that there is no god , nor future happy life . the second sort have both light , experience and desire , and therefore will easily believe . the third sort are they whose necessities are great , and yet conjunct with hope of some success . though bare interest should command no mans understanding , because a thing may be desireable , which is neither certain nor possible ; yet i must needs say , that reason and self-love should make any man , ( that is not resolved in wickedness ) exceeding glad to hear of any hopes , much more of certainty , of a life of angelical happiness and joy , to be possess'd when this is ended . and therefore the enquiry should be exceeding willingly and studiously endeavoured . i shall conclude this point with a few serious questions , to those that deny a future life of retribution . qu. . whether he that taketh a man to be but an ingenuous kinde of beast , can take it ill to be esteemed as a beast ? may i not expect that he should live like a beast , who thinketh that he shall die like a beast ? is such a man fit to be trusted any further in humane converse , than his present fleshly interest obligeth him ? may i not justly suppose that he liveth in the practice of fornication , adultery , lying , perjury , hypocrisie , murder , treachery , theft , deceit , or any other villany , as oft as his interest tells him he should do it . what is a sufficient or likely motive to restrain that man , or make him just , who believes not any life after this ? it seemeth to me a wrong to him in his own profession , to call him an honest man. . if you think your selves but ingenuous beasts , why should you not be content to be used as beasts . a beast is not capable of true propriety , right or wrong : he that can master him , doth him no wrong , if he work him , or fleece him , or take away his life . why may not they that can master you , use you like pack-horses , or slaves , and beat you , and take away your lives . . would you be only your selves of this mind , or would you have all others of it ? if your selves only , why envy you the truth ( as you suppose ) to others ? if all others , what security shall kings have of their lives ? or subjects of their lives of liberties ? what trust can you put in wife , or child , or servant , or any man that you converse with ? will you not quickly feel the effect of their opinions ? had you not rather , that the enemy who would murder you , the thief who would rob you , the lyar that would deceive you , did believe a judgement and life of retribution , than not ? . if there be no life after this , what business have you for your reason ? and all your noble faculties and time , that is worthy of a man ; or that is not like childrens games or poppet-playes ? what have you to do in the world , that hath any weight in the tryal , any content or comfort in the review , or will give solid comfort to a dying man ? were it not better lie down and sleep out our days , than waste them all in dreaming waking ? o what a silly worm were man ! what should he find to do with his understanding ? take off the poise of his ultimate end , and all his rational motions must stand still , and only the bruitish motion must go on , and reason must drudge in the captivity of its service . but these questions , and more such , i put more home in my book , called a saint , or a bruit . if conscience tell you , that you can put no trust in your friend , your wife , your servant , or your neighbour , if they believe that there is no life but this : surely the same conscience may tell you , that then the thing is true , and that the god of infinite power , wisdom and goodness hath better means enough than deceits and lies to rule the world by . hear what the conscience of the epicure saith in cicero , academ . quaest . l. . p. ( mihi ) . quis enim potest , cum existimet à deo se curari , non & dies & noctes divinum numen horrere , &c. it s true of the guilty : but what greater joy to the upright , godly , faithful soul. chap. xv. of the intrinsick evil of sin , and of the perpetual punishment due to the sinner by the undoubted law of nature . § . . it seemed good to the most wise creator to give man with reason a liberty of will , by which he is a kind of first cause of its own determination in comparative moral acts ; though he hold the power in full dependance upon god , and perform each act as an act in genere by the influx of his maker , and do all under his perfect government . and these great principles in his nature , his power , his reason , and his free self-determining will , are the image of god , in which as man he was created , which advanced by the perfections of fortitude , wisdom and moral goodness , are also in holiness the image of god's perfections . when a man deliberateth whether he shall do this sin or not , ( as lie or murder ) he cannot act in general without god , but that he chooseth this act rather than another , may be without any more of god , than his giving and maintaining his free-choosing power , and his universal influx before mentioned , and his setting him among such objects as he acteth upon . neither do those objects , nor any physical efficient motion of god , or any creature besides himself , determine his will effectually to choose the evil and refuse the good . it is not true , that nothing undetermined can determine it self to act ; this is but to deny god's natural image on the will of man. the will cannot determine it self without the conduct of an intellect , and without an object in esse cognito , nor without divine sustentation and universal influx : but it can determine it self to the moral species , which is but the mode of action , to this rather than that in the comparative proposal , without any pre-determining efficient : ( for such none of the former are . ) and god having made such a self-determining creature , took delight to govern him according to his nature , by the sapiential moral means of laws ; of what he doth more to cause good than evil , and other such incident questions , i must now put them off to a fitter place . § . . god planted in man's mind a natural inclination to truth and goodness , and to his own felicity , and an averseness to falshood , and to evil , and to his own misery and hurt ; that these lying deeper than his liberty of choice , might be a pondus to his motions , and help him the more easily and stedfastly to obey , and to adhere to and prosecute his proposed happiness and end . § . . accordingly god formed his holy law , with a perfect fitness to these faculties and inclinations , furnishing it wholly with truth and goodness , and fitting all things in it to the benefit of man : ( as is proved before . ) § . . this law had a sufficient promulgation , being legible on the face of the whole creation , ( within our view ) and specially on the nature of man himself , from whence his duty did result . § . . and god was pleased to make as legible the most rational powerful motives to love and obedience , that can be imagined by man , that no tempter might possibly bid the ten thousandth part so much for our love and obedience as he had bid , and assured us of himself . § . . from all this it is most evident , that god made us not sinners , though he made us men ; but that man , being defectible , abused his liberty , and turned from god , and brought corruption and misery upon himself . § . . he that will understand god's justice aright , must consider of these forty intrinsick evils that are in sin , which nature it self declareth . . in its formal nature , it is the violation of a perfect righteous law. . it is a contempt or denial of god's governing authority over us . . it is the usurping of the government of our selves , which we denied to god. . it is a denial or contempt of the wisdom of god , as if he had erred in the making of his laws , and knew not so well what is just , and meet , and good for us , as we our selves , and were not wise enough to govern a lump of animated clay . . it is an exalting of our folly into the throne of the divine wisdom ; as if we had more wisdom than he that made us , and knew better what is just and meet , and what is fit or good for our selves , and could correct god's laws , and make our selves a better rule . . it is a denial or contempt of the goodness of god , as if he had ensnared us by his law , and envied our happiness , and forbad us that which would do us good , and put us upon that which , will do us hurt , and so would seduce us into calamity , and were an enemy to our welfare . . it is a preferring our naughtiness before his goodness ; as if we could do better in regulating our selves than god , and could make a better choice for our selves than his laws have made . and as if our wills were fitter than god's to be the rule of good and evil . . it is a denial or contempt of his holiness and purity , which is contrary to sin as health to sickness : as if by our deeds we would perswade the world , that god is as satan , a lover of sin , and an enemy to himself and holiness . . it is a denial or contempt of god's propriety , as if we were not his own , and he had not power to dispose of us as be list : or it is a robbing him of the use and service of that which is absolutely his own . . it is a claiming of propriety in our selves , as if we were at our own disposal , and might do with our selves and our faculties as we list . . it is a belying or contempt of the great and gracious promises of god , and of the wonderfull mercy which he manifesteth in them ; by which he doth binde and allure us to obedience : as if he did not mean as he speaketh , or would not make good his word to the obedient . . it is a falsifying or contempt of his dreadfull threatnings , as if he did not intend any execution of them , but made them only as a deceitfull terror to frighten men from sin , for want of better means . . it is a denyal or contempt of the dreadfull future judgement of god , as if he would never call men to any account , nor judge them according to his laws . . it is a denying the veracity of god , as if he were a lyar and deceiver , and did not intend the things which he speaketh ; as if his precepts were but a false pretension , and he were indeed indifferent what we did , and were not to be believed in his predictions , promises , or threats . . it is a contempt of all the mercies even of this life , which flesh it self doth overvalue ; as if protection , provision , deliverances , comforts , were not so much to be regarded , as our concupiscence ; nor were not of weight enough to bind us to obey so mercifull a god ; and as if ingratitude were no crime . . it is a contempt of those castigatory afflictions , by which god driveth men from sin , by giving them a taste of the bitterness of its fruits . . it is a contempt of all the examples of his mercy and his judgements upon others : by which he hath shewed us how good he is , and how just a punisher of sin . . it is a contempt of all the inward motions and strivings of god , which sinners oft feel perswading them to forbear their sin , and to seek after god. . it is a contempt of conscience , which beareth witness for god against their sins . . it is a contempt of all the instructions and advise of wise and good men , who are required by god and nature to warn men , and perswade them from their sins . . it is a contempt of the example of all obedient virtuous persons , whose lives instruct them and reprove them . . it is a contempt of virtue it self , which is contrary to sin , and whose proper worth commandeth love. . it is a contempt of gods omnipresence , when we will sin in his very presence ; and of his omniscience , when we will sin when we know that he seeth it . . it is a contempt of the greatness and almightiness of god , when a silly worm dare sin against him , who upholdeth the world , and can do justice on him in a moment ; as if we could make good our part against him . . it is a contempt of the attractive goodness of god , by which he is mans end and happiness : as if all the goodness and love of god , were not enough to counterpoise the base and bruitish pleasures of sin : and to drive the rational soul to god ? ( it was his efficient goodness which i spake of before . ) . and thus it declareth , that we are so farr void of love to god : for love is desirous to please . . it is a setting up the sordid creature for our end , as if it were more attractive and amiable than god , and fitter to content and delight the soul. . it is a contempt of all that glorious happiness of the life to come , which god hath warranted the righteous to expect : as if it were not all so good as the defiling transitory pleasures of sin , and would not recompence us for all that we can do or suffer for god. . it is the silencing and laying by our reason by inconsiderateness , or the perverting and abusing of it by error , in the greatest matters , for which it was given us ; and so it is a voluntary drunkenness or madness , in the things of god and our felicity . . it is a setting up our senses and appetite above our reason , and making our selves in use , as beasts , by setting up the lower beastial faculties to rule . . it is the deformity , monstrosity , disorder , sickness and abuse of a noble creature , whom god made , in our measure , like himself , and so a contemptuous defacing of his image . . it is a robbing god of that glory of his holiness , which should shine forth in our hearts and lives , and of that complacency which he would take in our love , obedience , perfection and felicity . . it is the perverting and moral destruction , not only of our own faculties , ( which were made for god ) ; but of all the world which is within our reach : turning all that against god and our happiness , which was given us for them . yea , it is worse than casting them all away , while we use them contrary to their natures , against their owner and their end . . it is thus a preach in the moral order and harmony of the world , and as much as in us lyeth , the destroying of the world : as the dislocation or rejection of some parts of a clock or watch , is a disordering of the whole ; and as a wound to the hand or foot is a wrong to the body . and it is a wound to every society where it is committed ; and an injury to every individual , who is tempted or afflicted by it . . it is a contradicting of our own professions , confessions , understandings and promises to god. . it is a preferring of an inch of hasty time before the durable life to come , and things that we know are of short continuance , before those of which we can see no end . . it is the preferring of a corruptible flesh and its pleasure , before the soul , which is more noble and durable . . it is an unmercifulness and inhumane cruelty to our selves , not only defiling soul and body , but casting them on the displeasure and punishing-justice of their great and terrible creator . . it is the gratifying of the malicious tempter , the enemy of god and of our souls ; the doing his will , and receiving his image instead of god's . . and all this is done voluntarily , without constraint , by a rational free-agent , in the open light , and for a thing of nought . besides what christians only can discern , all this the light of nature doth reveal to be in the malignity of sin . § . . sin being certainly no better a thing than is here described , it is most certain that it deserveth punishment . § . . and reason telleth us , that god being the governour of the world , and perfect government being his perfect work and glory in that relation , it is not meet that in such a divine and perfect government so odious an evil be put up , and such contempt of god and all that is good be past by without such execution of his laws as is sufficient to demonstrate the justice of the governour , and to vindicate his laws and authority from contempt : nor that it be pardoned on any terms , but such as shall sufficiently attain the ends of perfect government . the ends of punishment are , . to do justice and fulfil the law , and truth of the law-giver . . to vindicate the honour of the governour from contempt and treason . . to prevent further evil from the same offendor . . to be a terrour to others , and to prevent the hurt that impunity would encourage them to . . and if it be but meerly castigatory , it may be for the good of the sinner himself : but in purely vindictive punishment it is the governour and society that are the end . . it is true , that as the immediate sense of the precept ( e.g. thou shalt do no murder ) is not de eventu , [ it shall not come to pass ] but de debito , [ thy duty is to forbear it ] ; so also the immediate sense of the penal part is not de eventu , ( e. g i thou murder thou shalt be put to death ) but de debito , death shall be thy due , thou shalt be reus mortis : so that if it do non evenire , it is not presently a falshood . but it s as true , that when the sovereign makes a law , he thereby declareth that this law is a rule of righteousness , that it is norma officii & judicii : that the subject must do according to it , and expect to be done by according to it : that it is the instrument of government . therefore these two things are declared by it . . that ordinarily judgment and execution shall pass according to it . . that it shall never be extraordinarily dispensed with , by sovereignty , but upon terms which as well declare the justice of the governour , and discourage offendors from contempt , and are as fit to preserve the common good , and the honour of the sovereign . so that thus far a law doth assert also the event ; which i put to prevent objections , and to shew that truth and justice require the ordinary execution of just and necessary laws . . and should they be ordinarily dispensed with , it would intimate , that the ruler did he knew not what in making them ; that he repented of them a unjust ; or over-saw himself in them ; or fore-saw not inconveniences ; or was not able to see them executed : it would also make him seem a deceiver , that affrighted subjects with that which he never intended to do ; which omnipotency , omniscience and perfect goodness cannot do , what ever impotent ignorant bad men may do . . and the offendor must be disabled ( when penitency sheweth not the change of his heart ) that he do so no more : and therefore death is ordinarily inflicted . . and especially offences must be prevented , and the honour of the sovereign and safety of the people be preserved : if laws be not executed , they and the law-giver will be despised ; others will be let loose , and invited to do evil , and no man's right will have any security by the law. therefore it is a principle in politicks , that poena debetur reipublicae ; it is the common-wealth to which the punishment of offendors is due , that is , it is a means which the ruler oweth them for their security . and cato was wont to say , se malle pro collato beneficio nullam reportare gratiam , quàm pro maleficio perpetrato non dare poenam . plutar. apoth . rom. he had rather miss of thanks for his kindnesses and gifts , than of punishment for his faults . and was wont to say , that magistratus qui maleficos prohibere possent , & tamen impunitate donarent , lapidibus ol ruendos esse , ut reipub. perniciosissimos . a hundred such sayings are in cicero , offic. . quotusquisque reperietur qui impunitate propositâ abstinere possit injuriâ . impunitas peccandi maxima est illecebra : de natur. deor. . nec domus , nec respubl . stare potest , si in ea nec recte factis praemia extent vlla , nec supplicia peccatis . in verrem . est utilius unius improbi supplicio multorum improbitatem coercere , quàm propter multos improbos uni parcere . offic. . non satis est eum qui lacesserit , injuriae suae penitere ; ut ipse nequid tale posthac committat , & caeteri sint ad injuriam tardiores . this is the common sense of all that know what it is to govern . obj. but god is so good , that all his punishments tend at last to the sinners good , and are meerly castigatory . answ . god is so wise , that he knoweth better than we what is good and fittest to be done . and god is so good , that for the honour of his government , and holiness , and goodness , he expresseth his hatred of sin , to the final ruine of the sinners . and he is so wise and good , that he will not spare the offendor , when the penalty is necessary to the good of the innocent , to prevent their falls . the objection is a surmise not only groundless , but notoriously false . § . . he that would know how far punishment is necessary to the ends of government , must first know how far the penal law it self is necessary ; for the first and chiefest benefit to the common-wealth is from the law , and the next from the execution . the first benefit is to constrain men to duty , and to restrain them from doing ill . this is done immediately by the fear of punishment , ( with the expectation of the benefit ) : this fear of punishment is to be caused by the rational expectation of it , if they do offend . this expectation is to be caused by the commination of the law. when the law saith , [ he that sinneth shall suffer ] the subject avoideth sin for fear of suffering . therefore the subject must believe that the law-giver meaneth as he speaketh , even to govern and judge in justice according to that law : and he that can but make the subject believe , that the governour doth but affright men with a lie , and meaneth not to execute his penalties , shall easily make his laws of none effect , and turn loose offendors to presumptuous disobedience . therefore the fore-belief of execution is necessary to the efficacy of the law , which else is but as a mawkin to affright away birds , and fit to work on none but fools . and if it be so necessary a duty to the subject to believe that the law shall be the norma judicii , and shall be executed ; then in our present case it is certainly true : for god cannot lie , nor make it the duty of the world to believe a lie , nor need so vile a means to keep the world in order . so that it is most evident , that if the law be necessary , the execution of it is ordinarily necessary ; and either the execution , or some means as effectual to the ends of government , is ever necessary . § . . therefore he that would know what degree of punishment it is meet and just for god to execute , must first know what degree it is meet for him to threaten , or make due by law : or rather how much he hath made due : because what god should do , is best known by what he actually doth . if a temporal , short , or small measure of penalty be sufficient to be threatned in the law , for the present attaining of the ends of government , then such a punishment is sufficient in the execution . but if the threatning of an endless punishment in another world be little enough ; in suo genere , to prevail now with subjects for order and obedience , then the execution will be therefore necessary by consequence . § . . it followeth not therefore that punishment or rewards must cease , if the ends be past in natural existence ; because moral means may in time be after their end , to which they were appointed to operate in esse cognito ; and that penalty which is perpetuated may be a means to the ends already attained : that is , the threatnings , and the expectation of them ; and then the honour of the ruler's veracity and justice bindeth him to the execution . § . . what ever reward or punishment is annexed to sin by the law , is offered with the duty and sin to the subjects choosing or refusing ; and no man is in danger of any punishment but he that chooseth it , in its self or in its annexed cause . and he that will have it , or will have that which he is told by god is annexed to it , ( especially if it be deliberately and obstinately to the last ) hath none to blame of cruelty towards him but himself , nor nothing to complain of but his wilful choice . obj. but it were easie with god to confirm man's will so , that the threatning of a temporal punishment might have ruled him . answ . it is easie with god to make every man an angel , and every beast or worm a man : but if his wisdom think meet , below men to make such inferiour things as beasts ; and below angels or confirmed souls to make so low a rank of creatures as men , that have reason , and undetermined and unconfirmed free-wills ; what are we that we should expostulate with him for making them no better , nor ruling them in our way ? § . . sin doth unquestionably deserve a natural death and annihilation . this all men grant that believe that god is our governour , and that there is any such thing as his laws , and man's sins . if treason against a king deserve death , much more rebellion and sin against god. life and being is god's free gift : if he take it away from the innocent , he taketh but his own : therefore there can be no doubt but he may take it away from the guilty who abuse it . § . . if such a penalty were inflicted , god is not bound to restore that sinner to being again whom he hath annihilated , ( if it be not a contradiction ) : and then this penal privation would be everlasting : therefore an endless privation of being and all mercies is the sinners due . all this i know of no man that doth deny . § . . god is not bound thus to annihilate the sinner , but may continue all his natural being , and leave him under the deserved privation of well-being , depriving him of all other mercies . this is undeniable ; that it is in god's choice whether he will take away his being it self , or only all the mercies which are necessary to his well-being : for he that had nothing before but by free gift , may be deprived of any thing which was none of his own , if he forfeit it by abuse . nay , we live upon such a continued emanation from god , as the beams from the sun , that it is but god's stopping of his streams of bounty , and we perish , without any other taking away of mercies from us . § . . nature teacheth men to choose a great deal of ( tollerable ) pain and misery , rather than not be at all : even so much as will not utterly weigh down the love of life , and of vital operations . i say not ( as some ) that the greatest torment or misery is more eligible ( or less odious ) than annihilation . but it is certain , that a great deal is . we see abundance ( how ever the roman and greek philosophers scorned it as baseness ) who are blind , or lame , or in grievous pains of the gout and stone , and many that are in miserable poverty , begging their bread , or toiling from morning to night like horses , and yet seldom taste a pleasant bit , but joyn distracting cares with labours ; and yet they are all unwilling to die : custom hath made their misery tollerable , and they had rather continue so for ever than be annihilated . if then god may annihilate even the innocent , ( supposing he had not promised the contrary ) then may he lay all that pain , and care , and labour on them , which they would themselves prefer before annihilation . for it s no wrong to one that hath his reason and liberty to give him his own choice . § . . it is just with god to lay more misery on a sinner , than on one that never deserved ill : and to lay more on him for his sin , than he would choose himself before annihilation . whether god may without injustice inflict more misery on the innocent , than he would himself prefer before annihilation , some make a question , and deny it . for my part , i see no great difficulty in the question . but it is nothing to that which i am proving ; it is not god's usage of the innocent but of the guilty which we are speaking of : and that he may make them more miserable who deserve it , than his bounty made them before any guilt , or than a just man would choose to be rather than be annihilated , i see no reason at all to doubt . penalty is involuntary : and no man ever said that it was unjust to lay more upon a malefactor than he himself was willing of , and would choose before a condition , which without his fault he might have been put into . so then we have already proved , . that god may punish a man everlastingly . . and with a greater penalty than annihilation . § . . god may leave a sinner his being , and ( in particular ) deprive him of his favour , and all the joys and blessedness which he refused by his sinning . § . . and he may justly withal deny him those corporal mercies , ( meat , drink , honour , pleasure , health , ease , &c. ) which he over-valued and abused , and preferred before god and greater blessings . all this i think no man doth deny that acknowledgeth a god. § . . he that is continued in his natural being , and is deprived of god's favour , and of his future happiness for ever , and understandeth what it is that he hath lost , and is also deprived of all those natural benefits which he desired , must needs be under continual pain of sense as well as of loss : for all this want must needs be felt . § . . he that in all this misery of loss and sense , doth remember how it was that he came to it , and how base a thing he preferred before his god , and his felicity , and for how vile a price he sold his hopes of the life to come , and how odiously he abused god by sin , ( as it is before described ) cannot choose but have a continual torment of conscience , and heart-gnawing repentance in himself . * § . . he that is under utter despair of ever coming out of this condition , will thereby have his torment yet more encreased . all these are natural undeniable consequents . § . . a body united to so miserable a self-tormenting forsaken soul , cannot have any peace and quietness : seeing it is the soul by which the body liveth , and hath its chiefest peace or pains . § . . thus sin doth both as a natural and as a moral meritorious cause bring on dissatisfaction , grief , vexation , desertion by god , and privation of felicity and peace . § . . for as long as a sinner is impenitent and unsanctified , ( that is , loveth not god as god ) nor is recovered from his carnal mind and sin , it is both morally and naturally impossible that he should be blessed or enjoy god. for , as it is only god that efficiently can make happy , because nothing worketh but by him ; and so sin meritoriously undoeth the sinner , by making him unfit for favour , and making him an object of displicence and justice ; so it is only god that finally can make happy , all things being but means to him , and unfit of themselves to give rest to the inquisitive seeking mind . and god is enjoyed only by love , and the sense of his love and goodness : therefore the soul that loveth not god , and is not suited to the delightful fruition of him , can no more enjoy him , than a blind man can enjoy the light , or an ox can feast with a man. § . . he that is under this punishment and despair , will be yet further removed from the love of god , and so from all capacity of happiness : for he cannot love a god who he knoweth will for ever by penal justice make him miserable . he that would not love a god who aboundeth in mercy to him in the day of mercy , will never love him when he seeth that he is his enemy , and hath shut him for ever out of mercy , and out of hope . § . . god is not bound to sanctifie the mind and will of such a self-destroying sinner , who hath turned away himself from god and happiness . and without a renewed mind it is morally and unnaturally impossible that he should be happy . he that would not use the mercy that would have saved him , in the day of mercy , cannot require another life of mercy and trial , when this is lost and cast away , nor can require the further helps of grace . § . . if sin as sin have all the malignity and demerit before proved , much more the aggravated sins of many ; and most of all a life of wickedness , which is spent in enmity against god and godliness , and in a course of sensuality and rebellion , with the obstinate , impenitent , rejecting of all the counsel , calls and mercies which would reclaim the sinner , and this to the last breath . it hath before been manifested , that all wilful sin hath this malignity in it , that in effect it denieth that there is a god , or pulleth him down as much as in the sinner lieth , and it setteth up the devil in his stead , and calleth him god , or maketh god to be such a one as the devil is ; and also maketh an idol of the sinner himself . for it denieth god's power , wisdom , goodness , propriety , sovereignty and love ; his truth , and holiness , and justice : and maketh him on the contrary impotent , unwise , bad , envious , unholy , false , unjust , and one that hath no authority to rule us ; with much more the like . but a life of enmity , rebellion and final impenitency ( which is the case of all that perish ) much more deserveth what ever humane nature can undergo . § . . he that consenteth not to god's government is a rebel , and deserveth accordingly : and he that consenteth to it , consenteth to his laws , and consequently to the penalty threatned : and therefore if he break them , he suffereth by his own consent , and therefore cannot complain of wrong . all that understand god's government and laws , and consent to them , are not only under the obligation of governing-power , but also of their own consent : and it is justly supposed that they consented on good and rational grounds , not knowing where they could be better : on hopes of the benefits of the government , and the reward , they necessarily consented to the penalties . § . . he that never consenteth to the law , and yet is under the obligation of it , hath life and death , the blessing and the curse , felicity and misery set before him in the law : felicity is annexed to obedience , and misery to disobedience ; and the law-giver telleth us , that accordingly he will judge and execute , and he offereth every man his choice . he therefore that after this doth choose the sin which misery is annexed to , doth choose the misery and refuse the happiness : and therefore it is no wrong to cast him into misery , though everlasting , as long as he hath nothing but what he chose , and loseth nothing but what he rejected , and that with wilful obstinacy to the very last . a sinner in this case hath nothing but blasphemy to say against the justice of his maker : for what can he say ? he cannot say that his maker had not authority to make this law , for his authority was absolute . he cannot say that it was too cruel , hard and unjust a law ; for it was made but to deter him and such as he , from such sin , to which he had no greater temptations than the toyish vanities of a fleshly life . and he himself hath declared by the event , that the law was not terrible enough to deter him : if it would not seem against so small and poor a bait , he himself doth justifie the terribleness of it by his contempt . god saith , i threaten hell to thee , to keep thee from sin : the sinner saith by his life and practice , the threatning of hell is not enough to keep me from sin . and shall the same man say , when execution cometh , it is too great ? no sinner shall suffer any thing but what he chose himself , in the causes of it . if he say , i did not believe that god was in good earnest , and would do ath● said ; this is but to blaspheme , and say , i took god for a liar , and deceiver , and a bad , and unwise , and impotent governour . if he say , i did not know that sin ( even final impenitency in an ungodly life ) deserved so ill , common reason , and all the world will rise up against him , and the light of nature will shew him to his face , that all the forty points of malignity were in sin , which i mentioned before ; and therefore that the law of nature had a sufficient promulgation . having thus shew'd what punishment god may inflict without the least imputation of injustice , let us next enquire of reason , what he will inflict . § . when it is at god's choice whether he will annihilate a sinner , or let him live in misery , reason telleth us , that the latter is more suitable to the ends of government : because the living offendor will not only be still a spectacle in the eyes of others , as a man hang'd up in chains , but will also confess his folly and sin , and his conscience will justifie his judge , and so god's justice will be more glorious and useful to its ends . that which is not , is not seen nor heard : the annihilated are out of sight . and the mind of man is apt to think of a state of annihilation as that which is as a state of rest , or ease , and feeleth no harm , and so is not terrible enough , ( as shall be farther said anon . ) the living sufferer therefore is rationally the fittest monument of god's justice . § . it must reasonably be expected , that a soul which is made apt to perpetual duration , should perpetually endure : and that the soul enduring , the misery also should endure , seeing it was due by the law of nature , ( as is proved . ) perpetual duration is necessary to no creature , their beings being but contingent and dependent on the will of god , but perpetual duration of a dependent being is certain , when the first being doth declare his will that it shall be so : and the natural way by which god declareth his will concerning the use of any thing , is by the nature and usefulness of it : because he maketh all things wisely , and nothing in vain . therefore when he maketh the nature of an angel or spiritual being , apt to perpetual duration , as being not mixt of separable principles , nor corruptible , he thereby declareth his will for its duration , because he gave it not that durable nature in vain . two arguments therefore i now offer to prove , that man's soul is of perpetual duration : . because it is such in its operations , ( and therefore in its essence ) as the superiour spirits are which are so durable : for they are but intelligences and free-agents , fitted to love god , and delight in him , and praise him ; and so is man. . because ( as is fully proved before ) it is made to be happy in another life : and that proveth that it dieth not with the body : and that proveth that its nature is incorruptible , and that proveth that it shall be perpetual , unless any sin should forfeit its being by way of penal deprivation : and that is improbable , both because god hath fitter ways of punishment , and intimateth in its corruptible nature that this is not his intent , and because the state of future reward is like to be a confirmed state . § . experience telleth the world , that so great is the folly and obdurateness of man , and the force of present sensual allurements , that nothing less than a perpetual misery , worse than annihilation , is rationally sufficient to be the penalty of that law , which is the instrument of governing the world : and therefore it is certain that so much is in the law , and so much shall be executed . those thieves and murderers that have confirmed their infidelity , and overcome all the expectations of another world , will as boldly venture their lives to rob and kill , as if they were of little worth : yea , when they know that they must die , how desperately go they to the gallows , and how little make they of their lives : it s true , ( as was aforesaid ) that nature abhorreth death ; but we see among souldiers , that he that at first is timerous , when he hath been used a while to kill men , or to see them kill'd by thousands , groweth senseless , almost regardless of his life , and will make as it were a jest of death . and when it is so ordinary a thing with men to kill birds , and fishes , and beasts , for their daily food and pleasure , why should they not easily bear their own , if they look for nothing after death ? a beast loveth his life as well as we , and our death is no more painful than theirs , and we should have as much courage as a beast . especially men that live a poor and miserable life on earth , would little fear that death which endeth it ; and so humane government it self would be in vain . he that would have an instrument to revenge him on his enemy , to kill his governour , or do any villany in the world , if it were not for fear of another world , might find enow among poor villains , that by misery or melancholly are a-weary of their lives . at least as long as they run but a hazard , like a souldier in fight , and may possibly scape by craft , or flight , or friends , or strength , what wickedness will they not commit ? what prince so just that hath not some rebellious subject , or some enemy that seeks his life ? what man so good that is not maliced by some ? who hath mony or an estate , which one or other doth not desire ? and if there were nothing but death and annihilation to restrain men , what prince , what person , had any security of his life or estate ? if a rogue once grow but sensual and idle , he will deliberately resolve , [ i will venture my life to live in pleasure , rather than live in certain toil and misery ; a short life , and a sweet , is better than a longer which is miserable , and must end at last . ] we see , if once men be perswaded that they shall die like beasts , that they are not much troubled at it , because they think that when they have no being , they shall have no fear , nor care , nor grief , nor trouble , nor pain , nor want . and though right improved reason , which hath higher expectations , makes a greater matter of the loss of them ; yet sensual men so brutine themselves , that they grow contented with the felicity of a bruit , and are not much troubled that they have no more . annihilation therefore certainly is a penalty utterly insufficient , even to keep any common order in the world ( as i proved before ) : and therefore it is certain , that the penalty inflicted hereafter will be greater than annihilation : and if so , it must contain , with the being of the creature , a suffering worse than the loss of being . § . . the belief of a hell or endless punishment , being that which is de facto the restraint of the obedient part of the world , and that which proveth too weak with the disobedient part , it thence followeth , that a hell or endless punishment will be inflicted . the reasons i have given before , . because that experience sheweth that the threatning of hell is necessary in the law : therefore it self is necessary in the execution . . because god doth not govern the world by deceit . § . . god will inflict more punishment for the final rejection of his government , than kings do for treason and rebellion against thousands . there is no proportion between god and man , and between a fault against god , and against man : therefore if racks , torments , and death , be justly inflicted for treason against a king , much more may be expected for rebellion against god. obj. but mens sins do god no hurt , as they do the king. answ . they do wrong , where they do no hurt . it is not for want of malignity in sin , but through the perfections of god , that they do not hurt him : but they displease him , and injure him , and they hurt the world and the sinner himself , who is not his own . a child is to be corrected for many faults , which do his father no harm . it is not hurting god that is the cause that sin is punished . obj. but god is mercifull as well as just . answ . true , and therefore he shewed mercy to sinners in the day of mercy : and it is for the contempt and abuse of mercy that he condemneth them : if the mercy abused had been less , the sin and punishment had been less . a mercifull king and judge will hang a murderer or traytor . mercy to the good requireth punishment of the bad . gods attributes are not contrary . he is mercifull to the due objects of mercy , and hath penal justice for the objects of that justice . obj. but after this life , the ends of punishment cease : therefore so will the punishment : for there will be none in the next world to be warned by it , nor any further sin to be restrained ; unless it be a castigatory purgatory for the sinner himself . answ . . i have proved that the law was necessary to the government of this world : and if it was necessary that god say , [ everlasting death shall be the wages of sin ] then his truth and justice make the execution necessary afterwards . . when this life is ended , we look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness : and the penalties of the sinners of this world , may be a means of that righteousness of the next ; as the punishment of the devils is a warning to us , and proposed to us for our terror and restraint . . how little know we , whether thousands of the orbs which we see are not inhabited ; and whether the penalties of earthly sinners , may not be a warning to any of those superiour worlds . god hath not acquainted us with all the uses that he can make of sinners punishments : and therefore when nature telleth us what is due , it is folly to say it will not be , because god hath no use for it . obj. but hell is a cruelty which expresseth tyranny rather than wise justice . answ . that 's but the voice of folly , partiality and guilt : every thief that is hanged is like enough to think the same of his own punishment and judge . if you think it such a cruelty , why was not the threatning of it enough to govern you , and to counterpoise a feather , the trifles of sordid fleshly pleasure : why did you choose it , in the choice of sin ? were you not told of it ? and was not life and death offered to your choice ? would you choose that which you think it is cruelty to inflict ? who is it that is cruel to you but your selves ? why will you now be so cruel to your own souls , and then call god cruel for giving you your choice ? o sinners , as you are wise , as you are men , as ever you care what becometh of you for ever , have mercy upon your selves , and do not refuse , and obstinately refuse the mercy of god , and then call him unmercifull ? have pity on your own souls ! be not so cruel against your selves as to run into endless misery for nothing , and then think to lay the blame on god! god calleth now to you in your sin and wilfulness , and intreateth you to have mercy on your selves , and then he will have mercy on you in the day of your distress : but if you will not hear him , but will have none of his mercy now , wonder not if in vain you cry to him for it then . obj. but i would not so use an enemy of my own . answ . . he doth not deserve it ; for you are not gods. . you are not governours of the world , and so his fault respecteth not any such law and judgement of yours , by which the world must be governed . . nor have you the wisdom and justice of god , to do that which is right to all . yet are you not bound your selves to take complacency in the evil of your enemies , but to use just means to bring him to a better minde and state . § . . the summ of all here proved is , that all sin deserveth endless misery , and naturally induceth to it ; and that all ungodly impenitent souls shall certainly undergoe it ; and that none can be saved from this misery , but by turning to god , and being saved from their sins . chap. xvi . of the present sinfull and miserable state of this world. § . . though all men may know all this before said to be their duty , and sin to be so evil , and to deserve such punishment , yet none do live perfectly without sin , according to the law of nature . i have heard but of few that pretend to such perfection , and those few have confuted their own pretenses , and been the furthest from it of many others : and therefore this i have no need to prove . § . . the greatest part of the world do bend their mindes and lives to the satisfying of their flesh , and live in ungodliness , intemperance , and unrighteousness , neglecting god and future happiness , and that holy life which is the way thereto . this being a matter of publick or common fact , doth need no other proof , than acquaintance with the people of the world. § . . yea , there is an aversness and enmity in them , to the life which god in nature doth prescribe them ; and a strong inclination to a fleshly life . there needeth no other proof of this , than the wonderfull difficulty which we find in perswading men to change their lives , to live to god , and to forsake their sensuality and worldliness ; and the abundance of reason and labour that is lost upon them , when we cannot so much as make them willing . § . . it is evident in the effect , that much of this cometh with us into the world. . how else should it be so universal as it is ? how should it be found in all sorts of constitutions and complexions ? and in every countrey and age till now ? . how should it work so early in children as commonly it doth ? . how cometh it to prevail against the best education , helps and means ? certainly all of us feel from our childhood too much of the truth of this ? § . . this natural pravity is quickly encreased , by the advantage of sensuality , which is active before reason cometh to any power of resistance , and so getteth stronger possession by custom , and groweth to a confirmed habit . § . . and if vicious education by vicious parents be added , and bad company second that , and the vulgar course , or rulers countenance concurr , the corrupt inclination is quickly more radicated , and next to a nature . § . . many so farr prevail against the light and law of nature , as to grow strange to god and to themselves , to their end , and their work . even to doubt whether there be a god , or whether they have any other life to live , and whether holiness be good and necessary , and sin be bad and deserve any punishment . § . . there is a great deal of sottish unteachableness on the minds and wills of men , which hindereth their conviction and reformation . § . . there is a great deal of senseless stupidity and hard-heartedness on men , which maketh them sleepily neglect the greatest things which they are convinced of . § . . there is in most a marvellous inconsiderateness , as if they had not their reason awake to use ; so that they will not soberly and seriously think of the things which deeplyest concern them . § . . most men are so taken up with the concernments of their bodies , that their minds are pre-occupyed and made unfit for higher things . all this is proved if we walk but in the world with open eyes . § . . the love of the world and fleshly pleasure , is so powerfull in the most , that they love not the holy law of god , which forbiddeth them that sensuality , and commandeth them a holy and temperate life . they are like children that cry for what they love , and will not be restrained by telling them that its unwholsom : reason signifieth nothing with them , as long as sense and appetite gainsay it : they are angry with all that crosseth their appetites , though it be to save their lives : the sense is become the predominant power in them , and reason is dethroned , and hath left its power : therefore gods law is unacceptable and hatefull to these bruitish people ; because it is quite against their inclination , and that which the flesh doth call their interest and good. § . . therefore they love not those who press them to the obedience of this law , which is so ungratefull to them ; and who condemn their sin by the holiness of their lives ; and that awaken their guilty consciences by the serious mention of the retributions of the life to come . all this is bitter to the taste , and the reasonableness , necessity and future benefits , are things that they are much insensible of . § . . therefore they love not god himself , as he is holy , and governeth them by a holy law , which is so much against their inclinations ; as he forbiddeth them all their sinfull pleasure , and threatneth damnation to them if they rebell : especially as his justice will execute this : indeed their aversation from god in these respects , is no less than a hating him as god. § . . these vices working continually in mens hearts , do fill them with deceiving thoughts , and distracting passions , and unquietness , and engage them in self-troubling wayes , and deprive them of the comforts of the love of god , and of a holy life , and of the well-grounded hope of future blessedness . though they have such a present pleasure as prevaileth with them , it bringeth speedy smart and trouble : just like the pleasure of scratching to a man that hath the itch , which is quickly recompensed with smart if he go deep : or like the pleasure of drinking cold water to a man in a feaver , or a dropsie , which increaseth the disease . sin is their sickness , and corrupteth their appetites , and though it have its proper pleasure , it depriveth them of the pleasures and benefits of health . § . . these vices also so deprave sometimes , making every wicked man to be principally for himself and for his lvsts , that they are commonly distracted with envy , malice , contention , persecutions , the fruits of pride , and covetousness and sensuality ; and these diseases are still troubling them , till they work their ruine where they do prevail . § . . the same vices set kingdoms and other common-wealths together in bloody warrs , and cause men to study to destroy one another , and glory in the success , and fill the world with rapine and violence by sea and land ; and make it seem as necessary to their own preservation , to kill one another as their enemies , as to kill toads and serpents , wolves and tygers , and much more ; and with much more care , and cost , and industry is it done . § . . if any wise and charitable persons would heal these vices , and reconcile these contentions , and perswade persons and nations to a holy , sober , peaceable course , they are commonly hated and persecuted , they seldom succeed , nor can their counsel be heard , through the multitude and fury of the vicious , whose folly and violence beareth down all . § . . and god himself doth give the sinfull world a taste of his displeasure by painfull sicknesses , consuming plagues , famines , poverty , and many the like calamities , which fall upon mankinde . § . . but his sorest judgements are the forsaking of mens souls , and leaving them in all this folly and disorder , this sin and misery , to destroy themselves . the principal mercies and punishments of this life , are found on the souls of men themselves . the greatest present reward of obedience , is when god doth more illuminate the mind , and send in more of his celestial beams , and shed abroad his love upon the heart , and fill it with the love of goodness , and delight it in himself , and confirm the will against temptations : and the greatest punishment is when god in displeasure for mens disobedience , doth withdraw this grace , and leave men to themselves , that they that love not his grace should be without it , and follow their foolish self-destroying lusts . § . . god cannot pardon an uncapable subject , nor any but on terms consistent with the honour of his justice , laws , and government ! nor is there any that can deliver a sinner from his punishment , upon any other terms whatsoever . § . . the conclusion is , that the sin and misery of mankinde in generall is great and lamentable , and their recovery a work of exceeding difficulty . obj. all this sheweth , that mans nature was not made for a holy life , nor for a world to come : else their aversness to it would not be so great and common . answ . this is fully answered before : it is proved , that nature and reason do fully bear witness against his wickedness and declare his obligations , to a better life , and his capacity of higher things : and that all this is his rebellion against nature and reason ! and it no more proveth your conclusion , than your children , or servants aversness to obedience , peace and labour , proveth that these are not their duty , or subjects rebellion proveth that they are not obliged to be loyal . obj. but it is incredible that god should thus far forsake his own creation . answ . . there is no disputing against the light of the sun , and the experience of all the world : it is a thing visible and undenyable that this case they are de facto in , and therefore that thus farr they are forsaken : it is no wisdom to say , that is not , which all the world seeth to be so , because we think it unmeet that it should be so . . is it incredible that god doth further than this forsake the wicked in the world of punishment ? if he may further forsake hell , he may thus far forsake earth , upon their great provocations . we have no certainty of it , but it is not at all unlikely , that the innumerable fixed starrs and planets are inhabited orbs , who have dwellers answerable to their nature and preeminence : and if god do totally forsake hell , as to his mercy ; and next to hell , do much forsake a sinfull earth that is likest and neerest unto hell , and do glorifie his more abundant mercy upon the more holy and happy inhabitants of all , or almost all the other orbs , what matter of discontent should this be to us . . but god hath not left even this dark and wicked earth it self , without all remedy , as shall be further shewed . read cicero's third book de nat. deor. and you will see in cotta's speech , that the notoriously depraved reason of man , and the prevalency and prosperity of wickedness , was the great argument of the atheists , against god and providence ; which they thought unanswerable , because they looked no further than this life , and did not foresee the time of full universal justice . and whereas cotta saith , that if there be a god , he should have made most men good , and prevented all the evil in the world , and not only punish men when it is done , i shall answer that among the objections in the second tome ; and i before shewed , how little reason men have to expect that god should make every man as good as he could make him , or make man indefectible ; or to argue from mans sin against gods goodness : the free creator , lord and benefactor , may vary his creatures and benefits as he seeth meet , and may be proved good , though he make not man angelical , and though he permit his sin , and punish him for sinning . chap. xvii . what natural light declareth of the mercy of god to sinners , and of the means and hopes of mans recovery . § . . notwithstanding all this forementioned sin and guilt and misery of man , and justice of god , experience assureth all the earth , that great mercy is still continued to them , and that they have to do with a most merciful god. mens lives are continued even while they sin : patience endureth them : time is vouchsafed them : food and rayment , and friends and habitations , and health and ease and liberty is given them : the sun sendeth them its moving influence , its light , and heat ; the earth supporteth them , and affordeth them fruit and maintenance and pleasure : the clouds yield them rain ; the air breath ; and the sea it self is not unkind , and incommodious to them . beasts , birds and fishes , and all inferiour creatures serve them ! and yet much more mercy they receive from god. § . . it is therefore manifest that god dealeth not with the sinfull world according to the utmost rigor of justice , nor punisheth them as much as they deserve . for all these mercies they have forfeited , and deserved to be deprived of them . obj. but it is no mercy , which hardeneth them in sin , and endeth in misery : it is rather a punishment ; as to give cold water to a man in a feaver . answ . . if it hardened them of its own nature , and not meerly by their abuse , and if it ended in misery by the designment of the giver and the tendency of the gift , then were it as you say , no mercy but a plague . but it is mercy which in its nature and by the donors will , hath a fitness and tendency to mens recovery , and to prevent their misery , and they are commanded and intreated accordingly to use it ; and are warned of the danger of abuse . obj. but god knoweth when he giveth it them , that they will so abuse it . answ . gods fore-knowledge or omniscience is his perfection , and will you argue from thence against his mercy ? his foreknowledge of mens sin and misery causeth them not : what if he foreknew them not ? were it any praise to him to be ignorant ? and yet the mercy would be but the same ? if you will not be reconciled to gods wayes , till he cease to be omniscient , or till he prevent all the sin and misery which he foreknoweth , you will perish in your enmity , and he will easily justifie his mercy against such accusations . obj. but god could give men so much more grace as to prevent mens sin and misery if he would . answ . true : he is not unable : and so he could make every clod a tree , and every tree a beast , and every beast a man , and every man an angel , as i said before : but must he therefore do it ? here note , that it is one thing to say of any punishment , [ this is so deserved , that god may inflict it if he please , without injustice , yea and thereby demonstrate his justice ; ] and another thing to say [ this is so due that god must or will inflict it , if he will be just ; unless a compensation be made to justice . ] it is of the first sort that i am now speaking : for god may have variety of times , and measures , and kinds of punishments , which he may use at his own choice , and yet not leave the sin unpunished finally : but whether he properly dispense with any law , which is determinate as to the penalty , i am not now to speak , it being not pertinent to this place and subject . § . . therefore god doth in some sort and measure , pardon sin to the generality of mankinde , while he remitteth some measure of the deserved punishment . to remit or forgive the punishment is so far to forgive the sin ; for forgiveness as to execution , is but non punire proceeding from commiseration or mercy . and it is certain by all the mercy bestowed on them , that god remitteth something of the punishment , which in law and justice he might inflict . though this be not a total pardon , it is not therefore none at all . § . . the goodness of gods nature , with this universal experience of the world , possesseth all mens minds with this apprehension of god , that he is gracious , mercifull , long-suffering , and ready to forgive a capable subject , upon terms consistent with his truth and honour , and the common good . it s true , that self-love and self-flattery doth cause men to think of the mercy of god , as indulgent to their lusts , and suitable to their fleshly desires ; and therefore their conceits are none of the measure of his mercy : but yet it may be perceived , that this foresaid conception of god as mercifull and ready to forgive a capable subject , is warranted by the soberest reason , and is not bred by sin and error : for the wise and better , and less sinfull any is , the more he is inclined to such thoughts of god as of a part of his perfection . § . . this apprehension is increased in mankinde by gods obliging us , to forgive one another . for though it doth not follow , that god must forgive all that which he bindeth us to forgive , for the reasons before expressed ; yet we must believe , that the laws of god proceed from that wisdom and goodness which is his perfection , and that they bear the image of them ; and that the obeying of them tendeth to form us more to his image our selves , and to make us holy as he is holy : and therefore that this command of god to man , to be mercifull and forgive , doth intimate to us , that mercy and forgiveness are agreeable and pleasing unto god. § . . god cannot cast away from his love and from felicity , any soul which truly loveth him above all , and which so repenteth of his sin , as to turn to god in holiness of heart and life . here seemeth to arise before us a considerable difficulty . that god can finde in his heart to damn one that truly loveth him , and is sanctified , is incredible : because . then gods own image should be in hell , and a saint be damned . . because then the creature should be readyer to love god , than god to love him . . then a soul in hell should have holy desires , prayers , praises , and other acts of love. . and a soul capable of the glorifying mercy of god , should miss of it : this therefore is not to be believed : for god cannot but take complacency in them that love him , and bear his image : and those will be happy that god taketh complacency in . and yet on the other side , do not the sins of them that love god , deserve death and misery , according to his law ? and might he not inflict that on men which they deserve ? doth not justice require punishment on them , that yet sin not away the love of god , nor a state of holiness ? to this some answer , that all those that consist with love and holiness , are venial sins , which deserve only temporal chastisement , and not perpetual misery : i rather answer , . that all sin considered in it self , abstracted from the cause which counterballanceth it , and procureth pardoning mercy , doth deserve perpetual misery ; and therefore so do the sins of the best in themselves considered : but that grace which causeth their sanctification , and their love to god , doth conjunctly cause the pardon of their sins ; so that god will not deal with such as in rigour they deserve . . and if the sin of any that love god , should provoke him to cast them into hell , it followeth not , that one that loveth god in sensu composito , should be damned : for god hath an order in his punishments : and first he would withdraw his grace from such a one , and leave him to himself ; and then he will no longer love god ; and so it is not a lover of god that would be damned . § . . the sinfull world is not so farr forsaken of god , as to be shut up under desperation , and utter impossibility of recovery and salvation . for if that were so , they were not in via , or under an obligation to use any means , or accept of any mercy , in order to their recovery , nor could they rationally do it , or be perswaded to it . there is no means to be used where there is no end to be attained , and no hope of success . § . . the light of nature , and the foresaid dealings of god with men , continuing them under his government in via , and manifold mercies , helps and means , do generally perswade the consciences of men that there are certain duties required of them , and certain means to be used by them , in order to procure their recovery and salvation , and to scape the misery deserved . he that shall deny this , will turn the earth into a hell : he will teach men to forbear all means and duties which tend to their conversion , pardon and salvation , and to justifie themselves in it , and desperately give over all religion , and begin the horrours and language of the damned . § . . the very command of god to use his appointed means for mens recovery , doth imply that it shall not be in vain , and doth not only shew a possibility , but so great a hopefulness of the success to the obedient , as may encourage them cheerfully to undertake it , and carry it through . no man that is wise and merciful , will appoint his subject a course of means to be used , for a thing impossible to be got : or will say , labour thus all thy life for it , but thou shalt be never the nearer it , if thou do . if such an omniscient physician do but bid me use such means for my cure and health , i may take his command for half a promise , if i obey . § . . conscience doth bear witness against impenitent sinners , that the cause of their sin , and the hinderance of their recovery is in themselves ; and that god is not unwilling to forgive and save them , if they were but meet for forgiveness and salvation . even now mens consciences take god's part against themselves , and tell them , that the infinite good , that communicateth all the goodness to the creature , which it hath , is not so likely to be the cause of so odious a thing as sin , nor of mans destruction as he himself . if i see a sheep lie torn in the high-way , i will sooner suspect the wolf than a lamb to be the cause , if i see them both stand by : and if i see a child drown'd in scalding water , i will sooner suspect that he fell in by folly and heedlesness himself , than that his mother wilfully cast him in . is not silly naughty man much liker to be the cause of sin and misery , than the wise and gracious god ? much more hereafter will the sinners conscience justifie god. § . . god hath planted in the common nature of mankind an inseparable inclination to truth as truth , and to good as good , and a love to themselves , and a desire to be happy , and a lothness to be miserable ; together with some reverence and honour of god , ( till they have extinguished the belief of his being ) and a hatred and horrour of the devil , ( while they believe he is ) : all which are a fit stock to plant reforming-truths in , and principles fit to be improved for mens conversion , and the excitation and improvement of them , is much of that recovering work . § . . frequent and deep consideration being a great means of mans recovery , ( by improving the truth which he considereth , and restoring reason to the throne ) it is a great advantage to man that he is naturally a reasoning and thoughtful creature , his intellect being propense to activity and knowledge . § . . and it is his great advantage , that his frequent and great afflictions have a great tendency to awake his reason to consideration , and to bring it to the heart , and make it effectual . and consequently that god casteth us into such a sea and wilderness of troubles , that we should have these quickening monitors still at hand . § . . and it is man's great advantage for his recovery , that vanity and vexation are so legibly written on all things here below ; and that frustrated expectations , and unsatisfied minds , and the fore-knowledge of the end of all , and bodily pains which find no ease , with multitudes of bitter experiences , do so abundantly help him to escape the snare ( the love ) of present things . for all men that perish are condemned for loving the creature above the creator : and therefore such a world , which appeareth so evidently to be vain , and empty , * and deceitful , and vexatious , and which all men know will turn them off at last with as little comfort , as if they had never seen a day of pleasure in it ; i say , such a world , one would think , should give us an antidote against its own deceit , and sufficiently wean us from its inordinate love . at least this is a very great advantage . § . . it is also a common and great advantage for man's recovery , that his life here is so short , and his death so certain , as that reason must needs tell him , that the pleasures of sin are also short , and that he should always live as parting with this world , and ready to enter into another . the nearness of things maketh them to work on the mind of man the more powerfully : distant things , though sure and great , do hardly awaken the mind to their reception and due consideration . if men lived or years in the world , it were no wonder if covetousness , and carnality , and security made them like devils , and worse than wild beasts to one another : but when men cannot chuse but know , that they must certainly and shortly see the end of all that ever this world will do for them , and are never sure of another hour ; this is so great a help to sober consideration , and conversion , that it must be monstrous stupidity and brutishness that must overcome it . § . . it is also a great advantage for man's conversion , that all the world revealeth god to him , and every thing telleth him of the power , and wisdom , and goodness , and love of god ; and of his constant presence ; and so sheweth him an object which should as easily over-power all sensual objects , which would seduce his soul , as a mountain will weigh down a feather . though we see not god , ( which would sure put an end to the controversie whether we should be sensual or holy ) yet while we have a glass as big as all the world , which doth continually represent him to us , one would think that no reasonable creature should so much over-look him , as to be carried from him with the trifles of this world . § . . men that have not only the foresaid obligations , to holiness , justice and sobriety in their natures , but also all these hopes , and helps , and means of their recovery from sin to god , and yet frustrate all , and continue in ungodliness , unrighteousness , or intemperance , impenitently to the end , are utterly destitute of all just excuse , why god should not punish them with endless misery : which is the case of all that perish . § . . all men shall be judged by the law which was given them of god to live by . for it is the same law , which is , regula officii & judicii : god will not condemn men for not believing a truth , which mediately or immediately was never revealed to them , and which they had no means to know : nor for not obeying a law which was never promulgated to them , nor they could not come to be acquainted with : physical impossibilities are not the matter of crimes , or of condemnation . § . . if any persons are brought by these means alone to repent unfeignedly of an ungodly , uncharitable and intemperate life , and to love god unfeignedly as their god , above all ; and to live a holy , obedient life : god will not condemn such persons , though they wanted supernatural revelation of his will. ( as i shewed before § . . ) § . . when sinners stand at many degrees distant from god and a holy life , and mercy would draw them nearer him by degrees , they that have help and mercy sufficient in suo genere , to have drawn them nearer god , and refused to obey it , do forfeit the further helps of mercy , and may justly perish and be forsaken by him ; though their help was not immediately sufficient to all the further degrees of duty which they were to do . these things as clear in their proper light , i stand not to prove , because i would not be unnecessarily tedious to the reader . and so much of godliness , or religion , as revealed by natural light. obj. but all heathens and infidels find not all this in the book of nature , which you say is there . answ . i speak not of what men do see , but what they may see , if they will improve their reason . all this is undeniably legible in the book of nature ; but the infant , the ideot , the illiterate , the scholar , the smatterer , the doctor , the considerate , the inconsiderate , the sensual , the blinded , and the willing diligent enquirer do not equally see and read that which is written in the same characters to all . part ii. of christianity and supernatural revelation . chap. i. of the great need of a clearer light , or fuller revelation of the will of god , than all that hath been opened before . whilst i resolved upon a deep and faithful search into the grounds of all religion , and a review and trial of all that i had my self believed , i thought meet first to pass by persons , and shut up my books , and with retired reason to read the book of nature only : and what i have there found , i have justly told you in the former part ; purposely omitting all that might be controverted by any considerable sober reason , that i might neither stop my self nor my reader in the way ; and that i might not deceive my self with plausible consequences of unsound or questionable antecedents ; nor discourage my reader by the casting of some doubtful passages in his way , which might tempt him to question all the rest . for i know what a deal of handsome structure may fall through the falsness of some one of the supports , which seemed to stand a great way out of sight : and i have been wearied my self , with subtil discourses of learned men , who in a long series of ergo's have thought , that they have left all sure behind them , when a few false suppositions were the life of all . and i know that he who interposeth any doubtful things , doth raise a diffidence in the reader 's mind , which maketh him suspect that the ground he standeth on is not firm , and whether all that he readeth be not meer uncertain things . therefore leaving things controvertable for a fitter place and time , i have thus far taken up so much as is plain and sure , ( which i find of more importance and usefulness to my own information and confirmation , than any of those controvertible points would be , if i could never so certainly determine them . and now having perused the book of nature , i shall cast up the account , and try what is yet wanting , and look abroad into the opinions of others in the world , and search whence that which is yet wanting may be most fully , and safely , and certainly supplied . § . . and first , when i look throughout the world , i find , that though all the evidence aforesaid for the necessity of a holy virtuous life , be unquestionable in naturâ rerum , yet most of the world observe it not , or discern but little of it , nor much regard the light without ; or the secret witness of their consciences within . natural light or evidence is so unsuccessful in the world , that it loudly telleth us , something is yet wanting , what ever it is . we can discern what it is which is necessary to man's happiness : but we can hardly discern whether de facto any considerable number ( at best ) do by the teaching of nature alone attain it . when we enquire into the writings of the best of the philosophers , we find so little evidence of real holiness , that is , of the foresaid resignation , subjection , and love to god as god , that it leaveth us much in doubt whether indeed they were holy themselves or not , and whether they made the knowledge , love , obedience and praise of god , the end and business of their lives . however , there is too great evidence , that the world lieth in darkness and wickedness , where there is no more than natural light . § . . i find therefore that the discovery of the will of god , concerning our duty and our end , called , the law of nature , is a matter of very great difficulty , to them that have no supernatural light to help them . though all this is legible in nature , which i have thence transcribed ; yet if i had not had another teacher , i know not whether ever i should have found it there . nature is now a very hard book : when i have learnt it by my teachers help , i can tell partly what is there : but at the first perusal , i could not understand it . it requireth a great deal of time , and study , and help to understand that , which when we do understand it , is as plain to us as the high-way . § . . thence it must needs follow , that it will be but few that will attain to understand the necessary parts of the law of nature aright , by that means alone ; and the multitude will be lest in darkness still . the common people have not leisure for so deep and long a search into nature , as a few philosophers made ; nor are they disposed to it . and though reason obligeth them , in so necessary a case , to break through all difficulties , they have not so full use of their reason as to do it . obj. but as christian teachers do instruct the people in that which they cannot have leisure to search out themselves ; so why may not philosophers , who have leisure for the search , in s ; truct the people quickly , who have not leisure to find out the truth without instruction . answ . much might be done , if all men did their best : but , . the difficulty is such , that the learned themselves are lamentably imperfect and unsatisfi'd , ( as i shall further shew . ) . though the vulgar cannot search out the truth without help , yet is it necessary that by help they come to see with their own eyes , and rest not in a humane belief alone ; especially when their teachers are of so many minds , that they know not which of them to believe . to learn the truth in its proper evidence , is very hard to them that have no more than the light of nature . obj. but what difficulty is there in these few precepts , that all men may not easily learn them ? [ thou shalt love god above all , and repent of sin , and set thy heart upon the life to come , and love thy neighbour as thy self , &c. answ . there is no difficulty in learning these words : but , . there is great difficulty in learning to understand the sense , and certain truth of that which is contained in them . to know what god is , so far as is necessary to our obedience and love , and to know what it is in him which is so amiable , and to know that there is a life to come , and what it is , and to know what is god's will , and so what is duty , and what is the sin which we must repent of ; these are more difficult . generals are soon named ; but it is a particular understanding which is necessary to practice . . and it is hard to see that certainty and attractive goodness in these things , as may draw the mind to the practical embracements of them , from the love of other things . an obscure doubtful wavering apprehension , is not strong enough to change the heart and life . § . . these difficulties in the meer natural way of revelation , will fill the learned world with controversies : and those controversies will breed and feed contentions , and eat out the heart of practical godliness , and make all religion seem an uncertain or unnecessary thing . this is undoubtedly proved , . in the reason of the thing . . and in all the worlds experience : so numerous were the controversies among philosophers , so various their sects , so common their contentions , that the world despised them , and all religion for their sakes , and look'd on most of them but as mountebanks , that set up for gain , or to get disciples , or to shew their wit : practical piety died in their hands . obj. this is a consequent not to be avoided , because no way hath so resolved difficulties , as to put an end to controversies and sects . answ . certainly clearness is more desirable than obscurity , and concord and unity than division ; therefore it concerneth us to enquire how this mischief may be amended , which is it that i am now about . § . . these difficulties also make it so long a work , to learn god's will by the light of nature only , that the time of their youth , and oft of their lives , is slipt away , before men can come to know why they lived . it is true , that it is their own fault that causeth all these inconveniencies : but it s as true , that their disease doth need a cure , for which it concerneth them to seek out . the life of man is held upon a constant uncertainty , and no man is sure to live another year : and therefore we have need of precepts so plain as may be easily and quickly learnt , that we may be always ready , if death shall call us to an account . i confess that what i have transcribed from nature is very plain there , to one that already understandeth it : but whether the diseased blindness of the world do not need yet something plainer , let experience determine . § . . that which would be sufficient for a sound understanding and will , is not sufficient to a darkned diseased mind and heart , such as experience telleth us is found throughout the world . to true reason which is at liberty , and not enthralled by sensuality and error , the light of nature might have a sufficiency to lead men up to the love of god , and a life of holiness : but experience telleth us , that the reason of the world is darkned , and captivated by sensuality , and that few men can well use their own faculties . and such eyes need spectacles , such criples need crutches ; yea , such diseases call for a physician . prove once that the world is not diseased , and then we will confess that their natural food may serve the turn , without any other diet or physick . § . . when i have by natural reason silenced all my doubts about the life to come , i yet find in my self an uncouth unsatisfactory kind of apprehension of my future state , till i look to supernatural evidence : which i perceive is from a double cause . . because a soul in flesh , would fain have such apprehension as participateth of sense . . and we are so conscious of our ignorance , that we are apt still to suspect our own understandings , even when we have nothing to say against the conclusion . what i have said in the first part of this book , doth so fully satisfie my reason , as that i have nothing to say against it , which i cannot easily discern to be unsound : and yet for all that , when i think of another world , by the help of this natural light alone , i am rather amazed than satisfi'd ; and am ready to think , [ all this seemeth true , and i have nothing of weight to say against it ; but alas how poor and uncertain a thing is man's understanding ! how many are deceived in things that seem as undeniable to them ! how know i what one particular may be unseen by me , which would change my judgment , and better inform me in all the rest ? if i could but see the world which i believe , or at least but speak with one who had been there , or gave me sensible evidence of his veracity , it would much confirm me . ] sense hath got so much mastery in the soul , that we have much ado to take any apprehension for sure and satisfactory , which hath not some great correspondency with sense . this is not well : but it is a disease which sheweth the need of a physician , and of some other satisfying light . § . . while we are thus scopt in our way by tediousness , difficulty , and a subjective uncertainty about the end and duty of man , the flesh is still active , and sin encreaseth and gets advantage , and present things are still in their deceiving power ; and so the soul groweth worse and worse . § . . the soul being thus vitiated and perverted by sin , is so partial , slothful , negligent , unwilling , superficial , deceitful , and ●us●d●n in its studies , that if the evidences of life everlasting bes● , and clear , and satisfying to others , it will over-look them , or not perceive their certainty . § . . though it be most evident by common experience , that the nature of man is lamentably depraved , and that sin doth over-spread the world ; yet how it entred , and when , or which of our progenitors was the first transgressor and cause , no natural light doth fully or satisfactorily acquaint me . § . . and though nature tell me that god cannot damn or hate a soul that truly loveth him , and is sanctified , yet doth it not shew me a means that is likely considerably to prevail to sanctifie souls , and turn them from the love of present transitory things , to the love of god and life eternal . though there be in nature the discovery of sufficient reasons and motives to do it , where reason is not in captivity ; yet how unlikely they are to prevail with others , both reason and experience fully testifie . § . . and whereas god's special mercy and grace is necessary to so great a change and cure , and this grace is forfeited by sin , and every sin deserveth more punishment , and this sin and punishment must be so far forgiven before god can give us that grace which we have forfeited , nature doth not satisfactorily teach me , how god is so far reconciled to man , nor how the forgiveness of sin may be by us so far procured . § . . and where as i see at once in the world , both the a●o●ing of sin , which deserveth damnation , and the abounding of mercy to these that are under such deserts ; i am not satisfi'd by the halt of nature , how god is so far reconciled , and the ends of government and justice attained , as to deal with the world so contrary to its deserts . § . . and while i am in this doubt of god's reconciliation , i am ready still to fear , list present forbearance and mercy ●rt a●i●val , and will end at last in greater misery : however i find it hard ▪ if not impossible , to come to any certainty of 〈◊〉 pardon and salvation . § . . and while i am thus uncertain of pardon and the love of god , it must needs make it an insuperable difficulty to me , to love god above my self and all things : for to love a god that i think will damn me , or most probably may do it , for ought i know is a thing that man can hardly do . § . . and therefore i cannot see how the guilty world can be sanctifi'd , nor brought to forsake the sin and vanities which they love , as long as god , whom they must turn to by love , doth seem so unlovely to them . § . . and every temptation from present pleasure , commodity or honour , will be like to prevail , while the love of god , and the happiness to come , are so dark and doubtful , to guilty , misgiving ignorant souls . § . . nor can i see by nature how a sinner can live comfortably in the world , for want of clearer assurance of his future happiness . for if he do but say as poor seneca , cicero , and others such . [ its most like that there is another life for us , but we are not sure ] it will both abate their comfort in the fore-thoughts of it , and tempt them to venture upon present pleasure , for fear of losing all : and if they were never so confident of the life to come , and had no assurance of their own part in it , as not knowing whether their sins be pardoned , still their comfort in it would be small . and the world can give them no more than is proportionable to so small and momentany a thing . § . . nor do i see in nature any full and suitable support against the pain and fears of sufferings and death , while men doubt of that which should support them . § . . i must therefore conclude , that the light and law of nature , which was suitable to uncorrupted reason , and will , and to an undepraved mind , is too insufficient to the corrupted , vitiated guilty world ; and that there is a necessity of some recovering medicinal revelation . which forced the very heathens to fly to oracles , idols , sacrifices , and religious propitiations of the gods ; there being scarce any nation which had not some such thing : though they used them , not only uneffectually , but to the increase of their sin , and strengthning their presumption ; ( as too many poor ignorant christians now do their masses and other such formalities and superstitions . ) but as arnobius saith , ( adv . gentes , l. . ) crescit enim multitudo peccantium , cum redimendi peccati spes datur : & facile itur ad culpas , ubi est venalis ignoscentium gratia . he that hopeth to purchase forgiveness with mony , or sacrifices , or ways of cost , will strive rather to be rich than to be innocent . chap. ii. of the several religions which are in the world . having finished my enquiries into the state and book of nature , i found it my duty to enquire what other men thought in the world , and what were the reasons of their several beliefs , that if they knew more than i had discovered ( by what means soever ) i might become partaker of it . § . . and first i find that all the world , except those called heathens , are conscious of the necessity of supernatural revelation ; yea , the heathens themselves have some common apprehension of it . § . . four sorts of religions i find only considerable upon earth : the meer naturalists , called commonly heathens and idolaters : the jews : the mahometans : and the christians . the heathens by their oracles , augures and aruspices , confess the necessity of some supernatural light ; and the very religion of all the rest consisteth in it . i. § . . as for the heathens , i find this much good among them : that some of them have had a very great care of their souls : and many have used exceeding industry in seeking after knowledge , especially in the mysteries of the works of god ; and some of them have bent their minds higher to know god , and the invisible worlds : that they commonly thought that there is a life of retribution after death ; and among the wisest of them , the summe of that is to be found ( though confusedly ) which i have laid down in the first part of this book . especially in seneca , cicero , plutarch , plato , plotinus , jamblicus , proclus , porphyry , julian the apostate , antoninus , epectetus , arrian , &c. and for their learning , and wisdom , and moral virtues , the christian bishops carried themselves respectfully to many of them , ( as basil to libanius , &c. ) and in their days many of their philosophers were honoured by the christian emperours , or at least by the inferiour magistrates and christian people , who judged that so great worth deserved honour , and that the confession of so much truth , deserved answerable love ; especially aedesius , julianus , cappadox , proaeresius , maximus , libanius , acacius , chrysanthus , &c. and the christians ever since have made great use of their writings in their schools ; especially of aristotle's and plato's with their followers . § . . and i find that the idolatry of the wisest of them was not so foolish as that of the vulgar ; but they thought that the vniverse was one animated world , and that the vniversal soul was the only absolute sovereign god , whom they described much like as christians do : and that the sun , and stars , and earth , and each particular orb , was an individual animal , part of the vniversal world , and besides the vniversal , had each one a subordinate particular soul , which they worshipped as a subordinate particular deity , as some christians do the angels . and their images they set up for such representations , by which they thought these gods delighted to be remembred , and instrumentally to exercise their virtues for the help of earthly mortals . § . . i find that except these philosophers , and very few more , the generality of the heathens were and are foolish idolaters , and ignorant , sensual brutish men . at this day through the world , they are that sort of men that are likest unto beasts , except some few at siam , china , the indian bannians , the japonians , the ethnick persians , and a few more . the greatest deformity of nature is among them : the least of sound knowledge , true policy , civility and piety is among them . abominable wickedness doth no where so much abound . so that if the doctrin and judgment of these may be judged of by the effect , it is most insufficient to heal the diseased world , and reduce man to holiness , sobriety and honesty . § . . i find that these few among the heathens who attain to more knowledge in the things which concern man's duty and happiness than the rest , do commonly destroy all again by the mixture of some dot●ges and impious conceits . the literali in china exel in many things , but besides abundance of ignorance in philosophy , they destroy all by denying the immortality of the soul , and affirming rewards and punishments to be only in this life , or but a little longer . at least , none but the souls of the good ( say some of them ) survive : and though they confess one god , they give him no solemn worship . their sect called sciequia or sciacca , is very clear for the vnity of the godhead , the joys of heaven , and the torments of hall , with some umbrage of the trinity , &c. but they blot all with the pythagorean fopperies , affirming these souls which were in joy or misery , after a certain space to be sent again into bodies , and so to continue through frequent changes to eternity : to say nothing of the wickedness of their lives . their third sect called lauru is not worth the naming , as being composed of fopperies , and sorceries , and impostures . all the japonian sects also make the world to be eternal , and souls to be perpetuated through infinite transmigrations . the siamenses , who seem the best of all , and nearest to christians , have many fopperies , and worship the devil for fear , as they do god for love . the indian bramenes , or bannians , also have the pythagorean errors , and place their piety in redeeming bruits , because they have souls which sometimes were humane . the persians dispersed in india , who confess god , and heaven , and hell , yet think that these are but of a thousand years duration . and it is above a thousand years since they believed , that the world should continue but a thousand years , and then souls be released from hell , and a new world made . § . . their great darkness and uncertainties appear by the innumerable sects and differences which are among them ; which are incomparably more numerous , than all that are found in all parties in the world besides . i need not tell you of the sects or opinions de summo bono , which varro said was in his days : the difference which you may find in laertius , hesechius , and others , between the cynicks , peripateticks , academicks , stoicks , scepticks , epicureans , &c. with all their sub-divisions , are enow . in japan , the twelve sects , have their subdivisions . in china , the three general sects , have so many subdivisions , that varenius saith of them , [ singuli fontes iabentibus paulatim seculis , à fraudum magistris in tot maeandros derivati sunt , ut sub triplici nomine trecentae mihi sectae inter se discrepantes numerari posse videantur : sed & hae quotidianis incrementis augentur , & in pejus ruunt . ] petrus texeica saith of the indians , [ in regno gazeratensivarii sunt ritus & sectae incolarum , & quod mirum , vix familiam invenias in qua omnes congruant : alii comedunt carnem , alii nequaquam ; alii comedunt quidem , sed non mactant animalia : alii nonnulla tantum animalia comedunt ; alii tantum pisces ; alii tantum lac & herbas , &c. johan . a twist . saith of the indian bramenes , numerantur sectae praecipui nominis octoginta tres : sed praeter has minus illustrium magna est multitudo , ita ut singulae familiae peculiarem fere foveant religionem . it were endless to speak of all the sects in africa and america ; to say nothing of the beastly part of them in brasil , the cape of good hope , that is , soldania , and the islands of cannibals , who know no god , ( nor government , nor civility some of them . ) they are not only of as many minds as countries , but of a multitude of sects in one and the same country . § . . i find not my self called or enabled to judge all these people as to their final state , but only to say , that if any of them have a holy heart and life , in the true love of god , they shall be saved ; but without this , no form of religion will save any man , be it never so right . § . . but i find it to be my duty to love them for all the good which is in them , and all that is true and good in their religion , i will embrace : and because it is so defective , to look further , and try what i can learn from others . there is so much lovely in a cato , cicero , seneca , antonine , epictetus , plutarch , &c. in the religions of siam , in the dispersed persian ethnicks in india , in the bramans , or bannians of india , in the bonzii of japan , and divers others in china and else-where , that it obligeth us not only to love them benevolently , but with much complacence . and as i will learn from nature it self what i can , so also from these students of nature . i will take up nothing meerly on their trust , nor reject any doctrin meerly because it is theirs ; but all that is true and good in their religions , as far as i can discern it , shall be part of mine ; and because i find them so dark and bad , i will betake me for further information to those that trust to supernatural revelation ; which are the jews , mahumetans and the christians ; of which i shall next consider a-part . § . . ii. as to the religion of the jews , i need not say much of it by it self ; the positive part of their doctrine being confessed by the christians and mahumetans , to be of divine revelation ; and the negative part , ( their denying of christ ) is to be tryed , in the tryall of christianity . the reasons which are brought for the christian religion , if sound , will prove the old testament , which the jews believe ; it being part of the christians sacred book : and the same reasons will confute the jews rejection of jesus christ . i take that therefore to be the fittest place to treat of this subject , when i come to the proofs of the christian faith. i oppose not what they have from god : i must prove that to be of god , which they deny . § . . iii. in the religion of the mahumetans i finde much good , viz. a confession of one only god , and most of the natural parts of religion ; a vehement opposition to all idolatry ; a testimony to the veracity of moses , and of christ ; that christ is the word of god , and a great prophet , and the writings of the apostles true : all this therefore where christianity is approved , must be embraced . and there is no doubt but god hath made use of mahumet as a great scourge to the idolaters of the world ; as well as to the christians who had abused their sacred priviledges and blessings : whereever his religion doth prevail , he casteth down images , and filleth mens mindes with a hatred of idols , and all conceit of multitude of gods , and bringeth men to worship one god alone , and doth that by the sword in this , which the preaching of the gospel had not done in many obstinate nations of idolaters . § . . but withall i finde a man exalted as the chief of prophets , without any such proof as a wise man should be moved with ; and an alcoran written by him below the rates of common reason , being a rhapsody of nonsence and confesion ; and many false and impious doctrines introduced ; and a tyrannical empire and religion twisted , and both erected , propagated , and maintained , by irrational tyrannical means : as which discharge my reason from the entertainment of this religion . . that mahomet was so great ( or any ) prophet , is neither confirmed by any true credible miracle , nor by any eminency of wisdom or holiness , in which he excelled other men ; nor any thing else which reason can judge to be a divine attestation . the contrary is sufficiently apparent in the irrationality of his alcoran : there is no true learning nor excellency in it , but such as might be expected among men of the more incult wits , and barbarous education : there is nothing delivered methodically or rationally , with any evidence of solid understanding : there is nothing , but the most nauseous repetition an hundred times over of many simple incoherent speeches , in the dialect of a drunken man ; sometimes against idolaters , and sometimes against christians for calling christ , god ; which all set together seem not to contain ( in the whole alcoran ) so much solid usefull sense and reason as one leaf of some of those philosophers whom he opposeth , however his time , had delivered him from their idolatry , and caused him more to approach the christian faith. . and who can think it any probable sign that he is the prophet of truth , whose kingdom is of this world , erected by the sword ; who barbarously suppresseth all rational enquiry into his doctrine , and all disputes against it , all true learning and rational helps , to advance and improve the intellect of man : and who teacheth men to fight and kill for their religion : certainly , the kingdom of darkness is not the kingdom of god but of the devil : and the friend of ignorance is no friend to truth , to god , nor to mankinde : and it is a sign of a bad cause that it cannot endure the light . if it be of god , why dare they not soberly prove it to us , and hear what we have to object against it , that truth by the search may have the victory : if beasts had a religion it would be such as this . . moreover , they have doctrines of polygamy , and of a sensual kinde of heaven , and of murdering men to increase their kingdoms , and many the like , which being contrary to the light of nature , and unto certain common truths , do prove that the prophet and his doctrine are not of god. . and his full attestation to moses and christ as the true prophets of god , doth prove himself a false prophet who so much contradicteth them , and rageth against christians as a blood-thirsty enemy , when he hath given so full a testimony to christ . the particulars of which i shall shew anon . chap. iii. of the christian religion : and first , what it is . § . . iv. the last sort of religion to be enquired into , is christianity : in which by the providence of god i was educated , and at first received it by a humane faith , upon the word and reverence of my parents and teachers , being unable in my childhood rationally to try its grounds and evidences . i shall declare to the reader just in what order i have received the christian religion , that the inquisition being the more clear and particular , the satisfaction may be the greater : and it being primarily for my own use that i draw up these papers , i finde it convenient to remember what is past , and to insert the transcript of my own experiences ; that i may fully try whether i have gone rationally , and faithfully to work or not . i confess , that i took my religion at first upon my parents word : and who could expect that in my childhood i should be able to prove its grounds ? but whether god owned that method of reception , by any of his inward light and operations , and whether the efficacy of the smallest beams , be any proof of the truth of the christian faith , i leave to the reader , and shall my self only declare the naked history in truth . § . . in this religion ( received defectively both as to matter and grounds , ) i found a power even in my childhood , to awe my soul , and check my sin and folly , and make me carefull of my salvation , and to make me love and honour true wisdom and holiness of life . § . . but when i grew up to fuller use of reason , and more distinctly understood what i had generally and darkly received , the power of it did more surprize my minde , and bring me to deeper consideration of spiritual and everlasting things : it humbled me in the sense of my sin and its deserts : and made me think more sensibly of a saviour : it resolved me for more exact obedience to god ; and increased my love to god : and increased my love to persons and things , sermons , writings , prayers , conference , which relished of plain resolved godliness . § . . in all this time i never doubted of the truth of this religion ; partly retaining my first humane belief , and partly awed and convinced by the intrinsick evidence of its proper subject , end , and manner ; and being taken up about the humbling and reforming study of my self . § . . at last having for many years laboured to compose my mind and life , to the principles of this religion , i grew up to see more difficulties in it , than i saw before : and partly by temptations , and partly by an inquisitive mind , which was wounded with uncertainties and could not contemptuosly or carelesly cast off the doubts which i was not able to resolve , i resumed afresh the whole inquiry , and resolved to make as faithfull a search into the nature and grounds of this religion , as if i had never been baptized into it . the first thing i studyed was , the matter of christianity , what it is ? and the next was the evidence and certainty of it : of which i shall speak distinctly . § . . the christian religion is to be considered , . in its self , as delivered by god. . in its reception and practice by men professing it . in its self it is perfect , but not so easily discernable by a stranger ; in the practisers it is imperfect here in this life ; but more discernable by men that cannot so quickly understand the principles ; and more forcibly constraineth them to perceive its holyness and worth ; where it is indeed sincerely practised : and is most dishonoured and misunderstood through the wickedness of hypocrites who profess it . as the impress on the wax doth make the image more discernable than the sculpture on the seal ; but the sculpture is true and perfect , when many accidents may render the impressed image imperfect and faulty : so is it in this case . to a diligent enquirer , christianity is best known in its principles delivered by christ the author of it : and indeed is no otherwise perfectly known ; because it is no where else perfectly to be seen : but yet it is much more visible , and taking with unskilfull superficial observers , in the professors lives : for they can discern the good or evil of an action , who perceive not the nature of the rule and precepts . the vital form in the rose-tree is the most excellent part ; but the beauty and sweetness of the rose is more easily discerned . effects are most sensible , but causes are most excellent . and yet in some respect the practice of religion is more excellent than the precepts , in as much as the precepts are means to practice : for the end is more excellent than the means as such . a poor man can easilyer perceive the worth of charity in the person that cloatheth and feedeth and relieveth him , than the worth of a treatise or sermon of charity . subjects easily perceive the worth of a wise , and holy , and just , and mercifull king or magistrate , in his actual government , who are not much taken with the precepts which require yet more perfection : and among all descriptions , historical narratives , like zenophons cyrus , do take most with them . doubtless , if ever the professors of christianity should live according to their own profession , they would thereby overcome the opposition of the world , and propagate their religion with greatest success through all the earth . because no man can well judge of the truth of a doctrine , till he first know what it is , i think it here necessary , to open the true nature of the christian religion , and tell men truly what it is : partly , because i perceive that abundance that profess it hypocritically , by the meer power of education , laws and custom of their countrey , do not understand it , and then are the easilyer tempted to neglect or contemn it , or forsake it , if strongly tempted to it : ( even to forsake that which indeed they never truely received ) . and because its possible some aliens to christianity may peruse these lines . otherwise , were i to speak only to those that already understand it , i might spare this description . § . . the christian religion containeth two parts : . all theological verities which are of natural revelation . . much more which is supernaturally revealed . the supernatural revelation is said in it to be partly written by god , partly delivered by angels , partly by inspired prophets and apostles , and partly by jesus christ himself in person . § . . the supernatural revelation reciteth most of the natural , because the searching of the great book of nature , is a long and difficult work , for the now-corrupted , dark and slothfull minde of the common sort of men . § . . these supernatural revelations are all contained , . most copiously in a book called , the holy bible , or canonical scriptures . . more summarily and contractedly , in three forms , called , the belief , the lords prayer , and the ten commandements : and most briefly and summarily , in a sacramental covenant : this last containeth all the essential parts most briefly ; and the second somewhat fuller explaineth them ; and the first ( the holy scriptures ) containeth also all the integral parts , or the whole frame . § . . some of the present professors of the christian religion , do differ about the authority of some few writings called apocrypha , whether they are to be numbred with the canonical books of god , or not : but those few containing in them no considerable points of doctrine different from the rest , the controversie doth not very much concern the substance or doctrinal matter of their religion . § . . the sacred scriptures are written very much . historically , the doctrines being interspersed with the history . § . . this sacred volume containeth two parts : the first called , the old testament , containing the history of the creation , and of the deluge , and of the jewish nation till after their captivity ; as also their law , and prophets . the second called the new testament , containing the history of the birth , and life , and death , and resurrection , and ascension of jesus christ ; the sending of his apostles , the giving of the holy ghost ; the course of their ministry and miracles ; with the summ of the doctrine preached first by christ , and then by them , and certain epistles of theirs to divers churches and persons more fully opening all that doctrine . § . . the summ of the history of the old testament is this : that in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth , with all things in them : viz. that having first made the intellectual superiour part of the world , and the matter of the elementary world in an unformed mass , he did the first day distinguish or form the active element of fire , and caused it to give light ; the second day he separated the rarified passive element called fire , expanding it from the earth upwards to be a separation and medium of action between the superiour and inferiour parts : the third day he separated the rest of the passive element , earth and water into their proper place , and set their bounds ; and made individual plants , with their specifick forms , and virtue of generation . the fourth day he made the sun , moon and starrs , for luminaries to the earth ; either then forming them , or then appointing them to that office ( but not revealing their other uses which are nothing to us . ) the fifth day he made fishes and birds , with the power of generation . the sixth day he made the terrestrial animals , and man , with the like generative power . and the seventh day he appointed to be a sabbath of rest , on which he would be solemnly worshipped by mankinde as our creator . having made one man and one woman , in his own image , that is with intellects , free-will , and executive power , in wisdom , holiness , and aptitude to obey him , and with dominion over the sensitive and vegetative , and inanimate creatures ; he placed them in a garden of pleasure , wherein were two sacramental trees , one called , the tree of life , and the other the tree of knowledge of good and evil : and ( besides the law of nature ) he tryed him only with this positive prohibition , that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge : whereupon the devil * ( who before this was fallen from his first state of innocency and felicity ) took occasion to perswade the woman that gods threatning was not true ; that he meant not as he spake ; that he knew man was capable of greater knowledge , but envyed him that happiness ; and that the eating of that fruit , was not the way to death as god had threatned , but to knowledge and exaltation : whereupon the woman seeing the beauty of the fruit , and desiring knowledge , believed the devil , and did eat of that which god forbad : the sin being so hainous for a new-made rational creature , to believe that god was false and bad , a lyar and envious , which is indeed the nature of the devil , and to depart from his love and obedience for so small a matter , god did in justice presently sentence the offenders to punishment : yet would not so lose his new-made creature , nor cast off mankind , by the full execution of his deserved punishment ; but he resolved to commit the recovery and conduct of mankind to a redeemer , who should better perform the work of salvation , than the first man adam had done the work of adhaesion and obedience . this saviour is the eternal wisdom and word of god , who was in due time to assume the nature of man , and in the mean time to stay the stroke of justice , and to be the invisible law-giver and guide of souls , communicating such measures of mercy , light , and spirit , for their recovery , as he saw fit . ( of whom more anon ) : so that henceforward god did no longer govern man as a spotless innocent creature , by the meer law of entire-nature ; but as a lapsed , guilty , depraved creature , who must be pardoned , reconciled , and renewed , and have laws and means made suitable to his corrupted miserable state . hereupon god published the promise of a saviour , to be sent in due time : who should confound the devil that had accused god of falshood , and of envying the good of man , and had by lying murdered mankind ; and should overcome all his deceits and power , and rescue god's injur'd honour , and the souls of sinners , and bring them safe to the everlasting blessedness which they were made for . thus god as man's redeemer , ( and not only as his creator ) governeth him : he taught adam first to worship him now by sacrifice , both in acknowledgment of the creator , and to teach him to believe in , and expect the redeemer , who in his assumed humanity was to become a sacrifice for sin . this worship by sacrifice adam taught his two sons , cain and abel ; who were the early instances , types and beginnings of the two sorts of persons which thence-forward would be in the world ; viz. the holy seed of christ , and the wicked seed of satan : cain , the elder , ( as corruption now is before regeneration ) offering the fruits of his land only to his creator ; and abel , the younger , sacrificing the firstlings of his flock ( of sheep ) to his redeemer , with a purified mind ; god rejected the offering of cain , and accepted the sacrifice of abel : whereupon cain , in imitation of the devil , envied his brother , and in envy slew him , to foretell the world what the corrupted nature of man would prove , and how malignant it would be against the sanctified , and what the holy seed that are accepted of god must look for in this world , for the hope of an everlasting blessedness with god. after this , god's patience waited on mankind , not executing the threatned death upon their bodies , till they had lived seven or eight or nine hundred years a piece : which mercy was abused to their greater sin , ( the length of their lives occasioning their excessive sensuality , worldliness , and contempt of god , and life eternal ) so that the number of the holy seed was at last so small , and the wickedness of mankind so great , that god resolved to drown the world : only righteous noah and his family ( eight persons ) he saved in an ark , which he directed him to make , for the preservation of himself , and the species of aereal and terrestrial animals . after which floud , the earth was peopled in time from noah , to whom god gave precepts of piety and justice , which by tradition came down to his posterity through the world . but still the greater part did corrupt their ways , and followed satan , and the holy seed was the smaller part : of whom abraham , being exemplary in holiness and righteousness , with his son isaac , and his grandson jacob , god did in special approbation of their righteousness renew his gracious covenant with them , and enlarge it with the addition of many temporal blessings , and special priviledges to their posterity after them ; promising that they should possess the land of canaan , and be to him a peculiar people above all the people of the earth : the children of jacob being afterward by a famine removed into egypt , there multiplied to a great people ; the king of egypt therefore oppressed them , and used them as slaves , to make his brick , by cruel impositions : till at last god raised them up moses for a deliverer , to whom god committed his message to the king , and to whom he gave power to work miracles for their deliverance , and whom he made their captain to lead them out of egypt towards the promised land. ten times did moses with aaron his brother go to pharaoh the king in vain , though each time they wrought publick miracles to convince him , till at last when god had in a night destroyed all the first-born in the land of egypt , pharaoh did unwillingly let the seed of jacob ( or israel ) go : but repenting quickly , he pursued after them with his host , and overtook them just at the red-sea , where god wrought a miracle , opening the sea , which the israelites past through on dry ground : but the king with his host , who were hardned to pursue them , were all drowned by the return of the waters , when the israelites were over . then moses led them on in the wilderness towards the promised land : but the great difficulties of the wilderness tempted them to murmuring against him that had brought them thither , and to unbelief against god , as if he could not have provided for them : this provoked god to kill many thousands of them by plagues and serpents , and to delay them forty years in that wilderness , before he gave them the land of promise : so that only two which came out of egypt ( caleb and joshua ) did live to enter it . but to confute their unbelief , god wrought many miracles for them in this wilderness : he caused the rocks to give them water : he fed them with manna from above : their shooes and cloaths did not wear in forty years . in this wilderness moses received from god a law , by which they were to be governed : in mount sinai in flames of fire , with terrible thunder , god appeared so far to moses , as to speak to him , and instruct him in all that he would have him do ; he gave him the chief part of his law in two tables of stone , containing ten commandments , engraven thereon by god himself , ( or by angelical ministration ) : the rest he instructed him in by word of voice . moses was made their captain , and aaron their high priest , and all the forms of god's worship setled , with abundance of laws for sacrifices and ceremonies , to typifie the sacrifice and reign of christ : when moses and aaron were dead in the wilderness , god chose joshua , moses his servant , to be their captain , who led them into canaan , and miraculously conquered all the inhabitants , and setled israel in possession of the land. there they long remained under the government of a chieftain , called a judge , successively chosen by god himself : till at last they mutinied against that form of government , and desired a king like other nations : whereupon god gave them a bad king in displeasure ; but next him he chose david , a king of great and exemplary holiness , in whom god delighted , and made his kingdom hereditary . to david he gave a son of extraordinary wisdom , who by god's appointment built the famous temple at jerusalem , yet did this solomon , by the temptation of his wives , to gratifie them , set up idolatry also in the land ; which so provoked god , that he resolved to rend ten tribes of the twelve out of his sons hand ; which accordingly was done , and they revolted and chose a king of their own , and only the tribes of juda and benjamin adhered to the posterity of solomon . the wise sentences of solomon , and the psalms of david , are here inserted in the bible . the reigns of the kings of juda and israel are afterwards described ; the wickedness and idolatry of most of their successive kings and people ; till god being so much provoked by them , gave them up into captivity : here is also inserted many books of the prophesies of those prophets which god sent from time to time , to call them from their sins , and warn them of his fore-told judgments : and , lastly , here is contained some of the history of their state in captivity , and the return of the jews by the favour of cyrus ; where in a tributary state they remain'd in expectation of the promised messiah , or christ . thus far is the history of the old testament . the jews being too sensible of their captivities and tributes , and too desirous of temporal greatness and dominion , expected that the messiah should restore their kingdom to its ancient splendour , and should subdue the gentile nations to them : and to this sense they expounded all those passages in their prophets , which were spoken and meant of the spiritual kingdom of christ , as the saviour of souls : which prejudiced them against the messiah when he came : so that though they looked and longed for his coming , yet when he came they knew him not to be the christ , but hated him and persecuted him , as the prophets had fore-told : the fulness of time being come , in which god would send the promised redeemer , the eternal wisdom and word of god , the second in the trinity , assumed a humane soul and body , and was conceived in the womb of a virgin , by the holy spirit of god , without man's concurrence . his birth was celebrated by prophesies , and apparitions , and applause of angels , and other wonders : a star appearing over the place , led some astronomers out of the east to worship him in the cradle : which herod the king being informed of , and that they called him the king of the jews , he caused all the infants in that country to be killed , that he might not scape : but by the warning of an angel , jesus was carried into egypt , where he remained till the death of herod . at twelve years old he disputed with the doctors in the temple : in this time rose a prophet called john , who told them , that the kingdom of the messiah was at hand , and called the people to repentance , that they might be prepared for him , and baptized all that professed repentance into the present expectation of the saviour : about the thirtieth year of his age , jesus resolved to enter upon the solemn performance of his undertaken work : and , first , he went to john to be baptized by him , ( the captains being to wear the same colours with the souldiers . ) when john had baptized him , he declared him to be the lamb of god , that taketh away the sins of the world : and when he was baptized and prayed , the heaven was opened , and the holy spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him , and a voice came from heaven which said , thou art my beloved son , in thee i am well pleased : the first thing that jesus did after his baptism , was , when he had fasted forty days and nights , to expose himself to the utmost of satan's temptations , who thereupon did divers ways assault him ; but jesus perfectly overcame the tempter , who had overcome the first man adam ; thenceforth he preached the glad tidings of salvation ; and called men to repentance , and choosing twelve to be more constantly with him than the rest , and to be witnesses of his works and doctrin , he revealed the mysteries of the kingdom of god : he went up and down with them teaching the people , and working miracles to confirm his doctrin : he told them , that he was sent from god , to reveal his will to lost mankind for their recovery , and to bring them to a fuller knowledge of the unseen world , and the way thereto ; and to be a mediator and reconciler between god and man , and to lay down his life as a sacrifice for sin ; and that he would rise again from the dead the third day ; and in the mean time , to fulfill all righteousness , and give man an example of a perfect life : which accordingly he did : he never sinned in thought , word or deed : he chose a poor inferiour condition of life , to teach men by his example , to contemn the wealth and honours of this world , in comparison of the favour of god , and the hopes of immortality . he suffered patiently all indignities from men : he went up and down as the living image of divine power , wisdom and goodness ; doing miracles to manifest his power , and opening the doctrin of god to manifest his wisdom , and healing mens bodies , and seeking the salvation of their souls , to manifest his goodness and his love. without any means , by his bare command , he immediately cured fevers , palsies , and all diseases , cast out devils , and raised the dead to life again ; and so open , uncontroled and numerous were his miracles , as that all men might see , that the omnipotent god did thereby bear witness to his word . yet did not the greatest part of the jews believe in him , for all these miracles , because he came not in worldly pomp to restore their kingdom , and subdue the world : but they blasphemed his very miracles , and said , he did them by the power of the devil : and fearing lest his fame should bring envy and danger upon them from the romans , who ruled over them , they were his most malicious persecutors themselves : the doctrin which he preached was not the unnecessary curiosities of philosophy , nor the subservient arts and sciences , which natural light revealeth , and which natural men can sufficiently teach : but it was to teach men to know god , and to know themselves , their sin and danger , and how to be reconciled to god , and pardoned , and sanctified , and saved : how to live in holiness to god , and in love and righteousness to men , and in special amity and unity among themselves , ( who are his disciples ) : how to mortifie sin , and to contemn the wealth and honours of the world , and to deny the flesh its hurtful desires and lusts ; and how to suffer any thing that we shall be called to , for obedience to god , and the hopes of heaven : to tell us what shall be after death ; how all men shall be judged , and what shall become both of soul and body to everlasting : but his great work was , by the great demonstrations of the goodness and love of god to lost mankind , ( in their free pardon and offered salvation ) to win up mens hearts to the love of god , and to raise their hopes and desires up to that blessed life , where they shall see his glory , and love him , and be beloved by him for ever . at last , when he had finished the work of his ministration in the flesh , he told his disciples of his approaching suffering and resurrection , and instituted the sacrament of his body and bloud , in bread and wine , which he commandeth them to use for the renewing of their covenant with him , and remembrance of him , and for the maintaining and signifying their communion with him and with each other . after this , ( his time being come ) the jews apprehended him , and though upon a word of his mouth ( to shew his power ) they fell all to the ground ; yet did they rise again and lay hands on him , and brought him before pilate the roman governour ; and vehemently urged him to crucifie him , contrary to his own mind and conscience : they accused him of blasphemy , for saying he was the son of god ; and of impiety , for saying , destroy this temple , and in three days i will re-build it , ( he meant his body ) : and of treason against caesar , for calling himself a king , ( though he told them that his kingdom was not worldly , but spiritual . ) hereupon they condemned him , and clothed him in purple like a king in scorn , and set a crown of thorns on his head , and put a reed for a scepter into his hand , and led him about to be a derision : they cover'd his eyes , and smote him , and buffeted him , and bid him tell who strake him : at last they nailed him upon a cross , and put him to open shame and death , betwixt two malefactors , ( of whom , one of them reviled him , and the other believed on him ) : they gave him gall and vinegar to drink : the souldiers pierced his side with a spear , when he was dead . all his disciples forsook him and fled ; peter having before denied thrice that ever he knew him , when he was in danger . when he was dead , the earth trembled , the rocks and the vail of the temple rent , and darkness was upon the earth , though their was no natural eclipse ; which made the captain of the souldiers say , verily this was the son of god. when he was taken down from the cross , and laid in a stone-sepulchre , they set a guard of souldiers to watch the grave , having a stone upon it , which they sealed ; because he had fore-told them that he would rise again : on the morning of the third day , being the first day of the week , an angel terrified the souldiers , and rolled away the stone , and sate upon it ; and when his disciples came , they found that jesus was not there : and the angel told them , that he was risen , and would appear to them : accordingly he oft appeared to them , sometimes as they walked by the way , and once as they were fishing , but usually when they were assembled together : thomas , who was one of them , being absent at his first appearance to the rest , told them he would not believe it , unless he saw the print of the nails , and might put his finger into his wounded side : the next first day of the week , when they were assembled , jesus appeared to them , ( the doors being shut ) and called thomas , and bad him put his fingers into his side , and view the prints of the nails in his hands and feet , and not be faithless but believing : after this he oft appeared to them , and once to above five hundred brethren at once : he earnestly prest peter to shew the love that he bare to himself , by the feeding of his flock : he instructed his apostles in the matters of their employment : he gave them commission to go into all the world , and preach the gospel , and gave them the tenour of the new covenant of grace , and made them the rulers of his church , requiring them by baptism solemnly to enter all into his covenant , who consent to the terms of it , and to assure them of pardon by his blood , and of salvation if they persevere : he required them to teach his disciples to observe all things which he had commanded them , and promised them that he would be with them ( by his spirit , and grace , and powerful defence ) to the end of the world . and when he had been seen of them forty days , speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god , being assembled with them , he commanded them not to depart from jerusalem , but wait till the holy spirit came down upon them , which he had promised them : but they , being tainted with some of the worldly expectations of the jews , and thinking that he who could rise from the dead , would sure now make himself and his followers glorious in the world , began to ask him whether he would at this time restore the kingdom to israel : but he answered them , [ it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father hath put in his own power : but ye shall receive power , after that the holy ghost is come upon you , and ye shall be witnesses to me both at jerusalem , and in all judea and samaria , and to the uttermost parts of the earth . ] and when he had said this , while they beheld , he was taken up , and a cloud received him out of their sight : and while they looked stedfastly toward heaven , as he went up , two men stood by them in white apparel , and said , why gaze ye up into heaven ? this same jesus which is taken up from you into heaven , shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven . upon this they returned to jerusalem , and continued together , till ten days after : as they were all together , ( both the apostles and all the rest of the disciples ) suddenly there came a sound from heaven , as of a rushing mighty wind , and the likeness of fiery cloven tongues sate on them all , and they were filled with the holy ghost , and began to speak in other languages , as the spirit gave them utterance : by this they were enabled both to preach to people of several languages , and to work other miracles to confirm their doctrine ; so that from this time forward , the holy spirit which christ sent down upon believers , was his great witness and agent in the world ; and procured the belief and entertainment of the gospel wheresoever it came : for by this extraordinary reception of the spirit , the apostles themselves were much fullier instructed in the doctrine of salvation than they were before , notwithstanding their long converse with christ in person ; ( it being his pleasure to illuminate them by supernatural infusion , that it might appear to be no contrived design to deceive the world . ) and they were enabled to preach the word with power , and by this spirit were infallibly guided in the performance of the work of their commissions , to settle christ's church in a holy order , and to leave on record the doctrine which he had commanded them to teach : also they themselves did heal the sick , and cast out devils , and prophesie , and by the laying on of their hands , the same holy spirit was ordinarily given to others that believed : so that christians had all one gift or other of that spirit , by which they convinced and converted a great part of the world in a short time : and all that were sincere , had the gift of sanctification , and were regenerate by the spirit , as well as by baptismal water , and had the love of god shed abroad in their hearts , by the holy ghost which was given them : a holy and heavenly mind and life , with mortification , contempt of the world , self-denial , patience , and love to one another and to all men , was the constant badge of all christ's followers : the first sermon that peter preached did convert three thousand of those sinful jews that had crucified christ : and after that , many thousands of them more were converted : one of their bloody persecutors , ( saul a pharisee ) that had been one of the murderers of the first martyr stephen , and had haled many of them to prisons ; as he was going on this business , was struck down by the high-way , a light from heaven shining round about him , and a voice saying to him , saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? and he said , who art thou , lord ? and the lord said , i am jesus whom thou persecutest ; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks : and he trembling and astonished said , lord , what wilt thou have me to do ? and the lord said , arise , and go into the city , and it shall be told thee what thou must do : and the men that journeyed with him stood speechless , hearing a voice , but seeing no man : and so saul was led blind to damascus , where one ananias had a vision , commanding him to baptize him , and his eyes were opened : this convert called paul , did hence-forward preach the gospel of christ , from country to country , in syria , in asia , at rome , and a great part of the world , in marvellous unwearied labours and sufferings , abuses and imprisonments , converting multitudes , and planting churches in many great cities and countries , and working abundance of miracles where he went. his history is laid down in part of the new testament : there are also many of his epistles , ( to rome , to corinth , galatia , ephesus , philippi , coloss , thessalonica , to timothy , to titus , and to philemon , and the hebrews ( as is supposed ) there are also the epistles of peter , james , john and jude , with the revelation of john , containing many mysterious prophesies . an eunuch who was of great power under the queen of ethiopia , was converted by philip , and carried the gospel into his country . the rest of the apostles and other disciples carried it abroad a great part of the world , especially in the roman empire : and though every where they met with opposition and persecution , yet by the power of the holy ghost , appearing in their holiness , languages and miracles , they prevailed and planted abundance of churches , of which the most populous were at jerusalem , antioch , rome and alexandria : and though they were all dispersed abroad the world , and out of the reach of mutual converse , yet did they never disagree in their doctrine , in the smallest point , but proceeded through sufferings in unity and holiness , in the work of saving souls , till most of them were put to death for the sake of christ ; having left the churches under the government of their several pastors , according to the will of christ . this is the abstract of the history of the holy scriptures . § . . the summ of the doctrine of christianity is contained in these articles following , consisting of three general heads : i. things to be known and believed . ii. things to be willed , and desired , and hoped . iii. things to be done . i. . there is one only god in essence , in three essential principles , power , understanding and will ; or omnipotency , omniscience and goodness ; in three subsistences or persons , the father , the son and the holy spirit , who is a mind or spirit , and therefore is most simple , incorruptible , immortal , impassionate , invisible , intactible , &c. and is indivisible , eternal , immense , necessary , independent , self-sufficient , immutable , absolute and infinite in all perfections : the principal efficient , dirigent and final cause of all the world : the creator of all , and therefore our absolute owner , or supreme ruler , and our total benefactor , and chief good and end . . god made man for himself ; not to supply any want of his own , but for the pleasing of his own will and love , in the glory of his perfections shining forth in his works : in his own image ; that is , with vital power , understanding and free-will , able , wise and good ; with dominion over the inferiour creatures , as being in subordination to god their owner , their governour and their benefactor and end . and he bound him by the law of his nature to adhere to god his maker ; by resignation , devotion and submission to him as his owner , by believing , honouring and obeying him as his ruler ; and by loving him , trusting and seeking him , delighting in him , thanksgiving to him , and praising him , as his grand benefactor , chief good , and ultimate end , to exercise charity and justice to each other ; and to govern all his inferiour faculties by reason according to his makers will , that he so might please him , and be happy in his love : and , to try him , he particularly forbad him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil , upon pain of death . . man being tempted by satan to break this law of god , did believe the tempter who promised him impunity , and advancement in knowledge , and who accused god as false in his threatning , and as envying man this great advancement : and so by wilfull sinning against him , he fell from god and his uprightness and happiness , under the displeasure of god , the penalty of his law , and the power of satan : and hence we are all conceived in sin , averse to good , and prone to evil , and condemnation is passed upon all , and no meer creature is able to deliver us . . god so loved the world , that he gave his only son to be their redeemer , who being the eternal wisdom and word of god , and so truly god and one in essence with the father , did assume our nature , and became man , being conceived by the holy spirit in the virgin mary , and born of her , and called jesvs christ : who being holy and without all sin , did conquer the tempter and the world , fulfilling all righteousness ; he enacted and preached the law or covenant of grace , confirming his doctrine by abundant uncontrolled miracles ; contemning the world , he exposed himself to the malice and fury , and contempt of sinners , and gave up himself a sacrifice for our sins , and a ransom for us , in suffering death on a cross , to reconcile us to god : he was buryed , and went in soul to the souls departed : and the third day he rose again , having conquered death ; and after forty dayes having instructed and authorized his apostles in their office , he ascended up into heaven in their sight ; where he remaineth glorified , and is lord of all ; the chief priest , and prophet , and king of his church , interceding for us , teaching and governing us , by his spirit , ministers and word . . the new law and covenant which christ hath procured , made and sealed ( by his blood , his sacraments , and his spirit ) is this ; [ that to all them who by true repentance and faith , do forsake the flesh , the world and the devil , and give up themselves to god the father , son and holy spirit , their creator , redeemer and sanctifier , he will give himself in these relations , and take them as his reconciled children , pardoning their sins , and giving them his grace , and title to everlasting happiness , and will glorifie all that thus persevere : but will condemn the unbelievers , impenitent , and ungodly , to everlasting punishment . ] this covenant he hath commanded his ministers to proclaim and offer to all the world , and to baptize all that consent thereunto , to invest them sacramentally in all these benefits , and enter them into his holy catholick church . . the holy spirit proceeding from the father and the son , did first inspire and guide the prophets , apostles and evangelists , that they might truly and fully reveal the doctrine of christ , and deliver it in scripture to the church , as the rule of our faith and life ; and by abundance of evident , uncontrolled miracles , and gifts , to be the great witness of christ , and of the truth of his holy word . . where the gospel is made known , the holy spirit doth by it illuminate the minds of such as shall be saved , and opening and softening their hearts , doth draw them to believe in christ , and turneth them from the power of satan unto god : whereupon they are joyned to christ the head , and into the holy catholick church which is his body , consisting of all true believers , and are freely justified and made the sons of god , and a sanctified peculiar people unto him , and do love him above all , and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness , loving and desiring the communion of saints , overcoming the flesh , the world , and the devil , and living in hope of the coming of christ , and of everlasting life . . at death the souls of the justified go to happiness with christ , and the souls of the wicked to misery : and at the end of this world , the lord jesus christ will come again , and will raise the bodies of all men from the dead , and will judge all the world according to the good or evil which they have done : and the righteous shall go into everlasting life , where they shall see gods glory , and being perfected in holiness , shall love and praise and please him perfectly , and be loved by him for evermore ; and the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment with the devil . ii. according to this belief we do deliberately and seriously by unfeigned consent of will , take this one god , the infinite power , wisdom , and goodness , the father , son , and holy spirit , for our only god , our reconciled father , our saviour and our sanctifyer , and resolvedly give up our selves to him accordingly ; entering into his church under the hands of his ministers , by the solemnization of this covenant in the sacrament of baptism . and in prosecution of this covenant , we proceed to stirre up our desires by daily prayer to god in the name of christ , by the help of the holy spirit , in the order following : . we desire the glorifying and hallowing of the name of god , that he may be known , and loved , and honoured by the world , and may be well-pleased in us , and we may delight in him which is our ultimate end . . that his kingdom of grace may be enlarged , and his kingdom of glory as to the perfected church of the sanctified , may come : that mankinde may more universally subject themselves to god their creator and redeemer , and be saved by him . . that this earth which is grown too like to hell , may be made liker to the holy ones in heaven , by a holy conformity to gods will , and obedience to all his laws , denying and mortifying their own fleshly desires , wills and minds . . that our natures may have necessary support , protection and provision in our daily service of god , and passage through this world , with which we ought to be content . . that all our sins may be forgiven us through our redeemer , as we our selves are ready to pardon wrongs . . that we may be kept from temptations , and delivered from sin and misery , from satan , from wicked men , and from our selves : concluding our prayers with the joyfull praises of god , our heavenly father , acknowledging his kingdom , power , and glory for ever . iii. the laws of christian practice are these : . that our souls do firmly adhere to god , our creator , redeemer and sanctifyer , by faith , love , confidence , and delight ; that we seek him by desire , obedience and hope ; meditating on himself , his word and works of creation , redemption and sanctification , of death , judgement , heaven and hell : exercising repentance and mortifying sin , especially atheism , unbelief , and unholiness , hardness of heart , disobedience and unthankfulness , pride , worldliness and flesh-pleasing : examining our hearts ; about our graces , our duties , and our sins : watchfully governing our thoughts , affections , passions , senses , appetites , words and outward actions : resisting temptations ; and serving god with all our faculties , and glorifying him in our hearts , our speeches , and our lives . . that we worship god according to his holiness , and his word , in spirit and truth , and not with fopperies and imagery according to our own devices , which may dishonour him , and lead us to idolatry . . that we ever use his name with special reverence ; especially in appealing to him by an oath ; abhorring prophaneness , perjury , and breach of vows and covenants to god. . that we meet in holy assemblies for his more solemn worship ; where the pastors teach his word to their flocks , and lead them in prayer and praise to god , administer the sacrament of communion , and are the guides of the church in holy things ; whom the people must hear , obey and honour ; especially the lords day must be thus spent in holiness . . that parents educate their children in the knowledge and fear of god , and in obedience of his laws ; and that princes , masters and all superiours govern in holiness and justice , for the glory of god , and the common good , according to his laws : and that children love , honour and obey their parents , and all subjects their rulers , in due subordination unto god. . that we do nothing against our neighbours life or bodily welfare , but carefully preserve it as our own . . that no man defile his neighbours wife , nor commit fornication ; but preserve our own and others chastity in thought , word and deed . . that we wrong not another in his estate , by stealing , fraud , or any other means ; but preserve our neighbours estate as our own . . that we pervert not justice by false witness or otherwise ; nor wrong our neighbour in his name , by slanders , backbiting or reproach : that we lie not ; but speak the truth in love , and preserve our neighbours right and honour as our own . . that we be not selfish , setting up our selves and our own , against our neighbour and his good , desiring to draw from him unto our selves : but that we love our neighbour as our selves , desiring his welfare as our own ; doing to others as ( regularly ) we would have them do to us ; forbearing and forgiving one another ; loving even our enemies , and doing good to all , according to our power , both for their bodies and their souls . this is the substance of the christian religion . § . . ii. the summ or abstract of the christian religion is contained in three short forms : the first called , the creed , containing the matter of the christian belief ; the second called , the lords prayer , containing the matter of christian desires and hope : the third called , the law or decalogue containing the summ of morall duties ; which are as followeth . the belief . . i believe in god , the father almighty , maker of heaven and earth ; . and in iesus christ his only son our lord ; who was conceived by the holy ghost , born of the virgin mary , suffered under pontius pilate ; was crucified , dead and buried , descended to * hell ; the third day he rose again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven , and sitteth on the right hand of god the father almighty : from thence he shall come again to judge the quick and the dead . . i believe in the holy ghost ; the holy catholick church , the communion of saints , the forgiveness of sins , the resurrection of the body , and the life everlasting . the lords prayer . our father which art in heaven , hallowed be thy name : thy kingdom come : thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven . give us this day our daily bread , and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us : and lead us not into temptation ; but deliver us from evil : for thine is the kingdom , the power and the glory ; for ever , amen . the ten commandements . god spake all these words ; saying , i am the lord thy god , which brought thee out of the land of egypt , out of the house of bondage . . thou shalt have no other gods before me . . thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image , or any likeness of any thing in heaven above , or that is in the earth beneath , or that is in the water under the earth : thou shalt not vow down thy self to them , nor serve them : for i the lord thy god am a jealous god , visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me , and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandements . . thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain , for the lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain . . * remember the sabbath day , to keep it holy : six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god ; in it thou shalt not do any work ; thou , nor thy son , nor thy daughter , thy man-servant , nor thy maid-servant , nor thy cattel , nor the stranger that is within thy gates : for in six dayes the lord made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is , and rested the seventh day , wherefore the lord blessed the seventh day , and hallowed it . . honour thy father and thy mother ; that thy dayes may be long upon the land , which the lord thy god giveth thee . . thou shalt not kill . . thou shalt not commit adultery . . thou shalt not steal . . thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour . . thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house : thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife , nor his man-servant , nor his maid-servant , nor his oxe , nor his ass , nor any thing that is thy neighbours . § . . the ten commandements are summed up by christ into these two , thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart , and soul , and might ; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self . § . . these commandements being first delivered to the jews , are continued by christ , as the summ of the law of nature ; only instead of deliverance of the jews from egypt , he hath made our redemption from sin and satan , which was thereby typified , to be the fundamental motive ; and he hath removed the memorial of the creation-rest , from the seventh day-sabbath , to be kept on the lords day , which is the first , with the commemoration of his resurrection , and our redemption , in the solemn worship of his holy assemblies . § . . iii. the briefest summary of the christian religion , containing the essentials only , is in the sacramental covenant of grace : wherein the penitent believer , renouncing the flesh , the world and the devil , doth solemnly give up himself to god the father , son and holy spirit , as his only god , his father , his saviour and his sanctifier , engaging himself hereby to a holy life ( of resignation , obedience and love ) ; and receiving the pardon of all his sins , and title to the further helps of grace , to the favour of god , and everlasting life : this covenant is first entered by the sacrament of baptisme , and after renewed in our communion with the church , in the sacrament of the body and blood of christ . so that the christian religion is but [ faith in god our creator , redeemer and sanctifyer , producing the hope of life everlasting , and possessing us with the love of god and man : and all this expressed in the genuine fruits of patience , obedience , and praise to god , and works of charity and justice unto man. § . . that all this religion might be the better understood , received and practised by us , the word of god , came down into flesh , and gave us a perfect example of it in his most perfect life ; in perfect holiness and innocency , conquering all temptations , contemning the honours , riches and pleasures of the world ; in perfect patience , and meekness , and condescension , and in the perfect love of god and man. when perfect doctrine is seconded by perfect exemplariness of life , there can be no greater light set before us , to lead us out of our state of darkness into the everlasting light. and had it not been a pattern of holy power , wisdom and goodness ; of self-denyall , obedience and love ; of patience , and of truth and prudence , and of contempt of all inferiour things , even of life it self , for the love of god , and for life eternal ; it would not have been a full exemplification of his doctrine ; nor a perfect revelation of it to the world. example bringeth doctrine neer our senses , and thereby maketh it more clear and powerfull . § . . it is the undertaken office of jesus christ , to send the holy spirit into believers mindes , and to write out the substance of this law upon their hearts , and give them such holy and heavenly inclinations , that it may become as it were a natural law unto them , and they obey it with love , facility and delight ( though not in perfection till they arrive at the state of perfection . ) so much to shew what the christian religion is . chap. iv. of the nature and properties of the christian religion . having understood the matter and words of the christian religion , before i proceeded any further , i thought it meet to pass a judgment upon the nature , temperament , constitution and properties of it . and therein i found that which must needs be a great preparative to belief . § . . and first , i found , that it is a most holy and spiritual religion , resolved into the most excellent principles and ends , glorifying god , and humbling man , and teaching us the most divine and heavenly life , in the love and patient service of our creator . . it is most holy , for it calleth us up entirely unto god , and consisteth in our absolute dedication and devotedness to him . . it is most spiritual , leading us from things carnal and terrene ; and being principally about the government of the soul ; and placing all our felicity in things spiritual , and not in fleshly pleasures with the epicureans and mahometans : it teacheth us to worship god in a spiritual manner , and not either irrationally , toyishly , or irreverently : and it directeth our lives to a daily converse with god in holiness . . the principles of it are the three essentialities of god in unity , viz. the infinite power , wisdom and goodness ; and the three grand relations of god to man , as founded in his three most famous works , viz , as our creator , our redeemer , and our regenerater or sanctifier ; and the three great relations arising from creation , and also from redemption , viz. as he is our owner , our ruler and our benefactor or chiefest good and end. . the ends of the christian religion , i find are proximately the saving of man from satan , and the justice of god ; the sanctifying them to god , and purifying them from sin , the pardon of their sins , and the everlasting happiness of their souls , in the pleasing and fruition of god for ever . in a word , it is but the redeeming us from our carnal self , the world , and the devil , to the love and service of our creator . . nothing can be spoken more honourably of god in all his perfections , in the language of poor mortals , than what the christian religion speaketh of him . . and no religion so much humbleth man , by opening the malignity both of his original and actual sin , and declaring the displeasure of god against it . . it teacheth us who once lived as without god in the world , to live wholly unto god , and to make nothing of all the world in comparison of him . . and it teacheth us to live upon the hopes of heaven , and fetch our motives and our comforts from it . § . . i find that the christian religion is the most pure , and clean , and utterly opposite to all that is evil . there is no vertue which it commendeth not , nor duty which it commandeth not , nor vice which it condemneth not , nor sin which it forbiddeth not . the chief thing in it which occasioneth the rebellion and displeasure of the world against it , is the purity and goodness of it , which is contrary to their sensual nature , and as physick to their licentious lives : would it indulge their vices , and give them leave to sin , they could endure it . § . . particularly it most vehemently condemneth the grand vices of pride , worldliness , and sensuality , and all their polluting and pernicious fruits . . no religion doth so much to teach men humility , and make pride appear an odious thing . it openeth the malignity of it , as it lifteth up the mind against god or man : it condemneth it as satans image : it giveth us a multitude of humbling precepts and motives , and secondeth them all with the strangest example of condescension and lowliness in christ that was ever presented to the view of man. whereas i find even in the famousest of the roman heathens , that a great deal of pride was taken for a virtue , and men were instructed and exhorted to be proud , under pretence of maintaining and vindicating their honour ; and true humility was taken for disgraceful baseness , and men were driven from it by the scorn , not only of the vulgar , but of philosophers themselves . . and there is no religion that is fitted so much to the destruction of worldliness , or of the love of riches , as christianity is : for it teacheth men most effectually the vanity of the world ; it appointeth them a holy life , so hateful to worldly men , as will occasion them to feel the vexation of the world ; it openeth to them the hopes of a life so much better , as may teach them to take all the wealth and glory of this world for a shadow , a feather , or a dream . it condemneth worldly love , as the sin inconsistent with the love of god , and the certain mark of a drossy unsanctified miserable soul . it setteth before us such an example of christ , as must needs shame worldliness with all true believers . . and for sensuality , it openeth the shame of its beastiality , and maketh the carnal mind and life to be enmity to god , and the contrary to that spiritual mind and life , which is the property of all that shall be saved : it strictly and vehemently condemneth all gluttony and excess of drink ; all ryotting and time-wasting needless sports ; all fornication , and ribald talk , and wanton carriage , words or thoughts : whereas i find among heathens and mahometans , that inordinate sensuality was much indulged : excess of eating and drinking was made a matter of no great blame : time-wasting plays were as little accused , as if men had no greater matter to do in the world , than to pass away time in some sensual or fantastical delight : either by fornication , or many wives at once , their lust was gratified ; and so their minds were debased , polluted , and called down and made unfit for spiritual contemplation and a holy life . from whence no doubt it came to pass , that they were so dark about things spiritual and divine , and so overspread with errors about many plain and necessary things . § . . there is no religion which so notably detecteth and disgraceth the sin of selfishness , nor so effectually teacheth self-denial , as the christian religion doth . it maketh man understand the nature of his corrupt depraved state ; that it is a falling from god to self : and that his recovery lieth in returning from self to god. it sheweth him how selfishness is the principle of divisions , enmity , wrath , contentions , envy , malice , covetousness , injustice , oppression , wars , uncharitableness , and all the iniquity of the world . and how self is the grand enemy of god , and man , and of the publick good and peace ; and contrary to the love of god and our neighbour , and the common-wealth . it giveth us so many precepts for self-denial , as no other religion did ever mention ; and such an example against it in jesus christ , as is the astonishment of men and angels . and therefore all other religions did in vain attempt the true purifying of heart and life , or the pacifying of the divided minds of men , while they let alone this sin of selfishness , ( or lightly touch'd it ) which is the root and heart of all the rest . § . . no religion doth so much reveal to us the nature of god , and his works for man , and relations to him , as the christian religion doth . and doubtless that is the most excellent doctrine which maketh known god most to mans mind ; and that is the best religion , which bringeth man nearest to his creator , in love and purity . few of the heathens knew god in his unity ; and fewer in the trinity of his essential primalities : many question'd his particular providence and government : they knew not man's relation or duty to him , while they were distracted with the observance of a multitude of gods , they indeed had none . though god be incomprehensible to us all , yet is there a great deal of the glory of his perfections , revealed to us in the light of christianity , which we may seek in vain with any other sort of men . § . . no religion doth so wonderfully open , and magnifie , and reconcile god's justice and mercy to mankind , as christianity doth . it sheweth how his justice is founded in his holiness , and his governing relation : it justifieth it by opening the purity of his nature , the evil of sin , and the use of punishment to the right government of the world : and it magnifieth it by opening the dreadfulness and certainty of his penalties , and the sufferings of our redeemer when he made himself a sacrifice for our sins . by the revelation of justice , sin and misery , it revealeth the wonderful greatness of gods mercy : it openeth those operations and effects of it , which heathenism and mahometanism are utter strangers to : they speak diminutively both of mercy and justice , and cannot tell how to make god merciful , without making him vnjust ; nor to make him just , without obscuring the glory of his mercy : which is peculiarly set forth in the work of redemption , and the covenant of grace , and promise of everlasting blessedness . § . . the christian religion openeth many other parts of holy doctrine , which are unknown to men that learned them not from thence . such as the doctrin of the creation , and the fall , and of original sin , and of justification , sanctification , adoption , and the right worshipping of god : of which , mention is made before more distinctly . § . . no religion can be more charitable ; for it wholly consisteth in the love of god and one another , and in the means to kindle and maintain this love . the whole law of christ is fulfilled in love : even in loving god for himself , above all ; and our neighbours as our selves for the sake of god ; yea , our enemies so far as there is any thing amiable in them . the end of all the commandments is love , out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and unfeigned faith . and all christians are obliged to love each other with a pure heart , and fervently ; yea , to shew that love which they profess to christ himself , by the loving of one another : how frequently and earnestly is this great duty pressed by christ and his apostles ? how great a stress doth he lay upon it ? he maketh it the evidence of our love to god : he promiseth salvation to it : he forbiddeth selfishness , that it may not hinder it : he commandeth us to live in the constant expression of it , and to provoke one another to love and to good works : he hath made himself the most matchless and wonderful example of it : he hath told us , that according to mens charity he will judge them at the last day . how dry and barren are all religions and writings that we have ever come to the knowledge of in the world , in the point of love , and the fruits of love , in comparison of the gospel of jesus christ ? § . . i find that the christian religion is most for vnity and peace of any religion in the world ; most vehemently commanding them , and appointing the fittest means for the attaining of them . . all christians are commanded to be of one mind , to think the same things , and speak the same things ; and discord and division and contention is earnestly forbidden them , and condemned , and all occasions which may lead them thereunto . . and they have one head and centre , one god and saviour , who is their common governour , end and interest , in whom therefore they may all unite : when most others in the world do shew a man no further end than self-preservation ; and so while self is each mans end and interest , there are as many ends as men ; and how then is it possible that such should have any true unity and concord ? but to every true christian , the pleasing and glorifying of god , and the promoting of his kingdom for the salvation of the world , is above all self-interest whatsoever ; and therefore in this they are all united : and though they all seek their own felicity and salvation , it is only in the seeking of this higher end ; which is finis amantis ; sed creaturae amantis creatorem ; the end of a lover , which desireth unity , and respecteth both the lover and the beloved ; but it is not the end of the love of equals , but of the creature to the creator , who therefore preferreth his beloved before himself in his intentions . so that it is only this holy centring in god , that can ever make men all of a mind , and agree the disagreeing world : while self is every mans end , they will have such constant contrariety of interests , that it will be impossible for them to agree ; but covetousness , ambition and sensuality will keep them in factions , contentions and wars continually . moreover it is christianity that most urgeth , and effectually giveth a hearty love to one another , and teacheth them to love their neighbours as themselves , and to do as they would have others to do by them : and this is the true root and spring of concord . and it is christianity which most teacheth the forgiving of wrongs , and loving of enemies , and forbearing that revenge , which heathens were wont to account an honour . and it is christianity which teacheth men to contemn all the riches and honours of the world , which is the bone that worldly dogs do fight for , and the great occasion of their strife : and it teacheth them to mortifie all those vices , which feed mens divisions and contentions . so that if any man live as a christian , he must needs be a man of unity and peace . if you say , that the contrary appeareth in the practice of christians ; i shall answer that with the rest of the objections by themselves : i shall only say now , that if this that i have laid down be certainly the doctrin of christ , then it is as certain , that the contrary is contrary to christianity , and that so far such persons are no christians : it is hypocrites that take up the name of christians for worldly advantage , and are no christians indeed , who live thus contrary to the nature and precepts of christianity which they profess . § . . the christian religion is most exactly just , in its rules and precepts , and vehemently condemneth all injustice , fraud , persecution and oppression . what juster rule can there be than to suit all our actions to the perfect law of primitive justice , and to do as we would be done by ? what more effectual principle of justice can there be , than charity and self-denial ? to love all men for god , and to account our neighbours welfare as our own ? bring all men but to love their neighbours as themselves , and they will have little inclination to cruelty , oppression , fraud , or any other injuries . and when heaven is made the reward of justice and mercy , and hell the reward of injustice and cruelty , we have the greatest motives that humane nature is capable of . § . . the christian religion is the most excellent rule for order and government in the world , and for the peace of kingdoms and their stability : in that it prescribeth the only method of true government , and condemneth both impiety and tyranny in the governours , and all sedition and rebellion in the subjects . . it setteth government on the only foundation , ( the authority which men receive from god ) and teacheth men to rule as the officers of the universal king , in due subordination to him ; for his glory , and according to his laws ; and letteth them know that they have no power but from god , and therefore none against him ; and that they must be judged by him themselves for all their government : and that all oppression , tyranny and persecution will be to their own confusion in the end . . it teacheth subjects to honour their superiours , and to obey them in all things , in which they disobey not god : and to be patient under all oppressions ; and to avoid all murmurings , tumults and rebellions , and this for fear of god's condemnation . and certainly these are the most powerful means for peace ; and for the happy order and government of societies . § . . the christian religion greatly condemneth all fierceness , and impatience and discontentedness ; and requireth a meek and patient frame of minde ; and therefore must needs conduce to the forementioned vnity and peace . § . . it is wholly for sincerity and uprightness of heart , and greatly condemneth all hypocrisie : it giveth laws for the very disposition of the minde , and for the government of the secretest thoughts , affections and actions ; and condemeth every sin which the world observeth not , or condemneth not . § . . i finde , that the christian religion is not fitted to any worldly designs ; but only to the sanctifying of mens hearts and lives , and the saving of their souls . christ did not contrive by dominion or riches , to win the ungodly multitude to be his admirers , but by holy precepts and discipline to make his disciples good and happy . mahomet took the way of violence , and fleshly baits , and blinde obedience , to bring in the multitude , and to advance a worldly kingdom : but christ goeth the clean contrary way ; he calleth men to a life of self-denyal , and patient suffering in the world ; he calleth them to contemn the riches , honours , and pleasures of the world ; and to forsake all , even life it self for him , and telleth them that they can on no lower terms than these be disciples . he hath set up a discipline in his church , to cast out all drunkards , fornicators , covetous-persons , railers , and other such scandalous sinners who are impenitent ; and will have none in his true mystical church , but such as are truly holy ; nor none in his visible church , but such as are professed to be so . he turneth away all that come not up to his spiritual and holy terms ; and he casteth out all that notoriously violate them , if they do not repent . § . . the christian religion containeth all things necessary to mans happiness , and taketh men off unprofitable speculations ; and doth not overwhelme the mindes of men , with multitudes of needless things . it is for the most things unnecessary , as well as uncertain , with which the philosophers have troubled the world ; they have lost true wisdom in a wilderness of fruitless controversies . but christianity is a religion to make men holy and happy , and therefore it containeth these necessary substantial precepts , which conduce hereunto . and it taketh men off unnecessary things , which else would take up their mindes , and talk , and time , from things necessary . and so it s suited to the generality of men , and not only to a few that have nothing else to do , but wander in a wilderness of vain speculations ; and it is fitted to mans best and ultimate end , and not to a phantastical delight . § . . it tendeth to exalt the minde of man , to the most high and heavenly elevation that it is capable of in this life . for it teacheth men ( as is aforesaid ) to live in the spirit , upon the things above , in the continual love of god , and desires and endeavours for everlasting glory : than which mans minde hath nothing more high , and honourable , and excellent , to be employed about . § . . it leadeth men to the joyfullest life that humane nature is capable of on earth . for it leadeth us to the assurance of the love of god , and of the pardon of all our sins , and of endless glory when we die : it assureth us , that we shall live for ever , in the sight of the glory of god , with jesus christ , and be like the angels , and be perfected in holiness and happiness , and be employed in the love and praises of god for evermore : it commandeth us to live in the foresight of these everlasting pleasures , and to keep the taste of them alwayes upon our mindes , and in daily meditation on the love of god , to live in the daily returns of love , and to make this our continual feast and pleasure . and can the minde of man on earth , have higher and greater delights than these ? § . . the christian religion forbiddeth men no bodily pleasure , but that which hindereth their greater pleasure , and tendeth to their pain or sorrow , nor doth it deny them any earthly thing , which is truly for their good . indeed it taketh the bruitish appetite and flesh , to be an unfit judge of what is truly good and desireable for us : and it forbiddeth much which the flesh doth crave : because either it tendeth to the wrong of others , or the breach of order in the world ; or to the corrupting of mans minde , and diverting it from things sublime and spiritual , or putting it out of relish with that which is our true felicity , or the way thereto . it is only on such accounts , and in such cases as these , that christ forbiddeth us the pleasures of the flesh : and so will parents restrain the appetites of their children , and physicians of their patients , and every wise man will restrain his own , when present sensual pleasure tendeth to greater future pain . the satisfying delights of man can be no where but in the love of god , and in a heavenly life , and in the foresight of endless joyes , and in the knowledge and means which lead to these : and the unwholsom luscious pleasures of the flesh , do greatly tend to draw down the minde , and corrupt the affections , and dull our desires and endeavours towards these higher things : and therefore our saviour doth strictlyer here dyet us , than is pleasing to diseased souls . but he loveth not our sorrows or pains , nor envyeth us any desireable pleasure : he came not to torment us , but to save us from torment : if he forbid us any delight , it is because he would have us have better and more , which that would keep us from . if he teach us to deny our honour with men , it is but that we may have honour with god and angels . if he call us from our present wealth and profit , it is but to secure our everlasting riches , and prevent our loss . all his precepts are wholly fitted to our own good ; though our good be not the highest ultimate end , but the glory and pleasure of our maker . § . . there cannot possibly be any higher motives to sincere piety and honesty given to the world , than the christian religion sets before them ; even the joyes of heaven , and the pains of hell , and all the pleasures and priviledges of an holy life : and therefore it must needs be the powerfull means to all that is truly good and happy . § . . it stronglyest fortifieth the minde of man , against the power of all temptations . for as it enervateth the temptation , by teaching us to mortifie the lusts of the flesh , and to contemn the world , so it alwayes counterpoiseth it with the authority of god , the joyes of heaven , the punishment of hell ; which are in the ballance against all the pleasures of sin , as a mountain is against a feather . § . . it affordeth us the most powerfull supports and comforts in every suffering ; that we may bear it patiently and with joy . for it assureth us of the love of god , and of the pardon of our greater sufferings : it sheweth us how to be gainers by all , and sheweth us the glory and joy which will be the end of all . § . . it affordeth us the greatest cordials against the fears of death . for it assureth us of endless happiness after death . and if a socrates , or cicero , or seneca , could fetch any comfort from a doubtfull conjecture of another life , what may a christian do that hath an undoubted assurance of it , and also of the nature and greatness of the felicity which we there expect : and why should he fear dying , who looks to pass into endless pleasure . and therefore christianity conduceth ( not to pusillanimity , but ) to the greatest fortitude and nobleness of minde : for what should daunt him who is above the fears of sufferings and death . § . . it containeth nothing which any man can rationally fear , can be any way a hinderance to his salvation . this will be more cleared when i have answered the objections against it . § . . it containeth nothing that hath the least contrariety to any natural verity or law ; but contrarily comprehendeth all the law of nature , as its first and principal part , and that in the most clear and legible character , superadding much more which naturalists know not . so that if there be any good in other religions ( as there is some in all ) , it is all contained in the christian religion , with the addition of much more : there is no truth or goodness in the religion of the philosophers , the platonists , the stoicks , the pythagorean bannians in india , the bonzii in japan , or those in siam , china , persia , or any other parts , nor among the mahometans or jews , which is not contained in the doctrine and religion of the christians . § . . accordingly it hath all the reall evidence which the true parts of any other religion hath , with the addition of much more supernatural evidence . for all that is justly called the law of nature , ( which is the first part of the christian religion ) is evidenced by the light of nature : and this christians have as well as others : and all that is of true supernatural revelation , they have above others by its proper evidence . § . . the style of the sacred scripture is plain , and therefore fit for all ; and yet majestical and spiritual , suited to its high and noble ends . were it expressed in those terms of art , which the masters of each sect have devised to transmit their opinions to posterity by , they would be fit for none but those few , who by acquaintance with such terms , esteem themselves , or are esteemed learned men : and yet the men of another sect might little understand them . for most new sect-masters in philosophy , devised new terms , as well as new principles or opinions : though at athens , where the principal sects were near together , the diversity was not so great as among them at a further distance , yet was there enough to trouble their disciples . he that understandeth zoroaster and trismegistus , may not understand pythagoras ; and he that understandeth him , may not understand his follower plato ; and he that understandeth him , may not understand aristotle : and so of telesius , parmenides , anaxagoras , aristippus , antisthenes , zeno , chrysippus , heraclitus , democritus , pyrrho , epicurus , with all the rest : and among christians themselves , the degenerated hereticks and sectaries , that make their own opinions , do make also their own terms of art ; so that if you compare the valentinians , basilidians , apollinarians , &c. and our late wigelians , paracelsians , rosicrucians , belimenists , familists , libertines , quakers , &c. you shall find that he that seemeth to understand one sect , must learn , as it were , a new language , before he can understand the rest . so that if the scripture must have been phrased according to philosophers terms of art , who knoweth to which sect it must have been suited ? and every day there riseth up a campanella , a thomas white , &c. who are reforming the old terms and arts , and making both new ; so that nothing which is of universal use , as religion is , can be fitted to any such uncertain measure . christ hath therefore dealt much better with the world , and spoken plainly the things which the simple and all must know , and yet spoken sublimely of things mysterious , heavenly and sublime . this is the true nature and character of christianity . chap. v. of the congruities in the christian religion , which make it the more easily credible , and are great preparatives to faith. because truth is never contrary to it self , nor agreeable with errour , it is a way that reason teacheth all men , in the trying of any questioned point , to reduce it to those that are unquestionable , and see whether or no they accord with those : and to mark the unquestionable ends of religion , and try how it suiteth its means thereunto : and therefore men of all sober professions have their determinate principles and ends , by which they try such particular opinions ; as christians do by their analogy of faith . and in this trial of christianity , i shall tell you what i find it . § . . i find in general , that there is an admirable concord between natural verity , and the gospel of christ ; and that grace is medicinal to nature ; and that where natural light endeth , supernatural beginneth ; and that the superstructure which christ hath built upon nature , is wonderfully adapted to its foundation . this is made manifest in all the first part of this treatise . reason , which is our nature , is not destroyed , but repaired , illuminated , elevated and improved , by the christian faith . free-will , which is our nature , is made more excellently free by christianity . self-love , which is our nature , is not destroyed , but improved by right conduct and help to our attainment of its ends . the natural part of religion is so far from being abrogated by christianity , that the latter doth but subserve the former . christ is the way to god the father . the duty which we owe by nature to our creator , we owe him still ; and christ came to enable and teach us to perform it : the love of god our creator with all our hearts is still our duty : and faith in christ is but the means to the love of god , and the bellows to kindle that holy fire . the redeemer came to recover us to our creator ; he taketh not the book of the creatures or nature out of our hands , but teacheth us better to read and use it . and so it is through all the rest . § . . i find also that the state of this present world is exceeding suitable to the scripture-character of it ; that it is exceeding evil , and a deluge of sin and misery , doth declare its great necessity of a saviour , and sheweth it still to be a place unmeet to be the home and happiness of saints . of all the parts of god's creation , this earth doth seem to be next to hell : certainly it is greatly defiled with sin , and overwhelmed with manifold calamities ; and though god hath not totally forsaken it , nor turned away his mercy as he hath done from hell , yet is he much estranged from it : so that those who are not recovered by grace , are next to devils . and alas how numerous and considerable are they to denominate it , [ an evil world ! ] those that christ calleth out of it , he sanctifieth , and maketh them unlike the world : and his grace doth not give them a worldly felicity , nor settle them in a rest or kingdom here ; but it saveth them from this world , as from a place of snares , and a company of cheaters , robbers and murderers ; and from a tempestuous sea , whose waves seem ready still to drown us . i. i find it is a world of sin. ii. and of temptation . iii. and of calamity . i. for sin , it is become , as it were , its nature , it liveth with men from the birth to the grave . it is an ignorant world , that wandereth in darkness ; and yet a proud self-conceited world , that will not be convinced of its ignorance ; and is never more furiously confident , than when it is most deceived and most blind . even natural wisdom is so rare , and folly hath the major vote and strength , that wise men are wearied with resisting folly , and ready in discouragements to leave the foolish world unto it self , as an incurable bedlam : so fierce are fools against instruction , and so hard is it to make them know that they are ignorant , or to convince men of their mistakes and errours : the learner thinks his teacher doteth ; and he that hath but wit enough to distinguish him from a bruit , is as confident as if he were a doctor . the learned themselves are for the most part but half-witted men , who either take up with lazie studies , or else have the disadvantage of uncapable temperatures and wits , or of unhappy teachers and false principles received by ill education , which keep out truth : so that they are but fitted to trouble the world with their contentions , or deceive men by their errors : and yet have they not the acquaintance with their ignorance , which might make them learn of such as can instruct them ; but if there be among many but one that is wiser than the rest , he is thought to be unfit to live among them , if he will not deny his knowledge , and own their errours , and confess that modesty and order require , that either the highest , or the major vote are the masters of truth , and all is false that is against their opinions . it is an atheistical ungodly world , that knoweth not its maker ; or forgetteth , contemneth , and wilfully disobeyeth him , while in words it doth confess him : and yet an hypocritical world , that will speak honourably of god , and of vertue and piety , of justice and charity , while they are neglecting and rejecting them , and cannot endure the practice of that which their tongues commend : almost all sorts will prefer the life to come in words , when indeed they utterly neglect it , and prefer the fleshly pleasures of this life : they cry out of the vanity and vexation of the world , and yet they set their hearts upon it , and love it better than god and the world to come : they will have some religion , to mock god , and deceive themselves , which shall go no deeper than the knee and tongue , in forms , or ceremonies , or a dissembled affection and profession . but to be devoted absolutely to god , in self-resignation , obedience and love , how rare is it even in them who cannot deny , but the law of nature it self doth primarily and undeniably oblige them to it ? their religion is but self-condemnation , while their tongues condemn their hearts and lives . it is a sensual bruitish world , and seemeth to have hired out their reason to the service of their appetites and lusts : gluttony , and excess of drink , and sports , and plays , and gaming , with pride , and wantonness , and fornication , and uncleanness , and worldly pomp , and the covetous gathering of provision for the flesh , to satisfie these lusts , is the business and pleasure of their lives : and if you tell them of reason , or the law of god to take them off , you may almost as well think to reason a hungry dog from his carrion , or a lustful boar to forbear his lust . and it is a selfish world , where every man is as an idol to himself ; and affected to himself and his own interest , as if he were all the world : drawing all that he can from others , to fill his own insatiable desires : loving all men , and honouring , and esteeming , and praising them , according to the measure of their esteem of him , or their agreeableness to his opinions , ways or interest : self-love , self-conceit , self-esteem , self-will and self-seeking , is the soul and business of the world . and therefore no wonder that it is a divided and contentious world , when it hath as many ends as men ; and every man is for himself , and draweth his own way . no wonder that there is such variety of apprehensions , that no two men are in all things of a mind : and that the world is like a company of drunken men together by the ears , or of blind men fighting with they know not whom , and for they know not what . and that ignorant sects , and contentious wranglers , and furious fighters , are the bulkie parts of it . and that striving who shall rule , or be greatest , or have his will , is the worlds employment . it is a dreaming and distracted world , that spend their days and cares for nothing ; and are as serious in following a feather , and in the pursuit of that , which they confess is vanity and dying in their hands , as if indeed they knew it to be true felicity : they are like children , busie in hunting butterflies ; or like boys at foot-ball , as eager in the pursuit , and in over-turning one another , as if it were for their lives , or for some great desirable prize : or liker to a heap of ants , that gad about as busily , and make as much ado for sticks and dust , as if they were about some magnificent work . thus doth the vain deceived world lay out their thoughts and time upon impertinencies , and talk and walk like so many noctambulo's in their sleep : they study , and care , and weep , and laugh , and labour , and fight , as men in a dream : and will hardly be perswaded , but it is reality which they pursue , till death come and awake them . like a stage-play , or a poppet-play , where all things seem to be what they are not , and all parties seem to do what they do not , and then depart , and are all disroab'd and unmask'd ; such is the life of the most of this world , who spend their days in a serious jeasting , and in a busie doing nothing . it is a malignant world , that hath an inbred radicated enmity to all that virtue and goodness which they want : they are so captivated to their fleshly pleasures and worldly interests , that the first sight , approach or motion , of reason , holiness , mortification and self-denial , is met by them with heart-rising , indignation and opposition : in which their fury beareth down all argument , and neither giveth them leave considerately to use their own reason , or hearken to anothers : there are few that are truly wise , and good , and heavenly , that escape their hatred and beastly rage . and when countries have thought to remedy this plague , by changing their forms of government , experience hath told them , that the vice and root of their calamity lieth in the blindness and wickedness of corrupted nature , which no form of government will cure : and that the doves that are governed by hawkes and kites , must be their prey , whether it be one or many that hath the sovereignty . yea , it is an unthankful world , that in the exercise of this malignant cruelty , will begin with those that deserve best at their hands . he that would instruct them , and stop them in their sin , and save their souls , doth ordinarily make himself a prey : and they are not content to take away their lives , but they will ( among their credulous rabble ) take away the reputation of their honesty : and no wisdom or learning was ever so great , no innocency so unspotted , no honesty , justice or charity so untainted , no holiness so venerable , that could ever priviledge the owners from their rage , or make the possessors to escape their malice . even jesus christ , that never committed sin , and that came into the world with the most matchless love , and to do them the greatest good , was yet prosecuted furiously to a shameful death ; and not only so , but in his humiliation his judgement was taken away ; and he was condemned as an evil doer , who was the greatest enemy to sin that ever was born into the world : he was accused of blasphemy ( for calling himself the son of god ) of impiety ( for talking of destroying the temple ) and of treason ( for saying he was a king ) . and his apostles that went about the world to save mens souls , and proclaim to them the joyfull tydings of salvation , had little better entertainment : wherever they came , bonds and afflictions did abide them ; and if they had not been taught to rejoyce in tribulations , they could have expected little joy on earth . and it was not only christians that were thus used , but honesty in the heathens was usually met with opposition and reproach , as seneca himself doth oft complain , yea , how few have there been that have been famous for any excellency of wit or learning , or any addition to the worlds understanding , but their reward hath been reproach , imprisonment or death ? did socrates die in his bed ? or was he not murdered by the rage of wicked hypocrites ? plato durst not speak his minde , for fear of his masters reward . aristippus left athens , ne bis peccarent in philosophiam : not only solon , but most benefactors to any common-wealth have suffered for their beneficence . demosthenes , cato , cicero , seneca , could none of them save their lives from fury , by their great learning or honesty . yea , among nominal christians , he that told them of an antipodes , was excommunicated by the papal authority for an heretick ; and a savonarola , arnoldus de villa nova , paulus , scaliger , &c. could not be wiser than their neighbours , but to their cost : no nor arias montanus himself . campanella was fain in prison to compile his new philosophy , and with the pleasure of his inventions to bear the torments which were their sowre sauce . even galilaeus that discovered so many new orbs , and taught this world the way of clearer acquaintance with its neighbours , could not escape the reverend justice of the papalists , but must lie in a prison , as if o sapientia had been written on his doors , ( as the old woman cryed out to thales , when he fell into a ditch , while he was by his instrument taking the height of a starr . ) and sir walter rawleigh could not save his head by his learned history of the world ( but must be one part of its history himself ) ; nor yet by his great observation , * how antipater is taken for a bloody tyrant , for killing demosthenes , and how arts and learning have power to disgrace any man that doth evil to the famous masters of them . peter ramus that had done so much in phylosophy for the learned world , was requited by a butcherly barbarous murder , being one of the or that were so used in the french massacre . and many a holy person perished in the murdered by the irish . it were endless to instance the ungratefull cruelties of the world ; and what entertainment it hath given to wise and godly men ; even those whom it superstitiously adoreth when it hath murdered them . and in all this wickedness , it is wilfull , and stupid , and incorrigible , and ordinary means do little to the cure. thus is it a sinfull evil world. ii. and it is a tempting world that would make all bad as it is it self : whereever the sanctifying truth of god doth come to illuminate and reform men , the world is presently up in arms against it ; and fighteth against that which would save mens souls , as if it were a plague or enemy that would destroy them . princes think it is against their interest , and the people finde that it is against their lusts : and so the sin of tyranny keepeth the gospel out of the greatest part of the world ; and popular fury resisteth it where it cometh . the empires of the turks , and tartarian , and china , are sad instances of the success of tyranny against the means of mens salvation : and the empire of japan hath given the world an instance of such unparallel'd cruelty to that end , as maketh the persecutions of nero and dioclesian , and even the popish inquisition , and almost the massacres of piedmont , france and ireland , to seem very merciful acts of charity . what rage , what inhumane fury hath been shewed , through all the world , to keep out knowledge , and keep the nations in their darkness and misery , and forbid relief ? but for error and deceit , idolatry and superstition , how industriously are they propagated ? empire and arts , power and learning , are employed to deceive and undoe the world. and though empire be gods ordinance , and arts his gifts , they are turned against him in the farr greatest part of the earth , and satan is served by them , as if they had been ordain'd by him . almost every countrey hath their proper opinions , and a religion fitted to resist religion : he that is an idolater , or a mahometan , or infidel , would make more : and they that are against all serious religion , are as eager to make others of their minde , as if it were a work of charity or commodity : and he that is endeavouring to undoe souls , is as vehement in it , as he that is endeavouring to save them . he that hath any passion or corrupt affection is as inclinable to convey it to another , as fire is to kindle fire , or one that hath the plague to infect his neighbour . covetousness , ambition , voluptuousness , lust , and wrath and revenge , are all contagious . rioters think it strange if we run not with them into all excess . the very noise of their impertinent talk and business , and the great adoe that they make in doing nothing , is a great diverter of those that are about them , from serious business and sober consideration : they keep men so busie about their vanities , that they can finde no leisure to remember that they are men , or to think what business they have in the world , nor where it is that they must dwell for ever . and when their folly and selfishness hath set them all together by the ears , they must needs draw or drive others into the fire of contention with them ; they cry , who is on my side ? who ? and he that will not be of one party or other , but will keep his peace , shall lose it by the enmity of all : and no man shall be taken for orthodox or honest , that will not be of that faction whose commendation he desireth : and when he hath humoured them , he shall go for a knave or a reproached person , with all the rest : a peaceable man shall hardly finde the peace which he desireth to himself ; but it 's ten to one but he loseth his labour if he would make peace between others ; especially , if he have an honest ambition , of extending that blessing to parties and countreys , or any great and considerable numbers . if by tyranny and cruelty , by prisons , and torments , and death , they cannot affright men from honesty and the obedience of god , at least they will vex them in their way , and be as thorns and bryars to them in this wilderness . iii. and it is a calamitous , miserable world. it is void of the comforts of sacred illumination , and of the assured love of god , and of the exercise of wisdom , or holiness : the delights of saints in loving god , and waiting for eternal life , are unknown to all the multitudes of the ungodly : they are confounded and lost in their ignorance and error ; and tormented with their own passions , divisions and contentions . their vices are part of their disquietment and pain , though pleasure be their intended end . it is a pitifull servitude that they are in to satan , and an endless drudgery that they follow , in serving their covetousness , pride , and lust ; and a tiresome task to care and labour to make provision for their fleshly appetites and wills . they are led captive by satan to do his will ; and yet in doing it they do their own , and are in love with their captivity , and glory in their chains . they are engaged daily against god and mercy , against their happiness , and their friends that would procure it ; and think him their enemy that would make them wiser . they go under the guilt of all this sin ; and they have no assurance of pardon or deliverance : and god overtaketh them many times with bodily distresses here : sicknesses and pains consume men , and torment them ; warrs , and plagues do send them by thousands , out of the world , which they took for their felicity : fire and famine , piracy and robbery , and fraud , impoverish them : the frustrations of their hope torment them . and yet under all , they are hardened against god , and fall not out with their sin and folly , but with the justice of heaven , and with its instruments , or rather with all that beareth the image of the holiness of god. this is the visible condition of this world. obj. if you say , how can all this stand with the infinite goodness of god ? i have answered it before : it sheweth you , that it is not this world , which is the great demonstration of the goodness or love of god , from whence we must take our estimate of it by the effects . if you will judge of the kings splendour , and bounty , and clemency , will you go seek for examples and demonstrations of it in the gaol , and at the gallows , or rather at the court ? hell is as the gallows , and earth is as the gaol : measure not gods bounty and mercy by these : it is no sign of unmercifulness in god that there are flies and worms , and toads , and serpents on earth as well as men : nor that earth was not made as indefectible as heaven : and when men have drown'd themselves in sin , it is no want of goodness in god , but it is goodness it selfe which causeth the demonstrations of his justice on them . this world is not so much to all gods creation , as a wen or wart upon a mans body is to the whole body : and if it were all forsaken of god , as it hath forsaken him , it were proportionably no more than the cutting off such a wart or wen. god hath many thousand thousand thousand times more capacious regions , which it 's like have more noble and blessed inhabitants : look to them , if you would see his love , in its most glorious demonstration : justice also must be demonstrated if men will sin . and if hell be quite forsaken , and earth which is next it be partly forsaken of the favour of god , for all that god may gloriously demonstrate his love , to a thousand thousand-fold more subjects ( of the nobler regions ) than he doth demonstrate his justice on in hell or earth . but these two things i gather for the confirmation of my faith. . that the sin and misery of the world is such , that it groaneth for a saviour ; and when i hear of a physician sent from heaven , i easily believe it , when i see the wofull world mortally diseased , and gasping in its deep distress . the condition of the world is visibly so suitable to the whole office of christ , and to the doctrine of the gospel , that i am driven to think , that if god have mercy for it , some physician and extraordinary help shall be afforded it : and when i see none else but jesus christ , whom reason will allow me to believe is that physician , it somewhat prepareth my minde to look towards him with hope . . and also the evil of this present world , is very suitable to the doctrine of christ , when he telleth us that he came not to settle us here in a state of prosperity , nor to make the world our rest or portion ; but to save us from it , as our enemy and calamity , our danger and our wilderness and trouble ; and to bring up our hearts first , and then our selves to a better world , which he calleth us to seek , and to make sure of . whereas i finde , that most other religions , though they say something of a life hereafter , yet lead men to look for most or much of their felicity here , as consisting in the fruition of this world , which experience tells me is so miserable . § . . moreover i finde , that the law of entire nature was no more suitable to nature in its integrity , than the law of grace revealed by christ is suitable to us in our lapsed state : so that it may be called , the law of nature-lapsed and restorable ; ( naturae lapsae restaurandae . ) nature entire and nature depraved , must have the same pattern and rule of perfection ultimately to be conformed to ; because lapsed man must seek to return to his integrity : but lapsed or corrupted man doth moreover need another law , which shall first tend to his restoration from that lost and miserable state . and it was no more necessary to man in innocency to have a suitable law for his preservation and confirmation , than it is to man in sin and guilt to have a law of grace for his pardon and recovery , and a course of means prescribed him for the healing of his soul , and for the escaping of the stroke of justice . the following particulars further open this . § . . it seemeth very congruous to reason , that as monarchy is the perfectest sort of government ( which it is probable is even among the angels ) so mankinde should have one universal head or monarch over them . kingdoms have their several monarchs ; but there is surely an universal monarch over them all ! we know that god is the primary soveraign ; but it is very probable to nature , that there is a subordinate soveraign or general administrator under him : it is not only the scriptures that speak a prince of the devils , and of principalities , and powers , and thrones , and dominions , among the happy spirits ; and that talk of the angels that are princes of several kingdoms , dan. . but even the philosophers and most idolaters , have from this apprehension , been drawn to the worship of such , as an inferiour kinde of deity . and if man must have a subordinate universal king , it is meet that it be one that is also man : as angels and devils have principals of their own sort and nature , and not of others . § . . it seemeth congruous to reason , that this head be one that is fitted to be our captain generall , himself to lead us by conduct , precept and example , in our warfare against those devils , who also are said to have their prince and general . as devils fight against us under a prince of their own nature , so is it congruous , that we fight against them , under a prince of our own nature , who hath himself first conquered him , and will go on before us in the fight . § . . it is congruous to reason , that lapsed man under the guilt of sin , and desert of punishment , who is unable to deliver himself , and unworthy of immediate access to god , should have a mediator for his restoration and reconciliation with god : if any be found fit for so high an office. § . . and it is congruous to reason , that this mediator be one , in whom god doth condescend to man , and one in whom man may be encouraged to ascend to god , as to one that will forgive and save him : and one that hath made himself known to man , and also hath free access to god. § . . it is congruous to reason , that lapsed , guilty , darkened sinners , that know so little of god , and of his will , and of their own concernments , and of the other world , should have a teacher sent from heaven , of greater authority and credit than an angel , to acquaint us with god and his will , and the life that we are going to , more certainly and fully than would be done by nature only . that this is very desireable no man can doubt : how gladly would men receive a letter or book that dropt from heaven ? or an angel that were sent thence to tell them what is there , and what they must for ever trust to ? yea , if it were but one of their old acquaintance from the dead ? but all this would leave them in uncertainty still , and they would be doubtfull of the credit and truth of any such a messenger : and therefore to have one of fuller authority , that shall confirm his word by unquestionable attestations , would very much satisfie men . i have proved , that nature it self revealeth to us , a life of retribution after this ; and that immortality of souls may be proved without scripture : but yet there is still a darkness and unacquaintedness , and consequently a doubting and questioning the certainty of it , upon a carnal minde : and it would greatly satisfie such , if besides meer reason , they had some proof which is more agreeable to a minde in flesh ; and might either speak with some credible messenger who hath been in heaven , and fully knoweth all these matters ; or at least might be certainly informed of his reports . and indeed , to men that are fallen into such a dark depravedness of reason , and such strangers to god and heaven as mankind is , it is become needful that they have more than natural light , to shew them the nature , the excellency and certainty of the happiness to come ; or else they are never like so to love and seek it , and prefer it before all earthly things , as is necessary to them that will attain it . for few men will seek with their utmost labour , or let go all other things to attain a happiness , which they are not well perswaded of the reality of . and though sound reason might well perswade them of it , yet reason is now become so blind , and unsound , and partial , and enslaved to the flesh , that it is not fit for such an office , according to our necessity , without some heavenly revelation . § . . and it is exceeding congruous to mans necessity , who is faln under the power and fears of death , as well as the doubts and estrangedness to the other world , that he that will save and heal us , do himself in our nature rise from the dead , and ascend up into heaven , to give us thereby a visible demonstration , that indeed there is a resurrection and a life to come for us to look for . though god was not obliged to do thus much for us , yet reason telleth us , that if he will do it , it is very suitable to our necessities . for all the reasonings in the world do not satisfie in such things , so much as ocular demonstration : when we either see a man that is risen from the dead , or have certain testimony of it , it facilitateth the belief of our own resurrection : and he that is gone into heaven before us , assureth us that a heaven there is . § . . when god in mercy would forgive and save a sinful people , it was very congruous to reason , that there should be some fit means provided , to demonstrate his holiness in his justice , and to vindicate the honour of his laws and government , and so to secure the ends of both . for if god make a penal law and execute it not , but let man sin with impunity , and do nothing which may deter him , nor demonstrate his justice , as much as the sinners sufferings would do , it would tell the world , that he that gave them the law , and thereby told them , that he would rule and judge them by it , did but deceive them , and meant not as he spake : and it would bring both the law and governour into contempt , and perswade men to sin without any fear : and he that was question'd for the second crime , would say , i ventured , because i suffered not for the first . it was the devils first way of tempting men to sin , to perswade mankind that god meant not as he spake in his threatning of their death , but that they should not die , though god had threatned it . and if god himself should by his actions say the same , it would tempt them more to sin than sathan could , as his credibility is greater . therefore he that is a governour must be just as well as merciful ; and if god should have pardoned sinners , without such a sacrifice or substitute means , as might preserve the honour of his law and government , and the future innocency of his subjects , as well as their punishment in the full sense of the law would have done , the consequents would have been such , as i will leave to your own judgements . § . . and it was very congruous to reason , that so odious a thing as sin should be publickly condemned and put to shame , although the sinner be forgiven : as it was done in the life and death of christ . for the purity of god is irreconcileable to sin , though not to the sinner ; and therefore it was meet that the sin have all the publick shame , though the sinner escape : and that god be not like weak imperfect man , who cannot do good , without doing or encouraging evil . § . . it is congruous to our condition , that seeing even the upright do renew their sins , their consciences should have some remedy for the renewal of their peace and comfort , that it sink them not into desperation ; which is most suitably provided for them in jesus christ . for when we were pardoned once , and again , and oft , and yet shall sin , he that knoweth the desert of sin , and purity of god , will have need also to know of some stated certain course of remedy . § . . it was meet that the sinful world have not only a certain teacher , but also a perfect pattern before them , of righteousness , love , self-denial , meekness , patience , contempt of lower things , &c. which is given us by jesus christ alone . and therefore the gospel is written historically , with doctrins intermixt , that we might have both perfect precepts and pattern . § . . it was very congruous to a world universally lapsed , that god should make with it a new law and covenant of grace ; and that this covenant should tender us the pardon of our sins , and be a conditional act of oblivion : and that sinners be not left to the meer law of perfect nature , which was to preserve that innocency which they have already lost . to say [ thou shalt perfectly obey ] to a man that hath already disobeyed , and is unfitted for perfect obedience , is no sufficient direction for his pardon and recovery . perhaps you 'l say , that god's gracious nature is instead of a law of grace or promise . but though that be the spring of all our hopes , yet that cannot justly quiet the sinner of it self alone , because he is just as well as merciful , and justice hath its objects , and pardon dependeth on the free-will of god , which cannot be known to us without its proper signs . the devils may say that the nature of god is good and gracious , and so may any condemned malefactor say of a good and gracious judge and king ; and yet that is but a slender reason to prove his impunity or pardon . all will confess , that absolute pardon of all men would be unbeseeming a wise and righteous governour . and if it must be conditional , who but god can tell what must be the condition ? if you say , that nature telleth us , that converting repentance is the condition . i answer , nature telleth us , that god cannot damn a holy loving soul , that hath his image : but yet it telleth us not , that this is the only or whole condition . . it is not such a repentance as lieth but in a frightned wish , that the sin had not been done , but such a one as consisteth in the change of the mind , and heart , and life , and containeth a hatred to the sin repented of , and a love to god and holiness : and we have as much need of a saviour to help us to this repentance , as to help us to a pardon . § . . it is very congruous to our miserable state , that the condition of this covenant of grace should be on our part , the acknowledgment of our benefactor , and the thankful acceptance of the benefit , and a hearty consent for the future to * follow his conduct , and use his appointed means in order to our full recovery : which is the condition of the christian covenant . § . . seeing man's fall was from his god unto himself , especially in point of love ; and his real recovery must be , by bringing up his soul to the love of god again . and seeing a guilty condemned sinner can hardly love that god , who in justice will damn and punish him ; nothing can be more congruous and effectual to man's recovery to god , than that god should be represented to him as most amiable ; that is , as one that is so willing to pardon and save him , as to do it by the most astonishing expressions of love , in such an agent , and pledge , and glass of love as jesus christ . the whole design of christ's incarnation , life , death , resurrection , ascension and intercession , is but to be the most wonderful and glorious declaration of the goodness and love of god to sinners : that as the great frame of the universe demonstrateth his power , so should the redeemer be the demonstration of his love . that we may see both the wise contrivances of his love , and at how dear a rate he is content to save us ; that our lives may be employed in beholding and admiring the glory of his love , in this incomprehensible representation . that we may love him , as men that are fetch'd up from the very gates of hell , and from under the sentence of condemnation , and made by grace the heirs of life . § . . especially to have a quickning head , who will give the spirit of grace to all his members , to change their hearts , and kindle this holy love within them , is most congruous to accomplish mans recovery . so dark are our minds , and so bad our hearts , so strong are our lusts , and so many our temptations , that bare teaching would not serve our turn , without a spirit of light , and life , and love to open our eyes , and turn our hearts , and make all outward means effectual . § . . the commission of the gospel-ministry to preach this gospel of pardon and salvation , and to baptize consenters , and gather and guide the church of christ , with fatherly love , is also very congruous to the state of the world , with whom they have to do . § . . it is congruous to the state of our trembling souls , that are conscious of their former guilt , and present unworthiness , that in all their prayers and worship of god , they should come to him in a name that is more worthy and acceptable than their own , and offer their services by a hand or intercessor so beloved of god. though an impious soul can never expect to be accepted with god , upon the merits of another , yet a penitent soul , who is conscious of former wickedness , and continued faults , may hope for that mercy by grace through a redeemer , of which he could have less hopes without one . § . . it is congruous to their state , who have satan their accuser , that they have a patron , a high priest and justifier with god. not that god is in danger of being mistaken by false accusation , or to do us any injustice ; but when our real guilt is before his face , ( and the malice of satan will seek thereupon to procure our damnation ) there must also be just reasons before him for our pardon , which it is the office of a saviour to plead or to present , that is , to be god's instrument of our deliverance upon that account . § . . it is exceeding congruous to our condition ( of darkness and fear ) to have a head and saviour in the possession of glory , to whom we may commend our departing souls at the time of death , and who will receive them to himself ; that we may not tremble at the thoughts of death and of eternity . for though the infinite goodness of god be our chief encouragement , yet seeing he is holy and just , and we are sinners , we have need of a mediate encouragement , and of such condescending love as is come near unto us , and hath taken up our nature already into heaven . a saviour that hath been on earth in flesh ; that hath died , and rose , and revived , and is now in the possession of blessedness , is a great emboldner of our thoughts , when we look towards another world ; which else we should think of with more doubting , fearful and unwilling minds . to have a friend gone before us , who is so powerful , so good , and hath made us his interest ; to think that he is lord of the world that we are going to , and hath undertaken to receive us to himself when we go hence , is a great reviving to our amazed , fearful , departing souls . § . . and it is very congruous to the case of an afflicted persecuted people , who are misrepresented and slandered in this world , and suffer for the hopes of a better life , to have a saviour who is the judge of all the world , to justifie them publickly before all , and to cause their righteousness to shine as the light , and to turn all their sufferings into endless joys . § . . and it seemeth exceeding congruous to reason , seeing that the divine essence is an inaccessible light , that we should for ever have a mediator of fruition , as well as of acquisition , by whom the deity may shine in communicated glory and love to us for evermore : and that god be for evermore eminently delighted and glorified in him , than in us , as he excelleth us in dignity and all perfections ; even as in one sun , his power and glory is more demonstrated , than in a world of worms . whether all these things be true or not , i am further to enquire ; but i find now , that they are very congruous to our condition , and to reason ; and that if they be so , no man can deny , but that there is wonderful wisdom and love to man in the design and execution : and that it is to man a very desirable thing that it should be so . and therefore that we should be exceeding willing to find any sound proof that it is so indeed ; though not with a willingness which shall corrupt and pervert our judgments by self-flattery , but such as will only excite them to the wise and sober examination of the case . the evidences of the verity we shall next enquire after . chap. vi. of the witness of jesvs christ , or the demonstrative evidence of his verity and authority . though all that is said may be a reasonable preparative to faith , it is more cogent evidence which is necessary to convince us , that jesus christ is the saviour of the world . that a man appearing like one of us , is the eternal word of god incarnate , is a thing which no man is bound to believe , without very sound evidence to prove it . god hath made reason essential to our nature : it is not our weakness , but our natural excellency , and his image on our nature . therefore he never called us to renounce it , and to lay it by : for we have no way to know principles , but by an intellectual discerning them in their proper evidence : and no way to know conclusions by , but by a rational discerning their necessary connexion to those principles . if god would have us know without reason , he would not have made us reasonable creatures : man hath no way of mental discerning or knowledge , but by understanding things in their proper evidence : to know without this , were to know without knowledge . faith is an act or species of knowledge , it is so far from being contrary to reason , that it is but an act of cleared elevated reason : it is not an act of immediate intuition of god or jesus christ himself ; but a knowledge of the truth by the divine evidence of its certainty : they that wrangle against us , for giving reason for our religion , seem to tell us , that they have none for their own ; or else reprehend us for being men . if they had to do with them , who make god to be but the prime reason , would they say that faith is something above reason , and therefore something above god ? i believe that our reason or intellection is far from being univocally the same thing with god's : but i believe that god is intellection , reason or wisdom eminenter , though not formaliter : and that though the name be first used , to signifie the lower derivative reason of many , yet we have no higher to express the wisdom of god by , nor better notion to apprehend it by , than this which is its image . i conclude therefore , that § . . the christian religion must be the most rational in the world , or that which hath the soundest reason for it , if it be the truest . and the proof of it must be , by producing the evidences of its truth . § . . the evidence which faith requireth is properly called evidence of credibility . § . . when we speak of humane faith , as such , credibility is somewhat short of proper certainty : but when we speak of divine faith , ( or a belief of god ) evidence of credibility is evidence of certainty . § . . the great witness of jesus christ , or the demonstrative evidence of his verity and authority , was the holy spirit . § . . the word or doctrin of jesus christ , hath four several infallible testimonies of god's spirit , which ( though each of them alone is convincing , yet ) all together make up this one great evidence : that is , . antecedently . . constitutively or inherently . . concomitantly , and . subsequently : of which i shall speak in course . § . . . antecedently the spirit of prophecy , was a witness to jesus christ . under which i comprehend the prediction also of types : he that was many hundred years before ( yea , from age to age ) fore-told to come as the messiah or saviour , by divine prediction of promises , prophesies and types , is certainly the true messiah our saviour : but jesus christ was so foretold : ergo. — . for promises and prophesies , gen. . . presently after the fall of adam , god said , [ i will put enmity between thee and the woman , and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heel . ] as it is certain that it was satan principally , and the serpent but instrumentally , that is spoken of as the deceiver of eve ; so it is as plain , that it was satan and his wicked followers principally , and the serpent and its seed only as the instruments , that are here meant in the condemnation . and that it is the seed of the woman , by an excellency so called , that is primarily here meant , ( and under him her natural seed secondarily ) is proved not only by the hebrew masculine gender , but by the fulfilling of this promise in the expository effects , and in other promises to the like effect . the rest of the promises and prophesies to this purpose are so many , that to recite them all would swell the book too big ; and therefore i must suppose , that the reader perusing the sacred scripture it self , will acquaint himself with them there : only a few i shall repeat . gen. . . in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed . gen. . . the scepter shall not depart from judah , nor a law-giver from between his feet , until shiloh come . the whole second psalm is a prophecy of the kingdom of christ : why do the heathen rage , and the people imagine a vain thing : the kings of the earth set themselves , and the rulers take counsel together against the lord , and against his annointed , &c. yet have i set my king upon my holy hill of sion . i will declare the decree , the lord hath said unto me , thou art my son , this day have i begotten thee : ask of me , and i will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance , and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession . be wise therefore , o ye kings , be learned , ye judges of the earth : serve the lord with fear , and rejoyce with trembling . kiss the son lest he be angry , and ye perish , &c. psal . . . for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell , neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption . psal . . , , . dogs have compassed me : the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me : they pierced my hands and my feet : i may tell all my bones : they look and stare upon me : they part my garments among them , and cast lots upon my vesture . psal . . . they gave me also gall for my meat , and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink . isa . . who hath believed our report ▪ and to whom is the arm of the lord revealed ? for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant , and as a root out of a dry ground ; he hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him , there is no beauty that we should desire him : he is despised and rejected of men , a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ; and we hid as it were our faces from him : he was despised , and we esteemed him not . surely he hath born our griefs , and carried our sorrows ; yet we did esteem him stricken , smitten of god , and afflicted . but he was wounded for our transgressions , he was bruised for our iniquities , the chastisement of our peace was upon him , and with his stripes we are healed . all we like sheep have gone astray , we have turned every one to his own way , and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all . he was oppressed , and he was afflicted , yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter , and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb , so he opened not his mouth . he was taken from prison , and from judgment , and who shall declare his generation . for he was cut off out of the land of the living , for the transgression of my people was he stricken : and he made his grave with the wicked , and with the rich in his death ; because he had done no violence , nor was any deceit in his mouth . yet it pleased the lord to bruise him , he hath put him to grief . when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin , he shall see his seed , he shall prolong his days , and the pleasure of the lord shall prosper in his hand . he shall see of the travel of his soul , and shall be satisfied ▪ by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many , for he shall bear their iniquities . therefore will i divide him a portion with the great , and he shall divide the spoil with the strong : because he hath poured out his soul unto death , and he was numbred with the transgressors , and he bare the sin of many , and made intercession for the transgressors . isa . . . for unto us a child is born , unto us a son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulders : and his name shall be called wonderful , counsellor , the mighty god , the everlasting father , the prince of peace : of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end , upon the throne of david , and upon his kingdom , to order it , and to stablish it with judgement and with justice , from henceforth even for ever . the zeal of the lord of hosts will perform this . isa . . . behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son , and shall call his name immanuel . dan. . , &c. seventy weeks are determined upon thy people , and upon thy holy city , to finish the transgression , and to make an end of sins , and to make reconciliation for iniquity , and to bring in everlasting righteousness , and to seal up the vision and prophecy , and to annoint the most holy. know therefore and understand , that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build jerusalem , unto the messiah the prince , shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks ; the street shall be built , and the wall even in troublous times . and after threescore and two weeks shall messiah be cut off , but not for himself . and the people of the prince that shall come , shall destroy the city , and the sanctuary , and the end thereof shall be with a floud , and unto the end of the war desolations are determined . and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week : and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease , and for the over-spreading of abomination he shall make it desolate , even until the consummation , and that determined be poured upon the desolate . mal. . , , . behold i will send my messenger , and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple , even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in ; behold , he shall come , saith the lord of hosts : but who may abide the day of his coming , and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiners fire , and like fullers sope , and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver , &c. i omit the rest to avoid prolixity . there is scarce any passage of the birth , life , sufferings , death , resurrection , ascension or glory of our saviour , which are not particularly prophesied of in the old testament ; but nothing so copiously as his righteousness and his kingdom . the prophesie of isaiah is full of such , and is but a prophetical gospel . to these must be adjoyned the prophetical types , even the typical persons , and the typical ordinances and actions . it would be too long to open , how his sufferings from the malignant world was typified in the death of abel , and the attempted oblation of isaac , and the selling of joseph . and his work of salvation , in noah , and his preserved ark and family : and his paternity as to believers , in abraham : and his kingly conduct and deliverance of the church , by moses and his deliverance of the israelites from egypt , and conduct of them in the wilderness ; and by joshua's victorious bringing them into the land of promise : his reign and kingdom by david , and his building of the church by solomon , and his priesthood by aaron and his successors , &c. and it would take up a just volume to open all the typical ordinances and actions , which prefigured christ : from the institution of circumcision , and the passover or paschal lamb , to the end of all the mosaical ceremonies , christ is the signification and the end of all . i will only crave your consideration of the custom of sacrificing in the general : it came into the world immediately upon mans sin : we find cain and abel , the two first persons born into the world , employed in it . from thence to this day it hath continued ( in doctrin , though the practice be restrained ) with the jews : it was no peculiar ceremony of their law , but hath been commonly exercised by almost all nations through the world , both greeks , romans and barbarians . and it yet continueth in most countries of the heathens , where the doctrin of christ hath not abolished it , as it hath done both with the christians and mahometans . ( for the mahometans borrow the confession of one god , and the rejection of idols and sacrifices originally from the christians . ) now i must confess , that i am not able to satisfie my self of the original and universality of the custom of sacrificing , upon any reasons , but those of the christians : either it was a prophetical promissory institution of god himself , to lapsed adam , to point him to a saviour , the second adam ; or else it must be from the law of nature , or else it is from some other positive institution , or else it must be an universal errour . there can no fifth way that is probable be imagined . and , . i am not able to see that the meer light or law of nature should be the original cause ; for then it would be all mens duty still : and what reason can nature give us to judge , that god is delighted in the bloud and pain of the innocent bruits ? or that the killing and offering of them should be any satisfaction to his justice for our sins , or any rational means to avert his judgments , or procure our forgiveness ? if it be said that [ it was but a ceremonial confession , that we our selves deserve death , as that creature suffered it ] i answer , confession is indeed due from us by the law of nature ; but the question is , of the killing of the poor beasts , and offering them in sacrifice . if the exercise of our own penitence by confession were all , that might be done as well without the creatures bloud and death . what is it that this addeth to a penitent confession ? and why was the oblation to god contained in the sacrifice ? if you say , that the life of bruits is not so regardable , but that we take it away for our daily food ; i answer , it s true , that it is allowed us for the maintenance of our lives ; but yet it is not to be cast away in vain , nor is god to be represented as one that doth delight in bloud : and the common sense of all the world in their sacrificing hath been , that besides the confession of their own desert , there is somewhat in it to appease god's displeasure ; and none that i ever read of did take it for a meer confessing sign or action . if it be said , that they did it to signifie their homage to god ; i answer , why then did they not offer him only the living creature rather than the dead ? all took it to be a propitiatory action . and if there had been an aptitude in this sign to betoken our penitent confession only , yet when god knoweth our confessions as well without it , and when the tongue is made the natural instrument to express the mind , and there are variety of other signs , it is incredible that all the world should ever ( even so early ) hit upon this one strange way of expression , without some special revelation or command of god. . and it cannot be said with any credibility , that god made any other revelation of his will , to the world for sacrificing , beside what is made in nature , and in holy scripture : for who ever dreamt of such a thing ? or hath delivered us any such revelation , and told us when , and to whom , and how it was made ? . and it is not credible that it was taken up erroneously by all the world , as their vices or superstitions are : for though it is past question that error hath caused the abuse of it through the world , yet for the thing it self there is no probability of such an original . for what can we imagin should induce men to it , and make all nations ( how various soever their idols are ) to agree in this way of worshipping and propitiating them ? there is nothing of sensuality in it , that by gratifying a lust of the flesh , might have such an universal effect ? and it must be some universal light , or some universal lust or interest , that must cause such an universal concord . nay , on the contrary you shall find that tradition , and the custom of their fore-fathers , is the common argument pleaded for sacrificing through all the world , even in the ancients historical reports of it . . therefore it remaineth , very probable at least , that they received it indeed by tradition from their fore-fathers : and that could be from none originally but the universal progenitor of mankind , who was capable of conveying it to all his posterity , ( for no history mentioneth any later original nor could any later than adam or noah have made it so universal . ) and no man can imagine why god should institute it , if it were not to intimate the translating of our punishment into our redeemer , and to point us to the great sacrifice which is truly propitiatory , and is the great demonstration of his justice , who in mercy doth forgive . § . . ii. the second witness of the spirit , which is inherent and constitutive to the gospel of christ , is that image of god , the unimitable character of divinity , which by the holy spirit is put into the doctrin of christ , as the very life or soul of it , ( together with the same on the pattern of his own life . ) . on christ himself , the unimitable image of god in his perfection , is a testimony of his veracity : ( which i ascribe to the holy spirit , as the ultimate operator in the trinity , even that holy spirit by which he was conceived , and which fell upon him at his baptism , and which , matth. . his enemies did blaspheme ) many men have so lived , that no notable sin of commission hath been found or observed in them by the world at a distance . but the most vertuous , except christ , was never without discernable infirmities , and sins of omission . no man ever convicted him of any sin , either in word or deed ; his obedience to the law of god was every way perfect , he was the most excellent representative of the divine perfections : the omnipotency of god appeared in his miracles ; the wisdom of god in his holy doctrin ; and the love of god in his matchless expressions of love , and in all the holiness of his life . he was so far from pride , worldliness , sensuality , malice , impatiency , or any sin , that the world had never such a pattern of self-denial , humility , contempt of all the wealth and honours of the world , charity , meekness , patience , &c. as in him . he obeyed his father to the death . he healed mens bodies , and shewed his pity to their souls , and opened the way of life even to his enemies : he instructed the ignorant , and preached repentance to the impenitent , and suffered patiently the unthankful requitals of them that rendred him evil for good . he endured patiently to be reviled , scorned , buffeted , spit upon , crowned with thorns , nailed to a cross , and put to death ; and this upon the false accusation and imputation of being an evil doer : in a word , he was perfect , and sinless , and manifested first all that obedience and holiness in his life , which he put into his laws , and prescribed unto others : and such perfection is inseparable from veracity . obj. how know we what faults he might have , which come not to our knowledge ? answ . . you may see by his enemies accusations , partly what he was free from , when you see all that malice could invent to charge him with . . if the narrative of his life in the gospel have that evident proof , which i shall anon produce , there can remain no doubt of the perfect holiness and innocency of christ in his person and his life . object . we find him accused of many crimes , as of being a gluttonous person , and a wine-bibber ; of blasphemy , and impiety , and treason . answ . the very accusations are such as shew their falshood , and his innocency . he is called a gluttonous person , and a wine-bibber , because he did eat and drink as other men in temperance and sobriety , and did not tie himself to a wilderness life of austerity , in total abstinence from common meats and wine , as john baptist did , and as they thought he that professed extraordinary sanctity should have done . they accused him of eating with publicans and sinners , because he went to them as a physician to heal their souls , and lived a sociable charitable life , and did not observe the laws of proud pharisaical separation . they accused him of blasphemy and treason , for saying the truth , that he was the son of god , and the king of israel : and of impiety , for talking of pulling down the temple , when he did but prophesie of his own death and resurrection . and this was all that malice had to say . object . he carried himself contemptuously to magistrates : he called herod the king , [ that fox ] the scribes and pharisees he railed at , and called them hypocrites , painted sepulchres , a generation of vipers , &c. when he was called to answer whether they should pay tribute to cesar , he doth but put off the resolution by ambiguity , instead of an open exhorting them to obedience , and saith , [ give to caesar the things that are caesars . ] and when he was called to for tribute for him , he payeth it but as a way to avoid offence , having pleaded first his own immunity . answ . . his speeches of herod and the scribes and pharisees are not revilings , but a free and just reprehension of their sin : which being done by god's commission , and in his name , and for his cause , is no more to be called reviling , than an arrest of a felon or traitor in the kings name , or an accusation put in against him for his crimes , should be so called . god will not forbear damning impenitent rebels , though they call it cruelty ; nor will he forbear the reprehension and shaming of their villanies , though they call it railing ; nor will he flatter proud rebellious dust , though they call flattery a necessary civility ; nor will he give leave to his messengers to leave sin in honour , and to let the proud do what their list , and quietly damn themselves and others , without plain reproof , though it be called unreverent sawciness or sedition . . and he that considereth how little title caesar had to the kingdom of the jews , and that the sword alone is a better proof of force and strength , than of authority , and is a plea which an usurper may have on his side , will rather praise the submission and peaceableness of christ , than blame him as disloyal . but for the doctrin of obedience in general , who hath ever taught it more plainly and pressingly , than christ and his apostles ? . the gospel or doctrin of christ it self also , hath the very image and superscription of god , i will not say , imprinted on it , for that is too little , but intrinsecally animating and constituting it , which is apparent in the matter , and the method , and the stile . . the matter and design containeth the most wonderful expression of the wisdom of god , that ever was made to man on earth . all is mysterious , yet admirably fit , consistent and congruous , as is before declared . that a world which is visibly and undeniably fallen into wickedness : and misery , should have a redeemer , saviour and mediator towards god! that he should be one that is near enough to god and unto us , and hath the nature of both : that he should be the second adam , the root of the redeemed and regenerate : that god should give all mercy from himself , from his own bounty and fulness , and not as unwilling be perswaded to it by another ; and therefore that the redeemer be not any angel or intermediate person , but god himself : that thus god come nearer unto man , who is revolted from him , to draw up man again to him : that he lose not the world , and yet do not violate his governing justice : that he be so merciful , as not to be unrighteous , nor permit his laws and government to be despised ; and yet so just , as to save the penitent renewed souls : that he give man a new law and conditions of salvation , suitable to his lapsed guilty state ; and leave him not under a law and conditions , which were fitted to the innocent : that he revealed himself to the apostate world in that way , which only is fit for their recovery , that is , in his admirable love and goodness , that so love might win our love , and attract those hearts , which under guilt and the terrors of condemning justice would never have been brought to love him : that guilty souls have such evidence of god's reconciliation to encourage them , to expect his pardon , and to come to him with joy and boldness in their addresses ; having a mediator to trust in , and his sacrifice , merits , and acceptable name , to plead with god : that justice and mercy are so admirably conjoyned in these effects : that satan , and the world , and death , should be so conquered , in a suffering way , and man have so perfect a pattern to imitate , for self-denial , humility , contempt of honour , wealth and life , and exact obedience , and resignation to the will of god , with perfect love to god and man : that the world should be under such an universal administrator , and the church be all united in such a head ; and have one in their nature that hath risen from the dead , to be in possession of the glory which they are going to , and thence to send down his spirit to sanctifie them , and fit them for heaven ; and afterward to be their judge , and to receive them unto blessedness : and that sinners now be not condemned meerly for want of innocency , but for rejecting the grace and mercy which would have saved them : that we have all this taught us by a messenger from heaven , and a perfect rule of life delivered to us by him , and all this sealed by a divine attestation : that this doctrin is suited to the capacity of the weakest , and yet so mysterious as to exercise the strongest wits : and is delivered to us , not by an imposing force , but by the exhortations and perswasions of men like our selves , commissioned to open the evidences of truth and necessity in the gospel : all this is no less than the image and wonderful effect of the wisdom of god. and his goodness and love is as resplendent in it all : for this is the effect of the whole design , to set up a glass in the work of our redemption , in which god's love and goodness should be as wonderfully represented to mankind , as his power was in the works of creation . here sinful man is saved by a means which he never thought of or desired : he is fetch'd up from the gates of hell ; redeemed from the sentence of the righteous violated law of god , and the execution of his justice : the eternal word so condescendeth to man in the assumption of our nature , as that the greatness of the love and mercy , incomprehensible to man , becomes the greatest difficulty to our belief . he revealeth to us the things of the world above , and bringeth life and immortality to light : he dwelleth with men ; he converseth with the meanest : he preacheth the glad tidings of salvation to the world : he refuseth not such familiarity with the poorest or the worst , as is needful to their cure : he spendeth his time in doing good , and healing all manner of bodily diseases : he refuseth the honours and riches of the world , and the pleasures of the flesh , to work out our salvation : he beareth the ingratitude and abuse of sinners , and endureth to be scorned , buffeted , spit upon , tormented and crucified by those , to whom he had done no greater wrong than to seek their salvation : he maketh himself a sacrifice for sin , to shew the world what sin deserved , and to save them from the deserved punishment . god had at first decreed and declared , that death should be the punishment of sin : and satan had maliciously drawn man to it , by contradicting this threatning of god , and making man believe that god would falsifie his word , and that he did envy man the felicity of his advancement to be liker god in knowledge : and now christ will first justifie the truth and righteousness of god , and will demonstrate himself by dying in our stead , that death is indeed the wages of sin ; and will shew the world , that god is so far from envying their felicity , that he will purchase it at the dearest rate , and deliver them freely from the misery which sin and sathan had involved them in . thus enemies are reconciled by the sufferings of him whom they offended ; even by his sufferings in the flesh , whose godhead could not suffer ; and by his death as man , who as god was most immortal . as soon as he was risen , he first appear'd to a woman , who had been a sinner , and sent her as his first messenger with words of love and comfort to his disconsolate disciples , who had but lately sinfully forsaken him : he giveth them no upbraiding words , but meltingly saith to her , [ go to my brethren , and say unto them , i ascend unto my father , and your father , to my god and your god. ] he after this familiarly converseth with them , and instructeth them in the things concerning the kingdom of god. he maketh an vniversal pardon or act of oblivion in a covenant of grace , for all the world , that will not reject it ; and appointeth messengers to preach it unto all ; and what ever pains or suffering it cost them , to go through all with patience and alacrity , and to stick at nothing for the saving of mens souls . he gave the holy spirit miraculously to them , to enable them to carry on this work ; and to leave upon record to the world , the infallible narrative of his life and doctrine : his gospel is filled up with matter of consolation , with the promises of mercy , pardon and salvation , the description of the priviledges of holy souls , justification , adoption , peace and joy : and finally , he governeth and defendeth his church , and pleadeth our cause , and secureth our interest in heaven , according to the promises of this his word . thus is the gospel the very image of the wisdom and goodness of god. and such a doctrin from such a person must needs be divine . . and the method and style of it is most excellent , because most suitable to its holy ends : not with the excellency of frothy wit , which is but to express a wanton fancy , and please the ears of aery persons , who play with words , when they should close with wisdom and heavenly light : ( such excellency of speech must receive its estimate by its use and end : ) but as the end is most divine , so the light that shineth in the gospel is heavenly and divine : the method of the books themselves is various , according to the time and occasions of their writing , ( the objections against them are to be answered by themselves anon ) : but the method of the whole doctrin of christianity set together , is the most admirable and perfect in the world ; beginning with god in unity of essence , proceeding to his trinity of essential active principles , and of persons , and so to his trinity of works , creation , redemption and regeneration , and of relations of god and man accordingly , and to the second trinity of relations , as he is our owner , ruler and chief good : and hence it brancheth it self into a multitude of benefits flowing from all these relations of god to man , and a multitude of answerable duties flowing from our correlations to god , and all in perfect method , twisted and inoculated into each other , making a kind of cirulation between mercies and duties , as in mans body there is of the arterial and venal bloud and spirits , till in the issue , as all mercy came from god , and duty subordinately from man , so mercy and duty do terminate in the everlasting pleasure of god ultimately , and man subordinately , in that mutual love which is here begun , and there is perfected . this method you may somewhat perceive in the description of the christian religion , before laid down . . and the style also is suited to the end and matter : not to the pleasing of curious ears , but to the declaring of heavenly mysteries : not to the conceits of logicians , who have put their understandings into the fetters of their own ill-devised notions , and expect that all men that will be accounted wise , should use the same notions which they have thus devised , and about which they are utterly disagreed among themselves : but in a language suitable both to the subject , and to the world of persons to whom this word is sent , who are commonly ignorant , and unlearned , and dull : that being the best physick which is most suitable to the patients temper and disease . and though the particular writers of the sacred scriptures have their several styles , yet is there in them all in common a style which is spiritual , powerfull and divine ; which beareth its testimony proportionably of that spirit , which is the common author in them all : ( but of this more among the difficulties and objections anon . ) but for the discerning of all this image of god in the doctrine of jesus christ , reason will allow me to expect these necessary qualifications in him that must discern it : . that before he come to supernatural revelations , he be not unacquainted with those natural revelations , which are antecedent , and should be foreknown ( as i have in this book explained them with their evidence ) : for there is no coming to the highest step of the ladder , without beginning at the lowest : men ignorant of things knowable , by natural reason , are unprepared for higher things . . it is reasonably expected that he be one that is not treacherous and false to those natural truths which he hath received : for how can he be expected to be impartial and faithfull in seeking after more truth , who is unfaithfull to that which he is convinced of ? or that he should receive that truth which he doth not yet know , who is false to that which he already knoweth ? or that he should discern the evidence of extraordinary revelation , who opposeth with enmity the ordinary light or law of nature ? or that god should vouchsafe his further light and conduct to that man , who willfully sinneth against him , in despight of all his former teachings ? . it is requisite that he be one that is not a stranger to himself , but acquainted with the case of his heart and life , and know his sins , and his corrupt inclinations , and that guilt , and disorder , and misery , in which his need of mercy doth consist : for he is no fit judge of the prescripts of his physician , who knoweth not his own disease and temperature . but of this more anon . § . . iii. the third way of the spirits witness to jesus christ , is concomitantly , by the miraculous gifts and works of himself , and his disciples ; which are a cogent evidence of gods attestation to the truth of his doctrine . § . . by the miracles of christ i mean , . his miraculous actions upon others : . his miracles in his death and resurrection : . his predictions . the appearance of the angel to zachary , and his dumbness , his prophesie and elizabeth's , with the angels appearance to mary , the angels appearance and evangelizing to the shepherds ; the prophesie of simeon and of anna , the star and the testimony of the wise men of the east , the testimony of john baptist , that christ should baptize with the holy ghost , and with fire , and that he was the lamb of god that taketh away the sins of the world : these and more such i pass by as presupposed . at twelve years of age he disputed with the doctors in the temple , to their admiration . at his baptism the holy ghost came down upon him in the likeness of a dove , and a voice from heaven said , thou art my beloved son , in thee i am well-pleased . when he was baptized , he fasted forty dayes and nights , and permitted satan to tempt him extraordinarily , by carrying him from place to place , that he might extraordinarily overcome . when nathanael came to him , he told him his heart , and told him what talk he had with philip afar off , till he convinced him that he was omniscient . at cana of galilee at a feast , he turned their water into wine . at capernaum he dispossessed a demoniack , luk. . , , &c. he healed simons mother of a feaver at a word , luk. . , . he healed multitudes of torments , diseases , and madness , mat. . . luk. . , . he cleanseth a leaper by a word , math. . , . luk. . . so also he doth by a paralitick , math. . luk. . he telleth the samaritane woman all that she had done , joh. . at capernaum he healed a noble-mans son by a word , joh. . at jerusalem he cured an impotent man that had waited five and thirty years : a touch of his garment cureth a woman diseased with an issue of blood twelve years , math. . . he cured two blinde men with a touch , and a word , math. . , . he dispossessed another demoniack , mat. . . he raiseth jairus daughter at a word , ( who was dead , or seemed so , ) mat. . , . he dispossessed another demoniack , blinde and dumb , mat. . he healeth the servant of a centurion ready to dye , by a word , luk. . he raiseth the son of a widow from death that was carried out in a biere to be buried , luk. . with five barley loaves and two small fishes , he feedeth five thousand , and twelve baskets full of the fragments did remain , mat. . joh. . he walketh upon the waters of the sea , mat. . he causeth peter to do the like , mat. . all the diseased of the countrey were perfectly healed by touching the hem of his garment , mat. . . he again healed multitudes , lame , dumb , blinde , maimed , &c. math. . he again fed four thousand with seven loaves , and a few little fishes , and seven baskets full were left , math. . he restoreth a man born blinde to his sight , joh. . in the sight of three of his disciples he is transfigured into a glory which they could not behold , and moses and elias talked with him , and a voice out of the cloud said , this is my beloved son in whom i am well-pleased , hear ye him , mat. . luk. . he healed the lunatick , mat. . multitudes are healed by him , mat. . . two blinde men are healed , mat. . he healed a crooked woman , luk . . he withereth up a fruitless tree at a word , mark . he restoreth a blinde man nigh to jericho , luk. . . he restoreth lazarus from death to life , that was four dayes dead and buryed , joh. . he foretelleth judas , that he would betray him : and he frequently and plainly foretold his own sufferings , death and resurrection . and he expresly foretold the destruction of jerusalem and of the temple , and the great calamity of that place , even before that generation past away , mat. , &c. he prophesied his death the night before in the institution of his supper . when he dyed , the sun was darkened , and the earth trembled , and the vail of the temple rent , and the dead bodies of many arose , and appeared : so that the captain that kept guard , said , truly this was the son of god , mat. . when he was crucified and buried , though his grave-stone was sealed , and a guard of souldiers set to watch it , angels appeared , and rolled away the stone , and spake to those that enquired after him : and he rose and revived , and staid forty dayes on earth with his disciples : he appeared to them by the way : he came oft among them on the first day of the week , at their meetings , when the doors were shut : he called thomas to see the prints of the nails , and put his finger into his side , and not be faithless but believing , till he forced him to cry out , my lord , and my god! joh. . he appeareth to them as they are fishing , and worketh a miracle in their draught , and provideth them broiled fish , and eateth with them : he expostulated with simon , and engaged him as he loved him to feed his sheep , and discourseth of the age of john , joh. . he giveth his apostles their full commission for their gathering his church by preaching and baptism , and edifying it by teaching them all that he had commanded them , and giveth them the keyes of it , mat. . joh. . & . he appeareth to above five hundred brethren at once , cor. . he shewed himself to them by many infallible proofs , being seen of them forty dayes , and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god ; and being assembled with them , commanded them to tarry at jerusalem till the spirit came down ( miraculously ) upon them : and he ascended up to heaven , before their eyes , act. . and two angels appeared to them , as they were gazing after him , and told them , that thus he should come again . when pentecost was come , when they were all together ( about a hundred and twenty ) the holy spirit came upon them visibly , in the appearance of fiery cloven tongues , and sate on each of them , and caused them to speak the languages of many nations , which they had never learned , in the hearing of all : upon the notice of which , and by peters exhortation , about three thousand were then at once converted . act. . after this , peter and john do heal a man at the entrance of the temple , who had been lame from his birth , and this by the name of jesus , before the people : act. . one that was above forty years old , act. . . when they were forbidden to preach , upon their praises to god , the place was shaken , and they were all filled with the holy ghost , act. . . ananias and sapphira are struck dead by peters word , for hypocrisie and lying , act. . and many signs and wonders were done by them among the people , act. . . insomuch that they brought the sick into the streets , and laid them on beds and couches , that at least peters shadow might over-shaddow them , act. . , . and a multitude came out of the cities round about to jerusalem bringing sick folks , and demoniacks , and they were healed every one , v. . upon this , the apostles were shut into the common prison ; but an angel by night opened the prison and brought them out , and bid them go preach to the people in the temple , act. . when stephen was martyred , he saw the glory of god , and jesus standing at his right hand , act. . philip at samaria cured demoniacks , palsies , lameness , and so converted the people of that city ; insomuch that simon the sorcerer himself believed : the holy ghost is then given by the imposition of the hands of peter and john , so that simon offered money for that gift , act. . philip is led by the spirit to convert the aethiopian nobleman , and then carryed away , act. . saul who was one of the murderers of stephen , and a great persecutor of the church , is stricken down to the earth , and called by jesus christ , appearing in a light , and speaking to him from heaven , and is sent to preach the gospel , which he doth with zeal and power , and patient labours , to the death , act. . ananias is commanded by god to instruct him and baptize him after his first call , act. peter at lydda cureth aeneas by a word , who had kept his bed eight years of a palsie , act. . at joppa he raiseth tabitha from the dead , act. . cornelius by an angel is directed to send for peter to preach the gospel to him : the holy ghost fell on all that heard his words , act. . agabus prophesied of the dearth , act. . peter imprisoned by herod is delivered by an angel , who opened the doors , and loosed his bonds , and brought him out , act. . herod is eaten to death with worms , act. . at paphos elymas the sorcerer is strucken blinde by pauls word , for resisting the gospel , and sergius the roman deputy is thereby made a believer , act. . at lystra , paul by a word cureth a creeple that was so born : insomuch as the people would have done sacrifice to him and barna●as as to mercury and jupiter , act. . paul casteth out a divining devil , act. . and being imprisoned and scourged with silas , and their feet in the stocks , at midnight as they sang praises to god , an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison , the doors were all opened , and all their bonds loosed , and the jailor converted , act. . the holy ghost came upon twelve disciples , upon the imposition of paul's hands , act. . and god wrought so many miracles by his hands at ephesus , that from his body were brought to the sick , handkerchiefs , and aprons , and the diseases departed from them , act. . at troas he raised eutychus to life , act. . his sufferings at jerusalem are foretold by agabus , act. . at melita the people took him for a god , because the viper hurt him not that fastened on his hand : and there he cured the father of publius the chief man of the island , of a flux and feaver , by prayer and imposition of hands . in a word , in all places where the apostles came these miracles were wrought , and in all the churches the gifts of the holy ghost were usual , either of prophesie or of healing , or of speaking strange languages , or interpreting them , some had one , and some another , and some had most or all . and by such miracles were the christian churches planted . and all this power christ had foretold them of at his departure from them , mark. . . [ these signs shall follow them that believe : in my name shall they cast out devils , they shall speak with new tongues , they shall take up serpents , and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover . ] yea in his life-time on earth , he sent forth his apostles , and seventy disciples with the same power , which they exercised openly , luk. . . &c. & . , . thus was the gospel confirmed by multitudes of open miracles . and christs own resurrection and ascension was the greatest of all . and here it must be noted , that these miracles were . not one or two , but multitudes : . not obscure and doubtfull , but evident and unquestionable : . not controlled or checked by any greater contrary miracles , as the wonders of the egyptian sorcerers were by moses ; but altogether uncontrolled : . not in one place only , but in all countreys where they came : . not by one or two persons only , but by very many who were scattered up and down in the world. and that miracles , and such miracles as these , are a certain proof of the truth of christ and christianity , is most evident ; in that they are the attestation of god himself . . it is undenyable , that they are the effects of gods own power : if any question , whether god do them immediately , or whether an angel or spirit may not do them , that makes no difference in the case considerable : for all creatures are absolutely dependant upon god , and can use no power but what he giveth them , and continueth in them , and exerciseth by them : the power of the creatures is all of it the power of god : without him they are nothing , and can do nothing : and god is as near to the effect himself , when he useth an instrument , as when he useth none . so that undoubtedly it is god's work . . and god having no voice , but created , revealeth his mind to man by his operations : and as he cannot lie , so his infinite wisdom and goodness will not give up the world to such unavoidable deceit , as such a multitude of miracles would lead them into , if they were used to attest a lie . if i cannot know him to be sent of god , who raiseth the dead , and sheweth me such a seal of omnipotency to his commission , i have no possibility of knowing who speaketh from god at all , nor of escaping deceit in the greatest matters ; of which god by his omnipotent arm would be the cause . but none of this can stand with the nature and righteous government of god. this therefore is an infallible proof of the veracity of christ and his apostles : and the truth of the history of these miracles shall be further opened anon . § . . iv. the fourth part of the spirit 's testimony to christ is subsequent , in the work of regeneration or sanctification : in which he effectually illuminateth the mind , and reneweth the soul and life to a true resignation , obedience , and love of god , and to a heavenly mind and conversation : and so proveth christ to be really and effectively the saviovr . this evidence is commonly much over-look'd , and made little account of by the ungodly , who have no such renovation on themselves : because though it may be discerned in others by the fruits , yet they that have it not in themselves , are much hindred from discerning it ; partly because it is at a distance from them , and because it is in it self seated in the heart , where it is neither felt nor seen by others , but in the effects . and partly because the effects are imperfect , and clouded with a mixture of remaining faults : but especially , because that ungodly men have a secret enmity to holy things , and thence to holy persons , and therefore are falsely prejudic'd against them : which is encreased by cross interests and courses in their converse . but yet indeed , the spirit of regeneration is a plenary evidence of the truth of christ and christianity . to manifest which , i shall . consider , what it is , and doth . . how and by what means . . on whom . . against what opposition . . that it is christ indeed that doth it . i. the change which is made by the spirit of christ , doth consist in these particulars following : . it taketh down pride , and maketh men humble and low in their own eyes : to which end it acquainteth them with their sin , and their desert and misery . . it teacheth men self-denial , and causeth them to resign themselves to god , and use themselves as being wholly his own . . it absolutely subjecteth the soul to god , and sitteth up his authority as absolute , over our thoughts , and words , and all our actions . and maketh the christians life a course of careful obedience to his laws , so far as they understand them . . it taketh up a christians mind with the thankful sense of his redemption ; so that the pardon of his sins , and his deliverance from hell , and his hopes of everlasting glory , do form his soul to a holy gratitude , and make the expressions of it to be his work . . it giveth man a sense of the love of god , as his gracious redeemer ; and so of the goodness and mercifulness of his nature : it causeth them to think of god as their greatest benefactor , and as one that loveth them ; and as love it self : and so it reconcileth their estranged alienated minds to him , and maketh the love of god to be the very constitution and life of the soul. . it causeth men to believe that there is an everlasting glory to be enjoyed by holy souls ; where we shall see the glory of god , and be filled with his love , and exercised in perfect love and praise , and be with christ , his angels and saints , for evermore : it causeth them to take this felicity for their portion , and to set their hearts upon it , and to make it the chief care and business of all their lives to seek it . . it causeth them to live in the joyful hopes and foresight of this blessedness , and to do all that they do as means thereunto : and thus it sweetneth all their lives , and maketh religion their chief delight . . it accordingly employeth their thoughts and tongues ; so that the praises of god , and the mention of their everlasting blessedness , and of the way thereto , is their most delightful conference , as it beseemeth travellers to the city of god : and so their political converse is in heaven . . and thus it abateth the fears of death , as being but their passage to everlasting life : and those that are confirmed christians indeed , do joyfully entertain it , and long to see their glorified lord , and the blessed majesty of their great creator . . it causeth men to love all sanctified persons with a special love of complacency , and all mankind with a love of benevolence ; even to love our neighbours as our selves , and to abhor that selfishness which would engage us against our neighbours good . . it causeth men to love their enemies , and to forgive and forbear , and to avoid all unjust and unmerciful revenge . it maketh men meek , long-suffering and patient , though not impassionate , insensible , or void of that anger , which is the necessary opposer of sin and folly . . it employeth men in doing all the good they can : it maketh them long for the holiness and happiness of one another's souls , and desirous to do good to those that are in need , according to our power . . this true regeneration by the spirit of christ , doth make those superiours that hath it , even princes , magistrates , parents and masters , to rule those under them in holiness , love and justice , with self-denial ; seeking more the pleasing of god , and the happiness of their subjects , for soul and body , than any carnal selfish interest of their own : and therefore it must needs be the blessing of that happy kingdom , society or family , which hath such a holy governour , ( o that they were not so few ! ) . it maketh subjects , and children , and servants , submissive , and conscionable in all the duties of their relations ; and to honour their superiours as the officers of god , and to obey them in all just subordination to him . . it causeth men to love justice , and to do as they would be done by , and to desire the welfare of the souls , bodies , estates and honour of their neighbours as their own . . it causeth men to subdue their adpetites , and lusts , and fleshly desires , and to set up the government of god and sanctified reason over them ; and to take their flesh for that greatest enemy ( in our corrupted state ) which we must chiefly watch against , and master , as being a rebel against god and reason . it alloweth a man so much sensitive pleasure as god forbiddeth not , and as tendeth to the holiness of the soul , and furthereth us in god's service ; and all the rest it rebuketh and resisteth . . it causeth men to estimate all the wealth , and honour , and dignities of the world , as they have respect to god and a better world , and as they either help or hinder us in the pleasing of god , and seeking immortality : and as they are against god and our spiritual work and happiness , it causeth us to account them but as meer vanity , loss and dung . . it keepeth men in a life of watchfulness against all those temptations , which would draw them from this holy course , and in a continual warfare against satan and his kingdom , under conduct of jesus christ . . it causeth men to prepare for sufferings in this world , and to look for no great matters here : to expect persecutions , crosses , losses , wants , defamations , injuries , and painful sicknesses , and death ; and to spend their time in preparing all that furniture of mind , which is necessary to their support and comfort in such a day of trial ; that they may be patient and joyful in tribulation and bodily distress , as having a comfortable relation to god and heaven , which will incomparably weigh down all . . it causeth men to acknowledge , that all this grace and mercy is from the love of god alone , and to depend on him for it by faith in christ ; and to devote and refer all to himself again ; and make it our ultimate end to please him ; and thus to subserve him as the first efficient , the chief dirigent , and the ultimate , final cause of all : of whom , and through whom , and to whom are all things ; to whom be glory for ever , amen . this is the true description of that regenerate sanctified state , which the spirit of christ doth work on all whom he will save , and that are christians indeed , and not in name only . and certainly this is the image of god's holiness , and the just constitution and use of a reasonable soul : and therefore he that bringeth men to this is a real saviour , ( of whom more anon . ) ii. and it is very considerable , by what means , and in what manner all this is done : it is done by the preaching of the gospel of christ , and that in plainness and simplicity : the curiosity of artificial oratory doth usually but hinder the success , as painting doth the light of windows : it was a few plain men , that came with spiritual power , and not with the entising words of humane wisdom , or curiosities of vain philosophy , who did more in this work than any of their successors have done since . as in naturals , every thing is apt to communicate its own nature , and not anothers ; heat causeth heat , and cold causeth cold ; so wit by communication causeth wit , and common learning causeth common learning ; and so it is holiness and love which are fittest to communicate and cause holiness and love : which common qualifications are too low for ( though they may be helpful in their several places and degrees . ) what contemned instruments hath god used in the world , to do that for the regenerating of souls , which the greatest emperors by their laws , nor the subtilest philosophers by their precepts , did not ? the athenian philosophers despised paul , and gallio counted his doctrine but a supertitious talk about names and words ; but satan himself despised not those , whom he tempted men to despise , but perceived they were like to be the ruine of his kingdom , and therefore every where stirred up the most vehement furious resistance of them . it is evident therefore , that there is an inward effectual operation of the holy ghost , which giveth success to these means , which are naturally in themselves so weak . and it is to be observed , that this great change is very often wrought on a sudden , in a prevalent ( though not a perfect ) degree . one sermon hath done that for a many thousand sinners , which twenty years teaching of the greatest philosophers never did . one sermon hath turned them from the sins which they had lived in all their days ; and hath turned them to a life which they were strangers to before , or else abhorred : one sermon hath taken down the world , which had their hearts , and hath put it under their feet , and hath turned their hearts to another world : which sheweth that there is an internal agent , more powerful than the speaker . and it is remarkable that in the main , the change is wrought in one and the same method : first , humbling men for sin and misery , and then leading them to jesus christ as the remedy , and to god by him ; and so kindling the love of god in them by the bellows of faith ; and then leading them towards perfection in the exercises of that holy love . iii. and it will further lead us to the original of this change , to consider on whom it is thus wrought . . for their place and time . . their quality in themselves . . and as compared to each other . . and as to their numbers . . for time and place , it is in all ages since christ ( to say nothing of the former ages now ) and in all nations and countries which have received him and his gospel , that souls have been thus regenerated to god. if it had been only a fanatick rapture of brain-sick men , it would have been like the effects of the heresies of the valentinians , basilidians , gnosticks , montanists , &c. or of the swenckfeldians , weigelians , behmenists , quakers , and other such enthusiasts , who make a stir for one age , in some one corner of the world , and then go out with a perpetual stink . in all ages and countries , these effects of christian doctrine are the very same as they were in the first age , and the first country where it was preached . just such effects as it hath in one kingdom or family , it hath in all others who equally receive it ; and just such persons as christians were in the first ages at jerusalem , rome , antioch , philippi , &c. such are they now in england , according to their several degrees of grace , ( though not in miracles and things extraordinary to the church . ) the children of no one father are so like as all god's sanctified children are throughout the world . . as to their civil quality , it is men of all degrees that are thus sanctified , though fewest of the princes and great ones of the world . and as to their moral qualification , it sometime falleth on men prepared by a considering sober temper , and by natural plainness and honesty of heart ; and sometimes it befalleth such as are most prophane , and drown'd in sin , and never dreamt of such a change ; nay , purposely set their minds against it : these god doth often suddenly surprize by an over-powering light , and suitable-constraining-overcoming attraction , and maketh them new men . . and as to their capacities compared , there is plainly a distinguishing hand that disposeth of the work . sometimes a persecuting saul is converted by a voice from heaven , when pharisees that were less persecutors are left in their unregeneracy . sometimes under the same sermon , one that was more prophane and less prepared is converted , when another that was more sober and better disposed remaineth as he was before : the husband and the wife , the parents and the children , brothers and sisters , companions and friends , are divided by this work , and one converted and the other not : though none is deprived of this mercy , but upon the guilt of their forfeiture , resistance , or contempt ; yet is there plainly the effect of some special choice of the holy spirit , in taking out some of these that abused and forfeited grace , and changing them by an insuperable work . . and as to the number , it is many thousands that are thus renewed ; enow to shew the love and power of him that calleth them : but yet the far smaller part of mankinde , to shew his dominion , and distinguishing will , who knoweth the reason of all his works : ( of which more anon . ) iv. consider what opposition this work of grace doth overcome : . within us . . without us . . within men , it findeth . a dungeon of ignorance , which it dispelleth by it's heavenly light . . abundance of error and prejudice which it unteacheth men . . a stupid hardened heart , which it softeneth ; and a senseless sleepiness of soul , which it overcometh , by awakening quickening power : . a love to sin , which it turneth into hatred : . an idolizing self-esteem , and self-conceitedness , and self-love , and self-willedness , which it turneth into self-loathing and self-denyall : not making us loath our selves as natural , or as renewed , but as corrupt with sin , and abusers of mercy ; and such as by wilfull folly have wronged god , and undone themselves : so that repentance maketh men fall out with themselves , and become as loathsome in their own eyes . . it findeth in us an over-valuing love of this present world , and a foolish inordinate desire to its profits , dignities , and honours ; which it destroyeth and turneth into a rational contempt . . it findeth in us a prevailing sensuality , and an unreasonable appetite and lust ; and a flesh that would bear down both reason and the authority of god : and this it subdueth , and mortifieth it 's inordinate desires , and bringeth it under the laws of god. . it findeth all this radicated and confirmed by custome : and overcometh those sins , which a sinner hath turned as into his nature , and hath lived in the love and practice of all his dayes . all this and more opposition within us grace doth overcome in all the sanctified : and there is not one of all these if well considered of , but will appear to be of no small strength , and difficulty to be truly conquered . . and without us , the holy spirit overcometh , . worldly allurements , . worldly men , . all other assaults of satan . . while the soul is in flesh , and worketh by the means of the outward senses , these present things will be a strong temptation to us : prosperity and plenty , wealth and honour , ease and pleasure are accommodated to the desires of the flesh ; partly to its natural appetite , and much more to it as inordinate by corruption : and the flesh careth not for reason , how much soever it gainsay : and then all these entising things are neer us , and still present with us , and before our eyes ; when heavenly things are all unseen : and the sweetness of honour , wealth and pleasure , is known by feeling , and therefore known easily and by all ; when the goodness of things spiritual is known only by reason , and believing : all which laid together ( with sad experience ) do fully shew , that it must be a very great work to overcome this world , and raise the heart above it to a better , and so to sanctifie a soul . . and worldly men do rise up against this holy work , as as well as worldly things : undenyable experience assureth us , that through all the world , ungodly sensual men , have a marvellous implacable hatred to godlyness and true mortification ; and will by flattery or slanders , or scorns , or plots , or cruel violence , do all that they are able to resist it : so that he that will live a holy temperate life , must make himself a scorn , if not a prey : the foolish wit of the ungodly is bent , to reason men out of faith , hope , and holiness , and to cavill against our obedience to god , and to disgrace all that course of life , which is necessary to salvation . and it is a great work to overcome all these temptations of the foolish and furious world. great i say , because of the great folly and corruption of unregenerate men , on whom it must be wrought ; though it would be smaller to a wise and considerate person . to be made as an owl , and hunted as a partridge or a beast of prey , by those that we converse with , when we might have their favour , and friendship , and preferments , if we would say and do as they , this is not easie to flesh and blood : but its easie to the spirit of god. . the devil is so notoriously an enemy to this sanctifying work , that it is a strong discovery that christ was sent from god to do it . what a stir doth he first make to keep out the gospel , that it may not be preached to the nations of the world ? and where that will not serve , what a stir doth he make to debauch christs ministers , and corrupt them by ignorance , heresie , error , schism , domineering pride , sensuality , covetousness , slothfulness and negligence , that they may do the work of christ deceitfully , as if they did it not : yea , and if it may be , to win them to his service , to destroy the church by oppression or division , under pretense of serving christ ? and what cunning and industry doth this serpent use , to insinuate into great ones and rulers of the earth , a prejudice against christ and godliness , and to make them believe , that all that are seriously godly are their enemies , and are against some interest of theirs , that so he might take the sword which god hath put into their hands , and turn it to his own service against him that gave it ? how cunning and diligent is he to seduce men that begin to set themselves to a religious life , into some false opinions , or dividing sects , or scandalous unjustifiable practice , that thereby he may triumph against christ , and have something to say against religion , from the faults of men , when he hath nothing to say against it justly from it self ? and that he may have something to say to those rulers and people , with whom he would fain make religion odious ? how cunningly doth he engage ungodly men , to be his servants in seducing others , and making them such as they are themselves , and in standing up for sin and darkness against the light and life of faith ? so that ungodly men are but the souldiers and preachers of the devil , in all parts employed to fight against god , and draw men from holiness and justice , and temperance , to sin , and to damnation : so that it is a very discernable thing , that satan is the head of one party in the world , as the destroying prince of darkness and deceit ; and that christ is the head of the other party , as the prince of light , and truth , and holiness : and that there is a continued war or opposition , between these two kingdoms or armies , in all parts and ages of the world ( of which i have fullyer treated in another book * ) if any shall say , how know you that all this is the work of satan ? i shall have fitter occasion to answer that anon : i shall now say but this , that the nature of the work , the tendency of it , the irrationall , erroneous , or brutish tyrannical manner of doing it , the internal importunity and manner of his suggestions , and the effects of all , and the contrariety of it to god and man , will soon shew a considerate man the author . ( though more shall be anon added . ) v. all this aforegoing will shew a reasonable man , that the spirits regenerating work is such , as is a full attestation of god to that doctrine , by which it is effected . and if any now say , how prove you , that all this is to be ascribed to jesus christ , any more than to socrates or to seneca , or cicero : i answer : . so much truth of a sacred tendency , as plato , or pythagoras , or socrates , or any philosopher taught , might do some good , and work some reformation , according to its quality and degree : but as it was a lame imperfect doctrine which they taught , so was it a very lame imperfect reformation which they wrought , unlike the effects of the doctrine and spirit of jesus christ : i need to say no more of this , than to desire any man to make an impartial and judicious comparison between them . and , besides much more , he shall quickly finde these differences following : . that the philosophers disciples had a very poor , dark , disordered knowledge of god , in comparison of the christians : and that mixt with odious fopperies , either blasphemous or idolatrous . . the philosophers spake of god , and the life to come almost altogether notionally , as they did of logick or physicks ; and very few of them practically , as a thing that mans happiness or misery was so much concerned in . . they spake very jejunely and dryly about a holy state and course of life , and the duty of man to god , in resignation , devotedness , obedience and love . . they said little comparatively to the true humbling of a soul , nor in the just discovery of the evil of sin , nor for self-denyall . . they gave too great countenance to pride , and worldliness , and pleasing the senses by excess . . the doctrine of true love to one another , is taught by them exceeding lamely and defectively : . revenge is too much indulged by them , and loving our enemies , and forgiving great wrongs , was little known , or taught , or practised : . they were so pitifully unacquainted with the certainty and blessedness of the life to come , that they say nothing of it , that is ever likely to make any considerable number set their hearts on heaven , and to live a heavenly life . . they were so unacquainted with the nature and will of god , that they taught and used such a manner of worship as tended rather to delude and corrupt men , than to sanctifie them : . they medled so little with the inward sins and duties of the heart , especially about the holy love of god ; and their goodness was so much in outward acts , and in meer respect to men ; that they were not like to sanctifie the soul , or make the man good , that his actions might be good ; but only to polish men for civil societies ; with the addition of a little varnish of superstition and hypocrisie . . their very style is either suitable to dead speculation , as a lecture of metaphysicks ; or sleight and dull , and unlike to be effectual to convert and sanctifie mens souls : . almost all is done in such a disputing sophistical way , and clogg'd with so many obscurities , uncertainties , and self-contradictions , and mixt in heaps of physical and logical subtilties , that they were unfit for the common peoples benefit , and could tend but to the benefit of a few . . experience taught , and still teacheth the world , that holy souls and lives , that were sincerely set upon god and heaven , were strangers amongst the disciples of the philosophers , and other heathens : or if it be thought that there were some such among them , certainly , they were very few , in comparison of true christians , and those few very dark , and diseased and defective : with us , a childe at ten years old will know more of god , and shew more true piety , than did any of their philosophers ; with us poor women , and labouring persons , do live in that holiness , and heavenliness of minde and conversation , which the wisest of the philosophers never did attain . i spake of this before , but here also thought meet , to shew you the difference between the effect of christs doctrine and the philosophers . . and that all this is justly to be imputed to christ himself , i shall now prove . . he gave them a perfect pattern for his holy , obedient , heavenly life , in his own person and his conversation here on earth . . his doctrine and law requireth all this holiness which i described to you : you finde the prescript in his word , of which the holy souls and lives of men are but a transcript . . all his institutions and ordinances are but means and helps to this . . he hath made it the condition of mans salvation to be thus holy , in sincerity , and to desire and seek after perfection in it : he taketh no other for true christians indeed , nor will save any other at the last . . all his comforting promises of mercy and defence are made only to such . . he hath made it the office of his ministers through the world , to perswade and draw men to this holiness : and if you hear the sermons , and read the books which any faithfull minister of christ doth preach or write , you will soon see that this is the business of them all : and you may soon perceive , that these ministers have another kinde of preaching and writing than the philosophers had ; more clear , more congruous , more spiritual , more powerfull , and likely to win men to holiness and heavenliness : when our divines and their philosophers are compared , as to their promoting of true holiness , verily , the latter seem to be but as glow-worms , and the former to be the candles for the family of god : and yet i truly value the wisdom and virtue which i finde in a plato , a seneca , a cicero , an antonine , or any of them . if you say , our advantage is because coming after all , we have the helps of all , even of those philosophers . i answer , mark in our books and sermons whether it be any thing but christianity which we preach ? it is from christ and scripture , that we fetch our doctrine , and not from the philosophers : we use their helps in logick , physicks , &c. but that 's nothing to our doctrine ! he that taught me to speak english , did not teach me the doctrine which i preach in english : and he that teacheth me to use the instruments of logick , doth not teach me the doctrine about which i use them . and why did not those philosophers by all their art , attain to that skill in this sacred work , as the ministers of christ do , when they had as much or more of the arts than we ? i read indeed of many good orations then used ; even in those of the emperour julian , there is much good ; and in antonine , arrian , epictetus , plutarch , more . and i read of much taking-oratory of the bonzii in japan , &c. but compared to the endeavours of christian divines , they are poor , pedantick , barren things , and little sparks ; and the success of them is but answerable . . christ did before hand promise to send his spirit into mens souls , to do all this work upon all his chosen . and as he promised , just so he doth . . and we finde by experience , that it is the preaching of christs doctrine by which the work is done : it is by the reading of the sacred scripture , or hearing the doctrine of it opened and applyed to us , that souls are thus changed , as is before described : and if it be by the medicines which he sendeth us himself , by the hands of his own servants , that we are healed , we need not doubt whether it be he that healed us . his doctrine doth it as the instrumental cause ; for we finde it adapted thereunto , and we finde nothing done upon us but by that doctrine ; nor any remaining effect but what is the impression of it : but his spirit inwardly reneweth us as the principal cause , and worketh with and by the word : for we finde that the word doth not work upon all ; nor upon all alike , that are alike prepared : but we easily perceive a voluntary distinguishing choice in the operation . and we finde a power more than can be in the words alone , in the effect upon our selves . the heart is like the wax , and the word like the seal , and the spirit like the hand that strongly applyeth it : we feel upon our hearts , that ( though nothing is done without the seal , yet ) a greater force doth make the impression than the weight of the seal alone could cause . by this time it is evident , that this work of sanctification is the attestation of god by which he publickly owneth the gospel , and declareth to the world , that christ is the saviour , and his word is true : for . it is certain that this work of renovation is the work of god : for . it is his image on the soul : it is the life of the soul as flowing from his holy life : wherein are contained the trinity of perfections : it is the power of the soul , by which it can overcome the flesh , the world and the devil , which without it none is able to do : it is the wisdom of the soul , produced by his light and wisdom ; by which we know the difference between good and evil , and our reason is restored to its dominion over fleshly sense : it is the goodness of the soul , by which it is made suitable to the eternal good ; and fit to know him , love him , praise him , serve him , and enjoy him : and therefore nothing lower than his goodness can be its principal cause . . it subserveth the interest of god in the world : and recovereth the apostate soul to himself : it disposeth it to honour him , love him and obey him : it delivereth up the whole man to him as his own : it casteth down all that rebelleth against him : it casteth out all which was preferred before him : it rejecteth all which standeth up against him , and would seduce and tempt us from him : and therefore it is certainly his work . . whose else should it be ? would satan or any evil cause produce so excellent an effect ? would the worst of beings do the best of works ? ( it is the best that is done in this lower world ) would any enemy of god so much honour him , and promote his interest , and restore him his own ? would any enemy of mankind thus advance us , and bring us up to a life of the highest honour and delights , that we are capable of on earth , and give us the hopes of life eternal ? and if any good angel , or other cause , should do it , all reason will confess , that they do it but as the messengers or instruments of god , and as second causes , and not as the first cause : for otherwise we should make them gods . for my own part , my soul perceiveth , that it is god himself that hath imprinted this his image on me , and hath hereby , as it were , written upon me his name and mark , even holiness to the lord ; and i bear about me continually a witness of himself , his son , and holy spirit ; a witness within me , which is the seal of god , and the pledge of his love , and the earnest of my heavenly inheritance . and if our sanctification be thus of god , it is certainly his attestation to the truth of christ , and to his gospel : for , . no man that knoweth the perfections of god , will ever believe , that he would bless a deceiver , and a lie , to be the means of the most holy and excellent work that ever was done in the world . if christ were a deceiver , his crime would be so execrable , as would engage the justice of god against him , as he is the righteous governour of the world : and therefore he would not so highly honour him , to be his chiefest instrument for the worlds renovation . he is not impotent to need such instruments ; he is not ignorant , that he should so mistake in the choice of instruments ; he is not bad , that he should love and use such instruments , and comply with their deceits . these things are all so clear and sure , that i cannot doubt of them . . no man that knoweth the mercifulness of god , and the justice of his government can believe , that he would give up mankind so remedilesly to seduction ; yea , and be the principal causer of it himself . for if besides prophecie , and a holy doctrine , and a multitude of famous miracles , a deceiver might also be the great renewer and sanctifier of the world , to bring man back to the obedience of god , and to repair his image on mankind ; what possibility were there of our discovery of that deceit ? or rather should we not say , he were a blessed deceiver , that had deceived us from our sin and misery , and brought back our straying souls to god ? . nay , when christ fore-told men , that he would send his spirit to do all this work , and would renew men for eternal life , and thus be with us to the end of the world ; and when i see all this done , i must needs believe , that he that can send down a sanctifying spirit , a spirit of life , a spirit of power , light and love , to make his doctrine in the mouths of his ministers effectual to mens regeneration and sanctification , is no less himself than god , or certainly no less than his certain administrator . . what need i more to prove the cause than the adequate effect ? when i find that christ doth actually save me , shall i question whether he be my saviour ? when i find that he saveth thousands about me , and offereth the same to others , shall i doubt whether he be the saviour of the world ? sure he that healeth us all , and that so wonderfully and so cheaply , may well be called our physician . if he had promised only to save us , i might have doubted whether he would perform it , and consequently whether he be indeed the saviour . but when he performeth it on my self , and performeth it on thousands round about me , to doubt yet whether he be the saviour , when he actually saveth us , is to be ignorant in despite of reason and experience . i conclude therefore that the spirit of sanctification is the infallible witness of the verity of the gospel , and the veracity of jesus christ . . and i entreat all that read this , further to observe , the great use and advantage of this testimony above others : in that it is continued from generation to generation , and not as the gift and testimony of miracles , which continued plentifully but one age , and with diminution somewhat after : this is christ's witness to the end of the world , in every country , and to every soul : yea , and continually dwelling in them : for if any man have not the spirit of christ , he is none of his , rom. . . he that is not able to examine the history which reporteth the miracles to him , may be able to find upon his soul the image of god imprinted by the gospel , and to know that the gospel hath that image in it self which it imprinteth upon others ; and that it cometh from god , which leadeth men so directly unto god ; and that it is certainly his own means which he blesseth to so great and excellent ends . . note also , that part of the work of the spirit of god in succeeding the doctrine of jesus christ , doth consist in the effectual production of faith it self : for though the work be wrought by the reasons of the gospel , and the evidences of truth ; yet is it also wrought by the spirit of god , concurring with that evidence , and as the internal efficient , exciting the sluggish faculties to do their office , and illustrating the understanding , and fitting the will to entertain the truth : for the difficulties are so great , and the temptations to unbelief so subtil and violent , and our own indisposedness through corruption , the greatest impediment of all , that the bare word alone would not produce a belief of that lively vigorous nature , as is necessary to its noble effects and ends , without the internal co-operation of the spirit . so that christ doth not only teach us the christian faith and religion , but doth give it us , and work it in us by his spirit . and he that can do so , doth prove the divine approbation of his doctrine , without which , he could not have the command of mens souls . . note also , that the gospel proposeth to the soul of man both truth and goodness : and the truth is in order to the good , and subservient to it : that christ is indeed the saviour , and his word infallibly true , is believed , that we may be made partakers of his salvation , and of the grace and glory promised . and when the spirit by the gospel hath regenerated and renewed any soul , he hath given him part of that grace in possession , and hath procreated in him the habitual love of god , and of holiness , with a love to that saviour and holy word which brought him to it . so that this love is now become as a new nature to the soul : and this being done , the soul cleaveth now as fast to christ and the gospel by love , as by belief : not that love becometh an irrational causless love , nor continueth without the continuance of belief , or belief without the reasons and evidence of verity and credibility : but love now by concurrence greatly assisteth faith it self , and is the faster hold of the two : so that the soul that is very weak in its reasoning faculty , and may oft lose the sight of these evidences of truth , which it did once perceive , may still hold fast by this holy love. as the man that by reasoning hath been convinced that hony is sweet , will easilier change his mind than he that hath tasted it ; so love is the souls taste , which causeth its fastest adherence to god and to the gospel . if a caviller dispute with a loving child , or parent , or friend , to alienate their hearts from one another , and would perswade them that it is but dissembled love that is professed to them by their relations and friends ; love will do more here to hinder the belief of such a slander , than reason alone can do : and where reason is not strong enough to answer all that the caviller can say , yet love may be strong enough to reject it . and here i must observe how oft i have noted the great mercy of god , to abundance of poor people , whose reasoning faculty would have failed them in temptations to atheism and infidelity , if they had not had a stronger hold than that , and their faith had not been radicated in the will by love : i have known a great number of women who never read a treatise that pleaded the cause of the christian religion , nor were able to answer a crafty infidel , that yet in the very decaying time of nature , at fourscore years of age and upward , have lived in that sense of the love of god , and in such love to him and to their saviour , as that they have longed to die , and be with christ , and lived in all humility , charity , and piety , such blameless , exemplary , heavenly lives , in the joyfull expectation of their change , as hath shewed the firmness of their faith ; and the love and experience which was in them , would have rejected a temptation to atheism and unbelief , more effectually than the strongest reason alone could ever do . yet none have cause to reproach such , and say , their wills lead their vnderstandings , and they customarily and obstinately believe they know not why : for they have known sufficient reason to believe , and their understandings have been illuminated to see the truth of true religion ; and it was this knowledge of faith which bred their love and experience : but when that is done , as love is the more noble and perfect operation of the soul ( having the most excellent object ) so it will act more powerfully and prevailingly , and hath the strongest hold : nor are all they without light and reason for their belief , who cannot form it into arguments , and answer all that is said against it . obj. but may not all this which you call regeneration , and the image of god , be the meer power of fantasie , and affectation ? and may not all these people force themselves , like melancholy persons , to conceit that they have that which indeed they have not ? answ . . they are not melancholly persons that i speak of , but those that are as capable as any others to know their own minds , and what is upon their own hearts . . it is not one or two , but millions . . nature hath given man so great acquaintance with himself , by a power of perceiving his own operations , that his own cogitations and desires are the first thing that naturally he can know : and therefore if he cannot know them , he can know nothing . if i cannot know what i think , and what i love and hate , i can know nothing at all . . that they are really minded and affected as they seem , and have in them that love to god , and heaven , and holiness which they profess , they shew to all the world by the effects : . in that it ruleth the main course of their lives , and disposeth of them in the world . . in that these apprehensions and affections over-rule all their worldly fleshly interest , and cause them to deny the pleasures of the flesh , and the profits and honours of the world . . in that they are constant in it to the death , and have no other mind in their distress ; when as seneca saith , nothing feigned is of long continuance , for all forc'd things are bending back to their natural state . . in that they will lay down their lives , and forsake all the world , for the hopes which faith in christ begetteth in them . and if the objectors mean , that all this is true , and yet it is but upon delusion or mistake that they raise these hopes , and raise these affections ; i answer , this is the thing that i am disproving : . the love of god , and a holy mind and life , is not a dream of the soul , or a deliration : i have proved from natural reason in the first book , that it is the end , and use , and perfection of man's faculties : that if god be god , and man be man , we are to love him above all , and to obey him as our absolute sovereign , and to live as devoted to him , and to delight in his love . man were more ignoble or miserable than a beast , if this were not his work . and is that a dream or a delusion , which causeth a man to live as a man ? to the ends that he was made for ? and according to the nature and use of his reason and all his faculties ? . while the proofs of the excellency and necessity of a holy life are so fully before laid down , from natural and supernatural revelation , the objector doth but refuse to see in the open light , when he satisfieth himself with a bare assertion , that all this is no sufficient ground for a holy life , but that it is taken up upon mistake . . all the world is convinced at one time or other , that on the contrary it is the unholy , fleshly , worldly life , which is the dream and dotage , and is caused by the grossest error and deceit . object . but how shall i know that there is indeed such holiness in christians as you mention , and that it is not dissembled and counterfeit ? answ . i have told you in the fore-going answer . . if you were truly christians , you might know it by possession in your selves : as you know that you love your friend , or a learned man knoweth that he hath learning . . if you have it not your selves , you may see that others do not dissemble , when you see them , as afore-said , make it the drift of all their lives , and prefer it before their worldly interest , and their lives , and hold on constantly in it to the death . when you see a holy life , what reason have you to question a holy heart ? especially among so great a number , you may well know , that if some be dissemblers , all the rest are not so . obj. but i see no christians that are really so holy : i see nothing in the best of them above civility , but only self-conceit , and affectation , and strictness in their several forms and modes of worship . answ . . if you are no better than such your self , it is the greatest shame and plague of heart that you could have confessed : and it must needs be , because you have been false to the very light of nature , and of grace . . if you know no christians that are truly holy , it must needs be , either because you are unacquainted with them , or because your malice will not give you leave to see any good in these that you dislike . and if you have acquainted your self with no christians that were truly holy , what could it be but malice or sensuality that turned you away from their acquaintance , when there have been so many round about you ? if you have been intimate with them , and known their secret and open conversation , and yet have not seen any holiness in them , it can be no better than wilful malice that hath blinded you . and because a negative witness that knoweth not whether it be so or not , is not to be regarded against an affirming witness who knoweth what he saith , i will here leave my testimony as in the presence of god , the searcher of hearts , and the revenger of a lie , yea , even of lies pretended for his glory ? i have considered of the characters of a christian in the twenty particulars before expressed in this chapter , ( § . . ) and i have examined my soul concerning them all ; and as far as i am able to know my self , i must profess , in humble thankfulness to my redeemer , that there is none of them which i find not in me : and seeing god hath given me his testimony within me , to the truth of the gospel of his son , i take it to be my duty in the profession of it , to give my testimony of it to unbelievers . and i must as solemnly profess , that i have had acquaintance with hundreds , if not thousands , on whom i have seen such evidences of a holy heavenly mind , which nothing but uncharitable and unrighteous censure could deny . and i have had special intimate familiarity , with very many , in all whom i have discerned the image of god , in such innocency , charity , justice , holiness , contempt of the world , mortification , self-denial , humility , patience and heavenly mindedness , in such a measure , that i have seen no cause to question their sincerity , but great cause to love and honour them as the saints of god : yea , i bless the lord that most of my converse in the world , since the d year of my age , hath been with such ; and much of it , six years sooner . therefore for my own part , i cannot be ignorant that christ hath a sanctified people upon earth . object . but how can one man know another's heart to be sincere ? answ . i pretend not to know by an infallible certainty the heart of any single individual person : but , . i have in such a course of effects as is mentioned before , great reason to be very confident of it , and no reason to deny it , concerning very many . a child cannot be infallibly certain that his father or mother loveth him , because he knoweth not the heart : but when he considereth of the ordinariness of natural affection , and hath always found such usage , as dearest love doth use to cause , he hath much reason to be confident of it , and none to deny it . . there may be a certainty that all conjunctly do not counterfeit , when you have no certainty of any single individual . as i can be sure that all the mothers in the world do not counterfeit love to their children , though i cannot be certain of it in any individual . object but it is not all christians , nor most , that are thus holy . answ . it is all that are christians in deed and truth . christ is so far from owning any other , that he will condemn them the more for abusing his name to the covering of their sins : all are not christians who have the name of christians : in all professions , the vulgar rabble of the ignorant and ungodly , do use to joyn with the party that is uppermost , and seem to be of the religion which is most for their worldly ends , be it right or wrong , when indeed they are of none at all . hypocrites are no true christians , but the persons that christ is most displeased with . judge but by his precepts and example , and you will see who they are that are christians indeed . object . but what if the preaching or writings of a minister do convert and sanctifie men , it doth not follow that they are saviours of the world . answ . what ever they do , they do it as the ministers and messengers of christ , by his doctrine , and not by any of their own : by his commission , and in his name , and by his power or spirit . therefore it witnesseth to his truth and honour , who is indeed the saviour , which they never affirmed of themselves . object . what if pythagoras , socrates , plato , the japonian bonzii , the indian bramenes , &c. do bring any souls to a holy state , ( as its like they did ) it will not follow that they were all saviours of the world . answ . . they have but an imperfect doctrine , and consequently make on the minds of men but a lame defective change : and that change but upon few , and that but for a few ages , and then another sect succeedeth them : so that they have no such attestation and approbation of god , as christ hath in the renovation of so many thousands all abroad the world , and that for so many ages together . . they did not affirm themselves to be the sons of god , and the saviours of the world ; if they had , god would not have annexed such a testimony to their word , as he doth to christs . . the mercy of god is over all his works . he hath compassion upon all nations ; and setteth up some candles , where the sun is not yet risen : the light and law of nature are his , as well as the light and law of supernatural revelation : and accordingly he hath his instruments for the communication of them , to the rude and ignorant part of the world . all the truth which any philosopher teacheth , is god's truth : and it is no wonder if a god of so much goodness , do bless his own truth , according to its nature and proportion , who ever be the messenger of it . whether the success of philosophy , be ever the true sanctification and salvation of any souls , is a thing that i meddle not with ; ( it belongeth not to us , and therefore is not revealed to us : ) but it is visible in the gospel , that all that part of practical doctrine which the philosophers taught , is contained in the doctrine of christ , as a part in the whole : and therefore the impress and effect is more full and perfect , as the doctrine ; and the impress and effect of the philosophers doctrine , can be no better than the cause , which is partial and defective , and mixt with much corruption and untruth . all that is good in the philosophers is in the doctrine of christ : but they had abundance of false opinions and idolatries to corrupt it ; when christianity hath nothing but clean and pure . so that as no philosopher affirmed himself to be the saviour , so his doctrine was not attested by the plenary and common effect of regeneration ; as christ's was : but as they were but the ministers of the god of nature , so they had but an answerable help from god ; who could not be supposed ( however , had they wrought miracles ) to have attested more than themselves asserted , or laid claim to . object . but mahomet ventured on a higher arrogation and pretence ; and yet if his doctrine sanctifie men , it will not justifie his pretences . answ . . it is not proved , that his doctrine doth truly sanctifie any : . the effect which it hath can be but lame , defective , and mixt with much vanity and error , as his doctrine is : for the effect cannot excell the cause . . that part of his doctrine which is good , and doth good , is not his own , but part of christs , from whom he borrowed it , and to whom the good effects are to be ascribed . . mahomet never pretended to be the son of god , and saviour of the world , but only to be a prophet : therefore his cause is much like that of the philosophers forementioned , saving that he giveth a fuller testimony to christ . . if mahomet had proved his word , by antecedent prophesies , promises , and types , through many ages ; and by inherent purity , and by concomitant miracles , and by such wonderfull subsequent communications of renewing sanctifying grace , by the spirit of god , so ordinary in the world ; we should all have had reason to believe his word : but if he pretend only to be a prophet , and give us none of all these proofs , but a foppish , ridiculous bundle of non-sense , full of carnal doctrines , mixt with holy truth , which he had from christ , we must judge accordingly of his authority and word , notwithstanding god may make use of that common truth , to produce an answerable degree of goodness , among those that hear and know no better . these objections may be further answered anon , among the rest : and thus much shall here suffice of the great and cogent evidences of the truth of the christian faith. chap. vii . of the subservient proofs , and means , by which the forementioned evidences are brought to our certain knowledge . the witness of the spirit in the four wayes of evidence already opened , is proved to be sure , and cogent , if first it be proved to be true , that indeed such a witness to jesus christ , hath been given to the world : the argument is undenyable , when the minor is proved , [ he , whose word is attested by god , by many thousand years predictions , by the inherent image of god upon the frame of his doctrine , by multitudes of uncontrolled miracles , and by the success of his doctrine to the true regeneration of a great part of the world , is certainly to be believed : but such is jesus christ : ergo , — ] i have been hitherto for the most part proving the major proposition , and now come to the minor ; as to the several branches . § . . i. the prophetical testimony of the spirit , is yet legible , in the promises , prophesies and types , and main design of the old testament . § . . the books of holy scripture where all these are sound , are certain uncorrupted records thereof ; preserved by the unquestioned tradition and care , and to this day attested by the generall confession , of the jewes , who are the bitterest enemies to christianity . there are no men of reason that i have heard of , that deny the books of moses , and the psalms , and the prophets , &c. to be indeed those that went under those titles from the beginning : and that there can be no considerable corruption in them , which might much concern their testimony to christ , the comparing of all the copies , and the versions , yet extant , will evince ; together with the testimony of all sorts of enemies ; and the morall impossibility of their corruption . but i will not stand to prove that which no sober adversary doth deny . to these books the christians did appeal , and to these the jews profess to stand . § . . ii. the constitutive inherent image of god upon the gospel of christ , is also still visible in the books themselves ; and needeth no other proof , than a capable reader ( as afore described . ) § . . the preaching and writings of the ministers of christ , do serve to illustrate this , and help men to discern it ; but adde nothing to the inherent perfection of the gospel , for matter , or for method . § . . iii. the testimony of the age of miracles fore-described , can be known naturally no way , but by sight or other senses to those present , and by report or history to those absent . § . . the apostles and many thousand others saw the miracles wrought by christ ; and needed no other proof of them than their senses . the many thousands who at twice were fed by miracle were witnesses of that . the multitude were witnesses of his healing the blinde , the lame , the paralitick , the demoniacks , &c. the pharisees themselves made the strictest search into the cure of the man born blinde , joh. . and the raising of lazarus from the dead , and many more . his miracles were few of them hid , but openly done before the world. § . . the apostles and many hundreds more , were witnesses of christs own resurrection ; and needed no other proof but their sense . at divers times he appeared to them , together and apart : and yielded to thomas his unbelief so farre , as to call him to put his finger into his side , and see the print of the nails : he instructed them concerning the kingdom of god , for forty dayes , act. . he gave them their commission , mar. . mat. . joh. . he expostulated with peter , and engaged him to feed his lambs : he was seen of more than five hundred brethren at once : and lastly appeared after his ascension to paul , and to john that wrote the revelations . § . . the apostles also were eye-witnesses of his ascension : act. . what he had foretold them , they saw him fulfill . § . . all these eye-witnesses were not themselves deluded , in thinking they saw those things which indeed they did not see . for . they were persons of competent understanding , as their writings shew ; and therefore not like children that might be cheated with palpable deceits . . they were many ( the twelve apostles , and disciples , and all the rest , besides the many thousands of the common people that only wondered at him , but followed him not . one or two may be easilyer deceived than such multitudes . . the matters of fact were done neer them , where they were present , and not far off . . they were done in the open light , and not in a corner , or in the dark . . they were done many times over , and not once or twice only . . the nature of the things was such , as a juggling deluding of the senses could not serve for so common a deceit : as when the persons that were born blinde , the lame , the paralitick , &c. were seen to be perfectly healed ; and so of the rest . . they were persons who followed christ , and were still with him , ( or very oft ) : and therefore if they had been once deceived , they could not be so alwayes . and vigilant subtile enemies were about them , that would have helped them to have detected a deceit . yea , the twelve apostles and disciples were employed themselves in working miracles , healing the sick and demoniacks , in christs own life-time ; and rejoyced in it : and they could not be deceived for divers years together in the things which they saw , and heard , and felt , and also in that which they did themselves : besides that , all their own miracles which they wrought after christs ascension , prove that they were not deceived . there is no way left then but one to deceive them ; and that is , if god himself should alter and delude all their senses , which it is certain that he did not doe : for then he had been the chief cause of all the delusion , and all the consequents of it in the world : he that hath given men sight , and hearing , and feeling , will not delude them all by unresistable alterations and deceits , and then forbid them to believe those lies , and propagate them to others . man hath no other way of knowing things sensible but by sense . he that hath his senses sound , and the object proportionate and at a just distance , and the medium fit , and his understanding sound , may well trust his senses ; especially when it is the case of many : and if sense in those cases should be deceived , we should be bound to be deceived , as having no other way of knowing , or of detecting the deceit . § . . those that saw not christ's miracles , nor saw him risen , received all these matters of fact , from the testimony of them that said they saw them : ( having no other way by which they could receive them . ) § . . supposing now christs resurrection and miracles to be true , it is certain , that their use and obligation must extend to more than those that saw them ; even to persons absent , and of other generations . this i have fully and undenyably proved , in a disputation in my book against infidelity : by such arguments as these . . the use and obligation of such miracles doth extend to all that have sufficient evidence of their truth . but the nations and generations which never saw them , may have sufficient evidence of their truth ( that they were done ) : ergo , the use and obligation doth extend to such . the major is past all contradiction . he that hath sufficient evidence of the truth of the fact , is obliged to believe it . the minor is to be proved in the following sections . . the contrary doctrine maketh it impossible for god to oblige the world by miracles , according to their proper use . but it is not impossible : therefore that doctrine is false . here note , that the use and force of miracles lyeth in their being extraordinary , rather than in the power which they manifest : for it is as great an effect of omnipotency to have the sun move , as to stand still : now if miracles oblige none to believe but those that see them , then every man in every city , countrey , town , family , and in all generations to the end of the world , must see christ risen , or not believe it , and must see lazarus risen , or not believe it ; and must see all the miracles himself which oblige him to believe : but this is an absurdity , and contradiction , making miracles gods ordinary works , and so as no miracles . . they that teach men that they are bound to believe no miracles but what they see , do deprive all after-ages of all the benefit of all the miraculous works of god , both mercies and judgements , which their forefathers saw : but god wrought them not only for them that saw them ; but also for the absent , and after-times . . by the same reason , they will disoblige men from believing any other matters of fact , which they never saw themselves : and that is to make them like new comers into the world , yea , like children and fools , and to be uncapable of humane society . . this reasoning would rob god of the honour of all his most wonderous works , as from any but those that see them : so that no absent person , nor following age should be obliged to mention them , believe them , or honour him for them : which is absurd and impious . . the world would be still as it were to begin anew , and no age must be the wiser for all the experiences of those that have gone before ; if we must not believe what we never saw . and if men must not learn thus much of their ancestors , why should they be obliged to learn any thing else , but children be left to learn only by their own eye-sight ? . if we are not bound to believe gods wonderous works which have been before our dayes , then our ancestors are not bound to tell them us , nor we to be thankfull for them : the israelites should not have told their posterity how they were brought out of the land of egypt , nor england keep a day of thanksgiving for its deliverance from the powder-plot : but the consequent is absurd : ergo , so is the antecedent . what have we our tongues for , but to speak of what we know to others ? the love that parents have to their children will oblige them to acquaint them with all things usefull which they know . the love which men have naturally to truth , will oblige them to divulge it . who that had but seen an angel , or received instructions by a voice from heaven , or seen the dead raised , would not tell others what he had seen and heard ? and to what end should he tell them , if they were not obliged to believe it . . governments , and justice , and all humane converse is maintained by the belief of others , and the reports and records of things which we see not : few of the subjects see their king. witnesses carry it in every cause of justice : thus princes prove their successions and title to their crowns , and all men their estates , by the records or testimony of others . . it is impudent arrogancy for every infidel to tie god to be at his beck , to work miracles as oft as he requireth it : to say , i will not believe without a miracle ; and if thou work never so many in the sight of others , i will not believe unless i may see them my self . § . . there need not be new revelations and miracles , to confirm the former , and oblige men to believe them : for then there must be more revelations and miracles , to confirm the former , and oblige men to believe those ; and so on to the end of the world : and then god could not govern the world by a setled law by revelations once made ; which is absurd . § . . therefore the only natural way to know all such matters of fact is sensible apprehension to those that are present ; and credible report , tradition or history , to those that are absent ( as is aforesaid ) : which is the necessary medium to convey it from their sense to our understandings : and in this must we acquiesce , as the natural means which god will use . § . . we are not bound to believe all history or report : therefore we must be able to discern between the credible , and the incredible ; neither receiving all , nor rejecting all ; but making choice , as there is cause . § . . history is more or less credible , as it hath more or less evidence of truth : . some that is credible hath only evidence of probability ; and such is that of meer humane faith : . some hath evidence of certainty , from natural causes concurring ; where the conclusion is both of knowledge , and of humane faith. . and some hath evidence of certainty from supernatural attestation , which is both of humane faith , and of divine . § . . that history or report which hath no more evidence than the meer wisdom and honesty of the author or reporter ( supposing him an imperfect man ) is but probable , and the conclusion though credible , is not infallible , and can have no certainty , but that which some call morall ; and that in several degrees , as the wisdom and honesty of the reporter is either more or less . § . . ii. where there is an evident impossibility that all the witnesses or reporters should lie , or be deceived , there the conclusion is credible , by humane faith , and also sure , by a natural certainty . § . . where these things concurre , it is impossible that that report or history should be false : . when it is certain , that the reporters were not themselves deceived : . when it is certain that indeed the report is theirs . . when they took their salvation to lie upon the truth of the thing reported , and of their own report . . when they expected worldly ruin by their testimony , and could look for no commodity by it , which would make them any reparation . . when they give full proof of their honesty and conscience . . when their testimony is concordant , and they speak the same things , though they had no opportunity to conspire to deceive men ; yea , when their numbers , distance and quality make this impossible . . when they bear their testimony in the time and place , where it might well be contradicted , and the falsity detected , if it were not true ; and among the most malicious enemies ; and yet those enemies , either confess the matter of fact , or give no regardable reason against it . . when the reporters are men of various tempers , countreys , and civil interests . . when the reporters fall out , or greatly differ among themselves , even to separations , and condemnations of one another , and yet none ever detecteth or confesseth any falshood in the said reports . . when the reporters being numerous , and such as profess that lying is a damnable sin , and such as laid down their liberties , or lives in asserting their testimonies , did yet never any of them in life or death , repent and confess any falshood or deceit . . when their report convinceth thousands , in that place and time , who would have more abhorred them if it had been untrue . nay , where some of these concurre , the conclusion may be of certainty : some of these instances resolve the point into natural necessity . . it is of natural necessity that men love themselves , and their own felicity , and be unwilling of their undoing and misery . the will though free , is quaedam natura ; and hath its natural necessary inclination to that good , which is apprehended as its own felicity , or else to have omnimodam rationem boni ; and its natural necessary inclination against that evil , ( or aversation from it ) which is apprehended as its own undoing or misery , or to have omnimodam rationem mali : its liberty is only servato ordine finis : and some acts that are free are nevertheless of infallible certain futurition , and of some kinde of necessity ; like the love and obedience of the saints in heaven . . nothing can be without a cause sufficient to produce it : but some things here instanced can have no cause sufficient to produce them , if the thing testified were false : as the consent of enemies ; their not gainsaying ; the concurrence of so many , and so distant , and of such bitter opposites , against their own common worldly interest , and to the confessed ruine of their souls ; and the belief of many thousands that could have disproved it if false ; and more which i shall open by and by . there is a natural certainty that alexander was the king of macedonia , and caesar emperour of rome , and that there is such a place as rome and paris , and venice and constantinople : and that we have had civil warrs between the king and parliament , in england , and between the houses of york and lancaster ; and that many thousands were murdered by the french massacre , and many more by the irish , and that the statutes of this land were made by the kings and parliaments whose names they bear , &c. because that . there is no cause in nature which could produce the concurrence of so many testimonies ; of men so distant and contrary , if it were not true . . and on the contrary side , there are natural causes which would infallibly produce a credible contradiction to these reports if they were false . § . . iii. when they that testifie such matters of fact , do affirm that they do it by gods own command , and prove this by multitudes of evident uncontrolled miracles , their report is both humane and divine , and to be believed as most certain by a divine belief . this is before proved , in the proof of the validity of the testimony of miracles , and such miracles as these . § . . the testimonies of the apostles and other disciples of christ , concerning his resurrection and miracles , were credible by all these three several sorts of credibility : . they were credible ( and most credible ) by a humane belief , as they were the testimony of honest ( and extraordinarily honest ) men . . they were credible , as reported with concauses of natural certainty . . they were credible , as attested by god , by miracles , and therefore certain , by a certainty of divine belief . § . . i. they that observe in the writings of the said disciples , the footsteps of eminent piety , sincerity , simplicity , self-denyal , contempt of the world , expectation of a better world , a desire to please and glorifie god , though by their own reproach and sufferings , mortification , love to souls , forgiving enemies , condemning lyars , with high spirituality and heavenly-mindedness , &c. must needs confess them to be most eminently credible by a humane faith : ( they being also acquainted with the thing reported ) . § . . ii. . that the apostles were not themselves deceived i have proved before . . that the report was theirs , the churches that saw and heard them knew by sense ( and how we know it , i am to shew anon ) . . that they took their own salvation to lie upon the belief of the gospel which they preached , is very evident , both in the whole drift and manner of their writings , and in their labours , sufferings and death : and that they took a lie to be a damning sin . he that doth but impartially read the writings of the apostles and evangelists , will easily believe that they believed what they preach'd themselves , and lookt for salvation by jesus christ : much more if he further consider of their forsaking all , and labouring and dying in and for these expectations : and nature taught them as well as christ , to know that a lie was a damning sin : they teach us themselves , that lyars are without , as dogs , and not admitted into the kingdom of god : and that god needeth not our lie to his glory ; nor must we do evil that good may come by it : therefore they could never think that it would help them to heaven , to spend their labours , and lay down their lives , in promoting a known lie , to deceive the world. § . . . that they expected temporal ruine by their religion , without any worldly satisfaction , is manifest both in christs prediction , telling them that it would be so , and in the tenour of his covenant , calling them to forsake life and all , if they will be his disciples , and in the history of their own lives and labours , in which they met with no other usage than was thus foretold them . many of them had not much wealth to lose ; but every man naturally loveth his ease , and peace , and life . and some of them , though not many , had worldly riches , ( as zacheus , joseph of arimathea , &c. ) and commonly they had possessions , which they sold , and laid down the price at the apostles feet . and the apostles had ways of comfortable living in the world : instead of all this they underwent reproach , imprisonments , scourgings , and death . commodity or preferment they could not expect by it . object . but to men that had been but low in the world , the very applause of the people would seem a sufficient satisfaction for their sufferings ; to be teachers , and have many followers , is a thing that some people would venture liberty and life for . answ . lay all these following things together , and you may be certain that this was not the case . . even women , and many that were not teachers , were of the same belief . . the teachers did all of them set up their lord , and not themselves , but de●ased and denied themselves for his honour and service . . their way of teaching was in travel and labour , where they must deny all fleshly ease and pleasure , and so must have nothing but bare applause , if that had been it which they sought after . . they suffered so much reproach and shame from the unbelievers , who were the rich and ruling party as would have much over-ballanced their applause among believers . they were persecuted , imprisoned , scourged , scorned , and made as the off-scouring of the world . . they were so many , that no single person was like to be carried so far with that ambition , when his honour was held in equality with so many . . one of the great vices which they preach'd and wrote against was pride , and self-seeking , and over-valuing men , and following sect-masters , and crying up paul , apollo , or cephas , &c. and those that thus sought to set up themselves , and draw away disciples after them , were the men whom they especially condemned . . if they had done , as this objection supposeth , they must have all the way gone on against their certain knowledge and conscience , in teaching lies in matter of fact . and though some men would go far in seeking followers and applause , when they believe the doctrine which they preach themselves , yet hardly in preaching that which they know to be false : the stirrings of conscience would torment some of them , among so many , and at last break out into open confession and detection of the fraud . . and if they had gone thus violently against their consciences , they must needs know that it was their souls , as well as their lives and liberties which they forfeited . . and the piety and humility of their writings sheweth , that applause was not their end and prize : if they had sought this , they would have fitted their endeavours to it ; whereas it is the sanctifying and saving of souls , through faith in jesus christ , which they bent their labours towards . . so many men could never have agreed among themselves in such a scatter'd case , to carry on the juggle and deceit , without detection . now tell us , if you can , where ever so many persons in the world , so notably humble , pious and self-denying , did preach against pride , man-pleasing and lying , as damnable sins , and debase themselves , and suffer so much reproach and persecution , and go through such labour and travel , and lay down their lives , and confessedly hazard their souls for ever , and all this to get followers , that should believe in another man , by perswading men that he wrought miracles , and rose from the dead , when they knew themselves that all were lies which they thus laboriously divulged ? if you give an instance in the disciples of mahomet , the case was nothing so : no such miracles attested ! no such witnesses to proclaim it ! no such consequents of such a testimony ! none of all this was so : but only a deceiver maketh a few barbarous people believe that he had revelations , and was a prophet , and being a souldier , and prospering in war , he setteth up and keepeth up a kingdom by the sword , his preachers being such as being thus deluded , did themselves believe the things which they spake , and found it the way to worldly greatness . § . . . that the witnesses of christ were men of honesty and conscience , is before proved . . that it was not possible for so many persons , to conspire so successfully to deceive the world , is manifest from . their persons ; . their calling ; . their doctrine ; . and their manner of ministration and labours . . for their persons , they were , . many ; . not men of such worldly craft and subtilty , as to be apt for such designs : of variety of tempers and interests ; men and women . . for their callings , the apostles knew the matter of fact indeed by common sense ; but their sufficiency and gifts by which they carried on their ministry , were suddenly given them by the holy ghost , when christ himself was ascended from them . and paul , that had conferred with none of them , yet preached the same gospel , being converted by a voice from heaven in the heat of his persecution . . their doctrine containeth so many and mysterious particulars , that they could never have concorded in it all , in their way . . and their labours did so disperse them about the world , that many new emergent cases must needs have cast them into several minds or ways , if they had not agreed by the unity of that spirit , which was the common teacher of them all . § . . . that the disciples of christ divulged his miracles and resurrection , in the same place and age , where the truth or falshood might soon have been search'd out , and yet that the bitterest enemies either denied not , or confuted not their report , is apparent , partly by their confessions , and partly by the non-existence of any such confutations . that the disciples in that age and country did divulge these miracles , is denied by none : for it was their employment , and by it they gathered the several churches : and their writings not long after written declare it to this day . that the enemies confuted not their report appeareth , . not only in the gospel-history , which sheweth that they denyed not many of his miracles , but imputed them to conjuration and the power of satan ; but also by the disputes and writings of the jews , in all ages since , which do go the same way . . and if the enemies had been able to confute these miracles , no doubt but they would have done it ; having so much advantage , wit and malice . object . perhaps they did , and their writings never come to our knowledge . answ . the unbelieving jews were as careful to preserve their writings as any other men : and they had better advantage to do it than the christians had : and therefore if there had been any such writings , yea , or verbal confutations , the jews of this age had been as like to have received them , as all the other antient writings which they yet receive . josephus his testimony of christ is commonly known ; and though some think it so full and plain , that it is like to be inserted by some christian , yet they give no proof of their opinion ; and the credit of all copies justifieth the contrary ; except only that these words are like to have been thrust in , [ this is christ ] which some annotator putting into the margin , might after be put into the text. and that the jews wanted not will or industry to confute the christians , appeareth by what justin martyr saith to tryphon of their malice , [ that they sent out into all parts of the world their choicest men to perswade the people against the christians , that they are atheists , and would abolish the deity , and that they were convict of gross impiety . ] § . . . the great diversity of believers and reporters of the gospel miracles , doth the more fully evince , that there was no conspiracy for deceit . there were learned and unlearned jews and gentils , rich and poor , men and women , some that followed christ , and some ( as paul ) that perhaps never saw him : and for all these to be at once inspired by the holy ghost , and thenceforth unanimously to accord and concur in the same doctrine and work , doth shew a supernatural cause . § . . . there were dissentions upon many accidents , and some of them to the utmost distance , which would certainly have detected the fallacy , if there had been any such , in the matters of fact , so easily detected . . in christ's own family there was a judas , who betrayed him for mony : this judas was one that had followed christ , and seen his miracles , and had been sent out to preach , and wrought miracles himself . if there had been any collusion in all this , what likelier man was there in the world to have detected it ? yea , and his conscience would never have accused , but justified him , he need not to have gone and hanged or precipitated himself , and said , i have sinned in betraying the innocent bloud ? the pharisees who hired him to betray his master , might , by mony and authority , have easily procured him , to have wrote against him , and detected his fraud , if he had been fraudulent : it would have tended to judas his justification and advancement . but god is the great defender of truth . . and there were many baptized persons , who were long in good repute and communion with the christians , who fell off from them to several sects and heresies ; not denying the dignity and truth of christ , but superinducing into his doctrine many corrupting fancies of their own ; such as the jud●iz●rs , the simonians , the nicolaitans , the ebonites , the cerinthians , the gnosticks , the valentinians , basilidians , and many more : and many of these were in the days of the apostles , and greatly troubled the churches , and hindred the gospel ; insomuch as the apostles rise up against them with more indignation , than against the infidels ; calling them dogs , wolves , evil workers , deceivers , bruit beasts , made to be taken and destroyed , &c. they write largely against them ; they charge the churches to avoid them , and turn away from them , and after a first and second admonition to reject them as men that are self-condemned , &c. and who knoweth not that among so many men thus excommunicated , vilified , and thereby irritated , some of them would certainly have detected the deceit , if they had known any deceit to have been in the reports of the afore-said miracles . passion would not have been restrained among so many and such , when they were thus provoked . . and some in those times , as well as in all following ages , have forsaken the faith , and apostatized to open infidelity : and certainly their judgment , their interest , and their malice , would have caused them to detect the fraud , if they had known any in the matters of fact of these miracles . for it is not possible that all these causes should not bring forth this effect , where there was no valuable impediment . if you again say , it may be they did detect such frauds by words or writings , which come not to our knowledge ; i answer again , . the jews then , that have in all ages disputed and written against christianity , would certainly have made use of some such testimony , instead of charging all upon magick , and the power of the devil . . and it is to me a full evidence , that there were no such deniers of the miracles of christ , when i find that the apostles never wrote against any such , nor contended with them , nor were ever put to answer any of their writings or objections : when all men will confess that their writings must needs be written according to the state and occasion of those times in which they wrote them : and if then there had been any books or reasonings divulged against christ's miracles , they would either have wrote purposely against them , or let fall some confutations of them , in their epistles to the churches : but there are no such things at all . § . . . seeing it is so heinous a crime to divulge lies in multitudes of matters of fact , to deceive the world into a blasphemy , it is scarce possible , that the consciences of so many persons , of so much piety as their writings prove , should never be touched with remorse for so great a villany , either in life , or at the hour of death , and force some one of them to detect all the fraud , if they had been guilty of it . there is a natural conscience in the worst of men , ( much more in the best ) which will at some time do its office , and will constrain men to confess , especially their heinous crimes , and especially at the time of death , when they see that their lies will serve their worldly interest no more : and especially if they be men that indeed believe another life . now consider if the apostles and disciples had been deceivers , how heinous a crime they had committed : . to affirm a man to be god incarnate , and to be the saviour of the world , on whom all men must trust their souls , &c. if he had been but a deceiver . . to make such abundance of lies in open matters of fact . . to frame hereupon a new law to the world . . to overthrow the law of moses , which was there in force . . to abuse the intellects of so many thousand persons with such untruths , and to call the world to such a needless work as the christian religion would be , if all this were false ! to put the world upon such tasks , as forsaking all for christ . . to draw so many to lose their lives in martyrdom to attest a lie . . to lose their own time , and spend all their lives and labour upon so bad a work : all these set together , would prove them far worst than any thieves , or murderers , or traitors , if they knew it to be a lie which they preached and attested : there are now no men known on earth , even in this age of villanies , guilty of such a heinous crime as this . and let any man that readeth the apostles writings , or considereth of their lives and deaths , consider whether it be not next to an impossibility , that so many , and such persons , should go on in such a way , upon no greater motives of benefit than they expected ; nay , through such labours , reproach and sufferings , and not one of them to the death be constrained by conscience to detect the fraud , and undeceive the world . § . . . lastly , it is not possible , that so many thousands of such persons as they presently converted , should ever have been perswaded to believe their reports of these matters of fact , in a time and place , where it was so easie to disprove them , if they had been false . for , . the understanding is not free as the will is , but only participative , in quantum à voluntate imperatur : and a man cannot believe what he will , nor deny belief to cogent evidence , though against his will : the intellects acts , as in themselves , are necessitated , and per modum naturae . . and all these new converts had understandings which were naturally inclined to truth as truth , and averse to falshood ; and they had all self-love : and they all embraced now a doctrine which would expose them to suffering and calamity in the world : and therefore both nature and interest obliged them to be at the labour of enquiring , whether these things were so or not , before they ran themselves into so great misery : and the three thousand which peter converted at his first sermon , must also take the shame of being murderers of their saviour , and for this they were pricked at the heart : and paul must be branded for a confessed persecutor , and guilty of the bloud of stephen ! and would so many men run themselves into all this for nothing , to save the labour of an easie enquiry , after some matters of publick fact ? how easily might they go and be satisfied , whether christ fed so many thousand twice miraculously , and whether he healed such as he was said to heal , who were then living ? and whether he raised lazarus , and others , from death , who were then living ? and whether the earth trembled , and the vail of the temple rent , and the sun was darkned at his death ? and whether the witnesses of his resurrection were sufficient ? and if none of this had been true , it would have turned them all from the belief of the apostles , to deride them . object . is not the unbelief of the most , a greater reason against the gospel , than the belief of the smaller number is for it . answ . no : . because it is a negative which they were for : and many witnesses to a negative , is not so good as a few to an affirmative . . most of them were kept from the very hearing of the apostles , which should inform them and excite them . . most men every where follow their rulers , and look to their worldly interest , and never much mind or discuss such matters , as tend to their salvation , especially by the way of suffering and disgrace . . we believe not that the unbelieving party did deny christ's miracles , but fathered them upon the devil ; therefore even their testimony is for christ : only they hired the souldiers to say , that christ was stoln out of the sepulchre while they slept , of which they never brought any proof , nor could possibly do it , ( if asleep . ) § . . iii. i have proved christ's miracles to be , . credible , by the highest humane faith . . certain , by natural evidence , there being a natural impossibility that the testimonies should be false . . i am next to prove that they are certain by supernatural evidence , ( which is the same with natural evidence , as in the effect , but is called supernatural from the way of causing it . ) § . . the same works of the spirit , inherent , concomitant and subsequent , were the infallible proof of the truth of the disciples testimony of christ , his person , miracles and doctrine . § . . i. they were persons of holy lives , and holiness is the lively impress or constitution of their doctrine , now visible in their writings . what was before said of the doctrine of christ himself , is true of theirs : and as the kings coyn is known by his image and superscription , or rather as an unimitable author is known by his writings , for matter , method and style , even so is gods spirit known in them and in their doctrine . § . . ii. their miraculous gifts and works were so evident and so many and uncontrolled , as amount to an infallible proof , that gods are his witness in the world , and sheweth the most infallible proof of his assertions . § . . . their gifts and miracles were many in kinde : as their sudden illumination , when the spirit fell upon them , and knowing that which they were ignorant of before : their prophesying and speaking in languages never before learn'd by them , and interpreting such prophesies and languages ; their dispossessing d●moniacks , and healing diseases , their deliverances by angels out of closed prisons and fetters ; their inflicting judgements on opposers and offenders , their raising the dead ; and the conveying of the same spirit to others by the imposition of the apostles hands . . it is not the least testimony of the veracity of the apostles , that even while they lived with jesus christ , they remained ignorant of much of the mystery of the gospel , and some ( that are since necessary ) articles of faith , as of his death and burial , and resurrection , and ascension , and much of the spiritual nature of his kingdom , and priviledges of believers ; and that all this was made known to them upon a sudden , without any teaching , studying or common means , by the coming down of the holy ghost upon them : and that christ had promised them his spirit before , to lead them into all truth , and bid them wait at jerusalem till they received it : and it came upon them at the appointed time , on the day of pentecost : and he promised that this spirit should be sent on others , and become his agent or advocate in the world , to do his work in his bodily absence , and bear witness of him . and he told his disciples , that this spirit should be better to them than his bodily presence , and therefore it would be for their good that he should go from them into heaven : so that christs teaching them immediately and miraculously by this sudden giving them his spirit , is an infallible proof both of his truth and theirs . . this prophesying was partly by foretelling things to come ( as agabus did the dearth , and pauls bonds ) and partly the exposition of old prophesies , and partly the spiritual instruction of the people , by sudden inspirations ; and those that were enabled to it , were people of themselves unable for such things , and ignorant but a little while before . . their speaking in various languages was a thing which no natural means could produce . fernelius and many other physicians , who were very loth to believe diabolical possessions , do confess themselves convinced by hearing the possessed speak greek and hebrew , which they had never learn'd : how much more convincing is this evidence , when so many speak in so many languages , even in the language of all the inhabitants of the countreys round about them ; and this upon these sudden inspirations of the spirit . . their interpreting of such tongues also , which they never learnt , was no less a proof of a supernatural power and attestation . . their deliverances are recorded in the scriptures : peter , act. . and paul and sil●s , act. . had their bonds all loosed , and the prison-doors opened by an angel and a miracle ; which must be by a power that sufficiently attesteth their verity . . and they inflicted judgements on delinquents by no less a power : ananias and sapphira one after another were struck dead upon the word of peter , for their hypocrisie and lyes : elymas the sorcerer was struck blinde by paul , in the presence ( or knowledge ) of the governour of the countrey : and the excommunicated were often given up to satan , to suffer some extraordinary penalty . . their healing demoniacks , the lame , the blinde , the paralitick , and all manner of diseases with a word , or by prayer and imposition of hands in the name of christ , yea upon the conveyance of napkins and cloaths from their bodies , is witnessed in the many texts which i have before cited out of the acts of the apostles . and this christ promised them particularly before-hand : and it was the occasion of that vnction of the sick , which some have still continued as a sacrament . . their raising the dead , is also among the fore-cited passages ; so peter raised dorcas or tabitha , act. . and ( its like ) paul eutichus , act. . . and it is the greatest evidence of all , that the same spirit was given to so many others , by their imposition of hands and prayer ; and all these had some of these wonderfull gifts ; either prophesies , tongues , healing , or some such like . § . . . these miracles were wrought by multitudes of persons , and not only by a few ; even by the apostles , and seventy disciples , and others on whom they laid their hands ; which was by the generality or greater part of the christians . if it were but by one or two men that miracles were wrought , there would be greater room for doubting of the truth : but when it shall be by hundreds and thousands , there can be no difficulty in the proof : that the apostles and the seventy disciples wrought them in christs own time , is declared before : that they wrought them more abundantly after , and that the same spirit was then commonly given to others , i shall now further prove ( besides all the histories of it before recited . ) that upon the imposition of the apostles hands , or baptism , or prayer , the holy ghost was given , is expressed act. . . to three thousand at once the holy ghost was given . act. . . all the assembly were filled with the holy ghost : and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus , and great grace was upon them all . v. . act. . , . the samaritans received the holy ghost upon the prayer of peter and john , so that simon magus would fain have bought that gift with money . act. . . paul was filled with the holy ghost by the imposition of ananias's hands . act. . , , . upon peters preaching , the holy ghost fell on all the family , and kindred , and friends of cornelius who heard him preach , and they spake with tongues , and magnified god. act. . . even in the same manner as it fell on the apostles . act. . . the disciples were filled with the holy ghost . act. . . twelve men upon pauls imposition of hands , received the holy ghost , and spake with tongues , and prophesied . the holy ghost was given to the roman christians , rom. . . yea , he telleth them , if any have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his , rom. . . the same was given to the church of the corinthians , cor. . . & . , . and to the church of the galatians , gal. . , , , . and to the church of the ephesians , eph. . . & . . to the philippians , phil. . . . & . . to the colossians , col. . . to the thessalonians , thess . . . & . . and what this spirit was and did , you may find in cor. . , , &c. there are diversities of gifts , but the same spirit : but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withall : for , to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom , to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit , to another faith by the same spirit , to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit , to another the working of miracles , to another prophesie , to another discerning of spirits , to another divers kindes of tongues , to another the interpretation of tongues : but all these worketh that one and the self same spirit , dividing to every man severally as he will — for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body , whether we be jewes or gentiles , bond or free , and have been all made to drink into one spirit . and in cor. . the gift of speaking with tongues was so common in the church of the corinthians , that the apostle is fain to give them instructions for the moderate use of it , lest they hindered the edification of the church , by suppressing prophecy or instruction in known tongues : and therefore he perswadeth them to use it but more sparingly . and james ( . , . ) exhorteth christians when they were sick , to send to the elders of the church , that they may pray for them and anoynt them , and they may be forgiven and recover : by which it seems it was no unusual thing in those times to be healed by the prayers of the elders . yea , the very hypocrites , and ungodly persons , that had only the barren profession of christianity , had the gift of miracles , without the grace of sanctification : and this christ foretold , matth. . . many shall say in that day , lord , have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name cast out devils ? and done many wonderfull works ? obj. but all were not healed by them : paul left trophimus at miletum sick : why doth not paul cure timothy of his weak stomack and infirmity , without drinking of wine , if he could do it ? answ . . certainly , they did not cure all men that were sick : for then who would have dyed ? it was none of the intent of the spirit of christ , in working miracles , to make men immortal here on earth ; and to keep them from heaven ? . and it is easily confess'd , that the spirit was not at the command or will of them that had it : and therefore they could not do what and when they pleased , but what the spirit pleased ; and his operations were at his own time and disposal . and this proveth the more fully , that it was the testimony of god , and not the contrivance of the wit of man. . and miracles and tongues were not for them that believed , but rather for them that believed not : and therefore a trophimus or a timothy might be unhealed . § . . . these miracles were oftentimes wrought , even for many years together , in several countreys and places through the world , where the apostles and disciples came : and not only once , or for a little space of time . dissimulation might be easilyer cloaked for a few acts , than it can be for so many years . at least these gifts and miracles continued during the age of the apostles , though not performed every day , or so commonly as might make them uneffectual , yet so frequently as to give success to the gospel , and to keep up a reverence of christianity in the world. they were wrought not only at jerusalem , but at samaria , antioch , ephesus , corinth , philippi , and the rest of the churches through the world. § . . . they were also wrought in the presence of multitudes , and not only in a corner , where there was more possibility of deceit . the holy ghost fell on the apostles and all the disciples at jerusalem before all the people ; that is , they all heard them speak in several tongues , the wonderfull works of god ; even the parthians , and medes , and elamites , and the inhabitants of mesopotamia , judaea , cappadocia , pontus , asia , phrygia , pamphylia , egypt , lybia , cyrene , rome , jews and proselites , cretes , and arabians , act. . , , , , . it was three thousand that the holy ghost fell on , act. . . those that went into the temple , and all the people , saw the lame man , that was cured by peter and john , act. . the death of ananias and sapphira was a publick thing , so that fear fell on all , and hypocrites were deterred from joyning with the church , act. . the gifts of tongues , and interpretation , were commonly exercised before congregations or multitudes . and crowds of people flocked to them to be healed ; as with christ they uncovered the roofs of the houses to lay the sick before him ; so with the apostles they strove who might come within their shadow , or touch the hem of their garment , or have cloaths or napkins from them , that they might be healed . so that here was an age of publick miracles . § . . . all these miracles were uncontrolled ; that is , they were not wrought in opposition to any controlling truth , which hath certain evidence contradicting this ; nor yet were they overtopt by any greater miracles for the contrary . a miracle ( if god should permit it to be wrought in such a case ) might be said to be controlled , either of these two wayes : . if a man should work miracles to contradict the certain light of nature , or perswade men to that which is certainly false : . if men should do wonders as jannes and jam●res the egyptian sorcerers , which should be overtopt by greater wonders , as those of moses , and as simon magus , and elymas by peter and paul ; in these cases god could not be said to deceive men , by his power or permission , when he giveth them a sufficient preservative . but these miracles had no such controll , but prevailed without any check from contradictory truths or miracles . thus christ performed his promise , joh. . . verily , verily , i say unto you , he that believeth on me , the works that i do , shall he do also , and greater works than these shall he do , because i goe unto the father . § . . iii. the third testimony of the spirit to the truth of the apostles witness , was the marvellous success of their doctrine to the sanctifying of souls ; which as it could not be done without the power and spirit of god , so neither would the righteous and mercifull governour of the world ; have made a company of profligate lyars and deceivers his instruments of doing this excellent work by cheats and falshoods . this i spake of before , as it is the seal of christs own doctrine : i now speak of it only as it is the seal of the apostles verity in their testimony of the resurrection and miracles of christ . peter converted three thousand at once : many thousands and myriads up and down the world were speedily converted . and what was this conversion . they were brought unfeignedly to love god above all , and their neighbours as themselves . act. . , . they continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine , and fellowship , and breaking of bread and prayer : and all that believed were together and had all things common , ( not by levelling , but by lone ) and sold their possessions and goods , and parted them to all men , as every man had need , and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart , praising god , and having favour with all the people . act. . . the multitude of believers were of one heart , and of one soul , neither said any of them that ought of the things that he possessed was his own , but they had all things common . all that are in christ , have his spirit , and are spiritually minded , and walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit , rom. . they that are christs , have crucified the flesh , with the affections and lusts : the world is crucified to them , and they to the world , gal. . . & . . they are chosen to be holy and unblameable in love , eph. . . they walk as renewed in the spirit of their mindes , with all lowliness and meekness , and long-suffering , forbearing one another , endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace : eph. . . . . as being created unto good works in christ : eph. . . without corrupt communication , bitterness , wrath , clamor , evil-speaking , fornication , uncleanness , covetousness , filthiness , foolish talking and jeasting , eph. . . & . . . denying ungodlyness and worldly lusts , living soberly , righteously and godly in this present world , as redeemed from all iniquity , and purified as a peculiar people to christ , zealous of good works : tit. . , . having their conversation in heaven , from whence they expect their redeemer to translate them into glory , phil. . , . these were the fruits of the ministry of the apostles . and god was pleased to bless their labours more than any others since , and make better , holyer , heavenlyer christians , by the means of their endeavours ; that so he might give , a fuller proof of the truth of their testimony of christ . § . . it is the great advantage of our faith , that these second attestations to the disciples testimony of the miracles of christ , are much more open , evident , and convincing , to us at this distance , than the miracles of christ himself ; that so there might be no place for rational doubting . the sorts of their miracles were as numerous as his : they were wrought by hundreds and thousands , and not by christ alone . they were wrought for an age , and not for three years and a half alone : they were wrought in a great part of the world , and not in judaea and galilee alone : they were done in the face of abundance of congregations , and not before the jews only : and they succeeded to the conversion and sanctification of many thousands more than did the preaching of christ himself . so that if any thing that is said before , of the confirmation of christs own miracles , had wanted evidence , it is abundantly made up in the evidence of their miracles who were the reporters and witnesses of his . § . . i have hitherto been shewing you , how the miracles of christ were proved , attested , and made certainly known to the first churches planted by the apostles themselves , viz. by the testimony of the spirit , . in their doctrine and lives , . in their miracles , and . in their success , in the sanctification of mens souls : i am next to shew you how these matters of fact , or actions of the apostles , are certainly proved , or brought down to us . § . . and this is by the same three wayes of proof as the apostles proved to the first churches , their testimony : ( though with much difference in the point of miracles ) viz. i. we have it by the most credible humane testimony : ii. by such testimony as hath a natural certainty : iii. and by some of that testimony of god , which is also a supernatural evidence : of all which i must speak in order ( supposing what is said before . ) § . . i. the only natural way of transmitting those things down to us , is by historical conveyance : and the authors of this history , are , both the churches of christ , and their enemies : the credibility of which testimonies will be fullyer opened , under the second degree of proofs ; which comprehendeth this . § . . ii. that there is a natural impossibility that our history of the apostles gifts and miracles should be false , will appear by reviewing all the particulars by which the same was proved of the apostles testimony of the miracles of christ ; and in many respects , with much more advantage . § . . ( . ) it is naturally impossible that all reporters could be themselves deceived : for . they were many thousands , in several countreys through the world : and therefore could not be all either mad or sensless : . they were men that took their salvation to be most neerly concerned in the thing , and were to forsake the pleasures of the world , and suffer from men for their religion : and therefore could not be utterly careless in examining the thing : . they were present upon the place , and eye-witnesses , and ear-witnesses of all . . the languages were said to be spoken , in their assemblies , and the miracles done among them , for many years , even an age together : and it is impossible all countreys could be cheated by juggling , in matters which their eyes and ears were such competent witnesses of , for so many years together . . they were said to be the objects of many of these miracles themselves ; viz. that the cures were wrought on many of them ; that the same spirit was given to them all . . and they were said to be the agents themselves in the several works of that spirit , according to their several gifts . so that their common deceit must be impossible . if any man should now among us , take on him to speak with divers languages , or tell the churches that divers languages are spoke among them in their hearing , by unlearned men ; and that prophesyings , interpretations , miraculous cures , &c. are wrought among them , and name the persons , time and place ; and should tell them that they had all some sort or other of the same gifts themselves ; were it possible for the people to believe all this , if it were a lie ? would they not say , when did we ever hear your languages ? or when did we ever see your cures and other miracles ? when did we see an ananias and saphira die ? when did we do any such works our selves ? do we not know what we doe ? men could not believe such palpable untruths in matter of publick fact , so neer them , among them , upon them , and much less could so many thousands believe this , in so many nations , if it were false : because the understanding is not free in it self ; but per modum naturae is necessitated by cogent evidence . absurd doctrines may easily deceive many thousands ; and so may false history do by men at a sufficient distance : but he that thinks the ears and eyes and other senses of so many thousand sound persons , were all deceived thus in presence , will sure never trust his own ears or eyes or sense in any thing ; nor expect that any man eise should ever believe him , who so little believeth his own sense and understanding . § . . ( . ) that the reporters were not purposely the deceivers of the world by wilfull falshood , is also certain by these following evidences . § . . it was not possible that so many thousands in all countreys , should have wit and cunning enough for such a contrivance , and could keep it secret among themselves , that it should never be detected . they that think they were all so stupid as to be themselves deceived , cannot also think that they were all so cunning as to conspire the deceiving of all the world , so successfully and undiscovered . but it is past doubt , that for their naturals , they were ordinary persons , neither such mad people as all to think they saw , and heard , and did things which were nothing so , for so long together ; nor yet so subtile as to be able to lay such a deceiving plot , and carry it on so closely to the end . and they that suspect the apostles and first disciples to be the authors of the plot , will not suspect all the churches too : for if there were deceivers , there must be some to be deceived by them : if christ deceived the disciples , then the disciples could not be wilfull deceivers themselves : for if they were themselves deceived , they could not ( therein ) be wilfull deceivers : and then how came they to confirm their testimony by miracles ? if the apostles only were deceivers , then all the disciples and evangelists who assisted them must be deceived , and not wilfull deceivers . and then how came they also to do miracles ? if all the apostles and disciples of the first edition were wilfull deceivers , then all the churches through the world which were gathered by them , were deceived by them , and then they were not wilsul deceivers themselves : which is all that i am now proving , having proved before that they were not deceived . § . . . if they had been cunning enough , it is most inprobable that so many thousands in so many nations , should be so bad , as to desire and endeavour at such a rate as their own temporal and eternal ruine , to deceive all the world into a blasphemy without any benefit to themselves , which might be rationally sufficient to seem a tempting compensation to them . § . . for all these churches which witnessed the apostles miracles , . did profess to believe lying and deceiving to be a heinous sin . . and to believe an everlasting punishment for liars . . they were taught by their religion to expect calamity in this world . . they had experience enough to confirm them in that expectation : therefore they had no motive which could be sufficient to make them guilty of so costly a deceit . for , . operari sequitur esse . a man will do ill , but according to the measure that he is ill ; and as bad as humane nature is , it is not yet so much depraved , as that thousands through the world could agree , without any commodity to move them to it , to ruine their own estates , and lives , and souls for ever , meerly to make the world believe that other men did miracles , and to draw them to believe a known untruth . and , . as free as the will is , it is yet a thing that hath its nature and inclination , and cannot act without a cause and object ; which must be some apparent good : therefore when there is no good-appearing , but wickedness and misery , it cannot will it . so that this seemeth inconsistent with humane nature . § . . and the certain history of their lives doth shew , that they were persons extraordinary good and conscionable : being holy , heavenly and contemners of this world , and ready to suffer for their religion : and therefore could not be so extremely bad , as to ruine themselves only to do mischief to the world and their posterity . § . . and their enemies bare them witness , that they did and suffered all this in the hopes of a reward in heaven : which proveth that they were not wilful liars and deceivers : for no man can look for a reward in heaven , for the greatest known-villany on earth , even for suffering , to cheat all the world into a blasphemy . even lucian scoffeth at the christians for running into sufferings , and hoping to be rewarded for it with a life everlasting . § . . . if they had been never so cunning and so bad , yet was it impossible that they should be able for the successful execution of such a deceit , as will appear by all these following evidences . § . . . it was impossible that so many thousands , at such a distance , who never saw each others faces , could lay the plot , in a way of concord ; but one would have been of one mind , and another of another . § . . . it is impossible that they should agree in carrying it on , and keeping it secret through all the world , if they had accorded in the first contrivance and attempts . § . . . it is impossible that all the thousands of adversaries among them , who were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses as well as they , should not discover the deceit . all those parthians , medes , elamites , and other country-men , mentioned act. . were not christians : and the christians , though many , were but a small part of the cities and countries where they dwelt . and paul saith , that tongues and miracles were for the sake of unbelievers ; and unbelievers were ordinarily admitted into the christian assemblies : and the christians went among them to preach ; and most of the miracles were wrought in their sight and hearing . § . . . it is impossible that the falling out of christians among themselves , among so many thousands in several nations , should never have detected the deceit , if they had been all such deceivers . § . . . it is impossible but some of the multitudes of the perverted , exasperated , separating , or excommunicate hereticks , ( which were then in most countries where there were christians , and opposed the orthodox , and were opposed by them ) should have detected this deceit , if it had been such . § . . . it is impossible but some of the apostates of those times , who are supposed to have joyned in the deceit , would have detected it to the world , when they fell off from christianity . § . . . it is scarce possible among so many thousands in several lands , that none of their own consciences living or dying , should be constrained in remorse and terrour , to detect so great an evil to the world . § . . . much more impossible is it , that under the conscience of such a villany , they should live , and suffer , and die rejoycingly , and think it a happy exchange to forsake life and all , for the hopes of a reward in heaven for this very thing . § . . . lastly , it is impossible , that these thousands of christians should be able to deceive many more than themselves , into the belief of the same untruths , in the very time and place , where the things were said to be done ; and where the detection of the deceit had been easie , yea , unavoidable . christianity was then upon the increase : they that were converted , did convert more than themselves . suppose in jerusalem , ephesus , corinth , rome , &c. some thousands believed by the preaching of the apostles , in a few years at the first : in a few years more , there were as many more added . now supposing all this had been but a cheat , if the christians had told their neighbours , [ among us , unlearned men speak in the languages of all countries ; they cast out devils ; they cure all diseases with prayer and annointing ; they prophesie , and interpret tongues ; they do many other miracles ; and the same spirit is given to others by their imposition of hands ; and all this in the name and by the power of jesus : ] would not their neighbours easily know whether this were true or not ? and if it were false , would they not hate such deceivers , and make them a common scorn , instead of being converted by them ? § . . the foresaid impossibilities are herein founded : . there is no effect without a sufficient cause . . a necessary cause , not sufficiently hindred , will bring forth its answerable effect . but the opposed supposition maketh effects without any sufficient cause , and necessary causes without their adequate effects . § . . the providence of god permitted dissentions and heresies to arise among christians , and rivals and false teachers to raise hard reports of the apostles , and the people to be somewhat alienated from them , that the apostles might by challenges appeal to miracles ; and future ages might be convinced , that the matter of fact could not be contradicted . the romans had contentions among themselves , the strong and the weak contemning or condemning one another , about meats and days , rom. . and . the corinthians were divided into factions , and exasperated against paul by false apostles ; so that he is fain at large to vindicate his ministry : and he doth it partly by appealing both to miracles and works of power wrought among them , and by the spirit given to themselves , cor. . . and . , , . and cor. . , , . the galatians were more alienated from paul by jewish teachers , and seemed to take him as an enemy , for telling them the truth , and he feared that he had bestowed on them labour in vain ; and in this case he vehemently rebuketh them , and appealeth first to miracles wrought among them , and before their eyes , and next to the spirit given to themselves : gal. . , , , , . o foolish galatians , who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth , before whose eyes jesus christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you ? this only would i learn of you , received ye the spirit by the works of the law , or by the hearing of faith ? he therefore that ministreth to you the spirit , and worketh miracles among you , doth he it by the works of the law , or by the hearing of faith ? now if no such miracles were wrought among them , and if no such spirit was received by themselves , would this argument have silenced adversaries , and reconciled the minds of the galatians ? or rather have made them deride the cause that must have such a defence , and say , [ who be they that work miracles among us ? and when did we receive such a spirit ? ] so to the romans , this is paul's testimonial , rom. . , . for i will not dare to speak of any of those things which christ hath not wrought by me , to make the gentiles obedient by word and deed : through mighty signs and wonders , by the power of the spirit of god , &c. and to the corinthians he saith , cor. . . i thank my god , i speak with tongues more than you all . so gal. . . cor. . . tongues are for a sign to them that believe not . so acts . . and . . and . . and . . and . . and . . and . . and . , . and . . and . . cor. . . miracles are still made the confirmation of the apostles testimony and doctrine . and in heb. . , . you have the just method of the proof and progress of christianity , [ which at the first began to be spoken by the lord , ( but how is that known ? ) and was confirmed to us by them that heard him . ( but how shall we know that they said truth ? ) god also bearing them witness with signs and wonders , and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy ghost , according to his own will. and act. . . and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus . joh. . , , . that which was from the beginning , which we have heard , which we have seen with our eyes , which we have looked upon , and our hands have handled of the word of life , ( for the life was manifested , and we have seen it , and bear witness , and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the father , and was manifested unto us ; ) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you , that ye also may have fellowship with us , &c. § . . iii. the miracles of the apostles are not only attested by the churches which were eye-witnesses of them , . by the way of most credible humane testimony . . and by natural evidence of infallible certainty : but also , . by supernatural testimony of god himself , as appeareth in these following evidences . § . . . many miracles were wrought by those first churches , who were the witnesses of the apostles miracles ; which is a divine attestation to their testimony . . the scriptures fore-cited tell us , that the same holy ghost was given to them all , though all had not the same gifts ; and that tongues , and healing , and miracles were the gifts of many , though not of all : which , as i have shewed , they could not themselves have believed of themselves , if it had not been true . yea , sufficient historical testimony telleth us , that for three or four hundred years , ( at least till constantine owned and protected christianity by secular power ) miracles were wrought in confirmation of the christian faith . it hath been the devils craft to seek to destroy the credit of them , partly by hypocrites , who have counterfeited miracles ; and partly by lying legends of the carnal proud domineering part of the church , who have told the world so many palpable lies , that they seemed to do it in design , to perswade them to believe nothing that is true . but yet all wise men will know the difference between history credible and incredible . the many testimonies of the miracles of gregory thaumaturgus , and many others , mentioned by eusebius , and almost all other christian writers of those times , and those mentioned by augustine , de civitate dei , lib. cap. . and retract . lib. . cap. . & passim ; and by cyprian , tertullian , and many more , will not be thought incredible by impartial considering men . § . . . the eminent sanctity of the pastors of the churches , with the success of their testimony and doctrine , for the true sanctification of many thousand souls , is god's own attestation to their testimony and doctrine . how far the sanctifying renewing success of the doctrine , is a divine attestation to its verity , i have before opened : and how far god owneth even the truths of philosophy , by blessing them with an adequate proportionable success . the defective partial truths of philosophy , produce a defective partial reformation ; ( how far god accepteth it , belongeth not to my present business to determine . ) the more full and integral discovery of god's will , by jesus christ , doth produce a more full and integral renovation . and , . the cause is known by the effect . . and god will not ( as is before said ) bless a lie to do the most excellent work in all the world . now it is a thing most evident , that god hath still bless'd the ministry of the christian pastors in all ages , to the renewing of many thousand souls : that this is truly so , i shall somewhat fullier shew anon : but that it is god's own attestation , i have shewed before . § . . i have opened the validity of the apostles testimony of the resurrection and miracles of christ , and the first churches certain testimony of the miracles of the apostles ; both of them having a three-fold certainty , moral , natural , and supernatural : in all which i have supposed , that such a testimony the churches have indeed given down to their posterity ; which is the thing that remaineth lastly to be here proved . § . . the doctrine and miracles of christ and his apostles have been delivered us down from the first churches , by all these following ways of history . . by delivering to us the same writings of the apostles and evangelists which they received from their hands themselves as certain truth , and delivered down as such to us : even the holy scriptures of the new testament . they that believed their words , believed their writings , and have told us their belief , by preserving them for posterity as sacred verities . in the holy scriptures , the life , and death , and doctrine of christ is contained ; with the doctrine of the apostles , and so much of the history of their preaching and miracles , as luke was an eye-witness of , or had certain knowledge of , ( who was commonly pauls companion ) by which we may partly judge of the acts of the rest of the apostles . and if the churches had not believed all these , they would not have delivered them as the infallible writings of the inspired apostles to their posterity . § . . the very successive being of christians and churches , is the fullest history that they believed those things which made them christians and churches ; which was the doctrine and miracles of christ . a christian is nothing else but one that receiveth the doctrine , resurrection , and miracles of christ , as certain truth , by the preaching and miracles of his great witnesses , the apostles : so many christians , as there ever were , so many believers of these things there have been . it was this doctrine and miracles that made them christians , and planted these churches : and if any man think it questionable , whether there have been christians ever since christs time , in the world , all history will satisfie him , roman , mahometan , jewish and christian , without any one dissenting voice . pliny , suetonius , tacitus , marcellinus , eunapius , lucian and porphyry and julian , and all such enemies may convince him : he shall read the history of their sufferings , which will tell him , that certainly such a sort of persons there was then in the world. § . . . the succession of pastors and preachers in all generations , is another proof : for it was their office to read publickly , and preach this same scripture to the church and world , as the truth of god. i speak not of a succession of pastors in this one city or that , or by this or that particular way of ordination , having nothing here to do with that : but that a certain succession there hath been since the dayes of the apostles , is past question : for . else there had been no particular churches : . nor no baptism : . nor no publick worship of god. . nor no synods , or discipline : but this is not denyed . § . . . the continuance of baptism , which is the kernel or sum of all christianity , proveth the continuance of the christian faith. for all christians in baptism , were baptized into the vowed belief and obedience of the son and holy ghost as well as of the father . § . . . the delivering down of the three breviate symbols , of faith , desire and duty , the creed , lords prayer and decalogue , is the churches delivery of the christian religion , as that which all christians have believed . § . . . the constant communion of the church in solemn assemblies , and setting apart the lords day to that use , was a delivery of the christian faith , which those assemblies all professed to believe . § . . . the constant preaching and reading of these same scriptures in those assemblies , and celebrating there the sacrament of christs death , and the custom of open professing their belief , and the prayers and praises of god for the resurrection and miracles of christ , are all open , undenyable testimonies that these things were believed by those churches . § . . . the frequent disputes which christians in all ages have held with the adversaries of the scripture and christianity , do shew that they believed all these scriptures , and the doctrines and miracles therein contained . § . . . the writings of the christians in all ages , their apologies , commentaries , histories , devotional treatises ; all bear the same testimony , that we have these things by their tradition . § . . . the confessions , sufferings and martyrdom of many in most ages , do bear the same testimony , that they believed this , for which they suffered ; and that posterity received it from them . § . . . the decrees and canons of the synods or councils of the bishops of the churches , are another part of the history of the same belief . § . . . lastly , the decrees and laws of princes concerning them , are another part of the history ; shewing that they did believe these things . § . . and if any question whether our scriptures which contain these histories and doctrines be indeed the same , which these churches received and delivered from the apostles , he may easily be convinced , as followeth . § . . . various copies of it in the hebrew and greek text , were very quickly scattered about the world , and are yet found in all nations agreeing in all material passages . § . . . these scriptures were translated into many languages , of which there are yet extant , the syriack , arabick , ethiopick , persian , &c. which agree in all material things . § . . . it was the stated office of the ministers in all the churches in the world , to read these scriptures openly to the people , and preach on them , in all their solemn assemblies : and a thing so publickly maintained and used , could not possibly be altered materially . § . . . all private christians were exhorted to read and use the same scriptures also , in their families , and in secret . § . . . this being through so many nations of the world it was not possible that they could all agree upon a corruption of the scriptures : nor is there mention in any history of any attempt of any such agreement . § . . . if they would have met together for that end , they could not possibly have all consented : because they were of so many mindes , and parties , and inclinations . § . . . especially when all christians by their religion , take it to be matter of damnation , to adde to or diminish from these sacred writings , as being the inspired word of god. § . . . and every christian took it for the rule of his faith , and the charter for his heavenly inheritance ; and therefore would certainly have had his action against the corrupters of it . as the laws of this land , being recorded , and having lawyers and judges whose calling is continually to use them , and men holding their estates and safety by them , if any would alter them all the rest would quickly detect it , and be upon his head . § . . . yea , the many sects and contentions among christians , and the many hereticks that were at enmity with them , would certainly have detected any combination to corrupt the scriptures . § . . . some few hereticks in the beginning did attempt to bring in the gospel of nicodemus , and some other forged writings , and to have corrupted some parts of scripture ; and the churches presently cryed them down . § . . . most hereticks have pleaded these same scriptures ; and denyed them not to be genuine : yea , julian , celsus , porphyry , and other heathens did not deny it , but took it as a certain truth . § . . . the ancient writers of the church , clemens , ignatius , justin , irenaeus , tertullian , cyprian , arnobius , athenagoras , lactantius , eusebius , nazianzene , nyssen , basil , chrysostom , epiphanius , hierom , augustine , &c. do all cite these scriptures as we now have them in all things material . § . . . the christian emperours have inserted the mention of some passages in their laws , in the same words as they are in our bibles . § . . . several councils have not only cited several passages out of them , but pleaded them still as the word of god , and enumerated the particular books which constitute the whole systeme . all this set together will tell any man of reason , consideration , and impartiality , that we have much fuller certainty that these scriptures are the same which the first churches received from the apostles , than they can have that virgil's , ovid's , cicero's or plutarch's works are theirs ; or that the statutes of this land are currant . yea , were it not lest i be too tedious , i might distinctly shew you the forementioned threefold certainty of all this : . a moral certainty of the strongest humane faith. . a natural certainty grounded upon physical impossibilities of the contrary . . and somewhat of a divine supernatural attestation , by the continued blessing of god on the scriptures for the sanctifying of souls in every age . and this bringeth me up to the last part of this chapter : i have all this while been shewing how the three first parts of the spirits witness to christ , are made known to us , viz. prophecy , the holyness of the doctrine , and miracles : i come now in a word to the fourth . § . . iv. how may we certainly know the fourth part of the spirits witness to christ , viz. the success of his doctrine in the regeneration of his disciples , and the actual saving them from their sins ? answ . i shall answer this , . as to the times past , and . as to the present age . § . . . what men have been in times past , we have but these three wayes to know : . by the history of those ages ; . by their remaining works : . by their successors in whom their belief and qualities are continued . and . that there have been holy persons in all ages ( yea , that all true christians were such ) we have as good testimony as history can afford : whether you will judge of them by their profession , life or sufferings . . their remaining works are very great testimonies what a spirit of holiness , charity and justice , doth breath in the writings of those holy men , which are come to our hands ? clemens romanus , ignatius , cyprian , ephrem syrus , macarius , augustine , gregory nazianzene , gr. nyssen , basil , ambrose , chrysostom , salvian , cassianus , bernard , &c. . those that succeed them at this day in the serious profession of christianity , are a living history of the virtues of their ancestors . § . . of the sanctity of the christians of this present age , there is a double knowledge to be had : . by them that are regenerate themselves : . by them that are not : between these wayes of knowledge the difference must be great . § . . . as he that hath learning , or love to his parents , or loyalty to his king , or faithfulness to his friend , may know that he hath it ; so may he that is renewed by the spirit of god , and hath a predominant love to god , a heavenly minde and conversation , a hatred of sin , a delight in holiness , a love to all men , even his enemies , a contempt of the world , a mastery over his fleshly appetite , sense and lusts ; a holy government of his passions , thoughts , and tongue ; with a longing desire to be perfect in all this , and a supporting hope to see gods glory , and enjoy him in the delights of love and praise , for evermore . § . . this evidence of the spirit of sanctification in our selves is not the reason or motive of our first faith , but of our confirmation ; and fuller assurance in believing afterwards : for a man must in some sort believe in christ before he can know that he is sanctifyed by him . the rest of the motives are sufficient to begin the work of faith : and are the means which god ordinarily useth to that end . § . . it is christs appointed method that by learning of him and using his appointed means , men be brought up to such a degree of holyness , as to be able to discern this witness in themselves , and thence to grow up to full assurance of faith and hope : therefore if any one that hath heard the gospel , do want this inward assuring testimony , it is because they have been false to the truth and means before revealed to them . he that will but enquire into the gospel , and receive it and obey it so far as he hath reason to do it , and not be false to his own reason and interest , shall receive that renewing sanctifying spirit , which will be an abiding witness in himself . but if he will reject known truth , and refuse known duty , and neglect the most reasonable means that are proposed to him , he must blame himself if he continue in unbelief , and want that evidence which others have . suppose , that in a common plague , one physician should be famed to be the only and infallible curer of all that take his remedies ; and suppose many defame him , and say , he is but a deceiver : and others tell you , [ he hath cured us and many thousands , and we can easily convince you , that his remedies have nothing in them that is hurtfull ; and therefore you may safely try them ; especially having no other help ; ] he that will so far believe in him , and trust him now , as to try his remedies , may live ; but he that will not , must blame none but himself , if he die of his disease : he that tryeth , shall know by his own cure and experience , that his physician is no deceiver : and he that will not , and yet complaineth that he wanteth that experimental knowledge , doth but talk like a peevish self-destroyer . § . . . he that yet hath not the evidence of the spirit of regeneration in himself , may yet be convinced that it is in others ; and thereby may know that christ is indeed the saviour of the world , and no deceiver . even as in the aforesaid instance , he that never tryed the physician himself , yet if he see thousands cured by him , may know by that , that he is not a deceiver ; and so may be perswaded to trust and try him himself . § . . the way to know that others are thus regenerated , is . by believing them fide humana , . by discerning it in the effects . and though it be too frequent to have presumptuous self-conceited persons , to affirm that the spirit of christ hath renewed them , when it is no such matter , yet all humane testimony of matters so neer men , even within them , is not therefore incredible ; but wise men will discern a credible person from an incredible . in the forementioned instance , many may tell you , that they are cured by the physician , when it is not so ; but will you therefore believe no one that telleth you that he is cured ? many may boast of that learning which they have not , and tell you that they have knowledge in mathematicks , or in several arts ; but is no man therefore to be believed that saith the same ? but yet i perswade no man here to take up with the bare belief of another mans word , where he seeth not enough in the effects , to second it , and to perswade a reasonable man that it is true . but as he that heareth a man that was sick , profess that he is cured , may well believe him , if he see him eat , and drink , and sleep , and labour , and laugh as the healthfull use to doe ; so he that heareth a sober man profess with humble thanks to god , that he hath changed and renewed him by his spirit , may well believe him , if he see him live like a renewed man. § . . though you cannot be infallibly certain of the sincerity of any one individual person , but your self ( because we know not the heart ) ; yet may you be certain that all do not dissemble . because there is a natural impossibility , that interests , and motives , and sufficient causes should concurre to lead them to it : as before i said , we are not certain of any individual woman that she doth not dissemble love to her husband and children : but we may be certain that all the women in the world do not ; from many natural proofs which might be given . § . . all these effects of renovation may be discerned in others . . you may discern , that they are much grieved for their former sins . . that they are weary of the remnant of their corruption or infirmity . . that they long and labour to be delivered , and to have their cure perfected , and live in the diligent use of means to that end . . that they live in no sin , but smaller humane frailties . . that all the riches in the world would not hire them deliberately and wilfully to sin ; but they will rather choose to suffer what man can lay upon them . . that they are vile in their own eyes , because of their remaining imperfections . . that they do no wrong or injustice to any ; or if they do wrong any , they are ready to confess it , and make them satisfaction . . that they love all good men with a love of complacency , and all bad men with a love of benevolence , yea , even their enemies ; and instead of revenge are ready to forgive , and to do what good they can for them and all men . and that they hate bad men in opposition to complacency , but as they hate themselves for their sins . . that they love all doctrines , persons and practices which are holy , temperate , just and charitable . . that their passions at least are so far governed , that they do not carry them to swear , curse or rail , or slander , or fight , or to do evil . . that their tongues are used to speak with reverence of holy and righteous things , and not to filthy ribbald , railing , lying , or other wicked speech . . that they suffer not their lusts to carry them to fornication , nor their appetites to drunkenness or notable excess . . that nothing below god himself , is the principle object of their devotion : but to know him , to love him , to serve and please him , and to delight in these , is the greatest care , and desire , and endeavour of their souls . . that their chiefest hopes are of heaven , and everlasting happiness with god , in the perfection of this sight and love . . that the ruling motives are fetch'd from god , and the life to come , which most command their choice , their comforts , and their lives . . that in comparison of this , all worldly riches , honours and dignities , are sordid contemptible things in their esteem . . that for the hope of this , they are much supported with patience under all sufferings in the way . . that they value and use the things of this world , in their callings and labours , in subserviency to god and heaven , as a means to its proper end . . that they vse their relations in the same subserviency ; ruling chiefly for god , if they be superiours , and obeying chiefly for god , if they be inferiours ; and that with fidelity , submission and patience , so far as they can know his will. . that their care and daily business in the world is , by diligent redeeming precious time , in getting and doing what good they can , to make ready for death , and judgment , to secure their everlasting happiness , and to please their god. § . . all this may be discerned in others , with so great probability of their sincerity , that no charitable reason shall have cause to question it . and i repeat my testimony , that here is not a word which i have not faithfully copied out of my own heart and experience ; and that i have been acquainted with multitudes , who , i verily believe , were much better than my self , and had a greater measure of all this grace . § . . if any shall say , that men superstitiously appoint themselves unnecessary tasks , and forbid themselves many lawful things , and then call this by the name of holiness : i answer , that many indeed do so , but it is no such that i am speaking of : let reason judge ▪ whether in this or any of the fore-going descriptions of holiness there be any such thing at all contained . § . . he that will be able to discern this spirit of god in others , must necessarily observe these reasonable conditions . . choose not those that are notoriously no-christians , to judge of christianity by ; a drunkard , fornicator , voluptuous , carnal , worldly , proud or selfish person , calling himself a christian , is certainly but an hypocrite : and shall christianity be judged of by a lying hypocrite ? . as you must choose such to try by , as are truly serious in their religion , so you must be intimate and familiar with them , and not strangers , that see them as afar off : for they make no vain ostentation of their piety . and how can they discern the divine motions of their souls , that only see them in common conversation ? . you must not judge of them by the revilings of ignorant ungodly men . . nor by the reproach of selfish men , that are moved only by some interest of their own . . nor by the words of faction , ( civil or religious ) which judgeth of all men according to the interest of their sect , or cause and party . . nor by your own partial interest , which will make you judge of men , not as they are indeed , and towards god , but as they either answer or cross your interests and desires . . nor must you judge of all by some that prove hypocrites , who once seemed sincere . . nor must you judge of a man by some particular fall or failing , which is contrary to the bent of his heart and life , and is his greatest sorrow . . nor must you come with a fore-stalled and malicious mind , hating that holiness your self which you enquire after ; for malice is blind , and a constant false interpreter and a slanderer . . you must know what holiness and honesty is , before you can well judge of them . these conditions are all so reasonable and just , that he , that liveth among religious honest men , and will stand at a distance , unacquainted with their lives , and maliciously revile them , upon the seduction of false reports , or of interest either his own interest , or the interest of a faction , and will say , i see no such honest and renewed persons , but a company of self-conceited hypocrites ; this man 's confirmed infidelity and damnation , is the just punishment of his wilful blindness , partiality and malice , which made him false to god , to truth , and to his own soul . § . . it is not some but all true christians , that ever were or are in the world , who have within them this witness or evidence of the spirit of regeneration . as i have before said , christ will own no others , rom. . , , , , , . cor. . . luk. . . . if any man have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his . if any man be in christ , he is a new creature : old things are passed away , behold , all things are become new . he that forsaketh not all that he hath , cannot be my disciple . gal. . . they that are christs , have crucified the flesh , with its affections and lusts . indeed the church visible , which is but the congregate societies of professed christians , hath many in it , that have none of this spirit or grace ; but such are only christians equivocally , and not in the primary proper sense : joh. . , , , . there are three that bear record in heaven , the father , the word , and the holy ghost ; and these three are one . and there are three that bear witness on earth , the spirit , and the water , and the blood ; and these three agree in one . if we receive the witness of men , the witness of god is greater : for this is the witness of god , which he hath testified of his son. he that believeth on the son of god , hath the witness in himself : he that believeth not god , hath made him a liar , because he believeth not the record that god gave of his son. § . . the more any one is a christian in degree , the more he hath of this witness of the sanctifying spirit in himself , and the holier he is . § . . the nearer any philosopher or others are like to christians , the nearer they come to this renewed image of god. § . . as this image of god , the holiness of the soul , is the very end and work of a true saviour , so the true effecting of it on all true christians , is actually their begun salvation ; and therefore the standing infallible witness of christ , which should confound unbelief in all that are indeed his own . this ( which i spake of the fore going chapter ) is a testimony in every holy soul , which the gates of hell shall not prevail against . he that undertaketh to cure all of the plague , or stone , or gout , or fever , that will take his medicines , and be ruled by him , is certainly no deceiver , if he do that which he undertaketh . he that undertaketh to teach all men arithmetick , geometry , astronomy , musick , &c. who will come and learn of him , is certainly no deceiver if he do it . what is it that jesus christ hath undertaken ? think of that , and then tell me whether he be a deceiver . he never undertook to make his disciples kings , or lords , or rich , or honourable in the world ; nor yet to make them the best logicians , orators , astronomers , mathematicians , physicians , musicians , &c. but to make them the best men : to renew them to the love of god in holiness , and thereby to save them from their sins , and give them repentance unto life . nor hath he promised this to all that are baptized or called christians , but only to those that sincerely consent to learn of him , and take his counsel , and use the remedies which he prescribeth them . and is it not certain that christ doth truly perform this undertaking ? how then can he be a deceiver , who doth perform all that he undertaketh ? of this all true christians have a just demonstration in themselves , which is his witness . object . but christ undertaketh more than this , even to bring us to everlasting blessedness in heaven . answ . it is our comfort that he doth so : but me-thinks its easie to believe him in that , if he perform the rest : for , . i have proved in the first part of this book , that by the light of nature , a future life of retribution must be expected , and that man is made for a future happiness . . and who then should have that happiness , but the holy and renewed souls ? doth not natural reason tell you , that so good a god will shew his love to those that are good , that is , to those that love him ? . and what think you is to be done to bring any man to heaven , but to pardon him , and make him holy ? . and the nature of the work doth greatly help our faith . for this holiness is nothing but the beginning of that happiness . when we find that christ hath by his spirit begun to make us know god , and love him , and delight in him , and praise him ; it is the easier to make us believe that he will perfect it . he that promiseth to convey me safely to the antipodes , may easily be believed when he hath brought me past the greatest difficulties of the voyage . he that will teach me to sing artificially , hath merited credit , when he hath taught me the gradual tones , the scale of musick , the sol-fa-ing , the cliffs , the quantity , the moods , the rules of time , &c. he that causeth me to love god on earth , may be believed if he promise me that i shall love him more in heaven : and he that causeth me to desire heaven above earth , before i see it , may be believed when he promiseth , that it shall be my great delight when i am there . it is god's work to love them that love him , and to reward the obedient ; and i must needs believe that god will do his work , and will never fail the just expectations of any creature . all my doubt is , whether i shall do my part , and whether i shall be a prepared subject for that felicity : and he that resolveth this , resolveth all : he that will make me fit for heaven , hath overcome the greatest difficulty of my belief ; and i should the more easily believe that he will do the rest , and that i shall surely come to heaven when i am fit for it . object . but christ doth not only undertake to regenerate and to save us , but also to justifie us , and this by a strange way , by his sacrifice and merits . answ . the greater is his wisdom and goodness , as made known to us . i am sure an unpardoned unrighteous person , is uncapable of felicity in that state : and i am sure i cannot pardon my self , nor well know which way else to seek it . and i am sure that so excellent and holy a person , is fitter to be well-beloved of god i than . but i pray you remember , . that he undertaketh not to pardon or justifie any man , whom he doth not renew and sanctifie . . and that all his means , which seem so strange to you , are but to restore god's image on you , and fit you for his love and service . and this we can testifie by experience that he hath done , in some measure in us : and if i find his means successful , i will not quarrel with it , because it seemeth strange to me . a physician may prescribe me remedies for some mortal disease , which i understand not , but seem unlike to do the cure : but if i find that those unlikely means effect it , i will not quarrel with him , nor refuse them , till i know my self to be wiser than he , and have found out some surer means . it is most evident then , that he who saveth us is our saviour ; and he that saveth us from sin , will save us from punishment ; and he that maketh us fit for pardon , doth procure our pardon ; and he that causeth us to love god above all , doth fit us to enjoy his love ; and he that maketh us both to love him , and to be beloved by him , doth prepare us for heaven , and is truly the mediator . § . iii. four or five consectaries are evident from this , which i have been proving : . that we have left no room for their insipid cavil , who say , that we flie to a private spirit , or conceit , or enthusiasm , for the evidence of our faith . there are some indeed that talk of the meer perswasion , or inward active testimony of the spirit , as if it were an inward word that said to us , this is the word of god : but this is not it which i have been speaking of ; but the objective testimony , or evidence of our regeneration , which could not be effected but , . by a perfect doctrine ; and , by the concurrent work or blessing of god's spirit , which he would not give to confirm a lie . the spirit is christ's witness in the four ways fore-mentioned : and he doth moreover cause me to believe , and increase that faith , by blessing due means : but for any enthusiasm , or unproved bare perswasion , we own it not . § . . ii. that malignity is the high-way to infidelity : as the holiness of his members is christ's last continued witness in the world ; so the malicious slandering and scorning at godly men , or vilifying them for self-interest , or the interest of a faction ; is the devils means to frustrate this testimony . § . . iii. that the destruction of true church-discipline , tendeth to the destruction of christianity in the world , by laying christ's vineyard common to the wilderness , and confounding godly and the notoriorsly ungodly , and representing christianity to pagans and infidels , as a barren notion , or a common and debauching way . § . . iv. that the scandals and wickedness of nominal christians , is on the same accounts , the devils way , to extirpate christianity from the earth . § . . v. that the great mercy of god hath provided a sure and standing means for the ascertaining multitudes of holy christians of the truth of the gospel , who have neither skill nor leisure to acquaint themselves with the history of the church , and records of antiquity , nor to reason it out against a learned subtil caviler , from other extrinsick arguments . abundance of honest holy souls , do live in the fervent love of god , and in hatred of sin , and in sincere obedience , in justice and charity to all men , and in heavenly desires and delights ; who yet cannot well dispute for their religion ; nor yet do they need to flie to believe as the church believeth , though they know not what or why , nor what the church is : but they have that spirit within them , which is the living witness and advocate of christ , and the seal of god , and the earnest of their salvation ; not a meer pretense that the spirit perswadeth them , and they know not by what evidence ; nor yet that they count it most pious to believe strongliest , without evidence , when they least know why : but they have the spirit of renovation and adoption , turning the very bent of their hearts and lives from the world to god , and from earth to heaven , and from carnality to spirituality , and from sin to holiness . and this fully assureth them , that christ , who hath actually saved them , is their saviour , and that he who maketh good all his undertaking , is no deceiver , and that god would not sanctifie his people in the world by a blasphemy , a deceit and lie , and that christ who hath performed his promise in this , which is his earnest , will perform the rest . and withall the very love to god , and holiness , and heaven , which is thus made their new nature by the spirit of christ , will hold fast in the hour of temptation , when reasoning otherwise is too weak . o what a blessed advantage have the sanctified against all temptations to unbelief : and how lamentably are ungodly sensualists disadvantaged , who have deprived themselves of this inherent testimony . if two men were born blinde , and one of them had been cured , and had been shewed the candle-light and twilight , how easie is it for him to believe his physician , if he promise also to shew him the sun ? in comparison of what it is to the other who never saw the light ? chap. viii . of some other subservient and collateral arguments for the christian verity . having largely opened the great evidence of the christian verity , viz. the spirit in its four wayes of testifying , accidentally , inherently , concomitantly , and subsequently , i shall more briefly recite some other subservient arguments , which i finde most satisfactory to my own understanding . § . . i. the natural evidence of the truth of the scripture , about the creation of the world , doth make it the more credible to me in all things else . for that is a thing which none but god himself could reveal to us : for the scripture telleth what was done , before there was any man in being . and that this world is not eternal , nor of any longer continuance , is exceeding probable , by the state of all things in it . . arts and sciences are far from that maturity , which a longer continuance , or an eternity would have produced . guns and printing are but lately found out : the body of man is not yet well anatomized ; a sellius his milkie veines , and pecquets receptacle of the chyle , and bartholines glandules , and the vasa lymphatica , are of late discovery : galilaeus his glasses , and his four medicaean planets , and the lunary mutations of venus , and the strange either opacous parts and shape of saturn , or the proximity of two other stars which mishape it to our sight , the shadowy parts of the moon , &c. with the innumerable stars in the via lactea , &c. were all unknown to former ages . gilberts magnetical discoveries ( i speak not of those questionable inferences which campanella and others contradict ) the nature of many minerals and plants , the chief operations and effects of chymistry , abundance of secrets for the cure of many diseases , even the most excellent medicaments , are all of very late invention . almost all arts and sciences are encreasing neerer towards perfection . ocular demonstrations by the telescope , and sensible experiments , are daily multiplyed : yea , the world it self is not all discovered to any one part ; but a great part of it was but lately made known even to the europeans , whose knowledge is greatest , by columbus , and americus vesputianus ; and it is not long since it was first measured by a circumnavigation . if the world had been eternall , or of much longer duration than the scripture speaketh , it is not credible that multiplyed experiences , would not have brought it above that infancy of knowledge in which it so long continued . obj. cursed warrs by fire and depopulation , consume all antiquities , and put the world still to begin anew . answ . it doth indeed do much this way ; but it is not so much that warre could do : for when it is in one countrey , others are free , and some would fly , or lie hid or survive , who would preserve arts and sciences , and be teachers of the rest . who can think now that any wars are like to make america , or galilaeus's stars unknown again ? or any of the forenamed inventions to be lost . . moreover , it is strange , if the world were eternall , or much elder than scripture speaketh , that no part of the world should shew us any elder monument of antiquity ; no engraven stones or plates ; no mausolus , pyramids , or pillars ; no books ; no chronological tables , no histories or genealogies , or other memorials and records . i know to this also , cursed warrs may contribute much : but not so much , as to leave nothing to inquisitive successors . § . . ii. it greatly confirmeth my belief of the holy scriptures , to finde by certain experience , the original and vniversal pravity of mans nature , how great it is , and wherein it doth consist ; exactly agreeing with this sacred word ; when no others have made such a full discovery of it . this i have opened , and proved before ; and he is a stranger to the world and to himself , that seeth it not : were it not lest i weary the reader with length , how fully and plainly could i manifest it ? § . . iii. the certain observation of the universal spiritual warre , which hath been carryed on according to the first gospel , between the woman's and the serpent's seed , doth much confirm me of the truth of the scriptures . such a contrariety there is , even between cain and abel , children of the same father ; such an implacable enmity throughout all the world , in almost all wicked men against godliness it self , and those that sincerely love and follow it ; such a hatred in those that are orthodoxly bred , against the true power , use and practice , of the religion which they themselves profess ; such a resolute resistance of all that is seriously good and holy , and tendeth but to the saving of the resisters ; that it is but a publick visible acting of all those things which the scripture speaketh of ; and a fulfilling them in all ages and places in the sight of all the world. of which having treated largely in my treatise against infidelity , of the sin against the holy ghost , i referre you thither . § . . iv. it much confirmeth me to finde that there is no other religion professed in the world , that an impartial rational man can rest in . that man is made for another life , the light of nature proveth to all men : and some way or other there must be opened to us to attain it : mahometanisme i think not worthy a confutation . judaisme must be much beholden to christianity for its proofs , and is but the introduction to it , inclusively considered . the heathens or meer naturalists are so blinde , so idolatrous , so divided into innumerable sects , so lost and bewildred in uncertainties , and shew us so little holy fruit of their theology , that i can incline to no more than to take those natural verities which they confess , and which they cast among the rubbish of their fopperies and wickedness , and to wipe them clean , and take them for some part of my religion . christianity or nothing is the way . § . . v. it much confirmeth me to observe , that commonly the most true and serious christians , are the holyest and most honest , righteous men ; and that the worse men are , the greater enemies they are to true christianity : and then to think , how incredible it is that god should lead all the worst men into the truth , and leave the best and godlyest in an error . in small matters , or common secular things , this were no wonder : but in the matter of believing , worshipping and pleasing god , and saving of souls , it is not credible . as for the belief of a life to come , no men are so far from it as the vilest whoremongers , drunkards , perjured persons , murderers , oppressors , tyrants , thieves , rebels , or if any other name can denote the worst of men : and none so much believe a life to come as the most godly , honest-hearted persons : and can a man that knoweth that there is a god , believe that he will leave all good men in so great an error , and rightly inform and guide all these beasts , or living walking images of the devil . the same in a great measure is true of the friends and enemies of christianity . § . . vi. it hath been a great convincing argument with me , against both atheisme and infidelity , to observe the marvelous providences of god , for divers of his servants , and the strange answer of prayers , which i my self , and ordinarily other christians have had . i have been and am as backward to ungrounded credulity about wonders , as most men , that will not strive against knowledge . but i have been oft convinced by great experience , and testimonies which i believed equally with my eye-sight , of such actions of god , as i think would have convinced most , that should know as much of them as i did . but few of them are fit to mention : for some of them so much concern my self , that strangers may be tempted to think that they savour of self-esteem ; and some of them the factions and parties in these times , will by their interest be engaged to distaste ; and some of them have been done on persons , whose after scandalous crimes have made me think it unfit to mention them ; lest i should seem to put honour on a scandalous sinner , or seem to dishonour gods works by mentioning such an object of them : and i have much observed , that whatever wonder i ever knew done , in answer to prayer , or attestation of any good , the devil hath with marvellous subtilty , endeavoured by some error or scandal of men , to turn it all against christ and to his own advantage . but yet god declareth the truth of his promises , by the deliverances of his servants , and the granting of prayers which are put up to him in the name of christ . i will not dispute whether these actions shall be called miracles , or not : it is enough for my purpose , if they be but attesting providences . all church-history telleth us of many such heretofore : how great things have been done , and deliverances wrought upon christians earnest prayer to god. the success of the thundering legion in the army of marcus aurelius antoninus , in germany , is commonly mentioned : you may see it in the apolog. of justin martyr and tertullian : see more in pamelius's notes on tertull. n. . cyprian saith to demetrius , pag. of the christians casting out of devils , [ o si audire velles & videre , quando a nobis adjurantur & torqientur spiritalibus flagris , & verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur , quando ejulantes & gementes voce humanâ , & potestate divinâ flagella & verbera sentientes , venturum judicium confitentur . veni & cognosce vera esse quae dicimus : & quia sic deos colere te dicis , vel ipsis quos colis , crede : aut si volueris & ti●i credere , de te ipso loquetur , audiente te , qui nunc tuum pectus obsedit . videlis nos rogari ab eis quos tu rogas , tamen ab eis quos tu adoras ; videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos , & tremere captivos , quos tu suspicis & veneraris ut dominos : certè vel sic confundi in istis erroribus tuis poteris , cum conspexeris & audieris deos tuos , quid sint , interrogatione nostra statim prodere , &c. but it were tedious to recite all that antiquity telleth us of this kinde : later times have their testimonies also : bayname could tell the papists , that burned him , in the midst of his flames , [ lo , ye papists , here is a miracle : i feel no more pain in this fire than in a bed of down ; it is as sweet to me as a bed of roses ] . bishop farrar could say , when he went to the fire [ if i stirre in the fire , believe not my doctrine ] ; and accordingly remain'd unmoved : many more you may see in martyrologies and church-history . it was the mercifull providence of god to mris. honywood , who in her passionate self-accusations , when the minister was perswading her of the pardon of her sin , threw the glass which was in her hand up to the wall , saying , she was as certainly an hypocrite , as that glass would break ; and it fell to the ground , and remained unbroken . they were convincing providences which god exercised on the leading women of the familistical sect which troubled new-england : when one of them , mris. dyer , brought forth a monster that had the parts of man , beast , birds and fishes ; and the other their prophetess , mris. hutchinson , brought forth about thirty mishapen lumps or births at once ; and thereby the land was awakened , and delivered from the danger * . my own deliverances by prayer ( because they were my own ) i think not fit here to express : nor many other persons that were familiar with me , some yet living , and some dead : nor would i mention such small things as corporal deliverances and cures , but only because they are matters of sense , and somewhat unusual , and not as supposing them the great matters which christians have to look after or expect in answer to their prayers : they are far greater things which prayer brings to all true christians : the strength of the spirit against temptations , the mortification of those sins , which nature , constitution , temperature , custom and interest , would most strongly draw them to ; the special assistances of god in duty , the information of the mind , by a light which sheweth the evidence of truth in a special clearness ; the resolution of doubts ; the conquest of passions ; the elevation of the soul in divine love and praises ; the joy of the holy ghost , and comfortable thoughts of the coming of christ , and our endless blessedness with god in heaven . these are the answers of prayer , which are the fulfilling of the promises of christ , and which are of greater moment than miracles ; of which we have ordinary experience . § . . vii . it confirmeth my belief of the gospel , to observe the connaturality and suitableness which it hath to the best & holiest souls : that by how much the better , in true honesty , and charity , and heavenliness any man is , by so much the more is the gospel beloved , pleasant , and suitable to him ; as humane food is to humane nature . my much converse in the world , with men of all sorts , but most with the persons now described , hath given me opportunity to be fully assured of the truth of this experiment , beyond all doubt . and that which is the best in man , is certainly of god : and therefore that which is suitable and connatural to the best in man , must be of god also . § . . viii . it confirmeth my belief of the gospel , to find it so very suitable to the worlds diseases , necessities and business ; to reconcile them to god , and fill them with love and heavenly mindedness ; which other religions do meddle with so little , and superficially , and ineffectually . § . . ix . the matter of the gospel is so holy and spiritual , and against all sin , and evil spirits , that it is incredible that evil spirits , or very bad men , should be the inventers of it : and yet to forge so many miracles and matters of fact , and call a man god , and to perplex the world with needless delusory strictnesses , and to father all this on god himself , would have been a villany so transcendent , that none but men extremely bad could do it . therefore it must needs be the design of heaven , and not of men. § . . x. when i deeply consider the evidence of verity in the gospel , it hath as much to convince me , as i could have chosen or desired . § . . . if i had been put myself to choose by what means god should open to man the things of the unseen world , i could have desired no more than that a messenger might come to us from heaven to tell it us ; unless we had either sight and sense , or immediate vision and fruition . and i am fully satisfied , . that spiritual things are invisible , and are no objects of corporeal sense . . that it is not meet and honourable to god's wisdom and justice , to govern rational free agents in via , by sight and sense . it would be no trial , or thanks to the most sensual wretch , to forbear his sin , if heaven and hell were open to his sight . . that spiritual vision , and fruition is our state in patriâ ; our end and perfection , and not fit for the state of trial and travellers in the way . § . . . if i had been to choose who this messenger should be , i could have preferred none before him , who is the very wisdom , truth , and word of god. had it been but an angel , i might have thought that his indefectibility and veracity is uncertain to mankind on earth : but wisdom and truth it self can never lie . § . . . if i had been to choose in what way this messenger should converse with man , as an effectual and suitable teacher of these mysteries , and how the work of mediation between god and man should be performed , i could have desired no fitter way than that he should assume our nature , and in that nature familiarly instruct us , and be our example , and our high priest toward god , by his merit , sacrifice and intercession . § . . . had i been to choose what way he should prove his message to be of god , i could not have chosen a more satisfying way than that of prophecy , sanctity , and open numerous and uncontrouled miracles , with his own resurrection and ascension , and giving the holy ghost to be his advocate and witness continually to the world . § . . . i could not have expected that these miracles should be done in the sight of all the persons in the world , in every place and age , ( for then they would be but as common works ) but rather before such chosen witnesses , as were fit to communicate them to others . § . . . nor could i have chosen a fitter way for such witnesses to confirm their testimony by , than by the same spirit of holiness and power , and by such a stream of miracles as the apostles wrought , and such success in the actual renovation of their followers . § . . . nor could i well have chosen a more meet and convincing way of history or tradition , to convey down all these things to us , than that before described , which hath been used by god. § . . . nor could i have chosen any one standing seal and witness of christ , so fit for all persons , learned and unlearned , and to endure through all generations , as is the actual saving of men , by the real renovation of their hearts and lives by the holy spirit , reclaiming them from selfishness , sensuality , worldliness , and other sin , and bringing them up to the image of god's holiness , in love and heavenliness ; which is the continued work of christ . so that when god hath done all things so , as my very reason is constrained to acknowledge best , what should i desire more ? i confess i feel still , that my nature would fain be satisfied by the way of sight and sense . could i see heaven and hell , i think it would most effectually end all doubts : but my reason is satisfied , that it is a thing unmeet , and utterly unsuitable to a world , that must be morally governed and conducted to their end . § . . xi . the temptations of satan , by which he would hinder us from faith , love and obedience , are so palpable , malicious and importunate , that they do much to confirm me of the truth and goodness of that word and way , which he so much resisteth . i think that there are few men , good or bad , if they will observe both the inward suggestions with which they are oft solicited , for matter , manner and season , and the outward impediments to every good work , and invitations to evil , which they meet with in their conversations , but may be convinced that there are malicious spirits , who are enemies to christ and us , and continually by temptations fight against him . § . . xii . the devils contracts with witches , opposing christ , and engaging them to renounce their baptism , and to forsake his ways , is some confirmation of the christian verity . that witches really there are , as i said before , he that will read remigius and bodin only may be satisfied ; as also the malleus maleficorum danaeus , &c. and the numerous instances in suffolk and essex about years ago , may further satisfie them . and that the devil draweth them to such renunciations of the covenant and ordinances of christ , the many histories of it are full proof . § . . xiii . though many such reports are fabulous and delusory , yet there have been certainly proved in all ages , such apparitions , as either by opposition or defence have born some testimony to the christian faith . of both these last , see what i have written in my treat . of infidelity , and in the saints rest , part . and read lavater de spectris , & zanchius , tom . . lib. cap. . and cap. . daelrio , &c. and what i said before , especially the narrative called , the devil of mascon , and dr. moor of atheism . § . . xiv . the speeches and actions of persons possessed by the devil , usually raging blasphemously against christ , doth somewhat confirm the christian verity . that there are and have been many such , there hath been unquestionable evidence . see my saints rest , part . page , &c. zanchius , tom . . lib. . cap. . page . forestus de venenis , observ . . in schol. pet. mart. loc. com. clas . . cap. . fernel . de abdit . rerum causis , lib. . cap. . platerus observ . pag. . de stupore doemon . &c. tertul. apol. cap. . cyprian . epis . ad demetrium . origen . in matth. . augustin . de divinat . doemon . &c. § . . xv. lastly , the testimony of the enemies of christianity is some encouragement to faith . what conjectures there be , that pythagoras had his knowledge from the jews , and plato was not a stranger to moses's writings , hath been shewed by many . how plain it is , that the wiser and better any heathens have been , the nearer they have come in their doctrines to that of jesus christ . i need not say much to convince the considerate , that are men of reading . how the jews were convinced of the miracles of christ , and fled to the accusation of christ as a magician , is already shewed . the wisest and best of the roman emperours favoured them . dion cassius in the life of nerva cocceius , page . saith , [ caeterum nerva omnes qui impietatis in deos rei fuerant , eos absolvi voluit : exules in patriam reduxit : ( these that were called impietatis rei , were the jews and christians who refused to sacrifice to idols ) and he addeth , [ et ne servi de caetero dominos criminarentur , edicto vetuit , neve liceret aut impietatis , aut judaicae sectae quemquam dehinc insimulari . ] it seemeth by this , that when displeased servants would be revenged on their masters , they used to accuse them of christianity or judaism . trajan did something against the christians , being provoked by the jews , who ( saith dion cassius in vita trajani ) did make one andrew their captain , and about cyrene murdered of greeks and romans above two hundred thousand men . but upon pliny's information of the christians innocency and unjust sufferings , their persecutions were moderated . adrian also was exasperated by the jews , who as ael . spartianus saith in adrian : moverunt bellum , quod vetebantur mutilare genitalia : ( and the christians were taken for a sort of jews , and so suffered often for their faults : ) but serennius granianus legatus , a roman noble-man , writing to adrian how unjust it was upon vulgar clamour to kill innocent christians , only for their religion : adrian wrote to minutius fundanus , proconsul of asia , that no christian should suffer but for proved crimes . euseb . hist . lib. . lampridius in alexand. sever. saith , [ quod ( viz. templum christo facere ) & adrianus cogitasse fertur ; qui templa in omnibus civitatibus sine simulachris j●ssit fieri : quae hodie idcirco , quia non habent numina , dicuntur adriani ; quae ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur : sed prohibitus est ab his , qui consulentes sacra repererant , omnes christianos futuros , si id optato evenisset , & templa reliqua deserenda . lucian honoureth the christians , while he derideth them for their sufferings and faith ; saying , [ persuaserunt sibi infoelices christiani , se immortalitate fruituros , perpetuoque victuros esse : ideo & mortem magno contemnunt animo : ac non pauci sua sponte semetipsos occidendos offerunt : postquam vero semel à nobis d●sciverunt , graecorum deos constanter abnegant , &c. when adrian had found how the christians differed from the jews , and had suffered by barchochebas , because they would not joyn in the rebellion , when he had ended the war , he gave jerusalem to the christians and others to inhabit , saith euseb . antoninus pius published this edict for the christians , [ si quisquam cuiquam christiano , quia christianus sit , pergat molestiae quicquam aut criminis inferre , ille cui crimen illatum erit , etiamsi christianus reipsa deprehensus sit , absolvatur : qui autem illum accusaverat , justum debitumque supplicium subeat . adding a decree of adrian's , thus : [ pro quibus hominibus & alii provinciarum praesides , jam ante divo patri meo scripserunt ; quibus ille rescripsit , nequid interturbarent hoc genus hominum nisi qui convicti essent tentasse quippiam contra rempublicam . euseb . hist . l. . and though under that excellent prince , antoninus philosophus , some persecution was raised , it was mostly by officers , at a great distance , in france , &c. yet all was staid , and favour shewed them , upon the miraculous relief of the army by rain , upon the christian souldiers prayers , ( called legio fulminatrix ) when they were in war with the quadi : of which see jul. capitolin . dion cass . tertul. apolog. euseb . lib. . orosium , &c. his letters to the senate are these : [ credibile est christianos , licet eos impios existimemus , deum pro munimento habere in pectore : simul enim atque humi sese abjecerunt , & preces fuderunt ▪ ad ignotum mihi deum , statim è coelo pluvia delapsa est , in nos quidem frigidissima , in nostros vero hostes grando & fulmina : eorumque orationibus & precibus statim deus praesto fuit , qui neque vinci neque expugnari potest . quamobrem concedamus talibus , ut sint christiani , ne quae tela ejus generis contra nos petant & impetrent . after this emperour , a company of beasts successively followed ; yet most of them were restrained from great persecutions : commodus was restrained by martia , a friend to the christians as dio cass . writeth ; and others by other means . and the christians often tendred their apologies : among whom apollonius , a senator , in the reign of commodus , offered a book for christianity , and was beheaded ; euseb . lib. . but of all the emperours that were from augustus to constantine , there were but ten that persecuted the christians , of whom , those that i have mentioned , who reversed their decrees , or restrained the persecutors , were a part . septim . severus forbad any to become christians : but what judgments did fall upon divers of his presidents , who persecuted the christians , and what convictions some of them had by miracles , is worth the reading in tertullian ad scapul . alexander severus , the most excellent of all the heathen emperours , ( not excepting antoninus philos . ) was guided by the renowned vlpian , and his mother mammea , ( supposed a christian : ) of him , saith lampridius , [ judaeis privilegia reservavit : christianos esse passus est : yea , in the mornings he went to prayer in lacario suo , in quo & divos principes , sed optimos electos , & animas sanctiores , in queis & apollonium ; & quantum scriptor suorum temporum dicit , christum , abraham , & orpheum , & hujusmodi deos habebat . ] yea , saith the same lampridius , [ christo templum facere voluit , eumque inter deos recipere : quod & adrianus cogitasse fertur , ] — &c. ut ante . — and after — [ cum christiani quendam locum , qui publicus fuerat , occupassent ; contra , popinarii dicerent sibi eum deberi ; rescripsit , melius esse ut quomodocunque illic deus colatur ; quàm popinariis dedatur . ] the great strictness of the christian churches in the election of their pastors , he made his example in the choice of his officers : [ dicebatque grave esse , cum id christiani & judaei facerent in praedicandis sacerdotibus qui ordinandi sunt , non fieri in provinciarum rectoribus , quibus fortunae hominum committuntur & capita . ] that is , [ nomina eorum proponebat , hortans populum , siquis quid haberet criminis , probaret manifestis rebus ; si non probaret , poenam subire capitis . ] he made a saying of christ his motto , saith lamprid. [ clamabatque saepius quod à quibusdam sive judaeis sive christianis audierat , & tenebat ; idque per praeconem cum aliquem emendaret , dici jubebat , qvod tibi non vis , alteri ne feceris : quam sententiam usque adeo dilexit , ut & in palatio , & in publicis operibus , praescribi juberet . ] thus you see what opinion the best roman heathen emperours had of christ and the christians : paul had liberty in rome to preach in his hired house to any that would come and hear him , act. . . no man forbidding him . and those emperours that did persecute christianity , were either such beasts as nero , or at best such as never understood the reason of that religion , but persecuted they knew not what . and it was not so much for the positive parts of christianity that they persecuted them , as for the negatives , even for denying honour and worship to those idols , whom the romans had been long accustomed to adore . so that [ tollite impios , tollite impios ] was the cry of the rabble , as if it had been ungodliness to deny their gods : and to sacrifice or burn incense on the idols altars , was that ordinary command , which they disobeyed , to the suffering of death . as grotius saith , lib. . multa habemus testimonia quae historiae istis libris traditae partes aliquot confirmant . sic jesum cruci affixum , ab ipso & discipulis ejus miracula patrata , & haelraei & pagani memorant . de herode , pilato , festo , faelice , de johanne baptista , de gamaliele , de jerosolymorum excidio , exstant scripta luculentissima josephi edita paulo post annum à christi abitu . cum quibus consentiunt ea quae apud thalmudicos de iisdem temporibus leguntur . neronis saevitiam in christianos tacitus memoriae prodidit . exstabant olim & libri tum privatorum ut phlegontis , tum & acta publica , ad quae christiani provocabant , quilus constabat de eo sidere , quod post christum natum apparuit , de terrae motu , & solis deliquio contra naturam , plenissimo lunae orbe , circa tempus quo christus crucis supplicio affectus est . celsus and julian do not deny the miracles of christ : mahomet himself confesseth christ to be a true prophet , and the word of god , and condemneth the jews for rejecting him : he confesseth his miraculous nativity , and mighty works , and that he was sent from heaven to preach the gospel : he bringeth in god as saying , [ we have delivered our declarations to jesus the son of mary , and strengthned him by the holy ghost . ] and , [ we have delivered him the gospel , in which is direction and light , &c. ] and he teacheth his followers this creed , [ say , we believe in god , and that which was delivered to moses and jesus , and which was delivered to the prophets from their lord : we distinguish not between any of them , and we deliver up our selves to his faith . ] and if christ be to be believed , as mahomet saith , then christianity is the true religion : for as for his and his followers reports , that the scriptures are changed , and that we have put out christ's prediction , that mahomet must be sent , &c. they are fables , not only unproved , but before here proved utterly impossible . read eusebius , eccles . hist . l. c. , & . & l. . c. . of god's strange judgments on maximinus the emperour , whose bowels being tormented , and his lower parts ulcerated with innumerable worms , and so great a stink , as kill'd some of his physicians ; which forced him to confess , that what had befallen him was deservedly , for his madness against christ , ( for he had forbidden the christians their assemblies , and persecuted them ) : wherefore he commanded that they should cease persecuting the christians ; and that by a law and imperial edict , their assemblies should be again restored : he confessed his sins , and begg'd the christians prayers , and professed that if he were recovered , he would worship the god of the christians , whom by experience he had found to be the true god. see bishop fotherby atheomast . l. . c. . p. , . comparing his case with antiochus his . paulus orosius , histor . li. . fine , telleth us of a fountain of oyl which flowed a whole day in augustus reign , and how augustus refused to be called dominus , and how he shut up janus temple because of the universal peace , and that eo tempore , id est , eo anno quo fortissimam verissimamque pacem ordinatione dei caesar composuit , natus est christus ; cujus adventum pax ista famulata est ; in cujus ortu audientibus hominibus exultantes angeli cecinerunt , gloria in excelsis deo & in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis . see also what after others he saith of tyberius motioning to the senate , that christ might be accounted a god ; and sejanus resisting it : li . auct . bib. pat. to. . p. . where he saith also that aliquanti graecorum libri attested the darkness at christs death . and li. . p. . he sheweth , that as after the ten plagues of egypt , the israelites were delivered and the egyptians destroyed , so was it in the roman empire with the christians and pagans , after the particular revenges of the ten persecutions . but because he is a christian historian , i cite no more from him . chap. ix . yet faith hath many difficulties to overcome : what they are ; and what their causes . there are two sorts of persons who may possibly peruse these things , and are of tempers so contrary , that what helpeth one may hurt the other : the first are those who see so many objections and difficulties , that they are turned from the due apprehension of the evidences of christianity , and can think of nothing but stumbling-blocks to their faith. to tell these men of more difficulties , may adde to their discouragement , and do them hurt : and yet i am not of their minde that think they should be therefore silenced : for that may tempt them to imagine them unanswerable , if they come into their mindes : the better way for these men is , to desire them better to study the evidence of truth : and there are other men , who must be thought on , who seeing no difficulties in the work of faith , do continue unfortified against them , and keep up a belief by meer extrinsick helps and advantages , which will fall as soon as the storms assault it : and because no doubt is well overcome that is not known , and nil tam certum quàm quod ex dubio certum est , i will venture to open the difficulties of believing . § . . that believing in christ is a work of difficulty , is proved both by the paucity of sound believers , and the imperfection of faith in the sincere ; and the great and wonderfull means which must be used to bring men to believe . superficial believers are a small part of the whole world , and sound believers are a small part of professed christians : and these sound believers have many a temptation , and some of them many a troublesom doubt , and all of them a faith which is too farr from perfection . and yet all the miracles , evidences , arguments and operations aforesaid , must be used to bring them even to this . § . . the difficulties are i. some of them in the things to be believed , ii. some of them in extrinsecal impediments : iii. and some of them in the minde of man who must believe . § . . i. . the mysteriousness of the doctrine of the blessed trinity , hath alwayes been a difficulty to faith , and occasioned many to avoid christianity , especially the mahometanes ; and many hereticks to take up devices of their own , to shift it off . § . . . the incarnation of the second person , the eternal word , and the personal union of the divine nature with the humane , is so strange a condescension of god to man , as maketh this the greatest of difficulties , and the greatest stumbling-block to infidels and hereticks . § . . . the resurrection and ascension of jesus christ , and the advancement of mans nature in him above the angelical nature , and glory , is a difficulty . § . . . to believe all the history of the miracles of christ , the prophets , and apostles , is difficult , because of the strangeness of the things . § . . . it is not without difficulty firmly to believe the immortality of souls , and the endlesness of the felicity of the life to come . § . . . and it hath proved hard to many to believe the endless miseries of damned souls in hell. § . . . and it is as hard to believe the paucity of the blessed , and that the damned are the farr greater number . § . . . and that so great a change , and so holy a life , is necessary to salvation , hath proved a difficulty to some . § . . . the doctrine of the resurrection of the body , is one of the greatest difficulties of all . § . . . so is christ's coming into the world so late , and the revealing of his gospel to so few , by prophecy before , and by preaching since . § . . . so also was the appearing meanness of the person of christ , and of his parentage , place and condition in the world ; together with the manner of his birth . § . . the manner of his sufferings and death , upon a cross , as a malefactor , under the charge of blasphemy , impiety and treason , hath still been a stumbling-block both to jews and gentiles . § . . . so hath the fewness and meanness of his followers , and the number and worldly preeminence and prosperity of unbelievers , and enemies of christ . § . . . the want of excellency of speech and art in the holy scriptures , that they equall not other writings in logical method and exactness , and in oratorical elegancies , is a great offence to unbelievers . § . . . as also that the physicks of scripture so much differeth from philosophers . § . . . as also the seeming contradictions of the scripture do much offend them . § . . . and it offendeth them , that faith in christ himself , is made a thing of such excellency and necessity to salvation . § . . . and it is hard to believe , that present adversity and undoing in the world , is for our benefit and everlasting good . § . . . and it offendeth many , that the doctrine of christ doth seem not suited to kingdoms and civil government , but only for a few private persons . § . . . lastly , the prophesies which seem not intelligible or not fulfilled , prove matter of difficulty and offence . there are intrinsecal difficulties of faith. § . . ii. the outward adventitious impediments to the belief of the christian faith are such as these . . because many christians , especially the papists , have corrupted the doctrine of faith , and propose gross falshoods contrary to common sense and reason , as necessary points of christian faith : ( as in the point of transubstantiation . ) § . . . they have given the world either false or insufficient reasons and motives , for the belief of the christian verity ; which being discerned confirmeth them in infidelity . § . . . they have corrupted gods worship , and have turned it from rational and spiritual , into a multitude of irrational ceremonious fopperies ; fitted to move contempt and laughter in unbelievers . § . . . they have corrupted the doctrine of morality , and thereby hidden much of the holyness and purity of the christian religion . § . . . they have corrupted church-history , obtruding or divulging a multitude of ridiculous falshoods in their legends and books of miracles ; contrived purposely by satan to tempt men to disbelieve the miracles of christ and his apostles . § . . . they make christianity odious , by upholding their own sect and power , by fire and blood and inhumane cruelties . § . . . they openly manifest that ambition and worldly dignities and prosperity , in the clergy , is their very religion : and withall pretend , that their party or sect is all the church . § . . . and the great disagreement among christians , is a stumbling-block to unbelievers ; while the greeks and romans strive who shall be the greatest ; and both they and many others sects , are condemning , unchurching , and reproaching one another . § . . . the undisciplined churches , and wicked lives of the greatest part of professed christians , especially in the greek and latine churches , is a great confirmation of infidels in their unbelief . § . . . and it tempteth many to apostasie , to observe the scandalous errors and miscarriages of many who seemed more godly than the rest . § . . . it is an impediment to christianity , that the richest , and greatest , the learned , and the far greatest number in the world , have been still against it . § . . . the custom of the countrey , and tradition of their fathers , and the reasonings and cavils of men that have both ability and opportunity , and advantage , doth bear down the truth in the countreys , while infidels prevail . § . . . the tyranny of cruel persecuting princes , in the mahometane and heathen parts of the world , is the grand impediment to the progress of christianity , by keeping away the means of knowledge . and of this the roman party of christians , hath given them an incouraging example , dealing more cruelly with their fellow-christians than the turks and some heathen princes do . so that tyranny is the great sin which keepeth out the gospel from most parts of the earth . § . . iii but no impediments of faith are so great , as those within us . as . the natural strangeness of all corrupted mindes to god , and their blindeness in all spiritual things . § . . . most persons in the world , have weak , injudicious , unfurnished heads , wanting the common , natural preparatives to faith , not able to see the force of a reason , in things beyond the reach of sense . § . . . the carnal minde is enmity against the holiness of christianity , and therefore will still oppose the receiving of its principles . § . . . by the advantages of nature , education , custom , and company , men are early possest with prejudices and false conceits , against a life of faith and holiness ; which keep out reforming truths . § . . . it is very natural to incorporated souls , to desire a sensible way of satisfaction , and to take up with things present and seen , and to be little affected with things unseen , and above our senses . § . . our strangeness to the language , idiomes , proverbial speeches then used , doth disadvantage us as to the understanding of the scriptures . § . . . so doth our strangeness to the places and customs of the countrey , and many other matters of fact . § . . . our distance from those ages , doth make it necessary , that matters of fact be received by humane report and historical evidence : and too few are well acquainted with such history . § . . . most men do forfeit the helps of grace by wilfull sinning ; and make atheism and infidelity seem to be desireable to their carnal interest , and so are willing to be deceived : and forsaking god , they are forsaken of him , flying from the light , and overcoming truth , and debauching conscience , and disabling reason , for their sensual delights . § . . . those men that have most need of means and help , are so averse and lazy , that they will not be at the pains and patience , to read , and conferre , and consider , and pray , and use the means which is needfull to their information ; but settle their judgement by slight and slothfull thoughts . § . . . yet are the same men proud and self-conceited , and unacquainted with the weakness of their own understandings , and pass a quick and confident judgement , on things which they never understood : it being natural to men to judge according to what they do actually apprehend , and not according to what they should apprehend , or is apprehended by another . § . . . most men think it the wisest way , because it is the easiest , to be at a venture of the religion of the king and the countrey where they live ; and to do as the most about them do ( which is seldom best . ) § . . . men are grown strangers to themselves , and know not what man is ; nor what is a reasonable soul ; but have so abused their higher faculties , that they are grown ignorant of their dignity and use ; and know not that in themselves which should help their faith. § . . . men are grown so bad and false , and prone to lying themselves , that it maketh them the more incredulous of god and man , as judging of others by themselves . § . . . the cares of the body and world , do so take up the mindes of men , that they cannot afford the matters of god and their salvation , such retired serious thoughts as they do necessarily require . § . . . too few have the happiness of judicious guides , who rightly discern the methods and evidences of the gospel , and tempt not men to unbelief , by their mistaken grounds , and unsound reasonings . these are the impediments and difficulties of faith , in the persons themselves who should believe . chap. x. the intrinsecal difficulties in the christian faith , resolved . object . i. the doctrine of the trinity is not intelligible or credible . answ . . nothing at all in god can be comprehended , or fully known by any creatures : god were not god , that is , perfect and infinite , if he were comprehensible by such worms as we . nothing is so certainly known as god , and yet nothing so imperfectly . . the doctrine of the trinity in unity is so intelligible and credible , and is so admirably apparent in its products , in the methods of nature and morality , that to a wise observer it maketh christianity much the more credible , because it openeth more fully , these excellent mysteries and methods . it is intelligible and certain that man is made in the image of god : and that the noblest creatures bear most of the impress of their makers excellency : and that the invisible deity is here to be known by us , as in the glass of his visible works : of which the rational or intellectual nature is the highest with which we are acquainted . and it is most certain , that in the unity of mans minde or soul , there is a trinity of essentialities , or primalities ( as campanella calleth them ) that is , such faculties as are so little distinct from the essence of the soul as such , that philosophers are not yet agreed , whether they shall say , it is realiter , formaliter , relativè vel denominatione extrinseca . to pass by the three faculties of vegetation , sensation and intellection ; in the soul as intellectual there are the essential faculties , of power ( executive or communicative ad extra ) intellect and will ; posse , scire , velle ; and accordingly in morality or virtue , there is in one new-creature , or holy nature , wisdom , goodness , and ability or fortitude ( and promptitude ) to act according to them . and in our relation to things below us , in the unity of our dominion or superiority , there is a trinity of relations ; viz. we are their owners , their rulers ( according to their capacity ) and their end and benefactors : so that in the unity of gods image upon man , there is this natural , moral and dominative image : and in the natural , the trinity of essential faculties , and in the moral , the trinity of holy virtues ; and in the dominative , a trinity of superiour relations . and though the further we go from the root , the more darkness , and dissimilitude appeareth to us , yet it is strange to see even in the body , what analogies there are to the faculties of the soul ; in the superior , middle , and inferior regions : and in them the natural , vital , and animal parts , with the three sorts of humours ; three sorts of concoctions , and three sorts of spirits , answerable thereto , and admirably united : with much more , which a just scheme would open to you . and therefore seeing god is known to us by this his image , and in this glass , though we must not think that any thing in god is formally the same as it is in man ; yet certainly we must judge , that all this is eminently in god ; and that we have no fitter notions and names concerning his incomprehensible perfections , than what are borrowed from the minde of man. therefore it is thus undenyable , that god is in the unity of his eternal , infinite essence , a trinity of essentialities , or active principles : viz. power , intellect and will : and in their holy perfections , they are , omnipotency , omniscience ( or wisdom ) and goodness : and in his relative supremacy is contained this trinity of relations , he is our owner , our rector and our chief good , that is , our benefactor and our end . and as in mans soul , the posse , scire , velle , are not three parts of the soul , it being the whole soul quae potest , quae intelligit & quae vult ; and yet these three are not formaliter , ( or how you will otherwise call the distinction ) the same : even so in god , it is not one part of god that hath power , and another that hath understanding , and another that hath will ; but the whole deity is power , the whole is understanding , and the whole is will : the whole is omnipotency , the whole is wisdom , and the whole is goodness ( the fountain of that which in man is called holiness or moral goodness ) : and yet formally to understand is not to will , and to will is not to be able to execute . if you say , what is all this to the trinity of hypostases or persons , i answer , either the three subsistences in the trinity are the same , with the potentia , intellectus and voluntas , in the divine essence , or not : if they are the same , there is nothing at all intelligible , incredible or uncertain in it : for natural reason knoweth that there is all these eminently in god ; and whoever will think that any humane language can speak of him , must confess that his omnipotence , wisdom and goodness , his power , intellect and will , must be thus to mans apprehension distinguished : otherwise we must say nothing at all of god , or say that his power is his willing , and his willing is his knowing , and that he willeth all the sin which he knoweth , and all that he can do : which language will , at best , signifie nothing to any man. and it is to be noted , that our saviour in his eternal subsistence , is called in scripture , the wisdom of god , ( or his internal word ) : and in his operations in the creation ; he is called , the word of god , as operative or efficient : and in his incarnation , he is called the son of god : though these terms be not alwayes and only thus used , yet usually they are . the words of an ancient godly writer before cited , are considerable ; potho prumensis , de statu domus dei , lib. . p. . in biblioth . patr. t. . [ tria sunt invisibilia dei , h. e. potentia , sapientia , benignitas , a quibus omnia procedunt , in quibus omnia subsistunt , per quae omnia reguntur : pater est potentia , filius sapientia , sparitus sanctus benignitas . potentia creat , sapientia gubernat , ● benignitas conservat . potentia per benignitatem sapienter creat : sapientia per potentiam benignè gubernat : benignitas per sapientiam potenter conservat : sicut imago in speculo cernitur , sic in ratione animae . huic similitudini dei approximat homo ; cui potentia dei dat bonum posse ; sapientia tribuit scire ; benignitas prae●tat velle : haec triplex animae rationalis vis est ; scil . posse , scire , velle ; quae supradictis tribus fidei , spei , & charitati cooperantur , &c. read more in the author , and in raimundus lullius : and among latter writers , in campanella , raymundus de sabundis , &c. as i said before . he that will give you a scheme of divinity in the true method , will but shew you how all god's works and laws flow from these three essentialities or principles ; and the three great relations founded in them , ( his being our owner , ruler , and chief good : ) and how all our duty is branch'd out accordingly in our correlations : he will shew you the trinity of graces , faith , hope and love ; and the three summary rules , the creed , lord's prayer and decalogue ; and , in a word , would shew you , that the trinity revealeth it self through the whole frame of true theology or morality . but who is able to discern it in the smaller and innumerable branches ? yea , if ever it were to be hoped , that our physicks should be brought into the light of certainty and true method , you would see vnity in trinity in all things in the world . you would see that in the sun , and the other celestial luminaries , ( which are the glorious images of the intellectual world ) in the vnity of their essence , there is a moving , illuminating and heating power : and that no one of these is formally the other : nor is any one of them a part of the sun or other luminary , much less a meer accident of quality , but an essential active principle or power ; the whole luminary being essentially a principle of motion , light and heat ; which are not accidents in them , but acts flowing immediately from their essential powers , as intellection and volition from the soul. i shall now say no more of this , but profess , that the discovery of the emanations or products of the trinity , and the image and vestigia of it , in the course of nature , and method of morality , doth much increase my reverence to the christian doctrine , so far is the trinity from being to me a stumbling-block . object . but what are such trinities in vnity as these to the trinity of persons in the deity ? such weak arguments will but increase incredulity . will you pretend to prove the trinity by natural reason ? or would you perswade us that it is but three of god's attributes , or our inadequate conceptions of him ? opera trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa : ergo , no creature can reveal to us the trinity . answ . . it is one thing to prove the sacred trinity of persons , by such reason ( or to undertake fully to open the mystery ) and it is another thing to prove that the doctrine is neither incredible nor unlikely to be true ; and that it implieth no contradiction or discordancy , but rather seemeth very congruous both to the frame of nature , and of certain moral verities . this only is my task against the infidel . . it is one thing to shew in the creatures a clear demonstration of this trinity of persons , by shewing an effect that fully answereth it ; and another thing to shew such vestigia , adumbration or image of it , as hath those dissimilitudes which must be allowed in any created image of god. this is it which i am to do . . he that confoundeth the attributes of god , and distinguisheth not those which express these three essential primalities , or active principles , to which our faculties are analogous , from the rest ; or that thinketh that we should cast by this distinction , under the name of an inadequate conception , so far as we can imagine these principles to be the same , and that there is not truly in the deity a sufficient ground for this distinction , is not the man that i am willing now to debate this cause with ; i have done that sufficiently before . whether the distinction be real , formal or denominative , the thomists , scotists and nominals have disputed more than enough . but even the nominals say , that there is a sufficient ground for the denomination , which some call virtual , and some relative . and they that dispute of the distinction of persons , do accordingly differ , calling it either relative , virtual , formal or modal , or ratione ratiocinata , as they imagine best . and they that differ about these , do accordingly differ about the difference of the faculties of our souls . for my part i see not the least reason to doubt , but that the trinity of divine primalities , principles and perfections hath made its impress on man's soul , in its three parts , viz. the natural , the moral , and the dominative parts : in the first we have an active power , an intellect and free-will . in the second fortitude , ( or holy promptitude and strength ) wisdom and goodness , ( or love : ) in the third , we are to the inferiour creatures their owners , rulers and benefactors , or end : and what ever you will call our faculties and their moral perfections , it is undoubted that in god , his omnipotency , wisdom and goodness are his essence , and yet as much distinct as is aforesaid . and what mortal man is able to say , whether the distinction of persons be either greater or less than this ? and remember , that as i speak of motion , light and heat , both as in the faculties of the sun , ( as i may call them ) and in the acts or emanations ; and of the power , intellect and will of man , both as in the faculties and acts ; so do i here of the divine primalities ; yet so , as supposing that in god , who is called a pure act , there is not such a difference between power and act , as there is in man or other creatures . . no man , i think , is able to prove , that the works of the trinity , ad extra , are any more undivided , than the works of the three essential active principles : they are so undivided , as that yet the work of creation is eminently , or most notably ascribed to the father , ( as is also the sending of the son into the world , the forgiving of sin for his sake , &c. ) and the work of redemption to the son , and the work of sanctification to the holy ghost : we shall be as loth to say , that the father or holy ghost was incarnate for us , or died for us , or mediates for us , as that the power or love of god ▪ doth the works which belong to his wisdom . and the essential wisdom and love of god are no more communicable to man , than the son and holy spirit , who are said to be given to us , and to dwell within us . the scripture often calleth christ the wisdom of god : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both the ratio & oratio , the internal and expressed ( or incarnate ) word . and he that understandeth that by the holy ghost , which is said in scripture to be given to believers , is meant the habitual or prevalent love to god , will better understand how the holy ghost is said to be given to them that already have so much of it as to cause them to believe . abundance of hereticks have troubled the church with their self-devised opinions about the trinity , and the person and natures of christ : and i am loth to say , how much many of the orthodox have troubled it also , with their self-conceited , misguided , uncharitable zeal , against those whom they judged hereticks : the present divisions between the roman church , the greeks , the armenians , syrians , copties and ethiopians , is too sad a proof of this : and the long contention between the greeks and latins about the terms hypostasis and persona . . and i would advise the reader to be none of those , that shall charge with heresie all those school-men and late divines , both papists and protestants , who say , that the three persons are deus seipsum intelligens , deus à seipso intellectus , & deus à seipso amatus , ( though i am not one that say as they : ) nor yet those holy men whom i have here cited , ( potho prumensis , edmundus archiepisc . cantuariensis & parisiensis , and many others , who expresly say , that potentia , sapientia & amor , are the father , son and holy ghost . . but for my own part , as i unfeignedly account the doctrine of the trinity , the very summ and kernel of the christian religion ▪ ( as exprest in our baptism ) and athanasius his creed , the best explication of it that ever i read ; so i think it very unmeet in these tremendous mysteries , to go further than we have god's own light to guide us : and it is none of my purpose at all to joyn with either of the two fore-mentioned parties ; nor to assert that the mysterie of the blessed trinity of hypostases or persons is no other than this uncontroverted trinity of essential principles . all that i endeavour is but as aforesaid , to shew that this doctrine is neither contradictory , incredible , nor unlikely , by shewing the vestigia or image of it , and that which is as liable to exception , and yet of unquestionable truth . and if the three hypostases be not the same with the trinity of principles aforesaid , yet no man can give a sufficient reason , why three in one should not be truly credible and probable in the one instance , when common natural reason is fully satisfied of it in the other . he must better understand the difference between a person and such an essential principle in divinis , than any mortal man doth , who will undertake to prove from the title of a [ person ] that one is incredible or unlikely , when the other is so clear and sure : or rather , he understandeth it not at all , that so imagineth . for my part , i again from my heart profess , that the image or vestigia of trinity in unity through the most notable parts of nature and morality , do increase my estimation of the christian religion , because of the admirable congruity and harmony . object . ii. but who is able to believe the incarnation and hypostatical vnion ? if you should read that a kings son , in compassion to poor flies , or fleas , or lice , had himself become a flie , or flea , or louse , ( had it been in his power ) to save their lives , would you have thought it credible ? and yet the condescension had been nothing to this , as being but of a creature to a creature . answ . this is indeed the greatest difficulty of faith : but if you do not mistake the matter , you will find it also the greatest excellency of faith . . therefore you must take heed of making it difficult by your own errour : think not that the godhead was turned into man , ( as you talk of a man becoming a flie ) nor yet that there was the least real change upon the deity by this incarnation : nor the least real abasement , dishonour , loss , injury or suffering to it thereby . for all these are not to be called difficulties , but impossibilities and blasphemies . there is no abatement of any of the divine perfections by it , nor no confinement of the essence : but as the soul of man doth animate the body , so the eternal word doth , as it were , animate the whole humane nature of christ . as athanasius saith , as the reasonable soul and humane flesh do make one man , so god and man are one christ : and that without any coarctation , limitation , or restriction of the deity . . and this should be no strange doctrine , nor incredible to most of the philosophers of the world , who have one part of them taught , that god is the soul of the world ; and that the whole universe is thus animated by him : and another part , that he is the soul of souls , or intelligences , animating them as they do bodies . that therefore which they affirm of all , cannot by them be thought incredible of one . and it is little less , if any thing at all , which the peripateticks themselves have taught of the assistant forms ( intelligences ) which move the orbs ; and of the agent , intellect in man ; and some of them , of the universal soul in all men . and what all their vulgar people have thought of the deifying of heroes , and other men , it is needless to recite ; julian himself believed the like of aesculapius . none of these philosophers then have any reason to stumble at this , which is but agreeable to their own opinions . and indeed the opinion , that god is the soul of souls , or of the intellectual world , hath that in it , which may be a strong temptation to the wisest to imagine it : though indeed he is no constitutive form of any of those creatures , but to be their creator and total efficient is much more . what union it is which we call hypostatical , we do not fully understand our selves : but we are sure that it is such as no more abaseth the deity , than its concourse with the sun in its efficiencies . object . but what kin are these assertions of philosophers to yours , of the incarnation of the eternal word and wisdom of god ? answ . what was it but an incarnation of a deity , which they affirmed of aesculapius and such others ? and they that thought god to be the soul of the world , thought that the world was as much animated with the deity , as we affirm the humane nature of christ to have been ; yea , for ought i see , whilst they thought that this soul was parcelled out to every individual , and that matter only did pro tempore individuate , they made every man to be god incarnate . and can they believe that it is so with every man , and yet think it incredible in christianity , that our humane nature is personally united to the divine ? i think in this they contradict themselves . . and it is no way incredible that god should value man according to his natural worth and usefulness , as an intellectual agent , capable of knowing , and loving , and praising him , and enjoying him : his creating us such , and his abundant mercies to us , do abundantly prove the truth of this . nor is it incredible that he should be willing that his depraved creature should be restored to the use and ends of its nature : nor is it incredible that god should choose the best and fittest means to effect all this . nothing more credible than all this . . and it is not incredible at all , that the incarnation of the eternal word should be the fittest means for this reparation : if we consider , . what question we should have made of the word of an angel , or any meer creature , that should have said , he came from god to teach us ; seeing we could not be so certain that he was infallible , and indefectible . . and how short a creature would have fallen in the priestly part of mediation . . and how insufficient he would have been for the kingly dignity , and universal government and protection of the church , and judgement of the world . . and withall , that god himself , being the glorifier of himself , and the donor of all felicity to us , it is very congruous , that he should most eminently himself perform the most eminent of these works of mercy . . and it much assisteth my belief of the incarnation , to consider , that certainly the work that was to be done for man's recovery , was the winning of his heart to the love of god , from himself and other creatures : and there was no way imaginable so fit to inflame us with love to god , as for him most wonderfully to manifest his love to us : which is more done in the work of man's redemption , than any other way imaginable ; so that being the most suitable means to restore us to the love of god , it is fittest to be the way of our recovery ; and so the more credible . . and it much suppresseth temptation to unbelief in me , to consider , that the three grand works in which god's essentialities declare themselves , must needs be all such as beseemeth god ; that is , most wonderful , transcending man's comprehension . and as his omnipotency shewed it self ( with wisdom and love ) in the great work of creation , so was it meet that his wisdom should shew it self most wonderfully in the great work of redemption , in order to the as wonderful declaration of his love and goodness , in the great work of our salvation , ( our regeneration , and glorification . ) and therefore if this were not a wonderful work , it were not fit to be parallel with the creation , in demonstrating god's perfections to our minds . object . iii. but how incredible is it that humane nature should , in a glorified christ , be set above the angelical nature . answ . there is no arguing in the dark , from things unknown , against what is fully brought to light . what god hath done for man , the scripture hath revealed , and also that christ himself is far above the angels : but what christ hath done for angels , or for any other world of creatures , god thought not meet to make us acquainted with . there have been christians who have thought , ( by plausible reasonings from many texts of scripture ) that christ hath three natures , the divine , and a super-angelical , and a humane ; and that the eternal word did first unite it self to the super-angelical nature , and in that created the world ; and in that appeared to abraham and the other fathers ; and then assumed the humane nature last of all for redemption : and thus they would reconcile the arrians and the orthodox . but the most christians hold only two natures in christ : but then they say , that he that hath promised that we shall be equal with the angels , doth know that the nature of man's soul and of angels differ so little , that in advancing one , he doth as it were advance both : and certainly maketh no disorder in nature , by exalting the inferiour in sensu composito , above the superiour and more excellent . let us not then deceive our selves , by arguing from things unknown . object . iv. there are things so incredible in the scripture-miracles , that it is hard to believe them to be true . answ . . no doubt but miracles must be wonders : they were not else so sufficient to be a divine attestation , if they were not things exceeding our power and reach . but why should they be thought incredible ? is it because they transcend the power of god , or his wisdom , or his goodness ? or because they are harder to him than the things which our eyes are daily witnesses of ? is not the motion of the sun and orbs , and especially of the primum mobile , which the peripateticks teach ; yea , or that of the earth and globes , which others teach , as great a work , as any miracle mentioned in the holy scriptures ? shall any man that ever considered the number , magnitude , glory , and motions of the fixed stars , object any difficulty to god ? is it not as easie to raise one man from the dead , as to give life to all the living ? . and are not miracles according to our own necessities and desires ? do not men call for signs and wonders , and say , if i saw one rise from the dead , or saw a miracle , i would believe ? or at least , i cannot believe that christ is the son of god , unless he work miracles ? and shall that be a hinderance to your belief , which is your last remedy against unbelief ? will you not believe without miracles , and yet will you not believe them because they are miracles ? this is but meer perversness ? as much as to say , we will neither believe with miracles nor without . . impartially consider of the proof i have before given you , of the certain truth of the matter of fact , that such miracles were really done : and then you may see not only that they are to be believed , but the doctrine to be the rather believed for their sakes . † obj. v. it is hard to believe the immortality of the soul , and the life to come , when we consider how much the soul dependeth in its operations on the body ; and how it seemeth but gradually to exceed the bruits : especially to believe the eternity of it , or its joyes ; when omne quod oritur interit ; and if eternity à parte ante be proper to god , why not eternity à parte post ? answ . . the immortality of the soul , and consequently its perpetual duration , and a life of retribution after this , did not seem things incredible to most of the heathens and infidels in the world : and i have proved it before by evidence of nature to common reason . so that to make that incredible in christianity , which philosophers and almost all the world hold , and which hath cogent natural evidence , is to put out the eye of reason as well as of faith. . and that it hath much use of , or dependance on the body in its present operations , is no proof at all that when it is out of the body it can no otherwise act or operate . not to meddle with the controversie , whether it take with it hence the material sensitive soul as a body afterward to act by ? or whether it fabricate to it self an aethereal body ? or remain without any body of it self ? it is certain , that it was not the body that was the principle of intellection and volition here : but it was the soul which did all in the body , but according to the mode of its present coexistence : seeing then that it was the soul that did it here , why may it not also do it hereafter ? if the candle shine in the lanthorn , it can shine out of it , though with some difference : he is scarce rational that doubteth whether there be such things as incorporeal invisible intelligences , minds or spirits : and if they can act without bodies , why may not our minds ? though the egge would die if the shell were broken , or the hen did not sit upon it , it doth not follow , that therefore the chicken cannot live without a shell , or sitting on . though the embrio and infant must have a continuity with the mother , and be nourished by her nourishment , it doth not follow , that therefore it must be so with him , when he is born and grown up to ripeness of age . and when there is full proof that souls have a future life to live , it is a folly to doubt of it , meerly because we cannot conceive of the manner of their acting without a body : for he that is not desirous to be deceived , must reduce things uncertain and dark , to those that are clear and certain , and not contrarily : all good arguing is à notioribus , and not à minùs notis . the neerer any being is in excellency unto god , the more there is in it which is hard to be comprehended : spirits and minds are excellent beings ; and therefore very imperfectly known even by themselves , while they are in the lanthorn , the shell , the womb of flesh . the eye is not made to see its own sight , though it may see in a glass the organ of its sight : and as sight seeth not sight , nor hearing heareth not hearing , nor taste tasteth not tasting , &c. the act being not its own object ; but yet by seeing other things , i am most certain that i see , and by hearing , tasting , smelling , &c. i am certain that i hear , taste , and smell ; so is not the intellect here fitted intuitively to understand its own act of understanding ; but by understanding other objects , it understandeth that it doth understand : ( though i confess , some learned men in this think otherwise , viz. that the intellect intuitively knoweth it self . ) if a man have a watch which is kept in order , to tell him the hour of the day , though he know not the reason of the frame , the parts and motions , nor how to take it into pieces , and set it again together , yet it serveth his turn to the use he bought it for . and a ship may carry him who is unacquainted with the workmanship that 's in it : and so if a mans soul know how to love and please its maker , and know it self morally , it attaineth its end , though it know not it self physically so far , as to be able to anatomize its faculties and acts . argue not therefore from obscurities against the light. and that man doth not differ from a bruit only in degree , but specifically , he that is indeed a man doth know : considering what operations the minde of man hath above bruits ; not only in all the most abstruse and wonderful arts and sciences , astronomy , geometry , musick , physick , navigation , legislation , logick , rhetorick , &c. but also his knowledge of a creator , a love and fear of him , an obedience to him , and a care for an everlasting life : whether bruits have analogical ratiocination or not , it is certain that these things are far above them . . if by the eternity of our felicity were meant only an aevum of very long duration , it would be so strong a motive to godliness and christianity , as with any rational man , as to weigh down all the counter-pleasures of this world . . but as long as there is no want of power in god to perpetuate our blessedness , nor any proof that it is disagreeable to his wisdom or his will , why should that seem incredible to us , which is sealed and attested so fully by supernatural revelation , as i have proved ? if once the revelation be proved to be divine , there is nothing in this which reason will not believe . . and all they that confess the immortality and perpetuity of the soul , must confess the perpetuity of its pleasure or pain . . and why should it be hard for the peripatetick to believe the perpetuity of the soul , who will needs believe the eternity of the world it self , both as à parte ante , and à parte post ? surely it should seem no difficulty to any of that opinion . object . vi. who can believe that god will torment his creatures in the flames of hell for ever ? is this agreeable to infinite goodness ? answ . . i have fully answered this already , chap. . part . and therefore i must intreat the objector to peruse his answer there : only i shall now say , that it is not incredible that god is the governour of the world ; nor that he hath given man a law ; nor that his law hath penalties to the disobedient ; nor that he is just ; and will judge the world according to that law , and make good his threatnings : nor is it incredible that those who chose sin , when they were fore-told of the punishment , and refused godliness , when they were fore-told of the blessed reward and fruits , and this with obstinacy to the last , should have no better than they chose . it is not incredible that unholy enemies of god and holiness , should not live hereafter in the blessed sight and love , and holy delightful fruition of god , no more than that a swine is not made a king : nor that an immortal soul , who is excluded immortal happiness by his wilful refusal , should know his folly , and know what he hath lost by it : nor that such knowledge should be his continual torment : nor is it incredible that god will not continue to him the pleasures of whoredom , and gluttony , and drunkenness , and sports , and worldly wealth , or tyrannical domination , to quiet him in his loss of heaven : nor that he will deprive him of the temporal mercies which now content him , or may afford him any delight hereafter : nor is it incredible , if his body rise again , that it shall be partaker with his soul : nor that god , who might deprive him of his being , if he had been innocent , may make him worse , or bring him into a condition to which he would prefer annihilation , when he is an obstinate impenitent sinner . it is not incredible , that a good king or judge may hang a felon or traitor , for a crime against man and humane society . nor is it any goodness in them to be unjust , or to cherish murderers by impunity : none of all this is at all incredible . but it is indeed incredible , till conscience have humbled him , that the thief or murderer should like this penalty , or think well of the judge : or that a sinner , who judgeth of good and evil in others as dogs do , by the interest of his throat or flesh , and thinks them good only that love him , and bad that hurt him and are against him , should ever believe that it is the amiable goodness of god , which causeth him in justice to condemn the wicked . * . but yet let not misunderstanding make this seem harder to you than indeed it is . do not think that souls in hell are hanged up in flames , as beasts are hanged in a butchers shambles : or that souls have any pain but what is suitable to souls , ( and that 's more than bodies bear : ) it is an affliction in rational ways , which falls on rational spirits . devils are now in torment , and yet have a malignant kingdom and order , and rule in the children of disobedience ; and go up and down seeking whom they may devour . we know not the particular manner of their sufferings , but that they are forsaken of god , and deprived of his complacential love and mercy ; and have the rational misery before described , and such also as shall be suitable to such kind of bodies as they shall have . and while they are immortal , no wonder if their misery be so . object . vii . who can believe that the damned shall be far more than the saved ? and the devil have more than god ? how will this stand with the infinite goodness of god ? answ . i have fully answered this before in part . chap. . and should now adde but this ; . in our enquiries , we must begin with the primum cognita , or notissima , as aforesaid : that god is most good , and also just , and punisheth sinners , is before proved to be among the notissima , or primum cognita ; and therefore it is most certain , that these are no way contradictory to each other . . and if it be no contradiction to god's goodness , to punish and cast off for ever the lesser part of the world , then it is none to punish or cast off the greater part . the inequality of number will not alter the case . . it is no way against the goodness of humane governours , in some cases , to punish even the greater number , according to their deserts . . can any man that openeth his eyes deny it in matter of fact , that the far greater part of the world is actually ungodly , worldly , sensual and disobedient ? or that such are meet for punishment , and unmeet for the love and holy fruition of god ? when i see that most men are ungodly , and uncapable of heaven , is it not harder to reason , to believe that these shall have that joy and employment of which they are uncapable , than that they shall have the punishment which agreeth with their capacity , desert and choice ? must i believe that god's enemies shall love him for ever , meerly because they are the greater number ? if one man that dieth unrenewed be capable of heaven , another is so , and all are so : therefore i must either believe that no impenitent ungodly person is saved , or that all be saved . the number therefore is nothing to the deciding of the case . . can any man in his wits deny , that it is as sure that god permitteth sin in the world , as that the sun shineth on us : yea , that he permitteth that universal enormous deluge of wickedness which the world groaneth under at this day ? and that this sin is the souls calamity ; and to a right judgment , is much worse than punishment , what ever beastly sensuality may gainsay . if then the visible wickedness of the world be permitted by god , without any impeachment of his goodness , then certainly his goodness may consist with punishment , ( which as such is good , when sin is evil : ) and much of this punishment also is but materially permitted by god , and executed by sinners upon themselves . . the wisdom and goodness of god saw it meet , for the right government of this world , to put the threatnings of an everlasting punishment in his law : ( and how can that man have the face to say , it was needless , or too much in the law , with whom it proved not enough to weigh down the trifling interests of the flesh . ) and if it was meet to put that penalty in the law , it is just and meet to put that law into execution , how many soever fall under the penalty of it , ( as hath been proved . ) . the goodness of god consisteth not in a will to make all his creatures as great , or good and happy , as he can : but it is essentially in his infinite perfections ; and expressively in the communication of so much to his creatures , as he seeth meet , and in the accomplishment of his own pleasure , by such ways of benignity and justice as are most suitable to his wisdom and holiness . man's personal interest is an unfit rule and measure of god's goodness . . to recite what i said , and speak it plainlier , i confess it greatly quieteth my mind against this great objection of the numbers that are damned and cast off for ever , to consider how small a part this earth is of god's creation , as well as how sinful and impenitent . ask any astronomer , that hath considered the innumerable number of the fixed stars and planets , with their distances , and magnitude , and glory , and the uncertainty that we have whether there be not as many more , or an hundred or thousand times as many , unseen to man , as all those which we see ( considering the defectiveness of man's sight , and the planets about jupiter , with the innumerable stars in the milky way , which the tube hath lately discovered , which man's eyes without it could not see , ) i say , ask any man who knoweth these things , whether all this earth be any more in comparison of the whole creation , than one prison is to a kingdom or empire , or the paring of one nail , or a little mole , or wart , or a hair , in comparison of the whole body . and if god should cast off all this earth , and use all the sinners in it as they deserve , it is no more sign of a want of benignity or mercy in him , than it is for a king to cast one subject of a million into a jail , and to hang him for his murder , or treason , or rebellion ; or for a man to kill one louse , which is but a molestation to the body which beareth it ; or than it is to pare a mans nails , or cut off a wart , or a hair , or to pull out a rotten aking tooth . i know it is a thing uncertain and unrevealed to us , whether all these globes be inhabited or not : but he that considereth , that there is scarce any uninhabitable place on earth , or in the water , or air , but men , or beasts , or birds , or fishes , or flies , or worms and moles do take up almost all , will think it a probability so near a certainty , as not to be much doubted of , that the vaster and more glorious parts of the creation are not uninhabited ; but that they have inhabitants answerable to their magnitude and glory ( as palaces have other inhabitants than cottages ) : and that there is a connaturality and agreeableness there as well as here , between the region or globe , and the inhabitants . but whether it be the globes themselves , or only the inter-spaces , or other parts that are thus inhabited , no reason can doubt , but that those more vast and glorious spaces are proportionably possess'd : and whether they are all to be called angels or spirits , or by what other name , is unrevealed to us : but what ever they are called , i make no question but our number to theirs is not one to a million at the most . now this being so , for ought we know those glorious parts may have inhabitants without any sin or misery ; who are filled with their makers love and goodness ; and so are fitter to be the demonstration of that love and goodness , than this sinful mole-hill or dungeon of ignorance is . if i were sure that god would save all mankind , and only leave the devils in their damnation , and forsake no part of his creation but their hell , it would not be any great stumbling to my faith : or if earth were all god's creation , and i were sure that he would condemn but one man of a hundred thousand , or a million , and that only for final impenitency in the contempt of the mercy which would have saved him ; this would be no great difficulty to my faith . why then should it be an offence to us , if god , for their final refusal of his grace , do for ever forsake and punish the far greater part of this little dark and sinful world , while he glorifieth his benignity and love abundantly upon innumerable angels , and blessed spirits , and inhabitants of those more large and glorious seats ? if you would judge of the beneficence of a king , will you go to the jail and the gallows to discern it , or to his palace and all the rest of his kingdom ? and will you make a few condemned malefactors the measure of it ? or all the rest of his obedient prosperous subjects ? if hell be totally forsaken of god , as having totally forsaken him ; and if earth have made it self next to hell , and be forsaken as to the far greater part , because that greater part hath forsaken him ; as long as there may be millions of blessed ones above , to one of these forsaken ones on earth , it should be no offence to any but the selfish guilty sinner . i confess i rather look on it as a great demonstration of god's holiness and goodness in his justice , that he will punish the rebellious according to his laws ; and a great demonstration of his goodness in his mercy , that he will save any of such a rebellious world , and hath not forsaken it utterly as hell : and when of all the thousands of worlds or globes which he hath made , we know of none forsaken by him , but hell , and part of the earth , all the devils , and most of men ; we should admire the glory of his bounty , and be thankful with joy , that we are not of the forsaken number ; and that even among sinners , he will cast off none but those that finally reject his mercy . but selfishness and sense do make men blinde , and judge of good and evil only by self-interest and feeling ; and the malefactor will hardly magnifie justice , nor take it to be a sign of goodness : but god will be god whether selfish rebels will or not . obj. that any thing existeth besides god cannot be known but by sense or history : have you either of these for those inhabitants ? and if we may go by conjectures , for ought you know there may as many of those worlds be damned , as of earthly men . ans . . some men are so little conscious of their humanity , that they think that nothing is known at all : but he that knoweth by sense that he is himself , and that there is a world about him , and then by reason that there is a god , may know also by reason that there are other creatures which he never saw : neither sense nor history told us of the inhabitants of the ( then ) unknown parts of the world ; and yet it had been easie to gather at least a strong probability that there are such . he that knoweth that an intelligent nature is better than a non-intelligent , and then knoweth that god hath made man intelligent , and then thinketh what difference there is in matter , magnitude and glory , between the dirty body of man with the earth he liveth in , and those vast and glorious ethereal spaces ; will quickly judge that it is a thing incredible , that god should have no creatures nobler than man , nor imprint more of his image upon any in those more glorious regions , than on us that dwell as snails in such a shell ; or that there should be such a strange disproportion in the works of god , as that a punctum of dirty earth only should be possessed of the divine or intellectual nature , and the vast and glorious orbs or spaces be made only to look on , or to serve these mortal worms : but proofs go according to the preparation of the receivers minde : nothing is a proof to the unprepared and prejudiced . . we have sense by the telescope to tell us , that the moon hath parts unequal , and looketh much like the habitable earth : and we have sense to tell us , that there are witches and apparitions , and consequently other kinde of intellectual wights than we . and we have history to tell us of the appearances and offices of angels : and if there be certainly such wights , our eyes may help us to conjecture at their numbers ( compared to us ) by the spaces which they inhabit . . there is a proportion and harmony in all the works of god : and therefore we that see how much the superiour orbs do in glory excell this dirty earth , have reason to think that the nature of the inhabitants is suited to their habitations ; and consequently that they are more excellent creatures than we , and therefore less sinfull , and therefore more happy . . yet after all this , i am neither asserting that all this is so , nor bound to prove it . i only argue , that you who are offended at the numbers that sin and perish , do wrangle in the dark , and speak against you know not what . conjecture is enough for me , to prove that you do foolishly to argue against experience ( of the sin and misery of the most ) upon meer uncertainties . you will not censure the actions of a prince or generall , when your ignorance of their counsels maketh you uncertain of the cause ; yea and of the matter of fact it self . the proof lyeth on your part , and not on mine : you say , our doctrine is incredible , because so few are saved , and yet confess that for ought you know , taking all together it may be many millions for one that perisheth . i think by proving you uncertain of this , i prove you foolish in your infidelity . and if you will conjecture then , that there may as many of those other regions be damned , . you shew your selves much more harsh in your censures than the christians are , whose harshness you are now reproving : yea you conjecture this without all ground or probability . and will you say then , for ought i know it may be so , ergo , christianity is incredible ? can a groundless conjecture allow any rational man such a conclusion ? obj. but you say your selves that many of the angels fell , and are now devils . answ . but we say not how many : we never said that it is the whole number of the glorious inhabitants of all the superiour world , who are called angels , as messengers or officers about man : we know not how small a part of them comparatively it may be : and of them we know not how few fell . augustine conjectured that it was the tenth part ; but we have no ground for any such conjecture . obj. but it is incredible that the world should perish for one mans sin , whom they never knew , nor could prevent ? ans . . to them that know what generation is , and what the son is to the father , it is not incredible at all that the unholy parents do not beget holy children , nor convey to them that which they have not themselves : nor yet that god should hate the unholy : nor that the parents choice should signifie much for their childrens state , who have no wills of their own fit for actual choice ; nor that restored imperfect holiness should not be conveyed to children by natural propagation ; which came to the parents by regeneration : nor that the children of traytors should be disinherited for their fathers faults : nor that the children of drunkards and gluttons should be naturally diseased . . no man in the world doth perish for adams sin alone without his own : ( though we judge the case of infants to allow you no exception , yet to carry the controversie to them into the dark , and to argue à minus notis , is not the property of such as seek impartially for truth . ) christ hath procured a new covenant upon which all those that hear the gospel , shall again be tryed for life or death : and those that hear it not , have divers means which have a tendency to their recovery , and are under undenyable obligations to use those means in order to their recovery : which if they do not faithfully , they perish for their own sin . should it not make christianity the more easily credible , when certain experience assureth us , how prone even infants are to sin , and how universally the world is drown'd in wickedness ; and then to finde so admirable and suitable a remedy revealed ? obj. but punishment is to warn others from sinning : but after this life there will be none to warn : therefore there will be no punishment , because the end of punishing ceaseth . answ . . it is a false position , that punishment is only or chiefly to be a warning to others . it is chiefly for the ultimate end of government , which secundum quid among men , is the bonum publicum ; but simpliciter , in gods government , it is the glorifying or demonstration of the holiness and justice of god the universal governour , to the pleasure of his holy will. . it is the penalty as threatned in the law , and not the penalty as executed , which is the first necessary means to deterre others from offending : and then the execution is secondarily necessary , because the law must be fulfilled . it is not the actual hanging of a murderer ; which is the first necessary instrument or means to restrain murderers : but it is the penalty in the law , which saith that murderers shall be hanged : and the commination of the law would be no restraint , if it were not that it relateth to a just execution . so that it was necessary to the restraint of sinners in this world , that god should threaten hell in his law : and therefore it is necessary that he execute that law ; or else it would be delusory , and contemptible . . how know we who shall survive this present world , to whom god may make mans hell a warning ? are not the devils now set out in scripture for a warning to man ? and how know we what other creatures god hath , to whom these punished sinners may be a warning ? or whether the new earth , wherein righteousness must dwell , according to gods promise ( pet. . , . ) shall not have use of this warning to keep them in their righteousness ? as long as all these things are probable , and the contrary utterly uncertain , how foolish a thing is it , to go from the light of a plain revelation and scripture , and argue from our dark uncertainties and improbabilities against that light ? and all because self-love and guilt doth make sinners unwilling to believe the truth ? so much for the objection against hell. obj. viii . but it is incredible , that all those shall be damned that live honestly and soberly , and do no body harm , if they do not also live a holy and heavenly life , and forsake all for another world. answ . it is but selfishness and blindness , which maketh men call him an honest man , and speak lightly of his wickedness who preferreth the dung and trifles of this world , before his maker , and everlasting glory . what if a pack of murderers , thieves and rebels , do live together in love , and do one another no harm ? shall that excuse their murders or rebellions , and give them the name of honest men ? what is the creature to the creator ? what greater wickedness can man commit , than to deny , despise and disobey his maker ? and to preferre the most contemptible vanity before him ? and to choose the transitory pleasure of sinning , before the endless fruition of his god ? what is wronging a neighbour , in comparison of this wrong ? shall a sinner refuse his everlasting happiness when it is offered him , and then think to have it , when he can possess the pleasure of sin no longer ? and all because he did no man wrong ? doth he think to refuse heaven , and yet to have it ? if he refuse the love of god , and perfection of holiness , he refuseth heaven . it is so far from being incredible that the unholy should be damned , and the holy only saved , that the contrary is impossible : i would not believe an angel from heaven , if he should tell me that one unholy soul , in sensu composito , while such , shall be saved , and have the heavenly felicity : because it is a meer contradiction . for to be blessed in heaven , is to be happy in the perfect love of god : and to love god without holiness , signifieth to love him without loving him . are these the objections of unbelief ? obj. ix . the resurrection of these numerical bodies , when they are devoured and turned into the substance of other bodies , is a thing incredible † . answ . . if it be neither against the power , the wisdom , or the will of god , it is not incredible at all . but it is not against any of these . who can say , that god is unable to raise the dead , who seeth so much greater things performed by him , in the daily motion of the sun ( or earth ) and in the support and course of the whole frame of nature ? he that can every spring give a kinde of resurrection , to plants and flowers , and fruits of the earth , can easily raise our bodies from the dust . and no man can prove , that the wisdom of god , or yet his will , are against our resurrection ; but that both are for it , may be proved by his promises : shall that which is beyond the power of man , be therefore objected as a difficulty to god ? . yea , it is congruous to the wisdom and governing justice of god , that the same body which was partaker with the soul in sin and duty , should be partaker with it in suffering or felicity ? . the lord jesus christ did purposely die and rise again in his humane body , to put the resurrection out of doubt , by undenyable ocular demonstration , and by the certainty of belief . . there is some natural reason for the resurrection in the souls inclination to its body . as it is unwilling to lay it down , it will be willing to reassume it , when god shall say , the time is come . as we may conclude at night when they are going to bed , that the people of city and countrey will rise the next morning , and put on their cloaths , and not go naked about the streets , because there is in them a natural inclination to rising and to cloaths , and a natural aversness to lie still or to go uncloathed ; so may we conclude from the souls natural inclination to its body , that it will reassume it as soon as god consenteth . . and all our objections which reason from supposed contradictions vanish ; because none of us all have so much skill in physicks as to know what it is which individuateth this numerical body , and so what it is which is to be restored : but we all confess , that it is not the present mass of flesh and humours , which being in a continual flux , is not the same this year which it was the last , and may vanish long before we die . obj. x. if christ be indeed the saviour of the world , why came he not into the world till it was years old ? and why was he before revealed to so few ? and to them so darkly ? did god care for none on earth , but a few jews ? or did he not care for the worlds recovery till the later age , when it drew towards its end ? answ . it is hard for the governour of the world , by ordinary means , to satisfie all self-conceited persons of the wisdom and equity of his dealings . but . it belongeth not to us , but to our free benefactor , to determine of the measure , and season of his benefits : may he not do with his own as he list ? and shall we deny or question a proved truth , because the reason of the circumstances is unrevealed to us ? if our physician come to cure us of a mortal disease , would we reject him because he came not sooner ? and because he cured not all others that were sick as well as us ? . the eternal wisdom and word of god , the second person in the trinity , was the saviour of the world before he was incarnate . he did not only by his vndertaking , make his future performances valid , as to the merit and satisfaction necessary to our deliverance ; but he instructed mankinde in order to their recovery , and ruled them upon terms of grace , and so did the work of a redeemer or mediator , even as prophet , priest and king , before his incarnation . he enacted the covenant of grace , that whoever repenteth and believeth shall be saved ; and so gave men a conditional pardon of their sins . . and though repentance and the love of god , was necessary to all that would be saved , even as a constitutive cause of their salvation ; yet that faith in the mediator , which is but the means to the love of god , and to sanctification , was not alwayes , nor in all places , in the same particular articles necessary as it is now , where the gospel is preached . before christs coming , a more general belief might serve the turn , for mens salvation ; without believing , that [ this jesus is the christ ; that he was conceived by the holy ghost , born of the virgin mary , suffered under pontius pilate ; was crucified , dead , and buryed , and descended to hades , and rose again the third day , and ascended into heaven , &c. ] and as more is necessary to be believed , since christs incarnation and resurrection than before ; so more was before necessary to the jewes , who had the oracles of god , and had more revealed to them than to other nations who had less revealed : and now more is necessary where the gospel cometh , than where it doth not . . so that the gentiles had a saviour before christs incarnation , and not only the jewes . they were reprieved from legal justice , and not dealt with by god upon the proper terms of the covenant of works , or meer nature : they had all of them much of that mercy which they had forfeited ; which came to them by the grace of the redeemer . they had time and helps to turn to god , and a course of means appointed them to use , in order to their recovery and salvation : according to the use of which they shall be judged : they were not with the devils left remediless , and shut out of all hope , under final desperation : no one ever perished in any age or nation of the world , who by believing in a mercifull , pardoning , holy god , was recovered to love god above all . and if they did not this , they were all without a just excuse . . the course of grace as that of nature , doth wisely proceed from low degrees to higher , and bringeth not things to perfection at the first : the sun was not made the first day of the creation ; nor was man made , till all things were prepared for him . the churches infancy was to go before its maturity . we have some light of the sun , before it rise ; much more before it come to the height : as christ now teacheth his church more plainly , when he is himself gone into glory , even by his pastors whom he fitteth for that work , and by his spirit ; so did he ( though more obscurely yet sufficiently ) teach it before he came in the flesh , by prophets and priests : his work of salvation consisteth in bringing men to live in love and obedience : and his way of teaching them his saving doctrine is by his ministers without , and by his spirit within : and thus he did before his coming in flesh , and thus he doth since : we that are born since his coming , see not his person , any more than they who were born before . but we have his word , ministers , and spirit , and so had they : his reconciling sacrifice was effectual morally in esse cognito & volito before the performance of it : and the means of reconciling our mindes to god , were sufficient in their kind before , though more full and excellent since his coming . if you would not be deluded into infidelity by this objection ( which indeed is one of the greatest difficulties of faith ) you must not further one error by another . . think not that god is hired or perswaded by christ as against his will to forgive mens sins and save their souls , or to do them any good . understand , that no good cometh to man , or any creature , but totally from gods will and love , who is the original and eternal goodness . all the question is but of the modus conferendi , the way of his conveyance : and then it will not seem incredible , that he should give out his mercy by degrees , and with some diversity . . think not that christianity doth teach men , that all those who were not of the jewish nation or church then , or that are not now of the christian church , were so cast off and forsaken by god as the devils are , to be left as utterly hopeless or remediless : nor that they were upon no other terms for salvation , than man in innocency was under ; which was [ obey perfectly and live ; or if thou sin , thou shalt die ] : for this had been to leave them as hopeless as the devils , when once they had sinned . . and think not that christ can shew no mercy , nor do any thing towards the salvation of a sinner , before he is known himself to the sinner ; especially before he is known as an incarnate mediator , or one that is to be incarnate . he struck down paul , and spake to him from heaven , before paul knew him : he sent philip to the eunuch , before he knew him , and peter to cornelius , and sendeth the gospel to heathen nations , before they know him . if the apostles themselves , even after that they had lived long with christ , and heard his preaching , and seen his miracles , yea and preached and wrought miracles themselves , did not yet understand that he must suffer , and die , and rise again , and send down the spirit , &c. you may conjecture by this what the common faith of those before christs coming was , who were saved . . think not therefore that christ hath no way or degree of effectual teaching , but by the express doctrine of his incarnation , death and resurrection , which is now the gospel . . and think not that all the mercies which pagan nations have from god , are no acts of grace , nor have any tendency to their conversion and salvation . doubtless , it is the same redeemer , even the eternal wisdom and word of god , who before his incarnation gave greater mercy to the jews , and lesser to the gentiles : he doth by these mercies oblige or lead men to repentance and gratitude , and reveal god as mercifull and ready to forgive all capable sinners : as even under the law , exod ▪ . he revealed himself fullyer to moses , [ the lord , the lord god , mercifull and gracious , long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , transgression and sin , &c. ] though he will by no means ( no not by christ ) clear the guilty , that is , either say to the wicked , thou art just , or pardon any uncapable subject . doubtless , mercy bindeth heathens to know god as mercifull , and to love him , and to improve that mercy to their attainment of more , and to seek after further knowledge , and to be better than they are ; and they are set under a certain course of means , and appointed duty , in order to their recovery and salvation : else it might be said , that they have nothing to do for their own recovery , and consequently sin not by omitting it . by all this you may perceive , that christ did much by mercies and teaching before his incarnation , and since for all the world , which hath a tendency to their conversion , recovery and salvation . obj. xi . the conception of a virgin , without man , is improbable ; and must all depend upon the credit of her own word : and the meanness of his parentage , breeding and condition , doth more increase the difficulty . answ . . it was meet that the birth of christ should begin , in a miracle , when his life was to be spent and finished in miracles . . it is no more than was promised before by the prophet , isa . . . a virgin shall conceive and bear a son , &c. and why should the fulfilling of a prophesie by miracle be incredible ? . it is neither above nor against the power , wisdom or love of god , and therefore it should not seem incredible . there is no contradiction or impossibility in it ; nor any thing contrary to sense or reason . reason saith indeed , that it is above the power of man , and above the common course of nature ; but not that it is above the power of the god of nature : is it any harder for god to cause a virgin to conceive by the holy ghost , than to make the first of humane kinde , ( or any other kinde ) of nothing ? . it was meet that he who was to be a sacrifice for sin , and a teacher and pattern of perfect righteousness , and a mediator between god and man , should not be an ordinary childe of adam , nor be himself defiled with original or actual sin ; and therefore that he should be in a peculiar sense the son of god. . and this doth not depend only on the credit of the virgin-mothers word , but on the multitude of miracles whereby god himself confirmed the truth of it . and as for the meanness of his person and condition , . it was a needfull part of the humiliation which he was for our sins to undergo ; that he should take upon him the form of a servant , and make himself of no reputation , phil. . , , . . it was a suitable testimony against the pride , carnality , and worldly-mindedness of deluded men , who over-value the honour and pleasure and riches of the world : and a suitable means to teach men to judge of things aright , and value every thing truely as it is . the contrary whereof is the cause of all the sin and misery of the world. he that was to cure men of the love of the world , and all its riches , dignities and pleasure , & he that was to save them from this , by the office of a saviour , could not have taken a more effectual way , than to teach them by his own example , and to go before them in the setled contempt of all these vanities , and preferring the true and durable felicity . . look inwardly to his god-head , and spiritual perfections : look upward to his present state of glory , who hath now all power given into his hands , and is made head over all things to the church , eph. . . look forward to the day of his glorious appearing , when he shall come with all his celestial retinue , to judge the world : and then you will see the dignity and excellency of christ . if you preferre not spiritual and heavenly dignities your selves , you are uncapable of them , and cannot be saved : but if you do , you may see the excellencies of christ . he that knoweth how vain a bubble the honour of man and the glory of this world is , will not be offended at the king of saints because his kingdom is not of this world : and he that knoweth any thing of the difference between god and the creature , heaven and earth , will not despise the eternal jehovah , because he weareth not a silken coat , and dwelleth not in the guilded palaces of a prince : if earthly glory had been the highest , it had been the glory of christ : and if he had come to make us happy by the rich mans way , luk. . to be cloathed in purple and silk , and faring sumptuously every day , then would he have led us this way by his example . but when it is the work of a saviour to save us from the flesh , and from this present evil world , the means must be suited to the end . obj. xii . but it is a very hard thing to believe that person to be god incarnate , and the saviour of the world , who suffered on a cross , as a blasphemer and a traytor that usurped the title of a king. answ . the cross of christ hath ever been the stumbling-block of the proud and worldly sort of men . but it is the confidence and consolation of true believers . for . it was not for his own sins but for ours that he suffered : even so was it prophesied of him , isa . . . surely , he hath born our griefs , and carryed our sorrows ; yet did we esteem him stricken of god , and afflicted : but he was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniquities , the chastisement of our peace was upon him , and with his stripes we are healed : all we like sheep have gone astray , we have every one turned to his own way , and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all . and it is impudent ingratitude to make those his sufferings the occasion of our unbelief , which we were the causes of our selves ; and to be ashamed of that cross which we laid upon him by our sins . it is not worth the labour to answer the slanders of his accusers , about his usurpation of a kingdom , when they believed it not themselves : he was above a worldly kingdom . and it could be no blasphemy for him to say that he was the son of god , when he had so fully proved it by his works . . his suffering as a reputed malefactor on a cross , was a principal part of the merit of his patience : for many a man can bear the corporal pain , who cannot so far deny his honour , as to bear the imputation of a crime : for the innocent son of god , that was never convict of sin , to suffer under the name of a blasphemer and a traytor , was greater condescention , than to have suffered under the name of an innocent person . . and in all this it was needfull that the saviour of mankinde , should not only be a sacrifice and ransom for our sinfull souls , but also should heal us of the over-love of life , and honour by his example . had not his self-denyal and patience extended to the loss of all things in this world , both life it self , and the reputation of his righteousness , it had not been a perfect example of self-denyal and patience unto us . and then it had been unmeet for so great a work , as the cure of our pride and love of life . had christ come to deliver the jews from captivity , or to make his followers great on earth , as mahomet did , he would have suited the means to such an end : but when he came to save men from pride , and self-love , and the esteem of this world , and to bring them to patience , and full obedience to the will of god , and to place all their happiness in another life , true reason telleth us that there was no example so fit for this end , as patient submission to the greatest sufferings . the cross of christ then shall be our glory , and not our stumbling-block or shame . let the children of the devil boast , that they are able to do hurt , and to trample upon others : the disciples of christ will rather boast , that they can patiently endure to be abused , as knowing that their pride and love of the world , is the enemy which they are most concern'd in conquering . obj. xiii . it was but a few mean unlearned persons who believed in him at the first : and it is not past a sixth part of the world , that yet believeth in him : and of these , few do it judiciously and from their hearts , but because their kings or parents , or countrey are of that religion . answ . . as to the number i have answered it before . it is no great number comparatively that are kings , or lords , or learned men , and truly judicious and wise : will you therefore set light by any of these ? things excellent are seldom common . the earth hath more stones than gold or pearls . all those believed in christ who heard his word , and saw his works , and had wise , considerate , honest hearts , to receive the sufficient evidence of truth . the greater part are every where ignorant , rash , injudicious , dishonest , and carryed away with prejudice , fancy , custom , error and carnal interest . if all men have means in its own kind sufficient to bring them to believe , to understand so much as god immediately requireth of them , it is their fault who after this are ignorant and unbelieving ; and if it prove their misery , let them thank themselves . but yet christ will not leave the success of his undertaking so far to the will of man , as to be uncertain of his expected fruits : he hath his chosen ones throughout the world , and will bring them effectually to faith and holiness , to grace and glory , though all the powers of hell do rage against it : in them is his delight , and them he will conform to his fathers will , and restore them to his image , and fit them to love and serve him here , and enjoy him for ever : and though they are not the greater number , they shall be the everlasting demonstration of his wisdom , love , and holiness : and when you see all the worlds of more blessed inhabitants , you will see that the damned were the smaller number , and the blessed in all probability many millions to one : if the devil have the greater number in this world , god will have the greater number in the rest . . it was the wise design of jesus christ , that few in comparison should be converted by his personal converse or teaching , and thousands might be suddenly converted upon his ascension , and the coming down of the holy ghost : both because his resurrection and ascension were part of the articles to be believed , and were the chiefest of all his miracles which did convert men : and therefore he would rise from the dead before the multitude should be called : and because the spirit as it was his extraordinary witness and advocate on earth , was to be given by him after he ascended into glory ; and he would have the world see , that the conversion of men to faith and sanctity , was not the effect of any politick confederacy between him and them , but the effect of gods power , light and love : so that it should be a great confirmation to our faith to consider , that those multitudes believed by the wonderfull testimony and work of the holy ghost , upon the disciples , when christ had been crucified in despight , who yet believed not before , but were his crucifiers : it was not so hard nor honourable an act to believe in him ; when he went about working miracles , and seemed in a possibility to restore their temporal kingdom , as to believe in him after he had been crucified among malefactors . he therefore that could after this by the spirit and miracles , bring so many thousands to believe , did shew that he was alive himself and in full power . . and that the apostles were mean unlearned men , is a great confirmation to our faith. for now it is apparent that they had their abilities , wisdom and successes from the spirit and power of god : but if they had been philosophers or cunning men , it might have been more suspected to be a laid contrivance between christ and them . indeed for all his miracles , they began to be in doubt of him themselves , when he was dead and buryed , till they saw him risen again , and had the spirit came upon them , and this last undenyable evidence , and this heavenly insuperable call and conviction was it , which miraculously setled them in the faith. * . and that saviour , who came not to make us worldlings , but to save us from this present evil world , and to cure our esteem and love of worldly things , did think it meetest both to appear in the form of a poor man himself , and to choose disciples of the like condition , and not to choose the worldly wise , and great , and honourable , to be the first attesters of his miracles , or preachers of his gospel . though he had some that were of place and quality in the world , ( as nicodemus , joseph , cornelius , sergius paulus , &c. ) yet his power needed not such instruments : as he would not teach us to magnifie worldly pomp , nor value things by outward appearance , as the deluded dreaming world doth , so he would shew us , that he needeth not kings nor philosophers , by worldly power or wisdom to set up his kingdom . he giveth power , but he receiveth none : he setteth up kings , and by him they reign ; but they set not up him , nor doth he reign by any of them : nor will he be beholden to great men , or learned men for their help , to promote his cause and interest in the world. the largeness of his mercy indeed extendeth to kings , and all in authority , as well as to the poor , and if they will not reject it , nor break his bonds , but kiss the son , before his wrath break forth against them , they may be saved as well as others : ( psal . . , , , . tim. . , . ) but he will not use them in the first setting up of his church in the world , lest men should think , that it was set up by the learning , policy or power of man : cor. . , , , . and . , , , , . & . , &c. and therefore he would not be voted one of the gods by tyberius , or adrians senate , nor accept of the worship of alexander sev●rus , who in his lararium worshipped him as one of his demi-gods ; nor receive any such beggarly deity from man ; but when constantine acknowledged him as god indeed , he accepted his acknowledgement . those unlearned men whom he used were made wiser in an hour by the holy ghost , than all the philosophers in the world : and those mean contemned persons overcame the learning and power of the world , and not by arms as mahomet , but against arms and arguments , wit and rage , by the spirit alone they subdued the greatest powers to their lord. obj. xiv . but it doth sapere scenam , sound like a poetical fiction , that god should satisfie his own justice , and christ should die instead of our being damned , and this to appease the wrath of god , as if god were angry , and delighted in the blood or sufferings of the innocent . answ . ignorance is the great cause of unbelief . this objection cometh from many errours , and false conceits about the things of which it speaketh . . if the word [ satisfaction ] offend you , use only the scripture-words , that christ was a sacrifice , an atonement , a propitiation , a price , &c. and if this be incredible , how came it to pass that sacrificing was the custom of all the world ? doth not this objection as much militate against this ? was god angry ? or was he delighted in the bloud and sufferings of harmless sheep and other cattel ? and must these either satisfie him , or appease his wrath ? what think you should be the cause , that sacrificing was thus commonly used in all ages through all the earth , if it savoured but of poetical fiction ? . god hath no such thing as a passion of anger to be appeased , nor is he at all delighted in the bloud or sufferings of the worst , much less of the innocent , nor doth he sell his mercy for bloud ; nor is his satisfaction any reparation of any loss of his , which he receiveth from another . but , . do you understand what government is ? and what divine government is ? and what is the end of it ? even the pleasing of the will of god in the demonstrations of his own perfections : if you do , you will know , that it was necessary that god's penal laws should not be broken by a rebel world , without being executed on them according to their true intent and meaning , or without such an equivalent demonstration of his justice , as might vindicate the law and law-giver from contempt , and the imputation of ignorance or levity , and might attain the ends of government as much , as if all sinners had suffered themselves : and this is it that we mean by a sacrifice , ransom , or satisfaction . shall god be a governour and have no laws ? or shall he have laws that have no penalties ? or shall he set up a lying scar-crow to frighten sinners by deceit ? and have laws which are never meant for execution ? are any of these becoming god ? or shall he let the devil go for true , who told eve at first , you shall not die ? and let the world sin on with boldness , and laugh at his laws , and say , god did but frighten us with a few words , which he never intended to fulfill ? or should god have damned all the world according to their desert ? if none of all this be credible to you , then certainly nothing should be more credible , than that his wisdom hath found out some way , to exercise pardoning saving mercy , without any injury to his governing justice and truth , and without exposing his laws and himself to the contempt of sinners , or emboldening them in their sins ; even a way which shall vindicate his honour , and attain his ends of government , as well as if we had been all punished with death and hell ; and yet may save us with the great advantage of honour to his mercy ; and in the fullest demonstration of that love and goodness , which may win our love . and where will you find this done but in jesus christ alone ? . you must distinguish between anger and justice : when god is said to be angry , it meaneth no more but that he is displeased with sin and sinners , and executeth his governing-justice on them . . you must distinguish between sufferings in themselves considered , and as in their signification and effects : god loved not any mans pain and suffering and death , as in it self considered , and as evil to us : ( no not of a sacrificed beast ) but he loveth the demonstration of his truth , and justice , and holiness , and the vindication of his laws from the contempt of sinners , and the other good ends attained by this means : and so as a means adapted to such ends he loveth the punishment of sin . object . xv. it is a suspicious sign that he seeketh but to set up his name , and get disciples , that he maketh it so necessary to salvation to believe in him ; and not only to repent and turn to god. answ . he maketh not believing in him necessary , sub ratione finis , as our holiness and love to god is ; but only sub ratione medii , as a means to make us holy , and work us up to the love of god. he proclaimeth himself to be the way , the truth , and the life , by whom it is that we must come to the father ; and that he will save to the uttermost all that come to god by him , heb. . . joh. . . so that he commandeth faith but as the bellows of love , to kindle in us the heavenly flames . and i pray you , how should he do this otherwise ? can we learn of him , if we take him for a deceiver ? will we follow his example , if we believe him not to be our pattern ? will we obey him , if we believe not that he is our lord ? will we be comforted by his gracious promises and covenant , and come to god with ever the more boldness and hope of mercy , if we believe not in his sacrifice and merits ? shall we be comforted at death in hope that he will justifie us , and receive our souls , if we believe not that he liveth , and will judge the world , and is the lord of life and glory ? will you learn of plato or aristotle , if you believe not that they are fit to be your teachers ? or will you take physick of any physician whom you trust not , but take him for a deceiver ? or will you go in the vessel with a pilot , or serve in the army under a captain , whom you cannot trust ? to believe in christ , which is made so necessary to our justification and salvation , is not a dead opinion , nor the joyning with a party that cryeth up his name : but it is to become christians indeed ; that is , to take him unfeignedly for our saviour , and give up our selves to him by resolved consent or covenant , to be saved by him from sin and punishment , and reconciled to god , and brought to perfect holiness and glory . this is true justifying and saving faith . and it is our own necessities that have made this faith so necessary as a means to our own salvation . and shall we make it necessary for our selves , and then quarrel with him for making it necessary in his covenant ? object . xvi . if christ were the son of god , and his apostles inspired by the holy ghost , and the scriptures were god's word , they would excel all other men and writings in all true rational worth and excellency : whereas aristotle excelleth them in logick and philosophy , and cicero and demosthenes in oratory , and seneca in ingenious expressions of morality , &c. * answ . you may as well argue , that aristotle was no wiser than a minstrel , because he could not fiddle so well , nor than a painter , because he could not limn so well ; or than a harlot , because he could not dress himself so neatly . means are to be estimated according to their fitness for their ends . christ himself excelled all mankind , in all true perfections ; and yet it became him not to exercise all mens arts , to shew that he excelleth them . he came not into the world to teach men architecture , navigation , medicine , astronomy , grammar , musick , logick , rhetorick , &c. and therefore shewed not his skill in these . the world had sufficient helps and means for these in nature . it was to save men from sin and hell , and bring them to pardon , holiness and heaven , that christ was incarnate , and that the apostles were inspired , and the scriptures written : and to be fitted to these ends , is the excellency to be expected in them : and in this they excell all persons and writings in the world . as god doth not syllogize or know by our imperfect way of ratiocination , but yet knoweth all things better than syllogizers do ; so christ hath a more high and excellent kind of logick and oratory , and a more apt and spiritual and powerful style , than aristotle , demosthenes , cicero or seneca . he shewed not that skill in methodical healing which hippocrates and galen shewed : but he shewed more and better skill , when he could heal with a word , and raise the dead , and had the power of life and death , so did he bring more convincing evidence than aristotle , and perswaded more powerfully than demosthenes or cicero . and though this kind of formal learning was below him , and below the inspired messengers of his gospel , yet his inferiour servants ( an aquinas , a scotus , an ockam , a scaliger , a ramus , a gassendus ) do match or excel the old philosophers , and abundance of christians equalize or excel a demosthenes or cicero , in the truest oratory . . his mercy had a general design , for the salvation of all sorts and ranks of men , and therefore was not to confine it self to a few trifling pedantick logicians and orators , or those that had learned to speak in their new-made words and phrases : but he must speak in the common dialect of all those whom he would instruct and save . as the statutes of the land , or the books of physick , which are most excellent , are written in a style which is fitted to the subject matter , and to the readers , and not in syllogisms , or terms of logick ; so was it more necessary that it should be with the doctrine of salvation . the poor and unlearned were the greatest number of those that were to be converted and saved by the gospel , and still to use the holy scriptures . . there is greater exactness of true logical method in some parts of the scripture , ( as e. g. in the covenant of faith , the lord's prayer , and the decalogue ) than any is to be found in aristotle or cicero ; though men that understand them not do not observe it . the particular books of scripture were written at several times , and on several occasions , and not as one methodical system , ( though the spirit that indited it , hath made it indeed a methodical system , agreeably to its design : ) but if you saw the doctrines of all this bible uno intuitu , in a perfect scheme , as it is truly intended by the spirit of god ; if you saw all begin the divine unity , and branch out it self into the trinity , and thence into the trinity of relations and correlations , and thence into the multiplied branches of mercy and precepts , and all these accepted and improved in duty and gratitude by man , and returned up in love to the blessed trinity and unity again , and all this in perfect order , proportion and harmony ; you would see the most admirable perfect method that ever was set before you in the world : the resemblance of it is in the circular motion of the humours and spirits in mans body , which are delivered on from vessel to vessel , and perfected in all their motions . i know there are many systems and schemes attempted , which shew not this : but that is because the wisdom of this method is so exceeding great , that it is yet but imperfectly understood : for my own part , i may say as those that have made some progress in anatomy beyond their ancestors , that they have no thought that they have yet discovered all ; but rejoyce in what they have discovered , which shewed them the hopes and possibility of more . so i am far from a perfect comprehension of this wonderful method of divinity ; but i have seen that which truly assureth me , that it excelleth all the art of philosophers and orators , and that it is really a most beautiful frame , and harmonious consort ; and that more is within my prospect than i am yet come to . . moreover it is christ who gave all men all the gifts they have : to logicians , orators , astronomers , grammarians , physicians , and musicians , &c. what ever gifts are suited to mens just ends and callings , he bestoweth on them ; and to his apostles he gave those gifts which were most suitable to their work : i do not undervalue the gifts of nature or art in any ; i make it not , with aristotle , an argument for the contempt of musick , jovem neque canere , neque cytharam pulsare ; but i may say , that as god hath greater excellencies in himself , so hath he greater gifts to give ; and such gifts as were fittest for the confirmation of the truth of the gospel , and first planting of the churches he gave to the apostles : and such as were fit for the edifying of the church he giveth to his ministers ever since . and such as were fit for the improvement of nature , in lower things , he gave the philosophers and artists of the world . object . xvii . the scripture hath many contradictions in it , in points of history , chronology , and other things : therefore it is not the word of god. answ . nothing but ignorance maketh men think so : understand once the true meaning , and allow for the errors of printers , transcribers and translators , and there will no such thing be found . young students , in all sciences , think their books are full of contradictions ; which they can easily reconcile , when they come to understand them . books that have been so oft translated into so many languages , and the originals and translations so oft transcribed , may easily fall into some disagreement between the original and translations ; and the various copies may have divers inconsiderable verbal differences . but all the world must needs confess , that in all these books , there is no contradiction in any point of doctrine , much less in such as our salvation resteth on . there are two opinions among christians about the books of the holy scripture : the one is , that the scriptures are so entirely and perfectly the product of the spirit 's inspiration ; that there is no word in them which is not infallibly true . the other is , that the spirit was promised and given to the apostles , to enable them to preach to the world the true doctrine of the gospel , and to teach men to observe what ever christ commanded ; and truly to deliver the history of his life and sufferings , and resurrection , ( which they have done accordingly . ) but not to make them perfect and indefectible in every word , which they should speak or write , no not about sacred things ; but only in that which they delivered to the church , as necessary to salvation , and as the rule of faith and life : but every chronological and historical narrative , is not the rule of faith or life . i think that the first opinion is right , and that no one errour or contradiction in any matter , can be proved in the scriptures : yet all are agreed in this , that it is so of divine inspiration , as yet in the manner , and method , and style , to partake of the various abilities of the writers , and consequently of their humane imperfections . and that it is a meer mistake , which infidels deceive themselves by , to think that the writings cannot be of divine inspiration , unless the book , in order , and style , and all other excellencies , be as perfect as god himself could make it : though we should grant that it is less logical than aristotle , and less oratorical and grammatical and exact in words , than demosthenes or cicero , it would be no disparagement to the certain truth of all that is in it . it doth not follow that david must be the ablest man for strength , nor that he must use the weapons which in themselves are most excellent , if he be called of god to overcome goliah ; but rather that it may be known that he is called of god , he shall do it with less excellence of strength and weapons , than other men : and so there may be some real weakness ( not culpable ) in the writings of the several prophets and apostles in point of style and method , which shall shew the more that they are sent of god to do great things by little humane excellency of speech , ( and yet that humane excellency be never the more to be disliked , no more than a sword , because david used but a sling and stone . ) if amos have one degree of parts , and jeremiah another , and isaiah another , &c. god doth not equal them all by inspiration , but only cause every man to speak his saving truth in their own language , and dialect , and style . as the body of adam was made of the common earth , though god breathed into him a rational soul , ( and so is the body of every saint , even such as may partake of the infirmities of parents ) so scripture hath its style , and language , and methods so from god , as we have our bodies ; even so that there may be in them the effects of humane imperfection ; and it is not so extraordinarily of god as the truth of the doctrine is : all is so from god , as to be suitable to its proper ends : but the body of scripture is not so extraordinarily from him , as the soul of it is ; as if it were the most excellent and exact in every kind of ornament and perfection . the truth and goodness is the soul of the scripture , together with the power manifested in it : and in these it doth indeed excel . so that variety of gifts in the prophets and apostles , may cause variety of style and other accidental excellencies in the parts of the holy scriptures , and yet all these parts be animated with one soul of power , truth and goodness . but those men who think that these humane imperfections of the writers do extend further , and may appear in some by-passages of chronologies or history , which are no proper part of the rule of faith and life , do not hereby destroy the christian cause . for god might enable his apostles to an infallible recording and preaching of the gospel , even all things necessary to salvation , though he had not made them infallible in every by-passage and circumstance , no more than they were indefectible in life . as for them that say , i can believe no man in any thing , who is mistaken in one thing , ( at least as infallible ) they speak against common sense and reason : for a man may be infallibly acquainted with some things , who is not so in all : an historian may infallibly acquaint me , that there was a fight at lepanto , at edge-hill , at york , at naseby ; or an insurrection and massacre in ireland and paris , &c. who cannot tell me all the circumstances of it : or he may infallibly tell men of the late fire which consumed london , though he cannot tell just whose houses were burnt , and may mistake about the causers of it , and the circumstances . a lawyer may infallibly tell you whether your cause be good or bad , in the main , who yet may misreport some circumstances in the opening of it . a physician , in his historical observations , may partly erre as an historian in some circumstances , & yet be infallible as a physician in some plain cases which belong directly to his art. i do not believe that any man can prove the least error in the holy scripture in any point , according to its true intent and meaning : but if he could , the gospel , as a rule of faith and life , in things necessary to salvation , might be nevertheless proved infallible by all the evidence before given . object . xviii . the physicks in gen : . are contrary to all true philosophy , and suited to the vulgars erroneous conceits . answ . no such matter : there is sounder doctrine of physicks in gen. . than any philosopher hath who contradicteth it . and as long as they are altogether by the ears among themselves , and so little agreed in most of their philosophy , but leave it to this day , either to the scepticks to deride as utterly uncertain , or to any novelist to form anew , into what principles and hypothesis he please ; the judgment of philosophers is of no great value , to prejudice any against the scriptures . the sum of gen. . is but this , [ that god having first made the * intellectual superiour part of the world , and the matter of the elementary world in an unformed mass or chaos , did the first day distinguish or form the active element of fire , and caused it to give light : the second day he separated the attenuated or rarifi'd part of the passive element , which we call the air ; expanding it from the earth upwards , to separate the clouds from the lower waters , and to be the medium of light. ( and whether in different degrees of purity , it fill not all the space between all the globes both fixed and planetary , is a question which we may more probably affirm than deny ; unless there be any waters also upwards by condensation , which we cannot disprove : ) the third day he separated the rest of the passive element , earth and sea , into their proper place and bounds : and also made individual plants , in their specifick forms and virtue of generation , or multiplication of individuals : the fourth day he made the sun , moon and stars , ( either then forming them , or then making them luminaries to the earth , and appointing them their relative office ; but hath not told us of their other uses , which are nothing to us . ) the fifth day he made inferiour sensitives , fishes and birds , the inhabitants of water and air , with the power of generation or multiplication of individuals . the sixth day he made first the terrestrial animals , and then man , with the power also of generation or multiplication . and the seventh day , having taken complacency in all the works of this glorious perfected frame of nature , he appointed to be observ'd by mankind as a day of rest from worldly labours , for the worshipping of him their omnipotent creator , in commemoration of this work . ] this is the sum and sense of the physicks of gen. . and here is no errour in all this , what ever prejudice philosophers may imagine . object . xix . it is a suspicious sign , that believing is commanded us instead of knowing , and that we must take all upon trust without any proof . answ . this is a meer slander . know as much as you are able to know : christ came not to hinder , but to help your knowledge : faith is but a mode , or act of knowing : how will you know matters of history which are past , and matters of the unseen world , but by believing ? if you could have an angel come from heaven to tell you what is there , would you quarrel because you are put upon believing him ? if you can know it without believing and testimony , do : god biddeth you believe nothing but what he giveth you sufficient reason to believe : evidence of credibility in divine faith , is evidence of certainty : believers in scripture usually say , [ we know that thou art the christ , &c. ] you are not forbidden , but encouraged to try the spirits , and not to believe every spirit nor pretended prophet : let this treatise testifie , whether you have not reason and evidence for belief : it is mahomet's doctrine and not christ's , which forbiddeth examination . object . xx. it imposeth upon us an incredible thing , when it perswadeth us , that our undoing , and calamity , and death , are the way to our felicity and our gain ; and that sufferings work together for our good : at least these are hard terms , which we cannot undergoe , nor think it wisdom to lose a certainty for uncertain hopes . answ . suppose but the truth of the gospel proved , yea or but the immortality and retribution for souls hereafter , ( which the light of nature proveth ) and then we may well say , that this objection savoureth more of the beast than of the man : a heathen can answer it though not so well as a christian : seneca and plutarch , antonine , and epictetus have done it in part . and what a dotage is it to call things present , certainties , when they are certainly ready to pass away , and you are uncertain to possess them another hour ? who can be ignorant what haste time maketh , and how like the life of man is to a dream ? what sweetness is now left of all the pleasant cups and morsels , and all the merry hours you have had , and all the proud or lustfull fancies , which have tickled your deluded fleshly mindes ? are they not more terrible than comfortable to your most retired sober thoughts ? and what an inconsiderable moment is it , till it will be so with all the rest ? all that the world can possibly afford you , will not make death the more welcom , nor less terrible to you ; nor abate a jot of the pains of hell. it is as comfortable to die poor as rich , and a life of pain and weakness and persecution , will end as pleasantly as a life of pomp and wealth , and pleasures . if it be no unreasonable motion of a physician to tell you of blood-letting , vomiting , parging and strict dyet , to save your lives , nor any hard dealing in your parents , to set you many years to school , to endure both the labour of learning and the rod ; and after that to set you to a seven years apprentice-ship , and all this for things of a transitory nature ; since god deserveth not to be accused as too severe , if he train you up for heaven , more strictly and in a more suffering way , than the flesh desireth . either you believe that there is a future life of retribution , or you do not : if not , the foregoing evidences must first convince you , before you will be fit to debate the case , whether sufferings are for your hurt or benefit : but if you do believe a life to come , you must needs believe that its concernments weigh down all the matters of fleshly interest in this world , as much as a mountain would weigh down a feather : and then do but further bethink your selves impartially , whether a life of prosperity or of adversity be the liker to tempt you into the love of this world , and to wean away your thoughts and desires from the heavenly felicity ? judge but rightly first of your own interest , and you will be fitter to judge of the doctrine of christ . obj. xxi . christ seemeth to calculate all his precepts to the poorer sort of peoples state , as if he had never hoped that kings and nobles would be christians : if men think as hardly of the rich as he doth , and take them to be so bad , and their salvation so difficult , how will they ever honour their kings and governours ? and if all men must suffer such as abuse and injure them , and must turn the other cheek to him that striketh them , and give him their coat who taketh away their cloak , what use will there be for magistrates and judicatures ? ans . . christ fitteth his precepts to the benefit of all men : but in so doing he must needs tell them of the danger of over-loving this world , as being the most mortal sin which he came to cure : and he must needs tell them what a dangerous temptation a flesh-pleasing prosperous state is to the most , to entice them to this pernicious sin . had he silenced such necessary truths as these , he could not have been their saviour : for how should he save them from sin , if he conceal the evil and the danger of it ? if the corruption of mans nature be so great , that riches and honours , and pleasures are ordinarily made the occasions of mens perdition , must christ be christ and never tell them of it ? and is he to be blamed for telling them the truth ? or they rather who create these difficulties and dangers to themselves ? christ teacheth men to honour a sacred office , such as magistracy is , without honouring vice , or betraying sinners by concealing their temptations . and to holy faithfull rulers he teacheth us , to give a double honour . they that will prove , that most of the great and wealthy shall be saved , must prove first that most of them are godly , and mortified , heavenly persons : and the fit proof of that must be by shewing us the men that are so . . the laws of christ require every soul to be subject to the higher powers , and not resist ; and this not only for fear of their wrath , but for conscience sake ; and to pay honour and custom to all whom it is due to . and what more can be desired for the support of government . . yea , nothing more tendeth to the comfort and quietness of governours , than the obedience of those precepts of patience and peace , which the objection quarrelleth with . if subjects would love each other as themselves , and forgive injuries , and love their enemies , what could be more joyfull to a faithfull governour ? and to the question , what use would there be then of judicatures ? i answer , they would be usefull to good men for their protection against the injuries of the bad ; where we are but defendants ; and also in cases where it is not want of love , but of knowledge , which causeth the controversie , and when no fit arbitration can decide it : and they will be usefull among contentious persons : for all men are not true believers : the most will be ( ordinarily ) the worst : as we will not be fornicators , thieves , perjured , &c. lest you should say , to what purpose is the law against such offenders ? so we will not be revengefull and contentious , lest you should say , to what end are judicatures ? the law is to prevent offences by threatned penalties : and that is the happyest common-wealth , where the law doth most without the judge , and where judicatures have least employment : for there is none to be expected on earth so happy , where meer love ( of virtue and of one another ) will prevent the use both of penal laws and judicatures . . and it is but selfishness , and contentiousness , and private revenge which christ forbiddeth , and not the necessary defence or vindication of any talent which god hath committed to our trust , so it be with the preservation of brotherly love and peace . . and that christ foreknew what princes and states would be converted to the faith , is manifest , . in all his prophets , who have foretold it ( that kings shall be our nursing fathers , &c. ) . in that christ prophesied himself , that when he was lifted up , he would draw all men to him . . by the prophecies of john , who saith , that the kingdoms of the world should become the kingdoms of the lord , and of his christ . obj. xxii . but it is the obscurity of all those phophecies which is one of the difficulties of our faith , and that they are never like to be fulfilled : almost all your expositors differ about the sense of johns revelations : and the calling of the jews , and bringing in all the gentiles to their subjection , seem to be plainly prophesyed of , which are never like to come to passe . answ . . prophecies are seldom a rule of life , but an encouragement to hope , and a confirmation to faith when they are fulfilled : and therefore if the particularities be dark , and understood by few , so the general scope be understood , it should be no matter of offence or wonder . it is doctrine and precept , and promises of salvation , which are the daily food of faith. . if no man can hitherto truly say , that any one promise or prophecie hath failed , why should we think that hereafter they will fail ? what though the things seem improbable to us ? they are never the unliker to be accomplished by god : the conversion of the gentiles , of the roman empire , and so many other nations of the world , was once as improbable as the calling of the jews is : and yet it was done . . and many of those prophecies are hereby fulfilled , it being not a worldly kingdom , as the carnal jews imagined , which the prophets foretold of the messiah , but the spiritual kingdom of a saviour : when the power and glory of the roman empire in its greatest height , did submit and resign it self to christ , with many other kingdoms of the world , there was more of those prophecies then fulfilled , than selfishness will suffer the jews to understand . and the rest shall all be fulfilled in their season . but as in all sciences , it is but a few of the extraordinarily wise , who reach the most subtile and difficult points , so it will be but a very few christians who will understand the most difficult prophecies , till the accomplishment interpret them . obj. xxiii . but the difficulties are as great in the doctrines as in the prophecies : who is able to reconcile gods decrees ; foreknowledge and efficacious special grace , with mans free-will , and the righteousness of gods judgement , and the reasonableness of his precepts , promises and threats ? how gods decrees are all fulfilled , and in him we live , and move , and be , and are not sufficient for a good thought of our selves , but to believe , to will , and to do , is given us , and he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy , and whom he will he hardeneth , and it is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of god that sheweth mercy : and yet that he would not the death of a sinner , but rather that he repent and live , and that he would have all men saved , and come to the knowledge of the truth , and layeth all the blame of their misery on themselves . ans . first , consider these things apart and in themselves , and then comparatively as they respect each other . . is it an incredible thing , that all being should be from the first being ? and all goodness from the infinite , eternal good ? and that nothing should be unknown to the infinite omniscient wisdom ? and that nothing can overcome the power of the omnipotent ? or that he is certainly able to procure the accomplishment of all his own will ? and that none shall disappoint his purposes , nor make him fall short of any of his councils or decrees ? go no further now , and do not by false or uncertain doctrine make difficulties to your selves , which god never made , and then tell me whether any of this be doubtfull ? . on the other side , is it incredible , that man is a rational free agent , and that he is a creature governable by laws , and that god is his ruler , law-giver , and judge ? and that his laws must command and prohibit , and the sanction contain rewards and punishments ? and that men should be judged righteously according to their works ? or that the messengers of christ should intreat and perswade men to obey ? and that they should be moved as men by motives of good or evil to themselves ? is there any thing in this that is incredible or uncertain ? i think there is not . and these difficulties will concern you nevertheless , whether you are christians or not ? they are harder points to philosophers than to us : and they have been their controversies before christ came into the world : they are points that belong to the natural part of theology , and not that which resteth only on supernatural revelation ; and therefore this is nothing against christ . . but yet i will answer your question , who can reconcile these things ? . they can do much to the reconciling of them , who can distinguish a meer volition or purpose or decree , from an efficacious pre-determining influx : . and can distinguish between those effects which need a positive cause and purpose or decree , and those nullities which having no cause but defective , do need no positive purpose or decree . . and can distinguish between the need we have of medicinal grace for holy actions , and the need we have of common help for every action natural and free . . and can distinguish between an absolute volition , and a limited volition in tantum & ad hoc , and no further . . they that can distinguish between mans natural liberty of self-determination , and his civil liberty from restraint of law , and his moral liberty from vicious habits : . they that can well difference mans natural power or faculties , from his moral power of good and holy disposition : . they that know what a free power is , and how far the causer of that power is or is not the cause of the act or its omission . . they that can distinguish between those acts which god doth as our owner or as our free benefactor , and those which he doth as rector : . and between those which he doth as rector by his legislative will , antecedent to mens keeping or breaking of his laws , and by his judicial and executive will , as consequent to these acts of man. . he that can distinguish between gods method in giving both the first call of the gospel , and the first internal grace to receive it , and of his giving the grace of further sanctification , justification , and glory : . and between the manner of his procuring our first faith , and the procuring our following sanctification . . and he that knoweth how easie it is with god to attain what he willeth , without destroying the liberty of our wills : ( as a miller can make the stream of water turn his mill and grinde his corn , without altering any thing in the inclination of the water . ) . and withall how incomprehensible the nature and manner of gods operation is to man ; and how transcendently it is above all physical agency by corporeal contact or motion : i say , he that understandeth and can apply these distinctions , can reconcile the decrees and concourse of god , with his government and mans free-will , as farre as is necessary to the quieting of our understandings . obj. xxiv . but the christian faith doth seem to be but humane and not divine , in that it is to be resolved into the credit of men : even of those men who tell us , that they saw christs miracles , and saw him risen and ascend ; and of those who saw the miracles of the apostles ; and of those who tell us , that the first churches witness that they saw such things . the certainty cannot exceed the weakest of the premises : and this is the argument : [ the doctrine which was attested by miracles is of god : but the christian doctrine was attested by miracles : proved : the spectators averred it to others , who have transmitted the testimony down to us . ] so that you are no surer of the doctrine than of the miracles , and no surer of the miracles than of the humane testimony which hath delivered it to you . ans . if you will be at the labour to read over what i have written before , you shall finde a threefold testimony to christ , besides this of miracles : and you shall finde the apostles testimony of christs miracles and resurrection attested by more than a humane testimony : and you shall finde the miracles of the apostles also to have a fuller attestation : even . besides the most credible humane testimony , . a natural impossibility of deceit and falshood , . and a further attestation of god supernaturally : and you shall finde that the gospel hath its certain evidence , in the sanctifying effect by the co-operation of the holy spirit of christ unto this day . peruse it impartially , and you will finde all this in what is said . what would men rather desire to attest the veracity of a messenger from heaven , than miracles : evident , uncontrolled ; multiplyed miracles ? and must this messenger live in every age , and go into every land , to do these miracles in the presence of every living soul ? if not , how would those that live in another land or age , be brought to the knowledge of them , but by the testimony of those that saw them ? and how would you have such testimonies better confirmed , than by multiplyed miracles , delivered in a way which cannot possibly deceive ? and fully and perpetually attested by the spirit of effectual sanctification on believers ? it is an unreasonable arrogancy to tell our maker , that we will not believe any miracles which he doth , by whomsoever or howsoever witnessed , unless we see them our selves with our own eyes ; and so they be made as common as the shining of the sun ; ( and then we should contemn them as of no validity . ) so much shall here suffice against the objections from the intrinsecal difficulties in the christian faith. many more are answered in my treatise against infidelity published heretofore . chap. xi . the objections from things extrinsecal resolved . obj. i. all men are liars : and history may convey down abundance of vntruths : who liveth with his eyes open among men , that may not perceive him partially men write ? and how falsly through partiality ? and with what brazen-faced impudency the most palpable falshoods in publick matters of fact , are most confidently averred ? and that in the land , the city , the age , the year , of the transaction ? who then can lay his salvation upon the truth of the history of acts and miracles done , one thousand six hundred years ago . answ . the father of lies no doubt can divulge them , as well by pen or press as by the tongue : and it is not an unnecessary caution to readers and hearers too , to take heed what they believe ; especially , . when one sect or party speaks against another ; . or when carnal interest requireth men to say what they do ; . or when falling out provoketh them to asperse any others ; . or when the stream of the popular vogue , or countenance of men in power hath a finger in it ; . or when it is as probably contradicted by as credible men ; . or when the higher powers deterre all from contradicting it , and dissenters have not liberty of speech . but none of these , nor any such , are in our present case : there are lyars in the world ; but shall none therefore be believed ? there is history which is false ; but is none therefore true ? is there not a certainty in that history which telleth us of the norman conquest of this land ? and of the series of kings which have been since then ; and of the statutes which they and their parliaments have made ? yea , of a battail and other transaction , before the incarnation of jesus christ ? doth the falshood of historians make it uncertain whether ever there was a pope at rome , or a king in france , or an inquisition in spain , & c ? but i have proved , that it is more than the bare credit of any tradition or historians in the world , which assure us of the truth both of fact and doctrine , in the christian faith. obj. ii. are not the legends written with as great confidence as the scriptures ? and greater multitudes of miracles there mentioned , and believed by the subjects of the pope ? and yet they are denyed and derided by the protestants ? ans . credible history reporteth many miracles done in the first ages of the christian church , and some since in several ages and places : and the truth of these was the cloak for the legends multiplyed falsities : which were not written by men that wrought miracles themselves to attest them ; nor that proved the verity of their writings as the apostles did : nor were they ever generally received by the christian churches , but were written a while ago , by a few ignorant superstitious friers , in an age of darkness , and in the manner , exposing the stories to laughter and contempt , and are lamented by many of the most learned papists themselves , and not believed by the multitude of the people . and shall no chronicles , no records , no certain history be believed , as long as there are any foolish superstitious lyars left upon the earth ? then lyars will effectually serve the devil indeed , if they can procure men to believe neither humane testimony , nor divine . obj. iii. many fryers and fanaticks , quakers and other enthusiasts have by the power of conceit , been transported into such streins of speech , as in the apostles were accounted fruits of the spirit : yea , to a pretence of prophesie and miracles : and how know we that it was not so with the apostles ? answ . . it is the devils way of opposing christ , to do it by apish imitation : so would the egyptian magicians have discredited the miracles of moses . and christianity consisteth not of any words which another may not speak , or any actions of devotion , or gesture , or formality , which no man else can do . there are no words which seem to signifie a rapture ( which are not miraculous ) but they may be counterfeited : but yet as a statuary or painter may be known from a creator , and a statue from a man , so may the devils imitations and fictions from the evidences of christianity which he would imitate . look through the four parts of the testimony of the spirit , and you may see this to be so . . what antecedent prophesies have foretold us of these mens actions ? . what frame of holy doctrine do they deliver bearing the image of god , besides so much of christs own doctrine as they acknowledge ? and what miracles are with any probability pretended to be done by any of them ( unless you mean any preacher of christianity in confirmation of that common christian faith. ) there are no quakers or other fanaticks among us , that i can hear of , who pretend to miracles : in their first arising , two or three of them were raised to a confidence that they had the apostolical gift of the spirit , and should speak with unlearnt languages , and heal the sick , and raise the dead ; but they failed in the performance , and made themselves the common scorn , by the vanity of their attempts : not one of them that ever spake a word of any language but what he had learnt ; nor one that cured any disease by miracle : one of them at worcester half famished , and then ( as is most probable ) drown'd himself ; and a woman that was their leader undertook to raise him from the dead ; but she spake to him as the priests of baal to their god , that could not hear ; and made but matter of laughter and pity to those that heard of it . there hath not been in england in our dayes , that ever i could hear of , either by jesuit , fryer , quaker , or other fanatick , so much as a handsome cheat , resembling a miracle , which the people might not easily see , to be a transparent foolery . but many wonders i have known done at the earnest prayers of humble christians . so that he who shall compare the fryers and fanaticks with the apostles and other disciples of christ , ( whose miracles were such as afore-described ) will see that the devils apish design , though it may cheat forsaken souls into infidelity , is such as may confirm the faith of sober men . . and what spirit of sanctification doth accompany any of their peculiar doctrines ? if any of them do any good in the world , it is only by the doctrine of christ : but for their own doctrines , what do they but cheat men and draw the simple into sin ? a frier by his own doctrine may draw men to some foppery or ridiculous ceremony , or subjection to that clergy , whose holy diligence consisteth in striving who shall be greatest , and lord it over the inheritance of christ , and rule them by constraint , and not willingly . a quaker by his own doctrine may teach men to cast away their bands , and cuffs , and points , and hat-bands , and to say [ thou ] instead of [ you ] and to put off their hats to no men , and to be the publick and private revilers of the holiest and ablest preachers of the gospel , and the best of the people , and with truculent countenances to rail at god's servants in a horrid abuse of scripture-terms . if this image and work of the devil were indeed the image and work of god , it were some testimony of the verity of their doctrine . and yet even these sects do but like a flash of lightning , appear for a moment , and are suddenly extinct , and some other sect or fraternity succeedeth them . the quakers already recant most of those rigidities , on which at first they laid out their chiefest zeal . if a flash of such lightning , or a squib , or glow-worm , be argument sufficient to prove that there is no other sun , then friers and fanaticks , as oft as they are mad , may warrant you to believe that all men are so too , even christ and his apostles . object . iv. but the power of cheaters , and credulity of the vulgar is almost incredible . the great number of papists who believe their holy cheats , and the greater number of mahometans , who believe in a most sottish ignorant deceiver , do tell us what a folly it is to believe for company . answ . this is sufficiently answered already : no doubt but cheaters may do much with the ignorant and credulous multitude : but doth it follow thence , that there is nothing certain in the world ? none of these were ever so successful in deceiving , as to make men of sound understanding and senses believe , that they saw the lame , and blind , and deaf , and sick , and lunatick , healed , and the dead raised , and that they themselves performed the like , and that they saw and were instructed by one risen from the dead , when there was no such thing ; or that abundance of men did speak in many unlearn'd tongues , and heal the lame , and blind , and sick , and raise the dead ; and this for many years together , in many countries , before many congregations ; and that they procured the same spirit to those that believed them , to do the like ; and that by this means they planted churches of such believers through the world : who is it that hath been such a successful deceiver ? as for the mahometans , they do but believe by education and humane authority , that mahomet was a great prophet , whose sword , and not his miracles , hath made his sect so strong , that they dare not speak against it . those few miracles which he pretendeth to , are ridiculous unproved dreams . and if there be found a people in the world , that by a tyrants power may be so barbarously educated as to believe any foppery , how foolish and vain soever be the report , it doth not follow , that full and unquestionable evidence is not to be believed . object . but what can be imagined by the wit of man more certain than sense ? when it is sound senses , and all the senses , and all mens senses , upon an object suitable and near , with convenient media , &c. and yet in the point of transubstantiation , it is not a few fools , but princes , popes , prelates , pastors , doctors , and the most profound and subtil school-men , with whole kingdoms of people of all sorts , who believe that all these senses are deceived , both other mens and their own . what therefore may not be believed in the world ? answ . and yet a nihil scitur vel certum est , is an inhumane foolish consequence of all this ; nor hath it any force against the certainty of the scripture miracles . for , . all this is not a believing that positively they see , and feel , and taste , and hear , that which indeed they do not : but it is a believing that they do not see , and hear , and feel , and taste , that which indeed they do : they are made believe that there is no bread and wine , when indeed there is . but this is no delusion of the senses , but of the understanding , denying credit to the sense : if you had proved that all these princes , lords , prelates and people , had verily thought that they had seen , and tasted , and felt bread and wine , when it was not so , then you might have carried the cause of unbelief ; but upon no other terms ( which is to be remarked ) than by proving that nothing in all the world is certain or credible . for all the certainty of the intellect is so far founded in the certainty of sense , and resolved into it , in this life , that it cannot possibly go beyond it . if you suppose not all mens sound consenting senses to have as much infallibility , as man is capable of in this life , for the ordinary conduct of his judgment , you must grant that there is no further infallibility to be had by any natural way . for he that is not certain of the infallibility of such consenting senses , is not certain that ever there was a bible , a pope , a priest , a man , a council , a church , a world , or any thing . . and for my part i do not believe , that all these that you mention do really believe , that their senses are deceived : ( though if they did , it s nothing to our case . ) most of them are frightned for carnal preservation into a silencing of their belief : others know not what transubstantiation meaneth . many are cheated by the priests changing the question , and when they are about to consider , whether all our senses be certain that this is bread and wine ? they are made believe that the question is , whether our senses are certain of the negative , that here is not the real body and bloud of christ . and they are taught to believe , that sense is not deceived about the accidents , which they call the species , but about the substance only ; when most of the simple people by the species do understand the bread and wine it self , which they think is to the invisible body of christ , like as our bodies , or the body of a plant , is to the soul . so that although this instance be one of the greatest in the world , of infatuation by humane authority and words , it is nothing against the christian verity . object . v. you are not yet agreed among your selves what christianity is , as to the matter of rule : the papists say , it is all the decrees de fide ( at least ) in all general councils , together with the scriptures canonical and apocriphal : the protestants take up with the canonical scriptures alone , and have not near so much in their faith or religion , as the papists have . answ . what it is to be a christian , all the world may easily perceive , in that solemn sacrament , covenant or vow , in which they are solemnly entred into the church and profession of christianity , and made christians . and the antient creed doth tell the world , what hath always been the faith which was professed . and those sacred scriptures which the churches did receive , doth tell the world what they took for the entire comprehension of their religion . but if any sects have been since tempted to any additions , enlargements , or corruptions , it s nothing to the disparagement of christ , who never promised , that no man should ever abuse his word , and that he would keep all the world from adding or corrupting it . receive but so much as the doctrine of christ , which hath certain proof that it was indeed his , delivered by himself , or his inspired apostles , and we desire no more . object . vi. but you are not agreed of the reasons and resolution of your faith : one resolveth it into the authority of the church , and others into a private spirit , and each one seemeth sufficiently to prove the groundlesness of the others faith . answ . dark minded men do suffer themselves to be fooled with a noise of words not-understood . do you know what is meant by the resolution and grounds of faith ? faith is the believing of a conclusion , which hath two premises to infer and prove it : and there must be more argumentation for the proof of such premises , and faith in its several respects and dependances , may be said to be resolved into more things than one , even into every one of these . this general and ambiguous word [ resolution ] is used oft'ner to puzzle than resolve . and the grounds and reasons of faith are more than one , and what they are i have fully opened to you in this treatise . a great many of dreaming wranglers contend about the logical names of the objectum quod , & quo , & ad quod ; the objectum formale , & materiale , per se , & per accidens , primarium & secundarium ; ratio formalis quae , qua & sub qua ; objectum univocationis , communitatis , perfectionis , originis , virtutis , adaequationis , &c. the motiva fidei , resolutio , and many such words ; which are not wholly useless , but are commonly used but to make a noise to carry men from the sense , and to make men believe that the controversie is de re , which is meerly de nomine . every true christian hath some solid reason for his faith , but every one is not learned and accurate enough to see the true order of its causes and evidences , and to analize it throughly as he ought . and you will take it for no disproof of euclid or aristotle , that all that read them , do not sufficiently understand all their demonstrations , but disagree in many things among themselves . object . vii . you make it a ridiculous idolatry to worship the sun , and jupiter , and venus , and other planets and stars , which in all probability are animate , and have souls as much nobler than ours as their bodies are , ( for it 's like god's works are done in proportion and harmony : ) and so they seem to be to us as subordinate deities : and yet at the same time you will worship your virgin mary , and the very image of christ , yea , the image of the cross which he was hang'd on ; and the salita capita , and rotten bones of your martyrs , to the dishonour of princes , who put them to death as malefactors : is not the sun more worthy of honour than these ? answ . . we ever granted to an eunapius , julian , porphyry or celsus , that the sun , and all the stars and planets , are to be honoured according to their proper excellency and use : that is , to be esteemed as the most glorious of all the visible works of god ; which shew to us his omnipotency , wisdom and goodness , and are used as his instruments to convey to us his chief corporal mercies , and on whom , under god , our bodies are dependant , being incomparably less excellent than theirs . but whether they are animated or no , is to us utterly uncertain : and if we were sure they were , yet we are sure that they are the products of the will of the eternal being : and he that made both them and us , is the governour of them and us : and therefore as long as he hath no way taught us to call them gods , nor to pray to them , nor offer them any sacrifice , as being uncertain whether they understand what we do or say ; nor hath any way revealed that this is his will , nay , and hath expresly forbidden us to do so ; reason forbiddeth us to do any more , than honourably to esteem and praise them as they are , and use them to the ends which our creator hath appointed . . and for the martyrs , and the virgin mary , we do no otherwise by them : we honour them by estimation , love and praise , agreeable to all the worth which god hath bestowed on them : ( and the holiness of humane souls , which is his image , is more intelligible to us , and so more distinctly amiable , than the form of the sun and planets is . ) but we pray not to them , because we know not whether they hear us , or know when we are sincere or hypocritical ; nor have we any such precepts from our common lord. it is but some ignorant mistaken christians who pray to the dead , or give more than due veneration to their memories . and it is christ , and not every ignorant christian , or mistaken sect , that i am justifying against the cavils of unbelief . object . viii . you make the holiness of christian doctrine a great part of the evidence of your faith ; * and yet papists and protestants maintain each others doctrine to be wicked : and such , especially against kings and government , as seneca , or cicero , or plutarch would have abhorred . the protestants tell the papists of the general council at the lateran , sub innoc. . where , can. . it is made a very part of their religion , that temporal lords who exterminate not hereticks , may be admonished and excommunicated , and their dominions given by the pope to others , and subjects disobliged from their allegiance : they tell them of the doctrine of their leading doctors , that kings excommunicate are no kings , but may be killed : and of the many rebellions which the pope hath raised against kings and emperours . and the papists say , that the protestants are worse than they , and that their religion hath every where been introduced by rebellion , or stablished by it : and that the bible ( which is your religion ) hath caused most rebellions , and therefore they dare not let the people read it : and is this your holy doctrine ? answ . . that christianity is incomparably more for government and due subjection , than heathenism , is past all doubt to those that are impartial judges . how few of all the roman heathen emperours was there , that died not by subjects hands ? among the athenians , a king and a tyrant were words too often of the same significant . how hateful the name of a king was among the romans , is well known . how few even of their most renowned orators and philosophers were not put to death , upon accusation of resistance of some prince : ( brutus , cicero , cato , seneca , &c. ) cicero , pro milone , can say , [ non se obstrinxit scelere , siquis tyrannum occidat ; quamvis familiarem ( which brutus practised on caesar ) et tuscul . . nulla nobis cum tyrannis societas est , neque est contra naturam spoliare eum quem honestum est necare . much more such dangerous doctrine hath cicero . seneca traged . hercul . fur . saith , [ victima haud ulla amplior potest , magisque opima mactari jovi , quam rex iniquus — but christianity teacheth us subjection to bad rulers , and not only to the good . the ordinary writings of the athenian and roman learned men are so bitter against kings , and so much for the peoples power , that it is meer impudency for men of their religion to asperse christianity as injurious to kings . how things were used to be carried at rome , you may perceive by these words of lampridius , who wondring that heliogabalus was killed no sooner , but permitted three years , saith , [ mirum fortasse cuipiam videatur , constantine venerabilis , quod haec clades quam retuli loco principum fuerit , & quidem propè triennio , ita ut nemo inventus fuerit qui istum à gubernaculis romanae majestatis abduceret ; cum neroni , vitellio , caligulae , coeterisque hujusmodi nunquam tyrannicida defuerit . hesichius in arcesil . saith , arcesilaus regum neminem magnopere coluit : quamobrem legatione ad antigonum fungens pro patria , nihil obtinuit . and laert. maketh solon resolve not to live in his own country , meerly because there was a tyrant , that is , a king , that had by a faction set up himself , and yet ruled , as he professed , as righteously as a senate . and he saith of thales , that it was one of the rarities which he spake of , rempubl . vidisse tyrannum senem . and of chrysippus , quod videtur aspernator regum , immodice fuisse , &c. we do not deny but there are three sorts of christians that are too much for the resisting and destroying of bad governours , and speak much as these heathens did : the one sort are some over-philosophical learned men , who have more conversed with the antient greeks and romans than with christian writers . such was honest petrarch , who perilously saith , et sane si vel unum patria civem bonum habeat , malum dominum diutius non habebit . the second sort are the faction of the pope , who are led to it by meer interest , their religion and clergy-interest both consist in an universal kingdom or government over kings and all the christian world : it is no wonder therefore to find them industrious to subject all powers to themselves . the third sort are here and there a few enthusiasts , or fanatical deluded persons , who are like the turbulent zealots among the jews , who occasioned the combustions and bloud-shed at jerusalem , about the time of its destruction : who are but the ignoranter sort of christians , misled by pretences of zeal or inspiration , for want of judgment , stayedness and experience . and this is vitium personae , and is no disparagement to christ . as for any doctrines of rebellion or sedition , or deposing and killing excommunicate kings , there is none more condemneth them than christ . it is not every proud or covetous person that maketh the name of christianity or church-government a cloak for his usurpation , ambition or worldliness , that we are pleading for : a roman praefect was wont to say , make me the bishop of rome , and i will be a christian : what if the match had been made , and the pagan had turned christian in profession for that bishoprick ? and had lived like a pagan still , and domineered according to his ambition ? would christianity have been ever the worse for that ? judge of christ by his own book and doctrine , and not by the council of laterane , nor by the books , or doctrine , or practice of any proud and worldly hypocrite , who abuseth his name to sin against him . christ never promised to make such laws , as no man could abuse or break . yet withall let me tell you , that the splene and envy of factious persons , doth usually cause them to belie each other , and make each others doctrine as odious as they can : and if wrangling boys fall out and call one another bastards , it is no good proof that they are so indeed . object . but those of you that do escape the doctrines of disloyalty , are traitors against your countries liberties , and base-spirited men , and flatterers of princes , and defenders of tyranny and oppression , and all to beg their countenance for your religion . the christian spirit is poor and private in comparison of the old greek and roman genius , which would stand up against the proudest tyrant . answ . it seems christianity is hot and cold , as malice fancieth it . indeed the doctrine of it is so much for submission , patience and peace , as giveth more countenance to this accusation than the former , but is guilty of neither of the crimes . it is not flattering hypocrites that i am to defend , let them bear their shame ; but it is the doctrine of christ which is the thing in question . did christ flatter herod , when he said , go tell that fox , behold , i cast out devils & c ? luk. . ▪ did john baptist flatter him , when he lost his liberty and life for reprehending his filthy lust ? did christ flatter the pharisees ? matth. . doth james flatter the rich and great , jam. . , &c. go to now , ye rich men , weep and houl , for the miseries that shall come upon you : your riches are corrupted , and your garments moth-eaten ; your gold and silver is cankered , and the rust of them shall be a witness against you , and shall eat your flesh as it were fire : ye have heaped treasure together for the last days — ye have lived in pleasure on the earth , and been wanton , ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter : ye have condemned and killed the just , and he doth not resist you . and , jam. . . do not rich men oppress you , and draw you before the judgment-seats ? christianity teacheth us to lament the sin of tyranny , the grand crime which keepeth out the gospel from the nations of infidels and pagans through the earth , and eclipseth its glory in the popish principalities : it teacheth us to resist tyrannical usurpers in the defence of our true and lawful kings . but if it teach men patiently to suffer , rather than rebelliously resist , that is not from baseness but true nobleness of spirit , exceeding both the greek and roman genius : in that it proceedeth from a contempt of those inferiour trifles , which they rebell for , and from that satisfaction in the hopes of endless glory , which maketh it easie to them to bear the loss of liberty , life , or any thing on earth ; and from obedience to their highest lord. but in a lawful way they can defend their countries and liberties as gallantly , as ever heathens did . object . ix . if your religion had reason for it , what need it be kept up by cruelty and bloud ? how many thousands and hundred thousands hath sword , and fire , and inquisition devoured , as for the supporting of religion ? and when they are thus compelled , how know you who believeth christianity indeed ? answ . this is none of the way or work of christianity ; but of that sect which is raised by worldly interest and design , and must accordingly be kept up . in christ's own family , two of his disciples would have called for fire from heaven to consume those that rejected him ; but he rebuked them , and told them that they knew not what manner of spirit they were of , and that he came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them : will you now lay the blame of that consuming zeal on christ , which he so rebuketh ? the same two men would have been preferred before the rest , to sit at his right hand and his left hand in his kingdom ; and his disciples strove who should be the greatest : did christ countenance this ? or did he not sharply reprehend them , and tell them that they must not have titles and domination as secular princes have , but be as little children in humility , and their greatness must consist in being greatliest serviceable , even in being servants to all . if men after this will take no warning , but fight , and kill , and burn , and torment men , in carnal zeal , and pride , and tyranny ; shall this be imputed to christ , who in his doctrine and life hath form'd such a testimony against this crime , as never was done by any else in the world , and as is become an offence to unbelievers ? object . x. we see not that the leaders in the christian religion do really themselves believe it : pope leo the tenth called it , fabula de christo : what do men make of it but a trade to live by ? a means to get abbies , and bishopricks , and benefices , and to live at ease and fleshly pleasure : and what do secular rulers make of it , but a means to keep their subjects in awe ? answ . he that knoweth no other christians in the world but such as these , knoweth none at all , and is unfit to judge of those whom he knoweth not . true christians are men , that place all their happiness and hopes in the life to come , and use this life in order to the next , and contemn all the wealth and glory of the world , in comparison of the love of god and their salvation . true pastors and bishops of the church do thirst after the conversion and happiness of sinners , and spend their lives in diligent labours to these ends ; not thinking it too much to stoop to the poorest for their good , nor regarding worldly wealth and glory in comparison of the winning of one soul , nor counting their lives dear , if they may but finish their course and ministery with joy . luk. . act. . heb. . . . &c. they are hypocrites , and not true christians , whom the objection doth describe , by what names or titles soever they be dignified , and are more disowned by christ than by any other in the world . object . xi . christians are divided into so many sects among themselves , and every one condemning others , that we have reason to suspect them all : for how know we which of them to believe or follow ? answ . . christianity is but one , and easily known ; and all christians do indeed hold this as certain , by common agreement and consent , they differ not at all about that which i am pleading for : there may be a difference , whether the pope of rome or the patriarch of constantinople be the greater , or whether one bishop must rule over all , and such like matters of carnal quarrel ; but there is no difference whether christ be the saviour of the world , or whether all his doctrine be infallibly true : and the more they quarrel about their personal interests and by-opinions , the most valid is their testimony in the things wherein they all agree : it is not those things which they differ about , that i am now pleading for , or perswading any to embrace ; but those wherein they all consent . . but if they agree not in all the integrals of their religion , it is no wonder , nor inferreth any more than that they are not all perfect in the knowledge of such high and mysterious things : and when no man understandeth all that is in aristotle , nor no two interpreters of him agree in every exposition , no , nor any two men in all the world agree in every opinion , who hold any thing of their own , what wonder if christians differ in many points of difficulty . . but their differences are nothing in comparison of the heathen philosophers , who were of so many minds and ways , that there was scarce any coherence among them , nor many things which they could ever agree in . . the very differences of abundance of honest christians , is occasioned by their earnest desire to please god , and do nothing but what is just and right , and their high esteem of piety and honesty , while the imperfection of their judgments keepeth them from knowing in all things , what it is which indeed is that good and righteous way which they should take . if children do differ and fall out , if it be but in striving who shall do best , and please their father , it is the more excusable : enemies do not so : ideots fall not out in school-disputes or philosophical controversies : swine will not fall out for gold or jewels , if they be cast before them in the streets : but it 's like that men may . . but the great sidings and factions kept up in the world , and the cruelties exercised thereupon , are from worldly hypocrites , who under the mask of christianity , are playing their own game : and why must christ be answerable for those whom he most abhorreth , and will most terribly condemn ? object . xii . you boast of the holiness of christians , and we see not but they are worse than heathens and mahometans : they are more drunken , and greater deceivers in their dealings , as lustful and unclean , as covetous and carnal , as proud and ambitious , as tyrannical and perfidious , as cruel and contentious : insomuch as among the turkish mahometans , and the indian banians , the wickedness of christians is the grand cause that they abhor christianity , and it keepeth out your religion from most nations of the earth : so that it is a proverb among them , when any is suspected of treachery , what , do you think i am a christian ? and acosta witnesseth the like of the west-indies . answ . . every man knoweth , that the vulgar rabble , who indeed are of no religion , will seem to be of the religion which is most for their worldly advantage , or else which their ancestors and custom have delivered to them : and who can expect that such should live as christians , who are no christians ? you may as well blame men , because images do not labour , and are not learned , wise and virtuous . we never took all for christians indeed , who for carnal interest , or custom , or tradition , take up the bare name , and desire to be called christians : rebels may affect the name of loyal subjects : and thieves and robbers , the name of true and honest men : shall loyalty , truth and honesty therefore be judged of by such as them ? nothing can be more unrighteous , than to judge of christianity by those hypocrites , whom christ hath told us shall be condemned to the sorest punishment , and whom he hateth above all sorts of sinners . what if julian , celsus , porphyry , or any of these objectors , should call themselves christians , and live in drunkenness , cruelty , perjury or deceit , is it any reason that christ should be reproached for their crimes ? christianity is not a dead opinion or name , but an active heavenly principle , renewing and governing heart and life . i have before shewed what christianity is . . in the dominions of the turks and other infidel princes , the christians by oppression are kept without the means of knowledge ; and so their ignorance hath caused them to degenerate , for the greater part , into a sensual sottish sort of people , unlike to christians . and in the dominions of the moscovite , tyranny hath set up a jealousie of the gospel , and suppressed preaching , for fear lest preachers should injure the emperour . and in the west , the usurpation and tyranny of the papacy hath lock'd up the scriptures from that people in an unknown tongue , that they know no more what christ saith , than the priest thinks meet to tell them , lest they should be loosened from their dependance on the roman oracle . and thus ignorance with the most destroyeth christianity , and leaveth men but the shadow , image and name : for belief is an intellectual act , and a sort of knowing , and no man can believe really he knoweth not what . if any disciples in the school of christ have met with such teachers , as think it their vertue and proficiency to be ignorant , call not such christians as know not what christianity is , and judge not of christ's doctrine by them that never read or heard it , or are not able to give you any good account of it . but blessed be the lord , there are many thousand better christians . object . xiii . but it is not the ignorant rabble only , but many of your most zealous professors of christianity , who have been as false , as proud , and turbulent and seditious , as any others . answ . . that the true genuine christian * is not so , you may see past doubt by the doctrine and life of christ and his apostles . and that there are thousands and millions of humble , holy , faithful christians in the world , is a truth which nothing but ignorance or malice can deny . . hypocrites are no true christians , what zeal soever they pretend : there is a zeal for self and interest , which is oft masked with the name of zeal for christ . it is not the seeming , but the real christian , which we have to justifie . . it is commonly a few young unexperienc'd novices , which are tempted into disorders . but christ will bring them to repentance for all , before he will forgive and save them . look into the scripture , and see whether it do not disown and contradict every fault , both great and small , which ever you knew any christian commit ? if it do , ( as visibly it doth ) why must christ be blamed for our faults , when he is condemning them , and reproving us , and curing us of them ? object . xiv . the greater part of the world is against christianity : heathens and infidels are the far greater part of the earth : and the greatest princes and learnedst philosophers have been and are on the other side . answ . . the greater number of the world are not kings nor philosophers , nor wise nor good men : and yet that is no disparagement to kings , or learned , or good men . . the most of the world do not know what christianity is , nor ever heard the reasons of it ; and therefore no wonder if they are not christians . and if the most of the world be ignorant and carnal , and such as have subjected their reason to their lusts , no wonder if they are not wise . . there is no where in the world so much learning as among the christians , experience puts that past dispute with those , that have any true knowledge of the world . mahomitanism cannot endure the light of learning , and therefore doth suppress or sleight it . the old greeks and romans had much learning , which did but prepare for the reception of christianity , at whose service it hath continued ever since . but barbarous ignorance hath over spread almost all the rest of the world : even the learning of the chinenses and the pythagoreans of the east , is but childishness and dotage , in comparison of the learning of the present christians . object . xv. for all that you say , when we hear subtil arguings against christianity , it staggereth us , and we are not able to confute them . answ . that is indeed the common case of tempted men : their own weakness and ignorance is their enemies strength : but your ignorance should be lamented , and not the christian cause accused : it is a dishonour to your selves , but it is none to christ : do your duty , and you may be more capable of discerning the evidence of truth . object . xvi . but the sufferings which attend christianity are so great , that we cannot bear them : in most places it is persecuted by princes and magistrates : and it restraineth us from our pleasures , and putteth us upon an ungrateful troublesome life : and we are not souls that have no bodies , and therefore cannot sleight these things . answ . but you have souls that were made to rule your bodies , and are more worthy and durable than they ; and were your souls such as reason telleth you they should be , no life on earth would be so delectable to you , as that which you account so troublesome . and if you will chuse things perishing for your portion , & be content with the momentary pleasures of a dream , you must patiently undergo the fruits of such a foolish choice . and if eternal glory will not compensate what ever you can lose by the wrath of man , or by the crossing of your fleshly minds , you may let it go , and boast of your better choice as you find cause . how much did the light of nature teach the stoicks , the cynicks , and many other sects , which differeth not much in austerity from christ's precepts of mortification and self-denial ? socrates could say , [ opes ac nobilitates , non solum nihil in se habere honestatis , verum omne malum ex eis aboriri . laert. l. . in socr. p. . dicebat & unicum esse bonum scientiam , malumque unicum , inscitiam . id. ib. et referenti quod illum athenienses mori d●crevissent , & natura illos , inquit . ib. et multa prius de immortalitate animorum ac praeclara disserens , cicutam bibit . p. . magna animi sublimitate carpentes se & objurgantes contemnebat . p. . when he was publickly derided , omnia ferebat aequo animo . and when one kickt him , and the people marvelled at his patience , he said , what if an ass had kickt me , should i have sued him at law ? p. . when he saw in fairs and shops what abundance of things are set to sale , he rejoycingly said , quam multis ipse non egeo ? & cum libere quo vellet abire carcere liceret , noluit , & plorantes severe increpavit , pulcherrimosque sermones illos vinctus prosecutus est . if so many philosophers thought it a shameful note of cowardise , for a man to live and not to kill himself , when he was falling into shame or misery , much greater reason hath a true believer , to be willing to die in a lawful way , for the sake of christ , and the hope of glory , and to be less fearful of death than a brutus , a cato , a seneca , or a socrates , though not to inflict it on themselves . soundly believe the promises of christ , and then you will never much stick at suffering . to lose a feather , and win a crown , is a bargain that very few would grudge at . and profanely with esau to sell the birth-right for a morsel , to part with heaven for the paltry pleasures of flesh and fancy , were below the reason of a man , if sin had not unmann'd him . matth. . , . whosoever will save his life , shall lose it ; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it . for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? virulent eunapius giveth us the witness of natural reason , for a holy mortified life , whilst he maketh it the glory of the philosophers , whom he celebrateth . of antoninus the son of aedesius , he saith , [ totum se dedidit atque applicuit diis loci gentilibus , & sacris mysticis & arcanis ; citoque in deorum immortalium contubernium receptus est ; neglectâ prorsus corporis curâ , ejusque voluptatibus remisso nuntio , & sapientiae studio profano vulgo incognitum amplexus . — cuncti mortales hujusce viri temperantiam , constantiam & inflecti nesciam mentem demirati suere . eunap ▪ in aedes . what a saint doth he make jamblichus to be ? of whom it was feigned , that in his prayers he would be lifted up above ten cubits from the earth , and his garments changed into a golden colour , till he had done ? eun. in jambl. p. . even while he raileth at the alexandrian monks , ut homines quidem specie , sed vitam turpem porcorum more exigentes , &c. p. . ( contrary to the evidence of abundant history ) he beareth witness against a vitious life . and if holiness , and mortification or temperance be so laudable , even in the judgment of the bitterest heathens , why should it be thought intollerable strictness , as it is more clearly and sweetly proposed in the christian verity . and if he say of jamblicus , [ ob justitiae cultum , facilem ad deorum aures accessum habuit ; ] we may boldly say that the righteous god loveth righteousness ; and that the prayers of the upright are his delight ; and that their sufferings shall not always be forgotten ; nor their faithful labours prove in vain . chap. xii . the reasonable conditions required of them , who will overcome the difficulties of believing , and will not undo themselves by wilful infidelity . i have answered the objections against christianity , but have not removed the chiefest impediments : for recipitur ad modum recipientis ; the grand impediments are within , even the incapacity , or indisposition , or frowardness of the persons that should believe . it is not every head and heart that is fit for heavenly truth and work . i will next therefore tell you what conditions reason it self will require of them that would not be deceived : that so you may not lay that blame on christ , if you be infidels , which belongeth only to your selves . cond . . come not , in your studies of these sacred mysteries , with an enmity against the doctrine which you must study ; or at least suspend your enmity , so far as is necessary , to an impartial search and examination . for ill will cannot easily believe well . malice and partiality will blind the strongest wits , and hide the force of the plainest evidence . con. . drown not the love of truth in a vitious fleshly heart and life ; and forfeit not the light of supernatural revelation , by wilful sinning against natural light , and debauching your consciences , by abusing the knowledge which already you have . sensuality and wilful debauchery is the common temptation to infidelity : when men have once so heinously abused god , as that they must needs believe , that if there be a god , he must be a terrour to them ; and if there be a judgment and a life of retribution , it is like to go ill with them , a little thing will perswade such men , that there is no god , nor life to come indeed . when they once hope it is so , and take it for their interest , and a desirable thing , they will easily believe that it is so indeed . and god is just , and beginneth the executions of his justice in this world : and the forsaking of a soul that hateth the light , and wilfully resisteth and abuseth knowledge , is one of his most dreadful judgments . that man who will be a drunkard , a glutton , a whore-monger , a proud ambitious worldling , in despight of the common light of nature , can hardly expect that god should give him the light of grace . despighting truth , and enslaving reason , and turning a man into a beast , is not the way to heavenly illumination . cond . . be not ignorant of the common natural truths , ( which are recited in the first part of this book ) for supernatural revelation presupposeth natural ; and grace , which maketh us saints , supposeth that reason hath constituted us men : and all true knowledge is methodically attained . it is a great wrong to the christian cause , that too many preachers of it have missed the true method , and still begun at supernatural revelations , and built even natural certainties thereupon ; and have either not known , or concealed much of the fore-written natural verities . and it is an exceeding great cause of the multiplying of infidels , that most men are dull or idle drones , and unacquainted with the common natural truths , which must give light to christianity , and prepare men to receive it . and they think to know what is in heaven before they will learn what they are themselves , and what it is to be a man. cond . . get a true anatomy , analysis , or description of christianity in your minds : for if you know not the true nature of it first , you will be lamentably disadvantaged in enquiring into the truth of it . for christianity well understood in the quiddity , will illustrate the mind with such a winning beauty , as will make us meet its evidence half-way , and will do much to convince us by its proper light . cond . . when you have got the true method of the christian doctrine , or analysis of faith , begin at the essentials or primitive truths , and proceed in order , according to the dependencies of truths ; and do not begin at the latter end , nor study the conclusion before the premises . cond . . yet look on the whole scheme or frame of causes and evidences , and take them entirely and conjunct ; and not as peevish factious men , who in splenish zeal against another sect , reject and vilifie the evidence which they plead . this is the devils gain , by the raising of sects and contentions in the church : he will engage a papist for the meer interest of his sect , to speak lightly of the scripture and the spirit ; and many protestants in meer opposition to the papists , to sleight tradition , and the testimony of the church , denying it its proper authority and use . as if in the setting of a watch or clock , one would be for one wheel , and another for another , and each in peevishness cast away that which another would make use of , when it will never go true without them all . faction and contentions are deadly enemies to truth . cond . . mark well the suitableness of the remedy to the disease ; that is , of christianity to the depraved state of man : and mark well the lamentable effects of that universal depravation , that your experience may tell you how unquestionable it is . cond . . mark well how connaturally christianity doth relish with holy souls ; and how well it suiteth with honest principles and hearts ; so that the better any man is , the better it pleaseth him . and how potently all debauchery , villany and vice befriendeth the cause of atheists and unbelievers . cond . . take a considerate just survey of the common enmity against christianity and holiness , in all the wicked of the world ; and the notorious war which is every where managed between christ and the devil , and their several followers , that you may know christ partly by his enemies . cond . . impartially mark the effects of christian doctrine , where ever it is sincerely entertain'd , and see what religion maketh the best men : and judge not of serious christians at a distance , by false reports of ignorant or malicious adversaries : and then you will see that christ is actually the saviour of souls . cond . . be not liars your selves , lest it dispose you to think all others to be liars , and to judge of the words of others by your own . cond . . * be-think you truly what persons you should be your selves , and what lives you should live , if you did not believe the christian doctrine : or if you doe not believe it , mark what effect your unbelief hath on your lives . for my own part , i am assured , if it were not for the christian doctrine , my heart and life would be much worse than it is ; though i had read epictetus , arrian , plato , plotinus , jamblichus , proclus , seneca , cicero , plutarch , every word : and those few of my neighbourhood , who have fallen off to infidelity , have at once fallen to debauchery , and abuse of their nearest relations , and differed as much in their lives from what they were before in their profession of christianity , ( though unsound ) as a leprous body differeth from one in comeliness and health . cond . . be well acquainted ( if possible ) with church-history , that you may understand by what tradition christianity hath descended to us . for he that knoweth nothing but what he hath seen , or receiveth a bible , or the creed , without knowing any further whence and which way it cometh to us , is greatly disadvantaged as to the reception of the faith . cond . . in all your reading of the holy scriptures , allow still for your ignorance in the languages , proverbs , customs , and circumstances , which are needful to the understanding of particular texts : and when difficulties stop you , be sure that no such ignorance remain the cause . he that will but read brugensis , grotius , hammond , and many other that open such phrases and circumstances , with topographers , and bochartus , and such others as write of the animals , utensils , and other circumstances of those times , will see what gross errors the opening of some one word or phrase may deliver the reader from . cond . . vnderstand what excellencies and perfections they be which the spirit of god intended to adorn the holy scriptures with , and also what sort of humane imperfections are consistent with these its proper perfections : that so false expectations may not tempt you into unbelief . it seduceth many to infidelity to imagine , that if scripture be the word of god , it must needs be most perfect in every accident and mode ; which were never intended to be part of its perfection . whereas god did purposely make use of those men , and of that style and manner of expression , which was defective in some points of natural excellency , that so the supernatural excellency might be the more apparent . as christ cured the blind with clay and spittle , and david slew goliah with a sling . the excellency of the means must be estimated by its aptitude to its end . cond . . if you see the evidences of the truth of christianity in the whole , let that suffice you for the belief of the several parts , when you see not the true answer to particular exceptions . if you see it soundly proved , that christ is the messenger of the father , and that his word is true , and that the holy scripture is his word ; this is enough to quiet any sober mind , when it cannot confute every particular objection : or else no man should ever hold fast any thing in the world ; if he must let all go after the fullest proof , upon every exception which he cannot answer . the inference is sure . if the whole be true , the parts are true . cond . . observe well the many effects of angels ministration , and the evidences of a communion between us and the spirits of the unseen world : for this will much facilitate your belief . cond . . over-look not the plain evidences of the apparitions , witches , and wonderful events which fall out in the times and places where you live : and what reflections they have upon the christian cause . cond . . observe well the notable answers of prayers , in matters internal and external , in others and in your selves . cond . . be well studied at home , about the capacity , use and tendency of all your faculties ; and you will find that your very nature pointeth you up to another life , and is made only to be happy in that knowledge , love and fruition of god , which the gospel most effectually leads you to . cond . . mark well the prophesies of christ himself , both of the destruction of jerusalem , and the successes of his apostles in the world , &c. and mark how exactly they are all fulfilled . cond . . let no pretence of humility tempt you to debase humane nature below its proper excellency ; lest thence you be tempted to think it uncapable of the everlasting sight and fruition of god. the devils way of destroying is oftentimes by over-doing . the proud devil will help you to be very humble , and help you to deny the excellency of reason and natural free-will , and all supernatural inclinations , when he can make use of it to perswade you , that man is but a subtil sort of bruit , and hath a soul but gradually different from sensitives , and so is not made for another life . cond . . yet come to christ as humble learners , and not as arrogant self-conceited censurers : and think not that you are capable of understanding every thing as soon as you hear it . cond . . judge not of the main cause of christianity , or of particular texts or points , by sudden hasty thoughts and glances ; as if it were a business to be cursorily done : but allow it your most deliberate sober studies , your most diligent labour , and such time and patience , as reason may tell you are necessary to a learner in so great a cause . cond . . call not so great a matter to the trial in a case of melancholy and natural incapacity ; but stay till you are fitter to perform the search . it is one of the common cheats of satan , to perswade poor weak , and melancholy persons , that have but half the use of their understandings , to go then to try the christian religion , when they can scarce cast up an intricate account , nor are fit to judge of any great and difficult thing . and then he hath an advantage to confound them , and fill them with blasphemous and unbelieving thoughts ; and if not to shake their habitual faith , yet greatly to perplex them , and disturb their peace . the soundest wit and most composed , is fittest for so great a task . cond . . when upon sober trial you have discerned the evidences of the christian verity , record what you have found true : and judge not the next time against those evidences , till you have equal opportunity for a full consideration of them . in this case the tempter much abuseth many injudicious souls : when by good advice and soberest meditation , they have seen the evidence of truth in satisfying clearness , he will after surprise them , when their minds are darker , or their thoughts more scattered , or the former evidence is out of mind , and push them on suddenly then to judge of the matters of immortality , and of the christian cause , that what he cannot get by truth of argument , he may get by the incapacity of the disputant : as if a man that once saw a mountain some miles distant from him , in a clear day , should be tempted to believe that he was deceived , because he seeth it not in a misty day , or when he is in a valley , or within the house : or as if a man that in many days hard study , hath cast up an intricate large account , and set it right under his hand , should be called suddenly to give up the same account anew , without looking on that which he before cast up ; when as if his first account be lost , he must have equal time , and helps , and fitness , before he can set it as right again . take it not therefore as any disparagement to the christian truth , if you cannot on a sudden give your selves so satisfactory an account of it , as formerly in more clearness , and by greater studies you have done . cond . . gratifie not satan so much , as to question well resolved points , as oft as he will move you to it . though you must prove all things , till , as learning , you come to understand them in their proper evidence , time and order ; yet you must record and hold fast that which you have proved , and not suffer the devil to put you to the answer of one and the same question over and over , as often as he please : this is to give him our time , and to admit him to debate his cause with us by temptation , as frequently as he will : which you would not allow to a ruffian to the debauching of your wife or servants : and you provoke god to give you up to errour , when no resolution will serve your turn . after just resolution , the tempter is to be rejected and not disputed with ; as a troublesome fellow that would interrupt us in our work . cond . . where you find your own understandings insufficient , have recourse for help to some truly wise judicious divine . not to every weak christian , nor unskilful minister , who is not well grounded in his own religion : but to those that have throughly studied it themselves : you may meet with many difficulties in theology , and in the text , which you think can never be well solved , which are nothing to them that understand the thing . no novice in the study of logick , astronomy , geometry , or any art or science , will think that every difficulty that he meeteth with , doth prove that his author was deceived , unless he be able to resolve it of himself : but he will ask his tutor , or some one versed in those matters to resolve it : and then he will see that his ignorance was the cause of all his doubts . cond . . labour faithfully to receive all holy truths with a practical intent , and to work them on your hearts according to their nature , weight and use . for the doctrine of christianity is scientia affectiva practica ; a doctrine for head , heart and life . and if that which is made for the heart , be not admitted to the heart , and rooted there , it is half rejected while it seemeth received , and is not in its proper place and soil . if you are yet in doubt of any of the supernatural verities , admit those truths to your hearts which you are convinced of : else you are false to them and to your selves , and forfeit all further helps of grace . object . this is but a trick of deceit to engage the affections , when you want arguments to convince the judgment : perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum . answ . when the affection is inordinate , and over-runs the judgment , this saying hath some truth ; but it is most false as of ordinate affections which follow sound judgment . for by suscitation of the faculties , such affections greatly help the judgment : and judgment is but the eye of the soul to guide the man , and it is but the passage to the will , where humane acts are more compleat . if your wife be taught that conjugal love is due to her husband ; and your child , that filial love and reverence is due to his father ; such affections will not blind their judgments ; but contrarily they do not sincerely receive these precepts , if they let them not into the heart , and answer them not with these affections . and here is the great difference between the faith of an honest sanctified plowman , and of a carnal unsanctified lord or doctor : the one openeth his heart to the doctrine which he receiveth , and faithfully admitteth it to its proper work , and so embraceth it practically , and in love ; and therefore holdeth it fast as a radicated experienced truth , when he cannot answer all cavils that are brought against it . the other superficially receiveth it into the brain , by meer speculation ; and treacherously shuts up his heart against it , and never gave it real rooting ; and therefore in the time of trial loseth that unsound superficial belief which he hath . god blesseth his word to the heart that honestly and practically receiveth it , rather than to him that imprisoneth it in unrighteousness . cond . . lastly , if yet any doubts remain , bethink you which is the surest side , which you may follow with least danger , and where you are certain to undergo the smallest l●ss . it is pity that any should hesitate in a matter of such evidence and weight , and should think with any doubtfulness , of christianity as an uncertain thing : but yet true believers may have cause to say , lord , help our unbelief , and encrease our faith . and all doubting will not prove the unsoundness of belief . the true mark to know when faith is true and saving , notwithstanding all such doubtings , is the measure of its prevalency with our hearts and lives : that belief in christ and the life to come is true and saving , notwithstanding all doubtings , which habitually possesseth us with the love of god above all , and resolveth the will to prefer the pleasing of him , and the hopes of heaven , before all the treasures and pleasures of this world , and causeth us in our endeavours to live accordingly . and that faith is unsound which will not do this , how well soever it may be defended by dispute . therefore at least , for the resolving of your wills for choice and practice , if you must doubt , yet consider which is the safest side . if christ be the saviour of the world , he will bring believers to grace and glory : and you are sure there is nothing but * transitory trifles which you can possibly lose by such a choice . for certainly his precepts are holy and safe , and no man can imagine rationally that they can endanger the soul . but if you reject him by infidelity , you are lost for ever : for there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin , but a fearful looking for of judgment , and fire , which shall devour his adversaries for ever . there is no other saviour for him , who finally refuseth the only saviour . and if you doubted whether faith might not prove an error , you could never see any cause to fear , that it should prove a hinderance to your salvation : for salvation it self is an unknown thing to most that do not believe in christ : and no man can well think , that a man who is led by an age of such miracles , so credibly reported to us , to believe in one that leadeth up souls to the love of god , and a holy and heavenly mind and life , can ever perish for being so led to such a guide , and then led by him in so good a way , and to so good an end . and thus , reader , i have faithfully told thee , what reasonings my own soul hath had about its way to everlasting life , and what enquiries it hath made into the truth of the christian faith : i have gone to my own heart for those reasons , which have satisfied my self , and not to my books , ( from which i have been many years separated ) for such as satisfie other men , and not my self : i have told thee what i believe , and why . yet other mens reasonings perhaps may give more light to others , though these are they that have prevailed most with me . therefore i desire the reader , that would have more said , to peruse especially these excellent books : camero's praelectiones de ver●o dei , with the theses salmurienses and sedanenses on that subject : grotius de veritate religionis christianae : marsilius ficinus de relig. christ . cum notis lud. crocii : lodovicus vives de verit. fid. christ . phil. morney du plessis de verit. fid. christ . john goodwin of the authority of the scriptures : campanella's savonarola's triumphus crucis , ( both excellent books , excepting the errors of their times ) raymundus de sabundis his theologia naturalis : micrelli ethnophronius ( an excellent book ) raymundus lullius articul . fid. alexander gill ( out of him ) on the creed : mr. stillingfleet's origines sacrae ( a late and very worthy labour ) dr. jackson on the creed : mr. vincent hatecliffe's aut deus aut nihil ( for the first part of religion : ) passing by lessius , parsons , and abundance more ; and common place-books , which many of them treat very well on this subject . and of the ancients , augustine de civitate dei , & eusebii preparatio & demonstratio evangelica , are the fullest ; and almost all of them have somewhat to this use , as justin , m. athenagoras , tatianus , tertullian , clemens alexand. origen against celsus , &c. cyprian , lactantius , athanasius , basile gr. nazianzene , nyssen , &c. for my own part , i humbly thank the heavenly majesty , for the advantages which my education gave me , for the timely reception of the christian faith : but temptations and difficulties have so often called me to clear my grounds , and try the evidences of that religion , which i had first received upon the commendation of my parents , that i have long thought no subject more worthy of my most serious faithful search ; and have wondred at the great number of christians , who could spend their lives in studying the superstructures , and wrangling about many small uncertainties , to the great disturbance of the church's peace , and found no more need to be confirmed in the faith . in this enquiry , i have most clearly to my full satisfaction discerned , all those natural evidences for godliness or holiness which i have laid down in the first part of this book . and i have discerned the congruous superstruction and connection of the christian religion thereunto : i have found by unquestionable experience the sinful and depraved state of man : and i have discerned the admirable suitableness of the remedy to the malady : i have also discerned the attestation of god , in the grand evidence , the holy spirit , the advocate or agent of jesus christ : viz. . the antecedent evidence in the spirit of prophecie , leading unto christ . . the inherent constituent evidence of the gospel , and of christ , the image of god , in the power , wisdom and goodness , both of christ and of his doctrine . . the concomitant evidence of miracles , in the life , resurrection , and prophecies of christ , and in the abundant miracles of the apostles and other his disciples through the world . . the subsequent evidence , in the successes of the gospel , to the true sanctification of millions of souls , by the powerful efficacy of divine co-operation . i have spent most of my life in converse with such truly sanctified persons , and in preaching this gospel ( through the great mercy of god ) with such success upon no small numbers : so that i am certain by full experience of the reality of that holy change , which cannot be done but with the co-operation of god. i have seen that this change is another matter than fancy , opinion , or factious conjunction with a sect ; [ even the setting up god in the soul as god , as our owner , ruler , and chief good , and the devoting of the soul to him in resignation , obedience and thankful love ; the seeking of an everlasting felicity in his glorious sight and love in heaven ; the contempt of this world , as it pleaseth the flesh , and the holy use of it , as the way to our felicity and pleasing god ; the subduing and denying all carnal desires , which would rebel against god and reason , and restoring reason to the government of the lower faculties : the denying of that inordinate selfishness , which setteth up our interest against our neighbours ; and the respecting and loving our neighbours as our selves ; and doing to others as we would be done by ; and doing good to all men as far as we have power : the holy governing of our inferiours , and obeying our superiours in order to these ends : living soberly , righteously and godly in this world ; and in the patient bearing of all afflictions , and diligent serving god in our several places , to redeem our time , and prepare for death , and wait with longing for the everlasting glory , the hope of which is caused in us by faith in christ , our ransome , reconciler , example , teacher , governour and judge . ] this is the true nature of the religion expressed in the gospel , and impressed on the souls of sanctified men . by this effect , i know that christ is the saviour of the world , and no deceiver , as i know a man to be a true physician and no deceiver , when i see him ordinarily and throughly perform the cures which he undertaketh . he saveth us actually from the power of our sins , and bringeth up our hearts to god , and therefore we may boldly say , he is our saviour : this witness through his mercy i have in my self , and is alway with me , and in those whom i converse with round about me . i have also upon just enquiry found , that the witnesses of christ's resurrection and miracles have delivered us their testimony with a three-fold evidence : . the evidence of just credibility to a humane belief . . the evidence of natural certainty in the natural impossibilities of deceit . . the evidence of supernatural divine attestation , in , . the image of god on their hearts and doctrine : . their miracles : and , . their sanctifying success . and i have found that the witnesses of the miracles of the apostles themselves , have also given us the same three degrees of proof of the verity of their testimony ; though miracles continue not now as then . and i have look'd round about me in the world , as diligently and impartially as i could , to see whether christ , and the way which he hath prescribed us , have any competitor which may make it difficult , to resolve which to prefer and follow . and as i have found that none but god alone hath absolute dominion and sovereignty over us , and is our chief benefactor , nor fit to be our felicity and ultimate end ; so i have found , that there is no one so fit to be taken for our mediator and the way to god , as jesus christ : none else that hath a natural aptitude , none else among men that is perfect without sin , that hath conquered satan , the world and death ; that is a messenger from heaven so infallible and sure ; whose doctrine and life is suited to our case : none else that is become a sacrifice for our sins , and hath risen from the dead , and ascended into glory , and doth govern and preserve us , and will judge the world , and hath power to give the holy ghost , both for gifts and graces , nor that actually giveth it to the sanctifying of all his sincere followers ; none else that hath such a church and kingdom , contemning the world , and contemned by the world , and so truly fitted to the pleasing of god , and the future fruition of him in glory . i see that judaism is but the porch of christianity ; and if christ had not confirmed the verity of the old testament to me , i should have found the difficulty of believing it much greater . and as for mahometanism , besides the common truths which it retaineth , ( of the unity of the godhead , the verity of christ , and the life to come , &c. ) there is nothing else which at all inviteth my understanding . and as for heathenism , the case that it hath brought the miserable world into , is much to be pitied and deplored : much precious truth is revealed to us by nature ; but experience telleth us of the need of more : and christianity hath all which nature teacheth , with a great deal more . so that christianity hath no considerable competitor . and as for worldly wealth and honour , superiority and command of others , the favour , applause and praise of great ones , or of the multitude , voluptuousness , and fleshly delights , &c. ease , long life , or any accommodations of the flesh , yea , learning it self , as it is but the pleasing of the fancy in the knowledge of unnecessary things ; all these i have perused , and found them to be deceit and trouble : a glimpse of heaven , a taste of the love of god in christ , yea , a fervent desire after god , yea , a penitent tear , is better than them all , and yieldeth a delight which leaveth a better taste behind it , and which my reason more approveth in the review : and the vanity of all inferiour pleasures appeareth to me in the common effects : they distract and corrupt the minds of those that have the greatest measure of them , and make them the calamity of their times , the furious afflicters of the upright , and the pity of all sober standers-by , who see them turn the world into a bedlam : and how all their honour , wealth and sport will leave them at a dying hour , and with what dejected minds unwelcome death will be entertain'd by them , and with what sad reviews they will look back upon all their lives , and in what sordid dust and darkness they must leave the rotting flesh , when their souls are gone to receive their doom , before the judge of all the world . all these are things which were past all doubt with me , since i had any solid use of reason , and things which are still before my eyes . wherefore , my god , i look to thee , i come to thee , to thee alone ! no man , no worldly creature made me ; none of them did redeem me ; none of them did renew my soul , none of them will justifie me at thy bar , nor forgive my sin , nor save me from thy penal justice : none of them will be a full or a perpetual felicity or portion for my soul . i am not a stranger to their promises and performances : i have trusted them too far , and followed them too long ! o that it had been less , ( though i must thankfully acknowledge , that mercy did early shew me their deceit , and turn my enquiring thoughts to thee : ) to thee i resign my self , for i am thine own ! to thee i subject all the powers of my soul and body , for thou art my rightful sovereign governour : from thee i thankfully accept of all the benefits and comforts of my life : in thee i expect my true felicity and content : to know thee , and love thee , and delight in thee , must be my blessedness , or i must have none . the little tastes of this sweetness which my thirsty soul hath had , do tell me that there is no other real joy . i feel that thou hast made my mind to know thee , and i feel thou hast made my heart to love thee , my tongue to praise thee , and all that i am and have to serve thee ! and even in the panting languishing desires and motions of my soul , i find that thou , and only thou , art its resting place : and though love do now but search , and pray , and cry , and weep , and is reaching upward , but cannot reach , the glorious light , the blessed knowledge , the perfect love , for which it longeth ; yet by its eye , its aim , its motions , its moans , its groans , i know its meaning , where it would be , and i know its end . my displaced soul will never be well , till it come near to thee , till it know thee better , till it love thee more . it loves it self , and justifyeth that self love , when it can love thee : it loaths it self , and is weary of it self as a lifeless burden , when it feels no pantings after thee . wert thou to be found in the most solitary desart , it would seek thee ; or in the uttermost parts of the earth , it would make after thee : thy presence makes a croud , a church : thy converse maketh a closet , or solitary wood or field , to be kin to the angelical chore. the creature were dead , if thou wert not its life ; and ugly , if thou wert not its beauty ; and insignificant , if thou wert not its sense . the soul is deformed , which is without thine image ; and lifeless , which liveth not in love to thee , if love be not its pulse , and prayer , and praise , its constant breath : the mind is unlearned which readeth not thy name on all the world , and seeth not holiness to the lord engraven upon the face of every creature . he doteth that doubteth of thy being or perfections , and he dreameth who doth not live to thee . o let me have no other portion ! no reason , no love , no life , but what is devoted to thee , employed on thee , and for thee here , and shall be perfected in thee , the only perfect final object , for evermore . upon the holy altar erected by thy son , and by his hands , and his mediation , i humbly devote and offer thee this heart : o that i could say with greater feeling , this flaming , loving , longing , heart ! but the sacred fire which must kindle on my sacrifice , must come from thee ; it will not else ascend unto thee : let it consume this dross , so the nobler part may know its home . all that i can say to commend it to thine acceptance , is , that i hope it 's wash'd in precious bloud , and that there is something in it that is thine own ; it still looketh towards thee , and groaneth to thee , and followeth after thee , and will be content with gold , and mirth , and honour , and such inferiour fooleries no more : it lieth at thy doors , and will be entertain'd or perish . though alass , it loves thee not as it would , i boldly say , it longs to love thee , it loves to love thee ; it seeks , it craves no greater blessedness than perfect endless mutual love : it is vowed to thee , even to thee alone ; and will never take up with shadows more , but is resolved to lie down in sorrow and despair , if thou wilt not be its rest and joy . it hateth it self for loving thee no more ; accounting no want , deformity , shame or pain so great and grievous a calamity . for thee the glorious blessed god , it is that i come to jesus christ . if he did not reconcile my guilty soul to thee ; and did not teach it the heavenly art and work of love , by the sweet communications of thy love , he could be no saviour for me . thou art my only ultimate end ; it is only a guide and way to thee that my anxious soul hath so much studied : and none can teach me rightly to know thee , and to love thee , and to live to thee , but thy self : it must be a teacher sent from thee , that must conduct me to thee . i have long looked round about me in the world , to see if there were a more lucid region , from whence thy will and glory might be better seen , than that in which my lot is fallen : but no traveller that i can speak with , no book which i have turn'd over , no creature which i can see , doth tell me more than jesus christ . i can find no way so suitable to my soul , no medicine so fitted to my misery , no bellows so fit to kindle love , as faith in christ , the glass and messenger of thy love . i see no doctrine so divine and heavenly , as bearing the image and superscription of god ; nor any so fully confirmed and delivered by the attestation of thy own omnipotency ; nor any which so purely pleads thy cause , and calls the soul from self and vanity , and condemns its sin and purifieth it , and leadeth it directly unto thee ; and though my former ignorance disabled me to look back to the ages past , and to see the methods of thy providence , and when i look into thy word , disabled me from seeing the beauteous methods of thy truth ; thou hast given me a glimpse of clearer light , which hath discovered the reasons and methods of grace , which i then discerned not : and in the midst of my most hideous temptations and perplexed thoughts , thou kepst alive the root of faith , and kepst alive the love to thee and unto holiness which it had kindled . thou hast mercifully given me the witness in my self ; not an unreasonable perswasion in my mind , but that renewed nature , those holy and heavenly desires and delights , which sure can come from none but thee . and o how much more have i perceived in many of thy servants , than in my self ! thou hast cast my lot among the souls whom christ hath healed , i have daily conversed with those whom he hath raised from the dead . i have seen the power of thy gospel upon sinners : all the love that ever i perceived kindled towards thee , and all the true obedience that ever i saw performed to thee , hath been effected by the word of jesus christ : how oft hath his spirit helped me to pray ! and how often hast thou heard those prayers ! what pledges hast thou given to my staggering faith , in the words which prayer hath procured , both for my self and many others ? and if confidence in christ be yet deceit , must i not say that thou hast deceived me ? who i know canst neither be deceived , or by any falshood or seduction deceive . on thee therefore , o my dear redeemer , do i cast and trust this sinful soul ! with thee and with thy holy spirit i renew my covenant ; i know no other ; i have no other ; i can have no other saviour but thy self : to thee i deliver up this soul which thou hast redeemed , not to be advanced to the wealth , and honours , and pleasures of this world ; but to be delivered from them , and to be healed of sin , and brought to god ; and to be saved from this present evil world , which is the portion of the ungodly and unbelievers : to be washed in thy bloud , and illuminated , quickned , and confirmed by thy spirit ; and conducted in the ways of holiness and love : and at last to be presented justified and spotless to the father of spirits , and possessed of the glory which thou hast promised . o thou that hast prepared so dear a medicine for the clensing of polluted guilty souls , leave not this unworthy soul in its guilt , or in its pollution ! o thou that knowest the father , and his will , and art nearest to him , and most beloved of him , cause me in my degree to know the father ; acquaint me with so much of his will , as concerneth my duty , or my just encouragement : leave not my soul to groap in darkness , seeing thou art the sun and lord of light. o heal my estranged thoughts of god! is he my light , and life , and all my hope ? and must i dwell with him for ever ? and yet shall i know him no better than thus ? shall i learn no more that have such a teacher ? and shall i get no nearer him , while i have a saviour and a head so near ? o give my faith a clearer prospect into that better world ! and let me not be so much unacquainted with the place in which i must abide for ever ! and as thou hast prepared a heaven for holy souls , prepare this too-unprepared soul for heaven , which hath not long to stay on earth . and when at death i resign it into thy hands , receive it as thine own , and finish the work which thou hast begun , in placing it among the blessed spirits , who are filled with the sight and love of god. i trust thee living ; let me trust thee dying , and never be ashamed of my trust . and unto thee , the eternal holy spirit , proceeding from the father and the son , the communicative love , who condescendest to make perfect the elect of god , do i deliver up this dark imperfect soul , to be further renewed , confirmed and perfected , according to the holy covenant . refuse not to bless it with thine indwelling and operations ; quicken it with thy life ; irradiate it by thy light ; sanctifie it by thy love ; actuate it purely , powerfully and constantly by thy holy motions . and though the way of this thy sacred influx be beyond the reach of humane apprehension ; yet let me know the reality and saving power of it , by the happy effects . thou art more to fouls , than souls to bodies , than light to eyes . o leave not my soul as a carrion destitute of thy life ; nor its eyes as useless , destitute of thy light ; nor leave it as a senseless block without thy motion . the remembrance of what i was without thee , doth make me fear lest thou shouldest with-hold thy grace . alass , i feel , i daily feel that i am dead to all good , and all that 's good is dead to me , if thou be not the life of all . teachings and reproofs , mercies and corrections , yea , the gospel it self , and all the liveliest books and sermons , are dead to me , because i am dead to them : yea , god is as no god to me , and heaven as no heaven , and christ as no christ , and the clearest evidences of scripture verity are as no proofs at all , if thou represent them not with light and power to my soul : even as all the glory of the world is as nothing to me , without the light by which it 's seen . o thou that hast begun , and given me those heavenly intimations and desires , which flesh and bloud could never give me , suffer not my folly to quench these sparks , nor this bruitish flesh to prevail against thee , nor the powers of hell to stifle and kill such a heavenly seed . o pardon that folly and wilfulness , which hath too often , too obdurately and too unthankfully striven against thy grace ; and depart not from an unkind and sinful soul ! i remember with grief and shame , how i wilfully bore down thy motions ; punish it not with desertion , and give me not over to my self . art thou not in covenant with me , as my sanctifier , and confirmer , and comforter ? i never undertook to do these things for my self ; but i consent that thou shouldest work them on me . as thou art the agent and advocate of jesus my lord , o plead his cause effectually in my soul , against the suggestions of satan and my unbelief ; and finish his healing saving work ; and let not the flesh or world prevail . be in me the resident witness of my lord , the author of my prayers , the spirit of adoption , the seal of god , and the earnest of mine inheritance . let not my nights be so long , and my days so short , nor sin eclipse those beams , which have often illuminated my soul . without thee , books are senseless scrawls , studies are dreams , learning is a glow-worm , and wit is but wantonness , impertinency and folly . transcribe those sacred precepts on my heart , which by thy dictates and inspirations are recorded in thy holy word . i refuse not thy help for tears and groans : but o shed abroad that love upon my heart , which may keep it in a continual life of love . and teach me the work which i must do in heaven : refresh my soul with the delights of holiness , and the joys which arise from the believing hopes of the everlasting joys : exercise my heart and tongue in the holy praises of my lord. strengthen me in sufferings ; and conquer the terrors of death and hell . make me the more heavenly , by how much the faster i am hastening to heaven : and let my last thoughts , words and works on earth , be likest to those which shall be my first in the state of glorious immortality ; where the kingdom is delivered up to the father , and god will for ever be all , and in all : of whom , and through whom , and to whom are all things , to whom be glory for ever . amen . chap. xiii . consectaries : . what party of christians should we joyn with , or be of , seeing they are divided into so many sects ? i shall briefly dispatch the answer of this question in these following propositions . § . . godlyness and christianity is our only religion ; and if any party have any other , we must renounce it . § . . the church of christ being his body is but one , and hath many parts , but should have no parties ; but vnity and concord without division . § . . therefore no christian must be of a party or sect as such , that is , as dividing it self from the rest , causing schisme , or contention in the body ; or making a rent unnecessarily in any particular church , which is a part . § . . but when parties and sects do trouble the church , we must still hold to our meer christianity , and desire to be called by no other name , than christians ( with the epithets of sincerity ) : and if men will put the name of a party or sect upon us , for holding to christianity only , against all corrupting sects , we must hold on our way , and bear their obloquy . § . . what christianity is may be known , . most summarily in the baptismal covenant , in which we are by solemnization made christians , in which renouncing the flesh , the world and the devil , we give up our selves devotedly to god the father , son , and holy ghost , as our creator , redeemer and sanctifyer . . by the ancient summary rules of faith , hope and charity , the creed , the lords prayer and the decalogue . . integrally in the sacred scriptures , which are the records of the doctrine of christ and the holy spirit . § . . but there are many circumstances of religious worship , which scripture doth not particularly determine of , but only give general rules for the determination of them , ( as what chapter shall be read , what text preached on , what translation used , what meeter or tune of psalms , what time , what place , what seat or pulpit , or cup or other vtensils , what vesture , gesture , &c. whether we shall use notes for memory in preaching ? what method we shall preach in ? whether we shall pray in the same words often , or in various ; with a book , or without ; with many other ) . in all which the people must have an obediential respect to the conduct of the lawfull pastors of the churches . § . . differing opinions or practices about things indifferent , no nor about the meer integrals of religion , which are not essentials , do not make men of different religions or churches ( universally considered . ) § . . nothing will warrant us to separate from a church as no church , but the want of something essential to a church . § . . the essential or constitutive parts of the church catholick ( or vniversal ) are christ the head , and all christians as the members . § . . all sincere and sanctified christians are the members of the church mystical , invisible , or regenerate : and all professors of sincere christianity , that is , all baptized persons , not apostatised nor excommunicate , are the members of the church visible ; which is integrated of the particular churches . § . . it is essential to particular political churches , that they be constituted of true bishops or pastors , and of flocks of baptised or professed christians : vnited in these relations , for holy communion in the worshipping of god , and the promoting of the salvation of the several members . § . . it is essential to a true bishop or pastor of the church , to be in office , ( that is , in authority and obligation ) appointed by christ in subordination to him in the three parts of his offices , prophetical , priestly and kingly : that is , to teach the people ; to stand between them and god in worship ; and to guide or or govern them by the paternal exercise of the keyes of his church . § . . he that doth not nullifie or unchurch a church , may lawfully remove from one church to another , and make choice of the best and purest , or that which is most suited to his own edification , if he be a free-man . § . . but in case of such choice or personal removal , the interest of the whole church , or of religion in common , must be first taken into consideration , by him that would rightly judge of the lawfulness of the fact . § . . if a church which in all other respects is purest and best , will impose any sin upon all that will have local communion with it , though we must not separate from that church as no church , yet must we not commit that sin , but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their communion . § . . true heresie , ( that is , an error contradictory to an essential article of the christian faith ) if it be seriously and really held , so that the contrary truth is not held seriously and really , doth nullifie the christianity of him that holdeth it , and the church-state of that congregation which so professeth it . but so doth not that fundamental error which is held but in words through ignorance , thinking it may consist with the contrary truth , while that truth is not denyed , but held majore fide ; so that we have reason to believe that if they did discern the contradiction , they would rather forsake the error than the truth . but of this more elsewhere . chap. xiv . consectary ii. of the true interest of christ , and his church , and the souls of men : of the means to promote it ; and its enemies and impediments in the world. so great and common is the enmity against christianity in the world , yea , against the life and reality of it in all the hypocrites of the visible church , that the guilty will not bear the detection of their guilt ; and therefore the reader must excuse me for passing over the one half of that which should be said upon this subject , because they that need it cannot suffer it . § . . every true christian preferreth the interest of christ and of religion , before all worldly interest of his own , or any others . for he that setteth himself or any thing above his god , hath indeed no god : for if he be not maximus , sapientissimus , optimus , greatest , wisest and best , he is not god : and if he be not really taken as such , he is not taken for their god. and he that hath no god , hath no religion . and he that hath no religion is no christian : and if he call himself a christian , he is an hypocrite . § . . though we must preferre the interest of christ and the church above the interest of our souls : yet must we never set them in competition or opposition , but in a due conjunction , though not in an equality . i adde this to warn men of some common dangerous errors in this point : some think that if they do but feel themselves more moved with another ministers preaching , or more edified with another way of discipline , they may presently withdraw themselves to that minister or discipline , without regard to the unity and good of the church where they are , or whatever publick evil follow it . whereas he that seemeth to deny even to his soul some present edification for the publick good , shall finde that even this will turn to his greater edification . and some , on the contrary extream , have got a conceit that till they can finde that they can be content to be damned for christ , if god would so have it , they are not sincere . which is a case that no christian should put to his own heart , being such as god never put to any man : all the tryall that god putteth us to , is but whether we can deny this transitory life , and the vanities of the world , and the pleasures of the flesh , for the love of god , and the hopes of glory : and he that doth thus much shall undoubtedly be saved . but to think that you must ask your hearts such a question , as whether you can be content to be damned for christ , is but to abuse god and your selves . indeed both reason and religion command us , to esteem god infinitely above our selves , and the churches welfare above our own ; because that which is best , must be best esteemed and loved : but yet though we must ever acknowledge this inequality , yet that we must never disjoyn them nor set them in a positive opposition or competition , nor really do any thing which tendeth to our damnation , upon any pretense of the churches good , is past all question . he that hath made the love of our selves and felicity inseparable from man , hath made us no duty inconsistent with this inclination , that is , with our humanity it self : for god hath conjoyned these necessary ends , and we must not separate them . § . . the interest of the church , is but the interest of the souls that constitute the church , and to preferre it above our own , is but to preferre many above one . § . . he that doth most for the publick good , and the souls of many , doth thereby most effectually promote his own consolation and salvation . § . . the interest of god , is the vltimate end of religion , church , and particular souls . § . . gods interest is not any addition to his perfection or blessedness ; but the pleasing of his will in the glory of his power , wisdom and goodness shining forth in jesus christ , and in his church . § . . therefore to promote gods interest , is by promoting the churches interest . § . . the interest of the church consisteth , i. intensivè , in its holyness : ii. conjunctivè & harmonicè , in its unity , concord , and order : iii. extensivè , in its increase and the multiplication of believers . § . . i. the holyness of the church consisteth , . in its resignation and submission to god its owner . . in its subjection and obedience to god its ruler . . in its gratitude and love to god its benefactor and ultimate end. § . . these acts consist , . in a right estimation and belief of the minde : . in a right volition , choice and resolution of the will : . in the right ordering of the life . § . . the means of the churches holyness are these : . holy doctrine : because as all holiness entereth by the understanding , so truth is the instrumental cause of all . § . . . the holy , serious , reverent , skilfull and diligent preaching of this doctrine , by due explication , proof and application , suitably to the various auditors . § . . . the holy lives and private converse of the pastors of the church . § . . . holy discipline faithfully administred ; encouraging all that are godly , and comforting the penitent , and humbling the proud , and disgracing open sin , and casting out the proved impenitent gross sinners , that they infect not the rest , embolden not the wicked , and dishonour not the church in the eyes of the unbelievers . § . . . the election and ordination of able and holy pastors , fit for this work . § . . . the conjunct endeavours of the wisest and most experienced members of the flock , not usurping any ecclesiastical office , but by their wisdom , and authority , and example in their private capacities , seconding the labours of the pastors , and not leaving all to be done by them alone . § . . . especially the holy instructing and governing of families , by catechizing inferiours , and exhorting them to the due care of their souls , and helping them to understand and remember the publick teaching of the pastors , and praying and praising god with them , and reading the scripture and holy books , especially on the lord's day ; and labouring to reform their lives . § . . . the blameless lives , and holy conference , converse and example of the members of the church among themselves : holiness begetteth holiness , and encreaseth it , as fire kindleth fire . § . . . the unity , concord , and love of christians to one another . § . . . and lastly , holy princes and magistrates , to encourage piety , and to protect the church , and to be a terrour to evil doers . these are the means of holiness . § . . the contraries of all these may easily be discerned to be the destroyers of holiness , and pernicious to the church . . vnholy doctrine . . ignorant , unskilful , negligent , cold or envious preaching . . the unholy lives of them that preach it . . discipline neglected , or perverted , to the encouraging of the ungodly , and afflicting of the most holy and upright of the flocks . . the election or ordination of insufficient , negligent , or ungodly pastors . . the negligence of the wisest of the flock , or the restraint of them by the spirit of jealousie and envy , from doing their private parts in assistance of the pastors . . the neglect of holy instructing , and governing of families ; and the lewd example of the governours of them . . the scandalous or barren lives of christians . . the divisions and discord of christians among themselves . . and bad magistrates , who give an ill example , or afflict the godly , or encourage vice , or at least suppress it not . § . to these may be added , . the degenerating of religious strictness , from what god requireth , into another thing , by humane corruptions gradually introduced ; as is seen among too many friars , as well as in the pharisees of old . . a degenerating of holy institutions of christ , into another thing , by the like gradual corruptions , as is seen in the roman sacrifice of the mass . . the degenerating of church-offices by the like corruptions , as is seen in the papacy , and its manifold supporters . . the diversion of the pastors of the church to secular employments . . the diminishing the number of the pastors of the church , as proportioned to the number of souls : as if one school-master alone should have ten thousand scholars ; or ten thousand souldiers but one or two officers . . the pretending of the soul and power of religion , to destroy the body or external part : or making use of the body or external part , to destroy the soul and power ; and setting things in opposition which are conjunct . . the preferring either the imposition or opposition of things indifferent before things necessary . . an apish imitation of christ by satan and his instruments , by counterfeiting inspirations , revelations , visions , prophesies , miracles , apparitions , sanctity , zeal , and new institutions in the church . . an over-doing , or being righteous over much , by doing more than god would have us , ( over-doing being one of the devils ways of undoing ) when satan pretendeth to be a saint , he will be stricter than christ , as the pharisees were in their company , sabbath-rest and ceremonies : and he will be zealous with a fiery consuming zeal . . accidentally , prosperity it self consumeth piety in the church : if it occasion the perdition of the world , the church is not out of danger of it . § . . ii. the unity and concord , and harmony of the church consisteth , . in their universal adoption , or one relation to god , as their reconciled father in christ . . in the one relation they have all to christ their head. . in the unity of the spirit , which dwelleth and worketh in them all . . in their one relation to the body or church of christ , as its members . . in the unity of that faith which stateth them in these relations . . in the unity of the baptismal covenant , which initiateth them . . in the unity of the gospel , ( in the essentials ) which is the common rule of their faith and life , and the ground of their hope and comfort . . in the bond of mutual brotherly love . . in the concord of a holy life . . in the unity of the end which they all intend , and shall at last attain , ( the pleasing of god , and the heavenly glory . ) § . . the means of this unity and concord are , . all , as aforesaid , which promote their holiness . from holiness is the centring of all hearts in god : and it destroyeth that dividing selfishness , which maketh men have as many ends as they are persons . . the learning and ability of the pastors , to hold the flocks together by the force of truth , and to stop the mouthes of cavilling dividers and seducers : when no gain-sayers are able to stand before the evidence of that truth which they demonstrate . . the holy lives of pastors , which keep up the love of truth and them in the peoples hearts . . by the paternal government of the pastors , ruling them , not by force , but willingly , and in fatherly love , and a loving familiar converse with them . . by the just execution of discipline on the impenitent , that the godly may see that wickedness is disowned . by the concord of the pastors among themselves ; and the prudent use of synods or councils to that end . . by the humble and submissive respect of the people to their pastors . by keeping up the interest and authority of the most ancient and experienced of the flock , over the young and unexperienced , who are the common causes of division . . by the pastors avoiding all temptations to worldliness and pride , that they tear not the church , by striving who shall be the greatest , or have the preeminence . . by godly magistrates keeping their power in their own hand , and using it to rebuke intollerable false teachers , and to encourage the peaceable , and restrain the railing and violence of pastors and parties against each other ; and by impartial keeping the church's peace . § . . hence the causes of church-divisions are discernable . . the encrease of ungodliness and sin , which is as fire in the thatch , and possesseth all men with dividing principles , practices and ends . . the disability of pastors , over-topt in parts by every sectary . . the ungodliness of the pastors , which looseneth the hearts of the people from them . . the strangeness , violence , or hurtfulness of the pastors . . the encouragement and tolleration of all the most flagitious and impenitent in undisciplin'd churches , which frighteneth men out of the church as from a ruinous house , and tempteth them to an unwarrantable separation , because the pastors will not make a necessary and regular separation . . the discord of the bishops among themselves . . the peoples ignorance of the pastoral power , and their own duty . . an unruly , fierce , censorious spirit in many of the young and unexperienced of the flock . . the pastors striving who shall be the greatest , and seeking great things in the world , or popular applause and admiration . . the magistrates either permitting the endeavours of dividing teachers in palpable cases ; or suffering self-seeking pastors or people to disturb the church . § . . but next to common ungodliness , the great causes of the most ruinating church-divisions , are , . wars and dissentions among princes and states , and civil factions in kingdoms ; whereby the clergy are drawn or forced to engage themselves on one side or other : and then the prevailing side stigmatizeth those as scandalous who were not for them , and think themselves engaged by their interest to extirpate them . . mistaking the just terms of union and communion , and setting up a false centre , as that which all men must unite in . thus have the roman party divided themselves from the greeks and protestants , and made the greatest schism in the church that ever was made in it : . by setting up a false usurping constitutive head , the roman bishop , and pretending that none are members of the church who are not his subjects , and so condemning the far greatest part of the catholick church . by imposing an oath and divers gross corruptions in doctrine , discipline and worship , upon all that will be in their communion , and condemning those that receive them not , and so departing from the scripture-sufficiency . these two usurpations are the grand dividers . § . . all hereticks also , ( who speak perverse things against christianity , to draw away disciples after them ) or schismaticks , ( who unwarrantably separate from those churches in which they ought to abide , that they may gather new congregations , after their own mind ) are the immediate adversaries of church-union and concord . § . . so are the importune and virulent disputations of contentious wits , about unnecessary things , or matters of faction and self-interest . § . . especially when the magistrate lendeth his sword to one party of the contenders , to suppress or be revenged on the rest , and to dispute with arguments of steel . § . . the well-ordered councils of bishops or pastors of several churches , assembled together , have been justly esteemed a convenient means of maintaining the concord and peace of christians , and a fit remedy for the cure of heresies , corruptions and divisions . and when the cause requireth it , those councils should consist of as many as can conveniently meet , even from the most distant churches , which can send their bishops without incurring greater hurt or discommodity , than their presence will countervail in doing good . and therefore the councils called general in the dominions of the christian roman emperours , were commendable , and very profitable to the church , when rightly used . but whereas the pope doth argue , that he is the constitutive head of the whole catholick church throughout the world , because his predecessors did oft preside in those councils , it is most evident to any one , who will make a faithful search into the history of them , that those councils were so far from representing all the churches in the world , that they were constituted only of the churches or subjects of the roman empire , and those that having formerly been parts of the empire , continued that way of communion when they fell into the hands of conquerors ; their conquerors being commonly pagans , infidels or arrian hereticks . i except only now and then two or three , or an inconsiderable number of neighbour bishops . there were none of the representatives of the churches in all the other parts of the world : as i have proved in my disputation with mr. johnson , and desire the reader , who thinketh that his reply doth need any confutation , but to peruse ortelius , or any true map of the roman empire ; and myraeus , or any notitia episcopatuum , and withal the names of the bishops in each council ; and then let him ask his conscience whether those councils were true or equal representatives of all the christian world , or only of the subjects or churches of one empire ; with a few inconsiderable accidental auxiliaries : and if he smile not at mr. johnson's instances of the bishops of thrace , ( and other such countries ) as if they had been out of the verge of the roman empire , at least he shall excuse me from confuting such replies . and since then christ hath enlarged his church to many more nations and remote parts of the world , and we are not hopeless that the gospel may yet be preached to the remotest parts of the earth ; and an equal just representative may become more impossible than it now is : yet now such proper universal councils are so far from being the constitutive visible head of the church , ( or the pope as there presiding ) or any necessary means of its vnity and peace , that rebus sic stantibus , they are morally impossible . for , . their distance is so great , from abassia , egypt , armenia , syria , mexico , new-england , and other parts , to those of muscovy , sweden , norway , &c. that it will be unlawful and impossible to undertake such journeys , and deprive the church of the labours of the pastors so long on this account . . it cannot be expected , that many live to perform the journey , and return . . the princes in whose countreys they live , or through whose dominions they must pass , are many of them infidels , and will not suffer it , and many still in wars , and most of them full of state-jealousies . . when they come together , the number ( of just representatives , which may be proportioned to the several parts of the church , and may be more than a mockery or faction ) will be so great , that they will not be capable of just debates , such as the great matters of religion do require : or if they be , it will be so long as will frustrate the work , and waste their age before they can return : when usually the cause which required their congregating will bear no such delays . . they cannot all speak to the understanding of the council in one and the same language , ( for all the commoness of greek and latine ) god hath neither promised that all bishops shall be able to converse in one tongue , nor actually performed it . . such a council never was in any christian emperours time ; for they neither could nor did summon all the just representatives of the churches in other princes dominions , but only those in their own . § . . the predominancy of selfishness and self-interest in all hypocrites , ( that are but christians in name , and not by true regeneration ) and the great numbers of such hypocrites in the visible church , are the summary of all the great causes of divisions , and the prognosticks of their continuance . § . . unity and harmony will be imperfect , whilest true holiness is so rare and imperfect : and to expect the contrary , and so to drive on an ill-grounded unholy unity , is a great cause of the division and distraction of the churches . § . . when differing opinions cause discord betwixt several churches , the means of christian concord is , ( not an agreement in every opinion , but ) to send to each other a profession of the true christian faith , subscribed , with a renunciation of all that is contrary thereto ; and to require christian love and communion on these terms , with a mutual patience and pardon of each others infirmities . § . . no christian must pretend holiness , against unity and peace ; nor unity and peace against holiness ; but take them as inseparable in point of duty : and every tender conscience should be as tender of church-division and real schisme , as of drunkenness , whoredom , or such other enormous sins . jam. . , , , . § . . iii. the extensive interest of the church , consisting in the multiplication of christians , is . principally in the multiplication of the regenerate-members of the church-mystical : . and subordinately in the multiplication of professed christians in the church visible . § . . it is not another , but the very same christianity , which in sincerity constituteth a mystical member , and in profession a visible member of the church ( which is not two churches , but one ) : so that all are hypocrites who are not sincere . § . . the instituted door or entrance into the church visible is by baptisme . § . . the pastors of the church by the power of the keyes are judges who are to be admitted by baptisme , and to baptise them : and the people are to take the baptized for church-members , and in point of publick communion , to see as with their pastors eyes ( ordinarily ) : though as to private converse they are judges themselves . § . . those that are baptized in infancy , should at age have a solemn transition into the rank of adult members , upon a solemn serious owning and renewing of their baptismal covenant . § . . god doth not require a false profession of christianity but a true : but yet he appointeth his ministers to take a profession not proved false , as credibly true : because we are no heart-searchers , and every one should be best acquainted with himself ; and god will have every man the chooser or refuser of his own felicity , that the comfort or sorrow may be most his own : and a humane belief of them that have not forfeited their credit , especially about their own hearts , is necessary to humane converse . § . . and god taketh occasion of hypocrites intrusion , . to do good to the church by the excellent gifts of many hypocrites : . to do good to themselves , by the means or helps of grace which they meet with in the church . § . . but the proper appointed place , which all that are not ( at age ) perswaded to the profession of true christianity , should continue in , is the state of catechumens , or audientes ; meer learners in order to be made christians . § . . the visible church is much larger than the mystical ( though but one church ) that is , the church hath more professing than regenerate members , and will have to the end of the world ; and none must expect that they be commensurate . § . . as a corn field , hath . corn , . straw and chaffe , and . weeds and stricken ears ; and is denominated from the corn , which is the chief ( preserved ) part ; but the straw must not be cast out because it is necessary for the corn ; but the weeds must be pull'd up , except when doing it may hurt the wheat , even so the church hath . sincere christians , from whom it is denominated ; . close hypocrites , whose gifts are for the good of the sincere , and must not be cast out by the pastors ; . hereticks and notorious wicked men , who are impenitent after due admonition : and these must be cast out , except when it may hazard the church . § . . the means of increasing the church , must ultimately be intended alwayes to the increase of the church mystical , for holiness and salvation . § . . these means are , . all the fore-mentioned means of holiness : for holiness is the church's glory ; the image of god , which will make it illustrious and beautiful in the eyes of men , when they are sober and impartial ; and will do most to win them home to christ . . especially the great abilities , holiness , patience and unwearied diligence of the ministers of christ , is a needful means . . the advancements of arts and sciences , doth much to prepare the way . . the agreement and love of christians among themselves . . love to the infidels and ungodly , and doing all the good we can even to their bodies . . a spiritual , pure , rational and decent worshipping of god. . and the concord of christian princes among themselves , for the countenancing and promoting the labours of such preachers , as are fitted for this work . § . the hinderances then of the church's increase , and of the conversion of the heathen and infidel world are , . above all , the wickedness of professed christians , whose falshood , and debauchery , and unholiness , perswadeth the poor infidels , that christianity is worse than their own religion , because they see that the men are worse that live among them . and , . the badness of the pastors , ( especially in the greek and latine churches ) and the destruction of church-discipline , and impurity of the churches hereupon , together with the ignorance and unskilfulness of most for so great a work , is a great impediment . . the defectiveness in arts and sciences . . the many divisions and unbrotherly contentions of christians among themselves , either for religion or for worldly things . . not devoting our selves and all that we have to the winning of infidels , by love , and doing them good . . a carnal , irrational or undecent manner of worshipping god : for they will contemn that god , whose worship seemeth to them ridiculous and contemptible . . the discords , wars or selfishness of christian princes , who unite not their strength to encourage and promote this noble work ; but rather hinder it , by weakening the hands of the labourers at home . . especially when the very preachers themselves are guilty of covetous or ambitious designs , and under pretence of preaching christ , are seeking riches , or setting up themselves , or those that they depend on . these have kept under the church of christ , and hindred the conversion of the world till now . § . . the attempts of the jesuits in congo , japon and china were a very noble work , and so was the portugal kings encouragements : but two things spoiled their suceess , ( which protestants are not liable to : ) . that when they took down the heathens images , they set them up others in the stead ; and made them think that the main difference was , but whose image they should worship : and withall by their agnus dei's , and such like trinkets , made religion seem childish and contemptible . . but especially , that they made them see , that while they seemed to promote religion , and to save their souls , they came to promote their own wealth , or the popes dominion , and to bring their kings under a forein power . § . . the honest attempts of mr. elliots in new-england is much more agreeable to the apostles way , and maketh more serious spiritual christians . but the quality of place and people , and the greatness of wants , doth hinder the multiplication of converts . and higher attempts were very desireable . § . . the translating of fit books into the language of the infidels , and dispersing them , may in time prove the sowing of a holy fruitful seed . § . . prosperity useth greatly to encrease the church extensively , in the number of visible members ; and adversity and persecution to encrease it intensively , by increasing holiness in the tried and refined : therefore god useth to send vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity , like summer and winter , to the churches , that each may do its proper work . § . . every true christian should daily lament the common infidelity and impiety of the world , that the interest of true christianity is confined into so narrow a room on earth : and to pray with his first and earnestest desires , that more labourers may be sent forth , and that god's name may be hallowed , his kingdom come , and his will be done on earth , that it may be liker heaven , which now is grown so like to hell. but yet to comfort himself in considering ( as is before said ) that as this earth is to all the nobler world , but as one mole-hill to all england ; so if god had forsaken all , it had been but as the cutting off a cancer from a man , or as the casting away of the paring of his nails , in comparison of all the rest . therefore should we long for the coming of our lord , and the better world , which we have in hope . how long , lord , holy and true , how long ? come , lord jesus , come quickly , amen . for we , according to his promise , look for new heavens and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness . pet. . , , . exod. . . behold the children of israel have not hearkned to me , how then shall pharaoh hear me ? ezek. . not to many people of a strange speech , and of an hard language , whose words thou canst not understand : surely had i sent thee to them , they would have hearkned unto thee . but the house of israel will not hearken unto thee , for they will not hearken unto me : for all the house of israel are impudent and hard-hearted . octob. . . the conclusion , defending the soul's immortality against the somatists or epicureans , and other pseudophilosophers . though in this treatise i have not wilfully balked any regardable objections , which i thought might stick with an intelligent reader , about the truth of the things here delivered , yet those which are proper to the somatical irreligious sect of philosophers , i thought fitter to put here as an appendix by themselves , that they might not stop the more sober in their way . as to the subject and method of this discourse , it consisteth of these four parts : . the proof of the deity , and what god is . . of the certain obligations which lie upon man to be holy and obedient to this god. . the proofs of a life of retribution hereafter , where the holy and obedient shall be blessed , and the unholy and disobedient punished . . the proofs of the verity of the christian faith . for the first of these , ( that there is a god ) though i have proved it beyond all rational contradiction , yet i have dispatched it with haste and brevity : because it is to the mind as the sun is to the eye , and so evident in all that is evident in the world , that there needeth nothing to the proving of it , but to help the reader to a rational capacity and aptitude , to see that which all the world declareth . the common argument , from the effects to the cause , in all the entities and motions in the world , is undeniable . whatsoever any being hath , and hath not originally from it self , or independently in it self , it must needs have from another : and that other cannot act beyond its power , nor give that which it hath not either formally or eminently : therefore he that findeth in the world about him , so much entity and motion , so much intellection , volition and operation , and so much wisdom , goodness and power , must needs know that all these have some cause , which formally or eminently , or in a way of transcendency , hath more it self than it giveth to others . i measured my endeavours about this subject , according as the occasions of my own soul had led me : among all the temptations which have at any time assaulted me , i have found those so contemptible and inconsiderable as to their strength , which would have made me doubt of the being of a god , that i am apt to think that it is so with others . and therefore in the review of this discourse , i find no reason to stand to answer any mans objections , against the being , or essential attributes or properties of god. and for the second point , ( that we all owe to this god our absolute resignation , obedience and love , and so that holiness is naturally our duty ) it doth so naturally result from the nature of god and man compared , that i can scarce think of any thing worthy of a confutation which can be said against it , but that which denieth the nature of god or man ; and therefore is either confuted under the first head , or is to be confuted under the third . * as for the fourth particular , contained in the second tome , ( the truth of the gospel ) i find not any reason to defend it more particularly , nor to answer any more objections than i have done : for in proving the truth , i have proved all the contradictory assertions to be false ; and i have answered already the greatest objections : and after this , to answer every ignorant exception of unsatisfied persons , against the several passages of the scripture , would be tedious , and not necessary to the end of my design . and indeed i perceive not that any considerable number are troubled with doubtings of the truth of the christian faith , in a prevalent degree , who are well convinced of those antecedent verities of the deity , and of the natural obligation and necessity of holiness , and of the immortality of the soul , or of a future life of reward and punishment ; and that live in any reasonable conformity to these natural principles which they profess . for when natural evidence hath sufficiently convinced a man , that he is obliged to be holy , in absolute obedience and love to his creator , through the hopes and fears of another life ; he is very much prepared to close with the design and doctrine of the gospel , which is so far from contradicting this , that it doth but confirm it , and shew us the way by which it may most certainly be brought to pass . and therefore my observation and experiences constrain me to think , that there is no point which i have insisted on , which so much calleth for my vindication , as the third , about the life to come . i know there is a sort of over-wise and over-doing divines , who will tell their followers in private , where there is none to contradict them , that the method of this treatise is perverse , as appealing too much to natural light , and over-valuing humane reason ; and that i should have done no more but shortly tell men , that all that which god speaketh in his word is true ; and that propria luce , it is evident that the scripture is the word of god ; and that to all god's elect he will give his spirit to cause them to discern it : and that this much alone had been better than all these disputes and reasons : but these over-wise men , who need themselves no reason for their religion , and judge accordingly of others , and think that those men who rest not in the authority of jesus christ , should rest in theirs , are many of them so well acquainted with me , as not to expect that i should trouble them in their way , or reason against them , who speak against reason ; even in the greatest matters which our reason is given us for . as much as i am addicted to scribling , i can quietly dismiss this sort of men , and love their zeal , without the labour of opening their ignorance . my task therefore in this conclusion , shall be only to defend the doctrine delivered in this fore-going treatise , of the life to come , or the soul's immortality , against some who call themselves philosophers . for of men so called , it is but a small part who at all gainsay this weighty truth . the followers of plato the divine philosopher , with the pythagoreans , the stoicks , the cynicks , and divers other sects , are so much for it , that indeed the most of them go too far , and make the soul to be eternal both à parte arte , and à parte post : and cicero doth conclude from its self-moving power , that it is certainly eternal and divine : insomuch that not only arnobius , but many other ancient christians , write so much against plato for holding the soul to be naturally immortal , and assert themselves , that it is of a middle nature , between that which is naturally immortal , and that which is meerly mortal , that he that doth not well understand them , may be scandalized at their expressions , and think that he readeth the philosopher defending the souls immortality , and the christian opposing it . and though aristotle's opinion be questioned by many , yet cicero , who lived in time and places wherein he had better advantage than we to know his meaning , doth frequently affirm , that he was in the main of plato's mind ; and that the academicks , peripateticks and stoicks differed more in words than sense ; chiding the stoicks for their schism or separation , in setting up a school or sect as new , which had almost nothing new but words . not only fernelius ( de abditis rerum causis ) but many others have vindicated aristotle , however his obscurity hath given men occasion to keep up that controversie . and if the book de mundo be undoubtedly his , i see no reason to make any more question of his meaning ; much less if that book be his which is entitled , mystica aegypt . & chald. philos . which aben ama arabs translated out of greek into arabick , which franc. roseus brought from damascus , and moses rovas medicus haebr . translated into italian , and pet. nicol. castelinus into latine , and patricius thinketh aristotle took from plato's mouth . it is only then the epicureans , and some novel somatists that i have now to answer , who think they have much to say against the separated subsistence and immortality of mans soul , which i may reduce to these objections following . i. matter and motion , without any more , may do all that which you ascribe to incorporeal substances or souls : therefore you assert them without ground . ii. to confirm this , the bruits have sense , imagination , thought and reason , by matter and motion only , without immortal or incorporeal substances : therefore by sense , imagination , thoughts or reason , you cannot prove that man hath more . iii. forms are but accidents , that is , qualities , or the mode of matter , and not substances different from matter : therefore it is so with humane souls . iv. the soul dependeth upon matter in its operations , and acteth according to it , and not without it : therefore it is material , and consequently mortal . v. no immaterial substance moveth that which is material , or is the principle of its operations : but the soul moveth the body as the principle of its operations : ergo . vi. if in our dreams the thoughts do operate only according to the accidental irregular motion of the spirits , and sometime be so unactive , that we do not so much as dream , then the soul is nothing but the said active spirits , or some material corruptible thing : but , &c. ergo . vii . sense is a more perfect apprehension than reason : therefore bruits , which have sense , have as noble and perfect a kind of soul as man ; or at least reason is no proof of the immateriality of souls . viii . sensation and intellection are both but reception , and and the soul is but a patient in them : ergo , it is not a self-moving , and so not an incorporeal substance . ix . nothing is in the understanding but what is first in the sense : ergo , the understanding can reach no further than to sensible things : ergo , it is it self of no higher a kind . x. corporeal objects move the soul : ergo , it is corporeal . for things material cannot work upon that which is immaterial . xi . if the soul were incorporeal , it would know it self to be so : but it is not only ignorant of that , but hath no true notion , but meerly negative , of immaterial beings . xi . that which is generated is corruptible : but the soul is generated , as is proved by senertus , and many others . xiii . quicquid oritur interit ; that which is not eternal as to the past duration , is not eternal as to the future duration : but all christians maintain , that the soul is either created or generated , and not of eternal duration , as to what is past : and all the philosophers , or most who took it to be eternal as to future duration , went on that ground , that it was so antecedently . xiv . you give us none but moral arguments for the soul's immortality . xv. nay , you confess , that the soul 's eternal duration cannot by you be proved by any natural evidence ; though you think you so prove a life of retribution . xvi . the soul and body are like a candle , where oyl , and week , and fire , ( which are all ) are in flexu continuo , and as there is not the same individual flame this hour as was the last , so neither have we the same individual souls : ergo , they are uncapable of a life of retribution hereafter . xvii . if the soul be a durable substance , ( as we must confess no substance is annihilated ) it is most likely to come from the anima mundi , or some universal soul of that orb or system of which it is a part , and so to return to it again , as the beams to the sun ; and so to cease its individuation , and consequently to be uncapable of a life of retribution . xviii . the platonists who hold the souls immortality , ( and some platonick divines too ) have so many fopperies about its vehicles , regions and transmutations , as maketh their principal doctrine the less credible . xix . if the soul should continue its individuation , yet its actings will be nothing like what they are in the body ; nor can they exercise a memory of what they did in the body , as having not the material spirits and nerves , by which memory is exercised : and therefore they can have no proper retribution , especially punishment , for any thing here done . xx. the belief of the immortality of the soul doth fill men with fears , and take up their lives in superstitious cares for a life to come , which might be spent in quietness , and in publick works : and it fills the world with all those religious sects and controversies , which have so long destroyed charity and peace . these are the objections which i have here to answer . objection i. matter and motion , without any more , may do all that which you ascribe to souls . answ . when nothing seemeth to us more false and absurd , than the matter of your objection ; you cannot expect that your naked assertion should satisfie us without proof : and a satisfactory proof must reach to all the noblest instances , and must have better evidence than the bold and confident affirmations of men , who expect that their conceptions should be taken for the flower of reason , whilst they are pleading against the reasoning nature it self . and to what authors will they send us for the proof of this assertion ? is it to mr. hobs ? we have perused him , and weigh'd his reasons , and find them such as reflect no dishonour on the understandings of those , who judge them to be void of probability as well as cogent evidence . but after so smart a castigation as he hath received from the learned d● ward , ( now bishop of exeter ) and from that clear-headed primate of ireland , dr. bramhal , i hope it will not be expected , that i trouble my self or my reader with him here . is it to gassendus ? he writeth for the immaterial created humane soul himself . and charity obligeth me not to charge him with prevarication , whatsoever to cartesius or any where else he writeth , which seemeth injurious to this doctrine . and if sorberius number it with his honours , ( in vita gassendi ) that mr. hobs could not sufficiently admire his works , qui heroem nostrum nunquam majorem apparere pronunciabat , quam in retundendis larvis , tenues in auras tam facilè diffugientibus , gladio imperviis , nec ictum clava excipientibus : ita enim sentiebat vir emunctae naris de meditationibus cartesii & de illa gassendi disquisitione , &c. it was because he weighed not honour in an english ballance , nor judged not of an english-man by an english judgment , nor himself well perceived what was indeed honourable or dishonourable in his friend . if you send us to epicurus and lucretius , they are so overwhelmed with the number of adversaries that have fallen upon them , that it is a dishonour to give them another blow . besides all the crowd of peripateticks , platonists and stoicks , even the moderate latitudinarian cicero hath spit so oft in the face of epicurus , that when gassendus hath laboured hard in wiping it , he thought meet to let this spot alone . but because it is onely this sort of men , that are the adversaries with whom we do contend , i will this once be so troublesome to the reader , as to give him first some general countercharges and reasons , against the authority of these men ; and next some particular reasons against the objected sufficiency of matter and motion , to do the offices which we ascribe to souls . and , . when i find men dispute against man , and reason against the power of reason , i think humane interest alloweth me to be distrustful of their sophist●y , and to yield no further than i have cogent evidence . if man's soul be his form , he denieth man to be man , who denieth him that soul . . i find philosophers so little agreed among themselves , that it greatly diminisheth their authority and requireth a man who is just to his reason , to make a very accurate trial before he fall it with any of their opinions . their divisions are sufficiently opened and aggravated by laertius , cicero , and many more of themselves ; and contemptuously displayed by hermas , arnobius , athenagoras , lactantius , eusebius , and many other christians . there are few things that one asserteth , but there are many to rise up against him and contradict it . they must better defend themselves against one another , before their authority be much reverenced by others . . i find the wisest of them so conscious of their ignorance , that they take most for uncertain which they say themselves ; and confess they talk but in the dark : which made the pyrrhonians and arcesilas have so many followers ; and cicero with the academicks so over-modest in disclaiming certainty and confidence , and writing by dialogues with so much indifferency and wavering as they did . i need not send you to zanchez his nihil scitur , nor to our mr. glanvil's vanity of dogmatizing , for satisfaction . the learned gassendus his modesty is sufficient , who if he speak of occult qualities , will ask you , what qualities are not occult ? and if he speak of the magnitude and distances of the stars , will tell you how little possibility of assurance is left to mortals , about those things which others with over much confidence have asserted . and about the case in hand , he could no better defend epicurus against cicero's [ hoc est optare , & provincias dare atomis , non disputare ] than by confessing [ vere quidem id objici ; sed eam tamen esse ingenii humani imbecilitatem , ut objici idem nemini non possit — de ipsis principiis dicere nil aliud licet , nisi quod haec isto , illa illo modo se habeant , ex suae naturae necessitate ; cum ignoremus germanam causam ob quam ita se habeant ; immo cum ea frustra quaeratur , nisi sit cundum in infinitum . § . . l. . c. . pag. . and ingenuously he confesseth , § . . l. . c. . p. . verum quicquid dicatur ( scil . per cartesium & epicurum ) hypothesis semper mera est , ac difficultas remanet , fierique nihil tutius potest , quàm profitendo ignorantiam , totum quem videmus rerum ordinem in arbitrium , summi opificis conferre . dicere certe quod aliqui , solem v.g. idcirco hic potius quàm alibi esse , quia ejus naturae ita exigat , id quidem vere dicitur ; sed interim nil aliud est , quàm respondere ipsum quaesitum , & dissimulando ignorantiam , videri esse animi in causam optimam parum grati . which is true and applicable to many other cases . and it is ingenuously confessed lately by the very ingenious mr. samuel parker , [ i am lately grown such a despairing sceptick in all physiological theories , that i cannot concern myself in the truth or falshood of any hypotheses . for though i prefer the mechanical hypotheses before any other , yet me-thinks their contexture is too slight and brittle to have any stress laid upon them : and i can resemble them to nothing better than your glass drops , from which if the least portion be broken , the whole compages immediately dissolves and shatters into dust and atoms : for their parts which rather lie than hang together , being supported only by the thin film of a brittle conjecture , ( not annealed by experience and observation ) &c. and upon the like reasons it is rejected by that eminently learned and industrious man , dr. willis , de ferment . p. . at quoniam principia sua supponit potius quam demonstrat , docetque qualis figurae elementa ista corporum sint , non quae ipsa fuerint , atque etiam notiones inducit valde subtiles & à sensu remotas , quaeque naturae phaenomenis quando ad particularia descenditur , non satis quadrant , hac insuper habita , &c. . and i find that the philosophers that have rejected or vilified epicurus and his way , have been very numerous ; multitudes to a few , and of the most venerable names in the ages and places where they lived ; and no one sect of them so vilified by the rest , as the epicureans were by all . . i find also , that the most who in this age adhere to the epicurean ( or cartes●an ) hypothesis , are the younger sort of ingenious men , who have received prejudice against the peripateticks , platonists and stoicks , before they did ever throughly study them ; but reverencing more some person noted for much ingenuity , by his authority have been drawn to defend , what they scarce understand themselves . and that it is the meer novelty of some of these new-started notions , which maketh them so much followed ; as novelties in religion are with some young and wanton wits : and accordingly i expect , that ere long they will grow out of fashion , and die again before ever they come to have such supporters as the other philosophy hath had . . respicere ad plurima , to take in all that must be taken in , is the character of true wisdom . but i find that the epicureans do respicere ad pauca ; they look so much at things corporeal , that they quite over-look the noblest natures ; and they reduce all to matter and motion , because nothing but matter and motion is throughly studied by them . and like idle boys , who tear out all the hard leaves of their books , and say they have learn'd all when they have learnt the rest ; so do they cut off and deny the noblest parts of nature , and then sweep together the dust of agitated atoms , and tell us that they have resolved all the phaenomena in nature . . and i find that they are very kind natured to their own conceptions , and take those for demonstrations , which other men think are liker dreams . . i perceive that they are deluded by taking the vestigia and images of things , for the things themselves . the intellectual nature is the image of the divine , and the sensitive of the intellectual , and the vegetative of the sensitive , and the fiery of the incorporeal . and when they can prove no more in any of the lower , but such an image of the higher , they would on that advantage confound them all ; and would hence conclude that bruits are intellectual , and deny the differencing forms of all things . . i find that as they look so much at the organ , as to over-look the agent ; and look so much at the particles of matter , as to over-look the different natures of it : so do they observe the second cause with so narrow a mind , as much to over-look the first : or when they have acknowledged that there is a god , they think they have done fair , though afterwards they consider not that interest of his in all operations , which their own concessions necessarily infer . . lastly , i perceive that they proceed not methodically in their collections , but confound all by mixing certainties with uncertainties . whereas the first , the great , the most discernable truths , should be first congested as certainties by themselves , and the uncertainties should not be pleaded against them , nor suffered to stand in contest with them . perceiving all these general reasons to distrust this sort of philosophers above others , though i resolve to be impartial , i cannot willingly be so foolish , as to over-look their disadvantage in the present cause . ii. the particular reasons which disswade me from believing the epicurean sufficiency of matter and motion are these following . . they all ( with whom i have now to do ) are constrained to confess an incorporeal intellectual substance ; even that there is a god , and that god is such . epicurus himself doth not deny it , yea , seemeth to speak magnificently of god , and in honour to him would excuse his providence from the minding of inferiour things . for , . they know that matter did not make it self ; and motion is but its mode : and therefore matter cannot be made by its own motion . it s being is in order of nature before its motion . and matter is in it self so dull a thing , ( and by the adversaries stripped of all forms , which are not caused by motion ) that if it were said to be from eternity in its duration , they will confess it could be but as an eternal effect of some nobler cause . so that at the first word they grant , that matter hath an incorporeal cause . . and motion , as it is found in matter , could not cause it self ; though it be but of the mode of matter , it is such a mode as must have a cause . and the passive matter yet unmoved , is supposed by themselves to be void of all antecedent moving power . so that they are all fain to say , that god made the matter , and gave it the first push . and so all matter and motion is reduced to a first efficient , who is incorporeal : and therefore an incorporeal being is acknowledged . . i meet with none of them who dare deny this god to be an intellectual free agent ; so that though it be granted them , that intelligere , velle be not in god the same thing formally as it is in man ; yet is it something which eminently must be so called ; man having no fitter conception or expression of it , than from these acts of his own soul . epicurus will not make god defectively ignorant , impotent , or bad . when themselves divide all things into such as have understanding , and such as have none ; of which part do they suppose god to stand ? things that are void of understanding , ( formally or eminently ) are below the dignity of things that have understanding . so that they confess there is existent an incorporeal , intelligent , free agent . . as they confess that this intellectual agent is the first cause both of matter and motion , so they cannot deny that he still causeth both , by his continued influx or causing efficacy . for there can be no effect without a cause ; and therefore when the cause ceaseth , the effect must cease . the material part of a moral cause may cease , and yet the effect continue . but that moral causation continueth which is proportioned to the effect . the parent may die while the child surviveth : but there is a continued cause of the life of the child , proportioned to the effect . matter is not an independent being . to say that god hath made it self-sufficient and independent , is to say that he hath made it a god. suppose but a total cessation of the divine emanation , influx and causation , and you must needs suppose also the cessation of all beings . if you say that when god hath once given it a being , it will continue of it self , till his power annihilate it : i answer , if it continue without a continuing causation , it must continue as an independent self-sufficient being . but this is a contradiction , because it is a creature ; god is no effect , and therefore needeth no cause of subsistence : but the creature is an effect , and cannot subsist a moment without a continued cause . as the beams or communicated light cannot continue an instant , if there were a total cessation of the emanation of the luminary , because their being is meerly dependent : and they need no other positive annihilation , besides the cessation of the causation which did continue them . it was from one of your own poets that paul cited , [ in him we live , and move , and have our being , for we are his off-spring . ] and nothing is more abhorrent to all common reason , than that this stone or dirt , which was nothing as yesterday , should be a god to it self , even one independent self-sufficient being , as soon as it is created ; and so that god made as many demy-gods as atoms . we see past doubt , that one creature cannot subsist or move without another , on which it is dependent ; how much less can any creature subsist or move without its continued reception of its creator's influx . if you could suppose that for one moment there were no god , you must suppose there would be nothing . if i thought any would deny this , besides those inflated vertiginous brains , that are not to be disputed with , i would say more for the illustration of it . object . but though matter subsist not without a continued divine causation , or emanation , or efficacious volition ; yet motion may continue when all divine causation of it ceaseth : because when god hath given it one push , that causeth a motion , which causeth another motion , and that another , and so in infinitum , if there were no stop . answ . . if this were so , it must be on supposition of a vis motiva communicata vel impressa : for if there had been no such , the first motion would have not been , or all have presently ceased for want of a continued cause . as there is no motion sine vi motiva , so none can be communicated , but by the communication of that force . action is not nothing : nor will be caused by nothing : as the delapsus gravium would presently cease , if we could cause the pondus or gravity to cease ; so is it in all other motions . if there be no vis or strength communicated along with the motion , there would be nothing in that motion to cause another motion , nor in that to cause another . ( and if it were by way of traction , if the cause cease which is the prima trahens , all the motion ceaseth : and so also if it be by way of pulsion ) so that in every motion , there is something more than matter and motion . . all motion ( of things below within our reach ) hath many impediments : and therefore would cease , if the first cause continued not his powerful efficacy . it is tedious and needless to enumerate instances . . the moving power of the noblest creatures , is not purely active , but partly passive and partly active , and must receive the influx of the highest cause ▪ before it can act or communicate any thing . therefore as soon as the first mover should cease , the rest would be soon stop'd , though some active power was communicated to them . as we see in a clock when the poise is down , and in a watch when the spring is down ; the motion ceaseth first where it first began . . can you constrain your reason to imagine , that god is the sole principal active cause , for the first touch , and , as it were , for one minute , or instant , ( while he causeth the first motus ) and is an unactive being , or no cause ever after , ( save only reputativè , because he caused the first . ) this is to say , that god was god till he made the world , and ever since he hath done nothing , but left every atom or creature to be god. is god so mutable , to do all for one instant , and to do nothing ever after ? . the infiniteness and perfection of god fully proveth , that all continued motion is by the continuance of his efficiency . for it is undeniable , that he who made all things is every where , or present to all his creatures , in the most intimate proximity . and it is certain , that he cannot but know them all : and also that his benignity maintaineth all their beings and well-beings ; and therefore that he is not an unactive being ; but that his power as well as his wisdom and goodness , is continually in act . how strangely do these epicureans differ from aristotle ? who durst not deny the eternity of the world , lest he should make god an unactive being ad extra , from eternity till the creation ? when-as these men feign him to have given but one instantaneous push , and to have been coetera otiosus , or unactive from eternity . seeing then it cannot by sober reason be denyed , that god himself is by a continued causation , the preserver and intimate first mover of all things , it must needs thence follow , that matter and motion are still insufficient of themselves : and that this is to be none of the controversie between us : but only whether it be any created nature , power , or other cause , by which god causeth motion in any thing , or all things ? or whether he do it by his own immediate causation alone without the use of any second cause , save meer motion it self ? so that the insufficiency of matter and motion to continual alterations and productions , must be confessed by all that confess there is a god. . it is also manifest in the effect , that it is not a meer motion of the first cause , which appeareth in the being and motions of the creature . there is apparently a tendency in the creatures motion to a certain end , which is an attractive good ; and there is a certain order in all motions to that end ; and certain laws , or guidances and overrulings , to keep them in that order : so that wisdom and goodness do eminently appear in them all , in their beings , natures , differences , excellencies , order and ends , as well as motion the effect of power . . it is certain that god who is unmoved himself , is the first mover of all : . and if god were not unmoved , but by self-motion caused motion , yet he exerteth wisdom and goodness in his creation and providence , as well as motion . . he that is infinite , and therefore not properly in any place or space , or at least is limited in none , can himself by locomotion move himself in none : which methinks none should question : and they that make the world infinite , or at least indefinite , as they call it , methinks should not deny the infinitenesse of god : and they acknowledge no motion themselves but locomotion , or migratio a loco in locum . but saith gassendus , vol. . pag. . et certè captum omnem fugit , ut quippiam quantumvis sit alteri praesens conjunctumque , ipsum moveat , si in seipso immotum maneat , &c. — itaque necesse omnino videtur , ut cum in serie moventium quorum moventur alia ab aliis procedi in infinitum non possit , perveniatur ad unum primum ; non quod immotum moveat , sed quod ipsum per se moveatur . answ . you gather from hence , that it is the contexture of the most subtile atomes which is the form and first mover in physical beings . but you granted before , that god moved those atomes , and also put a moving inclination into them . and atomes are far from being unum or primum . you said before [ sufficiat deum quidem esse incorporeum , ac pervadere fovereq , universam mundi machinam . ] and if so , then movere etiam as well as fovere . either you mean as you speak in confessing a god or not : if not , it is unworthy a philosopher to dissemble for any worldly respects whatsoever . if you do , then , is it beyond your capacity to conceive that god being unmoved moveth all things ? or not ? if not , why should it be beyond your capacity to conceive the same in a second order of a second spiritual being ? the reason as to motion is of the same kinde . if yea ; then either you believe god is the first mover or not : if not , withdraw your former confession . if yea , what locomotion ( for you deny all other ) can you ascribe to god , who is unbounded and infinite ? what place is he moved from , and what place is he moved into ? and is his motion rectus vel circularis ? is it one or multifarious ? or rather will you not renounce all these ? . and as god moveth being unmoved , so he doth more than move : he moveth orderly , and giveth rules and guidances to motion ; and moveth graciously to the felicity of the creature , and to a desireable end . a horse can move more than a man ; for he hath more strength or moving power : but he moveth not so regularly nor to such intended ends , because he hath not wisdom and benignity or goodness as man hath . he that buildeth a house or ship , or writeth such volumes as gassendus did , doth somewhat more than barely move , which a swallow or a hare could have done as swiftly : and he that looketh on the works of god , even to the heavens and earth as gassendus hath himself described them , and seeth not the effects of wisdom and goodness in the order , and tendency , and ends of motion , as well as power in motion it self , did take his survey but in his dream : saith balbus in cicero de nat. deor. l. . p. . hoc qui existimat fieri potuisse ( that is , for the world to be made by meer fortuitous motion of atomes , &c. ) non intelligo cur non idem putet , si innumerabiles unius & viginti formae literarum , aliquo coniciantur , posse ex his in terram excussis annales ennii , ut di●inceps legi possint effici , quod nescio an in uno quidem versu possit tantum valere fortuna . quod si mundum efficere potest concursus atomorum , cur porticum , cur templum , cur domum , cur navem non potest , quae sunt minus operosa , & multo quidem faciliora ? certè ita temere de mundo effutiunt , ut mihi quidem nunquam hunc admirabilem coeli ornatum , qui locus est proximus , suspexisse videantur . where he brings in this passage as from aristotle , that if we should imagine men to have lived in some dungeon or cavern in the earth , and never to have seen the sun or light , or world , as we do , and if there should be a doubt or dispute among them , whether there be a god ; and if you should presently bring up these men into our places , where they might look above them and about them , to the sun and stars , and heaven and earth ; they would quickly by such a sight be convinced that there is a god. but as he truly addeth , assiduitate quotidiana & consuetudine oculorum assuescunt animi , neque admirantur neque requirunt rationes earum rerum quas semper vident : perinde quasi novitas nos magis quam magnitude rerum debeat adexquirendas causas excitare . but i suppose it will be granted me , that the first mover doth more than meerly move , the effects of wisdom and goodness being so legible on all the world ; but you 'l say , that to do it wisely and to attain good ends by it , &c. is but the modus of action with the effect , and therefore matter and motion rightly ordered may be nevertheless sufficient to all effects . to which i answer , that the creatures motion requireth not only that the creator move them , but that he place and order them , and move them rightly , and that he remove and overcome impediments , &c. therefore there is necessary in the first mover , both wisdom and love as well as power : and neither his power , wisdom or love are locomotion in himself . and this much being proved , that in every motion , there is divine power , wisdom and love , which is more than matter and motion it self , i proceed next to enquire , . do you think there is any thing existent in the world , besides matter and motion , or not ? as to meer site , and figure and other such order or modes of matter , i know you will not deny them to have now a being as well as motion . but is there no different tendency to motion in the parts of matter ? is there not in many creatures a power , an inclination , or aptitude to motion , besides motion it self ? is there not a reason à priore to be given , why one creature is more agile and active than another ? and why they act in their various wayes ? why is fire more active than earth ? and a swallow than a snail ? if you say , that the different ratio motus is in some extrinsecal agent only which moveth them , you will hardly shew any possibility of that , when the same sun , by the same virtue ( or motion as you will say ) is it that moveth all : and if it were so , you must go up to the first cause , to ask for the different motions of those movers ; when our enquiry now is de natura moventium & motorum creatorum ? if you say , that it is the ratio recipiendi in the different magnitudes or positions of the parts of matter , which is the cause of different motions ; i would know , . whether this difference of magnitude and figure and site , being now antecedently necessary to different motions , was not so heretofore as well as now ? if you say , no , you feign without proof a state of things and order of causes , contrary to that which all mens sense perceiveth to be now existent ? and who is the wiser philosopher ? he that judgeth the course and nature of things to be , and have been what he now findeth it , till the contrary be proved ? or he that findeth it one thing , and feigneth it sometime to have been another without any proof ? that which is now antecedently necessary to diversity of motion , it 's like was so heretofore . . and then how could one simple equal act of god , setting the first matter into motion , cause such an inequality in motions to this day , if it be true that you hold , that only that which is moved or in motion it self can move ? and that motion is all that is necessary to the diversity ? . either the first matter was made solid in larger parcels , or all conjunct , or in atomes : if it was made first in atomes , then motion caused not division . if it was made conjunct and solid , then motion caused not conjunction and solidity . and if the first division , or conjunction , site and figure of matter was all antecedent to motion and without it , we have no reason to think that it is the sole cause of all things now . but surely quantity , figure and site , are not all that now is antecedent to motion . doth not a man feel in himself a certain power , to sudden and voluntary motion ? he that sate still , can suddenly rise and go : and if you say , that he performeth that sudden motion by some antecedent motion , i answer , that i grant that ; but the question is , whether by that alone ? or whether a power distinct from motion it self , be not as evidently the cause ? for otherwise the antecedent motion would proceed but according to its own proportion : it would not in a minute make so sudden and great an alteration . i can restrain also that motion which some antecedent motion ( e.g. passion ) urgeth me to ? surely this power of doing or not doing , is somewhat different from doing it self . a power of not-moving is not motion . and what is the pondus which gassendus doth adde to magnitude and figure as a third pre-requisite in atomes ? i perceive he knoweth not what to make of it himself . but in conclusion it must be no natural gravity by which the parts are inclined to the whole in themselves , but the meer effect of pulsion or traction , or both . at the first he was for both conjunct , pulsion of the air , and traction of the atomes from the earth : but of this he repented , as seeing impulsionem aeris nullam esse : and was for the traction of atoms alone . ( than which , his friends conceit of the pulsive motion of the sun in its diastole or whatever other motion , is the cause , doth seem less absurd . ) but that man that would have me believe that if a rock were in the air , or if pauls steeple should fall , the descent would be only by the traction of the hamuli of invisible atomes , ( or by the pulsion of air and sun conjunct ) must come neerer first , and tell me how the hamuli of atomes can fasten upon a marble rock ? and how they come to have so much strength as to move that rock ( which no man can move in its proper place ) if there be no such thing as strength or power besides actual motion ? and why it is that those drawing atomes do move so powerfully earthwards , when at the same time it is supposed , that as many or more atomes are moving upwards by the suns attraction , and more are moved circularly with the earth ? why do not these stop or hinder one another ? and why doth not the rock as well go upward with the ascending atomes ? and when the rock descendeth , doth it carry down none of the ascendants with it ? as likely as for the descendants to carry down it . are those atomes that carry down the rock , more powerfull than an hundred thousand men , who could not lift it up at all ; much less so swiftly ? and why do not the same ( partial ) atomes , bear down a feather , or the birds that fly quietly in the air ? and why feel we not the power of their motion upon us ? how easily can some men believe any thing , while they think that their increase of wisdom lyeth in believing no more than evidence constraineth them to ? if gassendus his instance of the load-stone put under the ballance to increase the pondus of the iron , prove any thing , it will prove something more than a traction of the hooked atomes , even the traction of nature that needeth no hooks . and mark , i pray you , what gassendus granteth , when he saith [ vnum omnino supponere par est , viz. quantacunque fuit atomis mobilitas ingenita tanta constanter perseverare , so that , saith he , they may be hindered from moving , but not from endeavouring to move and free themselves from their restraint . what need we more than this ? or what more do we plead for ? it is granted us then that when a moveable or active being is stopt from motion , it doth not thereby lose its mobile or active nature or disposition : and so , that it is not only motion that causeth motion ; but that there is in atomis mobilitas ingenita , which continueth when the motion ceaseth . you 'l say perhaps , that he meaneth only a passive receptivity by which one thing is easier moved by an exterior cause than another . but you mistake him : for he taketh not mobilitas ingenita only passively , but also actively , and therefore saith , that [ it endeavoureth to move and free it self . ] and lib. . c. . he saith , [ non motus sed impetus , ab initio perseverat ; vel nisus perpetuus . ] which is as much as i desire now . for then there is somewhat besides matter and motion ; even as impetus & nisus , which must also come from a power which per nisum & impetum doth shew it self . and indeed , it doth not only overpass our reason , but contradict it , that meer subtilty of matter , or smallness of particles , should be all the cause of motion that is found in the matter it self . must we believe that an alcohol impalpalile of marble or gold , if it could but be anatomized more , would be as moveable as fire ; or would thereby turn to fire it self : or as active as the vital and intellectual creatures ; yea turned to such a thing it self : if all matter was atomes at first , then all was fire , and all was of one kinde , and equally moveable : and what hath made the difference since ? and if you will feign that god made some parts atomes , and some parts more gross ; or that he distinguished matter ab initio into cartesius his materia subtilis , globuli aetherei , and grosser matter , why may not we better say , that the same creator hath distinguished matter by different natures and powers , which we finde them possessed of ? and by what proof do you distinguish matter into those three degrees , or sorts , any more than into two , or four , or six , or ten , or ten hundred ? who can choose but shake the head , to see wise philosophers thus impose upon the world ? and at the same time say , it is the first duty of a man that would be wise , to believe no more than by evidence he is forced to ? yea , and at the same time to say , these are but our hypotheses , which saith one , i acknowledge to be false , and saith another , i cannot say is true : and yet they are our foundation ; and from these our philosophical verities result ; which must make you wise , who must believe nothing without proof . alas , what is man ! and i would know whether they can prove against gassendus , that impetus & nisus vel conatus is ipse motus ? when the heaviest poise is at a clock that standeth still , the poise doth not move ; but it doth niti vel conari : hold but a weight of an hundred pounds of lead in your hand , as immoveable as possible , i am of opinion you will feel that it doth incline to motion , though it move not . is not this inclination then somewhat different from motion ? if you tell me again of nothing but the invisible tractive hooked atomes , i advise you to involve a thousand pound of lead in a sufficient case of feathers , which it seems are charmed from the power or touch of atomes , and try then whether it be no heavier than the feathers are ? the same i may say of a spring of steel which is wound up in a standing watch , or other engine . there is no proof of any motion : and yet there is a conatus different from motion . you 'l say perhaps that the particles in the steel are all in motion , among themselves : but when will you prove it ? and prove also that they are so in the lead or rock that by gravity inclineth to descent ? and prove also that the particles are moved by an extrinsick mover only , and have no principle of motion in themselves ? moreover , what think you is the nature of all our habits ? is there nothing in a habit but actual motion ? suppose that you sleep without a dream ? or that a lethargy intercept your intellectual motion ? or that other business alienate your thoughts ? do you think that all your learning is thereby obliterated ? or that you are after as unapt for your arts and trades as if you had never learnt them ? let a musician , an astronomer , a physician , try ! whether they will not , return more expert than an ideot ? what then is this habit ? it is not actual motion it self ? else it would be totally extinct when the motion is but for an hour intercepted . if you say , that there is other motion in us still , to renew it : i answer , why should that other , ( e.g. the motion of the lungs or heart , or the circulation of the blood ) make you an artist the next morning , any more than your neighbour , if that were all ? you 'l grant , i suppose , that a habit is somewhat distinct from motion , but it is the effect of it only , and one of the phaenomena which we say that matter and motion are sufficient for . to which i answer , do you deny that a habit doth it self conduce to future motion , or not ? if not , it is no habit : if yea , then as to future actions there is more than matter and motion needfull : and the principles are more : and then what reason have you to contradict us , who finding some principles in nature which conduce to motion as much and more than habits do , do assert such principles ? and how know you that former motion proceedeth not from such natures , or principles , when you confess that later motions do so ? if you say that habits are nothing but a cursus motuum , as of water that by running in a certain channell is inclined to run that way again : i answer , they are certainly something that remain when the action ceaseth ; and therefore are an inclination ad agendum , as well as a cursus actionum ; and they are something that are active principles , and not only so many channels which the spirits have made themselves in the brains and nerves : otherwise the numberless variety of objects would so furrow and channel the brain that they would consume it , ( as gutta cavat lapidem , &c. ) . and do you know what you oblige your selves to , when you undertake to solve all phaenomena by matter and motion only ? and how have you satisfied the studious and impartial world herein ? i hope you will not put off all questions that are put to you , with these same two general words only ? when we ask you , what causeth the descensus gravium , do not tell us , it is matter and motion : but tell us the differences in the motion or matter which cause this effect as different from others : what is the reason in motion that fire ascendeth ? what is the reason that the motus projectorum doth continue ? why doth the ant take one course , and the bee another , and the fly another , &c. what different motions are they that are the cause ? what motion is it that causeth the hen to sit on her eggs in fasting and patience , and to know her chickens , and to cherish them till they are mature , and then beat them away ? and so almost of all other birds and beasts ? what is the difference in motion that causeth one creature to love this food , and another that ; that one eateth grass , and another flesh ? that every seed doth bring forth only its proper species ? what are the differences in motion , which cause the difference in odour , and taste and virtue , and shape of leaves , and flowers , and fruits , &c. between all the plants that cover the earth ? that all that come of one seed have an agreement in leaf , and flower , and fruit , and odour , and taste , and virtue , e.g. germander , betony , peony , &c. what are the different motions that cause all these differences ? even in the very seeds themselves ? to tell us only in general that the difference is all made by motion , is to put an end to learning , and studies , and to give one answer to all the questions in the world , and one description of all beings in the world : you may as well tell us , that you salve all the phaenomena , to tell us , that all things are entities , and made and moved by god. it is a fair advancement of knowledge indeed , to cast away and deny all the noblest parts of the world , and to tell us , that all the rest is matter of various magnitude and figure , variously moved and placed . this is short philosophy . and the particular specifying differences , you do not , you cannot tell us , according to your principles . gassendus , § . . l. . c. . denyeth the transmutation of elements . others of the atomists tell us , that every hour changeth the elements , and that continual motion is continually turning one into another : and that fire e.g. is but that part of matter which falleth under such or such a motion : and that the same matter which is fire this moment while it moveth , is something else the next when that motion ceaseth : and that whatever matter falleth under the same motion , be it stone or earth , or any thing , it is presently by that motion turn'd to fire , as fire may be into stone or earth . but that which we expect from them is , to tell us , what motion it is that maketh the different elements ? and what doth constitute them ? and what transmuteth them , and not to put us off with two general words , when they boast of solving all the phaenomena . we expect also to hear from them , how density and solidity come to be the effects of motion ? and how the cohesion of the particles of gold or marble , or glew , is caused by the meer magnitude and figure of matter , or by the motion of it , without any other material properties . and they must give us a better account than they have yet done , of the true cause of sense in matter and motion . they know our argument , but i could never yet understand how they answer it . we say that nihil dat quod non habet , vel formaliter vel eminenter . ( all the objections against this maxim they may find answered ( besides others ) in campanella , de sensu rerum . ) atoms , as matter , have no sense : they smart not , they see not , they feel no delight , &c. formaliter you will not imagine that they have sense : and they cannot have it . eminenter , being not above it , but below it ; and shewing us nothing that doth transcend it , or is like it . and motion is no substance , but a mode of matter , and therefore hath it self no sense . object doth not campanella , telesius , &c. argue , that all things have sense ? answ . . their fanaticisms are no part of our physical creed . . they mean , when all is done , but this much , that there is some image or participation of life in inanimates , of sense in vegetatives , of reason in sensitives ▪ and of angelical intellection in rationals . . as it is said in the mystic . aegypt . & chald. philos . ascribed to aristotle , [ et si quibusdam videtur quod elementa habent animam , illa est aliena adventitiaque eis . cumque sint viva , vita illis est accidentaria , non naturalis : alioquin forent inalterabilia . ] l. . c. . so the sticks deifi'd the fire , and made it intellectual ; but it was not as it is matter , but as they supposed it animated with an intellectual form . so many of the ancients thought , that the angels were compounded of an intellectual form or soul , and of a fiery or aethereal body . but it is only the body that we are now enquiring of . have atoms sense ? doth matter feel or see as such ? object . we say not that all matter or atoms have sense , but only some part of it , which by motion is subtilized . answ . still nihil dat quod non habet ; you grant then that matter as such hath no sense at all . else the argument would hold ad omnem . and if it have none as matter , motion can give it none as meer motion ; for motion hath not sense to give . let motion attenuate the matter , and subtilize it , it is but matter still ; and it can be no less than atoms . therefore shew us how materia subtilis , or atoms , should feel or see , because of the subtility or parvity , and by its magnitude or grossness lose that sense . tell us how and why the change of meer magnitude and figure should make a thing feel that felt not before . if you difference not matter by some natural difference of forms , or properties and virtues , you will never speak sense in proving sense to be in matter , by meer atomizing it , or moving it . the alkohol of marble feeleth no more than the solid stone ; nor the air than the earth , for any proof that we have of it . the boys that whip their tops , and the women that turn their wheels so swiftly , that the motion shall not be discerned , yet put no feeling into either , though the motion be swifter than that of the heart , or lungs , or blood . what the learned dr. ward hath said of this against mr. hobs , i refer you to peruse , and excuse me for transcribing it . scaliger , sennertus , and many others , have heretofore challenged these philosophers , to shew the world how atoms by motion , or elements by mixture , can get that sense which neither matter , motion nor mixture have ; but we can meet with no account of it yet worth the reading : not by cartesius , not by regius or berigardus , not by gassendus , nor any other that we can get and read . how unsatisfactory is it to tell us that facultas sentiendi & movendi , quae anima sensitiva vulgo dicitur , est partium animalis in spiritus , nervos & alia sensoria , &c. talis attemperatio & conformatio , qua animal ab objectis variis motibus affici potest ; as regius , l. . c. . p. . this is an easie solving of the phaenomena indeed . but qualis est illa contemperatio ? & quomodo potest contemperantia insensibilium , sensibile constituere ? nonne dat ista contemperatio quod non habet ? perhaps you will say with him in cicer. de nat. deor. that by this argument god must be a fidler , because he maketh men that are such . answ . by this argument no fidler , nor any other man , hath more wisdom than god , or can do that which god cannot do : but because god is above him in his skill , doth it follow that the names which signifie humane imperfection must be put on god ? can god enable a man to that which he is not able to do himself , and can he give that which he hath not to give ? object . none of the parts of a clock can tell the hour of the day , and yet all set together can : and none of the letters of a book are philosophy , and yet the whole may be a learned system : and no atoms in a lute can make melody , as the whole can do . answ . this is but to play with words . in all these instances the whole hath nothing of a higher kind in nature than the several parts , but only a composition by the contribution of each part . the clock telleth you nothing but per modum signi ; and that signum is only in the sound , or order of motion . and sound and motion belongeth to the whole , by vertue or contribution of the parts , and is not another thing above them . and that the motion is so ordered , and that man can by it collect the time of the day , is from the power of our understandings , and not from the matter of the engine at all . so the book is no otherwise philosophy at all , but per modum signi : which signum is related to mans understanding both as the cause and orderer , and as the receiver and apprehender . so that the letters do nothing at all , but passively serve the mind of man. and so it is in the other instance : the strings do but move the air , and cause the sound which is in the ear : that this is melody , is caused only by the mind of man , who first frameth , and then orderly moveth them , and then suo modo receiveth the sound , and maketh melody by the aptitude of his apprehension . if you had proved that clock , or book , or lute do make themselves , and order and use themselves , and know the time , or understand or delight in themselves , you had done something . but by the deceitful names of philosophy and melody , to confound the bare natural sound and sign , with that ordering and that reception , which is the priviledge of a mind , is unfit for a philosopher . moreover i expect from matter and motion , an account of motions great concomitants , that is , of light and heat . mistake me not , i am not undervaluing the effects of motion ; i take it for a most noble and observable cause of most that is done or existent in the corporeal world : but must it therefore be the solitary cause ? i have long observed amongst wranglers , and erroneous zealots in divinity , that most of their error and misdoing lieth in setting the necessary co-ordinate causes or parts of things as inconsistent in opposition to one another . it would make one ashamed to hear one plead , that scripture must be proved by it self ; and another , that it must be proved by reason ; and another , that it must be by miracles ; and another , by the church ; and another , by general history and tradition , &c. as if every one of these were not necessary concurrent parts in the proof . such work have we among poor deluded women and ignorant men , while the romanists say , that they are the true church ; and the greeks say , it is they ; and the lutherans say , it is they ; and the anabaptists say , it is they : as if my neighbours and i should contend , which of our houses it is that is the town . and so do these philosophers about the principles and elements . the intellectual nature , which is the image of god , hath notoriously three faculties , vnderstanding , will and executive power ; and men think that they cannot understand the one , without denying the other two : and the fiery nature which constituteth the sun and other luminaries , ( and is the image of the vital nature ) hath three notorious powers or properties , light , heat and motion ; and they cannot understand motion , without making nothing of light and heat , or greatly obscuring and abusing them . cull out into one , and set together , but what patricius hath said of light , and what telesius hath said of heat , ( and campanella after him ) and what gassendus and cartesius have said of motion , and cut off all their superfluities , and you will have a better entrance into sound philosophy , than any one book that i know doth afford you * i confess , that as wisdom must lead the will , and determine its acts quoad specificationem , and the will must set a work the same intellect , and determine its acts quoad exercitium ; and the active power doth partly work ad intra in the operations of both these , and ad extra is excited by the imperium of the will ; so that these three faculties ( as schibler , alsted , and many others truly number them ) are marvellously conjunct and co operative : even so it is in the motion , light and heat of the active element , or fiery or aethereal nature . i know motion contributeth to light and heat ; but it 's as true that light and heat have their proper , coequal and co-ordinate properties and effects , and that heat contributeth as much to motion at least , as motion doth to heat : indeed in one essence they are three coequal vertues or faculties , the vis motiva , illuminativa & calefactiva . and so vain is their labour , who only from matter and motion give us an account of light and heat , that i find no need nor willingness to be at the labour of confuting them . call but for their proofs , and you have confuted them all at once . and if no better a solution be given us of the nature of light and heat , what shall we expect from them about intellection and volition ? do atoms understand or will ? or doth motion understand or will ? if not , ( as sure they do not as such ) then tell us how that which hath no participation of understanding or will should constitute an agent that doth understand and will ? set to this work as philosophers , and make it intelligible to us if you are in good earnest . . but to proceed a little further with you , i take it for granted , that you confess that an intellectual incorporeal being there is , while you confess a god : and that this sort of being is more excellent than that which is corporeal , sensible and gross . i would next ask you , do you take it for possible or impossible that god should make any secondary beings , which are incorporeal and intellectual also ? if you say , it is impossible , give us your proof . if possible , i next ask you whether it be not most probable also ? you acknowledge what a spot or punctum in the world this earthly globe is : you see here that man , whose flesh must rot and turn to dust , hath the power of intellection and volition : you look up to the more vast and glorious regions and globes , and i am confident you think not that only this spot of earth is inhabited . and surely you think that the glory of the inhabitants , is like to be answerable to the glory of their habitations . you make your atoms to be invisible , and so you do the air and winds ; when yet our earth and dirt is visible . therefore you take not crassitude , nor visibility or sensibility , to have the preeminence in excellency . judge then your selves whether it be not likely that god hath innumerable more noble and excellent creatures , than we silly men are ? and will you reduce all their unknown perfections , or their known intelligence to matter and motion only ? moreover , when you observe the wonderful variety of things , in which god is pleased to take his delight , what ground have we to imagine that he hath no greater variety of substances , but corporeal only ? nor no other way of causation but by motion ? when no man can deny , but he could otherwise cause the variety which we see , and fix in the creatures ab origine their differing natures , properties and vertues ; what reason then have you to say that he did not do so ? and can you believe that the goodness of that god , who hath made this wonderful frame which we see , would not appear in making some creatures liker and nearer to himself , than matter and motion is ? but to talk no more of probabilities to you , we have certain proof that man is an intellectual free agent , whose soul you can never prove to be corporeal , and whose power of intellection and volition is distinct from corporal motion . and we have proof that there are superior intelligences more noble than we , by the operations which they have exercised upon things below . and what should move you ( who seem not to be overmuch divine , and who seem to observe the order and harmony of the creatures ) to imagine , that god doth himself alone , without any instrument or second cause , move all the corporeal matter of the world ? if you are serious in believing that god himself doth move and govern all , why do you question , whether he make use of any nobler natures next him , to move things corporeal . and why do you against your own inclinations , make every action to be done by god alone ? i doubt not but he doth all : but you see that he chooseth to communicate honour and agency to his creatures . he useth the sun to move things on earth . therefore if you believe that corporeal beings stand at so infinite a distance from his perfections , you may easily judge that he hath some more noble ; and that the noblest are the most potent and active and rule the more ignoble : as you see the nobler bodies ( as the sun ) to have power upon the more ignoble . therefore to violate the harmony of god's works , and to deny all the steps of the ladder save the lowest , is but an unhappy solving of phaenomena . nay , mark what you grant us : you confess god to have power , wisdom and will , and that he is incorporeal , and moveth all : and you confess that man hath in his kind power , vnderstanding and will ; and is there any thing below that 's liker god ? if not , do you not allow us to take these faculties for incorporeal ? and that those are so that are higher than we ? . and you seem to us by your philosophy to write of nature , as the atheist writeth of god ; instead of explaining it , you deny it . what is nature but the principium motus & quietis ? &c. * and you deny all such principia , and substitute only former motion : so that you leave no other nature but what a stone receiveth from the hand that casteth it , or the childrens tops from the scourge which driveth them : or rather every turn is a nature to the next turn ; and so the nature of things is mostly out of themselves in the extrinsick mover . and so you level all things in the world : you deny all specifick forms , or natural faculties and virtues . the sun and a clod have no natural difference , but only magnitude , and figure , and motion : as if so noble a creature had no differencing peculiar nature of its own , nor any natural power or principle of its own motion , and so it moved but as a stone is moved . yea , you make all motion to be violent , and deny all proper natural motion at all : for that which hath no active principle of motion in its nature , hath no proper natural motion as distinct from violent . hereby also you deny all vital powers : you make a living creature and a dead to differ but in the manner of motion ; ( which whether you can at all explain , we know not ) why may not the arrow which i shoot , or the watch which i wind up , be said to live as well as you ? it hath matter and motion ; and some inanimates ( the air and fire ) perhaps have as subtil matter and as speedy motion , as is in you . why doth not the wind make the air alive , and the bellows the fire ? in a word , you deny all intelligences , all souls , all lives , all natures , all active qualities and forms ; all powers , faculties , inclinations , habits and dispositions , that are any principles of motion : and so all the natural excellency and difference of any creature above the rest . a short way of solving the phaenomena . lastly , with nature you deny the being of morality . for if there be no difference of beings , but in quantity , figure , motion and site ; and all motion is locomotion , which moveth by natural necessitating force , than a man moveth as a stone , because it is irresistibly moved , and hath no power to forbear any act which it performeth , or to do it otherwise than it doth . for if there be no power , habits or dispositions , antecedent to motion , but motion it self is all , then there is one and the same account to be given of all actions , good and bad , i did it because i was irresistibly moved to it , and could no more do otherwise than my pen can choose to write . there is then no virtue or vice , no place for laws and moral government , further than they may be tacklings in the engine which necessitateth : whatsoever is done amiss , is as much imputable to god the first mover , as that which is done-well . if you shoot an arrow which killeth your friend , the arrow could not hinder it : if you make or set your watch amiss , though one motion causeth another , yet the errour of all is resolved into the defect of the first cause . they that killed henry the . and henry the . kings of france , may say , that as the knife could not resist the motion of their hand , so neither could they the motion of the superiour cause that moved them , and so on to the first . no traitors or rebels can resist the power which acteth them therein , any more than the dust can resist the wind which stirreth it up . and so you see what cometh of all the government of god and man , and of all laws and judgments , justice and injustice , right and wrong . and how little cause you have to be angry with the thief that robbeth you , or the man that cudgelleth you , any more than with the staff . but of this i refer you to the foresaid writing of bishop bromhal against mr. hobs , allowing you to make the most you can of his reply . we are certain by the operations of things , that there is a difference in their natural powers and virtues , and not only in their quantity , figure and motion . god hath not made only homogeneal undifferenced matter : there are plainly now exceeding diversities of natural excellencies , virtues and qualities in the things we see . and he that will say that by motion only god made this difference at first , doth but presumptuously speak without book , without all proof to make it credible , and taketh on him to know that which he knoweth that he knoweth not . is not the virtue and goodness of things as laudable , as their quantity and motion ? why then should we imagine so vast a disproportion in the image of god upon his works , as to acknowledge the magnitude and motion incomprehensible , and to think that in virtue and goodness of nature they are all alike , and none is more noble or more like himself than a clod of earth ? we see that the natures of all things are suited to their several uses . operari sequitur esse , things act as they are . there is somewhat in the nature of a bird , or beast , or plant , which is their fitness to their various motions . if only motion made that fire to day , which yesterday was but a stone , why doth not the strongest wind so much as warm us ? or why doth it so much cool us ? why doth not the snow make us as warm as a fleece of wool ? the wool doth move no more than the snow , and the matter of it appeareth to be no more subtil . indeed man can give to none of his works a nature , a life or virtue , for the operation which he desireth . he can but alter the magnitude , and figure , and motion of things , and compound and mix them , and conjoyn them : and these epicureans seem to judge of the works of god by mans . but he who is being , life and intelligence , doth accordingly animate his noble engines , and give them natures and vertues for their operations ; and not only make use of matter and weight where he findeth it , as our mechanicks themselves can do . debasing all the noblest of gods works , is unbeseeming a true philosopher , who should search out the virtues and goodness , as well as the greatness of them . but i have been longer in answering this first objection , than i can afford to be about the rest , unless i would make a book of this , which i call but the conclusion . i will adde but this one thing more ; that in case it were granted the epicureans , that the soul is material , it will be no disproving of its immortality , nor invalidate any of my former arguments for a life of retribution after this . to which purpose consider these things . . that where matter is simple and not compounded , it hath no tendency to corruption . object . matter is divisible , and therefore corruptible , how simple soever . answ . it is such as may be divided , if god please , and so the soul is such as god can destroy . but we see that all parts of matter have a wonderful tendency to unity , and have a tendency to a motus aggregativus if you separate them . earth inclineth to earth , and water to water , and air to air , and fire to fire . . all philosophers agree to what i say , who hold that matter is eternal , either à parte ante , or à parte post . for if matter be eternal , the soul's materiality may consist with its eternity . . yea all without exception do agree , that there is no annihilation of matter when there is a dissolution . therefore if the soul be a simple uncompounded being , though material , it will remain the same . this therefore is to be set down as granted us , by all the infidels and atheists in the world , that man's soul , what ever it is , is not annihilated when he dieth , if it be any kind of substance material or immaterial . and they that call his temperament his soul , do all acknowledge , that there is in the composition some one predominant principle , more active or noble than the rest ; and of the duration of this it is that we enquire , which no man doth deny , though some deny it to be immaterial . but this will be further opened under the rest of the objections . the reasons of my many words in answering this objection , i give you in the words of a late learned conciliator , philosophiae platonicae explicationi diutius immorati sumus , quod res maximas & cognitione dignissimas complectatur . habet i● quoque prae coeteris , quod ad aeternas & primitivas rationes mentem erigat , eamque à fluxis & perituris rebus advocatam , ad eas quae sola intelligentia percipiuntur convertat . qua quidem in re infinitum prope momentum est : nam obruimur turbâ philosophorum , qui nimis fidunt sensibus , & nihil praeter corpora intelligi posse contendunt . atque ut mihi videtur , nulla perniciosior pestis in vitam humanam potest invadere , nihil quod magis religioni adversetur . joh. bapt. du hamel . in conscens . veteris & novae philos . praefat. objection ii. by sense , imagination , cogitation , reason , you cannot prove the soul to be incorporeal , because the bruits partake of these ; whose souls are material and mortal . answ . . it is easie for men , that set themselves to say all they can , either with mr. chambre to extol the bruits as rational , or with gassendus to talk of the whispers and consultations of the ants , or with telesius and campanella to say that every thing hath sense ; or on the other hand with cartesius , to deny all to a bruit which belongeth not to an engine . but our converse with them doth teach all men to judge of their natures , as between both these extremes , unless by study and learning they learn to know less than they did before , and do but study to corrupt their understandings , and obliterate things that are commonly known . i doubt not but the minerals have something like life , and the vegetatives have something like to sense , and the sensitives have something like to reason : but it doth not follow that therefore it is the same . but this is so copiously written of by very many , that i supersede my further labour about it . . if it were so , that the apprehensions of a bruit might be called reason or intellection , yet the difference betwixt it and humane intellection is so great , as may easily prove to those that have their reasons in free use , that they are several species of creatures , made for several uses and ends . and none of the twenty arguments which i used , are at all debilitated by this . if a bird have reason to build her nest , and to feed her young , yet she hath none to build cities and castles , nor to use navigation , nor any of the arts : much less to set up government by laws , and to write systems of philosophy and other sciences ; and least of all to enquire after god , the cause of all things , or to hope for blessedness in another life , or to escape a future misery , or to be ruled in this life by the interest of another . beasts think not of god , nor of loving him , seeking him , pleasing him or enjoying him , or of being judged by him . i know the perverse wrangler will ask me , how i know this ? and i can answer him no better than thus : as i know that a stone doth not see or feel , or that my paper doth not talk ; because they manifest no such thing : and these are all operations which they that exercise , are apt to manifest ; and things that in their nature are unapt to be long hid . campanella , who hath written de sensu rerum , to prove bruits rational , and plants sensible , hath yet in his atheismus triumphatus written more for the excellency of humane nature and the souls immortality ; than any infidel can soundly answer . . and how prove you , that the souls of bruits exist not , after death ? of their individuation we shall say more anon . but there is no part of their substance annihilated as you will confess : nor any part of it abased below the same nature which it had in the composition : only the constituting parts are separated , retaining their several natures still . all men that confess that bruits are sensible , do confess that there is some one predominant part in their composition which is the principal cause of sense : whether it be the finest atomes , or the materia subtilis or globuli coelestes , or elementary fire , or aristotles quintessence analogous to the coelestial starry substance , or yet an incorporeal soul : whatever it is , it is not annihilated , nor the nature of the simple essence destroyed . . and here let me venture to tell you once for all , that i never found cause to believe that any mortal man , † is so well acquainted with the true difference between a corporeal and an incorporeal substance , as to tell us certainly wherein it doth consist ; and to lay the stress of this controversie upon that difference . i know what is said of moles & extensio , & partes extra partes ; of divisibility and impenetrability ; and so on the contrary side . but how much of this is spoken in the dark ? are you certain that no true matter is penetrable ? ( if you say , that which is so , we call not matter , and so make the controversie de nomine only intelligible , i must pass it by . ) and are you sure that no matter is indivisible ? and that no spiritual incorporeal substance is quantitative , extended , or divisible ? it now goeth for current that light is a body : and patricius that so judgeth , doth take it to be indivisible in longitudine radiorum , and to be penetrable ; and that it can penetrate other bodies . and it 's hard to be sure that diaphanous bodies are not penetratrated by light. i know gassendus and others think that it passeth but through the pores of the glass or chrystal : but i have heard of no engyscope that hath perceived pores in glass . in cloth they are certainly discernable , and large , and numerous , when yet the light doth not penetrate it as it doth the glass : gassendus saith , the reason is , because the pores of the glass and other diaphanous bodies , are all one way , so that the light is not intercepted by their irregularity : and he giveth us a proof of his opinion , because that if you set white papers on each side the glass , there will be umbels on one side , and light reflected on the other . i have oft tried , and see indeed abundance of such umbels : but i as plainly see that they all answer the squilts or sanded faults that are in the glass ( the bigger sort of which are all as visible as the shades ) . and surely all the rest of the glass is not pores , or nothing ! and if the pores lie all one way , how cometh it to pass , that a glass of water , or a ball of chrystal is equally perspicuous every way . look which way you will it is all alike : therefore it must be every way equally porous . but i would know whether we have any atomes smaller than the body of light , which thus penetrateth the glass and chrystal ? i think they all make it the most subtile matter : and yet gassendus thinketh that they are bodies ( and such as have their hamuli too ) which flow from the load-stone to the iron : and if so , then those bodies must be more penetrating than light : for they will pass through a brick wall , and operate by their attraction on the other side , where no light can pass . and whether the air be penetrable by light , is scarce well cleared or understood . they that think there is no vacuum i think ( with g●ssendus ) can never prove that there can be any motion , unless the air or some bodies are penetrable . let them talk of a circulation with cartesius as long as they will , some body must cedere before the next can move : and no one can give way till the motion or cession begin at the utmost part of the coporeal world . my understanding is past doubt that there must be an inane or a penetration . and yet on the other side , i am satisfied that entity is the first excellency , and that something is better than nothing . and therefore if rarity be only by the multitude and greatness of interspersed vacuities , and the rarity and subtilty of matter be but the scantness or smallness of its quantity in that space , then it would be but next kin to annihilation , and the rarest and most subtile matter would be coeteris paribus the basest , as being next to nothing . for instance , sir kenelme digby telleth gassendus from two accurate computers , that gold in the same space is seven thousand six hundred times heavier than air : so that air is in the same space seven thousand six hundred times neerer to nothing than gold is ; and the whole air betwixt us and the heavens hath interspaces that are vacuous , to the same proportion of to one : and then we may well say that datur inane ! nay quaere , whether it be more proper to say , that all between us and heaven is a vacuum or not ? when it is to be denominated from the space which so far exceedeth all the rest as to one ? and then if the aether be something more subtile , it must be still more neer to nothing , and consequently be most vile : but i am satisfied that dung is not so much more excellent than light as it is more gross . and that these terrestrial bodies are not the most noble , nor have most of entity or substance , because they are more gross : † therefore though gassendus put off sir k. digby by saying only that the said disproportion is no inconvenience , i see not how these inconveniences will be answered . i am satisfied , that nothing , is not so good as entity , and yet that the most subtile and invisible substances are the life of the world , and of greatest excellency and force . but what will hence follow about penetrability i know not ; but i know that it 's little about these things which men understand of what they say . the fiery nature seemeth as patricius saith to be some middle thing between corporal and incorporeal . and i much doubt whether materia be a summum genus ; and whether the lowest degree of things incorporeal , and the highest degree of things corporeal , ( suppose fire , or that which is the matter of the sun ) do differ so much more than graduals , as that mortals can say , that one of them is penetrable and indivisible , and the other not . there have been some philosophers that have thought that sensibility was as fit an attribute to characterize matter or bodies by , as any other ; but then they meant not by [ sensible ] that which man can perceive by sense : but that which is a fit object for senses of the same kinde as mans , supposing them elevated to the greatest perfection that they are capable of in their kinde . and so aire and atomes being of the same kinde as other matter , may be visible to a sight of the same kinde as ours , if it received but the addition of enow degrees . and for ought i know , this is as wise philosophy as that which is more common . i am sure it is more intelligible . and for divisibility they have demonstrations on both sides that a punctum is divisible , and that it is not . one thinketh , that if three be set together , it 's possible at least for god to divide just in the midst : another with gassendus thinketh , that it 's unlike to be true , that every part should be as much or more than the whole , and a point as much as all the universe : and that if a point may be divided into infinite parts it is infinite in magnitude , and therefore bigger than the world : and is it any marvell , if indivisibility then be an unfit property to know a spirit by , when they are not agreed about it as to bodies ? certain it is , that there is a true individuation of souls , and so a numeral division of them . that which is your soul , is not your neighbours . and it is certain , that created spirits are not infinite as to extent . and what division god can make upon them , is more than i can tell . scotus thinketh , that the subject of physicks is not corpus naturale but substantia naturalis ; and so that angels are moved motu physico . scaliger , schibler , &c. say , that angels have extension and figure , that is , extension entitativè distinct from extension quantitativè . vid. scalig. exercit. . § . . the termini essendi , saith schibler , being no other than are signified per inceptionem , seu dependentiam ab alio & desitionem : and that no creature is immense , but hath finitas adessendi according to which it is determinate to a certain space . he saith , that angels are finite , . essentia , . numero , . potestate , . quantitate , h. e. non esse immensos . and that they are in spatio intelligibili . he saith also exerc. . vnum primum est : alia dependent igitur . ergo sua natura omnia praeter unum sunt corruptibilia . tametsi sunt entia absoluta à subjecto & termino , non sunt absoluta à causa . damascene saith , de orthod . fid . l. . that god only is a spirit by nature , but other things may be spirits by indulgence and grace . the doctrine of psellus † is too gross , and largely delivered by himself . eugubinus , niphus , and vorstius , were of the same minde , that angels were corporeal . augustine himself saith , that anima respectu incorporei dei corporea est : de spir. & anim . c. . caesarius in dialog . . p. . b.p. saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he applyeth to them the apostles words , there are bodies celestial , and bodies terrestrial . arnobius is a little too gross herein , and almost all the ancients , especially the greeks , that speak of that subject , take angels for more subtile purer bodies . i know not what athenagoras meaneth to call the devil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — materiae ejusque formarum princeps , & alii ex iliis qui circa primum mundi fundamentum erant peccarunt , &c. pag. . and hence he and others talk of their falling in love with virgins , &c. and when faustus rhegiensis wrote a book to prove that angels and souls were but a purer subtile sort of bodies or matter , claudianus mammertus largely and learnedly confuteth him ( who pretended that all the ancients were on his side ) : yet doth the same mammertus think , that though angels quoad sormam be incorporeal , they had bodies also which were fire , or of the nature of the starrs . which caesarius also seemeth to mean , when he saith that [ not only that which is here with us below is fire ; but also those higher powers seem to be fire , and kin to that which is with us , as our souls are kin to angels . ] dialog . . q. , . pag. . and qu. . he saith [ that the shepherds when they will boil flesh ( in the fields where they have no fire ) do use to fill a glass vessel with water , and hold it directly opposite to the sun , and then touch dryed dung with it , and it will kindle fire . ] and having thus proved the sun to be fire , he saith , dial. . qu. . that omnibus creatis levior est ignis naturâ : ideoq , angeli etiam hanc sortiti sunt : qui facit angelos suos spiritus , & ministros suos ignis flammam . and qu. . he faith , that the starre which led the magi to christ , was an angel. ] it would be tedious to cite all out of tertullian , lactantius , and all the ancients that was written to assert that angels quoad formam were corpor a tenuiora ; and out of those that came after them , and confuted them , who yet wrote that they were the souls of fiery bodies . and abundance of our writers of physicks , metaphysicks and logick , do tell us , that angels have materiam metaphysicam , and in a certain sense may be called corporeal . and the summ of all is , when they determine the questions about their locality , extension ▪ or quantity , that they have their ubi ; their quantity and extension ( which are the properties of bodies ) sou modo , vel modo metaphysico , as bodies have them modo sou physico ; being not immense or infinite no more than bodies . ( how far the name of nature belongeth to them , see fortunius licetus de natura primo-movente . ) and schibler with others , maketh the difference of extension to be this , that angels can contract their whole substance into one part of space , and therefore have not partes extra partes . whereupon it is that the schoolmen have questioned how many angels may sit upon the point of a needle ? for my part i profess , that as my understanding is fully satisfied by the operations and effects , that there are such invisible potent substances , which we call angels and spirits , so it is utterly unsatisfied in the common properties of penetrability and impenetrability , extension , or discerptibility , and indiscerptibility or indivisibility , as the characters to know them by . and as i think that materia had been as fit a name as another , for that part or notion of spiritual substances which is distinguished from their form , if custom had so pleased to use it ; so i think that such substances as we call spirits or immaterial , may be well said to be compounded of metaphysical or spiritual matter and form , and this in consistency with such simplicity as belongeth to a creature . and i remember not what apt word we have instead of matter to supply its place in latine , which taketh not in the notion of the form : for the word matter signifieth no real being , but only a partial inadequate conception of real beings quoad hoc , which have all something more which is essential to them . there is no such thing existent as matter without form or peculiar nature . and the matter and form are such partes intelligibiles as can neither of them exist alone . therefore as it is not fit to make too eager a controversie de nomine materiae , vel materialis ; so i think that it is little that we know of any substances at all , but what their accidents and effects reveal . matter we know by the quantity , figure , colour , heat or cold , density or rarity , hardness or softness , levity or weight , &c. and forms , or differencing natures we know by their operations : but that either matter or form is known to us immediately by it self , and is the objectum sensus per se & immediatè , i cannot say by any observed experience of mine own . would you have me to go further yet ? i shall then adventure to say , that as i feel no satisfying notion to difference the highest simple being called material , from the lowest next it called immaterial , but what is in and from the forms ; so i think that it is too slippery a ground for any man to satisfie himself or others by , to say only that one is material and the other immaterial . matter as i said being but a pars intelligi●ilis or inadequate conception of a thing , is not to be a genus in any predicament . and if substance express the adequate conception , it must comprehend something answerable to matter , with that defferencing nature called the form . and what name besides matter to give to that part of the conception of a substance , which is contradistinct from the form , philosophers are yet but little agreed in : some name there must be when we speak of any created substances : for the name of substance must not confound these distinct conceptions : therefore materia metaphysica vel spiritualis is the term , that hitherto men are fain to use . moreover , it is the form that doth difference and denominate . how then can you sufficiently difference corporeal and incorporeal from the material cause , by calling one physical and the other hyperphysical , or metaphysical ? doth any mans understanding perceive the true positive difference by these words ? is matter as opposed to nihil reale , and is ens creatum , ( or as it expresseth our half-conception both of corporeal and incorporeal substances ) differenced so discernably or toto genere , vel tota specie , without a form to make the difference : doth mole immunis & mole praedita speak a formal difference or not ? if not , what place hath it in arbore porphyrii vel gassendi ? and if it do not , you make the matter of substances ab origine differenced in se without any forms to difference them ; that is the physical and the metaphysical matter . but if those words do express a formal difference , you should finde some other to expound them by : for sure mole praedita , expresseth no form intelligibly : and mole immunis is but a meer negation of quantity . differences therefore that are fetcht from matter here ( or the material part of substance ) are hardly made intelligible : and we have so little acquaintance with spiritual substances in their naked matter ( for unless you will take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is better than substance ) i know not how else to call it ) that we speak but by rote when we talk of indivisibility , and unextensiveness , and impenetrability as the notifying differences ; because they are things beyond our understandings . is there a difference between intellectual and spiritual beings among themselves or not ? doubtless there is , as the case of angels , devils , and the souls of men declare : is this difference among any of them specifical and formal ? it is commonly so concluded , as between angels and men . is there then any agreement in substance , or in another essential part , where there is a formal difference ? i know none that notifie the other essential difference of the substance of mens souls and angels ; but they commonly confess that both are spirits , not differenced materially otherwise than in degrees of purity and dignity ( which how far it belongeth to the form i pretermit ) . but there can be no specifical difference in the matter considered without that form which specifieth . at least some agreement there is ; and of spirits which are of different forms or species , there must be some one name for that in which they still agree . if you say that it is in [ substance ] you must then take substance as we do matter for an inadequate conception , or only the pars inteligibilis of a being as without the form ; but that is not the common acception of it ; nor is it then fit for the place assigned it in ordine praedicamentali . from all this i am not about to injure any mans understanding , by building my conclusions upon any questionable grounds : i do but right your understandings so far , as to remove all uncertain foundations , though they be such as seem to be most for the advantage of my cause , and are by most made the great reasons of the souls immortality . and it is not my purpose to deny , that as angels are compounded ex genere & differentiâ , so the generical nature of angels greatly differeth from the nature of corporeal things : as god can make multitudes of corporeal creatures , formally or specifically different , of the matter of one simple element only ( as air , or fire ) without material mixture ; so he can either make an element of souls , either existent of it self , of which he will make individuals , yea species formally divers , or else existent only in the species and individuals , as he please . but then we must say , that as fire , and air , and water , do differ formally , as several elements , so the spiritual element or general nature hath a formal difference from the corporeal ( called the material ) . but hence it will follow , . that angels and humane souls have a double form ( as some use to call it ) that is , generical as spirits , which is presupposed as the aptitude of their metaphysical matter , by which they differ from bodies ; and specifical by which they are constituted what they are , and differ among themselves : ( unless you deny all such formal difference among them , and difference them only by individuation and accidents ; as several drops or bottles of water taken out of the same sea. ) . and it will seem plain , that our differencing characters or properties between spirits and bodies , must be sought for in their different forms , which must be found in the noble operations which flow from the forms , and not from uncertain accidents . therefore my design in all this is but to intimate to you , how lubricous and uncertain , and beyond the reach of mans understanding , the ordinary characters from such accidents are , and that its better fetch the difference from the operations . saith georg. ritschel contempl. metap . c. . pag. , & . difficile est rebus materialibus immersis substantiam immaterialem concipere . — et licet pro certo non constet an menti angelicae omnis simpliciter materialitas repugnet ; certum tamen est elementarem nostram ab illis abesse ; atque divinam essentiam ab omni esse materia secretam aeterna ejus & immutabilis habitudo convincit , nisi per materialitatem fortè substantiam intelligas . — § . dubium quidem nullum est immaterialem mundum essentiarum varietate intelligibilium aequè admirabilem & augustum esse , atque mundum corporeum videmus : sed in quo illa consistat diversitas , bonis indicio certo non percipitur . nimirum si praeter te & lumbricum atque scarabaeum animal aliud nullum vidisses , audires autem esse alia innumera genera , diversitate naturae & forma penitus discrepantia , tum vagas quidem confusasque de diversitate volvere cogitationes posses ; non posses autem illas tot bestiarum , piscium , reptilium , avium , species suo vultu & coloribus signare : ita quid spiritus sit immaterialis ex te capere , qui mentem immaterialem habes , qualemcunque notitiam potes , non potes autem in te perspicere in quo precise illa varietas consistat . to come neerer to the application of what is said to the present objection . . the souls of men and bruits , we see do not differ in genere entis , nor in genere substantiae , nor in genere principii vitalis , nor in genere sentientis ; . the matter of both , whether it differ as metaphysical and physical , or how , is much beyond our knowledge . . the great diversity of operations , doth shew the great diversity of their powers and forms , and inclinations . . this sheweth the diversity of their uses and ends for which they were created . . it is certain , that no substantial principle in either of them is annihilated at death . the souls of bruits have the same nature after death as they had before , and the souls of men have the same nature as before . they are not transformed into other things . . therefore about both of them , there is nothing left of doubt or controversie , but only . about the perpetuated individuation , . the future operations ( and so the habits ) ; viz. . whether the souls of men or bruits , or both , do lose their individuation , and fall into some vniversal element of their kinde ? . whether they operate after death as now ? there is nothing else about their immortality that common reason can make a question of . and for the souls of bruits , whether they remain individuate , or return to a common element of their kinde , is a thing unknown to us , because unrevealed ; and unrevealed , because it is of no use and concernment to us . our own case concerneth us more , and therefore is more made known to us by god. as will further appear in that which followeth . objection iii. hvmane souls are but forms : and forms are but the qualities or modes of substances , and therefore accidents : and therefore perish when separated from the bodies . answ . the world of learned men do find themselves too much work , and trouble others with controversies about names and words , and especially by confounding words and things , and not discerning when a controversie is only de nomine , and when it is de re . and they have done so about forms as much as any thing . the word form is usually liable to this ambiguity : in compounded beings , it is sometime taken for the active predominant part or principle ; and sometimes for the state which resulteth from the contemperation of all the parts . which is the fittest to be called the form , is but a question de nomine . gassendus himself confesseth this ambiguity of the word , and having pleaded that all forms , except man's intellectual soul , are but modes or qualities of bodies , and accidents . he addeth , § . . l. . c. . si formae nomine spiritum quendam & quasi florem materiae intellexeris , cujusmodifere concipimus animam in equo , tum forma dici potest substantia , immo & corpus tenuissimum , quod crassius pervadat , perficiat & regat — at si formae nomine intelligatur dispositio ac modus quo tam substantia illa spirituosior quam crassior reliqua se habet , & ad quam facultates actionesque naturales consequuntur tum posse qualitatem conseri ac dici . whether the souls of bruits be only the spirits , or the flos materiae , or not , it is granted by him , and by almost all men , that in mixt bodies there is one part more subtil than the rest , which is the most active , powerful , predominant part , and which doth corpus pervadere , perficere , regere . he thinketh that this is but that subtil matter which others call fire ; but others think upon the reasons before given , that it is a superiour nature , and that the spirits , or fiery nature , is but its nearest instrument : because no subtilty will make atoms sensible or appetitive , which in their proper nature have no such thing . but what ever becomes of the controversie , whether the animal principle in bruits be material or immaterial , it is granted us , and is certain , that in all mixed beings , there is a difference of the constitutive parts : as the fiery nature ( such as the sun is of ) is active in comparison of the other three elements , which to it are passive ; so the vital principle in bruits is active , powerful and regent , as to the rest of the compounding parts . and it 's certain , that the name of a [ form ] is by contenders taken , sometime for that regent active principle or substance , ( be it what it will ) and sometime for the temperament resulting from all the parts . in engines where there is no principle or part which is notably predominant , the name of the [ form ] is given to the ordered conjunction of all the parts . so in a watch , the spring , though the beginning of motion , is not so fitly called the form of the watch , as the order of the whole frame . but in living things , there is more room for a competition between the regent part and the temperament , which of them should be called the form . now it is undeniable with all men , that both in men and bruits , that regent principle is a substance , and that the contemperation or order of the parts is but their mode , and maketh no other kind of being than ordo civitatis vel reipublicae is , which ceaseth upon the dissolution . and the form of simple beings , corporeal or incorporeal , elements or spirits , is neither another substance , distinct from the physical and metaphysical matter , nor yet an accident or mode : but that peculiar nature , consisting in certain powers or virtues , by which , as essential to it , that being is specifically differenced from others : which some call an essential quality , and some a substantial quality , and some a substantial form , because it is the perfection and essential nature of the substance in specie , and not another substance besides it . thus burgersdicius ( however in his physicks he saith as others ) in his metaphysicks , l. . c. . § . , , . saith , that [ forma substantialis est quae materiam complet eamque informat , atque it a constituit substantiam corpoream : forma accidentalis est additamentum completae substantiae inhaerens , & cum illa constituens . ens concretum atque unum per accidens . ] and he addeth that [ forma substantialis non per se est substantia : substantia enim per se sul sistit , &c. — quid ergo erit substantialis forma ? nihil aliud quam substantialis modus . — quia formis , debetur , quod res corporales tales res sint , iis etiam ex parte debetur quod sint : quia esse non potest concipi absque tali aut tali esse , & tale esse est ipsius esse complementum . ] and yet the same man saith , i. id . l. . c. . § . p. . resp animas vegetativas & sensitivas unitas quidem esse corpori ex elementis confecto , sed mediante spiritu vituli & animali : ideoque facultates earum animarum non esse temperationes primarum qualitatum , sed ipsam substantiam animarum , quatenus spiritium ope elementari corpori aliigantur . if then you take the word [ form ] for the order of the parts , i say that man's soul is not his form in that sense , nor is his form a substance : but if the regent , predominant , active , vital , intelligent principle be called the [ form ] so the form is a substance , and the soul is that form . here we must not confound formam corporis , formam animae , & formam hominis . . the form of adam's body , before it had received a soul , was but the contemperation or order of all the parts , by which it was apt to receive a soul , and to be actuated by it , as corpus physicum organicum . . the form of the soul it self , ( e.g. in its separated state ) is that vis naturalis inteligendi , volendi & exequendi , by which it is essentially differenced from all other kinds of being , ( commonly comprehended under the name of reason alone . ) . the forma hominis , taken for the state of the parts contemperate and ordered , is that said state or order , and not the soul . but taken for the vital , intelligent , regent part or principle , it is the soul it self . so that the soul is not the forma corporis , nor the forma hominis in the one sense ; but it is the forma hominis in the other : and it s own differencing nature is its own form . the li●e ambiguity there is in the word quality , used in the objection . as i was never satisfied with the order or number of aristotle's ten predicaments , so especially i never understood him in the predicament of quality it self . as it is a very hard thing to know what those are that are by him , and commonly , called qualities ; so i think that name too general and defective to signifie the nature of them aright . and i supposed ever that his forma & figura differ much more from the other species of quality , than most of the predicaments do from one another , ( of which see bergersdicius metaph. l. . cap. ult . & gassendus in logic. ) judicious mr. pemble , de origine formarum , pleadeth hard that principia constitutiva are materia ( vel subjectum ) & accidentia ; & principium transmutationis is contrariarum qualitatum pugna : that forma , exceptâ humanâ , non est substantia , nec materialis , nec immaterialis , sed accidens vel accidentium mixtura dictum temperamentum , & quod accidentia per se & immediate agunt , & non in virtute formae substantialis . that is , quod qualitates immediate haerent in materia , & à qualitatibus immediate profluunt operationes & operandi vires . quod qualitates omnes primae , ( which he maketh five , lux , calor , frigus , humiditas , siccitas ) & aliquae secundae , tenuitas , erassities , gravitas , levitas ▪ fluor , consistentia , creationis die primo existiterunt : quod qualitates omnes activae generant sibi simile , & ita sui diffusivae & similium generativae sunt , ut necessario materiam sibi proportionatam efficiunt . quod animae vegetativae in plantis & sensitivae in brutis sunt tantum temperamenta nobiliora qualitatum actuosiorum in materia subtili , pura , spirituosiore . telesius maketh the same principles ( materia , calor & frigus ) as to the chief ; but he maketh calor & frigus to be substances , vel formae substantiales , & non tantum accidentia . so that they that agree that it is qualities that are the active forms , are never the more agreed what they are , nor what the word qualities doth signifie . and what if by the word quality , pemble do mean the very same thing as many others do that call them forms , ( when they speak of vegetatives . ) and what if by substances , telesius mean the same that pemble doth by accidents . is not the world then troubled with ambiguitie of words ? he that will consider them well may suspect , that they mean as i conjecture . an active power or principle being the chief cause of operations , alterations and discrimination , is the thing that they all mean by all these names . and the followers of democritus , especially gassendus and cartesius , do not improbably argue that it is some substantial being which maketh that change or effect upon our senses , which as there received is a quality . so that unless mr. pemble can better tell us what lux , & calor , are , than by calling them qualities , he hath given the understanding no satisfaction at all . much less when he nakedly asserteth , without any proof , that sensation doth not superare naturam primarum qualitatum , that are none of them sensible themselves . and when he hath no other answer to this argument , but that non minus miranda sunt in inanimatis , which he giveth not one instance or word to prove . when aristotle , &c. scaliger , sennertus , and abundance more , have said much to the contrary . i conclude , that for all that is here said , and whether you call them our forms or not , ( as you may or may not , in several senses ) humane souls are those parts of man which are simple , pure , invisible , active , powerful substances ; and therefore being not annihilated , must needs subsist in their separated state . objection iv. the soul is material , and consequently mortal , because it dependeth upon matter in its operations , and consequently in its essence . answ . . i have proved already , that if you did prove the soul material , you had not thereby at all proved it mortal : ( unless you mean only , that it hath a posse mori vel annihilari ; which may be said of every creature ) for simple matter , which hath no repugnant parts or principles , hath not only a posse nen mori , but an aptitude in its nature , ad non moriendum . remember your friends that make the world , or matter , at least , to be eternal . they thought not that materiality was a proof of either annihilation or corruption . object . if it be material , it must be compounded of matter and form , and therefore is corruptible . answ . true , if that matter and form were two several substances , and were one repugnant to the other . the soul and body are different substances ; but the metaphysical matter and form of the soul , being but the genus & differentia , are not two substances , much less repugnant ; and therefore have never the more a tendency to corruption . . the soul useth matter , and dependeth no otherwise on it than its instrument . it doth not follow that a man is a horse ▪ because he dependeth on his horse in the manner of his riding , and his pace : nor that i am inanimate , because in writing i depend on my pen , which is inanimate . if you put spirits of wine into water or whey , as its vehicle to temper it , for a medicine , it doth not follow that the spirits are meer water , because they operate not without the water , but conjunct , and as tempered by it . if the fire in your lamp do not shine or burn without the oil , but in manner and duration dependeth on it , it doth not follow that fire is annihilated when the candle is out , or that it was but oil before : no nor that it ceaseth to be fire afterwards , as gassendus must needs confess , who holdeth that the elements are not turned into one another , § . . l. . c. . fire ceaseth not to be fire , when it goeth out of our observation . the noblest natures use and rule the inferiour . god himself moveth and useth things material , and yet is not therefore material himself . yea , if motus be in patiente & recipitur ad modum recipientis , you may conjecture how far god's own operations upon the creatures may be called dependent , as to the effect , as being ad captum & modum creaturae . and the sun doth move and quicken all passive matter here below ad modum recipientis , with great variety through the variety of the matter ; and yet it followeth not that the sun is it self such passive matter . . the soul hath operations , which are not upon matter at all , though matter may possibly be an antecedent occasion or prerequisite . such is the apprehension of its own intellection and volitions , and all that it thence gathereth of god , and other intellectual natures and operations , of which i must say more anon . objection v. no immaterial substance moveth that which is material , as a principle of its operations : but the soul moveth the body as the principle of its operations : ergo. answ . . i have already said , that if you proved the soul material , it would not prove it mortal . . as the body hath various operations , so it is moved by various principles or powers . as to locomotion , and perhaps vegetation , the materia subtilii , or finest atoms , as you will call it , or the fiery matter in the spirits , as i would call it , is an active being , which hath a natural power to move it self and the rest . but whether that motion do suffice to sensation , is undecided . but certainly there is another inward principle of motion , which guideth much of the locomotive , and over-ruleth some of the natural motion , by a peculiar action of its own , which is called intellection and volition , as i have proved before . when i go to the church , when i write , or talk , the spirits are the nearest sufficient principle of the motion as motion : but as it is done in this manner , to this end , at this time , with these reasons , it is from the intellectual principle . and thus i deny the major proposition . and i prove the contrary . . god is the first principle of all motion in the world , and the first cause of material motion , and yet is not material . . what the lower and baser nature can do , that the higher and nobler hath power to do , ( suppositis supponendis ) therefore if a body can move a body , a soul can do it much more . but , saith gassendus , causis secundis primum agendi principium est atomorum varia mobilitas ingenita , non incorporea aliqua substantia . answ . angels are causae secundae , souls are causae secundae , animated bodies of men are causae secundae : prove it now of any of these ( in your exclusion ) if you can . but he saith , capere non licet quomodo si incorporeum sit , ita applicari corpori valeat , ut illi impulsum imprimat ; quando noque ipsum contingere , carens ipsa tactu seu mole quae tangat , non potest — physicae actiones corporeae cum sint , nisi à principio physico corporeoque elici non possiut — quod anima autem humana incorporea cum sit ▪ & in ipsum tamen corpus suum agat , motumque ipsi imprimat , dicimus animam humanam qua est intellectus seu mens , atque adeo incorporea , non elicere actiones nisi intellectuales , seu mentales & incorporeas . et quum est sentiens , vegetans , praeditaque vi corporum motrice atque adeo corporea est , elicere actiones corporeas , &c. and of angels and devils he saith , that it is known by faith only that they are incorporeal , and perhaps god gave them extraordinary bodies , when he would have them move or act on bodies . to this i answer , . who gave those atoms their ingenite mobility , and how ? you say that captum omnem fugit ut quippiam aliud moveat , si in seipso immotum maneat . if so , then it seemeth , that either god was moved when he moved atoms , or that he never moved them . how then came they to be moved first ? but you confess that god put into them their mobility . you say , de deo alia ratio est , quoniam infinitae virtutis cum sit , & v●ique praesens , non ullo s●i motu , sed nutu solo agere & movere quidlibet potest . if you think not as you speak , it is unworthy of a philosopher ; if you do , then it is strange that you should overthrow your own reasoning , and excuse it no better than thus . if the reason why incorporeal spirits cannot move bodies be that which you alledge , ( because only a body can be applied to a body to make impression on it ) then god can less move a body than man's soul can ; because his purest essence is more distant from corporeal grossness than our souls are . at least , the reason would be the same . and to say that god is every where , and of infinite vertues , maketh him nevertheless a spirit : and created spirits ( if that be enough ) may have power or vertue enough for such an effect . doubtless if god move bodies , the spirituality of an agent hindereth not the motion . . but why should it captum omnem superare , that a nobler and more potent nature can do that , which a more ignoble can do ? because i cannot know how a spirit by contact can apply it self to matter , shall i dream that therefore it is uncapable of moving bodies ? clean contrary , i see that matter of it self is an unactive thing : and were it not that the noble active element of fire , ( which as a lower soul to the passive matter , and a thing almost middle between a spirit and a body ) did move things here below , i could discern no motion in the world , but that which spirits cause , except only that of the parts to the whole , the aggregative motion which tendeth to rest . the difference of understandings is very strange : it is much easier to me to apprehend , that almost all motion should come from the purest , powerful , active , vital natures , than that they should be all unable to stir a straw , or move the air , or any body . objection vi. the soul is in our sleep either unactive , ( as when we do not so much as dream ) or acteth irregularly and irrationally , according to the fortuitous motion of the spirits : ergo , it is no incorporeal immortal substance . answ . . i suppose the soul is never totally unactive . i never awaked since i had the use of memory , but i found my self coming out of a dream . and i suppose they that think they dream not , think so because they forget their dreams . . many a time my reason hath acted for a time as regularly , and much more forcibly , than it doth when i am awake : which sheweth what it can do , though it be not ordinary . . this reason is no better than that before answered ; where i told you , that it argueth not that i am a horse , or no wiser than my horse , because i ride but according to his pace , when he halteth , or is tired . nor doth it prove that when i alight , i cannot go on foot . he is hard of understanding that believeth , that all the glorious parts of the world above us , have no nobler intellectual natures than man. suppose there be angels , and suppose one of them should be united to a body , as our souls are : we cannot imagine but that he would actuate it , and operate in it according to its nature ; as i write amiss when my pen is bad . the same i say of persons lethargick , apoplectick , delirant , &c. objection vii . reason is no proof of the soul's immateriality , because sense is a clearer and more excellent way of apprehension than reason is ; and the bruits have sense . answ . . i have said enough to the case of bruits before . . the soul understandeth bodily things , by the inlet of the bodily senses : things incorporeal ( as i shall shew more anon ) it otherwise understandeth . when it understandeth by the help of sense , it is not the sense that understandeth any thing . if bruits themselves had not an imagination which is an image of reason , their sense would be of little use to them . we see when by business or other thoughts the minde is diverted and alienated , how little sense it self doth for us : when we can hear as if we never heard , and see , and not observe what we see , yet it 's true , that the more sense helpeth us in the apprehending of things sensible , which are then objects , the better and surely r●w perceive them by the understanding . as the second and third concoction will not be well made , if there be a failing in the first ; so the second and third perception , ( ●n the phantasie and intellect ) will be ill made , if the first deceive or fail them . but this proveth not either that the first concoction or perception is more noble than the third ; or that sensitives without reason have any true understanding at all ; or that sense , phantasie and reason , are not better than sense alone . but these things need not much disputing . if sense be nobler than reason , let the horse ride the man , and let the woman give her milk to her cow , and let bruits labour men , and feed upon them , and let beasts be your tutors , and kings and judges , commit to them the noblest works , and give them the preeminence , if you think they have the noblest faculties . objection viii . sensation and intellection are both but reception : the passiveness therefore of the soul doth shew its materiality . answ . a short answer may satisfie to this objection . . all created powers are partly passive , how active soever they be . for being in esse & operari dependant on and subordinate to the first cause , they must needs receive his influence , as well as exercise their own powers . as the second wheel in the clock , must receive the moving force of the first , before it can move the third . . it is an enormous error about the operations of the soul , to think that intellection yea or sensation either , is meer reception , and that the sensitive and intellective power are but passive . the active soul of man ( yea of bruits ) receiveth not its object , as the mark or butt receiveth the arrow that is shot at it . it receiveth it by a similitude of nature , and by an active attendance , and embracement , yea by an active appetite sicut foemina marem , vel potius sicut esuriens cibum : yea , it moveth towards its object , and meeteth it : it actively welcometh and improveth it : as i said even now , a scholar that in his studies so far diverteth his thoughts , that he knoweth not that the clock hath strucken at his ears , and knoweth not what those say that talk by him , doth shew that some active attendance is necessary to almost all perception . he that feeleth not that his understanding doth agere as well as pati ( when he is studying , reading or writing ) is a stranger to himself . how oft have i read over many lines when i have thought of something else , and not known one word that i have read ? is inventing , compounding , dividing , defining , &c. no action ? i never felt cause from any experience of my own , to believe that i was a meer patient in any thought that was ever in my minde . nay the epicurean that supposeth thoughts to be but a dance of atomes , called spirits , doth think that those atomes or spirits are notably active . cartesius his materia sultilis is eminent in activity . do you think that every dead object which i think on with my eyes shut in the night , and so much more alive than i , and so much more active than my minde , that it must be accounted the sole agent , and my minde the patient . they know little of a minde that talk in this strain . i know cartesius telleth us , that the eye hath no fire or light in it , except perhaps the eye of a cat or owl . but if the study of matter and motion had left him any room for the consideration of other things which he past over , he would by a little search have found that the eye doth close with its primary object , light , by meer connaturality , because it participateth of light it self , in its own constitution . it is fire in the eye , even in the visive spirits , which meeteth the fire or light without , and by union causeth that which we call sight . and seeing that experience forced him to confess it of cats and owls , how could he think that all other eyes or sight were quite of another kinde ? some men have been able to see in the dark , and had sparkling eyes almost like cats . the degree here differeth not the species . if this materia subtilis or globuli aetherei be fire , he might have allowed some of that to the visive spirits in man as well as in owls . saith ficinus in theophrast . de anim. c. . primum luminosum est coeleste : secundum est igneum : tertium inter composita quod quasi fulget ut ignis . primum luminale est oculus , praecipuè radiosus , in animalibus , quae nocte vident ; sed ●lii quoque oculi quamvis minus , sunt tamen luminalus . nemesius † l. pro immort . anim. in bibl. pat. p. . approveth plato's judgement , ( plato inquit ) per confusionem splendorum res aspici existimat , ut id lumen quod ex oculis proficiscitur aliquo usque in aerem , qui ejusdem est secum genus effluat . quod verò à corporibus manat contraferatur , & quod in aere est , qui interponitur , facileque diffunditur & vertitur , simul cum oculorum igne extendatur ] . et galenus ( inquit ) de visione cum platone consentit in de consens . and he saith himself , that the sun sendeth its light by the air , and the light in the eye streameth also into it ; which is to seeing as the nerves are to the brain for feeling . porphyry saith , that sight is the soul it self discerning it self in all things . but if there were any doubt in the point of sight ( which is performed both by active spirits , and an active object , light ) yet methinks that when i feel a stone , much more when i meditate on a mountain , all should confess that my sense and intellection is like to have more action than that stone and mountain . and if you say only that spirits first moved move others , and so touch the intellectual organs , or spirits , i have partly answered that before , and shall answer it more anon . we have great reason to ascribe the most of action to that part which is most subtile , vigorous and active . objection ix . there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the sense , from which it receiveth all its knowledge by the idea's of the phantasie ; therefore the soul can reach no higher than to corporeal sensible things : therefore it is but such it self . answ . the antecedent is false , and both the consequents . had he limited his assertions to corporeal objects , i should easily acknowledge to gassendus , that omnis quae in mente habetur idea ortum ducit à sensibus . et omnis id●a aut per sensum transit , aut ex iis quae transeunt per sensum formatur . et quae idea propriis acquiritur sensibus persectior est eâ quae ex facta ab alio descriptione formatur . qualis idea rei , talis definitio . but that these things will not hold true as he delivereth them universally , i think i shall make plain , and confute this objection to the satisfaction of any one that knoweth himself . ortum ducere à sensu is an ambiguous phrase : the sense may be the occasion sine qua non , of that whereof it never had the least participation in it self . i desire you but to distinguish between the intellects object and its act , and those objects which it knoweth by the mediation of other extrinsick objects , and those which it knoweth by the mediation of its own act. these differences are past all doubt . when the eye seeth these lines and this paper , the light and lines and paper are each one thing , and the sight of them is another . i see the light , and thereby the paper ; but i see not my sight : my sight is not the object of my sight : it may be said , that the object is in my sight , but not that my sight is in my sight : yet by seeing i perceive not only what i see , but that i see ; and i perceive much more plainly that i see , than what i see . i may doubt of a thousand objects which i see , what matter , shape , or colour they are of ; but i doubt not at all of the act of seeing ; that right or wrong some fight i have , or that i see the light : so is it with the intellect . this book is one thing , and the understanding it is another thing . the book is the object of my understanding ; but ( at least in primò instanti ) my understanding is not the object of my understanding ; but by understanding i have an immediate perception that i understand . and ( as cartesius truely saith ) the act of intellection is more perceived than the object : i am more certain that i think and understand , than i am of the nature of that which i think of and understand . if any say , that the act of intellection is the object of another intellection , because intelligo me intelligere , and so that intellectio non est tantum actus intellectus , sed etiam est in intellectu , and that the intellect doth understand its own act intuitivè as some speak , or by reflexion as others ( though doubtless the first perception that i understand , is not by reflexion , but by that same act of understanding something else ) ( as sight doth not reflect upon it self to get a perception that i see ) i will enter no controversie about any of these notions of the manner of our understanding our own act of intellection , which doth not concern the present business . but it is most certain that actus intelligendi nunquam fuit in sensu : when the object of intellection did pass through the sense , the act of intellection did not : nor the intellection or perception of that act of intellection , did not : nor the intellection of the common nature of an intelligence , which from hence i gather ; nor the intellection of particular intelligences as angels ; nor my intellection of any mans intellect or intellectual act , whose nature i gather from mine own : nor the conception i have of a deity as the most perfect intellect ; nor the perception which i have of my own volition of my own felicity , or of the means thereto as such , nor of the pleasing of god , nor of another mans good : nor my perception of the nature of the will hence gathered ; nor my conception of the volitive power in other persons ; nor my conceptions of the volitions of god , of angels , &c. nor my conception of intellectual or moral habits , nor of the wills natural inclinations ! none of all these were ever in the sense ; nor passed through the sense : some of them ( which gassendus de ideis overlooketh ) are without any idea at all properly so called ( as the first perception of the act of my own understanding and will , by understanding and willing other things ; as we perceive that we see non videndo ipsum visum , sed alia videndo ) : and that idea which we have of all the rest , is fetcht from this perception of our own acts , and not from any thing which ever was in the sense : the soul by knowing it self , doth gather the knowledge of all higher intellectual beings , which is its most considerable worthy knowledge . i hope i have given you instances enow ; and plain enough , and you see now what truth there is of nihil est intellectu quod non fuit prius in sensu . d' orbellis distinguisheth knowledge ( largely taken ) into sensitivè & intellectivè : and both of them into abstractivè & intuitivè . knowledge intuitive is of an object as it self present , when a thing in its present existence , is the moving object of knowledge . knowledge abstractive is when the species of the thing doth move us to know the thing it self : and that whether the thing it self be present or absent , and have existence or not . the example of intuitive sensitive knowledge or perception which he giveth , is the eye seeing colours . the instance of abstractive sensitive knowledge is , as the phantasie imagineth colours : the instance of intuitive intellective knowledge is , the saints seeing the glory of god in heaven , and he might have instanced in many other things : the instance of abstractive intellective knowledge , is the understandings knowledge of the quiddity of colours by means of the species . to which may be added , that abstractive knowledge is either per speciem propriam , or per speciem alienam : in this life the soul knoweth its own acts either intuitively or by an act , if possible , yet neerer to its essential power , that hath no usual distinguishing name . it knoweth its own powers , inclinations , and habits , neither by a knowledge , in proper and strict sense , intuitive or abstractive : for it is not by a proper species , but it is its natural innate power of discerning this principle , that quicquid agit potest agere quod agit ; by arguing ab actu ad potentiam & naturam . but in the large sense as cartesius useth the word , this may be called , an idea . the minde knoweth god and angels , and other mens souls , in this large sense also by an idea , but not per speciem propriam , sed alienam , that is , not by a species of god and angels , but by an idea borrowed from our own intellections and volitions . but this is not an idea that ever passed through the senses : and gassendus might have thought on it , whether it be not an idea in the intellect , if not without the phantasie , at least over and above the idea in the imagination , when he denieth that there is any such intellective idea's . . but what if there had been nothing in the intellect , but what passed through the sense ? it would no more thence follow that the intellect is no more noble , spiritual or immortal than the sense , than it will follow that the king is no better than his porter , because none cometh to him till he let them in ; or that the animal spirits are no more noble than the teeth , or than the natural heat ; or the third concoction is no more excellent than the first , because nothing cometh to the third concoction , but what was masticated , swallowed , and passed the first and second concoction . of which , before . . and even by the help of things sensible , epicurus can reach the knowledge of insensible atoms , and cartesius of his subtil matter , and globuli coelestes : why then by things sensible may we not reach the knowledge of spiritual substances and powers ? yet after all this , i am much of their mind , who think that it is not actual knowledge that is born with us ; nor is there any true idea or picture of any thing innate in our understandings ; and i think that if per possibile vel impossibile , you suppose a man born without any one sense , that he would have had no actual knowledge at all , ( though that is uncertain . ) because as if i had not seen any thing objective , i should not have perceived that i could see ; so if i had never known any other object , i could not have known what it is to know : and other objects have no way , that i know of , to the intellect , but through the sense : ( though what the active spirits would have done upon the phantasie , i cannot possibly understand . ) but all this only concludeth , that the senses reception is the way to the intellection of things sensible ; and that it was a necessary occasion , sine qua non , to the perception of our own intellectual act , because thus necessary to the act it self : but not that any idea of our own intellection , or any of all the things fore-instanced , was received through the senses . objection x. that which things corporeal work upon , is corporeal : for it cannot be conceived how bodies own work upon that which hath no body : but things corporeal work upon the soul : ergo , it is it self corporeal . answ . . i largely before shewed , that our uncertainty of the just consistence of metaphysical matter , or incorporeal substance , doth make all such arguings to sound like dreams . . i have shewed , that spiritual powers receive not impressions as dull matter doth , by a meer passive power : but by an activity and outgoing , it worketh indeed upon that which it receiveth , much more than any such matter can be said to work on it : nay , matter doth not properly work upon it at all , but only afford it matter to work upon , and occasion to exercise its active power . as the stone or tree doth not work upon the sight , but the sight by the help of light doth work upon it . as the eye can see a dung-hill , and yet be of a nobler kind , and god and angels can know beasts and worms , and yet be incorporeal . so man can know things inanimate , and yet be animate ; and things insensible , and yet be sensible ; and things irrational , and yet be rational ; and things corporeal , and yet be incorporeal . and this by the activity and extent of its power , and not by any passive debasing defectiveness at all . objection x● . that is not incorporeal , which neither knoweth it self to be incorporeal , nor hath any notion but negative of an incorporeal being : but such is man's soul . answ . . if the soul know not it self to be an immortal spirit , what maketh almost all the world to judge so of themselves ? insomuch that those men that under pretence of philosophy deny it , are fain to study very hard , and take many years pains to blot out this light of nature from their minds ; because they cannot be ignorant of it at easie rates : the understanding will not lose its natural light , nor suffer such verities to be obliterated , but by a great deal of industry , and by the engines of abundance of false notions , which are sought after to that use . as cicero saith of the epicureans , they learn those things , quae cum praeclare didicerunt nihil sciant . ( piso de fin . . p. . ) they learn diligently to unlearn the truth , that when they have learn'd much , they may know little . . hath man no notion but negative , of an incorporeal being . i shewed you before why the notion of materiality should not be here used for a cheat or blind . but look back on what i said even now , and you will see that as cartes truly saith , we have not only positive conceptions of a mind , but the first , the clearest , and the surest conceptions of it , in the measure that is fit for our present state . quest . . have you not a positive conception of intellection and volition ? if not , you are unfit for any controversies about them , and cannot own your own humanity . quest . . have you not a clearer perception , that you think , and know or reason ( either right or wrong ) than you have what that thing is that you think or reason about ? quest . . have you not a sure and positive conception , that omnis actus est alicujus actus , & quod nihil , nihil agit ? and therefore that you are an intelligent volitive being . quest . . have you not a positive sure conception , that quicquid agit agere potest , and that nothing doth that which it cannot do ; and therefore that your souls are beings potentiated for intellection , volition and execution ? quest . . have you not a positive sure conception , that you have a natural inclination to these acts , and a pleasure in them , and that they are natural and perfective to you ? and consequently that your souls are beings , that have not only a power , but a vis & inclinatio naturalis , or a power that is natural , and active , and inclined to these particular actings . quest . . have you not a positive sure conception , that the end and highest objects of these acts and inclinations , are things above sense , viz. your selves or minds in the first place , and then the things above you , the first being , cause , and mover of all ; the infinite power , wisdom and goodness , who is your maker and your end ? if you find no such thing , the lord have mercy on you , for every honest man may find it . quest . . have you not a positive sure conception , that such as the operations are which flow from the essential powers or faculties , such in nobility , and excellency , and nature is the substance thus potentiated and acting . all these are clear , undeniable , positive conceptions of the soul ; which set together are thus much , that [ the mind or soul of man is a noble essence , above the reach and nature of sense , naturally potentiated and inclined , as an active being , to intellection , volition , and seeking after things celestial and everlasting , especially god himself , his ultimate end . ] all this is positive , clear and sure . and you would think this enough , . if you did consider what lud. vives saith , that god hath given man a soul to use , rather than accurately to know ; or to know so far as is necessary to use . as your child may have the use of his knife , or clock , or watch , or cloaths , without knowing what metall they are made of , or how to compose and make the like , as long as he can but do that with them which is necessary to their use . often saith seneca , necessaria ignoramus , quia superflua didicimus . . if your minds were not by sense deluded and captivated to such fixed idea's of things corporeal and gross , as to over-look all other beings , and measure all substance by such gross idea's . . if you well considered , that you know in any respect little more of things corporeal , and in some respects much less . let us see wherein it is that you know more : either as to the sensible or insensible parts of such beings . as for the substances as such , you confess they are but per accidens , the objects of sense , and that as stripped of their accidents you have no positive true conception of them . and as for the accidents , you are no whit agreed either what they are , or how many . of all things you are most unanimous in that of quantity , moles , or extensions ; but what a poor kind of knowledge is it , to know that this or that is quantum , and not to know what it is that is quantum . what light , colour , sapor , odor are , and what all the senses that perceive them , you are as much disagreed as if this age had been the first that had debated it . the same i may say both of qualities in general , and of all other in particular , except figure , which properly belongeth not to the predicament . of all the rest there is the like disagreement ; even time and place , which truly are nothing but entia rationis , are debased by you in the first place , and are two of gassendus his four predicaments . about the number either of principles or elements , there is no agreement ; no nor what any one of the elements are : who hath told us what is the form of earth , or water , or air , or described them otherwise than by their qualities ? and then differ you as much about those qualities . who hath told us any thing of the naked matter or form of fire ( such as the sun and luminaries are ) ? any otherwise than by its acts , and powers or vertues of motion , light and heat , as we describe to you the soul of man. and if you go to the invisible part of matter , it would make a man rather sick than wise , to read men provincias dare atomis , as cicero speaketh ; and to think with what bold unreasonable fiction they number them , as shaped and figured ; and figure and shape them to the uses which they have feigned for them , and then use them and conduct them , and vary their motions , as confidently and seriously , as if they had given us any proof of any of this , and indeed expected to be believed . nay , we must know how the corners of atoms ( pardon the contradiction ) came to be filed or worn off by motion , and so reduced to greater subtilty . and gassendus , after all the fabrick which he buildeth upon atoms , saith , [ that atoms have not of themselves a moving force , but from god's first motion . § . . c. . p. . non quod deo necesse fuerit creare seorsim atomos , quas deinceps in partes grandiores , grandioresque ex his , mundus constaret , compingerit ; sed quod creans materiae massam , in corpuscula exolubilem , atque adeo ex corpusculis tanquam minimis extremisque particulis compositam , concreasse illi ipsa corpuscula censentur . ib. so that they know not indeed whether god created matter first in atoms disjunct , or in more large and bulky parts : and so whether motion did divide grosser and greater parts into atoms , or whether it coagulated atoms into greater bodies . but the sum is , that they only affirm , that what ever bodies god made , they are divisible into atoms , that is , into parts by man indivisible . a great mystery sure , that the whole is divisible into smaller parts ! and what the nearer is any man by this , for the discerning of any of their wild hypotheses ? in a word , god hath given man knowledge for his benefit and use , to the ends of his being and life : and so far as we have use for it we may know all things about us ; but to humour our wanton fancies he is not obliged . and because we have more use for the faculties of our souls , than for fire and water , or any outward thing , he hath given us the first and surest knowledge of them ; whatsoever self-contradicting somatists say , to depress this knowledge , and advance that knowledge of bodies , which their own disagreements do confute . sure i am , if that be a probable opinion which hath divers learned men for it , almost all things are probable in philosophy : and if that be improbable which hath multitudes of learned men against it , almost all things are improbable . objection xii . that which is generated is corruptible : but the soul is generated : ergo , &c. — answ . . if by [ corruptible ] you mean that which hath [ à posse perire ] or a certainty of perishing , if god uphold it not , i grant it of the whole creation . but if you mean that which in its nature is so fitted to dissolution , perishing or decay , as that god seemeth to intend it to such an end ; or must miraculously preserve it , or else it will perish ; or that which eventually will perish , then we must not so easily dismiss you . . the word [ generated ] is of so great ambiguity , and generation it self a thing so little understood by mortals , that this reason doth but carry the controversie into the dark , and argue ab obscuriore & minùs noto ; which is the way of a wrangler , and not of one that would reveal the truth . either generation is the production of some new substance , not existent before so much as in its matter ; or it is only the composition of pre-existent substances . if it be the later , then you may prove the possibility and probability of the dissolution of the frame , and separation of those several substances . but you will confess your selves , that each part retaineth its proper nature still ; and that if one were a more noble and active element than the rest , it is not annihilated , but remaineth so still without debasement . therefore if their opinion were true , who hold the pre-existence of that purest part of man which we call his soul , ( either in a common element , or individuate ) no reason can think that the dissolution doth any more than separate the parts of man , and return that soul to its pre-existent state ; where still it will be as noble a creature as it was here . but if generation do produce a substance de novo , which did no way pre-exist , then it is either a corporeal substance , or a spiritual or incorporeal : which soever it be , can you give any reason why this should perish at the dissolution , any more than if it had pre-existed ? if the nature of it be the same , why should not the duration be the same ? one of the two you will confess it , either a corporeal substance or an incorporeal , if it be at all a substance : and you confess that no substance is annihilated , or perisheth , otherwise than by dissolution of parts . if the reason of your major be , because the thing generated hath a beginning , and did oriri de novo , so did all matter and substances that be created . or if you suppose them all from eternity , yet do but suppose them to be created and have had a beginning , and yet to be the same as if they had been eternal , and you will see that there will be the same reason to prove their continuance , as long as their nature and their dependance on god are both the same . but it may be you will form your objection better , and say , that generation produceth no new substance , but only a composition , order and temperament of pre-existent substances : but souls are generated : ergo , they are no substances , but the order or temperament of pre-existent substances . answ . i never saw any thing like a cogent proof of the major : and most christians think you can never prove the minor . a substance may be called new , either because it is made of nothing , as in creation , or because it ariseth to its natural state of perfection ex semine vel natura foecunda , where it was only virtually and seminally before . before you can prove your major even in the first sense , you must be better acquainted with the nature of god , and of spirits , and of generation , than you are : i cannot imagine what shew of proof you can bring to prove , that universally no generation causeth a substance totally new , unless you will go to scripture , ( which you believe not ) and plead from genes . . that god then ended all his works , and therefore doth create no more . but , . he may cause them totally de novo , without such a creation as is there spoken of : for he may by a stablished law of nature adjoyn his producing influx to the act of a creature , ( ordinarily ) and so difference it from that proper creation . . no man can prove that god hath there said one word to assure us , that he will never create any thing hereafter . cannot a workman look on his house , and see that it is well done , and say , i have finished it , without obliging him never to build another , nor to make any reparations of that as there is cause ? may not god create a new heaven and earth ? may he not create a new star , or a new plant or animal , if he please , without the breaking of any word that he hath spoken ? for my part , i never saw a word which i could discern to have any such signification or importance . the argument from genes . . is no better than theirs , who from christ's consummatum est do gather , that his death and burial which followed that word , were no part of his satisfactory meritorious humiliation . on the contrary , there have been both philosophers and divines , who have thought , that god doth in omni instanti , properly create all things which he is said to conserve : of whom the one part do mean only , that the being of the creatures is as dependant on his continual causation , as the life of the branches is on the tree : but that the same substance is continued , and not another daily made . but there are others who think , that all creatures who are in fluxu continuo , not per locomotum , but ab entitate ad nihilum , and that they are all but a continual emanation from god , which as it passeth from him tendeth to nothing , and new emanations do still make such a supply , as that the things may be called the same ; as a river , whose waters pass in the same channel . as they think the beams or light of the sun doth in omni instanti oriri & festinare ad nihilum , the stream being still supplied with new emanations . were it not for the overthrow throw of individuation , personality , rewards and punishments that hence seemeth to follow , this opinion would seem more plausible than theirs , who groundlesly prohibit god from causing any more new beings . but though , no doubt , there is unto all beings , a continual emanation or influx from god , which is a continued causation , it may be either conservative of the being first caused , or else restorative of a being continually in decay , as he please : for both ways are possible to him , as implying no contradiction ; though both cannot be about one and the same being , in the same respect , and at the same time . and our sense and reason tell us , that the conservative influx is his usual way . . but it is commonly , and not without reason , supposed , that generation produceth things de novo in another sense : not absolutely , as creation doth ; but secundum quid , by exalting the seminal virtue into act , and into perfection . new individuals are not made of new matter now created ; but the corporeal part is only pre-existent matter , ordered , compounded and contempered : and the incorporeal part is , both quoad materiam suam metaphysicam , & formam vel naturam specificam , the exaltation and expurgency of that into full and perfect existence , which did before exist in semine virtuoso . when god had newly created the first man and woman , he created in them a propagating virtue and fecundity : this was , as it were , semen seminis : by this they do first generare semen separabile : which suppositis supponendis , hath a fecundity fit to produce a new suppositum vel personam ; and may be called a person seminally or virtually , but not actually , formally and properly : and so this person hath power to produce another , and that another in the same way . and note , that the same creating word , which said , let there be light ; and , let us make man ; did say also to man , as well as to other creatures , increase and multiply : not , [ create new souls or bodies ] but by generation , [ increase and multiply ] which is the bringing of many persons out of two , and so on , as out of a seminal pre-existence or virtual , into actual formal existence . he knoweth not the mysteriousness of this wonderful work of god , nor the ignorance of mankind , who knoweth not that all generation of man , bruits or plants , hath much that is to us unsearchable . and they that think it a dishonour to a philosopher , not to undertake or pretend to render the just causes of this and all other the phaenomena in nature , do but say , i will hide the dishonour of my ignorance by denying it ; that is , by telling men that i am ignorant of my ignorance , and by aggravating it by this increase , and the addition of pride , presumption and falsity . this much is certain , . that whatsoever distinct parts do constitute individuals , which are themselves of several natures , so many several natures in the world we may confidently assert , though we understand not whether they all exist separatedly , or are found only in conjunction with others . . we certainly find in the world , * . an intelligent nature ; . a sensitive nature ; . a fiery , active , vegetative nature ; . a passive matter , which receiveth the influx of active natures ; which is distributed into air , and water , and earth . . the most active nature is most communicative of it self , in the way of its proper operations . . we certainly perceive that the sun and fiery nature are active upon the air , water and earth , which are the passive elements . and by this activity in a threefold influx , motion , light and heat , do cause the sensible alterations which are made below ; and so that it is as a kind of life , or general form , or soul to the passive matter . . we also find that motion , light and heat , as such , are all different totâ specie from sensation ; and therefore as such are not the adequate causes of it . and also that there is a sensitive nature in every animal , besides the vegetative . . whether the vegetative nature be any other than the fiery or solar , is to man uncertain . but it is most probable that it is the same nature , though it always work not to actual vegetation , for want of prepared matter . but that the sun and fiery nature is eminenter vegetativè , and therefore that vegetation is not above the nature of fire , ( or the sun ) and so may be an effect of it . . in the production of vegetatives by generation it is evident , that as the fiery active nature is the nearest cause efficient , and the passive is the matter and recipient . so that this igneous nature generateth as in three distinguished subjects , three several ways . . as in parentibus & semine , into which god ab origine in the creation , hath put not only a spark of the active virtucus fiery nature in general , but also a certain special nature , differencing one creature from another . . the sun and superiour globes of the fiery nature , which cast a paternal , though but universal influx , upon the foresaid semen . . the calor naturalis telluris , which may be called , as dr. gilbert and others do , its soul or form ; which is to the seed as the anima matris is to the infant . and all these three , the fiery nature of the semen , of the sun , and of the calor naturalis telluris , are generally the same : and by their agreeableness do meet in co-operation for generation . . herein all three as conjunct are the cause of life , as life , the sun , the seed , and the calor telluris , communicating conjunctly what in their natures they all contain : that is , an active nature , having a power by motion , light and heat , to cause vegetation and its conjunct effects . but the calor & motus solis , and the calor telluris , are but universal causes of life as life : but the virtus seminalis is both a cause of life in genere , and a specifying cause of this or that sort of plants in specie : the reason why e. g. an oak , an elm , a rose-tree , and every plant is what it is in specie , being to be fetch'd from the seed alone , and the creator's will. . though the seed be the chief or only specifying cause , ( why this is adeantum , and that betonica , and that calendula , &c. ) yet the sun and earth , the universal causes , do contribute much more to the life as life , than the seed it self . . this fiery , or solar active nature , is so pure , and above the full knowledge of mortals , that we have no certainty at all , whether in all this generative influx , it communicate to vegetatives from it self a pre-existent matter , and so draw it back to it self again by circulation ) or whether it do only by the substantial contact of its active streams , cherish , and actuate , and perfect the substance which it findeth in semine & materiâ passivâ ; or whether per influxum virtutis , it operate only by that which is commonly called quality , without any communication or contact of substance . . in all this operation of the solar or fiery nature in generation , it is quid medium , between the passive matter and the animal nature , and is plainly an image of the animal nature and its operations : so like it , that it hath tempted many to ascribe all animal operations only to the solar or fiery nature , and hath caused wise men to doubt whether this nature be to be numbred with things corporeal or incorporeal ; and to place it between both , as participating in several respects of both . . if the sensitive nature be really above , or specifically different from the fiery , we may , in what is said , conjecture much at the order of the generation of things sensitive , viz. by a three-fold cause co-operating , one specifying , and two universal and cherishing . the specifying is the virtus seminalis maris & foeminae conjunct , and of neither alone , ( the same god which bless'd the single seed of a plant with the gift of multiplication , bless'd only the conjunct seeds of male and female animals with that gift : ) the superiour universal cause is either some anima universalis ejusdem naturae , or god immediately . by an anima universalis i mean not an anima totius mundi ▪ but of that superiour vortex or part which this earth belongs to . either this is the sun , or some invisible soul . if it be the sun , it is not by its simple fiery nature before mentioned ; because sensation seemeth to be somewhat totâ specie , different from motion , light and heat : and then it must prove that the sun is compound , and hath a superiour form and nature , which either formaliter or eminenter is sensitive ; and that by this it is that it animateth inferiour sensitives . but of this we mortals have no certainty : it seemeth very improbable , that a worm or flie should have a nature superiour to any that the sun hath : but probabilities are not certainties : there are things highest and things lowest in their several kinds . but remember , that if it should be the sun , it is by that nature superiour to fire , by which it doth it : the maternal universal cause of the sensitive life is the mother . whether the spirits of a sensitive creature have more in them than the spirits of a plant ; and do more by nutrition , than cause vegetation ; whether they nourish sensitive life as such , is doubtfull : but if they do so , they be but an universal and not a specifying cause ; that is , the cause of life as life , but not of the vita bovis , equi , canis , felis , aquilae , qua talis . and therefore if the late-discovered trick of passing all the blood of one animal into another , be prosecuted to the utmost tryal , possibly it may do much to the advantage of life and sense as such ; but never to the alteration of the species , to turn a dog into a swine , or any other sort of animal . . whether the sensitive nature be most refined-corporeal , or totally incorporeal , is past the reach of man to be assured of . . the foresaid difficulty is greater here than in the vegetative generation , viz. whether in the multiplication of sensitive souls , there be an addition of substance communicated from the universal causes ? or a greater quantity or degree of matter ( physical or metaphysical ) propagated and produced into existence by generation , than there was before ? it seemeth hard to say , that a pair of animals in noahs ark , had as much matter or substance in their souls as the millions since proceeding from them : but whether such souls have quantitive degrees ? or by what terms of gradation the souls of millions are distinct from one ? besides the number ? or whether god in the blessing of multiplication , hath enabled them to increase the quantity of matter which shall serve for so many more forms ? are things which we cannot fully understand . . in the like manner we may rise up , and conceive of the generation of mankind . we are sure that he hath an intelligent nature , much nobler than the sensitive . and we know that homo generat hominem : and we know that in his generation there is an vniversal cause , and a specifying cause : ( for though there be but one species of men , yet there are more of intelligences ; and that one may have an vniversal cause , producing that and other effects , and an univocal special cause . ) we know that because he is generated , the specifying cause , is the fecundity or propagating power of the parent , generating a separable seed , which seed ( in conjunction as aforesaid , & suppositis supponendis ) is semen hominis , and is man seminally and virtually , but not actually : that is , hath both passive and active power , and virtue , by reception of the influx of the universal cause , to become a man. the universal inferior or feminine cause , is the mothers body , and soul , or the whole mother , in whom the infant is generated and cherished . i call it vniversal : for it is only the semen that specifieth : and therefore by a false or bruitish semen a woman may produce a monster . the vniversal paternal cause is certainly god ut prima , and it is probable also ut sola : for he made mans soul at first by that immediate communication , which is called breathing it into him : and the intellectual nature ( though specified into angels and men ) is the neerest to god that we have any knowledge of : and therefore reason will not teach us to look to any intermediate universal or superiour cause ; because there is no created superiour nature to the intellectual : and it 's absurd to goe to the inferior to be the cause of the superior . if any will needs think , that under god , there is some vniversal intellect ( not of the whole universe , for that 's plainly improbable , but of our systeme or vortex , ) they must take it to be some angelical intelligence , as aristotle , or the sun , no man can prove either of these to have any such office . and for the sun , it is certain that it is not possible , unless it self be an intelligence : and though to humane reason it seem very likely , that so glorious a corporeal nature as the sun , should not be destitute of as noble a form , as a lump of clay , a humane body doth possess , that so there may be a proportion in gods works between the nobility of matter and form ; yet all this to man is utterly uncertain ; nor doth any man know whether the luminaries are animated with either sentient or intelligent souls , or not . he that most confidently asserteth either , and scorneth the contradicter , doth but tell you , that he is ignorant of his ignorance . but if it should prove true , as many of the fathers thought , and mammertus ubi supra asserteth , that angels have fiery bodies which they animate , and so that the sun is animated with an intelligence , it would not follow that as fiery or as sensitive , but only as intellective , it were a subordinate universal cause of compleat humane generations , and that sol & homo generant hominem ; ( save only quoad corpus , which is but secundum quid . ) but that god is the vniversal cause is unquestionable , whether there be any subordinate or not . . and here it is no wonder if the doubts arise which were in the cases of the forementioned generations . whether god as the universal cause produce new-metaphysical matter for new forms ? whether millions of souls since generated , have not more such metaphysical matter , than the soul of adam and eve alone ? how souls may be said to have more or less such matter or substance ? whether he educe all souls è virtute & foecunditate primarum , by giving them a power without any division or diminution of themselves , to bring forth others by multiplication ? and so cause his creature to participate of his own foecundity , or power of causing entities , &c. but such difficulties as these , which arise not from uncertainties in theology , but are the meer consequents of the imperfection of humane intellects , and the remoteness , depth , and unrevealedness of these mysterious works of god , should turn no man from the holding of other plain revealed truths . as that man generateth man ; that god is the chief specifying cause by his first making of man , and giving him the power and blessing of propagation , which he still maintaineth , and with which he doth concurre : that man is the second specifying cause in the exercise of that power of generation which god gave him . that god is the chief universal cause ; and to the production of an intellectual nature as such , doth unspeakably more than man. that the mother as cherishing the semen utriusque parentis , is the maternal universal cause , &c. we know not fully how it is that one light causeth a thousand , without division or diminution of it self : and what it is that is caused de novo . it is easie to say , that it is but the motion of one part of the atomes or materia subtilis moving another , which was all pre-existent : but few men that can see through a smoke or dust of atomes , will believe , that the sun and other fiery bodies , which shew themselves so wonderfully to us by motion , light and heat , have no peculiar nature , power or virtues to cause all this , but meer magnitude , and figure : and that those corpuscles which have so many hundred degrees of magnitude , and figures , should not fall into as many hundred such bodies as we call elements , rather than into two or four . suppose ( which we may ad verum exquirendum ) that there were no more fire in the universe than one candle : it having the same nature as now it hath , that candle would turn cities and all combustible matter into fire . but of the generation of man quoad animam , i referre the reader to sennertus his hypomnemata ( to omit all others ) and now i would know what there is in generation that should be against the immortality of the soul ? will you say , it is because the soul hath a beginning ? i have answered before , that so have all creatures : is it because it proveth the soul material ? . if it did , i have shewed that you your selves hold a perpetuity of matter . . but it doth not so . if you say , that incorporeal spirits generate not : i answer , that is but a naked , unproved assertion . if you say , that angels do not : i answer , that . that is not because they are unable or unapt if god thought it fittest for them : nor . can any man prove de facto whether they do or not . christ saith , they marry not : but he saith not , whether they at all propagate their species or not : i know the negative is taken for certain ; and i say not that it is not true , but that it is not certain not at all known , and therefore an unfit supposition to argue from , against the immortality of the soul. and i must confess , that for my part , as i have oft read , formae se multiplicant , and that the fire can more multiply or encrease it self than earth , and as i know that the more noble any nature is , the more like it is to god , and therefore more potent , more active , more fecund and productive ; so i should farr rather think that the angelical nature can propagate it self than the humane , if god had not told me the later , and said nothing pro or contra of the former . and therefore make no doubt , but if it do not , ( which no man knoweth ) it is not because things material are more able ; but for other reasons unknown to us . whether because god will have this lower world , to be the nidus vel matrix coelorum , and the seminary of heaven , and all multiplication to be here , or what it is , we know not . but if it be on the other side concluded , that the whole substance of a soul doth proceed directly and immediately from god , it doth make no great alteration in this case , or any of the coincident cases about humane propagation : if you consider , . that it is impossible that there should be any substance which is not totally from god , either immediately , or mediately : and that what is said to be mediately from him , hath in it as much of his causation as if there were no medium : for god is not a partial cause , but a total in suo genere ; and he is as neer to the effect as if there were no second cause . . that the somatists themselves say , that in the generation of plants and animals ( which they suppose to be totally corporeal ) there is not the least degree of substance produced de novo , and therefore there is none , but what was totally of god , and the parents do but cause instrumentally the uniting of matter prae-existent . therefore if in the generating of man , the parents do but instrumentally cause the uniting of substance which is totally from god , though not prae-existent , it little differenceth the case as to the consequents . . especially considering that what god doth , he doth by an establisht law of nature : as in his making of the world he made the sun a causa vniversalis constantly to send forth the emanation of light , heat , and moving force upon passive matter , and thereby to produce effects diversifyed by the preparations and reception of that matter ; as to soften wax , to harden clay , to make a dunghill stink , and a rose smell sweet , to produce a poysonous and a wholsom plant , a nightingale and a toad , &c. and this without any dishonour to the sun : so if god the father of spirits , the central efficient of souls , have made it the original law of nature , that he will accordingly afford his communicative influx , and that in humane generations , such and such preparations of matter , shall be as receptive of his emanations for such and such forms , or spiritual substances , and that he will be herein but an vniversal cause of souls as souls , and not of souls as clean or unclean ; and that this shall depend upon the preparation of the recipient ( whether it be the body , or a sensitive foregoing principle ) ( still keeping at his pleasure , as a voluntary agent , the suspension or dispose of the effect ) , this would make no great alteration , neither as to the point of original sin , nor any other weighty consequent . objection xiii . omne quod oritur interit : that which is not eternal as to past duration , is not eternal as to future duration : but the soul is not eternal as to past duration : ergo. answ . i confess this argument will prove that the soul is not mortal ex necessitate suae naturae , without dependance on a voluntary preserver . and therefore cicero after most other philosophers , who useth the major for a contrary conclusion , mistook in this , that he thought the soul was as natural an emanation from god as the beams or light is from the sun : and therefore that it was naturally eternall both à parte ante & à parte post : which made arnobius and other ancients argue as much against the platonists immortality of the soul , as against the epicureans mortality , so that ( as i said before ) one would think that they were heretical in this point that doth not make them well . but it is only this natural eternity which they confute : and when the philosophers say , that omne quod oritur interit , they can mean , or at least prove no more but this , that it is not everlasting ex necessitate naturae . but yet . it may be in its nature fitted to be perpetual . . and by the will of the creator made perpetual . every creature did oriri de novo : and yet every one doth not interire . objection xiv . among all your arguments for the souls immortality , there are none but morall ones . answ . morality is grown so contemptible a thing , with some debauched persons , that a very argument is invalidated by them or contemned , if they can but call it moral . but what is morality but the modality of naturals ? and the same argument may be natural and moral . indeed we call that a causa moralis oft-times which doth not necessitate the effect : and yet sometimes even moral causes do infalibly and certainly produce the effect . but causation and argumentation are different things , and so is an effect and a logical consequence . will you call the consequents of gods own wisdom , justice , veracity , goodness , &c. uncertain as coming from a morali cause ? the soul is an intellectual free agent , and adapted to moral operations ; and this is its excellency and perfection , and no disparagement to it at all . and if you will better read them over , you will finde that my arguments are both physical and moral : for i argue from the acts or operations of the soul to its powers and nature ; and from its acts and nature to its ends , with many such like , which are as truly physical media , as if i argued from the nature of fire and earth , that one if not hindered will ascend , and the other descend . and other men have given you other arguments in their physicks and metaphysicks . objection xv. you seem to confess that you cannot prove the endless duration of the soul by any argument from nature alone ; but only that it shall live another life which you call a life of retribution . answ . i told you , that a great probability of it , i thus prove : god hath made the soul of a nature not corruptible , but apt to perpetual duration : ergo , he thereby declareth his will , that he intendeth it for perpetual duration : because he maketh nothing in vain , either for substance or quality . it may be some other will think that this argument will inferre not only a probability but a certainty . and if you go back to your objection of materiality , i now only adde , that aristotle and his followers , who think that the heavens are corporeal , yet think that they are a quinta essentia and simple , and incorruptible , and therefore that they shall certainly be everlasting : and he taketh the the souls of bruits to be analogous to the matter of the starrs ; and so to be of that everlasting quintessence : and can you in reason say less of rational souls ? . it is sufficient , that i prove by natural evidence a life of retribution after this , which shall fully make the miserable ungodly ones repent tormentingly of their sin , and fill the righteous with such joyes as shall fully recompense all their labour and suffering in a holy life : and that i moreover prove that duration of this life , and all the rest , by supernatural evidence . objection xvi . both soul and body are like a candle in fluxu continuo ; and we have not the same substance this week or year as we had the last , there being a continual consumption or transition and accretion : ergo , being not the same , we are uncapable of a life of future retribution . will you reward and punish the man that is , or the man that was ? answ . it is a foolish thing to carry great and certain truths into the dark , and to argue against them à minus notis , from meer uncertainties . as to your simile , i confess that the oyl of your candle is still wasting , so is the wick ; but not that new is added to make it another thing , unless it be a lamp. i confess , that the lucid fume which we call the flame is still passing away . but whether the fiery principle ( in its essence not visible , but only in its light ) be not still the same till all the passive matter be consumed , is more than you know . so also if you argue from the vegetative life of a tree : whether the same principle of vegetation ( enlarging it self ) continue not to the end to individuate the tree , though all the passive elements ( earth , water , and air ) may be in fluxu and a transient state ? it is certain , that some fixed principle of individuation there is , from whence it must be denominated the same . the water of the hasty river would not be called the same river , if the channel which it runs in were not the same : nor your candle be called the same candle , if some of the first wick or oyl at least did not remain , or the same fire continue it , or the same candlestick hold it . and what is it in the tree which is still the same ? or what in the bird that flyeth about , which is still the same ? when you have searched all , you will finde nothing so likely as the vital principle , and yet that something there must be . . but doth not the light of nature , and the concurrent sense and practice of all the world confute you ? and tell you that if you cannot understand what the individuating principle is , yet that certainly some such there is and doth continue . why else will you love and provide for your own children , if they be not at all the same that you begat , nor the same this year as you had the last ? why will you be revenged on the man that did beat you , or hang the thief that robbed you , or do justice on any murderer or male-factor , seeing that it is not the same man that did the deed ? if he transpire as much as sanctorius saith , and his substance diminish as much in a day as opicius saith , certainly a few dayes leave him not the same as to those transitory parts . surely therefore there is something which is still the same . else you would deny the king his title , and disoblige your selves from your subjection , by saying that he is not at all the same man that you swore allegiance to , or that was born heir of the crown . and you would by the same reason forfeit your own inheritance . why should uncertain philosophical whimsies befool men into those speculations , which the light and practice of all the world doth condemn as madness . but arguing ab ignotis will have no better success . of the individuation of bodies in the resurrection i spake before † . objection xvii . if the soul be a substance , we must confess it not annihilated : but it is most like to proceed from some element of souls , or vniversal soul , either the anima mundi , or rather the anima solis , vel hujus systematis : and so to be reduced to it again , and lose its individuation , and consequently to be uncapable of retribution . answ . . that the soul which we speak of is a substance , is past all controversie : for though , as i have shewed , there is truely an order or temperament of the parts , which he that listeth may call the form , the life , the soul , or what he please ; yet no man denyeth but that there is also some one part which is more subtile , pure , active , potent , and regnant than the rest ; and this is it ( whatever it is ) which i call the soul. we are agreed of the thing ; let them wrangle de nomine who have nothing else to doe . . that this substance ( no substance else ) is not annihilated , as i have said , is past dispute . . therefore there is nothing indeed in all this business which is liable to controversie , but this point of individuation , which this objection mentioneth ; ( and that of action and operation following . ) and i must confess that this is the only particular , in which hereabouts i have found the temptation to error to be much considerable . they that see how all waters come from the sea , and how earth , water , air , and fire , have a potent inclination of union , and when the parts are separated , have a motus aggregativus , may be tempted to think it a probable thing , that all souls come from , and return unto a universal soul or element of which they are but particles . but concerning this , i recommend to the sober reader these following considerations . . there is in nature more than a probability that the vniverse hath no vniversal soul ( whatever particular systems or globes may have ) . for we finde that perfection lyeth so much in vnity , and as all things are from one , so as they go out from one , they go into multiplicity , that we have great cause to think , that it is the divine prerogative to be vnicus vniversalis . he is the vnicus vniversalis in entity , life , intelligence , &c. as he hath made no one monarch of all the universe ( no nor of all the earth ) nor no one head of all the church , that is not god ( whatever the roman vice-god say ) nor hath given any one a sufficiency hereto ; ( whatever a self-idolizer may imagine of himself ; ) so he hath not given away or communicated that prerogative , which seemeth proper to the deity , to be an vniversal minde , and consequently an vniversal parent , and king , yea more , to be omnia in vno . having no sort of proof that there is any such thing , finding it so high and divine a prerogative , we have little reason to believe that there is any such thing at all in being . . if you mean therefore no more than an vniversal soul to a particular systeme , or vortex in the world , that vniversal will be it self a particular soul , individuated , and distinct from other individuals . and indeed those very elements that tempt you , might do much to undeceive you . there is of fire a specifical unity , by which it differeth from other elements ; but there is no universal aggregation of all the parts of fire . the sun which seemeth most likely to contend for it , will yet acknowledge , individual starrs and other parts of fire , which shew that it is not the whole . the water is not all in the sea : we know that there is much in the clouds , whatever there is elsewhere ( above the clouds ) . we have no great cause to think , that this earth is terra vniversalis : i confess , since i have looked upon the moon through a tube , and since i have read what galilaeus saith of it , and of venus , and other planets , i finde little reason to think that other globes are not some of them like our earth . and if you can believe an individuation of greater souls , why not of lesser ? the same reasons that tempt you to think that the individuation of our souls will cease , by returning into the anima systematis vel solis , may tempt you to think that the animae systematum may all cease their individuation by returning into god ( and their existence too . ) . if this were left as an unrevealed thing , you might take some liberty for your conjectures . but when all the twenty arguments which i have given , do prove a continued individuation and retribution , it is deceitful and absurd to come in with an unproved dream against it , and to argue , ab ignoto , against so many cogent arguments . . and we have proved supernatural revelation to second this , which is evidence more than sufficient to bear down your unproved conjectures . . if it had been doubtful whether the souls individuation cease , ( and nothing of all the rest is doubtful ) yet this would not make so great a difference in the case as some imagine ; for it would confess the perpetuity of souls , and it would not overthrow the proof of a retribution , if you consider these four things . . that the parts are the same in union with the whole , as when they are all separated . their nature is the same , and as epicurus and democritus say of their atoms , they are still distinguishable , and are truly parts , and may be intellectually separated : the same individual water which you cast out of your bottle into the sea , is somewhere in the sea still ; and though contiguous to other parts , is discernable from them all by god. the haecceity , as they say , remaineth . . that the love of individuation , and the fear of the ceasing of our individuation , is partly but put into the creature from god pro tempore , for the preservation of individuals in this present life . and partly it is inordinate , and is in man the fruit of his fall , which consisteth in turning to selfishness from god. and we know not how much of our recovery consisteth in the cure of this selfishness ; and how much of our perfection in the cessation of our individuate affections , cares and labours . nature teacheth many men by societies , to unite as much as possible , as the means of their common safety , benefit , and comfort : and earth , water , air , and all things , would be aggregate . birds of a feather will flock together . and love , which is the uniting affection , especially to a friend who is fit for union with us in other respects , is the delight of life . and if our souls were swallowed up of one common soul , ( as water cast into the sea is still moist and cold , and hath all its former properties , so ) we should be still the same ; and no man can give a just reason why our sorrows or joys should be altered ever the more by this . . and god can either keep the ungodly from this union for a punishment , or let them unite with the infernal spirits , which they have contracted a connaturality with ; or let them , where ever they are , retain the venom of their sin and misery . . and he can make the resurrection to be a return of all these souls , from the ocean of the universal nature , into a more separated individuation again . i only say , that if it had been true , that departing souls had fallen into a common element , yet on all these reasons , it would not have overthrown our arguments for a life of full retribution . god , that can say at any time , [ this drop of water in the ocean is the same , that was once in such a bottle ] can say , this particle of the universal soul , was once in such a body , and thither can again return it . but the truth is , no man can shew any proof of such a future aggregation . and to conclude , the scripture here cleareth up all the matter to us , and assureth us of a continued individuation yet more than nature doth , though the natural evidences before produced are unanswerable . and as for the similitude of light returning to the sun , it is still an arguing à minus noto : we know not well what it is : we know not how it returneth : and we know not how the particles are distinguishable there . they that confess souls to be indivisible ( though the individuals are all numerically distinct ) must on the same ground think that two or many cannot by union be turned into one , as they hold that one cannot be turned into two , or into several parts of that one divided . objection xviii . the platonists , and some platonick divines , have so many dreams and fopperies about the soul 's future state , in aerial and aethereal vehicles , and their durations , as maketh that doctrine the more to be suspected . answ . . whether all souls hereafter be incorporate in some kind of bodies , which they call vehicles , is a point which is not without difficulty . a sober christian may possibly doubt , whether there be any incorporeal simple essence in a separated existence besides god alone . those that doubt of it , do it on these grounds . . they think , that absolute simplicity is a divine incommunicable perfection . . they think that christ is the noblest of all creatures ; and that seeing he shall be compound of a humane soul and body , ( though glorified and spiritual ) to eternity , therefore no angel shall excell him in natural simplicity and perfection . . because it is said that we shall be equal with the angels : and yet we shall , ( at the resurrection ) be compounded of a soul and body . . because it is said , that he made his angels spirits , and his ministers a flame of fire . . because the ancient fathers , who first thought angels to be subtil bodies , were confuted by those ( as mammertus forementioned ) who asserted them to be fiery bodies , animated with incorporeal souls . . because they read of the devils dwelling in the air , as one cast down : therefore they think that he hath an aery body , instead of an ethereal or fiery . . because they see the sun so glorious a creature , in comparison of a body of flesh : therefore they think that the symmetry and proportion among god's works requireth , that bodies and forms , or souls , be suitable . . because they know not what else becometh of the sensitive soul of man , when he dieth ; which they take to be but a subtil body : and therefore think it goeth as a body or vehicle with the rational soul . . because they mistake that difficult text , cor. . , , . think by the and verses , that it speaketh of the instant after death ; and thinking by the first and second verses , that ( as beza and most think ) it speaketh of a celestial body as our cloathing , and not of a meer state of glory to the soul . i name their reasons , that you may be charitable in your censures ; but the truth is , they talk of unrevealed or uncertain things , which do but trouble the heads of christians to no purpose , who may live better , and speed better , by following the naked precepts of christianity , and hoping for such a glory as christ hath plainly described , without prying into that which doth less concern them to be acquainted with . . and satan knoweth that over-doing is one way of undoing . thus men on all extremes do harden one another . as in these times among us it is notorious , that the men of one extreme in church affairs do harden the other , and the other harden them . and as fanaticism riseth from the disliking of sensuality and prophaneness ; incautelous , and sensual and prophane men run into hell to avoid fanaticism ; even so the bruitish grossness of the somatists driveth some philosophers into platonick dreams , and the platonick fictions harden the epicureans in a far worser way . lactantius , de ira dei , cap. . thinks , that epicurus was moved to his opinion against providence , by seeing the hurt that good men and religious endure from the wo●ser sort here in this world . but why should you run out on one side the way , because other men run out on the other ? why do you not rather argue from the doctrine in the sober mean , that it is true ; than from the extreams that the truth is falshood ? when reason will allow you to conclude no more than that those extremes are falshood . but surely i had rather hold plato's anima mundi , or aristotle's intellectus agens , and his moving intelligences , than epicurus his atoms and motion only . and i had rather think with alexander arphad . that omnis actio corporis est ab incorporeo principio ; yea , or the stoicks doctrine of intellectual fire doing all ; than gassendus his doctrine , that no incorporeal thing can move a corporeal , or that atoms and their motion only do all that we find done in nature . when i look over and about me , i find it a thing quite past my power to think , that the glorious parts above us are not replenished with much nobler creatures than we . and therefore if the platonists , and the ancient platonick fathers of the church , did all think that they lived in communion with angels , and had much to do with them , and that the superiour intelligences were a nobler part of their studies than meer bodies , they shall have the full approbation of my reason in this , though i would not run with them into any of their presumptions , and uncertain or unsound conceits . saith aeneas gazaeus , pag. . when he had told us that plato , pythagoras , plotinus and numenius were for the passing of men's souls into bruits , but porphyry and jamblichus were against it , and thought that they passed only into men , ego quidem hac ipsa de causa filium aut famulum ob id quod commiserint peccatum puniens , antequam de ipsis supplicium sumam , praemoneo , ut meminerint ne posthac unquam in eadem mala recurrant . deus autem quando ultima supplicia decernit , non edocet eos qui poenarum causas , sed scelerum memoriam omnem tollet ? vide pag. . for this reason and many others , we assume not their conceit of the soul's pre-existence , and think all such unproved fancies to be but snares to trouble the world with . we think not that god punisheth men for sin in another world , while he totally obliterateth the memory of the other world and of their sin : when he hath told us that in adam all die , and by one mans disobedience many are made sinners , and so condemnation passed upon all , rom. . nor will we with origen thus tempt men to look for more such changes hereafter , which we can give them no proof of . nor will we distribute the angelical hierarchy into all the degrees , which the pseudo-dionysius doth ; nor with the gnosticks , basilidians , saturninians , valentinians , and abundance of those antient hereticks , corrupt christianity with the mixture of fanatick dreams , about the unrevealed powers and worlds above us , either worshipping angels , or prying into those things which he hath not seen , ( and are not revealed ) vainly puft up by his fleshly mind , ( or without cause puffed up by the imagination of his own flesh , as dr. hammond translateth it ) col. . . nor will we make a religion with paracelsus , behmen , the rosicrucians , or the rest , described by christ . beckman , exercit. of the philosophical whimsies of an over-stretch'd imagination . and yet we will not reject the saying of athenagoras , apol. pag. . magnum numerum angelorum & ministrorum dei esse fatemur ; quos opifex & architectus mundi deus verbo suo tanquam in classes ordinavit centuriavitque , ut elementa , coelos , mundum , & quae in mundo sunt , vicesque & ordinem omnium moderarent . though we may adde with junilius africanus , that [ whether the angels meddle with the government of the world of stablished creatures , is a difficult question . ] objection xix . if the soul do continue individuate , yet its actings will not be such as they are now in the body , because they have not spirits to act by : and as gassendus thinketh , that the reason of oblivion in old men , is the wearing out of the vestigia of the former spirits , by the continual flux or transition of matter ; so we may conceive that all memory will cease to separated souls , on the same account : and therefore they will be unfit for rewards or punishments , as not remembring the cause . answ . . i● gassendus his opinion were true , men should forget all things once a year , if not once a month , considering how many pounds of matter are spent every hours . and why then do we better , when we are old , remember the things which we did between nine or ten years old , and twenty , than most of the later passages of our lives , ( as i do for my part very sensibly . ) . what is mans memory ( for with bruits we meddle not ) but scientia praeteritorum ? is not remembring a knowing of things past ? surely we may perceive that it is ; and that it is of the same kind of action with the knowing of things present . and therefore we may make not memory a third faculty , because it is the same with the understanding . . we have little reason to think , that the surviving soul will lose any of its essential powers , and grow by its change not only impotent , but another thing . therefore it will be still an intelligent power . and though remote actions and effects ( such as writing , fighting , &c. ) are done by instruments , which being removed we cannot do them without ; yet essential acts are nothing so , ( which flow immediately from the essence of the agent , as light , heat and motion of the fire : ) if there be but due objects , these will be performed without such instruments : nor will the creator , who continueth at an active intelligent power , continue it so in vain , by denying it necessaries for its operations . there is like to be much difference in many respects , between the soul's actings here and hereafter : but the acts flowing from its essence immediately , as knowledge , volition , complacency , ( called love ) and displacencie , &c. will be the same . how far the soul here doth act , without any idea or instrument , i have spoken before . and the manner of our acting hereafter , no man doth now fully understand : but that which is essentially an intellectual volitive power , will not be idle in its active essence , for want of a body to be its instrument . if we may so far ascribe to god himself such affections or passions , as the ingenious mr. samuel parker , in his teutam . phil. l. . c. . p. , &c. hath notably opened , we have no reason to think that scientia praeteritorum is not to be ascribed to a soul , when it is separated from the corporeal spirits . or if the soul out of the body were as liable , as it is by diseases of the body while it is in it , to the loss of memory , yet all those arguments which prove the life of retribution hereafter , do fully prove that god will provide it a way of exercise , and prevent all those hinderances of memory , which may make his judgment and retribution void . again , therefore i say , to argue ab ignotis against clear evidence , in matters that our own everlasting joy or sorrow is concerned in so deeply , is a folly , that no tongue can express with its due aggravations . objection xx. the belief of the immortality of souls doth fill men with fears , and draw them to superstition , and trouble the peace of kingdoms by unavoidable sects , in the prosecution of those things which are of such transcendent weight ; when otherwise men might live in quietness to themselves and others , and in promoting of the publick good . answ . this is the maddest objection of all the rest ; but in our days there are men found that are no wiser than to make it . i have answered it fully in divers popular treatises , as that called , a saint , or a bruit , &c. . the greatest and best things are liable to the worst abuses . thus you may argue against reason , that it doth but fill mens brains with knavish craft , and enable them to do mischief , and to trouble the world , and to live themselves in cares and fears , &c. upon many such reasons , cotta , in cic. de nat. deor. doth chide god for making man a rational creature , and saith , he had been happier without it . and were it not for this wit and reason , we should have none of these evils which you have here now mentioned . why then is not reason as well as religion on that account to be rejected ? on the same reason , philosophy and learning may be accused , ( as it is with the turks and moscovites . ) what abundance of sects , and voluminous contentions , and tired consuming studies have they caused ? witness all the volumes of philosophers and school-men . on the same account you may cry down kings , and civil government , and riches , and all that is valued in the world : for what wars and bloudshed hath there been in the world for crowns and kingdoms ? what hatred and contention for honour and wealth ? if you could make all men swine , they would not stir for gold or pearls ; or if they were dogs , they would not fight for kingdoms : and if they be blind and impious worldlings , they will not be zealous about religion , unless to dis-spirit it , and to reduce it to the service of their fleshly interest , ( which is the hypocrites zeal . ) no man will contend for that which he valueth not . but , . consider , that though dogs will not fight for crowns , they will fight for bones , and some times need men of reason to stave them off . and though swine fight not for gold , they will fight for draff , and burst their bellies if they be not governed . and though unbelievers and atheists trouble not the world to promote religion , they set families , towns , and countries , and kingdoms together by the ears for their worldly pelf , and fleshly interest . enquire whether the wars of the world be not most for carnal interest , ( even where religion hath been pretended : ) and hearken in westminster-hall , and at the assizes , whether most of the contendings there are such as are caused by religion , or by the love of the world and of the flesh . and where religion seemeth to be a part of the cause , it is the atheists and ungodly that are commonly the chief contenders ; who think it not enough to hope for no life to come themselves , but they cannot endure other men that do it , because they seem wiser , and better , and happier than they , and by their holiness gall their consciences and condemn them . . the extremity of this objections impudency appeareth in this above all ; that it is most notorious , that there is no effectual cure for all the villanies of the world but true religion ; and shall the cure be made the cause of that disease ? . read and judge in nature and scripture , whether the whole matter of religion be not perfectly contrary to the vices of the world . will it trouble kingdoms , or disquiet souls , to love god above all , and to honour and obey him , and be thankful for his mercies , and to trust his promises , and to rejoice in hope of endless glory : and to love our neighbours as our selves , and to do no injustice or wrong to any : to forbear wrath and malice , lust , adultery , theft and lying , and all the rest expressed in this treatise . . is it not for want of religion that all the vices and contentions of the world are ? would not men be better subjects , and better servants , and better neighbours , if they had more religion ? would not they lie , and deceive , and steal , and wrong others less ? do you think he that believeth a life to come , or he that believeth it not , is liker to cut your purse , or rob you by the high way , or bear false witness against you , or be perjured , or take that which is not his own , or any such unrighteous thing ? is he liker to live as a good subject or servant , who looketh for a reward in heaven for it , or he that looketh to die as a beast doth ? is he liker to do well and avoid evil , who is moved by the effectual hopes and fears of another life , or he that hath no such hopes and fears , but thinketh that if he can escape the gallows there is no further danger ? had you rather your servant , that is trusted with your estate , did believe that there is a life to come , or that there is none ? nay , why doth not your objection militate as strongly against the thief's believing , that there will be an assize ? for if the belief of an assize did not trouble him , he might quietly take that which he hath a mind to , and do what he list : but this fills his heart with fears and troubles . . compare those parts of the world ( brasil and soldania , &c. ) which believe not a life to come , ( if any such there be ) with those that do , and see which belief hath the better effects . . what is there of any effectual power , to restrain that man from any villany which he hath power to carry out , or policy to cover , who doth not believe a life to come . . and if you believe it not , what will you do with reason , or any of your faculties , or your time ? how will you live in the world , to any better purpose , than if you had slept out all your life ? what talk you of the publick good , when the denying of our final true felicity , denyeth all that is truely good , both publick and private . but so sottish and malignant an objection deserveth pity more than confutation . whatever religious persons did ever offend these men with any reall crimes , i can assure them , that the cure had been to have made them more religious and not less ; and that the true belief of a life to come , is the end , the motive , the poise of all wise and regular actions , and of love and peace , of right government and obedience , and of justice , mercy , and all that is lovely in the world . an objection about the worlds eternity . having said thus much about the point which i thought most considerable , i shall answer an objection about the worlds eternity , because i perceive that it sticks with some . obj. we finde it the harder to believe the scripture , and the christian doctrine , because it asserteth a thing which aristotle hath evinced to be so improbable , as is the creation of the world within less than years . when no natural reason can be brought to prove that the world is not eternall . answ . . it is you that are the affirmers , and therefore on whom the natural proof is incumbent . prove if you can that the world is eternal . were it not tedious , i should by examining your reasons shew that they have no convincing force at all . . there is so much written of it , that i am loth to trouble the reader with more . i now only again referre the reader to raymundus lullius , desiring him not to reject his arguments if some of them seem not cogent , seeing if any one of all his multitude prove such , it is enough . . i now only desire that the controversie between the christian and the infidel may be but rightly stated . and to that end do not charge christianity with any school-mans or other confident persons private opinions , nor suppose christ or scripture to determine any thing , which they do not determine . . christianity and scripture do not at all determine , whether the whole universe was created at the same time when this our heaven and earth was : but only that the systeme or world , which we belong to , the sun , and moon , and starrs , and earth were then created . nay , a great part of the ancient doctors , and of the most learned late expositors on gen. . do expound the heavens which god is said to create as being only the visible heavens , and not including the angels at all . and others say , that by [ in the beginning ] is meant ab initio rerum , and that the heavens there meant being the angelical habitations , and the earth as without form , were both ab initio rerum before the six dayes creation , which began with the making of light out of the pre-existent heavens or chaos . i think not this opinion true ; but this liberty christian doctors have taken of differing from one another in this difficult point . but they utterly differ about the time of the creation of angels ( on gen. . and on job . ) and consequently whether there were not a world existent , when this world was created . . or if any that seeth more than i , can prove the contrary , yet it is certainly a thing undetermined by scripture and in the christian faith , whether there were any worlds that had begun and ended before this was made : that god is the maker of heaven and earth , and of all things visible and invisible , is most certain : but whether this heaven and earth , which now is , was the first which he hath made , is a thing that our religion doth not at all meddle with . they that with origen affirm , that there were antecedent worlds , are justly blamed on one side , not for speaking things false , but things uncertain and unrevealed , and for corrupting christianity by a mixture of things alien and doubtfull . and those who affirm that there were no antecedent worlds , are as much culpable on the other side , if not more , on the same account and upon further reasons . on the one side , we know that god needeth nothing to his own felicity , but is perfectly sufficient for himself ; and that he createth not the world ex necessitate naturae as an agent which acteth ad ultimum posse . and on the other side we know , that though he hath a goodness of self-perfection , unspeakably more excellent than his benignity as related to man ( not that one property in god is to be said more excellent than another in it self , but that quoad relationem there is an infinite difference between his goodness in himself , and his goodness only as related to his creatures , and measured by their interest ) , yet we confess that his fecundity , and benignity is included in his own goodness ; and that he delighteth to do good , and is communicative ; and that he doth good ex necessitate voluntaria , ex naturae perfectione , without coaction ; it being most necessary that he do that which his infinite wisdom saith is best : ( which made th. white de mundo say , that god did necessarily make the world , and necessarily make it in time , and not ab aeterno , and yet all this most voluntarily , because he doth necessarily do that which is best in the judgement of his wisdom . ) and we deny not that if a man will presume to give liberty to his reason to search into unrevealed things , that it will seem to him very improbable , that he who is actus purus , of infinite power , wisdom and goodness , and who now taketh pleasure in all his works , and his delights are with the sons of men , should from all eternity produce no creature till less than years ago ; when a thousand years with him are but as a day ; and that he should resolve to have creatures to all eternity , who as to future duration shall be so like to himself , when from all eternity he had no creature , till , as it were , five or six dayes agoe ! christians are apt to have such thoughts as these as well as you , when they look but to rational probabilities . but they hold that all these matters , whether there were antecedent worlds , and how many , and of what sort , and of what duration , whether this was the first , are matters unrevealed , which they ought not to trouble the world or themselves with prying into , or contending about : and they finde that they are unfruitfull speculations , which do but overwhelme the minde of him that searcheth after them ; when god hath provided for us in the christian faith , more plain , and sure , and solid , and wholsom food to live upon . . and if it be unrevealed in scripture , whether before this there was any other world , we must confess it unrevealed whether there were any emanant or created entity , which god did produce from all eternity considered quoad durationem only . for the scripture saith no more of one than of the other . and if there were one moment ( dividing eternity only imaginarily ) in which there had been nothing but god , we must equally confess an eternity in which there was nothing but god : because eternity hath no beginning . . but christianity assureth us of these two things , . that certainly there is no being besides god but what was created , produced or totally caused by him : and that if any creature were eternal as to duration , yet it is after god in order of being as caused by him , as the shadow is after the substance , and as the beams and light are after the sun ; or rather as the leaves would be after the life of the tree , if they were conceived to be both eternal : one would be an eternal cause , and the other but an eternal effect . . it is certain , that this present world containing the sun , and moon , and heavens , and earth , which are mentioned genes . . is not from eternity . and indeed reason it self doth make that at least very probable , as revelation makes it certain . which will appear when i have opened the philosophers opinions on the other side . . among your selves there are all these differences , ( and so we have several cases to state with you ) . . some think that this present systeme of compounded beings is from eternity . . others think , that only the elements and heavens , and all simple beings are from eternity . . others think that fire or aether only as the active element is from eternity , or the incorruptible matter of the heavens . . others think that matter and motion only were from eternity . . others think , that only spiritual purer beings , intelligences or mindes were from eternity , and other things produced immediately by them . . and there have been those heathen philosophers , who held that only god was from eternity . among all this variety of opinions , why should any one think the more doubtfully of christianity , for denying some of them , which all the other deny themselves ? is it a likely thing that any individual mixt body should be eternall , when we know that mixt bodies incline to dissolution ? and when we see many of them oriri & interire daily before our eyes ? and if man and beast as to each individual have a beginning and end , it must be so as to the beginning of the species ; for the species existeth not out of the individuals , and some individual must be first ; ( and as bp. ward argueth against mr. hobs , if the world be eternal , there have infinite dayes gone before , e. g. the birth of christ : and then the whole is no greater than the parts , or infinity must consist of finite parts . ) the heavens and the earth therefore which are compounded beings , by the same reason are lyable to dissolution , as man is ; and therefore had a beginning . so that the truth is , there is no rational probability in any of your own opinions , but those which assert the eternity of some simple beings , as matter or intelligences , or an anima vniversalis . now consider further , that if ever there was a moment when there were no individuals , or mixt beings , ( but only some universal soul or matter ) then there was an eternity when there was nothing else : ( for eternity hath no beginning ) : and then will it not be as strange to your selves , to think that god should from all eternity delight himself in matter unformed ( if that be not a contradiction ) or in an anima simplex & unica , without any of all the variegated matter , and beings which we now finde besides in nature , as that he should eternally content himself with himself alone ? if all individuals of compound beings were not from eternity , what was ? either the egge or the hen must be first : ( as the old instance is . ) if you will come to it , that either anima unica , or atoms unformed were eternal , why should not god as well be without these , as be without the formed worlds ? what shall a presumptuous minde now say to all these difficulties ? why return to modesty : remember that as the bird hath wit given her to build her nest , and breed her young as well as man could do it , and better , but hath no wit for things which do not concern her ; so man hath reason for the ends and uses of reason , and not for things that are not profitable to him ; and that such looks into eternity about things unrevealed , do but over-whelm us , and tell us that they are unrevealed , and that we have not one reason for such employments . and what is the end of all that i have said ? why to tell you that our religion doth not only say nothing of former worlds , but , . that it also forbiddeth us to say , yea or nay , to such questions , and to corrupt our minds with such presumptuous searches of unrevealed things . and therefore that you have no reason to be against the scripture on this account ; for it doth not determine any thing against your own opinion , if you assert not the eternity of this present world or system ; but it determineth against your presumption , in medling with things which are beyond your reach . and withall it giveth us a certainty , that as in one sun there is the lux , radii & lumen ; so in one god there is father , son , and holy spirit ; eternally existent and self-sufficient ; which quieteth the mind more than to think of an eternity of an anima or materia , which is not god. all this i have here annexed , because these philosophical self-deceivers are to be pitied , and to have their proper help : and i thought it unmeet to interrupt the discourse with such debates , which are not necessary to more sober readers , but only for them who labour of this disease : and i know that when they read the first leafe of the book , which proveth that man hath a soul or mind , they will rise up against it with all the objections which gassendus , mr. hobs , &c. assault the like in cartesius with , and say , you prove not this mind is any thing but the subtiler part of matter , and the temperament of the whole : to whom i now answer , . that it is not in that place incumbent on me , nor seasonable to prove any more than i there assert . . but i have here done it for their sakes , more seasonably , though my discourse is entire and firm without it . and i desire the unbelieving reader to observe , that i am so far from an unnecessary incroaching upon his liberty , and making him believe that christianity condemneth all those conjectures of philosophers which it asserteth not it self , that i have taken the liberty of free conjecturing in such cases my self , not going beyond the evidence of probability , or the bounds of modesty : and that i think them betrayers of the christian cause , or very injurious to it , who would interess it in matters with what it medleth not ; and corrupt it , by pretending that it condemneth all the opinions in philosophy which themselves are against . nor am i one that believe that christianity will allow me that zeal , which too hastily and peremptorily condemneth all , that in such points do hold what i dislike . i do not anathematize as hereticks all those , who hold those opinions which either stephanus , or guilielm . episc . parisienses condemned in their articul . contra varios in fide errores : though i think many of them dangerous , and most very audacious . e. g. quod intelligentia motrix coeli fluit in animas rationales , sicut corpus coeli influit corpus humanum : quod scientia intelligentiae non differt à substantia ejus . quod intelligentia sola voluntate movet coelum : quod omne quod non habet materiam est aeternum . quod intellectus non est forma corporis nisi assistens : quod anima separata non patitur ab igne : quod anima separata manet animal vivum , &c. i can more charitably bear such opinions than those that so severely then condemned them . though yet i think that in this age , it is one of the devils chief designs , to assault christianity by false philosophy . pretend not then your by-opinions to prejudice you against christianity in the main : much less against those natural verities , which all wise , and sober , and honest philosophers are agreed in . when xenocrates , de morte , ( translated by ficinus ) had in the name of socrates , told axiochus what gobrias told , of an inferiour place whither souls went at death , and of their judgment , and of the torment , vbi homines impii omniformibus suppliciis cruciati perpetua punitione vexantur , he disclaimeth the imposition of the belief of so much , but selects this certainty , ego ratione coactus hoc solum plane firmiterque cognosco , animam omnem immortalem existere , & eam , quae pura ex iis locis abierit , sine tristitia vivere ; quamobrem sive sursum sive deorsum tendas , axioche , beatum fore te oportet , si modo pi● sancteque vixeris . n.b. and he holds to this , [ non in mortem , sed in ipsam immortalitatem migras : neque bonis privaberis , sed integra bonorum possessione frueris : nec voluptates mortali corpori mixtas percipies amplius , sed omni prorsus tristitia vacuas : illuc inquam proficisceris ex hoc carcere liber , ubi quieta omnia , & à tristitia senectuteque semota . vbi exultatio sancta , vitaque malorum nescia , & tranquilla pace nutrita , naturam rerum speculans , & arcana philosophiae contemplans ; haud sane ad turbae theatrive gratiam , sed ad perspicuae veritatis objectum . ] if you are not wise enough to be christians , why will you not be as wise and honest as the better sort of heathens ? must we have so much adoe to reason debauched hypocrites and apostates , to that which nature taught so many , who yet did but in part improve it ? believe this much which a xenocrates or socrates could teach you , and live accordingly , and you will not be blinded and deceived with so many beastly lusts , which hinder your belief , and will drown you in perdition . or rather come to christ , who will better cure those lusts than socrates or plato , or any philosopher could do . but alas , epicurus had more court and country disciples than the manly sort of philosophers , however the wise men vilified him in the schools : and his apostles , while they contemn the doctrine of incorporeal spirits , do so often animate themselves with those corporeal spirits , which the hearers of christs disciples thought they had drunk in , act. . that they are more fool-hardy and pot-confident than their wiser adversaries ; and get that with audacity , that i say not impudency , which others lose by humble modesty : for ( saith cicero , de fin . l. . p. . ) est tanti philosophitamque nobilis , audacter sua decreta defendere . ] and his doctrine so befriendeth sin , that sin will befriend it ; and then it is not like to want entertainment . for as cicero , ibid. qualis est ista philosophia , quae non interitum afferat pravitatis , sed sit contenta mediocritate vitiorum ? — in magnis interdum versatur angustiis , ut hominum conscientia remota , nihil tam turpe sit , quod voluptatis causa non videatur esse facturus . deinde ubi erubuit ( vis enim est permagna naturae ) confugit illuc ut neget accedere posse quidquam ad voluptatem nihil dolentis . — luxuriam non reprehendit , modo sit vacua infinita cupiditate & timore . hoc loco discipulos quaerere videtur , ut qui asoti esse velint , philosophi fiant . i have cited more out of cicero than any other in this treatise , and yet when i think how far our apostates are below him , seeing they despise the words of christ , i will once more use the words of cicero , to convince them , shame them or condemn them . tuscul . qu. l. . pag. . [ quorsum igitur haec spectat oratio ? quae sit illa vis & unde sit intelligendum puto . non est corte nec cordis , nec sanguinis , nec cerebri , nec atomorum : anima sit animus , ignisve nescio : ( he doubted whether the platonists or stoicks were in the right ) nec me pudet ut istos fateri me nescire quod nesciam : illud , si ulla alia de re obscura , affirmare possem , sive anima , sive ignis , sit animus , eum jurarem esse divinum . n.b. ( cicero dare swear that the soul is divine , though he doubt of the immateriality : and our apostates deny both . ) and reciting its operations , he saith , p. . prorsus haec divina mihi videtur vis , quae tot res efficiat ac tantas . — vigere , sapere , invenire , meminisse ; ergo animus , qui , ut ego dico , divinus , ut euripides audet dicere , deus est : & quidem si deus aut anima aut ignis est , idem est animus hominis . — sin autem est quinta quaedam natura ab aristotele inducta primum , haec & deorum est & animorum . — animorum nulla in his terris origo inveniri potest : nihil enim est in animis mistum , atque concretum , aut quod ex terra natum atque fictum esse videatur : nihil ne aut humidum quidem , aut stabile , aut igneum : his enim in naturis nihil inest quod vim memoriae , mentis , cogitationis habeat ; quod & praeterita teneat , & futura provideat , & complecti possit praesentia ; quae sola divina sunt : nec invenietur unquam unde ad homines venire possit , nisi à deo. singularis est igitur natura quaedam , atque vis animi sejuncta ab his usitatis notisque naturis : itaque quicquid est illud quod sentit , quod sapit , quod vult , quod viget , coeleste & divinum est , ob eamque rem , aeternum sit necesse est : nec vero deus ipse qui intelligitur à nobis , alio modo intelligi potest , nisi mens soluta quaedam , & libera , segregata ab omni concretione mortali , omnia sentiens , & movens , ipsaque praedita motu sempiterno ; hoc è genere atque eadem è natura est humana mens . ( so that though he suspected it to have some pure materiality , it was but such as he thought god had , and consisted with its eternity . ) vbi igitur aut qualis ista mens ? ( scil . deus ) ubi tua , aut qualis ? potesne dicere ? an si omnia ad intelligendum non habeo , quae habere vellem , ne iis quidem quae habeo , mihi per te uti licebit ? non valet tantum animus , ut sese ipse videat : at ut oculus , sic animus sese non videns alia cernit . — page . he saith of them that plead for the souls mortality , [ praeclarum nescio quid adepti sunt , qui didicerunt se , cum tempus mortis venisset , totos esse perituros . — quid habet ista res aut laetabile aut gloriosum ? sed plurimi contra nituntur , animosque quasi capite damnatos morte mulctant : neque aliud est quidquam cur incredibilis his animorum videatur aeternitas , nisi quod nequeunt qualis animus sit vacans corpore intelligere , & cogitatione comprehendere : quasi vero intelligant qualis sit in ipso corpore ! quae confirmatio ! quae magnitudo ! qui locus . — haec reputent isti qui negant animum sine corpore se intelligere posse : videbunt , quem in ipso corpore intelligant ! mihi quidem naturam animi intuenti , multò difficilior occurrit cogitatio , multóque obscurior , qualis animus in corpore sit , tanquam alienae domi , quam qualis cum exierit , & in liberum coelum , quasi in domum suam venerit . si enim quod nunquam vidimus , id quale sit intelligere non possumus . certe & deum ipsum , & divinum animum corpore liberatum , ●ogitatione complecti non possumus . — page . atque ea profecto tum multo puriora , & dilucidiora cernentur , cum , quo natura fert , liber animus pervenerit — cum nihil erit praeter animum , nulla res objecta , impediet , quo minus percipiat , quale quidque sit ; quamvis copiose haec diceremus , si res postularet , quam multa , quam varia spectacula , animus in locis coelestibus esset habiturus . — page , . ipsi majorum gentium dii qui habentur , hinc à nobis prosecti in coelum reperientur : — multi de diis prava sentiunt : id enim vitioso more effici solet : omnes tamen esse vim & naturam divinam arbitrantur : nec vero id collocutio hominum , aut consensus efficit : non institutis opinio est confirmata ; non legibus ; omni autem in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est . — haec ita sentimus natura du●e , nulla ratione , nullaque doctrina : maximum vero argumentum est naturam ipsam de immortalitate animorum tacitam judicare , quod omnibus curae sunt , & maxime quidem , quae post mortem futura sint . n.b. — abiit ad deos hercules : nunquam abiisset nisi cum inter homines esset , eam sibi viam munivisset . quid in hac republica tot tantosque viros ad rempublicam interfectos cogitasse arbitramur ? iisdemne ut finibus nomen suum quibus vita terminaretur ? nemo unquam sine magna spe immortalitatis se pro patria offerret ad mortem . — nescio quomodo inhaeret in mentibus quasi saeculorum quoddam augurium futurorum ; idque maximis ingeniis , altissimisque animis & existit maxime & apparet facillimè : quo quidem dempto quis tam esset amens , qui semper in laboribus & periculis viveret ? this maketh me think of augustines saying , si anima mortalis est , epicurus in animo meo palmam habet . confess . l. . c. ult . quod si omnium consensus ( inquit cic. ib. ) naturae vox est , omnesque qui ubique sunt consentiunt esse aliquid quod ad eos pertineat qui è vita cesserunt , nobis quoque idem existimandum : etsi , quorum aut ingenio aut virtute animus excellit , eos arbitramur quia natura optima sint , cernere naturae vim maxime ; verisimile est cum optimus quisque maxime posteritati serviat , esse aliquid cujus is post mortem sensum sit habiturus . sed , ut deos esse natura opinamur , qualesque sint ratione cognoscimus : sic permanere animos arbitramur consensu omnium nationam . n.b. qua in sede , qualesque sint ; ratione discendum est . pag. . haec igitur & alia innumerabilia cum cernimus , possumusne dubitare , quin his praesit aliquis vel effector , si haec nata sunt ut platoni videtur , vel si semper fuerint ut aristoteli placet , moderator tanti operis & muneris ? sic mentem hominis , quamvis eam non videas , ut deum non vides , tamen ut deum agnoscis ex operibus ejus , sic ex memoria rerum & inventione & celeritate motus , omnique pulchritudine virtutis vim divinam mentis agnoscito . in quo igitur est loco ? — vbi ubi sit animus , certe quidem in te est . quae est ei natura ? propria puto & sua . sed fac igneam , fac spirabilem ! nihil ad id de quo agimus : illud modo videto : ut deum noris , etsi ejus ignores & locum & faciem : sic animum tibi tuum notum esse oportere , etiamsi ejus ignores & locum & formam : in animi autem cognitione dubitare non possumus , nisi planè in physicis plumbei sumus , quin nihil sit animis admistum , nihil concretum , nihil copulatum , nihil coagmentatum , nihil duplex . quod cum it a sit , certè nec secerni , nec dividi , nec descerpi , nec distrahi potest ; nec interire igitur . est enim interitus quasi discessus & secretio , ac direptus earum partium , quae ante interitum junctione aliqua tenebantur . his & talibus adductus socrates , nec patronum quaesivit ad judicium capitis , nec judicibus supplexfuit , adhibuitque liberam contumaciam , à magnitudine animi ductam , non à superbia : & supremo vitae die de hoc ipso multa disseruit , & paucis ante diebus , cum facile posset educi è custodia , noluit : et cum penè in manu jam mortiferum illud teneret poculum , locutus ita est , ut non ad mortem trudi , verum in coelum videretur ascendere . ita enim censebat , itaque disseruit ; duas esse vias , duplicesque cursus animorum è corpore excedentium : nam qui se humanis vitiis contaminassent , & se ●otos libidinibus dedissent — iis devium quoddam iter esse , seclusum a concilio deorum . qui autem se integros castosque servavissent , quibusque fuisset minima cum corporis contagio , seseque ab his semper sevocassent , essentque in corporibus humanis , vitam imitati deorum , his ad illos a quibus essent profecti reditum facilem patere . — cato autem sic abiit e vita , ut causam moriendi nactum se esse gauderet . vetat enim dominus ille in nobis deus missu hinc nos suo demigrare . cum vero causam justam deus ipse dederit , ut tunc socrati , nunc catoni , saepe multis ; ne ille medi●s fidius vir sapiens laetus ex his tenebris in lucem illam excesserit : nec tamen illa vincula carceris ruperit ; leges enim vetant . pag. . licet concurrant plebeii omnes philosophi ( sic enim ii qui à platone & socrate , & ab illa familia dissident , appellandi videntur ) non modo nihil unquam tam eleganter explicabunt , sed ne hoc quidem ipsum quàm subtiliter conclusum sit , intelligent . sentit animus se moveri : quod cum sentit , illud una sentit , se vi sua , non aliena moveri : nec accidere posse , ut ipse unquam à se deseratur : ex quo efficitur aeternitas . i have been tedious , and will therefore only adde his application , pag. , . tota philosophorum vita , commentatio mortis . nam quid aliud agimus cum à voluptate , id est à corpore , cum à re familiari , quae est ministra & famula corporis , cum à repub. cum à negotio omni sevocamus animum ? quid inquam tum agimus , nisi animum ad seipsum , aduocamus ? secum esse cogimus ? maximèque à corpore abducimus : secernere autem à corpore animum , nec quidquam aliud est quàm emori discere . quare hoc commentemur , mihi crede ; disjungamusque nos à corporibus , id est , consuescamus mori . hoc & dum erimus in terris erit illi coelesti vitae simile . et cum illuc ex his vinculis emissi feremur , minus tardabitur cursus animorum : quo cum venerimus , tum denique vivemus : nam haec quidem vita , mors est , quam lamentari possem , si liberet . and how the somatists were then esteemed , he addeth , [ catervae veniunt contradicentium , non solum epicureorum , quos equidem , non despicio ; sed nescio quomodo , doctissimus quisque contemnit . and among christians they will never recover their reputation . i know that some doubting christians are ready to say as cicero's auditor , who saith , that he had often read plato ; sed nescio quomodo dum lego assentior ; cum posui librum , & mecum ipse de immortalitate animorum caepi cogitare , assensio omnis illa elabitur . but this is because the truth is not sufficiently concocted , nor the conjoyned frame of evidences entirely and deeply printed on the minde ; and so diversions alienate the minde from the just apprehension of some of those evidences which it had formerly had a glimpse of , and leave it open to the contrary suggestions . he that is surprised when his prospective glass or telescope is not with him , will not see those things which by their help he saw before . and the remembrance of former convictions in the generall , will hardly satisfie a man against his present different apprehension , though he be conscious that he had then more help than now . i have found my self a far clearer apprehension of the certainty of the life to come , and of the truth of the gospel , when i have come newly from the serious view of the entire frame of convincing evidences , than i can have at other times , when many particulars are out of the way , or much worn off my apprehensions . these passages i have cited out of heathens , to convince or confound those that under the gospel , with their hearts , tongues or lives , deny those truths which the light of nature hath so far made clear . remembring both those symbols of pythagoras , de rebus divinis a●sque lumine ne loquaris , & de dis●rebusque divinis , nihil tam minabile dicitur , quod non debeas credere : and his verse ( translated by ficinus ) , corpore deposito cum liber ad aethera perges , evades hominem factus deus aetheris almi . alcinous reciting plato's reasons for the immortality of the soul , cap. . mentioneth seven reasons , . anima cuicunque adest , vitam affert , ●tpote illi naturaliter insitam : quod vero vitam praestat , mortem minime suscipit : ergo immortale existit , . anima cum per corporis sensus ad illa quae sensibilia sunt descendit , angitur & turbatur ; nec similis esse potest illius cujus praesentia turbatur . . anima ipsa natura corpori dominatur . quod autem natura sua regit , & imperat , divinitati cognatum : ergo anima deo proxima immortalis est , &c. and because it may be objected , that by the first reason , the souls of bruits would be immortall , he answereth that , but so doubtfully and darkly as is not worth the reciting . but though alcinous incline to the negative ( of the immortality of the animae brutorum ) porphyrius is peremptory for the affirmative , upon the supposition of their rationality . the stoick philosophers bear also as full a testimony against the athiest and the denyers of humanity , as the rest : for though cicero thank them for nothing , and rebuke them for denying the souls eternity , and giving us but vsuram , ut cornicibus , a longer and not an everlasting life , yet some of them seem to be of another minde , and the rest rather think that the souls of men will participate in the worlds periodical revolutions , than be at all annihilated or deprived of felicity . the paucity of their writings which have come down to us , and the malice of the epicureans with whom they were at the greatest odds , did make them represented as if they had held more unreasonable opinions , and been more sowre and inhumane than indeed they were . and some who of late times condemn them for that in which they agree with the doctrine of christ , do seem to mean christianity , while they exclaim against the severities of stoicisme , and mean the church while they name but the porch . certainly , if cicero himself , who is offended with their schisme , do represent their opinions aright , and if we may judge of the rest by his speeches of cato , and by the writings of seneca , epictetus and antonine , and if barlaam hath truely collected their ethicks , there were no men that spake and lived so like christians , who were strangers to christ . he that would see the difference between them and the epicureans , let him but read the praeloquium before his antoninus of mr. gataker ( that man of admirable learning , humility , and piety , not to be named without love and honour , nor in this age without tears ) : of antoninus himself he saith , [ certè quaecunque dominus ipse christus in concionilus collationibusque suis historiae evangelicae insertis [ de mali cogitatione etiam abstinenda , de affectibus vitiosis supprimendis , de sermone otioso non insuper habendo , de animo cum primis excolendo , & ad imaginem divinam effingendo , de beneficentia simplicissime exhibenda , de injuriis aequanimiter ferendis , de admonitione & increpatione cum moderatione cautioneque accurata exercendi● , de relus quibi slibet , adeoque vita ipsa , uli res ratioque poscit nihili habendis , de aliis denique plerisque pietatis , charitatis , aequitatis , humanitatis , officiis quam exquitissime obeundis exequendisque ] praecepta dedit ; apud nostrum hunc eadem , perinde acsi illa lectitasset ipse , in dissertationum commentationumque harum congerie inspersa passim , nec sine vehementia et vivacitate insigni quae in praecordia ipsa penitus penetret . — lector quivis sedulus advertet , ingenuus agnoscet . the sum of their doctrine , different from the epicureans , he thus reciteth , ( and by citations copiously proveth ) [ numen coeleste rerum humanarum curam gerere ; nec universi tantummodo , sed hominum etiam singulorum , & rerum quoque singularum ; rebus humanis praesto esse , generique humano , non ad bona vere sic dicta duntaxat , sed & ad vitae hujus commoda , & adminicula suppetitias ferre . deum itaque ante omnia colendum ; ad omnia invocandum , per omnia cogitandum , in omnilus agnoscendum & comprobandum , de omnibus laudandum & celebrandum ; huic uni in omni negotio simpliciter obsequendum ; ab ipso quicquid obvenerit animo prompto ac lubenti excipiendum atque amplexandum , nihil mellus , nihil convenientius , nihil conducibilius , nihil opportunius , aut tempestivius , quàm id , quicquid existat , quodipse voluerit , existimandum : qu●cunque ducere visum fuerit , citra tergiversationem aut murmurationem , sponte sequendum ; locum stationemque quemcunque is assignaverit , strenuè tuendum , enixè tenendum , etiamsi mortem millies oppetere oporteret . ] haec de numine stoici & erga numen affectu . de homine & officiis — [ hunc & corditus diligere & curare & sustinere , injuriaque omni ( ut quae impietatis etiam notam inurat ) abstinere ; & beneficentia prosequi , nec sibi soli genitum censere se , aut vivere , sed in commune bonum ac beneficium , cunciis pro facultate viribusque semet exhibere , re ipsa , reique bene gestae conscientia , ( nec hac etiam ipsa quadantenus reputata ) citra vestem , aut mercedis spem commodive proprii intuitum , contentum agere ; à beneficio uno praestito ad aliud transire , nec unquam benefaciendo defatisci ; sed vitae telam , tanquam vivendi fructus hic sit ; benefactis si●i invicem continenter annexis , ita totum pertexere , ut nusquam interveniat hiatus ullus vel minimus ; beneficii loco , quod benefecerit habentem ; sibique profuisse existimantem ; si alii cuiquam usui esse poterit ; nec extra se proinde quicquam vel laudis humanae , vel lucelli , aut aucupantem aut expetentem : ad haec nihil mentis cultu antiquius , nihil honesti studio petius aut pretiosius habere : ab eo denique quod officii sui esse norit , nulla vel vitae , nedum alius rei cujuspiam , cupidine abducendum , nulla mortis cruciatusve illius , ne dum damni aut detrimenti formidine abigendum se permittere . ] haec stoicorum praecepta sunt — ▪ when will the whole tribe of the epicureans ever give the world such a prince as antonine ? who taught the world , that a prince should be a philosopher , and that self-government , and a well-ordered mind and life , is the first point in the government and well-ordering of the common-wealth ; and that monarchy may be so used , as to consist as well with the peoples interest and liberty , as the most accurate venetian democraty : the only hurt that ever he was charged to do being this , that he lived so well , that he seemed somewhat to hinder the succeeding lustre of christianity , even in constantine and theodosius themselves . and as for the stoicks great doctrine of virtues self-sufficiency to felicity , which plato and aristotle also own against the epicurean felicity of pleasure , it is undoubtedly a very great and sacred . theological verity : but it implieth a higher truth , which i have vindicated in this treatise , viz. that man hath an ultimate end above himself , and that god ( for all that he is perfect , and can receive no addition of felicity ) is both his own and our end , ( though intendere finem is not spoken univocally of god and man ) and that his goodness as essential in himself , and as his own perfection , is , in the order of our conceptions , much higher than his benignity or goodness , as related to the good of man. i have read some late self-esteeming writers , ( who love not to be named by way of opposition ) who have undertaken the defence of the epicurean heresie , that pleasure is formally both man's felicity , and his ultimate end : but their reasonings for it are not half so handsome and adapted to deceive , as the discourse of torquatus in cicero , de finib . is ; which indeed may seem very plausible , till cicero's excellent answer is compared with it . it is a fair pretence to say , that a good man is pleased with nothing but that which is good , and that true pleasure is to be found especially in virtue , and that temperance and chastity should be more pleasant , than excess and luxury ; and yet that the best men , when they do any great and excellent work , do therefore do it because it pleaseth them . but the truth is , that bonum qua bonum est objectum voluntatis ; good and appetibile are the same : it is first good because it pleaseth us , but it pleaseth us , because it is esteemed by us to be good . and the greatest good should greathest please us , because it is first the greatest good : and as god in himself is infinitely better than any delight or felicity of ours , so is he therefore to be more the object of our delight . and as the good of the world , or of kingdoms , or of thousands , is better than the pleasure of one individual person , so should it be better loved , and more delighted in . for if good as good be appetible and delectable , then the greatest good must have the greatest love and pleasure . and nature it self telleth us , that he that would not rather be annihilated than the world should be annihilated , or would not lose his life and honour , to save the life , and honour , and felicity of king and kingdom , is no good member of civil society , but a person blinded by selfishness and sensuality . therefore man hath something above himself , and his own pleasure , to seek and to take pleasure in . how far you can congruously say , that you take pleasure in your pleasure , and so make your own pleasure the object , yea , the only ultimate object of it self , i shall not now stay to enquire . but certain i am , that though our love , which is our complacency in the beloved object , is our actus finalis , yet is it not the objectum finale to it self ; but god himself , the infinite good , is that final object ; and the publick good is a more noble and excellent object than our own . and though it be truly our felicity to love god , yet we love him not chiefly because it is our felicity to love him , but because he is chiefly good and lovely ; and then in the second instant , we love our own love , and delight even in our own delights . indeed the sensitive life , as such , can seek nothing higher than its own delight : but the rational life is made to intend and prosecute that end , which reason telleth us is best , and to prefer that before our selves , which is better than our selves . and therefore the epicurean opinion , which maketh pleasure our highest end , doth shew that the sect is sensual and bruitish , and have brought their reason into servitude to their appetites and lusts . and nature it self doth abhor the notion , when it is brought into the light ; and will hear him with some horrour who shall speak out and say , [ god is not to be chiefly loved for himself , nor as he is best in himself , nor as my ultimate objective end , but only to be loved next my self , as a means to my felicity or pleasure , as meat , drink , ease , and sport , and lust are . and virtue or holiness is not to be loved chiefly for it self , that is , as it is the image of god , and pleasing to him , but as it conduceth to my pleasure . ] as cicero excellently noteth , there is a great deal of difference between these two ; [ to love vertue as vertue , and so to take pleasure in it because it is virtue ; ] and [ to love virtue for pleasures sake , more than for its own : ] for he that doth so , must say as cicero chargeth epicurus plainly to say , that luxury is not to be discommended if it be not unpleasant : for the end is the measure and rule to judge of all the means . if pleasure as pleasure be best , then to him that so continues it , to live more pleasedly in whoredom , and drunkenness , and theft , and murder , than in godliness and honesty , it will be better so to do : and virtue , and lust or wickedness , will stand in competition only in the point of pleasure . and then , which think you will have the greater party , and what a case would mankind be in ? i am perswaded , that the well studying the excellent discourse of cicero on this point , and the reasons which the stoicks and the rest of the philosophers give against the plebeian philosophers , ( as cicero calleth them ) may much conduce to help many divines themselves to a righter understanding of the same controversie , as in theology they have otherwise worded it , whether god or our own felicity be most to be loved ? ( and yet without running into the fanatick extreme , of separating the love of god and our selves , and calling men to try whether for his glory they can be willing to be damned . ) only when you read the philosopher saying , that virtue in and for it self is to be loved as our felicity ; elucidate it by remembring , that this is , because that vertue in it self is the image of god , and by our felicity they mean the perfection of our natures , in respect of the end for which we were made . and that as the excellency of my knife or pen ( yea , or my horse ) is not to be measured by their own pleasure but their usefulness to me , because i am their end ; so is it , as to man's perfection , as he is made for god , and related to him , ( for all that he hath no need of us , seeing he can be pleased in us . ) thus this philosophical controversie is coincident with one of the greatest in theologie . though i have displeased many readers , by making this treatise swell so big , by answering so many objections as i have done , yet i know that many will expect that i should have made it much greater , by answering , . abundance of particular objections from scripture-difficulties : . and many discourses of several sorts of persons , who contradict some things which i have said . but i supersede any further labour of that kind , for these following reasons . . it would fill many volumes to do it , as the number and quality of the objections do require . . those that require it are yet so lazie , that they will not read this much which i have already written , as esteeming it too long . . they may find it done already by commentators , if they will have but the patience to peruse them . . i have laid down that evidence for the main cause of godliness and christianity , by which he that well digesteth it , will be enabled himself to defend it against abundance of cavils , which i cannot have time to enumerate and answer . . the scribles of self-conceited men are so tedious , and every one so confident that his reasons are considerable , and yet every one so impatient to be contradicted and confuted , that it is endless to write against them , and it is unprofitable to sober readers , as well as tedious to me , and ungrateful to themselves . to instance but in the last that came to my hands , an inquisitio in fidem christianoram hujus seculi , ( the name prefixed i so much honour , that i will not mention it . ) page . he calleth confidence in errour by the name of certainty , as if every man were certain that hath but ignorance enough to over-look all cause of doubting . page . he will not contend if you say , that it is by divine faith , that we believe the words to be true which are gods ; and by humane faith by which we believe them to be the words of god. he saith , that faith hath no degrees : but is alway equal to it self : to believe is to assent , and to doubt is to suspend assent ; ergo , where there is the least doubt , there is no faith ; and where there is no doubt , there is the highest faith ; ergo , faith is always in the highest , and is never more or less : and yet it may be called small when it is quasi nulla , ( that quasi is to make up a gap ) in respect of the subject , or at least hardly yielded ; and in regard of the object , when few things are believed . page . he maketh the calvinists to be enthusiasts , ( that is , fanaticks ) because they say , that they know the scripture by the spirit : ( as if subjectively we had no need of the spirit , to teach us the things of god ; and objectively the spirit of miracles and sanctification were not the notifying evidence or testimony of the truth of christ . ) the same name he vouchsafeth them that hold , that the scripture is known by universal tradition to be god's word , and every mans own reason must tell him ( or discern ) the meaning of it . and he concludeth , that if every one may expound the scripture , even in fundamentals , then every man may plead against all magistrates , in defence of murder or any other crime , as a rational plea ; and say , why should you punish me for that which god hath bid me do . as if god would have no reasonable creature , but bruits only to be his subjects . as if a man could knowingly obey a law , which he neither knoweth , nor must know the meaning of ; and is bound to do he knoweth not what . and as if the kings subjects must not understand the meaning of the fifth commandment , nor of rom. . honour thy father and mother ; and , let every soul be subject to the higher powers , and not resist . or as if kings must govern only dogs and swine , or might make murder , adultery , idolatry and perjury , the duty of all their subjects when they pleased , because none must judge of the meaning of god's law by which they are forbidden : or as if it were the only way to make men obedient to kings and parents , to have no understanding that god commandeth any man to obey them , nor to know any law of god that doth require it : or as if all our pastors and teachers were not to be so useful to us as a sign-post ; nor we were not to learn of them or of our parents any thing , that god either by nature or scripture ever taught us : or as if a child or subject , who is required to learn the meaning of his ruler's laws , to judge of them judicio privatae discretionis , were thereby allowed to mis-understand them , and to say that they command us that which they forbid us ; and because the king forbiddeth us to murder , he alloweth us to say , you proposed it to my understanding , and i understand it that you bid me murder , and therefore you may not punish me . as if he that is bound to judge by a bare discerning what is commanded him , and what forbidden , were allowed to judge , in partem utramlibet , that it is or it is not , as please himself . as if when the king hath printed his statutes , he had forfeited all his authority by so doing , and his subjects might say , why do you punish us for disobeying your laws , when you promulgated them to us as rational creatures to discern their sense ? will it profit the world to write confutations of such stuff as this ? or must a man that is not condemned to stage-playing or ballad-making , thus waste his time ? do the people need to be saved from such stuff as this ? if so , what remedy , but to pity them , and say , quos perdere vult jupiter hos dementat , & si populus vult decipi , decipiatur . and yet to do no more wrong to the scriptures , than to councils , and bulls , and statutes , and testaments , and deeds , and bonds , he concludeth , of all writings whatsoever , that by the meer words of the writer you cannot be certain of his sense ; though they be common words , and you take them in the common sense . so that if any doubt arise about my words , if i resolve it by writing i cannot be understood ; but if i spake the same syllables by word of mouth , it would serve the turn . as if no man could be sure of the sense of any law , or testament , or bond , or covenant , which is committed to writing , nor of any exposition of them , if once it fall under pen or press . as if god's writing the ten commandments had left them unintelligible , in comparison of his speaking them . then farewell all historical certainty . hath every single priest himself any assurance of the sense of the council , the canons , the popes decreetals and bulls , but by the way of writing ? and so the poor people must , instead of the church , believe only that priest that orally speaketh to them , though he have no certainty of the matter himself . if this doctrine be made good once , it will spoil the printers trade , and the clarks , and courts of record , and the post-office too . but , page . he maketh the consent of the universal church to be the only sure communication of christian doctrine in the articles of faith ; yea , the consent of the present age concerning the former : ( but how the consent of the whole church shall be certainly known to every man and woman , when no writing can certainly make known any mans mind , is hard to tell a man that expecteth reason . ) and that you may see how much the subject of this treatise is concerned in such discourses , he addeth , that if the church had at any time been small , its testimony had been doubtful ; but ( saith he ) it testifieth of it self that christians were never few , and therefore it is to be believed . but we will have no such prevaricating defences of christianity . the major is the infidels erroneous cavil ; the minor is a false defence of the faith . the church never said that christians were never few : it hath ever confessed the contrary , that once they were few ; and yet it hath proved against the infidel , that its testimony was not doubtful , having better evidence of their veracity than numbers . you may perceive by these strictures upon this one discourse , what an endless task it would be to write confutations , of every man that hath leisure to publish to the world his opinions , which are injurious to the christian verity . and therefore no sober reader will expect , that i or he must be so tired , before he can be satisfied and setled in the truth . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e non tam authoritatis in disputando , quàm rationis momenta quaerenda sunt . cicer. de nat. deor. . p. . animo ipso animus videtur , & nimirum , hanc habet vim praeceptum apollinis , quo monet ut se quisque noscat : non enim credo id praecipit ut membra nostra , aut staturam figurámve noscamus : neque nos corpora sumus 〈◊〉 neque ego tibi dicens hoc corpori tuo dico . cum igitur nosce te , dicit , hoc dicit , nosce animum tuum . nam corpus quidem quasi vas est , aut aliquod animi receptaculum : ab animo tuo quicquid agitur id agitur à te . hunc igitur nosce nisi divinum esset , non esset hoc acrioris cujusdam animi praeceptum , sic ut tributum deo sit , hoc est , seipsum posse cognoscere , sed fi qualis sit animus , ipse animus nesciat , dic quaeso , ne esse quidem se sciet ? cicero tuscul . quast . l. . pag. ( mihi ) , . patet aeternum id esse quod seipsum movet : & quis est qui hanc naturam animis tributam neget . inanimum est enim omne quod pulsu agitatur externo . — sentit igitur animus se moveri : quod cum sentit , illud una sentit , se vi suâ , non aliena moveri ; nec accidere posse ut ipse unquam à se deseratur , ex quo efficitur aeternitas . id. ibid. obj. age ostende mihi deum tuum . resp . age ostende mihi hominem tuum : fac te hominem esse cognoscam , & quis meus sit deus demonstrare non morabor . theophil . antioch . ad autolycum . lib. . initio . cum despicere coeperimus & sentire , quid simus , & quid ab animantibus caeteris differamus , tum ea insequi incipiemus , ad quae nati sumus . cicer. . de fin . qui seipsum cognoverit cognoscet in se omnia : deum , ad cujus imaginem factus est : mundum , cujus simulachrum gerit . creaturas omnes cum quibus symbolum habet . paulus dom. de scala thess . pag. . ut deum noris , & si ignores & locum & faciem ; sic animum tibi tuum notum esse oportet , etiamsi ignores & locum & formam . cicer. . tuscul . non ii sumus quibus nihil verum esse videatur , sed ii qui omnibus veris falsa quaedam adjuncta esse dicamus , tanta similitudine , ut , &c. cicer. de nat. deor. . p. . lege pisonis dicta de mente & corpore , in cicer. de finib . l. . p. . omnes ad id quod bonum videtur , omnes suas actiones referunt . aristot . de republ. . c. . in homine optimum quidem ratio , haec antecedit animalia , deos sequitur . sen. ep . . malitia praemiis exercetur : ubi ea dempseris , nemo omnium gratuito malus est . salust . animi imperio , corporis servitio magis utimur : alterum nobis cum diis , alterum cum belluis commune est . salust . cat. est homini cum deo rationis societas , cic. . de leg . deus animal unum spectabile hominem , in quo omnia animalia continerentur effecit . cic. de univers . aliorum causâ omnia generata sunt , ut effruges atque fructus quos terra gignit animantium causâ ; animantes autem hominum ; ut equum vehendi causâ , &c. ipse autem homo ortus est ad mundum contemplandum , &c. cicer. . de nat. deor. bestiis homines uti ad utilitatem suam possint sine injuriâ . nullum est unum uni tam simile , tam par , quàm omnes inter nosipsos sumus . quod si depravatio consuetudinum , si opinionum varietas , non imbecilliratem animorum torqueret , & flecteret . quocunque coepisset , sui nemo ipse tam similis esset , quàm omnes essent omnium . cic. . de leg homines hominum causâ sunt generati , ut ipsi inter se , alii aliis prodesse possint . cic . offic. sic nos nati videmur , ut inter omnes esset societas quaedam . cic. de amicit. homo naturaliter est animal politicum & civile . aristot . . polit . inter nos naturâ ad civilem communitatem conjuncti & consociati sumus . quod ni ita se haberet , nec justitiae ullus esset , nec bonitati locus ; & quomodo hominum inter homines juris esse vincula putant , sic homini nihil juris esse cum bestiis : chrysippus ait caetera nata esse hominum causâ & deorum ; eos autem societatis suae , &c. cato in cicer . de finib . l. . p. . salus civitatis in legibus est . arist . . rhet. c. . quoniam ea natura esset hominis , ut ei cum genere humano quasi civile jus intercederet , qui id conservaret , cum justum , qui migraret injustum fore . chrysip . in cato . in cicer. ubi supra . est unum jus quo devincta est hominum societas , & quod lex constituit una : quae lex recta ratio est imperandi atque prohibendi . cicer. de leg . . p. . si veritatem de anima cognoverimus , valde magnum nobis erit introductorium ad omnem veritatem , & ad omnes partes philosophiae insignes dat occasiones . themist . sup . . de anim. read galen's admirations of the creator , l. de usu part . praecipue l. . cap. . animorum nulla in terris origo est . nil enim est in animis nostris mistum & concretum , aut quod ex terra natum , humidum , igneum , &c. his enim naturis nihil inest quod vim memoriae , mentis , cogitationis habeat , &c. nec invenietur unquam unde ad hominem venire possint , nisi à deo. cicero . quis est tam vecors , qui cum suspexerit in coelum , deo , esse non sentiat ? & ea quae tantâ mente fiunt , ut vix quisquam arte ullâ , ordinem rerum , atque vicissitudinem persequi possit , casu fieri putet . cicer. de resp . arusp . placet stoicis corruptibilem esse mundum , quippe genitum eorum ratione quae per sensus intelliguntur . cujus & partes sunt corruptibiles & totum , partes autem mundi corruptibiles sunt , in se invicem mutantur . est igitur corruptibilis mundis . ae quicquid mutari in deterius potest , corruptibile est . mundus autem huic mutationi & corruptioni obnoxius est . laert . in zenone . mundum autem fieti ( dicunt stoici ) cum ex igne substantia per aërem versa in humorem fuerit ; deinde erassior ipsius pars effecta fuerit terra : porro subtilior in aërem cesserit , eademque magis ac magis extenuata in ignem evaserit . id. ibid. chrysippus & possidonius aiunt mundum regi & administrari secundum mentem & providentiam , mente per omnes illius partes pertingente ; sicut & in nostra anima contingit , sed per lias magis , per illas minus . laert. in zen. anaxogoras docuit mentem , confufis primo rebus accessisse , omniaque compegisse simul & ordinasse . laert. in ●nax . ex timone . ovid's description of the creation of the world , is almos as if he had taken it out of moses , metaph. l. . * the pythagoreans and plato . so balbus in cicer. de nat. deor. l. . and many more . but cicero in other places speaketh of god , not as the soul of the world formally and constitutively , but only efficiently , calling him , the parent of the vniverse , the maker of all things , &c. so that it seems that he took not god , pro formâ mundi , but as we do , for more than the soul of it , even the first efficient . and lib. de univers . he supposeth the eternal god to have created that god who is the soul of the world . god never wrought miracle to convince atheism , because his ordinary works convince it . lord bacon essay . p. . the platonists simile is , as the substance and shadow may be at one time , though one be the cause of the other ; so here . ( vid. ) raymond . lullium arte magna de tabul . cap. , , , . ad sin . . and alex. gill on the creed , pag. , , &c. & pag. , &c. lege etiam disputationem zachariae scholast . epise . mitilen . cum ammonio contra mundi aeternitatem , in bib. pa. graecolat . to. . pag. , &c. quid enim potest esse tam apertum , tamque perspicuum , cum coelum suspeximus , coelestiaque contemplati sumus , quàm esse aliquod numen , praestantissimae mentis , quo haec regantur . cicer. l. . de nat deor. esse igitur deos perspicuum est : ut id qui neget , vix cum sanae mentis existinem . cicer , de nat. deor. . agnoscimus deum ex operibus ejus . cic. tusc . commoda quibus utimur , lucem qua fruimur , spiritum quem ducimus , à deo no●is dari & impertiri videmus . cic. pro rosc . jovem dominatorem rerum & omnia nutu regentem , & praesentem & praepotentem , qui dubitat , haud sanè intelligo cur non idem , sol sit , an nullus sit dubitare possit , cicer. de nat. deor. l. . pag. ( mihi ) . tria sunt invisibilia dei : h. e. potentia , sapientia , benignitas ; à quibus omnia procedunt , in quibus omnia subsistunt , per quae omnia reguntur : pater est potentia , filius sapientia , spiritus sanctus benignitas : potentia creat , sapientia gubernat , benignitas conservat ( & perficit . ) potentia per benignitatem sapienter creat : sapientia per potentiam benigne gubernat : benignitas per sapientiam potenter conservat : sicut imago in speculo cernitur , sic in natura animae , &c. huic similitudini dei approximat homo : cui potentia dei dat bonum posse ; sapientia tribuit scire , benignitas praestat velle : haec triplex animae rationalis vis est ; scil . posse , scire , velle : quae supra dictis tribus fidei , spei & charitati cooperantur , &c. poth● prumensis de statu domus dei , lib. . in boblioth . pat. v. . deo nihil praestantius , ab coigitur necesse est m●um regi . nihi igitur est na●●e●ens aut su● 〈◊〉 d●s : om●g ●git ipse natura● a● tenim si concedlimus intelligentes esse deos. concedimus et am providentes , & rerum quidem maximarum . cicer. de nat. deur . dicitis nihil esse quod deus efficere non possit , & quidem sine ullo labore : ut enim hominum membra sine ulla contentione mente ipsa ut moveantur , sic numine deorum omnia fingi , moveri mutarique posse . neque id dicitis superstitiose atque aniliter , sed physicâ constantique ratione : inquit cotta de stoicis in cicer . de nat. doer . . p . deus est mens , soluta , libera & segregata ab omni concretione mortali , omnia sentiens , movens , &c. cicer. . tuscul . velleius in cicer de nat. deor. . reciteth the opinions of many of the philosophers , of god , p. . sed deo ( si deus est ) longum nihil omnino est , cui punctum terra est , & sub nutu omnia constituta . arnob. l. . p. . plato in lib. leg . quid sit omnino deus , inquiri oportere non censet . cicer. . de nat. deor. the wiser sort of the heathens believed one only parent of the universe , but durst not speak out what they knew , of his unity or perfections . cicero saith , illum quasi parentem hujus universitatis invenire difficile ; & cum inveneris , indicare in vulgus , nefas . de vniversit . pag. . and the same he saith , lib. . de nat . deor. stoici dicunt unum deum esse : ipsumque & mentem , & fatum , & jovem dicunt : principio illum cum esset apud se , substantiam omnem per aërem in aquam convertisse . et quemadmodum in faetu semen continetur , ita & hanc serendi rationem in humore talem residisse , materia ad operandum aptissimè parata , ex quâ caetera post haec gignerentur . tum genuisse primum elementa quatuor , ignem , aquam , aërem , terram . videntur autem illis duo esse rerum omnia principia , saciens videl . & patiens : quod patitur fine qualitate esse substantiam materiam : quod autem faciat verbum deum esse quod in ipsa sit . hunc enim quippe sempiternum per ipsum omnem singula creare . laert. in zenone , p. ( mihi ) , . nee enim ignorare potest deus qua mente quisque sit . cicer. de div. at ignoratio rerum aliena est naturae deorum ; & sustinendi muneris propter imbecillitatem difficultas , minime cadit in majestatem deorum : ex quo efficitur id quod volumus , deorum providentia mundum administrari . cicero ibid. quod si inest in hominum genere , mens , fides , virtus , concordia , unde haec in terras nisi à superis diffluere potuerunt ? cumque sit in nobis consilium , ratio , prudentia , necesse est deos haec ipsa habere majora : nec habere solum , sed etiam his uti , in optimis & maximis rebus . cicero de natur . dorum . lib. . pag. . deus est summum bonum , supra omnem substantiam , omnemque naturam ; quod cuncta expetunt , cum ipse sit plenae perfectionis , nullius societatis indigus ▪ plato in tim. amor divinus fuit causa factionis mundi , & originis omnium rerum . id. ib bonus quidem deus , & quidem deus causa bonorum : malorum autem omnium non causa . idem de leg. deus si vim spectes , valentissimus , si decorem formosissimus , si vitam immortalis , denique si virtutem piaestantissimus est . aristot de mun. c. . deus est actus illis porro actus qui per se est ; & optimus & aeternus . atque deum animal esse & aeternum & praestantissinium dicimus . vita igitur & aevum continuum & perpetuum deo suppetit : est enim hoc deus . arist . metaphys . creatas autem potentia● , creatrix utique potentia jare supereminet eo ipso vel maxime quo creavit . nam & animam animá praestantiorem saepe & experimur & dicimus . claudian . mammort . de anime statu . l. . cap. . when i consider , that taking any one sound , if you joyn thereto another , a third above it , and then place another a third above that also ; these three thus conjoyned and sounding together , do constitute one entire harmony , which governs and compriseth all the sounds , which by art or imagination can at once be joyned together in musical con●ordante : this i cannot but think a significant emblem of that supreme and incomprehensible three in one , governing , comprising and disposing the whole machine of the world , with all it s included parts in a perfect harmony . christoph . simpson's the division vioist . pag. . the reason why the heathens made gods of several virtues , was , because those virtues were most eminent in god , and by adoring them , men would learn to love and imitate them . bene mens , pietas , virtus , fides consecratur manu : quarum omnium r●mae dedicata publice templ . sunt , ut illa qui habeant ( habent autem omnes boni ) deos ipsos in animis suis collocatos putent . cicer. de leg. . p. . fas autem nec est , nec unquam fuit , quicquam nisi pulcherrimum facere eum qui essot optimus . cicer. de vnivers . p. . see theophil . antioch . ad autol. l. . p ▪ in b. p. . shewing that by gods voice speaking to adam is meant his son. sic plato , cum de deo loqui esset animatus , dicere quid sis , non est ausus : hoc solum de deo sciens , quod sciri qualis sit , ab homine non possit ; solem vero ei simillimum de visibilibus solum reperit & per ejus similitudinem viam sermoni suo attollendo se ad comprehensibilia patefecit . nam deus qui prima causa est , unus omnium princeps & origo est . hic super abundanti foecunditate majestatis de se mentem creavit . haec mens quae 〈◊〉 vo catur , qua patrem inspicit , plenam simil tud●nem servat authoris . macrob. nulla gens est tam inmansueta neque tam ferrea , quae non criamsi ignoret qualem deum habere deceat , tamen habendum sciat . cicero de leg . omnibus innatum & quasi insculptum est , esse deos. idem de nat. deor. nulla gens tam fera cujus mentem non imbuerit deorum ●pinio , idem . tusc . dicunt stoici deum esse animal immortale , rationale , perfectum & beatum ; à malo omni remotissimum , providentiâ suâ mundum & quae sunt in mundo administrans omnia : non tamen inesse illi humanae formae lineamenta : caeterùm esse opificem immensi hujus operis , sicut & patrem omnium . laert. in zenone , pag. ( mihi ) . i had rather believe all the fables in the legend , talmud , alcoran , than that this universal frame is without a minde . lord verulam , essay . multi de diis prava sentiunt : id enim vitioso more effici solet : omnes tamen esse vim & naturam divinam arbitrantur . nec verò id collocutio hominum aut consensus efficit ; non institutis opinio est confirmata ; non legibus : omni autem in re consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est . cicer. tusculan . qu : l. . p. . cesarius and some other of the ancients , make the image of god on man to be his naturall perfections , and his similitude , to be his moral perfections . read the proofs of the deity , and of providence at large in cicer. de nat . deor. lib. . by balbus . those writers who confound propriety and government under the word dominion , and then bestow long and sharp disputes on the question , what is the fundamentum of gods dominion , do but delude the ignorant , and exercise the patience or contempt of the intelligent , prima pietat's magistra natura est . cic. omnis est deorum vita beata , hominem autem quatenus in ea lucet quoddam ejus actionis exemplat . aristot . eth. . c. . agri ne consecrentur platoni assentior : qui his fere verbis utitur : terra igitur , ut focus , domicilium sacrum omnium deorum est : quocirca nequis iterum idem consecrato . aurum autem & argentum in urbibus & privatim & in fanis , invidiosa res est : cicer. de leg . l. . p. . stoici dicunt mundum regi & administrari secundum mentem & providentiam . laert. in zenone . note , that all cicero's unanswerable reasons for the law of nature , lib. de leg. prove , that god governeth us by laws : for the law of nature is god's law , who is the maker of nature . omnium quae in hominum doctorum disputatione versantur , nihil est profecto praestabilius , quàm plane intelligi nos ad justitiam esse natos ; neque opinione sed naturâ , constitutum esse jus . id jam patebit , si hominum inter ipsos societatem conjunctionemque prospexeris , &c. cicer. de leg. . pag. . si leges abregantur & curvis licentia faciendi quicquid voluerit data sit , non solum respub . pessum ibit , sed nec quicquam intererit inter nostram & ferarum vitam . demest . or. . cont . aristog . bonis legibus , honestorum studiorum aemalatione pia , ●emperans , justa , & re bellica praestans civitas redditur . dio● . h●l . c. l. . modesliam quandam cognitio re : n● coelest ▪ u●n assert is , qui videant quanta sit etiam apud deos moderatio , quantas ordo ; & magnitudinem animi , deorum opera & facta cementibu● . justitiam etiam , cum cognitum habeas , quid sit fummi rectoris & domini numen , ●uod consilium , quae voluntas , cujus ad naturam apta ratio vera illa & summa lex à philosophis dicitur . cicer. de finib . l. p. . fundamentum libertatis , fons aequitatis , mens & animus & consilium , sententia civitatis posita in legibus . cic. atqui si natura confirmatum jus non erit , virtutes omnes tollantur : ubi enim liberalitas ? ubi patriae caritas ? ubi pietas ? ubi aut bene merendi de altero , aut referendae gratiae voluntas , poterit existere ? nam haec nascuntur ex co qued naturà propensi sumus ad diligendos homines , quod fundamentum juris est . neque solum in homines obsequia , sed etiam in deos ceremoniae religionesque tolluntur , quas non metu , sed eâ conjunctione , quae est homini cum deo , conservandas puto . cic. de leg . . p. . mundus numine regitur , estque quasi communis urb ▪ & civitas hominum . cicero de finib . nec solum jus à natura dijudicatur , sed omnino omnia honesta & turpia : nam & communis intelligentia nobis nota res edicit ; easque in animis nostris inchoavit , ut ●onesta in virtute ponantur , in vitiis turpia . haec autem in opinione existimare , non in natura ponere , dementis est . nam & nec arboris , nec equi virtus , quae dicitur in quo abutimur nomine , in opinione sita est sed in natura . cicero de leg . . p. . rerum natura malè administrari non vult : & multorum dominatus & principatus non est utilis : unus ergo sit princeps . aristot . lib. ● . metaph . c. . quod in navi gubernator , quod in curru agitator , quod in choro praecentor , quod denique lex in civitate , & dux in exercitu , hoc deus est in m●ndo . aristot . de mund. c. . est enim virtus perfecta ratio , quod certè in natura est . cicero de leg . . p. . what cicero de leg . . saith , that he must first learn to obey who will learn to govern , is true in respect of obedience to god. quae lex est recta ratio imperandi atque prohibendi : quam qui ignorat , is est injustus , sive est illa scripta uspiam , sive nuspiam . quod si justitia est obtemperatio scriptis legibus , institutisque populorum , etsi , ut iidem dicunt , utilitate omnia metienda sunt , negliget leges , easque perrumpet , si poterit , is qui sibi eam rem fructuosam putabit fore . cicero de leg . . p. . there is scarce any thing that the world needeth so much as good governours , nor that is a greater blessing to them : which diogenes intimated when he was to be sold , and bid the crier cry , vvho will buy him a master : and when they ask'd him what he could do , he said , he could tell how to command or rule men . laert. in diog. dicebatque cum intueretur in vita gubernatores , medicos , & philosophos , animalium omnium sapientissimum , hominem esse : cum autem inspiceret somniotum interpretes , conjectores , vates , vel qui gloriae aut divit●is addicti essent , tunc demum nihil se stultius existimare homine . id. ibid. cicero , de leg. r. proveth , that right is founded in the law of nature , more than in man's laws ; because , else ( saith he ) men may make evil good , and good evil ; and make adultery , perjury , &c. just , by making a law for them . ] a cursed consequence , which the atheist cannot deny upon his principles . quod si populorum jussis , si principum decretis , si sententiis judicum jura constituerentur , jus esset latrocinari , jus adulterare , jus testamenta falsa supponere , si haec suffragiis , aut scitis multitudinis probarentur . quae si tanta potentia stultorum sententiis atque jussis , ut eorum suffragiis rerum natura vertatur , cur non sanciunt , at quae mala perniciosaque sunt habeantur pro bonis & salutaribus . aut cur cum jus ex injuria facere lex possit , bonum eadem facere non potest ex malo . atqui nos legem bonam à malâ , nulla alia nisi naturali norma dividere possumus . cicer. de leg. . p. . stoici dicunt , sinceros esse sapientes , observareque & cavere solicitè , ne quid de se melius quàm sit commendare putemur , fuco seu arte aliqua mala occultante , & bona quae insunt apparere faciente , ac circumcidere vocis omnem fictionem . laert. in zenone . * as london now is . tutum aliqua res in mala conscientia praestat , nulla securum . putat enim etiamsi non deprehenditur posse se deprehendi : & inter somnos movetur , & quoties alicujus scelus loquitur , de suo cogitat sen. ep . . prima & maxima peccantium poena est peccasse : haec & secundae poenae premunt & sequuntur , timere semper & expavescere & securitati diffidere . id. ep . . mihi laudabiliora videntur omnia , quae sine venditatione & sine populo teste fiunt . nullum theatrum virtuti conscientiâ majus est . cicer. in tuscul . . p. . par & aequum legibus acceptum ferre debetis . demosth . animal hoc providum , sagax , multiplex , acutum , memor , plenum rationis & consilii quem vocamus hominem , praeclarâ quâdam conditione generatum esse à supremo deo : solem est enim ex tot animantium generibus & naturis particeps rationis & cogitationis , cum caetera sint omnia expertia . quid est autem non dicam in homine , sed in omni coelo , atque terra ratione divinius , quae cum adolevit atque perfecta est , nominatur rite sapientia . est igitur quoniam nihil est ratione melius , eaque & in homine & in deo , prima homini cum deo rationis societas . inter quos autem ratio , inter cosdem recta ratio est communis : quae cum sit lex , lege quoque consociati homines cum diis putandi sumus ; quibus autem haec sunt inter cos communia & civitatis ejusdem habendi sunt unde universus hic mundus una civitas communis deorum atque hominum existimanda . cic. de leg. . p. . non potest consistere respablica , ubi non est honos virtuti , nec poena scelerosis . demosth . atticus in cicer. de leg . . p. . saith , that he cannot but believe that jus est ortum ex natura , because of these principles . . quasi muneribus deorum nos esse instructos & ornatos . . unam esse hominum inter ipsos vivendi parem communemque rationem . . omnes inter se naturali quâdam indulgentiâ & benevolentiâ , tum etiam societate juris contineri . see this fullyer proved in my political aphoris . p. , &c. videtis magistratus hanc esse vim , ut praesit , praescribatque recta & utilia , & conjuncta cum legibus : ut enim magistratibus leges , ita populo praesunt magistratus : veréque dici potest , magistratum esse legem loquentem , legem autem ●n utum magistratum . cicer. de leg . . i● . read what is after cited out of zeno. laert. in zen. saith , that the stoicks say , virtutes sibi invicem esse connexas , ut qui unam habuerit , omnes habeat : esse enim illarum communes speculationes , &c. qui enim probus est , ea despicere & agere quae sint agenda : quae vero facienda sint , ea & eligenda esse , & sustinenda , & distribuenda , & perseveranter tenenda : sequuntur autem prudentiam consiliorum maturitas & intelligentia ; temperantiam vero ordinis dexteritas & ornatus ; justitiam autem aequitas & gratitudo : fortitudinemque constantia , atque valentia . placet autem eis , nullum inter virtutem & vitium esse medium-quemadmodum enim lignum aut distortum aut rectum oportere esse aiunt , ita justum vel injustum — at virtutem chrysippus quidem amitti posse , cleanthes verò non posse ait . quae autem natio non comitatem , non benignitatem , non gratum animum , & beneficii memorem diligit ? quae superbos , quae maleficos , quae crudeles , quae ingratos non aspernatur , non odit ? cic. de leg . . p. . legibus & earum observantiâ exornantur omnia . demosth . nihil omnino neque pulchrum neque decorum reperiri potest ; quod non cum lege aliqua communicet : id. orat. . cont . arist . lex nihil aliud est , quàm recta & à numine deorum ratio , imperans honesta , prohibensque contraria . cicero phil. . vitiorum emendatricem legem esse oportet , commendatricemque virtutum : ab ea enim vivendi doctrina ducitur . cicer. . de leg . ad salurem civium , civitatumque incolumitatem , vitamque hominum & quietam & beatam , conditae sunt leges . cicer. . de leg . a majoribus nostris nulla alia de causa leges sunt inventae , nisi ut suos cives incolumes conservatent . cicer. in vatin . nil est tam aptum ad jus conditionemque naturae sine quo nec domus ulla , nec civitas , nec gens , nec hominum universum genus , stare , nec rerum natura omnis , nec ipse mundus potest . nam & hic deo paret , & huic obediunt maria terraeque & hominum vita jussis supremae legis obtemperat . cicer. de leg . . p. , . of this read cicero's . lib. de nat . deor. dii , qui quo velint , possint laedere , nec à quodam laedi vicissim , non nocent nisi improbis . plut. in lacon . hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam , legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam , neque scitum aliquod esse populorum , sed aeternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret imperandi prohibendique sapientiâ . ita principem legem iilam & ultimam mentem esse dicebant omnia ratione aut cogentis aut vetantis dei. cic. de leg. . p. . seneca epist . ad luc. . p. ( mihi ) . saith , sic certe vivendum est , tanquam in conspectu vivamus . sic cogitandum , tanquam aliquis in pectus inspicere posset & potest : quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum . nihil deo clausum interest animis nostris , & cogitationibus mediis intervenit . diogenes ( in laert. ) said to an immodest woman , non vereris mulier , ne forte stante post tergum deo ( cuncta enim plena ipso sunt ) inhoneste te habeas ? primus est deorum cultus , deos credere ; deinde reddere illis majestatem suam : reddere bonitatem sine qua nulla majestas est : scire illo esse qui praesider mundo , qui universe ut sua , temperanin qui humani genet . tutelam gerunt . idem . epist . . nihil mihi videtur frigidius , nihil ineptius , quàm lex cum prolegomeno : dic quid me velis fecisse ; non disco , sed pareo . senec. ep . . if mens laws must have so great authority , much more gods. ex quo intelliges par est , eos qui perniciosa & injusta populis jussa descripferint , cum contra fecerint quod polliciti professique sint , quidvis potius tulisse quàm leges . cic. de leg . l. . p. . multa perniciosa , multa pestifica sciscuntur in populis , quae non magis legis ●omen attingunt , quam fi latrones , &c. id . ibid. plutarch de tranquil . anim. saith , that it is one of aristotle's sayings , that he that believed as he ought of the gods , should think as well of himself as alexander , who commanded so many m. n. p. . dicebat thales , homines existimare oportere deos omnia cernere , deorumque omnia esse plena , & tunc fore omnes castiores . cic. . de leg. anthenodorus dicere prudenter solebat , ita cum hominibus homines vivere debere , acsi deus retributor bonorum malorumque ultor , omni loco ac tempore actiones nostras intueretur conspicereturque humanis nostris oculis . fulgos . l. . c. . sic vive cum hominibus tanquam deus videat : sic loquere cum deo tanquam homines audiant sen. ep . chilon ( in laert. p. ) inquit , damnum potius quàm turpe lucrum eligendum , nam id semel tantum dolori esse : hoc semper . plus apud bonos pietatis jura quàm omnes opes valent . justin . hist . l. . because god hath penalties to promote obedience , all religion is called , the fear of god. laertius saith of cleanthes , cum aliquando probro illi daretur , quod esset timidus : at ideo , inquit , parum pecco . fear is a preserving cautelous passion , though it make not a good man of it self , but as joyned with love. though cicero's books de legibus , be usually read by us when we are boyes , they are worthy the perusal of the wisest men , and fit for the edification and pleasure of the learned . quod ( de magistratu loquitur ) cum dico legem , a me dici nihil aliud intelligi volo quàm imperium , sine quo nec domus ulla , nec civitas , &c. id. de leg . . init . omnis lex inventum sane & donum est deorum . decretum vero hominum prudentum — demost . cont . aris . or . . communis lex nunquam immutatur , cum secundum naturam sit : jus verò scriptum saepius . aristot . . rhet. ad theod . c . diogenes ( in laert. ) congregatis ad se plurimis exprobravit , quod ad inepta studiosè concurrerent ; ad ea vero quae gravia & utilia , negligenter convenirent : dicebatque de fodiendo & calcitrando certare homines , ut autem boni & probi fierent curare neminem . musicos in jus vocabat , quod cum lyrae chordas congruè aptarent , animi mores inconcinnos haberent . mathematicos carpebat , quod solem & lunam & sydera intuentes , quae ante pedes erant negligerent . oratores item , quod studerent justa dicere , non autem & facere . avaros quoque quod pecuniam vituperarent , ac summè diligerent : & eos qui justos , quod pecunias contemnerent laudabant , pecuniosos verò imitari satagebant . stomachabatur eis qui pro bona valetudine sacra facerent , inter sacrificia contra sanitatem coenarent . servos mirabatur , qui cum edaces dominos cernerent , nihil diriperent ciborum . — dicebat manus ad amicos non complicatis digitis extendi oportere . laertius saith of the magi , that they do deorum cultui vacare ; signa statuasque reprehendere ; & eorum imprimis qui mares esse deos & foeminas , dicunt , errores improbare . signa & statuas ex disciplinae instituto è medio tulisse . qui & revicturos homines , immortalesque futuros , dicunt , & universa illorum precationibus consistere . plerique & judaeos ab his duxisse originem tradunt . laert. pag. , , . pietas est scientia colendi numinis : inquit aemilius in plutarch . nulla pietas est erga deos , nifi honesta de numine deorum ac mente opinio sit . cicer. pro planc . de diis ita ut sunt loquere . bias in laert. equidem is qui de diis talia commentus est , an philosophus appellandus sit nescio , ( inquit laert. de orpheo , p. . ) videant certè qui ita volunt quo sit censendus nomine , qui diis cuncta hominum vitia , & quae rarò à turpibus quibusque & flagitiosis geruntur , adscribit — fulmine interisse cognoscitur . laert. proem . lege laert. de magis . cicero de nat . deor. lib. . p. . saith , that possidonius believed that epicurus thought that there was no god ; and therefore , not according to his judgement , but in scorn , describeth god like a man careless , idle , &c. which he would not have done , if he had thought that there was a god indeed . impellimur naturâ ut prodesse velimus quamplurimis , imprimisque docendo , rationibusque prudentiae tradendis . itaque non facile est invenire , qui quod sciat , ipse non tradat alteri . ita non solum ad discendum propensi sumus , verum etiam ad docendum . cic. . de fin . descriptionem sacerdotum nullum justae religionis genus praetermittit : nam sunt ad placandos deos alii constituti , qui sacris praesint solennibus : ad interpretanda alii praedicta vatum ; neque multorum ne esset infinitum , neque ut ca ipsa quae suscepta publicè essent , quisquam extra collegium nosset . cic. de leg . l. . p. . autoritate nutuque legum docemur domitas habere libidines , coercere omnes cupiditates , nostra tueri , ab alienis mentes , oculos , manus abstinere . cic. . de or. nihil interest utrum vir bonus scelestum spoliaverit , an bonum improbus : nec utrum bonus an malus adulteratus sit : sed lex damni solum spectat dissimilitudinem , utiturque pro paribus , si alter violavit , alter violatus est . aristot . ethic. . c. . vide plutarchi roman . quaest . . temperantia libidinum inimica est . cic. when an adulterer asked thales whether he should make a vow ? he answered him , adultery is as bad as perjury : intimating , that he that made no conscience of adultery , would make none of perjury . laert. cyrus is praised by plutarch , de curiosit . that would not see panthaea : and they are by him reproved that cast a wanton eye at women in coaches as they pass by , and look out at windows to have a full view of them , and yet think that they commit no fault : suffering a curious eye and a wandering mind to slide and run every way . aristotle , ethic. . saith , every lie is evil , and to be avoided . the roman laws against perjury and false witness and bribery , tell us what nature saith thereabout . read in lamprid. how vehement alexander severus was against bribery . fundamentum justitiae est fides , id est , dictorum conventorumque constantia & veritas . cicer. de altero temere affirmare periculosum est , propter occultas hominum voluntates multiplicesque naturas . cic. a man that loved his belly , desiring to be admitted into cato 's family , cato answered , non possum cum tali vivere , cujus palatum plus sapit , quàm cerebrum . erasm . nullus mihi per otium dies exit . partem noctium studiis vendico , non vaco somno sed succumbo . senec. what mean you to make your prison so strong , said plato to one that pampered his body . ficin . in vit . plat. vires corporis sunt vires carceris , inquit petrarch . l. . dial . . cato homo virtuti simillimus-qui nunquam recte fecit ut facere videretur , sed quia aliter facere non poterat : cuique id solum visum est rationem habere ; quod haberet justitiam . velleius pater . l. . magna pars libertatis est , bene moratus venter . senec. plato saith , god is the temperate man's law , and pleasure the intemperate man's . temperantia voluptatibus imperat : alias odit atque abigit : alias dispensat & ad sanum modum dirigit : nec unquam ad illas propter ipsas venit . sen. scit optimum esse modum cupidorum , non quantum velis , sed quantum debeas sumere . senec. animis tenduntur infidiae — ab ea quae penitus in omni sensu implicata infidit imitatrix boni , voluptas , malorum autem mater omnium : cujus blanditiis corrupti , quae naturâ bona sunt , quia dulcedine hac & scabia carent , non cernimus satis . cic. de leg . . p. . ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus ; hoc est , vivere bis , vitâ posse priore frui . martial . as a summary of what the light of nature may teach man , see the stoicks ethicks collected by barlaam ; ( much of which may be found in seneca , and is confessed and praised by cicero , though he chide them for their new words and schism ) where you will see , that the stoicks were wiser and better men , than the epicureans would have men believe . oculos vigiliâ fatigatos cadentesque in opere detinco — malè mihi esse malo , quam molliter : si mollis es , paulatim effeminatur animus , atque in similitudinem otii sui & pigritiae , in quâ jacet , solvitur . dormio minimum , & brevissimo somno utor : satis est mihi vigilare defiisse , aliquando dormisse scio , aliquando suspicor . senec. porro coeli generationis authorem summe bonum atque excellentissimum ( asseruit plato ) : ejus quippe quod sit in rebas conditis pulcherrimum , eum esse conditorem quem intelligibilium omnium constet esse praestantissimum . itaque quoniam hujusmodi deus est , coelam vero praestantissimo illi simile est , quoniam pulcherrimum cernitur , nulli creaturae erit similius , quàm deo soli . laert. in plat. nihil est deo similius & gratiis , quàm vir , animo perfecto bonus , qui hominibus caeteris antecellit , quod ipse à diis immortalibus distat . luc apul. de deo socr. quis dubitare potest mi lucili , quin deorum immortalium munas sit quod vivimus . senec. prope deus est , tecum est , intus est : ita dico lucili , sacer intra nos spiritus sedet , bonorum malorumque nostrorum observator & custos . hic prout à nobis tractatur , ita & nos tractat ipse : bonus verò vir sine deo nemo est . an potest aliquis supra formam , nisi ab illo , adjatus exurgere . ille dat consilia , magnifica & erecta in unoquoque bono viro. senec. that the finis cui is properly the ultimate end , and the finis cujus is subordinate to it , cicero sheweth in piso 's speech , l. . de finib . p. . in nobis ipsis ne intelligi quidem , ut propter aliam quampiam rem , verbi gratiâ , propter voluptatem , nos amemus . propter nos enim illam , non propter eam nosmetipsos diligimus . quid est quod magis perspicuum est , non modo carum sibi quemque , verum etitiam vehementer carum . * chap. . quid enim est aliud natura quàm deus ? & divina ratio ? toti mundo partibusque ejus inserta ? ergo nihil agis ingratissime mortalium , qui te negas deo debere , sed naturae ; quia nihil natura fine deo est , nec deus sine natura , sed idem est uterque nec distat officio . senec. de benefic . leg. aenean . gazeum de anima . p.t. gr. lat . p. , , &c. goodness signifieth more than utility or pleasure to our selves : as when we call a man , a good man , a good scholar , a good judge , &c. and so doth evil signifie on the contrary . bonum est quod sui ipsius gratiâ expetendum est . aristot . rhet. . bonum omnis originis & ortûs finis est . id. metaph. l. ae . c. . maximum bonum maxime semper expetendum . aristot . ▪ eth. c. . duplex bonum est : alterum quod absolute & per se bonum sit ; alterum quod alicui bono sit & usui . arist . eth. l. . c. . veteres probe summum bonum definierunt , id ad quod omnia referuntur . arist . eth. . c. . it is a saying of pliny's , that as pearls though they lie in the bottom of the sea , are yet much neerer kin to heaven , as their splendour and excellency sheweth ; so a godly and generous soul , hath more dependance on heaven , whence it cometh , than on earth where it abideth . bonum summum est animi operatio secundum virtutom optimam & perfectissimam in vitâ perfectâ . aristot . rhet. . tria sunt genera bonorum ; maxima animi , secunda corporis ; externa tertia : cicero . tuscul . nihil bonum nisi quod honestum ; nihil malum nisi quod turpe . cicero . att. l. . if a man must love his countrey better than himself , then god much more : and then self is not to be the highest in our love. respublica nomen universae civitatis est , pro qua mori , & cui nos totos dare , & in qua omnia nostra ponere , & quasi consecrare debemus . cicer . . de leg . laudandus est is qui mortem oppetit pro republica , qui doceat patriam esse chariorem nobis , quam nosmetipsos : estque illa vox inhumana & scelerata corum , qui negant se recusare , quo minus ipsis mortuis terrarum omnium deflagratio consequatur . cicer. ▪ de finib . it was the erroneous reasoning of the philosophers , to prove the world eternall , that optimum & pulchrum , god and the world must be inseparable ; and so to conclude the being of that , which their fancies think best to be ; ( as ammonius argueth with zachar. mytilen . ) : whereby they might as well prove ( as zach. telleth ammon ▪ ) that plato and aristotle were from eternity , and must never die . it is foolish to reason against sense and experience , or to deny that which is , because we think that it should be otherwise . cotta telleth vell●iu● , that h● , ●y making ●od 〈◊〉 of ●eas●s o● man , s●●u●it relig●o● 〈◊〉 : quidem enim cur de● as humibus ●●do dica● , cum d●i non modo hominibus non cons●iant , sed o●ni●o nihil c●ent . nihil agant ▪ at est corum c●mia quaedam praestanfere natura , ut ea debeat ipsa per se ad●e colendam elicere sapientem . ( this reason is ●o● d●ed , but the goodness of god's nature p●o●d by his doing good . ) — quae porro pietas e●debetur , à quo nihil accepe●is ? aut quid o●n no , cujus nullum merit m●t , e● debere potest ? est enim pietas justitia adversus deos : cum quibus quid potest nobis esse juris , cum homini nulla cum deo sit communitas , sanctitas est scientia colendorum deorum : qui q●a ●obrem colendi s●nt non intellige , nullo nec accepto ab us , nec spe●a o bon● . sic . de nat. deo. c. . p. . epicurus verò ex animis hominum extraxit radicitus religionem , cum diis immortalibus & opem & gratiam sustulerit . cum enim & praestantissimam naturam dei dicat esse , negat idem esse in deo gratiam : toliit id quod maximè proprium est optimae praestantissimaeq , naturae . id. ibid. p. , . quae enim potest esse sanctitas , si dii humanae non curant . id ibid. utinam istam caliditatem homimbus dii ne dedislent : qua perpauci bene utuntur ; qui tamen ipsi à male utentibus opprimuntur ; innua etabiles autem improbè utuntur : ut donum hoc divinum rationis & consilii , ad fraudem hominibus non ad bonitatem , impertitum esse videatur : sed urgetis , hominum esse istam culpam , non deorum — resp . at , si medicus sciat eum aegrotum , qui jussus est vinum sumere , meracius sumpturum statimque periturum , magna sit in culpa : sic vestra ista providentia reprehendenda , quae rationem dederit iis , quos sciverit ea perverse & improbe usuros . non intelligo quid intersit , utrum nemo sit sapiens , an nemo esse possit . debebant dii quidem omnes bonos efficere , siquidem hominum generi consulebant ; sin id minus , bonis quidem consulere debebant . cotta in cic. de nat. deor. l. . p. , . is god's making man a free agent be not against his goodness , then the sin which a free agent committeth is no impeachment of gods goodness : at verum prius : ergo — the reasons why god made man with free-will , the antient vvriters commonly render to the infidels : itenaeus , tertullian , clemens alexand. arnobius , lactantius , eusebius , tatianus , origen , &c. vid. zachar. mitylen . disput . p. . b.p. graeco-lat ●o . . siquidem anima regalem majestatem ostendit , null us dominio subjecta , & propriae potestatis , tanquam imago dei communia cum archetypo quaedam habens . greg. nyssen . citat . etiam in caesarii dial. . the ancients commonly make the freedom of the will as well as rationality , to be god's natural image on the soul. see especially the full discourse of nemesius , de natur. hom . cap. , , . lege pennotti propugnacul . libert . si quis omnia alia habeat , valetudinem , divitias , &c. sed malus ex confesso sit , improbabis illum . tem siquis nihil habet eorum quae retulit , careat pecuniâ , clientum turba , avorum & proavorum serie , si ex confesso bonus fit , probas illum . ergo hoc unum bonum hominis , quod qui habet , etiamsi aliis destituitur , laudandus est ; quod qui non habet , in omnium aliorum copia damnatur ac rejicitur . senec. inter fines is qui perfectus est , semper praecellit imperfectum . perfectus porro est quo admoto , nullo amplius opus est . arist . mig . mor. c. . & rhet. c. . finis est cujus gratiâ omnia comparantur , — majus bonum est finis , quàm quod finis non est . & met. . c. . quod per se bonum est , suâque vi & naturâ , id omne finis est . nothing commoner in philosophy , than that publicae saluti privaca incolumitas est postponenda . therefore self-love must not perswade us , that there is nothing higher than our own good to be intended . non quoniam mutabiles vires habemus , improbitatis nostrae culpa in deum conferenda est : non enim in facultat bus sunt vitia , sed in habitibus : habitus autem ex electione & voluntate sunt . itaque nostra ipsorum electione & voluntate improbi evadimus , non naturâ sumu● . nemesius de nat. hom . cap. . homo est principium suarum operationum . aristot . . eth. nemo nolens bonus & beatus est . sen. si divitias velis , rem bonam esse scias , nec omnino in te sitam . si vero beari , id & bonum est & penes te . opes enim fortuna ad tempus commodato dat . beatitudo autem à nostra voluntate procedit . epictet . read gassendi phys . sect . . l. . c. . sintne coelum & sydera habitabilia ? and card. nic. cusanus , l. . de doct. ignot . . in coroll . cited also , ibid. by gassendus . seneca , epist . . saith . quaerendum est quod non fiat indies deterius ; cui non possit obstari ; quo nil melius possit optari . quid hoc est ? animus sed hic rectus , bonus , magnus . quid aliud voces hune , quam deum in humano corpore hospitantem ? hic animus tam in equitem romanum , quàm in servum potest cadere ; quid est eques romanus ? aut libertinus ? aut servus ? nomina ex ambitione , aut ex injuria nata , subsilire in coelum ex angulo licet : exurge modo , & te dignum finge deo ; finges autem , non auro , non argento : non potest ex hac materia imago dei exprimi similis . plato saith , that mans end is to be made like god. laert in plat. socrates said , that god was the best and most blessed : and the neerer any one came in likeness to him , so much was he the better and more blessed . non potest temperantiam laudare , qui summum bonum ponit in voluptate : cic. * gratus sum ; non ut alius mihi libentius praester , priori irritatus exemplo ; fed ut rem jucundissimam faciam . senec. ep. . credamus itaque nihil esse grato animo honestius . omnes hoc urbes , omnes etiam ex barbaris regionibus gentes conclamabunt ; in tanta judiciorum diversitate , referendam benè merentibus gratiam , omnes uno ore affirmabunt ; in hoc discors turba consentiens . senec . ib. bene meritos quin colas , nec exorari fas est , neque est excusatio difficultatis : neq , aequum est tempore & die memoriam beneficii definire . cicer. vos , vos appello , qui mercurium , qui platonem , pythagoramque sectamini : vosque caeteros qui estis unius mentis , & per easdem vias placitorum inceditis unitate . audetis ridere nos — quid plato vester nonne animo surgere suadet e terris , & circa deum semper ( quantum fieri potest ) cogitatione ac mente versari ? audetis ridere nos quod animarum nostrarum provideamus saluti ? id est ipsi nobis ? quid enim sumus homines , nisi animae corporibus clausae ? vos enim nonne omnes pro illarum geritis incolumitatibus curas ▪ metus ille vos habet ne velut trabalibus clavis affixi , corporibus haereatis ? quid illi sibi velint secretarum artium ritus , quibus affamini nescio quas potestates , ut sint vobis placidae , neque ad fedes remeantibus patrias obstacula impeditionis opponant . arnob. adv . gentes , lib. . p. . magistris , diis & parentibus , non potest reddi aequivalens . aristot . ethic. laus & gratiarumactio debetur danti , non accipienti , arist . . eth. qui sancti ? qui religionem colentes , nisi qui meritam diis immortalibus gratiam , justis honoribus , memori mente persolvunt ? cicer. pro. planc . if we must love good men for themselves , much more god. ubi beneficus , si nemo alterius causa benigne facit . ubi gratus , fi non eum ipsum cui referunt gratiam , ipsi cernunt grati ? ubi illa sancta amicitia , si non ipse amicus per se amatur , toto pectore : qui etiam deserendus & abjiciendus est , desperatis emolumentis & fructibus : quo quid potest dici immanius ? cicero de leg . p. . justitia nihil expetit praemii , nihil pretii : per se igitur expetitur : eademque omnium virtutum causa atque sententia est : atque etiam si emolumentis , non suapte natura virtus expetitur , una erit virtus , quae malitia rectissimè dicetur . ut enim quisque ad suum commodum refert maxime quaecunque agit , ita minime est vir bonus : ut qui virtutem praemio metiuntur , nullam virtutem nisi malitiam putant . cicero de leg. . p. . nihil homini metuendum , nisi ne faelicitatem excludat . solon in laert. p. . summo bono constituto in philosophia , constituta sunt omnia : nam caeteris in rebus sive praetermissum , sive ignoratum est quippiam , non plus incommodi , quam quanti quaeque earum rerum est , in quibus neglectum est aliquid . summum autem bonum si ignoretur , vivendi rationem ignorari necesse est : ex quo rantus error consequitur , ut quem in portum se recipiant , scire non possunt . cognitis autem rerum firiibus ( bonorum & malorum ) inventa vitae via est conformatioque omnium officiorum . piso in cic. de finib . lib. . pag. . decrescere summum bonum non potest . mortalia eminent , cadunt , deteruntur , crescunt , exhauriuntur , implentur . divinorum una natura est . senec. epist . . p. , . coelestia semper spectato : illa humana contemnito . cic. somn. scipi . templum mentis amo , non marmoris , aurea in illo fundamenta : manet fides structura nivali . consurgit pietate nitens , tegit ardua culmen : justitia interius spargit sola picta rubenti flore , pudicitiae pudor almus , & atria servat . haec domus apta mihi est , haec me pulcherrima sedes accipit , aeterno coelestique hospite digna , prudent . quicquid boni egeris in deos refer : bias in laert. when the oracle of delphos adjudged the tripos to the wisest , it was sent to th●les , and from him to another , till it came to solon , who sent it to the oracle , saying , none is wiser than god. laert. in thalet . so should we all send back to god the glory and praise of all good which is ascribed to us . numen divinum omni modo , omni tempore i●e cole , juxta leges patrias , & ut ali● colant effi●e . dio● . l. . arist●ppus rogatus alicuando , quid haberent e●imium philosopi ? si omnes inquit , leges intereant , equabiliter vivimus . laert. oderunt peccare boni vit●tis amore . hor. read seneca , de vita beata , fully proving against the ep●cureans , that wealth , honour and pleasure are not mans felicity , because they make him not better or best . sursum animum vocant initia sua : erit autem illic , etiam antequam hac custodia exolvatur , si vitia sua deseruit , purusque ac●enis in cogitationes divinas emicuit . senec. ep . . tutum iter●est , jucundum est , ad quod natura te instruxit . dedit tibi illa quae si non deserueris , par deo consurges . parem autem deo to pecunia non facit ▪ &c. senec. ep . . quod si poena , si metus supplicii , non ipsa turpitudo , deterret ab injuriosa , facinorosaque vitâ , nemo est injustus : at incauti potius habendi sunt improbi : callidi , non boni sunt , qui utilitate tantum , non ipso honesto , ut boni viri sint moventur . cic. de leg . l. . p. . complent bona corporis beatissimam vitam ; sed ita ut sine illis possit beata vita exis●ere . ita enim parvae & exiguae sunt istae accessiones bonorum , ut sicut s●ellae in radio solis , sic istae in virtutum splendere , ne cernantur quidem . atque haec ut verè dicitur parva esse ad beatè vivendum momenta ista corporis commodorum , sic nimis violentum est , nulla esse dicere . qui enim sic disputant , obliti mihi videntur quae ipsi egerint principia naturae . tribuendum est his aliquid , dummodo quantum tribuendum sit intelligas . piso in cic. de finib . l. . p. . unum verò finem aristotelis declaravit , esse usum virtutis in vita sancta & integrâ . hesych . illust . in aristot . piso ubi sup . in cic. saith , that all the difference in this between the stoicks and the peripateticks and academicks is but this , whether corporal things shall be called no good at all , or only such little goods as to be next to none , pag , . to the shame of those nominal christians , who know no greater good than they . siquis est hoc robore animi atque hac indole virtutis , ac continentiae , ut respuat omnes voluptates , omnemque vitae suae cursum labore corporis , atque in animi contentione conficiat , quem non quies , non remissio , non aequalium studia , non ludi , non convivia delectant , nihil in vita expetendum putet , nisi quod est cum laude & honore conjunctum ; hunc , meâ sententiâ , divinis quibusdam bonis instructum atque ornatum puto . cic. pro cal. malè de me l●quuntur , sed mali : moverer , si de me marc. cato , si laelius sapiens , si duo scipiones ista loque●entur . nunc malis displicere , laudare est . sen. videturne summâ improbitate usus non sine summa esse ratione . nec scena solum referta est his sceleribus , sed multo vita communis poene majoribus . sentit domus uniuscujusque , sentit forum , sentit curia , campus , socii , provincia , ut quemadmodum ratione rectè fiat , sic ratione peccetur : alterum & à paucis & raro alterum & saepe & à pluribus : ut satius fuerit nullam omnino nobis à diis datam esse rationem , quàm tanta cum pernicie datam . ita colta contra deos in cic. de natur. deor. . p. . vir bonus nec cito fieri , nec intelligi potest : nam ille alter fortasse phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur . nec est mirum , ex intervallo magna generat ; mediocria & in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit : sed qui sciret quid esset vir bonus , nondum se esse credere , fortasse etiam fieri posse desperaret . sen. ep . . diogenes said , he found good children at lacedaemon , but good men no where in all graece . rari quippe boni : numero vix sunt totidem quot thebarum portae , vel divitis ostia nili . juven . quae ego scio , populus non probat : quae probat populus ego nescio . sen. ep . . imperitia in omnibus majori ex parte dominatur , & multitudo verborum . cleobulus in laert. offendet te superbus contemptu , dives contumeliâ , petulans injuriâ , lividus malignitate , pugnax contentione , ventosus & mendax vanitate ? non feres à suspicioso timeri , à pertinace vinci , à delicato fastidiri . senec. de ira. l. . c. . praestat cum paucis bonis adversus malos omnes , quàm cum multis malis adversus paucos pugnare . antisthenes in laert. l. . c. . seneca epist . . scribit , tam necessarium fuisse romano populo nasci catonem quam scipionem : alter enim cum hostibus nostris , alter cum moribus , bellum gessit . and if a cato was at warre with the manners of the world , much more will a true saint , that is more fully acquainted with sacred verity . * qui toto dies precabantur & immolab●nt ▪ ut sui liberi sibi superstites essent , superstitiosi sunt appellati : quod nomen patuit postea latius : qui autem omnia quae ad cultum deorum pertine●ent , diligenter pertractarent , & tanquam relegerent , sunt dicti religiosi , ex relegendo , ut elegantes ex eligendo , à diligendo diligentes , ex intelligendo intelligentes : superstitiosi & religiosi , alterum vit●i nomen , alterum l●udis cicero de nat . deor. lib. . p. , . ●rdua●re haec est opib●s non tradere mores . martial . pittaci dictum est , perdifficile est esse bonum . bruson . all cicero's books de finib . shew the worthlesness of pleasure in comparison of virtue . senec. consol . ad marciam : cum tempus advenerit quo se mundus renovaturus , — omni flagrante materia uno igne , quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet , ardebit — nos quoque faelices animae , & aeterna sortitae , cum deo visum erit , iterum ista moliri — foelicem filium tuum marcia , qui ista ( mortuus ) jam novit . — d● s●●ae , duplicesque cursus animotum è corpore exeuntium : nam qui se vitiis humanis contaminarunt ; & libidinibus se tradiderunt , i●s devium quoddam iter est , seclusum à consil o deorum . qui autem se integros castos● , servarunt , quibusque suit m●n●a●a cum corporibus contagio suntque in corporibus humanis vitam imitati deorum , iis ad illo● à quibus sunt profecti , facilè patet reditus . socrates , in cicerone tuscul . . qui rectè & honestè curriculum vivendi à naturâ datum confecerit , ad astra facilè revertetur . non qui aut immoderatè , aut intemperanter vixerit . cicero de vnivers . improbo bene esse non potest . cicero par. impii apud inferos poenas luunt . cicero philict . . de legib. impiis apud inferos sunt poenae praeparatae . cicer. . de invent . sic habeto ; te non esse mortalem , sed corpus hoc . cicer. som . scip . cicero saith , that their worshipping of hercules , and other heroes , doth imply , that animi omnium sunt immortales , sed bonorum divini . cicer . . de legib. bonorum mentes mihi divinae atque aeternae videntur , & ex hominum vita ad deorum religionem sanctimoniamque migrare . idem . deorum providentiâ mundus administratur , iidemque consulunt rebus humanis , neque solum universis , verum etiam fingulis . cicer. . de divinat . persuasum hoc sit à principio hominibus , dominos esse omnium rerum ac moderatores deos : eaque quae gerantur , eorum geri ditione atque numine — et qualis quisque sit , quid agat , quid in se admittat , quâ mente , quâ pietate colat religionem , intueri , piorumque & impiorum habere rationem . cicero de leg . . ☝ animus est ingeneratus à deo , ex quo verè vel agnatio nobis cum coelestibus vel genus vel stirps appellari potest . cicero . de legib. quum pompeio res infeliciter cederent , & ad caesarem inclinaret victoria , cato dicebat , in rebus divinis multum esse caliginis ; quod pompeio praeter jus agenti fuissent omnia prospera ; causam reipublicae tuenti nihil succederet . plutarch . in catone . plato dicebat , deum nullo uspiam modo injustum esse sed planè justissimum : nec ei similius inveniri posse quiequam , quam qui inter nos justissimus est . in. thaeet . how like a christian was that of anaxagoras , in laert. p. ● . hic non modo generis gloriâ & opibus , verum animi quoque magnitudine clarissimus fuit : quippe qui universum patrimonium suis sponte concessit . quo cum ab eis insimularetur negligentiae , quid ergo , inquit , noune vos ista curatis ? deinde ab eis profectus , ad speculandum rerum naturam se contulit , rei & publicae & privatae omnino negligens ; adeo ut cuidam se ita compellanti , nullane tibi patriae cura est ? dixerit , mihi vero patriae cura est , & quidem summa ; digitum in coelum intendens . bene merenti , bene profuerit ; male merenti par erit . plaut . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dictum cleobuli . phocilidis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . qui indignam honore afficiunt , stultitiae opinionem habent . cic. qui largiuntur indignis ea quae dignis conferri debebant , tria committunt absurda , nam & ipsi jacturam faciunt , & in bonos contumeliosi sunt , & malos roborant materiâ vitiorum suppeditatâ . antonin . stultissimum est existimare on nia justa esse quae scita sint in populorum institutis , aut legibus . etiamne si quae sint tyrannorum leges , si illi athenis leges imponere voluissent ? aut si omnes athenienses delectarentur tyrannicis legibus , num idcirco hae leges justae haberentur ? nihilo credo magis illa quàm interrex noster tulit , ut dictator quem vellet civium , indicta causa , impune posset occidere . est enim unum jus quo devincta est hominum societas , &c. cic. de leg . . p. . idem undique in infernum descensus est ; said anaxagoras to one that lamented that he must die in a strange country . laert. in anaxag . nae illi falsi sunt qui diversissimas res pariter expectant , voluptatem & praemia virtutis . sa●ust . ut ex barba capillos detonsos negligimus , ita ille divinus animus egressurus , quo receptaculum suum conferatur , ignis illud exurat , an ferae distrahant , an terra contegat , non magis putat ad se pertinere , quam secundinas ad editum infantem . sen. ep . . maximum est argumentum naturam ipsam de immortalitate animorum tacitè judicare , quod omnibus curae sint , & maxime quidem , quae post mortem futura sunt . cic. cum natura caeteros animantes abjecisset , ad pastum , solum hominem erexit , & ad coeli quasi cognationis domiciliique pristini conspectum excitavit . tum speciem ita formavit oris , ut in eâ penitus reconditos mores effingeret . cic. . de legib . piso in cic. de fin . l. . p. . speaking of corporal and sensitive good , saith , quibus tantum praestat mentis excellens perfectio , ut vix cogitari poffit quid intersit . so that the perfection of the mind is the perfection of the man. ex ipsa vità discedimus tanquam ex hospitio , non tanquam ex domo : commorandi enim nobis natura diversorium , non habitandi domum dedit . cic. in cat. maj. atque haud scio an pietate adversus deos sublata , fides etiam & societas humani generis & una excellentissima virtus justitia tolletur . cic. de nat. deor. p. . pietas est fundamentum omnium virtutum . cic. pro plan. zenophon reporteth cyrus as saying , if all my san●liars were endued with piety to god , they would do less evil to one another , and to me . l. . pietate adversus , deos sublatà , fides etiam & societas humani generis , & una excellentissima virtus justitia , tollatur necesse est . cic. de nat. deor. l. . lento gradu ad vindictam sui , divina procedit ita : tarditatemque supplicii gravitate compensat . valer. max. de dionys . l. . c. . nam quid faciet is homo in teneoris , qui nihil timet nisi testem vel judicem ? quid in deserto loco nactus quem multo auro spoliare possit imbecillum atque solum ? &c. cic. de leg . . pag. . a fortnight after the writing of this london was burnt . qui nihil alterius causa sacit , & metitur suis commodis omnia , videtis credo quid sit acturus — si negabit illi vitam erepturum , & aurum ablaturum , non quod turpe judicet , sed quod metuat ne emanet , id est , ne malum habeat . cic. ibid. thaletis dicta in laert. sunt , animas esse immortales . antiquissimum omnium entium deus : ingenitus enim est : pulcherrimum mundus : à deo enim factus : maximum locus ; capit enim omnia : veloeissimum mem ; nam per universa discurrit , &c. stoici dicunt esse daemones quibus insit hominum miseratio , inspectores rerum humanarum : heroas quoque solutas corporibus sapientum animas . laert. in zenone . qui ea committit quae leges prohibent , & de quibus supplicia sunt , is ea multo magis committet , de quibus nullum supplicium est . aristot . . rhet. obj. at non apud omnes proficiunt leges . resp . nec philosophia quidem ; nec ideo inutilis & formandis animis inefficax est . sen. ep . . utiles esse has opiniones quis neget , cum intelligat quam musta firmentur jurejurando : quantae salutis fint faedera religionis ; quam multos divini supplicii metus , à scelere revocaret ? quamque sancta fit societas civium , inter ipsos diis immortalibus interpositis , tum judicibus , tum testibus . ☜ cic. de leg . l. . p. , . nisi deus istis te corporis custodiis liberaverit , ad coelum aditus patere non potest . cic. somn. scip. laertius saith of bion borist . that he had learned of impious theodorus to deny god , in his health ; but falling into unhealthfulness he repented of his sin against god. ac siquidem id dogma tueri perstitisset , merito dicendus esset sensuse ut visum fuislet , etsi male visum esset . at nunc tamen longo morbo tabescens , ac mori pertimescens , qui deos non esse dixe●at , phanum non viderat , mortalibus qui illudebat veris dum diis immolarent — peccavi dixit , delictis parcite — stultus qui mercede voluerit deos esse . quasi tunc dii essent quum illos bion demum esse arbitraretur . for as the sun is not seen without the sun , nor the aire heard without the air , but the eye that is full of the light seeth the light , and the ear full of air heareth the resounding air ; so god is not known without god ; but a mind full of god only , is lifted up to god , so far as illustrated with the light of god he knoweth god , and inflamed with the heat of god he thirsteth after him . ficin . c. . p. . it is a most improbable thing , that god would give up all the best men in the world to deceit , in so great a matter , and them that are most faithfull to the truth , and would save all the epicures , drunkards , fornicators , proud and perjured athiests , from this error , if it were an error , to believe a life to come . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . gr. com. supplicii facilius pius a diis supplicans quam qui scelestus est , invenit veniam sibi . plaut . rud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . menand . nec unquam bono quicquam mali evenire potest , nec vivo nec mortuo , nec res ejus a diis negliguntur . cicero tuscul . . sicut non potest quiequam ignis propinquatione fieri frigidissimum , ita non potest homo quia solus haeret deo sapientissimo , beatissimoque stultissimus ex hoc , miserrimusque evadere : neque potest deus qui summa veritas & bonitas est , humanum genus , prolem suam decipere . marsil . ficin . de rel. christ . c. . p. . aristo hoc unum tenuit , praeter vitia atque virtutes negavit rem esse ullam aut fugiendam aut expetendam . pis● in cicer. de fin . l. . p. . ea paranda viatico , quae cum naufragio simul enatarent : ait antisthenes in laert. l. . c. . id ib. dixit , eos qui cuperent immortales esse , oportere pie vivere & justé . dii boni ! quid est in hominis vita diu ? mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur , in quo est aliquid extremum . cum enim id advenit , tum illud praeteriit , effluxit : tantum remanet quod virtute & rectè factis sit consecutus . horae quidem cedunt , & dies , & menses , & anni , nec praeteritum tempus unquam revertitur : nec quid sequatur sciri potest . cicer. cat. maj. nemini explicatum potest esse , quomodo sese habitu●um sit corpus , non dico ad annum , sed ad vesperum , cicer. . de fin . saith plutarch , de tranquil . anim. alexander wept because he was not lord of the world , when crates having but a wallet and a thredbare cloak , spent his whole life in mirth and joy , as if it had been a continual festival day . plato dixit finem esse , deo similem fieri . vittutem sufficere quidem ad bene beatéque vivendum ; caeterum instrumentis indigere , corporis bonis , robore , fanitate , integritate sensuum & caeteris id genus : exterioribus item , puta opibus , &c. laert . in platone . arbitratur & deos humana cernere atque curare — & daemones esse — porro in dialogis justitiam , divinam legem arbitratus est , ut ad justè agendum potentiùs suaderet , ne post mortem paenas improbi luerent . id. ibid. abeunt omnia unde orta sunt . cicer. cato maj. boni viri sunt deorum simulachra . diogen . in laert. surely if the world was made for man , then man was made for more than the world . du-plessis verit. christ . relig. praefar . seneca e●ist . ● . pag. ( mihi ) . saith , miraris hominem ad deos ire ? deus ad homines venit : immo ( quod propius est ) in homines venit : nulla sine deo mens bona est : semina in corporibus humanis divina dispersa sunt : quae si bonus cultor excipit , similia origini prodeunt ; & paria his ex quibus orta sunt , surgunt : si malus , non aliter quàm humus sterilis ac palustris , necat ; ac deinde creat purgamenta pro frugibus . beata vita est conveniens naturae suae : quae non aliter contingere potest , quàm si primum sana mens est , & in perpetua possessione sanitatis suae . senec. de vita beat . c. . nullum est animal praeter hominem quod habet ullam notitiam dei. cic. . de leg. dii immortales sparserunt animos in corpora humana , ut essent qui terras tuerentur , quique coelestem ordinem contemplantes , imitarentur eum , vitaemodo & constantiâ . cic. cat. maj. ex terra sunt homine● , non ut incolae & habitatores , sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque coelestum : quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud animantium genus pertinet . cic. de nat. deor. l. . non temere , nec fortuitò , sati & creati sumus : sed profectò fait quaedam vis , quae generi consuleret humano : nec id gigneret aut aleret , quod cum omnes labores exantlavisset , tum incideret in mortis malum sempiternum . cic. . tusc . mors iis ●erribilis est , quorum cum vita omnia extinguuntur . cic. parad . read cic. l. . de nat. deor. where cotta would prove , that god did man a mischief by making him rational . thus man who is the perfectest of animals should be the most imperfect , and he that is the wisest should be the most deluded . dicunt stoici malum , impium esse & sine deo : quod duplici ratione accipitur ; sive quod deo contrarius dicatur , sive quod aspernetur deum : id tamen malis omnibus non convenire : pios autem & religiosos esse sapientes : petitos enim esse divini juris omnes porro p●etatem scientiam esse divini cultus : diis item eos sacrificia facturos , castosque futuros : quippe ea quae in deos admittuntur peccata detestari , diisque charos ac gratos fore , quod sancti justique in rebus divinis sint : solos vero sacerdotes esse sapientes , &c. laert. in zenone . ( how christian-like is all this spoken ) nec enim tantum mali est peccare principes ( quanquam est hoc magnum per seipsum malum ) quantum illud , quod permulti imitatores principum existunt . nam licet videre , si velis replicare memoriam temporum , qualescunque summi civitatis viri fuerunt talem civitatem fuisse : quaecunque mutatio morum in principibus extiterit , candem in populo secuturam . cic. de leg . . p. . laert. in timon . saith , that philatchus the historian reporteth of praylus the philosopher , that he was of so constant a mind , that he suffered himself to be unjustly executed as a traitor , and would not use one word of supplication for his life : but that 's not the common temper of mankind . alta spectare si voles , atque hanc sedem & aeternam domum contueri ; neque sermonibus vulgi te dederis , nec in praemiis humanis spem posueris rerum tuarum : sois re illecebris oportet ipsa virtus tr●hat ad verum decus . cic. in somn. scip. the very doubting of the life to come maketh multitudes take this course in our age : preferring that which they have in hand , before that which they suppose uncertain . rursus vero si animoe lethi adeunt januas ( epicuri ut sententia definitur ) nec sic causa est competens cur expeti philosophia debeat , etiamsi verum est , purgari has animas , atque ab omni puras vitiositate praestari : nam si communiter obeunt , non tantum est erroris maximi , verum stolidae caecitatis , fraenare ingenitos appetitus , cohibere in angustiis vitam , nihil indulgere naturae , non quod cupidines jusserint & instigaverint facere , cum nulla te praemia tanti laboris expectent , cum dies mortis advenerit , & corporalibus fueris vinculis exolutus . arnob. adv . gentes , l. . plato oft saith , that the wicked are punished after death . antisthenes . tome had a book , de his quae sunt apud inferos . laert. l. . c. . * saints rest ; part . and unreasonableness of infidelity . by the doctrine of idols , false gods that were sometimes men , and their sacrifices , the devil confesseth a life to come . in ireland , it was testified by the oaths of many witnesses , that after the protestants had been murdered at portdown-bridge , a long time together , a spectrum appeared in the river like a person naked , standing in the water up to the middle , and crying , revenge , revenge . see dr. jones , and sir john temples books . see what i have cited , saints rest , part . cap. . polybius often noteth , that many excellent men have attempted great and excellent works ; but very few have ever been so happy as to perform them ; and of those that have gone a little way , but few have finished them . he that did but well study the plain strife between christ and satan , about knowledge and ignorance in the world , and how marvellously satan keepeth the gospel from the infidel world , and locketh up the scripture in an unknown tongue among the papists , and hindereth preachers in all the world , will see that there is certainly a kingdom of darkness and a kingdome of light , which strive for souls . virtutis merces ac finis optimum quiddam est , divinum & beatum . aristot . . eth. c. . virtutum omnium jucundae non sunt actiones , nisi quatenus finis copulatus conjunctusque asciscitur . id. . eth. c. . virtus extollit hominem & super astr● mortales collocat : nec ea quae bona aut mala vocantur , aut cupit nimis , aut expavescit . senec. ep. . tria sunt quae ex animae providentia accipit corpus animalis : ut vivat , ut decore vivat , & ut immortalitas illi successione quaeratur . macrob. . satur. animarum originem manare de coelo , inter rectè philosophantes indubitatae constat esse sententiae . et animae dum corpore utitur haec est perfecta sapientia , ut unde orta sit , de quo fonte venerit , recognoscat . macrob , sup . somn . scip . l. . c. . maximum argumentum est , naturam ipsam de immortalitate animorum tacitum judicare , quod omni●s curae sunt , & maximè quidem , quae post-mortem futura sunt . cicero tuscul . qu. l. . p. . platonici dicunt , beatum esse hominem fruentem deo ; non sicut corpore , vel scipso fruitur animus , aut sicut amicus amico ; sed sicut luce oculus . august . de civ . dei. ad hoc anima conjuncta corpori est , ut fruatur scientiis & virtutibus : si autem cum fervore magno se invenerit , benigne recipietur à suo creatore ; fin autem secus , relegabitur ad inferna . plat. in tim. animus recte solus liber , nec dominationi cujusquam parent , neque obediens cupiditati . recte invictus , cujus etiamsi corpus constringatur , animo tamen vincula injici nulla possunt . cic. . de finib . deus animum ut dominum & imperantem obedienti praefecit corpori . cic. de univers . casta placent superis ; pura cum mente venite et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam . tibul. pone deos , & quae tangendo sacra profanas ; non bene coelestes impia dextra colit . ovid. morbi perniciosiores , pluresque quam corporis . cic. . tusc . the athenians punished not only the total violation of a law , but even of a clause or part of a law. piso in cic. de fin . l. . p. . saith of the epicureans , quin etiam ipsi voluptuarii diverticula quaerant , & virtutes habeant in ore totos dies , &c. which sheweth , that virtue was commended even by the voluptuous . minus malum est seritas & immanitas quam vitium , etsi terribilior . aristot . . eth. c. . nil peccant oculi , si non animus oculis imperet . sen. omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se crimen habet , quantum major qui peccat habetur . juv. omnino ex alio genere impotentia est , ex alio vitium : vitium enim omne sum culpae ignarum est , non ignara impotentia . aristot . eth. c. . vitia nostra voluntate necesse est suscipi . aristot . eth. c. . quae crimini dantur vitia in nostra potestate sunt . aristot . eth. c. . sceleris etiam poena tristis , & praeter eos eventus qui sequuntur , per se maxima est . cic. . de leg . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . m●nd . nemo ma●us felix . j●ve● . malo benefacere tantundem est periculum , quantum bono malefacere . plaut . pen. noxiae par poena esto , ut in suo vitio quisque plectatur . cic. . de leg . injusti judicis est bene agentem non remunerare , & negligentem non corripere . sen. de benef . turpe quid ansurus , te , sine teste , time . anson . veterem ferendo injuriam , invitas novam . gell. noc . attic. l. . all laws were made for these two causes , both that no man might be suffered to do that which is unjust ; and that transgressors being punished , the rest might be made better . demosth . or. cont . aristog . it is your part who are judges to preserve the laws , and to make them strong and valid : for it is by the benefit of these that good men are better than the bad . id. ib. or. . the government is useless which hath not nerves and force against the wicked and injurious , and in which pardon and the request of friends can do more than the laws . id. or. de fals . leg . let no man be thought of so great authority as to escape unpunished , if he breaks the laws . id . olynth . puniendis peccatis tres esse causas existimatum est . cur adhibetur poena castigandi & emendandi gratia ; ut is qui deliquit attentior fiat correctiorque . quum dignitas ejus authoritasque in quem peccatur tucada est , ne praetermissa animadversione contemptum ei pariat . propter exemplum ut caeteri metu poenae terreantur . gell. l. . in judicando vel corrigendo haec est lexut aut eum quempunit emendet , aut poena ejus caeteros meliores reddat ; aut sublatis malis securiores caeteri vivant . sen. de clem. animas verò ex hac vita cum delictorum sordibus recedentes , aequandas his qui in abruptum ex alto praecipitique delapsi sunt , unde nunquam sit facultas resurgendi . ideo utendum est concessis vitae spatiis , ut sit perfectae purgationis major facultas : macrob. de somn. scip. l. . c. . sua quemque fraus , & seus error maximè vexat , suum quemque scelus ngitat , amentiaque afficit , suae maloe cogitationes conscientiaeque animi terrent . hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae , quae dies noctesque poenas à sceleratissimis repetunt . cic. pro rosc . improbitas nunquam sinit eum respirare , nunquam quiescere . cic. de fin . impii poenas luunt , non tam judiciis , quàm angore conscientiae , fraudisque cruciatu . id. de leg. animi conscientiâ improbi semper cruciantur , tum etiam poenae timore . id . de fin . impiis apud inferos sunt poenae praeparatae . id. . de leg . hic geminae aeternem portae , quarum altera durâ semper lege patens , populos regesque receptat . val. flac. . claud. . ruf de inferis ita loquitur . huc post emeritam mortalia secula vitam deveniunt , ubi nulla manent discrimina fati nullus honor , vanoque exutum nomine regem perturbat plebeius egens ▪ — facinorum mala flagellantur à conscientia cui pluramum torn entorum est , eo quod perpetua illam sollicitudo urget ac verberat . sen. ep . . conscientia aliud agere non patitur , ac subinde respicere ad se cogit . dat poenas qui metuit . sen. ●p . . * facinorosa conscientia instar ulceris in corpore , poenitentiam relinquit in anima lancinantem jugiter ac pervellentem . plut. de tranquil . maxima est factae injuriae poena fecisse : nec quisquam gravius afficitur , quàm qui ad supplicium poenitentiae trahitur . sen. de ira , l. . c. . it is one of pythagoras 's sayings , that a bad man suffereth more by the scourge of his own conscience , than one that is beaten with rods , and chastised in his body . stob. serm . . quod quisque fecit , patitur : authorem scelus repetit , suoque praemitur exemplo nocens sen. her fur . sed nemo ad id sero venit , unde nunquam cum semel venit potuit reverti . id. ibid. nihil est miserius quàm animus hominis conscius , &c. plaut . jam aderit tempus , cum se etiam ipse oderit . plaut . bac. — nam quis peccandi finem posuit sibi , quando recepit erectum semel attrita de fionte ruborem ? quisnam hominum est quem tu contentum videris uno ilagitio● juvea . . in omni in juria permultum interest , utrum perturbatione aliquâ animi quae plerumque brevis est , an consultè fiat : leviora enim sunt ea , quae repentino aliquo motu accidunt , quàm ea quae praemeditata & praeparata inferuntur . cic. . offic. volenti non fit injuria . neque enim civitas in seditione beata esse potest , nec in discordia dominorum domus : quo minus animus à seipso dissidens , secumque discordans , gustare partem ullam liquidae voluptatis & liberae potest . torquatus epicur . in cic. de fin . l. . p. . it is an odd fiction of cicero , that men for sin shall be turned into women : atque ille qui rectè & honestè curriculum vivendi à natura datum confecerit , ad illud astrum , quotum aptus fuerit revertetur : qui autem immoderatè & intemperanter vixerit , cum secundus ortus in figuram muliebrem transferet , & si ne tum quidem finem vitiorum faciet ( as he is less likely ) gravius etiam jactabitur , & in suis moribus simillimas figuras pecudum & ferarum transferetur . neque malorum terminum prius aspiciet , quàm illam sequi caeperit conversionem , quam habebat in se , &c. — cum ad primam & optimam conversionem pervenerit . cic. de universit . p ( mihi ) . magna est peccandi illecebra spes impanitatis . cic. pro mil. the light of nature taught men , that god would not accept the sacrifices of the wicked , much less admit them to his glory . donis impii ne placare deos audeant plato●●m audiant , qui vetat dubitare qua sit mente futurus deus , cum vir nemo bonus ab improbo se donati velit . cic. de leg. l. . p. . the epicurean confesseth , quod si qui satis opibus hominem sibi contra conscientiam septi esse & muniti videntur , deorum tamen numen horrent , easque ipsas solicitudines , quibus animi noctes diesque exeduntur , à diis supplicii causa importare putant . cic. de ●in . l. . p. . nullum conscium peccatorum tuorum , magis timueris quàm temet ipsum : alium enim potes effugere , ●e autem nunquam : nequitia ipsa est sui poena . sen. peccati dolor & maximus & aeternus est . cic. att. . itaque non ob ea solum incommoda quae eveniunt improbis , fugiendam improbitatem putamus , sed multo etiam magis , quod cujus in animo versatur , nunquam sinit eum respirare , nunquam quiescere ; inq . torquatus epicureus in cicer. ne fin . l. . p. . ut fulmina paucorum pe●leulo cadunt , omnium n●etu ; sic animadversiones magnarum potestatum , terient latius quàm nocent . senec. solon . counsel for the felicity of the common-wealth was , ut boni praemiis invitentur , & mali poenis coerceantur . cicer. ad brut. oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae . hor. dat ille veniam facilè cui venia est opus . sen. agam. audetis ridere nos cum gehennas dicimus & inextinguibiles ignes , in quos animas dejici ab eorum hostibus cognovimus ? quid plato vester in volumine de animae immortalitate ? nonne acherontem , nonne stygem , &c. nominat ? in quibus animas asseverat volvi , mergi , exuri ? nec ejus authoritas plurimum à veritate declinat ? quamvis enim vir lenis & benevolae voluntatis inhumanum esse crediderit capitali animas sententiâ condemnare ; non est tamen absonè suspicatus jaci eas in flumina torrentia flammatum globis , & caenosis voraginibus tetra . arnob. adv . gent. li. . p. . see the citations in marg. cap. bias in laert. inquit , ita amandum quasi edio simus habituri : plurimos enim esse malos : and though cicero in lael . say , that it is a sentence sapiente plane indigna , it is his mistake of the sense of it . for it is true , that in well-grounded friendship we must avoid suspicion , ( which is all that cicero pleads for ) : but yet we must know men to be men , and mutable : and all just love is not well grounded intimate friendship . in uno annulo omnes boni principes possunt insculpi , inquit quidam in vopisc . aurel. seneca saith , that a good man is a phoenix , born once in five hundred years . ep. , lucian . in tim. inquit , boni possessio est , quae haud facile inveniri potest ; ut quae jamdudum è vita concesserit : adeo obscura & pusilla , ut illam vel lynceus vix dum inveniat . diogenes crying , o homines adeste ! when a crowd came about him , drove them away , saying , homines vocavi , non sterquilinia . aristippus being asked , quid esset admirandum in vita ? answered , vir probus & moderatus ? quoniam etsi inter multos improbos agat , non tamen pervertitur . stob. hence was diogenes his searching athens with a lanthorn to finde a man. and when themistocles had a farm to sell , he bid the cryer tell it as its great commendation , that there was an honest neighbour dwelt neer it , intimating the paucity of such . ut scarabaei & vultures unguentis offenduntur , — ita non omnibus placent optima . plutarch . vir bonus & sapiens qualem vix repperit unum . millibus è cunctis hominum consultus apollo . &c. virg. vitio nostra quae amamus defendimus ; & malumus ea excusare quam excutere . sen. ep. . absurdum est putare eum qui ab aliquibus ex bono malus fuerit factus , eundem ab illis iterum ex malo bonum fieri posse . dion . hal. . ubi divitiae honori sunt , & eas gloria , imperium , potentia , hebescere virtus , paupertas probro haberi innocentia pro malevolentia duci incipit . salust . in cattilin . aelian . var. hist . l. . saith , that theodata a whore told socrates , that he could draw away none of her followers , but she could draw away his at her pleasure ; and he answered , non mirum : tu siquidem ad declivem tramitem omnes rapis ; ego vero ad virtutem cogo , ad quam arduus plerisque insolitus est ascensus . animi morbi sunt cupiditates immensae , inanes , divitiarum , gloriae dominationis , libidinosarem etiam voluptatum accedunt aegritudines , molestiae , merores , quae animos exedunt conficiuntque curis . cic. . de finib . in naturalibus desideriis pauci non peccant . arist . . eth. god only can recover lapsed man ? nemo magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit . cicer. de nat. deor. . of the paucity of the good , and the abounding of wickedness , almost all poets , orators , philosophers and historians openly complain . pauci quos aequus amavit . jupiter aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus . in vitia alter alterum trudimus : quomodo ad salutem revocari potest , quem nullus retrahit , & populus impellit ? senec. ep. . serpunt vitia & contactu nocent , & in proximum quemque transiliunt . id. de tranq . vit . nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur ; optimus ille qui minimis urgetur . horat. . ser. . unicuique dedit vitium natura creato . propert. quid ulcus leviter tangam ? omnes mali sumus . senec. si cupis bonus fieri , primum crede quod malus sis . epictet . enobri . novi ego hoc seculum moribus quibus sit : malus bonum malum esse vult ut sit sui similis : turbant , miscent , mores mali , rapax , avarus , invidus , sacrum profanum , publicum privatum habent : hiulca gens : haec ego doleo ; haec sunt quae excruciant ; haec dies noctesque tibi canto ut caveas . plaut . nifi enim talis ( mala ) esset natura hominum , non anteponerent vindictam sanctitati & lucrum justitiae , invidentes alienae potentiae non laedenti : sed volunt homines vindictae cupiditate communes leges dissolvere , &c. thucid. l. . sed & boni , dicetis , sunt in rebus humanis ; viri sapientes , justi , inculpati — res . sint licet perhonesti , fuerintque laudabiles , — sed audire deposcimus , quot sint aut fuerint numero , — unus , duo , tres , — centum certe numero diffiniti — at genus humanum non ex pauculis bonis , sed ex caeteris omnibus aestimari convenit , ponderari : in toto enim pars est , non totum in parte — et quinam isti sunt , dicite ? philosophi credo , qui se esse solos sapientissimos autumant — nempe illi qui cum suis quotidie cupiditatibus pugnant — qui ne in vitia proritari facultatis possint alicujus instinctu , patrimonia & divitias fugiunt , ne causas fibi afferant lapsus . quod cum faciunt & curant , apertissime animas esse indicant labiles , & infirmitate ad vitia proclives : nostra autem sententia , quod bonum natura est , neque emendari neque corrigi se poscit : immo ipsum debet quid sit malum nescire , si generis forma cujusque in sua cogitat integritate perstare — qui luctatur animorum ingenitas corrigere pravitates , is apertissime monstrat imperfectum se esse , quamvis omni & pervicacia contendat . arnob. adv . gentes , lib. . in auctuar . bib. pat. to. . p. . crede mihi miseris caelestia numina parcent . nec semper laesos & sine fine premunt . ovid. . de pont. when piso in cicero seeketh after the summum bonum , he proceedeth by these steps , . omnem naturam esse sui conservatricem . neminem esse qui ipse se oderit . . neminem esse qui quomodo se habeat , nihil sua censeat interesse : . hominum é corpore & animo constare , primasque animi partes esse , & secundas corporis . . animum aliquid agere semper , neque ulla conditione quietem sempiteinam posse pati . . bona esse quae naturae conveniunt , camque perficiunt . . animi duo genera esse virtutum ; naturales , viz. docilitas , memoria , ingenium : voluntarias quae in voluntate posita magis proprio nomine virtutes appellantur . . in prima classe maxime excellens , confiderationem & cognitionem coelestium . . virtutes autem voluntatis esse praestantissimas . . et ita concludit , virtutem esse maxime expetendam , this is the summ of the lib. . de finib . saepe levant poenas , ereptaque lumina redunt cum bene peccati poenituisse vident . ovid . . de pont. dissensio ab aliis ; à te reconciliatio incipiat : cum ignoscls ita beneficium tuum tempera , ut non ignoscere videaris , sed absolvere ; quia gravissimum poenae genus est , contumeliosa venia . senec. pulchrum est vitam donare petenti statim . theb. nec ex templo ara , nec ex humana natura miserecordia tollenda est ; inquit phocion , in stobaeo . facilius iis ignoscitur , qui non perseverare , sed ab errato se revocare moliuntur : est enim humanum peccare , se belluinum in errore perseverare . cicer ▪ in vatin . poenitenti optimus est portus , mutatio confilii . cicer. phil. , . beatus est cui vel in senectute contigerit , ut sapentiam , verasque opiniones consequi possit . cicer. de finib . read cato's speech in cicer. de fin . l. . that the principle of self-love and preservation is the seed of virtue ; and how every thing abhorreth its own hurt and destruction . scelerum si bene poenitet , eradenda cupidinis , prava sunt elementa . hor. omnibus natura dedit fundamenta semenque virtutum . se● . ep . . homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt , quàm salutem homonibus dando nihil habet fortuna majus quàm ut possit ▪ nec natura melius quàm ut velit , servare . cic. p●o ligar . notitia peccati , initium salutos . s●n. sa●th epictetus , as our parents deliver us to school-masters to be nurtured , so god delivereth us to our consciences , whose nature is not to be to temned . nemo adeo ferus est ▪ ut non mitescere possit si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem . horat. ep . . miserum te esse judico ▪ qui nunquam fueris miser : traxisti sine adversario vitam : opus est ad sui not tiam experimento . quid quisque possit non nisi tentando didicit sen. de pro. non omnino diis exosos esse , qui in hac vita cum aerumnarum varietate luctantur ; sed esse arcanas causas , &c. macrob. l. . saturn . rem pateris modicam & mediocri bile ferendam si flectas oculos majora ad crimina — juven . * quotidie morimur , quotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae : & tunc quoque cum crescimus vita decrescit . hunc ipsum quem agimus diem , cum morte dividimus . sen. ep . . natura nihil hominibus brevitate vitae praestitit melius . id. nihil aeque tibi proficiet ad temperantiam omnium rerum , quàm frequens cogitatio brevis aevi & hujus incerti . quicquid facis respice ad mortem . sen. ep . . magna pars peccatorum tollitur , si peccati testis adstat . sen. what then may the presence of god do ? clemens alexand. was positive in it , that philosophy was bless'd to the saving of many heathens who obeyed it . tunc est consummata infaelicitas , ubi turpia non solum delectant , sed etiam placent : & desinit esse remedio locus , ubi quae fuerant vitia , mores fiunt . sen. prov. at norbi perniciosiores pluresque sunt animi quam corporis — quo vero probari potest , ut sibi mederi animus non possit , cum ipse medicinam corporis animus invenerit ? cumque omnes qui corpore se curati passi sunt , non continuo convalescant : animi autem qui se sana i voluerint , praeceptisque sapientum paracrint , sine ulla dubitatione sanentur . cic. tuscul . l. . p. ● . sunt enim ingeniis nostris semina innata virtutum , quae si adolescere liceret , ipsa nos ad beatam vitam natura perduceret . nunc autem simul ac editi sumus in lucem , in omni continuo pravitate versamur , &c. cic. . tuscul . n.b. that when philosophers say , that all is good which nature teacheth , &c. they mean by nature , the true and sound constitution of the soul , which they distinguish from its diseases and corruption . notes for div a -e nullus unquam à mortali semine vir absolute bonus nascetur . dion . hal. l. . truth delivered by the halves , will be lamely practised . ideo peccamus , quia de partibus vitae omnes deliberamus : de toto nemo deliberat . sen. what difficulties the wisest heathens find about god's prospering the wicked , and afflicting the good . and how dark were they about the life to come ? therefore seneca 's wise and good man was a phoenix . sine doctrina siquid bene dicitur , adjuvante naturâ , tamen id quia fortuito fit , semper paratum esse non potest . cic. de or. etsi ingeniis magnis praediti quidam , dicendi copiam sine ratione consequuntur . ars tamen dux certior est quàm natura . aliud enim est poetarum more verba fundere , aliud , ea quae dicas ratione & arte distinguere . cic. de sin . . you may rerceive the heathens g●at●ud , to god by the ●rd● of cotta● . 〈◊〉 nat. deor. . pag. num● is quod ●onus● 〈◊〉 , grat . as d●s 〈◊〉 un●a●n ? at quod dives , quod honoratu , quod incolumis . jovemq●e optimum maximum ob eas res appellant , non quod nos justos , temperatos , sapientes efficiat , sed quod salvos , incolumes , op●lentos , copiosos . — judicium hoc omnium mortalium , fortunam à deo petendam , à seipso sumendam esse sapientiam . parvulos nobis natura dedit igniculos quos celeriter in aliis moribus opinionibusque depravatis sic restinguimus , ut nusquam naturae lumen appareat : — nunc autem simulatque editi in lucem & suscepti sumus , in omni continuo pravitate versamur , ut pene cum lacte nutricis errorem suxisse videamur : cum vero parentibus redditi , deinde magistris traditi sumus , tum ita variis imbuimur erroribus , ut vanitati veritas , & opinioni confirmatae natura ipsa cedat . cic. . tusc . multis signis natura declarat quid velit : — obsurdescimus tamen nescio quo modo , nec ea quae ab ea moventur audimus . cic. lael . si tales nos natura genuisset , ut eam ipsam intueri , & perspicere , eâque optimâ duce cursum vitae conficere possemus : haud esset sane quod quisquam rationem & doctrinam requireret cum natura sufficeret . nune vero , &c. cic. . tusc . quicquid infixum & ingenitum est , lenitur arte , non vincitur . s●n. o curvae in terris animae , & coelestium inanes ! quid juvat hoc , templis nostros immittere mores ? et bona diis ex hac scelerata ducere pulpâ ? persius . non bove mactato coelestia numina gaudent : sed quae praestanda est , & sine teste fides . ovid. ep . ● . omne nefas , omnemque mali purgamine causam credebant nostri tollere posse sene , &c. ah! nimium faciles , qui tristia crimina caedis fulmineâ tolli posse putatis aquâ . ovid. . fast . multa miser metui quia seei multa proterve idem . in malis sperare bonum , nosi innocens nemo solet . senec. turpe est quicquans mali perpetrare : bene autem agere nullo periculo proposito , multorum est : id vero proprium boni viri est , etiam cum periculo suo honestatem in agentem sequi . plut. in mario . at mens sibi conscia facti praemetuens , adhibet stimulos , terrerque flagellis : nec videt interea qui terminus esse malorum possit , nec qui sit poenarum denique finis . atque eadem metuic magis haecne in morte gravescant . lucret. . euvaglus saith , that constantine so honoured sopater the philosopher , that he made him usually sit by him on the same bench . sure the philosophers were falsly reported to theoph. antioch . ad autol. l. . p. . when he saith that zeno , diogenes and cleanthes's books do teach to eat man's flesh , and fathers to be rosted and eaten by the children , and sacrificed by them , &c. belyirg one another hath been the devil's means to destroy charity on earth . sed nescio quomodo , nil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum . cic. divinat . l. . p. . sed haec cadem num censes apud cos iplos valere , nisi admodum paucos à quibus inventa , disputata , conscripta sunt ? quotus enim quisque philosophorum invenitur , qui sit ita moratus , ita animo ac vitâ constitutus ut ratio postulat ? qui disciplinam suam non ostentationem scientiae , sed legem vitae putet ? qui obtemperet ipse sibi , & decretis suis pareat ? videre licet alius tanta levitate & jactatione , ut iis f●erit non didicisse necleus : alio● pecuniae cupdo● , gloriae nonnul los , multos lib dinum servos : ut cum corum vita mirabibiliter pugnet oratio : quod quidem mihi videtur turpissimum . ut enim si grammaticum se professus quispiam barbare loquatur , aut si absurde canat is , qui se haberi velit musicum , hoc turpior sit , quod in eo ipso peccet , cujus profitetur scientiam : sic philosophus in ratione vitae peccans , hoc turpior est , quod in officio , cujus magister esse vult , labitur , artemque vitae professus , delinquit in vitâ . cic. tusc . l. . pag. . in to . bib. pat ▪ extat liber hieronymi à sancta fide , ex judaeo christiani , contra judaeos & talmud . qui ut dicit approbatio judaeos ad fidem convertit . pag , &c. de mahumetis origine , &c. vid. fragm . ex anastas . hist . eccl. in b.p. gr. lat. to. . pag. ▪ &c. vid. theodore abucare opuscul . mahumetem non esse ex deo. &c. et euthym●i zigaben . moamethica . what the christian religion is , judge not by the intruded opinions of any sect , but by the ancient creeds and summaries , which elsewhere i have recited out of tertullian and other ancients ; and which you may finde recited or referr'd to in usher and vossius , de symb. see the description of the christian faith in proclus ad armenios de fide in bib. pal. graecolat . to. . pag. . also the catechis . of junilius africanus , de part . div . legis . et hermenopul . de fide orthod . leg julian . toletin . cont judaeus . et rabbi samuel . marrochiani de adventu messiae . gen. . * caesarius dialog . . q. . thinketh that adam was forty dayes in paradise , and that therefore lent is kept , to shew our hungring after paradise . but that 's a singular fansie . and after he changed it upon some old mens tradition of a longer time . gen. . & . transtulit deus hominem in paradisum , ei undique occasiones suggerens ut cresceret , & perfectus redderetur , & declaratus tandem deus , in astra ascenderet . mediam etenim conditionem obtinuit homo ; nec totus mortalis , nec totus immortalis existens ; verum utriusque extitit particeps . theoph. autio . ad autol. l. . p. . gen. . . gen. . gen. . gen. . & . gen. ▪ & . & . & . gen. to the end of the book . exod per totum . exod. & numb . josh . per tot . judg. sam. king. king. & chron. & chron. ezra & nehem. matth. , , &c. luk. , ; &c. vid. procli homiliam de nativ . christi , interpret . peltano . matth. . luk. . vid. microlog . de eccles . observ . cap. . all this is written by the four evangelists . act. . act. . act. ▪ & . act. . act. per tot . cor. . , . matth. . joh. . . tim. . . ps . . , , . & . . isa . . . tim. . . mal. . . jam. . . neh. . . rev. . . & . . exod. . , . ezek. . . ps . . & . . & . . prov. . . gen. . . deut. . . col. . . eccles . . . psal . . , . mar. , . deut. . . & . . & . . gen. . , . rom. . . see an exposition of the creed briefly in isidor . de eccles . offic. l. . c. . p. . of the original of the creed , see vossi●s de symbol . and parker de descensu ad inferos . of the several creeds of the eastern and western churches , see usher , de symbolis . gen. . joh. . . rom. . . , . gen. . , . rom. . , , . & . . act. . . eph. . . heb. . psal . . . rom. . . eph. . , , . isa . . . job . . & . . gen. . . hos . . . rom. . , . rom. . , . act. . . joh ▪ . , . & . . joh. . . rom. . . joh. . . tim. . . heb. . , . luk. . , , . mat. . , . heb. . . mat. . heb. . . mat. . . act. . . heb. . , . heb. . . & . . tim. . . eph. . . cor. . , . luk. . . psal . . . pet. . , . tim. . . heb. . . act. ● . , . & . . rom. . . heb. . . act . . & . . heb. . . & . . act. . . & . . heb. . . rom. . . eph. . , , , . rom. . , . thess . . . heb. . . joh . . & . . act. . . gal. . . act. . . & . . & . . rom. . . . mar. . . rom. , . gal. . . joh. . . cor. . . rom. . . eph. . . rev. . & . col. . , . heb. . . mar. . . joh. . , . . heb. . . thess . . . . & . . luk. . . mat. . . mar. . , . cor. . . joh. . . & , . joh. . . & . . pet. . , , . pet. . . tim. . . joh. . . eph. . , . & . . isa . . . rev. . , . tim. . . luk. . , . act. . . & . . & . , . heb. . , . gal. . , , . joh. . . & . . cor. . act. . , . rom. . , , . act. . . joh. . . ezek. . . gal. . . col. . . eph. . , , . & . . cor. . , , . rom. . . & . . joh. . . tit. . . rom. . . mat. . . cor. . luk. . . joh. . . pet. . . act. . . gal. . , . joh. . . cor. . . pet. . , . tit. . . & . . luk. . . & . . cor. . , . phil. . . pet. . . luk. . . act. . . cor. . joh. . ● , . mat. . cor. . . mat. . & . , , . tim. . , . thess . . , , . & . . joh. . . luk. . . act. . . & . . rom. . . luk. . . thess . . . exod. . . deut. . . josh . . , . cor. . . joh. . . cor. . . cor. . , . joh. . eph. . , . joh. . . luk. . . & . . act. . . rom. . , . luk. . . joh. . . mat. . . eph. . , . & . , , . rom. . , , , . cor. . . eph ▪ . . . & . , . cor. . . & . . isa . . , , . rom. . . see the lords prayer . the ten commandments . jud. . gal. . . luk. . . tim. . . isa . . . act. . . col. . . rom. . . heb. . , . mat. . , . luk. . . rom. . , . cor. . . pet. . . cor. . . gal. . ▪ . psal . . . & . . & . . & . , . gen. . . eph. . , . psal . . . luk. . . pet. . . . luk. . . psal . . . cor. . . psal . . . prov. . . eph. . , . pet. . . jam. . . psal . . . & . . thess . . . phil. . . joh. . , . mat. . . isa . . . deut. . . & . . jer. . . & . . jam. . . act. . . & . . & . . , , . cor. . , . jam. . . phil. . . cor. . . & . . heb. . . rev. . . act. . . cor. . . eph. . , . deut. . , . dan. . . act. . . psal . . sam. . , . gen. . . josh . . . col. . , . deut. . . math. . , , , , , . mat. . , , , . thess . . . eph. . . prov. . , . & . . rom. . . rev. . . & . . prov. . . & . . col. . . prov. . . & . . & . . ro. . . & . . mat. . & . . luk. . , . jam. . . & . . cor . mat. . . eph . col. . . joh. . . rom. . . thess . pet. . . & . & . . gal. . . eph. . tit. . . * hades , of which read bp. usher in his answer to the jesuits challenge . de totis scripturis , haec breviatim collecta sunt ab apostolis , ut quia plures credentium literas nesciunt , vel qui sciunt prae occupationibus seculi scripturas lege●e non possunt , haec corde retinentes habeant sibi sufficientem scientiam salutarem . isidor . de eccl. offic. l. . c. . pag. ( in bibl. patr. ) . exod. . deut. . * de die septimo qui inter omnes mortales celebris est , magna apud plerosque ignorantia est . hic enim dies qui ab hebraeis sabbatum vocatur , graecè siquis interpretetur , septimana , dicitur . hoc nomine mortales omnes diem istum appellant ; at nominis causam nesciunt plerique theophil . antioch . ad autol . li. . p. ( mihi ) . in b.p. gr. l.t. . matth. . . rom. . . & pet. . , . heb. . . act. . , . tit. . . cor. . de modo baptizandi antiquo vide walafridum strabon . de rebus eccles . cap. . p. ( bibl. pat. ) . et ivon . carnol . serm . de sacram . neophytorum , p. , , &c. joh. . . pet. . . joh. : , . & . , . gal. . . & . , . rom. . , . cor. . . cor. . . & . , . jer. . . psal . . . pet. . . joh. . . & . , . nihil est ad defendendum puritate tutius : nihil ad dicendum veritate facilius . inq . ambros . nulla major ad amorem invitatio quam praevenire amantem : & nimis durus est animus , qui , si delectionem nolebat impendere , nolit rependere . august . de catech. rud . in eo quod amatur , aut non laboratur , aut labor amatur . august . de san . vid. ad divos adeunto castè : pietatem adhibento , opes amovento : qui secus faxit , deus ipse vindex erit . leges rom. in cic. de leg. . p. . significat probitatem deo gratam esse , sumptum esse removendum . ib p. . christianus nemo recte dicitur , nisi qui christo moribus , prout valet , coequatur . maxim. christiani nomen frustra sortitur , qui christum minime imitatur : quid enim tibi prodest vocari quod non es , & nomen usurpare alienum ? sed si christianum te esse delectat , quae christian tatis sunt gere , & merito tibi christiani nomen assume . august . de vita christiani . ille vere christianus est , qui omnibus misericordiam facit , qui nullâ omnino movetur injuriâ ; qui alienum dolorem tanquam propium sentit ; cujus mensam pauper non ignorat ; qui coram hominibus inglorius habetur , ut coram deo & angeli glorietur : qui terrena contemnit , ut possit habere coelestia ; qui opprimi pauperem se praesente non patitur , qui miseris subvenit , &c. august . de vita christ . omnis creatura cum bona sit , & bene potest amari , & male : benè scilicet ordine constituto ; male ordine perturbato . august de civet . dei. omnium malorum affectuum principium est philautia ; finis autem superbia : philautia , amor est . quo corpus complectimur , rationi non consentaneus . hanc qui amp taver●t , ead●m opera , omnes affectus ex ea oriente , abscidit maxim. de charitat . sic intelligimus deum , si possumus , quantum possumus ; sine qualitate bonum , sine quantitate magnum , sine indigentia creatorem , sine situ praesentem , sine habitu omnia continentem , sine loco ubique torum , sine tempo●e sempiternum , sine ulla sui mutatione , mutabilia omnia facientem , nihilque patientem . quisquis deum ita cogitat , etsi nondum potest invenire quid sit , piè tamen cavet , quantum potest , al quid de eo sentire quod non sit . aug. de trinit . l. . c. . rom. . . tim. . . thess . . . tim. . , . joh. . , . & . , , . sine charitate quomodo quis veram contritionem habere poterit , quomodo ergo peccatorum remissionem . aug. deus , quia hominem nudum fragilemque formavit , dedit ei praeter caetera hunc pietatis affectum , ut homo hominem tucatur , diligat , foveat , contraque omnia pericula & accipiat & praestet auxilium . summum igitur inter se hominum vinculum est humanitas ; quod qui disruperit , nefarius & parricida existimandus est . lactant . inst . l. . c. . tale bonum est bonum pacis , ut in rebus creatis nil gratiosius soleat audiri , nil delectabilius concupisci , & nil utilius possideri : spiritus enim humanus , nunquam vivificat membra nisi suerint unita ; sic spiritus sanctus nunquam vivificat ecclesiae membra , nisi fuerint in pace unita . aug. de civ . dei. pax vera est concordiam habere cum moribus probis , & litigare cum vitiis . cassian . nec inveniri potest forma expressior conversationis angelicae , quàm unitas socialis . idem . in psalm . ordo in ecclesia ita statuit , ut alii sint oves , alii vero pastores : ita ut hi imperent , illi vero obediant : sitque hoc tanquam caput , illud pedes , illud manus , hoc oculi , illud vero aliud corporis membrum , quo omnia rectè inter se conveniant , commodumque tam ad praefectos , quam ad subditos redunder . nazianz. orde modest . in disput . simula aequitas est duplex iniquitas . aug. in psal . . duas civitates duo facient amores : jerusalem , facit amor dei : babylonem facit amor seculi : interroget igitur unusquisque se quid amet , & inveniet unde sit civis . august . in psal . . multo facilius invenit syderum conditorem humilis pietas , quàm syderum ordinem superba curiositas . august . de eclips . doctrina spiritus non curiostatem acuit , sed charitatem accendit . bern. in can● . o beata regio deliciarum ! ad quam suspiro de valle lachrymarum ; ubi sapientia sine ignorantia , ubi memoria sine oblivione , intellectus sine errore , ratio sine obscuritate fulgeb . t. bernard . illud est verum ac summum gaudium , quod non de creatura , sed de creatore concipitur ; quod cum acceperis , nemo tollet a te ; cui ali●nde comparata omnis jucunditas moeror est ; omnis suavitas dolor est ; omne dulce amarum est ; omne quod delectare potest molestum est . bernard . nihil prodigae satis est voluptati : semper famem patitur sui quae alimentis perpetuis nescit impleri . ambros . in . luk. . delectatio ●rdit & praeteriit , vulneravit & transiit , mise●um fecit & abiit , infoelicem reddidit , & reliquit , ambros . qui pro modica delecta●ione dat illud , pro quo christus ●e tradidit , stultum christum reputat mercatorem . august . centum decies centum annos demus deliciis ? quaenam erit ex his ad aeternitatem compensatio ? chrysost . de ●epar ●aps . ipse est christianus qui & in domo sua peregrinum se esse cognoscit . patria nostra sursum est : ibi hospites non erimus . august . in psal . . delicatus es miles , si putas sine pugna te posse v●ncere : fortiter dimica , atrociter in praelio ●oncerta , considera pactum , conditionem quam accessisti , militium c●i nomen dedisti : ita enim quos miraris omnes pugnaverunt , vicerunt , triumpharunt . chrysost . beati , qui habitant ibi , laudabunt deum in secula seculorum , amen . regnum dei conceditur in praedestinatione , promittitur in vocatione , ostenditur in justificatione , percipitur in glorificatione . bernard . illae honestae esse voluptates putandae sunt , quae non sunt implicatae dolori , nec poenitendi causam afferunt , nec alio ullo detrimento afficiunt eos qui perfruuntur nec ultra modum progrediuntur , nec nos multum a gravioribus negotiis abstrahunt , aut sibi servire cogunt . proprie voluptates sunt quae insunt , aut annexae sunt cognitioni divini numinis , & scientiis , & virtutibus . nemesius de nat. hom. cap. . de volupt . how excellently doth seneca speak against a vain curiosity of speech in divers of his epistles , and with what contempt and vehement indignation ? this also is to be applied to the spirituality and plainness of the christian way of worship . in exordio nascentis ecclesiae non eo quo nunc modo vel ordine sacra celebrabantur missarum solemnia teste gregorio , &c. et fortasse primis temporibus solius pauli epistolae legebantur , postmodum intermixtae aliae lectiones sunt , &c. berno ab. augiens . de quibusdam ad messam pertin . c. . p . bibl. patr. orationes autem quas collectas dicimus , à diversis auctoribas compositae creduntur , à gelasio praesule romano , & beato gregorio papa . idem ibid. lege & microlog . eccles . observat . cap. . & . & hugo à s. victore de offic . in romana ecclesia eccles . l. . c. . una tantum dicitur collecta , nisi , &c. deus est principium effectivum in creatione , refectivum in redemptione , perfectivum in sanctificatione . joh. à combis comp. theolog. l. . c. . read chap. . with the citations . nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur , optimus ille qui minimis urgetur . ho al. the badness of the world occasioned the manichees to think , that god made it not ; and arnobius with them to run into that errour , to hold , that god made not man , which he so vehemently defendeth , lib . advers . gentes : yet professing , that he who made us , and whence evil cometh , is a thing to us unknown . unicuique dedit vitium natura creato . propert. sed quia caecus inest vitiis amor , o●ne futurum , despicitur , suadent brevem praesentia fructum et ruit in vetit●m damni secura libico . claud. . eur. egregium sanctumque virum si cerno , b●membri hoc monstrum puero , vel miranti sub aratro piscibus inventis , & foetae comparo mulae . juven . sat. . he that will peruse that notable description of the state of mortals , and of souls in flesh , which arnobius hath , adv . gentes , lib. . p. , . annot. bib. pat. ( too long to be transcribed ) shall see the vanity and shame of this corrupted world expressed to the life . nostri tantum qui christiani vocamur nulla vobis cura est ; finitis enim nos qui nihil mali patramus , immo omnium piissimè justissimeque cum erga deum tum imperium vestrum nos gerimus , exagitari , rapi , fugari , nomen duntaxat nostrum plerisque impugnantibus . athenagor . apolog . p. . o ingratum & impium seculum ! o in privatam perniciem incredibili pectoris obstinatione pronum ! s●aliquis a● vos medicus ex summotis venisset , & incognitis regionibus , medicamen pollicens — certatim blanditiis , &c. quaenam est haec foritas , quae libido tam ca●nifex , inexpiabile bellum indicere nihil de te merito ? dilacerare si detur velle eum per viscera , qui non modo nullum intulerit malum nulli , sed benignus hostibus , &c. arnob. l. . in fine . prosperum ac faelix scelus virtus vocatur . quis nomen unquam sceleris errori dedit ? saepe error ingens sceleris obtinuit locum . sen. herc. fur . anaxarchum , democritium à cyprio tyranno excarnificatum accepimus : zenonem eleatem in tormentis necatum : quid dicam de socrate , cujus morti illachrymari soleo platonem logens . many more such instances hath cotta in cicero , de nat. deor. l. . p. , . primusque de vitae ratione disseruit socrates , primusque philosophorum damnatus moritur . laert. in socrat . pag. . campanella telleth us himself of his years cruel persecution , and torments in the inquisition . * hist . part . . l. . c. . sect . . judices non tam quid commiserit reus aliquis nostrum ●inquirunt , quàm ipsi nomini tanquam certo sceleri illudunt . athenago● . ub● supr . vitia de mercede sollicitant : avaritia pecuniam promittit : luxuria multas ac varias voluptates : ambitio purpuram & plausum ; & ex hoc potentiam & quicquid potentia ponit . senec. ep. . in vitia alter alterum trudimus . quomodo ad salutem revocari potest , quem populus impellit , & nullus retrahit ? senec . ep. . when just aristides was made treasurer at athens , though he most uprightly discharged his office , ●hemistocles accused him , and got him condemned as for bribery : but by the favour of some of the greatest he was delivered , and restored to his office for another year : the next year he did by connivence gratifie all the pillagers of the common-wealth that would grow rich by the common loss : and at the years end they offered him the office again with great honour . but he refused it , and said , that their honour was a greater disgrace than their condemnation : for when he did well they condemned him , and when he gave way to the unjust , they honoured him . plutar. when he was to be condemned by the popular vote , one came to him in the croud , that could not write , and not knowing who he was , desired him to write his name to aristides condemnation ; for he was resolved to give his voice against him , because he was called a righteous man : aristides did as he desired , and wrote his name without discovering himself to him . saith cicero ( laughing at epicurus ) ego summum dolorem ( summum dico , etiamsi decem atomis est major alius ) non continuo dico esse brevem : multosque possem bonos viros nominare qui complures annos doloribus podagrae cruci●ntur maximis : tuscul . l. . p. . if any say , that still perfect obedience is possible , i will not litigare de nomine , but say as cicero , ut nihil interest utrum nemo valeat ; an nemo possit valere ; sic non intelligo quid intersit , utrum nemo sit sapiens an nemo esse possit . cic. de nat. deor. l. . pag. . ( mihi ) so i say of keeping the law perfectly . almost all the heathens in the world , who worshipped one god as chief , had their demi-gods , as their particular protectors , and favourers , or mediators ; as intimating that man is conscious of the need of some mediator of access to the supreme deity . the most learned men of greece and rome , that saw by reason the immortality of the soul , the life to come , and the perfections of god , were yet so distrustfull of their own reasons , that they spake of the life to come with great pauses of doubtfulness or darkness : and were many of them glad to run to oracles , and augures and aruspices to try if they could get any additionall light by superficial revelation . how glad then would they have been of a certain teacher sent from heaven ? falsum est ; pejores n●orimur quam nascimur : nostrum istud , non naturae vitium est . quid enim turpius quam in ipso limine securitatis esse solicitum . senec. saepe jovem vidi cum jam sua mittere vellet fulmina thure ●dato sustinuisse manum ; at si negligitur , magnis injuria poenis solvitur . ovid. . fast . dei injuriae deo curae . tacit. annal. l. . virtutum omnium excellentissima justitia . ammian . marcel ▪ l. . * religiosi sunt cui facienda & v●tanda discernunt . mac●ob . saturn . l. . non votis neque supplicamentis mulicbribus auxilia deorum parantur ; sed vigilando , agendo , bene consulendo , prospere cedunt omnia : ubi socordiae te atque ignaviae tradideris , nequicquam deos implores , irati enim insensique sunt . salust . in cat●lin . mysterii opus & finem , sacrificari sc●licet & sanctificari fidele● , ipse est solus qui peragit . de his autem preces sunt orationes & supplicationes sacerdotis . illa enim sunt domini , haec ve●o se●vi : servator donat , sacerdos p●oiis quae data sunt ●ratias agit . nicol cabas ; il . liturg. expos . c. . advers . eos qui dicunt sanctorum in sacro mysterio memoriam esse sacerdotis pro eis ad deum supplicationem . perturbatione temporum eos etiam qui vero judicio nullius criminis convinci queunt , maximis involvi criminibus haud est veri dissimile . pachymer . l. . q. si divinae scriptura probationibus sufficiunt , quid necessaria est religioni fides ? r. fides nostra super ratione quidem est , non tamen temerarie & irrationabiliter assumitur . ea enim quae ratio edocet , fides intelligit : & ubi ratio defecerit , fides praecurrit : non enim utcunque audita credimus , sed ea quae ratio non improbat . verum quod consequi ad plenum non potest , fideli prudentia confitemur . junilius african . de part . div . leg. l. . c. . q. unde probamus libros religionis nostrae divina esse in spiratione conscriptos ? r. ex multis , quorum primum est ipsius scripturae veritas : deinde ordo rerum , consonantia praeceptorum , modus locutionis fine ambitu , puritasque verborum . additur conscribentium & praedicantium qualitas , quod divina homines , excelsa vates , infacundi subtilia , non nisi divino repleti spiritu tradidissent . tum praedicationis virtus , quam dum praedicaretur ( licet à paucis despectis ) obtinuit . accedunt his rectificatio contrariorum , ut sybillarum vel philosophorum ; expulsio adversariorum , utilitas consequentium , exitus eorum quae per acceptationes & figuras & praedictiones , quae praedicta sunt ad postremum ; miracula jugiter facta , donee scriptura ipsa susciperetur à gentibus . de qua hoc nunc ad proximum miraculum sufficit , quod ab omnibus suscepta cognoscitur . junilius african , de part . div . leg. l. . c. . heb. . . pet. . . pet. . , lege disputationem gregentii cum herbano judeo . see whately on the types , and lud. crocii epicris . and most largely micrelius's judas , or second part of his book against infidels . all christians agree in the main doctrins of a holy life . leg. marc. eremit . de lege spirituali , & dorothei doctrinas , & benedicti instrumenta virtutum , macarii homil. hesychii presb. ad theodul . centuriae ; tho. kempis . & thauleri opera ; and of the later true papists , sales introduction to a devout life , benedicti de benedict . regul . barbanson , de amore dei : parsons of resolution , cressy's sancta sophia , &c. and among the protestants , the number of holy treatises is so great , that i shall not name any in so numerous a treasury : so that however the spirit of contention causeth many of them to over-look the good that is in one another , and aggravate the evil , yet holiness is the doctrin of all the christians in the world , and the practice of all that are sincere : and while the sects and hypocrites do rail at one another , yet in all they speak against sin . i have oft thought , why is it that as christians , man live together in love ; but as parties , when they come to the interest of their sects , they hate , revile and persecute one another ? and i answer it , because as christians they give no cause of hatred to each other ; but as sects and parties , they leave god's way , and shew their selfishness and loathsome faults , and are enclined to injure one another , and so do again suffer by those whom they have injured . but the wisdom from above is pure and peaceable , &c. leg. etiam thalessi centuriae , & nili paraenesis . cum dominus pelam dicit , [ ego n medio vestri sum , sicut qui ministrat ] quis adeo saevus aut mentis inop . est , ut omnem n●ox fastum & ambitionem non respuat ? cui universa sancta , men●coue & ratione praedita creatura , cultum & ministerium defert , quique eadem prorsus cum deo patie majestate & potestate pollet , is ministri persona sumpt● , discipulorum pedes lavat . t●tus bostrenso , in luc. cap. . diligens lector intelliget unam faciem esse eloquiorum sacrorum ; cum distincte considerabit , quid sit admonitio , quid sit preceptum , quid prohibitio , quid remissio ; & haec nec se invicem impugnare , nec à seipsis distare ; sed in omnibus sanitatis remed um moderare . hildebert . canoman . epist . . argum . joh. . . duo , sine pluribus , faciunt hominem sanctum , viz. cognitio & amor : hoc est , cognitio veritatis , & amor bonitatis . sed ad cognitionem dei qui est veritas , non pote , venire , nisi per cognitionem tui●ipsius : nec ad amorem dei qui est bonitas , nisi per amorem proximi tui . ad cognitionem tui-ipsius potes pervenire per frequentem meditationem : ad cognitionem dei per puram contemplationem . edmund . cantuar . specul . eccles . cap. . vid. plura . c. . &c. luk. . . luk. . . luk. . mat. . at qui causas causis , partes partibus volumus aequa●e , magis nos valemus ostendere quid in christo fuerimus secuti , quam in philosophis quid vos . ac nos quidem in illo secuti haec sumus : opera illa magnifica potentissimafque virtutes , quas variis edidit , exhibu●tque miraculis , quibus quivis posset ad necessitatem credulitatis adduci , & judicare fideliter , non esse quae fierent hominis sed divinae alicujus & incognitae porestatis . vos in philosophis virtutes secuti quas estis ? ut magis vo●illis , quam nos christo oportuerit credere ? quisquam ne illorum aliquando verbo uno potuit , aut unius imperii jussione non dicam maris insanias aut tempestatum furores prohibere , compescere , non coecis restituere lumina , non ad vitam revocare defurc●os , non annosas dissovere passiones sed quod levissimum est furenculum , scabiem , aut inhaerentem spinulam callo una interdictione sanare ? — personarum contentio non est eloquentiae viribus , sed gestorum operum virtute pendenda . arnob. adv . gent. l. . t●ia totus mundus mirabatur : christum post mortem surrex isse ; cum ca●ne coelum ascendisse ; & per duodecim apostolos piscatores mundum convertiss● . chrysost . in math. ideo non omnibus sanctis miracula attribuuntur , ne perniciosissimo errore decipiantur infirmi , aestimantes in talibus factis esse majora bona , quam in operibus justitiae , quibus vita aeterna comparatur . aug. de civ . dei , . christianity is thus truly and orderly described by augustine , de agon . cap. . fides est prima , quae subjugat animam deo ; deinde praecepta dat vivendi ; quibus custoditis spes nostra firmatur & nutritur , cum quod cognitio & actio beatum faciunt , in cognitione cavendus est error , in actione nequitia . ille justus & sancti vivit , qui rerum in teger aestimator est : ipse est qui ordinatam habet charitatem , ne aut diligat quod non est diligendum , aut non diligat quod est diligendum , aut amplius diligat quod minus est diligendum , aut minus diligat quod amplius est diligendum ; aut minus aut amplius quod aeque diligendum est . august . de doctr. christian . apud christianos , non qui patitur , sed qui facit injuriam miser est . h●e●on . sanctitatis causa servanda sunt , pudicitia corporis , castitas animae , & veritas doctrinae . aug. ibid. fid●s attingit inaccessa , deprehendit ignota , comprehendit immensa , apprehendit novissima : ipsam denique aeternitatem suo illo vastissimo sinu quodammodo circumcludit . bern. in cant. quatuor mirabilis fecit deus : de piscatore primum ecclesiae pastorem : de persecutore magistrum & doctorem gentium : de publicano primum evangelistam ; de latrone primum coelicolam . chrysost . in matth. multo melius est , ex duobus imperfectis rusticitatem sanctam habere , quam eloquentiam peccatricem . hieron . ad nepo● . the better any philosopher was , the nearer he came to the christian pastors , as to the converting of souls ; that is , they wrought the greatest reformation on their auditors . laertius saith of socrates , that theaetetum cum de disciplina dissereret , ut ait plato , mirifice immutatum , divinumque ferme remisit . eutyphrona , qui patri diem dixerat , quaedam de justitia & pietate loquens , ab instituto revocav●t . lysidem hortando maxime moralem fecit . lamproclem fillum in matrem immitem & ferum , ut ait zenophon , suadendo ad reverentiam reduxit . glauco●em platonis fratrem ad rempublicam accedere volentem , à proposito retraxit , quod is rudis esset , ignarusque rerum . these were the converts of socrates ; a change agreeable to the verities which he delivered . but it is another kind of success that the doctrine of christianity hath had . nullus sanctus & justus caret peccato ; nec tamen ex hoc desinit esse justus vel sanctus : cum affectu teneat sanctitatem . august . de desin . eccles . dogm . to the grand objection , of the many that are not reformed by christianity , let cicero answer , who telling us how few philosophers lived as they taught , objecteth . [ nonne verendum , si est ita ut dicis , ne philosophiam falsa gloria exornes ? quod est enim majus argumentum nihil eam prodesse , quam quosdam perfectos philosophos turpiter vivere ? resp . nullum vero id quidem argumentum est : nam ut agri non omnes frugiferi sunt qui coluntur , sic animi non omnes culti fructum ferunt ; atque ut ager quamvis fertilis sine cultura fructuosus esse non potest , sic fine doctrina animus : ita est utraque res sine altera debilis . cultura autem animi philosophia est , quae extrahit vitia radicitus , & praeparat animos ad salus accipicudos . tuscul . , p. , . * treatise against infidelity , part . difference between the effects of philosophy and christianity . some of the strictest of the philosophers , were for a community of wives ; laertius saith of the stoicks ( in zenone li. . p. . ) placet item illis uxores quoque communes esse oportere apud sapientes , ut quilibet illi congrediatur quae sibi prior occurrit , ut ait zeno in rep. & chrysippus de rep. diogone item cynico & platone hujus rei autoribus . what blindness and impurity against nature was in this opinion ? i plead for no superstition , granting what torquatus the epicurean in cic. de fin . l. . p. . that superstitione qui imbutus est , quietus esse nunquam potest : but i like not the quietness which intoxication , madness , or ignorance of danger doth procure . though there be much difference , and though prejudice , and saction , and the interest of their parties , cause uncharitable hypocrites to slander and rail at all that are against their sect and mind , yet among all christians , there are holy serious persons to be sound , though such as the worldly sort do vilifie : and all of them write for purity , holiness , love and peace , ( of which more after . ) read the writings of thaulerus , and that excellent holy book of gerardus zutphaniens . de reformatione interiori , & de spiritualibus ascensionibus ; where you will see a speculum of other kind of purity than the philosophers held sorth . serpit hodie putrida tabes hypocrisis per omne corpus ecclesiae ; & quo tolerantius , eo desperatius ; eoque periculosius quo communius . bernard . cum dilectione fidem christiani : sine dilectione fides daemonum : qui autem non credunt , pejores sunt quam daemones . aug. de charit . hypocrita ut sine fine crucietur , vivere sine fine compellitur : ut cujus vita hic mortua fuit in culpa , illic ejus mors vivit in poena . greg. mor. l. . nihil prodest aestimare quod non fis : & duplicis peccati ress es , non habere quod crederis , & quod habueris simulare . hieron . ep . ad fil . maurit . siquis hominem qui sanctus non est , sanctum esse crediderit , & dei cum j●nxerit sucietati , christum vio● 〈◊〉 membra 〈…〉 omnes 〈…〉 ch●ist● cor●u 〈◊〉 : qui in christi corpore errat & la●ctur dicens membrum ejus esse sanctum cum non sit , vel non sanctus cum fit , vide quali crimine obnoxius fiat . hieron . in phil. the graecians , romans and mahometans take the murder of many thousands in unjust wars to be glorious , and yet punish the murder of single persons . their renown was got by the most transcendent , unjust and most inhumane cruelties : their alexanders and caesars were renowned murtherers and thieves . aristotle and cicero make revenge a laudable thing , and the omission of it a dishonour . of the cruel murderous sport of their gladiators ; the killing their servants when they were angry ; their streams of bloud wherewith rome almost in every age had flowed , by those civil wars which pride and unjust usurpations had produced , &c. it is needless to tell any that have read their histories . even cato could lend his wife to his neighbour ; and the mahometans may have many , and put them away again : and many other such sensualities are the temperature of their religion , which was hatch'd in war , and maintained by it , and even constituted of war and carnality , added to some precepts of honesty borrowed from christianity , and from the honester heathens . miracula ubicunque fiunt , vix à tota civitate feruntur , &c. nam plerumque fiunt ignorantibus caeteris , maxime si magna sit civitas ; at quando alibi aliisque narrantur , tanta ea commendat autoritas , ut sine difficultate vel dubitatione credantur . aug. de civit. dei. . unum boni viri verbum , unus nutus , sexcentis argumentis ac verborum continuationibus parem fidem meretur . plutar. in phocion . pluris est oculatus testis unus , quam auriti decem . qui audiunt , audita dicunt : qui vident , plane sciunt . plaut . truc . every man expecteth himself to be believed : and therefore oweth just belief to others . the testimony of one or two eye-witnesses , is to be preferred before many learned conjectures and argumentations . many wise men heretofore thought that they proved by argument , that there were no antipodes , and others that men could not live under the aequator and poles ; but one voyage of columbus hath fully confuted all the first ; and many since have confuted both the one and the other ; and are now believed against all those learned arguments by almost all . quod si falsa historia illa rerum est , unde tam brevi tempore totus mundus ista religione completus est ? aut in unam coire quî potuerunt mentem , gentes regionibus disjunctae ? ventis , coelo , convexionibusque dimotae : imò , quia haec omnia & ab ipso cernebant geri , & ab ejus praeconibus qui per orbem totum missi — veritatis ipsius vi victae , & dederunt se deo , nec in magnis posuere dispendiis , membra vobis projicere , & viscera sua lanianda praebere . arnob. l. . p. . rev. . . ambiguae , si quando citabere testis incertaeque rei , phalaris licet imperet ut sis falsus , & admoto dictet perjuria tauro ; summum crede nefas vitam praeferre pudori , et propter vitam vivendi perdere causes . juven . . cor. . & . & . act. . sed non creditis gesta haec . sed qui ea conspicati sunt fieri , & sub oculis suis viderunt agi , testes optimi certissimique authores , & crediderunt haec ipsi & credendo posteris nobis haud exilibus cum approbationibus tradiderunt . quinam isti sunt , fortasse quaeritis : gentes , populi , nationes , & incredulum illud genus humanum ; quod nisi aperta res esset , & luce ipsa clarior , nunquam rebus hujusmodi credulitatis suae commodarent assensum . at nunquid dicemus illius temporis homines usque adeo fuisse vanos , mendaces , stol●dos , brutos , ut quae nunquam viderant , vidisse se fingerent ? & quae facta non erant falsis proderent testimoniis , ut puerili assertione firmarent ? cumque possent vobiscum & unanimiter vivere , & inoffensas ducere conjunctiones , gratu●ta susciperent odia , & execrabili haberentur nomine . arnob. l. . prophetizare & virtutes facere & daemonia ejicere interdum non est meriti illius qui operatur ; sed invocatio christi hoc agit , vel ob utilitatem corum qui vident & audiunt , vel , &c. hieron . in matth. . operum dei causa fi lateat hominem , non se obliviscatur esse hominem , nec propterea deo det insipientiam , quia non bene capit ejus sapientiam . aug. de spir . & lit . rationem de occulto dei consil●o quaerere , nil aliud est quam contra ejus consilium superbire . gregor . hom. pet. . jude . tit. . . nulla major est comprobatio quàm gestarum ab eo fides rerum ; quàm virtutum novitas , quàm omnia victa decieta , dissolutaque fatalia , quae popoli gen●esque suo generis sub limine nullo dissentiente vicêre : quae nec ipsi audent falsitatis arguere , quorum antiquas seu patrias leges vanitatis e●se plenissitas atque in●nillimae superstitionis ostendir . a●nob . ●dv . ge●t . l. . occursurus forsitan est cum aliis multis calumniosis & puerilibus vocibus . magus fuit , clandestinis artibus omnia illa perfecit , aegyptiorum ex adytis angelorum potentium nomina , & remotas furatus est disciplinas . quid dicitis o parvuli ? incomperta vobis & nescia temerariae vocis loquacitate garrientes ? ergone illa quae gesta sunt , daemonum fuere praestigiae , & magicarum artium lud● ? potestis aliquem nobis designare , monstrare , ex omnibus illis magis , qui unquam fuere per secula , consimile aliquid christo millesima ex parte qui fecerit ? qui sine ulla vi carminum , &c. arnob. ubi sup . l. . pet. . . eye-witnesses of his majesty on the mount. act. . & . joh. . & . math. . . math. . , . luk. . , , . act. . , , . math. . . quid soboles , virtusque dei , & sapientia christus ? nonne satis vanis curas erroribus aufert ? nosque simul monitis & factis edocet unum cuncta deum regere , — et cum omnipotens verbo sternit mare , vel pede calcat ; et verbo morbos abigit , vel daemonas urget ; aut reduces animas in corpora sancta remittit ; jamque diu exanimes tumulis jubet ire reclufis ; integratque putres vitâ remeante sepultos : nonne potestatem propriam satis indicat auctor ? qui solus naturam omnem vitamque gubernat . claudian . mammert . carmen post lib. de anim. nemo jam infamiam incutiat ; nemo aliud existimet : quia nee fas est ulli de sua religione mentiri . tertul . apo● . c. . quid adeo simile philosophus & christianus ? graeciae discipulus & coeli ? famae negotiator & vitae ? verborum & factorum operator . tertul. apol. c. . mat. . he shall save his people from their sins : vide qu●e de nomine jesu habe● beda in luc. . l. . c. . fol. . p. . de numero . in literis numeralibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incluso . sicut ars in eo qui nactus est illam , ita gratia spiritus in eo qui recepit , semper quidem praesens , at non perpetuò operans est basil . de spir. saacl . animae afflatae ac illustratae spiritu , fiunt & ipsae spirituales ; & in alios gratiam emittunt : hinc futurorum praescientia , arcanorum intelligentia , occultorum comprehensio , donorum distributiones , coelestis conversatio , cum angelis chorea ; hinc gaudium nunquam finiendum , hinc in deo perseverantia , & cum deo similitudo , & quo nihil sublimius exp●ti potest , hinc est ut divinus fias . basil . ibid. hoc itaque prodest in deum credere , rectâ fide , deum colere , deum nosse , ut & bene vivendi ab illo fit nobis auxilium ; & si peccaverimus , indulgentiam mereamur ; non in factis quae odit , securi perseverante , &c. august . de fid . & ope●b● . c. . p. . non in meditatione sermonis & structura verborum , sed in rebus opere declarandis , tanquam doctrina viva , professio nostra posita est : athenagor . apol. b.p. p. . yet there he complaineth that they were accused of the most odious villages , without all shew of cause . spiritus sanctus conceditur ad usum , ad miraculum , ad salutem , ad auxilium , ad solatium , ad fervorem . ad usum vitae , bonis & malis communia bona tribuens : ad miraculum in signis & prodigiis . ad salutem , cum toto corde revertitur ad deum . ad auxisium , cum in omni collectatione adjuvat insi●mitatem nostiam : ad solatium , cum testimonium perhibet spiritui nost●o , quod filii dei sumus . ad fervorem , cum in cordibus perfectorum vehementius spirans validum ignem charitatis accendit . bern. serm. pentecost . inseperabilis est bona vita à fide quae per dilectionem operatur , imò vero ea ipsa est bona vita . aug. de fid . & oper . c. . see what i cited before of socrates and his converts . nulla in discendo mora est , ubi spiritus sanctus doctor adest . beda in luc. spiritus paracletus dat pignus salutis , robur vitae , scientiae lumen . pignus salutis , ut ipse reddat testimonium spiritui tuo quod filius dei sis : robur vitae , ut quod per naturam tibi est impossibile , per gratiam ejus non solum possibile sed facile fiat : lumen scientiae , ut cum omnia bene feceris , te servum in utilem pute● ; & quicquid boni in te inveneris , illi tribuas , à quo omne bonum est . bern. serm. . pentec . of this see amyraldus in thess . salmuriens . o magna vis veritatis ! quae contra hominum ingenia , calliditatem , sole tiam , contraque fictas omnium insid●as facile se per se ipsam defendat ▪ cicer p●o cael● . even between the carnal hypocritical nominal christian , and the true christian : as gal. . . as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit , even so it is now . see her story in fuller's worthy's of england . * which mr. weld of new-england hath printed : and upon mr. stubs his extenuation , in his book for sir henry vane , against me , in letters since he hath fully confirmed . the many miracles mentioned by such credible persons as augustine ( de civit. dei ) and other learned holy men , deserve some credit sure . victor uticensis telleth of many confessors whose tongues were cut out by the arrian vandal hunnerichus , who spake freely without tongues : and aenaeas gazaeus in a notable treatise for the immortality of the soul saith the same , and that he saw them himself ; and hath more such wonders . ego novi multa bonorum virorum corpora , quae etiam phalanges daemonum , tantopere terretent , quantopere ipsi vexabant hominem abs se captum atque obsessum : itemque morbos innumeros quibus curandis ars medica non sufficeret , ipsa facile curarent , perpurgarent , omninoque auferrent . id. ibid. page . b.p. even cicero speaking of some sacrilegious impious persons , could observe , qui vero ex his & omnium scelerum principes fuerunt , & praeter caeteros in omni religione impii , non solum vita cruciati ( vel cum cruciatu , ut lambinus ) atque dedecore , verum etiam sepultura ac justis exequiis caruerunt lib. . de leg . p. . and to the objection , that it oft falleth out otherwise , and that the best suffer most , he answereth , non recte existimamus quae poena sit divina : & opinionibus vulgi rapimur in errorem , ne●vera cernimus : morte aut dolore corporis , aut luctu animi aut offenfione judicii , hominum miserias ponderamus : quae fateor humana esse , & multis bonis viris accidisse : sceleris autem poena tristis , & praeter cos eventus qui sequuntur , per se ipsa maxima est . videmus eos qui nisi odissent patriam , nun quam inimici nobis fuissent , ardentes cum cupiditate , tum metu , tum conscientia ; quid ag●rent modo timentes , vicissim contemnentes religiones . and he concludeth , duplicem poenam esse divinam , quod constaret & ex vexandis vivorum animis , & eâ famâ mortuorum , ut corum exitium & judicio vivorum , & gaudio comprobetur . ibid. i desire the learned reader to read the three miracles which aen. gazaeus saith he saw with his own eyes , in his theophrast . in bib. pat. gr. to. . page , . the first of an old man , that raised one from the dead : the second of a good man , that when he was dying , promised his scholar , that was blind , that within seven days he should have his fight ; which accordingly came to pass : the third , of the confessions before mentioned , that by prayer could speak most articulately without tongues : all these he professeth he saw with his own eyes : and the rationality and piety of his writings maketh his testimony the more credible . lege palladii historiam lausiac . cap. . de miraculo ab ipso viso . though i know that as apparitions , so miracles are too oft counterfeit , yet all that are recorded by the antient doctors and historians cannot be so thought , especially when we have seen something like them . of the abundance of witches at that time read bishop hall , sol. . p. , . read edm. bower , of the salisbury witch . porphyry was so convinced of the truth of daniel's prophey , that he is fain to say , that it was written after the things were fulfilled , saith grot. imòi● petri miracula phlegon adriani imperatoris libertus in annalibus suis commemoravit : in●uit grotius de verit. rel. l. . fuit vero prodigiorum apud sepulchra editorum tanta frequentia , tot corum testes , ut etiam porphyrio ejus rei confessionem expresserit : inquit grot. l. . i know what a stir is made about josephus testimony of christ , some accounting it currant , and some as foisted in by some christian : but i doubt not to say , that to those who well consider all , the middle opinion of b. usher will appear to be far the most probable : viz. that the whole sentence is currant , except those words , [ this was christ . ] and that some christian having wrote those words as expository in the margin of his book , they afterward crept thence into the text . athenagoras tells m. aurel. antoninus the emperour , and l. aur. commodus to whom he wrote , nec dubito quin vos etiam doctissimi & sapientissimi principes , historias & scripta moses , esaiae , hieremiae , & reliquorum prophetarum aliqua ex parte cognoveritis . — sed vobis relinquo qui libros novistis , studiosius in illorum prophetias inquirere ac perpendere , &c. apol. p. in b. p. , . and it 's like that antonine learned somewhat from the scriptures , as well as severus , if he so well knew them ; and thence received some of his wisdom and virtue . omnis credendi difficultas non temere ex futili nulliusque judidicii opinione nascitur ; sed ex valida causa , & verisimilitudine plurimum munita : tum enim incredulitas rationem justam habet , quum ipsa res de qua non creditur , quiddam incredibile continet . nam rebus quae dubitandi causam non habent , non credere , eorum est qui sano judicio in discutienda veritate minime utuntur . athenagor . leg . pag. . si animus fit quinta illa , non nominata magis quam intellecta natura : multo integ●iora & puriora sunt ut à terra longissime se efferant . cicer. tuscul . qu. l. . p. . leg. nazianz. orat. . & . magni autem est ingenii , revocare mentem a sensibus , & cogitationem a consuetudine abducere . cicero tuscul . qu. l. . p. . see part . chap. . pardon the repetitions here for the reasons after-mentioned . see before in the marg. of chap. . part . the collection of christoph . simpson of trinity in unity , in the harmony of musical concordance , in the division-violist . pag. . read campanella's metaphysicks , and his atheismus triumphatus of this . richardus in opuscul . ad s. bernard : de appropriatis personarum , inquit , quod potentia , sapientia & bonitas , sunt notissima quid sint apud nos , qui ex visibilibus invisibilia dei per ea quae facta sunt , intellecta conspicimus : et quoniam in elementis & plantis & brutis reperitur potentia sine sapientia ; & in homine & in angelo reperitur potentia , sed non sine sapientia : et in lucifero reperitur potentia & sapientia , sine bonitate & charitate , se● bona voluntate : sed in homine bono , bonoque in angelo , non datur bona voluntas , nisi adsit posse & scire : igitur sunt tria haec distincta ; et posse est per se ut principale , sapientia est a potentia , & ab utrisque voluntas & amor. ecce in uno capite , duo tibi sunt oculi : sed est substantiae eorum unus aspectus , &c. quod si unius substantiae in te ista bina continent unitatem , non v●s in deo patre & filio vere duas personas unam habere substantiam . arnobius conflict . cum serapione . p. . vid. caesarii dialog . q. . de triplici lumine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inquit theophil . antioch . ad antol. l. . p. . leg. august , de trinitate , & dialog . ex eo excerpt . de trinit . in b.p. gr. lat. to. . p . nihil aliud est filius vel verbum dei , quam cogitatio , vel ars , vel sapientia ejus — nihil aliud sp. sanctus quam amor dei intelligitur . id. ibid. pag. , . leg. & hilar. de trinit . vid. maxim. mystagog . ecclesiast . cap. . per talem rationem venit homo ad cognitionem dei , quod est unus in substantia , & trinus in personis . istud idem videt homo in seipso : nam ipse videt bene quod semper habuit homo in seipso potentiam , & post potentiam , sapientiam : — et de ambabus venit amor : & quando videt homo quod ita est in seipso , ex hoc intelliget bene quod ita est in deo , qui est ultra illum : viz. quod in deo fit potestas , & de illa potestate venit sapientia , & de utraque venit amor. et propter hoc quod ex prima persona venit secunda , & de ambabus procedit tertia , ideo prima persona vocatur pater , secunda filius , tertia spiritus s. isto modo venit homo primo ad cognitionem dei sui creatoris , quomodo est fine principio , & quare vocatur deus , ●nus substantia , trinus personis . et quia prima persona vocatur pater , secunda filius , tertia spiritus sanctus ; & quia appropinquatur potestas patri , sapientia filio , bonitas & amor sp. sancto : tali modo debet cognoscere deum filium , & iste modus cognitionis est fundamentum contemplationis . edmund . archiepis . cantuari . specul . eccles . cap . see more of this before , tom . . cap. . see bp. lucy , in the end of his book against hobs , proving the trinity by lully's reasons . arnobius junior , in his conflict , cum serapion , useth this similitude : as fire and gold are two distinct substances , yet fire is of it self invisible , till by union with the heated gold it becometh visible : so christ's divine nature and his humane , &c. leg. pag. , . and to the question , utrum pater filium genuerit necessitate an voluntate , he answereth , neither because understanding or wisdom is not necessitated , and yet is antecedent to volition : but by necessity he seemeth to mean that which is by constraint . vid. nat. fevardent . in loc . leg. methodii resp . ad eos qui dicunt , quid profuit nobis filius dei homo factus ? &c. edit . per gretser . tunilius de part . div. leg. l. . c. . saith , that et essentia vel natura facit , quia ei nihil accidens est , & tamen voluntate , quia nihil facit necessitate vel coactus . speaking of his operations as he is bonas , sapiens , fortis . leg. ruperti tuitiens . de divin . offic. l. . c. , & , & . quod nomen patris , fil●i & sp. sancti propria veri dei descriptio sit , &c. per totum lib. arnob. ubi supra , l. . telleth the heathens , how many they worship as gods , who once were men , as jupiter , aesculapius , hercules , &c. p. . leg. theodori presbyteri rhaithuensis praepar . & meditat. de incarnat . christi , & heresibus circa eandem . leg. & theodori abucarae opuscul . . explan . vocum quibus philosophi utuntur , &c. et ejusdem fidem orthodox . missam ad armen . à thoma patriarch . hierosol . vide & theoriani dialog . cum generaliss . armeniorum . at deus verbum nihil ipsum à societate & animae immutatum neque illorum imbecilitatis particeps , sed eis suam divinitatem impartiens , unum cum eis fit ; & permanet , quod erat ante junctionem . vid. caetera in nemesio emissen . de natura hom . cap. . † fuge garrulitates anxias philosophorum qui asserere non erubescunt , suas canumque animas eandem tenere speciem . basil hexam . l. . interp . eustath . leg. mammerti claudiani lib. . de statu animae ; & praecipuè gr. nyssenum : & quae ex eo cit●ntur in caesarii dialog . . this stuck with galen and some such . his & talibus adductus socrates , nec patronum quaesivit ad judicium capitis , nec judicibus supplex fuit : adhibuitque liberam contumaciam à magnitudine animi ductam , non à superbia : & supremo vitae die de hoc ipso multa disseruit ; & paucis ante d●ebus , cum facile posset educi è custodia , noluit : et cum pene in manu jam mortiferum illud teneret poculum , locutus ita est , ut non ad mortem , verum in coelum videretur ascendere . ita enim censebat atque disseruit : duas esse vias , duplicesque cursus animorum è corpore excedentium : nam qui se humanis vitiis contaminassent , & se totos libidinibus dedissent quibus coecati velut domesticis vitiis atque flagitiis se inquinassent vel in republica violanda fraudes inexpiabiles concepissent , iis devium quoddam iter esse seclusum à concilio deorum : qui autem se integros castosque servassent , quibusque fuisset minima cum corporibus contagio , seseque ab his semper sevocassent , essentque in corporibus humanis vitam imitati deorum , his ad illos à quibus essent profecti , reditum facilem patere . cicer. tuscul . . pag. . campanella well inteth , that the soul hath naturally a certain inward knowledge or sense of it self ; but when men go about to bring this to such a knowledge as we have of things extrinsical by ratiocination , they oft-times reason themselves into ignorance and error . and cicero hath the very same . nec vero de hoc quisquam dubitare posset , nisi idem nobis accideret diligenter de animo cogitantibus , quod iis saepe usu venit , qui acriter oculis deficientem solem intuerentur , ut aspectum omnino amitterent ; sic mentis acies seipsam intuens , nonnunquam hebescit ; ob eamque causam contemplandi diligentiam amittimus . cic. tusc . l. . p. . sosipatra ubi — incidisset in disputationem de anima in genere ; quae ejus pars supplicio puniatur , quaeque interitus sit expers , dum furore quodam divino incitata rapitur , &c. eunap . in aedes . p. . et , ut quod gnotum est pateat , haec est hominis vera mors , cum animae nescientes deum , perlongissimi temporis cruciatu consumuntur ignifero , in quem illas jacium quidam crudeliter saevi , & ante christum incogniti , & ab solo sciente detecti . this was the conceit of arnob. adv . gent. l. . p. . * we say not that corporeal fire doth touch the soul . sed memo●atae apud inferos poenae & suppliciorum generibus multiformes : ecquis erit tam brutus , & rerum consequentias nesciens , qui animis incorruptibilibus credat , aut tenebras tartareas posse aliquid nocere ? aut igneos fluvios aut ●aenosis gurgitibus paludes ; aut rotarum volubilium circumactus . quod enim eontiguum non est , & à legibus dissolutionis amotum est , licet omnibus ambiatur flammis , — illibatum necesse est permaneat . arnob. advers . gent. l. . p. . auct . bibl. pat. to. . and seeing most of the heathens believe the immortality of souls , and the justice of god , it is meet that they believe a punishment for the bad , as they do a reward for the good . as arnobius saith , lib. . advers . gent. cum igitur haec ita sunt , quaenam injustitia tanta est , ut fatui vobis credulitate in ista videamur ? cum vos & similia credere , & in eadem videamus expectatione versari ? si irrisione existimamur digni , quod spem nobis hujusmodi pollicemur , & vos eadem expectat irrisio , qui spem vobis immortalitatis adsciscitis . si tenetis aliquam sequiminique ratione , & nobis portione ex ista rationem concedite . si nobis haec gaudia plato promisisset — consentaneum fuerat ejus suscipere nos cultus , à quo tantum doni expectaremus & muneris . nunc cum eam christus non tantum promiserit , verum etiam virtutibus tantis manifestaverit , posse compleri , quid alienum facimus aut stultitiae crimen quibus rationibus sustinemus , si ejus nomini majestatique substernimur à quo speramus utrumque & mortem cruciabilem fugere , & vitam aeternitate donari ? page . a●ct . bib. pat. to. . of the probability of the habitation of the planets , see gassendus , and his reasons , that the inhabitants are not men of our species , but that the inhabitants are diversified as the habitations are , and other things in the universe . though cicero frequently derideth the superstitious fear of hell , yet he meaneth not of all future punishment of the wicked , but of the poets fables of styt , cerberus , tantalus , and sysiphus kind of penalties , and of minos and rhadamanthu● the infernal judges . sed gegenetis christus humani ( inquitis ) c●nservator advenit cur non omnes aequali munifi●entia liberat ? resp . aequaliter liberat , qui aequa●i●et omnes vocat : haud ab ind●lgentia principali quemquam repellit , aut respuit : qui sublimibus , infimis , servis , &c. uniformiter potestatem ven●endi ad se facit ? patet omnibus fons vitae , neque ab jure potandi quisquam prohibetur . si tibi fastidium tantum est , ut oblati respuas beneficium muneris , quinimo si tantum sapientia praevales , ut ea quae offeruntur à christo ludum & ineptias nomines quid invitans peccat , cujus solum sunt hae partes , ut sub tui juris arbitrio fructum suae benignitatis exponat ? — an orandus es ut beneficium salutis à deo digneris accipere , & tibi aspernanti , fugientique longissime , infundenda est in gremium divinae benevolentiae gratia ? vis sumere quod offertur , & in tuos usus convertere consulueris tu tibi . aspernaris , contemnis & despicis , te muneris commoditate privaveris . nulli deus infert necessitatem . object . nolo ( inquis ) & voluntatem non babeo . resp . quid ergo criminaris deum , tanquam tibi desit ? opem desideras tibi ferre , cujus dona & munera non tantum asperneris & fugias , verum in alia verbà cognomines , & jocularibus facetiis prosequaris . arnob. adv . gent. l. . eunomiani minas futuri supplicii & gehennae , non ad veritatem , sed ad metum prolatas aiebant . hermenopul . de sectis . sect. . see more of this before , part ch. . the reader man pardon this speaking of the same thing twice , both because the objection requireth the repetition , and because i think it needfull to most readers ; to procure their observation . aut ideo gregem pusillum appellat , quia totum hominum genus , ne dum soli sancti , cum immensa illa angelorum multitudine , collatum , perexiguus grex est . est enim illorum multitudo incredibilis , hominum nume um infinitis pene partibus exceden● . titus ●ostrens . in luc. cap. . we deny not but that there are different degrees of punishment according to the difference of mens sins . etsi mortalibus in decies millenos annos haec extemis sensibus exposita vita producatur , nunquam tamen opinor tantae angelorum & daemonum multitudini , hamanarum animamarum numerus par erit . aeneas gazaeus de animâ theophrastus p. . † cum non esses , re formavit ex humida & mini●a substantia , & ex minutissima guttula , quae nec ipsi aliquando erat . thioph . antioch . ad antolych . l. . one that had never heard nor thought of the way of generation , would think it as unlikely a thing that an aco●n should bring forth an oak , or such a thing as sperma humanum the body of a man , as you do that the body rise again . and the platonists think , that all souls presently upon their departure hence do fabricate to themselves either acreal or ethereal bodies : and why should you think them so alienated from the bodies which they lived in , as only to be uncapable of those ? if we knew what the hoc idem of the body is , we might have more particular explicit satisfaction : in the mean time we must implicitly trust in god. leg. finem disput . zachariae scholast . mitylen . lege etiam athenagoram de resurrectione . read garbut of the resurrection . read aen. gazaeus his theophrastus , where is a handsome discourse of the resurrection . if philosophy be medicinal to the foolish world , why were thales , pythagoras , socrates , plato , aristotle , and zeno born no sooner ? but the world suffered to lie so long in ignorance ? answer this your selves , and you are answered . arnobius answereth this objection , partly by alledging mans ignorance of what god did to former ages , and partly by asserting gods mercy to them ▪ adv . gentes li. . obj. quid visum est ut ante horas pauculas sospitator christus coeli ex arcibus mitteretur ? resp . quae causa est quod serius hyems , aestas , autumnus fiant ? — non minus inficias nescire nos : nec promptum est cu●quam dei mentem videre , aut quibus modis ordinaverit res suas , homo animal coecum & ipsum se nesciens ullis potest rationibus consequi — nec continuo sequitur ut infecta fiant quae facta sunt , & amittat res fidem , quae potestatibus est monstratum . id. ib. nam quod nobis objectare consuestis , novellam esse religionem nostram , & ante dies propemodum paucos natam , neque vos potuisse antiquam & patriam linquere , &c. ratione istud intenditur nulla : quid enim si hoc modo culpam velimus infligere , prioribus illis & antiquissimis seculis , quod inventis frugibus glandes spreverint , quod corticibus contegi , & amiciri desierint pellibus , postquam vestis excogitatae est textili , — commune est omnibus & - ab ipsis pene incunabulis traditum , bona malis anteferre , inutilibus utilia praeponere — convenit ut inspiciatis non factum , nec quid reliquerimus opponere , sed secuti quid simus potissimum contucri . arnob. ib. l. . and he next instanceth , what abundance of things they had then innovated at rome . et postea — sed novellum nomen est nostrum , & ante dies paucos religio est nata quam sequimur : resp . ut interim concedam — quid est in negotiis hominum , quod vel opere corporis & manibus fiat , vel solius animae disciplina & cognitione teneatur , quod non ex aliquo coeperit tempore ? philosophia , musica , astronomia , &c. id. ib. p. . religionis autoritas non est tempore estimanda sed numine . id. ib. yet next he saith , our religion is the oldest , because god is so , though christ came but lately to teach it us better . leg. ivon carnotens . de rebus ecclesiast . cap. quare deus natus & passus est ? bibl. pat. to. . pag. , . etiam ruper . tuitiens . li. . de divinis offic. cap. . de eo quod solet quaeri , cur deus lapsum hominis evenire permiserit , pro quo incarnatio ejus necessaria fuit ? pag. . pythagoras samius suspicione dominationis injustâ vivus concrematus in fano est : nunquid ea quae docuit , vim propriam perdiderunt , quia non spiritum sponte , sed crudelitate appetitus effudit : similiter socrates civitatis suae judicio damnatus , &c. aquilius , trebonius , regulus , acerbissinarum mortium experti sunt formas : nunquid idcirco post vitam judicati sunt turpes ? nemo unquam innocens male interemptus infamis est ; nec turpitudinis alicujus commaculatur nota , qui non suo merito , poenas graves , sed truciatoris perpetitur saevitatem . arnob. adv . gent. li. . p. . how gallantly have your learned philosophers excelled us ? when the pyrrhonians and arcesilas his new academeticks have learned to know that ●ing can be known ; and the one sort of them say that they know not that much neither . but whether they dare say that they know that they know not that much they have not told us . of them even cicero learned as much to doubt as to know . quicquid nil verum statuens academia duplex personat ; arroso quicquid sapit ungue cleanthes — apol. sidonius carm. . p. . * quid nobis est investigare ●a quae neque scire compendium , neque ignorare detrimentum est ullum ? remittite haec deo , atque ipsum scire concedite , quid , quare , & unde sit ? debuerit esse aut non esse . vestris non est rationibus liberum implicare vos talibus , & tam remotas inutiliter curare res : vestra in ancipiti sita est salus animarum vestrarum ; & nisi vos applicatis dei principis notioni , à corporalibus vinculis exolutos , expectat mors saeva ; non repentinam afferens extinctionem , sed pertractum temporis cruciabilis poenae acerbitate consumens . arnob. adv . gent. l. . lege pretiosissimum grotii lib. de satisfactione : item zarnovecium & johan . junium & essenium de satisf . pontifex ille credo est qui principaliter apud divinitatem summae trinitatis humani generis oblata sanctificat , peccata expiat , vota commendat . ipse ergo verus sacerdos est , quia filius dei secundum id quod aequalis est patri , non tam preces fundit , quam prec●ntes exaudit ; homo potius hic intelligendus est , quem pontificem apostolus d●cens , nostrisque infirmitatibus compati , &c. claudian mammert . de statu animae contr . faust . l. c . * the parts and style of men may vary , who speak the same truth . sentit ut py●hagoras , dividit ut socrates , explicat ut plato , implicat ut aristoteles , ut aeschines blanditur , ut demosthenes irascitur , vernat ut hortensius , ut cethegus , incitat ut curio , moratur ut fabius , simulat ut crassus , dissimulat ut caesar , suadet ut cato , dissuadet ut appius , persuadet ut tullius : instruit ut hieronimus , destruit ut lactantius , astruit ut augustinus , attollitur ut hilarius , summittitur ut joannes , ut basilius corripit , ut gregorius consolatur , ut orosius affluit , ut ruffinus stringitur , ut eusebius narrat ; ut eucheus sollicitat , ut paulinus provocat , ut ambrosius perseverat . sidonius ep mamme●t . pop . l. de even as your heathen authors had their several styles , so had the sacred writers . qua cris●us brevitate pla●er , quo pondere varro . quo genio plautus , quo flumine quintilianus . qua pompa tacitus nunquam sine laude loquendus . apol. sidonius carm . auctuar . bib. patr. p. . nihil fide nostra ini quius fingi posset , si in eruditos tantum , & dicendi facultate & logicis demonstrationibus excellentes caderet : popularis autem multitudo , ut auro & argento aliisque omnibus rebus , quae hic in pretio habentur , atque à plerisque avide expetuntur , sic hoc quoque frustraretur , ac deus id quod altum & excelsum est , & ad paucos pertingit , gratum acceptumque haberet ; contra , quod propinquius est , nec vulgi captum superat , aspernaretur & rejiceret . nazianz. orat. . p. . sed ab indoctis hominibus & rudibus scripta sunt . et idcirco non sunt facili auditione credenda . vide ne magis fortior haec causa fit : cur illa sint nullis coinqu●nata mendaciis ; mente simplici prodita , & ignara lenociniis ampliare trivialis & sordidus sermo est : nunquam enim veritas sectata est fucum , nec quod exploratum & certum est , circumduci se patitur orationis per ambitum longiorem : collectiones enthymemeta , definitiones , omniaque illa ornamenta quibus fides quaeritur assertionis , suspicantes adjuvant , non veritatis lineamenta demonstrant — soloecismis , barbarismis , inquis obsitae sunt tes vestrae — puerilis sane & angusti pectoris reprehensio : quam si admitteremus ut vera sit — quid enim officit , o quaeso ? aut quam praestat intellectui tarditatem ? utiumne quid leve , an hirsuta cum asperitate promatur ? inflectatur quod acui , an acuatur quod oportebat inflecti — arnob. l. . p. . dissoluti est pectoris , in rebus seriis quaerere voluptatem — atsi verum spectes , nullus sermo natura est integer , vitiosus similiter nullus : quaenam enim est ratio naturalis , aut in mundi constitutionibus lex scripta , ut hic paries dicatur , & haec sella ? id. ibid. lege basilii hexamer . & greg. nysseni addit . * basil saith , that in principio is in the beginning of time ; but that the intellectual world is here presupposed : erat antiquissima creaturae ordinatio , illis quae extra mundum sunt , apta virtutibus , orta sine tempore , sempiterna sibique propria : in qua conditor omnium deus opera certa constituit , id est , lumen intellectibile , conveniens beatitudini amantium dominum : rationabile , invisibilesque dico naturas , & omnium intellectibilium decorationem , quae capacitatem nostrae mentis excedunt , quorum nec vocabula reperire possibile est . haec substantiam invisibilis mundi replevisse sciendum est , &c. basil . hex . interp . eustath . l. . caesarius dial. . qu. & qu. . saith , that moses past by the nations of angels , and began with the creation of the visible world , and that the first day he created matter , and afterward other things of that , &c. and that of the light first made , god made the sun. but he ignorantly denieth its circular motion . sed & no● in h●jusmodi casibus non auxiliatur deus . prompta & manifesta causa est . nihil enim est nobis promissum ad hanc vitam ▪ nec in carunculae hujus folliculo constitutis , opis al●quid sponsum est , auxiliique decretum : quinimo edocti sumus minas omnes quaecunque sunt parvi ducere — atque ista quam dicitis persecut onis asperitas , liberatio nostra est , non persecutio : nec poenam vexat o inferet , sed ad lucem libertat●s educet : arnobius adv . gent. l. . in fine . obj. sed & ipse pollicetur ●uae non probat . r●sp . ita est : nulla enim futurorum existere potest comprobatio . arnob. lib. . read cicero de fato , de divinatione , &c. and all those philosophers de fato , whose opinions grotius hath collected , and you will see that they had the same doubts as we , but were less able to resolve them . intellectum est optimum cognoscere voluntatem dei : o●nium superior efficitur homo , qui ob●d erit veritati . pachomius in mo●i● . per voss . ed●t . leg. librum excell . d. strangii scoti de hisce controversiis . plurima etiam consideratu dignissima sunt in ro● . b● o●ii metaphysic . dorothaeus doct. . to prove the unsearchableness of gods counsels and differencing grace , doth instance in two young maids in natural temper much like , both brought as captives in a ship to be sold . a holy woman bought one of them , and instructed her in holyness . a harlot bought the other , and taught her the trade of wickednesse : and who , saith he , can give the reason of this event ? how like are the stories of eunapius , of ●amblichus , aedesius , sosipatra the wife of eustathius , and others , their raptures , prophesies , visions , miracles , to those of the roman legends , and the quakers ? sensus nostros , non parens , non nutrix , non magister , non poeta , non scena depravat ; non multitudinis consensu● abducit à vero : animis omnes tenduntur infid●ae , vel ab ii● quos modo enumeravi vel ab ea quae penitus in omni sensu implicata insidet imitatrix boni voluptas , malorum autem mater omnium . cic. de leg . . p. . of the canon of the scripture , read dr. reynolds , de . lib. apocr . and bishop cosin , his full collections on that subject . vide etiam carm. jambic . amphilochii in auct . bibl. pat. to. . pag. . many papists confess , that the h. scriptures contain all things necessary to the salvation of all . quemadmodum ●enim siquis vellet sapientiam hujus seculi exercere , non aliter hoc consequi poterit , nisi dogmata philosophorum legat ; sic quicunque volumus p●etatem in deum exercere , non ●li●nde discemus quàm ex scripturis divin●s . s. h●ppel●t . homil. a●ctuat . bibl. pat. to. . p. . thus julian and●unapius ●unapius in aedesio , pag. ( mihi ) , &c. * as you cannot judge of the faculties of man by an instant , so neither of the nature of christianity by instant christians . a primo mirabil ter occulta est natura , nec perspici nec cognosci potest ; progiedientibus autem aetatibus sensim , tardéve potius nosmetipsos cognoscimus : itaque illa prima commendatio quae a natura nostri facta est , nobis obscura & ince●ta est ; primusque apperitus ille animi , tantum agit ut salvi atque integri esse possimus : cum autem despicere caeperimus & sentire quid simu● , & quid ab animantibus coeteris differamus , tum ea sequi incipimus ad quae nati sumus . cic . de fin . l. . p. . so is it here . cum antistibus agamus ut ex libris illis ( sibillinis ) quidvis potius quam regem proferant : quem romae posthac nec dii nec homines esse patientur . cic. divinat . l. . p. . imperatorem necesse est ut suspiciamus , ut enim quem dominus noster elegit : ut merito dixerim , noster est magis caesar , ut à deo nostro constitutus . tertul. apol. c. . beda in apocal. . fol. . p. . expoundeth the number of antichrist by reference to king . . chron. . . where solomon's yearly revenue of gold was talents : and so he saith , antichrist shal exact that tribute of mony to himself , which is due to a true king. as if covetousness and great revenues were the number of the beast . et in cap. . in purpura fucus simulati regiminus : in coccino , cruentus habitus impietatis demonstratur . fol. . p. . vobis humana aestimatio innocentiam tradidit : humana item dominatio imperavit : inde nec plenae nec adeo timendae estis disciplinae : tanta est prudentia hominis ad demonstrandum bonum , quantum authoritas ad exigendum : tam illa falli facilis quam ista contemni . tertul. apol. c. . in ecclesia non coactum , sed acquiescentem oportet ad meliora converti : non est enim qui curare possit invitum . chrysost . nemo invitus bene agit , etiamsi bonum est quod facit . aug. confes . praefecti vel antistetis vitium est non quàm optimum esse , nec novas subinde virtutum accessiones facere : siquidem virtutis suae praestantia , multitudinem ad mediocritatem tracturus sit . nazian . orat. . p. . profecto ars quaedam artium , & scientia scientiarum mihi esse videtur , hominem regere , animal omnium maxime varium & multiplex . id. ibid. sicut noxium est si unitas defit bonis , ita perniciosum est si sit in malis . perversos quippe unitas corroborat , dum concordant ; & tanto magis incorrigibiles , quanto unanimes fecit . greg. moral . l. . sed perturbat nos opinionum varietas hominumque dissensio : & quia non idem contingit in sensibus , hos natura certos putamus : illa quae aliis sic , aliis secus , nec iisdem semper uno modo videntur , ficta esse dicimus . quod est longe aliter . cic. de leg . . p. . spiritus sanctus est patris & filii amor & connexio : ad ipsum pertinet societas , qua efficimur unum corpus unici filii dei. sicut enim unum corpus hominis multis constat membris , & vegetat omnia membra una anima , faciens in oculo ut videat , in aure ut audiat , &c. ita spiritus sanctus membra corporis christi quod est ecclesia , continet & vegetat . et sicut humani corporis membrum praecisum , formam quidem qua membrum cognoscitur retinet , &c. sic quicunque à praedictae pacis unitate divisus est , sacramentum quidem tanquam formam retinet , sed spiritu praeter unitatem non vivit . frustra ergo foris de forma gloriantur , nisi i●tus spiritu vegetentur . aug. de grat. nullus christianus malus est nisi hanc professionem simulaverit . athenag . leg . pro christ . p . nemo ( in carceribus vestris ) christianus nisi plane tantum christianus : aut si aliud , jam non christianus . tert. apol. c. . * ut ubicunque triticum , ibi & zizania : sic ubicunque fuerit bonum dei , i●l●c erit & scandalum inimici . chrysost . in matth. . hom. . sed dicet aliquis etiam de nostris excedere quosdam à regula disciplinae : desunt tum christiani haberi apud nos . philosophi vero illi cum talibus factis in nomine & in honore sapientiae perseverant . tertul. apol c . see a notable exhortation in dorothaeus , doct. . ne nos ipso i●f●memu , how unhappy they are that go on their own heads , and want good guides in religion . bibl. pat. gr. lat . ●o . . p. . an hoc usquequaque aliter in vita ? & non ex maxima parte de tota judicabis . an dubium est quin virtus ita maximam partem obtineat in rebus humanis , ut reliquas obruat ? audebo quae secundum naturam sunt bona appellare , nec fraudare suo veteri nomine , virtutis autem amplitudinem quasi in altera librae lance ponere . terram , mihi crede , ea lanx , & maria deprimet : semper enim ex eo quod maxima● partes continet , latissimeque funditur , res tota appellatur . dicimus aliquem hilarem vivere ? ●gitur si semel tristior effectus est , an hilara vita amissa est ? cic. de fin . l. pag. . isti ipsi qui voluptate & dolore omnia metiuntur , nonne clammt , sapienti plus semper adesse quod velit , quam quod nolit . id , ibid. those that revolt from christ because of sufferings , are like him that cicero , ibid. speaks of nobis h●racleo●es ille dionysius flagitiose descivisse videtur à stoicis , propter oculorum dolorem . quasi hoc didicisset â zenone , non dolere cum doleret ! illud audierat , nec tamen didicerat , malum illud non esse , quia turpe non esset , & esset ferendum viro . p. . qui per virtutem peritat , non interit . plaut . in du capt . non meretur audire veritatem , qui fraudulenter interrogat . ambros . read the beginning of theophil . antioch : ad antolyc . shewing that wickedness causeth further atheism , and that it blindeth sinners that they cannot know god. viva lectio est vita sanctorum . greg. mor. . * an vero nisi deum genus humanum respicere ▪ eique praeesse putaremu● , adeo puritati & innocentiae studeremus ? nequaquam , sed quia persuasissimi sum●s , deo cui & no● & m●nd●m hunc condid●t , transactae hic vitae totius rationes nos reddituros , moderatum , benignum , & plerisque contemptum vivendi genus deligimus . quippe nullum in hac vita tantum malum , etiamsi capitis periculum agatur , supervenire nobis posse a●b tramur , quod omnino sit minimi , immo nihili faciendum prae illa quam à summo judice expectamus olim foelicitate , &c. athenag . apol. p. . in b.p. si enim solam hanc praesentem vitam nos victuros crederemus , suspicioni foret locus , nos carni & sanguini indulgentes , aut avarit●a aut concupiscentia captos , peccare ? nos vero omnibus non modo factis sed cogitationibus & sermonibus nostris , tum noctu tum interdiu , deum adesse scimus ; eumque & totum esse lumen , & quae in cordibus nostris latent videre , & hac mortali vita defunctos , alteram hac terrestri longe meliorem , nempe coelestem , nos victuros . id. ibid. p. . dubitamus , ambigimus , necesse quod dicitut plenum fidei suspicam●r : committamus nos deo , nec plus apud nos valeat incredulitas nostra , quàm illius nominis & potentiae magnitudo : ne dum ipsi nobis argumenta conquirimus quibus esse videatur falsum id quod esse novimus atque adnitimur verum , obrepat dies extremus , & inimicae mortis reperiamur in faucibus . arnob. adv . gent. l. . verbis ultim . * quae mala stoici non audent appellare ; aspera autem , & incommoda & ●ejici●nda , & aliena naturae esse concedunt ; ea n●s mala dicimus , sed ex●gua , & porro minima . piso de peripat . & academ . in cicer. de fin . l. . p. . cum ergo haec fit conditio futurorum ut teneri & comprehendi nullius possim anticipationis attactu , nonne purior ratio est , ex duobus incertis & in ambigua expectatione pendentibus , id potius credere , quod aliquas spes ferat , quàm omnin● quod nullas ? in illo enim periculi nihil est , si quod dicitur imminere , cassum fiat & vacuum ; in hoc damnum est maximum , ( id est ●alutis amissio ) fi cum tempus advenerit , aperiatur hoc fuisse mendacium . quid dicitis o nescii etiam ●e●u & miseratione dignissimi ; ita non tam extimescitis , ne forte haec vera sint , quae sunt despectui vobis , & praebent materiam risus ? nec saltem vobiscum sub obscuris cogitationibus volvitis , ne quod hodie credere obstinata renuitis perversitate redarguat serum tempus & irrevocabilis p●enitentia castiget ? nonne vel haec saltem vobis fidem faciunt argumenta credendi , quod jam per omnes terras in tam brevi tempore immensi hujus sacrament● diffusa sunt ? &c. arnob. l. . p. . leg. idiotae contemtemplat . de amore dei. illa enim gloria quid est nifi aeternum angelorum ●eatorumque spirituum convivium , quod est semper laudare deum ? ad hoc vitae praesentis inopia nullatenu , valet contingere . scire autem ubi sit , & praegustare , illud gaudio spei , fitire & esurire quod gustaveris , haec est illa quae dicitur sanctorum in hac vita perfectio . hugo à s. victore erud . theol. de offic . eccl . l. . cap. . vid. pet. damian : dom. vobisc . c. . de unit . eccles . psal . . mat. ● . . act. ▪ . cor. . eph. . , , . cor. . . act. . . rom. , . cor. . ▪ , . act. . . act. . . matth. . , . mar. . . heb. . , , . cor. . . . rom. . & . gal. . , , . phil. . , . eph. . . & . . col. . . & . . cor. . . eph. . . & . . math. . cor. . act. . . phil. . . eph. . , . thess . . , . math. . , . & . . . thess . . . heb. . . act. . . jam. . . act. . . act. . . rom. . . cor. . , . rom. . . tit. . . joh. . heb. . , . cor. , , &c. luk. . . joh. . . gal. . & . , , . & . , . in isto factiosissimo soeculo , vix quisquam eximie doctus haereseos suspicione carebat . erasm . in vita hieronym . et profecto ita est , ut id habendum sit antiquissimum & deo proximum , quod sit optimum . cic. de leg . l. . p. . i intreat the reader to peruse the lord bacons considerations , and mr. hales of schisme , and mr. stillingfleets . ireni●on , especially pag. . and mr. jer. burroughs irenicon : which will all much promote his understanding in this point : and grotius de imper . sum . pa. luk. . , , . rom. . . & . . cor. . . eph. . . . eph. . , , , , , . col. . . tim. . . & . . rom. . . prov. . . cor. . . eph. . . . & . , . thess . . , . joh. . , , . math. . eph. . . . tit. . . pet. . , . & . . , , . , , . act. . . eph. . . math. . . heb. . . mat. . . gal. . . tim. . . act. . , &c. tim. . . tim. . . act. . tim. ● . , . & . . & . cor. . mat. . thess . . rom. . , . tim. . . act. . tim. . . . & tim. . . joh. . act. . . rom. . . tim. . . tit. . . tim. . . eph. . . deut. . , , . & . , . act. . , . pet. . . phil. . . pet. . . tit. . . tim. . . rom. . . joh. . . cor. . . isa . . . & . . & . . hos . . , . psal . . dan. . , . rom. . , , . pet. . gal. . , . tim. . . & . . & . . & . , . cor. . tim. . . mar. . , . phil. . . jam. . . , . sam. . act. . , . rom. . , . thess . . , . chron. . , . ezek. . . hos . . . & . . zeph. . . cor. . , . math. . , , , , . col. . ▪ , ● . mar. . luk. . . & , , . joh. . . joh. . . & . . act . . & . . tim. . , , . . & tim. . math. . , . cor. . . act. . . tit. . . cor. . , , . , , , . math. . , . rom. . & . act. . . joh. . . thess . . . king. . , . cor. . , . matth. . . matth. . . . . & . . luk. . , . joh . . luk. . . act. . . & . . rom. . . prov. . . jam. . , . eph. . , , , , &c. rom. . . eph. . . cor. . , . eph . , . rom. . . & . , , . gal. . , , . phil. . , . thess . . . pet. . . eph . & . heb . cor. joh. . thess . . . phil. ● cor. . . tit. . . eph. . , , . , , . thess . , . tit. . . luk. . tim. , , . pet . , . act. . . &c. cor. . tim. . tit. . . cor. . joh. . , . act. . heb. . , . thess . . , . pet . . luk. . , , . pet. . . . chron. . , , . king. . , . king. . , . rom . , , , . chron. . . ezek. . . num. . . tim. . . eph. . . joh. , . king. ● . , . cor. . . & . , . cor. . , , &c. tit. . . thess . , . joh. . non qui jussus aliquid facit , miser est ; sed qui invitus . senec. ep . . nullum violentum est perpetuum . jam. . , phil . . king. . , . & . rev. . , . cor. . , . eph. . , , , . joh. . matth. . , . tim. . . act. . , . rom. . . tim. . eph. . tim. . , , , , . rom. . tim. . , , . & . , , , , . luk. . . king . . gal. . act. . surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms , than to reform abuses , to compound the smaller differences , to proceed mildly , and not with sanguinary persecutions , and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them , than to enrage them by violence and bitterness . lord verulam essay , . isa . . phil. . . act. . . tim. . . joh. . . gal. . . & . ● , . luk. . . act. . . gal. . , , , . phil. . , . rom. . & . pet. . . rom. . . thess . , , . cor. . . & . & . throughout . math. . . mar. . . eph. . . cor. . . rom. . math. . . act. . , . act. . , . see my treat . of confirmation , act. . . & . , . act. . . luk. . , , ●● . phil. . , , , . math. . . & . , . mar. . . act. . . rom. . . math. . , , . . . math. . . . & . . psal . . . jer. . . math. . , , . tim. . . joh. . ● . tim. . . act. . , . & . , . & . & . . act. . . tim. . . act. . , &c. joh. . , . tim. . . joh. . , , . isa . . . thess . . . rom. . , . tim. . . tit. . . pet. . , . & . . & . . read joseph acosta of this at large . and thom. d.s. jesu de convers . gent. cor. . , &c. . , , , , , . read bishop bilson of christian subjection , p. . vos aeris tinnitibus & tibiarum sonis — persuasum habetis deos delectari & affici , irasque aliquando conceptas eorum satisfactione melliri . nos inconvenient ducimus , quinimo incredibile judicamus , eos qui gradibus mille genus omne virtutum perfectionis transierint summitate , in voluptatibus habere arque in deliciis esse res eas , quas homo sapiens rideat , & quae non aliis videantur continere aliquid gratiae , quam infantibus parvulis & trivialiter & populariter institutis . haec cum ita se habeant , cumque fit opinionum tanta nostrarum vestrarumque diversitas , ubi ant nos impii , aut vos pii ; cum ex partium sensibus pietatis debeat atque impietatis ratio ponderari ? non enim qui simulachrum sibi aliquod conficit , quod pro deo veneretur is habendus est rebus esse deditus divinis . opinio religionem facit ; & recta de dios mens : ut nihil eos existimes contra decus praesumptae sublimitatis appetere . arnob. adv . gentes l. . in bib. pat. auct . to. . p. . suppose these words spoken by us to the papists . acosta is very large and honest in this reproof and lamentation of the sins of the clergy . read pet. massaeus his hist . ind. & epist . jesuit . & histor . japon . & chin. the king of terenate told sir francis drake , we agree with you in religion against the portugals , that we must not worship flocks and stones . fuller's holy state in the life of sir francis drake , out of a m.s. of one of his company . what a scandal is such worship against the christian cause . act. . . as for the grand controversie of per se aut per alium , read grotius de imper. pag. , . [ nam illud quod quis per alium facit , per se facere videtur ] ad eas duntaxat pertinet actiones , quarum causa efficiens proxima à jure indefinita est . ] dr. jer. taylor of repent . ●ref . [ i am sure we cannot give account of souls of which we have no notice . ] leg. athanas . patri . constantine de necessaria episcop . residentia . notes for div a -e si vis deorum speciem apprehendere , proprietates animae rationalis ultimae cogita , & oppositas in perfectione diis attribue . jamblit . de myster . per fici● . * when machumet had taken constantinople , and demanded of the patriarch an account of the christian saith , georg. scholarius , alias gennadius , then patriarch , wrote that brief summary which you may find in mart. crusius his turco graec. l. . hist . eccles . p. , &c. which very well openeth the mystery of the trinity , and of christianity , with seven reasons of it . tr● plat● and aristotle were of one opinion abode the soul , mirandula and mars . ficinus upon priscians ●heophrastus , de anima , have largely laboured to evince . galen is known to speak many objections against plato , and the soul's immortality : but in other places he speaketh doubtfully . and if really ne●esius had those words out of such a book of galen , as he citeth , de ani. c. . p. . he would then seem to have thought better of the rational soul. plotinus his last words were ( as porphyry saith in his life ) [ i am now returning that which is divine in us , to that which is divine in the universe . ] the platonists opinion that the soul is all the man , and that animus cujusque is est quisque , is incomparably more probable , and of honester tendency , than theirs that think the body is all the man. qui putant hominem esse ex anima corporeque compositum , consequenter utile à justo sejungunt ; qui vero hominem esse animam conjungunt . proclus de anim. & doem . per ficin what then will they hold and do , that think man is tantum corpus . for as proclus there saith , and cicero oft , most philosophers agree that vivere secundum suam naturam , is man's great duty and felicity : therefore as men differ about man's nature , they will differ about his duty and felicity : they that think he is all body , will describe his work and his happiness accordingly ▪ a truth of sad and desperate consequence . the truth is , as fire is per essentiam , a moving , enlightning , heating substance ; so the soul is per essentiam , a life or vital principle ; and therefore , as porphyry argueth , for the soul to die , is for life it self to die ; or that which is per essentiam life , to cease to be what it is . quibusdam qui ne ignem calere putant , nisi cum manu contrectarint , nihil credendum esse placet , quod supra progredientem naturam videatur . multorum quoque studia tardantur , quod id credere noluit quod minus sub ●orum cognitionem cadit : quae errorum pravitas ex ingeniorum imbecilitate defluxit : siquidem cum sensuum angustiae ex quibus hominem agnitio eruitur , in externorum sensilium genere versentur , satis notum esse debet , his tanquam compedibus intelligentiae cursum retardari , divinaque capessere nequire . paul. cartes●n sent. dis . . p. . read the mystic . aegypt . & chald. philos . to prove that souls are not corporeal ; and nemesius and mammertus . if the soul be nothing but matter and motion , then no man is the same this year as he was the last . for matter is in fluxu continuo , as they object themselves anon : we have not the same slesh and bloud to day which we lately had : and the motion of this instant is not the same with the motion which succeedeth in the next : so that no man's soul , and consequently no man , is long the same : and so ( as i have said after ) kings will lose their titles to their crowns , and all men to their lands , as being not the same who were born heirs to them . and there must be no rewards or punishments , unless you will reward and punish one for another's faults : and they need no more to fear the pain or death which will befall them , than that which befall their neighbour , because it is not the man that now is who must undergo it . nor should any man have a wife or child of his own one year together . if they like not these consequents , let them either prove that identifying matter and motion are permanent , or grant that some other permanent thing doth identifie the person . see this as the argument of ammonius and numenias , prest by nemesius de anim. c. . p. . vid. & clean this argumenta pro animae corporeitate à nemesio profligata ibid. p. &c. if the doctrine of matter and motion only were true , there would never be any true miracles in the world , but all things go on from motion to motion as the first touch did put them into a necessity : whereas ( however the world hath been deluded by many fictions , yet ) many certain miracles there have been . whether the removing of the mountain by saith mentioned by m. paulus venetus , j. . cap. . be true or not , and the non-dissolution of excommunicate bodies in constantinople , mentioned in mart. crusius his hist . eccles . turco graec . l. . with multitudes of the likes which most historians have , &c. yet certainly that there have been some such , hath been fully proved unto many . those that fly to this ingenita dispositio vel pondus , will in other words grant that nature , form or quality which they deny . and those that grant nothing to move but former motion , must needs make some degrees of motion daily to diminish in the world , one thing or other still ceasing its motion ; and all motion within our knowledge having such constant impedition , that before this time we may think all things would have stood still , if their opinion were true . if they say that the sun or some superior movers renew the motion of things inferior , i grant it ; but that is because it hath a moving nature : for if they say , that the sun it self hath not the least impedition to diminish the degrees of its motion , they speak not only without any proof , but contrary to our observation of all things known , and to their own opinion , who make the air impeditive to other motions , and the effluvia of other globes to be impeditive to the sun. sane ignis , aër , aqua , terra , suapte natura carent anima : & cuicunque horum adest anima , hoc vita utitur peregrina : alia vero praeter haec nulla sunt corpora . plotin . ennead . . l. . c. . p. . vid. priscian . in theophrast . proving that light is neither a body nor a quality , c. . but i find no satisfaction when he cometh to tell us what it is : nor will i subscribe to ficinus , who ( with other platonists ) saith , [ coeleste corpus primum luminis susceptaculum incorporea vita & intelligentia regi à qua & lumen habeat ; caeterisque tradat — si lumen esse dicamus , radios visuales coelestium oculorum in se viventium , perque ejusmodi radios cuncta videntium agentiumque videndo — non errabimus . ] * leg. le grand . dissert . in epicur . philos . ad gassend . & de communi rerum vivendi ratione ad campanel . & de nominibus dei soli attributis ; in which he taketh atoms or indivisible particles for the first real passive matter , antecedent to the distinction of elements : but fire ( called also spiritus aethereus & natura ) to be of a higher elevation , the active informer , disposer and moderator of all matter : and animated fire , ( that is , the sun and its emanations ) to be the life and ruler of the material world : and that this was the sense of almost all the old philosophers : and that by their numerous names of god , they meant the same thing , as diversly operating ; that is , the sun , fire or aether , ( which they took to be animated intellectuals ) as considered in its various respects to mortals . ut docet hermes , mens generalis habet pro corpore ignem , & quasi igne stipatur & circum vestitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; semper enim & necessario ignis aethereus & mens universalis sihi invicem comites assident ; amboque ita affinos nihil constituunt aliud quàm spiritum igneum , aethereum , lucidum , coelestem , & divinum , ten●brosam hanc & informem immanis materiei abyssum complentem , illustrantem & animantem . idem ad campanel . pag. ● . vide quae ex mercur. pimand . citat . pag. . saith a novel philosopher himself , ex speculis ustoriis certum est , calorem a sole creari intensissimum , non acceleratione motus , sed coalitione radiorum . lumen species est inter omnes species sensibiles prae caeteris intellectualem speciem repraesentans : & in intellectu est per causam ; in coelo per formae plenitudinem ; in igne per plenitudinem participationis ; hinc derivatur in portiones . ficin . in theophrast . de anim. c. . non ergo levitas & gravitas causae primi ● orus sunt , sed qualitates sunt elementorum ; sed tamen ut etiam hoc detur , quomodo ratiocinari , opinari , judicare , gravitatis & levitatis opera esse possunt ; si ron sunt gravitatis & levitatis opera , neque elementorum sunt : si non elementorum , neque certe corporum . nemesius de an. c. . p. . * so lipstorpius in his specim . philos . cartes . deus in principio mundi materiam simul cum motu & quiete creavit — unde communissima naturae lex , &c. vid. pag. , . so that nature with the cartesians is nothing at all , but god's first moving act at the creation : as if he caused motion , without any moving created principle : and as if spirits and fire had no more moving a nature or principle than clay ; but only that their matter was either in the creation more moved by god , or since by a knock from some other mover , put into motion , by which accidental motion clay or water may be made fire . leg. petr. mousnerii , lib. de impetu , & lib. . de motu naturali : where the nature of motion is more exactly handled than by the epicureans or cartesians ; though too little is said de vi moventis , in comparison of what is said de impetu mobilis . leg. l. . pag. , , &c. de causa intrinseca motus localis naturalis . et pag. . his seven reasons against gassendus his doctrine of gravitation by the traction of atoms ; and his confutation of all extrinsick causes , viz. causa prima sola , aër , terrae vis magnetica ( vel per qualitatem diffusam , vel per vim sympathicam , vel tractionem filamentorum ) virtus coeli pellens , detrusio per lucem , & generans ( and as easily may the cartesian reason be confuted , which lipstorpius so magnifieth : ) and the impetus innatus is the reason which he assigneth , pag. , , &c. vid. exceptiones jo. bap. du hamel . contra cartes . in conciliat . pag. , , , , . see sir w. rawleigh hist . l. . of fire , making it certainly a thing unknown , and probably quiddam medium between things corporeal and incorporeal . † hence it is that the wisest philosophers differ in this point , whether any proper matter be found in the soul of man. micraelius ethnoph . l. . c. . p. , . hath instanced in many that are for some materiality . eam sententiam inter veteres probavit apud macrobium , heraclitus phyficus , cui anima est essentiae stellaris scintilla : & hip parchus apud plinium cui est coeli pars : et africanus apud ciceronem , qui detrahit animum ex illis sompiternis ignibus , quae sydera vocamus ; quaeque globos●e & rotundae divinis animatae mentibus circulos fuos orbesque conficiunt celeritate mirabili : & seneca , qui descendisse eam ex illo coelesti spiritu ait , & plato ipse , qui alicubi animam vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , radians & splendidum vehiculum : et epicterus qui astra vocat nobis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , amica & cognata elementa : ipseque cum peripateticis aristoteles , qui eam quinta essentia constare & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in animabus inesse dicit . inter nostrates scaliger quoque vocat animam naturam coelestem , & quintam essentiam alia quidem a quatuor elementis natura praeditum , s●d non sine omni materia . eadem opinio arridet roberto de fluctibus , &c. lege rationes carpentarii in dec. . exerc. . contra porositatem diaphanorum . dicit plato universae naturae animam porrectam esse a centro orbis terrae usque ad extremas oras coeli : non ut locum ista notet po●ectio , sed extensionis quendam modum , quem mens & ratio assequatur . nemes . de anim. c. . pag. . † i hope we shall not have philosophiam staticam , and judge of essences and excellencies by the ballance . † in ficinus his collections , lib. de daemonib . po●phyry de occasion . per ficin . holds that anima quidam medium quiddam est inter essentiam individuam , atque essentiam vera corpora divisibilem . intellectus autem essentia est individua solum : sed qualitates materialesque formae secundum corpora sunt divisibiles . lege plotinum de anim. en. . l. . c. . sect . . against the soul's dependance upon matter , the platonists write excellently . plato himself , and plot●nus , and jamblicus , proclus , &c. anima per essentiam est mobilis ex se●psa ; sed conjuncta corpori quodammodo evasit etiam mobilis a●unde ; sicut anim ipsa sua praesentia dedit corpori ultimum ex se movendi vestigium , sic & ipsa propter corporeum cont●bernium conditionis notam subtit mobilis abunde . proclus de anim. & daemon . see in aristcas histor . de . p. . the kings quest . . about dreams , with the answer , how far dreams are in our power . read priscians theophrast de anim ▪ with ficinus notes , which sheweth how farr the sense is active . sensus principium mediaque & finem sentiendae rei individuae comprehendit , & actio est , judiciumque perfectum , & in praesenti momento simul totus existit , etsi non absque passione aliqua instrumenti sensus efficitur non tamen est haec passio sensus ; quo fit ut patiamur & vigilantes & dormlentes nec tamen persentiamus . theophrast . de anim. ut supr . lege mars . ficinum de volupt . c. . & . & , &c. platonis dogma defendentem , scil . voluptatem esse actum vel motum . priscian in theophrast . de anim. c. . saith , [ anima quidem cum sit forma vivens & sensualis , agit circa illa quae sibi offeruntur . vitaliter atque sensualiter : & quia est in corpore , usque ad certum spatium operatur . † see alcinous de doctr . plat. cap. . to the same purpose . vid. paul. cartesium in sent. . dis . . p. . & dis . . p. . that spiritual things are better known than corporeal , and of the knowledge of god. porphyr . de occas . inq . anima est essentia inextensa , immaterialis , immortalis , in vita habente à seipsa vivere atque esse simpliciter possidente . * the platonists method of progression is thus summed up in plotinus ennead . . l. . p. . and out of him by ficinus , [ sicut aëris summum primum omnium ignitur , ab infimo ignis , sic coelum summum corpus primo animatur ab anima quae est ultimum divinorum : ipsum bonum est quasi centrum : mens , lumen inde emicans ; & permanens : anima , lumen de lumine se moven● : corpus , per se opacum illuminatur ab anima ; sed animae in coelo , securae illuminant ; sub coelo non sine curâ . est utique aliquid velut centrum ; penes hoc autem circulus ab ipso micans : praeter haec & alius circulus , lumen de lumine : ultra haec insuper non amalius luminis circulus , sed jam luminis indigus alieni , propriae lucis inopia . inqu . plot. ibid. nemesius de anima ( which goeth under the name of greg. nyssen . ) while he endeavoureth to prove the pre-existence of souls , doth thus peremptorily conclude [ si animae ex ortu fiunt mutuo , ratione providentiae fiunt , & caducae sunt ut caetera quae ex propagatione generis oriuntur : si sunt ex nihilo , creatio haec est , neque verum est , cessavit deus ab omnibus operibus suis : non ergo nunc animae fiunt : but there is no appearance of a just proof in any thing that he saith , against either of the opinions which he opposeth . would you see physical arguments for the souls incorporeity and immortality ? among a multitude that have done it , i desire you to read plotinus , en. . l. . of the immort . of the soul ; whose arguments i pretermit , because i would not be tedious in transcribing that which is already so well written ( abateing their peculiar conceits . ) vid. & savonarol . l. . c. ult . † the summ of their reasons , who thinke that bodies at the resurrection are identified only by the souls identity , you may see in thom. whites theolog. institut . to. . li. . lect. . p. . . read plotinus in ennead . . pag. ● ( ed. basil . ) de individuatione animarum . as also the following pages , provin● that our souls are no parts of the anim● mundi . et sect . ● pag. . quomod● animae differant : & quomodo sint immortales in form● propria restantes ? read the note in the margin of the last leaf . plotinus his enn● . de anima , has great deal of doe in it , much wiser wholesome than the epicurus and the tomists . see plotin . ennead . . l. . p . shewing , that in separated souls reason is so powerful , that it ex tempore conceiveth all things propounded by the intellect ; and that souls in heaven converse without voice , but daemons and souls that are in the air converse by voice . vid. porphyr . de occasion . de passionibus animae & corp . plotin . ubi supr . p. . sect . . sheweth , that memory is more pertinent to the soul than the body , and oft without the body . et sect . , &c. et c. , . the difference between the sensitive and rational memory . et l. he sheweth , that the soul in heaven forgetteth these trifles , not through ignorance , but contempt . sic ille ( strato ) deum opere magno liberat , & me timore : quis enim potest cum existimet à deo se curari , non & dies & noctes divinum numen ho●rere ? & siquid adversi acciderit , ( quod cui non accidit ) extimescere ne id jure evenerit . cic. acad. quast . l. . p. . 〈…〉 vid. paul. cartes . in a sent . d. . p. , . some think , because they read much in plato of the making of the world , that his opinion was not for its eternity ; but i doubt they are quite mistaken . alcinous in li. de doct . plat. saith too truely , [ cum vero mundum plato genitum inquit , haudquaquam sic eum sensisse credendum est , ut aliquod olim temp●s ante mundum praecesserit ; verum quia semper in generatione perdurat , indicatque substantiae suae causam praestantiorem . animam praeterea mundi , quae semper extitit , haud officit deus ; sed ornat : eâque ratione eam facere nonnunquam asseritur , quod excitat eam , & ad seipsum ejus mentem velut ex profundo quodam somno convertit , &c. lumine naturae non constat quod angeli facti sint in tempore , & non fuerint ab aeterno : nam imprimis per lumen naturae cognoscimus , exemplo solis & luminis , effectum posse coaevum esse suae causae : unde nulla repugnantia est , ex parte dei vel ex parte creaturae , ut haec sit deo coaeva . schibler met. de angel. see also durandus ariminensis , aquinas , pererius , suarez , &c. read in bib. pat. the dispute of zachary mitilene with ammonius and a physician about the worlds eternity . how neerly the manichees opinion agreed with the platonists , see in nemesius de anim. pag. , , &c. nor do i here press you with the authority of a hermes , zoroaster , or orpheus , as knowing how little proof is given us , that the writings were theirs which are fathered on them : and giving some credit to porphyry himself , who in the life of plotinus telleth us , that there were then [ ex antiqua philosophia egressi haeretici , adelphii acylinique sectatores , qui alexandri lybici philocomi , demostrati , & lydi plurimos libros circumferebant , & revelationes quasdam zoroastris , zostriani , nichotei , allogenis , mesi , aliorumque ejusmodi palam ostendentes , & deceperunt multos , & ipsi decepti jam fuerant : — ego vero porphyrius argumentationibus multis ostendi , librum zoroastri ab illis inscriptum adulterinum novumque esse , & ab eis confictum qui struebant haeresin : ut institutiones suae esse zoroastris voteris crederentur . and hereupon plotinus wrote his book against the gnosticks . ☞ whether god or our selves , virtue or pleasure be chiefly to be loved ? ☞ even in friendship with men , it is commonly said , that we must have more respect to our friend than to our selves . and therefore cicero pleadeth , that epicurus's opinion is inconsistent with true friendship . however that stand , i am sure in our love to god , we must love him more for himself , than for our own ends and benefit . therefore it is , that i distinguished love before , from obedience as such , as being somewhat more excellent , and the final grace . and proclus ( de anim. & daemone ) discerned this distinction , when he saith , [ belli finis est justitia : pacis autem aliud quiddam excellentius bonum , amicitia , scil . atque unio finis enim universae virtutis est ut tradunt pythagorici . aristotelesque confirmat ; ●t omnibus jam factis amicis , justitia non ulterius egeamus , quando , viz. sublatum fuerit , m●um , & non-meum ] and if this be true of the love of man , much more of the love of god. which they also may do well to consider of ▪ who most fear the cessation of that individuation of souls , which consisteth in the distance that now we are at : for though doubtless there will continue an individuation , yet union is so much of the felicity , perfection and delight of souls , union , i say , with god , as we are capable , and with one another , that we should rather be afraid lest we shall not be near enough , than lest too much ●earness should confound us . the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college, in cambridge / by john ray ... ray, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college, in cambridge / by john ray ... ray, john, - . [ ], p. printed for samuel smith ..., london : . reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng natural theology -- early works to . science -- early works to . creation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the wisdom of god manifested in the works of the creation . being the substance of some common places delivered in the chappel of trinity-college , in cambridge . by john ray , m. a. sometimes fellow of that , and now of the royal society . london : printed for samuel smith , at the princes arms in s. pauls church-yard . . to the much honoured and truly religious lady , the lady letice wendy of wendy in cambridgeshire . madam , two or three reasons induce me to present this discourse to your ladyship , and to make choice of you for its patroness : first , because i owe it to the liberality of your honoured brother , that i have this leisure to write any thing . secondly , because also your many and signal favors , seeing i am not in a capacity to requite them , seem to exact from me at least a publick acknowledgment , which such a dedication gives me an opportunity to make . thirdly , because of such kind of writings i know not where to chuse a more able judge , or more candid reader . i am sensible that you do so much abhor any thing that looks like flattery , that out of an excess of modesty you cannot patiently bear the hearing of your own just commendations , and therefore should i enlarge upon that subject , i know i should have but little thanks for my pains . indeed you have much better motives to do well , than the praise of men , the favor of god , peace of conscience , the hope and expectation of a future reward of eternal happiness ; and therefore i had rather write of you to others , to provoke them to imitate so excellent an example , than to your self , to encourage you in your christian course , and to fortifie you in your athletick conflicts with the greatest of temporal evils , bodily pain and anguish ; though i do not know why you should reject any consideration that may conduce to support you under so heavy pressures , and of so long continuance ; of which to ingenuous natures true honor , that is the concurrent testimony and approbation of good men , is not the meanest . no less man than s. augustine was doubtful whether the extremity of bodily pain , were not the greatest evil that humane nature was capable of suffering : nay ( saith he ) i was sometimes compelled to consent to cornelius celsus , that it was so , neither did his reason seem to me absurd ; we being compounded of two parts , soul and body , of which the first is the better , the latter the worser , the greatest good must be the best thing belonging to the better part , that is wisdom , and the greatest evil the worst thing incident to the worser part ( the body ) that is pain . now though i know not whether this reason be firm and conclusive , yet i am of accord with him , that of all the evils we are sensible of in this world it is the sorest ; the most resolute patience being baffled and prostrated by a fierce and lasting paroxysm of the gout or stone , or colick , and compelled to yield to its furious insults , and confess itself vanquished , the soul being unable to divert , or to do any thing else but pore upon the pain . and therefore those stoical vaunts of their wise mans being happy in perillus his bull , i utterly reject and explode , as vain rhodomontades and chimerical figments , for that there never was such a wise man among them , nor indeed could be ; yet do i not say , that the patience of a good man can be so far conquered by the sharpest and severest torments as to be compelled to deny or blaspheme god or his religion , yea or so much as to complain of his injustice , though perchance he may be brought with job to curse his day , yet not to curse his god , as his wife tempted him to do . now that the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the most just judg and rewarder would be pleas'd so to qualifie and mitigate your sufferings as not to exceed the measure of your strength and patience , or else arm you with such an high degree of christian fortitude , as to be able to grapple with the most extreme , and when you have finished your course in this world , grant you a placid and easie passage out of it , and dignifie you as one of his victors , with a crown of eternal glory and felicity , is the prayer of , madam , your ladyships most devoted in all service , john ray. the preface . in all ages wherein learning hath flourished , complaint hath been made of the itch of writing , and the multitude of worthless books , wherewith importunate scriblers have pestered the world , scribimus indocti doctique : and — tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes . i am sensible that this tractate may likely incur the censure of a superfluous piece , and my self the blame of giving the reader unnecessary trouble , there having been so much , so well written of this subject by the most learned men of our time ; dr. more , dr. cudworth , dr. stillingfleet now bishop of worcester , dr. párker , late of oxon , and to name no more the honourable robert boyl , esquire , so that it will need some apology . first therefore , in excuse of it i plead , that there are in it some considerations new and untoucht by others : wherein if i be mistaken , i alledge secondly , that the manner of delivery and expression may be more suitable to some mens apprehension , and facile to their understandings . if that will not hold , i pretend thirdly , that all the particulars contained in this book , cannot be found in any one piece known to me , but lye scattered and dispersed in many , and so this may serve to relieve those fastidious readers , that are not willing to take the pains to search them out : and possibly , there may be some whose ability ( whatever their industry might be ) will not serve them to purchase , nor their opportunity to borrow those books , who yet may spare money enough to buy so inconsiderable a trifle . if none of these excuses suffice to acquit me of blame , and remove all prejudice , i have two further reasons to offer , which i think will reach home , and justify this undertaking . first , that all men who presume to write , at least whose writings the printers will venture to publish , are of some note in the world , and where they do or have lived and conversed , have some sphere of friends and acquaintants , that know and esteem them , who it's likely will buy any book they shall write , for the authors sake , who otherwise , would have read none of that subject , though ten times better ; and so the book , however inferiour to what have been already published , may happen to do much good . secondly , by vertue of my function , i suspect my self to be obliged to write something in divinity , having written so much on other subjects : for being not permitted to serve the church with my tongue in preaching , i know not but it may be my duty to serve it with my hand by writing . and i have made choice of this subject as thinking my self best qualified to treat of it . if what i have now written shall find so favourable acceptance , as to ●ncourage me to proceed , god granting life and health , the reader may expect more : if otherwise , i must be content to be laid aside as useless , and satisfie my self in having made this experiment . as for this discourse , it is the substance of some common places ( so in the university of cambridge , they call their morning divinity exercises ) delivered in trinity-college chappel , when i was fellow of that society ; which i have enlarged with the addition of some collections out of what hath been since written by the forementioned authors upon my subject . i have been careful to admit nothing for matter of fact or experiment but what is undoubtedly true , lest i should build upon a sandy and ruinous foundation ; and by the admixture of what is false , render that which is true , suspicious . i might have added many more particulars , nay , my text warrants me to run over all the visible works of god in particular , and to trace the footsteps of his wisdom in the composition , order , harmony , and uses of every one of them , as well as of those that i have selected . but first , this would be a task far transcending my skill and abilities ; nay , the joynt skill and endeavours of all men now living , or that shall live after a thousand ages , should the world last so long . for no man can find out the work that god maketh from the beginning to the end . eccles. . . secondly , i was willing to consult the infirmity of the reader , or indeed of mankind in general , which after a short confinement to one sort of dish , is apt to loath it , though never so wholesome , and which at first was most pleasant and acceptable : and so to moderate my discourse , as to make an end of writing before he should be quite tired with reading . i shall now add a word or two concerning the usefulness of the argument or matter of this discourse , and the reason i had to make choice of it , besides what i have already mentioned . first , the belief of a deity being the foundation of all religion ; ( religion being nothing but a devout worshipping of god , or an inclination of mind to serve and worship him ; ) for he that cometh to god , must believe that he is : it is a matter of the highest concernment to be firmly settled and established in a full perswasion of this main point : now this must be demonstrated by arguments drawn from the light of nature , and works of the creation . for as all other sciences , so divinity proves not , but supposes its subject , taking it for granted , that by natural light , men are sufficiently convinced of the being of a deity . there are indeed supernatural demonstrations of this fundamental truth , but not common to all persons or times , and so liable to cavil and exception by atheistical persons , as inward illuminations of mind , a spirit of prophecy and fore telling future contingents , illustrious miracles and the like . but these proofs taken from effects and operations , exposed to every mans view , not to be denied or questioned by any , are most effectual to convince all that deny or doubt of it . neither are they only convictive of the greatest and subtlest adversaries , but intelligible also to the meanest capacities . for you may hear illiterate persons of the lowest rank of the commonolty affirming , that they need no proof of the being of a god , for that every pile of grass , or ear of corn , sufficiently proves that . for , say they , all the men of the world cannot make such a thing as one of these ; and if they cannot do it , who can , or did make it but god ? to tell them that it made it self , or sprung up by chance , would be as ridiculous as to tell the greatest philosopher so . secondly , the particulars of this discourse , serve not only to demonstrate the being of a deity , but also to illustrate some of his principal attributes , as namely his infinite power and wisdom . the vast multitude of creatures , and those not only small but immensely great : the sun and moon , and all the heavenly host , are effects and proofs of his almighty power . the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy work , psal. . . the admirable contrivance of all and each of them , the adapting all the parts of animals to their several uses : the provision that is made for their sustenance , which is often taken notice of in scripture , psal. . , . the eyes of all wait upon thee , thou givest them their meat in due season . thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing . matth. . . behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not , neither do they reap , nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly father feedeth them . psalm . . . he giveth to the beast his food , and to the young ravens when they cry : and lastly , their mutual subserviency to each other , and unanimous conspiring to promote and carry on the publick good , are evident demonstrations of his sovereign wisdom . lastly , they serve to stir up and increase in us the affections and habits of admiration , humility and gratitude . psalm . . when i considered the heavens the work of thy fingers , the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained ; what is man that thou are mindful of him , or the son of man that thou visitest him ? and to these purposes the holy psalmist is very frequent in the enumeration and consideration of these works , which may warrant me in doing the like , and justifie the denominating such a discourse as this , rather theological than philosophical . the contents . of the coelestial bodies pag. , , . . to . of terrestrial bodies p. . . the number of animals , vegetables , and fossils ; guess'd at p. , , , , , , . the aristotelian hypothesis p. , . the epicurean hypothesis p. . to . the cartesian hypothesis p. . to . all these considered and censur'd , from p. . to . a plastick principle above matter and motion , yet not god himself p. . to . the differences of natural and artificial things p. . the natures and divisions of bodies p. , , . the several textures , ends ; and uses of them p. . as of the sun p. , . of the moon and other planets p. , . the advantage of eclipses in chronology , and geography p. . of the fixt stars p. . . of fire p. . . of air p. to . the respiration of the foetus in the womb explained p. . to . of water p. to . of earth p. , . of meteors p. . of rain p. . of winds p. . of stones p. . . transparent , colour'd , opaque , variously figur'd like parts of animals . load-stone , &c. ibid. of metals p. . to . of vegetation , and plants , their different parts , and uses : of their roots , fibres , bark , wood , vessels , leaves , claspers , prickles , gems , flowers , fruits , seeds , &c. from p. to . of sensitive or brute animals , quadrupeds , birds , fishes , insects , their regular and peculiar methods , their actions , their various parts and uses from p. . to p. . . . from whence the uses of things p. . the study of nature recommended p. . . , . prefer'd to other studies to . of the terraqueous globe , its figure and use ; its motion , posture , situation , constitution and consistency p. . to . of the body of man , its external and internal mechanism , the textures , situations , proportions , actions , and uses of the several parts ; many anaiomical , physical , and theological observations thereupon from p. . to . more particularly upon the head p. . the eye and vision p. . to . the suspensory or seventh muscle , and the membrana nictitans common to many beasts , yet wanting in man p. , . the ear p. . to . the teeth p. . . the tongue p. . . the windpipe p. . the heart p. . to . the hand and the analogous parts in other creatures p. . to . generation and formation explain'd , from p. . to . observations on the propagations of several animals and plants ibid. many divine reflections and conclusions from p. . to the end . psalm . . how manifold are thy works o lord ? in wisdom hast thou made them all . in these words are two clauses , in the first whereof the psalmist admires the multitude of god's works , how manifold are thy works o lord ? in the second he celebrates his wisdom in the creation of them ; in wisdom hast thou made them all . of the first of these i shall say little , only briefly run over the works of this visible world , and give some guess at the number of them . whence it will appear , that upon this account they well deserve admiration , the number of them being uninvestigable by us ; and so affording us a demonstrative proof of the unlimited extent of the creators skill , and the foecundity of his wisdom and power . that the number of corporeal creatures is unmeasurably great , and known only to the creator himself , may thus probably be collected : first of all , the number of fixt stars is on all hands acknowledged to be next to infinite ; secondly , every fixt star in the now received hypothesis is a sun or sunlike body , and in like manner encircled with a chorus of planets moving about it ; thirdly , each of these planets is in all likelihood furnished with as great variety of corporeal creatures animate and inanimate as the earth is , and all as different in nature as they are in place from the terrestrial , and from each other . whence it will follow that these must be much more infinite than the stars ; i do not mean absolutely according to the philosophick exactness infinite , but only infinite or innumerable as to us , or their number prodigiously great . that the fixt stars are innumerable may thus be made out : those visible to the naked eye are by the least account acknowledged to be above a thousand , excluding those towards the south pole which are not visible in our horizon : besides these , there have been incomparably more detected and brought to light by the telescope ; the milky way being found to be ( as was formerly conjectured ) nothing but great companies or swarms of minute stars singly invisible , but by reason of their proximity mingling and confounding their lights and appearing like lucid clouds . and it 's likely that , had we more perfect telescopes , many thousands more might be discovered ; and yet after all an incredible multitude remain , by reason of their immense distance beyond all ken by the best telescopes that could possibly be invented or polished by the wit and hand of an angel. for if the world be , as des cartes would have it , indefinitely extended ; that is , so far as no human intellect can fancy any bounds of it , then what we see or can come to see must be the least part of what is undiscoverable by us ; the whole universe extending a thousand times farther beyond the utmost stars we can possibly descry , than those be distant from the earth we live upon . this hypothesis of the fixt stars being so many suns , &c. seems more agreeable to the divine greatness and magnificence : but that which induces me much to doubt of the magnitude of the universe and immense distance of the fixed stars , is the stupendious phaenomena of comets , their sudden accension or appearance in full magnitude , the length of their tails and swiftness of their motion , and gradual diminution of bulk and motion , till at last they disappear : neither do i think the universe indefinitely extended , as des cartes upon a false ground [ that the formal ratio of a body was nothing but extension into length , breadth and profundity , or having partes extra partes , and that body and space were synonimous terms ] assert ed : for it may as well be limited this way as in the old hypothesis ; which places the fixt stars in the same spherical superficies ; according to which ( old hypothesis ) they may also be demonstrated by the same mediums to be innumerable , only instead of their distance substituting their smalness for the reason of their invisibility . but leaving the celestial bodies , i come now to the terrestrial ; which are either inanimate or animate . the inanimate are the elements , meteors and fossils of all sorts , at the number of which last i cannot give any probable guess ; bur if the rule , which some considerate philosophers deliver , holds good ; viz. how much more imperfect any genus or order of beings is , so much more numerous are the species contained under it ; as for example : birds being a more perfect kind of animals than fishes , there are more of these than of those , and for the like reason more birds than quadrupeds , and more insects than of any of the rest ; and so more plants than animals : nature being more sparing in her more excellent productions . if this rule i say holds good ; then should there be more species of fossils or generally of inanimate bodies than of vegetables ; of which there is some reason to doubt . unless we will admit all sorts of formed stones to be distinct species . animate bodies are divided into four great genera or orders , beasts , birds , fishes and insects . the species of beasts , including also serpents , are not very numerous : of such as are certainly known and described i dare say not above . and yet i believe not many , that are of any considerable bigness , in the known regions of the world , have escaped the cognizance of the curious . [ i reckon all dogs to be of one species they mingling together in generation , and the breed of such mixtures being prolifick . ] the number of birds known and described may be near ; and the number of fishes , secluding shelfish as many ; but if the shelfish be taken in , more than double the number . how many of each genus remain yet undiscovered one cannot certainly nor very nearly conjecture , but we may suppose the whole sum of beasts and birds to exceed by a third part , and fishes by one half , those known . the insects , if we take in the exanguious both terrestrial and aquatick , may in derogation to the precedent rule for number vie even with plants themselves . for the exanguious alone , by what that learned and critical naturalist my honoured friend dr. martin lister hath already observed and delineated , i conjecture , cannot be fewer than or species , perhaps many more . the butterflies and beetles are such numerous tribes , that i believe in our own native country alone the species of each kind may amount to or more . and if we should make the caterpillers and hexapods from whence these come to be distinct species , as most naturalists have done , the number will be doubled , and these two genera will afford us species . but if those be admitted for distinct species , i see no reason but their aureliae also may pretend to a specifick difference from the caterpillers and butterflies ; and so we shall have species more , therefore we exclude both these from the degree of species , making them to be the same insect under a different larva or habit. the fly-kind , if under that name we comprehend all other flying insects , as well such as have four as such as have but two wings , of both which kinds there are many subordinate genera , will be found in multitude of species to equal if not exceed both the forementioned kinds . the creeping insects that never come to be winged , though for number they may fall short of the flying or winged , yet are they also very numerous ; as by running over the several kinds i could easily demonstrate : supposing then , there be a thousand several sorts of insects in this island and the sea near it : if the same proportion holds between the insects native of england , and those of the rest of the world , as doth between plants domestick and exotick , ( that is , as i guess , near a decuple ) the species of insects in the whole earth ( land and water ) will amount to , and i do believe they rather exceed than fall short of that sum . the number of plants contained in c. bauhin's pinax is about , which are all that had been described by the authors that wrote before him , or observed by himself ; in which work , besides mistakes and repetitions incident to the most wary and knowing men in such a work as that ; there are a great many , i might say some hundreds put down for different species , which in my opinion are but accidental varieties : which i do not say to detract from the excellent pains and performance of that learned , judicious and laborious herbarist , or to defraud him of his deserved honour , but only to shew , that he was too much sway'd by the opinions then generally current among herbarists , that different colour or multiplicity of leaves in the flower and the like accidents were sufficient to constitute a specifick difference . but supposing there had been then known and described ; i cannot think but that there are in the world more then double that number ; there being in the vast continent of america as great a variety of species as with us , and yet but few common to europe , or perhaps asrick and asia , and if , on the other side the equator , there be much land still remaining undiscovered as probably there may , we must suppose the number of plants to be far greater . what can we infer from all this ? if the number of creatures be so exceeding great , how great nay immense must needs be the power and wisdom of him who form'd them all ! for ( that i may borrow the words of a noble and excellent author ) as it argues and manifests more skill by far in an artificer to be able to frame both clocks and watches , and pumps , and mills , and granadoes and rockets , then he could display in making but one of those sorts of engines ; so the almighty discovers more of his wisdom in forming such a vast multitude of different sorts of creatures , and all with admirable and irreproveable art , than if he had created but a few : for this declares the greatness and unbounded capacity of his understanding . again , the same superiority of knowledg would be displaid by contriving engines of the same kind or for the same purposes after different fashions , as the moving of clocks or other engines by springs instead of weights : so the infinitely wise creator hath shewn in many instances , that he is not confin'd to one only instrument for the working one effect , but can perform the same thing by divers means . so though feathers seem necessary for flying , yet hath he enabled several creatures to fly without them , as two sorts of fishes , and the bat , not to mention the numerous tribes of flying insects . in like manner though the air-bladder in fishes seems necessary for swimming , yet some are so form'd as to swim without it ; viz. first , the cartilagineous kind , which by what artifice they poise themselves , ascend and descend at pleasure , and continue in what depth of water they list , is as yet unknown to us . secondly , the cetaceous kind , or sea-beasts differing in nothing almost from quadrupeds but the want of feet . the air which in respiration these receive into their lungs may serve to render their bodies equiponderant to the water ; and the constriction or dilatation of it , by the help of the diaphragm and muscles of respiration , may probably assist them to ascend or descend in the water , by a light impulse thereof with their fins . again , though the water being a cold element , the most wise god hath so attempered the blood and bodies of fishes in general , that a small degree of heat is sufficient to preserve their due consistency and motion and to maintain life ; yet to shew that he can preserve a creature in the sea , and in the coldest part of the sea too , that may have as great a degree of heat as quadrupeds themselves ; he hath created great variety of these cetaceous fishes , which converse chiefly in the northern seas , whose whole body being encompassed round with a copious fat or blubber ( which , by reflecting and redoubling the internal heat , and keeping off the external cold , doth the same thing to them that cloths do to us ) is enabled to abide the greatest cold of the sea-water . the reason why these fishes delight to frequent chiefly the northern-seas is i conceive not only for the quiet which they enjoy there , but because the northern air , which they breath being more fully charged with nitrous particles , is fittest to maintain the vital heat in that activity as is sufficient to move such an unwieldy bulk , as their bodies are with due celerity and to bear up against and repell the ambient cold ; and may likewise enable them to continue longer under water than a warmer and thinner air could . i come now to the second part of the words ; in wisdom hast thou made them all . in discoursing wherof i shall endeavour to make out in particulars what the psalmist here asserts in general concerning the works of god , that they are all very wisely contrived and adapted to ends both particular and general . but before i enter upon this task , i shall , by way of preface or introduction , say something concerning those systems which undertake to give an account of the formation of the universe by mechanical hypotheses of matter moved either uncertainly , or according to some catholick laws , without the intervention and assistance of any superior immaterial agent . there is no greater , at least no more palpable and convincing argument of the existence of a deity than the admirable art and wisdom that discovers itself in the make and constitution , the order and disposition , the ends and uses of all the parts and members of this stately fabrick of heaven and earth . for if in the works of art , as for example ; a curious edifice or machine , counsel , design , and direction to an end appearing in the whole frame and in all the several pieces of it , do necessarily infer the being and operation of some intelligent architect or engineer , why shall not also in the works of nature , that grandeur and magnificence , that excellent contrivance for beauty , order , use , &c. which is observable in them , wherein they do as much transcend the effects of human art as infinite power and wisdom exceeds finite , infer the existence and efficiency of an omnipotent and all-wise creator ? to evade the force of this argument , and to give some account of the original of the world , atheistical persons have set up two hypotheses . the first is that of aristotle , that the world was from eternity , in the same condition that now it is , having run through the successions of infinite generations ; to which they add , self-existent and unproduced . for aristotle doth not deny god to be the efficient cause of the world. but only asserts , that he created it from eternity making him a necessary cause thereof ; it proceeding from him by way of emanation , as light from the sun. this hypothesis which hath some shew of reason , for something must necessarily exist of it self ; and if something , why may not all things ? this hypothesis , i say , is so clearly and fully confuted by the reverend and learned dr. tillotson now dean of s. pauls london , in his first printed sermon , and the r. reverend father in god john late lord bishop of chester in book i. chap. v. of his treatise of the principles of natural religion , that nothing material can by me be added ; to whom therefore i refer the reader . the epicurean hypothesis rejected . the second hypothesis is that of the epicureans , who held that there were two principles self existent : first , space or vacuity ; secondly , matter or body ; both of infinite duration and extension . in this infinite space or vacuity , which hath neither beginning nor end , nor middle , no limits or extremes , innumerable minute bodies into which the matter was divided called atomes , because by reason of their perfect solidity they were really indivisible ( for they hold no body capable of division , but what hath vacuities intersperst with matter ) of various but a determinate number of figures , and equally ponderous do perpendicularly descend , and by their fortuitous concourse make compound bodies , and at last the world it self . but now , because if all these atomes should descend plum down with equal velocity , as according to their doctrine they ought to do , ( being as we said ) all perfectly solid and imporous , and the vacuum not resisting their motion , they would never the one overtake the other , but like the drops of a shower would always keep the same distances , and so there could be no concourse or cohaesion of them , and consequently nothing created ; partly to avoid this destructive consequence , and partly to give some account of the freedom of will ( which they did assert contrary to the democritick fate ) they did absurdly feign a declination of some of these principles , without any shadow or pretence of reason . the former of these motives you have set down by * lucretius in these words : corpora cum deorsum rectum per inane feruntur ponderibus propriis , incerto tempore fortè , incertisque locis , spatio discedere paulùm ; tantum quod momen mutatum dicere possis . and again ; quòd nisi declinare solerent , omnia deorsum imbris uti guttae caderent per inane profundum , nec foret offensus natus , nec plaga creata principiis , ita nil unquam natura creâsset . the second motive they had to introduce this gratuitous declination of atomes , the same poet gives us in these verses , lib. . — si semper motus connectitur omnis , et vetere exoritur semper novus ordine certo ; nec declinando faciunt primordia motûs principium quoddam quod fati foedera rumpat , ex infinito ne causam causa sequatur ; libera per terras unde haec animantibus extat , unde haec est , inquam , fatis avolsa voluntas ? the folly and unreasonableness of this ridiculous and ungrounded figment , i cannot better display and reprove than in the words of cicero , in the beginning of his first book de finibus bonornm & malorum . this declination ( saith he ) is altogether childishly feigned , and yet neither doth it at all solve the difficulty , or effect what they desire . for first they say the atomes decline , and yet assign no reason why . now nothing is more shameful and unworthy a natural philosopher [ turpius physico ] than to assert any thing to be done without a cause , or to give no reason of it . besides this is contrary to their own hypothesis taken from sence , that all weights do naturally move perpendicularly downward . secondly , again supposing this were true , and that there were such a declination of atomes , yet will it not effect what they intend . for either they do all decline , and so there will be no more concourse than if they did perpendicularly descend ; or some decline , and some fall plum down , which is ridiculously to assign distinct offices and tasks to the atomes , which are all of the same nature and solidity . again , in his book de fato he smartly derides this fond conceit thus ; what cause is there in nature which turns the atomes aside ? or do they cast lots among themselves which shall decline , which not ? or why do they decline the least interval that may be , and not a greater ? why not two or three minima as well as one ? optare hoc quidem est non disputare , for neither is the atome by any extrinsecal impulse diverted from its natural course ; neither can there be any cause imagined in the vacuity through which it is carried why it should not move directly ; neither is there any change made in the atome it self , that it should not retain the motion natural to it , by force of its weight or gravity . as for the whole atomical hypothesis , either epicurean or democritick , i shall not , nor need i spend time to confute it ; this having been already solidly and sufficiently done by many learned men , but especially dr. cudworth in his intellectual system of the universe , and the present bishop of worcester dr. stillinfleet in his origines sacrae . only i cannot omit the ciceronian confutation thereof , which i find in the place first quoted , and in his first and second books de naturâ deorum , because it may serve as a general introduction to the following particulars . such a turbulent concourse of atomes could never ( saith he ) hunc mundi ornatum efficere , compose so well ordered and beautiful a structure as the world is ; which therefore both in greek and latine hath from thence [ ab ornatu & munditie ] obtain'd its name . and again most fully and appositely in his second de nat. deorum . if the works of nature are better , more exact and perfect than the works of art , and art effects nothing without reason ; neither can the works of nature be thought to be effected without reason . for is it not absurd and incongruous ? that when thou beholdest a statue or curious picture , thou shouldest acknowledg that art was used to the making of it ; or when thou seest the course of a ship upon the waters , thou shouldest not doubt but the motion of it is regulated and directed by reason and art ; or when thou considerest a sun-dial or clock , thou shouldst understand presently , that the hours are shewn by art and not by chance ; and yet imagine or believe , that the world which comprehends all these arts and artificers was made without counsel or reason . if one should carry into scythia or britain such a sphere as our friend posidonius lately made , each of whose conversions did the same thing in the sun and moon and other five planets , which we see effected every night and day in the heavens , who among those barbarians would doubt that that sphere was composed by reason and art ? a wonder then it must needs be , that there should be any man found so stupid and forsaken of reason as to persuade himself , that this most beautiful and adorned world was or could be produced by the fortuitous concourse of atomes . he that can prevail with himself to believe this , i do not see why he may not as well admit , that if there were made innumerable figures of the letters in gold , suppose , or any other metal , and these well shaken and mixt together , and thrown down from some high place to the ground , they when they lighted upon the earth would be so disposed and ranked , that a man might see and read in them ennius's annals ; whereas it were a great chance if he should find one verse thereof among them all . for if this concourse of atomes could make a whole world , why may it not sometimes make , and why hath it not somewhere or other in the earth made a temple , or a gallery , or a portico , or a house , or a city ? which yet it is so far from doing , and every man so far from believing ; that should any one of us be cast , suppose , upon a desolate island , and find there a magnificent palace artificially contrived according to the exactest rules of architecture , and curiously adorned and furnished ; it would never once enter into his head , that this was done by an earthquake , or the fortuitous shuffling together of its component materials ; or that it had stood there ever since the construction of the world , or first cohaesion of atomes : but would presently conclude that there had been some intelligent architect there , the effect of whose art and skill it was . or should he find there but upon one single sheet of parchment or paper an epistle or oration written , full of profound sense , expressed in proper and significant words , illustrated and adorned with elegant phrase ; it were beyond the possibility of the wit of man to perswade him that this was done by the temerarious dashes of an unguided pen , or by the rude scattering of ink upon the paper , or by the lucky projection of so many letters at all adventures ; but he would be convinced by the evidence of the thing at first fight , that there had been not only some man , but some scholar there . the cartesian hypothesis considered and censured . having rejected this atheistick hypothesis of epicurus and democritus , i should now proceed to give particular instances of the art and wisdom clearly appearing in the several parts and members of the universe ; from which we may justly infer this general conclusion of the psalmist , in wisdom hast thou made them all : but that there is a sort of professed theists , i mean mons. des cartes and his followers , who endeavour to disarm us of this decretory weapon ; to evacuate and exterminate this argument which hath been so successful in all ages to demonstrate the existence , and enforce the belief of a deity ; and to convince and silence all atheistick gainsayers . and this they doe , first , by excluding and banishing all consideration of final causes from natural philosophy ; upon pretence , that they are all and every one in particular undiscoverable by us ; and that it is rashness and arrogance in us to think we can find out god's ends and be partakers of his counsels . atque ob hanc unicam rationem totum illud causarum genus quod à fine peti solet , in rebus physicis nullum usum habere existimo ; non enim absque temeritate me puto investigare posse fines dei. medit. metaph. and again in his principles of philosophy , nullas unquam rationes circa res naturales à fine quem deus aut natura in iis faciendis sibi proposuit admittimus , quia non tantum nobis debemus arrogare ut ejus consiliorum participes esse possimus . and more expresly in his fourth answer , viz. to gassendus's objections ; nec fingi potest , aliquos dei fines magis quàm alios in propatulo esse : omnes enim in imperscrutabili ejus sapientiae abysso sunt eodem modo reconditi ; that is , neither can or ought we to feign or imagine , that some of god's ends are more manifest than others ; for all lie in like manner or equally hidden in the unsearchable abyss of his wisdom . this confident assertion of des cartes is fully examined and reproved by that honourable and excellent person mr. boyl , in his disquisition about the final causes of natural things , sect. . from pag. . to the end : and therefore i shall not need say much to it ; only in brief this , that it seems to me false and of evil consequence , as being derogatory from the glory of god , and destructive of the acknowledgment and belief of a deity : for first , seeing , for instance , that the eye is employed by man and all animals for the use of vision , which , as they are framed , is so necessary for them , that they could not live without it ; and god almighty knew that it would be so ; and seeing it is so admirably fitted and adapted to this use , that all the wit and art of men and angels could not have contrived it better , if so well ; it must needs be highly absurd and unreasonable to affirm , either that it was not designed at all for this use , or that it is impossible for man to know whether it was or not . secondly , how can man give thanks and praise to god for the use of his limbs and senses and those his good creatures which serve for his sustenance ; when he cannot be sure they were made in any respect for him ; nay , when 't is as likely they were not , and that he doth but abuse them to serve ends for which they never intended . thirdly , this opinion , as i hinted before , supersedes and cassates the best medium we have to demonstrate the being of a deity ; leaving us no other demonstrative proof but that taken from the innate idea ; which , if it be a demonstration , is but an obscure one , not satisfying many of the learned themselves , and being too subtle and metaphysical ro be apprehended by vulgar capacities , and consequently of no force to persuade and convince them . secondly , they endeavour to evacuate and disanul our great argument , by pretending to solve all the phaenomena of nature , and to give an account of the production and efformation of the universe , and all the corporeal beings therein , both celestial and terrestrial as well animate as inanimate , not excluding animals themselves by a sleight hypothesis of matter so and so divided and moved . the hypothesis you have in des cartes's principles of philosophy , part. . all the matter of this visible world is by him supposed to have been at first divided by god into parts nearly equal to each other , of a mean size , viz. about the bigness of those whereof the heavenly bodies are now compounded ; all together having as much motion as is now found in the world ; and these to have been equally moved severally every one by itself about its own center , and among one another , so as to compose a fluid body ; and also many of them jointly or in company , about several other points so far distant from one another , and in the same manner disposed as the centres of the fixt stars now are . so that god had no more to do than to create the matter , divide it into parts , and put it into motion according to some few laws , and that would of itself produce the world and all creatures therein . for a confutation of this hypothesis , i might refer the reader to dr. cudworth's system p. . . but for his ease i will transcribe the words : — god in the mean time standing by as an idle spectator of this lusus atomorum , this sportfull dance of atoms , and of the various results thereof . nay these mechanick theists have here quite outstripped and outdone the atomick atheists themselves , they being much more extravagant then ever those were . for the professed atheists durst never venture to affirm , that this regular systeme of things resulted from the fortuitous motions of atoms at the very first , before they had for a long time together produced many other inept combinations , or aggregate forms of particular things and nonsensical systems of the whole , and they supposedalso that the regularity of things here in this world would not always continue such neither , but that some time or other confusion and disorder will break in again . moreover that besides this world of ours , there are at this very instant innumerable other worlds irregular , and that there is but one of a thousand or ten thousand among the infinite worlds that have such regularity in them , the reason of all which is , because it was generally taken for granted , and lookt upon as a common notion , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle expresseth it ; none of those things which are from fortune or chance come to pass always alike . but our mechanick theists will have their atoms never so much as once to have fumbled in these their motions , nor to have produced any inept system , or incongruous forms at all , but from the very first all along to have taken up their places and ranged themselves so orderly , methodically and directly ; as that they could not possibly have done it better , had they been directed by the most perfect wisdom . wherefore these atomick theists utterly evacuate that grand argument for a god taken from the phaenomenon of the artificial frame of things , which hath been so much insisted upon in all ages , and which commonly makes the strongest impression of any other upon the minds of men &c. the atheists in the mean time laughing in their sleeves , and not a little triumphing to see the cause of theism thus betrayed by its professed friends and assertors , and the grand argument for the same totally slurred by them and so their work done , as it were , to their hands . now as this argues the greatest insensibility of mind , or sottishness and stupidity in pretended theists not to take the least notice of the regular and artificial frame of things , or of the signatures of the divine art and wisdom in them , nor to look upon the world and things of nature with any other eyes than oxen and horses do . so are there many phaenomena in nature , which being partly above the force of these mechanick powers , and partly contrary to the same , can therefore never be salved by them , nor without final causes and some vital principle : as for example , that of gravity or the tendency of bodies downward , the motion of the diaphragm in respiration , the systole and diastole of the heart , which is nothing but a muscular constriction and relaxation , and therefore not mechanical but vital . we might also add among many others the intersection of the plains of the equator and ecliptick , or the earth's diurnal motion upon an axis not parallel to that of the ecliptick , nor perpendicular to the plain thereof . for though des cartes would needs imagine this earth of ours once to have been a sun , and so itself the centre of a lesser vortex , whose axis was then directed after this manner , and which therefore still kept the same site or posture by reason of the striate particles finding no fit pores or traces for their passages through it , but only in this direction ; yet does he himself confess , that because these two motions of the earth , the annual and diurnal , would be much more conveniently made upon parallel axes , therefore , according to the laws of mechanism , they should be perpetually brought nearer andnearer together , till at length the equator and ecliptick come to have their axes parallel , which as it has not yet come to pass , so neither hath there been for these last two thousand years ( according to the best observations and judgments of astronomers ) any nearer approach made of them one to another . wherefore the continuation of these two motions of the earth the annual and diurnal upon axes not parallel is resolvable into nothing but a final and mental cause , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because it was best it should be so , the variety of the seasons of the year depending thereupon . but the greatest of all the particular phaenomena is the formation and organization of the bodies of animals , consisting of such variety and curiosity ; that these mechanick philosophers being no way able to give an account thereof from the necessary motion of matter , unguided by mind for ends , prudently therefore break off their system there , when they should come to animals , and so leave it altogether untoucht . we acknowledg indeed there is a posthumous piece extant , imputed to cartes , and entituled , de la formation du foetus , wherein there is some pretence made to salve all this by fortuitous mechanism . but as the theory thereof is built wholly upon a false supposition , sufficiently confuted by our harvey in his book of generation , that the seed doth materially enter into the composition of the egg : so is it all along precarious and exceptionable ; nor doth it extend at all to the differences that are in several animals , nor offer the least reason why an animal of one species might not be formed out of the seed of another . thus far the doctor , with whom for the main i do consent . i shall only add , that natural philosophers , when they endeavor to give an account of any of the works of nature by preconceived principles of their own , are for the most part grosly mistaken and confuted by experience ; as des cartes in a matter that lay before him , obvious to sense and infinitly more easie to find out the cause of , than to give an account of the formation of the world ; that is the pulse of the heart , which he attributes to an ebullition and sudden expansion of the blood in the ventricles , after the manner of milk , which being heated to such a degree doth suddenly and as it were all at once flush up and run over the vessel . whether this ebullition be caused by a nitro-sulphureous ferment lodged especially in the left ventricle of the heart , which mingling with the blood excites such an ebullition , as we see made by the mixture of some chymical liquors , viz. oil of vitriol , and deliquated salt of tartar ; or by the vital flame warming and boyling the blood. but this conceit of his is contrary both to reason and experience , for first , it is altogether unreasonable to imagine and affirm that the cool venal blood should be heated to so high a degree in so short a time as the interval of two pulses , which is less than the sixth part of a minute . secondly , in cold animals , as for example eels , the heart will beat for many hours after it is taken out of the body , yea tho the ventricle be opened and all the blood squeezed out . thirdly , the process of the fibres which compound the sides of the ventricles running in spiral lines from the tip to the base of the heart , some one way and some the contrary , do clearly shew that the systole of the heart is nothing but a muscular constriction , as a purse is shut by drawing the strings contrary ways : which is also confirm'd by experience ; for if the vertex of the heart be cut off , and a finger thrust up into one of the ventricles , in every systole the finger will be sensibly and manifestly pincht by the sides of the ventricle . but for a full confutation of this fancy , i refer the reader to dr. lower's treatise de corde , chap. . and his rules concerning the transferring of motion from one body in motion to another are the most of them by experience found to be false , as they affirm which have made trial of them . this pulse of the heart dr. cudworth would have to be no mechanical but a vital motion , which to me seems probable , because it is not under the command of the will , nor are we conscious of any power to cause or to restrain it , but it is carried on and continued without our knowledge or notice ; neither can it be caused by the impulse of any external movent , unless it be heat . but how can the spirits agitated by heat , unguided by a vital principle produce such a regular reciprocal motion ? if that site which the heart and its fibres have in the diastole be most natural to them , ( as it seems to be ) why doth it again contract itself , and not rest in that posture ? if it be once contracted in a systole by the influx of the spirits , why , the spirits continually flowing in without let , doth it not always remain so ? [ for the systole seems to resemble the forcible bending of a spring , and the diastole its flying out again to its natural site . ] what is the spring and principal efficient of this reciprocation ? what directs and moderates the motions of the spirits ? they being but stupid and senseless matter , cannot of themselves continue any regular and constant motion , without the guidance and regulation of some intelligent being . you will say , what agent is it which you would have to effect this ? the sensitive soul it cannot be , because that is indivisible , but the heart , when separated wholly from the body in some animals ; continues still to pulse for a considerable time ; nay when it hath quite ceased , it may be brought to beat anew by the application of warm spittle , or by pricking it gently with a pin or needle . i answer , it may be in these instances , the scattering spirits remaining in the heart , may for a time being agitated by heat , cause these faint pulsations ; though i should rather attribute them to a plastick nature or vital principle , as the vegetation of plants must also be . but to proceed , neither can i wholly acquiesce in the hypothesis of that honourable and deservedly famous author i formerly had occasion to mention ; which i find in his free enquiry into the vulgar notion of nature , p. , . delivered in these words , i think it probable , that the great and wise author of things did , when he first formed the universal and undistinguished matter into the world , put its parts into various motions , whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless portions of differing bulks , figures and situations in respect of each other . and that by his infinite wisdom and power he did so guide and over-rule the motions of these parts , at the beginning of things , as that ( whether in a shorter or a longer time reason cannot determine ) they were finally disposed into that beautiful and orderly frame that we call the world ; among whose parts some were so curiously contrived , as to be fit to become the seeds or feminal principles of plants and animals . and i further conceive , that he setled such laws or rules of local motion , among the parts of the universal matter , that by his ordinary and preserving concurse the several parts of the universe thus once completed , should be able to maintain the great construction or system and oeconomy of the mundane bodies , and propagate the species of living creatures . the same hypothesis he repeats again , pag. , . of the same treatise . this hypothesis , i say , i cannot fully acquiesce in , because an intelligent being seems to me requisite to execute the laws of motion . for first motion being a fluent thing , and one part of its duration being absolutely independent upon another : it doth not follow that because any thing moves this moment , it must necessarily continue to do so the next ; but it stands in as much need of an efficient to preserve and continue its motion as it did at first to produce it . secondly , let matter be divided into the subtilest parts imaginable , and these be moved as swiftly as you will ; it is but a sensless and stupid being still , and makes no nearer approach to sense , perception , or vital energy than it had before ; and do but only stop the internal motion of its parts and reduce them to rest , the finest and most subtile body that is may become as gross , and heavy , and stiff as steel or stone . and as for any external laws or established rules of motion , the stupid matter is not capable of observing or taking any notice of them ; neither can those laws execute themselves : therefore there must besides matter and law be some efficient ; and that either a quality or power inherent in the matter itself , which is hard to conceive , or some external intelligent agent , either god himself immediately , or some plastick nature . this latter i incline to , for the reasons alledged by dr. cudworth in his system , pag. . which are ; first , because the former , according to vulgar apprehension , would render the divine providence operose , solicitous and distractious : and thereby make the belief of it entertained with greater difficulty , and give advantage to atheists . secondly , it is not so decorous in respect of god , that he should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set his own hand as it were to every work , and immediately do all the meanest and triflingst things himself drudgingly , without making use of any inferiour or subordinate ministers . these two reasons are plausible , but not cogent , the two following are of greater force . thirdly , the slow and gradual process that is in the generation of things , which would seem to be a vain and idle pomp or trifling formality , if the agent were omnipotent . fourthly , those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as aristotle calls them , those errors and bungles which are committed when the matter is inept or contumacious , as in monsters , &c. which argue the agent not to be irresistible ; and that nature is such a thing as is not altogether uncapable , as well as human art , of being sometimes frustrated and disappointed by the indisposition of the matter : whereas an omnipotent agent would always do its work infallibly and irresistibly , no ineptitude or stubbornness of the matter being ever able to hinder such an one , or make him bungle or fumble in any thing . so far the doctor . for my part , i should make no scruple to attribute the formation of plants , their growth and nutrition to the vegetative soul in them ; and likewise the formation of animals to the vegetative power of their souls ; but that the segments and cuttings of some plants , nay the very chips and smallest fragments of their body , branches , or roots , will grow and become perfect plants themselves , and so the vegetative soul , if that were the architect , would be divisible , and consequently no spiritual or intelligent being ; which the plastick principle must be , as we have shewn . for that must preside over the whole oeconomy of the plant , and be one single agent , which takes care of the bulk and figure of the whole , and the situation , figure , texture of all the parts , root , stalk , branches , leaves , flowers , fruit , and all their vessels and juices . i therefore incline to dr. cudworth's opinion , that god uses for these effects the subordinate ministry of some inferiour plastick nature ; as in his works of providence he doth of angels . for the description whereof i refer the reader to his system . secondly , in particular i am difficult to believe , that the bodies of animals can be formed by matter divided and moved by what laws you will or can imagine , without the immediate presidency , direction and regulation of some intelligent being . in the generation or first formation of , suppose the human body , out of ( though not an homogeneous liquor , yet ) a fluid substance , the only material agent or mover is a moderate heat . now how this , by producing an intestine motion in the particles of the matter , which can be conceived to differ in nothing else but figure , magnitude and gravity , should by virtue thereof , not only separate the heterogeneous parts , but assemble the homogeneous into masses or systems , and that not each kind into one mass , but into many and disjoyned ones , as it were so many troups ; and that in each troup the particular particles should take their places , and cast themselves into such a figure ; as for example , the bones being about are formed of various sizes and shapes , so situate and connected , as to be subservient to many hundred intentions and uses , and many of them conspire to one and the same action , this , i say , i cannot by any means conceive . i might instance in all the homogeneous parts of the body , their sites and figures ; and ask by what imaginable laws of motion their bulk , figure , situation and connexion can be made out ? what account can be given of the valves , of the veins and arteries of the heart , and of the veins elsewhere , and of their situation ; of the figure and consistency of all the humours and membranes of the eye , all conspiring and exactly fitted to the use of seeing ; but i have touched upon that already , and shall discourse of it largely afterward . you will ask me who or what is the operator in the formation of the bodies of man and other animals ? i answer , the sensitive soul itself , if it be a spiritual and immaterial substance , as i am inclineable to believe : but if it be material , and consequently the whole animal but a mere machine or automaton , as i can hardly admit , then must we have recourse to a plastick nature . that the soul of brutes is material , and the whole animal , soul and body , but a mere machine is the opinion publickly owned and declared , of des cartes , gassendus , dr. willis and others ; the same is also necessarily consequent upon the doctrine of the peripateticks , viz. that the sensitive soul is educed out of the power of the matter . for nothing can be educed out of the matter , but what was there before , which must be either matter or some modification of it . and therefore they cannot grant it to be a spiritual substance , unless they will assert it to be educed out of nothing . this opinion , i say , i can hardly digest . i should rather think animals to be endued with a lower degree of reason , than that they are mere machines . i could instance in many actions of brutes that are hardly to be accounted for without reason and argumentation ; as that commonly noted of dogs , that running before their masters they will stop at a divarication of the way , till they see which hand their masters will take ; and that when they have gotten a prey , which they fear their masters will take from them , they will run away and hide it , and afterwards return to it ; and many the like actions , which i shall not spend time to relate . should this be true , that beasts were automata or machines , they could have no sense or perception of pleasure or pain , and consequently no cruelty could be exercised towards them ; which is contrary to the doleful significations they make when beaten or tormented , and contrary to the common sense of mankind , all men naturally pitying them as apprehending them to have such a sense and feeling of pain and misery as themselves have ; whereas no man is troubled to see a plant torn , or cut , or stampt , or mangled how you please . besides , having the same members and organs of sense as we have , it is very probable they have the same sensations and perceptions with us . to this des cartes answers or indeed saith , he hath nothing to answer ; but that if they think as well as we , they have an immortal soul as well as we : which is not at all likely , because there is no reason to believe it of some animals without believing it of all , whereas there are many too too imperfect to believe it of them , such as are oysters and sponges and the like . to which i answer that there is no necessity they should be immortal , because it is possible they may be destroyed or annihilated . but i shall not wade further into this controversie , because it is beside my scope , and there hath been as much written of it already as i have to say , by dr. more , dr. cudworth , des cartes , dr. willis and others , pro and con. of the visible works of god and their division . i come now to take a view of the works of the creation , and to observe something of the wisdom of god discernable in the formation of them , in their order and harmony , and in their ends and uses . and first i shall run them over slightly , remarking chiefly what is obvious and exposed to the eyes and notice of the more careless and incurious observer . secondly , i shall select one or two particular pieces , and take a more exact survey of them ; though even in these more will escape our notice than can be discovered by the most diligent scrutiny : for our eyes and senses , however armed or assisted , are too gross to discern the curiosity of the workmanship of nature , or those minute parts by which it acts , and of which bodies are composed ; and our understanding too dark and infirm to discover and comprehend all the ends and uses to which the infinitely wise creator did design them . but before i proceed , being put in mind thereof by the mention of the assistance of our eyes , i cannot omit one general observation concerning the curiosity of the works of nature in comparison of the works of art , which i shall propose in the late bishop of chesters words . the observations which have been made in these latter times by the help of the microscrope , since we had the use and improvement of it , discover a vast difference between natural and artificial things . whatever is natural beheld through that appears exquisitely formed , and adorned with all imaginable elegancy and beauty . there are such inimitable gildings in the smallest seeds of plants , but especially in the parts of animals , in the head or eye of a small fly ; such accuracy , order , and symmetry in the frame of the most minute creatures , a louse , for example , or a mite , as no man were able to conceive without seeing of them . whereas the most curious works of art , the sharpest and finest needle doth appear as a blunt rough bar of iron , coming from the furnace or the forge : the most accurate engravings or embossments seem such rude , bungling and deformed work , as if they had been done with a mattock or a trowel , so vast a difference is there betwixt the skill of nature , and the rudeness and imperfection of art. i might add , that the works of nature the better lights and glasses you use , the more cleaver and exactly formed they appear ; whereas the effects of human art the more curiously they are viewed and examined , the more of deformity they discover . this being premised ; for our more clear and distinct proceeding in our cursory view of the creation , i shall rank the parts of this material and visible world under several heads . bodies are either inanimate or animate . inanimate bodies are either celestial or terrestrial . celestial as the sun , moon and stars : terrestrial are either simple as the four elements , fire , water , earth and air ; or mixt , either imperfectly as the meteors , or more perfectly , as stones , metals , minerals and the like . animate bodies are either such as are endued with a vegetative soul , as plants ; or a sensitive soul , as the bodies of animals , birds , beasts , fishes and insects ; or a rational soul , as the body of man and the vehicles of angels , if any such there be . i make use of this division to comply with the common and received opinion , and for easier comprehension and memory ; though i do not think it agreeable to philosophick verity and accuracy ; but do rather incline to the atomick hypothesis . for these bodies we call elements are not the only ingredients of mixt bodies ; neither are they absolutely simple themselves , as they do exist in the world , the sea-water containing a copious salt manifest to sense ; and both sea and fresh-water sufficing to nourish many species of fish , and consequently containing the various parts of which their bodies are compounded . and i believe there are many species of bodies which the peripateticks call mixt , which are as simple as the elements themselves , as metals , salts , and some sorts of stones . i should therefore with dr. grew and others , rather attribute the various species of inanimate bodies to the divers figures of the minute particles of which they are made up : and the reason why there is a set and constant number of them in the world , none destroyed , nor any new ones produced , i take to be , because the sum of the figures of those minute bodies into which matter was at first divided , is determinate and fixt . . because those minute parts are indivisible , not absolutely , but by any natural force ; so that there neither is nor can be more or fewer of them : for were they divisible into small and diversly figured parts by fire or any other natural agent , the species of nature must be confounded , some might be lost and destroyed , but new ones would certainly be produced ; unless we could suppose , these new diminutive particles should again assemble and marshal themselves into corpuscles of such figures as they compounded before ; which i see no possibility for them to do , without some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to direct them : not that i think these inanimate bodies to consist wholly of one sort of atoms , but that their bulk consists mainly or chiefly of one sort . but whereas it may be objected that metals , ( which of all others seem to be most simple ) may be transmuted one into another , and so the species doth not depend upon the being compounded of atoms of one figure . i answer , i am not fully satisfied of the matter of fact : but if any such transmutation be , possibly all metals may be of one species , and the diversity may proceed from the admixture of different bodies with the principles of the metal . if it be asked , why may not atoms of different species concur to the composition of bodies ? and so though there be but a few sorts of original principles may there not be produced infinite species of compound bodies , as by the various dispositions and combinations of twenty four letters innumerable words may be made up ? i answer because the heterogeneous atoms or principles are not naturally apt to cohere and stick together when they are mingled in the same liquor , as the homogeneous readily do . i do not believe that the species of principles or indivisible particles are exceeding numerous : but possibly the immediate component particles of the bodies of plants and animals may be themselves compounded . of the heavenly bodies . first , for the celestial or heavenly bodies , the equability and constancy of their motions , the certainty of their periods and revolutions , the conveniency of their order and situations argue them to be ordained and governed by wisdom and understanding ; yea so much wisdom as man cannot easily fathom or comprehend . for we see by how much the hypotheses of astronomers are more simple and conformable to reason , by so much do they give a better account of the heavenly motions . it is reported of alphonsus king of aragon , i know not whether truly , that when he saw and considered the many eccentricks , epicycles , epicycles upon epicycles , librations , and contrariety of motions , which were requisite in the old hypothesis to give an account of the celestial phaenomena , he should presume blasphemously to say , that the universe was a bungling piece ; and that if he had been of god's counsel , he could have directed him to have made it better . a speech as rash and ignorant , as daring and prophane . for it was nothing but ignorance of the true process of nature that induced the contrivers of that hypothesis to invent such absurd suppositions , and him to accept them for true , and attribute them to the great author of the heavenly motions . for in the new hypothesis of the modern astronomers , we see most of those absurdities and irregularities rectified and removed , and i doubt not but they would all vanish , could we certainly discover the true method and process of nature in those revolutions . for seeing in those works of nature which we converse with , we constantly find those axioms true , natura non facit circuitus , nature doth not fetch a compass when it may proceed in a streight line ; and natura nec abundat in superfluis , nec deficit in necessariis , nature abounds not in what is superfluous , neither is deficient in what is necessary : we may also rationally conclude concerning the heavenly bodies , seeing there is so much exactness observed in the time of their motions , that they punctually come about in the same periods to the hundredth part of a minute , as may beyond exception be demonstrated by comparing their revolutions , surely there is also used the most simple , facile , and convenient way for the performance of them . among these heavenly bodies ; first , the sun , a vast globe of fire , esteemed by the ancienter and most modest computation above times bigger than the earth , the very life of this inferiour world , without whose salutary and vivifick beams all motion both animal , vital and natural would speedily cease , and nothing be left here below but darkness and death : all plants and animals must needs in a very short time be not only mortified , but together with the surface of land and water frozen as hard as flint or adamant : so that of all the creatures of the world the ancient heathen had most reason to worship him as a god , though no true reason ; because he was but a creature , and not god : and we christians to think that the service of the animals that live upon the earth , and principally man , was one end of his creation ; seeing without him there could no such things have been . this sun , i say , according to the old hypothesis whirled round about the earth daily with incredible celerity , making night and day by his rising and setting ; winter and summer by his access to the several tropicks , creating such a grateful variety of seasons , enlightening all parts of the earth by his beams , and cherishing them by his heat , situate and moved so in respect of this sublunary world , ( and it 's likely also in respect of all the planets about him ) that art and counsel could not have designed either to have placed him better , or moved him more conveniently for the service thereof ; as i could easily make appear by the inconveniences that would follow upon the supposition of any other situation and motion , shews forth the great wisdom of him who so disposed and moved him . secondly , the moon , a body in all probability somewhat like the earth we live upon , by its constant and regular motion helps us to divide our time , reflects the sun beams to us , and so by illuminating the air , takes away in some measure the disconsolate darkness of our winter nights , procures or at least regulates the fluxes and refluxes of the sea , whereby the water is kept in constant motion , and preserved from putrefaction , and so rendred more salutary for the maintenance of its breed , and useful and serviceable for man's conveniencies of fishing and navigation ; not to mention the great influence it is supposed to have upon all moist bodies , and the growth and increase of vegetables and animals : men generally observing the age of the moon in the planting of all kind of trees , sowing of grain , grafting and inoculating , and pruning of fruit-trees , gathering of fruit , cutting of corn or grass ; and thence also making prognosticks of weather , because such observations seem to me uncertain . did this luminary serve to no other ends and uses , as i am perswaded it doth many , especially , to maintain the creatures which in all likelihood breed and inhabit there , yet these were enough to evince it to be the effect and product of divine wisdom and power . thirdly , as for the rest of the planets ; besides their particular uses , which are to us unknown , or merely conjectural , their courses and revolutions , their stations and retrogradations , observed constantly so many ages together in most certain and determinate periods of time , do sufficiently demonstrate that their motions are instituted and governed by counsel , wisdom and understanding . fourthly , the like may be said of the fixt stars whose motions are regular , equal and constant . so that we see nothing in the heavens which argues chance , vanity , or error ; but on the contrary , rule , order and constancy ; the effects and arguments of wisdom : wherefore as cicero excellently concludes , coelestem ergo admirabilem ordinem , incredibilemque constantiam , ex qua conservatio & salus omnium omnis oritur , qui vacare mente putat , noe ipse mentis expers habendus est . : wherefore whosoever thinketh that the admirable order and incredible constancy of the heavenly bodies and their motions , whereupon the preservation and welfare of all things doth depend , is not governed by mind and understanding , he himself is to be accounted void thereof . and again , shall we ( saith he ) when we see an artificial engine , as a sphere , or dial , or the like , at first sight acknowledg , that it is a work of reason and art : cùm autem impetum coeli , admirabili cum celeritate moveri vertique videamus , constantissimè conficientem vicissitudines anniversarias , cum summâ salute & conservatione rerum omnium , dubitare quin ea non solùm ratione fiant , sed excellenti quâdam divinâque ratione : and can we when we see the force of the heavens moved and whirled about with admirable celerity , most constantly finishing its anniversary vicissitudes , to the eminent welfare and preservation of all things , doubt at all that these things are performed not only by reason , but by a certain excellent and divine reason . to these things i shall add an observation , which i must confess my self to have borrowed of the honourable person more than once mentioned already , that even the eclipses of the sun and moon , though they be frightful things to the superstitious vulgar , and of ill influence on mankind , if we may believe the no less superstitious astrologers , yet to knowing men , that can skilfully apply them , they are of great use , and such as common heads could never have imagined : since not only they may on divers occasions help to settle chronology , and rectifie the mistakes of historians that writ many ages ago ; but which is , though a less wonder , yet of greater utility , they are ( as things yet stand ) necessary to define with competent certainty , the longitude of places or points on the terraqueous globe , which is a thing of very great moment not only to geography , but to the most useful and important art of navigation . to which may be added , which i shall hereafter mention , that they serve to demonstrate the spherical roundness of the earth . so that i may well conclude with the psalmist , psalm . . the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy work. of terrestrial inanimate simple bodies . i come now to consider the terrestrial bodies ; i shall say nothing of the whole body of the earth in general , because i reserve that as one of the particulars i shall more carefully and curiously examine . terrestrial bodies according to our method before propounded are either inanimate or animate , and the inanimate either simple or mixt : simple , as the four elements , fire , water , earth , and air ; i call these elements in compliance ( as i said before ) with the vulgarly received opinion ; not that i think them to be the principles or component ingredients of all other sublunary bodies : i might call them the four great aggregates of bodies of the same species , or four sorts of bodies of which there are great aggregates . these notwithstanding they are endued with contrary qualities , and are continually encroaching one upon another , yet they are so balanced and kept in such an aequilibrium , that neither prevaileth over other , but what one gets in one place it loseth in another . first , fire cherisheth and reviveth by its heat , without which all things would be torpid and without motion , nay without fire no life ; it being the vital flame residing in the blood that keeps the bodily machine in motion , and renders it a fit organ for the soul to work by . the uses of fire ( i do not here speak of the peripateticks elementary fire in the concave of the moon , which is but a mere figment , but our ordinary culinary ) are in a manner infinite for dressing and preparing of victuals baked , boyled and roast ; for melting and refining of metals and minerals ; for the fusion of glass , a material whose uses are so many that it is not easie to enumerate them , it serving us to make windows for our houses , drinking vessels , vessels to contain and preserve all sorts of fermented liquors , destilled waters , spirits , oils , extracts , and other chymical preparations , as also vessels to destil and prepare them in ; for looking glasses , spectacles , microscopes and telescopes , whereby our sight is not only relieved , but wonderfully assisted to make rare discoveries : for making all sorts of instruments for husbandry , mechanick arts and trades , all sorts of arms or weapons of war defensive and offensive ; for fulminating engines ; for burning of lime , baking of bricks , tiles , and all sorts of potters vessels or earthen ware ; for casting and forging metalline vessels and utensils ; for destillations , and all chymical operations hinted before in the use of glass . for affording us light for any work or exercise in winter nights ; for digging in mines and dark carvens : and finally by its comfortable warmth securing us from the injuries of cold , or relieving when we have been bitten and benummed with it . a subject or utensil of so various and inexplicable use , who could have invented and formed , but an infinitely wise and powerful efficient ? secondly , the air serves us and all animals to breath in , containing the fewel of that vital flame we spake of , without which it would speedily languish and go out . so necessary is it for us and other land-animals , that without the use of it we could live but very few minutes : nay fishes and other water-animals cannot abide without the use of it : for if you put fish into a vessel of a narrow mouth full of water , they will live and swim there not only days and months but even years . but if with your hand or any other cover you stop the vessel so as wholly to exclude the air , or interrupt its communication with the water , they will suddenly be suffocated ; as rondeletius affirms he often experimented : if you fill not the vessel up to the top , but leave some space empty for the air to take up , and then clap your hand upon the mouth of the vessel ; the fishes will presently contend which shall get uppermost in the water , that so they may enjoy the open air ; which i have also observed them to do in a pool of water that hath been almost dry in the summer-time because the air that insinuated itself into the water did not suffice them for respiration . neither is it less necessary for insects than it is for other animals but rather more , these having more air-vessels for their bulk by far than they , there being many orifices on each side their bodies for the admission of air , which if you stop with oil or hony , the insect presently dies , and revives no more . this was an observation of the ancients , though the reason of it they did not understand ( oleo illito insecta omnia exanimantur . plin. ) which was nothing but the intercluding of the air ; for though you put oil upon them , if you put it not upon or obstruct those orifices therewith whereby they draw the air , they suffer nothing : if you obstruct only some and not others , the parts which are near and supplied with air from thence are by and by convulsed and shortly relaxed and deprived of motion , the rest that were untoucht still retaining it . nay more than all this , plants themselves have a kind of respiration , being furnished with plenty of vessels for the derivation of air to all their parts , as hath been observed , nay first discovered by that great and curious naturalist malpighius . another use of the air is to sustain the flight of birds and insects . moreover by its gravity it raises the water in pumps , siphons and other engines , and performs all those feats which former philosophers through ignorance of the efficient cause attributed to a final , namely natures abhorrence of a vacuity or empty space . the elastick or expansive faculty of the air , whereby it dilates itself , when compressed ( indeed this lower region of it by reason of the weight of the superincumbent is always in a compressed state ) hath been made use of in the common weather-glasses , in wind guns , and in several ingenious water-works , and doubtless hath a great interest in many natural effects and operations . against what we have said of the necessity of the air for the maintenance of the vital flame , it may be objected , that the foetus in the womb lives ; its heart pulsses ; and its blood circulates ; and yet it draws in no air , neither hath the air any access to it . to which i answer , that it doth receive air so much as is sufficient for it in its present state from the maternal blood by the placenta uterina , or the cotyledones . this opinion generally propounded , viz. that the respiration of the dam , did serve the foetus also ; or supply sufficient air to it , i have met with in books , but the explicit notion of it i owe to my learned and worthy friend dr. edward hulse , which comparing with mine own anatomical observations , i found so consonant to reason , and highly probable , that i could not but yield a firm assent to it . i say then , that the chief use of the circulation of the blood through the cotyledones of a calf in the womb , ( which i have often dissected ) and by analogy through the placenta uterina in an humane foetus , seems to be the impregnation of the blood with air ; for the feeding of the vital flame . for if it were only for nutrition , what need of two such great arteries to convey the blood thither ? it would ( one might rationally think ) be more likely , that as in the abdomen of every animal , so here there should have been some lacteal veins formed , beginning from the placenta , or cotyledons , which concurring in one common ductus , should at last empty themselves into the vena cava . secondly , i have observed in a calf , the umbilical vessels to terminate in certain bodies divided into a multitude of carneous papillae , as i may so call them , which are received into so many sockets of the cotyledons growing on the womb ; which carneous papillae may without force or laceration be drawn out of those sockets . now these papillae do well resemble the aristae or radii of a fishes gills , and very probably have the same use to take in the air. so that the maternal blood which flows to the cotyledons , and encircles these papillae , communicates by them to the blood of the foetus , the air wherewith it self is impregnate ; as the water flowing about the carneous radii of the fishes gills doth the air that is lodged therein to them . thirdly , that the maternal blood flows most copiously to the placenta uterina in women , is manifest from the great hemorrhagy that succeeds the separation thereof at the birth . fourthly , after the stomach and intestines are formed , the foetus seems to take in its whole nourishment by the mouth ; there being always found in the stomach of a calf , plenty of the liquor contained in the amnios wherein he swims , and faeces in his intestines , and abundance of urine in the allantoides . so that the foetus in the womb doth live as it were the life of a fish. lastly , why else should there be such an instant necessity of respiration so soon as ever the foetus is fallen off from the womb ? this way we may give a facile and very probable account of it , to wit , because receiving no more communications of air from its dam or mother , it must needs have a speedy supply from without , or else extinguish and die for want of it : being not able to live longer without air at its first birth , than it can do afterward . and here methinks appears a necessity of bringing in the agency of some superintendent intelligent being , be it a plastick nature , or what you will. for what else should put the diaphragm , and all the muscles serving to respiration in motion all of a sudden so soon as ever the foetus is brought forth ? why could they not have rested as well as they did in the womb ? what aileth them that they must needs bestir themselves to get in air to maintain the creatures life ? why could they not patiently suffer it to die ? that the air of it self could not rush in is clear ; for that on the contrary there is required a great force to remove the incumbent air , and make room for the external to enter . you will say the spirits do at this time flow to the organs of respiration ; the diaphragm and other muscles which concur to that action , and move them . but what rouses the spirits which were quiescent during the continuance of the foetus in the womb ? here is no appearing impellent but the external air , the body suffering no change but of place , out of its close and warm prison into the open and cool air. but how or why that should have such influence upon the spirits , as to drive them into those muscles electively , i am not subtil enough to discern . thirdly , water is one part , and that not the least of our sustenance , and that affords the greatest share of matter in all productions ; containing in it the principles or minute component particles of all bodies . to speak nothing of those inferiour uses of washing and bathing , dressing and preparing of victuals . but if we shall consider the great conceptacula and congregations of water , and the distribution of it all over the dry land in springs and rivers ; there will occur abundant arguments of wisdom and understanding . the sea , what infinite variety of fishes doth it nourish ? psalm . . in the verse next to my text. the earth is full of thy riches . so is this great and wide sea , wherein are things creeping innumerable , both small and great beasts , &c. how doth it exactly compose itself to a level or equal superficies , and with the earth make up one spherical roundness ? how doth it constantly observe its ebbs and flows , its spring and nepe-tides , and still retain its saltness so convenient for the maintenance of its inhabitants ? serving also the uses of man for navigation , and the convenience of carriage . that it should be defined by shores and strands and limits , i mean at first , when it was natural to it to overflow and stand above the earth . all these particulars declare abundance of wisdom in their primitive constitution . this last the psalmist takes notice of in the th , th , th , and th verses of this psalm . speaking of the earth at the first creation , he saith , thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment , the waters stood above the mountains . at thy rebuke they fled , at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away . ( the mountains ascend , the valleys descend ) unto the place thou hast prepared for them . thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over : that they turn not again to cover the earth . again , the great use and convenience , the beauty and variety of so many springs and fountains , so many brooks and rivers , so many lakes and standing pools of water , and these so scattered and dispersed all the earth over ; that no great part of it is destitute of them , without which it must without a supply other ways be desolate and void of inhabitants ; afford abundant arguments of wisdom and counsel . that springs should break forth on the sides of mountains most remote from the sea. that there should way be made for rivers through straits and rocks , and subterraneous vaults , so that one would think that nature had cut a way on purpose to derive the water , which else would overflow and drown whole countries . that the water passing through the veins of the earth , should be rendred fresh and potable , which it cannot be by any percolations we can make , but the saline particles will pass through a tenfold filtre . that in some places there should spring forth metallick and mineral waters , and hot baths , and these so constant and permanent for many ages ; so convenient for divers medicinal intentions and uses , the causes of which things , or the means and methods by which they are performed , have not been as yet certainly discovered ; how can we reasonably deny that they are the products and effects of profound counsel and understanding ? lastly , the earth , which is the basis and support of all animals and plants , and affords them the hard and solid part of their bodies , yielding us food and sustenance and partly also cloathing . how variously is the surface of it distinguished into hills , and valleys , and plains , and high mountains affording pleasant prospects ? how curiously cloathed and adorned with the grateful verdure of herbs and stately trees , either dispersed and scattered singly , or as it were assembled in woods and groves , and all these beautified and illustrated with elegant flowers and fruits , quorum omnium incredibilis multitudo , insatiabili varietate distinguitur , as tully saith . this also shews forth to them that consider it both the power and wisdom of god : so that we may conclude with solomon prov. , . the lord by wisdom hath founded the earth , by understanding hath he established the heavens . but now , if we pass from simple to mixt bodies , we shall still find more matter of admiration and argument of wisdom . of these we shall first consider those they call imperfectly mixt , or meteors . of meteors . as first of all rain , which is nothing else but water by the heat of the sun divided into very small invisible parts , ascending in the air , till encountring the cold , it be by degrees condensed into clouds and descends in drops ; this though it be exhaled from the salt sea , yet by this natural destillation is rendred fresh and potable , which our artificial destillations have hitherto been hardly able to effect ; notwithstanding the eminent use it would be of to navigators , and the rewards promised to those that should resolve that problem of destilling fresh water out of salt. that the clouds should be so carried about by the winds , as to be almost equally dispersed and distributed , no part of the earth wanting convenient showers , unless when it pleaseth god for the punishment of a nation to withhold rain by a special interposition of his providence ; or if any land wants rain , they have a supply some other way , as the land of egypt , though there seldom falls any rain there , yet hath abundant recompence made it by the annual overflowing of the river . this distribution of the clouds and rain is to me ( i say ) a great argument of providence and divine disposition ; for else i do not see but why there might be in some lands continual successive droughts for many years , till they were quite depopulated ; in others as lasting rains , till they were overflown and drowned ; and these , if the clouds moved casually , often happening ; whereas since the ancientest records of history we do not read or hear of any such droughts or inundations , unless perhaps that of cyprus , wherein there fell no rain there for thirty six years , till the island was almost quite deserted , in the reign of constantine . again , if we consider the manner of the rains descent , destilling down gradually and by drops , which is most convenient for the watering of the earth , whereas if it should fall down in a continued stream like a river , it would gall the ground , wash away plants by the roots , overthrow houses , and greatly incommode , if not suffocate animals ; if , i say , we consider these things and many more that might be added , we might in this respect also cry out with the apostle , o the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of god! secondly , another meteor is the wind ; which how many uses it doth serve to is not easie to enumerate , but many it doth : viz. to ventilate and break the air , and dissipate noysom and contagious vapors , which otherwise stagnating might occasion many diseases in animals ; and therefore it is an observation concerning our native country , anglia ventosa , si non ventosa venenosa : to transfer the clouds from place to place , for the more commodious watering of the earth . to temper the excesses of the heat , as they find , who in brasil , new spain , the neighbouring islands , and other the like countries near the equator reap the benefit of the breezes . to fill the sails of ships , and carry them on their voyages to remote countries ; which of what eminent advantage it is to mankind , for the procuring and continuing of trade and mutual commerce between the most distant nations , the illustrating every corner of the earth , and the perfecting geography and natural history , is apparent to every man. to this may be added the driving about of windmills for grinding of corn , making of oyl , draining of pools , &c. that it should seldom or never be so violent and boisterous , as to overturn houses ; yea whole cities ; to tear up trees by the roots , and prostrate woods ; to drive the sea over the lower countries ; as were it the effect of chance , or meer natural causes not moderated by a superiour power , it would in all likelihood often do . all these things declare the wisdom and goodness of him who bringeth the winds out of his treasures . of inanimate mixt bodies . i proceed now to such inanimate bodies as are called perfectè mixta , perfectly mixt , improperly enough , they being many of them ( for ought i know ) as simple as those they call elements . these are stones , metals , minerals and salts , in stones , which one would think were a neglected genus , what variety ? what beauty and elegancy ? what constancy in their temper and consistency , in their figures and colours ? i shall speak of first some notable qualities wherewith some of them are endued . secondly , the remarkable uses they are of to us . the qualities i shall instance in are first colour , which in some of them is most lively , sparkling , and beautiful ; the carbuncle or rubine shining with red , the sapphire with blue , the emerauld with green , the topaz or chrysolite of the ancients with a yellow or gold colour , the amethyst as it were tinctured with wine , the opal varying its colours like changeable taffaty , as it is diversly exposed to the light. secondly , hardness , wherein some stones exceed all other bodies , and among them the adamant all other stones , being exalted to that degree thereof , that art in vain endeavors to counterfeit it , the factitious stones of chymists in imitation being easily detected by any ordinary lapidist . thirdly , figure , many of them shoot into regular figures , as crystal and bastard diamonds into hexagonal ; others into those that are more elegant and compounded , as those formed in imitation of the shels of testaceous fishes of all sorts , sharks teeth and vertebres , &c. if these be originally stones , or primary productions of nature in imitation of shels and fishes bones , and not the shels and bones themselves petrified , as we have somtimes thought . some have a kind of vegetation and resemblance of plants , as corals , pori and fungites , which grow upon the rocks like shrubs : to which i might add our ordinary star-stones and trochites , which i look upon as a sort of rock-plants . secondly , for the uses ; some serve for building and many sorts of vessels and utensils ; for pillars and statues and other carved works in relieve , for the temples , ornament of palaces , portico's , piazzas , conduits , &c. as freestone and marble ; some to burn into lime as chalk and limestone : some with the mixture of beriglia or kelp to make glass , as that the venetians call cuogolo , and common flints which serve also to strike fire ; some to cover houses as slates ; some for marking as morochthus , and the forementioned chalk , which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , serving moreover for manuring land , and some medicinal uses ; some to make vessels of which will endure the fire ; as that found in the country of chiavenna near plurs . to these useful stones i might add the warming-stone , digged in cornwal , which being once well heated at the fire retains its warmth a great while , and hath been found to give ease and relief in several pains and diseases , particularly that of the internal haemorrhoids . i might also take notice that some stones are endued with an electrical or attractive virtue . i might spend much time in the discoursing of the most strange and unaccountable nature and powers of the loadstone , a subject which hath exercised the wits and pens of the most acute and ingenious philosophers ; and yet the hypotheses which they have invented to give an account of its admirable phoenomena seem to me lame and unsatisfactory . what can we say of the subtlety , activity , and penetrancy of its effluvia , which no obstacle can stop or repel , but they will make their way through all sorts of bodies , firm and fluid , dense and rare , heavy and light , pellucid and opake : nay they will pass through a vacuity or empty space , at least devoid of air and any other sensible body . it s attractive power of iron was known to the ancients , its verticity and direction to the poles of the earth is of later invention : which of how infinite advantage it hath been to these two or three last ages , the great improvement of navigation and advancement of trade and commerce by rendring the remotest countries easily accessible , the noble discovery of a vast continent or new world , besides a multitude of unknown kingdoms and islands , the resolving experimentally those ancient problems of the spherical roundness of the earth ; of the being of antipodes , of the habitableness of the torrid zone , and the rendring the whole terraqueous globe circumnavigable , do abundantly demonstrate ; whereas formerly they were wont to coast it , and creep along the shores , scarce daring to venture out of the ken of land , when they did having no other guide but the cynosura or pole-star and those near it , and in cloudy weather none at all . as for metals , they are so many ways useful to mankind , and those uses so well known to all , that it would be lost labor to say any thing of them : only it is remarkable , that those which are of most frequent and necessary use , as iron , brass and lead , are the most common and plentiful : others that are more rare , may better be spared , yet are they thereby qualified to be made the common measure and standard of the value of all other commodities , and so to serve for coin or money , to which use they have been employed by all civil nations in all ages . of these gold is remarkable for its admirable ductility and ponderosity , wherein it excels all other bodies hitherto known . i shall only add concerning metals , that they do pertinaciously resist all transmutation ; and though one would sometimes think they were turned into a different substance , yet do they but as it were lurk under a larva or vizzard , and may be reduced again into their natural form and complexions , in despight of all the tortures of vulcan or corrosive waters . note , that this was written above thirty years since , when i thought i had reason to distrust what ever had then been reported or written to affirm the transmutation of metals one into another . i shall omit the consideration of other minerals , and of salts and earths , because i have nothing to say of their uses , but only such as refer to man , which i cannot affirm to have been the sole or primary end of the formation of them . indeed to speak in general of these terrestrial inanimate bodies , they having no such organization of parts as the bodies of animals , nor any so intricate variety of texture , but that their production may plausibly be accounted for by an hypothesis of matter divided into minute particles or atoms naturally indivisible , of various but a determinate number of figures , and perhaps also differing in magnitude , and these moved , and continually kept in motion according to certain established laws or rules ; we cannot so clearly discover the uses for which they were created , but may probably conclude that among other ends they were made for those for which they serve us and other animals . it is here to be noted , that according to our hypothesis , the number of the atomes of each several kind that is of the same figure and magnitude is not nearly equal ; but there be infinitely more of some species than of others , as of those that compound those vast aggregates of air , water , and earth , more abundantly than of such as make up metals and minerals : the reason whereof may probably be , because those are necessary to the life and being of man and all other animals , and therefore must be always at hand ; these only useful to man , and serving rather his conveniences than necessities . the reason why i affirm the minute component particles of bodies to be naturally indivisible by any agent we can employ , even fire it self ( which is the only catholick dissolvent , other menstruums being rather instruments than efficients in all solutions , apt by reason of the figure and smalness of their parts to cut and divide other bodies , ( as wedges cleave wood ) when actuated by fire or its heat , which else would have no efficacy at all ; as wedges have not unless driven by a beetle : ) the reason , i say , i have already given ; i shall now instance in a body whose minute parts appear to be indissoluble by the force of fire , and that is common water , which destill , boil , circulate , work upon how you will by fire , you can only dissolve it into vapour , which when the motion ceases easily returns into water again ; vapour being nothing else but the minute parts thereof by heat agitated and separated one from another . for another instance , some of the most learned and experienced chymists do affirm quicksilver to be intransmutable , and therefore call it liquor aeternus . and i am of opinion that the same holds of all simple bodies , that their component particles are indissoluble , by any natural agent . of vegetables or plants . i have now done with inanimate bodies both simple and mixt. the animate are first , such as are endued only with a vegetative soul , and therefore commonly called vegetables or plants ; of which if we consider either their stature and shape , or their age and duration , we shall find it wonderful . for why should some plants rise up to a great height , others creep upon the ground , which perhaps may have equal seeds , nay the lesser plant many times the greater seed ? why should each particular so observe its kind , as constantly to produce the same leaf for consistency , figure , division , and edging ; and bring forth the same kind of flower , and fruit , and seed , and that though you translate it into a soil which naturally puts forth no such kind of plant , so that it is some * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth effect this or rather some intelligent plastick nature , as we have before intimated . for what account can be given of the determination of the growth and magnitude of plants from mechanical principles , of matter moved without the presidency and guidance of some superiour agent ? why may not trees grow up as high as the clouds or vapours ascend , or if you say the cold of the superiour air checks them , why may they not spread and extend their lateral branches so far till their distance from the center of gravity depress them to the earth , be the tree never so high ? how comes it to pass that though by culture and manure they may be highly improved , and augmented to a double , treble , nay some a much greater proportion in magnitude of all their parts ; yet is this advance restrained within certain limits ? there is a maximum quod sic which they cannot exceed . you can by no culture or art extend a fennel stalk to the stature and bigness of an oak . then why should some be very long lived , others only annual or biennial ? how can we imagine that any laws of motion can determine the situation of the leaves , to come forth by pairs , or alternately , or circling the stalk ; the flowers to grow singly , or in company and tusts , to come forth the bosoms of the leaves and branches , or on the tops of branches and stalks ; the figure of the leaves , that they should be divided into so many jags or escallops and curiously indented round the edges , as also of the flower-leaves , their number and site , the figure and number of the stamina and their apices , the figure of the style and seed-vessel , and the number of cels into which it is divided . that all this be done , and all these parts duly proportioned one to another , there seems to be necessary some intelligent plastick nature , which may understand and regulate the whole oeconomy of the plant : for this cannot be the vegetative soul , because that is material and divisible together with the body : which appears in that a branch cut off of a plant will take root and grow and become a perfect plant it self , as we have already observed . i had almost forgotten the complication of the seed-leaves of some plants in the seed , which is so strange that one cannot believe it to be done by matter however moved by any laws or rules imaginable . some of them being so close plaited , and straitly folded up and thrust together within the membranes of the seed , that it would puzzle a man to imitate it , and yet none of the folds sticking or growing together ; so that they may easily be taken out of their cases , and spread and extended even with ones fingers . secondly , if we consider each particular part of a plant , we shall find it not without its end or use : the roots for its stability and drawing nourishment from the earth . the fibres to contain and convey the sap. besides which there is a large sort of vessels to contain the proper and specific juice of the plant : and others to carry air for such a kind of respiration as it needeth ; of which we have already spoken . the outer and inner bark in trees serve to defend the trunk and boughs from the excesses of heat and cold and drought , and to convey the sap for the annual augmentation of the tree . for in truth every tree may in some sence be said to be an annual plant , both leaf , flower and fruit proceeding from the coat that was superinduced over the wood the last year , which coat also never beareth any more , but together with the old wood serves as a form or block to sustain the succeeding annual coat . the leaves before the gemma or bud be explicated to embrace and defend , the flower and fruit , which is even then perfectly formed ; afterwards to preserve the branches , flowers and fruit from the injuries of the summer sun , which would too much parch and dry them , if they lay open and exposed to its beams without any shelter ; the leaves i say qualifie and contemper the heat , and serve also to hinder the too hasty evaporation of the moisture about the root ; not to mention the pleasant and delectable , cooling and refreshing shade they afford in the summer time ; which was very much esteemed by the inhabitants of hot countries , who always took great delight and pleasure to sit in the open air under shady trees : hence that expression so often repeated in scripture , of every mans sitting under his own vine , and under his own fig-tree , where also they used to eat ; as appears by abrahams entertaining the angels under a tree , and standing by them when they did eat . gen. . . moreover the leaves of plants are very beautiful and ornamental . that there is great pulchritude and comliness of proportion in the leaves , flowers and fruits of plants , is attested by the general verdict of mankind , as dr. more and others well observe . the adorning and beautifying of temples and buildings in all ages , is an evident and undeniable testimony of this . for what is more ordinary with architects than the taking in leaves and flowers and fruitage for the garnishing of their work ; as the roman the leaves of acanthus sat . and the jewish of palm . trees and pomegranates ; and these more frequently than any of the five regular solids , as being more comly and pleasant to behold . if any man shall object , that comliness of proportion and beauty is but a meer conceit , and that all things are alike handsom to some men who have as good eyes as others ; and that this appears by the variation of fashions , which doth so alter mens fancies , that what erewhile seemed very handsom and comly , when it is once worn out of fashion appears very absurd , uncouth and ridiculous . to this i answer , that custom and use doth much in those things where little of proportion and symmetry shew themselves , or which are alike comly and beautiful , to disparage the one , and commend the other . but there are degrees of things ; for ( that i may use * dr. mores words ) i dare appeal to any man that is not sunk into so forlorn a pitch of degeneracy that he is as stupid to these things as the basest of beasts , whether , for example , a rightly cut tetraedrum , cube or icosaedrum have no more pulchritude in them than any rude broken stone , lying in the field or high-ways ; or to name other solid figures , which though they be not regular properly so called , yet have a settled idea and nature , as a cone , sphere , or cylinder , whether the sight of those do not more gratifie the minds of men , and pretend to more elegancy of shape than those rude cuttings or chippings of freestone that fall from the masons hands , and serve for nothing but to fill up the middle of the wall , as fit to be hid from the eyes of men for their ugliness . and therefore it is obvable , that if nature shape any thing but near to this geometrical accuracy , that we take notice of it with much content and pleasure , and greedily gather and treasure it up . as if it be but exactly round , as those spherical stones found in cuba , and some also in our own land , or have but its sides parallel , as those rhomboideal selenites found near st. ives in huntington shire , and many other places in england . whereas ordinary stones of rude and uncertain figures we pass by , and take no notice of at all . but though the figures of these bodies be pleasing and agreable to our minds , yet ( as we have already observed ) those of the leaves , flowers and fruits of trees , more . and it is remarkable , that in the circumscription and complication of many leaves , flowers , fruits , and seeds nature affects a regular figure . of a pentagonal or quincuncial disposition sir tho. brown of norwich produces several examples in his discourse about the quincunx . and doubtless instances might be given in other regular figures , were men but observant . the flowers serve to cherish and defend the first and tender rudiments of the fruit : i might also add the masculine or prolifick seed contained in the chives or apices of the stamina . these beside the elegancy of their figures are many of them endued with splendid and lovely colours , and likewise most grateful and fragrant odours . indeed such is the beauty and lustre of some flowers , that our saviour saith of the lilies of the field ( which some not without reason fuppose to have been tulips ) that solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these . and it is observed by * spigelius , that the art of the most skilful painter cannot so mingle and temper his colours , as exactly to imitate or counterfeit the native ones of the flowers of vegetables . as for the seeds of plants , * dr. more esteems it an evident sign of divine providence , that every kind hath its seed . for it being no necessary result of the motion of the matter ( as the whole contrivance of the plant indeed is not ) and it being of so great consequence that they have seed for the continuance and propagation of their own species , and also for the gratifying mans art , industry and necessities ( for much of husbandry and gardening lies in this ) it cannot but be an act of counsel to furnish the several kinds of plants with their seeds . now the seed being so necessary for the maintenance and increase of the several species , it is worthy the observation , what care is taken to secure and preserve it , being in some doubly and trebly defended . as for instance , in the walnut , almond and plums of all sorts , we have first a thick pulpy covering , then a hard shell , within which is the seed enclosed in a double membrane . in the nutmeg another tegument is added besides all these , viz. the mace within the hard shell immediately inveloping the kernel . neither yet doth the exterior pulp of the fruit or pericarpium serve only for the defence and security of the seed , whilst it hangs upon the plant : but after it is mature and faln upon the earth , for the stercoration of the soil , and promotion of the growth , though not the first germination of the seminal plant. hence ( as * petrus de crescentiis tells us ) husbandmen to make their vines bear , manure them with vine-leaves , or the husks of expressed grapes , and that they observe those to be most fruitful , which are so manured with their own : which observation holds true also in all other trees and herbs . but besides this use of the pulp or pericarpium for the guard and benefit of the seed , it serves also by a secondary intention of nature in many fruits for the food and sustenance of man and other animals . another thing worthy the nothing in seeds , and argumentative of providence and design , is that pappose plumage growing upon the tops of some of them , whereby they are capable of being wafted with the wind , and by that means scattered and disseminated far and wide . furthermore most seeds having in them a seminal plant perfectly formed , as the young is in the womb of animals , the elegant complication thereof in some species is a very pleasant and admirable spectacle ; so that no man that hath a soul in him can imagine or believe it was so formed and folded up without wisdom and providence . but of this i have spoken already . lastly , the immense smalness of some seeds , not to be seen by the naked eye , so that the number of seeds produced at once in some one plant may amount to a million , is a convincing argument of the infinite understanding and art of the former of them . and it is remarkable that such mosses as grow upon walls , the roofs of houses and other high places , have seeds so excessively small , that when shaken out of their vessels they appear like vapor or smoak , so that they may either ascend of themselves , or by an easie impulse of the wind be raised up to the tops of houses , walls or rocks : and we need not wonder how the mosses got thither , or imagine they sprung up spontaneously there . i might also take notice of many other particulars concerning vegetables , as , first , that because they are designed for the food of animals , therefore nature hath taken more extraordinary care and made more abundant provision for their propagation and increase ; so that they are multiplied and propagated not only by the seed , but many also by the root , producing off sets or creeping under ground , many by strings or wires running above ground , as strawberry and the like , some by slips or cuttings , and some by several of these ways . secondly , that some sorts of plants , as vines , all sorts of pulse , hops , briony , all promiferous herbs , pumpions , melons , gourds . cucumbers , and divers other species , that are weak and unable to raise or support themselves , are either endued with a faculty of twining about others that are near , or else furnished with claspers and tendrels , whereby as it were with hands they catch hold of them and so ramping upon trees , shrubs , hedges or poles , they mount up to a great height , and secure themselves and their fruit. thirdly , that others are armed with prickles and thorns , to secure them from the browsing of beasts , as also to shelter others that grow under them . moreover they are hereby rendred very useful to man , as if designed by nature to make both quick and dead hedges and fences , the great naturalist pliny , hath given an ingenious account of the providence and design of nature in thus arming and fencing them in these words . inde ( speaking of nature ) excogitavit aliquas aspectu hispidas , tactu truces , ut tantùm non vocem ipsius naturae fingentis illas , rationémque reddentis exaudire videamur , ne se depascat avida quadrupes , ne procaces manus rapiant , ne neglecta vestigia obterant , ne insidens ales infringat ; his muniendo aculeis telisque armando , remediis ut salva ac tuta sint . ità hoc quoque quod in iis odimus hominum causâ excogitatum est . as for the signatures of plants , or the notes impressed upon them as indices of their virtues , though * some lay great stress upon them , accounting them , strong arguments to prove that some understanding principle is the highest original of the works of nature ; as indeed they were , could it certainly be made appear that there were such marks designedly set upon them ; because all that i find mentioned and collected by authors , seem to me to be rather fancied by men , than designed by nature to signifie or point out any such vertues or qualities as they would make us believe , i have elsewhere , i think upon good grounds , rejected them ; and finding no reason as yet to alter my opinion , i shall not further insist on them . of bodies endued with a sensitive soul , or animals . i proceed now to the consideration of animate bodies indued with a sensitive soul , called animals . of these i shall only make some general observations , not curiously consider the parts of each particular species , save only as they serve for instances or examples . first of all , because it is the great design of providence to maintain and continue every species , i shall take notice of the great care and abundant provision that is made for the securing this end. quanta ad eam rem vis , ut in suo quaeque genere permaneat ? cic. why can we imagine all creatures should be made male and female but to this purpose ? why should there be implanted in each sex such a vehement and inexpugnable appetite of copulation ? why in viviparous animals , in the time of gestation should the nourishment be carried to the embryon in the womb , which at other times goeth not that way ? when the young is brought forth , how comes all the nourishment then to be transferred from the womb to the breasts or paps , leaving its former channel , the dam at such time being for the most part lean and ilfavoured ? here i cannot omit one very remarkable observation i find in cicero . atque ut intelligamus ( saith he ) nihil horum esse fortuitum , sed haec omnia providae solertisque naturae , quae multiplices foetus procreant , ut sues , ut canes , his mammarum data est multitudo , quas easdem paucas habent eae bestiae quae pauca gignunt . that we may understand that none of these things ( he had been speaking of ) is fortuitous , but that all are the effects of provident and sagacious nature , multiparous quadrupeds , as dogs , as swine , are furnished with a multitude of paps : whereas those beasts which bring forth few have but a few . that flying creatures of the greater sort , that is birds should all lay eggs , and none bring forth live young , is a manifest argument of divine providence , designing thereby their preservation and security ; that there might be the more plenty of them ; and that neither the birds of prey , the serpent , nor the fowler should straiten their generations too much . for if they had been viviparous , the burthen of their womb , if they had brought forth any competent number at a time , had been so great and heavy , that their wings would have failed them , and they became an easie prey to their enemies : or if they had brought but one or two at a time , they would have been troubled all the year long with feeding their young , or bearing them in their womb. * dr. more . this mention of feeding their young puts me in mind of two or three considerable observations referring thereto . first , seeing it would be for many reasons inconvenient for birds to give suck , and yet no less inconvenient if not destructive to the chicken upon exclusion all of a sudden to make so great a change in its diet , as to pass from liquid to hard food , before the stomach be gradually consolidated and by use strengthened and habituated to grind and concoct it , and its tender and pappy flesh , fitted to be nourished by such strong and solid diet ; and before the bird be by little and little accustomed to use its bill , and gather it up , which at first it doth but very slowly and imperfectly ; therefore nature hath provided a large yolk in every egg ; a great part whereof remaineth after the chicken is hatch'd , and is taken up and enclosed in its belly , and by a channel made on purpose received by degrees into the guts , and serves instead of milk to nourish the chick for a considerable time ; which nevertheless mean while feeds it self by the mouth a little at a time , and gradually more and more , as it gets a perfecter ability and habit of gathering up its meat , and its stomach is strengthen'd to macerate and concoct it , and its flesh hardened and fitted to be nourished by it . secondly , that birds which feed their young in the nest , though in all likelyhood they have no ability of counting the number of them , should yet , ( though they bring but one morsel of meat at a time , and have not fewer ( it may be ) than seven or eight young in the nest together , which at the return of their dams , do all at once with equal greediness , hold up their heads and gape , ) not omit or forget one of them , but feed them all ; which , unless they did carefully observe , and retain in memory which they had fed , which not , were impossible to be done ; this i say , seems to me most strange and admirable , and beyond the possibility of a meer machine to perform . thirdly , the marvellous speedy growth of birds that are hatched in nests , and fed by the old ones there , till they be fledg'd and come almost to their full bigness ; at which perfection they arrive within the short term of about one fortnight , seems to me an argument of providence designing thereby their preservation , that they might not lie long in a condition exposed to the ravine of any vermine that may find them , being utterly unable to escape or shift for themselves . another and no less effectual argument may be taken from the care and providence used for the hatching and rearing their young and first , they search our a secret and quiet place , where they may be secure and undisturbed in their incubation : then they make themselves nests , every one after his kind , that so their eggs and young may lie soft and warm , and their exclusion and growth be promoted . these nests some of them so elegant and artificial , that it is hard for man to imitate them and make the like . i have seen nests of an indian bird so artificially composed of the fibres , i think , of some roots , so curiously interwoven and platted together as is admirable to behold : which nests they hang on the ends of the twigs of trees over the water , to secure their eggs and young from the ravage of apes and monkeys , and other beasts that might else prey upon them . after they have laid their eggs , how diligently and patiently do they sit upon them till they be hatched , scarce affording themselves time to go off to get them meat ? nay with such an ardent and impetuous desire of sitting are they inspired , that if you takeaway all their eggs , they will sit upon an empty nest : and yet one would think that sitting were none of the most pleasant works . after their young are hatcht for some time they do almost constantly brood them under their wings , lest the cold , and sometimes perhaps the heat , should harm them . all this while also they labor hard to get them food , sparing it out of their own bellies , and pining themselves almost to death rather than they should want . moreover it is admirable to observe with what courage they are at that time inspired , that they will even venture their own lives in defence of them . the most timorous , as hens and geese , become then so couragious as to dare to fly in the face of a man that shall molest or disquiet their young , which would never do so much in their own defence . these things being contrary to any motions of sense , or instinct of self-preservation , and so eminent pieces of self-denial , must needs be the work of providence for the continuation of the species and upholding of the world. especially if we consider that all this pains is bestowed upon a thing which takes no notice of it , will render them no thanks for it , nor make them any requital or amends ; and also , that after the young is come to some growth , and able to shift for it self , the old one retains no such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it , takes no further care of it , but will fall upon it , and beat it indifferently with others . to these i shall add one observation more , relating to this head , borrowed of dr. cudworth , system , pag. . one thing necessary to the conservation of the species of animals ; that is , the keeping up constantly in the world a due numerical proportion between the sexes of male and female , doth necessarily infer a superintending providence . for did this depend only upon mechanism , it cannot well be conceived , but that in some ages or other , there should happen to be all males , or all females ; and so the species fail . nay , it cannot well be thought otherwise , but that there is in this a providence , superiour to that of the plastick or spermatick nature , which hath not so much of knowledge and discretion allowed to it , as whereby to be able alone to govern this affair . secondly , i shall take notice of the various strange instincts of animals ; which will necessarily demonstrate , that they are directed to ends unknown to them , by a wise superintendent . as . that all creatures should know how to defend themselves , and offend their enemies ; where their natural weapons are situate , and how to make use of them . a calf will so manage his head as though he would push with his horns even before they shoot . a boar knows the use of his tushes ; a dog of his teeth ; a horse of his hoofs ; a cock of his spurs ; a bee of her sting ; a ram will but with his head , yea though he be brought up tame , and never saw that manner of fighting . now , why another animal which hath no horns should not make a shew of pushing , or no spurs of striking with his legs and the like , i know not , but that every kind is providentially directed to the use of its proper and natural weapons . . that those animals that are weak , and have neither weapons nor courage to fight , are for the most part created swift of foot or wing , and so being naturally timorous , are both willing and able to save themselves by flight . . that poultrey , partridge and other birds should at the first sight know birds of prey , and make sign of it by a peculiar note of their voice to their young , who presently thereupon hide themselves : that the lamb should acknowledge the wolf its enemy , though it had never seen one before , as is taken for granted by most naturalists , and may for ought i know be true , argues the providence of nature , or more truly the god of nature , who for their preservation hath put such an instinct into them . . that young animals , so soon as they are brought forth , should know their food . as for example , such as are nourished with milk , presently find their way to the paps , and suck at them , whereas none of those that are not designed for that nourishment ever offer to suck , or to seek out any such food . again , . that such creatures as are whole-footed or fin-toed , viz. some birds and some quadrupeds , are naturally directed to go into the water and swim there , as we see ducklings , though hatch'd and led by a hen , if she brings them to the brink of a river or pond of water , they presently leave her , and in they go , though they never saw any such thing done before ; and though the hen clocks and calls , and doth what she can to keep them out : so that we see every part in animals is fitted to its use , and the knowledge of this use put into them . for neither do any sort of web-footed fowls live constantly upon the land , or fear to enter the water , nor any land-fowl so much as attempt to swim there . . birds of the same kind make their nests of the same materials , laid in the same order , and exactly of the same figure , so that by the sight of the nest one may certainly know what bird it belongs to . and this they do , though living in distant countries , and though they never saw , nor could see any nest made , that is , though taken out of the nest , and brought up by hand ; neither were any of the same kind ever observed to make a different nest either for matter or fashion . this together with the curious and artificial contexture of such nests , and their fitness and convenience for the reception , hatching and cherishing the eggs and young of their respective builders ( which we have before taken notice of ) is a great argument of a superiour author of their and others natures , who hath indu'd them with these instincts , whereby they are as it were , acted and driven to bring about ends which themselves aim not at ( so far as we can discern ) but are directed to ; for ( as aristotle observes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they act not by any art , neither do they enquire , neither do they deliberate about what they do . and therefore , as dr. cudworth saith well , they are not masters of that wisdom according to which they act , but only passive to the instincts and impresses thereof upon them . and indeed to affirm that brute animals do all these things by a knowledge of their own , and which themselves are masters of , and that without deliberation and consultation , were to make them to be endued with a most perfect intellect , far transcending that of human reason : whereas it is plain enough , that brutes are not above consultation but below it ; and that these instincts of nature in them , are nothing but a kind of fate upon them . . the bee , a creature of the lowest form of animals , so that no man can suspect it to have any considerable measure of understanding , or to have knowledge of , much less to aim at any end , yet makes her combs and cells with that geometrical accuracy , that she must needs be acted by an instinct implanted in her by the wise author of nature . for first , she plants them in a perpendicular posture , and so close together as with conveniency they may , beginning at the top , and working downwards , that so no room may be lost in the hive , and that she may have easie access to all the combs and cells . besides , the combs being wrought double , that is , with cells on each side , a common bottom or partition-wall could not in any other site have so conveniently , if at all , received or contained the honey . then she makes the particular cells most geometrically and artificially , as the famous mathematician pappus demonstrates in the preface to his third book of mathematical collections . first of all ( saith he , speaking of the cells , ) it is convenient that they be of such figures as may cohere one to another , and have common sides , else there would be empty spaces left between them to no use , but to the weakening and spoiling of the work , if any thing should get in there . and therefore though a round figure be most capacious for the honey , and most convenient for the bee to creep into , yet did she not make choice of that , because then there must have been triangular spaces left void . now there are only three rectilineous and ordinate figures which can serve to this purpose ; and inordinate or unlike ones must have been not only less elegant and beautiful but unequal . [ ordinate figures are such as have all their sides and all their angles equal . ] the three ordinate figures , are triangles , squares , and hexagons . for the space about any point may be filled up either by six equilateral triangles , or four squares , or three hexagons ; whereas three pentagons are too little and three heptagons too much . of these three the bee makes use of the hexagon , both because it is more capacious than either of the other , provided they be of equal compass , and so equal matter spent in the construction of each : and secondly , because it is most commodious for the bee to creep into : and lastly , because in the other figures more angles and sides must have met together at the same point , and so the work could not have been so firm and strong . moreover , the combs being double , the cells on each side the partition are so ordered , that the angles on one side , insist upon the centers of the bottoms of the cells on the other side , and not angle upon , or against angle ; which also must needs contribute to the strength and firmness of the work . another sort of bee i have observed , it may be called the tree-bee , whose industry is admirable in making provision for her young . first , she digs round vaults or burrows [ cuniculos ] in a rotten or decayed tree , of a great length , in them she builds or forms her cylindrical nests or cases , resembling cartrages , or a very narrow thimble , only in proportion longer , of pieces of rose or other leaves which she shares off with her mouth , and plats and joyns close together by some glutinous substance . these cases she fills with a red pap , of a thinner consistence than an electuary , of no pleasant taste , which where she gathers , i know not : on the top of the pap , she lays one egg , and then closes up the vessel with a cover of leaves . the enclosed egg soon becomes an eula or maggor , which feeding upon the pap till it comes to its full growth changes to a nympha , and after comes out a bee. another insect noted for her seeming prudence , in making provision for the winter , proposed by solomon to the sluggard for his imitation , is the ant , which ( as all naturalists agree ) hoards up grains of corn against the winter for her sustenance : and is reported by some to * bite off the germen of them , lest they should sprout by the moisture of the earth , which i look upon as a mere fiction ; neither should i be forward to credit the former relation , were it not for the authority of the scripture , because i could never observe any such storing up of grain by our country-ants . yet is there a quadruped taken notice of even by the vulgar for laying up in store provision for the winter , that is , the squirrel , whose hoards of nuts are frequently found and pillaged by them . the beaver is by credible persons eye-witnesses affirmed to build him houses for shelter and security in winter-time : see mr. boyl of final causes . besides these i have mentioned , an hundred others may be found in books relating especially to physick ; as that dogs when they are sick should vomit themselves by eating grass : that swine should refuse meat so soon as they feel themselves ill , and so recover by abstinence : that the bird ibis should teach men the way of administring clysters . plin. lib. . cap. . the wild goats of dictamnus for drawing out of darts , and healing wounds : the swallow the use of celandine for repairing the sight , &c. ibid. of the truth of which because i am not fully satisfied , i shall make no inference from them . thirdly , i shall remark the care that is taken for the preservation of the weak and such as are exposed to injuries , and preventing the encrease of such as are noisom and hurtful : for as it is a demonstration of the divine power and magnificence to create such variety of animals , not only great but small , not only strong and couragious , but also weak and timerous ; so is it no less argument of his wisdom to give to these means , and the power and skill of using them , to preserve themselves from the violence and injuries of those . that of the weak some should dig vaults and holes in the earth , as rabbets , to secure themselves and their young ; others should be armed with hard shels ; others with prickles , the rest that have no such armature should be endued with great swiftness or pernicity : and not only so , but some also have their eyes stand so prominent , as the hare , that they can see as well behind as before them , that so they may have their enemy always in their eye ; and long , hollow , moveable ears , to receive and convey the least sound , or that which comes from far , that they be not suddenly surprised or taken ( as they say ) napping . as for sheep , which have no natural weapons or means to defend or secure themselves , neither heels to run nor claws to dig ; they are delivered into the hand , and committed to the care and tuition of man , and serving him for divers uses , are nourished and protected by him ; and so enjoying their beings for a time , by this means propagate and continue their species : so that there are none destitute of some means to preserve themselves and their kind ; and these means so effectual , that notwithstanding all the endeavors and contrivances of man and beast to destroy them , there is not to this day one species lost of such as are mentioned in histories , and consequently and undoubtedly neither of such as were at first created . then for birds of prey and rapacious animals , it is remarkable what aristotle observes , that they are all solitary , and go not in flocks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . no birds of prey are gregarious . again , that such creatures do not greatly multiply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they for the most part breeding and bringing forth but one or two , or at least a few young ones at once : whereas they that are feeble and timorous are generally multiparous ; or if they bring forth but few at once , as pigeons , they compensate that by their often breeding , viz. every month but two throughout the year ; by this means providing for the continuation of their kind . fourthly , i shall note the exact fitness of the parts of the bodies of animals to every ones nature and manner of living . of this dr. * more produces an eminent instance in a poor contemptible quadruped , the mole . first of all ( saith he ) her dwelling being under ground , where nothing is to be seen , nature hath so obscurely fitted her with eyes , that naturalists can scarcely agree , whether she hath any sight at all or no [ in our observation , moles have perfect eyes , and holes for them through the skin , so that they are outwardly to be seen by any that shall diligently search for them ; though indeed they are exceeding small , not much bigger than a great pins head . ] but for amends , what she is capable of for her defence and warning of danger , she has very eminently conferred upon her ; for she is very quick of hearing [ doubtless her subterraneous vaults are like trunks to convey any sound a great way . ] and then her short tail , and short legs , but broad fore-feet armed with sharp claws , we see by the event to what purpose they are , she so swiftly working her self under ground , and making her way so fast in the earth , as they that behold it cannot but admire it . her legs therefore are short that she need dig no more than will serve the mere thickness of her body : and her fore-feet are broad , that she may scoup away much earth at a time : and she has little or no tail , because she courses it not on the ground like a rat or mouse , but lives under the earth , and is fain to dig her self a dwelling there ; and she making her way through so thick an element , which will not easily yield as the water and air do ; it had been dangerous to draw so long a train behind her ; for her enemy might fall upon her rear , and fetch her out before she had perfected and got full possession of her works : which being so , what more palpable argument of providence than she ? another instance in quadrupeds might be the tamandua or ant bear , described by marcgrave and piso , who saith of them , that they are night walkers , and seek their food by night . being kept tame they are fed with flesh , but it must be minced small , because they have not only a slender and sharp head and snout , but also a narrow and toothless mouth ; their tongue is like a great lute string ( as big as a goose-quill ) round , and in the greater kind ( for there are two species ) more than two foot long , and therefore lies doubled in a channel between the lower parts of the cheeks . this when hungry they thrust forth , being well moistened , and lay upon the trunks of trees , and when it is covered with ants suddenly draw it back into their mouths ; if the ants lie so deep that they cannot come at them , they dig up the earth with their long and strong claws , wherewith for that purpose their fore-feet are armed . so we see how their parts are fitted for this kind of diet , and no other ; for the catching of it and for the eating of it , it requiring no comminution by the teeth , as appears also in the chamaeleon , which is another quadruped that imitates the tamandua in this property of darting out the tongue to a great length , with wonderful celerity , and for the same purpose too of catching of insects . besides these quadrupeds , there are a whole genus of birds , called pici martii or woodpeckers , that in like manner have a tongue which they can shoot forth to a very great length , ending in a sharp stiff bony tip , dented on each side ; and at pleasure thrust it deep into the holes , clefts and crannies of trees , to stab and draw out cossi or any other insects lurking there , as also into anthills , to strike and fetch out the ants and their eggs. moreover they have short but very strong legs , and their toes stand two forwards two backwards , which disposition ( as aldrovandus well notes ) nature , or rather the wisdom of the creator , hath granted to woodpeckers , because it is very convenient for the climbing of trees , to which also conduces the stiffness of the feathers of their tails and there bending downward , whereby they are fitted to serve as a prop for them to lean upon and bear up their bodies . as for the chamaeleon he imitates the woodspite , not only in the make , motion and use of his tongue for striking ants , flies , and other insects ; but also in the site of his toes , whereby he is wonderfully qualified to run upon trees , which he doth with that swiftness , that one would think he flew , whereas upon the ground he walks very clumfily and ridiculously . a full description of the outward and inward parts of this animal , may be seen at the end of panarolus's observat. it is to be noted , that the chamelion , though he hath teeth , uses them not for chewing his prey , but swallows it immediately . ii. in birds all the members are most exactly fitted for the use of flying . first , the muscles which serve to move the wings are the greatest and strongest , because much force is required to the agitation of them ; the underside of them is also made concave , and the upper convex , that they may be easily lifted up , and more strongly beat the air , which by this means doth more resist the descent of their body downward . then the trunk of their body doth somewhat resemble the hull of a ship ; the head the prow , which is for the most part small , that it may the more easily cut the air , and make way for their bodies ; the train serves to steer , govern and direct their flight , and however it may be held erect in their standing or walking , yet is directed to lye almost in the same plain with their backs , or rather a little inclining , when they fly . that the train serves to sleer and direct their flight , and turn their bodies like the rudder of a ship is evident in the kite , who by a light turning of his train , moves his body which way he pleases . iidem videntur artem gubernandi docuisse caudae flexibus , in caelo monstrante natura quod opus esset in profundo . plin. lib. . cap. . they seem to have taught men the art of steering a ship by the flexures of their tails ; nature shewing in the air what was needful to be done in the deep . and it 's notable that aristotle truly observes , that whole-footed birds , and those that have long legs , have for the most part short tails ; and therefore whilest they fly , do not as others draw them up to their bellies , but stretch them at length backwards , that they may serve to steer and guide them instead of tails . neither doth the tail serve only to direct and govern . the flight , but also partly to support the body and keep it even , wherefore when spread , it lies parallel to the horizon , and stands not perpendicular to it , as fishes do . hence birds that have no tails , as some sorts of colymbi or douckers fly very inconveniently with their bodies almost erect . iii. as for fishes their bodies are long and slender , or else thin for the most part , for their more easie swimming and dividing the water . the wind-bladder , wherewith most of them are furnished , serves to poise their bodies , and keep them equiponderant to the water , which else would sink to the bottom , and lie grovelling there , as hath by breaking the bladder been experimentally found . by the contraction and dilatation of this bladder , they are able to raise or sink themselves at pleasure , and continue in what depth of water they list . the fins made of gristly spokes or rays connected by membranes , so that they may be contracted or extended like womens fans , and furnished with muscles for motion , serve partly for progression , but chiefly to hold the body upright ; which appears in that when they are cut off , it wavers to and fro , and so soon as the fish dies , the belly turns upward . the great strength by which fishes dart themselves forward with incredible celerity , like an arrow out of a bow , lies in their tails , their fins mean time , lest they should retard their motion , being held close to their bodies . and therefore almost the whole musculous flesh of the body is bestowed upon the tail and back , and serves for the vibration of the tail , the heaviness and corpulency of the water , requiring a great force to divide it . i might here take notice of those amphibious creatures , which we may call aquatic quadrupeds ( though one of them there is that hath but two feet , viz. the manati or sea-cow ) the beaver , the otter , the phoca or sea calf , the water-rat , and the frog , the toes of whose feet are joyned by membranes , as in water-fowls for swimming ; and who have very small ears , and ear-holes , as the cetaceous fishes have for hearing in the water . to this head belongs the adapting of the parts that minister to generation in the sexes one to another ; and in creatures that nourish their young with milk , the nipples of the breast to the mouth and organs of suction ; which he must needs be wilfully blind and void of sence , that either discerns not , or denies to be intended and made one for the other . that the nipples should be made spungy , and with such perforations , as to admit passage to the milk when drawn , otherwise to retain it ; and the teeth of the young either not spungy , or so soft and tender , as not to hurt the nipples of the dam , are effects and arguments of providence and design . to this head of the fitness of the parts of the body to the creatures nature and manner of living , belongs that observation of aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . such birds as have crooked beaks and talons , are all carnivorous ; and so of quadrupeds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnivora omnia . all that have serrate teeth , are carnivorous . this observation holds true concerning all european birds , but i know not but that parrots may be an exception to it . yet it is remarkable , that such birds as are carnivorous have no gizzard , or musculous , but a membranous stomach ; that kind of food needing no such grinding or comminution as seeds do , but being torn into strings , or small flakes by the beak , may be easily concocted by a membranous stomach . to the fitness of all the parts and members of animals to their respective uses may also be referred another observation of the same aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . all animals have even feet , not more on one side than another ; which if they had , would either hinder their walking , or hang by not only useless , but also burthensome . for though a creature might make limping shift to hop , suppose with three feet , yet nothing so conveniently or steddily to walk , or run , or indeed to stand . so that we see , nature hath made choice of what is most fit , proper and useful . they have also not only an even number of feet , answering by pairs one to another , which is as well decent as convenient ; but those too of an equal length , i mean the several pairs ; whereas were those on one side longer than they on the other , it would have caused an inconvenient halting or limping in their going . i shall mention but one more observation of aristotle , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there is no creature only volatile , or no flying animal but hath feet as well as wings , a power of walking or creeping upon the earth ; because there is no food , or at least not sufficient food for them to be had always in the air ; or if in hot countries we may suppose there is , the air being never without store of insects flying about in it , yet could such birds take no rest , for having no feet , they could not perch upon trees , and if they should alight upon the ground , they could by no means raise themselves any more , as we see those birds which have but short feet , as the swift and martinet , with difficulty do . besides , they would want means of breeding , having no where to lay their eggs , to sit , hatch or brood their young. as for the story of the manucodiata or bird of paradise , which in the former age was generally received and accepted for true , even by the learned , it is now discovered to be a fable , and rejected and exploded by all men : those birds being well known to have legs and feet , as well as others , and those not short , small not feeble ones , but sufficiently great and strong and armed with crooked talons , as being the members of birds of prey . but against the uses of several bodies i have instanced in that refer to man it may be objected , that these uses were not designed by nature in the formation of the things ; but that the things were by the wit of man accommodated to those uses . to which i answer with dr. more in the appendix to his antidote against atheism . that the several useful dependencies of this kind , ( viz. of stones , timber , and metals for building of houses or ships , the magnet for navigation , &c. fire for melting of metals and forging of instruments for the purposes mentioned ) we only find , not make them . for whether we think of it or no , it is , for example , manifest , that fuel is good to continue fire , and fire to melt metals , and metals to make instruments to build ships and houses , and so on . wherefore it being true , that there is such a subordinate usefulness in the things themselves that are made to our hand , it is but reason in us to impute it to such a cause as was aware of the usefulness and serviceableness of its own works . to which i shall add , that since we find materials so fit to serve all the necessities and conveniences , and to exercise and employ the wit and industry of an intelligent and active being , and since there is such an one created that is endued with skill and ability to use them , and which by their help is enabled to rule over and subdue all inferiour creatures , but without them had been left necessitous , helpless and obnoxious to injuries above any other ; and since the omniscient creator could not but know all the uses , to which they might and would be employed by man , to them that acknowledge the being of a deity , it is little less than a demonstration , that they were created intentionally , i do not say only , for those uses . methinks by all this provision for the use and service of man , the almighty interpretatively speaks to him in this manner , i have placed thee in a spacious and well furnished world. i have endued thee with an ability of understanding what is beautiful and proportionable , and have made that which is so agreeable and delightful to thee ; i have provided thee with materials whereon to exercise and employ thy art and strength ; i have given thee an excellent instrument , the hand , accommodated to make use of them all ; i have distinguished the earth into hills , and valleys , and plains , and meadows , and woods ; all these parts capable of culture and improvement by thy industry ; i have committed to thee for thy assistance in thy labors of plowing , and carrying , and drawing , and travel ; the laborious ox , the patient ass , and the strong and serviceable horse ; i have created a multitude of seeds for thee to make choice out of them , of what is most pleasant to thy tast , and of most wholsom and pleasant nourishment ; i have also made great variety of trees , bearing fruit both for food and physick , those too capable of being meliorated and improved by transplantation , stercoration , insition , pruning , watering , and other arts and devices . till and manure thy fields , sow them with thy seeds , extirpate noxious and unprofitable herbs , guard them from the invasions and spoil of beasts , clear and fence in thy meadows and pastures ; dress and prune thy vines , and so rank and dispose them as is most sutable to the climate ; plant thee orchards , with all sorts of fruit-trees in such order as may be most beautiful to the eye , and most comprehensive of plants ; gardens for culinary herbs , and all kinds of salletting ; for delectable flowers , to gratifie the eye with their agreeable colors and figures , and thy scent with their fragrant odors ; for odoriferous and ever-green shrubs and suffrutices ; for exotick and medicinal plants of all sorts , and dispose them in that comly order , as may be both pleasant to behold , and commodious for access . i have furnished thee with all materials for building , as stone , and timber , and slate , and lime , and clay , and earth whereof to make bricks and tiles . deck and bespangle the country with houses and villages convenient for thy habitation , provided with out-houses and stables for the harbouring and shelter of thy cattle , with barns and granaries for the reception , and custody , and storing up thy corn and fruits . i have made thee a sociable creature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the improvement of thy understanding by conference , and communication of observations and experiments ; for mutual help , assistance and defence ; build thee large towns and cities with streight and well paved streets , and elegant rows of houses , adorned with magnificent temples for my honour and worship , with beautiful palaces for thy princes and grandees , with stately halls for publick meetings of the citizens and their several companies , and the sessions of the courts of judicature , besides publick portico's and aquaeducts . i have implanted in thy nature a desire of seeing strange and foreign and finding out unknown countries , for the improvement and advancement of thy knowledge in geography , by observing the bays , and creeks , and havens , and promontories , the outlets of rivers , the situations of the maritime towns and cities , the longitude and latitude , &c. of those places : in politicks , by noting their government , their manners , laws and customs , their diet and medicine , their trades and manufactures , their houses and buildings , their exercises and sports &c. in physiology or natural history , by searching out their natural rarities , the productions both of land and water , what species of animals , plants and minerals , of fruits and drogues are to be found there , what commodities for bartering and permutation , whereby thou maist be enabled to make large additions to natural history , to advance those other sciences , and to benefit and enrich thy country by encrease of its trade and merchandise : i have given thee timber and iron to build thee huls of ships , tall trees for masts , flax and hemp for sails , cables , and cordage for rigging . i have armed thee with courage and hardiness to attempt the seas , and traverse the spacious plains of that liquid element ; i have assisted thee with a compass , to direct thy course when thou shalt be out of all ken of land , and have nothing in view but sky and water . go thither for the purposes before mentioned , and bring home what may be useful and beneficial to thy country in general , or thy self in particular . i perswade my self , that the bountiful and gracious author of mans being and faculties , and all things else , delights in the beauty of his creation , and is well pleased with the industry of man in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles , with pleasant villages and country houses , with regular gardens and orchards and plantations of all sorts of shrubs , and herbs , and fruits , for meat , medicine or moderate delight , with shady woods and groves , and walks set with rows of elegant trees ; with pastures clothed with flocks , and valleys covered over with corn , and meadows burthened with grass , and whatever else differenceth a civil and well cultivated region from a barren and desolate wilderness . if a country thus planted and adorned , thus polished and civilized , thus improved to the height by all manner of culture for the support and sustenance , and convenient entertainment of innumerable multitudes of people , be not to be preferred before a barbarous and inhospitable scythia , without houses , without plantations , without corn-fields or vineyards , where the roving hords of the savage and truculent inhabitants , transfer themselves from place to place in wagons , as they can find pasture and forage for their cattle , and live upon milk and flesh roasted in the sun at the pomels of their saddles ; or a rude and unpolished america , peopled with slothful and naked indians , instead of well-built houses , living in pitiful hutts and cabans , made of poles set end-ways ; then surely the brute beasts condition and manner of living , to which , what we have mention'd doth nearly approach , is to be esteemed better than mans , and wit and reason was in vain bestowed on him . lastly , i might draw an argument of the admirable art and skill of the creator and composer of them from the incredible smalness of some of those natural and enlivened machines , the bodies of animals . any work of art of extraordinary fineness and subtlety , be it but a small engine or movement , or a curious carved or turned work of ivory or metals , such as those cups turned of ivory by oswaldus nerlinger of suevia , mentioned by joan. faber in his expositions of recchus his mexican animals , which all had the perfect form of cups , and were gilt with a golden border about the brim , of that wonderful smalness , that faber himself put a thousand of them into an excavated pepper corn , and when he was weary of the work , and yet had not filled the vessel , his friend john carolus schad , that shewed them him , put in four hundred more . any such work , i say , is beheld with much admiration , and purchased at a great rate , and treasured up as a singular rarity in the museums and cabinets of the curious , and as such is one of the first things shew'd to travellers and strangers but what are these for their fineness and parvity ( for which alone and their figure they are considerable ) to those minute machines endued with life and motion , i mean the bodies of those animalcula not long since discovered in pepper water by mr. lewenhoek of delft in holland , ( whose observations were confirmed and improved by our learned and worthy country-man mr. robert hook , ) who tells us , that some of his friends ( whose testimonials he desired ) did affirm , that they had seen , others , others little living creatures in a quantity of water no bigger than a grain of millet . and yet he made it his request to them , that they would only justifie ( that they might be within compass ) half the number that they believed each of them saw in the water . from the greatest of these numbers he infers , that there will be of these living creatures seen in one drop of water ; which number ( saith he ) i can with truth affirm i have discerned . this ( proceeds he ) doth exceed belief . but i do affirm , if a larger grain of sand were broken into , of equal parts , one of these would not exceed the bigness of one of those creatures . mr. hook tells us , that after he had discovered vast multitudes of those exceeding small creatures which mr. lewenhoeck had described , upon making use of other lights and glasses , he not only magnified those he had discovered to a very great bigness , but discovered many other sorts very much smaller than them he first saw , and some of them so exceeding small , that millions of millions might be contained in one drop of water . if pliny , considering such insects as were known to him , and those were none but what were visible to the naked eye , was moved to cry out , that the artifice of nature was no where more conspicuous than in these ; and again , in his tam parvis atque tam nullis quae ratio , quanta vis , quàm inextricabilis perfectio ? and again , rerum natura nusquam magis quàm in minimis tota est . hist. nat. l. . c. . what would he have said if he had seen animals of so stupendous smalness as i have mentioned ? how would he have been rapt into an extasie of astonishment and admiration ? again , if considering the body of a gnat , ( which by his own confession is none of the least of insects ) he could make so many admiring queries , where hath nature disposed so many senses in a gnat ? ubi visum praetendit ? ubi gustatum applicavit ? ubi odoratum inseruit ? ubi verò truculentam illam & portione maximam vocem ingeneravit ? quâ subtilitate pennas adnexuit ? praelongavit pedum crura ? disposuit jejunam caveam uti alvum ? avidam sanguinis & potissimum humani sitim accendit ? telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio ? atque ut in capaci , cùm cerni non possit exilitas , ità reciproca geminavit arte , ut fodiendo acuminatum pariter sorbendoque fistulosum esset . which words should i translate would lose of their emphasis and elegancy . if , i say , he could make such queries about the members of a gnat. what may we make ? and what would he in all likelyhood have made had he seen these incredible small living creatures ? how would he have admired the immense subtilty ( as he phrases it ) of their parts ? for to use mr. hook's words in his microscopium p. . if these creatures be so exceeding small , what must we think of their muscles and other parts ? certain it is that the mechanism by which nature performs the muscular motion is exceedingly small and curious ; and to the performance of every muscular motion , in greater animals at least , there are not fewer distinct parts concerned than many millions of millions , and these visible through a microscope . let us then consider the works of god , and observe the operations of his hands : let us take notice of and admire his infinite wisdom and goodness in the formation of them : no creature in this sublunary world is capable of so doing beside man ; and yet we are deficient herein : we content our selves with the knowledge of the tongues , and a little skill in philology , or history perhaps and antiquity , and neglect that which to me seems more material , i mean natural history and the works of the creation : i do not discommend or derogate from those other studies : i should betray mine own ignorance and weakness should i do so ; i only wish they might not altogether justle out and exclude this . i wish that this might be brought in fashion among us ; i wish men would be so equal and civil , as not to disparage , deride and vilifie those studies which themselves skill not of , or are not conversant in ; no knowledge can be more pleasant than this , none that doth so satisfie and feed the soul ; in comparison whereto that of words and phrases seems to me insipid and jejune . that learning ( saith a wise and observant prelate ) which consists only in the form and pedagogy of arts , or the critical notions upon words and phrases , hath in it this intrinsical imperfection , that it is only so far to be esteemed as it conduceth to the knowledg of things , being in it self but a kind of pedantry , apt to infect a man with such odd humors of pride , and affectation , and curiosity , as will render him unfit for any great employment . words being but the images of matter , to be wholly given up to the study of these . what is it but pygmalions phrenzy , to fall in love with a picture or image . as for oratory which is the best skill about words , that hath by some wise men been esteemed but a voluptuary art , like to cookery , which spoils wholsome meats and helps unwholsome , by the variety of sawces serving more to the pleasure of tast , than the health of the body . it may be ( for ought i know , and as some divines have thought ) part of our business and employment in eternity to contemplate the works of god , and give him the glory of his wisdom , power and goodness manifested in the creation of them . i am sure it is part of the business of a sabbath-day , and the sabbath is a type of that eternal rest ; for the sabbath seems to have been first instituted for a commemoration of the works of the creation , from which god is said to have rested upon the seventh day . let it not suffice us to be book-learned , to read what others have written , and to take upon trust more falshood than truth : but let us our selves examine things as we have opportunity , and converse with nature as well as books . let us endeavour to promote and increase this knowledge , and make new discoveries , not so much distrusting our own parts , or despairing of our own abilities , as to think that our industry can add nothing to the inventions of our ancestors , or correct any of their mistakes . let us not think that the bounds of science are fixed like hercules his pillars , and inscribed with a ne plus ultra . let us not think we have done when we have learnt what they have delivered to us . the treasures of nature are inexhaustible . here is employment enough for the vastest parts , the most indefatigable industries , the fairest opportunities , the most prolix and undisturbed vacancies . much might be done would we but endeavour , and nothing is insuperable to pains and patience . i know that a new study at first , seems very vast , intricate and difficult ; but after a little resolution and progress , after a man becomes a little acquainted , as i may so say , with it , his understanding is wonderfully cleared up and enlarged , the difficulties vanish , and the thing grows easie and familiar . and for our encouragement in this study , observe what the psalmist saith , psal. . . the works of the lord are great , sought out of all them that have pleasure therein . which though it be principally spoken of the works of providence , yet may as well be verified of the works of creation . i am sorry to see so little account made of real experimental philosophy in this university , and that those ingenious sciences of the mathematicks , are so much neglected by us : and therefore do earnestly exhort those that are young , especially gentlemen , to set upon these studies , and take some pains in them . they may possibly invent something of eminent use and advantage to the world ; and one such discovery would abundantly compensate the expence and travel of one mans whole life . however , it is enough to maintain and continue what is already invented : neither do i see what more ingenious and manly employment they can pursue , tending more to the satisfaction of their own minds , and the illustration of the glory of god. for he is wonderful in all his works . but i would not have any man cross his natural genius or inclinations , or undertake such methods of study , as his parts are not fitted to , or not serve those ends to which his friends upon mature deliberation have designed him ; but those who do abound with leisure , or who have a natural propension and genius inclining them thereto , or those who by reason of the strength and greatness of their parts , are able to compass and comprehend the whole latitude of learning . neither yet need those who are designed to divinity it self , fear to look into these studies , or think they will engross their whole time , and that no considerable progress can be made therein , unless men lay aside and neglect their ordinary callings , and necessary employments . no such matter . our life is long enough , and we might find time enough , did we husband it well : vitam non accepimus brevem sed fecimus , nec inopes ejus , sed prodigi sumus , as seneca saith . and did but young men fill up that time with these studies , which lies upon their hands , which they are incumbred with , and troubled how to pass away , much might be done even so . i do not see but the study of true physiology , may be justly accounted a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or preparative to divinity . but to leave that , it is a generally received opinion , that all this visible world was created for man ; that man is the end of the creation , as if there were no other end of any creature , but some way or other to be serviceable to man. this opinion is as old as tully , for saith he , in his second book , de nat. deorum . principio ipse mundus deorum hominumque causâ factus est ; quaeque in eo sunt omnia ea parata ad fructum hominum & inventa sunt . but though this be vulgarly received , yet wise men now adays think otherwise . dr. * more affirms , that creatures are made to enjoy themselves , as well as to serve us , and that it 's a gross piece of ignorance and rusticity to think otherwise . and in another place , this comes only out of pride and ignorance or a haughty presumption , because we are encouraged to believe , that in some sence , all things are made for man , therefore to think that they are not at all made for themselves . but he that pronounceth this , is ignorant of the nature of man , and the knowledge of things . for if a good man be merciful to his beast , then surely , a good god is bountiful and benign , and takes pleasure that all his creatures enjoy themselves that have life and sense , and are capable of enjoyment . for my part , i cannot believe that all the things in the world were so made for man , that they have no other use . for it is highly absurd and unreasonable , to think that bodies of such vast magnitude as the fixt stars , were only made to twinkle to us ; nay , a multitude of them there are , that do not so much as twinkle , being either by reason of their distance or of their smalness , altogether invisible to the naked eye , and only discoverable by a telescope , and it is likely perfecter telescopes than we yet have , may bring to light many more ; and who knows , how many may lie out of the ken of the best telescope that can possibly be made . and i believe there are many species in nature , which were never yet taken notice of by man , and consequently of no use to him , which yet we are not to think were created in vain ; but it 's likely ( as the doctor saith ) to partake of the overflowing goodness of the creator , and enjoy their own beings . but though in this sence it be not true , that all things were made for man ; yet thus far it is , that all the creatures in the world may be some way or other useful to us , at least to exercise our wits and understandings , in considering and contemplating of them , and so afford us subject of admiring and glorifying their and our maker . seeing then , we do believe and assert that all things were in some sence made for us , we are thereby obliged to make use of them for those purposes for which they serve us , else we frustrate this end of their creation . now some of them serve only to exercise our minds : many others there be , which might probably serve us to good purpose , whose uses are not discovered , nor are they ever like to be , without pains and industry . true it is , many of the greatest inventions have been accidentally stumbled upon , but not by men supine and careless , but busie and inquisitive . some reproach methinks it is to learned men , that there should be so many animals still in the world , whose outward shape is not yet taken notice of , or described , much less their way of generation , food , manners , uses , observed . if man ought to reflect upon his creator the glory of all his works , then ought he to take notice of them all , and not to think any thing unworthy of his cognizance . and truly the wisdom , art and power of almighty god , shines forth as visibly in the structure of the body of the minutest insect , as in that of a horse or elephant : therefore god is said to be , maximus in minimis . we men , esteeming it a more difficult matter , and of greater art and curiosity to frame a small watch , than a large clock : and no man blames him who spent his whole time in the consideration of the nature and works of a bee , or thinks his subject was too narrow . let us not then esteem any thing contemptible or inconsiderable , or below our notice taking ; for this is to derogate from the wisdom and art of the creator , and to confess our selves unworthy of those endowments of knowledge and understanding which he hath bestowed on us . do we praise daedalus , and architas , and hero , and callicrates , and albertus magnus , and many others which i might mention , for their cunning in inventing , and dexterity in framing and composing a few dead engines or movements : and shall we not admire and magnifie the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , former of the world , who hath made so many , yea i may say innumerable , rare pieces , and those too not dead ones , such as cease presently to move so soon as the spring is down , but all living , and themselves performing their own motions , and those so intricate , and various , and requiring such a multitude of parts and subordinate machins , that it is incomprehensible , what art , and skill , and industry , must be employed in the framing of one of them . but it may be objected , that god almighty was not so selfish and desirous of glory , as to make the world and all the creatures therein , only for his own honour , and to be praised by man. to assert this , were in des cartes his opinion , an absurd and childish thing , and a resembling of god to proud man. it is more worthy the deity to attribute the creation of the world to the exundation and overflowing of his transcendent and infinite goodness , which is of its own nature and in the very notion of it most free , diffusive , and communicative . to this i shall answer in two words . first , the testimony of scripture makes god in all his actions to intend and design his own glory mainly . prov. . . god made all things for himself . how , for himself ? he had no need of them : he hath no use of them . no , he made them for the manifestation of his power , wisdom , and goodness , and that he might receive from the creatures that were able to take notice thereof his tribute of praise . psal. . . offer unto god thanksgiving . and in the next verse , i will deliver thee , and thou shalt glorifie me . and again in the last verse , whoso offereth praise glorifieth me . so praise is called a sacrifice , and the calves of the lips , hosea . . esay . . i am the lord , that is my name , and my glory will i not give to another . esay . . and i will not give my glory to another . and to me it seems , that where the heavens and earth , and sun , and moon , and stars , and all other creatures are called upon to praise the lord ; the meaning and intention is , to invite and stir up man to take notice of all those creatures , and to admire and praise the power , wisdom and goodness of god manifested in the creation and designations of them . secondly , it is most reasonable that god almighty should intend his own glory . for he being infinite in all excellencies and perfections , and independent upon any other being ; nothing can be said or thought of him too great , and which he may not justly challenge as his due ; nay , he cannot think too highly of himself , his other attributes being adequate to his understanding ; so that , though his understanding be infinite , yet he understands no more than his power can effect , because that is infinite also . and therefore it is fit and reasonable , that he should own and accept the creatures acknowledgments and celebrations of those vertues and perfections , which he hath not received of any other , but possesseth eternally and originally of himself . and indeed , ( with reverence be it spoken , ) what else can we imagine the ever blessed deity to delight and take complacency in for ever , but his own infinite excellencies and perfections , and the manifestations and effects of them , the works of the creation , and the sacrifices of praise and thanks offered up by such of his creatures as are capable of considering those works , and discerning the traces and footsteps of his power and wisdom appearing in the formation of them , and moreover , whose bounden duty it is so to do . the reason why man ought not to admire himself , or seek his own glory , is , because he is a dependent creature , and hath nothing but what he hath received , and not only dependent , but imperfect ; yea , weak and impotent . and yet do i not take humility in man to consist in disowning or denying any gift or ability that is in him , but in a just valuation of such gifts and endowments , yet rather thinking too meanly than too highly of them ; because humane nature is so apt to err in running into the other extreme , to flatter it self , and to accept those praises that are not due to it ; pride being an elation of spirit upon false grounds , or a desire or acceptance of undue honour . otherwise , i do not see why a man may not admit and accept the testimonies of others concerning any perfection , accomplishment or skill that he is really possessed of : yet can he not think himself to deserve any great praise or honour for it , because both the power and the habit are the gift of god : and considering that one vertue is counter-balanced by many vices ; and one skill or perfection , with much ignorance and infirmity . i proceed now to select some particular pieces of the creation , and to consider them more distinctly . they shall be only two . . the whole body of the earth . . the body of man. first the body of the earth , and therein i shall take notice of . it s figure . . it s motion . . the constitution of its parts . by earth i here understand not the dry land , or the earth contradistinguished to water , or the earth considered as an element : but the whole terraqueous globe composed of earth and water . . for the figure , i could easily demonstrate it to be spherical . that the water , which by reason of its fluidity should , one would think , compose it self to a level , yet doth not so , but hath a gibbose superficies , may to the eye be demonstrated upon the sea. for when two ships sailing contrary ways lose the sight one of another : first the keel and hull disappear , afterward the sails , and if when upon deck you have perfectly lost sight of all , you get up the top of the main-mast you may descry it again . now what should take away the sight of these ships from each other but the gibbosity of the interjacent water ? the roundness of the earth from north to south is demonstrated from the appearance of northern stars above the horizon , and loss of the southern to them that travel northward ; and on the contrary the loss of the northern and appearance of the southern to them that travel southward . for were the earth a plain we should see exactly the fame stars wherever we were placed on that plain . the roundness from east to west is demonstrated from eclipses of either of the great luminaries . for why the same eclipse , suppose of the sun , which is seen to them that live more easterly , when the sun is elevated degrees above the horizon , should be seen to them that live one degree more westernly when the sun is but five degrees above the horizon , and so lower and lower proportionably to them that live more and more westernly , till at last it appear not at all , no accompt can be given but the globosity of the earth . for were the earth a perfect plain , the sun would appear eclipsed to all that live upon that plain , if not exactly in the same elevation , yet pretty near it ; but to be sure it would never appear to some , the sun being elevated high above the horizon ; and not at all to others . it being clear then that the figure of the earth is spherical , let us consider the conveniences of this figure . . no figure is so capacious as this , and consequently whose parts are so well compacted and united , and lie so near one to another for mutual strength . now the earth , which is the basis of all animals , and as some think of the whole creation , ought to be firm , and stable , and solid , and as much as is possible secured from all ruins and concussions . . this figure is most consonant and agreeable to the natural natus or tendency of all heavy bodies . now the earth being such a one , and all its parts having an equal propension or connivency to the center , they must needs be in greatest rest , and most immoveable when they are all equidistant from it . whereas were it an angular body , all the angles would be vast and steep mountains , bearing a considerable proportion to the whole bulk , and therefore those parts being extremely more remote from the center , than those about the middle of the plains , would consequently press very strongly thitherward ; and unless the earth were made of adamant or marble , in time the other parts would give way , till all were levelled . . were the earth an angular body and not round , all the whole earth would be nothing else but vast mountains , and so incommodious for animals to live upon . for the middle point of every side would be nearer the center than any other , and consequently from that point which way soever one travelled would be up hill , the tendency of all heavy bodies being perpendicularly to the center . besides how much this would obstruct commerce is easily seen . for not only the declivity of all places would render them very difficult to be travelled over , but likewise the midst of every side being lowest and nearest the center , if there were any rain or any rivers , must needs be filled with a lake of water , there being no way to discharge it , and possibly the water would rise so high as to overflow the whole latus . but surely there would be much more danger of the inundation of whole countries than now there is : all the waters falling upon the earth , by reason of its declivity every way , easily descending down to the common receptacle the sea. and these lakes of water being far distant one from another , there could be no commerce between far remote countries but by land. . a spherical figure is most commodious for dinetical motion or revolution upon its own axis . for in that neither oan the medium at all resist the motion of the body , because it stands not in its way , no part coming into any space but what the precedent left , neither doth one part of the superficies move faster than another : whereas were it angular , the parts about the angles would find strong resistance from the air , and those parts also about the angles would move much faster than those about the middle of the plains , being remoter from the center than they . it remains therefore that this figure is the most commodious for motion . here i cannot but take notice of the folly and stupidity of the epicureans , who fancied the earth to be flat and contiguous to the heavens on all sides , and that it descended a great way with long roots ; and that the sun was new made every morning , and not much bigger than it seems to the eye , and of a flat figure , and many other such gross absurdities as children among us would be ashamed of . secondly , i come now to speak of the motion of the earth . that the earth ( speaking according to philosophical accurateness ) doth move both upon its own poles , and in the ecliptick , is now the received opinion of the most learned and skilful mathematicians . to prove the diurnal motion of it upon its poles , i need produce no other arguments than , first , the vast disproportion in respect of magnitude that is between the earth and the heavens , and the great unlikelyhood , that such an infinite number of vast bodies should move about so inconsiderable a spot as the earth , which in comparison with them by the concurrent suffrages of mathematicians of both perswasions , is a mere point , that is , next to nothing . secondly , the immense and incredible celerity of the motion of the heavenly bodies in the ancient hypothesis ; of its annual motion in the ecliptick , the stations and retrogradations of the superior planets are a convincing argument , there being a clear and facile account thereof to be given from the mere motion of the earth in the ecliptick ; whereas in the old hypothesis no account can be given thereof , but by the unreasonable . fiction of epicycles and contrary motions ; add hereto the great unlikelyhood of such an enormous epicycle as venus must describe about the sun , not under the sun as the old astronomers fancied ; so that whosoever doth clearly understand both hypotheses , cannot , i perswade my self , adhere to the old and reject the new , without doing some violence to his faculties . against this opinion lie two objections , first , that it is contrary to sense , and the common opinion and belief of mankind . secondly , that it seemeth contrary to some expressions in scripture . to the first i answer , that our senses are sometimes mistaken , and what appears to them is not always in reality so as it appears . for example , the sun or moon appear no bigger at most , than a cart-wheel , and of a flat figure . the earth seems to be plain ; the heavens to cover it like a canopy , and to be contiguous to it round about : a fire-brand nimbly moved round , appears like a circle of fire ; and to give a parallel instance , a boat lying still at anchor in a river to him that sails or rows by it , seems to move apace : and when the clouds pass nimbly under the moon , the moon it self seems to move the contrary way . and there have been whole books written in confutation of vulgar errours . secondly , as to the scripture , when speaking of these things it accommodates it self to the common and received opinions , and employs the usual phrases and forms of speech , ( as all wise men also do , though in strictness , they be of a different or contrary opinion , ) without intention of delivering any thing doctrinally concerning these points , or confuting the contrary : and yet by those that maintain the opinion of the earths motion there might a convenient interpretation be given of such places as seem to contradict it . howbeit , because some pious persons may be offended at such an opinion , as savouring of novelty , thinking it inconsistent with divine revelation , i shall not positively assert it , only propose it as an hypothesis not altogether improbable . supposing then , that the earth doth move , both upon its own poles , and in the ecliptick about the sun , i shall shew how admirably its situation and motion are contrived for the conveniency of man and other animals : which i cannot do more fully and clearly than dr. more hath already done in his antidote against atheism , whose words therefore i shall borrow . first , speaking of the parallelism of the axis of the earth he saith , i demand whether it be better to have the axis of the earth steady and perpetually parallel to it self , or to have it carelesly tumble this way and that way as it happens , or at least very variously and intricately : and you cannot but answer me , it is better to have it steady and parallel . for in this lies the necessary foundation of the art of navigation and dialling . for that steady stream of particles , which is supposed to keep the axis of the earth parallel to its self , affords the mariner both his cynosura and his compass . the load-stone and the load-star depend both upon this . the load-stone as i could demonstrate , were it not too great a digression ; and the load-star , because that which keeps the axis parallel to its self , makes each of the poles constantly respect such a point in the heavens ; as for example , the north-pole to point almost directly to that which we call the pole-star . and besides , dialling could not be at all without this steadiness of the axis . but both these arts are pleasant , and one especially of mighty importance to mankind . for thus there is an orderly measuring of our time for affairs at home , and an opportunity of traffick abroad with the most remote nations of the world , and so there is a mutual supply of the several commodities of all countries , besides the enlarging our understandings by so ample experience we get both of men and things . wherefore if we were rationally to consult , whether the axis of the earth were better be held steady and parallel to it self , or left at random , we would conclude it ought to be steady , and so we find it de facto , though the earth move floating in the liquid heavens . so that appealing to our own faculties we are to affirm , that the constant direction of the axis of the earth was established by a principle of wisdom and counsel . again , there being several postures of this steady direction of the axis of the earth . viz. either perpendicular to a plain , going through the center of the sun , or coincident , or inclining , i demand which of all these reason and knowledge would make choice of . not of a perpendicular posture . for so both the pleasant variety and great convenience of summer and winter , spring and autumn would be lost , and for want of accession of the sun , these parts of the earth , which now bring forth fruits , and are habitable , would be in an incapacity of ever bringing forth any , and consequently could entertain no inhabitants , and those parts that the full heat of the sun could reach , he plying them always alike without any annual recession or intermission , would at last grow tired or exhausted , or be wholly dried up and want moisture , the sun dissipating and casting off the clouds northwards and southwards . besides , we observe that an orderly vicissitude of things , doth much more gratifie the contemplative property in man. and now in the second place , neither would reason make choice of a coincident position . for if the axis thus lay in a plain that goeth through the center of the sun , the ecliptick would like a colure or one of the meridians , pass through the poles of the earth , which would put the inhabitants of the world , into a pitiful condition . for they that escape best in the temperate zone would be accloyed with long nights very tedious , no less than forty days , and those that now never have their night above twenty four hours , as friesland island , the furthest parts of russia and norway would be deprived of the sun , above a hundred and thirty days together . our selves in england and the rest of the same clime would be closed up in darkness no less than a hundred or eighty days : and so proportionably of the rest both in and out of the temperate zones . and as for summer and winter , though those vicissitudes would be , yet it could not but cause raging diseases , to have the sun stay so long , describing his little circles so near the poles , and lying so hot on the inhabitants , that had been in so long extremity of darkness and cold before . it remains therefore , that the posture of the axis of the earth be inclining not perpendicular nor coincident to the fore-mentioned plain . and verily , it is not only inclining , but in so fit a proportion , that there can be no fitter imagined to make it to the utmost capacity as well pleasant as habitable . for though the course of the sun be curbed between the tropicks , yet are not those parts directly subject to his perpendicular beams , either unhabitable or extremely hot , as the ancients fansied : by the testimony of travellers , and particularly sir walter ralegh , the parts under and near the line , being as fruitful and pleasant , and fit to make a paradise of , as any in the world. and that they are as suitable to the nature of man , and as convenient to live in , appears from the longaevity of the natives ; as for instance , the aethiopes called by the ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but especially the brasilians in america , the ordinary term of whose life is a hundred years , as is set down by piso a learned physitian of holland , who travelled thither on purpose to augment natural knowledge , but especially what related to physick . and reasonable it is , that this should be so , for neither doth the sun lie long upon them , their day being but twelve hours , and their night as long , to cool and refresh them ; and besides , they have frequent showers , and constant breezes or fresh gales of wind from the east . seeing then , this best posture which our reason could make choice of , we see really established in nature , we cannot but acknowledge it to be the issue of wisdom , counsel and providence . moreover , a further argument to evince this is , that though it cannot but be acknowledged , that if the axis of the earth were perpendicular to the plain of the ecliptick , her motion would be more easie and natural , yet notwithstanding for the conveniencies forementioned , we see it is made in an inclining posture . if any man shall object and say , it would be more convenient for the inhabitants of the earth , if the tropicks stood at a greater distance , and the sun moved further northward and southward , for so the north and south parts would be relieved , and not exposed to so extreme cold , and thereby rendred unhabitable as now they are . to this i answer , that this would be more inconvenient to the inhabitants of the earth in general , and yet would afford the north and south parts but little more comfort . for then as much as the distances between the tropicks were enlarg'd , so much would also the artick and antartick circles be enlarg'd too ; and so we here in england , and so on northerly should not have that grateful and useful succession of day and night , but proportionably to the suns coming towards us , so would our days be of more than twenty four hours length , and according to his recess in winter our nights proportionable ; which how great an inconvenience it would be , is easily seen . whereas now the whole latitude of earth , which hath at any time above twenty four hours day , and twenty four hours night , is little and inconsiderable in comparison of the whole bulk , as lying near the poles . and yet neither is that part altogether unuseful , for in the waters there live fishes , which otherwhere are not obvious , so we know the chief whale-fishing is in greenland : and on the land , bears , and foxes , and deer , in the most northerly country , that was ever yet touched , and doubtless if we shall discover further to the very north-pole , we shall find all that tract not to be vain , useless or unoccupied . thirdly , the third and last thing i proposed , was the constitution and consistency of the parts of the earth . and first , admirable it is that the waters should be gathered together into such great conceptacula , and the dry land appear , and though we had not been assured thereof by divine revelation , we could not in reason , but have thought such a division and separation , to have been the work of omnipotency and infinite wisdom and goodness . for in this condition the water nourishes and maintains innumerable multitudes of various kinds of fishes : and the dry land supports and feeds as great varieties of plants and animals , which have there firm footing and habitation . whereas had all been earth , all the species of fishes had been lost , and all those commodities which the water affords us ; or all water , there had been no living for plants or terrestrial animals , or man himself , and all the beauty , glory , and variety of this inferiour world had been gone , nothing being to be seen , but one uniform dark body of water : or had all been mixt and made up of water and earth into one body of mud or mire , as one would think , should be most natural : for why such a separation as at present we find should be made , no account can be given , but providence . i say , had all this globe been mire or mud , then could there have been no possibility for any animals at all to have lived , excepting some few , and those very dull and inferiour ones too . that therefore the earth should be made thus , and not only so , but with so great variety of parts , as mountains , plains , vallies , sand , gravel , lime , stone , clay , marble , argilla , &c. which are so delectable and pleasant , and likewise so useful and convenient for the breeding and living of various plants and animals ; some affecting mountains , some plains , some vallies , some watery places , some shade , some sun , some clay , some sand , some gravel , &c. that the earth should be so figured as to have mountains in the mid-land parts , abounding with springs of water pouring down streams and rivers for the necessities and conveniencies of the inhabitants of the lower countries ; and that the levels and plains should be formed with so easie a declivity as to cast off the water , and yet not render travelling or tillage very difficult or laborious . these things i say , must needs be the result of counsel , wisdom , and design . especially when ( as i said before ) not that way which seems more facile and obvious to chance is chosen , but that which is more difficult and hard to be traced , when it is most convenient and proper for those nobler ends and designs , which were intended by its wise creator and governor . add to all this , that the whole dry land is for the most part , covered over with a lovely carpet of green grass and other herbs , of a colour , not only most grateful and agreeable , but most useful and salutary to the eye : and this also decked and adorned with great variety of flowers of beautiful colours and figures , and of most pleasant and fragrant odours for the refreshment of our spirits and our innocent delight . a second particular i have made choice of , more exactly to survey and consider , is the body of man : wherein i shall endeavour to discover something of the wisdom and goodness of god. first , by making some general observations concerning the body . secondly , by running over and discoursing upon its principal parts and members . . then in general i say , the wisdom and goodness of god appears in the erect posture of the body of man , which is a priviledge and advantage given to man , above other animals . but though this be so , yet i would not have you think , that all the particulars i shall mention , are proper only to the body of man , divers of them agreeing to many other creatures . it is not my business to consider only the prerogatives of man above other animals , but the endowments and perfections which nature hath conferred on his body though common to them with him . of this erection of the body of man , the ancients have taken notice as a particular gift and favour of god. ovid. metam . . pronáque cùm spectent animalia caetera terrā , os hominum sublime dedit , coelúmque tueri jussit , & erectos ad sydera tollere vultus . and before him , tully in his second book de nat. deorum . ad hanc providentiam naturae tam diligentem támque solertem adjungi multa possunt , è quibus intelligatur quantae res hominibus à deo , quámque eximiae tributae sunt , qui primùm eos humo excitatos , celsos & erectos constituit , ut deorum cognitionem coelum intuentes capere possent . sunt enim è terra homines , non ut incolae atque habitatores , sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque coelestium , quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet . man being the only creature in this sublunary world , made to contemplate heaven , it was convenient that he should have such a figure or situs of the parts of his body , that he might conveniently look upwards . but to say the truth in this respect of contemplating the heavens or looking upwards , i do not see what advantage a man hath by this erection above other animals , the faces of most of them being more supine than ours , which are only perpendicular to the horizon , whereas some of theirs stand reclining . but yet two or three other advantages we have of this erection , which i shall here mention . first , it is more commodious for the sustaining of the head , which being full of brains and very heavy ( the brain in man being far larger in proportion to the bulk of his body , than in any other animal ) would have been very painful and wearisome to carry , if the neck had lain parallel or inclining to the horizon . secondly , this figure is most convenient for prospect and looking about one . a man may see further before him , which is no small advantage for avoiding dangers , and discovering whatever he searches after . thirdly , the conveniency of this site of our bodies will more clearly appear , if we consider what a pitiful condition we had been in , if we had been constantly necessitated to stand and walk upon all four , man being by the make of his body , of all quadrupeds ( for now i must compare him with them ) the most unfit for that kind of incessus , as i shall shew anon . and besides that we should have wanted , at least in a great measure , the use of our hand , that unvaluable instrument , without which we had wanted most of those advantages we enjoy as reasonable creatures , as i shall more particularly demonstrate afterwards . but it may be perchance objected by some , that nature did not intend this erection of the body , but that it is superinduced and artificial ; for that children at first creep on all four , according to that of the poet. mox quadrupes , ritúque tulit sua membra ferarum . ovid. to which i answer , that there is so great an inequality in the length of our legs and arms , as would make it extremely inconvenient , if not impossible , for us to walk upon all four , and set us almost upon our heads ; and therefore we see that children do not creep upon their hands and feet , but upon their hands and knees ; so that it is plain that nature intended us to walk as we do , and not upon all four. . i argue from the situs or position of our faces ; for had we been to walk upon all four we had been the most prone of all animals , our faces being parallel to the horizon and looking directly downwards . . the greatness and strength of the muscles of the thighs and legs above those of the arms , is a clear indication , that they were by nature intended for a more difficult and laborious action , even the moving and transferring the whole body , and that motion to be sometimes continued for a great while together . as for that argument taken from the contrary flexure of the joynts of our arms and legs to that of quadrupeds ; as that our knees bend forward , whereas the same joynt of their hind legs bends backward ; and that our arms bend backward , whereas the knees of their fore legs bend forward . although the observation be as old as aristotle , because i think there is a mistake in it , in not comparing the same joynts ( for the first or uppermost joynt in a quadrupeds hind legs bends forward as well as a mans knees , which answer to it being the uppermost joynt of our legs ; and the like mutatis mutandis may be said of the arms ) i shall not insist upon it . ii. the body of man may thence be proved to be the effect of wisdom , because there is nothing in it deficient , nothing superfluous , nothing but hath its end and use ; so true are those maximes we have already made use of , natura nihil facit frustra , and natura non abundat in superfluis , nec deficit in necessariis , no part that we can well spare . the eye cannot say to the hand i have no need of thee , nor the head to the feet i have no need of you . . cor. . . that i may usurp the apostles similitude . the belly cannot quarrel with the members , nor they with the belly for her seeming sloth ; as they provide meat for her , so she concocts and distributes it to them . only it may be doubted to what use the paps in men should serve . i answer partly for ornament , partly for a kind of conformity between the sexes , and partly to defend and cherish the heart ; in some they contain milk , as in a danish family we read of in bartholines anatomical observations . however it follows not that they or any other parts of the body are useless because we are ignorant . had we been born with a large wen upon our faces , or a bavarian poke under our chins , or a great bunch upon our backs like camels , or any the like superfluous excrescency , which should be not only useless but troublesome , not only stand us in no stead but also be ill favoured to behold , and burthensom to carry about , then we might have had some pretence to doubt whether an intelligent and bountiful creator had been our architect ; for had the body been made by chance it must in all likelyhood have had many of these superfluous and unnecessary parts . but now seeing there is none of our members but hath its place and use , none that we could spare or conveniently live without , were it but those we account excrements , the hair of our heads , or the nails on our fingers ends ; we must needs be mad or sottish if we can conceive any other than that an infinitely good and wise god was our author and former . iii. we may fetch an argument of the wisdom and providence of god from the convenient situation and disposition of the parts and members of our bodies : they are seated most conveniently for use , for ornament , and for mutual assistance . first , for use ; so we see the senses of such eminent use for our well-being , situate in the head , as sentinels in a watch-tower , to receive and conveigh to the soul the impressions of external objects . sensus autem interpretes ac nuntii rerum in capite tanquam in arce mirificè ad usus necessarios & facti & collati sunt . cic. de nat. deorum . the eye can more easily see things at a distance , the ear receive sounds from afar : how could the eye have been better placed either for beauty and ornament , or for the guidance and direction of the whole body . as cicero proceeds well , nam oculi tanquam speculatores altissimum locum obtinent , ex quo plurima conspicientes funguntur suo munere : et aures quoe sonum recipere debent , qui naturâ in sublime fertur , rectè in altis corporum partibus collocatae sunt ; itemque nares , eò quò omnis odor ad superiora fertur , rectè sursum sunt . for the eyes like sentinels occupy the highest place , from whence seeing many things they perform their functions : and the ears , which are made for the reception of sounds , which naturally are carried upwards , are rightly placed in the uppermost parts of the body ; also the nostrils , because all odors ascend , are fitly situate in the superior parts . i might instance in the other members . how could the hands have been more conveniently placed for all sorts of exercises and works , and for the guard and security of the head and principal parts ? the heart to dispense life and heat to the whole body , viz. near the center , and yet because it is harder for the blood to ascend than descend , somewhat nearer the head. it is also observable that the sinks of the body are removed as far from the nose and eyes as may be ; which cicero takes notice of in the forementioned place . ut in aedificiis architecti avertunt ab oculis & naribus dominorum ea quae profluentia necessariò essent tetri aliquid habitura , sic natura res similes procul amandavit à sensibus . secondly , for ornament . what could have been better contrived than that those members which are pairs , should stand by one another in equal altitude , and answer on each side one to another . and thirdly , for mutual assistance . we have before shewed how the eye stands most conveniently for guiding the hand , and the hand for defending the eye ; and the like might be said of the other parts , they are so situaté as to afford direction and help one to another . this will appear more clearly if we imagine any of the members situate in contrary places or positions : had a mans arms been fitted only to bend backwards behind him , or his legs only to move backwards ; what direction could his eyes then have afforded him in working or walking ? or how could he then have fed himself ? nay had one arm been made to bend forward and the other directly backward , we had then lost half the use of them , sith they could not have assisted one the other in any action . take the eyes or any other of the organs of sense , and see if you can find any so convenient a seat for them in the whole body as that they now possess . fourthly , from the ample provision that is made for the defence and security of the principal parts : those are , . the heart ; which is the fountain of life and vegetation , officina spirituum vitalium , principium & fons caloris nativi , lucerna humidi radicalis , and that i may speak with the chymists , ipse sol microcosmi , the very sun of the microcosme or little world , in which is contained that vital flame or heavenly fire , which prometheus is fabled to have stole from jupiter : or as aristotle phrases it , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , divinum quid respondens elemento stellarum . this for more security is situate in the center of the trunk of the body , covered first with its own membrane called pericardium , lodged within the soft bed of the lungs , encompassed round with a double fence , ( . ) of firm bones or ribs to bear off blows . ( . ) of thick muscles and skin , besides the arms conveniently placed to fence off any violence at a distance , before it can approach to hurt it . . the brain , which is the principle of all sense and motion , the fountain of the animal spirits , the chief seat and palace royal of the soul ; upon whose security depends whatever privilege belongs to us as sensitive or rational creatures . this , i say , being the prime and immediate organ of the soul , from the right constitution whereof proceeds the quickness of apprehension , acuteness of wit , solidity of judgment , method and order of invention , strength and power of memory ; which if once weakened and disordered , there follows nothing but confusion and disturbance in our apprehensions , thoughts and judgments , is environed round about with such a potent defence , that it must be amighty force indeed that is able to injure it . first , a skull so hard , thick , and tough , that it is almost as easie to split a helmet of iron as to make a fracture in it . . this covered with skin and hair , which serve to keep it warm being naturally a very cold part , and also to quench and dissipate the force of any stroke that shall be dealt it , and retund the edge of any weapon . . and yet more than all this there is still a thick and tough membrane which hangs looser about it , and doth not so closely embrace it ( that they call dura mater ) and in case the skull happens to be broken doth often preserve it from injury and diminution : and lastly , a thin and fine membrane strait and closely adhering to keep it from quashing and shaking . i might instance ( . ) in the lungs , which are so useful to us as to life and sense , that the vulgar think our breath is our very life , and that we breath out our souls from thence . suteable to which notion both anima and spiritus in latine , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek are derived from words that signifie breath and wind : and efflare or exhalare animam signifies to die. and the old romans used to apply mouth to mouth , and receive the last gasps of their dying friends , as if their souls had come out that way . from hence perhaps might first spring that opinion of the vehicles of spirits ; the vulgar , as i hinted before , conceiving that the breath was , if not the soul itself , yet that wherein it was wafted and carried away . these lungs , i say , are for their bettter security and defence shut up in the same cavity with the heart . fourthly , in the abundant provision that is made against evil accidents and inconveniencies . and the liberality of nature as to this particular appears . in that she hath given many members , which are of eminent use by pairs , as two eyes , two ears , two nostrils , two hands , two feet , two breasts , [ mammae ] two reins : that so if by any cross or unhappy accident one should be disabled or rendred useless , the other might serve us tolerably well , whereas had a man but one hand , or one eye , &c. if that were gone , all were gone , and we left in evil case . see then and acknowledg the benignity of the deity , who hath bestowed upon us two hands , and two eyes , and other the like parts not only for our necessity but conveniency , so long as we enjoy them : and for our security in case any mischance deprive us of one of them . . in that all the vessels of the body have many ramifications : which particular branches , though they serve mainly for one member or muscle , yet send forth some twigs to the neighbouring muscles ; and so interchangeably the branches that serve these , send to them : so that if one branch chance to be cut off or obstructed , its defect may in some measure be supplied by the twigs that come from the neighbouring vessels . . in that she hath provided so many ways to evacuate what might be hurtful to us or breed diseases in our bodies . if any thing oppress the head it hath a power to free itself by sneezing : if any thing fall into the lungs , or if any humor be discharged upon them , they have a faculty of clearing themselves and casting it up by coughing : if any thing clog or burden the stomach , it hath an ability of contracting itself and throwing it up by vomit . besides these ways of evacuation there are siege , urine , sweating haemorrhagies from the nose and haemorrhoidal veins , fluxes of rheum . now the reason why nature hath provided so many ways of evacuation is because of the different humors that are to be avoided or cast out . when therefore there is a secretion made of any noxious humor , it is carried off by that emunctory whose pores are fitted to receive and transmit the minute parts of it ; if at least this separation be made by percolation , as we will now suppose , but not assert . yet i doubt not but the same humor may be cast off by divers emunctories , as is clear in urine and sweat which are for the main the same humor carried off several ways . fifthly , from the constancy that is observed in the number , figure , place , and make of all the principal parts ; and from the variety in the less . man is always mending and altering his works : but nature observes the same tenour , because her works are so perfect that there is no place for amendments ; nothing that can be reprehended . the sagacious men in so many ages have not been able to find any flaw in these divinely contrived and formed machins , no blot or errour in this great volume of the world , as if any thing had been an imperfect essay at the first , to use the bishop of chesters words : nothing that can be altered for the better ; nothing but if it were altered would be marred . this could not have been , had mans body been the work of chance and not counsel and providence . why should there be constantly the same parts ? why should they retain constantly the same places ? why should they be endued with the same shape and figure ? nothing so contrary as constancy and chance . should i see a man throw the same number a thousand times together upon but three dice , could you perswade me that this were accidental and that there was no necessary cause of it ? how much more incredible then is it that constancy in such a variety , such a multiplicity of parts should be the result of chance ? neither yet can these works be the effects of necessity or fate , for then there would be the same constancy observed in the smaller as well as the larger parts and vessels ; whereas there we see nature doth ludere , as it were , sport itself , the minute ramifications of all the vessels , veins , arteries , and nerves infinitely varying in individuals of the same species , so that they are not in any two alike . sixthly , the great wisdom of the divine creator appears in that there is pleasure annexed to those actions that are necessary for the support and preservation of the individuum , and the continuation and propagation of the species ; and not only so , but pain to the neglect or forbearance of them . for the support of the person it hath annexed pleasure to eating and drinking : which else out of laziness or multiplicity of business a man would be apt to neglect , or sometime forget . indeed to be obliged to chew and swallow meat daily for two hours space , and to find no relish nor pleasure in it , would be one of the most burthensome and ungrateful tasks of a mans whole life . but because this action is absolutely necessary , for abundant security nature hath inserted in us a painful sense of hunger to put us in mind of it , and to reward our performance hath adjoined pleasure to it . and as for the continuation of kind , i need not tell you that the enjoyments which attend those actions are the highest gratifications of sense . seventhly , the wonderful art and providence of the contriver and former of our bodies appears in the multitude of intentions he must have in the formation of the several parts , or the qualifications they require to fit them for their several uses . * galen in his book de formatione faetus , takes notice that there are in a humane body above . several muscles , and there are at least ten several intentions or due qualifications to be observed in each of these ; proper figure , just magnitude , right disposition of its several ends , upper and lower , position of the whole , the insertion of its proper nerves , veins , and arteries , which are each of them to be duly placed ; so that about the muscles alone no less than several ends or aims are to be attended to . the bones are reckoned to be . the distinct scopes or intentions in each of these are above , in all about . and thus is it in some proportion with all the other parts , the skin , ligaments , vessels , glandules , humors : but more especially with the several members of the body , which do in regard of the great variety and multitude of those several intentions required to them , very much exceed the homogeneous parts . and the failing in any one of these would cause irregularity in the body , and in many of them such as would be very notorious . now to imagine that such a machine composed of so many parts , to the right form , order and motion whereof such an infinite number of intentions are required , could be made without the contrivance of some wise agent , must needs be irrational in the highest degree . eighthly , some fetch an argument of providence from the variety of lineaments in the faces of men , which is such , that there are not two faces in the world absolutely alike ; which is somewhat strange , since all the parts are in specie the same . were nature a blind architect , i see not but the faces of some men might be as like as eggs laid by the same hen , or bullets cast in the same mould , or drops of water out of the same bucket . this particular i find taken notice of by pliny in his . book , cap. . in these words , jam in facie vultuque nostro , cum sint decem aut paulò plura membra , nullas duas in tot millibus hominum indiscretas effigies existere , quod ars nulla in paucis numero praestet affectando ; to which among other things he thus prefaces , naturae verò rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fide caret . though this at first may seem to be a matter of small moment , yet if duly considered , it will appear to be of mighty importance in all human affairs : for should there be an undiscernable similitude between divers men , what confusion and disturbance would necessarily follow ? what uncertainty in all sales and conveyances , in all bargains and contracts ? what frauds and cheats and suborning of witnesses ? what a subversion of all trade and commerce ? what hazard in all judicial proceedings ? in all assaults and batteries , in all murthers and assassinations , in thefts and robberies , what security would there be to malefactors ? who could swear that such and such were the persons that committed the facts , though they saw them never so clearly ? many other inconveniences might be instanced in : so that we see this is no contemptible argument of the wisdom and goodness of god. i have done with my general observations . i proceed now more accurately and minutely to consider some particular parts or members of the body ; and first the head , because it was to contain a large brain made of the most capacious figure , as near as could be to a spherical ; upon this grows the hair , which though it be esteemed an excrement , is of great use ( as i shewed before ) to cherish and keep warm the brain , and to quench the force of any stroke that might otherwise endanger the skull . it serves also to disburthen the brain of a great deal of superfluous moisture , wherewith it abounds ; and for a graceful ornament to the face . secondly , another member which i shall more particularly treat of , is the eye , a part so artificially composed , and commodiously situate , as nothing can be contrived better for use , ornament or security ; nothing to advantage added thereto or altered therein . of the beauty of the eye i shall say little , leaving that to poets and orators ; that it is a very pleasant and lovely object to behold , if we consider the figure , colors and splendor of it , is the least that i can say . the soul as it is more immediately and strongly moved and affected by this part than any other ; so doth it manifest all its passions and perturbations by this . as the eyes are the windows to let in the species of all exterior objects into the dark cels of the brain , for the information of the soul ; so are they flaming torches to reveal to those abroad how the soul within is moved or affected . these repre sentations made by the impressions of external objects upon the eye are the most clear , lively and distinct of any others . now to this use and purpose of informing us what is abroad round about us in this aspectable world , we shall find the structure and mechanism of the eye , and every part thereof so well fitted and adapted , as not the least curiosity can be added . for first of all , all the humors and tunicles are purely transparent , to let in the light and colors unfolded and unsophisticated by any inward tincture . it is usually said by the peripateticks , that the crystalline humor of the eye ( which they ineptly fansied to be the immediate organ of vision wherein all the species of external objects were terminated ) is without all color , because its office was to discern all colors , or at least to receive the species of several colors , and convey them to the common sense . now if itself had been coloured , it would have transmitted all visible objects tinctured with the same color ; as we see whatever is beheld through a coloured glass appears of the same color with the glass , and to those that have the jaundice or the like suffusion of eyes , objects appear of that same color wherewith their eyes are infected . this they say is in a great measure true , although they are much mistaken about the organ and manner of vision , and the uses of the humors and membranes of the eye . two reasons therefore may be assigned why all the membranes and humors of the eye are perfectly pellucid and void of color . first , for the clearness . secondly , for the distinctness of vision . i. the clearness . for had the tunicles and humors of the eye , all or any of them been colorate , many of the rays proceeding from the visible object would have been stopt and suffocated before they could come to the bottom of the eye , where the formal organ of vision is situate . for it is a most certain rule , how much any body hath of colour , so much hath it of opacity , and by so much the more unfit is it to transmit the species . . for the distinctness of vision . for , as i said before and the peripateticks observe well , were the humours of the eye tinctured with any colour , they would refund that colour upon the object , and so it would not be represented to the soul as in itself it is . so we see that through a coloured glass things appear as well more dim and obscure , as tinctured with the colour thereof . secondly , the parts of the eye are made convex , and especially the crystalline humour , which is of a lenticular figure , convex on both sides , that by the refractions there made there might be a direction of many rays coming from one point in the object , viz. as many as the pupil can receive , to one point answerable in the bottom of the eye ; without which the sense would be very obscure and also confused . there would be as much difference in the clearness and distinction of vision , where the outward surface of the tunica cornea plain , and the crystalline humor removed ; as between the picture received on a white paper in a dark room through an open or empty hole , and the same received through a hole furnished with an exactly polished lenticular crystal ; which how great it is any one that hath but seen this experiment made , knows well enough . indeed this experiment doth very much explain the manner of vision ; the hole answering to the pupil of the eye , the crystalline humour to the lenticular glass , the dark room to the cavity containing the vitreous humour , and the white paper to the tunica retina . thirdly , the uveous coat or iris of the eye hath a musculous power , and can dilate and contract that round hole in it , called the pupil or sight of the eye . it contracts it for the excluding superfluous light , and preserving the eye from being injured by too vehement and lucid an object , and again dilate it for the apprehending objects more remote , or placed in a fainter light ; tam miro artificio ( saith scheiner ) quàm munifica naturae largitate . if any one desires to make experiment of these particulars , he may , following scheiner and des cartes their directions , take a child , and setting a candle before him bid him look upon it : and he shall observe his pupil to contract itself very much , to exclude the light , with the brightness whereof it would otherwise be dazled and offended ; as we are when after we have been some time in the dark a bright light is suddenly brought in and set before us , till the pupils of our eyes have gradually contracted themselves : let the candle be withdrawn , or removed aside , he shall observe the childs pupil by degrees to dilate itself . or let him take a bead or the like object , and holding it near the eye , command the child to look at it , the pupil will contract much when the object is near ; but let it be withdrawn to a greater distance in the same light , and he shall observe the pupil to be much enlarged . fourthly , the uveous coat , and also the inside of the choroides are blackened like the walls of a tennis court , that the rays may be there suffocated and suppressed , and not reflected backwards to confound the sight : and if any be by the retiform coat reflected , they are soon choaked in the black inside of the uvea . whereas were they reflected to and fro , there could be no distinct vision ; as we see the light admited into the dark room we even now spake of , obliterates the species which before were seen upon the white cloth or paper . fifthly , because the rays from a nearer and from a more remote object do not meet just in the same distance behind the crystalline humour ( as may easily be observed in lenticular glasses , where the point of concourse of the rays from a nearer object is at a greater distance behind the glass , and from a further at a lesser ) therefore the ciliary processes , or rather the ligaments observed in the inside of the sclerotick tunicle of the eye , by a late ingenious anatomist , do serve instead of a muscle , by their contraction to alter the figure of the eye , and make it broader , and consequently draw the retine nearer to the crystalline humour , and by their relaxation suffer it to return to its natural distance according to the exigency of the object , in respect of distance or propinquity : and besides possibly the ciliary processes may by their constriction or relaxation , render the crystalline itself more gibbose or plain ; and with the help of the muscles a little alter the figure of the whole eye , for the same reason . to what i have said might be added , that the retiform tunicle is whitish , for the better and more true reception of the species of things . that there being a distance necessarily required for the collection of the rays received by the pupil , viz. those that proceed from one point of the object to one point again in the bottom of the eye , the retine must needs be set at a distance from the crystalline humour : and therefore nature hath provided a large room , and filled it with the pellucid vitreous humour most fit for that purpose . i must not omit a notable observation concerning the place of the insertion of the optick nerve into the bulb of the eye , and the reason of it ; which i owe to that learned mathematician peter herigon , nervus opticus ( saith he in his optica ) ad latus ponitur , ne pars imaginis in ejus foramen incidens picturâ careat . the optick nerve is not situate directly behind the eye , but on one side , lest that part of the image that falls upon the hole of the optick nerve , should want its picture . this i do not conceive to be the true reason of this situation ; for even now as it is situate , that part of the object whose rays fall upon the center or hole of the optick nerve , wants its picture , as we find by experience ; that part not being seen by us , though we heed it not . but the reason is , because if the optick axis should fall upon this center ( as it would do were the nerve seated just behind the eye ) this great inconvenience would follow , that the middle point of every object we viewed would be invisible , or there would a dark spot appear in the midst of it . thus we see the admirable wisdom of nature in thus placing the optick nerve in respect of the eye ; which he that did not consider or understand would be apt to think more inconveniently situate for vision , than if it had been right behind . another thing also concerning vision is most remarkable , that though there be a decussation of the rays in the pupil of the eye , and so the image of the object in the retina or bottom of the eye be inverted , yet doth not the object appear inverted , but in its right or natural posture : the reason whereof is because the visual rays coming in streight lines , by those points of the sensory or retina which they touch , affect the common sense or soul according to their direction ; that is , signifie to it that those several parts of the object from whence they proceed lie in streight lines ( point for point ) drawn through the pupil to the several points of the sensory where they terminate , and which they press upon . whereupon the soul must needs conceive the object , not in an inverted but a right posture . and that the nerves are naturally made not only to inform the soul of external objects which press upon them , but also of the situation of such objects , is clear , because if the eyes be distorted , the object , will we nill we , will appear double . so if the fore and middle fingers be cross'd , and a round body put between them and moved , it will seem to be two ; the reason is , because in that posture of the fingers the body touches the outsides of them , which in their natural site are distant one from another , and their nerves made to signifie to the soul bodies separate and distant in like manner , two fingers lying between them . and though our reason by the help of our sight corrects this errour , yet cannot we but fansie it to be so . neither is the aqueous humor , as some may supinely imagine , altogether useless or unprofitable as to vision , because by its help the uvea tunica is sustained , which else would fall flat upon the crystalline humor ; and fluid it must be , to give way to the contraction and dilatation of the uveous : and because the outermost coat of the eye might chance to be wounded or pricked , and this humor being fluid let out , therefore nature hath made provision speedily to repair it again in such a case . moreover it is remarkable that the cornea tunica , [ horny or pellucid coat of the eye ] doth not lie in the same superficies with the white of the eye , but riseth up as it were a hillock above its convexity , and is of an hyperbolical or parabolical figure : so that though the eye seems to be perfectly round , in reality it is not so , but the iris thereof is protuberant above the white ; and the reason is because that if the cornea tunica or crystalline humor had been concentrical to the sclerodes , the eye could not have admitted a whole hemisphere at one view , & sic animalis incolumitati in multis rebus minùs cautum esset , as scheiner well . in many things there had not been sufficient caution or care taken for the animals safety . and now ( that i may use the words of a late * author of our own ) the eye is already so perfect , that i believe the reason of a man would easily have rested here , and admired at his own contrivance . for he being able to move his whole body upward and downward and on every side , might have unawares thought himself sufficiently well provided for ; but nature hath added muscles also to the eyes , that no perfection might be wanting : for we have often occasson to move our eyes , our head being unmoved , as in reading and viewing more particularly any object set before us , by transferring the axes of our eyes all over it : and that this may be done with the more ease and accuracy , she hath furnished this organ with no less than six muscles , to move it upward , downward , to the right and left , obliquely and round about . i shall now consider what provision is made for the defence and security of this most excellent and useful part. first the eyes are sunk in a convenient valley , latent utiliter , and are encompassed round with eminent parts , as with a rampart , & excelsis undique partibus sepiuntur , * cic. so are defended from the strokes of any flat or broad bodies . above stand the eye-brows to keep off any thing from running down upon them , as drops of sweat from the forehead , or dust , or the like . superiora superciliis obducta sudorem à capite & fronte defluentem repellunt . cic. then follow the eye-lids , which fence them from any sudden and lesser stripes . these also round the edges are fortified with stiff bristles , as it were pallisadoes , against the incursions of importunate animals , serving partly as a fan to strike away flyes or gnats , or any other troublesome insect ; and partly to keep off superfluous light , munitaeque sunt palpebrae tanquam vallo pilorum , quibus & apertis oculis siquid incideret repelleretur . idem ibid. and because it was necessary that man and other animals should sleep , which could not be so well done if the light came in by the windows of the eyes , therefore hath nature provided these curtains to be then drawn to keep it out . and because the outward coat of the eye ought to be pellucid to transmit the light , which if the eyes should always stand open , would be apt to grow dry and shrink , and lose their diaphaneity , therefore are the eylids so contrived as often to wink , that so they may as it were glaze and varnish them over with the moisture they contain , and withal wipe off whatever dust or filth may stick to them : and this , lest they should hinder the sight , they do with the greatest celerity . cicero hath taken notice that they are made very soft , lest they should hurt the sight . mollissimae tactu nè laederent aciem , aptissimè factae & ad claudendas pupillas ne quid incideret , & ad aperiendas , idque providit ut identidem fieri posset maxima cum celeritate . secondly , if we consider the bulb or ball of the eye , the exteriour membrane or coat thereof is made thick , tough , and strong , that it is a very hard matter to make a rupture in it , and besides so slippery that it eludes the force of any stroke , to which also its globular figure gives it a very great advantage . lastly , because for the guidance and direction of the body in walking and any exercise , it is necessary the eye should be uncovered , and exposed to the air at all times and in all weathers , therefore the most wise author of nature hath provided for it a hot bed of fat which fills up the interstices of the muscles ; and besides made it more patient and less sensible of cold than our other parts ; and though i cannot say with cicero absolutely free from danger or harm by that enemy , yet least obnoxious to the injuries thereof of any part , and not at all , unless it be immoderate and extreme . to all this i might add the convenience of the situation of the eye in respect of its proximity to the brain , the seat of apprehension and common sense : whereas had they been further removed , the optic nerves had been liable to many more dangers and inconveniencies than now they are . seeing then the eye is composed of so great variety of parts all conspiring to the use of vision , whereof some are absolutely necessary , others very useful and convenient , none idle or superfluous , and which is remarkable , many of them of a different figure and consistency from any others in the body besides , as being transparent , which it was absolutely necessary they should be , to transmit the rays of light ; who can but believe that this organ was designed and made purposely for the use for which it serves ? neither is it to be esteemed any defect or imperfection in the eyes of man that they want the seventh muscle , or the nictating membrane , which the eyes of many other animals are furnished withal ; for though they be very useful , and in a manner necessary to them , considering their manner of living , yet are they not so to man. to such beasts as feed upon grass and other herbs , and therefore are forced to hold their eyes long in a hanging posture , and to look downwards for the chusing and gathering of their food , the seventh or suspensory muscle is very useful , to enable them to do so without much pain or weariness ; yet to man , who doth not , nor hath any occasion , indeed cannot hold his head or look long downwards , it would be useless and superfluous . as for the nictating membrane or periophthalmium , which all birds , and i think most quadrupeds are furnished with , i have been long in doubt what the use of it might be ; and have sometimes thought it was for the more abundant defence and security of the eye ; but then i was puzzled to give any tolerable account why nature should be more solicitous for the preservation of the eyes of brutes than men , and in this respect also be a stepmother to the most noble creature . but the hon ble author formerly mentioned , gives a probable account why frogs and birds are furnished with such a membrane . frogs , because being amphibious animals , designed to pass their lives in watery places , which for the most part abound with sedges , and other plants endowed with sharp edges or points ; and the progressive motion of this animal being to be made not by walking , but by leaping , if his eyes were not provided of such a sheath , he must either shut them , and so leap blindly and by consequence dangerously , or by leaving them open run a venture to have the cornea cut , prickt , or otherwise offended by the edges or points of the plants , or what may fall from them upon the animals eye : whereas this membrane ( being something transparent as well as strong ) is like a kind of spectacle that covers the eye without taking away the sight . birds are likewise furnished with it , because being destinated to fly among the branches of trees and bushes , their prickles , twigs , leaves or other parts would be apt otherwise to wound or offend their eyes . but yet still we are to seek why it is given to other quadrupeds , whose eyes are in no such danger . thirdly , the ear another organ of sence , how admirably is it contrived for the receiving and conveying of sounds ? first , there is the outward ear or auricula , made hollow and contracted by degrees to draw the sound inward , to take in as much as may be of it , as we use a funnel to pour liquor into any vessel . and therefore if the auricula be cut clear off , the hearing is much impaired , and almost quite marred , as hath been by experience found . from the auricula is extended a small long , round hole inward into the head , to intend the motion and so augment the force of the sound , as we see in a shooting trunk , the longer it is to a certain limit , the swifter and more forcibly the air passes in it , and drives the pellet . at the end of this hole is a membrane , fastned to a round bony limb , and stretched like the head of a drum , and therefore by anatomists called also tympanum , to receive the impulse of the sound , and to vibrate or quaver according to its reciprocal motions or vibrations ; the small ear-bones being at the end fastned to the tympanum , and furnished with a muscle serve for the tension of that membrane , or the relaxation of it according to the exigency of the animal , it being stretch'd to the utmost when it would hearken diligently to a lower or more distant sound . behind the drum are several vaults and anfractuose cavities in the ear-bone , filled only with what naturalists call the implanted air ; so to intend the least sound imaginable , that the sense might be affected with it ; as we see in subterraneous caves and vaults how the sound is redoubled , and what a great report it makes however moderate it be : and because it was for the behoof of the animal , that upon any sudden accident it might be awakened out of its sleep , therefore were there no shuts or stopples made for the ears , that so any loud or sharp noise might awaken it , as also a soft and gentle voice or murmur provoke it to sleep . now the ears for the benefit and conveniences of the animal , being always to stand open , because there was some danger that insects might creep in thereat , and eating their way through the tympanum harbour in the cavities behind it ; therefore hath nature loricated or plaistered over the sides of the forementioned hole with ear-wax , to stop and entangle any insects that should attempt to creep in there . but i must confess my self not sufficiently to understand the nature of sounds to give a full and satisfactory account of the structure and uses of all the parts of the ear. fourthly , the next part i shall take notice of shall be the teeth , concerning which i find seven observations in the honorable mr. boyls treatise of final causes , which i shall briefly recapitulate , and add one or two more . i. that the teeth alone among the bones continue to grow in length during a mans whole life , as appears by the unsightly length of one tooth when its opposite happens to fall or be pulled out ; which was most providently design'd to repair the wast that is daily made of them by the frequent attritions in mastication . here by the by i might advise men to be careful how they attempt to cure this blemish by filing or cutting off the head of such an overgrown tooth , lest that befal them which happened to a certain nun in padua , who upon cutting off a tooth in that manner was presently convulsed and fell into an epilepssie , as bartholine in his anatomy reports . ii. that that part of the teeth which is extant above the gums is naked and not invested with that sensible membrane called periosteum , wherewith the other bones are covered . iii. that the teeth are of a closer and harder substance than the rest of the bones , for the more easie breaking and comminution of the more solid aliments , and that they might be more durable and not so soon worn down by grinding the food . iv. that for the nourishing and cherishing these so necessary bones , the all wise author of things has admirably contrived an unseen cavity in each side of the jaw-bone , in which greater channel are lodged an artery , a vein and a nerve , which through lesser cavities , as it were through gutters , send their twigs to each particular tooth . v. because infants were for a considerable time to feed upon milk , which needs no chewing , and lest teeth should hurt the tender nipples of the nurse , nature hath deferred the production of them for many months in a humane foetus , whereas those of divers other animals , which are reduced to seek betimes food that needs mastication , are born with them . vi. the different figure and shape of the teeth is remarkable , that the foreteeth should be formed broad and with a thin and sharp edge like chizzels , to cut off and take away a morsel from any solid food , called therefore incisores . the next , one on each side stronger and deeper rooted , and more pointed , called therefore canini , in english eye-teeth , to tear the more tough and resisting sort of aliments . the rest called jaw teeth or grinders , in latin molares , are made flat and broad atop and withal somwhat uneven and rugged , that by their knobs and little cavities they may the better retain , grind and commix the aliments . vii . because the operations to be performed by the teeth oftentimes require a considerable firmness and strength , partly in the teeth themselves , partly in the instruments which move the lower jaw , which alone is moveable , nature hath provided this with strong muscles , to make it bear forcibly against the upper jaw . and thus not only placed each tooth in a distinct cavity of the jaw-bone , as it were in a close , strong and deep socket , but has furnished the several sorts of teeth with hold-fasts suitable to the stress that by reason of their different offices they are to be put to . and therefore whereas the cutters and eye-teeth have usually but one root ; ( which in these last named is wont to be very long ) the grinders that are employed to crack nuts , stones of fruit , bones , or other hard bodies , are furnished with three roots , and in the upper jaw often with four , because these are pendulous , and the substance of the jaw somewhat softer . viii . the situation of the teeth is most convenient , viz. the molares or grinders behind , nearest the center of motion , because there is a greater strength or force required to chew the meat , than to bite a piece ; and the cutters before , that they may be ready to cut off a morsel from any solid food , to be transmitted to the grinders . ix . it is remarkable that the jaw in men and such animals as are furnished with grinders , hath an oblique or transverse motion , which is necessary for chewing and comminution of the meat ; which it is observed not to have in those animals that want the molares . now if ( as gallen saith ) he that shall marshal a company but of men in due order , is commended for a skilful and industrious person , shall we not admire nature which hath so skilfully ranked and disposed this quire of our teeth ? fifthly , the tongue is no less admirable for the contexture and manifold uses of it . first , it is the organ of tasting ; for being of a spungy substance the small particles of our meat and drink being mingled with the saliva , easily insinuate themselves into the pores of it , and so do either gratefully affect it , or harshly grate upon it , accordingly as they are figured and moved ; and hereby we discern what is convenient or inconvenient for our nourishment . it helps us likewise in the chewing and swallowing of our meat : and lastly , it is the main instrument of speaking , a quality so peculiar to man , that no beast could ever attain to it . and although birds have been taught to form some words , yet they have been but a few , and those learn'd with great difficulty ; but what is the chief , the birds understand not the meaning of them , nor use them as signs of things or their own conceptions of them ; though they may use them as expressions of their passions : as parrots having been used to be fed at the prolation of certain words , may afterwards when they are hungry pronounce the same . for this des cartes makes his main argument to prove that brutes have no cogitation , because the highest of them could never be brought to signifie their thoughts or conceptions by any artificial signs , either words , or gestures , ( which , if they had any , they would in all likelyhood be forward enough to do ) whereas all men , both fools and mutes , make use of words or other signs to express their thoughts , about any subjects that present themselves ; which signs also have no reference to any of their passions . whereas the signs that brute animals may be taught to use are no other than such as are the motions of some of their passions , fear , hope , joy , &c. hence some of the jewish rabbins did not so absurdly define a man animal loquens , a speaking creature . having had occasion just now to mention the saliva or spittle , i am put in mind of the eminent use of this humor , which is commonly taken for an excrement . because a great part of our food is dry ; therefore nature hath provided several glandules to separate this juice from the blood , and no less than four channels to convey it into the mouth , which are of late invention and called by anatomists ▪ ductus salivales , through which the saliva destilling continually , serves well to macerate and temper our meat , and make it fit to be chewed and swallowed . if a copious moisture did not by these conduit-pipes incessantly flow down into the mouths of horses and kine , how were it possible they should for a long time together grind and swallow such dry meat as hay and straw ? moreover it may be useful not only in the mouth but in the stomach too , to promote concoction . sixthly , to the mouth succeeds the wind-pipe , no less wonderful in its conformation . for because continual respiration is necessary for the support of our lives , it is made with annulary cartilages to keep it constantly open , and that the sides of it may not flag and fall together . and lest when we swallow , our meat or drink should fall in there and obstruct it , it hath a strong shut or valve called epiglottis , to cover it close , and stop it when we swallow : and for the more convenient bending of our necks , it is not made of one entire continued cartilage , but of many annular ones joined together by strong membranes , which membranes are muscular , compounded of streight and circular fibres for the more effectual contraction of the windpipe in any strong or violent expiration or coughing . and lest the asperity or hardness of these cartilages should hurt the oesophagus or gullet , which is tender and of a skinny substance , or hinder the swallowing of our meat , therefore these annulary gristles are not made round , or entire circles , but where the gullet touches the windpipe , there to fill up the circle is only a soft membrane , which may easily give way to the dilatation of the gullet . and to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this end and use , so soon as the windpipe enters the lungs , its cartilages are no longer deficient , but perfect circles or rings , because there was no necessity they should be so , but it was more convenient they should be entire . l●●●ly , for the various modulation of the voice , the upper end of the wind-pipe is endued with several cartilages and muscles , to contract or dilate it as we would have our voice flat or sharp ; and moreover the whole is continually moistened with a glutinous humor issuing out of the small glandules that are upon its inner coat , to fence it against the sharp air received in , or breath forced out ; yet is it of quick and tender sense , that it may be easily provoked to cast out by coughing , whatever may fall into it from without , or be discharged into it from within . seventhly , the heart which hath been always esteemed , and really is , one of the principal parts of the body , the primum vivens , & ultimum moriens , by its uncessant motion distributing the blood , the vehicle of life , and with it the vital heat and spirits , throughout the whole body , whereby it doth continually irrigate , nourish and keep hot and supple all the members . is it not admirable that from this fountain of life and heat there should be channels and conduit-pipes , to every , even the least and most remote part of the body ; just as if from one waterhouse there should be pipes conveying the water to every house in a town , and to every room in each house ; or from one fountain in a garden there should be little channels or dikes cut to every bed , and every plant growing therein , as we have seen more than once done beyond the seas . i confess the heart seems not to be designed to so noble an use as is generally believed , that is to be the fountain or conservatory of the vital flame , and to inspire the blood therewith ; ( for the lungs serve rather for the accension or maintaining that flame , the blood receiving there from the air those particles which are one part of the pabulum or fewel thereof , and so impregnated running back to the heart ) but to serve as a machine to receive the blood from the veins , and to force it out by the arteries through the whole body , as a syringe doth any liquor , though not by the same artifice : and yet this is no ignoble use , the continuance of the circulation of the blood being indispensibly necessary for the quickening and enlivening of all the members of the body , and supplying of matter to the brain , for the preparation of the animal spirits , the instruments of all sense and motion . now for this use of receiving and pumping out of the blood , the heart is admirably contrived . for first being a muscular part , the sides of it are composed of two orders of fibres running circularly or spirally from base to tip , contrarily one to the other , and so being drawn or contracted contrary ways do violently constringe and straiten the ventricles , and strongly force out the blood , as we have formerly intimated . then the vessels we call arteries , which carry from the heart to the several parts , have valves which open outwards like trap-doors , and give the blood a free passage out of the heart , but will not suffer it to return back again thither , and the veins , which bring it back from the several members to the heart , have valves or trap-doors which open inwards , so as to give way to the blood to run into the heart , but prevent it from running back again that way . besides the arteries consist of a quandruple coat , the third of which is made up of annular or orbicular carneous fibres to a good thickness and is of a muscular nature , after every pulse of the heart serving to contract the vessel successively with incredible celerity , so by a kind of peristaltick motion impelling the blood onwards to the capillary extremities , and through the muscles , with great force and swiftness . so the pulse of the arteries is not only caused by the pulsation of the heart , driving the blood through them in manner of a wave or flush , as des cartes and others would have it ; but by the coats of the arteries themselves , which the experiments of a certain * lovain physitian , ( the first whereof is galens , ) do in my opinion make good against him . first , saith he , if you slit the artery and thrust into it a pipe , so big as to fill the cavity of it , and cast a strait ligature upon that part of the artery containing the pipe , and so bind it fast to the pipe ; notwithstanding the blood hath free passage through the pipe , yet will not the artery beat below the ligature ; but do but take off the ligature , it will commence again to beat immediately . but because one might be ready to reply to this experiment , that the reason why when bound it did not beat , was because the current of the blood being straitned by the pipe , when beneath the pipe it came to have more liberty , was not sufficient to stretch the coats of the artery , and so cause a pulse , but when the ligature was taken off , it might flow between the enclosed tube and the coat of the artery ; therefore he adds another , which clearly evinces that this could not be the reason , but that it is something flowing down the coats of the artery that causes the pulse , that is , if you straiten the artery never so much , provided the sides of it do not quite meet , and stop all passage of the blood , the vessel will notwithstanding continue still to beat below or beyond the coarctation . so we see some physitians both ancient ( as galen , ) and modern were of opinion that the pulse of the arteries was owing to their coats ; though the first that i know of who observed the third coat of an artery to be a muscular body , composed of annulary fibres , was dr. willis . the mention of the peristaltick motion puts me in mind of an ocular demonstration of it in the gullet of kine when they chew the cud , which i have often beheld with pleasure . for after they have swallowed one morsel , if you look stedfastly upon their throat , you will soon see another ascend , and run pretty swiftly all along the throat up to the mouth , which it could not do unless it were impelled by the successive contraction or peristaltick motion of the gullet , continually following it . and it is remarkable that these ruminant creatures have a power by the imperium of their wills of directing this peristaltick motion upwards or downwards . i shall add no more concerning the heart , but that it and the brain do mutuas operas tradere , enable one another to work ; for first the brain cannot itself live , unless it receive continual supplies of blood from the heart , much less can it perform its functions of preparing and distributing the animal spirits ; nor the heart pulse , unless it receives spirits or something else that descends from the brain by the nerves . for do but cut asunder the nerves that go from the brain to the heart , the motion thereof in more perfect and hot creatures ceaseth immediately . which part began this round is the question . eighthly , the next part i shall treat of shall be the hand , this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superlative instrument , which serves us for such a multitude of uses , as it is not easie to enumerate ; whereto if we consider the make and structure of it , we shall find it wonderfully adapted . first , it is divided into four fingers bending forward , and one opposite to them bending backwards , and of greater strength than any of them singly , which we call the thumb , to joyn with them severally or united ; whereby it is fitted to lay hold of objects of any size or quantity . the least things , as any small single seed , are taken up by the thumb and forefinger ; those a little greater , by the thumb and two fingers , which also we chiefly employ to manage the needle in sewing , and the pen in writing : when we would take up a greater quantity of any thing we make use of the thumb and all the fingers . sometimes we use one finger only , as in póinting at any thing , picking things out of holes or long and narrow vessels , sometimes all severally at one time , as in stopping the strings when we play upon any musical instrument . . the fingers are strengthened with several bones , jointed together for motion , and furnished with several muscles and tendons like so many pullies to bend them circularly forward ; which is most convenient for the firm holding and griping of any object : which of how great , constant , and necessary use it is in pulling or drawing , but especially in taking up and retaining any sort of tool or instrument to work withal in husbandry and all mechanick arts , is so obvious to every mans observation , that i need not spend time to instance in particulars : moreover the several fingers are furnished with several muscles to extend and open the hand , and to move them to the right and left : and so this division and motion of the fingers doth not hinder but that the whole hand may be employed , as if it were all of a piece , as we see it is , either expanded as in striking out , smoothing and folding up of cloths and some mechanick uses ; or contracted , as in fighting , kneading of dough and the like . it is also notable and indeed wonderful , that the tendons bending the middle joint of the fingers , should be perforated to give passage to the tendons of the muscles which draw the uppermost joynts , and all bound down close to the bone with strong fillets , lest they should start up and hinder the hand in its work , standing like so many bowstrings . . the fingers ends are strengthened with nails , as we fortifie the ends of our staves or forks with iron hoops or ferules , which nails serve not only for defence but for ornament , and many uses . the skin upon our fingers ends , is thin and of most exquisite sense , to help us to judg of any thing we handle . if now i should go about to reckon up the several uses of this instrument , time would sooner fail me then matter . by the help of this we do all our works , we build our selves houses to dwell in ; we make our selves garments to wear ; we plow and sow our grounds with corn , dress and cultivate our vineyards , gardens , and orchards , gather and lay up our grain , and fruits ; we prepare and make ready our victuals . spinning , weaving , painting , carving , engraving , and that divinely invented art of writing , whereby we transmit our own thoughts to posterity , and converse with and participate the observations and inventions of them that are long ago dead , all performed by this . this is the only instrument for all arts whatsoever ; no improvement to be made of any experimental knowledg without it . hence ( as aristotle saith well ) they do amiss that complain , that man is worse dealt with by nature than other creatures ; whereas they have some hair , some shels , some wool , some feathers , some scales , to defend themselves from the injuries of the weather , man alone is born naked and without all covering . whereas they have natural weapons to defend themselves and offend their enemies , some horns , some hoofs , some teeth , some talons , some claws , some spurs and beaks ; man hath none of all these , but is weak , and feeble , and unarmed sent into the world. why , a hand with reason to use it , supplies the uses of all these , that 's both a horn , and a hoof , and a talon and a tusk , &c. because it enables us to use weapons of these and other fashions , as swords and spears and guns . besides this advantage a man hath of them , that whereas they cannot at pleasure change their coverings , or lay aside their weapons , or make use of others as occasion serves , but must abide winter and summer , night and day with the same cloathing on their backs , and sleep with their weapons upon them ; a man can alter his cloathing according to the exigency of the weather , go warm in winter , and cool in summer , cover up himself hot in the night , and lay aside his cloaths in the day , and put on or off more or fewer according as his work and exercise is : and can as occasion requires , make use of divers sorts of weapons , and choice of such at all turns as are most proper and convenient ; whereby we are enabled to subdue and rule over all other creatures ; and use for our own behoof those qualities wherein they excel , as the strength of the ox , the valor and swiftness of the horse , the sagacity and vigilancy of the dog , and so make them as it were our own . had we wanted this member in our bodies , we must have lived the life of brutes , without house or shelter but what the woods and rocks would have afforded ; without cloths or covering ; without corn , or wine , or oil , or any other drink but water ; without the warmth and comfort , or other uses of fire , and so without any artificial bak'd , boil'd or roast meats ; but must have scrambled with the wild beasts for crabs , and nuts , and akhorns , and sallets , and such other things as the earth puts forth of her own accord . we had lain open and exposed to injuries , and had been unable to resist or defend our selves against almost the weakest creature . the remaining parts i shall but briefly run over . that the back-bone should be divided into so many vertebres for commodious bending , and not be one entire rigid bone , which being of that length would have been often in danger of snapping in sunder . that the several vertebres should be so elegantly and artificially compacted and joined together , that they are as strong and firm as if they were but one bone. that they should be all perforated in the middle with a large hole for the spinal marrow or pith to pass along ; and each particular have a hole on each side to transmit the nerves to the muscles of the body , to convey both sense and motion . that whereas the breast is encompassed with ribs , the belly is left free ; that it might give way to the motion of the midriff in respiration ; and to the necessary reception of meat and drink ; as also for the convenient bending of the body ; and in females for that extraordinary extension that is requisite in the time of their pregnancy . that the stomach should be membranous , and capable of dilatation and contraction , according to the quantity of meat conteined in it ; that it should be situate under the liver , which by its heat might cherish it , and contribute to concoction : that it should be endued with an acid ferment , or some corruptive quality for so speedy a dissolution of the meat , and preparation of chyle ; that after concoction it should have an ability of contracting itself and turning out the meat . that the bladder should be made of a membranous substance , and so extremely dilatable for receiving and containing the urine , till opportunity of emptying it ; that it should have shuts for the ends of the ureters so artificially contrived as to give the urine free entrance , but to stop all passage backward , so that they will not transmit the wind , though it be strongly blown and forced in . that the liver should continually separate the choler from the blood , and empty it into the intestines , where there is good use for it , not only to provoke dejection , but also to attenuate the chyle and render it so subtile and fluid as to enter in at the orifices of the lacteous veins . finally , that all the bones , and all the muscles , and all the vessels of the body should be so admirably contrived , and adapted , and compacted together for their several motions and uses , and that most geometrically , according to the strictest rules of mechanicks , that if in the whole body you change the figure , situation , and conjunction but of one part , if you diminish or encrease the bulk and magnitude , in fine if you endeavor any innovation or alteration , you marr and spoil instead of mending . how can all these things put together but beget wonder and astonishment ? that under one skin there should be such infinite variety of parts , variously mingled , hard with soft , fluid with fixt , solid with hollow , those in rest with those in motion , some with cavities as mortesses to receive , others with tenons to fit those cavities ; all these so pact and thrust so close together that there is no unnecessary vacuity in the whole body , and yet so far from clashing or interfering one with another , or hindring each others motions , that they do all friendly conspire , all help and assist mutually one the other , all concur in one general end and design , the good and preservation of the whole , are certainly arguments and effects of infinite wisdom and counsel ; so that he must needs be worse than mad that can find in his heart to imagine all these to be casual and fortuitous , or not provided and designed by a most wise and intelligent cause . i should now proceed to treat of the generation and formation of the foetus in the womb ; but that is a subject too difficult for me to handle ; the body of man and other animals being formed in the dark recesses of the matrix , or as the psalmist phrases it , psal. . . made in secret , and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth . this work is so admirable and unaccountable that neither the atheists nor mechanick philosophers have attempted to declare the manner and process of it ; but have ( as i noted before ) very cautiously and prudently broke off their systems of natural philosophy here , and left this point untoucht ; and those accounts which some of them have attempted to give of the formation of a few of the parts , are so excessively absurd and ridiculous , that they need no other consutation than ha ha he . and i have already further shewn , that it seems to me impossible , that matter divided into as minute and subtle parts as you will or can imagine , and those moved according to what catholick laws soever can be devised , should without the presidency and direction of some intelligent agent , by the mere agitation of a gentle heat , run itself into such a curious machine as the body of man is . yet must it be confest , that the seed of animals is admirably qualified to be fashioned and formed by the plastick nature into an organical body , conteining the principles or component particles of all the several homogeneous parts thereof ; for indeed every part of the body seems to club and contribute to the seed , else why should parents that are born blind or deaf , or that want a finger or any other part , or have one superfluous , sometimes generate children that have the same defects or imperfections ; and yet ( which is wonderful ) nothing of the body or grosser matter of the seed comes near the first principle of the foetus , or in some so much as enters the womb , but only some contagious vapor or subtle effluviums thereof . but to what shall we attribute the foetus its likeness to the parents , or omitting them to the precedent progenitors , as i have observed some parents that have been both black hair'd to have generated most red hair'd children , because their ancestors hair have been of that color , or why are twins so often extremely alike ; whether is this owing to the efficient , or to the matter ? these effluvia we spake of of the male seed , as subtile as they are , yet have they a great , if not the greatest stroke in generation , as is clearly demonstrable in a mule , which doth more resemble the male parent , that is the ass , than the female or horse . but now why such different species should not only mingle together , but also generate an animal , and yet that that hybridous production should not again generate , and so a new race be carried on ; but nature should stop here and proceed no further , is to me a mystery and unaccountable . one thing relating to generation i cannot omit , that is , the construction of a set of temporary parts , ( like scaffolds in a building ) to serve a present end , which are afterwards laid aside , afford a strong argument of counsel and design . now for the use of the young during its enclosure in the womb there are several parts formed , as the membranes inveloping it , called the secundines , the umbilical vessels , one vein and two arteries , the urachus , to convey the urine out of the bladder , and the placenta uterina ; part whereof fall away at the birth , as the secundines and placenta , others degenerate into ligaments , as the urachus , and part of the umbilical vein : besides which , because the foetus during its abode in the womb hath no use of respiration by the lungs , the blood doth not all , i may say not the greatest part of it , flow through them , but there are two passages or channels contrived , one called the foramen ovale , by which part of the blood brought by the vena cava passeth immediately into the left ventricle of the heart , without entring the right at all ; the other is a large arterial channel passing from the pulmonary artery immediately into the aorta , or great artery , which likewise derives part of the blood thither , without running at all into the lungs : these two are closed up soon after the child is born , when it breaths no more ( as i may so say ) by the placenta uterina , but respiration by the lungs is needful for it . it is here to be noted , that though the lungs be formed so soon as the other parts , yet during the abode of the foetus in the womb , they lie by as useless . in like manner i have observed that in ruminating creatures the three formost stomachs , not only during the continuance of the young in the womb , but so long as it is fed with milk are unemployed and useless , the milk passing immediately into the fourth . another observation i shall add concerning generation , which is of some moment , because it takes away some concessions of naturalists , that give countenance to the atheists fictitious and ridiculous account of the first production of mankind and other animals ; viz. that all sorts of insects , yea and some quadrupeds too , as frogs and mice , are produced spontaneously . my observation and affirmation is , that there is no such thing in nature , as aequivocal or spontaneous generation , but that all animals , as well small as great , not excluding the vilest and most contemptible insect , are generated by animal parents of the same species with themselves ; that noble italian vertuoso , francesco redi having experimented that no putrified flesh ( which one would think were the most likely of any thing ) will of itself , if all insects be carefully kept from it , produce any : the same experiment i remember doctor wilkins late bishop of chester told me had been made by some of the royal society . no instance against this opinion doth so much puzzle me , as worms bred in the intestines of man and other animals . but seeing the round worms do manifestly generate , and probably the other kinds too ; it 's likely they come originally from seed , which how it was brought into the guts , may afterwards possibly be discovered . moreover i am inclinable to believe that all plants too , that themselves produce seed , ( which are all but some very imperfect ones , which scarce deserve the name of plants ) come of seeds themselves . for that great naturalist malpighius , to make experiment whether earth would of its self put forth plants , took some purposely digged out of a deep place , and put it into a glass vessel , the top whereof he covered with silk many times doubled and strained over it , which would admit the water and air to pass through , but exclude the least seed that might be wafted by the wind ; the event was that no plant at all sprang up in it ; nor need we wonder how in a ditch , bank or grass-plat newly dig'd , or in the fenbanks in the isle of ely mustard should abundantly spring up , where in the memory of man none had been known to grow , for it might come of seed which had lain there more than a mans age. some of the ancients mentioning some seeds that retain their fecundity forty years : as for the mustard that sprung up in the isle of ely , though there never had been any in that country , yet might it have been brought down in the channels by the floods , and so being thrown up the banks together with the earth , might germinate and grow there . from this discourse concerning the body of man i shall make three practical inferences . first , let us give thanks to almighty god for the perfection and integrity of our bodies . it would not be amiss to put it into the eucharistical parr of our daily devotions : we praise thee o god for the due number , shape and use of our limbs and senses , and in general of all the parts of our bodies ; we bless thee for the sound and healthful constitution of them ; it is thou that hast made us and not we our selves ; in thy book were all our members written . the mother that bears the child in her womb is not conscious to any thing that is done there ; she understands no more how the infant is formed than itself doth . but if god hath bestowed upon us any peculiar gift or endowment , wherein we excel others , as strength , or beauty or activity , we ought to give him special thanks for it , but not to think the better of our selves therefore , or despise them that want it . now because these bodily perfections , being common blessings , we are apt not at all to consider them , or not to set a just value on them ; and because the worth of things is best discerned by their want ; it would be useful sometimes to imagine or suppose our selves by some accident to be depriv'd of one of our limbs or senses , as a hand , or a foot , or an eye , for then we cannot but be sensible , that we should be in worse condition than now we are , and that we should soon find a difference between two hands and one hand , two eyes and one eye , and that two excel one as much in worth as they do in number ; and yet if we could spare the use of the lost part , the deformity and unsightlyness of such a defect in the body , would alone be very grievous to us . again , which is less , suppose we only , that our bodies want of their just magnitude , or that they or any of our members are crooked or distorted , or disproportionate to the rest either in excess or defect ; nay , which is least of all , that the due motion of any one part be perverted , as but of the eyes in squinting , the eye-lids in twinkling , the tongue in stammering , these things are such blemishes and offences to us , by making us gazing-stocks to others , and objects of their scorn and derision , that we could be content to part with a good part of our estates to repair such defects , or heal such infirmities . these things considered and duly weighed , would surely be a great and effectual motive to excite in us gratitude for this integrity of our bodies , and to esteem it no small blessing , i say a blessing and favor of god to us ; for some there be that want it , and why might not we have been of that number ? god was no way obliged to bestow it upon us . and as we are to give thanks for the integrity of our body , so are we likewise for the health of it , and the sound temper and constitution of all its parts and humors ; health being the principal blessing of this life , without which we cannot enjoy or take comfort in any thing besides . neither are we to give thanks alone for the first collation of these benefits , but also for their preservation and continuance . god preserves our souls in life , and defends us from dangers and sad accidents , which do so beset us on every side , that the greatest circumspection in the world could not secure us , did not his good providence continually watch over us . we may be said to walk and converse in the midst of snares ; besides , did we but duly consider the make and frame of our bodies , what a multitude of minute parts and vessels there are in them , and how an obstruction in one redounds to the prejudice of the whole , we could not but wonder how so curious an engine as mans body , could be kept in tune one hour , as we use it , much less hold out so many years : how it were possible it should endure such hardship , such blows , so many shocks and concussions , nay such violences and outrages as are offered it by our frequent excesses , and not be disordered and rendred useless ; and acknowledg the transcendent art and skill of him who so put it together , as to render it thus firm and durable . secondly , did god make the body , let him have the service of it . rom. . . i beseech you , brethren , by the mercies of god , that you present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable unto god , which is your reasonable service . cor. . . glorifie god in your body , or with your body , and in your spirits , which are gods , and that not by redemption only , of which the apostle there speaks , but by creation also . rom. . . neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin , but as instruments of righteousness unto god. and again ver. . even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness . i shall instance in two members , which are especially to be guarded and restrained from evil , and employed in the service of god. first , the eye . we must turn away our eyes from beholding vanity , as david pray'd , god would his , psal. . . we must make a covenant with our eyes , as job did , job . . these are the windows that let in exteriour objects to the soul : by these the heart is affected : this way sin entred first into the world. our first parents saw that the tree and its fruit was pleasant to the eyes , and so was invited to take and eat it . there are four sins especially for which the eye is noted , as either discovering themselves in the eyes , or whose temptations enter in by , and so give denomination to the eye . . there is a proud eye . prov. . . there is a generation , o how lofty are their eyes , and their eye lids are lifted up . chap. . . a proud look is reckoned the first of those six things that god hates , psal. . . god ( the psalmist saith ) will bring down proud or high looks . psalm . . him that hath a high look and a proud heart ( saith david , ) i will not suffer . and in psal. . . he saith of himself , that his heart is not haughty nor his eyes lofty . by which places it appeareth that pride sheweth forth it self in the eyes especially , and that they are as it were the seat or throne of it . . there is a wanton eye , which the prophet isaiah speaks of in his third chapter , at the th verse , because the daughters of jerusalem walk with stretched out necks , and wanton eyes . the apostle peter in his second epistle , . . mentions eyes full of adultery . for by these casements enter in such objects as may provoke and stir up adulterous thoughts in the mind , as they did in david's , and likewise impure thoughts conceived in the heart may discover themselves by the motions of the eye . and therefore in this respect we should do well with holy job , to make a covenant with our eyes ; not to gaze upon any object which may tempt us to any inordinate appetite or desire . for our saviour tells us , it were better to pluck out our right eye , than that it should be an offence to us : which i suppose refers to this matter , because it immediately follows those words , he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart . . there is a covetous eye . by covetousness i understand not only a desiring what is another mans , which is forbidden in the tenth commandment , but also an inordinate desire of riches , which the apostle john seems to understand in his first epistle , . . by the lust of the eye . and covetousness may well be called the lust of the eye , because . the temptation or tempting object enters by the eye . so the seeing the wedg of gold and babylonish garment stirred up the covetous desire in achan . . because all the fruit a man reaps of riches more than will furnish his necessities and conveniencies , is the feeding of his eye , or the pleasure he takes in the beholding of them . eccles. . . when goods encrease , &c. what good is there to the owners thereof , saving the beholding them with their eyes ? fourthly , there is an envious eye , which by our saviour is called an evil eye . mat. . : is thine eye evil because i am good . that is , enviest thou thy brother because i am kind to him . and . . one of those evil things which proceed out of the heart and defile a man is an evil eye . envy is a repining at the prosperity or good of another , or anger and displeasure at any good of another which we want , or any advantage another hath above us : as in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard , those that came in first envied the last , not because they received more than they , but because they received equal wages for less time . those that are subject to this vice cannot endure to see another man thrive ; and are apt to think his condition better than theirs when indeed it is not . let us then so govern our eyes , that we discover by them none of these vices . let the humility and purity of our minds appear even in our outward looks . let neither pride nor lust manifest themselves in the posture or motions of our eyes . let us have a care that these members be neither the inlets , nor outlets of any of the fore mentioned vices ; that they neither give admission to the temptation , nor be expressive of the conception of them . let us employ them in reading the word of god , and other good books , for the encrease of our knowledg , and direction of our practice : in diligently viewing and contemplating the works of the creation , that we may discern and admire the footsteps of the divine wisdom easily to be traced in the formation , disposition , and designations of them . let us take notice of any extraordinary events and effects of gods providence towards our selves or others , personal or national : that as they are the issues of his mercy or justice , they may stir up sutable affections in us , of thankfulness or fear . let those sad and miserable objects , that present themselves to our sight move us to pity and commiseration : and let our eyes sometimes be exercised in weeping for the miseries and calamities of others , but especially for our own and their sins . secondly , another member i shall mention is the tongue , which as it is the chief instrument of speech , so may it be well or ill employed in the exercise of that action , and therefore stands in need of direction and restraint . i remember i once heard from an ingenious anatomist of padua this observation , that there are but two members in the body that have a natural bridle , both which do very much need it ; the tongue , and another i shall not name . the signification whereof may be , that they are not to be let loose , but diligently curbed and held in . for the better government of the tongue , i shall note some vices of speech , which must carefully be avoided . first of all loquacity or garrulity . this the contrivance of our mouths suggests to us . our tongues are fenced and guarded with a double wall or mound of lips and teeth , that our words might not rashly and unadvisedly slip out . then nature hath furnished us with two ears , and but one tongue , to intimate that we must hear twice so much as we speak . why loquacity is to be avoided , the wise man gives us a sufficient reason , prov. . . in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin . and eccles. . . in many words there are divers vanities . to which we may add another , of great force with most men , viz. that it hath been always esteemed an effect and argument of folly. eccles , . . a fools voice is known by multitude of words . and on the contrary , to be of few words is a sign of wisdom : and he that is wise enough to be silent , though a fool , may pass undiscovered . besides all this , a talkative person must needs be impertinent , and speak many idle words , and so render himself burthensom and odious to company : and may perchance run himself upon great incoveniences , by blabbing out his own or others secrets ; for a word once uttered , fugit irrevocabile , whatever the consequence of it be . great need therefore have we to set a watch over our mouths , and to keep the door of our lips ; and not suffer our tongues * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; as isocrates phraseth it . secondly , lying or false speaking . there is difference between mentiri and mendacium dicere , that is lying , and speaking of an untruth , or thing that is false . mentiri is contra mentem ire , which though it be no good etymology of the word , is a good notion of the thing ; that is , to go again stones mind , or speak what one does not think . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as homer expresseth it , to conceal one thing in the mind , and speak another with the tongue . hence a man may speak an untruth , and yet not lye , when , he thinks he speaks the truth ; and on the contrary , may speak what is materially true , and yet lye , when he speaks what he thinks not to be true . the tongue was made to be the index of the mind , speech the interpreter of thought ; therefore there ought to be a perfect harmony and agreement between these two . so that lying is a great abuse of speech , and a perverting the very end of it , which was to communicate our thoughts one to another . it hath also an ill principle for the most part , proceeding either from baseness of spirit or cowardise , as in them that have committed a fault , and deny it , for fear of punishment or rebuke : or from covetousness , as in tradesmen who falsly commend their commodities , that they may vend them for a greater price ; or from vanity and vain glory , in them who falsly boast of any quality or action of their own . it is odious both to god and man. to god , prov. . . a lying tongue is one of those six or seven things that are an abomination to him . to men , as homer witnesseth in the verse preceding the fore-quoted . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. he that tells lies is as hateful to me as the gates of hell or death . — the practice of lying is a diabolical exercise , and they that use it are the devils children , as our saviour tells us . john . . ye are of your father the devil , &c. for he is a lyar , and the father of it . and lastly , it is a sin that excludes out of heaven , and depresses the soul into hell. revel . , . all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone , which is the second death . thirdly , another vice or abuse of speech , or vicious action to which the tongue is instrumental is slandering ; that is raising a false report of any man tending to his defamation . this might have been comprehended under the former head , being but a kind of lying proceeding from enmity or ill will. it is a very great injury to our neighbour , mens reputation being as dear to them as life itself ; so that it is grown to be a proverb among the vulgar , take away my good name and take away my life . and that which enhances this injury is that it is irreparable . we cannot by any contrary declaration so clear the innocency of our neighbour as wholly to extirpate the preconceived opinion , out of the minds of those to whom our confession comes ; and many will remain whom the calumny hath reacht , to whom the vindication probably will not extend ; the pravity of mans nature being more apt to spread and divulge an ill report than to stop and silence it . i might instance in flattering of others , and boasting of our selves for two abuses of speech , but they may both be referred to lying , the one to please others , and puff them up with self-conceit , and a false opinion that they have some excellent quality or endowment which they want , or have not in such a degree , or that they are better thought of by others than indeed they are , and more honored : the other to gain more honor than is due to them . fourthly , obscene and impure words are another vicious effect of the tongue . those are principally the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rotten speeches the apostle speaks of eph. . . such as chast ears abhor , which tend only to the depraving and corrupting the hearers : and are to be studiously and carefully avoided by all that pretend to christianity . ephes. , . but fornication and all uncleanness let it not be once named among you . fifthly , cursing , and railing or reviling words are also a great abuse of speech , and outragious effects and expressions of malice and wickedness . psalm . . . the psalmist makes it part of the character of a wicked man , that his mouth is full of cursing . which passage we have quoted by the apostle rom. . . whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness . sixthly , swearing and irreverent using the name of god in common discourse and converse , is another abuse of the tongue ; to which i might add vehement asseverations upon sleight and trivial occasions . i do not deny , but in a matter of weight and moment , which will bear out such attestation , and where belief will not be obtained without them , and yet it may much import the hearer or speaker that his words be believed , or where the hearer would not otherwise think the matter so momentous or important as indeed it is , protestations and asseverations , yea oaths may lawfully be used . but to call god to witness to an untruth or a lye perhaps , or to appeal to him on every trivial occasion , in common discourse , customarily , without any consideration of what we say , is one of the highest indignities and affronts that can be offered him , being a sin to which there is no temptation : for it is so far from gaining belief ( which is the only thing that can with any shew of reason be pleaded for it ) that it rather creates diffidence and distrust . for as mult a fidem promiss a levant , so mult a juramenta too , it being become a proverb he that will swear will lie. and good reason there is for it ; for he that scruples not the breach of one of gods commands , is not likely to make conscience of the violation of another . lastly , for i will name no more , scurrilous words , scoffing and jeering , flouting and taunting , are to be censured as vicious abuses of speech . this scoffing and derision proceeds from contempt , and that of all injuries men do most impatiently bear ; nothing offends more , or wounds deeper ; and therefore what greater violation of that general rule of christian practice , to do to others as we would they should do unto us ? this injury of being derided the psalmist himself complains of , psalm . , . i became a proverb to them . they that sit in the gate speak against me , and i was the song of the drunkards . and psalm . , according to the church translation , the very abjects came together against me unawares , making mows at me , and ceased not . and the prophet jeremy , jer. . . i am in derision daily , every one mocketh me . and though there may be some wit shewn in scoffing and jesting upon others , yet is it a practice inconsistent with true wisdom . the scorner and the wise man are frequently posed in scripture . prov. . . and chap. . , &c. it is a proverbial saying , the greatest clerks are not always the wisest men . i think the saying might as often be verified of the greatest wits . scorning in that gradation in the first psalm is set down as the highest step of wickedness . and solomon tells us that judgments are prepared for the scorners . you will say to me , how then must our tongues be employed ? i answer , in praises and thanksgiving unto god. psalm . . and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praises all the day long . parallel whereto is vers. . of psalm . indeed the book of psalms is in a great measure but an exercise of , or exhortation to this duty . . we must exercise our tongues in talking of all his wondrous works . psalm . , . i will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty , and of thy wondrous works . . in prayer to god. . in confession of him and of his religion , and publickly owning it before men , whatever the hazard be . . in teaching , instructing and counselling of others . . in exhorting them . . in comforting them that need it . . in reproving them . all which particulars i might enlarge upon ; but because they come in here only as they refer to the tongue , it may suffice to have mention'd them summarily . thirdly , let us hence duly learn to prize and value our souls ; is the body such a rare piece , what then is the soul ? the body is but the husk or shell , the soul is the kernel ; the body is but the cask , the soul the precious liquor contained in it ; the body is but the cabinet , the soul the jewel ; the body is but the ship or vessel , the soul the pilot ; the body is but the tabernacle , and a poor clay tabernacle or cottage , the soul the inhabitant ; the body is but the machine or engine , the soul that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that actuates and quickens it ; the body is but the dark lanthorn , the soul or spirit is the candle of the lord that burns in it : and seeing there is such difference between the soul and the body in respect of excellency , surely our better part challenges our greatest care and diligence to make provision for it . bodily provision is but half provision , it is but for one part of a man , and that the meaner and more ignoble too , if we consider only the time of this life ; but if we consider a future estate of endless duration after this life , then bodily provision will appear to be , i do not say quarter provision , but no provision at all in comparison , there being no proportion between so short a period of time , and the infinite ages of eternity . let us not then be so foolish as to employ all our thoughts and bestow all our time and pains about cherishing , accommodating and gratifying our bodies , in making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof , as the apostle phraseth it ; and suffer our souls to lie by neglected , in a miserable , and poor , and blind , and naked condition . some philosophers will not allow the body to be an essential part of man , but only the vessel or vehicle of the soul ; anima cujusque est quisque . though i would not be so unequal to it , yet i must needs acknowledg it to be but an inferior part : it is therefore so to be treated , so dieted and provided as to render it most calm and compliant with the soul , most tractable and obsequious to the dictates of reason ; not so pampered and indulged , as to encourage it to cast its rider , and to take the reins into its own hand , and usurp dominion over the better part , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to sink and depress it into a sordid compliance with its own lusts , atque affigere humi divinae particulam aurae . this is our duty , but alas what is our practice ? our great partiality towards our bodies , and neglect of our souls , shews clearly which part we prefer . we are careful enough of wounding or maiming our bodies , but we make bold to lash and wound our souls daily ; for every sin we commit , being contrary to its nature , is a real stripe yea a mortal wound to the soul , and we shall find it to be so , if our consciences be once awakened to feel the sting and smart of it . we are industrious enough to preserve our bodies from slavery and thraldom , but we make nothing of suffering our souls to be slaves and drudges to our lusts , and to live in the vilest bondage to the most degenerate of creatures , the devil : we are thrifty and provident enough not to part with any thing that may be serviceable to our bodies under a good consideration , and we so esteem them , as that we will part with all we have for the life of them ; but we make little account of what is most beneficial to our souls , the means of grace and salvation , the word of god and duties of his worship and service , nay we can be content to sell our souls themselves for a trifle , for a thing of nothing , yea for what is worse than nothing , the satisfying of an inordinate and unreasonable appetite or passion . we highly esteem and stand much upon our nobility , our birth and breeding , though we derive nothing from our ancestors but our bodies and corporeal qualities ; and it is useful so far to value and improve this advantage , as to provoke us to imitate the good examples of our progenitors , not to degenerate from them , nor to do any thing unworthy of our breeding ; and yet the divine original of our souls , which are beams from the father of lights , and the immediate offspring of god himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hath little influence upon us to engage us to walk worthily of our extraction , and to do nothing that is base or ignoble , and unsutable to the dignity of our birth . you will say , how shall we manifest our care of our souls ? what shall we do for them ? i answer , the same we do for our bodies . . we feed our bodies , our souls are also to be fed : the food of the soul is knowledg , especially knowledg in the things of god , and the things that concern its eternal peace and happiness ; the doctrine of christianity , the word of god read and preached , . pet. . . as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby . heb. . . the apostle speaks both of milk and of strong meat . milk he there calls the principles of the doctrine of christ , and again , . cor. . . i have fed you with milk and not with meat , for hitherto ye were not able to bear it . so we see in the apostles phrase , feeding of the flock is teaching and instructing of them . knowledg is the foundation of practice ; it is impossible to do gods will before we know it ; the word must be received into an honest and good heart and understood , before any fruit can be brought forth . secondly , we heal and cure our bodies , when they are inwardly sick , or outwardly harmed ; sin is the sickness of the soul , matth. . . they that be whole need not a physitian , but they that be sick , saith our saviour , by way of similitude , which he explains in the next verse , i am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance . for the cure of this disease an humble , serious , hearty repentance is the only physick ; not to expiate the guilt of it , but to qualifie us to partake of the benefit of that atonement which our saviour christ hath made , by the sacrifice of himself , and restore us to the favor of god , which we had forfeited , it being as much as in us lies an undoing again what we have done . thirdly , we cloth and adorn our bodies , our souls also are to be clothed with holy and vertuous habits , and adorned with good works . . pet. . . be ye clothed with humility ; and in the same epistle , chap. . . he exhorts women to adorn themselves , not with that outward adorning of plaiting the hair , and of wearing gold , &c. but with the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit , which is in the sight of god of great price . and in revel . . . the righteousness of the saints is called fine linnen . and the saints are said to be clothed in white raiment . matt. . . works of righteousness , and a conversation becoming the gospel is called a wedding garment . coloss. . . put on the new man. and again , put on therefore as the elect of god bowels of mercy , meekness , &c. on the contrary vicious habits and sinful actions are compared to filthy garments . so zechar. . . joshua the high-priest is said to be clothed with filthy garments ; which in the next verse are interpreted his iniquities either personal or of the people , whom he represented , i have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee , and will cloth thee with change of raiment . fourthly , we arm and defend our bodies . and our souls have as much need of armour as they : for the life of a christian is a continual warfare ; and we have potent and vigilant enemies to encounter withal ; the devil , the world and this corrupt flesh we carry about with us . we had need therefore to take to us the christian panoply , to put on the whole armour of god , that we may withstand in the evil day , and having done all may stand ; having our loyns girt with truth , and having the breast plate of righteousness , and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace . above all taking the shield of faith , and for an helmet the hope of salvation , and the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god. ephes. . , , &c. he that with his christian armour manfully fights against and repels the temptations and assaults of his spiritual enemies . he that keeps his garments pure , and his conscience void of offence towards god and towards man , shall enjoy perfect peace here , and assurance for ever . tacitus saith of the finni , a northern people , that they were securi adversus homines , securi adversus deos. they need not fear what god or man could do to them , because they were in as bad a condition as could consist with living in the world : they could not be banished into a worse country , nor put into worse circumstances than they were in already . i might say of the man that keeps a good conscience , that he is secure against god and man ; not in that sense the finni were ; but secure of any evil befalling him , from either . god can do him no harm , not for want of power , but for want of will , which is regulated by his truth and justice . he is also secure in respect of men , because he is under the protection of the almighty : and if any there be that would do him harm , they shall either be restrained by the divine providence , or if they be permitted to injure him , it shall tend only to the exercise and improvement of his faith and patience , and enhancing his future reward at that great day , when the almighty shall dispense aureolae to those champions who have signalized their valour and fidelity by heroick actions , or patient sufferings of unworthy things for his sake . . a good conscience not only secures a man from god and men , but from himself too . there is no peace to the wicked , saith my god , no inward peace . such a man is at odds with himself . for the commandments of god being agreeable to the nature of man , and perfectly conformable to the dictates of right reason ; mans judgment gives sentence with the divine law , and condemns him when he violates any of them ; and so the sinner becomes an heautontimorumenos , a tormenter of himself . prima est haec ultio , quod se judice nemo nocens absolvitur . no guilty person is absolved at his own tribunal , himself being judge . neither let any profligate person , who hath bidden defiance to his conscience , and is at war with himself , think to take sanctuary in atheism , and because it imports him highly there should be no god , stoutly deny that there is any . for first , supposing that the existence of a deity were not demonstrably or infallibly proved , ( as it most certainly is ) yet he cannot be sure of the contrary , that there is none . for no man can be sure of a pure negative , namely that such a thing is not , unless he will either pretend to have a certain knowledg of all things that are or may be , than which nothing can be more monstrously and ridiculously arrogant ; or else unless he be sure that the being of what he denies doth imply a contradiction ; for which there is not the least colour in this case . the true notion of god consisting in this , that he is a being of all possible perfection . that i may borrow my lord bishop of chesters words in his discourse of natural religion , pag. . now if he be not sure there is no deity , he cannot be without some suspicion and fear that there may be one . secondly , if there should be a deity , so holy and just and powerful as is supposed , what vengeance and indignation may such vile miscreants and rebels expect , who have made it their business to banish him out of the world who is the great creatour and governour of it , to undermine his being , and eradicate all notions of him out of their own and other mens minds ; to provoke his creatures and vassals to a contempt of him , a sleighting of his fear and worship , as being but such imaginary chimaera's , as are fit only to keep fools in awe . certainly as this is the highest provocation that any man can be guilty of , so shall it be punished with the sorest vengeance . now a slender suspicion of the existence of a being , the denial whereof is of so sad consequence , must needs disturb the atheists thoughts , and fill him with fears , and qualifie and allay all his pleasures and enjoyments , and render him miserable even in this life . but on the other side , he that believes and owns a god ; if there should be none , is in no danger of any bad consequent . for all the inconvenience of this belief will be , that he may be hereby occasioned to tye himself up to some needless restraints during this short time of his life , wherein notwithstanding there is , as to the present , much peace , quiet , and safety ; and , as to the future , his errour shall die with him , there being none to call him to an account for his mistake . thus far the bishop . to which i shall add , that he not only suffers no damage , but reaps a considerable benefit from this mistake ; for during this life he enjoys a pleasant dream or fancy of a future blessed estate , with the thoughts and expectation whereof he solaces himself , and agreeably entertains his time ; and is in no danger of being ever awakened out of it , and convinced of his errour and folly , death making a full end of him . finis . books printed for and sold by samuel smith . jo. rais historia plantarum . vol. fol. . — synopsis methodica stirpium britannicarum , cum indice & virium epit. newton philosophia naturalis principia mathemat . . r. morton . exercitationes de phthisii . o. . g. harris de morbis acutis infantum . o. . pharmacopeia bateana , cum arcanis goddardianis , &c. . shipton pharmacopeia-col . reg. londini remedia omnia . o. . plukenetii stripium illustr . & minus cognitarum icones . fol. . haver's new observation of the bones , and marrow , of rheumatisms and gout , &c. . practical christianity , or such holiness as the gospel enjoyns o. an enquiry after happiness by the author of pract. christianity o. human life ; being a . part of enquiry after happiness . o. . the duty of servants towards god , their masters , &c. by the same author . a sermon preached at mr. t. lamb's funeral , by the same author . a sermon about frequent communion , by dr. tho. smith . o. a practical discourse of the causes , and remedies of the differences about religion ; which distract the peace of christendom . o. the history of the persecutions of the protestants , by the french king , in the principality of orange . o. the state of the church of rome , when the reformation began . o. visions of pasquin , or a character of the roman court , religion and practices ; with a curious description of purgatory , and hell. o. the school of the eucharist , or the miraculous acknowledgments which birds , beasts and insects have rendred to the holy sacrament of the altar . o. art of divine converse , by d. abercromby . the life of st. mary magdalen of pazzi , a carmelite nun ; with the nature , causes and consequences of extasie and rapture , &c. o. r. boyle's veneration man's intellect ows to god. o. — hydrostaticks applyed to the materia medicam . o. — effects of languid local motion ; and the causes of the insalubrity and salubrity of the air. o. — natural and experimental history of mineral waters . o. — vertues of specifick medicines , and the use of simple medicines o. — of the porousness of animal and solid bodies . o. — experimental history of cold. o. — sceptical chymist . o. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * de nat. rerum . l. . treat . of nat. religion . lib. . c. . * seminal form or vertue . * antidote against athism l. . c. . * isag. ad rem herbariam . * antidote against atheism . l. . c. . * agric. l. . c. . * d. more antid . l. . c. . antid . atheism . l. . c. . * plin. l. . c. . * antidote against atheism l. . c. . object . use. * antid . atheism . l. . c. . * bishop of chesters nat. rel. lib. . c. . dr. more antidote against atheism . * de natur . rerum l. . * boyl of fin. causes p. , . * cartes epist. vol. . ep. . & seq . infer . . psal. . infer . . * runs before the understanding or wit. a demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature and of the christian religion in two parts / by samuel parker ... parker, samuel, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature and of the christian religion in two parts / by samuel parker ... parker, samuel, - . [ ], xlii, [ ], , [ ] p. printed by m. flesher for r. royston ... and r. chiswell ..., london : . errata: p. . advertisements: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. reproduction of original in university of chicago library. pages - faded in filmed copy. pages - photographed from yale university library copy and inserted at the end. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng apologetics -- early works to . apologetics -- history -- th century. natural theology -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a demonstration of the divine authority of the law of nature , and of the christian religion . in two parts . by samuel parker , d. d. arch-deacon of canterbury . london : printed by m. flesher , for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty , and r. chiswell , at the rose and crown in s t paul's church-yard . . to the reverend d r bathurst , dean of wells and president of trinity college in oxon . sir , being my self competently satisfied in the true reasoning , and thoroughly assured of the good meaning of this ensuing discourse , i am thereby encouraged to present it to your view , as the most able judge , that i know , both of the argument , and the performance , and to beg your impartial censure and opinion of it . i know indeed by long experience your candour and kind-nature to be so great , as to be apt sometimes to sway your judgment ; but ( sir ) i beseech you to set that aside for once , and to peruse this treatise not with the courtesie of a patron but the more obliging freedom of a friend , ( to which familiar relation , after your kindness had made me in any measure fit for and worthy of it , you have been pleased long since to admit me . ) and so ( sir ) you very well know that of old the philosophers and professours of learning were not wont to address their discourses to great and unlearned patrons , as has been the fashion of our modern times , but to their friends and acquaintance of the greatest skill in that sort of learning that they profest , and that not for their protection , as the complement now runs , but their sincere and friendly censure . varro was a greater patron than any senatour of rome . and though some of the eminent men of learning were great men in the common-wealth too , yet their friends were not wont to make their addresses to them as members of the senate or the areopagus , but of the more honourable society of philosophers . and that ( sir ) is the onely design i have in presenting these papers to your hands , not to load your modesty with the usual complements and formalities of dedications , but to request your free and impartial judgment of them , and by that i shall be directed to frame my own . and if they prove so fortunate as to gain your approbation , that alone will secure me of their acceptance with all wise and learned men. but whatever they are , i earnestly beseech you to accept of them as a small token of unfeigned and indelible gratitude from , sir , your most humble and most obliged servant , sa. parker . preface . this treatise being written in pursuance of a former in the latine tongue , ought to have been penn'd in the same language ; and so very probably it might , had it not been first undertaken at the request and for the use of an english friend . though upon review i cannot wish that it had been composed in any other language , because though the latine tongue be of more universal use , yet the benefit of it is confin'd to learned men , who have less need of such helps as these , and when they have , are able to satisfie themselves . whereas the ignorant and the unlearned among our selves are become the greatest pretenders to scepticism , and it is the common people that now a days set up for atheism and infidelity . and as much as the age we live in is improved vice and wickedness , yet it is not so considerable for the baseness of men's practices as for the extravagance of their principles . for we have not invented ( because indeed we cannot ) any new acts of lewdness and debauchery ; and the sins that are now committed , have been sometimes ( though very seldom ) committed in former ages , but then they were not defended for wise and harmless actions . whereas we are grown so subtile as to suit our notions to our vices , and will not be so rash and unadvised as our dull forefathers were , to be wicked and not be able to justifie it upon principles . they were so foolish as to act against the perswasions of their own consciences , and condemn themselves in their own practices , but we are so prudent and philosophical , that unless we can argue our selves into liberty from those uneasie restraints , we will never violently break through them . so that atheism and irreligion are at length become as common as vice and debauchery , and the vulgar ( by which i intend both sorts , as seneca expresses it , the man of title as well as the clowted shooe , if equally unlearned and barbarous ) declare that they would not be so wicked as they are , if they thought that they lay under any obligations to be good . in short , this is the first age of the world that i know of , in which atheism ever appeared any where in publick open and bare-faced . for though in the corruptions of the roman empire men were as prodigious in their impieties as debaucheries , yet the publick reverence of religion ( such as it was ) was in appearance preserved with some shew of sacredness among the rankest atheists and the worst of men , this was thought intolerable when all other wickednesses were openly allowed and practised . but how it comes to pass among us ( unless it be that the hypocrisie of one age makes way for the atheism of another ) i know not , the plebeans and mechanicks have philosophised themselves into principles of impiety , and read their lectures of atheism in the streets and the high-ways . and they are able to demonstrate out of the leviathan , that there is no god nor providence , but that all things come to pass by an eternal chain of natural causes : that there are no principles of good and evil but-onely every man's self-interest , nor any self-interest but onely of this present life : that humane nature is a meer machine , and that all the contrivances of the minds of men are nothing but the mechanical results of matter and motion . that the christian religion has no sufficient proof of its pretended divine authority , and that no wise man is under any obligation to embrace it , but onely as it happens to be commanded by the laws of the realm . these and such like doctrines are the most avowed principles of the unlearned herd among us . and the truth is , almost all sense of piety is confin'd to the men of sense , whilst the rabble are run into all manner of atheism and prophaness . ( for as for that antinomian enthusiasm that is grown so rife among us , it looks more like blasphemy than religion , and is so far from making men less wicked , that it onely makes them more confident in their wickedness ; ) and now when they have thrown off either all regard of duty or sense of distance towards god , they quickly cashier all conscience of honesty or even civility towards men , and together with their religion loose their good manners . this is the bottom of that epidemical falshood , perfidiousness , fraud , oppression , rudeness and barbarity that has overspread the whole kingdom . now when peoples wickedness is bottom'd upon principle , it is absolutely necessary to convince them of the vanity of their principles , before we can hope to work them to any effectual reformation . and though i think it an imprudent thing to be disputing the fundamentals of religion to the common people , if it could be avoided , because it commonly rather weakens than confirms their faith , and makes them think that to be onely problematical , which before they supposed to be unquestionable ; yet when they have raised the dispute among themselves , and have by chance ( for they never judge of any thing upon due enquiry , because they never make it ) run away with the wrong side of the controversie , they are to be reduced by better information . and that is the design of this following treatise to demonstrate to them these two great fundamental truths , viz. the evident obligation of the law of nature , and the divine authority of the christian religion , which alone will scatter away all their little principles and pretences of scepticism and infidelity ; and if it do not work so effectually upon them as to reduce them to a right sense , yet it will at least destroy the rudeness and confidence of their impiety , and force them to be more decent and modest in their wickedness , by letting them see that what they supposed an high attainment in wisedom was the effect of extream ignorance and meer want of enquiry , for there is nothing in the world so lamentably dull and silly as the atheistical philosophy . and now when we have spoil'd their pedantry , that was the onely thing that spoil'd them , we have half reduced them , by letting them see that it is not for them to be philosophising . and that when all is done , it would turn to a much better account as to their own design , if instead of bewildring their fancies in the leviathan , they would learn the lord's prayer , the creed and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue . for after all their labour after philosophick knacks and curiosities , they are certain to loose their vanity , and instead of being admired for their learning as they design , onely make themselves despised for their conceited folly . an ass will never become a lion's skin , nor a mechanick a philosopher's cloak . and yet i must confess that i have scarce any hopes of reclaiming such of the multitude , as are already tainted with this plague . for i know by too much experience that there is but one thing in the world more inflexible than ignorance steel'd and hardned with wickedness . and therefore my onely design is to step in between the dead and the living , the infected and the sound , and , if it be possible , to give some stop to the contagion , or at least to keep the disease from descending to posterity . for as for this unhappy age , it is so universally overspread with vice and wickedness , that it is not reasonable to expect that the principles of vertue and religion should ever find any just entertainment in it . but certainly undebauched posterity will judge more impartially ; and such i know is the power of truth upon the minds of men , that if it can but gain audience it will at last prevail upon all that are disengaged from prejudice , and disdain not to attend to the results of sober reason . and that is the aim of this ensuing discourse , that whenever vertue shall begin to lift up its head and recover its right , i may give some little assistance to its restauration . and both as a clergyman do something towards promoting the happiness of the souls of men , and as an englishman towards recovering the ancient reputation of my native country for civility , justice and integrity . as for the law of nature , which is the argument of the first part , i must confess there has been much talk in the world about it , but very little said . the civilians , canonists and school-men have attempted little more than to define it , and in that they have fail'd too . even grotius himself has so far mistaken it , as to suppose it obligatory without the supposition of a deity . puffendorf has indeed of late hapned upon its right definition in general , but has neither described its particular branches , nor demonstrated any of the grounds and reasons of its obligation . and the authour of the book de principiis justi & decori , once or twice started the right notion of it , but quite lost it in the chace , by quitting his own scent to follow mr. hobbs's cry . among the ancients , both greeks and romans , i find as little perform'd , seldom any thing more than meer definitions and positive assertions , and at most some witty and fancifull reasonings in the platonick writers . what was done by tully in his books de republicâ , where , as he informs us in his book de legibus , it was copiously treated of , is not now to be known , that excellent treatise , which himself valued much above all his other writings , being unfortunately perisht , but by those fragments that are remaining of it , i am apt to think that this loss has been competently compensated by the learned and judicious treatise of our country-man dr. cumberland upon this argument , who has not onely hit upon the right notion of the law of nature , but has , in a method heretofore proper onely to mathematicks , demonstrated its obligation . but his discourse being every where interwoven with mathematical , logical , metaphysical , and physiological terms and notions , i meet with very few that have been able to master its sense , and therefore i have taken his main notion alone stript of all accessional ornaments of learning , and prosecuted the demonstration of it my own way in a familiar style and an easie method . as for the proof of the whole matter , it depends upon the supposition of an authour of nature ; for unless that be antecedently granted , we cannot so much as proceed to enquire after the law of nature . because if he never contrived the nature of things , it is evidently in vain to search for his design in the contrivance . and herein i have a very considerable advantage of the learned authour that i follow , for he beginning at the dispute of the law of nature , was forced to presume upon the supposition of its authour , which without any presumption i demand and challenge . for having first proved all those physical ends and designs that he has discover'd of his providence in all parts of nature , if after that any moral ends and designs discover themselves in the same things , it cannot be doubted but that they are the effects of the same providence , and that plainly connects the proof of one with the demonstration of the other . now as to the former , i have run through all parts of nature and all sects of philosophers , and shewn that no one thing in the world could ever have been as it is , but by the ordering of providence : and that all their several attempts to give any other account of the nature of things , are intolerably childish and beyond all things ridiculous . and this may be presumed without any breach of modesty , because nature it self is its own demonstration , and it requires onely eye-sight to observe that it could be contrived no other way but by divine providence . but when i pretend to have routed all the mechanick philosophers , it is so far from presumption , that there is no more glory in it , than in the conquest of an infant . and indeed nothing does more exactly resemble their wise contrivances than the little sports and works of children ; for just as they make their play-things , so do these grave philosophers make their worlds . in short , the folly and non-sense of meer mechanism or accounting for the nature of things onely by matter or motion or any other second causes , is so notorious , that all the philosophers in the world never were , nor ever will be able to give any the least account how so much as a stone should fall to the ground without a divine providence . this may seem a very odd challenge to be made to the great wits and virtuosi of mankind , but i make it not rashly , and have throughly consider'd all their attempts , and more than enough demonstrated their vanity , and am sure upon the most diligent enquiry that it can never be done any other way than by resolving it into the force of magnetism , than which in all the universe there is not a more amasing piece of divine art and wisedom . but here , before i can proceed to what ought to have immediately followed , i am forced to thrust in a kind of preposterous digression , in answer to a very mean piece of disingenuity that i have lately met with from the mechanick philosophers , viz. that i have made too bold with the reputation of great and famous men , and treat those that have been admired and renown'd for wisedom and learning in all ages as if they were void of common sense . and thus the late authour of the augmentation to mr. hobbs his life , when he has represented me as one of the keenest and unkindest of his adversaries , brings off his master with this clean complement , that he has no reason to take it unkindly from one , that sticks not to treat the greatest even of the ancient philosophers after the same rate , and gives the same correction even to the great aristotle himself as to mr. hobbs , and as for the famour de-cartes he sticks not to chastise him like any school-boy . but in the first place methinks this is a very poor and humble objection , and becomes not the due confidence of a philosopher . for it is this sort of men , that first upbraid us with the great and unanswerable performances of mr. hobbs , and tell us that till we can answer him we may preach what we please to the people , but wise men will be of his mind . and yet when we not onely answer but plainly demonstrate the pitifull and even childish folly of his pretended philosophy , that is objected as an unpardonable rudeness to so learned a man. but i would fain know what is to be done in this case , you will not be content till we undertake him ; and yet if we do , you grow angry , and our very attempting it is made our crime . but yet if he be exposed , 't is none of our fault but his own , for 't is not in any man's power to make his notions better or worse than they are ; and if we represent them truly , and they prove ridiculous , we cannot help it ; but if we do not , it would be somewhat to the purpose if they could convince us of so unmanly a piece of disingenuity , but till then 't is at best but a very childish thing to complain either of unkind or uncivil usage . and therefore , in the second place , it was done much less like a philosopher onely to give an account of my assertions against mr. hobbs , without taking any notice of our reasons and arguments . for if i have charged any thing upon mr. hobbs , and have not demonstratively prov'd it , i am bound to give publick satisfaction to his memory . but if i have , then the severity of my charge is no fault of mine ; and for that i dare and do appeal to the judgment of all impartial men , whether i have not proved upon and against him all that i pretended to ; and if i have , then it is evident that mr. hobbs has asserted a very wicked cause very foolishly . but , lastly , 't is done still much less like a philosopher to load me with that invidious charge of traducing the greatest worthies among the ancients . for i know no one quality more unbecoming a man that pretends to letters and civility than an envious affectation of finding fault with the performances of great men. this has ever been the creeping artifice of small people to make themselves considerable onely by the greatness of their adversaries , and it is a practice that i detest as i do slander or perjury . and if they could but assign one instance in which i have in the least wrong'd any learned man , they should not be so forward to shew it as i would be to confess it . but otheways to insinuate that i spare not the greatest even of the ancient heroes , is ( to say no worse ) but a sneaking way of encountring an enemy , and indeed an inward confession of the want of some better reply . for if they thought they were able to overthrow arguments in fair combate , they would scorn to betake themselves to such skulking artifices . for when all is done the whole merits of the cause will rest upon the reason of the thing , so that if i have opposed or confuted any of the ancient philosophers upon good and substantial grounds , i have done them no wrong in doing truth right . if otherwise , i have not really injured them but my self , and it is in these gentlemens power , that make the complaint , to demonstrate the falshood or the folly of my opposition . but till then i think it becomes not the state and grandeur of a philosopher to condescend to such poor topicks of insinuation . but if they will do so , it is all one to me ; for my onely design is the pursuit of real truth , i mean not useless and barren speculation , but such as is serviceable to the happiness of humane nature , and that is all the learning or wisedom that i care for . and if any man stand in my way , though it be aristotle or de-cartes , epicurus or mr. hobbs , friend or foe , yea though it be m. tullius himself , yes though it be an angel from heaven , i must on , and if i am forced to justle them out of my way , i cannot help it , for i am resolved never to leave it my self . however it is a vain thing for mechanick philosophers to complain of being a little derided , when they so wantonly and affectedly expose themselves to it . for how is it possible for the wittiest men to come off with better success , that , when we see the whole world framed with such admirable art and wisedom , shall undertake to teach the senseless materials , of which it is made , to be their own architect ? i will and do grant that they were very witty and acute men , but if they will presume so extravagantly upon their own wit , as to think themselves such almighty conjurers as to be able not onely to raise all the parts of dead matter into life and motion , but so to inspire them as to make them dance of their own accord into exact order and symetry , i think the greatest right that their friends can do them is to tell the world that much learning has made them mad , for it is scarce to be imagin'd that any man in his right wits could ever so much as dream of so wild a design . it is just as if a person famous for architecture should grow so odly conceited of his skill , as to take upon him with the greatest gravity to instruct the world how to build houses and palaces without work-men , by teaching his art to the materials themselves , whereby stone , morter , timber , lead , iron , glass shall be enabled to work and contrive themselves into a regular building ; his friends certainly could never take it unkindly if any man should conclude him a little beside himself . and yet this is the very case of all our mechanick philosophers , that they will be building of stately worlds without an artificer . for in that alone lies all their folly , and it is so enormous in it self , that no man's wit can ever help or mend it . whereas if they would but take the divine wisedom into their mechanicks , and make their several ways of mechanism the effects of his contrivance and not the results of blind and stupid matter , for me they might play at mechanising as long and as variously as they please . but till then i must beseech them not to take it unkindly if some splenetick people cannot hold , and if after this they shall persevere in their complaint , the next thing they can doe will be to pity them . and thus having removed this poor but plausible objection , that i found spitefully thrown in my way , i may now proceed where i broke off . well then , if the physical ends of things are so obvious in the whole contrivance of nature , and if they are laid for the ground-work by the divine providence , the great lines of morality that are so plainly interwoven with them , must so much the more evidently appear to have been drawn by the same hand . for things moral are not so plain and visible in their own nature , as things physical , or the rules of good and evil so easily observable as the contrivances of art and wisedom ; and therefore when those are drawn out of and connected with these , they cannot but derive a greater light from them than they are able to give themselves . thus for example , there is nothing more evident than that the sun ( whatever other uses it may have ) is design'd to give light and comfort to this lower world , and that the regular motions of one or both are so artificially contrived , as to be most serviceable to this design , insomuch that if any the least alteration were made , it must prove a considerable prejudice to this whole globe . now if the same cause that contrived this exact harmony between the sun and the earth , has in any part of this contrivance intimated any laws of life , then is it as certain that he as much intends that mankind should govern themselves by those laws , as that the sun should give light to this world. this connexion between the physical and moral ends of things being thus firmly knit , the first observation of nature will direct us to one great end of morality , and that is universal and mutual love , kindness and benevolence between all rational creatures , in that the nature of things is so laid as to make it appear that he that made it , first design'd the happiness of all , and then secondly to oblige us all to prosecute his own design , has so ordered the natural course of things , as to make every single man's happiness to depend upon their honest and sincere endeavours to promote that of the community . and that is all that is requisite to make a law or enact an obligation , the first declaring the will of the law-maker to all his subjects , that are capable of observing it ; the second engaging their obedience to it by the sanctions of rewards and punishments . but though this be all that the philosophers think requisite to be proved upon this argument , yet here also as i began higher , and founded my argument of the law of nature not upon the bare supposition but the evident demonstration of a deity , so have i proceeded farther to the certain inference of a future state. for though that be the natural course of things , as they are settled by the divine providence , and as far as our actions are in our own power , that interest should be connected with honesty , yet it may and often does so happen that by the voluntary wickedness of other men they are opposed . what then is to be done in that case ? if interest ought to be preferred , then there is no such thing as honesty , for then are we cast upon the principle of all wickedness , that is , not to care what we doe , so it be in order to our own particular self-design , and if that be once taken up for our resolution , nothing can ever bring us under any true obligations of vertue and goodness . if honesty must be preferred , what recompence shall we receive for the conscientious discharge of our duty ? for in this life it is supposed that in this case they run counter , and therefore unless the providence of god have some reserve for it in a life to come , he has obliged us to a duty without any sufficient reward , that is to say , he has obliged us without a sufficient obligation . so that from hence it is as evident that the same providence that made the world , and has interwoven in the make of it the laws of mutual justice for the attaintment of our common happiness , has withall secured a future state of reward for all that uprightly comply with his design , because without it , they may , when they have discharged their duty , be defeated of their happiness by the default of bad men. for as all moral goodness is resolved into that one principle of seeking the common good in the first place , so is all wickedness and immorality into the contrary principle of neglecting or opposing it . seeing then that all men have some power over their own actions ( for without the supposition of that all morality sinks into non-sense and nothing ) and seeing we find by too common experience in the affairs of the world , that good men when they have done all they can as to the discharge of their duty and obligation , may be defeated in this life of their reward by the wickedness of bad men , what can more evidently follow than that the same providence that has obliged them to their duty , should secure their reward in a life to come . these things are so inseparably connected , that if one be true , all is true ; if one false , all is false . so that if there be a deity , there must be a law of nature ; and if a law of nature , a future state. and on the contrary , if no future state , then no law of nature , and if no law of nature , no deity . so that the proof of all the rest ultimately resolves into the proof of a deity ; and that being the most evident thing in nature , it gives the same evidence to all other principles that are so inseparably connected with it . and having brought our argument to that head , there we may safely leave it , and challenge the assent of mankind to both the other , till they can rationally quit themselves of the belief of that . and 't is for this reason chiefly that i have waved all physical arguments for the soul's immortality , because how valid soever they may be , they cannot be so certain ( nor indeed any thing else ) as the existence of a deity , which is the most certain thing in nature , and of which i have as good assurance as of my own being . beside i am quite tired out with the dulness of mechanical philosophy , with which i must have engaged , if i had undertaken the physical argument ; but alas when they are not able to give any tolerable account of a stone 's falling to the earth by meer mechanism , what wretched work are they like to make of it , when they would make out all the actions of humane understanding by the fortuitous workings of matter . and when mr. hobbs tells us that reflection upon our own thoughts is nothing but the reaction of one parcel of matter upon another , the notion is just as wise and philosophical , as if the witty old gentleman had told us , that when one bowling stone beats back another , the repercussion is understanding . i know some attempts of the same kind have been made by wiser men , but as long as they terminate in meer matter , and make the brain any more than the instrument of conveyance between the operations of the mind and the body , their discourse is full as wise , as if they would undertake to turn custards and mince-pies into philosophers or statesmen . and therefore i cared not to meddle with this part of the argument , because i must confess i was ashamed to be caught at childs play . however if there be any mechanism ( as no doubt there is ) it is divine mechanism , but as for that i will not be so presumptuous as to pretend to fathom it , and though it were easie enough from philosophick reasons , observations and experiments to demonstrate that god has actually made humane nature something more noble , yet because there is nothing in all natural philosophy so evident as the being of the divine providence , and because the future state of mankind is so apparently connected with it , that alone far exceeds the evidence of all other demonstration . and i have so much the rather pursued this argument , because though i find it suggested by several authours both ancient and modern , yet it is not , that i know of , prosecuted by any . if i would have been more copious than was absolutely necessary , after i had shewn that there was no account to be given of the providence of god in the government of mankind without the supposition of a future state , i might have run through the whole series of humane affairs , and shewn not onely how just but how wise the providence of god is in the management of all things upon this supposition . but alas when it is once proved that divine providence cannot be justified without it , it will immediately and of it self clearly prove how excellently it is quitted by it . all objections from the real vanity of this world , and the seeming inequality of justice towards good and bad men are clear'd up by the certainty of a future reserve . but the proof of this being so easie and obvious after the proof of the other , it is needless to treat of it apart , because it does not so much follow upon it , as go along with it , and at the same time we perceive that providence cannot be justified without it , we cannot but see how admirably it is justified with it . thus far may we advance by following the nature of things and the conduct of natural reason ; and it is a sufficient declaration of the will of god to mankind , supposing that he has endued them with a faculty of understanding , and that they are pleased to make use of it ; for if he has , the connexion of these things is evident enough to any man that will observe it , but if he will not , he is not capable of any kind of information , no blindness more incurable than when men will not see . but as bright as the light of nature shines , it is but a dimm thing , if compared to that great glory that is reveal'd in the gospel ; there life and immortality are brought to light , so as to be made evident not onely to our reasons but our very senses , our belief of it is founded upon visible experiment and ocular demonstration . and that is the argument of the second part , to demonstrate that the original proof of it is on all sides so evidently confirm'd , and so advantageously guarded against all objections , that it is not possible for the wit of mankind to have laid the same design , so as to have made it more unquestionable . for that is an undoubted proof of its being a contrivance of the divine providence , in that if we would onely suppose that the providence of god should set such a design on foot , we cannot comprehend how it was possible to recommend its truth to the world with greater advantage . and as it was at first attended with all imaginable evidence , so is the testimony , whereby the knowledge of it is conveyed down to us , so undoubted and uninterrupted , that if we our selves had been eye-witnesses of it , we could scarce have had a greater assurance of its truth and reality ; in brief , there are so many and so forcible arguments to prove it apparently true , that i cannot think it too much confidence to affirm that it is scarce possible to be false . and therefore for the more effectual demonstration of it , i have gone that way to work , to make out its proof from the monstrous and infinite absurdities of unbelief ; and shewn that it must believe every thing that is incredible , all the contradictions to humane nature and humane affairs . i have laid the whole stress of my argument upon the evidence of the matter of fact , and for its greater advantage i have leapt over fourteen centuries , and taken a prospect of things in the same posture , in which they stood the three first ages of the church . for then the history of our saviour's reformation was as certain and undoubted to the men of that age , as the change of religion under henry the eighth is or can be to the men of this . and here i have so closely traced the tradition of it up to the very beginning , that if it had not the beginning that it pretends to , it could never have had any tradition . and therefore i shall onely desire the reader , to suppose himself as near to the time of our saviour as he is to the reign of henry the eighth , and then to consider with himself which way it was possible , that there should over have been any such thing as the pretence of christianity in the world , if it had not come with all those miraculous proofs of divine authority that it pretends to . and that i hope , if it be made out , is satisfaction enough to any reasonable , nay to any unreasonable man. it is needless here to trouble the reader with any farther account of the particulars of my argument , because if he desire a view of them beforehand , they are all distinctly drawn up in the following schemes of the contents of the several sections . where all the chief materials of the whole discourse may be seen , though not the connexion of its parts with each other . i have no more to say but onely to desire the reader , to peruse the whole with the same honest and impartial mind wherewith it was written , for i will assure him that i have given the cause no more advantage than that has given me . and as i may challenge my reader 's honesty , so i must his ingenuity too , viz. that whereas i have built my whole argument upon matter of fact , so he would receive every matter of fact onely as i have presented it : for some things , and indeed very nigh all , that i have urged , i insist upon as undoubted records and demonstrative proofs , yet some few there are that i have onely propounded problematically , and have asserted them not because i thought them any way necessary to the argument , which though they were granted to be false , stands unshaken upon its own undeniable evidence , but because i thought them more than probable conjectures , which if true might reflect some little glimmering light upon the main demonstration . neither indeed do i mention them of my own choice or urge them as any part of my positive proof , but onely bring them in by way of objection in answer to the humoursome singularity of some learned men , who of late affect , out of i know not what vain ostentation , to disparage , what in them lies , the records of the christian church and the evidences of the christian faith. of whom the learned mr. vossius thus justly complains : profecto nullos religio christiana infensiores habet hostes , quàm ipsos christianos , cum vix ullum apud antiquos de christo aut vaticinium aut testimonium invenias , quod non complures etiam doctissimi viri labefactare aut etiam penitus evertere fuerint conati . the christian religion has met with no enemies so fierce as christians themselves , when so many learned men have made it their business to discredit , and , if it be possible , to destroy every prophesie and every record that might do it service . and this he speaks with regard to the old sybilline verses , which some of late have so confidently rejected with a scornfull reflection upon the credulity of the ancient fathers : though beside those miserable slight pretences that they have for their confidence , it is undeniably evident from the very books themselves that they were composed by some body out of the writings of the ancient prophets ; so that these critical gentlemen might , when ever they are disposed to it , as reasonably fleer at the original prophesies , as at these translations of them . and this is clear enough as to all those passages that are quoted in the writings of the ancient fathers , and that is more than enough to justifie their sincerity ; but it is by no means ingenuous or indeed honest , to load their credit , as some learned men have done , with the forgeries of later and barbarous times . but the things that i chiefly intend in this premonition are the testimony of josephus concerning our saviour , the reconciling him with saint luke about the tax of cyrenius , the testimony of phlegon concerning the eclipse at the passion , the letter of pontius pilate to tiberius , the therapeutae in philo , whether they were christians , and lastly the story of agbarus king of edessa . all which i first intended to prosecute rather as digressions than as any direct part of my argument , and therefore though they all prove true ( as i think they do ) yet i cared not to lay any argumentative stress upon them , because the evidence of their truth is so weak and dusky in comparison of that undoubted and noon-day certainty of the other matters of fact , upon which i have founded my demonstration . but finding a fantastick and unnecessary coyness in our great professours of critical learning against the foremention'd particulars , and that upon reasons very far short of that great confidence wherewith they are pleased to vote them down , i thought it would not be altogether unseasonable to give some little check to this light and wanton humour , by shewing that these stories were not so improbable as these men would force us to believe , nay , by proving that they are very good and authentick records , notwithstanding all that they have been able to object against them . as for the testimony of josephus , it is well known with what an unanimous cry of the whole pack it has been run down , and yet upon such lamentable pretences , as would rather amaze than startle any man to consider them ; so that i must profess that upon the utmost enquiry that i can make , i cannot see any the least ground to doubt of that particular passage more than of any other in the whole history of josephus . and therefore though i at first intended to use it onely as an accessional proof , yet it does more service than i expected from it , and by its own force makes its own way into the main body of my argument , and stands there as unmovable as any other testimony whatsoever . the reconciliation of saint luke and josephus is endeavour'd onely to prevent a critical objection ; for though it cannot reasonably be required in a matter so remote , and in a time of so much variety of civil action , as was the reign of augustus , that we should be able to give an exact account of the time and circumstances of every particular affair , and make an agreement among all writers about it . yet when both these stories may be made to run clear together onely by making one easie conjecture and mending one obvious mistake , i thought it could not be amiss to propose it to the reader 's satisfaction . as for the testimonies of phlegon and pontius pilate , i cannot see any the least ground of calling the truth of either into question , beside this that the criticks have got the itch. and as for philo's therapeutae being christians , his description of them agrees so exactly to the state of the primitive church , that it cannot without manifest violence be applied to any other party of men ; so that i take it to be as full a testimony as any the most undoubted record of the christian church ; and in this i am since the writing of it very much confirm'd by an excellent discourse that i have met with upon that argument in dr. beveridge his learned and judicious defence of the apostolical canons against all the dalleans , lib. . cap. . and , in the last place , as for the edessean story , i will , because i would not be too retentive , grant that it may be more qucstionable than any of the other ; for though there is not the least ground of suspecting the integrity of eusebius , when he protests that he translated it out of the publick records of the city , upon which alone i ground my proof , yet it is not impossible but that story might have been foisted into the records themselves , and that this learned man might with too much greediness have swallowed such a strange and surprising story . at least he could not have that opportunity of making that exact enquiry into its truth , that he did into the other ancient records of the christian church , because it stood singly by it self , and could not , as the others were , be vouched by concurrent writers ; so that though it were not easie to impose upon eusebius with any forgery thrust upon the greek church , yet even he was no more able , as having no better means , to judge of the truth of a record so remote , than any other person less learned . and this i say , not because i see any ground to suspect it of forgery , but because i am not willing to lay too great a stress upon it upon the score of its solitude and privacy . for otherwise the weightiest objections that are made against it , are too light to weigh any thing in my opinion . these are the two chiefest ; first a passage in our saviour's letter taken out of the gospel of saint john , when the gospel it self was not as yet written : secondly , such a mistake in chronology , as antedates our saviour's passion three years . but as for the first , viz. blessed art thou , o agbarus , who , though thou hast not seen , yet believest on me ; for it is written of me , that they who see should not believe , and they who see not should believe and be saved . this passage is of a quite different sense from our saviour's words in saint john chap. . v. . jesus saith unto him , thomas , because thou hast seen me , thou hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen , and yet have believed . where seeing and believing are not opposed , as in the former words to agbarus , but believing upon that rational evidence which our saviour had given the world of his divine commission , without that certainty of sight that thomas had , is preferr'd as more ingenuous and commendable . but , secondly , it is evident from the words themselves , that our saviour quotes them not as an historical record but as a prophetick prediction , and therefore uses the same form of speech that he does in the evangelists , as often as he applies the prophesies of the old testament to himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is written of me , i. e. it is foretold . but then the difficulty will be where to find out this prophesie ; valesius has spied out a passage as he thinks somewhat like it in the sixth of isaiah , but as the passage it self is very obscure , and cannot without too unnatural a force be brought to parallel this saying , so i think it needless to accommodate the saying it self to any particular prophesie , when it agrees so fully with all those innumerable predictions concerning the stubbornness and infidelity of the jews , among whom our saviour conversed , and the wonderfull conversion of the gentile world to his faith , who were strangers to his person and conversation . infinite are the passages to this purpose in the holy evangelists , especially as to the strange unbelief of the jews , which is every where represented as a thing so monstrously stupid , as if no other account could be given of it than by the utter loss of the use of their eyes and ears , as if they neither saw nor heard those things that were daily said and done in their presence . and therefore it is no wonder if our saviour use this saying of himself without alluding to any particular text , when it is so exactly suted to the whole tenour of all the ancient prophesies concerning his entertainment in the world. as for the other objection , if it could be certain , it might be of some moment , but chronological mistakes are so very easie , and indeed in length of time unavoidable , that all histories would be overrun with them , were we not directed either by some other passages in the history it self , or by some other contemporary writers , to find out the faults and mistakes crept into the copies . so that in such a singular story as this , if there should be any mistake of a transcriber , we have no means to correct it . and that it is actually so in this case is evident from the great variety of copies , that are so strangly different , that learned men could never make any probable conjecture of the certain time of their date , till valesius referred it to the edessean account . but then ( say they ) according to that it must have hapned in the th year of tiberius , whereas learned men are now agreed that our saviour suffer'd not till the th , after which time thaddaeus must have come to edessa . but be it so , yet the difficulty is very easily solvable , for if the date in eusebius refer ( as it is most probable it should ) to the time of our saviour's writing , it falls in exactly enough with the th of tiberius , in which our saviour first publickly enter'd upon the exercise of his office , and went to the passover at jerusalem , where proselytes of all nations were then assembled , and whither some might as well repair from edessa and the parts about it , as the eunuch from ethiopia , from whom king agbarus might receive his information concerning jesus the same year ; especially when the account of the edessean year commenced from the autumnal equinox , which was a considerable time from the passover , and might take in a great part of the year following , and so include the second passover . so that if this account be applied to the main transaction between our saviour and agbarus , and not to the coming of thaddaeus ( as valesius has done ) to edessa , which was but an appendix to it , the chronology is very punctual , and therefore upon the whole matter i can as yet see no reason to suspect the record of forgery , and that is all that i undertake , viz. to vindicate it from the confident but groundless exceptions of learned men , and desire them till they can produce some more material demurrs against it , that its plea may be admitted . though otherwise because it is a single and unassisted testimony , i should be wary of laying any more stress upon it , than as it agrees exactly with all those other innumerable records , that i think i have proved unquestionable . but if i am mistaken either in any of these or any other historical or chronological nicities , they are no more than the fringes of my argument , which is demonstrative either with or without them . and now this being premised that the reader take all matters of fact as i have intended and represented them , and lay the same stress upon them that i have done , i will upon the perusal of the whole leave it to his own choice to make his own conclusion . i am not ignorant that it is commonly lookt upon as an invidious thing for an authour to seem to speak with any assurance of his own performance ; but for that i am not concern'd , for i onely make use of my own liberty to judge of the nature and capacity of my argument , and leave others to theirs . and as i would not be so vain as to overvalue , so neither would i be so formal as to undervalue a discourse , onely because it is my own , lest by this seeming and counterfeit modesty in my self , i reflect but a scurvy and uncivil complement upon my cause . for writers , when all is done , do not create their topicks of reasoning , no more than workers in the mines do their oar , but onely dig up such materials as the vein will afford . so that if i should pretend to less evidence than my cause has given me , i should onely wrong that , for i do not make , but find it . and therefore though i would not forestall my reader 's judgment , much less upbraid his ingenuity by pretending too confidently to demonstration , but leave every man to the result of his own impartial thoughts , yet this i cannot but declare for my own part , that the evidence that the good providence of god has given me of my christian faith , is much greater than i could in reason have expected , and i am sure much more than i should in modesty have desired . and the satisfaction that upon a thorough enquiry i have received is so very great , that as much as i think my self obliged to the goodness of the divine providence for the strange work of my redemption , i think my self not less obliged for the wonderfull and amasing evidence that he has given me of it . the security of the gift is as valuable as the gift it self . for it is the certainty of our title to good things , that gives our minds satisfaction in them . and certainly it is the highest contentment that humane nature is capable of , to live , not with a meer fluctuating hope and unexamin'd belief , but a just and reasonable assurance of immortal happiness . but if in this this following discourse fall short of demonstration , yet however i am ensured of its acceptance with all good men from the goodness of its design , which is to doe some honour to our dear saviour and his divine religion . and if by this undertaking i have done any thing towards that , it is enough , and i may from this time forward as cheerfully , as the good old man did , when he had his saviour in his arms , sing my nunc dimittis . the contents . part i. a demonstration of the law of nature from the nature of things , and of the future state of mankind from the law of nature . § i. the enquiry after a law of nature supposes and depends upon the antecedent proof of an authour of nature . pag. . § ii. the law of nature not to be proved by instincts and notions within us , but by the outward appearances of things . p. . § iii. the greater and the lesser rules of morality ; the greater evident to all the world , the consent of mankind as to their obligation , unknown to none without the most wilfull ignorance or most brutish stupidity . the lesser are onely rules of decency : one direction about them all , viz. to avoid unnatural imitations . p. . § iv. all the laws of nature reduced to one principle , viz. mutual love and kindness among all mankind ; this demonstrated to be the will and intention of their maker . the absurdity of mr. hobbs's supposed state of war shewn , though there were no deity . but if there be a deity the obligation of the law of nature unavoidable . p. . § v. the end and design of society , its divine institution demonstrated . the state of war shewn to be contradictory to humane nature . p. . § vi. the divine institution of propriety and dominion proved first from the limitedness of every man's nature , secondly from its subserviency to the publick good. p. . § vii . the law of nature made known and recommended to us from the constitution of all things within us ; first , from the natural activity of the mind of man. p. . § viii . secondly , from that natural sense and desire that every man has of his own happiness . p. . § ix . thirdly , from some natural instincts and inclinations of humane nature . as , first , conjunction of sexes for propagation of the kind . secondly , the strength of natural affection between parents and children . thirdly , natural pity and compassion . lastly , from the passion of laughing . p. . § x. all the particulars of the argument recapitulated . p. . § xi . the sanction of the laws of nature by natural rewards and penalties proved . p. . § xii . the first reward of vertue is its own intrinsick pleasure , and natural tendency to tranquility of mind and health of body . p. . § xiii . the second is the conscience that a good man has of his approving himself to the wisedom of the divine understanding , and the acceptance of the divine will. p. . § xiv . the third is the endearment and recommendation of himself to the love and good-will of mankind . p. . § xv. the first natural punishment of injustice is the forfeiture of all other mens kindness . the second is insecurity . the third is provoking the whole society to endeavour his destruction in order to the publick safety . p. . § xvi . as the law of nature follows upon the supposition of a divine providence , so does the certainty of a future state upon the supposition of a law of nature , in that without it it can never attain the end of its institution ; and first because without it mankind is utterly uncapable of happiness ; this proved against all the philosophers . p. . § xvii . and first against the epicureans . the controversie with them stated , not whether pleasure be our sovereign happiness , but what pleasure . p. . § xviii . the meanness and foulness of epicurus his doctrine , that all happiness consists in sensual pleasure , proved against those several apologies that are made to excuse it . p. . § xix . there can be no happiness in this life , if taken alone , because of the fickleness and uncertainty of all its enjoyments . p. § xx. the several prescriptions of epicurus and seneca against the miseries of life shewn to be vain and trifling . p. . § xxi . the fear of death proved an inevitable and insuperable misery of life , without the hope of immortality . the vanity of epicurus his great antidote against the fear of death , viz. that death cannot hurt us , because when that is we are not . p. . § xxii . all the other receits prescribed by the philosophers against the fear of death represented and exploded . p. . § xxiii . without a future state no sufficient foundation for vertue : first , not for temperance . p. . § xxiv . secondly , not for justice , nor magnanimity . p. . § xxv . the vanity of the stoical philosophy represented , upon its principles neither happiness nor vertue without a future state. p. . § xxvi . an account of the platonick and peripatetick morality out of tully . and first his consolatory discourses , in his first book of tusculane questions , against the fear of death proved vain and ineffectual . p. . § xxvii . the same shewn of the remedies prescribed in his second book for the alleviating of pain . p. . § xxviii . the same shewn of the prescriptions of the third and fourth books against grief and trouble under the calamities of life , and all other perturbations of the mind . p. . § xxix . an account of the fifth book , where he forsakes the peripatetick philosophy as insufficient to his purpose , and what good reasons he had so to doe . p. . § xxx . the defect of his own new way of philosophising proved in general . p. . § xxxi . that great and glorious maxime of his friend brutus , that vertue is sufficient to its own happiness , proved to be a vain and empty saying without immortality . the argument concluded . p. . part ii. a demonstration of the divine authority of the christian religion , from the undoubted certainty of the matter of fact , and the uninterrupted tradition of the church . § i. the great advantage of the gospel above the law of nature . pag. . § ii. the evidence and certainty of the christian faith demonstrated from the infinite and intolerable absurdities of unbelief . p. . § iii. this particularly proved , according to our saviour's own advice , in the article of his resurrection . p. . § iv. the impossibility of the apostles being false in their testimony of it , demonstrated from the first instinct of humane nature , love of life , and desire of self-preservation . p. . § v. the same proved from its contradiction to all the principles of prudence and common understanding . p. . § vi. the same proved from its inconsistency with and contrariety to their own design in publishing christianity to the world. p. . § vii . the undoubted truth of the scripture history , if written by those persons whose names it bears . p. . § viii . that it could not be written by any other demonstratively proved . p. . § ix . the books of the new testament , whose authority was sometime disputed , proved to be of apostolical antiquity . p. . § x. mr. hobbs's witticism against the divine authority of the scriptures , that the canon was first compiled by the council of laodicea , confuted . p. . § xi . the concurrence of jews and heathens with the testimony of christian writers . p. . § xii . josephus and saint luke reconciled about the tax of cyrenius and the death of herod agrippa . p. . § xiii . the famous testimony of josephus concerning our saviour vindicated from the exceptions of tanaquil faber and other criticks . p. . § xiv . the testimony of phlegon concerning the eclipse at the passion asserted . p. . § xv. pontius pilate his narrative concerning our saviour to tiberius , and tiberius his opinion of it , cleared . p. . § xvi . the story of agbarus proved genuine . p. . § xvii . the impossibility of the apostles prevailing upon the faith of mankind , if their story had been false . p. . § xviii . the speedy propagation of christianity in all parts of the world described . philo's therapeutae proved to have been christians . p. . § xix . the first disadvantage of christianity , if it had been false , its being a late matter of fact. p. . § xx. the second disadvantage of christianity was its contrariety to the atheism and the luxury of the age in which it was published . p. . § xxi . the third disadvantage of christianity was its defiance to the establisht and inveterate religions of the world , both jewish and heathen . p. . § xxii . the wonderfull success of christianity , notwithstanding all other disadvantages , not to be ascribed to any thing but the greatness of that rational evidence that it gave of its truth . p. . § xxiii . that the apostles planted the christian faith with so much speed by the power of miracles ; and that it was not possible to have done it any other way . p. . § xxiv . the continuance of the same power to the next following ages asserted , and with the greatest assurance appeal'd to by all the advocates of christianity in their publick writings . p. . § xxv . the vanity of the objection of the ancients against the miracles of our saviour and his apostles , that they were wrought by magick . p. . § xxvi . the vanity of the miracles opposed by the heathens to our saviour , particularly that of vespasian in curing the lame and the blind . p. . § xxvii . an account of the evident imposture of apollonius tyanaeus from his own historian philostratus . p. . § xxviii . the evidence of the christian faith from meer humane tradition , and that first publick by the uninterrupted succession of bishops in the chief churches from the apostles . p. . § xxix . the same proved by private tradition , and first of saint clement bishop of rome . p. . § xxx . secondly , of saint ignatius , with an account of himself and his epistles . p. . § xxxi . thirdly , of saint policarp , pothinus and papias . the wisedom of the ancients vindicated as to the paschal controversie . p. . § xxxii . of hegesippus . the purity of the primitive church vindicated against all innovators . and hegesippus his history against the cavils of scaliger . p. . § xxxiii . of justin martyr , irenaeus , and a great number more . p. . § xxxiv . the objection from the infidelity of great numbers of men in that age answered ; the first ground of the infidelity of the jews was their invincible prejudice in honour of moses . p. . § xxxv . their second great prejudice was their expectation of a great temporal prince for their messias , and how they were crossed in it by our saviour . p. . § xxxvi . atheism the ground of the sadducees opposing christianity , and fanatick pride and arrogance of the pharisees . p. . § xxxvii . the heathens opposed christianity for the sake of idolatry . the neronian persecution onely a trick of state to secure himself from the fury of the multitude , by delivering up the christians to it . p. . § xxxviii . domitian's persecution founded upon jealousie of state against the line of david . hegesippus vindicated in his account of it against scaliger . the jealousie both of the emperours and the senate about the messias . p. . § xxxix . an account of the following persecutions , and of the injustice and unreasonableness of their several proceedings against the christians . p. . § xl. the persecutions not set on foot or carried on by the governours themselves , but the rage and fury of the fanatick rabble . p. . § xli . the rabble enraged against them by impudent lyes and calumnies . p. . § xlii . christianity opposed by the pythagoreans upon the score of superstition . an account of the superstition of that sect. of porphyrie , hierocles and julian . p. . § xliii . christianity opposed by the epicureans upon the score of atheism . a large account and particular confutation of celsus his cavils and calumnies . p. . § xliv . the conclusion . p. . a demonstration of the law of nature , from the nature of things ; and of the future state of mankind , from the law of nature . part i. § . having already from all those admirable contrivances that are visible in nature , and from all those wise designs that discover themselves in the frame and constitution of things , demonstrated that there is a sovereign lord and governour of the universe : i shall now endeavour in the same method and by the same argument to discover that model of government that he has set down to himself , and those laws that he has prescribed to us , and those sanctions by which he has recommended them to our practice ; and here i shall desire nothing more to be granted me then what i think i have sufficient right to demand , viz. what i have already proved , that there is a god , or an authour of the universe , and that is the last result of this enquiry ; for if there be no deity , there is an end of our present disquisition , and we must turn back to the former question , which must be determin'd before we can proceed to this enquiry : but that being granted , the other unavoidably follows , that if the world be govern'd by a divine providence , there are then some certain laws and rules of government . and therefore the epicureans , when they would take away all natural obligations to religion , justice and honesty , first endeavour to free the minds of men from all apprehensions of a divine providence ; for it is certain that without a lawgiver there can be no laws ; so that if there be no deity , or if the deity that is , have no regard to or knowledge of humane affairs , he can neither prescribe any thing to our actions , nor abet his prescriptions with rewards and punishments . these men are consistent with themselves and their principles , but master hobs , that he may be constant to his own way of contradicting himself as well as all the world beside , has given us a body of natural laws that were never enacted by the authority of a legislator ; for upon that one absurd supposition he founds all his morality , beginning his hypothesis from a supposed state of nature , in which nothing is or can be just or unjust , which can never be supposed , if there be a deity , and to suppose it , is to suppose no deity ; and then whatever laws the philosopher afterwards provides for the government of the world , they are made laws by himself , and require obedience without the will and command of a governour . and there is the whole mystery of all his politicks , by this sly supposition to leave the deity out of the government of the world ; and without it there is no difference between his laws of nature and those of all mankind : for though he boasts himself the founder of all morality , yet he gives us the very same that have been acknowledged in all ages , onely we must not receive them upon the authority of god , but upon his own ; for by virtue of his own wit , after he has discarded the authority of god , he has ( as he thinks ) found out a way to make them obligatory to all the world. but how ineffectually to his own purpose and how inconsistently with himself i shall not now trouble my self to enquire , having elsewhere sufficiently proved that by that one supposition he has irrecoverably let all mankind loose to all manner of wickedness and vilany . but if we will own any laws of nature to any material purpose of life , we must first suppose a supreme governour , by whose authority they were enacted , and to whom we are accountable for our duty and obedience . so that all that remains to be accounted for is , to demonstrate from the nature of things a divine institution of the law of nature enjoyning its observance to all mankind . for if the nature of things were made and contrived by a wise and intelligent cause , that proposed to himself some design in the contrivance of every part , then whatever effects result from the nature of things as they stand contrived and constituted by him , are to be ultimately resolved into his providence . and therefore whatever notions or observations are imprinted upon our senses or upon our minds by outward objects , he is as much the cause of all such impressions as if they had been stampt upon us immediately by himself . if then from the observation of the nature of things that present themselves to our senses we are made to understand that such actions produce such effects , it is the same thing as if we had received our informa tion from the supreme authour himself , because he has on purpose so contrived them as to make it necessary for us to take notice of that information that is given us by their being so contrived . and herein consists the institution of the law of nature , that god has signified to us his own design and intention towards mankind in the contrivance of it , and has induced us to pursue the same design with himself by rewards and punishments resulting from the nature of things as we comply with or disobey his will. for that is all that is proper or necessary to make a law , or to pass an obligation , first , to declare the will or command of the legislatour ; secondly , to enforce obedience to it by consequent rewards and penalties . so that if it can be proved that the authour of nature has signified any certain rules of life to mankind by the very order and frame of nature , and that he has farther made them obligatory to all the world by making the same necessary connexion between the duty and the reward as there is between every natural cause and effect , their obligation will be establish'd upon no weaker grounds or proofs then of certain demonstration , and we shall have the same assurance that they are design'd for the rules of our actions as we can have that any natural cause was ordain'd to produce its natural effect : and it will be as manifest from the whole constitution of nature , when it is consider'd and reflected upon , that god intended mankind should govern themselves by such certain principles as that it is the office of the sun to give light to the world. this is the thing that i here attempt to prove and hope to perform . and the proof of it will consist of these two parts , first , to demonstrate the publication ; secondly , the sanction of the laws of nature . § ii. . as to the sufficiency of the publication of the law of nature , the plain account of it has been obscured by nothing more , then that it has alwaies been described and discoursed of in metaphorical and allusive expressions , such as engravings , and inscriptions , and the tables of the heart , &c. as if the law of nature consisted of a certain number of propositions that were imprinted upon the minds of men , and concreated with their understandings , by attending to and reflecting upon which they were instructed or bound to govern their moral actions . perhaps this may be true , and god may possibly have put some secret notices into the minds of men for the greater security of justice and honesty in the world ; but then , beside that there is no way to prove the certainty or demonstrate the obligation of any such inward record , this plainly resolves the authority of the law of nature into uncertain and unaccountable principles , or such as may be pretended , and , when they are , ought to be admitted without any proof or evidence of reason , and this amounts to no more then all the idle and precarious pretences of enthusiasm ; and whatsoever some men affirm or fancy to be written upon their hearts must immediately pass an obligation upon all mens actions , and the finger of god may be as wildly pleaded in all cases that are not to be accounted for by the principles of natural reason and conscience , as the spirit of god has been . but though that influences the minds of men with secret and undiscernible impressions , yet it must not be made use of to warrant the lawfulness of any undertaking ; but that must be decided by the common and avowed rules of vertue and religion ; because it is certain that the spirit of god always acts according to their intendment and direction : so that by them we must judge of its impulses , and not suffer our selves to be determin'd in any affair , but where they will abet or justify our proceedings , whether we really are or are not acted by any other principle , otherwise there could be no certain rule of moral actions . and thus too may men that are bold and confident call every thing the law of nature that they have a mind or fancy to , without being bound to give any proof of its reasonableness or account of its obligation ; it is no more but calling it the law written in their hearts , and then it must right or wrong pass for the universal law of mankind : so that after this rate there will remain no certain method whereby we may discern mens own fancies , prejudices and inclinations , from the true dictates of right reason and the natural grounds of good and evil. and therefore these phrases are not to be taken in exact propriety of speech , but only in a loose and popular way of expression ; and so they were intended by those that first used them , that only alluded to the known customs and solemnities of enacting laws , that were always wont to be declared and published to the subject by writing or proclamation ; and in allusion to this they came to describe the law of nature by the voice within , the book of conscience , the tables of the heart , &c. because the laws of nature are as certainly declared reasonable and obligatory by the state of nature , as if they had been written upon our minds by the finger of god , or proclaim'd by an audible voice to our consciences . however , though we should allow them in their literal sense ( and so , for any thing i know , we may ) yet we can never derive the certainty of their obligation from such uncertain suppositions , at least we need not , when they are so clearly demonstrable from reason and experience , from the observations of nature and the necessities of life , from the advantages of justice and the comforts of society ; this gives a complete and satisfactory account of their authority to the minds of men , and they may come to a sufficient knowledge and understanding of their duty by their own thoughts and reflections without any other declaration or express discovery of the will of god. and this seems to be the meaning of saint paul in his description of the case of the gentiles , rom. . , . where it is observable that he describes the law which he affirms to be written in their hearts ( in allusion to the mosaick tables ) not by the common expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 general notions or instincts of good and evil , but by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasonings , or such evident results or conclusions as it is natural or at least very easy for the mind of man to make from its experience and observation of things ; for the heathen world had no other objects to exercise or entertain their thoughts withall , but what nature presented to them , and therefore those reasonings of their consciences that saint paul here speaks of , must of necessity be deduced from this principle and no other . and thus are the laws of nature drawn forth into use and bound upon the conscience , not by any express voice or immediate impression of the legislator , but by vertue of the workings of our own minds and the unavoidable results of our own consciences , that as long as we act sincerely and meditate impartially upon the nature of things , will lead us into some knowledg of our duty and convince us of the reasonableness and necessity of our obedience . there is no man so desperately dull and stupid as not to be able to perceive and examine the truth of the first problems in morality , when ( as we shall prove ) they are so evident from the whole frame and constitution of nature , and when they are found so usefull from all the experience and observation of humane life , that it is even impossible to open our eyes or to look abroad without observing their goodness ; so that we cannot suppose any person to live without any sense of vertue and religion , without supposing such a brutish stupidity as can scarce be supposed incident to a rational creature . but if any man will choose inadvertency , and resolve to make no serious reflections upon the most common objects that present themselves to his outward senses , there is nothing in the world so plain or so obvious that he may never so much as take notice of . but then this is such a brutish affront to his nature , such an affected and wilfull sottishness , that it is of all crimes the most unnatural and inexcusable . it is indeed not impossible but a man may be so wretchedly regardless of all things as never to have made one observation all his life-time , and to be ignorant even of the truth of that proposition , that the whole of any thing is bigger then a part of it ; but then nothing can ever be pleaded to excuse such a palpable brutishness and inadvertency ; and all the world will impute so gross an ignorance to the most shamefull and unpardonable neglect of his natural abilities ; and no man will ever pretend in his behalf that he wanted sufficient means for making the discovery . and thus it is in the first and fundamental principles of good and evil ; they are so legible in the whole contrivance and all the appearances of nature ; they are so necessary to the being and preservation of mankind ; their equity is so apparent and their convenience so obvious in every action of humane life , that no man can reflect upon any thing either within or without him , but it must make him sensible of their obligation ; and he that does not perceive it , is guilty of the same unconceivable stupidity , as the man that should pass through the world without ever knowing that twice two make four . § iii. for there are but two rules of humane actions , either the greater or the smaller morals , as the platonists divide them . the first takes in all the great and fundamental principles of morality ; whose evidence is so notorious , that it is not possible for an upright man not to discern their goodness and obligation ; and whose usefulness is so common and diffusive , and so necessary to the good of all mankind ; that it is not so much as possible for any society to subsist without some regard to their authority : and in these great and fundamental measures of good and evil all men and all nations agree , the most civil and the most barbarous people consent in the first principles of natural religion , and the first provisions of natural justice . we have no reason to believe there are any corners in the world void of all notices of a deity and all sense of humanity ; and though some men that may tell us any thing what they please , are pleased to tell us that there are , yet they give us very little ground to credit their report , because their converse in those places was so very short , and their entercourse with those people so very imperfect , and withall their languages so utterly unintelligible to one another , it is easy enough to suppose the inhabitants might have divers notions of which strangers were not capable of making the least observation , no nor so much as any enquiry ; at least it is sufficient to destroy the credit of their testimony concerning their manners and customs , when the best information they were capable of was so imperfect and so incompetent . but however , suppose there were any part of mankind so desperately debaucht as to live without all sense of god and good manners ; yet there are none so much as suspected of so great a degeneracy , but such as give us too manifest tokens of extreme sottishness and stupidity as to all the other necessities and conveniencies of life , and that live altogether like the brute-beasts heedless and regardless of themselves and their own natures , without making any reflections upon their own minds , or emproving any observations from their own experience . now i will not deny but that it is possible for creatures so utterly supine and negligent , to be ignorant of the most common and most obvious notions of things . for all knowledge is the effect of some attention ; and if men will not attend , they deprive themselves of all means of information ; if they will not make use of their faculties , it is not the certainty nor the evidence of truth that can force or obtrude an impression upon their minds ; and though perchance it is possible that the almighty power of god may overcome their dulness , yet this is violent and preternatural , and it is not to be expected that he should alter the course of nature only to repair our wilfull sottishness ; for that were to destroy the principles of all morality and to make us uncapable of all practice of good and evil by forcing , i. e. destroying our wills. and therefore humane kind must be govern'd in an humane way , and not be overpowred by any such forcible and vehement means as may offer violence to its liberty . so that when the divine providence has done all that is fit or necessary to bring them to the knowledg of their duty , it must after all be left to their own power and the freedom of their own choice , whether they will or will not make use of the means that he has left them for that purpose . and therefore as to this it matters not whether the natural law be written upon the mind of man or the nature of things . for wheresoever it may be recorded or howsoever collected , it cannot be drawn forth into use and practice without the help of reflection . and though it were properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain number of propositions imprinted upon the heart or conscience of man , yet he may as easily take no notice of what is legible within him , as not observe what is plainly deducible from the whole frame and constitution of nature without him , in that the knowledg of both depends entirely upon his own animadversion . so that if the author of nature have made any sufficient discovery of his will and pleasure either by instinct or by the order of nature , that is a sufficient provision for the due government of mankind , and the common welfare of the world ; and though there are some few in it so monstrously dull and sottish , as not to take the least notice of the most obvious truths , yet that is meerly the defect of their own will , and not any default of his wisdom ; and it is enough to secure the common good , that their usefulness is so great and notorious , that it cannot but be observed by all that make any use of their understandings . and thus is the consent of nations a great proof and confirmation of the laws of nature , for though their differences are numberless as to casual and arbitrary customs , and as to their municipal laws , and their more remote and less usefull rules of morality , yet as for the great and fundamental laws of justice and religion , they are vouch't by the catholick consent and practice of all known nations both civil and savage . the belief of a deity , the obligation of oaths , love to parents and gratitude to benefactors , and to doe to all men as we would be done to our selves , are catholick and obligatory all the world over , and are the laws of nations as well as nature , or ( as aristotle expresses it ) are of the same force in all places , as fire burns every where alike , and is of the same use in greece and in persia. and these if attended to will provide competently for the great necessities and the main duties of mankind , and from them may easily be derived all other emergent and subordinate rules of good and evil ; though it is not to be expected they should be ratified with the same consent of nations , and require an equal obligation in all times and all places , because their usefulness is neither so great nor so certain ; and by consequence not so likely to be attested with the same agreement of voices : for where the evidence is not so very notorious and the obligation so very reasonable , it is an easy matter for men to differ in their perswasions about them . especially if we consider how mankind are every-where more or less determin'd by uncertain and casual principles , by wild customs , by superstitious fancies , by national interests , &c. and therefore though all the world agree in the first and fundamental principles of morality , yet they differ endlesly in deducing and drawing forth particular laws from them into use and practice ; and all nations have their own proper usages , that they set up to themselves as the rules and measures of civility and good manners , and judge all people wild and barbarous , whose practices do not agree with their own national customs . and from hence it comes to pass that many propositions are reckoned into the laws of nature , that derive all their authority from accidental prescriptions , or at most from emergent cases of necessity ; for it may and often does fall out that an action may be highly usefull at a certain time or place , and so be fit to be established into a standing law , and yet may afterwards by change of things lose the ground and reasonableness of its institution ; and yet if it have once been honour'd with publick reputation , and have perhaps acquired a religious opinion with the people , it is not after that to be revers't or violated without the most horrid and unnatural impiety ; and those nations are supposed to be fall'n from all the good principles and inclinations of humane nature , that live in contrary or but different customs . and this is in no other instance more remarkable than in the several ways of burial and ceremonies of treating the dead , which though they are capable of no other decency or determination than what is derived upon them by the manners of the place , yet are they everywhere lookt upon with a religious reverence ; and therefore all that use different customs must be lookt upon by the people at least as brutish and unnatural . but setting aside such fancies as have no other obligation but of old usage and strong conceit , the differences about the real laws of good and evil are neither great nor many , at least among the better-manner'd and more civil nations , i. e. among such as have consider'd the reasonableness of things and the conveniences of life ; and if men will be upright in their endeavours , and honestly and impartially weigh the reasons and true accounts of things , though they may and always will differ in their perswasions , and entertain very hard and unkind opinions upon the account of their differences , yet their errors can neither be very wicked nor very dangerous . integrity ensures both their own innocence and the divine acceptance ; for the man that really pursues his best apprehensions of things can never fall into great and enormous mistakes , and if he run into less important miscarriages , he may be secure to have them discharged upon the score of his sincerity : and when god has prescribed him no particular rules of duty , but left him to the conduct of his own reason and observation , and when the man has followed the best notices of things that he was able to discover in his circumstances and according to his abilities , it is as certain as that the almighty is good and just , that he will accept the uprightness of his purposes and the worthiness of his endeavours . so that in these less material and more remote instances of morality the divine wisdom has sufficiently provided for the government of the world and the happiness of mankind ; for if they will but attend to the first results of their own minds , and the most evident principles of good and evil , and guide their actions and sentiments by a respect to them , they can never be dangerously deceived or abused in all other apprehensions of things , so that all the difficulty that is required to secure our obedience both to the greater and the lesser laws of nature is plainly no more than to resolve to be honest and upright men ; if they will , that alone will instruct them in all the obligations of their duty : if they will not , it is certain all the revelations in the world can never master wilfull perverseness or ignorance ; and this is enough to prove ( if it prove true ) that the providence of god has not been defective in making sufficient provisions for the government of mankind . the other rule of manners comprehends all the laws and prescriptions of decency that serve chiefly to adorn and set off the practices of essential goodness ; which though it be beautifull and amiable enough in it self , yet it appears much more lovely to the world , when it is accompanied with handsomness of address and behaviour , and that is the proper meaning of civility and good-manners ; in opposition to rudeness and barbarity ; it is not to be practised and disciplined in formalities and fashionable gestures , but it is confined to the exercise of vertue , to take off all seeming sullenness and austerity from it by the smoothness and agreeableness of conversation . but then all its rules are the results of prudence and wisdom , of custom and observation , and are not ( as the former ) capable of any certain determination , and especially because they depend upon and are only to be determin'd by that infinite variety of circumstances that are incident to humane actions ; and though in some emergent cases a prudent man may possibly miss in arts of ceremony , yet he can scarcely fail in the more material rules of decency . however to be ready at them and exact in them requires rather wit than integrity ; and therefore though they are great advantages to vertue , yet are they no parts of natural morality , and so are not to be sought for from the nature of things , nor to be consider'd among the laws of nature ; and by consequence have no concernment in our present enquiry . only give me leave to prescribe one general rule concerning them , because its observation is of so very great usefulness to the real interest of vertue . and that is that every man for the wise and decent management of himself and his own affairs would have a special regard to the capacity of his nature and the particular tendency of his humour . for beside that all strein'd and forced behaviour is plainly undecent , it probably betrays men into unhandsome shifts and actions , in that nothing is more uneasy than to carry on an humour that is unnatural ; and then when they have entangled themselves in streights and difficulties , they are forced to break loose by false stories or false promises , or some other unjust and unworthy artifices . thus severe men can never sustein the person of the courtly and the facetious , but will quickly run themselves into such inconvenient obligations , as they can neither handsomly keep nor honestly break : and therefore it is not only a rule of prudence but of honesty not to affect unnatural imitations , but that every man live after his own manner , and provided the design of his life be vertuous , that he pursue it in his own way . thus men of quick and ready thoughts , that know how to meet with suddain turns of affairs , and can foresee probable events and contingencies of things , may be more reserved and designing in the prosecution of their ends , because they are to be obtained by nothing so much as secrecy , and whenever they are discover'd , are defeated . but as for persons of a more blunt and downright humour , that are not nimble or foreseeing enough to way-lay all changes , it is more advisable to live with more openness and simplicity of manners , and to pursue their ends rather by courage than dexterity , it is more becoming their person and more usefull to the world ; so that as long as the cause of vertue and the good of mankind lie at the bottom of mens intentions , it is not material which way they work out their ends. but every man must perform his own part in his own way , i. e. as nature has furnisht him with abilities , and so he abstain from fraud or violence ( that directly contradict all pretensions to vertue ) he may behave himself in all entercourses of life , either with closeness or openness of address , according as he shall find himself most able to manage and maintain the humour . now these smaller morals being fil'd off the account , because though they are pretty ornaments of civil conversation , yet are they not absolutely necessary to the happiness and security of mankind , which is the only principle by which we are to guide our selves in our inquest after the laws of nature ; reckoning therefore no rules into their account , but such as apparently provide for our natural and common necessities ; we shall find their obligation as evident and unavoidable as their necessity ; and though this might be proved beyond all contradiction by an induction of particulars , yet the clearest method of demonstration is to reduce all particular cases to one general head , in which all the rest are apparently included , or from which they are unavoidably deduced . § iv. and that is universal justice or humanity , or so much love and good-will to all mankind , as obliges every man to seek the welfare and happiness of the whole community and every member of it , as well as his own private and particular interest ; and this one proposition ( if once consented to ) is enough to restrain him from all wrongs and injuries ; in that they never proceed from any other principle than too much love and concernment for a man 's own self , without any regard to the good of others ; whereas had he any affection for their welfare together with his own , he would have no inducement to invade their rights for the enlargement of his own propriety . and this becomes more forcible upon his mind , if he be seriously convinced that the most likely way to emprove or secure his own private weal is to consult and promote the common good ; and that his own happiness depends so much upon his contributing , according to the measure of his ability , his serious endeavours to procure the good of all , insomuch that it cannot possibly subsist but in conjunction with it and subordinate to it , and yet all this , nature it self declares to every man that will observe it , and that is all that is needfull to establish a law or pass an obligation ; and this is the thing that i say is so plainly observable from the whole contrivance of the universe , that it cannot possibly escape any man's knowledg without wilfull ignorance and perverseness . and now if this one general rule be so legible in the nature of things , it draws after it all the particular obligations of vertue and honesty , and whoever is upright in his intentions of behaving himself in all things according to the best of his understanding by its guidance and direction , cannot easily fall into any considerable mistakes or miscarriages in matters of justice and equity , but must necessarily quit himself like an honest man in all entercourses and towards all relations . and yet the reasonableness and necessity of this rule is so obvious , that a man cannot so much as look abroad into the fields without being inform'd of its obligation ; for there he beholds the fruits of the earth provided for the preservation and the comfort of the life of man , which himself can never expect to reap and enjoy , unless he will be content with the comfort of his own share , and allow every man else his lot and proportion ; so that the knowledg of this vertue and the benefit that accrues to every man by it requires no deep and philosophical speculation of things , but is plainly visible in the most common prospect of nature . in which it is certain that the provisions made for the preservation and the comfort of the life of man were made by the authour of nature for the use and benefit of his whole family , so that if any one or some few should go about to engross them to themselves and exclude all others from partaking with them , they cannot but be conscious to themselves that they act cross to their maker's design . and as it is certain that god design'd that all his offspring should share in the blessings of his providence , so is it certain that they cannot be enjoyed but by mutual help and kindness ; so that every man as he is concern'd to enjoy his own share is obliged to love and assist his neighbour , at least to suffer him quietly to enjoy his . and this brings every man to understand all the benefits of peace and society , that are so many rewards naturally annext to the several exercises of this duty . but because the generality of men are not so sensible of rewards as punishments , i shall rather choose to demonstrate the great benefits of this vertue of mutual love and kindness by the horrible mischiefs that must follow upon the general breach and dissolution of it : and they are so great that though it were only to prevent and provide against them , it were abundantly sufficient to recommend its practice to mankind , for it is manifest that if they once betake themselves to contend and scramble , and live in a perpetual state of war , every man taking care for no more than one , and standing upon his own guard in defyance to all the world beside , they will only hinder one another from the common enjoyment of all the necessary provisions of life , and instead of living securely and cheerfully upon the bounty of nature , they must unavoidably destroy both that and themselves too ; for certainly no man can ever expect to be safe or happy , that has all the world to his enemy , and yet that would be the condition of every man , if we all pursued our own interests without regard and ( whenever it happens ) in opposition to the welfare of all others . what a miserable and distracted world would this be , if every man's care and kindness never reacht beyond himself ? our lives must be for ever poor and solitary , and infinitely more unsafe than hares and foxes and vermin , and we should all without a metaphor be worse then wolves to one another ; always insecure and uneasy , eaten up with jealousies and suspicions , troublesome to our selves and to all the world beside , and in continual fear and danger from the whole creation ; and yet in spite of all our vigilance and industry every man's life would be short and his death violent . all this is so manifest at first view , that one would wonder how a late authour could be so wild as well as wicked in his conceits as not only to define the state of nature to be a state of war , but to lay down this supposition as the only fundamental principle of all government and morality : for if that be the state of nature , to which nature it self would guide and direct reasonable men , though they were under no obligation of laws or covenants no nor deity , then certainly the state of nature must be a state of peace and friendship in that it is so apparent from the plainest and most familiar observations of things , that mankind is furnisht with sufficient provisions for the necessities and comforts of life , if every man would be content with his own moderate and reasonable proportion ; but if not , that then their lives must of necessity become for ever forlorn and miserable , and that they would all be so far from being ever secure in their own enjoyments , that it would be plainly impossible for every or any single person to defend himself against the fraud or the violence of all the world beside . if this ( i say ) be so visible from the very first observation of things , mankind cannot be supposed so wild and extravagant ( unless we can suppose them all perfectly mad and void of all sense of wisedom and reason ) as naturally to fall into a state of mutual hatred and enmity , when that were so manifest a contradiction to the first dictates of their own understandings , and the most obvious directions of the nature of things . and therefore they can never come into this inhumane condition of life , till they become so unwise and so unnatural , as to act against all the principles of their own reasons , and all the suggestions of their own interests . so far is this from being the original state of humane nature , that ( without the supposition of a providence ) nothing can ever betray men into it but the most unnatural and unreasonable folly in the world. so that though we could suppose that humane race sprang out of the earth without dependance upon or obligation to any creatour , yet if we will be pleased only to suppose them endued with the faculties and apprehensions of men , they would naturally fall into a condition of peace and society , it being so evidently every man's interest to seek and procure it . so that this imaginary state of war is just so much the state of nature as it is for all mankind to be fools and madmen . but if it be more natural for this sort of beings that we call men to be guided in their actions by the nature of things and the convictions of their own minds , and the love of their own selves , that will immediately reverse the whole train of their thoughts and inclinations , and bend all their designs to a quite contrary course of life , and instead of every man 's falling upon every man he meets ( as that hypothesis imagines ) he would court his friendship , though he had no other motive to it , than that by his help and assistance , he might the better secure his own safety . and if it be natural for every man in his wits to seek and desire that ( which no man in his wits can ever doubt of ) 't is as natural to enlarge his friendships and dependances , in that as many as he endears or obliges , so many he engages to his service and defence ; so that so far as men live according to the first principles of nature and discretion , so far do they endeavour after the love and good-will of mankind , because their safety and happiness is greater or less according to the number of their friends or enemies ; and therefore every man as he is concern'd to secure his own quiet , is concern'd to secure the good-will of all men , and to procure it by being as unfeinedly concern'd for their welfare as for his own . for that is the most proper and effectual method to engage any man to seek or consult my interest ; to convince him that it is most serviceable to his own ; so that the strongest motive that can be propounded to court his benevolence , is to perswade and satisfy him that it is the most natural and most probable way to endear me to his cause and service ; and therefore upon the same principle that every man is inclined to seek his own private good , unless he will directly cross with his own designs , he is obliged to seek the publick too , i. e. the good of all others within the sphere of his own power and capacity . but now if he be so plainly directed to this by the nature of things , and if the nature of things were so framed and contrived on purpose by a wise and supreme cause ; that is a sufficient indication to mankind , that it is his mind and will that they should govern themselves and their actions by its direction ; because , as i premised at the beginning , the whole train of natural effects are ultimately to be resolved into his providence , that is the only cause of the nature of things , and of all the properties that result from it ; and therefore if the usefulness and necessity of this rule be so evident in the whole contrivance of nature , it is the authour of nature that has made it so ; and then there is no avoiding the conclusion without downright and wilfull perverseness , but that he intended that those of his creatures , that were able to make observations upon his works , should take it for the rule of their actions . so that if there be an authour of nature , this is a demonstrative proof of the law of nature ; and no man can desire a greater evidence than he has or may have of the truth of that supposition . for if there were no god , 't is certain we can be under no obligation ; but if there be one , and if he have so clearly discover'd his will in all the effects of his providence , he has done all that can be required to establish it into a law , and declare it a matter of our duty . so that by the same method that we arrive to the knowledg of the supreme cause , are we forced into an acknowledgment of his sovereign will and pleasure ; and if from all the wonderfull and curious contrivances that appear in the nature of things , it be reasonable to conclude that they were so disposed by a wise and intelligent being ; the very same appearances that discover him , discover his intention too . and therefore whoever goes about to avoid the obligation of the law of nature , must first casheir the being of a god ; and then indeed ( as i observed at first ) our work is done ; for it is in vain to vindicate the goodness and wisdom of his providence , if there be no such thing at all ; for that destroys the matter of enquiry and the supposition upon which we argue ; and then we must betake our selves to a new dispute , and prove the existence of a deity ; and when that is granted , we may then and not till then , proceed to demonstrate from all the effects of his providence the obligation of his laws . and that is all that can be demanded or need to be performed , upon supposition of a supreme governour of the world , to assign by what laws he governs it ; and he is a very unreasonable man that requires greater evidence of the being of a law , than can be given of the being of the lawgiver himself ; and if we have so much , we have enough and all that we can justly desire , and he that would have more , is not to be satisfied without a contradiction . this then being granted that there is a sovereign cause of the universe , which must be supposed in the order of nature , before we can proceed to any farther enquiry ; the best and easiest way to find out the rules and methods of his government , is to reflect upon the naturall order and tendency of things ; for that being altogether contrived and design'd by himself , it manifestly discovers to all that are able to observe the connection between causes and effects , what he principally intends and aims at . so that all things in nature being so order'd as to inform every man that the happiness of all mankind and every member thereof is to be obtain'd by mutuall benevolence , and by nothing else , that is a clear and satisfactory evidence to them all , that as it is the end of all his purposes , so it is his intention to oblige all his subjects to act in pursuance of the same design . and what could be done more effectually to engage them to it , than to let them know ( if they will know any thing at all ) not onely that it is his own will and pleasure by that order that he has establish't in the world ; but also that he expects that they should comply with it , as they intend to enjoy all the comforts and escape all the miseries of life ; and that he has done to purpose , when he has made every man's private good so manifestly to depend upon his sincere and serious endeavours to promote the good of all , with the same necessary connexion as naturall effects do upon their naturall causes ; and therefore seeing we have such an ample assurance of the nature of our duty , and such vehement enforcements to perform it , we have all the conditions that can be required to bring us under the power of a law or an obligation to obedience . § v. now this sense of mutuall benevolence , as it contains in it all the duties of justice and equity , and is able ( if attended to ) without any other direction to preserve men honest and vertuous in all their entercourses of life , so it erects ( without any train of consequences ) the two things , that are the most necessary to the happiness and security of mankind , society and propriety ; in that it consists in nothing else than a just and reasonable division of every man's love between himself and the publick , i. e. between himself and all others to whom his power and concernment reaches . now if there be a common interest , in which every man is concern'd , as he is concern'd in his own , that is it that makes society ; and if no man from the naturall condition of his faculties be able to carry on either the one or the other without having a peculiar share divided and appropriated to himself for the exercise and employment of his industry ; it is that that assigns and settles propriety ; so that both these result immediately from the constitution of nature , and are as evident to any man that observes the natural frame of things , as any experiments in naturall philosophy , or problems in mathematicks , and resolve themselves into such propositions as these , that those causes that preserve the whole , preserve its parts also ; and that those that preserve the parts , preserve the whole ; but for a fuller and more distinct demonstration of both , we shall prove and consider them apart . and first as for society ; it is absolutely necessary to the support and comfort of the life of man ; for were this once dissolved , and should mankind once betake themselves to the woods and the deserts , and imitate the manners of wild and unsociable creatures , they must subsist by destroying and preying upon each other ; and then the most innocent would always be the least secure , as never being apt to invade other mens rights , and lying always exposed to other mens wrongs and injuries ; and on the contrary the most injurious would always upon that account be the least unhappy , ever studying to enlarge the bounds of their power by wily and unjust invasions ; and then the wanton and the violent leviathan must at length devour all , as being the cruelest , and so more apt ; the strongest , and so more able to oppress the rest . whence that saying of one of the ancients that laws and societies were established for the sake of wise and good men , viz. to preserve them from the injuries and oppressions of the bad ; for as much as if these would but be content to prescribe bounds to their appetites , and moderate their desires by the capacities of nature , they would never be disposed nor invited to encroach upon other mens enjoyments ; but whilst their appetites are unbridled and exorbitant , and not restrain'd within the necessities and conveniencies of nature , they must be invading the shares and proprieties of their honest and harmless neighbours to satisfy their wanton and unreasonable humours . this then is the proper end and usefulness of society , to institute a common amity and friendship amongst men , to unite multitudes together into combinations of friendship , to endear them to each other by mutuall offices of love and kindness , and by a joynt defence of their common welfare against all foreign injuries and invasions ; so that to be just and honest is onely to be true and faithfull to our friends ; and were mankind as faithfull to one another as the condition of their nature requires , and the author of it expects , there would be no need of civil laws and penalties , that are onely a second and subsidiary help to force a few bad men to preserve that amity and friendship , which , were they good and vertuous , they would choose of their own accord , as most reasonable in it self ; and most agreeable to humane nature . so that this is plain , that if men will but reflect upon the condition of their natures ; consider the insufficiency of their own personal strength to their own security ; observe the necessity of a publick concern in order to the preservation of every man 's private interest , that alone ( unless they were in good earnest resolved to work their own destruction ) would combine and embodie them into societies to maintain each others rights by a common assistance against all the invasions of fraud and violence . and without this what could be more wretched , forlorn , and melancholy than the life of man ? for if we suppose him in that state of war , that as our authour tells us , could we suppose him out of society , must be natural and unavoidable , every man must then live in perpetual dangers , fears and jealousies , seeing he must have every man to his enemy ; and is not his condition sufficiently desperate , that must trust to his own single strength and wit to guard and defend himself against the fraud and violence of all the world beside ? there is nothing more obvious than that this eternal warfare is the most improper state for the happiness of mankind in general , or the security of every man 's particular possessions and accommodations ; and that is it certainly destructive of all those comforts and advantages , that are to be reaped from and enjoyed in a state of peace and society . and therefore no man that has any kindness for himself can ever think it wise or reasonable in it self , or well-pleasing to their maker , for all men to continue in such a state , in which they must all for their own security be obliged to seek their own mutual mischief and destruction . and if a state of war and anarchy be so manifestly uncomfortable , that alone is a sufficient direction to all men in their wits to think of conditions of peace and mutuall defence ; and men must be supposed so cross grain'd to themselves , that they must wittingly choose to thwart both their interest and their reason , before they can reconcile their minds to any other thoughts than of love and society . and if it were possible ever to imagine mankind out of a condition of government , we can never conceive them so absur'd , as to choose to continue in a posture so unsafe and so uncomfortable . and therefore it is as wild as confident an assertion of our philosopher of malmsbury to lay it down as the fundamentall principle of all government , that mankind is inclined and determined by nature to acts of mutuall hatred and hostility . for what does he mean by the nature of man ? if those passions and inclinations that are common to him with other creatures ; even that is manifestly false as we shall prove in the sequell of this discourse by an induction of particulars , in that every thing in humane nature has a vehement tendency to acts of love and good-will . but suppose his bruitish part to be wild and savage , yet if we take in the whole account of our nature , and onely suppose our selves intelligent and rationall beings , nothing will appear more extravagant than to affirm that nature inclines or rather ( as he determines it ) forces us into a posture of war and mutuall cruelty ; and here it is not at all materiall whether reason be an innate faculty , or onely an acquired habit and result of experience ; but 't is sufficient to my purpose that every man has or may have ability and sagacity enough to observe what tends to , and what contradicts his own happiness ; and to govern his appetites and passions , so as may be most serviceable to the comfort and chearfulness of his own life . and then it is as absur'd to say that it is naturall to mankind to hate and destroy one another , as that it is prudent and reasonable for every man to follow such courses , as are apparently contradictory to his own safety and interest , for nothing is more plainly so , and more freely acknowledg'd on all hands to be so , than a state of perpetuall war and enmity ; and so it is largely enough represented by the author himself of that hypothesis . so that if it be most naturall to mankind to love their own ease and happiness , and to use and pursue those means that are absolutely necessary to its attainment , then it follows unavoidably that nothing is more naturall than to seek peace and friendship , without which the life of man must of necessity be sadly unsafe and uncomfortable . so that we can never suppose it naturall to every man to quarrell with every man , till we can suppose it naturall to all mankind to be raving and bedlam mad , and to endeavour by all violent means as well to make away themselves as to destroy one another ; and when we have supposed that , it will then ( i must confess ) not be impossible but that his philosophy may meet with some entertainment in the world ; but as long as men are content to continue in their wits , they will always judge it most naturall and most reasonable to choose such a method of life , as is at least consistent with their own quiet and safety , and by consequence will abhor nothing with a more naturall aversation than thoughts and designs of an eternall war , that is so palpably inconsistent with it . and as for what is pretended of the equality of all mens strength by nature , that it causes mutuall fear , and that mutuall fear puts them upon mutuall violence , every man endeavouring to secure himself by anticipating the attempts of every man. this is so far from being any likely motive to contention , that there cannot be a more effectuall argument to perswade and force men to friendship , and to assist and oblige each other by all the offices of love and kindness . for if their forces are equall , so is the danger of the combate too , and if they engage it is possible they may both perish by the event of war , at least the victour cannot gain so much by his enemies destruction as he ventures by the hazard of his own life ; and therefore seeing there is so little advantage to be got in this way of defence , every man can have but very little reason or inclination to make use of it for his own safety . and then beside as their power is equall to injure , so it is to help each other ; and if i employ my strength for anothers benefit , that is the likeliest way to oblige him to a just and honourable requitall ; and certainly his inclination to do me good turns is somewhat more comfortable than his displeasure or hostility ; and therefore it must needs be a much more forcible inducement to win his good-will by anticipations of friendship , than to provoke his rage and revenge by invading his rights , and making the first assault upon his life and liberty . but if we farther consider how vastly every single man's power is surmounted by the power of all men , and how unable one man is to defend himself against the violence of a multitude , and withall how much his interest is secured and enlarged by the accession of all mens love and assistance , then if men are by nature bereaft of their understandings , if they are born possest with wild and lunatick spirits we might suppose they would all run raving and foming up and down the world , and every man fall upon every man he meets with , and that for no other reason than because they are an equall match , so that if he did not give , he must take the first blow . but if we suppose them in their right minds , with any sense of humanity or discretion about them , able to reflect upon the great advantages of mutuall benevolence , and the horrible mischiefs of a perpetuall hostility , it is easie to imagine how ready and forward such sober people would be to oblige one another by kind and civill treatments , and to rejoyce in any opportunities of doing good offices to others for the comfort and cheerfulness of their own lives . so that the result of all this dispute , viz. what use men would naturally make of their power upon one another from the consideration of its equality ; is onely to enquire whether mankind be by nature in or out of their wits ; if the former may be taken for granted , the case is very plain that men ( unless they are alter'd by preter-naturall distempers ) are creatures tame and civill enough ; but if it must be presumed that they are all naturally frantick , and void of all principles of reason and sobriety , that indeed will be a proper foundation for the hobbian politicks , and upon that supposition it is possible they may be allowed ; i am sure they never can upon any other . and as for what is farther pretended of the passion of fear , the desire of glory , and some other affections of humane nature , that they naturally dispose men into a posture of mutuall violence . this too is onely credible upon the former supposition ; for if all mankind were acted purely by unaccountable humours and whimseys , and were driven upon the wildest and most extravagant attempts without their own consent and deliberation , then indeed we might suppose they might be hurried upon rash and fool-hardy actions , they know neither why nor how . but if these passions ( how vehement soever ) are or may be brought under the conduct of reason and discretion , and if we have so much power over them , as that we may ( if we please ) not indulge them any farther than may be consistent with our own quiet and tranquility , then the question is what course a prudent man would take to gratifie these inclinations . and that is answer'd from the premises that any man in his wits , whatever he designes , would endeavour to carry on all his projects in ways of peace and civility ; and especially if he were afraid of all other men , he would think it his wisest course rather to court them by offers of friendship , than to provoke them by injuries and ill-turns . so that the inclination of these passions can onely be accounted for in conjunction with the reasons and understandings of men ; and then what way a prudent man would naturally determine himself , that must be supposed their naturall tendency . they are not capable of any certain determination from themselves , but receive their biass from the bent of mens designs and resolutions , and may be inclined either way as they choose to act rashly or advisedly ; and the same passions that make fools and mad-men turbulent , make all men in their wits modest and peaceable . and here to this purpose it is pretty to observe that when mr. hobbs treats of war and the causes of war , it is then manifest in that chapter that men are forced into it by the violent passions of fear , and hope , and glory ; but then when he proceeds to discourse of peace and the inducements to peace , the same passions are ready to serve his purpose thereto , and the very same naturall causes may be assign'd either for war or peace as it pleases him and serves his turn and his cause . but after this rate of talking it is an easie matter to prove any thing out of any thing , it is no more than first to lay two propositions together , and proceed to say this follows that , though there be no other reason for it , than because it did not go before it , and that is an hobbian demonstration . but this may suffice to shew that as mutuall benevolence is necessary to the happiness of mankind , so is society necessary to the exercise of mutuall benevolence ; and if so , then if there be a supreme governour of the world , that is an unquestionable proof of its institution by virtue of his authority ; in that without it , it is manifest he can never obtain the end of his creation , which ( if it be any at all ) must be the happiness of his creatures , a thing plainly impossible to be hoped for without the benefit of society . especially when he has vested all mankind in an equall and common right , to the comfort and felicity of their lives , and when we know that he desires and intends the well-fare of all his off-spring , and when he has made that to depend so unavoidably upon the care and the safety of a common interest ; all that is a sufficient declaration of his will to all his creatures , that are able to observe and reflect upon that order of things that he has instituted and establish't in the frame of his creation , that he expects they should pursue the same end with himself ( which is the good of all ) and make use of such means as are absolutely necessary to its attainment ( which is society ) especially when he has farther enforced it by such powerfull rewards and penalties , as to annex every single man's happiness to the performance , and his misery to the neglect of this duty . § vi. secondly , as for propriety , it is as plainly instituted and injoined by nature , or the authour of nature as society ; and that upon these two accounts , in that every man 's naturall power and capacity is limited , and that unavoidably and by it self introduces a limited use and enjoyment of things ; for no man can claim a greater right from nature than he is capable of enjoying , and therefore seeing that is fully provided for by a parcell that is proportion'd to it self and its necessities , he cannot challenge by virtue of his naturall right any power over the remainder ; but will be content to leave whatsoever he cannot enjoy himself to other mens use and advantage ; and certainly that is very reasonable to allow our neighbours to challenge their share of happiness when our own turn is fully served and satisfied . so that nature by setting bounds to the capacities of our appetites and enjoyments thereby plainly determines the limits of our rights , without setting them forth by any other lines and descriptions . for the right of nature neither is nor can be ( as some lawyers and philosophers have wildly enough defined it ) any such state of life in which mankind may be supposed free from all manner of laws and obligations , because this very supposition is made inconsistent and impossible from the nature of created beings , which can never be supposed to exist without depending upon and being subject to some superiour power , and that implies or at least inferrs their obnoxiousness to duty and obligation ; and then his will or pleasure by whatsoever means it is reveal'd and discover'd becomes the measure both of their duty and their liberty . and therefore it must needs be a wild account of things that supposes any right of nature antecedent to the law of nature , because it is so flat a contradiction to the naturall state of things , that carry conscience of duty and engagements to obedience in their very existence ; and therefore to suppose them to be , and not to be subject to the law of nature or the will of its author , is to suppose them both to be and not to be at the same time . and though man be made a free agent , that is endued with a power to doe whatsoever pleases him , yet power is not right , but the right use of power is ; and when he does or desires such things as are fit and consonant to his nature , he observes its laws and maintains its rights , because he is allowed every thing that is naturall and forbid nothing but what is not . so that the law of nature is no restraint superinduced upon the desires and liberties of nature ( as it is generally conceived ) but it is such a rule of life as is most agreeable to the naturall state of things ; and it is onely a regard to that that determines the measures of our duty , and from thence the bounds of our liberty . naturall justice consists in restraining our desires to our naturall appetites , all that exceeds them , it forbids ; that is the law of nature ; all that does not , it permits , and that is the right of nature ; so that it is plain that nature sets bounds to it self by the limitedness of its own being , and that it is impossible there should ever be any state of nature capable of an unlimited right , for its liberty can never be greater than its capacities , and therefore if its powers are confined within certain measures , its rights must be restrained to the same allowances , for it is apparently absurd to say that any man has a right or a licence to doe more than he can doe . so vain a conceit is it to suppose that in the state of nature every man has a right to all things , when it is so contradictory both to the nature of things , and so inconsistent with the reasonable claims of all other persons ; and supposes no less absurdity than that nature and right reason advise a man to engross to himself whatsover he can , though it be of no advantage to himself and injurious to all the world beside ; than which nothing can be conceived more disagreeing with the state of nature and the dictates of right reason ; for that being of a limited capacity , every man's understanding cannot but inform him that he ought to challenge no more by virtue of its right , than what it is capable of enjoying ; and if he do , that then he claims it in vain and to no real purpose , and that certainly agrees neither with the dictates of nature nor of right reason . so that though we should remove the divine providence out of the world ; yet notwithstanding the right or at least the necessity of propriety would arise from the naturall constitution of things ; which will direct every man to confine his desires to his appetites , and when he has his own share of happiness to content himself with its enjoyment , and not to disturb himself or defraud his neighbours without encreasing his own felicity , a thing so apparently absurd that nothing can be more so , than to suppose that this is the naturall humour of mankind , and especially of the wiser part of it . but then if we suppose a divine providence , ( as here we must do ) we must suppose too that he has given us all a naturall right and claim to our portion of happiness , from whence it follows that it is but just and reasonable , and agreeable to his will that every man should be willing that others should have liberty to enjoy their own proper share of felicity , as well as he desires to enjoy his ; because the same providence that vests me in a right to my own propriety , has granted the same right to all mankind beside ; and therefore naturall equity and regard to his sovereign will commands me to be content with my own allowance , and to suffer them to enjoy what is allotted to their share . so unavoidable is the institution of propriety from the limitedness of our natures and their naturall capacities . and therefore following the supposition that there was once no propriety , and that all the world lay in common to all its inhabitants , yet the nature of things would have directed them to a division , it being so plainly necessary both to the preservation of the whole species and of every individual man. and so all rational creatures would be obliged by the same law , and with the same sanctions to establish propriety , by which they are obliged in obedience to their creatour's will to promote the publick good . and yet this very supposition is a flat contradiction to the naturall condition of mankind , every man being born in a state of society and limited use of things ; for , as mr. hobbs himself states it , we are no sooner born , but we are actually under the power and authority of our parents , so that it is as naturall to man to be in subjection as to be born . neither for the proof hereof is it needfull to appeal to the testimony of the sacred history or any other ancient record concerning the original of mankind , humane nature it self is a demonstration of its own beginning , for seeing it cannot subsist but in individuals , and seeing every individual man is mortall , there must be some other cause of the whole race of mankind . and he having so disposed the natural condition of men as that no man can come into the world but in a limited state of things , that is a demonstrative evidence of its divine institution . . but then secondly , we are forced upon it in that as single persons cannot enjoy their own lot , so neither can they contribute their assistance to the publick good but by a limited and appropriated use of things , for their naturall powers being of a finite and contracted force as well as their naturall appetites ; they can serve the common-wealth onely according to the proportion of their abilities , and therefore seeing one man cannot do all things , it is necessary every man should take some particular task for the carrying on of the publick welfare . and if right reason i. e. the mind of man guiding it self by an upright observation of the nature of things , commands every man to seek and endeavour the happiness of all men , it commands us to confine our endeavours within the reach of our own activity , for it can require nothing but what is possible by nature , and therefore its obligation must stint it self to the bounds of every man's power , and so it promotes the interest of the community by engaging every single member of it to do his own work and mind his own business . so that whoever performs the duty of his station and employment , serves both himself and the common-wealth ; in that the prosperity of the whole arises from the industry of the several parts , and their industry cannot be employed without assigning them distinct offices and divided interests ; for till that be done it will be impossible to prevent those eternall quarrels and contentions , that must arise about the limits of every man 's right , and the proportion of every man's work ; and whilst they are taken up with their own picques and animosities , the earth must lye uncultivated and the publick weal neglected , from whence nothing else can naturally follow but perpetuall want and misery . and the most common experience informs us that there is no way of avoiding or ending contentions but by dividing the common interest into particular shares , and setting out every man his own propriety , so plainly does there follow from the fundamental principle of seeking the publick good an obligation upon every man to accept his own lot , and to leave all others undisturbed in theirs , whereby he fully acquits himself as to all the duties of justice or honesty , whether publick or private . and for this reason has the divine providence distributed among the sons of men variety of abilities , whether naturall or artificiall , suitable to all the needs and conveniencies of humane life , that so by a joynt contribution of every man's talent and faculty , all our wants may some way or other be tollerably supplied ; so that to do good offices cannot so properly be said to give as to exchange favours ; and they are duties of justice rather than charity ; every man stands endebted by the bonds and engagements of nature to cast his symbol into the publick stock , and therefore if he expect to enjoy the industry of other men without making any return of some service of his own , he does not onely cheat them , but he robs and defrauds the whole society . and he that carries on no designs of good but purely for himself , is not onely wretched and nigardly , but he is false and injurious . in short all the laws of justice and society are contain'd in that one excellent and comprehensive rule , whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you , even so doe unto them . and therefore unless a man would be content ( which no man can be ) that all other men should mind nothing but their own meer selves , and that in opposition both to his own and the publick interest , he is unjust or does not as he would be done by , if he perform not to others the same offices that he expects from them , in all his respective capacities : but if he does , he is an honest man , a good neighbour , and a good subject , and discharges all that can be required of him towards all relations . so that propriety and commerce are so far from being of any positive institution , that mankind are forced upon it by the first necessities of nature , and naturally fall into it for their own subsistence and preservation . it s benefit is so obvious and its practice so unavoidable , that men betake themselves to it almost antecedently to their reasonings . the limitedness of every man 's own nature confines him to a certain propriety , and the convenience of his own life invites him to trade and transact with others thereby to partake the use of their proprieties as well as his own ; for that is the proper advantage of commerce to emprove and enlarge the comforts of life by mutuall exchanges , whereby every man enjoys what every man possesses . and this is the naturall originall of dominion too , that is nothing else but a lasting and continued propriety ; for if at present i have a right to a divided use of things , both for my own preservation and the common good , their future enjoyment has the same relation to the future security of both , as their present has to the present , and therefore it is as naturall and as necessary that i should be vested with a perpetuall power to hold my estate against all other claims and pretences hereafter , as it is that i should use or enjoy it at present ; and that is all that we mean by dominion . this may suffice in general to shew how plainly nature , and god by nature informs mankind of these great and fundamental duties of justice and morality ; their knowledge is so obvious as to make their obligation unavoidable . § vii . but beside this undoubted signification of his will , that he has given from the constitution of all things without us , he has farther secured our regard and obedience to it from the constitution of all things within us : there is no faculty or passion in humane nature that does not incline us to , or rather enforce us upon their observation , insomuch that we cannot neglect them without doing violence to all our own inclinations as well as affronting all the dictates of reason , and the directions of nature . i shall not insist upon all particulars , but shall content my self with onely these three . . the natural activity of the mind of man. . it s natural sense and appetite of happiness . . some natural instincts and inclinations of humane nature . all which necessarily leade to the knowledge and engage to the practice of the laws of nature . all which will amount to no inconsiderable proof of the abundant care that the divine providence has taken to acquaint us with the nature of our duty , and to endear it to our regard . . the natural activity of the mind of man ; it cannot avoid to reflect upon its own nature , and observe its own inclinations and faculties ; and by that means it immediately perceives it self to be a thinking or a reasonable being ; and then it is as natural to it to act suitably to the condition of its nature , as it is to all other creatures to follow the instincts and appetites of theirs ; for as the brute-beasts are prompted to pursue agreeable objects by an inward sense of their own desires and necessities ; so is man inclined to act rationally by that inward assurance he has that he is endued with reason and understanding ; and that alone is sufficient to bring an obligation upon him without any other express and positive command . for as by this reflection he is lead into the knowledge of himself and his nature , so by that knowledge is he instructed in the rule of his duty ; which is onely to live and behave himself as becomes a reasonable creature ; and in that consists the morality of his actions ; so that from the nature of man , and from the knowledge of his own nature ( of which yet it is impossible for him to be ignorant ) results the sense and the conscience of his duty ; because he cannot so much as reflect upon himself ( and yet that he cannot avoid ) without being conscious of the faculties of his mind ; and when he is so , it is not more necessary to follow its dictates and suggestions , than it is to inform him how to satisfie his natural appetites , or to teach him that when he is hungry or thirsty , it will be convenient for nature to eat or drink . his own inward sense is enough to convince him of their use and comfort , and that without any other instruction minds him of seeking such objects and doing such actions as will please and satisfie his appetites . the case is the same as to the suggestions of our minds ; to be sensible of them is of it self sufficient to oblige us to act accordingly ; and therefore there is nothing more needfull to acquaint mankind with the obligations of the law of nature , than onely to let them know that they are rational creatures ; and it is as easy for them to know that , as it is to know that they are . but as it is unavoidable for the mind of man to understand it self and its own abilities ; so is it to take notice of all such things as are any way presented to its observation , and then to reflect upon its own knowledge , and then to weigh and consider the nature of its objects and to compare them among themselves , and out of all to draw conclusions for its own use and satisfaction , especially when it perceives it self employed in such matters as have any considerable influence upon its own welfare and contentment . and yet such are all the first apprehensions of things , they thrust and obtrude themselves upon our thoughts , and are so obvious and so perpetually before our eyes that it is scarce in our power to shift their notice . thus has every man a natural notion of pain and pleasure , and he feels by daily experience what things are gratefull or unpleasant to the respective faculties both of his body and mind , and those he pursues and these he shuns with a kind of fatal necessity . so that if he will but attend honestly to his first observations of things , that alone will leade him into a clear and distinct knowledge of his duty , i. e. to apply himself to such a course of life as he apprehends and feels to be most serviceable to his own interest . and that a very little experience ( if he be at all upright ) will convince him , is rather to be obtain'd in the ways of justice and integrity than of fraud and violence ; and this , if he will be true to his principles , immediately enters him upon the serious practice of all moral vertues . so that upon this account too it is impossible for any man to avoid the knowledge of his duty without wilfull and affected perverfeness . he must choose to be ignorant of his own being , he must resolve not to reflect upon the most common objects of his senses , or to act cross to the most necessary and unavoidable convictions of his own mind , before he can ever think of reconciling himself to unjust and vicious practices ; and if so , then can no man ever pretend that he wants competent means to bring him into a sense and an acknowledgment of his moral obligations . for in the result of this principle there are but two things necessary to a life of vertue , and they are consideration and integrity ; both which are so entirely within our own power , and so easily secured without pains or study , that no man can possibly fail in either of them without wilfull prevarication . as for the first it is ( as i have already proved ) natural and unavoidable to the mind of man , that is of so spritely and active a temper , that it cannot subsist without thinking and reflecting upon its own thoughts , and of this every man is convinced from the workings of his own mind . when he is at leasure and free from all other employment , that is seldom or never idle , but is always framing some conceits and apprehensions of things , and entertaining it self with its own thoughts and reasonings , so that it is so far from requiring any strength of intention to consider of things , that it is scarce in any man's power to avoid it : especially when there are so many outward objects that perpetually thrust themselves upon his observation , as all the appearances of nature do ; so that at last there is nothing more requisite to make him acquainted with whatsoever that suggests , than onely to take notice of what he cannot but behold . and such animadversions are so familiar and so importunate , that to overcome their force and vehemence , a man must first take no little pains to stiflle and neglect them ; so easy is the knowledge of the laws of nature , that no man can escape it without labour'd ignorance . and then as for integrity , it is so far from requiring any new task to secure it , that ( unless we will wilfully pervert the workings of our own minds ) it unavoidably follows upon consideration : for certainly there is nothing more natural or more agreeable than for a man to act suitably to the dictates and results of his own thoughts ; and the man that determines to act otherwise , resolves to be cross and peevish to himself and his own counsels ; so that if men will but onely suffer themselves to follow the plainest directions of their own minds and judgments , that alone will keep them upright and innocent as to the main and most important matters of their duty . and that is enough to secure the welfare of mankind and the peace of societies , and to satisfie every man 's own conscience , and to obtain the divine acceptance , in that he does all that can reasonably be expected or demanded from any person in his condition ; and to suppose that the almighty requires more , is plainly to destroy the goodness and the justice of his providence . for if once he exacts of any man beyond the proportion of his abilities , he may as reasonably impose all the impossible things in nature , in that there are no degrees of impossibility ; so that if he injoyn me any one thing that is never so little above my power ( so it be but above it ) he may as well injoyn all the contradictions that are impossible to omnipotence it self , for to me and my powers they are both alike impossible . so that unless we will ( and that in defiance to our own experience ) charge god's government of the world with the most petulant and unreasonable tyranny , it is manifest that there is nothing more easie or more obvious in nature than for mankind to know his will and procure his favour ; it requires nothing more than not to be wilfull sots and fools . § viii . the second principle that forces us into a knowledge of our duty is that natural sense and desire that every man has of his own happiness ; the apprehension and the appetite whereof result from the first and the strongest instinct of nature , in that it is without doubt natural to mankind , as well as to all other creatures , to love and desire their own welfare , and consequently to consider by what means and in what methods it is attainable . and now the bare proposal and prosecution of this design immediately brings every man into a sense of all the main duties of morality . for , upon the serious consideration of the nature of things , he cannot but discern in the result of all , that justice and benevolence has a more effectual tendency to procure his happiness than fraud and oppression . and then , if , upon the force of that perswasion , he set himself upon resolutions of vertue and honesty , he will , by a little care and experience , gain such a skill in their practice , as men usually do prudence and dexterity in the management of those affairs that they choose for the serious employment of their lives . for they , according to the sagacity of their minds , quickly grow subtil and curious in their own proper business ; so as to be able to perceive the less discernible degrees of advantage and disadvantage , and to follow them with greater readiness and to improve them with greater art . and so is it if they make it any part of the design of the business of their lives to look after and obtain their own contentment , and so betake themselves to those courses and manners of life as are most apparently serviceable to that end ; they cannot but arrive at a competent knowledge and sufficiency , not onely in the great and fundamental rules of morality , but in all the subordinate measures and less observable circumstances of good and evil . so that it is made almost unavoidable , even from the very first instinct of nature , but that all men must have some sense and notion of their duty , because it is impossible but they must sometimes have some thoughts and some designs of being happy ; and then if they act in order to it , according to the dictates of their own minds and the directions suggested to them by the nature of things , they must determin themselves to pursue it in such ways as are agreeable to both , i. e. by living according to the laws of nature and the principles of integrity . or by being sincere in their pretences of kindness and benevolence to all men , and faithfull to this principle in their entercourses and transactions with them , which alone will easily leade them into the knowledge and bring them under the obligation of all the duties of morality ; because they so naturally arise out of this principle , or are rather so apparently contain'd in it , that whoever embraces it as the best rule of his actions , and the most usefull instrument of his happiness , cannot , as occasion is offer'd , but acknowledge himself bound to act according to the rules and prescriptions of all the particular vertues that are but so many ways and means of pursuing this one general end : and in whatsoever capacity we consider mankind , if we are resolved to seek our own happiness in conjunction with the common good , ( and yet nothing is more manifest than that it is not to be compast upon any other terms ) this will secure a worthy and honest behaviour in all regards and towards all relations . thus take them in their greater or their lesser societies , this still enforces them to pursue what is usefull or necessary to the good of all ; some things there are necessary to the welfare of mankind in general , and these take in the fundamental rules of morality and the laws of nations ; ( which are nothing else than the law of nature , as exercised between nation and nation ) and some things there are that are usefull to one city , or a certain body of men united under one civil government , and these are provided for by national and municipal laws ; and some things there are that have a peculiar influence upon the good of particular families , and these direct to us the performance of all oeconomical duties as we stand engaged in our several domestick relations ; and lastly , some things there are that relate onely to the concernments of single persons , and by these is every man obliged to deal justly and candidly in all his affairs and transactions . so that if men have any sense of or design for their own happiness , and if they will be upright in the use of those means that they cannot but understand to be most effectual to procure it , this alone will irresistibly drive them into a sense and acknowledgment of all their respective obligations . and in the same manner might i proceed to draw forth the whole system of all moral vertues from this natural appetite of happiness ; but that is too large an undertaking , and more than is necessary to our present purpose ; it is enough that if men will follow their own natural instinct of self-love , and take those courses as cannot but appear to themselves most agreeable to it , that this alone will guide them into a sufficient knowledge of all the rules of good and evil. § ix . thirdly , the observation of this law is farther recommended , and in some measure secured , by its agreeableness with all the appetites and inclinations of humane nature ; all our natural desires are not onely just and reasonable in themselves , but they incline us to such designs and actions , as naturally tend to the good and welfare of mankind . and if there be any practices that have a more remarkable consonancy to our reasons , and are of a greater necessity to our happiness , they are peculiarly gratefull and acceptable to our strongest instincts and appetites . so that before a man can cast off his obedience to the laws of nature , he must doe violence to all its inclinations , and pervert the bent of its first impressions as well as affront the dictates of his understanding , i. e. injustice and cruelty are unnatural as well as unreasonable ; and all men are guarded and prejudiced against such attempts by the temper and constitution of their natures ; that recoils at an unjust or an unkind action , and has some affections so tender , that they cannot naturally endure to entertain injurious or wicked designs ; and withall so strong and vehement that they force him to a prosecution of the most commendable acts of love and kindness . so that though they were not establish't into laws , nor received any sanction from the meer inclinations of nature ( though that they must , if we suppose an authour of nature ) yet are they thereby endear'd to our care and observation ; and that is a very considerable advantage to secure their credit and reputation in the world ; in that it is impossible for any humour to keep up its esteem for any time , that is not acceptable to nature : and therefore how much soever men may labour to debauch their minds by wicked customs and affected impieties , yet in spite of all their sturdy resolutions , natural affection will at last overcome , and there are very few ( if any ) that can so far harden themselves as to shake off or vanquish all natural endearments . but for a more satisfactory account of this principle it is necessary to specifie some particular passions that incline mankind to a love of society and good-nature , or ( in other words ) to justice and friendship and honesty . . conjunction of sexes for propagation of the kind : and this becomes necessary from the same causes that are necessary to the preservation of every single person , and this not onely inclines but compels them to delight in each others society , with the highest affections of mutual love and kindness . so that they cannot take care of their own support without being obliged to extend their affections beyond themselves ; and this inclination is of greater force and has a stronger tendency to society in mankind than in any sort of creatures , in that it is constant and perpetual , and not confined to certain times and seasons ; and that makes them more capable of these tender impressions : and thus are the generality of men carried on by the instigation of nature , as well as some other motives to seek marriages , and take upon them the care of families and the education of children ; and that obliges them to justice and civility as well for the sake of their domestick relatives as for their own . for the preservation of propriety is as necessary to the preservation of families as of persons ; and therefore as i would not provoke my neighbour to invade my own enclosures , i must avoid to lay waste or plunder his ; and as i would secure my own plantation , it concerns me to oblige the affections and assistence of all others that lie within the compass of my affairs , i. e. of all that are able to succour me with their friendship or annoy me with their injuries . and thus are we all enforced to neighbourly kindnesses from the same principle that endears us to our nearest and natural relations , and this concern extends it self from house to house through whole kingdoms and countries ; for every man has the same tenderness for his own family as for himself , and therefore are they all equally concern'd to have their rights kept safe and inviolable . and thus are great empires and common wealths but so many combinations of so many families for their own mutual defence and protection ; and now if men are strongly inclined by nature to enter into families ; and if a regard to their own families oblige them to be just and honest to their neighbours ; and if both these combine them together into greater societies , both for their private and their common safety , the institution of government is so far from being any far fetch 't contrivance , that it is natural for men to fall into this order ; its necessity is so great and so apparent , that no man can refuse or dislike it without being very unwise or very unnatural . . the strength of natural affection between parents and children ; and this proceeds from the same mechanical necessity with the passion of self-love ; eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in that they are made up of the same material principles that necessarily beget a sympathy between their native contextures and dispositions ; so that setting aside the workings of their minds and the emprovements of their understandings , that alone must quickly oblige natural relations to mutual endearments . the propriety of their constitutions and the peculiar mold of their bodies disposes them to agreeable passions and inclinations . children are , ( as the ancients phrase it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pieces of their parents , and the matter of which they are formed is stampt with the same characters and propensions . and this is very visible in the outward signatures and features of their bodies ; but it is much more certain in the inward complexion and modification of their humours ; and it is impossible but that must breed an agreeableness of temper and affection . at least from whencesoever this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may arise , it is evident from the most universal experience that there is no passion more natural or more acceptable to mankind ; insomuch that no people were ever able to resist or to overcome the vehemence of its bent and inclination ; neither were there ever any able so much as to attempt it , unless here and there such a monster , as affected both to put an affront upon the strongest principles of his own nature and the most avowed practices of mankind . and their singularity is so unnatural , that how boldly soever these wretches may seem to pretend to it , they can never be confident or serious in such an enormous baseness . it is impossible for any thing that has the shape or the bowels of a man to be cruel to his own off-spring without a sad regret and recoil of his own nature . and now when this instinct is imprinted upon us with such deep and lasting characters , when the force of its inclinations is so strong and vehement ; and when it is very nigh as natural and inseparable as the love of our selves , it is a mighty inducement to seek peace and exercise good will as well for their sakes as our own . beside that this endears us to something out of our selves , and obliges us to some concernment beyond our own meer self-interest , and is the first beginning of a society , and lays the first foundations of a publick good , that spreads it self into a wider extent with the increase of families and kindreds , which being related to each other as well as single persons make up kingdoms and common-wealths ; beside all this , it cannot but be a mighty inducement to all persons to settle peace or obligations of mutual love as well for the sake of posterity as for their own , in that it is equally necessary to the happiness of all mankind in all times and all places ; and therefore as they desire the happiness of their off-spring ( which yet it is natural for them to desire as vehemently as their own ) they cannot but be concern'd for the continuance of peace and amity among them . and this obliges them not onely to keep the world in good order for their own time , but to take care of the settlement and tranquility of future ages . from whence proceed the establishments of government and the standing laws and prescriptions of justice : this then is plainly no inconsiderable enforcement to the practice of vertue and honesty , when it is so absolutely necessary to the gratifying of so strong and so natural an inclination . . natural pity and compassion . the divine providence has implanted in the nature and constitution of humane bodies a principle of love and tenderness , and the bowels of men are soft and apt to receive impressions from the complaints and calamities of their brethren ; and they cannot , without doing violence to themselves and their own natural sense of humanity , be altogether senseless of the miseries and infelicities of other men. it is possible indeed that some few may so long accustom themselves to savageness and cruelty , as to have no more sense of any kind and humane passions than wolves and tygers ; but then these are monsters , and such as have apparently debauch't or affronted all the principles and inclinations of their own natures . but as for the generality of men their hearts are so tender and their natural affections so humane , that they cannot but pity and commiserate the afflicted with a kind of fatal and mechanical sympathy ; their groans force tears and sighs from the unafflicted , and 't is a pain to them not to be able to relieve their miseries . all mercy is mingled with some grief , and we are so far interessed in the sufferings of others , as to make us apt to rescue them from their sorrows for our own ease as well as theirs . and though every man is not endued with the same degree of tenderness , yet there are no natures or tempers so sullen and morose as not to have some sense of compassion and humanity , at least so much as shall oblige them to succour the extremely miserable , when they can doe it without any dammage or disadvantage to themselves ; and he that refuses to light his neighbour's candle ( as old ennius discourses ) when it may be done without diminishing the light of his own ; and he that suffers a stranger to perish for thirst , rather than be at the pains to lift up a finger to direct him to the next fountain ; and he that should wittingly let a garment perish for want of use , and a naked brother perish for want of it , would be detested by all mankind , as a degenerate churl from that natural instinct of love and pity that they ( as well as almost all other creatures ) have to their own kind . now this passion has a vehement tendency to the institution of friendships and societies , not onely in that it gives restraints to the fury of men ( supposing them in a state of war ) by making them even ashamed to add more load of misery to the extremely calamitous , and to fall foul upon one that adverse fortune has already beaten to the ground , an outrage so more than brutish , that even beasts of prey themselves are reported to abhor it ; but beside , by making opportunities of mutual assistence , and by endearing the good will of all that any man has the good fortune to help or relieve , especially when there are so many inconveniences and infelicities of life , and when some of them are so incident to all states of men , that there is no man so perfectly and independently happy , as not at some time or other to accept of anothers pity , if not to stand in need of his help : and thus by virtue of this passion are all men not onely in a natural capacity of obliging each other , but under a strong inclination to a state of mutual benevolence . and here i might subjoin that the faculty or passion of laughing is peculiar to mankind : the cause ( they say ) is a certain branch of nerves derived from the brain partly to the heart and partly to the diaphragm ; from whence it comes to pass that upon every gratefull imagination the heart is moved and affected with joy , and the diaphragm drawn into such motions as usually appear in laughter . but whatsoever the physical reason of it may be , this is certain , that it is a great delight of humane life , and endearment of humane society ; the pleasure of friendly conversation , and the main ease and divertisement of all our labours ; without which the life of man would be irksome , tedious and solitary ; eaten up with perpetual cares and melancholy thoughts , and this draws and allures men out of their dens and retirements , and makes them to rejoice in that satisfaction they find in each others company ; and nothing can tend more naturally to the creating of kindness and cementing of friendship than that mutual complacency they reap from each others mirth and cheerfulness ; so that both sorts of passions , as well the pleasant as the grave , are so contrived as to incline us to the love of society , and the exercise of mutual benevolence . § x. and now when we lay all these premises together , and consider how many ways the divine providence has signified the intentions of his will and pleasure to all his intelligent creatures ; and by how many motives he has endear'd and recommended it to their regard , it will amount to no less than a demonstrative assurance of their perpetual and universal obligation ; he has made their knowledge so obvious and so unavoidable , that there is no possible way to escape their observation but by the most inexcusable ways of neglect , either wilfull ignorance or wilfull perversness , how could the almighty have made fairer provisions to guide and instruct us in our duty , than by making every thing in nature , within and without us , an argument and declaration of it ? he has first furnish't us with wit and understanding enough to consult the comfort and happiness of our own lives ; and then he has so contrived the nature of things , as to let us see ( if we will but make any use of our natural abilities ) that there is no peace nor safety to be had , nothing but trouble and misery without engagements of mutual love and friendship , that alone is sufficient to discover the intention of his mind and the matter of their duty , and to oblige them without any farther enquiry to apply themselves to act accordingly . so that if men will but suffer their own minds to attend to the most unavoidable objects of their own senses , and the impartial results of their own thoughts , they cannot avoid to conclude that it is the will and intention of the authour of nature , that they should conform themselves to those directions that he has prescribed to them in the order of nature , and that is to conform all their designs and actions to this comprehensive principle of mutual and universal benevolence . which because it can never be reduced to practice without society and the establishment of a common interest , that is an unquestionable evidence of the divine institution of it , for whoever commands the end , thereby commands the necessary means , and therefore if it be so manifest from all things in nature that every man is enjoin'd by his creatour ( if he own and acknowledge any ) to love and bear hearty good-will to all men as well for his own as their interest ; and if it be as manifest from all the same appearances of things , that this can never be done without entring and engaging themselves into societies , that is an undoubted proof of their institution . so that though we could suppose that they were not at first form'd by god himself ( though no supposition can be more uncooth and unimaginable ) but that mankind once lived without them , and ranged themselves into several bodies and combinations by their own voluntary consent , yet if they were certainly instructed and commanded so to doe by the supreme governour of all , that clearly resolves the institution of society into his will and not their choice , in that they are determin'd to it in obedience to his command . and now this being so plainly establisht by virtue of his authority , it comprehends all things that are necessary to its exercise or preservation , especially propriety and dominion , without which no man can doe any service to the common interest , and by which men are forced to live in the practice of mutual justice and honesty ; so easily and almost irresistibly are they drawn under an obligation of the main duties of morality , if they will but make any reflections upon the natures of things , and the observations of their own minds ; and that one would think is enough to acquit the divine providence from any the least suspicion of being defective in giving any part of mankind sufficient rules and instructions for the due government of themselves and their moral actions . and yet is he not content to provide such means , as cannot but be effectual without extreme sottishness , but withall makes some accessional security to prevent us from the danger of that , and to force us to take some notice of his mind and will : so that unless we can prevail with our selves to stifle all the workings of our own minds ( as busie and thoughtfull as they are ) unless we can prevail with our selves to take no care for our own happiness ; unless we can overcome the most vehement instincts and inclinations of our own natures , all these must unavoidably carry us into a knowledge of his will , and by their own force determine us to a compliance with it . so that , all these things being first seriously weighed apart , and then layed together , they will prove such a mighty demonstration of the existence of a law of nature , that if we can with any confidence conclude any discourse with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we may much more doe it in this , there being no one argument in the world , except the existence of a deity , upon which it is founded , that can equal it in the pregnancy and the variety of its proof . and this may suffice for the proof of the declaration of the law of nature ; the next thing to be consider'd is its sanction . § xi . and this comes to our knowledge in the same way of conveyance or publication with the law it self ; for as the authour of nature declares to mankind by the order of nature , that he seriously intends the welfare and happiness of the whole community ; so does he at the same time and by the same means require of all and every member of it to act according to his will and pleasure under the enforcement of natural rewards and penalties , and those motives of obedience are the proper sanction to make the law obligatory . for obligation properly signifies nothing but laying a necessity upon us to act according to the direction of the law ; not that the mind of man can be determin'd by outward force or violence , or that any law-giver whatsoever can compel it to a compliance and submission to his will against its own : it is onely to be wrought upon by reason and perswasion , by arguments of hope and fear , by rewards and punishments ; the consideration whereof though it does not by its own direct influence over-power the minds of men , yet it does it effectually enough by virtue of that natural instinct that is implanted in them to pursue their own happiness . for being determin'd by a necessity of nature to pursue such things as are productive of it , and to shun such as are inconsistent with it , all such considerations as inform or assure us what actions are so , bring a kind of necessity upon our understandings , forasmuch as it is natural and therefore necessary to seek our own happiness and the means of acquiring it . and that is the proper meaning of obligation , not to bind any fetters and restraints upon our wills ; but to propound such powerfull motives and arguments to them , as cannot but determine their choice , if they will either attend to their reasonableness , or follow the first appetite and strongest inclination of their natures . so that if the divine providence have so order'd the constitution of things , as to make it necessary that such a proportion of happiness should follow in the course of nature upon the performance of such a duty , and on the contrary as much misery upon its neglect , he has plainly establisht it into a binding law by all the force and energy that is proper to legislation ; and if he had reveal'd it to the world by an express voice and declaration , or any other visible way of entercourse , it would not have been a more proper sanction and more powerfull enforcement of his will. seeing all the use of any such revelation must have been to move them to obedience by arguments of hope and fear ; so that if he have set before us by the frame of nature so many effectual motives of this kind , they are of the same force , as if they had been first made known to the world by writing or proclamation or any other solemnities of inacting laws . so that onely supposing an authour of nature , which ( as i have often already suggested ) must be supposed in the order of nature antecedently to all enquiries after the law of nature , this matter will demonstrate it self from the most obvious effects of his providence , and the most undoubted designs of his government . for it is demonstratively certain by induction of particulars that every vertue has some natural efficacy in it to advance both the publick good and the private interest ; so that these things being so inseparably join'd together , and that by an order and necessity of nature , i. e. by the contrivance and wisedom of that divine providence that made it , what can be more evident than that he commands and requires all his creatures , that are capable of any knowledge of his will and sense of their duty , to act sutably to that order of things that he has establisht in the world , and to that declaration of his mind that he has made by that establishment . and thus is it notorious from the first principles of natural philosophy and the most obvious appearances of daily experience , that temperance , love of friends and neighbours , faithfulness in oaths and promises , an aptness to kind and obliging offices , gratitude to benefactours , love and affection to natural relations , and a gentle and peaceable disposition towards all good men are highly usefull or rather absolutely necessary to all the comforts of humane life , to peace and quietness , to safety and contentment , to health of body and satisfaction of mind , as well as to happiness of society , the preservation of government , and the securing of all men in their just rights against all manner of injuries and oppressions . and 't is certain from the same principles that all contrary vices have the quite contrary effects , and tend both to the destruction of the publick safety , and of every man 's private tranquility , unpeaceableness , injustice , persidiousness , and all other acts of excessive and unreasonable self-love , that looks meerly to its own interest without any regard to or concern for the good of others naturally produce all the mischiefs and calamities of life ; and in the same proportion that these prevail in the practice of the world , in the same do they abate the peace of the society , and the safety of every man's life , and the quiet of every man's mind . so that these things being thus apparently tied together by such an inevitable train of causes and effects , and their connextion being so obvious and so palpable to every man's notice , what can we imagine the divine providence could have done more to recommend their practice and enforce their obligation ? and for a farther proof of this i might resume all the heads of discourse , that i have already represented to discover the sufficiency of the publication of the law of nature , and shew what particular rewards are entail'd upon the performance of particular duties , and what punishments are in the course of nature inflicted upon their neglect . but what i have performed in the former part of this discourse supersedes the necessity of any distinct account of it here ; because i have all along , as i have proceeded , demonstrated together with their subserviency to the publick weal their serviceableness to every man 's private interest , and that includes as well the sanction as the declaration of the law. and therefore without descending to all particulars , i shall onely in general treat of those enforcements , that nature or the authour of it has added to all his laws , and they alone will give us a sufficient account of their obligation ; in that they are so many and so obvious to the most vulgar experience and most easy observation , that there is nothing else that concerns the life of man , the knowledge whereof is more familiar and more unavoidable . § xii . the first reward of vertue is its own natural and intrinsick pleasure . acts of love and kindness are in themselves gratefull and agreeable to the temper of humane nature ; and all men feel a natural deliciousness consequent upon every exercise of their good-natur'd passions ; and nothing affects the mind with greater complacency , than to reflect upon its own inward joy and contentment . so that the delight of every vertuous resolution doubles upon it self ; in that first it strikes our minds with a direct pleasure by its suitableness to our natures , and then our minds entertain themselves with pleasant reflections upon their own worth and tranquility . and this is made so apparent from the plainest and most easy experience , that it cannot possibly escape any man's animadversion ; there is no man that does not perceive more satisfaction in the affections of love and joy and good-will , than in the black and unquiet passions of malice , envy and hatred , that do but torment the mind with anguish , restlesness and confusion . a base and ill-natur'd disposition frets and vexes it self with perpetual male-contentedness ; and the man that gives himself up to any spite and rancour of mind , is not so much as within the capacity of happiness : at least in the same proportion that good or bad passions prevail in the minds of men , in the same are they affected with joy or misery . now this being made so plain and visible in the whole entercourse of humane life , it must needs lay a mighty enforcement and manifest obligation to a suitable behaviour ; for what motive can we conceive of nearer concernment , than when the action it self is its own reward or punishment ? and as the kind passions are most agreeable to the temper of our minds , so are they most healthfull to the constitution of our bodies , and have a natural influence upon the cheerfulness and preservation of our lives . the affections of love and hope and delight cherish our natural heat , sweeten our radical moisture , beget gentle and vigorous spirits , promote the circulation of the bloud , and make the heart and all the vital parts more brisk and lively . whereas on the contrary , hatred and envy and discontent stifle the motion of the bloud , oppress the heart , damp the spirits , and hinder the functions of the brains and nerves , and breed diseases and obstructions of the spleen . for when the briskness of the vital heat is checkt , and the contraction of the heart weakned , the bloud grows thick and cold in the extremities of the vessels , and is not able to thrust it self forward through the remoter branches of the arteries into the fibres of the veins ; but stagnates in all the more narrow passages of the body ; especially in the more curious and delicate vessels that are every where spread up and down through the substance of the brain ; from whence proceed tremblings in the heart , paleness in the face , and ( if they are strong and inveterate ) scorbutick distempers through the whole habit of the body . so that as a man desires length of life and preservation of health , he is obliged to shun all bitter and unkind passions ; in that they are in the constitution of nature necessary causes of discrasies and diseases ; and though their symtoms , unless they are very vehement , are not so obvious and palpable , yet are they certain from all the experiments and observations in natural philosophy ; and in what proportion soever they prevail over mens minds , in the same do they disorder and disturb their bodies . so that the law of nature is recommended to the nature of man in all its capacities , and is suited to the satisfaction of all its respective faculties of body and mind , and by consequence is design'd to make up the completest and most entire enjoyment of pleasure and happiness . but besides this , as it extends its delight to all our appetites , so does it make the sense of their felicity more intence and affecting , and entertain the mind with the most vehement and transporting joys . for there are but two things requisite to raise pleasure up to the height of beatitude ; and they are the spriteliness of the act and the excellency of the object . now the good of all mankind ( which is the general notion and scope of all vertue ) being of the largest and most diffusive extent , and the biggest design that we can either desire or propose to our selves , it calls forth all the vigour and earnestness of our minds , and employs the utmost force and vehemence of our passions , and transports us with perpetual delight and satisfaction . every man enjoys a sensible complacency in every act of kindness , his good-will reflects back upon himself , and when he is concern'd to procure anothers happiness , he thereby increases his own ; but when the object of his affections is so vast and unbounded a good , it excites a force and quickness of mind proportionable to its own greatness ; it equalls the utmost capacity of all our powers , and we can never outdoe its worth ; it is sufficient to entertain all our thoughts and to employ all our actions ; and the man that propounds this to himself as the delight of his soul and the design of his life , never wants for objects or opportunities of content , but enjoys a complete and continual felicity from the exercise of his own good-will and the reflections of his own mind . and though no man can be capable of so pure and unmixed a satisfaction in this life , there being so many calamities out of their own power and disposal to discompose it , yet are the degrees of a man's happiness ( as far as he is master of it himself ) always proportion'd to the emprovement of this temper of his mind ; his joy and his delight are of the same extent with his love and his good-will , and he that most dilates the exercise of his kind passions , most widens the capacity of his enjoyments ; and so much as a man falls short of this universal kindness , so much does he afflict himself with anguish and discontent , and that is sufficient encouragement to excite him to work up his mind to habitual resolutions of love and kindness , when they are all along their own reward in proportion to their own strength and vigour ; and he that is possest with most good-will , becomes thereby the happiest and most contented man , and he that is possest with nothing else enjoys his full and adequate felicity . though so great a goodness and by consequence so great an happiness is onely agreeable to the descripsion of the joys of heaven , where eternal love will be our eternal bliss ; yet seeing in this world there is a difference as to the misery or happiness of every man's life in proportion to the degrees of this affection , that is a sufficient inducement to him to habituate himself to its free and constant exercise ; when he is so plainly engaged as he desires and designs the improvement of his own content , to procure and delight in the content of others ; and so far as he extends his concernment for their welfare , so many objects does he provide for the entertainment of his most pleasant and agreeable passions . which being all the happiness that is within our own power , it is the most proper motive to determine our wills to such thoughts and actions as are most effectual to attain or to advance it . for that is the proper use of rewards and penalties to set before us such considerations as are suited to determine our wills to such designs and actions as lie within our own power ; if they do not , all the arguments in the world are to no purpose , and nothing is more absurd than to court or threaten a man into the doing of what is impossible . and therefore seeing the casual or the fatal calamities of humane life are altogether out of our own disposal , and will befall us whether we will or will not , they can have no possible influence to determine the choice and the resolution of our minds , but the onely things that can affect us as moral agents , are such proposals of good or evil , as we know our selves able to dispose of , as we are pleased to incline our own wills. what then though the natural calamities of life are incident to the good equally with the bad , it is not in our power to avoid or overrule their necessity , but when they happen to us , all we have then to doe , is to bear them as we are able . and what will enable us to bear them as we ought , i shall represent in the second part of this discourse . but because there are some things that have some influence upon our happiness , that are altogether out of our own disposal , shall we therefore take no care of all those that are altogether within it ? that may become the humour of peevish and unreasonable people , but certainly no prudent man , because he cannot overpower all things to comply with his own will , will therefore conclude with himself that it is in vain to be concern'd about those that he is able to command . and therefore all those we must set aside as of no use and consideration in matters of morality , in that they are of another nature , and depend upon other causes ; it is enough at present that the providence of god has left a certain proportion of our felicity to our own disposal , by a regard to which we ought ( if we are wise ) to order our designs and actions ; and that he has annexed such degrees and advantages of happiness to such practices and habits of vertue ; and that is all that can be done to recommend them to our choice and good opinion ; especially when the act it self is its own reward ; and is the most pleasant exercise of the mind of man. § xiii . . if there be a deity or sovereign cause of all things ( that is ever supposed in this enquiry ) we must of necessity suppose him endued with the highest measures of reason , wisedom and goodness ; for these are excellencies that we perceive to reside in some degree within our selves ; and therefore much more in him whose idea comprehends all perfections , and who is the onely cause of all ours . now right reason is the same in god and in his creatures , because it is measured by the same rule , and that is the nature of things ; and when it agrees with that , it passes a true judgment , and when it does not , it is false and erroneous ; and therefore if it be consonant to the reason of man and the nature of things to judge that the good of all is preferrable to the advantage of a single person , it cannot be supposed that the unerring wisedom of god should fall into a different or a contrary perswasion , for that were to reconcile no less than contradictory propositions to right reason . and therefore this rule of justice and goodness results unavoidably from his essential attributes , and therein consists the whole account and employment of his providence to carry on the common good of his creatures by proper and effectual instruments ; and all goodness and wisedom and vertue is reducible to these two principles , first to propound worthy ends , and then to pursue them by suitable means ; there is nothing else capable of praise and commendation , and therefore if the good of all be the noblest end that he can design , it is certain that it is agreeable to his will , that all his creatures ( that are sensible of it ) should seek it by those means that they shall judge most agreeable to his understanding . and this is much more evident , if we consider the deity not onely as the most excellent of all rational beings , but as the supreme cause of their existence , and then it is but reasonable , if he first created them , to conclude that he desires their continuance and preservation ; otherwise he must have made them without design and to no purpose ; and then if therein consists the common good of all that they should continue to enjoy those natures and emprove those perfections that he bestowed upon them ; that cannot but be conceived most acceptable to the intention of his will , and most agreeable to the scope of his creation . especially if to all this we shall adde those intimations of his mind that he has so plainly interwoven with the whole systeme of things , in that all the effects of nature are the effects of his will ; and therefore when any thing in nature declares any proposition to be true , and enforces or invites us to accept of it as the rule of our actions by discovering its good and bad consequences to our selves , god onely by that means discovers to us what it is that he requires of us . so that the natural trains and results of things being laid and framed by his providence , when they thrust themselves upon the observation of our senses or our minds , they onely inform us ( if we will at all attend to our own experience ) upon what rules and principles he has establisht the government of the world , and by consequence instruct us how to behave our selves suitably to his will in all our désigns and actions . so that it is past all controversie that whatsoever force the law of nature carries along with it , is derived upon it purely by virtue of the divine authority . and therefore they cannot pass any proper obligation upon any of his creatures , but onely such as are capable of knowing that they proceed from himself , in that all their obligatory power depends purely upon that supposition ; and from hence it is that they are peculiar onely to those that are endued with reason or understanding , in that they alone are in any condition of knowing from whom they are derived ; and this being premised , all that remains to be enquired after is to find out by what natural sanctions god has bound his precepts upon the minds of his reasonable and intelligent subjects . for when his almighty wisedom did so contrive the nature of things , that such effects should naturally follow upon such actions , and withall made their connexion so necessary that they could not but be foreseen by all that were not wilfully blind or perverse ; it is not to be doubted but that he intended that they should seriously weigh and consider them before they address't themselves to action , and so determine their wills according to the strength and direction of their motives . and that such effects there are , i have already in part proved in the premises by shewing the necessity of universal good-will to the satisfaction of our minds , and shall farther make good in the sequel by shewing its necessity to the preservation of our beings : though all this i have sufficiently made good in the former part of this discourse concerning the declaration of the law of nature , wherein is demonstrated that mankind cannot subsist but in a condition of mutual love and assistance , and that certainly is sanction or obligation enough to a suitable behaviour . and now this concernment of the divine providence in our actions being taken into the consideration of our affairs , as it resolves the total obligation of the law of nature into the will of god , so it backs and enforces it with the most powerfull and effectual sanction in the world , viz. the pleasures or torments of conscience , or the judgment of a man's mind upon his own actions in reference to the judgment of god ; and this of all things has the most irresistible influence upon every man's happiness or misery . i shall not here heap up all the horrours that naturally arise out of an accusing conscience ; grief and shame and distraction and fear and restlesness and despair , and every thing that can vex and torment our minds ; nor on the contrary all the felicities that follow upon an acquitting conscience , peace and quietness and confidence and joy and courage and assurance of the love and favour of god. these have been often enough described to the world , and every man is able to describe them to himself . it is sufficient to observe in general that those laws must needs be strictly tied upon us , that are bound on with a regard to the judgment and observation of the almighty , from the apprehension whereof result all the forementioned effects of a good or a bad conscience . and to specifie no other particular effects , i shall mention onely these two . . the first effect of an honest and upright conscience is the unspeakable pleasure and satisfaction that a man reaps from the inward assurance that he has of the agreement of his own mind with the wisedom and goodness of the supreme and most perfect understanding ; then which nothing can be conceived more pregnant with delight and joy ; in that every man has the highest esteem and opinion of the deity that he worships , and it is his greatest ambition to imitate and resemble him in his attributes and perfections ; and he is satisfied and pleased with himself according to the degrees of his confidence of approving himself to the divine mind by his conformity to it . and on the other side the contrary effects of shame and discontent follow upon an evil conscience , or the sense of his falling short of the glory of god , and of his defection from the excellency of his own nature . . and then secondly as every good man approves himself to the wisedom of the divine understanding , so also to the acceptance of the divine will ; in that he knows that whatever may be propounded to him as the first inducement of his obedience , it is certain that the last end of the legislatour is the good of all his creatures , and by consequence to seek and procure that is the most effectual way to render a man gratefull and acceptable to him . his goodness extends it self to all his works , and his providence is concern'd for the welfare of all his subjects . that is the great design of his creation , and the main care of his government ; and for that purpose onely did he bestow their beings upon them , to put something into a capacity of being happy beside himself , and nothing can so much honour or gratify him as their felicity . so that it is certain that nothing can so much please or oblige the supreme governour of the universe , as that all his creatures that observe the conditions of the common peace and live according to the rules of common justice should be treated with all manner of kindness and fair-dealing ; and that nothing can so effectually force him to the greatest severity of revenge and punishment , as when any of his subjects set themselves to act cross to a design that is so dear and tender to him . for as it is certain that the creatour of all intends the good of all , so it is as certain that all right reason ( and by consequence the reason of god ) judges it necessary for its security and preservation by some proportionable punishments to restrain all attempts inconsistent with it . and then because no wickedness ( how secret soever ) can escape the divine cognisance , it cannot be doubted but that he will peremptorily determine to punish it according to the tenour of his threatnings , because he knows it to be so highly usefull to the last and greatest end of all his providence . § xiv . . but then in the third place , there is no man but that owes more to the kindness and assistance of others for the comforts and enjoyments of his life than to his own personal care and providence ; our plenty is so short , that we cannot subsist without foreign supplies ; and our strength so weak , that we cannot defend our selves without foreign assistances , and let any man reflect upon his own self-sufficiency , and then consider , whether as the nature of things is contrived , if he were impertinent to all the world beside , and no man else were concern'd to relieve his wants , whether then , i say , his life would be comfortable enough to render it at all desirable . were states altogether unconcern'd for the welfare of their subjects ; were parents utterly regardless of the education of their children ; should one sex give a bill of divorce to the other ; should every individual person separate himself from his family and from his prince and from his country ; should all mankind agree to break up society , and resolve every man to shift onely for himself , and take no care in the world for the welfare and preservation of all the rest , they would be the most helpless and forlorn creatures in the world ; they would become an easy prey , not onely to the beasts of their own kind , but to all those of the wilderness ; man is born so defenceless , and so without all those weapons , wherewith nature has furnisht some other creatures , that he has nothing to arm himself against their fury , but by united strength and counsel . fac nos singulos , quid sumus ? proeda animalium & victimae , ac vilissimus & facillimus sanguis . sen. . de benef. c. . the mischiefs and calamities of life are so many and so unavoidable out of the state of society or mutual good-will , that nothing can be more unquestionable than that if there be any such thing as a divine providence , it was his intention not onely to oblige them to seek , but to force them to enter into a condition of peace and friendship . and this dependance of the happiness of mankind upon each others benevolence comprehends so great a variety and accumulation of things , that there is scarce any man that is not or may not be in a condition of assisting or obstructing another man's affairs , and therefore it is alike every man's interest and wisedom to win the widest and most diffusive friendship that he is able to compass or manage in all the ways of integrity , thereby to strengthen and secure his own interest , that one way or other or at some time or other might otherwise be endanger'd by the enmity of those who now secure it by their friendship . and to this he is obliged ( as he would consult his own content ) not once or twice but through the whole course and design of his life , because his happiness always depends upon the good-will of others ; and therefore in every action he is bound to consider what opinion other men have of it as well as himself , because their good opinion has so powerfull and so necessary an influence upon the right carriage of his affairs . so that as he desires success in all his undertakings he is highly concern'd to purchase their good-will by all civil and obliging offices . and then if they will obey the dictates of right reason , they will think themselves obliged to bear the same affections to him and to each other as he expresses to them all , because the happiness of them all singly has the same foreign dependence with his own . and thus if men will have any regard to the quiet of their own lives are they brought under the plainest and most unavoidable obligation to mutual love and friendship , and they improve the comforts of their lives in proportion to the degrees of their benevolence ; its lowest exercise is rewarded with proportionable benefits , but as it improves it self to higher and more friendly offices , so its advantages increase all along with the kindness of its intentions . thus innocence or a meer forbearance of injuries is the lowest exercise of benevolence and humanity , and yet this defends from all those mischievous and malevolent attempts that otherwise would destroy the common security of mankind ; for if we suppose them in a condition of defyance to all ingagements of kindness , and setled in a perfect state of war , in which they were bound to endeavour each others destruction , and doe the utmost mischief they were able , nothing could be expected but utter misery and wretchedness , and it would unavoidably bring in all the evils to which humane life can any way be supposed obnoxious ; so that when men refrain from this wild and wanton cruelty , that proceeds from some sense of humanity , and is of it self a very considerable ease and security to the life of man. we are hereby permitted to enjoy what we can get by our own industry without disturbance from others , though our labours are not eased by their assistance ; and this is a little more comfortable than to be in perpetual danger of being rob'd both of our enjoyments and our lives by every man that hapned to find out our dens and lurking holes . nothing can be imagin'd more miserable than a state of perfect inhumanity , and that is a sufficient signification to us , that the divine providence if he ever design'd the happiness of any of his creatures or ever intended that they should design it themselves ( and these are two very modest suppositions if there be any providence at all ) that he requires them to avoid it under the severest and most dreadfull penalties . and the farther off they keep from this savage state , the nearer do they approach to the contentment and tranquility of their lives ; and if they resolve not onely to refrain from weakning each others interest by wrongs and oppressions , but to advance it by all the offices of love and kindness , and adde beneficence to innocence , they raise the happiness of their condition according to the height of their friendship . nothing is in this life so satisfactory and comfortable as an entire affection and fidelity between friends ; it is the consummation of all humane joys ; and as much as any man fall short of this perfection of kindness , so much does he abate of the complacency of his life . this is visible in all the experience of the world and the management of all affairs , and there is no man that regards the natural consequences of things that does not understand the advantage that accrues to himself from all his good turns and obligations past upon others . and for this reason all men that pretend to any wisedom or sobriety , are thereby easily determin'd to a courteous and obliging conversation , and therefore it is needless to represent to such persons the convenience and prudence of their own choice : the onely people that need information in these matters that so nearly concern them , are the negligent and inconsiderate part of mankind . these do not think or observe enough to see into the probable events of things , and are to be made sensible by nothing but the actual infliction or certain foresight of misery , and therefore letting pass that part of the sanction that comes from the reward , i shall onely a little particularise that part of it that is derived from the punishment , and shew into what manifest disadvantages every man runs himself by every unjust and dishonest action . § xv. . he thereby manifestly impairs and often forfeits a proportion of his own interest , in that his happiness ( as well as every man 's else ) depends in some considerable measure upon the good-will of his neighbours , and it is always in their power either to promote or to hinder his welfare ; and then their friendship or their enmity is chiefly determin'd by his own behaviour ; if they perceive him sincere for the advancement of the common good , and forward to all offices of kindness and humanity , that is a considerable obligation to them to requite his goodness with a suitable behaviour , but if he neglect opportunities of doing good , and shew himself regardless of all manner of interests but his own , that naturally estranges their affections , and they throw off all inclinations of kindness to him , as a person that disclaims all designs of kindness to them . and then a man's condition is uncomfortable enough , when he is forsaken of all the world , and left all alone to shift for himself with a bad conscience . the bare want of friends is a sad punishment of all selfishness ; and though he be in prosperity , it is no pleasant reflexion to consider that he is scorn'd and neglected and hated by the publick vote of all good men : but if he fall into adversity ( and that sometime or other happens to every crafty and dishonest man ) he is left to the sadness of his own fortune , and no man is concern'd to assist or relieve him , but the whole society triumphs and rejoices in his ruin. . the next natural punishment of injustice is insecurity ; for let the wickedness be committed with never so much craft and privacy , yet no man can ever certainly assure himself to escape discovery ; so many unforeseen and unsuspected ways are there of betraying the most secret crimes : so that though it were possible to shake off all apprehensions of a divine displeasure , yet there is no remedy against the perpetual fears of revenge from men. and thus epicurus after he had set men loose from any regard to the observation of providence , yet he thought it so difficult and so almost impossible to conceal any enormous baseness for ever , that he concluded no wise man could venture upon it but with the uneasiness and terrour of an accusing conscience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no man can be secure of privacy : and though it is possible he might be so dexterous or so fortunate as to have pass't through a thousand impieties with credit and impunity , yet all this while the man enjoys but little comfort in himself and his unjust possessions , because he cannot but be always diffident that first or last once before he dies by some unlucky accident or other , he is either intrapt in some new attempts , or betrayed in some old wiles . so that though dishonest men may sometimes have the fortune , yet they can never have the confidence , to pass unpunished , and the incessant fear of this robs them of all real mirth for the present , and all security for the future , potest nocenti contingere ut lateat , latendi fides non potest . so that howsoever he may shift the publick justice , there is no avoiding the punishment of his own fears , especially when there is so much likelihood that some time or other he is surprised and discover'd , and when it is so very probable and usual in the order of humane affairs for all guilt some time or other to be brought to judgment . plerumque ( says torquatus in cicero prim . de fin . ) improborum facta primò suspicio insequitur , deinde sermo atque fama , tum accusator , tum judex , multi etiam se indicaverunt . . the man that is false and injurious does not onely forfeit the advantages of being loved and trusted and protected , but he provokes all men even from their natural principle of self-love to seek and contrive his destruction , and engages them all ( as they tender their own safety ) into a combination against him . and that is the proper use and design of publick and capital punishments , it is onely an agreement or confederacy of the whole society to cut off all such private members of it as disturb the common peace , and thereby endanger every particular man's safety ; and it becomes the joint and equal interest of all that are peaceable or desire so to be , to declare open war against him ; and that man has disadvantage enough that contends with his single strength against the power of a multitude ; and yet so does every one that declares by his practices , that he is not concern'd what becomes of their interest by not sticking to oppress and oppose it in all the ways of fraud and violence for the advancement of his own . and to punish such is the defence of the publick weal , and the equal interest of the whole community and every member of it , and therefore it is but reasonable that every injurious person should expect that they should appear and rise up with one consent against him and his interest . they have all a tender sense of their own happiness as well as he of his , and are sufficiently jealous of all designs and entrenchments upon their rights ; so that if they once observe a person that cares not how much he lays them waste ▪ for the enlargement of his own power and propriety , 't is natural for them to fall upon him with all the keenness of revenge , and to treat him as a common enemy without mercy or compassion . and though the injury may possibly in its direct intention reach no farther than a single person , yet the affront and disobligation extends it self to all ; for he thereby plainly discovers that he is prepared for any mischief against any person for the advancement of his own ends , and every man has reason to conclude that he would serve him in the same kind , if ever he hapned to fall into the same circumstances ; so that though he suffer not at all by the oppression of his neighbour ▪ yet he cannot but resent it even for his own sake , and if it ever lie in his power revenge it too . and now that man can have but little assurance of his safety , or comfort of his life , that knows it to be the common concernment of all , that have any power in or over his affairs , to work and contrive his ruine ; and though he may escape all his days ( as some thieves and out laws do ) unpunisht and unrevenged , yet the apprehension of his danger and sense of his insecurity are enough to destroy all the quiet of his life and tranquility of his mind , and he is or has reason to be fearfull in the same proportion that he is wicked and unjust . and now so much as a man hazards of the safety of his enjoyments , so much does he abate of their value . so that though this part of the natural punishment of vice that is to be expected from the persons injured or offended , is not always certain and unavoidable , in that all humane actions are in their own nature contingent , and so it is possible that the persons they provoke may never have the power or the will to revenge their wrongs , yet because the consequence is so very probable as it is , that carries in it such a certain and valuable proportion of evil , as may serve to deter all men from venturing to incur their displeasure by unjust or unkind attempts , and may be so design'd and propounded by the supreme law giver as inducements to all his subjects , that have any regard to their own happiness , to have some regard to this in all their affairs and entercourses with men. the case is the very same here as it is in all civil laws , where it is not necessary that every malefactour should be certainly brought to publick justice ; but yet because there is so fair a likelihood that one time or other he comes to execution , the very fear of so probable an event is a sufficient sanction and an effectual one too upon the generality of men to refrain them from a course of open and professed violence . and thus when it is mighty odds , though it is not absolutely certain that every injurious person shall ( considering the natural passions of men ) not onely be fully repayed in his own kind , but be forced to suffer a greater damage by his breach of peace and faith ( for that is done by every act of injustice ) than he can ever hope to gain advantage by it , if he should have the good fortune ( that seldom happens ) to escape unpunished : this consideration alone is in all common cases an overruling argument with any man of any tolerable understanding to determine him to resolutions of just and honest dealing with all men. i might add innumerable other particulars to this purpose , but they occur so easily to every man's observation , that after i have given this specimen of it , that alone is abundantly sufficient to the satisfaction of sincere and ingenuous minds ; so that it were to be tedious to very little if any purpose to represent the whole train of good or bad consequences that naturally follow upon all good or bad practices ; but it is enough that in the ordinary course of nature and providence , the happiness and safety of every man's life is proportion'd to the degrees of his vertue and honesty . and if men will but be at the pains to attend to this single observation , that alone will bring them into some competent knowledge of all the subordinate duties of morality , and under a sufficient obligation to their serious and habitual practice ; and no law of what nature soever is capable of a more proper or more powerfull sanction . and therefore to conclude , and not to recapitulate all particulars , the premises seriously laid together , will , i think , amount to a fair and forcible demonstration of the problem i undertook to prove , viz. the certain institution of the law of nature , in that the authour of it has signified to us his own design and intention toward mankind in the contrivance of it , and has obliged us as far as our actions are in our own power to pursue the same design with himself by rewards and punishments resulting from the nature of things , as we comply with or disobey this publication of his will. § xvi . hitherto i have endeavour'd to demonstrate that if there be a supreme cause and governour of the world , that then the design of his government is the common happiness of all mankind , and that for the attainment of this general end , he has so contrived the nature of things as to make every man 's particular happiness to depend , as far as things are within his own power , upon his endeavours of promoting that of all . which two fundamental principles being laid , first , of the being of a providence , and then of the goodness of it , that will certainly guide and direct us to something farther than what we have hitherto demonstrated . for all that i have already proved is not sufficient to make us actually happy , but rather puts us into a capacity of being so . if indeed the providence of god had not taken so much care to secure the common peace and mutual love of mankind , we had all been certainly and fatally miserable ; though when this provision is made it is not enough to make us happy , and therefore he has in vain done so much for us , unless he doe something more . especially when , after all our best endeavours to attain happiness in that way that the providence of god hath chalk't out to us , it is possible to be defeated of it by some other causes without our own default , and then what must follow but that the divine providence ( if it be constant to its own design , and unless it be so it is no divine providence ) is obliged to compensate or secure it some other way . for it is certain that a great part of our happiness is out of our own power , and therefore notwithstanding all our endeavours after it , we may not attain to it , and then if the design of the divine providence be to make us happy in the way of vertue , ( as i have proved it is ) in this case he has obliged himself to ensure it by some other means , unless we can suppose that he has proposed to himself an end without providing sufficient means to effect it ; which is to say that this excellent being , that has contrived the whole creation with such wonderfull art and wisedom , has done all this in order to a thing impossible : or that he has engaged us to the performance of our duty by the promise of a reward , and yet when we have faithfully done our work that he should defraud us of our wages . and this brings in the second part of my argument , that seeing god designs our happiness , and seeing he has contrived things so as to oblige us as far as it is in our own power to procure it in the way before described ; and seeing that alone is not sufficient for the attainment of this end ; and if it were that yet notwithstanding we may be defeated of it , there must ( i say ) remain some other design of providence than what we have hitherto discover'd . and here unavoidably comes in the happiness of a future state . for if it be made evident , after the proof of the premises , that we are not capable of happiness , or after our best endeavours after it that we may be deprived of it , it then undeniably follows that either there is such a state , or that there is no such thing as a divine providence . and this i shall endeavour to make good from these two plain and easie propositions . first in general , that without it no man is capable of being happy . secondly in particular , that without it no man can be obliged to be vertuous ; nay , on the contrary , that the best men may , and frequently are , upon the account of their goodness , notwithstanding all that care god has taken of them in this world , the most miserable . from whence it is manifest that either there is no providence , which i have already proved , and therefore now suppose ; or if there be , that upon that supposition there is the same certainty of a future state as there is of the being and providence of a deity , so that whoever denies one must be forced to disavow both , which i now undertake to prove from the forementioned principles . first , that without a future state mankind is utterly uncapable of happiness . and for the more convincing demonstration hereof i shall consider the most famous opinions of happiness among the philosophers ; and that i may the more easily doe , because they are not so many as some men would perswade us they are ; for as for the known and common citation out of varro insisted upon , and if true , justly upbraided by saint austin of their being divided into different sects and opinions , it is obvious enough that this was but a crude and injudicious collection ; for if we impartially consider those various instances , more distinctly recorded or collected by other authours , we shall find them either so many differences of words and not of conceits , or else motto's and little sayings , ( according to the fashion and affectation of the greeks ) rather to express their own fancy and peculiar humours than their serious and philosophical account of things . and it is obvious that all their discourses about it , relate either to the general and abstracted notion of it , or to the causes and objects that produce it . as for the first it must be confessed that they describe it by an infinite variety of expressions ; but as for the things productive of it , there neither are nor can be more than those three famous opinions , that place it either in pleasure onely , or in vertue onely , or in both together with the goods of fortune ; to which all other subdividing sects , how numerous soever , are easily reducible . and here , that i may represent them to the best advantage , i shall chiefly consider them as they are discoursed of and accounted for by tully himself ; because of all men of all ages he was most able to set them out with all the beauty of wit , and force of reason , and accordingly has , in those admirable books of his about the ends of good and evil , and his tusculan questions , discharged this noble argument as became himself , i. e. with all the possible advantages of wit and reason ; insomuch as ( if i may presume to judge so much , and yet the case is so plain that it needs no presumption ) all the other discourses beside upon the same subject are not to be compared , either for use or delight , to these two treatises . for as he has omitted nothing that is either plausible or pertinent to his argument ; so has he recommended his notions with a singular and unimitable force of expression . for though possibly others ( and yet if any , very few ) may have equal'd him in philosophick skill and knowledge , yet all the world falls short of him in his miraculous art of eloquence . and so i call it , in that it looks like more than a prodigy , that one man should so strangely excell all the rest of mankind , and stand alone , as it were , a being of a superiour order ; insomuch that when all the great wits of all ages since have swol'n and labour'd to rival his glory , he has been so far from having an equal , that he never yet had one that could attain the honour of being his second ; but still , after all their utmost endeavours , they appear no more than the toad to the ox or the stars to the sun. and therefore , in my following discourse , i shall in the first place confine my self to a stricter and more particular examination of his performance , though under him i shall take an occasion to give an account of the several endeavours of other valuable authours upon the same argument . § xvii . first then as for the epicurean hypothesis , with which he begins , he has indeed done us that kindness , as in part to shew us its insufficiency , but then himself has not been able to direct us to a better ; and all the instructions he has given us afterward for the obtaining of happiness are chiefly borrowed from the canons of epicurus . neither indeed was it possible to be otherwise , for how variously soever men may delight to amuse themselves with their own particular fancies and hypotheses , there are no more than two real accounts of the state of humane nature , either that which supposes immortality , or that which does not ; so that the supposition of immortality being taken away , all the other accounts of happiness can amount to no more than that of epicurus , placing it in the pleasures of this life alone . and yet for the fuller demonstration of the thing i shall consider them singly , that thereby it may appear how plainly defective all the various arts and methods of philosophy are without our supposition . and as for epicurus , the question between him and his adversaries is , whether pleasure be the sovereign good : in answer to which our authour's discourse consists of two parts , first , to settle the right notion and definition of pleasure : secondly , to prove that this one principle blows up all the foundations of justice , vertue , and honesty . as for the first , i shall not much concern my self about the grammatical signification of the word pleasure . for i must confess that both epicurus and his followers are by many authours too crudely reviled in general terms for placing our sovereign happiness in pleasure , when it is so very clear that they are but equivalent terms to express the same thing . for by pleasure all men mean that content and satisfaction that is agreeable and proper to the nature of any being , so that when it enjoys and possesses all those objects of delight that are suitable or adequate to its respective capacities , it is then , in all mens account , arrived at the state of its perfect happiness or full contentment . and therefore it is but an idle and needless dispute between them and the stoicks , whether pleasure or vertue be the supreme good. for whatsoever may be the reason of the goodness of vertue , yet the reason of our choice must , in the last account of things , be resolved into its subserviency to our delight and satisfaction ; and if moral goodness be ( as it is ) our supreme felicity , it is so because it is most agreeable to the perfection of our natures , and most conducive to the quiet and satisfaction of our minds . for 't is a contradiction to the nature of created beings to act without any regard to some self-ends , unless we can suppose them devested of self-love , than which no supposition is or can be more impossible . and therefore this , as it is not a reasonable , so neither is it the proper ground of exception against the epicurean philosophy : but its mischief and malignity derives from a much worse principle , viz. it s unworthy conceptions of the mean and narrow capacities of humane nature , to which it is necessary to reduce the proportion of humane happiness . and therefore , the epicureans allowing no other principle of being to men than the engine of their bodies , and by consequence no other sensation than what results from the contrivance of the parts of matter , from hence it plainly appears that they resolve our sovereign delight purely into sensual enjoyments ; because , upon their principles , we are , from the condition of our natures , utterly uncapable of any other gratifications . and therefore we dispute not with epicurus whether pleasure be the end of vertue , but what pleasure . if he had taken in the full capacity of humane nature as it consists of soul and body , he had said nothing less than the best and wisest philosophers do or ought to say . but when he intends the pleasure of the body alone , he destroys the very being of vertue and humane happiness , and resolves all our enjoyment into meer brutishness and sensuality . and that he intends nothing more is past all dispute to any man that is not resolved to abuse himself , in that he never taught any thing more constantly , concern'dly and expresly than this , that man is nothing else beside the fabrick of his body . in this one desperate principle lies all the poison of his philosophy of old , and so does that of another of late , that makes self-interest ( which is but another word for pleasure ) the onely end and reason of all humane actions . for if he had meant the self-interest of the whole man as it comprehends the interest of the soul and body , that is , his present and his future state , it had been an honest and a pious assertion : but when he intends nothing more than the narrow interest of our present advantage , and takes off all regard to the future , this defeats all the obligations of vertue , religion and honesty , and leaves all men at liberty to doe all things indifferently , as they shall apprehend most convenient to their own private ends and interests , ease and pleasure . § xviii . great numbers of apologies have indeed been made by learned men to abate or rather altogether excuse the meanness of epicurus his opinion , but all in vain . for what though ( as they plead ) he distinguish't between the pleasures of the body and the mind , and gave the latter the preheminence , yet 't is notorious not onely that by the mind he never intended any being distinct from the body , but onely the power of imagination , which , in his philosophy , is supposed the highest instrument of sensual perceptions ; but ( what is more palpable , as i shall shew more at large anon ) that he placed our supreme felicity onely in the pleasures of the body . though here their opinion is so very foul , that they are forced upon all turns to talk ambiguously , and for the most part inconsistently with themselves , sometimes they will have their sovereign pleasure to signifie the actual enjoyments and gratifications of sensuality ; sometimes nothing more than indolency or meer freedom from pain ; sometimes both together , with the reflexion of the mind upon them . thus epicurus speaks out plainly , that he understands not what happiness is , nor where it is to be found , if it be not in the delights of the palate and some other that modesty forbids to name . so the wise metrodorus ( for that title epicurus was pleased to bestow upon his friend as well as himself ) expresly teaches that the belly is the onely proper seat of happiness , and that no arts or sciences are any way usefull or valuable than as they are subservient to its delights . but because this account of the utmost emprovement of humane happiness and wisedom too seem'd too mean and brutish for those lofty expressions wherewith they had set off their own happiness , making it equal with that of the gods themselves ; they sometime tell us that by pleasure we are not to understand the meer actual delights and gratifications of the body , but partly a freedom from the pain and trouble that is removed thereby , and chiefly those delightfull reflexions that we naturally enjoy upon it ; so that they intend not the pleasures of sensuality , but that innocent satisfaction of mind that naturally ensues upon their enjoyment ; in that when the desires of the appetite are quieted , and its wants supplied , the pure consideration of this affects the mind of every wise man with great joy and tranquility of thought . and this poor slender subtilty they fancy to be of mighty use to palliate the foulness of their doctrine , and to enhance their grave and philosophical account of the divine felicity of humane nature ; and herein do all the epicurean apologists , with a singular confidence , triumph , as if their great master had undoubtedly placed our sovereign happiness purely in the operations of the mind . but beside what i have already observed that epicurus spoke out too bluntly to find any subterfuge in this apology ; it does not at all mend the matter that they would excuse . for if to resolve all our happiness into the actual delights of sensuality , be thought somewhat too shamefull to own , it is very little more honourable to place it in entertaining the fancy with reflections upon them . and if it be below the dignity of humane nature to doe nothing better than to eat and drink , it is altogether as unworthy of it to think of nothing greater : this is onely to remove its happiness from the table to the couch . all their boastings concerning the pleasures of the mind amount to no more than this ; and therefore plutarch , when the apology is made , takes them up quick for it . yes , yes , says he , this plea were to some purpose if they would acknowledge any pleasures wherewith the mind might entertain it self distinct from those of the body : but when they openly declare and protest that it is not capable of any other satisfaction than what it enjoys in providing for or reflecting upon its sensual delights , do they not avowedly resolve all the happiness of the mind into pure sensuality , when they onely make use of it as an instrument to repeat or emprove that sort of pleasures , as it were by preserving the fumes of them in the fancy , and when the sensual delight it self is gone , feeding upon its meer imagination . so that all that this pretence amounts to is , that the mind continually pleases it self with the memory of past pleasures and the hope of pleasures to come . and is not this a brave account of all the wisedom and happiness of the mind of man , that it is onely a cook to cater for the body , that it is ingenious to provide for the pleasures of the flesh , that it has a quick and a strong fancy that makes it as happy as god himself by being perpetually fixed upon them ? at least this great satisfaction ( that they will have to be the onely privilege of a wise man ) is the very height of brutish lust , and onely serves when the natural appetite is satisfied , to provoke it to new and preternatural desires . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . this lustfull kind of rowling past pleasures in the thoughts serves onely to keep up the rage and fury of our beastly appetites , and , if there be any pleasure in them , it is not so much in chewing over our past delights , as in provoking our appetites to new desires . and is not this a strange description of a wise man , one that approaches nearest to the condition of the gods , that he thinks of nothing but the pleasures of his belly , that the onely design of all his thoughts is to enflame his lusts and make them more vehement and outragious than they could have been without the assistance of this divine wisedom and philosophy ? the very brutishness of this opinion , one would think , should make it too shamefull and dishonourable for any person that pretends to any modesty or ingenuity openly to assert it , and yet that is the last resolution of all their contemplative and philosophick happiness . so that , admitting this apology , it is plain that the epicurean doctrine falls in exactly with the ignominious philosophy of aristippus . for whereas this places all happiness entirely in the actual pleasures of the body , that onely adds to it the complacency of the fancy , so that still sensual pleasures are the onely matter of all their happiness , and all that tranquility of mind , of which they speak so loftily , as if it so very much exceeded the poor delights of sensuality , has no other object wherewith to entertain and support its satisfaction . so that it matters not whether those passages that are objected against epicurus by the ancients were ( as is falsely pretended ) foisted into his writings by the stoicks : his opinion is as foul by their own apologies as his enemies calumnies can make it . for what though epicurus himself never protested that he knew no other happiness than the pleasures of the belly ? what though metrodorus never said that the belly was the chiefest seat of happiness ? yet these propositions are the true and plain account of all their philosophy . for if all happiness consist in pleasure , and if there be no pleasure but that of the body , what need of any farther contention ? the case is very plain , that , according to them , there is nothing else of any real use and value in humane life . and then , lastly , as for those great out-cries that they raise of the blessed and heavenly state of indolency , they signifie no more than their magnificent stories of the pleasures of the mind ; for it is a plain case that felicity cannot consist in , or result from the meer absence of misery ; that is the happiness of stocks and stones , that are neitheir sensible of pains nor subject to calamities ; so that this it self does not directly affect with any sense of happiness , but all that results from it is derived from the reflexion of the mind upon its blessed and godlike freedom from misery . and is not this a sovereign piece of happiness to think now and then , when at leasure , that i am not actually miserable ? it must needs be a wonderfull support to the mind of a thinking man to consider with it self that the very best of its condition is to be sometimes out of pain . this is a lanker happiness than that of aristippus , for that carries in it some real and positive satisfaction , such as it is , but this contents it self meerly in not being dissatisfied . who can express or conceive ( as plutarch derides them ) the happiness that these men reap by rejoycing in not being miserable ? have they not great reason to think and speak so extravagantly of themselves ? well may they talk of immortal pleasures , and boast themselves equal to the gods , and rave and rant with the transport of that divine happiness , that they alone of all mortals feel , when all their heaven is nothing else than that at present they are onely not miserable . § xix . and thus having briefly unravel'd the little knots and mysteries of the epicurean philosophy , and clear'd it from those obscurities that they themselves have been forced to cast upon it in their own defence , i have by that alone dispatcht the greatest part of the controversie with them : for in all disputes with this sort of men , it is a much harder task to make them own their own doctrines , than it is , when owned , to confute them . and therefore it has ever been their custom to keep their notions in the dark and under some disguise , lest if they should appear in the open light , and in their own naked form , they should , without any curious survey , discover their own foulness and falshood . as in our present case . all happiness , say they , consists in pleasure . what in sensual pleasure ? no , that is too gross and filthy . in what then ? in indolency . but meer indolency , say i , is the happiness of stocks and stones . the highest pleasure of all therefore , say they , consists in tranquility of mind . but whence arises that tranquility ? from its reflecting upon the pleasures of the body . now the plain truth is forced out , that the pleasures of the body are the onely sovereign happiness , and that all the pleasures of the mind result wholly from them , and are entirely resolved into them . but i shall not concern my self in their greekish subtilties , and shall onely discourse with them according to the common sense and understanding of mankind , and therefore will suppose that by pleasure they mean , as they ought to do , all the happiness we are capable of in this life , be it actual enjoyments , or a sense of present indolency , or both , or any thing else that can contribute to our present contentment . and upon this state of the question , which is the fairest that can be made , i shall proceed with them . and here two very frightfull objections against the pleasures of this life taken alone , immediately present themselves to our view ; first , their notorious vanity ; secondly , their wofull uncertainty . so that if they were solid , yet their falshood and treachery would rifle their satisfaction ; and if they were constant , yet their meanness would render them inconsiderable ; but when they are both vain and insecure , if the providence of god , that has taken care in some measure to provide for us , has not provided some farther happiness , after all his wise contrivances for the good government and happy estate of mankind , he has in effect done no more than if he had done nothing at all . as for their vanity , i shall defer to discourse of it till i come to the more plausible account of the peripateticks , who though they place not so great a value upon them , as to make them the whole happiness of humane nature , yet they make them a part of it subordinate to vertue , which i shall there prove to be as lank as the epicurean hypothesis , without the addition of immortality ; but with it , to carry in it as much contentment and satisfaction as the nature of the thing is capable of , and as the providence of god can be supposed to design by it . and that will be enough , upon the supposition of the divine providence , to prove the necessity of a future state . but at present its meer fickleness and uncertainty is more than enough to destroy all its delight . for the two great ingredients of happiness that they ( and truly enough ) require , are present contentment , and security of it for the suture ; so that if this last be an impossible thing , that alone overthrows all the designs of happiness . and this is as certain , by the daily experience of all mankind , as that there are such creatures as men upon the face of the earth . for what man can be secure of his present good condition . i will not say all his life , for that supposition is too enormous , but a year , a month , a day , an hour , nay the next moment ? for considering how many are the evils of humane life , how many ways they may befall us ; that there is nothing within , nor nothing without us , that may not discompose our present tranquility , he must be a very vain and foolish man , that can secure himself from all future trouble and disturbance ; and if any man could flatter himself to so high a degree of stupidity , yet his own experience would quickly convince him of his folly . nay , so far are we from being any ways happy by our security for the time to come , that the meer foresight of future evils is one of the heaviest and most unavoidable miseries of humane life : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a man may sooner expect a winters constant summer , than hope for a perpetual ease and health of body . so that suppose a man in never so happy a condition at present , he cannot avoid being troubled with the foresight of all those sad accidents that may probably befall him , and in his greatest ease whilst his mind is employed in reflecting upon its present repose , it must withall be thinking how obnoxious it is to innumerable pains and miseries . and this one lean meditation of the shortness and uncertainty of his present ease , and the foresight of all those evils that in a little time may , and some time or other must discompose it , must devour all the other delights of life , were they much bigger and much more solid than they are . § xx. and of this the epicureans themselves were so forcibly convinced by the most obvious experience of things , that they thought it was in vain and too great a confidence to deny it ; and therefore seeing that we can never hope to escape all the miseries of life , they have furnished us with several antidotes or rather charms and conjurations to relieve us against them . for alass all their prescriptions are onely so many little sayings and apothegms fit for schoolboys declamations , but are by no means such reasons as become the wisedom and gravity of philosophers , or can afford any the least satisfaction to a wife and sober man. nay so far are they from that , that they are like the dreams of frantick people , stubborn and wild conceits persisted in against the nature of things and the experience of mankind . as that length of time makes no accession to a man's happiness . he might as well have told us that continuance of pain makes no accession to his misery , and that the man who suffers any pain a year , endures no more than he that suffers the very same pain but an hour . however , there is no man that thinks himself happy , but must for that reason desire its continuance , and if it be not eternal , fear its loss . so that when he tells us that eternity it self could not improve our felicity , he is inconsistent both with the nature of things , and with himself . with the nature of things , because all pleasure is enjoyed at the present time , from whence it is undeniably evident that how much longer time any man has of his enjoyment , so much more does he enjoy of happiness . in short , we are either happy in this present state , or we are not ; if not , then according to the epicurean hypothesis we are never happy ; if we are , then the case is plain that no man can ever be reconciled to the loss of his happiness . it is in vain then to tell us that time makes no addition to our felicity , when we are certain that the cutting off of time alone utterly kills and destroys it for ever . and as he contradicts the nature of things , so himself ; in that he places the peculiar happiness of his god's in this , that they are not onely happy at present , but are secure to continue so for ever . and indeed without it their present happiness would afford them but a very slender contentment ; nay the greater it is , so much the more would the certainty of its future loss afflict them . for what being can we imagine more miserable than one that being advanced to the utmost pitch of happiness knows it self condem'd to be in a little time cast down from it for ever ? in this case the more happy , the more miserable ; for by how much the more any one delights in his present condition , by so much the more must he dread the loss of it . so that length of time does not onely make accession to our happiness , but makes the very happiness it self . and as maximus tyrius very well observes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . we may as well suppose the earth without stability , and the sun without motion , as happiness without perpetuity ; take stability from the earth , and you take away its being ; or motion from the sun , and you had as good take away the sun it self ; so separate perpetuity from happiness , and separate happiness from it self . and yet they are bold enough to tell us that a wise man is not onely able to preserve his contentment under the prospect of future miseries , but under their present pressures . why so ? because all pain , which according to epicurus is all misery , is short if great , light if long . but this though it be one of the most admired decrees of their philosophy and the choisest receipt in all their dispenfatory , 't is nothing better than a charm of jingling words . for who is ignorant that there are some very sharp pains of a very long continuance ? what relief then will this proposition afford against their assaults ? but if our philosopher would have taught us any real use of this principle , he should first have defined what he means by long and short , great and small , and then have made some application of it to some particular cases . first , how few or how many days , months or years denominate a pain long or short , and what degree of pain makes it great or little : and if that were done ( which yet they never will doe ) we might perhaps understand the benefit of this advice ; but without it , it can onely serve to entertain a philosophers fancy when he has no use of it , but not at all to relieve him when he has . for whenever it is reduced to practice , it is baffled and affronted by the most vulgar experience of the world , the acutest pains being for the most part of the longest duration ; particularly those two great racks of mankind , the stone and the gout . how many years do they assault people before they destroy them ? and yet what sort of pain is there more exquisite ? now then when a man has suffer'd under either of these five or ten years , would it not be a very strong and effectual lenitive to be told by a philosopher , si magnus brevis , short if sharp ? nay i will onely suppose a person fretted continually with the toothache , should a philosopher seriously go about to give him ease with this little charm , i am very apt to think he would more provoke his choler than asswage his pain . and yet this sort of cordials , as phantastick as they are , are as much trusted to by other sects , particularly the stoicks , as the epicureans , an abstract whereof we meet with in seneca's epistle so much magnified by those two great men , lipsius and gassendus ; and because it is so full an account of all the epicurean wisedom , i shall here a little consider it , though it consists onely of a great many provoking sayings to a wise man , but much more to a man in pain . first he would demonstrate by natural philosophy that all diseases in the nerves and membranes , which are of all others the most acute , quickly vanish of their own nature . which no doubt must be a wonderfull satisfaction to such persons as have been all their life-time troubled with the stone , the cholick , or the headache . they tell me it is impossible that i should for any long time have been tormented with them , because they are of that sort of diseases that from their own nature are of a short continuance , and this as i am a wise man i am obliged to believe , notwithstanding that i know by sad experience that they have lasted as long as i my self . in the next place , noli mala tua facere tibi graviora . impatience does but exasperate the pain . true , but yet patience does not asswage it ; the torment is not the less because it is born with the greater stubborness of mind , for if that prevent new troubles , it does not at all alleviate the old ones . and yet were it so that patience would lessen pain , yet is it not able to support it self under great extremities ( i. e. when we stand in most need of it ) without some better principles than we are furnished with out of the epicurean shop . but then levis est si nihil illi opinio adjecerit , your pain is light enough in it self if you would not imagine it great . but this is still harder when a man feels the most exquisite pains , to be told that they are light enough of themselves , if he would not greaten them by his own weakness : this is to upbraid a man's misery , not to relieve him ; and to adde reproach to his calamity by making his infelicity his folly. but supposing his fancy to be so foolish , how shall he prevent it ? it is no more in a man's power to avoid being sensible of what he feels , than it is to avoid the sense it self . or if it were , i am sure it is not in his power , as he is here advised ( levem illam dum putas facies ) to make a great pain a little one onely by thinking it so . in the next place , circumcidenda duo sunt , & futuri timor & veteris incommodi memoria . we must neither remember past nor fear future evils . and this prescription were of some use against enflaming our pains by our thoughts , if it were practicable ; but alass it is not in any man's power to forget his last fit of the stone , or not to think that when this is over , it will some time or other return again , and the very certainty of that is a very great part of his misery . but however this concerns not his present actual sensation ; for whether he think or think not of past or future evils , it is certain that he now feels all that he feels . and here the next advice ought to have been according to epicurus to solace himself with the remembrance of his past-pleasures . which at best is but a very mean satisfaction , and for the most part rather affects with trouble than delight , in that it reminds us of a happiness that is already perisht , i. e. lost for ever . and certainly such thoughts are like the reflections of old men upon the pleasures of their youth , that rather trouble them because they are past , than delight them because they were once present . but suppose there may be some pleasure in these reflections , yet how mean , how abject , how unsatissying an happiness is this to think to day under extremity of pain , that yesterday i allayed my hunger and quenched my thirst ? so that when the object of our thoughts is in it self so mean , they can give us no more contentment than that affords . seeing therefore that its real enjoyment is altogether so unable to procure any substantial and satisfying happiness , how much like a meer shadow is that delight which we create to our selves by a meer phantastick and imaginary reflection upon it . but if it have intervals , it will be the more tolerable . it will so , but yet the future ease does not take away the present pain . it onely proves it to be a less misery than if it were continual , but does not make a man at this present time feel less than he feels . beside , these intervals do him no kindness against the evil i am now chiefly discoursing of . for though in them he may be free from actual pain , yet is he then grieved with the memory of the sharpness of his pastpains , and the expectation of his next approaching fit ; and that is the thing that i am here representing as inconsistent with happiness . but a wise man must command his memory , so as onely to remember his pleasures and forget his pains . this is another very imperious edict , for we can no more command our memories than our senses . and the sharper our miseries have been , the more importunately will they thrust themselves upon our thoughts . the next advice then is , toto contra illum pugnet animo , vincetur si cesserit , vincet si se contra dolorem suum intenderit . let him resist with all his might , if he fly , he shall be vanquisht ; if he stand his ground , he conquers . but this is onely to put us off with metaphors and similitudes , that because when a man is assaulted by his enemy , it is safer to resist than fly , therefore the same course is to be taken with pains and diseases . and it were well if it could , but alass in these cases it is not in our power either to fly or to resist . and then it is in vain to exhort us to either . and therefore instead of advising us to this , he would have done much more like a philosopher , if he would have instructed us how to doe it , and furnished us with arms and weapons for the combate ; otherwise it would have been more advisable to lie down under the burthen then to think of making resistance to no purpose . for that is onely a new trouble and vexation , and adds fury to pain , like a captive that will not yield to his imprisonment , but bites his chains and fights with the stone-walls to assert his liberty . or to keep more closely to our authour's metaphor , that resolves not to lie down under a weight , though he knows that he cannot bear it . for so he immediately tells us , nunc hoc plerique faciunt , attrahunt in se ruinam , cui obstandum est . istud quod premit , quod impendet , quod urget , si subducere te coeperis , sequetur , & gravius incumbet : si contra steteris , & obniti volueris , repelletur . men draw ruine upon themselves by shunning what they ought to bear ; when they would avoid what lies upon them , it presses them so much the heavier ; but if they keep their station , they support it : but what if i cannot bear up under it , must i not then yield ? whether i will or no , i must ; and it is no more in my power to thrust away a disease by force , than to support the ruins of a falling rock . some more advices there are to the same purpose , that is to no more than that ( supposing the firmament it self should fall ) they should advice us to prepare our shoulders without the help of any other props to bear it up . § xxi . but if there is no remedy we must not fear to die , and this the epicureans reckon to be the first point of happiness . for seeing death is unavoidable , that man can never enjoy any tranquillity of mind that continually dreads so great an evil . and therefore here they begin to lay their first foundations of wisedom in the overthrow of their worst and greatest enemy . and indeed they that have conquer'd the fear of death , have nothing else to fear . but alas that is an insuperable evil and the most insupportable calamity of humane life . so that though happiness were otherwise acquirable in this world , this alone is more than enough to sadden all our joys and overwhelm them with perpetual melancholy and sorrow . for suppose a man born with all the advantages of an healthfull body and a chearfull mind , and blest with all the circumstances of success and fortune , yet when he had compassed all his projects , when he was happy to the utmost of his capacities , when all things had conspired to complete his felicity , so that there remain'd no unsatisfied hopes or desires ; even then having no farther expectations , wherewith to entertain his mind , he would naturally fall into the melancholy meditation of death and the grave . now what reflection can be more sad and dismal than the inevitable necessity of bidding an eternal adieu to all his mirth and happiness ? what a tormenting satisfaction must he enjoy in his freest caresses of pleasure and delight , whilst he knows the fatal knife to hang perpetually over his head ? so uncomfortable would be the condition of the most happy and fortunate men in the world , that when they had arrived at the highest pitch of humane felicity , the most pleasant prospect they could take from thence would be the gloomy regions of everlasting death and darkness ; and all the advantage they should gain by their height , would be onely to see themselves encompassed with the grave and bottomless dungeons of oblivion , which they know must after a few days swallow them up for ever . and now what can create greater horrour than the fear of an eternal annihilation ? what is there so much shrinks and affrights the mind of man as the dark and fearfull thoughts of its own mortality ? how must it for ever die and languish under the dreadfull expectations of eternal darkness , when after a short mushrome life it must return into dust and silence , and be for ever buried in the horrour and loathsomness of the grave ? so that when men have done and talked all they can , nothing can ever vanquish the fear of death but the hope of immortality . this , and this alone is able to scatter all the black and melancholy apprehensions of our approaching fate , and to support our minds against all its horrours . and without this , however men may pretend to comfort themselves with apothegms , paradoxes and brave sayings , the terrour of death is insuperable to all other principles and resolutions . thus what a lame and silly device is that great subtilty of epicurus , to this purpose , that death cannot hurt us , because when that is , we are not ? for , first , there is no appetite either more strong or more natural to any thing , that is sensible of its being , than the desire of the continuation of its existence . this desire results from the same instinct of nature with the passion of self-love . and it is as possible to reconcile a man to an abhorrency of himself , as 't is to the thoughts of his annihilation . for if he delight in the enjoyment of his being , he cannot but dread the loss of his enjoyment ; and therefore 't is a dismal meditation , do what we can , to think of being blotted out of life for ever . so that , notwithstanding this device , the continual foresight of this black and inevitable fate of things , cannot but damp all our mirth and embitter our biggest joys with the saddest accents of grief and sorrow . and it is in vain to advise us , as epicurus does , to accustom our selves to the thoughts of death , when nature it self recoils and stands aghast at the very apprehensions of it . and the man that is seriously possest with the opinion of its being an everlasting annihilation , can never after lift up his head with any cheerfulness and clearness of spirit ; but will droop away his life , in spite of all his arts and diversions , with a perpetual inward dismayedness and discontent . and i may safely appeal to the sad experience of epicurus himself and all his followers , whether any thing so much checks and abates the comfort of their lives as the importune thoughts of dying . if they would speak out their inward pangs , they must confess , that when they have done all they can to reconcile themselves to this necessity of fate , that they dread nothing with so much anguish and confusion as the approach and apprehension of death . it is a stupifying horrour and strikes nature it self with an infinite and unexpressible amazement . but epicurus himself ( say they ) a little before his death , when he was quite worn out with the stone and strangury , the torment whereof he thought so exquisite that nothing could increase it , was able to magnifie that mighty pleasure and happiness , that he then reaped from the remembrance of his wise thoughts and inventions . but certainly , if he expected to be believed , either himself was none of the wisest , or he thought his friend hermachus , to whom he wrote his dying letter , very credulous . for what were these comfortable and ravishing inventions that could so much beatifie a man in that sad condition ? that god takes no care of men , that men have no other being than their bodies , that death annihilates them for ever , that they have no greater happiness than to gratifie their sensual appetites , and to please themselves with reflecting upon it . ravishing inventions these to compose the thoughts of a dying man ! for , first , what comfort or happiness can there be in casting off all entercourse and commerce with a deity ? is it not much better to have a modest and awfull reverence of a divine providence , than to cut off all dependence upon his bounty and goodness ? nothing can equal the satisfaction of mind that a good man reaps from his trust and confidence in god ; for he is ever secure of his care and kindness in all conditions ; and what greater quiet can he enjoy than to have a well grounded assurance that he stands upon good terms with , and has a powerfull interest in the great and sovereign governour of all things ? he is in all conditions safe under his almighty protection , in that there is , upon the supposition of a divine providence , a kind of friendship between god and all good men ; so that it is not in his power not to be good to the good . thus what happiness can exceed that of hermogenes , in plutarch , who could say of himself , the gods that know all things , and can doe all things , are so much my friends , and so highly concern'd for my welfare , that i am never , night nor day , out of their watchfull providence , but whatever i doe , i have their assistance , and whatever i design , their direction . and now beside the gifts of providence in themselves , this is that which affects with the greatest delight to think that they are tokens of the divine love and goodness . but by taking away the being of a divine providence the epicurean robs himself of that which is most delightfull in his happiness , and leaves nothing wherewith to relieve himself in his afflictions . for , in the next place , when he thinks to take refuge in death , that ( as plutarch observes ) is such another kind of comfort , as if you should tell a man in a storm at sea , that your ship has no pilot , and that there is no hopes of allaying the tempest , but yet however be not afraid , for in a little time the ship shall split and sink , and when you are drown'd then the storm will trouble you no longer . such is the philosophy of the epicureans in all great calamities . do you hope for any ease from the deity by your prayers ? you are too vainly conceited , his blessed nature is concern'd about nothing but it self . do you expect a recompence in the life to come ? be not deceived : when you are dead , you shall be for ever uncapable of sense , and therefore of pleasure ; and for this reason i advise you to eat , drink and be merry in the fury of the storm , because by and by you shall sink and sink for ever . so that granting to epicurus his darling principle , that after death there remains nothing of us sensible of pain or pleasure ; and therefore though we lose our beings , yet as long as we are not capable of being affected with the loss , we thereby become no more miserable than we were before we were put into being ; granting , i say , all this , yet the love of being , and the desire of self-preservation is so vehement and earnest , that the very fear of ever being defeated of it is a desperate confusion of all the joy and tranquility of present life . such a man knows not which way to determine his thoughts and designs , but his soul or ( as they will have it ) his fancy pines and languishes for want of some sutable object to entertain it self withall , and sinks for ever into despair and melancholy . the utmost happiness of this life is in it self so vain and empty , that in spite of all the arts of diversion and forgetfulness , 't is infinitely unable to appease our discontents ; and men that have nothing else to trust to , what dismal and disconsolate lives must they live in every condition ? if they lie under calamities and afflictions , this is an intolerable accession to the load . for is it not a sad reflection to consider that when the period of life is so short and fading , so much of so little should be lost and worn away in sorrow and misery ? and no doubt it cannot but be hugely comfortable to a man , that groans under the sorrows of a sharp disease , to despair of any other remedy or deliverance but in eternal death : and it must be a mighty relief against the unavoidable cares of life to consider that , when a man has spent the greatest part of his days in toil and drudgery , he must then die for ever . so that , according to this hypothesis , the whole and best account of life will be no better than this , that it is a short period of trouble and misery , and that men are born into the world onely to grieve and die . and no doubt they cannot but be much in love with their beings , that they cannot value at an higher rate . for if the date of our existence expired with that of our lives , and if our whole duration were but threescore years and ten , if all our hopes were buried with our bodies , and if wewere thrust into being onely , after a few days or years , to be thrust back into nothing , it is much more eligible never to have been born , than to be born onely to drop a tear and vent a groan and die . for who would choose to float up and down a few minutes in this stormy and tempestuous world , instantly to disappear and sink back into nothing ? who would be born for no other end than that he might be put into a capacity to die ? who would enter upon this tragical scene of things onely to appear and so return into dust and silence ? who would dance upon these restless waves a little while , till either violence crushes or nature sinks the bubble into an eternal nothing ? but if on the contrary a man should happen to enjoy the delights of ease , affluence and prosperity , a perpetual health , and an undisturbed tranquility , how does this meditation dash and scatter all his joys ? with what a weight of dispair and astonishment must it lie upon his oppressed mind ? and how must he for ever droop and languish under the expectations of his endless fate ? in a word , what is or what can be conceived more frightfull to the minds or the fancies of men , especially in prosperity , than the aspect of eternal death ? and yet this representation haunts and follows such persons like a murther'd ghost in all companies and all delights . nothing is able to lay or divert its importunity . it frights away all considerations , and the more men study to reconcile their minds to their fate , the more it scares and distracts their thoughts . there is no charm nor counsel against necessity ; and a terrour that is unavoidable is above the power and the relief of philosophy , and will not be vanquish't by stubborn thoughts or proud words . so that it is altogether as easie to prevail with a man to hate and abhor his own being , as to reconcile him to the thoughts of his own destruction . for by the same necessity that nature loves and desires the continuance of it self , it recoils and starts back from all thoughts of its dissolution . this then is , upon the epicurean supposition , a vain , an useless and unreasonable advice , being 't is so insuperable a contradiction to the nature of things . so that the fear of death , which is the thing i am now to represent , is as certain and inexorable as death it self , and men may as soon devest themselves of their own natures , as suppress the convulsions of this inbred passion . and now when it is so incurable , and yet withall so importunate and disquieting , it is easie to imagine what desperately cheerfull lives those men must live , that always live under its sad and dismal apprehensions . § xxii . but beside this great and sovereign antidote against the fear of death , they have several other little receits scatter'd up and down in their writings , i shall but briefly mention them because all that little force which they seem to have , depends upon the former fundamental principle . first , say they , let us be thankfull to the bounty of nature for making our lives so long , instead of repining at it for making them no longer . but i say , if our whole being be at all mortal , we have no reason to be at all thankfull for it , and if our whole being be worn out with this life it is much more eligible never to have been . but then , say they , we were admitted into life upon this condition , that we should give place to others , as others have given place to us . were we so ? then were we all admitted upon unacceptable terms . yes but by troubling our selves in vain we do but add one misery to another . it is true , but that is a fatal misery , and it is as necessary to fear death as it is to die , and that is it that makes up the complaint , that we are put in such a state of being which we cannot enjoy without this continual anguish and perplexity annexed to it . so that how wise or foolish a thing it is to fear death is not at all material , but whether it be unavoidable , though if it be , i am sure it is a very foolish thing to endeavour against it . but how irksome soever death may be , yet seeing it is fatal , we ought to make it as easie as we can by a voluntary compliance with it ; but this beside the folly that is common to all the rest , that it advises to an impossibility , is not so properly compliance as despair , and is like the condition of a condemn'd malefactour that goes to his execution onely because otherwise he must be driven and whipt to it . and no man has any other comfort all his life-time against the terrours of death than a thief upon the gallows , that would , if it were possible , counterfeit to die cheerfully because there is no remedy . to the same purpose is that other advice , that it is in vain to fear death , because it is natural , necessary and inevitable ; that is , because it is remediless , and there lies the very agony of all our horrour , that a thing so infinitely terrible should withall be so utterly unavoidable . and when they tell us how strange a folly and madness it is to torment our selves with the fear of that , which we are infallibly certain we can never escape , they do but perswade us to the madness of despair instead of courage and resolution . for how foolish or unreasonable soever this fear may be , it is natural , antecedent to the choice of our wills and the discretion of our understandings , and so above all the rules of prudence and prescriptions of philosophy : they can onely guide and instruct our minds in things subject to their own election , but cannot affect , much less over rule the instincts of nature . in the next place , we are already dead , say they , to so much of our life as is past and gone ; so that so much as we live we die , and that which we call death is but our last death , and therefore as we fear not our death that is past why should we that which is to come . but what child understands not the difference between life and death ? and if to live be to die , notwithstanding this quibble we are troubled never the less that this new way of dying puts an end to our old way of dying ; and if we have been dying ever since we were born , that is the thing that grieves us that we cannot be dying so for ever . but bassus aufidius , the epicurean old man in seneca , reconciled himself to his approaching death with this reason , because it was as absurd to fear death as old age , which yet all men desire to come to , in that as old age follows youth , so death follows old age. but if he were in good earnest satisfied , it is a sign that he had lived not onely to his old age but to his second childhood . for old age is desirable not because it follows youth , but because it defers death , and that is it which makes it so much less valuable than youth , because it is so much nearer to death . and the philosophers reason had been altogether as comfortable if he had preferr'd old age before youth , because his youth was very old , it being many years since he was a young man , whereas his old age was of a later date , he having been but a little time an old man. by which device he might have proved to himself that youth is old age and old age youth . much like this is that other reasoning wherewith gassendus himself seems so much pleased , that whereas we now count our selves happy if we live to an hundred years , yet if the natural course of our life were as much shorter we should be as much satisfied with twenty ; and if our natural course reach't to a thousand years , we should then be as much troubled to die at six hundred as now at sixty , and so forward . it is like all the rest of the philosophick comforts , and is so far from reconciling us to death at any time , that it is a demonstration that there is no time in which an epicurean can or ought to be content to die ; and that be our lives longer or shorter , yet unless they are eternal , we cannot rid our selves of this importunate and intolerable evil . and of the same nature is that witty saying of seneca , that a little or great circle are both equal in perfection of figure though not in quantity , so is the life of man whether it last to twenty or to an hundred years . but certainly no man that might live to an hundred would be content to die at twenty years of age for this reason , because a little circle is as round as a great one . but , lastly , gassendus has a very remarkable device , with which the learned man is so much pleased as often to repeat it , that though a man's life may be short in it self , yet may he make it equal with the duration of the whole world , because he may converse with the transactions of all former times , and be as well acquainted with them as if himself had then actually lived . and as for the time to come , he knowing that nothing shall be but what has been , understands all future events as if present ; so that a wise man , partly by memory , partly by foresight , may extend his short life to all ages of the world. but if he could , unless he could make himself immortal too , the objection would still lie as heavy as ever . beside , can any wise man be so very fancifull as seriously by this device to perswade and satisfie himself , that though he is not above forty years old , he was born at the beginning of the world , and that though he die to morrow he shall live to the end of it ? if he can , he must be a very foolish man too ; if he cannot , it will be no support against the approach of death that he hath already lived to the world's end . this is the full account of all the happiness of humane nature , according to the epicurean principles , which you see , without this support of a future state , sinks of it self into a bottomless want and misery . and therefore , to anticipate our exceptions , gassendus , at the beginning of his moral philosophy , has warily ( as he thinks ) distinguish't between a twofold happiness of man : the one supernatural , which we are taught by religion , that instructs us in the knowledge of that future state of bliss , that good and pious men shall enjoy in the vision of god. the other natural , which we are taught by philosophy , whereby we are instructed to live as happily in this life as the condition of humane nature in general , and every man 's own circumstances in particular , are capable of . and this , he says , is all the felicity that mankind can naturally desire or justly aspire to . but this is like all the rest of his excuses , particularly that of his account of epicurus his filial reverence to the gods as opposed to the vulgar servile fear , when by denying their providence he expresly destroys all manner of reverence to them . so again when he distinguishes of two sorts of sense , the one external , that of the body ; the other internal , that of the mind ; and that when epicurus affirms that all sense is extinguish't in death , it may be interpreted of all sense of the first kind ; when nothing can be more evident than that he intended all manner of sense whatsoever . so now here does he distinguish between supernatural and natural happiness , and that it was proper for epicurus to treat onely of the latter as a philosopher , when it is so notorious that as a philosopher he made it his utmost endeavour to overthrow the very being and belief of the former . but however , if this happiness which he calls natural be all that mankind is naturally capable of , then is he naturally capable of none at all . and as for the two arguments he subjoins to perswade us to be content with it , they onely aggravate and upbraid our wants instead of satisfying our desires . as , first , that otherwise we forget our mortality and the frailty of our nature , in that we are born exposed to innumerable mischiefs and miseries ; which is nothing else but the description of a forlorn and miserable condition , and amounts to no more than this , that a wise man must be happy , i. e. content with his condition , because he knows his condition to be miserable . and , secondly , that it is some comfort that when all men are exposed to misery , and when there are so many degrees of it , that you are less miserable than others , and that you are as little miserable as the condition of your nature will admit of . that is to say , that though i endure most of the calamities of humane life , yet must i think my self an happy man , if there be any one man in the world that endures more ; and though i feel my self actually miserable , yet philosophy teaches me to think my self happy , because i feel as little misery as any of my neighbours . if these are the great topicks of philosophick consolation , they had better prescribe but this one remedy instead of all , viz. to make our selves happy onely by despairing of ever being so , for that is the last result of all their propositions . and therefore , to conclude , it is remarkable that hegesias his philosophy , who vehemently perswaded all men to be their own executioners , was but the natural emprovement of that of aristippus , whose scholar he was ; for when the master had once taught that there is no happiness but in the pleasures of the body , it was easie for the disciple to add that then there is none at all , and therefore death is the best thing that we can either pray for or give our selves . for our bodies are liable to such an infinite number of evils , and our minds so sensible of what our bodies feel , that it is much more eligible not to be at all , than to be in a state of so much misery . and that is the unavoidable consequence of all opinions that take away a future immortality . though it is pretty to observe that this same hegesias , as warm and eloquent as he was in perswading other men to throw away their lives , when king ptolomy threatned him himself with death if he would not forbear those kind of discourses to the people , how easily he was cured of his pedantry . for how pleasant soever the death of others might seem to him , yet when it concern'd himself it was quickly too hard for his philosophy . and that is the true desperate condition of all men of the same principles , that they neither care to live nor care to die . and now upon these phantastick principles after what a rate do we rant , and with what magnanimity and greatness of mind do we defie all the miseries of life and pangs of death ? and how do we boast , that in spite of the extremest torments that tyranny it self can inflict upon us , we will enjoy pleasures equal to the happiness of the gods ? roast us in the bull of phalaris , we will make it more pleasant than a bed of roses , and instead of roaring out through extremity of pain , we will spoil the tyrants jest , and onely laugh and sing quàm suave hoc est , quàm hoc non curo . but could one think it possible that the same man , who had placed all happiness in pleasure and all misery in pain , should be so artificial as to reconcile his sovereign happiness with all the anguish and extremity of pain ; that is to say , to think himself most absolutely happy when he is most extremely miserable ? but certainly he must be a very cunning rather than a very wise man , that can by meer subtilty be too hard for the nature of things , and by the meer force of imagination make an agreement between the widest of contradictions . § xxiii . but , secondly , as upon the epicurean supposition , all happiness is no more than a shadow , so upon the same is all vertue no better than an empty name . for beside that it thereby loses the foundation on which it ought to stand , in that , if there be no such thing as happiness , there remains no motive for men to act at all , when whatever they doe , they must doe in order to that or to nothing ; so that happiness being taken away vertue loses all its force and obligation , and that man is good in vain that is never the better for his being good . but beside this , and granting such a thing as mortal happiness , yet it is too weak and narrow a foundation for the stability of vertue ; in that it resolves the measure and the reason of all the vertues purely into their subserviency to corporeal delights , and makes the whole account of their goodness and usefulness to lie onely in this , that they are greater arts and more prudent emprovements of the pleasures of sensuality , and were it not for that there were no other ground of difference between vertue and vice. si ea , quae sunt luxuriosis efficientia voluptatum , liberarent eos deorum & mortis & doloris metu , docerentque qui essent fines cupiditatum , nihil haberem quod reprehenderem , &c. upon supposition that the extravagancies of debauchery had but hapned to be as serviceable to the ends of pleasure , and did as much deliver men from the torment of superstition and the terrours of death , as a discreet , regular and temperate course of life , they would be of equal goodness and excellency : but because it so happens that the practice and the observation of the laws of vertue is more serviceable to the delights of the body than the enormities of vice , therefore and therefore onely is this vertue more valuable than that vice. and that is the onely office of all the retinue of moral vertues to wait and attend upon the commands of sensual pleasure , to direct the body how to use its delights to its utmost advantage , to assist it in the contrivance and right management of its proper joys , and to minister to the content and satisfaction of all its appetites . egregium habet virtus apud vos officium voluptates proegustare . this is a brave account of the essential reasonableness of moral vertue , that 't is a discreeter and more healthfull luxury ; that is , that it is a thing of no greater excellency than the art of cookery , that a picquant sawce is as valuable as an heroick vertue , and that apicius and those practical epicures that were à secretis to the voluptuousness of the roman emperours , and studied all the emprovements and advantages of an healthfull and an easie luxury , were not onely the best philosophers but the best men. and that the treatise that apicius wrote de gulae irritamentis was more beneficial to the life of man and the advancement of vertue than all the volumes of the greeks and romans beside . but this will best appear by an induction of particulars ; and we will begin with the vertue of temperance , in which they pretend most to glory in defiance of all those enormous slanders that have been cast upon them , as placing their sovereign happiness in luxury and voluptuousness . all which they easily prevent both by epicurus his doctrine and practice . for who ( say they ) has more severely inveighed against all sottish pleasures ? who has more passionately commended a sober and abstemious life ? who has with more indignation shewn the inconsistency of all manner of intemperance with wisedom and contentment ? who has left a more illustrious example of abstinence and moderation ? whoever lived upon meaner fare , his ordinary diet being onely course bread and water , and sometimes a little sallet ? and therefore , say they , it is in vain to conclude that upon epicurus his principles there can be no such thing as the vertue of temperance , when himself has answer'd all objections by his own certain and undeniable practice . but it concerns not us to enquire what epicurus his practice was , but what it ought to have been if conformable to his own principles . especially when it is so usual a thing with him to contradict himself upon all arguments ; as when he had denied the providence of god , to stand in it that yet notwithstanding he has left devotion ; when he has taught that all friendship must be contracted purely for the sake of self-interest , and yet that men are bound to undergo the greatest miseries , even death it self for the sake of friends . so here , when he has placed our highest pleasure in the delights of the palate , he places the highest pleasure of those delights in their lowest enjoyment . but beside the natural stupidity of the man , we are beholden for such doctrines as these not to the severity of his vertue but the weakness of his stomach , which was so very infirm that it was not able to digest the most simple and easie diet . no wonder than if he made a vertue of necessity , or if he so far envied the rest of mankind , that because himself was incapacitated to enjoy his sovereign pleasure , he spitefully perswaded all others to quit theirs . but otherwise to tell us that the meanest and the coarfest fare is the most delicious , argues the man ( as tully observes ) to have lost his taste as well as his understanding . for , as he discourses , if i were to describe the pleasures of luxury , i would not , as the epicureans are wont to do , paint such sots as are carried sick from their table to their bed or their couch ; that suffer the penance of a surfeit for every debauch ; that doze away their whole lives in perpetual folly and sottishness ; that are never sober enough to relish and enjoy their own pleasures ; that every day load themselves with a fresh stowage before they have discharged the crudities of their last debauch ; that have little more sense than a sponge ; that eat and drink themselves into a continual lethargy , and are senseless before they are dead . the case is plain that these are of all men the most miserable . but beside these there are your neat , your polite , your witty , your artificial epicures , that study all the arts and emprovements of an easie luxury ; that avoid all irksomeness by the skill of their cooks , the delicacy of their meats , the picquancy of their sawces , and the richness of their wines ; that give themselves entirely up to sensual pleasures and gratifications , and are concern'd for nothing but meerly how to eat and drink to the utmost emprovement of delight . and if these may be accounted temperate persons , then have we found out a vertue destructive of the peace and welfare of mankind ; for that , as i have demonstrated , cannot be preserved but by seeking the good of others as well as our own ; whereas this utterly neglects the publick , and meerly regards every man's private satisfaction . and if all men should betake themselves to this course of life , it is obvious to every man what would become of humane society . but seeing epicurus casts these self-indulgers out of the number of his wise men , i would fain know how he can do it and be consistent with his own principles . for if our sovereign delight consist in those pleasures , and if he be the happiest man that enjoys them most , and if he be the wisest man that most consults his own happiness , there is no avoiding it but that apicius will carry the cause from all their philosophers . § xxiv . and so again if we once take off those obligations to justice and honesty that are laid upon us by our relation to the life to come , it will be ever after absolutely impossible by all the arts and devices in the world to preserve any sense of them any other way . for whatever advantages men may think to reap as to their present interest from their observance of the laws of justice and integrity , that may make them crafty , but never honest . and when they are once got loose from the tyes of conscience , they are then not concern'd to be innocent but onely to seem to be so ; and this does not at all restrain them from designing and doing vile things , but onely engages them to be cunning in their wickedness . and agreeably to this principle and these consequences does epicurus discourse , when he challenges the world , after they have set aside the consideration of present pleasure and self-advantage , to assign him any other possible reason or end of vertue beside popular fame . for that , says he , when all is done is the onely measure of common honesty . and if you once remove the opinion of the multitude , there remains nothing in it self either praise-worthy or dishonourable . but this again ( says he ) is the fate of mankind , that the vulgar rout take up with prejudices and invincible conceits of things ; and then whatever they authorise into customs , must out of meer compliance with their importunity be voted the standing rules of vertue and honesty . so that a wise man , setting aside all regard to his own present convenience , can see no other reason to be just and honest beside compliance with casual custom and popular opinion that it seems must be submitted to , as he ever intends to enjoy any peace or quiet of life ; in that the rabble are always so impatient of all contradiction to their customary belief . and this is all the account that he or any other of his perswasion is able to give of the turpitude and deformity of vice. so that a philosopher might justly and wisely betray his friend and his trust to defeat him of his pledge ; or murther his father to secure the inheritance , if he can but avoid the shame of discovery and the inconvenience of popular hatred . so that if we remove the folly and the ignorance of the rabble , there is no other difference between vertue and vice , integrity and treachery , but what is made purely by the consideration of every man 's own private interest : so utterly destructive are these opinions not onely of the happiness of humane nature in general , but of the peace of every particular society of mankind : and such as spread and propagate their repute in the world , do but instruct men in the fundamental principles of falshood , treason and perjury . and therefore deserve greater severity from government than out-laws and open rebels , as being beside their impiety more dangerous and mischievous to the common-wealth for their pedantry : in that they are not onely content to doe wicked things , but think themselves concern'd in honour to bring their own wicked practices into reputation , and to infect all others with such principles , as will oblige and encourage them to imitate their villanies . however these principles , are so far from procuring the happiness or securing the duty of single men , that if embraced and reduced to practice , they must unavoidably involve all mankind in eternal mischiefs , wickednesses and confusions . and it is to these accursed principles that we owe the miseries of common life , they being the fundamental rules and maximes of all the tyranny , fraud and oppression in the world. but if the shame of the world or the fear of the people were sufficient to restrain from open and avowed wickedness , what shall withhold from secret attempts ? insecurity and fear of discovery , says epicurus . but besides that this onely obliges wicked men to be more crafty and cautious in their villanies , it is not powerfull enough to give a true and real restraint to dishonest actions , in that the advantage is certain , but not the discovery , and a certain good is a much stronger motive than an uncertain evil . and though it may give check to fraud and violence in some common cases ( as it is of very good use and service in humane life ) yet those acccidents are very frequent , in which men may be very highly wicked , and yet very secure in their wickedness . as when saint peducoeus was entrusted by his friend with his last will and testament , and that with so much privacy , that if he had kept the whole estate to himself no body could have suspected his dishonesty ; that then he should surprise the right heir , who expected no such thing , with the news of a great inheritance , it was done like a gentleman of a roman education , but he could not be forced to it by any obligation upon the epicurean principles ; in that they could not requite his integrity with a reward equal to so fair a fortune . a great estate and a fine house are of more value than the empty names of justice and friendship , and so they are to the man that counts upon no other interest and expects no other happiness than in this life . and sestilius , who by a forged writing cheated his friend's children , that were left to his trust , of their inheritance , and secured the estate to himself and his posterity by a decree of law , was upon the epicurean principles , much the wiser and nothing the worse man. for by this one act he made provision for the happiness of his whole life , and yet was so far from any fear of discovery , that his fraud , being abetted and secured by law , was no small accession to the pleasure and satisfaction of his good fortune . and in truth this restraint is so far from reaching all cases of fraud and oppression , that one half of the wickednesses of mankind are unavoidably abetted and ratified by the laws themselves . for seeing they can judge and determine onely according to evidence , and seeing the persons , who invade other men's rights , will not stick to make out their title by any falshood and villany , then as long as the forgery is not discover'd ( and that is no easie matter ) the law is forced to pass judgment on the wrong side . but beside the injuries of fraud , the greatest miseries brought upon mankind by injustice are supported by power and greatness ; and in such cases the tyrant and oppressour defies all discovery , and though he cares not if all the world sees his wickedness , yet if any man shall pretend to have his eyes open , he shall forfeit his head for the boldness of his eye-sight . so that if this were the onely state of things the governour of the world has provided neither sufficient rewards for justice and honesty , nor restraints from fraud and oppression . and if he has not , then he has laid no effectual obligation upon mankind to be just and honest ; for the force of every command depends upon its sanction , and therefore if he have injoin'd this duty , and have not backt it with sufficient motives of obedience , he has onely enacted useless and ineffectual laws . in short , the onely difference between the man that is honest and the man that is not , is meerly this that the one prefers his duty before his present interest ; and the other his present interest before his duty . for if he observe the rules of justice onely so far as they conduce to his own ends , then whenever they happen to thwart , he is obliged to quit his duty rather than his interest . and when he does so , he is so far destitute of all principles of honesty , that he is entirely govern'd by the fundamental maximes of fraud and oppression . and if this be the onely difference that distinguishes good and bad men , i would fain know what motive or reason a good man has , to pursue his duty when contrary to his interest ; or a bad man has to quit his interest out of respect to his duty , if there be no other state of things than the present . and therefore , without immortality , justice is so far from deserving our regard in all cases , that in many it is a contradiction to the first instinct of nature , that is self-love , in that it obliges a man to act cross to that without any reason or recompence for his so doing . and therefore seeing the providence of god has prescribed to us those many and plain laws of justice that i have discover'd from the nature of things in the precedent discourse , it unavoidably follows that upon that supposition those laws that he has prescribed must be abetted with the rewards and punishments of a future state , because those of this , if taken alone and separate from those of that , are not of sufficient force and validity . and as justice the most necessary , so fortitude the most noble of all vertues will have no foundation upon the epicurean principles , or rather will sink together with them . for if there be no such thing as justice , to what purpose should any man run himself into hazards and hardships for the sake of it ; and yet that is the onely office of magnanimity , which when separated from a good cause is no more than folly and fool-hardiness , and in a bad cause is no better than cruelty and oppression . and beside this , as every vertue must have some principle to warrant its wisedom and reasonableness , so above all others magnanimity , because it puts us upon the severest and hardest service , and does , more than any vertue beside , endanger our own interest for the sake of duty . but if there be no other interest than that of this life , it is apparent madness for any man to hazard life and fortune , and all that is dear to him here for any thing whatsoever ; when all other motives that can be proposed to him are of less concernment to himself than his own self-preservation . beside , true magnanimity bottoms all its courage and assurance upon no other principle than the conscience of its own integrity : it is that alone that gives a man a sufficiency and satisfaction from himself ; that raises him to a contempt of all outward things ; that makes him searfull of all assaults and dangers ; and that supports him under all losses and misfortunes , as esteeming all things whatsoever as mean and worthless trifles in comparison to the happiness of its own reflections . but then as conscience is the onely support of courage , so is immortality of conscience ; for that is nothing else but the mind of man acting with reference to the future judgment of god. and therefore from thence alone it derives all its force and authority , and without that all seeming regard to it is nothing but pretence and pageantry . for what comfort will a good conscience afford a man , if he be to give no account of his actions ? upon that supposition the guilty and the innocent are upon equall terms , when the best man is ne'er the better for all his vertues , nor the other the worse for all his villanies . if then integrity of conscience be the onely principle of all magnanimity , and if the firmness of that depends meerly upon immortality , then that being taken away , the one sinks into crast , the other into cowardize . in short , there are but two offices of magnanimity , either to doe or to suffer gallantly , both which are manifest contradictions to the epicurean principles ; for what inducements can that man have to put himself upon hardships , who knows no other happiness but ease and lasiness ? and therefore upon their supposition it was wise advice of metrodorus to his brother , not to concern himself in desence and preservation of his country , but to eat and drink with philosophick wisedom and discretion . and then as for bearing up decently under calamities , i have already shewn that they have not one principle wherewith to support themselves , and without such principles as can supply the absence of their present happiness , nothing else can relieve their loss ; and therefore instead of bearing up with any chearfulness under miseries and afflictions they must for ever sink into insupportable anguish and despair . and now from these premises ( to mention no more particulars , because all the other vertues depend upon these ) it is demonstratively evident that to root up the sentiments of immortality out of the minds of men is to blast and put out the sun , and to overwhelm the world in eternal night and darkness : erasing all the foundations of happiness , tearing up all the roots of vertue , and laying wast all the principles of humane nature and humane society . and ( as plutarch discourses ) where such principles of philosophy prevail as enervate the laws of vertue , men have nothing left to distinguish them from brute-beasts , but that they want the claws of lyons , and the teeth of wolves , the stomachs of oxen , and the backs of camels . in a word , upon this single principle of a future state depend all the differences of good and evil ; if this stand firm vertue is secure , but otherwise ( after all that care that the divine providence has taken to recommend it to us ) it is all no more than craft or folly. § xxv . and now having thus far and fairly casheird the epicurean principles , i shall be so much the more brief with the stoicks : partly because of the great agreement between their paradoxes and the decrees of epicurus : both being onely so many stubborn opinions taken up against the nature of things and the experience of mankind . and notwithstanding that the stoicks may seem so contradictory in many of their propositions to the epicureans , yet after all they relie upon the same principles , and therefore when reduced to practice will resolve , themselves into the same actions . but chiefly because they onely amuse us with the noise of wrangle and disputation : so that almost all their disquisitions upon this noble argument spend themselves in vain and impertinent contentions about technical terms and phrases , that serve neither to promote the attainment nor to unfold the nature of true happiness ; but rather to obstruct all serious and effectual endeavours after it by entertaining and diverting the minds of men with innumerable curious and useless niceties . and though the writings of cicero and seneca may supply us with many excellent rules and helps for the tranquillity of our lives ; yet their value is strangely abated , and their use sadly defeated by their too much mixture of dry and barren speculation ; insomuch that a man may sooner arrive at the end of true happiness , than of their disputes and distinctions about it . and for that reason i shall wave enquiring into any of their logical and metaphysical subtilties , and onely represent in general the vanity of their attempts after vertue and happiness in their way of philosophising . they therefore gravely considering with themselves that these outward things could never afford but very little and very uncertain satisfaction to the minds of men , in that they were liable to so many chances and foreign contingencies ; and therefore being unwilling to be endebted to fortune for their content , confined its disposal entirely within themselves , so that every man's happiness was to be spun out of his own bowels . and thence discarding all the outward advantages of life , riches , honour , power , health , and friends as things altogether indifferent , they summ'd up all the numbers of their happiness singly in the joys and pleasures of a life conducted by the rules of vertue . this indeed were a great and glorious account of things , were it supported by any wise and sober principles ; but alas it is so far from having any real foundation , that it is inconsistent with the first and fundamental principle of humane nature , as it is own'd by the stoicks themselves . for they begin from the catholick doctrine of all the philosophers , the natural passion of self-love , that mankind as well as every other creature has to its own welfare and preservation , to pursue what it supposes will advance its content and happiness , and shun whatever may impair or destroy it . now what is humane nature according to them but a being compounded of body and soul ? and if so , then it is obliged as it loves it self to seek the welfare of both . how then comes it to pass that it should so far forsake it self as utterly to forget one moiety of it self in its pursuit of happiness ? so that they must either renounce their first principle of our love to our whole selves , or their first maxim that our whole happiness relates to the mind alone . but that is the peculiar vanity of these men , that they would be philosophising after the rate of angels , and discourse without considering that their bodies are one half of their natures , and that their souls are not disengaged from matter , and by consequence have sensual appetites too gross to be satiated by bare thoughts and reflections ; and sensitive pains too sharp to be allayed by words and subtilties . this i say is the peculiar pedantry of this sect of men to be disposed of by the power of phrases , without attending to the nature and reality of things ; and they would cheat our senses and delude our appetites with tricks and arts of sophistry . that which all the world dread and fly from , they forbid us to acknowledge to be evil , though we are convinced it is so by sad and sensible experience . and when dionysius a reverend sage of the sect was so rackt and torn apeices with the torments of the stone , that the continuance and unintermission of his pain had tired out his patience and vanquish't his apathy , and at last forced him to cry out in the extremity of his anguish , o'pain , i yield , i must and do acknowledge thee to be an evil ; this confession put cleanthes that bigot of stoicism into such a fit of zeal and outrage that he could not refrain to chide and upbraid his apostacy with the most satyrical sharpness of expression , and the poor man was in great danger of being expell'd the sect for not being able to outface his misery . but if you demand why pain is not to be reckoned among things evil , their answer is ready , because it is not vicious and criminal . this is a doubty solution , and worth the wagging of a sages beard ; for all the world knows pain or sickness to be no immorality , 't is in vain to prove it ; but when i feel my self restless and miserable , let them , if they can , convince me whether it be indifferent or equally eligible to be at ease in perfect health , or to endure the torments of a feavour . o yes , say they , for though it have no relation to or influence upon our happiness , yet ought it to be rejected , because 't is unpleasant , unnatural , uneasy , grievous , and troublesome . here is plenty of phrase and synonymous expression for what other people in one word call evil ; and by what title soever we may pretend to despise it , that is no aswaging the pain , and if it be grevious i am not less miserable than if it were evil. so that after all their rants and braveries they are forced to submit to the common fate and calamity of mankind , and to acknowledge from the conviction of their own senses that a sage , however he may swagger , is obnoxious to sadness and misery , as well as other ordinary mortals . and so seneca objects to himself without ever attempting to answer it . you boast of mighty things , things too great not onely to be wish't for , but to be understood : and when you have vented these glorious braveries , viz. that it is impossible for a wise man to suffer poverty , you deny not but that he may as often as others want food and raiment . when you say that he cannot be obnoxious to madness , you deny not but that he may be beside himself , rave , talk wildly , and doe all the other pranks of frantick people . when you affirm that he cannot be any man's servant , you deny not but that he may be sold for a slave and doe all the offices of a black. and so when you have talk't after this proud and supercilious rate , after all you submit to the real condition of other mortals , onely abusing your selves with big and lofty words . and there indeed lay all the wisedom and all the folly too of the stoicks , that they would needs change the natures by the change of the names of things . and if there be any thing peculiar to their philosophy it consists in the invention of new words and pedantick distinctions . and therefore tully very unhappily brings in zeno thus rating all the philosophers that went before him , and that were content to suit their principles to the nature of things and the experience of sense : what can be more absurd , more foolish , and more insufferable than to reckon health , plenty , and all the other comforts and advantages of life into the accounts of good things ? i tell you plato , and you aristotle , you are dangerously and wofully mistaken , to call those things bona that are onely proeposita . a desperate errour , that unavoidably destroys all the rules and obligations of vertue , and confounds all the differences of good and evil. this change of words , as small a matter as it may appear , has so much influence upon the practice and emprovement of morality , that sufficiently re●ompences all the pains and disputations of the porch . o magnam vim ingenii , ( as he concludes ) causamque justam , cur nova existeret disciplina ! o brave zeno , it is gallantly done to reform the manners and the wisedom of the world ; thou , upright as thou art , wilt not be born away by carnal complyance with the corruptions of the age , or by the authority of self-seeking philosophers , that yield so much to the degenerate and low conceptions of the vulgar as to acknowledge that it is some kind of blessing to enjoy the comforts of health and plenty . o brutish and epicurean sottishness to adopt such sordid , such common and such uncertain things into any part of our happiness ! this is to expose a wise man as well as one of the common heard to the insolence of fortune ; and she may , if she please , in spite of vertue , riflle him of some share of his happiness . this is not to be endured that any thing should have any influence or power over a sage beside his own sovereign and imperial will. and therefore however any disease may rack or torment you , keep your courage , and never confess it to be evil , 't is nothing worse than a meer refusable event . and then no doubt the poor man's mind is at perfect ease , and bravely fortified against all manner of pain and impatience . and that is the great power of their philosophy to asswage pains and cure diseases by exotick words , and by giving it a greek name they can make sickness , poverty , or any other calamity of life harmless things . and let a vertuoso determine a fit of the stone to be no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a refusable thing , and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an evil ; and he makes it as pleasant and agreeable to himself as the joys of paradise . and think not to convince zeno or antisthenes of their mistake with racks and tortures , alas they laugh at all your vain attempts , and what have they to doe with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; no , they too are as much at ease in the bull of phalaris as upon a bed of roses . the fire has not so much power or confidence as to dare to singe one hair of a philosophers beard , and if it should be so bold as to attempt them , they will damp and basfle all its fury with a querk of logick . in short , these men talk more like magicians than philosophers , and can doe any thing or be any thing by virtue of a strange word . ex iisdem verborum proestigiis ( as tully to cato ) & regna nata vobis sunt & imperia , & divitiae , & tantae quidem , ut omnia , quae ubique sint , sapientis esse dicatis . from these jugling tricks and legerdemains of words you raise , and as it were conjure up to your selves kingdoms and empires , and wealth so much , that nothing less will satisfy you , unless every wise man among you may be master of the whole world. but to leave them to their own conjuring arts , i shall briefly discourse with them according to the true and real account of things . if then there be no such thing to be reasonably expected as a future state , let us onely see what ground of happiness is to be enjoyed from vertue , and what obligations of vertue can be passed upon the stoical principles . as for happiness they lay the foundations of it ( as i have already observed ) upon that self-love that every creature bears to it self and its own preservation . either then humane nature is nothing but body , or compounded of body and soul ; if it be nothing but body , then upon the stoical principles it is capable of no happiness at all , seeing they pass nothing in their account of good and evil but onely the vertues of the mind , and therefore if they are nothing but body , all the qualities of their mind are nothing . but if beside that we have a soul , either it perishes with the body or it survives it ; if it perishes then it is no more than the sense of the body it self , and it plainly casts us back upon the epicurean principle , that there is no happiness but present pleasure and interest ; if it survive , then that entitles it to an happiness beside that of this life , and so we are advanced to our own hypothesis . as for vertue the whole sect place it in one catholick principle of living according to nature . but then the difficulty is to discover what they mean by nature , and there every man is a sect to himself , and we have as many different accounts of it , as there are ruling schoolmasters of the porch . but what interpretation soever we follow , unless founded upon our supposition , we are still forced back to the school of epicurus , for his principle too was to live according to nature , which was to enjoy the utmost pleasure of this present life ; and if there be no other state , it is certain there can be no other way of living according to nature . thus zeno's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. a constancy to a man's self , and some settled course of life , would amount to no more than this , that every wise man ought to consult how to live here with as much ease and pleasure as he can ; for if there be no other state , he cannot be wisely constant in the pursuit of any better design . and then as for cleanthes his notion , that living according to nature is to comply with universal nature , that is to submit to the providence of god. this properly concerns the single vertue of patience , and yet affords us no more comfort than that forementioned principle of the necessity of the thing ; for if i am any way fatally involved in misery , whether by providence or by chance , i am equally miserable . but then this rule , if applied to the duty of man in general , signifies nothing at all . for what is it to follow the providence of god unless it be to approve of and comply with every thing that comes to pass ? if so , then seeing villany does as often prosper as vertue , by that alone the providence of god would recommend it to our choice . and that no doubt would be an admirable rule of justice and honesty ( as we have found by late experience ) that destroys all difference between good and evil but what is made by the event of things , and changes their natures with the change of times and fashions . the third and last opinion is that of chrysippus , that to follow nature is to follow our own proper nature or the guidance of our own reason . but then if there be no other estate of things beside this , every man 's own natural understanding will easily inform him that he is concern'd in nothing else then to consult his own present pleasure and advantage . but this conclusion is so evident that i shall pursue it no farther , so that though after i had considered their general principles , i intended to have enter'd upon the particular treatises of seneca , antoninus and epictetus ; i now find it absolutely needless , of which any man that will reade them over may satisfie himself , for if he reade them with our supposition he will find them for the main wise and rational discourses ; but if without it , they all vanish into meer poetry and elysian dreams . § xxvi . in the third place , the platonists , and from them the peripateticks were pleased to enlarge the bounds of humane felicity , and make our happiness of equal extent with our capacities ; making every thing an ingredient thereof , that is any way gratefull or suitable to our natures . and therefore to a vertuous life they superadded all the goods of body and fortune ; and to render a man truely and completely happy they required , beside the endowments of the mind , all the other comforts and enjoyments of humane life . and this they assert reasonably enough from the first principle of nature , in which alone all sects of philosophers agree ; that every sensible being bears an innate love and kindness to it self , and from that is possest with a natural desire not onely of its own preservation , but of the most perfect state and condition that its nature is capable of . so that the parts and degrees of our happiness are to be measur'd onely from the capacity and variety of our faculties : and therefore humane nature being compounded of two principles , body and mind , they must both be gratified in their respective sensations to make up the adequate notion of humane happiness . and as for the gratification of the mind , that they say consists principaly in the constant exercise of vertue ; and subordinately in knowledge , wisedom , contemplation , or any other exercise of wit and ingenuity . and then as for the happiness and well-being of the body , that consists chiefly in an healthfull , sound , and vigorous constitution ; and subordinately in all the other accidental advantages of this present life , that are so many instruments of pleasure and delight . these men discourse more consistently than the other sects to the constitution of humane nature , and give a fuller account of the condition of humane happiness , in that they take in all our capacities , and do not with the epicureans consine it to the body alone , nor with the stoicks to the mind alone ; but take our nature as they find it , and suit its happiness not to the workings of their own imaginations , but to our real state of being . but though these approach nearer than either of the former to the true notion of happiness , yet are they as distant as either of them from its acquisition : insomuch that when they come to reduce their principle to practice , they are at last forced to delude themselves with the very same maximes and paradoxes . and therefore though tully has , in his books de finibus fully confuted the hypotheses both of the epicureans and stoicks , yet when he comes , in his tusculine questions , to discourse practically concerning the same things , he at last produces no better grounds of comfort and contentment than those that he had at first rejected , and is in the result of every discourse either an epicurean or a stoick , or both . and this i shall prove distinctly in both the forementioned heads of dispute . first , that he is able to give no better account of happiness than the epicureans . nor , secondly , to lay any better grounds for the stability , or assign any more effectual motives for the practice of vertue . from both which it will evidently appear that there is some further account to be given of these things than what he has given upon supposition of the soul's mortality , if there be a providence that has made happiness our end and vertue the means to attain it . and first he begins with the greatest difficulty of all , the fear of death ; where all the philosophick consolation he is able to give us , is built upon little tricks and subtilties , and chiefly upon that pitifull sophism of epicurus , that death can never doe us any harm , because when that is , we are not . but , first , let him say what he will , it is inconsistent with his own first and fundamental principle , viz. that the most vehement passion of humane nature is a love of it self and its own preservation ; and therefore to endeavour to reconcile a man to utter death and dissolution is to perswade him to contradict himself and his own nature . this principle then of self-preservation being once supposed as natural and necessary , it prevents the very consideration of all manner of discourses opposite to it . and to what purpose is it for tully with all his wit and eloquence to perswade me not to dread death , when he has beforehand told me it , as the most undoubted truth in all philosophy ( and so it is ) that i cannot avoid to love and desire life ? he must first renounce his principle , and i my nature , before we can begin to philosophise upon this argument . and therefore , secondly , be it so , that when death is , we are not , yet what relief is this against the melancholy thoughts of the living , who as much as they love their own existence by virtue of their former principle , cannot but as much dread by virtue of the same the apprehensions of its utter dissolution ? so that as long as this invincible instinct of nature remains , that can neither be destroyed nor commanded , the anguish of this single meditation is too close and affecting to be allayed or over-ruled by any other . or , as himself has framed the objection , without so much as attempting to answer it , quid ? qui vivimus , cum moriendum sit , nonne miseri sumus ? quae enim potest in vitâ esse jucunditas , cum dies & noctes cogitandum sit , jam jamque esse moriendum . what though after death we shall never be sensible of the loss of life , yet whilst we live what comfort can we enjoy , if we lie under such an invincible necessity of dying ? what freedom and satisfaction can we reap from all our pleasures , whilst this ugly thought haunts us day and night , jam jamque esse moriendum ? whatever diverting arts we may fly to to stifle this reflection , it is so unwelcome to our minds and so affrightfull to our natures , and so insuperable to all the powers of reason and philosophy , that when all is done there is no remedy but we must lie down and languish all our days under its fatal and intolerable expectations ; so that if any thing can be said well of death , it is onely this that it delivers us from the fear of it self . but however ( proceeds he ) death ought not to appear so formidable to a wise man , though it were for no other reason than that it delivers us from the miseries of life . and when it is objected that , granting all his subtilties , and that there is indeed no capacity of misery where there is no sense , yet illud angit vel potius excruciat , discessus ab omnibus iis , quae sunt bona in vitâ , 't is this that grieves and gripes our souls , that we must for ever forsake all the joys and comforts of this life ; he returns upon the objection with this brisk and nimble answer , vide ne à malis dici verius possit . you miserably mistake your self in the framing your objection , instead of the joys and comforts you should rather have said the evils and miseries of this life . and when you consider the emptiness and dissatisfaction of all its enjoyments , and reflect upon the smart and the weight of all its calamities , you will be so far from trembling at the horrour of your fate , that you will esteem it your greatest privilege ; and there may you , when you please , take sanctuary from all those troubles and vexations that pursue you and all mankind through the whole course of life . and now is not this , think you , a mighty support to the minds of men , to be informed that all the happiness they are capable of is onely to cease to be miserable ? with what cheerfulness and tranquility can those men live , that live all their days upon this lank meditation , that though i must endure torment as long as i endure life , yet the time will come when i shall escape both , and cease to be miserable by ceasing to be . oh the transport and ravishment of these philosophick reflections ! who can desire greater ease and complacency of soul , than to be always thinking ( if thinking at all ) that though my present state be so utterly forlorn and restless , yet however this is my comfort that i shall one day be at quiet , when death shall deprive me of all sense and being for ever . is not this a very comfortable representation of the best condition and whole capacity of humane nature to be uncessantly bandied up and down ( like the old britains between the sea and the barbarians ) between two such formidable evils ? the sorrows of life drive us to death for refuge , and the horrours of death fright us back upon the miseries that we fly ; and thus whether we resolve to live or to die we are equally distressed and miserable . so that he is so far by this principle of consolation from giving us any comfort against the terrour of death , that he has instead of that destroyed all the comfort of life too . but nature ( he tells us ) has not granted us our beings upon the title of fee-simple , but has onely lent us the use of our lives for a certain time , and that during pleasure , and therefore we have no reason to complain of her , whenever she demands them back , because she gave them upon no other condition than that we should always be ready to resign them upon demand . but if nature have clogg'd her kindness to us in bestowing our beings upon us with this hard condition , she had been much kinder if she had never bestowed them at all . for the severity of the condition annexed to the gift , not onely destroys all the pleasure and enjoyment of it , but turns it into anguish and misery . and this is all along our very complaint against nature , that she has put us into such a condition of life , as that we cannot enjoy it without continual grief and horrour of mind . so that she has sent us into the world , not like her off-spring , but like malefactours , with the sentence of death passed upon us as soon as we are born . and therefore to tell us that this is the order and disposition of nature is not to answer but to grant the objection , because that alone makes us fatally miserable . so that when monsieur charon asks me , if it grieveth thee to die , why wert thou born ? i tell him plainly , if i was born with that condition of dying for ever , i was born to no other purpose than to be miserable : so that if it could have been in my power to have prevented my coming into being , i should more passionately have fled from life than now i do from death ; and being i could not avoid to be born , i am bound all my days to curse and hate the cause that gave me so wretched a being . at least if nature resolved to beget us mortal , she might have been so kind as to have kept from us the knowledge and foresight of our own mortality , and then might we have enjoyed our present lives with some competent content and cheerfulness ; but when she has given us so strong a love of life , continually to embitter that with as vehement a fear of death is onely to make our very existence a scence of misery , and to give us our beings to be a torment to themselves . and whereas , as he adds for our comfort , that there is no such thing as length or shortness of life in it self , but that it consists meerly in comparison ; and that the insect , whose life begins and ends with one half revolution of the sun , is as old at the evening of the day as a man at threescore ; beside that this is but a poor shift of sophistry , as i have already shewn against the epicureans , i would be content to exchange my life of sixty years with your little happy insect that lives but a day . for when the sun has scatter'd all the chill horrours of the night and darkness , and gilded the world with light and splendour , then it is that this little creature thrusts up its head , assays its wings , forsakes the clod that bread it and mounts up into the calm and gentle air ; where it sports and revels and rejoyces in that light and warmth that gave it being , and dances away all its little age with mirth and gaiety . it s life is short indeed but pleasant , ours long and tedious ; its age is all sunshine , the greatest part of ours darkness and sorrow ; it sports away its little interval of being , but ours is fretted and consumed away with restless cares , mournings and afflictions . but that which makes the main difference between us is , that this little creature as it lives merrily so it dies unconcernedly ; whereas my whole life , howsoever otherwise happy , is turn'd into meer anguish and bitterness with the perpetual and intolerable horrours of death . and the longer it lasts , the more miserable it is , in that it is nothing else than to be so much the longer tormented with the fearfull expectation of a certain evil ; and therefore as the law ( as cardan observes ) takes care that at the execution of malefactours the more modest and less criminal should be first dispatched , but the bolder and greater offendours be made spectatours of the death of others before they suffer'd themselves ; so nature , where she has a mind to shew the greatest kidness , puts soonest out of pain , but where she intends severity she keeps men longer in suspence , and makes them to behold their friends and companions fate before she brings them to their own execution . in short , this is a very strange oversight of all the philosophers , that when they have instructed us that the love of life is of all passions the most natural , they should notwithstanding that with the same unanimity agree to perswade us not to fear death because that is natural too . what a contradiction is this in nature to force us to desire the continuance of life , and yet require us not to fear its discontinuance ? but if the first be ( as it is ) the most natural of all our passions , it prevents the force of all others that are inconsistent with it . so that if in the first place we desire to live , it is a vain attempt to perswade us not to fear to die , because upon the supposition of the love of life , the fear of death is unavoidable . so that the philosophers having unanimously laid the love of being as the fundamental principle of all their morality , it spoils all their consolatory discourses , from what topicks soever , against the dread and terrour of dying ; and therefore it is needless for me to pursue any more of their particular reasonings upon this argument , because they all at first view dash so apparently against this first principle . § xxvii . and now having , as he supposes , vanquisht this king of terrours the fear of death , he thinks it an easie task to rout all the little evils of life ; and had he done that , he had without any farther pains perform'd his whole design . for what can hurt the man who fears not to die ? for death is a remedy always at hand , so that if he think it not convenient to struggle with the miseries of life , by dying he may put an end to all . but having beaten him out of that sanctuary , which he had raised by his first days conference , we shall follow him through the rest of his ensuing disputations . the two next enemies therefore that he undertakes are pain and grief . and though his discourses upon these arguments are very large , copious and eloquent , yet all the philosophy of them is comprehended in two or three short propositions . the first is , that dishonour is worse than pain ; and yet nothing can be more dishonourable to the courage of a man , or more unbecoming the dignity of a philosopher than complaints and impatience , or an abject behaviour under calamities . yes , no doubt there is a decency in bearing afflictions with a manly courage . what then , is this any remedy to relieve or asswage the pain ? for , first , wherein consists this ground of comfort ? is it not that other men judge that you behave your self handsomely and like a man ? now who are they ? they are either the foolish or the wise part of mankind . but how can the opinion of fools afford any comfort to a wise man ? especially when you have ( and that justly ) discarded the common people as an ignorant , idle and regardless herd . and as for the opinion of the wise , which way can that alleviate any man's pain ? for if you are in pain , and counterfeit that you are not , if they are wise they know that you dissemble , and certainly their knowledge of your hypocrisie can be no comfort ; or if they thought you in good earnest , it is not conceivable how their false opinion should afford any true satisfaction to a wise man. but , secondly , how does the decency of my behaviour any way asswage my pain ? or do the cholick , the gout and the stone rage ever the less for the stoutness of my look ? and then if the pain be not rebated by my courage , though i have strength of mind enough to seem to follow this advice , yet am i notwithstanding never the less miserable . not that i deny it to be a wise advice , for though it is not sufficient to remove our pains , yet it instructs us not to double their smart by fretting under them . and that is the most material difference between a wise man and a fool in this case , that the one endures onely the simple and natural sense of his pain , whereas the other by his impatience adds to that the anguish of his own resentment , which affects quicker and pierces deeper than the pain it self , and makes way for it through the body into the very soul. but though the advice be wise not to make our selves more miserable than we needs must be , yet it is utterly ineffectual to make us less miserable than we really are . and therefore it is no remedy against the distemper for the cure whereof it is prescribed , because the pain it self is the same with all the resolution in the world as it is without it . and yet that is the thing that he undertakes , to bring us to an absolute neglect and contempt of all pain . and then , lastly , we are in quest of happiness , whereas this onely instructs us how to behave our selves under misery ; and so destroys the supposition of the subject of our question , which is , whether a man under pain can be happy ? and that he cannot is very evident , because all pain is miserable . and if it be so , sentences will doe no good , unless he could give us some real ground of comfort to support our minds and cheer up our spirits ; and for that there can be no other than the thoughts of and reflections upon an happiness to come . and that indeed would make all our pains very light and tolerable , but without it there is no remedy but they must lie upon us with their full load . but vertue , he says , requires patience . it does so , but it does not asswage pains . and if it could , yet taken alone , it is so far from supporting our minds that it cannot support it self ; as i have in part proved already , both against the epicureans and the stoicks , and shall do more largely when i come to consider our authour's discourse upon that argument . and this is all that i meet with material in his second book . for as for the examples of the lacedaemonian boys and the roman gladiatours , and other instances of hardiness , they onely prove the strange power of custom and education , but are no proof that they are less affected with their pain because they are able to stifle the natural expressions of it . but however it looks brave and generous out of principles of reason to be able to doe what they are able to doe out of a meer customary hardiness . it is so , and more than that , it is wise too . but yet that , i say , is no relief against the pain ; and if it be not , our philosopher falls short of his whole design . for as in his former discourse he endeavours to deliver us from that misery that we suffer from the fear of death , so in this he undertakes to rescue us from that which we suffer from bodily pain ; and then if he has prescribed nothing to remove it , he has done nothing to his purpose . though after all , his discourse is very wise and usefull , in that it keeps us from encreasing our pains when we cannot allay them . and that alone is of very considerable use in humane life . and i doubt not but we may ( as he says we may ) arrive to a great degree of patience and constancy by an habitual firmness and resolution of mind , or as he expresses it , by an inward discourse with our selves to doe nothing that is weak and unmanly ; and therefore , whenever we see a calamity to approach us , to betake our selves to these thoughts as it were to our arms , and to stand prepared to receive it with a steady foot and an undaunted look ; and then though we cannot repulse it , yet we shall bear it more firmly . § xxviii . the next passion that he undertakes is that which he calls aegritudo , grief , trouble , or discontent of mind for all losses and misfortunes that either have or may betide us . and , first , he confesses that this is an humane passion , that we are not made of flints , nor hew'd out of rocks , but that there is a natural softness and tenderness in mankind , which forces them to yield to the weight of those miseries that oppress them ; and therefore that it was not absurdly said of that eminent philosopher of the academy crantor , that indolency was so far from being the perfection of wisedom , that it was the effect either of outrage in the mind or numndness in the body , and that as long as a man has the use either of his senses in the one or his understanding in the other , he cannot avoid to shrink whereever he feels it smart . and yet for all this he undertakes to rid us of all kinds of disturbance ; which if he could perform , i must confess his philosophy is much more powerfull than his oratory , though here his eloquence must be very great too to perswade us out of our very senses ; for that is the main argument of his discourse , that whatever trouble we may think we lie under never arises from any real cause but meerly from fancy and opinion . but this methinks he ought to have proved by running through all the supposed miseries of humane life , and if he could shew that there is no reality in any of them , that would plainly make good his undertaking , that there is no real cause of trouble in the world , nay that would save him the labour of all his other philosophical discourses ; for it is plain that if there be no such thing as evil , there is no need of any comfort against it . but instead of this he onely makes good his own proposition by his own definition ; a fault , of which all the philosophers are extreamly guilty : all trouble says he is unreasonable because all perturbation is a motion of the mind either void of or contrary to reason , that is to say , because it is unreasonable . and yet this ( i am sorry to say it ) is all the proof that this great man brings to make good so strange a paradox , that whenever men complain of any thing that disquiets them , they do not really feel any inconvenience at all , but onely dream and fancy that they do so . as if all mankind were in the same condition with the mad-man that cardan speaks of , that though he had a great estate and his barns and store-houses full , yet because he could find no corn in the straws , that he was wont to pick in his raving fits , was continually bemoaning himself that he must be famisht for want of bread. but whether the evils of life be real or phantastick , there is a very cunning trick to avoid all their trouble ; that is , by foreseeing and expecting them , in that it is not so much the calamity as the surprise that afflicts the minds of men. and here , in the first place , i grant that this preparation of the mind to receive the blows of fortune does not a little deaden their stroak , and that the man who throughly considers to what innumerable miserie 's humane nature is obnoxious , when any of them befall him is not half so much grieved as he that thinks of nothing but sunshine and prosperity . but though this may perhaps make us less miserable , yet it does not make us in any degree happy , which is the thing that our philosophy here promises , and if it do not perform it , our objection still stands good , that upon their principles there is no such thing as humane happiness ; and then as to that point it matters not what arts and methods there may be of lessening humane misery . but then , secondly , this artifice as much as it abates in the intenseness of the trouble , so much it encreases it by extending it . for as a foreseen misfortune affects not the mind with so sharp an agony when it comes , yet the very foresight it self is some degree of anxiety , so that it takes off no more of the present evil than it has inflicted beforehand ; as standing upon the guard to expect an enemy , though it prevents the fright that would have been made by a suddain assault , yet is it a considerable piece of pains and hardship in it self . so that though the misery may seem more tolerable by being undergone by degrees rather than all at once , yet taken all together it is never the less misery . and therefore it was a moot point even among the sensual philosophers themselves which was most eligible , to suffer all at once , as the epicureans ; or to anticipate some of the present misery by premeditation , as the cyrenaicks . epicurus his prescription was never to think of miseries till they came , but on the contrary aristippus his advice was to be ever thinking of them . and which was the wisest counsel it is very hard to determine ; for it is a very melancholy thing to be always reckoning upon being miserable ; and beside the natural anguish of such thoughts themselves , they inflict upon us innumerable evils , that would otherwise have never befaln us ; they make every misery that is but possible , to be an actual grief and torment . and on the otherside , it is very grievous to be surprised with an unsuspected misery ; the fright is as great as the smart , and the defeat of our expectations greater than both . so that though in this controversie our philosopher is pleased to side with the cyrenaicks , he brings no reason for his so doing beside his running down the epicurean philosophy in gross ; and yet that as much concerns the cyrenaicks as themselves ; for though they differ in this particular proposition , they both agree in the same general principle , that there is no happiness but of the body . and that being supposed , it is hard to say who gives the wisest advice to prevent misery , either he that by foresight abates but extends the pain , or he that by neglect contracts it into a sharper but a shorter fit . though which soever is best , they are both no better than the comforts of despair , which is the very abyss of misery ; for they both resolve into one and the same principle , that we are condemn'd to misery ; and therefore , says one , count upon it aforehand , and then you will feel it less when it comes ; no , says the other , think as little of it as is possible , it is enough to endure when we cannot avoid it . and this is all the comfort that our philosopher , and indeed all sects of philosophers send us in against the evils and misfortunes of life , to let us know that such and such is the condition and fate of mankind . art thou tortur'd with any violent and sharp disease ? why ! thou wert born with a body liable to such distempers . has death robb'd thee of thy dearest friend ? why ! he was born mortal . hast thou suffer'd great losses ? why ! then fortune is unconstant , &c. a strange way to be happy this , onely by counting upon being miserable ! can this mitigate the tortures of the stone , to be told that my body is exposed to their rage ? does this lessen my pain ? has it any influence upon my sensories , or does it at all dull and mortifie their sensations ? nay , is not this the very root of all my misery , that i have such a sad and experimental conviction of the inevitable evils of humane life ? and when a man is rackt and torn apieces with torments , 't is no more ease than it is news to him to be told that indeed he may suffer them . so that the result of all came to no more than this , we all know the worst of our condition , that it is fatally miserable , and therefore we must resolve to bear it as we can , which is not to make us patient , but fullen , discontented and desperate . what then will you say , is there no difference between a fool and a philosopher ? truly upon their principles very little as to this point . they are both equally liable to the sorrows and calamities of life , and equally destitute of any grounds of comfort to support their minds under their sufferings . for it is not paradoxes and great sayings that can doe the business , and they may preach to us ten thousand witty apothegms , but nothing can ever really affect us , unless the discovery of some real and substantial good ; that indeed would enable us to endure all our present sorrows , not onely with patience but with cheerfulness ; in short , nothing but the reasonable hope and expectation of the happiness of another life can bear us up under the sorrows and calamities of this . and therefore , this principle being not taken in among their philosophick rules , advices and receipts of happiness , they fell as short of its attainment as the vulgar and the ignorant part of mankind . though i will not say that they were altogether as miserable , because the foolish people superinduce their own voluntary trouble from within to their casual calamities from without . thus though a philosopher does not asswage his pain by his patience , yet a fool increases it by his impatience . though the main advantage of all their philosophy was this , that it instructed them in the true value of the things of this life , so that they might not abuse themselves and their hopes with too swelling and vain expectations , and so forgo the actual comforts of their lives , such as they are , for pompous and troublesome nothings . and that is the unhappy condition of the vulgar herd , that they understand neither themselves nor the world , but are bred up to covetousness or ambition , and fancy to reap such a vast happiness out of their designs , that is not in the least suited to their present condition , but is onely such a paradise as they dream of ; and thus not being aware of the meanness of their capacity , forgetting their mortality , and not considering that they creep upon the earth , they think to lift their heads alost , and fancy they walk among the stars , take mighty pains to compass their little great designs , and if at last they doe it , they are then sadly cheated of their expectations ; if they doe it not , they are then infinitely undone , and for ever strangled with insupportable grief and anguish . this , i say , is the great and common folly of humane life and the ground of mens renouncing that little quiet they might otherwise have enjoyed , onely to pursue some great and anxious fancy . whereas wise men deal faithfully with themselves , reflect impartially upon the condition of their natures , understand the true state of humane affairs , and expect no more from the world than the world is able to afford ; and hence they moderate their designs and desires , and do not lose that little present tranquility that they might enjoy , with surious and restless prosecutions after such an happiness as they can never obtain . but though they do not load themselves with needless cares and vexations , yet they must with all the rest of mankind couch under such as are necessary and unavoidable , because they have no substantial good to support their minds under them , and for want of that the difference between a fool and a philosopher in point of positive happiness is very little and inconsiderable . § xxix . and thus having taken in as it were all these little outworks of the philosophers , we now come to lay siege to their very capital , viz. that let our condition be what it will , vertue will supply all wants and overcome all miseries ; or that that alone is , as brutus expresses it , abundantly sufficient to its own happiness . than which there is no one thing more greatly and magnificently said in all philosophy , and it is a sentence worthy the noble courage and gallantry of its authour , by which he apparently stear'd the whole course of his life , though it seems it fail'd him at his death . but if there be any such thing as vertue ( says our great philosopher ) it is entirely satisfied in it self , and being so , it is above all the attempts of fortune , and then may with confidence and bravery despise all whatsoever , that can befall it . this , this is the true ground of all philosophick wisedom , slighting all other things as trifles wholly to employ our selves in this great and noble exercise of life . o thou sovereign guide of humane kind , thou patroness of good men , and scourge of vice , how forlorn and despicable a thing were the life of man or man himself without thee ? thou didst at first found cities , thou didst at first call that wild beast man out of caves and dens into societies , thou wert the first authour of all domestick and civil friendships , thou art the onely foundress of all laws and good manners ; to thee alone doe we owe all the comfort and happiness of humane life , and to thy divine discipline do we entirely submit our selves ; one day spent according to thy precepts is infinitely to be preferr'd to an eternity of vice or luxury . with many more such flights and transports are we entertain'd in this eloquent discourse , and it seems to have been written with a more than usual warmth and spirit out of that vehement delight he ever had to oblige and gratifie his justly admired brutus : but as for arguments he is forced to satisfie himself with such as himself has already confuted . for it is very observable that he here wholly quits his own sects of the peripateticks and academicks , and turns perfect stoick , and cashiers all the goods both of body and fortune out of the accounts of happiness , and confines all the nature and exercise of it onely to a life conducted by the rules and laws of vertue . first then , let us see for what reasons he forsakes his own discipline ; and , secondly , by what arguments he establishes that of the stoicks . as for the reason of the first it is very obvious , forasmuch as no man can be happy that is in misery ; and therefore if that may be created by the evils of body or fortune , then no man , how good or wise soever , is capable of being happy . for if there be three kinds of good and three kinds of evil , as they say there is , then he that is tortured with all the evils of two of them , that is , he that is racked with all manner of pains in his body , and is oppressed with all the spites of fortune in his estate is , notwithstanding all the happiness that he can reap from the third sort of good , sufficiently miserable . secondly , no man can be happy that is not secure of his happiness , in that his very insecurity is so much misery ; and therefore he that places two shares out of his own power can have no security of their enjoyment , and so no happiness . so that if health of body and prosperity of fortune be two necessary ingredients of humane happiness , the case is plain that it is impossible to secure that , because it is impossible to ensure their continuance . but of the uncertainty of these things i have already discoursed against the epicureans , and now i shall , in a few words , represent their vanity . suppose then a mamblessed with all the advantages that the whole world is able to afford him , what is it all but a shadow and a phantasm ? and , to make short work of it , how vain and imaginary are the prerogatives of the most envied and desired conditions of life ? for princes cannot enjoy beyond the capacities of private men , and though they may possess the whole world , yet they can use and taste no more of it than inferiour persons . their appetites are as finite as other mens , and when they have all the delicacies that a wanton or a witty luxury can devise , they can but enjoy and seast to satiety , and so can the meanest and most despicable cottager . in short , they enjoy nothing beyond others but tumults of pomp and ceremony , unless great cares and anxieties make up any part of humane happiness . and of this cardan propounds a very apt instance in charles the fifth , king of spain and emperour of rome , the most fortunate prince , not onely of his own time but of many foregoing ages ; who enjoyed a very large empire not onely in europe but in the indies ; who was successfull in all his enterprises beyond his hopes and desires ; who was not onely absolute sovereign in his own dominions , but umpire between all christian princes , and disposed of seigniories and kingdoms at his imperial will and pleasure . and yet this mighty man lived always in danger of the incursions of solyman the great , was continually fretted with the endless divisions of the german and italian princes , perplexed with the loss of this fleet and that army . now , says he , shall we esteem this man happy , that was so perpetually disquieted with such cares , such dangers , such losses ? may i perish if i would not rather choose the condition of a poor carthusian , though it is in reality no better than that of a slave . and as if this had been a real prophesie , that great prince ratified it not many years after by his own choice , taking sanctuary from all his greatness and prosperity by entring into a monastick life . and should we ransack the histories of all the most fortunate princes in the world , we should quickly find all their felicity embitter'd with so many griefs and crosses as to conclude with pliny , after all his search , that there never was any such thing as an happy prince in the world. and now , when we have cut off the vanities of state and grandieur , that so much dazle and amuse those that know them not , and so little satisfie those that do ; the delights of nature that remain , and that all mankind doe or may equally enjoy , though they are not altogether as useless and impertinent , yet are they altogether as unable to minister any competent satisfaction to the minds of men. for as for the pleasures of the body , their enjoyment consists rather in allaying miseries than in any true and real delight ; for they are pleasures upon no other account than their supplying some present wants , and when the indigence of any appetite is appeased , its pleasure then ceases , and when apicius has glutted himself with the choicest delicates that wit or wealth can compass , he does then loathe and nauseate them more than he ever desired or relisht them . beside this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as plutarch styles it ) this little lump of flesh is of all things the unfittest to be made the seat of happiness ; not onely because all the pleasures it is capable of , are so vain , short and transient , but because it is liable to so many , so sharp , so lasting , and so stubborn pains , any one whereof is heavy enough to weigh down our biggest happiness , though it were much more solid and substantial than it is . and yet there is no man that does not labour under some distemper or other , and though possibly at present he may be free from its actual pain , yet he cannot avoid its perpetual fear and foresight ; and certainly no man can be happy that lives either in actual misery or under the constant expectation of it , and yet into these two seasons is humane life as naturally divided as into night and day . and then as for the goods of fortune , no man was scarce ever yet so compleatly lucky as to have her always to comply with his desires . aristotle here reckons up riches , friends , authority , good birth , vertuous off-spring , strength , beauty , a sufficiency not onely for a man 's own personal wants , but all the necessities of kindred , friends and neighbours . what a strange variety of ingredients is here prescribed to make up an unattainable happiness ? for can any man ever be so phantastick as to imagine he can compass all these particulars ? if he can , he is certain to enjoy more happiness from his fancy than ever he can reap from his actual enjoyment . no , the world is too thick crowded with evils for any person that passes through it to escape them all ; and yet one single sorrow embitters all our comforts , and one disaster rifles the magazine of all our joys . at least one acute disease withers the most prosperous and flourishing condition ; so that suppose a man whose enjoyments are as great as his desires , enriched with vertue and in favour with fortune , yet one sharp distemper despoils him of all his comforts , and one rebellious humour is enough to poison a whole sea of content , and mountains of joy are not able to counterpoise one single misery . suppose a man advanced to the top of all possible prosperity , and encircled with an affluence of all delights , yet a fit of the stone disrobes him of all his grandieur , and casts him into a condition infinitely more comfortless than the most desperate and forlorn poverty . and this is the saddest proof of the inevitable misery of humane life , to consider to what innumerable sorrows we are obnoxious , and how impossible it is to escape them all ; and yet if one single misery do but mix it self with all our joys , how suddainly do they vanish and disappear , and how fatally do we sink under the intolerable burthen . in short , all the glory and all the happiness of mankind , is not able to support him under an ordinary distemper . to say nothing of the gout , the cholick , the stone , pleurisies , feavours , consumptions , and a thousand more instruments of humane miseries ; the palpitation of the heart , that is scarce accounted among diseases , if we may believe cardan , who knew it very well , is like the pains of the damned . nay , if but a fit of the tooth-ache make any man miserable , he can neither eat nor sleep ; and whilst it lasts it is not in the power of all the wealth and all the philosophy in the world to help or to relieve him . from all which it is sufficiently evident what good reason he had to renounce his own masters , that would have every wise man secure of his happiness , and yet make the goods of body and fortune part of it , of which no man can have any security . and now let us see how he acquits himself upon his own new principles . § xxx . first he refers us to his foregoing disputations , that if he have there concluded as he ought according to the rules of logick , that then vertue alone is abundantly sufficient to its own happiness ; because he has there effectually taken away all perturbations both of mind and body ; which being removed , every thing is avoided that is destructive of an happy life ; for it is they , and they onely that make him miserable ; so that vertue being able to cure or remove them all , 't is for that reason alone sufficient to its own happiness . but then if he have performed nothing of all this in his former disputations , then this way of arguing turns back upon himself , that mankind is fatally miserable , in that it is exposed to so many evils , which it is not in our power either to fly or conquer . for as himself argues , how is it possible for any man not to be miserable , that fears either death or pain , when the one is often present and the other always at hand ? to which if you add all the innumerable calamities of life , some whereof we feel , and all we fear ; and if we have no remedy against all that trouble they create , we are not onely not happy but in the highest degree miserable ; so that , having shewn that he has performed nothing of what he has undertaken in his former disputations , i may now justly conclude him by his own argument , that there is no relief against the miseries of humane life . but then , secondly , what though we are furnished with antidotes against evils , yet that does not place us in a condition of happiness , for it is one thing to be happy and another not to be miserable ; so that , all miseries taken out of the way , there is still something more required to give us actual content and satisfaction . no , says he , but as the sea is made calm onely by the ceasing of storms , so is a man happy by the cure of his passions . this is a pretty similitude , but ( as most similitudes are ) a very weak argument , for the calmness of the sea is a stupid , life-less and insensible thing , but man's happiness arises from his own sense and reflection ; and therefore it is not enough for him not to be rufled with sorrow and discontent , but to render him really happy , he must enjoy some substantial and suitable good , that may gratifie his faculties , and satisfy his mind . so that though he had performed what was promised in the former discourses , yet notwithstanding that , has he done nothing towards the acquisition of any real and positive contentment . but he proceeds ; every creature has its proper perfection , the proper perfection of the mind of man is reason , the perfection of reason is vertue , vertue therefore is the perfection , that is the complete happiness of humane nature . and it is true that every creature excels in some peculiar faculty , but then all its pleasure and satisfaction consists not in the single gratification of that faculty , but beside that all its other appetites are to be gratified in their several sensations ; and if they are not , that alone will overthrow all the delight that can arise from the exercise of its supreme faculty . thus the most accurate sense in a spaniel is smelling , which yet can afford but little contentment , if he be tortured in all his other senses . and so it is plain that the highest faculty in a man is his reason , but then it is plain too that the utmost emprovement of that can never place him in a state of sovereign happiness , if he endure pain and misery in his other inferiour faculties ; so that it is not the perfection of our highest faculty , but of our whole nature that is our supreme felicity . and therefore that consisting of sense as well as reason , it is not reason alone howsoever accomplisht and emproved that can complete our happiness . and then secondly , if there be no immortality , not vertue but self-interest is the perfection of humane reason ; for if man be capable of no other but his present happiness , then his reason will tell him that he is onely concern'd to take care of that , and to value things and actions not as they are good and evil , but onely as they are subservient to his own present advantage . and then is the very being of vertue overthrown , which were not vertue if it did not oblige to duty contrary to interest ; for that is the onely difference between a good and a bad man , that one prefers duty before interest , the other interest before duty . again , all happiness , says he , is matter of joy , all joy delights to shew it self , what delights to shew it self is glorious , what is glorious is praiseworthy , what is praiseworthy is honest , and therefore nothing is good but what is honest . or thus , whatever is good is desirable ; whatever is desirable deserves approbation ; whatever deserves approbation has worth and dignity in it self ; whatever has worth and dignity in it self is praiseworthy , whatever is praiseworthy is honest , and therefore whatever is good is honest . which argument he pursues after the manner of the stoicks in an hundred other ways of connexion ; but howsoever it is varied all the stress of it lies onely in the connexion of laudabile with honestum , praise or commendation with vertue ; for how great soever compass they may take , that is still the last medium by which they joyn happiness and vertue together . so that though the stoicks wrote numberless books of sorites ( as they call'd them ) upon this argument , they all amounted to no more than this one short syllogism ; whatever is good is praiseworthy , whatever is praiseworthy is honest , and therefore whatever is good is honest . but this , as tully himself has elsewhere answered , is a very trifling and precarious way of arguing . for who ( says he ) that affirms the goods of body and fortune to be part of our happiness will be so easy or so silly as to grant the first proposition , that all good is praiseworthy ; or that being granted , there is no need of proceeding to the second ; for there is no doubt of it , but that if all good be praiseworthy , all good is honest too . and therefore aristotle and the whole school of the peripateticks , against whom they dispute , will flatly deny the assertion , and tell you that health , strength , riches , friends , authority are very good things , and yet deserve not that which men call praise and commendation , that is the imputation of moral goodness . so that to pass this proposition as they do without any farther proof , is first to take what no man will grant , and then to conclude from it what themselves please . and now this one false step being barr'd , there is an end of all the stoicks voluminous disputations , and of all our oratours rhetorical flourishes , that are onely so many artificial transports and forms of eloquence in praise of this one proposition ; all which , if it be false , can never make it true ; and therefore till that is done , 't is all nothing but empty declamation . and for that reason i shall pursue him no farther here , but shall return back to his foregoing discourses , and shew first that he himself , after all his pains , has not been able to lay better grounds than the epicureans for the stability of vertue , nor more effectual motives for the obligation of its practice . and secondly , that when he has said all he can , that vertue alone is so far from being any sufficient ground of happiness , that it is not able to deliver us from any single misery ; from both which it evidently appears , that there is some farther account to be given of the government of the world , if there be such a providence as i have proved , that has made happiness our end , and vertue the means to attain it . § xxxi . and first , the state of the controversy between him and the epicureans is , whether pleasure or honesty be the supreme good. that pleasure in the sense of epicurus is not we have already proved ; and now we prove that honesty alone without some motives and enforcements beside it self is so weak a thing , that sensual pleasure and self-interest must get the upper hand of it in the minds and the actions of mankind . and if once we can prove that , we have routed the whole design of all his mortal morality ; and for its proof we shall follow his own steps . and first , whereas he defines honesty to be such a thing , as taking away from it all other rewards and advantages is justly commendable for its own sake , he makes it onely a glorious nothing . for what does this great word vertue signifie when separated from all other considerations ? do not all the philosophers agree there can be no such thing without prudence ? and will not common discretion dictate to any man not to doe , much less to suffer any thing for the sake of vertue unless upon prudential motives ? and then they ought to give us some account of the grounds and reasons that we have to prefer vertue for her own sake above all things else , and that without any present regard to our selves ; for if we act with regard to that , then we act not meerly for the sake of vertue , but for the sake of the present reward . but , say they , vertue is its own reward . be it so , then this turns us back upon our own principle , that it is of no force of it self but by virtue of its reward ; and then if we choose vertue because it is its own reward , we choose it for the same reason as if it were recommended to us by any other reward . but how is it its own reward ? for if it be true vertue it must foregoe all things rather than it self , otherwise still it is nothing else but present design and self-interest . now then , how can vertue taken alone give me any recompence or satisfaction for any loss that i sustain meerly upon her account ? how can justice alone requite my honesty if i lose either my own estate because i will not violate her laws ; or my neighbours , when i might have gotten it by fraud or oppression ? how can fortitude that puts me upon all manner of dangers even of life it self , recompence my pains , if it have no other reward beside the unaccountable happiness of enduring them ? so that this maxim , that in general looks so great and glorious , when applied to particulars is plainly no better than a shining and an empty bubble . and then to tell us as he does , that nature alone obliges us to vertue , is to say nothing at all , unless he would inform us too by what sanctions this nature ties her obligations upon us . for there can be no obligation that is not enforced by rewards and penalties ; so that if nature bind men to honesty against present interest , it must give them some reason of the duty ; that is , it must propound to them some advantage on the side of justice , and then they do not choose their duty against their interest , but foregoe a lesser for a greater advantage . so that if nature put us upon the practice of vertue , it is by virtue of some reward ; but where that fails , it is in vain to talk of the power and authority of nature , or any thing else . and whereas he adds that other creatures have no apprehension but of their present necessities , that yet mankind is endued with such a vigour and sagacity of mind as to foresee all the consequences of things , and to take the whole compass of humane life into consideration , and thereby to determine it self to the designs of vertue and honesty . this amounts to no more than what epicurus himself affirms , viz. that in the whole account of things vertue is for the most part most pleasant and advantageous ; and that where it is not so , there is no solid reason why it should be most eligible : so that still epicurus is plainly in the right , that whilst we discourse of happiness as attainable in this life only without any expectation of future rewards , honesty if separate from interest is no more than an empty name , and amounts to no more dignity than popular opinion . and as for all the fine stories that he tells us of some brave and heroick men that have been just to their own disadvantage , when they might have been unjust without danger or discovery ; it argues the generosity of their nature and their roman education , but does not prove that they lay under any the least obligation to it , and wholy resolves it into an empty name , and enforces it with no other reward but meerly vainglory . for if it be recompenfed with no advantage in this life , nor have hopes of any in the next , there remains no other motive to perswade its practice than barely to be talked of . and this was the case of his own famous country-men , curtius , torquatus , the decii , &c. that cast themselves upon extravagant and desperate attempts , onely to be praised by their fellow-citizens , that is out of vanity and ostentation ; for if they had no prospect of a future reward , they could have no other inducement to sacrifice their lives and beings . so that all the fine stories both of the grecian and roman heroes signify no more than those of the boys at sparta , and the gladiators at rome , who endured any hardship , even death it self with a steady countenance for no other reward but the applause of the spectatours . and if this be all the ground of vertue , we are again turn'd back to the epicurean hypothesis , viz. that it has no foundation beside the opinion of the common people , and yet that that is none at all , i think i have already proved more than enough against the epicureans . but lastly , as vertue alone is no sufficient foundation for it self , so much less is it able to secure our happiness . for first , granting all their strein'd panegyricks , that it is ( as it is ) without all competition the noblest and most raised satisfaction of humane nature , yet it is no security against the common calamities of humane life ; and though it may instruct how to bear the blows of fortune , yet is it no enchantment against its force , nor impenetrable to its spites . its votaries are no more exempted from disasters and sinister accidents than the profligate and the vicious . but all mankind are equally assaulted by those troops of foreign calamities that harass the confines of humane contentment with perpetual alarms and encounters . and though it were possible for philosophy ( as it is not ) to alleviate our miseries , yet it can never transmute them into joys ; and though the infusion of vertue into the cup of asfliction may lessen , yet it cannot abolish its bitterness . in short , though wise men were able to abate the sense of their calamities by prudent reflections , whilst the froward and passionate double their resentments by their impatience ; yet they can neither make themselves senseless of evils and malicious events , nor so far alter the natures of things , as to extract pleasures out of painfull sensations . for howsoever any sect of men may affect to vent paradoxes and speak big sentences , yet the most stoical and conceited apathist of them all would have but little heart to boast of his pleasures under cholick pangs . sickness and poverty lose not their stings when they fasten upon good men ; and vertue , whatever it does , repreives us not from the impressions of sense ; and therefore howsoever our minds are qualified , we are always exposed to the casualties of body and fortune . so that still a calamitous vertue is so far from rendring us completely happy , that it cannot make us less miserable ; and is rather an object of pity than desire , and apter to move compassion than envy . but secondly , the great service of vertue is to support us under and recompence us for those losses that we suffer upon her account . now how is it imaginable that she can doe this ? by her self alone ? but i have already shewn that so she is nothing ; and that no good man can draw any satisfaction from his being undone for having done well , if meerly his having done well be all the reward of his so doing , because he can never satisfie himself that he has done wisely too ; and then vertue separated from prudence becomes folly , and that can give no wise man any real contentment ; and if it should he would neither be a wise man , nor his content real . but a good conscience is the effect of vertue , and that alone makes every good man happy . but if vertue have no other reward beside it self , it lays no ground for a good conscience to bottom it self upon . for what comfort can it be to any wise man onely to be conscious to himself that he has undone himself for the sake of vertue , when he can give himself no reasonable account , why he should stick so stubbornly to her in opposition to his own interest ? for , that vertue alone is no reason , is already proved ; and if there be any other , then is there some other ground of happiness beside meer vertue and conscience , and that is the thing we are in quest of ; but without it , a good conscience alone is the same thing as vertue alone . what then , shall vertue ascend the rack and the gibbet , and leave happiness behind it ? yes , if vertue will be so hardy as to encounter racks and gibbets by her own naked strength , she may thank her own rashness if happiness forsake her there : for as there is no pleasure in being rackt and torn asunder , so neither is there any in suffering it meerly for the sake of vertue . but then , as happiness cannot ascend the rack , so vertue will not : for to what purpose should a wise man endure torments for no other recompence than onely his enduring them , and yet that is the highest exercise of his vertue . if he be wise , he will say or doe any thing rather than suffer the least thing for he knows not what ; and if he be a fool , it is not vertue but folly that mounts the gibbet . so that which way soever men turn themselves , all morality sinks to nothing without our supposition ; and therefore seeing the governour of the world has provided so carefully for it even in the nature of things , there is no avoiding the conclusion but that this must be added to it , because without it all his other provision would be useless and ineffectual . upon supposition then that there is a deity , and that this deity has enacted those laws for the government of the world , that i have described in the former part of this discourse ; it follows with undeniable demonstration that for that reason alone , though there were no other , he has withall provided some other state of things beyond that of this present life ; because otherwise when he has built this world with so much art , and contrived the nature of things with so much wisedom , he has done it all to no purpose ; and then there is neither art nor wisedom . so that these being antecedently proved , this that is so unavoidably connected with them , though it had no other proof , stands upon the same evidence of reason . especially when it is so needfull not onely to moral but to natural philosophy , that without it not onely all the laws of vertue vanish into nothing , but the whole frame of nature sinks into utter chaos and confusion . for that the world was built by a principle endued with wisedom and understanding is i hope sufficiently demonstrated from those evident ends , uses and designs of things that he propounded to himself in their order and contrivance ; and yet unless we suppose some other state of things than what is at present visible , after those undeniable demonstrations of all those wise designs that appear in every part and parcel of nature , it will as demonstratively follow that the whole was made to no end at all . which because it is so plain a contradiction to what was before so evidently demonstrated , that alone is as evident a demonstration of this , that is so certainly connected with it , as it is of it self . a demonstration of the divine authority of the christian religion , from the undoubted certainty of the matter of fact , and the uninterrupted tradition of the church . part ii. § i. having demonstrated the general providence of god in the government of the world by those laws of nature that he has enacted and proclaimed to all his rational creatures ; and proceeded , as far as the natural use of our faculties would guide me , to discover both the duty and the happiness of mankind . i now advance to a much greater and more glorious discovery of both , by that particular revelation that he has made both of them and himself in the christian institution . and here the advantages both as to the certainty of the reward and the perfection of the law are so exceedingly great , as almost utterly to supersede the necessity and usefulness of the former discourse . for , first , we were there forced to make out the law of nature to our selves by various observations of nature and trains of reasoning , but here we find them all distinctly and exactly drawn forth for our present use into particular rules and precepts , and made easie to our practice by familiar instances and examples of life : so that now without any laborious workings of our own minds , without any knowledge of nature , and without any skill in philosophy , our whole duty is made known to us in a system of plain and easie propositions . and then , secondly , when we had wrought out the laws of nature to our selves from the nature of things , after that we were forced to work the proof of a future reward out of them ; and though the connexion , when it is discovered , is very evident and undeniable , yet it requires some carefull intention of mind , and competent skill in the art of reasoning to discover it ; whereas now it is made evident to us beyond all doubt and exception both by certain revelation and experimental proof ; the knowledge whereof is conveyed to us by such undoubted records that we could scarce receive greater satisfaction of the matter of fact by the testimony and conviction of our own senses . and the divine providence has given us so great an assurance of the being of a future state , that we have not much more of the present . at least the grounds and motives of our christian faith are so convincing and demonstrative as not onely to perswade , but even to enforce our belief ; so that no ingenuous and unprejudiced mind can withstand their evidence , though it is possible that malice and peevishness may defeat their efficacy ; and so it may too , if it please , over rule the power of mathematical demonstration . but if men will be honest and impartial in the enquiry , and not do manifest violence to their own convictions , it will be as easie for them to doubt of or disbelieve all the problems about lines or numbers as to suspect the foundations of the christian faith. not that it is capable of the same kind of evidence , but because its proofs are so forcible in their own kind , that upon the same ground that any man shall distrust or demur upon their credibility , he is obliged to an universal unsettledness and irresolution of mind . for when we have weighed and consider'd the whole account of things , we shall find the rankest scepticism to be very little more unreasonable than infidelity . because though the evidence of all matters of fact and faith be onely historical , yet some historical evidence is so strong and convictive as in the last result of things to equal mathematical demonstrations . i know indeed we are told by some learned men that in matters of this nature we are not to expect demonstrative arguments , when the things themselves are not capable of any other than moral certainty . but here i would first enquire , what they mean by moral certainty . and to this their answer is ready . that it is all the certainty that the nature of the thing is capable of . but if that be the definition of moral certainty , then is all certainty moral , for every truth is capable of its own kind of certainty . but then , secondly , there are very many things , from which i am in reason obliged to suspend my assent , because they are not capable in their own natures to warrant its wisedom ; and though i cannot rationally expect more certain grounds concerning them , yet i cannot rationally give up my assent to them , because their evidence ( though the clearest that in that case i can expect ) is too obscure and uncertain to found any consident assent upon . thus have i a moral certainty that romulus was the founder of rome , i. e. i have all the proof of it that the matter is capable of , and yet have i not sufficient grounds to venture any thing that nearly concerns me upon the truth of it ; because the first beginning of the roman story is in many things very fabulous , and in all very far from being sufficiently certain . and therefore , thirdly , if by moral certainty they mean any less degree of evidence , as they plainly do when they distinguish it from the more certain ways of proof , then the scruple that remains after this their determination is this , that the very thing , the belief whereof is made the very foundation of our religion , is capable of no higher degree of evidence than onely moral certainty . in that it seems not consistent with the divine wisedom and goodness to lay any thing as the foundation of faith , but upon the firmest and most evident principles , when it is a matter of so vast and infinite concernment to mankind : so that when the object of our faith is a matter of the greatest moment , it is but just and reasonable that the evidence of its truth should be proportionable to the weight and value of its importance . in short , if they mean that this particular history has as great evidence as it is capable of , then all that they say , amounts to no more than this , that it has as much proof as it has . if they mean that this historical truth has as much certainty as any historical truth whatsoever is capable of , then why should they call this kind of certainty moral rather than any other ? historical certainty it is , but historical certainty is as certain in its kind , as physical or mathematical are in their kinds . and i have as great assurance that the fanatique rebels murther'd king charles the first , as i have of any proposition in euclid ; and a much greater than i have of any thing in natural philosophy , except the being and providence of a deity which indeed equals it . and the same evidence do the grounds and motives of our christian faith carry along with them ; in that the history of it asserts it self with so great and so many demonstrative circumstances , as makes it impossible to be false . § ii. for though their direct evidence be made up of many less evident particulars , yet the accumulation of all together amounts to the full evidence of demonstrative certainty . it being impossible that so vast a multitude of fair and plausible things should conspire to vouch and authorise a meer imposture . and that a palpable lie should by chance have as much evidence of proof as can be demanded for the most unquestionable truth of the same nature . or what can be more absolutely incredible than that a meer fable should be set off with all the advantages of argument , that the truest and best vouch't history in the world can pretend to ? and yet , i say , so many and so reasonable are the inducements of our faith , that though it be possible to hold out against their single force , yet in their united strength they grow into an evidence so great that it is little less than irresistible . they come so strong and so thick upon our minds , that they force their own way ; so that it is scarce left in the power of an honest mind to resist such armies and legions of reason ; though i know a stubborn man may struggle with the strongest conviction , and if he be resolved to be humoursome in his infidelity , it is not in the power of all the reason and all the demonstration in the world to force a wilfull understanding . and yet at prefent i shall wave all that variety of argument that by direct force asserts and proves the divine authority of the gospel , and rather choose to proceed in an inverse method , by turning the infidels weapons and sceptical objections upon themselves . so that whereas they are wont to attempt the foundations of our faith with a few weak and little cavils , i will load their infidelity with such an intolerable heap of absurdities as shall for ever dash their confidence and disarm their impiety . and if i can demonstrate the horrible absurdity of unbelief , that will be an irresistible demonstration of the reasonableness of belief . and i chose this way of procedure rather than the other , because though perhaps it is not more evident in it self , yet is it more affecting to the generality of the minds of men ; for i find most men so ill-natur'd as to be much more apt and forward to discern a falshood than to acknowledge a truth , so that it is much more easie to convince them by the absurdities of that , than by the rational proofs of this . though the chief reason why i pitch upon this method is because it is most proper and sutable to the temper of this present age : in that there are a sort of men too common among us , who , because they can say four or five witty things against the christian religion , will by all means be setting up for infidels , in spite of all that innumerable multitude of soher and reasonable arguments , that , if they do not utterly prevent , yet infinitely out balance all their little talkings . and if they can but pick up two or three unhappy remarques upon the holy scriptures out of that foolish book the leviathan , they think themselves made for ever , and how happy are they in the luckiness of the discovery . it mends their humours and raises their parts , and they that t'other day were but ordinary mortals as to the endowments of nature , and sufficient dunces as to the emprovements of learning , immediately become great philosophers and deep clerks . the forward youth sets up in his country for the man of logick and disputation , makes the simple and ignorant people stand amased at the wit and profoundness of our young master's discourse , and the poor village curate is sure to be the trophee of his confidence ; and if at any time he chance to encounter a man of learning , with what briskness does he attaque his gravity ; a gnat is not more troublesome with its little sting and buzz , than he with his small sophistry . and though the truant be no better furnished than the jews supposed the carpenter's son to have been , you shall find him upon all occasions disputing with the doctours and rabbies of the temple . and he shall disperse all that heap and accumulation of arguments that the most learned of them is able to produce in defence of the christian faith with any pitifull repartee , that beside that it is void of all reason , has scarce wit enough to tempt any man to laugh beside himself . now it is in vain to convince such men by downright dint of argument , and therefore seeing they have not wit or learning enough to be reason'd into truth and sobriety , i shall take another course with them by shaming them into it . let us then turn the tables , and consider a little how many strange and incredible things those men are forced to believe , that are resolved to disbelieve the gospel . and here immediately appear such vast numbers of horrid and ghastly incongruities , as are enough to scare any ingenuous man into the belief of any thing in the world rather than be troubled with such a monstrous and unreasonable infidelity . they must force their understandings to believe numberless contradictions to the common reason and experience of all mankind ; and they swallow not single absurdities , but every article of their unbelief is pregnant with swarms of extravagant and incredible conceits . § iii. and for the proof hereof i fhall represent no more than the incredibility of one , viz. that our saviour is not risen from the dead . and herein i follow his own wise and admirable advice , to begin the demonstration of his divine authority from the undoubted and undeniable evidence of his resurrection . for to that alone he refers us as the last and most satisfactory proof of his commission , and depends upon it as the clearest demonstration not onely of his doctrine , but of all the other arguments whereby he proved his doctrine . and for that reason it is that we find him so often injoining his disciples not to publish his other works and miracles till after his resurrection . thus when his apostles had declared to him the firmness of their belief that he was the true messias , he streightly charges them ( matt. . . ) that they should then tell no man of it , and takes occasion thence to acquaint them with his approaching death and passion , and prepare them for the belief of his resurrection from the grave , ascension into glory , and mission of the holy ghost . by which great miracles he was , as saint paul observes , ( rom. . . ) to be declared the son of god with power , but chiefly by his resurrection : for it was ( as the same apostle elsewhere expresses it ) the working of the might of his power , which he wrought in christ , when the father of glory raised him from the dead , ephes. . . and this probably was the meaning of those words immediately added by our saviour to his foremention'd discourse , verily i say unto you , there are those here present that shall not taste of death till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom : ( matt. . . ) in that he was as evidently declared by this to be the messias or son of god , as if they had seen him solemnly enthron'd in heaven by the holy angels . so again when the devils that he cast out were forced to confess him to be the messias , he still commands them silence . he was not willing that there should be too much notice taken of him before his resurrection , because by that he intended to give such a palpable proof of his divine authority , as should give undoubted credit to all his former miracles . and so again when he had taken his three chief disciples to behold his transfiguration , thereby to confirm their faith against the time of his suffering , when he had done that , he charges them , saying , tell the vision to no man untill the son of man be risen from the dead : ( matt. . . ) because the great evidence and certainty of that would give undoubted credit to this and all their other reports ; whereas till then men would be very difficulty perswaded to believe such prodigious and unusual things ; though after that , and the undeniable power of the holy ghost in the apostles who attested it , it would be so far from being at all difficult to yield to their testimony , that it would be almost impossible to distrust it . and therefore accordingly the first preachers of the gospel laid the whole stress of their faith upon this one principle . this was the resolution of all their disputes with the unbelieving world ; and when men in those days enquired after the truth of the christian religion , the onely state of the question was whether christ were risen from the dead . this alone without the assistance of any other proof was thought such a forcible and convictive confirmation , that it superseded the consideration of all other less evident and important reasonings ; and where this was not able to prevail upon the minds of men , they despaired of any success from any other topicks and principles . this then being so , i shall in this one article specifie according to the method before proposed those wild , those extravagant , those incredible absurdities that must be swallowed upon its disbelief . § iv. first then , they believe that the apostles , evangelists and disciples of jesus , who pretended to have been eye witnesses of it , both would and could impose upon the world with a manifest lie , and in that they believe ten thousand absurdities . for it is easily credible no doubt , that men endued , i will not say with principles of common sense , reason and discretion , ( that is more than i need suppose ) it is enough to our present purpose onely to suppose them possest with that natural instinct , that they have in common with all other creatures , viz. love of life and desire of self-preservation ; it is , i say , easily credible that such creatures as these would so willingly , so wilfully forgo all advantages of pleasure and profit ; so cheerfully expose themselves to so many hazards and hardships , so many reproaches and contumelies ; and so undauntedly endure so many tortures and miseries , so many bonds and imprisonments , so many martyrdoms and persecutions , onely to bear testimony to what themselves knew to be a lewd and shameless imposture . 't is a likely thing that so many plain and simple men should conspire together to the manifest ruine of all their worldly interests onely to gain credit and belief to a palpable falshood . that so many hundreds that pretended to be eye witnesses both of all our saviour's miracles in his life-time and his resurrection after death should lay down their lives to attest a false report ; and that no torments , no nor the most cruel death could ever prevail upon any of them to deny or disown their testimony . it is possible indeed , though not very usual , that men should lay down their lives for a false opinion , because it is possible for them to believe it to be true ; but it is by no means credible that they should persist to death for the justification of a false testimony ; for if it were false , they knew it to be so , and then if they will die in defence of its truth , they contradict the first instinct of their own natures , and throw away their lives for nothing . especially when beside that there was no present advantage in the lie it self , so none could ensue upon it ; for they could not possibly expect any reward of wealth , or honour , or power from the propagation of an extravagant and a proofless lie. nay , they quickly found that they must either part with all that was dear to them in this life , and even life it self , or forbear to spread and divulge the fable . now that beings endued with humane nature should act and suffer after such a rate for no design at all , nay , against the design of all designs is a thing so cross to all belief , that i may challenge all the infidels in the world to assign any one thing that is more incredible . if a great number of harmless and well-meaning persons should offer their oaths to attest any matter of fact , it justly commands and immediately over-rules our belief . and yet it is an easie thing to suppose that a great multitude would seal it with their blood that they saw jesus doe so many miraculous things , though they were conscious to themselves that they never saw him doe any one of them . they were certainly in a very pleasant humour , when they covenanted among themselves to sacrifice both their lives and fortunes to abuse the world with an unprofitable cheat ; but yet however one would think racks and gibbets would have spoil'd the frolick . and it is highly credible that any men , but much more these men , who have given us no ground to suspect their integrity , because they could have no motive to forgoe it , should prevaricate after such an odd and extravagant manner with mankind , yes and themselves too . and when so many plain and simple men , so apparently without craft , and without design , without advantage , without interest , have given the world the most unquestionable proofs that they were serious and in good earnest as to the certain truth and reality of what they related , after all this what wise and wary man would not suspect the forgery and disbelieve the relation ? but this argument i find prosecuted by eusebius with extraordinary acuteness both of wit and reason . supposing , says he , that our saviour never wrought any of those miracles that are unanimously reported of him by his disciples , we must then suppose that they enter'd into covenant among themselves after this manner : men and brethren , what that seducer was that lived among us t'other day , and how justly he suffer'd death for his vile imposture , we of all men have most reason to know ; and though others that were less intimately acquainted with him and his ways of deceiving , might have some opinion of his worth and honesty ; yet we , that were the daily companions of his conversation , saw nothing in him answerable to the greatness of his pretences , but that his whole design was by all the boldest arts of craft and hypocrisie to get a name in the world , and therefore let us one and all join hands and enter into solemn covenant among our selves to propagate the belief of this impudent cheat among mankind , and to fain all manner of lies for its confirmation ; to swear that we saw him restore eyes to the blind , ears to the deaf , and life to the dead ; and though it be all impudently false , yet let us confidently report it , nay , and stand too it to the last drop of our blood. and because , after all his great and glorious pretences of being no less than the son of god , he was at last executed as a vile malefactour , with all the circumstances of shame and dishonour , we must agree among our selves upon some lie to wipe off this disgrace . let us therefore resolve to affirm with an undaunted impudence , that after he was thus dishonourably crucified , the third day he arose again , and often conversed with us in the same familiar way , as he had always done before his execution . but then we must be sure to stand unalterably to the impudence of the lie , and to persevere to death it self in its assertion . for what absurdity is there in throwing away our lives for nothing ? and why should any man think it hard to suffer stripes , racks , bonds , imprisonments , reproaches , dishonurs , and death it self for no reason at all ? let us therefore unanimously and vigorously set our selves to the design , and with one consent agree to report such impudent falshoods , as are of no advantage either to our selves , or to those we deceive , or to him for whose sake we deceive . neither let us be content to propagate this lie onely among our own country-men , but let us resolve to spread it through all parts of the habitable world , impose new laws upon all nations , overthrow all their old religions , command the romans to quit the gods of their ancestours , the greeks to renounce the wisedom of their philosophers , and the egyptians the pretended antiquity of their superstition . neither will we take the pains to overthrow these ancient customs of the most polite and most powerfull nations in the world by the force of learning or wit or eloquence , but by the meer authority of our crucified master . neither will we stop here , but we will travel to all barbarous nations in the world , reverse all their ancient laws , and command their obedience to a new religion , and this let us resolve to go through with an undaunted courage and resolution . for it is not an ordinary reward that we expect for our impudence , nor is it for vulgar crowns and trophies that we engage our selves in such hard and hazardous enterprises . no , no , we are sure to meet with the utmost severity of the laws in all places whereever we come , and the truth is we deserve it for disturbing the publick settlement onely to establish a ridiculous cheat and imposture . but for this who would not endure all the torments in the world , burning , hanging , beheading , crucifying , and being torn in pieces by wild beasts ? all which we must , as we will secure the honour of the impostor , encounter with a cheerfull and resolved mind . for what can be more praise-worthy than to abuse god and affront mankind to no purpose , and to reap no other benefit from all our labours beside the pleasure of vain , foolish and unprofitable lying ? and for that alone will we blaspheme all the religions that have been from the beginning of the world to gain worship to a crucified malefactour ; nay , we will lay down our lives for his reputation notwithstanding that we know him to have been an impudent impostor ; and for that reason is it that we honour him so highly , because he has put such a dishonourable abuse upon our selves . who would not doe or suffer any thing for the sake of so vile a man ? who would not undergo all manner of sufferings for a cause that himself knew to be meer falshood and forgery ? and therefore let us constantly to the last breath averr , that he raised the dead , cleansed lepers , cast out devils , and wrought all manner of miracles , though we are conscious to our selves of the gross falshood of the whole story , that we have meerly forged out of our own brains : and therefore let us deceive as many as we can , and if people will not be deceived , yet however we shall sometime or other enjoy the pleasure of suffering , and perhaps of dying for an unprofitable lie. it is no doubt credible that men should discourse and act after such an extravagant rate as this , or that humane nature that has above all other creatures an high sense of the love of life and self preservation , should thrust it self upon a voluntary death without any motive or any reward ; or if they should , that when so great a multitude had agreed among themselves to carry on such a frantick design , they should all persevere in the lie to the very death , and not one of them be wrought upon by all the threatnings and all the slatteries in the world to betray the plot , and yet this was the case of the apostles if their testimony were not true . so that it is plain that there is no more required to demonstrate the truth of the christian cause against infidelity than onely to suppose that the apostles were men. and that certainly is as modest and moderate a postulatum as can be premised to any question . and yet that onely being granted it is evident from the premises that nothing can be more unaccountable than insidelity from the very being and constitution of humane nature . § v. but to advance one step farther : either we suppose that the apostles were endued with common sense and discretion or that they were not . if they were . then as we cannot suppose that men possest with the natural instinct of self-love , so much less that men endued with the least degree of understanding would ruine themselves and their families , would encounter all kinds of hazards and hardships , would endure bonds and imprisonments , would suffer persecutions and martyrdoms , and all for no other than meerly to win credit to a known falshood . for still so it must be , if they were not really eye witnesses of the resurrection . yes , but you will say they did it for the sake of their master and their religion . but then they either believed their religion to be true , or false . if true , then it is true that they saw jesus doe those works that they related of him ; if false , then we are as we were , that men of common prudence should doe and suffer so much for nothing . and as for their master , they were so far from being under any obligation to doe any thing for his reputation , that they were concern'd more than any others to discover his imposture . for when he had enticed them to forsake all and follow him , when he had flatter'd them with such magnificent hopes , when he had abused them into an opinion of his being no less than the son of god and saviour of the world , and when he had promised them to rise again from the dead , and then to vest them with wonderfull power and authority , when they found all this to be grosly false , it is very credible that they should after that think themselves obliged to endure the sharpest tortures and even death it self for the reputation of such a vile and accursed impostor . but beside this , how could men of ordinary prudence undertake a design so unlikely to succeed ? for if christ were not risen from the dead , how could they expect to gain credit to a lye that might be so easily contradicted and confuted by exposing the body to publick view ? for if he were not risen , he was still detain'd in the grave ; and therefore when they presently divulged his resurrection in the very place where he was crucified , the jews were concern'd , as they would clear themselves from being guilty of the bloud of the son of god , to discover the imposture by exposing the carcass . which if they had done , that must have forever overthrown and confounded the testimony of the apostles ; and if they could , but did not doe it , they too must be supposed as much bereft of common understanding as the apostles themselves . and therefore seeing the apostles cannot be supposed so fool-hardy as to vent a lye , that was so easy to be confuted , and seeing the jews were for very good reason obliged to doe it , and yet did it not , that is an evident argument that they were not able to doe it ; and that is a plain demonstration that the body was not to be found in the grave . but if we suppose that the disciples conveyed him away by night , as the jews ridiculously pretended to prove by the testimony of sleeping ( that is for that time absent or dead witnesses ) yet still i enquire to what purpose all these hazards for a lye and an impostor . but beside that , how could they expect to succeed in so strange and bold an enterprize ? for to say nothing of the shamefull cowardise , that they betrayed at their masters apprehension , and so supposing that they might have had courage to venture upon this design , yet how was it possible that they could any way expect to come off without discovery ? for that they could not hope for , unless they could first presume that all the guard should fall asleep at the same time , and then that themselves should come at the very same moment ; and lastly , that with all the noise which must be made by rowling away the stone and removing the corps , they should never awake so much as one of the souldiers . so many strange and lucky accidents as these no wise men could ever promise themselves , and yet without them no wise man could ever undertake the design . so that if men of common prudence could not be supposed to make such a wild and hazardous attempt for no end , then it is evident that the body was not conveyed away . and if it were not , then it is evident that men of common prudence could never affirm its resurrection , when they were so certain of being convicted of forgery . but lastly , if they were men of common prudence , how could they expect to gain belief to a story that themselves knew to be false , and in it self next to incredible , purely by the authority of their own bare and naked relation ? for what story could be received with more difficulty , and examin'd with more severity than this of a man so miraculously raised from the dead ? especially at that time , and in that place , i. e. of one that was but the other day ignominiously executed for treason and blasphemy . if they were not assured of some greater assistance than barely the strength of their own testimony , they must be worse than madmen to go about to publish so incredible a story with such a slender authority . but if they knew it to be a meer fiction of their own , and yet could expect to gain any belief to it onely by their bare affirmation , that must exceed all degrees and examples of humane madness . nay farther , they must not onely believe that the apostles and first witnesses of this strange thing were frantick and infatuated persons , but also that a great part of mankind both in that and the next following ages were born without the usual sense and understanding of men. for how else is it possible they should suffer themselves to be imposed upon with so prodigious a tale onely upon the report of some foolish and frantick fishermen ? we know very well that the belief of the story was propagated with incredible swiftness through all parts of the habitable world , not onely without any assistance of power and wit , but against all sorts of opposition , whether of force , or zeal , or prejudice , or interest , or learning : and now that this should come to pass without any other proof or evidence than the meer relation of a company of foolish or frantick people , is a thing so extravagant to suppose , as exceeds all the folly of humane nature . and yet it is much more so , that they should work all ranks and conditions of men , the learned as well as the unlearned , to that height of infatuation , as not onely to win their serious belief to such a wild and proofless fable , but to prevail upon them so prodigally to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in its justification . but of this i shall treat more distinctly in its proper place ; this may suffice at this present upon this argument as far as it concerns the apostles and first preachers of christianity . that if they were not absolute fools they had never undertaken it , if false ; and if they were , they could never have proceeded with any success in it . § vi. but , lastly , we must either suppose the apostles and first witnesses of christianity to have been in good earnest , or not . if they were , then the truth of their testimony is unquestionable . for the matter of fact of which they pretended to have been eye-witnesses was no magick story , or any thing capable of jugling tricks and illusions ; but a plain and common object of sense , of which they had the same assurance as we have or can have of any thing that we see or hear . and they had the same evidence of our saviour's refurrection as we are capable of having of one anothers conversation . and what is more , they were jealous and incredulous , and suspected some mistake or illusion , and forced him to appeal to the judgment and convince them by the testimony of all their senses . and now 't is likely when it was so impossible that they should be deceived themselves that they would take so much pains and endure so many miseries to perswade the world to believe an impudent and an unprofitable fable . which if they did , then we must suppose that they were not in good earnest ; and if they were not , then beside all the foremention'd abfurdities , this supposition labours under one very enormous difficulty peculiar to it self , viz. that such profligate cheats and impostors should concern themselves with so much zeal as they did for the credit and propagation of vertue and goodness in the world. for that it is the design of christianity to promote and advance the practice of all true morality , no man , that understands what it is , can question ; and if it be , then they could be no other than good men that labour'd as the apostles did in promoting of christianity . but that , perhaps you will say ; is a frequent artifice for men of the worst designs to make the best pretences . it is so , but then they must have some design to carry on under their pretences ; whereas if the apostles very pretence were not their real design , they had none at all . and that is the difficulty proper to this supposition , that wicked men , that were conscious to themselves of their own wickedness , should spend their days and loose their lives for the interest and advancement of goodness with out any design or advantage to themselves . and therefore as from the former premises we have sufficient reason to conclude the integrity of the men ; and from the integrity of the men to prove the divinity of their master's doctrine ; so in this place does the divinity of his doctrine prove the integrity of the men. for as they pretended to have seen the works , so to have heard the sermons of jesus , and were not less zealous to publish the one than the other to the world ; nay , they divulged his miracles onely for the sake of his doctrines . now what was it that he taught and they recorded ? are they not the most perfect rules of vertue and holiness that were ever delivered to mankind ? and as wonderfull as his actions were , his precepts were scarce less admirable : the goodness of his laws , if it does not outdoe , yet it equals the greatness of his miracles ; and their own innate excellency is one of the strongest arguments of their divinity . but of this i hope to give an account in a treatise by it self , in which i shall make it apparent that he has commanded all the laws of nature and right reason , that he has not omitted any instance of moral goodness , and that no law nor no philosophy can so much as pretend to a morality so wise , so good , so usefull . and now if the truth of our saviour's doctrine and his miracles rely upon the same testimony , and the same persons who report that he did such mighty works , record also that he taught such excellent laws , and that he wrought those works of god for a proof and confirmation of his divine authority ; what can be more probable than that the same persons should in the same design be guilty of the greatest vertue and greatest villany in the world ; and at the same time sacrifice their lives and fortunes to the interest of vertue and holiness , and the credit of blasphemy and imposture ? for if those things that they report concerning the miracles and resurrection of our saviour are not true , then was he as lewd and wretched an impostor as ever appear'd in the world , in bearing out as if he were the son of god and saviour of the world ; and they as bold , atheistical , and ungodly wretches knowingly to abuse mankind with such a palpable and blasphemous cheat. is it not then likely that men should doe and suffer after their rate for the propagation of an accursed imposture , that were so infinitely zealous for the concernment of truth and integrity ? how awkerdly do these things piece together ? what strange contradictions are reconciled in this odd supposition ? the same men dye martyrs to the worst imposture and best institution in the world ! to lay down their lives to gain credit to what themselves knew to be a notorious lye , and yet dye to advance the credit of uprightness and integrity ! 't is none of the most conceivable things in the world that so many plain and simple people should conspire together in the contrivance of so lewd a forgery , and then seal the truth of the fable with their bloud ; but how does the prodigy heighten , that such profligate wretches should so easily foregoe their lives rather than their innocence and integrity ? so that it is plain that their zeal for the interest of truth and goodness is a most undeniable demonstration of the faithfulness of their testimony . and the more men tumble and toss their thoughts about to raise jealousies and suspicions upon the report , the more do they entangle themselves in absurdities and contradictions . but i shall prosecute this argument no farther , because in truth , to say no more , he must be a very odly conceited man , that can but perswade himself so much as to suspect that the apostles were not in good earnest . and now if we review these circumstances of our saviour's story as it was told by the apostles , 't is favourd with all the utmost advantages of credibility . so that if it be possible to suppose it an imposture , yet had it been the truth of god , 't is not to be supposed how it could have been vouched with stronger and more enforcing motives of belief . there is no satisfaction that mankind can reasonably desire , which god in his infinite goodness and wisedom has not given to the truth of the christian faith. all scruples and exceptions are so fortunately prevented that there is not any possible escape or pretence left for insidelity . for , first , we have all the assurance in the world both of the sufficiency and sincerity of the witnesses . of their sufficiency , in that they were eye-witnesses of his miracles and companions of his conversation , and were themselves sufficiently suspicious and incredulous , and refused to be convinced till their distrustfull minds were overborn by evidence of fact. of their sincerity , not onely from the agreement of so great a number of honest and upright men in the same report , but from their readiness to seal the truth of their testimony with their bloud . and what greater assurances was it possible for them to have of the truth of their testimony than to be eye-witnesses of what they reported ? and what greater evidence is it possible for us to desire of the certainty of their report , than they have given us of their fidelity ? so that here to withhold or deny our assent , is first a direct affront to the faith and reason of mankind , 't is to give the lye to all the world , and suppose none worthy of any belief beside our selves . for unless we will distrust the truth of all manner of testimony , and believe nothing but by the immediate information of our own senses , there is no remedy but we must of necessity quit all degrees of diffidence and suspicion in this affair . secondly , we must believe that men endued with the first principle of humane nature , love of life , should conspire to throw away their lives onely to gain credit to an impudent lye. thirdly , we must either believe that men endued with the principles of common sense would lose their lives for a ridiculous fable , or that a company of fools and madmen could so easily perswade the world to believe such a wild story meerly by virtue of their report . lastly , we must believe that men who made it their onely employment to advance truth and vertue in the world , should yet dye martyrs to falsehood and villany ; and that when they layed down their lives for the sake of jesus , they were not in good earnest . now laying all these things together , and onely supposing that there was at that time such a person as jesus of nazareth in the world , i will appeal to the common sense of mankind , whether 't is possible for any history or report to come attested with more various , more pregnant , more unquestionable motives of credibility , than his actions , particularly his resurrection , as publisht to the world by his apostles . and thus having considered the evidence of their testimony as given in by word of mouth , i come in the next place to consider their testimony as recorded in their writings , and to shew into what wild absurdities we must again run our selves , if we will not believe the truth of the scripture-history . § vii . first then , we must believe either that the gospels were written by those persons , whose names they bear , or that they were not . if they were , then we must believe that the things that they relate of their own knowledge were either true or false . if true , then we believe the truth of the christian faith. if false , then either for want of sufficient knowledge or sincerity . not for want of knowledge , for two of the evangelists , saint matthew and saint john were immediate disciples and constant companions of the person , whose history they wrote , and so were present at his works and miracles and eye-witnesses of his resurrection : saint mark and saint luke , if they were not disciples during our saviour's abode upon the earth , they were intimate associates with the chief apostles that were : so that if they wrote not from their own immediate knowledge , yet however they wrote from the information of eye-witnesses . and as for the acts of the apostles written by saint luke , saint luke himself was interested in the greatest part of , if not all the history . and so for the epistles pretended to be written by the apostles ; either they were , or they were not ; if they were , then their case is the same with that of the gospel's , that they had sufficient knowledge of the things they wrote of . so plain is it , that if those persons wrote the books of the new testament , who go for their authours , that we have no ground to suspect the truth and certainty of their reports for want of sufficient knowledge and information . and then as for their sincerity , the case of their writing is the same with that of their preaching , and so labours under all the foremention'd difficulties , and one more peculiar to it self , viz. that when they had been so wicked as to contrive a wilfull lye , and so foolish as to publish it to all the world , they should meet with no contradiction in so gross and manifest a forgery . these things were written in a very short time after they were done , and therefore if they were false , it is not possible that they should escape discovery or obtain any the least belief . for example , when saint luke reports that a person born lame , and known to all the inhabitants of jerusalem by his having beg'd daily for many years at the chief gate of the temple was cured by saint peter onely with invocating the name of jesus ; and that this miracle was so very well known at jerusalem , that it immediately converted no less than five thousand persons to the christian faith : if all this had been a fable , the meer publication of it had provoked thousands of people , nay the whole nation of the jews , and especially the citizens of jerusalem to discover the falsehood ; and it could not but have met with so much opposition as utterly and for ever to disgrace and destroy it self . and so again , when saint paul tells the corinthians that our saviour after his resurrection was seen not onely by the apostles and himself , but by above five hundred persons at once , most of whom were then surviving : if this had been a lye , it had been a very foolish and impudent one , and too bold for any man to vent that was not lost not onely to all modesty but all discretion ; and if any man could have been so rash as to venture upon so lewd a falsehood , it is impossible that he could ever have escaped the shame of discovery : especially when it was written to baffle some fanatick persons , who denied that there was any such thing as a resurrection ; for as all others would be eager to enquire into the truth of it for the satisfaction of their curiosity , so would those men especially be concern'd to examine it more strictly , if it were possible , to confute their adversary . so that it is equally incredible that saint paul should be so weak as to vent so great a lye that might be so easily contradicted , and that when he had vented it , he should be so lucky as to escape all manner of contradiction from those who were concern'd to oppose him . for if he had been convicted of falsehood in it , all the corinthians must immediately have turn'd back to their infidelity ; and therefore when we find the christian faith prevailing every where upon such appeals and challenges as these , that is an evident demonstration of their undoubted truth and reality . and this may suffice for the proof of the truth of scripture-history , supposing the books of it were written by those persons whose names they bear . though beside this , it is no inconsiderable proof of their integrity , that eusebius has observed in their impartial way of writing . thus onely saint matthew himself of all the evangelists takes notice of his own dishonourable employment before his conversion ; and saint mark who wrote his gospel from the information of saint peter , is observably sparing in those things that might tend to the praise of that apostle , and so could not with decent modesty be reported by himself ; but more exact than any other of the evangelists in the description of his shamefull fall. thus when saint peter had so frankly own'd our saviour for the messias , saint matthew relates our saviour's answer with a high commendation of him : blessed art thou simon bar jona , for flesh and bloud hath not revealed it unto thee , but my father which is in heaven . and i say also unto thee , that thou art peter , and upon this rock i will build my church : and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it . and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth , shall be loosed in heaven . then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was jesus the christ. whereas in saint mark all these magnificent expressions of our saviour to saint peter are modestly omitted , and all the answer that is there made is no more than this : and he charged them that they should tell no man. and so again , though saint mark in all his other relations is more compendious than any of the other evangelists , yet in the story of saint peter's denial of his saviour , he is most of all circumstantial . and whereas saint matthew and saint luke set off the greatness of his repentance afterwards by saying that he wept bitterly , saint mark expresses it more modestly , onely that he wept . now when writers pass by such things as make for their own praise , and record their own faults and miscarriages , that without their own discovery might never have been known to posterity , they are of all men least to be suspected of falsehood , and give the strongest proof in the world of their love to truth and sincerity . so again , granting that they would not stick at any falsehood to advance their master's honour and reputation , yet to what purpose should they forge lyes of his disgraces and sufferings , especially all those shamefull circumstances that they have recorded of his condemnation and execution ? now if we believe them in the black and tragical part of the story , why not in all ? for if they onely design'd to set off their master's greatness , why do they so carefully acquaint the world with the history of his misfortunes ? why do they tell us of his great agony before his passion , of his scourgings and mockings , of his purple robe , and reeden scepter , of the contumelies and reproaches that were thrown at him whilst he was hanging on the gibbet , of his being forsaken by all his followers , of his being abjured by the most zealous of them all , and that without the application of racks or torments ? these things if not true , to what purpose should they invent them ? nay , if true , why should they not doe what they were able to stiflle them , if the onely design of their romance had been to gain honour to their master ? so that if they were honest and faithfull in those sad relations concerning him , why not in those that carry triumph and reputation in them ? for if they had design'd to lye for his glory , they must have baulk't every thing that might any way offend the reader . and if they had design'd a romance , instead of that plain story that they have recorded to posterity , they would have told us that judas had no sooner given the treacherous kiss , but he was turn'd into a stone : that the hand that struck him , was immediately wither'd ; that caiphas and his accusers were struck blind ; that the souldiers who supposed they had apprehended him , had onely seised a phantasm , whilst he vanisht away ; that his judges were befoold in all their phantastick process against him , whilst he stood invisible among them despising their mock-solemnity . in short , was it in all humane accounts much more becoming the grandeur and dignity of that person , that he pretended to be , that he should not have been obnoxious to the common miseries and calamities of humane life , but that when by his divine power he had establisht his kingdom in the world , he should have return'd back to heaven without any suffering and with all the ornaments of glory and triumph . this certainly had been much more proper matter for a romance , if they had design'd nothing but their master's greatness , than to have fain'd those mixt actions that are recorded of him in the gospels , and those that would have believed their other reports , would not have disbelieved these . and therefore seeing they would not corrupt or suppress the truth in the unpleasant part of the story , we have no ground to suspect them of the least falsehood in any other part of it , howsoever in it self strange and miraculous , when it is so evident that their design was real truth and not their master's greatness . § viii . but if we believe the books of scripture were not written by those authours , whose names they bear , then we must believe that either they were forged in their days or afterwards : if in their days , then they either own'd them as true , or not . if they vouched them , they gave them the same authority as if they had been indited by themselves : if they disown'd them as containing reports that they knew to be false , then they themselves were obliged to discover the imposture ; which having never done , that is an undeniable evidence that , if they were written in their time , either they themselves writ them or at least approved of them . but if they were written afterwards , how came they to meet with such an early and universal reception in the christian churches ? we find them always own'd as the undoubted records of the evangelists and apostles in the most ancient writers , that lived after them , nay , some with them . now how is it possible that books that contain in them matters so strange and wonderfull , if they had been counterfeit and spurious , and thrust upon the world after the death of those persons whose names they pretend to bear , should command such a catholick and unquestionable reputation ? if indeed they had pretended to have lain obscure for some time , and to have been afterwards retrieved , there might have been some ground of suspicion . but when they are own'd as the most ancient and undoubted records of the church , when they are quoted as such by those persons that lived next and immediately after them , and have passed from the very first age through all ages downward with an unquestionable authority , there is no possible account to be given how they should first come by it , and then for ever after retain it , unless they were for certain the works of those men whose names they bear . thus particularly saint matthew's gospel is quoted by clemens of rome , a familiar of saint paul , by ignatius , by policarp , by papias the disciples of saint john ; not to mention justin martyr , athenagoras , irenaeus , and all the other writers of the age next after the apostles . now if this be so : then , first , either this gospel was written in the apostles time , or it was not . if not how could it be cited by those that were their contemporaries ? secondly , the things reported in it were either true or false ; if true , then so is the gospel too ; if false , then it had destroyed its own credit by publishing known falshoods . for though it is easie to forge a story acted in former times without discovery and contradiction , yet to make a forgery of so wonderfull a transaction , as was the history of jesus of nazareth , so near the time , in which it was pretended to have been acted , and that without controll or contradiction , nay , with full credit and undoubted authority , as appears by these apostolical mens unanimous testimony , is , if any thing in the world , absurd and incredible enough to make up another article of infidelity . thirdly , either this book was written by saint matthew , or it was not . if it was , then it was the testimony of an eye witness , that converst with our saviour both before and after his resurrection . if it was not , then how could it be thrust upon him in his own age , and gain so unquestionable an authority with those men that conversed either with him or with his companions ? and now if we gain the authority of this one gospel , that alone is a sufficient proof of the divine authority of the christian faith ; in that the main foundations of it are here recorded , viz. the life , death and resurrection of our saviour , which being believed as they are here recorded , are an infallible demonstration of his divinity . the same account i might give of almost all the other books of the new testament , in that they were received from the beginning as the most unquestionable records of the apostles . but that were onely to repeat the same argument so many times over ; and therefore supposing the same ancient testimony concerning them as we have concerning saint matthew , i shall leave the reader to apply the same argument that i have urged concerning him . neither do i this onely to avoid needless repetition , but because it has been often done by other hands , particularly by eusebius of old , and huetius of late , who have vouched every book by it self from the testimony of the earliest antiquity . and therefore as for the truth of the matter of fact i had rather refer to them than transcribe them , though that being supposed , the argument is of the same force in every one as it is in saint matthew's gospel . § ix . it is true that some few books were for a good time doubted of , as the epistle to the hebrews , the second of saint peter , the second and third of saint john , and the apocalypse . but then , first , suppose their authority was still questionable , the christian faith can subsist very well without them , by the remaining authority of those that were never questioned . and though they are very usefull and excellent discourses , yet have they little peculiar in them that is not to be found in the other apostolical writings . and if we understand the matter aright , though they are written by divine inspiration , yet are they not of the foundation of the christian faith , but onely pious discourses proceeding upon the supposition of it . being written occasionally , either to exhort us to an effectual belief of those things that are recorded in the gospels , or to encourage us against tryals and persecutions , or to allay schisms and contentions , or to confute errours and heresies , or to reform abuses and corruptions ; so that though they had never been written , the foundations of our faith were before firmly laid in the history of our saviour's life , doctrine , passion and resurrection . and therefore the authority of all the rest is at last resolved into that of the historical books , that is , the four gospels and the acts of the apostles ; which being supposed true , they warrant both the reason and authority of the apostolical epistles , that onely deduce those proper and natural conclusions that flow from their premises . nay farther , 't is not primarily necessary to christianity to believe that the books of the new testament were dictated by an infallible spirit , but it is sufficient that the historical books are good and authentick records of the life of our saviour and the design of his errand into the world , and that the writings of the apostles are pious discourses consonant with and conducing to the ends of christianity . the foundation whereof seems to lie in this one thing , that jesus christ was sent into the world for the work he pretended to come about by divine commission . for god having set several hypotheses of providence on work in the world to bring all things to their end and perfection , at last design'd this as the most compleat model of all vertue , goodness and morality . so that if the history of those things which jesus both did and taught be truly recorded by the evangelists , that is a sufficient evidence of his own divine authority . but as for his historians , that comes in upon another score , in that we know that the authours of all those writings were inspired and directed by the holy ghost , but then that we know onely from the writings themselves , and therefore their truth must be supposed antecedent to their divine authority , and that being supposed our saviour's divine authority is thereby proved , and that being proved , that alone is a full demonstration of the divinity of the christian religion . but , secondly ; if those few books were so long debated before they were admitted into the canon , that is an argument of the great care and caution of the church in its belief , in that it would not lightly receive any book till it was fully satisfied of its being authentick ; and therefore its long doubtfulness and disputation about these books , clears it from all suspicion of rashness and credulity as to those that she always own'd with a full and unanimous approbation . thirdly , the controversie concerning the disputed books relates not so much to their antiquity as their authour , and they are not brought in question , because they were not written in the apostolical age , but because it seemed uncertain by whom they were then written . thus the epistle to the hebrews some attribute to saint paul , some to saint luke , some to barnabas , some to clemens ; but if it were written by any of them , it is not much material , so it were written by some of them ; and that it was so , is very evident from clemens his epistle , who has borrowed divers passages out of it word for word . and to the same purpose is the controversie concerning the revelations ; all allowing it to have been of apostolical antiquity , onely some will have it to have been written by saint john the apostle , others by saint mark sirnamed john , others by saint john call'd the elder ; but whosoever it was that wrote it , it was written in the apostolical age , and that is enough . though it is moreover sufficiently attested that saint john the apostle was the authour of it , both by the testimony of justin martyr and irenaeus , who lived very near the time of its writing . lastly , those that were at first doubted of , were not afterwards rashly admitted into the canon , but were admitted upon carefull enquiry , mature deliberation and unexceptionable testimony . for as they were at first own'd by some , and disputed by others , this became a matter of debate in the church ; and that obliged them to make farther enquiry after the evidence of their authority ; and by that means the whole church was at last satisfied of that , which at first onely a part of it was able to prove . and this might come to pass after this manner : the apostles directed many of their epistles to particular churches , so that it is possible that some of them might be known to some churches , and not to others ; who therefore doubting of them put those who asserted them to have been true apostolical writings to prove their assertion , and they it seems brought such evident proof of their tradition , as gain'd the consent of the whole church to their authority . and this probably they did by producing the originals written under the apostles own hands , and reserved in the archives of the several churches ; for that many such there were tertullian informs us , even in his time , and to them refers the men of his own age for their full satisfaction . § . x. and therefore it is but a very slender witticism of mr. hobbs in derogation of the authority of the holy scripture , when he has acknowledg'd that the writers of the new testament lived all in less than an age after christ's ascension , and had all of them seen our saviour , or been his disciples , except saint paul and saint luke ; and consequently that whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the apostles , yet were they made canonical scripture onely by the authority of the church , that is , the council of laodicea , which first collected the canon of the scriptures , and recommended them to us as the writings of those apostles and disciples under whose names they go ; hereby wittily intimating , or rather broadly asserting , that these writings were not canonical scripture till that council , that is , till the year . but , first , supposing that it is not the authour but the authority of the church that makes a book canonical , then were the books of the new testament made so long before the council of laodicea , in that we find them enumerated in the apostolical canons , which though they were not compil'd by clement , as was vulgarly supposed , yet were they the decrees of councils in the first and second ages succeeding the apostles . so that upon this account they were stamp't canonical almost as soon as they were written . secondly , the testimony of the church neither is nor can be any more than a proof or an argument of the original and divine authority of the canonical books , as any other testimony is or may be . thus when we cite clement of rome , ignatius , policarp , justin martyr , irenaeus , clemens alexandrinus , yes and celsus himself , that lived either in or near the apostles times , as giving in testimony to their writings , no man can , without very wilfull impertinence , thence infer that it is they that give the books their divine authority ; when it is so evident that they are onely made use of as competent witnesses to attest that they were no forged writings , but were pen'd by those very persons under whose names they go ; and if they are , then they themselves make good their own authority . for authority is nothing else but the right or power of binding our assent , which unless it be done by the authour himself , it is impossible to be done by any other ; and all the councils in the world can never give divine authority to any book , if it had it not before . all their office is to bear testimony to their authenticalness , and it is no inconsiderable evidence of it when so many grave and learned men of the first ages of christianity , upon mature deliberation of the whole matter in council , declare that upon the strictest enquiry they are fully satisfied that those books were written by those very authours whose names they bear . but from hence to infer , as the leviathan does , that their canonical authority , that is , their being the law of god , depends entirely upon the decree of the church , as if it could give or take it away at pleasure , onely becomes mr. hobbs's logick and modesty ; and them it becomes equally , for it is very hard to determine whether the conclusion be more impudent or more impertinent . § xi . and now beside this direct demonstrative proof of the apostolical antiquity and authority of the holy scriptures , which alone is a full demonstration of the divinity of the christian institution , there is another more remote way of proving the truth of the history , insisted upon by learned men , that is , by the concurrent testimony of foreign writers , jews or heathens , who lived in or about the same time ; but this evidence is so weak in comparison of that which i have already produced , that i shall not prosecute it as an argument in my cause , but rather consider it as an objection against it : viz. that if the history of our saviour were so known and notorious as is pretended , how comes it to pass that so little notice is taken of it by any authours but onely such as were his own disciples ? there were many other excellent writers , especially historians , about that time , so that if his actions had been so great and remarkable as his disciples tell us they were , it is scarce credible that they should pass him over with so slender a regard , and scarce any mention of him . in answer to this i shall , in the sequel of this discourse , give a satisfactory and rational account of the infidelity both of jews and heathens , notwithstanding christianity brought along with it all that evidence that we pretend it did . but beside this , i shall here shew that the best writers of that time concur with , and so confirm the main strokes of our saviour's history , and by consequence all the rest that is interwoven with them ; especially when what they write is purely to deliver matter of fact without any design to serve the cause of christianity . for when all things in the gospel , that other historians are concern'd to record as well as the christians , are exactly true , that is at least a very fair probability that the christian writers were faithfull in those other relations that are peculiar to their own history . and this is all that can be expected from foreign testimony ; for if such writers had been exact in the records of our saviour's actions , they had then been christians , and not jews or heathens : supposing them therefore , as they were , no friends to christianity , they have given in all that suffrage to it that can be reasonably demanded from them . and now as for the proof hereof it had been much more easie than it is , had it not been for the pride and vanity of some of our modern criticks , who care very little what becomes of the truth or falshood of things , so they can shew their censuring faculty upon words ; and particularly they have in this case set themselves with their utmost critical severity to disparage or destroy the most eminent testimonies , cited by the ancients out of foreign writers , in behalf of christianity . scaliger , the father of them all led the dance , upon what motive i cannot imagine , unless it were out of envy to the fame and glory of eusebius , against whom he particularly set himself and his endeavours ; but however the design looking like a novelty , and carrying in it an ostentation of learning , for that reason alone he could not want a great number of followers among that sort of men. but to what little purpose they have spent all their pains and peevishness i now come to represent . and here , first , josephus the jew , who was contemporary with the apostles , agrees all along with the evangelists in the history of that time . he gives the same account and description of john the baptist as we reade in the gospels . he gives us the same narration of herod the tetrarch , and particularly of his marrying his brother's wife . he mentions the tax of cyrenius . he records the acts of the several governours of judaea , pontius pilate , felix and portius festus , and describes the succession of the several high priests , caiaphas , joha and alexander , the death of herod agrippa , and of saint james the brother of our lord ; nay , he gives not onely a just history but an high character of our lord himself . all which our learned men are willing enough to pass as certain and warrantable history , excepting onely that passage concerning our saviour . onely there is one difficulty in the tax of cyrenius , which saint luke says was about the time of our saviour's nativity , but josephus not till after the banishment of archelaus , which hapned at least nine years after the death of herod , so that which way to reconcile this difference learned men have been much puzled , and towards its solution have started variety of conjectures . and therefore , though it is of no very great concernment , i shall give some account of it before i proceed to the testimony concerning jesus . § xii . and first of all baronius tells us plainly that josephus is mistaken , but then this is to cut the knot , not to untie it , for our business is to reconcile him and the sacred history ; but if we utterly reject him , instead of answering the objection we grant it , viz. that there are irreconcileable differences between him and the evangelists . though here i cannot but wonder at the unusual disingenuity of casaubon , who , whereas baronius affirms that josephus does in many things of chronology contradict saint luke , and therefore if we must stand to his authority , that will enforce us to reject the evangelist ; he , i say , inveighs and declaims upon this as if it were baronius his assertion and not his argument , and rates him severely as if he had positively affirm'd that the testimony of josephus was sufficient to oblige us to quit that of the evangelist . whereas he onely makes use of it as a forcible objection against appealing to josephus in any matters wherein he contradicts the scriptures , for in such cases , says he , we cannot admit him without rejecting them . now , i say , from hence to infer that baronius affirm'd that we were obliged so to doe became not the ingenuity of a learned man. but the truth of it is ( to observe once for all ) casaubon was little less partial towards one extreme than baronius towards the other . for as it was the custom of that learned cardinal . and the writers of the church of rome to rake together every thing that might serve their cause , embracing the forged and spurious as well as the true and undoubted records of antiquity . so casaubon and the learned men of his way have been as diligent to weaken the authority of all the most ancient and most authentick writers ; so that there is not the least slip in any of the ancients that they have not observed in their critical notes upon them , and beside that they reject whole books of the best and earliest antiquity . but by this means they have between them both done this great service to the christian church , that as they have discover'd the fraud of supposititious books , so they have confirm'd the authority of the true and genuine . and it is by occasion of their disputes that we are come to a certain knowledge of all the sincere records of antiquity . so that at last the epistles of ignatius and the apostolical canons that have been most of all opposed , have , by those great endeavours that have been employed to destroy their authority , gain'd and will for ever keep as undoubted a credit as the most unquestion'd pieces of justin martyr or irenaeus . the next guess is that of beza , which is followed and variously emproved by scaliger , casaubon , grotius , and others , viz. that cyrenius was employed by augustus to take two several musters of the people , one with a tax , and the other without it , and that was it that was made at the time of our saviour's birth . for augustus designing that compendious account of the roman empire , which historians so often speak of , and which he left as a guide and direction to his successours in the empire , sent several officers through the several provinces to take an exact account of the number and condition of the inhabitants ; and for this purpose though quintilius varus were then prefect of syria , cyrenius was join'd in commission with him , as a person that was , by reason of his residence in syria and his wars in cilicia , exactly acquainted with the affairs of the east ; as afterwards he was sent with c. caesar on the same errand ; and when judaea was reduced into the form of a province after the banishment of archelaus , and the first tax to be imposed immediately by the romans upon the people , he was particularly singled out as the person most able to manage it . so that it is not unlikely that he might be employed in this business , though not himself , but quintilius varus was then prefect of syria . and if this be so , then this difficulty is cleared , in that there were two musters of the people , both made by cyrenius , one under the government of quintilius varus without any taxing ; the other , some years after , under his own government with a severe tribute ; which made great tumults and commotions among the people , and occasion'd the sedition of theudas gaulonites ; and this is the onely tax or census that is mention'd by josephus , as containing in it something remarkable to the history of his country ; whereas the other is wholly passed over in silence by him , in that it contain'd nothing memorable as to that , but was transacted meerly for the emperour 's own private use and information . and this conjecture of a twofold muster is not a little favour'd by saint luke himself , who says that this taxing was first made when cyrenius was governour of syria , whereas it ought to have been rendred this first taxing was made , &c. which implies that there was a second , otherwise that could never have been called the first . but , first , this is no more than a meer conjecture without any ground of story , for that quirinius was employed in any tax before the death of herod , there are no footsteps in the roman history ; so that if the guess be true yet it is altogether precarious , and invented meerly to solve a difficulty that was not otherwise to be avoided . and then as for the little criticism that this was the first tax made when cyrenius was governour of syria , though it may be so interpreted , yet the interpretation is as natural and more common , that this tax was finst made when cyrenius was governour ; and if so , the text of saint luke gives not the least favour to the conjecture of a double tax . but , in the last place , supposing that quirinius was sent into syria in the time of quintilius varus for the management of the tax , yet this will not piece with saint luke's story , who expresly affirms that this tax was made when cynenius was governour of syria ; now it is very odd if quintilius varus were ( as it is certain he was ) then governour of syria ; that another person that then acted under him onely by virtue of an extraordinary commission should be styled by the title of governour . and though casaubon bestir himself to prove that this title was given to others that were onely extraordinary commissioners and not standing presidents of provinces , yet it is very plain that this was onely done when there was no president resident before their coming , and they were commissioned with as full power for the time as if they had been ordinary prefects . but that when there was a settled governour any extraordinary commissioner should be honour'd with that title is a case without precedent . thirdly , others conjecture , and that much more probably and to much more purpose , that augustus caesar designing to tax the whole empire , did in the first place take an account of the number of persons in each province , thereby the better to direct himself for the equal levying and proportioning the several divisions of the whole tax . now a work so great must be a work of no small time ; so that though he might begin the muster at the time of our saviour's nativity , yet he might not finish the tax till the prefectship of cyrenius . and he being then prefect when the tax was actually gather'd , both the tax it self and all that was done in order to it , might reasonably enough be attributed to the time of his government . but the most probable and natural conjecture of all is that which was first started by ludovicus capellus , and has since been more largely prosecuted by huetius ; that there has been some mistake in the transcriber writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a mistake very easie to be made , the difference between the names being very small ; but when once made , much more easie to be continued ; in that the tax of cyrenius was so very famous , it being the first that was immediately imposed by the romans themselves upon the jews after they were reduced into the form of a province ; and therefore when saint luke calls the muster at our saviour's birth the first tax , it was very obvious for the transcribers , that came after , to mistake it for the tax of cyrenius , that being commonly call'd the tax , and so we find gamaliel expressing it , act. . . in the days of the taxing . and now this small mistake of a letter or two , that might be so easily run into , being supposed , it clears the whole matter ; in that it is certain that quintilius varus was president of syria at the time of our saviour's nativity , his name therefore being onely restored instead of that of cyrenius , the whole history runs clear . and indeed the exact agreement of both histories in all particulars saving this one circumstance is no small ground for the conjecture that there must have been some such mistake . and such literal mistakes as these are unavoidable to all the books in the world , and if it have hapned here , the circumstances of things themselves direct us to the true reading . for when we are certain , as we are , that quintilius was then president , it is easie and rational to conclude that quirinius was put in afterwards in his stead , because of that famous tax that was vulgarly call'd by his name . and it is not a little countenance that is given to this conjecture by tertullian , who affirms that this census or muster of augustus was made under the prefectship of sentius saturninus ; and for the proof both of that and of the time and place of our saviour's nativity , he often refers to the register it self in the roman archives , and this was not onely extant in his time , but in saint chrysostom's , who refers to it , as we might do to a parish register . now though the census of the eastern part of the empire was begun under saturninus , as tertullian observes out of the roman tables ; and he being in a small time removed from his office , as we know he was , and succeeded by quintilius varus , the successour went on in the work where the predecessour ended . so that the work , as it was managed in judaea , fell out in the time of quintilius varus , in the time of whose presidentship our saviour was born . which is so much the more likely , because saturninus residing in syria would first finish the design near home , before he would undertake to go about it in remoter parts ; especially in judaea that was then under the kingly government of herod , and so was onely muster'd in order to the settlement of the future state of the empire . so that though this census were begun under saturninus , and so according to custom enter'd under his name in the roman register , as tertullian assures us it was , it is certain that the greatest part of it was taken under the government of quintilius . now though this be no very material circumstance , and though the mistake i have suggested be so very easie , and though there might be an hundred other ways of solving it , that we cannot know at this distance , yet i could not lightly pass it over , because it is the onely material difference between josephus and the holy scriptures . for though he passes by some remarkable things that are there recorded , yet in all other cases , where he happens upon the same thing , he makes the same narration . for the onely place beside in which he may seem to differ , is in the death of herod agrippa , which he says hapned at the appearance of an owl , but saint luke by the invisible stroke of an angel. and that an owl might then by chance appear is possible , but that the meer sight of it should affect him after such a wonderfull manner is not credible , notwithstanding a german soothsayer had foretold that it should be the certain omen of his death . that indeed might not a little disturb his fancy , but it could not naturally in a moment putrifie his bowels into worms and rottenness . but it is too manifest that josephus , through the whole course of his history , too much endeavour'd to imitate the greek and roman historians , whose constant custom it was to ascribe all extraordinary calamities to some portentous omen . otherwise it is not conceivable that so strange and unheard of a misery should all on a suddain seise upon a man in the height of all his glory , and in the very act of so great a blasphemy , without some miraculous and invisible power . so that there is scarce a greater instance upon record of an immediate divine infliction than in the miserable death of this prophane man. and thus having cleared the parallelism between josephus and the evangelists , as to the most material passages of the histories of their own times , i now proceed to that particular passage of his concerning our blessed saviour : which is so full a testimony of the truth of the gospel history , that our learned criticks think it too great for a jew to give , and for that reason principally suppose it to have been soisted into him in after times . § xiii . but upon what just grounds this surmise is built let us now consider , and first let us set down the passage it self , which is to this purport : at this time lived jesus a wise man , if yet it be lawfull to call him a man ; for he wrought many wonderfull works , and instructed such as were willing to entertain the truth , and drew after him great numbers both of jews and gentiles . this was christ , who being accused , by the princes of our nation before pilate , and afterwards condemn'd to the cross by him , yet did not those who followed him from the beginning , cease to love him for the ignominy of his death . for he appear'd unto them the third day after , as the divine prophets had foretold the same , and divers other wonderfull things of him , and to this day the race of christians , as they are call'd after his name , continue . and now here , first , it is excellently observed by huetius that it is very strange that so diligent a writer as josephus should never make the least mention of the history of so famous a person as jesus of nazareth , for if he has not done it here , he has done it no where . and yet whatever he was , it is certain that under the government of pontius pilate there was such a man that pretended to be the messias , that drew great numbers of disciples after him , that instituted a new sect of religion , that occasion'd great commotions in judaea , that was reported to have taught such peculiar doctrines , and to have done so many and so great miracles . and now after all this how is it credible that josephus should never hear of so remarkable a person , or not think him worthy so much as to be taken notice of in his history ? for whatever opinion he had of him , whether good or bad , it is not to be supposed that he could wholly omit to mention him in the history of that time , especially when he has not omitted any of the false pretenders to the messiahship ; so that though he had thought him an impostor , he could not have wholly baulk't some mention of his history . nay , when he gives so exact a description of john the baptist , and of saint james , whom to make the better known he describes by being the brother of jesus , who is call'd the christ , how is it possible that he should never give any account of christ himself ? so that how much soever it may appear incredible that josephus should make any honourable mention of him , it is much more so that he should make none at all . and now when after this we come to weigh the objections against this testimony , that have made so much noise and talk of late in the world , they are so very trifling as scarce to deserve ( i am sure not to need ) any answer . for beside some grammatical observations , in which the criticks exercise an arbitrary power , and from which they make what determinations they please , some for the affirmative and some for the negative : the whole force of the objection is resolved into this one principle , that josephus in this paragraph spoke his own sense , and wrote not as an historian but as a confessour ; whereas it is evident from his own story that he was a man of no very settled principles , according to the humour of the age and of the place that he lived in , and so was no otherway concern'd in any controversie than barely to deliver matter of fact. so that whereas he seems to assert that jesus was the christ , they might as rationally conclude that pontius pilate believed him to be so too when he crucified him , because he put this title upon his cross , jesus of nazareth the king of the jews ; and when he was solicited by the chief priests not to write the king of the jews , but that he said i am the king of the jews , he would not yield to their importunity , but answer'd them peremptorily , what i have written i have written . from hence , i say , our learned criticks might after their rate of drawing conclusions infer that pontius pilate seriously believed him to be the king of the jews , that is , the messias . whereas it is evident in it self that he onely used the common form of speech , when he gave him that title which he pretended to : and of the same nature is that expression of josephus , when he says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this was the christ , that is , this was he that was call'd the christ , a title so appropriated to him in common speech , that it was familiarly given to him by his greatest enemies . and therefore we do not make use of this testimony of josephus , as if we design'd to gain any credit or authority from his opinion , but onely to prove from it that there was such a transaction then on foot , and that there was a party of men in the world at that time who attested the truth of all those things that were reported concerning jesus ; and if they did so , we have in the premises sufficiently proved the validity of their testimony . and that is all the use that we can pretend to make of these foreign witnesses , to evidence that there was such testimony then given , and if there was , then its being given in such circumstances as it was , is more than enough to maintain it self without their farther assistance . now this being premised in vain does tanaquil faber insist upon it that the most zealous christian could not speak more magnificently of christ than this unbelieving jew . for what wonder is that , when the unbelieving jew onely reports the sense of the zealous christian ? in vain does he urge that josephus was of the sect of the pharisees , which sect of all others bore most spleen and hatred to our saviour . for of what sect soever he was , he was far from being any of the greatest zealots , and as far from being a serious jew as a good christian , how else could he have been so prophane as to apply all the prophesies of the old testament , concerning the messias , to the person of vespasian , an heathen and an idolater ? but beside this our authour forgets himself in objecting josephus his being a pharisee , when a little after he informs us out of josephus himself , that he had passed through all the sects of the jews , and had at last enter'd himself into the discipline of banus , a disciple and successour of john the baptist. and it is no wonder that a disciple of that institution should speak favourably of jesus ; so that if we should suppose him in good earnest in his character of our saviour , it would be no very hard supposition : but that he should describe him by those titles that his own disciples gave him , he could not avoid it , of what sect soever he were , as he would quit himself like a faithfull historian . and though , after his entring himself into the discipline of banus , he join'd , as himself informs us , with the sect of the pharisees , yet that was onely in outward shew and upon a political account ; they being then the most powerfull party among the jews , so that by their assistance he first prefer'd himself to publick employment , and at last obtain'd the government of all galilee , which he was so far from ruling like a jewish zealot , that in all things he behaved himself like a roman gentleman , and the main thing objected to him by his enemies was his indifferency and unconcernedness as to the ceremonies of their religion . again , in vain does our learned critick aggravate that jesephus should give our saviour the title of god , when that is more than the jews themselves believed of their messias . for it is evident that he onely uses a very common and almost proverbial form of speech , nothing being more frequent with the greek and latin writers ( whose schemes of speech josephus every where endeavours to imitate ) than to give the title of gods to all great and extraordinary persons ; so that when josephus gives our saviour this title , it is the same thing as if he had styl'd him hero , or something that though a man , yet by his miraculous works seem'd greater than a man. lastly , in vain does he urge that if josephus had believed our saviour to be the messias , he would have explain'd to the greeks , for whose sake he wrote in their language , what was the nature and the office of the messias . so probably he would if he had been an apostle , and designed to convert the world to christianity , but when he writes of him onely as an historian , what concernment had he upon that occasion to run into so great a digression ? he told the plain story as he had it from the disciples of jesus , and left it to the reader to judge of its truth or falsehood . but still our critick is much more severe in his next injunction , when he requires of the historian , that if he believed jesus to be the messias , to have given an account of john the baptist's being his forerunner . for whether he believed it or not , i cannot see what reason or obligation he had for so doing , unless it is not possible to give a compendious character of a person without setting down every particular circumstance of his life and actions . but now our learned authour advances from his arguments to his authorities . and first of all origen expresly asserts that josephus did not believe jesus to be the christ. and i know no body that affirms he did ; but yet could he not give him that title that was so familiarly given him , unless too he asserted the justice of the title ? all that he affirms , is onely that this was the man that was at that time call'd the christ , though he happens to express it by saying this was the christ , a very common form of speech among the greeks to put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was for was called . and if so , i hope an historian might relate the opinion that was had of him without declaring his own . in the next place , justin martyr and tertullian ( says our authour ) wrote against the jews , and if this passage had been extant in josephus in their times , it is searce credible that they should altogether overlook so remarkable a testimony . this is the hard condition that our criticks have of late put upon all authours , to quote all that ever they reade , and to think of every thing that is pertinent to their cause ; but this seems too severe an imposition upon the memories of mankind . and yet supposing these fathers were not ignorant of this passage of josephus , to what purpose should they have alledged it ? when it is their evident design to dispute against the jews purely out of the writings of the prophets , and by them alone to prove jesus to be the christ. and if so , what does the testimony of josephus signifie to confirm the truth of that which they had already proved by the testimony of god himself ? so that these authours were so far from being obliged by their cause to hale in this passage , that they could not but have brought it in very impertinently . in short , it is enough that in those writings they appeal onely to divine authority , and then it is no particular neglect of josephus , if he be past by as well as all other authours of his rank and condition . and thus have i given a full and exact account of all those weighty objections that have been levied against this passage of josephus , and so leave it to all wise men to judge whether our learned criticks might not have better employed themselves than to raise so much noise against it to so little purpose . and now having dispatch't this great testimony of josephus , i might add to him suetonius , tacitus , the younger pliny , seneca , who give us the same relation of the great pretences of jesus , and the greater prevalency of his religion . but their testimonies have been so often recited , and are so vulgarly known , that it were labour in vain to give my self or the reader the trouble of their repetition . especially when they prove no more than what no man can doubt of , viz. that there was at that time such a man as jesus of nazareth , and that in a short time he drew great numbers of disciples after him . the first is certainly past question , and the second is as evident meerly from the history of nero's reign , under whom what vast multitudes of christians suffer'd both civil and ecclesiastical historians unanimously agree . and therefore i shall pass over these more general records , and onely suggest two or three particular narrations that relate not onely to the existence of our saviour's person , but to the veracity of his pretences . § xiv . the first is that known history of phlegon , gentleman to the emperour adrian , in his general history of the olympiads , concerning both the eclipse of the sun and the earthquake at our saviour's passion . and it is a testimony so exactly agreeing with the evangelical history both as to the year and the very hour of the day , and the most material circumstances of the thing , that had it not been for the vanity of criticks , it could never have met with dispute or opposition . but those men will not stick to move the earth from its centre , rather than loose the honour of being the father of one criticism ; otherwise certainly this passage , so considently appeal'd to by the writers of the christian church , as agreeing with the publick records of the empire , together with that of thallus another heathen , cited by that accurate chronologer africanus , could not but have escaped their censuring severity . and yet it must come under their lash , because ( say they ) phlegon speaks of it as a natural eclipse . but this they say out of their own heads ; for he onely records the matter of fact , but whether it were natural or praeternatural concerns not him either as a courtier or an historian . and though it is demonstrable that if it hapned at that time that he says it did , it was praeternatural , and though himself expresly affirms that it was such an eclipse that never the like hapned ; yet waving all this , it is enough that he affirms that such an eclipse hapned at the same time even to the very hour of the day ; and so it is rationally urged by tertullian , eodem momento dies medium orbem signante sole subducta est , deliquium putaverunt , qui id quoque super christum prozedicatum non scierunt , & tamen eum mundi casum relatum in archivis vestris habetis . at the very moment of our saviour's crucifixion the sun was darkned at mid-day , and though they supposed it onely an eclipse , that knew nothing of its relation to the passion of christ , yet this strange accident , be it what it will , you may find registred in your publick records . and if that be true , it is all that can be desired in this case from an heathen historian to vouch the truth of the story . and yet this is more , for if it be true , it is from thence evident that this eclipse was miraculous and praeternatural , in that it hapned at the full of the moon . § xv. the next heathen testimony is of an higher nature , and relates more immediately to the divinity of our saviour ; and that is the opinion of tiberius concerning him , upon that account and narrative that he had received of his life , death and resurrection out of palestine , and that from pilate himself . thus tertullian tells the governours of rome in his apology , that tiberius , in whose time the christian religion came into the world , having received an account out of palestine in syria concerning the truth of that divinity that was there revealed , brought it to the senate with the prerogative of his own vote , but that it was rejected by the senate , either because themselves had not in the first place according to form of law approved of it , or rather out of flattery to the emperour , because himself had refused that honour when offer'd to him by the senate ; for the words , quia non ipse probaverat , are capable of either sense ; but though they denied this title to our saviour , upon what account soever , whether of state or of courtship , our authour tells us expresly that the emperour himself continued of the same mind . now though tertullian be a christian writer , yet he durst never have presumed to impose upon the senate themselves with such a remarkable story as this , if he were not able to prove it , and that he was is evident from justin martyr , who often appeals to the acts of pilate concerning the history of our saviour , and requests the emperours to satisfie themselves from their own records concerning those things that were reported of him . for it is a known custom among the romans , for the governours of provinces to transmit an account of the most remarkable things that hapned under their government to the senate of old time , and of later times to the emperour . and that pilate had done so is evident from this appeal of justin martyr ; for if there had been no such acts , scarce any man , much less such a man as justin martyr could have been so foolish or so confident as to affirm a thing , in which it was so very easie to convict him of falshood . and if such acts there were they are a great evidence of the truth of our saviour's miracles , when the experour , that was none of the best men nor very apt to listen to such stories , was so surprised with the strangeness of them , and that upon no less information than of pilate himself ; and when pilate , upon a more full enquiry than it seems he was able or willing to make concerning the works of jesus at his condemnation , was so abundantly satisfied as to the truth of those strange things that were related of him , as to think himself obliged to acquaint his master with a story so strange and wonderfull . but here isaac casaubon endeavours to shrivle and criticise these acts of pilate into as little authority as possibly he can , and tells us that justin martyr does not call them the acts of pontius pilate , but the acts under pontius pilate . though it is an undoubted thing that the acts under pilate reserved in the imperial archives were the acts of pilate , that is , they were compiled either by himself or by his command , but transmitted by himself , for the emperours received no other acts but from the governours themselves ; and therefore the learned man might have spared his grammatical criticism , when it is certain from the thing it self that the publick acts under the government of pontius pilate , must be transmitted by pilate himself , and so must be the acts of pilate . now that pilate should give such an account after our saviour's resurrection ; cannot seem strange if we consider his circumstances . for setting aside the relation of the evangelists concerning him , that he would if possible have rescued our saviour from the fury of the priests and the tumult of the people ; that he was satisfied of his innocence , as he declared upon the bench ; that he gave sentence upon him , i will not say against his conscience ( for being an atheist he had none ) but against his own judgment and opinion . i say , setting aside all this that hapned before the passion , the truth of our saviour's resurrection proved it self upon him by so many lucky circumstances of the thing it self , that it could not but perplex his mind which way to avoid its evidence . for he was certain that jesus was crucified , dead and buried , that the sepulchre was sealed with a great stone and guarded with a watch , and yet in a very short time after , it was preached up and down publickly by his disciples that he was risen from the dead . now whether pilate himself were upon this so curious or so concern'd as to search the sepulchre it is certain the body was gone , otherwise it would have been produced and publickly exposed by the jews to disprove the immediate report of his resurrection . so that there could remain no other imaginable pretence against its truth but the idle tale of the souldiers , that his disciples came by night and stole him away , whilst they slept . this was an admirable contrivance , and worthy the sage wisedom of the great sanhedrin , to appeal to the testimony of such persons , that could not tell their story without contradicting and defeating their own evidence ! for were they not doubty witnesses of a thing that was done whilst they were fast asleep ? questionless our governour was wonderfully satisfied with this subtile answer , that really carries no other sense in it , than if they had deposed , that they saw his disciples convery him away whilst they slept . but if they slept they saw it not , and if they saw it not , they were no more competent witnesses than if they had been upon the emperour's life-guard ; and had they hired knights of the post , that were at that time at as great a distance as rome from jerusalem , it had not been more absurd and ridiculous than this contrivance of producing sleeping witnesses . beside this , he could not but farther reflect with himself how likely a thing it was that men so timerous should have courage enough to venture upon such a daring attempt . what wretched cowardise they betrayed from the time that their master was apprehended he very well knew , and therefore could not but think it very improbable such faint spirits should so soon undertake such bold and difficult enterprises . but suppose they should , 't is strangely lucky that all the guard should fall fast asleep at the same instant of time , and more so that the disciples should have the strange fortune as to come at that very moment , and most of all so that with all that noise that they must of necessity make by removing the stone that was roll'd upon the mouth of the grave , they should not awake so much as one of the souldiers . but beside all these difficulties that he could not but observe in the action it self , it was obvious for him to reflect , that if they who affirm'd that christ was risen from the dead , knew that he was not , to what purpose they should take all this pains and run all these hazards for an impostor , that had abused them with romantick tales and promises ? this is past my comprehension , for though it is possible for simple men to throw away their lives for a false or mistaken opinion , yet that a number of men should doe it to ratifie a testimony that they knew to be false , without any prospect of advantage either to themselves or others , as it has no precedent in all former ages , so it is incredible to any man that in the least understands the constitution of humane nature . and therefore from these and the like premises it is no wonder if he concluded that there was something more than ordinary in this business , or as tertullian expresses it , ea omnia super christo pilatus , & ipse jam pro suâ conscientiâ christianus , caesari tunc tiberio nunciavit . § xvi . the last instance i shall give of this kind of witnesses is the story of agbarus king of edessa lying beyond euphrates , who being afflicted with some chronical distemper not curable by humane art , and hearing such prodigious reports concerning the miracles of one jesus in judaea , that he made the blind to see , the lame to go , cleansed the lepers , restored the long diseased to health and raised the dead to life : he therefore dispatches a letter to him by a special messenger , requesting him to take the pains to come to edessa and cure his malady , and the rather , because he heard the jews design'd to doe him mischief , to take up his residence there in safety , where he might live with all accommodations of life , and , if he pleased , share with the prince himself in the government . to this courteous letter our saviour immediately returns a brief and pithy answer , and that probably by the same messenger , in which he informs him that all things touching his message were to be fulfill'd in judaea , and then he was to return to his father , but after my assumption i will send one of my disciples , who shall cure thy malady , and restore life to thee and to all them that be with thee . which was accordingly done by thaddaeus ; the manner of whose address and procedure is particularly and largely described by eusebius . in all which i cannot find any thing that may in the least shake or impair the credit of the story . nay , the contents of our saviour's letter agree so exactly with the whole design of his life in the gospels , as by that alone to give it self considerable authority , viz. to put off the exercise of his power , and obscure the reputation of his glory as much as he could till after his resurrection . now if this epistle were forged , either this passage was put into it by chance or by design . if by chance , it was a very lucky chance that so odd and yet so apt a passage should be dropt into it . and yet it could not well be out of design , for though this observation be obvious enough in it self , i do not remember that there are any footsteps of it to be found in any of the ancients . neither is it at all strange that all the evangelists should be utterly silent concerning it , when it is manifest that it was their design to confine their whole history to palestine , and probable too that they were altogether unacquainted with this particular transaction , in that our saviour might with privacy , as his custom was , dispatch his reply by the same messenger that brought the king's letter , and by that means the business might pass wholly unobserved . and it is much less to be wonder'd at that none of the ancients before eusebius should make any mention of it , when it was lock't up both in the records of that city and the syrian tongue , to which language the ancient greek and latin fathers were altogether strangers , and if they had not , yet they might easily be ignorant of so remote a register . but that there were such records we have all the faith of eusebius at stake , who positively vouches it that he found them enrolled in the publick registry of edessa , and faithfully translated them out of the syrian into the greek tongue . not to mention saint ephraem , who lived before the time of saint austin , and was a deacon in the city of edessa , who makes the same honourable mention of these epistles with eusebius , though that is a pregnant testimony by it self , but much more so from its exact agreement with eusebius his relation ; but passing by that , and much aug. ep. . more the epistle of darius to saint austin and of theodorus studita to pope paschal , because it is possible they might rely wholly upon the authority of eusebius , i shall lay the whole stress of the testimony upon him alone : whom we cannot suppose guilty of such a gross and meer forgery , as to have framed the whole story onely out of his own brain . i will grant that he may sometimes seem partial and favourable to his own cause , and be apt to make more of a testimony than the testimony it self will bear ; but that he should forge and falsie a publick record , and that in a matter of this weighty nature , he has given us no reason to entertain so hard and unkind a suspicion of him . for he is a stranger to eusebius that knows him not to be as nice and curious in examining the credit of his authorities as any the most critical authours whatsoever ; and for this reason he has rejected many excellent passages that might have been very serviceable to his cause meerly because of their doubtfull antiquity , allowing nothing as authentick that he cannot vouch by the testimony of ancient and contemporary writers . now that such a man should be guilty of such a gross and groundless lye as this , is past the ill-nature of mankind to suspect . nay farther , though some of our late masters of censure are very forward to observe the slips and mistakes of this great man , and charge them smartly upon him as if done out of meer design , yet the whole matter being impartially weighed , we have more reason to impute them to haste and inadvertency . for though sometimes he may seem to emprove testimonies , yet does he as often lessen them , which plainly shews that he trusted too much to his memory . but still he is ever in the right as to the main of the story . and fails onely in circumstances and that chiefly of chronology , by confounding sometimes one story with another ; but otherwise he tells no false stories , and onely makes some mistakes of memory upon true ones , and as many of them to the disadvantage as to the advantage of his cause , as might be shewn if it were worth the while , by comparing all particulars . but for the present this is sufficiently exemplified in the very last passage that we insisted upon , viz. the testimony of pilate concerning our saviour , in which the chief thing , as it is set down by tertullian , is our saviour's miracles , and yet it is left out by eusebius when he transcribes the rest of the testimony . and though it is possible that he might follow the greek translatour of tertullian , yet however we see he is as easily drawn into a lessening as a magnifying mistake ; and it is much more likely that eusebius should through haste clip the translation , than that the translatour should clip the original , for he onely consulted the passage occasionally , and so might in his hasty transcribing overlook a part of it ; but for the other who made that translation his particular business , it was not easie to overlook so material a passage . in short , whatsoever faults eusebius may be guilty of , no man can suspect him of meer forgery without the forfeiture of his ingenuity . neither , in the last place , is the date of the record an inconsiderable circumstance to prove the record it self ; for eusebius tells us that at the bottom of it was subscribed , these things were done the th . year . which though it has heretofore puzled learned men , is excellently clear'd by the epocha of the edessean computation , who began their account from the first year of the th . olympiad , when seleucus began his reign in asia ; now from that to the d. olympiad , in which year , being the th . of tiberius , our saviour suffer'd , is just . years . so that thaddaeus was dispatched to edessa in the very same year in which our saviour arose from the dead ; that great work , it seems , being once over , he would no longer delay the good king's request . these are all the foreign testimonies that i think convenient to represent in this place , though many more i shall be forced to observe , when i come to give an account how it comes to pass , that though our saviour did those miracles that are recorded of him , and though there were all that evidence given of them that we pretend there was , yet so great a part of the men of that age , both jews and gentiles should live and dye in infidelity . § xvii . having hitherto demonstrated the impossibility of the falshood of the apostles testimony concerning the truth of christianity from its contradiction to the first instincts of humane nature , to all the principles of common prudence , and to their own design it self , and from the undoubted certainty of their records , and from the concurrent testimony of foreign writers ; i now proceed to the next part of the argument , that , supposing the apostles , evangelists , and first disciples of christ , would have endeavour'd to impose upon the world with a palpable and unprofitable lye against all the foremention'd contradictions to nature , to sense and to themselves , to demonstrate the impossibility that they could ever have prevailed so effectually and so speedily as they did , upon the faith of mankind . and as many thousand absurdities as there were in the former supposition , there are so many ten thousands in this ; for the inequality of the number of the persons was not less ; the first preachers of the gospel being very sew in comparison of the vast multitudes of their first converts . and yet if christianity were false , all these must be guilty , not onely of all that folly that we have represented in the case of the apostles , but much more , in that they did not onely suffer themselves wilfully to be deceived into the belief of the strange story of jesus without sufficient evidence of its truth ; for if it had sufficient evidence then it was no imposture ; if it had not , then all that profest their belief of it were wilfully deceived , i. e. they pretended to believe that to be a divine revelation , though themselves knew that they had no sufficient ground or motive for so strange a belief . but beside this grand absurdity of wilfully deceiving themselves to no purpose , nay , against all the foremention'd inconveniences , they must be so far beside themselves that when they had abused themselves with a proofless tale , they should join their zcal to the first impostors for propagating the cheat , to the manifest ruine of their fortunes and hazard of their lives ; and that such vast numbers of them should with such unheard of courage and constancy endure the most exquisite pains and suffer all kinds of death either without ever inquiring into the truth of the matter of fact for which they suffer'd , or suffering for it after that rate without any satisfactory evidence of it . here , in short , we must believe that such a doctrine as christianity , published in such a manner as it was , should find such an universal entertainment in so short a time , without any the least rational proof or evidence of its divine authority . a doctrine , the truth whereof depended entirely upon a matter of fact , so that if it were false , it could not then have escaped confutation , and unless it were undoubtedly true could never have obtain'd any belief . a doctrine so unkind to the vicious customs and practices of the age , so contrary to the prejudices of men and the establisht religions of the world , so unpleasing to flesh and bloud , so hated and so full of danger . that when this doctrine was published by such persons , men of mean education , void of graft or learning or eloquence , they should without any other help than barely telling a false story perswade such vast numbers of men to forsake the religions in which they were educated , and without any hope of profit , nay , with a certain prospect of all the miseries of life , yes and death it self , to embrace this new , this despised , this hated , this persecuted forgery . lastly , that great numbers both of the most learned and wisest men that lived in the ages next and immediately after it , should , after the strictest enquiry concerning the truth of these things , not onely suffer themselves to be imposed upon by so late and palpable a fiction , but hazard , nay , loose their lives and fortunes in its defence . and yet this was the case of the primitive converts , as i come now to demonstrate by a review of particulars . § xviii . now as for the reality of the matter of fact , the speedy entertainment of christianity in all parts of the world , that is a thing so unanimously attested by all writers , that it is rather to be supposed than proved . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the gospel of our saviour like the sun enlightned all the world at once , and infinite multitudes of people both from cities and villages were by the apostles preaching brought into the church like corn crowded into a granary : and they who had been long enslaved to the superstition and idolatry of their ancestours were set at liberty by the preaching and miracles of the disciples of christ ; and renouncing that rout of false gods that the merciless daemons had introduced into the heathen world , return'd to the worship of the onely one true god the great creatour of all things . so when celsus objects the novelty of christianity , origen answers that there lyes the wonder , that in so short a time a new doctrine should so strangely prevail over all the world , conquer both greeks and barbarians , the learned and unlearned , all ranks and professions of men ; and possess them with so firm a belief of its divine authority , as to be ready to seal their faith with their bloud , a thing that was never done for any opinion in the world before . and so justin martyr , in his conference with trypho the jew , affirms that there is no part of mankind , greeks or barbarians , nay , not those wild and uncivilized people that were wont to live without houses and cities , amongst whom prayers and supplications were not made to the father and creatour of all things , in the name of the crucified jesus . it is an excellent passage of clemens alexandrinus to the same purpose , at the end of his sixth book of collections : the philosophers ( says he ) pleased the greeks alone , neither did every one please all ; plato followed socrates , xenocrates plato , theophrastus aristotle , cleanthes zeno , every master had his own particular school and scholars ; but our great master's philosophy was not confin'd , as theirs was , to their own country , within judaea alone , but spread it self over all parts of the habitable world , and was entertain'd by whole cities and nations both of greeks and barbarians ; it bore away whole families and villages , and no single person could resist its force , that would but give himself leave to hear its wisedom , insomuch that it gain'd over many of the philosophers themselves . and if any magistrate did any where suppress the grecian philosophy , it soon vanisht ; whereas our institution from the first publishing of it has been every where persecuted by kings and emperours and tyrants , by presects of provinces , by commanders of armies , and which is more furious then all the rest , by the multitude . these have join'd all their power and their malice utterly to extirpate our religion , but still it flourishes more and more , and does not wither away as it must have done had it been a meer humane invention , but it stands invincible as the power of god that nothing can restrain or alter , and this notwithstanding that it was foretold by the founder of it , that all its followers must suffer persecution . and tertullian assures the senate of rome that the christians had fill'd all places and all offices ; that they were of strength enough to master the roman empire ; nay , that so great were their numbers , that if they would but agree to retire out of it , the world would stand amazed at its own solitude . and in his book against the jews , he tells them that it enlarged its conquests beyond those of the roman empire ; that it subdued those places that were inaccessible to their armies , and reckons up multitudes of people from one end of the habitable world to the other , that were converted to the faith of the crucified jesus . and in the same manner does arnobius challenge the unbelieving world. methinks , says he , this should not a little shock your unbelief to see the authority of this despised name to prevail in all places in so short a time , that no nation is so utterly barbarous and lost to all civility , whose manners have not been reform'd and polisht by this gentle institution ; nay , more than this , it has master'd the great wits , the oratours , criticks , lawyers , physicians and philosophers ; and not onely so , but all its disciples are so serious and sincere in their profession , that they will forgo all advantages of life , even life it self rather than forsake the cross . so that notwithstanding all your laws and interdicts , your threatnings and executions , your hangmen and dragg hooks , and all your innumerable ways of torture they grow not onely more numerous but more vigorous in their resolutions . can you think all this comes to pass slightly and by chance , that men do not consider what they are about when they dye for their religion , that there is a conspiracy of sots and mad-men all the world over to undoe themselves and throw away their lives , without so much as thinking what they are doing ? it were endless to heap up all the testimonies that might be collected out of the primitive writers upon this argument , when it was so known and confessed a thing even by the enemies of the religion : so that this was the ground of pliny's letter to the emperour concerning the christians , the multitude of persons of all conditions , which he says was so great that the temples and sacrifices were almost utterly forsaken . and tacitus tells us of an ingens multitudo , that were put to death by nero in rome alone for firing the city , which was not much above thirty years after our saviour's passion , and in the time of the apostles , some of whom suffer'd in the persecution ; in short the prevalency of the christian religion was so observable among the heathens that it was vulgarly styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the prevailing doctrine , and they the prevailing sect ; several instances whereof are collected by valesius out of damascius , porphyry and julian . and therefore i will add no more testimonies to prove a thing so unquestionable , but shall onely rescue one that is more ancient than any of the rest , from that violence that has been offer'd to it by some learned men , and that is the testimony of philo the jew ; for whereas in his little treatise concerning a contemplative lise , he gives a large description of a certain sect of men and women ( that he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that were at that time very famous and numerous in the world , especially in egypt and about alexandria where he chiefly resided , but most of all in the mareotick prefecture ; this eusebius will have to be understood of the primitive christians , and that for this one very good reason , because it is such an exact description of their way of life , worship and discipline , that if philo had design'd to have done that , he could not have done it more accurately ; and the truth is , there is scarce in all the records of antiquity a fuller account of the manners of the primitive christians , as to their renouncing the world for the love of heaven , their parting with their estates for the benefit of the poor , their great temperance and chastity , their meeting every seventh-day for religious worship , their love-feasts , their great festivals of easter and pentecost , &c. all which as they agree in every circumstance to the primitive christians , so to no other sect , of which we find any other memory or mention in all the records of antiquity ; and that , one would think , were argument sufficient to conclude that philo's description appertain'd to them and none else . but scaliger , according to his usual custom of quarrelling with eusebius , will not have it applied to the christians but to the jewish essenes ; of which , he affirms , there were two sorts , the practical and the speculative , and that in the former book philo treated of those , of these in this . and the ground of his mistake was philo's transition from the first to the second book , viz. that having in the former given an account of the essenes , who lived a practical life and conversed in cities , he now came to treat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of those that live a contemplative life , i. e. says scaliger , of those essenes ; but that without any ground from the words themselves , which being onely general , of those men that live a contemplative life , may with as much reason be understood of any other sect as appropriated to the essenes . but what if philo had call'd them essenes , and thought them so , yet there is no necessity they should hàve been so ; for seeing the essenes were accounted men of the strictest lives among the jews , when philo saw this society of christians , then newly founded by saint mark in those parts , that so much resembled the essenes in their manners and discipline , it was easie for him to suppose them a branch of the same sect , and pass them under the same name . and yet after all , this is a distinction meerly of scaliger's own framing to salve his own groundless conjecture ; for philo no where calls them essenes , which he would have done , if essenes they had been of what sort soever ; and therefore constantly giving those in the former book the title of essenes and never giving it to these , it is plain that they were of a different sect from all essenes . neither are there any the least footsteps of these two sorts of essenes in all antiquity ; and josephus , though he does more than once give an account of this sect , makes no mention of these speculative essenes , which so diligent a writer could never have omitted , if they had been so famous and so numerous in the world as philo says these therapeutae were . beside that there were no essenes out of judaea , as philo himself more than once informs us , and expresly in the former book , whereas this sect was spread , as he affirms in this , through all parts of the world. neither were there any women admitted among the essenes , whereas both sexes were indifferently enter'd into this sect , from whence it is evident that it must have been of a different constitution . and for these reasons valesius disagrees with scaliger for understanding the essenes here , yet agrees with him for not understanding the christians , but upon arguments so weak and unconcluding , that he had as good gone through with him in the whole matter , as leave him half way to so little purpose . as , first , that these therapeutae read the ancient writings of the authours of their sect , which could not be understood of the old prophets , because they are expresly distinguisht by philo from them ; nor of the evangelists and apostles , because himself lived in their time , and therefore could not term their writings ancient . but , in answer to this , it is evident that philo was not thoroughly acquainted with the principles of this sect , but had onely been present sometime at their assemblies , and from what he had there observed , had drawn up this description of them . and therefore , finding that they had peculiar books to themselves and distinct from those of the old prophets , he might easily think them more ancient than really they were , especially when they were valued by the christians , or the men that he speaks of , as the most authentick commentaries and expositions of the prophets themselves . but however , antiquity is a relative term , and therefore the writings of the evangelists and apostles , being the first records of the church , might , nay , must be term'd the most ancient ; and so philo seems to expound himself when he adds that they were such as were written by the first authours of the sect , and that they could be none other is plain enough , because there were no other books beside those of the old testament peculiar to any sect among the jews . but in the next place it is objected , that philo affirms that his therapeutick sect prayed onely twice a day , whereas it is very well known that the primitive christians had their several other hours of prayer . yes , and so they might have , and philo not know it . however , their most solemn seasons were morning and evening prayer , when , as philo tells us , they resorted to their consecrated chapels , and that being their publick devotion , he therefore takes notice of that alone ; whereas their other hours of prayer were rather set apart for private devotion , which was more or less frequent according to the zeal of the votaries . but philo , says he , affirms that this sect composed hymns , and those in various measures , and yet this custom is very well known not to have been used in the christian church till after the reign of the antonines . it may be so , in the greek and latin churches , but in a church purely jewish , as it is certain this was , and is so agreed to have been by all hands , this custom was used from the beginning . neither was it any new invention of the christians , but continued by them in imitation of the ancient jewish church . but lastly , says he , the men of this sect , according to philo's description , were very numerous and scatter'd all the world over , whereas at that time there was but a very small number of christians . and it must be confessed that so they were if compared either to the rest of mankind at that time , or to their own multitude in after-ages . and yet their numbers were very great if consider'd , as they were by philo , as a philosophick sect , and so at that time christianity was more observable than any other sect , spreading every where so fast , and whereever it came prevailing so much . but if this great and famous sect that philo speaks of were not christians , our learned authour would have done very well to consider , how it is possible that such a peculiar sect of men , should at that time have been disperst through all parts of the habitable world , and never be so much as taken notice of by any writer of that age but onely in this little pamphlet of philo. at least considering the exact agreement of the description it self to the christians , and the utter silence about any other sect to which it might agree , that seems to me no less than a demonstrative proof that it must be intended of them , and of them alone . and beside the evidence of the thing it self , the reason of the name is obvious enough ; for though , as eusebius says , it is not much material to enquire whether philo himself coind this name , as most agreeing with the manners of the persons that he describes ; or whether the christians might not have that name given them in that place from the beginning , the name of christians not being then used in all places , yet it is but a synonymous word with that of christians , especially when turn'd out of the hebrew into greek , for the word jesus indifferently signifies either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saviour or healer ; and therefore it was easie for philo , who was an hebrew-greek , to interpret it by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or healer , especially considering its near affinity both in sound and signification to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to heal , so that the meaning of the appellation is that they were the followers of jesus , i. e. the healer . and thus having recover'd this ancient church from the perverseness of learned men , i shall conclude this argument with an excellent passage of irenaeus , a very early writer in these western parts of the world. though , says he , there is a vast variety of languages in the world , yet the tradition of the christian faith is one and the same in all places , in germany , in spain , in france , in the east , in egypt , in lybia , in the remote as well as in the middle parts of the world ; and as there is but one sun in the universe , so are all men every where , that are disposed , enlightned by the same truth . of the unity of this tradition i shall discourse in its proper place , at present it is enough to our purpose that we have from hence a very early testimony of its universality . § xix . this then being so that the christian religion prevailed as never doctrine did , let us a little consider what extraordinary advantages it had to recommend it self to the good opinion of mankind ; and here it is at first view apparent that it laboured under all the possible disadvantages in the world , excepting onely its own naked and unassisted truth ; so that had it not been for that undeniable evidence of proof , that it brought along with it of its divine authority , it was impossible it should ever have gain'd one proselyte over to its belief . and here the first thing to be consider'd is that the whole frame of the christian faith is built upon a matter of fact , and that in it self so incredible , that it could not have been believed , had it not been vouched by some testimony so unquestionable , as to surmount its own incredibility . for the story was plainly this , that under the prefectship of pontius pilate there was a poor young man in judaea , of mean birth and no education , who pretended to be sent from god to cancel that law , which god himself had establisht by moses , to reform all the world , to bring in a more perfect rule of life , and a more excellent way of worship ; and that for a proof of his commission he pretended to a power of working miracles , and often cured the blind , the lame , the leprous , and sometimes raised the dead ; but by this means drawing great multitudes after him , the governours of the jewish state grew jealous of his designs , and so apprehended him as a disturber of the publick peace , and an enemy to the establisht religion ; and for those crimes condemn'd him to the ignominious death of the cross , and that they took care that he should suffer with all the aggravations of shame and disgrace , in sight of all the people of jerusalem ; and yet notwithstanding that his heart-bloud was let out with a spear , whilst he was hanging upon the cross , he rose again the third day , conversed familiarly with his disciples , and at last in the presence of great numbers of them ascended up into heaven . now this story was in it self so strange and prodigious , so without precedent , so full of appearing inconsistencies , so contrary to the prejudices of the jews and the opinions of the greeks , and withall so publick and so notorious , that if it had not been certainly true , it could never have been believed , and if it had been false , must have been demonstratively confuted . for the passages and transactions of his life were open and conspicuous to the world ; he laid not the scene of his actions in a dark , unknown or undiscover'd corner of the earth , but he appear'd in one of the most eminent places of all asia ; all his works were perform'd amidst his enemies , and he chose the jews , the most jealous and the most prejudiced people in the world , for the eye-witnesses of his miracles , and the companions of his conversation : but above all , jerusalem it self , the most famous city at that time in that part of the world , was the scene of his most publick actions ; there it was that he was put to death in the presence not onely of that city but of the whole nation ; there it was that he rose from the dead , there it was that his disciples first publisht his resurrection , and there it was that some of them wrought undeniable miracles , in proof of the divinity of his power and the truth of their own testimony . and origen has observed very well that the publick death of jesus in the sight of all the people of the jews , was design'd by the divine providence as an advantageous circumstance to demonstrate the truth of his resurrection ; for if it had been private and not notorious to all the nation , though he had afterward risen from the dead as he did , the obscurity of his death might have been pleaded against the certainty of his resurrection . but beside the notoriety of the matter of fact among the jews , the strange stories that were reported of him in a little time fill'd the world with noise and wonder . no affair in that age was more talked of than the story of jesus of nazareth , every body made enquiry into the circumstances of his actions , and they were exposed to the malice of the jews and the curiosity of the philosophers . there was never man born ( as eusebius observes ) upon whose account the whole world was so much concern'd as upon that of jesus of nazareth ; mankind being as it were at first divided concerning him , so that the controversie is not improperly styled by nicephorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the struggling and concussion of the world. now 't is a likely matter and worthy our belief that a few simple and illiterate persons should have the confidence , but much more the ability to perswade the world into the belief of a legend so palpable and so obnoxious to contradiction . that they should be so impudent as to begin to publish the strange story of his life and stranger one of his resurrection , even in jerusalem it self , and amidst his most implacable enemies , where , though it were so easie to discover the bold and manifest cheat , if a cheat at all , that , yet it should pass without any contradiction of the matter of fact , and meet with such prodigious and unparallel'd entertainment in the minds of so many thousands of its inhabitants . certainly they must have been puissant and irresistible arguments wherewith they could so briskly bear down and vanquish jewish stubbornness . their prejudices were too strong to be overcome by any weaker proof than evident and undeniable demonstration , and had they not brought some such thing along with them , they might to as much purpose have preached to the stones of the temple as to the people of jerusalem . but that , i say , is the wonder that they should first publish this strange story in the very place where it was acted , and yet if it were false , not onely escape being convicted of forgery , which it was impossible they should upon supposition of its being false ; but force great numbers of persons against their most stubborn prejudices to own and submit to the truth of their relation , and from that very place in a short time to propagate the belief of it all the world over . this is the thing that i affirm not to be at all possible in the course of humane affairs , that a matter of fact of such a nature and under these circumstances , if really and indeed false , should ever gain so great a belief of its being true . i will grant that mankind may be imposed upon in matters of meer opinion , as much as any man can require , but matter of fact is of a quite different nature , that depends not so much upon mens understandings as their senses , and the senses of all mankind are alike , here is no difference between the learned and the unlearned . and though a false story may for a while be imposed upon the common people , yet unless it appear to prove it self true with an evidence proportionable to its weight , it either dyes and vanishes of its own accord , or is convicted of forgery by the more wise and judicious , when they come to enquire into its grounds and pretences . and yet this story the more it was enquired into the more firmly it was believed , and learned men every where and of all persuasions , when they came to examine into it , could not bring their minds to any issue concerning it , till at length they were forced to resign up themselves to its full belief . i have indeed heard some witty gentlemen , as our phantastick age very much abounds with such shrew'd persons , compare the first propagation of christianity in those parts of the world , with that of the late growth and spreading of the folly of quakerism in england , than which nothing could be more enormously surmised ; for setting aside a thousand other defects in the comparison , it is notorious that that wild and enthusiastick sect did not set up upon the pretence of a new revelation , but onely pretended to raise some foolish and fanatique conceits of their own upon supposition of the truth of an old one . but if the leaders of that rabble , when they first appear'd about thirty years since at york and bristol , had pretended to have wrought in those great cities such kind of miracles as are recorded of our saviour and his apostles , no man can doubt but that they had been long since buried in contempt and oblivion . and yet that is the case of christianity , that such a matter of fact as that was gain'd such a firm belief in the place where it was first published and acted too , and from thence all the world over onely by the undeniable evidence of its own proofs and miracles . for the men of that age were every whit as cautious and incredulous as the wits of ours , and , as i shall shew anon , their minds were prepossest with stronger prejudices of atheism and infidelity . how then could this story of jesus prevail so effectually upon them but by the undeniable evidence of its truth and certainty , and when it carried with it nothing in the world whereby it might bribe their belief , nay , when it labour'd under all other objections but onely evidence of truth , i will challenge any sober man to frame any the least tolerable hypothesis how it was so much as possible that it should prevail , had not its truth been vouched by the most undoubted and unquestionable proofs in the world. § xx. this is the first invincible impediment of christianity , supposing it had been false ; but whether true or false it labour'd under many other great disadvantages , that it could never have surmounted , but by the irresistible evidence and certainty of its truth . and the first is its contrariety to the vice and wickedness of that age in which it was first divulged . the world being at that time , as is evident from the records that are left of it , extreamly debaucht both in its manners and principles . for julius caesar having violated all the laws of his countrey , and overthrown the old government , that had always kept up a generous sense of vertue and integrity , and by that means chiefly raised it self to that vast greatness , that afterwards so much exposed it to the attempts of ambitious men. ( for though that spirit began to work in the time of marius , and passed down through all the great men , cinna , sulla and pompey , all of them struggling for the sole sovereignty of so vast an empire , the design was never compleatly compassed but by the boldness and activity of julius caesar. ) now the success of the caesarean faction , that were generally atheists and epicureans , against the patriots of the old state , that were as generally eminent for worth and honour , vertue and integrity , and zeal for the publick good , made the thriving principles and practices quickly come into fashion and reputation with the world. and after the death of brutus , we find no such thing as an ancient roman , but what he said in passion was seriously and universally embraced as a great truth , that vertue was nothing but an empty name . so that if we survey the roman history before and after the usurpation of caesar , it does not look like the history of the same nation ; the former abounding with the bravest examples of gallantry and magnanimity , whereas in the latter we are generally entertain'd with no other politicks than fraud and treachery . even the admired wisedom of the great augustus himself was no better than craft and dissimulation : and though his successour , tiberius , be particularly remarqued for that vice , it was onely because he was not able to act his part so artificially as his predecessour had done , who dyed with that particular comfort to himself that he had so skilfully played the comedy of humane life ; and certainly of all princes upon record he had the most subtile faculty of appearing highly honest , without any design of ever being so . in short , under his reign all the principles of atheism and impiety were prevalent in the court of rome , that then prescribed manners to the best part of the then known world , neither were their practices disagreeing to their principles ; for as they cast off all restraints of vertue and modesty , so they entirely devoted themselves to luxury and sensuality , and studied nothing else than to emprove their bruitish pleasures to the utmost extravagance of enjoyment . and as was the great court of rome , so were all the other lesser courts of their several prefects and governours . and that not onely by imitation but by the natural baseness of the men themselves . scarce any but the worst of men , that is , epicureans and vilains by principle being prefer'd by j. caesar to authority in the empire ; though things grew much worse under the tyranny of mark anthony , a man kneaded up of lust and malice , and the onely reason why he was not more of each was because he was all both ; for he would never , unless for the sake of his lust , quit his cruelty ; nor ever , unless to satisfie his cruelty , forsake his lust : and as himself was made up of all manner of baseness , so he would advance none to preferment but such as had recommended themselves to his good liking by their more than ordinary wickedness . and for that reason it was that judaea and the parts about it , were at that time more over-run with vice and debauchery than in any former age ; in that herod , one of the vilest men that ever lived , had , by the patronage of mark anthony , obtain'd their government , and by a long reign over them after his patron 's death under augustus , had familiarised all manner of the most licentious wickedness to the people , even so much that one half of the leading men even among the jews themselves , that had been so famous through all ages for their reverence to their religion , were no better than open and avowed atheists . now how was it possible for such a doctrine as christianity , that consists of precepts of chastity and sobriety , of truth and honesty , of kindness and charity , and of renouncing the pleasures of this life for the rewards of another , to make its way into such a wicked world as this ? men of atheistical principles are of all others the most stubborn and inflexible , they scorn all manner of better information , and will not endure to enquire into the truth of any thing that might possibly undeceive them ; so that there is no way to overcome persons so prejudiced and so conceited , unless we can by the meer evidence of things force them into conviction . and as for men of luxurious lives , they have neither mind nor leisure to attend to any thing that may reclaim them . it is pain to them to think of parting with their pleasures , they will labour to preserve them upon any terms , and as long as they are able to resist , no information shall be able to fasten on them ; and therefore when the christian religion so suddenly reformed infinite numbers from all sorts of vices , it must have brought along with it a real evidence equal to its pretended authority ; for as it pretended to a divine commission , by virtue whereof it required strict obedience to all its commands , so it must have proved the reality of its commission by such certain evidence that it was not possible for the most refractory persons to withstand its force ; and therefore when we find such multitudes so wonderfully prevail'd upon to quit their most beloved lusts and vices , we have reason from thence onely to conclude , that they were more than convinced of the undeniable truth of its pretences . § xxi . the next disadvantage of christianity was its bold and open defiance to the establisht and inveterate religions of the world. for of all prejudices those of religion are the strongest , and the older they are , the deeper root they take . and therefore when its enemies could plead the antiquity of many hundred years against it , it could not but be a very difficult task to perswade them out of such an ancient prescription . it s meer novelty was an objection of no small force , but when a new and upstart religion would not be content with its own authority , but must disgrace all the settled religions in the world , and refuse its own settlement , unless they may be utterly extirpated ; this could not but seem too sawcy a demand , especially to princes and great men , to require of them not onely to give way to an upstart sect , but to renounce the religion of their ancestours , confirm'd as well by their own laws as ancient custom ; and submit themselves and their power to the authority of a few galilaean fishermen ; and this the authours of that age say was the main reason why the christian religion was at all adventure rejected by the roman senate , because it would allow none other beside it self . and first as for the jewish religion , beside its very great antiquity , it was establisht by divine authority , and therefore with plausible appearance of reason believed by the jews to be of eternal obligation , at least not otherways reversible but with the same dreadfull signs and appearances of the divine presence , wherewith it was at first enacted ; and therefore when a young man should take upon him to cancel the onely true way of worshipping the onely true god , that design seem'd so like to blasphemy and idolatry , that his very pretending to it , without any farther enquiry , was , whatever he could say or doe , an invincible prejudice and an unpardonable crime . this is evident through the whole history of his life , that the jews every where concluded him an impostor , because he set up against moses , and then let him work what miracles he would , they would regard neither him nor them . and particularly this was the case of the controversie when he cured the man that was born blind , when the matter of fact was evident beyond all contradiction by the testimony of his parents , and by the confession of all the neighbours , who knew him to have sat and begged in a certain place for many years ; yet notwithstanding all this the pharisees concluded against his doing any miracles , because he was a sinner , that is , as they thought , a blasphemer of moses law ; and when the blind man argues with them that it was such a miracle as had never been done from the beginning of the world before , it was all one for that , they answer all with this peremptory assertion , we know that god spake unto moses ; as for this fellow we know not from whence he is . so that whatever miracles he worked , they were not to be regarded , because he derogated from the authority of moses . and therefore origen very well observes that the difficulty of our saviour's work was much greater than that of moses , from the great prejudices of the people against his undertaking . for moses had to doe with the off spring of abraham , who had all along observed the law of circumcision , and those other rites and customs that he had delivered down to his posterity , and onely undertook to deliver them from a grievous bondage , and bring them into that happy land that god had promised to their forefathers . but our saviour was sent to a people to command them to forsake that way of worship in which they had been educated , and to prescribe a new model of religion against an old one that had been settled by divine authority , and therefore instead of being complyed with as moses was , he was sure to meet with all the fiercest contradiction both of zeal and malice . and for this reason , says he , it was that it was so requisite that he should doe greater miracles than moses , or any of the prophets were recorded to have done , to convince them that god had given him greater authority , and so thereby obliged them to submit to his discipline as they had hitherto done to that of moses and the prophets . and as the eternity of the law of moses was at that time an insuperable prejudice against christianity , so is it to this very day , as may be seen in the writings of the jewish doctours , who always lay this supposition at the bottom of their disputes against the divine authority of the christian law. but of the prejudices of the jews i shall give a farther account , when i come to shew the reasons of their infidelity , notwithstanding the gospel brought all that evidence along with it , that we pretend it did . and then as for the religion of the gentiles , beside its proud pretence to the greatest antiquity , it now valued it self upon a much prouder title of being the religion of the empire ; and by reason of the vast extent of that , it was rooted in all parts of it with more strength and unity than it could have been under several governments , and there is nothing that can make people more fond of their religion than to possess them with a belief of its universality . now when a religion so catholick was settled by the laws , was own'd by the emperours , and was made the onely religion of power and interest in the world , its votaries could not endure to see it treated with scorn and dishonour by an upstart sect of men destitute of all power and authority . and for this reason is it that pliny , tacitus and suetonius inveigh against christianity with so much scorn and indignation , not that they had any concern for religion themselves being profest epicureans , and so inwardly as great despisers of paganism as the christians could pretend to be . but they were angry that a religion abetted by the emperours , and the great statesmen , such as themselves were or pretended to be , should be so dishonourably born down by a company of superstitious and despicable jews . and that proved another very great disadvantage to christianity , the force of laws and the interest of government against its reception . in that statesmen are ever jealous of all innovations in religion as dangerous to the present government : so that though themselves look upon all religion as a meer design of state-craft , yet they are very zealous for that which they find already establisht , as that by which they enjoy their present security , and therefore vigilant against all alterations as naturally tending to the subversion of the civil state. so that it is none of their business to enquire into the pleas of a new religion , but its being new is with them a sufficient reason of proceeding against it , as being sedition , ipso facto , against the establisht law. and this was the main reason of most of those many severe edicts and rescripts of several emperours against the christians , who looked upon their numerous assemblies upon pretence of religion as dangerous associations against the state of the empire : and particularly trajan , a wise and politick prince , who , either because he would not give the christians the advantage of pleading religion or suffering for it ; or rather out of his particular jealousie and fear of tumults , put in execution against them the law against the heteriae , which forbad all manner of numerous meetings , upon what account soever , though onely of friendship or good-fellowship , for which those heteriae were first instituted , so that upon pretence of this law he seem'd not to proceed against them upon the account of religion , but as unlawfull riots and tumults against the state. § xxii . now from the concurrence of all these mighty prejudices against christianity , it met with all the opposition that mankind could make it ; it was forced to encounter the fury of the multitude , the zeal of superstition , the hatred of the jews , the contempt of the greeks , the power of the romans , the pride of philosophers , and the policy of statesmen ; and by all these together , that is , by all means possible was it every-where harrassed with all the outrage and cruelty of persecution . no other party of men in the world were ever hunted with that keenness of malice , or sacrifised with that cheapness and contempt of humane bloud ; and as the enemies to christianity supposed it to be a new thing in the world , they resolved its punishments should be so too ; invented new methods of torment , studied all the arts of pain , and were not satisfied with the death of christians , unless they might tire them out of their lives with length and variety of tortures . in short , it wanted not the utmost opposition that could be made against it by men or devils ; if we suppose ( as we may for argument sake ) that there are any such malignant beings . and yet notwithstanding all disadvantages it grew and flourished after such a rate all the world over , as if it had met with all the contrary ways and methods of encouragement . now what could be the reason of all this ? there is no other imaginable account to be given of it , but that irresistible force of evidence that it gave of its truth and divine authority . for when every thing else was against it , and yet notwithstanding it prevailed so wonderfully by the power of its own truth , it must be clear of all doubt and suspicion that could bear away the minds of men with so great a force against all arguments and motives in the world beside . for i do not urge this at present as an argument of god's providence being concern'd in its propagation , but for the reasonableness of the thing it self : viz. that a doctrine labouring under all these mighty and unparallel'd disadvantages should ever have prevaild with such suddain and admirable success , had it not come attested with the clearest and most irresistible proofs . for is it not utterly incredible that an institution so destitute of secular power and interest , so uncouth to the principles and prejudices of education , so contrary to the vices and inclinations of men , so contradictory to the settled laws , and ( what was much more considerable ) to the establisht religions of common-wealths , so much opposed by all the power , all the wit , and all the zeal in the world , should yet so effectually bear away all resistence , and force the strugling world in spite of all their opposition to yield up all that was dear to them to the evidence of its divine authority ? for seeing it could have nothing else to recommend it to the world , nay , seeing it had all other things to oppose it , and yet found such strange and otherwise unaccountable entertainment , that alone , i say , is a demonstrative proof of its infinite evidence and certainty . neither am i ignorant that learned men both ancient and modern usually ascribe it to the almighty and miraculous power of god overruling the minds of men : and the truth is , the thing was so prodigious , that it is scarce accountable how it could be done without a miracle . but though i do not doubt of the secret and inward workings of the spirit of god upon the minds of men , yet i can by no means allow the reason of any thing to be resolved into that alone ; for if that be the onely reason of any man's assent , then his assent is unreasonable , and all the account he can give of his faith is that he finds himself vehemently inclined to believe he knows not why . but that is not a proper way of determining rational creatures , and therefore we cannot suppose that god would force the minds of men to a stronger assent than the evidence of the thing assented to requires ; for that instead of helping the understandings of men would utterly destroy them . and therefore how strong soever the influences of the spirit of god were upon the minds of the primitive christians , as no doubt they were very extraordinary , yet the outward and rational evidence that he gave them of the truth of christianity was still proportionable to that inward confidence that he wrought upon their minds , otherwise they had more confidence than they had reason for ; and then all that they had over and above was unreasonable . seeing therefore their faith was so infinitely confident , i shall demonstrate that the grounds and motives that they had for it were equal to their greatest assurance , and they were chiefly these two , undeniable miracles , and undoubted tradition ; from both which they had so great an assurance of the christian faith , that it was not possible for them to be deceived ; and if they had so much , they had as much as can be desired , because no man can have more . § xxiii . i have already shewn in the beginning of this discourse the great and unparallel'd credibility of the apostles testimony , taken by it self , as it stands upon their own naked reputation , in that we have all the evidence in the world that they were sincere and serious in their design , so that meerly by virtue of their own authority they might justly chalenge the faith of mankind . but to the undoubted integrity of the witnesses , god was pleased to adde a more forcible testimony of his own , by enduing them with a power of working miracles ; and thereby demonstrating to the world that as they who pretended to be his ambassadours were serious and in good earnest in their design , so was he too . and in truth , unless he had endued them with this power from above , they could never have had the courage so much as to have undertaken the work ; but instead of travelling into all parts of the world , to tell a story to the people , of which they could not understand one word , as being utter strangers to the language in which they spake , they must have concluded it a wiser course to resolve upon mending their old nets , and betaking themselves to their old trade . but this eusebius has excellently represented to us in their own persons . in that when our saviour commanded them to go and teach all nations , they ought to have replied upon him , how is this possible , that we who are unlearned persons and understand onely our mother tongue , should discourse in their several languages to the romans , grecians , egyptians , persians , armenians , chaldeans , scythians , indians , and all the other numberless nations of the barbarous world : and if we cannot ( as without a miracle we cannot ) to what purpose is it to travel from pole to pole , and tell an unintelligible story to the people . nay , how can we so much as dream that it is possible for us to perswade them to renounce their country gods , and to worship a new and unknown deity ? what eloquence , what unheard of power of words must we be inspired with , to encourage us to set about such an undertaking , to reverse all the ancient laws and religions in the world , and to introduce every where not onely a different but a contrary state of things ? these things ( says he ) if they should have objected , he could have return'd them no other answer , had he not prevented the objection by the promise of his miraculous assistance . and therefore , when they were obedient to his command , it is evident that they were already , by his divine works , convinced of his divine authority . for that they believed in him must be granted in that they so readily obeyed him , in a little time leaving their own native country to instruct the world in the faith of jesus , and soon saw the promise of his divine assistance not onely made good , but abundantly exceeded by their incredible success . but when they went about such a work as this , after what manner think you did they address themselves to the people ? did they go into the market-place , and there summon up an auditory of all passengers , or did they apply themselves to particular persons ? take which you please , i pray which way did they win their attention , when they began their story at the most ignominious death of their master , whom they set forth as the onely instructour of mankind , the son of god , and saviour of the world ? for if they had conceal'd that part of his history that related to his passion and sufferings , and onely trumpeted out his great vertues and much greater miracles , it had been very difficult to overcome the faith of mankind to a report so very strange and in it self incredible . and yet if they had done this , they might have kept their story within some bounds of probability . but when they acknowledged that the same person , whom they magnified as a god , lived like a miserable man , encountred perpetual affronts and contumelies , and at last suffer'd the death of the worst and most ignominious malefactours , who that heard them , would not laugh at the gross contradiction of their own story ? or at least how could any man be so credulous , as upon the bare report of unknown persons to believe that a person so shamefully executed , should be so conspicuously risen from the dead and ascended into heaven , when he was not able to rescue himself from so dishonourable an execution ? however who could have been so easie as to forsake the religion of their countrey , and that way of worship that had been used , as they believed , from the beginning of the world , by the meer authority of a company of mean and ignorant mechanicks and a crucified malefactour , who , notwithstanding his contemptible life and dishonourable death , would bear himself out as the onely son of god ? while ( says he ) i revolve these things in my mind , and consider the improbability of the story in it self , i cannot imagine how it is possible meerly by their own bare report to prevail upon the faith of any one man. and yet when i reflect upon the strange effect of their endeavours , and that such despicable persons as they were in themselves should prevail upon such innumerable multitudes of men , and that not in barbarous and obscure places onely , but in the most famous cities of rome , alexandria , antiochia ; nay , in all parts of the world , europe , asia and africa , i am forced to enquire into the rational account of so strange an event , and find that nothing could ever have brought it about but a manifest divine power , whereby they were able when they pleased , as we find in their records , to work miracles , and that alone was more than enough to vanquish and subdue the minds of men to their authority . for when they saw their miracles , they could not but be concern'd to enquire by what means they wrought such effects : and when they were told that they were empower'd by jesus , and did whatever they did by virtue of his authority , that alone over-ruled their minds , and without farther proof commanded entire submission to his doctrine . so that it was not the evidence of the thing it self , nor the credit of their testimony , but the undeniable power of god discovering it self in their miraculous actions , that so easily subdued the world before them . and it is impossible ( as origen observes ) that the apostles of our lord without these miraculous powers should ever have been able to have moved their auditours , or perswaded them to desert the institutions of their countrey , and embrace their new doctrine , and having once embraced it , to defend it to the death and defie all manner of dangers in its defence . but then , as it was impossible to have wrought this wonderfull change in the world without these miraculous powers , so with them it was impossible for men to withstand so clear a demonstration of divine authority . and therefore they did not so properly convert the world by their preaching as by their actions , whilst they perform'd such things as ( though they themselves had never opened their minds ) proclaim'd their divine commission . and when people were once convinced of that , little perswasion would serve the turn to engage them to the belief of that doctrine , which by their works they had already proved to be of divine authority . and this , if we consult the apostolical history , was the usual method of their proceeding , first to shew a miracle and then to declare its meaning . thus the first time that they appeared in publick , after their commission to preach the gospel to the utmost parts of the earth , was at the great festival of pentecost , when proselytes of all nations resorted to jerusalem , to whom they preached in their several languages ; and this being noised abroad that a few illiterate fishermen were all on a sudden inspired with the gift of speaking all the languages of the known and habitable world , curiosity brought great multitudes to hear them , and when the multitude was convinced of and amased at the miracle , then was it a proper time for saint peter to begin his sermon of the resurrection of jesus , and prove it by their own testimony . this jesus hath god raised up , whereof we are all witnesses . that is , we that are , as you see , endued with this miraculous gift of speaking all languages , in order to our preaching in the name of jesus to all nations , do here assure you that we were no less than eye-witnesses of his resurrection . and there lay the main strength and efficacy of saint peter's sermon , it was the miracle that so soon converted thousands to his doctrine . so again , when it was blazon'd abroad that the famous cripple , that was so well known to every boy in the city to have kept for so many years together his begging stage at the chief gate of the temple , styled beautifull , because made , as josephus informs us , of corinthian brass , was so miraculously healed by one of the company onely by a word speaking , this could not but enflame their curiosity , and every man was concern'd to satisfie himself in the truth or falshood of a report so near and yet so prodigious . and when they had ( as it was an easie matter ) assured themselves of its truth and reality , this could not but provoke them to an eager enquiry after the meaning of so strange a thing . and when they were assured that the miracle was wrought by the followers of that jesus , who was lately crucified , and that they declared themselves eye witnesses of his resurrection from the dead , and withall professed that they were endued with this power of miracles from heaven , onely for an undoubted evidence and confirmation of the truth of their testimony , they had not power to withstand the force of such a mighty and astonishing demonstration . and it was this demonstration of the spirit and of power ( as saint paul styles it ) rather than the strength of their arguments , as cogent as they were , that first baffled the unbelieving world into christianity , and forced in the assents of men to the truth and divine authority of its doctrine . they did not put their auditours to the trouble of examining the validity of their testimony , but prevented all enquiries by this infallible confirmation . the evidence of their miracles was such an irrefragable argument of the truth of their testimony , as surmounted the power of all other demonstration . and what rational man would stay to expect any other proof of a divine testimony , that has seen it unquestionably attested by a divine power ? or who could doubt and dispute , after he had seen devils dispossest , the sick healed , and the dead raised ? this was such an almighty attestation to their preaching , that it upbraided away their scruples , and bore away their understandings . and by this means it was that the gospel prevail'd so easily and so speedily over all the world. its first preachers converted whole cities and nations in a moment , and founded new churches upon one undeniable miracle ; and nothing less , considering all circumstances of things , and all the disadvantages under which it laboured , could so soon have propagated the gospel over all the world. and thus if we trace the apostolical history , we scarce find any thing transacted without a miracle , insomuch that the people at length familiarly resorted to them for the cure of all kind of diseases , acts . . and this power was so vulgarly known at that time , that saint paul insists upon it as the proof of his true apostleship , rom. . , . cor. . . which had been too absurd a thing to alledge to his followers in confutation of his enemies , if it had been a meer fiction ; for if it were they knew it to be so , when he appeals to the signs and wonders he had already wrought among them , and if he had wrought none they could not but convict him of falshood . but though i have already proved the certainty of the records of the new testament , and so might from thence rationally enough make out the truth of these apostolical miracles ; and though i have in part proved the sufficiency of the tradition of the church to attest both them and all things contained in them , and shall anon more distinctly shew the undoubted and uninterrupted conveyance of it from the very apostles themselves , so that if they had not been true , they could never have gain'd belief ; yet in this present argument i will not build upon these or any other suppositions : and indeed if i suppose them , this argument would be needless ; for once granting the scriptures to be true and authentick records of the apostles actions , to what purpose is it to go about to prove that they were endued with a power of miracles , when the record alone is an undoubted proof of it ? and therefore i onely argue from the nature of the thing it self , viz. that it is impossible the christian faith , lying under all those disadvantages above represented , could ever have been propagated with that speed and facility that it was all the world over , any other way than by this power of working miracles ; and on the contrary , that supposing this evidence that they gave the world by their miracles , that then it was natural and almost necessary that they should meet with the success they did . here then lies the force of my present argument , that when it was impossible they should compass their design any other way , and when it was natural , if they took this course , to succeed in it , and when it is certain that they had such wonderfull success , that is a manifest argument that they were endued with such a power of miracles as is reported of them . and therefore i did not produce those testimonies of scripture but now alledged as proofs to justifie the truth of the argument , but onely as instances to exemplifie the practice of it , v. g. how incredible it is that people , when they heard the apostles affirm at whitsontide that the same jesus , whom they had seen so shamefully executed at easter , was risen from the grave and ascended into heaven , should so immediately believe them upon their bare report ; but when they beheld that miraculous effect of the holy ghost in them , whereby such illiterate persons were enabled to speak all manner of languages , that alone could not but satisfie them of the truth of their testimony . so that i argue not from the truth of the record but from the nature of the thing it self , which could not have been done any other way than as it is recorded to have been done . i might here also confirm the truth of their miracles by the confession of their greatest enemies , in that i do not find that ever any of them denied them to have been done , but instead of that ascribe them to the power of magick , though how foolish that evasion is i shall shew when i come to consider their evasions to this argument ; at present this very surmise is a plain confession of the reality of the thing it self , and that goes a great way as to evidence when coming out of the mouth of an adversary ; but this having suggested , i shall not farther insist upon it . § xxiv . onely there is one thing remaining that adds great force to the strength of this argument , viz. that this power was not meerly confined to the apostolical age , but was continued down to the next ages of the church ; which if true , it is an undeniable evidence of the truth of the apostolical miracles in particular , and of the divinity of the christian religion in general . and yet of the truth of these we have no one thing for which we have better records . it is unanimously attested by all writers of those times , and that in such a publick and extraordinary way , as raises their testimony up to certain demonstration , for they do not barely report it , but they upbraid it to all their adversaries as a thing undeniable ; they challenge emperours , proconsuls , the whole senate in their apologies and publick writings to convince them by experiment ; they urge it in their disputes with learned men , and dare them to contradict it ; and not onely offer to cast the whole controversie upon this one proof , but their lives too . now all this they could never have been so foolish or so impudent to have done , if it had not been true ; or if they were , they could not have escaped that disgrace that was due to their folly and impudence . and yet they were so far from being ever convicted of forgery , that it was chiefly by virtue of these challenges that the christian faith so wonderfully prevail'd in all places . many and pregnant are the passages to this purpose in the writings of just in martyr , irenaeus , tertullian , saint cyprian , saint austin , origen , arnobius , lactantius , minutius felix , prudentius , firmicus , and indeed all , that appear'd in defence of the christian faith in the first ages of the church : and though most of them have been often alledged by modern authours , yet being of a peculiar use as to my argument , when join'd to the apostolical miracles , it will be very requisite to represent at one view the most material passages to this purpose . i begin with just in martyr , who lived in the next age to the apostles , who tells the emperour and senate , that they may , if they please , inform themselves of our lord's power over their demons by what was daily done under their own eyes , when so many who had been tortur'd and possessed by them , throughout the whole world and in the very city of rome it self , whom all their several kinds of exorcists were not able to relieve , had been often cured by christians through the name of jesus that was crucified under pontius pilate , and that at this very time they still cured them . and the same thing he frequently upbraids to trypho the jew in their personal conference , which , had it been a meer fable , he could never have done with so much confidence ; or if he had , he could not have passed without confutation , especially when in a short time after he published it to the world. and in the same age irenaeus proves against the hereticks the right succession of the catholick church to the apostles from their power of working the same miracles , as casting out devils , foretelling things to come , curing the sick by imposition of hands , and raising the dead , many whereof , he says , conversed among them many years after ; beside innumerable other gifts , which the church throughout the world does every day freely exercise in the name of jesus christ crucified under pontius pilate , for the benefit of mankind . but tertullian , as his manner is , speaks very daringly , for having convinced the heathens of their folly in worshipping their gods , by argument , he challenges them to doe it by matter of fact. set , says he , before your publick seats of judgment any person possessed , as you suppose , by some demon , and there let any christian onely command him to confess what he is , and the spirit shall as certainly acknowledge himself to be a devil , as at other times he confidently pretends to be a god. nay , take any person that you suppose inspired by any of your greatest deities , be it ceres or aesculapius , and if they do not confess themselves to be devils , not daring to lie to a christian , let that foolish christian , that undertakes it and fails of doing it , pay for his confidence with his bloud . what can be more evident than this matter of fact ? what more satisfactory than this kind of proof ? the certainty of the truth lies before you , it s own power will maintain it self , for it is a ridieulous thing to suspect that this can be done by any magick tricks , believe not one word that i say , if your own eyes and ears do not force you to it . what a bold challenge is here to appeal to the senses of their enemies , and that with the hazard and pawn of their lives ? it is such an height of assurance as i think nothing can exceed , though his appeal to scapula seems to equal it , when he refers him to the officers of his own court , some of whose servants had been healed by christians ; but not to insist , says he , upon inferiour people , i could name persons of quality and reputation that have been so cured , and particularly severus the father of the emperour antoninus caracalla , who was so cured by proculus , whom he ever after highly esteemed , and entertain'd him in his court till his death . and to this he subjoins the testimony of m. aurelius concerning the miracle of the christian souldiers in the german expedition , that when the imperial army was reduced to great streights , and ready to perish through thirst , and in that extremity of weakness forced to battel by the enemy , the christians , by the power of their prayers , immediately drew down great showrs of rain upon their own camp , and thunder and lightning upon the enemies . this he here urges upon the president scapula as a thing vulgarly known ; and in his apology to the senate proves it by the letters that the emperour had not long before sent to themselves . which certainly he could never have been so presumptuous as to have done , had there then been no such letters extant : and yet scaliger , to make it as doubtfull as he can , has found out a very lean conjecture , viz. that tertullian does not positively affirm the thing , but onely says , si literae m. aurelii requirantur , if you make search after the letter of m. aurelius , from whence he infers that tertullian himself never saw it , because of his hypothetical way of expression . but 't is a strange thing that so great a critick as scaliger should not know that there is no one form of speech more vulgar with all kind of writers , than when they are most assured of any thing , to express it hypothetically , and thereby refer what themselves certainly know to the farther enquiry of others ; so that the most natural meaning of the words is this , viz. as to this matter i need not take pains to satisfie you , which you may do your selves , if you please , by examining the emperour 's own letter to your own house . neither is his suggestion much more weighty when he infers that this letter was not extant in the time of eusebius , because if it had , so diligent a writer would have preserved a copy of it . and so it is very likely he would , had it been extant in the greek tongue , but being written in the latin to which he was a stranger , it lay out of the compass of his diligence . yes , but , says he , it was the custom of eusebius to translate latin monuments into the greek tongue , as he has several passages out of tertullian . one would think that eusebius had familiarly cited the writings of tertullian , whereas he never quoted but one short book of his , and that is his apology , which it is very probable that eusebius himself did not translate , but made use of another's translation , especially when it is plain by those few passages that he has made use of , that it is very short of the usual care and diligence of eusebius . so that though scaliger have proved the letter now extant at the end of justin martyr to be spurious , as is too evident from its unskilfull inscription , yet that there were such letters then written is as evident from this appeal of tertullian to the senate it self not long after the thing was done . however , as for the substance of the story , that was so well known as to be painted upon tables , some whereof themistius says he saw in his time , the emperour himself being drawn with his hands and eyes lift up , and the souldiers receiving the rain in their head-pieces . neither is it less vouched by heathen than by christian writers , as dion , julius capitolinus , claudian , lampridius , who attribute it partly to the emperour 's own prayers to jupiter , but chiefly to the enchantments of chaldean or jewish magicians , i. e. christians , who by the heathens were looked upon as no other than jews , and were at that time generally esteemed magicians for those strange things that were reported to be done by them . so that these very writers have unwittingly cast the honour of this miracle upon the christians alone , in that onely they , at least no other jews were at that time famous for magick , by which these writers suppose it to have been effected . however the matter of fact being put past question by so unanimous an attestation of it , i leave it to the judgment of any man of common sense whether it were done by magick or by miracle . but with as much assurance as tertullian insists upon the miracles of christians , origen , if it be possible , out-does him , sending numberless challenges upon this point . here he begins both his dispute and his triumph over celsus . we have such a proof of the divinity of our discipline , as your greekish way of demonstration cannot afford , that which the apostle calls the demonstration of spirit and power , i. e. prophesies and miracles ; and of the truth of the latter beside many other proofs we have this assured evidence that we see instances of it even at this day . and when celsus sets it at the front of his calumnies that the christians cast out devils by diabolical inchantments and invocations , origen insults over the calumny , because , says he , whatever they doe , all the world knows it is done by invocating christ's not the devil's name . though beside that , this is a plain confession from an epicurean , who really believed there was no such thing as a devil , that the christians did something so extraordinary , that no probable account could be given of them , unless they were done by some power more than humane . and so again origen having asserted the certainty of the apostolical miracles , both from the wonderfull success of their doctrine and the undoubted records of them , he farther proves it by those many instances and examples of it , that were to be seen at that time , of many whereof himself had been an eye-witness ; and though celsus and other such sceptical and atheistical persons , that are beforehand resolved to believe nothing of this kind , may make themselves merry with it , yet god bears witness with my own conscience that i do not endeavour by any falshoods but by various miraculous examples to recommend the divine religion of jesus . so that here he does not barely vouch the truth of his assertion , but burthens his conscience with it , which is no less than attesting it upon oath . and in another place , when celsus seoffingly asks what wonderfull things our saviour did at his passion , origen answers that he could tell him of a great many both out of the christian and heathen records , but yet quitting them all , it is more than enough for the satisfaction of all that are ingenuous , that at this day diseases are cured onely by virtue of his name . and again , that himself had seen many , who by having the name of god and christ call'd over them , had been deliver'd from the greatest evils , frenzy and madness , and infinite other distempers , which neither men nor devils had been able to cure . and speaking elsewhere of the christians power over devils , this , says he , is familiarly put in practice by the vulgar sort of christians , the grace of christ thereby discovering the contemptibleness and infirmity of the devils , when there was no need ( as your philosophers dream ) of learning or any thing extaordinary in order to their ejection . i might add divers other passages out of his writings , but these are enough , if not too many . after him follows minatius felix a famous advocate at rome , who with the same assurance appeals to the very senses of his adversaries . every man knows ( says he ) and you your selves , that the devils , whenever they are tortur'd and vexed out of the bodies that they possess , by the prayers of christians , are forced to confess themselves to be but devils ; even saturn , serapis and jupiter , and whatsoever other demon you worship are forced to confess what they are , and you may be sure that they would not belie themselves especially in your presence ; and therefore we onely desire you to take their own testimony and their own confession . for when they are adjured by the name of the onely true god , it puts them into tremblings and convulsion fits , and forces them to quit their possession . and in the same manner does saint cyprian challenge demetrian , a stubborn and a prejudiced enemy , to come and see the demons whom he worshipt how they were as it were whipt by christians out of the bodies that they possessed , when , weeping and howling they confess that the time of their judgment is come , come you and satisfie your self that what i affirm , is true . but there is no end of these challenges in the primitive writers of the christian church , and i am tired with so often tranfcribing the same thing , and therefore if any man desire it , he may reade it repeated in eusebius contra hieroclem , c. . in lactantius de justitiâ , l. . c. . l. . c. . l. . c. , . in firmicus de errore profanae religionis , in prudentius apotheof . in theodoret de curand . graec. affect . serm. . and now after all , it is no doubt very credible that such a number of learned and sober men , that lived in such remote and distant places , should be such impudent sots and fools , as to publish the truth of such things upon their own certain knowledge , to appeal to the senses of their greatest adversaries , to challenge them to convince them by trial and experiment , and to devolve the issue of the whole cause upon the event , and that with the pawn of their lives , in the face of the sun , in their publick disputes with philosophers , and apologies to emperours and proconsuls , 't is likely ( i say ) that they should doe all this , had it all been a manifest and palpable fiction . § xxv . this is that mighty demonstration of power , to which the primitive christians constantly appeal'd with the greatest assurance of mind to the very face of their fiercest enemies . how then could they avoid its force ? by denying it ? never , nay they confess it as a thing undeniable . thus hierocles freely grants our saviour's miracles , but then he says that they onely proved him to be a divine man , but not what he pretended to be , a god. but if they were true , then whatever he was , they prove him to be what he pretended to be , and that is enough to our present purpose against paganism and infidelity , viz. that he came from god , and after that whether he were to be truly and properly to be styl'd god , or onely esteem'd of as an ambassadour from him is a dispute that supposes his divine commission . so that this very confession of hierocles proves no less , because we all know that he profest to teach and act by no less authority . in the next place the emperour julian does not deny but diminish the wonder of our saviour's miracles , in that there is nothing so very remarkable recorded of him , unless to cure the lame and the blind , and to cast out devils in the towns of galilee may be reckoned among the works of greatest magnificence . but this is objected rather like an emperour than a philosopher . for , as huetius very well replies to it , it is the greatest work of ambitious princes to raise armies , to dispeople nations , to erect prodigious buildings , here to demolish a great city , and there to reedifie a greater . but alas these are works within the power of art and nature , and are to be wrought out by the wit or the industry of men , whereas those that were wrought by jesus were quite of another stamp , and such as could never have been effected by any power less than divine . these are works truly magnificent and becoming the greatness of the son of god , and therefore it was very weakly objected of a great pretender to philosophy that he did nothing so extraordinary , when to raise one man from the grave proceeds from a power that infinitely exceeds that of alexander or caesar in sending so many millions thither . but the most usual shifts made use of to evade the force of this argument , is either to ascribe all this train of miracles to the power of magick , or to vye against them the wonderfull works of other men , that never made any such lofty pretences . and at this lock we find celsus at every turn , and whenever he is pressed hard , he still takes shelter in one of these evasions , and for that reason we cannot avoid to take notice of them . and first as for the pretence of magick , it s own vanity is its own confutation , for if he were such a magician as is pretended , then either himself was the first inventour and master of his own art , or he learnt it from others ; if he had no teacher , and yet acquired the skill of doing things so extraordinary , that alone seems something divine and wonderfull , that a young man without learning , without books , without tutours , without instructions , should by the strength of his own faculties arrive to an higher degree of knowledge than all the learned men in the world beside ; for it cannot be denied that the actions recorded of him infinitely exceed the very pretences of all others . yes but , say they , he had masters in egypt from whom he learnt all those magick mysteries , by which he afterward made himself so famous in judaea . but why then do we hear of no such eminent magicians at that time either in egypt or any where else beside himself ? why was there no fame of them in the world before his accusation ? why was there not any the least memory of them preserved , whilst his name is so universally celebrated ? or when did any magician from the beginning of the world , either among the greeks or barbarians doe such things as he did ? but what need i say more , our saviour's works themselves are the fullest confutation of this vain pretence , for whatever the powers of magick may be , no man can ever believe that any thing less than a divine power could with a word speaking cure all manner of diseases , give sight to men born blind , recover dying persons at a distance , and raise the dead themselves . to ascribe such actions as these meerly to magick is a conceit so utterly extravagant , that it were an affront to the understanding of mankind , at least at this time , to think it needed any other confutation beside its own impossibility . though if any man will be so humoursomly credulous in his infidelity as to pretend some such suspicion , i shall onely refer him to a smart discourse of arnobius in answer to it , who first pursues all our saviour's miraculous actions and the manner of their performance , and then appeals to the common sense of mankind concerning each particular , how it was possible that they could ever have been effected by any power less than divine . but in my opinion this thing is so evident of it self that at this time it would be a very needless piece of industry to spend so much pains upon it , whatever it might have been in his age , when it was so easie , and indeed so usual a thing to impose upon the superstitious vulgar with such vain romances . insomuch that the enemies to christianity were not content to perswade them that christ was a magician , but told them that he was a teacher of magick too , and writ a book to instruct his disciples in the same art , especially peter and paul to whom he inscribed it . so ignorantly do these calumniatours falsifie , when it is so well known that our saviour had left the world a considerable time before paul became his disciple ; but beside that the story is altogether groundless and without proof ; and if it were not , yet it confutes it self by its own silliness and absurdity , viz. that the apostles should learn to doe those things that they did by rules of art. but either these men that tell us of this magick book have seen it , or they have not ; if they have not , they speak at random ; if they have , why are they not able to doe the same things themselves ? why do they not cure their sick friends , or conjure them out of their graves ? as for the fable of the jews , that our saviour had stoln out of the temple the shem hamporash , or the name of god written in its proper characters , which they say it was not lawfull for them vulgarly to doe , and by virtue of that was enabled to work all kind of miracles , it is a fable so very despicable , that i am ashamed to repeat it , and therefore much more scorn to confute it . § xxvi . their next evasion to this argument is to vye other stories with that of our saviour and his apostles , and thereby to abate either their wonder or their credit ; and this they chiefly doe as to the resurrection , especially celsus , who has in this point more than any other shewn the strength of his malice and the weakness of his cause . and he is so weak as to fetch testimonies out of the fabulous age it self , and to compare the descents of orpheus and hercules into hell , and of rampsinitus , who went thither to play at tables with ceres , with our saviour's refurrection ; but such trifles as these are to be laughed at , not to be answered ; and therefore in the next book he pieces up these fables out of the poets with some examples out of historians ; but those so remote , so obscure , so lamentably attested , and so altogether without any grounds or motives of belief , that the metamorphoses of the poets are scarce more incredible . and therefore origen very well puts it to him whether he believes the stories that he relates , or not ; if he does not , then they are nothing to his purpose ; but if he does , then he shews his strange partiality that whilst he rejects the story of our saviour , he believes things so ill-vouched in comparison of it . for it is not the matter of the narrative but the motives of credibility that are the ground and reason of our assent , and the same relation may either be a meer fable or an undoubted truth as the matter of fact it self , and the onely thing that makes the difference is the testimony wherewith it is vouched , and that is the onely difference between the story of our saviour's resurrection , that is so strongly confirm'd by all that testimony that i have represented ; whereas the tales that they oppose to it , are destitute of all manner of proof , and when pursued home to their original authority appear no better than poetick fables . the first and chiefest of them is that of aristeas proconnefius , who is reported by herodotus to have often died and lived again . but upon what authority ? nothing but an old-wives tradition among the people . but to whom did he appear ? first to the people of proconnesus , and between two or three hundred years after to those of metapontum . how then was any man at that distance of time able to affirm that it was the same man ? but as vain a fable as it is , it is not , as huetius conjectures , without some ground of history , in that there was such a man as aristeas of great authority in the town of proconnesus about the reign of cyrus ; but beside him there was another in the fabulous age , the son of apollo , whom the poets feign'd to have taken a sudden flight to heaven ; now it was easie to report of the one what was feign'd of the other , especially by his own country-men , it being the custom of the greeks to apply the deeds of their gods to the honour of their own citizens ; and here they had an especial advantage from the identity of their names , and that is the most natural foundation of the whole story , that he was namesake with one of whom these things had been fabled of old time . another is , that there was a poem call'd arimaspea falsely ascribed to this aristeas ; where the poet begins , as the usual manner of poets is , with the imagination of his being conveyed out of himself by apollo to a certain place where he might have the most convenient prospect of what he was to describe . now what he thus spake in a poetick scheme , they afterward understood in rigour of speech , and when once the mistake was raised , it easily supported it self among the common people , from whom herodotus , as himself confesses , a long time after received it . now is not this a worthy story to vye with our saviour's resurrection , when this has all the proofs in the world of its truth and certainty ; that not one , but on the contrary all the signs of folly and fiction ? and it were easie to give the same account of cleomedes , hermotimus , epimenides , but the stories are so apparently fabulous , and so utterly void of all original authority , and so very like meer mythology , that seriously to confute them were to betray my own understanding and affront my readers . but beside these romances of antiquity they insist upon some few miracles of a later date , but those too so slenderly attested , that onely to compare them is enough to destroy them . those of most seeming credit are the stories of vespasian and apollonius tyanaeus . as for vespasian , he was strangely befool'd with the ambition of being the messias , that is as he understood it , the monarch of the world , which some say was the first rise and occasion of his glory ; for being naturally inclined to an easie belief of prophesies and predictions , and there being at that time ( as the roman historians attest ) a strong and unanimous opinion among the eastern people of an universal monarch , that was foretold by some ancient prophets about that time to come out of judaea , he first applies this prophesie to himself and then applies himself to fulfill it . percrebuerat oriente toto ( says suetonius ) vetus & constans opinio , esse in fat is ut eo tempore judaeâ profecti rerum potirentur . and so tacitus , pluribus persuasio inerat antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri , eo ipso tempore ut valesceret oriens , profectique judaeâ rerum potirentur . and this , he says , was the main reason of the rebellion and ruine of the jews , the application of this prophesie to themselves , whereas it is evident from all circumstances that it marked out vespasian and titus . and then beside the prophesies themselves , he was grosly abused ( as vain-glory is sufficiently credulous ) by the flatteries of josephus , who accommodated all the characters and descriptions of the messias to his person and the circumstances of his affairs . and not onely so , but he added great authority to his prediction by his great confidence , presevering in his flattery in spite of vespasian's unkindness ; for when he had cast him into prison , josephus made light of it , and assured himself and his friends , that he should in a short time be delivered by vespasian himself , but that it should not be done till after he was possest of the empire , unus ex nobilibus captivis josephus , cum conjiceretur in vincula , constantissimè asseveravit fore , ut ab eodem brevi solveretur , verùm jam imperatore . and it seems he was so taken with this conceit of his messiahship , that he is said to have searched after and slain all that pretended to have been of the posterity of david , thereby to secure the title to himself against all rivals and competitours . flusht with these pleasing omens in judaea , but much more with some answerable success , finding all his competitours removed but onely vitellius , whom he feared least of all , he repairs to rome , and by the way visits egypt to secure those parts , or to fulfill a sibyllan prophesie ; and here he was more abused with the flatteries of apollonius tyanaeus than he had been before by josephus ; for he was no sooner come to alexandria ( where that wandring pedant hapned to be at that time ) but he beggs of him his confirmation of those omens that he brought along with him from judaea , begging of him upon his knees to make him emperour ; to whom apollonius with the state and authority of a god , answered i have made thee so , viz. by my interest with the gods , and he so far gratified the vanity of the man , as to seem to receive the empire at his hands , and thus was he assured of his empire by men of greatest reputation for both religions ; for as there was no jew at that time to be compared to josephus for knowledge and learning in the antiquities of his own nation ; so apollonius was then the most famous and renowned saint in the world for the heathen religion : now whilst he stayed at alexandria , a blind and a lame man , being warn'd so to doe by the god serapis , address themselves to him for a cure , and obtain it ; so that considering the circumstances of the story by it self , it looks so like fraud and flattery as to betray it self . for the report of his having been abused into the conceit of being the messias in judaea , being probably come to alexandria , where great numbers of jews resided , it is likely that they would not come short of their country-men in doing honour to the emperour , and so put these two counterfeits upon the design , and there are enough of such dissembling cripples to be had in great cities ; for it being foretold that the messias when he came should among other miracles cure the lame and the blind , they thought it an acceptable piece of flattery thus to way-lay his ambition : or rather this design was set on foot by the egyptians , a fawning , crafty and flattering sort of people ; but chiefly by apollonius , for the honour of that religion for which he was so zealous , and therefore by this artifice confirm'd his own predicton of the empire by the authority of his gods , for they were sent on their errand by serapis . but whoever contrived it , and however it pleased the emperour's humour , it at first surprised him , so as to move his laughter and scorn , and to refuse the attempt with a very great deal either of seeming or real reluctancy ; though at last he suffer'd himself to be overcome by the great importunity of the by-standers and the assurance of the physicians that the thing was possible , and then perform'd it in publick with all imaginable pomp and solemnity , either as if himself had been beforehand privy to the plot , or had now smelt out the design of the complement . now what wise man could compare this one theatrical piece of court-flattery with all the miracles of our saviour and his apostles ? the meer suspicion of these pretended cripples being counterfeits , at least the absolute uncertainty of it , destroys its credit ; whereas the impossibility of suspecting any fraud or flattery in our saviour's miracles is an undoubted demonstration of their reality . beside that , the emperour was assured by the physicians that the men were not past a natural cure , and so not to be compared with our saviour's miracles , most whereof were done upon persons naturally incurable . but to wave this , i cannot give so much credit to a story that smells so rankly of imposture as to suppose the possibility of its truth , and therefore i shall onely desire the reader to compare it as he finds it under so many disadvantages of suspicion , with the credibility of all those motives of belief that we have produced for the history of our saviour's life , death and resurrection , and then leave it to his own ingenuity to judge whether it be reasonable to oppose one story so miserably suspicious to a thousand others guarded with all the advantages of proof against all possible cavils and exceptions . § xxvii . but the man of wonders is apollonius tyanaeus of whom they boast and insult as the true heathen messias ; in that he wrought not , as vespasian did , one or two chance miracles , but his whole life was all prodigy , and equal to our saviour's both for the number and the wonder of his works . but here first we have in part already shewn what undoubted records we have of the life of jesus , whereas all the credit of apollonius his history depends upon the authority of one single man , who , beside that he lived an hundred years after him , ventured nothing , as the apostles did , in confirmation of its truth , but onely composed it in his study , thereby , as appears from his frequent digressions , to take occasion of communicating all the learning he had raked together to the world. nay , so far was he from incurring any loss by the work , that he was set upon it by a great empress , whose religious zeal in the cause would be sure to see him well rewarded . and though he made use of the commentaries of damis , the inseparable companion of apollonius , yet he confesses that damis himself never publisht his own commentaries , but that a friend of damis communicated them to the empress , which himself might probably have forged ( as is common in courts ) to pick her pocket . however , as for damis himself it is evident , from philostratus his whole story , that he was a very simple man , and that apollonius onely pickt him up as a fit sancho panche to exercise his wit upon , so that upon all occasions we find him not onely baffling the esquire in disputes but breaking jests upon him , which he always takes with much thankfulness and more humility , still admiring his master's wisedom but much more his wit. but after all , what the story of damis was , or whether there were ever any such story , we have no account unless from philostratus himself , and therefore we must resolve it all into his authority alone . and there it is evident that he was neither a god nor a divine man , as his friends boasted , nor a magician or conjurer as his enemies imagin'd , but a meer fanatick and pedantick pythagorean , that for the honour of his sect travel'd , as many others have done , into all parts of the world , and when he return'd home told his country-men that all men renown'd for wisedom all the world over were of the sect of the pythagoreans ; and then for the advancement of their authority told strange and prodigious tales of their wonder-working power . though here either he or his historian has acquitted himself so awkardly as utterly to spoil the tale and defeat the design . this eusebius has shewn at large in his book against hierocles , by taking apieces all parts of the story , and discovering all its flaws and incoherences ; but i shall content my self with proving the vanity of the whole from the notorious falshood of one particular narration , upon which depends all that extraordinary power that he pretends to , and that is his conversation with the indian brachmans , from whom , if we may believe his account of himself , he learnt all that he could doe more than the common philosophers of greece . and if this prove a romance , all the rest of the history must unavoidably follow its fortune ; and for this little proof will serve the turn , when most of the stories are so very mean and childish as to be more contemptible than those little tales wherewith nurses are wont to quiet little children . for what could be contrived more unphilosophically than the bramans keeping tubs of rain , wind and thunder by them , which they bestow upon their friends as their necessities require ; and the swelling of the earth like the waves of the sea onely with the stroke of a braman's wand ? though the most pleasant scene of the whole comedy was their feast , in which there was no need of any attendants ; but the chairs and the stools , the pots and the cups , the dishes and the plates understood every one their own offices , and so served in the entertainment themselves , and run hither and thither as the guests commanded or their attendance required . but of all lyes the geographical lye is the most unhappy ; for the matter of them being perpetual , and not , as the actions of men are , transient , they may be confuted in any age. and yet in this very thing he has out-done sir john mandevil himself for incredible monsters and fables , describing men and beasts of strange shapes , that were never seen by any man but himself , as a sort of women half black , half white ; a nation of pygmies living under ground , griffins , apes as big as men , beasts with the faces of men and bodies of lions , wool growing like grass out of the earth , and dragons as common almost as sheep in other countries ; all which being so vulgarly known at this day to be meer fables , they cannot but overthrow the credit of the whole story . for either he really wandred as far as the indies or not ; if not , then his saying that he did , is one lye for all ; if he did , then it is evident from these particulars that he made no conscience of truth or falshood , but design'd onely to amuse the world with strange and prodigious reports of the power of pythagorism . and that is the most that i can make of the story , though i know that huetius is of opinion that all the substantial miracles are stoln out of the gospels and the acts of the apostles , and that for the most part in the very words and phrases of saint luke . and this he has endeavour'd to make good by a great variety of parallel instances , and then thinks it a manifest discovery both of the vanity of philostratus and the imposture of apollonius , when he is onely adorn'd with borrowed feathers , but a great accession to the credit of our saviour , that when his enemies would frame the idea of a divine man , they were forced to steal their best features from his picture ; so that , he says , it was no wonder that hierocles should so confidently compare the miracles of apollonius to those of jesus , when those of jesus were with so little disguise clapt upon apollonius . this were a pretty discovery if it stood upon good grounds , but alas most of the parallelisms are so forced , or so slender , or so far fetched , that it were easie to make as many and as probable between any other histories whatsoever . and indeed , in such a design as this of philostratus , viz. to make up a story as full of strange things as he could well contrive , it is scarce possible not to have hit upon some things like some of those miracles that are recorded in the gospels . so that in some few of them there may be some resemblance , as particularly there seems to be in that of the gadarean demoniack and the corcyrean youth , yet it is very obvious to apprehend that this might happen not by design but by chance . and whereas huetius will needs have it that philostratus has stoln not onely the stories but the very words of saint luke , i find no instances of it but onely in this one relation , where they both it seems use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and this they might easily doe without theft or imitation , it being the common greek word that signifies to torment , so that they could no more avoid that in greek than we could this in rendring it into english. nay , setting aside this one story , i find so little resemblance between the history of philostratus and that of the gospels , that i scarce know any two histories more unlike . for it is obvious to any man that reads philostratus that his whole design was to follow the train of the old heathen mythology , and that is the bottom of his folly by his story to gain historical credit to the fables of the poets ; so that it is a very true and just censure that ludovicus vives has given of him , that as he had endeavour'd to imitate homer , so he had abundantly out-lyed him . for there is scarce any thing extraordinary reported in the whole history , in which he does not apparently design either to verifie or to rectifie some of that blind ballad-singers tales . but especially in conjuring achilles out of his tomb and discoursing with him about the old stories that were told of the trojan war. and yet after all , few of apollonius his miracles are sufficiently vouched even by his own history , v. g. the last that i mention'd of the apparition of achilles , that had no other testimony but of apollonius himself , who stubbornly refused to have any companion or witness of the fact ; beside many other absurdities in the story it self , as his rising out of the tomb five foot long , and then swelling to twice the length , his being forced to vanish away at cock-crowing , and the nymphs constantly visiting of him . and so again , he pretended to understand all languages without learning any , and yet when he came to the indian king he was forced to converse with him by an interpreter . and whereas the story tells us of the devils being cast out of a young man by a mandate from the bramans , yet it gives us no account of the event of it , onely they pretended to doe it , but whether it were effectually done we do not find that either apollonius or damis ever enquired . but the great faculty he pretended to was the understanding of the language of birds and beasts , which , he says , he learnt from the arabians , and the citizens of paraca in india , who acquired it by eating dragons hearts . now all stories of dragons are very hard of belief , but especially of his indian dragons , that , he says , were as commonly hunted by the inhabitants as hares in other countries . but granting there were so great numbers of them in his time , though since that they were never seen by any man , it is very hard to believe that the meer eating a piece of their hearts should inspire men with such an odd and singular faculty . though the great miracle of all was his vanishing away at his tryal before domitian in the presence of all the great men of rome , but then though our historian be very desirous we should believe it , yet he faulters afterward like a guilty lyer in his confidence ; for whereas at first he positively affirms , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he quite vanisht away , at last he onely says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he went away , and this though he would seem to affirm that it was after a wonderfull manner and no body knows how , is a pitifull abatement to the bigness of his former expression vanishing away . though the truth is , if he had stood to it , it must unavoidably have proved it self a lye , for it is utterly incredible that so strange a thing as that should have been done in so great a presence as that , and yet never any notice be taken of it . but in the last place the historian would fain bid at something of his hero's appearing after death , yet he does it so faintly , that in the conclusion of all it comes to nothing , especialy when he tells us that the time of his death was altogether unknown , and that the uncertainty of it took in no less than the compass of thirty years , and then they that were so utterly at a loss as to the time of his decease , and that for so long a space , were likely to give a very wise account of the certain time of any thing that he did after it . but how or to whom did he appear ? why , to a young man , one of his followers , that doubted of the immortality of the soul for ten months together after his death . but how or where ? why , the young man being tired with watching and praying to apollonius that he would appear to him onely to satisfie him in this point , one day fell into a dead sleep in the school where the young men were performing their several exercises , and on the sudden starts up in a great fright and a great sweat crying out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i believe thee , o tyanaeus . and being asked by his companions the meaning of his transport . why , says he , do you not see apollonius ? they answer him no , but that they would be glad to give all the world that they could . 't is true , says he , for he onely appears to me and for my satisfaction , and is invisible to all others , and so tells them what he had said to him in his sleep concerning the state of souls . this poor account of a dream and a vision of an over-watched boy , is all that this great story affords to vye with our saviour's resurrection . and now , upon review of this whole history , it seems evident to me that this man was so far from being endued with any extraordinary or divine power that he does not deserve the reputation of an ordinary conjurer . for though huetius has taken some pains to prove him so , yet he gives no evidence of it beside the opinion of the common people ; and if that were enough to make a conjurer , there is no man of an odd and a singular humour ( as apollonius affected to be ) who is not so thought of by the common people . and therefore when he was accused for it before domitian the emperour when he came to hear the cause , slighted both him and his accusers , and dismist him the court for an idle and phantastick fellow . and it is manifest from the whole series of his history that he was a very vain man , and affected to be thought something extraordinary , and so wander'd all the world over in an odd garb to be gazed at and admired , and made himself considerable in that age by wit , impudence and flattery , of all which he had a very competent share . but for his wonder-working faculty which he would needs pretend to , he fetcht that as far off as the east indies , that is the farthest off as he thought from confutation . and yet the account that he has given of those parts is so grosly fabulous , that that alone convicts his whole life of imposture and impudence . and this may suffice to make good this part of the demonstration of our saviour's divine authority from the certain evidence both of his own and his apostles miracles , and to set it above the reach of all manner either of objection or competition . § xxviii . but though the history of jesus of nazareth have this advantage of all others , in that the tradition , whereby it has been conveyed down to us , has proved the truth of its own testimony by plain and undeniable miracles ; yet if we set aside this peculiar divine attestation , and consider the tradition by it self as meerly humane , and deliver'd down in the ordinary course of things ; it has been so constant , so catholick and so uninterrupted as to be its own demonstration . for if there had been no such thing as the story of jesus of nazareth in that age , there could never have been any such tradition ; or if there were , it was so early , that if it had been false , it must immediately have perished as a manifest lye , in that when it comes so near the very time in which the thing it self was acted , nothing but undoubted truth could ever have maintain'd its authority . for though it is easie at a distance to tell strange stories of the times of old , as we find by those many idle and incredible legends added to the history of the primitive church in the after-ages of ignorance and superstition ; yet to raise a story so strange and remarkable as that of jesus of nazareth and his apostles , without any ground or foundation for it , nay , against the certain knowledge of those who lived in the place where it was first broacht , and to gain proselytes to such a notorious fiction , is a thing not possible in the course of humane affairs . for to pass by all the other disadvantages that i have already represented , that this tradition must labour under if it rise not up to the very time that it pretends to , especially that of its being a matter of fact , which must unavoidably have destroyed it , if false ; that which i have already proposed and come now to prosecute seems as insuperable as any of the rest , viz. that great numbers of learned and wise men , who lived in the ages next and immediately after it , should , after the strictest enquiry concerning its truth , not onely suffer themselves to be imposed upon by so late and palpable a fiction , but lay down their lives in defence of it . this is not credible unless they were fully assured of the undoubted certainty of the thing it self , and their assurance alone is to us a sufficient demonstration of it . but though that be enough , yet i will undertake more , viz. to give an account of the grounds and reasons of their assurance , by tracing up the certain tradition of the thing it self to the very times of the apostles , and from them deriving it down to after-ages through the hands of wise , learned and judicious men ; and that , as i take it , will make a new and distinct demonstration of the infallible certainty of the christian faith. now this tradition is conveyed two manner of ways , either by a succession of churches or of single persons . first by a succession of churches : and this way of conveyance is insisted upon by the ancients themselves in justification of the catholick truth both against hereticks and insidels . thus the apostolical tradition , says irenaeus , is spread all the world over , and this every man that pleases may find in every church ; and we are able to reckon up all those that were appointed by the apostles to be their successours and bishops in the churches of christ down to our own time . but because it would be too tedious in such a discourse as this to enumerate the succession of all churches , i shall onely instance in those great , ancient and famous churches that were founded at rome by those two glorious apostles saint peter and saint paul , hereby to shew the tradition of that faith that was preached by the apostles , to have been safely conveyed by the succession of bishops down to our own time . and i choose to exemplifie this thing in this church rather than any other , because of its great preheminence and resort from all parts of the world , upon which account its tradition must needs be more publick and better known . the blessed apostles therefore having laid the foundations of the church , delivered the oversight of it to linus , of whom saint paul makes mention in his epistle to timothy , to him succeeds anacletus , then clemens , who familiarly conversed with the apostles , and had their preaching still sounding in his ears , and their tradition before his eyes . in whose time there hapned a great schism in the church of corinth , to allay which the church of rome directed an excellent epistle to them , in which she exhorts them to peace and unity , rubs up their memory of the primitive faith , and sets before them the fresh tradition of the apostles themselves . to him succeeds evaristus , to evaristus alexander , and then sixtus , telesphorus , higinus , pius , anicetus , soter , and now eleutherius in the twelfth place from the apostles . this is a clear and an accurate account of the apostolical succession of that church , so that it is impossible to understand how there should ever have been a bishop in it , unless we begin the succession from the apostles , and then this is an undeniable proof of the certainty of their tradition , as in all other places , so particularly in that great and populous city . and this very argument epiphanius insists upon against the carpocratians : and let no man wonder , says he , that i so accurately and carefully set down every single person in the succession , because hereby the undoubted truth , that has been from the beginning , will evidently appear . and the truth is granting the succession , it would be a pretty hard task to avoid the tradition , and yet against that there lies onely one poor exception , viz. that some ancient writers place clement in the first place , who here stands in the third ; but that ( to pass by many other conjectures , and especially a very probable one of epiphanius ) is clear'd by one that is more than probable and founded upon the authority of the ancients themselves ; that there were at first two churches at rome , one of the circumcision , over which saint peter presided , another of the uncircumcision founded and govern'd by saint paul ; who , as we reade in the last chapter of the acts of the apostles , left the obstinate jews to preach to the gentiles , neither is this conjecture a little confirm'd by this very passage of irenaeus , who speaks not of the church of rome as a single church , but as two distinct , and those eminent churches from the beginning : so that though clement were immediate successour in one of them , yet he might be the third in the other , in that , surviving linus and cletus , and the difference between jew and gentile being in a great measure worn away , both churches might naturally unite into one body under his jurisdiction . others object to mudd the succession that some writers place both cletus and anacletus before clemens , as if they were distinct persons . but this is a mistake of later writers , who sometimes finding these different names in the copies of the ancient books , concluded them different persons ; but herein they go against the authority of all the ancient writers themselves , and particularly of eusebius , whose account ought to be valued beyond all others , because he collected the succession of bishops out of the archives and diptychs of the churches themselves , to which he particularly refers in the succession of the church of jerusalem . so that here is no real difficulty or labyrinth as to the succession , and all that seems to be , is onely occasion'd by an easie and obvious mistake of some later writers against the more ancient and unquestionable authority . after the same manner does tertullian triumph over the hereticks , by challenging them to prescribe for their opinions from the beginning , as the catholicks were able to doe for theirs . the truth , says he , will appear from its antiquity : that is true and delivered by the lord himself that we find most ancient , but that is foreign and false that was brought in afterwards ; and if they shall dare to pretend to the apostolical age , let them produce the originals of the churches , let them describe the succession of their bishops , and so derive it from the beginning , as that the first bishop should have succeeded to some apostle or some apostolical man that conversed with the apostles . for in this way it is that the apostolical churches prove their original , as the church of smyrna will produce policarp placed there by saint john , the church of rome clement ordain'd by saint peter ; and so for all other churches they shew you the men that were settled in their episcopal office by the apostles themselves , and conveyed down their doctrine to posterity . and again , this is the onely testimony of the truth , its possession from the beginning , and for this you that are concern'd to enquire more diligently after your salvation , may travel over the apostolical churches , where the very seats in which the apostles presided are still remaining , where their own authentick letters are still extant . do you live in or near to achaia ? go to corinth . in macedonia ? to philippi or thessalonica . in asia ? to ephesus . in italy ? to rome . and this certainly as it was sufficient to prescribe to all the innovations of the hereticks , so was it to demonstrate the undoubted truth and certainty of the christian religion , when it was so clearly and so uninterruptedly deliver'd down from the first founders of it . and the truth is , the succession of bishops in the principal churches was so accurately recorded by the ancients , that it had never been so much as call'd in question , had not some men been forced to it onely to justifie themselves in their departing from it ; it having been the custom of all but especially the most famous churches to keep an exact register of the names and the deaths of their bishops , which they call'd diptychs ; and though it is objected that these records are now lost , ( and so are the tables of the consuls ) yet they were very carefully preserved in those times , and as easily consulted by any inquisitive person , as any other publick record , and were so by all learned men who made it their business to enquire into them or to convey the account of them to after-ages ; and particularly eusebius , who , as he made use of many other helps and had all the other advantages of information , would not want this that was so easie and so satisfactory , as himself particularly informs us concerning the succession of jerusalem , that he transcribed it out of their own archives . though setting aside the information that he received thence , the history of the succession is sufficiently preserved by other writers . that of rome is already cleared , that of antioch is as clear , onely some men are willing to raise a dispute about the immediate successour to the apostles , whether it were euodius or ignatius , probably it might be both as it was at rome ; but if euodius were the first , it is enough that his successour , ignatius , was an apostolical man , and familiarly acquainted with the apostles , and that from him the succession runs clear and undisputed down to the council of nice , to which eustathius its then present bishop was summon'd ; and as he was a man of eminent learning , so he bore a considerable sway in it . as for alexandria the succession runs so clear there , that i do not find that the most sceptical adversaries in this point dare so much as question it ; and indeed the succession of learned men in that church was so early and so uninterrupted , that it was no more possible for them to be ignorant of the succession of their bishops , than it is for any learned man now not to know the succession in the see of canterbury from the reign of queen elizabeth . to these it were easie to add many more if it were not too tedious , but though i do not meet with any reasonable suspicion of an interrupted succession in any eminent church , yet i shall instance onely in two , that , next to those already mention'd , most deserve our notice , that is , the churches of corinth and athens ; an account of whose succession we have from dionysius a learned man and bishop of corinth in the time of m. antoninus , as indeed we have of many other churches in his epistles to them ; as for his own church it were a vain thing to demand a particular account of its succession , when himself was so near the fountain head , and has withall accidentally let us understand his knowledge of what was transacted there before his own time , and particularly by his account of saint clement's epistle . as for the church of athens he expresly affirms that dionysius the areopagite was their first bishop , and after him mentions publius and quadratus , so that it was not possible there should be any unknown interruption in so short an interval . this may suffice for a brief specimen of the certain succession in the most eminent churches from the apostles , and by consequence of their undoubted tradition . § xxix . the next part of the argument is to prove its more particular conveyance down from the very time of the apostles through the hands of a great many wise and learned men : and for this reason it was that clemens alexandrinus after he had passed through the discipline of several masters and several sects , acquiesced at last , without any farther search , in the christian institution , because they that preserved the tradition of this heavenly doctrine , received it immediately from peter , james , and john , and paul , the holy apostles , as a son succeeds a father , and by the providence of god have brought it down to us , planting those seeds of doctrine which they derived from their ancestours and the apostles . and it is a very good reason and becoming the wisedom of that learned man , supposing the matter of fact to be true ; and that it is , is evident from the succession it self , in that the first witnesses of christianity next to the apostles familiarly conversed with the apostles themselves or with apostolical men. as saint clemens bishop of rome , who wrote an excellent epistle to the church of corinth , received with great veneration in the christian church , valued next to the holy scriptures , and therefore read with them in several churches , but especially the church of corinth . and as it was the most ancient next to the apostolical books , so was it the most undoubted writing of the christian church ; it was , says eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , received without controversie . and it is cited by dionysius , bishop of corinth , a short time after , who affirms that it was then read in that church every lord's day ; it is magnified by irenaeus not onely for its own strength and piety , but for the primitive antiquity of its authour , who , he says , was conversant with the apostles , received his christianity from them , had their preaching still fresh in his memory , and their customs and traditions in his eye , as divers others there were then living , that were taught by the apostles themselves . and clemens alexandrinus quoting this epistle ( as he often does ) gives him the title of apostle for his primitive antiquity . but beside that it was unanimously attested by the ancients , it was never call'd in question by any of our modern criticks , who though they have taken infinite pains to destroy or impair , as much as in them lay , the credit of all the ancient monuments of the church , yet have passed this epistle as undoubtedly genuine with an unanimous approbation . now this supposes the owning and the settlement of the christian religion in the world , it asserts particularly the truth and certainty of our saviour's resurrection , and , beside several other books of the new testament , quotes the first epistle of saint paul to the corinthians , in which the apostle proves its undoubted certainty by the testimony not onely of himself and the apostles , but of above five hundred witnesses beside , most whereof were then alive . beside this he tells us of the great labours and martyrdoms of saint peter and saint paul in asserting the christian faith , and the great patience and constancy of vast numbers more for the same cause ; and this he speaks of as a thing present . let us , says he , consider the generous and worthy examples of our own age : through emulation and envy the faithfull pillars of the church were persecuted even unto a most grievous death . let us place before our eyes our holy apostles ; and so he proceeds to the acts and sufferings of saint peter and saint paul. now how could this have been done at that time if christianity had been a meer fable , or what more unquestionable tradition can we have of its truth , especially of the resurrection , when he quotes the gospels in which it is recorded , the epistle of saint paul in which it is proved by such a number of eye-witnesses , the testimony of the apostles and innumerable others that lived at the same time , and laid down their lives out of that undoubted assurance they had of its truth and certainty ? we may now with much more reason doubt of what was done to his late majesty in january , . than they could at that time of the testimony of the apostles concerning the passion and resurrection of jesus . neither did the current of this tradition stop here in the corinthian church , but as it came down from the first witnesses , so it descended in the same chanel to after-times : for as the apostolical writings are own'd by this epistle , so is this epistle by those who could not but be certain of its authority , especially dionysius bishop of that church to whom it was written ; for as saint clement's epistle was written not long after the time of the apostles , probably in the reign of domitian ; so was that of dionysius written not at a greater distance from saint clemens ; for he flourished in the time of m. aurelius , and had full assurance of its being authentick , from its having been constantly read in the corinthian church . so that the tradition of the apostles testimony was as certain in that church in the time of that emperour , who began his reign about the year , . as it was in their own time ; so that if the corinthians who lived in the time of dionisius had been contemporary to the apostles themselves , they could not have had a more satisfactory and unquestionable information of the truth of those things that they preached , than was given them from so clear and uninterrupted a tradition : for that being so entirely free from all manner of doubt and suspicion , the distance of time made no alteration as to the certainty of the thing . § . xxx . to the testimony of this apostolical man we may joyn that of ignatius , policarp , papias and quadratus , as having all conversed with the followers and familiars of our saviour . and first , as for ignatius , he was educated under the apostles themselves , and by them constituted bishop of the great city of antioch , where he sate many years , and govern'd his charge with extraordinary zeal and prudence , and at last with infinite courage and alacrity suffer'd martyrdom for the testimony of his faith. there have been great controversies of late in the christian world concerning his epistles , though with how little reason on their side that oppose them i have accounted elsewhere , and though i shall by and by make use of their authority and make it good too , yet our present argument is not concern'd in that dispute ; for whether these epistles that at this time pass under his name be genuine or counterfeit , it is certain that there was such a man and that he wrote such epistles ; and if so , then he is another competent witness of the truth of the apostolical testimony ; and his great sense of immortality , and earnest desire of martyrdom shew his great assurance of our saviour's resurrection , upon which they were founded ; so that he is another undoubted witness of the apostolical tradition , viz. that the christian faith descended from the apostles , and that they gave that proof of their testimony that is recorded of them in the holy scriptures . and by his testimony of the truth of all that christianity pretends to , is the tradition of the apostles connected with the certain history of after-times , so as to leave no dark and unknown interval , wherein the story , pretended to have been formerly acted by the apostles , might have been first obtruded upon the world , but on the contrary to make it undeniably evident that there could never have been any such story , had it not first descended from the apostles . but though this be enough to my purpose for attesting the truth of the apostolical history by such a near and immediate witness to make the tradition of the church certain and uninterrupted , yet i will not wave that advantage that i have from this glorious martyr's epistles , because they breathe so much the genuine spirit of the ancient christianity , especially as to the undoubted assurance of a future immortality , which shews what mighty satisfaction they had of the reality of the thing , that they so firmly believed and so vehemently desired . and as for the epistles themselves they are so strongly and unanimously attested by the records of the ancient church , that they had never been so much as question'd but for their resolute opposition to some mens prejudices ; for they being resolved in their own innovation of church-government contrary to that of the apostolical and primitive constitution , which these epistles so zealously assert , and that as establisht by the command of god , and thereby made necessary to the peace of the christian church ; they had no way left but stubbornly , i ought to have said impudently , to reject their authority . but alas that is so admirably vouched as if the providence of god had purposely design'd to secure their credit for ever ; and particularly in the first place by his friend policarp , who sent a copy of them to the church of philippi with a letter of his own , now policarp's epistle was never question'd , nay , it was for some hundred years after publickly read in the churches of asia , how then is it possible to avoid so clear and certain a testimony as this ? they have no other way but onely by saying that this particular passage was foisted in , without any shadow of ground for the surmise ; nay , contrary to the common sense of mankind , that an epistle so universally known to the learned and the unlearned should be so easily corrupted , and the corruption never taken notice of , and when this counterfeit passage was thrust into it contrary to the faith of all the publick books , it should pass down uncontroul'd and unquestion'd to all after-ages . nay , farther , if it were forged , it must have been before the time of eusebius , who gives an account of it and believes it genuine , and yet himself affirms that it was at his time publickly read in churches , as saint jerome afterwards that it was in his ; now it is a very probable thing that eusebius would be imposed upon by one private copy contrary to the faith of all the publick books , or that he should impose the mistake upon all that followed him , when the same books were preserved in the same publick manner till the time of saint jerome . but beside this they have another shift altogether as groundless and not less bold , viz. that it is true that there had been such epistles of ignatius that policarp speaks of , but that a little before eusebius his time the true ones were lost , and a counterfeit copy put upon the world ; which as it is nothing but meer conjecture for the sake of a desperate cause , and void of all pretence of probability , so it is incredible in it self , and not possible in the course of humane affairs that such a famous writing of such an ancient and apostolical bishop , of such an eminent and glorious martyr , written at such a time , at the very point of his dissolution , as his legacy to the christian church , communicated to several churches , publickly and vulgarly known , attested by saint policarp , irenaeus , clemens of alexandria , and not long since by origen , 't is not possible that all the copies of such a writing as this should be lost about one and the same time , and that a false one should immediately rise up in their stead , and that eusebius , a man so familiarly acquainted with the choicest libraries of that part of the world should embrace so late and so gross a forgery , and put the mistake upon all learned men that followed after him . the man that can satisfie himself with such wild surmises and suppositions as these , there is nothing so absurd but he may easily swallow its belief , nor so demonstratively proved but he may withstand its evidence . now the authority of these epistles being vindicated ( and i am apt to think that they will never more be call'd in question ) they are a brave and generous assertion of the truth of the christian faith , being written with that mighty assurance of mind , that shews the authour of them to have had an absolute certainty or a kind of an infallible knowledge of the things that he believed . in every epistle his faith is resolved into that undoubted evidence that he had of our saviour's death and resurrection ; and particularly in that to the church of smyrna he protests that he could no more doubt of its reality than of his own chains , and again positively affirms that he knew it to be true . and yet not withstanding that all the ancient copies and all the quotations of the ancients out of him agree in this sense , that he knew jesus to be in the flesh after his death , because in saint jerom's translation ( who excuses himself for the haste and carelesness of the work ) it is rendred that he saw jesus in the flesh , this is made use of by the learned men of our new church of geneva as a sufficient objection to overthrow the authority of all these epistles . it is possible indeed he might have seen jesus in the flesh but it is not probable , neither is it his design to affirm it in this place , seeing he proves its truth from the testimony of the apostles as eye-witnesses , and not from his own immediate knowledge ; but when he onely says that from them he knew it to be true , to put this assertion upon him that he saw it with his own eyes , against the reading of all the ancient books from a careless translation , proves nothing but the invincible stubbornness of prejudice and partiality . but the truth is , these men have been so zealous for their faction as not to care how in pursuit of it they endanger'd , nay , destroyed their religion . for whereas one of the greatest pillars of the christian faith is the testimony of the ancients in the age next to the apostles , in that it is hereby particularly proved that it is no figment of an unknown time , and that the records of it were of that antiquity that they pretend to be , yet because they do as positively assert the original constitution of the christian church , which this faction of men have hapned to renounce , they have labour'd with indefatigable industry utterly to overthrow all their authority , but , thanks be to god , with that ill success , that by their endeavour to shake our faith , they have onely made it to take the better root ; for by this occasion the most ancient tradition of the primitive church has been much more inquired into and better clear'd , than if it had passed without any dispute or contradictition . but to keep close to our ignatius , what has been the bottom of all the zeal and fury against his epistles , but his earnest pressing all good christians to submit to the government of the church as to the ordinance of god , or rather because he describes the constitution of the primitive platform so accurately as to condemn their discipline of folly and rashness in departing from the prescription of god himself . and yet all the ancient doctours of the church have done the same thing , laying as great a stress as he has done upon the duty of obedience to their ecclesiastical governours as set over them by divine institution . for as there was nothing of which they were then more tender than the peace and unity of the church , so they thought it could be no other way preserved than by submission to those guides and governours that christ had set over it . this it were easie to make evident out of their writings , especially saint cyprian's , who as he was a person of very great prudence and discretion , so is he full as peremptory in this point as ignatius . but i shall onely instance in the epistle of saint clement because of its greater antiquity . for if that assert a certain form of church government establisht by our saviour and observed by the apostles , that prevents and confutes the groundless conjecture of an unknown time immediately after the apostles , in which the whole power of the church devolved upon the presbyters , because they had appointed no one particular and perpetual form of government . and this saint clement asserts in these positive words : the apostles were appointed to preach the gospel to us from our lord jesus christ , and jesus christ from god himself : christ being sent by god , and the apostles by him ; the sending of both was in an orderly manner after the will of god. for the apostles receiving their command , and having a full confidence through the resurrection of our lord jesus christ , and faith in the word of god , with an assurance of the holy spirit , went forth publishing the gospel of the kingdom of god , which was erecting . they therefore preached the word through divers countries and cities , ordaining every where the first fruits of such as believed , having made proof and trial of them by the spirit , to be overfeers and deacons to minister unto them that should afterwards believe . so that it seems they were so far from neglecting to provide governours for the future state of the church , that they were carefull beforehand to provide governours for future churches . and this he affirms the apostles did because they understood by our lord jesus christ that strife and contention would arise about the title of episcopacy , for this cause therefore , having absolute knowledge beforehand thereof , they ordained the forenamed officers , and for the future gave them moreover in command , that whensoever they should dye , others well approved of should succeed into their office and ministery . so that it is evident that the apostles themselves by virtue of our saviour's order observed and prescribed a particular form of government to be continued down to future ages . and though our authour does not express the several distinct orders by the common names of bishop , priest and deacon , yet he describes them as expresly by allusion to the jewish hierarchy , under the names of high-priest , priest and levite . however , it is evident from hence that the apostles settled a perpetual form of church government , to which all christian people were indispensably bound to conform ; and then , if that form were episcopacy , and if they settled that by our saviour's own advice with an eye to prevent schisms and contentions , the case is plain that ignatius his pressing all churches so earnestly to obedience to their bishop , was nothing else but a prosecution both of our saviour's and their command . and then , that it was episcopacy is so evident from the unanimous and unquestionable testimony of all antiquity , that it is positively asserted by all the ancients and not opposed by any one ; but that would be too great a digression from the present argument , and therefore i shall not pursue it , though i have gone thus far out of my way to shew for what reasons some men have endeavour'd to impair the credit of the records of the ancient church , not for any real defect and uncertainty that they found in them , but because they give in such clear and undeniable witness against their fond and unwarrantable innovations . and therefore i would advise these gentlemen , as they value the peace either of the church or their own consciences , that they would cease to struggle any longer against their own convictions , renounce their errour , when they can neither defend nor deny it , and not be so headstrong as rather than part with a wrong notion or confess a mistake , endeavour what in them lies to blow up the very foundations of the christian faith. or , to bespeak them in the words of saint clement : is there any one then that is bravely spirited among you ? is there any one that hath compassion ? doth any one abound in charity ? let him say , if this sedition or contention or schism be for me or by my means ; i will depart , i will go my way whither soever you please , i will do what the society commands , onely let the sheepfold of christ enjoy peace with the elders that are placed over it . he that shall doe so , shall purchase to himself great glory in the lord. thus they doe , and thus they will doe , who leade their lives according to the rules of god's policy . this was the gentle and peaceable temper of the primitive christians , but if they thought it their duty to quit their country , rather than occasion the disturbance of the churches peace , how much more to forgoe a false or an ungrounded opinion ? and therefore to deal plainly with them i shall load their consciences with this one sad and serious truth , that when men have once rashly departed from the church that they live under , and persevere in their schism in spite of the most evident conviction , they have renounced together with the church their christian faith , and are acted meerly by the spirit of pride , i. e. the devil . and therefore i do with all compassion to their souls request such men among us impartially to reflect upon themselves and their actions , and if they are convicted in their own consciences of having made causless schisms in the christian church ( as i know they must be by those peevish pitifull pretences that they would seem to plead in their own excuse ) with all possible speed to beg pardon of god and his church ; and as they would avoid the judgment and displeasure of almighty god against pride , envy , peevishness , contention and sedition , to make publick confession of their fault to all the people that they have drawn after them into the same sin , and with all humility and lowliness beg to be admitted into the bosom and communion of this truly ancient and apostolick church . but my tender charity to these poor men that i see driving with so much fury , self-conceit and confidence to utter destruction has again drawn me out of my way , to perswade them if it be possible to turn back into the way of peace and salvation : however it is high time for me to return to my discourse . § xxxi . after this great and glorious martyr , the next eminent witness of the original tradition of the christian faith is his dear friend and fellow disciple saint policarp ; who as he was educated together with him under the discipline of saint john , so he out-lived his martyrdom about sixty years , and by reason of his very great age was able to give his testimony not onely to that but to the next period of time ; so that as he conversed with saint john , irenaeus conversed with him , and withall gives an account of his journey to rome in the time of anicetus , and of his martyrdom under m. aurelius , which was not till the year . so that through the great age of saint john and saint policarp the tradition of the christian church was by them alone delivered down to the third century , for irenaeus lived into the beginning of it , not suffering martyrdom himself by the earliest account till the year . and this is the peculiar advantage of his testimony beyond all others that as it was as early as any , so it continued into the most known times of the christian church , for it was under the reign of m. aurelius that the greatest part of the christian apologists flourisht , and beside that his great courage and constancy in suffering for the faith proves the great and undoubted certainty of his tradition . he was familiarly conversant with the apostles and eye witnesses of our lord , and therefore ignatius recommended to him the care of his church , as knowing him to be a truly apostolical man , and so he continued his care of the christian church for many years with great faith and resolution , and at last seal'd his faith with his bloud . i shall not need to give a particular account of his life , it is enough that , as he declared at his trial , he had faithfully served his lord and master fourscore and six years ; but among the records of his life there is none more certain or more remarkable than his own epistle to the church of philippi , and the epistle of the church of smyrna concerning his martyrdom , in both which is shewed his great assurance of immortality : in the first , he bottoms his exhortation to an holy life upon no other principle than the certain evidence of their saviour's resurrection and firm belief of their own ; in the second , he cheerfully resigns up his last breath with the greatest assurance of mind concerning it in this short and excellent prayer : o lord god almighty , the father of thy well-beloved and ever-blessed son jesus christ , by whom we have received the knowledge of thee ; the god of angels , powers and of every creature , and of the whole race of the righteous , who live before thee ; i bless thee that thou hast graciously condescended to bring me to this day and hour , that i may receive a portion in the number of thy holy martyrs , and drink of christ's cup for the resurrection to eternal life both of soul and body in the incorruptibleness of the holy spirit . into which number grant i may be received this day , being found in thy sight as a fair and acceptable sacrifice , such an one as thou thy self hast prepared , that so thou mayest accomplish what thou , o true and faithfull god , hast foreshewn . wherefore i praise thee for all thy mercies , i bless thee , i glorifie thee , through the eternal high priest , thy beloved son jesus christ ; with whom , to thy self and the holy ghost , be glory , both now and for ever . amen . to this eminent martyrdom of saint policarp and the asiaticks , i cannot but subjoin that of pothinus bishop of lyons and his companions , in that they suffer'd under the same prince , with the same christian courage and resolution , especially because pothinus also was of a very great age , and almost as near the apostolical times as policarp , and probably sent by him into these western parts ; and lastly , because it is attested by publick and undoubted epistles sent from the church of lyons by irenaeus to the bishop of rome and the churches of asia , of both which epistles scaliger himself has given this just and deserved encomium , that as they are of the most ancient martyrdoms in the church , so the reading of them cannot but so affect every pious and devout mind , as never to be satiated with it ; and as for my own part , says he , i do protest that i never met with any thing in all the history of the church , by the reading whereof i have been so much transported , as scarce to be my self ; and particularly of the acts of the martyrs of lyons , what can be read more brave or more venerable in all the monuments of christian antiquity ? and the truth is it is a very amazing story , and one of the greatest examples both of the modesty and the courage of the primitive christians ; for as they were treated with new and unheard of cruelties , so their behaviour under all their torments was decent , and free from all appearance either of vanity or passion . now what can be the meaning of these things , that such men as policarp and pothinus ( to whom i should have added pionius , that suffer'd gallantly about the same time ) who lived so near the time of our saviour , who had such opportunity to search into the truth of those things that were reported of him , should thus frankly resign their lives upon any less account than the full assurance of the truth of those things that they believed ? but though this be sufficient to make good the evidence of the first and apostolical tradition of the church from the testimony of these two eminent martyrs , yet before i quit it , it will be convenient to clear off one objection , in which , as the ancient church in general , so policarp in particular is concern'd , and that is the contradictory tradition about the observation of easter , both parties pretending to derive their different customs from the apostles ; policarp and the churches of the lesser asia from saint john , the church of rome from saint peter . now if this be so , why should it not destroy the credit of their tradition , when they make so little conscience as to fasten contradictions upon the apostles themselves . great use has of late been made of this objection by all the enemies of the primitive church : mr. hales in the time of his peevishness and before he was reconciled to the church of england has with great scorn upbraided its grossness and folly . and it is one of daille's topicks against the use and authority of the fathers , and how often it has been since objected by others it is needless here to repeat . and yet when all is done it proves nothing but that some men have a very great itch to be finding fault , for otherwise this grossness and folly , this phantastick hurry in which all the world were schismaticks , as mr. hales is pleased to speak of it with a great many other good words , is a very remarkable instance both of the faithfulness , the wisedom and the temper of the primitive christians . for that the custom of the eastern and western church in this thing was different from the beginning is evident from their different practice , and so must have descended from the apostles themselves , who might in this as well as other things casually and without design prescribe different usages , saint john in those parts of asia where he resided continuing easter after the manner of the jewish passover ; saint peter and saint paul in other places , to prevent too much judaising in its observation , making the same little alteration in its time as was made in the sabbath ; and in this matter of complying with or changing jewish customs , the apostles varied their orders according to circumstances of time and place , sometime coming up closer to them , sometime keeping at a greater distance , according to the judgment of their own discretion . now these different customs about easter being once casually settled in the church , in process of time they began to be matter of contention among the people , as we know the common people are always zealous for their own customs , whatever they are . and therefore to stifle this fire that was broke out among them , policarp , a man of the greatest authority in asia , undertakes a journey to rome , if possible to allay and compose the controversie : where , upon debate between him and anicetus , they conclude it the most proper course that could be taken for the peace of the church , that both parties should retain their own customs , without any breach of charity or communion , and to declare this to the world they communicate together at the holy sacrament , policarp consecrating the eucharist in the church of anicetus , and so they parted lovingly , and continued ever after good friends . this is all the grossness and folly that i know of that these good men were guilty of in their management of this controversie . though it seems it was afterward revived by the indiscretion of one man , victor bishop of rome , who would needs take upon him to command the asiaticks to conform to the practice of his and all other churches , under the penalty of excommunication . to this they return him a sober answer , represent the inconvenience of changing so ancient a custom , disclaim his power and jurisdiction over them , and advise him rather to consult the peace and unity of the catholick church , than to impose upon them particular customs contrary to the practice of their ancestours . neither was this done by them alone but by almost all the bishops of the christian world , though they were of his own way , unanimously condemning his heat and rashness in so trivial a thing ; and among the rest irenaeus , having convened a synod in france , writes him a synodical epistle to this purpose ; that he agreed with him in his observation of easter but not in the necessity of it ; that it was a very unadvised thing to think of excommunicating whole churches , for observing the ancient customs derived down to them from their ancestours ; that there was as little agreement among themselves concerning the manner of the preparatory fast before easter , and yet this variety being of long standing among them , no man thought himself obliged to impose his own particular conceit upon others in such an indifferent thing ; and last of all minds him of the prudence and moderation of his predecessours , especially policarp and anicetus , who did not so much as go about to perswade one another to change the ancient custom of their church . and the effect of these epistles from all places , especially of this of irenaeus probably was this , that they diverted victor from pursuing his design . for we do not find that he ever actually excommunicated the asian churches , but onely that he threatned it . but whether he did or did not , it is a worthy piece of ingenuity to charge the folly of one furious and intemperate man upon the whole church , and that in spite of their own protestation against it . and yet this is all the grossness and folly wherewith our innovatours have made so much noise against them . and thus having removed this poor objection , which i could not avoid , because it has of late appear'd among us with so much huff and confidence , i proceed to the remaining witnesses of our primitive tradition . and here i cannot pass by papias , for though he were a person of no great learning or judgment , yet he was a man of clear honesty and simplicity , and living near the time of the apostles themselves , did not search after their story in books , but made it his particular business to enquire of their familiar acquaintance after their sayings and customs . if any came in my way , says he , that was a follower of the apostles , forthwith i enquired of him after the sayings of the ancients , what andrew , what peter , what philip , what thomas , or james , or john , or matthew , or any other of the lords disciples , what ariston , and john the elder ( distinguisht from john the evangelist , and out of the catalogue of the apostles ) disciples of the lord were wont to say , for i did not think i could profit my self more by reading their books than by the more lively report of those persons who are still alive and heard their discourses . this is a peculiar sort of testimony given in to a matter of fact by a man plain and simple , and yet curious and inquisitive , who inform'd himself of the truth of the things so lately transacted , not onely by reading the narratives that were written of them , but from the more lively information of such who received it from eye-witnesses . i will easily grant that he was , as eusebius describes him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a person of a small judgment , and by consequence of little authority as to his opinion , especially of the millennium , of which yet himself was not the first authour , but was betrayed into it by the tradition of the jews , who generally believed that their messias should reign a thousand years upon earth in all manner of greatness and glory ; and therefore it was no wonder if those , who were converted from judaism to christianity , brought this opinion along with them , onely understanding the jews more gross and carnal notion in a more refined and spiritual sense ; and this was the dispute in those early days against the jewish hereticks , particularly cerinthus , who believed of our saviour , as they had of the messias that they expected , that he should come once more upon earth , and reign at jerusalem in all manner of pomp and grandeur — but be that as it will , papias was ever thought of as a man of a downright and untainted integrity , and had both the advantage of conversing with those that conversed with the apostles , and the curiosity of recording all the traditions , which they delivered to him by word of mouth ; and lastly , was satisfied in that way of information of the truth of all those things that were registred concerning jesus and his apostles . to him ought to be ranked quadratus , who wrote an apologetick to the emperour adrian , in which he positively avers that many of the persons cured by our lord of their diseases were alive in his time , and aristides a christian philosopher at athens who at the same time presented a learned and eloquent apology to the same emperour in behalf of the same cause . § xxxii . this is the first file of witnesses next and immediately after the apostles , though i might have reckoned the following rank into the same catalogue , because they are twisted with them as they are with one another ; for as these that i have already mentioned are not all precisely of the same age , yet being of antiquity enough to be competent witnesses of the tradition of the apostles , may be join'd together into one complicated testimony of it ; so their next successours followed them by the same degrees as they followed one another ; for succession is not conveyed down like a chain by certain links , but like a cord by the same continued interweaving , every part being some part of the part above it ; and though the ages of the church are distinguisht by centuries , yet the lives of men are not , and the beginning of the next series lived with some of the former as they lived with the first that lived with the apostles , so that there is no possibility of making an interruption any where between the chanel and the fountain head , whereever we find the stream that alone will certainly lead us up to its own original . but this will appear more distinctly by the degrees of its conveyance ; having therefore brought the tradition down to the time of m. aurelius , that is a considerable time beyond that of trajan , to which time scaliger and some others are pleased to complain of a defect of records , but with what reason we have in part already seen , and shall now further discover by our following witnesses , who were not onely able to testifie of their own times but of the foregoing ages . among whom hegesippus deserves the first place , not onely for his great antiquity but for his manner of writing as an historian , and so not concern'd meerly to give an account of the affairs of his own age , but to make a diligent enquiry into the records and transactions of former times . he wrote five books of ecclesiastical history , which he styled commentaries of the acts of the church , wherein he has in a plain and familiar style given an account of the tradition of the church and the most remarkable passages in it from our lord's death till his own time , which was about or rather before the reign of m. aurelius ; for he says he came to rome and stayed there till the time of anicetus , now anicetus , according to the latest computation , succeeded in that see at the beginning of the reign of aurelius , but , according to the earlier account , under antoninus pius , so that it is probable that he was at rome before policarp . and this description he has given of his voyage , that coming to rome he met with many bishops , and found them all of one mind , and teaching the same doctrine , and having given some account of clement's epistle to the corinthians , he adds that the church remain'd after that in the pure and right doctrine untill the time of primus bishop there , with whom , sayling to rome , i conferred and abode many days ; being come to rome , i stayed there till the time of anicetus , whose deacon was eleutherius , whom soter succeeded , and after him eleutherius . in all their succession and in every one of their cities , it is no otherways taught than as the law and the prophets and the lord himself preached . this is a singular testimony of the sincere tradition not onely of one or two or a few churches , but of the catholick church . and as he described the ecclesiastical succession every where , so has he the rise and birth of heresies , and particularly in the church of jerusalem . after that james , sirnamed the just had suffer'd martyrdom , his uncle simeon the son of cleophas was chosen bishop , being preferred by the unanimous vote of all , because he was the lord's kinsman . and hitherto that church was call'd a pure virgin , because as yet it had not been deflour'd with any false doctrines . but thebalis being displeased that he was not chosen bishop secretly endeavour'd to debauch it , from whom sprang those many heresies that he afterward reckons up , and so having elsewhere described the martyrdom of saint simeon he adds , untill those times the church of god remain'd a pure and undefiled virgin. for such as endeavour'd to corrupt the perfect rule and the sincere delivery of the faith , hid themselves till that time in secret and obscure places , but after that the sacred company of the apostles was worn out , and that generation was wholly spent , that by special favour had heard with their ears the heavenly wisedom of the son of god , then the conspiracy of wicked and detestable heresies , through the fraud and imposture of such as affected to be masters of new and strange doctrines , took rooting . and because none of the apostles were then surviving , they published , with all imaginable confidence and boldness , their false conceits , and impugned the old plain certain and known truth . at these passages i must stop a little , because , though they are a great testimony of the purity of the primitive church , yet , i find them very confidently made use of by innovatours as unanswerable arguments for rejecting its authority . thus gittichius , an eager socinian , contending with ruarus both concerning grotius his way of writing , in making so much use of citations , out of the ancient fathers , in his commentaries , and withall concerning the primitive fasts of the church , which schliclingius and some of that party began to imitate , condemns it not onely as altogether useless but dangerous : de antiquitate in religionis negotio statuo extra ipsas sacras novi foederis literas , & in iis exempla apostolorum , nullius omnino antiquitatis habendam cuiquam christiano ullam rationem . and then proves his assertion from this passage of hegesippus , and the more ancient he says the tradition is after the time of the apostles , so much the worse it is , because from the very time of their dissolution the church was overrun with heresie and superstition . so peevish are men against the honour and authority of the ancient church , when they are sensible of their own apostasie from it . and the truth is , all our innovatours agree in this one principle , and that for this one very good reason , because the ancient church , if it were permitted to give judgment upon them , condemns them all . for these men , finding errours and corruptions in the church of rome , instead of reforming them as they ought to have done according to the constitution of the primitive church , they fall to contriving new models and bodies of divinity out of their own brains . and among others socinus disliking the calvinian theology , as contrary , not onely to the holy scriptures , but , to the first principles of natural religion , sets up a new divinity of his own contrivance , without ever enquiring into the doctrine and discipline of the ancient church ; and being advised of his flying so wide of it , he , together with his followers , rather than part with their own fine new notions , of which they had the honour to be the first authours and abettours , will by no means allow of any such thing as a true and uncorrupted church ever since the time of the apostles . but with what vanity and arrogance it is none of my present task to enquire , onely in answer to this objection i must reply , that it is a very wide , and i am sure very far from a civil , inference , to conclude that , because there were heresies in the primitive church , there was nothing else . and they might with as much reason have applied the objection against the apostolical church it self , because then , as the apostles themselves complain , the tares were sowing , though it seems not so openly and so impudently as afterwards . nay , upon these terms it is impossible their should ever be any such thing as a true church in the world ; for as long as there are such things as pride and vanity among mankind , there will be such men in all societies as will be tainted with their own idle dreams and conceits , and then rub their itch upon the common people . but though there were heresies in the primitive church , which , i say , was not to be avoided as long as it consisted of men , yet they were never able to prevail , but , after some struggling for admittance , were sooner or later utterly stifled . and we have as certain a tradition of the birth , growth and death of heresies , as we have of the true doctrines of the church ; and it is very considerable that all the ancient doctours of the church overwhelm the hereticks with this one argument , by convicting them of apparent innovation , and deriving down their own doctrines from the apostles themselves . so that though there were heresies in the primitive church , yet its apostolical tradition was never mixt or tainted with them , but run down in a pure and clear chanel by it self . and therefore it is a very childish as well as disingenuous objection against its authority , that there were some men in it that would have been corrupting the purity of its doctrine , but were never able to compass their design ; especially when they were so far from passing undiscover'd or uncontroul'd , that we have as certain an account both of the men , and of their opinions , and their inconsistency with the apostolical tradition , as we have of the new fangled conceits of our own present innovatours . and therefore there is no more danger of our swallowing down old heresies together with the tradition of the church , than there is of sucking in their new ones whilst we adhere faithfully to that . and thus having , upon occasion of this particular passage of this ancient authour , cleared the authority of the ancient church in general , it remains that i make good the credit of his own testimony in particular , that has been assaulted by the great scaliger with too fierce and concern'd a keenness ; for though he is a very diligent reprover of eusebius , yet he is much more severe upon hegesippus , for what reason i cannot imagine , unless that by reason of his so very great nearness to the apostolical times he was an unexceptionable witness of the primitive tradition , for that seems to have been scaliger's main design , to weaken its authority by picking out faults and oversights in its records ; and for what end he has been so diligent in it is shrewdly to be suspected , though perhaps it was not out of any bad intention , but onely to gratifie his critical pride , which naturally delights in nothing so much as the humour of correction . the particular passage that he has cull'd out for the exercise of his critical faculty is the narrative of the martyrdom of james the just , transcribed by eusebius ; in which , he says , beside extream heedlesness , the historian is guilty of many absurd falshoods . to which i first answer in general , that the whole story , as to the substance of it , agrees with the account of josephus , and that being ( as it ought to be ) passed by scaliger for authentick , is an evident proof of its reality . secondly , it is possible that hegesippus might meet with the common fate of the best authours , to be either corrupted or interpolated , and though we could not discover it , yet the very likelihood of it is enough to keep any prudent man back from any such harsh censure of such an ancient and venerable authour ; and since scaliger's time learned men have made several grammatical emendations , which , if he had known or observed himself , might have saved a considerable part of his pains . as for his particular exceptions they are chiefly these ; first , that out of respect to the singular holiness of james the just , he should be familiarly admitted into the holy of holies , whereas , says scaliger , it was not lawfull for any to be admitted thither but onely the high-priest , and that , as every one knows , but once a year . but this whole exception proceeds from a meer mistake of scaliger's : for hegesippus does not say that he was admitted into the holy of holies , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the holy place , viz. that part of the temple in which the mercy-seat , the shew-bread the candlesticks and the altar of incense were placed , where it was ordinarily lawfull for the priests alone to come , and that they did in their daily ministrations . and this is it that hegesippus observes as a remarkable testimony from the jews themselves of the singular holiness of this good man , that purely out of respect to that , though he were not of the priestly order , yet in the worship of god he was admitted a place among the priests themselves , which was a very unusual dignity , and peculiarly remarked as such by hegesippus . to which i might add the observation of petavius that it was no unusual thing for the ancients to give the title of holy of holies to this place that was peculiar to the priests station , but the former answer does so utterly blow up the foundations of the objection as to make this needless . secondly , to say nothing of james's wearing the priestly habit , because that is the same with the former objection , scaliger excepts against the gentiles meeting together with the jews at the passover as hegesippus affirms , whereas the gentiles never resorted to that feast . but here our learned critick does not onely fall into a gross absurdity himself , but betrays manifest ignorance , when every child knows that the gentile proselytes attended the worship of the temple as constantly as the jews , and had a peculiar court to themselves erected for that purpose , and this he might have learnt concerning the passover from saint john himself , and there were certain greeks among them , that came up to worship at the feast . nay beside this express text he might have been inform'd of it out of his own josephus , out of whom valesius has noted several examples of it . the third objection is , that the twelve tribes should be said to be present at this action of the martyrdom of saint james at the time of the passover , whereas it is well known that there were but two remaining , the other ten being long since lost in captivity . but i am sure it is as well known that this was then the vulgar phrase for all the people of israel ; for though the main body of ten tribes were transported , yet many that were left behind and many that return'd back mixed with the two that remained , and so kept up the name and title of the twelve tribes , and therefore saint james directs his epistle to the twelve tribes , i. e. to all the people of the jews : and saint paul , in his defence before king agrippa , pleads thus , and now i stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of god unto our fathers : unto which promise , our twelve tribes instantly serving god day and night , hope to come . in the fourth place , it is objected that at saint james's declaring jesus to be the messias , the people cryed out hosanna to the son of david , which the critick says they were never wont to doe unless at the feast of tabernacles . but though that might be the first rise of this custom , yet it grew afterwards , as io paean among the greeks , to be the common form of joy and exultation , and so was used by the people at our saviour's entrance into jerusalem . but this acclamation , says our learned man , could not be given to james ; though why he might not be saluted the son of david i know not , when he was so very near akin to our lord. but however to save our selves the trouble of answering this little scruple , this acclamation was not made to james himself , but to our lord upon his confession of him . but in the next place , hegesippus quotes a text out of esaias , that he ought to have cited out of the wisedom of solomon , viz. let us remove the just man because he is an offence or reproach unto us . but this at worst is but a slip of memory , to which all our authours are liable , and yet it is not so much , but it is to be punctually read in the third chapter of the prophet esaias , from whom the authour of the book of wisedom borrowed it . but hegesippus says james the just was a nazarene and neither ate flesh nor drank wine , which , if true , says scaliger , he could not have eaten the last supper with our lord and his apostles . but this is as slender as all the rest , for though the nazarenes in their common course of life neither ate flesh nor drank wine , yet they abstein'd not from the rites and solemnities of their religion , but ate the paschal lamb as all other jews did , in that it was indispensably injoyn'd them by god himself antecedently to their vow . but one of the priests a recabite , says hegesippus interposed to save james from the fury of the people . but this says scaliger could not be , for the recabites were of the tribe of judah and so uncapable of the priesthood . as if the original constitution of either had been exactly observed at that time , especially of the priesthood when it is so well known , that ever since the time of herod the great , those offices even of the high-priesthood it self were entirely disposed of by their governours , who at pleasure put them in and out as they did any other officers of state. but they placed him says hegesippus on the pinacle of the temple , whither great numbers of the people went up to cast him down , which says scaliger they could not do , because it was , as josephus tells us , so very thick set with pointed irons , as to keep the birds from setling upon it . and so it is probable the greatest and highest battlement of all was , but it is very far from being in the least probable that james should be placed there to preach to the people , when it was impossible to be heard from so great an height , or that he should not be dasht apieces when he was cast thence , instead of falling alive upon his knees as the historian reports . and therefore this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies any covering or battlement , must have been some lower frame of building , from which he might be most conveniently heard of the people . now as from these objections , says scaliger , we may learn what to think of this hegesippus ; so say i from these replies to them , may we learn what to think of this scaliger , that upon such poor surmises as these , will not stick to destroy and villifie the best and most ancient records of the christian church . and now the credit of this ancient author being fully vindicated , it does not only make good his own testimony , but of all others that were recorded in his history between our saviour's time and his own ; and to mention no more , his account of the bishops of jerusalem goes a great way ; for next to james the just he informs us that simeon the son of cleophas and cousen german to our lord succeeded in the bishoprick , and sat there till the reign of trajan , under whom he suffered martyrdom only for the old jealousie of vespasian and domitian , of being of the line of david , and so a rival to the empire . so that here the tradition of the church was conveyed down to that time by as short a succession as we have already shewn it to have been in the church of corinth , from st. paul to clement , and from clement to dionysius ; and in the asian church , from the apostles by policarp to pothinus and irenaeus . § xxxiii . next to hegesippus follows justin martyr , though had not the other been an historian , he might , as being somewhat his senior , have gone before him , being converted to christianity in the time of adrian , about the end of the first century after our saviour's passion , and within eight years after addrest an excellent apology to antoninus pius in behalf of the christian faith , and afterwards a second to m. aurelius his son and successor . he was a person of eminent parts and learning , the most judicious philosopher of his time , that had surveyed all the tenets of the several sects , and studied all kinds of useful learning for the settlement and satisfaction of his own mind ; and having passed through the schools of the stoicks , the peripateticks , the pythagoreans , and the platonists , of which himself hath given a pleasant account in the beginning of his dialogue with trypho , he was at last advised by an unknown grave old man , that met him in his retired walks , to consider the christian philosophy , to which he had no sooner applyed himself , but he found it the only certain and satisfactory philosophy . in short , he was such a proficient in all kinds of learning , that his own writings make good photius his character of him , that as he was admirably furnisht with all sorts of reading and history , so he was arrived to the perfection both of the christian and heathen philosophy , and therefore immediately after his conversion gave a learned and rational account of the vanity of the gentile religion . as afterwards in his apologies and his other writings he did of the certain truth and divine authority of the christian faith , both from the undoubted miracles that in his time were wrought for the demonstration of it , and from the certain proof of our saviour's resurrection , and the uninterrupted conveyance of it down to his own time . and the assurance of his faith he frequently avows with the greatest freedom and courage of mind , and at last seal'd it with his blood. and though he foresaw and foretold it , not from any spirit of prophesie that he pretended to in it , but from the probable course and most natural event of things , yet notwithstanding this , he did not in the least slacken his zeal for the christian cause , but went on with all assurance of mind in its defence , till it brought him to the encounter of death , which he did not only meet with his eyes open , but with all joy and alacrity , as being arrived at the end of his hopes , and the beginning of his happiness , next to justin martyr , irenaeus follows in order , who lived much about or a little after the same time ; but of him i shall need to say the less , because i have already shewn the certainty of the tradition that he had of the things that he believed from policarp and pothinus , and his acquaintance with other apostolical men ; only some few remarks remain to make up his perfect character , and make out his perfect knowledge , and for this that excellent epistle of his to florinus , deserves to be consider'd in the first place . this doctrine of thine ( o florinus ) that i may frankly declare the truth , savoureth not of the sincere faith , disagreeth from the church , and betrayeth such as listen to it into extream impiety . this doctrine no not the hereticks which were out of the church durst ever publish , this doctrine such as were elders before us , and disciples of the apostles never delivered unto thee . i saw thee when i was yet a youth with policarp in the lesser asia , living gorgeously in the emperour's palace , and mightily buisying thy self to get into favour and credit with him . for i remember better the things of old than latter affairs ; for the things we learn in our younger years , sink deepest into our minds and grow together with us . so that i particularly remember the very place where policarp sate when he taught , his going out , and his coming in , his course of life , the figure and proportion of his body , the sermons he made to the people , the report he made of his conversation with john and others which knew the lord ; how he remembred their sayings , and what he heard from their mouths concerning the lord , his power , and his doctrine , reciting his commandments and all other things agreeable to the holy scriptures , out of their very mouths ( i say ) who had seen with their eyes the word of life incarnate . these things at that time through the mercy of god which wrought in me , i diligently marked , and printed , not in paper but my heart , upon which continually through the grace of god i ponder and meditate . and i am able to testifie before god , that if that holy and apostolick elder had heard any such thing as you teach , he would immediately have disavowed it , and after his manner stopping his ears cryed out , good god into what times hast thou reserved me , that i should hear and suffer such discourses ! yea , and would straight have quitted the place where he had heard them . in short , this is evident from the epistles which he wrote to neighbour churches or to particular brethren . and beside policarp he frequently quotes in all his books apostolical ancients , though he does not mention their names . he was a diligent enquirer into the records of the church , and has particularly described the order and occasion of the writing of the four gospels , to which might be added his knowledge of the epistles of st. clement , ignatius , the books of justin martyr , his searching into the records of the most famous churches , his enquiring into the writings and traditions of the most eminent doctors , and with this argument putting to silence the hereticks , by demonstrating to them , what was and what was not derived from the apostolick times . all which considered , how could we have a more sufficient witness of the primitive tradition ? for allowing him some very few small slips and mistakes , which must be allowed to all humane writers in the world , his knowledge as to all the material parts of the christian doctrine was built upon the most complicated and uninterrupted tradition . and the certainty of his own knowledge he has recorded with all possible assurance , discovering in all his writings a vehement zeal and a spirit highly prepared for martyrdom , which he at last suffered with the same christian courage that appeared in all that went before him . and that is a mighty accession to the weight of their testimony , as if it had been peculiarly design'd by the providence of god , that as they proved the certainty of their faith by undoubted tradition , so they seal'd its sincerity with their blood. though the testimony of these witnesses be so abundantly satisfactory , both from their number , their quality , and their agreement , that i need produce no more , and the truth is , i should have been very thankful for half so many , but could never have had the confidence to ask for more ; yet because a great number beside offer themselves , we cannot in civility altogether refuse their kindness , but that i may not be too tedious , i shall at present onely give in a list of their names , that any man may examine them at his leisure . about this time then there was beside those that i have mention'd , a great concourse of learned men , that were not only confessors but defenders of the christian faith , as athenagoras the christian philosopher of athens , theophilus bishop of antioch , melito bishop of sardis , apollinaris bishop of hierapolis , tatian the assyrian and scholar to justin martyr , who all wrote in the time of m. aurelius . and in the reign of commodus , pantoenus , clemens alexandrinus , miltiades , tertullian , who were closely followed by origen , minutius felix , arnobius , st. cyprian , all men of learning , who diligently enquired into the truth and falsehood of things , and have given their reasons of renouncing heathenism and embracing christianity ; in short , they have all maintain'd it with their pens , and most of them with their blood. and most of their works being still remaining , it were an easie task , were it not too tedious , to give an account of every man's performance , but there is enough of that said already , and to say more , were only so much needless repetition of the same matter of fact upon the same argument : and the most material passages of record extant in these authors , i have either alledged already , or shall have occasion so to do hereafter . therefore all that is requisite to be done at present , is only to suppose that there were such writings of such men , and that i may easily do , because they are so very common , and so very well known at this day , and then upon that supposition to argue the certain conveyance of the christian tradition through their hands , and that compleats the demonstration of its truth and divine authority . for when i have proved the certainty of its original from the undoubted testimony of the apostles ; and the tradition of their testimony by the complicated attestation of others that lived either with or immediately after them , and so downward from age to age , and that by very short periods of time into the third century ( for beyond that it were very impertinent to pursue the argument ) if i say this be performed in the premises , i do not understand how any man can in reason or modesty demand a greater evidence , and more satisfactory demonstration of his faith. § . xxxiv . but if christianity came into the world attended with all this variety and train of proof that i have represented , how came it to pass that such great numbers of the men of that age lived and dyed in infidelity ? if the evidence were so full and free from all exception as is pretended , how was it possible for any man that had eye-sight enough to discern the mid-day sun , not to submit to its conviction ? much less , how could such creatures as men endued with rational faculties , be so utterly blind or extravagantly mad , that when almighty god had given such undeniable proofs of his own divine authority , they should hate , oppose and persecute this religion ? mear stupidity or want of enquiry might have left men in infidelity , though the state of things had been as evident as we say it was , but when men concern'd themselves with all their zeal and power to root it up , they must understand what it was that they so eagerly opposed . neither was this done by the ordinary sort of mankind alone , but by the wise and the learned , who did not only reject it as an idle fable , but bestir'd themselves with all their might , to suppress it as pernicious to the peace and quiet of the world. this is an objection in appearance very great , for it cannot but look very strange , that men learned and wise should be so foolish and so ignorant as not to perceive such evidence of demonstration , nay to scorn and to despise it . and yet as big as this objection is in shew , it is in reality none at all , and if it were any is abundantly answered by the premises . for it is plainly impossible that so great a part of the world , especially the learned and inquisitive should ever have been prevail'd upon to embrace such a story , in all those circumstances and under all those disadvantages that i have described , if it had been nothing but mear falsehood and forgery . and yet by reason of those very many and great disadvantages , let its evidence have been never so bright , it is possible for men either not at all to see or to wink at it . so that at best this is but a negative testimony opposed to an affirmative , and in this particular case and under these circumstances , though it were in it self not altogether useless , of no force at all . for unless christianity were true , it could never have been vouched as it is ; and though it were as certainly true as we pretend it was , yet there was no necessity imposed upon all mankind to yield to its belief . especially when it had all the disadvantages of present interest to weigh against naked truth ; and interest alone , as is too well known by experience , has a more forcible influence upon most mens minds than integrity . so that here i might again run through all the foremention'd particulars , and shew what force each of them singly , much more all joyntly might have to hinder men from believing or owning the christian faith , notwithstanding all that evidence that it gave of its divine authority ; and particularly i might declaim upon the wonderful power of prejudice in this case , and make a long common place of it , to shew the equality of its strength to truth it self . but i shall make shorter work of it , and consider only the matter of fact and the history of the thing , and shew that whatever opposition christianity met with in the world , was from unreasonable men , and upon unreasonable grounds . and if that be proved no man can think the opinion of such men ought to weigh any thing by it self , but much less against all that evidence of reason and record that we have laid together in the premises . and this i shall now make good . but for our clearer method of proceeding , i shall divide my discourse into these particulars . first to give an account of the unreasonable infidelity of the jews ; and of this first as to the whole nation , secondly , as to their several factions , first saducees , secondly pharisees . and then i shall proceed in the second place to the heathens , and shew how all unbelief in them proceeded meerly from the blindness either of atheism or superstition , and this i shall demonstrate both as to the publick persecutions and private oppositions that christianity met with ; and thus when i have taken the objection into pieces , from the emptiness of each part , it will appear that there is nothing in the whole . and first the grand reason of the infidelity of the jews , notwithstanding the demonstrative evidence of the truth of christianity , was their invincible prejudice in honour of moses , so that they would not care to hear any thing that might derogate from him , much less our saviour that pretended to excell him . and the truth is , this prejudice had some reasonable force in it self , that when almighty god had in such a miraculous way deliver'd the law by moses , and by virtue of that law kept up his own true worship in opposition to idolatry , that prevail'd every where but only in judaea ; and when it was enacted with some expressions , that seem to imply its perpetual and unalterable obligation , and lastly when it had flourisht so many years , and notwithstanding all that opposition that was made to it by the heathen world , it was so far from abating its force , that it prevail'd upon its enemies , and brought over great numbers of proselytes from heathenism to the jewish church . after all which , at first sight it could not but appear very strange , that an obscure person , a galilaean , a carpenpenters son , should without any appearances of thunder and lightning , take upon him so confidently to repeal this ancient , this divine , this venerable law. the very pretence could not but seem an unanswerable objection to it self ; for what could his design be in throwing down the law of moses that was the only bulwark against idolatry , than to let in all the idolatry of the heathen nations upon them ? besides , if moses acted by divine commission , whatever was spoken to the disparagement of moses reflected upon god himself , so that this person by pretending to enact a more perfect law than that , seem'd to make himself wiser than his maker . such objections as these were so natural and so obvious to the prejudiced people of the jews , as to keep them back from so much as making enquiry after such wild and frantick pretences . and this as i have already intimated from origen , was the peculiar difficulty of our saviour's work , and as appears from the whole history of his life , was objected against all his miracles , as i have particularly shewn concerning the cure of the man that was born blind ; so that though they saw the truth of the miracle , yet they would not believe it , because it was impossible that any man should come from god , who could be so daringly blasphemous as to prefer himself to moses . and this objection our saviour confesses so forcible , as to acknowledge that nothing could answer it but his unparallel'd miracles , john . . if i had not done among them the works which never any man did , they had not had sin : but now have they both seen , and hated both me and my father . that is , they had been excuseable in rejecting him and his pretences of establishing a new religion , if his miracles had not exceeded those of moses and the prophets , whom yet they believed to have been sent from god ; but now when they have seen me do such works as none but god can do , curing all manner of diseases , feeding thousands with a few loaves , raising the dead , and all only by the power of a word as god at first created the world , after all this if they reject me , it is plain that they affront him too . and so again when he cured the man that was blind and dumb ; because they could not deny the miracle , they blaspheme it , and say , it was done by the help of the most powerful of all the devils , for who else could assist the man that opposed moses , and therefore our saviour having demonstrated by rational proof , that he acted not by the power of belzebub , he tells them that it is evident from his miraculous works , that the kingdom of god is come to them , that is , the reign of the messias ; as it is called daniel . . and adds that all calumnies are pardonable , but only that against the holy ghost , that is , the power of god , by which he discover'd his will to mankind , by which they barr'd their minds against all the means of information , and if they would not acknowledge that , when they saw it in his works , it was not possible for him to make any impression upon them as men , and so they thereby put themselves into a state of impenitence , and an utter incapacity of pardon . now it is plain , that this obstinacy of the jews , though it was grounded upon the divine authority of moses's law , was in it self very unreasonable , in that as almighty god had confirm'd the law of moses by signs and wonders , so he vouched all that our saviour either taught or pretended to beyond that , by enduing him with a much greater power of miracles , than was ever given to moses or the prophets . and yet that they might be guilty of it , is obvious enough to any man's apprehension , if we consider the strange power of religious prejudices , and upon what plausible grounds theirs were bottom'd , the natural stubborness of the jewish nation , but most of all the pride and waywardness of superstition . for that as i shall shew afterwards in the case of the pharisees , was the bottom of all their rage and indignation against our saviour , in that he so freely upbraided their degeneracy from the law of moses , and convinced them of the folly and the childishness of those superstitious conceits that they had made out of it , upon the observation whereof they so highly valued themselves . this is evident through the whole history of the gospels , but in no one case more than that of the sabbath , which as it was at first commanded by god , so they observ'd it with infinite superstition . and for that reason our saviour set himself to controul them in it , and therefore wrought most of his miracles on that day , and yet they were so foolish as to think that a sufficient objection against his divine authority . and though one would think no man could be so absurd , when he had seen a blind man cured only by commanding him to open his eyes , as to slight , nay , find fault with the miracle meerly because it was done on the sabbath day , yet this was the common case of the jews , so invincible above all other things is the power and prejudice of superstition . § . xxxv . the second was a very dazling prejudice , and that was the magnificent state and glory , in which they expected their messias should appear . for the whole world was at that time fill'd with expectations of a mighty prince ; all the ancient prophesies concerning the messias were glorious and wonderful , and their descriptions of his kingdom seem'd to exceed that of the roman greatness ; the glory of augustus was to be eclips't by the appearance of a greater monarch ; the grandeur of his court , and vastness of his empire , were but ordinary things in comparison to those that were foretold of this prince's universal government . the splendour of these great prophesies flusht and abused the ambition of the great spirits of the empire , and every hopeful and aspiring prince of the family of the caesars pushed forward for an universal monarchy . and every prosperous commander of the roman armies , flattered himself with hopes that it might be he , that was design'd to be indeed , and not in title onely , lord of the whole world. and particularly this as i have shewn out of his own historians , was the first rise and occasion of vespasian's glory . and this was the thick conceit of the jews as well as the gentiles , as celsus discourses in the person of a jew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the person foretold by the prophets , that was to come , should be a mighty king , a leader of great armies , lord of all the kingdoms and nations of the earth . and after the same manner does trypho the jew argue against our saviour's being the messias from the meanness of his condition , whereas the true messias was to be a mighty and renowned person , and to receive from the ancient of days a perpetual kingdom . they imagin'd their messias to be such another fighting man as his father david , that should break the power of the romans , and by his victorious arms redeem the people of god from heathen tyranny and oppression . they hoped the time would come , when a circumcised king should keep his court in augustus's palace , and when the sanhedrin should possess the senate-house , and there issue out decrees for the circumcision of all people , nations , and languages . and this confidence in the messias seems to have been the great support of the pride and ill nature of the jews ; for when he came they were resolved to take their fill of revenge upon the gentile world for all those insolences , wherewith they had affronted gods own people . and this ( as the historians of that age observe ) was the ground of their frequent tumults and rebellions about that time , and at last of the utter destruction of their common-wealth . they were grown impatient in the expectations of their messias , and were no longer able to endure the reproach of being subject to the pride and power of uncircumcifed miscreants . and all the nation of the jews were so fully and impregnably possest with this dream of a temporal prince , that the apostles themselves seem'd at first to have followed our saviour for hopes of present preferment ; nothing less could serve the sons of zebedee , than to sit the one at his right and the other at his left hand in his kingdom ; to be the grandees , and chief favourites of his court , his agrippas and mecoenas'es , they were not content with being heads of tribes , unless they might have the principal place next to the royal throne . and perhaps st. peter , till he understood better things , promised himself for a reward of his zeal , no less dominion than what his pretended successours claim from him ; so that when upon his confession of our saviour's being the true messias , our saviour immediately declares the speedy approach of his death , mat. . . peter remonstrates to that as inconsistent with the whole design , and when our saviour continues from time to time to warn them of the set time when he was to be betrayed , he very faithfully buys him a sword to fight in his defence , and st. john being so great a favourite , could be no less than principal secretary of state , and judas no doubt expected no less office than of lord treasurer . and the women too counted to have no small share in the government , as appears by old zebedee's wife . and as some were to manage affairs at court , so others were to have their governments and provinces abroad , herod and pilate were to be displaced , and one was to be president of judaea , and another of galilee ; and if there were any one more modest than the rest , it is likely he contented his ambition with being lord mayor of capernaum . and this conceit was so deeply rivetted in their fancies , that all our saviour's discourses were not able to dispossess it ; and though he so often preached to them the doctrine of his death and passion , in the plainest and most familiar words , yet they were so drunk and light-headed with it , that they understood him no more , than they did the language of moses and elias at his transfiguration . for though he taught his disciples and said unto them , the son of man is deliver'd into the hands of men , and they shall kill him , and after that he is kill'd , he shall rise the third day , yet they understood not that saying , mark. . . one would think the saying were as plain as words could make it , but though they understood the grammatical sense of them , yet they were so possest with this jewish prejudice of his being a great temporal prince , that nothing that seem'd inconsistent with it could enter into their heads ; so that the meaning of those words , they understood not that saying , is that they understood not how they could be reconcil'd to those prophesies that they had of the kingdom of the messias . and therefore upon occasion of all such discourses , they still minded him of the recovery of his kingdom , and when those hopes were buried in his grave , then all their expectations utterly dyed together with him . saint peter thinks of returning to his old trade of fishing . and we trusted , say the two disciples , that it had been he which should have redeemed israel , luke . . and after they were assured of his resurrection the very first thing they were sure to put him in mind of was the interest of his crown , lord wilt thou not at this time restore again the kingdom to israel , acts . . these were the big and swelling expectations of the whole nation of the jews concerning their messias , but whilst they were eagerly gazing upon the outward pomps and glories of the world , the providence of god so orders it , that their prince should slip into it cloathed in all the dresses of meanness and humility , that he might have nothing to recommend him to mankind but meer evidence of truth . every circumstance of his birth , life and death was design'd cross to all the grandeur and vanity of the world. thus was he born , not at jerusalem the imperial city , but , at bethlehem , the least among the cities of judah ; not in the town , but in the suburbs , in a poor cottage , not in the dwelling house but in the stable among beasts and beggars ; rags were his onely imperial robes , and his first throne a manger . and instead of posting away curriers to the courts of rome or persia , the message of his birth is imparted to a few plain and honest pesants ; they were shepherds , a simple and innocent sort of people , that made the first address , and did the first homage to this infant prince . and the whole progress of his reign was but agreeable to this humble coronation , he was subject to his poor parents , and as some , who were no incompetent witnesses , tell us , wrought at his fathers trade , and got his living by making of ploughs and yokes . and after he enter'd upon his office and declared who he was , he chose for the principal place of his residence galilee , the most ignoble part of all judaea , not onely because it lay most remote from jerusalem , the place of their court and temple , but because it was inhabited by a mixt sort of people , and thence commonly styled galilee of the gentiles ; partly in that lying next to them and having more commerce with them , they were not so coy of admitting them into their kindreds as the other jews , and partly in that it was inhabited by some of those jews that return'd from the captivity , who settled there among the gentiles , that had , during the captivity , placed themselves in it ; so that the galileans were lookt upon as a sort of mungril jews , and a galilean was little better than a name of reproach , whence the proverb shall christ come out of galilee ? and as he chose the worst part of his country for the chief place of his residence , though at times he shewed himself in other places , but still under the disadvantage of a galilean , so he chose the meanest of his country-men for the ministers of his kingdom , fishermen , a poor and beggarly sort of people , and yet they were made so much the poorer by being his disciples . we have left all ( says peter ) to follow thee : and this mighty all was nothing but a few tatter'd nets , but yet with them were they able to get a small maintenance for their families , whereas when they left their trade to follow him , they became perfect beggars , for the foxes have holes , &c. nay , what was still a greater condescension , he conversed not onely with the meanest , but , as his office required , with the worst of men , publicans and sinners , the most hated and most scandalous persons , insomuch that his enemies took advantage from it to reproach himself as a person that lived a life of looseness and debauchery . and thus he past on through perpetual affronts , reproaches and calumnies , till he purposely went up to jerusalem to deliver up himself into the hands of his enemies ; and with what scorn , insolence and cruelty he was there treated , and with what meekness , patience and humility he there behaved himself i need not here represent . they indeed put upon him a royal robe , but it was in derision , they crown'd him , but it was with thorns , they bowed the knee before him , b●● it was in mockery , and they writ him king of the jews , but it was upon his cross , where he suffer'd himself to be executed with two thieves , and that in the midst of them as the greatest villain of the three . all which as he suffer'd for other weighty ends , so not least of all in order to his resurrection ; partly , because that being design'd as the ground-work of his religion , the providence of god took particular care to make it stand upon its own unassisted evidence , and for that purpose not onely laid it so very deep , but clear'd away every thing that might seem to give it the least assistance : partly , because being the most material article of our faith , and withall most difficult to be believed , god was pleased to confirm its truth by sensible experience . as arnobius has very well observed , cumque novitas rerum , & inaudita promissio audientium turbaret mentes , & credulitatem faceret hoesitare , virtutum omnium dominus atque ipsius mortis extinctor hominem suum permiserit interfici , ut ex rebus consequentibus scirent in tuto esse spes suas , quas jamdudum acceperant de animarum salute , nec periculum mortis aliâ se posse ratione vitare . when the strangeness of the doctrine , and the greatness of the promise of immortal happiness amazed men's minds and stumbled their belief , the lord of all power and conquerour of death permitted his humane nature to be slain , that from his resurrection and those things that followed after his death , they might be assured of the truth of their faith as to the future salvation of their souls . now this humble appearance of jesus being design'd so utterly cross to the proud and revengefull expectations of the jews , who thirsted for the coming of their messias , onely to be avenged of all their enemies , it did not onely raise their prejudice ●ut their indignation against him . but especially when he took upon him the great prerogative of the messias , and would have all their mighty expectations fulfill'd in himself alone , and yet disclaim'd all temporal power , and taught that the kingdom of the messias was not a kingdom of this , but another world ; so strange a disappointment as this could not but work in them a fierce and angry aversation both to his person and to his doctrine . for by this very thing all their hopes of being deliver'd from the roman yoke were utterly defeated , and yet that was the onely benefit that they expected from their messias . and therefore it is no wonder that they entertain'd him with so little kindness , when , by his pretence of being the messias , he not onely fail'd their expectations of himself , but destroyed all their hopes for ever . to all which may be added the extream wickedness of the jews at that time ; their manners being universally debaucht under the reign of herod , and their chief men tainted with principles of atheism and irreligion ; but of that i have partly discoursed already , and shall doe so again under the next head when i come to treat of the sect of the sadducees , and therefore at present i shall onely refer to josephus his history of that time , from whence it will appear that they were faln from all sense of common humanity ; that they were more barbarous than canibals or banditi ; and that no history in the world can equal those instances of cruelty that were committed by the jews among themselves at the siege of jerusalem . now such degenerate brutes as these , whose delight and trade it was to be cutting throats were very likely to give audience to the mercifull institution of jesus , and leave off their former high-way practices to take up his cross and follow him . § xxxvi . these are the most general and obvious prejudices that might bar up the minds of the jews against the entertainment of christianity , notwithstanding all that evidence that it brought along with it ; the more particular prejudices are those that relate to the chief factions and leading sects among them , that is , the sadducees and the pharisees , who beside the prejudices common to them with all other jews , were blinded by some others peculiar to themselves . and in truth these were the onely enemies that opposed themselves to the doctrine of jesus ; for it was they that made use of the forementioned prejudices of the people thereby to raise their rage and fury against him . so that whatever opposition was made by them , proceeded not directly from themselves , but was set a work and managed by these mens instigation ; and therefore if we would find out the true ground of the opposition that was made to the christian doctrine by the jewish nation , we must discover the reasons , motives and designs upon which these leading men proceeded . and they will appear so unjust and so unreasonable , as that , instead of reflecting any disparagement upon the cause they oppose , its being opposed upon such accounts will it self be no small evidence of its truth and goodness . and first , as for the sadducees , the case is plain that they were no better than rank and avowed atheists . for though they pretended to own some parts of the jewish religion , yet that was onely to pass a complement upon the common people , that would not in former times endure any such thing as open and downright atheism . but otherwise to what purpose is it to talk of any such thing as religion whilst they deny the future state of the souls of men , without which all pretences to vertue and piety are meer contradictions to themselves , false braggs and empty talk . and though grotius will by no means suffer them to be reckoned with the herd of epicurus , in that they denied not the providence of god in the government of humane affairs , but onely confin'd its rewards and punishments to this present life . which is the same doctrine with the epicureans in other words : for they too allow of the present rewards and punishments ordinarily annexed to vertue and vice as well as these , so that as to that point they stand upon equal terms . but when they seem to be parted , as they often are , what then is to be done , but that whatever becomes of vertue or duty , both of them are alike concern'd to take care of their own present welfare . so that immortality being once cashier'd , 't is after that vanity and nonsense to talk of any obligations to justice or religion . and yet this was not onely an opinion entertain'd by the sadducees , but it was the fundamental principle of their sect. upon this alone they esteem'd themselves wiser than all other men , and this was their great point of controversie with the pharisees ; so that when our saviour so avowedly sided against them in it , he was for that reason their enemy , and they obliged by it to endeavour his ruine . now at the time of his appearance they were the most powerfull faction in the sanhedrin , as appears not onely from the scriptures but josephus , the high-priest himself and his kindred being of that sect. and it is very observable that they were much fiercer than the pharisees in prosecuting the apostles for attesting our saviour's resurrection , and are therefore more particularly mention'd than the others , acts . . . . and the reason of their fierceness was because all their hopes were in this life onely , and therefore they were more carefull to preserve the peace and quiet of the world , and therein their own ; and that made them the more zealous against all innovations or alterations in religion , for fear of publick disturbances . and then beside , if jesus were risen from the dead , there was an end of their sect , and they must yield the victory to the pharisees in the great point of controversie between them . so that for the very honour of their sect , they would not endure to hear of it , and its very mention put them into choler and passion . and by that alone did saint paul raise so great a dissension between the two factions , as to endanger a publick tumult in the common-wealth , acts . , . now this sect of men being thus detein'd by this principle , they were not concern'd to enquire into the truth of any matter of fact that might overthrow it . but their custom was to jeer and flout at it as a ridiculous story , and when they came to argue with our saviour about it , they seem to have design'd rather to make themselves merry , than to enter into any serious discourse with him . atheists are always proud and conceited people , and scorn to make any enquiry after any thing that may convince them ; they confute all with the impossibility of the thing it self , and when men once think themselves secure of that , it is in vain to tell them any story against it , for without ever enquiring into its truth or credibility , they are aforehand undoubtedly assured of its forgery . and this was the particular case of the sadducees , their main argument against a future state was the impossibility of the thing , and after that when men reported that to have been done , which they knew impossible to be done , what followed but away with them for idle cheats and lyars . and therefore without ever examining them they thrust them into prison with all manner of scorn and indignation , acts . , . secondly , as for the pharisees , who were of the greatest power and reputation with the people , they were a strange sort of ignorant , supercilious and conceited fanaticks . and there is no temper of mind so fixed and stubborn as religious pride and self-conceitedness ; 't is of all illusions the most delightfull to the minds of men , and when they are once throughly possest with it , it barrs up their understandings against all arguments , it takes away the use of their natural faculties , and to go about to convince them of their folly and hypocrisie , is onely to provoke their rage and choler . this was the state of the case between our saviour and the pharisees . they pretended to the strictest piety , and valued themselves at a mighty rate beyond all other men for the singularity and exactness of their devotion . and yet this they placed not in any conformity to the divine laws , but in the observation of some vain customs and traditions derived from their forefathers . now this being so gross and so foolish an imposture , our saviour set himself particularly to represent its vanity , and took all occasions to convince them that they had utterly forsaken the law of moses , for which they pretended so much reverence , and that the customs they were so fond of , were no part of his religion , because no where injoin'd in his law , but meer arbitrary conceits of their own devising . and this it was that raised their displeasure against him to so great an height of hatred and indignation , that a person who pretended to so great an office and authority as that of the messias , should represent them so contemptibly in his publick and constant discourses to the people . and therefore instead of considering the nature and truth of his doctrine , they all along set themselves to trapan him in his discourses , and minded nothing else but to pursue their revenge against him , and never rested till they had wrecked all their malice upon him as the mortal enemy of their sect. now 't is no wonder that persons of this complexion were so strangely blinded against all that evidence that our saviour gave of his divine commission . for none so blind as those that will not see , and none so wilfull as those that are in love with themselves , and no self-love so doting as that which is grounded upon a false conceit of sanctity and religion . and yet notwithstanding this , some of the more ingenuous among them , as nicodemus and joseph of arimathea were overcome by the divinity of his works , and afterward even gamaliel himself was startled at them . for the advice he gave to let the apostles alone seem'd to have proceeded meerly from the unsettledness of his own mind , that was not then throughly satisfied concerning the truth or falshood of their pretences . and the truth is his advice took with the sanhedrin not from the reason of the thing but the authority of the man , for otherwise it was but very foolish counsel , that if this work be of men it would of its own accord come to nought , for by that principle they must give liberty to all the impostors in the world to disturb , as much as in them lies , the publick peace and quiet of mankind . but when it was doubtfull , as it then seem'd to him , lest haply by punishing the apostles , they might be found to fight against god , upon this supposition it was not onely wise but pious advice to stay for a little farther tryal of the cause , before they undertook its utter extirpation . and it is not a little observable that though some of the pharisees were shockt out of their prejudices , the sadducees were all impregnable ; for we no where reade that any of them were ever converted to the christian faith , and the reason is plain because their first principle supposed its truth utterly impossible , and then they would not so much as enquire after it or hear any thing concerning it . but the pharisees , not lying under this invincible prejudice , were , notwithstanding all their other great hindrances , in some capacity of conviction . so that though we find that notwithstanding they were at first the fiercest enemies to our saviour's doctrine , yet afterwards they were out-stript by the sadducees in their zeal and fury against it . for as in the gospels the pharisees are every where noted as his most implacable enemies , so in the acts of the apostles after our saviour's resurrection , the sadducees are remarked as their most bitter and vehement prosecutors . and now this i think may be a sufficient account of the incredulity of the jews , notwithstanding our saviour gave all that evidence of his authority that we pretend he did . and it is obvious enough to any man , that understands humane nature , to apprehend how easie a thing it is for men not onely byassed but pressed down by all these prejudices to avoid or neglect the force of all the arguments and demonstrations in the world. § xxxvii . and thus having described the several unreasonable prejudices that withheld so many of the jewish nation from embracing of the christian faith ; we proceed now in the last place to the grounds that the heathens went upon in their opposition to it . and these were as much more absurd and unreasonable than those of the jews as was their religion . for that the jews had some appearance of pretence against our saviour's alteration in religion we have already shewn , in that it was own'd by himself to have been establisht by divine authority . but as for the war that the heathen world raised against it , they grounded it upon such false principles , as , though christianity it self had been false , betray their own folly and absurdity . atheism and contempt of god and all religion was their master-objection against the christians , and the onely thing they set up and contended for in opposition to it , was their own wretched idolatry and superstition , both which are too great demonstrations of an invincible prejudice and inflexible partiality . and they are both so very absurd , that which is most so , 't is very hard to determine . for whatever the christians were guilty of , it is certain that they were at the greatest distance from atheism of any party of men in the world. and as for the religion of the gentiles , it was so grosly wicked and foolish , that it was impossible for any wise man to embrace it without affronting both god and his own conscience . this was the true state of the controversie between them , they never enter'd into the debate of the matter of fact , or so much as once enquired into the merits of the cause , but for this reason alone they reputed all christians as vile and profligate persons , because they would not join with them in their atheistical idolatry . and this was the grand motive of all their persecutions against them , in which they proceeded upon no other article than that they refused to sacrifice to their gods. so that if the heathen religion were absurd , and it is certain that nothing could be more so ; and if all their hatred to christianity were founded meerly upon their zeal to that , this gives a plain account of the unreasonableness of their opposing the christian faith , notwithstanding the undeniable evidence of its divinity . and this i shall endeavour to prove , as i have in the case of the jews , from the matter of fact it self . and thereby it will appear not onely that the assertion is a probable but a certain truth , and so will not onely answer but confute the objection , by proving that all the reason that men had to oppose christianity was their being grosly unreasonable . and this i shall make good , first as to publick persecutions , secondly private oppositions . the first persecution was raised by nero , a prince sufficiently branded for all manner of folly and wickedness , but above all for his brutish and inhumane cruelty , and therefore it ought to be no wonder that a person so barbarous to all mankind , even to his dearest friends and nearest relations , should vent some of his fury upon the christians . but as bad as he was , and i do not remember any prince unless caligula more wild and extravagant in his manners , and will allow the truth of that character which suetonius gives of him , it a degenerasse à suorum virtutibus neronem , ut tamen vitia cujusque quasi tradita & ingenita retulerit , that he lost all the vertues of his ancestours and retain'd all their vices , yet for all that i cannot but think him to have been painted a much greater monster than he deserved . i will indeed grant his folly to have exceeded the ordinary rate of madness , especially his vanity of fidling , singing and acting of plays , for which he so highly valued himself , and was so ridiculously flattered by others , and for the glory of it neglected all affairs of state , left rome to shew his skill in the cities of greece , return'd home with triumphal pomp in the habit of a player and with the shews of all his victories . in short , he was not so jealous of a rival in the empire as of a skilfull comedian , and at his fall was much more grieved to be upbraided with being a bad fidler than a bad emperour . neither was he less exorbitant in his lust than in his vanity , and it was both together that so much exposed him to the publick scorn and hatred of the people . but for the vice of cruelty , wherewith he is so severely charged , and of which no doubt he was highly guilty , i cannot but think him overloaded by the historians . it was indeed a wild paradox attempted by cardan , though wittily perform'd , to write an encomium of his great vertues , but above all , his clemency , in which he will have him to have excelled the best of the roman emperours ; yet that he was not so bloudy as he is usually represented , appears as by many other acts of mercy towards his enemies , so particularly , as tender as he was of his reputation , by not punishing , as most other emperours were wont to doe , the known libellers against his person and government with capital penalties . and as for his other severities , this at least is to be pleaded in his behalf , the prodigious and unparallel'd wickedness of the age , that was so universally debauched , that there was scarce a man in it of reputation enough to give testimony against him : so that though he were both hated and condemned by the senate it self , yet the ground of the contention between them was who should have the greatest empire in wickedness , and his restraint of their enormities , particularly their inhumane extortion , is no improbable account of their great displeasure against him . and for this reason the number of his executions is no proper objection against his government ; for that might come to pass not from his cruelty , but from their own wicked practices , and therefore nothing can be determin'd from that against him but by inquiring into the cause of those that suffer'd , and unless it appear ( as it does not ) that they were falsely accused and unjustly condemned , their being executed proves nothing either for or against him . and as for his cutting off so many of his nearest kindred , the question is , whether themselves forced him not to it in his own defence , and if they did , then it was not choice but necessity . and whatever he did for reason of state was , according to the practices of those times , very allowable . as for the death of his father claudius there is no evidence that he had any hand in it ; that was wholly the wickedness of agrippina . and though he seem'd too ungratefull to his memory by speaking reproachfully of him , it is apparent that he was put upon it by the instigation of seneca , whom it seems that dull emperour had disobliged . as for agrippina , she was a woman of intolerable pride and unheard of cruelty ; she had poison'd her husband to derive the crown upon her son , she had threatned to poison him and transfer it to germanicus ; in short , she would not suffer him to enjoy any share or any quiet in the government . now what was to be done with a woman of this temper ? indeeed to kill her , she being his mother , how wicked soever , was inhumane and unnatural , yet however her practices could not but force him to some undecent severity . at least it is plain that at first he used her with due respect , and bore her insolence with extraordinary patience , till he saw both his life and his empire attempted , and then it was but time to secure himself , though he ought to have done it some gentler way than by putting her to death . in short , if agrippina were so bad as the historians represent her to have been , nero was not , because his cruel usage of her was in a great measure forced by her own wickedness . as for germanicus , he must dye , not onely as a declared rival to the empire , but as the true and rightfull heir of the crown . and this practice was grown so familiar , that there was not an emperour but either got the crown or secured it by murther . all which came to pass by the prodigious dotage of augustus , who , after all his great craft , instead of securing the empire to his own nearest kindred , onely obliged his successours to murther them for their own security . for when he passed over the right heirs to settle the empire upon tiberius , it was obvious that tiberius could never think himself secure in his throne , till all that had an antecedent right to it were removed out of the way . so that the blame of tiberius his cruelty is in a great measure to be charged upon augustus his folly , who , by his preposterous settlement of the crown upon him , made it necessary upon reason of state , and that he too well knew in his court outweighed all other considerations . and hence came that constant succession of murthers in the empire , whereby all of his own family were in the first place cut off , and afterwards all his kindred . so imprudent a thing is it to think of disposing of crowns against the right of inheritance , it certainly entails murthers upon the royal family and civil wars upon the kingdom . but to return to nero , these are the main instances of cruelty wherewith he is usually branded , some others there are that i shall here pass by , and onely concern my self in that he is charged with against the christians . against whom it is evident that he proceeded not either from any enquiry into their cause or any voluntary cruelty of his own , but deliver'd them up to the peoples fury , onely to deliver himself from it . for the city happening to be destroyed by a sudden fire , nero's enemies , to render him more odious , cast reports among the people that he was the authour of the mischief , and the more to exasperate them add that he beheld the sad sight from mecoenas his tower with no small joy and pleasure , singing the destruction of troy. whether this report were true or false it matter'd not , the people were ready enough to run away with any thing in their rage and anguish , and though it was , for any thing that appears , altogether groundless and malicious , it was then believed and is so to this day . and therefore nero , to bring himself off , transfers the odium upon the christians , whom he knew to be sufficiently hatefull to the common rabble , as despisers of their gods and their religion , and by turning them loose to their rage and cruelty , diverted , or at least somewhat asswaged , their fury against himself . neither does this seem to have been nero's own device , but rather to have been first prompted by the people themselves : for it is more than likely that the idol priests , upon occasion of so sad a calamity , should blow the suspicion into the peoples heads , that it came from the christians , who as they hated their gods , hated their temples too , and so would not stick to set the city on fire on purpose to destroy them . and such a suggestion as this being once kindled among the common people , it would quickly prevail like the flames themselves , and in the extremity of their anguish transport them to the utmost excess of rage and indignation . and therefore , as the historian observes , they did not think simple punishment enough , unless they added scorn to their cruelty , and so would not suffer them to be put to death in the shape of men , but worried them with dogs , in the skins of wild beasts . but whether nero fired the city or not ; or whether he contrived this device to save himself , or onely made advantage of the folly of the people , it is certain that neither he nor they proceeded against them upon any mature deliberation , but that they were sacrificed meerly to the outrage of the rabble . and this is the plain account of the neronian persecution , in which the prosecutors were so far from entring into the merits of the cause , that it was wholly managed by popular tumult , that was raised by calumny , and enraged by superstition . so that the christians in it suffer'd not as christians , but onely upon occasion of this accident , the people fell foul upon them as enemies to their idol-gods . and that was natural for the blind and furious rabble to doe , whatever the christian cause might be , for without enquiring into that , they were onely zealous for their old superstition . and therefore their opposition to christianity can be no objection against it , for though we suppose its truth and evidence , yet notwithstanding that , it could not have avoided their displeasure . and yet in most of the other persecutions it will appear that they were both set on foot and carried on onely by the folly and fury of the multitude . § . xxxviii . the second persecution was raised by domitian , the second to nero for fierceness and cruelty , though neither did he proceed in it upon any account of religion , but purely out of jealousie of state. for as he exceeded all other princes in suspicion and ill-nature , so upon the least shadow of pretence he would never stick at any cruelty to secure himself . thus he murthered metius domitianus for no other reason than because he was born , as the astrologers affirm'd , under an imperial horoscope : and slew his own unkle flavius sabinus , because when he was chosen consul , the clark whose office it was to declare the choice to the people , by mistake pronounced him emperour instead of consul . and though it was commonly said that he slew his kinsman flavius clemens . whose two sones he had adopted to succeed him in the empire , upon the score of christianity , yet it is much more probable that his displeasure was suddenly taken up upon some pretence of state , as suetonius expresly affirms , repentè ex tenuissimâ suspicione tantum non ipso ejus consulatu interemit . and this , as we have the story from hegesippus , was the true original cause of his troubling the christians : against whom he did not proceed in general as christians , but onely against some of our saviour's kindred , who were accused before him as descending from the royal line of david , out of which the messias or universal monarch was to come , of whom domitian , sayes the historian , was not less jealous than herod himself . but upon examination , finding both the poverty and the innocence of the persons , he dismist them , and by a publick edict for bad all farther prosecution against the followers of jesus . thus far hegesippus , and it is one would think a plain and an easie story , and recorded by a person that lived very near the time in which it was transacted ; and yet our great scaliger in pursuit of that scholastick authority , which he has taken to himself of correcting the ancients , but especially hegesippus , is pleased not to pass it for so much as credible , and that with so much confidence and so little reason , as too grosly discovers his affectation of finding fault . for first he wonders that there should be no more than two of the posterity of david left , and those of the family of judas the brother of our lord , as hegesippus affirms . whereas hegesippus affirms no such thing , but onely sayes that two of the posterity of judas the brother of our lord were accused before domitian . but that they were all that were remaining of the family of david , he does not so much as intimate , neither had scaliger any ground for this surmise , unless from thence to seize an opportunity to give the world an account of his knowledge of the history of the jews at babylon , where he tells us of many of the posterity of david in great honour . but granting the truth of his story ( though all the stories of the jews after their dispersion , are altogether false and frivolous ) what is that to what hapned at rome ? so that had there been never so many of the posterity of david at babylon , there might have been no more than two found at rome . and therefore if hegesippus had affirm'd , that there were onlytwo , all scaliger's stories of babylon are to no purpose : but when he has affirm'd no such thing , but on the contrary gives us a distinct account of simeon the son of cleopas bishop of jerusalem , who lived there after the time of domitian , scaliger could have no motive to make the objection , but onely to empty his common-place-book of two or three rabinical quotations . but yet his next exception is much worse , viz. that there was no such person as judas of the kindred of our lord mention'd in the gospels . but suppose there were no such upon record , it seems very hard dealing with an ancient writer , that lived so near the times that he writes of , and had opportunity of enquiring into the genealogy of the family , when he affirms that there was such a branch of it , to deny the truth of the matter of fact , onely because it hapned not to be mention'd in the gospels ; whereas nothing is better known than that divers more material passages relating to our saviour's family are there omitted , their design being to describe his own descent from david , and not to give any account of the several present branches of the family . and yet after all scaliger's confidence that there was no such man upon record , do we find him expresly reckoned among our saviour's nearest kindred , mat. . . is not this the carpenters son ? is not his mother called mary ? and his brethren james , and joses , and simon , and judas ? so blind is the humour of criticising , as to overlook the most obvious passages rather than loose the glory of one new discovery . this passage i have vindicated not because that it self was at all needful to my purpose , but onely to maintain the credit of hegesippus ; for if there were no such story , that saves our labour of giving any account of it ; if there were , then we must take it as we finde it in hegesippus , according to whose account it was no persecution for religion , but onely a jealousie of state. neither is it to be wondred at that domitian ( though of all men most suspicious ) should be so strongly tainted with it , when the same conceit had for a long time been of so great force among his predecessours . for it is very obvious from the histories of those time , that the jewish notion of their messias had got deep footing in the gentile world , from the authority of the sybilline oracles ; in that the old books of the sybils , that had been for many ages religiously preserved in the capitol were together with the capitol it self burnt about eighty years before our saviour's birth , and to retreive their loss , three ambassadours were about seven years after when the capitol was rebuilt , dispatcht into asia , to gather together what records they could there find of those prophesies , and brought back with them about a thousand verses . by whom they were first composed i am not concern'd to enquire , though it is probable ( as the learned isaac vossius conjectures ) that they were collected by the jews out of the ancient prophets , as appears from their agreement with the holy writings , and especially in the great prediction of a messias or universal monarch . which it seems was so plainly foretold by them , that in a little time it alarm'd the senate it self to forbid the reading of them , and that for very good reason too . when they found every aspiring spirit in the common-wealth to apply them to himself . for this was one of the foundations of catiline's conspiracy , as tully informs us concerning leutulus in his third oration against catiline . and when caesar had made himself master of all , it was vulgarly believed to have been the effect of this prophesie , as the same author triumphantly tells us in his second book of divination , which was written immediately after caesar's fall . cum antistitibus agamus , & quidvis potius ex illis libris quàm : regem proferant , quem romae , posthaec nec dii nec homines esse patientur . the great thing that offended the zealous common-wealths man in them was the name of a great king. and if we may believe suetonius or his author julius marathus , the same year that augustus caesar was born , the senate upon the account of this prediction , regem populo romano naturam parturire , that nature was then in labour with a king of the romans . decreed nequis illo anno genitus educaretur . not unlike the practice of herod , when he murther'd the children of bethlehem to secure the title of shiloh to himself , which some of the atheistical jews of the sect of the sadducees had flatteringly applyed to him , and were for that reason stiled herodians . and this conceit himself cherished with very great care among the jews , as the fulfilling of jacob's prophesie upon the departure of the scepter from judah to himself , thereby to conciliate the greater reverence and authority to his government . and this probably was the reason , as very an atheist as he was , of his building so magnificent a temple , because the jews expected such a glorious work from their messias . now this conceit being so familiarly entertain'd in the minds of men in that age , it is no wonder if all that were in actual possession of authority , ( whether themselves believed it or not ) were so watchful against all pretenders to it , but much less in such a suspicious prince as domitian , especially as to the family of david , who by the consent of the jews , that were the great masters of these prophesies , had the first title to this great prerogative . and yet it was not so much , but onely as far as appears by story , they were presented by some flattering and officious informers to the emperour , which occasion'd some trouble both to themselves and the followers of jesus ; but when the jealous emperour came to enquire into their claims , he was so satisfied of the innocence of the men , that he immediately dismist the inditement as frivolous , and revoked all edicts against the christians as partisans in the same cause . this is the true account of all his proceedings against them , though if he had proceeded upon other reasons , all his reasons could be nothing but reasons of state , and all his executions nothing but acts of savageness and cruelty . but whatever they were , there is no evidence of his entring into the merits of the cause , and if he did not , his brutal tyranny can be no objection . nay if he did , all that can be inferr'd , is that christianity was not pleasing to one of the worst of princes , and that is the best that can be made of his persecution , and there we leave it , that as nero was the first so domitian was the second enemy to christianity , and conclude with tertullian . consulite commentarios vestros , illic reperietis primum neronem in hanc sectam cum maximè romae orientem caesariano gladio ferocisse . sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostrae etiam gloriamur . qai enim scit illum , intelligere potest non nisi grande aliquod bonum à nerone damnatum . tentaverat & domitianus , portio neronis de crudelitate ; sed qua & homo , facile coeptum repressit , restitatis etiam quos relegaverat . if you search your own records you will find that nero was the first emperour that imbrued his hands in christian blood , but we glory in the hatred of such an enemy as nero , for whoever knows the man , cannot but know that it must be some very great good thing , that nero hates . and domitian too a piece of the same cruelty made the same attempt , but having in him either some little humanity or the inconstancy of mankind ( for which of these tertullian means by his qua & homo is altogether ambiguous ) he desisted from his design , and revoked his own proscriptions . § xxxix . the third persecution hapned under the reign of trajan , and was set on foot upon variety of designs , all which were very remote from any fair inquiry into the cause of christianity it self . the first was the old jealousie of our saviour's kindred and the line of david , and this as hegesippus informs us , was started by the jews and the gnosticks against symeon the son of cleophas the brother of joseph , then bishop of jerusalem , and that at a time when all the royal family of judah wer sought after , and dispatched out of the way as pretended rivals of the empire . and for this reason was this good old man put to death in the hundred and one and twentieth year of his age. the second motive of this persecution was the emperour's great jealousie of those societies call'd heteriae , that had often created great mischief and trouble to the empire , and therefore for the prevention of such disturbances , he strictly forbad all manner of associations and publick meetings ; and in this point of government he was so peremptory , that when pliny moved him to erect a corporation of smiths at nicomedia , as a great convenience to the city , he would by no means be induced to allow it . now the assemblies of christians being grown numerous , they fell under the edge of this law , and it was accordingly executed against them by the governours and pro consuls in their several provinces . it is commonly supposed that this edict against these illegal societies , was published on purpose to ensnare the christian meetings , and it is possible it might be so ; yet there is no ground for it in history , but on the contrary it is manifest that this emperour was possest with a particular jealousie against all kinds of assemblies , as appears in the foremention'd case of the smiths of nicomedia . and that he had no particular design against the christians is evident from his answer to pliny's letter , by which he inform'd the emperour how he had executed this edict in his province against them , and what numbers he had punished for their obstinacy against the law , but having made enquiry into the design of their meetings , he was sufficiently satisfied of the innocence of the men , and therefore desires directions from him after what manner he should proceed against them , or whether at all . the emperour upon this account that he received of the peaceableness of the christians , takes off the severity of his edict against them , and gives instructions , that they should not be sought for as being really innocent , yet if they were accused and convicted , they should be punished according to law , that is , for the good example of government . this seems to have been all that emperour's design in his laws and proceedings against the christians , otherwise certainly he would never have remitted the execution of a law , of which he was so tender , onely for their sakes . but because this was the first prosecution , in which we meet with any thing like legal proceedings against the christians , i shall give an account of all the unjust and unreasonable methods of procedure against them , both in this and the following persecutions ; and so without troubling the reader with a distinct narrative of every one , give him a true state of the grounds and reasons of all , and from thence it will evidently appear that they proceeded not upon any sober enquiry , but were meerly driven on by brutish folly and madness . the heads of their accusation then were either real or feigned , the feigned were apparently the contrivances of malice , and the real were as apparently the charges of folly , as i shall shew in each particular . the first and great charge of all was the christians contempt of their gods and religion . but here the cause of paganism was so foul and brutish , that it was the most dishonourable abuse that ever was put upon humane nature ; and were not the matter of fact undeniably evident , it would have been incredible that mankind should ever sink into such a senseless stupidity . the barbarous people whom the greeks and romans so much despised , worshipped onely the heavenly bodies , but these polite , these civilised , these philosophical nations deified the worst of things and the worst of men , and replenisht heaven with such a rout of deities , as made it look more like a jail full of rogues and villains , than an habitation of gods ; and they relate such foul things of them , that one would scarce believe such ill reports of the vilest of men ; and if their enemies would have set themselves to have contrived stories , that might render them odious and contemptible , the blackest calumnies they could have fastned upon them must have fall'n short of the extravagance of their own reports . and as were their gods , such was their worship too , all lewdness and debauchery , and such things were acted in their temples as were not allowed in the publick stews . the foulest uncleannesses were their highest devotions . how lascivious and obscene were the ceremonies of cibele , priapus , flora , and venus , who were worshipt with nothing but the vilest lust and wantonness ? so foul and beastly were the celebrated mysteries of bacchus , that the senate of rome it self was at last forced to banish them out of italy , as the foulest example of lust and debauchery . in short , the prodigious stories that they told of their greatest deities , saturn , jupiter , ceres or the mother of the gods as much exceeded the wickedness of mankind , as heaven is higher than the earth . though the truth is , they represented them much worse than they were , whilst they made them work miracles to compass their brutish ends , for when all is done , they were neither better nor worse than mortal men. saturn and jupiter were known tyrants in crete , apollo a common fidler , the muses servant maids , aesculapius a tooth drawer in arcadia , venus a known strumpet to cinyras king of cyprus not long before the trojan war. these and like these were the gods they worshipt , and how this folly first began it is not easie to imagine , but it must certainly have been in the most brutish and barbarous age of the world , and so afterwards gain authority onely by virtue of ancient prescription . for otherwise it was so monstrous and ridiculous in it self , that its most zealous patrons could make no better defence for it , and were at last forced to turn it into allegories , contrary to the faith of their own histories . and though the primitive christians insisted very severely upon this argument against the heathens , of worshipping dead men for gods , i do not find that any of the heathens that opposed christianity , ever took upon them its defence , but all their writings against the vanity of the pagan religion past uncontroul'd , so uncapable was it of any defence , that no man durst so much as undertake it . and nothing was done for it , but onely by force of law and government it was setled in the empire , and therefore must be complyed with , and object what you please against its impiety , that concerns not statesmen , the laws must be preserved . and now upon this account it chiefly was that the primitive christians suffer'd , it was not so much for any thing that was charged against their own religion , but onely for refusing to comply with the heathen idolatry . that was their form of tryal , will you sacrifice to the gods ? if they did , that alone absolved them ; if they did not , that was certain death . now if this were the case of the christians , what was to be done ? to comply with the heathen worship were in them downright atheism , and if they would not comply , it was so in the opinion of their enemies , and so they were vulgarly esteem'd , and put to death as enemies to all religion . but if this were the state of the heathens proceedings against the christians , it is evident that they concern'd not themselves to enquire after the christian pretences , it was matter enough for condemnation , that they would not worship their gods. § xl. neither were these tryals and executions set on foot so much by the governours themselves , as by the rage and fury of the people , that for the most part forced the emperours and pro-consuls to put the laws in execution . romani nec ulli magis depostulatores christianorum quàm vulgus . planè coeteri ordines pro authoritate religiosi ex fide . nihil hosticum de ipso senatu , de equite , de castris , de palatiis ipsis spirat . it is the vulgar rabble ( sayes tertullian ) that are the vehement accusers of christians , the other orders are civil and courteous in their respective offices , neither the senate nor the knights , nor the camp nor the court breath out any hostility against us . and this was the meaning of trajan's rescript to pliny , that he cared not that the christians should be sought for , but if the people accused them , the laws must be executed . and though his successour adrian , under whose reign the next persecution commenced , were as great a zealot for the grecian rites , as he was a pretender to their learning , and was himself initiated into their eleusinian mysteries , yet he was rather the occasion than the cause of the persecution . for that zeal that he had shewn to the rites of greece , encouraged the common people to fall foul upon the christians , and therefore eusebius ascribes the beginning of this persecution , not to the emperour but to the forwardness of some ill-minded men . but the fury of the people run so high , that the government was forced to give a stop to it , in so much that serenius granianus pro-consul of asia , wrote to the emperour in behalf of the christians , that it was very unjust that for no crime , but onely at the out-cry of the people they should be put to death . for that was grown the common custom to sacrifice them to popular tumults and meetings at the publick theatre , which is the meaning of that proverbial saying , christianos ad leones , viz. that if the people askt it at the publick shews , the pro-consuls and presidents were forced to yield to their demands , as they did not onely in this but innumerable other cases : nothing being more common both at rome and in the several provinces , than for the people to extort what they pleased from their governours at these tumultuary meetings . and therefore to prevent their barbarity upon these occasions against the christians , the emperour returns this serious and severe answer to minutius fundanus , that immediately succeeded granianus . i received the letters which were sent me by the most excellent serenius granianus your predecessour . nor do i look upon it as a matter fit to be passed over without due enquiry , that the men may not be needlesly disquieted , nor informers have occasion and encouragement of fraudulent accusations ministred unto them . wherefore , if the subjects of our provinces be able openly to appear to their indictments against the christians , so as to answer to them before the publick tribunal , let them take that course , and not deal by petition and meer noise and clamour ; it being much fitter , if any accusation be brought , that you should have the cognisance of it . if any one shall prefer an indictment , and prove that they have transgressed the laws , then give you sentence against them according to the quality of the crime . but if it shall appear that he brought it onely out of spite and malice , take care to punish that man according to the mischief of his own intention . a copy of which epistle he sent to several other governours of provinces ; from whence it appears that the magistrates themselves were so far from being satisfied with any rigorous proceedings against the christians , that they did it onely to gratifie the clamours of the people , and interposed their authority to skreen them from their fury . and tertullian reckons up several presidents to scapula , who either avoided or refused to proceed against the christians and particularly pudens out of regard to this reseript . but though it was able to check and bridle their fury during that emperour's reign , yet it broke out again in the time of his successour antoninus pius , and extorted from him a more severe letter to the states or common council of asia , prohibiting all such wild and barbarous proceedings against the christians . but still . the laws are in force , and ready to be seized upon at all turns by publick zeal or private malice , and so they were under the succeeding reign of m. aurelius . for whilst himself was busie in his wars , several persecutions were raised in several parts of the empire , at smyrna where policarp , at rome where justin martyr , and at lyons where pothinus suffer'd . policarp was meerly sacrificed to the out cry of the people . away with the atheists , let policarp be sought for , upon which being apprehended by a fanatick and hot-headed justice of peace , he was put to death by virtue of the law that commanded to sacrifice to the gods , and to swear by the emperour's genius . justin was prosecuted by crescens the cynick philosopher , a man proud and ignorant , and according to the humour of his sect ill-natur'd and implacable , and as tatian , who was very intimately acquainted with him and his manners , describes him , given up to all manner of vice and wickedness . now it hapned that justin in publick disputes , had exposed the extream childishness and ignorance of this vain-glorious pedant , who to be revenged of him , accuses him before the prefect of the city , who after he had in vain taken some pains to perswade him to renounce his saviour and to sacrifice to the gods , pronounced this sentence against him and six more . they who refuse to do sacrifice to the gods , and to obey the imperial edict , let them be first scourged , and then beheaded according to the laws . the persecution at lyons began at the rabble , as it is plainly described in the epistle of that church to the churches of asia and phrygia . in the first place ( say they ) they encountred with admirable courage and patience , all the outrages and indignities of the promiscuous rabble , as tumultuous out-cries , scourgings , draggings , spoiling , stoning , and fettering , and whatsoever else the heady and savage multitude are wont to practise against their most hated enemies . and by them were they haled before the governour 's tribunal , and by him deliver'd back to their fury , which they executed upon them with all the arts and circumstances of fanatick zeal and barbarous cruelty . this i say was the usual method to sacrifice the christians to the outrage of the superstitious rabble , and if at any time any prince engaged himself in the opposition of christianity , it was because that opposed the pagan religion . but that was such an exorbitant contradiction to the common sense of mankind , and to all the first principles of good and evil , that it was impossible any man could be in love with it , after any fair and impartial enquiry about it . so that what such men acted against christianity , proceeded not from any rational and sober counsel , but meerly from vulgar custom and prejudice . and therefore if m. aurelius or any other emperour , that ought to have had more wit and temper than the common people , shewed any zeal against the christian religion , their judgment is as little to be regarded in this case as that of the multitude , because it is evident that they were acted meerly by superstitious zeal and folly . if indeed they had opposed christianity originally upon its own account , the reasons of it might have deserved some consideration , but when the ground of all their displeasure against it was founded upon their love of paganism , the meer absurdity of that cause is too great an exception against their understandings in this controversie . thus supposing that m. aurelius himself was as forward as the people in his zeal against christianity , it is evident that he was as wise too . for whatever he was beside , he was a great superstitionist , and to a degree of stupidity zealous for the pagan follies , out of that vain affectation that had possest him , to be accounted the second numa of rome , which one conceit transported him to a more than childish zeal for the old rites and ceremonies of their religion . and this seems to have been the case of decius and dioclesian in setting on foot the eighth and tenth persecutions , to which they were hurried by a vehement and unlearned zeal for the pagan religion . this , in short , is the truest account that i can find of all the persecutions , by which it plainly appears that christianity was not so much opposed by its greatest enemies for any thing they had to object against it self , as because it so shamefully exposed the bruitishness of their idolatry . and yet as absurd as the worship of the heathen gods was , the giving divine worship to their emperours was much worse . for though their gods were nothing better than dead men , yet having lived in ages remote and almost unknown , and thereby gain'd the advantageous reverence of antiquity , the common people were not aware of their original , but finding them in the possession of their divinity , they gave them the worship due to that title . but to give divine and religious worship to the roman emperours , whose deaths and whose vices were so fresh in the memories of men , was such an unmanly piece of flattery , as any man that had any sense of generosity ought not to submit to , but every man that had any sense of god or religion ought to defie . and yet so infinitely were those men besotted with pride and insolence , that they all had their temples and priests dedicated to their own divinity , excepting onely tiberius , who , being a great dissembler himself , chose to refuse so gross a flattery , and would not so much as permit his statue to be placed among the images of the gods , but onely among the ornaments of private houses . but as for all the rest , they either took to themselves all the titles and dignities of divinity , or had them conferr'd on them by their successours : and when they were once advanced among the gods , all men were required under pain of death to pay them divine honour . nay , as tertullian too truly upbraids them , they were more religious toward their emperours than their supreme deity , majore formidine & callidiore timiditate caesarem observatis quàm ipsum de olympo jovem . and all this though it were scarce a greater blasphemy against god than an affront to mankind , yet so base and degenerate were the spirits of men at that time , that they refused not to submit to so dishonourable a flattery . onely the christians , out of that serious regard they had to the honour of their creatour , unanimously scorn'd it with open and publick defiance . and for their generous freedom herein they were as familiarly proceeded against as for the contempt of their gods. but now if this were another ground of the heathens acting against the christians , it is so far from being any reasonable pretence , that it is one of the greatest shames of humane nature . so that setting aside all that evidence that is to be produced in behalf of christianity , the opposition made to it upon this or any of the foremention'd accounts , cannot reflect the least shadow of disadvantage upon the truth or the goodness of its cause . § xli . these were the real articles of accusation in their charges against the christians , but they were not so frivolous as their forged and counterfeit pretences were malicious . for the heathen priests thought it not enough to enflame the rage of the people with fanatick zeal , unless they fed their malice ( as all impostors do ) with lies and calumnies . but when men are once reduced to this low and dirty artifice in defence of any cause , it is a sign they are drawn down to the very dregs of malice . for it is onely for want of argument that they are forced to make use of slander , which the natural ingenuity of mankind would scorn if they could support themselves and their party without it . so that in the true account of things , when men betake themselves to this weapon against any cause , it is a plain confession that it is liable to no real exception . and if the heathens had thought that they were furnisht with matter of sufficient argument against christianity it self , they would never have loaded it with the pretended bad practices of its professours , but for want of more material objections they were forced upon these indirect courses . for what is it to the truth or falshood of the religion it self whether those that pretend to it live not up to its principles ? if indeed the principles themselves were bad , then the practices that follow from them were a pertinent objection against their entertainment ; but otherwise if men that own good principles live bad lives , that concerns not their principles but themselves . and therefore if the accusations against the christians had been true , they are of no concernment in the cause of christianity it self , and so deserve no consideration in this argument . yet because they were made use of to blind the eyes of the people , by possessing them with an hatred of all those that might convince them , i shall give a brief account of them , because that will be another distinct reason for the unbelief of so many men in the first ages of the church , notwithstanding that evidence of demonstration that christianity brought along with it . i shall say nothing of the out-cry of atheism , though that made the greatest noise , because i have accounted for that already ; onely i cannot but observe that the imputation of this crime to the christians was not more absurd than their method of convicting them was unjust . for their crime was so much taken for granted , that they never so much as enquired after any proof , but the meer name of a christian was taken for a full conviction , and if any man own'd it , that without any farther trial passed for a confession of atheism . and this it is that all the christian apologists complain of , that onely the name should be persecuted , and for that alone they should be exposed to all the malice and cruelty of their enemies . though upon the vulgar supposition that the name of a christian was synonymous with that of an atheist , it was crime enough , so that in the result of all that absurd supposition was their onely crime . but beside this they charged the christians with all manner of brutishness and immorality , thyestaean feasts or eating their own children at their private meetings , promiscuous lust , incest , and every thing that was beastly and immodest . things so incredible in themselves that they could never gain any serious belief with wise men ; but any thing will serve turn to abuse the rabble , for great is the power of lying , as we of this age know by too sad experience , that have not long since seen an establisht church and state meerly belyed into confusion . but though the adversaries of christianity were ashamed to make use of these calumnies in their publick writings , yet they easily served to transport the people into tumults against the christians , and so justifie any illegal and barbarous proceedings against them . thus when justin martyr at the beginning of his conference challenges trypho the jew , whether he really believed that the christians ate man's flesh , and put out the candles at their meetings to run together into promiscuous lust : the jew , being a pretended philosopher , scorns the mention of such wild stories as unworthy any wise man's regard , and yet notwithstanding that these very stories did the business with the people upon all occasions . thus in that famous french persecution , in which the people exceeded their own usual bounds of barbarity , they first raised these reports against the christians , and then rackt some of their heathen servants till they vouched them , viz. that they used the feasts of thyestes , and the incest of oedipus , with divers other enormities that can neither be thought of nor exprest with modesty , nor so much as be believed to have been ever practised among mankind ; and yet when these very things were bruited abroad among the the people , they were with one consent so enraged and incensed against the christians , that those who , upon the account of neighbourhood or kindred , had before behaved themselves with some civility , were hereby transported into the greatest excess of violence and outrage . neither did they design by these calumnies to cheat the people onely , but , as athenagoras complains in his embassie to the emperours , by the greatness and horrour of those crimes that were so vulgarly reported of them , they kindled the hatred and displeasure of great men , princes and governours . and that was the main design of that excellent apology to demonstrate that the christians were meerly slandered into accusations , and that the slanders wherewith they were so confidently loaded , were as false as wicked . and this was the unanimous petition of all the christian apologists , that the crimes objected against them might be examin'd , and if any man that pretended to be a christian were found guilty , that he might be punisht with the utmost severity of law ; but if they proved meer malicious tales without any evidence of proof , that for the time to come the government would be pleased to secure them from such barbarous wrongs and injuries . we onely beseech you ( says justin martyr ) that those things charged upon the christians should be enquired into , and if they be found to be so , let them have their due punishment , nay , let them be more severely punisht than other men ; but if not guilty , then it is not reasonable that innocent persons should suffer meerly upon report and clamour . and to the same purpose do we find athenagoras , theophilus , tatianus , arnobius , lactantius and tertullian frequently complaining of such proceedings , and onely requesting so much humanity from them that they might have the favour that was allowed all other malefactours , to have their crimes examin'd and be proceeded against according to evidence of fact. nay , tertullian proceeds so far as to make himself merry with the folly of their tales , and tells them it would be a work worthy the zeal of some officious president , to find out such a lundsford christian that had already devoured at least an hundred fat boys for his own share . o quanta illius proesidis gloria , si eruisset aliquem , qui centum jam infantes comedisset . i know that the fathers pleaded many other thingsin vindication of their innocence , but i would not stuff my discourse with more quotations than are necessary to my argument , and this one thing that i have represented is a manifest demonstration of the injustice and unreasonableness of their enemies in their proceedings against them , and that is the onely thing that i am here obliged to make good , viz. that all the opposition that was made to christianity was made upon unreasonable grounds and by unreasonable men. § xlii . this may suffice for the grounds and reasons of the publick persecutions that were raised against christianity ; but as for that private opposition that it met with from philosophers and pretendedly learned men , it was so very contemptible that it scarce deserves consideration . for though one would expect to have found all the learned world engaged in a controversie that concern'd the whole world , yet they were very few that concern'd themselves against the christian cause ; and those that did so , onely pelted at it with remote and far-fetcht cavils , but never came up to the matter of fact , which is the onely pertinent subject in this enquiry ; and if that stand firm , all other opposition falls short of the argument , and breaks its own force upon it self , by endeavouring to disparage the truth of a thing that it cannot deny , or to prove the same thing to be false that it cannot but confess to be true . nay , so far were they from putting the matter of fact to the question , that they were all forced to take it for granted . porphyry and celsus impute our saviour's miracles to magick ; hieroles and trypho say onely that the christians make too much of them , by making a god of a divine man ; julian tells us that he did no such great matters , but onely cure the lame and the blind . so that it seems none of them were at that time hardy enough so much as to think of controuling the reality of our saviour's actions for fear of too much disadvantage in the controversie . now after this it is easie to foretell with what trifling pretences they must satisfie themselves ; and they were so very trifling , that it-will require but very little pains to shew their vanity . all the opposition then that was made to it this way , proceeded meerly either from gross superstition or avowed atheism . the first is coincident with the former account of the publick persecutions , and was nothing else than a meer fanatick zeal for the old pagan idolatry . and this was chiefly managed by the pythagoreans , the onely superstitious sect among all the philosophers , who were all along so zealous of the grecian rites , that they may properly be styled the monks and friers of that religion . this humour they derived from their first founder pythagoras himself , who having learned that part of natural philosophy from thales and anaximander , that explain'd the mechanical contrivances of matter and motion , to which alone those philosophers pretended , he quickly perceived , either by the sagacity of his own mind , or the instruction of pherecides , that there was some intelligent being in nature , that was the cause of the order and harmony of things . and it was this that so strongly possest him with the notion of a deity , whom he defined to be a mind diffused through all nature , from whom all things receive their life and activity . as not being able to understand how the natural effects that are constantly and every where visible in the world , could be brought to pass but by the present and immediate assistance of such a power . and now having his mind thus throughly touched with a sense of the divinity , and finding the orphean rites and constitutions , at that time , the most sacred solemnities of religion in the world , he grew very zealous of them as the most religious symbols of divine worship . neither was his zeal satisfied with the superstition of his own country , but he travel'd into all parts of the world , to inform himself of their several ways of worshipping their gods. and then composed a service of his own , partly out of the orphean , partly out of the aegyptian , partly out of the chaldean , partly out of the eleusinian , and partly ( to mention no more ) out of the samothracian rites , which together with his own theurgick ceremonies must make up a compleat rhapsodie of all the superstition and idolatry of the heathen world. and though some of his followers , leucippus , democritus and epicurus apostatised so far from his institution , as to fall into the rankest and most audacious atheism , yet all that persevered in their master's discipline , were sure no doubt to be most of all strict in his religion . and it was onely this sect of philosophers ( who were men rather devout than learned ) that all along gave authority and reputation to the old heathen idolatry . and therefore when christianity began to bear it away , it could not be expected but that they should appear the most forward champions to defend their fanes and their temples , their altars and their oracles against the new and prevailing religion . the first and the ablest champion was porphyrie , a man at that time eminent for wit and learning , but so entirely eaten up with fanatick zeal for his religion , that he had not patience so much as to hear of any thing that opposed it , and this set him all on fire against christianity . for being by nature of a fierce and angry temper , insomuch as he attempted to cut his own throat ( as he describes himself in the life of plotinus ) and withall very much inclined to austerity and devotion , ( for he was a very strict observer of the pythagorean rules ) this fixt him in his fanatick and superstitious zeal , than which there is nothing more insuperable . though when this happens to be join'd with a natural eagerness of temper , it grows into meer fury and outrage , and so transports men out of the use of their natural understandings . and this seems to have been the case of porphyrie , not onely from that description that he gives of himself , and that account that his friends give of his life , but also by that character that is given of his writings against the christians , which is described by the most impartial writers as full of rage and bitterness . though how he performed what he undertook is not so certainly determinable , in that not onely his own book , but all those that were written against it are utterly perisht . but by those fragments that remain of it in the writings of the ancients , it does not at all appear that he ever ventur'd to deny the matter of fact of our saviour's miracles , but granted them so far as to impute them to the power of magick . but how vain that pretence is we have already shewn , at least the whole of the controversie depends upon the truth of the matters of fact , that are recorded of our saviour , none of which i do not find that he ever undertook to controul , and as long as that stands firm , all other opposition is but trifling . however he was a person so infinitely superstitious that his opinion can be no prejudice against the cause of christianity , because he was at no liberty to make any enquiry into the truth of its pretences . and of the same kidney was hierocles , especially if he were ( of which there is little doubt ) the same zealous person , that was first judge at nicomedia , and afterward prefect of aegypt under dioclesian , and a great agent in his bloody persecution ; however he was a zealous orphean , and extreamly addicted to the old pythagorick superstition . but whatever he was otherwise , his work against the christians was so contemptible , that it was slighted as none of his own , and made up altogether of borrowed feathers out of other mens writings , which he was not ashamed to transcribe word for word into his own rhapsodie , especially out of celsus , insomuch as eusebius sticks not to affirm that there is but one passage in all his book , that was not answer'd aforehand by origen . and that was his parallel between our saviour and apollonius tyanaeus , but how evenly that runs we have already consider'd . and therefore here i need say no more , onely that from hence it appears that he did not so much as question , much less deny our saviour's miracles ; but onely vyed the unvouched stories of that pedantick impostor with the so well voucht history of jesus . nay , he was so far from gainsaying their truth that he was forced to yield that he was a divine man , and the onely thing for which he was so much offended against the christians was , that nothing less would serve their turn unless he might be reputed a god too . so that his whole opposition to the cause of christianity amounts to nothing less than a clear confession of the truth of the matter of fact ; and that is all that at present i am concern'd to prove . and then as for the emperour julian , as he was the fiercest of all the enemies to christianity , so was he the most impotent too , being too angry and passionate to make any just enquiry into the cause , and withall of a strange lightness and vanity of nature , which those historians , that would most admire him remark as the most predominant principle in all his actions , this hurried him , according to the eagerness of his temper , against the christians , because their doctrine brought contempt upon all the old constitutions of greece , of which he was so fond . and this was the main of his argument in his book against the christians , that they disparaged the heathen gods and the heathen philosophers . so that the bottom of all his zeal was nothing but pedantry and superstition . for he valued himself not a little upon the opinion that he had of his skill in the grecian learning , and especially the mystical philosophy of plotinus , lamblicus and the latter platonists ; but much more upon his zeal for the old superstition , of which he was so childishly fond , that it exposed him even to the contempt of the superstitious rabble it self , that flouted him as if he design'd the utter extirpation of oxen as well as christians . and as he was so vain as to think himself alexander the great , according to the pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls , which put him upon his unfortunate persian expedition , as not doubting to return with the same honour and success as he had done before ; so was he most ambitious of imitating marcus aurelius , as he was of numa , in his zeal for the worship of the gods. and it was this wild zeal lighting upon his temper , that was naturally hot to a degree of madness , that transported him into all his extravagant attempts against the christians . but as he was not naturally capable of any sober reasoning , so much less in this case , in which he was so much blinded with pride and passion . and it is too evident with what little reason he opposed christianity , when the main thing that he always charged upon it was atheism , the very falshood and disingenuity of which charge is a manifest indication of his passion and partiality . and as for his book that he wrote against it with all possible keenness and indignation , he dares not so much as come near the matter of fact concerning our saviour's actions , but plays aloof off against the jews of old and the christians of his own time . but as for our saviour's miracles , upon which the whole controversie depends , he does not so much as undertake to contradict them , but onely says that it was no such wonderfull thing in him to cure the lame and the blind . seeing therefore he has not so much as meddled with the main argument of christianity , the matter of fact , the evidence of that alone must of it self baffle all other attempts . at least till that is consider'd , all other considerations are short of the argument , so that this alone may suffice as an answer to all his cavils , to refer him to the matter of fact , and if that prove it self true , he can prove nothing , but if it do not , he need prove nothing , it sinks of its own accord . § xliii . however , if they have any cavils that may seem to have any appearance of reason in them , they are all raked together by celsus the epicurean , who , of all the enemies to christianity , was both the boldest and the ablest , as appearing with less folly and more malice . for being an atheist , and so not at all tainted with their superstitious conceits , he escaped all those disadvantages into which they run themselves by their fanatick zeal . but being an epicurean too , he was the more exasperated against the christian cause , because that confuted all his wisedom by sensible experiment , which was the onely proof of things that they would admit of in their philosophy . and therefore when they had so bravely deliver'd all wise men , that is , themselves , from the fear of a divine providence and the care of a future state , it could not but be a very grating provocation upon men of their proud , peevish and ill-natur'd principles , to have so clear a baffle put upon all their wisedom , and that in their own way . and as this was the main motive of the peculiar displeasure of the sadducees against the apostles among the jews , so no doubt it wrought the same effect upon men of the same principles among the heathens . but of all others celsus seems to have been most angry at the defeat , and therefore lays about him to load it with all the cavil and calumny that wit or malice can invent . and for the greater plenty of objection , he takes upon himself a double person , of a jew and of an heathen . though the truth is , he personates the jew full as awkerdly as the ass did the lion in the lion's skin , his epicurean ears every where shew themselves through his jewish livery . and he is so eager in his pursuit of christianity , that at every turn he forgets the person he bears , and falls as foul upon the jews themselves as the christians . we shall engage him in both his shapes , and leave it to any impartial , either jew or heathen , to judge of the reasonableness and validity of his discourse . his two great battering engines , that he plants in all parts of it , we have already dismounted , viz. his imputing our saviour's miracles to the power of magick , and his vying the resurrection of others in heathen story with that of our saviour . and by this means we have already dispatched the greatest part of our business ; for being conscious to himself of the slightness of most of his cavils , he at every turn claps one or both of these upon them to make up the objection . and yet beside that they are a confession of the matter of fact it self , they are things of which he was obliged by his principles to entertain as little belief as of the christian faith. for the power of magick supposes some spirits or beings distinct from matter and motion , and the resurrection of men from the grave supposes souls distinct from bloud and brains , both which are meer contradictions to the epicurean philosophy . and therefore he could not design to oppose them to the cause of christianity for any truth that he supposed in them , but onely thereby to intimate that as they were fables , so might that too . which is such a slender way of arguing as onely betrays its own weakness ; for when i have demonstrated the truth of a thing with all the evidence that any matter of fact is capable of , is it not a poor come off onely to reply , that yet there are the same kind of stories that neither i nor perhaps any man else believes . there are so , but then the difference is this , that the story that i believe is vouched with all the testimony in the world , and that is the reason of my belief ; but the stories that i do not believe , are on the contrary destitute of all manner of attestation , and that is the reason of my disbelief ; so childish is this great and shrewd reflection of this witty philosopher . but beside these , there are several other passages that we have already consider'd , and therefore shall not here repeat , neither is it fit to pursue every bubble that he has blown up , but whatsoever is any way pertinent to the matter of fact , that is indeed to the argument , though never so remotely , i shall give it as much confutation as , and perhaps more than , it deserves . and when i have done , that will make up a new demonstration of the truth of christianity , for thereby we shall see how little its greatest enemies were able to object against it . the cavils of his first book then are such as these , viz. their clancular meetings against the laws ; their being a barbarous sect , as springing from the jews and not the grecians , moses not being so ancient as is pretended , the world not being created as he relates , because eternal , and his teaching the jews to worship angels ; our saviour's being a magician , himself being poor , and his disciples ignorant . first then they kept clancular meetings against the laws . against what laws ? why against such as forbid the worship of the onely true god , and in its stead injoin the worship of idols and dead men. but as for the publick laws against the christians i have already given a sufficient account of their iniquity . though , as celsus has managed the cavil , it needs no reply , because it is a vain thing meerly to urge the laws , unless he had vindicated their goodness and justice , in that there may be bad as well as good laws . and therefore unless he would have undertaken to make good the piety of those laws that command the worship of their heathen gods ( that himself knew to be no better than very bad men ) he had much better have let the laws alone . but in the next place , the christians are a barbarous sect , that had their beginning among the jews , not the grecians . but 't is no matter whence they sprang , so they bring a good evidence of the truth of their cause , and of this origen tells him , they had from the very beginning to that very day , a demonstration that exceeds all their pretended learning , and that is the demonstration of power , or the power of miracles . but alas this objection of barbarity is nothing more than meerly an instance of the pedantick pride of the greeks , who valued themselves above the common rate of mankind , and looked down with intolerable scorn and contempt upon all the world beside . but as for their great improvements in learning above other nations , of which they so much boasted among themselves , i need here say nothing , though i must confess i find nothing so valuable among their choicest philosophers , but when i lookt for the reasoning of men , i could find little better in any of them than childish tricks and sports of sophistry . but however to pass that by , i am sure no nation in the world ever equall'd the greeks in the barbarity of their religion , and though with this celsus and his companions were at that time sufficiently upbraided , yet it is too well known that they could never be prevail'd with so much as to undertake its defence . but in the next place , christianity ( he sayes ) gives no laws of morality , but such as the philosophers taught and were common to mankind before . to this origen replyes , 't is very true , in that there could be no exercise for the justice and providence of god , or obligation of the duty of men , without a sense and knowledge of the laws of good and evil . and therefore it was requisite to have the seeds of those moral notions , which god taught by his prophets and his son , planted in the hearts and consciences of all mankind , that in the final judgment , every man might be justly call'd to an account for the faithful discharge of his duty . but beside , is not this a fit objection to follow that of barbarity , or their ignorance in the grecian philosophy , that the christian church agreed in all their main points and doctrines with the schools of the philosophers ? the next thing objected is credulity and contempt of humane learning . but the charge of credulity is already answer'd by those undenyable proofs that are produced for the divine authority of the christian faith. and as for the humane learning that they despised , it was nothing but the pedantry of the grecian philosophers , who whilst they pretended to the height and perfection of all wisdom , fell into the extreamest ignorance and folly . and to mention no more , what thinks he of the celebrated founder of his own séct , who with abundance of pride and arrogance boasted , that he had rid the world of a god and a providence , but with such trifling reasonings as are below the bablings and follies of children . let them therefore cease to upbraid the christians with the neglect of their learning , when there cannot be a greater argument of true wisdom and a right understanding of things than to see through its folly . and in the next place as for the antiquity of moses , he had as good have let that alone too , when porphyrie or any other learned man conversant in histories of ancient times could have told him that nothing is more evident or undenyable than that moses lived many ages before linus or orpheus , or any other the most ancient writers among the grecians . but it is the custome of epicureans to be confident upon the slightest enquiries ; otherwise if he had taken never so little pains in searching and comparing ancient records , he could never have put such a trick upon himself , as to think of bringing down the history of moses below the known times of greece . as for the eternity of the world , which follows next , i shall not answer him here , because if it were true as i have elsewhere proved it false , it runs too far from the present argument of the truth of our saviour's history . and as for moses his commanding the jews to worship angels , i scorn to answer it , because it is so impudently false , when the great commandment of his law is to worship one god alone , and when himself had but a very little before objected this as a singularity in the jews against all the world beside . and then as for our saviour's being a magician , i hope i may now let that pass too without being suspected as guilty of any omission . and as for his meanness and poverty , i think i have sufficiently accounted for that too already , in that it was but suitable to the design of the divine providence , that he should be sent into the world stript of all worldly advantages , that he might subdue it purely by the power of truth . and therefore that alone is to be consider'd in this enquiry , whether he wrought such miracles in confirmation of his doctrine , or not ; if he did , the meanness of his condition is no objection against the truth of his miracles ; if he did not , he is to be rejected for a much worse objection . nay this is so far from bringing any real disadvantage upon the christian cause , that it brings a considerable accession to its demonstrative proof and evidence . in so much that without it , it must have ever been lyable to suspicion ; for if he had appear'd with kingly splendour , and all the advantages of earthly power , the strange and wonderful entertainment of his doctrine might have been imputed to worldly interest and not to the force of truth , and men would have followed him for politick ends , and not for any conscience of religion . and therefore to be secure of the integrity of his disciples , he gives them no secular encouragement , nay on the contrary ensures to them all the miseries of humane life in their propagation of the christian faith. his institution was pure religion , and conscience towards god was its onely obligation , and therefore it was but agreeable to its own intention , that it should carry along with it no other recommendation . and thus i remember when julian objects the meanness of our saviour's condition , in that he was born a subject of the empire , which as he fancies was below the dignity of the son of god. st. cyril answers , that if he had appear'd with imperial power , and by virtue of that , commanded the obedience of mankind , men must have submitted to him for worldly interest , and not out of any sense of duty or religion , and he had been just such another deity , as caligula and the rest of their emperours were , who forced men in spite of themselves to give them the shew of divine honour by their own laws . and whereas you object ( sayes he ) that he was subject to caesar , what is that to the purpose , when he did such things as neither caesar nor any other man ever did ? he raised men from the dead , did any of your caesars ever doe so ? what then if he were subject to caesar , it is evident from his works that he was greater , and they alone demonstrate him to have been the same person that he pretended to be . so that being the son of god , he scorn'd all your outward pomps and shews of majesty , and would receive no honour but what reflected upon him from the glory and greatness of his own works . to which might be added origen's reply , that it is no wonder for men that have all the advantages of birth and fortune to make themselves considerable in the world , but this is the thing that is most wonderful in jesus , that a person so obscure upon all worldly accounts , should raise himself to so great a fame and reputation ; that a man so poor and meanly educated , and never instructed in the arts of eloquence , should take upon him to convert the world to a new doctrine , to reform the religion of the jews , and to abolish the superstition of the greeks : and yet that without any force or artifice , he should so speedily effect what he undertook , this , sayes he , is a thing singular in him , and was never done by any man , that i know of , in any other age. nay farther beside the obscurity of his life , and all other things designedly laid to eclipse his glory , his ignominious death one would think should have put it out for ever , and that even those that he had deluded in his life-time , should then have been convinced of the grossness of the imposture . and therefore it is most wonderful of all , that if the apostles had never seen our saviour after his resurrection , or had no assurance of his divinity , how it could ever come into their minds to leave their country , and expose themselves to all hazards and hardships , to publish and propagate the belief of a known falsehood . so that we see that the meanness of that state in which our saviour appear'd , is so far from being any material objection against his divine authority , that upon several accounts in the last result of things , it lyes at the bottom of itsdemonstration . in the next place he flouts at the relation of the appearance of the holy ghost and the voice from heaven at our saviour's baptism , as a thing in it self absurd and incredible . but here the epicurean forgets that he is a jew , in that there are many relations of such appearances in the old testament , which yet if this objection hold good , every jew is bound to believe false and impossible . but to treat with him as an epicurean , why is it impossible ? because all stories of god's concerning himself in humane affairs are undoubted fables . an admirable way this of confuting a matter of fact , onely by saying that it is impossible upon a precarious principle of our own . so that the last result of this rude objection against the faith of the evangelists is onely this , that it cannot be true , because there is no such thing as a divine providence . but he adds that there was no witness of it , but onely john the baptist , his companion in wickedness . and this is another unhappy mistake of a man that sustein'd the person of a jew , when all the jewish nation , even the greatest enemies to jesus , had a very great reverence for john the baptist. and yet it is not his testimony that we rely upon for the truth of the story , but the truth of the evangelists that have recorded it , they knew what evidence they had of its reality , and we know what evidence we have of their sincerity . and now having discharged all his little topicks of calumny against our saviour's own person , in the last place he falls foul upon his apostles , and that with the same unhappy success . for as little as he gain'd by objecting the meanness of our saviour's condition , he gains just as much by insulting over their ignorance , that is but another enhancing circumstance of his divine authority . for as it was a wonderful thing for so obscure a person to make such an alteration in the world , so was it much more so to effect it by such contemptible instruments . for no man that ingenuously considers the prodigious success of the apostles , can ever impute it to any other cause , than either some divine and extraordinary power , or the great and irresistable evidence of the thing it self . in that by the objection it self , it is plain that they were destitute of all the arts of eloquence and learning , by which it was possible that they might perswade , or deceive the people into any belief : whereas if jesus had chosen the learned and the eloquent for the propagation of his doctrine , he might have been justly suspected of the same design with the philosophers of erecting a new sect by the power of wit and rhetorick . but when a few fisher-men that wanted all the improvements of learning and education , as the evangelists record , and celsus objects , effected it with such prodigious success , it is not conceivable how they should do it any other way than by miracle either in their words or actions . and thus all along the more they object the contemptibleness of the means , the more the strangeness of the event returns upon themselves , so that if there had not been something more than humane in the design , it could never in the way , in which it was prosecuted , have taken any effect . in the second book the counterfeit jew first rates his country-men for quitting the laws of their own nation to follow this innovatour . but setting aside the answer of origen , that the christians did by no means forsake the religion of moses , but pursue and improve it . still this is short of the argument , and comes not up to the reasons , for which they did it . if they had none , their lightness was justly blameable ; but whether they had , or had not , it concern'd not this atheist to enquire . and then this becomes celsus the jew and the epicurean very well ; that when the epicurean had begun his discourse with a disparagement of the impostor moses , the jew should make this an argument against the christians , that they renounced the man , that his friend had proved an impostor . in the next place , when he objects our saviour's cowardise , that he fled and hid himself , and such other trash , it is equal malice and folly , without ground or pretence ; in that there was no history of jesus extant beside the evangelists , who all affirm that he went up to jerusalem purposely to deliver up himself into the hands of his enemies . now , sayes origen , i leave it to any man of common sense to judge , which is most reasonable to believe , these unvouched and vagabond surmises , invented out of meer hatred to the christians ; or to believe things as they are deliver'd by the evangelists , who pretended either to have been eye-witnesses , or to have had a full information of the matter of fact , and were ready to seal the truth of their testimony with their blood . this strange constancy and resolution even to death it self , is not like men who were conscious to themselves of having forged a false story , but on the contrary a clear and manifest argument , that they were serious and very well satisfied in the truth of the things that they recorded . is not this then an ingenuous way of proceeding , to oppose the truth of their history with flying reports , that have neither author nor authority , and indeed such , that whilst there is malice in the world , no true story can escape ? but , sayes celsus , though he was pleased not openly to shew his divinity before , yet at least he ought to have done it , by vanishing miraculously from the cross. no , no celsus , he had a farther design to demonstrate not onely his own divinity but man's immortality . if he had onely disappear'd , you might have imputed that to a trick of magick , but when he arose from the dead , after he had been so publickly executed , this was both an undeniable proof of his divine authority , and a full assurance to mankind of their capacity to subsist after death . and though there were other indispensable reasons , why he suffer'd himself to be sacrificed upon the cross , yet if it were for these alone , he had sufficient reason to suffer what he did . especially when himself had , through the whole course of his life , referr'd the proof of his authority to his resurrection , so that if he had , according to celsus his advice , withdrawn himself from the cross , he had apparently defeated his own design , that he had laid through the whole history of the gospel . but beside this by his death , passion and resurrection he has demonstrated to mankind that the divine providence has reserved the happiness of humane nature to another life , and clear'd up the future existence of souls by an undeniable experiment : and that is the thing that so much frets the epicureans , that he has put so clear a basfle upon their impiety . but as for his next cavil he is really to be pitied , when he asks , why we do not worship all other crucified malefactours ? it is an objection worthy the wisedom and gravity of a learned philosopher ; but yet for his satisfaction it is fit to let him know that we worship all such malefactours as our saviour was , who own'd himself to be the son of god , and then suffer'd himself to be murther'd , to prove it by his resurrection . but , he says , his disciples forsook him , and would dye neither with nor for him . they did so by sudden surprise , but what did the same disciples immediately after upon his resurrection ? they that were but a little before seised with so much cowardise , feared then no danger to attest it to the world , and most of them dyed for the truth of their testimony . so that this objection of cowardise in the apostles is just such another advantageous circumstances to the cause of christianity as that of their ignorance and want of learning . for as it is an argument of the great evidence of their cause , when men neither learned nor eloquent were able so successfully to propagate it among mankind , in that they could give it no more advantage than it brought along with it : so when men so timerous and cowardly should afterward grow so very fearless in asserting it even to the death , that is an unquestionable evidence that they were abundantly satisfied in the truth of what they attested . but as for celsus his insinuation that the apostles onely dream't and fancied that they saw jesus after his resurrection : as it may be applied to any matter of fact in the world , and turn even all the actions of his own life into dream and fancy ; so if it be compared with all the peculiar circumstances as to this thing , they prevent the folly of so ridiculous a surmise . and he has no ground to bear him out in it , but onely his epicurean conceit that the resurrection from the dead is a thing impossible . but as for that we will not dispute it with him at present , though it is evident that , according to the principles both of their own and all philosophy , it is altogether as easie and conceivable as the generation of a man. the matter of fact what has been , is the onely argument of our debate , and we will not go so far about as to dispute its possibility , when we have demonstrated its actual certainty . and yet in the conclusion of all , celsus , after he has taken so much pains , and that in the person of a jew , to prove the impossibility of a resurrection , is so wretchedly sottish as to declare his own belief of the resurrection even of the body to eternal life , and that the first proof and specimen of it is to be given to the world by the messias . in the third book he begins to dispute in his own person , and first objects that the dispute between the christians and jews was of no moment , in that both believed that there was to be a saviour of the world , and onely differ'd in this , whether he were already come or were yet to come . and yet this , beside the gross absurdity of the objection it self , is a meer contradiction to all the former discourse by the personated jew . for if the difference between the jews and the christians were so small as he pretends , then all the sad out-cries and invectives of the jew against the christians were onely clamorous nothings . but this is objected like an atheist , that lookt upon these and all other differences about religion as trifling fooleries . and therefore origen in answer to it shews him the excellency of both in the worship of the supreme deity , as opposed to the folly and impiety of the heathen idolatry . but beside that , as for the difference between the jews and the christians concerning our saviour , nothing but extreme ignorance could have objected its vanity . for is it nothing whether he were the promised messias , the son of god , the saviour of the world , the judge of mankind , as the christians believed : or whether he were a bold impostor that pretended to these great titles onely by virtue of magick art , as the jews believed ? if the first were true , that commands the obedience of all mankind to his laws , as the onely terms of salvation ; and if so , then nothing could more concern them than to be satisfied in its truth and reality . so that it is so far from being a trifling controversie , as celsus foolishly objects , that there was never any controversie started in the world of greater concernment to mankind . but the epicurean's real meaning is that all controversies about religion are trifling , because all religion is a cheat , and if it be so , then indeed it is but a childish thing to contend about it . but otherwise , if there be a providence that governs the world , then certainly , if any thing in the world does , it highly concerns all men to inform themselves of those certain rules of duty that he has prescribed to their practice . but against both religions the epicurean objects that they began in sedition , the jewish against the egyptians , and the christian against the jews . but in the first he supposes the jews to have been originally egyptians , which , because it is a vain and proofless presumption , can prove nothing . and yet it is much more vain to charge christianity with sedition , because all sedition either designs or acts some violence against the government , whereas it is evident that our saviour allowed no weapons to his followers but sufferings , and has threatned no one offence with greater severity than endeavours of disturbance to the civil state under pretence of religion . so that it is plain that if his religion be true , it could not have been brought in more inoffensively to the powers of the world : and therefore it cannot with any ingenuity be charged with sedition , till its truth or falsehood be first determin'd . for that is the onely controversie in this matter , which if celsus and his partisans had but the courage to undertake , they would have had no need of these petty and remote reflections . the next cavil is that the christians affected nothing but singularity . very likely this , when so many of them travel'd into all parts of the world with the extreme hazard of their lives , to convert , if it were possible , all mankind to christianity . but though they seem'd to agree at first , they afterward divided into factions . but this is an objection against the levity of humane nature , not the truth or excellency of christianity . for beside what origen answers , that there was never any thing of great reputation in it self , or usefulness to the world , about which men did not raise disputes and make parties : i would onely ask him , whether , supposing the truth of christianity , it was not in the power of men to raise controversies about it ; if it was , then their doing so is no objection against it ; if it was not , that is to say no religion can be true unless it bring a fatal necessity upon all that pretend to it to be both wise and honest ; which is such an awkerd condition of things , as destroys , not onely all the principles of religion , but of humane nature it self . but , says he , they scare the people with fables and bugbears . tell what , says origen , beside future rewards and punishments . we indeed believe that there is a sovereign governour of mankind , and that hereafter he will sit in judgment upon all our actions . and in this belief we instruct the people out of the holy scriptures , and exhort them to live as they ought , that must give an account of themselves to the great governour of the world. these indeed are fables to an atheist and an epicurean , but not to any man that believes any thing of the providence of god or the obligations of religion . and that is the thing that celsus writes against , not meerly christianity , onely he is fiercest in his opposition to that , because it is so full a check to his impiety , though otherwise the main of his objections , that he levels against that , aim as directly against all religion . and thus the bugbears of a future state with which he here upbraids christianity , are common to all mankind but onely his own sect. and though he would make us believe that he would not for all the world take away the opinion of rewards and punishments in the next life , this vizor is too ridiculously put upon an epicurean , 't is too gross a contradiction to himself , and he renounces his first principle to impose upon the people ; but though they indeed may easily be imposed upon by any thing ( as they were by his master epicurus , who frequented their publick sacrifices , to make himself sport at home with the folly of their superstition ) yet he should never have been so fool-hardy as to publish it to the world , because he could not but expect that wise men should take notice of and expose his hypocrisie . but whatever himself was pleased to believe , i am sure if there be no future rewards and punishments , that then there is no religion ; if there are , let celsus tell if he can with what other bugbears christianity scares the people . from hence he falls into his old stories of heathen miracles , for this topick makes up one half of every book . but beside what i have already shewn that they prove nothing against christianity , his insisting upon them with so much stubbornness is an argument of nothing but his own confidence . for if he believes them not , they are nothing to his purpose ; if he does , he shews a strange partiality in believing things so ill vouched in comparison of the history of our saviour . but whether he does or does not , he plainly contradicts either himself or his design . for when he tells us of several miracles wrought in several temples of greece ; if he believes that some daemon or herae , that could doe such things as exceeded humane power , inhabited in those places , then farewell to his epicurean doctrine , that there is no such thing as daemons or spirits . if he believes it not ( as he does not ) it is very ridiculous in him to argue from the supposition of the truth of those stories which he not onely supposes , but ( as himself thinks ) knows to be false . though he is still more and more unhappy , when he compares the apotheosis of antinous adrian's boy with that of our saviour . all the christian apologists indeed luckily enough upbraided the heathens with this fresh instance of their idolatry , as an exemplification of the rise and preferment of all their more ancient deities ; and to this purpose they mind them of many horrid and foul stories of bacchus , venus , cupid , ceres , proserpine , that exceeded all the lust and debauchery of later times . but to compare this impure beast , that was made a god to the shame of mankind , with our saviour , who if he were worshipt for a deity , could obtain that honour by nothing but his divine and miraculous actions , very well becomes both the modesty and ingenuity of an atheist . from hence he falls into his old calumny ( for now we have little but repetition ) that the christians were enemies to all learning . but the ground of this is their neglect of the dull and atheistical philosophy of the greeks , that could not arise to the contemplation of any thing above matter . but as for that true philosophy that , from the contrivance of visible and material things , leads on to the discovery of the wisedom , goodness and providence of god , it was most of all studied and emproved by the christian philosophers . the remaining calumnies , that , according to the laws of christianity , god accepts onely of bad men and refuses the good , and that because it allows repentance to the worst of sinners , it allows them too in the worst of sins , they are so apparently disingenuous , splenetick and malicious , that they onely reflect back shame and dishonour upon the man , that blushes not to vent such impudent forgeries in the face of the sun. and thus have i given a sufficient specimen of this pretended philosophers way of disputing against christianity , whereby the reader may perceive that he opposed it not with any rational or true philosophical principles but meer cavils and calumnies . and now being tired out with so much dulness , i shall travel no farther in him , because all that follows is of the same nature , and for the most part the same materials too , so that there is very little new , and that which is so , is either very remote or very trifling . and therefore i shall here put an end not onely to my engagement with him , but to my whole undertaking ; and upon this true and impartial representation that i have made , on one hand of all that variety of demonstration that accompanied the gospel into the world ; and on the other of the weakness and impotency of all that opposition that could be made against it by learning or power , by zeal or malice , by wit or prejudice , by philosophy or superstition , i leave it to the reader to think with himself which way it was possible for the providence of god , if he had intended to set such a design on foot , to have given a greater assurance of its truth and authority to the world. let him lay all the premises fairly together , and then i once more leave him to his own thoughts to make his own conclusion . § xliv . and when he has done so , i must desire him to make one more , and that is to govern the constant course and tenour of his life according to the dictates of his own conviction . though one would think that this consequence is so unavoidable , that it were needless to put men in mind of its force ; and so the ancients thought , as clemens alexandrinus concludes his exhortation to the gentiles , that if he could but once bring them over to the christian faith , he was then secure of their obedience to the christian law. for when all is done , says he , as a man's thoughts or designs are , so are his words ; as his words , so are his actions ; and as his actions , so is the habitual course of his life ; so that the whole life of every man that is seriously a christian , cannot but be conformable to the laws of his religion , i. e. universally good and vertuous . for , considering the greatness of the rewards and punishments propounded in the gospel , it is not to be conceived how any man , who seriously believes them , can be in any doubt or suspence which way to determine his choice , much less that he should be so strangely wild and extravagant , as peremptorily to prefer misery and destruction before everlasting happiness . and thus athenagoras , when he had described the great and eminent vertues of the christians , gives this rational account of their actions . this we doe , says he , because we are assured that there is a god who takes notice of the actions of men , and who created both us and the whole world ; and because we know that we must give an account to him of all the passages of our lives , therefore we choose the most moderate , humble , kindest , and , as may appear to the greatest part of mankind , the most contemptible course of life . for we are peremptorily agreed that no evil in this life , not loss of life it self can be great enough to weigh against that unconceivable happiness , that we expect from the great judge of all men , which he has promised to such as are of an humble , kind and gentle deportment . and so it was supposed in those days that mankind had so much sense as to conform their practices to their principles , and the supposition was thought so just and reasonable , that by the experience of its truth the christian apologists gain'd the advantage of confuting all the slanders and calumnies of their enemies , viz. that those wicked practices that were charged upon them were too grosly inconsistent with the principles of their religion , and so athenagor as tells the emperour plainly that it is no less than impossible for a christian to be a bad man , unless he were an hypocrite and a meer dissembler . and for a farther proof they still appeal'd to the undeniable innocence of their own lives and conversations . they challenged the strictest trials of their enemies , and even forced from them publick confessions of their vertue and integrity . and though they were strictly religious towards god , yet they accounted that no worship was acceptable to him , but what is recommended by a just , an honest and an usefull life . he that is carefull to preserve his innocence , says minutius felix , honours his lord ; he that observes justice in his dealings offers sacrifice to god ; he that absteins from fraud presents a peace-offering ; he that relieves his neighbour brings an ample expiation ; these are our sacrifices and these the solemnities of our devotion , and with us he passes for the most religious man that is the most honest . and thus they rated their piety chiefly by the usefulness of their lives , and the first things they sacrificed to heaven were their own lusts and passions . they did not think it enough in those days to say their prayers , unless they lived them too , that is , unless their actions were conformable to their devotions in a constant and uniform obedience to the laws of their religion . in short they knew no other terms of salvation but the habitual practice of piety and devotion , of justice and honesty , of mercy and charity , of humility and meekness , of temperance and sobriety , of continence and chastity , of obedience and subjection to government , of unity and a peaceable disposition among themselves , but above all of heavenly mindedness and contempt of the world , and courage and constancy in suffering for their religion . now it is evident that these men were serious and in good earnest in their profession of the christian faith , and that may be added to all that accumulation of argument that i have laid together in this discourse to demonstrate the infinite truth of christianity , that persons who by their nearness of age to its beginning had so much advantage of enquiring into it , were satisfied with an undoubted assurance of its divine authority , when it made such a prodigious and otherwise unaccountable change in all parts of their lives and conversations . and as by it they shewed themselves sincere christians , so rational men too in pursuing the natural consequence of their principles . for upon supposition of the certain truth of the christian faith , it was infinitely reasonable , that they should give the exactest and most punctual obedience to the christian laws . nay , they then thought that it was impossible to doe otherwise , and though they made allowances for the lapses and infirmities of humane nature , yet they lookt upon a christian that was habitually vicious as the grossest of contradictions ; and the truth is , nothing can be more apparently absurd and enormous , if we onely consider the greatness of those rewards and punishments wherewith the laws of christianity are enacted . the most difficult duty that it requires is that of martyrdom , yet even that whilst it is undergone within the prospect of heaven and immortality is a very easie , not to say an eligible thing . and so the learned clemens of alexandria discourses in the fourth book of his collections . the man that truly loves our lord , cannot but be very willing to be deliver'd out of this life , so as to account himself beholden to his accuser as the cause of his escape , because he gave him a lawfull occasion , which he could not give himself , to shew his love to his lord , and for it be welcom'd by him into the place of happiness : and excellently to the same purpose does that wise , that pious , that couragious prelate saint cyprian discourse to the confessours in prison to prepare them for their martyrdom . so far are you , says he , from having any reason to fear death , that you ought to desire it , as not worthy to be weighed against the recompence of immortality , where he that overcomes shall be crown'd with eternal happiness , what vigour , what greatness , what courage ought to lodge in such breasts , that are fill'd with such heroick thoughts ? for where no lower meditations are entertain'd than of the laws of god and the promises of christ , there can be no sense of any other design but to doe the will of god. and though you are still confin'd to this present state of things , yet you do not live the life of this world but of the world to come . and how passionately does that brave martyr ignatius rejoice in the near approach of his martyrdom . o that i might come to those wild beasts that are prepared for me , how do i wish that i might instantly encounter them , i could even invite and encourage them to dispatch me , nay , i could even provoke them to it : i am concern'd for nothing either seen or unseen more than to enjoy jesus : let fire and the cross and the fury of wild beasts , breaking of bones , distortion of members , tormenting the whole body , yea , all the punishments which the devil can invent befall me , so as thereby i may come to the enjoyment of my blessed lord and saviour . this was the courage and these the resolutions of those times . but alas , their brave examples rather upbraid than instruct our degenerate age , and the height of their courage , instead of inviting , scares our endeavours , 't is almost pain to us to conceive the idea of their vertues . their flaming spirits lie raked up in their own ashes , not a spark of their heavenly fire glows in our bosoms , there is nothing heroick left , all that is brave and gallant has fled the world , and our age produces no such heroes , whose actions may convince us that the miracles of the ancient faith were possible things . but what do i talk of the wonders of martyrs and confessours , the effects of an extraordinary assistance for an extraordinary work , when it would be wonder big enough for our degenerate age , if we could but see the common fruits of christianity . but alas , we are entertain'd with a greater , at least a more unaccountable prodigie than all the miracles that have been represented for the demonstration of the christian faith , when we daily see such vast numbers of men , that are seriously and passionately concern'd to believe the truth of the gospel , and yet so utterly unconcern'd to obey its precepts , for this can be no less than a direct and barefaced affront to the authority of god himself , to own and yet disobey his laws . our blessed saviour imputes it as an unpardonable sin of disingenuity to the scribes and pharisees , that when they were convinced by the evidence of the matter of fact of the divine power of his miracles , they yet disbelieved the divine authority of his doctrine . but how much greater violence do these men offer to the convictions of their own reason and conscience , that submit to the authority , and yet despisé the obligation of his laws ? this is more palpable blasphemy , and the man that is guilty of it is so much worse than a professed infidel as judas was worse than a common pharisee . he in some measure believed his master to be the true messias , and yet betrayed him , and so is every vicious christian guilty of the same traiterous wickedness : he believes our saviour to be the son of god and the saviour of the world , and yet behaves himself towards him as if he really believed him a cheat and an impostor . this man sins knowingly against all the obligations of his duty and his conscience ; and every act of disobedience is not onely an affront to his reason as it was in the pharisees , but to his faith as it was in judas . what a strange contradiction is a vicious christian both to himself and his profession ? 't is so great , that to me , i must confess , it is an unconceivable instance of sottishness , that any man should in good earnest believe that the divine providence should , after such a miraculous manner , engage it self for the contrivance and procurement of man's felicity , and that to this purpose the son of god himself should come into this lower world to carry on the work of our redemption , and should suffer all the agonies of an ignominious death for the expiation of our sins , and when he had recover'd us into a capacity of happiness , and put us into a condition of peaceable entercourse with his father , he should prescribe to us some laws of life to keep and continue us in that state , into which he had redeemed us ; and that ( to secure all ) he had enforced them by the most powerfull motives of obedience , and establisht their obligation upon no less sanction than the certain assurance of happiness or misery in the life to come . i say , to me it is an unconceivable brutishness that any person who seriously believes these things , should act so grosly against his own interest , against all the reasons of things , and against the strongest inducements both of his hopes and fears , as to live in a daring and habitual disobedience to any of the laws of christianity . what an intolerable aggravation must it be of their wickedness , whilst it is committed against all the endearments of love and goodness , and all the inducements of interest and ingenuity , i. e. against all the obligations , that it is possible to lay upon the minds of men. and to this purpose the apostle discourses very appositely , heb. . , . how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation , which at the first was published by the lord , and was confirm'd unto us by them that heard him ; god also bearing witness to them with signs and wonders , and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy ghost ? here lay the emphasis that aggravated the neglect of their salvation , that god had sent his own son into the world to preach and to procure it : that he had given us the greatest assurance of it by the undoubted testimony of eye-witnesses ; and that he had farther confirm'd the truth of their testimony by the wonderfull gifts of the holy ghost , and the undeniable power of miracles . after all these motives and all this assurance , if any man can be so wretched as to neglect so easie conditions of so great salvation , how is it possible he should escape the just reward of his desperate and incurable stupidity ? for what should prevail upon such minds as are proof against such motives ? and yet as strange as this appears , what do we find more vulgar ? when a wicked believer is so far from being thought a monster in our age , that there is scarce a greater prodigie in it than an entire true christian. the true spirit of our religion seems to be fled to heaven with its primitive professours , and there is scarce any such thing as real christianity to be found in the world , i. e. a serious and habitual conformity to all its laws , and whatever men may doe or pretend without this , it may be humour or faction , or any thing but religion . no design ( how great soever ) less than this was worthy our saviour's embasly , and when the son of god was sent on an errand into the world , it could not be of any less concernment than its reformation . the last scope of all the mystery of godliness is onely to oblige all mankind to be good and vertuous , and the man that will not be so , defeats all the love and wisedom of heaven in sending the holy jesus into the world. and therefore let me challenge my reader , as he would not frustrate the whole design of our saviour's birth , as he would not baffle the truth of all those prophesies concerning the innocence and the purity of the lives of men under the reign of the messias , and as he would not hereafter with that his saviour had never been born , nor himself neither , that he would be carefull for his own part to answer the end of his incarnation , and let him see by the vertue and holiness of his life , that he was born to some purpose and that he died not in vain . nay let me challenge all christendom not to give him occasion to complain , have i deserted heaven and all its glories , and exposed my self to all the shame and misery upon earth , have i wrestled with all the malice of men and devils , have i lived and died in disgrace , and suffer'd all sorts of affronts and ill usages , to restore the practice and reputation of vertue to this lower world ? and is this all the issue of the travel of my soul , that i have onely founded a new faction of men in the world , that are not to be distinguisht from the rest of mankind by any thing else than that they signalize themselves by the name of christians ? is this all the purchase of my bloud , to be onely followed by a few wicked and vicious proselytes ? i had as good have suffer'd the world to continue in its degenerate state of heathenism , as doe and suffer all that i have done onely to give a new name to those parts of it call'd christendom , without reforming their old manners . i neither design nor accept any other separation of my church from other parts of mankind than what is made by the vertue , the innocence and the holiness of their lives . without this all their pretended faith in and zeal for my institution is to me no better than scandal and impudent hypocrisie , and serves to no other purpose than to aggravate their impiety and increase their punishment . and in truth what can more provoke our saviour's displeasure than christian wickedness ? this brings disgrace and dishonour upon his religion , and prostitutes it to the scorn of atheists and infidels . it breaks through all the best rules of duty and strongest obligations to obedience , 't is aggravated with all the circumstances that can heighten its baseness , 't is without all plea of excuse or palliation . and this certainly is the true account of the unexemplified severity of the divine justice against christendom . for never was any part of the world harass't with such remarkable plagues and judgments as this has been ; in that their biggest impieties were but ordinary things if compared to the vileness of our apostasie . the times of their ignorance ( as the apostle discourses ) god winked at , but now that his wrath is so clearly revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men , if they shall at any time persevere in hardness and impenitence , they cannot but treasure up to themselves anguish and tribulation and wrath against the day of wrath , and be still heaping up stores of vengeance till some time or other the flood-gates shall be opened upon them , and overwhelm them in irrecoverable ruine and destruction . at least to conclude with my believing reader ( for if he be an infidel , i turn him back to the premises of this discourse ) our saviour has a second coming , when he shall , as he has said he will , once more rise up from his throne of majesty , shall put on the robes of justice , and return accompanied with an innumerable army of blest spirits , to destroy the wicked and disobedient , and take vengeance of his open enemies , but much more of his disloyal and treacherous friends . and if so , i shall onely desire him to consider what horrour and anguish must then seize all guilty souls ; with what trembling and infinite amazement must every careless and disobedient christian appear before all this dreadfull glory ? and how will even their spirits dye away under an intolerable fear and confusion of conscience ? who can conceive the bitterness and the agonies of guilty minds , whilst they receive their last sentence ? what a wild and stupid thing is man , that can believe and yet forget these things , and sleep careless under the expectations of a day of doom ? for 't is as certain that our saviour will once come to condemn the world as he once came to redeem it ; and if he be the true messias , 't is then past question that he shall be our judge , and yet after all this , how do men who seriously think that they seriously believe these things , live as if they were secure that they should never be call'd to any future account , careless and forgetfull of all things but a few vanishing pleasures and trifles here below , with slender regard or total neglect of their eternal condition . in brief , the terrours of a future judgment , and the different portion of woe or bliss hereafter are so evidently declared in the gospel , that for any man , who believes it , to live careless of them , is in truth a sottishness that i can neither conceive nor express , much less load or upbraid with any higher aggravation than barely its own folly ; and therefore i shall onely leave this great meditation upon the minds of my christian readers , and conjure them all to a serious and habitual practice of vertue and piety , as they hope for any benefit from our saviour's first coming , and desire to escape the terrour of the second . the end . errata . page . line . from the end , in the preface , for vice . in vice , p. . l. . for sextus r. saint , pag. . l. . for fearless r. fearfull . books lately printed for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the pourtraicture of his sacred majesty king charles the first , of ever blessed memory ; in his solitudes and sufferings , newly re-printed by his majesty's special command : in octavo . dr. hammond's annotations on the new testament , in folio , the fifth edition , corrected . the book of psalms paraphrased , with arguments to each psalm , in two volumes : by s. patrick , d. d. dean of peterburgh , and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . octavo . the truth of christian religion , in six books , written in latin by hugo grotius , and now translated into english , with the addition of a seventh book : by s. patrick , d. d. &c. octavo . a book for beginners ; or , a help to young communicants , that they may be fitted for the holy communion and receive it with profit : by s. patrick , d. d. in . christ's counsel to his church ; in two sermons preached at the two last fasts : by s. patrick , d. d. in quarto , new . the establish'd church ; or , a subversion of all the romanist's pleas for the popes supremacy in england : together with a vindication of the present government of the church of england , as allow'd by the laws of the land , against all fanatical exceptions ; particularly of mr. hickeringill , in his scandalous pamphlet , styled naked truth , the second part : by fran. fulwood , d. d. arch-deacon of totnes in devon , in octavo , new . a discourse of the morality of the sabbath : being an exposition of exod. . v. , , , . humbly offer'd to this present age : by john gregory , archdeacon of gloucester , in octavo , new . the new distemper ; or , the dissenters usual pleas for comprehension , toleration , and the renouncing the covenant , consider'd and discuss'd ; with some reflexions upon mr. baxter's and mr. alsop's late pamphlets , published in answer to the reverend dean of s. paul's sermon concerning separation : by the late reverend dr. tomkins , in octavo . the lively picture of lewis du moulin , drawn by an incomparable hand : together with his last words , being his retractation of all the personal reflexions he had made on the divines of the church of england ( in several books of his ) signed by himself on the fifth and seventeenth of october , . in quarto , new . the daily practice of devotion ; or , the hours of prayer , fitted to the main uses of a christian life , with prayers for the peacefull re-settlement of this church and state : by the late pious and reverend h. hammond , in . books printed for and sold by richard chiswell . speed's maps and geography of great britain and ireland , and of foreign parts . fol. dr. cave's lives of the primitive fathers . fol. dr. cary's chronological account of ancient time . fol. wanly's wonders of the little world or history of man. fol. sir tho. herbert's travels into persia , &c. fol sir rich. baker's chronicle of england . fol. causin's holy court. fol. wilson's compleat christian dictionary . fol. bishop wilkin's real character , or philosophical language . fol. pharmacopaeia regalis collegii medicorum londinensis . fol. judge jones's reports of cases in common law. fol. judge vaughan's reports of cases in common law. fol. cave tabulae ecclesiasticorum scriptorum . fol. sir will. dugdale's baronage of england , in two vol. fol. dr. littleton's latin dictionary . quarto . bishop nicholson on the church catechism . quarto . the compleat clerk. quarto . history of the late wars of new england . quarto . dr. outram de sacrificiis . quarto . fowler 's defence of the design of christianity against john bunynan , s. quarto . dr. sherlock's visitation-sermon at warrington , . d. quarto . the magistrate's authority asserted , in a sermon , by james paston . quar. elborow's rationale upon the english service . octavo . wilkin's natural religion . octavo . hardcastle's christian geography and arithmetick . octavo . ashton's apology for the honours and revenues of the clergy . octavo . lord hollis's vindication of the judicature of the house of peers in the case of skinner . octavo . — jurisdiction of the house of peers in case of appeals . octavo . — jurisdiction of the house of peers in case of impositions . octavo . — letter about the bishops vote in capital cases . octavo . xenophontis cyropaedia . gr. lat. octavo . duporti versio psalmorum graeca . octavo . grew's idea of philological history continued on roots . octavo . spaniards conspiracy against the state of venice . octavo . several tracts of mr. hales of eaton . octavo . dr. simpson's chymical anatomy of the yorkshire spaws . octavo . — his hydrological essays ; with an account of the allum-works at whitby . octavo . dr. gave's primitive christianity , in three parts . octavo . a discourse of the nature , ends and difference of the two covenants , . s. octavo . ignatius fuller's sermons of peace and holiness , . s. d. octavo . lipsius's discourse of constancy , s. d. octavo . buckler of state and justice against france's design of universal monarchy , . octavo . hodder's arithmetick . twelves . grotius de veritate religionis christianae . twelves . bishop hacket's christian consolations . twelves . valentine's devotions . . trials of the regicides . octavo . dangerfield's narrative of the pretended presbyterian plot. folio . guillim's display of heraldry , with large additions . folio . dr. burnet's history of the reformation of the church of england ; in two volumes . folio . — his vindication of the ordinations of the church of england . oct. — his relation of the massacre of the protestants in france . quarto . — his sermon before the l. mayor , upon the fast for the fire . quarto . — his account of eve cohan , a person of quality of the jewish religion , lately converted to christianity . quarto . — some passages of the life and death of the right honourable john , late earl of rochester ; written by his lordship 's own direction , on his death-bed , by the said gilbert burnet , d. d. octavo . — his fast sermon before the house of commons , decemb. . . — his translation of the decree made at rome , march . . condemning some opinion of the jesuits , and other casuists . quarto . dr. burnet's sermon before the aldermen of london on the th . of january . / . in the press dr. will. sherlock's practical discourse of religious assemblies . octo.   dr. outram's sermons preached on several occasions . octavo .   a defence of dr. stillingfleet of separation . octavo . dr. burlace's history of the irish rebellion . folio . herodoti historia , gr. lat. cum indicibus & var. lectionibus . folio . mr. williams his sermon before the lord mayor , octob. . . — his impartial examination of the speeches of the five jesnits , lately executed for treason . folio . — his history of the powder plot ; with a vindication of the proceedings , and matters relating thereunto , from the exceptions made against it , by the authour of the catholick apology . to which is added , a parallel betwixt that and the present plot. quarto . mr. ja. brome's two fast sermons , . dr. jane's fast sermon before the house of commons , april . . quarto . mr. john james's visitation sermon . quarto . mr. john cave's fast sermon , jan. . . quarto . — his assise sermon at leicester , july . . dr. william cave's sermons before the lord mayor , novemb. . . dr. puller's discourse of the moderation of the church of england . octavo . dr. saywell's original of all the plots in christendom . octavo . sir john munson's discourse of supream power and common right . octavo . dr. edw. bagshaw's discourses on several select texts . octavo . speculum baxterianum ; or baxter against baxter . quarto . mr. rushworth's historical collections , the second volume , in two parts . folio . — his large and exact account of the earl of strafford's tryal . fol. the country man's physician . octavo . an apology for a treatise of humane reason , by matth. clifford , esquite . twelves . the laws against jesuits , seminary priests , &c. explained , by divers judgments and resolutions of the judges , and other observations thereupon . by will. cawley , esq fol. fowlis's history of the romish conspiracies , treasons and usurpation . folio . seller's remarques on the state of the church of the three first centuries . octavo . bishop sanderson's sermons , with his life . folio . markham's perfect horseman . octavo . mr. john cave's gospel preached to the romans . octavo . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e p. . de sybill . orac. cap. . notes for div a -e plut. non posse suaviter . plut. non-posse sua . &c. dissert . . non posse suaviter , &c. adv. colot . epist. . seneca de vit. beat. c. . adv. colotem . de constan. cap. . de fin. l. . de consol. l. . de consol. l. . de consol. l. . cicero . podag . enc. de fin. l. . notes for div a -e domonst . evang. l. . sect. . demonst. evang. lib. . sect. . matth. , , , . chap. . verf. . leviath . chap. . appar . n. , &c. exerc. . n. . v. scal. in euseb. chron. p. . grot. in luc. c. . v. . casaub. exerc. . n. , , , , . ● . vales. annot. euseb. l. . c. . hist. jud. comp . p. . demonst. ev. p. . epist. . v. huet . prop. . sect. . grot. in luc. c. . v. . apol. c. . apol. c. . & . apol. . exerc. . n. . a●●l . c. . l. . c. . v. baron . an. . n. . v. vales. not. in l. . c. . euseb. eccles. hist. l. . c. . lib. . p. , item . p. . p. . apol. c. . cap. . lib. . annot. in euseb. p. . de emend . temp. l. . annot. in euseb. p. . adv. heres . l. . c. . lib. . hist. eccles. l. . c. . john . . lib. . p. . praep. evang. lib. . sect. . contra cels. l. . p. . acts . . de bello jud. l. , . apol. . adv. haeres . l. . c. , . apol. c. . animad . euseb . p. . l. . p. . p. . p. . p. . l. . p. . l. . euseb. adv . hier. l. . demonst. evang. prop. . cap. . sect . . v. euseb. dem. ev. l. . § . lib. . orig. adv . cels. l. . demonst. evang. c. . § . in vitâ vespas . lib. . histor. suet. in vespas . c. . euseb. eccles. hist. l. . c. . philost . l. . c. . l. . c. . c. . c. . c. . c. . demonst. ev. c. . § . pro●os . . sect. . l. . c. . l. . c. . adv. haeres . l. . c. . haeres . . hist. eccles. l. . c. . praescript . haeret. c. . c. . hist. eccles. l. . c. . apud euseb. l. . c. . strom. l. . p. . hist. l. . c. . . apud euseb. hist. l. . c. . adv. haeres . l. . c. . strom. l. . animad . euseb . p. . apud euseb. l. . c. . apud . euseb. l. . c. . apud euseb. l. . c. . c. . apud euseb. l. . c. . ruari ep. . l. . c. . . . annot. in euseb. p. . orig. adv . celsus l. . justin martyr dial . cum tryp . p. . john . . lib. . in matt. . . acts . . sueton. in domit. c. . c. , . euseb. l. . c. . animad . euseb. anno mmcxii . in augusta c. . apud euseb. l. . c. . apol. c. . euseb. l. . c. . apol. . cyril contra jul. l. . epist. . a discourse concerning the beauty of providence in all the rugged passages of it very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these times of publick confusion / by john wilkins ... sermons. selections wilkins, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing w ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse concerning the beauty of providence in all the rugged passages of it very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these times of publick confusion / by john wilkins ... sermons. selections wilkins, john, - . [ ], p. printed for sa. gellibrand ..., london : . reproduction of original in cambridge university library. eng natural theology -- early works to . a r (wing w ). civilwar no a discourse concerning the beauty of providence in all the rugged passages of it. very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these ti wilkins, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning the beauty of providence in all the rugged passages of it . very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these times of publick confusion . by john wilkins . b. d. psal. . . all the paths of the lord are mercy and truth , to such as keep his co●●●●●● and his testimonies . london : printed for sa : ge●●ibrand at the brasen serpent in st. pauls church-yard . . the preface to the reader . amongst all other doctrines , this of providence ( though it do properly belong to naturall theology , yet ) is of as universal concernment , both for knowledge and practise , as any other point , in christian divinity . the very heathen have acknowledged , not onely a universall providence of god , which puts the general kinds of things into a regular way of working , but his particular providence likewise , which takes care of individuall persons and actions . why else do all religions oblige men to pray unto him , and to expect his speciall assistance , in every kind of want or necessitie ? but now , though this common principle be so universally acknowledged in the notion of it , yet men are generally very negligent in the practicall application of it , to particular times and conditions ; and so loose that comfort and satisfaction that may be reaped from it . it is the chief aime and businesse of this discourse , to convince and quicken men unto this dutie , as being by so much the more seasonable for these times , by how much the present troubles and confusions do now call upon us for it . it cannot but occasion some suggestions of diffidence and infidelitie , to consider those many strange revolutions and changes in the world , which in outward appearance , seem so full of disorder and wilde contingencies . and therfore it must needs be of speciall consequence for a man to have his heart established in the knowledge and belief of this truth here insisted upon . in all ages of the world men have been much startled in their judgements , by that unequall dispensation which seems to be in these outward things . that one event should be to the righteous and the wicked . nay , that a just man should perish in his righteousnesse , and the wicked should prosper in his wickednesse . that on the side of the oppressor there should be might , and the oppressed should have none to comfort them . this hath sometimes so amazed and perplexed the thoughts of considering men , that whilest they looked barely upon events , they could not tell how to extricate themselves from these difficulties ; which occasioned that speech of solomon , surely oppression makes a wise man mad : that is , puts him to his wits end , transports him with wilde imaginations , whilst he knows not readily what to answer in defence of such proceedings . but now , he that shal seriously consider , how every thing is mannaged by an all-seeing providence , which is exactly carefull , and infinitely wise , such a man will be easily satisfied , that in all these obscure administrations , ( which seem unto us so full of casuall , negligent , promiscuous events ) there is an admirable , ( though unsearchable ) contrivance . as for the particular designe which providence may ayme at in some dispensations , this doth not alwayes fall under our reach . it is the glorie of god to conceal a matter . and many of his works are so ordered , that though a man labour to seek them out , yet he shall not finde them . yea further , though a wise man think to know them , yet shall he not be able to find them . and therfore , where we cannot understand his wayes , it is there our dutie , with an humble reverence to beleeve and admire the wisedome of them . how would this , ( if rightly considered and applyed ) silence all those unseemly murmurings & complaints of men in these times . remember , there is nothing befalls us but what the counsell of god had before determined to be done . and he can order things for the best , as well when they crosse our desires , as when they comply with them . and therefore when you see the violent perverting of judgement and justice in a province , marvell not at the matter . that is , be not transported with wonder or impatience , or unbelief , as if the providence of god were regardlesse or negligent . for he that is higher then the highest regardeth . though they that have the highest power amongst men , may be so farre from remedying , that they rather incourage such disorders , yet god hath a strict , watchfull eye upon them . and though men may be apt to secure themselves in such proceedings , by the greatnes of their own strength , as if there were nothing above them , yet there are higher then they . and there is a time , when god will judge both the righteous and the wicked . let us be carefull of our own duty , to serve providence in the usuall means , and leave the disposall of events to him . it should be every mans chief businesse , to clear up the evidences of his particular title and relation , unto this great governor of the world , and this will be the surest means to set us above the fear or hurt of all outward changes . we see with what artifice and complyance men will insinuate themselves , into the affection of those who ( according to severall revolutions ) are advaneed into the places of power . of how much greater advantage would it be , to get an interest in his favour , who doth and shall alwayes rule over the sons of men , having all times at his disposal , out of whose hands no strength or policy , shall ever be able to wrest the sway and dominion of things . it cannot but afford strong consolation unto every true beleever to consider , that he who hath the chief influence , in all these great changes and variety of events in the world , is both his god , and his father . how did this quiet the heart of old eli , i sam. . . it is the lord , let him do what seenieth him good . and david upon the same consideration professeth , i was dumbe , and opened not my mouth , because thou didst it . and our blessed saviour himself makes use of this argument . the cup that my father hath given me , shall i not drink it ? though the potion be bitter , and displeasing , yet so long as it comes from a loving and carefull father , we have no reason to fear any hurt by it . and on the other side , much of mens unquietnesse and dejection , is occasioned , either by the want of this evidence , or by the neglect of applying it . when they terminate their thoughts upon secondary instruments , fearing men that shall dye , and the sonnes of men that shall be made as grafse : forgetting the lord their maker , who stretched forth the heavens , & layed the foundations of the earth . this is that which makes men to feare continually , because of the fury of the oppressor . how would it compose all these fears and distempers , if men would but labour after this assurance of their interest in god with the same zeal and intention of mind wherewith they prosecute their particular ingagements , and animosities against one another . he that hath god for his strength and refuge , is alwayes sure to be on the strongest side , & need not fear the most tempestuous mutations . though the earth be removed , and the mountains should be carried into the midst of the sea : though the waters thereof roar , and be troubled , and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof . thus much i thought fit to premise in the generall , concerning the necessitie , and seasonablenesse of this subject . as for the particular occasion of publishing this discourse , i have nothing to say but this : that being sollicited for a copie of it , by divers persons ( and some of eminent quality ) before whom it was occasionally preached , i knew not any more convenient way to satisfie their desires , then by such a publick communication of it . i could speak something from my own experience concerning the efficacie of this doctrine against those damps and dejections of minde , unto which , such times as these , will expose a man . it is my hearty prayer , that it may be usefull to others also in this respect . farewe'l . the beauty of providence . eccles. . . he hath made everie thing beautifull in his time : also he hath set the world in their heart , yet no man can finde out the work that god maketh from the beginning to the end . this book contains solomons experience in his search for contentment ; which being not to be found amongst any of the creatures , he advises , never to trouble our selves in an eager prosecution after them , but to injoy our possessions with a chearfull liberall minde , without perplexing our selves in such cares & labours , as may defraud us of those honest comforts to be had by them . for there is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink , and make his soul injoy good in his labour . ca. . v. . that 's one of the conclusions which solomon in●ers from his former discourse , and which he further amplifies , and confirms in the following parts of his sermon . it being his chief scope in this book , to direct men how to behave themselves with chearfulnesse and contentment , under all those great revolutions , and that variety of events , which may befall them in the world . this chapter contains a discourse concerning gods government and disposall of times ; and is therefore not unfitly stiled , the calendar or ephemerides of seasons : whence the wiseman with divers arguments urges upon us what he had before commended , a cheerfull and contented minde . the text is one of these arguments : god hath made every thing beautifull in his time ; that is , there is a wise order and contrivance in all the works of providence ; every particular event is most seasonable in that time which god appoints ; and therefore we have no reason to repine at our condition , as if matters did not go well with us , for t is impossible they should have been better then they are , though they do crosse our private hopes and desires ; yet god best understands the fittest order and season for all things , making them beautifull in his time . also he hath set the world in their heart : by world here is not meant this materiall world , but seculum , the succession and course of things , as the original word {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} does properly import . this god hath set in , or * ex . pounded unto mens harts , that is , he hath endowed us with an ability to discern in some measure that seasonablenes which he observes in the government of the world . yet there is no man can find out the work that god makes from the beginning to the end : that is , t is above humane ability to comprehend the reason of all divine proceedings , we cannot finde them fully out from the beginning to the end . others conceive that the words may be more properly rendred thus : as long as the world shall last , god doth reveal unto mens hearts , the work which he makes , from the beginning to the end , excepting onely some things unto which man cannot attain . as if he should have said , in all ages of the world , here are still some passages of providence , wherin men may be able to discern a beauty and comlinesse though there are some other particulars , which we cannot understand . the sence of both interpretations , being for the substance , much alike . that 's the connexion and meaning of the whole verse . the text according to its naturall fulnesse doth compr●ze in it these three particulars . . every thing has its time . . every thing in its time is beautifull . . that is the proper season for all things which god appoints . . every thing has its time . to all things there is an appointed season . ver. . not onely for such naturall events , as beare in them a kind of necessity , as a time to be born , and a time to dye : ver. . but also for those voluntary actions , that seem to be most alterable & contingent , a time to weep , and a time to laugh ; ver. . the wisedome of providence in the government of this lower world , hath disposed to every thing its particular season . this is that which we call , the fulnesse of time , the ripenesse of season . prov. . . the wiseman saies there , that the day brings forth events , paritura est dies , alluding to a teeming mother , to whom there is a set date for hir delivery . so doth time travail with the decrees of providence , and for each several action , there is a pregnancy , a fulnes of time . . every thing in its time is beautifull , even such matters as in their own natures are not without some deformity . a time to kill , ver. . a time to mourn , ver. . a time of hate , and a time of warre , ver. . the scorching of sommer , & the extreme cold of winter , though both in themselves alike distaftfull , yet are comely in their seasons , and those times would not be so beautifull without them . nor is it the naturall goodnesse of any thing that can make it comely , out of its proper season . that which beauty is in bodies , and harmony in sounds , that is opportunity in time ; now as white and red , which are the usuall materials of beautie , as those particular notes of which musick doth consist , may be so disposed of , as to cause deformitie and discord . so actions which in themselves are good , may be depraved by their unseasonablenes . . that is the proper season for all things which god appoints . or thus . every particular event , is most beautifull in that time which the providence of god hath allotted to it . t is above the contrivance of humane policy to bring matters about in their fittest order . and therefore t were but folly to conclude that things do not fall out well , unlesse they answer our desires ; for god best understands the fittest season for every purpose . and whatsoever , or whensoever he works , you may be sure , t is both beautifull , and in its time ; even those events , which do most thwart our private ends , ( could all circumstances be duly considered ) we should finde them to be performed , in their most comely order , and best opportunity . as for the two first particulars , though they are implyed in the text , yet are they more expresly handled in the former verses . and therefore i shall passe them over , without any further inlargement , insisting onely upon this latter , as being more directly agreeable to the main scope of the words . and t is a subject , that in many respects will deserve your more especiall attention ; t is not commonly treated of . and besides , it may very much conduce to our contentment , to settle our hearts , against all those conditions that may be fall us in the world . t is of very generall use and concernment , sutable to all times and occasions . for times of suffering , to make us patient and submissive ; for times of mercy , to make us cheerfull , and thankfull . in brief , it extends to all persons , relations , businesses , seasons ; nothing is more generally usefull then this , to have our hearts fully perswaded of that wise order and contrivance which there is , in the disposall of every particular event in the world . and t is more especially seasonable for times of trouble and confusion , when men are apt to mistrust the government of providence , as if he did neglect the care of this lower world , and leave all things to their own jarring principles . then ( i say ) t is more especially seasonable , to vindicate the care and wisdome of providence , to shew that every thing which god doth is best , and consequently , that these many distractions and confusions under which we suffer are farre better , then any other ( though the most flourishing ) condition could be . and that 's the subject i am now to insist upon . the point is this . every particular event is most beautifull in that time , which the providence of god hath allotted to it . a truth , by so much the more seasonable for these times , by how much t is now the more difficult to beleeve it . the observation lyes plainly both in the scope of the place , and the most obvious sence of the words . the scripture is copious in other proofs to this purpose . deut. . . his work is perfect , and his wayes are judgement , a god of truth and without iniquity , just and right . not onely his first work of creation is exactly good and perfect ; but his wayes of providence also are disposed with judgement and righteousnesse . so again , isa. . . the lord of hosts is wonderfull in counsell , and excellent in working . that is , every event of providence , is managed & pre-ordained by an admirable wisdome , and therfore must needs be of excellent contrivance . and again . dan. . , . wisdome and might are his , he changeth the times and the seasons : he removeth kings , and he setteth up kings . those two attributes of strength & wisedome are for the most part put together in scripture ; god never shews any argument of his strength , but his wisdome is ingaged in it also . those great alterations & subversions , which happen in the world , do not more demonstrate the greatnesse of his power in the doing of them , then the greatnesse of his wisdom , in disposing of them for the best . and again . psal. . . o lord how manifold are thy works , in wisedome hast thou made them all , the earth is full of thy riches . which is as well true of the works of providence , as of the works of creation . but this truth is more directly intimated by that vision of ezekiel , in the first chapter of his prophesie , wherein he doth expresse how all events in the world are wisely disposed of , by the care and government of providence . the scope of that vision was to confirm the faith of the prophet in the certainty of those things which he was to foretell ; because god himself by whom he was inspired , had such a special influence , in the orderly managing of all inferior events . though matters might seem to run upon wheels ( as we say ) to follow their own courses , without any speciall guidance , to go at random , yet these wheels have eyes in them , v. . that is , there is the eye of providence which directs them in their revolutions . and then besides , these wheels are likewise governed by the foure living creatures , that is , by the angels of god , who are fitted for all their services , with foure remarkableendowments . with wisdom and prudence , typified in that vision , by the face of a man . . courage and resolution , the face of a lion . . sedulitie , and diligence , the face of an ox . . swiftnesse and dispatch , the face of an eagle . in all which the prophet doth at large explain unto us , with what deliberate care and forecast , the providence of god doth dispose of all these inferior events . this truth may yet be further evidenced , from the very light of nature , and the testimony of the heathen . hence was it that the ancients did set forth their gods with harps in their hands , to shew the harmony they observed in the government of the world . and mid●● was condemned to wear asses ears , because he preferred pans pipe before apollo's lute ; humane policy , before divine providence . nay the devill himself doth acknowledge the wisdom and seasonablenesse of divine proceedings , and therfore would fain have sheltred himself under this pretence , matth. . . art thou come to torment us before our time ? implying that it would not become the god of order to do any thing untimely . and doubtles that must needs be an evident and a great truth , which is confest by the mouth of so great a lyar . for the further confirmation of this , let us a little consider , some of those rugged passages of providence , which seem to be performed with the greatest negligence and deformity . look upon the history of joseph , he was ( you know ) one of the promised seed , concerning whom , god had foretold , a superiority and dominion , over the rest of his family . now , that after this , he should be exposed to the treachery of his malicious brethren ; that besides his nearnesse to slaughter from their hands , he should be sold into a far countrey , whence there was no hopes ever to hear of him again ; that there he should be so endangered by the rage of a lustfull woman , and suffer so tedious and unjust an imprisonment , all this might seem to be an over-sight and neglect of providence , as if it had forgotten that promotion which joseph was designed to . and yet do but reflect upon the latter part of the story , and you shall find , how all these misfortunes did mightily conduce , not onely to his advancement , but alto to the safety and preservation of that whole family , which was then the visible church . so that if each of his brethren had given him as much money as they sold him for , it had not been so great a kindnesse as he received from their intended crueltie . it is an elegant glosse of st. gregory upon this story , divino judicio quod declinare conati sunt , renitendo servierunt : ideo venditus est à fratribus joseph , ne adoraretur , sed ideo est adoratus quia venditus . it was so ordered by providence , that what they sought to decline , they did promote , even by their striving against it ; joseph was therefore sold by his brethren , that he might not be worshiped , and yet he was therefore worshipped because he was sold . sic divinum consilium dum devitatur , impletur ; sic humana sapientia dum reluctatur , comprehenditur . even so the divine counsell is accomplished in being opposed ; so humane policy is defeated by the means of promoting it . thus also is it in the history of david , he was ( you know ) designed to a kingdom , but how many straights was he put to before he attain'd it ? being forced into the wildernesse like a wandring out-law , and followed there by a company of discontented persons , who were as readie perhaps , upon every triviall occasion to revolt from him , as before from saul . but above all the rest , his last distresse was one of the most desperate , when he was spoiled at ziglag , not only of his goods , but his wives and children too , when his own souldiers in their mutiny and discontent were ready to stone him ; there being then but little hopes to save his life , much lesse to get a kingdom : and yet this distresse also , was in the event of it contrived to his advantage . for having afterwards pursued the amalekites , he not only recovered his own , but got also such abundance of other spoils from them , as served him for rich presents , whereby he might renew and confirm the friendship of his well-wishers in israel , that after the death of saul ( which presently followed ) he might by their free votes be chose to succeed him . sam. . and chap. . you may observe likewise somewhat to this purpose in the story of jonah , when he was sent to nineveh about so weighty a matter as the safety of that great populous city , and that too , when their destruction was within ken , but fourty dayes off , that he should now make delayes and fly to tarshish , that upon such a straight , he should run himself into hazards , might seem to argue some carelesnesse , and neglect in the government of providence . and yet this error of his was so wisely managed in the event , that it proved a great advantage to the main end of his businesse . for t is a probable opinion that these mariners , who cast jonah into the sea , were a speciall occasion that his preaching was so successefull afterwards . the ninivites being by them informed , that this was that prophet , for whom they had lately suffered so violent a tempest , how the wind ceased , and all was calmed again , when they had once cast him into the sea ; from whence it was not possible he should be delivered but by a miracle . and therefore they concluded , that this must needs be some man extraordinarily inspired from above , and that his preaching was not idle threats , but such as might justly fright them into that rigorous fast which afterwards we read of , both for man and beast . it being the wisedome of providence so to contrive it , that this offence of jonah should mightilyadvantage that end , which it did seem most directly to oppose . so likewise for that distention betwixt paul and barnabas , act . it might seem the unseasonable breach , that could possibly be imagined , when the church of the christians was now in its beginnings and infancy , that then the two chief members of it should fall at variance amongst themselves , was such an untimely dissention that an enemy could not wish them worse . nothing could more thwart the promulgation of the gospel of peace , then the contentions of those that preach it . if that state which is already established into a kingdome , divided against it self , cannot stand , much lesse could those small beginnings think to increase into a church by divisions . and yet this likewise was so disposed of in the event , that it did mightily conduce to the propagation of the gospel thorow the whole world ; for by this means , those two parted asunder , the one into cyprus , the other into syria and cylicia , and like two mighty streams spread themselves several wayes , that so they might the better water the barren and thirstie corners of the world . thus have you seen the beauty of providence in some rugged passages of it . t is so in everyother partīcular , though seeming unto us never so deformed . but man cannot find out the work of god from the beginning to the end . for the further evidencing of this truth , there are two grounds upon which 't is bottomed , that being rightly understood and considered , will make the point very clear . . god is exactly carefull of every thing . . he is infinitely wise for the disposall of all to the best . . god doth overlook all things by an especiall providence . ephes. . . he worketh all things after the counsell of his own will . there is no event in the world but it is ordered both according to gods will , and by his counsell . psal. . . whatsoever the lord pleased , that did he , both in heaven , and in earth , and in the sea , and in all deep places . not onely in the heaven , where his glory is more especially conspicuous , but in the earth too , where matters seem to be full of confusion ; and in the sea , and in all deep places , where we cannot so much as take notice of them . there is nothing so great but is under his power ; nothing so little but is within his care . those actions and events that seem unto us most free , casuall , inconsiderable , are all of them ordered by his providence . . that which is most free , the hearts and affections of men do follow the guidance of his decrees ; men may do after their own counsels and inclinations , but they are still sutable to his providence ; there is nothing more in our command , then our thoughts and words , and yet both the preparation of the heart , and the answer of the tongue is from the lord . prov. . . . that which seems most casuall , the disposing the lot is from him . prov. . . he who is accidentally slain by another is said to be delivered into his hands by god . exod. . . that casuall arrow shot at random was directed by providence to fulfill the prediction of ahaós death . kin. . there is no libertie for causes to operate in a loose and stragling way , but in matters of greatest uncertainty there is a pre-ordained course of effects . . the least most inconsiderable things , are not neglected by providence . it was a * prophane speech of the aramites , that god was the god of the mountains , not of the valleys . king. . . whereas he regards the lowest the least thing as well as the greatest . the young lions , psal. . . the ravens , psal. . . are provided for by him . he feeds the fowls of the air , adorns the lilly , and clothes the grasse of the field , which to day is , and to morrow is cast into the oven . sparrows ( you know ) are but cheap birds , are not two of them sold for a farthing ? matth. . . and yet not one of these doth fall to the ground without your father . he must give the fowler leave to kill them ; nay when they are upon the wing in their frequent and often repeated motions , yet then it is he that must appoint them the time and place when and where they shall settle ; and in this sence also , not one of them doth fall to the ground without your father . the hairs of our head , are yet lesse observable , contemptible even to a proverb , pili non facio , ne pilo quidem melius . and yet these with god , are inter numerata , amongst those things whereof he takes an exact account . that place , cor. . . doth god take care for oxen ? doth not simply exempt such things from thelaw of his providence ; but t is argumentum a minori , and doth imply his more especiall care of that higher rank of creatures to whom these are subordinate . the plain meaning of it is , that if god hath by a particular law provided that the ox should not be muzled , which treads out the corn , he will be much more carefull of the labourers in his harvest . t is recorded to the glory of some ancient generals , that they were able to call every common souldier by his own name , and carefull to provide , not onely pay for their captains , but litter also for the meanest beast that did serve the camp . now you know there is not any creature but is a souldier to the lord of hosts , he doth sometimes muster up an army of lice & flies , and therefore t is but reason that his providence should take care for such things also . why should it not be as great an argument of his power to preserve and order these lesser creatures , as it was at first to make them ? the creation of a glorious angel , did not cost him more , then that of a despicable fly . was it not he , that out of the same primitive nothing , put that difference , which there is amongst severall natures ? and if the painter in the same peece draw a silken & a woollen garment , why should he value the one above the other , since it was the same art that did both make and distinguish them ? . as his providence doth extend to al things ; so likewise does his wisedome . as he is exactly carefull , so is he infinitely wise ; & therefore as able for the contrivance of every the least particular thing , as he would be , if he had nothing but that to look after . if the providence of god had but one project on foot , we could easily conceive how he might be able to drive that through all the windings and circumstances of it , with care and wisedom . nay we would trust any wise man with the managing of a single busines , when he had nothing else to distract his endeavours : but for all those multitude of affairs amongst men and angels , nay for the very circumstances and manner of all those severall actions and motions , which are performed in every moment of time through the whole world ; we cannot conceive but that in such a tumult of businesse , the eye of providence may be sometimes over-seen . but this arises from our mistake of the divine nature , we measure god by our own finite abilities , whereas we should consider , that that which is infinite cannot be confined by time , or number , or place ; but is as well able at all times , to look to all things , in all places , as if there were only one businesse to be cared for : you may see some imperfect resemblance of this amongst the creatures . do but consider the sun how that at the same time , without labour or confusion , is imployed in divers services for all the creatures under heaven . the distinctions of seasons , the growth of severall plants , its various influence upon minerals , the cherishing of living creatures , with sundrie other such variety of imployments , which we are not able so much as to take notice of . or else , do but mark the nature of the soul , which at the same time perhaps doth contemplate heaven , direct the body in its sundrie motions , distribute the food in a wise proportion to the severall parts , not neglecting so much as the least hair about it , but supplying that with sutable nourishment . and all this it does without wearinesse or distraction . and if a creature can do thus , much more then the creator , who gives to every thing its proper abilitie , and doth actuate all things , by a more immediate assistance then the soul it self . so that though we suppose infinite occasions , ( which notwithstanding creatures are not capable of ) yet the providence and wisedome of god is infinite also ; and there is the same proportion of infinite to infinite , as of one to one . now put both these reasons together , if the providence of god be thus exactly carefull of every the least particular : if he be thus infinitely wise for the disposall of all to the best , no wonder then , though every event in the world be both beautiful , and in its time . for the further clearing of this truth , there are two doubts or quaeries to be resolved , that seem to oppose it . . what 's the reason why this beauty of providence doth not appear to us , but that many things seem so full of disorder and confusion in the world ? . how may this consist with the permission of finfull actions , which can neither be beautifull nor seasonable ? i begin with the first , to shew the reason why in so many things we cannot discern this beautie of providence . the verse of the text tels us , that man cannot finde out the work of god from the beginning to the end : that is , t is above humane capacity to comprehend the reason of all divine proceedings , we cannot finde them fully out , from the beginning to the end . and so job . . he doth great things past finding out : lo , he goeth by me , and i see him not ; he passeth on also but i perceive him not . and again , chap. . , . behold , i go forward , but he is not there ; and backward , but i cannot perceive him : on the left hand where he doth work , but i cannot behold him ; he hideth himself on the right hand , that i cannot see him . the meaning is , that where ever job turned his eyes , there were still some passages of providence which he could not apprehend the meaning of . god hath reserved this as a peculiar prerogative to himself . it is not for us to know the times and the seasons , which the father hath put in his own power . act. . . there may be a twofold reason of this . . the obscuritie of the things themselves . there are treasures of wisedome , col. . . not onely for their preciousnesse , but for their privatenesse too . hidden wisedome , cor. . . secrets of wisdom , and these are double to that which is ( as zophar speaks ) job . . that is , those concealed providences , wch we do not discern the reason of , are of much greater proportion then those that appear . we read in that fore-cited place , ezek. . . of a wheel within a wheel , signifying those involutions and intricacies which there are in the wayes of providence . and the psalmist tels us that his way is in the sea , and his paths in the great waters ; and his footsteps are not known . psal. . . as it is in the works of nature , where there are many common things of excellent beauty , which for their littlenesse do not fall under our sence ; they that have experimented the use of microscopes ; can tell , how in the parts of the most minute creatures , there may be discerned such gildings and embroderies , and such curious varietie as another would scarse believe . why t is so in the works of providence , there are very many passages of frequent daily occurrence , whose excellent contrivance doth not fall under our sence or observation . . our own ignorance and short sightednesse , and that in a twofold respect . . we cannot see that end and drift which providence aimes at in many particulars ; and therefore , no wonder though they seem unto us rude and uncomely . we measure things by this false ballance of opinion , which weighs onely their outsides , and doth not look upon their ends and relations . now the beauty of things doth consist much in their tendency and reference to their proper ends . if an ignoraut man that knows not the reason of a winde-mill or water-mill , should look upon them onely as places of habitation , he cannot think them well scituated , where they are so much exposed to the violence of winds & waves : whereas he that understands how the wisdome of the artificer hath contrived those motions unto usefull ends , must needs confesse a beauty and comelinesse in the work . t is so likewise in the events of providence , which none can rightly apprehend , but he that understands the speciall drift and purposes which they are designed to . . we cannot see the whole frame of things , how sundry particular events in a mutuall relation do concur to make up the beauty of the whole . he that can discern onely two or three wheels in a clock , how they move one against another , would presently think , that there were contrariety and confusion in the work . whereas he that beholds the whole frame , and discerns how all those divers motions do joyntly conduce to the same end , cannot choose but acknowledge a wise order in the contrivance of it . so likewise is it in the frame of times , where he alone is fit to judge of particulars , who understands how they refer to the generall . but now we are but of yesterday and know nothing , because our dayes upon earth are as a shadow ( saith bildad ) job . . we look upon things according to a short succession , and so are not able to discern that beautie which there is in their references to other matters a farre of . but now to god a thousand yeers are but as one day . he beholds all things whether past or to come in the same instant . there is no succession in eternity , but all things within the reach of time are present unto that . though in the revolution of a wheel , there be a mutuall succession betwixt the parts contained in it ; yet an eye that is placed without can at the same time discern the whole motion . thus also is it in the revolution of time , where though there be a mutuall succession , betwixt those things that are contained under time , yet god who is without and above it , doth at the same view behold all together . so that 't is no wonder , though many things seeme beautifull to him , which to us who are so short-sighted may appear harsh and deformed . . the d . quaerie was this . if there be such an over-ruling providence , which doth dispose of all to the best ; how comes it to passe that there are so many sinfull actions in the world ? to this i answer two things . . when men thwart gods will of precept , they serve his will of providence . those particular intersts of gain , honour , pleasure , revenge , which sway mens desires and actions , are wisely contrived to the promoting of gods decrees and glory . when augustus made the generall tax upon the world , his end was to inrich himself , and fill his coffers but god used it as a means to fulfill the prophesie of christs birth at bethlehem . rehoboam , and jehu , and cyrus , had all their severall aymes , in those works , wherin they were subservient to providence and they did stil accomplish his counsell in prosecuting their own designes . . that which in respect of mans execution is wicked and disorderly , in respect of gods appointment is beautiful and comely . there could not be any more horrid act , then the betraying and crucifying of our blessed saviour ; and yet even in this , as it was decreed by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of god : act. . . there was the greatest miracle of divine wisedome that ever was extended to the creature . such depths of policy , which all the subtiltie of men or angels , was not able to contrive , no nor to suspect , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , as the apostle cals it , ephes. . . interchangeable wisedom , of curious variety , as the word signifies . now if god could thus mannage the worst action of man to the best advantage of man , well then may we conclude , that every event of providence is beautifull in its time . i have now done with the explication and confirmation of the text . in the application , it may be usefull for these lessons . . for information , and that in a twofold respect . . it may teach us our duty to take notice of , and observe the works of providence . . it may direct us what to judge of the affairs of these times , under which we are fallen . . if all the events of providence , be so wisely contrived , t is certainly then our duty to consider and to take notice of them . psal. . . the works of the lord are great , sought out of all them that have pleasure therein . and again , v. . he hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance . now a man cannot be said to seek out or to remember that which he doth not carefully observe . t is the chief scope of that psalm to excite men unto this duty . and david makes it a note of pietie for men to delight themselves in the contemplation of gods works , to remember him in his wayes , as the prophet isaiah speaks . this , asaph found by experience to be a speciall antidote against all diffidence and carnall fears . in the . psalm when he was surprized with those sad thoughts , will the lord cast us off for ever , and will he be no more intreated ? hatb god forgotten to be gracious ? &c. he presently applyes himself to this remedie , v. , . i will remember the works of the lord , surely i will remember thy wonders of old : i will meditate also of thy works , and talk of thy doings . if a man were but well read in the story and various passages of his life , he might be able to make an experimentall divinitie of his own . he that is observant of gods former dealings and dispensations towards him , may be thence furnished with a rich treasury of experience against all future conditions . there are very many duties that depend upon a right understanding of the times . a man knows not how to order his services of prayer and praises , without some observation and skill in these . it was a great commendation which was given to the men of issachar , that they had understanding in the times to know what israel ought to do . chron. . . and the ignorance of these , the wise man complains of , as being a very great evil : eccles. . . for man knoweth not his time , but as fishes are taken in an evill net , and as birds are caught in the snare , so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it fals suddenly upon them . now this observance of gods works and dispensations , is a duty alwayes seasonable , but more especially in such times as these . t is commonly observed , that though smooth and peaceable times are best for the liver , the man that lives in them ; yet times that are full of change and vicissitude are best for the writer , the historian that writes of them ; so though quiet seasons may best sute with our desires and outward condition , yet these disturbed confused times , may be best improved by observation , and do most set forth the wisdom of providence . the common providence of god in the various seasons and order of nature , may afford excellent matter for contemplation , much more that speciall providence of his in the guidance of humane affairs , which have been alwayes mannaged with various wisdom . but especially in his dispensations towards these later ages , wherein there have been many new , unusuall emergencies , such as our fore-fathers have not known . how many strange observable passages , may a considering man pick out , amongst the affairs of these few last yeers ? how strangely hath the whole course of things both in church & state , been turned about , beyond all mens imaginations ! how hath god in every respect , and on all sides , pusled the wisdom of the wise , and enfeebled the strength of the mightie , abating the glory of all humane power , lifting himself up above others , in those things wherein they dealt most proudly , effecting great matters , by despised means ; what strange ebbs and flowes of hope have we known ? when men have been most full of confidence , then some unexpected accident hath intervened , and disappointed all . so that the wisest men have been often put to stand at a gaze , not knowing what to judge of the issue of things ; and ( though we have not had leisure to observe it , yet ) there has been something equivalent to this , in other nations ▪ the whole christian world being generally full of strange commotions . now we may certainly conclude , that all these unusuall turns and changes of things are not for nothing . there is some great designe to be accomplished by them . t is our duty with diligence to observe the passages , and with patience to attend the issue . . this may direct us what to judge of the present times under which we are fallen . if it be so that every particular event is so exactly regular and beautifull ; hence then we may infer , how all that confusion and disorder , which seems to be in the affairs of these times , is not so much in the things themselves , as in our mistake of them . the roughest seasons , ( though they may be unsutable to our desires ) yet have in them a proper comelinesse , as well as times of the greatest serenity . true indeed , the scripture doth sometimes mention evill dayes ; but this is not so to be understood as if time in it self could be evil , either naturally , for so god pronounced it good ; or morally , because t is not subjected to any morall rule : but onely accidentally in respect of our mistake and abuse of it : when either we judge of it according to our own wishes , or mispend it according to our own lusts . t is onely unwise , unholy men , that make unhappy times . as in the works of creation nothing is properly deformed , but every thing hath a peculiar beauty , according to tha rank and station wherein t is placed ; though in vulgar speech we use to call a toad and a serpent ugly , yet that is onely in reference to common esteeme ; wheras in respect of the universe they are as regular and comely parts as any of the rest ; their outward shapes being sutable to their inward forms , and those purposes for which they were intended . so is it likewise in the wayes of providence , those designes that in respect of our apprehensions are carried on by a crypticall involved method , are yet in themselves of as excellent contrivance , as any of those , that seem to be of more facile and perspicuous order . if a man in these times shall with his reason consult onely the outward face of things , they must needs seem full of irregularities & disorder ; when the spirits of men in the prosecution of the same ends , and the pretence of publick welfare shall be imbittered against one another , even to publick ruine , when there is a violent perverting of judgement and justice in a nation ; and on the side of the oppressor there is might , but the oppressed have none to comfort them . when there is a totall subversion of those degrees , in which the order and harmony of things doth consist , servants being on horses , and princes walking as servants on the earth . when the mountains are removed , and the pillars of the earth tremble . when religion and laws ( which are the foundations of a people ) are out of course . and yet even in all this , there may be a designe of providence for our good . this is certain , all gods promises to his church are infallibly true , and all his dispensations ( though never so crosse in outward appearance ) have a tendency towards the fulfilling of those promises . and why should not a man rest himself in this beleif ? in our naturall enquiries after the efficient cause of things , when our reason is at a stand , we are fain sometimes to sit down , and satisfie our selves , in the notion of occult qualities ; and therefore much more should we be content to be ignorant in the finall cause of things , which lye more deep & obscure then the other . let no man then presume to censure the severall vicissitudes & changes of things , as if they were unseasonable and ill contrived . remember we are but short-sighted , and cannot discern the various , references , and dependancies , amongst the great affairs in the world , and therefore may be easily mistaken in our opinion of them . we do in this world ( for the most part ) see onely the dark side of providence . at the last & great day of manifestation , when the whole plot of divine love shall be layed open , then we shall be able to discern the beauty of providence in al the rugged passages of it , how tribulation , distresse , persecution , famine , nakednesse , perill , and the sword , do all work for the best to those that love god . judge nothing therefore before its time : cor. . . consider , we cannot see the works of god from the beginning to the end . and you know there is a vast difference , betwixt the beginning and the end of a building . it may be our lots perhaps in these times , to see onely the beginning of the fabrick , when the old frame is demolished , the rubbish lyes scattered about , the new materials being so gathered into heaps posterity perhaps may see the end of it , when all these confused preparations shall be made up into a beautifull structure . . this may serve for reproof of two sorts of persons . . those that do not observe or regard the works of the lord . . those that murmur and repine at them . . this may reprove those that do not observe or regard the works of the lord . t is a great argument of infidelity and irreligion , when men let many remarkable providences passe by them without notice or observation . or when they look upon them onely in a slight and superficiall manner , like those whom the prophet isaiah complains of , seeing many things , but observing not . this sin of inadvertencie of gods various providences , hath been oftentimes severely threatned and punished in scripture . isa. . . because they regard not the work of the lord , nor consider the operation of his hands , therefore is my people gone into captivity . and again , jer. . . the whole land is made desolate , because no man layeth it to heart . the heaviest judgements that can befall a nation , are captivity and desalation . and yet they are both denounced against this stupiditie and carelesnesse of spirit . and you may guesse at the heinousnesse of the sin , by the greatnesse of the punishment . t is a sin , that is after a more especiall manner appropriated to wicked men . psal. . , . the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after god ; god is not in all his thoughts . thy judgements are farre above out of his sight . things that he never enquires after or regards , as if he were not at all concerned in them . que supra ●os nihil ad nos . he ●ooks no further then second causes , unto which he ascribes the successe or miscarriage of events ; and doth not take notice of that divine providence by whose influence they are guided . you see , this is made the note of wicked men . and therefore , as we would avoid that censure , so wil it concern us to avoid the signe . . this may serve for the reproof of those , that murmure and repine at the works of providence , that take upon them the magisteriall judgement of events ; as if they could tell , how to frame things much better , and to contrive the issue of things to greater advantage . how ordinary is it , for men to discourse thus , concerning the great changes of these times ? as if the unsearchable wayes of god , were to be judged before the tribunall of humane reason ; who art thou o man that disputest with god ? ( saith the apostle ) how despicable in comparison to his infinite majestie and wisedome . if there be a commonwealth amongst ants and bees ( as some naturalists say there is ) 't would make a man smile to think , that they should take upon them the censure of state matters amongst us men ; and yet here the disproportion is finite , whereas betwixt god and man t is infinite . as the heavens are higher then the earth , so are my thoughts higher then your thoughts ; and my wayes then your wayes . he that will take upon him to mend the contrivance of things , let him remember ( saies one of the stoicks ) that the first thing he is to do , is to mend god , to teach him wisdom and care . and if he shall think himself unfit for that , let him not presume upon this . for consider , is not the providence of god exactly carefull of every thing ? is not he infinitely wise to dispose of all to the best ? are not all things subservient to his will ? why certainly then , ( however matters may appear to us ) yet nothing could have been better then it is . every thing shall prove for the best in respect of his glory , and ( if we belong to him ) in respect of our good too . t is an observable check which solomon gives to such presumptuous persons as are apt to repine at , and censure the course of things . eccles. . . say not thou , what is the cause why the former dayes were better then these ? far thou doest not enquire wisely concerning this . it should seem , that those flourishing dayes of solomon , so very eminent for all kinde of plenty and peace ( silver being in jerusalem as stones ; & cedars , as the sycamores in the vale for abundance ) were not yet without some morose repining spirits , who were still maligning the present condition of things ; and therefore no wonder , if we finde the like humor amongst men in other times . this the wiseman doth here reprove , both by a prohibition and a reason . . a prohibition . say not thou , what is the cause why the former dayes were better then these ? that is , be not transported with that common humor , of censuring and condemning the present state of times , and commending the times past ; as if the course of events were not managed by the same wise providence now , which governed the world before . he doth not forbid men to enquire after the cause of publick sufferings ; for this is frequently elsewhere injoyned in scripture , that upon the occasion of any special judgement , we should search and try our hearts , consider our wayes , and our doings , labouring to find out the cause of gods displeasure , that we may accordingly meet him in his wayes . but the meaning is , that we should not take upon us the peremptory censure of times and dispensations , presuming to condemne those things , which we cannot understand . . the reason . for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this thing . that 's a figurative expression stiled a meiosis , when a phrase signifies much more then the naked words do import . the meaning is , t is extreame folly for men to take upon them the censure of times and providences , as if they were competent judges of such matters . there are two places of scripture , that will make up a sillogisme to prove this conclusion . he that judgeth of a matter before he hath inquired into , and understands it , it is folly and shame unto him : prov. . . but now , it doth not belong unto us to know the times and the seasons which the father hath kept in his own power . act. . . and therfore it must needs be folly to take upon us the magisteriall censure of such things . every day hath its proper evill , as well the former as these ; and every day hath its proper advantage , as well these as the former . the verie dregs of time , if we endeavour to make a right use of them , may be redeemed into opportunitie . there are two reasons of mens offending in this kinde . . when they look onely upon some particulars , without the consideration of their proper ends , or general frame ; now t is true indeed that some particular events , singly looked upon , may seem very prejudiciall ; but the whole contexture of affairs in their cooperation shall prove for the best . all things shall work together , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} for good to those that love god . ro. . . but now t is above our capacity to comprehend the whole frame of things ; and that is not disorder in respect of the whole , which to us may appear so , being compared with some particulars . you know , that in the naturall body , the variety and dissimilitude of parts , is required to the beauty of the whole ; the roundnesse of the head , the length of the arm , the flatnesse of the hand , blacknesse in one part , and whitenesse in another ; all these being singly compared amongst themselves , though they may seem to argue some opposition and difformitie , yet look upon them as they stand in relation to the whole frame , and it will appear how in their severall waies , they do each of them conduce to its comlinesse and order . if this lower world had in it no changes and varieties , but were in all respects alike , it would not then be so properly {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} a beautiful world , as {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , a lump or masse . . another occasion of mens offending in this kinde , is , when they will judge of events , according as they sute with their own wishes . and in this case , t is impossible that every humor should be satisfied ; because particular desires , ( besides their opposition to one another ) will likewise be inconsistent with the generall design . it would seem better perhaps to every private man , if he himself were a magistrate , or a king , and every common souldier a commander , or a generall . but how could this consist with the exigencies of a commonwealth , or an army , where there must be degrees , and disproportion of places according to the necessitie of severall imployments . t is so in the government of this great universe : that difference which there is , betwixt particular things , and times and persons , doth much conduce to the beauty and convenience of the whole . t is our safest way then to conclude that all matters are for the best , beautiful in their times , though to us they may seem full of disorder and contrariety . thus the apostle , in that remarkable place rom. . . speaking concerning the rejection of the jews , when god would cast off & destroy his peculiar people , and that for his own glory and advantage , he concludes , his judgements are unsearchable , and his wayes past finding out . but of him , and to him , are all things . as if he should have said , god wil do this strange work , and though for my part , i know not the reason of it . his judgements are unsearchable , &c. yet sure i am , that of him , and to him are all things ; that is , as the making of all things , was of his power , so the resolution of all things shall be to his glory . though his judgements are as the great deep , for their obscurity and unmeasurablenesse , not to be fathomed by our shallow apprehensions ; yet his righteousnesse is as the strong mountains , for their eminency and stablenes . psal. . . though clouds and darknesse may be round about him , yet righteousnes and judgement are the habitation of his throne . psal. . . . this may serve for exhortation , to perswade us unto these foure duties . . not to be too hasty in our desire or prosecution of any thing . . not to trouble our selves with any sollicitous care about the successe of things . . to be equally prepared for all future events . . to behave ourselves with chearfulnesse and contentment in all conditions . . hence we learn not to be too hasty in our desire or prosecution of any thing . god best knows the fittest season for every event ; we shall have it when its time is come , and before that , 't would not be beautifull : like snow in harvest ( as the wiseman speaks ) which though it might possibly be some refreshment to our particular , yet would be a deformity in the course of nature . there are some men , whom the prophet styles of a hasty heart , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} isa. . . who are too heady and impatient in their hopes . and it is a weaknesse that arises from our infidelity and distrust of providence . for he that beleeveth , maketh not haste . cap. . . t is gods usuall course to defer what he promises , thereby to exercise our faith , to put an edge on our desires , and a value upon the blessing . in naturall affairs , we are fain to expect the proper season , and maturitie of things ; the husbandman will wait for his harvest , he doth not expect to sowe and reap both in a day . it should be so likewise in other matters ; and since that is alwaies the fittest time for every thing which god appoints , it will become us then patiently to wait his leisure , and not with over-hasty desires to run before him . abraham was fain to tarrie a long time for a son , david for a kingdome ; and the whole world for christ . he that rightly understands the worth of any blessing , & his own want , cannot think much to wait for it . the poore man , at the pool of bethesda , being sensible of his own lamenesse , was content to tarrie there . yeers in hopes of remedie . suppose a promise were deserred to the utmost , yet do but compare the shortnesse of our lives , with the duration of our souls and then no delay can seem tedious . neque enim est aliquid in tam brevibus vitae metis ita serum quod longum expectaere immortalis putet animus . a man conscious to himself of his own immortalitie , cannot think any time long , which is confined within the narrow bounds of life . is there then any mercie which thou expectest ? do not over rashly hasten it , with any indirect project , as if thou wert able to help the providence of god , with wiles and devises of thine owne . though it be long in coming , yet it will come at last , it cannot be more slow then sure . when isaac was layed upon the altar , and bound for a sacrifice , and his fathers hand lift up for the fatal blow , yet then there came a rescue from heaven , which would not have been so beautifull , if by any unlawfull act it had been hastned before that time , either by abrahams sparing his son , or isaacs resisting his father . joseph did undergo a tedious imprisonment in the land of egypt ; t is likely , being the key-keeper , he might have taken his own time , and have scaped when he would but then he had lost his preferment ; whereas by tarrying gods leisure , he was delivered with advantage . though david had been a long while anointed to a kingdome , yet because he did not use any hasty means for the injoying of it , therefore did providence clear the passage for him , and prospered it to him afterwards . he might have killed saul in the cave , and abner too , when he found them sleeping ; but then he had been over-hastie : 't were better they should fall by their enemies . the lord shall smite them when their day shall come to dye . sam. . . and before that , 't would be but rashnes to attempt it . and so likewise when he stopt himself in his haste after nabals life , you know within awhile after , god took him away by his own immediate hand , and gave both his wife and estate to david . an over forwardnesse in the hastning of our hopes , is the ready way to imbitter them unto us . you know how much trouble and contention there grew , from that hasty act of sarah , when in her distrust of the promise , and fear of being childlesse , she must needs give hagar to abraham . so likewise for jacobs too much haste in getting the blessing by a wrong means ; you know it cost him afterwards , many dangers , and a tedious exile . whereas if he had tarried longer , god wold have brought it about for him by a more easie and beautifull way . gods time is the best , and he never fails his own season , i the lord will hasten it in its time . isa. . for us to measure the fitnesse of seasons by our own weak apprehensions , is not this to set the son by our diall ? we are too short-sighted , apt to ante-date the promises . the lord will arise and have mercy upon sion , wben the time to favour her ; ye a when the set time is come . psal. . . . hence we learn not to trouble our selves with any sollicitous care about the successe of things . to serve providence is the usuall means , that is our work ; but the issue and event of things that's gods work , we , have nothing to do in it . that which is not under our power , should not be under our care . if there be nothing at our disposall , but that all events do depend upon an higher providence , 't were but a vain thing then to busie our selves , with hopes and fears about them . much of the disquietnes amongst men in the world arises from hence , that they busie themselves about gods work , and neglect their own . is there then an evill thou fearest , why t is not in the power of any creatureto hurt thee . though men should use plots , and threats against thee , yet they can do nothing . they sate together , and counselled against david , devising to take away his life , psal. . . but what was his comfort , why , saith he , ver. . my times are in thy hands o lord . he knew that no ill successe towards him , was in the power of others . or is there an evil thou feelest ? why it comes from the hand of god . be not then impatient at the instrument . t is but a childish , currish thing to beat the rod , or bite the stone that hurt thee . david could quietly undergo the railing of shimei , when once he had discerned in it the providence of god . or is there a good thou hopest for ? why it is not within the reach of thy abilities . and therefore 't were but in vain to think thou couldst command it by thine own endeavours . we should count it a mad thing for one that is naturally lowe , to busie himself in the study and labour of growing tall , because this is not alterable by any thing in our power ; since no man can adde one cubit to his stature . why t is so in other things likewise , god doth as well set bounds to our estates , as to our statures ; and of our selves , we can as little adde one penny to that , as one cubit to this . and therefore , never let any one think that he can raise himself as he pleases , and be the master of his own fortunes . though he were furnished with the greatest helps and probabilities of advancement . yet the battell is not alwayes to the strong , nor the race to the swift ; neither bread to the wise , nor yet riches to men of understanding , nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and ehance happens to them all . that is , there is a secret providence , which doth so unavoidably dispose of these lower events , that the likeliest means we can use , cannot promise us any certain successe . they that with a compasse wisdom will belay events , that with forecasts , and provisions will binde providence , for the most part , are not onely disappointed in what they hoped for , but do meet with a curse instead of it . see that place , isa. . . behold , all ye that kindle a fire , that compasse your selves about with sparks , walk in the light of your fire , and in the sparks that you have kindled ; this shall you have of my hands , you shall lye down in sorrow . . hence we learn to be equally prepared for all future events , not wishing for one more then another . what ever comes to passe shall be beautifull , and therefore should be welcome . all things that befall us shal lead us on to the same journeys end , happines . and therefore we should not in our expectation of future matters ingage our selves in the desire of any particular successe . but with a travailers indifferency ( as epictetus speaks in arian . ) who when he comesto doubtfull turnings , doth not desire one way should be true more then another . so should we entertain every thing that we meet with in our passage through this life . especially since we are sure , that there is none of them , but if we belong to god , shall further us in that which is our main businesse , our journey to happinesse . and therefore to be very sollicitous about any particular successe , what is it but to limit and confine the power of god ? nay , to prefer our own policy before the wisedome of providence , as if we alone were able to discern what would be the best issue of things . mark how the same heathen bespeaks such a person . thou foolish man ( saith he ) doest thou not desire that which will be most convenient for thee ? and can there be any thing better then what god appoints . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . wherfore by such immoderate and eager desires , thou doest ( as much as in thee lies ) to corrupt thy judge , and seduce thy counsellor . the stoicks have many excellent passages to this purpose . nunquam sapientem poenitentia subit , ( saith seneca ) quia nihil melius illo tempore fieri potuit quam quod factum est . a wise man is never troubled at any crosse event , he knows nothing could have been better then it is . omnia illi succedunt , nihil praeter opinionem accidit . all things are successefull to him , he is disappointed in nothing , because indifferent to every thing . whilest others are tossed up and down betwixt hopes and fears , his mind is established . now if meer reason could advance heathen men to such resolutions , much more then should a christians faith in the providence of god , with those many promises wherein he hath an interest , raise his minde to this heroick temper , and make him bend himself with a submissive compliance unto every condition . ob. but what then , may not a man ( nay should he not ) be very earnest in his desires and prayers , for some particusar deliverance or blessing ? i answer . yes . but in all temporall matters , it must be still with a tacit submission to the will of god , who knows better what is fit for us , then we our selves . see the example of david to this purpose . sam. . . he was there put to a verie great exigence , his son absolon , had suddenly raised a great army against him , in so much as he was fain to fly for his life . there were some of the priests adhered to him , and followed him with the ark . but he , upon serious thoughts desires them to return again . for ( saith he ) if i shall finde favour in the eyes of the lord , he will bring me again , and shew me both it and his hahitation ; but if he thus say unto me , i have no delight in thee , behold here i am , let him do to me , as seemeth good unto him . here 's no deep anxietie or aestuation of spirit . no bitter exclaiming against his unnaturall son , and disloyall subjects , but a quiet succumbency , an indifferent composure of minde , which resolves to be content in every condition . he puts the case both wayes , and is provided for either . if it prove after this manner , why then so . if otherwise , then thus . so true is that common emblem , that every wise man is a cube or dye , not to be flung from his bottom . let him be cast any way , he still lights upon his right basis , whatever his condition may be , si fractus illabotur orbis , yet his minde is still calm and peaceable . ob. but would you have a man turn stoick ? should he not be troubled at the afflictions that befall him ? sol. i answer . yes : he must be sensible of his sufferings , and consequently cannot but grieve under them ; especially so far as his own sin and neglect hath occasioned them . but then it should be his care to quiet his heart from immoderate trouble , by the confideration of that wise providence , who doth dispose of all for the best . . lastly , hence we learn , to behave our selves with chearfulnesse and contentment under all those conditions which the providence of god shall think fittest for us . t is the wisemans own inference from the text , in the verses immediately after it . there is nothing better then for a man to rejoyce , and do good in his life ; that he should eat and drink , and injoy the good of his labour . for if every thing be best which god appoints , we have no reason then to be troubled at any event . what though it do crosse our desires , yet 't would not have been so well , if it had been otherwise . things cannot be better with us then they are . david thought it a hard case , that his childe by bathsheba must dye . but did he loose any thing by it ? was it not better for him to have such a legitimate heir as solomon was ? we are but ill contrivers of our own welfare , and therefore should without murmuring submit our selves and affairs to the government of providence . what though that do straiten us in our desires ? you are content to let the physitian bar you of many things , because he hath cast your water , felt your pulse . consider then , doth it not as much concern us to provide for the salvation of our souls , as the health of our bodies ? or doth not god understand this , as well as the physitian that ? what reason have we then to repine at his proceedings ? he was a wise son in plutarch , who being told by a friend that his father would dis-inherit him ; answered , non faciet nisi faciendum : he will do nothing but what he should . thus should a christian willingly resigne up himself in every condition to the disposall of providence . do but apply this consideration according to the severall occasions of your lives . when your hearts are at any time amazed or dejected with the thought of the publick confusions ; remember , that god sits in heaven , observing and ordering all these inferior motions for the best . and so too in the case of particular sufferings , t is likely that there is not any amongst you , but hath some kinde of private trouble & grievance to which he is more especially exposed . either weaknes of body , or too narrow a fortune , losses in your estates , disappointment in yourhopes , unhappie relations , or the like . and these things as we are men , cannot chuse but grate upon our spirits , with some kinde of harshnesse and discontent . but now , as beleevers , we have a remedie against them . for consider , there is nothing befals us by chance . all things are ordered by the deliberate counsell and fore-knowledge of god . he is as exactly carefull of every one of us , as if he had nothing else to look after . do not think that any trouble befals you ( because he doth not regard , for his care & providence doth extend to all things ; nor because he cannot help , for he is almighty ; nor because he will not , for he is equally infinite in all his attributes ; but because his wisedome finds that condition to be fittest for thee ; there is some thing amisse which shold be mended . when the superfluous humour is corrected , the physicall potion shal be taken away . and t is not reasonable to expect physick and health both together . when the wound is healed , the smarting plaister shall be removed . and thou mayest confidently say with david , psal. . . i know o lord that thy judgements are right , and that thou in faithfulnes hast afflicted me . how happy might we be , if we could settle our hearts upon these considerations ? finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- psal. . ier. . eccles. . cap. . . c. . . c. v. c. . v. . prov. . eccles . . act. . . eccles. . . c. . . psal. . . ioh. . isa. . , . psal. . , , . notes for div a e- * {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} this very sutable to the originall . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} propos. confirmation by testimony divine . so ier. . . iob . . chron. . prov. . ver. . humane testimony . bacons sap. vet. examples . david . jonah . paul & barnabas . matth. . . ver. , , . confirmation by reason . reason . * like that of the poet : non vacat exiguis rebus adesse jovi . reas. vindication from doubts & objections psal. . . pet. . . application . use . for information . isa . . v. , , . ephes. . . tim . , . eccles. . cap. . . eccles. . . iob , . psal. . . rom. . . . use . for reproof . isa. . . isa . , epictetus king. . . matt. . ephes. . . use . for exhortation . prov. . . translat . fearfull . boetius . consol. lib . sam. . . . . psal . ver. . eccles. . . disert. li . . ca. . de benef. lib. . . ob. sol. ob. sol. v. , . aequum est ut homini placet , quicquid placet deo.