A1r

The
Principles

Of the most Ancient and Modern
Philosophy,

Concerning
God, Christ, and the Creatures, viz.
of Spirit and Matter in general,
whereby may be resolved all those
Problems or Difficulties, which
neither by the School nor Common
Modern Philosophy, nor by the
Cartesian, Hobbesian, or Spinosian,
could be discussed.

Being
A little Treatise published since the Author’s
Death, translated out of the English
into Latin, with Annotations taken
from the Ancient Philosophy of the Hebrews;
and now again made English.

By J. C. Medicinæ Professor.

Printed in Latin at Amsterdam, by M.
Brown
, 16901690. And Reprinted at London,
16921692.

A1v

Advertisement.

Having the care of the Publication of this Piece committed
to my Charge, I thought, for the Good of the
Publick, to give them the knowledge of the following
Elixir, &c.

The Elixir Proprietatis (so highly commended by
the Renowned Paracelsus and Helmont) it resisteth
all Putrefaction of the Blood, strengtheneth the Digestive
Faculty. Its Excellent Virtues are prevalent in the Curing of
continual Fevers, Quotidian and Tertian Agues, Small
Pox
, and Measles, or Swine Pox, with other Pestilential
Distempers; as also the Palsy, Apoplexy, Falling-Sickness,
Asthma’s, Tabes
, or Consumption of the Lungs. Its
Dose is from 10 to 20, 30, or 40 drops in a Glass of Sack.
This Noble Elixir is Philosophically prepared, by John
Spire, Chymico Medicus
, at four Shillings the Ounce.
Who hath, by his Labour and Study in the Chymical Art,
attained unto several secret Arcanums, (not vulgarly
known) particularly a Soveraign Remedy for the Gout.
If any one is desirous therefore, or the aforesaid “Elixir Proprietatis,”
Let them apply themselves to my Friend,
Mr. Dorman Newman, at the King’s Arms in the Poultry,
and the Author at his House in Horsly-down-Fair-
street, Southwark
; or at his Country House, at the upper
end of Twitnam, near the Sign of the White-Hart,
in Middlesex.

A2r

To The
Reader.

Courteous Reader.

We have (for thy sake) published
this little Treatise,
which was written not many Years
ago, by a certain English Countess,
a Woman learned beyond her Sex,
being very well skill’d in the Latin
and Greek Tongues, and excellently
well vers’d in all kinds of Philosophy;
who when she had first
taken in the Principles of Cartes, and
seeing its defects, afterwards by
reading certain Writings of very
Ancient Philosophy, she observed
so many things, that she wrote these
few Chapters for her own use; but A2 in A2v
in a very dull and small Character;
which being found after her Death
is partly transcribed (for the rest
could scarcely be read) and published
in Latin, that thereby the
whole World might be in some
sort benefitted, and so the same become
of Publick Good; to the end
that whosoever he be that worthily
Esteems the Author, may acknowledge
true Philosophy, and
so the more easily shun those Errors,
which are now, alas! too
common.

Quibus tu fruere & vale.

The A3r

The
Translator
to the
Reader.

Judicious Reader,

Thou may’st (peradventure)
no less wonder at the strangeness
of the Paradox, than at the publication
hereof in an English Dialect,
and the rather because it is no vulgar
Theme, and consequently above the reach
of vulgar Capacities, whom (lest it should
be more apt to distract than instruct) I
should rather advise to rest satisfied with
what for the present they know, than either
to covet or condemn more than they
do, or are capable to apprehend: Yet, by
the way, let me advise thee to suspend thy A3v
thy censures, (which at first view, ’tis
probable, thou may’st be subject to entertain,)
as supposing the Doctrine herein
asserted more easily oppugnable than indeed
it is) till thou hast passed a serious
examination on all the particulars herein
insisted upon: For Aliquando mens
cogitat quæ ratio non probat
. As
to the Translation it self, as I hope none
but envious Criticks will be offended
thereat, so I shall endeavour, though
briefly, yet fully, to satisfie every impartial
and unprejudiced Reader, both as to
the Circumstance, and principal Reason
inducing me hereunto, which is as follows.
Being some time since in Holland,
and in Conference with the renowned
F. M. B. van Helmont, then
resident at Amsterdam, it so hapned
that I demanded of the said Helmont,
if he had published, or did intend to publish
any new Books of his own, or others
Works, who presently directed me where I A4r
I might procure certain Books, published
by his Order, which accordingly I did;
two whereof were extant in Latin, the
other in Nether-Dutch; this being the
Works of an English Countess (after a
brief perusal) I have endeavoured to render
into an English Stile, as familiar as
the Language would conveniently admit,
without some abuse to the Author. One
Reason that led me to it, was the earnest
request of a Friend; the other was, that
I did not doubt but this little Treatise
might happen into the Hands of some ingenious
and well-disposed Persons, who
(though not furnished with those artificial
Helps and Advantages that Learning
usually affords; yet nevertheless being
qualified by a natural pregnancy of parts,
by many serious Studies and deliberate
Thoughts of this or the like Nature) might
be competent Judges of such Mysteries;
or that it might fortunately light into the
Hands of such whose eminency of Learning,ing, A4v
and maturity of Judgment, might
render them either willing to approve it,
or able to refute it, and that too with a
better Salvo of Divine Attributes than
is done in this Treatise. Now, wishing
thee the compleat enjoyment of all Temporal
Blessings here, and the full fruition
and possession of Eternal Happiness hereafter,
I conclude this present Epistle,
and subscribe myself

Thine,
in all real Service,


J. C.

B1r

The Principles of the Ancient and
Modern Philosophy: Concerning
God, Christ, and the Creature;
that is, concerning Spirit,
and Matter in General.

Chap. 1.
Concerning God, and his Attributes.

§. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Of God and his Divine
Attributes. §. 6, 7. How a Trinity may
be conceived to be in God, according to
the Scriptures; and yet without Offence
to Turks, Jews, or any other People;
though we should omit the Terms of Three
distinct Persons, which are neither built
upon Scripture or sound Reason.

§.1.

God is a Spirit, Light, and Life,
infinitely Wise, Good, Just,
Mighty, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent,
Creator and Maker of all things
visible and invisible. See Adumbratio B Kab- B1v 2
Kabbalæ Christianæ
, Chap. 2. §. 2---7.

Kabbl. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 2. Part 3.

§. 2. In God there is neither Time nor
Change, nor Composition, nor Division
of Parts: He is wholly and universally
one in himself, and of himself, without
any manner of Variety or Mixture: He
hath no manner of Darkness, or Corporiety
in him, and so consequently no kind of
Form or Figure whatsoever. See Philosoph.
Kabbalistic. dissertatio.
Ch. 3 in Kabbal.
denud.
Kabbala Denudata
Tom. 1. Part 3.

§. 3. He is also in a proper and real
sence, a Substance or Essence distinct from
his Creatures, although he is not divided,
or separated from them; but most strictly
and in the highest degree intimately
present in them all; yet so as they are
not parts of him, nor can be changed into
him, nor he into them: He is also in
a true and proper sence a Creator of all
Things, who doth not only give them
their Form and Figure, but also Being, Life,
Body, and whatsoever else of Good they
have. See Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1. Part 2.
Pag. 30. 332.

§. 4. Seeing then that in him there
is no Time, nor any Mutability, hence it is B2r 3
is that in him there can exist no new
Knowledge or Will, but his Knowledge and
Will are Eternal, and without or above
time. See Philosoph. Kabbalistic. Dissertatio
3. Ch. 1. in Kabbal. denudat.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1.
Part 3.
& ibid. Ch. 6.

§. 5. Likewise in God there can exist
no Passion, which to speak properly comes
from his Creatures: For every Passion is
something Temporal, and hath its Beginning,
and end with Time.

§. 6. In God is an Idea, which is
the Image of himself, or a Word existing
within him; which in Substance or Essence
is one and the same with him, by
which he knows not only himself, but
all other things, and according to which,
yea by which Idea or Word, all things
were made and created.

§. 7. By the like Reason in God is a
Spirit or Will which proceeds from him,
and yet as to Substance or Essence is something
one with him, by which Creatures
receive their Being and Activity: For
Creatures have their Being and Existence
simply and alone from him, because God
would have them to be, whose Will is
according to Knowledge most infinite. B2 And B2v 4
And thus Wisdom and Will in God, are
not a certain Substance or Being distinct
from him; but only distinct Manners or
Properties of one and the same Substance;
and seeing this is that which some of the
Wisest and most Judicious Christians understand
by the Word Trinity. If now we
should neglect that. Phrase of Three distinct
Persons, which is a Stone of Offence
to Jews as well as Turks, and other People,
and indeed in it self hath no sound Reason,
nor can be any where found in Scripture;
yet all would easily agree in this
point: For they cannot deny that God
hath Wisdom, and an Essential Idea, and
such a Word in himself by which he
knows all things; and when they grant
he giveth all Things their Being, they
will be necessarily forced to acknowledge
that there is a Will in him, by which he
can accomplish and bring that into Act
which was hid in the Idea, that is, can
produce it, and from thence make a distinct
Essential Substance; and this alone
is to create, viz. the Essence of a Creature:
Nevertheless the Idea alone doth
not give being to the Creature; but the
Will join’d with the Idea, as when a Master- B3r 5
Master-Builder conceives in his Mind the
Idea of an House, he doth not build that
House by the Idea alone, but the Will is
joined with the Idea, and co-operates
therewith.

Annotations on this first Chapter.

The Ancient Hypothesis of the Hebrews,
as to what pertains to the
latter Contents of this Chapter, is this:

1. Seeing God was of all the most exceeding
great and infinite Light, and yet
the chiefest Good: For this Reason he
would make Creatures to whom he might
communicate himself: But these could in
no wise bear the exceeding greatness of
his Light: And hereunto belong those
Scripture sayings, “God dwelleth in an inapproachable
Light. No Man hath seen God
at any Time”
, &c.

2. He diminished therefore (for the
sake of his Creatures) the highest Degree
of his most intense Light, that there might
be room for his Creatures, from whence
Place immediately arose, as it were a certain
Circular Vacuity or Space of Worlds.

B3 3. This B3v 6

3. This Vacuum was not a mere Privation
or Non ens, but a certain real Position
of Light, diminutively, which was
the Soul of the Messias, called by the Hebrews,
Adam Kadmon, which filled all that
whole Space.

4. This Soul of the Messias was united
with that whole Light of the Divinity,
which remained within that Vacuum, in a
more mild degree, that could be born, and
with it made up one Subject.

5. This Messias (called λόɣ, or Word,
or First Begotten Son of God,) having
made a new Diminution of his Light, for
the benefit of his Creatures, framed or
made within himself the whole Series or
Orders of all Creatures.

6. To whom he might farther communicate
the Light or Rays of his Divine
Nature, as the Objects of Contemplation
and Love; which were the unitive Acts
of the Creator and Creatures; in which
Union the Happiness of the Creatures did
consist.

7. Here therefore occurs the Trinity of
Divine Representation: And the first Conception
is, that God is infinite, to be considered
without and above Production. Secondly, B4r 7
Secondly, God is the same as in the Messias.
Thirdly, that God is the same, as
when with the Messias in the Creatures
fitted by the least degree of Light to the
perception of his Creatures. Hitherto belongs
that Scripture, saying, “No Man hath
seen God at any time: the Son who is in
the Bosom of the Father hath revealed him
to us”
.

8. But it is common with the Hebrews
to use the Term of Persons, yet so as that
by it they do not mean a singular Suppositum,
but a Conception only, or kind of
Representation, or Method of Consideration.
See Adumbratio Kabbal. ChristianAdumbratio Kabbalæ Christianæ.
Chap. 23.

B4 Chap. B4v 8

Chap. II.

§. 1. Although Creatures are not Co-eternal
with God; yet they had infinite Times
from the Beginning. §. 2. So that no
Number of Years, no not the greatest
that any created Intellect can conceive,
can reach to their Beginning. §. 3. Creatures
were in one sence from Eternity,
and in another sence not from Eternity.
§. 4. Infinity of Times is proved from the
infinite Goodness of God. §. 5. It is an
Essential Attribute of God to be a Creator.
§. 6. What Time is, and how the
same cannot be in God.

§. 1. Forasmuch as all Creatures
are, and do exist simply, or
alone from him; because God willed them
to be, whose Will is infinitely powerful,
and whose Commandment, without any
Instrument or Instrumental Cause, is the
only Efficient to give Being unto his Creatures:
Hence is necessarily follows, seeing
the Will of God is Eternal, or from Eternity,
that Creation must immediately follow B5r 9
follow the said Will, without any Interposition
of Time: And though it cannot
be said, that Creatures considered in themselves,
are Co-eternal with God; because
after this rate Eternity and Time would
be confounded together; yet nevertheless
the Creatures, and that Will which
created then, are so mutually present, and
so immediately happen one after another;
that nothing can be said to come in
between; even as if two Circles should
immediately touch each other: Neither
can we assign any other Beginning to
Creatures, but God himself, and his Eternal
Will, which is according to his Eternal
Idea or Wisdom. Hence it follows
by Natural Consequence, that Times from
the Creation are Infinite, and without all
Number, which no created Intellect can
conceive: How then can this be Finite
or Measured, which had no other beginning
but Eternity it self.

§. 2. But if any one will say, “Times
are Finite”
, then let us suppose the Measure
of them from the Beginning, to be
about 6000 Years, (even as some do think
that the whole Age of this World, from
the Beginning, is of no greater Extent,) or B5v 10
or with others (who think that before this
World, there was another invisible World,
from whence this visible World proceeded;)
let us suppose the Duration of this
World to be 600000 Years, or any other
Number of Years, as great as can be by
any Reason conceived: Now I demand
whether it could be, that the World was
created before this time? If they deny it,
they limit the Power of God to a certain
Number of Years; if they affirm it, they
allow Time to be before all time, which
is a manifest Contradiction.

§. 3. These things being premised it
will be easie to Answer to that Question,
wherewith Numbers have been so exceedingly
perplexed: Whether Creation was
made or could be made from Eternity,
or from Everlasting? If by Eternity, and
Everlasting, they mean an Infinite Number
of Times; in this sence Creation was
made from Everlasting: But if they mean
such an Eternity, as God himself hath,
so as to say, “Creatures are Equal or Coeternal
with God, and to have no beginning
of Time”
, this is false: For both Creatures
and Times (which are nothing else
but successive Motions and Operations of
Created Beings) had a Beginning, which is B6r 11
is God or the Eternal Will of God, and
why should it seem strange to any one
that Times in their whole Collection or
Universality, may be said to be Infinite,
when the least part of Time that can be
conceived, contains in it self a kind of Infinity?
For as there is no Time so great,
that a greater cannot be conceived; so
there is no time so small, but there may
be a less; for the sixtieth part of a Minute
may be divided into sixty other parts,
and these again into others, and so ad infinitum.

§. 4. But the Infiniteness of Times
from the beginning of Creation may be
likewise demonstrated from the Goodness
of God; For God is infinitely Good, Loving,
and Bountiful; yea, Goodness and
Charity it self; an infinite Fountain, and
Father of Goodness, Charity, and Bounty.
Now how can it be, that this Fountain
shall not always plentifully flow, and send
from it self Living Waters? And shall not
this Ocean perpetually abound with its
own Efflux to the Production of Creatures,
and that with a certain continual
Stream? For the Goodness of God in its
own proper Nature is Communicative,
and Multiplicative, and seeing in him nothingthing B6v 12
is wanting, neither can any thing
be added unto him, by reason of his absolute
fulness, and transcendent fertility:
And also seeing by the same reason he
cannot multiply himself, which would be
all one, as if we should imagine there were
more Gods than one, which is contradictory:
Now it necessarily follows, that
he did give Being to his Creatures from
everlasting, or Times without Number;
or else this Communicative Goodness of
God, which is his Essential Attribute, would
be something Finite, and its Duration consist
of a certain Number of Years, than
which nothing is more absurd.

§. 5. It is an Essential Attribute of God,
to be a Creator, and so by Consequence
God ever was a Creator, and ever will be
a Creator, because otherwise he would be
changed. And therefore Creatures ever
were, and ever will be; but the Eternity
of Creatures is nothing else, but an Infinity
of Times, in which they ever were,
and ever will be without end: Neither is
this Infiniteness of Times equal to the Infiniteness
of God’s Eternity; because the
Eternity of God himself, hath no Times
in it; nothing therein can be said to be past B7r 13
past, or to come, but the whole is always
present: He is indeed in Times; but not
comprehended of them. Although the
Hebrews seem to speak somewhat different
from this (as appears in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata
Tom. 1. Part 2. pag. 29, 30.
and Philosoph.
Kabbal. dissertat.
3. Ch. 6, 7 in Kab. denud.Kabbala Denudata
Tom 1. Part 3.
) yet they do not contradict
this Opinion, because they allow an
indefinite Duration of Times. Confes. Adumbrat.
Kabbal. Christian.
Ch. 7. §. 4, 5, 7.
in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 2. Tract. ult.

§. 6. And the reason hereof is manifest;
because Time is nothing else but the successive
Motion or Operation of Creatures;
which Motion or Operation, if it should
cease, Time would also cease, and the
Creatures themselves would cease with
Time: Wherefore such is the Nature of
every Creature, that it is in Motion, or
hath a certain Motion, by means of which
it advances forward, and grows to a farther
perfection. And seeing in God there
is no successive Motion or Operation to a
farther perfection; because he is most absolutely
perfect. Hence there are no
Times in God or his Eternity.

And moreover, because there are no
Parts in God, there are also no Times in him; B7v 14
him, for “all Times have their Parts, and
are indeed infinitely divisible”
, as before
was said.

Chap. III.

§. 1. God is the most free Agent, and yet
of all the most necessary. §.2. Indifferency
of Will, which the School-men
imagined to be in God, is a mere Fiction.
§. 3. God created the World, not for
any external necessity, but out of the internal
impulse of his Divine Goodness
and Wisdom. §. 4. Creatures were created
Infinite, and there are Worlds Infinite.
§. 5. The least Creature that we
can conceive hath within it Infinite Creatures.
§. 6. Yet that doth not make
Creatures equal with God. §. 7. A refutation
of those imaginary Spaces, which
the Schools did imagine to exist without
the Creatures. §. 8. Successive Motion
hath no place in God. §. 9. An Answer to
the Objection. §. 10. All Creatures
are united after a certain manner.

§. 1. Moreover, if the afore-mentioned
Attributes of God
be duly considered, and especially these two; B8r 15
two; to wit, his Wisdom and Goodness,
that Indifferency of Will, which the
Schoolmen, and Philosophers falsly so
called, have imagined to be in God, will
be utterly refuted, and wholly turned out
of Doors; which also they have improperly
called Free-Will; for although the
Will of God be most free, so that whatsoever
he doth in the behalf of his Creatures,
he doth freely without any external
Violence, Compulsion, or any Cause coming
from them: Whatsoever he doth, he
doth of his own accord: Yet that Indifference
of acting, or not acting, can by no
means be said to be in God, because this
were an Imperfection, and would make
God like corruptible Creatures; for this
Indifference of Will is the Foundation of
all Change, and Corruptibility in Creatures;
so that there would be no evil in
Creatures if they were not changeable.
Therefore, if the same should be supposed
to be in God, he must be supposed to be
changeable, and so would be like corruptible
Man, who often doth a thing out of
his mere pleasure, not out of a true and
solid Reason, or the guidance of Wisdom;
in which he is like to those Cruel Tyrants
which are in the World, who act many things B8v 16
things out of their mere Will or Pleasure,
relying on their Power, so that they can
render no other Reason for what they do,
than that it is their mere Pleasure; whereas
any good Man of them that acts, or is
about to act can render a suitable reason
for it, and that because he knows and understands
that true Goodness and Wisdom
hath required him to do it, wherefore he
Wills that it be effected, because it is just,
so that if he should not do it he would
neglect his Duty.

§. 2. For true Justice or Goodness
hath in it self no Latitude or Indifference;
but is like up to a certain right line, drawn
from one point to another, where it cannot
be said two or more Lines can be indifferently
drawn between two Points, and
yet all right Lines; because there can be
but one that is a right Line, and the rest
will be crooked or bending, and that more
or less as they depart, or are distant from
that one right Line, above-mentioned:
Whence it is manifest, this Indifference of
Will hath no place in God, by reason it
is an Imperfection; who though he be
the most free Agent, yet he is also above
all the most necessary Agent; so that it is
impossible that he should not do, whatsoeversoever C1r 17
he doth in or for his Creatures; Seeing
his Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and
Justice, is a Law unto him, which he cannot
Transgress. Philosoph. Kabbal. dissertat.
3. Cap. 6, 7. in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1.
Part. 3.

§. 3. Hence therefore it evidently follows,
that it was not indifferent to God,
whether he would give Being to his Creatures
or no; but he made them out of a
certain Internal impulse of his Divine Wisdom
and Goodness, and so he created the
World or Creatures assoonas soon as he could:
For this is the Nature of a necessary Agent,
to do whatsoever it can; therefore seeing
he could create the World or Creatures in
Infinite Times, before 6000 Years, or before
60000 Years, or 600000, &c. Hence
it follows he hath done it; For God can entirely
do that which implies no contradiction;
but this doth not imply a contradiction,
if the Worlds or Creatures be
said to have been or existed in Infinite
Times, before this Moment; even as they
are Infinite Times after this Moment: If
there be no contradiction in the latter, there
is also no contradiction in the former.

§. 4. These Attributes duly considered,
it follows, that Creatures were created in C Infinite C1v 18
Infinite Numbers, or that there is an Infinity
of Worlds or Creatures made of God:
For seeing God is infinitely powerful, there
can be no Number of Creatures so great,
that he cannot always make more: And
because, as is already proved, he doth whatsoever
he can do; certainly his Will, Goodness,
and Bounty, is as large and extensive
as his Power; whence it manifestly follows,
that Creatures are Infinite, and created in
Infinite Manners; so that they cannot be
limited or bounded with any Number or
Measure: For Example; Let us suppose
the whole Universality of Creatures to be
a Circle, whose Semi-diameter shall contain
so many Diameters of the Earth, as
there are Grains of Dust, or Sand, in the
whole Globe of the Earth; and if the same
should be divided into Atomes, so small
that 100000 of them could be contained in
one grain of Poppy-seed: Now who can
deny, but the Infinite Power of God, could
have made this Number greater, and yet
still greater, even to an Infinite Multiplication?
Seeing it is more easie to this Infinite
Power, to multiply the real Beings
of Creatures, than for a skilful Arithmetician
to make any Number greater and
greater, which can never be so great, but that C2r 19
that it may be (by Addition or Multiplication)
encreased ad inifinitum: And farther,
seeing it is already demonstrated, that
God is a necessary Agent, and doth whatsoever
he can do: It must needs be, that
he doth multiply, and yet still continues
to multiply and augment the Essences of
Creatures, ad infinitum. Concerning Infinity
see Philosoph. Kabbal. Dissert. 1. Cap.
6. Dissert. 3. C. 1.
in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom.
1. Part 3.
Whence Creatures are rather
termed Indefinite than Infinite.

§. 5. Also by the like Reason is proved,
that not only the whole Body or System
of Creatures considered together,
is Infinite, or contains in it self a kind of
Infinity; but also that every Creature, even
the least that we can discern with our Eyes,
or conceive in our Minds, hath therein such
an Infinity of Parts, or rather entire Creatures,
that they cannot be numbred; even
as it cannot be denied, that God can place
one Creature within another, so he can
place two as well as one, and four as well
as two, so also eight as well as four, so that
he could multiply them without end, always
placing the less within the greater.
And seeing no Creature can be so small,
that there cannot be always a less; so no C2 Crea- C2v 20
Creature is so great that there cannot be always
a greater: Now it follows, that in the
least Creature there may exist, or be comprehended
Infinite Creatures, which may be
all of them Bodies, and after a sort, in regard
of themselves, impenetrable one of
another. As to those Creatures which are
Spirits, and can penetrate each other, in
every created Spirit, there may be some
Infinity of Spirits, all which Spirits may
be of equal extension, as well with the aforesaid
Spirit, as they are one with another;
for in this case those Spirits are more
Subtile and Æthereal, which penetrate the
Gross and more Corporeal, whence here
can be no want of Room, that one must
be constrained to give place to another.
Of the Nature of Bodies and Spirits, more
shall be said in its proper place, this being
sufficient to demonstrate, that in every
Creature, whether the same be a Spirit or
a Body, there is an Infinity of Creatures,
each whereof contains an Infinity, and again
each of these, and so ad infinitum.

§. 6. All these do greatly extol and set
forth the great Power and Goodness of
God, for that his Eternity is clearly seen
by the Works of his Hands; yea in every
Creature that he hath made: Nor can it be C3r 21
be objected, we make Creatures equal with
God; for as one Infinite may be greater
than another, so God is still Infinitely
greater than all his Creatures, and that
without any comparison. And thus indeed
the Invisible Things of God are clearly
seen, as they are understood by, or in those
things, which are made; for by how much
the greater and more Magnificent the
Works are, by so much the more is the
Greatness of the Workman seen: Therefore
those who teach, that the whole Number
of Creatures is Finite, and consists of
so many Individuals as may be numbred;
and that the whole Body of the Universe
takes up just so many Acres or Miles, or
Diameters of the Earth, according to Longitude,
Latitude, and Profundity, consider
so great Majesty with too low and unbeseeming
a Conception; and so that God
which they fansie to themselves, is not the
true God, but an Idol of their own Imagination,
whom they confine to so narrow
an Habitation, as a few little Bees
shut up within the limits of an Hive, containing
the measure of a few Inches: for
what else is that World, which they suppose,
in respect of that truly great and Universal
World above described?

C3 §. 7. C3v 22

§. 7. But if they say, “they do not shut
up God within this Finite Universe, but do
imagine him to exist in Infinite imaginary
Spaces, as well without as within it.”
To
this may be answered, “If those Spaces are
merely imaginary; certainly then they are
nothing but Foolish Fictions of the Brain;
but if they are real Beings, what can they
be but Creatures of God?”
Besides, either
God Works in those Spaces, or he doth
not: if he doth not, then God is not there;
for wheresoever he is, there he worketh;
seeing this is his Nature, that he must so
act, as it is the Nature of Fire to burn, or
of the Sun to shine: For so God perpetually
worketh; and his Work is to Create, or
give Being to Creatures, according to that
Eternal Idea or Wisdom which is in him.
According to the Hebrews, God is Infinite,
whom they call Ænsoph; for that he is said
to exist without the Space of the World,
because the Creature could not contain the
Immensity of his Light. See what is said
in Annotations on the First Chapter. Neither
is he said to exist in imaginary Spaces,
because no place plainly agrees with God;
but he may be said to operate there by his
simple activity: But whatsoever is wrought
in, and by the way of the Creatures, is done C4r 23
done by the Messias, who is not so Immense
as Ænsoph himself.

§. 8. But this continual Action or Operation
of God, as it is in him, or proceeds from
him, or hath respect unto him, is one only
continual Act or Command of his Will,
neither hath Time nor Succession in it; nor
first, nor latter; but is together, and always
present with God; so that nothing of him
is either past or to come, because he hath
not parts: But so far as he appears or terminates
in Creatures, he hath Time and Succession
of parts: And though this may seem
very difficult to be comprehended, yet it
can be sufficiently evinced by sound reason:
And will not this plain and common Example
following, a little help our Understanding
herein? Suppose a great Circle or
Wheel to be moved by a Centre, whereas
the Centre always remains in one place,
even as some do think the Sun after this
manner to be moved about his Centre (by
some Angel or Spirit remaining in the
Centre) within the space of so many days.
Now albeit the Centre moves the whole
Wheel, and causes a great and continual
Motion in the same; yet that always resteth,
neither is it in the least moved: How
much more then is the same in God, who C4 is C4v 24
is the First Mover in all his Creatures, according
to all their true and appointed Motions,
yet he is not moved of them? But
that in him which hath an Analogy or Agreement
with the Motions or Operations
of Creatures, is the Government of his
Will, which (to speak properly) is not Motion,
because every Motion is successive,
and cannot have place in God, as is above
demonstrated.

§. 9. But against what we have delivered
(that the least Creature conceivable,
hath in it Infinite Creatures; so
that the least Particle of Body or Matter
may be Infinite ways extended, and divided
into parts less, and yet still lesser, and
lesser) some may frame this following Objection.
That which is actually divisible,
so far as an actual division can any ways be
made, is divisible into parts indiscerpible;
but Matter or Body (to wit, that Matter
that is entire or compound) is actually divisible
so far as an actual division can any
ways be made, therefore, &c. I Answer,
“this Argument labours under that fallacy
which Logicians call Compositiones non Componendorum,”
which is a Conjunction of
Words, or Terms, that imply a contradiction
or absurdity, and that appears in this C5r 25
this Term, actually divisible, which signifies
one and the same thing to be divided,
and not to be divided; for Actually denotes
Division, and Divisible not Division,
but only a capacity to be divided, which
is as absurd and contradictory, as if one
should say “visibly blind”, or sensibly insensible”,
or “livingly dead”; but if by the Terms
“Actually Divisible”, they do not mean two,
but only one thing, to wit, that it is either
really divided, or only divisible, we
shall easily discover the Fallacy: For, First,
if by “Actually Divisible”, they mean nothing
else but that which is divided, in this sence
I grant the Major, to wit, that that which
is really divided, so far as an actual division
can any ways be made, is divisible into
parts indiscerpible; but by the same
reason the Minor is false, viz. that Matter
is divided so far as an Actual Division can
possibly be made. But, Secondly, if by that
which they call “Actually Divisible”, they
mean a thing only divisible, or in which
there is a power or capacity to be so divided:
Now I deny the Major, to wit,
That that which is divisible, so far as division
can be made, is divisible into parts indiscerpible;
and besides in this sence, that
proposition is merely Tautological, and a need- C5v 26
needless repetition of the same thing, just
as this would be; whatsoever can be removed
out of its place, in as much as it
can be removed, maybe be removed to some
certain distance; but London or Rome may
be removed out of their place, in as much
as they may be removed, Ergo, &c. By
the same way of Argument may be proved,
that the Soul of Man consists of a Finite
Number of Years only, in which it doth
exist, or hath a Being, and consequently
that it is Mortal, and hath an end; to wit,
thus, that whose Time or Duration is
actually divisible, so far as an actual division
can possibly be made, shall have an
end, and is divisible, into a Finite Number
of Years; but the Time or Duration of the
Soul is actually divisible, so far as an actual
division can possibly be made, Ergo, &
But if it be denied, that the Time of the
Soul (if it should come to such a division
of Years) shall then have an end; but that it
is possible for it to re-assume another Time
after this First, and so ad infinitum. Now, I say
the same, which is, that Matter if it should
come to such a division, may indeed have
an end of that division; but yet may admit
of another division after this First, and
so ad infinitum. And here is to be noted, when C6r 27
when I say the least Particle of Body, or
Matter so called, may be always divided
into parts, less, ad infinitum; so that no
actual division can be made in any Matter,
which is not always farther divisible, or
capable to be divided into less parts, and
that without end; yet I would not hereby
determine, what the Absolute Power of
God will or can do; as some do vainly and
grosly dispute; but only hint what the
Power of God probably may do, or will
do, so far as he operates in and with his
Creatures, to wit, in as much as in all Productions,
and Generations, as also in all
Resolutions and Divisions, in the Nature
of Bodies, or the Creature, he never divides
nor never can divide any Body into such
small parts, that each of these is not always
capable of a farther division; for the
Body of no Creature can ever be reduced
into its least parts; yea, into such that it
cannot be reduced back again, either by
the most subtile operation of any Creature,
or created Power: And this Answer may
suffice to our present purpose: For God
makes no division in any Body or Matter,
but so far as he co-operates with the Creatures,
and therefore he never reduces
Creatures into their least parts; because then C6v 28
then all Motion and Operation in Creatures
would cease; (for it is the Nature of
all Motion to wear and divide a thing into
subtiler parts;) for to do this would be
contrary to the Wisdom and Goodness of
God; for if all Motion and Operation
should cease in any particular Creature,
that Creature would be altogether unprofitable
and useless in the Creation, and so
would be no better than if it were a mere
non ens, or nothing. But as was said before,
“God cannot do that which is contrary to
his Wisdom and Goodness, or any of his
Attributes”
. [Mathematical Division of
Things, is never made in Minima; but
Things may be Physically divided into
their least parts; as when Concrete Matter
is so far divided that it departs into
Physical Monades, as it was in the first
State of its Materiality. Concerning the
Production of Matter, see Kab. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom.
1. Part 2. pag. 310 following; and Tom.
2. the last Tract, pag. 28. Numb. 4, 5.
then
it is again fit to resume its Activity, and
become a Spirit, as it happens in our
Meats.]

§. 10. Moreover the consideration
of this Infinite Divisibility of every thing,
into parts always less, is no unnecessary or C7r 29
or unprofitable Theory, but a thing of very
great moment; viz. that thereby may be
understood the Reasons and Causes of
Things; and how all Creatures from the
highest to the lowest are inseparably united
one with another, by means of Subtiler
Parts interceding or coming in between,
which are the Emanations of one Creature
into another, by which also they act one
upon another at the greatest distance; and
this is the Foundation of all Sympathy
and Antipathy which happens in Creatures:
And if these things be well understood
of any one, he may easily see into
the most secret and hidden Causes of
Things, which ignorant Men call occult
Qualities.

Chap. C7v 30

Chap. IV.

§. 1. Whether God Created all Creatures together,
or in Succession of time. §. 2. That
in the Man Christ all things consist, and
have their Being. §. 3. That Christ according
to his Humanity, is the First Born
of all Creatures. §. 4. But no Creature
can ever reach so far as to be equal with
him.

§. 1. From what hath been already
said, it is easie to Answer to that
intricate Question, viz. Whether God
Created all Creatures together, or one after
another? If the Word “Create” hath respect
to God himself, or the Internal Command
of his Will, it is made altogether;
but if unto Creatures that is done successively;
for as it is the Nature, and Essential
Attribute of God to be unchangeable,
and without succession; so the Nature of
Creatures is to be changeable and successive:
But if the Word “Create” respects the Universals,
Seeds, and Principles of all Things
which (in subordination to God, who is
the Principal Beginning of all Things) are,
as it were Springs and Fountains from whence C8r 31
whence Creatures did flow in the order of
their succession; so it may be said all Creatures
were Created together, and especially
if regard be had to the Messias, or Christ,
who is the First Begotten of all Creatures,
by whom all Things are said to be made;
as John declares it, and Paul expresly
affirms, that by Jesus Christ all Things
were made, both visible and invisible.

§. 2. Jesus Christ also signifies
whole Christ, who is God and Man, as he
is God, he is called λόɣ flawed-reproductiontwo letters the Essential
Word of the Father, as he is Man
λόɣ πϱοΦοϱικὸς, the Word expressed or
brought forth, the perfect, and substantial Image
of that Word which is in God, and eternally,
or for ever united with him; so that
this is its Vehicle and Organ, as the Body
is in respect of the Soul; of which Word
brought forth, which is the Wisdom of
God, mention is made in divers places, as
well of the New as of the Old Testament,
as Prov. 8.22.31. and Prov. 3.19. Psal.
33.6.
Psal. 22.2. Psal. 110. p. 1. Joh. 11.1,
2, 3
, &c. Ephes. 3.9. Col. 1.15, 16, 17. Which
place, viz. of Col. 1.15, 16, 17 contains
in it an Explication of the former, to wit,
that by Son, by Word or Wisdom, or by
any of his attributes, God is not simply and C8v 32
and nakedly understood: for how can any
of his Attributes be called the invisible Image
of God, seeing this is equally as invisible
as himself, whence Image denotes
something that is brought into visibility,
and which after a peculiar manner reveals
and represents the invisible God more than
any Creature.

§. 3. And for the same reason he is called
of Paul, in the place above-cited, the
First Begotten of all Creatures, wherein
is signified the relation he hath to Creatures,
which were all in their Primitive
State, as it were Sons of God; whereas
he is the First Begotten of all those Sons,
who (as I may so say) are as it were the
Sons of this First Begotten Son of God.
And therefore in him all Things are said
to consist or have their Existence; for that
they did arise from him as Branches from
the Root, yet so as that they still remain
in him after a certain manner.

§. 4. Not as though they were equal
to him, or of the same Nature with him, because
then none of them could ever have
degenerated, and been changed from Good
into Evil; wherefore, they are of a Nature
far inferior, in respect of the First Begotten;
so that, to speak properly, they can never be D1r 33
be changed into him, nor he into the Father.
The highest pitch they can reach
unto is this, that is to become more like unto
him, as the Scripture declares: Whence
our Sonship (who are but mere Creatures)
is called Adoption.

D Chap. D1v 34

Chap. V.

§. 1. That the Ancient Cabbalists acknowledged
such a First Begotten Son of
God, whom they called the Heavenly
Adam, the First Adam, and great Priest.
§. 2. That Christ is a Medium between
God, and all Creatures. §. 3.
That there is such a middle Being, is
as demonstrable from the Principles of
sound reason, as that there is a God.
§. 4. That God is immediately present, as
well in Christ, as in all Creatures.
§. 5. That Christ is unchangeable unto
Evil, and changeable unto Good; and so
partakes both of Divinity and Creaturality,
and also of Eternity and Time.
§. 6. That neither Christ, nor those that
are perfectly united with him, are Subject
to the Laws of Time, inasmuch as it
denotes the Destruction of Things. §. 7. In
what sence we are said to depart out of
Time, and to climb above it into a higher
Region.

Although we have already, in
the aforegoing Chapter, spoken
a few things concerning the Son of God,
who is the First Begotten of all Creatures; yet D2r 35
yet more remains to be said of this matter,
very necessary for the right understanding
of what follows; to which purpose we
have here a designed a peculiar Chapter.

§. 1. By the Son of God, the First Begotten
of all Creatures, whom we Christians
do call by the Name of Jesus Christ,
according to the Scriptures, as is above declared,
not only is meant his Divinity, but
also his Humanity, in Eternal Union with
the Divinity; that is, as his Heavenly Humanity
was united with the Divinity before
the World was, and so by consequence
before he came in the Flesh. Of whom
the Ancient Cabbalists have delivered many
things, viz. concerning the Son of God,
how he was created, and of his Existence
in the Order of Nature, before all Creatures;
also that all receive Benediction and
Sanctification in him, and by him, whom
also in their Writings they call the Heavenly
Adam, Adam Kadmon, or First Man,
the Great Priest, Husband, or Spouse of
the Church as Philo Judæus calls the First
Begotten Son of God.

§. 2. This Son of God, the First Begotten
of all Creatures, to wit, this Heavenly
Adam, and Great Priest, as the Jewish
Doctors call him, is properly a Medium D2 between D2v 36
between God and the Creatures. And that
there is such a Middle Being, is as demonstrable
as that there is a God; where is
meant such a Being, which in its own Nature
is indeed less than God, and yet greater
and more excellent than all other Creatures;
whence also for his Excellency he
is properly called the Son of God. Concerning
this Son of God, who is called by
the Jews, Adam Kadmon, more may be
seen in Kabbal. denudat.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1. Part. 1.
p. 28, 30 Part. 2. p. 33. following, 37
following. Part 3. p. 31. unto the 64. p. 37,
-----78
, &c. And Kabb. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 2.
Part. 2. p. 244. And Tract. ult. p. 6, 7.---26.

§. 3. In order to this Demonstration
we must first consider the Nature or Being
of God, the chiefest Being; and then the
Nature and Essence of Creatures, which
are to be compared one with another,
whence this middle Nature will immediately
discover it self to us. The Nature and
Essence of God, as is shown in the preceeding
Chapters, is altogether unchangeable,
which not only the Holy Scriptures, but
also the Strength of Reason which God hath
indued our Minds with, sufficiently declares;
For if there should be any Mutability
in God, it must needs tend to some higher D3r 37
higher degree or measure of Goodness, and
then he would not be the Chiefest Good,
which is contradictory; for if any thing
advances to a greater degree of Goodness,
this wholly comes to pass by reason of some
greater Being, of whose Vertue and Influence
it doth participate: But there is
no greater Being than God, and so by consequence
he is no way meliorated, nor can
become better than he is, much less decrease,
which would argue an Imperfection;
therefore it is manifest that God, or the
Chiefest Being, is altogether unchangeable.
Now seeing the Nature of Creatures is really
distinct from the Nature of God, so
that there are some Attributes of God,
which are incommunicable Creatures,
among which is reckoned Immutability:
Hence it necessarily follows that Creatures
are changeable, or else they would be God
himself: Moreover also daily experience
teaches us that Creatures are changeable,
and do continually vary from one
State unto another: But there is a two-fold
Mutability, the one whereof hath a Power
in it of changing it self either unto Good
or Evil; and this is common to all Creatures,
but not to the First Begotten of all
Creatures; the other is only a Power to D3 pro- D3v 38
proceed from Goodness to Goodness. Here
is therefore a three-fold Classis or rank of
Beings: The First whoereof is that which
is wholly unchangeable: The Second
changeable only to Good: so that that
which in its own Nature is Good, may become
yet better: The Third is that which
though it was in its own Nature indeed
Good; yet could be indifferently changed,
as well into Good, as from Good into Evil.
The first and last of these are Extreams;
and the second is a Natural Medium between
them, by which the Extreams are
united, and this Medium partakes of both
Extreams, and therefore is the most convenient
and proper Medium; for it partakes
of the one Extream, viz. Mutability,
to wit, from Good to a greater degree or
measure of Goodness, and of the other Extream,
viz. that it is altogether unchangeable
from Good into Evil; and such a Medium
was necessarily required in the very
Nature of Things; for otherwise there
would remain a Chasm or Gap, and one
Extream would be united with another,
without a Medium, which is impossible,
and repugnant to the Nature of Things,
as appears in the whole Course of the Universe.
By the Immutability of the Messias, here D4r 39
here we must understand that which is Moral,
not that which is Natural. There be
some who object, Christ was tempted in
vain, if he was naturally unchangeable. See
Matth. 4. 3. 17, 18. Chap. 4. 15. There
are also more Arguments, merely Philosophical;
of which in Philosophia Kabbal.
( Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1. Part 3. Dissert. 2.
Chap. 1.
) 13. are urged to prove that from
the First Beginning, there flowed forth only
one thing begun and perfected, which
is also confirmed by the Authority of Ancient
and Modern Philosophers, together
with an Answer to the Objections made on
the contrary.

§. 4. This Middle Being is not to be
understood in so gross a manner, as if it stood
in a Middle Place, between two Extreams,
as the Trunk of the Body is between the
Head and Feet; but is a Medium in respect
of its Nature, as Silver is between Tinn and
Gold, or Water between Air and Earth,
which are but gross Comparisons in regard
of the thing it self; neither can any one
suppose the Son to be such a Medium between
God and the Creatures, as though
God was not immediately present in all
his Creatures, and immediately filled all
things; for he immediately operates in all D4 things D4v 40
things in a proper sence: But this is to be
understood of that Union and Communion
which Creatures have with God; so
that although God immediately operates
in all things, yet he uses this Medium as
an Instrument, by which he co-operates in
his Creatures; because it is, in regard of
its Nature, more near unto them; and yet
because he is more excellent than all other
Productions, which we call Creatures, and
that too in his own Nature. Hence it is,
he is deservedly called the First Begotten
of all Creatures, and the Son of God, rather
than a Creature of God; and his Production
is rather a Generation, or Emanation
from God, than Creation, if the Word
be taken in a strict sence; although, according
to the larger sence and use of this Word,
he may be said to be created or formed, as
the Scripture somewhere speaketh of him:
But if the thing it self be duly understood,
’tis needless to contend about Words: Yet
nevertheless a Man’s Son is rather said to be
begotten of him, than made or created by
him. Of an House, or a Ship, built or made
by a Man, we do not say it is his Son, but
his Work; because his Son is the Living
Image and Similitude of himself, which
cannot be said of an House or a Ship: So this D5r 41
this first Production of God, ad extra, or,
to without, is more fitly and properly term’d
his Son than a Creature; because this is
the Living Image of himself, and is greater,
and more excellent than all Creatures.
Now it follows that the Son himself must
be immediately present in all these, that
he may bless and benefit them. And seeing
he is that true Medium, between God and
the Creatures, he must needs exist within
them, that so by his Operation he may stir
them up to a Union with him: And seeing
he is the most excellent Production
of God, made ad extra, or, to without, and
the most perfect and express Image of him,
he must needs be like unto God in all his
Attributes, which without contradiction
may be said to be communicated to him;
and so by consequence he must necessarily
be Omnipresent: Besides, if he were not
present in all Creatures, there would wholly
remain a Chasma, or wide Gap, between
God, and the Creatures where he was not,
which is absurd.

§. 5. Moreover, as he is Partaker of
the Immutability of God, and the Mutability
of Creatures, and so a Medium between
that, which is altogether unchangeable,
and that which is altogether changeable, as D5v 42
as partaking of both; so also he may be
said to be a Partaker of Eternity (which
is proper to God) and Time, (which is
proper to Creatures;) and albeit it be said
in the precedent Chapters, that nothing
interceded between Eternity and Time, or
between the Creatures, and the Will of God
which created them. Time and Creatures
are there to be taken in a larger sence, viz.
with respect to all the Productions of God,
made ad extra: So that this Middle Being
is as well there comprehended as the rest:
Neither can we conceive this Middle Being
to be before Creatures in Time, but only
in the order of Nature; so that indeed nothing
of Time strictly taken hapned between
the Creatures, and the All-Creating
Power and Will of God that created
them.

§. 6. But if by Time, according to the
common signification of the Word, we understand
a succedaneous increase or decrease
of Things, according to which they grow
and increase unto a certain pitch or period,
and then again fail from it, until they die
or are changed into another State or Condition
of Life; in this sence it may be positively
affirmed, that neither this Middle
Being, or any Creature perfectly united with D6r 43
with the same, are subject to Time, or the
Laws thereof; for the Laws of Time reach
but unto a certain Period or Age; and
when that Period is compleated, then
those things which are subject to Time
decay and are consumed, and so die and
are changed into quite another Species
of Things, according to that old Saying
of the Poet.

“Tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa vetustas
Omnia destruis.”

Which may be thus Englished.

“This spiteful Age, and Time that eats up
Things,
All Things consumes, and to Destruction
brings.”

And for this Reason Time is divided into
Four Parts, according to the Age of a
Man living in this World, which is Infancy,
Youth, Manhood, and Old Age, even
until Death; so that all things which are
bounded with Time, are subject unto Death
and Corruption, or are changed into another
Species of things, as we see Water changed D6v 44
changed into Stones, Stones into Earth,
and Earth into Trees, and Trees into Animals
or Living Creatures: But in this most
excellent Middle Being is neither Decay or
Corruption; nor to speak properly hath
Death any place in him: He is a most
powerful and effectual Balsam, which can
preserve all things from Death and Corruption,
which are joined to him or united
with him; so that here all things are perpetually
new, springing up fresh and
green; here is perpetual Youth without
Old Age; and here is the Perfection of
Old Age, to wit, great increase of Wisdom
and Experience without any imperfection
of Age. But when Christ came in the
Flesh, and in that Body which he bare with
him from Heaven; (for every created Spirit
hath a certain Vehicle, either Terrestrial,
Aereal, Æthereal, as this was:)
He took upon him somewhat of our Nature,
and by consequence the Nature of
all Things, (because the Nature of Man
hath in it the Nature of all Creatures,
whence also he is called the Microcosm;)
which Nature having assumed in Flesh and
Blood, he sanctified, that by that he might
sanctifie all Things, and so was as that
little Leaven that changed the whole Lump. D7r 45
Lump. He descended then within Time,
and for a certain space or period, of his
own accord subjected himself to the Laws
of Time, so as to endure great Torments,
even Death it self; but Death did not long
detain him, for the Third Day he rose again,
and this was the end of all his Sufferings,
even of his Death and Burial, viz.
that he might Heal, Cure, and Redeem
his Creatures from Death and Corruption,
which came upon them by the Fall, and
so at length hereby put an end to Times,
and elevate the Creatures above Times to
himself, where he abideth, who is the same
yesterday, today, henceforth, and for ever,
without Decay, Death, or Corruption.
In like manner, in his Spiritual or Internal
Appearance in Man, whereby he purposeth
to Save, Heal, and Redeem the Soul,
he doth as it were, after a certain manner,
subject himself to a kind of Death and
Passion; and so for a certain space submits
himself to the Laws of Time, that he
might elevate the Souls of Men above
Time, and Corruptibility to himself,
wherein they receive Blessing, and grow
from one degree of Goodness and Vertue
unto another, in infinitum.

§. 7. By D7v 46

§. 7. By the same Reason, those who
are come unto a perfect Union with Christ,
are mounted up into a Region or Sphere
of perfect Tranquility, where nothing is
seen or perceived to move or compel; for
although there exist the most swift and vehement
Motions; yet nevertheless because
the same do so uniformly, so equally, and
harmoniously move without the least
contrariety or disorder, they seem altogether
to rest, whereof many Examples may
be given in External Things: For indeed
there are two kinds of Motion, which to
our bodily sight seem to want Motion, viz.
that which is exceeding quick and speedy,
and that which is exceedingly slow; so that
the middle sort is only discernable by us.
Now under Time, and the Laws thereof,
may be comprehended not only the Earth,
and Earthly Things; but also the Sun,
Moon, and Stars, and all the visible part
of the World, together with more that is
invisible: So that after a long Tract of
Time, all those Things may be plainly
changed into quite another Species of
Things, and that by the same order and
course of Divine Operation which God
hath placed in all Creatures, as a Law on
Justice, whereby in his Divine Wisdom he D8r 47
he hath purposed to reward every Creature
according to its Works: So now this
may suffice to have been said concerning
that most excellent Middle Being; of
whom upon occasion farther mention may
be made in the subsequent Pages.

Chap. D8v 48

Chap. VI.

§. 1. That all Creatures in their own Nature
are changeable. §. 2. How far this
Mutability may extend it self, whether
unto the Beings of Things, or unto the
manner of their Existence. §. 3. That
they are only Changeable in manner of
Existence, and not in Essence. §. 4. That
there are but Three Kinds of Beings essentially
distinct one from the other, viz.
God the highest, Christ the medium, and
the Creature the lowest. §. 5. That this
Distinction is very necessary, and keeps
us from falling into Extreams on either
Hand, whereof the one is Ranterism,
and the other gross Ignorance, by which
the Glory of the Divine Attributes is
obscured and darkned. §. 6. An Example
hereof. §. 7. The Justice of God most
gloriously appears in the Transmutation of
Things out of one Species into another.
§. 8. That when the Spirit of a Man,
through Impiety, shall change it self into
the Qualities and Conditions of a
Beast, it is but Justice in God, that the
said brutish Spirit should enter into the
Body of a Beast, and there for a certain Time E1r 49
time be punished. §. 9. How many and
diverse are the depraved and wicked Opinions
concerning God, and how he is conceived
to be in Men by those corrupt Opinions.
§. 10. Why the old World was
destroyed by Water, and why this is to be
destroyed by Fire, and that all Punishments
are Medicinal. §. 11. That every
Creature is composed of Body and Spirit,
and how every Creature hath in it more
Bodies, and so likewise more Spirits,
under one general governing Spirit, which
hath the command over the rest.

§. 1. That all Creatures in their own
Nature are changeable, the distinction
between God and Creatures, duly
considered, evidently evinces, and the same
is by daily experience confirmed. Now if
any Creature be in its own Nature changeable,
it hath this Mutability, as it is a
Creature, and consequently all Creatures
will have the same, according to that Rule:
Whatsoever agrees to any thing as placed
under this or that Species, agrees to all
comprehended under the same Species;
but Mutability agrees to a Creature (which
is the most general Name of that Species,
under which all Creatures are comprehended,)E hended,) E1v 50
and from thence it is manifest;
for otherwise there would be no distinction
between God and Creatures: For if any
Creature were of it self, and in its own
Nature unchangeable, that Creature
would be God, because Immutability
is one of his incommunicable Attributes.

§. 2. Now let us consider how far this
Mutability may reach, or be extended;
and, First, whether one Individual can be
changed into another of the same or a
different Species? This, I say, is impossible;
for then the very Essences of Things would
be changed, which would make a great
confusion, not only in the Creatures, but
in the Wisdom of God, which made all
Things: As for Example: If this Man
could be changed into that, viz. Paul into
Judas, or Judas into Paul, then he that
sinned would not be punished for his sin,
but another in his stead, who was both
Vertuous and Innocent; so then a Good
Man would not receive the reward of his
Vertue, but a Vicious Man in his stead:
But if we suppose one good Man to be
changed into another, as Paul into Peter,
and Peter into Paul, Paul would not receive
his own proper Reward, but Peter’s; nor E2r 51
nor Peter his, but Paul’s, which would be
a confusion, and unbecoming the Wisdom
of God. Moreover, if the very individual
Essences of Things could be changed one
into another, it would follow, Creatures
were not true in themselves; and so we
could not be assured, nor have any certain
knowledge of any thing; and then all the
inbred Notions and Dictates of Truth,
which Men generally find in themselves,
would be false, and by consequence the
Conclusions drawn from thence; for every
true Science, or certainty of Knowledge,
depends upon the Truth of the Objects,
which are commonly called Veritates Objective,
or Objective Truths: If therefore
these Objective Truths should be changed
the one into the other, certainly the Truth
of the Propositions depending thereon
would be changed also; and so no Proposition
could be unchangeably true, no not
the most clear and obvious as these are;
the whole is greater than its part, and two
halves make a whole.

§. 3. The Second Thing to be considered,
is, Whether one Species of Things
can be changed into another? Where we
must diligently observe after what manner
the Species of Things are distinguished one E2 from E2v 52
from another; for there be many Species
of Things, which are commonly so called,
and yet in Substance or Essence differ not
one from another, but in certain Manners
or Properties, and when those Modes or
Properties are changed, that thing is said
to have changed its Species: Now whether
or no this be not a certain manner of Existence,
and not the Essence or Being of
the Thing it self that is so changed? As
when Water indeed is not changed, but remains
the same, and cold coagulates it,
which before was fluid: When Water is
changed into a Stone, certainly there is no
reason, why we should here suppose a greater
change of its Substance, than in the former
Example of Water turned into Ice.
And again when a Stone is changed into
soft and tender Earth, here is made no
change of its Substance; and so in all other
Mutations which we observe in Things,
the Substance or Essence always remains
the same, and there is only a change of
Modus or Manner; so that when a Thing
ceases to be after this manner, it then begins
to be after another manner. And indeed
the same Reasons do prove, that one
Species essentially or substantially distinct
from another, cannot be changed into another,ther, E3r 53
even as one Individual cannot be
changed into another: For the Species of
Things are nothing else but Individuals digested,
or comprehended, under one general
Idea of the Mind, or common Term
of speaking: As a Man, inasmuch as he is
a Species, comprehends under him all the
Individuals of Men; and a Horse is a Species,
comprehending every individual
Horse. Now if one Man cannot be changed
into another, much less can this Man
be changed into another Individual of a
differing Species: For Example: If Alexander
cannot be changed into Darius, he cannot
be changed into his own Horse Bucephalus.

§. 4. In order to know how far the
Mutations of Things can reach, we must
examine how many Species of Things
there be, which as to Substance or
Essence are distinct one from another; and
if we diligently inquire thereinto, we shall
find only Three, as before was said, viz.
God, Christ, and the Creatures, and that
these Three in respect of Essence, are really
distinct one from another, is already proved;
but there can be no Reason alledged
to prove, that there is any Fourth kind of
Being distinct from the other Three; yea,
a Fourth kind of Being seems wholly superfluous:E3 flu- E3v 54
And because all the Phenœmena in
the whole Universe may be sufficiently resolved
into these Three before-mentioned,
as into their proper and original Causes,
there is no necessity to acknowledge any
other, according to this Rule: (Which if
rightly understood, it is most true and certain)
Beings are not to be multiplied without
necessity; for seeing the Three beforementioned
remove all the Specifical Differences
in Substance, which possibly can be
conceived in our Minds; and so by these
alone is that vast and infinite possibility
of Things filled up: How then can there
be room or place found for a Fourth, Fifth,
Sixth, or Seventh Being? And that it is
performed by these Three is already before
demonstrated; to wit, that whatsoever can
be in any wise called a Being, the same is
either wholly unchangeable, and such is God
the Supreme Being, or is wholly changeable,
viz. to good, or evil, and such is the
creature or lowest being, or that which is partly
unchangeable, viz. in respect of Evil, or
partly changeable, to wit, in respect of Good;
by which is understood Christ, the Son of
God; that Middle Being between God and the
Creatures; into what Classis or Rank therefore
shall we bring a certain Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, or E4r 55
or Seventh Being, &c. which is neither wholly
changeable, nor wholly unchangeable; nor
partly changeable, nor partly unchangeable:
Besides, he that supposeth a certain Fourth
Being, essentially or substantially distinct
from the three before-mentioned, overthrows
that most excellent Order we find in the universality
of Things, to wit, that there is
not only one Medium between God and the
Creatures, but two, three, four, five, six,
or as many as can be supposed between
first and latter. Moreover, it is very consentaneous
to sound Reason, and so also to
the Order of Things, that as God is but
One, neither hath he two, three or more
distinct Substances in him; and Christ but
one Christ, neither hath in him more distinct
Substances, inasmuch as he is the
Heavenly Man, and very First Adam; so
likewise the Creature, or whole Creation,
is but one only Substance or Essence in
Specie, although it comprehends many
Individuals placed in their subordinate Species,
and indeed in Manner, but not in Substance
or Essence distinct one from another.
And so that which Paul speaketh concerning
Man, may in like manner be understood
of all Creatures, (who in their Original
State were a certain Species of Man E4 so E4v 56
so called for their Excellencies, as hereafter
shall be shown;) to wit, that God made all
Nations, or Armies of Creatures, out of
one Blood: And certainly here the reason
of both is the same; for as God made all
Nations out of one Blood, to the end they
might love each other, and stand in a mutual
Sympathy, and help each other; so
hath he implanted a certain Universal Sympathy
and mutual Love in Creatures, as being
all Members of one Body, and (as I
may so say) Brethren, having one common
Father, to wit, God in Christ, or the
Word made Flesh; and so also one Mother,
viz. that Substance or Essence alone, out
of which they proceeded, and whereof they
are real Parts and Members; and albeit Sin
hath in a wonderful Manner impaired this
Love and Sympathy, yet it hath not destroyed
it.

§. 5. Those Three distinct Beings, before-mentioned,
being granted, and no
more, which are wholly inconvertible the
one into the other, we shall tread in a secure
path, in the mid-way of Truth, leaving
those grand Errors and Confusions about
Entity, both on the Right Hand and
the Left: For, First, there are some, who
teach, that there is but one Being of all Things, E5r 57
Things, whereof the Creatures are real and
proper Parts, and these confound God and
the Creatures together, as though both
were but one single Essence; so that Sin
and Devils would be nothing else but Parts,
or at least Modifications of that Divine
Being, from whence do arise very dangerous
Consequences. Although I would not
have it mis-interpreted to those who are
unwarily faln into this Opinion; yet I
would warn the Reader, that he may the
better consider whereunto such Principles
tend, and avoid their absurdity. There are
others again who allow only two Species
of Things, viz. God the Supreme Being,
wholly unchangeable; and the Creature
the lowest Being, wholly changeable; but
these do not duly consider that excellent
Order by us above described, which is apparent
in all Things; because else peradventure
they would have taken notice, that besides
these Two Extreams, there is a certain
Medium, which is partaker of both, and
this is Jesus that Christ, whom not only
the wiser sort of the Jews, but also some
among the Gentiles so called, have acknowledged,
viz. maintaining that there is such
a Medium, which they called by divers
Names, as Logos, the Son of God, the First E5v 58
First Begotten of God, Mind, Wisdom,
Heavenly Adam, &c. So that some also do
call him the Eternal Medium: Which
Things, if duly considered, may not a
little conduce to the propagation and furthering
of the true Faith, and Christian
Religion, among the Jews, as well as
Turks, and other Infidel Nations; that is
to say, if it appears we are able to prove
that there is a Mediator between God and
Man; yea, between God and all Creatures,
by as solid Reasons as those are,
which prove God to be a Creator: And
so they that believe on that, may be said
truly to believe on Christ Jesus, though
they should not as yet have known, or
been convicted, that he came in the Flesh:
For if they yield to the former, they will
undoubtedly be forced (if ingenious) whether
they will or no, to grant the latter.
Others there are, who do as it were infinitely
multiply the Specifical Beings of
Things, in their distinct Essences and Essential
Attributes; which wholly subverts
that excellent Order of Things, and greatly
obscures and darkens the Glory of the
Divine Attributes, so that it cannot shine
forth in its due Splendor and Brightness in
the Creatures: For so every Creature is so exceed- E6r 59
exceeding straitly bounded, and strictly included
and imprisoned within the narrow
limits of its own Species, that the Mutability
of Creatures is wholly taken away: Neither
can any Creature variously exercise any
greater participation of Divine Goodness,
or be advanced or promoted to any farther
perfection.

§. 6. All which we shall demonstrate
by one or two Examples: And, First, let
us take an Horse, which is a Creature indued
with divers degrees of perfection by
his Creator, as not only strength of Body,
but (as I may so say) a certain kind of
knowledge, how he ought to serve his Master,
and moreover also Love, Fear, Courage,
Memory, and divers other Qualities
which are in Man: which also we may observe
in a Dog, and many other Animals:
Seeing therefore the Divine Power, Goodness,
and Wisdom, hath created every Creature
good; and indeed so, that it might
by continual augmentations (in its Mutability)
be advanced to a greater degree
of Goodness, ad infinitum, whereby the
Glory of those Attributes do more and
more shine forth: And seeing such is the
Nature of every Creature, that it is always
in Motion or Operation, which doth most cer- E6v 60
certainly tend unto an higher degree of
Goodness, as the Reward and Fruit of its Labour;
unless the Creatures hinder that good
by a voluntary Transgression, and abuse of
that indifferency of Will which God placed
in them in their Creation. Now I demand,
unto what higher perfection and degree of
Goodness, the Being or Essence of an Horse
doth or may attain after he hath done good
service for his Master, and so performed
his Duty, and what is proper for such a
Creature? Is a Horse then a mere Fabrick
or dead Matter? or hath he a Spirit in him,
having Knowledge, Sence, and Love, and
divers other Faculties and Properties of a
Spirit? if he hath, which cannot be denied,
what becomes of this Spirit when the Horse
dies? if it be said it passeth into Life, and
takes upon it another Body of an Horse,
so that it becomes a Horse as before, which
Horse may be stronger and fairer, and of
a more excellent Spirit than before. Very
well! But if he shall die, two, three, or
four times, &c. shall he always remain a
Horse, though he be still better, and more
excellent, by how much the oftner his Spirit
revolves. Now I demand, whether the
Spirit of an Horse hath in it such infinite
perfection, that a Horse may always becomecome E7r 61
better and better ad infinitum, and
yet so as to remain a Horse? For as the
common received Opinion is, this visible
Earth shall not always remain in the
same State, which may be confirmed
by undeniable Reasons: Now it necessarily
follows, that the continual Generation of
Animals in these gross Bodies shall cease also;
for if the Earth shall take on it another
Form, neither any longer bring forth Grass,
Horses and other Animals shall cease to be
such as they were before: And seeing they
want their proper Aliment, they cannot remain
in the same Species; yet nevertheless
they are not annihilated, as may be easily
conceived; for how can any thing be annihilated,
seeing the Goodness of God towards
his Creatures always remains the
same; and the conservation or continuation
of Creatures is a continued Creation,
as is generally granted, and already before
demonstrated, that God is a perpetual
Creator; and as he is the most free, so also
the most necessary Agent: But if it be denied,
that the Earth is unchangeable, as
before was said, then it will come to pass
that Horses and other Animals, according
to their proportion, will be in like manner
changed with the Earth, and the Earth accordingcording E7v 62
to the same proportion, will again
produce or yield them Aliment or Food agreeable
to their changed condition; then
I demand, Whether they shall always remain
in the same Species under such a
change? Or, whether there will not be
some difference between that State and this.
As for Example: There is between a Cow
and a Horse, which is commonly granted
to be Specifical. Again, I ask whether the
Species of Creatures do so infinitely one excel
another, that an Individual of one particular
Species may still go forward in perfection,
and approach nearer unto another
Species, but yet never reach so far as to
be changed into that Species? As for instance:
An Horse in divers Qualities and
Perfections draws near unto the Nature and
Species of a Man, and that more than many
other Creatures; Is therefore the Nature
of a Man distant from the Nature of an
Horse, by Infinite Degrees, or by Finite
only? If by Finite, then certainly a Horse
may in length of Time be in some measure
changed into a Man, (I mean his Spirit;
as for his Body that is a thing evident:) If
infinitely distant; then unto any Man,
even one of the vilest and basest Nature and
Disposition, may be attributed a certain Infinite E8r 63
Infinite Excellence in Act, such as only
agrees to God and Christ, but to no Creature;
for the highest Excellence of a Creature
is to be Infinite only, in potentiâ, not
in actû; that is, to be still in a possibility
of attaining a greater Perfection and Excellence,
ad infinitum, though it can never
reach this Infinite; for how far soever any
Finite Being may proceed, yet that is still
Finite, although there be no limits to its
progression: As for Example: If we could
ever come to the least Minute of Eternity,
or the like part of Infinite Duration, that
would not be Infinite, but Finite: Neither
do we herein contradict what is delivered
in the Third Chapter, of the Infiniteness of
Creatures; for it is not meant of their Infinite
Goodness and Excellence, but in respect
only of Multitude and Magnitude;
so that the one cannot be numbred, nor
the other measured, by the comprehension
of any created Intellect: Yet the Individuals
of Creatures, are always but Finitely
good, and Finitely distant, quoad Species,
or as to Species; and only potentially Infinite;
that is, always capable of farther
perfection without end. As if there should
be supposed a certain Ladder, which should
be infinitely long, containing Infinite Steps, yet E8v 64
yet those Steps are not infinitely distant
one from another, otherwise there could
be no ascension nor descension made thereon;
for Steps (in this Example) signifie
the various Species of Things, which cannot
be infinitely distant one from another,
or from those which are next unto them;
yea, daily experience teaches us, that the
Species of divers Things are changed, one
into another, as Earth into Water, and
Water into Air, and Air into Fire or
Æther; and the contrary, as Fire into Air,
and Air into Water, &c. which yet are distinct
Species of Things; and so also Stones
are changed into Metals, and one Metal
into another; but least some should say
these are only naked Bodies and have no
Spirit, we shall observe the same not only
in Vegetables, but also in Animals, like as
Barly and Wheat are convertible the one
into the other, and are in very deed often
so changed, which is well enough known
to House-keepers in many Provinces, and
especially in Hungary, where if Barley be
sown Wheat springs up in instead thereof;
but in other places more barren, and especially
in Rocky Places, such as are found
in Germany, if Wheat be sown, Barley
cometh up, and Barley in other places be- F1r 65
becomes mere Grass: And in Animals,
Worms are changed into Flies, and Beasts,
and Fishes that feed on Beasts, and Fishes
of a different kind, do change them into
their own Nature, and Species: And doth
not also a corrupted Nature, or the Body
of Earth and Water, produce Animals
without any previous Seed of those Animals?
And in the Creation of this World,
did not the Waters at the Command of
God, produce Birds and Fishes? And did
not the Earth also at the same Command
bring forth Beasts and Creeping Things;
which for that Cause were real and proper
Parts of the Earth and Waters? And as
they had their Bodies from the Earth, so
likewise they had their Spirits or Souls
from the same; for the Earth brought
forth Living Souls, as the Hebrew Text
speaketh, but not mere Corporeal Figures,
wanting Life and Soul; wherefore
there is a very remarkable difference between
Humane Creatures and Brutes:
Of Man it is said, “God made him after his
own Image, and breathed into him the
Breath of Life, and he became a Living
Soul; so that from hence Man received
his Life, that principal part of him, (by
which he is become a Man,) which is F really F1v 66
really distinct from that Divine Soul or
Spirit which God breathed into him.”

And seeing the Body of Man was made
out of the Earth, which (as is proved)
had therein divers Spirits, and gave Spirits
to all Brute Beasts; then unto Man,
no doubt, she committed the best and
most excellent Spirits whom he was to
contain; but all these Spirits were of a
far inferiour Species, in regard of the Spirit
of Man, which he received from above,
and not from the Earth: And the Spirit
of Man ought to have Dominion over
these Spirits, (which were all but Earthly,)
so as to subdue them to himself, and
exalt them to an higher degree, (viz.) into
his own proper Nature, and that would
have been his true Increase and Multiplication;
for all this he suffered the Earthly
Spirits existing within him, to get Dominion
over him, and so became like them;
wherefore it is said, “Earth thou art, and unto
Earth thou shalt return”
, which hath no less
a Spiritual than a Literal Signification.

§. 7. Now we see how gloriously the
Justice of God appears in this Transmutation
of Things out of one Species into
another; and that there is a certain Justice
which operates not only in Men and Angels,gels, F2r 67
but in all Creatures, is most certain;
and he that doth not observe the same
may be said to be utterly Blind: For this
Justice appears as well in the Ascension
of Creatures, as in their Descension; that
is, when they are changed into the better,
and when into the worse; when into the
better, this Justice distributes to them the
Reward and Fruit of their Good Deeds;
when into the worse, the same punishes
them with due Punishments, according to
the Nature and Degree of the Transgression.
And the same Justice hath given a
Law to all Creatures, and written the
same on their Natures; and every Creature
whatsoever, that transgresseth this
Law, is punished for it: But that Creature
that observes and keeps it, hath this Reward,
viz., to be become better. So under
the Law which God gave to the Jews, if
a Beast killed a Man, that Beast was to be
slain; and the Life of Man is said to be
required at the Hand of every Beast, Gen.
9.5.
And if any one had to do with a
Beast, not only the Man, but the Beast,
was to be slain; so not only the Woman
and her Husband did receive Sentence
and Punishment from God after their
Transgression, but the Serpent also, which F2 was F2v 68
was the brutish part in Man, which he
took from the Earth. God hath also put
the same instinct of Justice in Man, towards
the Beasts and Trees of the Field; for
whosoever he be that is a good and just
Man, the same loves his Beasts that serve
him, and taketh care of them that they
have their Food and Rest, and what else
is wanting to them; and this he doth
not do only for his own profit, but out of
a Principle of true Justice; for should he
be so cruel to them as to require their Labour,
and yet deny them their necessary
Food, then certainly he transgresseth that
Law which God hath written on his
Heart; and if he kills any of them, only
to fulfil his own pleasure, he acts unjustly,
and the same measure will again be measured
unto him; so likewise a Man that
hath a certain Fruitful Tree in his Orchard,
that prospereth well, he dungs and
cleanses the same, that it may wax better
and better; but if it be barren, and incumbers
the ground, then he heweth it
down with an Ax, and burns it with Fire.
And so here is a certain Justice in all these,
as in all the Transmutation of Things from
one Species into another, whether it be
by ascending from the Ignobler or Baser unto F3r 69
unto the Nobler, or by descending into
the contrary, there may be found the same
Justice: For Example: Is it not just and
equitable, if a Man on Earth liveth a pure
and Holy Life, like unto the Heavenly
Angels, that he should be exalted to an
Angelical Dignity after Death, and be
like unto them, over whom also the Angels
rejoice? But if a Man here on Earth
lives so wickedly and perversly, that he
is more like a Devil raised from Hell than
any other Creature, if he dies in such a
State without Repentance, Shall not the
same Justice tumble him down to Hell?
and shall not such deservedly become like
Devils, even as those who led an Angelical
Life are made equal with the Angels?
But if a Man hath neither lived an Angelical
nor Diabolical, but a Brutish, or at
least-wise an Animal or Sensual Life on
Earth; so that his Spirit is more like the
Spirit of a Beast than any other thing:
Shall not the same Justice most justly cause,
that as he is become a Brute, as to his Spirit;
whilst he hath left the Dominion of
his more excellent Part, to that Brutish
Part and Spirit within him, that he also
(at least, as to his External Form, in bodily
Figure) should be changed into that SpeciesF3 cies F3v 70
of Beasts, to whom he was inwardly
most like, in Qualities and Conditions of
Mind? And seeing this Brutal Spirit is
now become Superior and Predominant
in him, and holds the other Captive, is
it not very probable, when such a
Man dies, that the very same Brutish Spirit
shall still have Dominion in him, and
carry the Human Soul with it whithersoever
it pleaseth, and compel it to be
subservient unto it? And when the said
Brutish Spirit returns again into some Body,
and hath now Dominion over that
Body, so that its Plastick Faculty hath the
Liberty of forming a Body, after its own
Idea and Inclination, (which before, in
the Humane Body, it had not;) it necessarily
follows, that the Body, which
this Vital Spirit forms, will be Brutal, and
not Humane; for the Brutal Spirit cannot
produce and form any other Figure:
Because its Plastick Faculty is governed
of its Imagination, which it doth most
strongly imagine to its self, or conceive
its own proper Image; which therefore
the External Body is necessarily forced
to assume.

§. 8. F4r 71

§. 8. Herein the Justice of God marvellously
appears, whilst he assigns to every
Kind and Degree of Transgression its due
and proper Punishment; neither doth he
sentence every Sin and Transgression to
Hell-Fire, and the Punishment due unto
Devils; for Christ hath taught the contrary,
in that Parable, where he sheweth
the Third Degree only is Doom’d to Infernal
Punishment, (viz.) if one say to his Brother: “Thou Fool!”

What can be here objected against the
Justice of God? If it be said “it doth too
much lessen and disparage the Dignity and
Nobility of Humane Nature, to suppose
the same with respect to Body and Soul,
convertible into the Nature of a Brute.”

To this I Answer, “according to the common
Maxim, ‘Corruptio optimi sit pessima’,
The best Things by Corruption become the
worst”
: For seeing Man by his voluntary
Transgression hath so exceedingly polluted
and brought down his own Nature
(which was so Noble) into a far worse State
and Condition, that the same could wax as
vile and base in Spirit as the most unclean
Beast or Animal; so that he is become as
subject to Earthly Concupiscences and Desires,
as any Beast; yea, is become worse F4 than F4v 72
than any Beast: What Injustice will this
be, if God should also compel him to bear
that Image outwardly in his Body, into
the which he hath inwardly transformed
himself? Or, which thinkest thou is the
worst Degeneration, to bear the Image
of a Beast in Spirit, or in Body? Certainly,
every one will say, “to be like a Beast
in Spirit is far the greatest Degeneration”
;
and there is not one, who is indued with
true Nobility of Mind, who will not confess,
that, to be like a Beast inwardly, is
worse than to be like the same outwardly;
for to be one with him in Spirit, is far
worse than to be one with him in External
Form and Figure of Body: But if any
one shall say “this Punishment is too little
for such a Man, who hath lived all his
Days a Brutish Life, if after Death he shall
only return to the State or Condition of
some Beast”
; let such know, that the most
just Creator and Maker of all Things is
wiser than he, and knows best what Punishment
is due unto every particular Sin;
who hath also so most justly and wisely
disposed all Things, that no Man that
lives carnally, and after the manner of
Beasts, can enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven; and so also the Doctrine of Christ expresly F5r 73
expresly informs us, that all Sins are not
to be punished with the pains of Hell:
“And that where the Treasure is, there is
the Heart also, and the Spirit of Man”
:
Also if a Man is joyn’d or united with any
Thing, that then he becomes unum quid,
or one with the same; and that he that
cleaves to the Lord is one with him in
Spirit; and he that cleaves to a Harlot is
one Flesh with her. Why then doth not
he that cleaves to a Beast, by the same
reason, become one with a Beast? And
so in all other cases: For to whom any
one yields himself in obedience, the same
is his Master, so far as he obeys him; as
the Scripture saith. Moreover also it is
said, “With what measure soever ye mete,
the same shall be meted unto you”
: As if it
should have said, “All Kinds and Degrees
of Sin, have their proper Punishments,
and all these Punishments tend to the
Creatures Advantage”
; so that Grace prevails
over Judgment, and Judgment is
turned into Victory to the Salvation and
Restoration of the Creature: For seeing
the Grace of God is extended over all his
Works, Why should we think God a more
severe and rigid Master to his Creatures
than indeed he is? Seeing this doth wonderfullyderfully F5v 74
obscure and darken the Glory of
the Divine Attributes; neither doth it beget
a Love towards God, and an Admiration
of his Goodness and Justice in the
Hearts of Men, as it ought to be; but the
plain contrary.

§. 9. For that common Notion of
the Justice of God, that every Sin, how
small soever it be, shall be punished with
Hell Fire, and that without all end, begets
in Men an horrible Idea or Conception
concerning God; to wit, as though
he were a cruel Tyrant towards all his
Creatures rather than a Gracious Father:
But if the lovely Image of God was more
known unto Men, such as indeed he is,
and manifesteth himself in all his Dispensations
to his Creatures; and if our Souls
could inwardly feel and tast him, viz. as
he is Charity and Goodness it self, and as
he inwardly reveals himself, by the Light
and Spirit of Christ Jesus our Lord, in the
Hearts of Men; then indeed, and not till
then, would Men come to Love God above
all things, and acknowledge him to be,
beyond all, the most Lovely, Just, and
Merciful, who may not punish all Sinners
with an equal Punishment.

§. 10. F6r 75

§. 10. And moreover also, Why did
he drown the old World with Water, and
hath purposed to destroy this with Fire?
Such as was that of Sodom: but that he
would show, that for divers kinds of Sin, divers
sorts of Punishment are to be inflicted:
And that the old World was indeed
wicked, but that which is to be destroyed
with fire is worse, which for that reason
will have the greater Judgment.

But the different nature of these transgressions,
for which those different punishments
are prepared, seem to consist in
this; that the sins of the old World were
more brutish and carnal, as the word of
God doth seem to point out, when he
saith, “My Spirit shall not always strive
with Man; because he is become Flesh”
;
that is, he is become perfectly Brutish or
Bestial, by obeying the desires of the
Flesh: So that unless this Generation had
been cut off, all Mankind (except Noah
and his Family) in the succeeding Generation,
would have become Bestial,
which Evil God would prevent, by drowning
them with the Waters, that by this
Punishment they might be reduced from
the Brutish Nature to the Nature of Men:
But the Sins of this World, which like Sodomdom F6v 76
is to be destroyed with Fire, seem in
their own Nature, to be more like the
Sins of Devils, than any thing else, (viz.)
by reason of Craft, Deceit, Malice, Hostility,
and Cruelty; and therefore their proper
Punishment is Fire, which also is the
Original Principle of those Noble Spirits
so greatly degenerated; and so they ought
deservedly by the same to be restored and
regenerated: For what is Fire, but a certain
kind of imperfect Æthereal Substance
shut up in combustible Bodies? as we
observe the same still to mount upwards,
and by reason of its notable thinness immediately
to vanish: From which Æthereal
Substance, as well Angels as Men,
have their Original, quoad Spiritus, or,
as to their Spirits; as the Brutal Nature
hath its Original from Water. But as all
the Punishments, God inflicts on his
Creatures, have some proportion with
their Sins; so all these Punishments (the
worst not excepted) do tend to their
Good and Restoration, and so are Medicinal,
that by them these diseased Creatures
may be cured and restored to a
better condition than before they enjoyed.

§. 11. F7r 77

§. 11. Now therefore let us examine,
how every Creature is composed, and how
the parts of its composition may be converted
the one into the other; for that
they have originally one and the same
Essence, or Being.

In every visible Creature there is a Body
and a Spirit, or Principium magis Activum,
& magis Passivum, or, more Active and
more Passive Principle
, which may fitly
be termed Male and Female, by reason of
that Analogy a Husband hath with his
Wife. For as the ordinary Generation of
Men requires a Conjunction and Co-operation
of Male and Female; so also all Generations
and Productions whatsoever
they be, require an Union, and conformable
Operation of those Two Principles,
to wit, Spirit and Body; but the Spirit is
an Eye or Light beholding its own proper
Image, and the Body is a Tenebrosity
or Darkness receiving that Image, when
the Spirit looks thereinto, as when one
sees himself in a Looking-Glass; for certainly
he cannot so behold himself in the
Transparent Air, nor in any Diaphanous
Body, because the reflexion of an Image
requires a certain opacity or darkness,
which we call a Body: yet to be a Body is F7v 78
is not an Essential Property of any Thing;
as neither is it a Property of any Thing
to be dark; for nothing is so dark that it
cannot be made Light; yea, the Darkness
it self may become Light, as the
Light which is created may be turned into
Darkness, as the Words of Christ do
fully evince, when he saith, “If the Light
which is in thee be darkness”
, &c. where
he means the Eye or Spirit which is in the
Body, which beholdeth the Image of any
Thing: Therefore as every Spirit hath
need of a Body, that it may receive and
reflect its Image, so also it requires a Body
to retain the same; for every Body hath
this retentive Nature, either more or less in
it self; and by how much the perfecter a
Body is, that is, more perfectly mix’d,
so much the more retentive is it, and
so Water is more retentive than Air, and
Earth of some Things is more retentive
than Water.

But the Seed of a Female Creature,
by reason of its so perfect mixture; for
that it is the purest Extraction of the
whole Body, hath in it a notable retention:
And in this Seed, as a Body, the
Male Seed, which is the Image and Spirit
of the Male, is received and retained, togetherther F8r 79
with other Spirits which are in the
Female; and therefore whatsoever Spirit
is then strongest, and hath the strongest
Image or Idea in the Seed, whether it be
the Masculine or the Feminine, or any
other Spirit from either of these received
from without, that Spirit is predominant
in the Seed, and forms the Body, as near
as may be, after its own Image, and so
every Creature receives his External
Form. And after the same manner also,
the Internal Productions of the Mind,
viz. Thoughts are generated, which according
to their Kind are true Creatures,
and have a true Substance, proper to
themselves, being all our Internal Children,
and all of them Male and Female,
that is, they have Body and Spirit; for if
they had not a Body, they could not be
retained, nor could we reflect on our
own proper Thoughts; for every reflection
is made by a certain Tenebrosity
or Darkness, and this is a Body; so the
Memory requires a Body, to retain the
Spirit of the Thing thought on, otherwise
it would vanish as the Image in a
Glass, which presently vanishes, the Object
being removed. And so likewise,
when we remember any Body, we see his F8v 80
his Image in us, which is a Spirit that
proceeded from him, whilst we beheld
him from without; which Image or Spirit
is retained in Some-Body, which is
the Seed of our Brain, and thence is
made a certain Spiritual Generation in
us: And so every Spirit hath its Body,
and every Body its Spirit; and as the Body,
sc.scilicet of a Man or Beast, is nothing else
but an innumerable multitude of Bodies,
compacted together into one, and disposed
into a certain order; so likewise the Spirit
of Man, or Beast, is a certain innumerable
multitude of Spirits united together
in the said Body, which have their
Order and Government so, that there is
one Captain, or Chief Governor, another
a Lieutenant, and another hath a certain
kind of Government under him, and so
through the whole, as it is wont to be in
an Army of Soldiers; wherefore the Creatures
are called Armies, and God the
God of Hosts, as the Devil which possessed
the Man was called Legion, because
there were many of them; so that every
Man; yea, every Creature, consists of
many Spirits and Bodies; (many of these
Spirits which exist in Man) are called by
the Hebrews, Nizzuzoth, or Sparks. See in G1r 81
in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 2. Part 2. Tract.Tractatus
de revolutionibus animarum
, Cap. 2. &
seq. p. 256, 268, &c.
) And indeed every
Body is a Spirit, and nothing else, neither
differs any thing from a Spirit, but in that
it is more dark; therefore by how much
the thicker and grosser it is become, so
much the more remote is it from the degree
of a Spirit, so that this distinction
is only modal and gradual, not essential
or substantial.

G Chap. G1v 82

Chap. VII.

§.1. That every Body may be turned into
a Spirit, and a Spirit into a Body;
because the distinction between Body and
Spirit is only in Modo, not in Essentia:
The reason hereof is taken, first, from the
Order of Things abovesaid, which consists
only in Three. And that the worst
of Creatures; yea, the most cursed Devils,
after many and long-continued
Torments, shall at length return to a
State of Goodness. Moreover, that all
this hardness and grossness of Bodies,
came from a certain Fall, which therefore
shall in time return to a state of
softness and subtilty. §.2. The Second
Reason is drawn from the Divine Attributes,
whereof some are communicable
to his Creatures. §.3. The Third Reason,
is drawn from the love which the
Spirits have to their Bodies. §.4. That
to be penetrable and indiscerpible is as
truly attributed to Bodies, as to Spirits;
and to be impenetrable and discerpible
agrees as well to Spirits as to Bodies;
for that the difference is Gradual and G2r 83
and not Essential; And that no Creature,
or Created Spirit, can be intimately
present in any Creature, because
Intrinsick Presence only pertains to God
and Christ; and therefore that Philosophical
Penetration of Created Spirits,
in regard of Bodies, is a mere Scholastick
Fiction.

Now that I may more clearly demonstrate,
that every Body is a
certain Spirit or Life in its own Nature,
and that the same is a certain intelligent
Principle, having Knowledge, Sense, Love,
Desire, Joy, and Grief; as it is this or
that way affected; and by consequence
hath Activity and Motion, per se; so that
it can remove itself whithersoever it desires
to be: I say, in its own Nature, wherein
it was originally created, and as it shall
be again, when it shall be reduced to its
primitive State, and delivered from that
Confusion and Vanity, to which it is subject
by reason of Sin. I shall produce these
following Reasons. (Of the Nature of
Matter and Spirit, more may be seen in
Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. 1. Part 2. p. 308.
unto p. 312. and Tom. 2. Treatise ult.
pag. 6. 28, 29, 32.
)

G2 §.1. G2v 84

§1. The first hereof shall be from the
Order of Things, before-mentioned,
which I have already proved to be but
Three; to wit, God the Supreme or
Chiefest, Christ the Medium or Middle,
and the Creature the lowest in the Order;
which Creature is but one Essence or
Substance, as to Nature or Essence, as is
above demonstrated, so that it only differs
secundum modos existendi; or, according
to the manners of existence
; among
which one is Corporiety; whereof also
there are many degrees; so that a Thing
may more or less approach to, or recede
from the State and Condition of a Body or
a Spirit; but because a Spirit (between
these two) is more excellent in the Natural
Order of Things, and by how much
the more a Creature is a Spirit, (if at least
wise it doth not any otherwise degenerate)
so much the nearer it approaches
to God, who is the chiefest Spirit. Hence
a Body may always be more and more
Spiritual, ad infinitum; because God who
is the First and Supreme Spirit is Infinite,
and doth not nor cannot partake of the
least Corporiety; whence such is the Nature
of a Creature, unless it degenerates,
that it always draws nearer and nearer unto G3r 85
unto God in likeness: But because there
is no Being, which is every way contrary
to God, (viz. there is no Being, which is infinitely
and unchangeably Evil, as God
is infinitely and unchangeably Good; nothing
infinitely Dark, as God is infinitely
Light; nor any thing infinitely a Body,
having nothing of Spirit, as God is infinitely
a Spirit, having nothing of Body;)
hence it is manifest that no Creature can
become more and more a Body, ad infinitum,
although the same may become
more and more a Spirit, ad infinitum; and
nothing can become infinitely more dark,
though it may become infinitely more
light: By the same reason nothing can
be Evil ad infinitum, although it may become
more and more Good ad infinitum:
And so indeed, in the very Nature of
Things, there are limits or bounds to
Evil; but none unto Good. And after
the same manner, every degree of Sin or
Evil hath its Punishment, Grief, and
Chastisement annexed to it, in the very
Nature of the Thing, by which the Evil
is again changed into Good; which Punishment
or Correction, though it be not
presently perceived of the Creature, when
it Sins, yet is reserved in those very Sins G3 which G3v 86
which the same committeth, and in its
due time will appear; and then every
Sin will have its Punishment, and so the
Pain and Chastisement will be felt of the
Creature, and by that the Creature will
be again restored unto its former State of
Goodness, in which it was created, and
from which it cannot fall or slide any
more; because by its great Chastisement
it hath acquired a greater Strength and
Perfection; and so is ascended so far above
that indifferency of Will, which before
it had to Good or Evil, that it Wills only
that which is Good, neither is any
more capable to Will any Evil. See Kabbal.
denud.
Kabbala Denudata
Tom. 2. Tract. ult. p. 61.
§.9. p. 69. §.21. and 70. §.5.
& ibid.
Tract.Tractatus 2. p. 157.

And hence may be inferred, that all
the Creatures of God, which heretofore
degenerated and fell from their primitive
Goodness, must after certain periods be
converted and restored, not only to as
good, but unto a better State than that
was in which they were created: For Divine
Operation cannot cease: And hence
it is the Nature of every Creature to be
still in Motion, and always to change
either from Good to Good, or from Good into G4r 87
into Evil, or from Evil again into Good;
and because it cannot proceed infinitely to
Evil, for that there is no Infinite Example
thereof, hence it must necessarily return
or slide into Eternal Silence, which is contrary
to the Nature of it. But if it be
said, “it goes into Eternal Torments”, I Answer,
“If by Eternal thou meanest an Infiniteness
of Ages, which shall never cease,
that is impossible”
; because every Pain and
Torment excites or stirs up an operating
Spirit and Life in every thing which suffers;
as we observe by continued Experience,
and Reason teacheth us, that of
necessity it must be so; because through
Pain, and the enduring thereof, every
kind of crassitude or grossness in Spirit or
Body contracted is attenuated, and so the
Spirit captivated or detained in that grossness
or crassitude is set at Liberty, and
made more Spiritual, and consequently
more Active and Operative, through suffering.
Now seeing a Creature cannot
proceed infinitely to Evil, nor slide down
into Inactivity or Silence, nor yet also into
mere Eternal Passion, it incontestably
follows, that it must at length return unto
Good; and by how much the greater
its Sufferings are, so much the sooner G4 shall G4v 88
shall it return and be restored. And so
we see how a Thing (the same Substance
still remaining) may be marvellously
changed in respect of the manners of its
Existence; so that a certain Holy and
Blessed Spirit, or Angel of Light, could
by his voluntary Action, become a Wicked
and Cursed Spirit of Darkness; which
Change, or Metamorphosis, certainly is
as great as if a Spirit were changed into
a Body. And if it be here demanded,
Whether those Spirits became more Corporeal
by their Transgression, than they
were in their Primitive State before they
fell? I answer, “Yes; but because, as I
have already shown, that a Spirit is capable
of Corporiety”
, Secundum majus &
minus
, or more and less; although not infinitely,
yet in many degrees. Hence it
is, they could remain for many Ages, and
have nothing of such a Corporeal Crassitude,
as Things in this visible World have,
such as are hard Stones, or Metals, or the
Bodies of Men and Women: For certainly
the Bodies of the worst Spirits have not
such a Crassitude as any visible Body, and
yet all that grossness of visible Bodies
came from the Fall of Spirits from their
First State: And so the Spirits after long and G5r 89
and various periods, could contract this
grossness to themselves, although they
could not together, and at one and the
same time fall into an universal grossness,
so that the whole Body of any fallen Spirit
should be in all its parts equally gross;
but some parts become grosser and grosser,
and the other Corporeal Parts of this Spirit
(which are its immediate Vehicle, and
wherewith it is most intimately united)
retain a certain Tenuity or Subtilty, without
which the Spirit could not be so moveable
and active as otherwise it would;
and with these subtiler and more tenuious
Parts of the Body, the principal Spririt
(together with its ministring Spirits, so
many of them as it can possibly gather together)
departs out of those thicker Parts
of the Body, which it leaves as so many
cadaverous Bodies, which are no longer
fit to serve the said Spirits in those Operations
which they exercise in their present
State.

And we may observe this departure of
the subtiler and stronger Spirits, out of the
harder and grosser parts of the Body, into
the more soft and tenuious, in a certain
Spirituous Liquor, which is congealed
with great cold, where the stronger Spiritsrits G5v 90
(forsaking the harder Parts which are
outward, and chiefly exposed to the cold)
do gather themselves into the middle Part
of the Body, which is always subtile and
thin, so that one drop of that Liquor
(which is not congealed, but remaineth
still liquid in the innermost Part
of the congealed Body) hath in it the augmented
force of all those Parts which are
congealed; so that here is a two fold grossness
and hardness of Bodies, the one palpable
and visible to our External Senses,
the other invisible and impalpable, which
nevertheless is as gross as the other, yea,
often grosser and harder, which may be
truly perceived by the Internal Senses,
although the External Senses may be insensible
thereof; for the invisible and impalpable
grossness or hardness is that which
is proper to those Bodies, which are so
small, that our External Senses cannot
perceive them, when nevertheless they
are really exceeding hard, yea, harder than
any Flint or Metal, which we can handle
with our Hands. And out of these hard
and small Bodies, visible Waters are for the
most part composed, although they appear
to us very soft, fluid, and tenuious,
by reason of the great Plenty of certain other G6r 91
other subtile Bodies which continually
agitate, and move the said hard Particles;
so that Water seems to our gross Senses to
be one thing Homogeneal, Simple, and
Uniform, although it consisteth of many
Heterogeneous and Dissimilar or differing
Parts, more than many other Bodies;
and many of these Parts are exceeding hard
and stony, whence proceeds Gravel,
bubbling forth, and all other little Sands
and Stones, which have their Original
and Birth from the Waters springing from
the bottom of the Earth; and when those
little Stones, or stony Particles of Water,
grow into visible Sand and Stones, the
same after some time do again lose this
hardness, and become more soft and tenuious,
than when they belonged to the
Waters; for Stones do rot, and are converted
into soft Earth, and out of this
proceed Animals; so also Stones putrifying,
do often become Water again; but
this Water is of another Species than the
former, for one is petrefying, the other
mollifying; as it is observed that from
one Mountain in Helvetia two Kinds of
Water flow, one whereof being drunken
breeds the Stone, and the other is a proper
remedy against it; so that one Water is G6v 92
is changed into a Stone, and the other
Water proceeds from that Stone, whilst
it is in Corruption, and so it alters and
loseth its former hardness; And so from
what hath been said may the better be
understood, how the Heart and Spirit of
a Wicked Man may be said to be hard
and stony; because indeed his Spirit hath
in it a real hardness, such as is found in
those little stony Particles of certain Waters;
when on the contrary the Spirits of
good Men are soft and tender; which internal
softness and hardness of Spirits, we
may also really feel, and every Good Man
doth as sensibly perceive the same, as the
external hardness of gross Bodies is discerned
by the outward touch; but such
who are dead in their Sins, have not this
sense of the hardness or softness of Good
or Evil Spirits; and therefore they call
these only Metaphorical Speeches, when
indeed the Things are really so in a
proper sence, and that without any Figure.

§.2. The Second Reason, that created
Spirits are convertible into Bodies, and
Bodies into Spirits, I shall deduce from a
serious and due consideration of the Divine
Attributes; from which, as from a Trea- G7r 93
Treasury of Instructions, may be manifested
the Truth of all Things: For seeing
God is infinitely Good, and communicates
his Goodness infinite ways to his
Creatures; so that there is no Creature
which doth not receive something of his
Goodness, and that very largely: And
seeing the Goodness of God is a living
Goodness, which hath Life, Power, Love,
and Knowledge in it, which he communicates
to his Creatures, How can it be,
that any dead Thing should proceed from
him, or be created by him, such as is mere
Body or Matter, according to their Hypothesis,
who affirm, that the same is
wholly inconvertible, to any degree of
Life or Knowledge? It is truly said of one
that God made not Death, and it is as
true, that he made no dead Thing: For
how can a dead Thing depend of him,
who is infinitely Life and Charity? Or
how can any Creature receive so vile and
diminutive an Essence from him, (who
is so infinitely Liberal and Good,) that
should partake nothing of Life or Knowledge,
nor ever be able to aspire to it, no
not in the least degree? Hath not God
created all his Creatures for this end, that
in him they might be Blessed and enjoy his G7v 94
his Divine Goodness, in their several States
and Conditions? But how can this be
without Life or sense? Or how can any
Thing, that wanteth Life, enjoy Divine
Goodness? But we shall urge this Argument
a little farther, The Divine Attributes
are commonly and rightly distinguished,
into communicable, and incommunicable;
the incommunicable are,
that God is a Being, subsisting by himself,
Independent, Unchangeable, absolutely Infinite,
and most Perfect: The communicable
are, that he is a Spirit, Life, and
Light, that he is Good, Holy, Just, Wise,
&c. But now there are none of these
communicable Attributes, which are not
living, yea Life it self: And because every
Creature hath a Communication with
God in some of his Attributes, now I demand,
In what Attribute dead Matter
hath it, or a Body that is uncapable of
Life and Sense for ever? If it be said, “It
agrees with God in Entity, or that it is
an Essence”
, I Answer, “In God there is no
dead Being, whereof he is or can be Partaker:
Whence, therefore, shall this have
its dead Essence?”
Moreover the Entity or
Being of a Thing is not properly an Attribute
thereof; but an Attribute is proproperly,perly, G8r 95
tale quid, or something that is predicated
or affirmed of that Being
: Now
what Attributes or Perfections can be attributed
to dead Matter, which do analogically
Answer to those which are in God?
If we diligently enquire thereinto, we
shall find none at all; for all his Attributes
are living; yea, Life it self. Moreover,
seeing the Creatures of God, so
far as they are Creatures, ought necessarily
in some things to resemble their Creator,
now I demand, “in what dead Matter
is like unto God?”
If they say again “in
naked Entity”
, I Answer, “There is none
such in God or his Creatures”
: And
so it is a mere non ens, or nothing.

But as touching the other Attributes
of Matter, viz. Impenetrability, Figurability,
and Mobility; certainly none of
these have any place in God, and so are
not of his communicable Attributes; but
rather EflentialEssential Differences or Attributes
of Diversity, whereby the Creature, as
such, is distinguished from God; as also
Mutability is of the Number of those differential
Attributes, whence it cannot be
said that Mutability is of the communicable
Attributes of God: And in like
manner, Impenetrability, Figurability, and G8v 96
and Mobility, do not pertain unto the
communicable Attributes of God; but to
those only in which the Creatures differ
from him. And seeing dead Matter doth
not partake of any of the communicable
Attributes of God, we must certainly conclude,
that the same is a mere non ens, or
nothing, a false Fiction or Chimæra, and
so a thing impossible. If they say, “it hath
a Metaphysical Goodness and Truth, even
as every Being is Good and True”
: Again;
I demand, “What is that Goodness and
Truth? For if it hath no participation
with any of the communicable Attributes
of God, it will be neither Good nor True,
and so a mere Fiction”
, as before was said.
Moreover, seeing it cannot be said, wherein
dead Matter doth any way partake of
Divine Goodness, much less can it be
shown, how it may be capable always to
acquire a greater Perfection, ad infinitum,
which is the Nature of all Creatures, viz.
to increase, and infinitely advance towards
a farther Perfection as is before demonstrated.
But what farther progress
in Goodness or Perfection hath a dead
Matter? Because alter it hath suffered Infinite
Changes of Motion and Figure it is
constrained always to remain dead, as before;fore; H1r 97
and if Motion and Figure contribute
nothing to the receiving of Life, then
certainly this is made never the better;
nay, is not in the least degree promoted
in Goodness: For suppose this dead Matter
had undergone all Forms, and been
transmuted into all Kinds of Figures, even
the most regular and exact: What doth
this profit this Matter or Body, because
it wants all Life and Sense? So let us suppose
the same to have undergone Infinite
Kinds of Motion, from slowness to swiftness;
Wherein, therefore, is it better, by
the way of its Intrinsecal Melioration?
For the Argument speaketh of Intrinsecal
Melioration, which is such a Melioration
as the Nature of the Thing it self requireth,
and which is performed thereby; but a
mere dead Body, or Matter, requires no
kind of Motion or Figure; nor, in it self,
is perfected more by one Motion, or Figure,
than by another: for it is alike indifferent
to all Motions and Figures whatsoever,
and by consequence is not perfected
or bettered by any of them. And
then what advantage will it have from all
these helps, if it always remain a dead
and impassible Thing.

H §.3. H1v 98

§.3. My Third Reason is drawn from
the great Love and Desire that the Spirits
or Souls have towards Bodies, and especially
towards those with which they are
united, and in which they have their Habitation:
But now the Foundation of all
Love or Desire, whereby one Thing is
carried unto another, stands in this, That
either they are of the same Nature and
Substance with them, or like unto them,
or both; or that one hath its Being from the
other, whereof we have an Example in all
living Creatures which bring forth their
young; and in like manner also in Men, how
they love that which is born of them: For so
also even Wicked Men and Women (if
they are not extremely perverse, and void of
Parental Love) do Love their Children,
and cherish them with a Natural Affection,
the cause whereof certainly is this,
That their Children are of the same Nature
and Substance, viz. as though they
were Parts of them; and if they are like
them, either in Body, Spirit, or Manners,
hereby their Love is the more increased:
So also we observe that Animals
of one Species love one another more than
those that are of a different Species; whence
also Cattle of one Kind feed together; Birds H2r 99
Birds of a Kind flock together; and Fishes
of a Kind swim together; and so Men rather
converse with Men, than with any
other Creatures: But besides this particular
Love, there remains yet something
of Universal Love in all Creatures, one
towards another, setting aside that great
confusion which hath fallen out since, by
reason of Transgression; which certainly
must proceed from the same Foundation,
viz. in regard of their First Substance and
Essence, they were all one and the same
Thing, and as it were Parts and Members
of one Body. Moreover, in every
Species of Animals, we see how the Male
and Female Love one another, and in all
their Propagations (which are not Monstrous,
and contrary to Nature) they respect
each other; and that proceeds not
only from the unity of Nature, but also
by reason of a certain eminent similitude
or likeness between them. And both these
Foundations of Love between a Man and
a Woman, are expresly mentioned in Genesis;
but that which Adam spoke concerning
his Wife, “This is Bone of my Bone,
and Flesh of my Flesh”
, &c. pertains unto
the Unity of Nature; for she was taken
out of him, and was a part of him, and H2 there- H2v 100
therefore he loved her. Moreover also,
concerning Similitude, it is said, “there
was no Help found for him, or before his
Face, as it is in the Hebrew, (i.e.) among
all Creatures he saw not his like, with
whom he would converse, until Eve was
made for him”
. But there is yet another
cause of Love, when Beings, that love
each other, are not one Substance, but
one gave Being to the other, and is the
proper and real cause thereof. And so it
is in the case between God and Creatures;
for he gave to all, Being, Life, and Motion;
and therefore he loves all Creatures;
neither can he not love them;
yea, at the same time when he seems to
hate and be angry with them, this his
Anger, and what proceeds therefrom, viz.
Punishments and Judgments, turns to
their Good, because he perceiveth they
have need of them. So, on the contrary,
the Creatures which have not wholly degenerated,
and lost all sense of God, do
love him; and this is a certain Divine
Law, and Instinct, which he put in all rational
Creatures, that they might love
him, which is the fulfilling of the whole
Law: But those Creatures which draw
most near unto God in similitude or likeness,ness, H3r 101
do love him the more, and are the
more loved of him. But if it be thought
there is another principal cause of Love,
to wit, Goodness, which is the most vehement
or powerful Magnet thereof, whence
also God is above all the most to be loved;
because he is the best; which Goodness
is in some measure in Creatures, either
really or apparently; wherefore such are
loved of their Fellow-Creatures: I Answer:
It must be granted indeed, that
Goodness is a great, yea the greatest
Cause of Love, and the proper Object of
it; but this Goodness is not a distinct
Cause from those before laid down, but
is comprehended in them. Wherefore do
we call a Thing Good? But because it either
really or apparently pleases us, for the
unity it hath with us, or which we have
with it: Hence it comes to pass, that
Good Men love Good Men, and not otherwise;
for Good Men cannot love
Evil, nor Evil Men Good Men as such;
for there is no greater similitude than between
Good and Good: For the reason
why we call or esteem a Thing Good, is
this, that it benefits us, and that we are
made Partakers of its Goodness, and so
here the First Cause of Similitude is still H3 Militant: H3v 102
Militant: So likewise, when one Thing
gives being to another, as when God and
Christ give Being to Creatures (as from
whom have every true Essence proceeded,)
here is in like manner a certain Similitude;
for it is impossible that the Creatures
should not in some Things be like
their Creator, and agree with him in some
Attributes or Perfections.

This being supposed a Touch-stone,
we shall now return to our subject matter,
(i.e.) to examine, whether Spirits and
Bodies are of one Nature and Substance,
and so convertible one into another?
Therefore, I demand, What is the reason,
That the Spirit or Soul so loveth the
Body wherewith it is united, and so unwillingly
departs out of it, that it has
been manifestly notorious, the Souls of
some have attended on, and been subject
to their Bodies, after the Body was dead,
until it was corrupted, and dissolved into
dust. That the Spirit or Soul gave a
distinct Being to the Body, or the Body
to the Spirit, cannot be the reason of this
Love; for that were Creation in a strict
sence; but this (viz.) to give Being unto
Things agrees only to God and Christ;
therefore that necessarily comes to pass by H4r 103
by reason of that similitude they have one
with another, or some Affinity in their
Natures: Or, if it be said, “there is a certain
Goodness in the Body, which moves
the Spirit to love it”
, certainly this Goodness
must necessarily answer to something
in the Soul which is like it, otherwise it
could not be carried unto it; yea, let them
inform us what that Goodness in the Body
is, for which the Soul doth so fervently
love it? or in what Attributes or Perfections
a Body is like a Spirit; if a Body is
nothing but a dead Trunk, and a certain
Mass which is altogether uncapable of
any degree of Life, and Perfection? if
they say “a Body agrees with a Spirit Ratione
entis
, or in respect of Being”
; that is
to say; “as this hath Being so that hath the
same”
; this is already refuted in the former
Argument; for if this Being hath no
Attributes or Perfections wherein it may
agree with the Being of a Spirit, then it
is only a mere Fiction; for God created
no Naked Ens, or Being, which should be a
mere Being, and have no Attributes that
may be predicated of it; besides also, “Ens”
is only a Logical Notion or Term, which
Logicians do call Genus generalissimum, or
the most General Kind, which in the H4 naked H4v 104
naked and abstracted Notion of it, is not
in the Things themselves, but only in the
Conception or Humane Intellect. And
therefore every true Being is a certain
single Nature, whereof may be affirmed
such and such Attributes: Now what are
those Attributes of Body, wherein it resembles
a Spirit? Let us examine the principal
Attributes of a Body, as distinct from
a Spirit, according to their Opinion, who
so much dispute, that Body and Spirit
are so infinitely distant in Nature, that one
can never become the other: The Attributes
are these, That a Body is impenetrable
of all other Bodies, so that the parts
thereof cannot penetrate each other; but
there is another Attribute of Body, viz. to
be discerpible or divisible into parts: But
the Attributes of Spirit (as they define
it) are penetrability and indiscerpibility,
so that one Spirit can penetrate another;
also, that a thousand Spirits can stand together
one within another, and yet possess
no more Space than one Spirit. Moreover,
that a Spirit is so simple, and one
in it self, that it cannot be rent asunder,
or actually divided into separate parts.
If now the Attributes of Body and Spirit
are compared together, they are so far from H5r 105
from being like one another, or having
any Analogy of Nature (in which nevertheless
the true Foundation of Love and
Unity doth consist, as before was said,) that
they are plainly contrary; yea, nothing
in the whole World can be conceived so
contrary to any Thing, as Body and Spirit,
in the opinion of these Men. For
here is a pure and absolute contrariety in
all their Attributes; because Penetrability
and Impenetrability are more contrary
one to another than black and white, or
hot and cold: For that which is black
may become white, and that which is
hot may become cold: But (as they say)
that which is impenetrable cannot be
made penetrable; yea, God and Creatures
do not so infinitely differ in Essence one
from another; as these Doctors make Body
to differ from Spirit: For there are
many Attributes, in which God and the
Creatures agree together; but we can
find none, wherein a Body can any way
agree with a Spirit, and by consequence,
nor with God, who is the chiefest and
purest of Spirits; wherefore it can be no
Creature, but a mere Non-entity or Fiction:
But as Body and Spirit are contrary
in the Attributes of Penetrabilitylity H5v 106
and Impenetrability; so are they no
less contrary in Discerpibility and Indiscerpibility:
But if they alledge, that Body
and Spirit do agree in some Attributes,
as Extension, Mobility, and Figurability;
so that Spirit hath Extension, and can reach
from one place to another, and also can
move it self from place to place, and form
it self into whatsoever Figure it pleaseth,
in which cases it agrees with a Body, and
a Body with it: To this I Answer: Supposing
the first, that a Spirit can be extended
(which yet many of them deny,
yea most, who teach that Body and Spirit
are essentially distinct) yet the Extension
of Body and Spirit, as they understand
it, do wonderfully differ; for the
Extension of Body is always impenetrable;
yea, to be extended, and impenetrable,
as pertaining to the Body, is only one real
Attribute proposed in two Mental and
Logical Notions, or ways of speaking;
for what is Extension, unless the Body
(wheresoever it is) be impenetrable of
its own proper parts? But remove this
Attribute of Impenetrability from a Body,
and it cannot be conceived any longer, as
extended. Moreover also, the Extension
of Body and Spirit, according to their Notion, H6r 107
Notion, infinitely differ; for whatsoever
Extension a Body hath, the same is so necessary
and essential to it, that it is impossible
for it to be more or less extended;
when nevertheless a Spirit may be more
or less extended, as they affirm; and seeing
to be moveable and figurable, are only
consequential Attributes of Extension,
(for that a Spirit is far otherwise moveable
and figurable than a Body, because a Spirit
can move and form it self as a Body cannot:)
The same Reason which is good against
the one is good against the other also.

§.4. But, Secondly, How can they
prove Impenetrability is an Essential Attribute
of Body; or that Penetrability is
an Essential Attribute of Spirit? Why
may not Body be more or less impenetrable,
and Spirit more or less penetrable,
as it may, and indeed doth happen
in all other Attributes? For, ex. gr.exempli gratia some
Body may be more or less heavy or light,
condensed or rarefied, solid or liquid, hot
or cold; then why may it not also be
more or less penetrable, or impenetrable?
If it be said, “that in all those other Mutations
we always observe, that a Body remains
impenetrable, as Iron when it is
heat red-hot, yet remains still impenetrable:trable: H6v 108”
I Answer, “I grant it may remain
impenetrable of any other Body of equal
thickness; yet may, and is entirely penetrated
of a more subtile Body, sc.scilicit of the
Fire which hath entred into it, and penetrated
all its parts, whereby ’tis made so
soft; and if the Fire be stronger, begins
wholly to melt”
. But if, against this, they
Object, that the ingress of Fire into the
Iron, is not penetration in a Philosophical
Sence, nor as they understand it, viz. as
though the Fire and Iron did possess but
one place, and so the one could be intrinsecally
present in the other; because it is
manifest to the contrary, that Iron (if it
be made candent or glowing hot) it swelleth
and acquireth a greater Bulk, than
when it is cold; and as it waxeth cold again,
it returneth to its former dimension.
To this I Answer: If they mean such a
Penetration, which we call Intrinseck Presence,
viz. that one Homogeneal Substance
should enter into another, both being
of equal Dimensions, and yet the bulk
or quantity not increased, that seems
wholly irrational: And it would be a
mere impossibility and contradiction to
grant such an intimate Presence in Creatures,
which only agrees unto God and Christ H7r 109
Christ as Creators, whose Prerogative it
is to be intrinsecally present in Creatures;
whereas no Creature can have that Intrinseck
Presence in its Fellow Creature,
because then it would cease to be a Creature,
and obtain one of the incommunicable
Attributes of God and Christ,
which is Intrinseck Presence. This
(I say) is primarily to be attributed to
God, and secondarily to Christ, in as
much as he is Medium quid, or a certain
Medium between God and Creatures, and
who as he is Partaker of Mutability and
Immutability, of Eternity and Time; so
he may be said “to be Partaker of Body and
Spirit, and consequently of Place and Extension:”
For, in as much as his Body is of
another Substance than the Bodies of all
other Creatures, (as of whom he is the
nearest Beginning to God,) it may be truly
said, “he is intrinsecally present in them,
and yet not so as to be confounded with
them”
. For to suppose one Creature intrinsecally
present in another, so as to be
mingled and most perfectly united with
it, and yet its Quantity or Extension not
increased, that confounds the Creatures,
and maketh two or more to be but one:
Yea, according to this Hypothesis, it may H7v 110
may be said “the whole Creation is reducible
into the quantity of the least Grain or Dust,
because every part would be supposed to
penetrate another, and no greater extension
follow than of one Part”
. But if it be said,
“that only proves that Spirits may be reduced
into so small a space but not Bodies: Because
Bodies are Impenetrable”
. I Answer, “This
is but a begging of the question, because
they have not yet proved that Body and
Spirit are distinct Substances”
; which, unless
they are, it follows that one Nature
is not more penetrable than the other, according
to their sence. And indeed it
seems very consentaneous to Reason, that
as Times are each of them so extended into
their due Measures and Extensions, that
they cannot exceed those Bounds, and so
cannot be intrinsecally present one with
another; as (ex. gr.exempli gratia) the First Day of the
Week cannot be present with the Second
Day of the same Week; nor the First
Hour of the Day with the Second; neither
is the First Minute of an Hour present
with the Second Minute thereof; because
such is the Nature and Essence of
Time, that it is successive, and hath partes
extra partes
, or parts, one without
another
. When nevertheless God is really and H8r 111
and intrinsecally present in all Times, and
is not changed, which cannot be said of
the Creature, sc.scilicit that that is present in all
or more Times, and not changed; for
the Creature is perpetually changed with
Times, seeing Times are nothing else but
the Motion or Change of the Creature
from one State or Condition into another.
And as it is in the case of Time, and Creatures
which are in Time, so also in the
case of Place, Bulk, or Quantity; for as
in God there is no Time, so also in him
there is no Bulk or Corporeal Quantity;
but in Creatures there is both Time and
Corporeal Quantity; because otherwise
they would be either God, or Nothing,
which is impossible. For whatsoever
Quantity, Bulk, or Extension any Creature
hath, it retains the same, as something
which is of its own Essence; as it is
the Essence of Time to consist of more
parts, and those again of more, and so ad
infinitum
: For it may be easily conceived
how a less Time is in a greater, ex. gr.exempli gratia
how so many Minutes are in an Hour, and
so many Hours in a Day; and one Hour
doth immediately touch the next, but
cannot be present in it, the same is to be
understood of the Creatures, in regard of their H8v 112
their Quantity or Bulk; for indeed one
Creature may immediately touch another,
but cannot be present in all its parts, but
only a less may be in a greater, and a
subtiler in a grosser; and this is more
properly Penetration which agrees to Bodies
as well as Spirits; as some Body, that
is less gross may penetrate another that
is more gross; but two Bodies of an equal
thickness cannot penetrate each other:
The same may be said of Spirits
which have their degrees of more or less
grossness, as Bodies have: Neither is there
any other difference between Body and
Spirit, (if Body be not taken in their sence,
who teach that it is a Thing merely Dead,
and void of Life, or a Capacity thereof;
but in a proper sence: sc.scilicit that it is an
excellent Creature having Life and Sense,
which either actually or potentially agrees
to it) but this that a Body is the
grosser part of a thing, and Spirit the subtiler,
whence also Spirit hath it’s name
from the Air, which is the most subtile
Nature in this visible World. In Kabbal.
denud.
Kabbala Denudata
Tom. 2. Tract. ult. p. 6. §.13.

Spirit is rather defined, a central Nature,
having a Faculty to send forth a Sphere
full of Light and to inlarge or contract the same I1r 113
same, which properly seems to be Aristotle’s
έντφλχεια, and ibid. p. 28. §.4.
Matter is defined: A naked Centre, or a
Point wanting Eradiation, which Aristotle
understood by Privation: Whence we
must conclude, that the Impenetrability
of these Creatures is to be understood of
their Centres: For the Hebrew Word,
“ךוח”, which signifies a Spirit, signifies also
Air; and because Air hath a very swift
Motion, all swiftness of Motion is imputed
to the Spirit in the moved Body:
Hence out of Popular Ignorance, when
in certain Bodies they perceived no Motion,
they termed them Dead, wanting
both Life and Spirit: But indeed there is
no where any such Body that hath not
Motion, and by consequence Life and
Spirit. Therefore every Creature hath
its due Quantity or Extension, which it
cannot exceed, and wherein also it cannot
be diminished.

Neither doth this hinder, that we observe,
how some very small Body may be
extended into a Space a Thousand times
greater than it had; even as Gun-Powder,
if it be set on Fire doth marvellously extend
it self; for all this Extension is made
by Division of Parts into Parts, still less I and I1v 114
and less, which indeed do not fill all that
Space so great as it seems, when in the
mean while each part hath neither greater
nor lesser Extension than it had before.
Supposing this, it must be concluded that
all Creatural Spirits, which are present in
Bodies, are either in the Pores of the said
Bodies, or in certain Concavities made
there, as Moles make in the Earth;
or else they cause the said Bodies to be
puffed up, and acquire a greater Extension;
as when Fire copiously enters Iron,
it notably puffs up and extends the same:
And although this Turgescency, or puffing
up of Bodies
, cannot be always observed
by our External Senses; yet it cannot
therefore be denied: For ’tis possible,
that a certain Body may considerably
grow or increase in its dimensions, and
become intirely greater, and yet this increase
of Magnitude may shun all outward
Observation; yea, it may be so subtile
that it cannot be expressed by Numbers;
ex. gr.exempli gratia let us suppose some Body,
whose Solidity or Cube may contain 64
Parts, and another whose Solidity contains
100, where the root of the former
Body whose Cube is 64 is 4; so that the
side of that Body contains four Longitudes of I2r 115
of the Parts so divided; but the side or root
of the other Body, whose Cube is 100, can
be expressed by no Number; for it is
greater than 4, and less than 5, and no
Fraction can determine the same: Therefore
Bodies (as was said) may be considerably
swoln or puffed up, (if more Spirits
or subtiler Bodies enter into them,) and
yet so as that our gross Senses may judge
them not at all greater. Now that we
may come to the other Attribute, which is
said to be of Body but not of Spirit, viz.
Discerpibility; if they understand it so;
that one only Body, even the least that
can be conceived (if any such Body can
be conceived) may be divided; that is
certainly impossible; for it is a contradiction
in terms, and supposes every the
least Body to be discerpible into lesser
Parts. But if Body be taken individually
only for one single Body, that is indiscerpible;
and that which we call the Discerpibility
of Body means only this, sc.scilicit that we may
divide one Body from another, by placing
some Third Body between them; and according
to this sence Spirits are no less discerpible
than Bodies; for although one
single Spirit cannot become two or more
Spirits, yet more Spirits co-existing in one I2 Body, I2v 116
Body, are no less separable one from another
than Bodies; for however Bodies or
Spirits may be divided or separated one
from another in the whole Universe, yet
they still remain united in this separation;
seeing the whole Creation is still but one
Substance or Entity, neither is there a Vacuum
in it; How then can any thing be
separated from it self? I mean, from that
which is its proper Nature, as considered
Originally, or in its Beginning, or First
Being? But as there is a General Unity
of all Creatures one with another, so that
none can be separated from his Fellow-
Creatures; so there is a more special and
particular Unity between the Parts of one
particular Species: As when the Body is
divided, or torn asunder, and the Members
removed one from another unto a
certain distance, so long as these Members
are not corrupted, and changed into another
Species, they still send certain subtile
Particles one to another, and to the Body
from whence they came, and the Body
sends the like unto them, (which we call
Spirits, and Bodies, or Spirits, for they
are either,) by means whereof the Parts
and Members so apparently separated, still
retain a certain real Unity and Sympathy, as I3r 117
as is manifest from sundry Examples; and
especially the two following: The First
of which is this: A certain Man wanting
a Nose, ordered one to be made for him
out of the Flesh of another Man, which
being vitally agglutinated, (as a Scion or
Graft is united with the Trunk of the
Tree into which it is put;) when the other
Man died, and his Body corrupted,
this Nose was likewise corrupted, and fell
from the Body of this living Man. The
Second Example is of a Man whose Leg
was cut off; which Leg being removed
some considerable distance from the rest
of the Body, when a certain Chirurgeon
cut it, this man complained of Pains, and
showed in what part the said Leg was
wounded, which manifestly proves that
there is a certain Union of Parts, though
separated at a great distance one from another:
And so also Individuals of one
Species, or such who have a singular Affinity
in Specie, have a Union one with
another, although locally distant, which
is yet more manifest in Humane Kind:
For if two Men interely love one another,
they are by this love so united, that no
distance of place can divide or separate
them; for they are present (one with another)I3 nother) I3v 118
in Spirit; so that there passeth a
continual Efflux, or Emanation of Spirits,
from the one to the other, whereby they
are bound together, and united as with
Chains: And so whatsoever a Man loves,
whether it be Man or Beast, whether a
Tree, or whether Silver or Gold, he is
united with the same, and his Spirit passeth
into that very Thing; and here is
to be observed, that though the Spirit of
Man is commonly spoken in the Singular,
as though it were but one Thing; yet
the said Spirit is a certain composition of
more, yea innumerable Spirits; as the
Body is a composition of more Bodies, and
hath a certain Order and Government
in all its Parts, much more the Spirit
which is a great Army of Spirits, wherein
there are distinct Offices under one governing
Spirit. And so from hence is appears
that Impenetrability and Indiscerpibility,
are not more Essential Attributes
of Body, than of Spirit; because in one
sence they agree unto either, in another
sence unto neither.

But against this Infiniteness of Spirits
in every Spirit, and Infiniteness of Bodies
in every Body, may be objected that Saying:
“God made all Things in Number, Weight, I4r 119
Weight, and Measure”
; wherefore there
cannot be an infinite multitude of Spirits
in one Man, nor an innumerable multitude
of Bodies in one Body? But I Answer
that the infiniteness or innumerability
of Spirits, and Bodies is only to be
understood in respect of the Creatures understanding,
so that they cannot be numbred,
nor the outward Extension of Body
and Spirit (that may happen in them)
be measured by the knowledge of any
Creature. But that God hath perfectly
known the Number and Measure of all
Creatures is freely granted. And if God
made all Things in Number, Weight, and
Measure; then certainly every Creature
will have its Number, Weight, and Measure;
and by consequence we cannot say
of any Creature, that it is but one single
Thing, because it is a Number, and Number
is a multitude, or more than one; and
indeed the Nature of a Creature is such,
that the same cannot be merely one single
Thing, in case it ought to act or do
something, and so enjoy that Goodness
which is prepared for it by its Creator:
For (ex. gr.exempli gratia) let us suppose but one Atom
to be separated from its Fellow-Creatures,
What can that do to perfect it self, or I4 make I4v 120
make it self greater or better? What can
it see, hear, taste, or feel, either from
within or without? It cannot have internal
Motion; because every Motion hath
at least two Terms or Extreams, viz.
Terminus à quo, and Terminus ad quem;
or, the Term from which, and the Term
to which
: And seeing this is but one Atom
or Centre, certainly it cannot have any
Motion within it self, è Termino à quo, & ad
quem
; and consequently, seeing it cannot
hear, see, taste, or feel, ab intra, or, from
within
, it cannot have it from other Creatures,
ab extra, or, from without; for if
it ought to see, hear, feel, or taste any other
Creature, it is required to receive the Image
of this Creature within it self, which
it cannot do, because it is an Atom, and
an Atom is so small that it can receive
nothing within it: For as the Organs of
the external Senses are compose of more
parts; so also are the Organs of the internal,
and consequently all Knowledge
requires variety or multitude, which is
the Subject or Receptacle of it: I mean all
Creatural Knowledge, where Knowledge
is received or excited from known Things
or Objects, (whereas the Knowledge
of God is not received or excited by Creatures, I5r 121
Creatures, but is originally in and from
himself.) Seeing, therefore, the Objects
of our Knowledge are various, and
every Object sends its Image into us, and
that Image is a real Being, it follows we
have many Images in us, which cannot
be all received in an Atom, but have need
of their distinct Places in us, in their
distinct Forms and Figures; otherwise
there would not only follow a confusion,
but many Things would be present one
with another without any Extension,
which is repugnant to the Nature of a
Creature. And although the Objects
of our Knowledge are many; as for
Example, I am manifold, who receive so
many Images from those Objects; yet
from thence it doth not follow, because
I who know something am manifold, that
therefore I ought to behold one Object
as it if was many, so that seeing one
Man I should see many; for when many
Men see one Man they do not behold
him as many Men, but as one Man only:
So when I look up and behold something
with both my Eyes (unless peradventure
there be any confusion in my sight) they
do not seem to me as two, but one; and
if I could behold something with ten thousandsand I5v 122
Eyes, as I do with two, certainly
that Thing, whether an Horse or a Man,
would not seem otherwise to me than one
alone. Hence appears to us a great distinction
between God and Creatures; for
he is One, and this is his Perfection, that
he hath need of nothing without him:
But a Creature, because it needs the
assistance of its Fellow-Creatures, ought
to be manifold, that is may receive this
assistance; for that which receives something
is nourished by the same, and so becomes
a part of it, and therefore it is no
more one but many, and so many indeed
as there are Things received, and
yet of a greater multiplicity; therefore
there is a certain Society or Fellowship
among Creatures in giving and receiving,
whereby they mutually subsist one by
another, so that one cannot live without
another; for what Creature in the whole
World can be found that hath no need of
its Fellow-Creature? Certainly none;
therefore by consequence every Creature
which hath Life, Sense, or Motion, ought
to be a Number, or a Multiplicity; yea,
a Number without Number, or Infinite
in respect of any created Intellect. But
if it be said, “ought not the Central or governing I6r 123
governing Spirit to be but one only Atom;
for otherwise how can it be called
a Centre, and the chief Spirit, having
Dominion over the rest?”
I Answer in the
Negative: “For this Centre it self, or chief,
and governing Spirit, is manifold, for
the Reasons before alledged”
; but it is
called a Centre, because all the other
Spirits concur to it, as Lines from all
parts of the Circumference do meet at the
Centre, and do again depart out or proceed
therefrom; and indeed the unity of
the Spirits that compose or make up this
Centre, or governing Spirit, is more firm
and tenacious, than that of all the other
Spirits; which are, as it were, the Angels
or Ministring Spirits of their Prince
or Captain; yea, in Man this Unity is so
great, that nothing can dissolve it, (although
the Unity of the greatest Plenty
of Ministring Spirits which belong not
to the composition of this Centre) may
be dissolved: Hence it comes to pass
that the Soul of every Man shall remain
an entire everlasting Soul, or be of endless
duration, that it may receive the proper
Fruit of its labour, and that the Universal
Law of Justice (which is written
on every Thing) doth require, which is as I6v 124
as a most strong and indissolvable Band
to preserve this Unity: For what is more
congruous with this Infinite Justice and
Wisdom than this, That they who have
joined together, and consented to work
either Good or Evil, shall together receive
their due Reward and Punishment,
which cannot be if they should be dissipated
or separated one from another; and the
same reason doth prove, that the Central
Spirits of all other Creatures remain indissolvable;
and that although new Central
Spirits are continually form’d in the
Production of Things; yet no Central
Spirit is dissolved, but farther promoted,
or at least diminished, according to the
present dignity or indignity, capacity
or incapacity thereof.

Chap. I7r 125

Chap. VIII.

§. 1. That Spirit and Body, as they are
Creatures, differ not essentially, is farther
proved by three other Reasons:
And a Fourth is drawn from that intimate
Bond or Union between Body and
Spirit. §. 2. That would be altogether
an unfit comparison, to go about to illustrate
the manner how the Soul moves
the Body by an Example of God moving
his Creatures. §. 3. The Union and
Sympathy of Soul and Body may be easily
demonstrated; as also how the Soul
moves the Body from the aforesaid Principle;
that Spirit is Body, and Body
Spirit. §. 4. A Fifth Argument is
taken from Earth and Water, which
continually produces Animals of divers
Kinds out of putrified or corrupted
Matter. §. 5. How a gross Body may
be changed into Spirit, and become as
it were the Mother of Spirits; where
an Example is laid down of our Corporal
Aliment, which by various Transmutations
in the Body is changed into
Animal Spirits, and from these into Subtiler, I7v 126
Subtiler, and more Spiritual. §. 6. Of
the good or bad Angels of Men, which
are properly the Angels of a Man, and
proceed from him as Branches from
the Root. §. 7. A sixth and last Argument
is drawn from certain places of
Scripture.

§.1. TO prove that Spirit and Body
differ not essentially, but gradually,
I shall deduce my Fourth Argument
from the intimate Band or Union,
which intercedes between Bodies and Spirits,
by means whereof the Spirits have
Dominion over the Bodies with which
they are united, that they move them
from one place to another, and use them
as Instruments in their various Operations.
For if Spirit and Body are so contrary
one to another, so that a Spirit is
only Life, or a living and sensible Substance,
but a Body a certain Mass merely
dead; a Spirit penetrable and indiscerpible,
but a Body impenetrable and discerpible,
which are all contrary Attributes:
What (I pray you) is that which doth so
join or unite them together? Or, what
are those Links or Chains, whereby they
have so firm a connexion, and that for so long I8r 127
long a space of Time? Moreover also,
when the Spirit or Soul is separated from
the Body, so that it hath no longer Dominion
or Power over it to move it as it
had before, What is the cause of this separation?
If it be said, that the vital agreement,
the Soul hath to the Body, is the
cause of the said Union, and that the
Body being corrupted that vital Agreement
ceaseth. I Answer, We must first
enquire, in what this vital Agreement
doth consist; for if they cannot tell us
wherein it doth consist, they only trifle
with empty Words, which give a sound
but want a signification: For certainly
in that sence which they take Body and
Spirit in, there is no Agreement at all between
them; for a Body is always a dead
Thing, void of Life and sense, no less
when the Spirit is in it, than when it is
gone out of it: Hence there is no Agreement
at all between them; and if there
is any Agreement, that certainly will remain
the same, both when the Body is
found, and when it is corrupted. If they
deny this, because a Spirit requires an organized
Body, by means whereof it performs
its vital Acts of the external Senses;
moves and transports the Body from place to I8v 128
to place; which Organical Action ceases
when the Body is corrupted. Certainly
by this the difficulty is never the better
solved. For why doth the Spirit require
such an organized Body? ex. gr.exempli gratia Why
doth it require a Corporeal Eye so
wonderfully formed and organized, that
I can see by it? Why doth it need a Corporeal
Light, to see Corporeal Objects?
Or, why is it requisite, that the Image
of the Object should be sent to it, through
the Eye, that it may see it? If the same
were entirely nothing but a Spirit, and
no way Corporeal, Why doth it need so
many several Corporeal Organs, so far
different from the Nature of it? Furthermore,
how can a Spirit move its Body,
or any of its Members, if a Spirit (as they
affirm) is of such a Nature, that no part
of its Body can in the least resist it, even
as one Body is wont to resist another,
when ’tis moved by it, by reason of its
Impenetrability? For if a Spirit could so
easily penetrate all Bodies, Wherefore
doth it not leave the Body behind it, when
it is moved from place to place, seeing it
can so easily pass out without the least resistance?
For certainly this is the cause of
all Motions which we see in the World, where K1r 129
where one Thing moves another, viz.
because both are impenetrable in the sence
aforesaid: For were it not for this Impenetrability
one Creature could not move
another, because this would not oppose
that, nor at all resist it; an Example
whereof we have in the Sails or a Ship;
by which the Wind drives the Ship, and
that so much the more vehemently, by
how much the fewer holes, vents, and
passages, the same finds in the Sails against
which it drives: When on the contrary,
if instead of Sails Nets were expanded,
through which the Wind would
have a freer passage; certainly by these
the Ship would be but little moved, although
it blew with great violence:
Hence we see how this Impenetrability
causes resistance, and this makes Motion.
But if there were no Impenetrability, as
in the case of Body and Spirit, then there
could be no resistance, and by consequence
the Spirit could make no motion in the
Body.

§. 2. And if it be objected, That
God is altogether incorporeal and intrinsecally
present in all Bodies, and yet doth
move Bodies whethersoever he pleaseth,
and is the First Mover of all Things, K and K1v 130
and yet nothing is impenetrable to him:
I Answer, This Motion by which God
moves a Body, doth wonderfully differ
from that manner by which the Soul
moves the Body; for the Will of God
which gave Being to Bodies, gave them
Motion also, so that Motion it self is of
God, by whose Will all Motion happens:
For as a Creature cannot give Being to it
self, so neither can it move it self; for in
him we Live, Move, and have our Being;
so that Motion and Essence come from
the same cause, sc.scilicit God the Creator, who
remains immoveable in himself; neither is
he carried from place to place, because he
is equally present every where, and gives
Being to Creatures: But the case is far
different, when the Soul moves the
Body; for the Soul is not the Author
of Motion, but only determines it to
this or that particular Thing: And the
Soul it self moved, together with the
Body, from place to place; and if the
Body be imprisoned, or held in Chains,
it cannot be free or deliver it self out of Prison
or out of Chains: Wherefore it would
be a very unfit comparison, if one should
go about to illustrate that Motion the
Soul makes in the Body, by an Example of K2r 131
of God moving his Creatures; yea, so
great is the difference, as if a Man should
go to demonstrate how a Carpenter
builds a Ship, or an House, by an Example
of God creating the first Matter or
Substance, wherein certainly there is as
great a disparity or disproportion; for
God gave Being to Creatures, but a Carpenter
doth not give Being to the Wood
whereof he builds a Ship.

But no Man can think, because I have
said, “All Motion of Creatures is of God”,
that therefore he is, or can be the Author,
or Cause of Sin: For although the
moving Power be of God, yet Sin is not
in the least of God, but of the Creature,
who hath abused this Power, and determined
to some other end than it ought:
So that Sin is άταξία, or an inordinate determination
of Motion, or the power of
moving from its due place, state, or condition
unto some other, as, v.g.verbi gratia a Ship is
moved by the Wind, but governed by the
Mariner, that it goes to this or that place;
where the Mariner is not the Author or
Cause of the Wind; but the Wind blowing,
he makes either a good or a bad use
of the same, whereby he either brings K2 the K2v 132
the Ship to the place intended, and so
is commended; or else so manages her
that she suffers Shipwrack, for which
he is blamed, and worthy of Punishment.

Moreover, Why is the Spirit or Soul
so passible in corporal Pains? For if when
it is united with the Body, it hath nothing
of Corporeity, or a bodily Nature,
Why is it grieved or wounded when
the Body is wounded, which is quite of
a different Nature? For seeing the Soul
can so easily penetrate the Body, How can
any Corporeal Thing hurt it? If it be
said, “the Body only feels the pain, but
not the Soul”
; this is contrary to their
own Principles, because they affirm,
that “the Body hath neither Life nor
Sense”
: But if it be granted, that the Soul
is of one Nature and Substance with the
Body, although it is many degrees more
excellent in regard of Life and Spirituality,
as also in swiftness of Motion, and
Penetrability, and divers other Perfections;
then all the aforesaid difficulties
will vanish, and it will be easily conceived,
how the Body and Soul are united together,
and how the Soul moves the Body, and K3r 133
and suffers by it or with it. What the
Opinion of the Hebrews is appears
from a place in Kabbal. denud.Kabbala Denudata Tom. I.
Part. 3. Dissert. 8. Cap. 13. p. 171.
seq.

§.3. For we may easily understand
how one Body is united with another, by
that true agreement that one hath with
another in its own Nature; and so the most
subtile and Spiritual Body may be united
with a Body that is very gross and thick,
sc.scilicit by means of certain Bodies, partaking
of subtilty and grossness, according to
divers degrees, consisting between two
Extreams, and these middle Bodies are
indeed the Links and Chains, by which
the Soul, which is so subtile and Spiritual,
is conjoined with a Body so gross; which
middle Spirits (if they cease, or are absent)
the Union is broken or dissolved;
so from the same Foundation we may
easily understand, how the Soul moves
the Body, viz. as one subtile Body can
move another gross and thick Body:
And seeing Body it self is a sensible Life,
or an intellectual Substance, it is no less
clearly conspicuous, how one Body can K3 wound K3v 134
wound, or grieve, or gratifie, or please
another; because Things of one, or alike
Nature, can easily affect each other:
And to this Argument may be reduced
the like difficulties, viz. how Spirits
move Spirits; and how some Spirits
strive and contend with other Spirits;
also concerning the Unity, Concord,
and Friendship, which good Spirits reverence
among themselves; for if all Spirits
could be intrinsecally present one
with another, How could they dispute
or contend about place? And how can
one expel or drive out another? and yet
that there is such an expulsion and conflict
of Spirits, and especially of the Good against
the Evil, some few who have been
acquainted with their own Hearts have
experimentally known. If it be said, “the
Spirit of God and Christ are intrinsecally
present in all Things, contends
with, and makes War against the Devil,
and his Spirit, in the Heart of Man.”

I Answer, That this is also a very unfit
similitude, (viz.) when God and Creatures
are compared in their Operations:
For his Ways are infinitely Superiour to
ours; yet nevertheless in this case also here K4r 135
here remains a strong Objection. For
the Spirits of God and Christ, when they
strive against the Devil, and the Evil
Spirits in the Heart of Man, do unite
themselves with certain good Spirits,
whom they have sanctified and prepared
for this Union; and by these, as a Vehicle,
or Triumphant Chariot, they contend
against and encounter those Malignant
and Wicked Spirits: And in as
much as these Evil Spirits contend against
those Good Spirits in the Heart of
Man, they contend against God and
Christ; and these Good Spirits are the
Spirits of this faithful and pious Man,
who is become Good, when as before
he was Evil: For God and Christ do
help every pious Man to prevail over
the Evil Spirits in this Conflict, but
suffers the Wicked and Unfaithful to be
captivated and overcome; for God helps
none but those that fear, love, and obey
him, and trust in his Power, Goodness,
and Truth; for with such he is united,
and the good Spirits of such Men are as
so many Swords and Darts, whereby
those dark and unclean Spirits are
wounded and repulsed. But if it be demandedK4 manded K4v 136
how the Soul of Man can be
united with God, though it were in a
State of the highest Purity; because he
is a mere Spirit: but the Soul even in its
greatest Purity always partakes of Corporeity?
I Answer, “It is done by Jesus
Christ
, who is the true and proper Medium
between both”
; for Christ and the Soul
may be united without a Medium, by
reason of that great Affinity and Similitude
between them, which those
Doctors cannot demonstrate between
Spirit and Body, who say they are
of a Nature so contrary one to another.

§. 4. I shall draw a Fifth Argument
from what we observe in all visible Bodies,
as in Earth, Water, Stones,
Wood, &c. What abundance of Spirits
is in all these things? For Earth and
Water continually produce Animals, as
they hath done from the beginning; so
that a Pool fill’d with Water may produce
Fishes, though none were ever put there
to increase or breed; and seeing that all
other Things do more originally proceed
from Earth and Water, it necessarilyrily K5r 137
follows, that the Spirits of all Animals
were in the Water; and therefore
it is said in Genesis, that “the Spirit
of God moved upon the Face of
the Waters”
, viz. that from hence he
might produce whatsoever was afterwards
created.

§. 5. But if it be said, “this Argument
doth not prove that all Spirits
are Bodies, but that all Bodies have in
them the Spirits of all Animals, so that
every Body hath a Spirit in it, and likewise
a Spirit and Body; and although
they are thus united, yet they still remain
different in Nature one from another,
and so cannot be changed one
into another”
. To this I Answer, “if every
Body, even the least, hath in it the
Spirits of all Animals, and other Things;
even as matter is said to have in it all
Forms”
: Now I demand, “Whether a Body
hath actually all those Spirits in it,
or potentially only?”
If actually, How
is it possible that so many Spirits essentially
distinct from Body, can actually
exist in their distinct Essences in so small
a Body, (even in the least that can be con- K5v 138
conceived,) unless it be by intrinseck
Presence, which is not communicable to
any Creature, as is already proved; For
if all kinds of Spirits are in any, even
the least Body, How comes it to pass,
that such an Animal is produced of this Body,
and not another? Yea, how comes it
to pass that all kind of Animals are not
immediately produced out of one and
the same Body? which experience denies;
for we see that Nature keeps her
order in all her Operations; whence
one Animal is formed of another, and
one Species proceeds from another; as
well when it ascends to a farther Perfection,
as when it descends to a viler
State and Condition: But if they say, “all
Spirits are contained in any Body, not
actually in their distinct Essences, but only
potentially as they term it”
; then it must
be granted, that the Body and all those
Spirits are one and the same thing; that
is, that a Body may be turned into them;
as when we say Wood is potentially Fire,
that is, can be turned into Fire; Water
is potentially Air, that is, may be changed
into Air.

More- K6r 139

Moreover, if Spirits and Bodies are so
inseparably united, that no Body can be
without a Spirit, yea, not without many
Spirits; this is certainly a great Argument,
that they are of one Original
Nature and Substance, otherwise we
could not conceive, why in so various
and wonderful dissolutions, and separation
of Things, they should not at length
be separated one from another, as we
see the subtiler Things may be separated
from the grosser? But whence is it, that
when a Body is at length corrupted, out
of this Corruption another Species of
Things is generated? So out of Earth
and Water corrupted, proceed Animals;
yea, Stones if they putrefie or rot, pass
into Animals: So Dung, or other putrefied
Matter, generates Animals, all which
have Spirits: But how doth Corruption
or Dissolution of Body tend to a new
Generation, and that indeed of Animals?
If it be said “the Spirits of those Animals
are as it were loosed from their Bonds,
and set at Liberty by this dissolution, and
that then they can form or fashion to
themselves a new Body, out of the aforesaid
Matter, by virtue of their Plastick Fa- K6v 140
Faculty”
: Unto this I reply, “How did
the Primitive Body so hold it Captive?
Was it because it was so hard and thick?”

If so, it will be manifest that those Spirits
are nothing else but subtile Bodies, because
hardness and density of Body could
imprison them, that they could not pass
out; for if a Spirit could as easily penetrate
the hardest Body, as the softest
and most fluid, it could as easily pass
out of the one as the other, nor would
there be need of Death and Corruption
to a new Life or Generation; therefore
this kind of Captivity of Spirits in some
kind of hard Bodies, and their deliverance
therefrom, when the Bodies become soft,
affords us a manifest Argument, that Spirit
and Body are originally of one Nature
and Substance, and that a Body is
nothing but a fixed and condensed Spirit,
and a Spirit nothing but a subtile
and volatile Body.

And here is to be noted, that in all
hard Bodies, as in Stones, whether common
or precious; and so also in Metals,
Herbs, Trees, and Animals; yea, in all
Humane Bodies, there don’t only exist
many Spirits (which are as it were imprisonedprisoned K7r 141
in those gross Bodies, and united
with them, and therefore cannot flow
forth, or fly out into other Bodies, until
they have passed Death or Dissolution;)
but also many other very subtile Spirits,
which continually flow from them, and
which by reason of their subtilty, the
hardness of the Body (in which they
lay hid) cannot detain; and these Spirits
are the more subtile Productions, or
the Sutures of the grosser Spirits detained
in the Body; for although these
are detained therein, yet they are not
idle in their Prison, but their Bodies
are as it were Shops for them to work
out those subtiler Spirits, which afterwards
flow out in colours, sounds, odours,
tastes, and divers other Powers and Vertues;
whence the gross Body, and the
Spirits therein contained, are as it were
the Mother of those subtiler Spirits, who
take the place of Children; for Nature
still works to a farther perfection of subtilty
and spirituality; even as this is the
most natural Property of all Motion and
Operation: For all Motion wears and divides,
and so renders a Thing subtile and
spiritual. Even thus in Man’s Body, the Meat K7v 142
Meat and Drink is first changed into
Chyle, then into Blood, afterwards into
Spirits, which are nothing else but Blood
brought to perfection; and these Spirits,
whether good or bad, still advance to
a greater subtilty or spirituality, and by
those Spirits which come from the Blood,
we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and think,
yea meditate, love, hate, and do all things
whatsoever we do; and from hence also
cometh the Seed, by which Humane
Kind is propagated; and hence especially
proceeds the Voice and Speech of Man,
which is full of Spirits (form’d in the
Heart) either Good or Evil, as Christ
hath taught; “That out of the Plenty of
the Heart the Mouth speaketh, and that
a Good Man out of the Good Treasure of
his Heart bringeth forth Good Things, &c.”

Also “that which goeth into a Man doth
not defile him, but that which proceeds
out of him”
; for in like manner as they
proceed from him, so shall they again
return into him.

§.6. And these are the proper
Angels, or Ministring Spirits of a Man,
(although there are other Angels also, as K8r 143
as well Good as Evil, which come unto
Men:) Of which Angels Christ speaketh,
where he speaketh of those little
Ones that believe on him: “Their Angels”
(saith he) “always behold the Face of my
Heavenly Father”
. Which are the Angels
of those Believers, who become, as
it were, like little Infants.

§. 7. My sixth and last Argument
I shall deduce from certain Texts of
Scripture, as well of the Old as New
Testament
, which do prove in plain and
express Words, that all Things have
Life, and do really live in some degree
or measure. Acts 17.27. It is said, “He
giveth Life to all Things.”
Again,
1 Tim. 6.13. of God it is said, “That
he quickens all Things.”
And Luk. 20.
38.
“he is not called, The God of the
Dead, but of the Living”
, (which
though principally meant of Men, yet
it is generally to be understood of all
other Creatures,) viz. he is the God
of all those Things which have their
Regeneration and Resurrection in their
kind, no less than Man hath in his
Kind: for Death is not the Annihilation of K8v 144
of these Things; but a change from
one kind and degree of Life to another;
wherefore also the Apostle proves, and
illustrates the Resurrection of the Dead
by a Grain of Wheat, which being faln
into the ground, dies, and riseth again
exceeding fruitful.

Chap. L1r 145

Chap. IX.

§. 1. The Philosophers (so called) of all
Sects, have generally laid an ill Foundation
to their Philosophy; and therefore
the whole Structure must needs
fall. §. 2. The Philosophy ere treated
on is not Cartesian. §.3. Nor the
Philosophy of Hobbs and Spinosa,
(falsly so feigned,) but diametrically
opposite to them. §. 4. That they who
have attempted to refute Hobbs and
Spinosa, have given them too much advantage.
§. 5. This Philosophy is the
strongest to refute Hobbs and Spinosa,
but after another method. §. 6. We
understand here quite another thing
by Body and Matter, than Hobbs
understood; and which Hobbs, and
Spinosa, never saw, otherwise
than in a Dream. §. 7. Life is as
really and properly an Attribute of
Body, as Figure. §. 8. Figure and
Life are distinct, but not contrary
Attributes of one and the same thing. L §. 9. L1v 146
§. 9. Mechanical Motion and Action
or Perfection of Life, distinguishes
Things.

§. 1. From what hath been lately
said, and from divers Reasons
alledged, That Spirit and Body are originally
in their first Substance but one
and the same thing, it evidently appears
that the Philosophers (so called) which
have taught otherwise, whether Ancient
or Modern, have generally erred
and laid an ill Foundation in the very
beginning, whence the whole House and
Superstructure is so feeble, and indeed
so unprofitable, that the whole Edifice
and Building must in time decay, from
which absurd Foundation have arose very
many gross and dangerous Errours, not
only in Philosophy, but also in Divinity
(so called) to the great damage
of Mankind, hindrance of true Piety,
and contempt of God’s most Glorious
Name, as will easily appear, as well from
what hath been already said, as from
what shall be said in this Chapter.

§. 2. L2r 147

§. 2. And none can Object, That
all this Philosophy is no other than that
of des Cartes, or Hobbs under a new
Mask. For, First, as touching the Cartesian
Philosophy, this saith “that every
Body is a mere dead Mass, not only void
of all kind of Life and Sense, but utterly
uncapable thereof to all Eternity”
; this
grand Errour also is to be imputed to all
those who affirm Body and Spirit to be
contrary Things, and inconvertible one
into another, so as to deny a Body all
Life and Sense; which is quite contrary
to the grounds of this our Philosophy.
Wherefore it is so far from being a Cartesian
Principle, under a new Mask, that
it may be truly said it is Anti-Cartesian,
in regard of their Fundamental Principles;
although it cannot be denied that
Cartes taught many excellent and ingenious
Things concerning the Mechanical
part of Natural Operations, and
how all Natural Motions proceed according
to Rules and Laws Mechanical, even
as indeed Nature her self, i.e. the Creature,
hath an excellent Mechanical Skill
and Wisdom in it self, (given it from God, L2 who L2v 148
who is the Fountain of all Wisdom,) by
which it operates: But yet in Nature,
and her Operations, they are far more
than merely Mechanical; and the same
is not a mere Organical Body, like a
Clock, wherein there is not a vital Principle
of Motion; but a living Body,
having Life and Sense, which Body is
far more sublime than a mere Mechanism,
or Mechanical Motion.

§. 3. But, Secondly, as to what pertains
to Hobbs’s Opinion, this is yet more
contrary to this our Philosophy, than
that of Cartes; for Cartes acknowledged
God to be plainly Immaterial, and an
Incorporeal Spirit. Hobbs affirms God
himself to be Material and Corporeal;
yea, nothing else but Matter and Body,
and so confounds God and the Creatures
in their Essences, and denies that there
is any Essential Distinction between them.
These and many more the worst of Consequences
are the Dictates of Hobbs’s
Philosophy; to which may be added that
of Spinosa; for this Spinosa also confounds
God and the Creatures together, and
makes but one Being of both; all which are L3r 149
are diametrically opposite to the Philosophy
here delivered by us.

§. 4. But the false and feeble Principles
of some who have undertaken to
refute the Philosophy of Hobbs and Spinosa,
so called, have given them a greater
advantage against themselves; so that
they have not only in effect, not refuted
them, but more exposed themselves to
Contempt and Laughter.

But if it be Objected, That this our
Philosophy seems, at least, very like that
of Hobbs, because he taught that all
Creatures were originally one Substance,
from the lowest and most ignoble, to
the highest and noblest; from the smallest
Worm, Insect, or Fly, unto the most
Glorious Angel; yea, from the least Dust
or Sand, unto the most excellent of all
Creatures; and then this, that every
Creature is Material and Corporeal; yea,
Matter and Body it self; and by consequence
the most Noble Actions thereof,
are either Material and Corporeal, or
after a certain Corporeal manner. Now
I Answer to the First, I grant that all
Creatures are originally one Substance, L3 from L3v 150
from the lowest to the highest, and consequently
convertible or changeable, from
one of their Natures into another; and
although Hobbs saith the same, yet that
is no prejudice to the Truth of it, as neither
are other parts of that Philosophy
where Hobbs affirms something that is
true, therefore an Hobbism, or an Opinion
of Hobbs alone.

§. 5. Moreover, this Principle
is so far from defending them in their
Errours, that nothing is so strong to refute
them, ex. gr.exempli gratia The Hobbists argue,
all Things are one, because we see that
all visible Things may be changed one
into another; yea, that all visible Things
may be changed into invisible, as when
Water is made Air, and Wood being
burnt (for the greatest part) is changed
into a certain invisible Substance, which
is so subtile, that it escapes all observation
of our Senses; add to which, that
all invisible Things may become visible,
as when Water proceeds from Air, &c.
and hence he concludes, “nothing is so
low that it cannot attain to sublimity”
.

But L4r 151

But not that we may Answer to this
Argument, his Adversaries generally deny
the Antecedent, and on the contrary
affirm that no SpiciesSpecies of Things is convertible
into another: And when Wood
is burnt, many say that the Wood is
composed of two Substances, to wit,
Matter and Form, and that the Matter
remains the same, but the Form of the
Wood is destroyed or annihilated, and
a new Form of Fire is produced in this
Matter; so that according to them, here
is a continual Annihilation of real Substances
and Productions of new Ones in
this World: But this is so frivolous, that
many others deny that, in the case of
Wood, changed into Fire, and afterwards
into Smoak and Ashes; yet they
still persist in the same Errour in other
Transmutations, as when Wood is changed
into an Animal, as we often see that
of rotten Wood; yea, Dung also, living
Creatures are generated: But if they
deny here, that the Wood is changed into
an Animal, and say that Wood is nothing
but Matter; but Matter hath not
Life, nor a capacity to Life or Sense;
and therefore this Animal which hath L4 Life L4v 152
Life and Sense, ought to have the same
from elsewhere, and must have a Spirit
or Soul in it, that is not a part of its Body,
neither doth proceed from it, but is sent
thither.

But if it be demanded of them, from
whence this Spirit is sent, and who sendeth
it: Also why a Spirit of this Species
is sent, and not of another; here they are
at a stand, and yield themselves to their
Adversaries.

Therefore this our Philosophy before
laid down, more strongly conduces to
the refutation of the Hobbesian and Spinosian
Philosophy, viz. that all Kinds
of Creatures may be changed one into
another, that the lowest may become
the highest, and the highest (as considered
originally in its own proper Nature)
may become the lowest, sc.scilicit according to
that Course and Succession which Divine
Wisdom hath ordained, that one Change
may succeed another in a certain order;
so that A must be first burned into B,
before it can be turned into C, which
must first be turned into C, before it can be
changed into D, &c.

But L5r 153

But we deny the Consequence, viz.
that God and Creatures are one Substance.

For in all Transmutations of Creatures
from one Species into another, as from
a Stone into Earth, and from Earth into
Grass, and from Grass to a Sheep, and
from a Sheep into Humane Flesh, and
from Humane Flesh into the most servile
Spirits of Man, and from these into his
noblest Spirits; but there can never be
a Progression or Ascension made unto
God, who is the chiefest of all Beings,
and whose Nature still infinitely excels a
Creature placed in his highest Perfection;
for the Nature of God is every way unchangeable,
so that it doth not admit
of the least Shadow of a Change: But
the Nature of a Creature is to be changeable.

§. 6. Secondly, If it be said, by
way of Objection, that according to this
Philosophy, every Creature is Material
and Corporeal; yea, Body and Matter it
self, as Hobbs teacheth. Now I Answer,
That by Material and Corporeal, as also
by Matter and Body, here the thing is far otherwise L5v 154
otherwise understood, than Hobbs understood
it, and which was never discovered
to Hobbs or Cartes, otherwise than
in a Dream: For what do they understand
by Matter and Body? Or, What
Attributes do they ascribe to them?
None, certainly, but these following as
are Extension and Impenetrability, which
nevertheless are but one Attribute; to
which also may be referred Figurability
and Mobility. But, suppose, those are
distinct Attributes, certainly this profits
nothing, nor will ever help us to understand
what that excellent Substance
is, which they call Body and Matter;
for they have never proceeded beyond
the Husk or Shell, nor ever reached the
Kernel, they only touch the Superficies,
never discerning the Centre, they were
plainly ignorant of the noblest and most
excellent Attributes of that Substance
which they call Body and Matter, and
understood nothing of them. But if it
be demanded, “what are those more excellent
Attributes”
? I Answer, “these following,
Spirit, or Life, and Light”
, under
which I comprehend, a capacity of all kind
of Feeling, Sense, and Knowledge, Love, Joy, L6r 155
Joy, and Fruition, and all kind of Power
and Virtue, which the noblest Creatures
have or can have; so that even the vilest
and most contemptible Creature; yea, Dust
and Sand, may be capable of all those Perfections,
sc.scilicit through various and succedaneous
Transmutations from the one
into the other; which according to the
Natural Order of Things, require long
Periods of Time for their Consummation,
although the absolute Power of God (if
it had pleased him) could have accelerated
or hastened all Things, and effected it in
one moment: But this Wisdom of God
saw it to be more expedient, that all
Things should proceed in their Natural
Order and Course; so that after this
manner, that Fertility or Fruitfulness,
which he hath endued every Being
with, may appear, and the Creatures
have Time by Working still to promote
themselves to a greater Perfection, as
the Instruments of Divine Wisdom, Goodness
and Power, which operates in, and
with them; for therein the Creature
hath the greater Joy, when it possesseth
what it hath, as the Fruit of its own
labour.

But L6v 156

But this capacity of the afore-mentioned
Perfections is quite a distinct Attribute
from Life, and Understanding,
or Knowledge, quite distinct from the
former, viz. Extension and Figure; and
so also a Vital Action is plainly distinct
from Local, or Mechanical Motion, although
it is not nor cannot be separated
from it, but still useth the same at least,
as its Instrument, in all its concourse
with the Creatures.

§. 7. I say, Life and Figure are distinct
Attributes of one Substance, and as one
and the same Body may be transmuted
into all Kinds of Figures; and as the
perfecter Figure comprehends that which
is more imperfect; so one and the same
Body may be transmuted from one degree
of Life to another more perfect,
which always comprehends in it the
inferior. We have an Example of Figure
in a Triangular Prisme, which is
the first Figure of all right lined solid
Bodies, whereinto a Body is convertible;
and from this into a Cube, which is a
perfecter Figure, and comprehends in
it a Prisme; from a Cube it may be turned L7r 157
turned into a more perfect Figure, which
comes nearer to a Globe, and from this
into another, which is yet nearer; and
so it ascends from one Figure, more imperfect,
to another more perfect, ad infinitum;
for here are no bounds; nor
can it be said, this Body cannot be changed
into a perfecter Figure: But the meaning
is, that that Body consists of plain right
lines; and this is always changeable into
a perfecter Figure, and yet can never
reach to the perfection of a Globe, although
it always approaches nearer unto
it; the case is the same in divers degrees
of Life, which have indeed a beginning,
but no end; so that the Creature is always
capable of a farther and perfecter
degree of Life, ad infinitum, and yet can
never attain to be equal with God; for
he is still infinitely more perfect than a
Creature, in its highest Elevation or Perfection,
even as a Globe is the most perfect
of all other Figures, unto which none
can approach.

§. 8. And thus Life and Figure are
distinct, but not contrary Attributes of
one and the same Substance, and Figure serves L7v 158
serves the Operations of Life, as we see
in the Body of Man or Beast, how the
Figure of the Eye serves the Sight, the
Figure of the Ear, the Hearing; the Figure
of the Mouth, Teeth, Lips, and
Tongue, serve the Speech; the Figure
of the Hands and Fingers serve to Work;
the Figure of the Feet to Walk; and so
the Figures of all the other Members have
their use, and very much conduce to the
Vital Operations, which the Spirit performs
in these Members; Yea the Figure
of the whole Body is more commodious
for the proper Operations of Human Life,
than any other Figure whatsoever is, or
could be made; So that Life and Figure
consist very well together in one Body, or
Substance, where Figure is an Instrument
of Life, without which no Vital Operation
can be performed.

§. 9. Likewise, Local and Mechanical
Motion (i.e.) the carrying of
Body from place to place, is a Manner or
Operation distinct from Action of Vital
Operation, altho’ they are inseparable, so
that a Vital Action can in no wise be without
all Local Motion, because this is the In- L8r 159
Instrument thereof. So the Eye cannot
see, unless Light enter it, which is a Motion,
and stirs up a Vital Action in the Eye,
which is Seeing; and so in all other Vital
Operations in the whole Body. But an
Action of Life is a far Nobler and Diviner
manner of Operation than Local Motion;
and yet both agree to one Substance, and
consist well together; for as the Eye receives
the Light into it self, from the
Object which it seeth from without; so
also it sends the same Light to the Object,
and in this Spirit and Life is a Vital
Action, uniting the Object and Sight together.

Wherefore Hobbs, and all others who
side with him, grievously erre, whilst they
teach that Sense and Knowledge is no
other than a re-action of Corporeal Particles
one upon another, where, by reaction,
he means no other than Local and
Mechanical Motion. But indeed Sense
and Knowledge is a Thing far more
Noble and Divine, than any Local or
Mechanical Motion of any Particles whatsoever;
for it is the Motion or Action
of Life, which uses the other as its Instrument,
whose Service consists herein; that L8v 160
that is, to stir up a Vital Action in the
Subject or Percipient; and can like Local
Motion be transmitted through divers
Bodies, although very far distant
asunder, which therefore are united, and
that without any new Transition of Body
or Matter, ex. gr.exempli gratia a Beam of Wood of an
exceeding great length, is moved by one
Extream from the North to the South,
the other Extream will necessarily be
moved also; and the Action is transmitted
through the whole Beam, without
any Particles of Matter sent hither to promote
Motion, from one Extream to the
other; because the Beam it self is sufficient
to transmit the said Motion: After
the same manner also, a Vital Action can
proceed together with Local Motion
from one thing to another, an that too
at a great distance, where there is an apt
and fit Medium to transmit it, and here
we may observe a kind of Divine Spirituality
or Subtilty in every Motion,
and so in every Action of Life, which no
created Body or Substance is capable of,
viz. by Intrinsecal Presence, which (as
before is proved) agrees to no created
Substance; and yet agrees to every Motiontion M1r 161
or Action whatsoever: For Motion
or Action is not a certain Matter or
Substance, but only a manner of its
Being; and therefore is intrinsecally present
in the Subject, whereof there is a Modus,
or Manner, and can pass from Body
to Body, at a great distance, if it finds a
fit Medium to transmit it; and by how
much stronger the Motion is, so much
the farther it reacheth; so when a Stone
is cast into standing Waters, it causes a
Motion every way from the Centre to
the Circumference, forming Circles still
greater and greater at a great distance,
by how much longer the time is, till at
length it vanishes from our sight; and
then without doubt, it makes yet more
invisible Circles for a longer space of
Time, which our dull Senses cannot apprehend,
and this Motion is transmitted
from the Centre to the Circumference,
not conveighed thither by any Body or
Substance, carrying this Motion with it
from the Stone. And as the External
Light also, seeing it is an Action or Motion
stirred up by some illuminate Body,
may be transmitted through Glass, Chrystal,
or any other transparent Body, withoutM out M1v 162
any Substance, Body, or Matter, conveighed
from that illuminate Body from
whence the said Action proceeded, not
that I would deny that abundance of subtile
Matter continually flows from all illuminate
Bodies, so that the whole Substance
of a burning Candle is spent in such
Emanations: And this hath in it that Motion
or Action, which we call Light; but
this Motion or Action may be increased,
v.g.verbi gratia by Chrystal, where those subtile Emanations
of Bodies may be restrained,
that they cannot pass out at least in such
abundance, as may be sufficient to communicate
the whole Light: But seeing
Chrystal (which doth so easily transmit
the Light) is so hard and solid, How
can it receive so many Bodies, and transmit
them so easily through it, when other
Bodies, neither so hard nor solid, do let
or resist it? for Wood is neither so hard
nor solid as Chrystal, and yet Chrystal is
transparent, but Wood not; and certainly
Wood is more porous than Chrystal,
because it is less solid, and consequently
the Light doth not enter by the Pores of
the Chrystal, but through the very Substance
of it; and yet so as not to adhere to M2r 163
to it, or make any turgescency or increase
of Quantity, but by a certain intrinseck
presence, because it is not a Body or Substance,
but a mere Action or Motion.
Now Chrystal is a fitter Medium to receive
this Motion, which we call Light,
than Wood is; and hence it is, that it
pervades or passeth through that and not
this; and as there is a great diversity of
the Motion and Operation of Bodies, so
every Motion requires its proper Medium
to transmit the same. Therefore ’tis manifest,
that Motion may be transmitted
through diverse Bodies, by another kind
of penetration, than any Body or Matter
(how subtile soever it be) is able to make;
to wit, by intrinseck Presence. And if
mere Local or Mechanical Motion can
do that, then certainly a Vital Action
(which is a nobler kind of Motion) can
do the same; and if it can penetrate those
Bodies, it passeth through by intrinseck
Presence, then it may in one moment be
transmitted from one Body to another, or
rather require no time at all, I mean
Motion or Action it self requires not the
least time for its transmission, although
’tis impossible but that the Body, whereinM2 in M2v 164
the Motion is carried from place to
place, ought to have some time, either
greater or lesser, according to the quality
of Body and vehemency of Motion which
carries it.

And therefore we see how every Motion
and Action, considered in the Abstract,
hath a wonderful subtilty or spirituality
in it, beyond all created Substances
whatsoever, so that neither Time
nor Place can limit the same; and yet
they are nothing else but Modes or Manners
of created Substances, viz. their
Strength, Power, and Virtue, whereby
they are extendible into great Substances,
beyond what the Substance if self can
make. And so we may distinguish Extension
into Material and Virtual, which
two-fold Extension every Creature hath;
Material Extension is that which Matter,
Body, or Substance hath, as considered
without all Motion or Action; and this
Extension (to speak properly) is neither
greater or lesser, because it would still remain
the same. A Virtual Extension is a
Motion or Action which a Creature hath,
whether immediately given from God, or
immediately received from its Fellow Creature. M3r 165
Creature. That which is immediately
given of God (from whom also it hath
its Being,) and which is the natural and
proper effect of its Essence, is in a more
proper way of speaking, a proper Motion
of the Creature, proceeding from the innermost
parts thereof; and therefore may
be called Internal Motion, as distinguished
from External, which is only from another;
and therefore in respect thereof may
be called Foreign; and when the said
External Motion endeavours to carry a
Body, or any Thing, to a place whereunto
it hath properly no natural inclination,
then it is preternatural and violent;
as when a Stone is thrown up into the
Air, which Motion being preternatural
and violent, is plainly Local and Mechanical,
and no way vital, because it doth
not proceed from the Life of the Thing
so moved: But every Motion, proceeding
from the proper Life and Will of the
Creature, is vital; and this I call a Motion
of Life, which is not plainly Local
and Mechanical as the other, but hath in
it a Life, and Vital Virtue, and this is
the Virtual Extension of a Creature, which
is either greater or lesser, according to that M3v 166
that kind or degree of Life wherewith
the Creature is endued, for when a Creature
arrives at a Nobler Kind and Degree
of Life, then doth it receive the greater
Power and Virtue to move it self, and
transmit its vital Motions to the greatest
distance.

But how Motion or Action may be
transmitted from one Body to another,
is with many a matter of great debate;
because it is not a Body or Substance; and
if it be only Motion of Body, how Motion
can pass properly with its own subject
into another, because the very being
of Modus, or Manner, consist herein, viz.
to exist or be inherent in its own Body;
The Answer to this Objection, which
seemeth to me best, is this, That Motion
is not propagated from one Body to another
by Local Motion, because Motion
it self is not moved, but only moves the
Body in which it is; for if Motion could be
propagated by Local Motion, this Motion
would be propagated of another, and this
again of another, and so ad infinitum,
which is absurd. Therefore the manner
of the said propagation is (as it were) by
real Production or Creation; so that as God M4r 167
God and Christ can only create the Substance
of a Thing, when as no Creature
can Create or give Being to any Substance,
no not as an Instrument; so a
Creature, not of it self, but in subordination
to God, as his Instrument may give
existence to Motion and vital Action, and
so the Motion in one Creature may produce
Motion in another: And this is all
a Creature can do towards the moving it
self or its Fellow Creatures, as being the
Instrument of God, by which Motions a
new Substance is not created, but only
new Species of Things, so that Creatures
may be multiplied into their Kinds, whilst
one acts upon, and moves another; and
this is the whole Work of the Creature, or
Creation, as the Instrument of God; but
if it moves against his Will, whose Instrument
it is, then it Sins, and is punished
for it: But God (as before was said) is
not the cause of Sin; for when a Creature
Sins, he abuseth the Power God hath
granted him; and so the Creature is culpable,
and God intirely free from every
spot or blemish hereof. If therefore we
apply those things which have been already
spoken, concerning the Attributes of M4v 168
of a Body, viz. that it hath not only Quantity
and Figure, but Life also; and is not
only locally and mechanically but vitally
moveable, and can transmit its vital Action
whithersoever it pleaseth, provided it hath
a Medium aptly disposed, and if it hath
none it can extend it self by the subtile Emanation
of its parts, which is the fittest
and most proper Medium of it, to receive
and transmit its vital Action. Hereby it
will be easie to Answer to all the Arguments,
whereby some endeavour to prove
that a Body is altogether uncapable of
Sense and Knowledge; and it may be easily
demonstrated, after what manner some
certain Body may gradually advance to
that Perfection, as not only to be capable
of such Sense and Knowledge as Brutes
have, but of any kind of Perfection whatsoever
may happen in any Man or Angel;
and so we may be able to understand the
Words of Christ, “that of Stones God is
able to raise up Children to Abraham”
, without
flying to some strained Metaphor; and
if any one should deny this Omnipotence
of God, viz. that “God is able of Stones to
raise up Children to Abraham”
; that certainly
would be the greatest Presumption.

Finis.