An essay on regimen: Together with five discourses, medical, moral, and philosophical: serving to illustrate the principles and theory of philosophical medicin, ... By Geo. Cheyne, ...

Table of contents

- [titlepage]

- TO THE Right HONOURABLE THE Earl of HUNTINGDON, &c.

- THE PREFACE

- THE General CONTENTS.

- A Philosophical and Practical ESSAY ON THE GENERAL Method and Medicins, But particularly on the REGIMEN of DIET, ITS Quantity, Quality, Order and Choice, fittest to preserve HEALTH, prolong LIFE, and produce equal good SPIRITS, in persons of all Ages and Constitu tions. A Philosophical and Practical ESSAY ON THE General METHOD and MEDICINS; But particularly on The REGIMEN of DIET, its Quantity, Quality, Order and Choice, fittest to pre serve HEALTH, prolong LIFE, and pro duce equal good SPIRITS, in Per sons of all Ages and Constitutions.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- 13

- 14

- 15

- 16

- 17

- 18

- 19

- 20

- 21

- 22

- 23

- 24

- 25

- 26

- 27

- 28

- [conclusion]

- DISCOURSE I. Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE NATURE and QUALITIES OF THE Original Animal Body, AND OF ITS PROGRESSIVE STATE IN ITS Several Stages of EXISTENCE. DISCOURSE I. Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE NATURE and QUALITIES OF THE Original Animal Body, AND OF ITS PROGRESSIVE STATE IN ITS Several Stages of EXISTENCE.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- 13

- 14

- 14

- 15

- 16

- 17

- 18

- 19

- 20

- 21

- 22

- 23

- 24

- 25

- 26

- 27

- 28

- 29

- 30

- 31

- 32

- 33

- 34

- CONCLUSION.

- DISCOURSE II. Philisophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE Preference of VEGETABLE TO ANIMAL FOOD: AND OF THE End and Design of PROVIDENCE, IN Appointing the FIRST, AND, ON TRIAL, Permitting the LATTER. DISCOURSE II. Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE Preference of VEGETABLE TO ANIMAL FOOD: AND OF THE End and Design of PROVIDENCE, in Appointing the First, and, on Trial, Permitting the Latter.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- DISCOURSE III. A Philosophical THEORY FOUNDED ON EXPERIMENTS OF THE NATURE and LAWS OF Minute Inanimat Bodies, AND THEIR SYSTEMS, in general. DISCOURSE III. A Philosophical THEORY Founded on EXPERIMENTS, OF THE NATURE and LAWS of Minute INANIMAT BODIES, and their Systems, in general.

- PREFACE.

- PROPOSITION I.

- SCHOLIUM.

- PROP. II.

- PROP. III.

- SCHOL. I.

- SCHOL. II.

- SCHOL. III.

- PROP. IV.

- COROL.

- PROP. V.

- PROP. VI.

- COROL.

- PROP. VII.

- PROP. VIII.

- PROP. IX.

- PROP. X.

- SCHOL.

- PROP. XI.

- PROP. XII.

- PROP. XIII.

- PROP. XIV.

- SCHOL.

- PROP. XV.

- PROP. XVI.

- PROP. XVII.

- SCHOL.

- PROP. XVIII.

- COROL.

- SCHOL.

- PROP. XIX.

- SCHOL. I.

- SCHOL. II.

- SCHOL. III.

- SCHOL. IV.

- PROP. XX.

- PROP. XXI.

- [section]

- COROLLARIES.

- MEDICAL COROLLARIES.

- GENERAL MEDICAL COROLLARIES.

- GENERAL SCHOLIUM.

- DISCOURSE IV. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON SPIRITUAL NATURE, THE HUMAN SPIRIT in Particular. DISCOURSE IV. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON SPIRITUAL NATURE, THE HUMAN SPIRIT in Particular.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- 13

- 14

- 15

- 16

- 17

- 18

- 19

- 20

- 21

- 22

- 23

- 24

- 25

- 26

- 27

- 28

- 29

- 30

- 31

- 32

- 33

- 34

- DISCOURSE V. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON NATURAL ANALOGY, ITS LAWS, AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES. DISCOURSE V. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON NATURAL ANALOGY, its LAWS, and some of their CON SEQUENCES.

- DEFINITION I.

- DEFINIT. II.

- DEFINIT. III.

- DEFINIT. IV.

- DEFINIT. V.

- SCHOLIUM.

- DEFINIT. VI.

- DEFINIT. VII.

- DEFINIT. VIII.

- SCHOLIUM.

- DEFINIT. IX.

- SCHOLIUM.

- DEFINIT. X.

- SCHOLIUM.

- COROLLARY I.

- COROLLARY II.

- DEFINIT. XI.

- PROPOSITION.

- DEMONSTRATION.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- [conclusion]

- AN ABSTRACT; Or, A Brief, but Distinct REPRESENTATION OF THE Doctrines and Sentiments Contained in the preceding DISCOURSES.

- AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE I. PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES about the Nature and Qualities of the Original Animal Body, and of its Progressive State, in its several Stages of Existence.

- AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE II. PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES about the Preference of Vegetable to Animal Food; and of the End and Design of Providence in Ap pointing the first, and, on Trial, Permitting the latter.

- AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE III. A PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY, founded on Experiments of the Na ture and Laws of minute inanimat Bodies, and their Systems in general.

- AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE IV. PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES on Spiritual Nature, the Human Spirit in particular.

- AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE V. On NATURAL ANALOGY, its Laws, and some of its Consequences.

- MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON, AND EXPLICATIONS OF, THE Preceding DISCOURSES.

- 1

- 2

- 3

- 4

- 5

- 6

- 7

- 8

- 9

- 10

- 11

- 12

- ERRATA.

AN ESSAY ON REGIMEN. TOGETHER WITH FIVE DISCOURSES, Medical, Moral, and Philosophical: Serving to illustrate the PRINCIPLES and THEORY OF Philosophical Medicin, And point out Some of its MORAL CONSEQUENCES.

By GEO. CHEYNE, M.D. C.R.Ed.S. and F.R.S.

Felix, qui potuit rerum congnoscere causas.
VIRG.

Inque domus Superûm scandere cura fuit.
OVID.

1 Cor. xiii. 12.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

LONDON: Printed for C. RIVINGTON, in St. Paul's Church-yard; And J. LEAKE, Bookseller in Bath. M.DCC.XL.

TO THE Right HONOURABLE THE Earl of HUNTINGDON, &c.

My LORD,

HAD I the Honour to be known to a Person of more Probity, Steadiness, Love to his Country, and Benevolence to the whole. Race of Mankind: Had I known a truer Friend to Christianity in General, or to the Church in Particular; your Lordship had not been troubled with this Address, nor with the Protection of this Work; which is design'd for the Cure, Relief, or Entertainment, of the Valetudinary, Weak and Diseas'd in Body or Mind. Your Lordship's natural and acquir'd Endowments enable You to judge solidly, how well it may be fitted for that End. Good Lady HUNTINGDON, I believe, has benefited by some of the Rules for Health laid down in this Treatise; as have some others of the Branches of your Noble Family. Lady Betty's eminent Christian Virtues are not only universally admir'd, but felt. These Considerations make this Work your Lordship's peculiar Property; and I am greatly pleased with an Opportunity, publickly to declare the Honour and Esteem I have for the Family of the HASTEINGS, and, in particular, how deeply I am,

My LORD,
Your Lordship's most faithful humble Servant, GEO. CHEYNE.
Bath, Aug. 15. 1739.

THE PREFACE

1. THE following Essay was written to instruct all sober and serious Persons, how to preserve, or regain their Health; but chiefly to direct and relieve my Fellow-sufferers, the Scorbutic, Gouty, Consumptive, or Nervous Valetudinarian-low-livers; to make them pass their Lives the most comfortably, the Degree of their Distempers, the Time of Life, the Nature of Things, and the secret Orders of Providence, will permit. And since they must be deprived, in some Degree, of the grosser sensual Pleasures; since all sentient and intelligent Beings are made for Happiness, will by mere Instinct, seek it some-how, and some-where; since their necessary Low-living will naturally (in time at least) make them high-spirited, and their intellectual Organs more acute, penetrating, and delicate; I have endeavour'd, by the following Discourses, to supply them with some suitable Entertainments and Amusements, such as I have often agreeably diverted my leisure Hours with.

2. True Philosophy is the Science of living the most happily, through the whole Period of our Existence, the Nature of things will permit; Physic is but one Branch of this Philosophy, and regards but one part of our Composition, and but for a small Period of our Duration. True Philosophy takes in the whole Extent of our Being, from its most distant Beginning, to its most advanced Stages, possible or conceiveable. True Physic is that only which directs how the Body may be preserved the most healthful, the intellectual Organs depending on the Body the most acute, the Senses the most perfect, and the Limbs the most active; not for a while only, and by Fits and Starts, but uniformly, as long as they were made to last, and as the original Frame and Texture will permit: Any thing less than this, is but as a Part to the Whole; an imperfect and unfinish'd Sketch of such a Philosophy, and such a Physic, their Theory and Principles, was intended by the following Essay and Discourses.

3. They were composed at different Times, and on different Occasions; but one general Scheme, and one manner of free philosophizing, and easy Conjecturing, runs through them all; one, to wit, where the fundamental Truth, or Proposition in general, is suppos'd either allow'd, reveal'd, or already demonstrated. But the Why? the final Causes, the moral Consequences, and the particular Detail, is only here conjectured about, from probable or philosophic Principles. This necessarily makes them more loose, unguarded, and immethodical, and the same things to be often repeated. But I had neither Leisure, Relish, nor Strength of Application, to remedy these Faults; it would have cost me more Trouble than the first Composure. All I could obtain of myself, was to make a short, more distinct Abstract of the whole, and join a few Explications, to prevent Cavil, and all Mistakes not wilful and disingenuous, if possible.

4. I am very sensible, by this Work, I shall make myself obnoxious to two very different kinds of Men, the Stiff, Rigid, and Precise; and the Licentious, Unguarded, Spurious, Free-Thinkers. The first, very probably, will censure my Conjectures and Sentiments, as dangerous, and presumptuous, and myself, as being wise above what is written, and arrogantly prying into the Secrets of infinit Wisdom. It is very possible I may have been faulty, in this particular. I am sensible, that some even undoubted Truths, that may hurt the Weak, ought to be concealed, or enjoy'd only in secret; the same Degrees of Light not being equally luminous and perceptive to all Eyes. But since old Men, and Valetudinarians especially, become, as it were, Children a second time, and, in their second Childhood, those must have their Rattles as well as these; I thought it safer, as I am sure it is much more entertaining, to play with Ideas, philosophic Conjectures, and such Amusements, how weakly soever founded, as tend to make Virtue and its Source amiable, justify the Conduct of Providence, and mend and rejoice the Heart without hurting the Head, than to dwell on the dark Side of Things, that lead to Pyrrhonism, Fatalism, Infidelity, and Despair. If I thought I had advanced any thing derogatory from the Amiableness of infinit Perfection, contrary to the Doctrine of the earliest and purest Times of Christianity, contradictory to the Analogy of Faith, and the Form of sound Words, I had committed these Sheets to the Flames, with the Hand of their Author, before I had published them. But, on the contrary, I hoped they might agreeably entertain my Valetudinarian, who being placed by his low Health, in the middle State, between both Worlds, the old and the new, must unavoidably, at some times, figure to himself some sort of a Map of the next World. I was therefore willing to try to illuminat it, the best I could, and to trace some of the Out-lines of the Passages from this to that Mansion; by endeavouring to illustrat, from not so common a Set of Principles and Philosophy, some great and fundamental Truths, establish'd on more popular Proofs, viz. that there is no Possibility of Happiness here or hereafter, without Purity of Heart and Life; and that the true Reason of the present Darkness, both in Providence and Revelation, is the Difficulty of recovering this Purity of Heart and Life, to its utmost Perfection, in free lapsed Intelligences, consistent with their Liberty, and the Harmony of the Divine Attributes, which infinit Power and Wisdom will not, I might say, cannot, counter act.

5. I apprehend less Quarter from the opposit Set of Men, who may honour me with Enthusiasm, Romanceing, and Castle-building, without any solid Foundation. All I have to say is, that perhaps my Manner of explaining some great and fundamental Truths, and a few of the Consequences I draw by my Method, may be defective: And perhaps, from some of the Links being dropt, and from Faults in the wording, the Chain of the Reasoning may not be always clear and strong; but I am sure the Foundation is solid and just, and allow'd to be such by all true Philosophers; and without it, all general and abstracted Reasoning (on these imperceptible Subjects) must be vain; I mean, without admitting Analogy: For without supposing the Evidence and Probability of it, (it being in Things only, what Proportion is in Numbers, and its Progressions being only like the higher and subsequent Terms of a Series in Algebra, from some of the first and simplest Terms being given) no general Laws, nor universal Propositions, can be found out, in Mathematicks, Philosophy, or Morality. For Induction, either in Experiment, Observation, or Calculation, must be always particular and limited. Perhaps the Method, when managed by a clearer Head, and a more solid Judgment, may become a noble Source of divine Knowledge, and a sublime Philosophy. Mathematicians well know, that there are several different Methods of investigating the same Propositions in Algebra and Geometry; and there is scarce a Geometer, but has his own Method of Investigation. The same Conclusions, drawn from different demonstrated Truths, give a sensible Pleasure, and a stronger Conviction, to an honest Heart, and a Lover of Truth; and I could not but be delighted with the Universality, Simplicity, and Luminousness of the Method of Analogy, and the other Principles I have laid down in the following Discourses, not having met with an Objection, Difficulty, or even a Puzzle almost, in Nature, Providence, or Revelation, which had not an easy, consequential or probable Solution from them, which is, at least, a Prejudice in their Favour. I had nothing to do, but to try the Difficulty, in its most simple and obvious Cases, (as I used to do in Algebra, to find out universal Canons) and attentively to observe the Conditions of the Progression, till the higher Terms involved the Complication.

6. There are some Persons made so by Nature, that they are slow, dark, gloomy, joyless, puzzling, and perplexing, and they pass for the wise, prudent, guarded Men of the World: They may attack Error, but seldom find out Truth by themselves; like the Scuttle-fish, they spout out their own black Liquor on the pellucid Element. If they are honest and sincere, they are much to be pitied, and are to be treated with Humanity and Charity, being in the State of those born poor and blind, and so destitute of the Necessaries and Conveniencies of Life. They must do the best they can, and be charitably supplied, and with Docility be willing to be led by others; and thus, tho' their Trial might be hard and severe, yet their Victory would be meritorious and glorious. But, on the contrary, it often happens, that Licentiousness, Self-sufficiency, and a supercilious Contempt of others, are the true Causes of their Darkness and Indigence, and that they have themselves, by wrong or no Culture, stunted the Organs of their Faculties, and by a perpetual Mal-regimen have distorted them.

7. I take common Happiness, in our natural State at present, to lie in the Pursuit of the general Measures of Thinking, Acting and Living, follow'd by the greatest part of the middling Rank of our Species (as it is in their Order in other Animals); and common Sense (as it is distinguished from cultivated and refin'd Sense) to lie in assenting and conforming to the Truths and Manners, agreed upon explicitly or implicitly, in the Community where Providence has placed us, without some irresistible, that is, miraculous Evidence, or a peaceable, silent, and not intermeddling Self-conviction to the contrary. And he who pretends to be happy, as to his outward Circumstances, out of common Life, or wise as to intellectual Endowments, out of common Sense, in Things on a Level with his Occupation and Education; I take him always to labour under some undiscover'd chronical nervous Distemper, be the other Appearances what they will, and have been seldom mistaken in a particular Case. For tho' a sound Mind be not the only sure Evidence of a sound Body, yet it will always shew, that none of the great Organs of Life is intirely spoilt, or greatly damaged, however tender and delicate they may be. It is more difficult, than perhaps most Men are aware of, to determin, with any Degree of Exactness, the Limits that separat Wisdom from Folly, Wrong-headedness from intellectual Sanity; the most perfect Man here has a Mixture of both: Optimus ille, qui minimis urgetur. Certain it is, that true Wisdom, and a sound Mind, consists in first pondering, and then doing, every thing as near as we can, with Order, Number, Weight and Measure: But since Precision is incompatible with Finitude, if we endeavour to be constantly progressive towards Perfection, tho' by gentle Steps, neither stopping nor turning aside, but doing the best we can without Scrupulosity, and generously hopeing and believeing, that infinit Wisdom and Goodness has, or will supply the rest, in his own Time and Manner, we cannot fail.

8. Were I to choose for myself, considering the many certain Miseries and Temptations of this State of Probation, the few uncertain Antidotes, and much fewer sincere, durable, and real Pleasures; I had much rather have the weaker, than the stronger System of Nerves, within the Extremes. I had rather choose to be contented with the slight and slender, than covet the strong and pungent Pleasures. I had rather be happy in a Dream, than miserable awake. In a word, I had rather choose to be an innocent, benevolent, tho' weaker and more credulous Person, than a malicious, critical, spurious Free-thinker, even with regard to this Life only. They most certainly are, comparatively, unhappy and joyless in themseves, and are unharmoniously fram'd, in Body as well as Mind, who can delight, and employ their Talents, on throwing Darkness and Doubts even on the imaginary Happiness (suppose it such) of their Fellow-Creatures: Nothing but Rancour, and acrid Juices, could be pleased with tearing and destroying Childrens Play-things; and the wisest Man here is comparatively but a Child.

9. As to myself, I can honestly affirm, I have had but one uniform manner of thinking in Philosophy, Physic, and Divinity, in the main, ever since my Thoughts were fix'd, and my Principles establish'd: They may have had Alternatives of greater Light and Darkness, occasionally and transiently, according to the State of my Spirits, Knowledge, and Experience; but in the Heart of my Soul (so to speak) I have been uniform, and under the same Convictions, as to the Fundamentals of these Sciences; and always thought spurious Free-Thinkers, active Latitudinarians, and Apostolic Infidels, (it being a Contradiction they can be certain in their Negative Opinions, or by them when propagated, should do any Good to their Fellow-Creatures, but an infinit deal of Hurt) under some obstinat bodily Distemper, and much more proper Subjects for Medicin than Argument; and that a low Diet, long and obstinatly persisted in, would at last cure both their Body and their Mind, so far as it depends on the Body, especially where Vice and Infidelity have not become habitual, as they certainly have in old Sinners: As I firmly believe, and am as much convinced as I am of any natural Effect, that Water-drinking only will preserve all the Opulent healthy from every mortal Distemper, bateing Accidents, hereditary and epidemical Diseases; and that a Diet of Milk and Seeds, with Water-drinking only, duly continued, and prudently managed, with proper Evacuation, Air and Exercise, is the most infallible Antidote for all the obstinat Diseases of the Body, and Distemperature of the Mind, so far as it depends on the Body, the present State of Things will permit; and that it will cure every Disorder in the Body, cureable, and render the Distemperature of the Mind more tractable; and that, in all Events, it will make both more tolerable, than they can possibly be otherwise. This Regimen I have for these twenty Years, first and last, pursued, and shall, with the Divine Aid, persist in it to my last Moments; hitherto, I thank GOD, with as much Vivacity, Health and Activity, as can be expected at my time of Life, under such a gouty, scorbutic and nervous Habit. The State of my Intellectuals will be best known by the following Discourses, which were design'd to illustrate the Principles, Theory, and moral Uses of philosophical Medicin. The practical Inferences, and the Conclusions drawn from them in particular Cases and Diseases, confirm'd by forty Years Experience and Observation, will follow in due Time, in a Treatise intitled, The natural Method of Cure in the Diseases of the Body, and Distempers of the Mind thereon depending; if GOD shall see fit, by the Preservation of my Health and Faculties.

THE General CONTENTS.

A Philosophical and Practical Essay

on the general Method and Medicins, but particularly on the Regimen and Diet, its Quantity, Quality, Order and Choice, fittest to preserve Health, prolong Life, and produce equal good Spirits, in Persons of all Ages and Constitutions.

DISCOURSE I.

Philosophical Conjectures about the Nature and Qualities of the original animal Body, and of its progressive State, in its several Stages of Existence.

DISCOURSE II.

Philosophical Conjectures about the preference of vegetable to animal Food, and of the End and Design of Providence, in appointing the First, and, on Trial, permitting the Latter.

DISCOURSE III.

A Philosophical Theory, founded on Experiments, of the Nature and Laws of minute inanimat Bodies, and their Systems in general.

DISCOURSE IV.

Philosophical Conjectures on spiritual Nature, the human Spirit, in particular.

DISCOURSE V.

Philosophical Conjectures on Natural Analogy, its Laws, and some of their Consequences.

An Abstract,

or a brief, but distinct, Representation of the Doctrines and Sentiments contained in the precedeing Discourses.
N. B. This Abstract is designed as an Index of the Contents of each particular Paragraph, with the Page where it is to be readily found.

A Philosophical and Practical ESSAY ON THE GENERAL Method and Medicins, But particularly on the REGIMEN of DIET, ITS Quantity, Quality, Order and Choice, fittest to preserve HEALTH, prolong LIFE, and produce equal good SPIRITS, in persons of all Ages and Constitutions.
A Philosophical and Practical ESSAY ON THE General METHOD and MEDICINS;
But particularly on The REGIMEN of DIET, its Quantity, Quality, Order and Choice, fittest to preserve HEALTH, prolong LIFE, and produce equal good SPIRITS, in Persons of all Ages and Constitutions.

Vivere Naturoe, si convenienter, oportet.
HOR.

§. 1. THERE is not a more pernicious Error in Physic, or one more opposit to the Expectation of Patients, (viz. the Preservation or Recovery of their Health) than that very common and universally received Opinion, That there are Bodies in Nature, or in the Materia Medica, or such as may be found out by Art, by dividing, compounding, or altering them by the Tortures of the Fire, which will suddenly, or in any great Degree, change or destroy the Malignity of the morbid Humors of animal Bodies; or will intirely alter the Nature, Qualities, Figure, Size and Laws of Cohesion of the Particles that compose their Fluids and Solids; from an unsound and unhealthy State, to one of a kindly and benign Nature (a wild Notion, at first introduc'd and propagated by enthusiastical Chymists, Quacks and Symptom-Doctors). An animal Body is nothing but a Compages or Contexture of Pipes, an hydraulic Machin, fill'd with a Liquor of such a Nature as was transfus'd into it by its Parents, or is changed into by the Nature of the Food it is nourish'd with, and is ever afterwards good, bad, or indifferent, as these two Sources have sent it forth. The Primae Viae, or the alimentary Tube, is, as it were, a Common Sewer, may be foul'd or clean'd in various Manners, and with great Facility; it is wide, open, and reasonably strong, in most Animals: But from the Intestines into the Habit, (which only ought to be reckon'd the Body, or the Vehicle of the Soul) and into the sanguiferous Tubes, into the Glands and Bowels, the Passages from thence are so streight and narrow, that they are but infinitesimal Pores, rather than Orifices, Strainers and Searches, rather than Mouths of Tubes, and are scarce ever visible or perceptible in a healthy State; and the Supply and Nutriture of the Fluids and Solids must pass under the Form of a Steam or Vapour through them, and not in the Form of a Liquor, either for Food or Physic, either to increase the Quantity, or alter the Quality of the Blood and Juices; and the Solids (which concentred, consolidated and condens'd into their real or first Formation Size, would not equal a Grain of Sand) are permanent and dureable, and continue pretty much in that State of Elasticity and Firmness, they were first created with; and they are strong or weak, small or coarse, firm or lax, loose or elastic, blunt or sharp, as they were first made by the supreme Artificer, or are alter'd somewhat by the original Dyscrasy or Distempers of the Parents, (the Mother can only mend or spoil their Juices, which might be easily perfected by long Continuance in a sweetening Diet, during their younger Days; which if they survive, they generally grow stronger as they grow older, become the Genii, and the Governors of the World, because the Solids, thus purified, come from the Father alone) and continue much the same all the Time of their Duration on this Globe, except so far as the small temporary and fugitive Alteration that Diet, Exercise, or Evacuation, or mild ponderous Medicines long continued, may make on them; so small a Matter it really is, that Physic, or the Materia Medica, can perform on the Habit, on the Solids at least; and yet it is only in and by them, that Health, long Life and Serenity are to be had: The most that Physic or Physicians can do, is in and by the Primae Viae, or alimentary Tube, through these fine lacteal Searches into the Habit.

§. 2. WHAT is it then, will it be said, that Art, Physic or a philosophic Physician, can truly do, to relieve the Miseries, Pains and Diseases of their Fellow-Creatures? A great deal, if judiciously and honestly directed, and obstinatly and exactly pursued, viz. by mending the Juices in the Manner Nature, the Distemper, the Age, and the Habitudes of the Patient point out. These (the Juices) are the only things in an animal Body, in the Power and under the Dominion of a Physician. If the principal Intentions of the Physician be to mend the Blood and Juices, they will in time, and by the wise Mechanism of Nature, rectify and confirm the Solids into their proper Situation and Tone; for it is out of, and by the Juices, that the Solids are nourish'd, figur'd and cloath'd. Air and Exercise will give them the proper Firmness and Degree of Elasticity, and then the animal Functions will be perform'd with Facility and Pleasure, and thereby the Person will enjoy Health and Serenity. Art can do nothing but remove Impediments, resolve Obstructions, cut off and tear away Excrescences and Superfluities, and reduce Nature to its primitive Order; and this only can be done by a proper and specific Regimen in Quantity and Quality, by Air and Exercise, and by welljudg'd and timeous Evacuation, and prepareing the morbid Juices for easier Elimination, by Means which, I fear, lie in a narrow Compass, and depend mostly on the mild mineral Medicins (which were never originally design'd by Nature to be introduc'd into an animal Body, and always rend, tear and wear them out faster, like Spirits and chymical Medicins, but in bad Cases are at first at least necessary) judiciously managed with proper Dilution.

§. 3. PHLEBOTOMY will directly let out a Part of the bad and vicious Juices, to be immediatly supplied with good ones, from proper Regimen, by making the Vessels more roomy, and thereby enabling the Circulation to make her fuller Rounds; for when the Blood-Vessels are too turgid and full, or the Juices too thick, gross, and sizy, to tumify them, the natural Secretions and Discharges will be too small to admit into them new, fresh, sweet Juices, from Food or Physic, which well-tim'd, partial and frequent Phlebotomy, will much assist. Vomits drive forcibly out of the upper Part of the chyliferous Tube, not only its noxious Contents, but strongly squeeze all the Glands (which are infinit) of the Abdomen, dissolve and fuse by its Convulsions, and internal Compressure, their Contents, (and that of the universal Mass of the Fluids) and promote their Expulsion; and, frequently repeated, are of more Use and Efficacy than all the other Evacuations join'd together; for they not only truly reach the Habit, supply the Place of Exercise, cleanse the internal Viscera and Glands, (which can by no other means be reached) but compress, squecze and drive out the most distant Obstructions, by setting the whole System, and the most remote Fibre, in violent Action and Play; and where the Solids and natural Strength will admit, are, I think, the most universal Remedy known to Art, if obstinatly and long persisted in, in chronical and obstinat Cases especially; for most infallibly they bring out all the latent most remote Morbosities in the Habit, dissolve and fuse them, and mix them with the universal Mass of Fluids, in the Trunks of the great Vessels, to be more readily and easily thrown out of the Habit: but they are a hard Work, and few can bear them. Purges clean and empty the lower Part of the chyliferous Tubes, leave the Glands situated there, more Freedom to part with their Obstructions by subsequent Repetitions: but this Evacuation, tho' much easier, yet is a great way about, and of slow and small Efficacy in great Diseases, unless the Malady be situated in the lowermost Regions of the Body; and even then Vomits do it sooner and more effectually: and in weak Habits, and nervous Distempers, Purges ruffle extremely. Diaphoretics, I think, do little in these our Northern Climats, unless they be very gentle, and are useful only in acute Cases, where Nature tends towards a Crise; in chronical Cases, they heat and inflame, and only spend the thinnest and most aqueous Parts of the Fluids, which are generally most innocent. Diuretics scour and clean the urinary Passages, and carry off scorbutic and nephritic Salts: but to be innocent or efficacious, they ought to consist of the thinnest, softest and coolest of all Liquors, that is, the purest Water, just soften'd and acuated by the Meal or Salt of some proper Vegetable. Blisters are mostly Topical, they melt, fuse, and draw forth the viscid Serum from the capillary Vessels, and leave Room for a freer Circulation; and when promoted and effected by Cantharides, have a sensible Effect on the most distant Fluids and Solids; and in acute Cases, they are indeed the greatest and most effectual Remedy. These are most and chiefest of the Evacuations used in the Practice of Physic, and, judiciously and properly pursued, are of the greatest Consequence to lay a solid Foundation for a Cure.

§. 4. MERCURY and Antimony alone, with their milder Preparations, judiciously managed, and united with the specific Juice of Vegetables that Experience has determin'd proper for the Distemper, upon all the Reasoning and Experience I have ever had, bids fairest for attenuating the Juices, and opening the Obstructions in the small Vessels and Glands, and so fitting the morbid Particles for Elimination; but they are a two-edged Sword, and destroy weak Persons in unskilful Hands; but I have Occasion to speak more explicitly of their Nature and Effects in another Place. Nitre and its Preparations, especially the animal Preparation of it, in Wood-lice, has been thought by all Antiquity, the most innocent and yet most effectual of all the saline Tribe of Medicins, to cool, deterge, and open Obstructions; and its sensible Effect in dividing the Blood-Globules in the Lungs, and giving it thereby its Scarlet Colour, and its Efficacy in propagating and quickening Fire and Light, (in both which Effects it has undoubtedly a great Power, if not the greatest) shew its Energy; and in febrile Exacerbations, especially of the Symptomatic kind from malignant Ulcers, and an inflammatory State of the Blood, when plentifully diluted with pure Water, and long continued, I think, and have found it the best, if not the only Remedy, sufficient to justify the great Encomium on the Natron of the Antients. When the Blood is sufficiently fus'd, and the Glands made sufficiently open and pervious, by Evacuation and Diet, then Steel, Bark and Bitters, judiciously prepared, and fitted to the original Strength of the Solids of the Patients, will be found the most effectual, to wind up the Springs of Life, and to give a Tension, due Tone, and proper Degree of Elasticity to the Solids, the Fibres and Nerves, but especially the Membranes, which, I think, are the true and only Seats of Spring and Elasticity, and the proper immediat Instruments of Motion and the Functions in an animal Machin: Long and great Evacuation, and a thin cool Diet, while they are pursued to fuse, thin, and attenuat the Juices, must of Necessity relax and let down the Spring of all the Solids; when the Juices are sufficiently thin'd and attenuated, (which Blood-letting will always discover) then, to give Strength, Vigour and Activity to the Patient, that all the Secretions may be duely made; the sole Intention to perfect the Cure, I say, is to wind up the Solids again, as far as Art can, which, I fear, is not far; at least, I have never found it much, nor very dureable; for all Astringents are of the Nature, act by the same Laws, and have the Effect that Wine and spirituous Liquors have, and are not unlike the buckling upon Pipes and boiling soft broken Hair; they will give them a new Tension and proper Figure for a short time, but their Efficacy and Relief is only fugitive and transient, and never dureable; and they effect at the same time a thickening, incrassating and sizeing on the Blood and Juices, while they are winding up, braceing and contracting the Solids; for the Effects of the Qualities and Powers of all Bodies, both Liquids and Solids, of Food and Physic, are always in a duplicat Proportion of the Distance from the Centre of their component Particles. There is indeed this Difference between Bark, Bitters and Steel, and that of strong Liquors, that the Sides of the Vessels, especially their fine close membranous Coats, imbibe, attract and preserve the astringent Virtue and Qualities of Bark, Bitters and Steel, and such Astringents and Bracers, longer, by reason of their innate attractive Virtue on the Particles of such Bodies, their greater Solidity, and closer Texture, than the Blood Globules and the circulating Fluids do, which are in a perpetual Flux; and spirituous Liquors mixing more immediatly, fully, and by closer and larger Contacts with the circulating Juices, spend their Efficacy on them, and thicken them faster. For these Causes and Reasons, I say, strong Liquors must have a more immediat and stronger Effect on the Blood and Juices, for condensing and thickening them, than Steel, Bitters and Bark, and such-like Astringents can have; and so spirituous Liquors much indulged, must necessarily have a much quicker, and more deleterious Effect on animal Fluids, than Steel and Astringents can: but still they both act in one Tenor, and by one general Law; and Steel, Bitters and Astringents, improperly and intemperatly us'd, and over-dos'd, will have the same kind of bad Effects, and produce the same Symptoms and Diseases that Intemperance in strong Liquors will; only they are sooner felt, are less grateful and bewitching, are much less or not at all craved, and consequently are sooner given over.

§. 5. IT is Diet alone, proper and specific Diet, in Quantity, Quality and Order, continued in till the Juices are sufficiently thinn'd, to make the Functions regular and easy, which is the sole universal Remedy, and the only Mean known to Art, or that an animal Machin, without being otherwise made than it is, can use with certain Benefit and Success, which can give Health, long Life and Serenity. There is an innate Degree of Strength and Elasticity in the Solids, to circulat the Liquors, and promote the Secretions, and carry on the vital Functions, with which one comes into the World, which they derive from their Birth and Parents, which is ever after but little alter'd even either by Art or Diet: Growth, Inlargement of the Body, and crusting over the original Solids, and Maturation, only fills the linear and infinitesimal original Tubes and Vessels with a proper Liquor, to stretch, extend, and plump them, as a Sack is fill'd with Grain, or a Bladder with Air or Water; from that Liquor, their Coats, the fleshy and nervous Fibres of the Muscles, Tendons and Membrans, and other Solids of the Body, is thicken'd, crusted over, and condens'd; the Spring, Elasticity, and motive Power, lies solely and intirely in the original, primary, divinely organis'd linear Fibrils, and the Membrans made of them. The Incrustration and Incrassation from the Fluids, in the Tubes superinduced on them, but weakens their original Spring and Elasticity, both by its Weight and incommensurat Vibrations, as we find by the Elasticity of Twigs, the sharp Notes of fine small Hairs, and the Agility of young Animals. The Elasticity consists mainly in the original Degree of Attraction in the component elementary Particles of the linear Fibrils, primarily fashion'd by the Author of Nature; and it is in this Elasticity alone, the Force, Power and Pleasure of Life, and of the animal Functions, consists. If the Elasticity of these Solids be such, as easily, readily and pleasantly to overcome and slide over all the Rubs, Impediments and Letts in the Functions, (whatever State the Fluids be in) then the Animal is healthy, active and gay; otherwise, if they are perform'd with Labour and Struggle, and from too great Efforts of the self-motive Principle on the primarily divinely organis'd Vehicles, and its Load of Crust which is laid on it, to defend it from the Injuries of this Element, and ruinous Planet we are now confin'd to: For as a Surgeon lays a Plaister on a Sore, to defend it from the Air, and the Touch of hard rough Bodies; if this Plaister itself should be hard, rough, corrosive, or stimulating, it would become a Pain and Incommodity, instead of a Pleasure or Defence. It is out of the Juices that circulat in the Tubes, that this plaistering is made on the primitive sensible elastic Fibrils; and it is therefore of the last Consequence, and indeed the One thing necessary, that these Juices be the sweetest, lightest and most lenient possible; and this we can only bring about by Diet, soft, sweet, cool, mild Diet.

§. 6. SOME Persons have industriously and designedly spread it about, that I was of Opinion, that a sole strict Vegetable; or Milk and Seed Diet, was the best and fittest for all Persons, Climats, and Ages, without Exception or Limitation, and the only one proper, approv'd by the Author of Nature, and specific to cure all animal Distempers; advised my Patients no other, or pretended to cure them no other way, be their Distemper what it will. My Opinions are of little Consequence to the World, and I hope I have too little Value or Regard for them, as they are mine, to be any Degree sanguin or concern'd for their Reception. I have, and I hope have always express'd, so great a Regard for the Wisdom, Fitness, and Propriety of Things, as discover'd by Revelation, (from whence the Patent for animal Food is deriv'd) not to set up my Opinions or Ideas in Opposition to those of holy Writ, and the Divine Spirit speaking in it. The Wisdom of Man, even that of the highest Cherubim, is but Foolishness, when compared with the Omniscience of God, and his wise Providence. He that made us and sent us here, knows best what is fittest for us, to answer and bring about his own Designs of Love and Mercy. But I am thoroughly convinced, from Reason, Experience, Philosophy and Revelation, that in our present State, in this our probatory transitory Situation, on this ruinous Globe, (sensibly and evidently spoil'd a second time by the Deluge) on which we are now situated, that animal Food, their Juices, and integral Particles, are the fittest and most proper, to produce most quickly and more immediatly, the firmest hardest human Flesh, and warmest strongest Blood. There is a Similarity and Homogeneity between the muscular Flesh of tender sweet Animals, and that of the human Body; the integral Particles of the Solids of the first, and the component Globules of their Juices, are ready form'd, figur'd and adjusted to build up the Flesh, and cloath the Solids, and furnish out the Juices of the latter: they are at hand, adjusted by Square and Compass, directly to be laid together, to rear the Solids; and their Juices are inur'd and familiaris'd to perform the Meanders of the Circulation, and with Facility to perform all the animal Functions, with the least Labour or Struggle, less than those of Vegetables in general; as a Mason will sooner and more strongly build the Walls of a House, who has hewn plain rectangular Stones at hand, than one who has rough Stones only, Sand and Mortar, all which must be first figur'd or prepar'd for a solid dureable Building. All this, I think, is true, just and philosophical; and while Youth and tolerable Health continues, none ought to alter the common temperat Diet of the middling Rank of those among whom he lives, for a particular or artificial one, without a particular Call, and the best Advice: Nay, I think such a Change unnatural, out of the Order of Providence, and in some Degree immoral. When a Person is tolerably well, and not far advanced into Life, to change an animal for a vegetable Diet, to avoid mere Possibilities and future Contingencies, is arrogantly prying into the divine Decrees, and insolently criticising the Conduct of his Providence. If God's Design is to purify us by Pains and Penalties here, ours ought not to be only the mere enjoying the Kingdoms of this World, and the Glories thereof. If his be to shorten the Time of our Sufferings, by rendering them more intense; ours ought to be to bear them as long as by his Assistance we possibly can, in the common Course of Nature and Providence; for if we cowardly fly from them on one Side, He has Power and Skill enough to double them in another; in this Particular, whatever is, is best: But if we should find our Pains and Sufferings so intense, that they are no longer tolerable, but hinder, instead of promoting, what is our Duty and Vocation, and what we are convinced is best for us, then he has advised us, when persecuted in one City, to flee to another: Then, and only then, when animal Food will no longer do, we are to try what Milk and Seeds can do to ease our Pain. It is only the Cross of God's Appointment, and which he declares his, by natural Causes, and in the Course of his Providence, unforeseen and unavoidable, which we are to take up daily, and with all the Joy, Alacrity and Resignation, that the Meaning of a Cross can imply, that is, the best we can, with the Aid of his Grace. And if Suffering, Punishment, Pains and Penalties, and shortening the Duration of our Imprisonment here, be the very best for us in our present Situation and State; and if animal Food, and fermented Liquors, naturally, necessarily, and mechanically produce these Effects more readily than Vegetables, Milk and Seed Foods, and aqueous Liquors, then was it with infinit Wisdom, Kindness and Fitness, that the Holy Spirit permitted animal Food, and inlarged the Materials of our Aliment, even tho' his first Intention for Man had been Vegetables only (which could only be in a paradisaical State, or on a better unspoil'd Planet). But the real Truth is, Nature, our Globe, the various unkindly Climats, the different Ages, States, Conditions and Circumstances under which Man is at present, render it utterly impossible and impracticable, that Man should be advis'd, order'd or commanded, by infinit Wisdom, to live only on Vegetables. It is not, and it cannot be, by Bread alone that Man can live at present; it cannot answer the Ends, Uses and Occasions Men are now necessitated to pursue. Great and sudden Efforts of Prowess and Strength cannot be answer'd or executed by Vegetables and Water only; they are too thin, weak and poor. Youth-hood, Vigour, Robustness, and great Action, would be tortur'd, and languish under Bread and Water in ever so great Plenty: Milk, Fruits, Seeds and Vegetables, in any Perfection, are of much greater Expence and Labour to procure, than that the Poor and Necessitous now can afford them, especially in Northern Climats; they have lost their Vigour, Energy and Balsam, since the Deluge. Milk is appropriated for Children, and not grown Men, to answer the Ends of Providence. But to explain my Thoughts on this Matter as a Physician only, as clearly and precisely as I can, as they flow from natural Philosophy, the animal Oeconomy, and my own Experience, I say, 1. That after a Fever, or any acute Distemper is over, and had its perfect Crise, and the Person is not past the Meridian of Life, the Blood and Juices, by the strong and violent Labour of the Solids, being sufficiently ground, effete and languid, a Milk, Seed, or vegetable Diet, is by no means long and obstinatly to be continued in; it would continue the Party too languid, the Juices too thin and vapid, and the Spirits too low; and therefore he ought absolutely to be directed to an animal Diet, and temperatly strong Liquors of the lightest, most nourishing and balsamic Nature, to be gradually and cautiously enter'd upon; especially as he begins to be capable of Air and Exercise. 2. If upon takeing away a few Ounces of Blood only out of a large Orifice, the Curd is found too thin, tender, watery, and too readily fusible, or dissolvible in warm Water, and the Serum too clear, whiteish, or in too great a Quantity; a Milk, Seed and vegetable Diet, is by no means to be longer continued in, but is to be altered gradually into light, sweet and young animal Food, and temperat fermented Liquors. 3. If after two, three, four or five Years, the Disorders for which a low cool Diet was advis'd and enter'd upon, with sufficient Strictness and Precision, is not cured, or greatly reliev'd, the Party may conclude, that a low cool Diet will not make a perfect Cure, and must with Patience, and a general Regularity, enter on common Life, and not be longer scrupulous, or anxious about Regimen, in the Quality, but in the Quantity, and submit to the Order of Providence, and use the Means that Experience or the best Advice suggests to alleviat the Symptoms, and do the best he can taliter qualiter, if he is under Fifty. 4. To such as have an original hereditary weakly scorbutical or scrophulous Habit, and are far advanced in Life; who have mesenteric glandular Obstructions, with feeble Solids, and little Strength and Vigour, a Milk, Seed and vegetable Diet, with aqueous Liquors, is by no means to be advis'd; for as the Case is absolutely incureable, it were in vain to torment and restrain them, more cruelly than their Distemper itself does; they must not be forbid, but rather indulged the common Comforts and Gratifications of Life. It is to such that St. Paul's Advice to Timothy is just, as well as kind, to drink a little Wine for their Stomachs sake, and their often Infirmities: A general Moderation, and an Observation of the Juvantia and Laedentia, is only to be advised, and the Use of these Means known to Art, to alleviat Symptoms. 5. In all eruptive Cases, in all acute and periodical cutaneous Cases, in the actual Fits of the Gout, in the second Fever of the Small-Pox, in Fevers verging towards a Crise, to drive out from the Centre to the Circumference any changeable Disorder, and universally in all Cases where the vital Indications languish and labour, and Nature is in a Struggle to throw outward Morbosity; she is most certainly to be assisted by generous cordial and warmer Medicins, and higher Diet, to further the End Nature points at. These are some of the Cases where too low and cool a Regimen is by no means to be advised or pursued. 6. And lastly, Whenever the End of a low Diet is obtained, viz. the sweetning and thinning the Juices, and the Symptoms are abated or cured, the Diet is to be heighten'd, and gradually and cautiously rais'd, at least if the Party be under Fifty. I will now suggest as plainly, in what Cases I think it is to be advised and tried. As to the Healthy and Well, I have nothing here to say: Sufficient for the Day is the Evil thereof.

§. 7. IT is only to those whose Stomach and Digestion is so weak and relax'd, that they cannot concoct without extreme Suffering, any such Proportion even of tender animal Food and fermented Liquors, as may be sufficient to nourish and support them: To those whose Blood and Juices are evidently so thick, gross and viscid, that it fills and obstructs the Vessels so tumidly, that they cannot receive a sufficient Quantity of either Medicin or Food, to cure or preserve them, the Circulation and Perspiration being intirely at a stand: To those who are subject to perpetual Haemorrhages, Inflammations, or constant small acute Fevers: To those who are after the great Meal towards Midnight, hectical or consumptive: To those labouring under a scorbutico-nervose Atrophy and wasting: To those labouring under hereditary, early, knotted, disabling and painful Gouts or Stone: To those who are highly, hereditarily and early scrophulous or scorbutical: To those who are leprous and universally crusted over with cutaneous Blotches and Scabs: To those who are epileptical early in Life, with a thin cacochymic Habit: To those who are constantly hysterical or hypocondriacal, with frequent Fits and Convulsions, under a weak thin Habit, which threaten a Consumption; for I have always observed these obstinat violent hysteric and hypocondriac Fits in young slender Persons, to be the first Stage of a real Phthisis Pulmonum, or at least of a nervous Atrophy; and if it was not cured or prevented in this its first Stage, by the same Means and Regimen commonly the Refuge of the subsequent Stages, they were not to be ever after remedied, they being sure Presages of Tubercles in the Lungs: To those that are plainly cancerous; in short, to those chiefly who after they have long and strictly follow'd the best Advice, and the most effectual Remedies, still labour under some atrocious, painful and dangerous Distemper; to such, and such only, have I ever advised a total rigid Milk and vegetable Diet, with aqueous Liquors; but no longer to be continued, than till the Symptoms were extremely mitigated, or intirely overcome; and then, if it was after the Meridian of Life, to be persisted in obstinatly; if long before it, to be gradually and cautiously alter'd into common Life with great Temperance; and I know all honest and experienced Physicians, antient and modern, are and must be of the same Mind.

§. 8. THE great and essential Difference between animal and vegetable Food, is much the same as between Chemical and Galenical Medicins. Chemical Medicins are the suppos'd (at least their most active) Virtues and Qualities of Plants, Metals and Minerals, contracted and concentred into a small Volume, by the Tortures of the Fire; their useless or destructive Parts separated and thrown away, and their useful and sanative Qualities compacted and united into an immediat Contact and condensed. They would be of admirable Use and Convenience, if these suppos'd Facts, and such mentioned Virtues, were just, solid and true, or if an animal Body could bear them without greater or more fatal future Injuries, than their present Benefit (how great soever) or Convenience can compensat. But it is most certain, that such Medicins, Drugs or Bodies, are the most destructive to animal Bodies, if long and in great Quantities thrown in, that Malice can invent, beyond Gunpowder itself and even spirituous Liquors; for not only Nature has provided none such, but as Poisons in venomous Creatures to kill their Enemies, or cook them for their Food: but that the Particles of Fire, the most destructive of any, are so closely impacted and transubstantiated in, as never to be afterwards separated from them, and that their component Particles are so minutely divided by the Tortures of the Fire, as to acquire such a Force of Attraction towards the Particles of animal Bodies; such a Polarity, (as Dr. Lister observed, in all Calcinations, both of Vegetables and Minerals, so constantly to answer the Magnet) that they become Iron, Bristles, Nails and Lancets, darting directly and perpendicularly into the Solids, so as quickly to tear, rend and destroy, or fix them, and so can never be proper for Food or Physic; whereas Galenical Medicins, consisting of the integral Particles of Vegetables, Metals or Minerals, dissolved only by gentle Heat and Moisture, in a watry Menstruum, have none of these deleterious Qualities on animal Bodies, but become their Food as well as Physic, and naturally take the Places of the morbid Particles of animal Habits, which Time and the natural Functions mechanically throw off. Just so animal Food, and fermented Liquors, are the smallest, most elementary and attractive Particles, united and concenter'd like the Rays of the Sun in the Focus of a Burning-glass. Their delicious Flavour and Savour consists in their greater abundance of Oil and Salts, which are the most active, and consequently the most destructive to animal Bodies. If they are sufficiently diluted, and their Volume and Quantity increas'd, by the more innocent and unactive Particles of fine Earth and Water, they may be safely used, approaching thereby very near to Vegetables. Juices and fermented Liquors, much diluted with Water, become the nearest Approximation to pure Water, the only Beverage designed and fitted by Nature for long Life, Health and Serenity; and the whole Study of the Patient, and Intention of the Physician, ought to be to find out this just Mediocrity of animal and vegetable Food, when combin'd, for Aliment, and of fermented and aqueous Liquors mix'd for Beverage, which is the most proper for preserving his Health, or curcing his Disorders; for there is very little in the Specification of the Diet, whether it be all Vegetable, or partly Animal, partly Vegetable, some Vegetables being more deleterious to animal Constitutions than some animal Substances; and there is but a very little Difference between pure warm Water, and cold Water warm'd with a very little Wine; the just Mixture and Proportion suited to the Constitution and Distempers of the Patient, is by far the greatest Affair; tho' in the Distempers by me just now specified, that are painful and dangerous, too great Exactness, both in Quantity and Quality, is never to be slighted; for in a true statical Balance, such as the Constitutions under the mentioned Diseases are, a few Grains or Spoonfuls thrown in, will destroy the Equilibrium of Health and Ease.

§. 9. THE Benefits a Person who desires nothing but a clear Head and strong intellectual Faculties, would reap by religiously drinking nothing but Water, (tepid or cold, as the Season is) while he is yet young, and tolerably healthy, well educated, and of a sober honest Disposition, are innumerable: As, 1. That he would live probably till towards an hundred Years of Age, that being the Term of Life appointed by the Design of the Creator, even after the Deluge, and after that eating of animal Food was permitted, before (as it is believ'd) fermented Liquors were invented; at least, if we have any regard for Moses's History, which yet cannot be denied to be one of the justest Accounts of these early Times. 2. That he would thereby constantly enjoy a clear Head, calm, at least governable Passions, a Facility in intellectual Applications, and in the Acquisition of Virtue; and so having a longer Duration secur'd to him, and all Impediments removed, he might make surprizing and wonderful Advances in both. 3. He would thereby be secur'd against all the great atrocious and frightful Distempers, such as Melancholy, Lowness of Spirits, Wrong-headedness, Lunacy and Madness (the Bane of the finest, best and most penetrating Spirits in Great Britain). For I defy any Man to give an Instance of any furious Madness, or great and obstinat Lunacy or Melancholy, in any one who soon after Twenty, enter'd on Water drinking only, let him eat what he can; for it is fermented Liquors only that inflame the Membrans and membranous Tubuli (the Nerves), which are the bodily Organs of intellectual Operations. It is the Fire, Sulphur and volatile Tartar of fermented Liquors, that inflame, corrugat and stimulat these Membranes, and their linear Threads, into violent Succussions, that break and tear them, which are the immediat Cause of these frightful and overwhelming Distempers, as they are of the painful tortureing ones, Gout, Stone, Cancer and Consumption: For tho' Gluttony will thicken the Curd of the Blood, and thereby cause Obstructions in the Glands and Capillaries, from whence many and various Distempers may arise, yet will they be of the obtuse, slow, lingering Kind, and in which Nature will always give a timeous and early Warning, by Inappetency, Nausea, Vomiting, Purging, Sweating, Spitting or Rheums, which will opportunely stop the Progress; and while Water is plentifully then craved and given, it will carry on, distance in the Circulation, and dilute this too viscid Curd, to prevent an intire Obstruction of the animal Functions, or destroy Life, and hinder the Generation of Gout, Stone, Cancer and Consumption, which are solely produc'd by the hard salin Concretions of fermented Liquors. But, 4. The most signal Benefit a Man will reap from early Water-drinking solely, while as yet in tolerable Health, is being preserv'd from the acute, sudden and mortal Distempers, as Apoplexies, Suffocations, Fevers of all kinds, Pestilences and Pleurisies. It is to fermented, strong, or spirituous Liquors solely, that these quick and destructive Distempers owe their true Cause, which give no Warning, and admit of no Cure: At least, Water-drinking solely, is the only Preservative, I am certain, known or knowable to Art. Accidents, epidemical Causes, a constant Neglect, or a total Inability to guard against the Dangers of the other Non-naturals, absolutly necessary towards perfect Health and Life, may produce some Degrees of these mention'd grand Distempers; but then, under sole Water-drinking, they will neither be so painful nor dangerous: For it is certain, Water-drinking, Dilution, and thin Diet, is the only Mean known to Art and Experience, to cure them, when Persons are already seiz'd with these Distempers, join'd with strong and proper Evacuations; and whatever will cure, will prevent; as Water pour'd on will extinguish Fire, so it will prevent its being kindled or beginning. If these frightful, painful and mortal Distempers happen sometimes in Eastern or Southern Climats, where fermented Liquors are not much in Use, it is because they wallow and indulge in some things almost equally as pernicious and inflammatory as these strong Liquors, as high in Aromaticks, eastern Gums and Juices; Opiats, the volatile cepacious Roots, Fruits and Seeds, of the poisonous, soporiferous or stimulating kind, with which those Climats abound, which is the sole Cause of all their inflammatory Distempers, and unnatural and dissolveing Lust; for these are all but dry Drams, of a more dureable and adhesive Nature than some of the liquid ones; for Fire is still Fire, whether Solar or Culinary, Natural or Chemical; whether it is transubstantiated into liquid or solider Matter; and Water is its only Extinguisher.

§. 10. I HAVE said, that the Quantity of Aliment (Meats and Drinks) is of much greater Consequence in general, than the Quality, for the Preservation of Life, Health and Serenity. If a Man study the least, light or heavy will not so much incommode him. The great End and Use of a low Diet, or one of Milk, Seeds and Vegetables, is to mend the Juices, to cool, attenuat and sweeten the circulating Fluids; whatever Diet does this, must mechanically relax, unbend, and let down the Spring of the Solids. It is true, the Superiority of the Force or Spring of the Solids, must be always greater than the Resistance of the Fluids; else the Animal could not live at all; that is, the animal Functions could not be perform'd; and this Superiority must be continued in some Proportion, whatever Regimen the Animal uses, so long as it lives. But it is certain, a cool, thin, sweetning Diet, attenuats the Fluids in a greater Proportion than it relaxes and unbends the Solids; because, 1. All the Secretions are from the Fluids, and not from the Solids; and they spending and wasting faster, must be sooner supply'd and alter'd by the proper Food. 2. Because the immediat Action of Food and Physic is upon the Fluids, and they absorb and consume most of their Virtue and Efficacy; and the Solids are never acted upon by them, till the Fluids are fully saturated and transubstantiated into their Substance. And, 3. Because all Fluids by their Nature are sooner and more readily acted upon, and alter'd into foreign Qualities, than any Solids possibly can; and hence it comes to pass, that a Person on the immediat Change, and for some considerable Time after, in passing from a high to a low Diet, will find his Health wonderfully mended for the better, because the Resistance of the Fluids is immediatly lessen'd; which will again, even under the same Diet in Quantity and Quality, wonderfully, and, as it were, unaccountably totter, and alter for the worse; which happens on the Despumation of the Glands, Capillaries and Solids, while they are spewing out and disgorgeing their morbid Contents on the Primae Viae; but which, by proper and specific Evacuations, Exercise and Astringents afterwards, will generally be set to rights again, if the Person be at a proper Time of Life, that is, under Fifty; for after that, there is little Encouragement from any Mean, but gentle Evacuation, and a Perseverance in the regulated Regimen: Nay, even he must proceed, lessening it in Quantity at least, if not in Quality, by proper Degrees, and at proper Periods, descending out of Life, as one ascends into it, viz. by Milk-Porridge, Water-Gruel, Panada, and the like. But the great Benefit and Advantage a Man reaps from a low, cool, thinning, sweetning Regimen, of Milk, Seeds and Vegetables, above what he can have under any Diet of animal Food and fermented Liquors, is, that he can keep the stretched and extended Bowels, and Blood-Vessels, always fuller and plumper, and in their natural Tension and Situations; and consequently will make the Secretions more plentifully, and all the Functions will be more natural, and easier, than under a spare, cautious and anxiously guarded starving Regimen of so little animal Food as is absolutly necessary; as a weak Person will walk more easily in Stays than loose, some lame Persons in a Boot than a Stocking; and a defensive Plaister will keep a Sore easier, than when it is bare; and Excesses are neither so painful nor dangerous under the first as under the second Regimen; and the same Person may safely venture on at least four times as much Vegetable, Seed and Milk Food, as he dare of animal Food of any kind, at least of dense, hard, or full-grown animal Food.

§. 11. I THINK the natural Order and Progression in Regimen, for those who are ordain'd to, or for those whose Vocation and Occupation is sedentary and studious, who by the Order of Providence, and Situation of Life, have been signatur'd to intellectual Professions, and for all those who would cultivat and maintain clear Heads and quick Senses to the last, is from their Birth till Fifteen, to persevere in a gradually increasing temperat Diet, without fermented Liquors; from Fifteen to Fifty, to be only temperat in animal Foods and fermented Liquors; after Fifty to give up animal Food Suppers, and fermented Liquors; after Sixty to give up all animal Food; and then every ten Years after to lessen about a quarter of the Quantity of their vegetable Food; and thus gradually descend out of Life as they ascended into it. And that all Persons subject to inflammatory Distempers, Gouts, Erisipelas's, hot Scurvies, Leprosies, Asthma's, Jaundices, Colicks, nervous Lownesses, violent Head-aches, Haemorrhages and Haemorrhoids, Anasarca's, Ruptures, or white Swellings, tho' otherwise strong, hearty, hale, and of a seeming sound Constitution, ought to give up Meat Suppers, and all fermented Liquors; and that the Children of all Fathers (for Mothers are not here to be minded) who have died before Thirty-five, of any natural Distemper whatever, and all the Children begot of Fathers after Sixty, ought to live without Meat Suppers, or fermented Liquors; and that all Persons whatever, whatever Age they be of, or of whatever Nature their Complaints and Disorder may be, if, upon repeated small Phlebotomies, and without transient Accidents, (as Colds, Damps, Blasts, and Bruises) they constantly observe their Blood sizy, viscous and glutinous, ought directly to be put on a low Diet, either of Milk, Seeds and Vegetables only, or at least of one, without Meat Suppers, and fermented Liquors; and this Regimen, with proper attenuant, alterative and sweetning Medicines, (which, in the Nature of things, ought to be of the mild ponderous and mineral Tribe) to be continued till at least this Size and Glew be broken and dissolved; else they can never expect uniform and continued Health; for such a Regimen, and such Medicins, must do this in Time; else nothing in Nature possibly can.

§. 12. UNPHILOSOPHICAL and unexperienced Persons, tho' they know and observe the great critical Alteration that happens in the Sex, in or about Fifty, and that without a special Care, both in the Regimen, proper Evacuation, and alterative Medicins, they are in great Danger, either of their Lives, or of some chronical and obstinat Distempers, that make their Lives ever after miserable and uncomfortable, after that Period; yet think this Misfortune peculiar to Females, and that the Males have a Privilege and Security to be luxurious and sensual to the last; which is the true Reason why so few die natural Deaths, and that most pass as really and truly out of Life, in a violent untimely Manner, as a Felon, who suffers under public Justice. The Matter of Fact and Order of Nature is this: Fifty was design'd as the Meridian of Life, in this our lapsed; State and Duration, on this ruinous Planet; from this solstitial Point it is a Descent out of Life. From the Birth upwards to this Point, the Solids were developeing, expanding, crusting over, and hardening to their utmost Extension, Firmness and Density; and thereby their Elasticity beginning then at Fifty to weaken and unbend, and they to ossify, the Digestions become grosser and more imperfect, the Secretions lessen, and all the animal Functions labour; and then, if due Care is not taken to obviat these Effects, the chronical Distempers naturally arising out of these Causes, and that lurked in the original Constitution, begin to emerge and sprout out, the Viscera to tumify and obstruct, the Glands then swell and press on the circulating Blood-Vessels, the Capillaries to coalesce, become full and dense, and the Nerves and Membranes are interrupted in their Play and Vibrations, and all the animal Machin labours, and the Functions are perform'd heavily, with Pain and Struggle. This is the true Time and Season of Life, for Attention, Consideration and Care of a wise Man and a Philosopher. The Hyperbolic Curve of Life is at the Point of its Return downwards again; and if then proper Care be taken, by some few Evacuations, Alteratives, and a Regimen; to put a Drag on the Wheels of Life, that they may go down gently, calmly and serenely, these become more useful to themselves and others, than in the first ascending part of Life; and this happens equally to both the Sexes: for it is not from this Season being the common Period of the Fertility of the Female Sex, that these Appearances happen; but is a general Law of Nature to both Sexes from the Causes assign'd; for all the Difference of the Sexes lies in the different Configuration of the superinduc'd Crust or Shell laid over the primitive aethereal Body, which in both is probably pretty near of the same Figure, Size and Materials, originally.

§. 13. IT is not an unpleasant Speculation, to contemplat the Order of Nature in its Progression towards reducing this our Tabernacle of Clay, into its original Dust, from its Cradle to its Coffin, especially in those who live the whole Duration of the natural Life. The Diseases of Infancy are generally Scabs, Blotches and Blains over the Face, Head, Eyes and Ears; sometimes Fits and Convulsions, and such Cephalic and Head Distempers; and these are certainly constitutional and parental Disorders communicated by the morbid Juices of the Parents; the Colicks, Vomitings and Diarrhoea's succeeding, come from the improper Nourishment in Quantity or Quality of the Mothers or Nurses; the Measles and Small-pox are also original and parental Impurities convey'd to the Blood and Juices in the Birth, from too high and too much animal Food, and are most of them the Diseases of the upper Region of the Body. When Nature has struggled by these to purify the Juices by such Despumations, then come the Distempers of the Breast and Lungs, in Coughs, Catarrhs, Consumptions, Asthma's, Pleurisies or Peripneumonies; after these come Pains in the Stomach, Heart-burnings, Colicks, bilious Vomitings, Jaundice and Diarrhoea's; then succeed Gouts, Stone and Gravel, Palsies, Rheumatisms and fixing of the Joints; and very often Ruptures, Piles, or Mortifications in the Bowels, Feet, or Toes, the Diseases of the lower Regions. All I would insinuat by this Reflection, is, that Nature seems to aim, and would certainly, if not interrupted by Accidents, obtain and pursue a kind of a regular and uniform Progression, in her Course of dissolving and mouldering into Dust, this Adamical Crust of Clay, by Distempers, topical and local, from the Head, through the Viscera, to the Feet and Joints, till, like a dying Vegetable, she has fix'd it in the Earth, from whence it sprung. This is certainly her general Law, if not interrupted by original, parental Diseases or Accidents hurting some of the Organs before it was born, or by Accidents proper and peculiar to the Party itself; or a general bad Regimen, which may quicken this Progress, or throw it out of its natural Progression on a weaken'd Part, that may discompose the general Law of Nature.

§. 14. FOR Perspicuity and Brevity, I distinguish four Orders and Degrees of Regimen of Diet, that is, of Meat and Drink; viz. 1. The common Diet of a reasonable Proportion of animal Food and fermented Liquors, common to the middling Rank of the Healthy, Temperat and Sober in every Climat or Country. 2. A Diet of plain fresh animal Food once a Day, without any fermented Liquor, only plain Water, or Toast and tepid Water for Beverage; or one of one Day Meat without Wine, and another Day a little Wine without Meat, which I would call the trimming Diet. 3. A Diet without any animal Food, but one of Milk, Seeds, Fruits and Vegetables, any thing where the Life of no Animal is wanted to compose or dress such (as Eggs, Gravey, and the like). 4. A total strict Milk and Seed Diet only, without any other Materials. Of these I intend to say something in general, and in this Order, both as to their Times and Cookery. But first as to the Order, or Time of changeing any one of these different kinds of Regimen one for another.

§. 15. WHEN a Person is tolerably well, and is subject to no painful or dangerous Distemper, I think it his Duty, and the Order of God and Providence, to let Well alone; and with general Temperance, without Solicitude, Anxiety or Scrupulosity, to persevere in the common Regimen of the middling healthy temperat Order of Men, in the Country and Climat where he was born, or long habituated: To follow St. Paul's Advice in another Case, to ask no Questions about what he should eat for Health's sake; or rather our Saviour's Counsel, not to be solicitous, or take anxious Care, about what he should eat, or what he should drink, or wherewithal he should be cloathed; but without Curiosity or Nicety, take a Share of whatever is presented: For to live at such a Time, and in such a Circumstance, medically, is truly to live miserably, and propter vitam vivendi perdere causas. It is enough, for a wise Man, and a Christian Philosopher, to stop, and attend to Diet and Regimen, when, by the Order of Providence, his natural and providential Course of common Regimen is barr'd up, by some Disorder or Distemper; and then wise Nature will give him timeous Warning, by Inappetency, a Nausea, Reaching, Vomiting, a Flatulence, Fulness or Pain in the Stomach; for all Distempers begin first at the Stomach or Bowels, and then ascend to the Head, which is the Language of the God of Nature, saying to the Person, Man, take Care; and then, and only then, ought a Christian Philosopher mind his Regimen, and by Evacuation, moderat Fasting or Exercise, endeavour to relieve or remove the Grief, or apply to some honest experienced Physician for Advice.

§. 16. IF the Case is acute, the Party is not generally, at least for any Time, in a Condition to observe or direct for himself: But seldom any notable Errors are committed in Regimen then; for on the slightest Attempts to any great Excess, either in Quantity or Quality, Nature immediatly revolts, and the Party suffers to such an Extremity, by the Exacerbations of his Symptoms, that any notable Progress in such an unnatural Regimen cannot possibly be receiv'd or persisted in; and yet I have seen and felt, by the Indiscretion of Friends, or the officious Sedulity of Nurses, the poor Patient suffer to mortal Agonies, and sometimes to Death, in acute Cases, by improper Loads of high Foods, or liquid or solid Drams and Cordials; and many have suffer'd more from high and hot Drugs, than ever they could from the Distemper. In acute Cases, seldom any thing that is given either for Food or Physic, passes the Primae Viae, unless it be extremely light and liquid. In such, the wiser Antients scarce ever administred (besides proper Evacuation) any thing but tepid Water, simple Oxymel, or Water soften'd, or sharpned by the Flour or Meal of some proper or specific Vegetable. Long obstinat Fasting, continued even ad Deliquium, with plentiful Dilution, and the Evacuation indicated by the Nature of the Distemper, was their most universal Remedy. But it is not of Regimen in acute Cases that I here intend to speak; my sole Business is with chronical Cases.

§. 17. BUT since chronical Cases are only acute Cases diluted, and drawn out into a longer Time, with weaker Paroxysins, and a more protracted Crise; since Nature has a general Law and Type, by which she governs and signatures such acute Distempers, especially in those who follow her Laws and Simplicity, and not disturbed by spurious Art or Accidents; since Fasting, proper Evacuation, and Dilution, are the great Remedies indicated in acute Cases; it is natural and highly probable to suppose, that proper Evacuation, Abstinence, and thin cool soft Regimen longer persisted in, will be the single Intention pointed out, and the great and cardinal Remedies in chronical Cases; and therefore, when a Person, under common Life, is seized with a chronical Distemper, which by prudent Abstinence, and lessening the Quantity of this common Diet, is not remov'd, he ought to apply to the proper Directors of Health, and follow their Advice religiously, in the Use of Medicins and Regimen they order; and if in three Months time, in chronical Cases, by rigorously pursuing the order'd Medicins and Regimen, their Symptoms are not totally remov'd, or greatly reliev'd and mitigated, he may, I think, fairly conclude the Regimen was not low, cool and thin enough, for the End propos'd; and therefore ought to resolve to sink his Regimen, both in Quantity and Quality, and enter upon what I call the trimming Diet.

§. 18. BUT before any Person resolves to sink or alter his Regimen of Diet, or any prudent Physician ought to advise such an Alteration, he ought always to premise a gentle partial Phlebotomy out at the largest Vein, and from the largest Orifice commonly open'd; for a small Trunk of a Vein will only send out such Blood as is much different from the Crase of the whole Mass; the Circulation being slower in the small Branches, the Viscidity is generally impacted into the smallest in a greater Proportion, and the serous Part by the Slowness is perspired or run off, by the Lymphatics, and lateral Branches; and a small Orifice either compresses and breaks the Texture of the Curd of the Blood, disunites and separates the Globules, so that the Observation cannot be fairly or with any Degree of Accuracy made; but by comparing the Blood so let out, with other sound healthy Blood, (for Example, that of a healthy Person, or of a Bullock or Sheep) if the Difference in Taste, Colour, Cohesion of the Globules, and Curd, and the Proportion thereof to the Serum, be in all or most of these Distinctions, greatly different from those of the sound Blood, it may fairly be concluded that the Regimen of Diet, both in Quantity and Quality, is to be sunk and lessen'd, and that proper and specific alterative Medicins, to thin and sweeten the Blood, are indicated, (especially those of the mild ponderous Nature at first, with the Galenical Vegetables, which universal Experience has assign'd as specific in a Distemper of such a Denomination) and the Evacuations of the Primae Viae by gentle Vomits and domestic Cathartics, as the Symptoms exasperat; for tho' a Person may still suffer, even when the Blood thus let out for Experiment's sake, mostly appears, on such gross Experiments, tolerably good, and not differing greatly from sound Blood in the Size, the bad Juices being confin'd to the Capillaries, Glands and great Viscera; yet these will never be open'd and render'd pervious, till the Blood in the great Trunks of the Vessels be first attenuated, thin'd and sweeten'd: And he will never be long or uniformly well, who has bad Juices circulating, in these greater Vessels; it is a certain Symptom, that it must be much worse and more sizy in the small lateral Branches, the Capillaries, and the Glands of the Viscera; and it is Diet alone, and it chiefly, join'd with mild ponderous Remedies at first, Evacuation, Air and Exercise, that can at last alter or antidote these morbific Symptoms. And if after three Months Use of the Medicins advis'd in chronical Cases, by an honest experienced Physician, the Blood on such a Trial continues bad, that is, sizy, liverish, with either too little Serum tho' clear, or too much but muddy, then, I think, the trimming Diet ought to be tried, viz. one of white Meat in a moderat Quantity once a Day, with Milk, Seeds and Vegetables, for the other Meals, and aqueous Beverage; or one Day a little plain Meat of any kind once a Day, with aqueous Beverage that Day, and the next Day only Milk, Seeds and Vegetables, with about a Gill of some sound old Wine, with or without Water; and this Regimen, with a due Care of the other Non-naturals, proper Evacuation, and due Exercise, I think, ought to be continued for one whole Year or two, in obstinat hereditary chronical Cases; for, I think, acquir'd ones will scarce require so long Time, or such Severity of Regimen, to be cured, or at least greatly alleviated, unless their Excesses have been violent, or that they are far advanced in Life.

§. 19. BUT since such Cases do daily happen, both in hereditary Distempers, and those acquir'd by an obstinat Mal-regimen long continued in; that after a full Twelvemonth or more of a trimming Regimen of Diet, with proper Evacuation, and specific Alteratives, the Blood, on makeing the Trial, as above described, continues still bad and sizy, then, I think, all Medicin (except domestic Evacuations or Alteratives) may be fairly cashier'd and laid aside, as of little or no Use, and the whole Stress and Hope laid on Diet and Regimen only, by sinking it in Quantity as well as Quality, and confineing one's self to Milk, Seeds, Fruits and Vegetables, well dress'd, or much dissolv'd by culinary Fire, to evaporat the Wind; and drinking only tepid Water, or some specific mineral Water, as the Case requires, and Wine only as other Persons use Spirits, on dangerous Symptoms, as a Cordial, and on Extremities; and this Method and Regimen ought to be continued for two Years more at least. And, I think, in Persons of a tolerable Constitution, and where some of the great Viscera are not intirely spoil'd and irremediably consumed, this Method and Diet cannot fail of having salutary Effects of a perfect Cure, or a very considerable Relief; and then if the Party is not past the Meridian of Life, the Person may without Fear or Danger, gradually and by slow Degrees, rise again to the trimming Diet, and from it return back again by the same Steps he descended into common Life; and only on Exacerbations, and stated Seasons, sink into his lower Regimen, for a Preservative.

§. 20. BUT after all this Care and Perseverance in a milk, seed and vegetable Diet, with aqueous Beverage, if on a Trial after the manner mentioned, the Blood be still sizy, as it often is in bad Constitutions, and obstinat Cases, and the Symptoms, still severe and depressing; the only thing remaining for such a Person with any Reason or Expectation of Success of a total Cure, or any notable Alleviation of his Symptoms, is, for the Person to enter on a total rigid strict milk and seed Diet only, without Butter, Eggs, or any other Vegetables, but Wheat, Barley, Rice, Oats, Sago, and the like seed Meats; and even to make his Milk the thinnest possible, skim'd Milk, sweet Buttermilk, sweet Whey, or the Whey made with a Mixture of sour Milk, or Orange-Whey, or Whey made with the Juice of some specific Vegetable, (especially in scorbutic, gouty, pulmonic and icteric Cases, which is the Base of most of the chronical Distempers in England) and Bread or Seeds dress'd made with Milk only; for Seeds are young Vegetables, and are neither so hard of Digestion, so windy, nor abound with the essential Salts of Plants, Roots and Fruits. And even the Quantity of the Regimen is to be minded; little at a time, but oftener, never either to load the Stomach, nor compress the Nerves, Membranes and Fibres; Fulness and Compression, even by such Foods, like Stops in musical Chords, will interrupt their easy, regular and harmonious Vibrations and Play, and so will sink the Spirits, and make the Functions labour. This Regimen ought at last to be tried, all other Methods not succeeding. One would not buy Gold too dear; but Health and free Spirits are more precious than Gold, and a wise Man would give up every thing else for them. This Regimen will infallibly have one of these two Effects; it will either totally cure him, if the great Viscera are not quite consumed; or make him lie down more easily, and will infallibly give him longer Time and better Spirits to settle his temporal Affairs, and give all the Attention to his future State, the Nature of Things will then admit.

§. 21. MOST People that enter on a low Diet for Health and Spirits, intirely counter act and defeat its beneficial Effects. I have known some Men of Quality, and Gentlemen of Fortune, who have been advis'd a low Diet, have their Vegetables of the highest and rankest Flavour, dress'd high with burnt Butter, hot Spices, Aromatics, Onions, Eggs and Salt; so that they were infinitly more deleterious and hurtful, than a moderat Quantity of plain animal Food once a Day could possibly be. The meager fasting and Lent Times among the Catholicks, in French, Italian and Spanish Cookery, with their high Fish Sauces, will much sooner inflame the Blood, produce Gout, Stone and Fevers, than a Bit of Chicken, Veal, Lamb, or any white Meat plainly dress'd possibly can. All the beneficial and salutary Effects of a low and vegetable Diet, I have ever observ'd, have been owing in atrocious, obstinat and painful Distempers, to Milk and Seeds only, and even these the thinnest and the least the Person could be tolerably easy under from the Pain of Hunger: And it is not easily to be credited what wonderful Effects, even in the most desperat and universally condemn'd to Death Distempers, I have seen perform'd by such a Regimen duly and obstinatly persisted in, especially in Persons under Fifty; Epilepsies totally cured, hereditary Gouts almost eradicated, universal Lepers made clean, Stones in the Bladder and Kidnies laid quiet, Cancers healed or palliated, ulcerated Lungs made sound, and schirrous Livers made pervious. But all this has been constantly brought about by a total, obstinat and continued milk and seed Diet only; but in all such incurable Cases, the Diet is to be persisted in to the last Day of Life; for I have always observed, when such return'd to a high or common Diet only, their Distempers always return'd with greater Violence, as in Reason and true Philosophy must have been expected: For the Solids being brought down and relax'd to a Level and Equilibrium with such a Diet, become infinitly sensible, delicat and tender; and such strong Aliment becomes an universal Stop and Obstacle to their Play and Vibrations, (like sticking down a musical Chord all along with Pins) and interrupts, marrs and confounds the whole animal Functions and Oeconomy, and brings on all the old Symptoms enraged.

§. 22. IT is true, to live thus poorly, anxiously and attentively, is a most miserable kind of Life, to which the Brave, the Bold, and the Unbeliever will brag he should prefer Death itself: But I, who give little Credit to such Bounces, know Self-preservation to be the great Law in Nature, never met one but the true practical and habitual Christian among my many Patients, and even scarce these, who was truly willing and pleas'd to strip and lie down; and only him who was always resign'd to the Order of Providence either in Life or Death; and even not Him at all Times, and in the dark Moments of Trial, or any but the extremely miserable in Life. But here the Case is not mere dying, but living a dying Life, perhaps for many Years: Here it is in two Evils, (violent Pain, or extreme Lowness and Languishing, or tolerable good Spirits, and sufferable Pain, at the Tax and Charge of a transient momentary sensual Gratification) choosing the least; on the other side, it is a voluntary and a resolute withdrawing from the Orders and future unknown Designs of Providence over us, when a very certain Mean (at least in due Time) of escaping, or at least greatly diminishing these Miseries is offer'd. In short, not to take up with a low Regimen here, is a plain Rebellion against the Orders and Designs of Providence manifested by Nature, the Relations of Things, Philosophy and Experience, for the mere Gratification of vitious morbid Appetites: In a word, it is deliberat Suicide, the greatest of all Rebellion and Sin.

§. 23. IN Lowness of Spirits, want of natural Rest, great Anxiety, involuntary dark and terrifying Thoughts, Ideas and Imaginations, there are but these three infallible immediat Reliefs or Remedies: 1. A Vomit, that can work briskly, quickly and safely, and Experience and Use can only determin what that one shall be; for it is not the Evacuation or Quantity of the Discharge, that is to be so much minded, as the internal Action, the strong Convulsion, the internal Exercise, and the cleaning, squeezeing and compressing the knotted and tumified Glands of the Primae Viae, warm Water, Chamomile, or Carduus Tea; and without drinking any thing, I have often effected a present perfect Relief, by mere urging and tickling the Throat and Glands with the Finger or a Feather, by bringing the Muscles of the Abdomen into repeated Efforts and Kecks; and so have frequently discharged Loads of Phlegm and thin Rheum, which always greatly reliev'd; and this Method frequently, nay sometimes daily repeated, and with greater Safety and less Trouble pursued, will answer the Ends, in tender and delicat Constitutions, under a Regimen, of formal and artificial Vomits; and I earnestly recommend the Trial and frequent Practice of it, to all tender low-living Valetudinarians, as what they will find infinit Benefit from, and much easier and safer than artificial Apothecary Vomits, when they have made the Practice of it easy and familiar: The Strong and Robust, whose Fibres are firm and callous, will require stronger for a present Relief, and they must be repeated whenever the Symptoms exasperat. 2. Great, frequent and continued Exercise, especially a Horseback, because this Exercise, by the frequent Succussions, opens all the Glands of the Abdomen, of the Mesentery and Liver, where the Evil generally lies. Walking, because of the universal Action of all the Solids, and its forceing the Perspiration, is the best Exercise to preserve Health and good Spirits; but Riding is best to recover them; to this the Flesh-brush for half an Hour, Morning and Night, ought to be join'd, to uncork the Plugs, and concreted Recrements that stop the Mouths of the perspiratory Glands; and then washing with tepid Water in Winter, and cold Water in Summer, the whole Skin, to scour off these Impurities; and drying well after: and having always a large broad soft Girdle of Leather, quilted with Cotton, to wear about the Loins, like a Stay or Swaith, to keep the Viscera in their natural Situations, the Lacteals and Intestines in their natural Curvatures, and the Bowels from being too pendulous, especially in thin and wasteing Persons. 3. Religiously to study and practice the lightest and the least of Food, they can be tolerably easy under: The least unnecessary Burthen, compressive Constriction or Ligature on the tender delicat Fibres, Nerves or Membranes, hinders their easy, pleasant and natural Play and Vibrations, which is the immediat Cause of Lowness and Anxiety; it is like nailing or sticking down with Pins or Stops, the Play of a musical Chord, whence Discord must necessarily ensue. In short, to preserve or obtain good Spirits, in very low Cases, a Man must be in a constant Course of Self-denial as to Aliment, and make, as it were, Hunger his greatest and only Pain; but nothing but Experience and constant Observation of the Juvantia and Laedentia, is sufficient to determin, to each Individual respectively, how far this is to be carried. Prudence is the first of all Natural as well as Christian Virtues; Gold may be bought too dear, but wise Nature always tells us how far this Method ought to be carried, by the Intenseness of our Cravings, when gone too far; and then a Person under no unnatural or vitious Passion or Lunacy, will obey her Calls, by giving her what she craves, so as to make her tolerably easy. But these are the most general certain Antidotes against extreme Lowness and Anxiety known to me; the Reliefs of Art and Medicin are not my Design at present here.

§. 24 SOME Persons have found great Relief on Lowness, a bad Constitution, and nervous Distempers, on Change to a Southern and warmer Climat, from a Northern and colder. But I never observ'd that Benefit dureable, or in any Degree perfect, unless the Party continued all the rest of his Days in that Climat and Country; and tho' proper Air and Warmth be a most comfortable and cherishing thing to animal Bodies, yet it is observing the Diet, liveing in the manner of the Country, that contributes most to the Cure or Relief; for it is well known, that in warm Countries, and southern Climats, the Diet there is not only exceeding spare and light, but almost altogether Vegetables: The Heat and Rarefaction of the Air, and constant Perspiration, make a full high rank Diet certain Pain or Death: And even the Materials of their Food there, the Animals and Vegetables, are lighter and less rank and destructive in their Nature, and more stimulating; the Natives scarce ever taste fermented or strong Liquors, and indulging in them is the sole notorious Cause of the sudden Deaths of all our Soldiers, Seamen and Traders. It is true, eastern and southern Nations use many and the highest Aromatics, with their Vegetables, and they are but dry Drams of as pernicious a Nature almost as our liquid ones; and this is the sole Cause of their unnatural Lust and Leachery, of their acute Distempers, and short Lives. But when a valetudinary Person goes to a southern Country for his Health, and lives as he used in his northern Country, he rather grows worse for the Climat; and if recover'd by the Air and Traveling, and observing the Regimen peculiar to the Healthy in that Climat, if he returns, and does not continue the Regimen of Diet by which he was recover'd, he falls back again, and the second Error is worse than the first; and, in Truth, to travel through, or live even a few Months or Years in, a southern Climat, and afterwards be obliged to pass his Life at Home in a northern Climat, is but only roasting at the Fire, or going strait out of a very hot Room into the cold Air, to freeze and chill the faster, and more intensely; for Reaction is always equal to Action.

§. 25. As to the Quantity of Foods of any kind, strong, middling or weak, fittest to prolong Life, and prevent or cure Diseases; the most proper for each Individual, there is no possible way to determin it to any Precision; it must be different, according to the Size, Strength, Age, Constitution, Habitude, acquir'd or hereditary Distempers of each Particular, which are as various as their Faces. Wise Nature had so contriv'd us, had we follow'd her Simplicity and Order in our Diet, that our Appetites and Craveings should be a sufficient Rule; but having by long Habitudes and Example, spoil'd, corrupted and disorder'd her Laws, Sensations and Order, she is not now, in all Cases, sufficient to determin this Affair. The best Rules, I think, a wise Man can folfollow, are, 1. To use the plainest, most tender, least poignant and savoury Meats, fully dress'd, he can find, and to abate in Quantity what he is forced to increase in the Quality of his Food. 2. To take the least possible he can be tolerably easy under from the Pain of Hunger. 3. To observe for some Time, and with some Care, what Foods, in Quantity and Quality, he is easiest under, and the natural Rest, the natural Secretions, and the animal Functions labour least, and are most pleasantly perform'd under. 4. To observe the Quantity after the great Meal, he can apply his Head, his Attention, and his Body, to their proper Offices, with the greatest Facility and Pleasure under. 5. To follow the Quantity and Quality of those Foods that give him regularly one figur'd Stool a Day only. 6. For one Month to try double the Quantity, or at least one third, or less, more than he us'd of the same kinds of Food, and observe what Difference this makes in his Functions, Intellectual or Animal; and by some repeated Trials of this kind, summing up the whole, and takeing the half of this Quantity, divided by the Number of Days, as the Medium between the least or greatest Quantity. 7. To try, by a Sanctorian Chair, the Quantity and Quality of those Foods that perspire the most and soonest, and reduce the Body to pretty near always the same Weight: Or, 8. Lastly, Without Care, Anxiety or Perplexity, to study and pursue the lightest and least of Food he can possibly be easy under; for, without all doubt, Nature will (to a Man of a sober Mind, and in his right Senses) by acute and intolerable Pains from Hunger, apprize him at least in some time, if he has underdos'd her. So far may suffice to an honest prudent Person, as to the Quantity of Food, or the Materials of the Curd of the Blood: As to the Liquids, or the Materials of the Serum, I am perfectly convinced, Nature never intended any thing but pure Water; Water being signatur'd, by its greatest Fluidity and Insipidity, for carrying alimentary Particles readily and pleasantly through all the strait Meanders of animal Life; and having design'd fermented Liquors, and the Juices of Fruits and Vegetables, for Physic only, and they are, when us'd with Intemperance, or as common Beverage, the sole universal and adequat natural Cause of most acquir'd Distempers; and Water-drinking only, the proper and adequat Antidote for such. But if a Man will drink vinous and fermented Liquors, then the best are those that are of a middling Strength, the lightest, oldest and ripest, which have spent or drop'd their saline, tartarous and grossest Particles by Age and Maturity; on which Account the old Rhenish or Hock, ripe Claret or Burgundy, neat old Port and Madera, will be preferable; and the rich, fat, fiery, oily and gross Wines are only to be us'd as Cordials and Drams, on Necessity and Extremity. But always the least is the very best of all fermented Liquors whatsoever.

§. 26. WHOEVER can resolve in bad Spirits, a bad Constitution, and in advanced Life, to go into a Regimen, may, I think, fairly be manumitted from Drugs, that is, from any kind of Alteratives, even the Preparations of Mercury, Steel, Antimony, Sulphur, and all those of the ponderous and mineral Kind, they will only tear and rend his tender Bowels and Vessels; and even from every sort of the violent and active kind; and trust simply to Nature and domestic Evacuation, as the Symptoms exasperat, viz. little Bleedings, gentle and weak Emetics, Stomach Purges, mineral Waters of a proper kind, gentle Air and Exercise, and a Regimen of the lightest and least, no regular Meals, but a little at a time and oftner; for as Nature will not, now on its Decline, bear the violent and active Remedies, without being torn to pieces, so there is not sufficient Time in Life remaining for strong Health; and they must consider what Nature can bear and do, and follow her by their Feelings rigidly, and treat themselves as Children the second time, by giving her barely the lightest and the least she can be tolerably easy under, and always endeavouring to lessen the Quantity and Quality of the Diet, as her active and digestive Powers weaken and decrease; for one Day tolerably easy by the Strength of Nature only, will be better than two such by the Help of Art, for her Recovery, and prolonging her Life.

§. 27. IN a low Regimen, even when upon Necessity, and under prudent Counsel and Advice, when a Person has enter'd upon it, and has continued in it for a long time, they may have many Plunges, Discouragements and Exacerbations; especially as the peccant Matter becomes collected from the Mass of Blood by the greater Glands, and is now soliciting to be pumped off, or driven out by the Commonsewer; besides Accidents, the Inclemency and Alterations of the Seasons, especially Spring and Autumn, when animal as well as vegetable Nature undergoes some notable Alterations; none ought to be so scrupulously nice, as not, at such a Time, to lay aside their low Milk and Seed or vegetable Diet, and take to a little white Meat, and fermented Liquors, upon Nausea, Inappetency, and transiently to brace the Solids, to get Strength to throw off the still remaining Load of Morbosity and Viscosity; this is but like standing to take a little Breath in ascending a steep Mountain: But then they ought, as soon as this periodical Paroxysm is remov'd, by proper Evacuation, and this temporary braceing Regimen, to return to their cooling, soft, sweetning and thinning Diet, in order to purify the Juices totally. This Interruption will only retard the Cure a short time, and will give Strength to perfect it at last, as far as the Nature of Things will permit: For it is to be believ'd as a certain Truth, without which no Patient will be encouraged to proceed, that it is to a low, cool, thin Diet alone, with proper and indicated Evacuation, that the Blood is to be at last mended, and the highest Health the Constitution will permit is to be obtain'd.

§. 28. To conclude this tedious Detail, of the two, animal Food or fermented Liquors, either of any kind, that is in Use, if my Opinion were to be ask'd, Which of the two is most pernicious to animal Bodies, or, in which of the two, Mistakes or Excesses are most pernicious, fatal, and most productive of the severe Distempers? I would not hesitate a Moment, to ascribe to fermented or distill'd Liquors of any kind, the whole Blame of all or most of the painful and excruciating Distempers that afflict Mankind: It is to it alone all our Gouts, Stones, Cancers, Fevers, high Hysterics, Lunacy and Madness, are principally owing: It is the true Pandora's Box. And he who would timeously give up, while he is tolerably well, fermented Liquors, and drink nothing but pure tepid Water, need never seek nor want any other Cure or Medicin, but gentle and proper Evacuation occasionally, be his Distemper what it will: He may then freely give up any Concern about what he should eat; let him, without Fear, follow Nature and his Appetite, in whatever plain Meat is presented, he can be in no Danger from any fatal or dangerous Distemper. Water-drinking to those that are already tolerably well, begun early, at least under Thirty-five, or after, when no chronical, hereditary, mortal Distemper is rooted, is the true and universal Panacea, and the Philosopher's Stone. God has not only permitted, but by a wife Appointment of his Providence, has, in many Cases, made animal Food absolutely necessary and indispensable; and for great high Health and Spirits, warm and strong Blood, bodily Prowess and great Labour, it is the only proper Food; but for fermented Liquors, I know no Command, Counsel, or Example. Certainly wise Nature, who has provided liberally Supplies for all our Wants, has furnish'd us none of it; it is the Invention of spurious and luxurious Art, and it is present Death to many, and the natural Aversion of all Animals who follow pure Nature: It certainly shortens the Duration of Life to all that use it even with Moderation, and is the alone adequat Cause of all the mortal, painful and atrocious Distempers. As a Medicin, present Relief, and as a bitter Chalybeat Potion, on Occasions and Extremities, it might be a tolerable Medicin; but as common Beverage, it is a slow but certain Poison.

FOR a Conclusion, I will, from the whole, set down a few Aphorisms, that may perhaps instruct and ease the Memory of the Valetudinarian.

Aphorism 1. A CONSTANT Endeavour after the lightest and the least of Meat and Drink a Man can be tolerably easy under, is the shortest and most infallible Mean to preserve Life, Health and Serenity.

Aph. 2. HE that would preserve a clear Head, and equal Spirits, must keep his Stomach clean, his Bowels moderatly empty and uncomprest.

Aph. 3. ON bad Nights, Lowness, Flatulence and Oppression of Spirits, of any Continuance, the only certain Reliefs are, a small Phlebotomy, a gentle Vomit, a domestic Purge, rideing a Horse-back, and a Regimen of the lightest and the least persisted in.

Aph. 4. SMALL frequent Phlebotomies are the quickest and most effectual Mean to mend the Blood, and to cure Cacochymy, if a Regimen of the lightest and least be joined.

Aph. 5. GENTLE and repeated Evacuation upwards and downwards, (especially, and perhaps only, Vomits) by the Medicins most familiar and experienced, (the Action and Exercise of Vomiting is its chief Use) are the surest, quickest, and most effectual Mean to prevent or remedy the ill Effects of Gluttony, Over-loading and Repletion, (that is, almost all chronical Distempers) provided the lightest and the least be join'd afterwards.

Aph. 6. DISEASES are always to be cured by their Contraries, the high Diet by the low, the hot by the cool, the sapid by the insipid, the thick and gross by the thin and poor, Repletion by Fasting, Inactivity by Exercise. Health acquir'd and possessed lies in the middle Regimen, between these two Extremes.

Aph. 7. PERFECT Health and good Spirits depend chiefly, if not only, on the easy and pleasant Play or Performance of the Animal Functions, viz. the Digestion, Circulation, Respiration, Perspiration, muscular Motion, and the Secretions.

Aph. 8. HE that would be soon well, must be long sick, that is, treat himself as a Valetudinarian in most things.

Aph. 9. EXERCISE and gentle Evacuation will supply the Place of Abstinence, and Abstinence will supply the Place of Evacuation; but the first two are still preferable, because they damage the Solids least.

Aph. 10. QUANTITY in Food will supply Quality, and Quality will supply the Place of Quantity; but in very bad Cases it is most secure to join both.

Aph. 11. THERE is but little in a specific Regimen of Diet to remedy or antidot a specific Distemper; Abstinence in general, or a constant Endeavour after the lightest and the least, will constantly supply the Place of any specific particular Regimen of Diet: But in very bad Cases, a particular Choice of the most specific Regimen that Art, Experience and Philosophy shew to be most proper, is not to be neglected.

Aph. 12. THE Regimen of Diet by which one is cured of a particular Distemper, ought to be coninued, at least in some Degree, especially if the Person is not much under Fifty, else the Distemper will return with more severe and worse Symptoms than at first, as Experience has constantly shew'd.

Aph. 13. Every wise Man, after Fifty, ought to begin to lessen at least the Quantity of his Aliment; and if he would continue free of great and dangerous Distempers, and preserve his Senses and Faculties clear to the last, he ought every seven Years go on, abateing gradually and sensibly, and at last descend out of Life as he ascended into it, even into the Child's Diet.

Aph. 14. He that is old when he is young, that is, treats himself as a wise old Man does, or ought to do, by great Temperance, Air and Exercise, if he lives past Thirty-five, will be young when he grows old in Years.

Aph. 15. No Person of any Fortune ever died, or suffer'd acute Pains, or mortal Distempers, by the too cool, too little, or too insipid in Diet; all by the too hot, high and savoury: But Virtue and Health lie in the golden Mean, so difficult to be found, and only to be secur'd by the lightest and the least a Man can be tolerably easy under.

Aph. 16. THE eternal Law of Nature, by intense Pain in Craveing and Hunger, will never suffer a Person in his right Senses to go on long obstinatly, and to his Hurt, in the too little.

Aph. 17. WATER pure, clear and insipid, is the sole Beverage that can procure or continue Health, and a clear Head, being the sole Fluid that will pass through the smallest animal Tubes without Resistance; next to it are aqueous, or weak fermented Liquors.

Aph. 18. WATER tepid or cold, or impregnated with the specific Vegetables, or Minerals, that Experience has found proper to antidot a given Distemper, is the true Panacea in both acute and chronical Distempers: Nature has prepared no other Medicin for us, but Water impregnated with Vegetables in their Juices, or natural Mineral Waters on the Surface of the Earth.

Aph. 19. MILK is the only Food prepared by Nature for young, that is, weak and tender animal Bodies; and there is no real Difference between a young, tender, animal Body, and a diseased grown Animal, but that, of the two, the last is the worst; but it will cost Labour and Patience to make Milk agree in bilious Cases.

Aph. 20. MILK and sweet sound Blood differ in nothing but in Colour: Milk is Blood, which almost directly comes from the Chyle into the Teats of the Animal; and Blood is Milk which has gone many Rounds in the Circulation, and is ground a little in the Lungs, where being mixt with the Nitre of the Air, it receives its Scarlet Colour; it is a Medium between animal and vegetable Food.

Aph. 21. WHEY sweet, or medicated with the Juice of any specific Plant, Sage, Balm, or Orange, or antiscorbutic, vulnerary, or pulmonic Plants, will supply the Place, and are preferable to most Decoctions, of Plants, Infusions, Apozems and Diet-Drinks whatsoever, except those of the strong Detergents, as Horse-Radish, Mustard-Seed, and the like, where necessary.

Aph. 22. GOATS Whey being a natural Infusion from gentle Heat, and gentle Triture, of the fine aromatic and nitrous Vegetables on which Goats feed only, is one of the very best Diluents, Detergents, Cleansers and Sweetners of scorbutic and salin Cacochymies.

Aph. 23. FRICTION Morning and Night, and in Winter Washing with warm, and Drying before a Fire, and in Summer with cold Water, is an excellent Mean to facilitat and promote the Perspiration; to clean the Cuticle, and cure cutaneous Uncleanness and Defedations, cold Batheing is excellent, and preferable to every Washing in Cases where the Blood is sweet and thin, the Solids too lax only.

Aph. 24. CINCTURE with a broad quilted Belt about the Loins, to keep the Bowels in their natural Situations, and the chylous Vessels in their best Locality, and in flabby Constitutions, weak Bowels and Atrophies, is of great Benefit.

Aph. 25. RIDEING is the best of all Exercises to get Health, and to promote the Digestions, especially in nervous Distempers, where the Abdomen and the Meseraic Glands are principally affected: But Walking is best to preserve Health already got, because it is the most natural and the most universal Promoter of all the Excretions.

Aph. 26. IN Nature or Art there is no such immediat Cure for low Spirits, Anxiety, and Want of Sleep, as rideing a Horse-back, long Journies with Fasting, or rather a very soft light Feeding with warm thin Liquors at Resting-Places, but that the least possible that actual Fainting will permit.

Aph. 27. NEXT to Rideing, is either a Vomit, or Fasting almost to Faintness, and then only a little spiced Wine and Water warm, and a Mouthful or two of dry Bisket every 5th or 6th Hour, with continued Friction, with a coarse Cloth, warm Flannel, or a Flesh-Brush, especially on the Spine, in Faintings and extreme Lowness.

Aph. 28. TO procure natural Rest, nothing is like four or five middling Pills of true Assafoetida, with four or five Grains of pure succatrine Aloe, taken going to Bed.

Aph. 29. THE only Way to secure tolerable Spirits in very low Cases, is a constant Endeavour to make Hunger the greatest Pain, and to cheat the Appetite and Craveing with little, warm, light Liquors at large Intervals.

Aph. 30. GOOD Hours will be always a most beneficial Mean to preserve Health and Spirits, to go to Bed by Ten, and rise by Six.

Aph. 31. WHOSOEVER would preserve his Health and Spirits to the last, even when he is in Possession of it, ought to pass through the great Operations of Physick in the Spring, viz. To bleed, vomit and purge, whether he have apparent Necessity or not; for Seurvy, or scorbutick Juices, is the great chronical and fundamental Distemper of Britain; all the rest are but Sprouts and Branches of it. And therefore,

Aph. 32. VOMITS often repeated, at least as often as the Symptom of any Ail aggravats, increases or exasperats, are the sole universal Antidot and Panacea of Britain: an ailing Person cannot repeat them too often, they will always prove beneficial and salutary.

Aph. 33. IN cold Feet nothing like batheing them in tepid Water a little before going to Bed.

Aph. 34. A low Diet seldom extirpats, or totally eradicats, any hereditary chronical Distemper, unless it be in the young, the middling-aged, or the strong and healthy, who have otherwise tolerable Stamina; in the very puny, delicat and slender, in the old, and far advanced in Life, even after Fifty, in the strongest, it only abates the Violence of their Symptoms, makes them less severe, and the Returns seldomer, and only prolongs the Duration of their Lives.

Aph. 35. THE natural Diseases of the Poor and Necessitous are generally owing to a bad, unwholesome, unsound Diet, and the Want of due Care of the other Non-naturals, Cleanness and Shelter; and are generally cured by their Contraries, viz. a good, wholesome, plain Diet, and a due Cleanness, Shelter from the Inclemency of Seasons, and an easy Mind.

Aph. 36. IF it happen that the Poor, and those having no Property of their own, by Stealth, Robbery, or unlawful Means, enter on and pursue the Luxury of the Rich and Opulent, not having the other Necessaries and Conveniencies of Life, neglecting, or not being able to afford, or being inured to want the necessary Care of the other Non-naturals, their Diseases are then the most atrocious, painful and miserable of any; which is the Reason that the acute and contagious Distempers begin first, spread faster, and are more mortal among them, than those of the better Sort.

Aph. 37. DIET; a proper well regulated and parsimonious, cool Diet, is the far greatest Article of long Life and Health; but the other Non-naturals are to be carefully attended to, and guarded against, else it will not avail alone, which is the Case in Monasteries, Desarts, and long Sea Voyages.

DISCOURSE I. Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE NATURE and QUALITIES OF THE Original Animal Body, AND OF ITS PROGRESSIVE STATE IN ITS Several Stages of EXISTENCE.
DISCOURSE I.
Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE NATURE and QUALITIES OF THE Original Animal Body, AND OF ITS PROGRESSIVE STATE IN ITS Several Stages of EXISTENCE.

1 Cor. xv. 44. ‘There is a natural Body, and there is a spiritual Body.’

§. 1. THERE are Animalcules, which being endued with Life and Motion, must consequently perform Animal Functions, that are less than any Object perceptible by our Senses.

THIS is beyond all Doubt from Microscopical Discoveries in Pepper Water, Spring Water, Vinegar, Sperm, the Urine and fluid Juices of almost all morbid Animals; and Mr. Lewenhoeck has shewn, that there are Animals, many Thousands of which would not equal a visible Grain of Sand; and that there are Tubes in Animals, of which several Hundreds would not equal a common Hair; and the smallest Animals, to carry on Life, must necessarily have all the chief Organical Parts of the greatest Animals, at least analogically.

§. 2. An organized Animal Body could not possibly at first have been formed, nor can its Functions be now accounted for, or explained, by mere Mechanism, or the Laws of Motion which now obtain, without the Sagacity and Agency of a primary self-existent Cause; nor can the Functions be continued without the Superintendance and Influence of a self-moving, self-acting secondary Agent, informing and acting on it continually.

THIS is not only demonstrable from the Inertia and Passivity of Matter, from the obvious Contradiction of a perpetual circular Motion, which is the Case of all Animals (the Motion of the Heart, and the Muscular Force of the Blood-Vessels, being the Cause of the Circulation, and the Circulation being the Cause (efficient or occasional) of the Motion of the Heart, and of the Muscular Fibres;) But that mere Mechanism acts only according to the Surfaces of Bodies; and yet it is probable, that animated Bodies act according to their Solidities, and that every Atom of an animated Body is constantly in Action, for the Preservation and Well-being of the whole Machin, and also for exerting that particular Animal Function, which its Figure, Situation and Use in the Animal requires. Besides, natural and simple Mechanism can act only from One Centre of Motion or Impulse, in One single Direction only; whereas Curvature requires different Direction every Moment, and consequently various Centres of Motion or Impulse. Now, if we consider the Varieties of Motions and Directions in the Joints and Muscles of Animals, but especially the infinite Variety of Curvatures in the Arteries, Veins, and Nerves, and particularly in the Glands, we will readily perceive it to be utterly impossible, and a Contradiction, that an Animal Body could have been at first formed without a Supra-mechanical Organisation; or that it should continue to live, and perform Animal Functions, without the continual Agency and Superintendance of a secondary self-active, and selfmotive Principle.

§. 3. It is highly probable, that the first Elements of Bodies, or the least and last Particles of Matter, are solid, hard, and indivisible, by any finite Power, or Force whatever; because by Friction, Collision, and Use, they are not worn out, and lose not their Original Figure and Size; since they are still fit for the Ends and Purposes of their first Institution.

§. 4. GOD and Nature do nothing in vain; and since Body must necessarily be always endued with some Figure, being neither infinitely small, nor infinitely great (where Figure may possibly be thought to evanish) the three most simple Figures of all solid Bodies, viz. Spheres, Cubes, and equilateral triangular Prisms, might possibly at first have made all the Diversities of the primitive original Particles of specific Bodies. These Figures, with the particular Laws of Attraction and Union thence arising, together with different Diameters, and various Combinations, may have made all the Differences of Bodies.

§. 5. THE several Elements, or the several Aggregats or Masses of the different original Particles, now commonly called Elements, as Water, Air, Light, Salt, and Earth, have each some specifick Qualities, which distinguish them from each other, and which they never entirely lose in any State whatsoever; but which may be swallowed up, and rendered unactive, when blended and combined with other Particles, as they are in the integral Particles of natural Bodies, as these are constituted in this our System.

WATER has its Incompressibility, the Rotundity, or at least the Spheroidity of its constituent Particles; its Transparency, or refractive Power, its Admission of Salts into its Substance without greatly increasing its Dimensions, at least in a certain Quantity and Proportion, nay sometimes lessening them.

AIR has its Elasticity, its repulsive Force, its acid and nitrous Spirit, and its vivifying Quality to Fire, and Animal Life.

LIGHT has its Activity, Velocity, Tenuity of its Particles, and its Fitts of easy Transmission and Reflection, and probably a greater Gravity or Byas, on one Side, than the other of its Particles.

SALT has its Solubility in Water only, its penetrating Virtue on Bodies, and its stimulating Quality on animal Fibres; A greater Degree, and particular Law of the attractive Force of its Particles on one another, whereby its Clusters are generally of regular, and nearly similar Figures terminated by plain Surfaces.

EARTH has its greater Gravity, loose Connexion, and less Attraction of its Particles; its Friability, and irregular Figure, being probably the Ramenta or Abrasions of the other Elements.

PERHAPS the primitive Animal Body might consist of the First pure specific and sublimed Elements, harmoniously combined, and elegantly ranged in their Original Natures, of which our present patch'd gross Bodies, are only the confused dense Kind; as our present Globe of Earth, its Water, Salt, Air, Light, and Earth, are but probably the putrified Carcase of the primitive Planet; but both may continue to have some remote Analogy to one another, as a Carcase hath to a living Beauty, or an Egyptian Mummy to a living Cleopatra.

ACCORDING to this Analogy then, may not the Matter and Substance of the original first-created Vehicle or Animal Body, be of such Elements of the original Kind? of a celestial and spiritual Nature (so to speak) infinitely more subtile and refined than the Matter of Light, more elastick than the finest Aether; and whose Particles might have had, as it were, an infinite Power of Attraction even at finite Distances, and consequently might pervade all gross Bodies of our System without Resistance or Pain.

§. 6. On such an analogous Supposition or Conjecture, the Fineness, Elasticity and Law of Attraction in the Particles of such a spiritual Animal Matter, might admit of Degrees (as all Finites must necessarily do) and the Degree might be in Proportion to the natural and moral Powers of the Spirit conjunctly.

IT seems highly probable, that all finite created Spirits have, and must have material Vehicles, of Purity and Fineness in Proportion to their natural and moral Powers conjunctly, not only to limit and direct their Energy and Efficiency, but to commerciate with other Animals, and inanimat created Natures; none but the Supreme Spirit, the Father of Spirits, being absolutely and entirely an infinitely pure immaterial Spirit, acting by his Power and Energy with equal Facility at all possible Distances. And the Vehicles, or original Bodies of all created Spirits might possibly be of some such Nature, as this described Matter, which may be called spiritual Matter, or Element.

§. 7. This spiritual animal Body, at first divinely organized, may be rolled up, folded together and contracted in this present State of its Duration, into an infinitely small Punctum Saliens, into a Miniature of a Miniature in infinitum, lodg'd in the Loins of the Male of all Animals, (for it is highly probable the Female was but a secondary Intention, or a Buttress to a falling Edifice) and proceeding in a diverging Series, and progressive Gradation, that in due Time it may be fit to be nourished, and increased by the Juices of the proper Female, and thereby enabled to bear the Coarseness and Injuries of this ruinous Globe, and gross Element, to which it is to be condemned for a certain Period.

§. 8. IT would seem that this spiritual Body, of this refin'd subtile Matter divinely organized, by an infinite Degree of Attraction to its particular informing Spirit, and by an individual Fitness and Congruity to the specific immaterial Inhabitant, is so intimately united with it in its original Creation, that they are never after to be separated, whatever future State they may go into, by any finite Power whatsoever; no more than the Firmness and Solidity of the primitive original Atoms of of Matter can be broken or divided by any natural Power. So that in whatever Afterstates it may exist, or whatever Plaister or Vehicle of a denser and coarser Element may be superinduced, the spiritual Inhabitant and the primitive Creation-Body go inseparably together. And as this refined spiritual Body might have been the Creation primitive Body, so it may, purified, develop'd and mundify'd, become the last Resurrection and glorify'd Body.

§. 9. It seems highly probable, analogous to the other Appearances of Nature, and congruous to rational Agency (if we suppose the first Being rational, intelligent and wise, acting with Designs and Purposes) that the confining of intelligent or sentient Beings, for so long a Time, to so dark and strait a Prison, in the Origin, Seeds and Eggs of Animals, on this ruinous Globe, must have been for some wise and good End and Purpose, in God's moral Government of his int ligent and sentient Creatures; perhaps for Punishment, Correction, progressive Purification, and painful Sensation (A Body hast thou given me, was said of our Saviour, to make him passive); Feeling and Experience being the most effectual Mean to admonish and teach finite, wandering and heedless Beings; at least this seems one Part of the Design.

§. 10. THAT in our present Scene of Existence, our natural Powers are tied down, sopited, and fettered by the Manner of our Origination, and coming into rational Life, is self-evident: The wisest and best Man on the Earth, as to rational and intelligent Living, was first like a mere Vegetable or Plant, afterward a mere Animal or Brute, and but at last, very late, and only for a short Time, the rational and complete Man; and this Truth might be further illustrated, and even demonstrated, from the Qualities of Matter, which are contrary to and destructive of the Qualities of Spirit. Now this Progression must have some End and Purpose in the Intention of a wise and good Cause; and may suppose, that by the Abuse of Liberty, and idolatrising the Creatures, the moral Powers (Justice, Goodness, and Truth) being erased and cancell'd in the Spirit, the most effectual Mean and Expedient to restore them, was to tye down, contract and sopite the natural Powers of the Soul (Living, Perceiving, and Willing) to a Level and Equality with these defaced moral Powers, that by the Use of the proper Means, they might (without Letts or Obstacles from these natural Powers) gradually improve and grow up together, in the same Degree and Order; at least this may be One not improbable End and Design of Providence, in this progressive Growth of the natural Powers of the human Spirit; since it is evident in Fact, that where the natural and moral Powers of the Soul rise to any Degree, this Progression is observed.

§. 11. The Works of God are without Repentance, the true unbodied Spiritual Substance in intelligent and sentient Natures, being an Emanation, Efflux, Ray, or Spark, or (if I durst use such figurative Language) an infinitesimal Miniature of his Substance, (and of his living, perceiving and willing, or whole Nature) who is Self-existent; After flowing from him, can no more perish, or cease to live, perceive and will, than necessary Self-existence can cease to be; so that Living, Perceiving and Willing, (i. e. Cogitation) can never be totally extinct in any intelligent and sentient Being: Never in the Root, Faculty or Power, tho' they may be, and often are, in the Acts; like Fire in Ashes. Annihilation is contradictory to, and destructive of infinite Wisdom and Power, and unworthy of infinite Perfection, requiring the same Omnipotence that Creation does; Reaction being always equal to Action. And Self-activity being an infinitesimal Miniature of necessary Existence and Omnipotence. The first Being might as justly be supposed capable of destroying Himself, as his Miniature Images: Besides, it were neither wise nor good even in a Man, to suffer the Heir Apparent of a great Kingdom to destroy or annihilate himself, if it were possible by Correction, Restraints, Time, and due Culture, to fit him for the Possession; and sure every Thing that is wise and good is possible to the best of Beings. These Natural Powers may be sopited, contracted and hindred from issuing into Action, (as we see they are in sound Sleep, in some Diseases, Syncope's, and many other Cases) by Obstacles of, and Resistances from gross Matter, by Bonds, Fetters and Chains made of these our Elements; and the coarser and straiter these Fetters and Chains are, the straiter and closer the Prison may be, and the weaker and fewer may be the Acts of the natural Powers, till this Prison become almost dead Matter, and a Dungeon, or a mere Point. Now infinite Wisdom and Power, being, as it were, necessitated by the infinite Benevolence of his Nature, to lay out all the Energy of his Omnipotence and Omniscience, to recover and restore his Miniature Images, consistent with the Harmony of his own Attributes, and with the Usage of their natural Powers, (neither of which he could force, or offer Violence to,) seems to have contrived this wonderful Expedient, viz. to tye down, sopite and restrain the Acts and Exertion of the natural Powers, of laps'd, sentient and intelligent Beings, for a determin'd Space of Time, by Chains and Fetters made of the Elements of this ruinous Globe, in order to punish and purify them, and so to vindicate his Sovereignty, to repair the Indignity done to his Purity, to warn and deter the other Orders of his standing Hierarchies, and at the same Time, by lessening the Strength and Activity of the natural Powers in their full Vigour, to allow Freedom and Uninterruption from them, for the Restoration and Advancement of the moral Powers.

§. 12. WERE the natural Powers of a free, laps'd and intelligent Being, greatly and eminently higher than the moral Powers in the present State, they must necessarily clash with, interrupt and greatly hinder the Acquisition of the moral Powers. For Example, unerring Evidence, irrefragable Demonstration, absolute Certainty, must necessarily interfere with Humility, Dependence, Resignation, Faith and Trust, and consequently with all Merit, Gratitude, and Love. What Faith? What Resignation? What Merit is there in believing the Propositions of Euclid? In this we are as much passive in our immaterial Principle, as in our Material. We trust our Lives and Fortunes to a Seaman, or Coachman, not on Demonstration and absolute Certainty, but because we believe them to be honest able Persons in their several Vocations. Faith and Hope must eternally exclude Mathematical Certainty. Perfect Demonstration and absolute Certainty, would exclude Choice, Election and Preference, in finite dependent Creatures. It is Probability alone, Verisimilitude, Analogy, and final Causes, or Revelation, that can be the proper Evidence to produce Faith, and to give Merit, Choice, Election and Preference to the Actions of finite, laps'd and dependent Creatures; and this whole present Scene of Providence, and the Darkness, Obscurity and seeming Deformity on the Face of Nature, and the Works of an All-wise, All-good Being, seem only contrived and calculated, to preserve the natural Powers of lapsed finite Intelligences inviolate, and at the same Time to harmonise with the Divine Attributes. For had the natural Powers continued in their Perfection and full Extent, while the moral Powers were cancell'd and extinguish'd, they could never have been restored consistent with the Harmony of the Divine Attributes, and the natural, unperishable and inviolable Powers of free Intelligences. Liberty to do Good or Evil, Pre-Existence abus'd, universal Restoration, and final Confirmation, consistent with the Harmony of the Divine Attributes, and the natural Powers of lapsed Intelligences, well explain'd, will remove all the possible Difficulties and Obscurity, in Nature, Providence, and Revelation.

§. 13. To comprehend, ascertain and demin with Precision, and Mathematical or Metaphysical Certainty, the real Nature, or Substance of any thing, small or great, is incompatible with Finitude, and the sole incommunicable Attribute of the Deity; and if lapsed finite Creatures, such as we of the human Race are supposed to be, could attain to it, it would destroy our Liberty to act, (whose very Essence consists in doing any thing or its contrary) and determin us infallibly to one Tenour of Action, as certainly as one Impulse, or one Centre of Motion in a Body, would determine it to one Direction, or in a Right Line, and consequently would counteract our Recovery and Restoration, and render it impossible. And the most perfect Cherubim in Heaven, to perpetuate and eternise its Happiness, must necessarily have made a surrendry and sacrifice of its Will to infinite Goodness, and its Understanding to infinite Wisdom; and tho' all that are admitted to the Beatific Vision, see God Face to Face, or see as they are seen, yet it can be only pro Modulo suo; and tho' the Faith and Trust necessary to us here in our uncertain lapsed probatory State, when we come to Glory shall be done away, yet naked Faith, or a Faith founded solely on the Ipse Dixit of infinite Perfection, as well as pure Love, or love of Infinite Perfection for itself, or for its own Amiability, is indispensibly necessary even in Heaven, to perpetuate and eternise the Felicity of the most perfect Seraphim. As our bodily Eyes are utterly incapable of perceiving the real and positive Magnitude, Dimensions and Distance of material Objects, nothing but their relative ones; so is the most sublime and perfect created Understanding for ever incapable to discover, and comprehend the precise Nature, Essence or Qualities of the First Being, or of any of his lowest Works. Objects are perceiv'd or comprehended not according to their own absolute precise and positive Nature, by created Understandings of any Order and Degree, but respectively and relatively, according to the Degree and Extent of their Faculties; and yet a Miniature may be truly a Picture, and as just an one in small, as one at length, and between the First Being, and the absolute Nature of his Works, as conceiv'd and comprehended by creaturely Faculties, there will be allways the Proportion of Infinite to Finite. And when Jesus Christ said he was the Truth, the absolute Truth, he as really affirm'd his Divinity, as when he said he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, or I and the Father are one; for the absolute precise Metaphysical Truth of real positive Things is inseparable from the Divine Nature; and he could not be honest and sincere even as a Creature, if in such a momentuous and and fundamental Point, he could lead Creatures into a Mistake; an honest Person would have trembled to come so near plain Blasphemy, and yet he says his Words are Spirit and Truth. But I beg Pardon for this Digression out of the Sphere of Philosophy.

§. 14. THE subjecting material Bodies, the outward Creation, and, perhaps, spiritual Natures, to general and invariable Laws, (the continuing these under the Lapse, which were and must have been establish'd in the State of Innocence, I say, the Continuance of these) seems to be another Expedient of infinite Wisdom to preserve Liberty in the Recovery of the moral Powers of lapsed Intelligences, and to conciliate the Harmony of the Divine Attributes. Without these general Laws, (discoverable only to any Degree, by just Observation, calm Attention, accurate Experiment, extensive Induction and Calculation) there could be no Room for Correction, Amending, for Choice and Election, or for moral Good and Evil; but Things would happen in the intellectual and moral System, as they are supposed to happen in the natural System on the Epicurean Scheme, by Chance, Casualty, Fits and Starts, or fatal Necessity; which is absolutely to deny the first Being to be a rational, intelligent and free Agent; for infinite Wisdom can do nothing, but for wise Ends and Purposes; and must contrive Means, which have a natural and necessary Tendency and Fitness for these Ends. If these Means be not seen by us, or being in some measure seen, may seem not to attain their Ends, it is because, being finite lapsed Creatures, our narrow Capacities cannot reach them, or because all the Conditions requisite to make them effectual, were not present in a particular Case; for infinite Wisdom must act uniformly, with Order, Number, Weight and Measure; all which, nothing but general Laws and Canons can effect, as is well known to Geometers, and plainly exemplified in the universal Canons of Algebra. If these general Laws be duly investigated, cautiously guarded, and all the necessary Conditions be taken in, they can never fail of obtaining their End and Effect; unless infinite Wisdom and Power suspend them for a limited Time, to manifest his Power, or for moral Ends and Purposes; or unless they are kept from attaining their natural Ends directly, by the voluntary and free Agency of imperfect human Intelligences.

§. 14. THE only Thing worthy of a true Philosopher is, with Attention, to draw up and collect as many as he possibly can, of these general Laws of the Divine Agency in the natural, moral, and intellectual World, for his own Use, or that of his Fellow-Intelligences. For without all Doubt they must be some few of the most obvious of the Laws of infinite Wisdom, laid down as the Plan, by which all his Works of Wonder were at first form'd, and are still govern'd: And tho' in Him all this great Affair was but one single Act of Wisdom and Power, yet in regard to us his infinitesimal Miniatures, now in a lapsed State, they must be consider'd by Parts, in different Acts, and divided Sections, and view'd separately, in Proportion to our weak and limited Faculties: For certainly general Laws, and universal Rules, are the Method of Divine Agency, and of his wise Providence.

§. 15. THE general Laws of Motion, the Laws of simple Mechanism, the Laws of Refraction and Reflection, and many more such general Laws, both in natural Philosophy, civil Society, and human Policy, are pretty well known and adjusted, in all the polish'd Nations of the World; and it is not improbable such general Laws may obtain in other Systems, at least analogically: and they actually do so, as far as our Observation reaches. And it is very probable that similar and analogous general Laws, have place in the moral, spiritual and intellectual World. For God is the same Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever; his Nature, Attributes, and Agency, uniform: And since he acts by general Laws in material Agency, it is highly probable, and conformable to his infinite Wisdom, to act in the same uniform Manner in all his Operations, ad extra; and, as far as just Observations have been made, and well-grounded Conclusions drawn by Analogy, we shall find it so in all the Systems, Moral, Spiritual or Divine; tho' these last have been but little studied, and timorously applied to, by Persons of a proper Spirit and Genius, out of Dread of the odious Designation of Enthusiasm or Superstition: but future Ages may perhaps get over this Terror; for the Method has a solid Foundation in the Nature of Things.

§. 16. THESE general Laws of the Divine Oeconomy in Creation and Providence, or the Rules of consummate Wisdom and Fitness, which the Supreme Being has chalk'd out and laid down, are, without all Doubt, inexhaustible and incomprehensible to such an Order of Beings as we are in our present State, and undiscoverable to any Degree of Perfection; for who can search out the Almighty to Perfection? Perhaps the Discovery of them may be a Part of the Happiness and Perfection of another State of Existence, and some small Portion of the Employment of happy contemplative Spirits in other Regions; and there, The Works of the Lord will appear wonderful to them that delight therein. For if the First Being be rational, intelligent, wise and good, as doubtless he is infinitely so, there must of Necessity be in all his Works, Conduct and Actions ad extra, one perpetual Analogy, and one continued Harmony through the Whole, and in every single Part; each individual Organ and Law must be fitted to this great End, viz. the Perfection of the Whole, and of each Part; and he who considers the Oeconomy of Nature, Providence, and Restoration, with greatest Attention and Humility, will most clearly discern this Wisdom, Fitness, and Divine Order in them.

§. 17. SUPPOSE an infinitely wise, powerful and good Being, did intend to produce something new, that he had no Pattern or Model of before Him, (as the first intelligent Cause could not possibly have in Creation) as an Artificer; for Example, (to descend the lowest in a Similitude) he could only express, in sensible Images, the Genius, Nature, and Ideas of his own Mind, and fit the Parts and Organs of such a Machine to the End and Use for which it was designed, with Number, Weight and Measure; and so (to compare great Things with small) Supreme Wisdom, having nothing but Himself, his own beneficent Nature and Attributes before Creation, to copy forth and represent, could, in all his Works of Wonder, delineate nothing but his own Substance, Nature, Wisdom, Goodness, Justice and Truth. So that all Nature, all Creation, all the Worlds, the Material, Moral and Spiritual, can possibly be nothing else, but the supreme, immense and infinitely perfect Being, display'd, pourtray'd, and made sensible and perceptible. Mundus universus nihil aliud est, quam Deus explicitus, said a learned Man. To think otherwise, is a sort of Blasphemy, and degrading of infinite Wisdom and Perfection below finite lapsed human Intelligences. For there is no possible Work of any Man, but which in some Degree is a Picture of himself, of his own Idea, or of the Constitution and Complexion of his Mind at that Time.

§. 18. IF then there be a perpetual Analogy running through all the Works of God, Natural, Moral and Spiritual; if all his Workings ad Extra, be Representations, Pictures and Hieroglyphicks, stronger or weaker, more general or more particular, of his own Nature, Complexion and Attributes; if the material inanimated System of outward Things, being contrived with infinite Fitness, Justness, Propriety and Delicacy, do represent his infinite Wisdom and Power, in a more sensible, yet in a darker and weaker Manner: and if the Oeconomy of his universal and particular Providence, and the amazing Oeconomy of the Restoration of every individual lapsed Being, be stronger and more irresistible Evidences and Representations of his infinite Penetration, (so to speak) Benevolence and Power; then it must be acknowledged; that, through all his Works, there runs one perpetual Progression, one continual Analogy, and uninterrupted Harmony, of his own Nature, Wisdom and Power; and that as Proportion is the Medium, and true Logic of material Natures and Beings, so Analogy is the true Key and Analysis of spiritual Natures and Qualities; and as the Data of the first is in Sensation, or the Notices from our Senses, or accurate Experiment: so the Data of the last is in Attention and Reflexion upon our own spiritual Natures, and their Operations, and Experience of the Qualities, Sentiments and Passions of our own Hearts and Souls; and carrying these to as great a Height as possible. For I can conceive no clearer or more distinct Manner to give a Child or an ignorant Person an Idea (tho' low and imperfect) of the first Being, than to tell him He is like the Soul or living Nature, of the best and most amiable Person he ever knew, infinitely exalted, without his Imperfections; but who has Life and Being from Himself only: whereas all his Creatures are Emanations from Him, and the Works of his Power: And what is this, but a true Analogy? Just such a one, as when we give an Infant or ignorant Person an Idea of the Sea, by shewing him the nearest great Lake, and telling him that the Sea is of the same Nature, but vastly bigger.

§. 19. IT is plain from the natural, civil, and sacred History of the whole human Race, from the visible and perceptible State of our Globe, its surrounding Atmosphere, kindred Planets, and their Influences upon ours; that Pain, Suffering and Misery, is as natural and necessary to us here in this present State, as Existence is. It is utterly unavoidable but in Degree; none ever lived, but felt it it some Kind or Degree or other. The Extreme Tenderness and Delicacy of our lumbaginous and spermatic State, subject us to the Distempers and Sufferings arising from the Indiscretions and bodily Diseases of our Parents: The Weakness and Helplessness of Childhood and Infancy, expose us to innumerable Accidents and Distempers. The imprudent and improper Nourishment in Quantity or Quality, given us by our Mothers or Nurses, bring naturally on us Suffering and Misery: The Grossness, Coarseness, and Inclemency of the Element we live and breathe in, mechanically infects us with its noxious and deleterious Qualities: Ignorance, bad Example, contagious Custom, and popular Errors and Prejudices continue the Hazards and Dangers of Childhood. Strong Passions and Appetites, a wrong Turn of Head or Heart, a corrupt and degenerate Age, strengthen and confirm our Miseries and Misfortunes in Youthhood: Disappointments, Misfortunes, Cares, Want of, or the bad Usage of the Necessaries and Conveniencies of Life, Luxury or Intemperance, Famine or Scarcity, Epidemical Diseases, or unforeseen Accidents, one or other, or perhaps all together, make the Complexion of Manhood: And old Age (the Cardinal Disease of human Life) finishes the dark Scene of human Misery with perpetual Aches, Sores and Infirmities of Body and Mind; a more sensible Dotage and Childhood, a Taedium Vitae, with a Desire of Dissolution, which is yet accompanied with a terrible Dread of it; all these conclude this Climax and Progression of Misery; through which the very best and wisest, that lasts out the natural Duration of Life, must pass, for his Punishment, Expiation, and Purification; not to mention the Remorse and internal Crucifixion of those who feel a Law in their Members warring against the Law of their Minds in a perpetual Strife and Conflict. It is only in and through the Oeconomy of the Restoration, by the Knowledge of the Gospel, that these natural, necessary and unavoidable Pains, Punishments and Miseries, can be turned, may be reckoned, and are really Mercies, Blessings, fatherly Corrections, lose their Stings, and become Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost.

§. 20. PAIN, Punishment, and Suffering then would seem to be a natural, necessary and (as it were) a mechanical Mean of Expiation, Purification and Perfection, to all sentient and intelligent Beings, in this present State of Existence: which Virtue, Attention and Care can only lessen, but which none can totally, but only in a small Degree, avoid, if not by and through the Means just now mentioned. As rubbing hard Bodies against one another, is the only Method to polish and finish them; and the harder and longer the Friction, the finer the Polish, and the more perfect the Figure; so Pain, in sentient and intelligent Beings, arises from Resistance to Action, or from Re-action, which in spiritual as well as material Agency, is always equal and contrary to Action. Sentient Beings naturally, necessarily, and, as it were, mechanically, recede from, and exert a Principle of Resistance and Re-action to the Cause of Pain; intelligent Beings, caeteris paribus, necessarily fly from it with greater Velocity, from the united Force of Sensation and Reflection. Sensation and Perception begin the Aversion and Reluctance to the Cause or Occasion of Pain, and Reflection turns it into an Abhorrence and Detestation.

§. 21. CONSCIOUSNESS of the Reasons and Effects, seems in no wise absolutely necessary towards Purification in general, at least towards the first Degrees of it, as we see in Brutes, Children and Ideots. Pain and Punishment in such a Degree, and often repeated, will naturally bring them to abstain from that, for which they suffer. Consciousness of the End and Design of it seems only necessary to accelerate, perfect and turn into a Habit, the Aversion and Abhorrence of what has caused Pain, and to strengthen that Habit into a second Nature; as Wood is made streight, first by softening it by Fire, and then keeping it by Cords and Weights in a Situation contrary to its Curvature. Pain and Punishment soften and melt down the Subject, Consciousness fixes and hardens it, and gives it an habitual contrary Nature. Consciousness attends single Acts only, and not Habits; when the Habit is perfected, Consciousness vanishes and dies away (as a perfect Musician, while playing on an Instrument, reflects not on single Strokes distinctly) so that Consciousness seems necessary as a Check or Bar, to prevent Relapses; and seldom takes place till the End and Design of Punishment is in some Degree obtained.

§. 22. FROM what has been said, it is evident that this our Planet and its Appendages, is really and literally a Prison or Gaol, a Place of Banishment, of Pains and Punishment for a certain Period of Time, to lapsed sentient and intelligent Beings: like Siberia among the Ruffians, the Bastille or the Pierre incise with the French, or the Plantations or Newgate among us. And the Inhabitants of both Kinds, sentient and intelligent, are, without a Figure: Prisoners, Slaves, and Felons, under a State of Expiation and Purification. Our whole Creation, our intire System, in regard to our defaced and spoilt Planet, labours like Slaves at the Oar, is in Travail, in a perpetual Fermentation and Effervescence, as in a malignant Fever, working for a Crise and Delivery. Some Individuals may be delivered sooner, some later, according as their Expiation and Purification is perfected; and at last the whole System, and all its Inhabitants, must naturally and necessarily, but harmoniously or analogically, and according to general Laws, undergo some great and violent Crise, and an universal Gaol-Delivery will be brought about; but when and how this will be accomplished, is beyond Conjecture; a Thousand Years are but as a Day here, and the Ways of the Almighty are past finding out. It would seem as if the only Problem, or Difficulty, (to speak so in regard to Omnipotence, where no real Difficulty can happen) worthy of infinite Wisdom to solve, were to recover, perfect and establish in perpetual and unrelapsing Order and Purity, free and lapsed intelligent Beings, consistent with the Harmony of his own Attributes, and the natural Powers with which he has endued them. How infinite Wisdom and Power will bring this about, we can only conjecture in a few general Hints, from such of his general Laws as are obvious, from final Causes, which are plain, and must include some Part of the Ends in rational Agency; and from dark Sketches of the Analogy of Things: not impossibly thus.

§. 23. AN infinitely wise, good and powerful Being having created this System, we cannot suppose, but it must have been as perfect and blissful, as its Nature could admit, and his sentient, intelligent Creatures as happy, as their Natures and Order could allow; and that he must have furnished them with Means and Power to perpetuate, if not increase, this Perfection and Happiness. But from the very Nature and Essence of Liberty; whoever has a Power to continue or increase in a State, must also have a Power to fall back or decrease; whatever is finite, must necessarily be fallible. Now suppose such finite fallible Beings actually lapsed: the same wise and good Being must have ordered Things so, not only that they should recover and rise again, but that their Fall and Lapse should at last be a Mean, not only to strengthen, confirm and fix them in Happiness ever after, (and this seems the only Mean, by which fallible free lapsed Creatures, once actually fallen, could be brought to an illapsing State of Stability) but even to increase the Degree of their Happiness and Perfection; and this, I think, would not only be the full and plenary Solution of this infinitely difficult Problem, but one worthy of its all-wise and all-powerful Author only; and this he has effected, I think, by these three Expedients or Means. 1. By continuing general Laws of Agency in material, moral and spiritual Actions, plainly intimating, that the Concurrence of the same Causes and Conditions will always produce the same Effects; and so leaving Room for Consideration, Amendment, Improvment, Choice, and the Discernment of moral Good and Evil, and thus securing Liberty and the other natural Powers of lapsed Intelligences. 2. By tying down, sopiting and suspending the natural Powers of the Soul for so long a Time, as is its Duration from the first original Male, till the Bonds and Chains, by which their Exertion is restrained, be broken and untyed by Death. That during this Time, the Benefit acquired by the progressive Parentage (if they happen to return to Order and Habits of Virtue, or have their moral Powers recovered) may operate on these infinitesimal Miniatures; by mending their Natures, that they themselves may have time given to recover into Order; and that the Interruption from the natural Powers arrived at their Perfection, might not prevent the Acquisition and Recovery of the Moral Powers. And, 3. By the Oeconomy of Redemption by a Saviour, which doubtless was projected before the Creation of the World, or this System, and when the proper Disposition to receive it, and to reap the Benefit of it, is acquired; and which may in some Time or Place, explicitly or implicitly, be revealed, to finish the Work of Restoration. But that not being my Province in a Philosophical Disquisition, I proceed.

§. 24. IT is the grossest Absurdity and Contradiction to suppose, that an infinitely wise and beneficent Being would make either sentient or intelligent Beings suffer, merely for Suffering's Sake. He must have had just, good and kind Reasons for this his strange Work. And since it is certain, that both sentient and intelligent Beings do and must unavoidably suffer, and are in a State of Punishment, Misery and Banishment here; it necessarily follows, that they are in a State of Expiation, Purification and progressive Perfection, in their respective Orders; and will at last be set free, made happy, and perfected, and confirmed in that State for ever. Omnipotence surely can, and infinite Goodness, I hope, will do all this.

§. 25. IF all is not Deceit and Illusion, it must be evident to a Demonstration, that nothing imperfect or unhappy in its Order can come out of the Hands of infinite Perfection; and yet it is Fact, that all sentient and intelligent Beings here, are universally more or less, miserable and imperfect; and that there never was any human Creature, in his right Senses, which in a whole Duration of human Life, felt not, and thought not himself unhappy, miserable and imperfect, at least, for some time, if not for the most of his rational Life: and wish'd not himself earnestly, better, wiser, more perfect, and happy. It is impossible, that infinite Wisdom and Goodness, can punish sentient and intelligent Creatures, or make them miserable, but for some wise and beneficent End and Purpose; from whence it will be evident to a rational Person, that of necessity there must have been a State of Existence prior to this present: wherein all those sentient and intelligent Beings, while in a collective Mass, which have been, or shall be on this Globe, had misbehaved, rebell'd, and run into Disorder, probably, by idolatrising Creatures and Self, and preferring them to the Creator. And the Account of this Rebellion and Lapse in Revelation, may refer only to the last Scene or Act in the Tragedy, or the new modelling this secondary State or partially lapsed System, when the slightest Trial of Faith and Obedience was made; for certainly Nemo repentè fit turpissimus; finite Creatures can naturally acquire Habits of Virtue and Vice, or indeed of any kind, only by Degrees, or single Acts repeated. Certain Consciousness, or clear distinct Knowledge of this pre-existent State, would only feed idle Curiosity; and might hinder and counter-act that implicit Trust, Dependence and absolute Resignation in every Thing, so absolutely necessary to relative Perfection and Happiness. For the Point in View of infinite Perfection, is to bring all the finite sentient and intelligent Creatures to an absolute voluntary Surrendry, and Trust of themselves, and every Thing relating to them in Time and Eternity, to his Will and Pleasure implicitly; nothing less being sufficient to establish and perpetuate the Divine Sovereignty, harmonise his Attributes, and eternise the Peace, Happiness and relative Perfection of universal Nature; which different Willing would eternally confound and perplex anew, and bring on a second, or perpetuate the present Lapse.

§. 26. IT is not impossible, that there are other States, Mansions, and probatory Celestial Regions, proper and peculiar to the several imperfect Degrees of the moral Faculties of spiritual Intelligences, with their Creation-Bodies or Vehicles, according to the several remaining Degrees of Imperfection, even almost in infinitum, in an ascending or descending Progression. Infinite Wisdom and Goodness may have appointed, in general, a certain limited Period, beyond which the Incrustation of their Creation-Bodies cannot last, things being in such a State: But the actual Approach may be quicker or slower, according to certain Terms and Conditions: which we know to be the Case of our present mortal Tabernacles; and according to the bad or good Usage of our Liberties in the Use of the Means afforded us for acquiring the moral Virtues, and affixing the moral Powers in confirm'd Habits; we may ascend into more pure, more happy, and more perfect Regions, or descend into more gross, miserable and dark Dungeons, almost in infinitum. But it would also seem, that sentient and intelligent Creatures could suffer Pain and Misery only to a certain finite and limited Degree, (tho' the Time may be eternal, all Spirits being immortal by Nature) all the Activities and Passivities of such Beings being necessarily finite and limited; and when they come to that Point, they must necessarily return, wish for Deliverance, cry for Mercy, Pity and Freedom, and endeavour it with the whole natural Powers of their Spirits; and to this Point only, it would seem, an infinitely wise, beneficent and powerful Being can intend to bring his lapsed, wandering miniature Creatures now under the Gospel; and that he should be ready to receive them into Mercy, and allow them the Means for restoring and recovering their lapsed moral Powers. But how long Time it may require to bring them to this absolutely necessary Point, no Reason or Philosophy (whether an Indefinite, that is, a creaturely or relatively infinite Time) can determine; and Revelation has not made it plain and explicit, but on the contrary has left it not only dubious, but seems to point otherwise; to be sure not before all are brought to this indispensable Point of Returning. The Oeconomy, Satisfaction and Sufferings of the God-Man Jesus Christ, could be only sufficient to render that Expiation, and Restoration of the moral Power in a finite Time, which, in its own Nature, and the Nature of God and of his Purity, must have been Infinite and Eternal. The repairing the Indignity and Affront done to his Sovereignty and Purity, and the deterring his other standing Creatures from Lapse and Rebellion, is not perhaps left in their Power to prevent; that may be done by the necessary and unavoidable Pains and Sufferings they must undergo, from the painful and leprous Incrustation of the several Elements they must pass through; their returning into Order, their Acquisition of the moral Powers of the Soul, and fixing them in these, and consequently in permanent Happiness, intirely depends on themselves, and the Use of the Means afforded.

§. 27. IT is no easy Matter to form any precise limited Idea or Notion of Substance either Material or Spiritual; all we certainly know of either, is, that they exist, are Realities, and are the Base or Subject of real Qualities. But we can no more penetrat into the Substratum or Support of these Qualities, by the natural Activity of our Spirits, than our Eyes can see Objects at a certain Distance; such is the Nature, Frame and Limitation of our Order and Rank of natural Powers. We certainly know that material Substance is the Substratum of Extension, Impenetrability, Passivity and Figure; and spiritual Substance, of living, perceiving and willing, that is, of Cogitation or Thinking, and also of beginning Motion in Bodies, and giving them a particular Direction. The Aggregate, or Sum of all these respective Qualities (most of which are contrary to the others) may be bound together or united by some Bond of Union, which we shall never have any direct or immediate Conception of, till we throw off this material Incrustation, that intangles and fetters the full Exercise and Penetration of our natural Powers. And therefore, if we dropt both Substances, as unknown and unknowable Things at present, or rather, if we suppos'd both only mere Capacities, Recipients, Canals or passive Subjects of contrary Qualities, as they flow, or are deriv'd from the primary Source and self-existent Cause of all Activity, Qualities and Realities, whose whole End and Use (of these Capacities) was to receive and contain these Qualities, limiting, contrary, and destructive of each other respectively; or, lastly, if, as Geometers use the Method, we make the one Positive, the other Negative; this way of considering this dark Subject might, perhaps, throw some Light on it: And then imagin'd that Matter or Body was analogous to (but yet no-wise the same with, but quite contrary, tho' not contradictory) to Spirit infinitely condens'd, concentred or incrassated: And that spiritual Substance was analogous to Matter infinitely rarefied, refin'd or sublim'd: Then, in the Geometrical Manner of considering such respective Qualities and their Subject, Body infinitely rarefied, refin'd and sublim'd, would at last terminat in limited Space or Expansion; and limited Space or Expansion infinitely condens'd, contracted and inspissated, would end in solid indivisible Points or Monads, the common Idea of the component Particles of Body. And yet that Body should be rarefied into Space, or Space condens'd into Body, is an absolute Contradiction and Impossibility; only this Manner in which Geometers consider infinitely little, or infinitely great Quantities, is here suggested, as an Illustration of material and spiritual Substance, so difficult to be explain'd. But we not being able to conceive or comprehend Infinitude, or infinite Agency, its Effects and Consequences, it may, perhaps, be said, that this is only explaining one Obscurity by a greater. It may be so: All then we are absolutely certain of is, that these essential Qualities of Matter and Spirit respectively, viz. in Matter, Extension, Impenetrability, Divisibility, Mobility, Passivity and Figure; and in Spirit, Living, Perceiving, Willing, Self-activity, Self-mobility, and the Power of beginning Motion, and giving Direction to Bodies; must necessarily be uniform, and always the same in Degree, whatever State or Circumstances they may be in. These respective Substances are always in their own Nature and Essence so contrary and destructive of one another in their Qualities, that they become a perpetual Bar, Obstruction and Obstacle to the Exertion of these their essential Qualities. They are not indeed contradictory or destructive of one another's Qualities in every Degree; they are not incompatible and unallyable (as we know by Fact); but they are contrary; and one Degree of the Qualities of the one, destroys a relative, equal or proportional Degree of the Qualities of the other; and the Sum total of these Qualities in the one, destroys the Sum total of the Qualities of the other, equally or proportionally, like Light and Darkness; and an infinite Degree of the one may sopite or totally obstruct the sensible Actions of the other, tho' not annihilat or absolutely destroy the other in its Root or Nature. But Infinitude being above our Capacities, we can only speak of the Effects of their Contrariety and Opposition in their finite Degrees, and pronounce nothing of the Effects of infinite Operations; only we are certain, that no less than an infinite Power and Operation in the one, can totally extinguish and annihilat the Nature and Operations of the other; Reaction being always contrary and equal to Action. We may have a fine Illustration and analogous Resemblance of this infinite contrarv Action, from the Nature of an infinite converging Series; in which from the next immediate Step in the Progression, by passing through infinitely little of that Order, the Terms from positive become negative; and likewise, from some Particles of Matter, which after having got without their Sphere, from attractive become repulsive, in respect to a particular Centre; these Hints are far from an affirming, or any Endeavour to prove, that Matter is only infinitely condens'd Spirit, and Spirit only infinitely refin'd Matter, as to their several Substances: For the Fact I think false, impossible and contradictory; for Matter, however refin'd and sublim'd, is still Matter, and has the opposite Qualities to Spirit, and have their essential Qualities in direct Contrariety; and were it otherwise, in this Manner of illustrating the Subject, the Proof were absolutely impossible; because the Effects of infinite Power and Agency are known and knowable by Him only, whose Attributes are infinite Power and Might. If the Proposition and Effect was true and real, no finite Agency could effect it, nor finite Understanding evince it: But these Instances are adduc'd only as an Illustration, to remove the seeming shocking Absurdity and Terror, in most good Persons Minds, from affirming any Resemblance or Analogy between material and spiritual Substances; for these evidently shew, that similar and analogous Effects are Realities in the Nature of Things, tho' their Manner and Process be inconceiveable to us finite Beings; and also, as much as in me lies, to take off any Mistakes and Misapprehension, as if I advanc'd any thing in the Philosophic Explication of these Mysteries of Nature, inconsistent with Revelation or Religion, as the Reverend Dr. Brown Bishop of Cork has done in his Divine Analogy; not fully having understood my Manner of explaining the Subject, or perhaps I had not made my Meaning sufficiently clear and plain; as the Subject is in itself almost inexplicable, and ought to be guarded with all possible Precision, if at all handled.

§. 28. IN my poor Way of conceiving and conjecturing, from the obvious Appearances in Nature subjected to Sense; from the final Causes the Supreme Rational Being may possibly have in such external Operations; from the Analogy carried from the Things that are seen, to those that are invisible, and only intelligible; the most probable and satisfactory Account that can be found of the Oeconomy and Plan of the Restoration of finite lapsed Intelligences, seems to be this, at least these may possibly be some of the prominent Lines of this Plan: Some finite free Intelligences of the several Orders in the living Hierarchies having by the Abuse of their Liberty, and committing Idolatry, by too inordinate Commerce with the Creatures, and habitually turning away from their Source the Creator, destroyed and cancell'd the moral Powers of their spiritual Natures: Infinite Wisdom and Power, by the Necessity of his beneficent Nature, employing the whole Force of his Omnipotence and Omniscience, to restore and recover them, without committing Violence on their natural Powers, or on the Harmony of his own Attributes; first ties down and contracts their natural Powers with Chains of gross Matter, from a (purposely, or mechanically) ruin'd and defac'd Elementary Globe, such as our present Habitation is; Chains, which the natural Powers of the Spirit are necessarily obliged to endeavour to be unloosing all the Time, from the original Creation of this gross Body; during which Time, Means, Opportunity and Leisure is allow'd, for the Acquisition and Restoration of the moral Powers: As Felons and Robbers are tam'd and mended by working in the Mines, and tugging at the Oar. By the Toil, Labour and Suffering, from this working off, and melting down the gross and leprous Plaister, superinduc'd on the primitive Creation-Body, by fileing, purifying and breaking these Chains which fetter the Activity and free Agency of the natural Powers of the Soul, on this Creation-Body. First, Reparation, and an Amende honorable is made to infinite Purity and Sovereignty; and the bad Example to other Intelligences, remov'd: And in the mean time, outward and inward Means may be offer'd and bestow'd, by external Providences, suprahumane and imperceptible Aid and Grace, and the Light and internal Operation of the Divine Word and Reason, the Messiah, for recovering the defac'd moral Powers of the Soul. Some are under this Operation a shorter, some a longer Time, according to the Wisdom and Designs of the Sovereign Reason, and the Mansion they are to fill in the new Jerusalem, even till the last Scene, which in the Nature of gross corruptible Matter can last but a finite Time, either in the Nature of the Elementary Planet itself, with its Appendages, or in the Incrustation on the primitive Creation-Bodies made of this elementary Matter; which must crumble and dissolve into Dust within certain Limits of Time, by the establish'd Law of Nature; the first, possibly, from the Expence and Fixation of Water, as Sir Isaac Newton insinuates, and the other necessary Fluids; the others for want of Nutrition and Chylification, and both by Natural and general Laws, but still within certain Limits less than real infinite. But both must at last be perfectly purified; the Earth and its Appendages, possibly, by an universal Conflagration; the particular gross Plaistering, by being dissolv'd into its original Dust, that the primitive Creation Body may be disincumber'd, and made supple and pliable to obey the Dictates of the informing immaterial Spirit; and the Spirit, by the Acquisition and habitual fixing of the Moral Powers. For there cannot be a more certain and indubitable Truth, than that nothing imperfect in its Order could come out of the Hands of infinite Perfection; and that nothing impure or imperfect in its Order, can return to live and commerciate with, or be united to God perfectly, finally and immutably.

§. 29. This Infinitesimal Particle of Celestial Matter, this Miniature of a Miniature in infinitum, decreasing in a continued analogical Progress, and stor'd up in the Seeds of all Animals and Vegetables, from the first to the last Animal and Vegetable; this divinely organis'd Vehicle or Corpuscle, in which the immaterial Principle was inspir'd in its Creation, and to which it is so intimately united by a particular Law of Union, and an individual Fitness and Congruity, is inseparable from it in all its future States and Circumstances of Duration, at least by any Degree of Force less than infinite. The immaterial Spirit, the Spiritual Inhabitant of this Celestial Vehicle, is in its own Nature immortal and imperishable, being an infinitesimal Miniature of the Divine Nature and Substance, which is Self-existent. I say then, the Spirit, the immaterial Substance, that informs this aethereal Creation Body, is of its own Nature immortal and imperishable; but the material Vehicle, tho' of a refin'd and aethereal Substance, is only eternal by the Divine Order and Appointment, and comparatively in respect of other grosser and more dense Compounds, of which Time and Use may alter the Form, tho' not destroy the Substance; and perhaps their Perpetuity may be continued by a divine primary, or secondary spiritual Influence, from both these immortal Principles. I am sensible, these strong Figures may be expos'd to Ridicule, and interpreted profanely, by light Persons; but when they understand, and can explain with Precision, what the Force of Infinitude (small or great) is, their Raillery and Levity may be tolerable; such, of Necessity, must be the Language, when we attempt to express perceptible only, and spiritual Things. I hope I have a due Sense of the Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature and Spiritual Things, not to expose them maliciously and designedly to Contempt and Ridicule. My whole Design is to help honest and sincere Persons to some Ideal Knowledge, (which at best is but a poor Affair) that may possibly comfort and mend the Heart, without hurting the Head.

§. 30. IF there is any Verisimilitude or Consistency in this Sketch, it will follow from it, that the lighter and thinner (while sweet and healthy) the Crust and Plaister from this elementary System, that is laid over this Creation Body, the more the natural Powers of the Spirit will be at Liberty to exert their Functions, and acquire the moral ones; the Sufferings and Miseries of the present State of our Existence will be fewer and less intense, and the total Disengagement of the Spiritual Inhabitant from its Prison and Load, will be more easy and perfect; and we shall shake off our Chains and Fetters, as we do our Cloaths to go to Bed. The universal Law of Nature, for every sentient and intelligent Being, that is brought on this elementary Planet, is, first, to have its spiritual and its celestial Body tied down, and concentred by Chains and Fetters of this Element, into a Miniature of a Miniature, then into a Punctum Saliens, and at last into a sensible elementary Body: During all this Time, the spiritual Nature is working, like a Slave in the Mines, or at the Oar, to extend this celestial Body to its original analogous Figure and Dimensions, by breaking all its elementary Fetters; while yet at the same time it is crusting over more densely the primitive celestial Body by Nutrition, and the animal Functions with a gross leprous Plaister; when the Creation Body is intirely develop'd, by giving a Facility to its Organs of all kinds, by Culture and Use in their several Ways, its intellectual Faculties get Power and Liberty to exert themselves; during which Time the Acquisition of the moral Powers may and ought to take Place, and by Degrees, and in a nearly determinable Period, this Plaister dries, hardens, and at last crumbles into Dust; and then the Spirit with the celestial Body, if but partially purified, passes into other States, Elements, and Mansions, as its Degree of moral Virtue, or Acquisition of moral Powers require.

§. 31. FROM this Representation of the State and Progress of sentient and intelligent Beings in Spirit and Body, during their Banishment to this ruinous Planet; it follows, that the Root, Faculty and Capacity of the Spirit, or its natural Powers, continue potentially and radically the same; or that living, perceiving, and willing, as to their Essence, Power and Capacity, are in all States radically and invariably the same; tho' their Exercise, Acts and Exertion be restrain'd and sopited by gross Matter. Whoever considers the invariable Nature of spirit, must be convinc'd, that its giving Motions, with their several Modifications, must always radically and potentially be the same, and uniform, however their Acts may be suspended, sopited, or destroyed by gross Matter, and the Im-mechanism of Bodies; and that all the Functions of the Body, all its voluntary and involuntary Motions, all its living and vital Actions, all its internal and external Operations, all its Sensations, Passions and Willings, that depend on the Body, are all but Cogitation, or Thinking, in some Degree or other, and its several Modifications, as really, as intense, fullgrown Thinking, with Reflexion, or Meditation, is; in a Word, that the Soul, Spirit, or living Principle, is really the true and only intelligent Being, and the Body only is its Organ, Instrument or Tool, and but a passive Adjunct of the living Intelligence; and consequently, that, 1. our acquir'd Knowledge is but Remembrance; 2. that a moral Sense and Faculty; 3. that innate Ideas of God and Virtue, of moral Good and Evil; That, 4. spiritual Sensation and spiritual Senses; and that, 5. the Soul uses material Organs (tho' not of gross Matter only) in all its Operations, all these are as much Philosophical Realities (however ridiculed and exposed by ignorant Persons) as the same Things are, when sensibly and outwardly transacted on our finish'd and perfect external Senses; and that, 6. All our Culture, Study and Labour, to acquire Sciences and Knowledge, or to perfect our natural Powers, terminat only in fileing off, melting away, and scraping down, those Chains, and Crust superinduced upon them; and are only removing Superfluities, reducing Excrescences, and rendering the gross Patchwork superinduced on our spiritual Body, pliant, supple and correspondent, with the least Resistance to it; that the Creation Body may be at Liberty to extend and disincumber itself: And, Lastly, That the shortest and readiest Way to true and solid Knowledge, is to endeavour with the utmost Vigour, and strongest Effects of our spiritual Nature, to recover and acquire the moral Powers of the Soul defac'd and cancelled by the Lapse, viz. Justice, Goodness and Truth; or, in the Revelation Language, Faith, Hope, and Charity; to which these will be found, when justly explained, intirely analogous and consonant; for it could only be to allow Time and Uninterruption from the natural Powers, had they been always in their full Extent and Force, that they have been thus ty'd down, and sopited; so that now they can only rise and extend in Proportion, as the moral Powers are acquired.

§. 32. THE Activity, Sensibility and Penetration, the voluntary and involuntary Motions of this our Elementary Body, the animal Functions, the more material Acts of Thinking and Cogitation, such as Sensation, Memory, Imagination, Attention, &c. are all radically and primarily perform'd, by the Self-action and Self-motion of the immaterial Spirit, on this Creation-aethereal Body principally; as Sulphureous Inflammations raise Mountains, and as Springs, and Weights move Clock-works; with this notable Difference, that the first has an internal, immortal Spring of Self-action, the other only a temporary and transitory one. Perhaps, for Example, towards voluntary and involuntary Motion, or towards the Exertion of the animal Functions; I say, perhaps, there may not be wanted any foreign, independent and perplex'd subtile Fluid, of whatever Nature; if the animal Appearances and Functions can be more simply, as clearly and fully explained, by the Action of a self-active and self-motive spiritual Substance, informing and influencing a fitly and divinely organized aethereal Body, and thereby immediately impressing its Action and Energy on the gross earthly Plaister laid over it. A true spiritual Substance, of the very lowest Order, must necessarily have in itself a Spring of Self-action, a Principle and Faculty of Self-motion, from its own internal Nature and Essence. I can have no Notion of a spiritual Substance, that has not a Power of beginning and impressing Motion on Matter or Body fitly disposed; there seems no Distinction so essential between Spirit and Body, as Activity and Passivity; 'tis true this Activity in created spiritual Substances is finite and limited, and may be further restrained by gross Matter to any Degree; but it will be always sufficient to begin and impress Motion on Body, so long as the Inertia of Body is not greater, than the Self-activity of such an Order of spiritual Substances, else it could not in any Sense be called self-active. And to produce muscular Motion, and the animal Functions and Appearances, there may be nothing more necessary, than Self-activity, and Self-mobility, in a greater or lesser Degree; and divine Organisation, Fitness, and not insuperable Resistance, or rather a ready Facility, in the primitive aethereal Vehicle, which may overcome the Load of Plaister and Rust laid over it: I say, perhaps, this may be sufficient to account fully for all the animal Appearances; a foreign subtile Fluid may be necessary to explain the Appearances of inanimated Matter; but seems here superfluous, and looks perplex'd and operose, and unlike the Operations of the God of Nature, which are always from easy and simple Causes, and by one such Cause produce various and beautiful Effects. And I think there is scarce accounting for the infinitely different Degrees of Sensibility, the Degrees of Stature and Growth, and the Degrees of Penetration, and of quick and slow Thinking, Memory and Solidity, both in sentient and intelligent Animals, without allowing the Plaistering and Soder, on the Creation aethereal Body to sit lighter, thinner and less incumbring on some than on others, and the aethereal Organs to be more at Liberty in the vastly sensible and quick Thinkers and Feelers, than in the slow.

§. 33. IT would seem in this progressive State of Purification of lapsed sentient and intelligent Beings, that when one Crust or Plaister from the Element to which they are confined, is worn off, another may grow on, of the Nature of the Celestial or Terrestrial Mansion, which they inhabit, fitted to the Degree of the acquired moral Powers; and this in a continual Ascent or Descent, till the moral Powers are perfected and confirmed into Habits, and the aethereal or spiritual Body is purified and refined from all the Dross and Rust it had contracted; and then will be accomplished their last permanent and eternal State, suited to their Order.

§. 34. THE specific Law of Attraction, Fitness and Similarity of the Element or Planet, to the Degree of the moral Purity or Impurity in sentient and intelligent Beings, may as naturally and necessarily determin and attract them to this their specific Region or Mansion, as the Eggs of Insects, and Seeds of Plants scattered and blown by the Wind, are directed, drawn and adhere, by Electricity, to the Leaves of those Plants and Trees only, which are fittest and have the most proper Juices for their Adhesion, Incubation and Vivification, and for crusting them over, to defend their Delicacy and Sensibility while young and tender, from such Injuries as would put an End to Life. For a Law of Attraction, Fitness and Similarity will be found to hold good, either simply or in some kind of Proportion, or analogically, through all Creation, as well in Spirits, as in Bodies, in the natural, moral and celestial Worlds, till the first and supreme Being become locally and finally All in all, and that All be in him with Perfection and analogous Similarity in their several Natures, as the Fish, or Rivers are in the Sea, and that he acts and influences, and gives Perfection and Happiness to all Things He has made.

CONCLUSION.

THIS rude and unfinished Sketch may possibly be thought by some, an imaginary and enthusiastical Romance, and so perhaps it may be. It is innocent, if a Fable; and if thought otherwise, by proper and competent Judges, I should renouce and disclaim it. But on the most intense, anxious and mature Observations and Reflexions on universal Nature, on allowing the Supreme Being to be a wise, good, powerful and rational Agent, admitting final Causes when they are obvious, and Analogy when plain and simple; the Outlines, and Ground-work of this System may be just and solid, however faulty the Detail and Execution may be. I can be answerable for nothing, but the Honesty of my Intention in it.

END of the FIRST DISCOURSE.

DISCOURSE II. Philisophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE Preference of VEGETABLE TO ANIMAL FOOD: AND OF THE End and Design of PROVIDENCE, IN Appointing the FIRST, AND, ON TRIAL, Permitting the LATTER.
DISCOURSE II.
Philosophical CONJECTURES ABOUT THE Preference of VEGETABLE TO ANIMAL FOOD: AND OF THE End and Design of PROVIDENCE, in Appointing the First, and, on Trial, Permitting the Latter.

Gen. i. 29. ‘And God said, Behold, I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, which is upon the Face of all the Earth, and every Tree, in which is the Fruit of the Tree yielding Seed, to you it shall be given for Meat.’ Gen. ix. 3. ‘Every living thing that moveth, shall be Meat for you; even as the green Herb have I given you all things.’ Ver. 4. ‘But Flesh with the Life thereof, which is the Blood thereof, you shall not eat.’

§. 1. IT is certain that by our Make, by the Frame of our Organs, we are now fitted as for Vegetable, so for Animal Food. The Form of some of our Teeth, the Liver, the Pancreas, and many other of our internal Bowels and conglomerate Glands, seem primarily and chiefly designed and fitted to antidote the Mischiefs arising from animal Food, and fermented Liquors, at least for some Time, and in the Days of our Youth and Vigour: For certainly, a Part of the Designs of any intelligent Agent may be known by Analogy justly drawn, and by final Causes, and is the best Evidence finite and lapsed Creatures seem capable of receiving, in the Designs and Contrivances of the Creator, till they come to converse with him Face to Face. They may be mistaken in them, as well as in every other kind of Evidence, being finite, lapsed, and consequently fallible Creatures: But this seems to be the only Evidence they are capable of at present in such Matters; and may shew evidently the Design of the Author of Nature, as a convex Screw of any Number of Spires, shews, that it was design'd to fit some concave one of the same Number of Spires and Diameter. Chance is only a technical Word, to denote our Ignorance of the true and physical Cause of Order and Design; and yet admitting the Existence of Chance, that through the whole human Race there should have been, in the infinite Number of their Organs, a perfect Similarity by Chance only, and not Design, may, by a fair Calculation, be shewn to be as infinite to finite, that is mathematically impossible. But the Question I design to treat of here, is, Whether Animal or Vegetable Food was, in the original Design of the Creator, intended for the Food of Animals, and particularly of the human Race? And I am almost convinced it never was intended, but only permitted, as a Curse or Punishment, and a Cure for a Malady, or (as the French term it) a pis-alle, and because infinite Wisdom and Power could make no more of his corrupted rebellious free Creatures in their present State; and for this infinitely wise and paternal End, He seems to have permitted it; 1. To let them feel and experience the natural and necessary Effects of their own Lusts and Concupiscence, by painful and cruel Distempers: Feeling and Experience being the surest Means by which a finite lapsed Creature can know and learn. 2. To shorten the Duration of their natural Lives, that Sin, Misery, and Rebellion, might not increase infinitely. 3. To produce naturally, and in a Manner consistent with Liberty, and the other natural Powers of the Soul, (which being deriv'd from Him, and being his Miniature Images, He neither could nor would force or destroy) those Sufferings and Miseries, and Dislike of inordinate Lusts and Enjoyments, that might make them think, ponder, and return to Order, Love of Virtue, and its source and Original. And, 4. To sink and contract the natural Powers of the Soul, (viz. Living, Understanding, and Will), by means of such frail Bodies, into a Level with the decayed and lapsed moral Ones, (viz. Justice, Goodness, and Truth) which by this Rebellion were greatly corrupted and degraded. The Reasons that incline me to think in this Manner, are these following:

§. 2. 1. WHATEVER be the true, primogenial, and last Principle of Bodies, beyond which it is impossible to analyse or divide them, these are incontestably found in all animal and vegetable Bodies, as has been before observ'd: 1. Sulphur, Oil or material Heat, from whence Spirit and Activity. 2. Salt, or hard angular Particles highly attractive, and dissolvable in Water. 3. Air, or small elastic Particles. 4. Water or Phlegm, from whence alone Fluidity: And, lastly, Earth, the Base and Substratum of these others. In the due and proportional Union of these, do the Variety and Difference of animal Substances consist. Now it is past all Doubt in Philosophy, and in philosophical Chemy, that animal Substances of most kinds, possess in a much greater Proportion the two first of these Principles, viz. Salts and Oils, than Vegetables, which partake more of the last, viz. Air, Water, and Earth. But from many undeniable Experiments, the two first Principles are known to be the most active, energic, and deleterious, and tend more, by their Activity, to the Division, Dissolution and Destruction of the Subject, than those others, when they enter in any great Proportion. 2. The Jelly, the Juice or Chyle of animal Substances, is infinitely more tenacious and glewy [*], and its last Particles more closely united, and separated with greater Difficulty, than those of vegetable Substances. This is evident from the Experiments made with them in joining of Wood, and is known to all Artificers, and may be made manifest to the Senses in the Difference between the Tenacity of Camp-jelly, or Fish-glew, and that of Paste made of Flower or Barley; or from the Strength of Ropes or Cords made of Cat-gut or Leather, and those made of Tow or Hemp, of the same Diameter: And therefore animal Food must much sooner, more strongly, and irremediably make Viscidities in animal Fluids, and more schirrously obstruct the Capillaries and Glands, than vegetable Substances. 3. But the far more pernicious and destructive Part, is the Salts, and Oil, abounding more in most animal than in vegetable Substances; of which there are so many and convincing Demonstrations, that none can have any Doubt of it, that has the least Acquaintance with natural Philosophy: For our Blood and Juices being nourish'd and supply'd by such Substances, as abound most with these active elementary Principles, must necessarily be stored and saturated with Salts and Sulphurs; and these, being always in a State of Action, are the true, original, and the most adequate Causes of the most excruciating Distempers. 4. When to these, strong, fermented and spirituous Liquors are added as a Vehicle, or diluting Mixture, and join to the Salts and Sulphurs of animal Substances, not only their inflammable Spirits and tartarous Salts, but their condensing and hardening Quality on the Food in the Stomach, the Digestion is by that means hindered and stopped, and the Food not being sufficiently divided and comminuted, but broken only into gross Particles, does more quickly and obstinately thicken the Juices, and obstruct the Glands and Capillaries, than vegetable Substances. 5. Animal Juices and Substances, before they were turned into Flesh, must have been strain'd through infinitely smaller and more numerous Tubes, such as the last and extreme Capillaries are (some of which are not bigger than the six hundredth part of an Hair); by which Means their Particles must be render'd extremely smaller and finer, and consequently have a much greater Degree of Attraction, than those of Vegetables, which pass through fewer Strainers, and have no other motive Powers but the Heat of the Sun; whereas those of animal Substances have, besides the Sun, the Force of muscular Digestion, and of the Motion of the Heart; the Flesh of Animals, I say, must, upon this Account, necessarily consist of smaller Particles, and so be united with a greater Force, and endow'd with a greater Degree of Attraction, and consequently must, with far greater Difficulty, be digested and separated, than vegetable Substances possibly can. And hence it is that carnivorous Animals are much more deleterious Food, being endow'd with much finer and more pungent Salts and Sulphurs, than those Animals that live on Vegetables only, as both the higher Savour and deleterious Effects of the first abundantly shew. From all which it is plain to a Demonstration, that animal Substances must naturally and necessarily incrassate the Juices, and produce Obstructions in the Glands and Capillaries, and consequently create Pains and Diseases, much more readily than vegetable Substances. 6. It is plain by Weight, that the Substance of most animal Food is specifically heavier than that of most Vegetables commonly used for Food, sometimes in the Proportion of three to two. The Fibres and Juices of animal Bodies are not only more compact and closely united, and have fewer Vacuities than those of Vegetables, whereby the digestive Powers have less Difficulty in concocting and grinding equal Quantities of Vegetable than animal Food; but by the less Flavour and Savour of vegetable than animal Food, the Appetite is sooner satisfied, and is under less Temptation to Excess in the first than in the latter; and it is consequently better and sooner digested, circulated and secreted, especially by tender and delicate digestive Powers, and so cannot so readily cause Viscidities and Obstructions. Lastly, Infinite Experiment, and the best natural Philosophy, confirm to a Demonstration, that those Substances, which have least of Salt and Sulphur, of Spirit, Oil, and hard pungent Particles, and most of soft Earth, Water and Air, are the fittest to circulate, and be secreted through animal Tubes, create least Resistance to the motive Powers, tear, rend, and wear out the Tubes themselves least, and form less obstinate and powerful Obstructions, in the smaller Vessels; and consequently, that vegetable Substances, which consist of a less Proportion of Salts and Sulphurs, i. e. of pungent and fiery Particles, and of a greater Proportion of Earth, Water and Air, i. e. of less active and cooler Particles, will be less ready to create Diseases, and shorten Life, than an equal Quantity of animal Substances, which have all these in an inverted Proportion. In a Word, vegetable Substances are more rare, less compact, less coherent, more easily dissolvable and digestible, turn into a lighter Chyle, have less Salt, Oil, and Spirit, and consequently are less heating and inflaming, than animal Substances, and so obstruct and tear animal Tubes less.

§. 3. IF this Account be just and philosophical, and if it be lawful at all to enquire into final Causes, (which, if the first Being be rational and intelligent, and acts with Design, and for some End, is not only lawful, but laudable, when done with Modesty and Humility) then certainly one Part of his Design in permitting animal Food, must of Necessity have been to shorten the Duration of human Life, to create, or at least to permit us by it, to multiply and enrage Diseases, Misery and Sufferings; since it is evident to a Demonstration, that it must always produce this Effect, and will always have it preferable to vegetable Food; and whatever is, naturally and necessarily is, and is permitted by the first Being, we may with the utmost Certainty conclude, was at least one Part of his Design; and if Suffering, Pain and Misery here be necessary for our Purification and Recovery out of this degenerate State, then very probably that might be his Design in this Permission. This Phaenomenon in Providence, (the Permission and Use of animal Food) and Fact in Revelation, is not accountable any otherwise, than that Pain, Suffering and Diseases, being a natural and necessary Mean of Expiation and Purification, in the Oeconomy of Restoration, Infinite Wisdom permitted it, tho' unwillingly, as his strange Work, against the Grain, as it were, for that End solely; as a kind Father suffers his unnatural and perverse Son to be carried to Gaol, to suffer Hunger, Cold, Pain and Confinement there, as the only Mean to make him sober, considerate, wiser and better. For that animal Food and fermented Liquors will more readily, certainly, and cruelly, create and exasperate Diseases, Pains, and Sufferings, and sooner cut off Life than vegetable Food will, there can be no more Doubt than in any Proposition of Euclid, if Reason, Philosophy, the Natures of Things, or Experience, have Evidence, or Force in them; and it is very observable, that this Indulgence for animal Food was not granted, till the Aera of Longaevity was expir'd, or at least they took place together; and not till the spiritual Corruptions of Pride, Tyranny, Malice, Revenge, Murder, and brutal Commerce, so universally raged, that infinite Wisdom, to begin a new World, was forced to destroy, by a Deluge, the whole Race of Mankind, except a few of the most innocent and least deprav'd Individuals, such as they were, far from perfect, but the least bad of the Race: this seems so, if any Credit be given to the Jewish History of Nature.

§. 4. IT will be no Difficulty to one acquainted with Revelation, to find the like Permissions in the divine Oeconomy: Nothing is more plain and demonstrable from Nature, and its eternal Laws, and from Justice and Equity, than that in the original Intention, one Woman was design'd for one Man, and no more; for there being no Difference between the Sexes but in their outward Frame, and the Configuration of the Shell or Tabernacle; (their essential Nature and spiritual permanent Form being of the same Degree, constant and invariable; different Culture and Form makeing all the real Difference); infinite Wisdom might then, with the same Wisdom and Propriety, have given the Male, more Eyes, Stomachs or Heads, as more Wives; and yet, for the Hardness of their Hearts, God permitted Plurality of Women to the Jews. This same People, tho' they had not only God's general and imperceptible Providence, as we now have, for their Government and Direction, but his miraculous, sensible and visible Presence, to instruct and guide them, yet they wanted a King, as the other Nations had, and he gave them one in his Wrath. Infinite Goodness, intending always, by the whole Power of his Omnipotence and Omniscience, to restore his lapsed and rebellious Creatures, consistent with their Liberty, and the natural Powers he had given them, and the Harmony of his own Attributes, descends below his first Intention, and drops the primary and original Perfection of his Commands to them, for a Time, to condescend to their Weakness and Infirmity, in order afterwards to bring them up to it again. As a kind Father, who to wean his rash and giddy Child from the Fire, holds his Finger near a Candle, till he begets a sensible Fear and Dread in him of being too familiar with that dangerous Element.

§. 5. UPON the Foot of natural Religion only, and from the strict Rules of natural Justice and Equity, how any one can justify the taking away the Life of a Fellow-Creature, out of Wantonness, Luxury and Riot, and not from Necessity and Self-defence, so long as there may be found sufficient Store of vegetable Food to carry on the Expences of Living, and the more agreeable Performance of the animal Functions; to give a living Creature the greatest Pain it can possibly receive, and take from it the only Happiness it is capable of, viz. its Life, (which none can restore or recompense) merely to scratch callous Organs more sensibly; how, I say, to account for this barbarous and savage Wantonness on the foot of mere natural Religion and natural Equity only, without Revelation, I can by no means conceive. That the infinitely wise Author and Lawgiver of Nature, who sees through the whole System of Intelligences at once, and perfectly knows for what Ends and Purposes he has made them, and sent them here, and is the sole Proprietor of Life and Happiness, may dispose of them how he pleases, knows when they have finish'd their probatory and expiatory Course, and is able to recompense the Loss of a lower Life, by the Gift of a higher; for it is not impossible, the Animals may have been a lower Order of rational Intelligences, who, lapsing less, are sooner, and with less Suffering, recover'd; and since they suffer with us, they may be restor'd with us; the Apostle says, the whole Creation travelleth together; that is, probably, the whole System of Saturn, the Goal of God's Creation: For Him, I say, to give up the Lives of a lower Rank of Beings, for the Expiation, Instruction, or Admonition, or other Benefit of a higher, may be an Act of great Justice, Wisdom and Goodness. And, if it might be allow'd us to conjecture, one wise End and Purpose in this Permission of animal Food, might be to punish, admonish and correct us, by bodily Distempers, so as to bring us to reflect, repent and amend; or even, to shorten the Time of our Sufferings here, and by the Violence of our Diseases, and a nearer Prospect of Death, and a future Reckoning, to reclaim us sooner and more effectually; and at the same Time to advance these Victims to a higher State of Being and Happiness. Probably for these mention'd (but to be sure for wise and good) Ends and Purposes, has God by Revelation given us a Permission, or Patent, for the Use of animal Food: But for fermented Liquors, He has given us none, that I know of; neither are they natural, or proper; nor were they ever approv'd or recommended for common Use, or as proper and ordinary Drink; but only as Physick, or a Cordial, on Festivals, or at Sacrifices, on Sickness, or in Extremities. In the early and innocent Ages of golden Simplicity, no Hint supposes them commonly known or tried. And if fermented and spirituous Liquors were used only as bitter Draughts, Cordials and chalybeat Medicines, to brace and wind up the Stomach, and alimentary Tubes and Solids transiently, for a short Time; on Sickness, Lowness, Fainting, Fatigue, and inclement Seasons, as they seem to be intended by the Author of Nature; they might be Blessings, and great temporary and transient Reliefs; but as they are now used constantly at Meals, as common Beverage to dilute solid Food, and to make Persons easy under a Load of high rich animal Food, they become the efficient Causes of most Diseases; and upon the most serious Enquiry, I could never find an adequate natural Cause, for the Frequency of nervous and atrocious chronical Distempers now, from what they were formerly, nor of the Stuntedness, Punyness and Feebleness, so conspicuous among the better Sort, from what they were before the Conquest, and in our Gallic Wars; but the free and frequent Use of strong and spirituous Liquors, and rich and high Foods, with foreign Cookery, at that Time introduced first; and living in great Towns, and using only Coaches and Chairs, and sedentary Employments and Diversions. And drinking Water only, and living low, is the only adequate Antidote and Remedy for these Distempers thus produced; for no Axiom is so certain in Physick, as that Diseases must be cured by their Contraries.

§. 6. THE Hurt and Damage all fermented Liquors do an animal Body, is evident from many Considerations; as, 1. That it hardens, constricts and binds up the Fibres, and strongly unites the Particles of animal Substances, so that they are with much greater Difficulty separated and divided, i. e. digested. A Piece of Meat will continue sweet and sound, for many Years in Wine or strong Beer, or in any strong fermented Liquor; the Liquor cementing and pinning together the Parts of the Meat; and the same happens when they are mixed in the Stomach; by which the Digestibility and easy Dissolution of it, is obstructed; so that in such a Mixture Mutton is turned into Beef, and Beef into Shoe-Leather. 2. There is in strong Liquors a crisping, corrugating, or caustic Quality workt on the Fibres, which burns and dries them up, and destroys their elastic and ductile Virtue, and consequently renders them unfit to be broken and divided in the Stomach. This is evident from the Use commonly made of strong Beer, as the best Plaister for Sprains, Relaxations and Strains; and that Brandy will really stop Haemorrhages and Ruptures in the Blood-Vessels, by burning and wrinkling the tender Fibres and Capillaries, and so by this crisping Quality must keep Food from being readily and perfectly digested. 3. The Fire and Heat in strong Liquors, by stimulating and twitching the Fibres and Coats of the Blood-Vessels and Nerves, and consequently bringing them into quick and frequent Vibrations, and elastic Efforts, will break and tear the Fibres of the alimentary Tubes, and separate their Union and Continuity, so as at last to wear out these Organs, at least, much sooner, and with greater Pain and Suffering, than Water or aqueous Liquors possibly can. Lastly, It is a common and well-known Experiment, that to stunt the Growth of young Animals, as Dogs and Cats, they need only be frequently rubbed over with Brandy, Rum, or any Spirit. This stops the Ductility and Extension of the young animal Fibres, that they cannot be dilated and develop'd by the Force of the Circulation, and so stunts their Growth. From all which it is plain, that strong, but especially spirituous Liquors, are really Poison to an animal Constitution; and their ill Effects, not only in shortening the Lives, but in stunting the Growth and Stature of the lower Rank of People, from the late frequent Use of Gin, Punch, and other spirituous Liquors, have become so flagrant, as to call aloud for the just Indignation of the Legislature; and it is to be wished, that an effectual Remedy may be found out for so destructive an Evil. And I am fully convinced, that the primary and original Design of the Author of Nature for the solid Food of Animals, was nothing but earthy Particles mixed with Water and Air, finely divided and cemented only, with the least Oil and Salt possible, as they are found in Seeds, Fruits, young Vegetables, and farinaceous or pulpous Roots, with Water only for Drink; which alone would make the Animal last the longest, and with the fewest Pains and Diseases. But this Diet must be only tried and begun with the Young, while their Fibres are tender and sweet.

§. 7. THAT all sensitive, as well as intelligent Creatures, are in an expiatory, purifying and progressive State here, and going on to a greater Degree of Perfection, and a nobler State of Being in their several Orders, is demonstrable from the utter Contradiction and Impossibility there must be, that an infinitely wise and good Being could create sentient and intelligent Beings to suffer, for no other Reason but for the sake of Suffering; or that he should make Creatures to suffer for any other End or Purpose, but for Expiation, Purification and progressive Perfection of Being, and to establish and confirm them in their acquired State of Perfection: Neque enim, sub justo Deo, miser esse quisquam, nisi mereatur, possit, says St. Augustin most divinely. Most of the Animals are Martyrs for the human Species in Food or Sacrifice: Some of them are Food for one another; all of them are subject to epidemical Diseases and casual Misfortunes; a few of them pass their Time much more comfortably than others; all of them but unhappily at best, and go through Death at last. All this must be for some wise Purpose, and none can be nobler, than that of Expiation, Purification and progressive Perfection of Being; and silent Admonition, and teaching us, their superior Order of Beings. Consciousness of this End, either to them or us, might retard this Effect. Childhood, Idiotism, and many cephalic and nervous Distempers, can bring no Consciousness of the divine End and Design of this Oeconomy along with them, even to intelligent Beings; it is sufficient, that Consciousness come when the End is accomplished, or the designed Perfection attained. At what Time animal Food came first in Use, is not certainly known. He was a bold Man who made the first Experiment; Illi robur et aes triplex circa pectus erat. To see the Convulsions, Agonies and Tortures of a poor Fellow-Creature, whom they cannot restore nor recompense, dying to gratify Luxury, and scratch callous and rank Organs, must require a rocky Heart, and a great Degree of Cruelty and Ferocity. I cannot find any great Difference on the Foot of natural Reason and Equity only, between feeding on human Flesh, and feeding on brute animal Flesh, except Custom and Example. I believe some rational Creatures would suffer less in being fairly butcher'd, than a strong Ox, or red Deer; and in natural Morality and Justice, the Degrees of Pain here, make the essential Difference; for as to other Differences, they are relative only, and can be of no Weight with an infinitely perfect Being. Did not Use and Example weaken this Terror, and make the Difference, Reason alone could never do it. Perhaps it may be conjectur'd, that since Sacrifices were certainly an original, reveal'd or traditional Institution, and that no Nation under the Sun, hitherto known, was without them, they being, it would seem, a chief Part in the grand Oeconomy of the Restoration; Sacrifice, I say, might have been originally instituted, 1. To admonish and inform the Sinner silently, and without committing Violence on his Liberty, what he deserves; and implicitly to tell him, that he deserves the same Death he makes the poor Brute undergo. For the Liberty of Mankind seems so precious, being the Root of Intelligence, that it is wonderful in how many Shapes infinite Wisdom and Goodness, has put Himself, in the Conduct of Providence and Nature, to preserve it inviolate; and at the same time to instruct and admonish his free lapsed Intelligences. I believe a good natural Philosopher might shew with great Reason and Probability, that there is scarce Beast, Bird, Reptile nor Insect, that does not, in each particular Climat, instruct, and admonish Mankind of some necessary Truth, for their Happiness either in Body or Mind. And, 2. To continue the Expectation of all Ages, of some more noble and meritorious Sacrifice, some time or other to be celebrated. And it is not impossible, that the rude and untaught Mob, who were employed in the lower servile Offices about Sacrifices, might have been the first who ventured on animal Food, (if it was not instituted afore as a Sacrament with the same Intention as the Eucharist was afterwards) their Station habituating them to bear with less Pain, the Sufferings of their Fellow-Creatures while sacrificed; and they finding it palatable and luscious, might recommend the Use of it to Others. Perhaps, I say, this might have been the Original Institution of animal Food among all Nations. However, as this is only a remote Conjecture to account for the early Commencement of animal Food, so contrary to the original Nature of Man, and the Design of the Creator, and has no Regard to those concern'd in our unbloody Sacrifice; I proceed now to observe how cautiously, and with what an evident Forbid, the Jewish Law directs this Permit of animal Food, viz. absolutely and positively not to eat the Blood of the Animal (in which not only its Life, but its most delicious Savour and most deleterious Qualities chiefly consist, and because Blood Globules, by their Rotundity, Volubility, and Elasticity, resist Trituration, that is, Digestion). Now this in Reality, and by Insinuation and Moral, is to say, That since for the Hardness of your Hearts, and your present unconquerable Lustings, you cannot be brought to abstain altogether from animal Food; yet because in the Blood is the Life thereof, and all its deleterious, morbific and noxious Qualities, you are to drain it as much as possible of all its Moisture and Juice, (for the Serum as well as the Grume, mostly consists of globular Particles), and eat it plain, roasted or boiled, to drain it still more: By this Method, animal Food will be much less pernicious, and will approach very near to Vegetables. There is no understanding this Permission any other Way, nor is it otherwise to be reconciled to common Sense, or rational Conception, however both Jews and Christians have at present dwindled and diluted its true Import, out of Luxury.

§. 8. THIS Doctrine is further confirm'd by this surprising Circumstance in the Permission, that there is a very particular and otherwise unintelligible Distinction made between clean and unclean Beasts, either to be sacrificed, or eaten for Food; and a distinguishing Mark assign'd how to know the last. And since it comes from the same Source with the Permission of animal Food, these two must have some material Difference in the Nature of Things; and that can be none other but that the Flesh of these last cannot be so readily digested and squeezed from their Blood, but that it will have sufficient remaining, of a more deleterious Nature, to inflame and mortify the Juices of those who use it freely, and to enrage and madden their Passions; and he who is deeply acquainted with natural Philosophy, and the History of the unclean Animals, will be sensible of the Justness of this Prohibition and Observation. From whence it is natural to conclude, that tho' for the Hardness and Perverseness of Mens Hearts, animal Food was permitted and indulged, yet it was with such various Clogs and Exceptions, as might make it as little pernicious as possible. For the same Reason likewise was the Fat of the Sacrifice forbid to be eaten: And all this to shew that it was with great Reluctancy, and in mere Condescension, and contrary to the original Intention, it was thus permitted. And tho' under the new Dispensation, St. Peter was informed by a miraculous Vision, that nothing was now common or unclean, yet it was not till Selfdenial, Poverty of Spirit and Mortification, or abstaining from the Lusts of the Flesh, were established as the fundamental Doctrines of this new System; which when sincerely believed and strictly followed, would leave no room for Difference of Food, or ceremonial Distinctions, which served only as a Schoolmaster, to bring them to these purer and more universal Doctrines of Christ. It is certain, at the Creation there could be no such Thing as an Indulgence for animal Food, if only Pairs of each Animal were created at first.

§. 9. I MUST however own, that I think some vegetable Food, of much Salt, Oil, or luscious Juice and Poignancy, as much or more deleterious, inflaming, and incrassating, than some mild animal Substances: For Example, Onions, Shallot, Mustard, Horse-radish, all the Nut-kinds, Eastern Gums, Balsams, Raisins, Pickles, Spices, Aromatics, strong fermented Sours, rich and fat late Fruits, as dry yet plump Grapes, much Sugar, and the like; these are in some delicate Constitutions more poisonous and hurtful to an human Body, than a Bit of the muscular and lean Flesh of Chicken, Veal, Lamb, Rabbit, Partridge, Turkey, and the like white and young animal Foods; whose Whiteness and Tenderness shews there is little or no red Blood Globules in them, and are consequently more easily digestible, and less deleterious. These Vegetables may be allowed in small Quantities, as a Sauce or Relish to otherwise insipid and unpalatable vegetable Food, to sickly Appetites; but in great Quantities, and without Caution, they will hurt, heat and thicken the Blood and Juices of tender Constitutions; which is the sole Cause of the acute Distempers of all the Eastern and Southern Nations, who do not deal, or but very sparingly, in strong fermented Liquors. Without doubt, plain Milk (the genuine Soup prepar'd by the Author of Nature, and of a middle Nature between animal and vegetable Substances) boiled or raw, or prepared with Seeds, as Rice, Sago, Barley, Wheat, Millet, and the like, is the best and safest of all Foods for such tender Constitutions, as being in itself Blood, that has not as yet often passed through the Lungs, to give it its scarlet Colour, and deleterious Qualities, but is drawn almost directly from the Stomach and Lacteals, from an Emulsion made there, and Cookery of Nature, of Grass and Vegetables with pure Water, and designed by the Author of Nature, for the Cure and Nourishment of the Young, Tender and Delicate: And I can see no Difference between a young or tender and delicate Animal by Nature, and one made so by a Disease; but that such a Diet is still more necessary for the last than for the first. The mealy Roots and early Fruits are next to these; such as Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Skirrets, and the like, Strawberries, Cherries, Currants, &c. and only in the last Place and Degree is the Saladin, Colworts, and latter and richer Fruitkinds, and Winter Vegetables, as containing too much Air or Wind. And the Author of Nature has with such a Profusion of Kindness secured against Want or Famine, that in inclement Seasons, and bad Years, if the Earth cannot produce Plenty above Ground, it secures it under Ground in bulbous, knotted, or mealy Roots, even in Snow or Frost.

§. 10. AGAINST this Doctrine, that animal Food was permitted for a Punishment, and that fermented Liquors are not an Institution of Nature and its Author; those who have Regard for Revelation, whence the Patent for animal Food is drawn, may object, that our blessed Saviour, who was without Sin, eat and drank of what was set before him; that his first Miracle was supernaturally producing Wine, to celebrate the Marriage of Cana in Galilee; that he was accounted a Wine-biber; that he eat and drank with Publicans and Sinners; that he wrought other Miracles to produce animal Food to a Multitude; that St. Peter had a miraculous Vision to instruct him, that no sort of Food was unclean; that the Eucharist is celebrated in Wine; and that St. Paul advises Timothy to drink Wine for his Infirmities. To all which I answer, 1. That the Question is not what is, now, best and fittest in the present Ends of Providence, in order to restore and recover Man from his lapsed and fallen State; but what was probably the first Design of our Creator, in our primitive unlapsed State, before we and our Habitation (the Earth with its Atmosphere and Appendages) were thus spoilt and disordered. 2. One sort of Repair, Props, or Support, may be proper or necessary for a Habitation in one Degree of Ruin and Decay, that would by no Means be necessary or proper in another or lower Degree. 3. There is neither Virtue nor Vice in abstaining from one sort of Food more than another, but as it is commanded by lawful Superiors; all that is here considered, is, which of the two, vegetable or animal Food, in the Nature of Things, by the animal Oeconomy, and as human Creatures and their Food are now constituted, is physically and experimentally fittest to carry on and prolong Life, with the least Pain, fewest Diseases, and for the longest Time. Virtue and Vice are of quite another Consideration, and depend on the internal Principle and Disposition; the Quantity, Manner and Order in which these necessary Supports are taken, not on the Things themselves. But if it be asked, Which of the two Diets is most conducive to Virtue or Vice? Which of the two is most likely to facilitate the Acquisition of Virtue? What is abovesaid, plainly determines it in Favour of a low Diet; for by it the bodily Passions being made cooler and weaker, the Blood and Juices being sweetened, the intellectual Organs thereby render'd cleaner, more agile and penetrating, Reason and the spiritual Nature of Man has more Liberty to act, and meets with less Difficulty and Resistance in its Operations. 4. As to our blessed Saviour, he having come to seek and to save what was lost, was obliged to take the World as he found it, in order to raise it from that Degree of Perdition in which it was then plunged. He took upon him the Form of a Servant; he took not the Nature of Angels, but the Nature of the Seed of Abraham; he was in all things like unto us, Sin only excepted. Those to whom he came, and among whom he dwelt and convers'd, could at first neither receive nor understand his sublime Doctrines; he had many Things to say even to his Disciples, which they could not then bear; and yet this Doctrine of the Preference and greater Advantages of vegetable than of animal Food, is virtually and implicitly contain'd in the general Doctrine of Self-denial and Poverty of Spirit, (in the Sense of the Evangelic Counsels, that carry quickest into Perfection, where Celibacy is preferr'd to Marriage; for in the Kingdom of Glory, they are neither married nor given in Marriage, but are as the Angels of God) so strongly and pre-eminently inculcated in the Gospel, as any who reads and considers it, must plainly see. 5. I readily grant, and have given the Reasons and Philosophy of these Things, that in our present lapsed State, in the present Infertility, and insufficiently nutritive Qualities of the Vegetables, in the present Curse on the Earth, and the Necessity of Labour, Handicrafts, mechanical Force, and martial Prowess, while Wickedness is so powerful, and the Wicked so numerous, there is a Necessity for high animal Food, and fermented Liquors, in some Cases, and to some Persons, to secure against and remedy these Evils. But the sole Question here is, Whether this Diet will prevent Diseases, or lengthen Life so effectually as the other? Or whether Providence has not designed and appointed vegetable Food for the Cure and Antidote of the Pains and Diseases naturally and necessarily arising from animal Food, and fermented Liquors? Perhaps God, in his moral Government of the World, has design'd animal Food, more readily to punish those who will not be drawn by Love and Beauty; i.e. to purify some sorts of Men by Pains and Sufferings. 6. I willingly allow, that fermented and sometimes spirituous Liquors, are excellent Remedies, temporary Filips, Whips or Spurs, in Faintness, Sickness, Labour, or festival Occasions for Joy, and promoting of Friendship, and on Necessities and in Extremities: But I contend, then, and then only, they ought to be used; and that there is neither Precept, Example, nor Encouragement from Reason, Experience, or Revelation, to use them otherwise, or as they are now used for common Food, and daily Beverage; whence they become one Cause of all the great Diseases of the present Age. From these general Considerations, all the mention'd Difficulties have an easy Solution to the Candid and Ingenuous: I am not fighting Prizes, nor making Articles of a Creed. That infinite Wisdom foresaw, and laid in Provision and the necessary Precaution and Antidote, for the most deleterious Effects of animal Food and fermented Liquors, for a short time, seems to me evident for these Reasons, 1. In that He provided the Liver, (the Pancreas, and other internal Glands) in Animals, these vastly strong, complicated and elabour'd Organs, to draw out the most poisonous Parts of strong Meats and Drinks: the stronger the Liver, and the larger that Organ grows, the more Bile it throws out on the Common-shoar, the Intestines, to deprive the Chyle of its churlish Salts, and acrid Sulphurs, and thus makes the Liver an useful Medicine to promote the animal Functions, Digestion, Chylification, and the peristaltic Motion, and then throw its useless Parts out of the Habit. 2. By the createing mineral and ponderous Medicines, (Mercury chiefly) to open Obstructions, break saline Concretions, and dissolve the Tenacity of the Globules and Serum. And, 3. In providing mineral Waters of so various and complicated Natures, for the same Ends and Purposes, which they will, well-chosen, effect at last, as certainly as those formerly mentioned. Now it is plain to a Demonstration, that under a vegetable Diet, all those have little or no Use in Medicine; nay, any one who is acquainted with the Delicacy, Tenderness and Sensibility of the internal and infinitely minute Parts of an animal Machine, must know that they are not only in a great Degree useless, but hurtful, and tend to tear, dissolve and destroy the infinitely minute Fibrils, of which the Solids of an animal Machin are formed: So that their final End and Design in Providence must have been to antidote the ill Effects of animal Food and strong fermented Liquors, to a certain Degree, and for a certain Time, probably till some time after the Meridian of Life, while the Organs had attained their utmost Extension and Firmness; for it is not improbable, that none of the Mineral Waters existed under the Form and in the Manner they now appear, till after the Deluge, the Aera of animal Food, fermented Liquors, and the shortness of Life.

§. 11. To the Appearance of the present State of Nature, that seems to clash with this Doctrine, viz. the vast, nay infinite Mass of Life, or living Creatures, generated by Heat and Moisture, the many Millions of organiz'd Seeds of Plants and Animals destroyed every Season, the Impossibility of having any Sort of Food, or even pure Water, without destroying and devouring Millions of Animaculs; that here almost each Animal devours and lives upon another; and that both in the sentient and intelligent Creation, there seems to be a natural and unconquerable Appetite and craveing Desire of animal Food, and an insatiable Thirst of Blood: To these and such-like Prejudices, (I cannot call them Objections) it may be answer'd, I. First, That these Facts are not denied, but are of no Weight against the Propositions here chiefly asserted, viz. 1. That it is Philosophically certain, that animal Food is in its own Nature more ready to produce Distempers than vegetable Food. 2. That it is therefore highly probable, that an infinitely good and wise Being would not appoint in his first Intention, animal but vegetable Food, at least to his intelligent and rational Creation, and which accordingly is confirm'd from Revelation: And, 3. The chief Assertion here made, is, That in Consequence of these two Propositions it follows, that vegetable Food, Seeds especially, must be the proper Antidote, and Cure of the Diseases brought on by animal Food. But, II. It may be consider'd, as St. Paul asserts, that this whole Creation, the whole System, but chiefly this our Globe, with all its Inhabitants, labours, and is under a mortal Distemper, and in Travail, like a parturient Woman, to throw off this present Load of Corruption, Deteriority, and Lapse, that it may regain its original Spirituality, Purity, and Liberty; it is at present in a State of Expiation, Purification, and progressive Perfection; every Thing is out of its natural Order, the System is, as it were, in a Fever, and every Part and Particle is in Action, (like the Body of a Man in a febrile Fermentation), to throw off its peccant Humours, and to bring the whole Compound into Order, Regularity, and perfect Health. But, III. These very Appearances on which the Objection is founded, confirm to a Demonstration, what I assert, viz. That all animal Life here is in an expiatory, purifying, and progressive State, towards its original Perfection; for it would be the grossest Contradiction, to suppose that an infinitely good and wise Being, should give Pain to any of his Creatures, for any other End, but to reclaim and perfect them; that He alone knows when his Justice, Purity, and the Amende Honorable, and the Infection of Impurity, are perfectly answer'd and cancelled, in their present State of Melioration, and so knows when and how it is fittest to put an End to it by Death, that is, by the Rupture and Dissolution of their gross and earthy Prison, form'd out of this our ruinous planetary System, now spoil'd and defac'd; to set the indwelling spiritual Inhabitant free into some more pure and refin'd System; and that animal Life of all Kinds and Degrees, does and must necessarily suffer here, by bodily Wants and Infirmities, by the Injuries and Inclemencies of Seasons, by the Rapacity and Ferocity of their Fellow-Creatures, besides a thousand other Accidents, and at last most intensely by their Death, and the Rupture of their outward Shell or Tabernacle; From all this is a plain Demonstration, that they are in a State of Suffering, Expiation, and progressive Purification, and that at last they will all be set at Liberty, and become the Sons and Children of God in some Degree or Order or other, according to his original Intention, and the Plan of this his universal Monarchy and Kingdom, laid before the Foundation of the World; and all this Darkness, Sufferings, and unintelligible Play, is only to save human Liberty, and produce at last pure Love and naked Faith. IV. No body ever denied, that Animals of all Kinds might be destroyed, even intelligent as well as sentient, when it is done for some wise or useful Purpose, as in Self-defence, or even for moral Purposes, implicitly to admonish and teach others their Duty, what they deserve, or what they are to believe and hope; these Purposes, with all their particular Circumstances, are under the moral Government of an infinitely wise Being. The only Question here is, Whether they may reasonably and justly be put to Pain unnecessarily and wantonly, or for no wise End or Purpose, but only to scratch callous Pallates, when other Means of Health may be had more effectual, and no less pleasant. V. It is not altogether Fact, that Animals devour one another from any other Reason, but for Want of sufficient Plenty of proper vegetable Food, as Seeds, tender Plants, mealy Roots, and the like, which even the most carnivorous Animals will brouze on, when they can meet with it in Plenty, as is well known in natural History; and even the Fish, which of all Animals are the most voracious, will readily feed on Balls of Meal and Milk, without offering to devour one another; as the ingenious Mr. Andrews of Norfolk has found by Experiment; for having put several Sorts of small and great Fishes together into a large whiten'd Pond of clear Water, where they might all be easily seen and number'd, and feeding them with Balls made of Milk and Flower, (which were put into pervious Troughs) he found, at least thought, that they did not offer the least Violence to one another. VI. Allowing Animals to be actuated by a spiritual or immaterial Principle, of the same Nature with intelligent Creatures, yet they are not of the same Degree and Order with them; they may be intelligent Creatures of an inferior Order, beginning lower, and verging more slowly towards their intended Perfection; they may be under different Conditions of Purification, and may pass the whole of their Duration here, in the State of Infants, who dye before they are born, or before they arrive at the Use of Reason, and yet in other States of Being may grow and advance to a much higher Perfection of Sensation and Intelligence than we can readily imagine. For to me it seems utterly incredible, that any Creature, whether sentient or intelligent, should come into this State of Being and Suffering, for no other Purpose than we see them attain here; and it is equally incredible, that any Creature should spontaneously exert animal and muscular Function, i.e. should live and feel, without some Degree of an immaterial, immortal, and selfactive Spirit. Matter and its Laws, can never account for such Appearances. There must be some infinitely beautiful, wise and good Scene remaining for all sentient and intelligent Beings, the Discovery of which will ravish and astonish us one Day. Moderately wise Ends, Purposes, and Means, are unworthy of infinite Perfection; whatever God does must be every way worthy of Himself: His Working may serve many wise and good Ends and Purposes here, but the last and great End of all must be of Dignity and Majesty worthy of Him, tho' we cannot yet a great while comprehend it.

§. 12. To conclude: 1. It is plain from Revelation, that animal Food was permitted, and fermented Liquors not forbidden; and consequently, that there is neither Virtue nor Vice in the Use of them absolutely, but in the Order, Time, Quantity, and other Circumstances of their Usage. 2. That in our present Situation, and under our present Circumstances, for some Persons, and in Order for some Purposes, a reasonable Quantity of animal Food, and fermented Liquors, may be absolutely necessary. 3. It is plain from Reason, Philosophy, and Experience, that Excesses in high animal Food, and strong fermented Liquors, are the true efficient and most general Cause of most atrocious and dangerous Distempers; and consequently, that vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors, are the true and natural Antidote of such Distempers. 4. That animal Food, and fermented Liquors, will more probably, and more naturally cause Distempers, and shorten Life, than vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors. 5. That a moderate and small Quantity of animal Food, and generous fermented Liquors, will naturally tighten, harden, and strengthen, give Firmness and Force to animal Solids and Fibres, and enrich, warm, and invigorate the Blood and Juices; and consequently, is safest to all subject to eruptive Distempers, as Gout, Erisipelas, &c. in the Fits. But at the same time that it hardens and tightens the Solids, it condenses and thickens the Juices, and renders the Animal of a shorter Duration of Life, and more subject to Diseases. 6. Lastly, That for bodily Strength, animal Food, and fermented Liquors, seem fittest; but for intellectual Exercises, vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors, seem appropriated; and that consequently, the best Way to secure the golden Mediocrity, between bodily Strength and spiritual Force, (the State fittest for the Generality of Mankind) is for the healthy to confine themselves to about a Pound, at least half a Pound, of animal Food, and a Pint, at least half a Pint of fermented Liquors, daily: But for the unhealthy, valetudinary, and studious, to sink below this Medium in both these, till, by Experience and Observation, they find that Quantity of either, they are easiest under, and to stick to that, should it even be to descend totally into Vegetables, Milk and Seeds, with unfermented Liquors.

END of the SECOND DISCOURSE.

Notes

*
Vide Memoirs of the Academy Royal for 1729 and 1730.
↵

DISCOURSE III. A Philosophical THEORY FOUNDED ON EXPERIMENTS OF THE NATURE and LAWS OF Minute Inanimat Bodies, AND THEIR SYSTEMS, in general.
DISCOURSE III.
A Philosophical THEORY Founded on EXPERIMENTS, OF THE NATURE and LAWS of Minute INANIMAT BODIES, and their Systems, in general.

Rom. viii. 22. ‘For we know that the whole Creation groaneth, and travaileth in Pain till now.’

PREFACE.

THAT the Curious and Philosophical Reader (who possibly may be entertain'd with such Speculations) may have in one general View, what has been or will be incidentally hinted in my preceding and succeeding Works, concerning the Nature of Minute Bodies, their Systems and Laws, I have collected into a few Propositions, what I have found scatter'd in the Works of Philosophers and Mathematicians of most Note, on that Subject; particularly those of Sir Isaac Newton. These I have connected the best I could, and in some Particulars have adventur'd to supply with Conjectures by Analogy, from their general Nature; leaving every one to judge for himself, according to his Taste and Liking, there being nothing of what is here laid down very material to the practical Part of these Discourses.

PROPOSITION I.

THE Elements, or least and last Particles of Matter, are of various Sizes, Densities and Figures. Those of the first Order, or the very least, are almost infinitely small, hard and elastic, pervading all Bodies but pervious to none; such as are probably the Particles of the Etherial or Newtonian Fluid. The Particles of the second Order are compos'd of these, and consequently are of a greater Size, but less dense and elastic, being pervious to the Particles of the first Order, and themselves pervading all others: Of this kind are probably the Particles of Light. The Particles of the third and last Order, are compos'd of those of the second Order, bearing such Proportion to them in Size, Density and Elasticity, as they do to those of the first Order.

SCHOLIUM.

IT is beyond all Doubt, that the Quantity of solid Matter in this material System is very small, in respect of the interspers'd Vacuities. It is demonstrably certain, that a solid Cube or Sphere of a Mile or Furlong, or even a Yard in Diameter, being divided sufficiently small, and its Parts ranged in a proper Order, would furnish Solidity enough to answer all Appearances. Suppose the Particles all Cubes, and to be so united by the Contact of their Angles as to make cubical Interstices, then the Vacuity would be equal to the Solidity; and since Matter is divisible in infinitum, this Vacuity may be encreas'd to any Proportion of Majority. We actually find that Water and Mercury will pass through the Pores of Gold; and Sir Isaac Newton has demonstrated, that Gold must have many times more Pores than solid Parts, and yet it is the heaviest of all Bodies. Light passes through the most opake Bodies, when shreded sufficiently thin, it scarce meets with any Resistance in its Passage through clear Glass; and Aether pervades all Bodies with very little or no Resistance: From all which it manifestly appears, how small a Proportion there is between the Solidity and Vacuities in our System.

PROP. II.

THE Elements of Bodies, or the least and last Particles of whatever Order, are solid, hard and indivisible, at least by natural and created Powers, else it would be in the Power of Natural Means and created Agents to alter the present Constitution and Nature of Things: For a World made up of Particles broken and worn out, would be quite different from what it now is, and altogether insufficient to answer the Ends and Purposes of Nature.

PROP. III.

Analogous to, of the same Nature, and probably from the same Cause, with Gravity in the great Bodies of Universe, (the Sun, Planets and Fixt Stars) which acts as the Squares of the Distance reciprocally, there is in the least and elementary Particles of Matter, a Principle of Attraction and Repulsion, whereby they attract and repell one another, according to some constant and invariable Law, whatever that may be.

SCHOL. I.

WHAT this Law is, by which the Particles of Matter attract and repel each other, no Observations or Experiments hitherto made have been sufficient to determine; only thus much is certain, that in receding from the Point of Contact, it decreases in a greater Proportion than that of the duplicate Ratio of the Distance reciprocally; for by that Law, the Force of Attraction at any small assignable Distance, would be nearly the same; whereas it is manifest from Observation and Experience, that it is exerted only at or near the Point of Contact. Sir Isaac Newton has calculated from the Inflection of the Rays of Light, that the attracting Force in the Point of Contact is 10000,0000,0000,0000 times greater than the Force of Gravity; and the ingenious Mr. Hales has shewn by a great Variety of Experiments, that the repulsive, or elastic Force, (which probably arise from one and the same Cause) in some sorts of Particles, are likewise immensly great.

SCHOL. II.

IF Particles mutually attract each other as the Cubes of their Distances reciprocally, the Force of Attraction in the Point of Contact will be infinitely greater than at any assignable Distance. According to this Law, (which seems to obtain, at least very nearly in the smallest Particles of Matter) if the Force of Attraction in the Point of Contact, be not infinitely greater than the Force of Gravity, it will be infinitely less than that Force of Gravity at any assignable Distance. But tho' the Force of Attraction in the Point of Contact is very great, yet it is not infinitely greater than the Force of Gravity, seeing the Parts of any Body may be separated by a finite assignable Force, and therefore at a given Distance it must vanish, or become infinitely small.

SCHOL. III.

REPULSION begins, and goes on, where Attraction ends, and o constitutes the middle Point in the Progression between them, or o, i. e. infinitely small of the same Order, is the last Term and Limit of Attraction, and the first of Repulsion; and they probably go on according to the same Law and Progression, tho' with contrary Directions: For, as Sir Isaac Newton observes, those Particles which recede from one another with the greatest repulsive Force, and are with the greatest Difficulty brought together, cohere most strongly when brought into Contact.

PROP. IV.

THE Cohesion of the small Particles of Matter, is in the compound Proportion of the Quantity of their cohering Surfaces, and the Quantity of their attractive Powers; and their attractive Powers are, caeteris paribus, as their Densities, or the Quantities of Matter they contain.

COROL.

HENCE it follows, that the less the cohering Surfaces are, caeteris paribus, the less will be the Degree of Cohesion, and that the least Degree of Cohesion, is when the Surfaces touch in a Point only, or are Spheres or Spheroides.

PROP. V.

THE Power or Force of Attraction, in small Particles of Matter, increases as the Size of the Particles is diminish'd. For, as this Force acts only in or near the Point of Contact, it will be proportional to that Contact, or in the compound Ratio of the Density of the Particles and the Largeness of their Surfaces; but the Surfaces decrease as the Squares of the Diameters, while the Solidities decrease as their Cubes; and therefore, the smallest Particles of Matter, having the largest Surfaces in Proportion to their Solidities, and more of their Points coming into Contact, will have the greatest attractive Force in Proportion to their Bulk.

PROP. VI.

THE Gravities of Particles decrease as the Cubes of their Diameters; for their Gravities are as their Quantities of Matter, which, in homogeneous Bodies, are as the Cubes of the Diameters.

COROL.

HENCE it is, that Mercury, from the Smallness and Divisibility of its Parts is so easily raised; and that Bodies may be suspended in Fluids specifically lighter than themselves.

PROP. VII.

IF the Parts of a Body, immers'd in a Fluid, are more strongly attracted by the Fluid, than they are by one another, they will mutually recede from each other, with a Force equal to the Excess of the one Attraction above the other, and will be equally diffus'd through the Fluid: And hence the Nature of Solution, Separation and Diffusion.

PROP. VIII.

IF Particles, suspended in a Fluid and attracting each other, are elastic, after their Collision they will resile from one another, and meeting with other Particles, they will be reflected, till by such Actions and Re-actions, a Fermentation, Effervescence and Ebullition is produced.

PROP. IX.

IF Particles, suspended in a Fluid and attracting each other, are not elastic, they will not be reflected from one another, but coalesce into Masses, till their Gravity exceeding that of the Fluid, they will sink, and be precipitated. The same thing will be produced by increasing or diminishing the Gravity of the Menstruum in which the Particles are suspended.

PROP. X.

THE Figures of the Elements of all pure unelastic and incompressible Fluids must necessarily be spherical, or at least approaching thereto; for were they of any other Figure, their Surfaces would touch in more Points than one, and consequently they would cohere. And the Elements of solid Bodies probably may be of the Figure of some one or other of the regular Solids, as Cubes, Triangles, Prisms, &c. so that, their Surfaces coming into Contact, they may attract each other with the greater Force.

SCHOL.

WHAT may be the Figure of the Elements of elastic Fluids, as the Air, and the Newtonian Aethereal Fluid, is not material to enquire, since their Fluidity does not arise from the Figure, but the repulsive Force of their Particles.

PROP. XI.

THE Elasticity of solid Bodies is the Effect of the attracting Force of their Particles; for when the small contiguous and cohering Particles of a Body are, by a Stroke, or any external Violence, separated from each other to extremely small Distances, if this Force is taken off, the separated Particles will, by the Force of Attraction, rush back into their Contacts with an accelerated Velocity, and the Body will recover its pristin Figure. But if the Particles are so far separated as to be without their Spheres of Attraction, they will remain in that Disjunction, and the Body will be uncapable of recovering its former State.

PROP. XII.

THAT Bodies, under a Rotation, fly off in the Tangent, is only a Consequence of that general Law, by which they persevere in the same State of Rest, or moving uniformly in a streight Line, unless they are made to change that State by some external Force impressed; for the Direction of a Body moving in the Circumference of a Circle, is in the Tangent, and it is made to describe the Circle only by the central Attraction, which ceasing to act, the Body will proceed in its proper Direction, or will fly off in the Tangent.

PROP. XIII.

THE Figures of Bodies, and their Actions on one another, arising from the Principles of Attraction and Repulsion, together with the Motions impressed on them by living and intelligent Agents, will probably account for most of the Appearances of the material World, if mechanically adjusted, and treated according to these mentioned Laws.

PROP. XIV.

AIR is a System of Particles endued with a repulsive Force, which being fixt in all animal, vegetable and mineral Substances, are by Fire, Fermentation, Putrefaction, Dissolution, or any other intestine Action or Reaction, set at Liberty, and thrown off into an elastic State, and carrying along with them Ramenta or Abrasions of the Bodies they were fixt in, they compose our Atmosphere; which is a Chaos of such Particles of various Solidities, Gravities and attractive and repulsive Powers, acting by the establish'd Laws of minute Bodies; and hence its Compression, Weight, Elasticity and various Degrees of Density.

SCHOL.

THE Density of the Air is proportionate to its Compression, and therefore the centrifugal, or expansive Force by which its Particles endeavour to recede from one another, must be in the reciprocal Proportion of their Distances, or in the direct subtriplicate Ratio of their Densities.

PROP. XV.

EARTH is only a loose Collection of the different elementary Particles of Matter, of all the three Orders, thrown together without any regular Combination or Cohesion; as Whiteness is a Blending and Mixture of all the differently-colour'd Rays of Light.

PROP. XVI.

WATER is a Collection of the Solutions of tasteless and insipid Salts, originally fixt, crystalis'd and dispers'd quite through the Globe; but kept in Fluidity by Heat, like melted Lead. And different Salts are Water united with a little Air and some Earths, acid or sulphureous, in a crystalis'd State; as Ice is Water congeal'd, and Water is Ice dissolv'd. But this is not intended as a Definition, but only as an Illustration. All Salts are soluble by Water, and all Water evaporated; drops a saline Substance mixt with Earths.

PROP. XVII.

ACIDS seem to be compos'd of such elementary Particles as are endued with a very great attractive Power; whence, by insinuating themselves into the Pores of Bodies, and attracting their Particles more strongly than these Particles attract one another, they thereby separate and divide them.

SCHOL.

POSSIBLY the Figures of Acids, may be triangular Prisms, or such like, to facilitate their Entry into Bodies, and to separate their Particles like Wedges; for all Matter must have some Figure.

PROP. XVIII.

HEAT, as it is a Property of Bodies, is only the brisk vibrating Action and Reaction of the elastic repelling Nitre of the Air, and the aethereal Fluid, with the strongly attracting acid Sulphur; which Sulphur, by its Analysis, is found to contain an inflammable Oil, an acid Salt, a very fixt Earth, and a little Metal.

COROL.

HENCE the Affinity between Light and sulphureous Bodies, and the true Nature of Oils and inflammable Spirits, which are nothing but a great deal of Sulphur, a fine or light acid Salt, a very little Water and Earth.

SCHOL.

SINCE it has been found, that a Thermometer in an exhausted Receiver, will rise and fall as much, and almost as soon, as another Thermometer placed by it in the open Air, it seems to follow, that Heat is conveyed and propagated from one Body to another, by some subtle elastic Fluid, pervading all Bodies; and it is not improbable, that the Vibrations of this Medium in hot Bodies, contribute to the Intenseness and Duration of their Heat. And since smooth polish'd Bodies, with plain Surfaces, cling together as strongly in an exhausted Receiver as in the open Air, it is not improbable, that their Cohesion may be caused by this same Medium. Both Experiments go a great way to ascertain the Existence and Necessity of some such aethereal Fluid.

PROP. XIX.

LIGHT seems to be the vibrating Particles of a hot Body, driven off by the repelling Force, with an immense Velocity, which is continued and augmented by the aethereal Fluid, and the Attraction of the Bodies it meets with in its Progress.

SCHOL. I.

SINCE, as Sir Isaac Newton has observ'd, Light is convertible into Bodies, and Bodies into Light; and that it is probable, that Light is only the Particles of a hot Body, thrown off with an immense Velocity, it would seem, that these Particles which constitute Light are the elementary Particles of the second Order, with which sulphureous and oily Bodies, from the great Activity, Attraction and Elasticity of their Parts, appear to be saturated and abound; for these being smaller and more elastic, than the Particles of the third Order, will be thrown off with a very great Velocity, which we know to be an essential Property of the Rays of Light; and they will likewise pervade all Bodies, which is also a Property belonging to the Rays of Light; there being no Body, however dense or close in its Texture, which, by being shreded thin, does not become transparent.

SCHOL. II.

THE Rays of Light seem to consist of Particles of different Sizes, (that being necessary to produce the various Colours and different Degrees of Refrangibility) the least of which make Violet, the weakest and darkest of the Colours, and are most easily diverted from the right Course, by refracting Surfaces; and the rest, as they are bigger, make the stronger and more lucid Colours, as Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, and are with more and more Difficulty diverted.

SCHOL. III.

THE Sun and fixt Stars, are immense Globes of Matter, saturated with these Particles of the second Order, and so being heated red hot, are kept in Heat by their intestine Motion, and the Action and Re-action of their Parts with the aethereal Fluid; their dense Atmospheres, by their Compression, keeping their Parts from flying off, or consuming too fast.

SCHOL. IV.

IT is not impossible, that our Earth, with its Satellit the Moon, the other Planets in this our System, with their Satellites, but especially the Comets, should be all of them Bettering-houses, (according to the Dutch manner of speaking) Prisons, Dungeons, and Places of Punishment, for Trial, Expiation, or progressive Purification of the several Sorts, Orders and Degrees of lapsed, sentient and intelligent Beings. That they are not, and cannot be permanent or eternal, in their present State, Philosophy and Astronomy furnish innumerable Arguments, to convince any thinking Person. Most of their Orbits are elliptical, which certainly is not so simple or perfect a Figure as a Circle. The Planes of their Orbits cut one another at irregular various and vastly different Angles, which, at least, in our present way of thinking, is not so harmonious. Besides the unaccountable Oddnesses in most of their diurnal and annual Revolutions, the Nutations of their Axes, their Rings, Spots and Girdles, which, at least, savour not of that Simplicity, Perfection and Beauty conspicuous in most of the other Works of the Author of Nature. Moreover, as to our Planet in particular, it has so many untoward Marks, and oblique Symptoms of a designed Deteriority, that it would require a Volume to enumerate those daily observed by Astronomers and natural Philosophers, besides those now mentioned, which are common to most of them. Our Earth has, in particular, barren and unfruitful Climates, unhospitable and uninhabited Regions, unhealthy and mortal Seasons, Tempests, Thunder and Lightning, Vulcanos, Plagues and epidemical or infectious Atmospheres: All which could never proceed from an infinitely good and wise Being, if his Design was not to punish and correct. But all these seeming Deformities are kind and fatherly Designs of Wisdom, and have infinitely beautiful final Causes and Motives; and are strong and amazing Instances of his Being, Love and Wisdom, if they are reckon'd only Correction and Bettering Mansions, of no durable or permanent Stability, but verging and growing into some progressive, beautiful and final State, by general Laws, which State, in due Time, will appear and emerge, and then He may, as He did at first, say of all his Works, they were good and perfect in their Order. And then the Son shall give up the Dominion to his Father, in a much happier and more perfect Condition than it was at first made, as He said of Himself, that He came, that all God's Creatures (Sentient and Intelligent, and consequently their Habitations and Mansions) should have Life, (that is, have Perfection and Happiness) and have it more abundantly.

PROP. XX.

FLAME is the sulphureous or oily Smoak of a hot Body, agitated to such a Degree as to be ignited.

PROP. XXI.

THOSE Bodies are transparent, whose Pores are sufficiently small to attract the Rays of Light, and rectilinear to transmit them: Thus Paper is made more transparent, by having its Pores fill'd or lessen'd with Water or Oil.

THE following Propositions are manifest from Experiment[*].

- 1. MERCURY consists of smaller Particles than any known Fluid, for it will pass where no other Fluid can.

- 2. THE Particles of Mercury, in all their Divisions, preserve a spherical Figure, from the strong Attraction of their Parts; as is evident by fine Glasses: And the smaller the Particles, the more perfect the Spheres; as the same Glasses demonstrate.

- 3. MERCURY is the heaviest of all natural Fluids, being 14 times heavier than Water.

- 4. THE Particles of Mercury attract some Bodies the most of any, as Gold; and fly from others the most, as Oil of Vitriol, and all Acids.

COROLLARIES.

- 1. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury are the most easily rais'd by Heat, being divisible into the smallest Parts; which, though not sensible, yet are known by their Effects in Silver Water, Mercurial Steams and Exhalations, and their ready passing through all animal Substances.

- 2. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury have the greatest Momentum and Force, being the heaviest of all natural Fluids.

- 3. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury, by their Smallness, Sphericity and Weight, being actuated and rais'd by Heat, readily pervade all animal fleshy Substances, which are but Spunges with communicating Cells; as is evident from the Effects of Fumigations, and the Palsies of those who silver Glass, or dig in the Mines of that Mineral.

MEDICAL COROLLARIES.

- 1. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury are the fittest to break the Cohesion of all Viscosity, and divide its Substance by its Weight, in Animal Tubes; from which Viscosity all the cold chronical Diseases most probably proceed.

- 2. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury are fittest to open all Obstructions in the small Capillary or Lymphatic Vessels, from their Smallness, Weight and Sphericity.

- 3. THEREFORE the Particles of Mercury, from their Smallness, Weight and Sphericity, are fittest to make the Circulation whole and entire quite around.

- 4. THEREFORE Mercury is the only proper Antidote for such Palsies, whose Cause is the Tenacity of the Juices in the small Blood-Vessels, pressing upon the Nerves and Fibres, and so interrupting their Vibrations and Actions.

- 5. THEREFORE Mercury is the best Antidote for the Scurvy, in the first Intention, by its Smallness, its Weight and Sphericity, breaking the Salts and larger Concretions obstructing the Lymphatics.

- 6. THEREFORE Mercury is also the best Antidote for the Gout, in the first Intention, readily opening those small Vessels which are the most difficult to be dilated by reason of their Compression betwixt bony Articulations, even though their Smallness should be such, that 200 of them can make up but the Thickness or Bulk of one Hair. But a thin cool Dyet must continue them pervious, when Mercury has made them so.

- 7. THEREFORE Mercury, duly prepar'd, and judiciously manag'd, is the only proper Antidote for the Diseases produced by Excesses of any kind, especially of animal Food and fermented Liquors.

- 8. MERCURY, by its Weight and Sphericity, will infallibly burst those Vessels whose Obstructions cannot be dissolved or opened, driving the Substance of these Obstructions through the Sides of the slender Lymphatic Vessels; and will infallibly tear the small Vessels, whose Sides are very rare and slender, or whose Pores are made very large by Putrefaction.

- 9. THEREFORE Mercury is a divine Antidote or real Poison, according to the Person prescribing, or the Case it is prescribed in.

- 10. THE best Preparation of Mercury is that wherein its Particles are most minutely divided, and kept at the greatest Distance from one another.

- 11. THAT Preparation of Mercury is the best, where, after a due Division into its smallest Parts, the Mixture is made with that Body which has the most specific Virtue against the Disease. Thus the Aethiops cum Sulph. is best for Inflammations, Piles, the Gout, the Erysipelas, &c. and that with Antimony, against cutaneous Distempers; that with Volatiles and Foetids, in Nervous Cases; that with Bark and Bitters, in Intermittents; and so in others.

- 12. THEREFORE the Aqua Mercurialis is the very safest general Deobstruent in very weak Persons, did it not require too long time to produce any salutary Effect. Mercury alcalisated, or kill'd with any calcin'd Body, given often and in small Doses, is the next; Cinnabar next to that, and then Aethiops, &c.

- 13. ALL Mineral Medicines ought to be infinitely divided, before they are sent into an Animal Body; they never having been intended by the Author of Nature to enter there, but in their minutest Particles and Divisions; as we may see by Nature's preparing, in this Manner, Mineral Waters of all kinds, fitted for the Cure of almost all chronical Diseases, if join'd with a proper Regimen; except, perhaps, some few of those begot by unnatural cramming with Mixtures of Salts, Spices, Oils, and inflammable Spirits; or those begot by contagious venereal Diseases.

- 14. MERCURY, with the Salts, such as Calomel, the Turbith, Sublimat, red, white and green Precipitate, are, of all Preparations, the most prejudicial and injurious to animal Habits; these saline Mixtures tearing the small Vessels, where Diseases are mostly generated, and in whose Integrity, all the Delicacy of Life consists: But they are thereby of the quickest Effect in Cases that depend on Expedition, as the Hydrophobia, inflammatory Rheumatism, and the like.

GENERAL MEDICAL COROLLARIES.

- 1. As Water alone, Blood-warm, is the best Diluent, so Mercury is the best Deobstruent; but as Water alone may be too sluggish, so Mercury alone may be too active and ponderous, for tender and delicate Animal Solids, especially in its fluid State, or mix'd with Salts, or too active Bodies; and therefore the absolutely best Preparation of Mercury, is when, being divided by the utmost possible Art, it is join'd with the most specific vegetable Medicines against the Distemper, that it can conveniently be united with, and fixt in.

- 2. As the Fineness or Smallness of Particles, together with the Largeness of their Surfaces, make Hardness, or the greatest Cohesion in Bodies, as has been shewn by Proposition IV. and V. and may be seen in finewoven Cloth, Gold, Marble, Crystal, Shells, Salts and Diamonds; and as Earths, Water, Milk, watery Fluids, and vegetable Substances, consist mostly of Water and rare loose fine Earths, with a little grosser Salts and Sulphurs of small or no Cohesion, it is evident, that such Substances are fittest for weak, tender and valetudinary Persons, as affording all the Materials of Nutrition, and being more easily resolvible into their integral Particles; and are most proper Food for intellectual Purposes, which depend on the easy Performance of the animal Functions, as nervous Distempers arise chiefly from their labour'd Performance, compressing, by their Weight and Hardness, the too tender and delicate membranous Tubuli of the Nerves, and so stopping or retarding their Vibrations and Oscillations, tho' they are not so proper for mechanical Strength and Force.

GENERAL SCHOLIUM.

IN these few Propositions are contain'd the Principles of all the natural Philosophy hinted at in my medical Treatises. If it is just, or approaches the Truth, as I hope it does, then it must necessarily follow, 1. That soft, mild and cool Foods, are fittest to carry on the animal Functions the most readily, freely, naturally and lastingly. 2. That Spirits, Salts, chymical Oils, (which are but Spirits condens'd) and every thing that has pass'd the Tortures of the Fire, abounding with Particles small, hard, caustic, (for calcin'd Antimony will be increas'd one fifth in its Weight) and highly attractive, are most pernicious to animal Habits; not only burning and tearing the delicate Fibres and Vessels, like Caustics and Lancets, but by their attractive Powers, violently corrugating and contracting the Fibres; so that in habitual Drinkers, Drammers, and high Feeders, their Tone and Elasticity is entirely destroy'd, by their sudden and alternate Contractions and Relaxations [*], while at the same time the Juices are thicken'd and coagulated by the spirituous Mixture, and so dispos'd to form Obstructions and Concretions in the smaller Vessels: And therefore they ought never to be used, but as Spurs and Whips, to push on and stimulat the sluggish Organs for a time, and make them carry off the Over-load with a short Vigour; and so are only proper in Extremities, as a present Filip. 3. That animal Foods, whose Parts have been first divided by animal Organs, and afterwards attenuated and refin'd by those of other Animals, and mixed with great Quantities of animal Salts and Oils, when again taken into animal Habits for Food, where they undergo a third Subtilization or Milling; or the Flesh of Animals that live on animal Food, are so minutely divided, as (by Proposition IV.) to acquire the greatest Degree of Attraction; and therefore, when introduc'd into the small Tubes and capillary Vessels, in great Quantities, they must form Obstructions of the strongest Cohesion and Tenacity. 4. That Mercury, in some Shape or other, is the only proper Deobstruent and Dissolvent, in all chronical Cases, and in those acute ones that come nearest to them; especially in those who have fed much and long on animal Foods, and fermented or distill'd Liquors. 5. That Milk and Vegetables are not only the sole rational and proper Food of tender or diseased Animals, but, from the Grossness of their Parts, and their small Degree of Attraction and Cohesion consequent thereupon, being dissolv'd by a less Force than animal Food, are fittest to carry on, the most pleasantly, all the Functions in which Health, Serenity and free Spirits consist. 6. That therefore Milk, Seeds, Fruits, and mealy Vegetables, with Water-drinking, are undoubtedly the most infallible Means to preserve the Faculties clear and acute, and to acquire Activity and long Life, whatever mechanical Force and Strength may require for sudden strong Efforts. 7. On the whole, as Water, with a little fine vegetable Earth, Salt and Sulphur, seems to me, to be the proper Food intended by Nature for Animals; and as it is Water alone which conciliats that Fluidity absolutely necessary to Juices circulating in Tubes; the more it partakes of this Element, the fitter it is for the animal Functions. Mercury seems to be the only other Fluid that has the Qualities fitted for circulating and destroying Viscosity; so that, in fine, the two proper Antidotes intended by Nature for chronical animal Diseases, especially those of the worst Kind, seem to be Mercury, some-how prepared, and Water, naturally or artificially impregnated, the one for animal, and the other for vegetable Feeders.

Notes

*
Vide Boyle; the Philosophical Transactions, and the Memoirs of the Academy Royal.
↵

*
Vide Hales's Haemostaticks.
↵

DISCOURSE IV. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON SPIRITUAL NATURE, THE HUMAN SPIRIT in Particular.
DISCOURSE IV.
Philosophical CONJECTURES ON SPIRITUAL NATURE, THE HUMAN SPIRIT in Particular.

Gen. i. 26. ‘And God said, Let us make Man in our Image, after our Likeness.—’ Ver. 27. ‘So God created Man in his own Image, in the Image of God created He him.’

§. 1. THE natural Faculties, Properties or Attributes of all rational Spirits, and human Intelligences, (and indeed of all Intelligences of whatsoever Order or Degree) are incontestably these three: 1. Perception or Understanding. 2. Willing, Chusing or Freedom. 3. Memory, Reflection or Attention. Out of these three all the Operations of a human Spirit may be deduced; and suppose living or actuating some Vehicle as their Base: and though they may be (and are justly) considered separately, yet, in wellexercised and duly cultivated Spirits, they are sometimes so instantaneous, as to seem one and the same Act of the Mind, and are called by the general Name of Thinking or Cogitation, when either in separate Acts, or instantaneous, and all Spirits differ chiefly in the Degrees of these natural Powers.

§. 2. HOWEVER uncommon the Expression may seem, yet to those who admit a Deity, or supreme Spirit, of infinite Perfection, the Author and first Cause of all Things, finite Spirits of all possible Orders can be conceived philosophically, no otherwise than as Miniatures, Effluxes, Emanations, Infinitesimals, or infinitely small Sparkles, of this infinite Source of Living, Intelligence, Action, Perfection and Happiness, voluntarily emitted, lighted up or created, by this infinitely perfect Being, and endow'd with his radical and essential Qualities and Attributes of Life, Activity and Intelligence; so that all Spirits are, in their own Natures, diminutive or infinitely small Deities, and necessarily (now they are created, and have a derivative Existence from Him) must partake of his Immortality, Intelligence and Freedom, or his Divine Nature and Image; and consequently can never be annihilated, forced, or deprived of the Powers of Perception, Intelligence and Willing, no more He can.

§. 3. THESE Faculties and Powers of all Spirits are not only to be felt, but distinguished in every human Mind, duly exercised and cultivated, by attentively considering its Nature and Operations; but necessarily follow by Analogy, from the Nature of the first Cause, that Being of infinite Perfection, the Deity; who being of infinite Wisdom and Power, could find nothing without Himself, before Creation, to be a Model or Pattern for his intelligent Creatures; and therefore stamp'd them with his own most glorious Image, creating them little Divinities, resembling Himself in his radical and essential Attributes, so as at last to become similar to Him in Perfection and Happiness, in their several Orders, Gradations and Ranks. For infinite Perfection wanting nothing, and to whom no Happiness nor Perfection could be added, could have no other End or View, in producing rational Intelligences into Being, but to make them happy, by partaking of his essential Happiness, in their several Orders and Ranks; that is, in becoming similar to him in his natural as well as moral Attributes; his natural ones (as has been said) being Life, Intelligence and Activity; his moral ones, Justice, Goodness and Truth; in which two united consists the Perfection and Happiness of all intelligent Creatures.

§. 4. IN a mere Philosophical Disquisition, though no Argument is to be taken from Revelation; yet to express my Meaning so as to leave no room to be mistaken by such to whom Revelation is familiar, I shall represent it in the Words of the Scriptures. It is said in Genesis, on the Design of the Creation of the human Soul, Let us make Man after our own Image; and again, in the Image of God created he him; and elsewhere, You are God's Images: And to shew the human Rank, David says, He was created a little lower than the Angels; and our Saviour, speaking of Marriage, says, that in Heaven they are neither married, nor given in Marriage, but are like the Angels; and the same Manner of describing the human Spirit frequently occurs in the Scriptures, both of the old and new Testament.

§. 5. IT is a frequent and common Opinion of all Pagan and Christian Antiquity, that all created Intelligences have Bodies or Vehicles of one kind or another, fitted to their Order, Rank, Degree of Purity, Habitation and Situation. It is highly probable and philosophical, to think there is no perfectly pure and immaterial Spirit, but the Supreme Spirit, the Father and Creator of all Spirits; and that all created Spirits, how high and sublime soever, have proper and peculiar Bodies, and organiz'd Cases, not only to circumscribe and limit their Powers, and their Extension and Expansion, but to enable them to communicat, and commerciat with, to contemplat and admire the Contrivance of the material World; to converse with the lower Ranks of Intelligences, that we certainly know, have material Vehicles, such as we of the human Race are; but also to execute the Orders of the Divine Oeconomy and Providence, over the whole System of Intelligences, and material World. And accordingly we find Mention made in holy Writ, of a natural Body and a spiritual Body; and of the Sun and Planets having a particular Glory, in their Bodies, peculiar to themselves; and of the glorious Appearance and Radiation of our Saviour's Body on the Mount. And it is very absurd, and almost blasphemous, to think these Myriads of Stars and Luminaries, that appear in a Winter Night, in the Heavens, and its milky Way, to be nothing but twinkling Tapers, uninhabited, and designed only to be stupidly and ignorantly gaz'd on by us.

§. 6. WHAT a spiritual Substance, or of what Nature the Substratum of these Faculties of Understanding and Will, or of Thinking, is, we shall never perfectly know, till we arrive at the World of Spirits, and drop this coarse earthly Tabernacle. Indeed, we know nothing of the internal Substance of any Being; all we know or can know, is their sensible Qualities and the Effects of them on us; and something in general we learn of inanimated Bodies, and their Laws, from the Uniformity of these Effects: And we may be certain, that spiritual Substance is in most, if not all its Qualities, contradictory, at least contrary, to Body or material Substance, and vice versâ. For Example, we know that Matter is absolutely passive, and equally susceptible of Motion or Rest; and that Spirit, or spiritual Substances, are self-active and self-motive, and the immediate productive Cause of all Motion in Body, and consequently is endow'd with Freedom or Liberty. We know that Matter is impenetrable, and that two Bodies cannot possess the same Space at the same time; but Spirits may and can pervade and penetrat one another, at least by their spiritual Virtue and Energy; as is evident from Persuasion, Conviction, Reasoning and Compassion, and such-like spiritual Actions. It is true, the Sphere of their Activities is limited and circumscribed; but we also know, that the Spirit acts in every Point of that Circumscription: as we find by our Bodies, every Part of which is more or less sensible, by the membranous Mouths of the nervous Tubuli being spread over all the solid Parts of an animal Body; and we know no Body, or mere Matter, that is so. Matter is certainly divisible in infinitum, and may be actually divided into very small Parts; but Spirit, having no sensible Parts, is neither divisible nor discerptible. Persons of light Understandings, and gross Conceptions, may dispute or ridicule these Truths; but they must be poor Philosophers, who can think them not highly probable; and have a mean Notion of the Extent of Nature, and its Author. Four of the greatest Philosophers of this or any other Age, to wit, Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. Leibneitz, Mr. Hugens, and Mr. Fatio, when they describe the Matter, which they suppose to be the Cause of Gravity, consider it as infinitely small in its Particles, infinitely rare, infinitely elastic, and moved with an infinite Velocity. And the first of these, by a very strong Figure, calls it Spiritus quidam Subtilissimus. What these four Infinitudes may effect on Matter, to destroy at least these gross, palpable and sensible Qualities we observe in it, such as sensible Extension, Impenetrability and Passivity, I will not take upon me to determine: But all the Notion we can now form of Spirit, is to divide, refine, sublime and exalt Body and Matter ad infinitum, so that we be sure it can have very little of the sensible Qualities; and this, I fear, is as far as Philosophy can go, while we have only gross and palpable Vehicles of Clay. For by Analogy to infinitely divided, subtiliz'd, sublim'd and refin'd material substance, we form the only Idea, Notion or Perception, we can now frame of spiritual Substances, and that is but a gross one, and neither just nor true.

§. 7. LIVING, Sensation or Actuation of Matter, is not easy to define or describe. Existence or Being belongs to Matter as well as Spirit; but Life, Sensation or Perception, and their Consequences, belong only to some one Rank of Spirit or Mind; and I may defy all the Philosophers and Mathematicians, that ever have been, to explain consistently, from Matter and Mechanism alone, as it now obtains, the Life, Growth and Fecundity of the lowest Plant or Vegetable, at least its Seed or Seeding, much less of the least Insect or Animal, and least of all of a rational, sentient and percipient Being: So that where-ever there is any Degree of Life, Vegetative, Sensitive or Rational, there is probably some Degree of a Soul or Spirit, immaterial, immortal and progressive; so that Life or Animation, in all Creatures in general, is indeed Matter organiz'd and actuated by a Spirit, or Soul, of some one Rank or Degree or other: I mean only created Life, or Life derivative, as it is in Creatures; for in the Creator, Life is without Matter, without Body or Vehicle, and without Limits, or Possibility of Non-existence or not Living. The best Notion, Idea, or Perception, we can frame of created Life, is that of a nice, delicate, finely contriv'd Machine, of a vast Variety of Organs set in Motion by the first Cause, and continued by an internal self-motive Spring, which Spring is this spiritual Substance.

§. 8. As we have some Notion of what Extent the best-form'd and most cultivated human Spirit is, there may be Myriads of a lower Rank of the same Species; and that as under the human Species, there is an almost infinite Variety of the brutal and irrational Species, and under these, a like or greater Variety, of the vegetable Kind, from the Moss on the Wall and the coralline Sea-plant, up to the highest Divine, Philosopher or Mathematician of the human Race; and that all the several Species, from the highest to the lowest, sink so gradually into one another, that it is impossible to determine where one Degree ends, or the next begins: So it is also highly probable, that above the human Species there are Orders, Ranks and Hierarchies, rising gradually and insensibly, without Limits and without End. This the Dignity, Power, Wisdom and Goodness of the first infinitely perfect Being, and the Analogy of Things, seem to oblige us to conjecture or hope; and the infinite Variety of Systems, Fixt Stars, (which we known to be Suns, and very probably have primary and secondary Planets, analogous to ours) and the infinite Expansion of Space, makes it probable and philosophical. And as an Angel is only of a little higher and more noble Order than the human Race, and all created Intelligences have Vehicles or Bodies of an Order and Purity analogous to their Rank and Degree in the Scale of Intelligences; we may fairly and philosophically define a pure original, not lapsed, Angel, of the lowest Order, a spiritual Substance of the next immediat Order above the Human, actuating a divinely organiz'd Body, of a Purity and Sublimity analogous to their Order, and the Perfection of his informing Spirit.

§. 9. WE have a pretty clear Perception of what the human Race is at present, both in their Body and Spirit. He that has a just, though not an adequate Idea of infinite Perfection, that is, of infinite Power, Wisdom and Goodness, can find no possible Reason or Motive, why such a Being should create Intelligences, imperfect in their Order, unhappy and perishing, when the same Power, Wisdom and Goodness, could either have totally abstain'd from creating them at all, or have made them to be at last happy in their Order and Rank, consistent with their Natures and his own; Malice and Difficulty having no Place in such a Being. But any one who considers this ruinous disorder'd Globe, and the Miseries, Darkness and Wretchedness of the whole System of Intelligences that inhabit it, cannot but conclude one of these two, either that their Author had not Power to make them otherwise, or that they have wilfully forfeited their Rank, and his Favour and Protection, by transgressing the Terms and Conditions on which they were intitled to it; and so being left to reap the Fruits of their own Labour, sunk into a lapsed disorderly Condition.

§. 10. INFINITE Power, Wisdom and Goodness, could, primarily and originally, bring no Intelligence into Being, with rational and intelligent Spirits, actuating divinely organiz'd Bodies or Vehicles, but under these two Conditions: 1. That the organiz'd Body should be supple, pliable, and joyfully obedient to all the Dictates and Commands of the free intelligent Spirit: And, 2. That the Spirit should be supple, pliable, and obedient to the Dictates and Influences of the Eternal and infinitely perfect Spirit, its Author and Creator: And in these two, its original Innocence, Happiness and Perfection, must necessarily have consisted. And this was and must have been the true original and paradisaical State of both Body and Soul of the human Race; and must be the Constitution and Complexion of the unfallen angelical State, and of all the Hierarchies of unlapsed Spirits. Which two Conditions, I think, necessarily infer a preexistent State to our present one, since we do not find them in ourselves now.

§. 11. ALL created Intelligences being free and finite, must of Consequence be fallible, and liable to run into Disorder, as well as capable of obeying Order: For they could not be free, unless they had the Power of chusing either Side; Self-activity being of the Essence and Root of Intelligence, and perhaps the Source from which it springs; so that all created finite free Intelligences were naturally capable of Falling, of Rebellion and Disorder. An infinitely wise and intelligent Being, of sufficient Power, could not make another intelligent Being with Desires, Impressions and Pantings after a State which was according to Order, to his Nature, and the Nature of Things, unless at the same time He had appointed Means and proper Objects to satisfy these just and natural Desires; no beneficent and good Being could act so. Now that we (at least many of us of the human Race) have yet a Notion and Idea of a better State of Being and Acting, than we find ourselves in, and wish and pant after it, is most certain and undeniable; every honest and thinking Person must find a Law in his Members, that wars against the Law of his Mind, and wishes and desires to be freed from the one, that he may conform to the other. Now this is what is called the Lapse or Fall; and if this State of Imperfection last for ever, so must the Fall; and till this Desire or Panting be satisfied, the intelligent Creature cannot be completely happy; and for this End was the Oeconomy of Jesus intended.

§. 12. How and by what Steps the Lapse was brought on, is of no Consequence for us precisely to know. The Design and Point in View of all the Oeconomy of Providence, and of Jesus, is to restore us, with the Consent, Concurrence and Integrity of our three radical Attributes, of Living, Activity or Freedom, and Intelligence, which He cannot do Violence to, they being immediately derived from Himself, whose Images and Miniatures all Intelligences are: And the Means that alone can effect this, without intrenching upon these essential and radical Qualities, are pure Love, naked Faith, and universal Resignation; which Means we could not perfectly use, if precise Truths, particular and specific Steps, and the naked Nature of Things, were always pointed out to us: This (at first at least) would infallibly weaken our Faith and Trust, counteract our Resignation, and destroy our Liberty; and therefore all that is reveal'd concerning this, and the other Truths of past, future and invisible States, is general, undetermin'd, and indefinite; and the Precision is promis'd only on our Advancement and Progress. He that doth the Will of my Father, shall know of the Doctrine: Our first Lesson is just what is absolutely necessary to begin our Return; the Knowledge of more Truths and greater Precision, is to reward our Progress. The next immediate Step, or what is to be done daily and hourly, we are never ignorant of in our Duty; and that is all that is necessary; the rest are all wisely put out of our Reach, and do not belong to us now, till we advance that Step; and when we come into the proper Disposition of Body and Mind, to benefit by the just and precise Knowledge of these mentioned and such-like Divine Truths, (though absolute Precision be inconsistent with Finitude) we shall admire and adore the Wisdom of our Teacher, for having conceal'd from us what would then have hurt us, as much as for these general Truths, which serve sufficiently to animate and encourage us in our now travelling and probatory State; for both are directed with equal Wisdom. If we are ignorant, it is because we are not come into the proper Disposition to benefit by Knowledge, or that more precise Knowledge would hurt us, and draw us out of our Orbit, or shortest Road.

§. 13. IF we may be allow'd to conjecture with Humility and Modesty, about such unreveal'd and indefinite Truths and States, we may reasonably think, that this Lapse was not brought about all at once, but Step by Step, by many Machinations, Plots and Contrivances of the superior lapsed Intelligences on the Inferior. Nemo repente fit optimus aut turpissimus. Finite Intelligences must form and acquire all their Habits by repeated Acts, and Step by Step: So that in all Probability, the Fall might have been a long time in bringing about; and innumerable Numbers of all the several Ranks and Orders, and some of all the different Hierarchies, might have been brought into this general Rebellion, and have gradually departed from that pure Love, naked Faith and universal Resignation, which alone made the Essence of their Perfection and Happiness; though in the brief contracted Account we have of it in Revelation, it is compriz'd in a few general Words, which is all we in our present State, it seems, could bear, without Violence being committed on our Liberties, our universal Resignation obstructed, and the Merit of pure Love and a generous Trust and Confidence in infinite Perfection destroy'd; more explicit and detail'd Accounts, might have nourished Pride, Presumption and Self-sufficiency, and so sunk us deeper.

§. 14. OUR Senses were given us to commerciat with material Objects, and to perceive and enjoy the Beauties of the inanimate Creation, as well as to limit the Extension and Expansion of our Powers and Faculties; and by them all our Sensations, Ideas and Pictures of Bodies and inanimate Creatures, are convey'd to the sentient and intelligent Principle. The Key and Mean of all our natural Knowledge of them, is Experiment or Observation, perform'd by our Senses simply, or improv'd by Art, and the Logic of all human and natural Knowledge about them, is Proportion justly apply'd: For Syllogism and formal Argument, is but Proportion express'd in abstracted Terms, or the Ideas meant by these Terms; and this is the true and only Mean of natural Knowledge about Bodies and their natural Qualities and Laws. In spiritual Truths, imperceptible and immaterial Beings, (viz.) about their Nature, Qualities and Ranks, can know nothing naturally and humanly, (unless it be infus'd and impress'd by some other Spirit) but by Analogy, Similitude, Allegory, Trope, Metaphor, or Figure, referring them to, and comparing them with, our own intelligent and sentient Spirit, and its Manner of Operation; and then cloathing them with such Terms, or referring them to such Knowledge, as we have receiv'd from Sensation, or from Proportion; and this is the only Mean and Instrument of human Knowledge we can possibly have, in the Nature, Qualities and moral Relations of Spirits, spiritual and moral Actions and Duties. The sentient and intelligent Principle, or Soul, is the Spring or Source of both Keys or Kinds of Logic, without which both would be equally useless. Culture and Experience is in spiritual Knowledge, what Experiment and Observation is in sensitive Knowledge; Analogy is to the first, what Proportion is to the second; Similitude, Allegory, Trope, Metaphor and Figure, (all the Appendages of Analogy, or a more distant or near Approximation to it) are what a more or less accurate, a general or more particular Experiment and Observation, or juster and clearer Proportion apply'd to material Objects, is in sensitive Knowledge; and a close, simple, full and cogent Analogy, is as just and coercive a Demonstration in spiritual Knowledge, as a Mathematical or Geometrical one is in sensitive Knowledge. Scripture, Revelation, and our own inward Feelings of the Operations of our Soul, give the Data, (viz. the general Propositions, the accurate Observations on them) analogous to Mr. Flamstead's or Dr. Halley's Observations of the Appulses of the Moon to the Fixed Stars, from sufficient Numbers of which, the great Orbit of the Lunar Revolution is determin'd, by comparing them with the general Law of Attraction. Here Revelation gives us the Observations; the Knowledge we have of the Nature of the Operations of our own Spirits, gives us the general Law; and Analogy may answer to Algebra and Calculation in Astronomy and mix'd Mathematics; and we may err and blunder in the first for want of Care and Attention, as we may in the last, being ever finite, and consequently fallible.

§. 15. THE Account we have in Revelation of the Lapse, may have a literal, natural and material Meaning (as all the Words and Works of God have a natural or literal, spiritual and divine Meaning and Use, else he were not God, that is, a Being of infinite Perfection); and these Meanings may only develope and unfold themselves, and appear to different Persons, according to their different Degrees of Purity and Perfection; the literal and cortical Meaning and Use, may be fitted to elementary and initiating Persons, and be just and true in its Degree; and the others proper only for the more advanced; and this with infinite Variety, Justness and Property. Now in Moses's Account of the Lapse, the Tree of Life, of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Serpent, Paradise, and all the Scene and Group of this mysterious Affair, was certainly literal, material and real, as there represented and described; but perhaps happen'd not till the last Act of this Tragedy. Paradise was certainly a most delicious and enchanting Place of material and bodily Delights; the Tree of Life and its Fruit was design'd to perpetuat the Life and Health of the then new-modell'd, though not perhaps Ethereal Vehicle; the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, certainly communicated by its Fruit, Pain, Diseases and Death to this partially incrusted Body: The Serpent, no Doubt, was a lapsed Spirit, embodied in this then more beautiful Animal. Now as all this Scene, may have also spiritual Meaning as well as a literal and elementary one, of more Consequence to our Happiness and Perfection to be known and believ'd, as the Spirit is of more Value than the Body; why may not Paradise mean in this Sense, the three original and fundamental Powers of the Soul, Living, Activity or Liberty, and Intelligence, or its original and immutable Nature and Constitution, intrusted with us finite Intelligences, to cultivate, improve and exalt? The Tree of Life be Him, from whom all Life and Being proceeds, the Father of us all? The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the primary Image of the Deity, the Son of God, by whose Oeconomy Evil known and felt, could only be done away and eraz'd, or his divine Nature, Justice, Goodness and Truth, which Image was in the human Nature defac'd, by trusting it to his own Spirit and Liberty? The Serpent, the grand Deceiver, or lapsed spiritual Nature in General, or one of the highest Order of the lapsed Hierarchy? And so the whole Scene of the Lapse may be more properly and feelingly allegoriz'd, or explain'd in plain Terms to an honest and ingenuous Heart, (viz.) thus: All created finite Intelligences being free, and consequently fallible, innumerable Numbers of them, through Pride, Self-sufficiency, and Desire of Independence, trusting to, and conducting themselves by their own natural Lights, as being made little Deities, and deriveing with their Being from their Author, a Ray, Efflux, or infinitesimal Emanation of his Self-existence, infinite Activity or Power, and infinite Wisdom, that is, of his Nature and essential Attributes; deriving, I say, dependent and derivative Living, Freedom and Intelligence, but affecting Independency, and departing from pure Love, naked Faith and universal Resignation to infinite Perfection, they gradually sunk into Selfishness, Propriety and inordinate Love of the Creatures; and instead of being govern'd absolutely in all things by the Providence, Influences, Impulses and Suggestions of the Eternal Spirit, they affected to be govern'd by their own natural Spirits, and selfish and narrow Views and Prejudices, and became, as it were, independent, unguarded, and unrestrain'd Thinkers and Actors, prying into and determining in all Matters whatsoever; and instead of being resign'd to the universal Reason and sovereign Will and Order of Divine Providence, found Fault with, criticis'd, grumbled at, and blasphem'd the Conduct and Oeconomy of infinite Wisdom, and gradually departed from pure Love, naked Faith, and Trust, and universal Resignation, the sole Means to preserve them in the Perfection of their dependent State, and in Similarity to his moral Attributes; and so fell from the perfect Happiness of their Rank and derivative Being; Self, spurious Self, became transubstantiated into their thus deprav'd Natures.

§. 16. WHEN human Nature had thus lapsed, by affecting Independence, and desireing to govern itself by its own natural Spirit solely, and wallowing in the Objects of Sense, and swallow'd in Creature-pleasures, it being an eternal Law, establish'd in Nature, (for many wise and great Ends) and, by Analogy, (as we find it) extending from material to spiritual Things, viz. that Like draws and is equally drawn to Like; or that Bodies and Spirits attract and unite with similar Bodies and Spirits, from the universal Principle of Attraction and Union; the human Body did hence necessarily and mechanically (as it were) contract a Rust, Grossness, Stupor and Inactivity, and became restive and disobedient to the Commands of the natural Spirit, gradually degenerating into an earthly, gross, material Prison or Dungeon; and the Spirit was hereby more contracted, restrain'd and limited in its original and immutable Attributes of Liveing, Activity and Intelligence, as to their Extention, Purity, the Quickness and Exertion of their Acts, (for all Spirits are limited and tied down to the Nature, Order and Purity of their Vehicles, while their Union lasts, though their natural Powers in their Fund and Essence be immutable, and constantly the same) so that their natural Spirits now being assisted by the supernatural Grace and Influence of the Eternal Spirit, procur'd by the Mediation of Jesus, must work out their Recovery and Restoration by gradually returning to their original Order.

§. 17. PERHAPS, as all animated Beings, Sentient or Intelligent, must necessarily be cloath'd with some Vehicle, purer or grosser, ethereal or planetary, fitted to the Mansion they are confin'd to, and to their Degree of Purity in their moral Powers, and their Extention or Rank of natural Powers; so all created free Intelligences, of whatever Order or Degree, must necessarily pass through some State of Probation, Apprenticeship and Trials, of their Love, Faith and Patience, before they can arrive at their final, immutable, and for ever permanent State, and the Mansion they are eternally to inhabit afterwards. That something like this was the general Sense of Mankind, seems to be hinted in all Pagan Antiquity that we have any Accounts of, Egyptian, Syrian, Grecian and Roman, by their Initiations into the Mysteries of their Gods; and this, chiefly, in order to produce an habitual Firmness, Force and Stability, on finite, free, labile Intelligences, in the different Institutions. It would seem, as none but God is a pure Spirit in his Nature and Substance, none but God can be infallible and impeccable: And that all Creatures being finite and free, must necessarily, by their Nature, be labile, fallible and peccable; and that even infinite Wisdom and Power could not make a Creature (for God cannot work Contradictions) that was of its own Nature, illabile, infallible and impeccable; but that before that secondary Nature of eternal Infallibility, Illability and Impeccability could be brought about, on the most perfect of created Intelligences, it must necessarily be, by confirm'd Habits, produced by repeated Acts, and perfected into pure Love and naked Faith, or into an absolute Surrendry of their natural and moral Powers, to infinite Perfection, which alone can produce derivative Infallibility and Illability on them, and so eternize Perfection and Happiness, and which only can be produced by various Trials, Essays and Temptations to the contrary: He who never was tempted, what knoweth he? Thus the Son of God, as Man, was made perfect by Suffering: As a Potter gives Firmness and Impenetrability to his Earthen Ware, by keeping it in the Fire till it vitrifies. Had Lucretia lived to all Eternity, her Chastity would never have been doubted; whereas Cleopatra must not only first have made an Amende Honorable, but have pass'd through several severe new Trials, before her's could have been believ'd. We plainly find by Revelation, that many of all the several Hierarchies fell on their Trial; for tried they must have been, else they could not have fallen; for Reaction always supposes Action. As it is the Nature of Pride and Malice, to be spiteful, infectious and tempting, (in Hopes that Numbers may make them overlook'd, or too powerful, and so secure) we find they, or their Leader, (suppose his Name Lucifer) had a great hand in the human Lapse, as it is glanced at under the Serpent that tempted Eve. And from this Fall of the Angels, the natural and plain Account of Daemonology, and the early impious Heresy of the Manichaeans, (Lucifer and his Angels) is to be deriv'd. What the Trials of these fallen Angels were, and in what manner those of the Angels in the several Hierarchies who stood, combated, kept firm and unshaken, and thereby were for ever confirm'd, establish'd and eterniz'd, and perhaps increas'd and inlarg'd in Purity, Lustre and Glory, by their Victory; is not reveal'd, nor to be discover'd but by Analogy or Conjecture. The History of the human Lapse is so brief and obscure in Moses, (perhaps partly allegorical, partly literal) with a plain Design to damp idle or hurtful Curiosity, and so prevent our being hurt thereby, by withdrawing us from the one thing necessary, that it amounts almost to a total Forbidding, and a Warning from prying with too much Eagerness into this mysterious Affair; and to leave things secret (the Secreta Imperii Divini) to God. All that is certain is, that we are lapsed at present, or in a State of Trial and Probation, (we of the human Race on this ruinous Planet) and cannot possibly now be as we came out of the Hands of our infinitely wise, good and powerful Creator. Pre-existence, the Manner of our Lapse, the Duration of our Banishment, and the last Term and Limits of our Restoration, are, with infinite Wisdom and Goodness, in their Detail conceal'd from us, because they would infallibly hurt us; if more precise, they might obstruct the Merit of Faith, or draw us out of the shortest Way. Either of these two Manners of explaining the Lapse, may suffice an honest modest Philosopher, (who is sensible of his own limited Faculties) to make the Affair neither improbable nor impossible; especially when he finds himself both imperfect, unhappy, and unfit to be finally united with a Being infinitely perfect and happy, as He now is. I chuse the first, as more conformable to Revelation, and the Form of sound Words; and every modest Christian Philosopher will be cautious not to be wise, above what is written.

§. 18. WHETHER this Globe of Earth, as we now inhabit it, was the original and primitive Seat of innocent and unlapsed human Spirits, and by the Energy and Force of the Lapse, was gradually and necessarily, and, according to the present Laws of Bodies, turn'd into the ruinous, dark, dismal State it is now in, and such elementary and clayey Prisons made of it, as our present Vehicles, and the human Race, with all the Spirits concern'd in the Rebellion, thrust down and confin'd upon it, is not material to be known, nor perhaps philosophically to be determin'd: It seems most probable, and conformable to the Analogy of Things, and the common Laws of Nature, that it gradually and naturally changed from its original Beauty and superior Place among the Stars, into its present ruinous and decay'd State, from the natural Malignity, and deleterious Energy of the Rebellion in its primitive Inhabitants, which perhaps was gradual. What is certain is, that such a Place as Paradise is describ'd, is now no-where to be found on it; and that balancing the Inconveniencies with the Advantages, of want of Light and Sun, and of cold, uncertain and various Seasons, of Barrenness, and Mountains cover'd with Ice and Snow, of the one Part, with the Hurricanes, Tempests, Volcano's, Earthquakes, Thunder and Lightning, poisonous Insects, and ravenous and savage Beasts, scorching Heats, and pestilential Winds, Blasts or Damps, of the other, the whole Globe is pretty near equal in Conveniencies; and no particular Place without its Comforts and Inconveniencies. So that either Paradise was on some other Planet, or (which is most natural to suppose) Crime, Rebellion and Disorder have had a physical and necessary Influence, on the Matter or Vehicle belonging to each human Spirit; and thus the whole Mass of rebellious Intelligences, with the Globe they inhabited, was naturally and physically chang'd and disorder'd. I say, it is most natural and philosophical, and perhaps a necessary Consequence of physical Efficiency and Energy, to conclude that the Spirit, according to its Degree of Purity or Depravity, should purify and sublime, or corrupt and disorder the elementary Vehicle, with which it is cloathed: as Fire turns Bodies into its own Nature, and Cold deadens and incrassats them, according to the Degree of their Intenseness. We see Luxury, inordinat Leachery, Riot and Laziness, first incrassat, then inflame, and at last mortify and putrify human and animal Bodies; and Abstinence, a low and cool Regimen, Exercise and Air, lighten, enliven and volatilize them. And it is not impossible, that a whole Race, and all the Inhabitant Mass of such corrupted and putrified Bodies, and deprav'd and degenerated Spirits, may have had such an insensible and gradual Influence on a whole Globe, its Atmosphere and different Regions, as quite to alter its original Nature; as we see Heaps of putrifying Fish, Insects, and the Carcasses of Men, by the Fermentation and Volatilization of the animal Salts, (from intense Heat) produce an universal Plague and Pestilence, as was that of Athens, and many others. Thus far the Change of our Planet might have been a natural and necessary Consequence at least, the Elements, or Beginning of such a Depravation of the Bodies of its Inhabitants, and their Habitation: which, no doubt, infinite Wisdom and Power, (who directs the natural and necessary Effects of his inanimat Creation, for the moral Purposes of his intelligent Creatures, supernaturally) and out of the general Law establish'd for material Bodies and spiritual Substances, may have heighten'd, exasperated, or even quicken'd, according to his Pleasure, for the wise Ends and Purposes of his Providence; and thus might have destroyed that Paradise, which by Rebellion and Disorder had been abus'd, viz. supernaturally and contrary to the general Laws of the Celestial Motions, might have changed the Orbit, the Centre of Rotation, the Distance of the Earth from the Sun, and the Angle of the Ecliptic with the Equator; to reverse the Elements, destroy its Figure and Structure, and thus to weaken the Fertility, and produce the rest of the Appearances we now observe on our Planet, and throughout the whole Solar System, which have many evident Marks of Ruin and Desolation; and this for a Punishment and expiatory Purification of the lapsed Inhabitants: And thus also the Deluge might have been brought on, after the Destruction of a paradisaical Globe, by altering only its Centre of Gravity; and after the same Manner other Changes might have been produc'd.

§. 19. AN animal Body is nothing but a System or Aggregat of mere mechanical Powers, viz. of Ropes, Pullies, Levers, Tubes, Glands, Strainers, and the like; viz. One great Pipe with infinite Branches, (infinite in Number, Fitness and Delicacy;) secreting proper and specific Liquors, to keep them (these Solids) in Repair, and preserve them in their due Tone, and a proper Degree of Elasticity, thereby to serve the Intentions, and answer the Ends of the intelligent Spirit, while confin'd to this Planet. And as I have often used the Similitude, I still find it the most proper, viz. that the Body, this earthly Vehicle and Machin, is, as it were, a curious finely contriv'd Organ, or musical Instrument, whose Keys, Stops and Pipes were all originally, elegantly adjusted and duly tun'd, for the Use of the Musician, or indwelling Spirit. In this Fitness and Propriety to answer the Purposes of the Creator, does the Union consist; if that is partly disorder'd, this Union is partially dissolv'd; while the great and necessary Parts are tolerably sound, the Union will still subsist, tho' imperfectly; but if these essential Organs are quite spoiled, the Union will be totally dissolv'd, and the Inhabitants, by the eternal Laws of Spirits, must necessarily find out, and pass into some other astral Vehicle, or musical Organ, proper for its then Degree of Purity or Corruption; as an Insect is, by the great Law of Instinct, directed to deposit her Eggs on those Leaves or Trees that are fittest to preserve and vivify them; or a Bird seeks by Instinct, the Situation and Materials for her Nest, that is most proper to shelter and accommodate her Young; and this perhaps in a continual Progression, from astral Vehicle to Vehicle, perpetually refining, as the rational free Intelligence purifies in its moral Capacity or Attributes.

§. 20. MATTER, or Body, is essentially incapable of any thing but Division, Figure, Motion and Situation. It is naturally passive, and to make it active, or capable of Self-motion, is an absolute Contradiction and Impossibility; for two opposite and contrary Principles can never subsist in the same Subject: and therefore it must be intirely inert and passive, and for ever continue in the State it is put in, unless it be chang'd by some external Force; and that can never be effected but by a Spirit, or spiritual Substance: which, on the contrary, is essentially self-active and self-motive, and by its Agency determines the Motion and Rest, and different Directions and Actions of Bodies. It is true, this Agency is under certain Restrictions, being limited and subjected to the general Laws of the Nature of Bodies; but the Beginning, End and Degree of the Force and Motion, and all other Changes produc'd in Bodies, are from the Energy and Action of spiritual Substances, either primary or secondary, original or created; so that where Matter, Mechanism and its Powers and Laws end, there spiritual Agency and Energy begin. And therefore I fear, that Sir Isaac Newton's Spiritus quidam subtilissimus, Descartes's and Leibnitz's Vortices, Hugens's and Fatio's infinitely rare, rapid, subtil Matter, with the Qualities they must endow them, to solve Appearances, (I mean only in animated Bodies, for in Inanimat it may be required, nay some such Fluid seems necessary, I think) is, I fear, imaginary and without Foundation, from sufficient Experiment, or the Anology of Nature; unless by their infinitly subtil Matter, they mean real spiritual Substance, or else the first Elements of Bodies; for Matter must be extended, divisible, inert, and gravitat, else it can be no longer Matter; and when such immaterial, and, as it were, self-moving Matter is granted, it will separate us, but one Step further from spiritual Substance and Agency; or the perpetual Influence of the First Cause, in whom all things live, move and have their Being. And, I fear, the whole of the Supposition, how mechanical and adequat soever, to answer Appearances in all animated Beings, and in all Accounts of it given by these great Men, has not that Simplicity and Beauty conspicuous in, and essential and necessary to, all the Works of God, i. e. to infinit Wisdom and Power. Of the same kind are animal Spirits, in the Account of muscular Motion; and, on the whole, I can conceive Matter no otherwise, but as divided, extended, mov'd and figur'd, and actuated and directed by Spirit, which only can act on it, by its own self-motive Energy, tho' that too is limited and circumscrib'd by Matter, in all created Spirits. If Experiment or repeated Observations should ascertain the Existence of such an infinitely rare and elastic Matter necessarily, (which I fear it will hardly do) then we must submit to receive it; but, I think, since Resistance will always necessarily accompany Matter in Motion, how small, rare or elastic soever, it will of consequence at last alter the Figure and Direction, and abate the Force and Figure of the Particles, so as to render them unfit to produce the Effect, and answer present Appearances; and perhaps this System may be so ordain'd at first thus to end. But still, as we must stop somewhere at last, and admit of spiritual Agency to impress the first Motion, nothing but repeated and undeniable Experiment and Observation should induce us to multiply Causes, and allow any such Fluid intervening between animated Matter and the first or secondary Movers. This will be better understood by an Example: It is well known what Pains have been taken, and how many Hypotheses have been fram'd, not only by Physicians, but Geometers of the first Rank, to explain muscular Motion, and all, I think, hitherto in vain. This subtil Matter under the Name of animal Spirits, (or at least in propagating them) and even Sir Isaac's Spiritus subtilissimus, has been imploy'd for this Purpose, tho' with little Satisfaction to most attentive and qualify'd Judges. How much more natural, philosophical and simple is it, to suppose the Nerves to be infinitly delicat and mechanically adjusted membranous Tubes, Twists or Ropes, whose Elasticity and Mechanism is preserv'd by an internal milky soft Pith, which Membranes receive their first Impression and Impulse from the self-motive Principle within us, (for the self-moveing Principle must communicat the first Impulse either on this suppos'd intermediat Fluid, or on these Membranes, and either of them is equally unintelligible and explicable; but the last is the shortest way, and therefore likeliest to be the Method of the Author of Nature, who always works the shortest Way, and after the simplest Manner, as may be mathematically demonstrated in all his real and natural Workings) and communicat and propagat it by proper and harmonious Oscillations to the Muscles, by whose mechanical Structure those harmonious Motions are excited into Action, by that admirable Mechanism so fully and justly explain'd, by the learned and ingenious Dr. Alexander Stewart! How much more simple and natural is it to conceive, that the Surfaces of Bodies, their Effluvia or repelling Steams, communicat certain justly proportion'd and commensurable Undulations, Vibrations and Tremors to such membranous Pipes, which the natural Sagacity of the intelligent Principle knows by its own innate Powers, to indicat the Presence of such and such Bodies; in the same Manner as the Governor of a besieg'd Town, or the several Ships of a Fleet, understand what such a Number of Guns, or such a Flag, import and signify! Thus Things are easy, intelligible and simple. We daily see and hear, what fine Pieces of Music a skilful Musician can fling off a well-tun'd Instrument, from the various Motions of his Fingers or Voice: But this I propose as a mere Illustration. If Experiment should shew the Necessity of the mentioned ethereal Fluid, even then, I think, it will take Place only in unanimated Nature. And if there is any Regard to be had to such an Hypothesis, before it be absolutely decided by Experiment, it must be, because Nature and its Author never act by Starts, Fits, and Intervals, but by slow, uniform and imperceptible Degrees, tho' the Progression is often not to be determin'd by finite Experiments, or finite Capacities. But even tho' the Organs of Sense may and do want Media, the animal Functions are too intimat and necessary to Life to need such.

§. 21. LIFE, Activity and Intelligence, are natural and necessary in some Degree to all spiritual Beings, as all the Consequences and Combinations of them are; as being Miniatures, Sparkles or Infinitesimals of the Deity. All of the same Order, Rank or Hierarchy, have these nearly in the same Degree; and these Hierarchies and Ranks, differ only in their Degrees of these primary Attributes. What may make the most apparent Difference in this State of things, in the Individuals of the same Rank or Species, is, perhaps, the more coarse or elegant Texture; or the Fitness or Unfitness of their ethereal Vehicles in their first Formation, as they primarily came out of the Hands of their Maker. All the radical Differences conspicuous in the human Race now, are owing to the different Frame, Texture and Culture of their bodily Machin, and its spiritual Organs; so that originally there must have been no Difference of Sexes, because at last, in their restor'd and recover'd State there will be none; they will, in that respect, be like the Angels, as Revelation expresly asserts. Something analogous to Creative Fecundity, possibly, may be even in Angels, and primarily may have been too in the human Race, because of their Similarity and Resemblance to those Angels, and to their grand Original the Deity; I say, some miniature Resemblance of his Creative Power might have been in them. Beneficent Nature must be necessarily communicative, and earnestly desirous, there may be infinitly more Beings to contemplat, worship and adore the infinitly perfect Being, and admire the Operations of his Hands, to imitat Him, and partake of his Felicity. But how this Creative Power, or earnest Desire of more Intelligences, operated then, I will not take upon me to conjecture: But certain it is, that the Division of the Sexes was after the Lapse was begun, and, perhaps, when it was far advanc'd; possibly to put a Drag on it, and prevent the final Degeneracy into Self-love, or an idolatrous and unnatural Commerce with the brute Creation.

§. 22. IT is both philosophical and highly probable to suppose, that the Bodies as well as the Spirits of all the human Race were created at one and the same time; at least were sent into these Adamical Dungeons they now inhabit, at one and the same time. The Spirit endow'd with the three radical Qualities of Life, Activity and Intelligence, in the Perfection that belong'd to its Order and Species; and the Body, in the Perfection of their then Estate, at least in the original and first Stock, in whose Loins were included in Miniatures and Infinitesimals, in a perpetual Progression descending, all the Race and Mass that should ever exist, of that Species. This will be no Difficulty to those who know and understand, the infinit Divisibility of Matter, and the Doctrine of first, second, third and consequent Fluxions or Differences, as they are now demonstrated and explain'd. These infinitesimal Bodies have probably been animated, and growing in their own Manner, and according to their Laws, from their first Formation, and from the Time of the primary general Creation, till they arriv'd at their full Maturity. No doubt both these miniature and mature Bodies, were vastly different from what we find our lapsed earthly Tabernacles now are. As the Spirit was perfect in its Kind, so was the Body: As the Spirit was pliant, supple, and chearfully obedient to the Influences of the Eternal Spirit, (which was breath'd into it by the Spirit of God, viz. pure disinterested Love) so was the Body pliant and obedient to the Commands of the human Spirit: All was Order, Peace, Love and Harmony; and probably the Frame and Figure of the Body might be in many Particulars different from what we now find it, as we have observ'd of the Difference of the Sexes in the former Section; and these Differences may be necessary in one State of the Progression, and may naturally drop off, and decay, in another, when of no further Use: Instances of which we may see in the different Shapes of seminal Animalculs, Eggs, Nymphae and young Insects, from what they have when arriv'd at Maturity; of a Chick in the Egg, from what it is when perfectly grown; in the several Stages of the Silk-worm, and most other animated Beings, Vegetables as well as Animals. And this is a just and wise Contrivance, and evidently demonstrates Design in the Maker, to fit the living Creature for its several Situations. But what is most material, is, that even this now Adamical and gross Tabernacle of ours, must necessarily contain under it, the Principles, Elements, Springs and linear Root of that ethereal or paradisaical Body it was created in, and of that perhaps glorious Body it will be restor'd to at last in the final Recovery (which perhaps are both the same). But this can be no Difficulty to those who know that the Rays of the Sun are but Matter and Body, which may be contain'd in a Dungeon of Putrefaction, and in a Dunghil as well as in the azure Sky; and that the Particles of Matter attract and repel each other in different Circumstances, and purify and sublime as well as incraffat and condense, by the mere Force and Energy of the present Laws of Nature: And this Law, by which the whole Stock of such an Order and Rank of Intelligences advances in a certain Progression towards Happiness and Perfection, (the Confirmation and Stability of which is only to be found in the last and most perfect State of Purity and Happiness, as being free, but finite, and consequently fallible Creatures) must absolutly depend on and be brought about by Experience, confirm'd Habits, many appropriated Trials, and much gradual Labour; for nothing is more certain than the Axiom, Nemo repente fit turpissimus aut optimus. This Law, I say, of deriving the whole Race from such a radical Stock in an increasing Progression, was a noble Design, and of infinite Love and Wisdom, for rendering the succeeding and posterior Generations Partakers of all the Acquisitions of Wisdom, Knowledge, and other Improvements of their Predecessors: But as Corruptio optimi est pessima, by the Lapse all the contrary has happen'd, and

Aet as parentum pejor avis tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem.

So that what infinit Love and Goodness could not effect, that is, render finite fallible Intelligences fixed, and eternally stable in Order and Purity: Punishment, Experience and Trial may at last effect, tho' in an unnatural and retrograde Manner: But for this Misfortune, infinit Wisdom is no more to be blam'd, than a kind Father that leaves a comfortable Subsistence to a prodigal Son, is to be charg'd with the Miseries and Diseases he has contracted in squandering it.

§. 23. THERE may possibly be original Difference in the Complexion and Frame of the Spirits of the same Rank and Order of Intelligences: some have one or more of their natural and radical Attributes in a greater Degree of Perfection than others, which certainly are heighten'd by the different Degrees of Perfection and Improvement of their moral Qualities; it being sufficient to constitute their Degree or Rank, that the Sum total of their Qualities, one to compensat the other, be originally pretty near equal. But I should think the greatest Difference consists in the Culture: The righteous Man is more excellent than his Neighbour, says the Royal Prophet; which is only from his cultivating into higher Habits his moral Qualities; and it is the same with both Parts of the Compound, the Qualities of which, in all finite free Intelligences, must ever depend, to a certain Degree, on Culture and Improvement, in the Docility or Facility of the Spirit, and Pliancy of the Body. He that by Study, entering into his own Heart, thinking, reflecting, remembering, and acting, cultivats his Spirit, will continually acquire a Facility, Quickness and Penetration in intellectual Opperations; and he that by Air, Exercise, a low Diet, and proper and well-tim'd Remedies, improves and heightens his Health, and perfects his animal Functions, will be fitter and more capable to improve his intellectual Faculties. The bodily Machine, disorder'd or spoil'd, will sink, debase, blunt and confound the Operations of the Spirit; and the Spirit violently agitated, or too closely confin'd, will disturb the Oeconomy of the bodily Functions: and the perfect State of Health, and the last Perfection of all intelligent Creatures, consisting of an intelligent Spirit and a material Machine, depends on the perfect Sanity and Harmony of both united, in their respective Order and Rank. A superior Degree of Perfection in either, will consist with an inferior Degree in the other; but when either the Spirit is quite uncultivated, or in an infinitesimal Degree only, the radical Qualities of Living, Activity and Intelligence, may be dwindled into that one of mere Living, as in Children and Ideots, perhaps Brutes; and when the Body is much in Disorder, the spiritual Faculties, however cultivated, either wander at random, or act irregularly. But the Fund of the Spirit, or the radical Qualities, may be eternally the same, invariable and unalterable in their Order and Rank, whatever happens to the bodily Machine; only the sensible and elicited Acts will vary and alter; or, which is the same thing, the radical Qualities of Living, Activity and Intelligence, may be invariable in the Rank and Degree proper to such a Species of spiritual Nature, whatever Machine or bodily Organ it be cloathed with; only it cannot exert its elicit or exterior Acts without a proper Machine: As a Musician is still in his Nature and Fund a good Musician, whether he has an Organ or musical Instrument to play on or not, or whatever sort of musical Instrument he has; but he never can perform an harmonious pleasant Piece of Music, without having a perfect and proper musical Instrument. An Angel is still an Angel in his Nature, whatever Vehicle he appear in; but cannot perform his Office to the human Species, unless he appear in some Shape or Vehicle familiar and proper to his Commission. So that as to the human Species, the present Body and Vehicle was design'd, and is necessary only to commerciat and communicat with the System of Bodies or Beings cloathed with material and sensible Appearances and Qualities, as they now are in their ruinous State: For as to invisible, imperceptible, and spiritual Objects and Beings, the first Elements of any Knowledge about them, must intirely and solely be deriv'd from Analogy, to the Ideas and Resemblances of Things, convey'd to the sentient Principle through the Senses; and when these elementary Steps are gone through, and become familiar and easy, spiritual Agency and Operation (if such be allow'd) may then begin its Influence and Effects: For when the Mind has been duly cultivated and habituated to a Faculty of Thinking, to abstracted Sentiments, Reflections and Ideas, then rational, spiritual and closer Thinking, becomes familiar and easy: But the Rudiments, and initial Procedure, must be deriv'd through the Senses, in Perceptions and Ideas excited by Matter and its Qualities, but improved by Analogy and its Appendages, Trope, Metaphor, Similitude and Hieroglyphic.

§. 24. THE natural Progression and final Cause or Reason of this Oeconomy, as far as philosophical Reasoning may go in such Matters, may be this: The original and radical Qualities of all spiritual Natures being (as has been often said) Liveing, Activity and Intelligence, and these being unalterable and eternally the same, in the specific Order and Rank, a vast Number (perhaps of all the several Orders of the Hierarchies) lapsed and fell, and ran into Rebellion and Disorder, (being finite and free) and so defac'd and lost their moral Qualities of Justice, Goodness and Truth. Infinit Wisdom and Love then, always intending to recover and restore his lapsed Creatures, must, by the eternal unalterable Laws of his Nature, bring it about in a Manner consistent with their original and radical Qualities; that is, by preserving their Life or Liveing, their Activity or Liberty, and their Intelligence or Understanding. In loseing their moral Attributes, they perhaps lost or spoil'd, their paradisaical or glorious Body with which they were originally cloath'd, and were new-cloath'd over it, with a crass, unactive Tabernacle or Prison, such as we find our present Adamical one now is; by which means our radical Qualities were greatly confin'd, and more narrowly circumscrib'd, and we were reduc'd to a State of Annihilation and Extinction as to them (as it were) for a long Tract of Time: Our radical Qualities of Liveing, Activity and Intelligence being thus reduc'd to the single one of Liveing; as the whole human Race actually once were in the Loins of their first Parent Adam, or whoever was the first of the human Race. From that time they have been developeing, extending and unfettering their Adamical Tabernacles (every one in his Order) thus spread over the internal ethereal Vehicle, till they came to a certain Degree of Maturity, and had form'd the several new-cloath'd Organs, Pipes and Springs of this second Adamical Machin, fit to perform the probatory and expiatory Harmony, in this Period of Duration, in order to acquire and regain their moral Attributes of Justice, Goodness and Truth, and to return into Order, and, consequential, Happiness: Finite Beings, are absolutely uncapable to regain these moral Attributes consistent with their natural and necessary ones, but by a gradual Progress, (viz.) by Labour, Patience, Experience and Trial, by which they may be gradually confirm'd into permanent Habits, and advanced to the Degree of their Order and Rank, or perhaps higher; and thus their natural Attributes being depress'd and sunk into an Equality with their moral Ones, by being thus cloathed and circumscrib'd with gross Vehicles, their natural Powers are preserv'd from Violence, and only sopited for a time, till the moral Qualities begin to rise; and then both may go on in the same Pace, which, it would seem, could, by no other possible or imaginable Means, be so consistently brought about. For the natural Attributes of Liveing, Activity and Intelligence, preserv'd at their utmost original Extent, must necessarily have counteracted and clashed with the Acquisition of the moral Attributes to any Degree of Perfection. For Example; innate, precise Knowledge, and a penetrating Understanding, in any thing, in this our lapsed Estate, would necessarily have counteracted Dependence, Meekness, Poverty of Spirit, Humility, pure Love, and universal Charity; and unbounded Liberty must have clash'd with Restraints, Submission and Resignation, now (at least) so absolutely necessary to the Acquisition of the moral Powers to any Degree, and so of the rest of the moral Attributes. But by thus depressing the natural Attributes to the Level of the moral ones, both may, without Violence, be in time restor'd to their appointed Order and Degree; that is, they gradually and Step by Step, may be turn'd into permanent Habits, by the Divine Grace, and the Oeconomy of Jesus.

§. 25. HENCE, the moral Attributes being defac'd by the Lapse, and the natural ones brought down to a Level with them, by confining them to gross Vehicles or Prisons, the whole of the intellectual Operations must, in some measure, depend on the bodily Machin, as well, as the Degree and Perfection of the moral Attributes, in this present lapsed State, at least in its first Steps and Initiation. The intellectual Operations can never be so regularly and perfectly exerted, while the Body is in Disorder; a sick and diseased Person seldom perceives truly, nor reasons justly; and a vicious Person never judges solidly, that is, by Number, Weight and Measure, nor acts perfectly. But that this may be more clearly understood, it may want a little further Detail. I say nothing here of a possible passive State in advanced Christianity, that being above Philosophy or Conjecture, and perhaps the last Scene of the Drama of Restoration.

§. 26. WHAT Men call a Genius, or a Man of fine natural Parts, a Hero, or a Philosopher, (before the Fund, the whole created spiritual Substance, or the moral as well as the natural Attributes, be acquir'd and cultivated into a Habit) is much owing to the Perfection of the Machin or Vehicle, and its spiritual or ethereal (now cloathed over with Clay) Organs. The intellectual Faculties require proper Organs, Springs, Ropes and Pipes, to perform their Operations by, as well as the Senses; and these probably are the Arteriolae, Fibrils and membranous Tubuli prolong'd, of the cortical and glandular Parts of the Brain, which are diversify'd and delicatly modify'd ad infinitum; the Detail and Mechanism of which never was, nor perhaps ever will be, philosophically explain'd: But that the Perfection of the intellectual Operations in our present State, depends, in some measure, on the Soundness and Integrity of the Body, and these particular Organs, there are many undeniable Evidences to prove, as shall be afterwards shewn. What I would here insinuat is, that the Delicacy, Fineness and Perfection of one Set of these intellectual Organs, beyond that of another Set, is that which makes the Genius, Hero or Philosopher. Thus the Health of the Body being good and sound, if a Man has warm, but sharp Blood, with very elastic and strong pungent Nerves, but the particular Organs of Thinking, Attention and Reflection, indifferently agile only, he may make a Hero. If his Blood be cool, soft, mild and sweet, and his intellectual Organs very elastic or agile, he may make a Philosopher or Law-giver: And so of the other Differences of natural Spirits, among the human Race, in all of whom the Fund, or natural Attributes, may be pretty near equal. But whatever Equality there may be in the natural Qualities of such Spirits, the Difference in the moral ones, makes the human Species to differ at last widely, even in the Exercise of natural ones. For the true Criterion of a right and sound Understanding, and perfect Judgment, is to examin things by Number, Weight and Measure, according to their Nature and Relations, and then to estimat and prefer them, according to their intrinsic Worth and Importance thus determin'd; and in this Sense it is true only, that the righteous Man is more excellent than his Neighbour: that is, wiser as well as better. And that the Acquisition and Culture of the moral Qualities, not only shew the Justness and Strength of the natural ones, but also inlarge, augment and perfect them, both as they necessarily mend and improve the bodily Health, by Temperance and Abstinence, and consequently rectify and tune the Organs of the intellectual Faculties, but likewise as they cultivat and extend all the Powers of the Spirit, by Study, close Thinking, by Actions, and Abstraction, and other intellectual Operations, imploy'd in the Acquisition and Exercise of these moral Qualities.

§. 27. THAT the Perfection, and full, free and just Use of the intellectual Faculties, depends, in a great measure, on the Soundness and Health of the bodily Machin, more particularly of the Organs of these intellectual Faculties, is evident from many Considerations: 1st, The Body was design'd to concentre and circumscribe the spiritual Powers, to confine and imprison them for a time, and fit them only grosly to commerciat with other Bodies on this present ruinous Planet, and must purify and refine, according to the Degree of the Acquisition and Perfection of the moral Attributes, as has been explain'd; and every Step in this Acquisition necessarily tends to develop and inlarge the natural and radical Attributes, as has likewise been hinted; from whence their mutual Dependence on each other becomes evident. In this our lapsed State, our gross and earthly Prisons were design'd by infinit Wisdom, to curb, concentre and restrain the exalted Functions of the radical and intellectual Faculties, in Proportion to the Defacement and Decay of the moral ones, that being both on a Level, they might rise, advance and perfect by equal Degrees, without Clashing or Contradiction; without which our Ruin must have been eternal, our Lapse perpetual, and our Recovery impossible; the natural and radical Qualities, in their utmost Extent, being evidently contradictory to, and destructive of, the Acquisition and Improvement of the moral ones; and the whole Restoration must be brought about by the Culture of the moral Qualities, which perfect and develop the natural ones, and thereby purify and sublime the Vehicle, extend and form the intellectual Organs: So that in the first Steps at least of this Progressive Purification, the Perfection of the Acts of the intellectual Faculties depend on and are in proportion to the Perfection of their natural and bodily Organs. 2dly, We experimentally find, the intellectual Faculties and Operations depend on the Body, in all acute and chronical (especially those called nervous) Distempers; the Raveings, Incoherences and Distractions in the first, and the unaccountable Terrors, Panics, Inconstancies, Dispondence and Cowardice of the last, are sufficient Proofs of this; and demonstrat the Necessity of a proper Crase in the Juices, and the Soundness and proper Elasticity of the Solids and Organs, in all the intellectual Functions and Operations, but eminently so in the first Steps of our Renovation. 3dly, We actually find, and are ocularly sensible, in an Embryo, in Infancy, in seminal Miniatures, that the whole of the natural Powers are concentred and imprison'd; and that it is in their Growth only, and in the developing of their Organs, and in the Inlargement of the Doors, Windows and Aperture of the Senses, that their intellectual Faculties ever inlarge themselves to any Degree. 4thly, We find that Luxury, Leachery, Intemperance, Laziness, strong and violent Passions, inclement and pestilential Air, Bruises and Accidents, that injure the arterial, and nervous System, always hurt, and sometimes destroy the free Exercise of these Faculties, and the Acquisition of Virtue (at least of some Virtues) as well as Science; and that proper Remedies, and due Management, recover and restore them again. 5thly, Abstracting from the Probability and analogical Evidence, that the Bodies of the whole Race were actually form'd, liv'd, grew and extended in the Loins of the first original Pair, we see plainly, (as I have hinted) that every Individual begins with, as it were, a mere vegetable Life, while in Embryo, in seminal Miniature, and in the Mother's Womb; that when it is born, it has scarce more than an animal Life, in which it continues much longer than any other Animal we know; and that it rises by slow and imperceptible Degrees into a rational Life: From which it is evident, that the Powers of the Soul are sunk, concentred, imprison'd and contracted by its unform'd Tabernacle or organical Vehicle, and cannot exert its intellectual Functions, but gradually and insensibly, and as the bodily and intellectual Organs are form'd; and that for this wise and gracious End, That the moral Powers and Virtues of the Soul may have Time, Liberty and Leisure, by repeated Acts, to turn into Habits, and so all three may equally develop and extend together, (viz.) the natural and radical Powers, (which in their Capacity, and original Energy, are invariable) and the moral Attributes of the Soul, and their mechanical and material Organs. 5thly, But what is in this Case a Demonstration, is, that all the vital Functions and Sensations, are all perform'd by the Spirit, by the Intermediation only of Motions, Vibrations and Tremors, properly modify'd and impress'd by Bodies, or their Effluvia, on rightly dispos'd membranous Tubuli, elastic Threads or Filaments; which Motions or Vibrations, the Soul naturally, and by its own innate and radical Powers and Sagacity, knows to denote the Presence of such and such Bodies, and their Actions. Thus Seeing is perform'd by the Impressions of the Rays of Light, emitted or reflected by the Surfaces of Bodies, which by the Size of their component Particles, and other Circumstances, exciteing particular Vibrations and Undulations on the elastic optic Nerves, point out to the sagacious Spirit (innately and naturally endow'd with such a Capacity of Perceiving and Judging) the Presence of such and such Bodies: And in a Manner analogous to this, is Hearing, Feeling, and all the other Senses perform'd, and muscular Motion may be perform'd much in the same way. 6thly, To confirm all this, and that Observations and Fact may justify and demonstrat Speculation, it is certain, and almost infallible, that ponderous Medicines, duly and properly prepar'd and adjusted, and a low, cool, thin Diet, persisted in, a due Time, and join'd with Air and Exercise, will generally restore the free and perfect Use of the intellectual Faculties, not only to those who have destroy'd or hurt them by Luxury and Laziness, but even to such as have deriv'd them with their Birth, or from Accidents or Parents, if the Organs themselves be not intirely confounded or spoil'd; at least in some Degree, sufficient to demonstrat the Proposition; and every one knows that this Method, and these Medicines, only mend the Juices, and open Obstructions. Of this I could give some such Instances, having treated several such Cases, that I could venture my Reputation on some Degree of Success of the Method, when apply'd early and in due Time, before the noble Organs be quite spoil'd. And if Philosophy have any thing certain or true, it is this, that quo posito ponitur, & quo sublato tollitur, in eo consistit ejus rei Essentia. A great deal more I could urge, but this must suffice to the honest Inquirer, and fair Philosopher; else, nothing will.

§. 28. FROM all which it is evident, that it is to Experience, Culture and Probation, removing Obstacles and Impediments, that we must apply both for the Extention and Improvement of the natural and moral Powers of the Soul, and for the Perfection of the intellectual Organs of the Body. All three, since the Lapse, have been contracted, imprison'd or concentred, as it were, to a Punctum Saliens, (as the Naturalists speak of the beginning Incubation of a Chick from an Egg) to be extended and dilated to a given State of Maturity and Perfection, altogether proper for its Order and Rank, and alone and only to be brought about at first by the Culture of others (its Parents, Nurses and Masters) while under Age, and afterwards by its own Industry, Attention and Diligence, in a proper Method, when come to Maturity. So that the whole Perfection of Body, Soul and Spirit, (by Soul and Spirit I always mean the natural and moral Powers) depend on proper Culture, Experience and Trials; and our whole lapsed State is probatory, experimental and progressive, and from our vegetable, through our brutal and rational, up to our restored first paradisaical and last divine, fix'd and immoveable State; the whole Progress is in a great measure our own Work, tho' under general Laws, both for Spirits and Bodies, but with supernatural (or if you please, miraculous) Aids and Assistances from time to time, to be the Rewards and Motives of our Diligence and Zeal, tho' perhaps they are never to be felt or distinguish'd, till the whole Progression is at an End; which Progression might or may be much after this Manner, as far as can be conjectur'd from things as they now appear. The human Race was originally made in the Scale of Intelligences, and in that Cone of Creation (if I may be allow'd the Similitude without offending weak Minds, and low Philosophers) which seems to ascend, from inert and passive Matter through the human Species, to the Angels, and beyond the Cherubims and Seraphins, up to the utmost Extent that created finite free Intelligence reaches: (all which, in their natural Powers, are Infinitesimals respectively and unalterably of their great Original, the Deity, but at an infinitly infinit Distance from Him, as they ought and must be, but in a verging Progression of Similarity to him, in their natural as well as moral Powers) I say, the human Species, being made a little lower only than the Angels, with Bodies or earthly Machins, supple and pliant to their in dwelling spiritual Intelligences, and with Spirits supple and pliant to the Influences, Impulses and Commands of the Father of Spirits (in which their Innocence and Felicity consisted); and being free, and consequently capable of a progressive Procedure, from this original State of their Creation, either forward to Perfection and Happiness to a certain Degree, which probably might fix them in the Extention of their original Powers, (tho' not in the greatest Perfection of their moral ones) and consequently in their greatest Happiness; or a Departure backward into Disorder, Rebellion, spurious Self-love, inordinat Love of the Creatures, Propriety, and consequently Misery; their Creator eternally designing to restore them to their first or perhaps a higher Rank, plac'd them first upon this Ball of Clay, (which had been either naturally and physically ruin'd and spoil'd, by their own immoral Taint and Corruption, or was by his own omnipotent Agency) and confin'd them to Prisons and Dungeons made of this Planet, tho' with infinit Wisdom and Elegancy, and with a sublime Delicacy adjusted to the Nature of their Lapse, or the Ends of their Probation and Purification; whereby their natural Powers being cramp'd and concentred to the Degree of the Decay of their moral Powers, they may by their own Labour and Culture (but supernaturally assisted) advance proportionally in both, to the Stature and Degree appointed them in their original Formation, and perhaps higher; and in the mean time, perhaps dropping through many different Vehicles, and material Bodies, grosser, or more sublime, either Dungeons, or partially glorious Bodies, as they have advanced or gone backward in the Acquisition of the moral Attributes, Justice, Goodness and Truth, or (which is the same in the Christian Language) of the Cardinal Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity; which, justly explain'd, are of the same Import.

§. 29. THE human Soul, or intelligent Principle, has its radical Qualities and Faculties, that it was endow'd with in its first Creation, essentially inherent and innate in its Nature, and in their full Extent and Perfection, even now in this lapsed State, perhaps beyond the Vigour they can ever arrive at in this mortal Life, only cramp'd and sopited by this gross and earthly Prison (like a Felon in a Dungeon or condemn'd Hole); and as it has the Power or Root of the Senses of Seeing, Hearing and Feeling, almost the same as when at intire Liberty, in its ethereal Vehicle, tho' now confin'd to Darkness, Silence and Unactivity, and can only see and hear as through a Grate or narrow Chink; yet it has its natural Powers, and their bodily Organs, as vigorous and lively, as when it was at large, tho' it be not in a Capacity to exert them in the same Degree, by reason of its heavy clay Coverlet: And this gross earthly Tabernacle actually contains under it, the organical Lines and Stamina of that glorious paradisaical and first created Body it was endow'd with before the Lapse, or of the more glorious one it will be solely cloath'd with in its final Perfection and Restoration, tho' both (for they are one and the same) now cover'd over and encrusted with gross mouldering Clay; and both Soul and Body, as they are now in this lapsed State, will gradually drop and put off this Adamical Tabernacle, and slide into another, and perhaps a third, according to the general Laws of Purification, and in Proportion as the spiritual Inhabitant advances in Perfection, till at last it arrive at that fix'd and permanent State, and the Place and Mansion it was design'd for in the universal System of Intelligences.

§. 30. FROM this Account, if agreeable with the universal Analogy of Things, and the general Laws of Providence relating to the Lapse and Purification of Intelligences; it will follow, that intellectual Acts and Exercises are but Remembrance, and removeing Impediments, or but the Spirit's returning to its original and primitive State: That Culture, Study and Reflection, and all the Operations of the Mind, are really (and not figuratively) but lopping, pruning, dressing and removeing Obstacles and Incumbrances, and forming the bodily Organs to a proper Suppleness and Facility, for the Performance of spiritual Exercises, and to produce Habits: That the Study of Arts and Sciences, and all other Knowledge, is but Remembrance and Recollection, opening Passages and Apertures, to admit more Light into the Prison and Dungeon; which can only effectually be done by the Acquisition of the moral Powers of Justice, Goodness and Truth, or of Faith, Hope and Charity; and this not figuratively, but in Reality, and by fix'd Habits. In a word, the Soul has essentially and radically in its Fund and Nature, innate and permanent, all the natural Powers in their full Extent and Degree that ever it can possibly arrive at here, but they cover'd over, sopited and concentred by the gross Adamical Prison; and is only depriv'd of its moral Powers in its present lapsed State, which moral Powers it is sent here to recover.

§. 31. THE Exercise of the natural Powers of the Soul, (viz.) of Liveing, Activity and Intelligence, is the general State and Complexion of all spiritual Natures: Liveing means, supposes and implies the actuating, informing, directing and superintending the several Motions and Functions of a divinely organiz'd Material, either Ethereal or Planetary, grosser or more refin'd Vehicle, according to the Oeconomy of Providence in its Restoration, and in giving Motions and Directions to Bodies or Matter to a certain Degree. Memory is but an Affection or Modification of the Understanding, fixing it to a particular Object; as seeking any thing absent or lost, is but a particular Attention and Observation or Detention of the Eye on the different Objects presented; and that the Understanding has proper Organs for the different Uses and Purposes of Perceiving, Considering, and fixing its Attention, as the Eye has various Muscles, Tendons, Humours and Glands, for directing, fixing and perfecting its Sight; and Memory is just such a Modification of the Understanding, as Searching or Seeking is of the Eye; and all is perform'd through the mechanical Powers and Organs of the Body, by the innate Sagacity of the Mind: and hence it comes to pass, that when these mechanical Powers and Organs of the Body are quick and agile, to present Variety of Images, Pictures and Ideas with Readiness, the Person is ingegious, fanciful, poetical, or of a quick and lively Imagination. If the Organs of the Imagination, the nervous Fibrillae, the membranous Tubuli, be strong and firm, the Impressions or Ideas being dureable, the Memory becomes strong. The Understanding is merely passive, it is like the Vis Inertiae of Matter, or Reflection and Refraction in it, of which it is the analogous Quality in the Soul; and this Vis Inertiae is one of the last Steps of the descending Miniature of the divine Original in his inanimat Creation. Truth is to the Understanding, what Light is in animal Life to the Eye; it must be receiv'd absolutely, and only according to the then State of the Mind. It is the Will that is the ruling and directing Faculty of spiritual Nature, and its analogous Quality in inanimated Matter, is Attraction and Repulsion: all depend on it; it rules absolutely, and without Controul, even sometimes over the Understanding, and every Faculty of the Soul. It is the self-active and self-motive Principle, acting above and beyond Matter, at a Distance, without the Intervention of a material Medium, by its own Energy, and after its specific manner of Operation; as is evident from Instinct, Impulse, Sympathy and Antipathy, Conscience, natural Affection, and the like immechanical Affections of the Soul. Matter only limits and modifies its Operations, and renders it capable to commerciat and communicat with Bodies, by acting upon them, and being reacted upon by them. The Will may and can act without and contrary to the Judgment, Conviction and Approbation of the Understanding (Self-activity and Self-mobility necessarily secluding all foreign Aid); and from it the first Springs, Direction and Perfection of the Understanding, often take their Rise; but generally they advance by the same Steps in their Purification; only the probatory and purifying Process in the lapsed State, both in the Acquisition of the moral Attributes, and in the Culture and Development of the bodily Organs, of the Faculties, gradually and by uniform Acceleration (like the Velocity of descending Bodies) receives its constant Impulse from the Will.

§. 32. SOME have thought, that the Wills of all Intelligences were so order'd by the divine Decree and Appointment, that they should be so absolutely free, as to become even independent of his Influence and Prescience, and that their Liberty should be in a natural Equilibrium to do whatever their original Powers could possibly effect, and be determin'd by their own Strength only, and affirm'd that so much a self-motive Power does necessarily imply; and that accordingly, God was not actually certified of the Lapse, till it happen'd, in the Angelical Hierarchy. That the divine Nature may actually have arbitrary Ideas, they think, necessarily follows, from his natural infinit Liberty, which they suppose a Consequence of the absolute Infinitude of all his Attributes, and the Base and Root of his infinit Intelligence or Omniscience. For no Creature is free, but must be at the same time intelligent, and all intelligent Creatures are naturally Images of Him; and since intelligent Creatures, such as we are, have arbitrary Ideas, (as is evident from our being able to act contrary to our Judgment, and contrary to our present and future greater Good, were it but to shew the Nature of our Liberty, in any one Instance, for Example, to suffer present or future certain Pain, as in Suicide) therefore there must, by Analogy, be concluded a correspondent Power of infinitly more Force and Perfection in the divine Nature. It is true, Omniscience could certainly foreknow whatever Omnipotence could effect; but both Omniscience and Omnipotence being in the divine Nature infinitly free, they think it a higher Instance of Perfection and Power, for a free Omniscience voluntarily to design not to know what his Omnipotence might effect on his free intelligent Creation; and that it implies not want of Perfection and Power, but, on the contrary, is a much higher Instance of Perfection and Power, for an infinitly perfect Being to create Intelligences, that should be naturally in such a Degree of Freedom, that even He Himself should not foreknow what they were to do; but should, as it were, voluntarily and arbitrarily suspend (Jesus Christ, say the Fathers, suspended the Influence of his Divinity on his Humanity; He made Himself of no Report, He took upon Himself the Form of a Servant, the greatest Instance of his Divinity possible) the Influence and Penetration of his Omniscience, to magnify and manifest his Omnipotence. He might, no doubt, have foreknown every thing that should ever be effected, or brought to pass, by the self-motive Powers of his created miniature Images; but He might also designedly and arbitrarily not foresee or foreknow all this, to enoble his intelligent Creatures thereby, that so they might be free even from his Espial and Observation, for a Trial of their Faith and Patience, (as a tender Mother tries her Fondlings Strength and Gait, by letting go the Leading-string) and thus leave them a Possession and Property, (that they might be fitter Objects of his Commerce and Glory) and that they might have something in Dominion and Heritage, that in Gratitude they might render back to Him, which even He (now He had created them) could not force from them. Perhaps such a Creature might become a nobler Instance of infinit Wisdom and Power, than one, all whose future Thoughts and Actions were certainly foreknown even by Omniscience: as a skilful Watch-maker might make a Watch or Clock, whose Time of Going or Striking he might not foreknow, or could not foretel, that absolutly depending on the Length of the Chain tied to the Spring or Weight, which he had in his Power not to have measur'd. This bold and profane Supposition, of God's design'd and arbitrary Non-foreknowledge of his finite free Intelligences future Actions, would indeed intirely take off all the Difficulties and Objections against the Lapse, about Liberty, Prescience, and Predestination; and justify the Darkness and Distresses in Providence, Revelation, and the whole Oeconomy of the Restoration: but whether it is perfectly consistent with the Harmony and Simplicity, and absolute Infinitude and Dignity of the divine Nature and Attributes, I dare not take upon me to determin. And since infinit Sagacity and Penetration (like that of a wise and good Minister of State) will account for Prescience, without influencing or intrenching on Liberty, I am much rather inclin'd to subscribe to it. Infinit Perfection can provide for the Perfection and Happiness of his Creature, without any Prejudice to Himself.

§. 33. ALL intelligent Creatures being (as I have often said) Effluxes, Emanations, and analogous Infinitesimals of the Deity, must necessarily be impress'd with his Image; for though they be finite, dependent, and created, yet being free, so far they are little analogical Divinities; and though they flow'd from Him as their Source, yet by this their Liberty, they are able to hold, as it were, in Property, an infinitesimal Portion of his spiritual Nature and Qualities, and thereby have something of their own to give Him back, and thus to commerciat with Him, and at last to return to Him as their last End: just as the last and least Particles of Water (being probably spherical or spheroidical) may retain their own Figure when receiv'd into the universal Volume of all Fluids of the Ocean, and are actuated by its Motions; or like the Fish, which though in the Sea, yet all of them preserve their own Forms; or rather like the Iron in the Oven, which being turn'd into liquified Fire, yet retains its own Shape. Just so, all created Intelligences may preserve their own Principles of Individuation, when they are restor'd to the Rock out of which they were hewn. But these lame and unanimated Allusions I adduce only as Illustrations of this incomprehensible Subject; for Creation, though a necessary Article to be believ'd in all the Systems of Natural Religion, is as incomprehensible and inexplicable as any Mystery in Reveal'd, unless it be by Analogy; and it is no hard Matter then to conceive any thing is, that actually exists, especially where infinit Power is suppos'd the Cause, and when it does not involve an absolute Contradiction, as these analogical Allusions shew this does not. However this Explication be receiv'd, I think it self-evident, that in their Creation, or Emanation from the first Cause, all Intelligences have been impress'd with God's Image, and are really thereby infinitesimal Deities: And that the natural Powers, Attributes and Faculties we feel in our own Souls, may fairly be carried up to absolute Infinitude by Analogy, and in some imperfect and gross manner, be so rais'd as to give a shadowy Glance, or faint Idea, of the supreme Being the Deity: And that our Liberty may not be violated, and our Restoration may be secur'd, I fear this is as precise as we can reach in this our lapsed Estate, while we dwell in earthly Prisons, I mean by Philosophy or mere Reasoning only, without Revelation or divine Faith. And therefore, whatever natural Powers, Qualities or Faculties we find in our own Souls, (at least in the best and most perfect of our Race) we may safely conclude, there are Powers, Qualities and Faculties, eminently correspondent and analogous to them, in the divine Nature, with the Difference that absolute Infinitude has to the lowest Finite: and on the other hand, that there are miniature Resemblances in all finite Intelligences, correspondent and analogous to the essential and fundamental Attributes in the divine Nature; and consequently that we may fairly reason and philosophize (with the Modesty and Humility that become the lowest of Intelligences) from our own spiritual Nature, up to the Divine spiritual Nature, keeping within the Bounds and Proportion mentioned. For Example; we find and certainly know, that in our own spiritual Nature there are Liveing, Understanding and Will, and that all our intellectual Operations are but Modifications of these: These then must be the natural Image of the divine Being originally impress'd on our Souls. We learn from Revelation, that in the divine Nature, there is a Trinity of Persons, in Unity of Substance. We may then fairly conclude, that, in some Manner or other, the three radical Powers of Liveing, Understanding and Will, are the natural miniature Image and Representation of this Trinity in Unity. In the divine Nature, the three analogous and correspondent Attributes are, Self-existence, Omniscience and Omnipotence; in other Words, Necessity of Being, infinit Wisdom, and infinit Activity. In all created Intelligences, there are a deriv'd Being or Liveing, finite Understanding, and limited Will or Freedom. This Analogy or Correspondence, I say, between the divine Nature, and the spiritual Nature of all finite Intelligences, may give us at least some general Notion of the Trinity in Unity (for Precision is incompatible with Finitude, and all I pretend to here, is to remove Contradiction and Impossibility, from an uncomprehensible and inexplicable Mystery). Self-existence, or Necessity of Being, is the proper Characteristic of the Father in Revelation. I am that I am, or I am the sole Being, that is necessary Existence. The Word, the Wisdom, the Understanding of the Father, the express Image of his intelligent Nature, the sovereign Reason, is the Characteristic of the Son in Scripture. The Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of the Father and the Son, (viz.) their infinit Activity, Energy and Power, is represented there as a liveing, enlightening, actuating, comforting and instructing intelligent Substance, and shadowed out to us by the most penetrating energic Things known, to wit, Wind, Light and Fire; and so may be explain'd by our self-motive Power, our Liberty, the Spring of pure Love, naked Faith, and universal Resignation. All these three (and I think the natural Attributes of the Deity are but Three) natural Powers and Faculties are comprehended in one spiritual Nature, in all created Intelligences: in them they are Modalities only, Powers or Faculties; but in the divine Nature, they are Realities, and active distinguish'd Subsistences, because of its infinit Activity. For nothing is more certain in Philosophy, than the metaphysical and scholastic Axiom, that every thing in God, is God. I might, with a good deal of philosophical Propriety, run this Analogy up to all the Qualities and Attributes ascrib'd in Scripture to the Persons of the holy Trinity; but I give it only as a philosophical Emblem, Allusion or Similitude, to reconcile that inexplicable Mystery to modest, sober and guarded Thinkers; for it is still much better to adore and obey, and wish or pray, to believe as the Holy Spirit in Revelation intended, the best we can, in the holy Trinity, than to philosophize about it. The two capital Errors in the Doctrine of the Trinity, (especially of the Incarnation) and divine Nature of the Persons, (which is the Hinge of the Doctrine of the Trinity) is the Arian and Sabellian Heresies; both which are of great Detriment to Christian Perfection, and the Practice of its cardinal Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, or the Acquisition of the moral Powers of the Soul; but with a very notable Difference, the Arian being of infinitly more Detriment to sublime practical Christianity, than the Sabellian Heresy. The first dwindling and sinking the Merit, Dignity and Love, his Sufferings and Satisfaction, and consequently dishonouring and debasing the divine Nature, Purity, and the Merit of the common Saviour of the lapsed Mortals; and thereby the Motives and Necessity of pure Love, naked Faith and universal Resignation, the sole Means of our Recovery and Immobility: And perhaps among all the Apostles, Martyrs and Confessors, and universally acknowledg'd Saints, there will not be found one who notably lean'd to this Heresy. The Sabellian, on the contrary, tho' certainly Heretical, too arrogantly departing from the Form of sound Words, yet has preserv'd the Dignity and Purity of all these Motives, the Greatness of the Love of God, the Sanctity of his Nature, and Heinousness of Sin, and is only too philosophically nice, out of a Dread of intrenching on the Unity of the divine Nature. I was the more willing to retouch this Speculation, because what I have advanc'd about it in my Philosophical Principles of Reveal'd Religion has been misunderstood; else I had not meddled with it here, as being out of my present Province, for which I ought to beg the Reader's Pardon. This Mystery was not reveal'd to puzzle our Reason, but for a Trial of our Faith, and a Motive to our Resignation; and because its Truth was necessary to the Conception of the general Plan of the Restoration, and the understanding, practiseing and perfecting the Christian Virtues and Morality.

§. 34. THE Soul and Body at first sopited in a State of mere vegetable Life, (in the seminal Animalcul, and in Embryo) is there developing, vegetats, and lives, (perhaps for many Ages) according to their own general Laws, and the secret Designs of Providence; in Time, the Compound comes into the Light, and is born into the World; and then, from the Velocity of its Growth, and the Development of the Organs of its Faculties, (the nervous membranous Tubuli, and the glandular Machinulae, perhaps increasing first) becomes sensitive, and enjoys animal Life: The Nature of gross Matter, the Miseries of this ruinous Globe, and the present dark State of Things, inclement or deleterious Air, Negligence and Ignorance, and many other Accidents, (all under the Direction of an infinitly wise Being, for kind and gracious Purposes) make the slender Individual now become sensitive, and feel Pain, Misery and Distress, even before it is conscious or capable to know the Cause. Instinct, (a plain but innate Effect) Pains and Sufferings, make it mechanically (as it were) avoid the Approach of the Causes possible or probable, by which these Pains are produc'd. Hence natural Aversion, Reluctance, and some Endeavours to retire from Excess of Colds and Heats, improper or too much Nutriment, and all noxious Bodies and Animals. These Sensations and Feelings lodg'd in the Memory, with the innate Instincts, Sympathies and Antipathies, grow stronger, till they are gradually confirm'd into Habits; and on these infant Habits and Ideas begin the Dawnings of Reason, Reflection, Memory and Will, and all the Play of the intellectual Faculties on their now developing Organs. If the Body is strong, its Appetites and Passions are proportionally so, which inordinatly gratified, naturally and necessarily beget strong and new Pains and Punishments; these, on Reflection and Remembrance, awaken Conscience, arising from an innate Instinct radically implanted in spiritual Nature, to excite and encourage a Love of Order, and punish Disorder; and Conscience actuated and enliven'd by still further Reflection on the necessary and natural Connexion between Disorder, Crime and Punishment; on the first Dawnings and Awakening into rational and conscious Life, if Children were duely and strenuously nurtur'd and cultivated by frequent Acts, as Occasions offer, and supported by due Temperance, Air and Exercise, in the bodily and organical Powers, and by bringing the Appetites and Passions in Subjection to the Spirit, and thereby labouring to acquire a Facility and Readiness in the Exercise of the moral Powers, as the natural ones advance; they would, in due Time, raise the Adamical Compound to all the Perfection and consequent Happiness this present State would admit, in the full and free Exercise of the natural Powers, and the Acquisition of the moral ones; tho' not to the greatest, yet to a competent Degree, and to the most perfect and orderly Condition this present probatory and expiatory State will admit. But the Nature of Things in and about us is such, and the Miseries and Sufferings are so constant, unavoidable and pungent, as will naturally and necessarily excite in a Mind cultivated after the Manner has been describ'd, an anxious Desire to inquire and examin if there be any possible Means to be freed from them at last; and if there can be any rational and probable Way to secure, at least after this State is past, and this Adamical clay Tabernacle is laid down, some State of Being, at least no worse, and as much better as may be, on our going into another Mansion: And this is the precise Condition of Mind infinit Love and Wisdom intends to bring his rational lapsed Intelligences into, by this wise Oeconomy; for under such a Disposition, sooner or later, they will be fitted to hearken to, to examin and seriously to inquire into the Truth of Revelation, and heartily to say, Lord! what shall I do to be saved?

END of the FOURTH DISCOURSE.

DISCOURSE V. Philosophical CONJECTURES ON NATURAL ANALOGY, ITS LAWS, AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.
DISCOURSE V.
Philosophical CONJECTURES ON NATURAL ANALOGY, its LAWS, and some of their CONSEQUENCES.

1 Cor. xiii. 12. ‘For now we see through a Glass darkley—’ 2 Cor. iv. 18. ‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen, are Temporal; but the things which are not seen, are Eternal.’

THINGS may differ in the Degrees of the same Qualities, as well as in Kind; as in a Cube of Gold and one of Lead, in spiritual and material Substances, and the like.

DEFINITION I.

DIFFERENCE in Degrees only, is where things having their essential Qualities common, admit in these Qualities, a More and a Less, or a Difference in their Degrees. For Example; A Miniature and a Picture to the Life; a Cube and a Parallelopipedon of the same Substance, and on the same Base; a Man and a Child.

DEFINIT. II.

DIFFERENCE in Kind, is only where some essential Qualities in the things compar'd are common, some are different; as a Vegetable and an Animal, Matter and Spirit, a Cube of Gold and one of Lead.

DEFINIT. III.

BY Ratio, is here meant the Relation or Reference of any two things compar'd to one another, whose essential Qualities admit of Degrees, or of a More and a Less; as between a Brute and a Man, a Man and an Angel, and between different Bodies of the same Substance.

DEFINIT. IV.

SIMILARITY, is where there is an Equality or Sameness of Ratio's in the Substance, and essential Qualities of things, differing only by a More and a Less. For Distinction's sake, in abstracted or simple Ideas, or in Qualities, I should call this Sameness or Equality of Ratio's, a Similitude or Likeness; as in Problems of Arithmetic and Geometry, in Heat and Cold, in Light and Darkness, and the like. In Things, Substances or Aggregats of Qualities, I should call it Similarity; as in all the Individuals of the human Species, in Animals and Vegetables of the same Tribe, and their Progress from the Embrio or Seed, to Maturity, I should pronounce them, I say, in a Similarity of Ratio's.

DEFINIT. V.

THINGS, Substances, and Qualities, are meant to be progressive, or in a Progression, which are constantly increasing or decreasing similarly: For Example; The concave Surfaces that make a Globe, (as the Coats of an Onion, the Membrans of the Cornea of the Eye) the Puncta Salientia, that become Animals; the Mathematical Point, whose Fluxion describes a Line; the Mathematical Line, whose Fluxion makes a Surface; and the Mathematical Surface, whose Fluxion makes a Solid.

SCHOLIUM.

SPACE and Time, Motion and its Velocity, seem to be no Realities, at least no external Realities, but the mere Modifications, and different Circumstances and Situations of Bodies or Matter, and so nothing but mere abstracted Ideas, or an easier and clearer Manner for our finite Conceptions, which cannot comprehend any complicated Thing at once. A particular Space, or the Locality of a Body, seems to be a mere Mathematical abstracted Solid, (so to speak) or the last Limit or Term of a Mathematical Solid, or of Body evanishing; such an one as a Point is of a Mathematical Line, a Line of a Mathematical Surface, and a Surface of a Mathematical Solid; only here the whole Content of the Mathematical Solid, or evanishing Body, is comprehended in the Idea. The same way of Reasoning may be applied to Time, Motion, and Velocity, which are but the Limits, Modifications, and particular Circumstances of Body or Matter, and have no external Realities; but like the Shadow, that depends on the Light, shineing on the Body: they all admit of Degrees, or a More and a Less, as belonging to, and connected with, Matter and Bodies. A particular Space is to a particular Body, what o, or the relative Infinitesimal is to a particular given Progression; and an Infinit Body, like infinit Space, is a mere imaginary Idea, the last Term or Limit of an ascending Progression, as o is of a descending one. Suppose, for Example, a Progression of the Powers of Natural Numbers, or their Cossic Characters, descending, &c. + x 4 + x 3 + x 2 + x + • − x − x 2 − x 3 − x 4, &c. the middle Term, o or x/∞ will represent a Mathematical Point, and + ∞x will represent an infinit Body, and − ∞x infinit Space, + x a particular Body, and − x a particular Space; and substituteing for + ∞x, x + x + x + x + x, &c. and for − ∞x, − x − x − x − x, &c. (or what Number of unknown Quantities, or howsoever compounded, with their variable or constant Powers) and treating them according to the Nature of their Composition in a given Expression, by the common Rules of Cossic or Arabic Characters, and rejecting all the finite Terms, or those of a lower Order of such abstracted Infinits, and reserving only the highest Terms of the Expression; and you will readily and intelligibly have all the Mysteries, and solve all the Problems discovered by Fluxions, Differentials, and Series's, in Numbers, Space, Time, Motion, Velocity, and Bodies, and see that all this mysterious and admired Play of the Understanding, is wholly about abstracted Ideas, and the Modifications of Body and Matter, which our narrow, limited and finite Faculties not being able to apprehend and conceive distinctly in the Complex, are forced to parcel out and divide thus into single intelligible Parts, merely for their own Convenience; and so is a mere Technical Art of the Understanding and Imagination to assist the Memory.

DEFINIT. VI.

RELATIVE Infinit, or Infinitude in Creatures, (whose Nature consists in being more or less respectively than any assignable Quantity whatever) is such as increases or decreases perpetually; yet by no finite Power can be actually brought to nothing, and no finite Faculty can actually assign its limiting Terms, viz. the greatest and the least. In this Sense it is, that we suppose the least Particles of Bodies to be hard and indivisible; that Body or Matter cannot be infinit; that Matter is divisible in Infinitum; that Attraction at a certain finite Distance becomes Repulsion; that positive Quantities become negative in convergent Progressions, or from negative become positive in divergent Progressions; which Progressions may be infinitly varied, even to a created or relative Infinitude, as Mathematicians know.

DEFINIT. VII.

ABSOLUTE Infinitude is the sole Property or Attribute of the Deity, who is infinitly Infinit in all Excellencies and Realities, which, though infinitly various, are at the same time infinitly simple and one. This is evident from the Simplicity and Unity of his Nature, as a true Philosopher must see.

DEFINIT. VIII.

THINGS are contradictory only, which absolutley and totally destroy one another, and mutually annihilat their Substance, Subsistence, and Qualities Thus it is in things created, (if absolute Contradiction can subsist in them) Heat and Cold in the same Degree, Light and Darkness in the same Degree, negative and positive Terms of the same Progression, finite and infinit of the same Kind. But nothing seems to be so absolute a Contradiction as necessary Existence and Nonentity, absolute Nothing and absolute Infinitude.

SCHOLIUM.

IT is doubtful, whether or not there can be any real and complete Contradiction between created Substances, Things and Qualities, since they must all necessarily be Pictures, Emblems or Miniatures of the Deity, and the divine Attributes, Substance or Nature. There seems to be necessary, an Energy, Action and Reaction in the contradictory or totally annihilating Substances, Things or Qualities; as that between the good and evil Principle in the Manichean System; between absolute Nothing and absolute Infinitude, in the true Philosophical System; between Creation and Annihilation: For in all created Things, Substances and Qualities, there is Subsistence and Reality, (Spiritual, Intellectual or Material) which cannot be annihilated or render'd totally contradictory, but by the same absolute Infinitude by which they were created or ordain'd; and infinit Perfection can at no future Time be contrary to itself; the Works of God are without Repentance; and Reaction always supposes Action. In created Substances, Things and Qualities, there seems only to be a Contrariety, that is, a Contradiction or Annihilation of some of the Qualities, and their respective Degrees. Thus material and spiritual Substances may be contrary to one another, but not contradictory; being actually united, and some-how ally'd, in all intelligent Beings; and having some Qualities common, as actual Existence, and a Power of intending and remitting their Energy, or of Expansion and Contraction in their Substances and Powers, analogous to Elasticity in Bodies. They must indeed have Limits and Bounds of their Activity and Self-mobility, beyond which they can do nothing, which Powers Matter seems design'd to terminat and counteract (as Shadows die away in thick Darkness). Matter may suspend, contract and destroy the Action and Exertion of these spiritual Powers, but cannot annihilat their Substratum, nor destroy their Root or Fund; for after their Concentration by Matter or Body, they will still subsist in the Substratum, either in Root or Act, in a finite Magnitude, or infinitesimal Miniature.

DEFINIT. IX.

ANALOGY is a Similarity in Substances and essential Qualities, differing only by a More or a Less, or in Degrees.

SCHOLIUM.

ANALOGY is of two kinds, simple and complex; that is, perfect and complete, or imperfect and incomplete.

DEFINIT. X.

SIMPLE Analogy, is where there is a perfect and total Similarity of Substances, and essential Qualities, differing only in Degrees. As that between a lumbaginous Animalcul, a seminal Embryo, a Child and a Man; that between a Seed and a Plant. Of this Nature are all the particular Answers to indetermin'd Problems in Algebra, and all the particular Curves that answer the same Conditions in Geometry, of which there is an infinit Variety.

SCHOLIUM.

THERE are (I think) Substances, Things and Qualities of a middle Nature, between the Extremes, or the greatest and least of their Terms, in every created Reality; as between any two finite given Terms in Quantities, there is an Infinity of mean Proportionals, actual and assignable; as between x and y there is the Mean 〈 math 〉, and between x and 〈 math 〉 there is 〈 math 〉; and in a Circle of an infinit Diameter, between any finite Part of the Diameter and the other infinit Segment, there is the Perpendicular, (a mean Proportional) which is neither infinitly Small nor infinitly Great, (I speak only of relative Infinitude) and which I should call Indefinit; so in Substances or Substrata of Qualities, whether Material or Spiritual, (the two Terms or Limits) some may approach or verge towards gross indiscerptible or imporose Matter, or pure Spirit, in all the Degrees of relative Infinitude, which never can by any Power less than absolutely infinit, arrive at either of the Extremes. This in Algebra and Geometry is demonstrated; and the absolute Infinitude, Purity and Simplicity of the Divine Nature makes this Distinction necessary here.

COROLLARY I.

HENCE it will be reasonable to suppose, that as Matter, by its infinit possible Division, Minuteness and Rarity, by its Elasticity and Velocity, may be sublim'd and refin'd into relative Infinitude, so as to become, as it were, Sir Isaac Newton's Spiritus quidam Subtilissimus, and meet only with an infinitly small Resistance in passing through gross and porous Bodies, such as our Planet is; so spiritual Substance may be analogically supposed to be capable of all the relative Degrees of Purity and Sublimity, or Grossness and Density, till it terminat in the lowest or highest spiritual Substance, which yet will ever be contrary, though not contradictory, to material Substance.

COROLLARY II.

HENCE it will follow, that this infinitly refin'd material Fluid, of indefinit Rarity and Elasticity, will meet with no sensible Resistance in passing through gross planetary Bodies; yet its Parts being still Material, and subject to the Laws of all material Bodies, must at least meet with some infinitesimal Resistance, and have some Reaction; as the Rays of the Sun, being Oceans of material Particles, constantly emitted from his Body, must necessarily lessen it, though insensibly and infinitly little, yet really; so that neither of them can be design'd to last to an actual Eternity in their present State; they may be so alter'd on proper Occasions, by the Power and Influence of Him who first created them, as to answer the Ends of his wise Providence, but cannot continue as they now are during all his Eternity.

DEFINIT. XI.

COMPLEX or imperfect Analogy, is where there is only a Similarity between a certain Number of essential Qualities, that differ in Degrees, and are diversified in other Qualities less essential; as that between a Man and an Angel, that between a Man and a Brute, or that between a Plant and a Brute; and the several Ranks and Orders of Being emerge as these Qualities increase and multiply.

PROPOSITION.

ALL Creation, the whole System of the Universe, with all the particular Systems in Nature, all Beings animated and inanimat, all Substances, Qualities and Realities whatever, and every individual Circumstance in Nature, is nothing, and necessarily can be nothing, but the Supreme Being, his Nature and Attributes, transubstantiated into Being and Preceptibility, pourtray'd and shadow'd out and drawn forth ad extra. Mundus universus nihil est nisi Deus explicitus. But the Workman will eternally be different in Kind from his Work, the Cause from the Effect.

DEMONSTRATION.

BEFORE Creation, Omnipotence itself could find no Pattern or Model for his Operations ad extra, but Himself, and his own Attributes, or the Ideas of his own Mind; which being infinitly perfect, must necessarily have been the best and most eligible to imitat and copy out in his Productions; and Perfection being simple and one, by the Necessity of his own perfect Nature, He could act outwardly no other way than by this Analysis; and this is a Demonstration a priori from the Cause to the Effect, if any thing can possibly be such; and in fact, it holds equally strong a posteriori, so far as the wisest and best-cultivated human Spirits can reach or investigat, takeing in the necessary Conditions and Circumstances, as far as Experiment and Observation can discover; which I intend to shew and illustrat in a few Instances.

§. 1. THE vegetable World, in its Variety, Elegance and final Causes, is a most astonishing Proof of God's geometrical Knowledge and Skill, (so to speak) and fully shews what Matter, the grossest and most unactive Substance, can do, when contriv'd and directed by his Wisdom and Power. In Plants and Vegetables, there seems to be no spiritual or self-motive Power; but only a material Spirit, or such an one perhaps as Sir Isaac Newton's Spiritus quidam subtilissimus: Here, and in material Agency, that Fluid seems necessary; and the few Observations he has offer'd to infer its Necessity, (which the present Experiments and Discoveries about the Cause and Laws of Electricity and Magnetism wonderfully confirm) are supported by its Implication here in vegetable Nature, in order to explain the Actuation, Growth and Increase of Plants and Minerals; all which vegetat and increase according to general Laws, which no less Power than that of the Author of Nature could so wonderfully have contriv'd and perpetuated. For though by Heat, Moisture and Attraction, from a supramechanical original Formation and Arrangement of the indivisible Particles of Matter, or original Elements, their future Progression, Development and Multiplication may be now, in the gross, understood and explain'd; yet the Cause of Attraction and Elasticity, the first Impulse, and motive Energy, and the Continuance of these Powers and Activity, can so probably be accounted for from no other Principle, as this relatively infinitly rare and elastic Fluid, the Size, Figure and Laws of which could come only from this infinitly powerful and wise Geometer.

§. 2. THE totally inanimat Creation (consisting either in the Fragments of the animated Parts, or in the now aggregated or compounded Moleculae of the primary Elements) shew and speak the Wisdom and Skill of their Artificer; but more especially the Systems and Collections of these elementary original Particles, viz. Air, Water, Light, Salts, and Mercury; how proper their Size, Figure and Laws, for the Uses and Ends proposed? This Speculation would rapturously imploy the Eternity of a sagacious natural Philosopher. Sir Isaac Newton has, with great Penetration, discover'd many hitherto unknown Mysteries and Miracles of Wisdom, in the Theory of Light and Colours. I will only suggest on the Head of this and the former Proposition, that had it not been for the first Contrivance in the Systems of minute Particles now mention'd, there could not possibly have been any proper Materials for the Food, Growth and Increase of the Vegetables, Minerals and Metals; and had it not been for the Combination and Arrangement of the Elements, into such middling integral Particles, as are these of the Vegetables, there could have been no proper and peculiar Food for the Animals; the whole System being so disposed in a perpetual Climax, that all its Parts mutually depend upon and are subservient to one another; the Tubes of Vegetables being mechanically fitted and harmoniously adjusted to mould the Form, the Size, and combine these Elements into the middling nourishing integral Particles, for the Food of Animals, by the Solar Heat, and the Laws of Attraction in minute Bodies.

§. 3. IN sentient and intelligent Beings, from the brute Creation, through Men and Angels, up to the Seraphims and Cherubins, as far as Creation reaches, the Analogy is plain, simple and necessary. The three natural Powers of Liveing, Intelligence and Liberty, in their spiritual self-active Principles, cloath'd and circumscrib'd by aethereal Vehicles, seem to be there in a perpetual Climax, and differ only in Degrees. The essential Difference between this and the vegetable and mineral Creation, (which are both of the same Order and Tribe, and by the same vegetative Laws, diversified under different Circumstances, (like the initial Terms of an algebraic Canon converging into the higher and more advanc'd Terms) equally grow and increase) seems to consist in the self-motive and self-active Powers of the former, of which the latter is intirely destitute. The vegetable Creation seems only to be actuated by the Powers of Matter, and is consequently inert and passive, and continue for ever in their Place and Situation, unless forced from it by some external Impulse; whereas the brute and animated Creation have a self-motive Power; so that Vegetation intirely depends upon the Powers of Matter; and Animation, in all its Degrees, requires a spiritual Substance of some Rank or other: And here the essential Difference between vegetable and animal Nature lies, viz. in the locomotive Power of the latter, of which the former is destitute intirely, and is merely passive. But since the brute Creation, in some Degree, plainly manifests all the Passions and Affections of Mind, that we of the human Race are capable of; since they live, or are actuated by a self-motive, self-active Principle; since they feel Pleasure and Pain, and may be (at least most of them that fall under our Observation) made to learn and understand some things (which is a Proof that they are endow'd even with Intelligence in a lower Degree); and since all of them, from the minutest microscopical Animalcul up to the Elephant and Whale, suffer, and must necessarily suffer, a Million of different ways here, at last most intensely by their Death and Dissolution, it is highly probable that they are in a lapsed, expiatory and progressive State of Being, and may advance to higher Degrees of Perfection and Happiness, like the initial Terms of a diverging Progression: This the Analogy, perspicuous and necessary in all the Works of infinit Wisdom, and the various and manifold Operations of God's Power, makes highly probable, rational, and philosophical. Infinit Benevolence admits of no Stop or Bounds in its Communication of Being, Happiness and Perfection, but what arises from the Difference of the Order of Nature, or of Things.

§. 4. As to us of the human Race, our original Powers, the Order, Rank and present State of our spiritual Nature, and self-motive Substance, with its original aethereal Vehicle, at present cover'd over with a Crust of the Substance of the gross ruinous Planet we inhabit, so much has been already said in the former Discourses, that to avoid Tautology, (which I have perhaps run too much into), I shall not come over the same Subject here.

§. 5. THE angelic Hierarchy must, in its own Nature, and from our present lapsed State and Condition, be absolutly unknown to us, but in so far as Revelation, or philosophical Analogy, give us some dark Hints; but such Hints they do give us, as imply no Contradiction, but on the contrary have a great Degree of Probability and Verisimilitude, and naturally flow from the infinitly various Wisdom of the great Author and Cause of Creation: We may err in the Detail, but not in the general Idea about them. We see what a Variety (an infinit Variety) of Vegetables and Animals, in their several Tribes and Species, He has produc'd; and if we could possibly observe and class them, taking in those we cannot discover but by the Help of microscopical Art, we should find this Variety increase infinitly more in the animated, than in the vegetable Creation, rising in a certain harmonious Progression and Variety, and which, no Doubt, is multiplied in the same Proportion in the angelical World. For, as things combin'd multiply or increase in the Number of their Qualities or their Degrees, so do the Combinations possible and actual, as is well known to Mathematicians. The Fixt Stars, with their analogous planetary aethereal pure and sublime Systems and Apparatus, seem most probably to be the Seats of the unlapsed angelical Hierarchies; and he that knows, or has a dark Notion only, of the Number of those already discover'd, the Number of those hid in the Milky Way, as it is called, and the infinite Extension and Expansion of Space, which, in order to preserve the Situation, Distance and Equilibrium of these Orbs, must be filled with analogous Luminaries or Systems, may have some Idea of the infinit Number and Variety of these Hierarchies. They must all have some generical Nature, as well as specific Differences: This generical Nature may probably be no other, than the fundamental and essential Attributes of the Deity, viz. Liveing, Understanding and Will, or Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as has been analogically illustrated, and which, in gross solid Matter, are shadow'd out in the trine Dimensions of Bodies. Their specific Differences no finite Capacity can possibly assign or comprehend, but there are two very eminent, essential and luminous ones, suggested to us from Revelation, and confirm'd by philosophical Analogy, viz. those of the distinguishing Characteristic of the Son and Holy Spirit. St. John says, God is Light, and in Him is no Darkness at all; and in another Place he says, God is Love, and he that dwelleth in God, dwelleth in Love: That is, the Divine Nature and Substance is Light and Love; and accordingly, the highest Orders of the celestial Hierarchies are eminently Light and Love, or they are infinitly Luminous, or infinitly Ardent; which two Qualities make the Characteristic of the Cherubims and Seraphims, as their Names import; and these two Attributes of the Divine Nature seem to pass variously, and in different Degrees and Gradations, through all Creation down to inanimat Nature; and in each Individual, they are both radically and actually existent, but in different Degrees, according to their several Orders. Existence, or Liveing, is common to all created Beings, which is an analogous Participation, Picture or Image of the Father and Creator, by whom are all things. Some Bodies are nothing but light, luminous and transparent, as Fire, sulphurous Bodies, and all minute Bodies, violently agitated, or put into brisk vibrating Motions; and every Body shredded sufficiently thin, becomes diaphanous; and all Bodies whatever, reflect or refract Light. Some Bodies, again, are more or less attractive, as Salts, Oils and Sulphurs; and some at certain Distances less than infinite, are repulsive (which is a flagrant Picture of Lapse, Corruption and Rebellion in spiritual Nature). All these Qualities have their analogous and correspondent Powers in spiritual Nature, which to a Philosopher of any Penetration were superfluous to detail. For in spiritual Beings and intelligent Natures, these two Qualities and their higher Degrees, in some more than in others, are so conspicuous, that they cannot be over-looked. In all Founders of Republics, and Civil Societies, in all Law-givers and Philosophers, in all Apostolical Men, in the Inventers of Arts and Sciences, even in the Broachers of Heresies, this Quality of Light, however coarse, turbid, and confin'd, seems to have been their Passion, their Fort, their Characteristic and over-ruling Byass; and in all the Hermetical Tribe, the Solitaries, the true contemplative Philosophers, the Founders of Orders, Monasteries and Collegiat Life, in true and zealous Patriots and Lovers of their Country and Species; in short, in all the contemplative and abstracted Persons, Love seems to be the predominant Affection; and this Division runs through all, even corrupt and lapsed Nature, and makes the great Distinction of Mankind, into the Governed and Governing; those who defend Truth, and those who attack Error; those who thrust, and hit the Mark best, i.e. the Law-givers, or their Makers; and those who parry best, i.e. Politicians and honest Statesmen; those fitted by Nature to command, and those that are made only to be commanded and obedient; that is, all the active and social, or the Children of Men; and the Sons of God, or the Thinking and Contemplative. But this Difference is with infinit Variety, great Imperfections, foreign Mixtures, and diabolical Influences in corrupt Nature; but never the one in any eminent Degree, without some Degree of the other, as they are both united to Infinitude, in their divine Original and Cause; and these Differences make up the Specification and Individuation of the several Particulars of lapsed, free and intelligent Nature, and the Difference of the Conduct of Divine Wisdom, in their Purification and Restoration, who with infinit Wisdom and Propriety, conducts all and each, without Violence on their Freedom and specific Qualities, or Dissonance to the Harmony of his own Attributes, to their great and final End of Being; which is the wonderful Oeconomy of the general and particular Restoration; and this Difference and Distinction of the original Qualities and Affections of the Soul, viz. Light and Love, and the different Manoeuvre and Conduct of Providence in this State towards them, is founded on the different Parts they might have acted in the general Lapse of Mankind, and the different Offices, Seats and Mansions they are to be prepar'd for in the universal Monarchy of the Restoration; and may make the otherwise unaccountable Difference of the Bodies, Spirits, Tempers, Capacities, and outward and inward Success in this State, of two Children of the same Birth, as Twins, or two immediately succeeding one another of the same Parents, under the same Education and Beginnings in the World, and on the same Bottom; which every one must have observ'd to be as various, different and distant as the Poles, and in a manner diametrically opposite, even otherwise unaccountable and odd.

§. 6. THAT the fixt Stars, and their analogous planetary satellitious sublimer aethereal Systems, may possibly be the Seats and Mansions of the unlapsed, tried and purified angelical Hierarchies, and of restor'd, purified and glorified sentient and intelligent mortal Beings, seems not only probable, philosophical, and according to the general Analogy of Things; but is strongly and frequently hinted in Revelation, as every one who is familiarly acquainted with it must know. God's Throne, his Shechinah, the Heaven of Heavens, his Dwelling-place, is always represented above: Elijah went upwards, Christ ascended, and the Seats of the blessed are always represented as among these celestial Orbits. And though Analogy may not apodeictically demonstrate a Fact or Truth, especially as to its precise and specific Nature and secondary Qualities, in the Detail, about imperceptible and spiritual Beings (precise Truth in these Matters being not only incompatible with Finitude, but counteracting Faith, Trust and Resignation, the sole Means of our Recovery and progressive Purification, being absolutely destructive of Liberty, and clashing with the Divine Attributes of infinit Justice and Purity, and his absolut Dominion over the Creation); yet when Analogy and Revelation concur in the same general Conclusion, it is so high a Presumption and Probability as comes nearest a Demonstration; at least to those who have any Regard for Revelation; for to such it will be self-evident, that infinit Wisdom, and absolut Infallibility, will never make the most distinct Approach to any Allusion or Similitude, that borders on things in no Degree of Alliance, Approximation or Neighbourhood, or where the Contact is not as near as Circumstances will admit, or that is not as the first Terms of a convergeing Progression, or one that will lead his low, wandering, blundering Creatures into gross Mistakes; that Bodies or Vehicles of spiritual Substances must have an Ubi, a local permanent Situation at last, is certain; that these numberless glorious Luminaries were lighted up with such a Profusion of Lustre, only for us stupidly to gaze at, is ridiculous. That they must be infinit in their Number, (I mean always creaturely relative Infinitude) follows from the infinit Expansion of Space, and the Equilibrium necessarily to be preserved, in order to perpetuat the Situation, Distance and Relations of these glorious Luminaries. That they may be of an infinitly purer, more refin'd and sublim'd Matter than even that of our Sun, (who was design'd grosly only to picture out the Divine Nature to us lapsed Mortals, and to enlighten and cherish us a little, and our dark Prison, during our Probation and Recovery, and not made for Perpetuity; and which is cover'd over and compress'd with a gross dense Atmosphere, with Maculae and Spots, that possibly may hinder its too quick and violent Consumption) is highly probable. These fixt and permanent Luminaries, with their analogical planetary Apparatus, may be the Seats of the Bless'd, whose glorious Vehicles may be of the same Matter and Substance with their respective Mansions. These aethereal Planets and fixt Stars, may be so situated, and so harmoniously plac'd in regard to one another, that the Rays, and, as it were, spiritual or aethereal Matter, which they perpetually pour forth and emit through the whole Expansion of Space, may by a perpetual Flux and Reflux, and melodious Vibrations, be return'd back again upon one another, and so perpetuat and eternise their Lustre and Glory. The Rays of our Sun have Fits of easy Transmission, Refraction and Reflexion; according to Sir Isaac Newton, its Particles have a greater Byass on the one Side than on the other; they attract one another in an infinitly greater Proportion than their Power of Gravity in general. Bodies may be turn'd into Light, and Light into Bodies. Some Diamonds and precious Stones are luminous, emit Light, and shine in the Dark. Several Phosphors (liquid and solid) emit Light at all Times, both in Air and Water; and the Asbestos and purest Gold bear all Degrees of Heat and Fire without much Alteration; and the purest Glass in the Focus of the strongest Specula, only continues liquid without any other Change. These Facts I suggest only to shew that Light, as well as other Bodies, may be various, of different Purity and Sublimity, differing in Degree, though not in Kind; and much more might be suggested here, to shew the various Nature and different Qualities of Light and luminous Bodies one from another, if necessary, to illustrat this perhaps imaginary Speculation, at least save it free from Contradiction or Impossibility; but I propose in this mere Conjecture.

§. 7. THAT infinit Wisdom, Power and Love, could produce no sentient or intelligent Being ad extra, without impressing in the Fund and Essence of its Nature, an infinit Love to Him, an insatiable and unextinguishable Desire, Thirst and Ardour to be reunited at last with Him, as its supreme Felicity, is as absurd, and, I think, blasphemous to doubt, as to doubt of his Being and Existence. To think otherwise, is to question his infinit Perfection; for infinit Perfection must be single and one; and sentient and intelligent Beings, without this radical and innate Ardor for Happiness, that is, to be at last united and to commerciat with infinit Perfection, seeing, by the Sensibility and Intelligence of their Nature, they are capable of it, in their Order, would be an Effect without a Cause, or an Action without an End or Purpose, at least without intending the self-evident best End, which is a Contradiction the most absolut to infinit Perfection. No sentient and intelligent Being ever was without an Ardor or Bent towards Happiness; it is a radical Principle in their Nature, and never counteracted, though its Nature and true Cause is often mistaken, may be unknown or forgot, yet it can finally consist only in this Reunion. But Sensibility and Intelligence, being by their Nature and Essence free, must be labile, and by their Lability may actually lapse, degenerat, and by Habit acquire a second Nature, opposit and contrary to this implanted Brass and Tendency towards a Reunion and permanent Commerce with their original and first Cause; and by Selfishness, inordinat Love and Idolatry of their Fellow-Creatures, sopit and extinguish this central Byass, at least as to elicit Acts, though not in the Root and Fund: And in this Contrariety, Distraction and tearing asunder of these moral Powers in spiritual Nature, the Essence of Misery and Hell itself chiefly consists. So long as this contrary, habitual and foreign Byass lasts, so long must the Unhappiness and Tortures of such sentient and intelligent Creatures continue; like the Chill and Cold in the Comets, while in the Parts of their Orbit most distant from the Sun; or like the small Particles of Matter, which out of the Sphere of their Attraction become repulsive, and by the Law of their Passivity continuing ever in the State into which they are put, must for ever proceed in this their repulsive Course. But this contrary Byass to Reunion with their infinitly perfect and happy Original, being adventitious only, and by Habit only confirm'd into a second artificial Nature, the infinit Love, Wisdom and Oeconomy of the Son of God was contriv'd and design'd to melt down, annihilat and destroy, that the original innate Byass might operate and take Place; and without this infinitly wise Oeconomy, to me it seems, the permanent Order, Peace and Harmony, and consequent Felicity of universal sentient and intelligent Nature, could no other possible way have been or be establish'd at last.

§. 8. IT is not impossible, but extremely probable, and according to the universal Analogy of Nature, that our Planets and their Satellites, should be the more tolerable Jails, Prisons and Dungeons of the several Orders and Degrees of lapsed, probationary, sentient and intelligent Beings. That some of them are straiter, less comfortable, more dark, dismal and unhappy than others, there is no doubt can be made. That they are not, nor cannot be design'd for an eternal Duration, in their present Condition, is highly probable. We see on this our Planet, that the Bodies, Tempers and Habitudes of sentient and intelligent Beings, that continue long in such particular Climats, and under such Influences of the Celestial Bodies, alter, and take a Turn, according to the general Laws and Temperature of that Climat. The Planets and their Satellites have an infinit Propriety and Fitness for being more tolerable Bettering and Correction-Houses and Prisons, for lapsed, sentient and intelligent Beings: They are no ways, nor cannot become, in their present Situation, Pleasure-Houses, Paradises, and happy Mansions, nor permanent Dwelling-Places for perfect and glorified Intelligences. The natural Language of the Deity to us in our present Condition, can be no other but by Types, Similitudes, Allusions, Parables, Allegories, Analogy, and final Causes, without Violence on our Liberty, our Acquisition of Faith, Hope and Charity, or debasing his own infinit Purity and Perfection; at least about invisible and imperceptible Beings and States under our present Lapse; and therefore I conjecture, that our Planets, and their Satellites, are design'd by infinit Wisdom for the temporary Jails and Correction-Houses of lapsed, probationary, sentient and intelligent Beings; and that their superinduc'd Vehicles, or other penal and penitential Habits, are of the same Substance and Materials with the respective Prisons they are confin'd to.

§. 9. THAT the Comets cannot be the Seats of blessed Spirits, I think, is self-evident: That they are not made only to supply our Planet the Earth, or even all the other Planets with Moisture and Humidity, only, is as evident. The Number of them (perhaps half a dozen in a Century) that have been observ'd and seen, and of which we have some Records, with their sensible Effects, Appearances and Periods, are abundantly too many for that far-fetch'd and precarious Purpose only. Our Water most certainly decreases, and must necessarily be exhausted in time; as do the Heat and Rays of the Sun; but not so sensibly as to lay a Foundation for Experience and Observation by our Senses or Art: But rather to increase our sensible Punishment, and natural Purification, at the last Stage. And it is highly reasonable and philosophical to suppose, that our whole System was design'd by our Creator to last in its present Situation, only so long as was requir'd for the Probation, Purification and Expiation of lapsed sentient and intelligent Beings, which both Revelation and Philosophy shew cannot be an infinit Duration; but that the whole planetary System, within the Orbit of Saturn, is progressively and by general Laws verging towards some grand Catastrophe and Jail-Deliverance. The Elect seems to imply, the Officers and Governors of this new Jerusalem, this political future State, this universal Restoration Monarchy of the Father of all; and the Period of the Duration of this present probatory State of the System of Saturn, seems confin'd and limited in Revelation, to the Number of the Elect's being accomplished, that is, to the Time when all the necessary Officers, Governors or Magistrates of this new universal Government is formed, finished and accompleated, and then will be the End, Crisis and Period of this probatory State. I say then, the Comets cannot be the Seats of the Bless'd, if Alterations of Heat and Cold, Summer and Winter, in some more temperat and moderat Degree, be necessary for tolerable liveing, in Bodies crusted over with the Substance of which the Habitation is made, (as it is philosophical to think of the Inhabitants of the Comets) seeing their Orbits are so excentric to the Sun, the Foci of their Ellipses so vastly distant, that they must pass for Ages through both Extremes of Heat and Cold, and be perpetually involv'd either in Fire or Darkness, and so in extreme Misery, as to their incrusted Machins; and consequently they probably are the Prisons, Condemn'd-Holes and Dungeons of God's Kingdom, and universal Monarchy.

§. 10. IT is both rational and philosophical, and according to the natural Analogy of Things, to suppose, that the next World, or its several Steps of Progression, and its initial Steps or first Terms, and the invisible impreceptible State of Things, in the other Life, has a great and near Similitude and Resemblance to this present State; and that they differ chiefly in Degrees, the other World being of an infinitly greater Purity, Sublimity and Perfection only, without the Errors, Darkness or Miseries of this Life. God is the same Yesterday, To-day, and for Ever, immutable and invariable in his Nature and Attributes; and, as has been often hinted, all his Works ad extra, and the Operations of his Wisdom and Power, have a perpetual ascending Analogy and Progression towards Him, his Nature and Felicity. It is true, Revelation informs, that Eye hath not seen, Ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive the Glory and Happiness that God has reserved in another Life for them that love Him. But as that refers chiefly to the inward Joy and Happiness, Extasies and Transports, that the consummatly Bless'd feel in their Commerce and final Union with Him, their infinitly perfect Source and Original; so it does not affect their outward State, their Polity, external Order and Mansions, of which only I am here speaking; and of which the Description and Account by Revelation, intimats plainly a great Affinity with the most perfect and happy Condition of our now World; and it is highly probable, they differ more in Degrees of Perfection than in Kind. The new Jerusalem is liken'd to a City, a State and Republic; it has its People, Subjects and Officers; it has Temples, paradisaical Gardens, Rivers of Pleasure, a perpetual Spring, and all our best and most beatifying Delights and material Comforts here. I know all this Language and Description is but Allusion, Figure and Allegory, and must be understood chiefly of our Creation or glorified Bodies; but as every created Being, sentient and intelligent, has a Body or Vehicle as well as Spirit, an aethereal, planetary, or a glorified Vehicle, the last inseparable and immortal, as well as a spiritual self-motive Substance, the Body or glorified Vehicle may have analogical Food, some Fruit of the Tree of Life, which in Paradise itself perpetuated the Immortality of, and would have eternis'd the Creation Vehicle; it must have an Ubi, a Mansion and Dwelling-Place; it must have analogous Pleasures of an innocent, spiritual and sublimer Nature, proper to its Order and Rank, and proportion'd to the Purity of its then Body and Soul; there must be different Orders, Ranks and Distinctions; superior Officers and Subalterns, a Government and Polity in the new as well as in the old Jerusalem: In short, they will probably differ not in Kind, or absolute and total Contradiction, from the best and most perfect State of Things here, that can be imagin'd or describ'd, at least in the first Steps or Terms in the progressive Perfection and Happiness; but in Degrees, and in Negation of all that is imperfect, dissonant and disorderly in this present State; but this in an infinit, that is, a relative or creaturely infinit superior Degree; and into the final, consummat and perfectest State, we must mount only by Degrees, and Steps, through many Mansions and progressive Order; and by acquireing an habitual Stability, by repeated Acts and Trials, be confirm'd in eternal Purity and Felicity at last; and one Stage of Being will be perhaps but an Apprenticeship and probatory Initiation for a higher and better, and this without Bounds and without Limits (I mean only as to the bodily Restoration Vehicle, its Mansion, Food, created Pleasures and Enjoyments, which can only flow from the Fund, the spiritual Inhabitant's being restor'd and perfectly united with, and transform'd into the Divine Nature and Qualities). This System, modestly explain'd and cautiously guarded, in the Proportion of Perfect to Imperfect, Infinit to Finite, Innocent to Lapsed, would, I think, take off many Difficulties in Revelation, in the Oeconomy of Jesus and the Restoration, the different Methods of Providence, and its present Appearances, and our Mistakes of the Sentiments and Writings of inspir'd Authors. For it is impossible the Spirit of God should insinuat any Resemblance, Alliance, or analogical Similitude between things that differ generically, were disparata and incompatible; but between such as were verging by Progression, and in an Approximation to the real Perfection of their Natures. Lapsed Beings are infinitly distant at present from such a final Union and relative Identity with their Source, and his Throne and Shechinah: But must be like the Assymptots of Hyperbola's and their Curves, eternally approaching to, but never able totally to coincide.

§. 11. ANALOGY, 'tis true, can never demonstrat the actual Existence and real Being of any thing to us: Sensation only and Experience can do that. It is only capable of explaining and illustrating the Nature, Substance and Qualities of Things already made and created. It is, as Quintilian very elegantly describes Analogy, Ejus haec vis est, ut id quod dubium est, ad aliquod simile, de quo non quaeritur, referat, ut incerta certis probet. But then it takes off any Contradiction and Impossibility from its Existence; makes it possible, probable and rational; and renders it a fit Subject for the supreme Reason and Power to work upon, if He pleases, and similar to his other Operations; it clears all possible Objections, and Difficulties, and makes it natural and intelligible; and that is precisely what our present Condition and Situation requires, or will admit, for the Acquisition of the moral Powers, Faith, Hope and Charity, to secure our Liberty from Violence, and the Divine Attributes from Dissonance. And if the fundamental Proposition be admitted, viz. that all the Works of infinit Wisdom and Power ad extra, are and can be nothing but Pictures, Resemblances and Signatures of God's Nature, Substance and Attributes, in Miniature, impress'd or prominent: In a word, if it be true, as has been said, that Mundus universus nihil est nisi Deus explicitus; and, I think, nothing can be more self-evident; then most of the Consequences I have drawn from this great Truth are necessary, natural and obvious; especially when Revelation suggests the same Truths and Conclusions, at least in general. We may very readily err in the Detail, and in the Eliciting and Application of a particular Case; but not so readily in the general Law, as is common with Algebraists, they often blunder in the Application, who were in the Right in the Canon.

§. 12. WE may blunder and be mistaken in our particular Conclusions and Deductions from this universal Analogy, I say, as well as in Geometry and Algebra, being weak, fallible, and imperfect Creatures: But our Errors and Blunders in the first, will sometimes proceed from a different Cause from our Mistakes in the latter. A wrong Head, want of Culture, and Precipitation, are generally the Cause of our Mistakes in Geometry and Algebra; but in Analogy, especially that Analogy which concerns the moral Attributes of the Divine Nature, the human Soul, the holy Scriptures, and invisible States, it is owing often to a wrong Heart, Pride, and Self-sufficiency. We are afraid such pure and sublime Theorems should be true; they hint the Necessity of a greater Purity in us than we are willing to cultivat at present. If we ascribed all Perfection, every good Gift and perfect Donation, to the supreme Cause; and were at the same time humbled and contented even with our own Ignorance, Errors and Blunders of Love and Resignation only; if our Sentiments and Ratiocination were intended for his Glory and Magnificence solely, and our own Humiliation, satisfied with this single Truth alone, that God is God, that is infinitly perfect, they could neither hurt us nor others. But if our Heads must needs be at work (as mine has here); if, like Children, we must play with Ideas, and philosophise about the Kingdom of Invisibles and Imperceptibles, and the Arcana Imperii divini; if we cannot at first, at least and in our Years of Probation or elementary State, arrive per saltum at pure Love, naked Faith, and universal Resignation (the only solid Means of Infallibility and Stability); then the best and surest Method is to deal in Analogy, as the Mathematicians do in Algebra and Geometry, to acquire a Facility in solving difficult Problems with Readiness and Accuracy; viz. by laying up in our Memory, or having ready at hand a Penus Analogica, as they have a Penus Analytica; in beginning with the most simple and least complicated Analogies; in attentively observing the Ratio's, Relations and References of Things, Substances, their Qualities and probable final Causes, and finding out their Degrees and Progression. The Astronomers had with Exactness and Accuracy discover'd and settled the Orbit, Period, Distance, and Laws of the Sun and Earth, before they attempted with any Success that of the Moon; and Sir Isaac Newton had settled and adjusted the Laws, Motions and Appearances of the Solar System, before he attempted the Moon and Planets; and had for seven Years studied experimental Chymistry, before he set about to investigat the Nature and Laws of minute Bodies and their Systems; he had cultivated and made many and various Experiments, by separating, combining and analysing the Rays of Light, through many diaphanous Mediums, before he attempted to discover the Nature, Figure, and Laws of their component Particles. Analogy and its Appendages, Type, Allusion, Similitude, Parable, Hieroglyphic and Allegory (all more remote or nearer Approaches to Analogy) is the only natural Language the Deity can speak to us at present, under our Degeneracy and Lapse, consistent with his Dignity and Purity, and the Preservation of our Liberty. He may speak to us mediatly by his Angels; He may speak to the Wills by his Holy Spirit, and to our Understandings by his Word his only begotten Son, and in the holy Scriptures by his Prophets, Apostles, and Saints; but his sole, natural, articulat, indelible and universal Language, can possibly be no other but his Works of Wonder ad extra. The Heavens declare the Glory of God: By the Characters and Hieroglyphics intimatly impress'd on them; and they can only be read or understood by Analogy to Him, to us, and to one another. If then we began with this inanimat World, in (which only true natural Philosophy from final Causes can instruct us) thence proceeded to the vegetable World, then advanc'd to the brute Creation, (where natural History and Chymistry will be of great Service) and at last ascended to intelligent Beings, through the angelic Hierarchy, till by Analogy we arriv'd at the Supreme Cause; this Method would be the most natural and secure, in a natural Progression by Analogy: And if with Humility, Modesty, and begging the Direction of the uncreated Wisdom, we persever'd with Patience: this divine Philosophy might, in time, (cultivated by different Hands) be of Service to the contemplative Christian Philosopher himself, as well as to others. But my Meaning will be better understood by a short Recapitalation of what has been said, and an Illustration by an Example.

1. WHEN God intended to bring Creatures into Being, He could not chuse but make them after the most perfect Pattern: He therefore stamp'd his own Image upon all his Works. Hence the Creatures, being all Miniatures of the Deity, must bear a mutual Resemblance to Him and to one another. This Resemblance is what we call Analogy, and runs through the whole Scale of Beings; every Being, besides its peculiar and distinguishing Quality, whereby it is determin'd to this or that particular Order, and has the Pre-eminence of all below it; being also possess'd of all those Qualities that are to be found in any of the inferior Orders. As a Curve of any of the Orders has all the Properties of the inferior Orders of Curves, besides those that belong to its own Class or Species.

2. THESE different Orders or Ranks of Beings, being distinguish'd by their respective Qualities, the first Term of this infinit Scale will be simple Existence; the Addition of one Quality will constitute the second Term or Order; of two, the third; and so of the rest; whence the Number of Qualities with which any Being is endow'd, will determin its Place in this Scale, and shew its Distance from the first Term. Besides this Difference in the several Orders of Beings, there is also a Diversity among those of the same Order, which proceeds from their possessing some of the common Qualities in a more or less eminent Degree.

3. As God can have but one Model in all his Productions, every System of Beings will resemble all the other Systems, and each will be a Copy of the whole Creation. The material World will be a Transcript of the spiritual; and the Laws and Oeconomy of the one will be analogous to and correspond with those of the other. Besides this general Analogy, there will be a more immediat and flagrant Relation between each material System, and the Intelligences to which it belongs; the Structure of the Bodies and other material Organs of these Intelligences, together with the whole Frame and Contexture of the material System, being such as will best suit the Nature, Rank and Order of these Intelligences. And this Relation probably will subsist and attend them in all the Changes and Periods through which they pass; so that should the intelligent System lapse from its Purity and Perfection, the material System would fall into Disorder likewise, and undergo some similar and analogous Change.

4. OF this general Analogy between the spiritual and material Systems, there are many Traces plainly to be discern'd by an acute and contemplative Philosopher. To instance only in the Similitude which our solar System, as now disorder'd, bears to the lapsed Intelligences that inhabit it. In the Centre of this System is plac'd the Sun, a bright and lively Image of the Deity, his material inanimat Miniature; the Planets and other celestial Orbs revolving about him at their respective Distances, and performing their Revolutions in different Periods of Time, will represent the several Orders of lapsed Intelligences, the different Degrees of their Lapse, and the Duration and Continuance of their probatory State. This glorious Body, the Sun, infinitly surpasses all the other Orbs in Magnitude and Lustre; they are no more, compar'd to him, than Points in the Circumference of a Circle. They have no Brightness of their own; it is all deriv'd by Reflection, and is more or less, according to their Distance from him.

5. THE chief Properties of the Sun are Attraction, Light and Heat. The Sun's Attraction extends to the remotest Parts of the System, acting at all Distances, with a Force increasing in a certain Proportion as these Distances decrease. 'Tis by this Attraction that the Planets are retain'd in their Orbits, and kept from flying off in the Tangent, to which their projectile Force gives them a constant Tendency. Should the Sun's Attraction cease but a Moment, the whole System would fall into the utmost Disorder, and be irrecoverably ruin'd. How like is this Attraction to the Love of God, continually operating upon all created Intelligences, and powerfully solliciting them to a nearer Approach and Resemblance to Himself! Its Influence is constant and invariable; were it possible it should have the least Intermission, the whole Creation would fall into utter Ruin and Destruction.

6. THE Light of the Sun is diffus'd throughout the whole System; no Celestial Body is endow'd with this Quality but himself. This is an Image of that Light which enlightens every Man that comes into the World; an Emblem of Him who came forth from the Father of Lights; the Light and Sun of the new Jerusalem, and of spiritual Nature.

7. THE Sun's Light is always accompanied with Heat, the Principle of Life and Vegetation. In the other celestial Bodies there is some small Degree of this Quality, but it is originally deriv'd from or produc'd in them by the solar Heat; without which they would be barren and inhospitable Desarts. This represents the Influences of the Holy Spirit, which are inseparable from the Light of the Gospel; and are the Principle of our spiritual Life, animating and cherishing every intelligent Being, and making it productive of all the Fruits of Righteousness.

8. LET us next consider the Properties of the Planets, and other Bodies that revolve about the Sun. Their various Magnitudes and Distances from the Sun, with the periodical Times of their Revolution, will express the several Orders of lapsed Intelligences, the different Degrees of their Lapse, and the particular Periods of Time allotted for their Trial and Probation. Some of these Bodies, as the Comets, move in Orbits that are very Ellyptical, going off to immense Distances from the Sun, where the Influence of his Heat and Light is almost insensible; but by the Force of his Attraction they are again drawn back, and brought even to a nearer Approach than other Bodies that move in narrower Orbits.

9. THE Planets are constantly acted upon by two different Forces, viz. Gravity or Attraction, and the projectile Force. These are contrary to one another, and always act in opposite Directions; the projectile Force giveing the Planet a constant Tendency to recede from the Sun, and to fly off in the Tangent; while the Force of Attraction, by drawing it the contrary way, prevents that Effect: So that by the joint Action of both, the Planet is kept in its Orbit. The attractive Force, though continually influencing the Planet, is not a Quality of it, but proceeds from the Sun; the only Quality belonging to the Planet is that of the projectile Force. This will shadow out the Lapse, the Action of Selfishness, and the inordinate Love of the Creature, with their Opposition to the divine Love.

PHILOSOPHERS tell us, that the present State of our System cannot be of long Continuance; but that the solar Attraction must necessarily prevail over the projectile Force of the celestial Bodies; and all the Comets and Planets, with their Satellites, be at last absorb'd and swallow'd up in the Sun.

FINIS.

AN ABSTRACT; Or, A Brief, but Distinct REPRESENTATION OF THE Doctrines and Sentiments Contained in the preceding DISCOURSES.

AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE I.
PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES about the Nature and Qualities of the Original Animal Body, and of its Progressive State, in its several Stages of Existence.

- THAT there may be Animals, (and consequently animal Organs) performing analogically, at least, the animal Functions, less than our Senses can discover, assisted by our best Art, possibly less, than our Imagination can frame an Idea of Page 1

- Several Demonstrations, shewing the utter Impossibility, that an animal Body could be first form'd, or can be now continued, by mere Mechanism, or the Laws of Nature now obtaining; but must be the immediat Work, continued and supported by the constant Influence of an omnipotent and omniscient First Cause 3

- That the least and last Particles of Matter can be divided by no finite Power whatever 4

- That their Figures were probably at first only Spheres, Cubes, and equilateral triangular Prisms ibid.

- That our now porous and confus'd Elements, Salts, Water, Light, Air, and Earth, still have inherent Qualities, which distinguish them from each other, which they never totally lose, tho' these may be swallow'd up, when combin'd unharmoniously, as they now are 5

- That the original Creation, and the Resurrection Body, might have been, and may be, of this first kind of simple Elements, harmoniously combin'd; but are now crusted over, and discordantly blended with the gross secondary Elements of this ruinous Planet we inhabit 6

- That the Fineness of the original aethereal animal Body, may have been in Proportion to its Order, and the Perfection of the natural and moral Powers of the Soul conjunctly 7

- That this analogically, spiritual (so to speak) animal Body, might have been roll'd up, and concentred, into a Miniature of a Miniature in Infinitum, in the Loins of the first Adamical Parent, till by its being sufficiently plaister'd over with the Matter of this ruinous Planet, it became able to bear its now Inclemency, and be born into this World 8

- That this primitive, aethereal, divinely organiz'd Body, by an individual Fitness and Congruity to the informing spiritual Substance, might have been thereby so intimatly and commensuratly united with it, that they could never after be separated by any finite Power, no more than the original Particles of Matter could be divided by such a Power ibid.

- That the confineing this original spiritual Body and Soul so long a Time to so dark a Prison, as the Seeds and Eggs of Animals are now, might have been for progressive Purification, Correction and Punishment 9

- That it is Fact, that the wisest and best Men, have been at first mere Vegetables, afterwards mere Brutes, and but at last rational intelligent Beings 10

- That sentient and intelligent Beings are by their derivative Nature immortal and unannihilable, and because God can never be contrary to Himself; but are in a progressive State towards Perfection and Happiness in their Order, like the several Orders of Hyperboloids 12

- That the natural Powers being uniformly constant and invariable, and the moral Powers being cancell'd by the Lapse, had not the natural Powers in their full Vigour been suspended and fetter'd, they must have counteracted the Acquisition of the moral Powers 13

- That precise Knowledge, and mathematical Certainty, in the real Nature, and of the intimat Substance of any complex Thing, is incompatible with Finitude; and that the Degree of Certainty in Things, is only in Proportion to the Amplitude of the Faculty 16

- That subjecting all Creation to general Laws, was one infinitly wise and effectual Mean to secure Liberty inviolate, and to harmonize the Divine Attributes, in the great Work of Restoration 17

- That the only thing worthy of a Philosopher, is, by Experiment, Attention and Induction, to collect as many of these general Laws, as he possibly can 18

- That God being Simple, One, and always the same, must necessarily act by general Laws in all Creation; but that good and wise Men have been deterr'd from studying them, in spiritual Nature, out of Dread of the odious Appellation of Enthusiasts 19

- That the Study of these general Laws of infinit Wisdom and Sagacity may be a Part of the Employment of happy contemplative Spirits hereafter 20

- That an infinitly rational and perfect Being could possibly have no other Pattern or Model for his Works of Creation at first, but himself, his own Substance, Nature and Attributes 21

- That therefore there must be one perpetual Analogy and progressive Perfection running through all the Works of an infinitly rational Being; and that as Proportion is the Key of the material, Analogy is the Logic of the spiritual World 22

- That Suffering is a mechanical and necessary Consequence of our present Situation on this ruinous Globe, and that none ever could avoid it absolutly, but in Degree, and that thro' the Merits and OEconomy of Jesus only. Sufferings become Blessings because Means of Restoration 24

- That this Suffering is a natural and mechanical Purification and Perfection of the Subject 25

- That Consciousness of the End or Occasion of this Suffering is no way necessary towards the beneficial Effects of it: That Consciousness would be prejudicial in the first Steps of this Purification; and only when its End is obtain'd, can it be beneficial to clench its Effects 26

- That the great Problem and Difficulty with the Best of Beings (so to speak), and in the Oeconomy of his Providence, and the Reason of the present Darkness in it, is to restore lapsed Creatures, in Consistence with their Liberties, and the Harmony of his Divine Attributes 27

- That the general Methods of Providence in restoreing lapsed Intelligences, are plainly, 1. The continuing general Laws. 2. The suspending the elicit Acts of the natural Powers for a Time, by Ligatures of this ruinous Planet: And, 3. By the admireable and adoreable Oeconomy of Jesus 30

- That it is a Contradiction to suppose a beneficent Being would create sentient or intelligent Beings, for Suffering, merely for Suffering's Sake ibid.

- That the Sufferings of the sentient and intelligent Creatures, in this present State, necessarily supposes a State of Pre-existence and a future Lapse, or a Course of Trial and Probation 32

- That there may be other States and Mansions, in infinitum, of progressive Purification and Perfection; and that Suffering, which in the Divine Purity, and the Nature of Disorder, must have been eternal, is made temporary only, by the Merit and Suffering of Jesus 34

- That spiritual Substance may be conceiv'd analogous to, and not contradictory to Matter sublimed and refined by the Power of Omnipotence; but even this Idea is imperfect, and not satisfactory, their Substances being naturally destructive of each other, and their Qualities in all their Modifications equidistant. 37

- That the spiritual Body, and immaterial Spirit crusted over with Clay, may for its Purification progressively be an infinit time in developeing these natural Powers, and in acquireing the moral Powers defaced by the Lapse; but that now under the Oeconomy of Jesus, this will be perfected in a finit Time, and even the whole System of Saturn is by general Laws vergeing to some great Catastrophe or Change 42

- That the Spirit, as being a Ray of the Divine Substance, or a Power emitted from his necessarily existent Nature, is immortal in its own Nature; but that the spiritual or aethereal Vehicle is only immortal by the Divine Order, and comparatively, as the first Particles of Matter are indivisible 43

- That the thinner and lighter the Crust on this aethereal Vehicle is, the natural Powers will be elicited more readily and freely, and the moral Powers acquir'd more easily and fully, and the necessary Sufferings thereby lessen'd 44

- That since the natural Powers of the Spirit are constant and always the same in their Root and Fund, it will follow, 1. That our acquir'd Knowledge is but Remembrance. 2. That there is in our spiritual Nature inherent and innate a moral Sense, and a natural Sagacity, as well as natural Sensations. 3. That there are innate Ideas of God and Virtue, and of moral Good and Evil in the Soul, tho' sopited and unelicited, as well as a natural Power to perform the animal Functions. 4. That spiritual Sensation and Senses (justly explain'd) are Realities, and not Figures. 5. That the Soul, in her Operations now, can only use and employ the material Organs of the aethereal Vehicle crusted over as they are with planetary Clay, which she must endeavour to extend, develope and mundify. 6. That Culture, Study and Labour in extending and perfecting the natural Powers, is but removeing Superfluities, cutting off Excrescences, and rendering the aethereal Vehicles and their Organs pliant and supple, and for the which we are now condemn'd to labour for our Punishment and Purification. 7. That the shortest Way to perfect the natural Powers, is to labour at the recovering the moral Powers 46

- That the Activity, Sensibility and Penetration, the animal Functions, the Passions, Sentiments, Memory, Imagination, and the other more material and less abstracted Operations of the Soul, and even the involuntary Functions, the voluntary Motions of the Body, are more immediatly performed by the self-moveing, immaterial, naturally sagacious Spirit, on the primitive aethereal Vehicle divinely organised, but now crusted over with Clay, as Springs and Weights move Clock-works, the first tho' having an innate Principle of Self-action, the other only an extraneous and adventitious one 48

- That in this progressive endless Purification and Perfection of an Animal in Body and Spirit, there may be many Steps, Stations and Mansions, and, one finished, another may begin, till the final Completion 50

- That in this endless progressive Purification towards consummat Perfection and Happiness, there may be a particular Law of Attraction, Fitness and Similarity, proportion'd to the Acquisition of the moral Powers, and Extension of the natural Powers, that may draw and determine them to their several Stations and Mansions, as the Eggs of Insects and Seeds of Plants are by Electricity drawn to their proper Nidus's and Leaves, till like the Asymptots of Hyperbola's they come at last to meet in their Curve ibid.

- That this Sketch of a System is innocent, tho' it should be deem'd a Romance, which is all I am answerable for 51

AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE II.
PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES about the Preference of Vegetable to Animal Food; and of the End and Design of Providence in Appointing the first, and, on Trial, Permitting the latter.

- THAT by our present Frame, we are fitted as for Vegetable, so for Animal Food, at least in the Days of our Vigour; but that Animal Food, on Trial, and consequent Miscarriage, under the first intended and appointed Vegetable Food, was permitted by the Author of Nature, as a pis alle, 1. To let us feel the natural and necessary Effects of our own Lusts and Concupiscence. 2. To produce naturally and mechanically those Pains, Miseries and Distempers, that might create a Horror of inordinat Lusts and Appetites, and afford Time and Opportunities to ponder and think, and thereby to return to Order, Love of Virtue, and its Source. 3. To shorten the Duration of our natural Lives, that Sin and Misery might not increase, or last eternally. 4. To concentre our natural Powers to a Level with our defaced moral Powers, that, without clashing, they might rise, and be restored, in the same Progression. And, 5. Perhaps to connive at what, without committing Violence on Liberty, could not at that Time be prevented. 55

- That our present earthly Bodies being compos'd of the now secondary Sulphur, Salt, Air, Water and fine Earth, only, and it being certain, from chymical Experiments, that Sulphur and Salt are the two most active and destructive Elements, and that the three last, Air, Water and fine Earth, are more innocent, the less active and deleterious, and Animal Food abounding most in the two first, and Vegetable in the three last; consequently Animal Food must be more destructive to Animal Bodies than Vegetable in the same Proportion. 2. Because by Experiment the Juice and nourishing Extract of Animal Food is more tenacious and glewy than that of Vegetable Food. 3. Because Animal Food abounding more with Salts and Sulphurs, and they by their Nature being always in perpetual Motion and Action, must mechanically tear Animal Substances faster than Vegetables, which abound most with the more passive and innocent Elements; especially, 4. When fermented Liquors are join'd to them, as Dilution, which harden the solid Meat, and obstruct its Solution and Digestibility. And lastly, since, 5. the Particles of Animal Food being strain'd through the finer Tubes, and stronger Organs, of Animal Digestion, must be more minutely divided than the Particles of Vegetables can, by their fewer and grosser Tubes of Preparation, and being destitute of Animal Heat and Force, and having only the Solar Heat and universal Law of Attraction common and equal in both; on these Accounts, the Particles of Animal must be much finer than the Particles of Vegetable Food, and consequently have a proportional much greater Degree of Attraction; must therefore be united with greater Force, and form stronger Obstructions, and being more delicious, betray the Feeder more readily into Excesses. On all which Accounts, (I say) Animal Food must mechanically and necessarily create Diseases, and shorten Life more readily than Vegetable 59

- That since what is, and necessarily is, must be a Part of the Intention of the Creator, and since Animal Food necessarily begets Diseases and Pains more readily than Vegetable Food can, there is no accounting for the Permission of Animal Food, but by supposing Pain and Suffering here a necessary Mean of Expiation and Purification, which GOD, on Trial, finding nothing else could reclaim his rebellious Creatures, unwillingly, as it were, permitted it, as a Father sends his Son to the Correctionhouse: And that, as when by Pride, Tyranny, Malice, Murder and Brutal Commerce, by the more luxuriant and delicious Vegetable Food, the Deluge came to its Pitch, he was forced to destroy both the People and their Food by this Deluge 62

- That to those to whom Revelation is familiar, the like Means of Correction will be evident from the Permission of Plurality of Wives to the Jews; and that under his immediat and miraculous Government, he, on their Murmurs, indulged them in a Monarchical Government, as a kind Father admonishes his froward giddy Child to beware of too familiar Approaches to Fire, by burning his Fingers 64

- That there is no accounting for the Permission of Animal Food, on the Foot of Natural Religion, the wanton Murder of Animals for Food, when more salutary Vegetable Food can be readily had, showing a Cruelty and Ferocity inconsistent with beneficent Natures; but that the universal Proprietor of Life and Happiness might, with great Wisdom, Justice and Kindness, knowing when the Term of Expiation of a lower Class of probationary, progressive or lapsed Animals is accomplish'd, give Leave, in the Course of his Providence, to put an End to their present Manner of Living, and advance them thereby sooner to a higher State of Being and Felicity, and at the same time secretly, and in Consistence with their Liberty, to admonish a higher Rank of Intelligences what they merited; for these (to be sure for wise and beneficent) Ends, perhaps unknowable by us, GOD might have permitted the killing Animals for our Food, as he certainly did for Sacrifice; for this we have a Patent in Revelation, but none for fermented Liquors, but as Physic, Cordials and Stomachicks or Bitters, on Extremities, Sickness, inclement Seasons, Fatigue or in Festivals 64

- That fermented Liquors of any Kind can never, in their Nature, be proper, or the best, for Animal Health and Life; for they are the spurious Invention of Art, and the further Deviation from the Simplicity of Nature, which has given us no Intimation of any such Kind of Beverage in the Preparations of pure Nature, and which the Animals who follow the Laws of Nature, will not touch; they are properly Physic, bitter Draughts, and unnatural Cordials on Extremities, in Sickness and inclement Seasons, and only design'd for a temporary Relief, and occasionally. Fermentation concentres, condenses and contracts, as it were, to a Point, at least to a much smaller Volum, (like a Burning-glass, which condenses the solar Rays, to make them more fierce) all the deleterious Particles of the Vegetables, that is, their Salts and Oils; and is the true and sole Cause of all our great and atrocious Distempers, especially of all the Train of the frightful nervous Diseases which now rage universally in England, like a Plague; and have been increaseing since the Conquest, and since Wine has been familiar to all Ranks; and Water-drinking only, timeously begun in Life, is the only sufficient Antidote for these most wretched lunatick Distempers 46

- That there are many Evidences of the Hurt fermented, but especially spirituous Liquors, do an animal Body; as, 1. That they harden and destroy the Digestibility of animal Food, and indeed of all kinds of Food in the Stomach. 2. Because they corrugat and contract the Fibres, and pin together the Particles of the Food, so that they cannot be so readily separated and divided into their integral nourishing Parts. 3. Because by their Heat and Activity, they bring the Fibres and Membrans of the digestive Organs, and all the other Solids, into too violent and frequent Vibrations and Succussions, and thereby break the Tone, and destroy the Elasticity, of these Organs, dissolve their Continuity, and so wear them out much sooner. And, 4. Because they stunt the Ductility and Growth of the animal Organs themselves, and thereby hinder their Developement, Extension, Elasticity and natural Strength, by continuing their linear or superficial Amplitude folded or rolled up 68

- That all sentient and intelligent Creatures are in an expiatory, perfectioning and progressive State, is evident, because here they must necessarily suffer; and infinit Beneficence could not possibly create any sentient or intelligent Being, merely to suffer; but chiefly, perhaps only, for Expiation, and consequent progressive Perfection and Happiness. That probably the early and universal Precept of Sacrifice, might first introduce animal Food; which Sacrificeing might have been intended, 1. Silently and kindly to admonish the Sinner to consider what he deserves: In this silent manner possibly, for the preserving Liberty inviolate, all the Animals might, partly, be design'd to read us Lectures of Instruction in Morality, or of the Conveniencies of Life, in the same manner. 2. By a Prolepsis to perpetuat the Expectation and Hope of some more noble Sacrifice, with such a View as the Eucharist was instituted after that Sacrifice had been accomplished. But yet this Permission seems to have been against the Grain, as may be gather'd from the Caution not to eat the Animal's Blood, in which its Life and deleterious Qualities alone consisted 73

- This Aversion in infinit Wisdom and Goodness, to permit the Use of animal Food, which He condescended to, merely for the Hardness of the Hearts of his lapsed Creatures, kindly to give them a forced Permission to do what He found they would presumptuously do, is further shewn by the Distinction between clean and unclean Animals, which were not to be eaten; which in their Nature are more apt to madden the Passions, enrage Distempers, and produce an Aversion to Virtue. And tho' St. Peter had a miraculous Vision, to tell him nothing was unclean under the Gospel, yet that was not till the Doctrine of Self-denial and Mortification was establish'd, as the Fundamental of Christianity 74

- That some Vegetables, as Eastern Gums, Spices, Aromaticks, pungent Foetids, and Onion Tribes, are more destructive to Animals, than young white animal Food 76

- To the Difficulties, that our blessed Saviour eat and drank with Publicans and Sinners: That he wrought his first Miracle to produce Wine: That he fed a Multitude by miraculous Animal Food: That St. Peter had a Vision to instruct him, that all Food was equal: It is answer'd, 1. That the Question only is, Which of the two Foods, Animal or Vegetable, was probably first intended by the Author of the Universe before the Lapse, and the Ruin of the Planet we now inhabit? 2. That different Repairs are necessary to different Degrees of Ruin, even in material Habitations. 3. That there is neither Virtue nor Vice in either kinds of Food, but in their Quantity, or as they are commanded by lawful Superiors. But that a low or vegetable Diet is naturally and mechanically more productive of Health and long Life, and consequently of Knowledge and Virtue, than a high animal Diet. 4. That our Saviour came to seek, to save those who were lost, and so was under a Necessity of converseing with the Voluptuous and Sinners: But that the Preference he gave to a low Diet, was implicitly included in his grand Doctrine of Selfdenial, and takeing up the Cross. 5. I grant, that in our present Situation on this ruinous Globe, it is impracticable and impossible, for Persons of all Ranks, Conditions and Occupations, to live intirely on Vegetables: Their Use now, is only to cure, alleviat and lessen the Distempers generated necessarily by animal Food, and fermented Liquors: And, 6. Even these, and spirituous Liquors, are sometimes necessary on Extremities, in some Diseases, as Filips and Cordials for temporary Reliefs; and infinit Wisdom foresaw this Mischief of these high Meats and Drinks, and provided an Antidote for them, at least for a Time, 1. By makeing the great Bowel, the Liver, to draw off their Poison, and turn it into a salutary Medicin. 2. By forming mineral Waters of all kinds, with such Profusion and Variety, every-where on the Surface of the Globe: And, 3. By creating the Minerals themselves, Mercury especially, mechanically adjusted for that Purpose, among many other Uses and Utilities, of ponderous and mineral Medicins, which probably were not in the same Form, or so readily at Hand, before the Flood 81

- That to the Appearances in the present State of Nature, that seem to clash with this Doctrine (which consists only in these three Propositions, 1. That animal Food, in its own Nature, is more ready to produce Distempers than vegetable Food. 2. That therefore infinit Wisdom must have had wise and beneficent Ends in instituteing the first, and but probably permitting only the latter: And, 3. That therefore the latter must be the proper Antidote for Disorders produc'd by the former); it is to be observed further, that at present our whole System is in Disorder, in a purifying, and, as it were, in a febrile State, labouring in a perfectionating Progression by general Laws, under natural Liberty, and the Harmony of the Divine Attributes, which must at last terminate in relative Order, Perfection, and universal Happiness. That now there is no such thing as avoiding the destroying of animal Life absolutly; but that it should not be done out of mere Luxury, Wantonness and Ferocity, which even the rapacious Animals do not, but from want of any proper Food 86

- That on the whole, it is plain from Revelation, that, 1. Animal Food was permitted, and fermented Liquors not absolutly, but their Excesses, forbidden. 2. That in many Circumstances and Situations, a reasonable Quantity of animal Food and fermented Liquors is absolutly necessary for a Time. 3. That it is plain from Philosophy and Experience, that Excesses in high animal Food, and strong fermented Liquors, are the true and adequat Cause of the great and atrocious Distempers. 4. That animal Food, and fermented Liquors, will necessarily shorten Life (perhaps one half) more readily than vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors, and in the same Proportion cause Distempers. 5. That tho' a moderat Quantity of animal Food and fermented Liquors will naturally warm and strengthen the Blood, and tighten the Solids for a Time, and consequently is necessary in all eruptive Distempers, yet they will shorten Life, and produce Distempers, much more readily than vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors. 6. That for bodily and mechanical Strength dureing a Time, and for a transient Occasion, tho' animal Food, and fermented Liquors, be the most effectual; yet for intellectual Purposes, vegetable Food, and unfermented Liquors, are certainly fittest. But to secure the golden Mediocrity between bodily Strength and clear penetrating Heads, about a half Pound of animal Food, and a half Pint of fermented Liquors, in the intirely Healthy and Young, or rather less, seems to bid fairest in Quantity for that Purpose: The Valentudinary must gradually sink below this healthy Standard, till, by Experience, they find their own proper Dose 88

AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE III.
A PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY, founded on Experiments of the Nature and Laws of minute inanimat Bodies, and their Systems in general.

- PROPOSITION I. THE least Particles of Matter are of various Sizes, Densities and Figures; the very least are almost infinitly small, hard and elastic, makeing the first Order; the second Order are compos'd of those; and these combin'd make the third Order 92

- SCHOLIUM. The Quantity of solid Matter in the material System of the Universe, may be very small; and yet, if duely divided and arranged, might answer all the Appearances of material Worlds 93

- PROP. II. The least Particles of Bodies are indivisible by any finite or created Powers 94

- Analogous to Gravity in the great Bodies of the Universe, there is in the least Particles of Matter, a Principle of Attraction and Repulsion ibid.

- SCHOL. I. What the general Law of Attraction and Repulsion in the least Particles of Matter precisely is, has not yet been determin'd; only in receding from the Contact, it is demonstrable that it is greater than the reciprocal Duplicat. 95

- SCHOL. II. If Particles attracted each other in the reciprocal Triplicat in their Point of Contact, the Force of their Attraction would be infinitly greater, than at any assignable Distance; yet it would not be infinitly greater than the Force of Gravity, since any Body may be separated by an assignable Force 96

- SCHOL. III. Repulsion begins and goes on, where Attraction ends; and they probably go on according to the same Law and Progression, but with contrary Directions ibid.

- PROP. IV. The Force of Cohesion in the small Particles of Matter, is in a compound Proportion, of the Quantity of their cohering Surfaces, and the Quantity of their attractive Powers ibid.

- COROL. Therefore the less the cohering Surfaces are, the less will be the Degree of Cohesion, and the least of all will be in Spheres or Spheriods 97

- PROP. V. The Force of Attraction in small Particles increases, as the Size of the Particles is diminished ibid.

- PROP. VI. The Gravities of Particles decrease as the Cubes of their Diameters ibid.

- COROL. Hence, from the Smallness and Divisibility of its Parts, Mercury is so easily rais'd; and Bodies may be suspended in Fluids specifically lighter than themselves ibid.

- PROP. VII. If a Fluid attracts the Parts of an immers'd Body more strongly than they do one another, they will be equally diffus'd through it 98

- PROP. VIII. Elastic Particles suspended in a Fluid after their Collision, will resile, and by their Actions and Reactions, cause Fermentation and Effervescence ibid.

- PROP. IX. Unelastic Particles suspended in a Fluid attracting each other, will sink and be precipitated; the same will be produc'd by diminishing the Gravity of the Menstruum 98

- PROP. X. The Figures of the Particles of all unelastic Fluids must necessarily be Spherical; and the Elements of all Solids must be of some of the regular Solids, as Cubes, Triangles, Prisms, &c. 99

- SCHOL. The Figure of the Particles of elastic Fluids is of no Consideration, since their Elasticity depends only on their repulsive Force ibid.

- PROP. XI. The Elasticity of solid Bodies is the Effect of the attracting Force of their Particles ibid.

- PROP. XII. That Bodies under a Rotation fly off in the Tangent, is the Effect of the general Law, by which they continue in their State, whatever that be 100

- PROP. XIII. The Figures of the Particles, and their Actions on one another, arising from the Principles of Attraction and Repulsion, together with the Motions impress'd on them by living and intelligent Agents, will probably account for the Appearances of the material World, if adjusted according to their Laws ibid.

- PROP. XIV. Air is a System of Particles endow'd with a repulsive Force, which being fix'd in all animal, vegetable and mineral Substances, are by Fire, Fermentation, Putrefaction, Dissolution, or any other intestine Action and Reaction, set at Liberty, and compose our Atmosphere; and hence its Compression, Weight, Elasticity and Density ibid.

- SCHOL. The Density of the Air is proportionat to its Compression, and therefore its expansive Force must be in the direct subtriplicat Ratio thereof 101

- PROP. XV. Earth is a loose Collection of the different elementary Particles of Matter, of all the three Orders, thrown together without any regular Combination ibid.

- PROP. XVI. Water is a Collection of the Solution of tasteless Salts, originally crystalliz'd, but kept in Fusion by Heat; and different Salts are different Combinations of these with the other Elements 102

- PROP. XVII. Acids seem to be very attractive Particles of plain Surfaces, and angular Points ibid.

- SCHOL. Possibly the Figures of Acids may be triangular Prisms; for all Matter must be figur'd ibid.

- PROP. XVIII. Heat is the brisk vibrating Action and Reaction of the repelling Nitre of the Air, and the aethereal Fluid with an attractive acid Sulphur; which Sulphur yields an inflammable Oil, an acid Salt, a fix'd Earth, and a little Metal 163

- COROL. Hence the Affinity between Light and sulphureous Bodies, and the true Nature of inflammable Spirits ibid.

- SCHOL. Since a Thermometer in an exhausted Receiver will rise and fall in the same manner as in the open Air, and since polish'd Bodies in the same, cling together as strongly as in the Air; it seems to follow, that there is some subtle elastic Fluid pervadeing all Bodies, to produce these Appearances 104

- PROP. XIX. Light seems to be the vibrating Particles of hot Bodies, driven out by the repelling Force, with an immense Velocity; which is increas'd by the aethereal Fluid, and the Attraction of Bodies ibid.

- SCHOL. I. Since Light is convertible into Bodies, and Bodies into Light; it would seem, that Light is only the Particles of a hot Body thrown off with an immense Velocity ibid.

- SCHOL. II. The Rays of Light seem to consist of Particles of different Sizes, and different Degrees of Refrangibility ibid.

- SCHOL. III. The Sun and fixt Stars are immense Globes of Matter, saturated with the Particles of the second Order, or of Light ibid.

- SCHOL. IV. It is not impossible this Earth, with all the Planets and Comets, should be intended as temporary Prisons, and Places of Correction, for the Trial, Expiation, or progressive Purification of the several Orders of lapsed, sentient and intelligent Beings 106

- PROP. XX. Flame is the sulphureous Smoak of a hot Body 107

- PROP. XXI. Bodies are Transparent, whose Pores are sufficiently small and rectilinear ibid.

EXPERIMENTS.

- PROP. I. Mercury consists of smaller Particles than any known Fluid. 2. The Particles of Mercury, the smaller they are, the more perfect Spheres they are. 3. Mercury is the heaviest of all natural Fluids. 4. Mercurial Particles attract some Bodies most, and fly from others the most 108

- Philosophical Corollaries. 1. Therefore the Particles of Mercury are most easily rais'd by Heat. 2. Therefore they have the greatest Momentum. 3. Therefore they will readily pass through all animal Substances, which are lax and porous 109

- Medical Corollaries. 1. Therefore the Particles of Mercury are fittest to break Viscosity. 2. Therefore they are the fittest Medicin to open the Obstructions of the small Vessels. 3. Therefore they are fittest to cure Palsies. 4. Therefore they are fittest to antidot the Scurvy. 5. Therefore they are the best Antidot for the Gout. 6. Therefore they are the best Remedy for chronical Distempers caus'd by Excesses. 7. Therefore the Particles of Mercury duely prepared, are the most probable Mean to make the Circulation quite round and intire through the whole System of the animal Tubes; that is, to thin the Juices 110

- Medical Cautions. Mercury, however prepared, will infallibly burst those Vessels, whose Obstructions cannot be dissolved, and break those whose Sides are very slender, or which are putrified; and therefore Mercury is a divine Antidot, or real Poison, according as it is managed; neither it nor any mineral Medicin being ever design'd by the Creator to enter an animal Body, no more than animal Food, in his first Intention, at least before the Lapse, and perhaps not before the Deluge, the Minerals being probably then intended for other Uses, and not being perhaps in the Form they are now, nor on the mountainous Surfaces of the Earth, nor dissolv'd in Water, as we now find them 111

- The Choice of mineral Medicins. The best Preparation of Mercury is that wherein its Particles are most minutely divided and separated, and thereby fitted to pervade the smallest Tubes ibid.

- That Preparation of Mercury is best, where its Particles being minutely divided, the Mixture is made with that Body of the most acknowledg'd specific Virtue against the Disease 112

- Therefore the Aqua Mercurialis is the best and most universal of all Deobstruents in very weak Persons; the Mercurius Alcalisatus next; then the Cinnabar, Aethiops, Quicksilver, purified with specific Extracts, &c. ibid.

- All mineral Medicins ought to be infinitly divided before they are sent into an animal Body ibid.

- Mercury, and the active Salts, are the very worst and most prejudicial Preparations to animal Bodies, and are not to be us'd but in small Doses, and in Cases that require Expedition 113

- General medical Corollaries. As Water, Blood-warm, is the best Diluent, so purified Quicksilver is the best Deobstruent. But as Water alone may be too sluggish, so Mercury alone may be too active and ponderous in delicat Constitutions; therefore the very best Preparation is where Mercury, infinitly divided, is mix'd with the specific Vegetable or Mineral against a given Distemper ibid.

- Therefore a thin cool low Diet of vegetable, or very tender and loose animal Substances, is the very best Food for delicat and wasted Constitutions 114

- A general medical Scholium. From this System, or Philosophical Explication, of the Nature and Laws of the minute Particles of Matter, it will follow, 1. That soft, mild, thin and cool Foods, are fittest to carry on and continue animal Life and Functions. 2. That Spirits, Salts, chymical Oils, and Medicins that have pass'd through the Tortures of the Fire, are most pernicious to animal Bodies. 3. That Food of Animals which live on Animals, are the worst kind of animal Food for human Bodies. 4. That Mercury, duely prepared and combin'd with a specific Alterative, is the best Deobstruent and Dissolvent. 5. That Milk and Vegetables are the proper Food for young and diseased Animals, and tender Constitutions. 6. That Water Beverage is best for preserving the Faculties clear, the Spirits free, and prolonging Life. 7. That, on the whole, Mercury, some-how prepared, and Water, naturally or artificially impregnated, are the two Antidots provided by Nature for animal Distempers in chronical Cases 116

AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE IV.
PHILOSOPHICAL CONJECTURES on Spiritual Nature, the Human Spirit in particular.

- THAT the natural Powers of all Spirits are these two, Understanding and Willing, which suppose a third, viz. Living, as their Base 119

- That all created Spirits naturally and philosophically can be conceiv'd only as infinitesimal Miniatures, Sparkles, Emanations, or, if I durst use the Words, diminutive analogous Particles of that infinitly perfect spiritual Being, who is so intirely One, that He cannot have Parts; yet have these Miniatures of Him an infinitesimal Portion of his spiritual Substance, endow'd with a proportional Share of his natural Attributes of Living, Understanding and Willing; and so are therefore necessarily immortal, and cannot be annihilated 120

- That these Faculties or Powers are felt sensibly and perceptibly by duely cultivated Spirits of all Orders, and follow by Analogy as to the Substance of the Soul, and these Faculties, from the necessary Nature and Attributes of the Deity 121

- That this Meaning is evident in Revelation, which says, Men are God's Images, and they are there called Gods; that is, they were at first made infinitesimal Divinities, endow'd with his natural and moral Attributes, in their Order 122

- That all Pagan and Christian Antiquity believ'd, that all created Spirits were cloath'd with some material Vehicle, and that God alone was pure, immaterial, infinit Spirit; and Revelation speaks of a spiritual, that is, of an infinitly refin'd and sublim'd Body 123

- That neither material nor spiritual Substances are knowable by us at present, but by their sensible Effects and Acting: But that Matter and Spirit are contrary, tho' not contradictory, in their most essential and distinguishing Qualities; Matter being divisible in infinitum, and Spirit indivisible: But what infinit Divisibility, Rarity, Elasticity and Velocity in the Particles of Matter, might at last effect on its Substance and Qualities, to give Matter a Nature different from gross porous inert Bodies, none but the Author of Matter and Spirit can tell or comprehend: But they will eternally be even thus, like the Hyperbolic Curve and its Asymptot, probably like parallel Right Lines 125

- Living is probably actuating, governing and moveing a divinely organiz'd Vehicle, primitive, aethereal or planetary; and whereever there is any Degree of Life, vegetative (or divinely organiz'd Matter only) sensative or rational, there of Neceslity must be a spiritual (so to speak) Body, or an immaterial, immortal and progressive spiritual Substance, actuating, governing and moveing a divinely organiz'd Body of some Order or Nature or another, or both united 126

- That there may possibly be Orders, Ranks and Species of animated Beings, with divinely organiz'd Vehicles of all Degrees, gradually rising, from the Coralline to the highest Seraphim; and an Angel is only a spiritual Substance actuating a divinely organiz'd Body, of an Order and Purity a little higher than that of an unlapsed perfect human Being 127

- That we plainly perceive how imperfect and unhappy Beings we are at present, we of the human Race; yet cannot possibly think that we came thus out of the Hands of our Creator; but must conclude we have lost our primitive Creation State by some wilful Mismanagement of our own 128

- That our primitive State must necessarily have been, 1. That our organis'd Vehicle was entirely supple and pliable to our Spirit; and, 2. That our Spirit was entirely pliable to the Divine Spirit 129

- That all created Spirits being naturally free, must be necessarily fallible: That, on this Globe, there was never a thinking Being, come to any Degree of Maturity, who found not himself, at one time or another, miserable, and wish'd not to be otherwise; this State is called the Lapse 130

- How this Lapse was brought about, is not explicitly revealed, and is not knowable by mere Reason or Philosophy; we feel that it is, and that is all we at first know certainly. GOD'S Design being to restore us, with the Consent of our own Liberty, and the Harmony of his Attributes, discourages vain Curiosity in Particulars; all that is revealed to us is general and indefinit; we feel that we are imperfect and unhappy, and that is sufficient to begin the first Steps of our Recovery into Order in Body and Soul; we are always certain in the Knowledge of our Recovery, of the second Step when we have made the first, of the third when we have made the second, and soon in infinitum; more previous Knowledge would but perplex and confound us, and draw us out of the shortest Road of Restoration 132

- That it is not improbable, that the Lapse was brought about by Steps and Degrees, that Way of Lapseing being most natural to finite Creatures, and many of the several Orders of Beings might have been concern'd in it 133

- That our Senses were given us to commerciat with material Objects, these of our present System especially, or others we may pass into; in which the Key and Logic of our Knowledge is Proportion. All we can possibly know of spiritual Natures must be from Analogy, without Violence on our Liberty, which make us mere Vegetables, and from comparing them with the Faculties and Operations of our own Spirits; and Analogy, duly cultivated and cautiously guarded in spiritual Nature, is answerable to Algebra, or Analyticks in Mathematicks 135

- That since God is, spiritual Nature and material Nature is and exists: All GOD's Words and Works must therefore necessarily have a literal or material, spiritual and divine Meaning and Sense; the literal for Beginners, the spiritual for the Advanced, and the divine for the Perfect. Perhaps it may be thus in the Account of the Lapse, and all the Group of this Affair certainly were literal, Paradise a Place of material Delight, the Tree of Life a Food to perpetuat the then material Vehicle in Health and Liveliness; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, quite the contrary; the Serpent, the highest fallen Angel. The spiritual Meaning may refer to the moral Powers of the Soul, as the literal did to the bodily; the Tree of Life may refer to the Source of the Divinity, the Father; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to the God-Man Jesus Christ; the Serpent, the grand Deceiver; Paradise, the natural Powers of the Soul, which were contracted and sopited by gross Matter, upon the Lapse, after the moral Powers were defac'd by Rebellion, Disorder, Selfishness, and inordinat Love of the Creature 137

- That by this Lapse, from the Principle of Attraction establish'd universally in the spiritual as well as material World, the primitive aethereal Vehicle was gradually turn'd to a planetary one, such as we now live in; and thereby the Activity, Energy, and Extension of the natural Powers of the Soul were greatly confin'd and stunted, as to their elicited Acts, tho' they could not be so as to their Fund, and potential Nature; and now they must rise to Perfection in proportion only to the acquir'd moral Powers, and by Labour and Culture, under the Oeconomy of Jesus, and by the Aid of supranatural Grace, be develop'd, extended and purified 139

- That perhaps all sentient and intelligent Beings, of all Ranks, must necessarily pass through a State of Trial, Probation and Apprenticeship, before they can be, even by Omnipotence, confirm'd and eterniz'd in Illability and Impeccability, as a Potter vitrifies his Ware by Fire; or a Smith steels his Iron. All that is necessary or proper for us to know, or be certain of, in our present State, is, that we are lapsed Probationers, and progressive towards Perfection and Happiness; more precise Knowledge of our pre-existent or future State might only retard our Progress 143

- Whether the ruinous Planet we now inhabit, was the primitive Seat of unlapsed human Spirits, and by their gradual Lapse was insensibly turn'd into its present Condition, is impossible for us now to determin. Paradise, as described by Moses, is now no-where to be found; and most Climats, on a Balance of Incommodities with Conveniencies, are pretty much upon an Equality to the Natives. We find Luxury destroys our planetary Vehicles, and Pestilences infect the Atmosphere and the Earth, as well as its Inbitants: But it is probable, the Divine Power might suspend or accelerat the general Laws of Nature, to turn this Globe from its Paradisiacal to its present State 145

- An animal Body being a System only of mechanical Powers, compos'd of fine elastic infinitesimal Lines, or Threads form'd into various Webs or Membranes, and they into Tubes or solid Bundles, are, by proper Liquors, kept for a time in due Elasticity, having under them the primitive aethereal Vehicle, which is the proper Covering of the Soul, and its immediat Instrument between it and the planetary Plaistering, which, when broken, drops, and perhaps they (Soul and aethereal Vehicle) pass into others, till its progressive Purification be finish'd into Illability and Impeccability 147

- Matter is capable only of Division, Figure, Motion and Situation, and is passive and inert. Spirit is self-motive and selfactive, and must be the Principle of Motion in Bodies, without which they would continue for ever inert, but so far as their Principle of Attraction or Repulsion, produc'd probably by some subtile universal Fluid, sets them into Action: But this Fluid seems confin'd chiefly to inanimat Matter; and does nothing in particular or eminently in proper animal Functions, but as the general Laws of Nature operate and concur with all material Operations; and the Whole of animated Functions seem to be directly and eminently transacted by the actuating immaterial Principle on the divinely organiz'd aethereal Vehicle, which communicats its Energy to the planetary Plaistering. So that the material Spirit of Sir Isaac, Hugens and Leibnitz's rapid Fluid, and even our common animal Spirits, seem to be without any Use, but in inanimat Motions and Appearances: And perhaps animal Motions and Functions may be better understood and explain'd, by supposing what is Fact, that our Solids, the Nerves especially, (which are the more immediat Instruments of animal Motions, and their Functions) are membraneous cellular Tubuli, preserv'd in their proper Elasticity and Tone, by a milky Oil contain'd in them; and are mechanically adjusted at first by the immediat Hand of the Almighty, and fitted to convey, from the immaterial Spirit, a Beginning of proper harmonious Vibrations and Oscillations (which may perhaps be promoted and forwarded by the correspondent Undulations of an infinitly rare elastic Fluid, disseminated thro' universal Space); which being sent, in a proper Direction, by the appropriated Nerves, to the peculiar Muscles, and divinely organiz'd Instruments, conveys proper Action, Energy and Motion to them; and Bodies, and their Effluvia, (so and so vibrating) may to the same membranous Tubuli, communicat peculiar Vibrations, fitted to impress a Sensation of their Presence, and of Bodies, and their Qualities, to the intelligent naturally sagacious Spirit; so that the whole Work may be directly transacted between the Spirit and outward Bodies, by the divine Mechanism of proper bodily Organs; and the aethereal Fluid may be to animated Bodies, in their Motions and Functions, not essential, but accidental or commodious, for a more convenient Propagation; as Air is to Animals, or Water to the Fish 151

- That Living, Activity or Liberty, and Intelligence, in some Degree, and all their Modes, are necessary to all animated Beings, of all Orders; and the Difference in the Individuals of the same Order, depends on the Frame and Texture of their Vehicles in a great measure; so that probably at first there might have been no Difference of Sexes, that depending on a design'd different Configuration of this planetary Crusting. That some Power analogous to the original creative Attributes in the Deity, arising from his infinite Self-activity, might be communicated to all sentient and intelligent Beings, is not improbable. But how this infinitesimal creative Power operated before the Lapse, is not known: Perhaps by an intense Willing under the Influence of the Divine Spirit 153

- It is highly probable, from the Necessity of Suffering, in the present State, that all the sentient and intelligent Beings, that shall ever live or appear on this Globe, were all created at the same Instant, miscarried in their Probation, and were all at the same time confin'd into infinitesimal Prisons of this ruinous Planet, in the Miniature, Seeds, Ova, and Animalculs of the primitive Pairs, or Stock, to be progressively propell'd into sensible Living on this Planet, all by general analogous Laws, in their Order; and this progressive Propagation was kindly design'd, as a Mean of recovering their moral Powers, by the Benefits arising from the Acquisition of Virtue and Wisdom in the Parents, tho' the contrary has fallen out 156

- There may be original Differences in the Spirits of the Individuals of the same Order of Intelligences, some having one of the essential and natural Attributes of the Spirit in a higher Extent than the other, it may be sufficient to constitute the same Order, that their Aggregats be equal: But the Perfection of the aethereal Vehicle, Culture, and the Acquisition of the moral Attributes, makes the most signal Difference in this State; as Air, Exercise and Diet improve the Health, so does Culture in the Acquisition of the moral Powers of the Mind. The natural Powers are constant and invariable, as to their Fund and Capacity; but are impeded from elicit Acts by the Clumsiness and Want of due Culture of the animal and intellectual material Organs 159

- The Mainoeuvre of Providence in the Restoration seems to be thus: The radical natural Powers being constant and invariable in their Fund and Capacity, but the moral Powers being defac'd by the Lapse; infinit Goodness, ever acting by his own beneficent Nature, designing to recover these moral Powers, tied down the Energy and Elicitation of the natural Powers, by Ligatures of this ruinous Planet, at first into that of mere Living; and included the whole Mass of lapsed human Intelligences, in the Loins of One, or a Pair, who were to be the universal Parents, designing the self-active and self-motive Principle in each should, under certain general Laws, break and work off these Ligatures, in their several Orders; while they, by other general Laws, relating to spiritual Nature, (Prophecy, to wit, Miracles, Apostolick Lawgivers, supernatural Influences and Graces, and at last by the overwhelming Light and Love of the Messiah, his only begotten Son) should recover in them the defac'd moral Virtues 162

- Hence it is evident, the first and initial Steps of this Restoration must, in a great measure, depend on the Sanity of the Adamical Machin; because, when our earthly Tabernacle is greatly disorder'd, these elementary Steps in the Developement of the natural, and the Acquisition of the moral Powers, cannot be so readily brought about, which depends greatly on the Parentage; for the whole Aggregat of all that is connected with the Parents, their Bodies, Humors, and material or spiritual Qualities, are transfus'd and transubstantiated through the whole, and descend to Posterity just as they possess them, and so the Children must fare accordingly 163

- It may happen, by Accident, by Disease, by universal Causes, that one Set of nervous Glands in the Brain, one Set of membranous Tubuli (the material Organs of Cogitation) may be more spoil'd, broken, and worn out in some than the others, both in Parents and Children; which will make a great Difference in the elicit Acts of the natural Powers, and which will make the Difference between a Lawgiver, a Philosopher, a Hero, and an Artisan. But this whole Affair is more immediatly under God's special and particular moral Government of his World; tho' perhaps by general Laws, only occasionally, and on great and worthy Motives, suspended 165

- That at present, the Perfection of intellectual Faculties depends, in a great measure, on the Sanity of the bodily Machin, seems evident, because, 1. The Adamical Machin was intended only to suspend the elicit Acts of the natural Powers in their most eminent Degree, to give us Fredom, by developeing and throwing off their Incrustation, to acquire the moral Powers. 2. By Experience we find, that in Disorders and Distempers of the Body, the intellectual Operations are either inconstantly, weakly, or unsteadily perform'd. 3. It is Fact, that in seminal Miniatures, in Embryo, and Childhood, and for a long time, the Soul does nothing but perform the living and animal Functions. 4. We find, that Luxury, Leachery, Laziness, strong Passions, inclement Air, Bruises and Accidents, that injure the Body, hurt and destroy the free and easy Exercise of these Faculties, in the Acquisition of Science and Virtue. 5. We actually see, that as the Body inlarges, and the Organs of the Senses strengthen, the intellectual Faculties and their elicit Acts grow stronger. 6. All intellectual as well as vital Operations, are perform'd by the Intermediation of modulated and harmonious Vibrations on membranous Tubuli, (the Nerves) and they absolutly depend on the State of the Body. 7. As Luxury, Leachery, and Laziness, will spoil these intellectual Operations; so, on the other hand, a low cool Diet, Air and Exercise, proper Evacuation, and the mild ponderous Medicins, will cure and mend them, and bring them often to the same, sometimes to a better State than they were before 169

- From hence it is evident, that the whole Work of our Restoration, in some measure, depends on ourselves, in Co-operation with the Divine Assistance, under his Providence, and the Oeconomy of Jesus; the whole Creation, from inert Matter, up to the highest Cherubim, being, as it were, an inverted Cone rising from a Point, and made of infinitesimal Surfaces, as it were, contitinually inlarging, (which makes their Order) being all Pictures, less or greater, of the radical or natural Attributes of their Creator; but Men having defac'd their moral Attributes, are imprison'd in Gaols of this ruinous Planet, that by a progressive Expiation, Purification, and Labour, they may recover these, and so become again similar to their Original, in their moral as well as natural Powers, and so become again infinitesimal Divinities, in their Order, and perpetually happy 173

- The human Soul has innate, constantly and invariably in it, all the natural Powers it was first created with, even now in its lapsed State, at least in its Fund, Capacity, and Essence; only they are suspended, chain'd down, and concentred, as to its elicit Acts, by the Adamical Tabernacle, like a Felon in a Dungeon, and will drop at last; and so perhaps passing through various planetary Gaols, will progressively recover the Use of their natural Powers, as they acquire the moral ones 175

- From whence it will follow, that the Culture of the natural Powers, the Acquisition of Sciences, and all intellectual Exercises, are but Remembrance, cutting off Obstacles, and removeing Impediments, opening Passages, and widening Apertures, through this Adamical Prison, which is the most readily and effectually brought about by endeavouring to acquire the moral Powers 176

- That Memory is but an Affection of the Understanding and Will, fixing the Attention and Reflection, like seeing in the Eye by the Effort of the Will. The Understanding is passive and inert, as every material Organ is. It is the Will that is the ruling and commanding Faculty, and Sovereign in the Soul. The Will is infinit and unlimited, and may act in Contradiction and Contrariety to the Understanding; is so absolutly unlimited, infinit and unconfin'd, that it extends to all Distances, without the Intermediation of Body. Being a self-motive and self-active Principle, it is no less real in its Operations, tho' it do not always effect its Volitions. In it lies the true and essential natural miniature Image of the Deity 178

- Some have thought, the Will of all free Agents so infinitly free in its own Nature, as it was deriv'd from the creative Source of Liberty and Power the Deity, that He left it free, hid and imperceptible directly from his own Penetration, Espial and Influence; for so much they think a selfmotive Power necessarily implies, tho' but an infinitesimal one; and that even Omniscience knew not that the Angels had lapsed, till the Rebellion actually happen'd; but had, from all Eternity, provided for the Possibility of such an Event: That to ennoble his Creatures, and make them fit to commerciat with Himself, He might suspend his Omniscience to magnify his Omnipotence; and might designedly and arbitrarily not foresee (tho' He certainly always might) the contingent and natural Actions of his intelligent Creatures, to make them more worthy of Him. But this bold and unwarranted Supposition, tho' it might solve some Difficulties about the Lapse, about Prescience and Predestination, and in the Oeconomy of Revelation and the Restoration, is perhaps inconsistent with the Perfection of the Divine Nature; and since infinit Penetration and Sagacity will equally answer the same Difficulties, and is less derogatory from infinit Perfection, the former Supposition is untenable, I think 182

- As the trine Dimensions of Matter and Space, and their necessarily being neither fewer nor more, give us, in unanimated Nature, a lively Picture of the Trinity in Unity, in the Divine Nature; so the three fundamental natural and essential Powers of all intelligent Creatures, carry up the analogical Picture higher; which perhaps passes through all the celestial Hierarchy, and all intelligent Nature, up to their Source the Creator, who is the last and highest Term of this Climax; as He is, so we are, in our spiritual Nature, with the uncomprehensible Difference there is between the lowest Finite and absolute Infinitude. As in our Nature there is Living, Understanding and Willing; so in his there is Self-existence, Omniscience and Omnipotence; or, analogous to, in the Revelation Language, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But as Living, Understanding and Willing, in us and all Creatures, are but, as it were, Modalities, Qualities, Faculties and Powers; in the Divine Nature, on the contrary, they must be Realities, Subsistences and Beings; because every essential and radical Attribute in God must be actually God, because of his infinit Simplicity and Perfection. But this Representation of the Divine Nature is here only alledg'd as an Allusion and analogous Picture, to take off the Difficulties in this inexplicable Mystery; and, in some Degree, to reconcile it to modest guarded Philosophers, of honest Hearts, who are conscious of their own low Rank in the Scale of Intelligence. The Arian and Sabellian Heresies being the two Extremes, are yet widely different in their Influence on Christian Perfection: The first dwindling the Merit, Dignity, Example and Satisfaction of the Saviour of Men, into a mean low human Transaction; the second being only too philosophically nice and punctilous about the Unity of the Divine Nature; which tho', I think, this emblematical miniature Representation of it, actually existent in all intellectual Nature, fairly reconciles, and makes as clear as our present State will admit 184

- The immaterial Soul and aethereal Vehicle, sopited in a State of mere vegetable Life, for perhaps many Ages, in the seminal Animalcul, by this planetary Incrustation; in time appears on this Globe, becomes sensitive, feels Pain and Misery; then begins Instinct and Remembrance from precedent Suffering, and stores the Mind with Ideas or Pictures of absent Actions and Things, and on these the Understanding operats to produce a Facility and Habit of Reasoning; as the material Organs and Instruments of these Operations develope and strengthen, Reflection and Remembrance of present or past Suffering awakens Conscience (an innate Faculty of the Soul); this Faculty, as the Ideas multiply, Sensations become more intense, Reflection more strong and frequent, and the intellectual Organs are dispos'd, becomes more anxious and vehement; and providential disposing Accidents, or natural Occurrences, incline us to provide for a durable future Happiness, at least when this Adamical Tabernacle shall crumble into Dust; and then perhaps we come to a State to say in earnest, Lord, what shall I do to be saved? which seems to be the precise Condition infinit Love and Goodness intends by this wonderful Oeconomy to bring us into 190

AN ABSTRACT OF DISCOURSE V.
On NATURAL ANALOGY, its Laws, and some of its Consequences.

- THINGS may differ in Degree as well as in Kind 193

- DEF. 1. Difference in Degrees is where things having their essential Qualities the same, admit in these Qualities a More and a Less ibid.

- DEF. 2. Difference in Kind, is where some of the essential Qualities of things compar'd are common, some are different ibid.

- DEF. 3. By Ratio, or Relation, is meant the Reference or Connexion any two things compar'd have with one another, whose essential Qualities common, admit of a More or Less ibid.

- DEF. 4. Similarity is where there is an Equality or Sameness of Relations: In the Substance and essential Qualities of things compar'd, differing only by a More or a Less: In abstracted and simple Ideas, this Sameness is commonly called Similitude of Ratio's: In Things, Substances, or Aggregats of Qualities, it may be called Similarity of Relations 194

- DEF. 5. Things, Substances, and Qualities, are meant to be progressive, which are constantly increasing or decreasing similarly 195

- SCHOL. Space, Time, Motion, and Velocity, seem to be no Realities, or external Things, but mere Modifications, different Situations and Circumstances of Bodies or Matter; and are only our Manner of conceiveing or considering these. A particular Space, or the Locality of a particular Body, seems to be the Mathematical Term, or the Limits of the Three Dimensions of a Body, (as a Point is of a Line) or a Body in the Instant of its Evanishing or Generating. And universal Space is just such an Idea as infinit Number, or an infinitly great Body, or a mere Ens Rationis. And to shew that they are all but abstracted Ideas, and our partial Manner of conceiveing Things, from our limited Capacity; if we perform actually the Arithmetical Operations, as the Expression points them out, on proper infinit Series's, and throw away all the lesser Quantities, we shall come to all the Mysteries in Fluxions and Differentials, Ratio's, and Series, commonly known, which are acknowledg'd to be only abstracted Ideas, and technical Arts, to supply the Defects of our Faculties, which are not intuitive, but progressive; they admit of Degrees, or a More and Less, only as belonging to and being connected with Body; viz. Space, Time, Motion, and Velocity, are Relations or Modifications only of Body or Matter 196

- DEF. 6. Relative Infinit, is such as is suppos'd to increase or decrease perpetually, yet by no finite Power can be brought to, and no finite Capacity can assign or conceive its limiting Terms, viz. the Greatest or the Least 197

- DEF. 7. Absolute Infinitude is the sole Attribute of the Deity, who is infinitly infinit in all Perfections and Realities ibid.

- DEF. 8. Things only are contradictory, which totally destroy one another, destroy their Subsistence, Substance, and Qualities ibid.

- SCHOL. It is very doubtful, nay, I think, impossible, there can subsist a full Contradiction among created Things, Substances, or Qualities, since they must all be Effluxes of the Deity, in whom there can subsist no Contradiction. For in created Things, to become totally contradictory, there must be an equal Action and Reaction, to have produced it; but in all Creatures there seems to be a Subsistence and Reality, which cannot be totally destroy'd by one another, but by a Power and Energy equal to that by which they were created, and infinit Perfection cannot be contrary to itself. There may therefore be a Contrariety among created Substances and Qualities, but not a full Contradiction, or total Annihilation of their Subsistence, Substance, and all their Qualities. For even between material and spiritual Substances, there will remain still, Substance, Subsistence, a Relation, an Alliance, a Power of Expansion and Remission, both of their Substance and Qualities, which will make them alliable, and, as the Chymists speak, will make them capable of an Amalgama, (like Quicksilver with Lead) tho' they will eternally act by Contrariety on one another's Substances and Qualities, and ever counteract one another 200

- DEF. 9. Analogy, is a Similarity in Substances and essential Qualities, differing only by a More or a Less ibid.

- SCHOL. Analogy is of two kinds, perfect and complete, and imperfect and incomplete ibid.

- DEF. 10. Perfect Analogy is where there is a total Similarity of Substances, and essential Qualities, differing only in Degrees ibid.

- SCHOL. There are, I think, Substances, as well as Things and Qualities, of a middle Nature, between the Extremes, in every created Reality; and this seems to be necessary, from the Infinitude of the Divine Nature, as well as from the Nature of Finitude and Creature, which must be various and gradual. And as between any two given Terms, there are an Infinity of mean Proportionals assignable; and between an infinitly small, and an infinitly great part of the Diameter of an infinit Circle, there is the Perpendicular neither infinitly small nor great; so there must be material and spiritual Substances, of all Degrees of Sublimity, Purity, and Perfection, which, tho' similar, may differ in Degrees 201

- COROL. Hence it may be possible, there may exist material Substances, continually approaching to the Nature and Qualities of spiritual Substances, which yet they can never arrive at, like the Asymptots of an Hyperbola 202

- COROL. 2. Hence, there may possibly be material Fluids, so infinitly rare, spiritual, and elastic, that they may permit gross, porous, planetary Bodies, with only an infinitly little Resistance, tho' that Resistance may be still somewhat, and but as the Sun diminishes only infinitly little continually, in the Emission of her Light; neither the spiritual Fluid, nor the Sun, can be design'd to last, in their present Condition, a Duration equal to GOD's Eternity 203

- DEF. 1. Complex Analogy is where there is only a Similarity between a certain Number of essential Qualities, common to the Things compared, which differ in Degrees; but are diversified in other Qualities less essential ibid.

PROPOSITION.

- All Creation, the whole System of the Universe, with all the particular Systems in Nature, are or can be nothing, but the supreme Being and his Attributes, transubstantiated into Being and Perceptibility; but the Cause will be always different from the Effect, the Artificer from the Work. This may be demonstrated à priori, from the Nature and Attributes of the first Cause; but to illustrate it à posteriori, some Instances may be proper 204

- §. 1. In the vegetable World, to explain their Growth and Multiplication, the infinitly rare elastic material Fluid mention'd, judiciously applied, will be sufficient, as also in the Vegetation and Growth of Minerals 205

- §. 2. The totally inanimat Creation, especially our now secondary Elements of Air, Water, Light, Salts, and Mercury, in the peculiar Fitness of the Size, Figure, Law of Attraction and Gravity, shew the infinit Wisdom of their Contriver; for had they not been figur'd, so as they are now in Nature, to fit the Tubes of Vegetables, and to combine them into their now integral Parts, they could not have been proper Materials for the Accretion of these Vegetables; and if they had not been so combin'd and moulded in the Vegetables, there had been no proper Food for Animals 206

- The Difference between Vegetables and Animals lies in this, that for the Actuation, Growth and Multiplication of the first, there neither is, nor is wanted any other Power or Energy than what an infinitly rare and elastic material Fluid produces on a divinely organis'd material Machin; but in the latter, there is a self-motive and self-active spiritual Substance actuating and governing all their Functions, of some Order or Degree, even in the lowest Brute and Insect 208

- §. 4. The human Powers, their Degree, Order, and the Nature of their primitive aethereal Vehicle, with its now Plaistering, have been sufficiently explain'd 209

- §. 5. The Angelic Hierarchies must be infinit in their Number, rising in a harmonious Progression and Variety, whose Seats may possibly be the Fixt Stars, and their analogous planetary aethereal Systems and Apparatus; and these must be infinit in Number likewise, to preserve the Equilibrium in universal Space, and their original Distances from each other; they must have one generical Nature, which must be that of the radical Attributes of the Deity, Living, Understanding and Willing; their specific Differences may consist in Light and Love, that some are more eminently luminous, others more ardently loving; and this Difference seems to take Place even on this ruinous Planet, in the different Complexions and Talents of Mind in the different Orders of Men, which can only account for the odd Diversity in the Children of the same Parents, under the same Education and Example 213

- The Fixt Stars, which must be infinit in Number, seem to be the material Mansions of unlapsed, tried and purified angelical Hierarchies, and of restor'd, sentient and intelligent lapsed Creatures. God's Throne, his Shechina, is represented as above: Elijah went upwards, and Christ ascended. Bodies of all Orders, or different Purity, must have an ubi, a local Situation, and a parmanent Mansion, at last: These Fixt Stars, and their planetary Apparatus, may be the Seats of the Unlapsed and Restor'd, and their aethereal Vehicles may be of the same Matter with their Mansions; and the Matter of these luminous and glorious Seats, and the Vehicles made of them, may be eternis'd by harmonious Vibrations, and a perpetual Flux and Reflux of their Rays 216

- GOD being the Creator of all sentient and intelligent Beings, the efficient Cause, and Object of perfect Felicity, it is a manifest Contradiction he should creat any such without impressing in the very Essence of their Nature an ardent and insatiable Tendency and Ardor after Re-union with him; and accordingly the Desire of Happiness in all sentient and intelligent Beings is invariable and unextinguishable, as we see, however they may mistake the End or Means, by being labile, and placeing it in spurious Selfishness, and inordinat Love of the Creatures; and in the Distinction and Contrariety between this innate Byass and that adventitious one, does the Essence of Misery and Hell, in all future States, consist; but this last Byass being acquir'd only, and not innate and essential, the Love, Merits and Satisfaction of the Son of God, were contriv'd from all Eternity, to melt down and efface 219

- Is it not highly probable that the System of Saturn, the Planets and their Satellits, may be the local Prisons and Dungeons, or Correction-houses, of the several Orders of lapsed probationary and progressive sentient and intelligent Beings? They differ vastly in their Accommodations; they seem to be under some penitential Disciplin from many obvious Imperfections and Oddities not easily otherwise accountable, or reconcileable to the Simplicity, Beauty, Harmony and regular Order of all the Works of an infinitly perfect and powerful Being; but, with infinit Propriety and Wisdom, seem fitted for the Design of Penitence, Correction, and initial Purity and Perfection 220

- The Comets cannot possibly be the Seats of the Blessed; they are too many to supply only our Decrease of Water; their Alternations of extreme Heat and Cold, Light and Darkness, are too violent for any animated Vehicle in a State of Happiness: They seem more probably to be the Habitations of animated Beings under the Expectation of the last Sentence, or to be the Condemn'd Holds of GOD's Kingdom 222

- The next immediat Mansions to this, or the several Stations and Mansions design'd for the respective Purification of Soul and Body of lapsed, sentient and intelligent Beings, and all the several Steps, Stations or Mansions, in all Probability have a gradual Resemblance or Analogy to one another and to this State here, and this Planet we now inhabit as the first or initial Term upwards or downwards respectively; in those upwards all the Beauties, Comforts and pure Delights here increasing similarly in Degree, without their Deformity, Miseries or Pains; in those downwards all the contrary: This Climax seems naturally to flow from the Simplicity and Immutability of the Divine Nature by Analogy, and is conform to Revelation. All Bodies or Vehicles, planetary and aethereal, must have an ubi, and a fixt Mansion at least for a Time; and all sentient and intelligent Beings must have a Polity, Order and Laws, be under a Government and Subordination; else it would not be a happy State, but consummat Misery. GOD is a God of Order, and all his Works are performed with Order, Number, Weight and Measure, and must have all a mutual Analogy, or as near a Resemblance to one another, as the Nature of Things will admit 125

- Analogy does not (at least always directly and infallibly) demonstrat the real Existence and necessary Production of Things ad extra; but it strongly illustrats, explains, and makes them consistent with and consonant to the Things that we know already, see and feel to exist; it makes them different Links only of the same Chain, of Effects, and similar Terms of the same Progression, removes Difficulties, and makes Things rational and fit Objects for a rational supreme Cause to work by; and this is the solid Foundation of all true Philosophy, which can only gather Causes and general Laws by Induction from repeated single Experiments, and is as high an Evidence as the Nature of Finitude and our Rank of Intelligence will admit in imperceptible Things; and when confirm'd by Revelation, rises to the Evidence of a Demonstration in the strictest Sense 127

- We may err and blunder in it, as we may in Algebra and Geometry; but often our Errors in the last come but from Want of Culture, Precipitation, or a wrong Head only; but in the Analogy that leads us to the Knowledge of the Divine Purity and Nature, and the Necessity of our own Purification and Perfection for invisible States, and the Nature of Spirits, our Blunders are often owing to a wrong Heart, Licentiousness, Selfishness, and Independency. If we went on in natural Analogy as we do in natural Philosophy and Geometry, by the simplest, plainest and most obvious Cases, first collected by Induction, laid them up as a Store to proceed on to the higher Terms of the analogical Progression, and with Attention and Humility went on, from inanimated Matter, and its Law• to Vegetation, Animation, Spiritual Being, up to the supreme Cause; perhaps great Proficience might be made in time by such a Method. Analogy is the only Mean of Knowledge, that can secure Liberty in lapsed Intelligences. I will illustrate my Meaning by an Example in the System of Saturn 229

- 1. GOD bringing Creatures into Existence, must have made them after the most perfect Pattern, and therefore stampt them with his own Image, and so they must bear a Resemblance to him, and to one another, which is Analogy. 2. The Number of Qualities added to Existence, together with the Degrees of these Qualities, determin their Order. 3. The material World is a Transcript of the spiritual, and there is a more immediat Relation between each material System, and the Intelligences to which it belongs; and should they lapse and fall into Disorder, their Mansion would make a similar Change. 4. There are many Evidences of this Analogy between the material and spiritual Systems: The Sun is placed in the Centre of our System, the material Image of the Deity; the Planets revolve about him, in different Times and Periods, to represent the several Orders of lapsed Intelligences; these Planets have no Light in themselves, it is all deriv'd by Reflection from him. 5. Heat, Light, and their Consequence Attraction, are his chief Properties, and by this Attraction the Planets are kept in their Orbits, which strongly pictures out the Love of God, continually soliciting all Intelligences to a nearer Approach to him. 6. The Light of the Sun is diffus'd through the whole System, representing that Light which enlightens every Man that comes into the World, an Emblem of him who came forth from the Father of Lights God-Man. 7. The Sun's Light is always accompanied with Heat, which represents the Holy Spirit the Principle of spiritual Life. 8. The various Magnitudes, their Distances from the Sun, with the periodical Times of the Revolutions of the Planets, will express the different Degrees of the Lapse, and the Times allotted for their first Trials and Probation. The Comets by their long elliptical Orbits are thrown off to the greatest Distance, and again drawn back to the nearest Approach to the Sun, to represent the Extremes of Love and Punishment to the same Intelligences, in order to purify them. 9. The Planets are acted upon by two different Forces, Attraction and the projectile Force, which are contrary to one another. The projectile Force makes the Planet recede perpetually from the Sun, while the Force of Attraction prevents this Effect; the projectile Force belongs to the Planet, the attractive to the Sun. How wonderfully does all this Oeconomy proclaim and speak in a Language truly natural, and proper to the Majesty and Wisdom of the Deity, the Nature of the Lapse, the Action of Selfishness, and inordinat Love of Creatures, and the Force of the Divine Love in the Oeconomy of Jesus! For it is suppos'd by the best Phīlosophers, that the solar Attraction will at last prevail over the projectile Force, and thereby both Planets and Comets will be swallowed up and transform'd into the Substance of the Sun.

FINIS.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON, AND EXPLICATIONS OF, THE Preceding DISCOURSES.

§. 1. THERE seems to be something solid, in one Observation Leibnitz makes, viz. the Mark or Criterion, between the Works and Operations of Nature, or the GOD of Nature; and the Works of Art, or of finite Power and Wisdom, viz. That GOD, or Nature, works always by Organs infinit in Number, or in a perpetual convergent Progression of Organs or Means towards some one or many wise Ends, or Art, by Organs finite in Number, or numerable (by Organs; Creature, Man is always meant a separable distinct Part of a Machin). For Example; we may be able to reckon the Wheels, Springs, Pullies, Chains, &c. of any Watch or Clock, or any Machin, how complicated soever, made by Art: But who can reckon the Fibres, Tubes, Membranes, Valves, Inosculations, Ligatures, Degrees of Curvature, in the Tubes, &c. of a Pile of Grass, or of a Feather of a Bird? The further we go by our Senses, assisted even by the most perfect Art, their Number multiplies on us; but then, if we could descend into the Figure, Number, and Law of Cohesion of their component Particles, we should be intirely lost, and all our Art or Management would leave us in thick Darkness, and utter Confusion. In the Works of the GOD of Nature, there is no Maximum or Minimum assignable, or conceiveable by us. Sir Isaac Newton has demonstrated the infinit Tenuity of the Particles of Light; and the progressive Analogy of Nature shews it is possible, that there may be Fluids as much more rare, and of as much lesser Particles, as those of Sand are bigger than those of Light. Leuvenhoeck's Discoveries of the Minuteness of some Animalculs, and of some Tubes of Animals, are scarce credible by any one who has not seen some of them, as I have. The ingenious Dr. Porterfeild has demonstrated the extreme Tenuity of even an organiz'd and compounded nervous Fibre; and there is no Reason from the Nature of Matter, from the Laws of Mechanism, or from the Divine Attributes, to stop there; we may descend still lower, or higher in infinitum, and be warranted by Reason and Geometry. One great Fault in natural Philosophers has been, that they have rejected every Account, as incredible, imaginary, and fictitious, which suppos'd Fluids extremely or infinitly rare, rapid, and elastic, as is that of Huygens's, Leibnitz, and Sir Isaac Newton's; and yet some such there must infallibly exist in Nature, as the Phaenomena shew: For if the natural Motions on our Earth, in Bodies, are perform'd by Air, Water, and Heat, since we know sensibly, these are Fluids of a finite and pretty near determinable Size, Figure, and Degree of Gravity in their Particles, the Analogy of Nature will make it as evident, that the other less known, secret, subtile, and unaccountable Appearances may be perform'd by some other properly condition'd Fluid, (I mean only in the Appearances of the material World) I say, as certainly, as if the first Terms of a Series x + x 2 + x 3 + x 4, &c. were given, I should certainly conclude the 10th, 11th and 12th Terms of such a Series were x 10 + x 11 + x 12.

§. 2. THE Threads, (the last and the least) Fibres, or linear Filaments of all vegetable and animal Substances, are certainly infinitly small, elastic and ductile; in separateing and anatomiseing them, we can never come to an End; and fine Microscopes will shew, that even the very least our Senses can perceive, or our Art divide, are still Twists or Tubuli, and compounded of an infinit Number of lesser and lesser Threads. They are infinitly elastic, for we find no Limits in their Elasticity; the smaller and finer they are, we find them growing still more elastic in the same Proportion; and here also the Progression is without Stop or Limit. Elasticity depending on the Degree of Attraction, in the component Particles, the Elasticity can never be stopt, till we arrive at Particles infinitly hard, indivisible, and imporose, which no finite Power can produce, and no finite Intelligence conceive; and even in such, there would be an infinitly small Renisus, or Reaction of their Particles when compress'd; so that all Fluids of whatever Nature, and of whatever Degree of Rarity, must have some Degree of Elasticity or Reaction. Of such Threads, the Membranes, and of these Membranes the Tubes, and Vessels of all vegetable and animal Substances, seem compos'd. I say, not mechanically, and according to the Laws of Nature, that we see now they are govern'd by, and accounted from, but supra-mechanically compos'd, and by the immediat Hand and Power, or Influence, of an infinitly wise and powerful First Cause. Of these again, I say, are the Tubuli, the Coats of the Pipes, and all the other vascular Apparatus, in fewer or more Pipes, according to their Use and Necessity, compos'd. The Fluids are only design'd to keep them in a proper Degree of Moisture and Glibness, to continue their necessary Tone, and due Degree of Elasticity. All the pleasant, easy, and healthful Sensations of Life, depend chiefly on these Fluids. Little can be effected by Art or Medicin, on the Solids, and their linear Fibres: A temporary Constriction only, a transient winding up, a Fit of tolerable Health, and Flow of Spirits, may be gain'd by astringent cordial Medicins; but it is Regimen alone, by rendering the Fluids sweet, soft, cool and balsamic, that enable the Solids to play, according to their innate Powers, that can give dureable and uniform good Health, and keep these Solids as they were at first form'd, in a proper Tone, Glibness, and Elasticity.

§. 3. WE are not to conceive, as if the Author of Nature created Things in the Order, and in the Manner we can only now apprehend or explain them: They were, in Him, but one single Act of his Omnipotence and Omniscience; for us, to understand them in any tolerable manner, if at all we can, we must divide them into different Parts and Parcels, and form an Idea of them by different Acts of our Imagination. For Example: Suppose Matter divided into solid, imporose, infinitly little Cubes, triangular equilateral Prisms and Spheres, harmoniously rang'd and united at first, by some Law of Attraction, and fram'd by a Divine Mechanism, into organical Bodies, some-how analogous and similar to those, which sentient and intelligent Beings are now cloathed with (with this only Difference, that besides their being now cas'd over with the gross porous Matter, of this ruinous Planet, several additional temporary Organs, to fit them for their changeing Situations, may be added, which in other Situations may drop off, and dry away; as we see in the Placenta and umbilical Vessels of the Foetus, and the different temporary Apparatus of the Silk-worm, and other Insects); into which the First Cause inspired an infinitesimal Sparkle, and Miniature of his own Substance, and natural and moral Attributes, to actuate and govern this Microcosm, in the same analogous, but in an infinitly lower manner, as He presides over and actuates the Universe. This aethereal Body, being then supple and pliable to the actuating spiritual Substance, as it was to the Divine Influence; but being free and fallible, innumerable Multitudes of them, by spurious Self-love, and inordinat Love of the Creatures, and created Pleasures, actually lapsed, fell into Rebellion and Disorder, and so brought on the Necessity of this present State, and the gross penitential Appearances of this ruinous Planet we now inhabit.

§ 4. BODY and Spirit, or material and spiritual Substances, will eternally be disparata, if not contradictory, yet intirely dissimilar and contrary, and at an infinit Distance, in their Natures and Substances. Body will be eternally passive and inert, Spirit eternally self-active and self-moveing, or endow'd with an internal Principle of acting on, or moveing Matter; all their Relation or Reference one towards another, can only be known by Analogy; and yet not being contradictory, they might possibly be conceived of the Nature of Hyperbola's, with their Assymptots: For tho' the Passivity of Body be in Proportion to its Density, yet since Body cannot be actually infinit in its Quantity or Extent, its Passivity or Inertia cannot be infinit, but lessens as its Density does; but still, if its Density was suppos'd even infinitly small, that will not make it self-active; it must actually become Spirit, and pass thro' that Term Not-matter in its Progression, before it can arrive at Self-activity, and then acquire the contrary Qualities, as the Series + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 0 − 1 − 2 − 3 − 4 does; and nothing less than infinit Power can reduce it to that State; that is, it must be actually brought to be Not-matter, or an immaterial Substance, before it can become active or spiritual Substance; and so is, as it were, in the State of parallel Lines, and not of an Hyperbola with its Assymptot. But still there is an Analogy between their Substances, such an one tho's as is between finite and relative infinit, or between the least and greatest Term of an infinit convergent Series.

§ 5. THE Persians, of all the Antients, seem to have had the least intolerable Notion, Idea, or analogical Picture on their Imaginations of spiritual Nature, in conceiving it like Light or Fire. If we suppose an indivisible, infinitly rare Substance, and endow it with infinit Elasticity and Energy, with an internal Principle of Self-activity, or of Self-mobility, we have the essential Attribute of spiritual Substance; all its other Qualities will be as Modifications, flowing from that Root; for then Understanding or Conception will become only analogous to an intimat Union, Contact and Presence to every individual Atom or component Particle as it were, of the Object conceived or understood. Reasoning will be a progressive Performance of this intellectual Operation, and compareing the analogous Parts or component Particles to one another: Love or Desire will be a continued Union or Contact with the Object; and so of the other Modifications of this internal Principle of Self-action in an infinitly rare and indivisible sentient or intelligent Substance: Fire or Light will then be the most luminous Resemblance or analogical Picture of spiritual Substance and Qualities; especially if we take it as it is, in its uncreated Source, the Divine Nature, for an infinitly pure, perfect, simple and active, living and intelligent Substance, then it will become the best analogical Resemblance of the Divine Substance (however faulty and deficient) we can frame, now as at present we are: And small Lamps, Globes, or Sparkles of Light or Fire, kindled up, voluntarily emitted, or flowing, from this infinit Globe of Light and Love, will best represent particular spiritual Natures, whose Rays, tho' emitted with a relatively infinit Velocity, will weaken, and terminat in thicker and thicker Darkness, Shade, or Want of Fire and Light, which will best represent to us, and furnish out the Idea of Body, but still an imperfect one, Darkness being only a Negation of Light: But as the Rays of Millions of different Flambeaux may pass really, tho' material, through the Eye of a Needle, without Resistance or Interfereing; so spiritual Substances, by a proper Penetration, may conceive and comprehend, according to their Capacity and Power, their proper Objects; and in this analogical Sense it may be understood, that universal Nature, or the created Universe, may represent GOD's Body, or his Sensorium, and he may be called the Soul of the Universe, as the Planets in our System may be term'd the Body, the Tabernacle and organical Machin of the Sun; in all which tho' there will be eternal Impropriety and Disparity: For the one is the Cause, the other the Effect only; the One is the Artificer, the other the Work; the one is a living, spiritual Substance, the other dead Matter; the one is self-originated, and necessarily existent, the other is created, deriv'd and dependent; the one is the first and least Term, the other, as it were, the greatest, and last Term, of an infinit divergeing Series, but at an infinitly infinit Distance. This is as far, it would seem, as our active Powers can go, in their present State, by themselves, unless it be communicated and imprest by the Source from above, by direct Sensation and Feeling on the Spirit.

§ 6. As the self-motive, self-active Power in spiritual Substance is the Source of Intelligence, by its intimat Penetration, Union, and Presence with the whole internal Substance of its comprehended Object; so it is the sole Principle of Liberty, and the true miniature Image of the Deity; in short, it is the very Essence of spiritual Nature, and the Root of all its Qualities and Operations: It may be limited in its Extent, in its elicit Acts, and circumscrib'd in its Energy; but in its Root, Faculty, and essential Nature, in its self-active Base, it is infinit and unbounded. A Farthing Candle is as truly Light and Heat as the Body of the Sun; and we may have vehement Willings, Longings, Volitions and Velleities, and have an innate, inherent Power to intend or remit our Wills in infinitum, which no other Power can deprive us of, but that which can annihilat us, or turn us into another Nature. It would seem to me, that created spiritual Substance of all Orders and Degrees, were analogous to the infinitly pure and perfect Divine spiritual Substance, infinitly diluted or rarefied, as it were, like the Light and Heat of the Sun reflected from the Moon; and this in an infinit similar Progression, becomeing rarer and more diluted, till it terminated in Darkness or Shade, thicker and grosser till it becomes like Matter, which is analogous to Shade or Darkness, and which too goes on in infinitum, thickning and incrassating, to become quite inert and passive; so that laying aside created Substance, both material and spiritual, as quite unknown and unknowable, and of which we can have no Idea à priori, nor be certain of its Existence but à posteriori, and from its Effects, or the divine Veracity, if we conceive spiritual Substance analogous to Fire or Light, infinitly pure, rare, self-active, and self-motive, and material Substance analogous to Shade or Darkness, infinitly dense, compact and concentred, we shall have all that I think can be made of either, in this our present State; and as Darkness contracts and limits Light, extinguishes or imbibes its elicit Rays; so Body or Matter limits and stops the Selfactivity of spiritual Nature, and they are an eternal Bar and Obstacle on one another; as Matter of a proper Figure and Contexture of Parts, condenses and heightens the Action of Fire and Light; so divinely organis'd and harmoniously figur'd Vehicles may promote the elicit Acts of spiritual Natures; and the Analogy to Fire, Light and Darkness, will hold good then through all the Degrees of compareing. It may be said, that all this is but Figure; but I think all true Figure is but remote Analogy, and all true Analogy is a distant progressive Approximation to Reality; and both are as real the one as the other, and differ only as the first and last Terms of a Series.

§ 7. THE Purification of the Soul is perfectly analogous to the Cure of the cacochymical and cadaverous State of the Body; and the Method of Cure of spiritual Nature, takeing in the different Subjects, Matter and Spirit, is perfectly similar to the Methodus metasyncriticus of the Ancients in the Cure of a Cachexy in the Body. The Analogy is here perfect and complete; they differ only, as the first and subsequent Terms of a geometrical divergent Progression. Sin, Disorder and Rebellion, is to the spiritual Nature of an intelligent Being, precisely and really (as much as they are both Realities) what a cancerous and malignant Ulcer is to an animal Body: The Cure of the last is by a low, sweetning and thinning Dyet at first, to enable the Patient to bear the last Operation, which must be by Excision and Extirpation, and raiseing new sound Flesh in its Place; Penitence, Selfdenial, calm Passions, a meek Spirit, and a constant patient Attendance to, and Dependence on, the Directions of the Physician of Souls, will answer the first Part; and I am of Opinion, he (the Divine Physician of Souls) by his omnipotent Power, and his being GOD, he, I say, must perform supernaturally and instanteously, as it were, (for a sweetning Cure of such inveterat Humours alone, would require infinit Time) some grand Operation, (in which the Creature is intirely passive) analogous to Excision and Extirpation, to divide between the Joints and Marrow, to cut out the Adamical Core in lapsed spiritual Nature, and to raise up, ingraft and implant his own Nature and Substance in its stead, to perpetuat and eternise its Soundness and Integrity, not in a Figure or Metaphor, as is commonly, tho' I think barbarously, philosophised; but at last, and in the dernier Resort, and before the hyperboloid Curve (to speak so) can meet with its Assymptot, as really and truly as Matter and Spirit are Realities, tho' of different Natures. In the Day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die: In the Sense that Death came by Adam, Death spiritual was completed by one Action of the of the Parentage of Mankind, so by some one miraculous Operation eternal Life comes by Jesus Christ. I can never apprehend, that the Oeconomy, the Operation, the Efficiency of Jesus, terminats either in Example, Repair of the Indignity, confirming the standing Hierarchies, cooperating with us in destroying bad Humours and Habits gradually, or makeing a sufficient, free and full Atonement only; but that he must supernaturally and really cut out, burn away, and fill up, and supply, as it were, with his own spiritual Substance, the Adamical cadaverous Core out of lapsed spiritual Nature, to sanctify and eternise its Purity, Perfection and Happiness; and this as really, tho' not materially, but spiritually, I say, as really as Spirit is real, contradistinguish'd from Matter. I choose to speak in the Mathematical and Medical Language, because the Analogy, the Similarity, and the Precision, is here so just, so close, and so luminous, that I think it must penetrat those who can perfectly understand it, and may by a Dictionary be made plain to others, if they think it worth the while to deal in such abstracted Conjectures.

§ 8. THE human Spirit is literally, and not in a mere Figure, a Tabula rasa, a Sheet of white Paper, as it comes into the World at present, under its planetary Plaistering; and it would seem, for this very End the Plaistering itself was design'd, and the gross porous secondary Elements, of this ruinous Planet, were by infinit Wisdom contriv'd; not but that spiritual Nature, in its Order, and in its natural and essential Powers, of living, understanding and willing, and all their Modifications of Sagacity, Penetration and Conduct, and a Capacity of perceiveing outward Things, and of gathering the Materials on which they work, of external Objects, Ideas, and Knowledge of Things, are not in their Fund, in the Faculty and Power, unalterably the same, and as it were engrav'd in their Substance according to their Order; for spiritual Nature cannot increase or diminish in its essential Powers and Capacity; but their elicit Acts, their Appearances ad extra, may be intercepted and restrained from issuing forth by the gross planetary Plaistering; like Characters and Inscriptions engrav'd in the Substance of Brass or Marble, and filled up with Wax, Clay or Dirt: or like the imperceptible Ink, which leaves no Trace on the white Paper, but shews itself when rubb'd over with Juice of Lemon. Thus the immaterial thinking Substance is laid asleep, becomes thoughtless, and as it were stupefied, a bare polisht Plain, and a Sheet of clean Paper, (its three natural Powers of living, understanding and willing are sunk in one of living only) a mere Recipient or Continent, and as it were (without Ridicule) a dark Lanthorn, in the Loins of the Parent; and as it comes first into the World; but still the self-active and self-motive Flame is alive within in its Seed, and its Punctum saliens. External Objects, Pain, natural Instincts and Necessities, rub off some of the improper Plaistering, and break some of the Ligatures; these repeated and increas'd, unloose more; and thus the Organs of Sensation, the Apertures of the Senses, and the sentient and instructive Powers, are gradually set free, and the Dirt pickt out of the spiritual Substance; then Memory and Attention awakens, and Ideas are form'd and retain'd by Time and Degrees. By the Animal Functions, which flow from living, more and more of the membranous Tubuli, and medullar and cortical Glands of the Brain, are develop'd; and the self-motive Powers, by repeated Efforts, Strains, and Pushes, (like a Spring in the Box of a Watch) set free more and more of aethereal Organs of Thinking, according to the Degree of Culture, Exercise, and Useage, they pass under, and this by a quicker or slower Progression and Velocity, as they are cultivated, used and exercis'd, till they come to the highest State they generally arrive at; and thus by Labour and Exercise of the Organs of the intellectual Faculties, they work off the Dirt, that fill'd up the ingrav'd Characters on their spiritual Substances, and make the imperceptible Writeing appearing legible merely by fileing off and scrapeing away the Plaistering on the primitive aethereal Vehicle, whereby the spiritual Substance is set free directly to enjoy and use all its inbred Powers, and has Capacity to perceive all Things ad extra, know, understand and possess them; not as a blind Man restored to his Sight, or a deaf Man to his Hearing, or a dumb Man to his Speech, who were born so; but as a Man, for a short time shut up in a Dungeon, and separated from all things without, and again set at Liberty, knows and enjoys all again, as before. And the final Cause of this reduceing the spiritual Substance to a Tabula rasa, by a gross Plaistering, and a temporary Imprisonment, in the dark, dismal, cadaverous Dungeon of this Body, seems to be not only for Expiation and Punishment, but that the moral Powers of the Soul, Justice, Goodness and Truth, or Faith, Hope and Charity, might feel no Interruption from the Activity, Extent and Contrariety of these natural Powers; but that they might amicably, gradually, and, by mutual Assistance and Support, rise and grow together in similar Steps, and a regulated Progression, till they were confirm'd into a Habit; like sweetning the whole Mass of the Fluids, by a milk or vegetable Diet; to fit the Subject for the last passive grand Operation in the Oeconomy of Jesus, which may be to cut out, as it were, of our spiritual Substances, that Core, schirrous or cancerous Gland, generated by the Lapse, and from the Adamical Principle, and to heal and fill it up with his own immaculat Substance, perhaps really and truly (as the Liturgy of the Church of England expresses it) communicated to us in the worthy receiveing of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus, or some-how we cannot explain.—This Effect will neither appear absurd nor unphilosophical to those who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, of the same Substance and equal Powers with the Father; the Manner how, is the proper Subject of Faith, unconceiveable to us, at least as we are at present; but the Fact, in general, or something of that kind, highly probable from Analogy, and evident from Revelation: For, I think, no truly humble Christian, let him be in what State of Perfection he may, can think himself fit to be united and commerciat eternally with infinit Purity and Perfection, till some great Work be done in his Soul, more than he feels in himself then.

§. 9. MOST, Christians, at least, are agreed, that the Oeconomy of the Restoration, as contriv'd and executed by Jesus Christ, (God-Man, the eternal Son of GOD) as far as it was possible on his Part, and as far as it was consistent with Liberty, and the Harmony of the Divine Attributes; I say, all Christians are agreed, that this was a Work of surprizeing Wisdom, Beauty, Goodness, and worthy of a GOD; having in it, to the greatest Perfection, every thing that could most effectually answer the End proposed: But I know not if many have endeavour'd to shew it to be the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and the only one, that could possibly answer that End, takeing in the whole Conditions; and yet I cannot help thinking, that this may be strictly demonstrated. A Sovereign may pardon, on his Repentance and Amendment, a rebellious Subject, and receive him into Grace and Favour; but it will be eternally true, he has been a Rebel, and that there remains the Cicatrice of that Sore in his Heart and Soul, which first produced his Rebellion. Now it is as certain, as that GOD is, that nothing impure and imperfect in its Order, can finally, invariably and eternally be united and commerciat with Him; that is, be permanently and eternally happy; because of his infinit Purity, Dignity, and Sovereignty; and the receiveing an imperfect, intelligent Being into his Favour, Service, and design'd Post again permanently, (or one less similar to Him in its Order) would not only sully his Purity, but make Him cheaper, and less intensely the sovereign Felicity of the standing Hierarchies, and make his Wrath less dreaded, and so not a sufficient Bar on their Lapse. Now every Truth, and every Fact, is in its own Nature as eternal, as it is real. It will be eternally true, I have been a Rebel, if I have been one; and GOD alone, who has the Power of Creation, has the Power of Annihilation; and this Fact, as far as a Fact can be, at least as to its Root, must be annihilated and done away some-how, before it can be creaturely and relatively true, that I was not a Rebel, or at least that my Rebellion is really now, both as to Him and me, as it never had been; which can only be done, as far as I conceive, by annihilating, burning out, consumeing, the rebellious Core of my spiritual Substance, and filling it up with something analogous to his pure immaculat Divine Nature and Substance, or new createing; and nothing less than a GOD can do this: So that on Repentance and Amendment, Men might be in the Condition only of Rebels, whose Lives conquering Monarchs have saved, yet instead of continuing them Citizens, had translated them into some remote Corner of an uncultivated Country, as a conquer'd Province, and made them a lower Order of Creatures. But as infinit Perfection is without any possible Change, in its first most perfect Intention, as to its Nature, but not as to its Degree; and can only bring it about less immediatly, and after a longer Time, (by reason of the Free-wills of his intelligent Creatures, on which He neither can nor will commit Violence) yet still will effect it, with a Perfection at last, beyond even, as it were, the first Intention; accordingly Jesus Christ came, to bring Life, and to bring it more abundantly; and by his infinit Power and Love, being GOD, to annihilat, melt down, and burn away, the Adamical Lapse, Core, and Cicatrice, of Sin and Rebellion, in spiritual Nature, and new create, and replace, his own Divine Substance and Nature in its stead; so that it may then be said, with philosophick Propriety, that a truly regenerat and sanctified Person has the Divine Nature and Substance of Jesus, GOD-Man, actuating and moving him, that is, living in him, as really and substantially as ever before his Adamical lapsed Spirit lived in him. This may sound odd and particular to little Philosophers, nay, even to many perhaps virtuous and good Persons; but as I think it is the Language of St. Paul, and of Jesus Christ himself, I think also, that if there is not some Reality, and philosophic Propriety in it, as real as is the Distinction between material and spiritual Substance, and that it is not intirely all Figure, there is no forming any Idea, either of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of it (and even Figure in philosophic Propriety, is but the first Term of an infinit Series); nor why it should have been revealed or mentioned: Nor will there be much Difficulty insuperable in it, or unexplicable in Philosophy, to those who admit Jesus to be GOD, and his Words to be Spirit and Truth, and GOD to be infinit in Power and Goodness; the End and Means of all whose Actings must be equally perfect in their Order, and who suppose that Matter and Spirit must be equal Realities. This last State I resemble to the Hyperbolic Curve's meeting with its Asymptot (I hope I shall be forgiven the Particularity of the Expression, because of its Justness and Propriety); and it may be the finishing Operation, to eternize the Infallibility and Impeccability of all lapsed, sentient and intelligent Beings, to which few arrive in this Life, and all must perhaps pass through many Mansions, and various planetary Vehicles, before they can attain to it in its last Perfection, and to which some pass with a quicker Velocity, and a faster convergeing Progression, like the several Orders of the Hyperloids, some of which meet the Asymptot infinitly sooner and faster than others[*], but through which all must pass sooner or later; for GOD's Ways must be equal, uniform and general, to all his Creatures of the same Order, with only the Difference their general or particular Wants or Distempers require; and as He treated the Manhood of Jesus Christ, who was made perfect by Sufferings, and as He has treated all his Disciples, so all lapsed intelligent Beings must pass through Jesus Christ, receive his Revelation, and go through his States, sooner or later, or in some Mansion or another, before they arrive at perfect Infallibility and Illability; that is, they must first or last all be Jesus Christ-like, before they can become permanently GOD-like, or similar to Him in Perfection and Happiness. This Progression and final Perfection, the Free-wills of intelligent Beings may retard a finite Time; and they might have retarded it from Eternity to Eternity, that is, for ever, both in the eternal Nature of Sin, and the infinit Purity of the Divine Nature, without this sole and individual Mean, viz. the Merits, Power and Efficacy of the Oeconomy of Jesus the GOD-Man; who uniteing human Nature to Himself, has actually, really, but spiritually, cut out the Core and Cicatrice of the Lapse, and filled up the discontinuous Void with his own spiritual Substance and Nature, in all those who shall be finally restored; for He is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.

§. 10. REASON and Faith, in their true philosophic Natures, in their Source and Foundation, are so far from being contrary, much less contradictory, that they are intirely similar and analogous, and differ only as the higher and lowest Terms of a divergeing Series. Reason, in its Principle and Faculty, in the lowest Intelligence, is like a Progression, the first Term of which is the Root, or miniature Base, of all the higher subsequent Terms, which are all similar and analogous to one another, how compounded and elevated soever they may be, and where the superior Terms virtually include the inferior, and bring them down to the Simplicity and Plainness of the lowest Term; but not without Labour, Attention, and Reduction of the Conditions to their proper Limits. GOD is the Sovereign and Supreme Reason, involved in Clouds and Darkness, by reason of his infinit Splendor, and the infinit Disproportion of our Faculties; and perhaps out of Designs of Love and Goodness, as we are at present in so unfit a State: Our Reason and Conception, tho' infinitly disproportion'd to such an Object, yet is of a similar Nature with his Light, and natural Attributes: Our Reason, and intelligent Powers, are analogous to the lowest and first Term of such a Progression; his Light and Splendor, to the highest and last great Term; which Term, in a Series, tho' comparatively infinit, yet is but a finite, compared with his absolute Infinitude. The other Terms of such a Series may be analogous to the natural Powers of the several different Orders of Intelligences, that may exist in external Nature; and all the several Orders of Intelligences, with their respective Powers, from the lowest to the relative highest, may be continually approaching one another, yet never can reach the other Terms, much less the last Term relative infinit, and least of all to absolute Infinitude; for in absolute Infinitude there is such Variety of Objects, Mansions, Pleasures, and Happiness, as are boundless and without Number or Limits. GOD is the sovereign and supreme Reason, I say, always consistent, uniform, and invariable: He is pure, unsullied, and unchangeable. Creatures, even the most sublime and perfect, can only know Him by a progressive nearer Approach to Him in Similarity, which will be gradual, but endless. The Faculties, Powers, and Qualities, both Natural and Moral, of Creatures, are, as it were, but analogous (to speak still more plainly) to a Series, such as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5, &c. We of the human Race, at least our Fellow Animals, of the only sentient Race, may be as 1, or 2; the higher Orders may be as 10, 100, 1000, &c. to us. At what Term we began, or any Order begins, we cannot know, nor, did we know, could we alter it; that depends intirely on the good Pleasure and Wisdom of Him that made us: In this Point we cannot add a Cubit to our Stature, but we may all press forward to higher Terms and Degrees, and be continually progressive, tho' perhaps mostly in our moral Powers, and consequently in Perfection and Happiness; which can be done by Faith only, that is, by trusting to, believing in, and acting according to the Direction given by one, whose natural and moral Powers are of a much higher Order, or in Proportion to a much higher Term than ours are: As if one, whose natural and moral Powers are as 1000, should reveal to one whose natural and moral Powers are as 1 only, that in order to raise his natural and moral Powers to 2, he must trust or believe, that is, take his Word for it, so and so, and do so and so in Consequence, and that this will lead him on gradually to the Term 2, and so in all the other Terms of the Progression. This really seems to be somewhat like the Case of all sentient and intelligent Beings, in order to advance in this eternal Progression of Perfection; the only Method possible for them, is to trust and act in Consequence of this Trust, and depend on the Veracity and Ability of the Informer; for this trusting is in order to the acting. In building, or working or sailing a Ship to a certain Port, the Seaman must trust and work, according to his Directions: In raising an Arch, or measuring a Distance, very few Operators understand the abstract Geometry, on which the Directions are founded. In short, in this our present expiatory and probatory State, in all we do to advance towards higher Terms of our progressive Perfection and Happiness, we must absolutely trust and work, else we shall never advance in divine Faith, and in the progressive Perfection of our natural and moral Powers; and here we have not only infinit Power and Wisdom for our Director, but infinit Goodness for our Assistant, who yet from the Purity and Perfection of his own Nature, cannot direct or assist us but in Consistence with the Harmony of his own Attributes, and our own Free-wills, i. e. imperceptibly. Our intellectual Powers are analogous to our material Organs, our Senses. One with a Telescope, or with very strong Eyes, might see a City, or a Dwelling, which another without it, or with weaker Eyes, could not perceive. If the weak-sighted Person must needs go to this City or Dwelling, he could only take the Directions of the stronger-sighted, on what Point of the Compass to direct his Course, what Hills, Dales, and Rivers to cross, to walk on Trust and Hope. Our trusting is in order to our travelling. Faith, or Trust, that does not terminat in Action or Travelling, is mere Painting and dead Work. Revelation discovers the Being, Purity, and Perfection of the First Cause, his internal Nature, and the Splendor He dwells in, what is his Society, and what their Occupation; that to be happy completely and permanently, we must get thither. We, while our Powers, natural and moral, are but as 1 or 2, cannot see or perceive the Beauty, Perfection of his Nature, and the Place He inhabits, nor the Propriety of the Directions and Advices He gives us, in order to get thither. The Nature of things will not admit of any other Evidence, but Faith and Trust, and consequent working, till our natural and moral Powers are thereby rais'd higher; and then we shall perfectly comprehend the Beauty, Propriety and Utility of these Directions, and advance gradually, by following the same Method, to higher Terms of Powers and Faculties, and higher Degrees of Glory and Felicity, in this infinit endless Progression. From all which it is evident, that Reason and Faith are so far from being contrary, much less contradictory, that Reason is the first Term given in this Progression, of created Light or Powers: Faith or Trust is, as it were, the Ratio of the several Terms, which goes through them all, that is, the Ground or Bottom of the subsequent Operation and Working. By the Directions given, and Working, we infallibly pass to the second, third, and higher Terms: Or, to express it yet more strongly and clearly, if possible, Faith or Trust is proceeding as we do in Algebra, supposing the second or higher Term, tho' unknown, yet as known; and then working according to the Conditions of the Question, the Term unknown becomes thereby infallibly known. I cannot enlighten these Figures, and this Language here, they are so pertinent and cogent to those who understand them.

§ 11. PURE and disinterested Love is Love of infinit Perfection for itself only, and for its own Amiableness, without any other Consideration; but this, as every thing else, admits of infinit Degrees. The great Mistake here, lies in Persons pretending to get to the Top of the Ladder, without ascending by all the Steps; and that some define the last Step as it were the first. All things belonging to Creatures must be progressive, and confirm'd Habits must be acquired by repeated persevereing Acts. Naked, free and generous Faith, is trusting, confideing, and believeing in Infallibility, and infinit Veracity, upon its own Word, its Nature only; and on the most slender Intimation of its Orders, the generous Believer is determin'd to venture his Whole on that Bottom: And from these two, flow absolute Resignation; and this also admits of Degrees: Both these are subject to Error, Mistake and Delusion, in feeble lapsed Mortals, such as we are; and this cannot be prevented, from the very Nature of Things, as they are now, in our probatory and penitential State, constituted; but surely there is less Danger in the Excess, than the Defect: No good Master ever rejected or punished his poor good-natur'd, weak Servant, for loveing and trusting him too much, or obeying him too precisely or literally. I readily grant, Prudence, Order, Measure, Decency and Regularity, are the first of all the Moral and Christian Virtues, and frightful Consequences have ensued upon the Neglect of them; and both Enthusiasm and Infidelity, I think, equally imply a wrong Head, some nervous Disorder, and Want of common Sense; but both Excesses and Defects strongly evidence, that there is a just Medium wherein true Virtue and sole Right consist: And still of the two Evils, Infidelity and Tepidity is infinitly the worst, not only in regard of the Infidels and Tepid themselves, as it defeats the sole Means Providence has, or, I think, can contrive, for their Recovery and Restoration; but as it destroys Numbers of weak Souls by its Influence and Example, and as Infidelity saps the Foundations of all Morality, and consequently of all civil Society; whereas Enthusiasm can but hurt chiefly the Bodies, or outward Fortunes of their Fellow Creatures, by diabolic and tyrannical Persecution, unless Hypocrisy can be join'd to Enthusiasm, and then it becomes consummat Infidelity. To me it would seem, the whole Conduct and Design of Providence, in this present probationary State, is to produce in the Hearts of his lapsed Creatures, pure Love and naked Faith only, and that this is the sole Key of all the Inclosures of his Providence; and that this State of Mind must be that which alone is of any Value in the Sight of GOD, as being the only Means possible of begetting perfect Felicity, and eternizeing it; even so much, as that He in his Providence seems to neglect, or over-look and undervalue, as it were, any thing less than these, at least any thing that might retard or interfere with these. An Instance or two will make this plain: We see that we, of the lowest Rank of Intelligences, are endow'd with a Capacity and Power of communicating our Thoughts, Conceptions, Dispositions, and Sentiments to one another, directly, plainly and intelligibly, by Language or Writeing, and by many other Signs, Symbols and Figures: Infinit Wisdom and Power, without all Doubt, had he so pleased, might have contriv'd us so at present, that he might have been able some-how to communicat himself directly, plainly, instantaneously and intelligibly, to all his intelligent Creatures, his Children, the Work of his own Hands, whom he cannot help loveing as a tender Father does his Children. But since this Method not only would have done us no Good, but on the contrary, a great deal of Hurt, by hindering and interfereing with our implicit Trust, our Reliance, our Resignation, our Faith, and absolute Dependence on him, so necessary to the Production, and eternizeing of perfect Happiness; we see he hides himself in Clouds and Darkness, and is literally a Deus absconditus as to us, and does only approach to, or commerciat with us, in pure Love, naked Faith, and total Abnegation and Resignation, so hard to be acquired. Again, how necessary, how indispensable, would seem the precise, the limited, the unmistakeable Nature of natural and moral Good and Evil to us, in our present probatory State? and yet we are left for the Knowledge of them, to Feeling, to Observation, to Experience, to Culture, to Pain and Suffering. The wisest of mere Men said, That no Man knoweth Good or Evil by all that is before him: We naturally reckon Health, Wealth, Honour and Success, the real, the only Goods of this Life; and yet, if Christianity is not all a Farce, their Contraries are often, nay almost, always the most real, and the most perfect Goods, since they are the shortest Road to absolute Resignation, the greatest of all Goods, and the sole Mean of perfect Happiness. Once more; infinit Wisdom and Power has, as it were, done nothing to gratify our Curiosity, to polish our Natures, to advance the Comforts and Gratifications, the Conveniencies, and the honest Improvements of Living: How many Nations, and Millions of our own Species, of the same Order and Rank of Intelligences, are left all their Lives in the utmost Brutality, Ignorance and Savageness, not only as to the Endowments of their Minds, but almost as to the absolute, at least decent Necessaries of Life! in which Cimmerian Darkness, and execrable bodily Impurity, or Filth, they wallow, live and die, even vastly below many of the Brute Species. The most useful, pleasant and instructive Discoveries in Life, have, even among the most polisht Nations, been discover'd late, by Chance, and with great Imperfections at first, I mean, Writeing, Printing, the Compass, and Glasses, and even Philosophical Physic itself: All this cannot happen by Chance, Fatality, from Impotence, or without some infinitly wise and gracious Design, under the Oeconomy and Providence of an infinitly good, wise and powerful Governor, who alone knows best, how long, and what Kind of Trial and Probation is fittest for his lapsed intelligent Creatures, of such Tribes, Nations and Climats; to what Degree they have lapsed, what is their most proper Trial, how far Simplicity (and even actual Humiliation of this intelligent Creature, made a little lower than the Angels in his natural unalterable Powers, and as it were, to drench him in Dirt and Nastiness, even below the lowest Brute, as Compost fructifies Vegetables) is the Via brevissima, and Suffering, even unconscious Suffering, is sufficient; and knows best what Mansion they are design'd to inhabit hereafter; and has fitted outward Circumstances accordingly: And as to what is commonly reckon'd polishing, and haveing the decent Necessaries and Conveniencies of Life, he leaves Men to their natural Liberty and Industry, to employ their natural Activity innocently and laudably thereby, which otherwise might run riot in Turpitude and Vice; and to general Laws, which, followed with Simplicity, Attention and Sincerity, would naturally bring them perhaps the shortest Way to disinterested Love, implicit Trust and Resignation; and this he does even with a seeming Neglect of those other Things, as accounting them of no Value, when compar'd with this pure Love, and implicit Trust, that Disposition of Mind which alone can beget and eternize Happiness. Further; of what great Consequence to the Quickness of our Purification, and consequently of our eternal Happiness, it would appear to us, would be, the certain Knowledge of the precise Time of our Dissolution and Death? Then, like true penitent and serious Felons, we should employ all our last Moments intirely in cleansing our Vessels, and trimming our Lamps; and yet all that is known in this weighty Affair is general, and that we once must all die: The Time, the Manner, and other Circumstances, are all absolutely unknown to us; and why this? but only because infinit Purity and Perfection values nothing about us, but absolute Trust, Dependence, and Resignation, even to venturing our very Lives; and, as our Saviour expresses it, if we do not hate, that is, undervalue, our own Life, in respect of him, or love it but in Subordination to our Love of Him, we cannot be his Disciples. Again; the Providence of GOD seems to act here solely by second Causes, and by general Laws only, and in such a manner, that we but seldom perceptibly discern the Hand that disposes of Events; tho' doubtless, as GOD is an infinitly free Agent, He governs by a particular, as well as a general Providence; on proper and particular Occasions He dispenses with his own general Laws for a time, by a particular Interposition, both in material and spiritual Appearances: But in these particular Interpositions, we can have no physical, but only a moral Certainty, in order to raise and confirm our Trust and Resignation; for Faith, Trust, and Resignation, always suppose Uncertainty and Doubt; and some time or other, we shall admire and adore that Wisdom and Goodness, who could in so delicat and kindly a manner conceal from us, and hide that Hand, which directs every Atom of the Universe, and disposes of every Hair of our Heads, in order to render our Trust, Faith, and Resignation, stronger and more firm: As the Darkness and Cool of the Autumn Nights are what harden and consolidat the now refined and purified Juices, which the stronger Sun, and longer Day-light, had rais'd and sublim'd into the Seeds and Fruits; for the same Reason, the Operations and Influences of the Divine Spirit, or Grace and spiritual Aid and Assistance, are secret and imperceptible; and are always to be suspected, when they are impetuous, sensible, and acting only by Fits and Starts, as the gross Machin is in or out of Tune, and as the animal Functions play easily or labour, especially in young unexperienced Persons, who have not been tried and purified in the School of the Cross: For these uncommon and extraordinary, or even perceptible Operations of the Divine Spirit, seldom happen pure, sincere, and unmixt; but to the long and severely Tried and Purified, and when the Passions, Appetites, and spiritual Humours are moderated, calm'd, and subdued, on the Decline of a Life spent in due Retirement, and proper Silence; not in the Storm or Tempest, but in the still calm Voice, does the Divine Spirit speak; and a truly humble, and enlighten'd Person, ought to suspect himself, get above, and pass over every Impulse, Sweetning, or Glance of Light that comes not thus accompanied. Children, Beginners, and Noviciats in the spiritual Life, are often gratified with such Sugarings for their Encouragement; but Bread is for grown Persons, which is got by the Sweat of the Brow, and bearing the Cross; and a prudent staid Person will have too great a Regard for the Purity and Dignity of the Divine Spirit, to bring him down, to account for all the mechanical and animal Operations of his volatile and various Imagination. Nec Deus intersit, nisi sit Deo dignus vindice nodus, & aquila non captat muscas. But I beg Pardon for this Digression out of my Sphere, Capacity and Experience, to treat justly. But all the Difficulties and Darkness in Providence, and in natural and revealed Religion, seem to be intended by infinit Wisdom with surprizeing Justness, Propriety, and Delicacy, only as the most effectual Means to bring us to pure Love, and naked Faith, Trust, and Resignation; and are so far from being Objections against the Christian Religion, or to weaken its Credibility, Dignity and Authority, that were there no such Difficulties, Doubts, Uncertainties and Mysteries in Revelation, it would be a strong Presumption, and an undeniable Argument, that it came not from GOD, who being infinitly infinit in all Perfection, Wisdom, Knowledge and Goodness, must be incomprehensible to us in our present State, and so they could not be worthy, adequat and proper for such a Being, who is equally above Perception, Feeling and Sentiment, as above Comprehension. These may be good, useful and real, and his mediat, but seldom his immediat Operation. This pure Love and naked Faith seems to be the only Point in View, of the great and wise Governor of the Universe, even to such a Contempt of what we commonly think fine Endowments and Polishing, that in a great many Instances, in Nations, Tribes, and for Ages, he would seem, in the Conduct of his Providence, to prefer their Contraries, as the shortest Way to this End; tho' still there is a Choice, Perfection, and Meliority, in the Honestum, Utile, and the Decorum; but he only can know when, where, and in what outward Circumstances, lies the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quoad hos aut hunc.

§ 12. I TAKE it, in the first original Creation there was but one universal Salt, or one Kind of saline Particles, and that they were hard, imporose, triangular, equilateral Prisms. When Nature came to be confounded, jumbled, and unharmoniously combin'd, the other Elements of Air, Water, Sulphur and Earth, in forming secondary Elements, were incommensuratly and discordantly mixt with these; but still each preserv'd some Degree of its primitive Nature, as the compounded Elements retain'd more or less of their primitive Particles in the Composition; hence our purest Elements that Art can elicit, are still compounded, and inseparable from the rest; the purest, most simple, and most necessary of them all, seems to be our pure Nitre, or the universal Salt of the Air, the Mother of all Salts, so necessary to animal Life, Sanguification, the Stimulation of the animal Fibres, the Propagation and Action of Heat and Fire, the Production of Cold and Freezeing, to animal Foecundity and Vegetation, and many other of the Appearances of Nature, to which it seems absolutely necessary, and enters into their Substance and Composition. The other Salts, Acids and Alcalis, the essential, or lixivial Salts of Vegetables, Plants and Minerals, are only this primitive nitrous Salt combin'd with these other Elements, and as they predomine and exist in these particular Subjects: These mention'd Salts in Animals, are Nitre mixt with animal Oils, Air, Water and Earth, such as their Substances are compounded of; and it is in the same Manner in the Plants and Minerals. The greatest specific Difference among the Salts seems to arise from the Distinction of Acids and Alcalis; the first, both from Philosophy and Experiment, seem to be of acute-angled, greatly attractive Particles; and the Degree of their Acidity seems to depend on the proportional Degree of the Sharpness of their Points, which now may be various, and their Degree of Attraction also: Alcalis seem to be porous calcarious fine Earths; the testaceous Powders are among the most simple and perfect of them, and the Model of all the rest. and plainly shew the Nature of the whole Tribe. They are, as is evident from the Microscope, nothing but Earths of an exceeding fine Grain, and of very small Particles, full of large Pores and Cells, wherein an acid Water or Spirit has been contain'd, probably that of Nitre. Heat, solar or culinary, and Calcination, throws off some Part of this acid Water, and leaves the Cells partially empty. These empty Cells, upon being immerged in any acid Spirit or Water, suck it in again with Violence and Velocity, the remaining Part of the Acid in the Cells attracting the new Acid with additional Force; and hence Fermentation and Effervescence. All the Alcalis partake of this one general Nature, and differ only as they are more or less combin'd with the other Elements. Volatility arises from a light Oil united with either Kinds of Salts; and this seems to be the true philosophic Nature of all Salts. Salts and Air seem absolutely necessary to carry on animal Life and Functions; Air to rarefy the Juices, separat the Globules, which might otherwise be too closely united and compress'd; for the Introduction of which into the Blood and Fluids, the Lungs of Animals seem chiefly design'd: Salts stimulat the Solids into Actions, Vibrations, and excite their clumsy elastic Force, in order to carry on the animal Functions, so absolutely necessary to living. The just and proper Regulation of these two, Air and Salts, the so necessary Instruments of pleasant and easy living, is as fit a Subject to be adjusted by a wise and philosophic Physician, (others are but Empyrics at the best) as Diet and Exercise. The Air we choose to live in ought to be rather dry and thin in the Medium; but even this must be proportion'd to the Nature of the Distemper, and the State of the Juices, if possible; and they who have acquir'd their Disorders by high Meats and Drinks, which abound in volatile Salts, must by insipid Foods, and aqueous Liquors, lessen the Abundance of such Salts, which is the Case of all the Rich and Wealthy. They, on the contrary, who have acquir'd their Distempers by too poor and low a Manner of living, on vegetable, insipid and instimulating Food only, which is the Case of most of the Poor or Indigent, must be cured by more generous Living, and more stimulating and sapid Meats and Drinks, which excite their Solids into Action, and on which account all low Livers, who are driven into this Way of Living, by the Nature of their Distempers, require double the Exercise, of those who can bear generous and active Foods; and without it Nature will stagnat and sink; which is the Case of many of the Female Sex, and of Persons in Gaols and Monasteries: In a Word, where-ever a low or vegetable Diet is necessary, there Air and Exercise are in a much higher Degree necessary, than they are in a more generous Diet, to make a low Diet effectual. But then the high Feeders pay in the Shortness of their Lives, and the Sharpness of their Diseases, for their present Pleasure, and idle, indolent, healthy Life.

FINIS.

Notes

*
Vide Philosophical Principles of Reveal'd Religion.
↵

ERRATA.

Page 13, Line 27, dele with. p. 13, l. 2, for gene, read general. p. 33, for affixing, r. of fixing. p. 65, from (higher, to—for Him) in a Parenthesis. p. 81, l. 16, for Liver, r. Bile. p. 84, l. 30, dele from. p. 95, l. 16, for are, r. is. p. 172, l. 20, for vergeing, r. divergeing. p. 176, l. 7, dele they. p. 177, for ingegious, r. ingenious. p. 196, l. 19, read the Series thus, x 4 + x 3 + x 2 + x + • − x − x 2, &c. for o, r. i, and for x/∞ r. x/x. p. 241, l. 28. dele and. p. 294. l. 23. for permit, r. pervade. l. 28, for her, r. its. p. lxvi. (the rest are) is transpos'd, and should follow in the next Line after the Word Britain.

Information about this book

Title statement

An essay on regimen: Together with five discourses, medical, moral, and philosophical: serving to illustrate the principles and theory of philosophical medicin, ... By Geo. Cheyne, ...

Cheyne, George, 1673-1743.

Publication

Distributor

University of Oxford Text Archive
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road
Oxford
OX2 6NN
ota@oucs.ox.ac.uk

ID [ota]

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4645

ID [isbn10]

1106016440

ID [isbn13]

9781106016447

ID [TCP]

K065341.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3307894009

ID [ECMS]

0412800400

Availability

Distributed by the University of Oxford under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Source

— An essay on regimen: Together with five discourses, medical, moral, and philosophical: serving to illustrate the principles and theory of philosophical medicin, ... By Geo. Cheyne, ..., Cheyne, George, 1673-1743.. [4],xvi,iv,[2],lxviii,[2],51,[3],53-89,[3],91-117,[3],119-191,[3],193-344p. ; ; ; 8⁰. London :: printed for C. Rivington, and J. Leake, Bath,. 1740.. [Each discourse has a divisional half-title.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT78855.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2p5.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

This electronic text file was keyed from page images and partially proofread for accuracy. Character capture and encoding have been done following the guidelines of the ECCO Text Creation Partnership, which correspond roughly to the recommendations found in Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file.