AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST ATHEISM, OR An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Mind of Man, whether there be not a GOD.  
By HENRY MORE Fellow of Christ College in CAMBRIDGE.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Trismegist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Aristot. 
LONDON▪ Printed by ROGER DANIEL, at lovel's Inn in Pater-noster-Row. Anno 1653.   

To the Honourable, the Lady ANNE CONWAY.  
MADAM,  
THe high opinion or rather certain knowledge I have of your singular Wit and Virtues, has emboldened, or to speak more properly, commanded me to make choice of none other than yourself for a Patroness of this present Treatise. For besides that I do your Ladyship that Right as also this present Age and succeeding Posterity, as to be a witness to the World of such eminent Accomplishments & transcendent Worth; so I do not a little please myself, while I find myself assured in my own conceit that Cebes his mysterious & judicious Piece of Morality hung up in the Temple of Saturn, which was done in way of Divine Honour to the Wisdom of the Deity, was not more safely and suitably placed then this careful Draught of Natural Theology or Metaphysics, which I have dedicated to so noble, so wise, and so pious a Personage. And for my own part it seems to me as real a point of Religious worship to honour the Virtuous as to relieve the Necessitous, which Christianity terms no less than a Sacrifice. Nor is there any thing here of Hyperbolisme or high-flow'n Language, it being agreed upon by all sides, by Prophets, Apostles, and ancient Philosophers, that holy and good Men are the Temples of the Living God. And verily the Residence of Divinity is so conspicuous in that Heroical Pulchritude of your noble Person, that Plato if he were alive again might find his timorous Supposition brought into absolute Act, & to the enravishment of his amazed Soul might behold Virtue become visible to his outward sight. And truly Madam, I must confess that so Divine a Constitution as this, wants no Preservative, being both devoid & uncapable of Infection; and that if the rest of the World had attained but to the least Degree of this sound Complexion & generous frame of Mind, nay if they were but brought to an aequilibrious Indifferency, and, as they say, stood but Neutrals, that is, If as many as are supposed to have no love of God, nor any knowledge or experience of the Divine life, did not out of a base ignorant fear irreconcilably hate him, assuredly this Antidote of mine would either prove needless and superfluous, or, if Occasion ever called for it, a most certain Cure. For this Truth of the Existence of God being as clearly demonstrable as any Theorem in Mathematics, it would not fail of winning as firm and as universal Assent, did not the fear of a sad After-clap pervert men's Understandings, and Prejudice and Interest pretend uncertainty & obscurity in so plain a matter. But considering the state of things as they are, I cannot but pronounce, that there is more necessity of this my Antidote than I could wish there were. But if there were less or none at all, yet the pleasure that may be reaped in perusal of this Treatise, (even by such as by an holy Faith & divine Sense are ever held fast in a full assent to the Conclusion I drive at) will sufficiently compensate the pains in the penning thereof. For as the best Eyes & most able to behold the pure Light do not unwillingly turn their backs of the Sun to view his refracted Beauty in the delightful colours of the Rainbow; so the perfectest Minds & the most lively possessed of the Divine Image, cannot but take contentment & pleasure in observing the glorious Wisdom & Goodness of God so fairly drawn out and skilfully variegated in the sundry Objects of external Nature. Which delight though it redound to all, yet not so much to any as to those that are of a more Philosophical & Contemplative constitution; & therefore Madam, most of all to Yourself, whose Genius I know to be so speculative, & Wit so penetrant, that in the knowledge of things as well Natural as Divine you have not only out gone all of your own Sex, but even of that other also, whose ages have not given them overmuch the start of you. And assuredly your ladyship's Wisdom and Judgement can never be highly enough commended, that makes the best use that may be of those ample Fortunes that Divine Providence has bestowed upon you. For the best result of Riches, I mean in reference to ourselves, is, that we finding ourselves already well provided for, we may be fully Masters of our own time: & the best improvement of this time is the Contemplation of God and Nature, wherein if these present Labours of mine may prove so grateful unto you and serviceable, as I have been bold to presage, next to the winning of Souls from Atheism, it is the sweetest Fruit they can ever yield to  
Your Ladyships humbly devoted Servant HENRY MORE.   

THE PREFACE.  
Atheism and Enthusiasm though they seem so extremely opposite one to another, yet in many things they do very nearly agree. For to say nothing of their joint conspiracy against the true knowledge of God and Religion, they are commonly entertained, though successively, in the same Complexion. For that temper that disposes a man to listen to the Magisteriall dictates of an over-bearing fancy, more than to the calm and cautious insinuations of free Reason, is a subject that by turns does very easily lodge and give harbour to these mischievous Guests.  
For as dreams are the fancies of those that sleep, so fancies are but the dreams of men awake. And these fancies by day, as those dreams by night, will vary and change with the weather & present Temper of the body. So that those that have only a fiery Enthusiastic acknowledgement of God; change of diet, feculent old Age, or some present damps of Melancholy will as confidently represent to their fancy that there is no God, as ever it was represented that there is one; and then having lost the use of their more noble faculties of Reason and Understanding, they must according to the course of Nature, be as bold Atheists now, as they were before confident Enthusiasts.  
Nor do these two unruly Guests only serve themselves by turns on the same party, but also send mutual supplies one to another; being lodged in several persons. For the Atheist's pretence to wit and natural reason (though the foulness of his mind makes him fumble very dotingly in the use thereof) makes the Enthusiast●●cure ●●cure that reason is no Guide to God. And the Enthusiast's boldy dictating the careless rave of his own tumultuous fancy for undeniable principles of divine knowledge, confirms the Atheists that the whole business of religion & notion of a God, is nothing but a troublesome fit of overcurious Melancholy. Therefore, I thought I should not be wanting to Religion and to the Public, if I attempted, some way, to make this fansifull Theosophy or Theomagy, as it is very ridiculous in itself, so also to appear to the world, and if it were possible, to the very favourers of it; it being the most effectual means in my judgement, to remove this dangerous evil out of the minds of men, and to keep it off from theirs that are as yet untainted.  
And this I endeavoured in those two late Pamphlets I wrote, namely my Observations and my Reply. In both which I putting myself upon the merry pin (as you see it was necessary so to do) and being finely warmed with Anger and Indignation against the mischief I had in design to remove, if I may seem after the manner of men to have transgressed in any niceties, yet the ingenuous cannot but be very favourable in their censure, it being very hard to come off so clearly well, in the acting of so humorous a part; there scarce being any certain Judge of humours, but the humour of every man that judges.  
And I am very well aware that some passages cannot but seem harsh to sad and weakly Spirits, as sick men love no noise nor din, and take offence at but the smell of such meats, as are the most pleasant and strengthening nourishment of those that are well. But as for myself I can truly pronounce that what I did, I did in reason & judgement, not at all offending that Life that dwelleth in me. For there was that Tonicall exertion, and steady Tension of my Spirits, that every chord went off with a clear and smart sound, as in a well-tuned Instrument set at a high Pitch, and was good Music to myself that throughly understood the meaning of it. And my agile and swift Motion from one thing to another, even of those that were of very different natures, was no harsh harmony at all to me, I having the art to stop the humming of the last stroke, as a skilful Harper on his Irish Harp, and so to render the following chord clean, without the mixing or interfaring of any tremulous murmurs, from the strings that were touched immediately before.  
And I did the more willingly indulge to myself this freedom and mirth, in respect of the Libertines whom I was severely and sharply to reprove, and so made myself as freely merry as I might, and not desert the realities of Soberness, that thereby they might know, that no Superstitious Sneaksby, or moped legalist (as they would be ready to fancy every body that bore no resemblance at all with themselves) did rebuke them or speak to them, but one that had in some measure attained to the truth of that Liberty, that they were in a false sent after. Thus was I content to become a Spectacle to the world, in any way or disguise whatsoever, that I might thereby possibly by any means gain some souls out of this dirty and dizzy whirlpool of the Flesh, into the Rest and Peace of God; and to seem a fool myself to provoke others to become truly and seriously wise.  
And as I thought to win upon the Libertine by my mirth and freeness, so I thought to gain ground upon the Enthusiast, by suffering myself to be carried into such high Triumphs and Exaltations of Spirit as I did. In all which (though the unskilful cannot distinguish betwixt vainglory and Divine joy or Christian gloriation) I do really nothing but highly magnify the simplicity of the life of Christ above all Magic, Miracles, Power of Nature, Opinions, Prophecies, and what ever else humane nature is so giddily and furiously carried after, even to the neglecting of that which is the sublimest pitch of happiness that the soul of man can arrive to.  
Wherefore many of those expressions in my Reply that seem so turgent are to be interpreted with allusion to what this Divine life does deservedly triumph over, and particularly what Magicians boast they can do: As in that passage which seems most enormous pag. 49th. I still the raging of the Sea etc. Which is the very same that Medea vaunts of in Ovid, 
— Concussaque sisto,  
Stantia concutio cantu freta, nubila pello.   
And for the rest that has fall'n from me in those free heats, I'm sure there is neither Expression nor Meaning that I cannot not only make good by reason, but warrant and countenance also by some thing plainly parallel thereto, in Scripture, Philosophers and Fathers, especially Origen, whom I account more profoundly learned and no less pious than any of them.  
But as I said the Drift and Scope of all was, vigorously to witness to this buisy and inquisitive Age, that the Simplicity of the life of Christ, though it be run over by most and taken no notice of, that is, that perfect Humility and divine Love, whence is a free command over a man's passions and a warrantable Guidance of them, with all Serenity, becoming Prudence, and Equity; that these are above all the glory of the World, curiosity of Opinions, and all power of Nature whatsoever.  
And if the sense of this so plain a truth with all its power and loveliness did so vehemently possess my soul, that it caused for the present some sensible mutations and tumults in my very Animal Spirits and my body, the matter being of so great Importance, it was but an obvious piece of prudence to record those Circumstances, that professing myself so very much moved, others might be the more effectually moved thereby; according to that of the Poet 
— si vis me flere, dolendum est  
Primùm ipsi tibi.   
And I am no more to be esteemed an Enthusiast for such passages as these, than those wise and circumspect Philosophers, Plato and Plotinus, who upon the more than ordinary sensible visits of the divine Love and Beauty descending into their enravished souls, profess themselves no less moved, than what the sense of such expressions as these will bear, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And to such Enthusiasm as is but the Triumph of the soul of man, inebriated as it were, with the delicious sense of the Divine life, that blessed Root, and Original of all holy wisdom & virtue, I am as much a friend, as I am to the vulgar fanatical Enthusiasm a professed enemy. And eternal shame stop his mouth, that will dare to deny, but that the fervent love of God and of the pulchritude of Virtue will afford the spirit of man more joy and triumph, than ever was tasted in any lustful pleasure, which the pen of unclean Wits do so highly magnify both in verse and prose.  
Thus much I thought fit to premise concerning my two late Pamphlets, which I have done in way of Civility to the world, to whom I hold myself accountable, especially for any public Actions, who now I hope will not deem those unexpected Motions of mine so strange and uncouth, they so plainly perceiving what Music they were measured to.  
But as for this present Discourse against Atheism, as there is no humour at all in it, so I hope there is less hazard of Censure. For here is nothing to give offence, unless we be so weak-sighted, that the pure light of Reason & Nature will offend us. Here's no lavish Mirth, no Satirical Sharpness, no Writhing or Distorting the genuine frame & composure of mine own mind, to set out the deformity of another's, no Rapture, no Poetry, no Enthusiasm, no more than there is in Euclid's Elements, or Hypocrates his Aphorisms. But though I have been so bold as to recite what there is not in this present Discourse, yet I had rather leave it to the quick-sightedness of the Reader to spy out what there is, then be put upon so much Immodesty myself, as to speak any thing that may seem to give it any precellency above what is already extant in the world about the same matter. Only I may say thus much, that I did on purpose abstain from reading any Treatises concerning this subject, that I might the more undisturbedly write the easy Emanations of mine own mind, and not be carried off from what should naturally fall from myself, by prepossessing my thoughts by the inventions of others.  
I have writ therefore after no Copy but the Eternal Characters of the mind of man, and the known Phaenomena of Nature. And all men consulting with these that endeavour to write sense, though it be not done alike by all men, it could not happen but I should touch upon the same heads that others have, that have wrote before me▪ Who though they merit very high commendation for their learned achievements, yet I hope my endeavours have been such, that though they may not deserve to be corrivals or partners in their praise and credit, yet I do not distrust but they may do their share towards that public good, that such performances usually pretend to aim at.  
For that which did embolden me to publish this present Treatise, was not, as I said before, because I flatte●'d myself in a Conceit that it was better or more plausible, than what is already in the hands of men: but that it was of a different sort, and has it's peculiar serviceableness and advantages apart and distinct from others; whose proper preeminences it may aloof off admire, but dare not in any wise compare with. So that there is no Tautology committed in recommending what I have written to the public view, nor any lessening the labours of others by thus offering the fruit of mine own. For considering there are such several Complexions and Tempers of men in the world, I do not distrust but that as what others have done, has been very acceptable and profitable to many, so this of mine may be well relished of some or other, and so seem not to have been writ in vain.  
For though I cannot promise my Reader that I shall entertain him with so much winning Rhetoric and pleasant Philology, as he may find else where, yet I hope he will acknowledge, if his mind be unpreiudiced, that he meets with sound and plain Reason, and an easy and clear Method.  
And though I cannot furnish him with that copious variety of Arguments that others have done, yet the frugal carefulness and safeness of choice that I have made in them, may compensate their paucity.  
For I appeal to any man, whether the proposal of such as will easily admit of Evasions (though they have this peculiar advantage that they make for greater pomp and at first sight seem more formidable for their multitude) does not embolden the Atheist and make him fancy, that because he can so easily turn the edge of these, that the rest have no more solidity than the former; but that if he thought good, and had leisure, he could with like facility enervate them all.  
Wherefore I have endeavoured to insist upon such alone, as are not only true in themselves, but are unavoidable to my Adversary, unless he will cast down his shield, forsake the free use of the natural faculties of his mind, and profess himself a mere puzzled Sceptic. But if he will with us but admit of this one Postulate or Hypothesis, that Our Faculties are true, though I have spoke modestly in the Discourse itself, yet I think I may here without vanity or boasting, freely profess that I have no less then demonstrated that ●here is a God. And by how much more any man shall seriously endeavour to resist the strength of my Arguments, by so much the more strong he shall find them; as he that presses his weak finger against a wall of Marble; and that they can appear slight to none but those that carelessly and slightly consider them. For I borrowed them not from books, but fetch't them from the very nature of the thing itself and indelible Ideas of the Soul of Man.  
And I found that keeping myself within so narrow compass as not to affect any reasonings but such as had very clear affinity and close connexion with the subject in hand, that I naturally hit upon what ever was material to my purpose, and so contenting myself with my own, received nothing from the great store and riches of others. And what I might easily remember of others, I could not let pass if in my own Judgement it was obnoxious to evasion. For I intended not to impose upon the Atheist, but really to convince him. And therefore Des-Cartes, whose Mechanical wit I can never highly enough admire, might be no Master of Metaphysics to me. Whence it is that I make use but of his first Argument only, if I may not rather call it the Schools or mine own. For I think I have managed it in such sort and every way so propped it and strengthened it, that I may challenge in it as much interest as any.  
But as for his following reasons, that suppose the Objective Reality of the Idea of God does exceed the efficiency of the mind of man, and that the mind of man, were it not from another, would have conferred all that perfection upon itself, that it has the Idea of, & lastly, that it having no power to conserve itself, and the present and future time having no dependence one of another, that it is continually reproduced, that is conserved by some higher cause, which must be God; these grounds, I say, being so easily evaded by the Atheist, I durst not trust to them, unless I had the Authors wit to defend them, who was handsomely able to make good any thing. But they seem to me to be liable to such evasions as I can give no stop to.  
For the mind of man, as the Atheist will readily reply, may be able of herself to frame such an actual Idea of God, as is there disp●●ed of, which Idea will be but the present modification of her, as other notions are, and an effect of her essence, and power, and that power a radical property of her essence. So that there is no excess of an effect above the efficiency of the cause, though we look no further than the mind itself, for she frames this notion of God as naturally and as much without the help of an higher Cause, as she does any thing else whatsoever.  
And as for the mind's contributing those perfections on herself, she has an Idea of; if she had been of herself, the Atheist will say, it implies a contradiction, and supposes that a thing before it exists, may consult about the advantages of its own existence. But if the mind be of itself, it is what it finds itself to be, and can be no otherwise.  
And therefore lastly if the mind find itself to exist, it can no more destroy itself, then produce itself, nor needs any thing to continue its being, provided that there be nothing in Nature that can act against it and destroy it; for what ever is, continueth so to be, unless there be some cause to change it.  
So likewise from those Arguments I fetched from external Nature, as well as in these from the innate propertyes of the mind of man, my careful choice made very large defalcations, insisting rather upon such things as might be otherwise, and yet are far better as they are, then upon such as were necessary and could not be otherwise. As for example; When I considered the distance of the Sun, I did not conceive that his not being placed so low as the Moon, or so high as the fixed Stars, was any great argument of Providence, because it might be replied that it was necessary it should be betwixt those two distances, else the Earth had not been habitable, & so mankind might have waited for a being, till the agitation of the Matter had wrought things into a more tolerable fitness or posture for their production.  
Nor simply is the Motion of the Sun or rather of the Earth, any argument of divine Providence, but as necessary as a piece of wood's being carried down the stream, or straws about a whirlpool. But the Laws of her Motion are such, that they very manifestly convince us of a Providence, and therefore I was fain to let go the former, and insist more largely upon the latter.  
Nor thought I it fit, to Rhetoricate in proposing the great variety of things, and praecellency one above another, but to press close upon the design and subordination of one thing to another, showing that whereas the rude motions of the matter a thousand to one might have cast it otherwise, yet the productions of things are such as our own Reason cannot but approve to be best, or as we ourselves would have designed them.  
And so in the consideration of Animals, I do not so much urge my Reasons from their diversity and subsistence, (though the framing of matter into the bare subsistence of an Animal is an effect of no less cause than what has some skill and counsel) But what I drive at, is the exquisite contrivance of their parts, and that their structure is far more perfect, then will merely serve for their bare existence and continuance in the world; Which is an undeniable demonstration that they are the effects of wisdom, not the results of Fortune or fermented Matter.  
Lastly when I descend to the History of things miraculous and above the ordinary course of Nature, for the proving that there are Spirits, that the Atheist thereby may the easier be induced to believe there is a God, I am so cautious and circumspect, that I make use of no Narrations that either the avarice of the Priest, or the credulity and fansifullnesse of the Melancholist may render suspected.  
Nor could I abstain from that Subject, it being so pat and pertinent unto my purpose, though I am well aware how ridiculous a thing it seems to those I have to deal with. But their confident ignorance shall never dash me out of countenance with my well-grounded knowledge: For I have been no careless Inquirer into these things, and from my childhood to this very day, have had more reasons to believe the Existence of God and a Divine Providence, then is reasonable for me to make particular profession of.  
In this History of things Miraculous or Supernatural, I might have recited those notable Prodigies that happened, after the birth, in the life, and at the death of Christ; As the star that led the Wise men to the young Infant; Voices from heaven testifying Christ to be the Son of God; and lastly that miraculous Eclipse of the Sun, made, not by interposition of the Moon, for she was then opposite to him, but by the Interposition or total Involution, if you will, of those scummy spots that ever more or less are spread upon his face, but now over-flowed him with such thickness and so universally, that daylight was suddenly intercepted from the astonished eyes of the Inhabitants of the Earth. To which direful Symptoms though the Sun hath been in some measure at several times obnoxious, yet that those latent Causes should so suddenly step out and surprise him, and so enormously at the passion of the Messias, he whose mind is not more prodigiously darkened then the Sun was then Eclipsed, cannot but at first sight acknowledge it a special designment of Providence.  
But I did not insist upon any sacred History, partly because it is so well and so ordinarily known, that it seemed less needful; but mainly because I know the Atheist will boggle more at whatever is fetched from established Religion, and fly away from it, like a wild Colt in a Pasture at the sight of a bridle or an halter, snuffing up the Air and smelling a Plot afar off, as he foolishly fancies.  
But that he might not be shy of me, I have conformed myself as near his own Garb as I might, without partaking of his folly or wickedness, that is, I appear now in the plain shape of a mere Naturalist, that I might vanquish Atheism; as I did heretofore affectedly symbolise in careless Mirth and freedom with the Libertines, to circumvent Libertinism.  
For he that will lend his hand to help another fallen into a ditch, must himself though not fall, yet stoop and incline his body: And he that converses with a Barbarian, must discourse to him in his own language: So he that would gain upon the more weak and sunk minds of sensual mortals, is to accommodate himself to their capacity, who like the Bat and Owl can see no where so well as in the shady glimmerings of their own Twilight.   

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST ATHEISM.  

CHAP. I.  
The seasonable usefulness of the present Discourse, or the Motives that put the Author upon these endeavours of demonstrating that there is a God.  
THe grand truth which we are now to be employed about, is the proving that there is a God; And I made choice of this subject as very seasonable for the times we are in, and are coming on, wherein Divine Providence granting a more large release from Superstition, and permitting a freer perusal of matters of Religion, then in former Ages, the Temp●er would take advantage where he may, to carry men captive out of one dark prison into another, out of Superstition into Atheism itself. Which is a thing feasible enough for him to bring about in such men as have adhered to Religion in a mere external way, either for fashion sake, or in a blind obedience to the Authority of a Church. For when this external frame of godliness shall break about their ears, they being really at the bottom devoid of the true fear and love of God, and destitute of a more free and unprejudiced use of their faculties, by reason of the sinfulness and corruption of their natures; it will be an easy thing to allure them to an assent to that, which seems so much for their present Interest; and so being emboldened by the tottering and falling of what they took for Religion before, they will gladly in their conceit cast down also the very Object of that Religious Worship after it, and conclude that there is as well no God as no Religion; That is, they have a mind there should be none, that they may be free from all wring of conscience, trouble of correcting their lives, and fear of being accountable before that great Tribunal.  
Wherefore for the reclaiming of these if it were possible, at least for the succouring and extricating of those in whom a greater measure of the love of God doth dwell, (who may probably by some darkening cloud of Melancholy or some more than ordinary importunity of the Tempter be dissettled and entangled in their thoughts concerning this weighty matter) I held it sit to bestow mine endeavours upon this so useful and seasonable an Enterprise, a● to demonstrate that there is a God.   

CHAP. II.  
What is meant by demonstrating there is a God, and that the mind of man, unless he do violence to his faculties, will fully assent or descent from that which notwithstanding may have a bare possibility of being otherwise.  
BUt when I speak of demonstrating there is a God, I would not be suspected of so much vanity and ostentation as to be thought I mean to bring no Arguments, but such as are so convictive, that a man's understanding shall be forced to confess that is is impossible to be otherwise then I have concluded. For for mine own part I am pro●e to believe, that there is nothing at all to be so demonstrated. For it is possible that Mathematical evidence itself, may be but a constant undiscoverable delusion, which our nature is necessarily and perpetually obnoxious unto, and that either fatally or fortuitously there has been in the world time out of mind such a Being as we call Man, whose essential property it is to be then most of all mistaken, when he conceives a thing most evidently true. And why may not this be as well as any thing else, if you will have all things fatal or casual without a God? For there can be no curb to this wild conceit, but by the supposing that we ourselves exist from some higher Principle that is absolutely good and wise, which is all one as to acknowledge that there is a God.  
Wherefore when I say that I will demonstrate that there is a God, ● do not promise's that I will always produce such arguments, that the Reader shall acknowledge so strong as he shall be forced to confess that it is utterly impossible that it should be otherwise. But they shall be such as shall deserve full assent and win full assent from any unprejudiced mind.  
For I conceive that we may give full assent to that which notwithstanding may possibly be otherwise: which I shall illustrate by several examples. Suppose two men got to the top of mount Athos, and there viewing a stone in the form of an Altar with ashes on it, and the footsteps of men on those ashes, or some words if you will, as Optimo Maximo, or, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the like, written or scralled out upon the Ashes; and one of them should cry out, Assuredly here have been some men here that have done this: But the other more nice than wise should reply, Nay it may possibly by otherwise. For this stone may have naturally grown into this very shape, and the seeming ashes may be no ashes, that is no remainders of any fuel burned there, but some unexplicable and imperceptible Motions of the Air, or other particles of this fluid Matter that is active every where, have wrought some parts of the Matter into the form and nature of ashes, and have fridged and played about so, that they have also figured those intelligible Characters in the same. But would not any body deem it a piece of weakness no less than dotage for the other man one whit to recede from his former apprehension, but as fully as ever to agree with what he pronounced first, notwithstanding this bare possibility of being otherwise?  
So of Anchors that have been digged up, either in plain fields or mountainous places, as also the Roman Urns with ashes and inscriptions, as Severianus, Full: Linus and the like, or Roman Coins, with the effigies and names of the Caesars on them; or that which is more ordinary, the Sculls of men in every Churchyard, with the right figure, and all those necessary perforations for the passing of the vessels, besides those conspicuous hollows for the Eyes and rows of teeth, the Os Styloeides, Ethoeides, and what not? if a man will say of them, that the Motion of the particles of the Matter, or some hidden Spermatick power has gendered these both Anchors, Urns, Coins, and Sculls in the ground, he doth but pronounce that which humane reason must admit as possible: Nor can any man ever so demonstrate that those Coins, Anchors, and Urns, were once the Artifice of men, or that this or that Scull was once a part of a living man, that he shall force an acknowledgement that it is impossible that it should be otherwise. But yet I do not think that any man, without doing manifest violence to his faculties, can at all suspend his assent, but freely and fully agree that this or that Scull was once part of a living man, and that these Anchors, Urns and Coins, were certainly once made by humane artifice, notwithstanding the possibility of being otherwise.  
And what I have said of Assent is also true in Dissent. For the mind of man not crazed nor prejudiced will fully and unreconcileably disagree, by its own natural fagacity, where notwithstanding the thing that it doth thus resolvedly and undoubtingly reject, no wit of man can prove impossible to be true. As if we should make such a fiction as this, that Archimedes with the same individual body that he had when the Soldiers slew him, is now safely intent upon his Geometrical figures under ground, at the Centre of the Earth, far from the noise and din of this world that might disturb his Meditations, or distract him in his curious delineations he makes with his rod upon the dust; which no man living can prove impossible: Yet if any man does not as unreconcileably descent from such a fable as this, as from any falsehood imagineable, assuredly that man is next door to madness or dotage, or does enormous violence to the free use of his Faculties.  
Wherefore it is manifest that there may be a very firm and unwavering assent or descent, when as yet the thing we thus assent to may be possibly otherwise; or that which we thus descent ●rom, cannot be proved impossible to be true.  
Which point I have thus long and thus variously sported myself in, for making the better impression upon my Reader, it being of no small use and consequence, as well for the advertising of him, that the Arguments which I shall produce, though I do not bestow that ostentative term of Demonstration upon them, yet they may be as effectual for winning a firm and unshaken assent, as if they were in the strictest Notion such; as also to remind him that if they be so strong and so pa●ly fitted and suitable with the faculties of man's mind, that he has nothing to reply, but only that for all this, it may possibly be otherwise, that he should give a free and full assent to the Conclusion. And if he do not, that he is to suspect himself rather of some distemper, prejudice, or weakness, than the Arguments of want of strength. But if the Atheist shall chose pervert my candour and fair dealing, and phan●y that he has got some advantage from my free confession, that the arguments that I shall use are not so convictive, but that they leave a possibility of the thing being otherwise, let him but compute his supposed gains by adding the limitation of this possibility (viz. that it is no more possible, then that the clearest Mathematical evidence may be false (which is impossible if our faculties be true) or in the second place, then that the Roman Urns and Coins above mentioned may prove to be the works of Nature, not the Artifice of man, which our faculties admit to be so little probable, that it is impossible for them not fully to assent to the contrary) and when he has cast up his account, it will be evident that it can be nothing but his gross ignorance in this kind of Arithmetic that shall embolden him to write himself down gainer and not me.   

CHAP. III.  
An attempt towards the finding out the true Notion or Definition of God, and a clear Conviction that there is an indelible Idea of a Being absolutely perfect in the mind of Man.  
ANd now having premised thus much, I shall come on nearer to my present design. In prosecution whereof it will be requisite for me, first to define what God is, before I proceed to demonstration that he is. For it is obvious for Man's reason to find arguments for the imp●ssibility, possibility, probability, or necessity of the Existence of a thing, from the explication of the Essence thereof.  
And now I am come hither, I demand of any Atheist that denies there is a God, or of any that doubts whether there be one or no, what Idea or Notion they frame of that they deny or doubt of. If they will prove nice & squeamish, and profess they can frame no notion of any such thing, I would gladly ask them, why they will then deny or doubt of they know not what. For it is necessary that he that would rationally doubt or deny a thing, should have some settled Notion of the thing he doubts of or denies. But if they profess that this is the very ground of their denying or doubting whether there be a God, because they can frame no Notion of him, I shall forthwith take away that Allegation by offering them such a Notion as is as proper to God as any Notion is proper to any thing else in the world.  
I define God therefore thus, An Essence or Being fully and absolutely perfect. I say fully and absolutely perfect, in counterdistinction to such perfection as is not full and absolute, but the perfection of this or that Species or Kind of finite Being's, suppose of a Lion, Horse or Tree. But to be fully and absolutely perfect is to be at least as perfect as the apprehension of a Man can conceive, without a Contradiction. But what is inconceivable or contradictious is nothing at all to us, for we are not now to wag one Atom beyond our faculties. But what I have propounded is so far from being beyond our faculties, that I dare appeal to any Atheist that hath yet any command of Sense and Reason left in him, if it be not very easy and intelligible at the first sight, and that if there be a God, he is to be deemed of us, such as this Idea or Notion sets forth.  
But if he will sullingly deny that this is the proper Notion of God, let him enjoy his own humour; this yet remains undeniable that there is in Man, an Idea of a Being absolutely and fully perfect, which we frame out by attributing all conceivable perfection to it whatsoever, that implies no Contradiction. And this Notion is Natural and Essential to the Soul of Man, and can not be washed out, nor conveyed away by any force or trick of wit whatsoever, so long as the Mind of man is not crazed, but hath the ordinary use of her own faculties.  
Nor will that prove any thing to the purpose, when as it shall be alleged that this Notion is not so connatural and Essential to the Soul, because she framed it from some occasions from without. For all those undeniable conclusions in Geometry which might be helped and occasioned from some thing without, are so Natural notwithstanding and Essential to the Soul, that you may as soon un-soul the Soul, as divide her from perpetual assent to those Mathematical truths, supposing no distemper nor violence offered to her Faculties. As for example, she cannot but acknowledge in herself the Several distinct Ideas of the five Regular Bodies, as also, that it is impossible that there should be any more than five. And this Idea of a Being absolutely perfect is as distinct and indelible an Idea in the Soul, as the Idea of the five Regular Bodies, or any other Idea whatsoever.  
It remains therefore undeniable, that there is an inseparable Idea of a Being absolutely perfect ever residing, though not always acting, in the Soul of Man.   

CHAP. IU.  
What Notions are more particularly comprised in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect. That the difficulty of framing the conception of a thing ought to be no argument against the existence thereof: the nature of corporeal Matter being so perplexed and intricate, which yet all men acknowledge to exist. That the Idea of a Spirit is as easy a Notion as of any other substance what ever. What powers and propertyes are contained in the Notion of a Spirit. That Eternity and Infinity, if God were not, would be cast upon something else; so that Atheism cannot free the mind from such Intricacyes. Goodness, Knowledge and Power, Notions of highest perfection, and therefore necessarily included in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect.  
BUt now to lay out more particularly the perfections comprehended in this Notion of a Being absolutely and fully perfect, I think I may securely nominate these; Self-subsistency, Immateriality, Infinity as well of Duration as Essence, Immensity of Goodness, Omnisciency, Omnipotency, and Necessity of Existence. Let this therefore be the description of a being absolutely perfect, that it is a Spirit, Eternal, Infinite in Essence and Goodness, Omniscient, Omnipotent, and of itself necessarily existent. All which Attributes being Attributes of the highest perfection, that falls under the apprehension of man, and having no discoverable imperfection interwoven with them, must of necessity be attributed to that which we conceive absolutely and fully perfect. And if any one will say that this is but to dress up a Notion out of my own fancy, which I would afterwards ssily insinuate to be the Notion of a God; I answer, that no man can discourse and reason of any thing without recourse to settled notions deciphered in his own mind. And that such an exception as this implies the most contradictious absurdities imaginable, to wit, as if a man should reason from something that never entered into his mind, or that is utterly out of the ken of his own faculties. But such groundless allegations as these discover nothing but an unwillingness to find themselves able to entertain any conception of God, and a heavy propension to sink down into an utter oblivion of him, and to become as stupid and senseless in divine things as the very beasts.  
But others it may be will not look on this Notion as contemptible for the easy composure thereof out of familiar conceptions which the mind of man ordinarily figures itself into, but reject it rather for some unintelligible hard terms in it, such as Spirit, Eternal, and Infinite, for they do profess they can frame no Notion of Spirit, and that anything should be Eternal or Infinite, they do not know how to set their mind in a posture to apprehend, and therefore some would have no such thing as a Spirit in the world.  
But if the difficulty of framing a conception of a thing must take away the existence of the thing itself, there will be no such thing as a Body left in the world, and then will all be Spirit or nothing. For who can frame so safe a notion of a Body, as to free himself from the entanglements▪ that the extension thereof will bring along with it. For this extended matter consists of either indivisible points, or of particles divisible in infinitum. Take which of these two you will, and you can find no third) you will be wound into the most notorious absurdityes that may be. For if you say it consists of points, from this position I can necessarily demonstrate, that every Spear or Spire-Steeple or what long body you will is as thick as it is long; that the tallest Cedar is not so high as the lowest Mushroom; and that the Moon and the Earth are so near one another, that the thickness of your hand will not go betwixt; that Rounds and Squares are all one figure; that Even and Odd Numbers are Equal one with another; and that the clearest Day is as dark as the blackest Night. And if you make choice of the other Member of the disjunction, your fancy will be little better at ease. For nothing can be divisible into parts it has not: therefore if a body be divisible into infinite parts, it has infinite extended parts: and if it has an infinite number of extended parts, it cannot be but a hard mystery to the Imagination of Man, that infinite extended parts should not amount to one whole infinite extension. And thus a grain of Mustardseed would be as well infinitely extended, as the whole Matter of the Universe; and a thousandth part of that grain as well as the grain itself. Which things are more unconceivable than any thing in the Notion of a Spirit. Therefore we are not scornfully and contemptuously to reject any Notion, for seeming at first to be clouded and obscured with some difficulties and intricacies of conception; sith that, of whose being we seem most assured, is the most entangled and perplexed in the conceiving, of any thing that can be propounded to the apprehension of a Man. But here you will reply that our senses are struck by so manifest impressions from the Matter, that though the nature of it be difficult to conceive, yet the Existence is palpable to us, by what it acts upon us. Why, then all that I desire is this, that when you shall be reminded of some actions and operations that arrive to the notice of your sense or understanding, which unless we do violence to our faculties we can never attribute to Matter or Body, that then you would not be so nice and averse from the admitting of such a substance as is called a Spirit, though you fancy some difficulty in the conceiving thereof.  
But for mine own part I think the nature of a Spirit is as conceivable, and easy to be defined as the nature of anything else. For as for the very Essence or bare Substance of any thing whatsoever, he is a very Novice in speculation that does not acknowledge that utterly unknowable. But for the Essential and Inseparable properties, they are as intelligible and explicable in a Spirit as in any other subject whatever. As for example, I conceive the entire Idea of a Spirit in general, or at least of all finite created and subordinate Spirits▪ to consist of these several powers or properties, viz. Self-penetration. Self-Motion, Self-contraction and Dilatation, and Indivisibility; and these are those that I reckon more absolute; I will add also what has relation to another, and that is the power of Penetrating, Moving and Altering the Matter. These properties and powers put together make up the Notion and Idea of a Spirit, whereby it is plainly distinguished from a Body, whose parts cannot penetrate one another, is not Self-moveable, nor can contract nor dilate itself, is divisible and separable one part from another; But the parts of a Spirit can be no more separated, though they be dilated, than you can cut off the Rays of the Sun by a pair of Scissors made of pellucide Crystal. And this will serve for the settling of the Notion of a Spirit; the proof of its Existence belongs not unto this place. And out of this description it is plain that a Spirit is a notion of more perfection than a Body, and therefore the more fit to be an Attribute of what is absolutely perfect, than a Body is.  
But now for the other two hard terms of Eternal and Infinite, if any one would excuse himself from asse●●g to the Notion of a God, by reason of the incomprehensibleness of those attributes, let him consider, that he shall whether he will or no be forced to acknowledge something Eternal, either God or the World, and the Intricacy is alike in either. And though he would shuffle off the trouble of apprehending an Infinite De●ty, yet he will never extricate himself out of the entanglements of an Infinite Space; which Notion will stick as closely to his Soul, as her power of Imagination.  
Now that Goodness, Knowledge and Power, which are the three following Attributes, are Attributes of perfection, if a man consult his own Faculties, it will be undoubtedly concluded, and I know nothing else he can consult with. At least this will be returned as infallibly true, that a Being absolutely perfect has these, or what supereminently contains these. And that Knowledge or something like it is in God, is manifest, because without animadversion in some sense or other, it is impossible to be Happy. But that a Being should be absolutely perfect, & yet not happy, is as impossible. But Knowledge without Goodness is but dry Subtlety, or mischievous Craft; and Goodness with Knowledge devoid of Power is but lame and ineffectual: Wherefore what ever is absolutely perfect, is Infinitely both Good, Wise and Powerful.  
And lastly it is more perfection that all this be Stable, Immutable and Necessary, then Contingent or but Possible. Therefore the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect represents to our minds, that that of which it is the Idea is necessarily to exist. And that which of its own nature doth necessarily exist, must never fail to be. And whether the Atheist will call this absolute perfect Being, God or not, it is all one; I list not to contend about words. But I think any man else at the first sight will say that we have found out the true Idea of God.   

CHAP. V.  
That the soul of man is not Abrasa Tabula, and in what sense she might be said ever to have had the actual knowledge of eternal truths in her.  
ANd now we have found out this Idea of a Being absolutely perfect, that the use which we shall hereafter make of it, may take the better effect, it will not be amiss by way of further preparation, briefly to touch upon that notable point in Philosophy, whether the Soul of man be Abrasa Tabula, a Table book in which nothing is writ; or whether she have some innate Notions and Ideas in herself. For so it is that she having taken first occasion of thinking from external objects, it hath so imposed upon some men's judgements, that they have conceited that the Soul has no Knowledge nor Notion, but what is in a Passive way impressed, or delineated upon her from the objects of Sense; They not warily enough distinguishing betwixt extrinsecall occasions and the adequate or principal causes of things. But the mind of man more free and better exercised in the close observations of its own operations and nature, cannot but discover, that there is an active and actual Knowledge in a man, of which these outward objects are rather the reminders then the first begetters or implanters. And when I say actual Knowledge, I do not mean that there is a certain number of Ideas flaring and shining to the Animadversive faculty like so many Torches or Stars in the Firmament to our outward sight▪ or that there are any figures that take their distinct places, & are legibly writ there like the Red letters or Astronomical Characters in an Almanac; but I understand thereby an active sagacity in the Soul, or quick recollection as it were, whereby some small business being hinted unto her, she runs out presently into a more clear and larger conception. And I cannot better describe her condition then thus; Suppose a skilful Musician fallen asleep in the field upon the grass, during which time he shall not so much as dream any thing concerning his musical faculty, so that in one sense there is no actual skill or Notion nor representation of any thing musical in him, but his friend sitting by him that cannot sing at all himself, jogs him and awakes him, and desires him to sing this or the other song, telling him two or three words of the beginning of the long, he presently takes it out of his mouth, and sings the whole song upon so slight and slender intimation: So the Mind of man being jogged and awakened by the impulses of outward objects is stirred up into a more full and clear conception of what was but imperfectly hinted to her from external occasions; and this faculty I venture to call actual Knowledge in such a sense as the sleeping Musicians skill might be called actual skill when he thought nothing of it.   

CHAP. 6.  
That the Soul of Man has of herself actual Knowledge in her, made good by sundry Instances and Arguments.  
ANd that this is the condition of the Soul is discoverable by sundry observations. As for example, Exhibit to the Soul through the outward senses the figure of a Circle, she acknowledgeth presently this to be one kind of figure, and can add forthwith that if it be perfect, all the lines from some one point of it drawn to the Perimeter, must be exactly Equal. In like manner show her a Triangle, she will straightway pronounce that if that be the right figure it makes toward, the Angles must be closed in indivisible points. But this accuracy either in the Circle or the Triangle cannot be set out in any material subject, therefore it remains that she hath a more full & exquisite knowledge of things in herself, than the Matter can lay open before her, Let us cast in a third Instance, let some body now demonstrate this Triangle described in the Matter to have its three Angles equal to two right ones: Why yes saith the Soul this is true, and not only in this particular Triangle but in all plain Triangles that can possibly be described in the Matter. And thus you see the Soul sings out the whole song upon the first hint, as knowing it very well before.  
Besides this, there are a multitude of Relative Notions or Ideas in the Mind of Man, as well Mathematical as Logical, which if we prove cannot be the impresses of any material object from without, it will necessarily follow, that they are from the Soul herself within, and are the natural furniture of humane understanding. Such as are ●hese, Cause, Effect, Whole and Part, Like and Unlike, and the rest. So Equality and Inequality, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proportion & Analogy▪ Symmetry and Asymmetry, and such like: All which Relative Ideas I shall easily prove to be no material impresses from without upon the Soul, but her own active conception proceeding from herself whilst she takes notice of external Objects. For that these Ideas can make no Impresses upon the outward senses is plain from hence; because they are no sensible nor Physical affections of the Matter. And how can that, that is no Physical affection of the Matter affect our corporeal Organs of Sense? But now that these Relative Ideas, whether Logical or Mathematical be no Physical, affections of the Matter is manifest from these two arguments. First they may be produced when there has been no Physical Motion nor alteration in the Subject to which they belong, nay indeed when there hath been nothing at all done to the Subject to which they do accrue. As for example, suppose one side of a Room whitened the other not touched or meddled with, this other has thus become unlike, and hath the Notion of Dissimile necessarily belonging to it, although there has nothing at all been done thereunto. So suppose two Pounds of Lead, which therefore are two Equal Pieces of that Metal; cut away half from one of them, the other Pound, nothing at all being done unto it, has lost its Notion of Equal, and hath acquired a new one of Double unto the other. Nor is it to any purpose to answer, that though there was nothing done to this Pound of Lead, yet there was to the other; For that does not at all enervate the Reason, but shows that the Notion of Sub ●double which accrued to that Lead which had half cut away, is but our Mode of conceiving, as well as the other, and not any Physical affection that strikes the corporeal Organs of the Body, as Hot and Cold, Hard and Soft, White and Black, and the like do. Wherefore the Ideas of Equal and Unequal, Double and Sub-double, Like and Unlike, with the rest, are no external Impresses upon the Senses, but the Souls own active manner of conceiving those things which are discovered by the outward Senses.  
The second argument is, that one and the same part of the Matter is capable at one and the same time, wholly and entirely of two contrary Ideas of this kind. As for Example, any piece of Matter that is a Middle proportional betwixt two other pieces, is Double, suppose, and Sub-double, or Triple and Sub-tripple, at once. Which is a manifest sign that these Ideas are no affections of the Matter, and therefore do not affect our senses, else they would affect the senses of Beasts, and they might also grow good Geometricians and Arithmeticians. And they not affecting our senses, it is plain that we have some Ideas that we are not beholding to our senses for, but are the mere exertions of the Mind occasionally awakened, by the Appulses of the outward objects; Which the outward Senses do no more teach us, than he that awakened the Musician to sing taught him his skill.  
And now in the third and last place it is manifest, besides these single Ideas I have proved to be in the mind, that there are also several complex Notions in the same, such as are these; The whole is bigger than the part: If you take Equal from Equal, the Remainders are Equal: Every number is either Even or Odd; which are true to the soul at the very first proposal; as any one that is in his wits does plainly perceive.   

CHAP. VII.  
The mind of man being not unfurnished of Innate Truth, that we are with confidence to attend to her natural and unprejudiced Dictates and Suggestions. That some Notions and Truths are at least naturally & avoidable assented unto by the soul, whether she have of herself Actual Knowledge in her or not. And that the definition of a Being absolutely perfect is such. And that this absolutely perfect Being is God, the Creator and Contriver of all things.  
ANd now we see so evidently the Soul is not unfurnished for the dictating of Truth unto us, I demand of any man, why under a pretence that she having nothing of her own but may be moulded into an assent to any thing, or that she does arbitrariously and fortuirously compose the several Impresses she receives from without, he will be still so squeamish or timorous, as to be afraid to close with his own faculties, and receive the Natural Emanations of his own mind, as faithful Guides.  
But if this seem, though it be not, too subtle which I contend for, viz; That the Soul hath actual knowledge in herself, in that sense which I have explained, yet surely this at least will be confessed to be true, that the nature of the Soul is such, that she will certainly and fully assent to some conclusions, how ever she came to the knowledge of them, unless she do manifest violence to her own Faculties. Which truths must therefore be concluded not fortuitous or arbitrarious▪ but Natural so the Soul: such as I have already named, as that every Finite number is either even or odd. If you add equal to equal, the wholes are equal; and such as are not so simple as these, but yet stick as close to the Soul once apprehended, as that The three angles in a Triangle are equal to two right ones: That there are just five regular Bodies neither more nor less, and the like, which we will pronounce necessarily true according to the light of Nature.  
Wherefore now to reassume what we have for a while laid aside, the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect above proposed, it being in such sort let forth that a man cannot rid his mind of it, but he must needs acknowledge it to be indeed the Idea of such a Being; it will follow that it is no arbitrarious nor fortuitous conceit, but necessary and therefore natural to the Soul at least if no● ever actually there.  
Wherefore it is manifest, that we consulting with our own natural light concerning the Notion of a Being absolutely perfect, that this Oracle tells us, that it is A spiritual Substance, Eternal, Infinite in Essence and Goodness, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and of itself necessarily existent.  
For this answer is such, that if we understand the sense thereo●, we cannot tell how to deny it, and therefore it is true according to the light of Nature. But it is manifest that that which is Self-subsistent, infinitely Good, Omniscient and Omnipotent, is the Root and Original of all things. For Omnipotency signifies a Power that can effect any thing that implies no contradiction to be effected; and Creation implies no contradiction: Therefore this perfect Being can create all things. But if it found the Matter or other Substances existing aforehand of themselves, this Omnipotency and Power of Creation will be in vain, which the free and unprejudiced Faculties of the Mind of man do not admit of. Therefore the natural notion of a Being absolutely perfect, implies that the same Being is Lord and Maker of all things. And according to Natural light that which is thus, is to be adored and worshipped of all that has the knowledge of it, with all humility and thankfulness; and what is this but to be acknowledged to be God?  
Wherefore I conceive I have sufficiently demonstrated, that the Notion or Idea of God is as Natural, Necessary and Essential to the Soul of Man, as any other Notion or Idea whatsoever, & is no more arbitrarious or fictitious than the Notion of a Cube or Terraedrum, or any other of the Regular Bodies in Geometry: Which are not devised at our own pleasure (for such figments and Chimaras are infinite,) but for these it is demonstrable that there can be no more than five of them. Which shows that their Notion is necessary, not an arbitrarious compilement of what we please.  
And thus having fully made good the Notion of God, What he is, I proceed now to the next point, which is to prove, that He is.   

CHAP. VIII.  
The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection: From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods then One.  
ANd now verily casting my eyes upon the true Idea of God which we have found out I seem to myself to have struck further into this business than I was aware of. For if this Idea or Notion of God be true, as I have undeniably proved, it is also undeniably true that he doth exist; For this Idea of God being no arbitrarious Figment taken up at pleasure, but the necessary and natural Emanation of the mind of Man, if it signifies to us that the Notion and Nature of God implies in it necessary Existence as we have shown it does, unless we will wink against our own natural light, we are without any further Scruple to acknowledge that God does exist. Nor is it sufficient grounds to diffide to the strength of this Argument, because our fancy can shuffle in this Abater, viz. That indeed this Idea of God, supposing God did exist, shows us that his Existence is necessary, but it does not show us that he doth necessarily exist. For he that answers thus, does not observe out of what prejudice he is enabled to make this Answer, which is this: He being accustomed to fancy the Nature or Notion of every thing else without Existence, and so ever easily separating Essence and Existence in them, here unawares he takes the same liberty, and divides Existence from that Essence to which Existence itself is essential. And that's the witty fallacy his unwariness has entangled him in.  
Again when as we contend that the true Idea of God represents him as a Being necessarily Existent, and therefore that he does exist; and you to avoid the edge of the Argument reply, If he did at all exist; by this answer you involve yourself in a manifest contradiction. For first you say with us, that the nature of God is such, that in its very Notion it implies its Necessary Existence, and then again you unsay it by intimating that notwithstanding this true Idea and Notion▪ God may not exist, and so acknowledge that what is absolutely necessary according to the free Emanation of our Faculties, yet may be otherwise: Which is a palpable Contradiction as much as respects us and our Faculties, and we have nothing more inward and immediate than these to steer ourselves by.  
And to make this yet plainer at least if not stronger when we say that the Existence of God is Necessary, we are to take notice that Necessity is a Logical Term, and signifies so firm a Connexion betwixt the Subject and Predicate (as they call them) that it is impossible that they should be dissevered, or should not hold together, and therefore if they be affirmed one of the other, that they make Axioma Necessarium, an Axiom that is necessary, or eternally true. Wherefore there being a Necessary Connexion betwixt God and Existence; this Axiom, God does Exist, is an Axiom Necessarily and Eternally true. Which we shall yet more clearly understand, if we compare Necessity and Contingency together; For as Contingency signifies not only the Manner of Existence in that which is contingent according to its Idea, but does intimate also a Possibility of Actual Existence, (so to make up the true and easy Analogy) Necessity does not only signify the Manner of Existence in that which is Necessary, but also that it does actually Exist, and could never possibly do otherwise. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Necessity of Being and Impossibility of Not-being, are all one with Aristotle, & the rest of the Logicians. But the Atheist and the Enthusiast, are usually such professed Enemies against Logic; the one merely out of Dotage upon outward gross sense, the other in a dear regard to his stiff and untamed fancy, that shop of mysteries and fine things.  
Thirdly, we may further add, that whereas we must needs attribute to the Idea of God either Contingency, Impossibility, or Necessity of Actual Existence, (some one of these belonging to every Idea imaginable) and that Contingency is incompetible to an Idea of a B●ing absolutely perfect, much more Impossibility, the Idea of God being compiled of no Notions but such as are possible according to the light of Nature, to which we now appeal: It remains therefore that Necessity of Actual Existence be unavoidably cast upon the Idea of God, and that therefore God does actually Exist.  
But fourthly and lastly, if this seem more subtle, though it be no less true for it, I shall now propound that which is so palpable, that it is impossible for any one that has the use of his wits for to deny it. I say therefore, that either God or this corporeal and sensible world must of itself necessarily exist. Or thus, Either God or Matter or both do of themselves necessarily exist. If both, we have what we would drive at, the existency of God.  
But yet to acknowledge the necessary existence of the Matter of itself, is not so congruous and suitable to the light of Nature. For if any thing can exist independently of God, all things may; so that not only the Omnipotency of God might be in vain, but beside there would be a letting in from hence of all confusion and disorder imaginable; Nay of some grand Devil of equal Power and of as large Command as God himself: Or if you will of six thousand Millions of such monstrous Gigantic Spirits, fraught with various and mischievous Passions, as well as armed with immense power, who in anger or humour appearing in huge shapes▪ might take the Planets up in their prodigious Clutches, and pelt one another with them as boys are wont to do with snowbals; And that this has not yet happened will be resolved only into this, that the humour has not yet taken them. But the frame of Nature and the generation of things would be still liable to this ruin and disorder. So dangerous a thing it is to slight the natural dependencyes and correspondencyes of our innate Ideas and conceptions.  
Nor is there any Refuge in such a Reply as this, that the full and perfect Infinitude of the power of God, is able easily to overmaster these six thousand Millions of Monsters, and to stay their hands. For I say that six or fewer, may equalise the infinite power of God. For if any thing may be self-essentiated besides God, why may not a Spirit of just six times less power than God exist of itself? and then six such will equalise him, a seventh will overpower him. But such a rabble of self-essentiated and divided Deities, does not only hazard the pulling the world in pieces, but plainly takes away the Existence of the true God. For if there be any power or perfection whatsoever, which has its original from any other then God, it manifestly demonstrates that God is not God, that is, is not a Being absolutely and fully perfect, because we see some power in the world that is not his, that is, that is not from him. But what is fully and wholly from him, is very truly and properly his, as the thought of my mind is rather my minds, than my thoughts.  
And this is the only way that I know to demonstrate that it is impossible that there should be any more than one true God in the world; For if we did admit another beside him, this other must be also self-originated; and so neither of them would be God. For the Idea of God swallows up into itself all power and perfection conceivable, and therefore necessarily implies that whatever hath any Being, derives it from him.  
But if you say the Matter does only exist and not God, than this Matter does necessarily exist of itself, and so we give that Attribute unto the Matter which our Natural Light taught us to be contained in the Essential conception of no other thing besides God. Wherefore to deny that of God, which is so necessarily comprehended in the true Idea of him, and to acknowledge it in that in whose Idea it is not at all contained (for necessary Existence is not contained in the Idea of any thing but of a Being absolutely perfect) is to pronounce contrary to our Natural light, and to do manifest violence to our Faculties.  
Nor can this be excused by saying that the Corporeal Matter is palpable and sensible unto us, but God is not, and therefore we pronounce confidently that it is, though God be not, and also that it is necessary of itself, sith that which is without the help of another must necessarily be and eternally.  
For I demand of you then sith you profess yourselves to believe nothing but sense, how could sense ever help you to that truth you acknowledged last, viz That that which exists without the help of another, is necessary and eternal? For Necessity and Eternity are no sensible Qualities, and therefore are not the objects of any sense; And I have ready very plentifully proved, that there is other knowledge and perception in the Soul besides that of Sense. Wherefore it is very unreasonable, when as we have other faculties of knowledge besides the senses, that we should consult with the senses alone about matters of knowledge, and exclude those faculties that penetrate beyond Sense. A thing that the professed Atheists themselves will not do when they are in the humour of Philosophising, for their principle of Atones is a business that does not fall under Sense, as Lucretius at large confesses.  
But now seeing it is so manifest that the Soul of man has other cognoscitive faculties besides that of Sense (which I have clearly above demonstrated) it is as incongruous to deny there is a God, because God is not an object fitted to the Senses, as it were to deny there is Matter or a Body, because that Body or Matter, in the imaginative Notion thereof, lies so unevenly and troublesomly in our fancy and reason.  
In the contemplation whereof our understanding discovereth such contradictious incoherencies, that were it not that the notion is sustained by the confident dictates of Sense, Reason appealing to those more crass Representations of Fancy, would by her shrewd Dilemmas be able to argue it quite out of the world. But our Reason being well aware that corporeal matter is the proper object of the sensitive faculty, she gives full belief to the information of Sense in her own sphere, slighting the puzzling objections of perplexed Fancy, and freely admits the existence of Matter, notwithstanding the entanglements of Imagination, as she does also the existence of God, from the contemplation of his Idea in our soul, notwithstanding the silence of the senses therein. For indeed it were an unexcusable piece of folly and madness in a man, when as he has cognoscitive faculties reaching to the knowledge of God, and has a certain and unalterable Idea of God in his soul, which he can by no device wipe out, as well as he has the knowledge of Sense that reaches to the discovery of the Matter; to give necessary Self-existence to the Matter, no Faculty at all informing him so; and to take necessary Existence from God, though the natural notion of God in the Soul inform him to the contrary; and only upon this pretence, because God does not immediately fall under the Knowledge of the Senses; Thus partially siding with one kind of Faculty only of the Soul, and proscribing all the rest. Which is as humoursomely and foolishly done, as if a Man should make a faction amongst the Senses themselves, and resolve to believe nothing to be but what he could see with his Eyes, and so confidently pronounce that there is no such thing as the Element of Air nor Winds nor Music nor Thunder. And the reason forsooth must be because he can see none of these things with his Eyes, and that's the sole sense that he intends to believe.   

CHAP. IX.  
The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls, and is the fittest Natural means imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker. That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind, to either hasten or hinder its assent in any thing. We being dealt with in all points as if there were a God, that naturally we are to conclude there is one.  
ANd hitherto I have argued from the natural Notion or Idea of God as it respects that of which it is the Idea or Notion. I shall now try what advantage may be made of it, from the respect it bears unto our Souls, the Subject thereof, wherein, it does reside.  
I demand therefore who put this Indelible Character of God upon our Souls? why and to what purpose is it there? Nor do not think to shuffle me off by saying, We must take things as we find them, and not inquire of the final Cause of any thing; for things are necessarily as they are of themselves, whose guidance and contrivance is from no principle of Wisdom or Counsel, but every substance is now and ever was of what nature and capacity it is found; having its Original from none other than itself; and all those changes and varieties we see in the World, are but the result of an Eternal Scuffle of coordinate Causes, bearing up as well as they can, to continue themselves in the present state they ever are, and acting and being acted upon by others, these varieties of things appear in the world, but every particular Substance with the Essential Properties thereof is self-originated, and independent of any other.  
For to this I answer, that the very best that can be made of all this is but thus much; that it is merely and barely possible▪ nay if we consult our own faculties, and the Idea of God, utterly impossible: but admit it possible; this bare possibility is so lax, so weak, and so undeterminate a consideration, that it ought to have no power to move the mind this way or that way that has any tolerable use of her own Reason, more than the faint breathe of the loose Air have to shake a Mountain of brass. For if bare possibility may at all entangle our assent or descent in things, we cannot fully mis-believe the absurdest Fable in Aesop or Ovid, or the most ridiculous figments that can be imagined; As suppose that Ears of Corn in the field hear the whistling of the wind and chirping of the Birds; that the stones in the street are grinded with pain when the Carts go over them: that the Heliotrope eyes the Sun and really sees him as well as turns round about with him: that the Pulp of the Walnut, as bearing the signature of the brain, is endued with Imagination and Reason. I say no man can fully mis-believe any of these fooleries, if bare possibility may have the least power of turning the Scales this way or that way. For none of these nor a thousand more such like as these imply a perfect and palpable Contradiction, and therefore will put in for their right of being deemed possible. But we are not to attend to what is simply possible, but to what our natural faculties do direct and determine us to. As for Example, Suppose the Question were, whether the Stones in the Street have sense or no, we are not to leave the point as indifferent, or that may be held either way, because it is possible and implies no palpable Contradiction, that they may have sense and that a painful sense too. But we are to consult with our natural faculties, and see whither they propend: and they do plainly determinate the Controversy by telling us, that what has sense and is capable of pain, aught to have also progressive Motion, to be able to avoid what is hurtful and painful, and we see it is so in all Being's that have any considerable share of Sense. And Aristotle who was no doater on a Deity, yet frequently does assume this principle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That Nature does nothing in vain. Which is either an acknowledgement of a God, or an appeal to our own Rational Faculties. And I am indifferent which, for I have what I would out of either, for if we appeal to the natural suggestions of our own faculties, they will assuredly tell us there is a God.  
I therefore again demand and I desire to be answered without prejudice, or any restraint laid upon our natural faculties, to what purpose is this indelible Image or Idea of God in us, if there be no such thing as God existent in the world? or who sealed so deep an Impression of that Character upon our Minds?  
If we were travailing in a desolate wilderness, where we could discover neither Man nor house, and should meet with Herds of cattle or Flocks of Sheep upon whose bodies there were branded certain Marks or Letters, we should without any hesitancy conclude that these have all been under the hand of some man or other that has set his name upon them. And verily when we see writ in our Souls in such legible Characters the Name or rather the Nature and Idea of God, why should we be so slow and backward from making the like reasonable inference? Assuredly he whose Character is signed upon our Souls, has been here, and has thus marked us that we and all may know to whom we belong. That it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; that we are his people and the sheep of his Pasture. And it is evidently plain from the Idea of God, which includes omnipotency in it, that we can be made from none other than he; as I have before demonstrated. And therefore there was no better way than by sealing us with this Image to make us acknowledge ourselves to be his, and to do that worship and adoration to him that is due to our mighty Maker and Creator, that is to our God.  
Wherefore things complying thus naturally, and easily together, according to the free Suggestions of our natural Faculties, it is as perverse and forced a business to suspend assent, as to doubt whether those Roman Urns and Coins I spoke of digged out of the Earth be the works of Nature or the Artifice of Men.  
But if we cannot yet for all this give free assent to this Position▪ that God does Exist, Let us at least have the Patience a while to suppose it. I demand therefore supposing God did Exist, what can the Mind of Man imagine that this God should do better or more effectual for the making himself known to such a Creature as Man, endued with such and such faculties, than we find really already done? For God being a Spirit and Infinite, cannot ever make himself known Necessarily, and Adaequa●ely by any appearance to our outward Senses. For if he should manifest himself in any outward figures or shapes, portending either love or wrath, terror or protection, our faculties could not assure us that this were God, but some particular Genius good or bad: and besides such dazzling and affrightful external forces are neither becoming the divine Nature, nor suitable with the Condition of the Soul of Man, whose better faculties and more free God meddles with, does not force nor amaze us by a more course and oppressing power upon our weak and brutish senses. What remains therefore but that he should manifest himself to our Inward Man? And what way imaginable is more fit than the indelible Impression of the Idea of himself, which is (not divine life and sense▪ for that's an higher prize laid up for them that can win it, but) a natural representation of the Godhead and a Notion of his Essence, whereby the Soul of Man could no otherwise conceive of him, than an Eternal Spirit, Infinite in goodness, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Necessarily of himself Existent. But this, as I have fully proved, we find de facto done in us, wherefore we being every way dealt with as if there were a God Existing, and no faculty discovering any thing to the contrary, what should hinder us from the concluding that he does really Exist?   

CHAP▪ X.  
Natural Conscience, and Religious Veneration, arguments of the Existence of God.  
HItherto we have argued for the Existency of the Godhead from the natural Idea of God, inseparably and immutably risiding in the Soul of Man. There are also other arguments may be drawn from what we may observe to stick very close to man's nature, and such is Natural remorse of Conscience, and a fear and disturbance from the committing of such things as notwithstanding are not punishable by men: As also a natural hope of being prosperous and successful in doing those things which are conceived by us to be good & righteous; And lastly Religious Veneration or Divine worship; All which are fruits unforcedly and easily growing out of the nature of man; and if we rightly know the meaning of them, they all intimate that there is a God.  
And first of Natural Conscience it is plain that it is a fear and confusion of Mind arising from the presage of some mischief that may be●all a man beside the ordinary course of Nature, or the usual occurrences of affairs, because he has done thus or thus. Not that what is supernatural or absolutely extraordinary must needs fall upon him, but that at least the ordinary calamities and misfortunes, which are in the world, will be directed and leveled at him sometime or other, because he hath done this or that Evil against his Conscience. And men do naturally in some heavy Adversity, mighty Tempest on the Sea or dreadful Thunder on the Land (though these be but from Natural Causes) reflect upon themselves and their actions, and so are invaded with fear, or are unterrifide, accordingly as they condemn or acquit themselves in their own Consciences. And from this supposal is that magnificent Expression of the Poet concer-cerning the just man Nec fulminant is magna Jovis manus,  
That he is not afraid of the darting down of Thunder and Lightning from Heaven. But this fear, that one should be struck rather than the rest, or at this time rather than another time, because a man has done thus or thus, is a natural acknowledgement that these things are guided and directed from some discerning principle, which is all one as to confess that there is a God. Nor is it material that some allege that Marmers' curse and swear the loudest when the storm is the greatest, for it is because the usualnesse of such dangers have made them lose the sense of the danger, not the sense of a God.  
It is also very natural for a man that follows honestly the dictates of his own Conscience, to be full of good hopes, and much at ease, and secure that all things at home and abroad will go successfully with him, though his actions or sincere motions of his Mind act nothing upon Nature or the course of the world to change them any way: wherefore it implies that there is a Superintendent Principle over Nature, and the material frame of the world, that looks to it so that nothing shall come to pass, but what is consistent with the good and welfare of honest and conscientious Men. And if it does not happen to them according to their expectations in this world, it does naturally bring in a belief of a world to come.  
Nor does it at all enervate the strength of this Argument that some men have lost the sense and difference betwixt good and evil, if there be any so fully degenerate; but let us suppose it, this is a monster, and I suspect of his own making. But this is no more prejudice to what I aim at, who argue from the Natural constitution of a Man the Existency of a God; then if because Democritus put out his Eyes, some are born blind, others drink out their Eyes and cannot see, that therefore you should conclude that there is neither Light nor Colours: For if there were, than every one would see them, but Democritus and some others do not see them. But the reason is plain, there hath been force done to their Natural Faculties and they have put out their sight.  
Wherefore I conclude from natural Conscience in a Man that puts him upon hope and fear of Good and Evil from what he does or omits, though those actions and omissions do nothing to the change of the course of Nature or the affairs of the world, that there is an Intelligent Principle over universal Nature that takes notice of the Actions of Men▪ that is that there is a God; for else this Natural Faculty would be false and vain.  
Now for Adoration or Religious Worship it is as universal as mankind, there being no Nation under the Cope of heaven that does not do divine worship to something or other, and in it to God as they conceive; wherefore according to the ordinary natural light that is in all men, there is a God.  
Nor can the force of this Argument be avoided, by saying it is but an universal Tradition that has been time out of mind spread among the Nations of the world. For if it were so (which yet cannot at all be proved) in that it is universally received, it is manifest that it is according to the light of Nature to acknowledge there is a God. For that which all men admit as true, though upon the proposal of another, is undoubtedly to be termed true according to the light of Nature. As many hundreds of Geometrical Demonstrations that were first the inventions of some one man, have passed undeniable through all ages and places for true, according to the light of Nature, with them that were but Learners not Inventours of them. And it is sufficient to make a thing true according to the light of Nature, that no man upon a perception of what is propounded and the reasons of it (if it be not clear at the first sight and need ●easons to back it) will ever stick to acknowledge for a Truth. And therefore if there were any Nations that were destitute of the knowledge of a God, as they may be it is likely of the Rudiments of Geometry, so long as they will admit of the knowledge of one as well as of the other, upon due and ●it proposal; the acknowledgement of a God is as well to be said to be according to the light of Nature, as the knowledge of Geometry which they thus receive.  
But if it be here objected that a thing may be universally received of all Nations and yet be so far from being true according to the light of Nature, that it is not true at all▪ As for example that the Sun moves about the Earth, and that the Earth stands still as the fixed Centre of the world, which the best of Astronomers and the profoundest of Philosophers pronounce to be false: I answer that in some sense it does stand still, if you understand by Motion the translation of a body out of the vicinity of other bodies. But suppose it did not stand still, this comes not home to our Case; For this is but the just victory of Reason over the general prejudice of Sense; and every one will acknowledge that Reason may correct the Impresses of Sense, otherwise we should admit the Sun and Moon to be no wider than a Sieve, and the bodies of the Stars to be no bigger than the ordinary flame of a Candle. Therefore you see here is a clashing of the faculties one against another, and the stronger carries it. But there is no faculty that can be pretended to clash with the judgement of Reason and natural Sagacity that so easily either concludes or presages that there is a God: wherefore that may well go for a Truth according to the light of Nature that is universally received of men, be it by what faculty it will they receive it, no other faculty appearing that can evidence to the contrary. And such is the universal acknowledgement that there is a God.  
Nor is it much more material to reply, That though there be indeed a Religious Worship exercised in all Nations upon the face of the Earth, yet they worship many of them but stocks and stones, or some particular piece of Nature, as the Sun, Moon, or Stars; For I answer, That first it is very hard to prove that they worship any Image or Statue, without reference to some Spirit at least, if not to the omnipotent God. So that we shall hence at least win thus much, that there are in the Universe some more subtle and Immaterial Substances that take notice of the affairs of Men, and this is as ill to a slow Atheist, as to believe that there is a God.  
And for that adoration some of them do to the Sun and Moon, I cannot believe they do it to them under the Notion of mere Inanimate Bodies, but they take them to be the habitation of some Intellectual Being's, as that verse does plainly intimate to us,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Sun that hears and sees all things; and this is very near the true Notion of a God.  
But be this universal Religious Worship what it will, as absurd as you please to fancy it, yet it will not fail to reach very far for the proving of a Deity. For there is no natural Faculties in things that have not their object in the world; as there is meat as well as mouths, sounds as well as hearing, colours as well as sight, dangers as well as fear, and the like. So there ought in like manner to be a God as well as a natural propension in men to Religious Worship, God alone being the proper Object thereof.  
Nor does it abate the strength of the Argument that this so deeply radicated property of Religion in Man, that cannot be lost, does so ineptly and ridiculously display itself in Manking.  
For as the plying of a Dogges●eet ●eet in this sleep, as if there were some game before him, and the butting of a young lamb before he has yet either horns or Enemies to encounter, would not be in Nature, were there not such a thing as a Hare to be coursed, and an horned Enemy to be encountered with horns: So there would not be so universal an Excercise of Religious Worship in the world, though it be done never so ineptly and foolishly, were there not really a due Object of this worship, and a capacity in Man for the right performance thereof; which could not be unless there were a God.  
But the Truth is, Man's Soul in this drunken drowsy condition she is in has fallen asleep in the body, and like one in a dream talks to the bedposts, embraces her pillow instead of her friend, falls down before statues in stead of adoring the Eternal and Invisible God, prays to stocks and stones instead of speaking to him that by his word created all things.  
I but you will reply that a young Lamb has at length both his weapon and an Enemy to encounter, and the dreaming Dog did once and may again pursue some real game; And so he that talks in his sleep did once confer with men awake, and may do so again; But whole Nations for many successions of Ages have been very stupid Idolaters, and do so continue to this day. But I answer that this rather informs us of another great mystery, then at all enervates the present argument or obscures the grand truth we strive for. For this does plainly insinuate thus much, that Mankind is in a lapsed condition, like one fallen down in the fit of an Epilepsy, whose limbs by force of the convulsion are moved very incomposedly and illfavourdly; but we know that he that does for the present move the members of his Body so rudely and fortuitously, did before command the use of his Muscles in a decent exercise of his progressive faculty, and that when the fit is over he will do so again.  
This therefore rather implies that these poor barbarous Souls had once the true knowledge of God, and of his worship, and by some hidden providence may be recovered into it again; then that this propension to Religious Worship, that so conspicuously appears in them, should be utterly in vain: As it would be both in them and in all men else if there were no God.   

CHAP. XI.  
Of the Nature of the Soul of Man, whether she be a mere Modification of the Body, or a Substance really distinct, and then whether corporeal or incorporeal.  
WE have done with all those more obvious faculties in the Soul of Man, that naturally tend to the discovery of the Existence of a God. Let us briefly, before we lose from ourselves and launch out into the vast Ocean of the external Phaenomena of Nature, consider the Essence of the Soul herself, what it is, whether a mere Modification of the Body or Substance distinct therefrom; and than whether corporeal or incorporeal. For upon the clearing of this point we may happily be convinced that there is a Spiritual Substance▪ really distinct from the Matter. Which who so does acknowledge will be easilier induced to believe there is a God.  
First therefore if we say that the Soul is a mere Modification of the Body, the Soul than is but one universal Faculty of the Body, or a many Faculties put together, and those operations which are usually attributed unto the Soul, must of necessity be attributed unto the Body. I demand therefore to what in the body will you attribute Spontaneous Motion? I understand thereby a power in ourselves of wagging or holding still most of the parts of our Body, as our hand suppose or little finger. If you will lay that it is nothing but the immission of the Spirits into such and such Muscles, I would gladly know what does immit these Spirits and direct them so curiously. Is it themselves, or the Brain, or that particular piece of the Brain they call the Co●arion or Pine-ker●ell? whatever it be, that which does thus immit them and direct them must have Animadversion and the same that has Animadversion has Memory also and Reason. Now I would know whether the Spirits themselves be capable of Animadversion, Memory and Reason: for it indeed seems altogether impossible. For these animal Spirits are nothing else, but Matter very thin and liquid, whose nature consists in this, that all the particles of it be in Motion, and being loose from one another fridge and play up and down according to the measure and manner of agitation in them.  
I therefore now demand which of the particles in these so many loosely moving one from another, has Animadversion in it? If you say that they all put together have, I appeal to him that thus answers how unlikely it is that that should have Animadversion that is so utterly uncapable of Memory, and consequently of Reason. For it is as impossible to conceive Memory compatible to such a subject, as it is, how to write Characters in the water or in the wind.  
If you say the Brain immits and directs these Spirits, how can that so freely and spontaneously move itself or another that has no Muscles? besides Anatomists tell us that though the Brain be the Instrument of sense, yet it has no sense at all of itself; how then can that that has no sense, direct thus spontaneously and arbitrariously the animal Spirits into any part of the Body? an act that plainly requires determinate sense and perception. But let the Anatomists conclude what they will, I think I shall little less then demonstrate that the Brains have no Sense. For the same thing in us that has Sense has likewise Animadversion, and that which has Animadversion in us has also a faculty of free and arbitrarious Fansy and of Reason.  
Let us now consider the nature of the Brain, and see how compatible those operations are to such a Subject. Verily if we take a right view of this lax pith or marrow in Man's head, neither our sense nor understanding can discover any thing more in this substance that can pretend to such noble operations as free Imagination and sagacious collections of Reason, than we can discern in a Cake of Sewer or a bowl of Curds. For this loose Pulp, that is thus wrapped up within our Cranium is but a spongy and porous body, and pervious not only to the Animal Spirits but also to more gross Juice and Liquor, else it could not well be nourished, at least it could not be so soft and moistened by drunkenness and excess as to make the understanding inept and sottish in its operations. Wherefore I now demand in this soft substance which we call the Brain, whose softness implies that it is in some measure liquid, and liquidity implies a several Motion of loosened parts; in what part or parcel thereof does Fancy, Reason and Animadversion lie? In this lax consistence that lies like a Net all on heaps in the water, I demand in what knot, loop, or Interval thereof does this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside? I believe you will be ashamed to assign me any: and if you will say in all together, you must say that the whole brain is figured into this or that representation, which would cancel Memory and take away all capacity of there being any distinct Notes and places for the several Species of things there represented. But if you will say there is in Every part of the brain this power of Animadversion and Fancy, you are to remember that the brain is in some measure a liquid body, and we must inquire how these loose parts understand one another's several Animadversions and Notions: And if they could (which is yet very inconceivable) yet if they could from hence do any thing toward the immission and direction of the Animal Spirits into this or or that part of the Body, they must do it by knowing one another's minds, and by a joint contention of strength, as when many men at once, the word being given, lift or tug together for the moving of some so masty a body that the single strength of one could not deal with. But this is to make the several particles of the brain so many Individual persons; A fitter object for laughter then the least measure of belief.  
Besides how come these many animadversions to seem but one to us, our mind being these, as is supposed? Or why if the figuration of one part of the brain be communicated to all the rest, does not the same object seem situated both behind us and before us, above and beneath, on the right hand and on the left, and every way as the Impress of the object is reflected against all the parts of the brains? But there appearing to us but one animadversion and one site of things, it is a sufficient Argument that there is but one, or if there be many, that they are not mutually communicated from the parts one to another, and therefore there can be no such joint endeavour toward one design, whence it is manifest that the Brains cannot immit nor direct these Animal Spirits into what part of the Body they please.  
Moreover that the Brain has no Sense, and therefore cannot impress spontaneously any motion on the Animal Spirits, it is no slight Argument in that some being dissected have been found without Brains, and Fontanus tells us of a boy at Amsterdam that had nothing but limpid water in his head in stead of Brains; and the Brains generally are easily dissolvable into a watery consistence, which agrees with what I intimated before. Now I appeal to any free Judge how likely these liquid particles are to approve themselves of that nature and power as to be able by erecting and knitting themselves together for a moment of time, to bear themselves so as with one joint contention of strength to cause an arbitrarious ablegation of the Spirits into this or that determinate part of the Body. But the absurdity of this I have sufficiently insinuated already.  
Lastly the Nerves, I mean the Marrow of them which is of the self same substance with the Brain, have no Sense as is demonstrable from a Catalepsis or Catochus: but I will not accumulate Arguments in a Matter so palpable.  
As for that little sprunt piece of the Brain which they call the Conarion, that this should be the very substance whose natural faculty it is to move itself, and by its Motions and Nods to determinate the course of the Spirits into this or that part of the Body, seems to me no less foolish and fabulous than the story of hi● that could change the wind as he pleased by setting his Cap on this or that side of his head.  
If you heard but the magnificent stories that are told of this little lurking Mushroom, how it does not only hear and see, but imagines, reasons, commands the whole fabric of the Body more dextrously than an Indian boy does an Elephant, what an acute Logician, subtle Geometrician, prudent Statesman, skilful Physician and profound Philosopher he is, and then afterward by dissection you discover this worker of Miracles to be nothing but a poor silly contemptible Knobb or Protuberancy consisting of a thin Membrane containing a little pulpous Matter much of the same nature with the rest of the Brain, Spectatum admissirisum teneatis amici?  
Would not you sooner laugh at it then go about to confute it? And truly I may the better laugh at it now, having already confuted it in what I have afore argued concerning the rest of the brain.  
I shall therefore make bold to conclude that the Impress of Spontaneous Motion is neither from the Animal Spirits nor from the Brain, and therefore that those operations that are usually attributed unto the Soul are really incompetible to any part of the Body; and therefore that the Soul is not a mere Modification of the Body, but a Substance distinct therefrom.  
Now we are to inquire whether this Substance distinct from what ordinarily we call the Body, be also itself a Corporeal Substance, or whether it be Incorporeal. If you say that it is a Corporeal Substance, you can understand no other than Matter more subtle and tenuious than the Animal Spirits themselves, mingled with them and dispersed through the vessels and Porosities of the Body, for there can be no Penetration of Dimensions. But I need no new Arguments to confute this fond conceit, for what I said of the Animal Spirits before, is applicable with all ease and fitness to this present case. And let it be sufficient that I advertise you so much, and so be excused from the repeating of the same things over again.  
It remains therefore that we conclude that that which impresses Spontaneous Motion upon the Body, or more immediately upon the Animal Spirits, that which imagines, remembers, and reasons, is an Immaterial Substance distinct from the Body, which uses the Animal Spirits and the Brains for Instruments in such and such Operations: and thus we have found a Spirit in a proper Notion and signification that has apparently these faculties in it; it can both understand and move Corporeal Matter.  
And now this prize that we have won will prove for our design of very great Consequence. For it is obvious here to observe that the Soul of man is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Compendious Statue of the Deity. Her substance is a solid Effigies of God. And therefore as with ease we consider the Substance and Motion of the vast Heavens on a little Sphere or Globe, so we may with like facility contemplate the nature of the Almighty in this little Meddall of God, the Soul of Man, enlarging to Infinity what we observe in ourselves when we transfer it unto God; as we do imagine those Circles which we view on the Globea to be vastly bigger while we fancy them as described in the Heavens.  
Wherefore we being assured of this that there is a Spiritual Substance in ourselves in which both these properties do resid, eviz. of understanding and of moving Corporeal Matter, let us but enlarge our Minds so, as to conceive as well as we can of a spiritual Substance that is able to move and actuate all Matter whatsoever never ●o far extended, and after what way and manner soever it please, and that it has not the knowledge only of this or that particular thing, but a distinct and plenary Cognoscence of all things; and we have indeed a very competent apprehension of the Nature of the Eternal and Invisible God, who like the Soul of Man, does not indeed fall under sense, but does every where operate so, that his presence is easily to be gathered from what is discovered by our outward senses.    


CHAP. I.  
The Universal Matter of the World be it homogeneal or heterogeneal, self moved or resting of itself, that it can never be contrived into that Order it is without the Super-intendency of a God.  
THE last thing I insisted upon was the Specific nature of the Soul of Man, how it is an immaterial substance endued with these two eminent Properties, of Understanding and Power of moving corporeal Matter. Which truth I cleared, to the intent that when we shall discover such Motions and Contrivances in the largely extended Matter of the world as imply Wisdom and Providence we may the easilier come off to the acknowledgement of that Eternal Spiritual Essence that has framed Heaven and Earth, and is the Author and Maker of all visible and invisible Being's.  
Wherefore we being now so well furnished for the voyage, I would have my Atheist to take Shipping with me, and losing from this particular Speculation of our own inward nature to launch out into that vast Ocean, as I said, of the external Phaenomena of universal Nature, or walk with me a while on the wide Theatre of this Outward world, and diligently to attend to those many and most manifest marks and signs that I shall point him to in this outward frame of things that naturally signify unto us that there is a God.  
And now first to begin with what is most general, I say that the Phaenomena of Day and Night, Winter and Summer, Springtime and Harvest, that the manner of rising and setting of the Sun, Moon and Stars, that all these are signs and tokens unto us that there is a God, that is, that things are so framed that they naturally imply a principle of Wisdom and Counsel in the Author of them. And if the●e be such an Author of external Nature, there is a God.  
But here it will be replied▪ that mere Motion of the universal Matter will at last necessarily grind itself into those more rude and general Delineations of Nature that are observed in the Circuits of the Sun, Moon and S●arres, and the general Consequences of them. But if the mind of man g●ow so bold as to conceit any such thing, let him examine his Faculties what they naturally conceive of the Notion of Matter. And verily the great Master of this Mechanical Hypothesis does not suppose not admit of any Specifical difference in this universal Matter, out of which this outward frame of the World should arise. Neither do I think that any Man else will easily imagine but that all the Matter of the world is of one kind for its very Substance or Essence.  
Now therefore I demand concerning this universal uniform Matter, whether naturally Motion or Rest belongs unto it. If Motion it being acknowledged uniform, it must be alike moved in every part or particle imaginable of it. For this Motion bring natural and essential to the Matter is alike every where in it, and therefore has loosened every Atom of it to the utmost capacity, so that every particle is alike, and moved alike, And therefore there being no prevalency at all in any one Atom above another in bigness or motion, it is manifest that this universal Matter, to whom motion is so essential and intrinsecall, will be ineffectual ●or the producing of any variety of appearances in Nature, and so●o Suns, nor Stars no● Earth's, nor Vortices 〈◊〉 ever arise out of this infinitely thin and still Matter, which most thus eternally remain unperceptible to any of 〈◊〉, were our Senses ten thousand Millions of times 〈…〉 then they are▪ Indeed there could not be any such thing as either Man or Sense in the world. But we see this Matter shows itself to us, in abundance of varieti●●●●● appearance; therefore there must be another principle besides the Matter to order the Motion of it so, as may make these varieties to appear: And what will that prove but a God?  
But if you'll say that Motion is not of the nature of Matter (as indeed it is very hard to conceive it, the matter supposed homogeneal) but that it is inert and stupid of itself; than it must be moved from some other, and thus of necessity we shall be cast upon a God, or at least a Spiritual substance actuating the Matter▪ which the Atheists are as much afraid of, as children are of Spirits, or themselves of a God.  
But men that are much degenerate know not the natural Emanations of their own Minds, but think of all things confusedly, and therefore it may be will not stick to affirm, that either the parts of the Matter are Specifically different, or though they be not, yet some are Movable of themselves, others inclinable to Rest, and was ever so; for it happened so to be, though there be no reason for it in the thing itself; which is to wound our Faculties with so wide a gap, that after this they will let in any thing, and take away all pretence to any principles of Knowledge.  
But to scuffle and combat with them in their own dark Caverns, let the universal Matter be a heterogeneal Chaos of Confusion, variously moved and as it happens: I say there is no likelihood that this mad Motion would ever amount to so wise a Contrivance as is discernible even in the general Delineations of Nature. Nay it will not amount to a natural appearance of what we see and is conceived most easy thus to come to pass, to wit, a round 〈◊〉, Moon, and Earth. For it is shrewdly to be suspected that if there were no Superintendent over the Motions of those Etherial Whirlpools, which the French Philosophy supposes, that the form of the Sun and the rest of the Stars would be oblong not round, because the Matter recedes all along the Axis of a Vortex, as well as from the Centre, and therefore naturally the Space that is left for the finest and subtlest Element of all, of which the Sun and Stars are to consist, will be Long not Round. Wherefore this Round Figure we see them in, must proceed from some higher principle than the mere Agitation of the Matter: But whether simply Spermaticall, or Sensitive also and Intellectual, I'll leave to the disquisition of others who are more at leisure to meddle with such Curiosities.  
The Business that lies me in hand to make good is this, that taking that for granted which these great naturalists would have allowed, to wit, that the Earth moves about the Sun, I say the laws of its Motion are such, that if they had been imposed on her by humane Reason and Counsel, they would have been no other then they are. So that appealing to our own faculties, we are to confess that the Motion of the Sun and Stars, or of the Earth, as our naturalists would have it, is from a knowing Principle, or at least has passed the Approbation and Allowance of such a Principle.  
For as Art takes what Nature will afford for her purpose, and makes up the rest herself; So the Eternal Mind (that put the universal Matter upon Motion, as I conceive most reasonable, or if the Matter be confusedly moved of its self, as the Atheist wilfully contends) this Eternal Mind, I say, takes the easy and natural results of this general Impress of Motion, where they are for his purpose, where they are not he rectifies and completes them.  
And verily it is far more suitable to Reason that God making the Matter of that nature that it can by mere Motion produce something, that it should go on so far as that single advantage could naturally carry it, that so the wit of Man, whom God has made to contemplate the Phaenomena of Nature, may have a more fit object to exercise itself upon. For thus is the understanding of Man very highly gratified, when the works of God and there manner of production are made intelligible unto him by a natural deduction of one thing from another: which would not have been if God had on purpose avoided what the Matter upon Motion naturally afforded, and canceled the laws thereof in every thing. Besides to have altered or added any thing further where there was no need, had been to Multiply Entities to no purpose.  
Thus it is therefore with Divine Providence; what that one single Impress of Motion upon the Universal Matter will afford that is useful and good, it does allow and take in; what it might have miscarried in, or could not amount to, it directs or supplies. As in little pieces of wood naturally bowed like a Man's Elbow, the Carver does not unbow it, but carves an hand at the one end of it, and shapes it into the complete figure of a Man's Arme.  
That therefore that I contend for is this, that be the Matter moved how it will, the Appearances of things are such as do manifestly intimate that they are either appointed all of them, or at least approved by an universal Principle of Wisdom and Counsel.   

CHAP. II.  
The perpetual Parallelisme of the Axis of the Earth and its due proportion of Inclination, as also the course of the Moon crossing the Ecliptic, evident arguments that the fluid Matter is guided by a divine Providence. The Atheists Sophism of arguing from some petty inconsiderable Effects of the Motion of the Matter, that the said Motion is cause of all things, seasonably detected and deservedly derided.  
NOw therefore to admit the Motion of the Earth, & to talk with the naturalists in their own Dialect, I demand whether it be better to have the Axis of the Earth steady, and perpetually parralel with its self, or to have it carelessly tumble this way and that way as it happens, or at least very variously and intricately. And you cannot but answer me that it is better to have it steady and parallel: For in this lies the necessary Foundation of the Art of Navigation and Dialling. For that steady stream of Particles which is supposed to keep the Axis of the Earth parallel to itself, affords the Mariner both his Cynosura and his Compass. The Loadstone and the Load-star depend both on this. And Dialling could not be at all without it. But both of these Arts are pleasant, and the one especially of mighty importance to Mankind. For thus there is an orderly measuring of Time for our affairs at home, and an opportunity of Traffic abroad, with the most remote Nations of the world, and so there is a mutual supply of the several commodities of all Countries, besides the enlarging of our understanding by so ample Experience we get of both men and things. Wherefore if we were rationally to consult, whether the Axis of the Earth is to be held steady and parallel to itself, or to be left at random, we would conclude that it ought to be steady. And so we find it de facto, though the Earth move floating in the liquid Heavens. So that appealing to our own Faculties, we are to affirm that the constant direction of the Axis o● the Earth was established by a principle of Wisedom● and Counsel▪ or at least approved of it.  
Again, there being several Post●●es of this steady direction of the Axis of the Earth, v●z, either Perpendicular to a Plane going through the Centre of the Sun, or Coincident or Inclining, I demand which of all these Reason and Knowledge would make choice of. Not of a Perpendicular posture, For both the pleasant variety and great conveniency of Summer and Winter, Spring● time and Harvest would be lost; and for want of accession of the Sun, these parts of the Earth that bring forth fruit now and are habitable, would be i● an incapacity of ever bringing forth any, and consequently could entertain no Inhabitants; and those Parts that the full h●at of the Sun could reach, he plying them always alike without any annual recession or intermission, would at last grow tired and exhausted. And besides consulting with our own faculties we observe, that an orderly vicissitude of things, is most pleasant unto us, and does much more gratify the contemplative property in Man.  
And now in the second place▪ nor would reason make choice of a Coincident position of the Axis of the Earth. For if the Axis thus lay in a Plane that goes through the Centre of the Sun, the Ecliptic would like a Colour or one of the Meridian's pass through the Poles of the Earth, which would put the Inhabitants of the World into a pitiful Condition. For they that scape best in the Temperate Zone, would be accloyed with very tedious long Nights, no less than forty days long, and they that now have their Night never above four and twenty hours, as Friesland, Iseland, the further parts of Russia and Norway, would be deprived of the Sun above a hundred and thirty days together, ourselves in England and the rest of the same Clime would be closed up in darkness no less than an hundred or eighty continual days, and so proportionably of the rest both in and out of the Temperate Zones. And as for Summer and Winter, though those vicissitudes would be, yet it could not but cause very raging diseases, to have the Sun stay so long describing his little Circles near the Poles and lying so hot upon the Inhabitants that had been in so long extremity of Darkness and Cold before.  
It remains therefore that the posture of the Axis of the Earth be Inclining, not Coincident nor Perpendicular to the forenamed Plane. And verily it is not only inclining, but in so fit proportion, that there can be no fitter excogitated, to make it to the utmost capacity as well pleasant as habitable. For though the course of the Sun be kerbed within the compass of the Tropics and so makes those parts very hot, yet the constantgales of wind from the East (to say nothing of the nature and fit length of their nights) make the Torrid Zone not only habitable but pleasant.  
Now this best posture which our Reason would make choice of, we see really established in Nature, and therefore, if we be not perverse and wilful, we are to infer that it was established by a Principle that has in it Knowledge and Counsel, not from a blind fortuitous jumbling of the parts of the Matter one against another, especially having found before in ourselves a knowing Spiritual Substance that is also able to move and alter the Matter. Wherefore I say we should more naturally conclude, that there is some such universal knowing Principle, that has power to move and direct the Matter; then to fancy that a confused justling of the Parts of the Matter should contrive themselves into such a condition, as if they had in them Reason and Counsel, and could direct themselves. But this directing Principle what could it be but God?  
But to speak the same thing more briefly and yet more intelligibly, to those that are only acquainted with the Ptolemaicall Hypothesis: I say that being it might have happened that the annual course of the Sun should have been through the Poles of the world, and that the Axis of the Heavens might have been very troublesomely and disorderly movable, from whence all those inconveniencies would arise which I have above mentioned; and yet they are not but are so ordered as our own Reason must approve of as best; it is Natural for a man to conceive, that they are really ordered by a Principle of Reason and Counsel, that is, that they are made by an all wise and all-powerful God.  
I will only add one or two observables more, concerning the Axis of the Earth and the course of the Moon, and so I will pass to other things.  
It cannot but be acknowledged that if the Axis of the Earth were perpendicular to the Plane of the Sun's Ecliptic, that her Motion would be more easy and natural, and yet for the conveniencies afore mentioned we see it is made to stand in an inclining posture. So in all likelihood it would be more easy and natural for that handmaid of the Earth the Moon, to finish her Monthly courses in the Equinoctial Line, but we see like the Sun she crosses it and expatiates some degrees further than the Sun himself, that her exalted light might be more comfortable to those that live very much North, in their long Nights.  
Wherefore I conclude that though it were possible, that the confused agitation of the parts of the Matter might make a round hard heap like the Earth, and more thin and liquid bodies like the Aether, and Sun, and that the Earth may swim in this liquid Aether like a roasted Apple in a great bowl of wine, and be carried about like straws or grass cast upon a whirlpool, yet that its Motion and Posture should be so directed and attempered as we ourselves that have Reason upon due consideration would have it to be; and yet not to be from that which is Knowing and in some sense Reasonable; is to our faculties, if they discern any thing at all, as absonous and absurd as any thing can be. For when it had been easier to have been otherwise, why should it be thus, if some Superintendent 'Cause did not oversee and direct the Motions of the Matter, allowing nothing therein but what our Reason will confess to be to very good purpose?  
But because so many Bullets joggled together in a Man's Hat will settle to such a determinate figure, or because the Frost and the Wind will draw upon doors and Glasse-windows pretty uncouth streaks like feathers, and other fooleries which are to no use or purpose, to infer thence that all the Contrivances that are in Nature, even the frame of the bodies both of Men and Beasts, are from no other principle but the jumbling together of the Matter, and so because that this does naturally effect something that it is the cause of all things, seems to me, to be a reasoning in the same Mood and Figure with that wise Market-mans', who going down a Hill, and carrying his Cheeses under his Arms, one of them falling and trundling down the Hill very fast, let the other go after it, appointing them all to meet him at his house at Gotham, not doubting but they beginning so hopefully would be able to make good the whole journey. Or like another of the same Town, who perceiving that his Iron Trevet he had bought had three feet, and could stand, expected also that it should walk too and save him the labour of the Carriage. So our profound Atheists and Epicureans according to the same pitch of Wisdom do not stick to infe●●e, because this confused Motion of the parts of the Master may amount to a rude delineation of hard and soft, rigid and fluid, and the like; that therefore it will go on further and reach to the disposing of the Matter in such order as does naturally imply a Principle▪ that someway or other contains in it exact Wisdom and Counsel. A position more beseeming the Wisemen above mentioned, than any one that has the least command of his natural wit and faculties.  
Wherefore we having sufficiently detected the ridiculous folly of this present Sophism, let us attending heedfully to the natural emanations of unprejudiced reason conclude, that the Rising and Setting of the lights of Heaven, the vicissitude of Day and Night, Winter and Summer, being so ordered and guided, as if they had been settled by exquisite consultation, and by clearest knowledge; that therefore that which did thus ordain them is a knowing Principle, able to move, alter and guide the Matter according to his own will and providence, that is to say, that there is a God.  
And verily I do not at all doubt but that I shall evidently trace the visible footsteps of this Divine Counsel and Providence, even in all things discoverable in the world. But I will pass through them as lightly and briefly as I can.   

CHAP. III.  
That Rivers, Quarries of stone, Timber-Wood, Metals, Minerals, and the Magnet, considering the nature of Man, what use he can make of them, are manifest signs that the rude Motion of the Matter is not left to itself, but is under the guidance and Super-intendency of an alwise God.  
LEt us therefore swiftly course over the Valleys and Mountains, sound the depth of the Sea, range the Woods and Forests, dig into the Entrails of the Earth, and let the Atheist tell me which of all these places are silent and say nothing of a God. Those that are most dumb will at least compromize with the rest, that all things are by the guidance and determination (let the Matter move as it will) or at least by the allowance, and approbation of a Knowing Principle: as a Mason that makes a wall, sometimes meets with a stone that wants no cutting, and so only approving of it he places it in his work. And a piece of Timber may happen to be cracked in the very place where the Carpenter would cleave it, and he need not close it first that he may cleave it asunder afterwards; wherefore it the mee● Motion of the Matter can do any rude general thing of good consequence, let it stand as allowable; but we shall find out also those things which do so manifestly ●avour of Design and Counsel, that we cannot naturally withhold our assent, but must say there is a God.  
And now let us betake out selves to the search, and see if all things be not so as our Reason would desire them. And to begin at the Top first, even those rudely scattered Mountains, that seem but so many Wens and unnatural Protu●erancies upon the face of the Earth, if you consider but of what consequence they are, thus reconciled you may deem them ornaments as well as useful.  
For these are Nature's Stillatories in whose hollow Caverns the ascending vapours are congealed to that universal Aqua vitae, that good freshwater, the liquor of life, that sustains all the living Creatures in the world, being carried along in all parts of the Earth in the winding Channels of Brooks and Rivers. Geography would make it good by a large induction. I will only instance in three or four: Ana and Tagus run from Sierra Molina in Spain, Rhenus, Padus and Rhodanus from the Alps, Tenats from the Riphean, Garumna from the Pyrene●n Mountains, Achelous from Pindus, Hebrus from Rhodope, Tigris from Niphates, Or●ntes from Libanus, and Euphraetes from the Mountains of Armenia, and so in the rest. But I will not insist upon this, I will now betake myself to what does more forcibly declare an Eye of Providence, directing and determining as well as approving of the results of the supposed agitation of the parts of the Matter.  
And that you may the better feel the strength of my Argument, let us first briefly consider the nature of Man, what faculties he has, and in what order he is in respect of the rest of the Creatures. And indeed though his body he but weak and disarmed, yet his inward abilities of Reason and Artificial contrivance is admirable. He is much given to Contemplation, and the viewing of this Theatre of the world, to traffic and commerce with foreign Nations, to the building of Houses and Ships, to the making curious instruments of Silver, Brass or Steel, and the like. In a word he is the flower and chief of all the products of Nature upon this Globe of the Earth. Now if I can show that there are designs laid even in the lowest and vilest products of Nature that respect Man the highest of all, you cannot deny but that there is an Eye of Providence that respecteth all things, and passeth very swiftly from the Top to the Bottom, disposing all things wisely.  
I therefore now demand, Man being of this nature that he is, whether these noble faculties of his would not be lost and frustrate were there not Materials to excercise them on. And in the second place I desire to know, whether the rude confused Agitation of the particles of the Matter do certainly produce any such Materials fit for Man to exercise his skill on or no; That is to say, whether there were any Necessity that could infallibly produce Quarries of Stone in the Earth which are the chief Materials of all the Magnificent Structures of building in the world; And the same of Iron and Steel, without which there had been no use of these stones; And then of Sea-Coal and other necessary Fuel, fit for the working or melting of these Metals; and also of Timber Trees, for all might have been as well brush-wood and shrubs; And then assuredly there had been no such convenient shipping, what ever had become of other buildings; And so of the Loadstone that great help to Navigation, whether it might not have lain so low in the Earth as never to have been reached by the Industry of Man; and the same may be said also of other Stones and Metals, that they being heaviest might have lain lowest. Assuredly the Agitated Matter, unless there were some special overpowering guidance over it, might as well have overslipt these necessary useful things, as hit upon them: But if there had not been such a Creature as Man, these very things themselves had been useless, for none of the bruit beasts make use of such commodities, Wherefore unless a man will do enormous violence to his faculties, he must conclude that there is a contrivance of Providence and Counsel in all those things, which reacheth from the beginning to the end, and orders all things sweetly. And that Providence foreseeing what a kind of Creature she would make Man, provided him with materials from whence he might be able to adorn his present Age, and furnish History with the Records of egregious exploits both of Art and Valour. But without the provision of the forenamed Materials, the Glory and Pomp both of war and Peace had been lost. For men instead of those magnificent buildings which are seen in the world, could have had no better kind of dwellings, than a bigger sort of Bee-hives or Birds-nests made of contemptible sticks and straws & dirty mo●ter. And instead of the usual pomp and bravery of war, wherein is heard the solemn sound of the hoarse Trumpet, the courageous beating of the Drum, the neighing and prancing of the Horses, clattering of Armour, and the terrible thunder of Cannons, to say nothing of the glittering of the Sword and Spear▪ the waving and fluttering of displayed Colours, the gallantry of Charges upon their well managed Steeds and the like: I say had it not been for the forenamed provision of Iron, Steel and Brass, and such like necessary Materials, instead of all this glory and solemnity, there had been nothing but howl and shouts of poor naked men belabouring one another with snaged sticks, or dully falling together by the ears at Fi●ti-cuffs. Besides this, Beasts being naturally armed, and men naturally unarmed with any thing save their Reason, and Reason being ineffectual having no materials to work upon, it is plain that that which made Men, Beasts and Metals, knew what it did, and did not forget itself in leaving Man destitute of natural Armature, having provided Materials, and giving him wit and abilities to arm himself, and so to be able to make his party good against the most fierce and stoutest of all living Creatures whatsoever, nay indeed left him unarmed on purpose that he might arm himself and excercise his natural wit and industry.   

CHAP. IU.  
A further proof of divine Providence taken from the Sea, and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation.  
HAving thus passed over the Hills and through the Woods and hollow Entrails of the Earth, let us now view the wide Sea also, and see whether that do not inform us that there is a God, that is, whether things be not there in such sort as a rational Principle would either order or approve, when as yet notwithstanding they might have been otherwise. And now we are come to view those Campos natantes as Lucretius calls them, that vast Champion of water the Ocean, I demand first whether it might not have been wider than it is, even so large as to overspread the face of the whole Earth, and so to have taken away the habitation of Men and Beasts. For the wet particles might have easily ever mingled with the dry, and so all had either been Sea or Quag-mire. Secondly though this distinction of Land and Sea be made, whether this watery Element might not have fallen out to be of so thin a consistency as that it would not bear Shipping; For it is so far from impossibility, as there be de facto in Nature such waters, as the river Silas for example in India. And the waters of B●risthenes are so thin and light, that they are said to swim upon the top of the Stream of the river Hypanis. And we know there is some kind of wood so heavy, that it will sink in any ordinary kind of water.  
Thirdly and lastly, I appeal to any man's reason, whether it be not better that there should be a distinction of Land and Sea, then that all should be mire or water; and whether it be not better that the Timber-trees afford wood so light that it swim on the water, or the water be so heavy that it will bear up the wood, than the Contrary. That therefore which might have been otherwise, and yet is settled according to our own hearts wish who are knowing and rational Creatures, aught to be deemed by us as established by Counsel and Reason. And the closer we look into the business we shall discern more evident footsteps of Providence in it. For the two main properties of Man being contemplation and sociableness or love of converse, there could nothing so highly gratify his nature as power of Navigation, whereby he riding on the back of the waves of the Sea, views the wonders of the Deep, and by reason of the gl●bnesse of that Element, is able in a competent time to prove the truth of those sagacious suggestions of his own mind, that is, whether the Earth be every way round, and whether there be any Antipodes, and the like; and by cutting the Equinoctial line decides that controversy of the habitableness of the Torrid Zone, or rather wipes out that blot that lay upon divine Providence, as if so great a share of the world had been lost by reason of unfitness for habitation.  
Besides the falling upon strange Coasts and discovering Men of so great a diversity of manners from ourselves, cannot but be a thing of infinite pleasure and advantage to the enlargement of our thoughts from what we observe in their conversation, parts, and Poli●y. Add unto this the sundry rarities of Nature, and commodities proper to several Countries, which they that stay at home enjoy by the travails of those that go abroad, and they that travail grow rich for their adventure.  
Now therefore Navigation being of so great consequence, to the delight and convenience▪ of humane life, and there being both wit and courage in Man to attempt the Seas, were he but ●itted with right Materials and other advantages requisite; when we see there is so pat a provision made for him to this purpose, in large Timber for the building of his Ship, in a thick Sea-water sufficient to bear the Ships burden, in the Magnet or Loadstone for his Compass, in the steady and parallel direction of the Axis of the Earth for his Cynosura; and then observing his natural wit and courage to make use of them, and how that ingenit desire of knowledge an● converse, and of the improving of his own parts and happiness stir him up to so notable a design; we cannot but conclude from such a train of Causes so littly and congruously complying together, that it was really the counsel of a● universal and eternal Mind that has the overseeing and guidance of the whole frame of Nature, that laid these causes so carefully and wisely together, that is, we cannot but conclude that there is a God.  
And if we have got so fast foothold already in this truth by the consideration of such Phaenomena in the world that seem more rude and general, what will the contemplation of the more particular and more polished pieces of Nature afford in Vegetables, Animals and the Body of Man?   

CHAP. V.  
Though the mere motion of the Matter may do something, yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animals. That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion, others of Substantial Forms. That Beauty is not a mere Fancy; and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectual Principle.  
HItherto we have only considered the more rude and careless strokes and delineaments of divine Providence in the world, set out in those more large Phaenomena of Day and Night, Winter and Summer, Land and Sea, Rivers, Mountains▪ Metals and the like; we now come to a closer view of God and Nature in Vegetables, Animals, and Man.  
And first of Vegetables, where I shall touch only these four heads, their Form and Beauty, their Seed, their Signatures & their great Use as well for Medicine as Sustenance. And that we may the better understand the advantage we have in this closer Contemplation of the works of Nature, we are in the first place to take notice of the condition of that Substance which we call Matter, how fluid and slippery and undeterminate it is of itself: or if it be hard, how unfit it is to be changed into any thing else. And therefore all things rot into a moisture before any thing can be generated of them, as we soften the wax before we set on the Seal.  
Now therefore, unless we will be so foolish, as because the uniform motion of the Air, or some more subtle corporeal Element, may so equally compress or bear against the parts of a little vapourous moisture as to form it into round drops (as we see in the Dew and other Experiments) and therefore because this more rude and general Motion can do something, to conclude that it does all things; we must in all Reason confess that there is an Eternal Mind, in virtue whereof the Matter is thus usefully form and changed.  
But mere rude and undirected Motion, because naturally it will have some kind of Results, that therefore it will reach to such as plainly imply a wise contrivance of Counsel, is so ridiculous a Sophism, as I have already intimated, that it is more fit to impose upon the inconsiderate Souls of Fools and Children then upon men of mature Reason and well exercised in Philosophy. Admit that Rain and Snow and Wind and Hail and Ice and such like Meteors may be the products of Heat and Cold, or of the Motion and Rest of certain small particles of the Matter; yet that the useful and beautiful contrivance of the branches, flowers and fruits of Plants should be so too (to say nothing yet of the bodies of Birds, Fishes, Beasts and Men) is as ridiculous and supine a Collection, as to infer that because mere Heat and Cold does soften and harden wax and puts it into some shape or other, that therefore this mere Heat and Cold or Motion and Rest, without any art or direction made the Silver Seal too, and graved upon it so curiously some Coat of Arms, or the shape of some Birds or Beasts, as an Eagle, a Lion and the like. Nay indeed this inference is more tolerable far than the other, these effects of Art being more easy and less noble than those others of Nature.  
Nor is it any botch or gap at all in the works of Nature that some particular Phaenomena be but the easy results of that general Motion communicated unto the Matter from God, others the effects of more curious contrivance or of the divine Art or Reason (for such are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rationes Seminales) incorporated in the Matter, especially the Matter itself being in some sort vital, else it would not continue the Motion that it is put upon when it is occasionally this or the other way moved; & besides, the Nature of God being the most perfect fullness of life that is possibly conceivable, it is very congruous that this outmost and remotest shadow of himself be some way though but obscurely vital. Wherefore things falling off by degrees from the highest perfection, it will be no uneven or unproportionable step, if descending from the Top of this outward Creation, Man, in whom there is a principle of more fine and reflexive Reason, which hangs on, though not in that manner in the more perfect kind of Brutes, as sense also, loath to be curbed within too narrow a compass, lays hold upon some kinds of Plants, as in those sundry sorts of Zoophyta, but in the rest there are no further footsteps discovered of an animadversive form abiding in them, yet there be the effects of an inadvertent form (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) of materiated or incorporated Art or Seminal Reason: I say it is no uneven jot, to pass from the more faint and obscure examples of Spermaticall life, to the more considerable effects of general Motion, in Minerals, Metals & sundry Meteors, whose easy & rude shapes have no need of any particular principle of life or Spermaticall form distinct from the Rest or Motion of the particles of the Matter.  
But there is that Curiosity of form and beauty in the more noble kind of Plants bearing such a suitableness and harmony with the more refined ●ense and sagacity of the Soul of Man, that he cannot choose (his Intellectual Touch being so sweetly gratified by what it deprehends in such like Objects but acknowledge that some hidden Cause much a kin to his own nature, that is intellectual, is the contriver & perfecter of these so pleasant spectacles in the world.  
Nor is it all to the purpose to object, that this business of Beauty and comeliness of proportion is but a conceit, because some men acknowledge no such thing, & all things are alike handsome to them, who yet notwithstanding have the use of their Eyes as well as other folks. For I say this rather makes for what we a yme at, that pulchritude is conveyed indeed by the outward Senses unto the Soul, but a more intellectual faculty is that which relishes it; as a Geometrical Scheme is let in by the Eyes, but the demonstration is discerned by Reason. And therefore it is more rational to affirm that some Intellectual Principle was the Author of this Pulchritude of things, then that they should be thus fashioned without the help of that Principle. And to say that there is no such thing as Pulchritude, because some men's Souls are so dull & stupid that they relish all objects alike in that respect, is as absurd and groundless as to conclude there is no such thing as Reason and Demonstration, because a natural Fool cannot reach unto it. But that there is such a thing as Beauty, & that it is acknowledged by the whole generations of Men to be in Trees, Flowers and Fruits; the adorning and beautifying of Buildings in all Ages is an ample & undeniable Testimony. For what is more ordinary with them then the taking in flowers and fruitage for the garnishing of their work? Besides I appeal to any man that is not sunk into so forlorn a pitch of Degeneracy, that he is as stupid of these things as the basest of Beasts▪ whether for Example a rightly cut Tetraedrum, Cube or Icosaedrum have no more pulchritude in them, than any rude broken stone lying in the field or high ways; or to name other solid Figures which though they be not Regular properly so called, yet have a settled Idea and Nature, as a Cone, Sphere or Cylinder, whether the ●ight of these do not gratify the minds of men more, and pretend to more elegancy of shape, than those rude cuttings or chipping of free stone that fall from the Mason's hands and serve for nothing but to fill up the middle of the Wall, and so to be hid from the Eyes of Man for their ●glinesse. And it is observable that if Nature shape any thing near this Geometrical accuracy, that we take notice of it with much content and pleasure; As if it be but exactly round (as there are abundance of such stones found betwixt●two hills in Cuba an Island or America) or ordinately Quinquangular, or have the sides but Parallel, though the Angles be unequal, as is seen in some little stones, and in a kind of Alabaster found here in England; these stones I say gratify our sight, as having a nearer cognation with the Soul of man, that is rational and intellectual; and therefore is well pleased when it meets with any outward object that fits and agrees with those conge●it Ideas her own nature is furnished with. For Symmetry, Equality, and Correspondency of parts is the discernment of Reason, not the object of Sense, as I have heretofore proved.  
Now therefore it being evident that there is such a thing as Beauty, Symmetry and Comeliness of Proportion (to say nothing of the delightful mixture of colours) and that this is the proper Object of the Understanding and Reason (for these things be not taken notice of by the Beasts) I think I may safely infer that whatever is the first and principal cause of changing the fluid and undeterminated Matter into shapes so comely and symmetrical, as we see in Flowers and Trees, is an understanding Principle, and knows both the nature of man and of those objects he offers to his sight in this outward and visible world. For these things cannot come by chance or by a multi●arious attempt of the parts of the matter upon themselves, for than it were likely that the Species of things (though some might hit right, yet most) would be maimed and ridiculous; but now there is not any ineptitude in any thing which is a sign that the fluidness of the Matter is guided and determined by the overpowering counsel of an Eternal Mind, that is, of a God.  
If it were not needless I might now instance in sundry kinds of flowers, herbs and trees ● but these objects being so obvious and every man's Fancy being branched with the remembrance of Roses, Marigolds, Gillyflowers, Pionyes, Tulips, Pa●sies, Primroses, the leaves and clusters of the Vine, and a thousand such like, of all which they cannot but confess, that there is in them beauty and symmetry and grateful proportion, I hold it superfluous to weary you with any longer induction, but shall pass on to the three considerations behind, of their Seed, Signatures and usefulness, and shall pass through them very briefly, the Observables being very ordinary and easily intelligible.   

CHAP. VI  
The Seeds and Signatures of Plants, arguments of a divine Providence.  
I Say therefore in that every Plant▪ has its Seed, it is an evident sign of divine Providence. For it being no necessary Result of the Motion of the Matter, as the whole contrivance of the Plant indeed is not, and it being of so great consequence that they have Seed for the continuance and propagation of their own Species, and for the gartifying of man's Art also, industry and necessities, (for much of husbandry and gradening lies in this) it cannot but be an Act of Counsel to furnish the several kinds of Plants with their Seeds, especially the Earth being of such a nature, that though at first for a while it might bring forth all manner of Plants, (as some will have it also to have brought forth all kinds of Animals) yet at last it would grow so sluggish, that without the advantage of those small compendious Principles of generation, the grains of Seed, it would yield no such births; no more than a Pump grown dry will yield any water, unless you pour a little water into it first, & then for one Bason-full you may fetch up so many Soe-fulls.  
Nor is it material to object that stinking weeds, and poisonous Plants bear seed too as well as the most pleasant and most useful, For even those stinking weeds and poisonous Plants have their use. For first the Industry of Man is exercised by them to weed them out where they are hurtful. Which reason if it seem slight, let us but consider that if humane Industry had nothing to conflict and struggle with, the fire of man's Spirit would be half extinguished in the flesh, and then we shall acknowledge that that which I have alleged is not so contemptible nor invalid.  
But secondly who knows but it is so with poisonous Plants, as vulgarly is fancied concerning Toads and other poisonous Serpents, that they lick the venom from off the Earth? so poisonous plants may well draw to them all the malign juice and nourishment that the other may be more pure and defaecate, as there are Receptacles in the body of Man and Emunctories to drain them of superfluous Choler, Melancholy and the like.  
But lastly it is very well known by them that know any thing in Nature and Physic, that those herbs that the rude and ignorant would call weeds are the Materials of very sovereign Medicines, that Aconitum hyemale or Winter wolves bane, that otherwise is rank poison, is reported to prevail mightily against the bitings of vipers and scorpions, which Crollius assenteth unto. And that that plant that bears death in the very name of it, Solanum Laethiferum, prevents death by procuring sleep, if it be rightly applied in a fever. Nor are those things to be deemed unprofitable whose use we know not yet, for all is not to be known at once, that succeeding Ages may ever have something left to gratify themselves in their own discoveries.  
We come now to the Signatures of Plants, which seems no less Argument that the highest original of the works of Nature is some understanding Principle, then that so careful provision of their seed. Nay indeed this respects us more properly and adaequare●y then the other, and is a certain Key to enter Man into the knowledge and use of the Treasures of Nature. I demand therefore whether it be not a very easy and genuine inference from the observing that several herbs are marked with some mark or sign that intimates their virtue, what they are good for; and there being such a creature as Man in the world that can read and understand these signs and characters, hence to collect that the Author both of Man and them knew the nature of them both; For it is like the inscriptions upon Apothecaries Boxes that the Master of the Shop 〈◊〉 on▪ that the Apprentice may read them; nay it is better, for here is in herbs inscribed the ve●y nature and use of them▪ not the mere name. Nor is there any necessity that all should be thus signed, though some be; for the rarity of it is the delight; for otherwise it had been dull and cloying, too much harping upon the same string. And besides divine Providence would only initiate and enter mankind into the useful knowledge of her Treasures, leaving the rest to employ our industry that we might not live like idle Loiterers and Truants. For the Theatre of the world is an excercise of Man's wit, not a lazy Polyanthea or book of Common places. And therefore all things are in some measure obscure and intricate, that the sedulity of that divine Spark the Soul of Man, may have matter of conquest and triumph when he has done bravely by a superadvenient assistance of his God.  
But that there be some Plants that bear a very evident Signature of their nature and use, I shall fully make good by these following instances.  
Capillus Vener●, Polytrichon or M●ydenhaire, the lie in which it is sodden or infused, is good to wash the head and make the hair grow in those places that are more thin and bare.  
And the decoction of Quinces, which are a downy and hairy fruit, is accounted good for the fetching again hair that has fallen by the French Pox.  
The leaf of Balm and of Alleluia or wood-sorrel, as also the Roots of Anthora represent the heart in figure and are cardiacal.  
Wall nuts bear the whole signature of the head. The outward green Cortex answers to the Pericranium, and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds in that part, as the kernel is good for the brains which it resembles.  
Vmbilicus Veneris is powerful to provoke lust as Di●scorides affirms. As also your several sorts of Satyrions which have the evident resemblance of the genital parts upon them: Aron especially, and all your Orchisses, that they have given names unto from some beasts or other, as Cynosorchis, Orchis Myodes, Tragorchis and the like. The last whereof, notorious also for its goatish smell and tufts not unlike the beard of that lecherous Animal, is of all the rest the most powerful Incentive to Lust.  
The leaves of Hypericon, are very thick pricked, or pincked with little holes, and it is a singular good wound-herb, as useful also for deobstructing the pores of the body.  
Scorpioides, Echium, or Scorpion-grasse is like the crooked tail of a Scorpion, and Ophioglossum or Adders-tongue has a very plain and perfect resemblance of the tongue of a Serpent, as also Ophioscorodon of the entire head and upper parts of the body, and these are all held very good against poison and the biting of Serpents. And generally all such plants as are speckled with spots like the skins of vipers or other venomous creatures, are known to be good against the stings or bitings of them, and are powerful Antidotes against Poison.  
Thus did divine Providence by natural Hieroglyphics read short Physic lectures to the rude wit of man, that being a little entered and engaged he might by his own industry and endeavours search out the rest himself, it being very reasonable that other herbs that had not such signatures▪ might be very good for Medicinal uses, as well as they that had.  
But if any here object that some herbs have the resemblance of such things as cannot in any likelihood refer to Physic, as Geranium, Cruciata, Bursa Pastoris, & the like; I say they answer themselves in the very proposal of their Objection: For this is a sign that they were intended only for ludicrous ornaments of Nature, like the flourishes about a great letter that signify nothing but are made only to delight the Eye. And 'tis so far from being any inconvenience to our first progenitors if this intimation of signatures did fail, that it cast them with more courage upon attempting the virtue of those that had no such signatures at all; it being obvious for them to reason thus, Why may not those herbs have medicinal virtue in them that have no signatures, as well as they that have signatures have no virtue answerable to the signs they bear? which was a further confirmation to them of the former conclusion.  
And it was sufficient that those that were of so present and great consequence as to be Antidotes against poison that so quickly would have dispatched poor rude and naked Antiquity, or to help on the small beginnings of the world by quickening and actuating their phlegmatic Natures to more frequent and effectual Venery (for their long lives show they were not very fiery) I say it was sufficient that herbs of this kind were so legibly signed with Characters that so plainly bewrayed their useful virtues, as is manifest in your Satyrions, Ophioglossum, and the like. But I have dwelled too long upon this Theory, we'll betake ourselves to what follows.   

CHAP. VII.  
Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulness of Plants.  
WE are at length come to the fourth and last consideration of Plants, viz. their Use & profitableness. And to say nothing now of those greater Trees that are fit for Timber, and are the requisite Materials for the building of Ships and magnificent Houses, to adorn the Earth, and make the life of Man more splendid and delectable; as also for the erecting of those holy Structures consecrated to divine Worship amongst which we are not to forget that famous Edifice, that glorious Temple at Jerusalem consecrated to the great God of Heaven and Earth: As indeed it was most fit that he whose Guidance & Providence permitted not the strength of the Earth to spend itself in base gravel and pebbles instead of Quarries of Stones, nor in briers and brush-wood instead of Pines, Cedars and Okes, that he should at some time or other have the most stately magnificent Temples erected to him, that the wit and industry of Man and the best of those materials could afford. It being the most suitable acknowledgement of thanks for that piece of Providence that can be invented. And it is the very consideration that moved that pious King David to design the building of a Temple to the God of Israel; See now, says he, I dwell in a house of Cedar, but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains. But as I said I will add nothing concerning these things being contented with what I have glanced upon heretofore.  
We will now briefly take notice of the profitableness of Plants for Physic and Food, and then passed on to the consideration of Animals. And as for their Medicinal uses, the large herbals that are every where to be had are so ample Testimonies thereof, that I have said enough in but reminding you of them. That which is most observable here is this, that brute Beasts have some share in their virtue as well as Men. For the Toad being overcharged with the poison of the Spider, as is ordinary believed, has recourse to the Plantain leaf. The Weasel when she is to encounter the Serpent, arms herself with eating of Rue. The Dog when he is sick at the stomach, knows his Cure, falls to his Grass, vomits, and is well. The Swallows make use of Celandine; the Linnet of Euphragia for the repairing of their sight. And the Ass when he's oppressed with Melancholy, eats of the herb Asplenium or Miltwaste, and so eases himself of the swelling of the Spleen. And Virgil reports of the Dictamnum Cretense or Cretian Dittany, that the wild Goats eat it when they are shot with darts or arrows, for that herb has the virtue to work them out of their body and to heal up the wound. 
— non illa feris incognita Capris  
Gramina, cum tergo volucres h●esere sagitt●e.   
Which things I conceive no obscure indigitation of Providence; For they doing that by instinct and nature, which men who have free Reason cannot but acknowledge to be very pertinent and fitting, nay such that the skilfullest Physician will approve and allow; and these Creatures having no such reason and skill themselves, as to turn Physicians; it must needs be concluded that they are enabled to do these things by virtue of that Principle that contrived them, and made them of that nature they are, and that that Principle therefore must have skill and knowledge, that is, that it must be God.  
We come now to the consideration of Plants as they afford Food both to Man and Beasts. And here we may observe that as there was a general provision of water by setting the Mountains and Hills abroche, from whence through the Spring-heads and continued Rivulets drawn together (that caused afterwards greater Rivers with the long winding distributions of them) all the Creatures of the Earth quench their thirst: So divine Providence has spread her Table every where, not with a juiceless green Carpet, but with succulent Herbage and nourishing Grass, upon which most of the beasts of the field do feed. And they that feed not on it, feed on those that eat it, and so the generations of them all are continued.  
But this seeming rather necessary then of choice, I will not insist upon it. For I grant that Counsel most properly is there implied where we discern a variety and possibility of being otherwise, and yet the best is made choice of. Therefore I will only intimate thus much, that though it were necessary that some such thing as grass should be, if there were such and such Creatures in the world, yet it was not at all necessary that grass and herbs should have that colour which they have, for they might have been red or white, o● some such colour which would have been very offensive and hurtful to our sight. But I will not insist upon these things; let us now consider the Fruits of Trees, where I think it will appear very manifestly, that there was one and the same Author both of Man and them, and that assuredly he knew what he did when he made them. For could Apples, and Oranges, and Grapes, and Apricocks, and such like fruit, be intended for Beasts that hold their heads downward and can scarce look up at them, much less know how to reach them? When we feed our dogs, we set the dish or trencher on the ground, nor on the Table. But you'll say that at last these fruits will fall down, and then the beasts may come at them: But one thing is, there are not many that desire them, and so they would rot upon the ground before they be spent, or be squandered away in a moment of time, as it might easily far with the most precious of Plants the Vine. But Man who knows the worth of the Grape knows to preserve it a long season (for it is both eaten and drunk some years after the vintage) as he does also gather the rest of the fruits of the Earth, and lays up both for himself and his cattle: Wherefore it is plainly discoverable that Man's coming into the world, is not a thing of Chance or Necessity, but a Design, as the bringing of worthy Guests to a well furnished Table.  
And what I have intimated concerning the Vine is as eminently, if not more eminently, observable in the ordinary kinds of Grain, as Wheat and Barley, and the like, which also like the Vine are made either Edible or Potable by Man's Art and Industry; But that's not the thing that I care so much to observe. That which I drive at now is this: That Bread-corne that brings so considerable increase by tillage and husbandry would scarce be at all without it: for that which grows wildly of itself is worth nothing: But it being so wholesome and strengthening a food, that it should yield so plentiful increase, and that this should not be without humane Art and Industry, does plainly insinuate, that there is a divine Providence that intended to excercise the wit of Man in Husbandry and Tillage: Which we may the more firmly assure ourselves of, if we add unto this the careful provision of Instruments so exactly fitted out for this employment, viz. the laborious Ox, and the stout but easily manageable Horse; Iron for the ploughshare, and Ropes for the horse-geares to pull by. And it is very seasonable to take notice of this last, it belonging to this consideration of the profitableness of Plants. And I appeal to any body that will but take the pains a while to consider of what great use and consequence Cordage is in the affairs of Men, whether it was not a palpable Act of Providence to send out such plants out of the Earth which would afford it. For we can discover no necessity in Nature that there must needs be such Plants as Hemp and Flax. Wherefore if we will but follow the easy suggestions of free Reason, we muust cast it upon Providence, which has provided Mankind of such a Commodity, that no less affairs depend upon, than all the Tackling of Ships, their Sails and Cable-ropes, and what not? and so consequently all foreign Traffic, and then the transportation of wood and stone, and other necessary materials for building; or the carriage of them by land in Wanes and Carts, besides the ordinary use of Pulleys or other Engines for the lifting up of heavy weights which the strength of Man without these helps would not easily master; besides what I hinted before concerning the use of Cordage in Husbandry, in ploughing and carrying home the fruits of the Earth. The uses indeed of the forenamed Plants are so universal, and take place so in every affair of Man, that if it were lawful to be a little merry in so serious a matter, a man might not unfittingly apply that verse of the Poet to this so general a commodity; Omnia sunt homini tenui pendentia filo.  
That all the businesses of Men do very much depend upon these little long fleaks or threads of Hemp and Flax▪ Or if you will say, that there may some scambling shift be made without them in long chains of Iron, or sails of Woollen and the like; yet we seeing our selves provided for infinitely better, are in all reason to judge it to proceed from no worse a Principle then divine Providence.  
I might now reach out to Exotic Plants, such as the Cinnamon-tree, the Balsame-tree, the Tree that bears the Nutmeg enveloped with the Mace, as also the famous Indian Nut-tree, which at once almost affords all the Necessaries of life. For if they cut but the twiggs at Evening, there is a plentiful and pleasant Juice comes out, which they receive into Bottles and drink instead of Wine, and out of which they extract such an Aquavitae as is very sovereign against all manner of sicknesses. The branches and boughs they make their Houses of; and the body of the Tree being very spongy within, though hard without, they easily contrive into the frame and use of their Canoes or boats. The kernel of the Nut serves them for Bread and Meat, and the shells for Cups to drink in, and indeed they are not mere empty Cups, for there is found a delicious cooling Milk in them: Besides there is a kind of Hemp that encloses the Nut, of which they make Ropes and Cables, and of the finest of it Sails for their ships; and the leaves are so hard and sharpe-pointed, that they easily make needles or bodkins of them, for stitching their Sails and for other necessary purposes. And that Providence may show herself benign as well as wise, this so notable a Plant is not restrained to one Coast of the world, as suppose the East-Indies, but is found also in some parts of Africa, and in all the Islands of the West-Indies, as Hispaniola Cuba, as also upon the Continent of Carthagena, in Panama, Norembega, and several others parts of the newfound world.  
But I thought fit not to insist upon these things, but to contain myself within the compass of such Objects as are familiarly and ordinarily before out eyes, that we may the better take occasion from thence to return thanks to him who is the bountiful Author of all the supports of life.   

CHAP. VIII.  
The usefulness of Animals an Argument of divine Providence.  
WE are now come to take a view of the nature of Animals: In the contemplation whereof we shall use much what the same Method we did in that of Plants, for we shall consider in them also, their Beauty, their Birth, their Make and Fabric of body, and Vsefullnesse to Mankind. And to dispatch this last first. It is wonderful easy and natural to conceive, that as almost all are made in some sort or other for humane uses, so some so notoriously and evidently, that without main violence done to our faculties we can in no wise deny it. As to instance in those things that are most obvious and familiar; when we see in the solitary fields a Shepherd, his Flock, and his Dog, how well they are fitted together; when we knock at a Farmer's door, and the first that answers shall be his vigilant Mastiff, whom from his use and office he ordinarily names Keeper, and I remember Theophrastus in his Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tells us, that his Master when he has let the stranger in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking his Dog by the snout will relate long stories of his usefulness and his services he does to the house and them in it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This is he that keeps the yard, the house and them within. Lastly when we view in the open Champion a brace of swift Greyhounds coursing a good stout and well-breathed Hare, or a pack of well tuned Hounds, and Huntsmen on their horse-backs with pleasure and alacrity pursuing their game, or hear them winding their Horns near a wood side, so that the whole wood rings with the Echo of that Music and cheerful yelping of the eager Dogs: to say nothing of Duck-hunting, of Foxe-hunting, of Otter-hunting, and a hundred more such like sports and pastimes, that are all performed by this one kind of Animal; I say when we consider this so multifarious congruity and fitness of things in reference to ourselves, how can we withhold from inferring, that that which made both Dogs and Ducks and Hares and Sheep, made them with a reference to us, and knew what it did when it made them? And though it be possible to be otherwise, yet it is highly improbable that the flesh of Sheep should not be designed for food for men; and that Dogs that are such a familiar and domestic Creature, to Man, amongst other pretty feats that they do for him, should not be intended to supply the place of a servitor too, and to take away the bones and scraps that nothing might be lost. And unless we should expect that Nature should make Jerkins & Stockings grow out of the ground, what could she do better than afford us so fit materials for clothing as the Wool of the Sheep, there being in Man Wit and Art to make use of it? To say nothing of the Silkworm that seems to come into the world for no other purpose▪ then to furnish man with more costly clothing, and to spin away her very entrails to make him fine without.  
Agains when we view those large Bodies of Oxen, what can ●e better conceit them to be then so many living and walking powdering Tubs and that they have animam pro Sale, as Philo speaks of Fishes, that their life is but for Salt to keep them sweet till we shall have need to eat them? Besides their Hides afford us Leather for Shoes and Boots. as the skins of other beasts also serve for other uses. And indeed Man seems to be brought into the world on purpose that the rest of the Creation might be improved to the utmost usefulness & advantage; For were it not better that the hides of Beasts and their flesh should be made so considerable use of as to feed and clothe Men, then that they should rot and stink upon the ground, and fall short of so noble an improvement as to be matter for the exercise of the wit of Man, & to afford him the necessary conveniences of life? For if Man did not make use of them, they would either die of Age, or be torn apieces by more cruel Masters. Wherefore we plainly see that it is an Act of Reason & Counsel to have made Man that he might be a Lord over the rest of the Creation▪ & keep good quarter among them.  
And being furnished with fit Materials to make himself weapons, as well as with natural wit and valour, he did bid battle to the very fiercest of them, and either chased them away into Solitudes and Deserts, or else brought them under his subjection and gave laws unto them; Under which they live more peaceably, and are better provided for (or at least might be, if Men were good) than they could be when they were left to the mercy of the Lion Bear or Tiger. And what it he do occasionally and orderly kill some of them for food? their dispatch is quick and so less dolorous than the paw of the Bear or the teeth of the Lion, or tedious Melancholy and sadness of old Age, which would first torture them, and then kill them and let them srot upon the ground stinking and useless.  
Besides, all the wit and Philosophy in the world can never demonstrate, that the kill and slaughtering of a Beast is any more than the striking of a bush where a birds Nest is, where you fray away the Bird and then seize upon the empty Nest. So that if we could pierce to the utmost Catastrophe of things, all might prove but a Tragicomedy.  
But as for those Rebels that have fled into the Mountains and Deserts, they are to us a very pleasant subject of natural History besides we serve ourselves of them as much as is to our purpose. And they are not only for ornaments of the Universe, but a continual Exercise of Man's Wit and Valour when he pleases to encounter. But to expect and wish that there were nothing but such dull tame things in the world, that will neither bite nor scratch, is as groundless and childish as to wish there were no choler in the body nor fire in the universal compass of Nature.  
I cannot insist upon the whole result of this war, nor must forget how that generous Animal the Horse, had at last the wit to yield himself up, to his own great advantage and ours. And verily he is so fitly made for us, that we wight justly claim a peculiar right in him above all other Creatures. When we observe his patient service he does us at the Plough, Cart, or under the Packsaddle, his speed upon the high way in matters of importance, his docibleness and desire of glory and praise, and consequently his notable achievements in war, where he will knap the Spears a pieces with his teeth, and pull his Rider's Enemy out of the Saddle; and than that he might be able to perform all this labour with more Ease, that his hoofs are made so fit for the Art of the Smith, and that round armature of Iron he puts upon them; it is a very hard thing not to acknowledge, that this so congruous contrivance of things was really from a Principle of Wisdom and Counsel. There is also another consideration of Animals and their usefulness, in removing those Evils we are pestered with by reason of the abundance of some other hurtful Animals, such as are Mice and Rats and the like; and to this end the Cat is very serviceable. And there is in the West-Indies a beast in the form of a Bear which Cardan calls Vrsus Formicarius, whose very business it is to eat up all the Ants which some parts of that Quarter of the World are sometimes excessively plagued withal.  
We might add also sundry Examples of living Creatures that not only bear a singular good affection to Mankind, but are also fierce Enemies to those that are very hurtful and cruel to Man; and such are the Lizard, an Enemy to the Serpent; the Dolphin to the Crocodile; the Horse to the Bear; the Elephant to the Dragon, etc. but I list not to insist upon these things.   

CHAP. IX.  
Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animals, as also from the manner of their Propagation.  
I Return now to what I proposed first, the Beauty of living Creatures; which though the coarse-spirited Atheist will not take notice of, as relishing nothing but what is subservient to his Tyranny or Lust: yet I think it undeniable, but that there is comely Symmetry & Beautifulness in sundry living Creatures, a tolerable useful Proportion of parts in all. For neither are all men and women exquisitely handsome, indeed very few, that they that are may raise the greater admiration in the minds of Men, and quicken their natural abilities to brave adventures either of Valour or Poetry. But as for the brute Creatures though some of them be of an hateful aspect, as the Toad, the Swine & the Ra●; yet these are but like discords in Music to make the succeeding chord go off more pleasantly, as indeed most of those momentany inconveniences that the life of Man ever and anon meets withal they but put a greater edge and vigour upon his Enjoyments.  
But it is not hard to find very many Creatures, that are either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher distinguishes, that are either very goodly things and beautiful, or at least elegant and pretty; as most of your Birds are. But for Stateliness and Majesty what is comparable to a Horse? whether you look upon him single, with his Mane and his Tail waving in the wind, and hear him coursing and neighing in the pastures; or whether you see him with some gallant Heros on his back, performing gracefully his useful postures, and practising his exploits of war; who can withhold from concluding that a providence brought these two together, that are fitted so well to each other that they seem but one complete Spectacle of Nature? which imposed upon the rude people near Thessaly, and gave the occasion of the fabulous Centaurs, as if they had been one living Creature made up of Horse and Man.  
That which I drive at is this, there being that Goodliness in the bodies of Animals, as in the Ox, Greyhound and Stag; or that Majesty and Stateliness, as in the Lion, the Horse, the Eagle and Cock; or that grave Awfullnesse, as in your best breed of Mastiffs; or Elegancy and Prettiness, as in your lesser Dogs, and most sorts of Birds, all which are several Modes or Beauty, and Beauty being an intellectual Object, as Symmetry and Proportion is (which I proved sufficiently in what I spoke concerning the beauty of Plants) that which naturally follows from all this is, that the Author or Original of these Creatures, which are deemed beautiful, must himself be intellectual, he having contrived so grateful objects to the Mind or Intellect of Man.  
After their Beauty let us touch upon their Birth or manner of Propagation. And here I appeal to any man whether the contrivance of Male and Female in living Creatures be not a genuine effect of Wisdom and Counsel; for it is notoriously obvious that these are made one for the other, and both for the continuation of the Species. For though we should admit with Cardan and other naturalists, that the Earth at first brought forth all manner of Animals as well as Plants, and that they might be fastened by the Navel to their common Mother the Earth, as they are now to the Female in the Womb; yet we see she is grown sterile and barren, and her births of Animalis are now very inconsiderable. Wherefore what can it be but a Providence, that whiles she did bear she sent out Male and Female, that when her own Prolific virtue was wasted▪ yet she might be a dry-Nurse or an officious Grandmother to thousands of generations? And I say it is Providence, not Chance nor Necessity, for what is there imaginable in the parts of the Matter that they should necessarily fall into the structure of so much as an Animal, much less into so careful a provision of difference of Sexes for their continual propagation?  
Nor was it the frequent attempts of the moved Matter that first light on Animals, which perpetually were suddenly extinct for want of the difference of Sexes, but afterward by chance differenced their Sexes also, from whence their kinds have continued. For what is perpetual, is not by chance; and the births that now are by putrefaction show that it is perpetual. For the Earth still constantly brings forth Male and Female.  
Nor is it any thing to the purpose to reply (if you will make so large a skip as to cast yourself from the land into the water to dive for Objections) that the Eel, though it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an Animal so perfect as to have blood in it, yet that it has no distinction of Sex: For if it have not, there is good reason for it, that creature arising out of such kind of Matter as will never fail generation. For there will be such like mud as will serve this end so long as there be Rivers and longer too, and Rivers will not fail so long as there is a Sea. Wherefore this rather makes for discriminative Providence that knew afore the nature and course of all things, and made therefore her contrivances accordingly, doing nothing superfluously or in vain.  
But in other Generations that are more hazardous, though they be sometimes by putrefaction, yet she makes them Male and Female, as 'tis plain in Frogs and Mice. Nor are we to be scandalised at it, that there such careful provision made for such contemptible Vermin as we conceive them: For this only comes out of pride and ignorance, or a haughty presumption that because we are encouraged to believe that in some sense all things are made for Man, that therefore they are not made at all for themselves. But he that pronounces thus, is ignorant of the nature of God and the knowledge of things. For if a good man be merciful to his beast, then surely a good God is bountiful and benign, and takes pleasure that all his Creatures enjoy themselves that have life and sense and are capable of any enjoyment. So that the swarms of little Vermin, and of Flies, and innumerable such like diminutive Creatures, we should rather congratulate their coming into Being, then murmur sullenly and scornfully against their Existence; for they find nourishment in the world, which would be lost if they were nor, and are again convenient nourishment themselves to others that prey upon them.  
But besides, life being individuated into such infinite numbers that have their distinct sense and pleasure and are sufficiently ●itted with contentments, those little Souls are in a manner as much considerable for the taking off or carrying away to themselves the overflowing benignity of the first Original of all things, as the Ox the Elephant or Whale. For it is sense, nor bulk that makes things capable of enjoyments.  
Wherefore it was fit that there should be a safe provision made for the propagation and continuance of all the kinds of living Creatures, not only of those that are good, but of those also that we rashly and inconsiderately call evil. For they are at least good to enjoy themselves and to partake of the bounty of their Creator. But if they grow noisome and troublesome to us, we have both power and right to curb them: For there is no question but we are more worth than they or any of the brute Creatures.  
But to return to the present point in hand; there are also other manifest footsteps of Providence which the Generation of living Creatures will discover to us, as for Example, the manner of Procreation of Fishes and Birds. For there being that notable difference in Animals that some of them are Oviparous, others Viviparous, that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Philo comprehends them by that general term) that Fishes and Birds should be Oviparous is a plain sign of Counsel and Providence. For though it will be granted that their Species might continue and subsist, though they had been Viviparous, yet it would have brought their individuals to very small numbers.  
For as for Fishes, since grass and herbs are no fruit of the Sea, it was necessary that they should feed one upon another, and therefore that they should multiply in very great plenty, which they could not have done any thing near to that fullness they now do, if they had been Viviparous as fourfooted beasts are: but being now Oviparous, and the lesser kinds of them so many at first, and sending forth such infinite numbers of Spawn, their generations are neither extinct nor scanted, but are as plentiful as any Creatures on the Land.  
And the reason why Birds are Oviparous & lay Eggs but do not bring forth their young alive, is because there might be moreplenty of them also, and that neither the Birds of prey, the Serpent nor the Fowler should straiten their generations too much. For if they had been Viviparous, the burden of their womb, if they had brought forth any competent number at a time, had been so big and heavy, that their wings would have failed them, and so every body would have had the wit to catch the Old one. Or if they brought but one or two at a time, they would have been troubled all the year long with feeding their young, or bearing them in their womb; besides there had been a necessity of too frequent. Venery, which had been very prejudicial to their dry carcases. It was very reasonable therefore that Birds should propagate by laying of Eggs.  
But this is not all the advantage we shall make of this consideration. I demand further what is it that makes the Bird to prepare her Nest with that Artifice, to sit upon her Eggs when she has laid them, and to distinguish betwixt these and her useless Excrement? Did she learn it of her Mother before her? or rather does she not do she knows not what, but yet what ought to be done by the appointment of the most exquisite knowledge that is? Wherefore something else has knowledge for her, which is the Maker and Contriver of all things, the Omniscient and Omipotent God.  
And though you may reply that the Hatching of their Eggs be necessary else their generations would cease; yet I answer that all the Circumstances and Curiosities of Brooding them are not necessary. For they might have ma●e shift on the ground in the grass, and not made themselves such curious and safe Nests in Bushes and Trees. Besides if all things were left to Chance, it is far easier to conceive that there should have been no such things as Birds, then that the blind Matter should ever have slumbled on such lucky instincts as they that seem but barely necessary.  
But you'll object that the Ostrich lays Eggs and hatches them not, ●o that these things are rather by Chance then Providence. But this rather argues a more exquisite discerning Providence then is any Argument against it. For the heat of the ground (like those Ovens in Egypt, Diodorus speaks of) whereon she lays them, proves effectual for the production of her young. So Nature ties not the Female to this tedious service where it is needless and useless; as in Fishes also, who when they have spawned are discharged of any further trouble: which is a most manifest discovery of a very curious and watchful Eye of Providence which suffers nothing to be done ineptly and in vain.  
I will only make one advantage more of this Speculation of the Birth of Animals, and then pass on to what remains. It is observed by those that are more attentive watchers of the works of Nature, that the foetus is framed out of some homogeneal liquor or moisture, in which there is no variety of parts of Matter to be contrived into bones and flesh; but, as in an Egg for Example, about the third day the Hen has sat on it, in that part where Nature begins to set upon her work of efformation, all is turned into a Crystalline liquid substance about her, as also several Infects are bred of little drops of dew: So in all Generations besides it is supposed by them, the Nature does as it were wipe clean the Table-book first, and then portray upon it what she pleaseth. And if thus be her course to corrupt the subject Matter into as perfect Privation of Form as she may, that is, to make it as homogeneal as she can, but liquid and pliable to her Art and Skill; it is to me very highly probable, if not necessary, that there should be something besides this fluid Matter, that must change it, alter and guide it into that wise contrivance of parts that afterwards we find it. For how should the parts of this liquid Matter ever come into this exquisite Fabric of themselves? And this may convince any Atheist that there is a Substance besides corporeal Matter, which he is as loath to admit of as that there is a God.  
For there being nothing else in Nature but Substantia or Modus, this power of contriving the liquid Matter into such order and shape as it is, being incompetible to the liquid Matter itself, it must be the Modus of some other substance latitant in the fluid Matter, and really distinguishable from it, which it either the Soul or some seminal From or Archaeus, as the Chemists call it, and they are all alike indifferent to me at this time. I aiming here only at a Substance besides the Matter, that thence the Atheist may be the more easily brought off to the acknowledgement of the existence of a God.  
Nor can the force of this Argument be eluded by saying the Matter is touched and infected by the life of the Female whiles she bore the Egg, or that her Fancy gets down into her womb.  
For what life or Fancy has the Earth, which as they say gendered at first all Animals, some still? and what similitude is there betwixt a Bee and an Ox, or a Wasp and an Horse, the those Infects should arise out of the putrifide bodies of these Creatures? It is but some rude and general congruity of vital preparation that sets this Archaeus on work rather than another. As mere Choler engages the Fancy to dream of firing of Gunns, and fight of Armies: Sanguine figures the imagintion into the representation of fair Women, and beautiful Children: Phlegm transforms her into Water and Fishes; and the shadowy Melancholy entangles her in colluctation with old Hags and Hobgoblins, and frights her with dead men's faces in the dark. But I have dwelled on this subject longer than I intended.   

CHAP. X.  
The Frame or Fabric of the Bodies of Animals plainly argue that there is a God.  
I Come now to the last consideration of Animals, the outward Shape and Fabric of their Bodies, which when I have showed you that they might have been otherwise, and yet are made according to the most exquisite pitch of Rea●on that the wit of Man can conceive of, it will naturally ●ollow that they were really made by Wisdom and Providence, and consequently that there is a God. And I dem●nd first in general concerning all those Creatures that have Eyes and Ears, whether they might not have had only one Eye and one Ear a piece; and to make the supposition more tolerable, had the Eye on one side the head, and the Ear on the other, or the Ear on the Crown of the head, the Eye in the Forehead for they might have lived and subsisted though they had been no better provided for then thus. But it is evident that their having two Eyes and two Ears, so placed as they are, is more safe, more sightly, and more useful. Therefore that being made so constantly choice of, which our own Reason deemeth best, we are to infer that that choice proceeded from Reason and Counsel.  
Again I desire to know why there be no threefooted Beasts, (when I speak thus, I do not mean Monsters, but a constant Species of kind of Animals) for such a Creature as that would make a limping shift to live as well as they that have four. Or why have not some beasts more than foure-feets, suppose six & the two middlemost shorter than the rest, hanging like the two legs of a Man a horseback by the horse sides? For it is no harder a thing for Nature to make such frames of Bodies than others that are more elegant and useful. But the works of Nature being neither useless nor inept, she must either be wise herself, or be guided by some higher Principle of Knowledge: As that Man that does nothing foolishly all the days of his life, is either wise himself, or consults with them that are so.  
And then again for the armature of Beasts, who taught them the use of their weapons? The Lion will not kick with his Feet, but he will strike such a stroke with his Tail, that he will break the back of his Encounterer with it. The Horse will not use his Tail unless against the busy flies, but kicks with his Feet with that force that he lays his Enemy on the ground. The Bull and Ram know the use of their Horns as well as the Horse of his Hoofs. So the Bee and Serpent know their Stings, and the Bear the use of his Paw. Which things they know merely by natural instinct, as the Male knows the use of the Female. For they gather not this skill by observation and experience, but the frame of their nature carries them to it, as it is manifest in young Lambs that will butt before they have horns. Therefore it is some higher Providence that has made them of this nature they are. And this is evident also in Birds that will flutter with their wings, when there is but a little Down upon them, and they are as yet utterly unuseful for flying.  
And now I have fallen upon the mention of this kind of Creature, let me make my advantage of that general structure observable in them. The form of their Heads being narrow and sharp, that they may the better cut the Air in their swift flight, and the spreading of their Tails parallel to the Horizon for the better bearing up their Body; for they might have been perpendicular as the Tails of Fishes in the water. Nor is it any thing that the Owl has so broad a face, for her flight was not to be so swift nor so frequent.  
And as for Fishes and the bladder of wind found in their Bodies, who can say it is conveyed thither by chance, but is contrived for their more easy swimming, as also the manner of their fins, which consist of a number of gristly bones long and slender like pins and needles, and a kind of a skin betwixt, which is for the more exactness and makes them thin and flat like Oars. Which perfect artifice and accuracy might have been omitted and yet they have made a shift to move up and down in the water.  
But I have fallen upon a subject that is infinite and inexhaustible, therefore that I be not too tedious I will confine myself to some few observations in ordinary Beasts and Birds (that which is most known and obvious being most of all to our purpose,) and then I shall come to the contemplation of Man.  
And indeed what is more obvious and ordinary than a Mole, and yet what more palpable Argument of Providence than she? The members of her body are so exactly fitted to her nature and manner of life: For her dwelling being under ground where nothing is to be seen, Nature has so obscurely fitted her with Eyes, that Naturalists can scarce agree whither she have any sight at all or no. Bu● for amends, what she is capable of for her defence and warning of danger, she has very eminently conferred upon her: for she is exceeding quick of hearing. And then her short Tail and short Legs, but broad Fore-feets armed with sharp Claws, we see by the event to what purpose they are, she so swiftly working herself under ground and making her way so fast in the Earth, as they that behold it cannot but admire it. Her Legs therefore are short that she need dig no more than will serve the merethicknesse of her Body. And her Fore-feets are broad, that she may scoup away much Earth at a time. And little or no Tail she has, because she courses it not on the ground like the Rat or Mouse of whose kindred she is, but lives under the Earth and is fain to dig herself a dwelling there: And she making her way through so thick an Element, which will not yield easily as the Air or the Water, it had been dangerous to have drawn so long a train behind her: for her Enemy might fall upon her Rear and fetch her out before she had completed or had got full possession of her works.  
Cardan is so much taken with this contemplation, that though I find him often staggering, yet here he does very fully and finnely profess that the contrivance of all things is from Wisdom and Counsel: his words are so generous and significant that I hold them worth the transcribing. Palam est igitur, Naturam in cunctis sollicitam mirum in modum fuisse, nec ●biter sed ex sententia omnia praevidisse, hominesque quibus hoc beneficium Deus largitus est, ut Causam rerum primam inveniant, participes esse illius prim● Naturae, neque alterius esse generis Naturam quae haec constituit, ab illorum ment, qui causam eorum cur ita facta sint plene assequi potuerunt. Thus forcibly has the due contemplation of Nature carried him beyond Nature and himself, and made him write like a Man raped into a divine Exstasy.  
But there are as manifest footsteps of divine Providence in other Creatures as in the Mole. As for Example; the Hare, whose temper and frame of body are plainly fitted on purpose for her Condition.  
For why is she made so full of Fear and Vigilancy ever rearing up and listening whiles she is feeding? and why is she so exceeding swift of foot, and has her Eyes so prominent, and placed so that she can see better behind her then before her? but that her flight is her only safety, and it was needful for her perpetually to eye her pursuing enemy, against whom she durst never stand at the Bay, having nothing but her long soft limber Ears to defend her. Wherefore he that made the Hare made the Dog also, and guarded her with these Properties from her eager foe, that she might not be too easy a booty for him, and so never be able to save herself, or afford the Spectator any considerable Pastime. And that the Hare might not always get away from the Grey hound, see how tightly his shape is fitted for the Course: For the narrowness and slenderness of his parts are made for speed; and that seeming impertinent long Appendix of his body, his Tail, is made for more nimble turning.  
There are other Animals also whose particular Fabric of Body does manifestly appear the Effect of Providence and Counsel, though naturalists cannot agree whether it be in the behalf of the Beast thus framed or of Man. And such is that Creature which though it be Exotic yet is ordinarily known by the name of a Camel: For why are those bunches on his back, but that they may be instead of a packsaddle to receive the burden? And why has he four knees and all his Legs bending inwards, like the fore-feets of other beasts, and a Protuber●anoy under his Breast to lean on, but that being a tall Creature he might with ease kneel down and so might the more gainly be loaden?  
But Cardan will by no means have this the design of Nature, but that this frame of the Camells body is thus made for his own convenience: For he being a Creature that lives and seeks his food in waste and dry deserts, those Bunches he would have Receptacles of redundant Moisture, from whence the rest of his body is to be supplied in a hard and tedious time of drought, and that his legs being very long, he ought to have knees behind and a knob beneath, to rest his weary limbs in the wilderness, by sitting or kneeling in that posture he does, for he could not so conveniently lie along as the Horse or Ass or other Creatures. But I should not determine this to either alone, but take in both Causes, and acknowledge therein a richer design of Providence, that by this Frame and Artifice has gratified both the Camel and his Master.   

CHAP. XI.  
The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signs of Divine Providence.  
WE pass on now to the consideration of Fowls or Birds: where omitting the more general Properties of having two Ventricles, and picking up stones to convey them into their second Ventricle, the Gizzerne, (which provision and instinct is a supply for the want of teeth) as also their having no Paps as Beasts have, their young ones being nourished so long in the Shell, that they are presently fit to be fed by the mouths of the old ones (which Observations plainly signify that Nature does nothing ineptly and foolishly, and that therefore there is a Providence) I s●all content myself in taking notice only of some few kinds of this Creature that familiarly come into our sight, such as the Cock, the Duck, the Swan and the like. I demand therefore concerning the Cock, why he has Spurs at all, or having them how they come to be so fittingly placed. For he might have had none▪ or so misplaced that they had been utterly useless, and so his courage and pleasure in fight had been to no purpose. Nor are his Comb and his Wattles in vain, for they are an Ornament becoming his Martial Spirit, yea an Armature too, for the t●gging of those often excuses the more useful parts of his head from harm. Thus fittingly does Nature gratify all Creatures with accommodations suitable to their temper, and nothing is in vain. Nor are we to cavil at the red puggered attire of the Turkey, and the long Excrescency that hangs down over his Bill, when he swells with pride and anger; for it may be a Receptacle for his heated blood, that has such free recourse to his head, or he may please himself in it as the rude Indians, whose Jewels hang dangling at their Noses. And if the bird be pleasured we are not to be displeased, being always mindful that Creatures are made to enjoy themselves, as well as to serve us, and it is a gross piece of Ignorance and Rusticity to think otherwise.  
Now for Swans and Ducks and such like Birds of the Water, it is obvious to take notice how well they are fitted for that manner of life. For those that swim their Feet are framed for it like a pair of Oars, their Claws being connected with a pretty broad Membrane, and their Necks are long that they may dive deep enough into the water. As also the Neck of the Herne and such like Fowl who live of Fishes and are fain to frequent their Element, who walk on long stilts also like the people that dwell in the Marshes; but their Claws have no such Membranes, for they had been but a hindrance to those kind of birds that only wade in the water and do not swim. It is also observable how Nature has fitted other Birds of Prey, who spy their booty from aloft in the Air, and see best at that distance, scarce see at all near at hand. So they are both the Archer and shaft, taking aim afar off, and then shooting themselves directly upon the desired Mark, they seize upon the prey having hit it. The works of Providence are infinite, I will close all with the description of that strange bird of Paradise, for the strangeness has made it notorious.  
There is a Bird that falls down out of the Air dead, and is found sometimes in the Molucco Lands▪ that has no Feet at all no more than an ordinary Fish. The bigness of her Body and Bill, as likewise the form of them, is much what as a Swallows; but the spreading out of her Wings and Tail has no less compass than an Eagles. She lives and breeds in the Air, comes not near the Earth but for her burial, for the largeness and lightness of her Wings and Tail sustain her without lassitude. And the laying of her Eggs and brooding of her young is upon the back of the Male which is made hollow, as also the breast of the Female for the more easy incubation. Whether she live merely of the dew of Heaven or of Flies and such like Infects, I leave to others to dispute; but Cardan professes he saw the Bird no less than thrice, and describes it accordingly. Nor does Scaliger cavil with any thing but the bigness of the Wings and littleness of the Body, which he undertakes to correct from one of his own which was sent him by Orvesanus from Java. Now that such contrivances as these should be without divine Providence, is as improbable to me as that the Copper Ring with the Greek inscription upon it found about the Neck of an overgrown Pike, should be the effect of unknowing Nature, not the Artifice and Skill of Man.   

CHAP. XII.  
Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Man's Body, from the Passions of his Mind, and fitness of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe.  
BUt we needed not to have rambled so far out into the works of Nature, to seek out Arguments to prove a God, we being so plentifully furnished with that, at home which we took the pains to seek for abroad. For there can be no more ample testimony of a God & a Providence then the frame and structure of our own Bodies. The admirable Artifice whereof Galen, though a mere Naturalist, was so taken with, that he could not but adjudge the honour of a hymn to the wise Creator of it. The contrivance of the whole and every particular is so evident an argument of exquisite skill in the Maker, that if I should pursue all that suits to my purpose, it would amount to an entire Volume. I shall therefore only hint at some few things, leaving the rest to be supplied by Anatomists. And I think there is no man that has any skill in that Art, but will confess the more diligently and accurately the frame of our Body is examined, it is found the more tightly conformable to our own Reason, Judgement, and Desire. So that supposing the same matter that our bodies are made of, if it had been in our own power to have made ourselves, we should have framed ourselves no otherwise then we are. To instance in some particular. As in our Eyes, the number, the situation, the fabric of them is such that we can excogitate nothing to be added thereto, or to be altered either for their beauty, safety or usefulness. But as for their Beauty I will leave it rather to the delicate wit and Pen of Poets and amorous persons, then venture upon so tender and nice a subject with my severer style. I will only note how sa●●ly they are guarded, and fitly framed out for that use they are intended. The Brow and the Nose saves them from harder strokes: but such a curious part as the Eye being necessarily liable to mischief from smaller matters, the sweat of the Forehead is fenced off by those two wreaths of hair which we call the Eyebrows; and the Eyelids are fortified with little stiff bristles as with Palisadoes, against the assault of Flies and Gnats, and such like bold Animalcula. Besides the upper-lid presently claps down and is as good a fence, as a Portcullis against the importunity of the Enemy: Which is done also every night, whether there be any present assault or no, as if Nature kept garrison in this Acropolis of Man's body the Head & looked that such laws should be duly observed, as were most for his safety.  
And now for the Use of the Eye which is Sight, it is evident that this Organ is so tightly framed for that purpose, that not the least curiosity can be added. For first the Humour and Tunicles are purely Transparent, to let in light and colours unfouled and unsophisticated by any inward tincture. And then again the parts of the Eye are made Convex, that there might be a direction of many rays coming from one point of the Object unto one point answerable in the bottom of the Eye; to which purpose the Crystalline Humour is of great Moment, and without which the sight would be very obscure and weak. Thirdly the Tunica Wea has a Musculous power, and can dilate & contract that round hole in it which is called the Pupil of the Eye, for the better moderating the transmission of light. Fourthly the inside of the Wea is blacked like the walls of a Tennis-court, that the rays falling upon the Retina▪ may not, by being rebounded thence upon the Wea, be returned from the Wea upon the Retina again, for such a repercussion would make the sight more confused. Fifthly the Tunica Arachnoides, which invellops the Crystalline Humour by virtue of its Processus Ciliares can thrust forward or draw back that precious useful part of the Eye, as the nearness or distance of the Object shall require. Sixthly and lastly the Tunica Retina is white, for the better and more true reception of the species of things (as they ordinarily call them) as a white paper is fittest to receive those Images into a dark room. If the wit of Man had been to contrive this Organ for himself, what could he have possibly excogitated more accurate? Therefore to think that mere Motion of the Matter, or any other blind Cause could have hit so punctually (for Creatures might have subsisted without this accurate provision) is to be either mad or sottish.  
And the Eye is already so perfect, that I believe the Reason of Man would have easily rested here, & admired at its own contrivance: for he being able to move his whole head upward and downward and on every side, might have unawares thought himself sufficiently well provided for. But Nature has added Muscles also to the Eyes, that no Perfection might be wanting; For we have oft occasion to move our Eyes, our Head being unmoved, as in reading and viewing more particularly any Object set before us: and that this may be done with more ease and accuracy, she has furnished that Organ with no less than six several Muscles. And indeed this framing of Muscles not only in the Eye but in the whole Body is admirable; For is it not a wonder that even all our flesh should be so handsomely contrived into distinct pieces, whose Rise and Insertions should be with such advantage that they do serve to move some part of the Body or other; and that the parts of our Body are not moved only so conveniently as will serve us to walk and subsist by, but that they are able to move every way imaginable that will advantage us? For we can fling our Legs and Arms upwards and downwards, backwards, forwards and round, as they that spin, or would spread a Molehill with their feet. To say nothing of Respiration, the constriction of the Diaphragme for the keeping down the Guts and so enlarging the Thorax that the Lungs may have play, and the assistance of the inward intercostal Muscles in deep Suspirations, when we take more large gulps of Air to cool our heart overcharged with Love or Sorrow. Nor of the curious fabric of the Larynx so well fitted with muscles for the modulation of the Voice, tuneable Speech, and delicious Singing. You may add to these the notable contrivance of the Heart, it's two Ventricles and its many Valvulae, so framed and situated as is most fit for the reception and transmission of the blood, which comes about through the Heart, and is sent thence away warm to comfort & cherish the rest of the Body: For which purpose also the Valvulae in the Veins are made.  
But I will rather insist upon such things as are easy and intelligible even to Idiots, who if they can but tell the Joints of their Hands or know the use of their Teeth, they may easily discover it was Counsel, not Chance, that created them. For why have we three Joints in our Legs and Arms as also in our Fingers, but that it was much better than having but two or four? And why are our foreteeth sharp like cheesells to cut, but our inward-teeths broad to grind, but that this is more exquisite than having them all sharp or all broad, or the foreteeth broad and the other sharp? But we might have made a hard shift to have lived though in that worse condition. Again why are the Teeth so luckily placed, or rather why are there not Teeth in other bones as well as in the jawbones? for they might have been as capable as these. But the reason is, Nothing is done foolishly nor in vain, that is, there is a divine Providence that order all things. Again to say nothing of the inward curiosity of the Ear, why is that outward frame of it, but that it is certainly known, that it is for the bettering of our Hearing?  
I might add to these that Nature has made the hindmost parts of our body which we sit upon most fleshy, is providing for our Ease and making us a natural Cushion, as well as for instruments of Motion for our Thighs and Legs. She has made the hinder-part of the Head more strong, as being otherwise unfenced against falls and other casualties. She has made the Backbone of several Vertebrae, as being more fit to bend, more tough & less in danger of breaking then if they were all one entire bone without those gristly Junctures. She has strengthened our Fingers and Toes with Nails, whereas she might have sent out that substance at the end of the first or second joint, which had not been so handsome ●or useful, nay rather somewhat troublesome and hurtful. And lastly she has made all the Bones devoid of sense, because they were to bear the weight of themselves and of the whole Body. And therefore if they had had sense, our life had been painful continually and dolorous.  
And what she has done for us, she has done proportionably in the contrivance of all other Creatures; so that it is manifest that a divine Providence strikes through all things.  
And therefore things being contrived with such exquisite Curiosity as if the most watchful wisdom imaginable did attend them, to say they are thus framed without the assistance of some Principle that has Wisdom in it, & that they come to pass from Chance or some other blind unknowing Original, is sullenly and humorously to assert a thing, because we will assert it, and under pretence of avoiding Superstition, to fall into that which is the only thing that makes Superstition itself hateful or ridiculous, that is, a wilful and groundless adhering to conceits without any support of Reason.  
And now I have considered the fitness of the parts of Man's Body for the good of the whole, let me but consider briefly the fitness of the Passions of his Mind, whether proper, or common to him with the rest of Animalis, as also the fitness of the whole Man as he is part of the Universe, and then I shall conclude.  
And it is manifest that Anger does so actuate the Spirits and heightens the Courage of men and beasts that it makes them with more ease break through the difficulties they encounter. Fear also is for the avoiding of danger, and Hope is a pleasant praemeditation of enjoyment, as when a Dog expects till his Master has done picking of the bone. But there is neither Hope, nor Fear, nor Hate, nor any peculiar Passion or Instinct in Brutes that is in vain; why should we then think that Nature should miscarry more in us then in any other Creature, or should be so careful in the Fabric of our Body, and yet so forgetful or unlucky in the framing of the faculties of our Souls; that that Fear that is so peculiarly natural to us, viz. the fear of a Deity, should be in vain, and that pleasant Hope and Heavenly Joys of the mind which man is naturally capable of, with the earnest direction of his Spirit towards God, should have no real Object in the world? And so Religious affection which Nature has so plainly implanted in the Soul of Man should be to no use▪ but either to make him ridiculous or miserable: Whenas we find no Passion or Affection in Brutes either common or peculiar but what is for their good and welfare.  
For it is not for nothing that the Hare is so fearful of the Dog, & the Sheep of the Wolf; & it there be either Fear or Enmity in some Creatures for which we cannot easily discern any reason in respect of themselves, yet we may well allow of it as reasonable in regard of us, and to be to good purpose. But I think it is manifest that Sympathy and Antipathy, Love and Enmity, Aversation, Fear, and the like, that they are notable whetters and quickners of the Spirit of life in all Animals, and that their being obnoxious to dangers and encounters does more closely knit together the vital Powers, and makes them more sensibly relish their present safety, and they are more pleased with an Escape then if they had never met with any Danger. Their greedy assaults also one upon another while there is hope of Victory highly gratifies them both. And if one be conquered and slain, the Conqueror enjoys a fresh improvement of the pleasure of life, the Triumph over his Enemy. Which things seem to me to be contrived even in the behalf of these Creatures themselves, that their vital heat and moisture may not always only simber in one sluggish tenor, but some times boil up higher and seethe over, the fire of life being more than ordinarily kindled upon some emergent occasion.  
But it is without Controversy that these peculiar Passions of Animals many of them are useful to Men▪ (as that of the Lizards enmity against the Serpent) all of them highly gratify his contemplative faculty, some seem on purpose contrived to make his Worship merry; For what could Nature intend else in that Antipathy betwixt the Ape and Snail, that that Beast that seems so boldly to claim kindred of Man from the resemblance of his outward shape, should have so little Wit or Courage as to run away from a snail, and very ruefully and frightfully to look back, as being afraid she would follow him as Erasmus more largely and pleasantly tells the whole story?  
But that Nature should implant in Man such a strong Propension to Religion, which is the Reverence of a Deity, there being neither God nor Angel nor Spirit in the world, is such a Slur committed by her as there can be in no wise excogitated any Excuse. For if there were a higher Species of things to laugh at us as we do a● the Ape, it might seem more tolerable. But there can be no End neither ludicrous nor serious of this Religious property in Man, unless there be something of an higher Nature than himself in the world. Wherefore Religion being convenient to no other Species of things besides Man, it ought to be convenient at least for himself: But supposing there were no God, there can be nothing worse for Man then Religion.  
For whether we look at the external Effects thereof, such as are bloody Massacres, the disturbance and subversion of Commonweals, Kingdoms and Empires, most savage Tortures of particular persons, the extirpating and dispossessing of whole Nations, as it hath happened in America, where the remorseless Spaniards in pretence of being educated in a better Religion than the Americans, vilifyed the poor Natives so much, that they made nothing of knocking them o'th' head merely to feed their dogs with them, with many such unheard of crueltyes. Or whether we consider the great affliction that that severe Governess of the life of Man brings upon those Souls she seizes on▪ by affrighting horrors of Conscience, by puzzeling and befooling them in the free use of their Reason, and putting a bar to more large searches into the pleasing knowledge of Nature, by anxious cares and disquieting fears concerning their state in the life to come, by curbing them in their natural and kindly enjoyments of the life present, and making bitter all the pleasures and contentments of it, by some checks of Conscience and suspicions that they do something now that they may rue eternally hereafter; Besides thosse ineffable Agonies of mind that they undergo that are more generously Religious, and contend after the participation of the divine Nature, they being willing, though with unspeakable pain, to be torn from themselves to become one with that Universal Spirit that ought to have the guidance of all things, and by an unsatiable desire after that just and decorous temper of mind (whereby all Arrogancy should utterly cease in us, and that which is due to God, that is, all that we have or can do, should be lively and sensibly attributed to him, and we fully and heartily acknowledge ourselves to be nothing, that is, be as little elated, or no more relish the glory and praise of Men, then if we had done nothing or were not at all in being) do plunge themselves into such damps and deadness of Spirit, that to be buried quick were less torture by far, than such dark privations of all the joys of life, than such sad and heart-sinking Mortifications: I say, whether we consider these inward pangs of the Soul, or the external outrages caused by Religion (and Religious pretence will animate men to the committing such violences, as bare Reason and the single passions of the Mind unbacked with the fury of Superstition will never venture upon) it is manifest that if there were no God, no Spirit, no Life to come, it were far better that there were no such Religious propensions in Mankind, as we see universally there is.  
For the fear of the Civil Magistrate, the convenience of mutual aid and support, and the natural scourge and plague of diseases would contain men in such bounds of Justice, Humanity and Temperance, as would make them more clearly and undisturbedly happy, than they are now capable of being, from any advantage Religion does to either Public State or private person, supposing there were no God.  
Wherefore this Religious affection which Nature has implanted, and as strongly rooted in Man as the fear of death or the love of women, would be the most enormous slip or bungle she could commit, so that she would so shamefully fail in the last Act, in this contrivance of the nature of Man that instead of a Plaudite she would deserve to be hissed off the Stage.  
But she having done all things else so wisely, let us rather suspect our own ignorance then reproach her, and expect that which is allowed in well approved Comedies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for nothing can unlose this knot but a Deity. And then we acknowledging Man to dwell as it were in the borders of the spiritual and material world (for he is utriusque mundi nexus, as Scaliger truly calls him) we shall not wonder that there is such tugging and pulling this way and that way, upward and downward, and such broken disorder of things; those that dwell in the confines of two kingdoms, being most subject to disquiet and confusion. And hitherto of the Passions of the mind of Man, as well those that tie him down to the Body, as those that lift him up towards God. Now briefly of the whole Man as he is part of the Universe.  
It is true if we had not been here in the world, we could not then have miss ourselves; but now we find ourselves in being and able to examine the reasonableness of things, we cannot but conclude that our Creation was an Act of very exquisite Reason & Counsel. For there being so many notable Objects in the world, to entertain such faculties as Reason and inquisitive Admiration▪ there aught to be such a member of this visible Creation as Man, that those things might not be in vain: And if Man were out of the world, who were then left to view the face of Heaven, to wonder at the transcursion of Comets, to calculate Tables for the Motions of the Planets and Fixed Stars, and to take their Heights and Distances with Mathematical Instruments, to invent convenient Cycles for the computation of time, and consider the several forms of Years, to take notice of the Directions, Stations and Repedations of those Erratic lights▪ and from thence most convincingly to inform himself of that pleasant and true Paradox of the Annual Motion of the Earth, to view the asperityes of the Moon through a Di●ptrick-glasse, and venture at the Proportion of her Hills by their shadows, to behold the beauty of the Rainbow, the Halo▪ Parelii and other Meteors, to search out the causes of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea, and the hidden virtue of the Magnet, to inquire into the usefulness of Plants, and to observe the variety of the wisdom of the first Cause in framing their bodies, and giving sundry observable instincts to Fishes▪ Birds and Beasts? And lastly as there are particular Priests amongst Men, so the whole Species of Mankind being endued with Reason and a power of finding out God, there is yet one singular end more discoverable of his Creation, viz. that he may be a Priest in this magnificent Temple of the Universe, and send up prayers and praises to the great Creator of all things in behalf of the rest of the Creatures. Thus we see all filled up and fitted without any defect or useless superfluity.  
Wherefore the whole Creation in general and every part thereof being so ordered as if the most exquisite Reason and Knowledge had contrived them, it is as natural to conclude that all this is the work of a wise God, as at the first sight to acknowledge that those inscribed Urns and Coins digged out of the Earth were not the Products of unknowing Nature, but the Artifice of Man.    


CHAP. I.  
That, good men not always faring best in this world, the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist. The irreligious Jeers and Sacrileges of Dionysius of Syracuse. That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false, and what are the best and safest ways to distinguish them that we may not be imposed upon by History.  
HItherto I have insisted upon such Arguments for the proving of the Existence of God, as were taken from the ordinary and known Phaenomena of Nature; For such is the History of Plants, Animals and Man. I shall come now to such effects discovered in the World as are not deemed natural, but extraordinary and miraculous. I do not mean unexpected discoveries of Murders, a conspicuous Vengeance upon proud and blasphemous Persons, such as Nicanor, Antiochus, Herod and the like, of which all Histories, as well Sacred as Profane are very full, and all which tend to the impressing of this divine Precept, in the Poet, upon the minds of Men, Discite Justitiam moniti & non temnere Divos.  
For though these Examples cannot but move indifferent men to an acknowledgement of divine Providence, and a superior Power above and different from the Matter; yet I having now to do with the obstinate and refractory Atheist, who, because himself a known contemner of the Deity he finds to be safe and well at ease, will shuffle all these things off, by ask such a Question as he did, to whom the Priest of Neptune showed the many D●naria hung up in his Temple by his Votaries saved from shipwreck, & therefore vaunted much of the Power of that God of the Sea; But what is become of all those, saith he, that notwithstanding their vows have been lost? So I say, the Atheist to evade the force of this Argument will whisper within himself; But how many proud blasphemous Atheistical men like myself have escaped, and those that have been accounted good have died untimely deaths?  
Such as Aesop and Socrates, the Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, with sundry other wise and good men in all Ages and Places, who yet being not so well aware of the ill condition and restinesse of this wicked World, of which they have truly professed themselves no Citizens, but Strangers, have suffered the greatest mischiefs that can happen to humane Nature, by their innocent meaning and intermeddling in Aliena Republica; It having usually been more safe, craftily and cautiously to undermine the honour of God, then plainly and honestly to seek the good and welfare of Men.  
Nay outrageous affronts done on purpose to Religion, will the Atheist further reply, have not only passed applauded by the World, but unpunished by divine Justice: As is notorious in that Sacrilegious Wit, Dionysius of Syracuse, who spoiling Jupiter Olympius of his costly Robe very stiff and ponderous with Gold, added this Apologetical jeer to his Sacrilege, that this golden Vestment was too heavy for the Summer, and too cold for the Winter, but one of wool would fit both Seasons.  
So at Epidaurus he commanded the golden Beard of Aesculapius to be cut off and carried away, alleging that it was very unfit that the Son should wear a Beard when as his Father Apollo wore none.  
That also was not inferior to any of his Sacrilegious jests, when taking away the golden Cups and Crowns held forth by the hands of the Images of the Gods, he excused himself, saying, that he received but what they of their own accord gave him; adding that it were a gross piece of foolishness, when as we pray to the Gods for all good things, not to take them when they so freely offer them with their own hands.  
These and other such like irreligious Pranks did this Dionysius play, who notwithstanding fared no worse than the most demure and innocent, dying no other death then what usually other Mortals do: as if in those Ages there had been as great a lack of Wit, as there was here in England once of Latin, and that he escaped a more severe Sentence by the benefit of his Clergy. But others think that he was paid home and punished in his Son that succeeded him. But that, will the Atheist reply, is but to whip the absent, as Aristotle wittily said to him that told him that such an one did unmercifully traduce him behind his back.  
Wherefore I hold it more convenient to omit such Arguments as may entangle us in such endless Altercations, & to bring only those that cannot be resolved into any Natural causes, or be phansyed to come by Chance, but are so Miraculous, that they do imply the presence of some free subtle understanding essence distinct from the brute Matter, and ordinary power of Nature.  
And these Miraculous effects, as there is nothing more cogent if they could be believed; so there is nothing more hard to the Atheist to believe than they are. For Religionists having for pious purposes, as they pretend, forged so many false miracles to gull and spoil the credulous people, they have thereby with the Atheist taken away all belief of those which are true. And the childish & superstitious fear of Spirits in Melancholic persons who created strange Monsters to themselves & terrible Apparitions in the dark, hath also helped them with a further evasion, to impute all Spectres and strange Apparitions to mere Melancholy and disturbed Fancy. But that there should be so universal a fame, and fear of that, which never was, nor is, nor can be ever in the world, is to me the greatest Miracle of all.  
For if there had not been at some time or other true Miracles (as indeed there ought to be, if the faculties of Man, who so easily listens to and allows of such things, be not in vain) it is very improbable that Priests and cunning Deluders of the people would have ever been able so easily to impose upon them by their false. As the Alchemist would never go about to sophisticate Metals, & then put them off for true Gold and Silver, but that it is acknowledged that there is such a thing as true Gold and Silver in the world. In like manner therefore as there is an endeavour of deluding the people with false Miracles, so it is a sign there have been and may be those that are true.  
But you'll say there is a Touchstone whereby we may d●scerne the truth of Metals, but that there is nothing whereby we may discover the truth of Miracles recorded every where in History. But I answer there is; and it is this.  
First if what is recorded was avouched by such persons who had no end nor interest in avouching such things.  
Secondly if there were many Eye-witnesses of the same Matter.  
Thirdly and lastly if these things which are so strange and miraculous leave any sensible effect behind them.  
Though I will not acknowledge that all those stories are ●alse that want these conditions, yet I dare affirm that it is mere humour and sullenness in a man to reject the 〈◊〉 of those that have them; For it is to believe nothing but what he seeth himself: From whence it will follow that he is to read nothing of History, for there is neither pleasure nor any usefulness of it, if it deserve no belief.   

CHAP. II.  
The Moving of a Sieve by a Charm. Coskinomancy. A Magical cure of an Horse. The Charming of Serpents. A strange Example of one Death-strucken as he walked the Streets. A story of a sudden wind that had like to have thrown down the Gallows at the hanging of two Witches.  
ANd now that I have premised thus much I will briefly recite some of few those many miraculous passages we meet with in Writers, beginning first with the bare and simple effects of Spirits, as I will aforehand adventure to pronounce them, and then afterwards we shall come to the Apparitions of Spirits themselves.  
And of those bare effects we will not care to name what may seem slightest first. Bodinus relates how himself and several others at Paris saw a young man with a Charm in French, move a Sieve up and down. And that ordinary way of Divination which they call Coskinomancy or finding who stole or spoiled this or that thing, by the Sieve and Sheares, Pictorius Vigillanus professeth he made use of thrice, and it was with success.  
A friend of mine told me this story concerning Charms, that himself had an Horse, which if he had stood sound had been of a good value. His servants carried him to several Farriers but none of them had the skill to cure him. At last unknown to their Master, they led him to a Farrier, that had, it should seem, some tricks more than ordinary, and dealt in Charms, or Spells, and such like Ceremonies: in virtue of these he made the Horse sound.  
The Owner of him after he had observed how well his Horse was, asked his servants, how they got him cured, Whence understanding the whole matter, and observing also that there was an S. branded on his buttock, which he conceited stood for Satan, chid his servants very roughly, as having done that which was unwarrantable and impious. Upon this profession of his dislike of the fact, the Horse forthwith ●ell as ill as ever he was, in so much that for his unserviceablenes he was fain to be turned up loose in the pasture. But a kinsman of the Owners coming to his house & after chanceing to see the Horse in the Grounds took the advantage of a low price for so fair a gelding & bought him. The Horse had no sooner changed his Master but presently changed his plight of body also & became as sound as ever.  
Charming also of Serpents is above the power of Nature. And Wierus tells us this story of a Charmer at Saltzburg, that when in the sight of the people he had charmed all the Serpents into a ditch and killed them, at last there came one huge one far bigger than the rest, that leapt upon him, and wound about his waist like a girdle, and pulled him into the ditch, and so killed the Charmer himself in the conclusion.  
That also I will adventure to refer to the effects of Spirits which I heard lately from one Mrs. Dark of Westminster concerning her own Husband; who being in the flower of his Age, well in health and very cheerful, going out of his house in the morning with an intent to return to dinner, was, as he walked the streets, sensibly struck upon the thigh by an invisible hand, for he could see no man near him to strike him. He returned home indeed about dinnertime, but could eat nothing, only he complained of the sad Accident that befell him, and grew forthwith so mortally sick, that he died within three days. After he was dead there was found upon the place where he was struck, the perfect figure of a man's hand, the four finger's palm and thumb black and sunk into the flesh, as if one should clap his hand upon a lump of dough.  
And hitherto there is nothing related which will not abide the exactest trial and be cleared from all suspicion of either Fraud or Melancholy. But I shall propound things more strange, and yet as free from that suspicion as the former.  
And to say nothing of Winds sold to Merchants by Laplanders, and the danger of losing the Third knot (which was very frequent as Olaus affirms before those parts of the world were converted to Christianity) ● shall content myself for the present with a true story which I heard from an eyewitness concerning these preternatural Winds. At Cambridge in the reign of Queen Elizabeth there was two Witches to be executed, the Mother and Daughter. The Mother when she was called upon to repent and forsake the Devil, she said, there was no reason for that, for he had been faithful to her these threescore years, and she would be so to him so long as she lived; and thus she died in this obstinacy. But she hanging thus upon the Gallows, her Daughter being of a contrary mind renounced the Devil, was very earnest in prayer and penitence; which by the effect, the people conceived the Devil to take very heinously. For there came such a sudden blast of Wind (when as all was calm before) that it drove the Mother's body against the ladder so violently, that it had like to have overturned it, and shook the Gallows with such force, that they were fain to hold the posts for fear of all being fung down to the ground.   

CHAP. III.  
That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremonies or forms of words proved by sundry Examples. Margaret Warine discharged upon an Oak at a Thunderclap. Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top. The Witch of Constance seen by the Shepherds to ride through the Air.  
Wierus that industrious Advocate of Witches recites several Ceremonies that they use for the raising of Tempests, and doth acknowledge that Tempests do follow the performance of those Ceremonies, but that they had come to pass nevertheless without them: which the Devil foreseeing, excites the deluded Women to use those Magic Rites, that they may be the better persuaded of his power. But whether there be any causal connexion betwixt those Ceremonies and the ensuing Tempests I will not curiously decide. But that the connexion of them is supernatural is plain at first sight. For what is casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Air, or striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Urine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boiling of Hog's Bristles in a Pot? What are these fooleries available of themselves to gather Clouds and cover the Air with Darkness, and then to make the ground smoke with peals of Hail and Raine, and to make the Air terrible with frequent Lightnings and Thunder? Certainly nothing at all. Therefore the ensuing of these Tempests after such like Ceremonies must be either from the prevision of the Devil (as Wierus would have it) who set the Witches on work, or else from the power of the Devil which he hath in his Kingdom of the Air. And it seems strange to me that Wierus should doubt this power, when he gives him a greater; For what is the transporting of vapours or driving them together, to the carrying of Men and cattle in the Air, (of which he is a confident Asserter) unless it require larger Devils or greater numbers? And that there are sufficient numbers of such Spirits will seem to any body as credible, as that there are any at all. But now for the truth of this, that certain Words or Ceremonies do seem at least to cause an alteration in the Air and to raise Tempests; Remigius writes that he had it witnessed to him by the free confession of near two hundred men that he examined: Where he adds a story or two in which there being neither Fraud, nor Melancholy to be suspected, I think them worth the mentioning. The one is of a Witch, who to satisfy the curiosity of them that had power to punish her, was set free that she might give a proof of that power she professed she had to rai●e Tempests. She therefore being let go▪ presently betakes herself to a place thick set with Trees, scrapes a Hole with her hands fills it with Urine, and stirs it about so long, that she caused at last a thick dark Cloud charged with Thunder and Lightning to the terror and affrightment of the beholders. But she bade them be of good courage▪ for she would command the● Cloud to discharge upon what place they would appoint her, which she made good in the sight of the Spectators.  
The other Story is of a young Girl, who to pleasure her Father complaining of a drought, by the guidance and help of that ill Master her Mother had devoted and consecrated her unto, raised a Cloud, and watered her Father's ground only, all the rest continuing dry as before.  
Let us add to these the Story of Cuinus and Margaret Warine. While this Cuinus was busy at his Hay-making, there arose suddenly great Thunder and Lightning, which made him run homeward, and forsake his work, for he saw six Oaks hard by him overturned from the very Roots, and a seventh also shattered and torn a pieces: he was fain to lose his hat and leave his fork or rake for haste; which was not so fast but another crack overtakes him and rattles about his Ears; upon which Thunderclap, he presently espied this Margaret Warm a reputed Witch upon the top of an Oak, whom he began to chide. She desired his secrecy, and she would promise that never any injury or harm should come to him from her at any time.  
This Cuinus deposed upon Oath before the Magistrate, and Margaret Warine acknowledged the truth of it, without any force done unto her, several times before her death, and at her death. [See Remigius Daemonolatr. lib. 1. cap. 29.] Remigius conceives she was discharged upon the top of the Oak at that last Thunder clap and there hung amongst the boughs; which he is induced to believe from two Stories he tells afterwards. The one is of a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning that the Herdsmen tending their cattle on the brow of the Hill Alman in the field of Guicuria were f●ighted with, who running into the Woods for shelter suddenly saw two country men on the top of the Trees, which were next them, so dirty, and in such a pickle, and so out of breath, as if they had been dragged up and down through thorns and miry places; but when they had well eyed them, they were gone in a moment out of their sight they knew not how nor whither. These Herdsmen talked of the business, but the certainty of it came out not long after. For the free confessions of those two men they then saw, being so exactly agreeing with what the Herdsmen had related, made the whole matter clear and undoubted.  
The other Story is of the same Persons, known afterward by their names, viz. Amantius and his partner Rotarius, who having coursed it aloft again in the Air, and being cast headlong out of a cloud upon an house, the later of them being but a Novice and unexperienced in those supernatural exploits, was much astonished and afraid at the strangeness of the matter, but Amantius being used to those feats from his youth, his Parents having devoted him from his childhood to the Devil, made but a sport of it, and laughing at his friend called him Fool for his fear, and bade him be of good courage; for their Master, in whose power they were, would safely carry them through greater dangers than those. And no sooner had he said these words, but a Whirlwind took them, and set them both safe upon the ground: but the house they were carried from, so shook, as if it would have been overturned from the very foundations. This, both those men examined apart, confessed in the same words, not varying their Story at all; whose confessions exactly agreed in all circumstances with what was observed by the country people concerning the time and the manner of the Tempest and shaking of the House.  
I will only add one Story more of this nature, and that is of a Witch of Constance, who being vexed that all her neighbours in the Village where she lived were invited to the wedding, and so were drinking and dancing and making merry, & she solitary and neglected, got the Devil to transport her through the Air, in the midst of day, to a Hill hard by the Village: where she digging a hole and putting Urine into it, raised a great Tempest of Hail, and directed it so, that it fell only upon the Village, and pelted them that were dancing with that violence, that they were forced to leave off their sport. When she had done her exploit she returned to the Village, and being spied was suspected to have raised the Tempest, which the Shepherds in the field that saw her riding in the Air knew well before, who bringing in their witness against her, she confessed the fact. I might be infinite in such narrations, but I will moderate myself.   

CHAP. IU.  
Supernatural Effects observed in them that are Bewitched and Possessed. The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia.  
WE will now pass to those supernatural effects which are observed in them that are bewitched or possessed. And such are; Foretelling things to come, Telling what such and such persons speak or do as exactly as if they were by them, when the party possessed is at one end of the town and sitting in a house within doors, and those parties that act and confer together are without at the other end of the town; to be able to see some and not others; to play at Cards with one certain person and not to discern any body else at the table besides him▪ to act and talk and go up and down and tell what will become of things, and what happens in those fits of possession, and then so soon as the possessed or bewitched party is out of them, to remember nothing at all, but to inquire concerning the welfare of those whose faces they seemed to look upon but just before, when they were in their fits. All which can be no symptoms nor signs of any thing else but of the Devil got into the body of a man, and holding all the operations of his Soul, and then acting and speaking and sporting as he pleases, in the miserable Tenement he hath crowded himself into, making use of the Organs of the body at his own pleasure for the performing of ●uch pranks and fears as are far above the capacity▪ strength or agility of the party thus bewitched or possessed.  
All these things are fully made good by long and tedious observations recorded in the discovery of the Witches of Warbois in Huntingtonshire Anno 1594. The memory whereof is still kept fresh by an Anniversary Sermon preached at Huntingdon by some of the Fellows of Queen's College in Cambridge.  
There is al●o lately come forth a Narration how one Mrs. Muschamp's children were handled in Cumberland▪ which is very like this of Mr. Throckmorton's children of Warbois.  
That which is generally observed in them both is this, that in their fits they are as if they had no Soul at all in their Bodies, and that whatsoever operations of sense, reason or motion there seems to be in them, it is not any thing at all to them, but is wholly that stranger's, that hath got into them. For so soon as their fits are over, they are as if they had been in so profound a sleep, that they did not so much as dream, and so remember nothing at all of what they either said, or did, or where they had been; as is manifest by an infinite number of examples in the forenamed relations. Of the truth of which passages here at home we being very well ascertained, we may with the more confidence venture upon what is recorded concerning others abroad. As for example▪ The possession of the Religious Virgins in the Monastery of Werts, others in Hessimont, others also not far from Xantes, and in other places, where there were Eye-witnesses enough to take notice how strangely they were handled, being flung up from the ground higher than a man's head, and falling down again without harm, swarming upon trees as nimbly as Cats, and hanging upon the boughs, having their flesh ●orne off from their bodies without any visible hand or instrument, and many other mad pranks which is not so fit to name, but they that have a mind may read at large in Wierus.  
I would pass now to other effects of Witchcraft, as the conveying of knives, balls of hair, and nails into the bodies of them that are bewitched; but that the mention of these Nuns puts me in mind of that famous story in Wierus of Magdalena Crucia, first a Nun, and then an Abbatesse of a Nunnery in Corduba in Spain. Those things which were miraculous in her were these; that she could tell almost at any distance how the affairs of the world went, what consultations or transactions there were in all the nations of Christendom, from whence she got to herself the reputation of a very Holy woman and a great Prophetess. But other things came to pass by her or for her sake, no less strange and miraculous; as that at the celebrating of the holy Encharist, the Priest should always want one of his round wafers, which was secretly conveyed to Magdalen, by the administration of Angels, as was supposed, and she receiving of it into her mouth a●e it, in the view of the people, to their great astonishment and high reverence of the Saint. At the elevation of the Host Magdalen being near at hand, but yet a wall betwixt, that the wall was conceived to open and to exhibit Magdalen to the view of them in the chapel, and that thus she partaked of the consecrated bread. When this Abbatesse came into the chapel herself upon some special day, that she would set off the solemnity of the day by some notable and conspicuous miracle: For she would sometimes be lifted up above the ground three or four cubit's high; other sometimes bearing the Image of Christ in her arms, weeping savourly, she would make her hair to increase to that length and largeness that it would come to her heels, and cover her all over and the Image of Christ in her arms, which anon notwithstanding would shrink up again to its usual size; with a many such specious though ●nprofitable miracles.  
But you'll say that the narration of these things is not true, but they are feigned for the advantage of the Roman Religion, and so it was profitable for the Church to forge them and record them to posterity. A man that is unwilling to admit of any thing supernatural would please himself with this general shuffle and put-off. But when we come to the Catastrophe of the story he will find it quite otherwise; for this Saint at last began to be suspected for a Sorceress as it is thought, and she being conscious, did of her own accord, to save herself, make confession of her wickedness to the Visiters of the Order, as they are called, viz. That for thirty years she had been married to the Devil in the shape of an Aethiopian; that another Divel●ervant ●ervant to this, when his Master was at dalliance with her in her cell, supplied her place amongst the Nuns at their public Devotions; that by virtue of this contract she made with this Spirit, she had done all those miracles she did. Upon this confession she was committed, and while she was in durance, yet she appeared in her devout postures praying in the chapel as before at their set hours of prayer; which being told to the Visiters by the Nuns, there was a strict watch over her that she should not stir out. Nevertheless she appeared in the chapel as before, though she were really in the prison.  
Now what credit or advantage there can be to the Roman Religion by this story, let any man judge. Wherefore it is no figment of the Priests or Religious persons, nor Melancholy, nor any such matter (for how could so many spectators at once be deluded by Melancholy?) but it ought to be deemed a real Truth: And this Magdalena Crucia appearing in two several places at once, it is manifest that there is such a thing as Apparitions of Spirits. But I must abstain as yet from touching that argument, I having not dispatched what I propounded concerning the vomiting up of Nails, the conveying of Knives and pieces of Wood into the Bodies of Men, and the like. Which things are so palpable and uncapable of delusion, that I think it worth the while to insist a little upon them.   

CHAP. V.  
Examples of Bewitched Persons that have had Balls of Hair, Nails, Knives, Wood stuck with Pinns, pieces of Cloth, and such like trash conveyed into their Bodies, with examples also of other Supernatural Effects.  
I Will begin with that memorable true Story that Langius tells of one Vlricus Neusesser who being grievously tormented with a pain in his side, suddenly felt under his skin, which yet was whole, an iron Naile as he thought. And so it proved when the Chirurgeon had cut it out: But nevertheless his great torments continued, which enraged him so, that he cut his own Throat. The third day when he was carried out to be buried, Eucharius' Rosenbader, and Joannes ab Ettenstet, a great company of people standing about them, dissected the Corpse, and ripping up the Ventricle, found a round piece of wood of a good length, four knives, some even and sharp, others indeated like a Saw, with other two rough pieces of Iron a span long. There was also a ball of Hair. This happened at Fugenstall▪ 1539.  
Wierus tells also a story of one that was possessed, of which himself was an Eyewitness, that vomited up pieces of cloth with pins stuck in them, nails, needles and such like stuff: which he contends doth not come from the stomach, but by a prestigious slight of the Devil is only ingested into the mouth.  
Antonius Benivenius also witnesses of his own knowledge, that a woman his Patient, after a great deal of torture, and disquiet, and staring distraction, and extraordinary swelling of her belly, at last fell a vomiting of long crooked Nails, Pinns, and a clue of Hair and Wax, and so great a Crust of Bread as no man's swallow could ever get down. Then she fell a prophesying and raging in such sort as those that are bewitched or possessed, so that the Physician was forced to leave her to the cure of the Church.  
Meinerus Clatsius his Servant, when he was bewitched, his throat was so swelled that his face became blue again with it, and therefore his Mistress, Judith a devout Mat●on, fearing he would be choked, betook herself to her prayers with the rest of her Family. William in the mean time (for so was his name) begins to discharge at the mouth, and sends out of his throat the forepart of the Shepherd's Breeches, whole Flints and their fragments, clues of Yarn, besides long Locks of women's Hair, Needles, a piece of the lining of a Boys Coat, a Peacock's feather which he had pulled out of the tail of it eight days before, with other more slight stuff.  
Cardan tells a story also of a good simple country fellow and a friend of his, that had been a long time troubled with vomiting up Glass, Iron, N●iles and Hair, and that at that time he told Cardan of it he was not so perfectly restored but that something yet crashed in his belly as if there we●e a Bag of Glass in it.  
I might add seasonably hereunto what is so credibly reported of Mrs. Muschamp's Child, that it was seen to vomit up pieces of Wood with Pinns stuck in it.  
But I will conclude all with that Story of about thirty Children that were so strangely handled at Amsterdam 1566. of the truth whereof Wierus professeth himself very well assured. They were tortured very much, and cast violently upon the ground, but when they arose out of their fit knew nothing but thought they had been only asleep. For the remedying of this mischief they got the help of Physicians, Wizards and Exorcists, but without success▪ Only while the Exorcists were reading, the Children vomited up Needles, Thimbles, shreds of Cloth, pieces of Pots, Glass▪ Hair, and other things of the like nature.  
Now the advantage I would make of these stories is this, that these effects extraordinary and supernatural being so palpable and permanent, they are not at all liable to such Subterfuges as Atheists usually betake themselves to, as of Melancholy, & disturbance of Fancy in those that profess they see such strange things, or any Fraud or Imposture in those that act.  
All that can with any show of reason be alleged is this, That such parties in their ●itts of distraction may devour such things as they vomit up, or at least put them into their mouths. But they that are by might easily see that, distracted people doing things carelessly and openly. And these things happen to those that are thus handled against their wills; and as they are not discovered to do any such things, of themselves, so neither do they confess afterwards that they did it, when they are come to their right senses; and ordinarily it is found out that some Woman or other by Sorcery or Witchcraft was the Author of it.  
Besides it is evident that there can be no mistake at all in some of these passages; For how can an iron Naile get betwixt the skin and the flesh, the skin not at all ripped or touched? Or how is it possible for any body to swallow down Knives and pieces of Iron a span long? which besides that story of Vlricus Neusesser, is made good in another of a young Wench, who when she had made clean a pair of shoes with a Knife, which she put in her bosom, she after seeking for it, it could not be found any where, till at length it began to discover itself in a swelling on her left side, and at last was pulled out thence by the Chirurgeon. You may read the whole story in Wierus, lib. 4. It was done at Levensteet in the Dukedom of Brunswick 1562. An old Women had come to the house in the morning, and a strange black Dog was found under the table.  
There are also other miraculous and supernatural effects, as in that maid of Saxonies speaking of Greek; and in another in Italy telling what was the best verse in all Virgil.  
In another whom Caelius Rhodiginus professed he saw that spoke from betwixt her legs. Another at Paris whom Dr. Picard and other Divines would have dispossessed, whom one Hollerius a Physician deriding, as if it had been nothing but Melancholy in the Woman and Ignorance in those Divines, was after convinced of the contrary, when he saw her standing betwixt two other women and crying out of a sudden, discerning her hands to be so fast bound that there was no losing of them without cutting the string. There was not the appearance of any thing to any body but to the possessed only, who said she saw then a white cloud come near her when she was bound.   

CHAP. VI  
The Apparition Eckerken. The Story of the pied Piper. A Triton or Sea-God seen on the banks of Rubicon. Of the Imps of Witches, and whether those old women be guilty of so much dotage as the Atheist fancies them. That such things pass betwixt them and their Imps as are impossible to be imputed to Melancholy. The examination of John Winnick of Molesworth. The reason of Sealing Covenants with the Devil.  
BUt it is now high time to clear up this more dim and cloudy discovery of Spirits into more distinct and articulate Apparitions, according as I did at first propound. And these I shall cast into two ranks: Such as appear near to us on the Ground, or such as are seen afar off, above in the Air. And here again to begin with small things first. Near Elton a Village half a mile distant from Embrica in the Dukedom of Cleve, there was a thing had its haunt, they called it Eckerken; there appeared never more than the shape of an Hand, but ●t would beat travellers, pull them off from their horses, and overturn carriages. This could be no Fancy, there following so real Effects.  
The story of the pied Piper, that first by his pipe gathered together all the Rats and Mice, and drowned them in the River, and afterward, being defrauded of his reward, which the Town promised him if he could deliver them from the plague of those Vermin, took his opportunity, and by the same pipe made the Children of the town follow him, and leading them into a Hill that opened, buried them there all alive; hath so evident proof of it in the town of Hammel where it was done, that it ought not at all to be discredited. For the fact is very Religiously kept amongst their ancient Records, painted out also in their Church-windowes, and is an Epoch joined with the year of our Lord in their Bills and Indentures and other Law●nstruments.  
That also seems to me beyond all exception and evasion which Suetonius relates of a Spectrum appearing on the b●nks of the River Rubicon: which was thus, Julius Caesar having marched with his Army to this River, which divides Gall●a Citerior from Italy, and being very doubtful with himself whither he should pass over into Italy or not, there was seen on the River side a Man of a prodigious stature and form playing on a Reed. The strangeness of his person as well as the pleasantness of his Music had drawn several of the Shepherds unto him, as also many of the Soldiers, amongst whom were some Trumpeters; which this 〈◊〉 (as Melanchthon ventures to call him) or Sea God well observing nimbly snatches away one of the Trumpets ou● of their hands, leaps forthwith into the River, and 〈◊〉 a March with that strength and violence, that he seemed to ●end the Heavens, and made the Air ring again with the mighty forcibleness of the Blast, in this manner he p●ssed over to the other side of the River. Whereupon Caesar taking the Omen, leaves off all further dispute with himself carries over his Army enters Italy, secure of success from so manifest tokens of the favour of the Gods.  
To confirm this truth of Apparitions, if we would but admit the free confessions of Witches concerning their Imps, whom they so frequently see and converse withal, know them by their names, and do obeisance to them; the point would be put quite out of all doubt, and their proofs would be so many, that no volume would be large enough to contain them. But forsooth these must be all Melancholy old●women that dote and bring themselves into danger by their own Phansyes and Conceits. But that they do net dote, I am better assured of, then of their not doting, that say they do. For to satisfy my own curiosity I have examined several of them, and they have discoursed as cunningly as any of their quality and education. But by what I have read and observed I discern they serve a very perfidious Master, who plays wreaks many times on purpose to betray them. But that's only by the by.  
I demand concerning these Witches who confess their contract and frequent converse with the Devil; s●me with him in one shape, others in another; whether mere Melancholy and Imagination can put Powders, Rods, Ointments, and such like things into their hands, and tell them the use of them, can impress Marks upon their bodies▪ so deep as to take away all sense in that place, can put Silver and Gold into their hands, which afterwards commonly proves but either Counters, Leaves▪ or Shells, or some such like useless matter? These real effects cannot be by mere Melancholy. For if a man receive any thing into his hand, be it what it will be, there was some body that gave it him. And therefore the Witch receiving some real thing from this or that other shape that appeared unto her, it is an evident sign, that it was an external thing that she saw, not a mere figuration of her melancholy Fancy. There are innumerable examples of this kind, but the thing is so trivial and ordinary that it wants no instances. I will only for down one, wherein there is the apparition of three Spirits.  
John W●nnick of Molsew●rth in Huntington-shire being examined 11. April 1646. confessed as follows. Having lost his purse with seven shillings in it, for which he suspected one in the family where he lived, he saith, that on a Friday while he was making hay bottles in the barn, and swore and cursed and raged, and wished to himself that some wise body would help him to his purse a●d money again, there appeared unto him a Spirit in the shape of a Bear but not so big as a Coney, who promised upon condition that he would fall down and worship him, he would help him to his purse. He assented to it, and the Spirit told him to morrow about this time he should find his purse upon the floor where he made bottles, and that he would then come himself also; which was done accordingly: and thus at the time appointed recovering his purse he fell down upon his knees to the Spirit, and said, My Lord and God I thank you. This Spirit brought then with him two other, in the shape the one of a white Cat, the other of a Coney, which at the command of the Beare-Spirit he worshipped also. The Beare-Spirit told him he must have his Soul when he died, that he must suck of his body, that he must have some of his Blood to seal the Covenant. To all which he agreed, and so the Beare-Spirit leaping up to his shoulder, pricked him on the head, and thence took blood. After that, they all three vanished, but ever since came to him once every twenty four hours, and sucked on his body, where the marks are found. And that they had continually done thus for this twenty nine years together. That all these things should be a mere dream is a conceit more slight and foolish than any dream possibly can be. For that receiving of his purse was a palpable and sensible pledge of the truth of all the rest. And it is incredible that such a series of circumstances backed with twenty nine years' experience of being sucked and visited daily, sometimes in the day time, most commonly by night, by the same three Familiars, should be nothing but the hanging together of so many Melancholy Conceits and Fancies.  
Nor doth the sealing of Covenants and writing with Blood make such stories as these more to be suspected: For it is not at all unreasonable that such Ceremonies should pass betwixt a Spirit and a Man, when the like palpable Rites are used for the more firmly tying of Man to God. For whatsoever is crass and external leaves a stronger Impress upon the Fancy, and the remembrance of it strikes the mind with more efficacy. So that assuredly the Devil hath the greater hanck upon the Soul of a Witch or Wizard, that hath been persuaded to complete their Contract with him in such a gross sensible way, and keeps them more fast from revolting from him, than if they had only contracted in bare words.   

CHAP. VII.  
The nocturnal Conventicles of Witches; that they have often dissolved & disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ; and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home. The Dancing of Men, Women and clovenfooted Satyrs at midday; John Michael piping from the bough of an Oak, etc.  
BUt I shall now add further stories that ought to gain credit for the conspicuous effects recited in them. As that which Paulus Grillandus reports of one not far from Rome, who at the persuasion of his wife anointing himself, as she had done before him, was carried away in the air to a great Assembly of Wizards and Witches, where they were feasting under a Nut-Tree. But this stranger not relishing his cheer without Salt, at last the Salt coming, and he blessing of God for it, at that Name the whole Assembly disappeared, and he poor man was left alone naked an hundred miles off from home; whither when he had got he accused his wife, she confessed the fact, discovering also her companions, who were therefore burnt with her.  
The same Author writes a like story of a young girl thirteen years old in the Dukedom of Spalatto, who being brought into the like company and admiring the strangeness of the thing, and crying out Blessed God, what's here to do! made the whole assembly vanish, was left herself in the field alone, and wand'ring up and down was found by a country man to whom she told the whole matter.  
So the Husband of the Witch of Lochiae, whom she brought into the like Assembly, by saying O my God where are we? made all to vanish, and found himself naked alone in the field fifteen day's journey from home.  
Several other stories to this purpose Bodinus sets down, which these sensible effects of being so far distant from home and being found naked in the fields, show to be no freaks of Melancholy but certain truth. But that the Devil in these junqueting appears to the Guests in the form of a satire, black Goat, or else sometimes in the shape of an ill-favoured black man, is the ordinary confession of Witches, by this way discovered and convicted.  
Of his appearance in the shape of a man in black at least, if not a black man, a young woman committed for the suspicion of Witchcraft, at the castle in Cambridge told my learned friend Dr. Cudworth and myself this story. How one Lendall-wife, who afterwards at Cambridge suffered for a Witch, made a motion to her of procuring her a husband; she accepted of it. The day and hour appointted, her Sweetheart met her at Lendall's house. He broke the business to her; but in the middle of the conference she did but turn her head aside and he was vanished, and instead of a good proper Yeomanlike Man there was found in the chair, where he did sit, nothing but a young Whelp lying on the cushion.  
She told us also how upon a time when she dwelled with a Dame in a little town near Cambridge, and was sent into the fields to gather sticks, that Lendall-wife did meet her there and urged the old business again, and b●cause she would not consent to it, that she beat her unmercifully, pulled off all her clothes, and left her naked and in a manner dead upon the ground, and that she thought, if her Dame had not come to seek her, and had not found her, she had died no other death.  
She told us also how at another time the door being shut and she going to bed, that her Sweetheart came to her himself, earnestly desiring that the Match might go on: which she as resolutely refusing, he grew very angry, and asked her if she would make a fool of him, and gave her such a parting blow upon her thigh that it was black and blue a good while after. But that which I aim at happened sometime betwixt these passages I have already related.  
While this marriage was driving on, the Wench was again invited to Lendall-wife's house, where she might meet with her Sweetheart at a supper. She told us, when she was come, that she waited ● great while below, and marvelled that there was neither fire nor roast-meat nor any thing else that could promise any such entertainment as was expected, nor did she see any thing brought into the house all the while she was there, and yet notwithstanding, that at supper time the table was well furnished as well with guests as meat. He that did sit at the upper end of the table was all in black, to whom the rest gave very much respect, bowing themselves with a great deal of reverence whenever they spoke to him. But what the wench seemed most of all affected with, was that the company spoke such a Language as she understood not; and Lendall-wife whom at other times, she said, she could understand very well, when she spoke then at table she could not understand at all. Old Stranguidge (of whom there hath been reported ever since I came to the University that he was carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hog and tore his breeches upon the weathercock) was one of the company. I do not remember any other she told us of that we knew; but there were several that she herself knew not. It was dark when they went to supper, and yet there was neither candle nor candlestick on the board, but a movable light hovered over them, that wafted itself this way and that way in the air betwixt the ceiling and the table. Under this glimmering lamp they ate their victuals and entertained discourse in that unknown Dialect. She amazed at the strangeness of the business and weary of attending of so uncouth a company, as she said, slunck away from them and left them.  
As for my own part, I should have looked upon this whole Narration as a mere idle fancy or sick man's dream, had it not been that my belief was so much enlarged by that palpable satisfaction I received from what we heard from four or five Witches which we lately examined before: And yet what I heard was but such matters as are ordinarily acknowledged by such Witches as will confess. And therefore I shall rather leave my Reader to wait the like opportunity, then trouble myself with setting down any further examinations of my own.  
I will only add a Story or two out of Remigius concerning these Conventicles of Witches, and then I will proceed to some other proofs.  
John of Hembach was carried by his Mother being a Witch to one of these Conventicles, and because he had learned to play on the Pipe, was commanded by her to exercise his faculty & to get up into a Tree, that they might the better hear his Music. Which he doing, & looking upon the Dancers, how uncouth and ridiculous they were in their Motions and Gestures, being struck with admiration at the novelty of the matter, suddenly burst out into these words, Good God, what a mad company have we here! Which was no sooner said, but down came John, Pipe and all, and hurt his shoulder with the tumbling cast, who when he called to the company to help him, found himself alone, for they had all vanished, John of Hembach told the story, but people knew not what to make of it, till some of that mad Crew that danced to his pipe, were apprehended upon other suspicions, as Catharina Praevotia, Kelvers Orilla, and others, who made good every whit what John had before told (though they knew nothing of what he told before) adding also more particularly that the place where he piped to them was Maybuch.  
The other memorable Story that I shall relate out of Remigius is this. One Nicolea Langbernhard, while she was going towards Assenunturia along a hedge side, spied in the next field (it was about Noontime of day) a company of men and women dancing in a ring; and the posture of their bodies being uncouth and unusual made her view them more attentively, whereby she discerned some of them to have cloven feet, like Oxen or Goats (it should seem they were Spirits in the shape of lusty Satyrs) she being astonished with fear cries out, Jesus help me and send me well home. She had no sooner said so, but they all vanished saving only one Peter Grospetter, whom a little afterwards she saw snatched up into the air and to let fall his Malkin (a stick that they make clean ovens withal) and herself was also driven so forcibly with the wind, that it made her almost lose her breath. She was fain to keep her bed three days after.  
This Peter (though at first he would have followed the Law on Nicolea for slandering him, yet) afterward freely confessed and discovered others of his companions, as Barbelia the wife of Joannes Latomus, Mayetta the wife of Laurentius, who confessed she danced with those clovenfooted Creatures at what time Peter was amongst them. And for further evidence of the business John Michael, Herdsman, did confess, that while they thus danced, he played upon his Crooked staff, and struck upon it with his fingers, as if it had been a Pipe, sitting upon an high bough of an Oak; and that so soon as Nicolea called upon the name of Jesus, he tumbled down headlong to the ground, but was presently catched up again with a whirldwind, and carried to Weiller Meadows, where he had left his Herds a little before.  
Add unto all this, that there was found in the place where they danced a round Circle wherein there was the manifest marks of the treading of cloven feet, which were seen from the day after Nicolea had discovered the business, till the next Winter that the plough cut them out. These things happened in the year 1590.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Of Fairy Circles. A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius, viz. whether the Bodies of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures; whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnal Conventicles, their bodies being left at home; as also whether they leav● not their bodies in those Ecstasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain news from remote places in a very short time.  
IT might be here very seasonable, upon the foregoing story, to inquire into the nature of those large dark Rings in the grass, which they call Fairy Circles, whether they be the Rendezv●●z of Witches, or the dancing places of those little puppet-Spirits which they call Elves or Fairies. But these curiosities I leave to more busy Wits. I am only intent now upon my serious purpose of proving there are Spirits; which I think I have made a pretty good progress in already, and have produced such narrations that cannot but gain credit with such as are not perversely and wilfully incredulous.  
There is another more profitable question started, if it could be decided, concerning these Night-revelling of Witches, whether they be not sometimes there, their bodies lying at home, as sundry Stories seem to favour that opinion: Bodinus is for it, Remigius is against it.  
It is the same question, whether when Witches or Wizards profess they will tell what is done within so many miles compass, and afterwards to give a proof of their skill first anoint their bodies and then fall down dead in a manner, and so lie a competent time senseless, whether, I say, their souls go out of their bodies, or all be but represented to their Imagination.  
We may add a third, which may happily better fetch off the other two; And that is concerning your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (which the Germans call Were-wolff; the French Loups garous) Men transformed into Wolves: and there is much what the same reason of other Transformations. I shall not trouble you with any Histories of them, though I might produce many. But as well those that hold it is but a delusion of the Devil and mere Tragedies in Dreams, as they that say they are real Transactions, do acknowledge, that those parties that have confessed themselves thus transformed have been weary and sore with running, have been wounded and the like. Bodinus here also is deserted of Remigius, who is of the same mind with Wierus, that sly, smooth Physician, and faithful Patron of Witches, who will be sure to load the Devil as much as he can, his shoulders being more able to bear it, and so to ease the Hags.  
But for mine own part, though I will not undertake to decide the controversy, yet I think it not a●●isse to declare, that Bodinus may very well make good his own, notwithstanding any thing those do allege to the contrary. For that which Wierus and Remigius seem so much to stand upon, that it is too great a power for the Devil and too great indignity to Man, that he should be able thus to transform him; are in my mind but slight Rhe●orications, no sound Arguments.  
For what is that outward mis●apement of Body to the inward deformity of their Souls, which he helps on so notoriously? And they having given themselves over to him so wholly, why may he not use them thus here, when they shall be worse used by him hereafter? And for the changing of the species of things, if that were a power too big to be granted the Devil, yet it is no more done here, when he thus transforms a Man into a Wolf, then when he transforms himself into the shape of a Man. For this Wolf is still a Man, and that Man is still a Devil. For it is so as the Poet says it was in Ulysses his companions which Circe turned into Hogs, They had the Head, the Voice, the Body and Bristles of Hogs; — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But their Understanding was unchanged, they had the Mind and Memory of a Man as before. As Petrus Bourgotus professeth that when his companion Michael Verdung had anointed his body and transformed him into a Wolf, when he looked upon his hairy feet he was at first afraid of himself.  
Now therefore it being plain that nothing material is alleged to the contrary, and that men confess they are turned into Wolves, and acknowledge the savage cruelties they then committed upon Children, Women and Sheep, that they find themselves exceeding weary, and sometimes wounded; it is more natural to conclude they were really thus transformed, then that it was a mere Delusion of Fancy.  
For I conceive the Devil gets into their body, and by his subtle substance, more operative and searching than any fire or putrifying liquor, melts the yielding Compages of the body to such a consistency, and so much of it as is fit for his purpose, and makes it pliable to his imagination: and then it is as easy for him to work it into what Shape he pleaseth, as it is to work the Air into such forms and figures as he ordinarily doth. Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollify what is hard, than it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Air.  
And he that hath this power, we can never stick to give him that which is less, viz. to instruct men how they shall for a time forsake their Bodies, and come in again. For can it be a hard thing for him, that can thus melt and take a pieces the particles of the Body, to have the skill and power to loosen the Soul, a substance really distinct from the Body and separable from it; which at last is done by the easy course of Nature, at that final dissolution of Soul and Body which we call Death? But no course of Nature ever transforms the body of Man into the shape of a Wolf; so that this is more hard and exorbitant from the order of Nature than the other.  
ay but you'll say the greatness and incrediblenesse of the Miracle is this; That there should be an actual separation of Soul and Body and yet no Death. But this is not at all strange if we consider that Death is properly a disjunction of the Soul from the Body by reason of the body's unfitness any longer to entertain the Soul, which may be caused by extremity of Diseases, outward Violence or Age; And if the Devil could restore such bodies as these to life, it were a miracle indeed. But this is not such a miracle, nor is the Body properly dead, though the Soul be out of it. For the life of the Body is nothing else but that fitness to be actuated by the Soul. The conservation whereof is helped, as I conceive, by the anointing of the Body before the Ecstasy; which ointment filling the pores keeps out the cold and keeps in the heat and Spirits, that the frame and temper of the Body may continue in fit case to entertain th● Soul again at her return. So the vital streams of the carcase being not yet spent, the pristine operations of life are presently again kindled, as a candle new blown out and as yet reeking, suddenly catches fire from the flame of another, though at some distance, the light gliding down along the smoke.  
Wherefore there being nothing in the nature of the thing that should make us incredulous, these Sorceresses so confidently pronouncing that they are out of their Bodies at such times, and see and do such & such things, meet one another, bring messages, discover secrets and the like, it is more natural and easy to conclude they be really out of their Bodies, then in them. Which we should the more easily be induced to believe, if we could give credit to that Story Wierus tells of a Soldier out of whose mouth whilst he was asleep a thing in in the shape of a weasel came, which nudd●●ng along in the grass and at last coming to a brook side, very busily attempting to get over▪ but not being able, some one of the standers by that saw it, made a bridge for it of his sword▪ which it passed over by, and coming back made use of the same passage, and then entered into the Soldiers mouth again, many looking on: when he waked he told how he dreamed he had gone over an iron Bridge, and other particulars answerable to what the spectators had seen aforehand. Wierus acknowledgeth the truth of the story, but will by all means have it to be the Devil, not the Soul of the Man; which he doth in a tender regard to the Witches, that from such a truth as this they might not be made so obnoxious to suspicion that their Ecstasies are not mere Dreams and Delusions of the Devil, but are accompanied with real effects.  
I will not take upon me to decide so nice a controversy, only I will make bold to intermeddle thus far as to pronounce Bodinus his opinion, not at all unworthy of a rational and sagacious man. And that though by his being much addicted to such like speculations he might attribute some natural effects to the ministry of Spirits, when there was no need so to do, yet his judgement in other things of th●s kind is no more to be slighted for that, than Cartesius, that stupendious Mechanical Wit, is to be disallowed in those excellent inventions of the causes of those more general Phaenomena of Nature, because by his success in those he was emboldened to enlarge his Principles too far, and to assert that Animals themselves were mere Machina's: like Aristoxenus the Musician that made the Soul nothing else but an Harmony; of whom Tully pleasantly observes, Quod non recessit ab arte sua.  
Every Genius and Temper, as the sundry sorts of Beasts and living Creatures, have their proper excrement: and it is the part of a wise man to take notice of it, and to choose what is profitable, as well as to abandon what is useless and excrementitious.   

CHAP. IX.  
The Coldness of those bodies that Spirits appear in witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus. The natural Reason of this Coldness. That the Devil does really lie with Witches. That the very substance of Spirits is not fire. Spirits skirmishing on the ground. Field- fights and Sea- fights seen in the Air.  
BUt to return into the way, I might add other stories of your Daemons Metallici, your Guardian Genii, such as that of Socrates, and that other of which Bodinus tells an ample story, which he received from him who had the society and assistance of such an Angel or Genius, which for my own part I give as much credit to as to any story in Livy or Plutarch: Your Lares familiares, as also those that haunt and vex families appearing to many and leaving very sensible effects of their appearings. But I will not so far tyre either myself or my Reader. I will only name one or two stories more, rather than recite them. As that of Cardan, who writes as you may see in Otho Melander, that a Spirit that familiarly was seen in the house of a friend of his, one night laid his hand upon his brow which felt intolerably cold. And so Petrus Bourgotus confessed that when the Devil gave him his hand to kiss, it felt cold. And many more examples there be to this purpose.  
And indeed it stands to very good reason that the bodies of Devils being nothing but coagulated Air should be cold, as well as coagulated Water, which is Snow or Ice and that it should have a more keen and piercing cold, it consisting of more subtle particles, than those of water, and therefore more fit to insinuate, and more accurately and stingingly▪ to affect and touch the nerves.  
Wherefore Witches confessing so frequently as they do, that the Devil lies with them, and withal complaining of his tedious and offensive coldness, it is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them indeed, and that it is not a mere Dream, as their friend Wierus would have it.  
Hence we may also discover the folly of that opinion that makes the very essence of Spirits to be fire: for how unfit that would be to coagulate the air is plain at first sight. It would rather melt and dissolve these consistencies then constringe them and freeze them in a manner. But it is rather manifest that the essence of Spirits is a substance specifically distinct from all corporeal matter whatsoever. But my intent is not to Philosophise concerning the nature of Spirits, but only to prove their Existence. Which the story of the Spectre at Ephesus may be a further argument of. For that old man which Apollonius told the Ephesians was the walking plague of the city, when they stoned him and uncovered the heap, appeared in the shape of an huge black dog as big as the biggest Lion. This could be no imposture of Melanchly nor ●raud of any Priest. And the learned Grotius, a man far from all Levity and vain Credulity, is so secure of the truth of Ty●neus his Miracles, that he does not stick to term him impudent, that has the face to deny them.  
Our English Chronicles also tell us of Apparitions; armed men, foot and horse, fight upon the ground in the North part of England and in Ireland for many Evenings together, seen by many hundreds of men at once, and that the grass was trodden down in the places where they were seen to fight their Battles: which agreeth with Nicolea Langbernhard her Story of the clovenfooted Dancers, that left the print of their hoofs in the ring they trod down, for a long time after.  
But this skirmishing upon the Earth puts me in mind of the last part of this argument, and bids me look up into the Air. Where omitting all other Prodigies I shall only take notice of what is most notorious, and of which there can by no means be given any other account, then that it is the effect of Spirits. And this is the appearance of armed men fight and encountering one another in the Sky. There are so many examples of these Prodigies in Historians, that it were superfluous to instance in any. That before the great slaughter of no less than fourscore thousand made by Antiochus in Jerusalem recorded in the second of Maccabees chap. 5. is famous. The Historian there writes that through all the city for the space almost of forty days there were seen Horsemen running in the air, in cloth of Gold, and Armed with Lances, like a band of Soldiers, and Troops of Horsemen in array encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields, and multitudes of pi●●es, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments, and harness of all sorts. And Josephus writes also concerning the like Prodigies, that happened before the destruction of the City by Titus▪ prefacing first, that they were incredible, were it not that they were recorded by those that were Eye-witnesses of them.  
The like Apparitions were seen before the civil wars of Marius and Sylla. And Melanchthon affirms that a world of such Prodigies were seen all over Germany from 1524 to 1548. S●ellius amongst other places doth particularise in A●●rtsfort, where these fightings were seen not much higher than the house tops; as also in Amsterdam where there was a Sea-fight appearing in the air for an hour or two together, many thousands of men looking on. And to say nothing of what hath been seen in England not long ago, there is lately a punctual narration of such a Sea-fight seen by certain Hollanders, and sent over hither into England, but a Lion appearing alone at the end of that Apparition, though it may be true for aught I know, yet it makes it obnoxious to Suspicion and evasion and so unprofitable for my purpose. But the Phaenomena of this kind, whose reports cannot be suspected to be in subserviency to any Politic design, aught in reason to be held true, when there have been many professed Eye-witnesses of them. And they being resolvable into no natural causes, it is evident that we must acknowledge supernatural ones, such as Spirits, Intelligences or Angels, term them what you please.   

CHAP. X.  
A very memorable story of a certain pious man, who had the continual Society of a Guardian Genius.  
I Had here ended all my Stories, were I not tempted by that remarkable one in Bodinus, to our-run my Method. I but named it heretofore, I shall tell it now more at large. I am the more willingly drawn to relate it, such examples of the consociation of good Spirits being very scarce in History. The main reason whereof, as I conceive, is because so very few men are heartily and sincerely good. The Narration is more considerable in that he that writes it, had it from the man's own mouth whom it concerns; and is as follows.  
This Party, a holy and pious man, as it should seem, and an acquaintance of Bodinus', freely told him, how that he had a certain Spirit that did perpetually accompany him, which he was then first aware of, when he had attained to about thirty seven years of Age, but conceived that the said Spirit had been present with him all his life time, as he gathered from certain Monitory Dreams and Visions, whereby he was forewarned as well of several dangers as vices. That this Spirit discovered himself to him after he had for a whole year together earnestly prayed to God to ●end a good Angel to him, to be the Guide and Governor of his life and actions; adding also, that before and after Prayer he used to spend two or three hours in meditation and reading the Scriptures, diligently enquiring with himself, what Religion, amongst those many that are controverted in the world, might be best, beseeching God that he would be pleased to direct him to it. And that he did not allow of their way, that at all adventures pray to God to confirm them in that opinion they have already preconceived, be it right or wrong. That while he was thus busy with himself in matters of Religion, that he light on a passage in Philo Judaeus in his Book De Sacrificiis, where he writes, that a good and holy Man can offer no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God, than the Oblation of himself, and therefore following Philo's counsel, that he offered his Soul to God. And that after that, amongst many other divine Dreams and Visions, he once in his sleep seemed to hear the voice of God saying to him, I will save thy Soul, I am he that before appeared unto thee. Afterwards that the Spirit every day would knock at the door about three or four a clock in the morning, though he rising and opening the door could see no body, but that the Spirit persisted in this course, and unless he did rise, would thus rouse him up.  
This trouble and boisterousness made him begin to conceit that it was some evil Spirit that thus haunted him, and therefore he daily prayed earnestly unto God, that he would be pleased to send a good Angel to him, and often also sung Psalms, having most of them by heart.  
Wherefore the Spirit afterward knocked more gently at the door, and one day discovered himself to him waking, which was the first time that he was assured by his senses that it was he; for he often touched and stirred a Drinking-glasse that stood in his chamber, which did not a little amaze him.  
Two days after when he entertained at supper a certain f●●end of his, Secretary to the King, that this friend of his was much abashed while he heard the Spirit thumping on the bench hard by him, and was strucken with fear, but he ●ad him be of good courage, there was no hurt towards; and the better to assure him of it, told him the truth of the whole Matter.  
Wherefore from that time, ●aith Bodinus, he did affirm that this Spirit was always with him, and by some sensible sign did ever advertise him of things: as by striking his right ear if he did any thing amiss; if otherwise, his left. If any body came to circumvent him▪ that his right ear was st●uck, but his left ear, if a good man and to good ends accosted him. If he was about to eat or drink any thing that would hurt him, or intended or purposed with himself to do any thing that would prove ill, that he was inhibited by a sign, and if he delayed to follow his business, that he was quickened by a ●●gne given him.  
When he began to praise God in Psalms and to declare his marvellous Acts, that he was presently raised and strengthened with a spiritual and supernatural power.  
That he daily begged of God that he would teach him his Will, his Law and his Truth; And that he set one day of the week apart for reading the Scripture and Meditation, with singing of Psalms, and that he did not 〈◊〉 out of his house all that day; But that in his ordinary conversation he was sufficiently merry and of a cheerful mind, and he cited that saying for it, Vidi facies Sanctorum laetas. But in his conversing with others▪ if he had talked vainly and indiscreetly, or had some days together neglected his Devotions, that he was forthwith admonished thereof by a Dream. That he was also admonished to rise betimes in the Morning, and that about four of the clock a voice would come to him while he was asleep, saying, Who gets up first to pray?  
He told Bodinus also how he was often admonished to give Alms, and that 〈◊〉 more Charity he bestowed, the more prosperous he was. And that on a time when his enemies sought after his life, and knew that he was to go by water, that his Father in a Dream brought two Horses to him, the one white, the other bay; and that therefore he bid his servant hire him two horses, and though he told him nothing of the colours, that yet he brought him a white one and a bay one.  
That in all difficulties, journeyings and what other enterprises soever, he used to ask counsel of God, and that one night, when he had begged his blessing, while he slept he saw a Vision wherein his Father seemed to bless him.  
At another time, when he was in very great Danger, and was newly gone to bed, he said that the Spirit would not let him alone till he had raised him again, wherefore he watched and prayed all that night. The day after he escaped the hands of his Persecuters in a wonderful manner; which being done, in his next sleep he heard a voice saying, Now sing, Quisedet in latibulo Altissi●●.  
A great many other passages this Party told Bodinus, so many indeed, that he thought it an endless labour to recite them all. But what remains of those he has recited, I will not stick to take the pains of transcribing them.  
Bodinus asked him why he would not speak to the Spirit for the gaining of the more plain and familiar converse with it. He answered that he once attempted it, but the Spirit instantly struck the door with that vehemency, as if he had knocked upon it with an hammer, whereby he gathered his dislike of the matter.  
But though the Spirit would not talk with him, yet he could make use of his judgement in the reading of books and moderating his studies. For if he took an ill book into his hands and fell a reading, the Spirit would strike it, that he might lay it down, and would also sundry times, be the books what they would, hinder him from reading and writing overmuch, that his mind might rest, and silently meditate with itself. He added also, that very often while he was awake, a small, subtle, inarticulate sound would come unto his ears.  
Bodinus further enquiring whether he ever see the Shape and Form of the Spirit, he told him that while he was awake he never see any thing but a certain light very bright and clear and of a round Compass and Figure; But that once, being in great jeopardy of his life, and having heartily prayed to God that he would be pleased to provide for his safety, about break of day, amidst his slumberings and wake, he espied on his bed where he lay a young Boy clad in a white Garment tinctured somewhat with a touch of purple, and of a visage admirably lovely and beautiful to behold. This he confidently affirmed to Bodinus for a certain truth.   

CHAP. XI.  
Certain Inquiries upon the preceding Story; as, What these Guardian Genii may be. Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man, or to some none. What may be the reason of Spirits so seldom appearing; And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy. Whether every man's complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius. And lastly whether it be lawful to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no.  
IT is beside my present scope, as I have already professed, to enter into any more particular and more curious Disquisitions concerning the nature of Spirits, my aim being now only to demonstrate their Existence by those strange Effects recorded every where in History. But this last Narration is so extraordinarily remarkable, that it were a piece of disrespect done to it, to dismiss it without some Inquiries at least into such Problems as it naturally affords to our consideration, though it may well seem plainly beyond the power of humane Wit, or laws of Modesty to determine any thing therein.  
In the first place therefore, it cannot but amuse a man's mind to think what these officious Spirits should be, that so willingly sometimes offer themselves to consociate with a man; whether they may be Angels uncapable of incorporation into humane Bodies, which vulgarly is conceived: Or whether the Souls of the deceased, they having more affinity with mortality and humane frailty than the other, and so more sensible of our necessities and infirmities, having once felt them themselves; a reason alleged for the Incarnation of Christ by the Author to the Hebrews: Which opinion has no worse Favourers than Plutarch, Maximus Tyrius, and other Platonists: Or lastly, whether there may not be of both sorts. For separate Souls being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a condition not unlike the Angels themselves, it is easy to conceive that they may very well undergo the like Offices.  
Secondly we are invited to inquire, whether every man have his Guardian Genius or no. That Witches have many, such as they are, their own confessions testify. The Pythagorea●s were of opinion that every man has two Genii, a good one and a bad one. Which Mahomet has taken into his Religion, adding also, that they sit on men's shoulders with table-books in their hands, and that the one writes down all the good, the other all the evil a man does. But such expressions as those I look upon as Symbolical rather than Natural. And I think it more reasonable that a man changing the frame of his mind changes his Genius withal: Or rather, unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted that he is left to common Providence, as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable, scarce any particular evil Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetual Assistant in his affairs and fortunes. But extreme Poverty, irksome old Age, want of Friends, the Contempt, Injury and hardheartedness of evil Neighbours, working upon a Soul low sunk into the body and wholly devoid of the Divine life, does sometimes kindle so sharp, so eager, and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge, that the shrieks of men while they are a murdering, the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night, or the squeaking and roaring of tortured Beasts do not ●o certainly call to them those of their own kind, as this powerful Magic of a pensive and complaining soul in the bitterness of its affliction attracts the aid of these over-officious Spirits. So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to ●ang Witches are the first that made them, and have no more goodness nor true piety than these they so willingly prosecute, but are as wicked as they, though with better luck or more discretion, offending no further than the Law will permit them, and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man, though with a great deal of clamour of justice▪ they will revenge the death of their Hogg, or Cow.  
Thirdly it were worth our disquisition, why Spirits so seldom now adays appear, especially those that are good; whether it be not the wickedness of the present Age, as I have already hinted; or the general prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear, that they must be straightways Devils; or the frailty of humane nature that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit, no more than other Animals are, for into what agonies Horses and Dogs are cast upon their approach, is in every one's mouth, and is a good circumstance to distinguish a real Apparition from our own Imaginations; or lastly whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves, who, it may be, without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible, it being happily as troublesome a thing to them, to keep themselves in one steady visible consistency in the air, as it is for men that dive, to hold their breath in the water.  
Fourthly it may deserve our search, whether Spirits have any settled form or shape. Angels are commonly pictured like good plump cherry-cheeked Lads. Which is no wonder, the boldness of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man. In both it is as it pleases the Painter. But this story seems rather to favour their opinion, that say that Angels and separate S●uls have no settled form but what they please to give themselves upon occasion, by the power of their own Fancy. Ficinu●, as I remember, somewhere calls them aereal Stars. And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benign Eyes of God running to and fro in the world with love and pity beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless and single-hearted men, ever ready to do them good and to help them.  
What I conceive of separate Souls and Spirits, I cannot better express than I have already in my Poem of the Preexistency of the Soul. And I hope it will be no sin to be better than my word, who in my Preface have promised no Poetry at all, but I shall not think much to offer to your view these two Stanzas out of the forenamed Poem.  

Like to a light fast locked in Lantern dark,  
Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide  
In slabby streets, and dirty Channels mark;  
Some weaker rays from the black top do glide,  
And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side.  
But when we've passed the peril of the way,  
Arrived at home, and laid that case aside,  
The naked light how clearly doth it ray,  
And spread its joyful beams as bright as Summer's day?   

Even so the Soul in this contracted state,  
Confined to these strait Instruments of Sense,  
More dull and narrowly doth operate;  
At this hole hears, the Sight must ray from thence,  
Here tastes, there smells; But when she's gone from hence,  
Like naked Lamp she is one shining Sphere,  
And round about has perfect cognoscence  
What ere in her Horizon doth appear;  
She is one Orb of sense, all Eye, all airy Eear.   
And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body, I think is easily applicable to other Gen●i, or Spirits.  
The fifth Enquiry may be, how these good Gen●i become serviceable to men, for either heightening their Devotions or enabling them to Prophecy; whether it can be by any other way then by descending into their bodies and possessing the heart and brain. For the Euchites, who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evil Spirits, did utterly obliterate in their Souls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Principles of Goodness and Honesty (as you may see in Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that the evil Spirits might come into their bodies, whom those sparks of virtue, as they said, would drive away, but those being extinguished they could come in and possess them and enable them to prophesy. And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own bodies as well as theirs to whom they send them, is plain in the Story of the Witches of Warbois. It is also the opinion of Trismegist, that these Spirits get into the Veins and Arteries both of men and beasts.  
Wherefore concerning the Dreams and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus, it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body, as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked, and that residing in his brain and figuring of it, by thinking of this or that Object, as we ourselves figure it when we think, the external senses being laid asleep, those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense; and that Memory recovering them when he awaked, they could not but seem to him as other Dreams did saving that they were better, they ever signifying some thing of importance unto him.  
But those Raptures of Devotion by day, might be by the Spirits kindling a purer kind of Love-flame in his heart, as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination. And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled soul in him, none, I think, can well conceive unless they had the experience of it.  
And if this be their manner of communion, it may well be enquired into, in the sixth place, whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii. Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast. From whence it may seem not improbable, that those bodies that smell sweet themselves, where the mind does not stink with pride and hypocrisy, have some natural advantage for the gaining their society. But if there be any peculiar complexion or natural condition required, it will prove less hopeful for every one to obtain their acquaintance. Yet Regeneration come to it's due pitch, though it can not be without much pain and anguish, may well rectify all uncleanness of nature; so that no singularly good and sincere man can reasonably despair of their Familiarity. For he that is so highly in favour with the Prince, it is no wonder he is taken notice of by his Courtiers.  
But the last and most considerable question is, whether it be lawful to pray to God for such a good Genius or Angel. For the Example in the foregoing story seems a sufficient warrant. But I conceive Faith and Desire ought to be full-sayle to make such Voyages prosperous, and our end and purpose pure and sincere, But if Pride, Conceitedness●▪ or Affectation of some peculiar privilege above other Mortals, spur a man up to so bold an Enterprise, his Devotions will no more move either God or the Good Geni●, than the whining voice of a Counterfeit will stir the affection of the discreetly Charitable. Nay this high Presumption may invite some real Fiends to put a worse jest upon him than was put upon that tattered Rogue Guzman, by those Mock-Spirits, for his so impudently pretending Kindred, and so boldly intruding himself into the knowledge and acquaintance, of the Gentry and Nobility of Genoa.  
But the safest Magic is the sincere consecrating a man's Soul to God, and the aspiring to nothing but so profound a pitch of Humility as not to be conscious to ourselves of being at all touched with the praise and applause of men; and to such a free and universal sense of Charity as to be delighted with the welfare of another as much as our own. They that solely have their eye upon these will find coming in what ever their heart can desire. But they that put forth their hand to catch at high things, as they fancy, and neglect these, prove at last but a lague to themselves, and a Laughingstock to the world.  
These are the several Speculations that the foregoing Narration would naturally beget in the minds of the curious. But methinks I hear the Atheist replying to all this, That I have run a long division upo● very uncertain grounds, and ask me not without some scorn and anger, whether I believe that multifarious Fable I have rehearsed out of Bodinus and so much descanted upon. To which I answer, That I will not take my oath that the most likely passage in all Plutarch's Lives, or Livies History is assuredly true. But however that I am not ashamed to profess, that I am as well assured in my own judgement of the existence of Spirits, as that I have met with men in Westminster-Hall, or seen Beasts in Smithfield.   

CHAP. XII.  
That whether the Species of things have been from all Eternity, or whether they rose out of the Earth by degrees in Time, the Frame of them is such, that against all the Evasions of the Atheist they naturally imply that there is a God.  
THus have we gone through the many and manifold effects represented to our senses on this wide Theatre of the World. The faintest and obscurest whereof are Arguments full enough to prove the existence of a Deity. But some being more palpable than other some, and more accommodate to awaken the dull and slow belief of the Atheist into the acknowledgement of a God, it will not be amiss to take notice of what Evasions he attempts to make for the extricating himself out of those that he pharisees the most sensibly to entangle him, and the most strongly to hinder his escape.  
And such are especially these two last I insisted upon, the curious frame of Man's body, and Apparitions. And the force of the former some endeavour to evade thus; That there hath ever been Man and Woman and other Species in the world, and so it is no wonder that like should propagate its like, and therefore that there is no want of any other invisible or material cause but the species of things themselves: And so these admirable contrivances in Nature must imply no divine Wisdom nor Counsel or any such thing.  
But here I demand whether there were ever any Man that was not mortal, and whether there be any mortal that had not a beginning, and if he had, it must be either by Generation or Creation. If by Creation, there is a God. If by aequivocal Generation, as rising out of the Earth, our argument will hold good still notwithstanding this evasion, But if you'll say there was never any man in the world but was born of a Woman, this must amount but to thus much▪ that there hath been an infinite number of successions of births. If there be meant by it any thing more than thus, it will not prove sense.  
For though our Fancy cannot run through an infinite series of Effects, yet our Reason is assured there is no Effect without a Cause, and be the Progress of Causes and Effects as infinite as it will, at last we resolve it naturally into some First; and he that denies this, seems to me wilfully to wink against the light of Nature, and do violence to the faculties of his mind. And therefore of necessity there must be at least one first Man and Woman which are first ordine Naturae, though infinity of time reckoning from the present causeth a confusion & obscurity in our apprehensions. And these which are thus first in order of Nature or Causality must also exist first before there can be any other Men or Women in the World. And therefore concerning these first it being manifest that they were born of no Parents, it follows they were Created or rose out of the Earth, and so the Evasion will be frustrated.  
Besides if you affirm that there was never any Man in the world but who was born of a Woman, and so grew to Man's estate by degrees, it will fall to some man's share to be a Babe and a Man at once, or to be both Father and Child, For so soon as Mankind was (let it be from Eternity, and beyond Eternity is nothing) those that then existed were begot of some body, and there was nothing before them to beget them, therefore they begot themselves.  
But that they should at once then have been perfect men, their substances being of alterable and passive matter, that is wrought diversely and by degrees into that frame it hath, is as rash, as if they should say that Boots, and Shoes, and Stockings, and Pies, and Peels, and Ovens have been together with all Eternity: when as it is manifest there ought to be an orderly interval of time before these things can be, wherein must precede the kill of Oxen, and flaying of them, as also of Sheep, tanning, spinning, cutting, and many more such like circumstances. So that it is enormously ridiculous to say that Mankind might have been at once from all Eternity, unless the Omnipotency of a God, who can do what ever we can imagine and more, should by his unresistable Fiat cause such a thing in a moment so soon as himself was, which was ever, and he was never to seek for either power or skill.  
But that the fluid Matter of itself should have been thus raised up from all Eternity into such complete Species of things, is very groundless and irrational. I say, that there ever should be such a thing as this in the world, a man at once existing of himself in this corporeal frame that we see, who notwithstanding did afterwards die like other mortals; is a fable above all Poetical Figments whatsoever, and more incredible than the hardest Article that any Religion ever offered to the Atheist's belief.  
Others therefore deserting this way of Evasion betake themselves to another, which, though it seem more plausible at first view, is fully as frivolous. They say that all the Species of things, Man himself not excepted, came first ●ut of the Earth by the omnifarious attempt of the particles of the Matter upon one another, which at last light on so lucky a construction and fabric of the Bodies of Creatures as we see, and that having an infinite series of time to try all tricks in, they would of necessity at last come to this they are.  
But I answer, that these particles might commit infinite Tautologies in their strokes and motions, and that therefore there was no such necessity at all of falling into those forms and shapes that appea●e in the world.  
Again, there is that excellent contrivance in the Body, suppose, of a Man, as ● have heretofore instanced, that it cannot but be the effect of very accurate Knowledge and Counsel.  
And lastly this concourse of Atoms they being left without a guide, it is a miracle above all apprehension, that they should produce no in●pt Species of things, such as should of their own nature have but three Legs, and one Eye, or but one Ear, rows of Teeth along the Vertebrae of their Backs, and the like, as I have above intimated, these In●ptitudes being more easy to hit upon, than such accurate and irreprehensible frames of Creatures.  
But to ●lude the force of this Argument against the fortuitous concourse of Atoms▪ they'll excogitate th●s mad evasion; That Nature did indeed at first bring forth such ill-favoured and ill-appointed Monsters, as well as those that are of a more exquisite frame; but those that were more perfect fell upon those other and killed them, and devoured then, they being not so well provided of either limbs or senses as the other, and so were never able to hop fast enough from them, or maturely to discover the approaching dangers that ever and anon were coming upon them. But this unjust and audacious calumny cast upon God and Nature will be easily discovered and convicted of falsehood if we do but consider,  
First that Trees, Harbs, and Flowers, that do not stine from their places, or exercise such fierce cruelty one upon another, that they all in their several kinds are handsome, and elegant, and have no ineptitude or defect in them.  
Secondly that all Creatures born of putrefaction, as Mice▪ and Frogs and the like, as those many hundreds of Infects, as Grasshoppers, Flies, Spiders and such other, that these also have a most accurate contrivance of parts, & that there is nothing framed rashly or ineptly in any of them.  
Lastly in more perfect Creatures, as in the Scotch Barnacles, which Historians write of, of which if there be any doubt, yet Gerard relates that of his own knowledge, which is as admirable, and as much to our purpose, that there is a kind of Fowl which in Lancashire are called Tree Geese, they are bred out of rotten pieces of broken ships and ●●unks of Trees cast upon a little Island in Lancashire they call the Pile of Foulders; the same Author saith he hath found the like also in other parts of this Kingdom: Those Fowls in all respects, though bred thus of putrefaction, (and that they are thus bred is undeniably true as any man if he please may satisfy himself by consulting Gerard the very last page of his History of Plants) are of as an exact Fabric of Body, and as fitly contrived for the functions of such a kind of living Creature, as any of those that are produced by propagation. Nay the●e kind of Fowls themselves do also propagate, which has imposed so upon the foolishness of some, that they 〈◊〉 denied that other way of their generation, wh●● as 〈◊〉 being generated one way does not exclude the 〈…〉 seen in Frogs and Mice.  
Wherefore those productions out of the 〈…〉 Putrefaction being thus perfect and accurate in 〈…〉 well as others, it is a manifest discovery that 〈…〉 never frame any species of things ineptly and 〈…〉 that therefore she was ever guided by Counsel and 〈◊〉 that is, that Nature herself is the effect of an all-knowing God.  
Nor doth this consideration only take away this present Evasion, but doth more palpably and intelligibly enervate the former. For what boots it them to fly unto an infinite propagation of individuals in the same eternal Species, as they imagine, that they might be able always to assign a Cause answerable to the Effect; when as there are such Effects as these, and Products of Putrefaction, where Wisdom and Counsel are as truly conspicuous as in others? For thus are they nevertheless necessarily illaqueated in that inconvenience which they thought to have escaped by so acquaint a subtlety.   

CHAP. XIII.  
That the Evasions of Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly, that it is an evident Argument that they are convinced in their own Judgements of the Truth of these kinds of Phaenomena, which forces them to answer as well as they can, though they be so ill provided.  
NOw for their Evasions whereby they would elude the force of that Argument for Spirits, which is drawn from Apparitions, they are so weak and silly, that a man may be almost sure they were convinced in their judgement of the truth of such like Stories, else it had been better flatly to have denied them, then to feign such idle and vain reasons of them.  
For first they say they are nothing but Imaginations, and that there is nothing real without us in such Apparitions.  
But being beaten off from this slight account, for that many see the same thing at once, than they fly to so miraculous a power of Fancy, as if it were able to change the Air into a real shape and form, so that others may behold it, as well as he that framed it by the power of his Fancy.  
Now I demand of any man, whether this be not a harder Mystery and more unconceivable than all the Magical Metamorphoses of Devils or Witches. For it is far easier to conceive that some knowing thing in the Air should thus transform the Air into this or that shape, being in that part of the Air it doth thus transform, then that the Imagination of man, which is but a Modification of his own mind, should be able at a distance to change it into such like Appearances, But suppose it could, can it animate the Air that it doth thus metamorphize, and make it speak, and answer to questions, and put things into men's hands, and the like? O the credulity of besotted Atheism! How intoxicated and infatuated are they in their conceits, being given up to sensuality, and having lost the free use of the natural faculties of their mind!  
But shall this force of Imagination reach as high as the Clouds also, and make Men fight pitched Battles in the Air, running and charging one against the other?  
Here the same bold pretender to Wit and Philosophy Caesar Vaninus (who cunningly and jugglingly endeavours to infuse the poison of Atheism into the mind of his Reader on every occasion) hath recourse to those old cast rags of Epicurus his. School, the Exuvious Effluxes of things; and attempts to salve these Phaenomena thus; That the vapours of men's bodies and it seems of Horses too, are carried up into the Air and fall into a certain proportionable posture of parts, and so imitate the figures of them aloft among the clouds.  
But I demand how the vapours of the Horses find the vapours of their Riders: and when and how long are they coming together: and whether they appear not before there be any Armies in the Field to send up such vapours: and whether Harness and Weapons send up vapours too, as Swords, Pikes, and Shields: and how they come to light so happily into the hands of those Aerial men of war, especially the vapours of Metals (if they have any) being heavier in all likelihood than the reck of Animals and Men: and lastly how they come to discharge at one another and to fight, there being neither life nor soul in them: and whether Sounds also have their Exuviae that are reserved till these solemnities; for at Alborough in Suffolk 1642 were heard in the Air very loud beat of Drums▪ shooting of Muskets, and Ordinance▪ as also in other such like Prodigies there hath been heard the sounding of Trumpets, as Snellius w●ites. A●d Pliny also makes mention of the sounding of trumpets and clashing of Armour heard out of the Heavens about the Cymbr●ck Wars, and often before. But here at Alborough all was concluded with a melodious noise of Musical instruments.  
The Ex●viae 〈◊〉 Fiddles it seems ●ly up into the Air too, or were those Musical Accents frozen there for a time, and at the heat and firing of the Canons the air relenting and thawing became so harmoniously vocal? With what vain conceits are men intoxicated, that wilfully wink ●g●inst the light of Nature, and are estranged from the true knowledge and acknowledgement of a God  
But there is another Evasion which the same sedulous Insinuatour of Atheism would make use of in case this should not hold, which seems more sober but no less false. And that is this: That these sigh●i●gs and skirmishings in the Air are only the 〈◊〉 of some real Battle on the Earth. But this in Nature is plainly impossible. For of necessity these Armies thus fight, being at such a distance from the Spectators that the same of the Battle never arrives to their ears, their eyes can never behold it by any reflection from the clouds. For besides that reflection makes the images more dim than direct sight, such a distance from the Army to the clouds, and then from the clouds to our eye, will lessen the Species so exceedingly that they will not at all be visible.  
Or if we could imagine th●t there might be some times such an advantage in the figure of these clouds as might in some sort remedy this lessening of the Species, yet their surfaces are so exceeding rudely polished, and Reflection which, as I said, is ever dim enough of itself▪ is here so extraordinarily imperfect▪ that they can never be able, according to the course of Nature, to return the Species of Terrestrial Objects back again to our sight, it being so evident that they are unfit for what is of far less difficulty. For we never find them able to reflect the image of a Star when as not only glass, but every troubled pool or dirty plash of water in the Highway does usually do it.  
But that it is far easier for a Star, then for any of these Objects here upon Earth to be reflected to our Eyes by those rude natural Looking-glasses placed among the clouds, sundry reasons will sufficiently inform us.  
For first, The Stars do not abate at all of their usual magnitude in which they ordinarily appear to us, by this refl●ction; the difference of many hundreds of Leagues making no difference of magnitude in them, for indeed the distance of the Diameter of the Orbite of the Earth makes none, as must be acknowledged by all those that admit of the annual motion thereof. But a very few miles do exceedingly diminish the usual bigness of the Species of an Horse or Man, even to that littleness, that they grow invisible. What then will become of his Sword, Shield, or Spear? And in these cases we now speak of, how great a journey the Species have from the Earth to the cloud that reflects them, I have intimated before.  
Secondly it is manifest, that a Star hath the pre-eminence above these Terrestrial Objects, in that it is as pure a light as the Sun, though not so big, but they but opake coloured bodies, and that therefore there is no comparison betwixt the vigour and strength of the Species of a Star and of them.  
Thirdly in the Nighttime, the Eye being placed in the shadow of the earth, those reflections of a Star will be yet more easily visible; whenas the great light of the Sun by Day, must needs much debilitate these reflected Images of the Objects upon the Earth, his beams striking our Eyes with so strong vibrations.  
Fourthly and lastly, there being Stars all over the Firmament, so as there is, it should seem a hundred times more ●asie for natural Causes to hit upon a Paraster or Parastron (for let Analogy ●mbolden me so to call these seldom or never seen Phaenomena, the image of a single Star or whole Constellation reflected from the clouds) then upon a Parclios or Paraselenc. But now the story of these is more than an hundred times more frequent than that of the Paraster. For it is so seldom discovered that it is doubted whither it be or no, or rather acknowledged not to be, of which there can be no reason, but that the clouds are so ill-polished that they are not able to reflect so considerable a light as a Star. From whence I th●nk, we may safely gather▪ that it is therefore impossible that they should reflect so debile Species as the Colours, and Shapes of Beasts and Men, and that so accurately, as that we may see their swords, helmets, shields, spears, and the like.  
Wherefore it is plain that these Apparitions on high in the Air, are no Reflections of any Objects upon Earth; or if it were imaginable that they were, that some supernatural cause must assist to conglaciate & polish the Surfaces of the clouds to such an extraordinary accuracy of figure & smoothness, as will suffice for such prodigious Reflections.  
And that these Spirits that rule in the Air may not act upon the Materials there, as well as Men here upon the Earth work upon the parts thereof, as also upon the neighbouring Elements so far as they can reach, shaping, perfecting, and directing things, according to their own purpose and pleasure, I know no reason at all in Nature or Philosophy, for any man to deny. For that the help of some officious Gen● is employed in such like Prodigies as these, the seasonableness of their appearance seems no contemptible argument, they being according to the observation of Historians, the Forerunners of Commotions and Troubles in all Kingdoms and Commonwealths.  
Yet nevertheless as good Artificers as I here suppose▪ they working upon nature must be bounded by the Laws of Nature. And Reflection will have its limits as well as Refraction, whither for conveyance of Species or kindling of hea●; the Laws and bounds whereof that discerning Wit Cartesius being well aware of, doth generously and judiciously pronounce; That a burning-Glasse, the distance of whose focus from the Glass doth not bear a less proportion to the Diameter thereof, than the distance of the Earth from the Sun to the Diameter of the Sun, will burn no more vehemently than the direct rays of the Sun will do without it, though in other respects this Glass were as exactly shaped & curiously polished, as could be expected from the hand of an Angel.  
I have now completed this present Treatise against Atheism in all the three parts thereof: upon which while I cast mine eye and view that clear and irrefutable evidence of the cause I have undertaken, the external Appearances of things in the world so faithfully seconding the undeniable dictates of the innate Principles of our own minds, I cannot but with confidence aver, That there is not any one Notion in all Philosophy more certain & demonstrable then that there is a God.  
And verily I think I have ransacked all the corners of every kind of Philosophy that can pretend to bear any stroke in this Controversy, with that diligence, that I may safely pronounce, that it is mere brutish Ignorance or Impudence, no Skill in Nature or the Knowledge of things, that can encourage any man to pro●esse Atheism, or to embrace it at the proposal of those that make profession of it.  
But so I conceive it is, that at first some famously learned men being not so indiscreetly zealous and superstitious as others, have been mistaken by Idiots and traduced for Atheists, and then ever after some one vainglorious Fool or other, hath affected with what safety he could to seem Atheistical, that he might thereby forsooth be reputed the more learned, or the profounder Naturalist.  
But I dare assure any man, that if he do but search into the bottom of this enormous Disease of the Soul, as Trismegist truly calls it, he will find nothing to be the cause thereof, but either Vanity of mind, or brutish Sensuality, & an untamed desire of satisfying a man's own will in every thing, an obnoxious Conscience, and a base Fear of divine vengeance, Ignorance of the scantness & insufficiency of second causes, a jumbled Feculencie and Incomposednesse of the spirits by reason of perpetual Intemperance & Luxury, or else a dark bedeading Melancholy that so starves and kills the apprehension of the Soul in divine matters especially, that it makes a man as inept for such Contemplations, as if his head was filled with cold Earth, or dry Grave-moulds.  
And to such slow Constitutions as these, I shall not wonder, 〈◊〉 as the first Part of my discourse must seem marvellous subtle, so the last appear ridiculously incredible. But they are to remember that I do not here appeal to the Complexional humours or peculiar Relishes of men, that arise out of the temper of the body, but to the known & unalterable Ideas of the mind, to the Phaenomena of Nature and Records of History. Upon the last whereof if I have something more fully insisted, it is not to be imputed to any vain Credulity of mine, or that I take a pleasure in telling strange stories, b●t that I thought sit to fortify and strengthen the Faith of others as much as I could; being well assured that a contemptuous misbelief of such like Narrations concerning Spirits, and an endeavour of making them all ridiculous and incredible, is a dangerous Prelude to Atheism itself, or else a more close and cra●ty Profession or Insinuation of it. For assuredly that Saying was nothing so true in Politics, No Bishop, no King; as this is in Metaphysics, No Spirit, no God.    

A Table of the Chapters of each BOOK.  

BOOK I.  
I. THe seasonable usefulness of the present Discourse, or the Motives that put the Author upon these endeavours of demonstrating that there is a God. 〈…〉 pag. 1  
II. What is meant by demonstrating there is a God, and that the mind of men, unless he do violence to his faculties, will fully assent or descent from that which notwithstanding may have a bare possibility of being otherwise. 2  
III. An attempt towards the finding out the true Notion or Definition of God, and a clear Conviction that there is an indelible Idea of a Being absolutely perfect in the mind of Man. 6  
IU. What Notions are more particularly comprised in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect. That the difficulty of framing the conception of a thing ought to be no argument against the existence thereof: the nature of corporeal Matter being so perplexed and intricate, which yet all men acknowledge to exist. That the Idea of a Spirit is as easy a Notion as of any other substance what ever. What powers and properties are contained in the Notion of a Spirit. That Eternity and Infinity, if God were not▪ would be cast upon something else; so that Atheism cannot free the mind from such Intricacies. Goodness, Knowledge and Power, Notions of highest perfection, and therefore necessarily included in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect. 8  
V. That the Soul of Man is not Abrasa Tabula, and in what sense she might be said ever to have had the actual knowledge of eternal truths in her. 13  
VI. That the Soul of Man has of herself actual Knowledge in her, made good by sundry Instances and Arguments. 14  
VII. The mind of man being not unfurnished of Innate Truth, that we are with confidence to attend to her natural and unprejudiced Dictates and Suggestions. That some Notions and Truths are at least naturally and unavoidably assented unto by the soul, whether she have of herself Actual Knowledge in her or not. And that the definition of a Being absolutely perfect is such. And that this absolutely perfect Being is God, the Creator and Contriver of all things. 17  
VIII. The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection. From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods than One. 19  
IX. The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls, and is the fittest Natural means imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker. That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind, to either hasten or hinder its assent in any thing. We being dealt with in all points as if there were a God, that naturally we are to conclude there is one. 25  
X. Natural Conscience, and Religious Veneration, arguments of the Existence of God. 29  
XI. Of the Nature of the Soul of Man, whether she be a mere Modification of the Body, or a Substance really distinct, and then whether corporeal or incorporeal. 35   

The Second Book.  
I. The Universal Matter of the World be it homogeneal or heterogeneal, self-moved or resting of itself, that it can never be contrived into that Order it is without the Super-in●endency of a God. 43  
II. The perpetual Parallelisme of the Axis of the Earth and its due proportion of Inclination, as also the course of the Moon crossing the Ecliptic, evident arguments that the fluid Matter is guided by a divine Providence. The Atheists Sophism of arguing from some petty inconsiderable Effects of the Motion of the Matter, that the said Motion is the cause of all things, seasonably detected and deservedly derided. 47  
III. That Rivers, Quarries of stone, Timber-Wood, Metals, Minerals, and the Magnet, considering the nature of Man, what use he can make of them, are manifest signs that the rude Motion of the Matter is not left to itself, but is under the guidance and Super-intendency of an alwise God. 53  
IU. A further proof of Divine Providence taken from the Sea, and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation. 56  
V. Though the mere motion of the Matter may do something, yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animals. That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion, others of Substantial Forms. That Beauty is not a mere Fancy: and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectual Principle. 59  
VI. The Seeds and Signatures of Plants, arguments of a divine Providence. 64  
VII. Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulnesse of Plants. 69  
VIII. The Usefulnesse of Animals an argument of divine Providence. 74  
IX. Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animals, as also from the manner of their Propagation. 78  
X. The Frame or Fabric of the Bodies of Animals plainly argue that there is a God. 86  
XI. The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signs of Divine Providence. 91  
XII. Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Man's Body, from the Passions of his Mind, and fitness of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe. 93   

The Third Book.  
I. That, good m●n not always faring best in this world, the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist. The irreligious Jeers and Sacrileges of Dionys●us of Syracuse. That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false, and what are the best and safest ways to distinguish them that we may not be imposed upon by History. 105  
II. The Moving of a Sieve by a Charm. Coskinom●ncy. A Magical cure of an Horse. The Charming of Serpents. A strange Example of one Death-strucken as he walked the Streets. A story of a sudden wind that had like to have thrown down the Gallows at the hanging of two Witches. 109  
III. That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremonies or forms of words proved by sundry Examples. Margaret War●e discharged upon an Oak at a Thunderclap. Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top. ●he Witch of Constance seen by the Shepherds to ride through the Air. III  
IU. Supernatural Effects observed in them that are Bewitched and Possessed. The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia. 115  
V. Examples of Bewitched Persons that have had Balls of Hair, Nails, Knives, Wood stuck with Pinns, pieces of Cloth, and such like trash conveyed into their Bodies, with examples also of other Supernatural Effects. 119  
VI. The Apparition Eckerken. The Story of the pied Piper. A Triton or Sea-God seen on the banks of Rub●con. Of the Imps of Witches, and whether those old women be guilty of so much do●age as the Atheist fancies them. That such things pass betwixt them and their Imps as are impossible to be imputed to Melancholy. The examination of John Winnick of Molesworth. The reason of Scaling Covenants with the Diveil. 123  
VII. The nocturnal Conven●●les of Witches; that they have often dissolved and disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ; and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home. The Dancing of Men, Women and clovenfooted Satyrs at midday; John Michael piping from the bough of an Oak, etc. 127  
VIII. Of Fairy Circles. A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius, viz. whether the Bodies of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures; whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnal Conventicles, their Bodies being left at home; as also whether they leav● not their bodies in those Ecstasies they put themselves in, when they promise to fetch certain news from remote places in a very short time. 132  
IX. The Coldness of those bodies that Spirits appear i● witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus. The natural Reason of this Coldness. That the Devil does really lie with Witches. That the very substance of Spirits is not fire. Spirits skirmishing on the ground. Field sights and Sea-fights seen in the Air. 137  
X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man, who had the continual Society of a Guardian Genius. 140  
XI. Certain Inquiries upon the preceding Story; as, What these Guardian Genii may be. Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man, or to some none. What may be the reason of Spirits so seldom appearing; And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy. Whether every man's complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius. And lastly whether it be lawful to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. 144  
XII. That whether the Species of things have been from all Eternity, or whether they rose out of the Earth by degrees in Time, the Frame of them is such, that against all the Evasions of the Atheist they naturally imply that there is a God. 151  
XIII. That the Evasions of the Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly, that it is an evident argument that they are convinced in their own judgements of the truth of these kinds of Phaenomena, which forces them to answer as well as they can, though they be so ill provided. 158   
FINIS.