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Show Namer of Subftances. Book III. not their Make; and can give no Reafon, oftlw different Qyalities we find in them. 'Tis evident the internal Con!htuuon, whereon the~r properties depeod,is unkno':"n to us. For to go no farther th~n ~he grofl'dland mo!l: obvious we can 1magme among!l: them, What 1s t.1at Textu;e of Parrs 1 That real Effence, that makes Lead, and Anumony fufi?le; Wood, and Stones nott What makes Lead, and Iron malleoble ; Anumony, and Stones not 1 And yet how infinitely thefe come fhort, of the fine Contrivances, and unconceivable real Eifences of Plants and Animals, every one knows. The Workmnnfi1ip of the all-Wife, and powerful God, m the 11reat Fabrick of the Univerfc, and e,·ery part thereof, farther exceeds the Capacity and Comprehenfion of the m.on in~uifitiveand intelligent Man; than the be!l: contrivance of the moft mgemous Man, doth the Conceptions of the .mofi ignorant of rational Creatures. Therefore we in vain pretend to range Things into forts, and d1fpofe them mto certam Claffes, under Names, by their real Effences, tha~ are fo far from our Comprehenlions. A blind Man may as foon fort Thmgs by the1r Colours,aod he that has loft his Smell, as well difiinguifi1 a Lily and a Rofe by their Odors, as by thofe internal Confiitutions he knows not. He that tluoks he can difiinguifh Sheep and Goats b:y- their real Eifences, that are unknown to him, may be pleafed !O try his Sk1ll m thofe Species, called Caffiwary, and Qaerrchlnchio; and by their internal real Effences, determine the boundaries of thofe Species, witlrout knowing the complex idea of fenfible Qgalities, that each of thofeNames !lands for, in the Countries where thofe Animals aro to be found. §. 10. Thofe therefore who have been taug;ht, that the feveral Species of Subfiances had their difiind: internal fobjlantial Forms; and that it was thofe Forms,which made the difiind:ion of Subfiances into their true Sptciet and Genera, were led yet farther out of the way, by having their Minds fet upon fruitlefs Enquiries after fubfiantial Forms, wholly unintelligible, and whereof we have fcarce fo much as any obfcure, or confufed Conception in general. ~. 11. That our ranking, and difiinguifhing natural Su6/}anai into Specits conji]ls in tbe Nominal Effenas the Mind makes, and not in the real Elfences to be found in the Things themfelves, is farther evident from our U-.s of Spirits. For the Mind getting, only by refied:ing on its own Operations, thofe limple !tleas which it attributes to Spirits, it hath, or can have no other Notion of Spirit, but by attributing all thofe Operations, it finds in it felf, to a fort of Beings, without Confideration of Matter, And even the mofi advanced Notiqn we have of God, is but attri· buting the fame fimple Ideas we have got from Refled:ion, on what we 6nd in our felves; and which we conceive to have more Perfed:ion in them, than would be in their abfence, attributing, I fay, thofe limple U-.s to him in an unlimited degree. Thus having got from reflecting on our felves, the Idea of Exifience, Knowledge, Power, and Pleafure, each of which we find it better to have than to want; and the more we have of each, the better, joining all thefe together, with infinity ro each of them, we have the complex Idea of al\ eternal, omnifcient, omnipo-· tent, infinitely wife, 11nd happy Being. And though we are told, that there arc d1fferent Species of Angels; yet we know not how io frame dit1inil fpecifick Ideas of them; not out of any Conceit, that the Exi!l:ence of more Species than one of Spirits, is impoaible: But becaufe having no !Mfe limple Ideas (nor being able to frame more) applicable to fuchBe· mg, but only thole few, taken from our felves, :;nd from the Actions of oour own Mind~ in thinki11g, and being delighted, and moving feverol parts Chap. VI, Nam~s o/ ~ubflances. parrs of our Bodies; we c~n no o~hecwife diflinguifi1 in our Conceptions the fev~ral Specws of Spmts, one from another, but by attribiuing thofe Operat1ons and Powers, we find 111 our felves to them , in a higher or lower degree ; and fo have n<:l/;her difiin~ fpecifick Ideas of Spirits, except only of GOD, to whom we attnbute both Duration, and all thofe ocher lde.s with Infinity·; ''Q the ntherSpirits, with limitation, among(]: which, we mak~ no difiin~iqn: Nor do we, between G 0 D and theni ill our IdeAs, put any difference by any number of fimple Ideas, which we bave of one, and not of the other,but only. that of Infinity. All the parucular Ide., of l;:xificnce, Knowledge, Wlll, Power, and Motion, -&c. being JJeas derived from the Operation. of our Minds, we attribute all of tnem to all forrs of Spirits, with the dilfecen<:e only of degrees, to the utmofi we can imagine, eve,, Infinity, when we would frame, as well :IS we can, an idea of the firfi Being; who yet, 'tis certain,, is infinitely more remote in the real Excellency of his Nature, from the highefi and pert'eaefi of all created Beings, much more from what our narrow Uhder· !landings can conceive of Him, than the greateft Man, nay, purefi.Se• raphim, is from the mofi contemptible pan of Matter., ~. n. It is not impollible to conceive, ;nor repugnant to Reafon , that there may be m••J Specits of Spirit!, a.'! .much feparate<l and cliverlified 0110 from another by difiinCl: Properties, whereof we have np Ideas as the Species of fenfible Things are difiinguilhed one from another, 1 by ~alities, which we know, and obferve in them. That there fhould be· more Species of intelligent Creatures·abbve us, than there are of feofi• lile .00 material below us, is probable< to me from hence ; That in a!ll·the li,lip!e corporeal \V orld, we.fee no Chafms, or Ga.ps. All quite down &om us. the defcent is by eafie !l:eps, and a continued fcries of Things, that in each remove, differ very little one [,om the other. There are FiAies that have Wings, and are not Sttangers to the airy Region : and there are fon'le Birds, that' are lnhabitamts of the Water; whofe Bloud is cold as Fifhes, and their Flefi1 in tafie f<i near akin, that the Scrupulous are allow'd th~m on Fifh-days. Th•re are Animals (o near of kin both to Birds and Beafis, that they are in the middle between both: Am phi· bious Animals link the Terrefuial ancl AqUatique together; Seales live at Land and at Sea, and Porpoifes have the warm Bloud and F.ntrails of an Hog, not to mention wl1at is confidently reported of Mermaids , or Sea-men. There are fome Brutes, that kern to h~ve as much Knowledge IIKI Keafon, as fame that are called Men : and the Animal and V eget•ble Kingdoms, are fo nearly join'd,that if you will take the lowefi of one, and l&ehighe!l: of the other, there will fcarce be perceived .any great diffe>lllnce betwee(l them · and fo on till we come to the lowe!! and the moO;. inorganical parts of 'Matter, we !hall find every-where, that the feveta( Speciei are linked together,and differ but in almofi infenflble degrees. And when we confider the infinite Power and Wifdom of the Maker, we have reafon to think that it is fuitable to the magnificent Hormony of the Ul1iverfe, ahd ~he great Dffign and infirtite Goodnefs of the ArchiteCt, that the Species of Creatures !hould alfo, by gentle degrees, afcend upWard from us towards his infinite Perle&ion , as we fee they gradually defcend from us downwards: Which if it be probable, we have reafon then to be perf waded that there .are far more Species of Creatures above us, than there are ~neath ; we being, in degrees of PerfeCtion, much IUOre remote from the inflnite Being of G 0 D, than we are from the lowell !late of Being, and that which approaches neare~ tonotlnng, And Yet of all thofe difiinet Species, for the ttafonsabov.,faJdt. w.: have nod~.J< i(as. §. ·tl• |
