their Readings and Disputings? That we have of Geometry, which is the Mother of all Naturall
Science, wee are not indebted for it to the Schools. Plato that was the best Philosopher of the Greeks, forbad entrance into his Schoole, to all that were not already in some measure
Geometricians. There were many that studied that Science to the great advantage of mankind:
but there is no mention of their Schools; nor was there any Sect of Geometricians; nor did they
then passe under the name of Philosophers. The naturall Philosophy of those Schools, was
rather a Dream than Science, and set forth in senselesse and insignificant Language; which
cannot be avoided by those that will teach Philosophy, without having first attained great
knowledge in Geometry: For Nature worketh by Motion; the Wayes, and Degrees whereof
cannot be known, without the knowledge of the Proportions and Properties of Lines, and
Figures. Their Morall Philosophy is but a description of their own Passions. For the rule of
Manners, without Civill Government, is the Law of Nature; and in it, the Law Civill; that
determineth what is Honest, and Dishonest; what is Just, and Unjust; and generally what is Good, and Evill: whereas they make the Rules of Good, and Bad, by their own Liking, and Disliking: By which means, in so great diversity of taste, there is nothing generally agreed on; but every one doth (as far as he dares) whatsoever seemeth good in his owne eyes, to the
subversion of Common-wealth. Their Logique which should bee the Method of Reasoning, is
nothing else but Captions of Words, and Inventions how to puzzle such as should goe about to
pose them. To conclude, there is nothing so absurd, that the old Philosophers (as Cicero saith, who was one of them) have not some of them maintained. And I beleeve that scarce any thing
can be more absurdly said in naturall Philosophy, than that which now is called Aristotles
Metaphysiques; nor more repugnant to Government, than much of that hee hath said in his
Politiques; nor more ignorantly, than a great part of his Ethiques.
The Schools of the Jews unprofitable.
The Schoole of the Jews, was originally a Schoole of the Law of Moses; who commanded ( Deut.
31. 10.) that at the end of every seventh year, at the Feast of the Tabernacles, it should be
read to all the people, that they might hear, and learn it: Therefore the reading of the Law
(which was in use after the Captivity) every Sabbath day, ought to have had no other end, but
the acquainting of the people with the Commandements which they were to obey, and to
expound unto them the writings of the Prophets. But it is manifest, by the many reprehensions
of them by our Saviour, that they corrupted the Text of the Law with their false Commentaries,
and vain Traditions; and so little understood the Prophets, that they did neither acknowledge
Christ, nor the works he did; of which the Prophets prophecyed. So that by their Lectures and
Disputations in their Synagogues, they turned the Doctrine of their Law into a Phantasticall
kind of Philosophy, concerning the incomprehensible nature of God, and of Spirits; which they
compounded of the Vain Philosophy and Theology of the Græcians, mingled with their own
fancies, drawn from the obscurer places of the Scripture, and which might most easily bee
wrested to their purpose; and from the Fabulous Traditions of their Ancestors.
University what it is.
That which is now called an University, is a Joyning together, and an Incorporation under one Government of many Publique Schools, in one and the same Town or City. In which, the
principall Schools were ordained for the three Professions, that is to say, of the Romane
Religion, of the Romane Law, and of the Art of Medicine. And for the study of Philosophy it
hath no otherwise place, then as a handmaid to the Romane Religion: And since the Authority
of Aristotle is onely current there, that study is not properly Philosophy, (the nature whereof
dependeth not on Authors,) but Aristotelity. And for Geometry, till of very late times it had no
place at all; as being subservient to nothing but rigide Truth. And if any man by the ingenuity
of his owne nature, had attained to any degree of perfection therein, hee was commonly
thought a Magician, and his Art Diabolicall.
Errors brought into Religion from Aristotles Metaphysiques.
Now to descend to the particular Tenets of Vain Philosophy, derived to the Universities, and
thence into the Church, partly from Aristotle, partly from Blindnesse of understanding; I shall
first consider their Principles. There is a certain Philosophia Prima, on which all other
Philosophy ought to depend; and consisteth principally, in right limiting of the significations of
such Appellations, or Names, as are of all others the most Universall: Which Limitations serve
to avoid ambiguity, and æquivocation in Reasoning; and are commonly called Definitions; such
as are the Definitions of Body, Time, Place, Matter, Forme, Essence, Subject, Substance,
Accident, Power, Act, Finite, Infinite, Quantity, Quality, Motion, Action. Passion, and divers
others, necessary to the explaining of a mans Conceptions concerning the Nature and
Generation of Bodies. The Explication (that is, the setling of the meaning) of which, and the
like Terms, is commonly in the Schools called Metaphysiques; as being a part of the Philosophy of Aristotle, which hath that for title: but it is in another sense; for there it signifieth as much, as Books written, or placed after his naturall Philosophy: But the Schools take them for Books of supernaturall Philosophy: for the word Metaphysiques will bear both these senses. And indeed that which is there written, is for the most part so far from the possibility of being
understood, and so repugnant to naturall Reason, that whosoever thinketh there is any thing
to bee understood by it, must needs think it supernaturall.
Errors concerning Abstract Essences.
From these Metaphysiques, which are mingled with the Scripture to make Schoole Divinity,
wee are told, there be in the world certain Essences separated from Bodies, which they call
Abstract Essences, and Substantiall Formes: For the Interpreting of which Jargon, there is need of somewhat more than ordinary attention in this place. Also I ask pardon of those that are not
used to this kind of Discourse, for applying my selfe to those that are. The World, (I mean not
the Earth onely, that denominates the Lovers of it Worldly men, but the Universe, that is, the whole masse of all things that are) is Corporeall, that is to say, Body; and hath the dimensions
of Magnitude, namely, Length, Bredth, and Depth: also every part of Body, is likewise Body,
and hath the like dimensions; and consequently every part of the Universe, is Body; and that
which is not Body, is no part of the Universe: And because the Universe is All, that which is no
part of it, is Nothing; and consequently no where. Nor does it follow from hence, that Spirits are nothing: for they have dimensions, and are therefore really Bodies; though that name in common Speech be given to such Bodies onely, as are visible, or palpable; that is, that have
some degree of Opacity: But for Spirits, they call them Incorporeall; which is a name of more
honour, and may therefore with more piety bee attributed to God himselfe; in whom wee
consider not what Attribute expresseth best his Nature, which is Incomprehensible; but what
best expresseth our desire to honour Him.
To know now upon what grounds they say there be Essences Abstract, or Substantiall Formes, wee are to consider what those words do properly signifie. The use of Words, is to register to
our selves, and make manifest to others the Thoughts and Conceptions of our Minds. Of which
Words, some are the names of the Things conceived; as the names of all sorts of Bodies, that
work upon the Senses, and leave an Impression in the Imaginations: Others are the names of
the Imaginations themselves; that is to say, of those Ideas, or mentall Images we have of all
things wee see, or remember: And others againe are names of Names; or of different sorts of
Speech: As Universall, Plurall, Singular, are the names of Names; and Definition, Affirmation, Negation, True, False, Syllogisme, Interrogation, Promise, Covenant, are the names of certain Forms of Speech. Others serve to shew the Consequence, or Repugnance of one name to
another; as when one saith, A Man is a Body, hee intendeth that the name of Body is
necessarily consequent to the name of Man; as being but severall names of the same thing,
Man; which Consequence is signified by coupling them together with the word Is. And as wee use the Verbe Is; so the Latines use their Verbe Est, and the Greeks their
through all
its Declinations. Whether all other Nations of the world have in their severall languages a word
that answereth to it, or not, I cannot tell; but I am sure they have not need of it: For the
placing of two names in order may serve to signifie their Consequence, if it were the custome,
(for Custome is it, that give words their force,) as well as the words Is, or Bee, or Are, and the like.
And if it were so, that there were a Language without any Verb answerable to Est, or Is, or Bee; yet the men that used it would bee not a jot the lesse capable of Inferring, Concluding, and of all kind of Reasoning, than were the Greeks, and Latines. But what then would become
of these Terms, of Entity, Essence, Essentiall, Essentiality, that are derived from it, and of many more that depend on these, applyed as most commonly they are? They are therefore no
Names of Things; but Signes, by which wee make known, that wee conceive the Consequence
of one name or Attribute to another: as when we say, a Man, is, a living Body, wee mean not
that the Man is one thing, the Living Body another, and the Is, or Beeing a third: but that the Man, and the Living Body, is the same thing; because the Consequence, If hee bee a Man, hee is a living Body, is a true Consequence, signified by that word Is. Therefore, to bee a Body, to Walke, to bee Speaking, to Live, to See, and the like Infinitives; also Corporeity, Walking, Speaking, Life, Sight, and the like, that signifie just the same, are the names of Nothing; as I have elsewhere more amply expressed.
But to what purpose (may some man say) is such subtilty in a work of this nature, where I
pretend to nothing but what is necessary to the doctrine of Government and Obedience? It is
to this purpose, that men may no longer suffer themselves to be abused, by them, that by this
doctrine of Separated Essences, built on the Vain Philosophy of Aristotle, would fright them from Obeying the Laws of their Countrey, with empty names; as men fright Birds from the
Corn with an empty doublet, a hat, and a crooked stick. For it is upon this ground, that when a
Man is dead and buried, they say his Soule (that is his Life) can walk separated from his Body,
and is seen by night amongst the graves. Upon the same ground they say, that the Figure, and
Colour, and Tast of a peece of Bread, has a being, there, where they say there is no Bread:
And upon the same ground they say, that Faith, and Wisdome, and other Vertues are
sometimes powred into a man, sometimes blown into him from Heaven; as if the Vertuous, and their Vertues could be asunder; and a great many other things that serve to lessen the
dependance of Subjects on the Soveraign Power of their Countrey. For who will endeavour to
obey the Laws, if he expect Obedience to be Powred or Blown into him? Or who will not obey a
Priest, that can make God, rather than his Soveraign; nay than God himselfe? Or who, that is
in fear of Ghosts, will not bear great respect to those that can make the Holy Water, that
drives them from him? And this shall suffice for an example of the Errors, which are brought
into the Church, from the Entities, and Essences of Aristotle: which it may be he knew to be false Philosophy; but writ it as a thing consonant to, and corroborative of their Religion; and
fearing the fate of Socrates.
Being once fallen into this Error of Separated Essences, they are thereby necessarily involved in many other absurdities that follow it. For seeing they will have these Forms to be reall, they
are obliged to assign them some place. But because they hold them Incorporeall, without all
dimension of Quantity, and all men know that Place is Dimension, and not to be filled, but by
that which is Corporeall; they are driven to uphold their credit with a distinction, that they are
not indeed any where Circumscriptive, but Definitive: Which Term, being meer Words, and in this occasion insignificant, passe onely in Latine, that the vanity of them may bee concealed.
For the Circumscription of a thing, is nothing else but the Determination, or Defining of its
Place; and so both the Terms of the Distinction are the same. And in particular, of the Essence
of a Man, which (they say) is his Soule, they affirm it, to be All of it in his little Finger, and All of it in every other Part (how small soever) of his Body; and yet no more Soule in the Whole
Body, than in any one of those Parts. Can any man think that God is served with such
absurdities? And yet all this is necessary to beleeve, to those that will beleeve the Existence of
an Incorporeall Soule, Separated from the Body.
And when they come to give account, how an Incorporeall Substance can be capable of Pain,
and be tormented in the fire of Hell, or Purgatory, they have nothing at all to answer, but that
it cannot be known how fire can burn Soules.
Again, whereas Motion is change of Place, and Incorporeall Substances are not capable of
Place, they are troubled to make it seem possible, how a Soule can goe hence, without the
Body to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory; and how the Ghosts of men (and I may adde of their
clothes which they appear in) can walk by night in Churches, Church-yards, and other places of
Sepulture. To which I know not what they can answer, unlesse they will say, they walke,
definitivè, not circumscriptivè, or spiritually, not temporally: for such egregious distinctions are equally applicable to any difficulty whatsoever.
Nuncstans.
For the meaning of Eternity, they will not have it to be an Endlesse Succession of Time; for then they should not be able to render a reason how Gods Will, and Præordaining of things to
come, should not be before his Præscience of the same, as the Efficient Cause before the
Effect, or Agent before the Action; nor of many other their bold opinions concerning the
Incomprehensible Nature of God. But they will teach us, that Eternity is the Standing still of
the Present Time, a Nunc-stans (as the Schools call it;) which neither they, nor any else
understand, no more than they would a Hic-stans for an Infinite greatnesse of Place.
One Body in many places, and many Bodies in one place at once.
And whereas men divide a Body in their thought, by numbring parts of it, and in numbring
those parts, number also the parts of the Place it filled; it cannot be, but in making many
parts, wee make also many places of those parts; whereby there cannot bee conceived in the
mind of any man, more, or fewer parts, than there are places for: yet they will have us
beleeve, that by the Almighty power of God, one body may be at one and the same time in
many places; and many bodies at one and the same time in one place: As if it were an
acknowledgment of the Divine Power, to say, that which is, is not; or that which has been, has
not been. And these are but a small part of the Incongruities they are forced to, from their
disputing Philosophically, in stead of admiring, and adoring of the Divine and Incomprehensible
Nature; whose Attributes cannot signifie what he is, but ought to signifie our desire to honour
him, with the best Appellations we can think on. But they that venture to reason of his Nature,
from these Attributes of Honour, losing their understanding in the very first attempt, fall from
one Inconvenience into another, without end, and without number; in the same manner, as
when a man ignorant of the Ceremonies of Court, comming into the presence of a greater
Person than he is used to speak to, and stumbling at his entrance, to save himselfe from
falling, lets slip his Cloake; to recover his Cloake, lets fall his Hat; and with one disorder after another, discovers his astonishment and rusticity.
Absurdities in naturall Philosophy, as Gravity the Cause of Heavinesse.
Then for Physiques, that is, the knowledge of the subordinate, and secundary causes of
naturall events; they render none at all, but empty words. If you desire to know why some
kind of bodies sink naturally downwards toward the Earth, and others goe naturally from it;
The Schools will tell you out of Aristotle, that the bodies | that sink downwards, are Heavy; and that this Heavinesse is it that causes them to descend: But if you ask what they mean by
Heavinesse, they will define it to bee an endeavour to goe to the center of the Earth: so that the cause why things sink downward, is an Endeavour to be below: which is as much as to say,
that bodies descend, or ascend, because they doe. Or they will tell you the center of the Earth
is the place of Rest, and Conservation for Heavy things; and therefore they endeavour to be
there: As if Stones, and Metalls had a desire, or could discern the place they would bee at, as
Man does; or loved Rest, as Man does not; or that a peece of Glasse were lesse safe in the
Window, than falling into the Street.
Quantity put into Body already made.
If we would know why the same Body seems greater (without adding to it) one time, than
another; they say, when it seems lesse, it is Condensed; when greater, Rarefied. What is that Condensed, and Rarefied? Condensed, is when there is in the very same Matter, lesse Quantity than before; and Rarefied, when more. As if there could be Matter, that had not some
determined Quantity; when Quantity is nothing else but the Determination of Matter; that is to
say of Body, by which we say one Body is greater, or lesser than another, by thus, or thus
much. Or as if a Body were made without any Quantity at all, and that afterwards more, or
lesse were put into it, according as it is intended the Body should be more, or lesse Dense.
Powring in of Soules.
For the cause of the Soule of Man, they say, Creatur Infundendo, and Creando Infunditur: that is, It is Created by Powering it in, and Powred in by Creation.
Ubiquity of Apparition.
For the Cause of Sense, an ubiquity of Species; that is, of the Shews or Apparitions of objects; which when they be Apparitions to the Eye, is Sight; when to the Eare, Hearing; to the Palate, Tast; to the Nostrill, Smelling; and to the rest of the Body, Feeling.
Will, the Cause of Willing.
For cause of the Will, to doe any particular action, which is called Volitio, they assign the Faculty, that is to say, the Capacity in generall, that men have, to will sometimes one thing,
sometimes another, which is called Voluntas; making the Power the cause of the Act: As if one should assign for cause of the good or evill Acts of men, their Ability to doe them.
Ignorance an occult Cause.
And in many occasions they put for cause of Naturall events, their own Ignorance; but
disguised in other words: As when they say, Fortune is the cause of things contingent; that is,
of things whereof they know no cause: And as when they attribute many Effects to occult
qualities; that is, qualities not known to them; and therefore also (as they thinke) to no Man else. And to Sympathy, Antipathy, Antiperistasis, Specificall Qualities, and other like Termes, which signifie neither the Agent that produceth them, nor the Operation by which they are
produced.
If such Metaphysiques, and Physiques as this, be not Vain Philosophy, there was never any; nor needed St. Paul to give us warning to avoid it.
One makes the things incongruent, another the Incongruity.
And for their Morall, and Civill Philosophy, it hath the same, or greater absurdities. If a man
doe an action of Injustice, that is to say, an action contrary to the Law, God they say is the
prime cause of the Law, and also the prime cause of that, and all other Actions; but no cause
at all of the Injustice; which is the Inconformity of the Action to the Law. This is Vain
Philosophy. A man might as well say, that one man maketh both a streight line, and a crooked,
and another maketh their Incongruity. And such is the Philosophy of all men that resolve of
their Conclusions, before they know their Premises; pretending to comprehend, that which is
Incomprehensible; and of Attributes of Honour to make Attributes of Nature; as this distinction
was made to maintain the Doctrine of Free-Will, that is, of a Will of man, not subject to the Will
of God.
Private Appetite the rule of Publique good:
Aristotle, and other Heathen Philosophers define Good, and Evill, by the Appetite of men; and
well enough, as long as we consider them governed every one by his own Law: For in the
condition of men that have no other Law but their own Appetites, there can be no generall Rule
of Good, and Evill Actions. But in a Common-wealth this measure is false: Not the Appetite of
Private men, but the Law, which is the Will and Appetite of the State is the measure. And yet is
this Doctrine still practised; and men judge the Goodnesse, or Wickednesse of their own, and
of other mens actions, and of the actions of the Common-wealth it selfe, by their own
Passions; and no man calleth Good or Evill, but that which is so in his own eyes, without any
regard at all to the Publique Laws; except onely Monks, and Friers, that are bound by Vow to
that simple obedience to their Superiour, to which every Subject ought to think himself bound
by the Law of Nature to the Civill Soveraign. And this private measure of Good, is a Doctrine,
not onely Vain, but also Pernicious to the Publique State.
And that lawfull Marriage is Unchastity:
It is also Vain and false Philosophy, to say the work of Marriage is repugnant to Chastity, or
Continence, and by consequence to make them Morall Vices; as they doe, that pretend
Chastity, and Continence, for the ground of denying Marriage to the Clergy. For they confesse
it is no more, but a Constitution of the Church, that requireth in those holy Orders that
continually attend the Altar, and administration of the Eucharist, a continuall Abstinence from
women, under the name of continuall Chastity, Continence, and Purity. Therefore they call the
lawfull use of Wives, want of Chastity, and Continence; and so make Marriage a Sin, or at least
a thing so impure, and unclean, as to render a man unfit for the Altar. If the Law were made
because the use of Wives is Incontinence, and contrary to Chastity, then all Marriage is vice: If
because it is a thing too impure, and unclean for a man consecrated to God; much more should
other naturall, necessary, and daily works which all men doe, render men unworthy to bee
Priests, because they are more unclean.
But the secret foundation of this prohibition of Marriage of Priests, is not likely to have been
laid so slightly, as upon such errours in Morall Philosophy; nor yet upon the preference of
single life, to the estate of Matrimony; which proceeded from the wisdome of St. Paul, who
perceived how inconvenient a thing it was, for those that in those times of persecution were
Preachers of the Gospel, and forced to fly from one countrey to another, to be clogged with the
care of wife and children; but upon the designe of the Popes, and Priests of after times, to
make themselves the Clergy, that is to say, sole Heirs of the Kingdome of God in this world; to
which it was necessary to take from them the use of Marriage, because our Saviour saith, that
at the coming of his Kingdome the Children of God shall neither Marry, nor bee given in
Marriage, but shall bee as the Angels in heaven; that is to say, Spirituall. Seeing then they had taken on them the name of Spirituall, to have allowed themselves (when there was no need)
the propriety of Wives, had been an Incongruity.
And that all Government but Popular, is Tyranny: