Transnatural philosophy, or, Metaphysicks demonstrating the essences and operations of all beings whatever ... and shewing the perfect conformity of Christian faith to right reason, and the unreasonableness of atheists ... and other sectaries : with an appendix giving a rational explication of the mystery of the most B. Trinity / by J.S.

MEDITATION On the foregoing Chapter.

'TIS time, my Soul, to turn thy Thoughts upon thy self; and to reflect what Advancement of Knowledge thou hast gain'd by those Easiest, most Common, and most Familiar Notions of POWER and ACT. But first, consider, How Provident thy Generous Maker has been for thee, as soon as then wast deliver'd out of the dark Womb of Nothing; and how he has assisted and nourisht thee up in thy helpless Infancy. Thy Nature was to be Capable of Knowledge; and therefore, only Knowledge was the Connatural Food, which could give thee Growth and Strength, and ripen thee to Per∣fection. How wretched then and miserable hadst thou been, had not He, like a Loving Father, taken care thou shouldst not live perpetually in a Dungeon of Spiritual Dark∣ness and comfortless Ignorance? To this end ••e planted thee amongst an Infinite Variety of thy Fel∣low-Creatures, Bodily Substances; which play'd continually about thee with such Motions as were agreeable to their several Constitutions. These, being the Manufacture of an Infinitely Wise Creatour, could not but retain in them the manifest Prints of the Wisdom of their Divine Artificer; which made ••••••m fit Instruments to inform thy Empty Under∣standing,

and to instruct thy Rudeness. But, alas! th••y could not reach or affect thy Nature, which was Spiritual. All their Operations were perform'd by Local Motion; which being▪ Quantitative and Divisible, could not be receiv'd in thy Spiritual and Indivisible Essence. This had render'd thee, consider'd according to thy peculiar Nature, (hadst thou been a Distinct Thing from all Bodies whatever) Insensi∣ble of their smartest Impulses▪ and Incapable of Knowing any thing by their most vigorous Impressions: Nor hadst thou, as being one of the Lowest Class of Knowing Substances, any Right or Title to have Actual Knowledge Infus'd into thee gratis, at first; as had thy Elder-Brothers by Creation, th•• Angels. In this forlorn condition wast thou found in the First Instant thou camest into this Material World; viz. only Capable of Knowledge, and utterly Unable, of thy self, to gain any, or help thy self in the least: For a meer Power which was undetermin'd to all, or any Act of Knowledge, could not, alone, enable thee to produce any Particular Act, which is necessarily This, and Determinate. But it belongs to Essential and Infinite Goodness not to leave his poor Indigent Creatures destitute, but to take order they should have (as far as consists with the best Order of the World) all the Perfection their Nature is capable to receive. Wherefore His Providence wisely order'd thou shouldst have a Material Compart▪ link'd so intimately to thee as to Compound with thee One Ens, or Suppositum; and thence partake of the Actions and Sufferings of one another. By which means, Impressions made by Outward Objects, scattering about their minutest particles, upon some very sensible Part of thy Body (with which Part thou wast immediately united as the Form with

it's proper Matter) might at the same time aff•…•… thee also according to thy peculiar Nature, that i•• Knowingly; and imbue thy yet-Ignorant-Under∣standing Power with Tinctures of their several N••∣tures.

These First Rough-Draughts of Knowledge wer•• indeed very Rude, Scanty and L••∣mited; being (as it were) an Im∣perfect View of the Things on one side only; and rather Glances th•••• a Full Sight of them; for they gave thee no more Light at one time, than of some one of those m••∣ny Respects or Notions the Thing was able to i••-part to thee; and, withall, being the Immediat•• Effects of Objects made of Matter, (the Parent o•• all Undistinctness or Confusion) they were far fro•• Exact. To supply which Defect, and make amen•• for this Disadvantage, thy Creatour endow'd th•••• with a Faculty of Reflecting; which enabled th•••• to refine, separate, and range into Distinction and Order those Raw and Tumultuary Impressions; and▪ moreover, fur••isht thee with a Comparing Power; which, by Iudging and Discoursing, could Connect and Compound those Narrow Abstracted Notions with one another, and, by Degrees, give thee a Broader Prospect of the Thing; and, in time, improve thy Knowledge to that pitch which is suteable to thy con∣dition here. The Entire Comprehension of all things being reserv'd to thy Future State, when thou shalt be got out of thy Non-Age, and thy Eagle∣sight be no longer blinded with the Screen of thy Body. Do not repine, that thou canst not, at first, readily and fully comprehend any thing, but ar•• forced to gain a Distant and Shy Acquaintanc•• with them, by those Conceptions of them in part

only, which our Dull Senses afforded thee. Not ••he least of them, but, if well husbanded and im∣••••••v'd, will lead thee to far-distant Truths, and ve∣••y Large and Strange Discoveries. Thy Reasoning Power had been Useless and in vain, and thou hadst wanted, all the while thou livest here, that Employ∣••••nt which most properly belongs to a Man, (thy Reasoning or Discoursing) had not the World's Go∣vernour thus parcell'd out to thy Low Understanding the Book of Creatures. He gives thee at thy Entrance into Nature's School, the First Rudiments •••• Elements, thy Ordinary Notions; which are, ••s it were, the Letters or Alphabet of all our Know∣ledge; with which, like little Children of the Lowest Form, we are first to get Acquaintance. Apply thy self to these at first; Endeavour to learn their Distinct Characters, and what their Force is; er•• t•••••• comest to Spell them into Syllables, by Com∣••••••nding them into Judgments; or to put those Syllables together, to make up Entire Words, by ••••••ming Discourses concerning them. Not doubting but that, by this Methodical and Industrious Appli∣c••tion of thy Faculties, thou wilt come at length to read this Book of Creatures currently; at least as ••uch of it as can concern thee to know in thy Con∣dition here.

Think not that even the least of those Elements of Knowledge, (thy Vulgar and Nature-taught Notions,) is Barren ••••d Fruitless. Consider, how, by ••••••eriencing, that Bodies work on •••••• Compound or Suppositum, thou ••••••est to know that they actually are; and there∣fore, that they had a POWER to be; as likewise that they had a Power to be Chang'd into others,

and to be affected after various Modes or Manners and then reflect, how much Light thou hast gain'•• hitherto by Viewing Attentively, and Discoursing consequently, of those most Ordinary and most Ob∣vious Notions, POWER and ACT; which seem'd at first Sight, so Steril, Insipid and Insignificant.

These Two, joyn'd with a few others, already known without Speculation, and fully as Evid•••••• as themselves, have demonstrated to thee, How, and What, and Where, our Essence was ere it ha•• Existence given it. What are the Essential Part•• of all Bodies in Common. Which are the First Principles that fix and rivet all Inferiour Truth•• in thy Understanding; and how the•• Descend from the Father of Lights, GOD's Essential Wisdom. They instruct thee, by looking into their Natures, •••• Notions, from whence it is that all Change a•••• Mutability proceeds; a Principle, which draws m••∣ny Great and Important Truths after it. They sh•••• thee clearly, what, and how many, several sorts of Things could possibly have been Created. They in∣form thee what kind of Division is made by thy Acute Understanding; which the Subtillest Agents in Nature, tho' assisted by the most Exact Chymical Art, could never have reacht; and how thou com∣poundest again those thus-Divided Parts to fram•• Iudgments and Discourses. They have given th•••• Evident Knowledge, that There are no Actual Parts in any Ens whatever. A Truth most Useful to the Attainment of very many of thy Future Know∣ledges. They have preserv'd thee from falling into the Precipices of divers F••ndamental Errors, by em∣bracing which Great Wits have miscarry'd. They have, moreover, taught thee how Absolutely Pure that Act call'd EXISTENCE is; and that it is

above the Power of any Created Cause to confer that Soveraign Gift on Themselves, or Others: Which leads thee a fair Step towards the Knowledge of the FIRST BEING; to know whom perfectly is thy Eternal Happiness. And, are all these Acquisitions worth nothing? Add, that thou know'st not yet what Multitudes of High and most Important Truths do hitherto lie hid, involv'd in these Few now menti∣on'd; and in some others, here omitted. All which spring originally from the bare Notions of POWER and ACT, joyn'd with some others Ally'd to them, and Connected with them.

Awake then, my Soul, from thy Desponding Le∣th••rgy, and exert thy Industry by the well-assured Hopes of gaining ••••mense Degrees of Knowledge by Studying and Improving the Vast ••••ock of thy other Notions; that is, indeed, the Things diversly Con∣ceiv'd by thee, and therefore in thee. It will comfort thy Labour, to find so much Good, and to have reapt such Benefit by Two of them only; and those two, as it may seem, none of the Fruit∣fullest. Such Beginnings are Hopeful, and give thee Earnest of a Successful Progress. Only be sure thou ••••st not relinquish the Works made by the Hand of thy All-wise Creatour, in which he has stampt all Na∣tural and Acquir'd Truths; nor strivest foolishly to Create to thy Self New Things, and New Worlds, by thy own Shallow Wit; and to ground Truth on the Mock-Creatures, made by thy own Fantastick ••magination. That Faculty was intended to be a Servant to thee, to reach thee the Materials thou ••••st need of. Take heed then that her Brisk and

Gay Genius do not make her presume to domineer over her Mistress, or inveigle her to follow her de∣sultory Vagaries. Expect Substantial and Real Truth, no where but in the Things whose Essences the GOD of Truth has made and Establisht; and then thou mayst be confident thy Iudgments and Discourses will be Well-grounded and Solid, not Airy and Fantastical Imaginations: Which, tho they flatter thee with fine Appearances, counterfeit∣ing Evidence; will certainly prove most Obscure, leave thee in the dark, and be found to be no more but Airy Bubbles, when thoy come to be graspt by the Strict Hand, or Palma Contracta, of Connected Discourse or Exact Reason.

Notes

• The Method, how GOD's Pro∣vidence gave us our Elements of Knowledge.
• And ripen'd our Knowledge af∣terwards.
• What Encou∣ragement our present Acquests have given us.
• What assured Hopes we have of Success in our Quest of Science, if we ground our Discourse on the Natures of the Things made by the First Being.