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supposed to be produced. Hence the vario has communications, determinations, accelerations os motion constitute the la s of nature. 162. The pure aether or invisit ble sire contains paris of disserent Linds, that a re impressed with different forces, or subjected to different laws of motion, attraction, repulsion and expansion, and en dued with divers dis tinct habitudes towards other hodies. These stem to Constitute thc many Vario us qualities ', virtuos, flavours, odours, and colours, whicli diset inguisti natural productions. The different modes of CohCsion, attraC-tion, repulsion and motion, appear to be the sotarce frona whence thospecific properties a re derived, rather than different sh apes or figures. This as liath bcen at ready observed, seems confirmed by the experimentos figed salis opera ting one way, not illistanding the dissere nee of thei tangies. The original particles productive of Odours, flavo urs, and other Properties, a S weli as of colours, are, o ne may suspect, ali contained and blended together in that universat and original seminary of pure elementary sire; fro in Ghicli they a re diverssy separat ed and attracted, by the vario us subjects of the animal, vegetabie, and minerat hingdoms; whichthere by beco me classed into hinds, and en dued with those distinct properties, whicli continue illi their severat forms, or specific proportions offire re turn in to the common mast. 16s. As the foui acts immediately on pure sire, so pure sire operates immediat ely on air: that is, the abrasons os ali terrestriat things be ingrendered volatile and elastic by fire', and at the fame time les1ening the volatilily and expansive force of the si re, Whose particles they attractand adhere to ', there is produced a new fluid, more volatile than wateror carth, and more fixed than fire. The refore the virtu es and operations imputed to air, must be ultima tely attributed to fire, as that whicli imparis activi ty to air it self
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16 . The clement os aetheriat fi re or light seems to comprehend, in amixed state, the seeds, the natural causes and forms ' os ali sublunarythings. The grosser bodies separate, attract, and repet the severat constituent particles of that heterogeneotis element ; Which being parted Domthe common masi, malle distinct essences, producing and combining to-gether lacti qualities and properties, as a re peculiar to the severat subinjects, and the nce osten extracted in esientiat Oils or odoriferous waters, fio m whence they exhale in to the open air, and re turn in to their original element. I 65. Blue, red, yellow, and other colours, have been discovered by Sir Isaac Newton to depend on the parted rays or particles of light. And in like manner, a particular odour or flavo ur, se emeth to depend on peculiar particles of light Or fire'; as appears fio m heat s being necessary to ali vegetation What foever, and Dom the extreme minute ness and volat i
lily of thole vegetable Quis or fornas, Bying OT Dona the subjects without any sensibie diminution of their weight. These particles blended inone commora ocean, should Qem to conceat the distinet fornas, hui, part-ed and attracted by pro per subjects, disclose or produce them. As the particles of light which when separat ed, form distinet colours, bcingbtended a re tost in one Uniform appea rance. 166. Agreeably thereio, an aetheriat substanee or fire was supposed by Heraclitus to he the seed of the generation os ali things, or that frona whicli ait things drew their original. The Stoics also tau glit, that alisubstance was originalty fire, and mould return to fire: that an active subtile fire was diffused or expanded throughout the whole universe; theseverat part S Whereos mere produced, susta ined, and held together hy iis force. And it was the opinion of the Pythagoreans, as Laertius informsus, that heat or fire Was the principie of life animat ing the whole ΦΩ
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tem, and penetrating ali the elements '. The Platoni sts too, as wellas the Pythagoreans, held fire to be the immediate natural agent, or animal spirit; to cheristi, to Warm, to heat, to enlighten, io vegetate, to produce the digestions, circulations, secretions, and organical motions in ali living bodies, vegetable or animal, being effects of that
element, Which, as it actuales the macrocota, se it animates the microcosm. In the Timaeus os Plato, there is suppo sed semet hing like a ne tof fire, and rays of fire in a human body. Doth not this seem to meanthe animal spirit, flo in g, or rather darting through the nervest 16 . According to the Peripatetics, the sorm of heaven, or the fervaethereat substance, contains the forma os ali inferior heings '. It mayhe Did to ieem Willi fornas, and impari them to subjects fit ted to receivo them. The vital force thereos in the Peripatetic sense is vital to ait, butdi verssy received according to the diversi ty of the subjecis. So ali eo lours are virtualty contained in the light but their actuat distinctions os blue, red, yellow, and the rest, depend on the difference of the objects whicli it illustrates. Aristolle in the book de mundo, supposieth a certa in fifth esience, an aetheriat nature unchange able and impassive ; and nextin order a subtile, flaming substance, lighted up, or set on fire by that aetheriai and divine nature. He supposeth, in deed, that God is in heaven, but that his poWer, or a sorce derived fro in ham, doth actuale audpervade the universe.
168. Is we may credit Plutarch, Empedocles thought aether or heatio be Jupiter. AEther by the ancient philosophers Was used to signi j pro-iniscuousty so metimes fire and semetimes a tr. For they distinguish twosoris of air. Plato in the Timaeus spe aliing of air faith there a re two k in is
the one more fine and subtile, called aether, the other more grossi and replete with vapoursi This aether or purer medium feems to have been
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ing moVement to ali things causes them to appear, or, as he styles it come into evidence, that is to ex ist, every one in iis time and aecordingio iis destiny. I 69. This pure sire, aether, or substance of light, Way accounted init self invisibie and impercepti ble to ali our senses, being perceived onlyhy iis esse ri, such as heat, fame, and rarefaction. To Which we may add, that the moderias pretend farther to have perceived it by weight, in-asmuch as the aromatio Oils whicli most aboland with sire, as being themost readi ly and vehemently infla meis, are above ali others the heavi est. And by an experiment of Mr Homberg's, four ounces of regulus os antimony, being calcined by a burning glast for an horar together, were found to have imbibed and si xed se ven drachms of the substance of light.1 o. Such is the raresting and expansive force of this element, as toproduce in an instant of time the greatest and most stupendous effecis: a lassicient proof not only of the power of fire, hut also of the wisdomwith whicli it is managed, and withheld Dom bursting forti, e very moment to the ut ter ra vage and destruction os ali things. And it is very rema rhabie, that this sa me element, so fierce and destructive, mould yet be so vario usty tempered and applied, as to be withal the salutarywarmili, the geniat, cherishing and vital flame of ali living creatures. It is not there re to be wondered that Aristolle thought, the heat os a
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1 1. The Platoni sts held that intellect resided in Qui, and Qui in an
aetheriat vehicle. And that as the fout was a mi dille nature reconcilingintellect with aether, so aether was another mi id te nature, Whicli reconciled and connected the fout with groster hodies '. Galen like isse taughtthat, admitting the so ut to be incorporeat, it hath sor iis immediate tegument or vehicle a body of aether or fire, by the intervention whereos it moveth other hodies and is mutuatly assected by them. This interior clothing was supposed to rema in upon the Qui, not only after death, butaster the most persedi purgation, whicli in tengili os time according to thesellowers of Plato and Pythagoras clean sed the se ut, purumgus reliquit Ethereum sensum atque aur Ei Amplicis ignem. This tunicie of the foui, whether it be called pure aether, or Iucisorm vehicle, or animal spirit seemeth to be that whicli moves and acts uponthe gross organs, as it is determine d by the Qui Dorn whicli it immediately receives impression, and in Whicli the moving force truly and pro perly rcsides. Some moderns have thought fit to deride ali that is si id ofaetheriat vehicles, as mere jargon or WOrds Without a. mean ing. But theymould have considered, that ali spe ech concerning the Qui is altogetherior for the most pari, metaphorical ; and that agreeably thereunto, Plato speaheth of the minii or Qui, as a dri ver that guides and go vertas a chariot, whicli is, not unsilly, styled 'αυis,ilio a lucisorin aethereat vehicle or :χημι, terms expressive of the puri ty, lighiness, subtilty and mobili ty of that fine celesilai nature, in Whicli the sout immediately resides and
I72. It was a tenet of the Stoics that the world was an animal, and 'stat providen ce an wered to the rea sonable Qui in man. But then thoe Provide nee or minit Was suppo sed by them, to be immedia tely resident
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1 3. Such are the bright and lively signatures of a divine mind, operat ing and displaying it self in fire and light throughout the worid, thatas Aristolle observes in his book de mundo, ali things seem fuit os divinities, whose apparitions on ali sides stri he and da gale our eyes. And it must be owned the clites philosophers and wise men os antiqui ty, horumuch see ver they attributed to second causes and the force of fire, yetthey supposed a mind or intellect alNays resident therein, active or provident, restraining iis force and directing iis operations. 17 . Thus Hippocrates in his treati se, de diaeta, spealis of a strongbut invisibie fire ', that rules ali things without nolse. Here in , faith he,
resides Qui, understanding, pruderace, gro th, motion, diminution, change, nee p and wahing. This is What go verns ait things, and is neverin repose. And the fame aut hor, in his tradi, de carnibus, after a serious preface set ting sortii that he is abo ut to declare his o n Opinion, expresse th it in these term s. That which we cali heat sinu, appe ars to me so mething immortal, whicli under stan is ali things, whicli stes and knows both hat is present and what is to com C. I s. This fame heat is also what Hippocrates calis nature, the aut horos ii se and de ath, good and evit. It is farther to be noted of this heat, that he maheth it the object of no sense. It is that occult, universat nature, and in ard invisit bie force, whicli actuates and animates the whole vorid, and was wors hipped by the ancients under the nam e of Saturn ;
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Word Satar, to lie hidden or concea ted. And what hath been deli vered by Hippocrates, agrees with the notions os other philosophers: Heraclitus ', for instance, Who held fire to be the principie and cause of the generation os ali things, did not mean thereby an inanimate element, but, as he ter med it, an evertasting fire. I 6. Theophrastus, in his book, de igne, distinguis heth be twecn heatand fire. The first he considers as a principie or cause, not that whichappeareth to sense as a passion or accident egisting in a subject, and whichis in truth the effect of that uia seen principie. And it is remari able that he refers the trea ting of this invisibie fire or heat, to the investigation of the fit si causes. Fire, the principie, is ne i ther genera ted nor de-sroyed, is every where and always present ': while iis essects in distorent times and places s hew themselves more or test, and a re very variOUs, sestand cheristi ing, or violent and destructive, terribie Or agrecabie, CODUCy-ing good and evit, gro th and decay, ii se and death, throughout ille mundane system.
1 7. It is allo Ned by ali, that the Greelis derived much of their philosophy from the Eastern nations. And Heraclitus is thought by sonaeto have dra n his principies Dom Orpheus, as Orpheus did Dom the AEgyptians ; or, as others write, he had been auditor of Hippasus, a Pythagorean, who held the sanae notion os sire, and might have deri vcdit Do m 2Egypt by his master Pythagoras, who h ad ira velled into IEgypt, and been instructed by the seges of that nation. One of whose tenets it was, that fi re was the principi e of ali action , whicli is agreeable to the doctrine of the Stoics, that the whole of things is administered by a fiery intellectuat spirit. In the Asclepian Dialogue, we find this notion, that all
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paris of the world vegetate by a fine subtile aether, whicli acts as an en-gine or instrument, subject to the will os the supreme God. 1 8. As the Platonists held intellect to he lod ged in Qui, and Qui in aether ' ; so it passeth for a doctrine of Trismegistus in the Pimander, that mind is clothed by soul, and Qui by spirit. Theres ore as the animal
spirit of man, heing subtile and luminous, is the immediate tegument of the human so ut, or that where in and where by she acts; even so the spirit of the worid, that active si ery se the real substance of light, that permeates and animates the whole system, is supposed to clotho the laui, whicli clothes the mind of the universe.1 9. The Magi like Nise se id of God, that he had light sor his bodyand truth sor his foui. An d in the Chaldaic oracles, ali things a re sup- posed to be go verned by a or intellectual fire. An d in the sameo racles, the creative mirad is sald to be clothed with sire : ἐοσαμύνοι πυρwhicli oriental reduplication of the word fire seems to imply the extremo puri ty and force thereos Thus also in the Psalms, Thou art clothed withlight as with a garment. Where, the word rendered light might have been rendered si re, the Hebre letters heing the same with those in the wordwhicli signifies sire, ali the differcnce being in the poliat in g, whicli is justly counted a late invention. That other scripture sentence is rem arkablo: who maheth his ministers a faming fire : whicli might, perhaps, he rendered more agreeably to the contexi, as weli as consistent ly withtho Hebre , aster this manner : who mali et i flaming fire his ministers: and the whole might rura thus: Glio malleth the win is his mesieragers, and flaming fire his ministers. 18o. A notion of something divine in si re, animat ing the whole woild, and ordering iis severat paris, v as a tenet of very generat extent ' be-
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ing emi, aced in the most distant times and places, even among the Chi ne se them scives; who malae tien, aether, or heaven, the fovere ign principi e or cause of ali things, and teach that the celestiat viriue, by them Called ii, when joined to corporeat substance, dotii fas hion, distinguisti, and specificate ali natural beings. This ii of the Chine se stems to ans Ner the fornas of the Peripatetics. And both bear analogy to the fore-go ing philosophy of sire.
I 8 I. The heaven is supposed pregnant with virtuos and tornas, whicli constitute and discriminate the various species of things. And we have more than once observed, that, as the light, sire, or celestiat aether, be ingparted by refracting or reflecting hodies, produceth varie ty of colours; even so, that fame apparently uniform substance being parte d and se creted by the attracting and repelling powers of the divers secretoryducts of planis and animais, that is, by natural chymiury, producetii orim parieth the vario us specific proporties of natural bodies. Whence theiastes and odo urs and medicinal virtu es Q various in vegetabies. 182. The tien is considered and adored by the learned Chinese, as living and intelligent aether, the , si, ,hi 4, of the Chaldaeans and the Stoics. And the wormip of things celestiat, the sun and stars, among the easternnation lese remote, was ora account of their fiery nature, their heat an dii glit, and the influence thereos. Upon these accountS, the stan was looked on by the Greela theologers as the spirit of the worid, and thepower of the worid. The clean sing quali ty, the light and heat of fi reare natural symbols of puri ty, knowledge, and po er, or is I may so say, the things them selves far as they a re percepti ble to our senses, or in the fame sense as motion is se id to he action. Accordingly, we find a religious regard was pa id to fire, both by Greelis and Romans, and inde ed by mos , is not ali, the nations of the worid.
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18s. The wormip of Vesta at Rome Was, in truth, the wotsh ip of sire. Nee tu aliud Vesam quam vivam intellige Mammam, Suilli Ovid in his Fasti. An d as in old Rome the eternat si re was religioussy hept by virgins, se in Greece, particularly at Delphi and Athens, it was hept by Wido s. It is welf known that Vulcan or fire Was Womstipped with great distinction by the AEgyptians. The Zabii or Sabeansare also known to have been Wormippers of fire. It appears too Domthe Chaldean oracles, that fire Was regarded as divine by the seges of that nation. And it is supposed that ur of the Chaldaeans was se calle stom the Hebreis word signisting 1ire, because sire Was publiely wormip-ped in that city. That a religio us Wormip was pald to fire by the anciuent Persians and their Magi, is attested by ali antiqui ty. And the sectos Per es, or old Gentiles, of whom there are Considerable rema in s atthis day both in the Mogols country and in Persia doth tes iij the fame. 18ι. It doth not stem that their prostrations besere the perpetuat si res, preserved with great care in their Pyreia, or fire temptes, were mere ly a civit respect, as Dr. Hyde Nould have it thought. Although he bringsgood proos that they do not involie thz si re their altars, or pray to it, or cali it God: and that they achnowledge a supreme invisibie deity. Civit respects are pald to things as related to civit power: but suci, relation doth not appear in the present case. It should stem the resore, thatthey wormip God as present in the fise, Which they Wormip or reverence, not ultima tely or sor it self, but relatively to the supreme being. Whichit is not unlihely was et se here the case at fim; though the practice of men, e specialty of the vulgar, might in langili os time degenerate Domthe original institution, and rest in the object of sense.
mould have it thought, that they borro ed the use and reverence of per-