Bulk and Selvage of the World, Table of contents
THE HEADS OR CONTENTS Reckon'd up.
Chap. I. THE Introduction or foreruner. The ground of miſtakes thought to be ill blendings, ſhewn in two or three things of another ſort, as much miſmingled and brought home to cloſe with, and ſet forth the buſineſs in hand. Page 1.
Chap. II. Way open'd for the minds eaſier graſping of Body, or world, by laying hold of room and time, & laying one to Gods immenſity, the other to his eternity; whereby 'tis found that Room is not widned out with the former, nor time lengthned out with the latter, but that they differ altogether. Gods eternity an Everlaſting Now: Time is on and on, paſt, at hand, and to come. [Am] ſpeaks [was] and [will be,] in eternity. The words and Grammar that we ſpeak by, are matcht to time, and can't ſpeak forth eternity. We are at a loſs for words in ſome outgoings of the ſoul, and flight of thoughts, as we are for ſome other things that truckle beneath us. Doctor Charleton's taking in with eternal time, carried on and further ſtrengthned and dreſs't up by Doctor S. P. His arguments layd down and anſwer'd, by ſhewing there is no outward eternity at all, and if there were, it would be no better than none at all. The Doctors objection againſt the Nowneſs of eternity anſwer'd. The matching of it with the way of the ſouls being in the body. Eternity not ſuch a Now as that of time is, but is quite wide of it, all and ſome. Thinking is, and does, to Ghoſt, as bulk to body. Second argument anſwer'd, by ſhewing there would be no run of unmade time between two worlds, nor formerneſs nor afterneſs. The Doctors anſwer to the known Choak, Whether the parts of an infinite length be finite? found to be none at all. Pag. 12.
Chap. III. All Bulk a point to Gods immenſity, which is altogether; as all time a Now to his eternity, which is all at once. We ſhould never have thought of Room, had we not been body, (as we cannot now think beyond it, nor where about ſouls are in it, or our own in the body). Many things are, which are no where. Whereneſs is too much a kin to place to ſuit Ghoſt, if we could but help it by a better word. The kind of ſome things, ſtands in their being or knot being according to ſomwhat. Things coming into ſenſes, are ſuch only to thoſe that have them. Our underſtanding of things is nearer a kin to them, than our feeling of them. Senſe miſtakes, and misſhews, and thereby reaſon often miſled. What we feel, we know not, nor can help another to know: The new knowledge of Light from Maſter Newton, don't help the ſight of it. The world one thing to Gods Idea, another to our feeling. Pag. 41.
Chap. IV. The outmoſt reach of Body must needs be bounded. Roomth beyond the world can no more be boundleſs, than the world it ſelf. Outworldiſh emptineſs an idle thing. Gods Almightineſs would ask Room as well as his Allfillingneſs, one being as much roomthy as the other. Room is no where but where body is. Ghoſt is no more in Room than thought is. Doctor More for roomthyneſs of Ghoſt, and outworldiſh emptineſs taken off. God muſt as well be of ſome ſhape as of ſome Bulk. The world may be bounded without Emptyneſs beyond it. The foremoſt miſtake, a Dreaming firſt of emptyneſs, and then of world in the midſt of it: Whereas room is in the world and not the world in Room about it; nor ſhould we have thought of room, till 'twas made, and where 'twas made. Doctor More's arguments anſwer'd, by ſhewing an arrow can't be ſhot beyond the worlds Selvedge, nor arm born out of it; the Frame of the world hindring as much as the ſtiffeſt bodies waylaying: prov'd by the ſtop of falling Bodies at the Earths middle. The world no heap, but a ſet of Bodies lockt faſt together. Ghoſt can't carry Body beyond the world. The biggeſt Body can't be fathom'd by place, as the leaſt can't be cloven. Another world would be neither near this, nor far from it. To Ghoſt the biggeſt Body and the leaſt, all one. If nothing be between two worlds or Bodies the Rims would touch; Anſwer'd, That two Bodies touch, ſomthing muſt needs be between; elſe onlay'd bodies, and inlay'd would be all one. Des Cartes and Maſter White gotten over: they muſt either unſay, or make the world boundleſs. Doctor More's cramp argument, brought off. The ſides of a veſſel emptyed of Body, would not only not touch, but be further aſunder, than when full. A body may ſtand ſtill and yet ſhift place. Things are ſo near each other, as they can come to be. Stirring of Bodies, or the room between them, comes all to a reckoning. If there were boundleſs room beyond the world, its running would be ſtanding ſtill, and its ſtanding ſtill running. Master Barlow anſwer'd. Body can't ſtir but in Body. All Bodies ſtart ſaw wiſe. Sirring of Ghost is like skipping of thought. God would be no more by halves in two worlds, than he is in the two halves of this. Pag. 54.
Chap. V. Whether Bulk holds of leastings. Magnenus layd aſide. An Atome has not this and that. 'Tis mated with a now of time. An Atome touches ſecundum impenetrabilitatem, & longitudinem ſeminalem, made out by the ſouls cloſing with the body, and ſome other leſs heeded touches. What is brought against it, anſwer'd, as to figure and motion. Slow pace is made of Starts and Bearings. Bearing is neither rest nor ſtirring, but the keeper or ſpring of ſtirring, (the beginnings of things and the things themſelves being two), further open'd by the ſtirring of a watch, of thrown bodies, the ſpringineſs of an egge, of brooding, of boughed bodies. Of ſproutings, of Breathers. Begetting is ſhifting ſprings. Souls may be ſhifted in a Bloſom of Body, and not mov'd. Life and ſoul are two. Man the Son of Man. Swift motions, in likelyhood, outſtrip time. Motion a thing bodyleſs, not ghoſtly. Body as tis lodg'd may move it ſelf. All Body, as throwfareſom to Ghoſt as ſome. The nimbleneſs of Ghoſts in their hurryings of Body. Of our Saviours Body. The Laws of motion enough to ſtop bodies running a tilt at the middle atome. Such laws bind the Soul to the Body, even against will. God holds us by laws of kind as we do others by thoſe of right. Birds curb'd by laws of kind, and all things elſe, the loweſt things, ſtee'rd by the higheſt wiſdom. Pag. 105.
Chap. VI. Beginning the world ſooner and ſooner would nevermake it everlaſting, but to be ſo, it muſt be all at once. How the world is ſomwhat beſides God. Againſt Doctor S. P. holding the world might have been from eternity. No ſoonerneſs before world, nor time, nor ages. The world a Decreed world, the Decree never a decreeing. Gods eternity and the Souls two things infinitely aſunder. The ſoul ſhall never have lived an infinite number of minutes, nor reach half or any part of Gods everlaſtingneſs, any more than an half-way boundleſs Bulk, can reach half his alfillingneſs. God otherwiſe everlasting than in the root against the Doctor. Whatever is in God is forthwith. The Doctors argument, If nothing to come of Gods eternity, 'tis at an end, Anſwer'd; and his half given him back again, to make the beſt he can of the ſcurvy recoil of his abſurdneſs and impoſſibility. Something of likeneſs hinted at. What an ill lookt, frightful train haunts the Doctors new Tool, of a growing Everlaſtingneſs. Body as laſting in its kind as Soul. A time beyond which the world ſhall not hold out, may be faſtned on, from the ſureneſs of the bodies riſing again. Pag. 154.
Chap. VII. A Moreneſs of worlds, and Earlyerneſs of this world, ſtand upon the ſame untruſty bottom. 'Tis rational to think the world could not have been ſooner, nor bigger, nor more. More, or bigger or earlier worlds, would not better ſet out Gods power, eternity, or immenſity, than this does. Doctor More for a boundleſs tale of worlds taken off. The ſaying of worlds framed, or made, in Holy Writ; and world without end, or before all worlds, in the Common Prayer, cleared from mistake. Pag. 187.