[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
equally with, but far above that which is dug out of the Earth. But all that can be said hereupon, would but serve so
much the more to exasperate you if you comprehend it not, or will not attend to it. In vain therefore would it be for
me to give you (at present) a particular description of its several properties, as also of its constituent principles and
the manner of their union. I must wait to do that till those senses which are fallen asleep in you shall come to be
awakened. But I am therefore sent that I might rouse you out of your sleep. Forgive me that I thus wake you. O
Philochrysus! what has become of the eye-salve of Sophia? Arise and anoint your eyes.
Philochrysus: Hold! I think I now begin to see. I must confess that I can now see the possibility of what you drive
at, but that it is actually so, I cannot yet perceive. I remember I was once a little acquainted with one that might
possibly be of your society, and I did hear him exclaim from the pulpit in this manner: "Think ye, ye shall be set up
as pillars in the Temple of God to uphold it? or that you shall be full of gold in you pockets, of the finest gold tried
in the Fire, like the rich men of the Earth? and to ruffle it in silks, and fine raiment as those in princes' courts? Do
you think that these things are here meant in these promises made to the Seven Churches? No, No, dream of no such
things, for I say there is not one word true according to the letter.
Philadelphus: I do say that every word, every syllable, every letter is true, and that there are real and substantial
pillars in the Temple of God, real and substantial Gold in the City of God, and real and substantial raiment worn by
the citizens thereof. And yet at the same time, I do assert that there is no Word, syllable or letter true, if strictly taken
according to that low idea which the natural man has fixed to these words. For as much as there is a more than
hyperbolical excess in the difference of one from the other. As each property by itself considered will manifest. And
if you are convinced of the possibility (at least) of what I have said, you must acknowledge the actual existence
hereof. For that there can be no other reason invented whereby you deny it, but its impossibility and inconsistency.
Philochrysus: I resign therefore, and yield to you, that the City of Philadelphia may be built of true, real and
substantial Gold, which has nothing of the curse either Inherent or Adherent sticking to it, according to the sense that
the describer means, or that you explain, though not according to that which the natural man would have.
Philadelphus: You comprehend me right. I shall therefore proceed. I said then, in the second place, that it is built of
fine Gold, much more fine and higher graduated than any you can ever have seen. This you may in part already
understand by what has been said hitherto. But here I shall much more stand in need of words whereby to express
myself.
Philochrysus: I long greatly to hear you speak distinctly of this Superfine and supergraduated Gold. I shall not
forget what you have said. Therefore proceed on.
Philadelphus: You need but remember your Gothic philosopher. Consider also that there is a twofold body, There is
a material and elementary body, and there is an spiritual and a heavenly body. The one is gross, the other fine.
Philochrysus: I can understand perfectly what you mean by the former, but the notion of an immaterial body seems
to me the very same contradiction as that of an immaterial substance seemed to an eminent asserter of materialism
called Philautus. If you had but him to deal with, he would make work, I believe, with your non-elementary and
spiritual body.
Philadelphus: It may be so. But I never feared the strength of reasoning in Philautus, though I know him pretty
well, and all his principles whether in Philosophy, Divinity or politics are opposite to mine. He is the express
character of the natural man throughout, and in his works everywhere you have the most lively image of the Fallen
State of Nature, whereof great advantage may be made by the wise, it being no where that I know so deeply and
philosophically handled. This indeed he mistakes for the true and original State of Nature; but herein he speaks well
enough, and true enough, as a natural or animal Man, and without deviating, most exactly follows his principles
wherever they lead him. On the other side the most learned and profound of all his answerers very admirably both
describes and demonstrates the true and original state of Nature, such as it was, and such as it shall be again, but not
such as it is at present. As for Philautus he is not dead, but lives in his disciples, and will live as long as the present
corrupt state of Nature shall remain upon the Earth. For the Psyche in man is never able to penetrate beyond the
image; only the pure spirit of Sophia can reach to the life, which is so imaged out in discourse. Hence he who had
only the Psyche, was not able to distinguish betwixt the one and the other, but he took them both to be the same. So
finding in the origination of several languages that a Spirit was imaged forth or signified by Breath, he presently
concludes that the Spirit and Breath were one and the same, and consequently that all Spirits (as such) were material
and corporeal beings. he in the like manner, finding in the verbal image of substance was expressed that which
stands under, or props up somewhat, entertained immediately a most gross and sensible conception hereof, and tied
it down to matter. So then nothing could be a greater absurdity to him, or a more manifest contradiction, than to
believe an immaterial substance, that is an immaterial matter. Now among those who have a great and just
abhorrence for his sentiments, all are not set free themselves from the very same method of argumentation, as from a
numerous induction of instances might be verified if need were.
Wherefore I shall only beg of you what is highly necessary in order to your understanding of what I speak, and to
your passing a judgment thereupon, that you content not yourself with the lax and popular sense of a word, as that
which is generally very equivocal, but that you seek out the strict and close idea that is to be affixed to it, for the
removal of all ambiguity in the terms, and the distinction of the image from its original, or (as the Schools would
rather speak) of the Signum from Signatum, the sign from the thing signified.
Philochrysus: It is very just what you require, Phildelphus. None can gainsay this method, after what the celebrated
author of An Essay on Human Understanding, together with a French philosopher of the first magnitude , have
written on it, shall be looked into. Wherefore tell me in the first place, what you mean by Substance?
Philadelphus: Hereby I understand that which hath both Essence and Existence, being created by God, and made
capable of bearing up, or supporting various modes of Being.
Philochrysus: What do you mean by Body?
Philadelphus: Hereby I understand a substance that is extended, and is capable of various modes of Extension. Two
of which modes are penetrability and impenetrability.
Philochrysus: Is penetrability then a mode of extension? I always thought that all matter was impenetrable.
Philadelphus: True. All Matter is impenetrable, but all body is not. And penetrability is as much a mode of
extension as impenetrability. For where there is no co-extension there is no penetration, and where there is no
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]