CHAP. I. Of the Efficient Cause , and of its Essence and Differences .

THere is such a relation and connection between the Cause and the Effect , that we cannot have a true notion of the cause , unless at the same time we have a conception of the effect ; so in general , we say , that a cause is nothing else but that which gives being to another thing , which is the effect of it ; which way soever it happens , according to the Five Causes before mentioned .

All Philosophers do agree , That of all Causes the Efficient is the most Noble ; because , properly speaking , this alone hath Effect , though it be produced after several ways , as we shall shew hereafter .

If the Efficient Cause acts by a power proper to it self , then it is called the Principal cause ; but if onely by the force and impression of another , then it is termed the Instrumental cause : So we distinguish betwixt the Painter , and the Pencil ; though both contribute to the production of the Picture .

Also the Universal Cause , which produces many effects ( as the Sun , the Stars , and the Elements ) is distinguished from a Particular Cause , which is determinate to one effect in particular : Of this kind there are many sublunary causes acting in this inferior World.

There is also a difference between the Total Cause , which produces its effect without the help of another , and That Cause which cannot act alone , but only produces part of the effect .

There are also necessary and free causes , the first acts necessarily and without choice ; as Fire , the Sun , and all created causes , except Men and Angels , for they act by a Free Will , wherein consists the essence of Liberty .

The Efficient Cause is likewise either Physical , or Moral ; the Physical acts really and immediately , as Fire consuming a House with its Flame ; and he that sets fire to it for that purpose , is the next moral cause ; and he who advises it , is a moral , but a remote cause , of the consequential burning . But if the Fire happens by chance , and by the imprudence of one that carries a Candle in his hand , and some sparks fall into the thatch , which takes fire , whereby the House is burnt ; here this Man is only an accidental cause of the Burning .

Lastly , it is rightly distinguished between the First Cause , which is Author of Nature ; and Nature created , under which are comprehended all second causes , and such are all Creatures .

As to the Efficient Cause whereof we speak , it may be observed , that when it acts by Knowledge , all the said causes , after their respective manner , do concurr to the production of one and the same effect : As , the Painter drawing his Picture , is the principal cause , the Pencil the instrumental , the End proposed by the Painter is the final cause , and the Idea directing , is the exemplary cause ; the form and disposition of the parts of the Piece that is painted , may be taken for the form of it , the Colours , and the Cloath whereupon they are laid , may be reckoned the material cause , because they are the constituent matter of the Work. But if a Limner in his anger throws his Pencil ( as it is reported to have hapned to him who had in vain endeavoured to represent to the life a high mettled Horse Foaming at his Mouth ) or if a Limner undesignedly and by chance touches the Picture , which thereby ( as it befell the former in his anger ) is made better , the representation more agreeable , the lines stronger , or more piercing , this would be only an effect of an accidental cause .

There are some things to be observed in an efficient cause ( when it acts ) which are inseparable from it , such as these , the nature of the Agent , the existence of the cause , the power which makes it act , the intervening act , the effect which is produced , the subject whereby , into which , and wherein it is produced ; as we shall see in what follows .

CHAP. II. Of the first Cause .

THE existence of the first Cause , or first Princple , is so evident , and so necessary , that it is like Truth known by it self , and ought not to be supposed liable to any difficulty ; especially amongst Christians , who are illuminated by the Light of Divine Revelation . And since a Man that submits himself to Faith , hath not thereby renounced the light of Reason , it will not be amiss to confirm this truth with natural reasons , lest any doubt should remain in Spirits less tractable .

Which the better to effect , I suppose a Truth so well known , that no Man can deny , unless he hath a mind to be thought ridiculous and infatuated .

This Truth so obvious , that it ought to pass for a Principle , whereupon , as a sure foundation , the existence of the first cause ought to be built , is grounded upon our own proper existence ; there is nothing so evident , nothing so certain , than That we are in the World ; this truth is confirmed by the testimony of all our senses ; whatsoever we think , whatsoever we say , and whatsoever we do , will not suffer us to imagine that our existence is an illusion : Therefore it is certain , and more than evident , that we are in the World ; but that we are in it from our selves , or by our selves , or by casualty or chance , or by the necessity of being , is absolutely impossible ; so that it is necessary that we are in the World , by the means and assistance of a certain other Being , who as the Author , was also the free Principle of that essence which we possess .

This Principle is necessarily either a first or second cause ; if the first , then you shall see that we are agreed , and that the true existence of the first cause , which some would deny , is rightly built upon the truth of our Being , which no Man can deny ; if we make the cause of our being to be a second cause , then it must be confessed , that this second cause is produced by a third , and the third by a fourth , and so in going upwards , as they do in the Genealogies of ancient and Noble Progenies , at last we find the head of the Family ; that is , the first cause , who by his great Atchievements , purchased to himself the Quality and Title of Nobility , and left those Titles to his Illustrious Family . It is likewise true , that there is no Family so Illustrious or so Ancient , but the Genealogy of it terminates in one private person , who gave it both its Name , and Original , and which was the first Cause of its Nobility ; no certainly , unless we erect a ridiculous and an infinite Genealogie ; or , like the Egyptians who imagined themselves to be older than the Moon , will say that its Origine is as unknown as the Head of Nilus . In the same manner , after we have by way of ascent to our Fathers , and Ancestors , examined what kind of Author we had of our being , whom we may call the first cause of all things which are in us , we do necessarily find a certain Being which was before all things , and which is the effect of no other causes , and which is the Cause of all things which are in the World , and consequentially the first , who is that God whom we adore .

This demonstration doth abundantly convince any Person , who hath in him the least spark of the light of reason : It is ridiculous to say , that we our selves were the cause of our Being , because from thence it would follow , that we did exist before we had a being , that we gave our selves that which we were not in posession of , and that the cause and the effect was one and the same thing , which is impossible . It is no less an errour to affirm , That we are in the World by Necessity ; for if we were so in the World , our existence would never have had a beginning , and we would have been immutable and independent , and infinite in every kind of perfection , which is repugnant to experience and right Reason .

That perswasion of Epicurus and his Followers is no less ridiculous , That the first Authors of our existence were produced by Chance , or by a fortuitous occurrence of Attoms . This opinion of it self falls to the ground . Let it be supposed , that the World was produced by this fortuitous occurrence of Atoms , yet still the question will be , Whether these Atoms were Created , or Uncreated ? If created , they acknowledge a Cause of their existence , and this cause must own another , and so ad infinitum ; which cannot be maintained ; for then the World would be eternal , and thence to this present time , there would have been an infinite number of rational Souls in the World : Aristotle who supposed the eternity of the World , and the immortality of the Soul ; yet did deny the Transmigration of Souls , and would allow nothing in Nature to be actually infinite ; whereby he makes himself guilty of an absurd contradiction .

The same Aristotle stumbles upon another Contradiction , in Relation to the First Cause ; for if the World be Eternal and without a beginning , this Second Cause is of no use ; for the same Reason which proves the World to have a beginning , proves likewise the existence of the first cause ; on the other hand , the same reason which proves the existence of the first cause , does at the same time prove , that the World once had a beginning ; and doth demonstrate that it was not Eternal .

In the same manner , Epicurus is guilty of an absurd contradiction , when he says , that Atoms , ( which , according to his opinion , he makes to be the causes of all things ) were produced and created by another : But if he says these Atoms were Uncreated , and that they were Eternal Beings , necessary and independent ; then every Atom must be some Divinity , and that they are both the efficient and material cause of all things , which is impossible , because the opposition and relation , which is necessarily betwixt a principle acting , and the subject whereupon it acts , do imply a necessary distinction .

CHAP. III. The Perfections of the first Cause .

THey who are throughly satisfied with the existence of the first cause , must of necessity attribute to it all the Perfections which are or can be in the World ; that it is not only the most perfect and most noble of causes , but also it ought to be supposed , that all the effects which it hath produced , or is yet capable of producing , are in its Being in all perfections , and that every one of them is infinite , and ( as it is the first cause ) in the unity of its Being ; for it is necessary it should have the perfections of those beings which it hath , or can produce ; for otherwise , it would or could communicate that which it neither hath , nor can have .

The first cause would not be absolutely perfect , if it were not eternal ; for so it would have had a beginning , and might have an end , and then it could not be the first cause , in so much that it derives its existence from that which was pre-existent to it ; and by consequence , this cause which we suppose to be first , would be a second cause , limited in its being and perfections , as in its duration , and it would seem to have a dependence upon another : Whereas , when we suppose it to be the first , all others must depend upon it , and be subordinate to it ; whence it follows , that these qualities of the first cause are inseparable from it , Independence , Eternity , Infinity , and Supreme Authority , and that we cannot conceive any first cause , but at the same time we acknowledge the existence of God.

This first Cause , or to say better , this first Being , which is God , must necessarily have that perfect Unity which admits no multiplication either of Nature or Perfections . Certainly , if God was not one in his being , but had several Natures , the number of them ought to be infinite , and that none of these Beings in particular would be infinite , because when the perfection of one cannot be the perfection of another , there will not be one to be found but will stand in need of the perfection of the other , that is , in whom there would not be requisite that perfection which the other Beings do possess .

I add moreover , That all these supposed Beings would be opposite , independent , and all Supreme , which is impossible ; or that all would be subject to one or other of them , which is ridiculous ; whence it follows , that there is but one only God , who is one in his existence , incapable of any multiplication , and who is the Primary and Universal Cause of all things .

The great number , or rather the infinity of perfections , which we apprehend to be in the First Cause , is not repugnant to the Supreme Unity , because that does not divide the being ; and they are but one and the same thing , though we give them several Names , and do consider them under several Ideas , which we are forced to correct , since without that Unity there would be necessarily a composition of parts , which would be the cause of the whole Compound , and which would precede its existence , which cannot be the ingredient of that composition without something else intervening ; they might also be divided and separated ; so , by the dissolution of the parts , the compound would cease , which is plainly inconsistent with that Idea which we have of God , who is simple in his Nature , Independent , and every way Incorruptible .

The first cause is not only One , and without its like in its Essence , but also one , sole , and without a second , in that action by which the world was produced : And for this reason this action is called Creation , supposing nothing but meer nothing out of which all things were made by the only power of God , without the help of any other , having either the quality of an Agent or a Subject .

The world being produced by this first cause , remains subject to the will and pleasure of it . And in the same manner as it was produced by the sole act of this first cause , so it is preserved in the same State by the sole influence of the same cause , who as it did not want any other second cause in the Creation of the Universe , so neither doth it stand in need of any assistance in the conservation of it .

Being and Nothing are so opposite to one another , that the Philosophers always had it for a Maxim , That out of nothing nothing could be made ; which is to be understood only in reference to second causes ; and not in respect of the first , whose power is infinite , and who can do what he pleases ; this power in the creation of the Universe was not applyed according to the extensiveness of its activity , because it pleased God to terminate the being , qualities , and number of second causes , which are created .

The Creation was no necessary action , for the first Cause did not Create the World but at such a Time , in such a Place , and in such a Manner as seemed good to it self ; so it made all those things with the highest Liberty , there being no other cause either equal or superior to it self , who was able to compel , perswade , animate , or incite it to the Creation of the world .

The World it self could not terminate a necessary action , because it could not be Eternal , for every thing that is of necessity is eternal , neither had it ever a beginning , nor can it have an end , because it is against the nature of a created being , which is limited in its qualities and duration , no less than in its natural Substance .

If the first cause was free in the Creation of the world , thence it follows , that all things were made by direction of reason and understanding , and by consequence , according to a certain Idea and Rule : But because the first cause operates after an independent manner , it could not have the Type of its production any where else but from it self , neither could it act by a rule distinct from its own being ; so God is not only the efficient , but the exemplary cause of all things .

For the same reason it may be said , That the first Cause , which is God , is the final cause of all things , for when he , as an intelligent and free cause , produced the World , he did propose to himself an end answerable to his Dignity , that is , himself and his own proper Glory ; so that the first cause is necessarily the ultimate end of all its effects .

CHAP. IV. Of second Causes , and their Actions .

ALL Creatures are called second Causes , because they depend upon the first , neither do they operate but by the Command and Impression of the first ; this First or Universal Cause does act Uuniversally with particular Causes , but after a manner agreeing with the Nature of every particular thing , and according to the power which was given it when it was created ; which does not alter the Nature of the Causes , nor the necessity or Liberty of their actions .

This power of acting , which is granted to second Causes , is not a quality different from their Nature and Being : So the Power which the Atoms have of moving themselves , doth not differ from the Atoms themselves ; the power of burning or heating doth not differ from the Fire to which it is inherent , unless it be in the manner of our conceiving things , and of speaking of them according to our conceptions .

So it is of an Action which terminates from the cause to the effect , and which is nothing else than a certain relation , or an actual subordination , which is found betwixt the cause and the effect .

This action is never without motion , or to say better , action and motion is one and the same thing , thence it is that a thing rests when it is without action , and then it begins to move it self when it begins action ; so according to three ways of acting , there are found in the nature of things three kinds of motion . The first is made without Sense or Reason , which we may see in Stones , Mettals , Plants , and the Heavens . The second kind of motion is made by sense and knowledge , as are seen in all living Creatures : The third kind joins Reason to Sense , as we observe in man acting by Phancy , who proposes an end to himself , distinguishes between Good and Evil , and hath the liberty of prosecuting the several Objects presented to his view either with love or hatred .

As an action is not indeed distinct from the cause acting , nor from the effect which it doth produce , so motion doth not differ from the thing moved , or from the thing which moves it , but both of them Is , accordingly as they change their condition , or cease to rest , which from the Creation was never done , without a certain local motion of the whole , or some part thereof ; so , the notion of rest is opposite to the notion of mutation and action , as well as motion .

CHAP. V. Of Accidental Causes .

THere are many causes which are called Accidental Causes , for , properly speaking , they are not true causes ; which sort of causes happens four manner of ways ; first , a Musitian draws a Picture , not as he is a Musitian , but as a Painter ; so that the Art of Painting is the true cause of this work : And as the Art of Singing contributes nothing here , since it falls out by chance , that the Art of Singing , and the Art of Painting meet together in this Man , and since the Art of Singing is no way requisite for the making of the Picture ; in this respect , we may say , that the Musitian is only an accidental cause of the Picture which he hath drawn .

Secondly , a remote or indirect cause is called an accidental cause ; as when we say , that the Sun is the cause of darkness , because darkness is occasioned by the absence of the Sun ; Mirth is the cause of Sadness , and Peace arises from War : As a Man endeavouring to save his Friend , whose Life is in danger , and thereby unwillingly exposing him to a certain death , is the indirect or accidental cause of his death : As he , who perswades his Friend to cross the Seas , whereby he is cast away .

Thirdly , an opposite cause ( which produces an effect quite contrary to that which it ought to produce ) is an accidental cause , as it was with the subjects of such Tyrants as persecuted the Church , and thereby procured Glory to Martyrs ; and as those , who were the death of our Lord Jesus Christ , obtained us Life , destroyed the Synagogue , built the Church ; they fulfilled the Prophecies , and laid the foundation of the Gospel .

In the fourth and last place , That is an accidental cause which produces a particular effect not foreseen , and according to the course of Nature unavoidable ; if it hath respect to an intelligent cause , and the effect be agreeable to wish , the Heathens did point at this by the name of Fortune , and according to their way of speaking , we say such a thing is the effect of Fortune ; as when a Man is digging up the Foundation of a house , and by chance finds a Treasure ; but if the effect be otherwise than prosperous , then it is misfortune , or the chance of Fortune : As when a Tile falls from the top of a House upon a Mans Head that is passing by , and Kills him ; here the Tile is the Physical and accidental cause of this Mans death , which was inevitable according to the course of second causes , having either their free or necessary motions : These accidental causes gave the Heathens occasion to frame to themselves a Blind Goddess , which they called Fortune , to whom they did attribute an unconstant , an uncertain , and a various disposition of good and evil ; to this Man 's good , to that Man's prejudice : Of all errors this is not the least , neither was it entertained by any , but the ignorant and the meaner sort of People

The wiser sort in that age did aim at a cause of all the effects which happen in the World , that was less feigned , and more solid ; this they would have to be Fate , and that what without any reason was ordained by this universal and chief cause was inevitable ; so when any great misfortune happened , as the loss of a Battel , the defeat of an Army , the change of State , the subversion of a Common Wealth , or the sudden death of some Illustrious Person ; all this was ascribed to Fate ; and they did commonly say , Sic erat in Fatis , this was the inevitable will of Fate ; so the Fates would have it : And when any person undertook any great Enterprise , as it was said of Aeneas , being in search of the Golden Fleece , ( if the Fates call thee ) that is , if the Fates favour thee ; thou shalt attain thy end .

The great Wits of our Age are almost of the same Opinion , concerning all the various successes of Prosperity and Adversity , and all things which come to pass in this Life ; as if humane Prudence had been of no use , and Divine Providence without any care had been idle .

But that we may speak like a Christian Philosopher , supposing the existence of the First Cause , and having demonstrated that it hath all the perfections of the Chief Cause , since Wisdom and Power are the two inseparable perfections of the Supream Being , and indeed so necessary for the conservation and government of humane affairs ; we ought to conclude , that nothing happens in this World , which is not decreed , foreseen , directed , and perfected , by the wisdom ; and strong hand of some Supream Cause , which so exactly directs all things , that they come to pass , according to the end that was proposed in the production of them , and indeed all those things , by means unknown to humane Wisdom ; yet notwithstanding , in respect of God , who is the first cause , they are certain and infallible , who established the infallibility of effects , in such manner , that causes in their motion , should be neither forced , nor too violent : There is nothing but what God soresees , nothing but what is absolutely inevitable , and free causes act always freely , in actions which ought to be free .

CHAP. VI. Of Sympathy , and Antipathy , and the effects depending upon them .

THe wonderful effects which we see in Nature , whose true and natural causes are not easily found out , obliges Philosophers to have recourse to Occult Causes , and to attribute all these effects to natural Sympathy and Antipathy , which happens amongst the several Bodies whereof the World is compounded ; but if you press these Philosophers to tell you , and to explain wherein this Sympathy and Antipathy doth consist , they will give you no other reason , but onely tell you , they are done by certain occult and unknown causes , to which they ascribe all those effects , whose true causes they do not at all know . But they would do much better , plainly to confess their ignorance and say they know nothing of the matter .

That we may the better understand what may be said upon a subject so nice and delicate , and give a reason ▪ of those wonderful effects which are attributed to Simpathy and Antipathy , without the help of occult causes ; in the first place , I suppose that the difficulty which occurs in explaining an Effect of this nature , doth arise from this ; That the Mind is not able to know the truth of things , but by the Senses , which are the gates through which the Objects enter , and form their Ideas in our understanding ; but because there are abundance of things which escape our senses , it is no wonder , that it is so hard to give a reason of things which are so remote from the reach of our senses ; as for example , Iron moves it self , and that by way of local motion , and joins it self to the Load-stone ; we do not see that which draws the Iron to it , though we see it attracted , but we know not by what ways or means it is done ; but if we explicate this , and such like Effects , by saying they are wrought by Sympathy , obscure and occult causes , we deceive our selves ; for that is only a shelter , and the true way of hiding our ignorance , which we are loath to discover , for there is no man in nature so blockish , but after this manner can resolve all the Phoenomena in the Universe . If it be asked why the Needle turns always to the North Pole ? is it enough to say that there is a Sympathy betwixt this Needle which is touched with the Load-stone and the Pole , and that the cause of this Sympathy is obscure , unsearchable , and past finding out : But if this be the way of Philosophising , I refer it to those who are competent Judges of the matter .

Therefore that we may give a more ingenuous and solid Reason , in the second place , I suppose that there are no Bodies but that continually emit certain subtile particles and imperceptible corpuscles which are dispersed through the air , and are at sometimes carried at a great distance , unless they justle with other Bodies in their way . By the help of this principle , we find the reason why a Dog follows the foot-steps of a Hare , or from a heap of a thousand stones , he readily knows that stone which his Master threw , and picks it out , and by his command brings it to him . From this dispersion of corpuscles , we find the reason how the contagion of the Plague , either from the person infected , or from the wind blowing from that Region , is carried a great way of , as also the reason that the smell of Rosemary is perceivable at a hundred miles distance , as Sir Kenelme Digby observes ; and likewise the wonderful cure of persons wounds , which are far distant , by the means of the Sympathetick Powder ; so likewise of the fermentation of Canary Wine , brought into England , which ferment here at the time of their Vintage , when the Vines in Spain flourish and are in the budd , and such like .

I suppose farther , that all these small corpuscles do differ as to their figure and magnitude , and that they are not equally received by this or that body ; so one man is infected with the Plague , in the same place where are many others untouched . For the same reason , the beams of the Sun do melt Wax , and not Lead , unless they are collected and united by the help of a Burning-glass , or the like ; and the heat of Fire melts Mettals after a very different manner .

Lastly , I suppose that it is somewhat difficult to give a solid and sufficient reason of all the Experiments which daily occur in the nature of things . Truly we are surprised with no small admiration , when we see Iron move at the presence of the Load-stone , and to approach it , as if it were endued with a kind of sense and knowledge ; the Palm-Tree of the male kind is barren , unless the female be planted near it , but if they be separated by a river , they both lean to one another , as if they would embrace each other . If you strike the string of a Lute in one corner of a Room , it shall cause the string of another Lute , tuned to the same heighth , and placed in an opposite corner , to give a sound ; but not another . The Cock always sings and claps his wings in the same moment that the Sun ascends above the Horizon ; all Effects which we see from Sympathy afford us matter of admiration , and compel us to acknowledge That Sympathy to be the Daughter of ignorance .

The same thing may be said of Effects which are attributed to Antipathy , no less amazing , and no less difficult to be explained ; who can without much difficulty explain the natural aversion that is between the Colewort , and Vine , so that if it be planted near a Vine , the Vine will give back , and so will the Golewort on the other side ? who can give a Reason that Sheep should shun a Wolf though unseen ? or that a Drum made of sheeps-skin , should not sound where there is in place another Drum made of a Wolfs-skin ? or that when we are seen by a Wolf , before we see him , we are hoarse . who can give a reason that the Basilisk should kill by sight ? and other Effects of this kind , which are frequently observed . But because that Phoenomena of the Load-stone before mentioned , seems to me to be a matter most worthy of consideration , I shall treat of this subject in a particular Chapter by it self .