THe Second Consideration I Desire to have Notice Taken of, is This, That it is not so Sure, as Both Chymists and Aristotelians are wont to Think it, that every Seemingly Similar or Distinct Substance that is Separated from a Body by the Help of the Fire, was Pre existent in it as a Principle or Element of it.
That I may not make this Paradox a Greater then I needs must, I will First Briefly Explain what the Proposition means, before I proceed to Argue for it.
And I suppose You will easily Believe That I do not mean that any thing is separable from a Body by Fire, that was not Materially pre-existent in it; for it Far Exceeds the power of Meerly Naturall Agents, and Consequently of the Fire, to produce anew, so Much as one Atome of Matter, which they can but Modifie and Alter, not Create; which is so Obvious a Truth, that almost all Sects of Philosophers have Deny’d the Power of producing Matter to Second Causes; and the Epicureans and some Others have Done the Like, in Reference to their Gods themselves.
Nor does the Proposition peremptorily Deny but that some Things Obtain’d by the Fire from a Mixt Body, may have been more then barely Materially pre-existent in it, since there are Concretes, which before they be Expos’d to the Fire afford us several Documents of their abounding, some with Salt, and Others with Sulphur. For it will serve the present Turn, if it appear that diverse things Obtain’d from a Mixt Body expos’d to the Fire, were not its Ingredients Before: for if this be made to appear it, will be Rationall enough to suspect that Chymists may Decieve themselves, and Others, in concluding Resolutely and Universally, those Substances to be the Elementary Ingredients of Bodies barely separated