the inner part of experimental Christianity And how may a Believer be led into it and abide there Q. Whether is there not something in the cases of an experienced Believer which doth more or less directly answer to all the cases all the World over And if so how may this be improved Q. How may a Believer rightly distinguish and wisely difference between the motions of the holy Spirit the impulse of his own spirit and the suggestions of the evil spirit Q. What is the right method of mutual Espousing and Covenanting between Christ and the Believer Q. What is the holy Art and the Skill of Believers through submission to and contentful acquiescence in the Soveraign Will of our LORD when the Believer is much oppressed by a body of Death and by indwelling sin and is held somewhat short under greatly inlarged desires and very importunate endeavours after abounding measures of excelling Graces and after eminent serviceableness and after the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Q. Whether that Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification which the LORD Jesus Christ is made of God unto Believers be not specially specifick and of a distinct kind from that which was concreated with and in the first Adam and from what is but the common work of the Spirit of Grace now And how may this be improved Concerning saving-Grace and the sound evidences thereof Q. HOw may it be yet further cleared and proved that saving and sanctifying Grace in believing Christians doth specifically differ from the common vertues of the civilized Heathen And how is this to be improved Q. What is the spiritual Science of putting of saving Graces upon contributing of mutual help to each other And how doth this call for all diligence to be brought over unto it And what is the distinct Office and the proper Work of every such grace in a Believer What is the manner of their Influence upon each other What their Order Goverment and Discipline Q. How should Graces wisely and suitably act towards Christ and towards the Word of Christ Q. Whether is it not enough for the clear sound evidencing of an holy State of saving and of sanctifying Grace that we love nothing in preference in predominancy before Christ or in equality with Christ unless also we love not any Creature at all inordinately though inferiourly as to any the least competition with Christ So that there must be a loving of the LORD with our whole Mind our whole Soul our whole Heart our whole Strength and so too that he may not only have all our Love our Loves but we must also hate whatsoever else it be that would take off or hinder our through Discipleship to Christ Q. Whether to chuse God alone for our God above all and to chuse Christ for our only LORD and Saviour which are very great and largely comprehensive Truths Duties and Acts have all other evidences of Grace resolved only into them seeing that they both are properly but a part of one even the first of the ten Words Q. Whether is there any other general comprehensive sound satisfying evidence of Grace but only an universal holy growing conformity in Knowledge and Obedience in all things for more continuedness to an whole Christ and to the whole VVord of Christ Q. VVhen is Grace in its exaltation and triumph And how should a Believer get it up to this high pitch and there keep it use it and advance it Q. How may and ought a Believer still to grow up into Grace here as the glorified Saints are above who are perfected into Grace And will there be every Grace in Heaven someways acted and exercised And what is that obedience which will be to every one of the ten Words in Heaven Concerning Heaven and its Glory Q. HOw may a Believer on Earth converse in his Spirit in Heaven with the glorious inhabitants there as if he were actually there Q. How may a Believer be in a continued readiness and preparedness for Death and for Judgement and for the coming of Christ And how is he as to his Spirit and Soul to be directed in his passage into the other World after that these do depart from out of the Body Q. How hath a Believer eternal Life now in this life actually in possession And how may he and ought he to improve this Q. How may a Believer through Grace and Mercy so work up his spirit soul and body here into that transformation unto more of an holy healthful likeness of the Spirit and Soul of glorified Ones and as the Body will be at the last Resurrection and as the Spirit Soul and Body of Christ is Q. How may the purer Churches of Christ on Earth walk in that order here as the glorious Church in Heaven doth Q. How may a Sabbath be so kept on Earth as the Sabbatism is in Heaven Concerning such Scripture-Principles which if admitted and improved might have a direct tendency towards the healing and uniting of the broken and divided Churches and People of God Q. VVHether LORD Jesus Christ be not one and the same and the only Head of Peace and of Purity Q. Whether the holy Scriptures of Truth be not one and the same and the only Rule of Peace and of Purity Q. Whether the Christian Religion for sum and for substance be not one and the same both under the Old and New Testament administrations of Grace the Difference only in the manner of dispensing being duly observed Q. Whether should not the whole Scripture be brought as profitable for Doctrine for convincing Reproof for Correction for Instruction Q. Whether the Law of the Ten Words be not a standing unalterable Rule of Faith Worship and Life commanding all good forbidding all evil under the several dispensations of Grace Q. Whether the Analogy of Faith under the New Testament must not have somewhat proportionably answering to it out of the Old And must not all and every of the Types under the old pass into the Anti-types in the New Q. Whether perfecting work be to be asserted promoted and practised especially as to those six Principles Heb. 6. 1 2 and particularly as to the perfecting of Baptism in grown Believers Q. Whether the purer Churches of the later days should conform to the Prophetical Pattern shewn to Ezekiel and to Christs Directory in his Epistles sent to the seven Churches of Asia revealed to John as that which will make way for the fulfilling of other Prophesies and Promises Q. Whether Christ always had now have and still will have a Church and People somewhere or other in this World on Earth Q. Whether there be not different ages degrees forms sizes in the same state of saving Knowledge sanctifying Grace and holy Experience And whether therefore those who are in this holy State must not be received though they be not as yet come up to the height of others Q. Whether it be enough barely to be a true Church Or should we not work
such unfruitful Studies are so many and so tedious for they make art to be long and Life to be short whereas Word-Study and Scripture-Learning would make Art short and Life long that those who do waste their precious time in these worthless labours do find the prime of their day and the vigorousness of their age even decaying and dying away before they know aright what to know and how to live Some who have had that University honour put upon them to be called Masters of Arts yet have afterwards experienced that they had little else but the name and have look'd upon those years as the corrupted education then was to have been the void space of their life which would have been the choice season of their time if Tutors had put them in a right way of Scriptural Learning One of the skilfullest advancers of Humane Learning in one of the most laboured and best wrought Treatises upon that Subject has in the close of his Book given a short prospect of a new world of Sciences or the deficients of them fifty in number and he that shall make use of his Directory to attain these yet would though he lived to old age bring in an ignoramus for the Verdict when he comes to die Whereas all those and more so far as they are necessary and useful might have a clearer discovery and a fuller supplement in Scripture and in Nature according to Scripture were it throughly searched into for that end If Heathenish Philosophy did not strangely bewitch and awe young Scholars with a respect of the Authority and a greatning of the names of its Authors and an esteem of the multitude of its Books which do so fill the Shops and Libraries and with the difficulty of making many of its notions and distinctions and obscure terms reconciled to some degree of intelligent sense after so much dispending of Time and of Coyn its price would fall in the Printers Market and its trade go down in the Booksellers Shop How little can there be of certitude in that way where all must resolve into fallibleness of Authority and falaciousness of Testimony or into pretended evidence of forced experiments which may be variously effected whilst the intrinsick Natures and genuine causalities of created Beings and of their products are altogether hidden from such great adorers of Humane Wisdom as count themselves and would be so esteemed by others to be if not the only yet the mostly learned men in the world and who would have their dictates to be received as inerring and their traditions as incontrolable whereas their assertions do end in doubtfulnesses and their stating of questions is not definitively demonstrating but still the judgement of the pondering Reader must suspend it self and look further for satisfaction How many Essences and verities are there which Ethnick Philosophy cannot reach the clear understanding whereof it can never attain unto of its self neither are they any other way fully discovered unto us but by the Scripture revelation What meerâ— Philosopher by all his art and industry can with certitude inform my understanding what the System of the created World is how it was made and set up what the positure of the whole Creation is in what place and order every thing is which is the uppermost and what the lowermost part of it what there is above this blew visible expanse or extended Heaven or firm out-spread what kind of existencies the Heavenly Luminaries are what all the constitutive parts of men are particularly what the spirit of man is what his soul is and how these are distinct and whether separable so as that yet both may live apart from each other at the same time what the proper seats of the intellect faculties in man are where is the Wise where is the Scribe where is the Inquirer of this age who without word-light can lead me into the certain knowledge of the manner of the formation of all and every of beings what that was which put them into their first Essence what the beginning of the Creature which God created is and how many years have elapsed since that time to this present annual revolution where and when Chronologers must begin and how to carry on their Computation of time who amongst the Learned of this World can ascend into Heaven and infallibly assure me what Treasuries of Creatures there are there what the work and priviledges of the Elect Angels and of the perfectly Sanctified Spirits are there what the glorious appearances of the ever blessed Jehovah Aelohim in Father Son and Holy Spirit are there which of them can so descend into the Abyss as to bring me the truest information from thence where the great Gulph is that is between Heaven and Hell what and where the place of Hell is where are the several Chambers of darkness below and of light above For although the Gulph and Hell are open before the all-seeing Jehovah yet are they far out of sight and off from the knowledge of men on Earth by any mere humane disquisition or discovery Who of these Philosophers can by their own natural ability throughly convince me of the true Doctrine and of the real nature of invisibles which yet now they are revealed are not incredibles Can any of them return a satisfactory answer to those questions which the LORD propounded unto Job Do not they themselves judge divers things to be undiscoverable by any mere man as the essential forms and the true differences of things especially that of man What are all and every of the proper and real causes which are so productive of so many wonderful effects in the World How defectively imperfect how unsetledly conjectural are their inquiries concerning the Celestial Bodies about their Spheres their Orbs their divers Poles their first Moveable their contrary motion of Renitencie their Circles Eccentricks and Epicycles Interstellare Substances Progressions Stations Retrogradations Elevations Declinations Apogees Perigees Diurnal Motions which some do fancy of the whole Heavens and others do dream of the whole Earth with a multitude of such like Astronomical Suppositions which they would ground upon some Phaenomena cunningly devising how to defend their own invented Hypotheses against Objections and setting up such feigned Fabricks as may not be exposed to so many exceptions and contradictions as the fictitious conceits of others before them are liable unto So that they have been forward to triumph over others if their own excogitated opinions have not been confutable by the common received principles whilst themselves do not believe their own suppositions to be the true nature of the things themselves how then can they perswade others that their discoveries are real and profitable and that they might hold the World yet further on in ignorance and in darkness they daringly affirm the Scriptures not to afford light in these matters Whereas these alone can set mens understandings right about the verity of beings which cannot by
all created Beings whose demonstrations are either from the Creator to the knowledge of the Creatures or from the Creatures to the knowledge of the Creator Solomon was one of the wisest of men the LORD gave it to him so to be and he spake and wrote much about Natural Things concerning the Works of the several Days particularly Scripture-Physicks he was excelling in the knowledge of Grass of Herbs of Trees of Beasts of Fowls of Fishes of Creeping Things of contemplating of the Natural Body of the Heavens of the Earth of the Seas and of the Abyss out of his Writings much might be discovered of the nature of these in his Books of the Proverbs of Ecclesiastes and of his Song of Songs incomparably beyond what can be found in all the large Libraries of Ethnick Philosophers or any other Naturalists amongst such of the Christians as have received their apprâ—hensions about these things out of those Pagan Rationalists who yet are great stâ—â—ngers unto that which is the right Reason and the true Nature of these â—â—ings and so will they also be who follow them without a Scripture-guide He that will ask what lawful necessary useful Art and Science can be named of which there is not that to be found in the Scriptures of Truth which if thrâ—â—â—â—ly understood and collected and then applyed and improved in fitting in to 〈◊〉 very Essence and Operations of created Beings would bring a very considerable addition to sound profitable knowledge and whoever would undertake to return somewhat to satisfaction by way of answer in a multitude of particular instances Theoretick and Practick such as Grammar Logick Rhetorick Mnemonick Physicks Metaphysicks Mathematicks Arithmetick Geometry Cosmography Opticks Musick Astronomy Geography Geodeticks Staticks Nauticks Architecture Schematicks Ethicks Economicks Politicks History Poesie Ecclesiasticks Scholasticks Chronologie Chirography Law Theology Christianity Medicine in all the Botanick Anatomick Pharmaceutick and Chirurgick parts of it together with all the Mechanicks which are more than I can reckon up may easily and quickly foresee even by such an enumeration as this is that such an universal comprehensive of all Liberal Sciences afterwards distinctly parcelled out into the several knowledges professed and practised would both take up too much of his time and over-bulk any one Treatise and is much beyond the skill and the strength of any one mere man One of our own has lately asserted a deficiency in the Scriptures as to these matters and doth send us elsewhere for a Supplement mentioning several Arts and Sciences as no where to be found in Scripture I shall single out two of them which are of his own chusing and naming and then try them according to the Word whether much of their Art be not to be found out in the Scripture with a little search which when compared with and experimented by the natural efficiency of their innate and educed Existencies and Workings would bring in an augment to their Science thought it be not my intendment or undertaking to draw up Systems and Schemes of the several particular knowledges but to quicken up the studious and ingenious to promote these Scientificks more by putting that together which the Scriptures do afford relating to each of them and then to work upon their discovery by practical improvement and experimental observation This Learned man declared his judgement to be that the Scripture is no perfect Rule for a Musician a Carpenter a Physician a Mathematician an Astronomer a Geographer an Arithmetician a Grammarian a Logician a Natural Philosopher c. to do their Work Because saith he it is not a particular Rule for them in Arts and Sciences the things whereof are not to be found in the Scripture at all neither doth he assert the Scriptures an imperfect Rule only for these and such like as these but also for Divines and for Worshippers as if the Scripture did not tell the Divine sufficiently and particularly divers things relating to his office and the discharge of it and as if the worshipper were not to expect there particular Laws or Rules for all the circumstances of worship Thus and to this purpose he If it be not a perfect particular Rule for these two last mentioned the Divine and the Worshipper for what Artists and Scientiaries is it a perfect particular Rule For these affirmations do charge the Scripture with being an imperfect Rule as to particular Laws and Rules not only as to Natural Things but also as to Spiritual it should be considered by such who are of this perswasion whether they do not hereby lift up Church-History and Humane Authority in the matters of Faith to the debasing and denying of Scriputre-perfection and also corrupt modes and forms of Worship such as are of Humane Invention Institution and Imposition exclusive of other ways of Worship where these are not asserted and consented to both which the whole Scripture doth condemn At this present it being suited to the subject I have in hand about the advancement of useful Arts and Sciences by making a more through disquisition after them in the Word of Truth I shall cull out two of these Artists who my self am of neither of their Arts nor do I pretend to have Scientificies in them which may so far prove and praise this design the more that one whose Calling and Function whose Office and Profession is not to be either Musician or Carpenter yet in the supply of the holy Spirit by a little short study of the Scriptures in the midst of a multitude of other employments can discover so much in Christ's Word about Musick and Carpentry wherem I am to shew that these are found in the Scripture both as to name and thing and that there is a Rule in the Scripture for these things and that God hath made the Scripture to be a Rule for them and that in the Scripture there are not only general Rules but also particular Rules of those Arts and Sciences which done I shall propound some inquiries about Geography and Grammar Some of the other Arts that are mentioned I may have occasion to treat somewhat of upon the particular Works of the particular Days of the first Week of the created World As for Musick the skilful therein will bear with me if I do not in some of my expressions so fully harmonize with their Terms of Art as they have learned and received them I expect they should approve and forward the design which would raise their Ear-taking and their Heart-affecting-knowledge in this to more Sweetness and Savouriness more Exactness and Spiritualness more Naturalness and Scripturalness as relating to instituted Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs which are heavenly parts of Spiritual Worship more especially with respect to the voice not at all to countenance the common abuse of this Art when it is suited to carnal lustful hearts in amorous wanton ditties or to other profane corrupt ends whatsoever which has been in woful sinful experience a ruining
the heaven and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day and hallowed it Thus injoyning both by his own Example and Command the perpetual Observation of that particular Seventh-day in order of Time in its successive course in every weekly revolution as the appointed day for holy Rest That day and that only and no other day of the Week Thou LORD art worthy to receive the Glory and the Honour and the Power For thou hast created all things and through thy Will they are and were created O that those who dwell on the Earth and every Nation and Kindred and Language and People would fear him and give Glory to him for the hour of his Judgement is coming And that they would worship him that made the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea and the Fountains of Waters The Father Son and holy Spirit they are the Creators They the Aelohim who spake Creatures into their Existence and Being of which adored Almighties an account is given in that Historicall Narration which doth contain a Diary or Journal of the first seven days The Father Aelohim It is spoken of him in the forty fifth Psalm Aelohim the Aelohim of Christ anointed his Son by his Spirit which Son also is Aelohim expresly so called in the same Psalm Thy throne O Aelohim ever and perpetual the scepter of thy kingdom is righteonsness The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews sheweth that this was spoken unto the Son of God by his Father And the holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Aelohim and the Spirit Jehovah by Isaiab In the second Book of Samuel this Spirit of Jehovah or this Spirit of Jehovah as Paul elsewhere is also called The Aelohim of Israel It is Aelohim who dwells in his people as in a Temple So saith Moses which Paul applyeth to the holy Spirit These three are the Creating one Thus Solomon the Preacher chargeth young men to remember their Creators in the days of their youth Where Aeloh my Makers those who making me that giveth the Psalms in the night So would Elibu have had Job to say The same hath Eliphaz in the same Book Should a man be more righteous than Aelohim Should a man be purer than his Makers Hence is Tzijon incouraged in the later days not to fear For saith Jehovah by his Prophet Isaiah to her Thy Makers is thy Husbands Thus doth the Psalmist call for an Hallelu-jab or praise ye Jab Sing ye to Jehovah a new Song his praise in the Church of gracious Saints let Israel rejoyce in his Makers in those who making him Let the Sons of Tzijon be glad in their King the whole Creation should joyn in this song of praise for this Reason which is common to the whole World of them for he commanded and they were Created I now propound it to serious examination according to the Word whether much of this glorious Mystery be not included in the first Words of the holy Scriptures Bereashith baraa Aelohim and in that word Jehovah mentioned a little after the short History of the Creation as the Creator and Maker which is to be left to further disquisition For I am inciting and encouraging of Religious Students and of Christian Disciples to deeper researches into the best Learning This Word has in it the signification of an Head so that this is not barely In the Beginning but it doth set out that first capital Beginning of all things In and By Christ the constituted Head of all Inquire whether it should therefore be rendred in the Head-captain or in the Head-captainship or in-by the Captain or the Chieftain or Head-commander or in him who is the Head-Captain or in the appointed Head or Captain the Preposition is properly In. And when it doth point out the immediate principal cause it is in by Let the diligent Inquirer about this collate some other Scriptures that doth relate unto this matter It was in-by Christ that the Father made these hidden ages For this is spoken of the Son of God whose Godhead is strongly proved by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the beginning of it by divers â—itations out of the Old Testament brought into the New It was in by Wisdom that Jehovah did Found the Earth and prepared the Heavens and made All his Great Works All things were created by Jesus Christ which is a great honour put upon our LORD The Father created all things If you ask by whom It was by Jesus Christ All things were made by him Christ was the Head-Captain of all the Host of the Heavens and of the Earth and he is the chief Head of his Body the Church Both these are affirmed of Christ with an eye to this In and By In by him who is the Image of the Invisible God the first-born of every creature were all things created which are in Heaven and which are upon Earth which are Visible and which are Invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions Governments or powers All things were created by him and to him and he is before all things and all things consist together by him and he is the head of the body There is one LORD Jesus Christ by whom are all things He is expresly called Reashith the appointed head of Jehovah's ways before his works from then speaking evidently of the creation As the words themselves in that place of the Proverbs do plainly declare He was anointed to this principate and is again and again called Roash the head Roashith is the name of one of the Types of Christ the First fruits are so called in the Old Testament And so is he in the New the First-fruits of them who sleeping It is not without great reasons and weighty considerations that this first written word should set out Christ as the Head Captain or constituted head or appointed Captain For all skillful Lexicographers agree that the original-propriety and root significancy of this word hath that of an head in it in its true first meaning to which the Scriptures do agree and divers Scriptures do speak of Troops of Bands of Hosts of Companies of Souldiers under an Head-Captain to this Honour and Office was Christ assigned and appointed by his Father which also this word doth remarkably set out If it be a composition of Roash an Head or Captain or Head-Captain and Shith to put or to place in martial order or in Battle-array For thus we may find the word used The LORD Christ doth put his Hosts or Armies into Rank and File in their Order with art and care Proper names are often compounded in the Hebrew wherein that Tongue doth delight though it doth not so easily admit of composition in appellatives The context favoureth the Interpretation with other Scriptures collated For in this History of the Creation we may read of the Hosts of this
not suffer himself to be imposed upon by the Authority of those skilful men in practical Religion and experimental Christianity and Scripture knowledge All Authorities Arguments Experiments Resolutions that we would have to be cogent and convincing must be soundly Scriptural That which the several Philosophers with their several followers have vainly sought for in their several Principles is to be found in Truth and Purity only in the Scriptures Art thou for Magistral Dictates Who can so give forth these as to command a belief of them but that Jehovah Aelohim in the Messias who alone is supreme and infallible Art thou for Abstruse Speculations who was such Treasures of Knowledge and of Understanding so fully hidden with him and so freely imparted by him as the LORD Jesus Christ who has all hidden things and wonderful Secrets and rare Mysteries numbred before him or ready told as at his fingers ends the which as occasion and opportunity doth serve he doth utter to his Church and People Art thou for self-exalted Ratiocinations VVhat are these compared with him who is only VVise VVisdom it self the VVisdom of God whose Foolishness is wiser than men into the Obedience of whom all Humane Reasoning must be captiv'd Art thou for outward sensations Are they any where so clear and certain so sure and satisfying as in Christ's Written Word where every thing is realized and proved either to spiritual or to bodily senses according as the Objects are that are suited either to the one or the other For to confute the infidelity or to soften the hardness of mens hearts Jehovah Aelohim for the confirmation of his gracious promises has fetched sensible proofs From the Heavens above and the Luminaries there from the Host of them from the Earth from the Waters from the Abyss from the successive courses of Night and Day from things present and to come Art thou for sceptical Inquiries Whither can thy doubting questioning Soul go for satisfactory resolution but to Christ and to his Word So that every one of these severally and all of them joyntly must at the last come hither if ever they would be set right The late New Philosophers though they make this to be their Motto which they superscribe in their Coat of Arms Into no ones words are they sworn whereby they reject all humane Magistery wherein they are so far right yet if any of them would have it to be also understood with this great Exception and Exclusion of Christ's Word as to an acknowledgement of his infinite Wisdom and to a submission to his infallible Authority revealed therein so that such either do deny the profound Principles of all profitable Learning to be here and here only or else do not search neither would have others to search for them to draw out useful Arts and Sciences from this full Treasury it is then in such of them but the proud exalting of carnal self and of corrupted Reason which the jealous God will pour contempt upon But if withal they will study their Natural History and their experimental Art in the Scripture-Library acknowledging the fulness and the perfection of this God-inspired Book for all useful Knowledge as the Author of it hath copied it out and commented upon it in Created Nature in the true Essences of formed Beings in the proper causalities and genuine productions according to their Primitive make if they will measure the Laws of Nature by the Laws of the Word the Rules of Motion by the Rules of the Word the Light of Experience by the Light of the Word that Hypotheses of Physical Principles and the Axioms of Mechanical Models by the Doctrines and Interpretations the Positions and Explications of the Word so far as it hath a reference unto them they might then be men of Name and transmit the profitableness of their Science to Posterity when the Light of Scripture and the Essence of Nature and the Works of Art do uniformly frame and operate together they do wonders The Reader here is to take notice that this Treatise doth commend the Scripture for its containing of Arts and Sciences of Learning and of Knowledges so far as they are lawful and useful needful and necessary And therefore if any Objector would be shewing of his wittiness in asking of a great many Questions of Philosophical Nicities and of unrevealed Matters if I discern them to be impertinent to this subject and unprofitable in themselves they are alien from this inquiry and do not belong to what I am searching after who am perswading of others to be more in the serious deep study of what is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and to put together all that which is found in the Word relating to any particular Science and Art and so to improve that not intruding into those things which they have not seen vainly puft up by their fleshly mind Could I prevail so far that a due through Collection were made by the judicious and industrious of what is already in the Word about these wonders in Nature it might then be afterwards further considered whether we may not well be without the rest of that knowledge which any over-prying Questionist would ask about wherewith to perplex others and to puzzle himself It is not every professing of ones self to be wise that makes him to bring forth real useful Wisdom It would be folly in us to be wise in our own conceits That is true Wisdom which is Wisdom unto that which is good What will it be to seem wise and not to be wise The only Wise God who guided the Holy Penmen of Scriptures in their writing about Natural as well as Spiritual Things and about the Arts and Knowledges of those things did teach them to understand what they did write about and they have left more of this Learning behind them in the Word than is yet found out There is an honourable Virtuosus who has travelled far in Natures way and has made some of the deepest inquiries into Experimental Corpuscular or Mechanical Philosophy that in the requisites of a good Hypothesis amongst others of them doth make this to be one of its conditions that it fairly comport not only with all other truths but with all other Phaenomena of Nature as well as those 't is fram'd to explicate and that not only none of the Phaenomena of Nature which are already taken notice of do contradict it at the present but that no Phaenomena that may be hereafter discovered shall do it for the future Let it therefore from hence be considered whether seeing that History of Nature which is but of human indagation and compiling is so incomplete and uncertain and many things may be discovered in after-times by industry or in some other way by providential dispensing which are not now so much as dreamed of and which may yet overthrow Doctrines speciously enough accommodated to the Observations that have been hitherto made as is by
in the beginning or in the end of proper names By naming of Jehovah is noted the mode of his Essentiality and Agenty It is their sin who do not call upon this Name for it is expresly to be named It is therefore an Error in the vulgar versions of Greek Latin and English when they render this proper Name appellatively which hath no plural Number no demonstrative Note prefix'd is not read in the constructed State so as to change its last Letter neither doth it admit of any affixes at the end This particular Name of his shall be glorious This Word has been put into the name of a place and of an Altar So that such a place and such an Altar could not be rightly named without using that form and manner of pronunciation as its Consonants and Vowels are Though proud Pharaoh for a while would not know not acknowledge this Name Jehovah yet Aelohim by his Plagues upon Pharaoh did at last make his mouth pronounce it Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron concerning them and the Israelites Jehovah shall be with you This is that Hebrew Word which is made up of all the Vowels also of Accents and iâ— doth confist only of such Vowels and Acconts There are in it A E J O V it has H to begin a syllable and H to and a syllable It is evident that the Ethnick's Jove and Jao got its sound from their hearing of this word Jehovah to be pronounced by the Hebrews they retained some of the Hebraick Origination in the very sound of it O how incomprehensibly Glorious is this infâ—â—ite unchangeable Essence who was from all Eternity is and will be to all Eternity without any mutation Who really doth declare and exhibit himself to be indeed such a one as he manifesteth and promiseth himself to be in his Word Jehovah himself was the Author of this Name of his and it is not attributed to any Creature It has in it all the parts of Duration past present and to come Jehoshuah read all the words of the Law the Blessings and the Cursings according to all that is written in the Book of the Law there was not a Word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the Congregation of Israel with the Women the little Ones and the Strangers that were conversant among them If all and not a word unread then Jehovah was read for this Word was there It was foretold that even the Priests would be despisers of this Name but withal it is prophesied That it shall be great from the going forth of the Sun to the going in thereof and they shall in a more especial manner be remembred by him who wisely think upon his Name One of Solomon's Names of his cognames brought to his Father David by Nathan from an Oracle was Jedidjah beloved of Jah for Jehovah doved him and therefore he sent his Prophet Nathan so to call his Name because of Jehovah that somewhat of Jehovah's Name might pass over into Solomon's Name for Jah is the contracted word of Jehovah which name Jah is annexed to a multitude of names in the holy Scriptures whereby the ignorance and unbelief of the superstitious heart-veiled Jews is justly reproved who will not acknowledge this syllable this word Jah to be the contracted of Jehovah lest they should be made withal to confess that the Word the Name Jehovah should by found of voice be distinctly and expresly in all its Consonants and Vowels pronounced with due reverence How much is there of this Word and Name that doth 〈◊〉 into Scriptures Sometimes it doth set out the glorious excellency of the Eternal Being other times the virtue and favour of this Eternal Being The acknowledgement celebrating and praising of this Being The profession and worship of this Being of beings and much more This Name is invocated often in the Word and is sometimes put for the Command Will or Authority of this Great LORD How many times is this Expression used thus saith Jehovah in the beginning in the middle and in the end of a Sentence The Margin of this Page cannot contain all the Citations of these in every of the places of Scripture This Name and Word was to be on the High Priest's Forehead that all the people might see it and read it there how else could they understand the Mystery of it And the like is prophesied of elsewhere with an eye to this Name of his he will do much for his people in the later days and it is covenanted that in the purer Church then the knowledge of the Glory of this Name shall so aboundingly cover the Earth as the Waters cover the place of the Seas He doth take notice of it and is displeased at it when this Name of his is seoffed at As Jehovah is the proper Name so also the Memorial of him who is a â—ost lingle pure perfect infinite unchangeable self-being existing and subsisting in and of and by himself who was who is and who will be one and the same and not made another From whom all and every of Creatures in their first making did receive their Essence their Existence and by and in whom they 〈◊〉 kept in their Being who will really and indeed declare and shew forth himself 〈◊〉 such a one the very same True One as he hath revealed himself to be in his Word putting a real Essencâ— an actual Existence into all and every of his Command Promisings Threatnings and Pâ—â—pheses of whatsoever it is 〈…〉 spoken in their time A 〈◊〉 Name which he reserves only to himself had which is communicated 〈…〉 other Name which in the 〈…〉 of it is 〈◊〉 the fittest to work those night apprehensions and that 〈◊〉 knowledge of him in those who are acquainted with him which such 〈◊〉 Word is 〈◊〉 form in them Thou thy 〈◊〉 Jehovah Thou art Thy Name what 〈◊〉 Name hath in Thou 〈◊〉 â—hy Name 〈◊〉 His people shall more know in the later days from the 〈◊〉 of them unto the greateâ—â— of them that 〈◊〉 this He 〈◊〉 The Earth shall be full of the 〈◊〉 acknowledgement of the Glory of him who is this Name How glorious how fearful is this Name O how great in might How holy How wondrous excellent in all the Earth O how good how near how extolled how much hath he done How much doth he and will he do for this Name of his as this is so should his praise be They who knowing it will trust of him The desire of the Soul of Saints is to it and to the remembrance of him They love it they call upon it and do confess to him They praise it for it is high advanced this Name of his his alone This they fear In this they will lift up their Palms In this shall they shout and be glad all the day This they remembred in the night and have observed his Law this they see
what is spoken of the Almighty Jehovah in the one hundred and second Psalm that he aforetime had founded the Earth and that the Heavens were the Work of his hands this same is applyed unto Christ as done by him The same Author of that Epistle doth apply unto Christ as his voice which should be obeyed the which in the ninety fifth Psalm is the voice of Jehovah the God of his people That which in the Relation made known to John the LORD Christ doth say is meant of himself that he is the beginning and the end the first and the last the same doth Jehovah speak of himself in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah It is one of Christ's Names in the Book of Jeremiahe Jehovah our Righteousness according unto which doth Paul speak in his former Epistle to the Corinthians that Christ is of God made Righteousness unto those who are his and in his later Epistle to him he saith that they are made the Righteousness of God in Christ This Jehovah is one Jehovah So saith Moses Hear O Israel Jehovah our God Jehovah one The same said Christ in his Gospel Hear O Israel the LORD our God the LORD is one which the Scribe unto whom the LORD Jesus Christ spake that did acknowledge Master thou hast well said in Truth that there is one only God and there is none other but he the which is said by Christ to be an understanding answer Thus speak Jehovah Christ the Almighty the Rock of his people in the Book of Moses See now that I I he and no God with me For who Aelohim besides Jehovah and who a Rock except one God Thus David in the eighteenth Psalm which Rock was Christ as Paul expounds The same speaketh the Prophet Isaiah Thus saith Jehovah the King of Israel and his Redeemer which is also a further proof of the Jehovahship of Christ this Being in the Prophets applyed to the Redeemer the which Redeemer is one of Christ's Names both in the Old and in the New Testament thus saith Jehovah of Hosts I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is not God And again in the same Prophet I Jehovah and none more besides me no God To this well agreeth the Testimony of Paul we know that there is none other God but one To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we for him and one LORD Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him which in another place the same Apostle doth again witness there is one LORD one God A clear revealing and a distinct opening of this great Mystery doth John set before us in his first Epistle there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these three One are There is none Holy like Jehovah for there is none besides him And there is no Rock like our God so Hanna confessed in her Prayer Thus David when a word was brought to him from Jehovah by Nathan the Prophet about the building of an House to Jehovah by Solomon Thou art great Jehovah God for there is none like thee and there is no God than thou alone And again in that Song of his Deliverances Who is God besides Jehovah and who is a rock except our God Agreeingly with this was that passage in Solomon's Prayer at the Dedication of Jehovah's House Jehovah the God none else This was Naaman's confession when he was cleansed of his Leprosie and spake of Jehovah Israels God I know there is no other God in all the earth Thus Hizkiah in his Prayer to the Faces of Jehovah O Jehovah thou thy self thou alone the God thou Jehovah God alone Nehemiah has the like breathing in his Prayer Thou that Jehovah alone God is one saith Paul in his Epistles to the Galatians Isaiah bringeth in Jehovah himself thus speaking I he he Jehovah before me was no God formed neither shall be after me And again Is there a God besides me I know none And again thus saith Jehovah thy Redeemer I Jehovah alone Again Am not I he the Jehovah and there is no God more besides me and a just God and a Saviour there is none but I. The like in Hoseah I Jehovah thy God from out of Egypt therefore shouldest thou know no God but me alone for there is no Saviour besides me How good is that true Word which Zeehariah hath foretold Jehovah shall be King over the whole Earth in that day Jehovah shall be one and his Name one Who will give us to see that we know and acknowledge this and may cause it to return into our heart that Jehovah he God in the heauens above and the earth beueath and none else O give we to Jehovah the Glory of his Name O that our our hearts were united to fear this Name Jehovah hath said that he will exalt him that doth acknowledge his Name My Soul bless thou Jehovah and all my inward parts this Name of his Holiness The Name of Jehovah is a Tower of Strength the Righteous shall run into it and be set in an high place of safety Great is Jehovah and he will do Great Things for his Great Name sake This Jehovah Christ was appointed by his Father and Anointed by his Spirit to be the one Mediator the only LORD and Lawgiver This now cometh next to be considered he is the Mediator he is the One Mediator he is the LORD he is the only LORD he is the Lawgiver he is the only Lawgiver To all and to every of this he was appointed by his Father and Anointed by his Spirit He is the Mediator A Mediator as Paul doth describe him in his Epistle to the Galatians is a middle one between others one that puts himself betâ—â—een to come between two parties for a Mediator is not of one but he has 〈◊〉 unto two persons or parties that do by the means or Ministery of this middle one treat about somewhat wherein they are both concerned either by way of mutual Messages to know one anothers minds or to be kept in Union and in Love or to be reconciled where the parties are at variance and should be set at one The two parties here under present consideration are Godâ— and Man as Paul writes in his first Epistle to Timothy where he doth affirm this Mediator to be the Man Christ Jesus The Man who was God Man God manifested in the Flesh as he says in the same Epistle That Man who was Gnimmaunâ— elâ— God with us the Almighty or the Potentate or powerful one with us as speaks the Prophet Isaiah He was God who purchased his Church by his own Blood as Paul declared to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus For such a Mediator became us as had the Natures of both those parties in one whole Christ between whom he came
himself hath declared this in the second Psalm That he has anointed his King upon Zion the Mountain of his Holiness doth and will tell the Decree Jehovah said to me Thou my Son I this day begat thee Ask of me I will give the heathens thine inheritance and the ends of the earth thy firm hereditary possession Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron as the vessel of a potter thou shalt scatter them in pieces Of this Jesus doth Peter understand this Psalm and from hence doth the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews prove Christ's Call to his Office of Priesthood This Christ was the first anointed with the Spirit and with the Oyl of Gladness above his Fellows in the forty and fifth Psalm This Name Mashiach or Messias as applyed to this Son of God was well known in Israel as appears by Andrews acknowledging him to be so to his Brother Simon and by the Testimony of the Woman of Samaria who confessed this Name And hence it is that those Disciples of his who believe on his Name have this Honour from him to be called Christans both in the Old and New Testament He charged other men not to touch his Christians his Christs his Anointed Ones in the one hundred and fifth Psalm those who were thus consecrated to him and set apart to high and honourable Offices and Imployments under him by the Anointing of his Spirit which they had from him that is holy as writes John in his first Epistle Which Name was revived and received at Antioch where the Name was renewed in the Apostles times and they were again called Christians For there are the Fellows of Christ being taken into Consortship and Partnership with him in the Anointing whereby they are also made Kings and Priests as John speaks in the Revelation There oyly pourings out of the Spirits were in a fulness upon Christ not in lesser measures Jehovah possessed me saith Christ in the Book of Proverbs in the beginning of his way before his Works before them before the World was I Anointed before the beginning before the first things of the Earth when yet there was no deeps was I brought forth when there was non Fountains heavy with Water when yet Mountains were not fastned before the Hills was I brought forth yet he had not made the Earth nor Streets no not the beginning nor dust of the inhabited World When he fitted the Heavens there was I when he appointed the Circuit upon the Faces of the deep when he fortified the Clouds above when he strengthened the Fountains of the deep when he laid his Decree upon the Sea that the Waters should not pass the commandment of his mouth when he appointed the Foundation of the Earth Thus speaks the Father by the Prophet Isaiah concerning his Son Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect my Soul delighteth I have given my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgement upon the Nations The LORD Christ was warrantably lawfully called to this Office God the father sealed him thereunto As Christ speaks of himself in what John doth write of him and elsewhere in his Prophet Isaiah The Spirit of the LORD Jehovah is upon me therefore Jehovah hath Anointed me to preach No man taketh this Honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron So also Christ did not take this Honour to himself to become an high Priest but he that spake unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee gave it him As also in another place he saith Thou art a Priest for ever upon my word O Malchi-tzedek Hence it is that Christ is called by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle and high Priest of our profession and by Malachi The Angel of the Covenant So that Christ had a Testimony from his Father for his being appointed unto this Office not often after he had taken Flesh of the Virgin Mary when a Voice came from Heaven saying This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and when the holy Spirit descended as a Dove out of Heaven and abode remaining on him but long before under the Old Testament Dispensation And before that also even before the World was he the anointed This LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under both Testament Dispensations of Grace He chief in Office and all others that were lawfully called and rightfully sent forth were such as did minister and serve under and for him He was the LORD God of the holy Prophets as John calls him in the Revelation and as the Father sent him so did this Christ send his Apostles It was this Christ who so often appeared to Moses as has been shewn Christ was Faithful to his Father who constituted him in Office and who was Heir of his own House In which House he imployed Moses to be his Servant who was also faithful to and under Christ It was the Spirit of Christ who did witness in the Prophets of Old as Peter mentioned in his first Epistle He was the chief one in Sion as Isaiah calleth him who did declare the things that were to come to pass and this is the same Son of God in whom the Father hath spoken to us in the last days Him hath God made LORD and Christ and to him was given Dominion Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Tongues should serve him The Father hath given unto him dignity to execute Judgement he hath given all Judgement to the Son All must obey and stoop at the command of this ever Blessed LORD of Glory who has proclaimed this of himself that all Authoritative Power is given him in Heaven and upon the Earth God hath committed all into his hands He shall reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet This is he that is appointed of God the Judge both of the Living and of the Dead In this was the Love of God manifested towards those whom he chose in Christ and gave to Christ that he hath sent his only begotten Son into the World that they should live by him so loved he the World that he thus gave Christ that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life O how much hath he commended his Love to such He was first in the Love him hath God set up for a Prepitiatory-covering an expiatory reconciliation Thou LORD art worthy to receive the Glory and the Honour and the Power for thou hast created all things and through thy will they are and were created This Jehovah Christ was the Creator of all things as the Father is Creator and as the holy Spirit is Creator They the Creators Jehovah was the Creator of all things This Aelohim was he who gave his Creatures their Being as Moses hath delivered to us the History thereof To this do others bear witness in the Scriptures Praised be Johovah Aelohim that made the
Body This Word would instruct Kings how to Reign and Counsellors how to Decree Justice How to Statute it out to Subjects and Inferiours In this Princes have and should exercise their Principate all the Nobles and Judges of the Earth according to Christ and his Word O how much should we love this and morning it to find it out It will carry us to walk in the path of Justice You that for some years have been early at your Philosophical Studies be now at length wise and come betimes to the Scripture Lecture that Christ by his holy Spirit from his Father in his Word would declare unto you If ever you would be wise do not mispend your time and coyn and strength in Houses of Folly there are of you who know too much where they are But repair to Wisdoms School late and early night and day be at these Study-doors Such shall draw forth from Jehovah what his Will is This right way of sound Wisdom was delivered and revealed from the foundation of the World at the first Creation as the certain the unerring Rule of the Mind and Will of God Christ in his Word and Works do make known himself to be the rare Artificer all-skilful-worker and all profitable Science and useful Arts must be learn'd from him as their great Exemplar and teaching Author The Manliest Virtuoso's are here spoken to and called upon hither should they hasten to learn as well as the ignorant Plebeians and the easily perswaded Inspients Here are noble Sciences and liberal Arts for the most free princely Spirits Christ in his Word no sooner opens his lips but some right Truth and real Thing quickly is spoken forth There is nothing distorted or perverted here It is all obvious directly before us not intricate or infolded Here a young Timothy may get Wisdom and in a little time grow up to great Understanding Here is the House of Wisdom and of Prudence This is the Doctress and Dictatress This cureth the teachable Student of Pride Elation Arrogancy of which Philosophers are still sick Here is the perfect possession of Science and of Sapience Here Knowledge is sound and saving virtuous and substantial Christ delighteth to teach the sons of Adams this and should not we be made willing to learn where word-knowledge is taught at that Door should we enter that we may elicite hidden Mysteries This Christ who is Wisdoms doth set himself out as a Master and Teacher of useful Arts and Sciences to Adam and his sons quickly after the Creation inviting them as Disciples into his School His College is completely built and he begins his Instructings of them with satisfaction and intercession in this discharge of his Mediatory Office by offering of Sacrifice and by Praying and when he has instilled his useful Precepts he then entertaineth his learning-ones with Spiritual Repast O who will give that there were more incorporated Societies here subject to and ruled by the Statutes of Christ's House That our hopeful youths may no longer be sworn to Philosophical Laws Words and Statutes Here Christ utters his Oracles from that exalted Pew or Pulpits the highest Heavens How honourable would our Cities be were there holy Convocations and Spiritual runnings and meetings to Christ's Preaching and Interpretings here He calls with significant Voice in express words Come O come away come hither and no longer waste your time by a fruitless attendance on Philosophical Lectures Come in and submit to Christ's Discipline His teaching of you will prosper the better for his chastising of you Here is a Knowledge that is a wising and nourishing to a sanctified Soul whilst vain Philosophies are but Fatuities and Emptinesses Scoffers here will not be proficients the attempt will be successless and the labour lost to instruct such no art nor industry of man can inform them till Christ change and convert and new make them For they despise that Word-wisdom which commended to them and set before them and Napkin up or imprison those few Notions of it which they have taken in Whereas give occasion to a wise man and his wisdom will be increased as soon as it is presented he takes it in The fear of Jehovah is the way to it This is the Knowledge of Holy both Angels and Men and Things which would be every way so much for our own advantage After all this discovery will young Students be still beguiled and corrupted by the foolish woman who is so contrary to Christ and his Word and to the Wisdom which is in him and in it which knows nothing aright carnalizing every thing all its opinion of things being streperous by keeping up its disputing noise and wrangling clamours â—tumultuous fallacious and drawing aside from the Truth into Error It doth not understand any thing savingly nor discern it spiritually It has not soundness of apprehension though it self-flatteringly imagineth that it has the knowledge of many things and is well skill'd in many Arts and Invents What doth it know aright Can you name it or tell what it is Yet would this foolish woman be in the Throne and Pew too imitating and emulating of Wisdoms before spoken of and strive to out do and go beyond She will come with Pompous Ostentation her Bell and Bedel and with External Apparat to insinuate her self into mens minds by deceptive Oblectaments and sensual allurements It would sit in the Doctors chair and exercise Regal Authority Thus affecting to be like unto Wisdom it becomes more ridiculous by its apishness Sometimes she will use some of the same words that Wisdom doth but in another sense wrying them in their own Dialect as if Christ's wised ones were foolish ones in her accompt and she could teach them better she delights in fallacious Artifices till she mislead her blind followers into the gulphy-empty-space and the doleful sighful place and would leave them there hopeless and helpless like the hellish Teacher of the Black-Arts unless the LORD do in time before they tumble in thither step forth to their recovery out of these snares by turning them from the Error of their way to the Truth He who has willingness skill and opportunity to carry this meditation through this Book of Proverbs may gather up and put together a great deal more of this profitable matter I must hasten now to some further Inquiries for the progressive advance of useful Learning Of the One which when another Day was Created was the First Day of the Created World and of some of its Works Q. Whether this Earth at its First Creation were without Form and void So that Thou and Bohu be truly and rightly predicated of Aeretz Or whether Tohu and Bohu be not dictinct Creatures from the Earth locally distant or two Created Places the one setting out the Gulphy-empty-space the doleful place of Hell THe clearing up of this that the Gulph and Hell are certain distinct places of
is a word that followeth after Tohu which Tohu has Bohu always joyned with it as in nature of created places so also in Scriptures This Tohu and Bohu therefore also are not matter and form The Jews and Christians have learned this wrong conceipt in the Schools of Paganish Philosophers and then afterwards they affayed whether they could defend it by their wryingâ— or this Scripture to work it into their errour As for the Scituation and Place of these they are the lowest parts of the created World Jehovah Aeâ—ohim hath stretched forth the North over Tohu this Gulphy-astoniâ—hing-emptyâ— space which is that part in the Positure of the Creation that is directly diametrically opposite unto the North-point So that the North part is the uppermost part There are some Heavens higher then other Heavens and some parts of the Heavens are higher then some other parts of the same Heavens The most High or the Highest or the eminently exalted High one over and above all is one of Christ's names He as to his glorified humane nature sits in his glorious high Throne And would you know where this is No books of Ethnick Philosophers can inform you without light from the Word For it is only of Scripture-Revelation It is at the sides of the North whither a proud Prince that was brought down to hell most opposite to the North said in his former self-exaltation that he would ascend to pluck Christ if he could out of his Chair of Majesty that he might get in to give Laws and Orders to the World It is at the North where Christ doth work From hence doth exaltation come not either from the East or West or South but from Christ sitting over the sides of the North. There is the City of this Great King How quickly may a Believers Spirit resort thither and freely converse with Christ in his humane glorified Nature Who as he is also Jehovah hath a way of gracious presence here with the spirit of a Believer How many useful ways might this be improved in experimental Christianity I have given the Hint which should quicken up others to pass further into this reâ—search more may be collected out of the Scriptures about the exaltation of the North and If need were to use such arguments unto men their mouths who oppose this might soon be stopp'd by the express concessions and affirmations of humane Authours As the Earth is founded upon the Waters as upon her Bases and is above the Waters So also is Hell under the Waters in a lower place It is opposed to the highest Heavens as the lowest place Here are the shadowed profundities below the Sea the lower Abyss and Vorago All the controversies about Sheol about the local descent into the craving place concerning which so many Treatises have so hotly contended must by this Word-discovery receive a clear full determination For in no one Scripture which I am as yet thorowly convinced by must Sheol necessarily or doth Sheol properly signifie the Grave but some lower place than that Divers sheets of Paper might be filled with this Subject from what is gatherable out of the Word which also is another very profitable discovery if pursued with diligence and received with meekness and would overturn the whole of Ethnick Philosophy about the System of the World and the positure of the Creation The middle of this Earth is not that common center of the Universal World towards which all heavy bodies would naturally descend there to sit down and enjoy their Rest The Stone or Brass or Lead at the end of the Line in the perpendicular would move downward under all the Earth beneath the Waters if it met with no obstacle According to Geometricians own principles If right Lines do stand upon right Lines making the Angles on either side equal then either of those Angles is a right Angle and the right Lines that stand erected are perpendicular Lines to those upon which they stand Such perpendicular Lines can never meet in one and the same center and point or interfect one another for there is no enclining of the Lines any more to one side then another There is no reclining or obtuseness in any of the Angles aequidistant perpendiculars prolonged and moved never so far on both parts will never meet either on the one side or on the other All right Angles are equal to one another Such perpendiculars are always equal distant the one from the other Could such perpendicular Lines meet at a point if they were prolonged they will necessarily intersect and the Angles on both sides would not be equal These perpendicular Lines are Rectangled parallels they are equal perpendiculars constituted between the same parallels they are Equiâ—ngled were there Parallelogram-lines drawn all the quadrilateral Figures would have opposite Parallels from one and the same point can be drawn but one perpendicular Line to divide a terminated right-lined Diameter equally dividing the Circle into two equal parts if that perpendicular Line be drawn from the Circumference to the Center and from one and the same Point and Center there can be but one perpendicular Line drawn to that part of the Circumference where a right Line doth touch the Circle and where that Perpendicular doth cut that right Line into two equal right Angles at the point of touching All other Lines drawn from the same point have not correspondent proportional parallel equidistant parts neither will they make right equal Angles in that point where they do touch or intersâ—ct that right Line The opposite sides are not parallel neither can they pass into a right-angled-equilateral quadrilateral Figure into such a Square which hath the four sides equal and the Angles right-lined Of all the right Lines drawn from one and the same Point on a right Line that Line which is Perpendicular is the least constituted on one and the same Base so that there is but one Perpendicular from or to this one and the same Point standing erect upon a right Line According to Statick Law there can be no Angular point of two several Lines concurring in it without an unequal divergence or divaricating of the two lines from it proportionably as it is nearer or further distant from the point Improve we this to overturn humane Philosophy Let there be an Erect Wall square of a right-angled equilateral quadrilateral Figure and let plumb-lines be let fall from the two sides of it they will naturally move downward to and if way were made into the Earth perpendicularly and these perpendiculars would be equidistant and would be always if prolonged equidistant and never meet at a Center and Point which is quite contrary to the Tenet of such Philosophers seeing there cannot be a Motion of two heavy Bodies from the circumference in two parallel lines towards one Center and Point For still the nearer they come to this supposed Center the nearer they must be to one another
which affirmation is quite contrary to Sense Reason and Scripture as may be seen with the eye in the forementioned parallel Motion of the two Plumb-lines Thus the Seamen have their Perpendiculars which do move right down and do make perpendicular lines equidistant from each other every where in the Waters that are under this one Earth if it be well examined by the same natural Motion of Plumb lines equidistantly downwards it will be found that all Plants do naturally grow out of the Earth perpendicularly and so the Earth doth nourish them and thus all grounds do bear only according to the plain or level thereof and not according to any convex or concave Superficies A Garden though the Ground be rising and indented yet may be paled round with as few equilateral Pales as if it were plain and level because all the Pales do stand perpendicularly one of the most quick-sighted into and of the most experienced about Natural History has declared that as for the moving of Dense Bodies to a point or place which was the opinion of the Ancients it is a meer vanity I have not found though I have searched withcare and industry in this Inquiry any one word or phrase in the Old and New Testament which doth properly signifie a common Center of this visible World whereas there is express mention made of a Perpendicular of a Plumb-line That one place of the Sea into which the Waters were gathered at the first Creation is a distinct different place from this pretended Center in the middle of the Earth which the vain affecters of Humane Wisdom would have the congenial parts of the Chaos immediately to apply themselves unto gathering round in about it as if this frame consisted by an equilibration of parts to the Center of Gravity There is not such an Elementary and Subcortical Earth as is below any the lowest Fundus of the Waters as if this were the Foundation and Basis of the World and the centrical Orb of it for the deep Waters the Gulphy space Sheol and the doleful place are below the Earth they are subterraneous as being under the whole body of the Earth and not only under the upper Superficies of the Earth and therefore these are called the out places O who will give that the Atheist and the Infidel would lay this more to Heart The holy Scriptures do set out these lower places with terrour to fright the Sons and Daughter of Adam from those by-paths of sin that would lead thither There are the Profundities of Sheol the evil Angels were thrust down there there is the black dark passage into the deep corrupting Pit to the sides whereof sinners are cast down This is the hid horrible place the going down there is in sorrow into a place tormentful a certain definit place remotest from Heaven a place of greatest sorrow and of deepest misery into which the damned do descend some are saved from out of Sheol others are cast down and left there How doleful a place is Hell Wo wo no oh is the Language there under the weight of unpardoned guilt under the sense of tormenting wrath Those that will not turn from sin unto Christ here shall be turned into Hell there A place of terrible confused darkness of outer darkness a foul and hideous prison the Gehenna of Fire is there Should I paraphrase upon the several scores of Scriptures that do express this how many pages would it take up This is the place of deadly shadow of weeping of gnashing of teeth of chaining of gnawing worms of burning wrath the wicked are thrust down and driven in there What will those who forget God never believe this till they feel it O how rich is that Grace how free is that Love which doth deliver a chosen number from this wrath to come which doth take them up into the Heavenly places the better Country the Holy Place the Holy of Holies the Eternal Tabernacles whither Christ is Ascended to prepare Mansions for his Disciples that he and they may be together ever together There is the place of the manifested Residence of Aelohim's Glory Q. Whether that Darkness which doth distinguish and separate between the Night and the Day in a large Day be but the want or privation of Light and so mere nothing And which was first the Darkness or the Light And what is the Scripture-Doctrine according to Created Nature and Order concerning Days Weeks Months Winter Summer and Years THe affecters of Humane Wisdom do thus wrongfully determine as if it were only the absence of Light or the shadow of the Earth coming between us and the Sun when the opacous or thick body of the Earth doth interpose between us and the Sun darkness followeth Whereas the Scriptures of Truth will inform us that darkness is a Creature darkness was it hath been that is it truly hath subsisted it doth and will subsist For so is the Nature of that Word to Be is to Exist to have Essence A creating Word was used with respect to darkness The Creaton made Light spake it out of Darkness It is called to the Night which is a real name and is a real thing It sets out real things It has a place a local seat The Darkness was over the Faces of the troublesome deep for this proposition doth note a term or place of Motion or Rest in the most opposite place to â—ight Light is in Heaven as in its proper place in which God doth dwell whereas these darknesses are in the lowest places in the Abyss in that nethermost Pit in the Gulphs Darkness was three Days before there was a Sun in the Expanse to go in go down or set the Sun being created on the fourth Day and therefore it was not caused by the Suns absence Darkness was one of Egypts plagues which had not been so much had it only been a want and no infliction it was Darkness felt which was a sensible thing The Air was thick of it the hand had sense of it It was palpable darkness of obscurity much obscure black and thick It sets out a spiritual Plague which is a real Judgement It is a thing sent and made It is a thing sometimes turned into its contrary It has an efficient Cause Jehovah Aelohim gave it a Being He puts it he makes it he puts a Term or Bound unto it He brings it into the Air as often as he will It has its Properties as sudden arising or diffusion or spreading abroad it has obscurity it doth produce real effect It is divided into several kinds thick black It is that which is unfit for Communion with its opposite Light It is a thing destroyable It is one of the miseries in Hell The Creator did divide between the Darkness and the Light as the Expanse did divide between the Waters and Waters The Heavenly Lights were made thus
Time before the Luminaries were created which were to stated preâ—â—ite certain seasons and those Heavenly Lights do now point out all Instituted times which have foundation in Scripture and in Nature particularly the Evening and Morning of every day and the Seventh-day Sabbath every Week For â—dâ—m for mankind generally and was so appointed in this one week at the first and is still to be kept and observed by vertue of that first command The Sun and the Planets and the Stars are not the centers and foundations of all the Vortices and motions of matter and corpuscles about them For the center is supposed to be the lowest whereas these Luminaries are above and do shine over this Earth The Heavens are high above the Earth The Sun and the Moon are the two great Luminaries so called in respect of the lesser lights which are not so great either in visible appearance and whether in real quantity or not doth deserve a more thorow disquisition or in diffused light or in Influential operation and efficacious Vertue And so are of more glorious excellency than the rest The Moon is a great light really positively so the standing still of the Sun and Moon in Joshua's time was a great wonder If the Sun had naturally as the common center stood still and the Moon and the Earth had moved how had it been proper and true to say Sun and Moon stood still Or if it had been spoken popularly and falsly as some boldly and untruly affirm must it not then have been said only Sun stand thou still What absurdities would these Philosophers conceive the Scriptures or the God of Truth in the Scriptures to speak both properly and improperly really and popularly truly and falsly at the same time and in the same words The Sun is a strong one running his Race he goes in in the Evening and he goes forth in the Morning The Sun doth not make or constitute the day but he hath dominion over the day having his being and use assigned on the fourth day and therefore also was not created on the first day when the Primeve light was made The Moon has an Innate light of her own having both the Name and the Nature of a Luminary and was so created at the first A lesser Luminary doth not deny but affirm the lesser to be createdly existingly actually really a Luminary or Lightner or Lighter as well as the greater though not altogether as great synony mously and univocally such she is a Luminar not a Specular having seasons of walking in her own glorious brightness which our eyes do see Even when Eclipsed she is visible to us in her whole disk which Astronomers do suppose not to be illustrated by the Sun Have any of these Philosophers satisfactorily proved as yet that the Eclipse of the Moon is indeed caused by the supposed shadow of the Earth cast upon some part of the Moon and stepping between the Sun and the Moon For besides that such a shadow at such a great distance according to their common placits and traditioned suppositions could not darken so great a part of the Moon yea the whole of the Moon were the Moon of so great a bigness as they also affirm Darkness and shadow they say are no real things but only absence of Light and how can that obscure a lightsome body if darkness have no positivity or existence of it's own All the darkness in the night cannot hinder a Rush-candle from shining Further if such a shadow were the cause then why is not the whole opposite Hemisphere illuminated by the direct Rays of the Sun in the Night at such times when the Moon doth not so shine the Moon hath not all her Light from the Sun according as that part of the Moon in its increases and decreases which is nearest the Sun is illustrated according to it 's more or less opposite position This they assign to be the cause but if it were so then that Diameter of the Moon which doth cut the enlightned part of the Moon into two equal parts must also in a right line pass into the Diameter of the Sun Which is not so As any discerning eye may observingly conclude by ocular demonstration If the Moon as they suppose do move about fifty miles in a minute how then can some Eclipses of the Moon last so long as they do if it were caused only by the shadow of the Earth And how small a proportion is that part of the Hemisphere which the body of the Moon doth take up when it is Eclipsed at its first arising if you compare it with the Compass that it goes from her going forth to her going in The Eclipse also of the Sun they assert may be total to some in some parts of the Earth by the Moon 's being in conjunction and stepping in between the Sun and the Earth But how can this be if as they say the Sun be one hundred sixty and six times biggeâ— than the Earth and the Moon be forty and six times less then the Earth Astronomers therefore must enquire after some other cause of Eclipses let it be searched after Whether Satan who by his Fall having lost his Luminariness and being become darkness and the Prince of darkness be not at least one cause It is further a Philosophical errour to affirm the Moon to be an Earth For the Earth was made and perfected before that the Heavenly Luminaries had any created being These had their existence three days after that Neither is there dry fruit-bearing Land in the Moon for the Earth and not the Moon doth by the Creator's Ordination bring forth Grass Herbs andâ— Trees Neither are there Seas in the Moon For the Seas were created and put into their proper places here below before the Moon had a being Neither is the Moon Opacous nor the Earth Luminous The Histories of the Creation are evident confutations of these and many other human inventions The Moon doth not make or constitute night but hath Dominion over it She is a faithful witness in Heaven The Stars are burning shining bodies having their own inherent burning flame as well as the Sun and Emanant without his Collustration If Stars were of such a magnitude as Ethnick Philosophers do assert how could that Star in Christ's time point out to the Wise men that particular House in Bethlehem when Christ was new born and how could the Stars of Heaven fall down upon the Earth like as the Figg-tree casteth her green Figgs when she is shaken of a mighty Wind It is too great boldness in Earthly man to assign the magnitude altitude distance of the Heavenly Luminaries can a dusty Worm measure the Heavens above or number the Host of Heaven art thou able to mete out the Heavens with a span No meer Man can exactly tell the number of the Stars Though Astronomers have been
Knowledges and personal reflexions be laid aside The Creatures were of several kinds and being Heterogeneous one from another they must consequently all of them be also Heterogeneous from the pretended pure primary Matter For this Matter being supposed by the Asserters of it to be one Homogeneous Substance in it self can never produce so many Heterogeneous Substances If the very Matter of Creatures were one and the same substantial principle in all Creatures and not different how could it produce contrary Entities and Activities and exercise contrary Operations The Word of Truth doth expresly confirm that the things which we see were not made of such things as do appear And we have need and use of special Faith to believe and to improve this aright As that the Heavens and the Earth were not this first general confused matter out of which after Creatures were made the Expanse was not made of the more refined part of this the Herbs Plants and Trees were not made out of the Earthy Matter the Luminaries were not made of the former Light Fishes Fowls Beasts Worms were not made of the Waters or Earth the first Adams Male and Female were not made of former Earth These were after Generations and Productions in the ordinary way yet of the same kind and it is a new Prooem beginning a new Narration Aelohim did not need as men do Stuff or matter to work upon not Tools or other Instruments neither used he the aid or help of any assistant It is by Faith that we come to have right apprehensions of this it is not wrought and attained by the strength of our natural reason but it doth shine in upon the mind from that credibility which is in and from that credence which is given to the Word of God and from the holy Spirits perswading of the heart that this word is the Truth Thus were all manner of Creatures fully and perfectly finished without any want defect or imperfection in them so far as concerned that state and condition the Creator made them in The Author or Efficient was Jehovah Aelohim the means of creating them was by the word of his Power whereby he manifested his Mind and Will Though all these were created and made yet not out of any thing that did or could appear there was no pre-existent matter whereof they were made The Essences and formalities of all Vegetative and Sensitive Natures are not only matter and motion Aelohim gave primitive Natures and different Beings to his several Creatures Universal Nature is both an empty name and an atheistical conceit If only matter were created in the first instance of Time as is pretended and pleaded how could this Matter diversifie it self in the Beginning into Heaven and Earth For local Motion being from one place to another which are several distant Terms must necessarily be in several instants of Time if several Local Motions were the Formalities or formal beginnings of all Spirits and spiritual Qualities then they should not be before nor after nor any longer than that Local Motion doth continue For the Formality of any thing is the very Specifick Being thereof and nothing can be without the Specifical Being of its self otherwise it should not be what it is or be what it is not It was the Spirit of Aelohim and not the first Matter that moved more especially upon the waters Created Beings may and actually do exist without any actual Local Motion and therefore they must necessarily really be different from it The Beginning of all things was not Water as one Ethnick Philosopher mis judged neither was infinite Air the first cause or original of every existence as another affirmed neither was this pretended Catholick Air God as a third esteemed neither did all things take their beginning from Fire and Light as a fourth would have it nor as another says that there is one Universal Fire in and over all things in this World neither is the beginning of all things the substance of the Fire by the Air converted into Water as was the opinion of one neither are there such Radical Principles of all things whereof two are Agents and two Patients as he asserts the Elements which was the imagination of another Creating AElohim was before any created Beings He alone was the Creator All things were made essentially solely immediately by him there was no help of secondary causes They had their Original and Being from him and they have still their dependence upon him and therefore is AElohim in this short yet complete History of the Creation expresly named above thirty times in the seven days of this one Week No mere Creature has Power of Creating It is the sole Prerogative of Jehovah AEtohim If created Beings and their substantial Spirits and all their spiritual Activities and Operations were only various Motions of the Matter or only Matter moving variously then Local Motion one way or other or any way whatsoever should be not only an instrumental causality or effect of these Bodies and their Qualities but also the very Essence and Formality as hath been said or formal cause of them Whereas all created Beings are formal every one of them such as they were severally created in their different kinds and as they are naturally distinguished from other Creatures in themselves in their own proper Being The Creatures may and several of them do exist and they are such as they are created without any actual Motion being more for rest As the blew expanse and the Earth Tâ—hu and Bohu were not Matter and Form The Jews and the Christians have learn'd this wrong conceit in the Schools of Ethnick Philosophers and then afterwards laboured to defend it by this place of Scripture I have on the work of the one day shewn the meaning of those words and things The four Elements as some name them called the simple Bodies were not fetch'd one contrary out of another as out of former Matter as neither Light out of Darkness nor the Firmament out of Emptiness nor dry Earth out of Waters Neither were the compound Bodies out of the same Elements nor for the most part of all four unequally mingled together Not every one principally out of the same Element which they garnish or inhabit As not Herbs and Trees out of the Earth Not the Sun Moon and Stars wholly or specially out of the Expanse Not Fishes out of the Waters not Birds out of the Air not Beasts out of the Earth all and every of the created Beings are of distinct Natures and of several kinds We must put a difference between the first Creation and the after propagation Those four great Bodies Aether Air Earth and Water are still locally and essentially separate one from another and do exist Pure They each of them have their proper Bodies of Matter their peculiar subsistences pure and unmix'd in the beginning of the Creation The several Creatures were created an Whole
at once and in a moment but there were distinct several days of their being created which Order should not be confounded but well observed as one good help to profitable Meditation on Aelohim's Works Particularly the sixth day must not be forgoten as the day of Man's creation and as preparatory to his remembring and sanctifying of the seventh day as the weekly Sabbath-day There was a separate Creation of things on several days that man might with more stayedness of Spirit and prosperingness of Soul consider of them distinctly And now Jehovah Aelohim declares that this shall be the absolute perfecting in the whole and in every part of them of those Heavens and of this Earth and of all the congregated Military Host of them in their Order Place and Function Thus do all the Creatures both in the Heavens and in the Earth stand as an Army in Order or an Host in Battle array ready to serve their Makers their Creators who is their Commander in chief he is the LORD of Hosts and the Empire over them is his They go forth or come in at the word of their Head-Captain Jehovah Christ as he will arm and commission them for his Friends or against his Enemies In the order of my pursuit after the refining and raising of useful Arts and profitable Knowledges I am now led to that day the seventh which is the last Day in the first created Week which first Week is the just standing measure of all after Weeks in their successive courses by the established Law of the Creation on which seventh Day Aelohim the Creator himself did Sabbatize on this Day he rested to contemplate his own Works For having now framed and disposed the glorious Fabrick and the goodly Structure of the whole Universe and having put it into its beautious oeconomy and regular Government he closeth the whole of his Work with a Day Blessed above all the other foregoing Days of the Week The Great Design of this Treatise being the Advancement and Augment of useful Arts and of profitable Sciences in a Scripture-way I shall propound some serious Inquiries to ingenious studious Believers to ingenuous diligent Saints Especially to such faithful humble Ones as have through Mercy and Grace attained to larger growing measures of holy Skill in the Original Languages and of excelling eminence in Inner Religion about the improvement of Experimental Christianity Inquiries concerning Jehovah Aelohim in Father Son and Holy Spirt Q. WHat is the true proper significancy of this great and glorious Name Jehovah And whether ought it not to be used And what is there in those Prophesies and Promises that do speak of the freer acknowledgement of this Name in the later days And how may a discerning Believer improve this Name as for many other holy uses and ends so particularly to make his presence more real and sensible for continuedness to the Believer Q. What is the true import of all the other Names of God in the Scriptures particularly of Aelohim And how may those be particularly improved Q. What are some of the most clear Testimonies and convincing proofs of the Doctrine of Father Son and holy Spirit and the Old Testament which is so fully and frequently taught in the New Q. What are the visional appearances and manifestations of Jehovah Aelohim in Father Son and holy Spirit in Heaven And how may these be improved by a Believer Q. Whether may the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be distinctly prayed unto And if so how should a Believer suitably make his application to each of them distinctly and to all of them joyntly Q. What are the several Offices of the Father as Father of the Son as Son of the holy Spirit as holy Spirit with relation to the Covenant-people of Jehovah Aelohim and whether is a Believers Union and Communion to and with the Father and the holy Spirit as well as to and with the Son and how is this and which way may it be better improved Q. VVhat is the holy Spirits indwelling in a Believer and what are the Believers Dwelling in God and how are these more improveable Concerning the LORD Jesus Christ Jehovah-man the Mediator Q. WHen was it that Christ did first pass into his Mediatoral Office and after what manner was it and of what good use is it to find out and improve this Q. How may a Believer so injoy Christ's Jehovah-presence here on Earth as withal at the same time to injoy his Man-presence above in Heaven Q. Whether may a Believer actually resort in his spirit unto Christ's humane glorified Nature in any certain definite circumscribed local Place in the highest Heavens Q. How is the humane glorified Nature of Christ a fitted Instrument when quickned by the Power and Life of the Eternal Spirit for the actual conveyance of all suitable good to Believers according as their cases and capacities are And how may Believers apply what is in Christ's Spirit Soul and Body to their own spirit soul and body for proper supplies Q. How may a Believer so walk with God in Christ here as if Christ were visibly corporally present on Earth with the Believer and how may a Believer clear up and improve a mutual in-being in-living in-dwelling and in-abiding between Christ and him Q. How is a Believers Life hid with Christ in God and how may the Believer injoy and improve this for his natural spiritual and eternal Life Q. What are all Christ's Names as Mediator in the Old Testament as well as in the New And how may this be improved Q. How was Christ the first born of every Creature or of the whole Creation and the beginning of the Creation of God Q. What is there improveable by a Believer in the order and connexion of those four things when Christ is of God made to a Believer Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Q. Whether this be not one great truth of the present Age that Jesus Christ is the one and the only LORD and Lawgiver over and to the Spirits Souls and Bodies of his people Q. Whether are not these amongst others some of Christ's Royal Prerogatives by his Mediatoral Authority to grant and to pass acts of Grace to seal and to deliver particular Pardons to speak Peace and to give Comfort and how may this be practically improved Concerning the Word of God the Word of Christ. Q. VVHere is the true Authograph or the Divine own first Writings of the Original Scriptures and where is the exact Apographs or transcribed Copies of this And what Scriptures are there that do foretel and promise the restoring of this wholly uncorrupted And whether were not this a noble Work well becoming the greatest holiest Prince to search out this that he may write him out a complete Copy of its Law Q. In what Language was the New Testament originally spoken and written Q. How may the Original Scripture-Language be made the Universal Character all the inhabited Earth