Creation 29 And that nothing might be wanting to their delight behold also divine Providence hath prepared for their palate all precious and pleasant herbs for sallads and made them banquets of the most delicate fruit of the fruit-bearing trees 30 But for the courser grasse and worser kinde of herbs they are intended for the worser and baser kinde of creatures Wherefore it is free for man to seek out his own and make use of it 31 And God considering every thing that he had made approved of it as very good and the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Sixt days work and the Senary denotes the nature thereof CHAP. II. 2 Gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew adumbrated by the number Seven 4 Suns and Planets not only the furniture but effects of the Ethereal Matter or Heaven 6 The manner of Man and other Animals rising out of the earth by the power of God in nature 8 How it was with Adam before he descended into flesh and became a terrestrial Animal 10 That the four Cardinall virtues were in Adam in his Ethereal or Paradisiacal condition 17 Adam in Paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will under pain of descending into the Region of Death 18 The Masculine and Feminine faculties in Adam 20 The great Pleasure and Solace of the Feminine faculties 21 The Masculine faculties laid asleep the Feminine appear and act viz. The grateful sense of the life of the Vehicle 25 That this sense and joy of the life of the Vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame 1 THUS the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the garnishings of them such as are Trees Flowers and Herbs Suns Moons and Stars Fishes Fowls and Beasts of the field and the chiefest of all Man himself 2 Wherfore God having thus compleated his work in the Senary comprehending the whole Creation in six orders of things he ceased from ever creating any thing more either in this outward Material world or in the world of Life But his Creative Power retiring into himself he enjoyed his own eternal Rest which is his immutable and indefatigable Nature that with ease oversees all the whole Compasse of Beings and continues Essence Life and Activity to them and the better rectifies the worse and all are guided by his Eternal Word and Spirit but no new Substance hath been ever created since the six days production of things nor shall ever be hereafter 3 For this Seventh day God hath made an Eternal Holy day or Festival of Rest to himself wherein he will only please himself to behold the exquisite Order and Motion and right Nature of things his Wisdome Justice and Mercy unavoidably insinuating themselves according to the set frame of the world into all the parts of the Creation he having Ministers of his Goodnesse and Wrath prepared every where So that himself need but to look on and see the effects of that Nemesis that is necessarily interwoven in the nature of the things themselves which he hath made This therefore is that Sabbath or Festival of Rest which God himself is said to celebrate in the Seventh day and indeed the number declares the nature thereof 4 And now to open my minde more fully and plainly unto you I must tell you that those things which before I tearm'd the Garnishings of the Heaven and of the Earth they are not only so but the Generations of them I say Plants and Animals were the generations effects and productions of the Earth the Seminal Forms and Souls of Animals insinuating themselves into the prepared matter thereof and Suns Planets or Earths were the generations or productions of the Heavens vigour and motion being imparted from the world of Life to the immense body of the Universe so that what I before called meer Garnishings are indeed the productions or generations of the Heavens and of the Earth so soon as they were made Though I do not take upon me to define the time wherein God made the Heavens and the Earth For he might do it at once by his absolute Omnipotency or he might when he had created all Substance as well material as immaterial let them act one upon the other so and in such periods of time as the nature of the production of the things themselves requir'd 5 But it was for pious purposes that I cast the Creation into that order of Six dayes and for the more firmly rooting in the hearts of the people this grand and useful Truth That the Omnipotency of God is such that he can act above and contrary to natural causes that I mention'd herbs and plants of the field before I take notice of either rain or man to exercise Gardning and Husbandry For indeed according to my former narration there had been no such kinde of rain as ordinarily nowadays waters the labours of the Husbandman 6 But yet there went up a moist vapour from the earth which being matur'd and concocted by the Spirit of the world which is very active in the heavens or air became a precious balmy liquour and fit vehicle of Life which descending down in some sort like dewy showers upon the face of the earth moistned the ground so that the warmth of the Sun gently playing upon the surface thereof prepared matter variously for sundry sorts not only of Seminal forms of Plants but Souls of Animals also 7 And Man himself rose out of the earth after this manner the dust thereof being rightly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers and balmy droppings of Heaven For God had so contriv'd by his infinite Wisdome that matter thus or thus prepar'd should by a vital congruity attract proportional forms from the world of Life which is every where nigh at hand and does very throngly inequitate the moist and unctuous air Wherefore after this manner was the Aereal or Ethereal Adam conveyed into an earthly body having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain And thus Adam became the Soul of a Terrestrial living Creature 8 But how it is with Adam before he descends into this lower condition of life I shall declare unto you in the Aenigmatical narration that follows which is this That the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden where he had put the Man which afterward he formed into a Terrestrial Animal For Adam was first wholly Ethereal and placed in Paradise that is in an happy and joyful condition of the Spirit for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine Intellect and the Sun of Righteousnesse then shone fairly upon him 9 And his Soul was as the ground which God hath blest so brought forth every pleasant Tree and every goodly Plant of her heavenly Fathers own planting for the holy Spirit of Life had inriched the soil that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits And the Tree of Life was in the midst of this Garden of mans soul
had joyes multiplyed upon the whole man beyond all expression and imagination for ever he now sunk more and more towards a mortal and terrestrial estate himself not being unsensible thereof as you shall hear when I have told you the doom of the Eternal God concerning the Serpent and him 14 Things therefore having been carried on in this wise the Eternal Lord God decreed thus with himself concerning the Serpent and Adam That this old Serpent the Prince of the rebellious Angels should be more accursed then all the rest and whereas he lorded it aloft in the higher parts of the Air and could glide in the very Ethereal Region amongst the innocent and unflan souls of men and the good Angels before that he should now sweep the dust with his belly being cast lower towards the surface of the Earth 15 And that there should be a general enmity and abhorrency betwixt this old Serpent as also all of his fellow-rebels and betwixt Mankinde And that in processe of time the ever faithful and obedient Soul of the Messias should take a Body and should trample over the power of the Devil very notoriously here upon Earth and after his death should be constituted Prince of all the Angelical Orders whatever in Heaven 16 And concerning Adam the Eternal Lord God decreed that he should descend down to be an Inhabitant of the Earth and that he should not there indulge to himself the pleasures of the body without the concomitants of pain and sorrow and that his Feminine part his Affections should be under the chastisement and correction of his Reason 17 That he should have a wearisome and toilsome travail in this world 18 The Earth bringing forth thorns and thistles though he must subsist by the Corn of the field 19 Wherefore in the sweat of his browes he should eat his bread till he returned unto the ground of which his terrestrial body is made This was the Counsel of God concerning Adam and the Serpent 20 Now as I was a telling you Adam though he was sinking apace into those lower functions of life yet his minde was not as yet grown so fully stupid but he had the knowledge of his own condition and added to all his former Apologies that the Feminine part in him though it had seduced him yet there was some use of this mis-carriage for the Earth would hence be inhabited by Intellectual Animals wherefore he call'd the Life of his Vehicle EVE because she is indeed the Mother of all the generations of men that live upon the Earth 21 At last the Plastick Power being fully awakened Adams Soul descended into the prepared matter of the Earth and in due processe of time Adam appear'd cloth'd in the skin of beasts that is he became a down-right terrestrial Animal and a mortal creature upon earth 22 For the Eternal God had so decreed and his Wisdome Mercy and Justice did but if I may so speak play and sport together in the businesse And the rather because Adam had but precipitated himself into that condition which in due time might have faln to his share by course for it is fitting there should be some such head among the living creatures of the earth as a terrestrial Adam but to live always here were his disadvantage 23 Wherefore when God remov'd him from that higher condition 24 He made sure he should not be Immortal nor is he in any capacity of reaching unto the Tree of Life without passing through his fiery Vehicle and becoming a pure and defecate Ethereal Spirit Then he may be admitted to taste the fruit of the Tree of Life and Immortality and so live for ever THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 Man a Microcosme or Little World in whom there are two Principles Spirit and Flesh 2 The Earthly or Fleshly Nature appears first 4 The Light of Conscience unlistned to 6 The Spirit of Savory and Affectionate discernment betwixt good and evil 10 The inordinate desires of the flesh driven aside and limited 11 Hereupon the plants of Righteousnesse bear fruit and flourish 16 The hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour is as the Sun in the Soul of man Notionality and Opinions the weak and faint Light of the dispersed Stars 18 Those that walk in sincere Love walk in the Day They that are guided by Notionality travel in the Night 22 The Natural Concupiscible brings forth by the command of God and is corrected by devotion 24 The Irascible also brings forth 26 Christ the Image of God is created being a perfect Ruler over all the motions of the Irascible and Concupiscible 29 The food of the divine Life 30 The food of the Animal Life 31 The divine Wisdome approves of whatsoever is simply natural as good 1 WEE shall set before you in this History of Genesis several eminent examples of good and perfect men such as Abel Seth Enoch Abraham and the like Wherefore we thought fit though Aenigmatically and in a dark Parable to shadow out in general the manner of progresse to this divine Perfection Looking upon Man as a Microcosm or a Little World who if he hold out the whole progresse of the Spiritual Creation the processe thereof will be figuratively understood as follows Wherefore first of all I say that by the will of God every man living on the face of the Earth hath these two Principles in him Heaven and Earth Divinity and Animality Spirit and Flesh 2 But that which is Animal or Natural operates first the Spiritual or heavenly Life lying for a while closed up at rest in its own Principle During which time and indeed some while afterwards too the Animal or Fleshly Life domineers in darknesse and deformity the mighty tempestuous Passions of the flesh contending and strugling over that Abysse of unsatiable Desire which has no bottome and which in this case carries the minde to nothing but emptinesse and unprofitablenesse 3 But by the will of God it is that afterwards the Day-light appears though not in so vigorous measure out of the Heavenly or Spiritual Principle 4 And Conscience being thus enlightned offers her self a guide to a better condition and God has fram'd the nature of man so that he cannot but say that this Light is good and distinguish betwixt the dark tumultuous motions of the Flesh and it 5 And say that there is as true a difference as betwixt the natural Day and Night And thus Ignorance and Enquiry was the first days progresse 6 But though there be this principle of Light set up in the Conscience of Man and he cannot say any thing against it but that it is good and true yet has he not presently so lively and savoury a relish in his distinction betwixt the evil and the good For the evil as yet wholly holds his Affections though his Fancy and Reason be toucht a little with the Theoretical apprehensions of what is good wherefore by the will of God the heavenly Principle in due
and height of the Wisdom and goodness of God as somewhere the Apostle himself phrasâ—th it But then again in the second place this three and four comprehend also the conjunction of the Corporeal and Incorporeal nature Three being the first Superficies and Four the first Body and in the Seventh thousand years I do verily conceive that there will be so great union betwixt God and Man that they shall not only partake of his Spirit but that the Inhabitants of the Aethereal Region will openly converse with these of the Terrestrial and such frequent conversation and ordinary visits of our cordial friends of that other world will take away all the toil of life and the fear of death amongst men they being very chearful and pleasant here in the body and being well assured they shall be better when they are out of it For Heaven and Earth shall then shake hands together or become as one house and to die shall be accounted but to ascend into an higher room And though this dispensation for the present be but very sparingly set a foot yet I suppose there may some few have a glimpse of it concerning whom accomplish'd Posterity may happily utter something answerable to that of our Saviours concerning Abraham who tasted of Christianity before Christ himself was come in the Flesh Abraham saw my day and rejoyced at it And without all question that plenitude of happiness that has been reserved for future times the presage and presensation of it has in all ages been a very great Joy and Triumph to all holy men and Prophets The Morning Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse This is very sutable to the Text Paradise being said to be placed Eastward in Eden and our Saviour Christ to be the bright Morning Starre and the Light that lightens every one that comes into the world though too many are disobedient to the dictates of this Light that so early visits them in their mindes and consciences but they that follow it it is their peace and happiness in the conclusion Ver. 9. Which is a sincere obedience to the Will of God The Tree of Life is very rightly said to be in the midst of the Garden that is in the midst of the soul of man and this is the will or desire of man which is the most inward of all the faculties of his soul and is as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vital Center of the rest from whence they stream or grow That therefore is the Tree of Life if it be touch'd truly with the divine Life and a man be heartily obedient to the will of God For the whole Image of divine Perfection will grow from hence and receives nourishment strength and continuance from it But if this will and desire be broke off from God and become actuated by the creature or be a self-will and a spirit of disobedience it breeds most deadly fruit which kills the divine Life in us and puts man into a necessity of dying to that disorder and corruption he has thus contracted What ever others would insinuate to the contrary For there is nothing so safe if a man be heartily sincere as not to be led by the nose by others For we see the sad event of it in Eves listening to the outward suggestions of the Serpent Ver. 10. The four Cardinal Virtues It is the Exposition of Philo. Till verse 17. there is no need of adding any thing more then what has already been said in the Defence of the Philsophick Cabbala Ver. 17. Dead to all Righteousnesse and Truth The mortality that Adam contracted by his disobedience in the Mortal or Mystical sense is twofold The one a death to righteousness and it is the sense of Philo upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The death of the soul is the extinction of Virtue in her and the resuscitation of Vice and he adds that this must be the death here meant it being a real punishment indeed to forfeit the life of Virtue The other mortality is a necessity of dying to unrighteousness if he ever would be happy Both those notions of Death are more frequent in S. Pauls Epistles then that I need to give any instance His more noble and Masculine Faculties What the Masculine part in man is Philo plainly declares in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In us saith he the Man is the Intellect the Woman the Sense of the Body Whence you will easily understand that the Masculine Faculties are those that are more Spiritual and Intellectual Ver. 18. That the whole Humane Nature may be accomplished with the Divine Which is agreeable to that pious ejaculation of the Apostle 1 Thess 5. And the God of Peace sanctifie you wholly or throughly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be kept blamelesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the presence or abode of Jesus Christ the divine Life or heavenly Adam in you This is the most easie and natural sense of that place of Scripture as it will appear to any man whose minde is as much set on holiness as hard Theories And it is very agreeable to the Mystical sense of the second Psalm where the Kingdome of Christ reaches to the utmost ends of the Earth that is as far as Soul and Life can animate so that our very flesh and body is brought under the Scepter of Christs Kingdome Ver. 19. The Figurations of the Animal Life That the motions of the Minde as they are suggested from the Animal Life of the Body are set forth by Fishes Beasts and Birds I have already made good from the authority of Origen Ver. 20. In a capacity of taking delight in them For melancholy had so depraved the complexion of his body that there was no grateful sense of any thing that belong'd to nature and the life of the Vehicle Ver. 22. The greatest part of that Paradise a man is capable of upon Earth This is a Truth of Sense and Experience and is no more to be proved by Reason then that White is White or Black is Black Ver. 23. Essential operation of the Soul The very nature of the Soul as it is a Soul is an aptitude of informing or actuating a Body but that it should be always an organized Body it is but Aristotles saying of it he does not prove it But for mine own part I am very prone to think that the Soul is never destitute of some Vehicle or other though Plotinus be of another minde and conceives that the Soul at the height is joined with God and nothing else nakedly lodged in his arms And I am the more bold to dissent from him in this exaltation of the Soul I being so secure in my own conceit of that other suspected extravagancy of his in the debasement of them that at last they become so drowsie and sensless that they grow up out of the ground in that dull function of life the efformation of Trees and Plants And
he was taken 24 So he drove out Adam and his wife was forced to follow him For there was no longer staying in Paradise because the place was terribly haunted with spirits and fearful apparitions appeared at the entrance thereof winged men with fiery flaming swords in their hands brandished every way so that Adam durst never adventure to go back to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life whence it is that mankinde hath continued mortal to this very day THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 The world of Life or Forms and the Potentiality of the visible Vniverse created by the Tri-une God and referr'd to a Monad or Unite 6 The Vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing and referr'd to the number Two 7 Why it was not said of this matter that it was good 9 The ordering of an Earth or Planet for making it conveniently habitable referr'd to the number Three 14 The immense Aethereal matter or Heaven contriv'd into Suns or Planets as well Primary as Secondary viz. as well Earths as Moons and referr'd to the number Four 20 The replenishing of an Earth with Fish and Fowl referr'd to the number Five 24 The Creation of Beasts and Cattel but more chiefly of Man himself referr'd to the number Six 1 OUR designe being to set out the more conspicuous parts of the external Creation before we descend to the Genealogies and Successions of mankinde there are two notable objects present themselves to our understanding which we must first take notice of as having an universal influence upon all that follows and these I do Symbolically decypher the one by the name of Heaven and Light for I mean the same thing by both these tearms the other by the name of Earth By Heaven or Light you are to understand The whole comprehension of intellectual Spirits souls of men and beasts and the seminal forms of all things which you may call if you please The world of Life By Earth you are to understand the Potentiality or Capability of the Existence of the outward Creation This Possibility being exhibited to our mindes as the result of the Omnipotence of God without whom nothing would be and is indeed the utmost shadow and darkest projection thereof The Tri-une God therefore by his eternall Wisdome first created this Symbolical Heaven and Earth 2 And this Earth was nothing but Solitude and Emptinesse and it was a deep bottomless capacity of being what ever God thought good to make out of it that implyed no contradiction to be made And there being a possibility of creating things after sundry and manifold manners nothing was yet determined but this vast Capability of things was unsettled fluid and of it self undeterminable as water But the Spirit of God who was the Vehicle of the Eternal Wisdome and of the Super-essential Goodnesse by a swift forecast of Counsel and Discourse of Reason truly divine such as at once strikes through all things and discerns what is best to be done having hover'd a while over all the capacities of this fluid Possibilitie forthwith settled upon what was the most perfect and exact 3 Wherefore the intire Deity by an inward Word which is nothing but Wisdome and Power edg'd with actual Will with more ease then we can present any Notion or Idea to our own mindes exhibited really to their own view the whole Creation of spiritual Substances such as Angels are in their inward natures the Souls of men and other Animals and the Seminal Forms of all things so that all those as many as ever were to be of them did really and actually exist without any dependency on corporeall matter 4 And God approved of and pleased himself in all this as good but yet though in designe there was a settlement of the fluid darknesse or obscure Possibility of the outward Creation yet it remained as yet but a dark Possibility And a notorious distinction indeed there was betwixt this Actual spiritual Creation and the dimme possibility of the material or outward world 5. Insomuch that the one might very well be called Day and the other Night because the night does deface and obliterate all the distinct figures and colours of things but the day exhibits them all orderly and clearly to our sight Thus therefore was the immateriall Creature perfectly finisht being an inexhaustible Treasury of Light and Form for the garnishing and consummating the material world to afford a Morning or Active principle to every Passive one in the future parts of the corporeal Creation But in this first days work as we will call it the Morning and Evening are purely Metaphysical for the active and passive principles here are not two distinct substances the one material the other spiritual But the passive principle is matter meerly Metaphysical and indeed no real or actual entity and as hath been already said is quite divided from the light or spiritual substance not belonging to it but to the outward world whose shadowy possibility it is But be they how they will this passive and active principle are the First days work A Monad or Unite being so fit a Symbole of the immaterial nature 6 And God thought again and invigorating his thought with his Will and Power created an immense deal of reall and corporeall matter a substance which you must conceive to lie betwixt the foresaid fluid Possibility of Natural things and the Region of Seminall Forms not that these things are distinguisht Locally but according to a more intellectual Order 7 And the thought of God arm'd with his Omnipotent will took effect and this immensely diffused matter was made But he was not very forward to say it was good or to please himself much in it because he foresaw what mischief straying souls if they were not very cautious might bring to themselves by sinking themselves too deep therein Besides it was little worth till greater polishings were bestowed upon it and his Wisdome had contrived it to fitting uses being nothing as yet but a boundlesse Ocean of rude invisible Matter 8 Wherefore this Matter was actuated and agitated forthwith by some Universal Spirit yet part of the World of Life whence it became very subtile and Ethereal so that this Matter was rightly called Heaven and the Union of the Passive and Active Principle in the Creation of this Material Heaven is the second days work and the Binarie denotes the nature thereof 9 I shall also declare unto you how God orders a reall materiall Earth when once it is made to make it pleasant and delightful for both man and beast But for the very making of the Earth it is to be referred to the following day For the Stars and Planets belong to that number and as a primary Planet in respect of its reflexion of light is rightly called a Planet so in respect of its habitablenesse it is as rightly tearmed an Earth These Earths therefore God orders in such sort that they neither want water to
lie upon them nor be covered over with water though they be invironed round with the fluid air 10 But he makes it partly dry Land and partly Sea Rivers and Springs whose convenience is obvious for every one to conceive 11 He adorns the ground also with grasse herbs and flowers and hath made a wise provision of seed that they bring forth for the perpetuation of such useful commodities upon the face of the earth 12 For indeed these things are very good and necessary both for man and beast 13 Therefore God prepared the matter of the Earth so as that there was a vital congruity of the parts thereof with sundry sorts of seminall forms of trees herbs and choicest kinds of flowers and so the Body of the Earth drew in sundry principles of Plantall Life from the World of Life that is at hand every where and the Passive and Active Principle thus put together made up the Third Days work and the Ternary denotes the nature thereof 14 The Ternary had allotted to it the garnishing of an Earth with trees flowers and herbs after the distinction of Land and Sea as the Quinary hath allotted to it the replenishing of an Earth with fish and fowl the Senary with man and beast But this Fourth Day comprehends the garnishing of the body of the whole world viz. That vast and immense Ethereal matter which is called the fluid Heaven with infinite numbers of sundry sorts of lights which Gods Wisdome and Power by union of fit and active principles drawn from the world of life made of this Ethereal matter whose usefulnesse is plain in nature that they are for Prognostick signes and seasons and days and years 15 As also for administring of light to all the inhabitants of the world That the Planets may receive light from their fountains of light and reflect light one to another 16 And there are two sorts of these Lights that all the inhabitants of the world must acknowledge great every where consulting with the outward sight from their proper stations And the dominion of the greater of these kinde of lights is conspicuous by day the dominion of the lesser by night the former we ordinarily call a Sun the other a Moon which Moon is truly a Planet and opake but reflecting light very plentifully to the beholders sight and yet is but a secondary or lesser kind of Planet but he made the Primary and more eminent Planets also and such an one is this Earth we live upon 17 And God placed all these sorts of lights in the thin and liquid Heaven that they might reflect their rayes one upon another and shine upon the inhabitants of the world 18 And that their beauty and resplendency might be conspicuous to the beholders of them whether by day or by night which is mainly to be understood of the Suns that supply also the place of Stars at a far distance but whose chiefe office it is to make vicissitudes of day and night And the Universal dark Aether being thus adorn'd with the goodly and glorious furniture of those several kindes of lights God approved of it as good 19 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fourth days work and the number denotes the nature thereof 20 And now you have heard of a verdant Earth and a bounded Sea and Lights to shine through the air and water and to gratifie the eyes of all living creatures whereby they may see one another and be able to seek their food you may seasonably expect the mention of sundry animals proper to their elements Wherefore God by his inward Word and Power prepared the matter in the waters and near the waters with several vital congruities so that it drew in sundry souls from the world of Life which actuating the parts of the matter caus'd great plenty of fish to swim in the waters and fowls to flye above the earth in the open air 21 And after this manner he created great Whales also as well as the lesser kindes of fishes and he approved of them all as good 22 And the blessing of his inward Word or Wisdome was upon them for their multiplication for according to the preparation of the matter the Plastical Power of the souls that descend from the world of Life did faithfully and effectually work those wise contrivances of male and female they being once rightly united with the matter so that by this means the fish filled the waters in the seas and the fowls multiplyed upon the earth 23 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fift days work and the Quinary denotes the nature thereof 24 And God persisted farther in the Creation of living creatures and by espousing new souls from the world of Life to the more Mediterraneous parts of the matter created land-serpents cattel and the beasts of the field 25 And when he had thus made them he approved of them for good 26 Then God reflecting upon his own Nature and viewing himself consulting with the Super-essential Goodnesse the Eternal Intellect and unextinguishable Love-flame of his Omnipotent Spirit concluded to make a far higher kinde of living creature then was as yet brought into the world He made therefore Man in his own Image after his own Likenesse For after he had prepared the matter fit for so noble a guest as an humane Soul the world of Life was forced to let go what the rightly prepared matter so justly called for And Man appeared upon the stage of the earth Lord of all living creatures For it was just that he that bears the Image of the invisible God should be Supreme Monarch of this visible world And what can be more like God then the soul of man that is so free so rational and so intellectual as it is And he is not the lesse like him now he is united to the terrestrial body his soul or spirit possessing and striking through a compendious collection of all kinde of corporeal matter and managing it with his understanding free to think of other things even as God vivificates and actuates the whole world being yet wholly free to contemplate himself Wherefore God gave Man dominion over the fowls of the air the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth for it is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better 27 Thus God created Man in his own Image he consisting of an intellectual Soul a terrestrial Body actuated thereby Wherefore mankinde became male and female as other terrestrial animals are 28 And the benediction of the Divine Wisdome for the propagation of their kinde was manifest in the contrivance of the parts that were framed for that purpose And as they grew in multitudes they lorded it over the earth and over-mastered by their power and policy the beasts of the field and fed themselves with fish and fowl and what else pleased them and made for their content for all was given to them by right of their
highly rais'd for us to continue long in their embracements and will cleave to the joyous and chearful life of his Vehicle and account this living Vehicle and his Soul one Person 25 Thus Adam with his new-wedded Joy stood naked before God but was not as yet at all ashamed by reason of his Innocency and Simplicity for Adam neither in his reason nor affection as yet had transgressed in any thing CHAP. III. 1 Satan tempts Adam taking advantage upon the Invigoration of the life of his Vehicle 2 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and Satan 6 The Masculine faculties in Adam swayed by the Feminine assent to sin against God 7 Adam excuses the use of that wilde Liberty he gave himself discerning the Plastick Power somewhat awakened in him 8 A dispute betwixt Adam and the divine Light arraigning him at the Tribunal of his own Conscience 14 Satan strucken down into the lower Regions of the Air. 15 A Prophecy of the Incarnation of the Soul of the Messias and of his Triumph over the head and highest Powers of the rebellious Angels 16 A decree of God to sowre and disturb all the pleasures and contentments of the Terrestrial Life 20 Adam again excuses his fall from the usefulnesse of his Presence and Government upon Earth 21 Adam is fully incorporated into Flesh and appears in the true shape of a Terrestrial Animal 24 That Immortality is incompetible to the Earthly Adam nor can his Soul reach it till she return into her Ethereal Vehicle 1 NOw the life of the Vehicle being so highly invigorated in Adam by the remission of exercise in his more subtile and immaterial faculties he was fit with all alacrity and chearfulnesse to pursue any game set before him and wanted nothing but fair external opportunity to call him out into action Which one of the evil Genii or faln Angels observing which had no small skill in doing mischief having in all likelihood practised the same villany upon some of his own Orders and was the very Ring leader of rebellion against God and the divine Light For he was more perversely subtile then all the rest of the evil Genii or beasts of the field which God had madâ— Angels but their beastiality they contractâ—â— by their own rebellion For every thing 〈◊〉 hath sense and understanding and wants the divine Life in it in the judgement of all wise and good men is truly a Beast This old Serpent therefore the subtilest of all the beasts of the field cunningly assaulted Adam with such conference as would surely please his Feminine part which was now so invigorated with life that the best news to her would be the tidings of a Commission to do any thing Wherefore the Serpent said to the feminized Adam Why are you so demure and what makes you so bound up in spirit Is it so indeed that God has confined you taken away your Liberty and forbidden you all things that you may take pleasure in 2 And Adam answered him saying No we are not forbidden any thing that the divine Life in us approves as good and pleasant 3 We are only forbidden to feed on our own Will and to seek pleasures apart and without out the approbation of the will of God For if our own will get head in us we shall assuredly descend into the Region of Mortality and be cast into a state of Death 4 But the Serpent said unto Adam Tush this is but a Panick fear in you Adam you shall not so surely die as you conceit 5 The only matter is this God indeed â—â—ves to keep his creatures in awe and to hold them in from ranging too farre and reaching too high but he knows very well that if you take but your liberty with us and satiate your selves freely with your own will your eyes will be wonderfully opened and you will meet with a world of variety of experiments in things so that you will grow abundantly wise and like Gods know all things whatsoever whether good or evil 6 Now the Feminine part in Adam was so tickled with this Doctrine of the old Deceiver that the Concupiscible began to be so immoderate as to resolve to do any thing that may promote pleasure and experience in things snatcht away with it Adams Will and Reason by his heedlesnesse and inadvertency So that Adam was wholly set upon doing things at randome according as the various toyings and titillations of the lascivient Life of the Vehicle suggested to him no longer consulting with the voice of God or taking any farther aim by the Inlet of the divine Light 7 And when he had tired himself with a rabble of toyes and unfruitful or unsatisfactory devices rising from the multifarious workings of the Particles of his Vehicle at last the eyes of his faculties were opened and they perceived how naked they were he having as yet neither the covering of the Heavenly Nature nor the Terrestrial Body Only they sewed fig-leaves together and made some pretences of excuse from the vigour of the Plantal Life that now in a thinner maner might manifest it self in Adam and predispose him for a more perfect exercise of his Plastick Power when the prepared matter of the Earth shall drink him in 8 In the mean time the voice of God or the divine Wisdome spake to them in the cool of the day when the hurry of this mad Carreer had well slaked But Adam now with his wife was grown so out of order and so much estranged from the Life of God that they hid themselves at the sensible approach thereof as wilde beasts run away into the Wood at the sight of a man 9 But the divine Light in the Conscience of Adam pursued him and upbraided unto him the case he was in 10 And Adam acknowledged within himself how naked he was having no power nor ornaments nor abilities of his own and yet that he had left his obedience and dependence upon God Wherefore he was ashamed and hid himself at the approach of the divine Light manifesting it self unto him to the reprehension and rebuke of him 11 And the divine Light charg'd all this misery and confusion that had thus overtaken him upon the eating of the forbidden fruit the luscious Dictates of his own Will 12 But Adam again excus'd himself within himself that it was the vigour and impetuosity of that Life in the Vehicle which God himself implanted in it whereby he miscarried The woman that God had given him 13 And the divine Light spake in Adam concerning the woman What work hath she made here But the woman in Adam excused her self for she was beguiled by that grand Deceiver the Serpent In this confusion of mind was Adam by forsaking the divine Light and letting his own will get head against it For it so changed the nature of his Vehicle that whereas he might have continued in an Angelical and Ethereal condition and his feminine part been brought into perfect obedience to the divine Light and
to him pleasing both the sight and taste of that measure of divine Life that is manifested in him But of all the Plants that grow in him there is none of so soveraign virtue as that in the midst of this Garden to wit the Tree of Life which is a Sincere Obedience to the Will of God Nor any that bears so lethiferous and poisonous fruit as the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil which is Disobedience to the Will of God as it is manifested in Man For the pleasure of the Soul consists in conforming her self faithfully to what she is perswaded in her own Conscience is the Will of God what ever others would insinuate to the contrary 10 And all the fruit-bearing Trees of Righteousnesse are watered by these four Rivers which winde along this Garden of Pleasure which indeed are the four Cardinal Virtues 11 The name of the first is Pison which is Prudence not the suggestions of fleshly craft and over-reaching subtilty but the Indications of the Spirit or divine Intellect what is fit and profitable and decorous to be done 12 Here is well tryed and certain approved Experience healthful Industry and Alacrity to honest Labour 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon which is Justice 14 And the name of the third River is Hiddekel which is Fortitude and the fourth River is Euphrates which is Temperance 15 This is the Paradise where the Lord God had placed the Man that he might further cultivate it and improve it 16 And the divine Light manifested in the Man encourag'd the Man to eat of the fruits of Paradise freely and to delight himself in all manner of holy Understanding and Righteousnesse 17 But withall he bade him have a speciall care how he relisht his own Will or Power in any thing but that he should be obedient to the manifest Will of God in things great and small or else assuredly he would lose the life he now lived and become dead to all Righteousnesse and Truth So the man had a special care and his soul wrought wholly towards heavenly and divine things and heeded nothing but these his more noble and Masculine Faculties being after a manner solely set on work but the natural Life in which notwithstanding if it were rightly guided there is no sin being almost quite forgot and dis-regarded 18 But the Wisdome of God saw that it was not good for the soul of man that the Masculine Powers thereof should thus operate alone but that all the Faculties of Life should be set a float that the whole humane Nature might be accomplisht with the divine 19 Now the powers of the soul working so wholly upwards towards divine things the several Modifications or Figurations of the Animal Life which God acting in the frame of the humane Nature represented to the Man whence he had occasion to view them and judge of them by the quick Understanding of Man was indeed easily discern'd what they were and he had a determinate apprehension of every particular Figuration of the Animall Life 20 And did censure them or pronounce of them though truly yet rigidly enough and severely but as yet was not in a capacity of taking any delight in them there was not any of them fit for his turn to please himself in 21 Wherefore divine Providence brought it so to passe for the good of the Man and that he might more vigorously and fully be enrich'd with delight that the operations of the Masculine Faculties of the Soul were for a while well slaked and consopited during which time the Faculties themselves were something lessened or weakned yet in such a due measure and proportion that considering the future advantage that was expected that was not miss'd that was taken away but all as handsome and compleat as before 22 For what was thus abated in the Masculine Faculties was compensated abundantly in exhibiting to the Man the grateful sense of the Feminine for there was no way but this to Create the Woman which is to elicite that kindly flowring joy or harmlesse delight of the Natural Life and health of the Body which once exhibited and joyned with Simplicity and Innocency of Spirit it is the greatest part of that Paradise a man is capable of upon Earth 23 And the actuating of the matter being the most proper and essential operation of a soul man presently acknowledg'd this kindly flowring joy of the Body of nearer cognation and affinity with himself then any thing else he ever had yet experience of and he loved it as his own life 24 And the Man was so mightily taken with his new Spouse which is The kindly Joy of the Life of the Body that he concluded with himself that any one may with a safe Conscience forgoe those more earnest attempts towards the knowledge of the Eternal God that created him as also the performance of those more scrupulous injunctious of his Mother the Church so far forth as they are incompetible with the Health and Ioy of the Life of his Natural Body and might in such a case rather cleave to his Spouse and become one with her provided he still lived in obedience to the indispensable Precepts of that Superiour Light and Power that begot him 25 Nor had Adam's Reason or Affection transgressed at all in this concluding nothing but what the divine Wisdome and Equity would approve as true Wherefore Adam and his wife as yet sought no corners nor covering places to shelter them from the divine Light but having done nothing amisse appeared naked in the presence of it without any shame or blushing CHAP. III. 1 Adam is tempted by inordinate Pleasure from the springing up of the Joy of the invigorated Life of his Body 2 A dialogue or dispute in the minde of Adam betwixt The inordinate Desire of Pleasure and the natural Joy of the body 6 The will of Adam is drawn away to assent to inordinate Pleasure 8 Adam having transgressed is impatient of the Presence of the divine Light 10 A long conflict of Conscience or dispute betwixt Adams earthly minde and the divine Light examining him and setting before him both his present and future condition if he persisted in rebellion 20 He adheres to the Joy of his body without reason or measure notwithstanding all the castigations and monitions of the divine Light 21 The divine Light takes leave of Adam therefore for the present with deserved scorn and reproach 22 The doom of the Eternal God concerning laps'd Man that will not suffer them to settle in wickednesse according to their own depraved wills and desires 1 BUT so it came to passe that the Life of the Body being thus invigorated in Man straightway the slyest and subtilest of all the Animal Figurations the Serpent which is the inordinate Desire of Pleasure craftily insinuated it self into the Feminine part of Adam viz. The kindely Joy of the body and thus assaulting Man whisper'd such suggestions as these unto him What a
two extremes the first and the last that makes up the Creation of the Spiritual Adam or Christ compleated in us and includes the middle which is Blood First therefore is Repentance from what we delighted in before Then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us which is resisting to blood as the Apostle speaks And the 1 Epistle of John ch 5. v. 4. What ever is born of God overcomes the world Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus Christ the divine Light and Life in us is the Son of God and therefore indued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us This is he that comes by Water and Blood by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin not by repentance only and dislike of our former life but by the mortification also of it Then the Spirit of Truth is awakened in us and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true And according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially That no man can say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God but by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere affirms This is the heavenly Adam which is true Light and Glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead and into whom God hath breathed the breath of Life without which we have no right knowledge nor sense of God at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are thâ— words of Philo upon the place For how should the soul of man says he know God if he did not inspire her and take hold of her by his power Ver. 8. To the Kingdome of Heaven And the end of the doctrine of John which was Repentance was for this purpose that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described and therefore it was a motive for them to repent For though sorrow endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning For the new Jerusalem is to be built and God is to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men and to rule by his Spirit here upon Earth which if I would venture upon an Historical Cabbala of Moses I should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years according to the Chronology of Scripture when the world shall be so spiritualized that the work of Salvation shall be finished and the great Sabbath and Festival shall be then celebrated in the height A thousand years are but as one day saith the Apostle Peter And therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day Wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years the Kingdomes of the Earth will be the second Adams the Lord Christs as Adam in the Sixt day was created the Lord of the world and all the creatures therein and this conquest of his will bring in the Seventh day of rest and peace and joy upon the face of the whole Earth Which presage will seem more credible when I shall have unfolded unto you out of Philo Judaeus the mysterie of the number Seven but before I fall upon that let me a little prepare your belief by shewing the truth of the same thing in another Figure Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared they died not enjoying the richness of Gods goodness in their bodies But Enoch who was the seventh from Adam he was taken up alive into Heaven and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body The world then in the Seventh Chiliad will be assumed up into God snatch'd up by his Spirit inacted by his Power The Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon Earth God will as I said pitch his Tabernacle amongst men And for God to be in us and with us is as much as for us to be lifted up into God But to come now to the mysterie of the Septenary or number Seven it is of two kindes the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septenary within the Decade is meerly seven unites The other is a Seventh Number beginning at an Vnite and holding on in a continued Geometrical Proportion till you have gone through Seven Proportional Terms For the Seventh Term there is this Septenary of the second kinde whose nature Philo fully expresses in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense For always beginning from an Vnite and holding on in double or triple or what Proportion you will the seventh Number of this rank is both Square and Cube comprehending both kindes as well the Corporeal as Incorporeal Substancâ—e the Incorporeal according to the Superficies which the Squares exhibite but the Corporeal according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the Cubes As for example 64. or 729. these are Numbers that arise after this manner each of them are a Seventh from an Unite the one arising from double Proportion the other from triple and if the Proportion were Quadruple Quintuple or any else there is the same reason some other Seventh Number would arise which would prove of the same nature with these they would prove both Cubes and Squares that is Corporeal and Incorporeal For such is sixty four either made by multiplying eight into eight and so it is a Square or else by multiplying four Cubically For four times four times four is again sixty four but then it is a Cube And so seven hundred twenty nine is made either by Squaring of twenty seven or Cubically multiplying of Nine for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made and so is both Cube and Square Corporeal and Incorporeal Whereby is intimated that the world shall not be reduced in the Seventh day to a meer Spiritual consistency to an Incorporeal condition but that there shall be a co-habitation of the Spirit with Flesh in a Mystical or Moral sense and that God will pitch his Tent amongst us Then shall be settled everlasting righteousnesse and rooted in the Earth so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof And this truth of the Reign of Righteousness in this Seventh thousand years is still more clearly set out to us in the Septenary within Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls it the naked number Seven For the parts it consists of are 3 and 4 which put together make 7. And these parts be the sides of the first Orthogonion in Numbers the very sides that include the right angle thereof And the Orthogonion what a foundation it is of Trigonometry and of measuring the altitudes latitudes and longitudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in Mathematicks And this prefigures the uprightness of that holy Generation who will stand and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inclining neither this way nor that way but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart And by this Spirit of Righteousness will these Saints be enabled to finde out the depth and breadth
I am not alone in this liberty of dissenting from Plotinus For besides my own conceit this way for I must confess I have no demonstrative reasons against his opinion I am emboldened by the example of Ficinus who is no small admirer of the forenamed Author That which I was about to say is this The informing or actuating of a body being so Indispensable and Essential an act of the Soul the temper and condition of the body that it thus actuates cannot but be of mighty consequence unto the Soul that is conscious of the plight thereof and reaps the joy of it or sorrow by an universal touch and inward sense springing up into her cognoscence and animadversion And we may easily imagine of what moment the health and good plight of the body is to the minde that lodges there if we do but consider the condition of Plants whose bodies we cannot but conceive in a more grateful temper while they flourish and are sweet and pleasing to the eye then when they are withered by age or drought or born down to the Earth by immoderate storms of rain And so it is with the body of man where there is a Soul to take notice of its condition far better when it is in health by discretion and moderation in diet and exercise then when it is either parched up by superstitious melancholy or slocken and drowned in sensuality and intemperance For they are both abaters of the joyes of life and lessen that plenitude of happiness that man is capable of by his Mystical Eve the woman that God has given every one to delight himself with Ver. 24. So far forth as they are incompetible with the health of the body This is an undeniable truth else how could that hold good that the Apostle speaks That Godliness is profitable for all things having the promise of this world and that which is to come when as without the health of the body there is nothing at all to be enjoyed in this present world And certainly God doth not tie us to the Law of Angels or Superiour Creatures but to precepts sutable to the nature of man Obedience to the precepts of that Superiour Light For if the life of the body grow upon us so as to extinguish or hinder the sense of divine things our dependence of God and joyful hope of the life to come it is then become disorderly and is to be castigated and kept down that it pull not us down into an aversation from all Piety and sink us into an utter oblivion of God and the divine Life Ver. 25. Without any shame or blushing See what has been said upon the Philosophick Cabbala CHAP. III. A story of a dispute betwixt a Prelate and a Black-Smith concerning Adams eating of the Apple 1 What is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the Serpent That Religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state And it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it 5 6 That worldly Wisdome not Philosophy is perstringed in the Mysterie of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil 10 The meaning of Adams flying after he had found himself naked 20 Adam the Earthly-minded Man according to Philo. 21 What is meant by Gods clothing Adam and Eve with hairy Coats in the Mystical sense 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Paradise of Luxury That History in Scripture is wrote very concisely and therefore admits of modest and judicious Supplements for clearing the sense 24 What is meant by the Cherubim and flaming Sword Plato's definition of Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A more large description of dying to Sinne and of the life of Righteousness That Christian Religion even as it referres to the external Person of Christ is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the Conflagration of the world IN this third Chapter is the said Catastrophe of the story the Fall of Adam and the Original of all that misery and calamity that hath befallen mankind since the Beginning of the World Of so horrid consequence was it that our Mother Eve could no better suppress her longing but upon the easie perswasion of the Serpent ate the forbidden Fruit as a famous Prelate in France once very tragically insisted upon the point to his attentive Auditory But it should seem a certain Smith in the Church as Bodinus relates when he had heard from this venerable Preacher that Universal Mankinde saving a small handful of Christians were irrevocably laps'd into eternal damnation by Adams eating of an Apple and he having the boldness to argue the matter with the Prelate and receiving no satisfaction from him in his managing the Literal sense of the Text and his skill it should seem went no further the Smith at last broke out into these words Tam multas rixas pro re tantilla ineptè excitari as if he should have said in plain English What a deal of doe has there here been about the eating of an Apple Which blasphemous saying as Bodinus writes had no sooner come to the ears of the Court of France but it became a Proverb amongst the Courtiers So dangerous a thing is an ignorant and indiscreet Preacher and a bold immodest Auditour Bodinus in the same place does profess it is his Judgement that the unskilful insisting of our Divines upon the literal sense of Moses has bred many hundred thousands of Atheists For which reason I hope that men that are not very ignorant and humorous but sincere lovers of God and the divine Truth will receive these my Cabbala's with more favour and acceptance especially this Moral one it being not of too big a sense to stop the mouth of any honest free inquisitive Christian But whatever it is we shall further endevour to make it good in the several passages thereof Ver. 1. Inordinate desire of pleasure It is Philo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Serpent is a Symbole or representation of Pleasure which he compares to that creature for three reasons First because a Serpent is an Animal without feet and crawls along on the Earth upon his belly Secondly because it is said to feed upon the dust of the Earth Thirdly because it has poisonous teeth that kill those that it bites And so he assimilates pleasure to it being a base affection and bearing it self upon the belly the seat of lust and intemperance feeding on earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but never nourishing her self with that heavenly food which wisdome offers to the Contemplative by her precepts and discourses It is much that Philo should take no notice of that which is so particularly set down in the Text the subtilty of the Serpent which me thinks is notorious in pleasure it looking so smoothly and innocently on 't and insinuating it self very easily into the mindes of men upon that consideration and so deceiving them when as other passions cannot so slily surprise
Conjectura Cabbalistica OR A CONJECTURAL ESSAY OF Interpreting the minde of Moses according to a Threefold CABBALA Viz. Literal Philosophical Mystical or Divinely Moral By HENRY MORE Fellow of Christs College in Cambridge EXOD. 34. And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shones and they were afraid to come nigh him Wherefore Moses while he spake unto them put a veil on his face MATTH 10. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known What I tell you in darknesse speak you in light and what you hear in the ear that preach you on the house-tops LONDON Printed by James Flesher and are to be sold by William Morden Bookseller in Cambridge 1653. TO HIS EMINENTLY LEARNED and truly religious friend Dr Cudworth Master of Clare Hall and Hebrew Professor in the University of Cambridge SIR COncerning the choice of the subject matter of my present pains I have I think spoke enough in the insuing Preface Concerning the choice of my Patron I shall say no more then that the sole inducement thereto was his singular Learning and Piety The former of which is so conspicuous to the world that it is universally acknowledged of all and for the latter there is none that can be ignorant thereof who has ever had the happiness though but in a smaller measure of his more free and intimate converse As for my own part I cannot but publickly profess I never met with any yet so truly and becomingly religious where the right knowledge of God and Christ bears the inlightned minde so even that it is as far removed from Superstition as Irreligion it self And my present Labours cannot finde better welcome or more judicious acceptance with any then with such as these For such free and unprejudiced spirits will neither antiquate Truth for the oldnesse of the Notion nor slight her for looking young or bearing the face of Novelty Besides there are none that can be better assured of the sincerity and efficacy of my present Designe For as many as are born of the Spirit and are not meer sons of the Letter know very well how much the more inward and mysterious meaning of the Text makes for the reverence of the holy Scripture and advantage of Godlinesse when as the urging of the bare literal sense has either made or confirmed many an Atheist And assuredly those men see very little in the affairs of Religion that do not plainly discover that it is the Atheists highest interest to have it taken for granted that there is no spiritual meaning either in Scripture or Sacrament that extends further then the meer Grammatical sense in the one or the sensible grosse external performance in the other As for example That to be regenerated and become a true and real Christian is nothing else but to receive the outward Baptisme of visible water And that the Mosaical Philosophy concerning God and the nature of things is none other then that which most obviously offers it self in the meer letter of Moses Which if the Atheist could have fully granted to him on all sides and get but this in also to the bargain That there is no knowledge of God but what Moses his Text set on foot in the world or what is Traditional he cannot but think that Religion in this dresse is so empty exceptionable and contemptible that it is but just with as many as are not meer fools to look upon it as some melancholick conceit or cunning fiction brought into the world to awe the simpler sort but behinde the hangings to be freely laughed at and derided by those that are more wise And that it were an easie thing in a short time to raze the memory of it out of the mindes of men it having so little root in the humane faculties Which for my own part I think as hopeful as that posterity will be born without eyes and ears and lose the use of speech For I think the knowledge of God and a sense of Religion is as natural and essential to mankinde as any other property in them whatsoever And that the generations of men shall as soon become utterly irrational as plainly irreligious Which I think my late Treatise against Atheisme wil make good to any one that with care and judgement will peruse it Nor does it at all follow because a truth is delivered by way of Tradition that it is unconcludable by Reason For I do not know any one Theorem in all Natural Philosophy that has more sufficient reasons for it then the motion of the Earth which notwithstanding is part of the Philosophick Cabbala or Tradition of Moses as I shall plainly shew in its due place So likewise for the prae-existency of the Soul which seems to have been part of the same Tradition it is abundantly consentaneous to Reason And as we can give a genuine account of all those seeming irregularities of motion in the Planets supposing they the Earth move round about the Sun so we may open the causes of all those astonishing Paradoxes of Providence from this other Hypothesis and show that there is nothing here unsutable to the precious Attributes of God if we could place the eye of our understanding in that Center of all free motions that steady eternal Good were not our selves carried aloof off from him amongst other wandring Planets as S. Jude calls them that at several distances play about him yet all of them in some measure or other not onely pretending to him but whether they pretend or not really receiving something from him For of this First is all both Wisdome Pleasure and Power But it is enough to have but hinted these things briefly and enigmatically the wrath and ignorance of all Ages receiving the most generous Truths with the greatest offence But for my own part I know no reason but that all wel-willers to Truth Godliness should heartily thank me for my present Cabbalistical Enterprise I having so plainly therein vindicated the holy Mystery of the Trinity from being as a very bold Sect would have it a meer Pagan invention For it is plainly shown here that it is from Moses originally not from Pythagoras or Plato And seeing that Christ is nothing but Moses unveiled I think it was a special act of Providence that this hidden Cabbala came so seasonably to the knowledge of the Gentiles that it might afore-hand fit them for the easier entertainment of the whole Mystery of Christianity when in the fulness of time it should be more clearly revealed unto the world Besides this we have also shown That according to Moses his Philosophy the soul is secure both from death and from sleep after death which those drowsie Nodders over the letter of the Scripture have very oscitantly collected and yet as boldly afterwards maintained pretending that the contrary is more Platonical then Christian or Scriptural Wherefore my designe being so pious
recited I hold probable enough they being not unbecoming the worth of the Person but those that suppose the transmigration of Humane Souls into the Bodies of Beasts I look upon as Fables and his whispering into the ear of an Oxe to forbear to eat Beans as a loudly But it seems very consonant unto Divine Providence that Pythagoras having got the knowledge of the holy Cabbala which God imparted to Adam and Moses that he should countenance it before the Nations by enabling him to do Miracles For so those noble and ancient Truths were more firmly radicated amongst the Philosophers of Greece and happily preserved to this very day Nor can his being carried in the Air make him suspected to be a meer Magician or Conjurer sith the holy Prophets and Apostles themselves have been transported after that manner as Habakkuk from Jewry to Babylon and Philip after he had baptiz'd the Eunuch to Azotus But for my own part I think working of Miracles is one of the least perfections of a Man and is nothing at all to the happinesse of him that does them or rather seems to do them For if they be Miracles he does them not but some other power or person distinct from him And yet here Magicians and Witches are greatly delighted in that this power is in some sort attributed to themselves and that they are admired of the people as is manifest in Simon Magus But thus to lord it and domineer in the Attribute of Power with the Prince of the Air what is it but meer Pride the most irrational and provoking vice that is And with what grosse folly is it here conjoin'd they priding and pleasing themselves in that they sometimes do that or rather suffer that which Herns and wlde Geese and every ordinary Fowl can do of it self that is mount aloft and glide through the fleeting Air But holy and good men know that the greatest sweet and perfection of a virtuous Soul is the kindly accomplishment of her own Nature in true Wisdom and divine Love And if any thing miraculous happen to them or be done by them it is that that worth knowledg that is in them may be taken notice of and that God thereby may be glorified whose witnesses they are But no other accession of happinesse accrues to them from this but that hereby they may be in a better capacity of making others happy which I confesse I conceive here Pythagoras his case And that men may not indulge too much to their own Melancholy and Fancy which they ordinarily call Inspiration if they be so great Lights to the world as they pretend and so high that they will not condescend to the examination of humane Reason it were desirable that such persons would keep in their heat to concoct the crudities of their own Conceptions till the warrant of a Miracle call them out and so they might more rightfully challenge an attention from the people as being authorised from above to tell us something we knew not before nor can so well know as believe the main Argument being not Reason but Miracle Lastly for the strangeness of the Philosophical Conclusions themselves It were the strangest thing of all if at first sight they did not seem very Paradoxical and strange Else why should they be hid and conceal'd from the Vulgar but that they did transcend their capacity and were overmuch disproportioned to their belief But in the behalf of these Cabbalistical conclusions I will only note thus much that they are such that supposing them true which I shall no longer assert then till such time as some able Philosopher or Theologer shall convince me of their falshood there is nothing of any grand consideration in Theology or Nature that will not easily be extricated by this Hypothesis an eminent part whereof is the Motion of the Earth and the Prae-existency of Souls The evidence of the former of which Truths is such that it has wonne the assent of the most famous Mathematicians of our later Ages and the reasonablenesse of the latter is no lesse There having never been any Philosopher that held the Soul of Man immortal but he held that it did also prae-exist But Religion not being curious to expose the full view of Truth to the people but only what was most necessary to keep them in the fear of a Deity and obedience to the Law contented her self with what meerly concerned the state of the Soul after the dissolution of the Body concealing what ever was conceivable concerning her condition before Now I say it is a pretty priviledge of falshood if this Hypothesis be false and very remarkable that it should better sute with the Attributes of God the visible events of Providence the Phaenomena of Nature the Reason of Man and the holy Text it self where men acknowledge a mysterious Cabbala then that which by all means must be accounted true viz. That there is no such Motion of the Earth about the Sun nor any Prae-existency of humane Souls Reader I have done what lies on my part that thou maist peruse this Defence of mine without any rub or stumbling let me now request but one thing which thou art bound to grant which is that thou read my Defence without Prejudice and that all along as thou goest thou make not thy recourse to the customary conceits of thy Fancy but consult with thy free Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle somewhere speaks in his Metaphysicks For Custome is another Nature and therefore those conceits that are accustomary and familiar we unawares appeal to as if they were indeed the natural light of the Minde and her first common Notions And he gives an instance not altogether unsutable to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Philosopher may be as bold as he pleases with the Ritual laws and religious stories of the Heathens but I do not know that he ever was acquainted with the Law of Moses But I think I may speak it not without due Reverence that there is something of Aristotles saying Analogically true in the very History of the Creation and that the first impressions of the Literal Text which is so plainly accommodated to the capacity of meer children and Idiots by reason of custome have so strongly rooted themselves in the minds of some that they take that sense to be more true then the true meaning of the text indeed Which is plain in no meaner a person then one of the Fathers namely Lactantius who looking upon the world as a Tent according to the description in the Literal Cabbala did very stoutly and confidently deny Antipodes So much did a customary fancy prevail over the free use of his Reason Thus much for better caution I thought fit to preface The rest the Introduction to the Defence and the very frame and nature of the Defence it self I hope will make good to the judicious and ingenuous Reader THE INTRODUCTION TO THE DEFENCE Diodorus his mistake
as he was truly in himself the most high God so he should be acknowledged of the people to be so For certainly there is nothing that doth so win away nay ravish or carry captive the mindes of poor mankinde as Bounty and Munificence All men loving themselves most affectionately and most of all the meanest and basest spirits whose souls are so far from being a little rais'd and releas'd from themselves that they do impotently and impetuously cleave and cling to their dear carkases Hence have they out of the strong relish and favour of the pleasures and conveniencies thereof made no scruple of honouring them for gods who have by their industry or by good luck produced any thing that might conduce for the improvement of the happinesse and comfort of the body From hence it is that the Sun and Moon have been accounted for the two prime Deities by Idolatrous Antiquity viz. from that sensible good they conferred upon hungry mankinde The one watering as it were the Earth by her humid influence the other ripening the fruit of the ground by his warm rayes and opening dayly all the hid treasures of the visible world by his glorious approach pleasing the sight with the variety of Natures objects chearing the whole body by his comfortable heat To these as to the most conspicuous Benefactors to mankinde was the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they observed that these conceived Deities were in perpetual motion These two are the Aegyptians Osiris and Isis and five more are added to them as very sensible Benefactors but subordinate to these two and Dependents of them And in plain speech they are these Fire Spirit Humidity Siccity and Air but in their divine Titles Vulcan Jupiter Oceanus Ceres and Minerva These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diodorus speaks But after these mortal men were canonized for immortal Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their prudence and benefaction as you may see at large in Diodorus Siculus I will name but two for instance Bacchus and Ceres the one the Inventor of Corn the other of Wine and Beer So that all may be resolved into that brutish Aphorisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which could please or pleasure degenerate mankinde in the Body they having lost the Image of God in their Souls and become meer brutes after a manner that must be their God Wherefore it was necessary for Moses having to deal with such Terrestrial Spirits Sons of Sense and Corporeity to propose to them Jehovah as Maker of this Sensible and Corporeal world that whatever sweet they suck out of the varieties thereof they may attribute to him as the first Fountain and Author without whom neither they nor any thing else had been that thereby they might be stirred up to praise his Name and accomplish his Will revealed by his servant Moses unto them And this was true and sound Prudence aiming at nothing but the glory of God and the good of the poor ignorant people And from the same Head springs the manner of his delivering of the Creation that is accommodately to the apprehension of the meanest not speaking of things according to their very Essence and real Nature but according to their appearances to us Not starting of high and intricate Questions and concluding them by subtile Arguments but familiarly and condescendingly setting out the Creation according to the most easie and obvious conceits they themselves had of those things they saw in the world omitting even those grosser things that lay hid in the bowels of the Earth as Metals and Minerals and the like as well as those things that fall not at all under Sense as those immaterial Substances Angels or Intelligences Thus fitly has the Wisdome and Goodnesse of God accommodated the outward Cortex of the Scripture to the most narrow and slow apprehension of the Vulgar Nor doth it therefore follow that the Narration must not be true because it is according to the appearance of things to Sense and obvious Fancie for there is also a Truth of Appearance according to which Scripture most what speaks in Philosophical matters And this Position is the main key as I conceive and I hope shall hereafter plainly prove whereby Moses his Bereshith may according to the outward and literal sense be understood without any difficulty or clashing one part against another And my task at this time will be very easie for it is but transcribing what I have already elsewhere occasionally published and recovering of it into its proper place First therefore I say that it is a thing confessed by the Learned Hebrews who make it a Rule for the understanding of many places of Scripture Loquitur lex juxta linguam humanam That the Law speaks according to the language of the sons of men And secondly which will come more home to the purpose I shall instance in some places that of necessity are to be thus understood Gen. 19. 23. The Sun was risen upon the Earth when Lot entred into Zoar which implies that it was before under the Earth which is true onely according to sense and vulgar phancy Deuteronom 30. v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies that the Earth is bounded at certain places as if there were truly an Hercules Pillar or Non plus ultra As it is manifest to them that understand but the natural signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those words plainly import the Earth bounded by the blew Heavens and the Heavens bounded by the Horizon of the Earth they touching one another mutually which is true only to sense and in appearance as any man that is not a meer Idiot will confesse Ecclesiastic 27. v. 12. The discourse of a godly man is always with wisdome but a fool changeth as the Moon That is to be understood according to Sense and Appearance For if a fool changeth no more then the Moon doth really he is a wise and excellently accomplished man Semper idem though to the sight of the Vulgar different For at least an Hemisphere of the Moon is always enlightned and even then most when she least appears unto us Hitherto may be referred also that 2 Chron. 4. 2. Also he made a molten Sea ten cubits from brim to brim round in compasse and five cubits the height thereof and a line of thirty cubits did compasse it round about A thing plainly impossible that the Diameter should be ten cubits and the Circumference but thirty But it pleaseth the Spirit of God here to speak according to the common use and opinion of men and not according to the subtilty of Archimedes his demonstration Again Psalm 19. In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sunne which as a Bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his race This as Mr. John Calvin observes is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the Vulgar whom David should
this third Element necessary to make an Earth habitable the dry Land the Sea whence are Springs and Rivers and the Air and lastly there are in Vegetables which is the main work of this day three eminent properties according to Aristotle viz. Nutrition Accretion Generation and also if you consider their duration there be these three Cardinal points of it Ortus Acme Interitus You may cast in also that Minerals which belong to this day as well as Plants that both Plants and they and in general all Terrestrial Bodies have the three Chymical Principles in them Sal Sulphur and Mercury Ver. 16. Such as is the Earth we live upon As the Matter of the Universe came out in the second day so the contriving of this Matter into Sunnes and Planets is contained in this fourth day the Earth her self not excepted though according to the Letter she is made in the first day and as she is the Nurse of Plants said to be uncovered in the third yet as she is a receptacle of Light and shines with borrowed raies like the Moon and other Plants she may well be referred to this fourth days Creation Nor will this at all seem bold or harsh if we consider that the most learned have already agreed that all the whole Creation was made at once As for example The most rational of all the Jewish Doctors R. Moses Aegyptius Philo Judeus Procopius Gazeus Cardinal Cajetan◠S. Augustine and the Schools of Hillel and Samai as Manasseh Ben Israel writes So that that leisurely order of days is thus quite taken away and all the scruples that may rise from that Hypothesis Wherefore I say the Earth as one of the primary Planets was created this fourth day And I translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primary Planets Primary because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emphatical and Planets because the very notation of their name implies their nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vstio or burning and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extinction Nouns made from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to unexceptionable Analogy And the Earth as also the rest of the Planets their nature is such as if they had once been burning and shining Suns but their light and heat being extinguished they afterwards became opake Planets This conclusion seems here plainly to be contained in Moses but is at large demonstrated in Des Cartes his Philosophy Nor is this Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervated by alledging that the word is ordinarily used to signifie the fixed Stars as well as the Planets For I do not deny but that in a vulgar Notion it may be competible to them also For the fixed Stars according to the imagination of the rude people may be said to be lighted up and extinguished so often as they appear and disappear for they measure all by obvious sense and fancie and may well look upon them as so many Candles set up by divine Providence in the Night but by Day frugally put out for wasting And I remember Theodoret in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has so glibly swallowed down the Notion that he uses it as a special argument of Providence that they can burn thus with their heads downwards and not presently sweal out and be extinguished as our ordinary Candles are Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be attributed to all the Stars as well Fixed as Planets but to the Fixed only upon vulgar seeming grounds to the Planets upon true and natural And we may be sure that that is that which Moses would aim at and lay stresse upon in his Philosophick Cabbala Wherefore in brief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emphatical in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains a double Emphasis intimating those true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Planets and then the most eminent amongst those truly so tearmed Nor is it at all strange that so abstruse conclusion of Philosophy should be lodged in this Mosaical Text. For as I have elsewhere intimated Moses has been aforehand with Cartesius The ancient Patriarchs having had wit and by reason of their long lives leisure enough to invent as curious and subtile Theorems in Philosophy as ever any of their posterity could hit upon besides what they might have had by tradition from Adam And if we finde the Earth a Planet it must be acknowledged forthwith that it runs about the Sun which is pure Pythagorisme again and a shrewd presumption that he was taught that mysterie by this Mosaical Cabbala But that the Earth is a Planet besides the Notation we have already insisted upon the necessity of being created in this fourth day amongst the other Planets is a further Argument For there is no mention of its Creation in any day else according to this Philosophick Cabbala Ver. 17. Inhabitants of the world The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I have made bold to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of this one Individual Earth but of the whole Species and therefore I render it the World at large As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the twenty seventh of this Chapter is not an Individual Man but Mankinde in general And so ver 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are interpreted after the same manner rendring them the greater sort of Lights and the lesser sort of Lights So that no Grammatical violence is done to the Text of Moses all this time Ver. 19. And the number denotes This fourth days Creation is the contrivance of Matter into Suns and Planets or into Suns Moons and Earths For the Aethereal Vortices were then set a going and the Corporeal world had got into an useful order and shape And the ordering and framing of the Corporeal world may very well be said to be transacted in the number Four Four being the first body in numbers an Aequilateral Pyramid which Figure also is a right Symbole of Light the raies entring the eye in a Pyramidal form And Lights now are set up in all the vast Region of the Aethereal Matter which is Heaven The Pythagoreans also call this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Body and the World intimating the Creation of the Corporeal world therein And further signifying in what excellent proportion and harmony the world was made they call this number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harmony Vrania and the Stirrer up of divine Fury and Extasie Insinuating that all things are so sweetly and fittingly ordered in the world that the several motions thereof are as a comely Dance or ravishing Musick and are able to carry away a contemplative Soul into Rapture and Extasie upon a clear view and attentive
no contemptible arguments for it For first Jerem. 2. 18. Sihor is a River of Aegypt which is not questioned to be any other then Nilus and its Etymon seems to bewray the truth of it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denigrari from the muddy blacknesse of the River And Nilus is notorious for this quality and therefore has its denomination thence in the Greek quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acording to which is that of Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is For there 's no River can compare with Nile For casting mud and fattening the soile But now to recite the very words of the Prophet What hast thou to do with the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor the Latine has it ut bibas aquam turbidam This is Nilu◠But the Seventy translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To drink the water of Gihon which is the name of this very River of Paradise And the Abyssines also even to this day call Nilus by the name of Guion Adde unto this that Gihon runs in Aethiopia so does Nilus and is Siris as it runs through Aethiopia which is from Sihor it is likely and then the Greek termination makes it Sioris after by contraction Siris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The Aethiopian him Siris calls Syene Nilus when by her he crawls As the same Author writes in his Geographical Poems And that Pison is Ganges has also its probabilities Ganges being in India a Countrey famous for Gold and precious Stones Besides the notation of the name agrees with the nature of the River Pison being from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiplicare And there is no lesse a number then Ten and those great Rivers that exonerate themselves into Ganges as there must be a conflux of multifarious experience to fill up and compleat that virtue of Wisdome or Prudence So that we shall see that the four Rivers of Paradise have got such names as are most advantageous and favourable to the mysterious sense of the story Wherefore regardlesse here of all Geographical scrupulosities we will say that Gihon is Nilus or Siris the River of the Aethiopians that is of the Just and the virtue is here determinately set off from the subject wherein it doth reside For by the fame of the Justice and Innocency of the Aethiopians we are assured which of the Cardinal Virtues is meant by Gihon And the ancient fame of their honesty and uprightnesse was such that Homer has made it their Epithet calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The blamelesse Aethiopians adding further that Jupiter used to banquet with them he being so much taken with the integrity of their conversation And Dionysius calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The divine or Deiforme Aethiopians and they were so styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of their Justice as Eustathius comments upon the place Herodotus also speaking of them says they are very goodly men and much civilized and of a very long life which is the reward of Righteousnesse So that by the place where Gihon runs it is plainly signified to us what Cardinal Virtue is to be understood thereby Notation of the name thereof The name Gihon as you have seen fairly incites us to acknowledge it a River of Aethiopia The notation thereof does very sutably agree with the nature of Justice for it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erumpere And Justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonum alienum as the Philosopher notes not confined within a mans self but breaks out rather upon others bestowing upon every one what is their due Ver. 14. Is Hiddekell The word is compounded says Vatablus from two words that signifie velox rapidum and this virtue like a swift and rapid stream bears down all before it as you have it in the Cabbala And stoutly resists Philo uses here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist which he takes occasion from the Seventies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he interprets against the Assyrians The Hebrew has it Eastward of Assyria and therefore Assyria is situated Westward of it Now the West is that quarter of the world where the Sun bidding us adieu leaves us to darkness whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the West wind in Eustathius has its name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wind that blows from the dark Quarter Assyria therefore is that false state of seeming happiness and power of wickednesse which is called the kingdome of darknesse And this is the most noble object of Fortitude to destroy the power of this kingdome within our selves Perath From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fructificavit Ver. 17. In processe of time c. This is according to the minde of the Pythagoreans and Origen And that Pythagoras had the favour of having the Mosaical Cabbala communicated to him by some knowing Priest of the Jewes or some holy man or other I think I have continuedly in the former Chapter made it exceeding probable The Region of mortality and death Nothing is more frequent with the Platonists then the calling of the body a Sepulchre and this life we live here upon Earth either sleep or death Which expressions are so sutable with this Cabbala and the Cabbala with the Text of Moses that mentions the death and sleep of Adam that it is a shrewd presumption that these Phrases and Notions came first from thence And Philo acknowledges that Heraclitus that mysterious and abstruse Philosopher whom Porphyrius also has cited to the same purpose in his De antro Nympharum has even hit upon the very meaning that Moses intends in this death of Adam in that famous saying of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We live their death to wit of the souls out of the body but we are dead to their life And Euripides that friend of Socrates and fellow-traveller of Plato's in his Tragedies speaks much to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who knows whether to live be not to die and to die to live So that the Philosophick sense concerning Adams death must be this that he shall be dead to the Aethereal life he lived before while he is restrained to the Terrestrial and that when as he might have lived for ever in the Aethereal Life he shall in a shorter time assuredly die to the Terrestrial That the sons of men cannot escape either the certainty or speed of death Ver. 18. Both good for himself c. For the words of the Text doe not confine it to Adams conveniency alone but speaks at large without any restraint in this present verse Wherefore there being a double convenience it was more explicite to mention both in the Cabbala Ver. 19. Fallen and unfallen Angels The fallen Angels are here assimilated to the Beasts of the Field the unfallen to the Fowls of the Air. How fitly the fallen Spirits are reckoned amongst the Beasts
of the Field you shall understand more fully in the following Chapter In the mean time you may take notice that the Platonists indeed Plato himself in his Phaedrus makes the Soul of Man before it falls into this Terrestrial Region a winged Creature And that such phrases as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like are proper expressions of that School And Plato does very plainly define what he means by these wings of the soul and there is the same reason of all other spirits whatsoever after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the nature of the wing of the soul is such as to be able to carry upward that which otherwise would slugge downwards and to bear it aloft and place it there where we may have more sensible communion with God and his holy Angels For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number is most sutably translated in such passages as these and most congruously to the thing it self and the truth of Christianity And it may well seem the lesse strange that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie Angels in the Greek Philosophers especially such as have been acquainted with Moses when as with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so too viz. Angels as well as God Wherefore to conclude the losse of that Principle that keeps us in this divine condition is the losing of our wings which fallen Angels have done and therefore they may be very well assimilated to Terrestrial Beasts Ver. 20. A faculty of being united c. This vital aptitude in the soul of being united with corporeal Matter being so essential to her and proper the invigorating the exercise of that faculty cannot but be very grateful and acceptable to her and a very considerable share of her happinesse Else what means the Resurrection of the dead or Bodies in the other world which yet is an Article of the Christian Faith Ver. 22. This new sense of his Vehicle There be three Principles in Man according to the Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first is Intellect Spirit or divine Light the second the Soul her self which is Adam the Man Animus cujusque is est quisque the Soul of every man that is the Man the third is the image of the Soul which is her vital Energie upon the Body wherewith she does enliven it and if that life be in good tune and due vigour it is a very grateful sense to the soul whether in this Body or in a more thin Vehicle This Ficinus makes our Eve This is the Feminine Faculty in the Soul of Man which awakes then easiliest into act when the Soul to Intellectuals falls asleep Ver. 24. Over-tedious aspires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a solemn monition of Aristotle somewhere in his Ethicks And it is a great point of wisdome indeed and mainly necessary to know the true laws and bounds of humane happinesse that the heat of melancholy drive not men up beyond what is competible to humane nature and the reach of all the faculties thereof Nor the too savoury relish of the pleasures of the flesh or Animal Life keep them down many thousand degrees below what they are capable of But the man that truly fears God will be delivered from them both What I have spoken is directed more properly to the soul in the flesh but may Analogically be understood of a soul in any Vehicle for they are peccable in them all Ver. 25. Stood naked before God Adam was as truly clothed in Corporeity now as ever after for the Aether is as true a body as the Earth But the meaning is Adam had a sense of the divine Presence very feelingly assured in his own minde that his whole Beeing lay naked and bare before God and that nothing could be hid from his sight which pierced also to the very thoughts and inward frame of his spirit But yet though Adam stood thus naked before him notwithstanding he found no want of any covering to hide himself from that presentifick sense of him nor indeed felt himself as naked in that notion of nakednesse For that sense of nakednesse and want of further covering and sheltring from the divine Presence arose from his disobedience and rebellion against the commands of God which as yet he had not faln into Not at all ashamed Shame is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear of just reprehension as Gellius out of the Philosophers defines it But Adam having not acted any thing yet at randome after the swing of his own will he had done nothing that the divine Light would reprehend him for He had not yet become obnoxious to any sentence from his own condemning Conscience for he kept himself hitherto within the bounds of that divine Law written in his soul and had attempted nothing against the Will of God So that there being no sin there could not as yet be any shame in Adam CHAP. III. 1 The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pherecydes Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of Spirits haunting Fields and desolate places The right Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 That Satan upon his tempting Adam was cast down lower towards the Earth with all his Accomplices 15 Plato's Prophecie of Christ The reasonablenesse of divine Providence in exalting Christ above the highest Angels 20 That Adams descension into his Terrestrial Body was a kind of death 22 How incongruous it is to the divine Goodnesse Sarcastically to insult over frait Man fallen into Tragical misery 24 That it is a great mercy of God that we are not immortal upon Earth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one A Summary representation of the strength of the whole Philosophick Cabbala Pythagoras deemed the son of Apollo That he was acquainted with the Cabbala of Moses That he did miracles as also Abaris Empedocles and Epimenides being instructed by him Plato also deemed the son of Apollo Socrates his dream concerning him That he was learned in the Mosaical Cabbala The miraculous power of Plotinus his Soul Cartesius compared with Bezaliel and Aholiab and whether he was inspired or no. The Cabbalists Apology THE first verse This old Serpent therefore In Pherecydes Syrus Pythagoras his Master there is mention of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princeps mali as Grotius cites him on this place which is a further argument of Pythagoras his being acquainted with this Mosaical Philosophy And that according to the Philosophick Cabbala it was an evil spirit not a natural Serpent that supplanted Adam and brought such mischief upon mankind The Beasts of the Field But now that these evil spirits should be reckoned as beasts of the field besides what reason is given in the Cabbala it self we may adde further that the haunt of these unclean spirits is in solitudes and waste fields and desolate places as is evident in the Prophet Esay his description of the
admit of these for the speakings of God then any audible articulate voice pronounced by him in humane shape unlesse it were by Christ himself for otherwise in all likelihood it is but a message by some Angel Ver. 14. The Prince of the rebellious Angels For the mighty shall be mightily tormented and the nature of the thing also implies it because disgrace adversity and being trampled on is far more painful and vexatious to those that have been in great place then to those of a more inferiour rank From whence naturally this Chieftain of the Devils as Mr. Mede calls him will be struck more deeply with the curse then any of the rest of his Accomplices In the higher parts of the Air c. This is very consonant to the opinion of the ancient Fathers whether you understand it of Satan himself or of the whole kingdome of those rebellious spirits And it is no more absurd that for a time the bad went amongst the good in the Aethereal Region then it is now that there are good spirits amongst the bad in this lower Air. But after that villany Satan committed upon Adam he was commanded down lower and the fear of the Lord of Hosts so changed his Vehicle and slaked his fire that he sunk towards the Earth and at last was fain to lick the dust of the ground see Mr. Mede in his Discourse upon 2 Pet. 2. 4. Ver. 15. Messias should take a Body That the Soul of the Messias and all souls else did pre-exist is the opinion of the Jewes and that admitted there is no difficulty in the Cabbala Plato whether from this passage alone or whether it was that he was instructed out of other places also of the holy Writ if what Ficinus writes is true seems to have had some knowledge and presage of the coming of Christ in that being asked how long men should attend to his writings he answered till some more holy and divine Person appear in the world whom all should follow Notoriously here upon Earth As it came to passe in his casting out Devils and silencing Oracles or making them cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ bruises the head of Satan by destroying his kingdome and soveraignty and by being so highly exalted above all Powers whatsoever And it is a very great and precious mysterie That dear Compassion of our fellow-creatures and faithful and fast Obedience to the will of God which were so eminently and transcendently in Christ should be lifted above all Power and Knowledge whatsoever in those higher Orders of Angels For none of them that were as they should be would take offence at it but be glad of it But those that were proud or valued Power and Knowledge before Goodnesse and Obedience it was but a just affront to them and a fit rebuke of their Pride But now how does Satan bruise the heel of Christ Thus He falls upon the rear the lowest part of those that professe Christianity Hypocrites and ignorant souls such as he often makes witches of but the Church Triumphant is secure and the sincere part of the Church Militant So Mr. Mede upon the place Ver. 16. The Concomitance of Pain and Sorrow And it is the common complaint of all Mortals that they that speed the best have the experience of a vicissitude of sorrow as well as joy And the very frame of our bodies as well as the accidents of Fortune are such that to indulge to pleasure is but to lay the seed of sorrow or sadnesse by Diseases Satiety or Melancholy Besides many spinosities and cutting passages that often happen unawares in the conversation of those from whom we expect the greatest solace and contents To say nothing of the assaults of a mans own minde and pricking of Conscience which ordinarily disturb those that follow after the pleasures of the body Lucretius though an Atheist will fully witnesse to the truth of all this in his fourth book De rerum Naturâ where you may read upon this subject at large Ver. 18. Thorns and Thistles Moses instances in one kinde of life Husbandry but there is the same reason in all Nil sine magno Vita laebore dedit mortalibus Life nothing gratis unto men doth give But with great labour and sad toil we live Ver 20. Euripides the friend of Socrates and a favourer of the Pythagorean Philosophy writes somewhere in his Tragedies as I have already told you to this sense Who knows says he whether to live be to die and whether again to die be not to live Which question is very agreeable to this present Cabbala for Adam is here as it were dying to that better world and condition of life he was in and like as one here upon Earth on his death-bed prophecâ—es many times and professes what he presages concerning his own state to come that he shall be with God that he shall be in Heaven amongst the holy Angels and the Saints departed and the like So Adam here utters his Apologetical Prophecie that this change of his and departure from this present state though it may prove ill enough for himself yet it has its use and convenience and that it is better for the Vniverse for he shall live upon Earth and be a Ruler there amongst the Terrestrial creatures and help to order and govern that part of the world The Life of his Vehicle Eve For Eve signifies Life that life which the soul derives to what Vehicle or Body soever she actuates and possesses Ver. 21. Skin of Beasts This Origen understands of Adams being incorporated and clothed with humane flesh and skin Ridiculum enim est dicere saith he quòd Deus fuerit Adami coriarius pellium sutor And no man will much wonder at the confidence of this Pious and Learned Father if he do but consider that the pre-existency of souls before they come into the body is generally held by all the Learned of the Jews and so in all likelihood was a part of this Philosophick Cabbala And how fitly things fall in together and agree with the very Text of Moses let any man judge Ver. 22. But play and sport This I conceive a far better Decorum then to make God sarcastically to jeer at Adam and triumph over him in so great and universal a mischief as some make it and destitute of any concomitant convenience Especially there being a Principle in Adam that was so easily deceivable which surely has something of the nature of an excuse in it But to jeer at a man that through his own weakness the over-reaching subtilty of his adversary has fallen into some dreadful and tragical evil and misery is a thing so far from becoming God that it utterly misbeseems any good man Ver. 24. He made sure he should not be immortal For it is our advantage as Rupertus upon the place hath observed out of Plotinus Misericordiae Dei fuisse quòd hominem ficerit mortalem nè perpetuis cruciaretur hujus
to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation WEE are now come to the Moral Cabbala which I do not call Moral in that low sense the generality of men understand Morality For the processe and growth as likewise the failing and decay of the divine Life is very intelligibly set forth in this present Cabbala But I call it Moral in counter-distinction to Philosophical or Physical as Philo also uses this tearm Moral in divine matters As when he speaks of Gods breathing into Adam the breath of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God breathes into Adams face Physically and Morally Physically by placing there the Senses viz. in the head Morally by inspiring his Intellect with divine knowledge which is the highest Faculty of the Soul as the Head is the chief part of the Body Wherefore by Morality I understand here divine Morality such as is ingendred in the Soul by the operations of the holy Spirit that inward living Principle of all godliness and honesty I shall be the more brief in the Defence of this Cabbala it being of it self so plain and sensible to any that has the experience of the life I describe but to them that have it not nothing will make it plain or any thing at all probable Ver. 1. A Microcosme or little World Nothing is more ordinary or trivial then to compare Man to the Universe and make him a little compendious World of himself Wherefore it was not hard to premise that which may be so easily understood And the Apostle supposes it when he applies the Creation of Light here in this Chapter to the illumination of the Soul as you shall hear hereafter Ver. 2. But that which is animal or natural operates first According to that of the Apostle That which is Spiritual is not first but that which is Animal or Natural afterward that which is Spiritual The first Man is of the Earth earthy the second Man is the Lord from Heaven But what this earthy condition is is very lively set out by Moses in this first days work For here we have Earth Water and Wind or one tumultuous dark Chaos and confusion of dirt and water blown on heaps and waves and unquiet night-storm an unruly black tempest And it is observable that it is not here said of this deformed Globe Let there be Earth Let there be Water Let there be Wind but all this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subject matter a thing ' made already viz. The rude Soul of Man in this disorder that is described sad Melancholy like the drown'd Earth lies at the bottome whence Care and Grief and Discontent torturous Suspicion and horrid Fear are washed up by the unquiet watry Desire or irregular suggestions of the Concupiscible wherein most eminently is seated base Lust and Sensuality and above these is boisterous Wrath and storming Revengefulnesse fool-hardy Confidence and indefatigable Contention about vain objects In short whatever Passion and Distemper is in fallen Man it may be referred to these Elements But God leaves not his creature in this evil condition but that all this disorder may be discovered and so quelled in us and avoided by us he saith Let there be Light as you read in the following verse Ver. 3. The day-light appears To this alludes S. Paul when he says God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Where the Apostle seems to me to have struck through the whole Six days of this Spiritual Creation at once The highest manifestation of that Light created in the first day being the face of Jesus Christ the Heavenly Adam fully compleated in the sixt day Wherefore when it is said Let there be Light that Light is understood that enlightens every man that comes into the world which is the divine Intellect as it is communicable to humane souls And the first day is the first appearance thereof as yet weaker and too much disjoin'd from our affections but at last it amounts to the true and plain Image and Character of the Lord from Heaven Christ according to the Spirit Ver. 4. And God hath framed the Nature of Man so that he cannot but say c. God working in second causes there is nothing more ordinary then to ascribe that to him that is done by men even then when the actions seem lesse competible to the Nature of God Wherefore it cannot seem harsh if in this Moral Cabbala we admit that man does that by the power of God working in the soul that the Text says God does as the approving of the Light as good and the distinguishing betwixt Light and Darknesse and the like which things in the mystical sense are competible both to God and Man And we speaking in a Moral or Mystical sense of God acting in us the nature of the thing requires that what he is said to do there we should be understood also to do the same through his assistance For the soul of man is not meerly passive as a piece of wood or stone but is forthwith made active by being acted upon and therefore if God in us rules we rule with him if he contend against sin in us we also contend together with him against the same if he see in us what is good or evil we ipso facto see by him In his light we see light and so in the rest Wherefore the supposition is very easie in this Moral Cablala to take the liberty where either the sense or more compendious expression requires it to attribute that to man though not to man alone which God alone does when we recur to the Literal meaning of the Text. And this is but consonant to the Apostle I live and yet not I. For if the life of God or Christ was in him surely he did live or else what did that life there Only he did not proudly attribute that life to himself as his own but acknowledged it to be from God Ver. 5. As betwixt the Natural Day and Night It is very frequent with the Apostles to set out by Day and Night the Spiritual and Natural condition of man As in such phrases as these The night is far spent the day is at hand Walk as children of the Light And elsewhere Let us who are of the day and in the same place You are all the sons of light and sons of the day We are not of the night nor of darknesse But this is too
that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of Melancholy that thus abuses him and in stead of the true divine Principle would take the Government to it self and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the Animal Figurations But the true divine Life would destroy nothing that is in Nature but only regulate things and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity entituling Sanguine and Choler to as much Virtue and Religion as either Phlegme or Melancholy For the divine Life as it is to take into it self the humane nature in general so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof But the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true Piety and Virtue but which of the Complexions or what Humour shall ascend the Throne and fit there in stead of Christ himself But I will not expatiate too much upon one Theme I shall rather take a short view of the whole Allegory of the Chapter In the first Day there is Earth Water and Wind over whâ—ch and through which there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse and tumultuous agitation The Winds ruffling up the Waters into mighty waves the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the water all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation This is the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Earthly Adam as Philo calls him till God command the Light to shine out of Darknesse offering him a guide to a better condition In the second day is the Firmament created dividing the upper and the lower Waters that it may feel the strong impulses or taste the different relishes of either Thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath and this is the day wherein is set before him Life and Death Good and Evil and he may put out his hand and take his choice In the third day is the Earth uncovered of the Waters for the planting of fruit-bearing trees By their fruits you shall know them saith our Saviour that is by their works In the fourth day there appears a more full accession of divine Light and the Sun of Righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of God and man In the fift day that this Light of Righteousnesse and bright Eye of divine Reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field where there is nothing either to subdue or guide and order God sends out whole sholes of Fishes in the Waters and numerous flights of Fowls in the Air besides part of the sixt days work wherein all kinde of Beasts are created In these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde sprung from these lower Elements of the humane nature viz. Earth and Water Flesh and Blood all these man beholds in the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse discovers what they are knows what to call them can rule over them and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them This is Adam the Master-piece of Gods Creation and Lord of all the creatures framed after the Image of God Christ according to the Spirit under whose feet is subdued the whole Animal Life with its sundry Motions Forms and Shapes He will call every thing by its proper name and set every creature in its proper place The vile person shall be no longer called liberal nor the churl bountiful Wo be unto them that call evil good and good evil that call the light darknesse and the darknesse light He will not call bitter Passion holy Zeal nor plausible meretricious Courtesie Friendship nor a false soft abhorrency from punishing the ill-deserving Pity nor Cruelty Justice nor Revenge Magnanimity nor Unfaithfulnesse Policy nor Verbosity either Wisdome or Piety But I have run my self into the second Chapter before I am aware In this first Adam is said only to have dominion over all the living creatures and to feed upon the fruit of the Plants And what is Pride but a mighty Mountainous Whale Lust a Goat the Lion and Bear wilful dominion Craft a Fox and worldly toil an Oxe Over these and a thousand more is the rule of Man I mean of Adam the Image of God But his meat and drink is to do the will of his Maker this is the fruit he feeds upon Behold therefore O Man what thou art and whereunto thou art called even to bee a mighty Prince amongst the creatures of God and to bear rule in that Province he has assigned thee to discern the Motions of thine own heart and to be Lord over the suggestions of thine own natural spirit not to listen to the counsel of the flesh nor conspire with the Serpent against thy Creator But to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy God so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the Motions of Life and bear rule with God over the whole Creation committed to thee This shall be thy Paradise and harmlesse sport on Earth till God shall transplant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in Heaven CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature TO the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitulation of what went before in the first Chapter and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of S Paul and Origen and other Writers Only there is mention of a Sabbath in the second verse of this Chapter of which there was no words before And this is that Sabbatisme or Rest that the Author to the Hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into through faith and obedience For those that were faint-hearted and unbelieving and pretended that the children of Anak the off-spring of the Giants would be too hard for them they could not enter into the promised Land wherein they were to set up their rest under the conduct of Jâ—shua a Type of Jesus And the same Author in the same place makes mention of this very Sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the Creation concluding thus There remaineth therefore a Sabbatisme or Rest to the people of God For he that has entred
earth by the power of God in nature 8 How it was with Adam before he descended into flesh and became a Terrestrial Animal 10 That the four Cardinal virtues were in Adam in his Ethereal or Paradisiacal condition 17 Adam in Paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will under pain of descending into the Region of Death 18 The Masculine and Feminine faculties in Adam 20 The great Pleasure and Solace of the Feminine faculties 21 The Masculine faculties laid asleep the Feminine appear and act viz. The grateful sense of the life of the Vehicle 25 That this sense and joy of the life of the Vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame pag. 33 CHAP. III. 1 Satan tempts Adam taking advantage upon the Invigoration of the life of his Vehicle 2 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and Satan 6 The Masculine faculties in Adam swayed by the Feminine assent to sin against God 7 Adam excuses the use of that wilde Liberty he gave himself discerning the Plastick Power somewhat awakened in him 8 A dispute betwixt Adam and the divine Light arraigning him at the Tribunal of his own Conscience 14 Satan strucken down into the lower Regions of the Air. 15 A Prophecy of the Incarnation of the Soul of the Messias and of his Triumph over the head and highest Powers of the rebellious Angels 16 A decree of God to sowre and disturb all the pleasures and contentments of the Terrestrial Life 20 Adam again excuses his fall from the usefulnesse of his Presence and Government upon Earth 21 Adam is fully incorporated into Flesh and appears in the true shape of a Terrestrial Animal 24 That Immortality is incompetible to the Earthly Adam nor can his Soul reach it till she return into her Ethereal Vehicle 44 THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 Man a Microcosme or Little World in whom there are two Principles Spirit and Flesh 2 The Earthly or Fleshly Nature appears first 4 The Light of Conscience unlistned to 6 The Spirit of Savory and Affectionate discernment betwixt good and evil 10 The inordinate desires of the flesh driven aside and limited 11 Hereupon the plants of Righteousnesse bear fruit and flourish 16 The hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbor is as the Sun in the Soul of man Notionality and Opinions the weak and faint Light of the dispersed Stars 18 Those that walk in sincere Love walk in the Day They that are guided by Notionality travel in the Night 22 The Natural Concupiscible brings forth by the command of God and is corrected by devotion 24 The Irascible also brings forth 26 Christ the Image of God is created being a perfect Ruler over all the motions of the Irascible and Concupiscible 29 The food of the divine Life 30 The food of the Animal Life 31 The divine Wisdome approves of whatsoever is simply natural as good 52 CHAP. II. 3 The true Sabbatisme of the Sons of God 5 A Description of men taught by God 7 The mysterie of that Adam that comes by Water and the Spirit 9 Obedience the Tree of Life Disobedience the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil 10 The Rivers of Paradise the four Cardinal Virtues in the Soul of man 17 The Life of Righteousnesse lost by Disobedience 19 The meer Contemplative and Spiritual Man sees the motions of the Animal Life and rigidly enough censures them 21 That it is incompetible to Man perpetually to dwell in Spiritual Contemplations 22 That upon the slaking of those the kindly Joy of the Life of the Body springs out which is our Eve 23 That this kindly Joy of the Body is more grateful to Man in Innocency then any thing else whatsoever 25 Nor is man mistaken in his judgement thereof 63 CHAP. III. 1 Adam is tempted by inordinate Pleasure from the springing up of the Joy of the Invigorated Life of his Body 2 A dialogue or dispute in the mind of Adam betwixt The inordinate Desire of Pleasure and the natural Joy of the Body 6 The will of Adam is drawn away to assent to inordinate Pleasure 8 Adam having transgressed is impatient of the Presence of the divine Light 10 A long conflict of Conscience or dispute betwixt Adams earthly minde and the divine Light examining him and setting before him both his present and future condition if he persisted in rebellion 20 He adheres to the Joy of his body without reason or measure notwithstanding all the castigations and monitions of the divine Light 21 The divine Light takes leave of Adam therefore for the present with deserved scorn and reproach 22 The doom of the Eternal God concerning laps'd Man that will not suffer them to settle in wickednesse according to their own depraved wills and desires The CONTENTS of THE DEFENCE OF THE THREEFOLD CABBALA In the Introduction to the DEFENCE Diodorus his mistake concerning Moses and other Law-givers that have professed themselves to have received their Laws from either God or some good Angel Reasons why Moses began his History with the Creation of the world The Sun and Moon the same with the Aegyptians Osiris and Isis and how they came to be worshipped for Gods The Apotheosis of mortal men such as Bacchus and Ceres how it first came into the world That the letter of the Scripture speaks ordinarily in Philosophical things according to the sense and imagination of the Vulgar That there is a Philosophical sense that lies hid in the letter of the three first Chapters of Genesis That there is a Moral or Mystical sense not only in these three Chapters but in several other places of the Scripture 93 The CONTENTS of THE DEFENCE OF THE LITERAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 The genuine sense of In the beginning The difference of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neglected by the Seventy who translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 The ground of their mistake discovered who conceive Moses to intimate that the Matter is uncreated That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then ventus magnus 4 That the first darknesse was not properly Night 6 Why the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Firmamentum and that it is in allusion to a firmly pitched Tent. 11 That the sensible effects of the Sun invited the Heathen to Idolatry and that their Oracles taught them to call him by the name of Jao 14 That the Prophet Jeremy divides the day from the Sun speaking according to the vulgar capacity 15 The reason why the Stars appear on this side the upper caeruleous Sea 27 The Opinion of the Anthropomorphites and of what great consequence it is for the Vulgar to imagine God in the shape of a Man Aristophanes his story in Plato of Men and Womens growing together at first as if they made both but one Animal 111 CHAP. II. 7 The notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to the breathing of Adams soul into his nosthrils 8 The exact situation of Paradise That Gihon is part
of Euphrates Pison Phasis or Phasi-tigris That the Madianites are called Aethiopians That Paradise was seated about Mesopotamia argued by six Reasons That it was more particularly seated where now Apamia stands in Ptolemee's Maps 18 The Prudence of Moses in the commendation of Matrimony 19 Why Adam is not recorded to have given names to the Fishes 24 Abraham Ben Ezra's conceit of the names of Adam and Eve as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25 Moses his wise Anthypophora concerning the natural shame of nakednesse 124 CHAP. III. 1 How much it saves the credit of our first Parents that the Serpent was found the prime Author of the Transgression That according to S. Basil all the living creatures of Paradise could speak undeniable reasons that the Serpent could according to the Literal Cabbala 9 The opinion of the Anthropomorphites true according to the Literal Cabbala 14 That the Serpent went upright before the fall was the opinion of S. Basil 16 A story of the easie delivery of a certain poor woman of Liguria 19 That the general calamities that lie upon mankinde came by the transgression of a positive Law how well accommodate it is to the scope of Moses 23 That Paradise was not the whole Earth 24 The Apparitions in Paradise called by Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130 THE DEFENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 Why Heaven and Light are both made Symbols of the same thing viz. The World of Life That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate a Trinity That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of the Eternal Wisdome the Son of God who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well in Philo as the New Testament That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the holy Ghost 2 The fit agreement of Plato's Triad with the Trinity of the present Cabbala 5 The Pythagorick names or nature of a Monad or Unite applyed to the first days work 6 What are the upper waters and that Souls that descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Naides or water Nymphes in Porphyrius 8 That Matter of it self is unmoveable R. Bechai his notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very happily explained out of Des Cartes his Philosophy That Vniversal Matter is the second days Creation fully made good by the names and property of the number Two 13 The nature of the third days work set off by the number Three 16 That the most learned do agree that the Creation was perfected at once The notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangely agreeing with the most notorious conclusions of the Cartesian Philosophy 19 That the Corporeal world was universally erected into Form and Motion on the fourth day is most notably confirmed by the titles and propertie of the number Four The true meanning of the Pythagorick oath wherein they swore by him that taught them the mysterie of the Tetractys That the Tetractys was a Symbole of the whole Philosophick Cabbala that lay couched under the Text of Moses 20 Why Fish and Fowl created in the same day 23 Why living creatures were said to be made in the Fift and Sixt days 31 And why the whole Creation was comprehended within the number Six 135 136 CHAP. II. 3 The number Seven a fit Symbole of the Sabbath or Rest of God 7 Of Adams rising out of the ground as other creatures did 11 That Pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes Prudence The mystical meaning of Havilah 13 That Gihon is the same that Nilus Sihor or Siris and that Pison is Ganges The Justice of the Aethiopians That Gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes that virtue 14 As Hiddekel Fortitude 17 That those expressions of the Souls sleep and death in the Body so frequent amongst the Platonists were borrowed from the Mosaical Cabbala 19 Fallen Angels assimilated to the beasts of the field The meaning of those Platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moses that signifies Angels as well as God 22 That there are three principles in Man according to Plato's School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this last is Eve CHAP. III. 1 The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pherecydes Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of Spirits haunting Fields and and desolate places The right Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 That Satan upon his tempting Adam was cast down lower towards the Earth with all his Accomplices 15 Plato's Prophecie of Christ The reasonablenesse of divine Providence in exalting Christ above the highest Angels 20 That Adams descension into his Terrestrial Body was a kind of death 22 How incongruous it is to the divine Goodnesse Sarcastically to insult over frail Man fallen into Tragical misery 24 That it is a great mercy of God that we are not immortal upon Earth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one A Summary representation of the strength of the whole Philosophick Cabbala Pythagoras deemed the son of Apollo That he was acquainted with the Cabbala of Moses That he did miracles As also Abaris Empedocles and Epimenides being instructed by him Plato also deemed the son of Apollo Socrates his dream concerning him That he was learned in the Mosaical Cabbala The miraculous power of Plotinus his Soul Cartesius compared with Bezaliel and Aholiab and whether he was inspired or no. The Cabbalists Apology 172 THE DEFENCE OF THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. What is meant by Moral explained out of Philo. 3 That the Light in the first day improv'd to the height is Adam in the sixt Christ according to the Spirit 4 In what sense we our selves may be said to do what God does in us 5 Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred Ignorance and Inquiry 18 Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Fourth days progresse 22 That Virtue is not an extirpation but regulation of the Passions according to the minde of the Pythagoreans 24 Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation p. 194 CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature 209 210 CHAP. III. A story of a dispute betwixt a Prelate and a Black-Smith concerning Adams eating of the Apple 1 What is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the Serpent That Religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state And it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it 5 6 That worldly Wisdome not Philosophy is perstringed in the Mysterie of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil 10 The meaning of Adams flying after he had found himself naked 20 Adam the Earthly-minded Man according to Philo. 21 What is meant by Gods clothing Adam and Eve with hairy Coats in the Mystical sense 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Paradise of Luxury That History in Scripture is wrote very concisely and therefore admits of modest and judicious Supplements for clearing the sense 24 What is meant by the Cherubim and flaming Sword Plato's definition of Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A more large description of dying to Sinne and of the life of righteousness That Christian Religion even as it referres to the external Person of Christ is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the Conflagration of the world 224 ERRATA PAg. 39. lin 24. read sacred p. 79 l. 19. r. Sensus p. 87. l. 14. r. wilde p. 126. l. 26. r. goodly p. 204. l. 35. r. run p. 230. l. 34. r. generous FINIS