it self after his kinde so that the several sorts of plants might by this means be conserv'd upon the earth And God saw that it was good 13 And the evening and the morning made up the third natural day 14 There have three days past without a Sun as well as three nights without either Moon or Stars as you your selves may happily have observ'd some number of Moonless and Starlesse nights as well as of Sunlesse days to have succeeded one another and so it might have been always had not God said Let there be Lights within the Firmament of heaven to make a difference betwixt day and night and to be peculiar garnishings of either Let them be also for signes of weather for seasons of the year and also for periods of days months and years 15 Moreover let them be as lights hung up within the hollow roof or Firmament of heaven to give light to men walking upon the pavement of the earth and it was so 16 And God made two great lights the greater one the most glorious Princely object we can see by day to be as it were the Governor and Monarch of the day the lesser the most resplendent and illustrious sight we can cast our eyes on by night to be Governesse and Queen of the night And he made though for their smalnesse they be not so considerable the Stars also 17 And he placed them all in the Firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth 18 And to shew their preheminence for external lustre above what ever else appears by either day or night and to be peculiar garnishings or ornaments to make a notable difference betwixt the light and the darknesse the superaddition of the Sun to adorn the day and to invigorate the light thereof the Moon and the Stars to garnish the night and to mitigate the dulnesse and darknesse thereof And God saw that it was good 19 And the evening and the morning was the fourth natural day 20 After this God commanded the waters to bring forth fish and fowl which they did in abundance and the fowl flew above the earth in the open Firmament of heaven 21 And God created great whales also as well as other fishes that move in the waters and God saw that it was good 22 And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the fowl multiply on the earth 23 And the evening and the morning made up the fifth natural day 24 Then God commanded the earth to bring forth all creeping things and four footed beasts as before he commanded the waters to send forth fish and fowl and it was so 25 And when God had made the beast of the earth after his kinde and cattel and every creeping thing after his kinde he saw that it was good 26 And coming at last to his highest Master-piece Man he encouraged himself saying Go to let us now make man and I will make him after the same image and shape that I bear my self and he shall have dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the fowls of the Air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 27 So God created man in his own shape and figure with an upright stature with legs hands arms with a face and mouth to speak and command as God himself hath I say in the image of God did he thus create him But mistake me not whereas you conceive of God as masculine and more perfect yet you must not understand me as if God made mankinde so exactly after his own image that he made none but males for I tell you he made females as well as males as you shall hear more particularly hereafter 28 And having made them thus male and female he bad them make use of the distinction of sexes that he had given them and blessing them God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with your off-spring and be lords thereof and have dominion also over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the air as well as over beasts and cattel and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth 29 And God said Behold I give you every frugiferous herb which is upon the face of the earth such as the Straw-berry the several sorts of Corn as Rye Wheat and Rice as also the delicious fruits of Trees to you they shall be for meat 30 But for the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air and for every living thing that creepeth upon the earth the worser kind of herbs and ordinary grasse I have assign'd for them and so it came to passe that mankinde are made lords and possessors of the choicest fruits of the earth and the beasts of the field are to be contented with baser herbage and the common grasse 31 And God viewed all the works that he had made and behold they were exceeding good and the evening and the morning was the sixt natural day CHAP. II. 3 The Original of the Jewish Sabbaths from Gods resting himself from his six days labours 5 Herbs and Plants before either Rain Gardning or Husbandry and the reason why it was so 7 Adam made of the dust of the ground and his soul breathed in at his nostrils 8 The Planting of Paradise 9 A wonderful Tree there that would continue youth and make a man immortal upon earth Another strange Tree viz. the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 11 The Rivers of Paradise Phasis Gihon Tigris Euphrates 18 The high commendation of Matrimony 19 Adam gives names to all kinde of creatures except fishes 21 Woman is made of a rib of Adam a deep sleep falling upon him his minde then also being in a trance 24 The first Institution of Marriage 1 THus the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the creatures wherewith they were garnisht and replenisht 2 And God having within six days perfected all his work on the seventh day he rested himself 3 And so made the seventh day an holy day a festival of rest because himself then first rested from his works Whence you plainly see the reason and original of your Sabbaths 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth which I have so compendiously recounted to you as they were created in the days that the Lord made heaven and earth and the several garnishings of them 5 But there are some things that I would a little more fully touch upon and give you notice of to the praise of God and the manifesting of his power unto you As that the herbs and plants of the field did not come up of their own accords out of the earth before God made them but that God created them before there were any seeds of any such thing in the earth and before there was any rain or men to use gardning or husbandry for the procuring their growth So that hereafter
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
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
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
you may have the more firm faith in God for the blessings and fruits of the earth when the ordinary course of nature shall threaten dearth and scarcity for want of rain and seasonable showers 6 For there had been no showers when God caused the plants and herbs of the field to spring up out of the earth onely as I told you at the first of all there was a mighty torrent of water that rose every where above the earth and cover'd the universal face of the ground which yet God afterward by his almighty power commanded so into certain bounds that the residue of the earth was meer dry land 7 And that you farther may understand how the power of God is exalted above the course of natural causes God taking of the the dust of his dry ground wrought it with his hands into such a temper that it was matter fit to make the body of a Man which when he first had fram'd was as yet but like a senslesse statue till coming near unto it with his mouth he breath'd into the nostrils thereof the breath of life as you may observe to this day that men breath through their nostrils though their mouths be clos'd And thus man became a living creature and his name was called Adam because he was made of the earth 8 But I should have told you first more at large how the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward of Judea in the Countrey of Eden about Mesopotamia where afterwards he put the man Adam whom he after this wise had form'd 9 And the description of this Garden is this Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every Tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food But amongst these several sorts of Trees there were two of singular notice that stood planted in the midst of the Garden the one of which had fruit of that wonderful virtue as to continue youth and strength and to make a man immortal upon earth wherefore it was call'd the Tree of Life There was also another Tree planted there of whose fruit if a man ate it had this strange effect that it would make a man know the difference betwixt good and evil for the Lord God had so ordain'd that if Adam touched the forbidden fruit thereof he should by his disobedience feel the sense of evil as well as good wherefore by way of Anticipation it was called the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 10 And there was a River went out of Eden to water the Garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads 11 The name of the first was Phasis or Phasi-Tigris which compasses the whole Land of the Chaulateans where there is Gold 12 And the Gold of that Land is excellent there is also found Bdellium and the Onyx-stone 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon the same is it that compasseth the whole Land of the Arabian-Aethiopia 14 And the name of the third River is Tigris that is that which goeth towards the East of Assyria and the fourth River is Euphrates 15 And the Lord God took the man Adam by the hand and led him into the Garden of Eden and laid commands upon him to dresse it and look to it and to keep things handsome and in order in it and that it should not be any wise spoil'd or misus'd by incursions or careless ramblings of the heedlesse beasts 16 And the Lord God recommended unto Adam all the Trees of the Garden for very wholesome and delightful food bidding him freely eat thereof 17 Only he excepted the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which he strictly charg'd him to forbear for if he ever tasted thereof he should assuredly die 18 But to the high commendation of Matrimony be it spoken though God had placed Adam in so delightful a Paradise yet his happinesse was but maimed and imperfect till he had the society of a woman For the Lord God said It is not good that man should be alone I will make him an help meet for him 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had form'd every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and these brought he unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof 20 And Adam gave names to all cattel and to the fowls of the air and to every beast of the field but he could not so kindly take acquaintance with any of these or so fully enjoy their society but there was still some considerable matter wanting to make up Adams full felicity and there was a meet help to be found out for him 21 Wherefore the Lord God caus'd a deep sleep to fall upon Adam lo as he slept upon the ground he fell into a dream how God had put his hand into his side and pulled out one of his ribs closing up the flesh in stead thereof 22 And how the rib which the Lord God had taken from him was made into a woman and how God when he had thus made her took her by the hand and brought her unto him And he had no sooner awakened but he found his dream to be true for God stood by him with the woman in his hand which he had brought 23 Wherefore Adam being pre-advertised by the vision was presently able to pronounce This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh What are the rest of the creatures to this And he bestowed upon her also a fitting name calling her Woman because she was taken out of Man 24 And the Lord God said Thou hast spoken well Adam And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh so strict and sacred a tie is the band of wedlock 25 And they were both naked Adam and his wife and were not ashamed but how the shame of being seen naked came into the world I shall declare unto you hereafter CHAP. III. 1 A subtile Serpent in Paradise indued with both reason and the power of speech deceives the woman 2 The Dialogue betwixt the woman and the Serpent 7 How the shame of nakednesse came into the world 8 God walks in the Garden and calls to Adam 10 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and God 14 The reasons why Serpents want feet and creep upon the ground 15 The reason of the antipathy betwixt Men and Serpents 16 As also of womens pangs in child-bearing and of their being bound in subjection to their husbands 18 Also of the barrennesse of the earth and of mans toil and drudgery 21 God teacheth Adam and Eve the use of leathern clothing 24 Paradise haunted with apparitions Adam frighted from daring to taste of the Tree of Life whence his posterity became mortal to this very day 1 AND truly it cannot but be very obvious for you to consider often with your selves not onely how this shame of
nakedness came into the world but the toil and drudgery of Tillage and Husbandry the grievous pangs of Childe-bearing and lastly what is most terrible of all Death it self Of all which as of some other things also I shall give you such plain and intelligible reasons that your own hearts could not wish more plain and more intelligible To what an happy condition Adam was created you have already heard How he was placed by God in a Garden of delight where all his senses were gratified with the most pleasing objects imaginable his eyes with the beautie of trees and flowers and various delightsome forms of living creatures his ears with the sweet musical accents of the canorous birds his smell with the fragrant odours of Aromatick herbs his taste with variety of delicious fruit and his touch with the soft breathings of the air in the flowry alleys of this ever-springing Paradise Adde unto all this that pleasure of pleasures the delectable conversation of his beautiful Bride the enjoyments of whose love neither created care to himself nor pangs of childe-bearing to her for all the functions of life were performed with ease and delight and there had been no need for man to sweat for the provision of his family for in this Garden of Eden there was a perpetual Spring and the vigour of the soil prevented mans industry and youth and jollity had never left the bodies of Adam and his posterity because old age and death were perpetually to be kept off by that soveraign virtue of the Tree of Life And I know as you heartily could wish this state might have ever continued to Adam and his seed so you eagerly expect to hear the reason why he was depriv'd of it and in short it is this His disobedience to a commandement which God had given him the circumstances whereof I shall declare unto you as followeth Amongst those several living creatures which were in Paradise there was the Serpent also whom you know to this very day to be full of subtilty therefore you will lesse wonder if when he was in his perfection he had not onely the use of Reason but the power of Speech It was therefore this Serpent that was the first occasion of all this mischief to Adam and his posterity for he cunningly came unto the woman and said unto her Is it so indeed that God has commanded you that you shall not eat of any of the trees of the Garden 2 And the woman answered unto the Serpent You are mistaken God hath not forbid us to eat of all the fruit of the trees of the Garden 3 But indeed of the fruit of the Tree in the midst of the Garden God hath strictly charged us Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die 4 But the Serpent said unto the woman Tush I warrant you this is only but to terrifie you and abridge you of that liberty and happinesse you are capable of you shall not so certainly die 5 But God knows the virtue of that tree full well that so soon as you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall become as Gods knowing good and evil 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eye and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat 7 And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew they were naked and were ashamed and therefore they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons to cover their parts of shame 8 And the Lord God came into the Garden toward the cool of the evening and walking in the Garden call'd for Adam But Adam had no sooner heard his voice but he and his wife ran away into the thickest of the trees of the Garden to hide themselves from his presence 9 But the Lord God called unto Adam the second time and said unto him Adam where art thou 10 Then Adam was forc't to make answer and said I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and so I hid my self 11 Then God said unto him Who hath made thee so wise that thou shouldst know that thou art naked or wantest any covering Hast thou eaten of the forbidden fruit 12 And Adam excus'd himself saying The woman whom thou recommendedst to me for a meet help she gave me of the fruit and I did eat 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman What is this that thou hast done And the woman excus'd her self saying The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat 14 Then the Lord God gave sentence upon all three and to the Serpent he said Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field and whereas hitherto thou hast been able to bear thy body aloft and go upright thou shalt henceforth creep upon thy belly like a worm and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 15 And there shall be a perpetual antipathy betwixt not only the woman and thee but betwixt her seed and thy seed For universal mankind shall abhorre thee and hate all the cursed generations that come of thee They indeed shall busily lie in wait to sting mens feet which their skill in herbs however shall be able to cure but they shall knock all Serpents on the head and kill them without pity or remorse deservedly using thy seed as their deadly enemy 16 And the doom of the woman was Her sorrow and pangs in childe-bearing and her subjection to her husband Which law of subjection is generally observed in the Nations of the world unto this very day 17 And the doom of Adam was The toil of Husbandry upon barren ground 18 For the earth was cursed for his sake which is the reason that it brings forth thorns and thistles and other weeds that Husbandmen could wish would not cumber the ground upon which they bestow their toilsome labor 19 Thus in the sweat of his face was Adam to eat his bread till he return to the dust out of which he was taken 20 And Adam called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all men that ever were born into the world and lived upon the face of the earth 21 And the generations of men were clothed at first with the skins of wilde beasts the use of which God taught Adam and Eve in Paradise 22 And when they were thus accoutred for their journey and armed for greater hardship God turns them both out and the Lord God said concerning Adam deriding him for his disobedience Behold Adam is become as one of us to know good and evil Let us look to him now lest he put his hand to the Tree of Life and so make himself immortal 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence
to wit the Essential Will of God which is the true root of Regeneration but to so high a pitch Adam as yet had not reacht unto and the fruit of this Tree in this Ethereal state of the Soul had been Immortality or Life everlasting And the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was there also viz. His own Will 10 And there was a very pleasant River that water'd this Garden distinguishable into four streams which are the four Cardinal Virtues which are in several degrees in the Soul according to the several degrees of the purity of her Vehicle 11 And the name of the first is Pison which is Prudence and Experience in things that are comely to be done For the soul of man is never idle neither in this world nor in any state else but hath some Province to make good and is to promote his interest whose she is For what greater gratification can there be of a good soul then to be a dispenser of some portion of that Universal good that God lets out upon the world And there can be no external conversation nor society of persons be they Terrestrial Aereab or Ethereal but forthwith it implies an Use of Prudence Wherefore Prudence is an inseparable Accomplishment of the soul So that Pison is rightly deemed one of the Rivers even of that Celestial Paradise And this is that wisdome which God himself doth shew to the soul by communication of the divine Light for it is said to compasse the Land of Havilah 12. Where also idle and uselesse speculations are not regarded as is plainly declared by the pure and approved Gold Bdellium and Onyx the commodities thereof 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon which is Justice as is intimated from the fame of the Aethiopians whose Land it is said to compasse as also from the notation of the name thereof 14 And the name of the third River is Hiddekel which is Fortitude that like a rapid stream bears all down before it and stoutly resists all the powers of darknesse running forcibly against Assyria which is situated Westward of it And the fourth River is Perath which is Temperance the nourisher and cherisher of all the plants of Paradise whereas Intemperance or too much addicting the minde to the pleasure of the Vehicle or Life of the matter be it in what state soever drowns and choaks those sacret Vegetables As the earth you know was not at all fruitfull till the waters were removed into one place and the dry land appeared when as before it was drowned and slocken with overmuch moisture 15 In this Paradise thus described had the Lord God placed Man to dresse it and to keep it in such good order as he found it 16 And the divine Word or Light in man charged him saying Of every tree of Paradise thou mayest freely eat For all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant if thou hast a right care of thy self and beest obedient to my commands 17 But of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil that is of thine own will thou shalt not by any means eat For at what time thou eatest thereof thy soul shall contract that languor debility and unsettlednesse that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth and be buried in humane flesh and become an inhabitant of the Region of mortality and death 18 Hitherto I have not taken much notice in the Ethereal Adam of any other Faculties but such as carried him upwards towards virtue and the holy Intellect And indeed this is the more perfect and masculine Adam which consists in pure subtile intellectual Knowledge But we will now inform you of another Faculty of the soul of man which though it seem inferiour yet is far from being contemptible it being both good for himself and convenient for the terrestrial world For this makes him in a capacity of being the head of all the living creatures in the earth as that Faculty indeed is the mother of all mankinde 19 Those higher and more Intellectual accomplishments I must confesse made Adam very wise and of a quick perception For he knew very well the natures of the beasts of the field and fowls of the air I mean not only of the visible and terrestrial creatures but also of the fallen and unfallen Angels or good and bad Genii and was able to judge aright of them according to the principles they consisted of and the properties they had 20 And his Reason and Understanding was not mistaken but he pronounced aright in all But however he could take no such pleasure in the external Creation of God and his various works without having some Principle of life congruously joyning with and joyfully actuating the like matter themselves consisted of Wherefore God indued the soul of man with a faculty of being united with vital joy and complacency to the matter as well as of aspiring to an union with God himself whose divine Essence is too highly disproportioned to our poor substances But the divine Life is communicable in some sort to both soul and body whether it be Ethereal or of grosser consistence and those wonderful grateful pleasures that we feel are nothing but the kindely motions of the souls Vehicle from whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of reflexion strengthned and advanced Of so great consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul to the matter of the Universe 21 Wherefore God to gratifie Adam made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards Intellectual things but Lassitude of Contemplation of Affectation of Immateriality he being not able to receive those things as they are but according to his poor capacity which is very small in respect of the object it is exercis'd about brought upon himself remisnesse and drowsinesse to such like exercises till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep At what time divine Providence having laid the plot aforehand that lower vivificative principle of his soul did grow so strong and did so vigorously and with such exultant sympathy and joy actuate his Vehicle that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retain'd this became more dear to him and of greater contentment then any thing he yet had experience of 22 I say when divine Providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his Vehicle in him 23 He straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto was more lifelesse and evanid and seemed lesse congruous and grateful unto him and more estranged from his nature but this was so agreeable consentaneous to his soul that he looked upon it as a necessary part of himself and called it after his own name 24 And he thought thus within himself For this cause will any one leave his over-tedious aspires to unite with the Eternal Intellect and Universal Soul of the world the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too
fift days progresse 24 Nor does God only cause the Waters to bring forth but the dry Land also several living creatures after their kinde and makes the Irascible fruitful as well as the Concupiscible 25 For God saw that they were both good and that they were a fit subject for the heavenly Man to exercise his Rule and Dominion over 26 For God multiplies strength as well as occasions to employ it upon And the divine Life that hath been under the several degrees of the advancement thereof so variously represented in the five fore-going progresses God at last works up to the height and being compleat in all things styles it by the name of his own Image the divine Life arrived to this pitch being the right Image of him indeed Thus it is therefore that at last God in our nature fully manifests the true and perfect Man whereby we our selves become good and perfect who does not only see and affect what is good but has full power to effect it in all things For he has full dominion over the fish of the sea can rule and guide the fowls of the air and with ease command the beasts of the field and what ever moveth upon the earth 27 Thus God creates Man in his own Image making him as powerful a Commander in his little World over all the thoughts and motions of the Concupiscible and Irascible as himself is over the Natural frame of the Universe or greater World And this Image is Male and Female consisting of a clear and free Understanding and divine Affection which are now arrived to that height that no lower Life is able to rebel against them and to bring them under 28 For God blesses them and makes them fruitful and multiplies their noble off-spring in so great and wonderful a measure that they replenish the cultivated nature of man with such an abundance of real Truth and Equity that there is no living Figure Imagination or Motion of the Irascible or Concupiscible no extravagant or ignorant irregularity in religious meditations and devotions but they are presently moderated and rectified For the whole Territories of the Humane Nature is every where so well peopled with the several beautiful shapes or Idea's of Truth and Goodnesse the glorious off-spring of the heavenly Adam Christ that no Animal figure can offer to move or wagge amisse but it meets with a proper Corrector and Re-composer of its motions 29 And the divine Life in man being thus perfected he is therewith instructed by God what is his food as divine and what is the food of the Animal Life in him viz. the most virtuous most truly pious and divine Actions he has given to the heavenly Adam to feed upon fulfilling the Will of God in all things which is more pleasant then the choicest sallads or most delicate fruit the taste can relish 30 Nor is the Animal Life quite to be starved and pin'd but regulated and kept in subjection and therefore they are to have their worser sort of herbs to feed on that is Natural Actions consentaneous to the Principle from whence they flow that that Principle may also enjoy it self in the liberty of prosecuting what its nature prompts it unto And thus the sundry Modifications of the Irascible and Concupiscible as also the various Figurations of Religious Melancholy and Natural Devotions which are the Fishes Beasts and Fowls in the Animal Nature of Man are permitted to feed and refresh themselves in those lower kindes of Operations they incline us to provided all be approved and rightly regulated by the heavenly Adam 31 For the Divine Wisdome in Man sees and approves all things which God hath created in us to be very good in their kinde And thus Ignorance and Inquiry was the Sixt days progresse 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 Knowledg of good 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 1 THUS the Heavenly and Earthly Nature in Man were finisht and fully replenisht with all the garnishings belonging to them 2 So the Divine Wisdome in the Humane Nature celebrated her Sabbath having now wrought through the toil of all the six days travel 3 And the Divine Wisdome looked upon this Seventh day as blessed and sacred a day of Righteousnesse Rest and Joy in the holy Ghost 4 These were the Generations or Pullulations of the Heavenly and Earthly Nature of the Divine and Animal Life in Man when God created them 5 I mean those fruitful Plants and pleasant and useful Herbs which he himself planted For I have describ'd unto you the condition of a Man taught of God and instructed and cherisht up by his inward Light where there is no external Doctrine to distil as the rain nor outward Gardener to intermeddle in Gods Husbandry 6 Only there is a Fountain of Water which is Repentance from dead works and bubbles up in the earthly Adam so as universally to wash all the ground 7 And thus the nature of Man being prepar'd for further Accomplishments God shapes him into his own Image which is Righteousnesse and true Holinesse and breathes into him the Spirit of Life And this is that Adam which is born of Water and the Spirit 8 Hitherto I have shewed unto you how mankinde is raised up from one degree of Spiritual Light and Righteousnesse unto another till we come at last to that full Command and Perfection in the divine Life that a man may be said in some sort thus to have attain'd to the Kingdome of Heaven or found a Paradise upon Earth The Narration that follows shall instruct you and forewarn you of those evil courses whereby man loses that measure of Paradisiacal happinesse God estates him in even while he is in this world I say therefore that the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden and there he put the Man whom he had made that is Man living under the Intellectual rayes of the Spirit and being guided by the morning Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse is led into a very pleasant and sweet Contentment of minde and the testimony of a good Conscience is his great delight 9 And that the sundry Germinations and Springings up of the works of Righteousnesse in him is a delectable Paradise
Aegyptum in manum dominorum duri And Exod. 22. 10. Et accipiet domini ejus for dominus The Text therefore necessarily requiring no such sense and the mysterie being so abstruse it is rightly left out in this Literal Cabbala Vers 2. In the first verse there was a summary Proposal of the whole Creation in those two main parts of it Heaven and Earth Now he begins the particular prosecution of each days work But it is not needful for him here again to inculcate the making of the Earth For it is the last word he spake in his general Proposal and therefore it had been harsh or needless to have repeated it presently again And that 's the reason why before the making of the Earth there is not prefixed And the Lord said Let there be an Earth Which I conceive has imposed upon the ignorance and inconsiderateness of some so as to make them believe that this confused muddy heap which is called the Earth was an Eternal First Matter independent of God and never created by him Which if a man appeal to his own Faculties is impossible as I shall again intimate when I come to the Philosophick Cabbala The sense therefore is That the Earth was made first which was covered with water and on the water was the wind and in all this a thick darkness And God was in this dark windy and wet Night So that this Globe of Earth and Water and Wind was but one dark Tempest and Sea-storm a Night of confusion and tumultuous Agitation For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in the Letter any thing more then Ventus ingens A great and mighty wind As the Cedars of God and Mountains of God are tall Cedars great Mountains and so in Analogy the Wind of God a great Wind. Vers 3. But in the midst of this tempestuous darkness God intending to fall to his work doth as it were light his Lamp or set up himself a Candle in this dark Shop And what ever hitherto hath been mentioned are words that strike the Fancy and Sense strongly and are of easie perception to the rude people whom every dark and stormy Night may well reminde of the sad face of things till God commanded the comfortable Day to spring forth the sole Author of Light that so pleases the eyes and chears the spirits of Man And that Day-light is a thing independent of the Sun as well as the Night of the Stars is a conceit wondrous sutable to the imaginations of the Vulgar as I have my self found out by conversing with them They are also prone to think unlesse there be a sensible wind stirring that there is nothing betwixt the Earth and the Clouds but that it is a meer vacuity Wherefore I have not translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Air as Maimonides somewhere does but a mighty wind For that the rude people are sensible of and making the first deformed face of things so dismal and tempestuous it will cause them to remember the first morning light with more thankfulness and devotion Vers 4. For it is a thing very visible See what is said upon the eighth verse Vers 5. By Evening and Morning is meant the Artificial Day and the Artificial Night by a Synecdoche as Castellio in his Notes tells us Therefore this Artificial Day and Night put together make one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Day And the Evening is put before the Morning Night before Day because Darkness is before Light But that Primitive darkness was not properly Night For Night is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle describes it one great Shaddow cast from the Earth which implies Light of one side thereof And therefore Night properly so called could not be before Light But the illiterate people trouble themselves with no such curiosities nor easily conceive any such difference betwixt that determinate Conical shaddow of the Earth which is Night and that infinite primitive Darkness that had no bounds before there was any Light And therefore that same Darkness prefixed to an Artificial Day makes up one Natural Day to them Which Hesiod also swallows down without chewing whether following his own fancy or this Text of Moses I know not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is But of the Night both Day and Skie were born Vers 6. This Basis or Floor That the Earth seems like a round Floor plain and running out so every way as to join with the bottome of the Heavens I have in my Introduction hinted to you already and that it is look'd upon as such in the phrase of Scripture accommodating it self to our outward senses and vulgar conceit Upon this Floor stands the hollow Firmament as a Tent pitched upon the ground which is the very expression of the Prophet Esay describing the Power of God That stretcheth out the Heavens like a Curtain and spreadeth them out as a Tent to dwell in And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is usually rendred Firmament signifies diduction expansion or spreading out But how the Seventy come to interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Firmamentum Fuller in his Miscellanies gives a very ingenious reason and such as makes very much to our purpose Nam coelum seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he quandoquidem Tentoxio saepissimè in sacris literis assimilatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quatenus expanditur Sic enim expandi solent Tentâ—ria quum alligatis ad paxillos in terram depactos funibus distenduntur atque hoc etiam pacto firmantur Itaque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immensum quoddam ut ita dicam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideóque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ineptè appelletur The sense of which in brief is nothing but this That the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Firmamentum because the Heavens are spread out like a well-fastned and firmly pitched Ten. And I add also that they are so stiffely stretched that they will strongly bear against the weight of the upper waters so that they are not able to break them down and therewith to drown the world Which conceit as it is easie and agreeable with the fancy of the people so it is so far from doing them any hurt that it will make them more sensible of the divine Power and Providence who thus by main force keeps off a Sea of water that hangs over their heads which they discern through the transparent Firmament for it looks blew as other Seas do and would rush at once upon them and drown them did not the Power of God and the strength of the Firmament hold it off Vers 7. See what hath been already said upon the sixt verse I will only here add That the nearness of these upper waters makes them still the more formidable and so are greater spurs to devotion For as they are brought so near as to touch the Earth at the bottome so outward sense still being Judge they are to be within a small distance
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
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