purified and exalted by frequent Inhumations and Dippings in the water without perceptible heat which in the birth of Water cannot but be offensive For thô the Chymists calcine or burn their things with Fire yet the Wisemen ever did burn or calcine with Water and they cry tere tere imbibe imbibe But when this outward Principle the World shall be totally deliver'd from the Bondage and Curse of its Corruption the density compactness and hardness of its Body into the glorious liberty of God's Children a thin transparent Body and so shall pass from this kind of Being to a new one then it shall again go thrô the fierceness of the Fire then the Elements shall melt with fervent heat saith Peter 2.3 10. and the Earth shall be burnt up and shall be with the waters reduced again into a glorious Quintessence on which the ransomed of the Lord shall stand with songs and with joy upon their heads Rev. 15.2 Isa 35.10 Matth. 5.5 As there are three distinct kinds of Lives as I have said already in the Twelfth Page all created things live of and are as by so many Classes distinguished by and comprehended under as so many Species under their Genus or Kind so there be three several Principles according to some which give all created things their specisick Form of Life and determinate all those which are within their Classis after their own Property And they may well be called Principles so long as all things have their Life in and from them and so long as these three Lives are the Original Being or State things fell in or betook themselves unto from their first Original The first is the Fire Life or the Principle of Fire common to all living things for asmuch as they all take from them the Original and the first Rise of their Life but proper to the Devils and the damned Souls only The second is the Divine Life or Principle of the Light wherein the Angels and Men were perfected and made good Gen. 1.31 but from which both of them fell Jud. ver 6. and is proper only to the confirmed Angels and the Souls of the Faithful The third is this outward Life or the Principle of this World where all things live in the Air of the Spirit which comes down from the Heavens into it and is proper to the Beasts and to the present Body of Man and to all those things which live in it and from it but became accidental to Man by reason that he fell into it as was said And the first is ascribed to God the Father of Life as being but a burning sharp fierce and obscure Fire without the Light of the Son The second to God the Son as being the Light of Life that sweetneth and perfects it and the third and last of them to God the Holy Spirit as being the Conveyer and the Refresher of Life that brings Life and preserves it and that proceeds like the Air from the Fire and the Light of the Father and the Son. For to enlarge upon this when God created the world or to make the word Create somewhat more intelligible did make himself manifest he manifested himself such as he is in himself that is by a Trinity in Unity Fire Light and Spirit in one Being Therefore he make three Spring Heads or Prineiples of all Things three Throne-Angels with their Worlds Michael the mighty strong Prince after the fierce Nature and Property of Fire Lucifer the lovely the bright and most glorious Prince after the pleasant nature and property of the Light and Vriel the Well-doer or the Introducer and Conveyer of the Light or of all the pleasantness and good that comes from the Light after the beneficent Nature of the Holy Ghost each one a distinct Principle and all the three together making up one Unity or total Being like God to wit the invisible and intelligible World and comprehending in them the whole Creation of God and each of them consisting of Fire Light and Spirit For as the end of Nature alias of the Nasciture Manifestation of God was to communicate his Summum Bonum Himself to all created Beings his Will and Purpose was not that the Principle of Fire Evil should predominate and subsist in any thing by itself without the Light but that the Light should take place and the Angels with their Worlds should become such as God is a most joyful Being and a pleasant Paradise Therefore thô God created each in a distinct Principle yet he made each of them that is Michael as well as Vriel and Lucifer to consist of those three things and to pass immediately from the Fire to the Light and to send forth or exhale like the Sun out of himself a Spirit into his Sphere to vivify and to seed and sustent it all over Upon which saith Trismegist Omnia lux fuerunt vel in lumen conversa jucundum suave nimium Spectaculum For God is light and in him there is no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 And all things had for ever continued in this same state if Lucifer who being the most glorious of the three had not admired himself and instead of loving and admiring God for it and of seeking God's Kingdom and Glory more than his own fall'n in love with his own self whence he as a Man in love doth by his longing attract what he loves into himself and his Soul saith the Scripture 2 Sam. 13.39 doth as it were issue out or go forth to join with it drew himself into himself and by the astringency of his Lust or Desire for Lust or Desire is astringent and attractive filling or impregnating and offuscating himself as one that dotes upon that which he loves whether it be Man Woman Gold or Silver cannot receive in his mind any other thing but that his mind runs upon nothing but his beloved treasure and is wholly taken up with it Matth. 6.21 he becomes pensive and as it were overcast with a thick Cloud or dark Mist so he was offuscated and became cloudy and dark and as the more he lusted and drew the more and thicker the Clouds did gather and grow whereby a Heat and Burning was excitated in him and he was reinflamed as it doth happen to those who having kept their Lusts a good while under Hatches break out into the more violent heat and passion and to a wet heap of Hay Fruits Flowers and other things which are apt to ferment and to grow hot of themselves by reason that the Vapor or the Cloud that comes from them during their Fermentation being kept within the heap by the Contiguity and Coherence of its parts which affords no passage or way for Transpiration grows there thicker and thicker And withall he set his Sphere which being a thin Matter was as apt as any Smoke is to take Flame on Fire whereby the Matter thereof which was very thin and subtle was concocted and hardned its loose parts were compacted into
do That he was created that he might know the Wonders of the great Wisdom of God which he cannot do without being fill'd with all Wisdom thereby to be ravished with Joy and Admiration like the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10.5 at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them there being nothing so sweet as the New Discoveries and the taste of true knowledge and thus become partakers of God's own Summum Bonum Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet All those that Christ hath made Kings and Priests to God his Father Revel 1.6 both partake of God's Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and share the Kingdom with God Revel 2.26 27. with 3.21 And Secondly Wisdom is the Nonplus ultra or rest or perfect state of Mankind for in that state of Wisdom God himself who cannot err pronounced him very Good Gen. 1.31 in Latine Summe Bonus which word as it excludes all defect and imperfection it implies his perfect State and that he had attained by thus being very good to his greatest Perfection or highest degree of Bliss he could ever pretend to And that Wisdom was the state in which he was pronounced and declared very Good I prove thus The state in which God declares him very Good is the very same state as God created him in but he was created after the Image of God v. 27. Which Image consists saith Paul in Knowledge Colos 3. 10. and Righteousness Ephes 4.24 both which make up together one thing which is true Wisdom Wisdom being not a bare Theory as shall be shewed Therefore he was created in Wisdom and so Wisdom is the state in which he was said very Good or Perfect or his state of Perfection But this was said of Adam and what is it to the rest of Mankind Some will argue It is full as much to them as to him I answer Because the purpose of God is still that Man should be such for God being for ever both all Wise and Almighty his Purpose stands saith St. Paul though Man did not stand himself and his Gifts and his Calling being without Repentance Rom. 11.29 his Will is that his Good Gift whereof see Matth. 7.4 Luke 11.13 or Donative which he made to Man should continue still that Mankind by being Wise or as Gods Gen. 3.5 should be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 or made again very good and perfect as Adam was and even as his Father which is in Heaven saith Christ Matth. 5.48 Therefore in the Ephesians 4.13 and in the Hebrews 11.40 St. Paul taking this thing for granted saith That the Saints he speaks of v. 12. who are to be perfected or saved will all of them come unto a Perfect Man and even to the measure of the full stature of Christ who is yet far more perfect than the first Man ever was Whence he became the Author of Eternal Salvation or Perfection in others Heb. 5.9 Having been substituted in the place of the first Man that he might mend and redress all that he had done amiss and restore all things again to that state of Perfection which both he the first Adam and the World with him fell from Rom. 8.20 21. and so be himself Adam that is the right man who is the true Father of Mankind begetting Mankind a new by his Spirit of Wisdom 1 Cor. 15.45 Therefore it is that he is called the second Adam and that St Paul saith that all the Saints shall bear his Image v. 49. and not that of the first man. Christ adds to this in Matthew 5.48 saying be therefore perfect even as your heavenly Father himself is perfect Hence seeing the Perfection or the full Stature of Christ is the same and greater to as the first man Adam was at first created in and consisteth in Wisdom and seeing that we must come to it in being saved it follows that we must come to Wisdom to be saved and that Wisdom is the rest or Perfection of Mankind beyond which he cannot go or be further exalted And by a consequence drawn a contrario from this it follows that Ignorance is the summum málum Hell oâ— the most imperfect sad and dismal State of Mankind Mâ—… people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge say the Prophets Isa 5.13 Hos 4.6 Of which Ignorance of his because puts him in mind of the Despicableness Nakedness and Misery his fall hath reduced him to Rev. 3.17 he cannot abide to hear without some shame and horror and therefore no Man can bear to be called ignorant or a Fool without Anger But of this Summum Malum we are cured or healed by Vnderstanding saith Christ Matth. 13.15 for he brings along with him such healing in his Wings Mal 4.2 as a good Vnderstanding 1 John 5.20 to cure us of our gross brutish Ignorance of God. Salvation being nothing but a Cure and a rising from the deadly Lethargy which Man is fallen into Gen. 2 21-5.3 1 Cor. 15.49 Rom. 3.23 Job 11.12 To the light of Life that is eternal Life proceeding from the Sun of Righteousness which Light is the Life of Man John 1.4 And by that Light or Knowledge which he brings we are saved or made Just Isai 53 11-11.9 That is to say Righteous and Good or Perfect Salvation or Perfection being Righteousness it self Rom. 14.17 And by Knowledge Grace and Peace or the Righteousness and Peace which the Kingdom of Heaven and Salvation consists in are multiplied within us 2 Pet. 1.2 Luke 17.11 Whence we have some Promises of being fed with Knowledge Jer. 3.15 And that Christ should be a Light who by giving that Knowledge which Luke 1.77 calls on this account The Knowledge Salvation or by opening the blind Eyes and bringing out of Prison them that sit there in darkness and in the shadow of of Death would save the Jews and Gentiles Isa 49 6-42.6 Acts 26.18 Luke 1.79 Wherefore St. Paul calls the Light the Inheritance of Saints Coloss 1.12 being what God promised Abraham's Seed should inherit Acts 1.4 5. Luke 24.49 And St. John 1.4 saith that their Life is the Light they have in them For which Reason the Scriptures call them the Children of Light and Eternal Death or Hell they entitle outward Darkness as being opposed to the Light of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man Luke 17.21 Though Hell be something besides Darkness to wit the gnashing of Teeth by reason of the gnawing and corroding of the Worm or of a sharp austere grim and dark Fire for ever O house of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the Light or True Knowledge of the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah 2.5.42.6 Note by the by All the Sects which have no more Knowledge of God than the Papists have are as like the Church of Christ as the Kingdom of Darkness is like the Kingdom of God. Wo be to thee Chorazin Wo be to thee Bethsaida For if the Papists could hear and were permitted to read what you may both read and hear to wit what
acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the