absolute good the will instantly proves vicious As therefore there can be no possible fault incident into the will of him who propounds to himself as his only good the utmost end of all things which is God himself so in whatsoever willer whose own particular good is contained under the order of another higher good there may without Gods speciall confirmation happen a sin in the will Thus it was with these revolting Angels they did not order their own particular supposed good to the supream and utmost end but suffered their will to dwell in an end of their own and by this means did put themselves into the place of God not regulating their wils by another superior but making their will the rule of their own desires which was in effect to affect an equality with the highest Not that their ambition went so high as to aspire to an height of goodness or greatnesse equall to their infiniâ—e Creatour This as the greater Leader of the School hath determined it could not fall into any intelligent nature since it were no other then to affect his own not being for as much as there can be no beeing at all without a distinction of degrees and subordinations of beeings This was I suppose the threshold of leaving their first estate Now it was with Angelicall spirits as it is with heavy bodies when they begin to fail they went down at once speedily passing through many degrees of wickednesse Let learned Gerson see upon what grounds he conceives that in the beginning their sin might be veniall afterwards arising to the height of maliciousness whom Salmeron seconds by seven reasons alledged to that purpose labouring to prove that before their precipitation they had large time and place of repentance the point is too high for any humane determination this we know too well by our selves that even the will of man when it is once let loose to sin finds no stay how much more of those active spirits which by reason of their simple and spirituall nature convert themselves wholly to what they do incline What were the particular grounds of their defection and ruine what was their first sin it is neither needfull nor possible to know I see the wracks of this curiosity in some of the Ancient who misguiding themselves by a false Compasse of mis-applyed Texts have split upon those shelves which their miscarriage shall teach me to avoid If they have made Lucifer that is the morning Star a Devill and mistake the King of Babylon for the Prince of darknesse as they have palpably done I dare not follow them Rather let me spend my thoughts in wondring at the dreadfull justice and the incomprehensible mercy of our great and holy God who having cast these Apostate Angels into hell and reserved them in everlasting chains under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day hath yet graciously found out a way to redeem miserable mankinde from that horible pit of destruction It is not for me to busie my self in finding out reasons of difference for the aggravation of the sin of Angelâ— and abatement of mans as that sin began in them they were their own tempters that they sinned irreparably since their fall was to them as death is to us How ever it were Cursed be the man who shall say that the sin of any creature exceeds the power of thy mercy O God which is no other then thy selfe infinite whiles therefore I lay one hand upon my mouth I lift up the other in a silent wonder with the blessed Apostle and say How unsearchable are thy judgements and thy wayes past finding out SECT. IV. Of the number of Apostate Spirits WHo can but tremble to thinke of the dreadfull precipice of these dâ—â—ned Angels which from the highest pitch of heaven were suddainly thrown down into the dungeon of the nethermost hell who can but tremble to think of their number power malice cunning and deadly machinations Had this defection been single yet it had been fearfull should but one star fall down from heaven with what horrour do we think of the wrack that would ensue to the whole world how much more when the great Dragon draws down the third part of the stars with his tail And lo these Angels were as so many spirituall stars in the firmament of glory It was here as in the rebellion of great Peers the common sort are apt to take part in any insurrection There are orders and degrees even in the region of confusion we have learned of our Saviour to know there is a Devill and his Angels And Jewish tradition hath told us of a Prince of Devils It was in all likelyhood some prime Angell of heaven that first started aside from his station and led the ring of this highest and first revolt millions sided with him and had their part both in his sin and punishment Now how formidable is the number of these evill and hostile spirits Had we the eyes of that holy Hermit for such the first were we might see the air full of these malignant spâ—rits laying snares for miserable mankinde And if the possessors of one poor Demoniack could style themselves Legion a name that in the truest account contains no lesse then ten Cohorts every Cohort fifty Companies and every Company 25 Souldiers to the number of 1225 what an army of these hellish fiends do we suppose is that wherewith whole mankinde is beleaguered al the world over Certainly no man living as Tertullian and Nissen have too truly observed can from the very hour of his nativity to the last minute of his dissolution be free from one of these spirituall assailants if not many at once The ejected spirit returns to his former assault with seven worse then himself Even where there is equality of power inequality of number must needs be a great advantage An Hercules himself is no match for two Antagonists yea were their strength much lesse then ours if we be but as a flock of Goats feeding upon the hils when the evil spirits as the Midianites Amalekites were against Israel are like grashoppers in the valley what hope what possibility were there if we were left in our own hands for saefty or prevalence But now alas their number is great but their power is more Even these Evil Angels are styled by him that knew them no less then principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places They lost not their strength when they left their station It is the rule of Dionysius too true I fear that in the reprobate Angels their naturall abilities stil hold No other then desperate therefore were the condition of whole mankinde if we were turned loose into the lists to grapple with these mighty spirits Courage O my soul and together with it victory Let thine eys be but open as Gehezies thou shalt see more with us then against us One good
which they cannot but finde betwixt this lesser and that greater world for as this little world Man consists of an outward visible body and an inward spiritual soul which gives life and motion to that organicall frame so possessing all parts that it is wholly in all and in each part wholly So must it also be in this great Universe the sensible and materiall part whereof hath being and moving from those spiritual powers both supreme and subordinate which dwell in it and fill and actuate it Every illuminated soul therefore looks about him with no other then S. Pauls eyes whose profession it is We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall SECT. II. The distribution of the Invisible world I Cannot quite mislike the conceit of Reuchlin and his â—abala seconded by Galatinus that as in an egge the yelk lies in the middest encompassed round with the white and that again by a film and shell so the sensible world is enclosed within the intelligible but withall I must adde that here is not a meer involution only but a spirituall permeation and inexistence yet without all mixture without all confusion for those pure and simple natures are not capable of mingling with grosse materiall substances and the God of Order hath given them their own separate essences offices operations as for the managing of their own spiritual Common-wealth within themselves so for the disposing governing and moving of this sensible world As therefore we shall foully misconceive of a man if we shall think him to be nothing but a body because our eyes see no more so we shall no lesse grossely erre if beholding this outward fabrick we shall conceive of nothing to be in this vast Universe but the meer lifelesse substance of the heavens and elements which runs into our sight those lively and active powers that dwell in them could not be such if they were not purely spirituall Here then above and beyond all worlds and in this materiall and intelligible world our illuminated eyes meet first with the God of Spirits the DEITIE incomprehensible the fountain of all life and being the infinite and self-existing Essence one most pure simple eternal Act the absolute omnipotent omnipresent Spirit who in himself is more then a world of worlds filling comprehending both the spiritual sensible world in comparison of whom this All is nothing and but from him had been and were nothing Upon this blessed object O my soul may thy thoughts ever dwell where the more they are fixed the more shall they finde themselves ravished from the regard of all sensible things and swallowed up with an admiration of that which they are still further off from comprehending Next to this All-glorious and infinite spirit they meet with those immateriall and invisible powers who receive their originall and continuance their natures and offices from that King of glory Each one whereof is so mighty as to make up a world of power alone each one so knowing as to contain a world of wisdom and all of them so innumerably many that their number is next to infinite and all this numberlesse number so perfectly united in one celestial politie that their entire communion under the laws and government of their soverain Creator makes them a compleat world of Spirits invisibly living and moving both within and above this visible globe of the materiall world After these meet we with the glorified souls of the Just who now let loose from this prison of clay enjoy the full liberty of heaven and being at last reunited to their then immortall bodies and to their most glorious head both are and possesse a world of everlasting blisse Last of all may thy thoughts fall upon those infernall powers of darknesse the spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places whose number might combination makes up a dreadfull world of evil Angels conflicting where they prevail not and tormenting where they overcome These together with the reprobate souls whom they have captived are the most horrible and wofull prospects of mischief and misery which either world is subject unto Now all and every of these however in respect of largenesse they may well passe for so many severall worlds yet as we are wont to account the whole globe of heaven and earth and the other inclosed elements though vast in their severall extents to make up but one sensible world so shall we in a desire to reduce all to unity consider all the intire specifications of spirits but as ranked in so many regions of one immateriall and intelligible world Wherefore let us first silently adore that mundum archetypum that one transcendent self-being and infinite essence in three most glorious persons the blessed Deity which filleth heaven and earth with the majesty of his glory as vailed with the beams of infinitenesse and hid in an inaccessible light and let us turn our eyes to the spiritual guard the invisible attendants of that divine Majesty without the knowledge and right apprehension whereof we shall never attain to conceive of their God and ours as we ought But O ye blessed immortal glorious spirits who can know you but he that is of you alas this soul of mine knows not it self how shall it know you Surely no more can our minds conceive of you then our eyes can see you Only since he that made you hath given us some little glimpse of your subdivine natures properties operations let us weakly as we may recount them to his glory in yours SECT. III. The Angels of heaven Their numbers THe good Lord forgive me for that amongst my other offences I have suffered my self so much to forget as his divine presence so the presence of his holy Angels It is I confesse my great sin that I have filled mine eyes with other objects and have been slack in returning praises to my God for the continual assistance of those blessed and beneficent spirits which have ever graciously attended me without intermission from the first hour of my conception to this present moment neither shall ever I hope absent themselves from my tutelage and protection till they shall have presented my poor soul to her final glory Oh that the dust and clay were so washed out of my eyes that I might behold together with the presence the numbers the beauties and excellencies of those my ever-present guardians When we are convinced of the wonderfull magnitude of those goodly stars which we see moving in the firmament we cannot but acknowledge that if God had made but one of them he could never have been enough magnified in his power but when our sense joyns with our reason to force upon us withall an acknowledgement of the infinite numbers of those great luminaries now we are so far to seek of due admiration that we are utterly lost in the amazement at this
stupendious proof of omnipotence Neither is it otherwise with the invisible hoast of heaven If the power of one Angel be such that he were able at his makers appointment to redact the world to nothing and the nature of any one so eminent that it far surmounts any part of the visible Creation what shal we say to those next-to-infinite numbers of mighty and majestical spirits wherewith the great God of heaven hath furnished his throne and footstool I know not upon what grounds that by some magnified Prophetesse could so precisely compute that if all men should be reckoned up from the first Adam to the last man that shal stand upon the earth there might be to each man assigned more then ten Angels Ambroses account is yet fuller who makes all mankind to be that one lost sheep in the parable and the Angels whose chore the great shepheard left for a time to come down to this earthly wildernesse to be the ninety and nine Lo here wel-near an hundred for one Yet even that number is poor in comparison of the reckoning of him who pretends to fetch it from the chosen vessel rapt into Paradise who presumes to tell us there are greater numbers of Angels in every several rank then there is of the particulars of whatsoever material things in this world The Bishop of Herbipolis instanceth boldly in stars in leaves in spires of grasse But sure I am had that Dennis of Areopagus been in S. Pauls room and supplyed his rapture he could no more have computed the number of Angels then the best Arithmetician standing upon an hill seeing a huge Xerxes-like Army swarming in the valley can give a just reckoning of the number of those heads Surely when our Saviour speaks of more then twelve legions of Angels he doth not say how many â—ore If those twelve according to Hieroms though too short computation amount to seventy-two thousand the more then twelve were doubtlesse more then many millions He that made them can tell us The beloved Disciple in Pathmos as by inspiration from that God sayes I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands now the Elders were but 24. and the Beasts were but four all those other thousands were Angels and if so many were about his throne how many do we think were about his missions Before him the Prophet Daniel betwixt whom and the Evangelist there is so perfect correspondence that we may well say Daniel was the John of the old Testament and John the Daniel of the new hath made the like reckoning Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him But Bildad the Shuhite in one word sayes more then all Is there any number of his Armies Lo his Armies are past all number how much more his several souldiers so as it may not perhaps seem hard to beleeve Dionysius that the Angels of but one rank are more then can be comprehended by any Arithmetical number or Gregory who determines them numerable only to God that made them to men innumerable O great God of heaven how doth this set forth the infinite majesty of thine omnipotent Deity to be thus attended we judge of the magnificence of Princes according to the number and quality of their retinue and guard and other their military powers and yet each one of these hath an equally absolute life and being of his own receiving only a pay from his Soveraign What shall we then think of thee the great King of eternal glory that hast before thy throne innumerable hosts of powerfull and glorious spirits of thine own making and upholding And how safe are we under so many and so mighty Protectors It might be perhaps well meant and is confessed to be seconded with much reverend antiquity the conceit that each man hath a special Angel designed for his custody and if but so we are secure enough from all the danger of whatsoever hostile machinations however this may seem some scanting of the bountiful provision of the Almighty who hath pleased to expresse his gracious respects to one man in the allotment of many guardians For if Jacob speak of one Angel David speaks of more He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes And even those which have thought good to abet this piece of Platonick Divinity concerning the single Guardianship of Angels have yet yielded that according to several relations each one hath many spiritual keepers Insomuch as the forecited * Fornerus late Bâ—shop of Wirtzburg durst assure his auditors that each of them had ten Angels at least assigned to his custody according to the respects of their subordinate interests besides their own person of their Family Parish Fraternity City Diocese Countrey Office Church World Yet even this computation is niggardly and * pinching since the abundant store and bounty of the Almighty can as well afford Centuries as Decades of Guardians Howsoever why should it not be all one to us since there is no lesse safety in the hands of one then many no lesse care of us from many then from one should but one Angel guard millions of men his power could secure them no lesse then a single charge but now that we are guarded with millions of Angels what can the gates of hell do But what number soever be imployed about us sure I am that together with them those that attend the throne of their maker make up no lesse as Nazianzen justly accounts them then a world of spirits A world so much more excellent then this visible by how much it is more abstracted from our weak senses O ye blessed spirits ye are ever by me ever with me ever about me I do as good as see you for I know you to be here I reverence your glorious persons I blesse God for you I walk awfully because I am ever in your eyes I walk confidently because I am ever in your hands How should I be ashamed that in this piece of Theology I should be out-bid by very Turks whose Priests shut up their Devotions with an precatory mention of your presence as if this were the upshot of all blessings I am sure it is that wherein next to my God and Saviour I shall ever place my greatest comfort and confidence neither hath earth or heaven any other besides that looks like it SECT. IV. The power of Angels MUltitudes even of the smallest and weakest creatures have been able to produce great effects The swarms of but Flies and Lice could amate the great and mighty King of Egypt all his forces could not free him and his Peers from so impotent adversaries but when multitude is seconded with strength how must it needs be irresistible so it is in these blessed spirits
even their omnipotent maker who best knows what is derived from him styles them by his Apostle Powers and by his Psalmist mighty ones in strength A small force seems great to the weak but that power which is commended by the Almighty must needs be transcendently great we best judge of powerfulnesse by the effects How suddainly had one Angel dispatched every first-born in Egypt and after them the hundred fourscore and five thousand of the proud Assyrian Army and if each man had been a Legion with what ease had it been done by that potent spirit Neither are they lesse able to preserve then to destroy That of Aquinas is a great word One Angel is of such power that be were able to govern all the corporeall creatures of the world Justly was it exploded as the wild heresie of Simon Magus and his clients the Meandâ—ians that the Angels made the world No this was the sole work of him that made them but if we say that it pleases God by their ministration to sway and order the marvailous affairs of this great Universe we shall not I suppose vary from truth If we look to the highest part thereof Philosophers have gone so far as to teach us that which is seconded by the allowance of some great Divines that these blessed Intelligences are they by whose agency under their Almighty Creator the heavens and the glorious luminaries thereof continue their ever-constant and regular motions And if there fall out any preternaturall immutations in the elements any strange concussations of the earth any direfull prodigies in the skie whither should they be imputed but to these mighty Angels whom it pleaseth the most high God to imploy in these extraordinary services That dreadfull magnificence which was in the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai in fire smoak thundrings lightnings voices earthquakes whence was it but by the operation of Angels And indeed as they are the nearest both in nature and place to the majesty of the highest so it is most proper for them to participate most of his power and to exercise it in obedience to his Soveraignty As therefore he is that infinite Spirit who doth all things and can do no more then all so they as his immediate subordinates are the means whereby he executeth his illimited power in and upon this whole created world Whence it is that in their glorious appearances they have been taken for Jehovah himself by Hagar by Manoah and his wife yea by the better eyes of the Father of the faithfull Now Lord what a protection hast thou provided for thy poor worms and not men creeping here on thine earth and what can we fear in so mighty and sure hands He that passeth with a strong convoy through a wild and perilous desert scorns the danger of wild beasts or robbers no lesse then if he were in a strong tower at home so do we the onsets of the powers of darknesse whiles we are thus invincibly guarded When God promised Moses that an Angel should goe before Israel and yet withall threatned the subduction of his own presence I marvel not if the holy man were no lesse troubled then if they had been left destitute and guardless and that he ceased not his importunity till he had won the gracious ingagement of the Almighty for his presence in that whole expedition For what is the greatest Angel in heaven without his maker But let thy favour O God order and accompany the deputation of the lowest of thine Angels what can all the troops of hell hurt us Assoon may the walls of heaven be scaled and thy throne deturbed as he can be foiled that is defenced with thy power Were it possible to conceive that the Almighty should be but a looker on in the conflict of spirits we know that the good Angels have so so much advantage of their strength as they have of their station neither could those subdued spirits stand in the incounter but now he that is strong in our weaknesse is strong in their strength for us blessed be God for them as the Author of them and their protection Blessed be they under God as the means used by him for our protection and blessings SECT. V. The knowledge of Angels IF Sampson could have had his full strength in his mill when he wanted his eyes it would have little availed him such is power without knowledge but where both of these concur in one how can they fail of effect Whether of these is more eminent in the blessed spirits it is not easie to determine so perfectly knowing are they as that the very heathen Philosophers have styled them by the name of Intelligences as if their very being were made up of understanding Indeed what is there in this whole compass of the large Universe that is hid from their eyes only the closet of mans heart is lockt up from them as reserved solely to their maker yet so as that â—hey can by some insensible chinks of those secret notifications which fall from us look into them also all other things whether secrets of nature or closest counsels or events are as open to their sight as the most visible objects are to ours They do not as we mortals are wont look through the dim and horny spectacle oâ— senses or understand by the mediation of Phantasms but rather as clear mirrours they receive at once the full representations of all intelligible things having besides that connaturall light which is universally in them all certain speciall illuminations from the Father of lights Even we men think we know something neither may our good God lose the thank of his bounty this way but alas he that is reputed to have known most of all the heathen whom * some have styled the Genius of nature could confesse that the clearest understanding is to those things which are most manifest but as a bats eyes to the Sun Do we see but a worm crawling under our feet we know not what that is which in it self gives it a being Do we hear but a Bee humming about our ears the greatest Naturalist cannot know whether that noise come from within the body or from the mouth or from the wings of that Flie How can we then hope or pretend to know those things which are abstruse and remote But these heavenly spirits do not only know things as they are in themselves and in their inward and immediate causes but do clearly see the first and universal cause of all things and that in his glorious essence how much more do they know our shallow dispositions affections inclinations which peer out of the windows of our hearts together with all perils and events that are incident unto us We walk therefore amids not more able then watchfull overseers and so are we lookt thorough in all our wayes as if heaven were all eyes Under this blessed vigilancy if the powers of hell can either surprize us with
suddainnesse or circumvent us with subtlety let them not spare to use their advantage But oh ye tutelar spirits ye well know our weaknesse and their strength our sillinesse and their craft their deadly machinations and our miserable obnoxiousnesse neither is your love to markinde and fidelity to your maker any whit lesse then your knowledge so as your charge can no more miscarry under your hands and eyes then your selves As you do alwayes enjoy the beatifical vision of your maker so your eye is never off from his little ones your blessednesse is no more separable from our safety then you from your blessednesse SECT. VI The imployments and operations of Angels EVen while we see you not O ye blessed spirits we know what ye do He that made you hath told us your task As there are many millions of you attending the all-glorious throne of your Creator and singing perpetual Hallelujahs to him in the highest heavens so there are innumerable numbers of you imployed in governing and ordering the creature in guarding the elect in executing the commands which ye receive from the Almighty what variety is here of your assistance One while ye lead us in our way as ye did Israel another while ye instruct us as ye did Daniel one while ye fight for us as ye did for Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus another while ye purvey for us as for Elias one while ye fit us to our holy vocation as ye did to Esay another while ye dispose of the opportunities of our calling for good as ye did of Philips to the Eunuch one while ye foretell our danger as to Lot to Joseph and Mary another while ye comfort our affliction as to Hagar one while ye oppose evil projects against us as to Balaam another while ye will be striven with for a blessing as with Jacob one while ye resist our offensive courses as to Moses another while ye incourage us in our devotions as ye did Paul and Silas and Cornelius one while ye deliver from durance as Peter another while ye preserve us from danger and death as the three children one while ye are ready to restrain our presumption as the Cherub before the gate of Paradise another while to excite our courage as to Elias and Theodosius one while to refresh and chear us in our sufferings as to the Apostles another while to prevent our sufferings as to Jacob in the pursuit of Laban and Esau to the Sages in the pursuit of Herod one while ye cure our bodies as at the pool of Bethesda another while ye carry up our souls to glory as ye did to Lazarus It were endlesse to instance in all the gracious offices which ye perform Certainly there are many thousand events wherein common eyes see nothing but nature which yet are effected by the ministration of Angels when Abraham sent his servant to procure a wife for his son from amongst his own cognation the messenger saw nothing but men like himself but Abraham saw an Angel fore-contriving the work God saith he shal send his Angel before thee that thou mayest take a wife thence when the Israelites forcibly by dint of sword expelled the Canaanites and Amorites and the other branded nations nothing appeared but their own arms but the Lord of hosts could say I will send mine Angel before thee by whom I shall drive them thence Balaam saw his Asse disorderly starting in the path he that formerly had seen Visions now sees nothing but a wall and a way but in the mean time his Asse who for the present had more of the Prophet then his Master could see an Angel and a sword The Sodomites went groping in the street for Lots door and misse it they thought of nothing but some suddain dizzinesse of brain that disappointed them we know it was an Angel that stroke them with blindenesse Nothing appeared when the Egyptian first-born were struck dead in one night the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planet-struck we know it was done by the hand of an Angel Nothing was seen at the pool of Bethesda but a moved water when the suddain cures were wrought which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficiall constellation we know that an Angel descended and made the water thus sanative Gâ—hezi saw his master strangely preserved from the Aramite troops but had not his eyes been opened by the Prophets prayers he had not seen whence that aid came Neither is it otherwise in the frequent experiments of our life Have we been raised up from deadly sicknesses when all naturall helps have given us up Gods Angels have been our secret Physitians Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends which no humane intelligence hath bidden us to suspect who but our Angels hath wrought it have we been preserved from mortall dangers which we could not tell how by our providence to have evaded our invisible Guardians have done it I see no reason to dislike that observation of Gerson Whence is it saith he that little children are conserved from so many perils of their infancy fire water falls suffocations but by the agency of Angels Surely where we find a probability of second causes in nature we are apt to confine our thoughts from looking higher yet even there many times are unseen hands had we seen the house fall upon the heads of Jobs children we should perhaps have attributed it to the natural force of a vehement blast when now we know it was the work of a spirit Had we seen those thousands of Israel falling dead of the plague we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the air when David saw the Angel of God acting in that mortality Humane reason is apt to be injuriously saucie in ascribing those things to an ordinary course of natural causes which the God of nature doth by supernatural agents A master of Philosophy travelling with others on the way when a fearfull thunder-storm arose checked the fear of his fellows and discoursed to them of the naturall reasons of that uprore in the clouds and those suddain flashes wherewith they seemed out of the ignorances of causes to be too much affrighted in the midst of his philosophicall discourse he was strucken dead with that dreadfull eruption which he sleighted what could this be but the finger of that God who will have his works rather entertained with wonder and trembling then with curious scanning Neither is it otherwise in those violent Huracans devouring earthquakes and more then ordinary tempests and fiery apparitions which we have seen and heard of for however there be natural causes given of the usual events of this kinde yet nothing hinders but that the Almighty for the manifestation of his power and justice may set spirits whether good or evil on work to do the same things sometimes with more state and magnificence of horrour like as we see Frogs bred ordinarily both out of putrefaction and generation and yet
when it was for a plague to Egypt they were supernaturally produced Hail an ordinary meteore murrain of Cattel an ordinary disease yet for a plague to obdured Pharaoh miraculously wrought Neither need there be any great difficulty in discerning when such like events run in a natural course and when spirits are actors in them the manner of their operation the occasions and effects of them shall soon discry them to a judicious eye for when we shall finde that they do manifestly deviate from the road of nature and work above the power of secondary causes it is easie to determine them to be of an higher efficiency I could instance irrefragrably in severall tempests and thunderstorms which to the unspeakable terrour of the inhabitants were in my time seen heard felt in the Western parts wherein the translocation and transportation of huge massy stones and irons of the Churches above the possibility of naturall distance together with the strange preservation of the persons assembled with other accidents sensibly accompanying those astonishing works of God still fresh in the minds of many shewed them plainly to be wrought by a stronger hand then natures * And whither else should we ascribe many events which ignorance teacheth us to wonder at in silence If murders be descryed by the fresh bleeding of cold and almost putrefied carcasses If a man by some strong instinct be warned to change that lodging which he constantly held for some years and findes his wonted sleeping place that night crushed with the unexpected fall of an unsuspected contignation If a man distressed with care for the missing of an important evidence †such a one I have known shal be informed in his dream in what hole of his Dove-cote he shall find it hid If a man without all observation of Physical criticisms shall receive and give intelligence many dayes before what hour shal be his last to what cause can we attribute these but to our attending Angels If a man shall in his dream as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus professes receive the prescript of the remedy of his disease which the Physitians it seems could not cure whence can this be but by the suggestion of spirits And surely since I am convinced that their unfelt hands are in many occurrences of my life I have learned so much wit and grace as rather to yeeld them too much then too little stroke in ordering all my concernments O ye blessed spirits many things I know ye do for me which I discern not whiles ye do them but after they are done and many things ye may do more which I know not I blesse my God and yours as the author of all ye doe I blesse you as the means of all that is done by you for me SECT. VII The Degrees and Orders of Angels HEaven hath nothing in it but perfection but even perfection it self hath degrees as the glorified souls so the blessed Angels have their heights of excellency and glory He will be known for the God of Order observeth no doubt a most exact order in his Court of heaven nearest to the residence of his Majesty Equality hath no place either in earth or in hell we have no reason to seek it in heaven He that was rapt into the third heaven can tell us of Thrones Dominions Principalities Angels and Arch-angels in that region of blessednesse We cannot be so simple as to think these to be but one classe of spirits doubtlesse they are distinctions of divers orders But what their severall ranks offices employments are he were not more wise that could tell then he is bold that dare speak What modest indignation can forbear stamping at the presumption of those men who as if upon Domingo Gonsales his engine they had been mounted by his Gansaes from the Moon to the Empyreall heaven and admitted to be the heralds or masters of ceremonies in that higher world have taken upon them to marshall these Angelicall spirits into their severall rooms proportioning their stations dignities services according to the model of earthly Courts disposing them into Ternions of three generall Hierarchies the first relating to the immediate attendance of the Almighty the other two to the government of the Creature both generall and particular In the first of Assistents placing the Seraphim as Lords of the chamber Cherubim as Lords of the cabinet-counsel Thrones as entire Favourites in whom the Almighty placeth his rest In the second of universall Regency finding Dominions to be the great Officers of State who as Chancellours Marshals Treasurers govern the affairs of the world Mights to be the Generals of the heavenly Militia Powers as the Judges Itinerant that serve for generall retributions of good and evil In the third of speciall government placing Principalities as rulers of severall Kingdoms and Provinces Archangels as guardians to severall Cities and Countreys and lastly Angels as guardians of several persons And withall presuming to define the differences of degrees in each order above other in respect of the goodlinesse and excellency of their nature making the Arch-angels no lesse then ten times to surpasse the beauty of Angels Principalities twenty times above the Arch-angels Powers forty times more then Principalities Mights fifty more then Powers Domininions sixty above Mights Thrones seventy above Dominions Cherubim eighty above thrones Seraphim ninety times exceeding the Cherubim For me I must crave leave to wonder at this boldnesse and professe my self as far to seek whence this learning should come as how to beleeve it I do verily beleeve there are divers orders of celestial spirits I beleeve they are not to be beleeved that dare to determine them especially when I see him that was rapt into the third heaven varying the order of their places in his severall mentions of them Neither can I trust to the Revelation of that Sainted Prophetesse who hath ranged the degrees of the beatitude of glorified souls into the several chores of these heavenly Hierarchies according to their dispositions and demeanures here on earth admitting those who have been charitably helpfull to the poor sick strangers into the orb of Angels Those who have given themselves to meditation and prayer to the rank of Archangels those who have vanquished all offensive lusts in themselves to the order of Principalities to the height of Powers those whose care and vigilance hath restrained from evil and induced to good such as have been committed to their oversight and governance To the place of Mights those who for the honour of God have undauntedly and valiantly suffered and whose patience hath triumphed over evils To the company of Dominions those who prefer poverty to riches and devoutly conform their wills in all things to their Makers To the society of Thrones those who do so inure themselves to the continuall contemplation of heavenly things as that they have disposed their hearts to be a fit resting place for the Almighty To the honour of Cherubim those
Divines have supposed the Angels themselves shall receive an augmentation of happinesse at the day of the last judgement when they shall be freed from all their charge and imployments since the perfection of blessedness consists in rest which is the end of all motion how much more shal the Saints of God then receive an enlargment of their felicity but in the mean time they are entered into the lists of their essential beatitude over the threshold of their heaven How full and comfortable is that profession of the great Apostle who when he had sweetly diverted the thoughts of himself and his Corinthians from their light afflictions to an eternall weight of excelling glory from things temporall which are seen to those everlasting which are not seen addes For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building not made with hands eternall in the heavens more then implying that our eye is no sooner off from the temporall things then it is taken up with eternall objects and that the instant of the disâ—olution of these clay cottages is the livery and seisin of a glorious and everlasting mansion â—n heaven Canst thou believe this O my soul and yet recoil â—t the thought of thy departure wert thou appointed afâ—er a dolorous dissolution to spend some hundreds of years at the fore-gates of glory though in a painless expectation of a late happinesse even this hope were a pain alone but if sense of pain were also added to the delay this were more then enough to make the condition justly dreadfull But now that one minute shuts our eyes and opens them to a clear sight of God determines our misery and begins our blessednesse Oh the cowardise of our unbeleefe if we shrinke at so momentany a purchase of eternity How many have we known that for a false reputation of honour have rushed into the jawes of Death when we are sure they could not come back to enjoy it and do I tremble at a minutes pain that shall feoffe me in that glory which I cannot but for ever enjoy How am I ashamed to hear an heathen Socrates encouraging himselfe against the feares of Death from his resolution of meeting with some fmous persons in that other world and to feel my self shrugging at a short brunt of pain that shall put me into the blisse-making presence of the All-glorious God into the sight of the glorified humanity of my dear Redeemer into the Society of all the Angels and Saints of heaven SECT. III. Of the Souls perpetual vigilancy and fruition of God IT is no other then a frantick dream of those erroneous spirits that have fancied the sleep of the soul and that so long and deep a sleep as from the evening of the dissolution till the morning of the resurrection So as all that while the soul hath no vision of God no touch of joy or pain An errour wickedly rak't up out of the ashes of those Arabick Hereticks whom Origen is said to have reclaimed and since that time taken up if they be not slandered by the Armenians and Fratricelli and once countenanced and abetted by Pope John the 22. as Pope Adrian witnesseth yea so inforced by him upon the University of Paris as that all accesse to degrees was barred to any whosoever refused to subscribe and swear to that damnable position The Minorites began to finde relish in that poison which no doubt had proceeded to further mischief had not the interposition of Philip the-then-French king happily quelled that uncomfortable and pernicious doctrine so as we might have hoped it should never have dared more to look into the light But wo is me these prodigious times amongst a world of other uncouth heresies have not stuck to fetch even this also wel-worsed back from that region of darknesse whither it was sent Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whiles he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Behold it yea but when at last perhaps when the body shall be resumed Nay to choak this cavill the blisse is present even already possessed The glory which thou gavest me I have given to them It was accordingly his gracious word to the penitent theef This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise How clear is that of the chosen vessell opposing our present condition to the succeeding For now we see through a glasse darkly but then that is upon our dissolution face to face the face of the soul to the face of God The infinit amiableness whereof was that which inflamed the longing desire of the blessed Apostle to depart and to be with Christ as knowing these two inseparable the instant of his departure and his presence with Christ else the departure were no lesse worthy of fear as the utmost of evils then now it is of wishing for as our entrance into blessednesse Away then with that impious frenzie of the souls whether mortality or sleep in death No my soul thou doest then begin to live thou doest not awake till then now whiles thou art in the bed of this living clay thine eyes are shut thy spirituall senses are tyed up thou art apt to sâ—ort in a sinfull security thou dreamest of earthly vanities then only then are thine eyes opened thy spirituall faculties freed all thy powers quickned and thou art perpetually presented with objects of eternall glory And if at any time during this pilgrimage thine eye-lids have been some little raised by divine Meditations yet how narrowly how dimly art thou wont to see now thine eies shall be so broadly and fully opened that thou shalt see whole heaven at once yea which is more the face of that God whose presence makes it heaven Oh glorious sight O most blessed condition Wise Solomon could truly observe that the eye is not satisfied with seeing neither indeed can it be here below nothing is so great a glutton as the eye for when we have seen all that we can we shall still wish to see more and that more is nothing if it be lesse their all but this infinite object which is more then all shall so fill and satisfie our eyes that we cannot desire the sight of any other nor ever be glutted with the sight of this Old Simeon when once he had lived to see the Lord of life cloathed in flesh could say â—ord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation if he were so full of the sight of his Saviour in the weaknesse of humane flesh and in the form of a servant how is he more then fated with the perfection of joy and heavenly detestation to see that Saviour clothed with majesty to see his all glorious Godhead and so to
see as to enjoy them and so enjoy them as that he shall never intermit their sight and fruition to all eternity SECT. IV. Of the knowledge of the glorified AS concerning all other matters what the knowledge is of our souls separated and glorified we shall then know when ours come to be such in the mean time we can much less know their thougths then they can know ours sure we are they do not know in such manner as they did when they were in our bosomes by the help of senses and phantasms by the discursive inferences of ratiocination but as they are elevated to a condition suitable to the blessed Angels so they know like them though not by the meanes of a naturall knowledge as they yet by that supernaturall light of intimation which they receive by their glorified estate Whether by vertue of this divine illumination they know the particular occurrences which we meet with here below he were bold that would determine Only this we may confidently affirme that they do clearly know al those things which do any way appertain to their estate of blessednesse Amongst which whether the knowledge of each other in that region of happinesse may justly be ranked is not unworthy of our disquisition Doubtlesse as in God there is all perfection eminently and transcendently so in the sight and fruition of God there cannot be but full and absolute felicity yet this is so farre from excluding the knowledge of those things which derive their goodnesse and excellency from him as that it compriseth and supposeth it Like as it is also in our affections we love God only as the chief good yet so as that we love other things in order to God Charity is no more subject to losse then knowledge both these shall accompany our souls to and in that other world As then we shall perfectly love God and his Saints in him so shall we know both and though it be a sufficient motive of our love in heaven thâ—t we know them to be Saints yet it seems to be no small addition to our happinesse to know that those Saints were once ours And if it be a just joy to a parent here on earth to see his child gracious how much more acession shall it be to his joy above to see the fruits of his loines glorious when both his love is more pure and their improvement absolute Can we make any doubt that the blessed Angels know each other how senselesse were it to grant that no knowledge is hid from them but of themselves Or can we imagine that those Angelicall spirits do not take speciall notice of those souls which they have guarded here and conducted to their glory If they do so and if the knowledge of our beatified souls shall be like to theirs why should we abridg our selves more then them of the comfort of our interknowing Surely our dissolution shall abate nothing of our naturall faculties our glory shal advance them so as what we once knew we shall know better and if our souls can then perfectly know themselves why should they be denied the knowledge of others Doubt not then O my soul but thou shalt once see besides the face of thy God whose glory fils heaven and earth the blessed spirits of the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets the holy Apostles and Evangelists the glorious Martyrs and Confessors those eminent Saints whose holiness thou wert wont to magnifie and amongst them those in whom nature and grace have especially interessed thee thou shalt see them and enjoy their joy and they thine How oft have I measured a long and foul journey to see some good friend and digested the tediousnesse of the way with the expectation of a kind entertainment and the thought of that complacency which I should take in so dear presence and yet perhaps when I have arrived I have found the house disordered one sick another disquieted my selfe indisposed with what cheerfull resolution should I undertake this my last voyage where I shal meet with my best friends and find them perfectly happy and my selfe with them SECT. V. Of the glory of heaven injoyed by blessed Souls HOw often have I begged of my God that it would please him to shew me some little glimpse of the glory of his Saints It is not for me to wish the sight as yet of the face of that divine Majesty This was two much for a Moses to sue for my ambition only is that I might if but as it were through some cranie or key-hole of the gate of heaven see the happy condition of his glorious servants I know what hinders me my miserable unworthinesse my spiritual blindnesse O God if thou please to wash off my clay with the waters of thy Siloam I shall have eyes and if thou anoint them with thy precious eye-salve those eyes shall be clear and enabled to behold those glories which shall ravish my soul And now Lord what pure and resplendent light is this wherein thy blessed ones dwel How justly did thine Ecstatical Apostle call it the inheritance of the Saints in light light unexpressible light unconceivable light inaccessible Lo thou that hast prepared such a light to this inferiour world for the use and comfort of us mortall creatures as the glorious Sun which can both inlighten and dazle the eyes of all beholders hast proportionally ordained a light to that higher world so much more excellent then the Sun as heaven is above earth immortality above corruption And if wise Solomon could say truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the Sun how infinitely delectable is it in thy light to see such light as may make the Sun in comparison thereof darknesse In thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore What can be wished more where there is fulness of joy and behold thy presence O Lord yeelds it Could I neither see Saint nor Angell in that whole Empyreall heaven none but thine infinite self thy self alone were happiness for me more then enough But as thou in whom here below we live and move and have our beeing detractest nothing from thine all-sufficiency but addest rather to the praise of thy bounty in that thou furnishest us with variety of means of our life and subsistence so here it is the praise of thy wonderfull mercies which thou allowest us besides thine immediate presence the Society of thy blessed Angels and Saints wherein we may also enjoy thee And if the view of any of those single glories be enough to fil my soul with wonder and contentment how must it needs run over at the sight of those worlds of beauty and excellency which are here met and united Lo here the blessed Hâ—erarchy of innumerable Angels there the glorious company of the Apostles here the goodly fellowship of the Patriarchs and Prophets there the noble Army of Mâ—rtyrs here the troops of laborious Pastors
is the fulnesse of joy what can it be lesse then fulnesse of torment But alas this is farre from a meer absence The very sin of the damned is no small part of their hell for as all their powers parts faculties are as so many subjects of their insupportable pain and torture so out of that insufferable extremity they conceive a desperate indignation and hatred against God not as he is in himself infinitely good for goodness can be no object of hate but as he is to them a severe though most just avenger of sin to which is ever added a will obstinately fixed in evill whiles they were in their way they were in a possibility of reclamation now that they are in termino they can be no other then they are As therefore the glorified souls are in a condition like to the Angels of heaven so the damned are in the state of Devils not more capable of avoiding torment then sin equally reserved in everlasting chains of darkness to the judgement of the great day When wo is me that which seemed little lesse then infinite shall yet receive a further aggravation of pain and misery when the addition of the body shall give a further extent to this wofull cruâ—lation without all possibility of release for ever Alas what anguish do I feel in my self to see the body of a malefactour flaming at a stake and yet this is but the act of a few minutes for the air so vehemently incended instantly stops the passage of that free breath which should maintain life and the flesh by apposition of that combustible matter which encompasses it is soon turned into dead cinders but I could conceive of a body frying a whole day in a continued flame Lord how should I be affected with the sad compassion of that intolerable torment burn inwardly with the sense of anothers pain but to think of a whole years broyling in such a fire how can it but turn our bowels within us What then Oh what is it to conceive of lying in a fire more intense then nature can kindle for hundreds thousands millions yea millions of millions of years yea further beyond these then these are beyond a minute of time to all eternity where besides the indurance every thing that makes towards the mitigation of other pains addes to these Here is society of tortures but such as tortureth more Those perpetuall howlings and shriekings and wailings of so many millions of the damned were enough to make the place an hell even to him that should be exempted from those sufferings Here is some glimpse of knowledge of the blessed estate of glorified souls enough to heighten their envie enough to perfect their torment even as meat is set before that man which is doomed to famish Shortly here is exquisite disconsolateness gloomy darknesse extreme horror pain insufferable hideous ejulations utter hopelesness vexing indignation furious blasphemies infinite dolour and anguish without relaxation without pity without possibility of remedy or ease or end How can it be otherwise O God if thy mercy have prepared such an heaven for thy poor servants whose very best works for their great imperfection deserve nothing but punishment what an hell hath thy justice provided for those enemies of thine that wilfully despight thee and offend of malicious wickedness How infinitely art thou more just then sinners can be miserable But it is enough O my soul to have lookt into the pit enough to make thee lament the wofull condition of those that are there shut up enough to warne thee to avoid those sinfull wayes that lead downe to these chambers of death enough to make thee think no tears can be sufficient to bewail the desperate carelesnesse of wretched sinners that run on in a known course of wickednesse without any regard of an insuing damnation Alas so as they are bewitched they have not the grace to pity themselves and to foresee the danger of their own utter perdition which if they could but look into they would be ready to run mad with horrour Poor souls could they but recover their reason they would then think if a thousand daies pleasure cannot weigh with one hours torment what do I buy one hours pleasure with the torment of more then ten thousand ages how do I dare to dance for a few minutes upon the mouth of hell with the peril of an everlasting burning Surely if Infidelity had not rob'd men of their wits they could not resolve to purchase the momentany pleasures of sin with so dreadfull and eternall damnation SECT. XI A Recapitulation of the whole discourse ANd now what is to be done Surely as some Traveller that hath with many weary steps passed through divers Kingdoms and Countries being now returned to his quiet home is wont to solace his leasure by recalling to his thoughts a short mentall landskip of those regions through which he hath journyed here conceiving a large Plain there a Lake here a track of Mountains there a Wood here a Fen there a City here a Sea there a Desert so do thou O my soul upon this voyage of thine through the great invisible World bethink thy self of what thou hast seen and so abridge this large Prospect to thy self as that it may never be out of thine eye Think first that whatsoever thou seest thou canst not look besides the invisible majesty of thy God all this materiall world is his he is in all rather all is in him who so comprehends this Universe that he is infinitely without it think of him as with thee as in thee as every where Do thou therefore ever acknowledge him ever adore him ever enjoy him ever be approved of him see him from whom thou canst not be hid relye on him without whom thon canst not subsist glorifie him without whom thou canst not be happy Next as those that have their celestial life and being by from and in him wonder at the glorious Hierarchy of the heavenly Angels blesse him in their pure and spirituall nature in their innumerable numbers in their mighty power in their excellent knowledge blesse him in their comely orders in their divine offices in their beneficiall imployments in their gracious care and love of mankind And so far as weak flesh and bloud may with pure and majestical spirits converse with them daily entertaine them so thou knowest they are present with awfull observances with spirituall allocutions ask of thy self how pleasing thine actions are to them receive from them their holy injections return to them under thy God thy thankful acknowledgments expect from them a gracious tuition here and an happy transportation to thy glory After these represent to thy self the blessed society of the late charge and now partners of those heavenly Angels the glorified Spirits of the just see the certainty of their immortall being in the state of their separation see them in the very instant of their parting blessed with the vision with the fruition of
lesse open then they are hid to us As for the glorified Saints of God who are gone before us to our home with what spirituall joy should we be ravished at the consideration of their blessed condition who now have attained to the end of their hopes glory and bliss without end ever seeing ever enjoying him at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore how should we blesse God for their blessedness and long for our own Lastly how should our joy be seasoned with a cautious fear when we cast our eyes upon those objects of dread and horrour the principalities and powers of darkness not so confined to their hell as to leave us untempted and increasing their sin and torment by our temptation How should our hearts bleed with sorrow and commiseration of those wretched souls which we see daily intangled in the snares of the Devill and captived by him at his will here on earth and frying under his everlasting torments in the pit of hell How should our hearts be pre-possessed with a most earnest and vigilant care to resist all the dangerous assaults of those wicked spirits and to prevent the perill of our own like-wofull destruction If we i shall make this use of our beeing in this visible world happy are we that ever we came into it more happy in our going out of it for having thus used it as if we used it not we shall so enjoy the other as those that shall ever enjoy it and in it all glory honour immortality Lo then O my soul the glorious world which thou art now aspiring unto yea whereinto thou art now entring There there fix thy self never to be removed Look down upon these inferiour things with an overly contempt forget what is past as if it had never been Bid a willing farewel to this visible world wherein as thy Creatour hath a just interest of glory for that the substance of it is the wondrous workmanship of his hands so Satan styled he Prince of it claimeth no small share in regard of its sinfull depravation Farewell then ye frivolous and windy honours whose management is ever wont to be in others hands not in our own which have ever been no lesse fickle then the breath ye have depended upon whose chief use hath been for temptation to puffe up the heart with a proud conceit of eminence above others not requiting in the mean while the danger with any solid contentment Farewell ye deceitfull Riches which when we have we cannot hold and even while we hold we cannot enjoy and if we offer and affect to enjoy is it not with our spirituall losse for what love we yeeld to cast away upon you we abate to him that is the true and all-sufficient good More then for necessary use we are never the better for you often times the worse your load is more uneasie then your worth is precious Farewell pleasures if I ever knew what ye were which have alwayes wont to afford more sting then honey whose onely scope hath professedly been under a pretence of delectation to debauch and emasculate the mind and to dis-relish all spirituall comforts where your expectation hath been somewhat delightfull your fruition hath been unsatisfiingâ— your loose displeasing your remembrance irksome Farewell friends some of whose unsteadinesse and unfaithfulnesse hath helpt to adde to my load which the fidelity of others had not power to ease whose love might be apt to condole my shipwrack but could not spare me a plank to swim to the shore Shortly whose common misery may be more ready to receive then give comfort The honour that I now reach at is no lesse then a crown and that no fading and corruptible as all these earthly Diadems are but immarcescibly eternall a crown of righteousnesse a crown of glory The riches that I am now for are not such as are digged out of the base entrails of the earth obnoxious to spoil and plunder but treasures laid up in heaven The pleasures that I now affect are the fulnesse of joy at the right hand of the Almighty for eve more The friends that I ambitiously sue for are those that shall receive me into everlasting habitation Lastly farewell vanishing life and welcome blessed eaernity Even so Lord Jesu come quickly FINIS THE CONTENTS THE FIRST BOOK Of God and his Angels THe Preface 1. That there is an Invisible world 2. The distribution of the Invisible world 3. Of the Angels of heaven Their Numbers 4. The power of Angels 5. The knowledg of Angels 6. The Imployment and operations of Angels 7. The Degrees and Orders of Angels 8. The Apparitions of Angels 9. The respects which we owe to the Angels The Second Book Of the souls of blessed men 1 Of their Separation and Immortality 2. Of the present vision of God upon the egression of the soul 3. Of the perpetuall vigilance of the soul and its fruition of God 4. Of the knowledge of the glorified 5. Of the glory of heaven enjoyed by blessed souls 6. Wherein the glory of the Saints above consisteth and how they are imployed 7. In what terms the departed Saints stand to us and what respects they bear us 8. The re-union of the body to the soul and both glorified The third Book Of the Devils and damned Souls 1. Of the evill Angels Of their first sin and fall 2. Of the number of Apostate Spirits 3. Of the power of Devils 4. Of the knowledge and malice of wicked Spirits 5. Of the variety of the spirituall assaults of evill Spirits 6. Of the apparitions and shapes assumed of the evill Spirits 7. The vehemence of Satans last conflicts 8. Of our carriage towards wicked Spirits 9. How we are to proceed against evill Spirits 10. Of the wofull estate of the damned souls 11 A recapitulation of the whole discourse 12. The comparison of both worlds And how our thoughts and affections should be taken up with the Invisible world FINIS COURTEOUS READER These Books following are Printed for John Place and are to be sold at his Shop at Furnivalls-Inn Gate in Holborn Books in Folio 1. THe History of the World by Sir VValter Raleigh Knight 2. Things new and old or a Store-house of Similies Sentence Allegories Addages Apologies Divine Morall and Politicall by John Spencer of Sion Colledge 3. Observations on Caesars Commentaries by Sir Clement Edmunds Kt. 4. Shepparts Epitomy of the Law 5. The Reports of the learned Judge Popham sometime Lord chief Justice of England 6. The Reports of the learned Judge Owen chief Justice of the Common Pleas 7. Londinopolis or a History of the Cities of London and Westminster by James Howell 8. The History of Swedes Gothes and Vandals by Olaus Magnus Bishop of Vpsall 9. The Reports of the learned Serjeant Bridgman 10. Cowells Interpreter of hard words in the Law c. 11. Maximes of Reason or the Reason of the Common Law by Edward VVingat Esq late one of the Benchers of Grays-Inn 12. The