endued with all Glorious qualities and perfectly fitted to serv and attend the Soul which now is forced to drudge for the Body and lay in Provision for it as the Wise man saith All labor is for his mouth and yet the Appetite is not satisfied but then the main and only Business shall be Spirituall and therefore the Apostle calls it a Spiritual Body not a Spirit but advanced to the neerest likeness whereof it is capable and made as fit an Instrument for the Spirit as may be Probably it shall be purified and sublimated to the perfection of the Celestiall matter which is the purest part oâ— the whole Body of the world and the Country or Region wherein Man shall live for ever and therefore as now living on the Earth his Body is sutable and connaturall to it so when he shall be taken up to Heaven it shall be refined to the temper thereof and shall need none of Mahomets Loadstones to lift it up but like the Stars in their Orbs move in the highest Heaven of Heavens most freely and naturally Thus the Apostle speaking of the resurrection of the Body seems to argue Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can Corruption inherit Incorruption and again The first Man was of the Earth Earthly the second Man is the Lord from Heaven as we have born the Image of the Earthly so we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly This is the highest perfection whereof the Body is capable and was reserved for Christ the second Adam and his glorified members as the Apostle doth also infer Howbeit that was not first which was Spirituall but that which was Naturall and afterward that which was Spirituall As God is the Light of that place so the Soul is the Ey which shall see him and immediately enjoy him and as the Body so the Soul much more shall then be discharged of all Imperfections as Errors Lusts and the like Reason and Discourse yea Faith it self shall then be resolved into Vision Desire into Joy and Hope into Fruition Not only all Sin shall be excluded out of Heaven but also many inferior Graces which now serv to bring us thither The Soul shall then attain an higher perfection then it hath or can have in this world God saith No man can see him and live that is no living Man can possibly see him though the common Iews did interpâ—â—â—â—therwise as appears by the Story of Manoah yet Moses who saw as much of God as man could do did not therefore dy But he saw only his Backparts or Attributes which are but the demonstrations of his Nature in Heaven we shall behold him face to face and know him as we are known according to the utmost capacity of finite Creatures and thus the Soul shall be wholly filled with the sight of God as the Ey is filled with Light possessing and enjoying it in it self and changed by it into the same Glory Then shall we also love God as we are loved of him yea as he loves himself according to our finite capacity and so accordingly partake of the same Happiness which he enjoieth in himself which is a most wonderfull and inconceivable Blessedness and therefore sensuall and carnall men who are only acquainted with the Creatures wholly neglect it as bein◠〈◊〉 for fools to understand and would be better pleased and more taken with a Poeticall Elysium or Circean Paradise But a true Christian may satisfy himself with this that though he cannot comprehend this future Blessedness fully and particularly yet in generall he believs it to be the highest and purest Happiness whereof he is capable Every Vessell of Mercy as a Vessell shall be made only to hold Mercy and be wholly filled with it Yet shall not all the Saints be equall in Glory but differ therein as in Grace for though all the Spirits of Just men shall be then made perfect yet they shall be proportionably perfected in Glory according to their degrees of Grace by an Arithmeticall not by a Geometricall proportion as in the Parable of the Talents He who gained two Talents was made Ruler over two Cities in his Lords Kingdome and he who gained five Talents was made Ruler over five Cities There is no proportion between 〈◊〉 and Cities yet there is a proportion between Two and Two and beween Five and Five Thus shall we be recompensed according to our works though not for our works and this may be as great and quick an incitation to working as the proud opinion of merit attaining the same effect and ending in the same reward of Blessedness And though there cannot properly be any merit in the Creature but only a performance of Covenants yet the obedience of Angels through that Grace which was first implanted in their Nature and never forfeited is far short of this free Grace of God in Christ which as it is a manifestation of the greater Love of God to Man and the ground of his greater Delight in him so it begets in us proportionably a greater Love toward him and a greater Delight in him wherein the chief Happpiness of the Creature doth consist â—nd thus the Soul of Man â—â—nds the highest perfection of Glory and the very Heaven of Heaven through free Grace enjoying Christ as the fountain of all Happiness and God himself as the Ocean thereof As Heaven in the separation from all worldly things doth most plainly manifest the Vanity thereof so in it self and in its own nature it is the most perfect universall and eternall Blessedness and the preparation for it and expectiation of it the only true Happiness of Man in this Life FINIS Errata PAg. 2. lin 1. Read Pandora's p. 6. l. 23. r. highest Sense p. 29. l. 5. â— Nicolas p. 34. l. 12. r. publica p. 40. l. 12 13. r. ingenuous p. 42 1. 6 r. Myrteus p. 47. l. 9. r. kind of regality p. 53. l. 6. r. as Metall p. 75. l. 4. r. apposite p. 89. l. 6. r. great l. 14 15. r. himself p. 107. l. 16 18. r. Nulla p. 132 l. 2. r. Sibylls p. 147. l. 8. r. Christ whom p. 150. l. 7. r. Nosce p. 152. l. 6. r. the Text. p. 167. l. 6. r. poenis p. 175. l. 17. r. inebriation p. 176. l. 13. r. retorted p. 189. l. 2. r so it is p. 201. l. 23 24. r. by telling p. 209. l. 18 r. in the story p. 224. l. 23. r. consumptos p. 255. l. 20. r. ominous p. 262. l. 16. r. geminas p. 270. l. 14. r. that a Cato p. 278. l. 8. r. Immortality of the Soul
far below a great Spirit Apostates of all other men most strictly embrace this present world and study to extract the greatest sweetness it can afford their desires being greatly enlarged with the tast which they had of the Chief good and they have reason to do so for at the best they make but a bad bargain but all fall not in the same manner some fall forward with their faces toward the earth and wallow in the mire of sensuall uncleanness as Nicholas the Libertine and his beastly Sect others of a more generous and sublime Spirit by supine gazing on the Heavens from which they fell and barking at the Stars which they left fixed in their Orbs such were Lucian Iulian and the Devils It seems Spiritual wickedness is most sublime and delightful much more Spiritual virtues and graces which are the proper perfections of the Soul Averroes and the rest of the Arabian Philosophers are ashamed of that sensual and beastly Paradise which their Mahomet provided for them as most unworthy of the soul of Man and far short of his true Happiness VI. Of Health HEalth is the temperate Zone or habitable part of Mans Life As sleep is the image of Death so is sickness of Hell being rightly termed a Dying Life whereof Death many times is the sole Physitian Many Princes dwell in stately Palaces whose souls are ill seated in Cadaverous bodies Health is commonly the Peasants prerogative which no riches can purchase of him whereas if he could be bought out of it he might sell it at the dearest rates what would not a rich man give to another to undertake the pain of the Stone or Gout for him could they be laid upon others as outward burdens and labors are Health in Great men is a great advantage Henry the fourth of France was bred hardly among the Peasants which preserved his life and prepared him for those great Actions which he afterward performed Cicero reporteth of one of the Scipio's that he had equalled Africanus if he had not been kept under by perpetual sickness Besides health is the very Paradise of all Sensual Pleasures in which they grow and flourish yet Courtiers usually corrupt it by a licentious course of life and so disable both Body and Mind not only for the performing of Civill Actions but also for the enjoying of Naturall Pleasures which they so much affect So unnatural is the vice of voluptuousness that it destroyeth Health which is its own foundation As Health consists in Temperament so the best way to preserve it is Temperance Diseases caused by emptiness may be more dangerous but there is more danger in exceeding Hence are most of our vulgar sicknesses Feavers Pests Catarrhs and Coughs the Trumpeters of Death Violence and excess may be good Physike but are bad Diet unless we dare venture on them as Mithridates used Poison to fortifie our selvs against casual extremities But a sober and discreet mixture of both seems most conform to the various occasions of life The Ecclesiastical Order was to fast the Eve before a Feast but the Physical rule holds as well afterward till it be digested and the best kind of fasting is to eat a little Excess of Affections especially Malignant as Fear Grief Envy Malice and all Anxiety of mind destroyes the body more then that of Food but delightful objects and pleasant studies are the minds Recreations Keep both Body and Mind clean and fresh freeing them from all burdensom and offensive things But Tiberius his Aphorism That every man is his own best Phisician is worth all others being most true as to the preservation of the ordinary state of Health though not in extraordinary cases or overgrown Diseases which must be helped by the hand of Art Experiments first founded the Art of Physike and no Experience like that within a mans self and Tiberius his life set a Probatum est to his Aphorism for though he was generally most licentious and libidinous yet he preserved himself in good health to a reasonable old age living seventy and eight years He was indeed of a strong constitution but we find the same effect in men very crazy and more sober as Hippocrates Galen and others who first studied their own cases and thence became most eminent Physicians Though Health be very pretious yet it may be overvalued some are so curious of it that they fear the least blast and shadow of Inconvenience as he who imagined himself made all of Glass and was afraid lest every knock should break him whereas indeed this tender niceness is rather a destroier then a preserver of Health Caesar by continuall imployment and hard usage overcame two constant Diseases the Headâ— ach and Falling-sickness and many in our late Wars who before were thought weak and infirm being put upon Service and the necessity of suffering have proved able and hardy beyond expectation However health must be adventured as well as life Pro salute publicae Pompey said Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam when the Common-wealth was concerned He who makes health his chief good and utmost end lives only that he may live and prolongs his time to no purpose VII Of Strength STrength is the Issue Male of Health and Beauty the Female the conjunction of both is very rare and the perfection of Hero's We will speak of them severally There are two kinds of Strength one of Acting the other of Enduring The former is the meniall servant of a Mans self and he who is not his own best Man is his slaves slave and a voluntary Criple There are many offices of life which cannot handsomly be performed by others as necessary Actions and all Exercises The manner of the Turks to sit on Carpets shooting their Arrows and have their slaves fetch them is an unmanly Exercise Some are so vainly idle that they commit the very dressing undressing of themselvs to their servants which is a womanish Fashion there may be some state in it but certainly no convenience A small competency of Strenght sufficeth for common Actions and Agility serveth the turn better then Robust Force Gross and fat bodies are more strong in their Center but have a less Circumference or Sphere of activity being burdens to the earth and themselvs Light and nimble bodies though of less Strength have more use and enjoyment of it The want of a convenient proportion of ordinary Strength renders the Body more infirm and defective then any extraordinary measure thereof can advance in happiness for even in those things whereof there can be no excess and so a mediocrity cannot be the perfection yet it is the Center and hart of the whole It may seem strange that Strength should be increased by sickness and distemper which is an Infirmity as in Feavers Madness Anger yea sometimes by fear it self But this Strength arising from a sudden conflux of spirits is not solid and permanent consisting rather in a violent quickness then in a constant endeavour
and that my Soul knoweth right well So comparing both together When I consider the Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and Starrs which thou hast ordained what is Man that thou art mindfull of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him c. Naturalists are much affected with the Sucly of Nature and Poets express a fluent and sweet delight in describing her but there is more Life and Spirit and Angelicall Speculation in one of Davids Psalms then in all their writings this Spirituall use thereof being more sublime and divine then any naturall contemplations as the Cardinall plainly confessed when he found a Countriman meditating on a Toad and blessing God who made him a Man As Adam was created in a state of Perfection so he had a great advantage of us in other respects being created in the perfect maturity of Understanding and rising up suddenly from the Earth out of which he was taken whereby he had a quicker and fresher view of the World then we whose Minds are dulled through Custome and Use and the edge of our apprehensions much rebated thereby Let us therefore make triall whither the Imagination of such an advantage may not somewhat excite and sharpen our understanding Let a man suppose himself made as David speaks Metaphorically in the lowest parts of the Earth in an adult State of Body and Mind Surely if he could well discern it he would judge it to be the common dunghill of the VVorld and would wonder to find any Metalls or Jewells hid in the rubbish thereof And then coming neerer the Surface and meeting with heaps of rotten Carcases and a few noisome Living Creatures he would deem it a very Grave and Hell of all things and could never expect that it should produce any thing but filth and corruption But then lifting up his head above the Ground and seeing it covered with the curious Tapestry of Herbs and Flowers spread for him as a Prince to tread on painted with the variety of all pleasant Colors and perfumed with most fragrant Odors and enriched with many secret and excellent Virtues then beholding the Armies of standing Corn and Forrests of goodly Trees crowned with innumerable Leavs and Fruits and perceiving the severall kinds of Beasts and Birds like so many Automata or self-moving Engins stirring up and down about him in their severall Postures and Motions he must needs stand amazed at so strange a sight and praise the fruitfulness of the womb which bare them But looking back upon the deep and wide Sea which threatens the shore with his insulting waves he would fear least that roaring Monster should step in among them and swallow up all in his devouring Jaws till he perceiv how when he is swoln to the hight of his pride and fury he begins to retreat and fall back into his native den without doing the least hurt and fetches off the tall ships carrying them away upon his Back and furnishes all the Aquaeducts of the Earth with fresh Springs and Streams ministring drink to the whole Family Again considering the pure Aire which he scarcely felt or perceived and yet is so far from Inanity that it fills up all the Chinks and Cranies of the VVorld fanning the Earth with the VVings of VVind and driving the great Ships to and fro with various Gales of Breath sometimes causing a quiet Calm and universall peace among the Elements and suddenly muffling the face of Heaven with black Clouds and rowsing up the sleepy Ocean tossing and tumbling it over and over and tearing the Bowells of the Earth making the Sturdy Mountains to tremble and the Rocks cleav in sunder is again as suddenly pacified he knows not how nor by whose perswasion how it carrieth about the Limbikes of the Clouds which distill down fruitfull showers and drop fatness on the Earth and in a moment convey all the Gifts and Blessings of Heaven to it Lastly contemplating those vast Orbs or Worlds of Light in their swift Motions and perpetuall Courses which never fail one minute of their appointed Time nor wander an inch out of their constant Way blessing the Earth with their very smiles and illuminating it with their Glorious Light he must necessarily acknowledge and adore the great Creator who hath founded this stately Globe and doth manage the Universall Empire of Nature by Secret Laws and inward Principles And though he cannot discern him by outward Sight yet his Understanding will as easily discover him as it doth an invisible Spirit in a living Body Besides as a Christian he tasts the bloud of his Savior in all things which renders those reliques and fragments of nature more sweet to him then all the first Paradise of perfection was to Adam IX Of Providence A Theists though partly convinced by Nature draw their chief arguments against a Deity from Providence and the present state of things whereas indeed this is the greater argument against them and such as fortifies the other for had Nature still flowed in a constant Stream of Causes and Effects she might more probably have been supposed to be the only Fountain of all things but when we see Nature which alwaies intendeth the Best not able to fulfill her own Laws nor effect her Intentions and so fall short of that end which she prescribes to her self we may plainly perceiv that there is a higher Power which over-rules her for the Creature was made subject to Vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Again she being thus lapsed and diseased might easily decay and perish if the same Power did not still preserv and continue her in all her Species though Individualls dy daily How litle excess of drought or heat destroies the hopes of the whole Year A pestilentiall Aire may infect the whole world and an Age of successive Famines and Pests might prove an universall destruction of all Living Creatures But he left not himself without witness in that he doth good giving us rain from heaven and fruitfull seasons and filling our harts with food and gladness Let a man seriously consider how Strangely his own Life is preserved how many severall Ingredients are requisite to patch it up how many sorts of Materialls are necessary to build an House how many Utensiles to furnish it how many kinds of Creatures are spent in feeding him and almost as many in clothing him besides all other occasionall Instruments of Life and he may justly wonder at the daily provision which God hath made for him Let him also consider how many possible Deaths lurk in his own bowells and the innumerable hosts of externall Dangers which beleaguer him on every side how many invisible Arrows fly about his ears continually and yet how few have hit him and none hitherto mortally wounded him and he shall find the meditation of those things which now he so much neglects strangely affect him Vives reports of a Iew that having gone over a deep river on a
distinguished and discerned by all as now the Eye doth judge of Colors Black and White Light and Darkness and every one receive according to his Deeds so that there shall not be one farthing got or lost by all this forbearance Though Hell hath most of men yet Heaven had the first who died a Martyr and God will have some of both sorts in all Ages and Parts of the World to fill both places As for wicked men Iuvenal tells us Quocunque invenias populo quocunque sub axe Though he thought a Brutus or a Cato could hardly be found in any corner of the earth but Christ tells us that better then they shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdome of God and they in Heaven sing unto him Thou hast redeemed us unto God out of every Kindred and Tong and People and Nation As when any man hath filled up the measure of his Sin or Grace he is taken out of this world so when the whole number of Sinners and Saints shall be accomplished then shall the World it self cease and be resolved into this perfect Kingdome Christ shall have his mystical Body made of all his Saints as so many members of severall proportions and the Divell shall have his made up of sinners of all sorts and Sizes and God shall be perfectly glorified in both God made the first world in order measure and weight much more this second world which must be most perfect and perpetuall The perfection of this perfection and that wherein God is most glorified is the salvation of Man therefore as the first man that died was saved so the dead in Christ shall rise first though there shall be more of the damned which is also to set forth the singular and extraordinary Grace of God toward the blessed yet there is greater manifestation of Gods Glory in them that are saved then in the other Justice is equally ballanced by rewarding the good and punishing the bad but the saving of one Sinner which is an act of free Grace and Bounty far exceeds both and damnation which is but a due punishment holds no proportion with it There is more merit in the blood of Christ by which we are saved then demerit in the Divells and all the damned A Christian enjoies this day of Judgement by a constant and joifull expectation thereof which is so terrible unto others and as God will then reduce all the confusions of this world into a state of perfection so shall all the reproches and sufferings of the Saints end in eternal Glory and Blessedness XIX Of Hell HEll is the Executioner of Gods last Judgment against Sinners the Nadir of the new World as Heaven is the Zenith Paul the 3 d on his death bed said he should shortly be resolved of three things whereof he had ever much doubted Whether there were a God an Immortality and a Hell or no and indeed we can hardly deny the last unless we also deny the first God who is the great Judge will not only pass sentence which is but an Idea of Justice but also execute it upon the damned which is the life and existence thereof Therefore every Religion hath instituted some kind of Heaven and Hell places of reward and punishment sutable to it self and the more pure and spirituall the Religion is the more exact are the Heaven and Hell belonging to it for as it deals with God himself so it doth with his Justice and Mercy The Barbarous Nations suppose that after Death they shall be transported beyond I know not what Mountains and there receiv some childish rewards The Poets have their Elysium and Tartarus and have furnished them with severall kinds of Pleasures and Pains The Turks fansy a Paradise of all carnall Delights and a place of corporeall Torments very gross and sensuall neerer Poetry then Christianity The Papists acknowledge a true Heaven and Hell but as they deal with all other parts of Religion so to these they add some Suburbs certain Limbo's and Purgatories of their own invention But the Scriptures set forth the true Heaven and the true Hell in a most perfect manner becommig the Mercy and Justice of an Infinite God and befitting the Spiritual nature of the Creatures capable thereof Wicked men perswade themselvs that God who made them will not damn them or at most that they shall only suffer to the purging away of their Sin and then afterward Vbi mille rotam volvere per annos as Origen held even of the Divells they shall be released because their Sins cannot hurt God therefore they think God will not hurt them Thou thoughtest saith God I was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thine Eies He is so far from any such blind and dull negligence that he will bring forth all their sins and set every one of them in order attired with all their Circumstances and exactly proportion punishments to them by a most just and equall compensation He who would suffer none to escape in this life whom he had cursed with a temporall Curse but most severely punished the foolish pity of Saul in sparing Agag and Achan for reserving only a wedge of Gold and a Babylonish Garment of the spoil of that execrated City who drowned the old World with a Deluge and saved only eight Persons in the Ark will certainly in a most exact manner execute his great Anathema and finall doom against Sinners whereof those former examples seem to be but the types and the evidences of his severe wrath the perfection whereof is reserved for Hell These things are no Monkery nor Christian Poetry no Bruta fulmina but most certain truths grounded on Reason and Scripture God is not slack as men count slackness nor rigid as they count rigor but as he perfectly hates Sin so he will perfectly punish it and go to the very utmost Apex and Puntilio of Justice that so his Justice may be manifested to the utmost Hell is the privation of all Good things depriving the irreligious Cardinall at once both of his part in Paris and of his part in Paradise There the voluptuous Dives hath not the least drop of water to cool the tip of his tong but is exprobrated and tormented aswell with the remembrance of the good things which he formerly enjoied as of the evill thing he suffers But Heaven it self is that which doth infinitely provoke the envy of the Divells and the Damned making the great Tyrants and cruell Persecuters of the world to gnash their teeth when they behold a poor Lazarus whom thay disdained to diet with their dogs advanced to so high a Glory and trampling on their captive necks Hence they conceiv as much torment as they see the Saints enjoy of bliss for this is the nature of perfect Envy to be as much vexed in it self as it apprehendeth Happiness in another Coelum est