lie upon them nor be covered over with water though they be invironed round with the fluid air 10 But he makes it partly dry Land and partly Sea Rivers and Springs whose convenience is obvious for every one to conceive 11 He adorns the ground also with grasse herbs and flowers and hath made a wise provision of seed that they bring forth for the perpetuation of such useful commodities upon the face of the earth 12 For indeed these things are very good and necessary both for man and beast 13 Therefore God prepared the matter of the Earth so as that there was a vital congruity of the parts thereof with sundry sorts of seminall forms of trees herbs and choicest kinds of flowers and so the Body of the Earth drew in sundry principles of Plantall Life from the World of Life that is at hand every where and the Passive and Active Principle thus put together made up the Third Days work and the Ternary denotes the nature thereof 14 The Ternary had allotted to it the garnishing of an Earth with trees flowers and herbs after the distinction of Land and Sea as the Quinary hath allotted to it the replenishing of an Earth with fish and fowl the Senary with man and beast But this Fourth Day comprehends the garnishing of the body of the whole world viz. That vast and immense Ethereal matter which is called the fluid Heaven with infinite numbers of sundry sorts of lights which Gods Wisdome and Power by union of fit and active principles drawn from the world of life made of this Ethereal matter whose usefulnesse is plain in nature that they are for Prognostick signes and seasons and days and years 15 As also for administring of light to all the inhabitants of the world That the Planets may receive light from their fountains of light and reflect light one to another 16 And there are two sorts of these Lights that all the inhabitants of the world must acknowledge great every where consulting with the outward sight from their proper stations And the dominion of the greater of these kinde of lights is conspicuous by day the dominion of the lesser by night the former we ordinarily call a Sun the other a Moon which Moon is truly a Planet and opake but reflecting light very plentifully to the beholders sight and yet is but a secondary or lesser kind of Planet but he made the Primary and more eminent Planets also and such an one is this Earth we live upon 17 And God placed all these sorts of lights in the thin and liquid Heaven that they might reflect their rayes one upon another and shine upon the inhabitants of the world 18 And that their beauty and resplendency might be conspicuous to the beholders of them whether by day or by night which is mainly to be understood of the Suns that supply also the place of Stars at a far distance but whose chiefe office it is to make vicissitudes of day and night And the Universal dark Aether being thus adorn'd with the goodly and glorious furniture of those several kindes of lights God approved of it as good 19 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fourth days work and the number denotes the nature thereof 20 And now you have heard of a verdant Earth and a bounded Sea and Lights to shine through the air and water and to gratifie the eyes of all living creatures whereby they may see one another and be able to seek their food you may seasonably expect the mention of sundry animals proper to their elements Wherefore God by his inward Word and Power prepared the matter in the waters and near the waters with several vital congruities so that it drew in sundry souls from the world of Life which actuating the parts of the matter caus'd great plenty of fish to swim in the waters and fowls to flye above the earth in the open air 21 And after this manner he created great Whales also as well as the lesser kindes of fishes and he approved of them all as good 22 And the blessing of his inward Word or Wisdome was upon them for their multiplication for according to the preparation of the matter the Plastical Power of the souls that descend from the world of Life did faithfully and effectually work those wise contrivances of male and female they being once rightly united with the matter so that by this means the fish filled the waters in the seas and the fowls multiplyed upon the earth 23 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fift days work and the Quinary denotes the nature thereof 24 And God persisted farther in the Creation of living creatures and by espousing new souls from the world of Life to the more Mediterraneous parts of the matter created land-serpents cattel and the beasts of the field 25 And when he had thus made them he approved of them for good 26 Then God reflecting upon his own Nature and viewing himself consulting with the Super-essential Goodnesse the Eternal Intellect and unextinguishable Love-flame of his Omnipotent Spirit concluded to make a far higher kinde of living creature then was as yet brought into the world He made therefore Man in his own Image after his own Likenesse For after he had prepared the matter fit for so noble a guest as an humane Soul the world of Life was forced to let go what the rightly prepared matter so justly called for And Man appeared upon the stage of the earth Lord of all living creatures For it was just that he that bears the Image of the invisible God should be Supreme Monarch of this visible world And what can be more like God then the soul of man that is so free so rational and so intellectual as it is And he is not the lesse like him now he is united to the terrestrial body his soul or spirit possessing and striking through a compendious collection of all kinde of corporeal matter and managing it with his understanding free to think of other things even as God vivificates and actuates the whole world being yet wholly free to contemplate himself Wherefore God gave Man dominion over the fowls of the air the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth for it is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better 27 Thus God created Man in his own Image he consisting of an intellectual Soul a terrestrial Body actuated thereby Wherefore mankinde became male and female as other terrestrial animals are 28 And the benediction of the Divine Wisdome for the propagation of their kinde was manifest in the contrivance of the parts that were framed for that purpose And as they grew in multitudes they lorded it over the earth and over-mastered by their power and policy the beasts of the field and fed themselves with fish and fowl and what else pleased them and made for their content for all was given to them by right of their
and sincerity and if the divine Light had wrought it self into a more full and universal possession of all his faculties the regulated joyes of the body which had been the off-spring of the woman had so far exceeded the tumultuous pleasures of inordinate desires that they would like the Sun-beams playing upon a fire extinguish the heat thereof as is already said in this fifteenth verse Ver. 16. So that the kindly Joy of the health of the body shall be much depraved The divine Light in the Conscience of Adam might very well say all this he having had already a good taste of it in all likelihood having found himself after inordinate satiating his furious desires of pleasure in a dull languid nauseating condition though new recruits spurred him up to new follies For the Moral Cabbala does not suppose it was one single mistaken act that brought Adam to this confusion of minde but disobedience at large and leading a life unguided by the Light and Law of God Earthly minded Adam Philo calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earthly minde pag. 332. Ver. 17 18 19. Adams Conscience was so awakened by the divine Light and Reason and Experience so instructed him for the present that he could easily read his own doom if he persisted in these courses of disobedience that he should be prick'd and vex'd in his wilde rangings after inordinate pleasure all the while the Earthly mind was his light guide But after all this conviction what way Adam would settle in did not God visit him with an higher pitch of superadvenient grace that would conveigh Faith Power and Affection unto him you see in the verse immediately following Ver. 20. Adam was not sufficiently For meer conviction of Light disjoin'd from Faith Power and Affection may indeed disturb the minde and confound it but is not able of it self to compose it and settle it to good in men that have contracted a custome of evil Called her My life So soon as this reproof and castigation of the divine Light manifested in Adams Conscience was over he forthwith falls into the same sense of things and pursues the same resolutions that he had in designe before and very feelingly concludes with himself that be that as true as it will that his Conscience dictated unto him yet nothing can be more true then this That the Joy of his body was a necessary solace of life and therefore he would set up his happiness in the improvement thereof And so adhering in his affection to it counted it his very life and that there was no living at all without it They are almost the words of Philo speaking of the sense of the body in which was this corporeal Joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. which corporeal sense the earthly minde in man properly therefore called Adam when he saw efformed though it was really the death of the man yet he called it his life This is Philo's Exposition of this present verse Ver. 21. Put hairy Coats The Philosophick Cabbala and the Text have a marvellous fit and easie congruency in this place And this Moral sense will not seem hard if you consider such phrases as these in Scripture But as for his enemies let them be clothed with shame and elsewhere Let them be clothed with rebuke and dishonour besides other places to that purpose And to clothe men according to their conditions and quality what is more ordinary or more fit and natural As those that are fools they ordinarily clothe them in a fools coat And so Adams will and affection being carried so resolvedly to the brutish life it is not incongruous to conceive that the divine Light judging them very Brutes the reproach she gives them is set out in this passage of clothing them with the skins of beasts The meaning therefore of this verse is that the divine Light in the Conscience of Adam had another bout with him and that Adam was convinced that he should grow a kinde of a Brute by the courses he meant to follow And indeed he was content so to be as a man may well conceive the pleasure of sin having so weakned all the powers of that higher life in him that there was little or nothing especially for the present able to carry him at all upwards towards Heaven and holiness And of a truth vile Epicurisme and Sensuality will make the soul of man so degenerate and blinde that he will not only be content to slide into brutish immorality but please himself in this very opinion that he is a real Brute already an Ape Satyre or Baboon and that the best of men are no better saving that civilizing of them and industrious education has made them appear in a more refined shape and long inculcate Precepts have been mistaken for connate Principles of Honesty and Natural Knowledge otherwise there be no indispensable grounds of Religion and Virtue but what has hapned to be taken up by over-ruling Custome Which things I dare say are as easily confutable as any conclusion in Mathematicks is demonstrable But as many as are thus sottish let them enjoy their own wildeness and ignorance it is sufficient for a good man that he is conscious unto himself that he is more nobly descended better bred and born and more skilfully taught by the purged faculties of his own minde Ver. 22. Design'd the contrary The mercy of the Almighty is such to poor man that his weak and dark spirit cannot be always so resolvedly wicked as he is contented to be wherefore it is a fond surmise of desperate men that do all the violence they can to the remainders of that Light and Principle of Religion and honesty left in them hoping thereby to come to rest and tranquillity of minde by laying dead or quite obliterating all the rules of godliness morality out of their souls For it is not in their power so to do nor have they any reason to promise themselves they are hereby secure from the pangs of Conscience For some passages of Providence or other may so awaken them that they shall be forced to acknowledg their errour and rebellion with unexpressible bitterness and confusion of spirit And the longer they have run wrong the more tedious journey they have to return back Wherefore it is more safe to close with that life betime that when it is attained to neither deserves nor is obnoxious to any change or death I mean when we have arrived to the due measure of it For this is the natural accomplishment of the soul all else but rust and dirt that lies upon it Ver. 23. Out of this Paradise of Luxury The English Translation takes no notice of any more Paradises then one calling it always the Garden of Eden But the Seventy more favourable to our Moral Cabbala that which they call a Garden in Eden at first they after name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may signifie the Garden of Luxury But whether there be any
to wit the Essential Will of God which is the true root of Regeneration but to so high a pitch Adam as yet had not reacht unto and the fruit of this Tree in this Ethereal state of the Soul had been Immortality or Life everlasting And the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was there also viz. His own Will 10 And there was a very pleasant River that water'd this Garden distinguishable into four streams which are the four Cardinal Virtues which are in several degrees in the Soul according to the several degrees of the purity of her Vehicle 11 And the name of the first is Pison which is Prudence and Experience in things that are comely to be done For the soul of man is never idle neither in this world nor in any state else but hath some Province to make good and is to promote his interest whose she is For what greater gratification can there be of a good soul then to be a dispenser of some portion of that Universal good that God lets out upon the world And there can be no external conversation nor society of persons be they Terrestrial Aereab or Ethereal but forthwith it implies an Use of Prudence Wherefore Prudence is an inseparable Accomplishment of the soul So that Pison is rightly deemed one of the Rivers even of that Celestial Paradise And this is that wisdome which God himself doth shew to the soul by communication of the divine Light for it is said to compasse the Land of Havilah 12. Where also idle and uselesse speculations are not regarded as is plainly declared by the pure and approved Gold Bdellium and Onyx the commodities thereof 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon which is Justice as is intimated from the fame of the Aethiopians whose Land it is said to compasse as also from the notation of the name thereof 14 And the name of the third River is Hiddekel which is Fortitude that like a rapid stream bears all down before it and stoutly resists all the powers of darknesse running forcibly against Assyria which is situated Westward of it And the fourth River is Perath which is Temperance the nourisher and cherisher of all the plants of Paradise whereas Intemperance or too much addicting the minde to the pleasure of the Vehicle or Life of the matter be it in what state soever drowns and choaks those sacret Vegetables As the earth you know was not at all fruitfull till the waters were removed into one place and the dry land appeared when as before it was drowned and slocken with overmuch moisture 15 In this Paradise thus described had the Lord God placed Man to dresse it and to keep it in such good order as he found it 16 And the divine Word or Light in man charged him saying Of every tree of Paradise thou mayest freely eat For all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant if thou hast a right care of thy self and beest obedient to my commands 17 But of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil that is of thine own will thou shalt not by any means eat For at what time thou eatest thereof thy soul shall contract that languor debility and unsettlednesse that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth and be buried in humane flesh and become an inhabitant of the Region of mortality and death 18 Hitherto I have not taken much notice in the Ethereal Adam of any other Faculties but such as carried him upwards towards virtue and the holy Intellect And indeed this is the more perfect and masculine Adam which consists in pure subtile intellectual Knowledge But we will now inform you of another Faculty of the soul of man which though it seem inferiour yet is far from being contemptible it being both good for himself and convenient for the terrestrial world For this makes him in a capacity of being the head of all the living creatures in the earth as that Faculty indeed is the mother of all mankinde 19 Those higher and more Intellectual accomplishments I must confesse made Adam very wise and of a quick perception For he knew very well the natures of the beasts of the field and fowls of the air I mean not only of the visible and terrestrial creatures but also of the fallen and unfallen Angels or good and bad Genii and was able to judge aright of them according to the principles they consisted of and the properties they had 20 And his Reason and Understanding was not mistaken but he pronounced aright in all But however he could take no such pleasure in the external Creation of God and his various works without having some Principle of life congruously joyning with and joyfully actuating the like matter themselves consisted of Wherefore God indued the soul of man with a faculty of being united with vital joy and complacency to the matter as well as of aspiring to an union with God himself whose divine Essence is too highly disproportioned to our poor substances But the divine Life is communicable in some sort to both soul and body whether it be Ethereal or of grosser consistence and those wonderful grateful pleasures that we feel are nothing but the kindely motions of the souls Vehicle from whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of reflexion strengthned and advanced Of so great consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul to the matter of the Universe 21 Wherefore God to gratifie Adam made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards Intellectual things but Lassitude of Contemplation of Affectation of Immateriality he being not able to receive those things as they are but according to his poor capacity which is very small in respect of the object it is exercis'd about brought upon himself remisnesse and drowsinesse to such like exercises till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep At what time divine Providence having laid the plot aforehand that lower vivificative principle of his soul did grow so strong and did so vigorously and with such exultant sympathy and joy actuate his Vehicle that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retain'd this became more dear to him and of greater contentment then any thing he yet had experience of 22 I say when divine Providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his Vehicle in him 23 He straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto was more lifelesse and evanid and seemed lesse congruous and grateful unto him and more estranged from his nature but this was so agreeable consentaneous to his soul that he looked upon it as a necessary part of himself and called it after his own name 24 And he thought thus within himself For this cause will any one leave his over-tedious aspires to unite with the Eternal Intellect and Universal Soul of the world the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too
highly rais'd for us to continue long in their embracements and will cleave to the joyous and chearful life of his Vehicle and account this living Vehicle and his Soul one Person 25 Thus Adam with his new-wedded Joy stood naked before God but was not as yet at all ashamed by reason of his Innocency and Simplicity for Adam neither in his reason nor affection as yet had transgressed in any thing CHAP. III. 1 Satan tempts Adam taking advantage upon the Invigoration of the life of his Vehicle 2 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and Satan 6 The Masculine faculties in Adam swayed by the Feminine assent to sin against God 7 Adam excuses the use of that wilde Liberty he gave himself discerning the Plastick Power somewhat awakened in him 8 A dispute betwixt Adam and the divine Light arraigning him at the Tribunal of his own Conscience 14 Satan strucken down into the lower Regions of the Air. 15 A Prophecy of the Incarnation of the Soul of the Messias and of his Triumph over the head and highest Powers of the rebellious Angels 16 A decree of God to sowre and disturb all the pleasures and contentments of the Terrestrial Life 20 Adam again excuses his fall from the usefulnesse of his Presence and Government upon Earth 21 Adam is fully incorporated into Flesh and appears in the true shape of a Terrestrial Animal 24 That Immortality is incompetible to the Earthly Adam nor can his Soul reach it till she return into her Ethereal Vehicle 1 NOw the life of the Vehicle being so highly invigorated in Adam by the remission of exercise in his more subtile and immaterial faculties he was fit with all alacrity and chearfulnesse to pursue any game set before him and wanted nothing but fair external opportunity to call him out into action Which one of the evil Genii or faln Angels observing which had no small skill in doing mischief having in all likelihood practised the same villany upon some of his own Orders and was the very Ring leader of rebellion against God and the divine Light For he was more perversely subtile then all the rest of the evil Genii or beasts of the field which God had madâ— Angels but their beastiality they contractâ—â— by their own rebellion For every thing 〈◊〉 hath sense and understanding and wants the divine Life in it in the judgement of all wise and good men is truly a Beast This old Serpent therefore the subtilest of all the beasts of the field cunningly assaulted Adam with such conference as would surely please his Feminine part which was now so invigorated with life that the best news to her would be the tidings of a Commission to do any thing Wherefore the Serpent said to the feminized Adam Why are you so demure and what makes you so bound up in spirit Is it so indeed that God has confined you taken away your Liberty and forbidden you all things that you may take pleasure in 2 And Adam answered him saying No we are not forbidden any thing that the divine Life in us approves as good and pleasant 3 We are only forbidden to feed on our own Will and to seek pleasures apart and without out the approbation of the will of God For if our own will get head in us we shall assuredly descend into the Region of Mortality and be cast into a state of Death 4 But the Serpent said unto Adam Tush this is but a Panick fear in you Adam you shall not so surely die as you conceit 5 The only matter is this God indeed â—â—ves to keep his creatures in awe and to hold them in from ranging too farre and reaching too high but he knows very well that if you take but your liberty with us and satiate your selves freely with your own will your eyes will be wonderfully opened and you will meet with a world of variety of experiments in things so that you will grow abundantly wise and like Gods know all things whatsoever whether good or evil 6 Now the Feminine part in Adam was so tickled with this Doctrine of the old Deceiver that the Concupiscible began to be so immoderate as to resolve to do any thing that may promote pleasure and experience in things snatcht away with it Adams Will and Reason by his heedlesnesse and inadvertency So that Adam was wholly set upon doing things at randome according as the various toyings and titillations of the lascivient Life of the Vehicle suggested to him no longer consulting with the voice of God or taking any farther aim by the Inlet of the divine Light 7 And when he had tired himself with a rabble of toyes and unfruitful or unsatisfactory devices rising from the multifarious workings of the Particles of his Vehicle at last the eyes of his faculties were opened and they perceived how naked they were he having as yet neither the covering of the Heavenly Nature nor the Terrestrial Body Only they sewed fig-leaves together and made some pretences of excuse from the vigour of the Plantal Life that now in a thinner maner might manifest it self in Adam and predispose him for a more perfect exercise of his Plastick Power when the prepared matter of the Earth shall drink him in 8 In the mean time the voice of God or the divine Wisdome spake to them in the cool of the day when the hurry of this mad Carreer had well slaked But Adam now with his wife was grown so out of order and so much estranged from the Life of God that they hid themselves at the sensible approach thereof as wilde beasts run away into the Wood at the sight of a man 9 But the divine Light in the Conscience of Adam pursued him and upbraided unto him the case he was in 10 And Adam acknowledged within himself how naked he was having no power nor ornaments nor abilities of his own and yet that he had left his obedience and dependence upon God Wherefore he was ashamed and hid himself at the approach of the divine Light manifesting it self unto him to the reprehension and rebuke of him 11 And the divine Light charg'd all this misery and confusion that had thus overtaken him upon the eating of the forbidden fruit the luscious Dictates of his own Will 12 But Adam again excus'd himself within himself that it was the vigour and impetuosity of that Life in the Vehicle which God himself implanted in it whereby he miscarried The woman that God had given him 13 And the divine Light spake in Adam concerning the woman What work hath she made here But the woman in Adam excused her self for she was beguiled by that grand Deceiver the Serpent In this confusion of mind was Adam by forsaking the divine Light and letting his own will get head against it For it so changed the nature of his Vehicle that whereas he might have continued in an Angelical and Ethereal condition and his feminine part been brought into perfect obedience to the divine Light and
time becomes a Spirit of savoury and affectionate discernment betwixt the evil and the good betwixt the pure waters that flow from the holy Spirit and the muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the Flesh 7 And thus is Man enabled in a living manner to distinguish betwixt the earthly and heavenly life 8 For the heavenly Principle is now made to him a Spirit of savoury discernment and being taught by God after this manner he will not fail to pronounce that this Principle whereby he has so quick and lively a sense of what is good and evil is heavenly indeed And thus Ignorance and Enquiry is made the second days progresse 9 Now the sweetnesse of the upper waters being so well relisht by man he has a great nauseating against the lower feculent waters of the unbounded desires of the flesh So that God adding power to his will the inordinate desires of the flesh are driven within set limits and he has a command over himself to become more stayed and steady 10 And this steadinesse and command he gets over himself he is taught by the divine Principle in him to compare to the Earth or dry land for safenesse and stability but the desires of the flesh he looks upon as a dangerous and turbulent Sea Wherefore the bounding of them thus and arriving to a state of command over a mans self and freedome from such colluctations and collisions as are found in the working Seas the divine Nature in him could not but approve as good 11 For so it comes to passe by the will of God and according to the nature of things that this state of sobriety in man he being in so good a measure rid of the boisterousnesse of evil Concupiscence gives him leisure so to cultivate his minde with principles of Virtue and Honesty that he is as a fruitful field whom the Lord hath blessed 12 Sending forth out of himself sundry sorts of fruit-bearing trees herbs and flowers that is various kindes of good works to the praise of God and the help of his neighbour and God and his own Conscience witnesse to him that this is good 13 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the third days progresse 14 Now when God has proceeded so far in the Spiritual Creation as to raise the heavenly Principle in man to that power and efficacy that it takes hold on his affections and brings forth laudable works of Righteousnesse he thereupon adds a very eminent accession of Light and Strength setting before his eyes sundry sorts of Luminaries in the heavenly or intellectual Nature whereby he may be able more notoriously to distinguish betwixt the Day and the Night that is betwixt the condition of a truly illuminated soul and one that is as yet much benighted in ignorance and estranged from the true knowledge of God For according to the difference of these Lights it is signified to a man in what condition himself or others are in whether it be indeed Day or Night with them Summer or Winter Spring time or Harvest or what period or progresse they have made in the divine Life 15 And though there be so great a difference betwixt these Lights yet the meanest are better then meer darknesse and serve in some measure or other to give light to the Earthly man 16 But among these many Lights which God makes to appear to man there are two more eminent by far then the rest The greater of which two has his dominion by day and is a faithful guide to those which walk in the day that is that work the works of righteousnesse And this greater Light is but one but does being added mightily invigorate the former day-light man walked by and it is a more full appearance of the Sun of Righteousnesse which is an hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour The lesser of these two great Lights has dominion by night and is a rule to those whose inward mindes are held as yet too strongly in the works of darknesse and it is a Principle weak and variable as the Moon and is called Inconstancy of Life and Knowledge There are alsoan abundance of other little Lights thickly dispersed over the whole Understanding of man as the Stars in the Firmament which you may call Notionality or Multiplicity of ineffectual Opinions 17 But the worst of all these are better then down-right Sensuality and Brutishnesse and therefore God may well be said to set them up in the heavenly part of man his Understanding to give what light they are able to his earthly parts his corrupt and inordinate Affections 18 And as the Sun of Righteousnesse that is the hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour by his single light and warmth with chearfulnesse and safety guides them that are in the day so that more uneven and changeable Principle and the numerous Light of Notionality may conduct them as well as they are able that are benighted in darknesse And what is most of all considerable a man by the wide difference of these latter Lights from that of the Day may discern when himself or another is benighted in the state of unrighteousnesse For multifarious Notionality and Inconstancy of life and knowledge are certain signs that a man is in the night But the sticking to this one single but vigorous and effectual Light of the hearty and sincere Love of God and a mans neighbour is a signe that a man walks in the day And he that is arrived to this condition plainly discerns in the Light of God that all this is very good 19 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the fourth days progresse 20 And now so noble so warm and so vigorous a Principle or Light as the Sun of Righteousnesse being set up in the heavenly part of the Soul of man the unskilful may unwarily expect that the next news will be that even the Seas themselves are dried up with the heat thereof that is that the Concupiscible in man is quite destroyed But God doth appoint far otherwise for the waters bring forth abundance of Fish as well as Fowl innumerable 21 Thoughts therefore of natural delights do swim to and fro in the Concupiscible of man and the fervent love he bears to God causes not a many faint ineffectual notions but an abundance of holy affectionate meditations and winged Ejaculations that fly up heaven-ward which returning back again and falling upon the numerous fry of natural Concupiscence help to lessen their numbers as those fowls that frequent the waters devour the fish thereof And God and good men do see nothing but good in all this 22 Wherefore God multiplies the thoughts of natural delight in the lower Concupiscible as well as he does those heavenly thoughts and holy meditations that the entire Humanity might be filled with all the degrees of good it is capable of and that the divine Life might have something to order and overcome 23 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry made the
to him pleasing both the sight and taste of that measure of divine Life that is manifested in him But of all the Plants that grow in him there is none of so soveraign virtue as that in the midst of this Garden to wit the Tree of Life which is a Sincere Obedience to the Will of God Nor any that bears so lethiferous and poisonous fruit as the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil which is Disobedience to the Will of God as it is manifested in Man For the pleasure of the Soul consists in conforming her self faithfully to what she is perswaded in her own Conscience is the Will of God what ever others would insinuate to the contrary 10 And all the fruit-bearing Trees of Righteousnesse are watered by these four Rivers which winde along this Garden of Pleasure which indeed are the four Cardinal Virtues 11 The name of the first is Pison which is Prudence not the suggestions of fleshly craft and over-reaching subtilty but the Indications of the Spirit or divine Intellect what is fit and profitable and decorous to be done 12 Here is well tryed and certain approved Experience healthful Industry and Alacrity to honest Labour 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon which is Justice 14 And the name of the third River is Hiddekel which is Fortitude and the fourth River is Euphrates which is Temperance 15 This is the Paradise where the Lord God had placed the Man that he might further cultivate it and improve it 16 And the divine Light manifested in the Man encourag'd the Man to eat of the fruits of Paradise freely and to delight himself in all manner of holy Understanding and Righteousnesse 17 But withall he bade him have a speciall care how he relisht his own Will or Power in any thing but that he should be obedient to the manifest Will of God in things great and small or else assuredly he would lose the life he now lived and become dead to all Righteousnesse and Truth So the man had a special care and his soul wrought wholly towards heavenly and divine things and heeded nothing but these his more noble and Masculine Faculties being after a manner solely set on work but the natural Life in which notwithstanding if it were rightly guided there is no sin being almost quite forgot and dis-regarded 18 But the Wisdome of God saw that it was not good for the soul of man that the Masculine Powers thereof should thus operate alone but that all the Faculties of Life should be set a float that the whole humane Nature might be accomplisht with the divine 19 Now the powers of the soul working so wholly upwards towards divine things the several Modifications or Figurations of the Animal Life which God acting in the frame of the humane Nature represented to the Man whence he had occasion to view them and judge of them by the quick Understanding of Man was indeed easily discern'd what they were and he had a determinate apprehension of every particular Figuration of the Animall Life 20 And did censure them or pronounce of them though truly yet rigidly enough and severely but as yet was not in a capacity of taking any delight in them there was not any of them fit for his turn to please himself in 21 Wherefore divine Providence brought it so to passe for the good of the Man and that he might more vigorously and fully be enrich'd with delight that the operations of the Masculine Faculties of the Soul were for a while well slaked and consopited during which time the Faculties themselves were something lessened or weakned yet in such a due measure and proportion that considering the future advantage that was expected that was not miss'd that was taken away but all as handsome and compleat as before 22 For what was thus abated in the Masculine Faculties was compensated abundantly in exhibiting to the Man the grateful sense of the Feminine for there was no way but this to Create the Woman which is to elicite that kindly flowring joy or harmlesse delight of the Natural Life and health of the Body which once exhibited and joyned with Simplicity and Innocency of Spirit it is the greatest part of that Paradise a man is capable of upon Earth 23 And the actuating of the matter being the most proper and essential operation of a soul man presently acknowledg'd this kindly flowring joy of the Body of nearer cognation and affinity with himself then any thing else he ever had yet experience of and he loved it as his own life 24 And the Man was so mightily taken with his new Spouse which is The kindly Joy of the Life of the Body that he concluded with himself that any one may with a safe Conscience forgoe those more earnest attempts towards the knowledge of the Eternal God that created him as also the performance of those more scrupulous injunctious of his Mother the Church so far forth as they are incompetible with the Health and Ioy of the Life of his Natural Body and might in such a case rather cleave to his Spouse and become one with her provided he still lived in obedience to the indispensable Precepts of that Superiour Light and Power that begot him 25 Nor had Adam's Reason or Affection transgressed at all in this concluding nothing but what the divine Wisdome and Equity would approve as true Wherefore Adam and his wife as yet sought no corners nor covering places to shelter them from the divine Light but having done nothing amisse appeared naked in the presence of it without any shame or blushing CHAP. III. 1 Adam is tempted by inordinate Pleasure from the springing up of the Joy of the invigorated Life of his Body 2 A dialogue or dispute in the minde of Adam betwixt The inordinate Desire of Pleasure and the natural Joy of the body 6 The will of Adam is drawn away to assent to inordinate Pleasure 8 Adam having transgressed is impatient of the Presence of the divine Light 10 A long conflict of Conscience or dispute betwixt Adams earthly minde and the divine Light examining him and setting before him both his present and future condition if he persisted in rebellion 20 He adheres to the Joy of his body without reason or measure notwithstanding all the castigations and monitions of the divine Light 21 The divine Light takes leave of Adam therefore for the present with deserved scorn and reproach 22 The doom of the Eternal God concerning laps'd Man that will not suffer them to settle in wickednesse according to their own depraved wills and desires 1 BUT so it came to passe that the Life of the Body being thus invigorated in Man straightway the slyest and subtilest of all the Animal Figurations the Serpent which is the inordinate Desire of Pleasure craftily insinuated it self into the Feminine part of Adam viz. The kindely Joy of the body and thus assaulting Man whisper'd such suggestions as these unto him What a
rigid and severe thing is this businesse of Religion and the Law of God as they call it that deprives a man of all manner of Pleasure and cuts him short of all the contentments of Life 2 But the Womanish part in Adam to wit The natural and kindly Joy of the body could witnesse against this and answered We may delight our selves with the operations of all the Faculties both of soul and body which God and Nature hath bestow'd upon us 3. Only we are to take heed of Disobedience and of promiscuously following our own will but we are ever to consult with the Will of God and the divine Light manifested in our Understandings and so doe all things orderly and measurably For if we transgresse against this we shall die the death and lose the Life of Virtue and Righteousness which now is awake in us 4 But the Serpent which is the inordinate desire of Pleasure befooled Adam through the frailty of his Womanish Faculties and made him believe he should not die but with safety might serve the free dictates of Pleasure or his own Will and the Will of God that Flesh and Spirit might both rule in him and be no such prejudice the one to the other 5 But that his skill and experience in things will be more enlarg'd and so come nearer to divine Perfection indeed and imitate that fulnesse of Wisdome which is in God who knows all things whatsoever whether good or evil 6 This crafty suggestion so insinuated it self into Adams Feminine Faculties that his fleshly Concupiscence began to be so strong that it carried the assent of his Will away with it and the whole Man became a lawlesse and unruly Creature For it seem'd a very pleasant thing at first sight to put in execution what ever our own Lusts suggest unto us without controll and very desirable to try all Conclusions to gain experience and knowledge of things But this brought in nothing but the wisdome of the flesh and made Adam earthly minded 7 But he had not rambled very far in these dissolute courses but his eyes were opened and he saw the difference how naked now he was and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things and began to meditate with himself some slight pretences for his notorious folly and disobedience 8 For the Voice of the divine Light had come unto him in the cool of the day when the fury and heat of his inordinate passions was something slaked But Adam could not endure the presence of it but hid himself from it meditating what he should answer by way of Apology or Excuse 9 But the divine Light persisted and came up closer to him and upbraided unto him that he was grown so wilde and estranged from her self demanding of him in what condition he was and wherefore he fled 10 Then Adam ingenuously confessed that he found himself in such a pitiful poor naked condition that he was ashamed to appear in the Presence of the divine Light and that was the reason he hid himself from it because it would so manifestly upbraid to him his Nakednesse and Deformity 11 And the divine Light farther examined him how he fell into this sensible beggerly nakednesse he was in charging the sad event upon his Disobedience that he had fed upon and taken a surfeit of the fruit of his own Will 12 But Adam excused his rational faculties and said They did but follow the natural Dictate of the Joy of the Body the Woman that God himself bestowed upon him for an help and delight 13 But the divine Light again blamed Adam that he kept his Feminine faculties in no better order nor subjection that they should so boldly and overcomingly dictate to him such things as are not fit To which he had nothing to say but that the subtile Serpent the inordinate Desire of Pleasure had beguiled both his faculties as well Masculine as Feminine his Will and Affection was quite carried away therewith 14 Then the divine Light began to chastise the Serpent in the hearing of Adam pronouncing of it that it was more accursed then all the Animal Figurations beside and that it crept basely upon the belly tempting to Riot and Venery and relishing nothing but earth and dirt This will always be the guise of it so long as it lives in a man 15 But might I once descend so far into the Man as to take possession of his Feminine faculties I would set the Natural Joy of the Body at defiance with the Serpent and though the subtilty of the Serpent may a little wound and disorder the Woman for a while yet her warrantable and free operations she being actuated by divine vigour should afterward quite destroy and extinguish the Seed of the Serpent to wit the Operations of the inordinate desire of Pleasure 16 And she added farther in the hearing of Adam concerning the Woman as she thus stood dis-joyn'd from the heavenly Life and was not obedient to right Reason that by a divine Nemesis she should conceive with sorrow and bring forth Vanity And that her husband the Earthly minded Adam should tyrannize over her and weary her out and foil her So that the kindly Joy of the Health and Life of the Body should be much depraved or made faint and languid by the unbridled humours and impetuous Luxury and Intemperance of the Earthly minded Adam 17 And to Adam he said who had become so Earthly minded by listening to the Voice of his deceived Woman and so acting disobediently to the Will of God That his Flesh or Earth was accursed for his sake with labour and toil should he reap the fruits thereof all the while he continued in this Earthly mindednesse 18 Cares also and Anxieties shall it bring forth unto him and his thoughts shall be as base as those of the beasts in the field he shall ruminate of nothing but what is Earthly and Sensual 19 With sweat and anguish should he labour to satisfie his hunger and insatiablenesse till he returned to the Principle out of which he was taken for the Earthly mindednesse came from this animated Earth the Body and is to shrinke up againe into its owne Principle and to perish 20 After all these Castigations and Premonitions of the divine Light Adam was not sufficiently awakened to the sense of what was good but his minde was straightway taken up againe with the delights of the flesh and dearly embracing the Joy of his body for all she was grown so inordinate called her My Life professing she was the noursing Mother and chiefe comfort of all men living and none could subsist without her 21 Then the divine Wisdome put hairy coates made of the skins of wilde beasts upon Adam and his Wife and deservedly reproached them saying Now get you gone for a couple of brutes And Adam would have very gladly escaped so if he might and set up his rest for ever in the beastiall Nature 22 But the Eternall God
seem little better to me that imagine God a finite Beeing and take care to place him out of the stink of this terrestrial Globe that he may sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so confine him to Heaven as Aristotle seems to do if he be the Author of that book De Mundo For it is a contradiction to the very Idea of God to be finite and consequently to have Figure or Parts But it is so difficult a thing for the rude multitude to venture at a Notion of a Beeing Immatorial and Infinite that it seems their advantage to conceive of God as of some all-powerful Person that can do what ever he pleaseth can make Heavens and Earths and bestow his blessings in what measure and manner he lists and what is chief of all if need be can personally appear to them can chide them and rebuke them and if they be obstinate doe horrible vengeance upon them This I say will more strongly strike the inward Sense and Imagination of the vulgar then Omnipotency placed in a Thin Subtile Invisible Immaterial Beeing of which they can have no perception at all nor any tolerable conceit Wherefore it being requisite for the ignorant to be permitted to have some finite and figurate apprehension of God what can be more fit then the shape of a Man in the highest excellencies that it is capable of for Beauty Strength and Bignesse And the Prophet Esay seems to speak of God after this Notion God sits upon the circle of the Earth and the inhabitants thereof are as Grashoppers intimating that men to God bear as little proportion as Grashoppers to a man when he sits on the grasse amongst them And now there being this necessity of permitting the people some such like apprehensions as this concerning God and it is true Prudence and pious Policy to comply with their weakness for their good there was the most strict injunctions laid upon them against Idolatry and worshipping of Images that might be But if any one will say this was the next way to bring them into Idolatry to let them entertain a conceit of God as in humane shape I say it is not any more then by acknowledging Man to be God as our Religion does in Christ Nay I add moreover that Christ is the true Deus Figuratus And for his sake was it the more easily permitted unto the Jews to think of God in the shape of a Man And that there ought to be such a thing as Christ that is God in Humane shape I think it most reasonable that he may apparently visit the Earth and to their very outward senses confound the Atheist and mis-believer at the last day As he witnesseth of himself The Father judges none but he hath given all Judgement unto the Son And that no man can see the Father but as he is united unto the Son For the Eternal God is Immaterial and Invisible to our outward senses But he hath thought good to treat with us both in mercy and judgement by a Mediator and Vicegerent that partakes of our nature as well as his own Wherefore it is not at all absurd for Moses to suffer the Jews to conceive of God as in a corporeall and humane shape since all men shall be judged by God in that shape at the last day He made Females as well as Males That story in Plato his Symposion how men and women grew together at first till God cut them asunder is a very probable argument that the Philosopher had seen or heard something of this Mosaical History But that it was his opinion it was so I see no probability at all For the story is told by that ridiculous Comedian Aristophanes with whom I conceive he is in some sort quit for abusing his good old Friend and Tutor Socrates whom he brought in upon the stage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 treading the Air in a basket to make him a laughing-stock to all Athens The Text is indeed capable of such a sense but there being no reason to put that sense upon it neither being a thing so accommodate to the capacity and conceit of the vulgar I thought it not fit to admit it no not so much as into this Literal Cabbala Ver. 29. Frugiferous Castellio translates it so Herbas frugiferas which must be such like herbs as I have named Strawberries Wheat Rice and the like CHAP. II. 7 The notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to the breathing of Adams soul into his nostrils 8 The exact situation of Paradise That Gihon is part of Euphrates Pison Phasis or Phasi-tigris That the Madianites are called Aethiopians That Paradise was seated about Mesopotamia argued by six Reasons That it was more particularly seated where now Apamia stands in Ptolemee's Maps 18 The Prudence of Moses in the commendation of Matrimony 19 Why Adam is not recorded to have given names to the Fishes 24 Abraham Ben Ezra's conceit of the names of Adam and Eve as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25 Moses his wise Anthypophora concerning the naturall shame of nakednesse IN the four first verses all is so clear and plain that there is no need of any further Explication or Defence saving that you may take notice that in the second verse where I write Within six days the Seventies Translation will warrant it who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the sixt day Ver. 5. See what hath been said on the eleventh verse of the first Chapter Ver. 7. The dust The Hebrew word signifies so and I make no mention of any moistning of it with water For God is here set out acting according to his absolute power and Omnipotency And it is as easie to make men of dry dust as hard stones And yet God is able even of stones to raise up children unto Abraham Blew into the nostrils Breathing is so palpable an effect of life that the ancient rude Greeks also gave the Soul its name from that operation calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to breathe or to blow Ver. 8. Eastward of Judea For so Interpreters expound Eastward in Scripture in reference to Judea To prevent any further trouble in making good the sense I have put upon the following verses concerning Paradise I shall here at once set down what I finde most probable concerning the situation thereof out of Vatablus and Cornelius à Lapide adding also somewhat out of Dionysius the Geographical Poet. In general therefore we are led by the four Rivers to the right situation of Paradise And Gihon saith Vatablus is tractus inferior Euphratis illabens in sinum Persicum is a lower tract or stream of Euphrates that slides into the Persian Gulph Pison is Phasis or Phasitigris that runs through Havilah a region near Persis so that Pison is a branch of Tigris as Gihon is of Euphrates Thus Vatablus And that Gihon may have his Aethiopia Cornelius à Lapide
notes that the Madianites and others near the Persian Gulph are called Aethiopians and therefore he concludes first at large that Paradise was seated about Mosopotamia and Armenia from these reasons following First because these Regions are called Eastern in Scripture which as I have said is to be understood always in reference to Judea according to the rule of Expositors And the Lord is said to have planted this Garden of Paradise Eastward Secondly because Man being cast out of Paradise these Regions were inhabited first both before the Floud for Cain is said to inhabite Eden Gen. 4. 16. and also after the Floud as being nearer Paradise and more fertile Gen. 8. 4. also 11. 2. Thirdly Paradise was in Eden but Eden was near Haran Ezek. 27. 23. Haran and Caunuch and Eden but Haran was about Mesopotamia being a City of Parthia where Crassus was slain Authors call it Charra Fourthly Paradise is where Euphrates and Tigris are And these are in Mesopotamia and Armenia They denominate Mesopotamia it lying betwixt them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The land 'twixt Tigris and Euphrates streame All this Mesopotamia they name Fiftly because these Regions are most fruitful and pleasant And that Adam was made not far from thence is not improbable from the excellency of that place as well for the goodliness of the men that it breeds as the fertility of the soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is So excellent is that Soil for Herbage green For flowry Meads and such fair godly Men As if the off-spring of the Gods th' had been As the same Geographer writes Sixtly and lastly there is yet a further probability alledged that Paradise was about Mesopotamia that Countrey being not far distant from Judea For it is the tradition of the Fathers that Adam when he was ejected out of Paradise having travelled over some parts of the world that he came at last to Judea and there died and was buried in a Mount which his posterity because the head of the first Man was laid there called Mount Calvary where Christ was crucified for the expiation of the sin of Adam the first transgressor If the story be not true it is pity but it should be it hath so venerable assertors as Cyprian Athanasius Basil Origen and others of the Fathers as Cornelius affirms But now for the more exact situation of Paradise the same Author ventures to place it at the very meeting of Tigris and Euphrates where the City of Apamia now stands in Ptolemees Maps eighty degrees Longitude and some thirty four degrees and thirty scruples Latitude Thus have we according to the Letter found Paradise which Adam lost but if we finde no better one in the Philosophick and Moral Cabbala we shall but have our labour for our travel Ver. 9. That stood planted in the midst of the Garden For in this verse the Tree of Life is planted in the midst of the Garden and in the third Chapter the third verse the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil is placed there also For the Lord God bad so ordained Expositors seem not to suspect any hurt in the Tree it self but that the fruit thereof was naturally good only God interdicted it to try the goodness of Adam So that this law that prohibited Adam the eating of the fruit was meerly Thetical or Positive not Indispensable and Natural Ver. 10. From thence it was parted This is the cause that Paradise is conceived to have been situated where Apamia stands as I have above intimated Ver. 11. Phasis See verse 8. Chaulateans The affinity of Name is apparent betwixt Havilah and Chaulateans whom Strabo places in Arabia near Mesopotamia Ver. 13. Arabian Aethiopia See verse 8. Ver. 17. See verse 9. Ver. 18. High commendations of Matrimony Moses plainly recommends to the Jews the use of Matrimony does after a manner encourage them to that condition which he does like a right Law-giver and Father of the people For in the multitude of people is the Kings honour but in the want of people is the destruction of the Prince as Solomon speaks Prov. 14. Besides there was no small policy in religiously commending that to them that most would be carried fast enough too on their own accords For those Laws are best liked that sute with the pleasure of the people and they will have a better conceit of the Law-giver for it Ver. 19. These brought he unto Adam viz. The Beasts and Fowls but there is no mention of the Fishes they being not fitted to journey in the same Element It had been over harsh and affected to have either brought the Fishes from the Sea or to have carried Adam to the Shore to appoint names to all the Fishes flocking thither to him But after he might have opportunity to give them names as they came occasionally to his view Ver. 20. See verse 18 Ver. 21. Fell into a dream For the Seventy have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God cast Adam into an extasie and in that extasie he might very well see what God did all the while he slept Ver. 23. See verse 21. 24. Ver. 24. So strict and sacred a Tye c. That 's the scope of the story To beget a very fast and indissoluble affection betwixt man and wife that they should look upon one another as one and the same person And in this has Moses wisely provided for the happiness of his people in instilling such a Principle into them as is the root of all Oeconomical order delight and contentment while the husband looks upon his wife as on himself in the Feminine gender and she on her husband as on her self in the Masculine For Grammarians can discern no other difference then so betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vir and Virissa But R. Abraham Ben Ezra has found a mysterie in these names more then Grammatical For in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he is the contracted name of Jehovah contained viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So long therefore as the married couple live in Gods fear and mutual love God is with them as well as in their names But if they cast God off by disobedience and make not good what they owe one to the other then is their condition what their names denotate to them the name of God being taken out viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fire of discord and contention here and the eternal fire of Hell hereafter This is the conceit of that pious and witty Rabbi Ver. 25. And were not ashamed Matrimony and the knowledge of women being so effectually recommended unto the Jewes in the fore-going story the wisdome of Moses did foresee that it would be obvious for the people to think with themselves how so good
desolation of Babylon where he saith it shall be a place for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fauni and Sylvani as Castellis translates it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Seventy And these Onocentauri in Hesychius are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A kinde of spirit that frequents the woods and is of a dark colour There is mention made also by the Prophet in the same description of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which Expositors interpret of Spirits For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are interpreted by the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Castellio Satyri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Castellio renders Fauni the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clamores Strepitus Grotius suspects they wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of both you may guesse that they were such a kinde of spirit as causes a noise and a stir in those desolate places according to that of Lucretius Haec loca capripedes Satyros Nymphásque tenere Finitimi fingunt Faunos esse loquuntur Quorum noctivago strepitu ludóque jocanti Affirmant vulgo taciturna silentia rumpi To this sense These are the places where the Nymphs do wonne The Fawns and Satyres with their cloven feet Whose noise and shouts and laughters loud do runne Through the still Air and wake the silent Night But the Poet puts it off with this conceit that it is only the Shepheards that are merry with their Lasses But no man can glosse upon this Text after that manner For the Prophet says No shepheard shall pitch his fold there nor shall any man passe through it for ever The last strange creature in these direful solitudes is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Interpreters ordinarily translate Lamia a Witch and for mine own part I give so much credit to sundry stories that I have read and heard that I should rather interpret those noises in the Night which Luoretius speaks of to be the Conventicles of Witches and Devils then the merriment of Shepheards and their Shepheardesses But the Jewes understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a she devil an enemy to women in childe-bed whence it is that they write on the walls of the room where the woman lies in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam Eve out of doors Lilith And what I have alledged already I conceive is authority enough to countenance the sense of the Cabbala that supposes evil spirits to be reckoned among or to be Analogical to the beasts of the field But something may be added yet further Matth. 12. 43. There our Saviour Christ plainly allows of this doctrine that evil spirits have their haunts in the wide fields and deserts which Grotius observes to be the opinion of the Jewes and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemones have their name for that reason from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ager the Field for if it were from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it would be rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiddim then Shedhim as Grammatical Analogy requires Ver. 2. And Adam answered him Though the Serpent here be look'd upon as a distant person from Adam and externally accosting him yet it is not at all incongruous to make Eve meerly an Internal Faculty of him For as she is said to proceed fromhim so she is said still to be one with him which is wonderfully agreeable with the faculties of the soul for though they be from the soul yet they are really one with her as they that understand any thing in Philosophy will easily admit Ver. 5. Know all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men have a natural desire of knowledge It is an Aphorisme in Aristotle and this desire is most strong in those whose spirits are most thin and subtile And therefore this bait could not but be much taking with Adam in his thinner Vehicle But what ever is natural to the soul unlesse it be regulated and bounded with the divine Light will prove her mischief and bane whether in this lower state or in what state soever the soul is placed in Ver. 7. Neither the covering of the heavenly nature For Adam by the indulging to every carelesse suggestion at last destroyed and spoiled the pure frame of his Aethereal or Heavenly Vehicle and wrought himself into a dislike of the sordid ruines and distempered reliques of it and in some measure awakening that lower Plantal life which yet had not come near enough the Terrestrial matter and with which he was as yet unclothed found himself naked of what he presaged would very fitly sute with him and ease the trouble of his present condition See 2 Cor. ch 5. v. 1 2 3 4. Ver. 8. That they hid themselves They hate the Light because their deeds are evil This is true of all rebellious spirits be they in what Vehicle they will Ver. 9. Pursued him Praestantiorem Animae facultatem esse ducem hominis atque Daemonem It is Ficinus his out of Timaeus viz. That the best faculty that the soul is any thing awaked to is her guide and good Genius But if we be rebellious to it it is our Daemon in the worse sense and we are afraid of it and cannot endure the sight of it Ver. 10. No power nor ornaments For he found that though he could spoil and disorder his Vehicle it was not in his power so easily to bring it in order again Ver. 12. It was the vigour and impetuosity There is some kinde of offer towards a reall excuse in Adam but it is manifest that he cannot clear himself from sin because it was in his power to have regulated the motions of the Life of his Vehicle according to the rule of the divine Light in him Ver. 13. What work has she made here Adam touched in some sort with the conviction of the divine Light bemoans that sad Catastrophe which the vigorous life of the Vehicle had occasioned But then he again excuses himself from the deceivablenesse of that facultie especially it being wrought upon by so cunning and powerful an Assailant as the old Serpent the Devil Imagination for ever That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Eternal God It being a thing acknowledged that God both speaks in a man as in other intellectual creatures by his divine Light residing there and that he also speaks in himself concerning things or persons which speeches are nothing else but his decrees It is not at all harsh in the reading of Moses to understand the speakings of God according as the circumstances of the Matter naturally imply nor to bring God in as a third Person in corporeal and visible shape unlesse there were an exigency that did extort it from us For his inward word whereby he either creates or decrees any thing that shall come to passe as also that divine Light whereby he does instruct those souls that receive him Philosophy will easilier
his transcendent Mechanical inventions for the salving the Phaenomena in the world I should not stick to compare him with Bezaliel and Aholiab those skilful and cunning workers of the Tabernacle who as Moses testifies were filled with the Spirit of God and they were of an excellent understanding to finde out all manner of curious works Nor is it any more argument that Des Cartes was not inspired because he did not say he was then that others are inspired because they say they are which to me is no argument at all But the suppression of what so happened would argue much more sobriety and modesty when as the profession of it with sober men would be suspected of some spice of melancholy and distraction especially in Natural Philosophy where the grand pleasure is the evidence and exercise of Reason not a bare belief or an ineffable sense of life in respect whereof there is no true Christian but he is inspired THUS much in Defence of my Philosophick Cabbala It will not be unseasonable to subjoin something by way of Apology for the Cabbalist For I finde my self liable to no lesse then three several imputations viz. of trifling Curiositie of Rashnesse and of Inconstancy of Judgement And as for the first I know that men that are more severely Philosophical and rational will condemn me of too much curious pains in applying Natural and Metaphysical Truths to an uncertain and lubricous Text or Letter when as they are better known and more fitly conveied by their proper proof and arguments then by fancying they are aimed at in such obscure and Aenigmatical Writings But I answer ther is that fit and full congruity of the Cabbala with the Text besides the backing of it with advantages from the History of the first rise of the Pythagorical or Platonical Philosophy that it ought not to be deemed a fancie but a very high probability that there is such a Cabbala as this belonging to the Mosaical Letter especially if you call but to minde how luckily the nature of Numbers sets off the work of every day according to the sense of the Cabbala And then again for mine own part I account no pains either curious or tedious that tend to a common good and I conceive no smaller a part of mankinde concerned in my labours then the whole Nation of the Jewes and Christendome to say nothing of the ingenious Persian nor to despair of the Turk though he be for the present no friend to Allegories Wherefore we have not placed our pains inconsiderately having recommended so weighty and useful Truths in so religious a manner to so great a part of the world But for the imputation of Rashnesse in making it my businesse to divulge those secrets or mysteries that Moses had so sedulously covered in his obscure Text I say it is the privilege of Christianity the times now more then ever requiring it to pull off the vail from Moses his face And that though they be grand truths that I have discovered yet they are as useful as sublime and cannot but highly gratifie every good and holy man that can competently judge of them Lastly for Inconstancy of Judgement which men may suspect me of having heretofore declared the Scripture does not teach men Philosophy I say the change of a mans judgement for the better is no part of inconstancy but a virtue when as to persist in what we finde false is nothing but perversenesse and pride And it will prove no small argument for the truth of this present Cabbala in that the evidence thereof has fetch'd me out of my former opinion wherein I seemed engaged But to say the truth I am not at all inconsistent with my self for I am still of opinion that the Letter of the Scripture teaches not any precept of Philosophy concerning which there can be any controversie amongst men And when you venture beyond the Literal sense you are not taught by the Scripture but what you have learned some other way you apply thereto And they ought to be no trash nor trivial Notions nor confutable by Reason or more solid Principles of Philosophy that a man should dare to cast upon so sacred a Text but such as one is well assured will bear the strictest examination and that lead to the more full knowledge of God and do more clearly fit the Phaenomena of Nature external Providence to his most precious Attributes and tend to the furthering of the holy Life which I do again professe is the sole end of the Scripture And he that ventures beyond the Letter without that guide will soon be bewilder'd and lose himself in his own fancies Wherefore if this Philosophick Cabbala of mine amongst those many other advantages I have recited had not this also added unto it the aim of advancing the divine Life in the world I should look upon it as both false and unprofitable and should have rested satisfied with the Moral Cabbala For the divine Life is above all Natural and Metaphysical knowledge whatsoever And that man is a perfect man that is truly righteous and prudent whom I know I cannot but gratifie with my Moral Cabbala that follows But if any more zealous pretender to prudence and righteousnesse wanting either leisure or ability to examine my Philosophick Cabbala to the bottome shall notwithstanding either condemn it or admire it he has unbecomingly and indiscreetly ventured out of his own sphere and I cannot acquit him of Injustice or Folly Nor did I place my Cabbala's in this order out of more affection and esteem of Philosophy then of true holinesse but have ranked them thus according to the order of Nature the holy and divine Life being not at all or else being easily lost in man if it be not produc'd and conserv'd by a radicated acknowledgement of those grand truths in the Philosophick Cabbala viz. The existence of the Eternal God and a certain expectation of more consummate happinesse upon the dissolution of this mortal body for to pretend to virtue and holinesse without reference to God and a life to come is but to fall into a more dull and flat kinde of Stoicisme or to be content to feed our Cattel on this side of Jordan in a more discreet and religious way of Epicurisme or at least of degenerate Familisme THE DEFENCE OF THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. What is meant by Moral explained out of Philo. 3 That the Light in the first day improv'd to the height is Adam in the sixt Christ according to the Spirit 4 In what sense we our selves may be said to doe what God does in us 5 Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred Ignorance and Inquiry 18. Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to the Fourth days progresse 22 That Virtue is not an extirpation but regulation of the Passions according to the minde of the Pythagoreans 24 Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed
that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of Melancholy that thus abuses him and in stead of the true divine Principle would take the Government to it self and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the Animal Figurations But the true divine Life would destroy nothing that is in Nature but only regulate things and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity entituling Sanguine and Choler to as much Virtue and Religion as either Phlegme or Melancholy For the divine Life as it is to take into it self the humane nature in general so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof But the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true Piety and Virtue but which of the Complexions or what Humour shall ascend the Throne and fit there in stead of Christ himself But I will not expatiate too much upon one Theme I shall rather take a short view of the whole Allegory of the Chapter In the first Day there is Earth Water and Wind over whâ—ch and through which there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse and tumultuous agitation The Winds ruffling up the Waters into mighty waves the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the water all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation This is the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Earthly Adam as Philo calls him till God command the Light to shine out of Darknesse offering him a guide to a better condition In the second day is the Firmament created dividing the upper and the lower Waters that it may feel the strong impulses or taste the different relishes of either Thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath and this is the day wherein is set before him Life and Death Good and Evil and he may put out his hand and take his choice In the third day is the Earth uncovered of the Waters for the planting of fruit-bearing trees By their fruits you shall know them saith our Saviour that is by their works In the fourth day there appears a more full accession of divine Light and the Sun of Righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of God and man In the fift day that this Light of Righteousnesse and bright Eye of divine Reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field where there is nothing either to subdue or guide and order God sends out whole sholes of Fishes in the Waters and numerous flights of Fowls in the Air besides part of the sixt days work wherein all kinde of Beasts are created In these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde sprung from these lower Elements of the humane nature viz. Earth and Water Flesh and Blood all these man beholds in the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse discovers what they are knows what to call them can rule over them and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them This is Adam the Master-piece of Gods Creation and Lord of all the creatures framed after the Image of God Christ according to the Spirit under whose feet is subdued the whole Animal Life with its sundry Motions Forms and Shapes He will call every thing by its proper name and set every creature in its proper place The vile person shall be no longer called liberal nor the churl bountiful Wo be unto them that call evil good and good evil that call the light darknesse and the darknesse light He will not call bitter Passion holy Zeal nor plausible meretricious Courtesie Friendship nor a false soft abhorrency from punishing the ill-deserving Pity nor Cruelty Justice nor Revenge Magnanimity nor Unfaithfulnesse Policy nor Verbosity either Wisdome or Piety But I have run my self into the second Chapter before I am aware In this first Adam is said only to have dominion over all the living creatures and to feed upon the fruit of the Plants And what is Pride but a mighty Mountainous Whale Lust a Goat the Lion and Bear wilful dominion Craft a Fox and worldly toil an Oxe Over these and a thousand more is the rule of Man I mean of Adam the Image of God But his meat and drink is to do the will of his Maker this is the fruit he feeds upon Behold therefore O Man what thou art and whereunto thou art called even to bee a mighty Prince amongst the creatures of God and to bear rule in that Province he has assigned thee to discern the Motions of thine own heart and to be Lord over the suggestions of thine own natural spirit not to listen to the counsel of the flesh nor conspire with the Serpent against thy Creator But to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy God so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the Motions of Life and bear rule with God over the whole Creation committed to thee This shall be thy Paradise and harmlesse sport on Earth till God shall transplant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in Heaven CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature TO the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitulation of what went before in the first Chapter and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of S Paul and Origen and other Writers Only there is mention of a Sabbath in the second verse of this Chapter of which there was no words before And this is that Sabbatisme or Rest that the Author to the Hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into through faith and obedience For those that were faint-hearted and unbelieving and pretended that the children of Anak the off-spring of the Giants would be too hard for them they could not enter into the promised Land wherein they were to set up their rest under the conduct of Jâ—shua a Type of Jesus And the same Author in the same place makes mention of this very Sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the Creation concluding thus There remaineth therefore a Sabbatisme or Rest to the people of God For he that has entred
into his Rest he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest lest any man fall after that example of disobedience and unbelief For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well include both Senses viz Disobedience or the not doing the Will of God according to that measure of Power and Knowledge he has already given us and Vnbelief that the divine Life and Spirit in us is not able to subdue the whole Creation of the little World under us that is all the Animal Motions and Figurations be they Lions Bears Goats Whales be they what they will be as well as to cast out the children of Anak before the Israelites as it is in that other Type of Christ and of his Kingdome in the Souls of Men. Ver. 4. The Generations of the Animal Life when God created them For these are as truly the works of God as the divine Life it self though they are nothing comparable unto it Nay indeed they are but an heap of confusion without it Wherefore the great accomplishment is to have these in due order and subjection unto the Spirit or Heavenly Life in us which is Christ and that you may have a more particular apprehension of these generations of the Animal Life I shall give you a Catalogue of some of them though confusedly so as they come first to my memory Such therefore are Anger Zeal Indignation Sorrow Derision Mirth Gravity Open-heartednesse Reservednesse Stoutnesse Flexibility Boldness Fearfulness Mildeness Tartness Candour Suspicion Peremptoriness Despondency Triumph or Gloriation All the Propensions to the exercise of Strength or activity of Body as Running Leaping Swimming Wrestling Justing Coursing or the like Besides all the Courtly Preambles necessary Concomitants and delightful Consequences of Marriage which spring up from the Love of Women and the Pleasure of Children To say nothing of those enjoyments that arise from correspondent affections and meer natural friendship betwixt man and man or fuller companies of acquaintance their Friendly Feastings Sportings Musick and Dancings All these and many more that I am not at leisure to reckon up be but the genuine pullulations of the Animal Life and in themselves they have neither good nor hurt in them Nay indeed to speak more truly and impartially they are good according to the Approbation of him that made them but they become bad only to them that are bad and act either without measure or for unwarrantable ends or with undue circumstances otherwise they are very good in their kind they being regulated and moderated by the divine Principle in us And I think it is of great moment for men to take notice of this truth for these three reasons First because the bounds of sin and of the innocent Motions of Nature being not plainly and apertly set out and defined men counting the several Animal Figurations and natural Motions for sins they heap to themselves such a task to wit the quite extirpating that which it were neither good nor it may be possible utterly to extirpate that they seem in truth hereby to insinuate that it is impossible to enter into that Rest or Sabbath of the people of God Wherefore promiscuously sheltring themselves under this confused cloud of sins and infirmities where they aggravate all so as if every thing were in the same measure sinful if they be but zealous and punctual in some they account it passing well and an high testimony of their sanctimony And their hypocrisie will be sure to pitch upon that which is least of all to the purpose that is a man will spend his zeal in the behalf of some natural temper he himself is of and against the opposite complexion But for the indispensable dictates of the divine Light he will be sure to neglect them as being more hard to perform though of more concernment both for himself and the common good But if it were more plainly defined what is Sin and what is not Sin a man might with more heart and courage fight against his enemy he appearing not so numerous and formidable and he would have the lesse opportunity for perverse excuses and hypocritical tergiversations The second reason is That men may not think better of themselves then they are for their abhorrency from those things that have no hurt in them nor think worser of others then they deserve when they do but such things as are approvable by God and the divine Light And this is of very great moment for the maintaining of Christian Love and Union amongst men The third and last is That they may observe the madness and hypocrisie of the world whose religious contestations or secret censures are commonly but the conflict and antipathy of the opposite Figurations of the Animal Life who like the wilde beasts without a Master to keep good quarter amongst them are very eagerly set to devour one another But by this shall every man know whether it be Complexion or Religion that reigns in him if he love God with all his heart and all his soul and his neighbour as himself And can give a sufficient reason for all his actions and opinions from that Aeternal Light the Love of God shed abroad in his heart if not it is but a faction of the Animal Life sed up and fostered by either natural Temper or Custome and he is far from being arrived to the Kingdome of Christ and entring into that true Rest of the people of God Ver. 5. Where there is no external doctrine Pulpits and Preachings and external Ordinances there is no such noise of them amongst the holy Patriarchs whose lives Moses describes and therefore I conceive this sense I have here given the Text more genuine and warrantable But besides Moses unvailed being Christianity it self the manner of the growth of the true Christian is here prefigured That he is rather taught of God then of Men he having the Spirit of Life in him and needs no man to teach him For he has the Unction in himself which will teach him all things necessary to Life and Godliness Ver. 6. Which is repentance from dead works In this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Philosophick Cabbala signified a Vapour but here I translate it a Fountain of Water which I am warranted to do by the Seventy who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that Water is an Embleme of Repentance it is so obvious that I need say nothing of it John's baptizing with Water to Repentance is frequently repeated in the Gospels Ver. 7. And breathes into him the Spirit of Life In allusion to this passage of Moses in all likelihood is that of the Psalmist Thy hands have made me and fashioned me O give me understanding and I shall live as if like Adam he were but a statue of Earth till God breathed into him the Spirit of Life and Holiness Of the Water and of the Spirit The Water and the Spirit are the
us they bidding more open warre to the quiet and happiness of mans life as that judicious Poet Spencer has well observed in his Legend of Sir Guyon or Temperance Cant. 6. A harder lesson to learn continence In joyous pleasure then in grievous pain For sweetness doth allure the weaker sense So strongly that uneathes it can refrain From that which feeble Nature covets fain But grief and wrath that be our enemies And foes of life she better can restrain Yet Virtue vaunts in both her Victories And Guyon in them all shews goodly Masteries What a rigid and severe thing c. This is the conceit of such as are either utter strangers to Religion or have not yet arrived to that comfortable result of it that may be expected For God takes no delight in the perpetual rack of those souls he came to redeem but came to redeem us from that pain and torture which the love of our selves and our untamed lusts and pride of spirit makes us obnoxious to which men being loth to part with and not having the heart to let them be struck to the very quick and pulled up by the roots the work not accomplished according to the full minde and purpose of God there are still the seeds of perpetual anxiety sadness and inevitable pain For to be dead is easement but to be still dying is pain and it is most ordinarily but the due punishment of halting and hypocrisie And mens spirits being long sowred thus and made sad their profession and behaviour is such that they fright all inexperienced young men from any tolerable compliance in matters of Religion thinking that when they are once engaged there they are condemned ad Fodinas for ever and that they can never emerge out of this work and drudgery in those dark Caverns till they die there like the poor Americans inslaved and over-wrought by the merciless Spaniard But verily if we have but the patience to be laid low enough the same hand that depressed us will exalt us above all hope and expectation For if we be sufficiently baptized into the Death of Christ we shall assuredly be made partakers of his Resurrection to Life and that glorious liberty of the Sons of God according as it is written If the Son make you free then are you free indeed free from Sin and secure from the power of any Temptation But if Mortification has not had its perfect work too mature a return of the sweetness of the Animal Life may prove like the Countreymans cherishing the Snake by the fire side which he had as he thought taken up dead in the Snow it will move and hisse and bite and sting The strong presages of the manifold corporeal delights and satisfactions of the flesh may grow so big and boisterous in the minde that the soul may deem her self too straitly girt up and begin to listen to such whispers of the Serpent as this What a rigid and severe thing is this business of Religion c. and account her self if she be not free to every thing that she is as good as free to nothing Ver. 2 3. But the womanish part in Adam 'T is but one and the same soul in man entertaining a dialogue with her self that is set out by these three parts The Serpent Adam and the Woman And here the soul recollecting her self cannot but confess that Religion denies her no honest nor fitting pleasure that is not hazardous to her greater happiness and bethinks her self in what peril she is of losing the divine Life and due sense of God if she venture thus promiscuously to follow her own will and not measure all her actions and purposes by the divine Light that for the present is at hand to direct her Ver. 4. But the Serpent c. The sense of this verse is that the eager desire of pleasure had wrought it self so far into the sweetness of the Animal Life that it clouded the mans judgement and made him fondly hope that the being so freely alive to his own will was no prejudice to the will of the Spirit and the life of God which was in him when as yet notwithstanding the Apostle expresly writes What fellowship is there betwixt righteousness unrighteousness What communion betwixt light and darkness What agreement betwixt Christ and Belial And he elsewhere tells us That Christ gave himself for his Church that he might so throughly purge it and sanctifie it that it should have neither spot nor wrinkle but that it should be holy and unblameable a true Virgin Bride clothed with his divine Life and Glory And those men that are so willing to halt betwixt two the Flesh and the Spirit and have house-room enough to entertain them both as if there could be any friendship and communion betwixt them let them seriously consider whether this opinion be not the same that deceived Adam was of and let them suspect the same sad event and acknowledge it to arise from the self-same Principle the inordinate desire of pleasing their own wills without the allowance of the divine Light and consulting with the will of God Ver. 5. Skill and Experience in things And some men make it no sin but warrantable knowledge to know the world and account others fools that are ignorant of that wicked mysterie For man would be no Slave or Idiot but know his own liberty and gain experience as he pretends by the making use of it But that the accurate exercise of Reason in the knowledge of Gods marvellous works in Nature or those innocent delightful conclusions in Geometry and Arithmetick and the like that these parts of knowledge should be perstringed by Moses in this History it seems to me not to have the least probability in it for there are so very few in the world whose mindes are carried any thing seriously to such objects that it had not been worth the taking notice of And then again it is plain that the miscarriage is from the affectation of such kinde of knowledge as the Woman the flowring life of the body occasioned Adam to transgresse in Wherefore it is the fulfilling of the various desires of the flesh not an high aspire after Intellectual Contemplations for they respect the Masculine Faculties not the Feminine that made way to the transgression Wherefore I say the wisdome that the Serpent here promised was not Natural Philosophy or Mathematicks or any of those innocuous and noble accomplishments of the understanding of man but it was the knowledge of the world and the wisdome of the flesh For the life of the body is full of desires and presages of satisfaction in the obtaining of this or the other external thing whether it be in Honour Riches or Pleasure and if they shake off the divine Guide within them they will have it by hook or by crook And this worldly wisdome is so plausible in the world and so sweetly relished by the meer natural man that it were temptation enough for
force at all in this or no that Supplement I have made in the foregoing verse will make good the sense of our Cabbala And in the very Letter and History of the Scripture if a man take notice he must of necessity make a supply of something or another to pass to what follows with due cohaesion and clearness of sense So in the very next Chapter where God dooms Cain to be a Vagabond and he cryes out that every man that meets him will kill him according to the concise story of the Text there was none but Adam and Eve in the world to meet him and yet there is a mark set upon him by God as if there had been then several people in the world into whose hands he might fall and lose his life by them And then again at ver 17. Cain had no sooner got into the Land of Nod but he has a wife and a childe by her and he is forthwith said to build a City when as there is no mention of any but himself his wife and his childe to be the Artificers but any ingenious Reader will easily make to himself fitting supplements ever supposing due distances of time and right preparations to all that is said to be acted And so in the story of Samson where he is said to take three hundred Foxes it may be rationally supposed that Countrey was full of such creatures that he had a competency of time a sufficient number to help him and the like That the History of Scripture is very concise no body can deny and therefore where easie natural and agreeable supplements will clear the sense I conceive it is very warrantable to suppose some such supplies and for a Paraphrast judiciously to interweave them But now that Paradise at first should signifie a state of divine pleasure and afterward of sensual voluptuousness it is no more harsh then that Adam one while is the Spiritual or Intellectual Man another while the Earthly and Carnal For one and the same natural thing may be a Symbole of contrary Spiritual Mysteries So a Lion and a Serpent are figures of Christ as well as of the Devil and therefore it is not so hard to admit that this Garden of Eden may emblematize while Adam is discours'd of as innocent and obedient to God the delights of the Spirit but after his forsaking God the pleasures of the Flesh and consequently that the fruit of the Tree of Life in the one may be perseverance and establishment in the divine Life in the other a settlement and fixedness in the brutish and sensual Ver. 24. The manly faculties of Reason and Conscience These I conceive may be understood by the Cherubim and flaming Sword For the Cherubim bear the Image of a man and Reason is a cutting dividing thing like a Sword the Stoicks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividing and distinguishing Reason For Reason is nothing but a distinct discernment of the Idea's of things whereby the minde is able to sever what will not sute and lay together what will But if any body will like better of Philo's interpretation here of the Cherubim and flaming Sword who makes the Cherubim to signifie the goodness and power of God the flaming Sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the effectual and operative Wisdome or Word of God it does not at all clash with what we have already set down For my self also suppose that God by his Son the Eternal Word works upon the Reason and Conscience of man For that Word is living and powerful sharper then any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4. That he could not set up his rest for ever Assuredly a mans heart is not so in his own hand that he can do himself all the mischief he is contented to do For we are more Gods then our own and his Goodness and Power has dominion over us And therefore let not a man vainly fancy that by violently running into all enormity of life and extinguishing all the Principles of Piety and Virtue in him that he shall be able thus to hide himself from God and never be re-minded of him again for ever For though a man may happen thus to forget God for a time yet he can never forget us sith all things lie open to his sight And the power of his ever-living Word will easily cut through all that thickness and darkness which we shrowd our selves in and wound us so as to make us look back with shame and sorrow at a time that we least thought of But that our pain may be the lesse and our happiness commence the sooner it will be our wisdome to comply with the divine Light betimes for the sooner we begin the work is the easier and will be the more timely dispatch'd through the power of God working in us But this I must confess and I think my self bound to bear witness to so true and useful a mysterie wrapt up in this Mosaical covering that there is no other passage nor return into happiness then by death Whence Plato also that had been acquainted with these holy writings has defined Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The meditation of death viz. the dying to the lust of the flesh and inordinate desires of the body which Purgatory if we had once passed through there would soon spring up that Morning Joy the resurrection from the dead and our arrival to everlasting life and glory And there is no other way then this that is manifestable either by Scripture Reason or Experience But those that through the grace of God and a vehement thirst after the divine Righteousness have born the Crosse till the perfect death of the body of sin and make it their business to have no more sense nor relish of themselves or their own particular persons then if they were not at all they being thus demolished as to themselves and turned into a Chaos or dark Nothingness as I may so speak they become thereby fitted for the new Creation And this personal life being thus destroyed God calls unto them in the dead of the Night when all things are silent about them awakes them and raises them up and breathes into them the breath of everlasting life and ever after actuates them by his own Spirit and takes all the humane faculties unto himself guiding or allowing all their operations always holding up the spirit of man so that he will never sink into sin and from henceforth death and sorrow is swallowed up for ever for the sting of Death is Sin But whatever liberty and joy men take to themselves that is not founded in this new life is false and frivolous and will end but in