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
as he was truly in himself the most high God so he should be acknowledged of the people to be so For certainly there is nothing that doth so win away nay ravish or carry captive the mindes of poor mankinde as Bounty and Munificence All men loving themselves most affectionately and most of all the meanest and basest spirits whose souls are so far from being a little rais'd and releas'd from themselves that they do impotently and impetuously cleave and cling to their dear carkases Hence have they out of the strong relish and favour of the pleasures and conveniencies thereof made no scruple of honouring them for gods who have by their industry or by good luck produced any thing that might conduce for the improvement of the happinesse and comfort of the body From hence it is that the Sun and Moon have been accounted for the two prime Deities by Idolatrous Antiquity viz. from that sensible good they conferred upon hungry mankinde The one watering as it were the Earth by her humid influence the other ripening the fruit of the ground by his warm rayes and opening dayly all the hid treasures of the visible world by his glorious approach pleasing the sight with the variety of Natures objects chearing the whole body by his comfortable heat To these as to the most conspicuous Benefactors to mankinde was the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they observed that these conceived Deities were in perpetual motion These two are the Aegyptians Osiris and Isis and five more are added to them as very sensible Benefactors but subordinate to these two and Dependents of them And in plain speech they are these Fire Spirit Humidity Siccity and Air but in their divine Titles Vulcan Jupiter Oceanus Ceres and Minerva These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diodorus speaks But after these mortal men were canonized for immortal Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their prudence and benefaction as you may see at large in Diodorus Siculus I will name but two for instance Bacchus and Ceres the one the Inventor of Corn the other of Wine and Beer So that all may be resolved into that brutish Aphorisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which could please or pleasure degenerate mankinde in the Body they having lost the Image of God in their Souls and become meer brutes after a manner that must be their God Wherefore it was necessary for Moses having to deal with such Terrestrial Spirits Sons of Sense and Corporeity to propose to them Jehovah as Maker of this Sensible and Corporeal world that whatever sweet they suck out of the varieties thereof they may attribute to him as the first Fountain and Author without whom neither they nor any thing else had been that thereby they might be stirred up to praise his Name and accomplish his Will revealed by his servant Moses unto them And this was true and sound Prudence aiming at nothing but the glory of God and the good of the poor ignorant people And from the same Head springs the manner of his delivering of the Creation that is accommodately to the apprehension of the meanest not speaking of things according to their very Essence and real Nature but according to their appearances to us Not starting of high and intricate Questions and concluding them by subtile Arguments but familiarly and condescendingly setting out the Creation according to the most easie and obvious conceits they themselves had of those things they saw in the world omitting even those grosser things that lay hid in the bowels of the Earth as Metals and Minerals and the like as well as those things that fall not at all under Sense as those immaterial Substances Angels or Intelligences Thus fitly has the Wisdome and Goodnesse of God accommodated the outward Cortex of the Scripture to the most narrow and slow apprehension of the Vulgar Nor doth it therefore follow that the Narration must not be true because it is according to the appearance of things to Sense and obvious Fancie for there is also a Truth of Appearance according to which Scripture most what speaks in Philosophical matters And this Position is the main key as I conceive and I hope shall hereafter plainly prove whereby Moses his Bereshith may according to the outward and literal sense be understood without any difficulty or clashing one part against another And my task at this time will be very easie for it is but transcribing what I have already elsewhere occasionally published and recovering of it into its proper place First therefore I say that it is a thing confessed by the Learned Hebrews who make it a Rule for the understanding of many places of Scripture Loquitur lex juxta linguam humanam That the Law speaks according to the language of the sons of men And secondly which will come more home to the purpose I shall instance in some places that of necessity are to be thus understood Gen. 19. 23. The Sun was risen upon the Earth when Lot entred into Zoar which implies that it was before under the Earth which is true onely according to sense and vulgar phancy Deuteronom 30. v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies that the Earth is bounded at certain places as if there were truly an Hercules Pillar or Non plus ultra As it is manifest to them that understand but the natural signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those words plainly import the Earth bounded by the blew Heavens and the Heavens bounded by the Horizon of the Earth they touching one another mutually which is true only to sense and in appearance as any man that is not a meer Idiot will confesse Ecclesiastic 27. v. 12. The discourse of a godly man is always with wisdome but a fool changeth as the Moon That is to be understood according to Sense and Appearance For if a fool changeth no more then the Moon doth really he is a wise and excellently accomplished man Semper idem though to the sight of the Vulgar different For at least an Hemisphere of the Moon is always enlightned and even then most when she least appears unto us Hitherto may be referred also that 2 Chron. 4. 2. Also he made a molten Sea ten cubits from brim to brim round in compasse and five cubits the height thereof and a line of thirty cubits did compasse it round about A thing plainly impossible that the Diameter should be ten cubits and the Circumference but thirty But it pleaseth the Spirit of God here to speak according to the common use and opinion of men and not according to the subtilty of Archimedes his demonstration Again Psalm 19. In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sunne which as a Bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to run his race This as Mr. John Calvin observes is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the Vulgar whom David should
to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation WEE are now come to the Moral Cabbala which I do not call Moral in that low sense the generality of men understand Morality For the processe and growth as likewise the failing and decay of the divine Life is very intelligibly set forth in this present Cabbala But I call it Moral in counter-distinction to Philosophical or Physical as Philo also uses this tearm Moral in divine matters As when he speaks of Gods breathing into Adam the breath of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God breathes into Adams face Physically and Morally Physically by placing there the Senses viz. in the head Morally by inspiring his Intellect with divine knowledge which is the highest Faculty of the Soul as the Head is the chief part of the Body Wherefore by Morality I understand here divine Morality such as is ingendred in the Soul by the operations of the holy Spirit that inward living Principle of all godliness and honesty I shall be the more brief in the Defence of this Cabbala it being of it self so plain and sensible to any that has the experience of the life I describe but to them that have it not nothing will make it plain or any thing at all probable Ver. 1. A Microcosme or little World Nothing is more ordinary or trivial then to compare Man to the Universe and make him a little compendious World of himself Wherefore it was not hard to premise that which may be so easily understood And the Apostle supposes it when he applies the Creation of Light here in this Chapter to the illumination of the Soul as you shall hear hereafter Ver. 2. But that which is animal or natural operates first According to that of the Apostle That which is Spiritual is not first but that which is Animal or Natural afterward that which is Spiritual The first Man is of the Earth earthy the second Man is the Lord from Heaven But what this earthy condition is is very lively set out by Moses in this first days work For here we have Earth Water and Wind or one tumultuous dark Chaos and confusion of dirt and water blown on heaps and waves and unquiet night-storm an unruly black tempest And it is observable that it is not here said of this deformed Globe Let there be Earth Let there be Water Let there be Wind but all this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subject matter a thing ' made already viz. The rude Soul of Man in this disorder that is described sad Melancholy like the drown'd Earth lies at the bottome whence Care and Grief and Discontent torturous Suspicion and horrid Fear are washed up by the unquiet watry Desire or irregular suggestions of the Concupiscible wherein most eminently is seated base Lust and Sensuality and above these is boisterous Wrath and storming Revengefulnesse fool-hardy Confidence and indefatigable Contention about vain objects In short whatever Passion and Distemper is in fallen Man it may be referred to these Elements But God leaves not his creature in this evil condition but that all this disorder may be discovered and so quelled in us and avoided by us he saith Let there be Light as you read in the following verse Ver. 3. The day-light appears To this alludes S. Paul when he says God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Where the Apostle seems to me to have struck through the whole Six days of this Spiritual Creation at once The highest manifestation of that Light created in the first day being the face of Jesus Christ the Heavenly Adam fully compleated in the sixt day Wherefore when it is said Let there be Light that Light is understood that enlightens every man that comes into the world which is the divine Intellect as it is communicable to humane souls And the first day is the first appearance thereof as yet weaker and too much disjoin'd from our affections but at last it amounts to the true and plain Image and Character of the Lord from Heaven Christ according to the Spirit Ver. 4. And God hath framed the Nature of Man so that he cannot but say c. God working in second causes there is nothing more ordinary then to ascribe that to him that is done by men even then when the actions seem lesse competible to the Nature of God Wherefore it cannot seem harsh if in this Moral Cabbala we admit that man does that by the power of God working in the soul that the Text says God does as the approving of the Light as good and the distinguishing betwixt Light and Darknesse and the like which things in the mystical sense are competible both to God and Man And we speaking in a Moral or Mystical sense of God acting in us the nature of the thing requires that what he is said to do there we should be understood also to do the same through his assistance For the soul of man is not meerly passive as a piece of wood or stone but is forthwith made active by being acted upon and therefore if God in us rules we rule with him if he contend against sin in us we also contend together with him against the same if he see in us what is good or evil we ipso facto see by him In his light we see light and so in the rest Wherefore the supposition is very easie in this Moral Cablala to take the liberty where either the sense or more compendious expression requires it to attribute that to man though not to man alone which God alone does when we recur to the Literal meaning of the Text. And this is but consonant to the Apostle I live and yet not I. For if the life of God or Christ was in him surely he did live or else what did that life there Only he did not proudly attribute that life to himself as his own but acknowledged it to be from God Ver. 5. As betwixt the Natural Day and Night It is very frequent with the Apostles to set out by Day and Night the Spiritual and Natural condition of man As in such phrases as these The night is far spent the day is at hand Walk as children of the Light And elsewhere Let us who are of the day and in the same place You are all the sons of light and sons of the day We are not of the night nor of darknesse But this is too
of those Animal Figurations that are to be subdued and regulated by the Mystical Adam the Spirit of Christ in us Ver. 22. Might have something to order But if you take away all the Passions from the Soul the Minde of man will be as a General without an Army or an Army without an Enemy The Pythagoreans define Righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The peace of the whole Soul the parts thereof being in good tune or harmony according to that other definition of theirs describing Righteousnesse to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the Harmony or Agreement of the Irrational Parts of the Soul with the Rational But quite to take away all the Passions of the Minde in stead of composing them to the right rule of Reason and the divine Light is as if a man should cut away all the strings of an Instrument in stead of tuning it Ver. 24. And makes the Irascible fruitful Religious devotions help'd on by Melancholy dry the body very much and heat it and make it very subject to wrath which if it be placed upon holy matters men call Zeal but if it be inordinate and hypocritical the Apostle will teach us to call it bitter zeal This more fierce and fiery affection in man is Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lion-like nature in us which if Adam keep in subjection there is no hurt in it but good And it is evident in the Gospel that our Saviour Christ was one while deeply impassionated with Sorrow another while very strongly carried away with Zeal and Anger as you may observe in the stories of his raising up Lazarus and whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple And this is no imperfection but rather a perfection the divine Life when it has reached the Passions and Body of a man becoming thereby more palpable full and sensible But all the danger is of being impotently passionate and when as the body is carried away by its own distemper or by the hypocrisie of the minde notwithstanding to imagine or pretend that it is the impulse of the divine Spirit This is too frequent a mistake God knows but such as was impossible to happen in our Saviour and therefore the Passions of his Minde were rather Perfections then Imperfections as they are to all them that are close and sincere followers of him especially when they have reach'd the Sixt days progresse Ver. 26. By the name of his own Image What this Image of God is Plato who was acquainted with these Mosaical Writings as the holy Fathers of the Church so generally have told us plainly expresses in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be like unto God is to be Just Holy and Wise Like that of the Apostle to the Colossians And have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him And that more full passage in the fourth of the Ephesians And that you put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse There are all the Three members of that divine Image Knowledge Righteousnesse and Holinesse which are mentioned in that foregoing description of Plato's as if Plato had been pre-instructed by men of the same Spirit with the Apostle The true and perfect Man Plotinus calls that divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Man The rest is the brutish nature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before But has full power Wherefore if this definition of the Image or Likenesse of God which Plato has made does not involve this power in it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the description of Justice by the Pythagoreans above recited which implies that the rational and divine part of the Soul has the Passions at its command I should adde to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this one word more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the description may un thus To be like unto God is to be Holy and Just together with Wisdome and Power But I rather think that this Power is comprehended in Holinesse and Justice For unlesse we have arrived to that Power as to be able constantly to act according to these Virtues we are rather well-willers to Holinesse and Righteousnesse then properly and formally righteous and holy Ver. 27. In his little World They are the words of Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Man is a little World and that the World is one great Man which Analogy is supposed as I said at first in the Moral Cabbala of this present Chapter and Origen upon this Chapter calls Man Minorem Mundum a Microcosme Ver. 28. The Heavenly Adam Christ Philo makes mention of the Heavenly and Earthly Man in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is of two sorts the one Heavenly the other Earthly And S. Paul calls Christ the Heavenly Adam and Philo's heavenly Adam is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Created after the Image of God as Saint Paul in the forecited places to the Colossians and Ephesians also speaks concerning Christ Ver. 29. The heavenly Adam to feed upon fulfilling the Will of God As Christ professes of himself It is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me Ver. 30. Nor is the Animal Life quite to be starved For a good man is merciful to his beast See Origen upon the place Ver. 31. Approves all things which God hath created in us to be very good Not only the divine Principle but also the Fishes Beasts and Birds Vult enim Deus ut insignis ista Dei factura Homo non solùm immaculatus sit ab his sed dominetur eis For it is the Will of God saith Origen not only that we should be free from any soil of these which would be more certainly effected if we were utterly rid of them and they quite extirpated out of our nature but that we should rule over them without being any thing at all blemished or discomposed by them And for mine own part I do not understand how that the Kingdome of Heaven which is to be within us can be any Kingdome at all if there be no Subjects at all there to be ruled over and to obey Wherefore the Passions of the Body are not to be quite extinguished but regulated that there may be the greater plenitude of life in the whole man And those that endevour after so still so silent and demure condition of minde that they would have the sense of nothing there but peace and rest striving to make their whole nature desolate of all Animal Figurations whatsoever what do they effect but a clear Day shining upon a barren Heath that feeds neither Cow nor Horse neither Sheep nor Shepheard is to be seen there but only a waste silent Solitude and one uniform parchednesse and vacuity And yet while a man fancies himself thus wholly divine he is not aware how he is even then held down by his Animal Nature and
two extremes the first and the last that makes up the Creation of the Spiritual Adam or Christ compleated in us and includes the middle which is Blood First therefore is Repentance from what we delighted in before Then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us which is resisting to blood as the Apostle speaks And the 1 Epistle of John ch 5. v. 4. What ever is born of God overcomes the world Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus Christ the divine Light and Life in us is the Son of God and therefore indued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us This is he that comes by Water and Blood by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin not by repentance only and dislike of our former life but by the mortification also of it Then the Spirit of Truth is awakened in us and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true And according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially That no man can say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God but by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere affirms This is the heavenly Adam which is true Light and Glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead and into whom God hath breathed the breath of Life without which we have no right knowledge nor sense of God at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are thâ— words of Philo upon the place For how should the soul of man says he know God if he did not inspire her and take hold of her by his power Ver. 8. To the Kingdome of Heaven And the end of the doctrine of John which was Repentance was for this purpose that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described and therefore it was a motive for them to repent For though sorrow endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning For the new Jerusalem is to be built and God is to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men and to rule by his Spirit here upon Earth which if I would venture upon an Historical Cabbala of Moses I should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years according to the Chronology of Scripture when the world shall be so spiritualized that the work of Salvation shall be finished and the great Sabbath and Festival shall be then celebrated in the height A thousand years are but as one day saith the Apostle Peter And therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day Wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years the Kingdomes of the Earth will be the second Adams the Lord Christs as Adam in the Sixt day was created the Lord of the world and all the creatures therein and this conquest of his will bring in the Seventh day of rest and peace and joy upon the face of the whole Earth Which presage will seem more credible when I shall have unfolded unto you out of Philo Judaeus the mysterie of the number Seven but before I fall upon that let me a little prepare your belief by shewing the truth of the same thing in another Figure Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared they died not enjoying the richness of Gods goodness in their bodies But Enoch who was the seventh from Adam he was taken up alive into Heaven and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body The world then in the Seventh Chiliad will be assumed up into God snatch'd up by his Spirit inacted by his Power The Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon Earth God will as I said pitch his Tabernacle amongst men And for God to be in us and with us is as much as for us to be lifted up into God But to come now to the mysterie of the Septenary or number Seven it is of two kindes the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septenary within the Decade is meerly seven unites The other is a Seventh Number beginning at an Vnite and holding on in a continued Geometrical Proportion till you have gone through Seven Proportional Terms For the Seventh Term there is this Septenary of the second kinde whose nature Philo fully expresses in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense For always beginning from an Vnite and holding on in double or triple or what Proportion you will the seventh Number of this rank is both Square and Cube comprehending both kindes as well the Corporeal as Incorporeal Substancâ—e the Incorporeal according to the Superficies which the Squares exhibite but the Corporeal according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the Cubes As for example 64. or 729. these are Numbers that arise after this manner each of them are a Seventh from an Unite the one arising from double Proportion the other from triple and if the Proportion were Quadruple Quintuple or any else there is the same reason some other Seventh Number would arise which would prove of the same nature with these they would prove both Cubes and Squares that is Corporeal and Incorporeal For such is sixty four either made by multiplying eight into eight and so it is a Square or else by multiplying four Cubically For four times four times four is again sixty four but then it is a Cube And so seven hundred twenty nine is made either by Squaring of twenty seven or Cubically multiplying of Nine for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made and so is both Cube and Square Corporeal and Incorporeal Whereby is intimated that the world shall not be reduced in the Seventh day to a meer Spiritual consistency to an Incorporeal condition but that there shall be a co-habitation of the Spirit with Flesh in a Mystical or Moral sense and that God will pitch his Tent amongst us Then shall be settled everlasting righteousnesse and rooted in the Earth so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof And this truth of the Reign of Righteousness in this Seventh thousand years is still more clearly set out to us in the Septenary within Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls it the naked number Seven For the parts it consists of are 3 and 4 which put together make 7. And these parts be the sides of the first Orthogonion in Numbers the very sides that include the right angle thereof And the Orthogonion what a foundation it is of Trigonometry and of measuring the altitudes latitudes and longitudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in Mathematicks And this prefigures the uprightness of that holy Generation who will stand and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inclining neither this way nor that way but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart And by this Spirit of Righteousness will these Saints be enabled to finde out the depth and breadth
Creation 29 And that nothing might be wanting to their delight behold also divine Providence hath prepared for their palate all precious and pleasant herbs for sallads and made them banquets of the most delicate fruit of the fruit-bearing trees 30 But for the courser grasse and worser kinde of herbs they are intended for the worser and baser kinde of creatures Wherefore it is free for man to seek out his own and make use of it 31 And God considering every thing that he had made approved of it as very good and the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Sixt days work and the Senary denotes the nature thereof CHAP. II. 2 Gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew adumbrated by the number Seven 4 Suns and Planets not only the furniture but effects of the Ethereal Matter or Heaven 6 The manner of Man and other Animals rising out of the earth by the power of God in nature 8 How it was with Adam before he descended into flesh and became a terrestrial Animal 10 That the four Cardinall virtues were in Adam in his Ethereal or Paradisiacal condition 17 Adam in Paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will under pain of descending into the Region of Death 18 The Masculine and Feminine faculties in Adam 20 The great Pleasure and Solace of the Feminine faculties 21 The Masculine faculties laid asleep the Feminine appear and act viz. The grateful sense of the life of the Vehicle 25 That this sense and joy of the life of the Vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame 1 THUS the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the garnishings of them such as are Trees Flowers and Herbs Suns Moons and Stars Fishes Fowls and Beasts of the field and the chiefest of all Man himself 2 Wherfore God having thus compleated his work in the Senary comprehending the whole Creation in six orders of things he ceased from ever creating any thing more either in this outward Material world or in the world of Life But his Creative Power retiring into himself he enjoyed his own eternal Rest which is his immutable and indefatigable Nature that with ease oversees all the whole Compasse of Beings and continues Essence Life and Activity to them and the better rectifies the worse and all are guided by his Eternal Word and Spirit but no new Substance hath been ever created since the six days production of things nor shall ever be hereafter 3 For this Seventh day God hath made an Eternal Holy day or Festival of Rest to himself wherein he will only please himself to behold the exquisite Order and Motion and right Nature of things his Wisdome Justice and Mercy unavoidably insinuating themselves according to the set frame of the world into all the parts of the Creation he having Ministers of his Goodnesse and Wrath prepared every where So that himself need but to look on and see the effects of that Nemesis that is necessarily interwoven in the nature of the things themselves which he hath made This therefore is that Sabbath or Festival of Rest which God himself is said to celebrate in the Seventh day and indeed the number declares the nature thereof 4 And now to open my minde more fully and plainly unto you I must tell you that those things which before I tearm'd the Garnishings of the Heaven and of the Earth they are not only so but the Generations of them I say Plants and Animals were the generations effects and productions of the Earth the Seminal Forms and Souls of Animals insinuating themselves into the prepared matter thereof and Suns Planets or Earths were the generations or productions of the Heavens vigour and motion being imparted from the world of Life to the immense body of the Universe so that what I before called meer Garnishings are indeed the productions or generations of the Heavens and of the Earth so soon as they were made Though I do not take upon me to define the time wherein God made the Heavens and the Earth For he might do it at once by his absolute Omnipotency or he might when he had created all Substance as well material as immaterial let them act one upon the other so and in such periods of time as the nature of the production of the things themselves requir'd 5 But it was for pious purposes that I cast the Creation into that order of Six dayes and for the more firmly rooting in the hearts of the people this grand and useful Truth That the Omnipotency of God is such that he can act above and contrary to natural causes that I mention'd herbs and plants of the field before I take notice of either rain or man to exercise Gardning and Husbandry For indeed according to my former narration there had been no such kinde of rain as ordinarily nowadays waters the labours of the Husbandman 6 But yet there went up a moist vapour from the earth which being matur'd and concocted by the Spirit of the world which is very active in the heavens or air became a precious balmy liquour and fit vehicle of Life which descending down in some sort like dewy showers upon the face of the earth moistned the ground so that the warmth of the Sun gently playing upon the surface thereof prepared matter variously for sundry sorts not only of Seminal forms of Plants but Souls of Animals also 7 And Man himself rose out of the earth after this manner the dust thereof being rightly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers and balmy droppings of Heaven For God had so contriv'd by his infinite Wisdome that matter thus or thus prepar'd should by a vital congruity attract proportional forms from the world of Life which is every where nigh at hand and does very throngly inequitate the moist and unctuous air Wherefore after this manner was the Aereal or Ethereal Adam conveyed into an earthly body having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain And thus Adam became the Soul of a Terrestrial living Creature 8 But how it is with Adam before he descends into this lower condition of life I shall declare unto you in the Aenigmatical narration that follows which is this That the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden where he had put the Man which afterward he formed into a Terrestrial Animal For Adam was first wholly Ethereal and placed in Paradise that is in an happy and joyful condition of the Spirit for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine Intellect and the Sun of Righteousnesse then shone fairly upon him 9 And his Soul was as the ground which God hath blest so brought forth every pleasant Tree and every goodly Plant of her heavenly Fathers own planting for the holy Spirit of Life had inriched the soil that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits And the Tree of Life was in the midst of this Garden of mans soul
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
concerning Moses and other Law-givers that have professed themselves to have received their Laws from either God or some good Angel Reasons why Moses began his History with the Creation of the world The Sun and Moon the same with the Aegyptians Osiris and Isis and how they came to be worshipped for Gods The Apotheosis of mortal men such as Bacchus and Ceres how it first came into the world That the letter of the Scripture speaks ordinarily in Philosophical things according to the sense and imagination of the Vulgar That there is a Philosophical sense that lies hid in the letter of the three first Chapters of Genesis That there is a Moral or Mystical sense not only in these three Chapters but in several other places of the Scripture NOT to stay you with too tedious a Prologue to the matter in hand concerning the Author of this book of Genesis to wit Moses I shall look upon him mainly in reference to that publick induement in which at the very first sight he will appear admirable viz. As a Politician or a Law-giver In which his skill was so great that even in the judgement of Heathen Writers he had the preheminence above all the rest Diodorus has placed him in the head of his Catalogue of the most famous Law-givers under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if Iustin Martin be not mistaken or if he be at least he bears them company that are reputed the best reserv'd for the last and most notable instance of those that entituled their Laws divine and made themselves spokesmen betwixt God and the People This Mneves is said to receive his Laws from Mercury as Minos from Iupiter Lycurgus from Apollo Zathraustes from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good Genius Zamolxis from Vesta and Moses from Iao that is Iehovah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he speaks like a meer Historian in the business 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word which he boldly abuses to the diminution of all their Authorities promiscuously For he says they feigned they received Laws from these Deities and addes the reason of it too but like an errant Statesman or an incredulous Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether it be sayes he that they judged it an admirable and plainly divine project that redounded unto the profit of a multitude or whether they conceived that hereby the people looking upon the greatnesse and supereminence of their Law-givers would be more obedient to their Laws That saying in the Schools is not so trivial as true Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Every thing is as it is taken or at least appears to be so The tincture of our own Natures stains the appearance of all objects So that I wonder not that Diodorus Siculus a man of a meer Political Spirit as it is very plain how neer History and Policy are akin should count the receiving of Laws from some Deity rather a piece of prudential fraud and political forgery then reality and truth But to leave Diodorus to his Ethnicisme and Incredulity as for us that ought to believe Scripture if we will not gain-say the authority of the Greek Text we shall not only be fully perswaded of Moses his receiving of Laws from Gods own mouth but have some hints to believe that something Analogical to it may have come to passe in other Law-givers Deut. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When the most High divided the Nations when he separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God but Jacob was the portion of Iehovah that is Iao c. So that it is not improbable but that as the great Angel of the Covenant he whom Philo calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the eldest of the Angels the Archangel the word the Beginning the Name of God which is Iehovah I say that as he gave Laws to his charge so the Tutelar Angels of other nations might be the Instructers of those that they rais'd up to be Law-givers to their charge Though in processe of time the Nations that were at first under the Government of good Angels by their lewdnesse and disobedience might make themselves obnoxious to the power and delusion of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called deceitful and tyrannical devils But this is but a digression That which I would briefly have intimated is this That Moses the great Law-giver of the Jews was a man instructed of God himself to Prudence and true Policy And therefore I make account if we will but with diligence search we may surely finde the foot-steps of unsophisticate Policy in all the passages of the whole Pentateuch And here in the very entrance it will offer it self unto our view Where Moses shews himself such as that noble Spirit of Plato desires all Governors of Commonwealths should be who has in his Epistle to Dion and his friends foretold that mankinde will never cease to be miserable till such time as either true and right Philosophers rule in the Commonwealth or those that do rule apply themselves to true and sound Philosophy And what is Moses his Bereshith but a fair invitation thereto it comprehending at least the whole fabrick of Nature and conspicuous furniture of the visible world As if he dare appeal unto the whole Assembly of Gods Creation to the voice of the great Universe if what he propounds to his people over whom God hath set him be not righteous and true And that by acting according to his Precepts they would but approve themselves Cosmopolitas true Citizens of the world and Loyal Subjects to God and Nature It is Philo's interpretation upon the place which how true it is in Moses vailed I will not here dispute that it is most true in Moses unvailed Christ our Lord is true without all dispute and controversie And whosoever followes him follows a Law justified by God and the whole Creature they speaking in several dialects the minde of their Maker It is a truth and life that is the safety of all Nations and the earnest expectation of the ends of the Earth Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever whose dominion and Law neither time nor place doth exclude But to return to Moses Another reason no lesse considerable why that holy and wise Law-giver Moses should begin with the Creation of the world is this The Laws and Ordinances which he gave to the Israelites were given by him as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Statutes received from God And therefore the great argument and incitement to Obedience should lie in this first and highest Law-giver God himself the great Jehovah whose Wisdome Power and Goodnesse could not better be set out then by ascribing the Creation of the whole visible world unto him So that for his Power he might be feared admired for his Wisdome and finally for his Goodnesse be loved adored and Deified That
even to God himselfe when as I think I have no lesse then demonstrated in my Antidote against Atheism that it is impossible but God should have the power of Creation or else he would not be God But because our Will and Minde can create no Substance distinct from our selves we foolishly conceit measuring the Power of God by our own that he cannot create any Substance distinct from himself Which is but a weak conclusion fallen from our own dulnesse and inadvertency Ver. 2. Solitude and Emptinesse The very word signifies so in the Original as Vatablus will tell you Which being abstract tearms as the Schools call them do very fittingly agree with the Notion we have put upon this Symbolical Earth affirming it no real actual subject either spiritual or corporeal that may be said to be void and empty but to be Vacuity and Emptiness it self onely joined with a capacity of being something It is as I have often intimated the Ens Potentiale of the whole outward Creation But the Spirit of God Not a great Wind but the holy Ghost This is the Interpretation general of the Fathers And it is a sign that it is according to the true Mosaical Cabbala it being so consonant to Plato's School which School I suspect now has more of that Cabbala then the Jews themselves have at this day Having hovered a while The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a hovering or brooding over a thing as a Bird does over her nest or on her young ones Hence it is not unlikely is Aristophanes his Egge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense Vnder the wind below in dark some shade There the black-winged Night her first Egge laid And this manner of brooding thus is an Embleme of dearest affection and who knows but that from this Text the Poets took occasion of feigning that ancient Cupid the Father of all the Gods the Creator of all things and Maker of Mankinde For so he is described by Hesiod and Orpheus and here in this place of Aristophanes from whence I took the forecited verse Simmias Rhodius describes this ancient Love in verses which represent a pair of wings I will not say according to this conceit of Aristophanes his Egge which they should brood and hatch But the longest Quill of one of them writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense I am the King of the deep-bosom'd Earth My strength gave to the Sea both bounds and birth This Spirit of God then or the divine Love which was from everlasting will prove the third divine Hypostasis The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies strength and a word rather common to the whole Trinity But Jehovah as the Rabbines observe is a name of God as he is merciful and gracious which may be answerable to Plato his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that name is also communicated to Christ as we have already acknowledged The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Wisdome as has been prov'd out of the Proverbs and answers to the Platonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third we have now light upon which must be Love and it has a lucky coincidence also with the third Hypostasis in the Platonick Triad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Plotinus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Celestial Venus And to this after a more immediate manner is the Creation of the world ascribed by that Philosopher as also by Plato as here in Moses the Spirit of God is said to lie close brooding upon the humid Matter for the actual Production of this outward world Ver. 3. Exist independently of Corporeal Matter That which exists first it is plain is independent of what follows and Philo makes all Immateriate Beeings to be created in this first day Whence the Souls of Men are removed far from all fear of fate and mortality which is the grand Tenent of Plato's School Ver. 5. Matter meerly Metaphysical See Hyle in my Interpretation general at the end of my Poems where you shall find that I have settled the same Notion I make use of here though I had no design then of expounding Moses Monad or Vnite The fitnesse of the number to the nature of every days work you shall observe to be wonderful Whence we may well conclude that it was ordered so on purpose and that in all probability Pythagoras was acquainted with this Cabbala And that that was the reason the Pythagoreans made such a deal of doe with numbers putting other conceits upon them then any other Arithmeticians do and that therefore if such Theorems as the Pythagoreans held be found sutable and compliable with Moses his Text it is a shrewd presumption that that is the right Philosophick Cabbala thereof Philo makes this first day spent in the Creation of Immateral and Spiritual Beeings of the Intellectual world taking it in a large sense or the Mundus vitae as Ficinus calls it The World of Life and Forms And the Pythagoreans call an Unite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Form and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life They call it also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Tower of Jupiter giving also the same name to a Point or Center by which they understand the vital formative Center of things the Rationes Seminales and they call an Unite also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Seminal Form But a very short and sufficient account of Philo's pronouncing that Spiritual Substances are the first days work is That as an Vnite is indivisible in Numbers so is the nature of Spirits indivisible you cannot make two of one of them as you may make of one piece of Corporeal Matter two by actuall division or severing them one piece from another Wherefore what was truly and properly created the first day was Immaterial Indivisible and Independent of the Matter from the highest Angel to the meanest Seminal Form And for the Potentiality of the outward Creation sith it is not so properly any real Beeing it can breed no difficulty but whatever it is it is referrable fitly enough to Incorporeal things it being no object of Sense but of Intellect and being also impassible and undiminishable and so in a sort indivisible For the Power of God being undiminishable the Possibility of the Creature must be also undiminishable it being an adaequate consequence of his Power Wherefore this Potentiality being ever one it is rightly referred to the first day And in respect of this the Pythagoreans call an Vnite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the Binary as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which names plainly glance at the dark Potentiality of things set out by Moses in the first days Creation Ver. 6. Created an immense deal c. He creates now Corporeal Matter as before the World of Life out of nothing Which universal Matter may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For extension is very proper to Corporeal
of the Field you shall understand more fully in the following Chapter In the mean time you may take notice that the Platonists indeed Plato himself in his Phaedrus makes the Soul of Man before it falls into this Terrestrial Region a winged Creature And that such phrases as these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like are proper expressions of that School And Plato does very plainly define what he means by these wings of the soul and there is the same reason of all other spirits whatsoever after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the nature of the wing of the soul is such as to be able to carry upward that which otherwise would slugge downwards and to bear it aloft and place it there where we may have more sensible communion with God and his holy Angels For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number is most sutably translated in such passages as these and most congruously to the thing it self and the truth of Christianity And it may well seem the lesse strange that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signifie Angels in the Greek Philosophers especially such as have been acquainted with Moses when as with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies so too viz. Angels as well as God Wherefore to conclude the losse of that Principle that keeps us in this divine condition is the losing of our wings which fallen Angels have done and therefore they may be very well assimilated to Terrestrial Beasts Ver. 20. A faculty of being united c. This vital aptitude in the soul of being united with corporeal Matter being so essential to her and proper the invigorating the exercise of that faculty cannot but be very grateful and acceptable to her and a very considerable share of her happinesse Else what means the Resurrection of the dead or Bodies in the other world which yet is an Article of the Christian Faith Ver. 22. This new sense of his Vehicle There be three Principles in Man according to the Platonists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first is Intellect Spirit or divine Light the second the Soul her self which is Adam the Man Animus cujusque is est quisque the Soul of every man that is the Man the third is the image of the Soul which is her vital Energie upon the Body wherewith she does enliven it and if that life be in good tune and due vigour it is a very grateful sense to the soul whether in this Body or in a more thin Vehicle This Ficinus makes our Eve This is the Feminine Faculty in the Soul of Man which awakes then easiliest into act when the Soul to Intellectuals falls asleep Ver. 24. Over-tedious aspires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a solemn monition of Aristotle somewhere in his Ethicks And it is a great point of wisdome indeed and mainly necessary to know the true laws and bounds of humane happinesse that the heat of melancholy drive not men up beyond what is competible to humane nature and the reach of all the faculties thereof Nor the too savoury relish of the pleasures of the flesh or Animal Life keep them down many thousand degrees below what they are capable of But the man that truly fears God will be delivered from them both What I have spoken is directed more properly to the soul in the flesh but may Analogically be understood of a soul in any Vehicle for they are peccable in them all Ver. 25. Stood naked before God Adam was as truly clothed in Corporeity now as ever after for the Aether is as true a body as the Earth But the meaning is Adam had a sense of the divine Presence very feelingly assured in his own minde that his whole Beeing lay naked and bare before God and that nothing could be hid from his sight which pierced also to the very thoughts and inward frame of his spirit But yet though Adam stood thus naked before him notwithstanding he found no want of any covering to hide himself from that presentifick sense of him nor indeed felt himself as naked in that notion of nakednesse For that sense of nakednesse and want of further covering and sheltring from the divine Presence arose from his disobedience and rebellion against the commands of God which as yet he had not faln into Not at all ashamed Shame is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear of just reprehension as Gellius out of the Philosophers defines it But Adam having not acted any thing yet at randome after the swing of his own will he had done nothing that the divine Light would reprehend him for He had not yet become obnoxious to any sentence from his own condemning Conscience for he kept himself hitherto within the bounds of that divine Law written in his soul and had attempted nothing against the Will of God So that there being no sin there could not as yet be any shame in Adam CHAP. III. 1 The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pherecydes Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of Spirits haunting Fields and desolate places The right Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 That Satan upon his tempting Adam was cast down lower towards the Earth with all his Accomplices 15 Plato's Prophecie of Christ The reasonablenesse of divine Providence in exalting Christ above the highest Angels 20 That Adams descension into his Terrestrial Body was a kind of death 22 How incongruous it is to the divine Goodnesse Sarcastically to insult over frait Man fallen into Tragical misery 24 That it is a great mercy of God that we are not immortal upon Earth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one A Summary representation of the strength of the whole Philosophick Cabbala Pythagoras deemed the son of Apollo That he was acquainted with the Cabbala of Moses That he did miracles as also Abaris Empedocles and Epimenides being instructed by him Plato also deemed the son of Apollo Socrates his dream concerning him That he was learned in the Mosaical Cabbala The miraculous power of Plotinus his Soul Cartesius compared with Bezaliel and Aholiab and whether he was inspired or no. The Cabbalists Apology THE first verse This old Serpent therefore In Pherecydes Syrus Pythagoras his Master there is mention of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princeps mali as Grotius cites him on this place which is a further argument of Pythagoras his being acquainted with this Mosaical Philosophy And that according to the Philosophick Cabbala it was an evil spirit not a natural Serpent that supplanted Adam and brought such mischief upon mankind The Beasts of the Field But now that these evil spirits should be reckoned as beasts of the field besides what reason is given in the Cabbala it self we may adde further that the haunt of these unclean spirits is in solitudes and waste fields and desolate places as is evident in the Prophet Esay his description of the
obvious to insist upon And thus Ignorance and Inquiry The soul of man is never quiet but in perpetual search till she has found out her own happinesse which is the heavenly Adam Christ the Image of God into which Image and likenesse when we are throughly awakened we are fully satisfied therewith till then we are in Ignorance and Confusion as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does fitly signifie This Ignorance Confusion and Dissatisfaction puts us upon seeking according to that measure of the Morning light that hath already visited us And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek to consider and inquire This is the Generation of those that seek thy face O Jacob that is the face of Jesus Christ the result of the Sixt days work as I have intimated before Ver. 6. Of savoury and affectionate discernment Wherefore he will not assent to Solomons whore who says Stoln water is sweet but will rather use the words of the Samaritane woman to Christ when he had told her of those waters of the Spirit though she did not so perfectly reach his meaning Sir give me this water that I thirst not neither come hither to draw For who would seek to satisfie himself with the toilsome pleasures of the world when he may quench his desires with the delicious draughts of that true and yet easie-flowing Nectar of the Spirit of God Ver. 10. To compare to the Earth Origen compares this condition to the Earth for fruitfulnesse but I thought it not impertinent to take notice of the steadinesse of the Earth also But the condition of the ungodly is like the raging waves of the Sea or as the Prophet speaks The wicked are as the troubled Sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Esay 57. Ver. 11. He is a fruitful field This Interpretation is Origens as I intimated before Ver. 14. According to the difference of these lights What this difference is you will understand out of the sixteenth and eighteenth verses Ver. 18. To this one single but vigorous and effectual Light For indeed a true and sincere sense of this one comprehends all For all the Law is fulfilled in one word to wit in this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and thy neighbour as thy self and to do so to others as we our selves would be done to Wherefore for men to make nothing of this Royal Law of Christ and yet to pretend to be more accurate Indagators into matters of Religion and more affectionate Lovers of Piety then ordinary is either to be abominably hypocritical or grossely ignorant in the most precious and necessary parts of Christianity and they walk by Star-light and Moon-light not under the clear and warm enlivening raies of the Sunne of Righteousnesse It is an excellent saying of Plato's in an Epistle of his to Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Truth lies in a little room and assuredly that which is best and most precious does when as the folly of every man notwithstanding so mis-guides him that his toil and study is but to adorn himself after the mode of the most ridiculous fellow in all the Graecian Army Thersites of whom the Poet gives this testimony that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he had a rabble of disordered Notions and fruitlesse Observations but that neither he nor any body else could make either head or foot of them nor himself became either more wise or more honest by having them That Precept of the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simplifie your self Reduce your self to One How wise how holy how true is it What a sure foundation is it of life liberty and easie sagacity in things belonging to Virtue Religion and Justice I think no man is born naturally so stupid but that if he will keep close to this single Light of divine Love in due time nay in a short time he will be no more to seek what is to be done in the carriage of his life to God or man then an unblemished eye will be at a losse to distinguish colours But if he forsake this One Light he will necessarily be benighted and his minde distracted with a multitude of needlesse and uncomfortable scrupulosities and faint and ineffectual Notions and every body will be ready to take him up for a night-wanderer and to chastise him for being out of his way and after it may be as friendly offer himself a guide to another path that will prove as little to the purpose unlesse he bring him into this Via Regia or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint James calls it This Royal Law of the sincere love of God and a mans neighbour Ver. 20. That is that the Concupiscible in man That the waters are an Emblem of this Concupiscible Venus her being born of the Sea does intimate which were not so much to the purpose did not Natural Philosophy and Experience certifie that Concupiscence is lodg'd in moisture Whence is that of Heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Porphyrius his De antro Nympharum i. e. Anima sicca sapientissima And without all question the inordinate use of the Concupiscible does mightily befor the soul and makes her very uncapable of divine Sense and Knowledge And yet to endevour after an utter insensibility of the pleasures of the body is as groundlesse and unwarrantable But concerning this I shall speak more fully on the 22. and 31. verses of this Chapter Ver. 21. Winged Ejaculations Whether mental or vocal they are not unfitly resembled to Fowls according to that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if vocal words have wings the inward desires of the soul may well be said to have wings also they being the words of the minde as the other are of the mouth and fly further for the most part and get sooner to Heaven then the other Note also that Origen likewise makes a difference here betwixt the Fish and the Fowl and makes the Fowl to be good cogitations the Fish evil But I account them rather both indifferent and to be regulated not extirpated by the Mystical Adam Christ the Image of God in Man And these strong Heats and Ejaculations are the effects of Melancholy wherein the divine Principle in man when it actuates it works very fiercely and sharply and is a great waster of the delightful moisture of the Concupiscible and weakens much the pleasures of the body to the great advantage of the minde if it be done with discretion and due moderation otherways if this passion be over-much indulged to it may lead to Hecticks Phrenzies and Distractions The contrivance of the Text mentioning only such Fowls as frequent the waters naturally points to this sense we have given it but if our imagination strike out further to other winged creatures as the Fowls of the Mountains and sundry sorts of Birds they may also have their proper meanings and are a part
and height of the Wisdom and goodness of God as somewhere the Apostle himself phrasâ—th it But then again in the second place this three and four comprehend also the conjunction of the Corporeal and Incorporeal nature Three being the first Superficies and Four the first Body and in the Seventh thousand years I do verily conceive that there will be so great union betwixt God and Man that they shall not only partake of his Spirit but that the Inhabitants of the Aethereal Region will openly converse with these of the Terrestrial and such frequent conversation and ordinary visits of our cordial friends of that other world will take away all the toil of life and the fear of death amongst men they being very chearful and pleasant here in the body and being well assured they shall be better when they are out of it For Heaven and Earth shall then shake hands together or become as one house and to die shall be accounted but to ascend into an higher room And though this dispensation for the present be but very sparingly set a foot yet I suppose there may some few have a glimpse of it concerning whom accomplish'd Posterity may happily utter something answerable to that of our Saviours concerning Abraham who tasted of Christianity before Christ himself was come in the Flesh Abraham saw my day and rejoyced at it And without all question that plenitude of happiness that has been reserved for future times the presage and presensation of it has in all ages been a very great Joy and Triumph to all holy men and Prophets The Morning Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse This is very sutable to the Text Paradise being said to be placed Eastward in Eden and our Saviour Christ to be the bright Morning Starre and the Light that lightens every one that comes into the world though too many are disobedient to the dictates of this Light that so early visits them in their mindes and consciences but they that follow it it is their peace and happiness in the conclusion Ver. 9. Which is a sincere obedience to the Will of God The Tree of Life is very rightly said to be in the midst of the Garden that is in the midst of the soul of man and this is the will or desire of man which is the most inward of all the faculties of his soul and is as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vital Center of the rest from whence they stream or grow That therefore is the Tree of Life if it be touch'd truly with the divine Life and a man be heartily obedient to the will of God For the whole Image of divine Perfection will grow from hence and receives nourishment strength and continuance from it But if this will and desire be broke off from God and become actuated by the creature or be a self-will and a spirit of disobedience it breeds most deadly fruit which kills the divine Life in us and puts man into a necessity of dying to that disorder and corruption he has thus contracted What ever others would insinuate to the contrary For there is nothing so safe if a man be heartily sincere as not to be led by the nose by others For we see the sad event of it in Eves listening to the outward suggestions of the Serpent Ver. 10. The four Cardinal Virtues It is the Exposition of Philo. Till verse 17. there is no need of adding any thing more then what has already been said in the Defence of the Philsophick Cabbala Ver. 17. Dead to all Righteousnesse and Truth The mortality that Adam contracted by his disobedience in the Mortal or Mystical sense is twofold The one a death to righteousness and it is the sense of Philo upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The death of the soul is the extinction of Virtue in her and the resuscitation of Vice and he adds that this must be the death here meant it being a real punishment indeed to forfeit the life of Virtue The other mortality is a necessity of dying to unrighteousness if he ever would be happy Both those notions of Death are more frequent in S. Pauls Epistles then that I need to give any instance His more noble and Masculine Faculties What the Masculine part in man is Philo plainly declares in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In us saith he the Man is the Intellect the Woman the Sense of the Body Whence you will easily understand that the Masculine Faculties are those that are more Spiritual and Intellectual Ver. 18. That the whole Humane Nature may be accomplished with the Divine Which is agreeable to that pious ejaculation of the Apostle 1 Thess 5. And the God of Peace sanctifie you wholly or throughly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be kept blamelesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the presence or abode of Jesus Christ the divine Life or heavenly Adam in you This is the most easie and natural sense of that place of Scripture as it will appear to any man whose minde is as much set on holiness as hard Theories And it is very agreeable to the Mystical sense of the second Psalm where the Kingdome of Christ reaches to the utmost ends of the Earth that is as far as Soul and Life can animate so that our very flesh and body is brought under the Scepter of Christs Kingdome Ver. 19. The Figurations of the Animal Life That the motions of the Minde as they are suggested from the Animal Life of the Body are set forth by Fishes Beasts and Birds I have already made good from the authority of Origen Ver. 20. In a capacity of taking delight in them For melancholy had so depraved the complexion of his body that there was no grateful sense of any thing that belong'd to nature and the life of the Vehicle Ver. 22. The greatest part of that Paradise a man is capable of upon Earth This is a Truth of Sense and Experience and is no more to be proved by Reason then that White is White or Black is Black Ver. 23. Essential operation of the Soul The very nature of the Soul as it is a Soul is an aptitude of informing or actuating a Body but that it should be always an organized Body it is but Aristotles saying of it he does not prove it But for mine own part I am very prone to think that the Soul is never destitute of some Vehicle or other though Plotinus be of another minde and conceives that the Soul at the height is joined with God and nothing else nakedly lodged in his arms And I am the more bold to dissent from him in this exaltation of the Soul I being so secure in my own conceit of that other suspected extravagancy of his in the debasement of them that at last they become so drowsie and sensless that they grow up out of the ground in that dull function of life the efformation of Trees and Plants And
a Novice if it were but to be esteemed wise to adventure upon such things as would initiate him therein Ver. 6. But the wisdome of the flesh The Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which wisdome of the flesh he saith is enmity with God But the free and cautious use of Reason the knowledge of the fabrick of the world and the course of natural causes to understand the Rudiments of Geometry and the Principles of Mechanicks and the like what man that is not a Fool or a Fanatick will ever assert that God bears any enmity to these things For again these kind of Contemplations are not so properly the knowledg of Good and Evil as of Truth and Falshood the knowledge of Good and Evil referring to that experience we gather up in Moral or Political encounters But those men that from this Text of Scripture would perstringe Philosophy and an honest and gerous enquiry into the true knowledge of God in Nature I suspect them partly of ignorance and partly of a sly and partial kinde of countenancing of those pleasures that beasts have as well as men and I think in as high a degree especially Baboons and Satyres and such like letcherous Animals And I fear there are no men so subject to such mis-interpretations of Scripture as the boldest Religionists and Mock-Prophets who are very full of heat and spirits and have their imagination too often infected with the fumes of those lower parts the full sense and pleasure whereof they prefer before all the subtile delights of Reason and generous Contemplation But leaving these Sanguine-inspired Seers to the sweet deception and gullery of their own corrupted fancy let us listen and keep close to him that can neither deceive nor be deceived I mean Christ and his holy Apostles and now in particular let us consider that grave and pious Monition of S. Peter Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul Wherein this holy man instructed of God plainly intimates that the soul in this world is as a traveller in a strange Countrey and that she is journeying on to a condition more sutable to her then this in the body Whence it follows that the tender patronizing of those pleasures that are mortal and die with the body is a badg of a poor base degenerate minde and unacquainted with her own nature and dignity Ver. 7. How naked now he was and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things This was Adams mistake that he thought he could serve two Masters The will of God and the dictates of the flesh But thus he became estranged to the divine Life and Power which will not dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding viz. such as are suggested and pursued at randome and will not abide when unrighteousnesse cometh in Ver. 8. Could not endure the presence of it For the divine Light now was only a convincer of his miscarriages but administred nothing of the divine Love and Power as it does to them that are obedient and sincere followers of its precepts and therefore Adam could no more endure the presence of it then sore eyes the Sun or Candle-light Ver. 9. Persisted and came up closer to him This divine Light is God as he is manifested in the Conscience of man but his Love and Power are not fit to be communicated to Adam in this dissolute and disobedient condition he is in but meerly conviction to bring him to repentance And after the hurry of his inordinate pleasures and passions when he was for a time left in the suds as they call it this light of Conscience did more strictly and particularly sift and examine him and he might well wonder with himself that he found himself so much afraid to commune with his own heart Ver. 10. Ingenuously confessed For he presently found out the reason why he was thus estranged from the divine Light because he found himself naked of that power and good affection he had in divine things before having lost those by promiscuously following the wilde suggestions of his own inordinate will as you see in the following verse Wherefore he had no minde to be convinced of any obligation to such things as he felt in himself no power left to perform nor any inclination unto Ver. 11. The sad event upon his disobedience Adams Conscience resolved all this confusion of minde into his disobedience and following his own will without any rule or guidance from the will of God Ver. 12. His rational Faculties and said Like that in the Comedian Homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto And so commonly men reason themselves into an allowance of sin by pretending humane infirmities or natural frailties Ver. 13. That he kept his Feminine faculties in no better order That 's the foolish and mischievous Sophistry amongst men whereby they impose upon themselves that because such and such things may be done and that they are but the suggestions of nature which is the work of God in the world that therefore they may do them how and in what measure they please But here the divine Light does not chastise Adam for the exercise of his Feminine faculties but that in the exercise of them they were not regulated by an higher and more holy rule and that he kept them in no more subjection unto the Masculine To which he had nothing to say but c. The meaning is that Adams temptations were very strong and so accommodate to the vigorous life of the body that as he thought he could not resist But the will of man assisted by God as Adam's was if it be sincere what can it not doe Ver. 14. Then the divine Light began to chastise the Serpent From this 14 verse to the 20. there seems to be a description of the conscience of a man plainly convincing him of all the ugliness and inconveniencies of those sinful courses he is engaged in with some hints also of the advantages of the better life if he converted to it which is like a present flame kindled in his minde for a time but the true love of the divine Life and the power of grace being not also communicated unto his soul and his body being unpurg'd of the filth it has contracted by former evil courses this flame is presently extinct and all those monitions and representations of what so nearly concerned him are drowned in oblivion and he presently settles to his old ill ways again That it crept basely upon the belly See what has been said out of Philo upon ver 1. Ver. 15. But might I once descend so far This the divine Light might be very well said to speak in Adam For his conscience might well re-minde him how grateful a sense of the harmless joyes of the body he had in his state of obedience
sadness bitterness and intolerable thraldome For the Corporeal life and sense will so deeply have sunk into the soul that it will be beyond all measure hard and painfull to dis-intangle her But as many as have passed the Death have arrived to that Life that abides for ever and ever And this Life is pure and immaculate Love and this Love is God as he is communicable unto man and is the sole Life and Essence of Virtue truly so called or rather as all colours are but the reflexion of the Rayes of the Sun so all Virtue is but this One variously coloured and figured from the diversity of Objects and Circumstances But when she playes with ease within her own pure and undisturbed Light she is most lovely and amiable and if she step out into zeal Satyrical rebuke and contestation it is a condescent and debasement for the present but the design is a more enlarged exaltation of her own nature and the getting more universal foot-hold in other persons by dislodging her deformed enemy For the divine Love is the love of the divine Beauty and that Beauty is the divine Life which would gladly insinuate it self and become one with that particular Principle of Natural life the Soul of man And whatever man she has taken hold upon and won him to her self she does so actuate and guide as that whatever he has she gets the use of and improves it to her own interest that is the advancement of her self But she observing that her progress and speed is not so fast as she could wish that is that mankind is not made so fully and so generally happy by her as she could desire and as they are capable of she raises in a man his Anger Indignation against those things that are obstacles and impediments in her way beating down by solid Reason such things as pretend to Reason and such things as are neither the genuine off-spring of the humane faculties nor the effects of her own union with them discountenancing them and deriding them as Monsters and Mongrel things they being no accomplishment of the humane nature nor any gift of the divine She observing also that mankind is very giddily busie to improve their natural faculties without her and promise themselves very rare effects of their art and industry which if they could bring to passe would be in the end but a scourge and plague to them and make them more desperately bold sensual Atheistical and wicked for no fire but that of Gods Spirit in a man can clear up the true knowledge of himself unto us she therefore taketh courage though she see her self slighted or unknown and deservedly magnifies her self above all the effects of Art and humane industry and boldly tells the world what petty and poor things they are if compared unto her Nor doth she at all stick to pour out her scorn and derision unto the full upon those garish effects of fanatical Fancy where Melancholy dictates strange and uncouth dreams out of a dark hole like the whispers of the Heathen Oracles For it is not only an injury to her self that such Antick Phantasmes are preferred before the pure simplicity of her own beauty but a great mischief to her darling the Soul of man that he should forsake those faculties she has a minde to sanctifie and take into her self and should give himself up to meer inconsiderate imaginations and casual impresses chusing them for his guide because they are strongest not truest and he will not so much as examine them Such like as these and several other occasions there are that oftentimes figure the divine Life in good men and sharpen it into an high degree of zeal and anger But whom in wrath she then wounds she pities as being an affectionate Lover of universal mankind though an unreconcileable disliker of their vices I HAVE now gone through my Threefold Cabbala which I hope all sincere and judicious Christians will entertain with unprejudic'd candour and kinde acceptance For as I have lively set out the mysteries of the holy and precious life of a Christian even in the Mosaical Letter so I have carefully and on purpose cleared and asserted the grand essential Principles of Christianity it self as it is a particular Religion avoiding that rock of scandal that some who are taken for no small Lights in the Christian world have cast before men who attenuate all so into Allegories that they leave the very Fundamentals of Religion suspected especially themselves not vouchsafing to take notice that there is any such thing as the Person of Christ now existent much lesse that he is a Mediatour with God for us or that he was a sacrifice for sin when he hung at Jerusalem upon the Crosse or that there shall be again any appearance of him in the Heavens as it was promised by the two Angels to his Apostles that saw him ascend or that there is any life to come after the dissolution of the natural body though our Saviour Christ says expresly that after the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the Angels of God But to be so spiritual as to interpret this of a mysterious resurrection of a man in this life is in effect to be so truly carnal as to insinuate there is no such thing at all as the Life to come and to adde to Sadducisme Epicurisme also or worse that is a religious liberty of silling one anothers houses with brats of the adulterous bed under pretence that they are now risen to that state that they may without blame commit that which in other mortals is down-right adultery Such unlawful sporting with the Letter as this is to me no sign of a spiritual man but of one at least indiscreet and light minded more grosse in my conceit then Hymeneus and Philetas who yet affirmed that the resurrection was past and so allegorized away the faith of the people For mine own part I cannot admire any mans fancies but only his Reason Modesty Discretion and Miracles the main thing being presupposed which yet is the birth-right of the meanest Christian to be truly and sincerely Pious But if his imagination grow rampant and he aspire to appear some strange thing in the world such as was never yet heard of that man seems to me thereby plainly to bewray his own Carnality and Ignorance For there is no better Truths then what are plainly set down in the Scripture already and the best the plainest of all So that if any one will step out to be so venerable an Instructer of the world that no man may appear to have said any thing like unto him either in his own age or foregoing generations verily I am so blunt a Fool as to make bold to pronounce that I suspect the party not a little season'd with spiritual Pride and Melancholy For God be thanked the Gospel is so plain a Rule of Life and Belief to the sincere and obedient soul
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