and fire of water and pressure may destroy that Body which otherwise hath no internal principle of dissolution So that though there were granted such a Noble Balsam of Life as the Adeptists glory of their Elixir yet would it not avail against External Invasions But here our Gracious God hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel purchase 2 Tim. 1.10 Here 't is appointed for oil once to dye But there Heb. 0.27 Statutum est non mori It 's a statute Law in Heaven Rev. 21.4 there shall be death no more nor sickness or pain those warning Canons those presaging Bells that ring the loud Lectures of Mortality There will be no Titans to raise any Babel Towers against those sublime and solid Mansions When once the Saints have dipp'd their Bodies in the River of Jordan and gone into Canaan they are beyond the story of Achilles invulnerable and impenetrable all over Rev. 22.2 The Leaf of the Tree of Life is tasted as soon as ever they come within the gates of Paradise is Medicine for without as well as within 1 Pet. 5.4 and the Chaplet or Immortal Crown which they wear in Heaven is formed of the Leaves of that blessed and everliving Tree Since we have touch'd a while upon the Harp of the Body let 's take some view of that Divine Musician the Soul who is then ready to sound the Praises of his Blessed Redeemer who will find no ill humour to affect him resulting from the Bodies Temperament or the Copula the connexive medium between them both For cleare serene and joyful Spirits will nimbly circulate through all the Nerves to associate in the Council Chamber of the Brain where the Animal Soul sits as Queen Regent on the Glandula pinealis the Pine Kernel to dispatch her winged Embassadors There will be no inflammations adustions or corruptions of Blood but all perfect sanguine without impure mixture no infected Air no seculent Food to alienate the state of Complexion All the Humours will stand in aequilibrio in exact poise to a Grain No inconvenient objects to surprize irritate or discompose the Spirits to the least alteration The Old Philosophy held nothing to be in the understanding but what was first in Sense which if universally spoken is but a Fable For what are the connate and concreated notions of the Soul urged by the Platonists And what are those spiritual infusions poured into the Hearts of Believers from Heaven Job 32.8 38.36 Eccl 2.28 but clear Evictions that that Soul can act independent from the Body But how much more when they shall be enthroned in Glory 1 Cor. 15.28 when God shall be all in all and the Soul shall be drawn into more immediate contemplation of God Corporeal Species are in vaine to suck and draw in the Marrow of Incorporeal Objects when the Understanding and all its Powers shall equal if not transcend Heaven it self in purity Then all the Faculties of the Soul shall be intended and amplified into a grand and august capacity to entertain more noble conceptions of the Mystical Union of our Redeemer to the Deity and of the Saints themselves to their Beloved Saviour of the sevenfold Luminaries of the Spirit of Christ to the Saints Rev. 3.5 of his Divine Communications and influences into the Soul They shall behold those streams of the Rivers of light They shall be able to discourse with Angels without Interpreters the Language of spirits shall be familiar That Phrase so frequent in the Hebrew Original of Scripture of God's speaking to the Heart Hos 2.14 which is here sometimes sweetly perceived by Saints shall be then explain'd The gentle Voice which Austin heard in the Garden by Milan Confes l. 9. c. 12. that melted him into tears and from whence he dates his Conversion shall be then more audible and more intelligible Then what is now one great portion of misery in our lapsed state that we so little understand the nature of our own Souls that Christians run to Heathen Oracles to know what 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first Act of an Organical Body and such Barbarous obscurities shall be hurl'd into the Ocean of Oblivion Then we shall see the Face of our own Souls in Glasses of our own Polishing Here we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Riddle 1 Cor. 13.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych in a dark saying and those that would expound the soul confound it more If they had stept with Endymion they had dream'd more pleasantly Butthen the Eye of the Mind shall know no humour but Chrystalline the Retina shall be a capacious Net indeed to cast over the Ocean of the Universe There will arise a most perfect Union between the understanding will and affections and no such Combats about them as some nice Quidditarians assign There will be no inferior Appetite to suggest or abstract from its refined Notions The gracious Habiliments of the Soul shall be more superefluent Gracious habits nay rather activities in perpetual motion springing up to the brim and flowing over God will pour in such an unction of the spirit that shall invigorate the wheels of the soul full of eyes to move by the Spirits instinct conduct like the vision of Cherubims to the Prophet Ezekiel Ez. k. 1. 10. Such a fulness of excellency that swallows up all sinful emulation and envy Saints shall know with better satisfaction what are the Dimensions of the Love of God in Christ Jesus Eph. 3.19 which will so adequately fill the Soul that the Body shall require no sustenance but the Ambrosian Food of Divine Love and Glory Who could have imagin'd the Soul of a Man could have been Hypostatically united to the second person in the Glorious Trinity so that as he is the Son of Man he is said to know the Thoughts of Men Mat. 9.4 6. Act. 17.34 to forgive sins and to judge the world To to glorious an extent can Omnipotent Power exalt the Soul of Man by union to the Deity The Saints moreover shall rise up in some manner to that Excellent Estate of Intuition Luk. 20.36 1 Cor. 13.8 like to the Holy Angels who draw not the Water of Knowledge out of the deep Well of Inferences and long Consequences This manner of gathering Intelligence per discursum shall then probably vanish and perish and be extinguish'd by that Meridian Light of Eternity Here we argue by premisses ex concessis ignota We lay down Maxims Positions and Theorems take some data postulata and deduce mediums from several common places of Arguments As if we would search out the Nature of a Star an Animal a Vegetable or Mineral We argue if we can à priori from its Causes and component Principles or a posteriori from its Effects and Properties For instance in Antimony when we consider its Sulfur its Salt its bloud-red Oil its Phlegm and Vinegar
with what care and sedulity the discreet Physician does usually order the letting of bloud what sign what vein what distemper Burgravii Biolich p. 86. what time of the Disease what age of Life what habit and strength of Spirits what quantity what day what hour what cordials what care after it what observations about Women with Child how endeavouring to prevent abortion often cause it especially when near their time as is observ'd by Hippocrates I leave these things to be contested about between the learned Galenist and the experienced Chemist Hippocr Aph. 30. l. 5. And by an Argument from the Cure of many Diseases by the Spirit and essence of humane bloud digested and circulated I might here discuss how studious and sollicitous and wary the learned in medicine should be to prepare the bloud of a Goat against Plurisies and of Sal Prunellae or other Remedies against the Quinsie if possible to prevent the emission of humane bloud since it is the Fountain of those rare Spirits that are distilled in Natures Alembeck of the Head to be the Instruments of Motion Sensation and all vital Actions There are other great wonders in the curious Fabrick of this crazy Tenement of the Soul which pose the most equisite in Anatomy to determine the use of the Spleen whether to secern the Melancholy whether it have a secret meatus or passage into the Stomach to constitute Helmonts duum virate of life and what ferment is elaborated by those 400 Arteries supposed to be in it by that inquirer of Nature Or the Cystis Fellea to drain choler from the bloud and convey that Saline compost by the ductus biliarius into the Bowels to carry off the Excrements which if it be stopt and obstructed produces that yellow Tincture to the body and gives denomination to the Yellow Jaundice The delivery from which Disease is the ground of these Lines of Praise to my gracious Creator and Redeemer Or what a rare Engine of the Cribrum or Sieve of the bloud Nature hath formed in the Kidneys to stop that Liquor and let pass the Amber Urine by the Ureters into the Bladder which if it be corroded or eaten through by acid Tunbridge Waters or other sharp Saline Humours procures a mixture of Bloud with Urine and sometimes so large that life is endangered or if it be obstructed by Gravel and consistent Stones what acute pains succeed woful experience teaches In which case the Aroph Paracelsi which is a Chymical preparation of the essence of Saffron call'd by them the Aroma or Spice of the Philosophers hath wrought efficacious benefits The last and greatest Wonder in Nature are the Seminal Vessels composed for the continuation of Mankind every of which with their Balsam of Life contained in them deserve a double Volume One to describe their Texture connexion and Use with the Remedies to preserve from and cure their Incident Diseases The other full of Hymns to our most glorious Creator But these and the like I dismiss to Spigelius Riolanus de Graef and others of that Learned Nation not omitting that Ingenious Tract of our own Country-man Dr. Smith on the 12th of Ecclesiastes Let us cry out with David I am fearfully and wonderfully made Opere Phrygionico Ps 139.14 with curious needlework of the Divine Hand in the lower parts of the Earth Did we but see and search a little into the admirable frame of Mans Body and upon what slender Golden Wiers and nice Labyrinths in those Wonderful Passages in the Clock-work of our Bodies the continuation of Life did depend we should be astonisn'd at God's Mercy and instead of wondering that we live so long might stand amaz'd at living but one minute For if either the Vessels be disordered or the Liquors contained within them we should soon pass away and be no more Nay if the five External Senses were every way compleat in their Organs and Spirits Fernel de anim facult l. 5. c. 3. yet if the inward Crasis of the Brain be touch'd what becomes of the inward Sensory which is the Center whereinto all the Rays of External Objects are brought there to be judged exercised and acted upon by the Imagination to be laid up as in a Cell or Promptuary by that great Lord Treasurer of the Soul the Memory Whereof Holy Austin cries out with great admiration of God Austin de Confes l. c. 01.17 Magna ista vis memoriae nescio quid horrendum Deus meus profunda infinita multiplicitas c. O the great power of Memory O my God I know not what an horrible thing it is O the profound and infinite variety in it Behold what walks in the Fields what lies hid in the Dens and innumerable Caverns of my Memory c. These and other powers and faculties of the Soul though in themselves of admirably useful delightful yet were it not for the constant influx of divine mercy might soon be impaired and decay that men of the highest pitch and grandeur of parts might soon shrink into mushromes and ideots and prove miserable Objects of scorn and pity But besides their being subject to natural waste what he said of death in general may be applyed to any sense or faculty in particular Mors seni à foribus juveni ab insidiis Death stands before the door to old Men but behind the door with Traps and Gins for Youth This would be very apparent should we enter the Lists of discourse only about the various Poysons which lurk in all things for the destruction of Man without the secret contrivance of such wicked wretches as Pope Alexander the 6th I shall hint but a few Memorials in reference to the 4 Elements so called with which we daily converse Not to mention what pits and delfs lye in ambush for the lives of Travellers in the Tin-works of Cornwall Earth the Mendip of Somerset or the Peak of Darby what quaking bogs in Ex or Dartmore and in the Crags of Carmarthen especially when covered with Snow But this falling under the conduct of accidental providences it 's more expedient to mention the frequent use of Antimony Quick-lime Vitriol Sulfur Steel Alum Bolearmenick Lapis Lazuli Nitre c. appointed for compositions in most Dispensatories which oftentimes by their unskilful preparations prove deadly poyson as might easily appear both by reason and example And especially in the use of Quicksilver which although sublimated into a Mercurius dulcis and counted safe by many and often proves so yet there want not great examples of its mortal Venom that poor Children find by sad experience And this is a certain rule of Helmont about all preparations of Mercury Quamdin resuscitari potest est venenum nec boni viri remedium That so long as it can be revived again by Art it's Poyson and no Medicine for an honest Man to use And how easie it is to revive Mercurius dulcis an ordinary Chymist can determine But I shall not
Mysteries by light from the Holy Scriptures The Bodies of Saints at that day shall be perfect and intire lacking nothing in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Day of Refreshment Act. 3.21 that Day of the Restitution of all things They shall be as excellent as perfect as Adams created in the vigour of youth as perfect as Christs who suffered and rose in the strength of his years Into that Sarctuary above Rev. 1.6 where all shall be Kings and Priests to the Father no lame nor impotent person Lev. 21.23 no crooked or maimed no blind or deaf no dwarf or child none blemish'd with redundancy or deficiency of limbs shall be admitted to sacrifice the Everlasting Praise But all the Holy Ones of God that dyed under such inconveniencies shall be raised without spot or wrinkle as the Spouse in the Song Thou art all fair Song 4.7 Phil. 3.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my beloved there 's no spot in thee For the Bodies of our Humiliation shall be like unto his most Glorious Body Blind Isaac shall grope no more and Lame Jaakob shall halt no more Withered David shall need no cherishers and Solomon's Ecclesiastes shall weep no more Elegies over the Hoary head and Palsie Hands and the Trembling Legs of stumbling Age. Then all the inward senses of Fancy Imagination and Memory shall flourish in a perpetual Spring For the Body shall be incorruptible no inequality of temperament but a perennial consistency between the active form and the impressed but scarce passive matter The Peripatetick School fancies the incorruption of the Heavens to arise from its composing Quintessence distinct from the sour Elements But the contrary is evincible by the spots in the Sun by certain nebulous appearances near the South Pole by generation and abolition of Comets above the Moon as that in CassiopeÃa A. 1572 c. Whatever may be determined in these points yet 't is most true of the glorified bodies of the Saints Act. 13.34 that they shall remain incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.42 They shall neither hunger nor thirst more nor be subject to the Influxes of Heavenly Luminaries on digestive matter Rev. 7.16 Here we feed upon and drink in the materials of Corruption But there neither Sun nor any heat shall light upon them which are the great Fomenters of Corruption in purifying subjects For 3dly the Saints shall have glorious bodies The Apostle opposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15.43 Glory to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dishonour Want of Beauty renders the Body uncomely or dishonourable Three things make up a perfect Beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmetry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Genuine Colour and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vivacity when the Spirits fill the Face with a lively vigor and a cheerful brisk Alacrity There will be no more bleak meager fixed Visages no more livid leaden blew and pale no more white wan or greenish Aspects but as the Angels are represented like Young Men with sprightly and orient Countenances Mark 16.5 Some say the Lustre of Adam's Body drew the Creatures in Paradise to gaze upon his Beauty How much more will they admire him hereaster if they shall remain as Spectacles of Divine Wisdom Rom. 8.21 when the Exquisite Joy running like Nectar in his Spirits shall beautifie him with most attracting Aimiableness when he shall play upon his Celestial Harp like an alluring Orpheus and all the Animals of the Woods and Mountains shall tread his Musical measures When the Saints shall shine transparent like Moses from Mount Horeb or as Christ in the Vision to Habakkuk with Horns Hab. 3.5 i. e. with Beams flaming from his Hands Dan. 12.3 or as that glorious Triumvirate in the Mountain of Tabor Then shall all the Senses sparkle in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent Vigor to render Heaven most delicious when their Eagle Eyes may pierce into the Centres of all the Luminaries and their quickned Ears shall pleasantly air the Melodious Musick of Legions of Angels Their Bodies likewise shall be wonderfully powerful without the least gravitation as our Blessed Lord's which ascended up from Mount Olivet at his pleasure and appear'd to Stephen and Paul when and where his Heavenly Wisdom thought meet I need not here insist upon the nature of Gravity as a quality existent in heavy Bodies but rather as a force imprest by a Magnetical Attraction of the Earth So that whatever body is without or beyond the Atmosphere of the Earth knows no further gravitation or ponderosity but may walk at liberty in the Etherial Regions so that it is no incongruity to conceive that Luminous Bodies being freed from the dark clogs and impediments of grosser matter as the Saints Bodies being like so many Stars and fit for motion may walk on the Sea in the Air and within the Heavens at pleasure if these concretes shall then abide 2 Pet. 3.13 Neither shall they be touch'd with any weariness more receiving a continual afflux of spirits from the beatifick Vision and shall hence evade to be of immense strength insomuch that some have fancied them to be of ability to transplant Mountains nay the Earth it self without the Engines of Archimedes Like the Celestial Intelligences that do circum agitate the Heavenly Bodies of the Stars Ps 103.10 For they shall be like to Angels who excell in strength The Bodies of the Saints are also styled Spiritual in that they shall yield no reluctancy or renitency to the Agitation of their Spirits They shall need no sustentation or reparation by Meat or Drink no relief by intervals of sleep and rest there will be no night to raise cool vapors for the Brain Ps 104.23 but shall be supported quickned and enlivened by the Emanations and Impressions from the Soul and these Spirits influenced by Everlasting Inundations from the Spirit of Christ the Head of the Mystical Body The Sheaths of their Bodies shall not waste or wear out Dan. 7.15 or be cut in pieces by the two-edged swords of their Spirits We faint and are soon dispirited by continuance even of Heavenly Duties Our strength is not that of stones Job 6.12 nor our flesh of Copper Our Animal Spirits here in the Valley are grosser and more unweildy than our Bodies shall be in the Mount of Glory to motion agility and delight in Spiritual Objects Spiritualia erunt Austin de civ l. 14. c. 22. says Austin non quia corpora esse desistent sed quia spiritu vivificante subsistent Our Bodies shall be Spiritual not that they shall cease to be bodies but shall be sustained by a quickning Spirit And during the persistency of that Spirit which is of immortal Linage they shall continue with an indissoluble Union For the Spirit of God hath declared this future Immortality of the Body 1 Cor. 15.53 which is a degree of excellency beyond incorruption because the external sorce of sword
its Faeces or Terra damnata having opened it by Chymical Anatomy and other Methods we may infer something though but rudely of its Nature Or when we observe its Power in several Effects and Experiments in cleansing the Blood from Leprosies and Scorbutical Infections or the Head and its Nerves from dizziness swimmings and paralytical or waterish resolutions of the Tone of any its curious Engines by its Volatile Tincture We conclude its powerful vertue in Physick though as to the modus operandi the Methods and Manner of its influence we are still at a loss But alas an Angel hath an other-guess Knowledge by an intuitive speculation into the profundity and depth of its Nature without Argument or Process of Medicinal Trials which Method of ours is but a mean low and crazy inquisition and subject to foul Errors But in that Angelical manner we may deem that the Soul shal arrive to that high dignity of penetrating into its Objects by intuition far beyond what Adam or Noah or Solomon ever attained What pleasant work will the Material Beings which may then survive the fatal Fire administer to the Souls Contemplation in that happy Pitch 2 Pet. 3.12 13. whereby to glorifie and honour the infinite wise Creator of all When as these things which we now handle by sense and the dwindling light of the Soul like a Rush-candle in this Night of ignorance being the Objects of our laborious and erring speculations are but middle beings between thousands transcending these in Magnitude and Glory and such innumerable minute essences vastly beneath us as to our power of inquisition as the others are in sublimity beyond and above us So that it may be questioned whether the Majesty of our infinitely to be adored Maker will in that day shine forth more radiantly in the Heavens and other stupendious portions of his Workmanship for greatness or the unspeakable curiosity of Nature in the lesser Fabricks which sink beneath our observation for excess of littleness which the Acumen of our Eyes are not able to discern Besides these upon what immaterial Objects may we a little imagine shall the Soul then feastits Paradisian Faculties Such as may entertain our thoughts with sacred wonder and sit down in the dust of astonishment that their unconceiveable varieties will fill up the capacity and run beside the august and comprehensive Spirits of the Cherubims and yet the Saints shall have and enjoy some cognizance of these transcendent pleasures For the Soul in Glory shall have a neerer Union to Christ then now nay than Angels themselves Heb. 2.16 For he took not upon him the Nature of Angels Joh. 17.22 And our Blessed Lord prays that the Saints may be one even as the Father and the Son are one They shall constitute one mystical body with the Son in a purer and closer Union than possible in this wilderness state The Hypostatical Union of Christ to the Deity is of a sublimer nature than the most Glorified Creature can unfold For the Angels do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop and pry into the Mystery of the Golden Mercy-seat 1 Pet. 1.12 and were fixed in that place continually to abide and therefore the Cherubims in that Emblem were made of one piece of Massy Gold together with the Mercy-seat Exod. 25.19.37.7 to shew not only the standing of the Elect Angels by the vertue of Christ's Mediatorship 1 Tim. 5.21 but also to indicate that they could never exhaust and drink in the Knowledge of the Mystery of that Union Mat. 18.10 though they are constantly beholding the Face of our Heavenly Father Yet still this Mystical Union implies a Glorious Approximation of the Saints to Christ in some similitude with Christs Union to the Deity Joh. 17.12 For the Glory which the Father gave unto Christ hath Christ given to the Saints who are blessed in Heavenly Places in Christ and shall sit down with him in his Throne Eph. 1.3 as he is set down with the Father on the paternal Throne Rev. 3.21 and as all Judgment is committed to the Son so shall Saints also judge both the World and Angels A glimpse of this Glory in this State shines into the heart from the Spirit of Christ dwelling in Saints They that are joyned to the Lord Paul says not shall pertake of but are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 and thereby in an unspeakable manner become Partakers of the Divine Nature Yet we must ponder on these Deeps with sacred caution For this Mystical Union is infinitely distinct from Hypostatical The Spirit of Christ as he dwells in the Head though in a more eminent manner yet so he also does intimè pervadere enter into the Essence of the Souls of Saints and this Inhabitation may be embleme◠by the Rational Souls dwelling in the Animal Spirits of the Bloud But in Christ the Head he dwells fully and in the Members according to distinct measures and proportions Col. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again the state of the Soul shall be admirable not only in the Limpid Chrystalline clearness of its glorified Eye but the unclothed Majesty of the Objects without Vails and Curtains and the pure Emanation or Eradiation of their Beams into the Soul Saints shall be like unto God and see him as he is a word that has no bottom which Heaven it self cannot sufficiently expound to a finite capacity We shall see him without the Glass of Reflection by Argument as here inferring his Divine Power and God-head from the Works of Creation and without the Magnifying Glass of Ordinances to help the weakness of our spiritual senses and without the Perspective Glass of Faith and promises They shall behold his Face 1 Joh. 3.2 Rev. 22.4.1 Cor. 13.12 Joh. 14.8 Exod. 33.20 23. and know as they are known Philip's desire of having the Father shewn shall then suffice indeed when glorified Saints shall enjoy what was denied to Moses not only to contemplate the Being of Beings but as the Causality the Fountain and Principle of all Essences yea and comprehend with all Saints by the Spirit the unlimited Eph. 3.16.19 unfathomable Love of Christ and be filled with all the fulness of God and hereaster conceive more how the three infinite Persons stand in relative Glory and enjoy more ample light as to the Sons Eternal Generation and the Spirits Divine and Everlasting Procession They shall drink of the River of Light that flows from his Essence Here upon Earth we behold the Sun at a distance but cannot mount up to walk in those Mountains of brightness But then the Church shall be clothed with the Sun of Righteousness Rev. 12.1 There was of old a little spark of Glory in the Temple Ps 27.4 and Holy David desired to see that beauty which shined in the Sanctuary But Oh what perfusions of Glory shall animate the soul in Heaven when it shall be illustrated with the morning knowledge of Angels