being think they can never have security enough for this so pleasing hope and expectation and so even with anxiety of mind busie themselves to prove the truth of that strongly which they desire vehemently to be true And this body which dissolution waits upon helpeth our infidelity exceedingly For the soul not seeing it self judgeth it self of such a nature as those things are to which she is nearest united Falsely saith but yet ordinarily I am sick I am weak I faint I die when it is nought but the perishing life of the body that is in such plight to which she is so close tyed in most intimate love and sympathy So a tender mother if she see a knife struck to her childs heart would shreek and swound as if her selfe had been smit when as if her eye had not beheld that spectacle she had not been moved though the thing were surely done So I do verily think that the mind being taken up in some higher contemplation if it should please God to keep it in that ecstasie the body might be destroyed without any disturbance to the soul for how can there be or sense or pain without animadversion But while we have such continuall commerce with this frail body it is not to be expected but that we shall be assaulted with the fear of death and darknesse For alas how few are there that do not make this visible world their Adonai their stay and sustentation of life the prop of their soul their God How many Christians are not prone to whisper that of the Heathen Poet Soles occidere redire possunt Nobis cùm semel occidit brevis lux Nox est perpetua una dormienda The Sunne may set and rise again If once sets our short light Deep sleep us binds with iron chain Wrapt in eternall Night But I would not be so injurious as to make men worse then they are that my little work may seem of greater use and worth then it is Admit then that men are most what perswaded of the souls immortality yet here they may read reasons to confirm that perswasion and be put in mind as they reade of their end and future condition which cannot be but profitable at least For the pleasure they 'll reap from this Poem it will be according as their Genius is fitted for it For as Plato speaks in his Io 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or according to the more usuall phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The spirit of every Poet is not alike nor his writings alike suitable to all dispositions As Io the reciter of Homers verses professeth himself to be snatcht away with an extradodinary fury or ecstasie at the repeating of Homers Poesie but others so little to move him that he could even fall asleep So that no man is rashly to condemn another mans labour in this kind because he is not taken with it As wise or wiser then himselfe may But this is a main piece of idolatry and injustice in the world that every man would make his private Genius an universall God and would devour all mens apprehensions by his own fire that glowes so hot in him and as he thinks shines so clear As for this present song of the Immortality of the soul it is not unlikely but that it will prove sung Montibus Sylvis to the waste woods and solitary mountains For all men are so full of their own phansies and idiopathies that they scarce have the civility to interchange any words with a stranger If they chance to hear his exotick tone they entertain it with laughter a passion very incident upon that occasion to children and clowns But it were much better neither to embosome nor reject any thing though strange till we were well acquainted with it Exquisite disquisition begets diffidence diffidence in knowledge humility humility good manners and meek conversation For mine own part I desire no man to take any thing I write upon trust without canvasing and would be thought rather to propound then to assert what I have here or elsewhere written But continually to have exprest my diffidence in the very tractates themselves had been languid and ridiculous It were a piece of injustice to expect of others that which I could never indure to stoop to my self That knowledge which is built upon humane authority is no better then a Castle in the Aire For what man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or at least can be proved to us to be so Wherefore the foundation of that argument will but prove precarious that is so built And we have rather a sound of words signifying the thing is so then any true understanding that the thing is so indeed What ever may seeme strange in this Poem condemne it not till thou findest it dissonant to Plato's School or not deducible from it But there be many arguments that have no strangenesse at all to prove the Souls immortality so that no man that is not utterly illiterate shall lose his labour in reading this short Treatise I must confesse I intended to spin it out to a greater length but things of greater importance then curious Theory take me off beside the hazard of speaking hard things to a multitude I make no question but those that are rightly acquainted with Platonisme will accept of that small pains and make a good construction of my labours For I well assure thee Reader that it will be nothing but ignorance of my scope that shall make any do otherwise I fly too high to take notice of lesser flaws If thou seest them I give thee free liberty to mend them But if thou regardest not lesser trifles we be well met Farewell H. M. The Argument of PSYCHATHANASIA Or The Immortality of the Soul BOOK I. CANT I. Struck with strong sense of Gods good will The immortality Of Souls I sing Praise with my quill Plato's Philosophy 1 WHatever man he be that dares to deem True Poets skill to spring of earthly race I must him tell that he doth misesteem Their strange estate and eke himselfe disgrace By his rude ignorance For there 's no place For forced labour or slow industry Of flagging wits in that high fiery chace So soon as of the Muse they quickned be At once they rise and lively sing like Lark in skie 2 Like to a Meteor whose materiall Is low unwieldy earth base unctuous slime Whose inward hidden parts ethereall Ly close upwrapt in that dull sluggish fime Ly fast asleep till at some fatall time Great Phoebus lamp has fir'd its inward spright And then even of it self on high doth climb That earst was dark becomes all eye all sight Bright starre that to the wise of future things gives light 3 Even so the weaker mind that languid lies Knit up in rags of dirt dark cold and blind So soon that purer flame of Love unties Her clogging chains and doth her spright unbind Shee sores aloft for shee her self doth find Well plum'd so
find and that men call Mortality Plain death 's as good as such a Psychopannychie 4 What profiteth this bare existency If I perceive not that I do exist Nought longs to such nor mirth nor misery Such stupid beings write into one list With stocks and stones But they do not persist You 'll say in this dull dead condition But must revive shake off this drowsie mist At that last shrill loud-sounding clarion Which cleaves the trembling earth rives monuments of stone 5 Has then old Adam snorted all this time Under some senselesse sod with sleep ydead And have those flames that steep Olympus climbe Right nimbly wheeled or'e his heedlesse head So oft in heaps of years low buried And yet can ken himself when he shall rise Wakend by piercing trump that farre doth shed Its searching sound If we our memories And wit do lose by sicknesse falls sloth lethargies 6 If all our childhood quite be waste away With its impressions so that we forget What once we were so soon as age doth sway Our bowed backs sure when base worms have eat His mouldring brains and spirits have retreat From whence they came spread in the common fire And many thousand sloping sunnes have set Since his last fall into his ancient mire How he will ken himself reason may well admire 7 For he must know himself by some impression Left in his ancient body unwash'd out Which seemeth strange For can so long succession Of sliding years that great Colosses mought Well moulder into dust spare things ywrought So slightly as light phantasms in our brain Which oft one yeare or moneth have wrenched out And left no footsteps of that former stain No more then 's of a cloud quite melted into rain 8 And shall not such long series of time When Nature hath dispread our vitall spright And turn'd our body to its ancient slime Quite wash away what ever was empight In that our spirit If flesh and soul unite Lose such impressions as were once deep seald And fairly glistered like to comets bright In our blew Chaos if the soul congeald With her own body lose these forms as I reveald 9 Then so long time of their disjunction The body being into dust confract The spright diffus'd spread by dispersion And such Lethean sleep that doth contract The souls hid rayes that it did nothing act Must certainly wipe all these forms away That sense or phansie ever had impact So that old Adam will in vain assay To find who here he was he 'll have no memorie 10 Nor can he tell that ere he was before And if not tell he 's as if then first born If as first born his former life's no store Yet when men wake they find themselves at morn But if their memory away were worn With one nights sleep as much as doth respect Themselves these men they never were beforn This day 's their birth day they cannot conject They ever liv'd till now much lesse the same detect 11 So when a man goes hence thus may he say As much as me concerns I die now quite Adiew good self for now thou goest away Nor can I possibly thee ever meet Again nor ken thy face nor kindly greet Sleep and dispersion spoyls our memory So my dear self henceforth I cannot weet Wherefore to me it 's perfectly to die Though subtiler Wits do call 't but Psychopannychie 12 Go now you Psychopannychites perswade To comely virtues and pure piety From hope of ioy or fear of penance sad Men promptly may make answer Who shall try That pain or pleasure When death my dim eye Shall close I sleep not sensible of ought And tract of time at least all memory Will quiâ—e debarre that reacquainten mought My self with mine own self if so my self I sought 13 But I shall neither seek my self nor find My self unsought Therefore not deprehend My self in joy or wo. Men ought to mind What longs unto them But when once an end Is put unto this life and fate doth rend Our retinence what follows nought at all Belongs to us what need I to contend And my frail spright with present pain to gall For what I nere shall judge my self did ere befall 14 This is the uncouth state of sleeping soul Thus weak of her own self without the prop Of the base body that she no'te out-roll Her vitall raies those raies Death down doth lop And all her goodly beauty quite doth crop With his black claws Wisdome love piety Are straight dried up Death doth their fountain stop This is those sleepers dull Philosophy Which fairly men invites to foul impiety 15 But if we grant which in my former song I plainly prov'd that the souls energie Pends not on this base corse but that self-strong She by her self can work then when we fly The bodies commerce no man can deny But that there is no interruption Of life where will puts on there doth she hie Or if she 's carried by coaction That force yet she observes by presse adversion 16 And with most lively touch doth feel and find Her self For either what she most doth love She then obtains or else with crosse unkind Contrary life since her decease sh ' hath strove That keeps her wake and with like might doth move To think upon her self and in what plight She 's fallen And nothing able to remove Deep searching vengeance groans in this sad Night And rores and raves and storms and with her self doth fight 17 But hearty love of that great vitall spright The sacred fount of holy sympathy Prepares the soul with its deep quickning might To leave the bodies vain mortality Away she flies into Eternity Finds full accomplishment of her desire Each thing would reach its own centrality So Earth with Earth and Moon with Moon conspire Our selves live most when most we feed our Centrall fire 18 Thus is the soul continually in life Withouten interruption if that she Can operate after the fatall knife Hath cut the cords of lower sympathy Which she can do if that some energie She exercise immur'd in this base clay Which on frail flesh hath no dependency For then the like she 'll do that done away These independent acts t is time now to display 19 All comprehending Will proportionate To whatsoever shall fall by Gods decree Or prudent sufferance sweetly spread dilate Stretch'd out t' embrace each act or entity That creep from hidden cause that none can see With outward eyes Next Intellect whose hight Of working 's then when as it stands most free From sense and grosser phansie deep empight In this vild corse which to purg'd minds yields small delight 20 Both Will and Intellect then worketh best When Sense and Appetite be consopite And grosser phansie lull'd in silent rest Then Will grown full with a mild heavenly light Shines forth with goodly mentall rayes bedight And finds and feels such things as never pen Can setten down so that unexpert wight May reade and
That they a tree with different colour stain And divers shapes smoothnesse asperity Straightnesse acutenesse and rotundity A golden yellow or a crimson red A varnish'd green with such like gallantry How dull then is the sensitive how dead If forms from its own centre it can never spread 36 Again an Universall notion What object ever did that form impresse Upon the soul What makes us venture on So rash a matter as ere to confesse Ought generally true when neverthelesse We cannot e're runne through all singulars Wherefore in our own souls we do possesse Free forms and immateriall characters Hence 't is the soul so boldly generall truth declares 37 What man that is not dull or mad would doubt Whether that truth for which Pythagoras When he by subtile study found it out Unto the Muses for their helping grace An Hecatomb did sacrifice may passe In all such figures wheresoever they be Yet all Rectangle Triangles none has Viewed as yet none all shall ever see Wherefore this free assent is from th' innate Ides 38 Adde unto these incorporeity Apprehended by the soul when sense nere saw Ought incorporeall Wherefore must she From her own self such subtile Idols draw Again this truth more clearly still to know Let 's turn again to our Geometry What body ever yet could figure show Perfectly perfect as rotundity Exactly round or blamelesse angularity 39 Yet doth the soul of such like forms discourse And finden fault at this deficiency And rightly term this better and that worse Wherefore the measure is our own Idee Which th' humane soul in her own self doth see And sooth to sayen when ever she doth strive To find pure truth her own profundity She enters in her self doth deeply dive From thence attempts each essence rightly to descrive 40 Last argument which yet is not the least Wise Socrates dispute with Theaetete Concerning learning fitly doth suggest A midwifes sonne ycleeped Phenarete He calls himself Then makes a quaint conceit That he his mothers trade did exercise All witlesse his own self yet well did weet By his fit questions to make others wise A midwife that no'te bear anothers birth unties 41 Thus jestingly he flung out what was true That humane souls be swoln with pregnancy Of hidden knowledge if with usage due They were well handled they each verity Would bringen forth from their fecunditie Wise framed questions would facilitate This precious birth stirre up th' inward Idee And make it streme with light from forms innate Thus may a skilfull man hid truth elicitate 42 What doth the teacher in his action But put slight hints into his scholars mind Which breed a solemn contemplation Whether such things be so but he doth find The truth himself But if truth be not sign'd In his own Soul before and the right measure Of things propos'd in vain the youth doth wind Into himself and all that anxious leasure In answering proves uselesse without that hid treasure 43 Nor is his masters knowledge from him flit Into his scholars head for so his brain In time would be exhaust and void of wit So would the sory man but little gain Though richly paid Nor is' t more safe to sam As fire breeds fire art art doth generate The soul with Corporeity't would stain Such qualities outwardly operate The soul within her acts there closely circulate 44 Wherefore the soul it self by her Idee Which is her self doth every thing discover By her own Centrall Omniformity Brings forth in her own self when ought doth move her Till mov'd a dark indifferency doth hover But fierce desire and a strong piercing will Makes her those hidden characters uncover Wherefore when death this lower life shall spill Or fear or love the soul with actuall forms shall fill The Argument of ANTIPSYCHOPANNYCHIA OR The Confutation of the Sleep of the Soul Cant. 3. Departed souls by living Night Suckt in for pinching wo No'te sleep or if with God unite For joyes with which they flow 1 MY hardest task is gone which was to prove That when the soul dy death 's cut off from all Yet she within her self might live and move Be her own world by life imaginall But sooth to sain 't seems not so naturall For though a starre part of the Mundane spright Shine out with rayes circumferentiall So long as with this world it is unite Yet what 't would do cut off so well we cannot weet 2 But sith our soul with God himself may meet Inacted by His life I cannot see What scruple then remains that moven might Least doubt but that she wakes with open eye When Fate her from this body doth untie Wherefore her choisest forms do then arise Rowz'd up by union and large sympathy With Gods own spright she plainly then descries Such plenitude of life as she could nere devise 3 If God even on this body operate And shakes this Temple when he doth descend Or with sweet vigour doth irradiate And lovely light and heavenly beauty lend Such rayes from Moses face did once extend Themselves on Sinai hill where he did get Those laws from Gods own mouth mans life to mend And from Messias on mount Saron set Farre greater beauty shone in his disciples sight 4 Al 's Socrates when his large Intellect Being fill'd with streaming light from God above To that fair sight his soul did close collect That inward lustre though the body drove Bright beams of beauty These examples prove That our low being the great Deity Invades and powerfully doth change and move Which if you grant the souls divinity More fitly doth receive so high a Majesty 5 And that God doth illuminate the mind Is well approv'd by all antiquity With them Philosophers and Priests we find All one or else at least Philosophy Link'd with Gods worship and pure piety Witnesse Pythagoras Aglaophemus Zoroaster thrice-mighty Mercury Wise Socrates nothing injurious Religious Plato and vice-taming Orpheus 6 All these addicted to religion Acknowledg'd God the fount of verity From whence flows out illumination Upon purg'd souls But now O misery To seek to God is held a phantasie But men hug close their loved lust and vice And deem that thraldome a sweet liberty Wherefore reproch and shame they do devise Against the braver souls that better things emprise 7 But lo a proof more strong and manifest Few men but will confesse that prophesie Proceeds from God when as our soul 's possest By his All-seeing spright al 's ecstasie Wherein the soul snatch'd by the Deity And for a time into high heaven hent Doth contemplate that blest Divinity So Paul and John that into Patmos went Heard and saw things inestimably excellent 8 Such things as these men joyntly do confesse To spring from Gods own spirit immediately But if that God ought on the soul impresse Before it be at perfect liberty Quite rent from this base body when that she Is utterly releast she 'll be more fit To be inform'd by that
So full of one great light she hath no time To such low trifles as past sights to dive Such as she gathered up in earthly slime Foreknowledge of herself is lost in light divine 35 But can she here forget our radiant Sunne Of which its maker is the bright Idee This is His shadow or what she hath done Now she 's rewarded with the Deitie Suppose it Yet her hid Centralitie So sprightly's quickned with near Union With God that now life 's wished liberty Is so encreas'd that infinitely sh ' has fun Herself her deep'st desire unspeakably hath wonne 36 And deep desire is the deepest act The most profound and centrall energie The very selfnesse of the soul which backt With piercing might she breaks out forth doth flie From dark contracting death and doth descry Herself unto herself so thus unfold That actuall life she straightwayes saith is I. Thus while she in the body was infold Of this low life as of herself oft tales she told 37 In dangerous sicknesse often saith I die When nought doth die but the low plantall man That falls asleep and while Nature doth tie The soul unto the body she nere can Avoid it but must feel the self-same pain The same decay if hereto she her mind Do bend When stupid cold her corse oreran She felt that cold but when death quite doth bind The sense then she herself doth dead and senselesse find 38 Or else at least just at the entrance Of death she feels that slie privation How now it spreads ore all so living sense Perceives how sleep creeps on till quite o'recome With drousinesse animadversion Doth cease but lower sense then fast ybound The soul bestoweth her adversion On something else So oft strange things hath found In sleep from this dull carcase while she was unbound 39 So though the soul the time she doth advert The bodies passions takes her self to die Yet death now finish'd she can well convert Herself to other thoughts And if the eye Of her adversion were fast fixt on high In midst of death 't were no more fear or pain Then 't was unto Elias to let flie His uselesse mantle to that Hebrew Swain While he rode up to heaven in a bright fiery wain 40 Thus have I stoutly rescued the soul From centrall death or pure mortalitie And from the listlesse flouds of Lethe dull And from the swallow of drad Unitie And from an all-consuming Deitie What now remains but since we are so sure Of endlesse life that to true pietie We bend our minds and make our conscience pure Lest living Night in bitter darknesse us immure FINIS THE ORACLE OR A Paraphrasticall Interpretation of the answer of Apollo when he was consulted by Amelius whither Plotinus soul went when he departed this life I Tune my strings to sing some sacred verse Of my dear friend in an immortall strain His mighty praise I loudly will rehearse With hony-dewed words some golden vein The strucken chords right sweetly shall resound Come blessed Muses let 's with one joynt noise With strong impulse and full harmonious sound Speak out his excellent worth Advance your voice As once you did for great Aeacides Rapt with an heavenly rage in decent dance Mov'd at the measures of Meonides Go to you holy Quire let 's all at once Begin and to the end hold up the song Into one heavenly harmony conspire I Phoebus with my lovely locks ymong The midst of you shall sit and life inspire Divine Plotinus yet now more divine Then when thy noble soul so stoutly strove In that dark prison where strong chains confine Keep down the active mind it cannot move To what it loveth most Those fleshly bands Thou now hast loos'd broke from Necessitie From bodies storms and frothie working sands Of this low restlesse life now setten free Thy feet do safely stand upon a shore Which foaming waves beat not in swelling rage Nor angry seas do threat with fell uprore Well hast thou swommen out and left that stage Of wicked Actours that tumultuous rout Of ignorant men Now thy pure steps thou stay'st In that high path where Gods light shines about And perfect Right its beauteous beams displayes How oft when bitter wave of troubled flesh And whirl-pool-turnings of the lower spright Thou stoutly strov'st with Heaven did thee refresh Held out a mark to guide thy wandring flight While thou in tumbling seas didst strongly toyl To reach the steddie Land struckst with thy arms The deasing surges that with rage do boyl Stear'd by that signe thou shunn'st those common harms How oft when rasher cast of thy souls eye Had thee misguided into crooked wayes Wast thou directed by the Deitie They held out to thee their bright lamping rayes Dispers'd the mistie darknesse safely set Thy feeble feet in the right path again Nor easie sleep so closely ere beset Thy eyelids nor did dimnesse ere so stain Thy radiant sight but thou such things didst see Even in that tumult that few can arrive Of all are named from Philosophie To that high pitch or to such secrets dive But sith this body thy pure soul divine Hath left quite risen from her rotten grave Thou now among those heavenly wights dostâ—shine Whose wonne this glorious lustre doth embrave There lovely Friendship mild-smiling Cupid's there With lively looks and amorous suavitie Full of pure pleasure and fresh flowring chear Ambrosian streams sprung from the Deitie Do frankly flow and soft love-kindling winds Do strike with a delicious sympathie Those tender spirits and fill up their minds With satisfying joy The puritie Of holy fire their heart doth then invade And sweet Perswasion meek Tranquillitie The gentle-breathing Air the Heavens nought sad Do maken up this great felicitie Here Rhadamanthus and just Aeacus Here Minos wonnes with those that liv'd of yore I' th' golden age here Plato vigorous In holy virtue and fair Pythagore These been the goodly Off-spring of Great Jove And liven here and who so fill'd the Quire And sweet assembly of immortall Love Purging their spirits with refining fire These with the happy Angels live in blisse Full fraught with joy and lasting pure delight In friendly feasts and life-outfetching kisse But ah dear Plotin what smart did thy sprite Indure before thou reach'st this high degree Of happinesse what agonies what pains Thou underwent'st to set thy soul so free From baser life She now in heaven remains Mongst the pure Angels O thrice-happy wight That now art got into the Land of Life Fast plac'd in view of that Eternall Light And sitt'st secure from the foul bodies strife But now you comely virgins make an end Break off this musick and deft seemly Round Leave off your dance For Plotin my dear friend Thus much I meant my golden harp should sound AN ADDITION of some few smaller POEMS BY HENRY MORE Master of Arts and Fellow of CHRISTS COLLEDGE in CAMBRIDGE CAMBRIDGE Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Universitie 1647. Cupids Conflict
this sensible world of it self can make us know things at distance though Plotinus seem inclinable to that Opinion See Psychathan lib. 3. Cant. 1. STANZ 55. All Sense doth in proportion consist Something 's are so light that the weight is indiscernable to some as the Flie that sat upon the Bulls horns and apologized for her self as having wearied him as it is in the Arabian fable some smells too weak to strike the nostrills of others and some objects too obscure to be seen of the eyes of othersome But Arachne is proportioned to all whatsoever is any way sensible to any because Psyche doth inact this All or Universe as a particular Soul doth the body Vers 9. All life of Sense is in great Haphe's lift It must needs be so For no living soul is sensible of ought in this out-World but by being joyned in a living manner to it Therefore Psyche being joyned to it all must needs perceive all forms and motions in it that are presented to any particular soul For these representations be made in some particular body which is but a part of the whole a knot as it were of Psyches outward stole but the universall body of the World is one undivided peece wherefore nor Owl nor Bat nor Cat nor any thing else can possibly see but Psyche seeth ipso facto for 't is part of her body that hath those representations in it wherefore man is transfixt through and through by the rayes of the divine Light besides that more incomprehensible way of omnisciency in God STANZ 5.6 Sense and Consent c. As Psyche sees all naturall things so she doth allow of them For contrariety of Spirits is onely betwixt particulars and uglinesse and ill-favourednesse are but such to some kinds nor is poyson poyson to all else would the Spider be her own death and all venomous monsters would save man the labour of encounter STANZ 57. Rich Semele display Till we come to Psyches self motion and mutabilitie have place But in Aeon and Ahad is steddy and unalterable rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there hath Psyche the one eye plac'd as well as the other below beholding all things and that which is above all things as also the shadows and projections of all things without distraction at once as easily as our eyes discern many colours at once in one thing STANZ 59. The mother of each Semele How she is the mother of them see the second Canto of this book at the 23. Stanz Vers 3. But she grasps all The Mundane spirit of which every body hath its part inacted by Psyche if any particular soul exert any imaginative act needs must for a time at least be coloured as it were or stained with that impression so that Psyche must needs perceive it sith it affects her own spirit See Psychath lib. 3. Cant. 2. Stanz 46.47 Besides this euery particular soul as all things else depending so intimately on Psyche as being effluxes from her it is inconceivable that the least motions of the mind or stillest thought should escape her But if any man be puzled how the phantasie of a mans soul should make an impression upon any part of the universall spirit of the world and Semele should not let him consider that the imaginative operations of Psyche are more high more hovering and suspense from immersion into the grosser spirits of this body which is little or nothing conscious of what 's done so farre above and so not receiving the impresse of so high acts it ordinarily happens even in the exaltation of our own phansie that memory fails And besides this as the vigour of sense debilitates or quite extinguisheth the ordinary imaginations of the soul so doth her ordinary imaginations or sense or both hinder the animadversion of the impresses of Semele But particular imaginations and the vigour of sense weakened or extinct in sleep or near death the energies of the soul of the world are then more perceptible probably even in the very spirit of our body as well as in the naked soul hence come prophetick dreams and true predictions before death But to go back to the apprehensions of Psyche Every sensible object and every sensitive and imaginative act appear before her and whatsoever is in her sight is also in the sight of Aeon Because the union betwixt Aeon and Psyche is much more near then between Psyche and the Mundane spirit And whatsoever is represented in Aeon is also clearly in the view of Ahad by reason of the unexpresseable close unity of these two so that Ahad knowes every individuall thing and motion as clearly nay more clearly then any mortall eye can view any one thing let it look never so steddily on it Thus the thoughts of all mens minds and motions of heart arise up into the sight and presence of the all-comprehending Divinity as necessarily and naturally as reek or fume of frankincense rouls up into the open air For the spirit of the Lord fills all the world and that which conteineth all things hath knowledge of the voyce yea of the outward shape gestures and thoughts too Wisd 1 7. Nor is Eternity changed or obscured by the projection of these low shadows For infinite animad version can discern all things unmixtly and undisturbedly not at all loosing it self though gaining nothing by the sight of inferiour things Nor can I assent to that passage in Plotin taken in one sense nor is it I think necessary to take it in that sense the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is But that such a kind of inclining himself to himself being as it were his energie and abode in himself makes him to be what he is the contrary supposed doth argue For if he should incline to that which is without him he would lose that being which he is But this is to be considered that God being infinitely infinite without stooping or inclining can produce all things and view alwayes his work keeping his own seat that is himself for so saith the Philosopher in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is That Intellect or On or the Intellectuall world is the first energie of God is the first substance from him he abiding in himself See Plotin Ennead 6. lib. 8. cap. 16. also Ennead 1. lib. 8. c. 2. But now to take a short view of what I have runne through in my notes on this Canto Ahad Aeon Psyche the Platonick Triad is rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divinity rather then the Deity For God is but one indivisible unmovable self-born Unity and his first born creature is Wisdome Intellect Aeon On or Autocalon or in a word the Intellectuall world whose measure himself is that is simple and perfect Goodnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is For he is without need self-sufficient wanting nothing the measure and term of all things yielding out of himself Intellect or On and Psyche And speaking
affected if there were nothing to come whence she would not be able so sensibly to discover to her self her own Hypocrisie or sinceritie Lastly that loving adherence and affectionate cleaving to God by Faith and divine sense would be forestall'd by such undeniable evidence of Reason and Nature Which though it would very much gratifie the naturall man yet it would not prove so profitable to us as in things appertaining to God For seeing our most palpable evidence of the souls immortality is from an inward sense and this inward sense is kept alive the best by devotion and purity by freedome from worldly care and sorrow and the grosser pleasures of the body otherwise her ethereall vehicle will drink in so much of earthy and mortall dregs that the sense of the soul will be changed being outvoted as it were by the overswaying number of terrene particles which that ethereal nature hath so plentifully imbib'd and incorporated with she will become in a manner corporeall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Jamblichus speaks and in the extremity of this weaknesse and dotage will be easily drawn off to pronounce her self such as the body is dissolvable and mortall therefore it is better for us that we become doubtfull of our immortall condition when we stray from that virgin-purity and unspottednesse that we may withdraw our feet from these paths of death then that Demonstration and Infallibility should permit us to proceed so farre that our immortality would prove an heavy disadvantage But this is meant onely to them that are lovers of God and their own souls For they that are at enmity with him desire no such instructions but rather embrace all means of laying asleep that disquieting truth that they bear about with them so precious a charge as an immortall Spirit To the Reader REader sith it is the fashion To bestow some salutation I greet thee give free leave to look And nearly view my opened Book But see then that thine eyes be clear If ought thou wouldst discover there Expect from me no Teian strain No light wanton Lesbian vein Though well I wot the vulgar spright Such Harmony doth more strongly smite Silent Secesse wast Solitude Deep searching thoughts often renew'd Stiffe conflict 'gainst importunate vice That daily doth the Soul entice From her high throne of circuling light To plunge her in infernall Night Collection of the mind from stroke Of this worlds Magick that doth choke Her with foul smothering mists and stench And in Lethaean waves her drench A daily Death drad Agony Privation dry Sterility Who is well entred in those wayes Fitt'st man to read my lofty layes But whom lust wrath and fear controule Scarce know their body from their soul If any such chance hear my verse Dark numerous Nothings I rehearse To them measure out an idle sound In which no inward sense is found Thus sing I to cragg'd clifts and hils To sighing winds to murmuring rills To wastefull woods to empty groves Such things as my dear mind most loves But they heed not my heavenly passion Fast fixt on their own operation On chalky rocks hard by the Sea Safe guided by fair Cynthia I strike my silver-sounded lyre First struck my self by some strong fire And all the while her wavering ray Reflected from fluid glasse doth play On the white banks But all are deaf Vnto my Muse that is most lief To mine own self So they nor blame My pleasant notes nor praise the same Nor do thou Reader rashly brand My rhythmes 'fore thou them understand H. M. PSYCHOZOIA OR The first part of the Song of the SOUL Containing A Christiano-Platonicall display of LIFE By H. M. Master of Arts and Fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Tot vitae gradus cognoscimus quot in nobismetipsis expedimus Mars Ficin CAMBRIDGE Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the Universitie 1647. TO THE READER Upon the first Canto of PSYCHOZOIA THis first Canto as you may judge by the names therein was intended for a mere Platonicall description of Universall life or life that is omnipresent though not alike omnipresent As in Noahs Deluge the water that overflowed the earth was present in every part thereof but every part of the water was not in every part of the earth or all in every part so the low Spirit of the Universe though it go quite through the world yet it is not totally in every part of the world Else we should heare our Antipodes if they did but whisper Because our lower man is a part of the inferiour Spirit of the Universe Ahad Aeon and Psyche are all omnipresent in the World after the most perfect way that humane reason can conceive of For they are in the world all totally and at once every where This is the famous Platonicall Triad which though they that slight the Christian Trinity do take for a figment yet I think it is no contemptible argument that the Platonists the best and divinest of Philosophers and the Christians the best of all that do professe religion do both concur that there is a Trinity In what they differ I leave to be found out according to the safe direction of that infallible Rule of Faith the holy Word In the mean time I shall not be blamed by any thing but ignorance and malignity for being invited to sing of the second Unity of the Platonicall Triad in a Christian and Poeticall scheme that which the holy Scripture witnesseth of the second Person of the Christian Trinity As that his patrimony is the possession of the whole earth For if it be not all one with Christ according to his Divinity yet the Platonists placing him in the same order and giving him the like attributes with the Person of the Sonne in Christianity it is nothing harsh for me to take occasion from hence to sing a while the true Christian Autocalon whose beauty shall adorn the whole Earth in good time if we believe the Prophets For that hath not as yet happened For Christ is not where ever his Name is but as he is the Truth so will he be truely displayed upon the face of the whole Earth For God doth not fill the World with his Glory by words and sounds but by Spirit and Life and Reality Now this Eternall life I sing of even in the middest of Platonisme for I cannot conceal from whence I am viz. of Christ but yet acknowledging that God hath not left the Heathen Plato especially without witnesse of himself Whose doctrine might strike our adulterate Christian Professors with shame astonishment their lives falling so exceeding short of the better Heathen How far short are they then of that admirable and transcendent high mystery of true Christianisme To which Plato is a very good subservient Minister whose Philosophy I singing here in a full heat why may it not be free for me to break out into an higher strain and under it to touch upon some points of Christianity as well as
quit the place The skie did rattle with his wings ytorn Like to rent silk ' But I in the mean space Sent after him this message by the wind Be 't so I 'm mad yet sure I am thou' rt blind By this the out-stretch'd shadows of the trees Pointed me home-ward and with one consent Foretold the dayes descent So straight I rise Gathering my limbs from off the green pavement Behind me leaving then the slooping Light Gl. And now let 's up Vesper brings on the Night Fides Fluctuans O Deus aeterno lucis qui absconditus Orbe Humanos fugis aspectus da cernere verum Da magnum spectare diem non mobilis Aevi Da contemplari nullius in infera noctis Lapsurum solem Spissas caliginis umbras Adventu dispelle tuo Pernicibus alis Ocyus advolitans animam tu siste solutam Mobilitate sua rapidae quam cursus aquai Deturbat secum atque in caeco gurgite condit Sed tamen ex fluxu hoc rerum miseroque tumultu En vultus attollo meos tu porrige dextram Exime ut excelso figam vestigia saxo O Deus O Centrum rerum te percita motu Arcano circumvolitant cuncta atque requirunt Nequicquam quoniam aeterna te contegis umbra Attamen insano exerces mea pectora amore Et suspirantem volupe est tibi ludere mentem Ignibus occultis Non talibus aestuat Aetna Intima cùm accensas eructet flamma favillas Pleniùs lato spargat sua viscera campo Omnia solicita mecum quae mente revolvi Somnia sunt stultéque animi satagentis inane Figmentum spes nostra perit radicitùs omnis Expectata diu vacuas vita exit in auras Hei mihi quam immensae involvor caligine noctis Subsido pereo repeto jam materiaï Infensas tenebras ahenae vincula mortis Quae me intemperies agitat Rescindito coelos Summe Deûm tantósque animi componito fluctus Resolution WHere 's now the objects of thy fears Needlesse sighs and fruitlesse tears They be all gone like idle dream Suggested from the bodies steam O Cave of horrour black as pitch Dark Den of Spectres that bewitch The weakned phansy sore affright With the grim shades of grisely Night What 's Plague and Prison Losse of friends Warre Dearth and Death that all things ends Mere Bug-bears for the childish mind Pure Panick terrours of the blind Collect thy soul into one sphear Of light and 'bove the earth it rear Those wild scattered thoughts that erst Lay losely in the World disperst Call in thy spirit thus knit in one Fair lucid orb those fears be gone Like vain impostures of the Night That fly before the Morning bright Then with pure eyes thou shalt behold How the first Goodnesse doth infold All things in loving tender armes That deemed mischiefs are no harms But sovereign salves and skilfull cures Of greater woes the world endures That mans stout soul may win a state Far rais'd above the reach of fate Then wilt thou say God rules the World Though mountain over mountain hurl'd Be pitch'd amid the foaming Maine Which busie winds to wrath constrain His fall doth make the billowes start And backward skip from every part Quite sunk then over his senselesse side The waves in triumph proudly ride Though inward tempests fiercely rock The tottering Earth that with the shock High spires and heavie rocks fall down With their own weight drove into ground Though pitchy blasts from Hell up-born Stop the outgoings of the Morn And Nature play her fiery games In this forc'd Night with fulgurant flames Baring by fits for more affright The pale dead visages ghastly sight Of men astonish'd at the stoure Of Heavens great rage the rattling showers Of hail the hoarse bellowing of thunder Their own loud shreekes made mad with wonder All this confusion cannot move The purged mind freed from the love Of commerce with her body dear Cell of sad thoughts sole spring of fear What ere I feel or heare or see Threats but these parts that mortall be Nought can the honest heart dismay Unlesse the love of living clay And long acquaintance with the light Of this Outworld and what to sight Those two officious beams discover Of forms that round about us hover Power Wisedome Goodnesse sure did fra This Universe and still guide the same But thoughts from passions sprung decei◠Vain mortalls No man can contrive A better course then what 's been run Since the first circuit of the Sun He that beholds all from on high Knowes better what to do then I. I 'm not mine own should I repine If he dispose of what 's not mine Purge but thy soul of blind self-will Thou streight shalt see God doth no ill The world He fills with the bright rayes Of his free goodnesse He displayes Himself throughout Like common aire That spirit of life through all doth fare Suck'd in by them as vitall breath That willingly embrace not death But those that with that living Law Be unacquainted cares do gnaw Mistrust of Gods good providence Doth daily vex their wearied sense Now place me on the Libyan soil With scorching sun and sands to toil Far from the view of spring or tree Where neither man nor house I see Place me by the fabulous streams Of Hydaspes In the Realms Where Caucasus his lofty back Doth raise in wreaths and endlesse tract Commit me at my next remove To icy Hyperborean Jove Confine me to the Arctick Pole Where the numbd heavens do slowly roll To lands where cold raw heavie mist Sols kindly warmth and light resists Where louring clouds full fraught with snow Do sternly scoul where winds do blow With bitter blasts and pierce the skin Forcing the vitall spirits in Which leave the body thus ill bested In this chill plight at least half dead Yet by an Antiperistasis My inward heat more kindled is And while this flesh her breath expires My spirit shall suck celestiall fires By deep-fetchd sighs and pure devotion Thus waxen hot with holy motion A◠once I 'll break forth in a flame Above this world and worthlesse fame I 'll take my flight carelesse that men Know not how where I die or when Yea though the Soul should mortall prove So be Gods life but in me move To my last breath I 'm satisfide A lonesome mortall God t' have dide Devotion GOod God! when thou thy inward grace dost shower Into my brest How full of light and lively power Is then my soul How am I blest How can I then all difficulties devour Thy might Thy spright With ease my combrous enemy controll If thou once turn away thy face and hide Thy chearfull look My feeble flesh may not abide That dreadfull stound I cannot brook Thy absence My heart with care and grief then gride Doth fail Doth quail My life steals from me at that hidden wound My phansie's then a burden to my mind Mine anxious thought Betrayes my reason makes me blind Near