Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A29868
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Religio Medici
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Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing B5166; ESTC R4739
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58,859
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162
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Now the necessary Mansions of our restored self are these two contrary incompatible places we call Heaven and Hell to define them or strictly to determine what and where these are surpasseth my divinity That elegant Saint which seemed to have a glimpse of Heaven hath left but a negative description thereof Which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor can enter into the heart of man he was translated out of himselfe to behold it but being returned into himselfe could not expresse it Saint Iohns description by Emeralds Chrysolites and precious stones is too weake to expresse the materiall Heaven we behold Briefely therefore where the soule hath the full measure and complement of happinesse where the boundâ—esse appetite of the spirit remaines compleatly satisfied that it can neither desire addition nor alteration that I thinke is truly Heaven and this can onely be in the enjoyment of that essence whose infinite goodnesse is able to terminate the desires of it selfe and the unsatiable wishes of ours where ever God will thus manifest himselfe there is Heaven though within the circle of this sensible world Thus the sense of man may be in Heaven anywhere within the limits of his owne proper body and when it ceaseth to live in the body it may remaine in its owne soule that is its Creator And thus we may say that Saint Paul whether in the body or out of the body was yet in Heaven To place it in the Empyriall or beyond the tenth Sphere is to forget the worlds destruction for when this sensible world shall be destroyed and shall then be here as it was there an Empyriall Heaven a quasi vacuitie when to aske where Heaven is is to demand where the presence of God is or where we have the glory of that happy vision Moses that was bred up in all the learning of the Egyptians committed a grosse absurdity in Philosophy when with the eyes of flesh he desired to see God and petitioned his Maker that is truth it selfe to contradiction Those that imagine Heaven and Hell neighbours and conceive a vicinity betweene those two extreames upon consequence of the Parable where Dives discoursed with Lazarus in Abrahams bosome doe too grosâ—ely conceive of those glorified creatures whose eyes shall easily out-see the Sunne and behold without a Perspective the extreamest distances for if there shall be in our glorified eyes the faculty of sight and reception of objects I could thinke the visible species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the intellectuals I grant that two bodies placed beyond the tenth Spheare or in a vacuity according to Aâ—istotles Philosophy could not behold each other because there wants a body or Medium to have and transport the visible rayes of the object unto the sense but when there shall be a generall defect of either Medium to convey or light to prepare and dispose that Medium and yet a perfect vision we must suspend the rules of our Philosophy and make all good by a more absolute piece of Opticks I cannot tell how to say that fire is the essence of hell I know not what to make of Purgatory or conceive a flame that can neither prey upon nor purifie the substance of a soule those flames of sulphure mentioned in the Scriptures I take not to be understood of this present Hell but of that to come where fire shall make up the complement of our tortures and have a body or subject wherein to manifest its tyranny Some who had the honor to be Text in divinity are of opinion it shall be the same specificall fire with ours This is hard to conceive yet can I make good how even that may prey upon our bodies and yet not consume us for in this materiall world there are bodies that passed invincible in the powerfullest flames and though by action of the fire they fell into ignition and liquation yet will they never suffer a destruction I would know how Moses with an actuall fire calcind or burnt the golden Calfe into powder for that mysticall mettle of gold whose solary and celestiall nature I adore exposed unto the violence of fire growes only hot and liquifies but consumeth not so when the consumable and volatile pieces of our bodies shall be refined into a more impregnable and fixed temper like gold though they suffer from the action of the flames they shall never perish but lie immortall in the armes of fire And surely if this frame must suffer onely by the action of this element there will many bodies escape and not onely Heaven but earth will not be at an end but rather a beginning For at present it is not earth but a composition of fire water earth and aire but at that time â—poyled of those ingredients it shall apâ—eare in a substance more like it selfe its ashes Philosophers that opinioned the worlds destruction by fire did never dreame of annihilation which is beyond the power of sublunary causes for the â—ast and proper action of that element is â—ut vitrification or a reduction of a body â—nto Glasse and therefore some of our Chymicks factiously affirme yea and â—rge Scripture for it that at the last fire all shall be crystallized and reverberaâ—ed into Glasse which is the utmost action of that element Nor need we feare â—his terme annihilation or wonder that God will destroy the workes of his Creation for man subsisting who is and then truly appeares a Microcosme the world cannot be said to be destroyed For the eyes of God and perhaps also of our glorified selves shall as realâ—y behold and contemplate the world in â—ts Epitome or contracted essence as â—ow it doth at large in its dilated substance In the Syen of a Plant to the eyes of God and to the understanding of man there exist though in an invisible way the perfect leaves flowers and fruit thereof for things that aâ—e in possâ— to the sense are actually existent to the understanding Thus God beholds all things who contemplates as fully his workes in their Epitome as in their full volume and beheld as amply the whole world in that little compendium of the sixth day as in the scattered and dilated pieces of those five before Men commonly set â—orth the torments of Hell by fire and the extremity of corporall afflictions and describe Hell in the same method that Mahomet doth Heaven This indeed makes a noyse and drums in popular eares but if this be the terrible piece thereof it is not worthy to stand in diameter with Heaven whose happinesse consists in that part that is best able to comprehend it that immortall essence the translated divinity of God the soule I thanke God and with joy I mention it I was never afraid of hell nor never grew pale at the description of that place I have so fixed my contemplations on Heaven that I have almost forgot the Idea of Hell and am afraid rather to lose the joyes of Heaven then endure the
my fates for to me avarice seemes not so much a vice as a deplorable piece of madnesse to conceive our selves Urinals or be perswaded that wee are dead is not so ridiculous nor so many degrees beyond the power of Hellebore as this The opinions of theory and positions of men are not so voyd of reason as their practised conclusion some have held that Snow is blacke that the earth moves that the soule is ayre fire water but all this is Philosophy and there is no Deâ—irium if we doe but speculate the folly and indisputable dotage of avariâ—e to that subterraneous Idol and God of the earth I doe confesse I am an Atheist I cannot perswade my selfe to honour that the world adores whatsoever vertue its prepared Sublime may have within my body it hath no influence nor operation without I would not entertaine a base designe or an action that should call me villaine for the Indies and for this only doe I love and honour my soule and have me thinkes two armes too few to embrace my selfe Aristotle is too severe that will not allow us to be truly liberal without wealth and the bountifull hand of fortune If this be true I must confesse I am charitable onely in my liberall intentions bountifull well-wishes But if the example of the Mite be not onely an act of wonder but an example of the noblest charity I can justly boast I am as charitable as some who have built Hospitals or erected Cathedrals I have a private method which others observe not I take the opportunity of my selfe to doe good I borrow occasion of charity from mine owne necessities I supply the wants of others when I am in most need my selfe when I am reduced to the last tester I love to dâ—vide it to the poore for it is an honest statagem to take the advantage of our selves and so to husband the acts of vertue that where they are defective in one circumstance they may repay their want and multiply their goodnesse in another I hath not Peru in my desires but a competence and ability to performe those good workes to which the Almighty hath inclined my nature He is rich who have enough to be charitable it is hard to be so poore that a noble mind may not finde a way to this piece of goodnesse He that giveth to the poore lendeth to the Lord there is more Rhetorick in that one sentence then in a Library of Sermons indeed if those sentences were understood by the Reader with the same Emphasis as they are delivered by the Author we need not those Volums of instructions but might bee honest by an Epitome Upon this motion onely I cannot behold a Begger without relieving his necessities with my purse or his soule with my prayers the scenicall and accidentall differences betweene us cannot make me forget that common untoucht part of us both the soule being of the same alloy with our owne whose Genealogy is God as well as ours and in as faire a way to salvation as our selves Statists that labour to conceive a Common-wealth without poverty doe take away the object of charity not understanding onely the Common-wealth of a Christian but forgetting the prophecy of Christ Now there is another part of charity which is the Basis and Pillar of this and that is the love of God for whom we love our neighbour for this I thinke charity to love God for himselfe and our neighbour for God All that is truly amiable is God or as it were a divided piece of him that retaines a reflex or shadow of himselfe Nor is it strange that we should place affection on that which is invisible all that we truly love is thus what we adore under affection of our senses deserves not the honour of so pure a title Thus we adore vertue though to the eyes of sense she be invisible Thus that part of our loving friends that we love is not that part that we embrace but that insensible part that our armes cannot embrace God being all goodnesse can love nothing but himselfe he loves us but for that part which is as it were himselfe and the traduction of his holy Spirit Let us call to assize the lives of our parents the affection of our wives and children and they are all dumbe showes and dreames without reality truth or constancy for first therei 's a strong bond of affection between us and our parents yet how easily dissolved we betake our selves to a woman forgetting our mothers in a wife and the wombe that bare us in that that shall beare our image This woman blessing us with children our affections leaves the levell it held before and sinkes from our bed unto our issue and picture of posterity where affection holds no steady mansion They growing up in yeares desire our ends or applying themselves to a woman take a lawfull way to love another better then our selves Thus I conceive a man may be buryed alive and behold his grave in his owne issue I conclude therfore and say that there is no happinesse under or as Copernicus will have it above the Sun in that repeated verity and burthen of all the wisdome of Solomon All is vanity and vexation of spirit there is no felicity in that the world adores Aristotle whilst he labours to refute the Ideas of Plato fals upon one himselfe for his summum bonum is a Chimaera and there is no such thing as his Felicity That wherein God himselfe is happy the holy Angels are happy in whose defects the devils are unhappy that dare I call happinesse whatsoever conduceth unto this may with an easie Metaphor deserve that name what soever else the world termes happinesse is to me a story or apparition or neat delusion wherein there is no more of happinesse then the name Blesse me in this life with the peace of my conscience command of my affections the love of my dearest friends and I shall be happy enough to pity Caesar These are O Lord happinesse on earth wherein I set no rule or limit to thy providence dispose of me according to the justice of thy pleasure Thy will be done though in mine owne damnation FINIS