it self after his kinde so that the several sorts of plants might by this means be conserv'd upon the earth And God saw that it was good 13 And the evening and the morning made up the third natural day 14 There have three days past without a Sun as well as three nights without either Moon or Stars as you your selves may happily have observ'd some number of Moonless and Starlesse nights as well as of Sunlesse days to have succeeded one another and so it might have been always had not God said Let there be Lights within the Firmament of heaven to make a difference betwixt day and night and to be peculiar garnishings of either Let them be also for signes of weather for seasons of the year and also for periods of days months and years 15 Moreover let them be as lights hung up within the hollow roof or Firmament of heaven to give light to men walking upon the pavement of the earth and it was so 16 And God made two great lights the greater one the most glorious Princely object we can see by day to be as it were the Governor and Monarch of the day the lesser the most resplendent and illustrious sight we can cast our eyes on by night to be Governesse and Queen of the night And he made though for their smalnesse they be not so considerable the Stars also 17 And he placed them all in the Firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth 18 And to shew their preheminence for external lustre above what ever else appears by either day or night and to be peculiar garnishings or ornaments to make a notable difference betwixt the light and the darknesse the superaddition of the Sun to adorn the day and to invigorate the light thereof the Moon and the Stars to garnish the night and to mitigate the dulnesse and darknesse thereof And God saw that it was good 19 And the evening and the morning was the fourth natural day 20 After this God commanded the waters to bring forth fish and fowl which they did in abundance and the fowl flew above the earth in the open Firmament of heaven 21 And God created great whales also as well as other fishes that move in the waters and God saw that it was good 22 And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the fowl multiply on the earth 23 And the evening and the morning made up the fifth natural day 24 Then God commanded the earth to bring forth all creeping things and four footed beasts as before he commanded the waters to send forth fish and fowl and it was so 25 And when God had made the beast of the earth after his kinde and cattel and every creeping thing after his kinde he saw that it was good 26 And coming at last to his highest Master-piece Man he encouraged himself saying Go to let us now make man and I will make him after the same image and shape that I bear my self and he shall have dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the fowls of the Air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 27 So God created man in his own shape and figure with an upright stature with legs hands arms with a face and mouth to speak and command as God himself hath I say in the image of God did he thus create him But mistake me not whereas you conceive of God as masculine and more perfect yet you must not understand me as if God made mankinde so exactly after his own image that he made none but males for I tell you he made females as well as males as you shall hear more particularly hereafter 28 And having made them thus male and female he bad them make use of the distinction of sexes that he had given them and blessing them God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with your off-spring and be lords thereof and have dominion also over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the air as well as over beasts and cattel and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth 29 And God said Behold I give you every frugiferous herb which is upon the face of the earth such as the Straw-berry the several sorts of Corn as Rye Wheat and Rice as also the delicious fruits of Trees to you they shall be for meat 30 But for the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air and for every living thing that creepeth upon the earth the worser kind of herbs and ordinary grasse I have assign'd for them and so it came to passe that mankinde are made lords and possessors of the choicest fruits of the earth and the beasts of the field are to be contented with baser herbage and the common grasse 31 And God viewed all the works that he had made and behold they were exceeding good and the evening and the morning was the sixt natural day CHAP. II. 3 The Original of the Jewish Sabbaths from Gods resting himself from his six days labours 5 Herbs and Plants before either Rain Gardning or Husbandry and the reason why it was so 7 Adam made of the dust of the ground and his soul breathed in at his nostrils 8 The Planting of Paradise 9 A wonderful Tree there that would continue youth and make a man immortal upon earth Another strange Tree viz. the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 11 The Rivers of Paradise Phasis Gihon Tigris Euphrates 18 The high commendation of Matrimony 19 Adam gives names to all kinde of creatures except fishes 21 Woman is made of a rib of Adam a deep sleep falling upon him his minde then also being in a trance 24 The first Institution of Marriage 1 THus the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the creatures wherewith they were garnisht and replenisht 2 And God having within six days perfected all his work on the seventh day he rested himself 3 And so made the seventh day an holy day a festival of rest because himself then first rested from his works Whence you plainly see the reason and original of your Sabbaths 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth which I have so compendiously recounted to you as they were created in the days that the Lord made heaven and earth and the several garnishings of them 5 But there are some things that I would a little more fully touch upon and give you notice of to the praise of God and the manifesting of his power unto you As that the herbs and plants of the field did not come up of their own accords out of the earth before God made them but that God created them before there were any seeds of any such thing in the earth and before there was any rain or men to use gardning or husbandry for the procuring their growth So that hereafter
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
own eyes nor misbelieve their dictates no more nor so much as we may those of our outward senses Wherefore to men recovered into a due command of their reason and well-skill'd in the contemplation and experience of the nature of things to propound to them such kinde of Mosaical Philosophy as the boldnesse and superstition of some has adventured to do for want of a right Literal Cabbala to guide them is as much as in them lies to hazard the making not only of Moses but of Religion it self contemptible and ridiculous Whence it is apparent enough I think to what good purpose it is thus carefully to distinguish betwixt the Literal and Philosophick Cabbala and so plainly and fully to set out the sense of either apart by themselves that there may hereafter be no confusion or mistake For beside that the discovering of these weighty Truths and high but irrefutable Paradoxes in Moses his Text does assert Religion and vindicate her from that vile imputation of ignorance in Philosophy and the knowledge of things so does it also justifie those more noble results of free Reason and Philosophy from that vulgar suspicion of Impiety and Irreligion THE LITERAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 2 The Earth at first a deep miry abysse covered over with waters over which was a fierce wind and through all darknesse 3 Day made at first without a Sun 6 The Earth a floor the Heavens a transparent Canopy or strong Tent over it to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous Sea from drowning the world 8 Why this Tent or Canopy was not said to be good 9 The lower waters commanded into one place 11 Herbs flowers and fruits of Trees before either Sun or seasons of the year to ripen them 14 The Sun created and added to the day as a peculiar ornament thereof as the Moon and Stars to the night 20 The Creation of fish and fowl 24 The Creation of beasts creeping things 27 Man created in the very shape and figure of God but yet so that there were made females as well as males 28 How man came to be Lord over the rest of living creatures 30 How it came to passe that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the Earth and the beasts on the worse 1 WEE are to recount to you in this Book the Generations and Genealogies of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah from Noah to Abraham from Abraham to Joseph and to continue the History to our own times But it will not be amisse first to inform you concerning the Creation of the world and the original and beginning of things How God made Heaven and Earth and all the garnishings of them before he made Man 2 But the Earth at first was but a rude and desolate heap devoid of herbs flowers and trees and all living creatures being nothing but a deep miry abysse covered all over with waters and there was a very fierce and strong wind that blew upon the waters and what made it still more horrid and comfortless there was as yet no light but all was inveloped with thick darknesse and bore the face of a pitchy black and wet tempestuous night 3 But God let not his work lie long in this sad condition but commanded Light to appear and the morning brake out upon the face of the abyss and wheel'd about from East to West being clearest in the middle of its course about noon and then abating of its brightnesse towards the West at last quite dis-appear'd after such sort as you may often observe the day-light to break forth in the East and ripen to greater clearnesse but at last to leave the skie in the West no Sun appearing all the while 4. And God saw the Light for it is a thing very visible that it was good and so separated the darknesse from the light that they could not both of them be upon the face of the earth together but had their vicissitudes and took their turns one after another 5 And he called the return of the light Day and the return of darkness he called Night and the evening and the morning made up the first natural day 6. Now after God had made this Basis or floor of this greater edifice of the world the Earth he sets upon the higher parts of the fabrick He commands therefore that there should be a hollow expansion firm and transparent which by its strength should bear up against the waters which are above and keep them from falling upon the earth in excess 7. And so it became a partition betwixt the upper the lower waters so that by virtue of this hollow Firmament man might live safe from the violence of such destructive inundations as one sheltred in a well-pitch'd tent from storm of rain For the danger of these waters is apparent to the eye this ceruleous or blew-coloured Sea that over-spreads the diaphanous Firmament being easily discern'd through the body thereof and there are very frequent and copious showers of rain descend from above when as there is no water espyed ascending up thither wherefore it must all come from that upper Sea if we do but appeal to our outward sense 8 Now therefore this diaphanous Canopy or firmly stretched Tent over the whole pavement of the earth though I cannot say properly that God saw it was good it being indeed of a nature invisible yet the use of it shows it to be exceeding good and necessary And God called the whole capacity of this hollow Firmament Heaven And the evening and the morning made up the second natural day 9 And now so sure a Defence being made against the inundation of the upper waters that they might not fall upon the earth God betook himself the next day to order the lower waters that as yet were spread over the whole face thereof at his command therefore the waters fled into one place and the dry land did appear 10 And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters he called Sea and I may now properly say that God saw that it was good for the Sea and the Land are things visible enough and fit objects of our sight 11 And forthwith before he made either Sun Moon or Stars did God command the earth to bring forth grasse herbs and flowers in their full beauty and fruit-trees yeilding delicious fruit though there had as yet been no vicissitude of Spring Summer or Autumn nor any approach of the Sun to ripen and concoct the fruit of those trees Whence you may easily discern the foolishnesse of the idolatrous Nations that dote so much on second causes as that they forget the first ascribing that to the Sun and Moon that was caus'd at first by the immediate command of God 12 For at his command it was before there was either Sun or Moon in the Firmament that the earth brought forth grasse and herb yeilding seed after his kind and the tree yeilding fruit whose seed was in
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
Aegyptum in manum dominorum duri And Exod. 22. 10. Et accipiet domini ejus for dominus The Text therefore necessarily requiring no such sense and the mysterie being so abstruse it is rightly left out in this Literal Cabbala Vers 2. In the first verse there was a summary Proposal of the whole Creation in those two main parts of it Heaven and Earth Now he begins the particular prosecution of each days work But it is not needful for him here again to inculcate the making of the Earth For it is the last word he spake in his general Proposal and therefore it had been harsh or needless to have repeated it presently again And that 's the reason why before the making of the Earth there is not prefixed And the Lord said Let there be an Earth Which I conceive has imposed upon the ignorance and inconsiderateness of some so as to make them believe that this confused muddy heap which is called the Earth was an Eternal First Matter independent of God and never created by him Which if a man appeal to his own Faculties is impossible as I shall again intimate when I come to the Philosophick Cabbala The sense therefore is That the Earth was made first which was covered with water and on the water was the wind and in all this a thick darkness And God was in this dark windy and wet Night So that this Globe of Earth and Water and Wind was but one dark Tempest and Sea-storm a Night of confusion and tumultuous Agitation For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not in the Letter any thing more then Ventus ingens A great and mighty wind As the Cedars of God and Mountains of God are tall Cedars great Mountains and so in Analogy the Wind of God a great Wind. Vers 3. But in the midst of this tempestuous darkness God intending to fall to his work doth as it were light his Lamp or set up himself a Candle in this dark Shop And what ever hitherto hath been mentioned are words that strike the Fancy and Sense strongly and are of easie perception to the rude people whom every dark and stormy Night may well reminde of the sad face of things till God commanded the comfortable Day to spring forth the sole Author of Light that so pleases the eyes and chears the spirits of Man And that Day-light is a thing independent of the Sun as well as the Night of the Stars is a conceit wondrous sutable to the imaginations of the Vulgar as I have my self found out by conversing with them They are also prone to think unlesse there be a sensible wind stirring that there is nothing betwixt the Earth and the Clouds but that it is a meer vacuity Wherefore I have not translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Air as Maimonides somewhere does but a mighty wind For that the rude people are sensible of and making the first deformed face of things so dismal and tempestuous it will cause them to remember the first morning light with more thankfulness and devotion Vers 4. For it is a thing very visible See what is said upon the eighth verse Vers 5. By Evening and Morning is meant the Artificial Day and the Artificial Night by a Synecdoche as Castellio in his Notes tells us Therefore this Artificial Day and Night put together make one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Day And the Evening is put before the Morning Night before Day because Darkness is before Light But that Primitive darkness was not properly Night For Night is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle describes it one great Shaddow cast from the Earth which implies Light of one side thereof And therefore Night properly so called could not be before Light But the illiterate people trouble themselves with no such curiosities nor easily conceive any such difference betwixt that determinate Conical shaddow of the Earth which is Night and that infinite primitive Darkness that had no bounds before there was any Light And therefore that same Darkness prefixed to an Artificial Day makes up one Natural Day to them Which Hesiod also swallows down without chewing whether following his own fancy or this Text of Moses I know not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is But of the Night both Day and Skie were born Vers 6. This Basis or Floor That the Earth seems like a round Floor plain and running out so every way as to join with the bottome of the Heavens I have in my Introduction hinted to you already and that it is look'd upon as such in the phrase of Scripture accommodating it self to our outward senses and vulgar conceit Upon this Floor stands the hollow Firmament as a Tent pitched upon the ground which is the very expression of the Prophet Esay describing the Power of God That stretcheth out the Heavens like a Curtain and spreadeth them out as a Tent to dwell in And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is usually rendred Firmament signifies diduction expansion or spreading out But how the Seventy come to interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Firmamentum Fuller in his Miscellanies gives a very ingenious reason and such as makes very much to our purpose Nam coelum seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he quandoquidem Tentoxio saepissimè in sacris literis assimilatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quatenus expanditur Sic enim expandi solent Tentâ—ria quum alligatis ad paxillos in terram depactos funibus distenduntur atque hoc etiam pacto firmantur Itaque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immensum quoddam ut ita dicam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideóque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ineptè appelletur The sense of which in brief is nothing but this That the Seventy translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Firmamentum because the Heavens are spread out like a well-fastned and firmly pitched Ten. And I add also that they are so stiffely stretched that they will strongly bear against the weight of the upper waters so that they are not able to break them down and therewith to drown the world Which conceit as it is easie and agreeable with the fancy of the people so it is so far from doing them any hurt that it will make them more sensible of the divine Power and Providence who thus by main force keeps off a Sea of water that hangs over their heads which they discern through the transparent Firmament for it looks blew as other Seas do and would rush at once upon them and drown them did not the Power of God and the strength of the Firmament hold it off Vers 7. See what hath been already said upon the sixt verse I will only here add That the nearness of these upper waters makes them still the more formidable and so are greater spurs to devotion For as they are brought so near as to touch the Earth at the bottome so outward sense still being Judge they are to be within a small distance
of the Clouds at the top And that these upper waters are no higher then so it is manifest from other passages in Scripture that place the habitation of God but amongst the Clouds who yet is called the most High Psalm 104. 3. Deut. 33. 26. Nahum 1. 3. Psalm â—8 4. But of this I have treated so fully elsewhere that I hold it needless to add any thing more Ver. 8. I cannot say properly that God saw it was good In the whole story of the three first Chapters it is evident that God is represented in the person of a Man speaking with a mouth and seeing with eyes Hence it is that the Firmament being of it self invisible that Moses omits the saying that God saw it was good For the nature of the eye is onely to see things visible Some say God made Hell the second day and that that is the reason it was not recorded that he saw it was good But if he did not approve of it as good why did he make it However that can be none of the Literal sense and so impertinent to this present Cabbala Ver. 10. And I may now properly say c. See what hath been said already upon verse the eight Ver. 11. Whence you may easily discern c. This Observation is Philo the Jew 's which you may read at large in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it was very fit for Moses who in his Law which he received from God does so much insist upon temporal blessings and eating of the good things of the Land as a reward of their obedience to lay down such principles as should beget a firm belief of the absolute power of God over Nature That he could give them rain and fruitful seasons and a plentiful year when he pleased when as he could cause the Earth to bring forth without rain or any thing else to further her births as he did at the first Creation The Meditation whereof might well cause such an holy resolution as that in the Prophet Habakkuk Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive fail and the fields yeeld no meat yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation But that prudent and pious caution of Moses against Idolatry how requisite it was is plain if we consider that the power of the Sun is so manifest and his operation so sensible upon the Earth for the production of things below especially of Plants that he hath generally drawn aside the rude and simple Heathen to idolize him for a God And their nimble Oracles have snatched away the sacred Name of the God of Israel the true God to bestow upon him calling him Jao which is Jehovah as is plain from that Clarian Oracle in Macrobius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which I have translated thus in my Poems That Heavenly Power which Jao hight The highest of all the Gods thou maist declare In Spring nam'd Zeus in Summer Helios bright In Autumne called Jao Aides in brumal night These names do plainly denotate the Sunne In Spring call'd Zeus from life or kindly heat In Winter ' cause the day 's so quickly done He Aides hight he is not long in sight In Summer ' cause he strongly doth us smite With his hot darts then Helios we him name From Eloim or Eloah so hight In Autumn Jao Jehovan is the same So is the word deprav'd by an uncertain fame This Oracle Cornelius Labeo interprets of Bacchus which is the same with the Sun who is the God of the Vintage and is here described according to the four Quarters of the year And so Virgil Heathen-like attributes to the Sun and Moon under the name of Bacchus and Ceres that great blessing of Corn and Grain Vestro si numine Tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit aristâ If by your providence the Earth has born For course Chaonian Acorns full-ear'd Corn. But of this I have said so much in my Introduction that I need add nothing more Ver. 12. See ver 11. Ver. 14. See ver 3. I have there shown how easily the fancie of the rude people admit of days without a Sun To whose capacities the Prophet Jeremy accommodating his speech Her Sun sayes he is gone down while it was yet day How can it be day when the Sun is down unless the day be Independent of the Sun according to the fancie of the rude and illiterate Which is wonderfully consonant to the outward letter of Moses that speaks not of the Sun as the cause of the Day but as a badge of distinction from the Night though he does admit that it does increase the light thereof Ver. 15. In the hollow Roof c. Though the caeruleous upper Sea seems so neer us as I have already signified yet the Lights of Heaven seem something on this side it as white will stand off drawn upon a darker colour as you may see in the describing solid Figures on a blew slate they will more easily rise to your eye then black upon white so that the people may very well consulting with their sight Imagine the Firmament to be betwixt the Lights of Heaven and the upper Waters or that blew Sea they look upon not on this side nor properly betwixt the Lights or Stars Ver. 16. Two great Lights c. This is in counter-distinction to the Stars which indeed seem much less to our sight then the Sun or Moon when as notwithstanding many Stars according to Astronomers computation are bigger then the Sun all far bigger then the Moon So that it is plain the Scripture speaks sometimes according to the appearance of things to our sight not according to their absolute affections and properties And he that will not here yeeld this for a truth is I think justly to be suspected of more Ignorance then Religion and of more Superstition then Reason For their smalnesse c. The Stars indeed seem very small to our sight and therefore Moses seems to cast them in but by the by complying therein with the ignorance of the unlearned But Astronomers who have made it their business to understand their magnitudes they that make the most frugal computation concerning the bigger Stars pronounce them no less then sixty eight times bigger then the Earth others much more Ver. 18. To be peculiar garnishings See verse 14. Ver. 20. Fish and Fowl I suppose the mention of the Fowl is made here with the Fish by reason that the greatest and more eminent sorts of that kinde of creature most of all frequent the waters as Swannes Geese Ducks Herons and the like Ver. 20. In his own shape It was the opinion of the Anthropomorphites that God had all the parts of a Man and that we are in this sense made according to his Image Which though it be an opinion in it self if not rightly understood vain and ridiculous yet theirs
the same thing by both For besides that those actuall conspicuous Lights are in Heaven viz. the Sun and Stars Heaven or the Aetherial Matter has in it all over the Principles of Light which are the round Particles and that very fine and subtile Matter that lies in the intervals of the round Particles He that is but a little acquainted with the French Philosophy understands the business plainly And in the expounding of Moses I think I may lay down this for a safe Principle that there is no considerable truth in Nature or Divinity that Moses was ignorant of and so if it be found agreeable to his Text I may very well attribute it to him At least the Divine Wisdom wherewith Moses was inspired prevents all the inventions of Men. But now that I understand this Heaven and Earth in the first verse as things distinct from Heaven and Earth afterwards mentioned the very Text of Moses favours it emphatically calling this Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when as the Heaven and Earth in the second and third days Creation he calls but plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may adde also the authority of Philo who expounds not this Heaven and Earth of the visible and tangible Heaven and Earth which are mentioned in the second and third day but of an Heaven and Earth quite different from them As also the suffrage of S. Augustine who understands likewise by Heaven and Light one and the same thing to wit the Angels and by Earth the first Matter which is something like the sense of this present Cabbala only for his Physical Matter we set down a Metaphysical one that other belonging most properly to the second day and for Angels we have the World of Life which comprehends not Angels only but all substantial Forms and Spirits whatever And that Heaven or Light should be Symboles of the World of Life or Form it is no wonder For you may finde a sufficient reason in the Cabbala it self at the fift verse of this present Chapter and Plotinus assimilates Form to Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Form is Light And lastly in the second verse of this same Chapter there be plain reasons also laid down why the meer Possibility of the outward Creation is called the Earth according to the description of the Earth in the second verse of the first Chapter of Moses his Text unto which you may further adde that as the Earth is looked upon as the Basis of the world so the Possibility of the outward Creation is in some sense the Basis thereof The Tri-une Godhead The Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do handsomely intimate a plurality and singularity the Noun being in the Plural the Verb in the Singular Number Whence I conceive there may be very well here included the Mysterie of the Trinity and Vnity of the Godhead or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Vatablus himself though he shuffles with his Grammatical Notions here yet he does apertly acknowledge three Persons in one God at the twenty sixt verse of this Chapter And that this was the Philosophick Cabbala of Moses and the Learned and Pious of the Jews it is no small argument because the Notion of the Trinity is so much insisted upon by the Platonists and Pythagoreans whom all acknowledge and I think I shall make it more plain then ever to have got their Philosophy from Moses By his Eternal Wisdome Ambrose Basil and Origen interpret In Principio to be as much as In Filio and Colossians the first there the Apostle speaking of the Son of God he saith that he is the First-born of every creature and that by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth And that he is before all things and by him all things consist This is the Wisdome of God or the Idea according to which he framed all things And therefore must be before all things the Beginning of the creatures of God And very answerable to this of the Apostle are those two attributes Philo gives to the same subject calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First-born Word of God or the First-born Form of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning He calls him also simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Word Form Reason or Wisdome And one of the Chaldee Paraphrasts also interprets In Principio In Sapientia And this agrees exceedingly well with that of Solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord possessed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principium viae suae that is operum suorum as Vatablus expounds it and the Text makes it good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oriens operum suorum ab antiquo The Sun-rise of his works of old For there is no necessity of making of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adverbs they are Substantives And here Wisdome is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principle and Morning of the Works of God not by way of diminution but as supposing the East and the Morning to be the womb of light from whence springs all Light and Form and Form is Light as I told you before out of Plotinus And this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sutes well with that passage in Trismegist where Hermes speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the divine Intellect the bright Morning Star the Wisdome of God To which Wisdome called in the eight of the Proverbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning and Morning of his Works is ascribed the Creation of the world by Solomon as you may there see at large I will only adde that what the Hebrew Text here in Genesis calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Essential Wisdome of God not an habit or property but a substance that is Wisdome For true wisdome is substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the same that Plotinus speaks Whence he is called in the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is but a Periphrasis of Jehovah Essence or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains the future present and time past in it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zanchius observes This is the second Hypostasis in the holy Trinity the Logos which was in the beginning of the world with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made John 1. First created this I cannot impute it to any reason at all but to the slownesse of Fancie and heavy unweildinesse of Melancholy or the load of Bloud and Flesh that makes men imagine that Creation is incompetible
Animadversion of the Order and Oeconomy of the Universe And Philo who does much Pythagorize in his Exposition of Moses observes That this number Four contains the most perfect proportions in Musical Symphonies viz. Diatessaron Diapente Diapason and Disdiapason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the proportion of Diatessaron is as Four to Three of Diapente as Three to Two of Diapason as Two to One or Four to Two of Disdiapason as Four to One. We might cast in also the consideration of that divine Nemesis which God has placed in the frame and nature of the Universal Creation as he is a Distributer to every one according to his works From whence himself is also called Nemesis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he every where distributes what is due to every one This is in ordinary language Justice and both Philo and Plotinus out of the Pythagoreans affirms that the number Four is a Symbole of Justice All which makes towards what I drive at that the whole Creation is concerned in this number Four which is called the Fourth day And for further eviction we may yet adde that as all numbers are contained in Four virtually by all numbers is meant Ten for when we come to Ten we go back again so the root and foundation of all the Corporeal Creation is laid in this fourth days work wherein Suns Earths and Moons are made and the ever whirling Vortices For as Philo observes Pythagorean-like Ten which they call also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World Heaven and All-perfectnesse is made by the scattering of the parts of Four thus 1 2 3 4. Put these together now and they are Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Vniverse And this was such a secret amongst Pythagoras his disciples that it was a solemn oath with them to swear by him that delivered to them the mysterie of the Tetractys Tetrad or number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By him that did to us disclose The Tetrads mysterie Where Natures Fount that ever flowes And hidden root doth lie Thus they swore by Pythagoras as is conceived who taught them this mysterious tradition And had it not been a right worshipful mysterie think you indeed and worthy of the solemnity of Religion and of an Oath to understand that 1 2 3 4. make Ten. And that Ten is All which rude mankinde told first upon their fingers and Arithmeticians discover it by calling them Digits at this very day There is no likelihood that so wise a man as Pythagoras was should lay any stress upon such trifles or that his Scholars should be such fools as to be taken with them But it is well known that the Pythagoreans held the Motion of the Earth about the Sun which is plainly implied according to the Philosophick Cabbala of this Fourth days work So much of his secrets got out to common knowledge and fame But it is very highly probable that he had the whole Philosophick Cabbala of the Creation opened to him by some knowing Priest or Philosopher as we now call them in the Oriental parts that under this mysterie of numbers set out to him the choicest and most precious conclusions in Natural Philosophy interpreting as I conceive the Text of Moses in some such way as I have light upon and making all those generous and ample conclusions good by Demonstration and Reason And so Pythagoras being well furnished with the knowledge of things was willing to impart them to those whose piety and capacity was fit to receive them Not laying aside that outward form of numbers which they were first conveied to himself in But such Arithmetical nugacities as are ordinarily recorded for his in dry numbers to have been the riches of the Wisdome of so famous a Philosopher is a thing beyond all credit or probability Wherefore I conceive that the choicest and most precious treasures of knowledge being laid open in the Cabbala of the Fourth day from thence it was that so much Solemnity and Religion was put upon that number which he called his Tetractys which seems to have been of two kindes the one the single number Four the other Thirty six made of the four first Masculine numbers and the four first Feminine viz. of 1 3 5 7. and of 2 4 6 8. wherein you see that the former and more simple Tetractys is still included and made use of for Four here takes place again in the Assignment of the Masculine and Feminine Numbers Whence I further conceive that under the number of this more complex Tetrad which contains also the other in it he taught his disciples the mysterie of the whole Creation opening to them the nature of all things as well Spiritual as Corporeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a certain Author writes For an even Number carries along with it divisibility and passibility But an odde Number indivisibility impassibility and activity wherefore that is called Feminine this Masculine Wherefore the putting together of the four first Masculine Numbers to the four first Feminine is the joining of the active and passive Principles together matching the parts of the Matter with congruous Forms from the World of life So that I conceive the Tetractys was a a Symbole of the whole Systeme of Pythagoras his Philosophy which we may very justly suspect to be the same with the Mosaical Cabbala And the root of this Tetractys is Six which again hits upon Moses and remindes us of the Six days work of the Creation Ver. 20. Fish and Fowl are made in the same day And here Moses does plainly play the Philosopher in joining them together for there is more affinity betwixt them then is easily discerned by the heedlesse vulgar for besides that Fowls frequent the waters very much many kindes of them I mean these Elements themselves of Air and Water for their thinnesse and liquidity are very like one another Besides the sinnes of fishes and the wings of birds the feathers of one and the scales of the other are very Analogical They are both also destitute of Vreters Dugges and Milk and are Oviparous Further their motions are mainly alike the fishes as it were flying in the water and the fowls swimming in the Air according to that of the Poet concerning Daedalus when he had made himself wings Insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos Cast in this also that as some fowls dive and swim under water so some fishes fly above the water in the air for a considerable space till their finnes begin to be something stiffe and dry Ver. 23. And the Quinary denotes Philo does not here omit that obvious consideration of the Five senses in Animals But it is a strange coincidence if it was not intended that living creatures should be said to be made in the Fift and Sixt day those Numbers according to the Pythagorical mysterie being so fitly significant of the nature of them For Five is
therefore his condition is then very fitly set out by the number Seven All numbers within the Decad are cast into three ranks as Philo observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some beget but are not begotten others are begotten but do not beget the last both beget and are begotten The number Seven is only excepted that is neither begotten nor begets any number which is a perfect Embleme of God celebrating this Sabbath For he now creates nothing of anew as himself is uncreatable So that the creating and infusing of souls as occasion should offer is quite contrary to this Mosaical Cabbala But the Cabbala is very consonant to it self which declares that all souls were created at once in the first day and will in these following Chapters declare also the manner of their falling into the body Ver. 4. Productions of the Heavens The Original hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Suns and Planets are plainly said to be generated by the Heavens or Aethereal Matter which is again wonderfully consonant to the Cartesian Philosophy but after what manner Planets and Stars are thus generated you may see there at large It cannot but be acknowledged that there was a faddome-lesse depth of Wisdome in Moses whose skill in Philosophy thus plainly prevents the subtilest and most capacious reaches of all the wits of the world that ever wrote after him Take upon me to define That no set time is understood by the six days Creation hath been witnessed already out of approved Authors and the present Cabbala plainly confirms it shewing that the mysterie of numbers is meant not the order or succession of days Ver. 6. Like dewy showers of Rain Vatablus plainly interprets the place of Rain But I conceive it better interpreted of something Analogical to the common Rain that now descends upon the Earth which is lesse oily a great deal and not so full of vitall vigour and principles of life Ver. 7. And Man himself rose out of the Earth That God should shape earth with his own hands like a Statuary into the figure of a Man and then blow breath into the nostrils of it and so make it become alive is not likely to be the Philosophick Cabbala it being more palpably accommodated to vulgar concern But mention of Rain immediately before the making of Man may very well insinuate such preparations of the ground to have some causal concourse for his production And if it be at all credible that other living creatures rose out of the Earth in this manner it is as likely that man did so likewise for the same words are used concerning them both for the Text of Moses ver 19. sayes That out of the ground God formed every Beast of the Field and every Fowl of the Air as it sayes in the seventh verse that he formed Man of the dust of the ground Whence Euripides the Tragedian one that Socrates lov'd and respected much for his great knowledge and virtue and would of his own accord be a spectator of his Tragedies when as they could scarce force him to see other Playes as Aelian writes this Euripides I say pronouncing of the first generation of men and the rest of living creatures affirmed that they were born all after the same manner and that they rose out of the Earth And that Euripides was tinctured with the same doctrines that were in Pythagoras and Plato's School both the friendship betwixt him and Socrates as also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral and Philosophick sentences in his Tragedies are no inconsiderable arguments And as I have already intimated the best Philosophick Cabbala of Moses that is I suspect to be in their Philosophy I mean of Plato and Pythagoras Ver. 8. Where he had put the Man For there is no Praeterpluperfect Tense in the Hebrew and therefore as Vatablus observes if the sense require the Praeterperfect Tense stands for it Wholly Aethereal For that 's the pure Heavenly and undefiled Vehicle of the soul according to Platonisme Beams of the divine Intellect I have already more at large shewed how the Son of God or the divine Intellect is set out by the similitude of the Sun-rising or East which I may again here further confirm out of Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the placing of Paradise under the Sun-rise signifies the condition of a Soul irrigated by the rayes of the divine Intellect which she is most capable of in her Aethereal Vehicle But that the souls of men were from the beginning of the world is the general opinion of the Learned Jewes as well as of the Pythagoreans and Platonists and therefore a very warrantable Hypothesis in the Philosophick Cabbala Ver. 9. The Essential Will of God By the Essential Will of God is understood the Will of God becoming Life and Essence to the Soul of Man whereby is signified a more thorough union betwixt the divine and humane nature such as is in them that are firmly regenerated and radicated in what is good Philo makes the Tree of Life to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Piety or Religion but the best Religion and Piety is to be of one will with God see John 1. 12. Ver. 10. The Four Cardinal Virtues It is Philo's Exposition upon the place and then the River it self to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That general goodnesse distinguishable into these four heads of virtue Ver. 11. Is Pison From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to spread and diffuse it self to multiply and abound This is Wisdome or Prudence called Pison partly because it diffuses it self into all our actions and regulates the exercise of the other Three virtues and partly because Wisdome and Truth fills and encreases and spreads out every day more then other For Truth is very fruitful and there are ever new occasions that adde experience of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to our English Proverb The older the wiser In the Land of Havilah From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus indicavit God hath shown it Ver. 12. Pure Gold c. An easie Embleme of tried Experience the mother of true Wisdome and Prudence And the virtue of Bdellium is not unproper for diseases that arise from Phlegmatick lazinesse and the very name and nature of the Onyx stone also points out the signification of it though there be no necessity as I have told you already out of Maimonides to give an account in this manner of every particular passage in an Allegory or Parable Wherefore if any man think me too curious they may omit these expositions and let them go for nought Ver. 13. River is Gihon According to the History or Letter we have made Pison Phasis and Gihon a branch of Euphrates But the ancient Fathers Epiphanius Augustine Ambrose Hieronymus Theodoret Damascen and several others make Pison Ganges and Gihon Nilus And they have
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
that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of Melancholy that thus abuses him and in stead of the true divine Principle would take the Government to it self and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the Animal Figurations But the true divine Life would destroy nothing that is in Nature but only regulate things and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity entituling Sanguine and Choler to as much Virtue and Religion as either Phlegme or Melancholy For the divine Life as it is to take into it self the humane nature in general so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof But the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true Piety and Virtue but which of the Complexions or what Humour shall ascend the Throne and fit there in stead of Christ himself But I will not expatiate too much upon one Theme I shall rather take a short view of the whole Allegory of the Chapter In the first Day there is Earth Water and Wind over whâ—ch and through which there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse and tumultuous agitation The Winds ruffling up the Waters into mighty waves the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the water all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation This is the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Earthly Adam as Philo calls him till God command the Light to shine out of Darknesse offering him a guide to a better condition In the second day is the Firmament created dividing the upper and the lower Waters that it may feel the strong impulses or taste the different relishes of either Thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath and this is the day wherein is set before him Life and Death Good and Evil and he may put out his hand and take his choice In the third day is the Earth uncovered of the Waters for the planting of fruit-bearing trees By their fruits you shall know them saith our Saviour that is by their works In the fourth day there appears a more full accession of divine Light and the Sun of Righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of God and man In the fift day that this Light of Righteousnesse and bright Eye of divine Reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field where there is nothing either to subdue or guide and order God sends out whole sholes of Fishes in the Waters and numerous flights of Fowls in the Air besides part of the sixt days work wherein all kinde of Beasts are created In these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde sprung from these lower Elements of the humane nature viz. Earth and Water Flesh and Blood all these man beholds in the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse discovers what they are knows what to call them can rule over them and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them This is Adam the Master-piece of Gods Creation and Lord of all the creatures framed after the Image of God Christ according to the Spirit under whose feet is subdued the whole Animal Life with its sundry Motions Forms and Shapes He will call every thing by its proper name and set every creature in its proper place The vile person shall be no longer called liberal nor the churl bountiful Wo be unto them that call evil good and good evil that call the light darknesse and the darknesse light He will not call bitter Passion holy Zeal nor plausible meretricious Courtesie Friendship nor a false soft abhorrency from punishing the ill-deserving Pity nor Cruelty Justice nor Revenge Magnanimity nor Unfaithfulnesse Policy nor Verbosity either Wisdome or Piety But I have run my self into the second Chapter before I am aware In this first Adam is said only to have dominion over all the living creatures and to feed upon the fruit of the Plants And what is Pride but a mighty Mountainous Whale Lust a Goat the Lion and Bear wilful dominion Craft a Fox and worldly toil an Oxe Over these and a thousand more is the rule of Man I mean of Adam the Image of God But his meat and drink is to do the will of his Maker this is the fruit he feeds upon Behold therefore O Man what thou art and whereunto thou art called even to bee a mighty Prince amongst the creatures of God and to bear rule in that Province he has assigned thee to discern the Motions of thine own heart and to be Lord over the suggestions of thine own natural spirit not to listen to the counsel of the flesh nor conspire with the Serpent against thy Creator But to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy God so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the Motions of Life and bear rule with God over the whole Creation committed to thee This shall be thy Paradise and harmlesse sport on Earth till God shall transplant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in Heaven CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature TO the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitulation of what went before in the first Chapter and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of S Paul and Origen and other Writers Only there is mention of a Sabbath in the second verse of this Chapter of which there was no words before And this is that Sabbatisme or Rest that the Author to the Hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into through faith and obedience For those that were faint-hearted and unbelieving and pretended that the children of Anak the off-spring of the Giants would be too hard for them they could not enter into the promised Land wherein they were to set up their rest under the conduct of Jâ—shua a Type of Jesus And the same Author in the same place makes mention of this very Sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the Creation concluding thus There remaineth therefore a Sabbatisme or Rest to the people of God For he that has entred
that in processe of time not onely Ecclesiastical but Civil power it self will be involved in those ruines and Christ alone will be exalted in that day For before he deliver up the Kingdome to his Father he is to put down all Rule and all Authority and Power For he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his feet The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which as I have already signified unto you though he be now the King of Terrours will in that great Festival and Sabbatisme by reason of so sensible and palpable union betwixt the Heavenly and Earthly nature be but a pleasant passage into an higher room or to use that more mysterious expression of the Rabbins concerning Moses in whose writings this Sabbatisme is adumbrated God will draw up a mans soul to himself by an Amorous kisse For such was the death of that holy man Moses who is said to have died in Moab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the kisses and embracements of God This shall be the condition of the Church of Christ for many hundred years Till the Wheel of Providence driving on further and the Stage of things drawing on to their last Period men shall not onely be freed from the fear and pain of death but there shall be no capacity of dying at all For then shall the day of the Lord come wherein the Heavens shall passe away with a noise and the Elements melt with fervent heat and the Earth with all the things in it shall be burnt up Thus Christ having done vengeance upon the obstinately wicked and disobedient and fully triumphed over all his enemies he will give up his Kingdome to his Father whose Vicegerent hitherto he hath been in the affairs of both Men and Angels But till then whosoever by pretending to be more Spiritual and Mystical then other men would smother those essential Principles of the Christian Religion that have reference to the external Person of Christ let him phrase it as well as he will or speak as magnificently of himself as he can we are never to let go the plain and warrantable Faith of the Word for ungrounded fancies and fine sayings Wherefore let every man seek God apart and search out the Truth in the holy Scripture preparing himself for a right understanding thereof by stedfastly and sincerely practising such things as are plainly and uncontrovertedly contained therein and expect illumination according to the best communication thereof that is answerably to our own faculties otherwise if we bid all Reason and History and Humane helps and Acquisitions quite adiew the world will never be rid of Religious Lunacies and Fancies FINIS AN ACCOUNT of what is contained in the Prefaces and Chapters of this Book In the Preface to the Reader What is meant by the tearm Cabbala and how warrantably the literal Exposition of the Text may be so called That dispensable speculations are best propounded in a Sceptical manner A clear description of the nature and digniety of Reason and what the divine Logos is The general probabilities of the truth of this present Cabbala The designe of the Author in publishing of it THE LITERAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 2 The Earth at first a deep miry abysse covered over with waters over which was a fierce wind and through all darknesse 3 Day made at first without a Sun 6 The Earth a floor the Heavens a transparent Canopy or strong Tent over it to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous Sea from drowning the world 8 Why this Tent or Canopy was not said to be good 9 The lower waters commanded into one place 11 Herbs flowers and fruits of Trees before either Sun or seasons of the year to ripen them 14 The Sun created to and added the day as a peculiar ornament thereof as the Moon and Stars to the night 20 The Creation of Fish and Fowl 24 The Creation of beasts and creeping things 27 Man created in the very shape and figure of God but yet so that there were made females as well as males 28 How man came to be Lord over the rest of living creatures 30 How it came to pass that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the Earth and the beasts on the worse p. 1 CHAP. II. 3 The Original of the Jewish Sabbaths from Gods resting himself from his six days labours 5 Herbs and Plants before either Rain Gardning or Husbandry and the reason why it was so 7 Adam made of the dust of the ground and his soul breathed in at his nosthrils 8 The Planting of Paradise 9 A wonderful Tree there that would continue youth and make a man immortal upon earth Another strange Tree viz. the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 11 The Rivers of Paradise Phasis Gihon Tigris Euphrates 18 The high commendation of Matrimony 19 Adam gives names to all kinde of creatures except fishes 21 Woman is made of a rib of Adam a deep sleep falling upon him his minde then also being in a trance 24 The first Institution of Marriage 9 CHAP. III. 1 A subtile Serpent in Paradise indued with both reason and the power of speech deceives the woman 2 The Dialogue betwixt the woman and the Serpent 7 How the shame of nakednesse came into the world 8 God walks in the Garden and calls to Adam 10 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and God 14 The reasons why Serpents want feet and creep upon the ground 15 The reason of the antipathy betwixt Men and Serpents 16 As also of womens pangs in childe-bearing and of their being bound in subjection to their husbands 18 Also of the barrennesse of the earth and of mans toil and drudgery 21 God teacheth Adam and Eve the use of leathern clothing 24 Paradise haunted with apparitions Adam frighted from daring to taste of the Tree of Life whence his posterity became mortal to this very day 15 THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 The world of Life or Forms and the Potentiality of the visible Vniverse created by the Tri-une God and referr'd to a Monad or Unite 6 The Vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing and referr'd to the number Two 7 Why it was not said of this matter that it was good 9 The ordering of an Earth or Planet for making it conveniently habitable referr'd to the number Three 14 The immense Aethereal Matter or Heaven contriv'd into Suns or Planets as well Primary as Secondary viz. as well Earths as Moons and referr'd to the number Four 20 The replenishing of an Earth with Fish and Fowl referr'd to the number Five 24 The Creation of Beasts and Cattel but more chiefly of Man himself referr'd to the number Six 22 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