a closer texture and Consistence than before and some of them were hardned and coagulated into Earth Stones c. by the strong astringency of his sharp austere Fire as you see that of Water which is an Air or rather a thin Vapor condensed is made an Ice and an Oil the Ice for want of a heat able to melt or thaw it is hardned into Chrystal the Oil by due concoction becomes a Salt and an Earth and this Earth by a strong heat is hardned into a Brick and that thus out of the Clouds by the Fire that breaks out of them and compacts the thin and most earthy parts of them into a hard Lump or Stone Thunderbolts are produced By which means Lucifer's Sphere which is this visible World for he is still Prince of it John 12.31 and with it all the Concretes became palpable or tangible Thus this world was created a third Principle produced thus the Principle of Fire came to be creaturely and thus Evil begun and subsists now in the world And ex invisibili this world was thus made visible that is after the Light was made to shine in it again For until it pleased God to reveal his Light therein Gal. 1.16 there was nothing but a sharp dark grim austere Face over and through the whole Deep or Sphere Vmbra horrenda mortis and an inflamed Devil burning very terribly and furiously storming and casting his firy darts or flames into all its parts and as far as God himself But then God whose Nature Will Power and Act is but one and the same thing at all times resisting by his Nature which is the Summum Bonum the opposite Will Nature and Power of Lucifer made the Light which is the end of Nature to overcome to thaw this stiff frozen World and to spring a second time even through this Death and Hell into a new Paradise and glorify'd it again by casting out the Prince of this world John 12. 28 31. into his darkness or dark Fire for ever 2 Pet. 2 4. because he was the Author of such Fire in Nature and had changed the Pulchrum and the Bonum of the Light the good and the delightsom into darkness and evil and by destroying the Light had killed God in himself For God is the Light that is the good and the bliss of Life who by living in Angels and Men makes them live happy and therefore when they kill him as do all those that put out their Light that is fall again when they have been enlightned Hebr. 6.6 he never more lives in them and they live no more but die laying in a continual horror darkness and anguish Thus as Lucifer had been by re-kindling his Fire the Originator or the occasional cause of this 3d Principle the World so God by opening again the Principle of Light therein created and perfected the same into a Principle which was mixt as it is now that is did partake of both Principles of good and evil whereof the Tree of Knowledge in the midst of the Garden was a Sacrament or Sign what no other Tree that grew in the same Garden could be because they sprung like Adam from the Principle of the Light which made the Garden to be Eden or a Paradise It would not be amiss to shew here 1 that Adam was created in that Principle and made a second Angel in the stead of Lucifer 2 That he fell from it by lusting and attracting filling darkning enflaming of himself like Lucifer till his own Light grew so weak and saint that he fell asleep 3 That it was this mixt World which he thus lusted after imagining into and looking back into that out of which he was taken Gen. 2.7 like Lot's Wife into Sodom instead of looking Eastward or forwards towards the light all the time he was tempted upon which he fell asleep 4 That upon the biting and swallowing of the Apple he was seized upon invaded and infected by the Four Elements which stampt per contactum their mark and badge upon him as doth the longing Mother upon the Fruit in her womb cloathing him over with this rough hairy beastly or elementary Body what they could not have done else having no power at all over him before eating whereby he became of Isoh the Divine Man in the Light Adam the dark cloudy Man from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mist or a Cloud not from Adamah the Earth as our Wisemen make it for Adamah itself is derived from Adam as being his Adamah or the thing Adam dwelt on And which elementary Body is cut off from him never to return or rise again as the Divines teach because the Elements themselves from whence it proceeds shall pass away for ever 2 Pet. 3.10 and as it is what kills him Rom. 7.24 and makes him a fallen Man a Man of Sorrows and Grief wretched dark and cloudy he must be delivered from it and from its bondage into the glorious Liberty of God's Children to be happy or saved 1 Cor. 6.13 5 That in the cool of the day that it after the fierceness of his burning was over Gen. 3.8 when he was come to the state or the new birth of water he heard God speak and promise to him and to his Children to the end God's Will might stand and prevail against the Gates of Hell and the Devil's Will the Light Christ the third Angel. Who should bring again to him Lise and Immortality 2 Tim. 1.10 and restore this corrupted hard bound World to its former liberty the clear brightness it enjoyed before the Fall or kindling of Lucifer What he might have some hopes of whereas Lucifer hath none because thô he had killed God in him like Lucifer that is put out his own Light yet he was not the Author of the Evil in Nature had not infected the world and brought corruption in it but on the contrary the world had insected him when he tasted of the Apple and received into him the Sacrament of the Tree or Fruit of Good and Evil as being a mixture of both these and out of which his Body was extracted Gen. 2.7 whereby he had that in him which drew him and made him apt to lust and long after it But these things are too prolix and therefore to make at once an end of this Digression and reassume the Discourse of our Application I say thus But if what I did speak of be true how many are mistaken who doubtless think otherwise And is it not the Duty of them that are in power both to believe it themselves and to use the means proper to make others believe it and to prepare themselves and become capable and fit for the Birth of the Spirit To which end Is not reading the Bible to be promoted and therefore learning to read to be by Law enjoined And so should not an Act be made to oblige all People both Men Women and Children in the Land to learn to read and to read the Bible
do That he was created that he might know the Wonders of the great Wisdom of God which he cannot do without being fill'd with all Wisdom thereby to be ravished with Joy and Admiration like the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10.5 at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them there being nothing so sweet as the New Discoveries and the taste of true knowledge and thus become partakers of God's own Summum Bonum Divisum Imperium cum Jove Caesar habet All those that Christ hath made Kings and Priests to God his Father Revel 1.6 both partake of God's Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and share the Kingdom with God Revel 2.26 27. with 3.21 And Secondly Wisdom is the Nonplus ultra or rest or perfect state of Mankind for in that state of Wisdom God himself who cannot err pronounced him very Good Gen. 1.31 in Latine Summe Bonus which word as it excludes all defect and imperfection it implies his perfect State and that he had attained by thus being very good to his greatest Perfection or highest degree of Bliss he could ever pretend to And that Wisdom was the state in which he was pronounced and declared very Good I prove thus The state in which God declares him very Good is the very same state as God created him in but he was created after the Image of God v. 27. Which Image consists saith Paul in Knowledge Colos 3. 10. and Righteousness Ephes 4.24 both which make up together one thing which is true Wisdom Wisdom being not a bare Theory as shall be shewed Therefore he was created in Wisdom and so Wisdom is the state in which he was said very Good or Perfect or his state of Perfection But this was said of Adam and what is it to the rest of Mankind Some will argue It is full as much to them as to him I answer Because the purpose of God is still that Man should be such for God being for ever both all Wise and Almighty his Purpose stands saith St. Paul though Man did not stand himself and his Gifts and his Calling being without Repentance Rom. 11.29 his Will is that his Good Gift whereof see Matth. 7.4 Luke 11.13 or Donative which he made to Man should continue still that Mankind by being Wise or as Gods Gen. 3.5 should be saved 1 Tim. 2.4 or made again very good and perfect as Adam was and even as his Father which is in Heaven saith Christ Matth. 5.48 Therefore in the Ephesians 4.13 and in the Hebrews 11.40 St. Paul taking this thing for granted saith That the Saints he speaks of v. 12. who are to be perfected or saved will all of them come unto a Perfect Man and even to the measure of the full stature of Christ who is yet far more perfect than the first Man ever was Whence he became the Author of Eternal Salvation or Perfection in others Heb. 5.9 Having been substituted in the place of the first Man that he might mend and redress all that he had done amiss and restore all things again to that state of Perfection which both he the first Adam and the World with him fell from Rom. 8.20 21. and so be himself Adam that is the right man who is the true Father of Mankind begetting Mankind a new by his Spirit of Wisdom 1 Cor. 15.45 Therefore it is that he is called the second Adam and that St Paul saith that all the Saints shall bear his Image v. 49. and not that of the first man. Christ adds to this in Matthew 5.48 saying be therefore perfect even as your heavenly Father himself is perfect Hence seeing the Perfection or the full Stature of Christ is the same and greater to as the first man Adam was at first created in and consisteth in Wisdom and seeing that we must come to it in being saved it follows that we must come to Wisdom to be saved and that Wisdom is the rest or Perfection of Mankind beyond which he cannot go or be further exalted And by a consequence drawn a contrario from this it follows that Ignorance is the summum málum Hell oâ— the most imperfect sad and dismal State of Mankind Mâ—… people are destroyed for lack of Knowledge say the Prophets Isa 5.13 Hos 4.6 Of which Ignorance of his because puts him in mind of the Despicableness Nakedness and Misery his fall hath reduced him to Rev. 3.17 he cannot abide to hear without some shame and horror and therefore no Man can bear to be called ignorant or a Fool without Anger But of this Summum Malum we are cured or healed by Vnderstanding saith Christ Matth. 13.15 for he brings along with him such healing in his Wings Mal 4.2 as a good Vnderstanding 1 John 5.20 to cure us of our gross brutish Ignorance of God. Salvation being nothing but a Cure and a rising from the deadly Lethargy which Man is fallen into Gen. 2 21-5.3 1 Cor. 15.49 Rom. 3.23 Job 11.12 To the light of Life that is eternal Life proceeding from the Sun of Righteousness which Light is the Life of Man John 1.4 And by that Light or Knowledge which he brings we are saved or made Just Isai 53 11-11.9 That is to say Righteous and Good or Perfect Salvation or Perfection being Righteousness it self Rom. 14.17 And by Knowledge Grace and Peace or the Righteousness and Peace which the Kingdom of Heaven and Salvation consists in are multiplied within us 2 Pet. 1.2 Luke 17.11 Whence we have some Promises of being fed with Knowledge Jer. 3.15 And that Christ should be a Light who by giving that Knowledge which Luke 1.77 calls on this account The Knowledge Salvation or by opening the blind Eyes and bringing out of Prison them that sit there in darkness and in the shadow of of Death would save the Jews and Gentiles Isa 49 6-42.6 Acts 26.18 Luke 1.79 Wherefore St. Paul calls the Light the Inheritance of Saints Coloss 1.12 being what God promised Abraham's Seed should inherit Acts 1.4 5. Luke 24.49 And St. John 1.4 saith that their Life is the Light they have in them For which Reason the Scriptures call them the Children of Light and Eternal Death or Hell they entitle outward Darkness as being opposed to the Light of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man Luke 17.21 Though Hell be something besides Darkness to wit the gnashing of Teeth by reason of the gnawing and corroding of the Worm or of a sharp austere grim and dark Fire for ever O house of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the Light or True Knowledge of the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah 2.5.42.6 Note by the by All the Sects which have no more Knowledge of God than the Papists have are as like the Church of Christ as the Kingdom of Darkness is like the Kingdom of God. Wo be to thee Chorazin Wo be to thee Bethsaida For if the Papists could hear and were permitted to read what you may both read and hear to wit what
Salvation and Religion consist in they would give over mumbling of their Beads and casting off their Fryers Hoods Surplices c. embrace and follow the means of Wisdom and Salvation at another rate than you do Now this Light or this Knowledge which Salvation consists in is not a Knowledge in part nor that great heap of Notions fine Fancies Precepts and Rules which many Ingenious Men gather from other Mens Books or bring forth of their own Heads but it is Wisdom it self or the knowledge of all Truth Wisdom being properly an Universal Knowledge or a Light that shews all things Guides a man into all truth John 16.13 and makes all things manifest It is not a bare Nosce te ipsum or the Knowledge of thy self nay of the World that constitutes the Wisdom which makes our Salvation but the true Knowledge of God and of Jesus whom he sends Acts 3.19 20. Because God being in all and through all and beyond all the Heavens Circumference Eph. 4.6 1 Kings 8.27 and all having its being in and out of God himself Acts 17.28 Nature being as it were a Nascitura Dei or God bringing forth a part of himself out of himself God comprehends all Beings Exod. 3.15 And so his Knowledge also includes all other Knowledge not only that of himself and of all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but much more that of the World since it is but as it were an Epitome of God which besides is felt and seen John. 3.12 Christ adds John 17.3 unto the Knowledge of God that of Jesus Christ as being sent to refresh or comfort and perfect Men Acts 3.19 20. John 14.18 Because Christ being the Light both of God and of the World which like the Sun in the World both enlighteneth and strengtheneth and brings Life to Perfection so tempering allaying and mitigating the force and fierceness of the Fire which is the Father of Life giving Life its beginning or a principle of Motion that it turns the Wrathful Ardor of God the Father for the Father by himself without the Light of the Son is a consuming Fire from whence he calls himself so and an Angry Jealous God viz. in the Creatures only and by no means in himself for God is Quatenus God that is Three Persons in One nothing but Light Love Meekness Joy and the Summum Bonum into a pleasant Being or Refrigeratory thus bringing to Perfection the anxious Firy Soul or the Life of the Soul which the Father had begun it behoves us to know him for such Savior that is for him that enlighteneth comforteth and perfecteth and brings to a pleasant rest the anxious Firy Souls by introducing his Light into their Fire which is the Life and Father thereof Now this Knowledge of the Truth which saves Man 1 Tim. 2.4 saves him saith Christ John 8.32 34. Revel 2.26 by freeing him from his Lusts and the Slavery of Sin. But to be freed he must sight against them and overcome that by his overcoming he might Reign Victorious Revel 3.21 that is an absolute King who hath all at his command that his Kingdom can afford in God who is the fulness of all things in all places soever where such Man is or finds himself when he dies Psal 73.25 so that he hath where he is without changing his old place to come into a new one all Pleasures for evermore It being nonsence to think that the Kingdom of God is in a particular place For this World shall pass away and when this Body dies the World disappeareth or dies also to the Souls understand the Blessed Souls leaving nothing about them but God the infinite Space who therefore as infinite admit neither quantity nor time nor ubiquity I say that Man must fight and overcome to be freed For as I said Wisdom or the Knowledge that makes Free is not a meer passive Theory or bare Notion but altogether active For as one hath defin'd it Wisdom is Lumen mentis if not rather Mens ipsa which Christ restores to the Soul 1 John 520. Clarè praelucens tribus ill is facultatibus quae simul constituunt humanam creaturam Which Three are Intellect us Voluntas Animus That is A Light shining first to the Intellect to see or perceive and understand in seeing and in hearing Matth. 13.14 every thing perfectly next to the Will directing and inducing him to chuse or determinate it self to desire and appete only what the Intellect shews him to be very good And lastly to the Courage that is to the power force and vertue of the Soul strengthening or enabling it to reduce into Practice and to follow and perform those things the Understanding hath shewed to be very good and which the Will desires appetes and chuseth for such As all things are matured or ripened and perfected by the strength of the Light of the Sun acting in them So Wisdom is compleated and the Soul is perfected by the power and the strength of its Light to act and do what it knows fit to be done A Man's Wisdom is known in the World by his Actions Whence saith St. James I will shew thee my Faith by my Works That is I will shew thee by them my Knowledge of God because Intelligere being ipsum credere as Trisinegistus affirms Faith is an Understanding or an Evidence saith Paul Heb 11.1 of things not seen with the Eye which therefore are evident or as manifest to us as if we saw and felt them So that being convinced of their Truth we believe them and live according to that Conviction doing all that is fit to make us capable of the enjoyment of them Like the Man in the Gospel who understanding full well that there was a great Treasure hidden in a Neighbours Field sold all things parted with all that he had to purchase it Therefore the Just saith St. Paul lives by Faith like Abraham who would not take any thing because he knew that it is God's Blessing makes a Man Rich Gen. 14. 23. and relied on him for it And like Enoch who walked as having God in his sight Chap. 5.24 and the Prophet Elijah who said As the Lord liveth whom I have still present or before whom I stand 1 Kings 17. 1-18 15 and endeavour to please to like a Courtier before him whom he looks for Favour and expects his Fortune from The Faith that saves Man is not an historical Belief of Christ being the Saviour of the World and of his Death Passion and Resurrection but a doing and acting the things that he bids us do viz. to deny our selves and die with him our selves to all the Lusts of the Flesh For he believes not in One who acts point blank contrary to what he saith and prescribes and takes quite another way than that he sheweth and teacheth Not the bare Notion of God but Righteousness and Power makes the Salvation of Man or constitute God's Kingdom Rom. 4.17 1 Cor. 4.20 And Righteousness and
34-29 1 of which you have a very fresh Instance in the late King. To return to the manner of the second Coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost observe that as the lightning comes at first out of the East and then shines even unto the West that is enlightneth the Hemisphere all over so his Coming which is not with any observation Luke 17.20 appears first like the Day-spring chap. 1.78 or the dawning of the day or is like the morning Star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 for there all our thoughts or first glimpses of Light rise then encreasing more and more to the perfect light or day Prov. 4.18 it comes to be like the Sun at Noon and at the Solstice in reference to both which distinct states Christ is called the Morning Star by St. John Rev. 22.16 20. and the Sun of Righteousness by the Prophet Malachy 4.2 because he both dissipates the Morning Clouds by his light and strengthneth by the power of it a Believer so that he brings him to ripeness or to his full perfection the flash at his appearance shining nothing near so bright and comfortable as the Sun and as itself would do if it lasted for ever or endured a great while without vanishing again For after the same manner Christ the Word or the Wisdom and Light and Power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 within us in our hearts Rom. 10 8. springing out of the centre out of a man 's own darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 first appears to the sad mind like glimmering sparks of light which are a great refreshing to the Soul light or knowledge bringing still along with it great joy as I have said Then encreasing and sending its sweet beams by little and little towards the Circumserence till it shines through the whole Sphere it enligthneth all over and at the same time comforts and strengthneth sick sainting Man in such sort that he may rise from the shadow of death wherein he lay as benumm'd and walk and run and not faint and mount up with wings as Eagles Isa 40.31 Joel 2.7 and going from strength to strength Psal 84.7 both take God's Kingdom by force and rise to the very top or crown or zenith thereof which is God's holy mountain or the highest state of bliss and of glory and of light which Mankind is capable of Dan 12.3 Mat. 13 43 -19.28 Rev. 3.21 continuing all the while springing shining enlightning and refreshing the firy dark Soul to eternal life with the water of that Well that is Wisdom and Knowledge flowing out of a Man's self whereof Christ spake in St. John 4 14-7.38 As an ever flowing spring of living water streaming through a hot and desart place would revive the weary Traveller dying for Thirst so this new Spring of Wisdom revives the dry sainting Soul of Samson and Ishmael that is of Christ's stout Champions Gen. 21.20 the Church Militant on Earth as soon as they begin to thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5.6 as it was typified by the water gushing out of the Asses dry Jaw-bone which Samson after a great Victory being ready to die met with in his thirst Judg. 15.18 19. and by the Wells of water which Israel found at last in the dry and desart Land Exod. 15.27 But before he I mean the said sick Man comes to this he must dye the second death according to God's threatning Gen. 2.17 which because God's Word is true shall not pass away from him before it be fulfilled Mat. 24.35 and this is not so easie a matter for him to do as our learned Divines who pass it over sicco pede teach in their Sermons For to speak of this dying which is the other thing needful for the obtaining the said birth of the Spirit it is really a dying and dying you will grant is a hard thing to Mankind Neither is it only such dying as is that of this body of the flesh which Men easily go through But such as is proper and peculiar to the Soul which is so intolerable that none but the Son of Man or at least the Soul of Man enabled by the virtue and strength of the Son of Man can sustain or bear with it Prov. 18.14 For no man he saith himself John. 3.13 doth ascend up to Heaven but he that comes down from thence to give us power and strength and thus by enabling us to die lifts us up thither and there go along with it the terrors of Hell it self Which thing because it seems new and very strange to the world is what I do here take upon me to demonstrate And first to shew what it is This dying is the same death as that Adam died of after he had transgressed which must be some other thing than the death of his Body for he was surely to die the day that he transgressed Gen. 2.17 whereas his Body did live 900 years after And that was a rising or an exasperation of the Fire of his Soul after he tasted the Apple for he had lost long before viz. before he fell asleep the Light of Life which his Soul enjoyed at his Creation to a very intense or high degree of sierceness raging in him till the time he catcht hold of the promise made to him of the Woman's Seed Christ the Light of the world For Life without Light is but a dark and obscure Fire kindled either here or there in some individual place and burning without shining as do all Acids the Frost and those Corrosives called Ignes Potentiales by Chymical Writers whereby the Life just subsists in a very anxious fretful state or condition as being always feeding upon the thing it is in that is upon the Body which it had formed itself till that Body be consum'd or till this hungry Fire be fully satiated And this Fire thus burning was represented to us by the firy Serpent of God's People in the Desart and by a Worm or Serpent which Christ saith doth never die because it is always renascens reproducing or kindling itself anew viz. in the eternal Souls for there it can as well do it always as for once by reason that its Body or Subject doth not decay and when exasperated it is the Death of the Soul or its Hell burning gnawing and making it for ever anxious and full of pain except it reacheth the Light that makes all things comfortable Here consider the grimness of a dark and frosty Night which chills benums and destroys and burns all things on the ground and what state things would lay in if the Light of the Sun were taken out of the world Would not all the living things lay still like Worms in Winter and be frozen up as hard and stiff as Ice in their place Sure the world itself would be nothing but Death all over And thence conceive if you can how sharp severe and bitter are to the despairing Soul whose dark Fire corroding and biting it like sharp Frost or a fretting Humor or some tart
it will not in this Life make us understand a Thing which we do not think upon and prompt us on a sudden with the full Knowledge of that which perhaps we never heard and consider'd of before without we take it into serious consideration and meditate upon it like Isaac by our selves Gen. 24.63 Albeit after this Life when Things shall be deliver'd from their Opacous Body the Bondage of Corruption which by the Fall of Adam they have been subjected to Rom. 8.20 into the glorious liberty of God's Children ver 21. a through shining transparent Body which Men may see through and that stops the sight no more we shall see all at one sight and know every thing at first sight as we know one whom we are acquainted with when we meet him Face to Face 1 Cor. 13.12 So that a brown study searching and examining rising early and watching at the Posts of Wisdom's doors Prov. 8.17 34. is also necessary in this Life to get Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It will lead you in the way John 16.13 implies that a Man must walk to come to his Journies end to wit the Knowledge of Truth But thô he should walk never so long and hit the right way and light upon Truth by Chance yet so long as he is blind and besides stands in the dark he can by no means see it and discern when he sees it that it is what he looks for and as he found it by chance he goes from it loseth it as easie as he found it and keeps still seeking after and yet never coming to any knowledge of it 2 Tim. 3.7 For until it pleaseth God to reveal his light in man Gal. 1.15 16. or to give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 5.20 a discerning Faculty no Body can justify or discern Truth from Error and Falsehood and Opinion Witness Paul who though he was brought up in all the Learning of the Jews with Gamaliel and was doubtless acquainted with that which the Christians taught at least wherein they differ'd from the Doctrine of the Jews yet he understood it not for he persecuted them and that out of Ignorance 1 Tim. 1.13 till he received the Truth by the Revelation of Christ as he owns himself Gal. 1.12 And no more do the Christians of this Age understand it whence every Sect of them sticks no less than the Turks and the Jews to their own way thô all but one must be false and have a strong prejudice against all other Parties Or if their Eye is so single as to listen to others they are tossed to and fro by every wind of Doctrine which some cunning Sophister who is reputed Learned amongst those of his Party maketh seemingly plausible being as much uncertain what to believe of either this new or their old Doctrine as the Samaritan Woman was when she said Sir Our Fathers worshipped in this place but you say that Jerusalem is the place Joh 4.19 that is as much as to say Which must I now believe yours or our Opinion For Believing depends upon the Understanding Intelligere saith one being Ipsum credere the understanding of Things being the Belief itself and the Belief or the Faith being an Understanding enlightned an evidence of things to the Intellect which are not seen by the Eye Hebr. 11.1 And this believing of Things without any sight of them because we understand them as it constitutes a Man's blessed state or happiness For blessed is he that hath not seen and yet believeth John 20.29 So it makes up the first part of Wisdom or Salvation as is seen in the 10th Page by Wisdom's Definition Nay such Faith as this is is called Wisdom itself For this shall be your Wisdom in the sight of the Nations Deut. 4.6 meaning to do and perform those Precepts we understand to be good for us to keep Faith like Wisdom being not perfected but in the Act. Therefore a Man must be made seeing and understanding his Eyes must be enlightned and the Light must shine into the thick Darkness he stands in before he can discern Truth from Opinion and believe And to come to the Thing I here chiefly aim at as the Further he goes on when he is in the right way the Nearer also he draws towards his said Journies end so the more a Man goes on in the right way to Wisdom that is in the said dying and Regeneration the more he is made seeing and the nearer he comes to the bright Crown of Wisdom And if he can go thorow the whole course of this dying and Regeneration he may obtain the whole Prize even the closed Crown of Wisdom laid up for such 2 Tim. 4.8 For as there be several Mansions in the Father's house Joh. 14.2 that is several degrees of Wisdom and of that which gives Wisdom the Holy Ghost in the state of Salvation So there be several steps and degrees of the said Death and Regeneration all which if a Man go through and overcomes to the last of them or the seventh time he shall even sit on Thrones Matth. 19.28 Rev. 3.2 and shine forth as the Sun doth Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 or be sill'd like St. Stephen Acts 6 15-7.55 with the full Light of Wisdom But if he stops any where at any of those degrees he shall reach to no higher proportion of Light than what doth answer to that degree or step which he did stop at and shall have but a degree of Knowledge accordingly nay and no new Light at all if he go up none of them And in case he overcome but the first step and stop there he shall get but such glimpse of Light as will prove to him but an Ignis Fatuus to lead him out of the way For it will only make him capable to try others Rev. 2.2 And therefore to despise them when he finds their Ignorance And thereby make him the Man meant by the proud Pharisee who falls upon the Shoulders and Vices of other People or else upon nothing but Disputes about Opinions instead of weeping over himself like the Publican Which is the Case of our Half-Enlightned Reformed Whom Princes cannot suffer because as they see clearer than down-right ignorant People such as the Church of Rome is they are more apt than She is to find Fault with the Conduct and Government of their Prince and being never a whit the better or the meeker for this new encrease of Light they become his Censurers and so very uneasie if not dangerous to him that he is always striving to remove and suppress them or to bring them again to their former Ignorance which occasions Disquiet and Discontent on both sides But against this great Evil there is a sure Remedy which because it is the best and the chiefest in its kind none of the State Physicians know more of it than our ordinary Physicians do of the Great Elixir or Arcanum in Physick Therefore learn of me Princes the best Rule of