partner in the dissolution then it is now desirous to meet him again as well knowing in how much happier condition they shall meet then they formerly parted Before this drossie piece was cumbersome and hindred the free operations of this active spirit now that by a blessed glorification it is spiritualized it is every way become pliable to his renued partner the Soul and both of them to their infinitely glorious Creatour SECT. VIII The reunion of the body to the soul both glorified LO then so happy a reunion as this materiall world is not capable of till the last fire have refined it of a blessed soul met with a glorified body for the peopling of the new heaven who can but rejoyce in spirit to foresee such a glorious communion of perfected Saints to see their bodies with a clear brightness without all earthly opacity with agility without all dulnesse with subtility without grosness with impassibility without the reach of annoyance or corruption There and then shalt thou O my soul looking through clarified eyes see and rejoyce to see that glorious body of thy dear God and Savior which he assumed here below and wherein he wrought out the great work of thy redemption there shalt thou see the radiant bodies of all those eminent Saints whose graces thou hadst wont to wonder at and weakly wish to imitate There shall I meet with the visible partners of the same unspeakeable glory my once dear parents children friends and if there can be roome for any more joy in the soul that is taken up with God shall both communicate and appropriate our mutuall joyes There shall we indissolubly with all the chore of heaven passe our eviternity of blisse in lauding and praising the incomprehensibly-glorious Majesty of our Creatour Redeemer Sanctifier in perpetuall Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne And canst thou O my soul in the expectation of this happinesse be unwilling to take leave of this flesh for a minute of separation How well art thou contented to give way to this body to shut up the windows of thy senses and to retire it self after the toil of the day to a nightly rest whence yet thou knowest it is not sure to rise or if it do yet it shall rise but such as it lay down some little fresher no whit better and art thou so loath to bid a cheerfull good-night to this piece of my selfe which shall more surely rise then lye down and not more surely rise then rise glorious Away with this weak and wretched infidelity without which the hope of my change would be my present happinesse and the issue of it mine eternull glory Even so Lord Jesus come quickly THE INVISIBLE WORLD The Third BOOK SECT. I. Of the Evill Angels Of their first sin and fall HITHERTO our thoughts have walked through the lightsome and glorious regions of the spirituall world now it is no lesse requisite to cast some glances towards those dreadful and darksome parts of it where nothing dwels but horror and torment Of the former it concerns us to take notice for our comfort of these latter for terrour caution resistance I read it reported by an ancient Travailer Haytonus of the Order of the Premonstratensis and cousin as he saith to the then-King of Armenia that he saw a country in the Kingdome of Georgia which he would not have believed except his eyes had seen it caldel Hamsen of three dayes journey about covered over with palpable darknesse wherein some desolate people dwell for those which inhabit upon the borders of it might hear the neighing of horses and crowing of cocks and howling of dogs and other noises but no man could go in to them without losse of himselfe Surely this may seem some sleight representation of the condition of Apostate Angels and reprobate souls Their region is the kingdom of darkness they have onely light enough to see themselves eternally miserable neither are capable of the least glimpse of comfort or mitigation But as it fals out with those which in a dark night bear their own light that they are easily discerned by an enemy that waits for them and good aim may be taken at them even whiles that enemy lurks unseen of them so it is with us in these spirituall ambushes of the infernall powers their darknesse and our light gives them no smal advantage against us The same power that clears and strengthens the eyes of our soul to see those over-excelling glories of the good Angels can also enable us to pierce thorough that hellish obscurity and to descrie so much of the natures and condition of those evill spirits as may render us both wary and thankful In their first creation there were no Angels but of light that any of them should bring evill with him from the moment of his first beeing is the exploded heresie of a Manes a man fit for his name and if Prateolus may be beleeved of the Trinitâ—â—ians yea blasphemy rather casting mire in the face of the most pure and holy Deity For from an absolute goodnesse what can proceed but good And if any then of those spirits could have been originally evil whence could he pretend to fetch it Either three must be a predominant principle of evill or a derivation of it from the fountain of infinite goodness either of which were very monsters of impiety All were once glorious spirits sin changed their hue and made many of them ugly Devils Now straight I am apt to think Lord how should sin come into the world how into Angels God made all things good sin could be no work of his How should the good that he made produce the evill which he hates Even this curiosity must receive an answer The great God when he would make his noblest creature found it fit to produce him in the nearest likenesse to himself and therefore to indue him with perfection of understanding and freedome of will either of which being wanting there could have been no excellency in that which was intended for the best such therefore did he make his Angels Their will being made free had power of their own inclinations those free inclinations of some of them swayed them awry from that highest end which they should have solely aimed at to a faulty respect unto oblique ends of their own Hence was the beginning of sin for as it fals out in causes efficient that when the secondary agent swarves from the order and direction of the principal straight waies a fault thereupon ensues as when the leg by reason of crookednesse fails of the performance of that motion which the appetitive power injoined an halting immediately follows so it is in finall causes also as Aquinas acutely when the secondary end is not kept in under the order of the principall and highest end there grows a sin of the will whose object is ever good but if a supposed self respective good be suffer'd to take the wall of the best
The INVISIBLE WORLD Discovered to Spirituall Eyes and reduced to usefull Meditation IN THREE BOOKS Also the Great MYSTERY of GODLINESS Laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling MEDITATION With the Apostolicall Institution of imposition of Hands for Confirmation of Children setting forth the Divine Ground End and Use of that too much neglected Institution and now published as an excellent Expedient to Truth and Peace By JOS. HALL D.D.B. Norwich London Printed by E. Cotes for John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate 1659 To all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Grace and Peace Dear Brethren IF I have in a sort taken my leave of the world already yet not of you whom God hath chosen out of the world and endeared to me by a closer interest so as ye may justly expect from me a more speciall valediction which I do now in all Christian affection tender unto you And as dear friends upon a long parting are wont to leave behind them some tokens of remembrance where they most affect so have I thought good before my setting forth on my last journey to recomend unto you these my two finall Meditations then which I suppose nothing could be more proper for me to give or more likely to merit your acceptation For if we were half way in heaven already what can be a more seasonable imployment of our thoughts then the great Mysterie of Godlinesse which the Angels desire to look into And now when our bâ—dily eyes are glutted with the view of the things that are seen a prospect which can afford us nothing but vanity and vexation what can be more meet then to feed our spirituall eyes with the light of Invisible glories Make your use of them both to the edifying of your selves in your most holy faith and aspire with me towards that happiness which is laid up above for all those that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus Withall as the last words of friends are wont to bear the greatest weight and to make the deepest impression so let these lines of holy advise wherewith after many well-meant discourses I shall close up the mouth of the Presse find the like respect from you Oh that I might in the first place effectually recommend to you the full recovery of that precious Legacy of our blessed Saviour Peace peace with God Peace with men next to Grace the best of all blessings Yet wo is me too too long banished from the Christian world with such animosity as if it were the worst of enemies and meet to be adjudged to a perpetuall mitrnatition Oh for a fountain of tears to bewaile the stain of Gods people in all the coasts of the Earth How is Christendome become an universall Aceldama How is the earth every where drenched with humane bloud poured out not by the hands of cruell Infidels but of brethren Men need not go so farre as Euphrates for the execution of Turks and Pagans Christians can make up an Armageddon with their own mutuall slaughter Enough my dear brethren enough yea more then too much hath been the effusion of that bloud for which our Saviour hath shed his Let us now at the last dry up these deadly issues which we have made and with soveraigne balms bind up the wounds we have given Let us now be not more sparing of our tears to wash off the memory of these our unbrotherly dimications and to ppease the anger of that God whose offended justice hath raised war out of our own bowels As our enmity so our peace begins at heaven Had we not provoked our long-suffering God we had not thus bled and we cannot but know and beleeve him that said When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him Oh that we could throughly reconcile our selves to that great and holy God whom we have irritated by our crying sins how soon would he who is the commander of all hearts make up our breaches and calme and compose our spirits to an happy peace and concord In the next place give me leave earnestly to exhort you that as we have been heretofore palpably faulty in abusing the mercies of our God for which we have soundly smarted so that now we should be so much the more carefull to improve the judgments of God to our effectuall reformation we have felt the heavie hand of the Almighty upon us to purpose Oh that our amendment could be no lesse sensible then our sufferings But alas my brethren are our wayes any whit holyer our obedience more exact our sins less and fewer then before we were thus heavily afflicted may not our God too justly take up that complaint which he made once by his Prophet Jeremiah Ye have transgressed against me saith the Lord In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction Far be it from us that after so many sad and solemne mournings of our Land any accuser should be able to charge us as the Prophet Hosea did his Israel By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adulterie they break out and blood toucheth bloud Wo be to us if after so many veins opened the blood remaining should not be the purer Let me have leave in the third place to excite you to the practise of Christian charity in the mutuall constructions of each others persons and actions which I must tell you we have heedlesly violated in the heat of our holy intentions whiles those which have varied from us in matter of opinion concerning some appendances of Religion and outward forms of administration we have been apt to look upon with such disregard as if they had herein forfeit 〈◊〉 their Christian profession and were utter aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel though in the mean time sound at the heart and endeavouring to walk close with God in all their wayes whereas the father of all mercies allows a gracious latitude to his children in all not-forbidden paths and in every nation and condition of men he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Beware we my dear brethren lest whiles we follow the chase of Zeal we out-run charity without which piety it self would be but unwelcome As for matter of opinion in the differences of Religion wherewith the whole known world not of Christians only but of men is wofully distracted to the great prejudice of millions of souls let this be our sure rule Whosoever he be that holds the faith which was once delivered to the Saints agreeing therefore with us in all fundamentall Truths let him be received as a brothâ—r For thâ—re is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism And other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Let those which will be a devising a new Creed look for a new Saviour and hope for another heaven for us we know whom we have beleeved If any man be faulty in the doctrines
which they cannot but finde betwixt this lesser and that greater world for as this little world Man consists of an outward visible body and an inward spiritual soul which gives life and motion to that organicall frame so possessing all parts that it is wholly in all and in each part wholly So must it also be in this great Universe the sensible and materiall part whereof hath being and moving from those spiritual powers both supreme and subordinate which dwell in it and fill and actuate it Every illuminated soul therefore looks about him with no other then S. Pauls eyes whose profession it is We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall SECT. II. The distribution of the Invisible world I Cannot quite mislike the conceit of Reuchlin and his â—abala seconded by Galatinus that as in an egge the yelk lies in the middest encompassed round with the white and that again by a film and shell so the sensible world is enclosed within the intelligible but withall I must adde that here is not a meer involution only but a spirituall permeation and inexistence yet without all mixture without all confusion for those pure and simple natures are not capable of mingling with grosse materiall substances and the God of Order hath given them their own separate essences offices operations as for the managing of their own spiritual Common-wealth within themselves so for the disposing governing and moving of this sensible world As therefore we shall foully misconceive of a man if we shall think him to be nothing but a body because our eyes see no more so we shall no lesse grossely erre if beholding this outward fabrick we shall conceive of nothing to be in this vast Universe but the meer lifelesse substance of the heavens and elements which runs into our sight those lively and active powers that dwell in them could not be such if they were not purely spirituall Here then above and beyond all worlds and in this materiall and intelligible world our illuminated eyes meet first with the God of Spirits the DEITIE incomprehensible the fountain of all life and being the infinite and self-existing Essence one most pure simple eternal Act the absolute omnipotent omnipresent Spirit who in himself is more then a world of worlds filling comprehending both the spiritual sensible world in comparison of whom this All is nothing and but from him had been and were nothing Upon this blessed object O my soul may thy thoughts ever dwell where the more they are fixed the more shall they finde themselves ravished from the regard of all sensible things and swallowed up with an admiration of that which they are still further off from comprehending Next to this All-glorious and infinite spirit they meet with those immateriall and invisible powers who receive their originall and continuance their natures and offices from that King of glory Each one whereof is so mighty as to make up a world of power alone each one so knowing as to contain a world of wisdom and all of them so innumerably many that their number is next to infinite and all this numberlesse number so perfectly united in one celestial politie that their entire communion under the laws and government of their soverain Creator makes them a compleat world of Spirits invisibly living and moving both within and above this visible globe of the materiall world After these meet we with the glorified souls of the Just who now let loose from this prison of clay enjoy the full liberty of heaven and being at last reunited to their then immortall bodies and to their most glorious head both are and possesse a world of everlasting blisse Last of all may thy thoughts fall upon those infernall powers of darknesse the spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places whose number might combination makes up a dreadfull world of evil Angels conflicting where they prevail not and tormenting where they overcome These together with the reprobate souls whom they have captived are the most horrible and wofull prospects of mischief and misery which either world is subject unto Now all and every of these however in respect of largenesse they may well passe for so many severall worlds yet as we are wont to account the whole globe of heaven and earth and the other inclosed elements though vast in their severall extents to make up but one sensible world so shall we in a desire to reduce all to unity consider all the intire specifications of spirits but as ranked in so many regions of one immateriall and intelligible world Wherefore let us first silently adore that mundum archetypum that one transcendent self-being and infinite essence in three most glorious persons the blessed Deity which filleth heaven and earth with the majesty of his glory as vailed with the beams of infinitenesse and hid in an inaccessible light and let us turn our eyes to the spiritual guard the invisible attendants of that divine Majesty without the knowledge and right apprehension whereof we shall never attain to conceive of their God and ours as we ought But O ye blessed immortal glorious spirits who can know you but he that is of you alas this soul of mine knows not it self how shall it know you Surely no more can our minds conceive of you then our eyes can see you Only since he that made you hath given us some little glimpse of your subdivine natures properties operations let us weakly as we may recount them to his glory in yours SECT. III. The Angels of heaven Their numbers THe good Lord forgive me for that amongst my other offences I have suffered my self so much to forget as his divine presence so the presence of his holy Angels It is I confesse my great sin that I have filled mine eyes with other objects and have been slack in returning praises to my God for the continual assistance of those blessed and beneficent spirits which have ever graciously attended me without intermission from the first hour of my conception to this present moment neither shall ever I hope absent themselves from my tutelage and protection till they shall have presented my poor soul to her final glory Oh that the dust and clay were so washed out of my eyes that I might behold together with the presence the numbers the beauties and excellencies of those my ever-present guardians When we are convinced of the wonderfull magnitude of those goodly stars which we see moving in the firmament we cannot but acknowledge that if God had made but one of them he could never have been enough magnified in his power but when our sense joyns with our reason to force upon us withall an acknowledgement of the infinite numbers of those great luminaries now we are so far to seek of due admiration that we are utterly lost in the amazement at this
when it was for a plague to Egypt they were supernaturally produced Hail an ordinary meteore murrain of Cattel an ordinary disease yet for a plague to obdured Pharaoh miraculously wrought Neither need there be any great difficulty in discerning when such like events run in a natural course and when spirits are actors in them the manner of their operation the occasions and effects of them shall soon discry them to a judicious eye for when we shall finde that they do manifestly deviate from the road of nature and work above the power of secondary causes it is easie to determine them to be of an higher efficiency I could instance irrefragrably in severall tempests and thunderstorms which to the unspeakable terrour of the inhabitants were in my time seen heard felt in the Western parts wherein the translocation and transportation of huge massy stones and irons of the Churches above the possibility of naturall distance together with the strange preservation of the persons assembled with other accidents sensibly accompanying those astonishing works of God still fresh in the minds of many shewed them plainly to be wrought by a stronger hand then natures * And whither else should we ascribe many events which ignorance teacheth us to wonder at in silence If murders be descryed by the fresh bleeding of cold and almost putrefied carcasses If a man by some strong instinct be warned to change that lodging which he constantly held for some years and findes his wonted sleeping place that night crushed with the unexpected fall of an unsuspected contignation If a man distressed with care for the missing of an important evidence †such a one I have known shal be informed in his dream in what hole of his Dove-cote he shall find it hid If a man without all observation of Physical criticisms shall receive and give intelligence many dayes before what hour shal be his last to what cause can we attribute these but to our attending Angels If a man shall in his dream as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus professes receive the prescript of the remedy of his disease which the Physitians it seems could not cure whence can this be but by the suggestion of spirits And surely since I am convinced that their unfelt hands are in many occurrences of my life I have learned so much wit and grace as rather to yeeld them too much then too little stroke in ordering all my concernments O ye blessed spirits many things I know ye do for me which I discern not whiles ye do them but after they are done and many things ye may do more which I know not I blesse my God and yours as the author of all ye doe I blesse you as the means of all that is done by you for me SECT. VII The Degrees and Orders of Angels HEaven hath nothing in it but perfection but even perfection it self hath degrees as the glorified souls so the blessed Angels have their heights of excellency and glory He will be known for the God of Order observeth no doubt a most exact order in his Court of heaven nearest to the residence of his Majesty Equality hath no place either in earth or in hell we have no reason to seek it in heaven He that was rapt into the third heaven can tell us of Thrones Dominions Principalities Angels and Arch-angels in that region of blessednesse We cannot be so simple as to think these to be but one classe of spirits doubtlesse they are distinctions of divers orders But what their severall ranks offices employments are he were not more wise that could tell then he is bold that dare speak What modest indignation can forbear stamping at the presumption of those men who as if upon Domingo Gonsales his engine they had been mounted by his Gansaes from the Moon to the Empyreall heaven and admitted to be the heralds or masters of ceremonies in that higher world have taken upon them to marshall these Angelicall spirits into their severall rooms proportioning their stations dignities services according to the model of earthly Courts disposing them into Ternions of three generall Hierarchies the first relating to the immediate attendance of the Almighty the other two to the government of the Creature both generall and particular In the first of Assistents placing the Seraphim as Lords of the chamber Cherubim as Lords of the cabinet-counsel Thrones as entire Favourites in whom the Almighty placeth his rest In the second of universall Regency finding Dominions to be the great Officers of State who as Chancellours Marshals Treasurers govern the affairs of the world Mights to be the Generals of the heavenly Militia Powers as the Judges Itinerant that serve for generall retributions of good and evil In the third of speciall government placing Principalities as rulers of severall Kingdoms and Provinces Archangels as guardians to severall Cities and Countreys and lastly Angels as guardians of several persons And withall presuming to define the differences of degrees in each order above other in respect of the goodlinesse and excellency of their nature making the Arch-angels no lesse then ten times to surpasse the beauty of Angels Principalities twenty times above the Arch-angels Powers forty times more then Principalities Mights fifty more then Powers Domininions sixty above Mights Thrones seventy above Dominions Cherubim eighty above thrones Seraphim ninety times exceeding the Cherubim For me I must crave leave to wonder at this boldnesse and professe my self as far to seek whence this learning should come as how to beleeve it I do verily beleeve there are divers orders of celestial spirits I beleeve they are not to be beleeved that dare to determine them especially when I see him that was rapt into the third heaven varying the order of their places in his severall mentions of them Neither can I trust to the Revelation of that Sainted Prophetesse who hath ranged the degrees of the beatitude of glorified souls into the several chores of these heavenly Hierarchies according to their dispositions and demeanures here on earth admitting those who have been charitably helpfull to the poor sick strangers into the orb of Angels Those who have given themselves to meditation and prayer to the rank of Archangels those who have vanquished all offensive lusts in themselves to the order of Principalities to the height of Powers those whose care and vigilance hath restrained from evil and induced to good such as have been committed to their oversight and governance To the place of Mights those who for the honour of God have undauntedly and valiantly suffered and whose patience hath triumphed over evils To the company of Dominions those who prefer poverty to riches and devoutly conform their wills in all things to their Makers To the society of Thrones those who do so inure themselves to the continuall contemplation of heavenly things as that they have disposed their hearts to be a fit resting place for the Almighty To the honour of Cherubim those