fires and flames of zeale for it is a vertue that best agrees with coldest natures and such as are complexioned for humility But how shall we expect charity towards others when we are uncharitable to our selves and charity beginnes at home in the voyce of the world yet is every man his owne greaâ—est enemy and as it were his owne executioner Non occides is the Commandement of God yet scarce observed by any man for I perceive every man is his owne Atropos and lends a hand to cut the thred of his owne dayes Cain was not therefore the first murtherer but Adam who brought in death wherof he beheld the practise and example in his own son Abel and saw that verified in the experience of others which faith could not perswade him in the Theory of himselfe There is no man that apprehends his owne miseries lesse than my selfe and no man that so nearely apprehends anothers I could lose an arme without a â—eare and with few groanes me thinkes be quartered into pieces yet can I weep most seriously at a Play and receive with a true passion the counterfeit griefs of those knowne and professed impostures It is a barbarous part of inhumanity to adde unto any afflicted parties misery or endevour to multiply in any man a passion whose single nature is already above his patience and this was the greatest affliction of Iob and those oblique expostulations of his friends a deeper injury then the downe-right blowes of the Devill It is not the teares of our owne eyes onely but of our Friends also that doe exhaust the current of our sorrowes which falling into many streames runne more peaceably and are contented with a narrow channel It is an act within the power of charity to translate a passion out of one brest into another and to divide a sorrow almost out of it selfe for affliction like a dimension may be so divided as if not indivisible at least to become insensible Now with my friend I desire not to share or participate but to ingrosse his sorrowes that by making them mine owne I may more easily discusse them for in mine owne reason and within my selfe I can command that which I cannot entreat without my self and within the circle of another I have often thought those noble paires and examples of friendship not so truly Histories of what had beene as fictions of what should be but I now perceive nothing in them but easie possibilities nor any thing in the Heroick examples of Damon and Pithias Achilles and Patroclus which I could not performe within the narrow compasse of my selfe That a man should lay down his life for his friend seemes strange to vulgar affections and such as confine themselves within that worldly principle Charity beginnes at home For mine owne part I could never remember the relations that I held unto my selfe nor the respect that I owe unto mine owne nature in the cause of God my Country and my Friends Next to these three I doe emprace my selfe I confesse I doe not observe that order that the Schooles orâ—aine our affections to love our Parents Wifes Children and then our Friends â—or excepting the injunctions of Religion I doe not find in my selfe such a neâ—essary and indissoluble Sympathy to â—hose of my bloud I hope I doe not â—reake the fifth Commandement if I confesse I love my Friend before the nearest of my bloud even those tâ— whom I owe the principles of life I neâ—ver yet cast a true affection on a Womaâ— but I have loved my Friend as I doe veâ—tue my soule my God From hence mâ— thinkes I doe conceive how God love man what happinesse there is in the loâ—â— of God Omitting all other there aâ— three most mysticall unions 1. Two natures in one person 2. Three persons in one nature 3. One soule in two bodies For though indeed they be really dâ—â—vided yet are they so united as theâ— seeme but one and make rather a dualâ—â—ty then two distinct soules There are wonders in true affections it is a body of Aenigmaes mysteries anâ— riddles wherein two so become one 〈◊〉 they both become two I love my frienâ— before my selfe and me thinkes I doâ— not love him enough some few monthâ— hence my multiplyed affection wiâ—â— make me beleeve I have not loved hiâ— at all when I am from him I aâ— dead till I be with him when I am with him I am not satisfied but would still be nearer him united soules are not satisfied with embraces but desire to be â—ruly each other which being impossible their desires are infinite and must proceed without a possibility of satisfaction Another misery there is in affection that whom we truely love like our owne selves we forget their lookes nor â—an our memory retain the Idea of their â—aces and it is no wonder for they are our selves and our affections makes â—heir lookes our owne This noble affection fâ—ls not on vulgar and common â—onstitutions but on such as are marked â—or vertue he cannot love his friend â—ith this noble ardor that will in a comâ—etent degree affect all Now if we can â—ring our affections to looke beyond the â—ody and cast an eye upon the soule we â—ave found out the true object not onâ—y of Friendship but Charity and the greatest happines that we can bequeath the soule is that wherein we al do place â—ur last felicity salvation which though it be not in our power to bestow it is in our charity and pious invocations to desire if not procure and further I cannot frame a Prayer for my selfe in particular without a catalogue for my friends nor request a happinesse wherein my sociable disposition doth not desire the fellowship of my Neighbour I never heare the Toll of a passing Bell though in my mirth and at a Taverne withouâ— my prayers and best wishes for the departing spirit I cannot goe to cure the body of my Patiâ—nt but I forget my profession and call unto God for hiâ— soule I cannot see one say his Prayers but instead of imitating him I fall intâ— a zealous oration for him who perhapâ— is no more to me then a common nature and if God hath vouchsafed aâ— eare to my supplications there are surely many happy that never saw me anâ— enjoy the blessing of mine unknownâ— devotions To pray for enemies that is for their salvation is no harsh precept but the practise of our daily ordinarâ— devotions I cannot beleeve the story oâ— the Italian our bad wishes and uncharitable desires proceed no further than this life it is the devill and the uncharitable votes of hell that desire our misery in the world to come To doe no injury nor take none was a principle which to my firme yeares and impatient affections seemed to containe enough of morality but my more settled yeares and Christian constitution have salne upon more securer resolutions I hold there is no such thing as injury that if there be there is no such
Trinity of our soules and that the Triple Unity of God for there is in us not three but a Trinity of soules because there is in us if not three distinct soules yet differing faculties that can and do subsist in different subjects and yet in us are so united as to make but one soule and substance if one soule were perfectly three diâ—stinct bodies that were a pretty Trinity conceive the distinct number of three noâ— divided nor separated by the intellect buâ— actually comprehended in its Vnity and that is a perfect Trinity I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras and the secret Magicke of numbers Beware oâ— Philosophy is a precept not to be received in a narrow sense for in this masse of nature there is a set of things that carry in â—heir front though not in Capitall letters yet in stenography and short Characters somthing to Divinity which to wiser reaâ—ons serve as Luminaries in the abysse of knowledge and to judicious beliefe as â—scales and roundles to mount the pinnacles and highest pieces of Divinity The severe Schooles shall never laugh me out of the Philosophy of Hermes that this visible world is but a picture of the invisible wherein as a pourtract things are not trueâ—y but in equivocall shapes and as they counterfeit some more reall substance in that invisible fabrick That other attribute wherewith I recreate my devotion is his wisedome in which I am happy and for the contemplation of this onely do not repent me that I was bred in the way of study The advantage I have of the vulgar with the content and happinesse I conceive therein is an ample recompence for al my endeavours in what part of knowledge soever I know he is wise in all wonderfull in what we conceive but farre more in what we comprehend not for we behold him but a squint upon reflex or shadow our understanding is diviner than Mâ—ses his eye we are ignorant of the backparts or lower side of his Divinity therefore to pry into the maze of his Counsels is not only folly in Man but presumption in Angels like as they are his servants not servators he holds no Councell but that mysticall one of the Trinity wherein though there be three persons there is but one minde that decrees without contradiction nor needs he any his actions are not begot with deliberation his wisdome naturally flowers what best his intellect stands ready fraught with the superlative purest Idea's of goodnesse consultations election which are two motions in us are but one in him his actions springing from his power at the first touch of his will These are Contemplations Metaphysiâ—all my humble speculations have another Method and are content to trace and discover those expressions he hath left in his creatures the obvious effects of nature there is no danger to propound those mysteries no Sanctum Sanctorum in Philosophy The world was made to be inhabited by beasts but studyed and contemplated by man it is the debt of our reason we owe to God and the homage we pay for not being beasts without this the world is as though it had not been or as it was before at the first when there was not a creature that could conceive or say there was a world The wisdome of God receives no honor from the vulgar heads that rudely stare about and with a grosse rusticity admire his workes those onely magnifie him whose judicious enquiry into his acts and deliberate research into his creatures returne the duty of a learned and devout admiration There is but one first foure second causes of all things some are without efficient as God others without matter as Angels some without forme as the first matter but every Essence created or uncreated hath its finall cause and some positive end both of its essence and operation This is the cause I grope after in the workes of nature on this hangs the providence of God to raise so beautious a structure as the world and the creatures thereof was but his Art and their sundry divided operations with their predestinated ends are from the treasury of his wisdom In the causes nature and affection of the Eclipse of the Sun and Moon there is most excellent speculation but to propound farther and to contemplate a reason why his providence hath so disposed and ordered their motions in that vast circle as to conjoyn and obscure each other is a sweet piece of reason and a diviner point of Philosophy therefore there appeares to me as much divinity in Galen his Booke De usu partium as in Suarez Metaphysicks had Aristotle been as curious in the enquiry of this cause as he was of the other he had not left behind him an imperfect pâ—ece of Philosophy but an absolute tract of Divinity Natura nihil agit frustra is the onely and indisputable axiome in Philosophy there is no Grotesco in nature nor any thing framed to fill up empty cantons and unnecessary spaces in the most imperfect creatures such as were not preserved in the Arke but having their seeds and principles in the wombe of nature are every where where the power of the Sun is in those is the wisdome of his hand discovered Out of this ranke Solomon chose the object of his admiration indeed what wisdome may not goe to schoole to the wisdome of Bees Aunts and Spiders what wise hand teacheth them to doe what reason cannot teach us while ruder heads stand amazed at those prodigious pieces of nature as Elephants Dromedaries and Camels these I confesse are the Colossus and Majesticke pieces of her hand but in these narrow Engines there is more curious Mathematickes and the civility of these little Citizens more neatly sets forth the wisdome of their Maker Who admires not Regio-Montanus his Fly beyond his Eagle or wonders not more at the operation of two soules in those little bodies than but one in the truncke of a Cedar I could never content my contemplation with those generall pieces of wonders the flux and reflux of the Sea the encrease of Nile the conversion of the Needle of the North and have studyed to match and parallel those in the more obvious and neglected pieces of Nature which without further travell I can doe in the Cosmography of my selfe we carry with us the wonders we seeke without us There is all Africa and all her prodigies within us we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature which he that studies wisely learnes in a compendium what others labour at in a divided piece and endlesse volume Thus there are two bookes from whence I collect my Divinity besides that written one of God another of his servant Nature that universall and publique Manuscript that lies exposed to the eyes of all those that never saw him in the one have discovered him in the other This was the Scripture and Theology of the Heathens the naturall motion of the Sunne made them more admire him than
his supernaturall station did the Children of Israel the ordinary effect of nature wrought more admiration in them than in the other all his miracles surely the Heathens knew better how to joyne and reade these mysticall letters than we Christians who cast a more common eye on those Hieroglyphicks and disdaine to suck Divinity from the flowers of nature nor doe I forget God as to adore the name of Nature which I define not with the Schooles the principles of motion and rest but that streight and regular line that setled and constant course the wisdome of God hath ordained to guide the actions of his creatures according to their severall kinds to make a revolution every day is the nature of the Sun because that necessary course which God hath ordained it from which it cannot swarve by the faculty of the voyce which first did give it motion Now this course of Nature God seldome alters or perverts but like an excellent Artist hath so contrived his worke that with the selfe same instrument without a new creation he may effect his obscurest designes Thus he sweetneth the water with a wood preserveth the creatures in the Ark which the blast of his mouth might have as easily created for God is like a skilfull Geometrician who when more easily and with one stroke of his compasse he might describe or divide a right line had yet rather doe this in a circle or longer way according to the constituted and aforesaid principles of his Art yet this rule of his he doth sometimes pervert to acquaint the world with his Prerogative lest the arrogancy of our reason should question his power and conclude he could not and thus I call the effects of Nature the works of God whose hand and instrument she onely is and therefore to ascribe his actions also unto her is to devolve the honor of God the principall agent upon the instrument which if with reason we may doe then let our Hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses and our pens receive the honour of our Writings I hold there is a generall beauty in the works of God and therefore no deformity in any kind or species of creatures whatsoever I cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad a Beare or an Elephant ugly they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best expresse the actions of their internall formes and having past that generall visitation of God who saw â—hat all that he had made was good that â—s conformable to his will which abhors deformity and is the rule of order and beauty there is no deformity but in monstruosity wherein notwithstanding there is a kind of beauty Nature so ingenuously contriving the irregular parts as they become sometimes more remarkable than the principle fabrick To speak yet more narrowly there was never yet any thing ugly or mishapen but the Chaos wherein notwithstanding to speak strictly there was no deformity because no forme by the voyce of God Now nature is not at variance with art nor art with nature they being both the servants of his providence Art is the perfection of nature Were the world now as it was the sixt day there were yet a Chaos Nature hath made one world Art another In briefe all things are artificiall for nature is the Art of God This is the ordinary and open way of his providence which art and industry have in a good part discovered whose effects we may foretell without an Oracle To foreshew these is no prophesie but Prognostication There is another way full of Meanders and Labyrinths whereof the Devill and Spirits have no exact Ephemerides that is a more particular obscure method of his providence directing the operations of individuals and single Essences this wee call Fortune that serpentine and crooked line whereby he drawes those actions that his wisedome intends in a more unknown secret way this cryptick and involved method of his providence have I ever admired nor can I relate the history of my life the occurrences of my dayes the escapes of dangers and hils of chance with a Bâ—zo los Manos to Fortune or a bare Gramercy to my starres Abraham might have thought the Ram in the thicket came thither by accident humane reason would have said that meere chance conveyed Moses into the Arke to the sight of Pharaohs daughter what a Labyrinth is there in the story of Ioseph able to convert a Stoicks surely there are in every mans life some rubs and 〈◊〉 which passe a while under 〈…〉 but at the last well 〈…〉 the meere and of God It was not a meere chance â— discover the or â—owder Treason by a miscarriage of the â—etter I like the victory of 88 the better â—r that one occurrence which our eneâ—ies imputed to our dishonour and the â—artiality of Fortune to wit the tempests â—nd contrarieties of winds King Philip did â—ot detract from the Nation though he â—aid he sent his Armado to fight with men â— not to combate with the winde Where â—here is a manifest disproportion between the powers and forces of two severall aâ—ents upon a Maxime of reason we may â—romise the victory to the superiour but when unexpected accidents slip in and unâ—hought of occurâ—ences intervene these must proceed from a power that ows no â—bedience to those axioms where as in the writing upon the wall we behold the hand â—ut see not the spring that moves it The â—uccess of that pety Province of Holland â— of which the Graâ—d Seignieur proudly â—aid That if they should trouble him as â—hey did the Spaniard he would send his men with shovels and pickaxes and throw it into the Sea I cannot altogether ascribe to the ingenuity and industry of the peoplâ— but to the mercy of God that hath dispoâ—sed them to such a thriving Genius and to the will of his providence that disposetâ— her favour to each countrey in their preâ—ordinate season All cannot be happy aâ— once because the glory of one State deâ—pends upon the ruine of another therâ— is a revolution and vicissitude of theiâ— greatnesse and must obey the swing oâ— that wheele not moved by their intelliâ—gences but by the hand of God whereby all Estates rise to their Zenith and verticalâ— points according to their predestinated periodss For the lives not onely of men but of Commonweales and the whole world run not upon an Helix that still enlargeth but on a Circle where arriving to their Meridian they decline in obscurity and fall under the Horizon again Thesâ— must not therefore be named the effects oâ— nature but in a relative way as we terme the workes of nature It was the ignorance of mans reason that begat this very name and by a carelesse terme miscalled the providence of God for there is no liberty For causes to operate in a loose and stragâ—ing way nor any effect whatsoever but hath its warrant from some universall or superiour cause It is not ridiculous
〈…〉 their proper natures and without a miracle that the soules of the faithfull as they leave earth take possession of Heaven thaâ— those apparitious and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandring soules oâ— men but the unquiet walkes of Devilsâ— prompting and suggesting us unto mischiefe bloud and villany instilling and stealing into our hearts that the blessed spirits are not at rest in their graves buâ— wander solicitous of the affaires of the world that those phantasmes appeare often and doe frequent Cemiteries Charnell houses and Churches it is because those are the dormitories of the dead where the Devill like an insolent Champion holds with pride the spoiles and Trophies of his victory in Adam This is the dismall conquest we all deplore that makes us often cry O Adam quid fecisti I thanke God I have not those strait ligaments or narrow obligations to the world as to dote on life or be convulst and tremble at the name of death Not that I am insensible of the dread and horrour thereof or by raking into the bowâ—ls of the deceased continuall sight of Anatomies Skeletons or Cadaverous reliques like Vespilloes or Grave-makers I am become stupid or have forgot the apprehension of mortality but that marshalling of the horrours and contemplating the extremities thereof I find not any therein able to daunt the courage of a man much lesse a resolved Christian and therefore am not angry at the errour of our first parents or unwilling to beare a part of this common fate and like the best of them to dye that is to cease to breathe to take a farewell of the elements to be a kind of nothing for a moment to be within one instant a spirit When I take a full view and circle of my selfe but with this reasonable moderator and equall piece of justice death I doe conceive my selfe the miserablest person extant were there not another life that I hope for all the vanities of the world should not intreat a moments breath from me could the Devill worke my beliefe to imagine I could never die I would not out-live that very thought I have so abject a thought of this common way of existence this retaining to the Sun and elements I cannot thinke this to be a man or to live according to the dignity of my nature in expectation of a better I can with patience embrace this life yet in my best meditations do often desire death I honour any man that contemnes it nor can I love any that is afraid of it this makes me naturally love a Souldier and honour those tattered and contemptible Regiments that will dye at the command of a Sergeant For a Pagan there may be some motives to be in love with life but for a Christian to be amazed at death I see not how he can escape this Dilemma that he is too sensible of this life or carelesse of the life to come Some Divines count Adam 30. years old at his creation because they suppose him created in the perfect age stature of man surely we are all out of the computation of our age every man is some moneths elder then he bethinkes him for we live move and have a being and are subject to the actions of the elements and the malice of diseases in that other world the â—ruest Microcosme the wombe of our moâ—her for besides that generall and common existence that we are conceived in our Chaos and whilst we sleepe within the bosom of our causes we enjoy a being â—nd life in three distinct worlds wherein we receive most manifest gradations In â—hat obscure world and womb of our moâ—her our time is short computed by the Moone yet longer then the dayes of maâ—y creatures that behold the Sunne our â—elves being not yet without life sense and reason the manifestation of its actions it awaits the opportunity of obâ—ects and seemes to live there but in its â—oote and soule of vegetation entring afâ—erwards upon the scene of the world we â—rise up and become another creature performing the reasonable actions of man and obscurely manifesting that part of Divinity in use but not in complement and perfection till we have once more cast our secondine that is this flough of flesh and are delivered into the last world that â—s that ineffable place of Saint Paul that â—bi of spirits The smattering that I have of the Philosophers stone which is nothing else but the perfectest exaltation oâ— gold hath taught me a great deale of Divinity and instructed my beliefe how thaâ— immortall spirit and incorruptible substance of my soule may lie obscure and sleepe within this house of flesh Thosâ— strange and mysticall transmigrations thaâ— I have observed in Silkewormes turned my Philosophy into Divinity There is iâ— these workes of nature which seeme to puzzle reason something Divine and hatâ— more in it then the eye of a common spectator doth discover I am naturally bashfull nor hath conversation age or travell beene able to effront or harden me yet I have one part of modesty which I have seldome discovered in another that is to speake truely I am not sâ— much afraid of death as ashamed thereof to the very disgrace and ignominy of ouâ— natures that in a moment can so disfigurâ— us that our nearest friends Wife Children stand afraid and stare at us The Birds and Beasts of the field that before iâ— a naturall feare obeyed us forgetting allegiance begin to prey upon us this very â—nceit hath in a tempest disposed and left â—e wisling to be swallowed up in the aâ—ysse of waters wherein I had perished â—sâ—ene unpityed without wondring eyes â—ares of pity Lectures of mortality and one had said Quantum mutatus ab illo â—ot that I am ashamed of the Anatomy â—f my parts or can accuse nature for playâ—â—g the bungler in any part of me or my â—wne vitious life for contracting any â—â—amefull disease upon me whereby I â—ight not call my selfe as wholesome a â—orsell for the wormes as any Some upâ—n the courage of fruitfull issue wherein â—s in the truest Chronicle they seeme to â—utlive themselves can with greater patiâ—nce away with death This conceit and â—ounterfeit subsisting in our progenies â—eemes to me a meere fallacy unworthy the desirâ—s of a man that can but conâ—eive a thought of the next world who â—n a noble ambition should desire to live â—n his substance in Heaven And therefore at my death I meane to take a Totall â—diew of the world not caring for a Monument History or Epitaph not so mucâ— as the bare memory of my name to bâ— found anywhere but in the universall Register of God I am not yet so Cynicall aâ— to approve the Testament of Diogenes noâ— doe altogether allow that Rodomantado oâ—Lucian Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam He that unburied lies wants not a Herse For unto him a tombe's the universe But commend in my calmer judgement those ingenuous intentions that desire to sleep
devotion nor be any way prejudiâ—all to each single edification Now to â—etermine the day and yeare of this invitable time is not onely convincible â—nd statute madnesse but also manifest â—npiety How shall we interpret Eliasâ—000 yeares or imagine the secret â—ommunicated to the Rabbi which God hath denyed to his Angels It had beene an excellent quaere to â—ave posed the devill of Delphos and â—ust needes have forced him to some â—range amphibology it hath not onely â—â—ocked the predictions of sundry Aâ—â—rologers in ages past but the Philosoâ—hy of many melancholy heads in the â—resent who neither understanding reasonable things past nor present pretend a knowledge of things to comâ— heads ordained onely to manifest the incredible effects of melancholy anâ— to fulfill old prophesies rather then bâ—â—uthour of new In those daies there shall come waâ— and rumours of wars to me seemes nâ— prophesie but a constant truth in aâ— times verifyed since it was first proâ—nounced There shall be signes in the Moone and Starres how comes he theâ— like a theefe in the night when he give an item of his comming That commoâ— signe drawn from the revelation of Anâ— tichrist the Philosophers stone in Diviâ—ity for the discovery and inventioâ— whereof though there be prescribeâ— rules and probable inductions yeâ— hath no man attained the perfect discovery thereof That generall opinion thaâ— the world growes neare at an end hatâ— possessed al ages past as nearely as oursâ— I am afraid that the soules that now deâ—part cannot escape the lingring expoâ— stulation of the Saints under the Altar 〈◊〉 Domine How long O Lord â—nd groane in the expectation of the â—reat Jubilee This is the day that must â—ake good the great attribute of Gods â—ustice that must reconcile those unanâ—â—erable doubts that torment the wisest â—nderstandings and reduce those seemâ—g inequalities and respective distribuâ—â—ons in this world to an equality and â—â—compensive Justice in the next This is that one day that shall include â—nd comprehend all that went before it â—herein as in the last scene all the 〈◊〉 must enter to compleat and make â—p the Catastrophe of this great piece â—his is the day whoâ—e onely memory â—ath power to make us honest in the â—arke and to be vertuous without a â—itnesse Ipsa sui pretium virtus sihi that â—ertue is her owne reward is but a cold â—rinciple and not able to maintaine our â—ariable resolutions in a constant and â—etled way of goodnesse I have practiâ—ed that honest artifice of Seneca and â—my retired and solitary imaginations â—o detaine me from the foulenesse of vice have fancyed to my selfe the presence of my deare and worthyest friend before whom I should lose my head rather then be vicious yet herein I founâ— that there was nought but morall honesty and this was not to be vertuous foâ— his sake who must reward us at the laâ—â— day I have tryed if I could have reached that great resolution of his to be honest without a thought of Heaven oâ— hell and indeed I found upon a natural inclination and inbred loyalty unto vertue that I could serve her without a liâ— very yet not in the resolved venerablâ— way but that the frailty of my nature upon an easie temptation might be induced to forget her The life thereforâ— and spirit of all our actions is the resuâ—â—rection and stable apprehension thaâ— our ashes shall enjoy the fruit of our pâ—ous endeavours without this all Religion is a fallacy and those impieties oâ—Lucian and Euripedes are no blaspheâ— mies but subtile verities and Atheist have beene the only Philosophers Hoâ— shall the dead arise is no question oâ— my faith to beleeve onely possibilities â—s not faith but meere Philosophy many things are true in Divinity which â—are neither inducible by reason nor confirmable by sense and many things in Philosophy confirmable by sense yet not inducible by reason Thus it is impossible by any solid or demonstrative reasons to perceive a man to beleeve the conversion of the Needle to the North though this be possible and true and easily credible upon a single experiment of the sense I beleeve that our estranged and divided ashes shall unite againe that our separated dust after so many pilgrimages and transformations into the parts of Minerals Plants Animals Elements shall at the voyce of God returne into their primitive shapes and joyn againe to make up their primary and predestinate formes As at the Creation there was a separation of the confused masse into its species so at the destruction thereof shall be a separation into its distinct individuals As at the Creation of the world all that distinct species that we behold lay involved in one masse till the fruitfull voyce of God separated this united multitude into its severall species so at the last day when those corrupted Reliques shall be scattered in the wildernesse of formes and seeme to have forgot their proper habits God by a powerful voyce shall command them bâ—cke into their proper shapes and cal them out by their single and individuals Then shall appeare the fertility of Adam and the magicke of that sperme that hath dilated into so many millions what is made to be immortall Nature cannot nor will the voyce of God destroy Those bodies that we behold to perish were in their created natures immortall and liable unto death but accidentally and upon forfeit and therefore they owe not that naturall homage unto death as other bodies doe but may be restored to immortality with a lesser miracle as by a bare and easie revocation of course returne immortall I have often beheld as a miracle that artificiall resurrection and vivification of Mercury how being mortified in a thousand shapes it assumes againe its owne and returnes into its numericall selfe Let us speake naturally and as Philosophers the formes of alterable bodies in those sensible corruptions perish not nor as we imagine wholly quit their mansions but retire and contract themselves into those secret and unaccessable parts where they may best protect themselves against the action of their Antagonists A plant or vegetable consumed to ashes to a contemplative and schoole Philosopher seemes utterly destroyed and the forme to have taken his leave for ever But to a subtile Artist the formes are not perished but withdrawn into their combustible part where they liâ— secure from the action of that devouring element This I make good by experience and can from the ashes of a plant revive the plant and from its cinders râ—cal it to its stalk and leaves again What the Art of man can doe in these inferiour pieces what blasphemy is it to imagine the finger of God cannot doe in those more perfect and sensible structures This is that mysticall Philosophy from whence no true Scholler becomes an Atheist but from the visible effects of nature grows up a real Divine and beholds not as in a dreame as Ezekiel but in an ocular and visible object the types of his resurrection
Now the necessary Mansions of our restored self are these two contrary incompatible places we call Heaven and Hell to define them or strictly to determine what and where these are surpasseth my divinity That elegant Saint which seemed to have a glimpse of Heaven hath left but a negative description thereof Which neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor can enter into the heart of man he was translated out of himselfe to behold it but being returned into himselfe could not expresse it Saint Iohns description by Emeralds Chrysolites and precious stones is too weake to expresse the materiall Heaven we behold Briefely therefore where the soule hath the full measure and complement of happinesse where the boundâ—esse appetite of the spirit remaines compleatly satisfied that it can neither desire addition nor alteration that I thinke is truly Heaven and this can onely be in the enjoyment of that essence whose infinite goodnesse is able to terminate the desires of it selfe and the unsatiable wishes of ours where ever God will thus manifest himselfe there is Heaven though within the circle of this sensible world Thus the sense of man may be in Heaven anywhere within the limits of his owne proper body and when it ceaseth to live in the body it may remaine in its owne soule that is its Creator And thus we may say that Saint Paul whether in the body or out of the body was yet in Heaven To place it in the Empyriall or beyond the tenth Sphere is to forget the worlds destruction for when this sensible world shall be destroyed and shall then be here as it was there an Empyriall Heaven a quasi vacuitie when to aske where Heaven is is to demand where the presence of God is or where we have the glory of that happy vision Moses that was bred up in all the learning of the Egyptians committed a grosse absurdity in Philosophy when with the eyes of flesh he desired to see God and petitioned his Maker that is truth it selfe to contradiction Those that imagine Heaven and Hell neighbours and conceive a vicinity betweene those two extreames upon consequence of the Parable where Dives discoursed with Lazarus in Abrahams bosome doe too grosâ—ely conceive of those glorified creatures whose eyes shall easily out-see the Sunne and behold without a Perspective the extreamest distances for if there shall be in our glorified eyes the faculty of sight and reception of objects I could thinke the visible species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the intellectuals I grant that two bodies placed beyond the tenth Spheare or in a vacuity according to Aâ—istotles Philosophy could not behold each other because there wants a body or Medium to have and transport the visible rayes of the object unto the sense but when there shall be a generall defect of either Medium to convey or light to prepare and dispose that Medium and yet a perfect vision we must suspend the rules of our Philosophy and make all good by a more absolute piece of Opticks I cannot tell how to say that fire is the essence of hell I know not what to make of Purgatory or conceive a flame that can neither prey upon nor purifie the substance of a soule those flames of sulphure mentioned in the Scriptures I take not to be understood of this present Hell but of that to come where fire shall make up the complement of our tortures and have a body or subject wherein to manifest its tyranny Some who had the honor to be Text in divinity are of opinion it shall be the same specificall fire with ours This is hard to conceive yet can I make good how even that may prey upon our bodies and yet not consume us for in this materiall world there are bodies that passed invincible in the powerfullest flames and though by action of the fire they fell into ignition and liquation yet will they never suffer a destruction I would know how Moses with an actuall fire calcind or burnt the golden Calfe into powder for that mysticall mettle of gold whose solary and celestiall nature I adore exposed unto the violence of fire growes only hot and liquifies but consumeth not so when the consumable and volatile pieces of our bodies shall be refined into a more impregnable and fixed temper like gold though they suffer from the action of the flames they shall never perish but lie immortall in the armes of fire And surely if this frame must suffer onely by the action of this element there will many bodies escape and not onely Heaven but earth will not be at an end but rather a beginning For at present it is not earth but a composition of fire water earth and aire but at that time â—poyled of those ingredients it shall apâ—eare in a substance more like it selfe its ashes Philosophers that opinioned the worlds destruction by fire did never dreame of annihilation which is beyond the power of sublunary causes for the â—ast and proper action of that element is â—ut vitrification or a reduction of a body â—nto Glasse and therefore some of our Chymicks factiously affirme yea and â—rge Scripture for it that at the last fire all shall be crystallized and reverberaâ—ed into Glasse which is the utmost action of that element Nor need we feare â—his terme annihilation or wonder that God will destroy the workes of his Creation for man subsisting who is and then truly appeares a Microcosme the world cannot be said to be destroyed For the eyes of God and perhaps also of our glorified selves shall as realâ—y behold and contemplate the world in â—ts Epitome or contracted essence as â—ow it doth at large in its dilated substance In the Syen of a Plant to the eyes of God and to the understanding of man there exist though in an invisible way the perfect leaves flowers and fruit thereof for things that aâ—e in possâ— to the sense are actually existent to the understanding Thus God beholds all things who contemplates as fully his workes in their Epitome as in their full volume and beheld as amply the whole world in that little compendium of the sixth day as in the scattered and dilated pieces of those five before Men commonly set â—orth the torments of Hell by fire and the extremity of corporall afflictions and describe Hell in the same method that Mahomet doth Heaven This indeed makes a noyse and drums in popular eares but if this be the terrible piece thereof it is not worthy to stand in diameter with Heaven whose happinesse consists in that part that is best able to comprehend it that immortall essence the translated divinity of God the soule I thanke God and with joy I mention it I was never afraid of hell nor never grew pale at the description of that place I have so fixed my contemplations on Heaven that I have almost forgot the Idea of Hell and am afraid rather to lose the joyes of Heaven then endure the