Matter to work upon nor work with Infinite Understanding brought forth Matter and stirr'd it as he pleas'd And though there is no comparison between Understanding Finite and Infinite yet by this it appears there is no contradiction for Understanding to produce Matter when there was none nor to move it when it is We know too there must be some way by which our Souls though acknowledged to be Spirits move our Bodies known enough to be gross and material and that meerly by Thought and Consideration what is to be done and that they obey them speedily and with ease although we are not able to expedite all the Questions that may be mov'd in relation hereunto In the sum I think it not to be doubted but that many of the extraordinary and wonderful Atchievements of Men the even prodigious Valours and mighty Prevalencies of some Warriours that have in heat of Fight mov'd like Lightning have been the true and proper Effects and Sallies out of a Soul through the Freedoms given by God to such Persons for the bringing about those Changes he hath resolv'd upon by their Victoriousness and Conquests And to conclude in all those things that have been done by Men not plainly miraculous nor exceeding the Power of Created Spirits I know no reason why the Wonder should be plac'd any where else but upon that admirable Freedom such Souls by especial Grant from God have had to work like themselves and so to exceed the ordinary Operations of Men. And though this doth not equal their present State to nor bring up their Services to the Services of Angels that Order of Creatures God in his Wisdom hath appointed for the greater and more remarkable Expeditions and Actions in the World as being always ready and as we say in procinctu excelling in prepared and unincumbred strength always upon the guard and hearkning to the voice of his word yet in that such great and mighty Works do shew forth themselves in the Soul and there have been so great and wonderful Persons in all Ages of Famous Memory in their several kinds and vertues in whom the Greatness of this Soul hath broken forth it is a marvellous Instance that the Soul of Man is a Great Potent and Excellent Spirit of vast Activities in its own Nature and that it hath a near resemblance of God and Alliance to Angels that however it be for a little time made lower than Angels yet it shall be brought into a Condition wherein it shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to Angels For though I make no doubt some Men have greater Souls than others as one Star differs from another in Magnitude and as Bodies differ in Strength Beauty and Proportion yet there is the main Excellency of a Humane Body wherein all agree So it is in the Souls of Men the Soul of one Man is a Measure and carries the Pourtraicture of the Souls of Men in their Universal Nature even as Face answers Face in the water so the Soul of one Man returns the Soul of another Man Against all this it lies as a great Objection That the greatest Effects of a Soul we can observe are not great and high enough for such a Being as I have describ'd Mans Soul to be and the great Effects we do see are found onely in some lesser numbers of Men. Let us then inquire into these two things Why the Effects are not greater wherein Souls display themselves and Why we see them not more generally and universally among Men For the first it is to be considered The Soul in the Body is like an Artificer that works by a very dull and unapt Instrument though himself of excellent Skill like a valiant Warriour with a Sword of Lead or as Samson if confin'd to the general Laws of Humane Nature he had fought with the Jaw-bone of an Ass onely or like the Eye though never so quick looking through a dull Glass or in a Dark Room or like a strong and valorous Man in a Cage or close Dungeon or like a Light in a Dark Lantern or like a strong Man asleep All this is the State of the Soul in the Body or like a Prince of Just Authority in Captivity or like a Jewel clos'd up in Clay or a Beauty shrouded under a course Covering To judge of the Soul now and according to such Rules as it acts by in the Body that it shall never be greater and more active than it appears is to conclude the Soul of a Child shall never shew it self greater and more active than it appears while the Child is in Swadling Clothes Or as if the Infant in the Cloyster of the Womb could make a Judgment of it self and think it self in as good a condition or better than it should be in the open Air and that what it is there it must be always The Soul sees now through a glass darkly and is in the condition of a Child and of a Child shut up in the Womb. That the Body is now a great hinderance to the Soul is apparent by the necessity that the Soul must be separated from it and that it must be dissolv'd into Dust or changed and that in the Resurrection our Bodies must be Spiritual Bodies fit to cast the Glories and display the Excellencies of a Soul to discharge the Activities of the highest Elevation of a Spirit But to return to the present State of the Soul in the Body why it is order'd thus that the Body should be such an Instrument out of Tune to the Soul such an excellent Harmonist such a Dungeon to the Mind Princely in its Creation We may give it thus In the very first and most innocent state the Soul was so framed by God that though the Powers of it were much larger than Body and independent upon it yet that they should for a certain season be restrain'd to the Body to govern take care of and act it according to its Nature and Measures according to its Preparations to run along under the Powers of the Soul in their Motion and not be destroy'd by the over-vehemency This Body the Soul was able and fit to act to the utmost of its Capacities and far beyond them and yet it was so moderated as not to over-act them but it could not raise this Body or the Matter of it above its Natural Excellency That was reserv'd in the Creators Power alone as a Reward of the Souls Obedience in that Body for the present time allotted to it The Soul could not make the Body what it would have it be or fit it to all it would have it do when it found it short It could not enable body to all things a Soul had Power for or a desire to For it was but a Living Soul and not a Quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit that is It had a Life given it by God and such a Life that it should be always a Living Soul that it should never decay and
to sleep the description of an endless and incurable Sloath Prov. 24. 33. If the Body be a Composure more lively and spirituous and apt to overheat the Soul presently finds this and committing it self to the Inclinations of Body such Propensions are promoted and inraged according to the mighty Force of a Soul into the Excesses of Lust Rage and all Intemperance beyond the very Bruitish Nature that hath no such Spirit to act it and thus also the Might of the Soul is lost as the Force of the Fire with the Powder in a crack'd or foul Gun that is scatter'd and recoils with mischief or as an over-measure of Powder taking fire without direction the Effect of which is the slaughter and destruction of all about it So that every way nothing is atchieved worthy the Greatness of this Spirit Thus the Soul is doubly disabled by Matter wherein it is set both because that Matter is subject to so many disorders that can no way be perfectly cured and so it is unfit for the Souls use and also because the Soul crowds up its own Activities into a contentment with what it finds most natural and ready in that Matter with which it is joyned complies with it and troubles it self no further to amend it and the longer things continue so the more stiff and unreformable the Evil grows All which put together is a plain Reason why there are no greater Effects of a Soul in the World and how it comes to pass that the multitude of People in it give no other evidence of a Soul but in a provision of Natural Life and the Sensualities of Life somewhat above the Rank of Beasts Now upon the utmost stretch of this Reason there would be no Examples of greater Vertue or Heroickness among Men But because this State both of the Body and the Soul is below the Graciousness of the first Creation and that there are most merciful Relaxations of the Punishment due to the Sin of Man and many Advantages for the betterment of both Soul and Body vouchsafed by God through Christ the Mediator whose Benefits extend to them that do not know him hence it is that the State of Mankind excells it self in many great Instances For the Soul retaining its primitive Vigour and Life which are its very Nature and Being and Body being capable of Refinement to better use by the care of the Soul in the Sublimation of it even as Art polishes the Rude Matter directs it into the usefulness of any Instrument as Chymistry purifies and exalts it as the Skill of the Apothecary corrects and makes it medicinable so the Soul designing to mend the Body sets the Characters of Wisdom Virtue and good Ingeny upon it formes it to a graceful Mine and Deportment turns and twists the Motions of it to the Curiosities of Artifice chastises and reforms it to the Precepts of Virtue and subdues it to the Industry of Study and Contemplation hardens it to the fearless and resolv'd Actions of War quickens it to Service in greatest Works and Undertakings with whatever else we see in the World worthy of consideration to this purpose being the Inspiration of Mind and the Performance of Body commanded by it Now that which under such Pressures excites the Souls of Men to these Aspirings must chiefly be acknowledged to Divine Impressions awakening some Mens Spirits to the exercise of their richer and worthier Faculties of which Scripture gives abundant Testimony in all kinds And under this they may be ascrib'd to the different Magnitudes of Souls or the more advantageous Bodies Providence hath contriv'd for some rather than for others and then to the Instruction and Examples that fall from such Persons as Influences from the Heavenly Bodies and have their Effects upon many not onely of one Age or Country but of far distant Places and succeeding Times so that there have been still springing up great and incomparable Persons Mirrours of the Greatness and Potency of a Humane Spirit and their Actions as Monuments of it and under them multitudes of others though not of so high a degree yet endeavouring to raise themselves somewhat towards the Excellencies of Humane Nature But why upon these so fair Advantages the Excellency of Mans Soul is not more generally retrived may receive this farther Resolution As the Soul working by Body must have a well fitted and prepared Body to work immediately by so it 's further necessary to its Operations by Body that there be a conveniency and an accommodation of several Instruments and Materials besides and beyond Body for it to employ the Ministeries of Body upon and to work at a distance by that the Action may be memorable and great He that will build must first sit down and count the Charge The King that goes to War must consider the strength of his Armies the number of his Men the Conduct and Resolution of his Captains the sufficiency of his Treasure He that separates himself to intermeddle with all Knowledge must be furnish'd with the external as well as the internal Means of Science else his Success can never amount to Eminency Now the present State of the World is so impoverish'd by the Sin of Man that it can supply but Few in comparison of the Many so that the strait and low Condition the unattempting Education and manner of Life that very many the most of Mankind are confin'd to by reason of Want fore-prizes the nobler Darings of their Mind and plunges them so low that they cannot easily rise The Experiments of this Case have been very notable in sundry Persons whose Souls have been kept low and suppress'd by the lowness and narrowness of as they are call'd their Fortunes but have spread and soar'd aloft when their Sphere of Action hath been made more ample and high by accession of those Fortunes and we need not make any doubt but that if the Train had been laid in their Youth to Generous Employment they would have much more excell'd seeing their Souls have as it were started out in their riper years to worthy Menages being encourag'd by plenty of Means when their Education had been sordid And the same thing is proportionably to be believ'd of very many who yet live and die obscure and conceal'd and their name in darkness through Prejudices of a poor Condition while their Souls are in themselves as great as any And indeed it is not intended by God the degenerate State of this World should be so noble or free as to bear up the true and native Greatness of Souls in a Multitude and at their full extent of Action any more than he hath prepar'd the Firmament for many Suns A World of Personages Great for their Prowess Vertue Learning and Wisdom would exalt this State too high It is therefore so ordered that the Spirits of the most lie still and contracted by the very closeness of their Condition besides other Misadventures and are so diverted upon the little things they
recoil with highest Rage and Cruelty upon himself As we see Ahitophel though but 2 Sam. 17. 23. an ordinary thing befell him yet his Spirit being wounded with it he went and hanged himself whereas David 1 Sam. 30. 6. besieged with outward Distress on every hand and finding the surges of Grief within yet was upheld by Divine Reasons He at the same time both diverted his own Spirit from the Evil qualified the Evil it self and fortified his mind encouraging himself in the Lord his God Thus all Contentation and Pleasure Enjoyment and Happiness and the contrary Discontent Vexation Suffering and Misery both here and in Eternity are laid in the disposes of God upon the Spirits of Men filling those capacities he hath therein contrived with such infusions of his Favour or Displeasure as in Wisdom Righteousness and Goodness he hath and shall determine to them and also putting themselves upon such Exercise and Motion and that upon such principles within themselves as must perfectly own acknowledge and agree with those his Divine Attributes and the determinations he makes upon the Souls of men according to them Yet there is always this difference between this present state and the things pertaining properly to it and that of Eternity and the things proper to that that the former are altogether indifferent and nothing more needs but that the Mind be in an equal posture towards them But the things of an eternal consideration are of a perfect necessity so that Happiness and Misery will be for ever in act according to them Upon these Grounds thus laid we may judge of many cases of ordinary and evident experience that concern both Natural and Religious Affairs 1. We see some Men in a low and mean condition with a little of the World much more contented than those in a higher the desires of the one being no larger than their Condition but the minds of the other running out beyond their greater Estate from whence it is evident that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God nor by the abundance of any thing they have but by God giving a suitableness between the Desire and the Enjoyment when God lets out the desire beyond that all else is as nothing at all 2. Again Some men bear far greater Crosses with much more ease than others do far lesser the Spirit of one man centring upon the grief and inconvenience and the other gliding off from it 3. The generality of men having their minds level and but equal at best with their Bodies are very sensible of all the disadvantages and inconveniences of Body Some more heroick and singular persons are far above them and little concerned in them and some strangely insensible and unactive in their Souls bear them without any more than the just pressure upon the Body requires lumps of Clay their Souls are so sheathed in their Bodies that they discover no Soul give no sign of a Spirit they live and dye like Beasts they bear all with the strength of sensitive Nature they shew no Spirit at all till at last they split into innumerable and endless Complaints and Crys except we suppose a loathsom stupidity and fearful darkness of utter want of Consolation and Enjoyment to be the second death of such persons On the other side Some that have great force of Mind and yet are deeply affected to Body exasperate and inflame any bodily Distemper and aggravate it by their terrible impatiences and the same thing falls out to them in Infamy Disgrace Loss or great Disappointment according to the measure business and activity of the Spirit about them so is the thing great or small in mens own account and resentment 4. From an Over-Ballance of Mind it comes to pass that upon several accounts Men become wholly inattendant to their Bodies Some separating themselves with desire Prov. 18. 1. to intermeddle with all Knowledge have been wholly careless of all things else Others ingaged in motions of great Valour and Enterprise have so little valued the Fate of a present life that in the heat of Valour and Fight they have not so much as felt the wounds they have received their Minds being as it were separated from their Bodies Some plunged in deep sorrow and trouble have without the least relenting and compassion done the greatest cruelty upon themselves Some under great disappointment of their Designs have revenged it with greatest rigour and resolution upon their own Flesh as Scaevola with an undaunted constancy burnt the hand that missed in killing Porsenna and so deprived him of the Glory he so earnestly designed himself in that Action Others touched with the Conscience of a great Offence through the vehemency of that have thought all other pains of Nature worthy only of neglect as Cranmer held that hand in the Flame that had signed his Recantation Yea very Debauchees in the Risque of their Vices though their name even their Flesh and their Body have been consumed mourn not while they are in their Carrier but at last they are so restless and importunate in wickedness plotting and performing it doing it with both hands that they have no leisure to think of any thing else and are afraid indeed to offer any such leisure to themselves and to avoid it are always driving on in wickedness they prolong their days Eccl. 8. 12. in and as it seems by it thus far that their earnestness bears them up so that they do not fall into reflexions upon the sad end of it their Spirits are carried so whole and together to it that they have no interruption And if their pursuit be crossed and vexed with hindrances and contrariety of accidents it becomes very outragious and is a continual sickness for so it is said Amnon was 2 Sam. 13. 2. sick for his Sister Thamar All these and multitudes of the like are plain Instances of the Mind governing our Contentment or Discontent in these Affairs and however it inslave it self as it seems to the Body and its satisfactions yet still it is indeed the Vigour Force and mighty action of this Mind that is ever superiour when it doth most debase it self and it is not the Body of Flesh but it self in that Body or that Flesh or as the Apostle calls it a Fleshly Mind that thus designs and acts with a high hand for its own satisfactions And if it be thus in things wherein it seems to be fleshly how much more in those things wherein Body hath no Feeling no Interest From these Grounds we may also discern the several states of Men in Religion 1. The great Insensibleness of it in the minds of most men makes them without any desire or motion after it they see no beauty in it why they should desire it 2. Hereupon also though Men have the greatest reason of trouble in relation to their state towards God yet having no reflections they are wholly untroubled
the weaker or by the forcibleness of outward impression upon one or more of the ingredients a dissolution of that composure is brought to pass The Heavens and heavenly Bodies being purer and more uncompounded have stood so many Ages with so little alteration A Spirit being simply and entirely it self can neither be forced asunder by feuds within it self nor by violence from without there being nothing in its substance to make any intestine War nor any thing weaker or stronger to subdue or be subdued and therefore it receives all strokes upon its whole self as an Anvile that is beaten closer and more united by all the Hammers that fall upon it All the griefs and troubles and disquiets that rise up in it are only the crosses and counter motions and actions of its sentiments and apprehensions yea the very dismal falls of Divine Displeasure upon it do but awaken and stir up sad and grievous apprehensions in it but do not in the least touch the essence or substance of the Soul to weaken it This is that death the only death of the Soul that it is capable of a darkness in the loss of that Beauty and excellency of holy motion and in the deprivation of happiness and blessedness the favour of God a loss of its perfection without any diminution of Being And though it be now in the Body and seems to be lost in the ruines of that yet it is indeed so perfectly it self so separable in its nature from the Body as I have already discours'd at large so distinct and complete in it self that it is only acquitted from that in death not at all altered or changed in its substantial self So then this simplicity of the Soul witnesses the Immortality of its nature and that it cannot be dissolved like the things of this world that consist in the union of several things that conspire and meet together and afterwards flye asunder but the Soul hath nothing to lose or part from but its whole self being one simple thing One All and All One there can be no dissolution Nay the things of this world although they are several things united and made up so into one as several things can be and when those several things flye asunder that one thing is dissolved yet because the parts still continue to be they become something else for there can be no annihilation or bringing things back to nothing but by the omnipotency that created them so that all the death and dissolution that is in whole nature is but only a continual flux and reflux a perpetual passing out of one shape figure nature into another which because things love to be as they are look for the present like death perishing and the decay of the world it self although the composition for that time being is only brought to ruine and although the parts it may be are meliorated made more beautiful and advanced as when a Vessel of Silver designed for baser use is broken to pieces purged in the Refiners fire and then made a Vessel of honour and the materials of a meaner and decayed Building taken down and laid into a nobler Structure yet while this is doing it hath the appearance of spoil and destruction whereas indeed all even to the very Fragments is gathered up that nothing may be lost not so much as the filth of the Vessel or the dust of the Building We may then thus far derive from lower Nature what may make the Immortality of the Soul an easier Notion to us For we see It is the twisting things together with such unequal strengths of the Parts in motion one against another and the liableness of those Parts to the impression of Forreign Motion that let in the Mortality and Frailty that is in worldly Things that so by the prevalency sometimes of one thing sometimes of another there might be those continual Changes and Vicissitudes that God hath appointed for Purposes most agreeable to the greatness and mysteriousness of his most wise Government and Providence But the simpler and more self any thing is the more hardly it is altered till we come to that which is call'd First Matter and Motion which in the abstract Notion of them and as they are by themselves cannot be chang'd or lost but by annihilation For that we call First Matter or Matter as we understand it unimpress'd by Form or Particular Nature though as it is in Particular Nature it by always dying out of one Shape Figure Nature into another is yet so immortal in it self that it cannot it self perish but by annihilation And that Motion which is us'd by God for the twirling this Matter into so many several Forms and is perpetually flitting from one part of it to another and is even driven and expuls'd by the Contrasts it hath with it self as it is in those several parts of Matter from one to another cannot yet be spent in the Sum or any Degree of it be abated in the Total These two because thus abstracted they are perfectly and intirely themselves have thus much of Immortality that they never take End till an End is put to them by Almighty Efficiency But Matter is laid by God and so lies as a Foundation of his Works that cannot be removed and Motion is the Instrument he hath prepared for the management of those his Works and these in their simple selves have no Jars within nor cannot be touched by any extern Hand but as they are in composition undergo those several Changes and hasten out of the posture into another as it pleased God being still the same in themselves For all that Matter can be squeez'd into is Matter and all that Motion can be overcome into is Motion and so they will be till they are disannull'd by God And thus the Soul it s own Substance it s own Motion receiving both from God in its very Being and so being all Self as an unshaken Rock or First Matter bears and lies under all the disposes of God and as highest Life turns every way with subserves his admirable Administrations upon it self which are all in Righteousness Holiness Justice and Mercy This Spirit I say lies under all possible Impressions that can be made on a Soul and yet it is a Soul still it is always the same It is always the same as to its Essence and cannot be so altered or changed as to become another Thing It must be it self or it must be nothing and all Action upon it can but provoke it to Intellectual Action So it is found and so it is left by every thing that comes near it except God should come to make a final Determination upon its Being There is no change upon the Substance of a Spirit but Annihilation The State and Condition and Quality of it may be chang'd from Good to Evil from Evil to Good from Happiness to Misery from Misery to Happiness the very Being remains unalterable while it is The onely way
endure one Posture of Misery for ever most adverse to all our Faculties and yet they so rais'd and held up as perfectly to take in and endure that Misery and that Misery so extracted and spirituous as to penetrate them throughout and not coming in by Drops and lesser Rivulets but Eternity being all alike crowds in upon every Moment whereas now either the Torment is dull'd and rebated or instill'd and proportion'd by such a Succession as carries hope of Change or if it be extreme it presently does all it can do for it consumes what it hath to work upon On the other side How great is the Happiness of Eternity One smooth plain undisturbed Blessedness without any diversity For Ever The highest Faculties in their perfectest State gratified with highest Enjoyment Faculties so strong that they cannot flag the Enjoyment so unfathomable that we can never feel Bottom in it One Moment of endless Pleasure A Moment for it hath no Tediousness A Moment for it hath no Change but is all one and yet it is endless and eternal An Eternity the Duration of which we cannot so much as take notice of being in one Ecstasie of Enjoyment When we see miserable Men and Women going up and down the World living and dying without any Observation it damps the sense of these things and who would think that such are prepared for such an unchangeable State But how strange is it that Men hearing so often of Immortality out of the Gospel and that there is so much in their own Souls resounding to it that they are not Men concern'd to lay hold upon Eternal Life and to fly from the Wrath that is to come Let us look upon this great Level Ocean that hath not so much as one Wave of Change rising up in it this huge and vast Champaign swelling with no Hills sinking with no Dales And this know Men may go down to Hell in a moment thinking they die and end together They may perish without feeling it before-hand or so much as a Conceit about it But whoever are sav'd by Christ they perceive themselves Immortal Christ 2 Tim. 1. 10. brings Life and Immortality to light in their Souls and kindles the sense of it within them those to whom he gives Eternal Life they find this Life begin in the apprehensions they have now of Eternity 4. O how vain are those troublesom turmoiling Thoughts and Cares we have about Time and the Things of it Trundling rolling wheeling Time that hath no continuance that is so made on purpose the Things that cast it are so weak that they are restless in their sudden Changes O Wheel as it was cried out in Ezekiel Ezek. 10. 13. O changing Time every Moment something differing Let us onely mind it as it hath reference to Eternity for therein it is onely of moment Eternity that bears it up it self unconcern'd in its changeableness yet receives it into it self and swallows it up in it self 5. How necessary is it to change while we may from Sin to God to take the advantage of Time in the true Conversion of our selves to God seeing Eternity endures no Change To be wicked in our Eternal State is Wickedness unalterable there are no Reviews or Amendments there To turn is the Advantage offer'd to Sinners within Time In Eternity Repentance finds no place On the other side Eternal Life is Love of God Delight in Holiness without end The Motions of Spirits in Eternity are so swift and perpetual one way that there is not the least Moment to design a Change in A Motion that is always one and the same and is a Rest while a Motion Even as the most rapid Motion of a Globe round that is so swift and rapid that it is not discern'd and so even and just that it looks like standing still So is the State of Eternity Action to the height and most unalterable What I have hitherto discours'd of the Soul hath tended chiefly to illustrate it in those things that do immediately concern its Natural Perfections or its very Being and the Privileges it therein hath as it was made in the Image of the Divine Being and its Perfections For that it is an Invisible Spirit Immaterial Immortal of such mighty Operations and vehement Motions is of immediate Relation to its Being simply considered Now these Excellencies of the Soul I have endeavoured so to abstract in the Discourse of them that they might appear so far as is possible in their so abstract and distinct Consideration and yet as the very Thred and Nature of the Thing led me I have taken care to follow their close and inseparable Connexion or to speak more truly their perfect Union or Sameness with Intellect and to observe the Operations to be the same with Intellectual and Moral Operations that flow from an Understanding To which purpose I have laboured in this Assertion That such a Being as the Soul of Man is must be an Understanding and such Operations as those proper to Mans Soul must be Intellectual Operations however clouded and obscur'd while in the Body But I shall now address my self more fully to treat of the Soul as it is this Intellectual Spirit in its Intellectuality or Intelligency it self and of its Intellectual and Moral Operations wherein it is universally acknowledg'd to be made in the Image of God So that the former Parts of the Discourse describ'd what a kind of Being and of what exalted Motion this Intellect or Understanding is and that an Intellect can be no less than such a Being or no less a Being than such a one and of such a Motion can be an Understanding and that such a Being so moving must be can be no less can be no other than an Understanding What now follows shall be design'd more closely to discover what the Intellectuality of this Great Being and its Self-motion are or what Understanding it self and the Motions of Understanding are In which pursuit I will first make some display upon this great Matter in that frequent Resemblance of it by Light the Scripture so much delights to use concerning it The Spirit of a Man is the Candle Prov. 20. 27. of the Lord shining into and searching the innermost parts of the Belly The Soul of Man as it is an Understanding is a great Light reflected upon it self This is the Soul a Beam from the Sun a Candle lighted from the Light of Heaven and the Light of this Candle is ever streaming out and reflowing upon it self like a Diamond always playing with and in its own Light It may be cover'd over and hid it may be masqued with the thickness and grosness of Earthly Vapours from Body but it is inseparable from its Nature to be Light It cannot but in some degree shine and send out it self though its Beams be but pale and wan but when it hath any greater freedom or when it industriously and resolvedly moves it self there is a Circle of