passe that they are not confounded in the sacred Scripture seeing it doth not onely declare heavenly and eternall things but oftentimes falls upon things of this life You will say But this is subordinately to the life to come True and this is the same which we would have done in this booke of Pansophie that all things contained in the world may be put in subordination to heaven and that all humane knowledge may be subservient to that which is according to Godlinesse And this for a threefold end 1. That the children of God may not be ignorant of those things which the wise men of this world so much admire and set up their rest upon and that worldlings themselves may be unsettled from them when they see that though wee understand them yet we find other more excellent things which are stronger attractives of our affections 2 Because the workes of Nature and the various mysteries which lie couched therein are not intended so much for wicked and profane men that they onely should feed on such dainties but rather that they should delight the children of God Angels and Men for whom this so admirable Theater of his power wisedome and goodnesse is discovered Let us therefore make use of this our right and rather sit ourselves in this Theater in a rationall contemplation of all things than surrendring our places to suffer it wholly to be possessed by such as are profane Lastly wee would have all things ordered together and respectively subordinated one to the other that by all inferiour things the mind may by degrees be raised to all things more sublime For it is certaine that there can be no commodious assent unto the height of things but by degrees and this is as certaine that all Naturall things as also artificiall are as Alphabeticall elements to the children of God whereby they are prepared for to read and understand better the higher dictates of the Law of God Which DAVID sheweth where he telleth us that much is to be learned out of the ordinary course of Heaven and Nature but much more by the prescript of divine Law Psal 19. The third reason why wee would have the word Pansophie used is drawne from the more ample way of handling things than can be used either in Philosophie or Divinity severall by themselves For that which ARISTOTLE required in a wise man who should as much as is possible know all things the same is necessary in Pansophie I meane universality of Principles A continuall and well ordered series of Things without interruption from the beginning to the end and infallibility of Truth The Principles which are here laid are truly universall whereby all demands may be satisfied Sense Reason and Divine Revelation The method which is here taught is as easie as may be beginnnig from things most certainly knowne untill it end in those which are most obscure yet with such a perpetuall gradation as is without either gap or breach Whence the third issueth of it selfe I meane certainty of knowledge and Truth whereby the learner being alwayes in the light seeth assuredly that he goeth forward and not backward without either stay or doubt and knowing he knowes that he knowes and that he is not deceived Seeing therefore that vve teach hovv all men may be altogether vvise in All things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vvhy may not that vvhich vve teach be called and esteemed Pansophie But vvhat is the reason vvhy vve call it not onely Pansophie but Christian Pansophie First because they onely can frame Pansophie or reap fruit by it vvho are furnished vvith sufficient principles such as are Sense Reason and Faith in Divine Revelations But Christians onely have the world in their eyes Gods word in their mouthes and his Spirit in their hearts according to the promise Isaiah 59. 21. And therefore AUGUSTINE argues very strongly that onely Christianity is true Philosophie lib. 3. contra Academ cap. 19. Secondly all pious and faithfull Christians even the simplest of them in as much as they are good Christians are possessed of this Pansophie Because they relish heaven more than earth eternall things more than temporary and do possesse Christ in whom all the treasures of wisedome are hid mystically indeed yet truly in like manner as every seed doth truly containe in it selfe the whole tree or herbe with their fruit But perhaps this might have rather beene called Humane Pansophie because according to the intention of it which is universall instruction leading from universall and easie Principles to those things which are more obscure it ought not to be appropriated to Christians onely but so disposed that all men may partake of it that if God so please it may be a means of enlightning and convincing the minds of unbeleevers As also to cleare our selves from all imputations of inconsideratenesse in attempting things above the Sphere of humane abilities Though indeed we urge nothing but humane that is things possible and due to man To conclude whether this or the former Title pleaseth best it mattereth not much for our part we thought fit to use the word Pansophie for this onely end because we desired to sharpen mens appetites toward wisedome that All men in All things may altogether seeke to fill their minds with Truths and realities rather than with the smoke of fancies and opinions Laying aside this consideration we care not though it be called Aristosophie or Chrestosophie i. excellent and choyce wisedome or about such things as are excellent yea even ignorance For wee are very willing with SOCRATES to professe that wee know this onely that wee know nothing As the Apostle saith If any man thinke that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1. Corinth 8. 2. The next thing we are to speake of is why we say that the structure of this Temple of Pansophie is framed according to the Rules Lawes and Idea's of God the supreme Architect The Reason is at hand Because we follow in the generall dimensions the severall parts their situation use the very pattern which Gods wisdome it selfe did before delineate First to MOSES for the erecting of the Tabernacle then for SOLOMON in the building of the Temple Lastly to EZEKIEL for the glorious restauration of the Temple that was demolished For first God speakes thus to MOSES Exod. 25. 8 9. Let them make mee a Sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them according to all that I shew thee c. and vers 40. And looke that thou make them after the patterne which was shewed thee in the Mount Againe God sent by the Prophet Nathan as is probably held the patterne of the Temple and all the parts thereof to David who delivering it to Solomon charged him not to depart from the forme thereof protesting thus to him 1 Chron. 28. 19. All this the Lord made mee understand in writing by his hand upon mee even all the workes of this patterne Lastly
flowing brooke The Sonne of SYRACH brings in wisedome thus speaking of her selfe I came out as a brooke from a river and as a conduit into a garden I said I will water my best garden and will water abundantly my garden-bed and loe my brooke became a river and my river became a Sea Ecclesiast 24. 30 31. Therefore in this last part of Pansophie it will be our work to consider of and designe such fit channels as may convey these waters abroad on every side that so the vast Commons of humane affaires together with the private garden-plots of every ones soule and the whole Paradise of the Church may be therewith watered And this among others is the reason why we sayd this Temple of wisedome was to be consecrate to Christs Catholique Church gathered and to be gathered out of all nations to wit 1. Because she as a mother may justly challenge from her children whatsoever they are able to invent or do for her honour and comfort 2. Christ saith Matth. 5. 19. Men do not light a candle that they may set it under a bushell but upon a candlesticke that it may give light to all that are in the house Now this light of universall wisedome which puts every thing in subordination to its true end is as it were Gods candle and must therefore be set up in his house which is the Church that it may give light to all 3. This house of the living God the Church as it is called 1 Tim. 3. 15. is built after the same patterne according to which this Temple of wisedome is reared so that by beholding hereof she may be advanced much in knowledge of her selfe According to to that in Cantic 1. 8. If thou know not thy selfe O thou fairest among women goe thy way forth by the footsteps of the flocke c. For here by these continually deduced footsteps of Things the Church is guided the right way to the discovery of her owne and her eternall Spouses comelinesse And seeing that the manifold wisedome of God is made knowne unto Angels by the Church Eph. 3. 10. we ought also to take speciall care that the Church in contemplation of her selfe Angels and of God may have all advantages supplyed her for her promoting in the knowledge of this manifold wisedome of God 4. But chiefely because God hath foretold that the Glory of his new Temple the Church of the New Testament should be most conspicuous in the last times and hath promised a large affluence of light and blessing to it For thus hath God declared by the Prophets ISAIAH and MICAH and by divers others at severall times and twice in the same words that he might manifest the certainty of his decree It shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountaines and it shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it c. Isaiah 2. 2. Micah 4. 1. And it shall come to passe in that day that the mountaines shall drop downe new wine and the hils shall flow with milke and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters and a fountaine shall come forth of the house of the Lord and shall water the valley of the choyce Cedars Joel 3. 18. For living waters shall goe out from Jerusalem halfe of them toward the former Sea and halfe of them toward the hinder Sea in Summer and in winter shall it be And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one Now because these things remaine yet to be most certainly fulfilled men should be stirred up by all meanes possible not onely to behold but also to promote as much as in them lies this glory of the house of God to enlarge the Churches bounds and to derive such rivulets from Gods streame as may water even dry places which were never yet moystned with this heavenly dew that at last all with one accord standing as it were upon a Sea of glasse with harpes of God in their hands might begin to sing the song of MOSES the servant of the Lord and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest Revel 15. 2 3 4. And now I beleeve it appeares sufficiently what manner of booke it is that wee would have compiled and what are our reasons for the urging of it Let therefore all feare and suspicion of confounding sacred and prophane things together be utterly banished For first all things are pure to those that are pure Tit. 1. 15. The gold and silver which was gotten away from those impure Egyptians did not at all defile the Israelites or the Tabernacle Againe here is no confounding of things together but provision is made of remedies against those confusions which so much distract mens minds by a distinct and graduall knowledge of all things which may or ought or are worthy to be knowne Therefore first we declare such generall and knowne truthes as are cleare of themselves by the testimony of common sense next such things as fall under the outward senses to be seene or felt without any errour or mistake afterward such things as are rationally and certainly deduced from sensuall apprehensions but with an application of their truth also to sensible Objects Lastly those things which Divine revelation imparts to us and faith onely receives but so that Sense and Reason may also beare record unto God and the truth of things invisible revealed to us may be acknowledged in the analogie of such things as are visible that the voyce of eternall Truth uttered from all sorts of things may be found to agree in one eternall harmony This confusion therefore beeing so harmonious is nothing else but perfect order But they object Christ taught no such matter he onely declared the way of Salvation Answ 1. Why do you then by your selves or by others take care to have your children instructed in the meaner things of this life as in Arithmeticke Logicke and other sorts of learning 2. Be it so that Christ taught not these things it is most certaine he forbad them not but rather signifies unto us that we ought not to be ignorant of them in that he so often borrowes from things naturall and artificiall both the occasion and the manner of unfolding spirituall mysteries thereby declaring to us that there is such proportion betweene things visible and invisible that these cannot be easier understood than in reference unto them Therefore they would be wiser than Christ himselfe who restraining themselves onely to spirituall and heavenly things reject from the study of Christianity all such things wherewith as they terme
A REFORMATION OF SCHOOLES DESIGNED IN two excellent Treatises The first whereof Summarily sheweth The great necessity of a generall Reformation of Common Learning What grounds of hope there are for such a Reformation How it may be brought to passe The second answers certaine objections ordinarily made against such undertakings and describes the severall Parts and Titles of Workes which are shortly to follow Written many yeares agoe in Latine by that Reverend Godly Learned and famous Divine Mr. JOHN AMOS COMENIUS one of the Seniours of the exiled Church of Moravia And now upon the request of many translated into English and published by Samuel Hartlib for the generall good of this Nation LONDON Printed for MICHAEL SPARKE senior at the Blew Bible in Greene Arbor 1642. A REFORMATION OF SCHOOLES To all those that love Wisedome Light and Truth Health and Peace from Christ the fountaine of them all WIsedome is said by Aristotle to be the knowledge of many and by marvellous things Cicero the knowledge of divine and humane things as also of the causes in which they are contained by Solomon the maker and teacher of all things which with how great praises it hath of old beene celebrated those who have spent any endeavours in the study of it cannot be ignorant The wisest of men saith It is more pretious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto it Length of daies are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Her wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her and happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 3. 15. Cicero saith There neither is nor can be any better gift bestowed upon mankind But Horace goes further Ad summum sapiens uno minor est Jove dives Liber honoratus pulcher Rex denique Regum I 'le speak 't at once The wiseman yeelds to Jove above or none He 's rich and free esteem'd and faire and King of Kings alone If you aske the cause why this one vertue is so much magnified Seneca will answer That without the study of wisdome it is impossible to lead an happy or even an indifferent life And Cicero saith That wisedome is the mother of all Arts teaching us first how to worship God then how to observe justice in humane society and also framing our minds to modesty and magnanimity She drives away darknesse from our mind's as it were from our eyes that we may discerne all things both above us and below us and things of all orders natures and degrees whatsoever and lastly that she is the onely soveraigne medicine of the mind And Solomon addeth that Wisedome strengtheneth the wise man more than ten mighty men that are in the City Eccles 7. 19. And that wisedome is a treasure unto men that never faileth which they that use become the friends of God being commended for the gifts that come from learning For God loveth not any but him that dwelleth with wisdome VVisd 7. 14 28. Not without good cause therefore have the most excellent men in all ages neglected the care of transitory things as of riches pleasures and honours applying their desires and endeavours to this end that by a serious contemplation of all things they might comprehend whatsoever the mind of man is capable of and so bring the whole world into a kind of subjection unto themselves which kind of men in respect of others are indeed as the gift of wisdome is in comparison of other good things granted unto men most glittering pearles or starres rather that do drive away the darknesse of the world We ought therefore thankfully to acknowledge this Divine worke of Gods mercy that hee hath not onely opened unto us the Theaters of his wisdome in the bookes of Nature and of the holy Scripture but hath moreover endued us with Sense and Reason that we might be able to behold them and to collect wisedome out of them supplying us farther with divine revelation where our Sense and Reason are deficient Yet this is not all we owe unto his goodnesse for he hath moreover preserved unto this our age the knowledge of humane learning by which the study of wisedome is cherished and transmitted unto us from our Progenitors yea and hath made it to flourish more now than ever heretofore So that this present age may in respect of learning justly take content and pleasure in its selfe expecting still a further discovery of its light and lustre For it must needs be in the world as it is with man that wisedome comes not afore old age which we may easily see if wee consider the nature of it For wisedome is gained by much experience and experience requireth length of time and variety of occurrences Now the longer a man liveth the more varieties still passe by him whence his experience is encreased the more and by his experience his wisedome according to that of Jesus the sonne of Syrach A man of experience will thinke of many things And that of the Poet Per casus varios Ariem experientia fecit Chance hinteth many usefull things Which to an Art experience brings We therefore in this presentage being so well stored with experiences as no former ages could have the like why should we not raise our thoughts unto some higher aime For not onely by the benefit of Printing which Art God seemes not without some Mystery to have reserved to these latter times what soever was ingeniously invented by the Ancients though long buried in obscurity is now come to light but also moderne men being stirred up by new occasions have attempted new inventions and Wisdome hath beene and is daily miraculously multiplied with variety of experiments According as God hath foretold of these latter times Dan. 12. 4. Whereunto may be added the erecting of Schooles every where more then any Histories record of any former ages whereby bookes are growne so common in all Languages and Nations that even common countrey people and women themselves are familiarly acquainted with them whereas formerly the learned and those that were rich could hardly at any price obtaine them And now at length the constant endeavour of some breakes forth to bring the Method of studies to such a perfection that whatsoever is found worthy of knowledge may with much lesse labour then heretofore be attained unto Which if it shall succeed as I hope and that there be an easie way discovered of teaching all men all things I see not what should hinder us from a thankfull acknowledgment and hearty embracing of that Golden Age of light and knowledge which hath beene so long foretold and expected To the attaining whereunto one matter of speciall moment seemeth yet to be wanting that as a more compendious usefull and easie way of teaching the tongues hath lately been found out and published in the Janua Linguarum so also some means should be thought of for
them worldlings imploy themselves If indeed they do so imploy themselves and settle their rest hereupon yet wee alwaies mindfull of our plus ultra will not be imployed therein but imploy them as steps and degrees for our more easie and speedie attaining unto things of an higher value 3. If Christ taught not such things himselfe yet he hath taught them by others and if not then yet now at least he teacheth them For he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. to wit that wisedome of God by which all things are made Prov. 8. v. 22 c. Therefore whatsoever wisedome light or order is any where or in any time or person to be found it all comes from him and is derived out of his treasury When hee came into the world his worke was not to speed forward these things of smaller moment but that he might give his life a ransome for many Matth. 20. 28. Therefore he committed the writing of the Gospels and constituting of outward order in his Church unto his Disciples care promising to be with them and their successours even unto the end of the world Therefore this worke if profitable or what ever good thing otherwise shall at any time breake forth even unto the worlds end must be all accounted to proceed from Christ who maketh every thing beautifull in his time Eccles 3. 11. Now if our designe for the rearing up this Temple of Universall wisedome do go forward it will be meete for us to consider 1. That according to DAVIDS instructions to SOLOMON the Temple to be builded must be great and magnificall of fame and glory throughout all countries 1. Chron. 2. 5. Therefore workemen should be sought out who are worthy of such employment and who are skilfull to find out every thing that is thereto necessary 2 Chron. 2. 7. 14. 2. SOLOMONS Temple was builded by Gods command upon the mount Moriah which signifies the vision of God and the ground-worke of wisedomes Temple shall likewise be the vision of God that is all visible things shall be used as Perspectives for our minds to behold the invisible Ruler of the universe with his power wisedome and goodnesse richly mantling over all things 3. The matter whereof SOLOMONS Temple was built was of three sorts stones wood and metals the stones were all of great value as marble and pretious stones the woods were fat and odoriferous as the firre and the cedar the metals most pure as gold perfectly refined The matter of wisedomes Temple shall be supplyed out of the store of three sorts of principles Sense Reason and divine Revelation of which Sense resembles the nature of stones in the grossenesse of its perception Reason for its ever flouring quality may well be compared to the spreading of trees and Gods word which remains for ever is like unto pure incorruptible gold 4. Of the stones were made the walls of the woods seeling for to cover the walls and the seeling was over-laid with plates of gold 2 Chr n. 3. 5 6 7. Moreover the marble floore there of 2 Chr. 3. 6. was over-laid with gold 1 King 6. 30. but the sacred vessels the Altar the Table the Candlestickes the Lamps the Censers all were made of most pure gold 2 Chron. 4 19 c. So the foundation and walls of wisedomes Temple shall be reared onely of such Truthes as are palpable evident to the sense to which reason shall supply the causes why every thing must needs be so as it is and lastly the lustre of divine testimony shall thereto be added that truth may every where retaine its native majesty But the sacred furniture hereof which hath reference to the mysteries of faith and salvation shall be the most pure gold of the Oracles of God 5. SOLOMONS Temple was built of stones that were hewed perfectly aforehand so that there were neither hammer nor axe nor any iron toole heard while it was in building 1 King 6. 7. So in the building of wisedomes Temple it will be very unseemly to have the noise of disputes and brawles heard it is more fitting that it should be reared of Truth already squared that is not of such tenets and opinions as are promiscuously taken upon trust and when they come to be laid in the building must then be new hewed and squared to fit them for the understanding and to bring them to some similitude of Truth but such as being exactly wrought in the shop of Principles come forth without any crackes ruggednesse or other inequality so that being applyed they fit fully on every side with things going before with and after them By this only meanes can Truth be settled in the light and recovered from contradiction 6. The parts of that materiall Temple were of most exact proportion and therefore in the story of the building thereof you may find every where mention made of numbers and measures 1 King 6. And the Angel which was to imforme the Prophet concerning the building of the mysticall Temple came provided of a line of flaxe and a measuring reed Ezek. 40. 3. In like manner in this Temple of wisedome all things must be reduced to such an universall Symmetrie that the wandring thoughts of our minds may be contained in their just certaine and immoveable bounds 7. There were added artificiall ornaments by graving and embossing of Cherubims Palme-trees and Flowers 1 King 6. 29. Answerable thereunto this Temple of wisedome must be framed in an apt method and elegant stile that so the outward palate may be therewith delighted as much as may be 8. All things contained in the compasse of that Temple were holy for the outward wall thereof onely was to separate the sacred from that which was prophane Ezek. 41. 20. So let every thing that comes into the content of wisedomes Temple be holy erther in it selfe or else in reference to sacred uses I meane as a step for our easier finding and attaining our ends which are Gods glory and our eternall blisse in him to which all things both great and small every one in their severall order are here directed 9. And as God for the encouragement of those who did reedifie the ruined Temple of Jerusalem promised them abundance of blessings together with his presence and assistance Hagg. 1. 2. the same may the builders of wisedomes Temple be confident of according to that promise of Wisedome from above I love those that love mee and I will fill their treasures Prov. 8. 17 21. 10. Lastly according as when the builders laid the foundation of that materiall Temple the Priests and Levites stood in their apparell with Trumpets and Cimbals to praise the Lord and all the people shouted with a great shout while they praised the Lord Ezra 3. 10 11. So it will well become all good Christians that are any way privy to this pious designe to add their good desires and prayers while the foundation of Wisedomes Temple is in laying that
to be threefold 1. The tearing of Sciences into peeces 2. Want of due fitting of the method unto the things themselves 3. The carelesnesse and extravagancies of expressions and stile For first I professe seriously that as yet in all the bookes that ever I saw I could never find any thing answerable unto the amplitude of things or which would fetch in the whole universality of them within its compasse whatsoever some Encyclopaedias or Syntaxes or books of Pansophy have pretended to in their titles Much lesse could I ever see the whole provision of humane understanding so raised upon its certain and eternal principles that all things were chained and linked together from the beginning to the end without any rent or chink of truth And perhaps no man ever aimed hereat as yet so to square and proportion the universall principles of things that they might be the certain limits to bound in that every-way-streaming variety of things that so invincible and unchangeable Truth might discover its universall and proportionate harmony in all things I say no man ever yet seemes to have intended to cleare any universall way for the knowledge of Truth with the helpe of those universall principles and according to the true lawes of deductions even to the last conclusions Metaphysitians sing a requiem to themselves Naturalists applaud themselves Moralists make their owne lawes and Politicians fix their owne grounds Mathematicians have their triumphant Chariot and Divines their over-ruling throne every one in severall by themselves Yea in every faculty or Science almost every man laies his particular grounds and principles whereupon to build and fasten his particular opinions not regarding what others have deduced from theirs But it is impossible that Truth so scattered and obscured should be this way raked up together For while every one followes his owne fancie in this manner there is as much hope of agreement as there is in a company of Musicians when every one sings his severall song without respect of common time or melody and who would beleeve a Common-wealth to be well ordered wherein there are no publique lawes established but every one liveth as he listeth We see the boughs of a tree will quickly wither and die except they receive nourishment from the common stocke and roots and can the faire branches of Wisdome be thus rent and torne in sunder with safety of their life that is their truth Can any man be a good Naturalist that is not seene in the Metaphysicks or a good Moralist who is not a Naturalist at least in the knowledge of humane nature or a Logician who is ignorant of reall Sciences or a Divine a Lawyer or Physician that is no Philosopher or an Oratour or Poet who is not accomplished with them all He deprives himselfe of hands and eyes and rules that neglecteth or rejecteth any thing which may be knowne Astronomers for example sake would never have had the faces to introduce and maintaine such contrary and absurd hypotheses or positions if they had been to raise them upon the same ground of Truth neither would other things be or at least seeme to be so slippery and uncertaine For the common fate of all learning is this that whosoever delivers it others will take the paines to demolish it or at least to lay it bare Plato's philosophy seemed most elegant and divine but the Peripateticks accused it of too much vaine speculation And Aristotle thought his Philosophy compleat and trimme enough but Christian Philosophers have found it neither agreeing with the holy Scriptures nor answerable enough to the Truth of things Astronomers for many ages carried away the bell with their Spheres Eccentricks and Epicycles but Copernicus explodes them all Copernicus himselfe framed a new and plausible Astronomy out of his Optick grounds but such as will no way be admitted by the unmovable principles of naturall Truth Gilbertus being carried away with the speculation of the Loadstone would out of it have deduced all Philosophy but to the manifest injury of naturall principles Campanella triumphs almost in the principles of the ancient Philosopher Parmenides which he had reassumed to himselfe in his naturall Philosophy but is quite confounded by one Optick glasse of Galilaeus Galilaei And why should we reckon any more Truly if every one would ground their judgements upon the same common principles it could not be that they should rush into such contradictions not onely to the hinderance of their hearers but even to the detriment of Truth which for the most part in such contentions falleth to the ground For when needles obscure and ambiguous things are propounded they cannot but breed distast and thwarting in the minds of those that heare them And when for the gaining of their assents principles are assumed whatsoever trash they be which are neither knowne nor yeelded nor of undoubted truth but rather obnoxious to severall limitations and exceptions of which sort are most of the Canons of common Philosophy and Divinity what can ensue from hence but most tedious contradictions and contentions that a man would be weary to heare such doubts and differences in things perhaps cleare enough of themselves Another course therfore must herein be taken care must be had that Truth approaching us in a most cleare light may not be mired in doubts nor wounded with contradictions but may over come all errours which we think cannot be effected unlesse the beames therof dispersed over all things be united into one that so there may be one and the same symmetry of all things both sensuall intellectuall revealed Now this we cannot behold without a perfect squaring and unseparable consolidation of the principles of knowledge Sense Reason and Divine Revelation which alone will make it to appeare and consequently put an end unto those many controversies For upon the discovery of the ground of things necessarily will follow either the manifestation of an errour in one part of an opposition or else that each part perhaps both thinketh and speaketh true though they understand not one another in regard of the divers respects and considerations of things the ground whereof they doe not yet perceive Certainely those errours which on every side besiege mens minds may this way be subdued and their minds brought into the open light or no way else For it must needs be that the bright Sunne of Truth arising infinite mists and clouds of opinions will vanish of themselves yea and by Gods help the very darknesse of Atheisme it selfe may at length be dispatched away 2. The second cause why Truth is so staggering and uncertaine I before declared to be the loosenesse of Method that Writers doe not wholly tie themselves unto the things themselves to deliver them as they are constantly in themselves but rather draw them unto some trimme and neat conceits of their owne to expresse them by abusing them a thousand wayes which is nothing else but to wrest and transfigure things from their native into strange formes
even in face of the mind and what then can it behold but monsters in stead of things themselves Againe it is impossible to find any Method parallell unto things unlesse all things be reduced unto the same harmony in the understanding wherewith they are knit and fastened together out of it I told you but even now of many sorts of Philosophy which were devised at pleasure and shortly after demolished by others And we may say the same of many Decrees yea and whole Methods of Divinity that they may be built and pulled downe againe seeing they are not squared by the immutable rule of things but by the leaden rule of this or that noddle I wish therefore that all these straggling methods fancied by luxuriant braines might be quite removed out of the way that at last all things might be handled in one order and method For such is our Christian Philosophy or rather Pansophy which we labour to promote that therein all things arise out of unmoveable principles unto unmoveable and stable Truth so knitting and clasping one another with the armes of their perpetuall harmony that this worke of the mind is as little subject to fall in sunder as the world it selfe So that as the world is not ordered at our discretion but proceeds on immutably according to the lawes implanted in it in like manner Pansophy which is nothing but the glasse or mirrour of the Universe should be delivered in such a method from which there is no starting aside if a man would even burst himselfe with desire of change or disagreement Which will be effected if all things be delivered demonstratively by their proper causes and effects But hereto it will be requisite not to trust to externall testimonies and traditions but to the inward truth of things themselves For authorities may as easily cast false colours over things as yeeld them any light or illustration at least they doe distract the learner and estrange his mind from the things unto themselves But things themselves cannot make another manner of impression in the senses then as indeed they are And wheresoever sense is deficient there reason furnished with its certaine rules must also act its part but when Reason is a stand we must then have recourse unto Divine Revelation Which three principles of knowledge are to be laid as the Basis and groundworke of Pansophy that the speeches and writings which Philosophers or Divines have vented forth may not presently be held for Oracles but that rejecting all false spectacles we may looke neerely unto things themselves and by a diligent-search discover what they will owne themselves to be For wise and able men have many times uttered such things as sound of levity and vanity which notwithstanding men-admirers admit promiscuously and adore It were easie enough to produce many examples hereof but I forbeare hoping that when once a clearer light of Truth is kindled abundance of such things will lie open of themselves 3. The third thing whereby Truth is prejudiced is as I said either the carelesnesse or luxuriance of the stile wherein things are expressed We call that a luxuriating stile when in the explication of things improper tropicall hyperbolicall and allusive words or sentences and expressions are used especially when Poets or Oratours and sometimes Philosophers and Divines acting their parts falling upon any subject which they would amplifie or extenuate according to their manner use with their figures and colours so to alter things that for the most part they appeare not in their native but in a borrowed and adventitious forme Which is nothing else but a painting and false glasse whereas truth ought to be beheld with a pure and unaltering light Carelesnesse of stile is when obscure words are used or termes borrowed from a language which is not understood such as Greeke words are to the most part of men or lastly if such things as are not stable Truths are set to sale as the rules of Truth Of which sort we must needs confesse though it be shamefull to speake the bookes of Philosophers and Divines are too full I may therefore boldly affirme that the originall and continuall cause of errours in learning is that unhappy Triplicity whereof I have spoken I meane that divers sundring that divers transplacing and changing and lastly that divers moulding and mixing of things For who can understand things as they are while they are presented but in snatches and pieces while they are out of their proper Series and order while they are under a strange forme For it is easie to erre in any particular object while the generall symmetry of all things is unknowne and while their Series or order is not duely observed it is easier to finde a labyrinth then a guiding path and truth is very ready to glide away while the eyes are bewitched with the false colours of their objects Hence is the off-spring of those infinite errours and hence comes that fastidious multiplication and confused Chaos of bookes that the world is scarce able to containe them Hence is that penury and want of light in this enlightned age as it will be termed that as Tantalus in the water seekes for water so we seeke for light in light and in bookes want bookes yea and learning in the learned I will not insist upon that too fruitfull mother of errours partiality and siding with Sects For Galen hath bestowed a true and deserved Character upon them That those who addict themselves to Sects become both deafe and blind so that they neither heare nor see those things which others easily both heare and see yea and dumb also that they will not speake what is true but rather oppose those that teach it like the drunken Lapithae who with their fists and kickings drove away the Chirurgeon that would have applied remedies to their wounds The next thing is that learning is not enough accommodated to the uses of our life to teach us how to behaveour selves in the occurrences thereof The fault whereof must be laid upon that inveterate custome or rather disease of Schooles whereby all the time of youth is spent in Grammaticall Rhetoricall and Logicall toyes those things which are reall and fit to enlighten mens minds and to prepare them for action being reserved for the Universities that forsooth their judgements being more ripe and they able to undertake such things they may make the more happy progresse But it comes to passe for the most part that as soone as the heat of youth is over every man settles upon his severall way and faculty never minding any due preparation or accomplishment for it Yea and most of such as intend to be Divines Politicians or Physitians doe of set purpose skip over the studies of the Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Naturall Philosophy as if they would be unprofitable staies and hinderances in their way whereas it is a great errour in them seeing a solid judgement can never be attained without solid learning The
because he neither can nor will doe otherwise he cannot because he can behold nothing but himselfe in his infinite eternity whence then should he borrow either the beginning or rule of his works Neither will he for seeing he is most perfect he can will nothing but that which is most perfect now nothing can be said to be most perfect but that one onely eternall and perfect good which is himselfe If any man say that God did take liberty to himselfe to thinke of other rules for the forming of things I aske then to what end he did so If God doe nothing in vaine now in his ordinary concurrence with Nature why should he be thought to have done so at the beginning why should he bethinke himselfe of any other way when himselfe was the most infinite patterne of all perfection Was it that he might conceale his owne Majesty No for it was his owne good purpose to display it visibly Rom. 1. 20. Was it that he might manifest the depth of his wisdome by that looking off from himselfe Neither for this would prove a diminution of the fulnesse of his glory if he could find out any perfection which was not in himselfe which is impossible Therefore it is most certaine that both the creatures and their Idea's have issued from this one fountaine And seeing that among the creatures every agent naturally labours to assimilate its object unto it selfe why should we not acknowledge the same in God who hath imprinted this property in the creatures especially seeing God can find nothing fit to be the end of his works but himselfe Therefore we conclude that God takes from himselfe the rule of his workes as well at the end of them and power to effect them the matter onely whereof the creatures are compos'd and wherein they differ chiefely from their Creator he takes out of nothing 9. God therefore in framing of the world figureth out himselfe so as the creature is wholly proportioned to the Creator Even as the impression answereth alwayes to the stamp although sometimes it be more sometimes lesse evident whence arise divers degrees of this proportion So the Sonne of God is called the expresse image of his Father Heb. 1. 3. And yet man is said to be made after the image of God Gen. 1. 26. 1 Cor. 11. 6. Yea and all other things are said to resemble him in some sort for it is said that the invisible things of God are seene from the beginning of the world in those things which are made Rom. 1. 20. and that in the greatnesse and beauty of created things their Creator may be proportionably knowne Wisd 13. 5. And hereupon it was that the Gentiles entitled Nature not onely the Daughter of God but said that its selfe was God Nature is nothing else saith SENECA but God and divine Law implanted in the whole world and all its parts de Benef. 4. c. 7. 10. And because all things are partakers of divine Ideas hence also it comes to passe that they partake one of another and are proportioned one to the other For those things that agree in any third thing agree among themselves 11. Therefore the conceptions of all things are the same nor is there any difference but in the manner of their existence because in God they are as in their Originall in Nature as in the Coppy in Art as in the counterfeit Even as in a Seale the form is one and the same which is first conceived in the mind of him that graves it or commands it to be graven then as it is engraven in metall and lastly as it is stamped upon wax For although it be threefold yet it is the same because the second is formed by the first the third by the second each of them after the resemblance of that which is next before it in order So these Ideas being first conceived in God imprint their likenesse in the creatures and likewise the reasonable creatures in things which they themselves effect 12. Therefore the ground as of the framing so of the knowledge of all things is Harmony That which the Musicians call harmony is a sweet consonancie of diverstones the like exact agreement is to be found in the eternall perfections of God with those which are created in Nature and those which are expressed in Art for each of them is harmonious in it selfe as also in mutuall respect one to the other Nature is the image of divine Harmony and Art of Nature 13. The first thing required in Harmony is that there he nothing dissonant Musical Harmony is composed of most different contrary tones and yet there is a certaine consonancie to be found in their contrariety So the whole world is composed of contraries because without them the Truth and order essence of the world would fall as also the Scripture containeth many things in it which seeme to oppose one another all which notwithstanding have a perfect agreement in themselves and so are to be disposed in our understandings towards a perfect Harmony that so there may bee an universall consent as in Divine so in humane workes and words all seeming dissonancies vanishing of themselves The want of the understanding of this mystery is the reason that Philosophers and Divines doe picke out of Nature and Scripture one this thing another that opposing Nature to Nature Scripture to Scripture and thereupon drawing out contrary senses fall into contentions and differences among themselves which thing cannot chuse but vanish of it selfe if once the light of this universall Harmony doe but appeare For Truth is one and every way agreeing with it selfe 14. The second thing required in Harmony is that all things have a perfect consonancie and agreement It is manifest both in naturall and artificiall things that all are framed according to Harmony So in a beast a tree a musicall instrument a ship a booke an house all the parts are necessarily proportionate as to the whole so to one another But some men may make a question whether divine things have any proportion with things naturall and artificiall for it may be thought that it best becomes the divine Majesty to have nothing common with the creatures But we must observe that whatsoever is to be found in the counterfeit is first and by way of excellencie in the patterne so the river proceeds from the fountaine the shadow from the body and the image in a glasse from the thing it represents Againe if the workes of nature are so absolute and exact that there is no place left for new additions thereunto as GALEN confesseth lib. 6. de usu part cap. 1. and if the nature of Nature be unchangeable and unalterable as TERTULLIAN witnesseth against Valent. cap. 9. 29. what then is Nature but a lively image of him in whom all things are first and by way of excellencie good perfect and unchangeable Lastly in the Scripture God attributes to himselfe eares eyes a mouth hands
feet an heart a face and back parts also he stiles himselfe fire a rocke a tower an anchor To what purpose is all this if these things cannot represent God but if on the otherside they can and doe represent him then it is certainely no otherwise then he is seeing the word of God is the rule of Truth We are not ignorant that all these things are spoken figuratively for we will not goe a madding with the Anthropomorphites but no man can deny but that all these figures have their ground and foundation in the proportion and identity of the things themselves For every thing must first be before it can be predicated Therefore as artificiall things are proportioned unto things naturall so are naturall things unto divine 15. The third property of Harmony is that though the variety of sounds and melodies be infinite yet all ariseth out of some few principles and certaine different moods For all different harmonies whatsoever have or can be invented arise onely from seven notes and three concords All corporeall things that are contained in the world are composed of those few elements and some few differences of qualities and so of the rest So that the multitude and variety of things is nothing else but the various iteration of the same things As for example upon a tree though there are millions of leaves yet all are of the same figure colour and vertue yea and all trees of the same kind through the whole world grow after the same sort and have the same active and passive dispositions So also the trees of severall kinds agree in many things among themselves 16. Therefore all things will be knowne if their principles and the manner of their differences be discovered For as in Musick he that knowes the nature of the severall tones and moods will easily be able both to sing and compose any kind of melody yea such a way is found out that players on Instruments are able by looking upon one onely generall Base to play many parts at once without any kind of discord so also it is infinite that he may both understand and performe that doth but comprehend the generall natures of artificiall naturall and supernaturall things As for example he that knowes what fairenesse or beauty is of it selfe and whereof it consists will easily be able to know what is meant by a faire soule a beautifull body a faire colour faire manners or the like Againe whatsoever doth not agree with that Idea will easily appeare not to be faire or beautifull The opening of these fountaines will afford us the knowledge of a world of things 17. Now these common natures of things are to be abstracted from the things themselves and to be laid for the common rules of all things As for example the nature of faire good perfect profitable of life sense c. is to be sought for in things which are faire good perfect c. And this must be done by a prudent and diligent separating of those things which are not of the essence of beauty goodnesse or perfection untill the formes and natures of them remaine cleared from all other conceptions For all things that are have their common nature or conception whereby they are therefore they all necessarily meet in some common manner of being as also all living things in some manner of life sensitive creatures in their sensation and those things that are beautifull in some manner of being for which they are so called and so of others If therefore such common notions and Ideas were accurately abstracted from all things it would prove a generall key to let us in unto the knowledge of things a rule for all sorts of operations it would point out many new inventions and be the touchstone of all opinions in a word a most large field for all pleasant speculations 18. But these rules of Truth must be abstracted from such things as cannot be otherwise then they are and such as are obvious to every one for making experiments in them all I meane from naturall things For Divine things are of themselves unsearchable and are knowne onely so farre as they are shadowed but in nature or revealed by the word of God on the other side Art borrowes all its reason and certainty from Nature and is often deceived Therefore the field of Nature chiefly is that wherein we must search for these Idea's yet not neglecting the help of Gods word the holy Scripture wherein the truest and amplest designment of the workes of God that is what he hath done doth and will doe and to what end is to be found Therefore the rules whereby our Pansophy is to bee evected must be borrowed from these two Nature and Scripture whereby all things great and small high and low first and last visible created and uncreated may be reduced to such an Harmony or Pan-harmony rather as which is true perfect and every way compleat and satisfactory to it selfe and to things themselves Thus farre have we proceeded in the laying downe of rules for the revising of all things anew It followes now that we declare the manner how they are to be disposed of For we thinke such a method is necessary for our Pansophy as is absolutely perfect whereunto nothing may be added and such an one as may so knit mens minds unto the things themselves that they may find no end but in the end and may first reape some solid fruit of their endeavours before they perceive any difficulties therein which we conceive may be attained 1. By an accurate Anatomizing of the whole Universe if all the veines and joynts thereof be so cleared and laid bare that there may nothing lie hid from our sight but every thing may appeare in his proper place without any confusion 2. It is necessary that the true signification of words especially such as are of more generall use be fully agreed upon that homonymies and ambiguons expressions breed no more dissentions and this will be effected by accurate definitions of things such as Mathematicians usually premise before their demonstrations 3. Next after the divisions and definitions of things shall follow their Rules Lawes and Canons with their demonstrations annexed 4. It is also requisite that both divisions definitions and Canons should be 1. very cleare and perspicuous 2. of certaine use and benefit 3. altogether true in themselves in all times and places For the want of these three conditions hath not without cause beene hitherto excepted against both in the writings of Philosophers and Divines Many things are set downe so obscurely that even Mercury himselfe would want another Mercury to explaine them Many things againe of very little or no use and some things which are onely accidentally true For example that Metaphysicall Theoreme Substantia non recipit magis minus is neither true nor if it be true is it of any use For he that is fully growne up is more a man then an Embryo or infant in
the workes of God and how wisely they are made Psalm 104. 24. to the end that wee who are Gods Image may learne to expresse wisedome in all our actions 3. Care as it may ought to be taken for those who desire to behold this Temple of wisedome that they may not want helps for the stirring up the like affection in them that DAVID had when the contemplation of Gods workes moved him to say The glory of the Lord shall indure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his workes I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my beeing Psal 104. v. 31. 33. 4. Neither is there any reason why we should despaire of greater concord among men if they could be brought to a more generall consent in their opinions concerning the same things For if all men would well consider of this that they are all directed to the same end by the same Creator and led along in the same common wayes although there be some variety in particulars it is likely enough that they would be more ready to commit their course to this divine Providence rather than by fruitlesse reluctancie to disturbe it which will produce no other issue than that at last whether they will or no they must be brought into order in their eternall confusion 5. Lastly this Temple of wisedome may be also fitted for the stirring up both of the hope and desire of the life to come if in this generall survey of things it be plainly manifested how all things spring out of eternity and returne thither and consequently that those who settle their affections here do nothing else than catch at a vaine shadow Thus farre have we shewed why this Theater of wisedome may well passe under the name of a Temple The next is why wee entitle it not wisedome simply but universall wisedome and Pansophie according to the Greeke I will not here produce examples of others as of LAURENBER GIUS and ALSTEDIUS who commendeth five sorts of things to be knowne to him that desires to be and to be accounted generally wise and knowing Archilog cap. 1. Our owne ground is sufficient which is threefold taken from the subject of this wisedome the object of it and the manner of teaching it As for the subject it hath beene the custome of former ages not to suffer the mysteries of wisdome to be published in vulgar languages for every ones understanding but in strange and forraine languages as the Latine and Greeke which must be of purpose learned for them by which meanes wisedome it selfe was esteemed the peculiar treasure of such onely as had accesse unto those fountaines But wee claime it as the publique possession granted unto all mankind which ought to be recovered to their common use and behoofe And our earnest desire and suit is even by the glory of God that some course may be sought and discovered that all in generall even the meanest sort of people may be able to behold and adore the prints and footsteps of the goodnesse of their Creator expressed even in all things which they either see heare taste touch do speake or think And this is the first reason why wee call it not simply wisedome but wisedome generall for all men Concerning the object of wisedome it hath hitherto for the most part beene parted among the learned one undertaking Philosophy another Divinity a third Physicke and some the Lawes rejecting all other care or respect of common Truth And againe in Philosophie one chooseth this part another that to busie their thoughts about not so much as comming neere the threshold where the others dwell Whence it cometh to passe that most mens knowledge is but particular yea and partiall too which is farre worse For they must needs sever into parts that agree not in the whole and they easily become the founders of Sects who understand not how Truth which differs not from it selfe spreads it selfe upon the same stocke But wee protest to the world that neither order the bond nor truth the soule of things can be perfectly knowne unlesse from a generall comprehension of all things The order or things cannot be perceived by those that bounding themselves in the compasse of one or two neglect their coherence one with another Neither can hee comprehend the full Truth of Things who observes not how Truth still retaines its own form in its infinite diffusions We wish therefore that the whole orbe of Things and humane knowledge being taken the true centers of essences may be found by an exact measuring of the proportion of all things among themselves that so venerable Truth discovering its amiable face to us in abstract formes wee may be the so oner acquainted with it when we meete it concrete in particular Things And hence may easily be gathered how little that divorcing of Divinity from Philosophy and of Philosophy from Divinity which is every where to be found liketh us For Divines for the most part thinke it their duty to intend nothing but Divinity on the other side Philosophers fixe themselves so to the speculation of nature that they forget Divinity yea even God himselfe Hence it comes to passe that many Philosophers through disuse of God and religion fall into meere Atheisme againe some Divines loath and detest Philosophie which is very injurious as the other is horribly impious For God who is the Author as well of his workes as of his words will as he may well be be acknowledged and honoured in them both And he instructs us both by his words and also by his workes which wee here meete withall in this present life that he may prepare us for that which is to come Therefore he doth not onely injoyne us to hearken to his voyce but also to behold his workes That we may therefore reconcile Philosophie to Divinity that is Gods workes to his words or Truth impressed in Things to Truth expressed in words and so may make reason subordinate to faith Our Counsell is that among Christians neither Philosophy nor Divinity may be taught severally but both joyntly which is Pansophie For this will be our perfect wisedome to be wise for the life to come and to avoid folly here to have an eye to God and the life to come and yet to observe how we are here encircled with his Majestie diffused over all But some may say and some have already vented such speeches against us By this your Pansophie Divinitie will be confounded with Philosophy Divine wisedome with humane a medley will be made of heaven and earth I answer 1. Seeing they are not confounded in learned mens understandings there being many excellent spirits that are deeply insighted both in sacred and profane knowledge what reason have wee to feare that they will be confounded in bookes 2. Distinct things may be so distinctly handled that though they goe together they may still remaine inconfused 3. How comes it to
of the people suggesteth to us the third part of Pansophie which treats of such things as fall under our senses the visible world with all visible creatures therein contained and such things as are by Nature effected in them or with relation to them For the Gate of common Notions openeth hither immediately that common truth being already tasted of may be farther sought and found in such things as are neere at hand and may be seene and felt which is a very easie and certaine step to the discovery of things more remote And here men shall learne the knowledge of naturall life and of such things as are requisite for the prolongation of it that so they may have skill and ability to preserve and draw it out by naturall meanes as long as their destiny suffereth them IV. The middle Court shall be paralleld by the fourth part of Pansophie which explaines such things as are subject to reason or the Intellectuall world that is all humane workes which are and may be effected by wit and Art and all things which humane understanding reacheth unto The nearest entrance hither is out of the Court of Nature for all that our art and wisedome can effect is either to imitate the course or amend the defects or supply the wants of Nature In this Theater men may learne wherein they excell brute beasts to wit in the right use of Reason in prudent disposing all sorts of affaires and in the benefit of speech In a word here they may find how to live a true rationall life as well in respect of themselves and other men with whom they converse as of all other creatures also V. The innermost Court supplies us with the fift part of Pansophie wherein men shall be brought acquainted with themselves in their inward man and taught to lead a divine and spirituall life For here man shall behold that part of himselfe wherein he most resembled God that is the absolute freedome of his will So as being beforehand stored with provision from his senses for the knowing of all things and the light of reason to direct his judgement in them he might now like a King of unbounded power freely embrace or refuse things according as they were represented or concealed by the senses and either approved or rejected by reason For this is the greatest height of dignity that creatures can be raised unto by their Creator as God expresseth in his consultation concerning the creation of man Let us make man according to our Image who may have dominion over the fish and birds c. that is that he may do according to his owne will For it was requisite for the perfection of the world that besides elements stones plants and brute beasts and such like which have their actions assigned them by nature and act onely according to the force of their naturall instincts there should be also some more noble Creature who should be master of his owne both actions and inclinations Besides it makes much for the glory of God whose wisedome discovers it selfe farre more conspicuously in over-ruling such creatures as are acted by their owne wills than in such as are by nature determined to their actions And hereby God prepared a way to manifest the depth of his goodnesse in rewarding voluntary obedience of his justice in punishing of sinne and lastly of his clemencie in restoring this most excellent Creature after his fall Therefore he is the adequate object of the full discovery of Gods wisedome MAN who bethinking himselfe of his former height of dignity will the easier acknowledge the grosnesse of his fall into that bottomlesse gulfe of misery from whence there was no other recovery or restitution to his former dignity unlesse God himselfe should condescend to tye him to himselfe by a stronger bond in a new and eternall union In this part of Pansophie therefore Man shall behold those great and profound mysteries which are hid from the eyes of the world of his internall Generation Degeneration and Regeneration together with those admirable secrets of God in mans creation redemption and sanctification in Gods governing him or giving him over in his salvation or damnation and shall learne being drawne out of the depth of perdition and restored to God and to himselfe hereafter to deny himselfe that is by resigning his liberty of will unto God to commit himselfe to the rule and guidance of his spirit in a word to adhere close unto God and to live a true spirituall life Therefore the content of this part of Pansophie shall be that knowledge which is described Prov. 30. 3. to be the wisedome of the holy and Psal 51. 6. hidden wisedome and is made to be the abstract summe of all wisedome Job 28. 28. Eccles 12. 13. which is hidden from the wisemen of this world Matth. 11. 25. that so it may plainly appeare how farre the knowledge conferr'd upon the Church excels all the learning of Philosophers and how high Gods house is raised upon the top of other mountaines Isaiah 2. 2. VI. The last and most secret part of the Temple called the Holy of Holies shall be here answered by the sixt part of Pansophie wherein the GOD of GODS shall be seene in habiting his owne eternity so farre I meane as in this life he discovers himselfe and his infinite and eternall Majesty and Glory to such as he predestinates and invites unto the eternall fruition of himselfe In this Theater Man by beholding his owne and the worlds originall draught shall find how truly all Gods workes do represent him though in their severall manner and measure and yet how every thing that can be found in the creature either good beautifull pleasant or desirable is in God in an infinitely more excellent manner The fruit whereof will be that being ravished with the taste and sweetnesse of that eternall blisse he may know how to do nothing else but even to melt in delight and love of his God and to yeeld himselfe wholly to be his habitation that so passing comfortably this present life he may by the gate of death enter into eternity VII Lastly from that River of waters issuing out of the Temple and diffusing themselves over all the earth we will derive the last part of Pansophie which unfolds the right use of the waters of true wisedome I am not ignorant that by those waters proceeding out of EZEKIELS Temple the course of the Gospell is disciphered to us which was but still and calme at the beginning afterward by degrees receiving such large encreases as it was not to be stayed by any opposition like a river that breakes over and washeth away all dammes and ramparts that can be raised against it Yet it plainly appeares also that wisedome is compared to waters The law of the wise is a fountaine of life saith SOLOMON Prov. 13. 14 and 14. 27. and chap. 18. 4. The words of a mans mouth are as deepe waters and the welspring of wisedome as a