to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation WEE are now come to the Moral Cabbala which I do not call Moral in that low sense the generality of men understand Morality For the processe and growth as likewise the failing and decay of the divine Life is very intelligibly set forth in this present Cabbala But I call it Moral in counter-distinction to Philosophical or Physical as Philo also uses this tearm Moral in divine matters As when he speaks of Gods breathing into Adam the breath of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God breathes into Adams face Physically and Morally Physically by placing there the Senses viz. in the head Morally by inspiring his Intellect with divine knowledge which is the highest Faculty of the Soul as the Head is the chief part of the Body Wherefore by Morality I understand here divine Morality such as is ingendred in the Soul by the operations of the holy Spirit that inward living Principle of all godliness and honesty I shall be the more brief in the Defence of this Cabbala it being of it self so plain and sensible to any that has the experience of the life I describe but to them that have it not nothing will make it plain or any thing at all probable Ver. 1. A Microcosme or little World Nothing is more ordinary or trivial then to compare Man to the Universe and make him a little compendious World of himself Wherefore it was not hard to premise that which may be so easily understood And the Apostle supposes it when he applies the Creation of Light here in this Chapter to the illumination of the Soul as you shall hear hereafter Ver. 2. But that which is animal or natural operates first According to that of the Apostle That which is Spiritual is not first but that which is Animal or Natural afterward that which is Spiritual The first Man is of the Earth earthy the second Man is the Lord from Heaven But what this earthy condition is is very lively set out by Moses in this first days work For here we have Earth Water and Wind or one tumultuous dark Chaos and confusion of dirt and water blown on heaps and waves and unquiet night-storm an unruly black tempest And it is observable that it is not here said of this deformed Globe Let there be Earth Let there be Water Let there be Wind but all this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subject matter a thing ' made already viz. The rude Soul of Man in this disorder that is described sad Melancholy like the drown'd Earth lies at the bottome whence Care and Grief and Discontent torturous Suspicion and horrid Fear are washed up by the unquiet watry Desire or irregular suggestions of the Concupiscible wherein most eminently is seated base Lust and Sensuality and above these is boisterous Wrath and storming Revengefulnesse fool-hardy Confidence and indefatigable Contention about vain objects In short whatever Passion and Distemper is in fallen Man it may be referred to these Elements But God leaves not his creature in this evil condition but that all this disorder may be discovered and so quelled in us and avoided by us he saith Let there be Light as you read in the following verse Ver. 3. The day-light appears To this alludes S. Paul when he says God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Where the Apostle seems to me to have struck through the whole Six days of this Spiritual Creation at once The highest manifestation of that Light created in the first day being the face of Jesus Christ the Heavenly Adam fully compleated in the sixt day Wherefore when it is said Let there be Light that Light is understood that enlightens every man that comes into the world which is the divine Intellect as it is communicable to humane souls And the first day is the first appearance thereof as yet weaker and too much disjoin'd from our affections but at last it amounts to the true and plain Image and Character of the Lord from Heaven Christ according to the Spirit Ver. 4. And God hath framed the Nature of Man so that he cannot but say c. God working in second causes there is nothing more ordinary then to ascribe that to him that is done by men even then when the actions seem lesse competible to the Nature of God Wherefore it cannot seem harsh if in this Moral Cabbala we admit that man does that by the power of God working in the soul that the Text says God does as the approving of the Light as good and the distinguishing betwixt Light and Darknesse and the like which things in the mystical sense are competible both to God and Man And we speaking in a Moral or Mystical sense of God acting in us the nature of the thing requires that what he is said to do there we should be understood also to do the same through his assistance For the soul of man is not meerly passive as a piece of wood or stone but is forthwith made active by being acted upon and therefore if God in us rules we rule with him if he contend against sin in us we also contend together with him against the same if he see in us what is good or evil we ipso facto see by him In his light we see light and so in the rest Wherefore the supposition is very easie in this Moral Cablala to take the liberty where either the sense or more compendious expression requires it to attribute that to man though not to man alone which God alone does when we recur to the Literal meaning of the Text. And this is but consonant to the Apostle I live and yet not I. For if the life of God or Christ was in him surely he did live or else what did that life there Only he did not proudly attribute that life to himself as his own but acknowledged it to be from God Ver. 5. As betwixt the Natural Day and Night It is very frequent with the Apostles to set out by Day and Night the Spiritual and Natural condition of man As in such phrases as these The night is far spent the day is at hand Walk as children of the Light And elsewhere Let us who are of the day and in the same place You are all the sons of light and sons of the day We are not of the night nor of darknesse But this is too
it self after his kinde so that the several sorts of plants might by this means be conserv'd upon the earth And God saw that it was good 13 And the evening and the morning made up the third natural day 14 There have three days past without a Sun as well as three nights without either Moon or Stars as you your selves may happily have observ'd some number of Moonless and Starlesse nights as well as of Sunlesse days to have succeeded one another and so it might have been always had not God said Let there be Lights within the Firmament of heaven to make a difference betwixt day and night and to be peculiar garnishings of either Let them be also for signes of weather for seasons of the year and also for periods of days months and years 15 Moreover let them be as lights hung up within the hollow roof or Firmament of heaven to give light to men walking upon the pavement of the earth and it was so 16 And God made two great lights the greater one the most glorious Princely object we can see by day to be as it were the Governor and Monarch of the day the lesser the most resplendent and illustrious sight we can cast our eyes on by night to be Governesse and Queen of the night And he made though for their smalnesse they be not so considerable the Stars also 17 And he placed them all in the Firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth 18 And to shew their preheminence for external lustre above what ever else appears by either day or night and to be peculiar garnishings or ornaments to make a notable difference betwixt the light and the darknesse the superaddition of the Sun to adorn the day and to invigorate the light thereof the Moon and the Stars to garnish the night and to mitigate the dulnesse and darknesse thereof And God saw that it was good 19 And the evening and the morning was the fourth natural day 20 After this God commanded the waters to bring forth fish and fowl which they did in abundance and the fowl flew above the earth in the open Firmament of heaven 21 And God created great whales also as well as other fishes that move in the waters and God saw that it was good 22 And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the fowl multiply on the earth 23 And the evening and the morning made up the fifth natural day 24 Then God commanded the earth to bring forth all creeping things and four footed beasts as before he commanded the waters to send forth fish and fowl and it was so 25 And when God had made the beast of the earth after his kinde and cattel and every creeping thing after his kinde he saw that it was good 26 And coming at last to his highest Master-piece Man he encouraged himself saying Go to let us now make man and I will make him after the same image and shape that I bear my self and he shall have dominion over the fish of the Sea and over the fowls of the Air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 27 So God created man in his own shape and figure with an upright stature with legs hands arms with a face and mouth to speak and command as God himself hath I say in the image of God did he thus create him But mistake me not whereas you conceive of God as masculine and more perfect yet you must not understand me as if God made mankinde so exactly after his own image that he made none but males for I tell you he made females as well as males as you shall hear more particularly hereafter 28 And having made them thus male and female he bad them make use of the distinction of sexes that he had given them and blessing them God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with your off-spring and be lords thereof and have dominion also over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the air as well as over beasts and cattel and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth 29 And God said Behold I give you every frugiferous herb which is upon the face of the earth such as the Straw-berry the several sorts of Corn as Rye Wheat and Rice as also the delicious fruits of Trees to you they shall be for meat 30 But for the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air and for every living thing that creepeth upon the earth the worser kind of herbs and ordinary grasse I have assign'd for them and so it came to passe that mankinde are made lords and possessors of the choicest fruits of the earth and the beasts of the field are to be contented with baser herbage and the common grasse 31 And God viewed all the works that he had made and behold they were exceeding good and the evening and the morning was the sixt natural day CHAP. II. 3 The Original of the Jewish Sabbaths from Gods resting himself from his six days labours 5 Herbs and Plants before either Rain Gardning or Husbandry and the reason why it was so 7 Adam made of the dust of the ground and his soul breathed in at his nostrils 8 The Planting of Paradise 9 A wonderful Tree there that would continue youth and make a man immortal upon earth Another strange Tree viz. the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 11 The Rivers of Paradise Phasis Gihon Tigris Euphrates 18 The high commendation of Matrimony 19 Adam gives names to all kinde of creatures except fishes 21 Woman is made of a rib of Adam a deep sleep falling upon him his minde then also being in a trance 24 The first Institution of Marriage 1 THus the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the creatures wherewith they were garnisht and replenisht 2 And God having within six days perfected all his work on the seventh day he rested himself 3 And so made the seventh day an holy day a festival of rest because himself then first rested from his works Whence you plainly see the reason and original of your Sabbaths 4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth which I have so compendiously recounted to you as they were created in the days that the Lord made heaven and earth and the several garnishings of them 5 But there are some things that I would a little more fully touch upon and give you notice of to the praise of God and the manifesting of his power unto you As that the herbs and plants of the field did not come up of their own accords out of the earth before God made them but that God created them before there were any seeds of any such thing in the earth and before there was any rain or men to use gardning or husbandry for the procuring their growth So that hereafter
Creation 29 And that nothing might be wanting to their delight behold also divine Providence hath prepared for their palate all precious and pleasant herbs for sallads and made them banquets of the most delicate fruit of the fruit-bearing trees 30 But for the courser grasse and worser kinde of herbs they are intended for the worser and baser kinde of creatures Wherefore it is free for man to seek out his own and make use of it 31 And God considering every thing that he had made approved of it as very good and the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Sixt days work and the Senary denotes the nature thereof CHAP. II. 2 Gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew adumbrated by the number Seven 4 Suns and Planets not only the furniture but effects of the Ethereal Matter or Heaven 6 The manner of Man and other Animals rising out of the earth by the power of God in nature 8 How it was with Adam before he descended into flesh and became a terrestrial Animal 10 That the four Cardinall virtues were in Adam in his Ethereal or Paradisiacal condition 17 Adam in Paradise forbidden to taste or relish his own will under pain of descending into the Region of Death 18 The Masculine and Feminine faculties in Adam 20 The great Pleasure and Solace of the Feminine faculties 21 The Masculine faculties laid asleep the Feminine appear and act viz. The grateful sense of the life of the Vehicle 25 That this sense and joy of the life of the Vehicle is in it self without either blame or shame 1 THUS the Heavens and the Earth were finisht and all the garnishings of them such as are Trees Flowers and Herbs Suns Moons and Stars Fishes Fowls and Beasts of the field and the chiefest of all Man himself 2 Wherfore God having thus compleated his work in the Senary comprehending the whole Creation in six orders of things he ceased from ever creating any thing more either in this outward Material world or in the world of Life But his Creative Power retiring into himself he enjoyed his own eternal Rest which is his immutable and indefatigable Nature that with ease oversees all the whole Compasse of Beings and continues Essence Life and Activity to them and the better rectifies the worse and all are guided by his Eternal Word and Spirit but no new Substance hath been ever created since the six days production of things nor shall ever be hereafter 3 For this Seventh day God hath made an Eternal Holy day or Festival of Rest to himself wherein he will only please himself to behold the exquisite Order and Motion and right Nature of things his Wisdome Justice and Mercy unavoidably insinuating themselves according to the set frame of the world into all the parts of the Creation he having Ministers of his Goodnesse and Wrath prepared every where So that himself need but to look on and see the effects of that Nemesis that is necessarily interwoven in the nature of the things themselves which he hath made This therefore is that Sabbath or Festival of Rest which God himself is said to celebrate in the Seventh day and indeed the number declares the nature thereof 4 And now to open my minde more fully and plainly unto you I must tell you that those things which before I tearm'd the Garnishings of the Heaven and of the Earth they are not only so but the Generations of them I say Plants and Animals were the generations effects and productions of the Earth the Seminal Forms and Souls of Animals insinuating themselves into the prepared matter thereof and Suns Planets or Earths were the generations or productions of the Heavens vigour and motion being imparted from the world of Life to the immense body of the Universe so that what I before called meer Garnishings are indeed the productions or generations of the Heavens and of the Earth so soon as they were made Though I do not take upon me to define the time wherein God made the Heavens and the Earth For he might do it at once by his absolute Omnipotency or he might when he had created all Substance as well material as immaterial let them act one upon the other so and in such periods of time as the nature of the production of the things themselves requir'd 5 But it was for pious purposes that I cast the Creation into that order of Six dayes and for the more firmly rooting in the hearts of the people this grand and useful Truth That the Omnipotency of God is such that he can act above and contrary to natural causes that I mention'd herbs and plants of the field before I take notice of either rain or man to exercise Gardning and Husbandry For indeed according to my former narration there had been no such kinde of rain as ordinarily nowadays waters the labours of the Husbandman 6 But yet there went up a moist vapour from the earth which being matur'd and concocted by the Spirit of the world which is very active in the heavens or air became a precious balmy liquour and fit vehicle of Life which descending down in some sort like dewy showers upon the face of the earth moistned the ground so that the warmth of the Sun gently playing upon the surface thereof prepared matter variously for sundry sorts not only of Seminal forms of Plants but Souls of Animals also 7 And Man himself rose out of the earth after this manner the dust thereof being rightly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers and balmy droppings of Heaven For God had so contriv'd by his infinite Wisdome that matter thus or thus prepar'd should by a vital congruity attract proportional forms from the world of Life which is every where nigh at hand and does very throngly inequitate the moist and unctuous air Wherefore after this manner was the Aereal or Ethereal Adam conveyed into an earthly body having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain And thus Adam became the Soul of a Terrestrial living Creature 8 But how it is with Adam before he descends into this lower condition of life I shall declare unto you in the Aenigmatical narration that follows which is this That the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden where he had put the Man which afterward he formed into a Terrestrial Animal For Adam was first wholly Ethereal and placed in Paradise that is in an happy and joyful condition of the Spirit for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine Intellect and the Sun of Righteousnesse then shone fairly upon him 9 And his Soul was as the ground which God hath blest so brought forth every pleasant Tree and every goodly Plant of her heavenly Fathers own planting for the holy Spirit of Life had inriched the soil that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits And the Tree of Life was in the midst of this Garden of mans soul
that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of Melancholy that thus abuses him and in stead of the true divine Principle would take the Government to it self and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the Animal Figurations But the true divine Life would destroy nothing that is in Nature but only regulate things and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity entituling Sanguine and Choler to as much Virtue and Religion as either Phlegme or Melancholy For the divine Life as it is to take into it self the humane nature in general so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof But the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true Piety and Virtue but which of the Complexions or what Humour shall ascend the Throne and fit there in stead of Christ himself But I will not expatiate too much upon one Theme I shall rather take a short view of the whole Allegory of the Chapter In the first Day there is Earth Water and Wind over whâ—ch and through which there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse and tumultuous agitation The Winds ruffling up the Waters into mighty waves the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the water all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation This is the state of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Earthly Adam as Philo calls him till God command the Light to shine out of Darknesse offering him a guide to a better condition In the second day is the Firmament created dividing the upper and the lower Waters that it may feel the strong impulses or taste the different relishes of either Thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath and this is the day wherein is set before him Life and Death Good and Evil and he may put out his hand and take his choice In the third day is the Earth uncovered of the Waters for the planting of fruit-bearing trees By their fruits you shall know them saith our Saviour that is by their works In the fourth day there appears a more full accession of divine Light and the Sun of Righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of God and man In the fift day that this Light of Righteousnesse and bright Eye of divine Reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field where there is nothing either to subdue or guide and order God sends out whole sholes of Fishes in the Waters and numerous flights of Fowls in the Air besides part of the sixt days work wherein all kinde of Beasts are created In these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde sprung from these lower Elements of the humane nature viz. Earth and Water Flesh and Blood all these man beholds in the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse discovers what they are knows what to call them can rule over them and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them This is Adam the Master-piece of Gods Creation and Lord of all the creatures framed after the Image of God Christ according to the Spirit under whose feet is subdued the whole Animal Life with its sundry Motions Forms and Shapes He will call every thing by its proper name and set every creature in its proper place The vile person shall be no longer called liberal nor the churl bountiful Wo be unto them that call evil good and good evil that call the light darknesse and the darknesse light He will not call bitter Passion holy Zeal nor plausible meretricious Courtesie Friendship nor a false soft abhorrency from punishing the ill-deserving Pity nor Cruelty Justice nor Revenge Magnanimity nor Unfaithfulnesse Policy nor Verbosity either Wisdome or Piety But I have run my self into the second Chapter before I am aware In this first Adam is said only to have dominion over all the living creatures and to feed upon the fruit of the Plants And what is Pride but a mighty Mountainous Whale Lust a Goat the Lion and Bear wilful dominion Craft a Fox and worldly toil an Oxe Over these and a thousand more is the rule of Man I mean of Adam the Image of God But his meat and drink is to do the will of his Maker this is the fruit he feeds upon Behold therefore O Man what thou art and whereunto thou art called even to bee a mighty Prince amongst the creatures of God and to bear rule in that Province he has assigned thee to discern the Motions of thine own heart and to be Lord over the suggestions of thine own natural spirit not to listen to the counsel of the flesh nor conspire with the Serpent against thy Creator But to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy God so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the Motions of Life and bear rule with God over the whole Creation committed to thee This shall be thy Paradise and harmlesse sport on Earth till God shall transplant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in Heaven CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature TO the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitulation of what went before in the first Chapter and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of S Paul and Origen and other Writers Only there is mention of a Sabbath in the second verse of this Chapter of which there was no words before And this is that Sabbatisme or Rest that the Author to the Hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into through faith and obedience For those that were faint-hearted and unbelieving and pretended that the children of Anak the off-spring of the Giants would be too hard for them they could not enter into the promised Land wherein they were to set up their rest under the conduct of Jâ—shua a Type of Jesus And the same Author in the same place makes mention of this very Sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the Creation concluding thus There remaineth therefore a Sabbatisme or Rest to the people of God For he that has entred
into his Rest he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest lest any man fall after that example of disobedience and unbelief For the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well include both Senses viz Disobedience or the not doing the Will of God according to that measure of Power and Knowledge he has already given us and Vnbelief that the divine Life and Spirit in us is not able to subdue the whole Creation of the little World under us that is all the Animal Motions and Figurations be they Lions Bears Goats Whales be they what they will be as well as to cast out the children of Anak before the Israelites as it is in that other Type of Christ and of his Kingdome in the Souls of Men. Ver. 4. The Generations of the Animal Life when God created them For these are as truly the works of God as the divine Life it self though they are nothing comparable unto it Nay indeed they are but an heap of confusion without it Wherefore the great accomplishment is to have these in due order and subjection unto the Spirit or Heavenly Life in us which is Christ and that you may have a more particular apprehension of these generations of the Animal Life I shall give you a Catalogue of some of them though confusedly so as they come first to my memory Such therefore are Anger Zeal Indignation Sorrow Derision Mirth Gravity Open-heartednesse Reservednesse Stoutnesse Flexibility Boldness Fearfulness Mildeness Tartness Candour Suspicion Peremptoriness Despondency Triumph or Gloriation All the Propensions to the exercise of Strength or activity of Body as Running Leaping Swimming Wrestling Justing Coursing or the like Besides all the Courtly Preambles necessary Concomitants and delightful Consequences of Marriage which spring up from the Love of Women and the Pleasure of Children To say nothing of those enjoyments that arise from correspondent affections and meer natural friendship betwixt man and man or fuller companies of acquaintance their Friendly Feastings Sportings Musick and Dancings All these and many more that I am not at leisure to reckon up be but the genuine pullulations of the Animal Life and in themselves they have neither good nor hurt in them Nay indeed to speak more truly and impartially they are good according to the Approbation of him that made them but they become bad only to them that are bad and act either without measure or for unwarrantable ends or with undue circumstances otherwise they are very good in their kind they being regulated and moderated by the divine Principle in us And I think it is of great moment for men to take notice of this truth for these three reasons First because the bounds of sin and of the innocent Motions of Nature being not plainly and apertly set out and defined men counting the several Animal Figurations and natural Motions for sins they heap to themselves such a task to wit the quite extirpating that which it were neither good nor it may be possible utterly to extirpate that they seem in truth hereby to insinuate that it is impossible to enter into that Rest or Sabbath of the people of God Wherefore promiscuously sheltring themselves under this confused cloud of sins and infirmities where they aggravate all so as if every thing were in the same measure sinful if they be but zealous and punctual in some they account it passing well and an high testimony of their sanctimony And their hypocrisie will be sure to pitch upon that which is least of all to the purpose that is a man will spend his zeal in the behalf of some natural temper he himself is of and against the opposite complexion But for the indispensable dictates of the divine Light he will be sure to neglect them as being more hard to perform though of more concernment both for himself and the common good But if it were more plainly defined what is Sin and what is not Sin a man might with more heart and courage fight against his enemy he appearing not so numerous and formidable and he would have the lesse opportunity for perverse excuses and hypocritical tergiversations The second reason is That men may not think better of themselves then they are for their abhorrency from those things that have no hurt in them nor think worser of others then they deserve when they do but such things as are approvable by God and the divine Light And this is of very great moment for the maintaining of Christian Love and Union amongst men The third and last is That they may observe the madness and hypocrisie of the world whose religious contestations or secret censures are commonly but the conflict and antipathy of the opposite Figurations of the Animal Life who like the wilde beasts without a Master to keep good quarter amongst them are very eagerly set to devour one another But by this shall every man know whether it be Complexion or Religion that reigns in him if he love God with all his heart and all his soul and his neighbour as himself And can give a sufficient reason for all his actions and opinions from that Aeternal Light the Love of God shed abroad in his heart if not it is but a faction of the Animal Life sed up and fostered by either natural Temper or Custome and he is far from being arrived to the Kingdome of Christ and entring into that true Rest of the people of God Ver. 5. Where there is no external doctrine Pulpits and Preachings and external Ordinances there is no such noise of them amongst the holy Patriarchs whose lives Moses describes and therefore I conceive this sense I have here given the Text more genuine and warrantable But besides Moses unvailed being Christianity it self the manner of the growth of the true Christian is here prefigured That he is rather taught of God then of Men he having the Spirit of Life in him and needs no man to teach him For he has the Unction in himself which will teach him all things necessary to Life and Godliness Ver. 6. Which is repentance from dead works In this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Philosophick Cabbala signified a Vapour but here I translate it a Fountain of Water which I am warranted to do by the Seventy who render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that Water is an Embleme of Repentance it is so obvious that I need say nothing of it John's baptizing with Water to Repentance is frequently repeated in the Gospels Ver. 7. And breathes into him the Spirit of Life In allusion to this passage of Moses in all likelihood is that of the Psalmist Thy hands have made me and fashioned me O give me understanding and I shall live as if like Adam he were but a statue of Earth till God breathed into him the Spirit of Life and Holiness Of the Water and of the Spirit The Water and the Spirit are the
two extremes the first and the last that makes up the Creation of the Spiritual Adam or Christ compleated in us and includes the middle which is Blood First therefore is Repentance from what we delighted in before Then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us which is resisting to blood as the Apostle speaks And the 1 Epistle of John ch 5. v. 4. What ever is born of God overcomes the world Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus Christ the divine Light and Life in us is the Son of God and therefore indued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us This is he that comes by Water and Blood by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin not by repentance only and dislike of our former life but by the mortification also of it Then the Spirit of Truth is awakened in us and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true And according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially That no man can say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God but by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere affirms This is the heavenly Adam which is true Light and Glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead and into whom God hath breathed the breath of Life without which we have no right knowledge nor sense of God at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are thâ— words of Philo upon the place For how should the soul of man says he know God if he did not inspire her and take hold of her by his power Ver. 8. To the Kingdome of Heaven And the end of the doctrine of John which was Repentance was for this purpose that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described and therefore it was a motive for them to repent For though sorrow endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning For the new Jerusalem is to be built and God is to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men and to rule by his Spirit here upon Earth which if I would venture upon an Historical Cabbala of Moses I should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years according to the Chronology of Scripture when the world shall be so spiritualized that the work of Salvation shall be finished and the great Sabbath and Festival shall be then celebrated in the height A thousand years are but as one day saith the Apostle Peter And therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day Wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years the Kingdomes of the Earth will be the second Adams the Lord Christs as Adam in the Sixt day was created the Lord of the world and all the creatures therein and this conquest of his will bring in the Seventh day of rest and peace and joy upon the face of the whole Earth Which presage will seem more credible when I shall have unfolded unto you out of Philo Judaeus the mysterie of the number Seven but before I fall upon that let me a little prepare your belief by shewing the truth of the same thing in another Figure Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared they died not enjoying the richness of Gods goodness in their bodies But Enoch who was the seventh from Adam he was taken up alive into Heaven and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body The world then in the Seventh Chiliad will be assumed up into God snatch'd up by his Spirit inacted by his Power The Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon Earth God will as I said pitch his Tabernacle amongst men And for God to be in us and with us is as much as for us to be lifted up into God But to come now to the mysterie of the Septenary or number Seven it is of two kindes the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septenary within the Decade is meerly seven unites The other is a Seventh Number beginning at an Vnite and holding on in a continued Geometrical Proportion till you have gone through Seven Proportional Terms For the Seventh Term there is this Septenary of the second kinde whose nature Philo fully expresses in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense For always beginning from an Vnite and holding on in double or triple or what Proportion you will the seventh Number of this rank is both Square and Cube comprehending both kindes as well the Corporeal as Incorporeal Substancâ—e the Incorporeal according to the Superficies which the Squares exhibite but the Corporeal according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the Cubes As for example 64. or 729. these are Numbers that arise after this manner each of them are a Seventh from an Unite the one arising from double Proportion the other from triple and if the Proportion were Quadruple Quintuple or any else there is the same reason some other Seventh Number would arise which would prove of the same nature with these they would prove both Cubes and Squares that is Corporeal and Incorporeal For such is sixty four either made by multiplying eight into eight and so it is a Square or else by multiplying four Cubically For four times four times four is again sixty four but then it is a Cube And so seven hundred twenty nine is made either by Squaring of twenty seven or Cubically multiplying of Nine for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made and so is both Cube and Square Corporeal and Incorporeal Whereby is intimated that the world shall not be reduced in the Seventh day to a meer Spiritual consistency to an Incorporeal condition but that there shall be a co-habitation of the Spirit with Flesh in a Mystical or Moral sense and that God will pitch his Tent amongst us Then shall be settled everlasting righteousnesse and rooted in the Earth so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof And this truth of the Reign of Righteousness in this Seventh thousand years is still more clearly set out to us in the Septenary within Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls it the naked number Seven For the parts it consists of are 3 and 4 which put together make 7. And these parts be the sides of the first Orthogonion in Numbers the very sides that include the right angle thereof And the Orthogonion what a foundation it is of Trigonometry and of measuring the altitudes latitudes and longitudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in Mathematicks And this prefigures the uprightness of that holy Generation who will stand and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inclining neither this way nor that way but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart And by this Spirit of Righteousness will these Saints be enabled to finde out the depth and breadth
that in processe of time not onely Ecclesiastical but Civil power it self will be involved in those ruines and Christ alone will be exalted in that day For before he deliver up the Kingdome to his Father he is to put down all Rule and all Authority and Power For he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his feet The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which as I have already signified unto you though he be now the King of Terrours will in that great Festival and Sabbatisme by reason of so sensible and palpable union betwixt the Heavenly and Earthly nature be but a pleasant passage into an higher room or to use that more mysterious expression of the Rabbins concerning Moses in whose writings this Sabbatisme is adumbrated God will draw up a mans soul to himself by an Amorous kisse For such was the death of that holy man Moses who is said to have died in Moab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the kisses and embracements of God This shall be the condition of the Church of Christ for many hundred years Till the Wheel of Providence driving on further and the Stage of things drawing on to their last Period men shall not onely be freed from the fear and pain of death but there shall be no capacity of dying at all For then shall the day of the Lord come wherein the Heavens shall passe away with a noise and the Elements melt with fervent heat and the Earth with all the things in it shall be burnt up Thus Christ having done vengeance upon the obstinately wicked and disobedient and fully triumphed over all his enemies he will give up his Kingdome to his Father whose Vicegerent hitherto he hath been in the affairs of both Men and Angels But till then whosoever by pretending to be more Spiritual and Mystical then other men would smother those essential Principles of the Christian Religion that have reference to the external Person of Christ let him phrase it as well as he will or speak as magnificently of himself as he can we are never to let go the plain and warrantable Faith of the Word for ungrounded fancies and fine sayings Wherefore let every man seek God apart and search out the Truth in the holy Scripture preparing himself for a right understanding thereof by stedfastly and sincerely practising such things as are plainly and uncontrovertedly contained therein and expect illumination according to the best communication thereof that is answerably to our own faculties otherwise if we bid all Reason and History and Humane helps and Acquisitions quite adiew the world will never be rid of Religious Lunacies and Fancies FINIS AN ACCOUNT of what is contained in the Prefaces and Chapters of this Book In the Preface to the Reader What is meant by the tearm Cabbala and how warrantably the literal Exposition of the Text may be so called That dispensable speculations are best propounded in a Sceptical manner A clear description of the nature and digniety of Reason and what the divine Logos is The general probabilities of the truth of this present Cabbala The designe of the Author in publishing of it THE LITERAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 2 The Earth at first a deep miry abysse covered over with waters over which was a fierce wind and through all darknesse 3 Day made at first without a Sun 6 The Earth a floor the Heavens a transparent Canopy or strong Tent over it to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous Sea from drowning the world 8 Why this Tent or Canopy was not said to be good 9 The lower waters commanded into one place 11 Herbs flowers and fruits of Trees before either Sun or seasons of the year to ripen them 14 The Sun created to and added the day as a peculiar ornament thereof as the Moon and Stars to the night 20 The Creation of Fish and Fowl 24 The Creation of beasts and creeping things 27 Man created in the very shape and figure of God but yet so that there were made females as well as males 28 How man came to be Lord over the rest of living creatures 30 How it came to pass that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the Earth and the beasts on the worse p. 1 CHAP. II. 3 The Original of the Jewish Sabbaths from Gods resting himself from his six days labours 5 Herbs and Plants before either Rain Gardning or Husbandry and the reason why it was so 7 Adam made of the dust of the ground and his soul breathed in at his nosthrils 8 The Planting of Paradise 9 A wonderful Tree there that would continue youth and make a man immortal upon earth Another strange Tree viz. the Tree of knowledge of good and evil 11 The Rivers of Paradise Phasis Gihon Tigris Euphrates 18 The high commendation of Matrimony 19 Adam gives names to all kinde of creatures except fishes 21 Woman is made of a rib of Adam a deep sleep falling upon him his minde then also being in a trance 24 The first Institution of Marriage 9 CHAP. III. 1 A subtile Serpent in Paradise indued with both reason and the power of speech deceives the woman 2 The Dialogue betwixt the woman and the Serpent 7 How the shame of nakednesse came into the world 8 God walks in the Garden and calls to Adam 10 The Dialogue betwixt Adam and God 14 The reasons why Serpents want feet and creep upon the ground 15 The reason of the antipathy betwixt Men and Serpents 16 As also of womens pangs in childe-bearing and of their being bound in subjection to their husbands 18 Also of the barrennesse of the earth and of mans toil and drudgery 21 God teacheth Adam and Eve the use of leathern clothing 24 Paradise haunted with apparitions Adam frighted from daring to taste of the Tree of Life whence his posterity became mortal to this very day 15 THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 The world of Life or Forms and the Potentiality of the visible Vniverse created by the Tri-une God and referr'd to a Monad or Unite 6 The Vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing and referr'd to the number Two 7 Why it was not said of this matter that it was good 9 The ordering of an Earth or Planet for making it conveniently habitable referr'd to the number Three 14 The immense Aethereal Matter or Heaven contriv'd into Suns or Planets as well Primary as Secondary viz. as well Earths as Moons and referr'd to the number Four 20 The replenishing of an Earth with Fish and Fowl referr'd to the number Five 24 The Creation of Beasts and Cattel but more chiefly of Man himself referr'd to the number Six 22 CHAP. II. 2 Gods full and absolute rest from creating any thing of anew adumbrated by the number Seven 4 Suns and Planets not only the furniture but effects of the Ethereal Matter or Heaven 6 The manner of Man and other Animals rising out of the
of Euphrates Pison Phasis or Phasi-tigris That the Madianites are called Aethiopians That Paradise was seated about Mesopotamia argued by six Reasons That it was more particularly seated where now Apamia stands in Ptolemee's Maps 18 The Prudence of Moses in the commendation of Matrimony 19 Why Adam is not recorded to have given names to the Fishes 24 Abraham Ben Ezra's conceit of the names of Adam and Eve as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25 Moses his wise Anthypophora concerning the natural shame of nakednesse 124 CHAP. III. 1 How much it saves the credit of our first Parents that the Serpent was found the prime Author of the Transgression That according to S. Basil all the living creatures of Paradise could speak undeniable reasons that the Serpent could according to the Literal Cabbala 9 The opinion of the Anthropomorphites true according to the Literal Cabbala 14 That the Serpent went upright before the fall was the opinion of S. Basil 16 A story of the easie delivery of a certain poor woman of Liguria 19 That the general calamities that lie upon mankinde came by the transgression of a positive Law how well accommodate it is to the scope of Moses 23 That Paradise was not the whole Earth 24 The Apparitions in Paradise called by Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130 THE DEFENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 Why Heaven and Light are both made Symbols of the same thing viz. The World of Life That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate a Trinity That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of the Eternal Wisdome the Son of God who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well in Philo as the New Testament That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the holy Ghost 2 The fit agreement of Plato's Triad with the Trinity of the present Cabbala 5 The Pythagorick names or nature of a Monad or Unite applyed to the first days work 6 What are the upper waters and that Souls that descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Naides or water Nymphes in Porphyrius 8 That Matter of it self is unmoveable R. Bechai his notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very happily explained out of Des Cartes his Philosophy That Vniversal Matter is the second days Creation fully made good by the names and property of the number Two 13 The nature of the third days work set off by the number Three 16 That the most learned do agree that the Creation was perfected at once The notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangely agreeing with the most notorious conclusions of the Cartesian Philosophy 19 That the Corporeal world was universally erected into Form and Motion on the fourth day is most notably confirmed by the titles and propertie of the number Four The true meanning of the Pythagorick oath wherein they swore by him that taught them the mysterie of the Tetractys That the Tetractys was a Symbole of the whole Philosophick Cabbala that lay couched under the Text of Moses 20 Why Fish and Fowl created in the same day 23 Why living creatures were said to be made in the Fift and Sixt days 31 And why the whole Creation was comprehended within the number Six 135 136 CHAP. II. 3 The number Seven a fit Symbole of the Sabbath or Rest of God 7 Of Adams rising out of the ground as other creatures did 11 That Pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes Prudence The mystical meaning of Havilah 13 That Gihon is the same that Nilus Sihor or Siris and that Pison is Ganges The Justice of the Aethiopians That Gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes that virtue 14 As Hiddekel Fortitude 17 That those expressions of the Souls sleep and death in the Body so frequent amongst the Platonists were borrowed from the Mosaical Cabbala 19 Fallen Angels assimilated to the beasts of the field The meaning of those Platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moses that signifies Angels as well as God 22 That there are three principles in Man according to Plato's School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this last is Eve CHAP. III. 1 The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pherecydes Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of Spirits haunting Fields and and desolate places The right Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 That Satan upon his tempting Adam was cast down lower towards the Earth with all his Accomplices 15 Plato's Prophecie of Christ The reasonablenesse of divine Providence in exalting Christ above the highest Angels 20 That Adams descension into his Terrestrial Body was a kind of death 22 How incongruous it is to the divine Goodnesse Sarcastically to insult over frail Man fallen into Tragical misery 24 That it is a great mercy of God that we are not immortal upon Earth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one A Summary representation of the strength of the whole Philosophick Cabbala Pythagoras deemed the son of Apollo That he was acquainted with the Cabbala of Moses That he did miracles As also Abaris Empedocles and Epimenides being instructed by him Plato also deemed the son of Apollo Socrates his dream concerning him That he was learned in the Mosaical Cabbala The miraculous power of Plotinus his Soul Cartesius compared with Bezaliel and Aholiab and whether he was inspired or no. The Cabbalists Apology 172 THE DEFENCE OF THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. What is meant by Moral explained out of Philo. 3 That the Light in the first day improv'd to the height is Adam in the sixt Christ according to the Spirit 4 In what sense we our selves may be said to do what God does in us 5 Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred Ignorance and Inquiry 18 Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Fourth days progresse 22 That Virtue is not an extirpation but regulation of the Passions according to the minde of the Pythagoreans 24 Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation p. 194 CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature 209 210 CHAP. III. A story of a dispute betwixt a Prelate and a Black-Smith concerning Adams eating of the Apple 1 What is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the Serpent That Religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state And it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it 5 6 That worldly Wisdome not Philosophy is perstringed in the Mysterie of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil 10 The meaning of Adams flying after he had found himself naked 20 Adam the Earthly-minded Man according to Philo. 21 What is meant by Gods clothing Adam and Eve with hairy Coats in the Mystical sense 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Paradise of Luxury That History in Scripture is wrote very concisely and therefore admits of modest and judicious Supplements for clearing the sense 24 What is meant by the Cherubim and flaming Sword Plato's definition of Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A more large description of dying to Sinne and of the life of righteousness That Christian Religion even as it referres to the external Person of Christ is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the Conflagration of the world 224 ERRATA PAg. 39. lin 24. read sacred p. 79 l. 19. r. Sensus p. 87. l. 14. r. wilde p. 126. l. 26. r. goodly p. 204. l. 35. r. run p. 230. l. 34. r. generous FINIS