and Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys which are all conteined within the same Extension of the whole Body of Matter and the several Figures therof are the Hieroglyphical Images of the Various Spirits and may have some kind of Signature therof and so Condensation is Analogous to Intension and Rarity to Remission of Qualitys and Pondus to Potentia and the rest but especialy Motion is Analogous to the very Activity of Spirits and yet as Matter and Spirit so all Material and Spiritual Accidents are Genericaly Different and particularly Local Motion from the Active and Generative or Corruptive Motion of Elementary Spirits and much more from Vegetation Sensation and Intellection which are Motions of a farr other Nature as I shall shew heerafter Again as Matter and Material Accidents are not nor can not be Formaly the very Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys so neither are they Potentialy as others have supposed and so would Educe them all out of I know not what Potentia Materiae and some Christian Philosophers in compliance therwith have supposed the first Chaos to be only such a Materia Prima though God saith expresly that in the very Begining he Created Heaven and Earth Comprehending Superaether and all the fower Elements as I have said and that the Matter had not only as a Materia Prima the first and common Affections therof that is one Extension one Orbicular Figure Equidensity and Equigravity and the like but particular Diversifications and Variations of Spheres of several Figures Densitys and Gravitys and the like and the Superaether then probably was Created Perfect and adorned with all the Furniture therof whatsoever it is and the Elements were Created in such a maner as did Denominate them Aethereal and Aereal Heavens Earth and Water yea the very Heavens and the very Earth as some have Criticaly observed though Inform and Inane and without Motion which is Secondary and Subordinate to Rest and wherof there was no Need nor Use before Generation and Corruption were Ordeined afterward in the Six Days Of all which I shall now proceed to discours SECTION VI. And the Spirit of God Moved upon the face of the Waters EXPLICATION The Spirit of God Moving in the Chaos by Supernatural Incubation did Prepare and Predispose it for the Producing and Perfecting all things that were before Created in it afterward in the Six Days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Incubation of the Divine Spirit 2. Of Actuality and Potentiality 3. Of Generation and Corruption 4. Of the Process therof 5. Of the Scale of Nature 6. Of the Oeconomy therof I. GOd who in the Begining or very first Instant Created Heaven and Earth could also have Perfected them and all Creatures therin in the very same Instant as most probably he did so Perfect the Superaether and Angelical Nature which are the highest Sphere and highest Nature for the manifestation of his Infinite Power yet also to manifest his Infinite Liberty and Absolute Sovereignty over Created Being and the Subordination and Subjection therof to himself and how the Creatures as they could not Caus themselvs to Be from Notbeing so also after they had a Being could not of themselvs Perfect themselvs nor attein any farther Degree of Welbeing without him and his Creating Causality did first let this Elementary World ly in the Chaos therof and afterward in such a Space of Time as seemed fitt to his Divine Wisedom that is in Six several Days proceed Gradualy and Orderly to Perfect them And though the first Creation which was from Absolute Notbeing to Being must therefore have been in an Instant becaus there is only one Affirmative Term therof that is Being which must necessarily be in the same Instant assoon as it was yet all these Works of the Six Days which were Productions from Potentiality to Actuality or Original Generations from not such a Being to such a Being which are several Affirmative Terms of Being and the first only Negative of such a Being which yet implys Being was Gradualy in Time according to Natural Generation and the Process and Cours therof which was then Instituted as I shall shew heerafter And this Original Generation was another Improper Creation and Pâ—rfective of the Primitive and Proper Creation and such as could not be perâ—ormed by Nature until the Natural Cours therof was sett in Order by the Divine Spirit who before it was so Produced and until it was Perfected did from the Begining Effectively Move or Incubate in or upâ—n the Created Chaos as it were hatching the Egâ— or Embryo therof in the midst of all the Elements that is upon or above the Face of the Waters and Earth beneath them and under the Aereal and Aehereal Heavens Preparing and Predisposing them for the Production of all their Apparatus and Inhabitants out of their first Created Potentâ—alitys Latent in the first Chaos into their Actualitys in the Six Days And all those Productions were also the Immediate Works of the same Divine Power as it is said God said Let there be Light and so of the rest which were not tâ—e same Creations with the first for that had been Vain and Superflâ—ous nor in the same maner for that was in the Begining or first Instaâ—t but these in Six several Days Gradualy and Orderly according to the Natural Process of Generation which was then fiâ—st Instituted as I have said and wherin as all their Primitive Enâ—itys were first Created in the Chaos and then Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit so every Production in every one of the Six Days was Previous and Preparatory in Nature to and for the Succeeding Productions as I aâ—so shall shew heerafter Aâ—d Angels probably being Createâ— Perfect in and with their Superae her in the Begining though they migâ—t be Spectators yet neither did Operate nor Assist in this Improper Creation which though Improper in respect of the former yet is only Proper to God himself who is expressly said so to Create in all the Six Days as well as in the Begining But I presume rather that as God made all things for himself and the manifestation of his own Glory to his Intellective Creatures Angels and Men so Angels were Created in the Begining in and with their Native Region of the Highest Heaven that they who can Intuitively behold all things and needed no Created Light to Inspect the Dark Chaos and so I suppose the whole World and Frame of Nature is Transparent to them might Contemplate all the Works of God in the Improper Creations of the Inferior Elementary World which was to be the Region of Man as he who is the other Intelligence was made last to Review as God himself afterward did all the Works which he had made and to celebrate that Sabbath of Rest which God Instituted and as it is said made for him And as the Divine Spirit was the only Creator and Angelical Spirits no Subcreators so much less was there or is there any such Archaus Faber or
Wherupon he Instituted and made for Man his first Sabbath of Rest And on the Seaventh Day God ended his Work which he had made that is as he began in the very first Instant so he continued to work untill and in the very last Instant of the Six Days and therefore he rested not before but proceeding continualy to work in all the Six Days as it is said at first that the Spirit of God Moved on the face of the Deep he ended or Hebraicaly had ended on the very first Instant of the Seaventh Day or Sabbath of Rest wheras it could not be rightly said that he ended or had ended before for in the very last Instant of the Six Days he still continued to work so exact and proper is Divine Language and though men cannot discern between Instants of Time or Points of Extension which therefore are so Indiscernible that the Fluxes and Augments of Created Nature may appear Intire and Continuous to us yet known unto God are all his Works even Instants and Points as well as Numbers and accordingly he doth declare them in his Word as exactly and properly as Human Understanding can apprehend Again though it be said that He rested on the Seaventh Day from all his Work which he had made yet it is not said that he rested in it but this Work of Creation was Corrupted very soon after it was finished Wherefore as there remaineth a Rest to the People of God by the Redemption of the World through Iesus Christ so that is called also the Rest of God himself and shall be the Everlasting Sabbath and Consummation of all his Works both of Creation and Redemption wherin he will rest for ever Thus I have delineated the true System of the World which God himself who made it hath declared and reveled unto us in this Divine History of the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth that is the Superaether and utmost Circumference therof and within that Concave Sphere the Aether and within that the Air and within them all the Orb of the Terraqueous Globe and inmost Center therof which certeinly is the most Symmetrical and Uniform Chorography of the whole Body of Matter and of these several Members therof most exactly according to the greater or Less Density of their Matter and more or less Activity of their Spirits And therin I have also described the Scale of Nature and all the Classes therof Subordinate and Subservient one unto another that is Matter to Elementary Spirits and Elements to Vegetatives and Vegetatives to Sensitives and Sensitives to Intellective Man and Man to Iesus Christ the Head of all things and other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid by God himself Monendus est misellus Philosophus ut desinat esse Conditor Mundi and I confidently suppose that if Plato and Aristotle had enjoied the benefit of this Divine Light they had farr more improved Philosophy by building upon this Foundation then Christian Philosophers have done by building upon theirs and that we may enjoy the benefit of their great Learning and yet diâ—engage our selves wholy from their Errors we must reduce all their Opinions and Human Inventions to this most Infallible Rule which if we rightly consider it will not only rectifie their Errors but also instead therof present such Divine Truths as they did never conceiv or apprehend as may particularly appear by a short Recapitulation of what we have formerly discoursed Thus first we have proved a Begining and consequently a Creation of the World which no Heathen Philosophy so understood as it is declared by God in his Word but either imagined an Eternal Creation without a Begining in any certein Time removing it perpetualy backward by supposition of many Deluges Conflagrations and general Devastations and Indefinite Revolutions or though they may sometimes seem to acknowledg an Improper Creation from some precedent Principles of Matter Atoms Mens Anima Mundi Ideae and the like yet they do not express any Proper Creation from Absolute Nonentity to which Heathen Philosophy never did subscribe nor do I know any Word in any other Human Language but only Hebraical which doth import such a Proper Creation Though if any conceiv otherwise and can collect any such Acknowledgment from their doubtful and confused and sometimes contrary Sentences I shall not hinder him from subjoining their Human Testimony to Divine Authority But certeinly Moses doth most plainly and clearly affirm a Creation of the World in a certein Begining and so proceeds to declare the first Age of the World as particularly and expresly as if himself had been Contemporary and lived in the same Time and Places and the Affairs therof which all Heathen Historiographers esteemed Fabulous and termed Ogygia more exactly and truly then they do relate the Transactions of later Ages And thus wheras other Nations dated their Writings so many years ab Urbe Condita or in such an Olympiad or the like the Jews both antient and modern date them ab Orbe condito Nor is the whole Age of the World so very large or vast but that every man may according to Divine Chronology easily comprehend it And indeed there are not probably above 150 Generations between us and Adam who was the Common Ancestor of all Mankind for the Scripture doth exactly enumerate them all from the first Adam to the Second that is to Iesus Christ 76 Generations Inclusively as Enoch is so reckoned from Adam and the Brazen Lavacre so to be measured as I have shewed for so Luke declares his Seculum as Matthew doth his proper Linage and if we allow fower Generations to every Century since the Nativity of our Savior yet the Total will not exceed that Number Nor is the whole World and System therof so Indefinite but that the Mind of Man may comprehend it and by the Light of the Divine Word look through it as a transparent Globe for so it is said He hath set the World in their Heart and his Word plainly sheweth us how all Generable and Corruptible things were first educed out of a Chaos of Potentialitys wherin all their Primitive and Simple Essences were then latent and brought forth most orderly and successively in Six Days by God who Created them before by a Proper Creation from Absolute Nothing in a Supernatural maner by Improper Creation which was their Original Generation then Instituted by God himself and by his Divine Benediction so continuing Successively And this is a short plain and evident account therof wheras others instead of such Proper and Improper Creation have imagined a Potentia Materiae or Power in the Matter of producing out of itself other Active Substances farr more excellent then itself which yet were not before Realy in it or that the Matter is transpeciated and converted into them though an Angel who is the chief Being in the Scale of Nature cannot so produce out of himself any other then his own proper Qualitys and
will deny the one must first deny the other that is that the Scripture is the Word of God Yet I shall more specialy produce one Text becaus it doth include with the Divine Authorâ—ty also some Natural Reason of the Thing The Wiseman speaking of the Death of men saith Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it wherin he plainly declareth that the Body and all the Bodily part which he termeth Dâ—st as God so called it at the first becaus he made it of the Dust of the Earth and such generaly as the Body of Man is in the very Instant when his Intellective Soul departeth out of it and that certeinly is a Body of Flesh and not only a Lutea Imago as I said doth assoon as the Instrumental Life of the Sensitive Soul ceaseth fall to the ground and is more and more by degrees Corrupted and Putrefied untill it be resolved again into Dust and the Sensitive Spirit is also Confounded in the Chaos therof and Coagulated with others as it is also said Who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth Upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth Downward to the Earth and indeed we cannot know Spirits as they are in themselvs nor Pure Matter as it is in itself otherwise then by their Accidents as I have shewed that is the Intellective Soul returns to God who gave it by Immediate Inspiration and Proper Creation and as he gave it so he receivs it for as it was not produced out of the Earth like the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirits so neither doth it return thither again that is as it was not Generated so neither is it Corrupted and the very same Probation whereby I have proved it Ingenerable doth also prove it Incorruptible as Angels who are Ingenerable are also Incorruptible becaus they have no Substantial Composition and therefore nothing to be Dissolved or Corrupted but every one is a Complete Individuum and Person in himself and so though the Human Compositum which was composited of Body and Soul may be Dissolved as I have said yet the Human Soul which is also an Intelligence and Life in itself was Immediately Created such by God and therefore cannot be Dissolved and was not produced out of the Earth and therefore may not return unto iâ— but to God that gave it Thus as every Compositum is as iâ— were an Aggregate Corporation so made according to Natural Polity as an Hous is by Art and when the Members or Parts of the Corporation or Hous decay or are dissipated the very Corporation or Hous ceaseth to be such and the Members or Parts therof are Confounded or scattered among others and as an Angel is as a Sole Corporation which cannot be so Dissolved so Man is both an Aggregate Corporation like others in a Common Capacity with them in his Conjunct State and also a Sole Corporation like an Angel in his own Private Capacity by himself and in his Separate State and as the others could not be Individuated or made such Natural Corporations or Composita without an Improper Creation which was their Original Generation so neither can these Sole Corporations of Angels or Men which were made such in themselvs Immediately by God be Dissolved without a Divine and Supernatural Power which only can Annihilate them But as I said I shall rather prove the Immortality of our Souls Moraly by that Argument of Plato which is very Rational and Philosophical and may be farther improved by Christianity Certeinly God the Creator and First Caus of all things is also the utmost End therof and he is Immediately served only by Angels and Men becaus they are Immediately Subordinate to him and the only Intelligences in Nature which only have any Conscience or Conusance of him and therefore can only perform that Immediate and Spiritual Service which he requireth and which is fitt and Proper for him who is a Spirit and will be so worshiped and so as I said they were Created and appointed to gather in all the Revenues of his Glory and to render it to himself as well as to Glorify him by their other Personal Services Wherefore if these Intelligences should perish or ceas to be in their Personal Individualitys though their Substantial Principles might not ceas to be but be Confounded or Coagulated as others yet becaus they should not so any longer continue to be the same Persons as no Compositum when it is once Dissolved doth Naturaly return again to be the same but their Personalitys should so be destroied then it should be all one in respect to this great and utmost End of Creation as if they had never been Created for as if God had Rested from all his Works after the Fourth Day and before any Sensitives were produced and neither they nor Angels or Men had been Created all the other Creation had been void and vain in respect to itself as I have shewed becaus there had been no Spectators to Perceiv or Enjoy it so if Sensitives also had been produced they could only Behold and Enjoy the Creation but not render any Glory therof unto God the Creator of whom they are wholy Ignorant and so all of them had been made in vain becaus none of them could attein the very End of Creation which is the Glory of the Creator and though they had so continued to be for ever yet the very End of their Being had been Nullified yea though they were made Perfect and Good in themselvs yet they had not been Sanctified or Sublimated to any Divine Use or Service nor could God have so pronounced of them all that they were Very Good nor would he have so Rested untill he had so reduced them all to himself and his own Glory nor Instituted such a Sabbath of Spiritual Rest wherin he did Review and Rejoice in all the Works which he had wrought and from which he received the Emanant Reflections of his own Inherent Glory according to the utmost Capacity of Finite Nature Thus also if the Intelligent Natures of Angels or Men should be Mortal then all the Manifestations of his Glory to them or by them should with themselvs ceas and Vanish away and wheras they also do Personaly manifest his Divine Honor or otherwise Dishonor him so he who is the Great King according to his Roial Greatnes and Goodnes will recompens them with Reward or Punishment wherunto Piety and Impiety Virtue and Vice do Moraly Relate and in the Distribution of his Mercy and Justice accordingly his Everlasting Kingdom of Glory doth consist and therefore also all his Subjects therof must be Immortal otherwise after they had thus Served or Disserved him they should Escape him and lose their Rewards or Punishments and he the Glory therof for so the same Man or Angel should ceas to be and the Name of his Person as it stands in Gods Book be Oâ—literated and so all those Eternal
Notion therof Imprinted in our very Souls which made the Heathen Philosophers so much complain of the Prison of their Body and Bondage of this Conjunct State as expecting a better afterward And Christian Divines have a Problem Whether if Adam had stood he should not have been at length Translated to a better that is this other State and if we seriously consyder it there must probably have been some such ground of that wonderfull and otherwise inconceivable Tentation of Adam in Paradise which was not to any thing he then had nor to any thing which he was not capable to have especialy if it were Absolutely Impossible as to be a God or so to be like to God for though now the Corrupt Mind of Man may as I have said apprehend or affect Nonentity as Entitative and Impossibility as Possible yet we may not suppose any such thing of him in that State of Perfect Understanding and Will but it was a most obvious and prevalent Tentation that he having this Common Notion which we have now only Implicitely and Confusedly in his Perfect Mind most Explicitely and Distinctly and thereby knowing that he had such Angelical Facultys Potentialy in himself might covet to have them Actuated that so he might be like the Gods knowing Good and Evil. And though this be a farther and higher Perfection of the Human Spirit yet Adam was not therefore made Imperfect but Good and Perfect according to that Conjunct State wherin he was Created which was his Original Perfection and whereby he was so made a most Perfect Microcosm or Epitome of the preseâ—t World as he shall be also in his future State of the other World when not only these Angelical Perfections shall be Actuated in his Soul but his very Body shall be more Spiritualised as the Apostle termeth it or made fiâ—t for that more Spiritual State of an Immortal Life which yet shall still be a Body having all Corporeal Propertys and Affections such as the Body of our Savior was after his Resurrection which though not Sensible as before to present Sens for so he was not Visible or Tangible otherwise then as he so pleased to appear sometimes unto some yet heerafter when our Sensitive Bodys shall be also refined and sublimated and made like unto his Glorious Body every Ey shall see him as Iob saith I shall see for my self and my Eys shall behold him that is Iesus Christ his Redeemer who shall Eternaly be the Visible Deity and Image of the Invisible God Nor could Christs Spiritual Body penetrate any other Body as some have supposed from that Text wherin it is said that he entred when the Doors were shutt or the Doors being shutt which yet it doth neither express nor import but only that he did not enter into the hous so as our gross Bodys now do by Doors open which is their usual Avenue wheras his more Spiritual Body might enter in by a Window or other Aperture of the hous without any Penetration And this Renovation both of Soul and Body shall be generaly Conformable unto his and so made by his Divine Power as it is said The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul the last Adam is made a Quickning Spirit And as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly VII Thus the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the Host of them which Consummation plainly refers to the first Inception In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth or as it is Originaly these Heavens and this Earth which were the same that were afterward so finished in the several Works of the Six Days and which as it is also said God Created to make and particularly it is so expressed not only of Elements but also of Vegetatives These are the Generations of the Heavens and the Earth in the day that the Lord made the Earth and the Heavens and every Herb of the Field before it grew as I have formerly observed and now observ again how this Doctrine of Creation of all Generable and Corruptible things first in the Chaos of their Potentialitys and of their several Generations afterward in the Six Days is so plainly and cumulatively expressed and repeated that none may doubt of the Truth therof Again as not only Heavens and Earth heer are mentioned but also an Host therof or orderly Militia and thus God is called the Lord of Hosts or of the Armys of all the Creatures so as I have observed there is both a Scale of Nature and also an Oeconomy of the Composita and Polity of the whole Univers and that therefore it is declared of them all that they were Valde bona or as it is Originaly Valde bonum Singularly as of One and an Epitome heerof is every Man in himself as I have shewed and becaus as I have said he is such a Microcosm now in respect of this World and so shall be of the World future therefore God doth still continue to Create the Souls of men from the end of the first Created World which was thus consummated in Man as the Summ of all the rest untill the begining of the other World And if we rightly estimate the many Millions of men living together on the Earth probably he doth Create Human Souls every Minute and so though he rested from making the great World yet he maketh many such litle Worlds continualy for though it is said He had rested from all his Works which God had Created to make that is to be Generated or to make by Generation first Originaly which was Supernatural and their Improper Creation and since Successively by Natural Generation as I have shewed yet he rested not from Proper Creation of Human Spirits in their several Individualitys according to the same Specifike kind which he had Originaly Instituted and expressed in the Protoplast or first Mâ—n and so to be Composited with Human Bodys according to that very Institution and first Law of Human Generation as I have also shewed Nor doth he so Immediately Generate or Improperly Create the Human Compositum of any other Man as he did the first Adam except only Iesus Christ who was thereby declared to be the Theanthropus as it is said The Lord himself· will give you a Signe Behold a Virgin shall conceivâ— and bear a Son and call his Name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us And when God had thus Originaly made Man that is both man and woman as it is said Male and Female Created he them and probably woman of whom Christ was to be born and so is called the Seed of the woman being made after man was also the last of all these Works of God then he pronounced of them all Universaly that they were very Good not only in respect of the Univers but also of Man as the Compendium of all and Consummation of his whole Work of Creation in order to his ensuing Work of Redemption