signature of the Eye sees or feels no more then the pulp of a wal-nut that hath the signature of the brain doth understand or imagine Observ. 39. What a pitifull account dost thou give me here of the difficulties I urged thee with My Queres were these You making two spirits in a man the Rationall and Sensitive First Whether the Rationall Spirit doth not hear and see in a man Here you distinguish The Sensitive Spirit sees the Object say you and the Rationall the Species But I say unto thee that sensation is nothing else but the perceiving of some present corporeall object and that the rationall soul doth For when two men discourse that in them that reasons hears the words and sees the party with whom it reasoneth does it not Therefore they both see the object But you will say One sees by a species the other without I say nothing can be discerned without a species that is without an actuall representation of the thing discerned So that that distinction is in vain And I would adde this further That every sentient spirit must perceive by its own species and not by anothers But thou sayest This sensitive Spirit like a glasse represents the species of externall objects Then it seems the Sensitive spirits office is to be the glasses of the soul to see things in but glasses themselves Magicus are not sentient nor need this Spirit be so that is the souls glasse and it is plain it is not For if these two were two different sensitive spirits then they would have two different Animadversions but there is but one animadversive spirit in a man and therefore but one Sensitive And that there is but one animadversive spirit in a Man is plain from hence that if the Rationall animadversive bestow its animadversion fully elsewhere the Sensitive in man cannot perform the thousandth part of that which is performed in brutes We should loose our selves in the most triviall matters when notwithstanding this sensitive spirit in man would have as quick a vehicle as in most brutes Besides this sensitive spirit having this animadversion would have also a Memory apart and would be able while the Rationall is busied about something else to lay up observations such as beasts do by it self and then long after to shew them to the Rationall to its sudden amazement and astonishment But none of these things are And in my apprehension it is in a very grosse and palpable way sensible to me that there is but one Animadversive in me and I think I am no monster If I be it is it seems in that I am all rationall spirit and have had the luck to misse of the sensitive the beast Page 77. line 3. If this be true then there be two hearing and seeing souls in a man This is my second Quere I ask'd if there be To this you answer Ha ha he A very profound answer This is no laughing matter my friend Have I not already shew'd you some difficulties this asserting two sensitive Spirits in a man is laden with Answer them Phil. I should gladly heare thee use thy tongue as well as see thee shew thy teeth by laughing For that slender faint reason that follows thy loud laughing viz. The objects are different and the senses are different that is taken away already For the sting of my Argument is not this that there would be two sensitive souls of the same nature in the body of a man but that there should be two sensitive souls at all And indeed considering that the superiour soul contains the faculties of the inferiour it is altogether needlesse And that is a very sober truth Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate Which is to the same sense with that so often repeated in Aristotle and Theophrastus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God and Nature do nothing in vain And the right organization of parts and due temperature of the body and proportion of animal spirits this is all the glasse the soul of man wants in this life to see by or receive species from But this glasse hath no more sense it self then an urinall or looking-glasse hath Where are you now Phil. with your Ha hahe Line 10. I could Mastix teach thee an higher truth Yes truly Magicus you are best of all at those truths which dwell in the Highest You love to soar aloft out of the ken of sense and reason that you may securely Raunt it there in words of a strange sound and no signification But though thou fliest up so high like a Crow that hath both his eyes bor'd out yet I have thee in a string and can pluck thee down for all thy fluttering Thou sayest that a soul may understand all things sine conversione ad Phantasmata this I suppose thou wouldst say to contradict Aristotle but I do not suspect thee of so much learning as to have read him He tells us in his book De Anima {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that there is no understanding without Phantasmes You say that we may understand all things without them What think you of Individualls Magicus of which it is controverted amongst the Platonists whether there be any Idea's of them or no But being you are so confident an assertor let 's heare how stout a prover you are of your assertions Know you this you have spoken by Sense Reason or divine Revelation By this string I have pluck'd this blind Crow down I have him as tame in my hand as a Titmouse look how he pants and gapes and shews the white tip of his tongue but sayes nothing Go thy wayes Phil. for a pure Philosophick Thraso Observ. 41. Three quarters of a year hast thou spent c. O Magicus Magicus thou art youthfull and vain-glorious and tellest thy Tutour that this hasty cookery thou entertainest him with was dispatch'd and dress'd up some ten daies after the Presse was deliver'd of my Observations How many ten dayes doest thou mean by thy some ten dayes Thou wouldst have thy Tutour to stroke thee on the head for a quick-parted lad I perceive Eugenius But hadst thou not better have staid longer and writ better sense more reason and with lesse rayling But I poore slow beast how long dost thou think I was viewing and observing that other excellent piece of thine I confesse Magicus because thou forcest me to play the fool as well as thy self I was almost three quarters of a Moneth about it and how much more is that then some ten dayes though but twice told over and I will not be so curiously vain-glorious as to tell thee how great a share of this time was daily taken from me by necessary imployments This is to answer thy folly with folly But I thank God that I glory in nothing but that I feel my self an Instrument in the hand of God to work the good of Men The greatest strength of a man is weaknesse and the
stone is mine however thou scramblest for the Philosophers stone I wish thou hadst them both that is all the harm I wish thee I still the raging of the sea I clear up the lowring Heavens and with my breath blow away the clouds I sport with the beasts of the Earth the Lion licks my hand like a Spaniell and the Serpent sleeps upon my lap and stings me not I play with the fowls of Heaven and the birds of the Air sit singing on my fist All the Creation is before me and I call every one of them by their proper names This is the true Adam O Philalethes This is Paradise Heaven and Christ All these things are true in a sober sense And the Dispensation I live in is more happinesse above all measure then if thou couldst call down the Moon so near thee by thy Magick charms that thou mightest kisse her as she is said to have kissed Endymion or couldest stop the course of the Sunne or which is all one with one stamp of thy foot stay the motion of the Earth All this externall power in Nature were but as a shop of trinkets and toyes in comparison of what I have declared unto you And an adulterous generation onely seeks after a signe or idiots such as love to stare on a dexterous jugler when he playes his tricks And therefore they being of so little consideration in themselves I see and am satisfied why miracles are no more frequent in the world God intends an higher dispensation and greater happinesse for these later times wherein Divine Love and Reason and for their sakes Liberty will lay claim to the stage For He will as I told you draw us with the cords of a man not ride us as with a bridle like a horse or tug us along like a mad stear in a band He will sanctifie our inward faculties and so take possession of the Earth But that a man may not deplore what is lamentable or be angry at what is injurious to God or Goodnesse or laugh at what is ridiculous this is not any part of that Law that is made manifest in the Heavenly life but the arbitrarious precepts of supercilious Stoicks or surly Superstitionists For God hath sanctified and will sanctifie all these things Nor am I at all mad or fanatick in all this O you unexperienced and unwise For as our Saviour said of his body touch me and handle me so say I of my soul feel and try all the faculties of it if you can find any crack or flaw in them Where is my Reason inconsequent or inconsistent with the Attributes of God the common Notions of men the Phaenonema of Nature or with it self Where is my Phansie distorted unproportionate unproper But for the bottome of all these that I confesse you can not reach to nor judge of that is divine sense the white stone in which there is a name written that none can read but he that hath it But for the guidance of my reason and imagination they have so safe a Stearsman viz. that Divine touch of my soul with God and the impregnation of my Understanding from the most High that judgement and caution have so warily built the outward fabrick of words and phansie that I challenge any man to discover any ineptitude in them or incoherencie And now verily the serious consideration of these weighty matters have so composed my mind that I find it some difficultie to discompose it into a temper childish enough to converse with my young Eugenius But as high as I have taken my station I will descend and go lesse my self to bring him to what is greater Behold I leap down as from the top of some white rocky cloud upon the grassie spot where my Philalethes stands and I shall now begin the game of my personated Enmitie or sportfull Colluctation with him Page 7. lin. 5. Be sure in your next to give me an account of this disease in what books or persons c. Mous-catcher take away thy Trap and take off the tosted cheese from off the wire and with thy fore-finger and thy thumb put it into thine own wide mouth O thou Tom Vaughan of Wales Lin. 14. I have found them in your Ballade Ballade is a good old English word from which I abhorre no more then Spencer or Lucretius from old Latine who yet was something younger then Tully Is not the song of Solomon called the Ballade of Ballades in some Church-bibles Thou art so angry that thou art not able to rail with judgement But what high swoln words of vanitie are there in that Ballade of mine Thou art so ignorant that terms of Art seem Heathen Greek to thee But for those words that I interpreted for the ignorants sake you see what a care I have of you O unthankfull Eugenius there is an Apologie prefixt that will satisfie the ingenuous and for others it matters not Pag. 9. Lin. 15. With a Bull rampant You bestow upon me many Bulls Eugenius But when you are so kind as to give me them for nothing you may well expect that I will be so thankfull as to return you a Calf for every Bull I have gratis Let us begin c. And you indeed have done your part already The sense is But you indeed have done your part already What is this but an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} But you have I see as little skill in Rhetorick as Civilitie The Calf take thee Phil. or take thou the Calf There is one to begin thy herd Page 10. Lin. 1. What both tell-Troths Before thou wast no Rhetorician now thou art no Logician nor Philosopher that canst not distinguish betwixt Veritie and Veracitie Veracitie is enough to make a Tom Tell-troth though his Narration be false Hence it is demonstrable that two men may be both Tel-troths though their stories be point-blank contrary to one another The sense of my words is this You have told what you thought Aristotle was blameable in I will now tell what I think you are blameable in You may be against Aristotle and I for him and both with veracitie though not with veritie Page 11. Lin. 21. Found out some new truths Yes I say there are passages in your book that imply so much at least We shall see when we come at them and I shall shew that you found them before they were lost Page 12. Lin 17. The third project is the same with the first Why is to be skilful in Art magick and to find out new truths all one It seems then you suppose there are no new Truths to be found out but Magicall ones Blessed age that we live in All other arts are brought to their Non plus ultrá Physicians Geometricians Astronomians Astrologians Musicians put up your pipes Claudite jam rivos pueri There is nothing remains to be done by you All is perfected But let me ask you one sober question Phil. Have you gone through all these Arts
which are so evidently destructive of humane felicity then to edge their spirits with fiery notions and strange Phantasmes which pretend indeed to the semblance of deep mysterious knowledge and divine speculation but do nothing hinder but that the black dog may be at the bottome as I said before But you will ask me How shall we be rid of the Importunity of the impostures and fooleries of this second Dispensation But I demand of you Is there any way imaginable but this viz. To adhere to those things that are uncontrovertedly good and true and to bestow all that zeal and all that heat and all that pains for the acquiring of the simplicity of the life of God that we do in promoting our own Interest or needlesse and doubtfull Opinions And I think it is without controversie true to any that are not degenerate below men that Temperance is better then Intemperance Justice then Injustice Humility then Pride Love then Hatred and Mercifulnesse then Crueltie It is also uncontrovertedly true that God loves his own Image and that the propagation of it is the most true dispreading of his glory as the Light which is the Image of the Sunne is the glory of the Sunne Wherefore it is as plainly true that God is as well willing as able to restore this Image in men that his glory may shine in the world This therefore is the true Faith to beleeve that by the power of God in Christ we may reach to the participation of the Divine Nature Which is a simple mild benigne light that seeks nothing for it self as it self but doth tenderly and cordially endeavour the good of All and rejoyceth in the good of All and will assuredly meet them that keep close to what they plainly in their consciences are convinced is the leading to it And I say that sober Morality conscienciously kept to is like the morning light reflected from the higher clouds and a certain Prodrome of the Sunne of Righteousnesse it self But when he is risen above the Horizon the same vertues then stream immediately from his visible body and they are the very members of Christ according to the Spirit And he that is come hither is a pillar in the Temple of God for ever and ever for he hath reached to the Second Covenant which he can in no more likelihood break then lay violent hands on himself to the taking away of his naturall life Nay that will be farre more easie then this For a man may kill himself in a trice but he cannot extinguish this Divine life without long and miserable torture If this be to be a Puritane Eugenius I am a Puritane But I must tell thee that by how much more a man precisely takes this way the more Independent he will prove And the pure simplicity of the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ will shine with so amiable a lustre in his inward mind that all the most valuable Opinions that are controverted amongst Churches and Sects will seem no more comely then a fools coat compared with the uniform Splendour of the Sunne But if thou meanest by either Puritane or Independent one in the second Dispensation I should dissemble in the presence of Heaven if I should not say I am above them as I am above all Sects whatsoever as Sects For I am a true and free Christian and what I write and speak is for the Interest of Christ and in the behalf of the life of the Lamb which is contemned And his Interest is the Interest of the sonnes of men for he hath no Interest but their good and welfare But because they will not have him to rule the Nations of the world by a Divine Nemesis are given up into the hands of Wolves Foxes and Lions The earth is full of darknesse and cruell habitations Wherefore Eugenius thou doest very unskilfully in endeavouring to tumble me off from the Independents to cast me amongst the Puritanes as thou callest them For it is not in thy power to cast me so low as any Sect whatsoever God hath placed me in a Dispensation above them and wilt thou throw me down No Eugenius I shine upon them both as the Sunne in the Firmament who doth not wink on one side or with-draw his Rayes but looks openly upon all imparting warmth and light Thou hast encountred with a Colosse indeed though thou callest me so but in sport and scorn far bigger then that stradling Statue at Rhodes and that reacheth far higher And yet no Statue neither but one that will speak what nothing but Ignorance and Hypocrisie can denie Wherefore with my feet lightly standing on the shoulders of all the Sects of the earth for I would not tread hard like a statue to hurt them with my head stooping down out of the Clouds I will venture to trie the world with this sober question Tell me therefore O all ye Nations People Kindreds of the earth what is the reason that the world is such a stage of misery to the Sonnes of Men Is it not from hence that that which should be their great Guidance their Religion and highest Light of their minds is but Heat and squabbling about subtile uncertain points and foolish affectation of high mysteries while the uncontroverted sober truths of Vertue and Piety are neglected and the simplicity of the life of God despised as a most contemptible thing And I had no sooner uttered these words in my mind but me thought I heard an Answer from all the Quarters of the earth from East West North and South like the noise of many waters or the voice of Thunder saying Amen Halelujah This is true Nor is this any vain Enthusiasme Philalethes but the triumph of the Divine Light in my Rationall Spirit striking out to my exteriour faculties my Imagination and Sense For my head was so filled with the noise that it felt to me as bound and straitened as being not able to contain it and coldnesse trembling seised upon my flesh But you will say All this is but a triviall truth that you are so zealous and triumphant in But verily Eugenius is it not better to be zealous about those things that are plainly true then those that are either uncertain of false 'T is true what I have said to thy soaring soul may seem contemptible But if thou once hadst the sight of that Principle from whence it came thou wouldst be suddenly ashamed of that patched clothing of thy soul stitch'd up of so many unsutable and heedlesse figurations of thy unpurged phansie and wouldst endeavour to put on that simple uniform light And now Eugenius that I find my self in an advantageous temper to converse with thee come a little nearer me or rather I will come a little nearer to thee Hitherto I have play'd the part of a personated Enemy with thee give me leave now to do the office of an open Friend I perceive there is in you as you have made it manifest to