then upon mans owne wickednesse saith the same Father Aug. de Gen. ad lit c. 17. Who in another place to wit in his Commentarie on the Psalmes sheweth that the Converts of S. Paul Act. 19. had been Astrologers and therefore the books which they burned were of Astrologie But is not Astrologie repugnant to Divinity and impious when it robs God of his honour which it doth by undertaking to foretell future contingencies and such secrets as are onely knowne to God this being his true property alone By this Esay ch 41. distinguisheth him from false gods Declare what will come to passe and wee shall know you to be gods And hee mockes these Diviners ch 47. and so doth Ieremy ch 10. and Solomon Eccles. chap. 8. and 10. sheweth â—he knowledge of future things to be hid â—rom man of which the Poet was not igâ—orant when he saith Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae â—herefore both the Astrologer and he that consults with him dishonours God in a high nature by giving credit to or having commerce with those excommunicate and apostate Angels and so endanger their owne soules Is it because there is no God in Israel that you consult with the god of Ekron Now that Astrologers have commerce with evill spirits besides the testimony of Austin de civit Dei lib. 5. cap. 7. and lib. 2. de Gen. ad lit c. 17. and other ancient Fathers the proofes of divers witnesses and their owne confessions upon examination doe make it apparent Not to speake of their flagitious lives and their impious and atheisticall Tenents for this cause Astrologers are condemned by Councels and Decrees of the Church Conc. Bracar 1. c. 9. in Tolet. 1. sec. part decret c. 26. 6. The Angels in the very instant of their creation actually knew all that they were capable of knowing and are acquainted with all free thoughts past present and to come They knew not so much then as they doe now because now they have the experimentall knowledge of almost six thousand yeares and many things revealed to them since their creation Secondly they know not our free thoughts even because they are free and variable at our pleasure not at theirs it 's onely Gods property to know the heart yet some thing they may know by outward signes or by revelation Thirdly they know not things future for first they know not the day of Judgement secondly they know not future contingentcies thirdly they know not infallibly naturall effects that are to come though they know their causes because all naturall causes are subordinate to God who when hee pleaseth can stay their operations What Angel could fore-know if God did not reveale it that the Sun should stand at the prayer of Iosua that the fire should not burne the three Children or the Lions devoure Daniel Fourthly as they know â—ot future contingencies because they â—ave not certaine and determinate causes â—o they know not mans resolutions which depend upon his will because the will is onely subject to God as being the principall object and end of it and he onely can â—encline it as hee pleaseth therefore as Esay of the Gentile Idols so say I of Angels Let us know what is to come to wit infallibly of your selves and all and wee shall know that you are gods 7. Sir Kenelme sayes he hath proved sufficiently light to be a solid substance and body These proofes I have not seen therefore I can say nothing to them but this I know that if light be a body when the aire is illuminated two bodies must be in one place and there must be penetration Secondly the motion of a body must be in an instant from the one end of the world to the other both which are impossible Thirdly what becomes of this body when the Sun goeth downe Doth it putrefie or corrupt or vanish to nothing all these are absurd Or doth it follow the body of the Sun then when the light is contracted into a lesser space it must be the greater but wee find no such thing And if light be a body it must be every day generated and corrupted why should not darknesse be a body too But of this subject I have spoken else where therefore I will say no more till I see Sir Kenelme's proofes 8. The soule hath a strange kind of neere dependance of the body which is as it were Gods instrument to create it by This phrase I understand not I have already proved that the soule hath no dependance on the bodie neither in its creation essence or operation it hath no other dependance on the bodie but as it is the forme thereof to animate and informe it So you may say the Sun depends upon the earth to warme and illuminate it The body is the soules instrument by which it produceth those actions which are called organicall onely but that God used the body as it were an instrument to create the soule by is a new phrase unheard of hitherto in Divinitie God immediately createth and infuseth the soule into the body hee used no other â—â—strument in the workes of creation but â—â—xit mandavit 9. Sir Kenelme thinkes that terrene â—ules appeare oftnest in Cemeteries because â—â—ey linger perpetually after that life which â—â—ited them to their bodies their deare conâ—â—rts I know not one soule more terrene â—â—en another in its essence though one â—â—ule may be more affected to earthly â—â—ings then another Secondly that life â—hich united the soule to the body is not â—ost to the soule because it still remaines in 〈◊〉 as light remaines still in the Sun when â—ur Horison is deprived of it Thirdly if â—â—ules after death appear it must be either 〈◊〉 their owne or in other bodies for else â—hey must be invisible if in their own then â—hey must passe through the grave and enâ—er into their cold and inorganicall bodies â—nd adde more strength to them then ever â—hey had to get out from under such a â—â—ad of earth and rubbish if in other â—odies then the end of its creation is overâ—hrowne for it was made to informe its â—wne bodie to which onely it hath relaâ—ion and to no other and so we must acknowledge a Pythagoricall transanimatioâ— Fourthly such apparitions are delutions oâ— Sathan and Monkish tricks to confirme superstition 10. Soules he sayes goe out of their bodieâ— with affections to those objects they leave behinâ— them Affections saith Aristotle are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that unreasonable part of the soulâ— or rather of the whole compositum for thâ— soule hath no parts and though whilst iâ— the body it receiveth by meanes of its immediate union with the spirits some impressions which we call affections yet being separated is free from such and carrieâ— nothing with it but the reasonableand inorganicall faculties of the Intellect and Will And to speak properly affections are motions of the heart stirred up by the knowledge and apprehension of
and therefore are not the objects of his omnipotencie but that is only the object which is possibile absolutum So I think it is good manners to say God cannot lie or die because it cannot â—gree with his active power to suffer or to die So he cannot sin because it agreeth not with right reason In a word Deus nequit facere quod nequit fieri I think then it were breach of good manners to say that God could do any thing which were repugnant either to his wisdome goodnesse or power And though his power and will make but one God yet they are different attributes ratione for the will commands and the power puts in execution You say that they who deny witches deny spirits also and are a kind of Atheists A strange kind of Atheisme to deny witches but is there such a strict relation between witches and spirits that hee that denies the one must needs deny the other Sure the existence of spirits depends not upon the witches invocation of or paction with spirits We reade that Zoroastres was the first witch in the world and hee lived after the Floud were there no spirits I pray till then This is as much as if you would say there were no divels among the Gadarens till they entered into their swine You thinke the Angels know a great part of our thoughts because by reflexion they behold the thoughts of one another That the Angels know one another is out of doubt but how they know one anothers thoughts is unknowne to mee This I know that none knowes the thoughts of man but man himself and God that made him it being Gods prerogative to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they know our thoughts 't is either by revelation from God or by some outward signe and demonstration from our selves for whilest they are immanent and in the Understanding they are only knowne to God because he only hath the command of our Wills from which our thoughts depend The light which wee stile a bare accident you say is a spirituall substance where it subsists alone and may be an Angell Let us see where and when it subsists alone without a subject and then wee will beleeve you that it is a spirituall substance And if your light may be an Angel that must needs be an Angell of light What a skipping Angell will ignis fatuus make The Chandlers and Bakers trades are honouâ—able those can make lights which may in â—ime become Angels these wafers which â—n time become gods This Section consists of divers errours First you call the Heavens the immateriall world so you confound the celestiall world with the intellectuall which only is immateriall and had its being in the divine intellect before it was made Secondly if the Heavens be immateriall they are not movable for matter is the subject of motion Why then doe you call the great Sphere the first movable Thirdly an immateriall world cannot be the habitation of materiall substances where then will the bodies of the Saints after the resurrection have their residence Fourthly if the Heavens have not matter they have not quantity and parts Fifthly nor are they compounded substances of matter and forme but simple as spirits Sixthly though they have not such a matter as the elementary world yet immateriall they are not they have a matter the subject of quantity though not of generation and corruption Your second errour is that you call Gods essence the habitation of Angels and therefore they live every-where where his essence is Divinitie tells us that Angels are in a place definitivè and that they as we all live and move in him as in our efficient protecting and sustaining cause but not as in a place for Angels move out of one place to another and while they are on earth they are not in heaven but if Gods essence be their habitation then they never change place for his essence is every-where and so you make them partakers of Gods proper attribute Ubiquity Your third errour is that God hath not subordinated the creation of Angels to ours but as ministring spirits they are willing to fulfill Gods will in the affaires of man Then belike God made them not to be ministring spirits to the heires of salvation but they are so of their owne accord if so wee are more beholding to them for their comfort protection and instruction of us then to God who made them not for this end but as you say for his owne glory But if you were as good at Divinity as at Physick you will find that Gods glory is not â—ncompatible with their service to us but â—n this is God glorified that they comfort â—nstruct and protect us for this charge hee hath given to his Angels over us and so we are bound to them for their care much more to him for his love in creating them to this end Your fourth errour is that both generation and creation are founded on contrarieties If creation were a transmutation which still presupposeth a subject I would be of your opinion but seeing it is not and hath no subject without which contrarieties cannot be in nature I deny that creation is founded on contrarieties neither is non-entity contrary but the totall privation of being which God gave to the creature You wonder at the multitude of heads that deny traduction having no other argument of their beliefe but Austins words Creando infunditur c. But I wonder as much at you who is not better acquainted with our Divinitie for wee have many reasons to confirm us against traduction besides Saint Austins authority At first that the soule is immateriall therefore hath not quantitie nor parts nor is subject to division as it must be if it be subject to traduction or propagation Secondly the soule existeth in and by it selfe depending from the bodie neither in its being nor operation and by consequence not in its production nec in esse nec in fieri nec in operari Thirdly if the soule were educed out of the power of the matter it were mortall as the soules of beasts are which having their beginning and being from the matter must faile when that failes Fourthly the effect is never nobler then the cause but the soule in regard of understanding doth in excellencie far exceed the body Fifthly a body can no more produce a spirit then an horse can beget a man they being different species Sixthly if the soule were propagated in or by the seed then this were a true enunciation Semen est animal rationale and so the seed should be man Seventhly if the soule of the son be propagated by the soule or of the soule of the parent then we must admit transmutation of soules as we doe of bodies in generation Eighthly we â—ave the Churches authoritie Ninthly â—nd the testimony of Gentiles for Aristotle â—cknowledgeth the Intellect to enter into â—â—e body from without And Apuleius in â—is mysticall
Hell but of that to come Though you cannot conceive how yet you must beleeve that the fire of Hell is corporall and worketh on spirits Perdidisti rationem tene fidem saith Austin Yet the Schoolemen tell us divers waies how the soule may be affected and afflicted by that fire First as it shall be united to the fire and shut up as it were in a prison there Secondly as it shall retaine the experimentall knowledge of those paines which it suffered in the body Thirdly as it is the principium and originall of the senses which shall remaine in the soule as in their root Fourthly as that fire shall be a representative signe or symbole of Gods indignation against them and of their losse of his favour and of so great happinesse and that eternally for so small foolish and fading sinfull delights these are the corporall waies by which that fire shall torment the soule And if you hold your Masters Tenent Mores animi sequuntur temperamentum corporis you will find no more impossibility for a corporall fire to worke upon a spirit then for the materiall humours of the body to worke upon the soule As you thinke Hell and Hell-fire to be metaphoricall and in mens consciences onely so you seeme to doubt of the place under earth where you say though wee â—â—ace Hell under earth the Divels walk is about 〈◊〉 But this is no argument to disswade â—s from beleeving Hell to be under earth â—ecause the Divels are not yet confined â—â—ither By the same reason you may say â—â—e habitation of Angels is not above beâ—ause they are imployed here by God upâ—n the earth Wee beleeve Hell to be unâ—er earth because it stands with reason â—nd Gods justice that the wicked should â—e removed as farre as might be from the â—resence of the Saints and the place of â—oy which is above Secondly as their â—elight and hopes were not in heaven but â—n earth and earthly things so it is fitting â—hat their eternall habitation should be within the earth Thirdly the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—n Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Infernus in Laâ—in Hell in English c. doe shew that the â—lace of the damned is low and in darkâ—esse Fourthly the Scripture still speakes of Hell as a place under ground and the â—nhabitants thereof are said to be under the earth and the motion thither is called there a descending Fifthly the Gentiles were not ignorant of this as Tertullian sheweth Imum tartarum carcerem poenaruâ— cum vultis affirmatis c. Iuvenal callâ— Hell subterranea regna Virgil Barathrum and infernas sedes tum tartarus ipse Bis petet in praeceps tantum c. Homer calls it a most deep gulfe under earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You thinke it hard to place the soules of those worthy Heathens in Hell whose worthâ— lives teach us vertue on earth If there be no salvation but in Christ if there be no other name under Heaven by which meâ— can be saved but by the name of Iesus if it be life eternall to know God in him if he only is the way the life and the truth if there be no coming to the Father but by him I cannot thinke it hard if those worthy Heathens have no place in Heaven seeing they had no interest in him who with his bloud hath purchased Heaven to us and hath opened the gates of that Kingdome to all beleevers And how specious soever their lives and actions were in the eyes of men yet without Christ â—hey were nothing else but splendida peccaâ—a glorious enormities onely in this I can â—lace them that it will be easier for them as it will be for Sodome and Gomorrha for â—yre and Sidon in the last day then for â—ewes and Christians who have knowne â—heir Masters will and have not done it â—ewer stripes remaine for Socrates a Heaâ—hen then for Iulian a Christian. We cannot deny say you the Church of God â—oth in Asia and Africa if wee forget not the â—eregrination of the Apostles the death of Marâ—yrs c. nor must a few differences excommuâ—icate from Heaven one another First wee â—eny not but God hath many who bow â—ot their knee to Baal in those countries â—nd that his Church is oftentimes invisiâ—le Secondly wee deny that the preâ—ence of Apostles death of Martyrs sessiâ—ns of lawfull Councels can or have priviâ—edge those places from Apostasie Christs owne presence and miracles and doctrine â—n Iudea have not given stabilitie or perâ—anencie to the Church there What 's â—ecome of the famous Churches of Coâ—inth Ephesus Laodicea Philadelphia c. planted by the Apostles themselves Thirdly it is not for a few or light differences that we have separated our selves from the communion of the Church of Rome and of those in Asia and Africa if wee can call them Churches which are rather Sceletons then the body of Christ. The differences between the Church of Rome and us are not few nor small as you know The differences betweene us and the Eastern Churches are greater for most of them are either Nestorians denying Mary to be the mother of God and so in effect making two Christs by making two persons or else they are Eutychians or Monothelites affirming but one nature and will in Christ and therefore reject the Councell of Chalcedon such are the Iacobites in Asia if they be not lately converted and those other Iacobites in Africk under the King of the Abyssins I will not speake of the Greek Church which denieth the procession of the holy Ghost Nor of the Cophti of Egypt who are also Eutychians and reject the observation of the Lords day as superstitious and marry in the second degree The Georgians in Iberia baptise not their children till the eighth yeare of their age and give them the Eucharist at seven The Armenians are little better As for the Christians of Saint Thomas and the Maronites in Mount Libanus if they have forsaken their old heresies they are fallen into those that are little better by submitting themselves to the Religion and Jurisdiction of Rome You are confident and fully perswaded yet dare not take your oath of your salvation for you think it a kind of perjury to sweare that Constantinople is such a City because you have not seen it To be fully perswaded and not dare to sweare is a contradiction and if you dare not sweare but what you have seen then you will in a manner perjure your selfe if you should sweare that Christ was the son of Mary or that he was crucified on Mount Calvaâ—ie for this you have not seen What think you if a blind man should sweare that the Sun is a great light for hee hath no infallible warrant from his owne sense to confirme him in the certainty thereof You have I perceive so much humility that you meet with many doubts But indeed doubting is not the fruit of humilitie but of infidelitie you encline too
which the great animal of the world moves it selfe Such definitions are good for women and â—hildren who are delighted with toyes wise men search into the causes and naâ—ures of things But is not Nature a princiâ—le of motion and rest No say you What then A straight line a settled course Gods hand and instrument Is not â—his obscurum per obscurius Nature is not a â—ine for it is no quantity nor is it like a â—ine for these are entities too remote to make any similitude between them Nature is as like a line as the ten Plagues of Egypt were like the ten Commandements a ridiculous similitude And why is Naâ—ure rather a straight then a circular line We see the world is round the motions of the heavens and starres are circular the generation and corruption of sublunary bodies is also circular the corruption of onâ— being still the generation of another snow begets water and water snow the riverâ— returne to the sea from whence they flow Redit labor actus in orbem And what say you to the circulation oâ— the bloud in our bodies Is not Naturâ— then a circular rather then a straight line Againe Nature is not a settled course buâ— in the workes of Nature there is a settled and constant course if you will speak properly and like a Philosopher which you love not to doe And suppose wee admit that metaphorically Nature is the hand of God and an instrument yet it is not such an instrument as the hammer is to the house which cannot move it selfe but as the fire was to the Chaldeans and the red sea to the Egyptians for the one of it selfe burned the other of it selfe drowned and moved downwards to its own place without an externall agent Otherwise you must say that God burned the Chaldeans and God drowned the Egyptians and so you will make God both fire and water Nay if Nature doth not worke and produce its immediate effects but God in Nature then you may say It is not the fire but God that rosts your meat and extracts your physicall spirits and quintessences For you will not have Gods actions ascribed to Nature lest the honour of the principall agent be devolved upon the instrument And what else is this but with Plato to make this world a great animal wherof God is the soule Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantûm Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus Igneus est ollis vigor c. Now if Nature be not the principle of motion what is that which moveth or altereth the water from cold to heat when it is on the fire Is it not the nature of the fire Againe is not forme and matter the nature of things but these are causes and causes are principles of motion Doe noâ— you know that the forme actuates the Compositum and restraines the extravagancie of the matter Doth not the matter receive the forme and sustaine it but to actuatâ— restraine receive and sustaine are motions of which you see Nature is the principle except you will deny the two internall causes of things but so you must deny generation and corruption composition and mixture in Nature which I thinke you will not doe as you are a Physician You say that there is in monsters a kind of beauty for that the irregular parts are so contrived that they become more remarkable then the principall fabrick It is not their beauty but their monstrosity and irregularity that makes them remarkable for the eye is as soon drawn with strange and uncouth as with beautifull objects the one to admiration and stupiditie the other to delight A woman as beautifull as Venus will not draw so many eyes as if she were â—orne with a dogs head and a fishes taile 'T is not you say a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at Tables I think â—t is profanation and taking of Gods Name in vaine For what doe you pray for that God would prosper your game to win your neighbourâ— mony to which you have no right If Abraham durst scarce â—ntercede to God for the preservation of five populous Cities how dare you be so bold with him as to solicite him to assist you in your idle foolish and sinfull desires and in divers respects unlawfull recreations You will not have us labour to confute judiciall Astrologie for if there be a truth therein it doth not injure Divinity This is as much as if you would say Let us not labour to resist the Divell for if hee loves our salvation hee doth not injure us If there were truth in that Art we would not confute it but we see there is so much deceit vanitie and impietie in it that Councels Canons civill and municipall Lawes and Gods Word condemne it therefore wee confute it You had better then in plaine termes said that Mercury doth not disposâ— us to be witty nor Iupiter to be wealthy then to tell us that if Mercury disposeth 〈◊〉 to be witty and Jupiter to be wealthy you wiâ—â— thanke God that hath ordered your nativity unto such benevolent aspects I know the Star were made to be signes to measure time to warme and illuminate but not to givâ— wealth and wit promotion comes neitheâ— from East nor West but from the Lord It 's hee that gives and takes saith Iob It 's hee that filleth the hungry and sends the râ—câ— empty away saith the Virgin His wisdome hath wealth and honour in her left hand Solomon went not to Mercury but to God for wisdome Was Abraham â—saac Iacob and other rich men in Scripture borne under Iupiter How disposeth he us to be wealthy Passively that is to be capable of wealth or willing to take it when it is profer'd us then I think the most men in the world are borne under Iupiter For Quis nisi mentis inops Who will refuse wealth when profer'd except very few Or disposeth hee us actively that is makes he us fit to raise our owne fortunes Surely whereas there be maâ—â— waies to attaine wealth wit in some learning in others industry in others boldnesse with hazzarding of their lives and vigilancie and paines in others Againe oppression robbery theeving lying and many other waies there be of getting wealth you must make Iupiter the cause of all these meanes But if hee can make us rich what need wee pray to our heavenly Father for our daily bread You were as good tell us of the goddesse Pecunia of the god Aesculanus and his son Argentarius worshipped among the Romans for being the authors of mony brasse and silver that if they dispose wealth on us wee will thank the Supreme giver for it not them as to call Mercury and Iupiter benevolent aspects because they dispose
with which you say you are not terrified but though you know nothing by your selfe yet are you not thereby justified The heart of man is deceitfull above all things And though your heart cleares you God is greater then your heart The salt-sea can never lose its saltnesse the Blackmoore cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots Againe wee must not think that in baptisme sin is washed away by vertue of the water What water can cleanse the soule but that which flowed from our Saviours pierced heart God in Christ hath done away our sins the baptism of his bloud hath purged us from all sinne which is sealed unto us by the baptisme of his Spirit and represented by the baptism of water You thank God you have escaped pride the mortall enemy to charity So did the Pharisee thank God that hee was no extortioner yet hee went home unjustified Pride is a more subtle sin then you conceive it thrusts it selfe upon our best actions as praying fasting almes-giving As Saul amongst the Prophets and Sathan amongst the sons of God so pride intrudes it selfe amongst our best workes And have you not pride in thinking you have no pride Bernard makes twelve degrees of pride of which bragging is one And Gregory tells us that ex summis virtutibus saepe intumescimus even accidentally goodnesse ocassioneth pride which like the scales that fell from Sauls eyes hinders the sight of our selves till they be removed Nulla alia pestis plura ingenia abrupit quà m confidentia astimatio sui 'T is vanity you thinke to waste our dayes in the pursuit of knowledge which if we attend a little longer we shall enjoy by infusion which wee endeavour here by labour and inquisition better is a modest ignorance then uncertaine knowledge Would you bring in againe ignorance the supposed mother of Devotion but indeed the true mother of Confusion I cannot be of your mind you will not have us trouble our selves with â—nowledge here because wee shall have it â—ereafter But I will so much the rather â—abour for knowledge here because I shall â—ave it hereafter For the Saints beatitude â—hall for the most part consist in knowledge â—herefore I desire to be initiated and to have a taste of that happiâ—esse here that I may be the more in love with it Shall the Israelites refuse to taste and look upon the grapes which the Spies brought from Canaan because they were to enjoy all the Vineyards there By the knowledge of the creature we come to know the Creatour and by the effects we know the supreme cause whom to know in Christ is life eternall For want of knowledge the people perish it were madnesse in mee not to make use of a candle in the darke because when the Sun is up hee will bring a greater light with him By kowledge we come neere to the Angelicall nature who are from their great knowledge called Daemones and Intelligentiae Shall I not strive to know God at all because I cannot know him here perfectly God hath made nothing in vaine but in vaine had hee given to man a desire of knowledge for Omnes homines naturâ scire desiderant In vaine had hee given to him understanding apprehension judgement if hee were not to exercise them in the search of knowledge which though it be uncertaine here in some things vel ex parte cogniti vel ex parte cognoscentis yet all knowledge is not uncertaine The Christians by their knowledge in Philosophy and other humane studies did more hurt to Gentilisme then all the opposition and strength of men could doe which Iulian the Apostate knew well when he caused to shut up all Schooles of learning purposely to blind-fold men that they might noâ— discerne truth from errour And though modest ignorance is better then uncertaine knowledge yet you will not hence inferre that ignorance is better then knowledge except you will conclude that blindnesse is better then sight because blind Democritus was to be preferred to a quick-sighted Kite The perpetuating of the world by coition you call the foolishest act of a wise man and an unworthy piece of folly You let your pen â—â—n too much at randome the way which Wisdome it selfe hath appointed to multiâ—ly mankind and propagate the Church â—annot be foolish if it be in your esteem â—emember that the foolishnesse of God is â—iser then the wisdome of man for as â—reat folly as you think coition to be withâ—ut it you could not have been and sureâ—y there had been no other way in Paraâ—ise to propagate man but this foolâ—sh â—ay There is nothing foolish but what â—s sinfull but that cannot be sinfull which God hath appointed There is sometime foolishnesse in the circumstances but not â—n the act it selfe then the which nothing â—s more naturall As it is not folly to eate drinke and sleep for the preservation of the individuum neither is coition folly by which we preserve the species and immortalize our kind You feare the corruption within you not the contagion of commerce without you You must feare both and shun both Our corruption within is often irritated by outward commerce perhaps our inward tinder would lye dead if it were not incensed by the sparkles of commerce without 〈◊〉 that handleth pitch shall be defiled ' tiâ— dangerous to converse with leprous anâ— plaguie people The Israelites are forbiâ— commerce with the Canaanites and we arâ— commanded to depâ—rt out of Babel lest we be partakers of her sins Grex totus in agris Unius scabie cadit porrigine porci Uvaque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva If you were like the Sun you might freely commerce with all for hee shines upon infected places without infection which you cannot doe and therefore to use your owne phrase your conversation must not be like the Suns with all men except it be in causing your light to shine before them There is something you say within us that was before the elements That something must be the soule which though Plato and Origen thought was before the body yet we know the contrary for God first made the body and then inspired it with a soule To give existence to the soule before the body can stand neither with the perfection of Gods workes in the creation nor â—ith the dignity and quality of the soule â—ot with the first for all that God made â—as perfect but the soule without the â—ody had been an imperfect piece seeing was made to be a part of man Not with â—â—e second for the soule being the forme 〈◊〉 was not to exist without its matter the â—ody nor was it â—it that so noble a guest â—â—ould be brought into the world before a â—onvenient lodging was fitted for her T is true that the soule can and doth subâ—â—st without the body after death but then is necessitated because the body failes it â—nd the house becomes inhabitable and it 〈◊〉 a part
this last Judgement to be but mysticall then you may as well say with Socinus that eternall death and eternall fire prepared for the wicked is only mysticall and signifieth nothing else but the annihilation of the wicked for ever without sensible paine which is indeed to overthrow all Religion and open a wide gap for impiety and security The antecedent signes of Christs coming you thinke are not consistent with his secret coming as a thiefe in the night You must know that the wars and signes in the Sun Moon and Stars are partly meant of those signes which were the fore-runners of Ierusalems last destruction Secondly if wee understand them of the signes of Christs second coming they are meant oâ— such wars and apparitions as have noâ— been knowne in the world since the beginning in respect of the extent and numbeâ— of them Thirdly though signes goe before his coming yet men shall be so secure and hard-hearted eating drinking and making merry as in the dayes of Noah that they will take no notice of warning thereby then shall Christ come suddenly as a thiefe in the night Hardly hath any man attained you say thâ— perfect discovery of Antichrist These notes which are given by Christ Saint Iohn and Saint Paul doe most agree to the Pope who sits in the Temple of God as God and exalts himself above all that 's called God in throning and dethroning of Kings and disposing of their Kingdomes at his pleasure in pardoning sins in making of Saints and dedicating temples and dayes unto them in dispensing with cancelling and making of lawes at his pleasure in tying sanctitie infallibilitie of judgement to his Chaire and freedome from errour in appointing new sacraments and lawes in the Church and domineering over mens conâ—ciences in dispensing with matrimony forbidden by Gods lawes and the law of Nature in assuming to himselfe those tiâ—les which are due onely to God These and many other notes have prevailed so far with Wickliffe the Waldenses Hus Ierome Luther Calvin Bucer and other eminent men of our profession that they thought they had attained the perfect discovery of Antichrist If you know any other to whom these notes doe more exactly agree name him and wee will free the Pope from being the man of sin and childe of perdition A plant you say consumed to ashes retains its forme being withdrawne into its incombustible part where it lies secure from the fire and so the plant from its ashes may againe revive Admiranda canis sed non credenda For if the forme of the plant be there still then it is not consumed Secondly then Philosophy deceives us in telling us that the matter is onely eternall and the formes perishing Thirdly then Art and Nature is all one both being able to introduce or rather educe a substantiall forme Fourthly then the radicall moisture and naturall heat without which the forme hath no subsistence in the plant is not consumed by the fire but in spight of all its heat lurkes within the ashes credat Iudaeus Apella Fifthly then an Art being an accident can produce a substance and so the effect is nobler then the cause Sixthly then from a totall privation to the habit whose cause was taken away there may be a naturall regresse Seventhly if the forme of the plant be in the ashes still then it actuates distinguishes denominaâ—es defines perfects the matter for the ashes are not the first but second matter in which it is and so it is a plant still lurking under the accidents of ashes as in the Masse Christs bodie under the accidents of bread So by your Doctrine it is no hard worke to beleeve Transubstantiation or the storiâ—s of the Phenix Eighthly if the forme of the plant be still in the ashes then the forme is not in its owne matter but in another for so long as the ashes are ashes they are â—ot the matter of the plant but of that â—ubstance we call ashes Ninthly by this â—lso the appetite of the matter is taken away for to what can it have an appetite â—eeing it retaines the forme of the plant But I doubt mee your revived plant will prove more artificiall then naturall and â—ike Xeuxes his grapes deceive perhaps â—irds but not men So farre as I can perâ—eive in Quercitan and others who have written of Chymistry this forme of the plant is nothing but an Idea or a delusion of the eye through a glasse held over a flame wherein you may see somewhat like a plant a cloud in stead of Iuno A sallet of such plants may well tantalize you they will never fill you Though it be true that where Gods â—resence is there is Heaven yet wee must not therefore thinke that there is not a peculiar ubi of blisse and happinesse beyond the tenth Sphere wherein God doth more manifestly shew his glory and presence then any where else as you seeme to intimate when you say that to place Heaven â—n the Empyreall or beyond the tenth Sphere is to forget the worlds destruction which when it is destroyed all shall be here as it is now there First we deny that this sensible world shall be destroyed in the substance thereof its qualities shall be altered the actions motions and influences of the Heavens shall cease because then shall be no generation or corruption and consequently no transmutation of elements Secondly though this sensible world were to be destroyed yet it will not follow that therefore above the tenth Sphere there is not the Heaven of glory Whither was it that Christ ascended Is hee not said to ascend above all Heavens and that the Heavens must containe him till his second coming Did not the Apostles see him ascend in a cloud Doe not you acknowledge it an Article of your Creed Was not Saint Paul caught up into the third Heaven If you thinke there is no other Heaven meant in Scripture then Gods presence it must follow that Christs humanity is every-where because hee is in Heaven that is in Gods presence which is every-where and so you are of the Ubiquitâ—ries â—aith therefore we beleeve as the Church â—ath alwaies done that Heaven is locall â—r a place above this visible world whiâ—her Christ is gone to prepare a place for â—s which is called the Throne of God where â—ee have an habitation made without â—ands given us of God eternall in the Heavens Let us therefore seek the things not which be every-where but which are above where Christ is at the right hand of God The Gentiles as Tertullian witnesseth were not ignorant of the place of blessed soules quas in supernis mansionibus collocant which they placed in these upper mansions of Heaven Apud Platonem in aeherem sublimantur c. You cannot tell how to say fire is the essence of Hell nor can you conceive a flame that can prey upon the soule Flames of sulphur in Scripture are you thinke to be understood not of this present