and many other such things as were able to tyre one who would rehearse them These antient Priests esteemed Man to be best compos'd of all creatures and therefore that he was called the Microcosm as participating of the creation of all things And therefore that some by Saturn become sullen others by Jove are mirthful some are red-colour'd by Sol others Iascivious by Venus some are cheaters by Mercury some imperfect by Luna Nay that some bray like Asses â—ome like Dogs others like Swine others ravenous like Lions some like Doves others like Serpents according to the various dispositions similitudes and sympathies of participation which men have been said to have with all things created But likewise the Scripture hath taught us that Spirits have profess'd the pleasures of men have been given to men to some lying spirits to some sleeping spirits to others spirits of giddiness then that there are cozening seducing and lying spirits it appears because Christ warns his disciples that they should trust no spirit yea and rebuk'd them because they knew not by what spirit they were led And it is likewise witnessed in the Gospel that the mother-in-law of St. Peter was troubled with a feverish spirit Who will wonder then that men being left by God after their creation in their own power and turn'd over to so many Spirits Gods and Lords who set them a work did appoint and worship so many several sorts of Gods under so many divers shapes of things created if he consider the almost innumerable affinities and sympathies which men are found to have with these Spirits Gods and Lords as also with all things created in heaven and in earth God abborr'd those Spirits and Gods fallen off from the uprightness and perfection of their creation to their own changeable condition with such an abomination as the most upright and best must needs hate that which is evil and wicked Therefore you shall hear these Gods in Scripture call'd wicked Spirits wickednesses spirits of error evil spirits and very evil spirits as in that 9th Chapter of the Judges God sent a very evil spirit betwixt Sichem and Abimelech call'd likewise vain and lying spirits curses deceitfull Idols abominations uncleannesses pollutions whorings dung the sleep and the anger of the Lord as is that in Samuel 1. chap. 26. The sleep of the Lord had fallen upon Saul and his people The sleep of the Lord is the same in this place with the evil spirit from the Lord in the 16 Chapter of the same Book where you shall read that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him Such also is that Sam. 2. Chap. 24. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel which the first Book of the Chronicles speaking of the same thing expresses in these words And Satan rose up against Israel where Satan is the same with the anger of the Lord or anger from the Lord. As also the holy Scriptures are clear witnesses that those Spirits Gods and Lords by the Law of their creation which is changeable and corruptible are mortal and that they are condemned to eternal death where wicked and perverse men are called The sons of Belial Sam. 1. Chap. 2. As also Nabal a perverse man is branded with that name in the same book Chap. 25. As also the same son of Belial is called The sonne of death Sam. 2. Chap. 12. And in the same Book Cha. 23. the flouds of death are called the flouds of Belial where David says in his Song The pangs of death compast me about the flouds of Belial made me afraid In which places Belial is not only called mortal but mortality it self for being Prince of all Spirits which were his ministers both mortal and condâ—mned to a death from whence there is no resurrection Who will not believe that those Spirits are destined to eternal death since God himself hath said that at that latter judgement of all corruptible things they shall be condemned and cast with the Reprobates into eternal fire CHAP. VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were created into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneratinn who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain holiness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality THe Apostle deduces the stain of all sins which overthrew men chiefly from this Chap. 1 Epist to the Romans because they had left God the Creator and had given themselves over to those Gods Lords and unclean Spirits Hence their minds were blinded and given over to their own lusts were set on fire with wicked and unlawful desires contrary to nature and so receiv'd in themselves the rewards of their sin and thence open'd such a wide door to wickedness and filthiness that at last they fell into all manner of sin And as they preferr'd their own lust to the knowledge of God so on the contrary he gave them up to a reprobate sense that being men they should doe things not beseeming men Hence they became evil wicked fornicators avaricious given to lewdness full of envy and blood brawlers deceitfull despightfull whisperers back-biters hatefull to God contumelious proud arrogant inventers of wickedness disobedient to Parents foolish madd without affection truth or compassion Truly men being misled by those Spirits being thrust forward by the violence of their own appetite according to the affection and sympathie which they have with those Spirits I say men oprest with the weight of their own sin and drownd in sticking clay might have despaird of any salvation nor ever have pluckt out their feet for thence if God had not helped them and stretched out his powerful hands from heaven to draw theÌ„ thence But God was not of that mind as most men are who rid an unhappy person from his present calamity and are never sollicitous afterwards to advance their condition God dealt better and more freely with men first he wash'd them drawn out of the puddle with his own living waters then advanc'd them being now clean and white by his own free merit and lastly from their foul wallowings receiv'd them into the glory of heaven and made them partakers of divine knowledge sanctity and immortality which is in his most happy vision And this he did by vertue and force of that Spirit which is of God and who is God himself by a second and new creation out of his own free will largeness of his bounty abundance of his love and meer grace which therefore is call'd the gift of God and his only free grace Therfore let all those who desire to know themselves here make a stand and endeavour to be free in their thanks to God Let them tast and see how sweet the Lord is Let them remember by how great mercies beyond their desert he has
which could easily return to its own disposition 18 V. Of the matter of men subject to corruption Of the upright creation of men Of the Return of man to the disposition of his own nature And of his matter given to corruption 22 VI. God restor'd men created upright and turn'd backward to the wickedness of their own nature â—â—to a better estate by a second creation and lifts them up from men to be Gods Of that whâ—ch is produc'd and of that which is made Of mutable and immutable Of mortal and immortal Of tâ—â—e Spirit which is in God and of the Spirit of the world 28 VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits 31 VIII Men being misled by evil spirits fell from their right estate wherein they were creâ—â—ed into the wickedness of their own nature Being restor'd by the Spirit of Regeneration who only proceeds from God they know God whom flesh and blood knows not They obtain hâ—liness which they could not have in their first creation and recompence their natural death with a supernatural immortality 37 IX The Regeneration oâ— men is the grace and gift of God It is not granted to all men to be regenerated but only to the Elect. Election is in things natural Divine Election is in Gods Elect. Who are elected And who are called Reâ—robates 43 X. Divine election is consider'd two manner of waâ—es in God and in mystery One is from eternity The other only distributed according to mystical occasions The one admits of all men indifferently The other first chose the Jews and in them all the Nations of the world The Contents of the Chapters in the second Book CHAP. I. OF the election of the Jews The election of the Jews began from Adam the first father of the Jews The fews the first-born because first elected They were not elected of their own deserving but of the meer bounty of God who willed and chused them Made of the same common earth of which other men were created God ioyn'd in marriage to the church of the Israelites Father of the Jews The Jews esteem God because the sons of God Godâ—â—e Mother of the Jews Friend of the Jews The Jews the friends of God 55 II. God King of the Jews Jews the people of God God the Lord of the Jews Jews the servants of God The Jews call'd holy Call'd just The Jews elected for an eternal people Set apart from all the people of the earth for the lot and inheritance of the Lord. 65 III. To the elected Iews an elected Land was given A holy Land because the Land of the holy And the land of Promise because it was promised with an Oath to the Fathers of the Iews A description of the Holy Land That was a choice land not of its own nature but according to the pleasure of God who bless'd and chus'd it The land of the Iews And for the Iews only to dwell in 73 IV. Jerusalem the holy City of the holy Land the Temple placed in Jerusalem on the forked hill of Sion Eternal hils The City of David The City of the great King Of the Kings of the Iews 79 V. The Gentiles elected in the Iews by a mystical election Esteem'd the sons of God because elected in the Iews And grafted in the Iews 83 VI. Gentiles different from the Iews in Kinred and Original in as much as they are ingrafted in them Gentiles call'd Atheists because without a God called simply men and sons of men and foolish wicked c. 88 VII That the Gentiles are called Sinners 94 VIII Gentiles called children little ones pure 98 IX The Gentiles called the sons of wrath The enemies of God Beasts and so esteemed by the Iews yea unclean beasts The opposite comparison betwixt the Iews and the Gentiles 107 X. The Iews form'd by God in Adam The Gentiles created by God And created by the word of God as other creatures as also on the same day when other creatures were created The Iews peculiarly form'd by the hands of God God call'd the fashioner of the Iews Adam first Father of the Iews The Iews are call'd the Sons of Adam 112 XI The Iews are called by Moses the sons of Adam The 32 Chap. of Deut. is explained And Isaiah and Hoseas of Adam the first Father of the Iews The Gentiles called strangers the Iews a kind of men distinct in species from the Gentiles The Gentiles earth-born The Psalm 49 is explained Abraham had servants born in his house and also bought who were not of his stook that is of Adam Who are the sons of men Who is the son of man The difference 'twixt the brethren of the Iews and other strangers 118 The Contents of the third Book CHAP. I. THe original of the Gentiles is proved to be different from the original of the Iews out of Gen. The Gentiles were created in that creation which is mentioned Chap. 1. All creatures and all men male and female were created on the sixth day of the creation as plants trees and flying fowls upon their own dayes through all the woold Why upon that day one man and he alone from whom all should arise was not created 129 II. Adam was created apart from other men in that creation which is mentioned Gen. 2. Adam was the first and father of the Iews not of all men The framing of Adam was altogether different from the creation of the first men Eve could not be created the same day as Adam was made 135 III. Of the marvellous framing of Adam Of the marvellous conceptions of Isaac and Christ Adam was made a type of Christ in all things like him but his justice Eve the wife of Adam was likewise a figure of the Church who was the spouse of Christ 140 IV. Cain a tiller of the ground Abel a shepherd and a keeper of sheep Cain having kill'd his brother Abel is afraid Flies the punishment of fratricide Flies like all guilty men to the East of Eden Marries a wife begets a son and in the same East of Eden builds a City Adam is said to have begotten sons and daughters from the birth of Seth to the death of Adam himself It is not written that he begat either sons or daughters from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth. 146 V. The Genâ—tles prov'd different from the Iews out of the monuments of the Gentiles from the stock of Adam The argument of eternity divided into two classes by the antients Of time Of the bundles of years which the Chaldaeans had made up Of the Periodical year Of the returning and great year Years signified by Serpents Of the cave of age decipher'd by Claudian Of the age of ages 153 VI. Men know not their first histories originals Of the Chaldaeans Of the stupendious number of years which the Chaldaeans are said to have set down in the computation of their Astronomical Tables Of the Aegyptians And of the myriads
and perfectness but that they might be restrained within them Divine law will'd that men should not only continue in their righteousness and perfection but that they should be advanced above their own righteousness and perfection Humane lawes have provided that men like beasts should not be meerly turned to pasture The Divine law will'd that man should be carried upward to the sight and glory of immortal God Humane lawes were within the limits of men Divine lawes were above men Humane lawes restrained the nature of men Divine lawes resolv'd to alter humane nature Humane lawes grafted in nature help nature and savour of nature Divine lawes being placed above nature breath all Mysterie and Divinitie help nature that it may purifie it nay that it may turn humane nature into divine Let us here leave Humane lawes and onely talk of that which God gave to Adam And because by the mystical not the natural dispensation of that Law we become more than men and are transform'd into gods Which is the end of this Systeme of Divinity and Christianity Likewise we shall handle that legal sin which broke the Law of God I say that first Law of God which Adam the first man did transgress And which men were reputed to have violated in Adam CHAP. II. The natural sins of men are the very defaults of humane nature the causes of which are not to be ascribed to the sins of Adam Legal sin imputed to men by the sin of Adam is additional Conceiv'd spiritually and not propagated naturally THere are some persons who believe that Warrs Plagues Fevers and all the troop of natural corruptions invaded the Earth by that imputation of the sin of Adam which first transgressed the Law of God And much they stand for this not taking notice of the difference betwixt natural and legal sin For Warrs Plagues and Fevers and whatsoever else of this sort troubles and afflicts mankind are the consequences of natural sin which is the wickedness and imperfection of Nature This will easily appear to such who will suffer that antient cloud of prepossession to be remov'd which dulls their sight for who knows not that Warrs had their original from such whom either greedy desire of prey or cruel thirst after revenge or sacred ambition of Rule stirred up to take arms Then who hath not had experience of the breeding and inflammation of Plagues and Fevers either by the natural corruption of the air or by the corruption of our natural bodies We have as many witnesses of this observation and truth as we have Statesmen and Physicians whose approbations almost innumerable it is needless here to relate We shall therefore assert a double sin in Adam a natural and a legal A natural sin naturally inherent in Adam by the infirmity of his nature and that peccant matter whereof he was made Legal which hapned and was imputed to Adam by violation of the Law of God A natural sin which infected the natural sense matter and nature of Adam A legal mystical and spiritual which broke the Law mystical spiritual which only in spirit and reason could be conceived For who can conceive a tree of good and evil who can understand the eating of knowledge the eating of good and evil unless he conceive it intellectually and mystically Likewise we conceive a two-fold sin in all men as we assert a two-fold sin in Adam natural and legal A natural sin which being innate in every person by reason of his peccant nature is deeply and naturally rooted in their very bowels Which proceeds from the fat of them as is elegantly expressed in the 73 Psalm A legal sin which happen'd and was imputed to all men by the transgression of that Law which Adam did violate A natural sin which had an influence upon the natural sense and corporeal matter of all men Legal which pass'd upon all men spiritually and mystically by the legal sin of Adam We conceive that mystical and spiritual passing of legal sin upon all men by another sin which was Adams to have been by imputation by which we meant that it was imputed to all men that Adam had sinned With any else besides Divines imputation of anothers trespass is a meer supposition in Law but with Divines it is the form of the mysteries which I shall clear to you by a very part example Sedechias King of the Jews brake his allegeance to the King of Assyria That fault was imputed to all the Jews who were thought perjur'd in the perjury of the King by that supposition of the Law of Nations by which people are thought to commit a fault in the faults of their Kings God had entered into a Covenant with Adam and in him with all men as being the Governour Defender and Prince of all men That Covenant Adam broke and that failing of Adam was ascribed to all men by that divine way of mysterie by which all men are thought to be delinquents in the faults of their Governours Defenders or Princes Therefore I think not that the imputation of Adams sin did overthrow mans nature nor doe I again agree with those that will grant nothing to imputation I leave to things natural and mystical their own room Natural things I would have naturally taken Things mystical I would have mystically understood Corruption contracted from that matter of all men which is addicted to corruption was that which overthrew the nature of mankind The mystical imputation of the sin of Adam is that which infected all men with the mystical stain of condemnation I assert imputations without which the mysteries of Christianity would be subverted but these I restrain within their mystical limits lest they stray beyond their mysterie beyond conception spirit Therefore I think not from thence because the sin of Adam was imputed to all men that thence they came to be obnoxious to diseases but by reason of their corrupt and rotten nature The innate infirmity of men was the real and natural calamity of men And according to Ezekiel Chap. 28. There came a fire out of the midst of them to consume them than which there is nothing more true for it is a mans own nature which causes burnings in his heart which that I may the more evidently prove by examples It is not known that Adam who was the criminal and as they say the first fountain of so great evils was ever so much as troubled with the least disease all the Nine hundred and thirty years which he liv'd unless you will believe him who relates out of I doe not know what Author that Adam dyed of the Gout with which he was troubled and which he pretends that he had by succession from his Ancestors Did Cain fall sick when he slew his Brother Nay he was very strong and lusty he fled to the east of Eden got a company of wicked persons about him with whom he rob'd He married a Wife begot a Son and built a City And this is a continual
very place The Spirit of this world These two are at continual variance and eternal discord since God made a mixture of all things when he gave to all things breath and life The Spirit which is of God we shall call that Spirit of regeneration which flows immediately and is produced from God which is altogether spiritual stable incorruptible and eternal which is fed with the fire of the vision of God which God onely loves and chuses We shall call the spirit of this world that spirit of creation with which the whole world was animated and which was infus'd into the whole frame in the creation Then that is the Spirit which by interposition of a medium being created by God is animal material carnal and corporeal which is changeable and subject to vanity which is corruptible which savours of death which faints and melts before the eyes of God which God disdains and rejects God when he made the world breath'd upon all things created and living in the world by that Spirit of the world and creation by which they live but did not likewise infuse into all things created and living in the world his Spirit of regeneration by which things created and living which are antient are renewed the corrupt refresh'd and the dead rise up into eternal liâ—e Nay he did communicate that to a certain company of the Elect to himself known with such resolution and decree that whomsoever this Spirit should inspire unto grace by his power they should receive immortality and through patience become that holy fire by which he shall try all things On that day when all the faultiness of the world shall be purg'd on which all things which have been fram'd shall be remov'd and consum'd and all changeable vain â—ortal and corruptible things which God abhors and rejects CHAP. VII Of one God and of one Spirit which is of God Of divers Gods and Spirits THe Spirit of regeneration is the same Spirit which is the Spirit of Christ by whom comes regeneration he is one neither enduring number nor consort The Apostle tells us that there are several spirits of creation both in the heaven and in the earth Cor. 1. chap. 8. which in that place he calls Gods and Lords The words of St. Paul are these For although there be those which are called gods both in the heaven and in the earth seeing there are many gods and many lords yet wee have but one God The same Apostle in the 8. to the Romans call'd those Gods and Lords in the heaven and in the earth heighth and depth whom he makes mention of amongst the Spirits of the creation for he addes Nor any other creature And certainly as the same St. Paul sets down wicked Spirits amongst the celestial you may likewise imagine that there are evil Spirits likewise amongst the terrestrial For seeing you read Sam. 1. Chap. 28. That the Witch saw Gods that is Spirits ascending out of the Earth The chief of those Spirits is he whom the holy Writ commonly calls the Devil Sathan Belial Mammon Prince of the power of the air of this world and this life That every one has their Angel and attendant the books of both the Old and New Testaments doe witness Jude the Apostle tells us that the chief of these Spirits and all the Angels under his command were created in the beginning good and upright as also that they were made with a creation changeable and corruptible in his Catholick Epistle in which place he sayes expresly That those Spirits did not keep their Principalitie but left their habitation Therefore it is to be presum'd that they had a good Principality which they kept not Hence that of Job Behold those which serve him are not stable and he finds wickedness in his Angels According as those spirits breath'd upon those things which were subject to the Lawes of the creation and as the Apostle speaks in the second to the Ephesians wrought upon them it is credible that all the created things of the world degenerated from that perfect good uprightness where in they were created when those Spirits fell from their Principalitie and habitation And hence it has come to pass that the men of the first creation forgetting their first Creator and stirr'd up by those Spirits of the corrupted creation strayed from the uprightness of their first creation and perish'd in their own thoughts Hence certainly was that foolishness of their darkned heart by which they thought God not to be their Creator by which they serv'd the creature rather than the Creator by which lastly they chang'd the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man of fowls beasts serpents Rom. 1. The Priests and Philosophers amongst the Gentiles who knew not God the Father and the Creator observ'd several Spirits and Gods whom they determined governours of several ranks and degrees and whom they plac'd either in the heaven or in the stars or in the fiâ—â— or in the air or in the water or in the earth or under the earth and whose shapes they did not deny might be called up by several wayes of sacrifice and inchantment For certainly they considered a certain affinitie and fellow-suffering of those Spirits with all things created on whom by their sympathie and similitude they had an influence They thought that all animals and vegetables from trees to metals and nones were mov'd and led by those Spirits Yea that all things did pray and sing hymns to the leaders of their own order Therefore say they the Heliotrop moves towards the Sun and if any one could observe her stamping that she makes in the air in her wheeling about he should observe a kind of a sound compos'd towards her King such a one as a Plant might be expected to make The Lotus opens and shuts her leaves turning towards the same Planet according as the Sun ascends or descâ—ends by degrees whom she seems to honour with the motion of her leaves as it were with the morion of her lips They have boasted the same things of Selenetropes which turn to the Moon as are related of Heliotropes The clapping and singing of the Cock at the Sun-rising are known which I should interpret to be mourning at his departure The Dogs bark at the Moon and inflam'd with the Dog-star run mad What shall I say of the stone Helitis which by its rayes imitates those golden ones of the Sun As also of the stone Selenitis which is shap'd like a hornd Moon and by its change follows the motion of the Moon What shall I say of the Helioselen which seems to present the conjunction of the Sun and Moon Not to speak of the seven metals to every one of which there is a particular Planet assign'd Then the Oakes dedicated to Jove the Laurel to Phoebus the Olîve to Minerva the Poplar to Hercules Horses to Neptune Swine to Ceres Goats to Bacchus Black sheep to infernal Juno Serpents to Aesculapius