stupendious proof of omnipotence Neither is it otherwise with the invisible hoast of heaven If the power of one Angel be such that he were able at his makers appointment to redact the world to nothing and the nature of any one so eminent that it far surmounts any part of the visible Creation what shal we say to those next-to-infinite numbers of mighty and majestical spirits wherewith the great God of heaven hath furnished his throne and footstool I know not upon what grounds that by some magnified Prophetesse could so precisely compute that if all men should be reckoned up from the first Adam to the last man that shal stand upon the earth there might be to each man assigned more then ten Angels Ambroses account is yet fuller who makes all mankind to be that one lost sheep in the parable and the Angels whose chore the great shepheard left for a time to come down to this earthly wildernesse to be the ninety and nine Lo here wel-near an hundred for one Yet even that number is poor in comparison of the reckoning of him who pretends to fetch it from the chosen vessel rapt into Paradise who presumes to tell us there are greater numbers of Angels in every several rank then there is of the particulars of whatsoever material things in this world The Bishop of Herbipolis instanceth boldly in stars in leaves in spires of grasse But sure I am had that Dennis of Areopagus been in S. Pauls room and supplyed his rapture he could no more have computed the number of Angels then the best Arithmetician standing upon an hill seeing a huge Xerxes-like Army swarming in the valley can give a just reckoning of the number of those heads Surely when our Saviour speaks of more then twelve legions of Angels he doth not say how many â—ore If those twelve according to Hieroms though too short computation amount to seventy-two thousand the more then twelve were doubtlesse more then many millions He that made them can tell us The beloved Disciple in Pathmos as by inspiration from that God sayes I beheld and I heard the voice of many Angels round about the throne and the Beasts and the Elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands now the Elders were but 24. and the Beasts were but four all those other thousands were Angels and if so many were about his throne how many do we think were about his missions Before him the Prophet Daniel betwixt whom and the Evangelist there is so perfect correspondence that we may well say Daniel was the John of the old Testament and John the Daniel of the new hath made the like reckoning Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him But Bildad the Shuhite in one word sayes more then all Is there any number of his Armies Lo his Armies are past all number how much more his several souldiers so as it may not perhaps seem hard to beleeve Dionysius that the Angels of but one rank are more then can be comprehended by any Arithmetical number or Gregory who determines them numerable only to God that made them to men innumerable O great God of heaven how doth this set forth the infinite majesty of thine omnipotent Deity to be thus attended we judge of the magnificence of Princes according to the number and quality of their retinue and guard and other their military powers and yet each one of these hath an equally absolute life and being of his own receiving only a pay from his Soveraign What shall we then think of thee the great King of eternal glory that hast before thy throne innumerable hosts of powerfull and glorious spirits of thine own making and upholding And how safe are we under so many and so mighty Protectors It might be perhaps well meant and is confessed to be seconded with much reverend antiquity the conceit that each man hath a special Angel designed for his custody and if but so we are secure enough from all the danger of whatsoever hostile machinations however this may seem some scanting of the bountiful provision of the Almighty who hath pleased to expresse his gracious respects to one man in the allotment of many guardians For if Jacob speak of one Angel David speaks of more He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes And even those which have thought good to abet this piece of Platonick Divinity concerning the single Guardianship of Angels have yet yielded that according to several relations each one hath many spiritual keepers Insomuch as the forecited * Fornerus late Bâ—shop of Wirtzburg durst assure his auditors that each of them had ten Angels at least assigned to his custody according to the respects of their subordinate interests besides their own person of their Family Parish Fraternity City Diocese Countrey Office Church World Yet even this computation is niggardly and * pinching since the abundant store and bounty of the Almighty can as well afford Centuries as Decades of Guardians Howsoever why should it not be all one to us since there is no lesse safety in the hands of one then many no lesse care of us from many then from one should but one Angel guard millions of men his power could secure them no lesse then a single charge but now that we are guarded with millions of Angels what can the gates of hell do But what number soever be imployed about us sure I am that together with them those that attend the throne of their maker make up no lesse as Nazianzen justly accounts them then a world of spirits A world so much more excellent then this visible by how much it is more abstracted from our weak senses O ye blessed spirits ye are ever by me ever with me ever about me I do as good as see you for I know you to be here I reverence your glorious persons I blesse God for you I walk awfully because I am ever in your eyes I walk confidently because I am ever in your hands How should I be ashamed that in this piece of Theology I should be out-bid by very Turks whose Priests shut up their Devotions with an precatory mention of your presence as if this were the upshot of all blessings I am sure it is that wherein next to my God and Saviour I shall ever place my greatest comfort and confidence neither hath earth or heaven any other besides that looks like it SECT. IV. The power of Angels MUltitudes even of the smallest and weakest creatures have been able to produce great effects The swarms of but Flies and Lice could amate the great and mighty King of Egypt all his forces could not free him and his Peers from so impotent adversaries but when multitude is seconded with strength how must it needs be irresistible so it is in these blessed spirits
even their omnipotent maker who best knows what is derived from him styles them by his Apostle Powers and by his Psalmist mighty ones in strength A small force seems great to the weak but that power which is commended by the Almighty must needs be transcendently great we best judge of powerfulnesse by the effects How suddainly had one Angel dispatched every first-born in Egypt and after them the hundred fourscore and five thousand of the proud Assyrian Army and if each man had been a Legion with what ease had it been done by that potent spirit Neither are they lesse able to preserve then to destroy That of Aquinas is a great word One Angel is of such power that be were able to govern all the corporeall creatures of the world Justly was it exploded as the wild heresie of Simon Magus and his clients the Meandâ—ians that the Angels made the world No this was the sole work of him that made them but if we say that it pleases God by their ministration to sway and order the marvailous affairs of this great Universe we shall not I suppose vary from truth If we look to the highest part thereof Philosophers have gone so far as to teach us that which is seconded by the allowance of some great Divines that these blessed Intelligences are they by whose agency under their Almighty Creator the heavens and the glorious luminaries thereof continue their ever-constant and regular motions And if there fall out any preternaturall immutations in the elements any strange concussations of the earth any direfull prodigies in the skie whither should they be imputed but to these mighty Angels whom it pleaseth the most high God to imploy in these extraordinary services That dreadfull magnificence which was in the delivering of the Law on Mount Sinai in fire smoak thundrings lightnings voices earthquakes whence was it but by the operation of Angels And indeed as they are the nearest both in nature and place to the majesty of the highest so it is most proper for them to participate most of his power and to exercise it in obedience to his Soveraignty As therefore he is that infinite Spirit who doth all things and can do no more then all so they as his immediate subordinates are the means whereby he executeth his illimited power in and upon this whole created world Whence it is that in their glorious appearances they have been taken for Jehovah himself by Hagar by Manoah and his wife yea by the better eyes of the Father of the faithfull Now Lord what a protection hast thou provided for thy poor worms and not men creeping here on thine earth and what can we fear in so mighty and sure hands He that passeth with a strong convoy through a wild and perilous desert scorns the danger of wild beasts or robbers no lesse then if he were in a strong tower at home so do we the onsets of the powers of darknesse whiles we are thus invincibly guarded When God promised Moses that an Angel should goe before Israel and yet withall threatned the subduction of his own presence I marvel not if the holy man were no lesse troubled then if they had been left destitute and guardless and that he ceased not his importunity till he had won the gracious ingagement of the Almighty for his presence in that whole expedition For what is the greatest Angel in heaven without his maker But let thy favour O God order and accompany the deputation of the lowest of thine Angels what can all the troops of hell hurt us Assoon may the walls of heaven be scaled and thy throne deturbed as he can be foiled that is defenced with thy power Were it possible to conceive that the Almighty should be but a looker on in the conflict of spirits we know that the good Angels have so so much advantage of their strength as they have of their station neither could those subdued spirits stand in the incounter but now he that is strong in our weaknesse is strong in their strength for us blessed be God for them as the Author of them and their protection Blessed be they under God as the means used by him for our protection and blessings SECT. V. The knowledge of Angels IF Sampson could have had his full strength in his mill when he wanted his eyes it would have little availed him such is power without knowledge but where both of these concur in one how can they fail of effect Whether of these is more eminent in the blessed spirits it is not easie to determine so perfectly knowing are they as that the very heathen Philosophers have styled them by the name of Intelligences as if their very being were made up of understanding Indeed what is there in this whole compass of the large Universe that is hid from their eyes only the closet of mans heart is lockt up from them as reserved solely to their maker yet so as that â—hey can by some insensible chinks of those secret notifications which fall from us look into them also all other things whether secrets of nature or closest counsels or events are as open to their sight as the most visible objects are to ours They do not as we mortals are wont look through the dim and horny spectacle oâ— senses or understand by the mediation of Phantasms but rather as clear mirrours they receive at once the full representations of all intelligible things having besides that connaturall light which is universally in them all certain speciall illuminations from the Father of lights Even we men think we know something neither may our good God lose the thank of his bounty this way but alas he that is reputed to have known most of all the heathen whom * some have styled the Genius of nature could confesse that the clearest understanding is to those things which are most manifest but as a bats eyes to the Sun Do we see but a worm crawling under our feet we know not what that is which in it self gives it a being Do we hear but a Bee humming about our ears the greatest Naturalist cannot know whether that noise come from within the body or from the mouth or from the wings of that Flie How can we then hope or pretend to know those things which are abstruse and remote But these heavenly spirits do not only know things as they are in themselves and in their inward and immediate causes but do clearly see the first and universal cause of all things and that in his glorious essence how much more do they know our shallow dispositions affections inclinations which peer out of the windows of our hearts together with all perils and events that are incident unto us We walk therefore amids not more able then watchfull overseers and so are we lookt thorough in all our wayes as if heaven were all eyes Under this blessed vigilancy if the powers of hell can either surprize us with
Angell is able to chase whole troops of these malignant For though their naturall powers in regard of the substance of them be still retained yet in regard of the exercise and execution of them they are abated and restrained by the over-ruling order of divine Justice and mercy from which far be that infinite incongruity that evill should prevail above God The same God therefore who so disposeth the issue of these humane contentions that the race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong cowardizeth and daunteth these mighty and insolent spirits so as they cannot stand before one of these glorious Angels nor prevail any further then his most wise providence hath contrived to permit for his own most holy purposes How ever yet we be upon these grounds safe in the good hands of the Almighty and of those his blessed Guardians to whom he hath committed our charge yet it well befits us to take notice of those powerfull executions of the evill Angels which it pleaseth the great Arbiter of the world to give way unto that we may know what cause we have both of vigilance and gratitude SECT. III. Of the power of Devils NO Dwarfe will offer to wrestle with a Giant it is an argument of no smal power as well as boldnesse of that proud spirit that he durst strive with Michael the Archangell and though he were as then foiled in the conflict yet he ceaseth not still to oppose his Hierarchy to the Celestiall and not there prevailing he poures out his tyranny where he is suffered on this inferior world One while fetching down fire from heaven which the messenger called the fire of God upon the flocks and shepherds of Job another while blustring in the air with hurrying winds and furious tempests breaking downe the strongest towers and turning up the stoutest oaks tearing asunder the hardest rocks and rending of the tops of the firmest mountains one while swelling up the raging Sea to suddain inundations another while causing the earth to totter and tremble under our feet would we descend to the particular demonstrations of the powerfull operations of evill spirits this discourse would have no end If we do but cast our eyes upon Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian Sorcerers in whom we have formerly instanced in another Treatise to this purpose we shall see enough to wonder at How close did they for a time follow Moses at the heels imitating those miraculous works which God had appointed and inabled him to do for Pharaohs conviction Had not the faith of that worthy servant of God been invincible how blank must he needs have looked to see his great works patterned by those presumptuous rivals Doth Moses turn his rod into a serpent every of their rods crawleth and hisseth as well as his Doth he smite the waters into bloud their waters are instantly as bloudy as his Doth he fetch frogs out of Nilus into Pharaohs bed-chamber and bosome and into the ovens and kneading troughs of his people they can store Egypt with loathsome cattle as well as he All this while Pharaoh knows no difference of a God and hardly yeelds whether Jannes or Moses be the better man although he might easily have decided it out of the very acts done he saw Moses his serpent devoured theirs so as now there was neither serpent nor rod and whiles they would be turning their rod into aserpent both rod and serpent were lost in that serpent which returned into a rod He saw that those Sorcerers who had brought the frogs could not remove them and soon after sees that those juglers who pretended to make serpents bloud frogs cannot when God pleaseth to restrain them make so much as a louse But supposing the sufferance of the Almighty who knows what limits to prescribe to these infernall powers They can beguile the senses mock the fantasie work strongly by philtres upon the affections assume the shapes of man or beast inflict grievous torment on the body conveigh strange things insensibly into it transport it from place to place in quick motions cause no lesse suddain disparitions of it heal diseases by charmes and spels frame hideous apparitions and in short by applying active powers to passive subjects they can produce wonderful effects each of all which were easie to be instanced in whole volumes if it were needfull out of history and experience Who then O God who is able to stand before these sons of Anak what are we in such hands Oh match desperately unequal of weaknesse with power flesh with spirit man with Devils Away with this cowardly diffidence Chear up thy self O my soul against these heartlesse fears and know the advantage is on thy side Could Samson have been firmly bound hand and foot by the Philistine cords so as he could not have stirred those mighty limbs of his what boy or girl of Gath or Ascalon would have fear'd to draw near and spurn that awed champion No other is the condition of our dreadfull enemies they are fast bound up with the adamantine chains of Gods most mercifull and inviolable decree and forcibly restrained from their desired mischief Who can be afraid of a muzzled and tyed up mastive What woman or childe cannot make faces at a fierce Lion or a bloudy Bajazet lockt up fast in an iron grate were it not for this strong and straight curb of divine providence what good man could breath one minute upon earth The Demoâ—iack in the Gospel could break his iron fetters iâ— pieces through the help of his â—egion those Devils that possessed him could not break theirs they are fain to sue for leave to enter into swine neither had obtained it in all likelyhood but for a just punishment to those Gadarene owners How sure may we then be that this just hand of omnipotence will not suffer these evill ones to tyrannize over his chosen vessels for their hurt How safe are we since their power is limited our protection infinite SECT. IV. Of the knowledge and malice of wicked Spirits WHo can know how much he is bound to God for safe-guard if he doe not apprehend the quality of those enemies wherewith he is incompassed whose knowledge and skil is no whit inferiour to their power They have not the name of Daemones for nothing their natural knowledge was not forfeited by their fall the wisdom of the infinite giver of it knows how rather to turn it to the use of his own glory However therefore they are kept ofâ— from those divine illuminations which the good Angels receive from God yet they must needs be granted to have such a measure of knowledge as cannot but yeeld them a formidable advantage For as spirits being not stripped of their original knowledge together with their glory they cannot but know the natures and constitutions of the creatures and thereby their tempers dispositions inclinations conditions faculties and therewith their wants their weaknesse and obnoxiousnesse and thereupon strongly conjecture at their
the Christian Church for which what good soul doth not mourn in secret the danger whereof ye shall happily avoid if ye shall keep close to the written word of our God which is only able to make you wise to salvation As our Saviour repelled the Devill so do ye the fanatick spirits of these brain-sick men with It is written Let those who would be wiser then God justly perish in their presumption My soul for yours if ye keep you to S. Pauls guard not to be wise above that which is written I could easily out of the exuberance of my Christian love overcharg you with multiplicity of holy counâ—ses but I would not take a tedious farewell May the God of heaven bless these and all other wholesom admonitions to the furtherance of your souls in grace and may his good spirit ever lead guide us in all such wayes as may be pleasing to him till we happily meet in the participation of that incomprehensible glory which he hath prepared for all his Saints till when Farewel from your fellow-pilgrim in this vale of tears Jos. Hall HIGHAM neer NORWICH Nov. 3. 1651. THE INVISIBLE WORLD Discovered to spiritual Eyes AND Reduced to usefull Meditation In three Books By JOS. HALL D.D.B.N. London Printed by E. Cotes for John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate 1659 The PREFACE AS those that flit from their old home and betake themselves to dwell in another countrey where they are sure to settle are wont to forget the faces and fashions whereto they were formerly inured and to apply themselves to the knowledge and acquaintance of those with whom they shall afterwards converse So it is here with me being to remove from my earthly Tabernacle wherein I have worn out the few and evil dayes of my pilgrimage to an abiding City above I have desired to acquaint my self with that Invisible world to which I am going to enter-know my good God and his blessed Angels and Saints with whom I hope to passe an happy eternity And if by often and serious meditation I have attained through Gods mercy to any measure of lightsome apprehension of them and their blisseful condition I thought it could be no other then profitable to my fellow-pilgrims to have it imparted unto them And as knowing we can never be sensible enough of our happinesse unlesse we know our own dangers and the woful mis-carriages of others nor so fully blesse our eyes with the sight of heaven if we cast not some glances upon hell I have held it requisite to bestow some thoughts upon that dreadfull region of darknesse and confusion that by the former of these our desires may be whetted to the fruition of their blessednesse and by the other we may be stirred up to a care of avoiding those paths that lead down to that second death and to a continual thankfulnesse unto that mercifull God whose infinite goodnesse hath delivered us from that pit of horrour and perdition THE INVISIBLE WORLD The First BOOK SECT. I. That there is an invisible world WHo can think other but that the great God of heaven loseth much glory by our ignorance For how can we give him the honour due to his name whiles we conceive too narrowly of him and his works To know him as he is is past the capacity of our finite understanding we must have other eyes to discern that incomprehensible essence but to see him in his divine emanations and marvailous works which are the back parts of that glorious majesty is that whereof we may be capable and should be ambitious Neither is there any thing in this world that can so much import us For wherefore serves the eye of sense but to view the goodly frame and furniture of the Creation wherefore serves the eye of reason and faith but to see that lively and invisible power which governs and comprehends it Even this sensible and materiall world if we could conceive aright of it is enough to amaze the most inlightned reason for if this globe of earth in regard of the immense greatnesse of it is wont not unjustly to be accounted a World what shall we say of so many thousand stars that are for the most part bigger then it how can we but admire so many thousand worlds of light rolling continually over our heads all made by the omnipotent power all regularly guided by the infinite providence of the great God How poorly must that man needs think of the workmanship of the Almighty that looks upon all these but as so many Torches set up in the firmament every evening only so big as they seem and with what awfull respects must he needs be carried to his Creator that knowes the vastnesse and perpetually-constant movings of those lightsom bodies ruled and upheld only by the mighty word that made them There is store of wonders in the visible but the spirituall and intelligible world is that which is more worthy to take up our hearts both as we are men indued with reason and as regenerate inlightned by faith being so much more excellent then the other by how much more it is removed from all earthly means of apprehension Brute creatures may behold these visible things perhaps with sharper eyes then we but spirituall objects are so utterly out of their reach as if they had no being Nearest therefore to beasts are those men who suffer themselves to be so altogether led by their senses as to believe nothing but what is suggested by that purblind and unfaithfull informer Let such men doubt whether they have a soul in their body because their eye never met with it or that there are any stars in the firmament at noon-day because they appear not or that there is any air wherein they breath because nothing appears to them but an insensible vacuity Of all other the Sadduces had been the most dull and sottish hereticks that ever were if as some have construed them they had utterly denyed the very being of any Spirits Sure as learned Cameron pleads for them they could not be so senselesse for beleeving the books of Moses and being conscious of their own animation their bosomes must needs convince them of their spiritual inmate and what but a spirit could inable them to argue against spirits and how could they hold a God and no Spirit it was bad enough that they denyed the immortality and constant subsistence of those Angelical immaterial substances an opinion long since hissed out not of the School of Christianity only but of the very stalls and styes of the most brutish Paganisme although not very long since as is reported by Hosius and Prateolus that cursed Glazier of Gaunt David George durst wickedly rake it out of the dust and of late some Scepticks of our own have let fall some suspicious glances this way Surely all that know they have souls must needs beleeve a world of spirits which they see not if from no other grounds yet out of that analogy
who convey the benefit of their heavenly meditations unto the souls of others Lastly to the highest eminence of Seraphim those who love God with their whole heart and their neighbour for God and their enemies in God and feel no wrongs but those which are done to their Maker I know not whether this soaring conceit be more seemingly pious then really presumptuous since it is evident enough that these graces do incur into each other and are not possible to be severed He that loves God cannot choose but be earnestly desirous to communicate his graces unto others cannot but have his heart taken up with divine contemplation the same man cannot but overlook earthly things and courageously suffer for the honour of his God Shortly he cannot but be vigilant over his own wayes and helpfull unto others Why should I presume to divide those vertues or rewards which God will have inseparably conjoyned And what a strange confusion were this in stead of an heavenly order of remuneration Sure I am that the least degree both of Saints and Angels is blessednesse But for those stairs of Glory it were too ambitious in me to desire either to climb or know them It is enough for me to rest in the hope that I shall once see them in the mean time let me be learnedly ignorant and incuriously devout silently blessing the power and wisdom of my infinite Creator who knows how to honour himself by all these glorious and unrevealed subordinations SECT. VIII The apparitions of Angels WEre these celestiall spirits though never so many never so powerfull never so knowing never so excellently glorious meer strangers to us what were their number power knowledge glory unto us I hear of the great riches state and magnificence of some remote Eastern Monarchs what am I the better whiles in this distance their port and affairs are not capable of any relation to me To me it is all one not to be and not to be concerned Let us therefore diligently inquire what mutual communion there is or may be betwixt these blessed spirits and us And first nothing is more plain then that the Angels of God have not alwayes been kept from mortall eyes under an invisible concealment but sometimes have condescended so low as to manifest their presence to men in visible forms not naturall but assumed I confesse I have not faith enough to beleeve many of those apparitions that are pretended I could never yet know what other to think of * Socrates his Genius which as himself reports was wont to check him when he went about any unmeeâ— enterprise and to forward him in good For the modern times it is too hard to credit the report of Doway letters concerning our busie neighbour Pâ—re Cotton that he had ordinary conference and conversation with Angels both his own tutelar and those generall of Provinces If so what need was there for him to have propounded fifty questions partly of Divinity partly of Policy to the resolution of a Demoniack Who can be so fondly credulous as to believe that Jo. Carrera a young father of the Society had a daily companion of his Angell in so familiar a fashion as to propound his doubts to that secret friend to receive his answers to take his advise upon all occasions to be raised by him every morning from his bed to his early devotions till once delaying caused for a time an intermission Or that the aged Cappuchin Franciscus de Bergamo noted for the eleven pretious stones which were found in his gall had for eight years together before his death the assistance of an Angel in humane shape for the performing of his Canonicall hours Or that the Angels helped their S. Gudwal and S. Oswald Bishop of Worcester to say his masse Or that Isidore the late Spanish Peasant newly Sainted amongst good company by Greg. the 15. serving an hard master had an Angell to make up his daily task at his plough whiles the good soul was at his publique devotions like as another Angel supplyed Felix the Lay Cappuchin in tending his Cattle Or that Francisca Romana lately Canonized had two Celestial spirits visibly attending her the one of the order of Archangels which never left her the other of the fourth order of Angels who frequently presented himself to her view their attire sometimes white sometimes blew purple more rarely their tresses of hair long and golden as the over-credulous Bishop of Wirtzburge reports from Gulielmus Baldesanus not without many improbable circumstances these and a thousand more of the sâ—me branne finde no more belief with me then that story which Franciscus Albertinus relates out of Baronius as done here at home that in the year 1601. in England there was an Angel seen upon one of our Altars and therefore more likely to be known in our own Island then beyond the Alps in a visible form with a naked sword in his hand which he glitteringly brandished up and down foyning sometimes and sometimes striking thereby threatning so long ago an instant destruction to this Kingdome And indeed why should we yeeld more credit to these pretenders of apparitions then to Adelbertus the German Heresâ—arch condemned in a Councel of Rome by Pope Zacharie who gave no lesse confidently out that his Angel-guardian appeared daily to him and imparted to him many divine Revelations and directions or if there be a difference pleaded in the relations where or how shal we finde it This we know that so sure as we see men so sure we are that holy men have seen Angels Abraham saw Angels in his Tent dore Lot saw Angels in the Gate of Sodome Hagar in the Wildernesse of Beersheba Jacob in the way Moses in the bush of Horeb Manoah and his wife in the field Gideon in his threshing flore David by the threshing flore of Araunah What should I mention the Prophets Elijah Elisha Esay Daniel Zachary Ezekiel and the rest In the new Testament Joseph Mary Zachariah the father of John Baptist the Shepheards Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius Paul John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of Angels In the succeeding times of the Church Primitive I dare beleeve that good Angels were no whit more sparing of their presence for the comfort of holy Martyrs and Confessors under the pressure of tyranny for the dear name of their Saviour I doubt not but constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no lesse then he reported to Julian his persecutor I doubt not but the holy Virgins Theophila Agnes Lucia Cecilia and others saw the good Angels protectors of their chastity As one that hath learned in these cases to take the mid-way betwixt distrust and credulity I can easily yield that those retired Saints of the prime ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly companions for the consolation of their forced solitude But withall I must have leave to hold
from sinfull mankind Wo is me what odious sents arise to you perpetually from those bloody murders beastly uncleannesses cruell oppressions noisome disgorgings of surfeits and drunkennesses abominable Idolatries and all manner of detestable wickednesses presumptuously committed every where enough to make you abhorre the presence and protection of debauched and deplored mortality But for us that are better principled and know what it is to be over-lookt by holy and glorious spirits we desire and care to be more tender of your offence then of a world of visible spectatours And if the Apostle found it requisite to give such charge for but the observation of an outward decencie not much beyond the lists of indifferencie because of the Angels what should our care be in relation to those blessed spirits of our deportment in matter of morality and religion Surely O ye invisible Guardians it is not my sense that shall make the difference it shall be my desire to be no lesse carefull of displeasing you then if I saw you present by me cloathed in flesh Neither shall I rest lesse assured of your gracious presence and tuition and the expectation of all spirituall offices from you which may tend towards my blessednesse then I am now sensible of the â—nimation of my own soul THE INVISIBLE WORLD The Second BOOK SECT. I. Of the Souls of Men Of their separation and Immortality NExt to these Angelicall Essences the souls of men whether in the body or severed â—rom it are those spirits which people the invisible world â—exâ— to them I say not the sâ—me with them not bettâ—r Those of the ancient which have thought that the ruine of Angels is to be supplyed by â—lessed souls spake doubtless without the book for he that is the truth it self hath said they be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} like not the same And justly are those â—xploded whether Pythagoâ—eans or Stoicks or Gnostâ—cks or Manichees or Almaâ—icus or if Lactantius himself were in that errour as Ludovicus Vives construes him who falsly dreamed that the souls of â—en were of the substance of that God which inspired them These errours are more â—it for Ellebore then for Theologicall conviction spirituall substances doubtlesse they â—re and such as have no lesse distant originall from the body then heaven is from earth Galen was not a better Physiâ—â—an then an ill Divine whiles â—e determines the soul to be the complexion and temperament of the prime qualities no other then that harmony which the elder Naturalists dreamed of an opinion no lesse brutish then such a soul For how can temperamet be the cause of any progressive motion much lesse of a rationall discourse Here is no materiality no physicall composition in this inmate of ours nothing but a substantiall act an active spirit a spirituall form of the king of all visible creatures But as for the Essence originall derivation powers faculties operations of this humane soul as it is lodged in this clay I leave them to the disquisition of the great Secretaries of Nature my way lyes higher leading me from the common consideration of this spirit as it is clogged with flesh unto the meditation of it as it is devested of this earthly case and clothed with an eternity whether of joy or torment We will begin with happinesse our fruition whereof I hope shall never end if first we shall have spent some thoughts upon the generall condition of this separation That the soul after separation from the body hath an independent life of its owne is so clear a truth that the very heathen Philosophers by the dimme light of nature have determined it for irrefragable In so much as Aristotle himself who is wont to hear ill for his opinion of the soules mortality is confidently reported to have written a book of the Soul Separate which Thomas Aquinas in his so late age professes to have seen Sure I am that his Master Plato and that heathen Martyr Socrates related by him are full of divine discourses of this kind In so much as this latter when Crito was asking him how he would be buried I perceive said he I have lost much labour for I have not yet perswaded my Crito that I shall flye clear away and leave nothing behind me meaning that the soul is the man and would be ever it self when his body should have no being And in Xenophon as Cicero cites him Cyprus is brought in saying thus Nolite arbitrari c. Think not my dear sons that when I shall depart from you I shall then cease to have any being for even whiles I was with you ye saw not that soul which I had but yet ye well saw by those things which I did that there was a soul within this body Beleeve ye therefore that though ye shall see no soul of mine yet that it still shall have a being Shortly all but an hatefull Epicurus have astipulated to this truth And if some have faâ—cied a transmigration of souls into other bodies others a passage to the stars which formerly governed them others to I know not what Elysian fields all have pitched upon a separate condition And indeed not Divinity only but true natural reason will necessarily evince it For the intellective soul being a more spirituall substance and therefore having in it no composition at all and by consequence nothing that may tend towards a not-being can be no other supposing the will and concurrence of the infinite Creator then immortall Besides as our best way of judgging ought is wont to be by the effects certainly all operations are from the forms of things and all things do so work as they are Now the body can do nothing at all without the help of the soul but the soul hath actions of its own as the acts of understanding thinking judging remembring ratiocination wherof if whiles it is within us it receives the first occasions by our senses and phantasms yet it doth perfect and accomplish the said operations by the inward powers of its own faculties much more and also more exactly can it do all these things when it is meerly it self since the clog that the body brings with it cannot but pregravate and trouble the soul in all her performances in the mean time they do justly passe for mentall actions neither do so much as receive a denomination from the body we walk move speak see feel and do other humane acts the power that doth them is from the soul the means or instrument whereby they are done is the body no man will say the soul walks or sees but the body by it but we can no more say that the soul understands or thinks by the aid of the body then we can say the body thinks or understands by means of the soule These therefore being distinct and proper actions do necessarily evince an independing and self-subsisting agent O my soul thou couldst not be thy self unless thou knew'st thine originall heavenly
thine essence separable thy continuance eviternall But what do we call in reason and nature to this parle where faith by which Christianity teacheth us to be regulated finds so full and pregnant demonstrations No lesse then halfe our Creed sounds this way either by expression or inference where in whiles we professe to believe that Christ our Saviour rose from the dead and ascended we implie that his body was â—ot more dead then his soul living and active That was whereof he said Father into thy hands I commend my spirit now we cannot imagine one life of the head and another of the body his state therefore is ours every way are we conform to him as our bodies then shall be once like to his glorious so our souls cannot be but as his severed by death crowned with immortality and if he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead those dead whom he shall judge must be living for as our Saviour said in the like case God is not the Judge of the dead as dead but the Judge of the living that were dead and therefore living in death and after death And whereof doth the Church Catholick consist but of some members warfaring on earth others triumphant in heaven and what doth that triumph suppose but both a beeing and a beeing glorious What communion were there of Saints if the departed souls were not and the soul when it begins to be perfect should cease to be to what purpose were the resurrection of the body but to meet with his old partner the soul and that meeting only implies both a separation and existence Lastly what life can there be properly but of the soul and how can that life be everlasting which is not continued or that continued that is not If then he may be a man certainly a Christian he cannot be who is more assured that he hath a soul in his body then that his soul shall once have a being without his body Death may tyrannize over our earthly parts the worst he can do to the spirituall is to free it from a friendly bondage Chear up thy self therefore O my soul against all the fears of thy dissolution thy departure is not more certain then thy advantage thy being shall not be lesse sure but more free and absolute Is it such a trouble to thee to be rid of a clog or art thou so loath to take leave of a miserable companion for a while on condition that he shall ere long meet thee happy SECT. II. Of the instant vision of God upon the egression of the soul and the present condition till then BUt if in the mean while we shall let fall our eyes upon the present condition of the soul it will appear how apt we are to misknow our selves and that which gives us the being of men The most men how ever they conceive they have a soul within them by which they receive their animation yet they entertain but dull and gloomy thoughts concerning it as if it were no lesse void of light and activity then it is of materiality and shape not apprehending the spirituall agility and clearly-lightsome nature of that whereby they are enlived wherein it will not a little availe us to have our judgements thoroughly rectified and to know that as God is light so the soul of man which comes immediately from him and bears his image is justly even here dignified with that glorious title I speâ—k not only of the regenerate soul illuminated by divine inspirations and supernaturall knowledge but also even of that rationall soul which every man bears in his bosome The spirit of man saith wise Solomon is the candle of the Lord Prov. 20.27 searching all the inward parts of the belly And the dear Apostle In him was life and the life was the light of men Joh. 1.4 and more fully soon after That light was the true light that lightneth every man that cometh into the world v. 9. No man can be so fondly charitable as to think every man that comes into the world illightned by the spirit of regeneration It is then that intellectuall light of common nature which the great illuminator of the world beams forth into every soul in such proportion as he finds agreeable to the capacity of every subject Know thy self therefore O man and know thy maker God hath not put into thee a dark soul or shut up thy inward powers in a dungeon of comfortlesse obscuritie but he hath set up a bright shining Lamp in thy breast whereby thou maiest sufficiently discern naturall and morall truths the principles and conclusions whether of nature or art herein advancing thee above all other visible Creatures whom he hath confined at the best to a mere opacity of outward and common sense But if our naturall light shall through the blessing of God be so happily improved as freely to give place to the spirituall reason to faith so that the soul can now attain to see him that is invisible and in his light to see light now even whiles it is over-shaded with the interposition of this earth it is already entered within the verge of glorie But so soon as this vaâ—â— oâ— wretched mortality is done away now it enjoyes a clear heaven for ever and sees as it is seen Amongst many heavenly thoughts wherewith my everdear and most honoured and now blessed friend the late Edward Earl of Norwich had wont to animate himself against the encounter with our last enemy Death this was one not of the meanest that in the very instant of his souls departing out of his body it should immediately enjoy the vâ—sion of God And certainly so it is The spirits of just men need not stand upon dâ—stances of place or space of time for this beatificall sight but so soon as ever they are out of their clay lodging they are in their spirituâ—ll heaven even whiles they are happily conveying to the locall for since nothing hindred them from that happy sight but the interposition of this earth which we carry about us the spirit being once free from that impediment sees as it is seen being instantly passed into a condition like unto the Angels wel therefore are these coupled together by the blessed Apostle who in his divine rapture had seen them both Ye are come saith he unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the spirits of just men made perfect As then the Angels of God wheresoever they are though imployed about the affairs of this lower world yet do still see and enjoy the vision of God so do the souls of the righteous when they are once eased of this earthly load Doubtlesse as they passed through degrees of Grace whiles they took up with these homely lodgings of clay so they may passe through degrees of blisse when they are once severed And if as some great
absolute good the will instantly proves vicious As therefore there can be no possible fault incident into the will of him who propounds to himself as his only good the utmost end of all things which is God himself so in whatsoever willer whose own particular good is contained under the order of another higher good there may without Gods speciall confirmation happen a sin in the will Thus it was with these revolting Angels they did not order their own particular supposed good to the supream and utmost end but suffered their will to dwell in an end of their own and by this means did put themselves into the place of God not regulating their wils by another superior but making their will the rule of their own desires which was in effect to affect an equality with the highest Not that their ambition went so high as to aspire to an height of goodness or greatnesse equall to their infiniâ—e Creatour This as the greater Leader of the School hath determined it could not fall into any intelligent nature since it were no other then to affect his own not being for as much as there can be no beeing at all without a distinction of degrees and subordinations of beeings This was I suppose the threshold of leaving their first estate Now it was with Angelicall spirits as it is with heavy bodies when they begin to fail they went down at once speedily passing through many degrees of wickednesse Let learned Gerson see upon what grounds he conceives that in the beginning their sin might be veniall afterwards arising to the height of maliciousness whom Salmeron seconds by seven reasons alledged to that purpose labouring to prove that before their precipitation they had large time and place of repentance the point is too high for any humane determination this we know too well by our selves that even the will of man when it is once let loose to sin finds no stay how much more of those active spirits which by reason of their simple and spirituall nature convert themselves wholly to what they do incline What were the particular grounds of their defection and ruine what was their first sin it is neither needfull nor possible to know I see the wracks of this curiosity in some of the Ancient who misguiding themselves by a false Compasse of mis-applyed Texts have split upon those shelves which their miscarriage shall teach me to avoid If they have made Lucifer that is the morning Star a Devill and mistake the King of Babylon for the Prince of darknesse as they have palpably done I dare not follow them Rather let me spend my thoughts in wondring at the dreadfull justice and the incomprehensible mercy of our great and holy God who having cast these Apostate Angels into hell and reserved them in everlasting chains under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day hath yet graciously found out a way to redeem miserable mankinde from that horible pit of destruction It is not for me to busie my self in finding out reasons of difference for the aggravation of the sin of Angelâ— and abatement of mans as that sin began in them they were their own tempters that they sinned irreparably since their fall was to them as death is to us How ever it were Cursed be the man who shall say that the sin of any creature exceeds the power of thy mercy O God which is no other then thy selfe infinite whiles therefore I lay one hand upon my mouth I lift up the other in a silent wonder with the blessed Apostle and say How unsearchable are thy judgements and thy wayes past finding out SECT. IV. Of the number of Apostate Spirits WHo can but tremble to thinke of the dreadfull precipice of these dâ—â—ned Angels which from the highest pitch of heaven were suddainly thrown down into the dungeon of the nethermost hell who can but tremble to think of their number power malice cunning and deadly machinations Had this defection been single yet it had been fearfull should but one star fall down from heaven with what horrour do we think of the wrack that would ensue to the whole world how much more when the great Dragon draws down the third part of the stars with his tail And lo these Angels were as so many spirituall stars in the firmament of glory It was here as in the rebellion of great Peers the common sort are apt to take part in any insurrection There are orders and degrees even in the region of confusion we have learned of our Saviour to know there is a Devill and his Angels And Jewish tradition hath told us of a Prince of Devils It was in all likelyhood some prime Angell of heaven that first started aside from his station and led the ring of this highest and first revolt millions sided with him and had their part both in his sin and punishment Now how formidable is the number of these evill and hostile spirits Had we the eyes of that holy Hermit for such the first were we might see the air full of these malignant spâ—rits laying snares for miserable mankinde And if the possessors of one poor Demoniack could style themselves Legion a name that in the truest account contains no lesse then ten Cohorts every Cohort fifty Companies and every Company 25 Souldiers to the number of 1225 what an army of these hellish fiends do we suppose is that wherewith whole mankinde is beleaguered al the world over Certainly no man living as Tertullian and Nissen have too truly observed can from the very hour of his nativity to the last minute of his dissolution be free from one of these spirituall assailants if not many at once The ejected spirit returns to his former assault with seven worse then himself Even where there is equality of power inequality of number must needs be a great advantage An Hercules himself is no match for two Antagonists yea were their strength much lesse then ours if we be but as a flock of Goats feeding upon the hils when the evil spirits as the Midianites Amalekites were against Israel are like grashoppers in the valley what hope what possibility were there if we were left in our own hands for saefty or prevalence But now alas their number is great but their power is more Even these Evil Angels are styled by him that knew them no less then principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places They lost not their strength when they left their station It is the rule of Dionysius too true I fear that in the reprobate Angels their naturall abilities stil hold No other then desperate therefore were the condition of whole mankinde if we were turned loose into the lists to grapple with these mighty spirits Courage O my soul and together with it victory Let thine eys be but open as Gehezies thou shalt see more with us then against us One good
very thoughts and intentions and the likelyhood of their repulses or prevailings out of the knowledge of the causes of things they can foresee such future events as have a dependance thereon To which if we shal adde the improvement which so many thousand years experience can yeild to active and intelligent spirits together with the velocity of their motitions and the concurrent intelligence which those powers of darkness hold with each other we shall see cause enough to disparage our own simplicity to tremble at our own danger and to blesse God for our indemnity But if unto all these we shall take notice of their malice no whit inferiour to their power and knowledge we cannot but be transported with the wonder at our infinite obligations to the blessed Majesty of heaven who preserves us from the rage of so spightfull cunning mighty enemies Satan carries hostility in his very name and answerably in his wicked nature hostility to the God that made him as the avenger of his sin hostility for his sake to the Creature which that God made good his enmity did as himself descend from the highest for it began at the Almighty and remains as implacable as impotent It is a bold and uncouth story and scarce safe to relate which I finde in the book of Conformity reported as cited by a Demoniack woman from the mouth of a certain Frier named Jacobus de Pozali in his Sermon That S. Macarius once went about to make peace betwixt God and Satan That it pleased God to say If the Devill will acknowledge his fault I will pardon him To which the evill spirit returned answer I will never acknowledge any fault of mine yea that crucified Saviour should rather cry me mercy for keeping me thus long in hell To whom Macarius as he well might Avoid Satan I know not whether more to blame their Saint if they report him right for too much charity or for too little grace and wit in so presumptuous an indeavour The very treaty was in him blasphemous the answer no other then could be expected from a spirit obdured in malice and desperate in that obdurednesse The truth is he hates us because he hated God first and like the enraged Panther tears the picture because he cannot reach the person whom it represents He that made him an Angell tels us what he is since he made himselfe a Devill even a man-slayer from the beginning His very trade is Murther and Destruction and his executions unweariable he goes abous continually like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour It is no other then a marvailous mystery of Divine state too deep for the shallownesse of humane souls to reach into that God could with one word of his powerfull command destroy and dissolve all the powers of hell yet he knows it best not to do it only we know he hath a justice to glorifie as well as a mercy and that he knows how to fetch more honour to himself by drawing good out of evill then by the amotion and prevention of evill Glory be to that infinite power justice mercy providence that contrives all things both in heaven and earth and hell to the highest advantage of his own blessed Name and to the greatest benefit of his elect SECT. V. The variety of the spiritual assaults of Evil Spirits OUT of this hellish mixture of power skill malice do proceed all the deadly machinations of these infernal spirits which have enlarged their Kingdome and furnished the pit of destruction It was a great word of the chosen Vessel We are not ignorant of Satans devises O blessed Apostle thy illuminated soul which saw the height of heaven might also see the depth of hell Our weak eyes are not able to pierce so low That Satan is full oâ— crafty devises we know too well but what those devises are is beyond our reach Alas we know not the secret projects of silly men like our selves yea who knowes the crooked windings of his own heart much lesse can we hope to attain unto the understanding of these infernall plots and stratagems such knowledge is too wonderfull for us our clew hath not line enough to fadom these depths of Satan But though we be not able possibly to descrie those infinite and hidden particularities of Diabolicall art and cunning yet our wofull experience and observation hath taught us some generall heads of these mischievous practices Divers whereof I am not unwilling to learn and borrow of that great Master of Meditation Gerson the learned Chancellour of Paris a man singularly acquainted with tentations One while therefore that evill one layes before us the incommodities dangers wants difficulties of our callings to dishearten us and draw us to impatience and listlesseness and rather then fail will make piety a colour of lazinesse another while he spurs up our diligence in our worldly vocation to withdraw us from holy duties one while he hides his head and refrains from tempting that we may think our selves secure and slacken our care of defence another while he seems to yield that he may leave us proud of the victory one while he tills us on to our over-hard tasks of austere mortification that he may tire our piety and so stupefie us with an heartlesse melancholy another while he takes us off from any higher exercises of vertue as superfluous one while he turns and fixes our eyes upon other mens sins that we may not take view of our own another while he amplifies the worth and actions of others to breed in us either envy or dejection one while he humours our zeal in all other vertuous proceedings for but the colour of one secret vice another while he lets us loose to all uncontrolled viciousness so as we be content to make love to some one vertue one while under the pretence of discretion he discourages us from good if any way dangerous enterprises another while he is apt to put us upon bold hazards with the contempt of fear or wit that we may be guilty of our own miscarriage one while he works suspicion in love and suggests mis-constructions of well-meant words or actions to cause heart-burning between deare friends another while under a pretence of favour he kills the soul with flattery one while he stirs up our charity to the publique performance of some beneficiall works only to win us to vain-glory another while he moves us for avoiding the suspicion or censure of siâ—gularity to fashion our selves to the vicious guises of our sociable neighbours one while he perswades us to rest in the outward act done as meritoriously acceptable another while under a colour of humility he disswades us from those good duties whereby we might be exemplary to others one while he heartens us in evil gettings under pretence of the opportunity of liberall alms-giving another while he closes our hands in a rigorous forbearance of needfull mercy under a fair colour of Justice one while he incites us
of the spirit and above all the shield of faith wherewith we may be able both to quench and beat back the fiery darts of that wicked one These well put on and well managed shall both secure us and foil our adversary But the art of repelling severall â—emptations is a long work and worâ—hy of a just volume How we ought to deal with evill spirits in their bodily apparitions and possessions may be seasonable for our present enquiry Whereas then there is pretended to be only a double way of proceeding for their ejection the one by Pact the other by Command as the former is disclaymed by all faithfull Christians so the other is wont to be challenged and practised by some who lay no small claim to holiness This we call Exorcism or Conjuration a course so well approved of the Churches of the Roman correspondence as that they make this office one of the seven stairs whereby they ascend to their highest Order But so dis-relished by us that we ordinarily place Conjurers in the same rank with Sorcerers and Professors of the Black and damned Arts although indeed upon a strict inquisition we shall finde them far different for Conjuration or Exorcism implyes a kinde of force and violence whereas those that are in league with Satan go on as upon a set match in a way cursedly amicable this latter is hainously sinfull as being directly against the divine law and a professed affront to the majesty of God the former unjustifiable as being without divine warrant It is most true that the Disciples of Christ and their primitive successors ejected Devils by command and could rejoyce to see those evil spirits subjected to their over-ruling charge but withall the same persons healed all diseases were perfect poyson-proof spake divers languages why should any in these latter times challenge a right of succession iâ— one of these and not claim iâ— in the other All these werâ— given with one and the samâ— breath continued by the same power called in and stinted by the same providence with their fellow-miracles And if still this priviledge were ordinarily left in the Church it were not a work for puisnes and novices but for the greatest Masters and the most learned and eminently-holy Doctors which the times can possibly yield And if this were really done as is commonly vaunted by them yet with how much difference from the Apostolick practise and issue With them of old there was no more but a word of command and an instant ejection here what a world of business what sprinkling what censing what blessing of herbs and other ingredients of suffumigation what variety of direfull ceremonies and when all is done the successe shuts up no otherwise then in just suspicion or censure Not that free scope is given in these last times without any check to the tyranny of evill spirits The good providence of the highest hath not left us unfurnished with means of our freedome and deliverance whiles we can pray we cannot be remedilesse when the Disciples power stuck at the dispossession of a Demoniack they heard from our Saviour This kinde goes not out but by fasting and prayer Whence it is plain that as there are severall kinds of Devils one worse and more powerfull then another so the worst of them are to be vanquished by prayer sharpened with abstinence What a difference then there is of times and means at the first it was a greater work to dispossâ—sse Devils by prayer and fasting then by command now it were far greater to do it by a meer command then by prayer and fasting That which was then ordinarily done were now strangely miraculous and that which is the ordinary course now was then rare and unusuall The power of an adjuring command we see ceased the power of fervent prayer can never be out of date This and this only is the remedy of both bodily and mentall possession thus if we resist the Devill he shall flee away from us Upon the ground of this Scripture it was as my self was witnesse that in our age Mr. Dayrel a godly and zealous preacher undertook and accordingly through the blessing of God upon his faithfull devotions performed those famous ejectments of evill spirits both at Nottingham and Lanoashire which exercised the press and raised no small envy from the gain-sayers Shortly all that we have to do concerning malignant spirits is to repay them with hatred to perswade our hearts of their continuall dogging of us for mischief to arm our selves with constant resolutions of resistance diligently to watch the wayes of their tentations to keep the strongest guard upon our weakest parts to fortifie our selves by our faithfull prayers and by the vertue of our faith to make him ours who is able to strengthen us and to make us more then Conquerors SECT. X. Of the wofull estate of the Souls of the damned IT is not for our discourse to sever those whom the divine Justice will have put together Devils and damned Souls There is none of those evill spirits which doth not wheresoever he is carry his hell about him yet doubtlesse there are degrees of their torture Art thou come to torment us before our time said those Devils to our blessed Saviour and how do they beg not to be commanded to the deep Reprobate souls are no lesse partners of their pain then objects of their fury No sooner is this living spirit of ours dislodged from the body then it is presented as in a privy Sessions to her Judge from whom she receives a speedy doom of life or death the Sentence is instantly seconded with an answerable execution The good Angels are glad actors in the happy instalment of the Just in their glory The evill angels seize upon the guilty soul and drag it to their hell As for any third place or condition let them take thought that beleive it For me I must professe I never saw any colour of ground for it in the sacred Oracles of God and shal not easily beleeve that a truth mainly importing us would have been concealed from our eyes Wo is me what a dolefull what a dreadful spectacle is this which is now presented to my soul the burning Tophet the bottomlesse pit the lake of fire brimstone the region of horrour and death wherein there is the perfection of all more then conceiveable anguish the full consummation of the divine vengeance to sinners exquisitenesse eternity of torment despair and impossibility of release or intermission perpetuall dying perpetuall living in a death that can never end How are my thoughts at a losse in this place of confusion whether shall I more tremble O God at the consideration of thy terrible justice or be swallowed up with astonishment of these infinite and intolerable sufferings I should not know thee if I did not with holy Chrysostome beleeve â—hat the utter lâ—sse of thy presence alone is as a thousand hels to be for ever banished from thy sight in which
which they cannot but finde betwixt this lesser and that greater world for as this little world Man consists of an outward visible body and an inward spiritual soul which gives life and motion to that organicall frame so possessing all parts that it is wholly in all and in each part wholly So must it also be in this great Universe the sensible and materiall part whereof hath being and moving from those spiritual powers both supreme and subordinate which dwell in it and fill and actuate it Every illuminated soul therefore looks about him with no other then S. Pauls eyes whose profession it is We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall SECT. II. The distribution of the Invisible world I Cannot quite mislike the conceit of Reuchlin and his â—abala seconded by Galatinus that as in an egge the yelk lies in the middest encompassed round with the white and that again by a film and shell so the sensible world is enclosed within the intelligible but withall I must adde that here is not a meer involution only but a spirituall permeation and inexistence yet without all mixture without all confusion for those pure and simple natures are not capable of mingling with grosse materiall substances and the God of Order hath given them their own separate essences offices operations as for the managing of their own spiritual Common-wealth within themselves so for the disposing governing and moving of this sensible world As therefore we shall foully misconceive of a man if we shall think him to be nothing but a body because our eyes see no more so we shall no lesse grossely erre if beholding this outward fabrick we shall conceive of nothing to be in this vast Universe but the meer lifelesse substance of the heavens and elements which runs into our sight those lively and active powers that dwell in them could not be such if they were not purely spirituall Here then above and beyond all worlds and in this materiall and intelligible world our illuminated eyes meet first with the God of Spirits the DEITIE incomprehensible the fountain of all life and being the infinite and self-existing Essence one most pure simple eternal Act the absolute omnipotent omnipresent Spirit who in himself is more then a world of worlds filling comprehending both the spiritual sensible world in comparison of whom this All is nothing and but from him had been and were nothing Upon this blessed object O my soul may thy thoughts ever dwell where the more they are fixed the more shall they finde themselves ravished from the regard of all sensible things and swallowed up with an admiration of that which they are still further off from comprehending Next to this All-glorious and infinite spirit they meet with those immateriall and invisible powers who receive their originall and continuance their natures and offices from that King of glory Each one whereof is so mighty as to make up a world of power alone each one so knowing as to contain a world of wisdom and all of them so innumerably many that their number is next to infinite and all this numberlesse number so perfectly united in one celestial politie that their entire communion under the laws and government of their soverain Creator makes them a compleat world of Spirits invisibly living and moving both within and above this visible globe of the materiall world After these meet we with the glorified souls of the Just who now let loose from this prison of clay enjoy the full liberty of heaven and being at last reunited to their then immortall bodies and to their most glorious head both are and possesse a world of everlasting blisse Last of all may thy thoughts fall upon those infernall powers of darknesse the spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places whose number might combination makes up a dreadfull world of evil Angels conflicting where they prevail not and tormenting where they overcome These together with the reprobate souls whom they have captived are the most horrible and wofull prospects of mischief and misery which either world is subject unto Now all and every of these however in respect of largenesse they may well passe for so many severall worlds yet as we are wont to account the whole globe of heaven and earth and the other inclosed elements though vast in their severall extents to make up but one sensible world so shall we in a desire to reduce all to unity consider all the intire specifications of spirits but as ranked in so many regions of one immateriall and intelligible world Wherefore let us first silently adore that mundum archetypum that one transcendent self-being and infinite essence in three most glorious persons the blessed Deity which filleth heaven and earth with the majesty of his glory as vailed with the beams of infinitenesse and hid in an inaccessible light and let us turn our eyes to the spiritual guard the invisible attendants of that divine Majesty without the knowledge and right apprehension whereof we shall never attain to conceive of their God and ours as we ought But O ye blessed immortal glorious spirits who can know you but he that is of you alas this soul of mine knows not it self how shall it know you Surely no more can our minds conceive of you then our eyes can see you Only since he that made you hath given us some little glimpse of your subdivine natures properties operations let us weakly as we may recount them to his glory in yours SECT. III. The Angels of heaven Their numbers THe good Lord forgive me for that amongst my other offences I have suffered my self so much to forget as his divine presence so the presence of his holy Angels It is I confesse my great sin that I have filled mine eyes with other objects and have been slack in returning praises to my God for the continual assistance of those blessed and beneficent spirits which have ever graciously attended me without intermission from the first hour of my conception to this present moment neither shall ever I hope absent themselves from my tutelage and protection till they shall have presented my poor soul to her final glory Oh that the dust and clay were so washed out of my eyes that I might behold together with the presence the numbers the beauties and excellencies of those my ever-present guardians When we are convinced of the wonderfull magnitude of those goodly stars which we see moving in the firmament we cannot but acknowledge that if God had made but one of them he could never have been enough magnified in his power but when our sense joyns with our reason to force upon us withall an acknowledgement of the infinite numbers of those great luminaries now we are so far to seek of due admiration that we are utterly lost in the amazement at this
suddainnesse or circumvent us with subtlety let them not spare to use their advantage But oh ye tutelar spirits ye well know our weaknesse and their strength our sillinesse and their craft their deadly machinations and our miserable obnoxiousnesse neither is your love to markinde and fidelity to your maker any whit lesse then your knowledge so as your charge can no more miscarry under your hands and eyes then your selves As you do alwayes enjoy the beatifical vision of your maker so your eye is never off from his little ones your blessednesse is no more separable from our safety then you from your blessednesse SECT. VI The imployments and operations of Angels EVen while we see you not O ye blessed spirits we know what ye do He that made you hath told us your task As there are many millions of you attending the all-glorious throne of your Creator and singing perpetual Hallelujahs to him in the highest heavens so there are innumerable numbers of you imployed in governing and ordering the creature in guarding the elect in executing the commands which ye receive from the Almighty what variety is here of your assistance One while ye lead us in our way as ye did Israel another while ye instruct us as ye did Daniel one while ye fight for us as ye did for Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus another while ye purvey for us as for Elias one while ye fit us to our holy vocation as ye did to Esay another while ye dispose of the opportunities of our calling for good as ye did of Philips to the Eunuch one while ye foretell our danger as to Lot to Joseph and Mary another while ye comfort our affliction as to Hagar one while ye oppose evil projects against us as to Balaam another while ye will be striven with for a blessing as with Jacob one while ye resist our offensive courses as to Moses another while ye incourage us in our devotions as ye did Paul and Silas and Cornelius one while ye deliver from durance as Peter another while ye preserve us from danger and death as the three children one while ye are ready to restrain our presumption as the Cherub before the gate of Paradise another while to excite our courage as to Elias and Theodosius one while to refresh and chear us in our sufferings as to the Apostles another while to prevent our sufferings as to Jacob in the pursuit of Laban and Esau to the Sages in the pursuit of Herod one while ye cure our bodies as at the pool of Bethesda another while ye carry up our souls to glory as ye did to Lazarus It were endlesse to instance in all the gracious offices which ye perform Certainly there are many thousand events wherein common eyes see nothing but nature which yet are effected by the ministration of Angels when Abraham sent his servant to procure a wife for his son from amongst his own cognation the messenger saw nothing but men like himself but Abraham saw an Angel fore-contriving the work God saith he shal send his Angel before thee that thou mayest take a wife thence when the Israelites forcibly by dint of sword expelled the Canaanites and Amorites and the other branded nations nothing appeared but their own arms but the Lord of hosts could say I will send mine Angel before thee by whom I shall drive them thence Balaam saw his Asse disorderly starting in the path he that formerly had seen Visions now sees nothing but a wall and a way but in the mean time his Asse who for the present had more of the Prophet then his Master could see an Angel and a sword The Sodomites went groping in the street for Lots door and misse it they thought of nothing but some suddain dizzinesse of brain that disappointed them we know it was an Angel that stroke them with blindenesse Nothing appeared when the Egyptian first-born were struck dead in one night the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planet-struck we know it was done by the hand of an Angel Nothing was seen at the pool of Bethesda but a moved water when the suddain cures were wrought which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficiall constellation we know that an Angel descended and made the water thus sanative Gâ—hezi saw his master strangely preserved from the Aramite troops but had not his eyes been opened by the Prophets prayers he had not seen whence that aid came Neither is it otherwise in the frequent experiments of our life Have we been raised up from deadly sicknesses when all naturall helps have given us up Gods Angels have been our secret Physitians Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends which no humane intelligence hath bidden us to suspect who but our Angels hath wrought it have we been preserved from mortall dangers which we could not tell how by our providence to have evaded our invisible Guardians have done it I see no reason to dislike that observation of Gerson Whence is it saith he that little children are conserved from so many perils of their infancy fire water falls suffocations but by the agency of Angels Surely where we find a probability of second causes in nature we are apt to confine our thoughts from looking higher yet even there many times are unseen hands had we seen the house fall upon the heads of Jobs children we should perhaps have attributed it to the natural force of a vehement blast when now we know it was the work of a spirit Had we seen those thousands of Israel falling dead of the plague we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the air when David saw the Angel of God acting in that mortality Humane reason is apt to be injuriously saucie in ascribing those things to an ordinary course of natural causes which the God of nature doth by supernatural agents A master of Philosophy travelling with others on the way when a fearfull thunder-storm arose checked the fear of his fellows and discoursed to them of the naturall reasons of that uprore in the clouds and those suddain flashes wherewith they seemed out of the ignorances of causes to be too much affrighted in the midst of his philosophicall discourse he was strucken dead with that dreadfull eruption which he sleighted what could this be but the finger of that God who will have his works rather entertained with wonder and trembling then with curious scanning Neither is it otherwise in those violent Huracans devouring earthquakes and more then ordinary tempests and fiery apparitions which we have seen and heard of for however there be natural causes given of the usual events of this kinde yet nothing hinders but that the Almighty for the manifestation of his power and justice may set spirits whether good or evil on work to do the same things sometimes with more state and magnificence of horrour like as we see Frogs bred ordinarily both out of putrefaction and generation and yet