the soule is informed by its owne action for what hath the streame which it derives not from the source What can those workings added to that from which they receive themselves And therefore I wholly subscribe to the Platonists who make all scientia nothing but reminiscentia for when it appeareth not it is not the soule being but an activity it must be no more than it acteth and though we seeme by frequent actings to helpe the soule and so to create in it acquisite habits yet these are but a Phaenomenon This is but the way which God discloseth to our eye whereas all the actings are onely new discoveries Our Philosophers affirme thus boldly of the unreasonable creature attributing it all to the instinct or a new influence Why may not why must not we conclude the same of man seeing it is a received truth that acti agimus and we are in our strength in regard of God no better than the most abject creature But if all be one Soule Understanding Habits all the same then neither doe faith and reason differ Surely they differ onely in degrees not in nature That Reverend holy man that dexterous cominus-pugnator seemeth to averre the same or more in historicall and saving faith * Mr Huit in his Anatomy of Conscience cleerely affirmeth it * The first degree is Reason A second Historicall A third Temporary A fourth Saving faith A fift Plerophorie A sixt * Beatifica visio that light whereby we shall see as we are seene these are of the same nature with that light which a reprobate is partaker of And if any man question the truth of this let him but consider that the Donor is the same our good God The Efficient Instrumentall and Formall cause is Jesus Christ The subject recipient the totum existens And the Gift it selfe is light or truth a spirituall Being How can it choose then but to be one and the same seeing as I said before such a Recipient cannot entertain any other guest Neither doe I at all abett that unhappy opinion of falling away from Grace There is in the opinion a liquid nefasti and therefore I study to shun it The propugnators of it are unhappy for they have not onely made a rent amongst us but strengthened a common adversary The oppugnators also are unhappy for they have so managed the cause that their Adversaries lie almost under invincible darknesse for the oppugnators fearing to speake plaine have called Spontaneitatem liberam voluntatem and it is impossible to distinguish betweene Libera voluntas Contra-Remonstrantium liberum arbitrium Remonstrantium And whilst the Remonstrants finde no difference in this main Tenet they weigh all the rest in the same scale and judge accordingly For an argument often alledged by many learned men if it confuteth not it doth confirme an error and thus are they out of the reach of truth That learned that pious man the first fruit of our Church her resurrection famous Calvin styled it Spontaneitatem and not liberam voluntatem For Deus and libera voluntas are incompatible not to be caemented by that distinction without difference Libera à necessitate sed non ab infallibilitate And therfore mighty * Rutterfort affirmeth that posito Dei decreto absoluto and all things are under such a decree insulse quaeritur an potentia libera sub eo decreto sit indifferens But here I am not to I cannot dispute this question Onely I say thus much it is so unhappy an opinion that I hope I shall not at all abett it For though Reason and Faith be one in nature yet is not reason that degree of light of which the Spirit hath said My seed is in you and you cannot sinne And therefore men cannot lose that which they never had And this will be a little more cleere by the answer to the next objection which is this If Faith and Reason if knowledge and grace be all but one light how commeth it to passe that some who have lesse light have more faith and those again who are for knowledge as Angels of light are not partakers of that which is called Saving faith This difficulty is rather mazy than strong I shall therefore hope to bring the Ariadnean thread And at first abord I deny the proposition I conceive it a mistake For I doe verily beleeve that the weakest Saint knoweth more of God than the most intelligent of those Spirits who though once in heaven are now in intolerable flames All men confesse thus much that even the meanest Christian hath more experimental knowledge of GOD than Beelzebub the Prince of the aire And doth not this convince them of what I affirme For what to speake in their language is experiment but the daughter of light gathered by frequent observation If experiment be but light and their experience is more than that of the greatest wits then if I mistake not by necessary consequence their light is more and greater But I suppose the error may be cleared by this Simile The one is as the man who hath studied the Theory the other the Practicke of any art of science The first may know more in appearance but the other indeed knoweth more You shall finde two unequally learned The first is a Gnosticke a helluo literarum the other hath not read so much but hath concocted mastered and subdued all before him Which now is said to know more The foole hath said not as some expound it wished in his heart there is no GOD It is true now and then he hath some glimmering light of a Deity but anon againe all is shaken and he faith there is no God Doth not the people of Israel say Wee are our owne Lords who shall controll us We have made a covenant with death and hell and none shall reach us Can these men these Beings be said to know God If you object the devils age and experience it cannot help it is but as you call it a collection of his owne lights and all the starres shining together make not day I should onely aske this one question Can the divels beleeve or know God to be all mercy It is impossible because they cannot beleeve him so to themselves Ob. But some say Neither doe the best men beleeve him so to the wicked Resp. Yes we doe wee know him in his nature to be mercifull to them Besides mercy and justice are all but one thing in God and this those miserable Creatures cannot consent to that their ruine is the effect of supreme perfection infinite sweetnesse To the confirmation of this I shall but presse this one consideration If they did know more than the Saints they must needs love more and in this I shall have all those my abettors who hold that the Will doth necessarily follow the understanding which whilst Aristotle denieth in broad and open disputes he doth in tacite
former instances with some additions of a question or two more I Confesse there is a secondary intermediate Being which you may call a Cause which in our language doth precede and produce another the observation of which is very fitting so that wee search and puzzle not our selves with the grounds and Reasons of this precedency As apply fire to combustible matter and it will burn and if you call which in some sense you may call this application the cause of burning I dispute not onely the search into the nature of wood and fire and how the fire doth work upon the wood and how the wood can be both passive and active Simul Semel for they say Nulla est actio quin sit reactio this is That I desire to shun for intus exstens prohibet alienum whilst we entertain our selves with these poore Sophismes of wit we lose that glory which the immortall soule thirsts after But if our spirits and the light of our reason be dim Let us goe to the forge of the Philistines and sharpen our inventions our apprehensions there Let us learn from the Prince of the aire who knowing well that dissolve the fasciculus and Iugurtha his prophecy to his children will prove true taught his Scholars this lesson for these many ages Divide impera Divisions and distractions being the great road of all errour And if you long with the Israelites to have a King as your neighbours have and you desire to speak in their language When the soule entertaineth light say it doth understand When it doth exercise any morall vertue say it willeth When you see some things precede others call the one a cause the other an effect but travell not far in the search of the source of this cause Doe not make the will and the understanding two faculties Fratrum concordia rara Iacob will supplant Esau in the Womb Make therefore the severall Actings of the soule as Rayes of this one soule make these rayes and the soule sending forth these rayes a perpetuall emanation Divine and so by these degrees of truth mount up into the armes of Eternity and he will take care of you that you shall not dash your feete against the stone of free will that you shall not overthrow all faith by starting so many nice questions in the point of faith If you follow this rule and see all things in the glasse of Unity you will not lose all Arts and Sciences in the Wood of Divisions and Subdivisions in infinitum you shall be more substantiall than to make Substance and Accidents Two neither will it ever happen that you maintaine transubstantiation by affirming that Accidents can haerere in nullo subjecto You shall not make to your selfe a God of contradiction dividing the will and power of God Both which in God is God and so but one You will not maintaine two Covenants one of workes another of grace seeing grace is gracelesse without workes and Works worthlesse without grace If God shall give you to walke by this light practicall questions will be laid aside as well as Theoreticall you will not dispute whether you ought to be more holy on one day as at a Sacrament then at other times for you will then know that these Scriptures expresse fully the rule you must walke by Pray continually rejoyce evermore blessed is he that feareth alwayes Be ye holy not by fits and starts but as I am holy serving me alwayes with all your heart your might your affections So that every day every duty is to you an holy day an ordinance divine And if any man shall say Why doth God adde this parcell Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day c. and this strict injunction before you approach the Table of the Lord Let every man examine himselfe and so let him eat You will be able to answer that you ought not to be more holy in one day in one duty than in another for you must be all one Semper idem And secondly you will be able to prove that the weight of this injunction is not to adde any other holinesse to the day or the ordinance than a holinesse of separation For a holinesse of inhaerence cannot fall anywhere but upon a reasonable creature The Temple had no more For with the leave of learned and holy Master Cawdry Time Place are incapable of any other sanctification But the stresse of these and the like precepts lyeth here We ought indeed alwayes to keepe a Sabbath Every bread and every water ought to be a confirmation of our faith and of our graces But God considering that we are lower than the Angels and them hee hath charged with folly that we are infirme that we cannot alwayes keep the bow bent If we cannot be holy all the weeke if we cannot be pure at our own Tables as who can yet if we will remember the Sabbath and if wee will come to that feast of marrow and fatnesse with a wedding-garment and at other times doe our best though weak indeavours he will behold no iniquity in us We shall not be perplexed how farre we ought to mourne for the sinnes of others the sinnes of the times or our owne lives And these are intangling questions to many sweet spirits For drawing all things to an unity we shall know that sorrow and joy may meet in the same subject at once they must be both in the actings of faith Wee must not sorrow as without hope We may not lose our Faith in our teares Our teares must be teares of joy Wee may think that we have sinned and so sigh but at the same instant wee must know we have a Saviour and so triumph And if I were now all gore blood would I not now goe to the Chirurgians Truly the greater my sin the sooner ought to be my return the higher my Faith But great and inlarged Faith cannot be without exultation and magnificats Thus could we lay aside foolish questions could we seek into our hearts according to the Poets advice Ne te quaesiveris extra and not into the causes and the Being of causes things too high for us We might have an Heaven here we might see how Christ is one with GOD and wee one with Christ so wee in Christ one with God If wee cannot reach the perfection of this knowledge yet let us come as neere it as we can for the true knowledge of God in Christ is life everlasting A Postscript AND now Sir I have with what brevity I can run through what I never intended to speake of I had prepared a little in lieu of This upon the nature of Prophecy which I now shall reserve for a Discourse upon the fourteenth Chapter of the second to Corinth But it was with me in this case as it is with the soule prostrating it selfe at the throne of grace It designes to breath it selfe out in confession but
is suddenly raised up into to sweet exultation It intends a Magnificat but by some unexpected irresistible power it is dissolved into teares which never did nor ever can happen in a Forme as might appeare by ventilating the opposit arguments if opportunity prevailed as well as reason I had nothing in my resolution but by a word or two to mediate in the behalfe of these lines a free and a friendly accesse to Your more serious and usefull studies But quo fato nescio I have let fall my plummet into waters too deepe that if you lend not your favourable construction in the perusall I must suffer I confesse my confidence in your Gentlenesse is great I shall therefore without any further plea after this long Parenthesis give you a short accompt of what these papers beare You have here my poore thoughts upon the twenty-fourth Chap. of Matth. that I was forced to because I quote it more than once in sense differing from our Commentators yea I was necessitated to run through the whole Chapter It will appeare in costly robes adorned with lofty and glorious language sweetned by many a pleasant and cleare Simile quickned by divers acute and learned Criticismes These none of these are mine My Cabinet enshrineth no such Treasure I confesse to save the labour of contending with Pareus and others I delivered to a Friend of Yours and Mine onely the substratum of the Discourse desiring him from those principles to undertake my adversaries In lieu of this he returned me the Chapter * imbellished with so much wit and learning that I durst not call it mine and so thought to have suppressed it and Had done so but that from the Law of friendship you may challenge a share in what is His and from that reason it liveth now and is presented to Your view hoping for his sake not for mine to finde grace in your eyes You have also my Thoughts upon the twentieth of Revelations because therein I have done Two things First According to my Modell answered your three Quaeries Secondly Discovered my opinion concerning the Millenaries I finde That point entertained by many learned and pious men under various and different notions The first who were of that opinion lived immediately after St. Iohn as Papias Irenaeus and so on in after ages Tertullian Cyprian Augustine cum multis alijs these men did a little Alcoranize for with Mahomet they cast all the glory of it into the outward pomp the Church should then enjoy which is but as the body of that other spirituall beauty wherein the Church of God shall at that time be more than exceedingly resplendent Yet these men have happily fixed upon the due Season expecting them at the powring out of the seventh Vial a thousand yeares before the end of the World Of latter dayes most famous and glorious Lights as Calvin Beza Iunius Tremelius Broughton c. have wrapt up all the glory under a spirituall notion robbing both it and other Scriptures of that sweetnesse whereon even Our Soules but especially Our children shall feed as upon Marrow and Fatnesse wherewith we shall be refreshed as with Wine refined upon the lees Contraries may sometimes in some sense be Errors the others erred because they have not the spirituall and these have mistaken not observing the temporall glory of this thousand yeares These last men are succeeded by a generation of Worthies who have come nearer to the Truth yet if I mistake not have missed it and some of these are Alstedius who justly meriteth the Anagram of Sedulitas Mede and some others who indeed expect a time of glory confuting the first men because they made theirs too carnall Yet doe they faile themselves by placing the time after the burning of the world with materiall fire spoken of in Peter and joyning with it their opinion of the resurrection of the Martyrs which I do not wholly condemne though therein I am not yet so cleere Lastly we have the Reverend man Mr. Brightman against whom I will not now dispute whose opinion seeing I must oppose it when I mention it I will not now name For hee ought always à me non sine honore nominari Pliny saith Venerabilis Catonis ' ebrietas and so say I of Brightman The very Errors if errors of Brightman have their beauty I must confesse if God hath been pleased to discover light to me I have borrowed from him If there be any thing of sweet I have gathered it from the strong And I do seriously protest I have not with Scaliger the Souldier undertaken Cardan that his ruines may be my rise No no I honour his very Urne and do beleeve that one day I shall see the Jews very zealous in raising to him some stately Mausoleum who hath been the first meanes of quickning the affections of Christians to pray for their returne Sir I have overtired your Gentlenesse and your Patience therefore now give me leave to refresh your spirits Let me in a word say here what I prove more amply elsewhere the days are at hand We shall see the Laying of the first stone if not the rearing of the structure to some good height I know there is a Great Reader who though hee hath Lynx his eyes yet using overmuch the Septuagenary Spectacles of antiquate Antiquity loseth to himselfe and by his justly-merited authority robbeth others of this sweet truth of the Church her approching glory which is in my apprehension as blood to the veines as life to the blood as spirit to the life as all to the Spirit But certainly while he thinketh the Witnesses to be yet unburied hee doth bury two witnesses which are as able to bring Christ to his Espousals as the two post-knights were to naile him to the Crosse I know there is another worthy who hath for many yeares stayed Christs sainting Spouse with flagons of Generous and Good Wine who adjourneth our happinesse by expecting the sad downfull of the two Witnesses But as I have I hope cleerely proved elsewhere That is past Macte ergo gaudio Tune up your ten-stringed instrument Let us heare that pleasant melody of a Christian Hymen O Hymenaee Let Your sweet spirit sing and We will dance For certainly ere long all teares shall be wiped away from our eyes and perfect fruition of Love will cast out Feare And now I commit You and Your Hopefull Flourishing Studies to the expectation and advancement of these glories which make way for the comming of our Saviour And to Him alone be the glory FINIS The Contents of the severall Chapters handled in this TREATISE of TRUTH CHAP. I. The Vnderstanding and the Truth-understood are one page 1. CHAP. II. The second Argument proving that Truth is the Nature of the Vnderstanding p. 5. CHAP. III. A prosecution of the second Argument wherein all Requisites to a Being are applied to the understanding being made one with the truth p. 13. CHAP. IIII. This
word and doctrine Of these two the Doctor is alwayes to have his sword alwayes girt about his thigh he must enter into the lists with every uncircumcised Goliah Hee must stand continuall sentinell that no herefies be forced upon the Church He must beat his braines in dissolving difficilia and clearing obscura He must sometimes faint away in watery cold fits by picking up and throwing out witlesse saplesse sophismes which though they cannot hurt the strong may seduce the weake In the meane time the Pastor leadeth the flock into the sweet and pleasant meadowes feeding them by the little brooks of seemingly shallow affections and yet this man shall not onely receive equall honour with the Doctor but be preferred before him as appeareth clearly in Eph. 4.11 1 Cor. 12.26 As it was with the Israelites so it is here those who keepe the stuffe receive equall reward with the combatants I doe therefore conclude Hee who hath the largest affections hath most of God most of his image which is renewed in knowledge Thirdly sometimes it hapneth that those who have the largest knowledge have the most enlarged affections even to our eye and this is happinesse indeed I confesse it doth not so seeme to an eye that would read it running but if it be exactly looked on if it be presented to our view in the pourtrait of an example I thinke it will be very cleare David and Salomon compared with Paul will be as a thousand witnesses The two first doe seeme to out-strip all men in affection they are brim-full running over For David is stiled the sweet Singer of Israel in his Psalmes he is ever magnifying the rich mercies of God singing forth the praises of God chusing rather to be a doore-keeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of Mesech making his Word to be a light unto his feet and a lanthorn unto his paths placing all his delight in the Law of the Lord Salomon is the happy Pen-man of that Hymne which by the Spirit is stiled the Song of Songs Yet for all this even in this they are both exceeded by Saint Paul But some it may be will imagine those Worthies to be endowed with higher gifts of Nature and Art than S. Paul and then they will give all the glory to their understanding and not to their affections If it be so I confesse I have not fitly chosen my Opposites But the truth will then appeare in Them without comparison distinctly For if in affection they exceed all and in abilities are as Saul taller than their brethren by head and shoulders then is it manifest in them that eftsoone men of the most raised parts of highest abilities doe superabound in love But if in things which are not directly of Faith I could cease to be a Sceptique I should with that most Reverend Worthy Thomas Goodwin give Saint Paul for head and heart that Throne in heaven which is placed next to Jesus Christ But secret things belong to God let us onely compare their eminency here below I think it will be out of question that Saint Paul was the most excellent For though Salomon there I suppose will be the difficulty be said to be the wisest of men that ever were that ever should be yet that is to be applied onely to Government and if it may reach so farre to his excellent skill in naturall Philosophy View but Saint Paul and see whether he doth not excell in every thing He had gathered up vast learning at the feet of Gamaliel for his parts he was advanced to eminent power in Church and Common-wealth He saith of himselfe I profited in the Iewes religion above many my equalls in my owne nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers And after his conversion he was judged the only man fit to contend with the Philosophers at Athens For they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him And therefore to him was committed the unravelling of all the difficult knots It is he that disputes about meates long haire divorces irregular partings of husband and wife It is he that openeth the nature of prophecie evinceth the resurrection from the dead maintaineth justification by faith And that he may be perfect in knowledge God is pleased whether in the flesh or spirit he knoweth not to take him into the third heavens and there he was so filled with Revelation that God was forced to put the Philomela-Thorne under his breast that hee might not fall into the sleep of sin and so give himselfe up as Sampson into the hands of Philistine enemies And yet this man exceeds all men in affections and in his affections surpasseth all his other excellencies It is hee that is often in journies in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by his owne nation in perils amongst the Gentiles in perils in the city in perils in the wildernesse in perils in the sea in perils amongst false Brethren in wearinesse and painfulnesse in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold nakednesse And as he saith of himselfe Who was weak and I was not weak who was offended and I did not burne It is hee that fought with the beasts at Ephesus He is content not onely to bee bound but to die for Christ Good Saint Paul was so tender over his kinsmen according to the flesh that for their sakes he could willingly be content to be separated from the love of the Lord Jesus Christ And this is greater love than that which Christ mentioneth for no man had then shewed greater love than to die but this holy Saint will goe one step further he will suffer an eternall death for his friend Thus if suffering either for the head or members for the Church or Christ will discover affection I suppose hee will merit the Garland And as a complement and crowne of all if to live be most for Gods glory though death be his advantage he is resolved to submit making obedience to Christ in life and death his gaine and triumph I confesse when he travelleth through those briery disputes he cannot display such sparkling vivid affections But when hee hath gotten but a little above those lime-twigs how doth he mount on high and there upon even wings disdaine all things below triumphing in the imbraces of his Saviour who is to him more choice than the choicest of ten thousand If what I have attempted to prove be true as I hope it is then Consider Either those who are eminent in affection and otherwise know little or those who as they abound in one are also Masters in the other Distinguish appearances from truth Reading memory discourses effects of sense or complexion from that which entreth the soule becommeth reall there acteth floweth from thence as a spring And then will you conclude that all knowledglieth in the affection that all knowledge is but one differing
it will not be disputed but if it be a Reall evill then it is nothing for Evill by consent of all is nothing but privation of good In this case shall Reason or Sense guide judge You. CHAP. XIII Discovering the consequences of this Position that All things are one Truth SIR WHEN you collect your thoughts and passe sentence upon these unsheaved gleanings your gentlenes though the papers merit no such favour wil smile upon them and say here our eyes indeed are pleased with the curiosity of Pallas her needle but what hath Reason to work upon what is the usefulnesse of this more than Arachne's web more than to entangle empty wits withall What fruit doth it yeeld better than the Silk-worme which is worne onely for ostentation Give me leave to plead for my own Our own you know though black is comely to Our selves If This were well weighed that all things are but one emanation from power divine If this were taken fully into the Understanding that wee might be said to live upon to live in this truth we should live more Christianly more cheerfully Non est vivere sed valere vita I say more cheerfully more Christianly in a few moments than we doe now in the whole course of our distracted time And you will more easily consent to this if you doe consider that our happinesse is compounded of two Simples only which are so entertwined as that they may seeme One The first is to know The second to doe what is right and good Of the former the Theoreticall part I shall speake hereafter In the Practick Two things are considerable First that Action dependeth wholly upon knowledge And of Knowledge this is the well-spring and rule that Vnity is all The Spirit saith How can you love whom you doe not know and I may say How can you do what you know not The Not-knowledge of of what is right with-holdeth from and wearieth in action if perchance wee ever have any glimmering of light For Ignorance bringeth this double evill with it First it leadeth into Errour and Errour simply in the view of it giveth no content Seconly in the progresse it wearieth and distracteth One who is lost in a Wood suffereth as much in seeking as losing the way Whereas if we Knew aright how even and smooth would be the way of action and how great our contents therin Secondly not only all our actions turn upon this hinge but out of this treasury issueth forth the whole complacency that wee gather from or receive in action For if wee knew this truth that all things are one how cheerfully with what modest courage should wee undertake any action re-incounter any occurrence knowing that that distinction of misery and happinesse which now so perplexeth us hath no Being except in the Brain Wee should not need to check and raise our selves with Davids out-cryes why art thou cast downe my soule why art thou disquieted within me Our Spirits could with him wait upon God make him our only rock and then wee should not be moved We should not call for Epictetus nor Boëtius de consolatione Philosophica wee might fetch our cures from our own bosomes if from this one truth of unity wee could conclude these two things First that Misery is nothing and so cannot hurt Secondly that every thing that is is good and good to me then we might sing with a joyfull spirit O nimium nimiumque beati and upon sure ground for whilst I being a Being am Good and that other Being is Good and these Two Goods can fall under no other difference but of degrees Good Good cannot but agree and so must be good to me If any man shall say that the overflowing of another mans good may be my evill they mis-take for such a though is a falshood and as I have already proved Falshood is nothing and so cannot hurt That such a thought is falshood I suppose this will cleare it The Philosophers fancy to themselves animam mundi and say every parcell is as a Simple contributing to the existence of that Compositum But Christians know and I have if I mistake not evinced that all Being is but one emanation from above diversified onely in our apprehension How can then one piece of that Being impeach the other one part of the Soule quarrell with the other As the will speaking in their termes with the sensitive faculty or the Eye with the Belly the vanity whereof Esop hath taught us long agoe So of necessity if either my envy or anothers folly lay me low because my brother is exalted this must be a lie and so cannot hurt E contrario the Good of another being the perfection of the whole is my advantage If with this eye you view that Scripture you will see it in its glory Is thine eye evill because thy brothers good increaseth The rule you see is that I should rejoyce at the wellfare of another Now what is the reason of the rule Philosophy teacheth us that it is not onely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is lovely If then I must rejoyce I rejoyce because of some propriety and this propriety ariseth from Vnity this Alkermes of Unity cheereth the drooping spirit cureth the atra bilis of Melancholy The same potion easeth the heart of envyings censurings and whisperings So he who knoweth that injuries because they are nothing cannot hurt and good things though anothers doe serve him cannot cherish such viperous starvelings in his thoughts CHAP. XIIII The benefit which Knowledge and all Sciences receive from this assertion I Have in a word showne how Unity untyeth all difficulties unites all happinesse in practicall things Permit me to discover what influence it hath upon that other simple which maketh up the compound of our happinesse Scil. Theorie Tully saith of Epicurus Frangit non dividit The breaking of learning into so many Sciences is but making so many miles that so the Master may have more hire for his post-horse They forget that vita est brevis whilst ars est longae It were much better if all Learning were like the chaine fastned at Iupiters Throne all of a piece Or the Beame which from the Sunne by a continuall tract of irradiation toucheth the treasures of the earth To the effecting of this that learned that mighty man Comenius doth happily and rationally indeavour to reduce all into one Why doe wee make Philosophy and Divinity two Sciences What is True Philosophy but Divinity and if it be not True it is not Philosophy Doe but see a little in particulars the fruit of such like divisions In the knowledge of Beings we must observe First Being is Secondly What it is There is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} What a tedious work doth this very division
lay upon us Alas the very first the easiest part of it will take up all our time and to ascend to causes before we know that there are effects is to mount the highest round before we ascend the first And therefore that learned wit Sir Francis Bacon in his naturall Philosophy bringeth onely experiments leaving the search of causes to those who are content with Icarus to burne their wings at a fire too hot for them Indeed sometimes as an imbellishment of his discourse that he may please stirring fancy he interlaceth some causes yet gently and modestly propoundeth them but as for entertainment If now our humble spirits could be content to see all things as they are but one onely bearing different shapes we should according to that rule Noli altum sapere improve in what we know and there sit downe But our spirits are mighty Nimrods hunting after knowledge venturing all to eate of the tree of knowledge of good and evill Which curiositie of ours is wittily reproved by Sir Iohn Davies Why did my Parents send me to the Schooles That I with knowledg might enrich my minde When the desire to know first made men fooles And did corrupt the root of all mankinde And for this reason we lose with Esops Dog the substance and get not the shadow Causes we cannot neither shall ever finde out The knowledg of existencies we omit they are too voluminous if we did attempt and so much doubted of by men that what to think we know not View all Learning and see how the very Being of things is questioned in Naturall Philosophy Amongst the Quadrupedes wee question the existence of the Unicorne inter volatilia the Phoenix and the Bird of Paradise amongst Fishes the Mer-maid When we seek into Minerals we finde not Ebur fossile the incomparable vertues of it wee meet with in all Physicians but the subject of so many excellencies we doubtfully hope for Of herbes and plants Bookes name many which gardens meadowes rivers afford not If they ever were we may give them to Pancirolla that he may reckon them with perpetuum mobile the Philosophers stone cum multis alijs inter Inventa perdita For every age interreth old things and is againe fertile of new births If we were mighty men as Adam that all the creatures would come and present themselves to our view yet which is the second part of this first Question wee could not give them their names according to their natures For when we doe know that any Being doth exist we doe not know what their formes their severall qualities and temperaments are We altogether are ignorant of herbes and plants which are hot and cold in how many degrees they are so For in these how many how eternall are the debates Some deny the healing vertue to Dictamnum Some question the nature of that killing-saving Indian herb Hen-man-bane Tobacco whose insolence is such as to make That part of man a chimny an outlet of her smoky birth expressed happily by Doctor Thory in these words Inque tubo genitas haurire reddere nubes I say to make That an outlet of her smoky birth by which the old Romans in this their Proverb Est homo nasutus discovered their judgements of gifts and wit Some say it is hot and some say it is cold Few of the Learned consent about the degrees of heat and cold in any Simple and so are forced to palliate all with the gaudy mantle of occulta qualitas Yet what are all these but matter of observation manifest effects which Sense teacheth the plowman the Country-man yea the bruites themselves as familiarly as warmth in the Sun-shine and wet in the Raine I could name many questions in * Politickes Oeconomickes Ethickes c. the very subject whereof are in dispute But they will more happily fall in when I discover our ignorance in causes Thus you see in what a Maze you are Meandred if you admit of any division The very knowledge of the Being of things is more than we are capable of And as yet that is necessary so we keepe our selves still to this principle that those things are all of one nature variegated only in our apprehension and this knowledge I must consent to But if men once seeke into the Causes of Subsistencies I see no reason but they should suffer as Rei laesae Majestatis For these are Arcana Imperii which to meddle with is no lesse than high Treason CHAP. XV Confusion in the knowledge of Causes discovered and redressed by this Vnity IF wee are thus at a stand in these very beginnings what shall wee bee when wee enquire after Causes Two lie open to our view First our great and good God the fountaine of all Being and this the Ancients styled Fatum Secondly there is that Emanation from him which is the first created cause of all Being and this was Aristotle's materia prima so far as sensible things extend Which because it is the substance of all things and the variations of it make all formes therefore in it selfe he described it to be neither quid quale nor quantum All other causes are better knowne by name than in the natures of them They make many as Efficient Finall Materiall Formall with divers subdistinctions as instrumental exemplary c. All these have matter and forme For there is a matter and forme of a materiall cause and forme and matter of formall causes For in a table of of wood the materiall cause is not the matter wood wood is the subject upon which this materiall cause bringeth forth that effect a Table It may bee the materiall cause shall not be Physicall matter wee shall by and by finde it another name Of the forme of a materiall cause I shall say nothing and so for formall causes Faith is said to be the forme of a Christian and faith hath its forme The soule is by many deemed which I understand not the forme of the reasonable creature and it hath a particular individuall forme And thus both materiall and formall causes have matter and forme Matter againe is either Physicall and substantiall or metaphoricall and metaphysicall And this is the name I promised even now Formes are either intrinsecall or extrinsecall the intrinsecall are Logicall Metaphysicall c. Now have you various and severall kinds of forms but who knoweth the least considerable part of matter or forme Who will not cleerly lose himselfe in such an inquest May we not say of these what one saith wittily of the Soule For Her true forme how can my sparke discerne Which dim by nature Art did never cleere When the great wits of whom all skill we learne Are ignorant both what she is and where Doe but survey the Physicall Beings of our Philosophers with what impossible with what unnecessary scrutinies of causes do they weary themselves and their Disciples Till numeri Platonici cease to be a
Proverb I must remaine a Sceptick although one undertake to teach me how and whence it is that various rowlings of the tongue shall send forth so many articulate voices and so many severall languages Till it be known how all numbers gather themselves into an Unity I must not give credence to another who promiseth an accompt of the estuation of the Sea I know some surrender Neptunes Trident to the Moone and there six the reason of Thetis her uncertain ebbings Others * give the world a good paire of lungs and from these Bellowes expect the causes of what they inquire for Others take a dish of water and shaking it up and down think to cleere this difficulty But these their ratiocinations discover cleerly that with NOAHS Dove through over-much water they can finde no ground for footing For veritas non quaerit angulos And if the reason were ready they would not have disputed and yet they are very confident and why may not they be so who dare venture to give before they prove any Orbs the government of the Orbs to a band of celestiall intelligences I shall not wonder if these men every where finde an Euripus and at its bankes imitate their Grandy's outcry Quia ego non possum te capere tu me capias How doth the Spirit befoole these men First hee telleth them that they are so farre from finding out the Causes that they are ignorant of the Effects Knowest thou the time when the wild Goats of the rock bring forth or canst thou mark when the Hindes doe calve Canst thou number the moneths that they fulfill or knowest thou the time when they bring forth Salomon saith There are three things too wonderfull for me yea foure which I know not The way of an Eagle in the aire the way of a serpent upon a rocke the way of a ship in the midst of the sea and the way of a man with a maid How doth our great Master perplexe himselfe in the inquiry of causes Sometimes he makes the principia of naturall things to be contraria whereas neither the heavens nor the starres nor anything that is by univocall generation is that way produced Sometimes he allowes three principia Privatio Materia Forma forgetting his own principle that Ex nihilo nihil fit not remembring that when hee hath matter and forme he is yet to seek for the Rock and Pit out of which matter and form are digged and hewed and therefore instituteth two severall authors one of matter another of forme I confesse his Commentators doe file of some rust from these Tenets but not so cleerely as to make him give the right cause of Being Romance's and New-Atlantides I shall gladly embrace as pleasant and glorious entertainements from specious and Ambrosian wits But for true knowledge of causes having no cause to expect I will not hope Sis Walter Raleigh saith exceeding well that the Cheese-wife knoweth that Runnet curdleth Cheese but the Philosoher knoweth not how All this while I doe not reject an industrious search after wisedome though the wisest of men saith He that increaseth wisedome increaseth griefe I doe only with Sir Francis Bacon condemne doctrinam phantasticam litigiosam fucatam mollem a nice unnecessary prying into those things which profit not Too great exactnesse in this Learning hath caused our Meteorologists to blush when their confidence hath proved but a Vapour Too great hopes of discovering the mysterie of nature hath caused some contrary to the authority of Scripture contrary to the opinion of Iulius Caesar Picus Mirandula Cornelius à Lapide Ioan Barclaius cum multis aliis to attribute an unwarranted power to the starres over our bodies But this ensueth while we follow for learning what is not And so that noble comprehensive activity the soule of man is hindered from entertaining in its place more generous more usefull and sublimated Truths How would the soule improve if all Aristotles Materia prima Plato's Mens Platonica Hermes Trismegistus his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were converted into some spirituall light the soule might soare and raise it selfe up to Universall Being bathe it selfe in those stately deep and glorious streames of of Vnity see God in Iesus Christ the first chiefe and sole cause of all Being It would not then containe it selfe within particular rivulets in whose shallow waters it can encounter nothing but sand or pebbles seeing it may fully delight it selfe in the first rise of all delight Iesus Christ Thus when you see the face of Beauty you will perfectly be assured how many the severall pieces which make it up must be what their nature and their severall proportions So shall you with certainty descend to knowledge of existences essences when you shall rest in one universall cause and Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Logick will happily prove one while they teach the variations of Vnity through severall numbers All particular Sciences will be subordinate and particular applications of these So all shall be according to Ficinus Circulus boni per bonum in bonum rediens and the face of divine Beauty shall bee unveiled through all CHAP. XVI The unhappy fruits of Division in other parts of Learning made manifest CAst your eye on Morall Philosophy and see how the truth is darkened by distinctions and divisions How our Masters have set up in the same soule Two fountaines of Reason the Will and the Vnderstanding Have they not virtutes Intellectuales Morales Is it not a great question Vtrum Prudentia sit virtus Moralis Vtrum Summum Bonum sit in Intellectu an Voluntate Vtrum Prudentia possit separari à virtute Morali Vtrum virtus Moralis sita sit in Appetitu Rationali an Sensitivo I say these questions especially the dividing of the soule into so many faculties enthrones many reasonable Beings in the soule For when the will entertaineth or rejecteth the proposition of the understanding shee must doe it one of these three wayes Either by an instinct and this men will not have for hoc est brutum Or by chance and this many reject for then she hath no liberty Or by discourse and this most pitch upon for then she doth exercise vim illam imperatricem which I reade of amongst them but understand not Now if they conclude upon this third way What is this Discourse but the Work of an Vnderstanding if the Will act that way which is or ought to be to the Vnderstanding proprium quarto modo Is not then the will an Vnderstanding Thus like an unskillfull Artist they mince with distinctions they whet till there be no more Steele and whilst they would sharpen they annihilate Whilst they would inlarge they overthrow the Soule They create names and say with Ajax they are Vlysses and so fight with them They do as one faith very well giving Passion eyes make Reason blind raising the will they ruine the