Knowledge reform us to God's Image and are that Knowledge of God which makes our Salvation and constitutes true Wisdom To do Judgement and Justice is to know me saith the Lord Jerem. 22. 15 16. And contrary wise to do evil and forbear to do good Works is not to know God Chap. 9.3 1 Sam. 2 12. Having seen that the Kingdom of God or the Salvation of Man consists in Wisdom and also the Quid or what Wisdom or God's Knowledge is It is time to enquire the Per quid or by what means it comes and is obtained The Scriptures say That Wisdom is God's Gift that he send it and that out of his Mouth comes Knowledge and Vnderstanding Prov. 2.6 Job 32.8 James 1.5 17. For indeed no other thing but the Inspiration or Breath of the Almighty the Spiraculum Vitae which he breathed at first into the first Mans Nostrils Gen. 2.7 and is the Lamp of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. can reform Mankind again to God's Image in Knowledge or give him that Breath of Life which his Fall bereft him of The Text saith Nischmah Chajim that is to say Breath of Lives because when Man is born again of the Holy Ghost he lives of a threefold Life to wit Divine Natural and that which he hath common with the Beasts from the Spirit of the World and from the Stars Now what can that Breath of God be but his Holy Spirit who is the good Gift of God Luke 11.13 with Matth. 7 11. which he bestows on Mankind To guide him into all Truth John 16.13 And to teach him all things Chap. 14.26 both Natural and Divine the word all comprehending Omnia Scibilia and chiefly natural things as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is standing more open and exposed to our Senses and Contemplation John. 3.12 Rom. 1.20 than the Divine Mysteries For in this Spirit consists the Kingdom of God it self Chap. 14.7 or Salvation or Wisdom and without him Man remains still in his outward Darkness is still a natural Man Job 11.12 Whose Reason cannot fathom either the things of Nature or of the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 2.14 till by being born again of Water he becomes fit for the Birth of this Spirit which makes him again of that brutish Man he was become an Angelical Creature Luke 20.36 or as Wise as the Angels and Adam before he fell Therefore when Christ the express Image of God Heb. 1.3 came to save or to reform Man again he breathed on his Disciples they that learn of him saying Receive ye the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 to shew us that he saves Man by Inspiring into him the same former Breath which God breathed into his Nostrils this Inspiration being the only means of Wisdom which he really gives to him and not as the Priests of Rome do when they Baptize Children or rather when they Ape Christ by repeating of his words and acting this part of his History in the Baptism There is a Spirit in Man which is like a smoaking Flax fit to catch at this new Flame and the Inspiration of the Almighty saith one of Job's Friends Job 32.8 is that which gives Man Light or Understanding And because it is God's Gift therefore all the True Christians are said to be Taught of God John 6.45 and to be made by Christ Priests 1 Pet. 2.5 Revel 1.6 that is able to teach themselves For Teaching under the Law was the Office of the Priests Ezek. 44.23 Mal. 2.7 Whence Christ saith Matth. 23.10 That they have but one Master to wit himself Then when they have received this Spirit and not before they are the Anointed ones that is True Christians indeed for it is the true Unction or the true Oyl of Gladness whereof that which Kings and Priests were of old Anointed with was a Sign or Sacrament because Oyl is all Spirit or the most Spiritual part of all Concretes in the World. And are said to know all things 1 John 2.20 and not to need to be taught any thing of any Man verse 27. So that they need not Travel from home into far Countreys nor to the Academies to confer with the learned for God finds Fault with such means Jer. 23.30 Isa 29.13 and shews we must pass from them Cant. 3.4 to find what the Soul loves best its Summum Bonum Wisdom no Doctors though never so Learned being capable to give it or procure it for any besides themselves Because seeing God gives it they have it not in their gift nay because they seek for Fame and Applause John 5.44 and for Riches and Greatness or Preserment instead of Tribulation which the Disciples of christ should look after in the world chap. 16.33 and thus as saith Jeremy 5.5 break the yoke and burst the bonds they have it not for themselves Isa 29.14 Matth. 11.25 and therefore rather abuse the poor Soul smite it wound it take from it its smoking flax Cant. 5.7 than give it any new light it is but in vain for us to hope for any from them and very absurd to look for our Felicity Wisdom from their Predicables Non est qui sustentet qui conducat eam inter omnes filios quos genuit nutrit There is not one capable to feed guide and hold her up in all the Armies of Sons whereof see Luke 21.20 with Matth. 24.15 which she hath bred and brought forth saith the Prophet Isaiah 51.18 20 when he saw in the spirit the state of the present Church And yet they all say we see John 9.41 so much its desolation is become abominable The word of wisdom alone which is nigh in our hearts Luke 17.21 Rom. 10.8 springing up there like the seed left to it self in the ground and growing we know not how Mark 4.27 and which word is Christ himself Joh. 1.1 1 Cor. 1.24 being that which gives knowledge Blando sno susurro by his still small voice in us 1 Kings 19.12 even the Learned themselves of the world being Judges Deut. 32.31 for their own experience may if they please to think on 't abundantly convince them that they never come to know or to have any knowledge whil'st they go to hear others and till passing from that is ceasing from all School Learning and all things without themselves they retire in themselves and meditate by themselves like Isaac Gen. 24.63 and all wise men thus stirring up or making good use of the smoaking flax or spirit which is in them 2 Tim. 1.6 and of which all Mankind hath enough to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 Matth. 25 15. Having fully proved that this Spirit must be had of all those who desire to have or obtain Wisdom that is to say Salvation I must here demonstrate to prevent an Objection that all Men may obtain it if they will but improve their Talent or Trade with it what I must do likewise by the means of the Scriptures The Scripture declares that God gives this spirit of wisdom to all
purified and exalted by frequent Inhumations and Dippings in the water without perceptible heat which in the birth of Water cannot but be offensive For thô the Chymists calcine or burn their things with Fire yet the Wisemen ever did burn or calcine with Water and they cry tere tere imbibe imbibe But when this outward Principle the World shall be totally deliver'd from the Bondage and Curse of its Corruption the density compactness and hardness of its Body into the glorious liberty of God's Children a thin transparent Body and so shall pass from this kind of Being to a new one then it shall again go thrô the fierceness of the Fire then the Elements shall melt with fervent heat saith Peter 2.3 10. and the Earth shall be burnt up and shall be with the waters reduced again into a glorious Quintessence on which the ransomed of the Lord shall stand with songs and with joy upon their heads Rev. 15.2 Isa 35.10 Matth. 5.5 As there are three distinct kinds of Lives as I have said already in the Twelfth Page all created things live of and are as by so many Classes distinguished by and comprehended under as so many Species under their Genus or Kind so there be three several Principles according to some which give all created things their specisick Form of Life and determinate all those which are within their Classis after their own Property And they may well be called Principles so long as all things have their Life in and from them and so long as these three Lives are the Original Being or State things fell in or betook themselves unto from their first Original The first is the Fire Life or the Principle of Fire common to all living things for asmuch as they all take from them the Original and the first Rise of their Life but proper to the Devils and the damned Souls only The second is the Divine Life or Principle of the Light wherein the Angels and Men were perfected and made good Gen. 1.31 but from which both of them fell Jud. ver 6. and is proper only to the confirmed Angels and the Souls of the Faithful The third is this outward Life or the Principle of this World where all things live in the Air of the Spirit which comes down from the Heavens into it and is proper to the Beasts and to the present Body of Man and to all those things which live in it and from it but became accidental to Man by reason that he fell into it as was said And the first is ascribed to God the Father of Life as being but a burning sharp fierce and obscure Fire without the Light of the Son The second to God the Son as being the Light of Life that sweetneth and perfects it and the third and last of them to God the Holy Spirit as being the Conveyer and the Refresher of Life that brings Life and preserves it and that proceeds like the Air from the Fire and the Light of the Father and the Son. For to enlarge upon this when God created the world or to make the word Create somewhat more intelligible did make himself manifest he manifested himself such as he is in himself that is by a Trinity in Unity Fire Light and Spirit in one Being Therefore he make three Spring Heads or Prineiples of all Things three Throne-Angels with their Worlds Michael the mighty strong Prince after the fierce Nature and Property of Fire Lucifer the lovely the bright and most glorious Prince after the pleasant nature and property of the Light and Vriel the Well-doer or the Introducer and Conveyer of the Light or of all the pleasantness and good that comes from the Light after the beneficent Nature of the Holy Ghost each one a distinct Principle and all the three together making up one Unity or total Being like God to wit the invisible and intelligible World and comprehending in them the whole Creation of God and each of them consisting of Fire Light and Spirit For as the end of Nature alias of the Nasciture Manifestation of God was to communicate his Summum Bonum Himself to all created Beings his Will and Purpose was not that the Principle of Fire Evil should predominate and subsist in any thing by itself without the Light but that the Light should take place and the Angels with their Worlds should become such as God is a most joyful Being and a pleasant Paradise Therefore thô God created each in a distinct Principle yet he made each of them that is Michael as well as Vriel and Lucifer to consist of those three things and to pass immediately from the Fire to the Light and to send forth or exhale like the Sun out of himself a Spirit into his Sphere to vivify and to seed and sustent it all over Upon which saith Trismegist Omnia lux fuerunt vel in lumen conversa jucundum suave nimium Spectaculum For God is light and in him there is no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 And all things had for ever continued in this same state if Lucifer who being the most glorious of the three had not admired himself and instead of loving and admiring God for it and of seeking God's Kingdom and Glory more than his own fall'n in love with his own self whence he as a Man in love doth by his longing attract what he loves into himself and his Soul saith the Scripture 2 Sam. 13.39 doth as it were issue out or go forth to join with it drew himself into himself and by the astringency of his Lust or Desire for Lust or Desire is astringent and attractive filling or impregnating and offuscating himself as one that dotes upon that which he loves whether it be Man Woman Gold or Silver cannot receive in his mind any other thing but that his mind runs upon nothing but his beloved treasure and is wholly taken up with it Matth. 6.21 he becomes pensive and as it were overcast with a thick Cloud or dark Mist so he was offuscated and became cloudy and dark and as the more he lusted and drew the more and thicker the Clouds did gather and grow whereby a Heat and Burning was excitated in him and he was reinflamed as it doth happen to those who having kept their Lusts a good while under Hatches break out into the more violent heat and passion and to a wet heap of Hay Fruits Flowers and other things which are apt to ferment and to grow hot of themselves by reason that the Vapor or the Cloud that comes from them during their Fermentation being kept within the heap by the Contiguity and Coherence of its parts which affords no passage or way for Transpiration grows there thicker and thicker And withall he set his Sphere which being a thin Matter was as apt as any Smoke is to take Flame on Fire whereby the Matter thereof which was very thin and subtle was concocted and hardned its loose parts were compacted into
acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation