evill spirits provide before for the safetie of their persons so if by course of argument thou art forc't to contradict the evill spirit of any man bee sure of thine owne safety too for many are no better then evill spiritts and kinds of Divells It is a care every man ought heedfully to looke unto what company hee keepes for evill base and ignorant company are like copper which if thou mixe thy selfe with it wil alaye thy reputation as gold and silver is alayed therewith by the gold-smiths In thy Election and choice let not thy affection shame thy judgment but so choose that thy Iudgment may bee commended in thy election The rayling mouth of an envious villaine against the good is the divell 's baggpipes Answere arguments with reason if reason will not bee heard or approved then answere them with silence Remember alwaies that practize or action takes more deepe impression with men then precept or discourse which Diogenes well knew when hee tombled his tubb Our desires begetts our cares and our courses our fortunes or the accidents befalls us meeting with others in the same passages which wee wrongfully attribute to destiny for all things with us comes from our selves or by our selues I meane mundanely therefore when thou hearest a man complaine of fortune consider his courses with himselfe and others The Philosophers stone is like the northwest passage lockt up in strechio D'avies but not so cold in seeking Things profferd and easie to come by diminish themselves in reputation price for how full of pangs and dotage is a wayling lover for it may bee some browne bessie But let a beautie fall a weeping overpressed with the sicke passion she favours in our thoughts something Turnbull A man poore yet rich in knowledge undertaking to worke some excellerie in this helpelesse age is like a Merchant that intends some rich Sea voyage without a Barke Victuals or Men The wiser fort of humane judgements doe not accept forme for matter but matter for forme otherwise our Sophisters would bee taken for wise men who are yet but Prentises therein A constant and wise considering Spirit giveth onely place to mens humours not to variation in truth A bold talking braggart is like the torrent running from a Mill troubles the eare and eye fruitlessly with what he hath done and seene but angle him of his knowledge and you may perhaps catch a Gudgeon The true correction of an ill tongued man or woman is to bid them speake as they have found and knowne and not more or lesse and forfit for untruths He that converseth amongst ill tongued people is like him that walkes amongst thorns and to contend with them is to tread on Snakes and Adders Conversation with earthly Company and terrestriall things is but groueling upon this surface of our great Mole-hill the earth but when wee in our ayerie discourses lift our selves higher let us take heed wee put not our mouths too peremptorily into heaven Natur 's Instruments wherewith she so wisely and wonderfully workes in the Vniverse as we see are the Sunne Moone and Starres Influencies motions upon in and with the Elements and seeds But God omnipotent works his will by his unspeakable power and word by Angels Nature and all things to whom bee all praise It is no more iniustice in almightie God to kill and destroy evill men then in one makes glasses and disliking his workmanship therein breakes them into the fornace againe When extreames oppresse thee consider wisely thy courses and search well into thy selfe and actions if thou beest not the cause of them thy selfe and through the perversnesse of thine owne will before thou blamest Fortune or that wee call Destinie the one a word or figment the other a course of occasion or chaunce Cast the eye of thy imagination as a stranger upon thy outward actions course and behaviour amongst people and thou maiest find that thy selfelove hath covered many things they secretly blame in thee and which thou oughtest tacitly to amend and discerne in thy selfe Seest thou thy store small and meanes weake bee content then with small things thanke God for that thou hast despaire not of enough and doe thy endeavour honestly and say Deus providebit When thou art tempted by that sensuall or substill Spirit thy will to eate of the forbidden fruit that is to cōmit any evill act eyther fleshly or mentally pray to God seeing thy weaknesse or nakednesse and cast thee downe at the foote of his mercy seate laying hold upon the merits of his Sonne our Saviour and mediatour Iesus Christ and say with the Psalmist If thou O great God shouldest looke on all that is done amisse who can endure thy Iustice O consider that we are but dust and seeing there is mercy and compassion with thee pardon my frayleties and keepe mee from presumptuous sinning and suffer me not to be led into temptation but deliver me from all evills Wee passe our time here with great care of our present being and the conversation thereof but God bee mercifull for the most part of men little looke to the future which is perdurable O let us note and remember what the wise man sayeth viz. As the tree falles so it lyes Goe not to a covetous man with any request too soone in the morning for his covetousnesse is up before himselfe and hee before thee but stay till the afternoone then hee 'le bee drunke upon some borrowers purse Musicke breathd by a gentleman is a juell or earing in others hearing in a begger or fidler it is a wallet in the eyes of others thoughts Wee neede not goe any further then the consideration of our selves who are by Moses in Genesis said to be Gods Image to prove or as it were see the Trinitie in Vnitie and Vnitie in Trinity for is not Deus pater anima Mundi is not Filius mens aut velle Dei patris and is not spiritus Sanctus operatio gratia Dei deus ipse in potentia actu Compare then our bodies to the great world our bodies and flesh shall turne to dust or earth so shall the world to his pristine Chaos our soules shall endure for ever God is eternall our minds affects this or that God the Son came downe was incarnate showed and taught his Fathers will miraculously suffered descended rose againe and ascended into his first place The mind of man circuits but still it returnes the mind conclusively as the Soule and mind setts the spirit to organize in the body to act so the Holy spirit proceedes from the Father and Sonne in the motion of the universe to effect and act his minde and will Wherefore with Anaxagoras all things are in all things Anima Mens spiritus One in that all who is three in parts or persons who moves this all making all things obay and serve this one God as his instruments or organons wherefore Plato sayed well Caput eius est Coelum oculus eius
Sol lula stellae venter mare pedes terra c. Thicke fire was the medium betweene God and Moses in the bush So the unspotted flesh though elementall of the Sacred virgin the interpose betwixt the Deietie of Christ and us For Ethnicks Atheists Turkes Iewes c. making question why an Eternall should have a Sonne answere is God's power and word tooke flesh of the Sacred virgin to satisfie his justice by the order of his mercie and since it was for man hee served it in the same livery which no Angell or creature could doe no more then the hatchet can worke alone Hee gave Moses lawes in Tables of stone which Moses brake in anger of the Israelites Idolatrie but hee gave us precepts in our owne similitude which was darkned likewise by our Sauiour his death on the Crosse but renewed by his resurrection as the other by Moses remounting If there were 100000000 millions of people on the earth's surface more then there is every one having a burning glasse yet all might use it to effect by one Sunne In which there are excellent cogitations to bee meditated The glory of the Almighty shines in all good things as his relucent creature the Sunne spreades his beames in the universe but when it pleased him to contract himselfe to his word then as a burning glasse gathers the rayes of the worlds Sunne so hee kindled a fire on Syon hill and a bright flame in the wombe of the blessed Virgin which the proud malice of the Iewes striuing to extinguish made this Gods Son our soules lumination shine the brighter Whensoever thou seest the Moone goe into a Clowde thinke of the glorious ascension of our Saviour and how hee is in the Sacrament or Communion God is one in himselfe but as hee appeares to the world and us is three viz. God the Creator and our Father God the Sonne as he wore our humanitie suffered and redeemed us God the holy Ghost as hee instructeth gouerneth and Consolateth us Yet all is one God to whom bee all prayse The exceeding difference betwixt us and our Saviour Iesus Christ is very apparent in our disposition for we are bent to the Humanitie and he bent it to him When we contemplate in the feruour of Prayer to find an Idea of the all-Creator the utmost wee arive vnto is a light which our limited thoughts cannot so expound as belongs to his ubiquitie and so wee are set up as with a period Therefore O wonderfull bounty and goodnesse of God that hath sent downe his Sonne and cloathed him in the shape of our humanitie whereby he is our speculum and through whom we see Gods mercie power love c. The word Godly or God-like and it's Econtra hath great signification denoting some vertuous action or contemplation or the contrarie to the contrary The whole universe is but as a bowle in the hand of the Almightie but no magnitude can containe him that made space and place As the luminous carboncle of the Firmament whose presence makes the Day joy and the Night mourne his absence is the guide vnto our bodies in this world So the incomprehensible glorious Sunne of Heaven is the presence of our day in God and our guide to his presence All the workes of God are essentiall concreate not as man looking on his face in a glasse a vanishing shaddow for God from all eternitie could not but know himselfe and looking upon himselfe doubled the beames of his glorious essence begat his similitude or quatenus nobis his Son the divine love of which resemblance produced the holy Ghost or Spirit three individuall persons in one Godhead to whom bee prayse honour and glory in one thankes Let God his studie bee the cheefest place in thy Soules house The highest orbe for our station is the earth the lowest orbe to God's vision is the earth what hee hath done above is for us to looke upon and admire not to examine but what hee hath by his Commandements and his Sonnes precepts directed us to doe and beleeve wee ought carefully to looke unto that is by our Saviour his words thus in breefe Loue God above all things and thy Neighbour as thy selfe God is a spheare whose Center is every where whose circumference is no where A light which through too much claritie becomes invisible a greatnesse containing all magnitude a power gouerning all potencie and a goodnesse inexplicable To beleeve things fall only under our sences comprehension requires no reward for reason payes it but things beyond our reach and verified by two double Testimonies engrosseth our blisse of faith in heavenly Characters The miracles of our Saviour being so supernaturall showed the stony Jewes had beene Gorgonized before his comming All sacred words and divine figures denote unto us what wee ought to know and knowne to hold inviolably and strongly The Humillitie of our Saviour is th' exaltation of our hope to salvation the foote of which Ladder was his humanitie the top his deitie the Angels going up and downe figures of his Passion Death resurrection and ascention Iacob's sleeping our lethargie in sinne God who containes all glorious formes within him cannot be comprehended in any figure by man therefore hee sent his Sonne in man's owne figure to bee the readilier cogitated by man The Ancient Ethnique world were ever too apt and busie in Deifying men if they were but a litle taller in their deserts then the ordinarie pitch of others as in Saturne Iupiter Hercules c. And this was but a tricke of that evill and malignant intelligent spirit that aped in them before hand what he knew would really follow in our Saviour Christ Iesus thereby thinking to stopp his reputation with such communitie By our pronenesse to evill and penetrative sorrow after the fact it declares that our Nature is depraved from the first purity we were plac't in for goodnesse cannot produce euill Doubtlesse the conuersation of some intelligent evill and depraved spirit through envy instigated enticed and contaminated man's Soule which was the fruite forbidden or that Tree of knowledge in good and evill even as coyture with an uncleane woman contaminates the body of a man It hath beene questionable in my thoughts why that displaced dejected spirit should so greedely seeke after mans ruyne I can cogitate no further then that his nature being depraved his burthen of torments great his despaire of release desperate and greevous his enuy therefore is strong upon those are in way to obtaine his place whom he seekes to hinder ensnare in the nets of their owne sensuallities which hee knowes and see's by their proceedings and life Paradise was created and the man in it of pure and incorruptible Elements and the corruptible World for all other things but by mans breach of Gods Commandements the puritie being taken away man became Companion with the other Creatures and by feeding on those Corruptible things by little and little was so thrust out of
mouth or lip-labour God respects so much as the heart or mind in an intelligent orator yet the resurrection of the body denotes that our prayers should not bee meerely mentall but conjoyned with corporall action for shall wee not with Saint Paul hope to see God even with the same eyes Lift them up towards Syon hill then bend the knees reach up the handes offer the calves of the lipps make all thy powers powre forth the prayse of him that made thee Meere worldlings in Iudgement are blind in censuring divine mysteries for did not Festus and the learned Athenians deeme Saint Pauls preaching foolishnesse but an over stupid devotion ladeth out of the lighter of the fantasie more into the Arke of the Church then shee should carry but Sectaries would throw the Churches treasure over boord All our life heere is but an entertayning of vanities what good doth capps and reuerences really any man The satisfaction of appetits is but the uncouering of our wants heaping of Riches but as ill servants that will runne to others from us and lagge behinde us nothing heere permanent or true happinesse let us therefore bee carefull to purchasse by prayer and good deedes treasure for heaven that wee may have wherewith to satisfie our reckoning there with the great Host who hath forgiven us one score already and therefore let us not presume too much on the next When I consider the weakenesse of our humane nature I wonder mankind can bee proud for wee cannot subsist a little time without the props of meat and drinke sleepe rest c. which the Angells and spirits need not nor use but when I cogitate our frayltie and vanitie I breath with the Prophet David Lord what is man that thou shouldst be mindfull of him The best use of dreames is to cogitate that as by fullnesse or coldnesse of the stomacke Crudities causeth fearefull apparitions to the wakeing and working fantasie and as good and temperate heate digestion and humours cause pleasant and delightfull passages yet all but shaddowes and vanish like darknesse from the Sunne when we rise So when the soule is freed from this terrestreietie which clowdeth the judgment and reason then the evill workes cōmitted essentially casteth the soule most really amongest those are indeed evill not in apparition but deformed Divells indeed And the good vertuous deeds amongst the blessed pleasures of holy spirits and Angells Wherefore let us take heed wee goe not to the bed of our grave with a stomacke over-charged with Sinnes It much matters not what Religion a foole or a knave is of for their babling is but vaine prating and the tree is best knowne by the fruit Dis the god of Mony now laughs out right because his wares are in more esteeme amongst fooles then vertue and Stultorum plena sunt omnia Th' Almighty God is the Soule of the universe and the rayes of his splendour is the quintessence in every thing bee it Minerall vegetable or Animall therefore in whatsoever genus or region an investigating Philosopher would grow intelligent in that let him seeke the quintessence which is his Moone or else hee laboureth in vaine and gathereth leaves in steede of fruites and seedes for no man can truely meliorate any thing beyond his naturall perfection but by multiplying his quintessentiall part Quintessence is not as Spageriques mistake it separation of pure from impure but must be taken from both the thinne and thicke the spirituall and corporall It is within all things non secundùm locum et partes sed secundùm virtutem et actionem naturalem What is it to mee what is in the Sunne Moone Starrs whether they are worlds or whatsoever Containing when there is a law set downe for me viz. to serue their Creator and mine on this earth whereto I am fixt by that upper ordinance who made them and all But what I can lawfully finde heere he hath given me leave thereby to prayse him and helpe my selfe What thou speakest i. e. cogitates within thy selfe know God onely hears that sees without the eye heares without the eare and made thee both interiourly and exteriourly But what thou doest outward either by action or wordes spirits and men both good and badde see and judg of Cave Not by eating drinking or sleeping doth the soule live c. but those additions helps her to sustaine the bodies ponder and grossnesse When thou tellest another any thing thinke hee is thy enemy present in his rotation of thought or may bee so futurely Man blessed by God with a good understanding may be compared to those feathered Fowles who lose their plumage in molting time so may man his grace in the heat of sensualities and yet by repentance recover but he that is swallowed up by vice is as the Fowle taken kild and plum'd by Cooke ruffian the Divell God is the Spirit of Spirits the Lord of Lords King of Kings to be worshipped in Spirit and truth Angels Spirits Potestares Powers Sunne Moone Starres Firmament Fire Ayre Waters Earth the faculties of his hand and the universe his Instruments Man his Spirit is a sparke of that flame a droppe of that Sea a moate in that sunne his soule with her powers are his Spirits faculties his body is the organon God made man and the whole world to his glory prayse and use yet without his needing them as we doe neede viz. garments houses c. God is within all things but not included without all things but not excluded There are some of opinion that each man hath a double Genious a good Angel and a bad as they please to tearme them which I hold no other but the Animall spirit and the intellectuall The Animall desireth the bodies contentment the intellectuall the soules if the Animall hath the domination the man is given to mundane lights which perish with the life if the intellectuall hath the predominance the soule rejoyceth in spiritual pleasure and affects things good and eternall Every mans conversation for the most part showes who carieth the bridle of the will how and when Those that worke on Natures terminations resemble them who swallow the nut shell and all for the kernels sake for no man can further reach the determinate ordination of God in his handmaide Natures house then by exuberation of the seeds for as sayeth the Philosopher Species in Speciem non transmutation nisi reducantur ad primam materiam and that ordinately digested doth in Philosophie worke beyond Natures Creatures wee see wherefore let no man despise or condemne that he knoweth not God almighty being the fountaine of all wisedome as wee call excellent Sapiens cannot be without the poore riveret of reason which hee hath given to man As our Saviour suffered the afflictions of humane nature as hunger thirst sorrow feare anger weeping abstinence paines c. So ought wee in soule and life to imitate him to our powers viz. to abstayne from Ebrietie to avoyd vayne mirth and to greeve