perpetual Sabbath and perpetual New-moons However for the sake of the common people and the more illiterate part of the Church the Holy Fathers did institute Holy-days that they might have liberty and vacancie to come and hear the Word and to celebrate Divine Worship and for receiving the Sacraments yet so that the Church should not be subservient to the days but that the days should be subservient to the Church Therefore did the Fathers ordain certain Holy-days wherein the common people were exhorted to abstain from worldly business and bodily labour whereby they might be the more free to serve God the more at leisure to pray and think upon Divine matters to be present at Service and Sermons and to tend such other Duties as might most directly tend to their Salvation But that same perverter of Equity that destroyer of all Order and Decencie that author of all Evil the Devil endeavouring to pull down whatever the Holy Ghost sets up hath neer demolish'd this Tower of Beauty also While we behold the greatest part of Christians not converting this Holy leisure of Holy-days to the exercises of Prayer or hearing the Word of God but spending their pretious time in the corruption of all good Manners Dancing Stage-playes lewd Songs idle Sports and Games Drinking Feasting Visiting and in all worldly and Carnal works quite opposite to Spiritual As Tertullian speaks of the solemn Feasts of the Caesars They were wont saith he to make a great stir to bring forth into the publick street their Fires and their Chorus's to junket in the High-way to make a Tavern of the whole City to pour Wine down one anothers throats by violence then to run headlong to do all manner of mischief and to please themselves in all manner of filthy Lust. Are we not therefore deservedly to be condemn'd who celebrate the Festivals of Christ and his Saints after such a lewd fashion I confess we do not finde many Heretical Disputes concerning Holy-days omitting the madness and Blasphemy of the Manichaeans and the pestiferous opinions of the Cataphrygians yet had they like to have occasion'd a great breach in the Church when Victor the Pope excommunicated all the Eastern and Southern Churches for not keeping Easter-day according to the direction of the Western Decrees who notwithstanding was notably resisted among others by Polycrates Bishop of Asia Ireneus also Bishop of Lions though he observ'd Easter-day as was commanded by Victor yet with great freedom undertook to chide the Pope for that he had contrary to the Example of his Predecessors as a disturber of the Peace lopp'd off so many Limbs of the Church not for any Errour in point of Faith but onely for disagreeing in point of Ceremony from the Church of Rome 'T is true there have been many decrees of Popes and Councils to confirm and settle the observation of Easter-day and many Ecclesiastick Computations have been made for the better finding out of the true day And yet to this very hour they could never find out a certain day or that was Universally observ'd through the whole World at one and the same time A very worthy business indeed that for the humour of one obstinate Pope the whole Church should suffer Shipwrack CHAP. LX. Of Ceremonies OF the Members of Religion the Pomp of Rites and Ceremonies in Habits in Vessels in Lights in Bells in Organs in Singing in Perfumes in Postures in Pictures in the choice of Meats and Fasts and the like have been receiv'd and approv'd with great Adoration and Veneration by the Multitude especially Papistical who understand no more than what they see with their Eyes Numa Pompilius first Instituted Ceremonies among the Romans thereby to invite a rude and fierce People that had obtain'd a Kingdom by Violence and Rapine to Piety Truth Justice and Religion such were the Ancylia and Palladium the Sacred Pledges of the Empires Safety the double-Fronted Janus Arbiter of Peace and War The Fire of Vesta over which a she Flamin did continually Watch The Year also divided into Twelve Months with the variety of Good and Evil Days The Sacerdotal Dignity divided into Pontifexes and Augurs their various Ceremonies of Sacrifices Supplications Shews Processions Temples of which the greatest part as Eusebius testifies has been Translated into our Religion But God himself who delights not in Flesh and Humane Signes contemns and despises these Carnal and Exteriour Ceremonies For he is not to be Worship'd with Corporal Actions Eye-pleasing Works or Carnal Adoration but in Spirit and Truth by Christ Jesus For he looks upon the Faith considering the inward Thoughts and Intentions of Men the searcher of Hearts that sees the very Secrets of the Soul Therefore those Carnal and outward Ceremonies no way advance us toward God with whom there is nothing acceptable but Faith in Jesus Christ with a perfect imitation of his Charity and an unshaken hope in his Salvation and Reward This is the true Worship spotless from all Contamination of External and Carnal Ceremonies wherein St. John instructing us saith That God is a Spirit and to be worship'd in Spirit and Truth This some of the Ethnick Philosophers were not ignorant of therefore Plato forbid that any Ceremonies should be used in the Worship of the most high God For there is nothing wanting to him who is all things himself only it is requisite that we should adore him by returning our thanks to him for all things Neither have we any thing more grateful to return to God than Praise Glory and Thanks Neither will it serve for an Objection to insist upon the Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as if God had taken delight in them For God brought them not out of Aegypt to offer up Sacrifices and Incense to him but that forgetting the Idolatry of the Aegyptians they might hear the Voice of God and obey him in Faith and Truth to the obâ—aining of their Salvation Now the reason that Moses Instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies among them was that he bare with their Infirmities and yielded to the hardness of their Hearts indulging a small Error to recal them from things more unlawful directing their Sacrifices to God and not to Devils For those things were not principally Instituted but by consequence neither could that Law oblige them otherwise than as it was approv'd by the people Therefore Moses when he produc'd the Laws of Ceremonies he collected the suffrages of the Elders and the people whereby to render them more pliable to his commands Therefore might that Law be chang'd according to the alteration of times and manners and was at last totally abrogated but the Law of God delivered in the Tables of Stone that is perpetual For so God spake by Jeremiah Why do ye offer to me Frankincense of Saba and Cynamon fetch'd from a far Country Your Holocauâ—ts and your Sacrifices have not pleased me And again by the same Prophet Thus saith the Lord Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifice
So Orpheus asswag'd the Tempest of the Argonauts with a Song and Homer relates how the course of Vlysses blood was stopt by the power of words Moreover in the Law of the Twelve Tables there is a Law against those that did inchant the standing Corn whereby it is apparent that Witches have a power by the force of words to produce strange Effects not onely upon themselves but also upon outward things All which things that is to say to separate the hidden force of things and either draw them to themselves and repel them from themselves they credibly believe themselves to effect no other way than as the Loadstone draws Iron or Amber or Jet draws Chaff and as Onions again destroys the Magnetick Power So that by this Gradual and Concatenated Sympathy not only Natural and Celestial Gifts but also Intellectual and Divine may be receiv'd into humane Souls as Iamblicus Proculus and Sinesius gather from the Opinions of Great Men and that by this Consent and Harmony of things Magicians do call up the very Spirits For some of them are arriv'd at such a height of Madness that they believe that upon the right Observation of such and such Constellations at such intervals of time and by such reason of Proportions an Image being made would receive Life and Motion which upon counsel desired should be able to give Answers and Reveal the hidden Secrets of Truth Hence it is manifest That this Natural Magick inclining toward Conjuring and Necromancy is often entangled in the Snares and Delusions of Evil Spirits CHAP. XLV Of Conjuring and Necromancy THE Ceremonial Parts of Magick Conjuring and Necromancy Geocie or Conjuring curs'd for being familiar with unclean Spirits ceremonies of wicked curiosity compos'd of Prayers and Inchantments is held Abominable and wholly Condemn'd by the Decrees of all Lawgivers Men hateful to the Gods that stain the Skie And blot the Stars though Natures Progenie The setled course of things they can confound Can fix the Poles send Lightnings on the ground Pull down the Heavens and Hills eradicate These are those that Invoke the Souls of dead Bodies who Inchant Children and cause them to give the Answer of the Oracle and as we read of Socrates carry about with them certain Pocket Daemons and who as they say nourish little Spirits in Glasses by which they pretend to Foretel and Prophesie All these proceed in a twofold manner For some of them make it their business to adjure and compel Evil Spirits to appearance by the Efficacy and Power of sacred Names because seeing that every Creature doth fear and reverence the Name of its Creator no wonder if Conjurors and other Infidels Pagans Jews Saracens or prophane Persons do think to force the Devils Obedience by the Terrour of his Creators Name Others more to be detested than they and worthy the utmost punishment of Fire submitting themselves to the Devils sacrifice to them and Worship them become guilty of the vilest subjection and Idolatry that may be to which Crimes though the former are not quite so obnoxious yet they expose themselves to manifest dangers For the Devils are always watchful to intrap Men in the Errors they heedlesly run into From this insipid crowd of Conjurors have flow'd all those Books of Darkness which Vlpian the Civilian calls by the name of forbidden Writings Of which one of the first Authors is said to be Zabulus a man wholly inclin'd to unlawful Arts. Then Barnabas 〈◊〉 Cyprian and now frequently other Books are Published up and down under the feigned Titles and Names of Adam Abel Enoch Abraham and Solomon others under the Names of Paulus Honorius Cyprian Albertus Thomas Hierome and one Eboracensis to whose silly trifles Alphonsus King of Castile Robert the Englishman Bacon Apponus and many other of deprav'd Fancies have adher'd But besides this they have not only made the holy Patriarchs and Angels Authors and Upholders of their detestable Studies but also shew several Books which they pretend were written and delivered by Razial and Raphael tutelar Angels of Adam and Tobias Which Books notwithstanding to any one that narrowly considers the Rules of the Masters the Customes and Ordinances of their Ceremonies the Nature and Choice of their Words and Characters their insipid and barbarous Pharases sufficiently betray themselves to contain nothing but meer Toys and Geugaws and that they were in far later Ages contriv'd by such as were utterly ignorant of that Magick Profess'd by the Ancients being â—ounded only upon certain prophane Observations mixt with the Ceremonies of our Religion with an addition of many unknown Names and Characters to terrifie ignorant and silly people and to amuse those that are void of sence and understanding Neither doth it therefore follow that these Delusions are Fables for unless there were something of reality in them and that many mischievous and wicked things were accomplish'd thereby both Divine and Humane Laws had not so strictly provided for the punishment thereof and Ordain'd them to be quite extirpated from the Earth Now why these Conjurers make use only of evil Spirits the reason is because the Good Angels seldome appear being only attendant on the Commands of God and not vouchsafing to be known but only to upright and holy Men. But evil Spirits submit themselves more willingly to their Invocations falsely assuming to themselves and counterfeiting Divinity always ready to deceive and delighting to be ador'd and worship'd and because Women are more covetous of the Knowledge of Secrets and not less cautious and prone to Superstition and more easily Deluded therefore to them the Devils show themselves more familiar and make them the performers of many Miracles as are related of Circe and Medaea of many others the Stories of the Poets are full and Cicero Pliny Seneca St. Austin and many others both Philosophers Doctors and Historians as also Sacred Writ bring many Testimonies For in the Book of Samuel we read of a certain Woman-Witch that liv'd in Endor that rais'd the Soul of Samuel though most Interpreters agree that it was not the soul of Samuel but an Evil spirit that took upon him the shape of the Prophet Yet some of the Hebrew Doctors aver neither doth St. Austin to Simplician deny the possibility thereof that it was the true Soul of Samuel which before a compleat Year after its departure from the Body might be easily call'd up according to the rule of Necromancy The Necromantick Magicians believe that the same may be performed by certain Natural tyes and Obligations which was the reason that the Ancient Fathers well-read in Spirituals not without good cause ordain'd that the Bodies of the Dead might be buried in Holy-ground should be assisted with Lights and sprinkled with Holy-water be perfumed with Incense and pray'd for by the Living so long as they were above Ground For say the Hebrew Doctors All our Carnal Body remains as Food for the Serpent which they call Arazel which is Lord of the Flesh and the Blood
and Prince of this World in Leviticus nam'd the Prince of the Deserts to whom it was said in Genesis Thou shalt eat the dust all the days of thy life And in Isaiah The Dust is thy bread that is our Corporeal Body Created out of the dust of the Earth so long as it remains unsanctifi'd and not chang'd for the better to be no longer then at the disposal of the Serpent but of God according to the word of St. Paul It is sow'd corporal but shall rise spiritual And in another place All shall rise but all shall not be chang'd for that many shall remain perpetual food for the Serpent This foul and detestable matter of the Flesh the food of the Serpent lies in the Grave in hopes of a better Lot and spiritual Transmutation which is already come to pass in those that have already tasted the first-Fruits of Redemption and some have attain'd it by vertue of the Deifick Spirit as Elias and Enoch and as some are of opinion Moses whose bodies being chang'd into the nature of Spirits never saw corruption nor as other Carcasses were left to the power of the Serpent And something to this purpose it was thought was the great dispute of Michael with the Devil about the body of Moses which St. Jude mentions in his Epistle Thus much concerning Conjuring and Necromancy CHAP. XLVI Of Theurgy MAny there are that believe Theurgy not to be unlawful which pretends to have to do with none but good Angels and the Divine Numen himself though under the names of God and Angels it proves to be onely the delusion and mockery of evil Spirits It pretends no natural Power but to make use of Celestial Ceremonies by which they think to attract and reconcile the Divine Natures Concerning which the antient Magi have deliver'd several Rules in several Volumes But the chiefest part of their Ceremonies is in observing Cleanliness first of the Soul then of the Body then of those things about the Body as in the Skin the Garments the Dwelling Vessels Utensils Immolations and Sacrifices which cleanliness renders them capable of being the receptacles and fit for the entertainment of Divine Spirits and is very much encourag'd and commended in Sacred Scripture according to the words of Esay Be glad and be clean and take away the evil of your thoughts But uncleanness which often corrupts and defiles and infects man disturbs the most clean and pure Society of Celestial Beings and chases away the spotless Spirits and Angels of God It is true that many times unclean and delusive powers to the end they may be ador'd and worship'd for Gods do counterfeit this Purity and therefore great diligence and care is to be us'd for the avoiding thereof and therefore we have abundantly discours'd thereof in our Books of Occult Philosophy Now of this Theurgy or Divine Magick Porphyrius having delivered many things at length concludes that by Theurgick Operations the soul may be made fit to receive Spirits and Angels and to see and converse with them but that there can be any access to the Deity thereby he altogether denies His Rules and Directions are contain'd in his Art Almabel his Notorious Art his Art Pauline his Art of Revelations where are abundance of Superstitions to be found which are so much the more pernicious by how much they seem more Losty and Divine to the unskilful CHAP. XLVII Of the Cabalists HEre the words of Pliny come into my minde There is saith he another Sect of Magicians of which Moses and Latopea Jews were the first Authors which words bring to my remembrance the Cabala of the Jews which as the constant opinion among the Hebrews goes was delivered by God to Moses and thence through succession of Ages even to the times of Ezra preserv'd by Tradition onely without the help of writing As of old the Doctrine of Pythagoras was delivered by Archippus and Lysiades who kept School at Thebes in Greece where the Scholars learning all their Masters Precepts by heart made use onely of their Memories instead of Books So certain Jews despising Letters plac'd all their Learning in Memory Observation and verbal Tradition whence it was call'd by the Hebrews Cabala that is to say a receiving from one to another by the Ear An Art by report very antient though the name be but of later times known among the Christians Now this Cabala they divide into three parts the first contains the knowledge of Bresith which they call also Cosmology explaining and teaching the force and efficacie of things created Natural or Celestial expounding also the Laws and Mysteries of the Bible according to Philosophical reasons which for that cause differs little from Natural Magick wherein they say K. Solomon excell'd Therefore we finde in the Sacred Histories of the Jews that he was wont to discourse from the Cedar of Libanon to the low Hyssop as also of Cattle Birds Reptiles and Fish all which contain within themselves a certain kinde of Magical vertue Moses also the Egyptian in his Expositions upon the Pentateuch and most of the Talmudists have followed the Rules of this Art The other part thereof contains the knowledge of more sublime things as of Divine and Angelical Powers the contemplation of Sacred Names and Characters being a certain kinde of Symbolical Theology wherein the Letters Figures Numbers Names Points Lines Accents are esteemed to contain the significations of most profound things and great Mysteries This part again is twofold Arithmantick handling the nature of Angels the Powers Names Characters of Spirits and Souls departed and Theomantick which searches into the mysteries of the Divine Majesty his Emanations his Names and Pentacula which he that attains to they account endu'd with most admirable power By vertue of this Art they say Moses wrought so many Miracles changing his Rod into a Serpent the Water into Blood and plagu'd Egypt with Frogs Flyes Lice Locusts Emrodes and Pestilence slaying the first-born of Man and Beast By this Art he divided the Red-sea caus'd Water to flow out of the Rock brought the Qualls into the Wilderness sweeten'd the bitter Waters made Lightning by day and a Pillar of Fire by night to lead the March of his people call'd down the Voice of God among the people By this Art he punish'd the Arrogant with Fire the Murmurers with Leprosie Mutiners with sudden Destruction causing the Earth to swallow them up preserv'd the Clothes of the Israelites from wearing out and gave them Victory over their Enemies Lastly by means of this Art Josua commanded the Sun to stand still Elias call'd down Fire from Heaven and rais'd the dead Youth to life Daniel muzzled the Lions mouths and the three Children sang in the middle of the fiery Furnace Nay the perfidious and unbelieving Jews stick not to aver that Christ himself wrought all his Miracles by vertue of this Art Solomon as they say did excel in this Art and that he discovered several secrets thereof
spoken to contentious Theosophists but to the true Divines Apostles Evangelists and Messengers of the Word of God who say I dare not utter any thing which Christ doth not work by me Therefore the Traditions of these Divines concerning Faith and Godliness are truely Theological To the Writings and sayings of these men we give credit as being founded not upon contentious Syllogisms or Opinions of men but as S. Paul saith being divinely inspired not in defining compounding dividing contemplating after the manner of Philosophers but in an essential contact of Divinity apprehended through a clear vision in the divine light it self of which vision we finde several sorts in the holy Scripture as the Prophets had several dispositions to receive For we read how some saw God or Angels in the forms of men others in the shape of Fire others in the similitude of Air or Wind others in the shape of Rivers or Water others in the form of Birds Precious Stones or Metals others in the forms of Letters or Characters others in the sound of a Voice others in Dreams others in a Spirit residing within themselves others in the work of the Understanding And therefore the Scripture calls all Prophets Seers Thus we read of The Visions of Isaias The Visions of Jeremy The Visions of Ezekiel and the rest And under the New law S. John faith I was in the Spirit upon the Lords day On the wings whereof he was carried and beheld the Throne of God And Paul witnesses that he saw those things which it is not lawful for men to utter And this Vision is called a Rapture or Ecstasie or spiritual death Concerning this death it is said No man shall see God and live And in another place Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints And it is more clearly expressed by the Apostle where he says You are dead and your life is hid with Christ. And it is necessary for him to die this death that will pierce into the secrets of Prophetick Theologie Now there is a double sight of this Deifick vision One when God is seen face to face and then the Prophets see what S. Paul faith Things which are not fit for men to utter and which no tongue of men or Angels can express nor Pen unfold There is also a certain contact or union of the Divine Essence and an illustration or enlightning of the pure and separate Intellect without appearance of any shape or likeness This Divines call The Meridional Understanding Of which S. Augustin upon Genesis and Origen against Celsus largely dispute The other sort of Seeing is that by which we see the hinder parts of God when the creatures which are the hinder parts or effects of God are understood with a more exalted judgement as by the knowledge whereof the Creator the chief workman and the First Cause that moves all things is the better known as the Wiseman faith From the bigness of the kinde and of the creature may be known the Creator of things And Paul also about the same subject The invisible things of God are known being understood by these things which are made And it is an usual Saying among the Peripateticks that they who argue from the Effects to the Causes are said to argue à posteriori from the hinder part Moses enjoyed both these Visions as the Scriptures witness Of the first we read that Moses saw God face to face As to the other we read what God spake to him Thou shalt see my hinder parts And by the means of this later Vision Moses made a Law instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies built a Tabernacle and other Mysteries according to the most elaborate Exemplar of the whole world comprehending all the secret works of God and Nature therein This Vision is again twofold for we either behold the creature in God himself which Divines call The Morning-vision or else we behold God himself in the creatures There is also another Prophetick Vision in Dreams thus we read in Matthew how the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream And in another place that the Magi who ador'd Christ were admonisht in a dream that they should return another way into their own Country There are in the Old Testament many Examples thereof Now what this Vision is Job expounds where he says In the horrour of nocturnal visions when sleep falleth upon men and they sleep in their beds then he opens their ears and teaching them instructs them with learning And this being a fourth species of Vision is called Nocturnal There are also two other kindes of Prophecie the one receiv'd by word of mouth and thus was Moses enlightened and taught in Mount Sinai Abraham Jacob Samuel and many other Prophets under the Old Law Under the New Law the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were taught by the mouth of Christ he being alive among them There is another sort of Prophecie which consists in the agitation of the Spirit while the soul ravisht away by some Deity then joyn'd to that and abstracted from the body of man is by the same Spirit fill'd with Knowledge beyond humane strength or wit Which ravishment is not performed always by Angels but sometimes by the Spirit of God as we read of Saul that the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied and was changed into a new man and numbered among the Prophets And in the Acts of the Apostles the Spirit of God came upon them that were baptized in flames of fire Which Spirit also many times seizes upon men that are liable to sin so that there were many Prophets among the Gentiles as Cassandra Helenus Calchas Ampharans Tiresias Mopsus Amphilochus Polybius Corinthus also Galanus the Indian Socrates Diotyma Anaximander Epimenides the Cretan Also the Magi among the Persians Brachmans among the Indians Gymnosophists among the Aethiopians Druids among the Gauls and Sibyls among the Romans To which Prophetick seizure of the Spirit many times certain previous Ceremonies authority of Function and communion of sacred Mysteries do very much conduce as the Scripture amply declares concerning Balaam and in other places by the application of the Ephod And the Evangelist witnesses concerning Caiaphas that he prophesied being high priest that year Hence the Mecubals among the Hebrews adventured to counterfeit their Artificial Prophecie I omit what the Hebrews have written concerning the Two and thirty paths of Wisdom and what S. Austin has toucht upon concerning the Degrees or Albertus in his reception of Forms of which he reckons up seven Apparitions in Dreams and as many waking So we read in Plato and Proculus of Socrates that he was not inspired by an intelligible influx but by voice and familiar speech But these things come to pass more easily in Dreams But let us return to our purpose Now therefore Prophetick Theologie is that which by an Intuitive Inspiration teaches the unshaken Word of God But the Authority and Arguments by which that Truth is confirm'd are
not the Opinions of Men not Custom nor the invented Fictions of the Wise not the Magnificent Decrees of Sects not Syllogisms Enthymems not Inductions not soluble Consequences but Divine Oracles consonant to one another received by the Universal Church with an unanimous and solid consent approved by Miracles Prodigies Wonders Holiness of life and testimony of Martyrdom The Doctors of this Prophetick Theologie were Moses Job David Solomon and many other Canonical Writers and Prophets The Teachers of the New Testament were the Apostles and Evangelists but all these notwithstanding they were fill'd with the Holy Ghost yet all at one time or other stray'd from the Truth and in some measure spake untruly not that they did so wittingly or craftily for to say so would be a greater Errour than that of Arius or Sabellicus subverting the whole Authority of the Scripture in which Errour notwithstanding the great and holy S. Jerome persisted disputing against S. Augustine about the reprehension of Peter for S. Paul said that S. Jerome told a lye craftily Which should it be granted and that such an untruth should be admitted in the Bible immediately as S. Austin saith the whole certainty of the Bible would fall to ruine But S. Jerome being thus admonisht after many Contradictions and defences at length acknowledged his Errour and confess'd the Truth But what I say that the holy Writers did secundum quid speak things not altogether true I would have to be understood so as that they did not willingly erre but onely stray through humane frailty Thus Moses failed in telling the people he would bring them out of Aegypt and carry them into the Land of Canaan for though he brought them out of Aegypt he did not carry them into the Land of promise Jonas failed in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh within forty days intended but delay'd Elijah failed in foretelling many things to come to pass in the days of Ahab which yet were not fulfill'd till after his death Isaiah failed foretelling the death of Hezekiah the next day when his life was prolonged fifteen years afterwards Many other Prophets also fail'd and their predictions are found either not to have come to pass at all or else to have been suspended The Apostles also and Evangelists fail'd Peter also fail'd when he was reprehended by S. Paul Matthew also fail'd when he wrote that Christ was not dead till the Launce had pierced his side But this defect was no defect of the Holy Ghost but either of the Prophet not rightly delivering what was suggested by the Holy Ghost or the Vision did declare or else proceeding from some alteration of the event of the Command the sentence of the Oracle being either alter'd or defer'd Hence it follows that all Prophets and Writers in some things seem to fail and erre according to the Scripture which saith All men are lyers Onely Christ both God and man never was nor shall be found to fail nor shall his words be altered or be defective who void of Errour divulged his Oracles most immutable as he said himself The heaven and the earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Now because all Truth is through the Holy Ghost therefore onely Christ possesses this Truth firmly nor shall it ever depart from him but remains in him But it is not so with others for the Spirit was with Moses but when he strake the Rock it was departed It was with Aaron but departed when he made the Calf It was with Anna their sister but not when she murmured against Moses It was with Saul David Solomon Isaiah c. but rested not constantly with them Neither are Prophets always Prophets or Seers or foretellers of things to come nor is Prophecie a continual habit but a gift passion or transient spirit And whereas there is no man who doth not sin so there is no man from whom the Spirit doth not sometimes depart and leave him unless it be Christ the onely Son of God of whom it was therefore said to John He upon whom thou sawest the Spirit descending and remaining with him he is the Son of God who Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost being also able to impart the same to others Therefore as saith Simonides onely God hath this honour that he is onely Metaphysical so may we say of Christ that onely Christ hath this honour to be a Divine However let no man think that the Writings of the Old Testament since the Gospel of Christ had its divine birth from them are therefore obsolete and dead for they will ever live in high authority for by them have the Apostles proved their Tenets and without their testimony they have spoken nothing and Christ refers us to the search of them whose Gospel doth not at all abolish those Writings but fulfill'd the Law to the least tittle This is also to be noted that many Volumes of the Holy Scripture are lost which we may easily gather from the Scripture it self For Moses cites Books of The Wars of the Lord and Joshuah The Book of the Just Esther The Book of memorable things and Macchabees cites the holy Books of the Spartiatae and the Books of the Kings cite Books of Lamentations Books of Samuel the Seer Books and Writings of Nathan God Semeiah Haddo Ahia the Shilonite of Jehu the son of Ammon Jude also in his Canonical Epistle cites the Book of Enoch And some Authors of credit have cited a Book of Abraham the Patriarch All which are lost and never to be found Nor are these which we have received of equal Authority for Dionysius makes mention of A Gospel of S. Bartholomew and S. Jerome takes notice of A Gospel according to the Nazarenes and S. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel saith that many did undertake to write Gospels which are all lost And many others there are which are either corrupted with Heresie or set forth without Authority and so neither received by the holy Fathers nor approved by the Church I omit false Prophets who have come in by the by prophesying through vain-glory things which the holy Spirit never suggested but unheard-of lyes neither according to the Scripture nor tending either to unity of Spirit or the peace of the Church but for the introducing of Schism who rashly making themselves of Gods Privie Council dare presume to take the Word of God into their own mouthes and to write Scriptures and Prophecies altogether Heretical or Apocryphal Nor were the Canticles of Solomon inserted among the Canonical Books till they were corrected and approv'd by Isaiah From hence it appears how that Theologie it self that is to say the holy Scripture wants many of its Volumes and may in a manner seem defective and few of many that remain are true and certain really Books of life and Canonical CHAP. C. Of the Word of God YE have now heard how doubtful how uncertain how ambiguous all the Sciences are and how for any thing in them contained we