flowing brooke The Sonne of SYRACH brings in wisedome thus speaking of her selfe I came out as a brooke from a river and as a conduit into a garden I said I will water my best garden and will water abundantly my garden-bed and loe my brooke became a river and my river became a Sea Ecclesiast 24. 30 31. Therefore in this last part of Pansophie it will be our work to consider of and designe such fit channels as may convey these waters abroad on every side that so the vast Commons of humane affaires together with the private garden-plots of every ones soule and the whole Paradise of the Church may be therewith watered And this among others is the reason why we sayd this Temple of wisedome was to be consecrate to Christs Catholique Church gathered and to be gathered out of all nations to wit 1. Because she as a mother may justly challenge from her children whatsoever they are able to invent or do for her honour and comfort 2. Christ saith Matth. 5. 19. Men do not light a candle that they may set it under a bushell but upon a candlesticke that it may give light to all that are in the house Now this light of universall wisedome which puts every thing in subordination to its true end is as it were Gods candle and must therefore be set up in his house which is the Church that it may give light to all 3. This house of the living God the Church as it is called 1 Tim. 3. 15. is built after the same patterne according to which this Temple of wisedome is reared so that by beholding hereof she may be advanced much in knowledge of her selfe According to to that in Cantic 1. 8. If thou know not thy selfe O thou fairest among women goe thy way forth by the footsteps of the flocke c. For here by these continually deduced footsteps of Things the Church is guided the right way to the discovery of her owne and her eternall Spouses comelinesse And seeing that the manifold wisedome of God is made knowne unto Angels by the Church Eph. 3. 10. we ought also to take speciall care that the Church in contemplation of her selfe Angels and of God may have all advantages supplyed her for her promoting in the knowledge of this manifold wisedome of God 4. But chiefely because God hath foretold that the Glory of his new Temple the Church of the New Testament should be most conspicuous in the last times and hath promised a large affluence of light and blessing to it For thus hath God declared by the Prophets ISAIAH and MICAH and by divers others at severall times and twice in the same words that he might manifest the certainty of his decree It shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountaine of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountaines and it shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it c. Isaiah 2. 2. Micah 4. 1. And it shall come to passe in that day that the mountaines shall drop downe new wine and the hils shall flow with milke and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters and a fountaine shall come forth of the house of the Lord and shall water the valley of the choyce Cedars Joel 3. 18. For living waters shall goe out from Jerusalem halfe of them toward the former Sea and halfe of them toward the hinder Sea in Summer and in winter shall it be And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one Now because these things remaine yet to be most certainly fulfilled men should be stirred up by all meanes possible not onely to behold but also to promote as much as in them lies this glory of the house of God to enlarge the Churches bounds and to derive such rivulets from Gods streame as may water even dry places which were never yet moystned with this heavenly dew that at last all with one accord standing as it were upon a Sea of glasse with harpes of God in their hands might begin to sing the song of MOSES the servant of the Lord and the song of the Lambe saying Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not feare thee O Lord and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest Revel 15. 2 3 4. And now I beleeve it appeares sufficiently what manner of booke it is that wee would have compiled and what are our reasons for the urging of it Let therefore all feare and suspicion of confounding sacred and prophane things together be utterly banished For first all things are pure to those that are pure Tit. 1. 15. The gold and silver which was gotten away from those impure Egyptians did not at all defile the Israelites or the Tabernacle Againe here is no confounding of things together but provision is made of remedies against those confusions which so much distract mens minds by a distinct and graduall knowledge of all things which may or ought or are worthy to be knowne Therefore first we declare such generall and knowne truthes as are cleare of themselves by the testimony of common sense next such things as fall under the outward senses to be seene or felt without any errour or mistake afterward such things as are rationally and certainly deduced from sensuall apprehensions but with an application of their truth also to sensible Objects Lastly those things which Divine revelation imparts to us and faith onely receives but so that Sense and Reason may also beare record unto God and the truth of things invisible revealed to us may be acknowledged in the analogie of such things as are visible that the voyce of eternall Truth uttered from all sorts of things may be found to agree in one eternall harmony This confusion therefore beeing so harmonious is nothing else but perfect order But they object Christ taught no such matter he onely declared the way of Salvation Answ 1. Why do you then by your selves or by others take care to have your children instructed in the meaner things of this life as in Arithmeticke Logicke and other sorts of learning 2. Be it so that Christ taught not these things it is most certaine he forbad them not but rather signifies unto us that we ought not to be ignorant of them in that he so often borrowes from things naturall and artificiall both the occasion and the manner of unfolding spirituall mysteries thereby declaring to us that there is such proportion betweene things visible and invisible that these cannot be easier understood than in reference unto them Therefore they would be wiser than Christ himselfe who restraining themselves onely to spirituall and heavenly things reject from the study of Christianity all such things wherewith as they terme
to be threefold 1. The tearing of Sciences into peeces 2. Want of due fitting of the method unto the things themselves 3. The carelesnesse and extravagancies of expressions and stile For first I professe seriously that as yet in all the bookes that ever I saw I could never find any thing answerable unto the amplitude of things or which would fetch in the whole universality of them within its compasse whatsoever some Encyclopaedias or Syntaxes or books of Pansophy have pretended to in their titles Much lesse could I ever see the whole provision of humane understanding so raised upon its certain and eternal principles that all things were chained and linked together from the beginning to the end without any rent or chink of truth And perhaps no man ever aimed hereat as yet so to square and proportion the universall principles of things that they might be the certain limits to bound in that every-way-streaming variety of things that so invincible and unchangeable Truth might discover its universall and proportionate harmony in all things I say no man ever yet seemes to have intended to cleare any universall way for the knowledge of Truth with the helpe of those universall principles and according to the true lawes of deductions even to the last conclusions Metaphysitians sing a requiem to themselves Naturalists applaud themselves Moralists make their owne lawes and Politicians fix their owne grounds Mathematicians have their triumphant Chariot and Divines their over-ruling throne every one in severall by themselves Yea in every faculty or Science almost every man laies his particular grounds and principles whereupon to build and fasten his particular opinions not regarding what others have deduced from theirs But it is impossible that Truth so scattered and obscured should be this way raked up together For while every one followes his owne fancie in this manner there is as much hope of agreement as there is in a company of Musicians when every one sings his severall song without respect of common time or melody and who would beleeve a Common-wealth to be well ordered wherein there are no publique lawes established but every one liveth as he listeth We see the boughs of a tree will quickly wither and die except they receive nourishment from the common stocke and roots and can the faire branches of Wisdome be thus rent and torne in sunder with safety of their life that is their truth Can any man be a good Naturalist that is not seene in the Metaphysicks or a good Moralist who is not a Naturalist at least in the knowledge of humane nature or a Logician who is ignorant of reall Sciences or a Divine a Lawyer or Physician that is no Philosopher or an Oratour or Poet who is not accomplished with them all He deprives himselfe of hands and eyes and rules that neglecteth or rejecteth any thing which may be knowne Astronomers for example sake would never have had the faces to introduce and maintaine such contrary and absurd hypotheses or positions if they had been to raise them upon the same ground of Truth neither would other things be or at least seeme to be so slippery and uncertaine For the common fate of all learning is this that whosoever delivers it others will take the paines to demolish it or at least to lay it bare Plato's philosophy seemed most elegant and divine but the Peripateticks accused it of too much vaine speculation And Aristotle thought his Philosophy compleat and trimme enough but Christian Philosophers have found it neither agreeing with the holy Scriptures nor answerable enough to the Truth of things Astronomers for many ages carried away the bell with their Spheres Eccentricks and Epicycles but Copernicus explodes them all Copernicus himselfe framed a new and plausible Astronomy out of his Optick grounds but such as will no way be admitted by the unmovable principles of naturall Truth Gilbertus being carried away with the speculation of the Loadstone would out of it have deduced all Philosophy but to the manifest injury of naturall principles Campanella triumphs almost in the principles of the ancient Philosopher Parmenides which he had reassumed to himselfe in his naturall Philosophy but is quite confounded by one Optick glasse of Galilaeus Galilaei And why should we reckon any more Truly if every one would ground their judgements upon the same common principles it could not be that they should rush into such contradictions not onely to the hinderance of their hearers but even to the detriment of Truth which for the most part in such contentions falleth to the ground For when needles obscure and ambiguous things are propounded they cannot but breed distast and thwarting in the minds of those that heare them And when for the gaining of their assents principles are assumed whatsoever trash they be which are neither knowne nor yeelded nor of undoubted truth but rather obnoxious to severall limitations and exceptions of which sort are most of the Canons of common Philosophy and Divinity what can ensue from hence but most tedious contradictions and contentions that a man would be weary to heare such doubts and differences in things perhaps cleare enough of themselves Another course therfore must herein be taken care must be had that Truth approaching us in a most cleare light may not be mired in doubts nor wounded with contradictions but may over come all errours which we think cannot be effected unlesse the beames therof dispersed over all things be united into one that so there may be one and the same symmetry of all things both sensuall intellectuall revealed Now this we cannot behold without a perfect squaring and unseparable consolidation of the principles of knowledge Sense Reason and Divine Revelation which alone will make it to appeare and consequently put an end unto those many controversies For upon the discovery of the ground of things necessarily will follow either the manifestation of an errour in one part of an opposition or else that each part perhaps both thinketh and speaketh true though they understand not one another in regard of the divers respects and considerations of things the ground whereof they doe not yet perceive Certainely those errours which on every side besiege mens minds may this way be subdued and their minds brought into the open light or no way else For it must needs be that the bright Sunne of Truth arising infinite mists and clouds of opinions will vanish of themselves yea and by Gods help the very darknesse of Atheisme it selfe may at length be dispatched away 2. The second cause why Truth is so staggering and uncertaine I before declared to be the loosenesse of Method that Writers doe not wholly tie themselves unto the things themselves to deliver them as they are constantly in themselves but rather draw them unto some trimme and neat conceits of their owne to expresse them by abusing them a thousand wayes which is nothing else but to wrest and transfigure things from their native into strange formes
passe that they are not confounded in the sacred Scripture seeing it doth not onely declare heavenly and eternall things but oftentimes falls upon things of this life You will say But this is subordinately to the life to come True and this is the same which we would have done in this booke of Pansophie that all things contained in the world may be put in subordination to heaven and that all humane knowledge may be subservient to that which is according to Godlinesse And this for a threefold end 1. That the children of God may not be ignorant of those things which the wise men of this world so much admire and set up their rest upon and that worldlings themselves may be unsettled from them when they see that though wee understand them yet we find other more excellent things which are stronger attractives of our affections 2 Because the workes of Nature and the various mysteries which lie couched therein are not intended so much for wicked and profane men that they onely should feed on such dainties but rather that they should delight the children of God Angels and Men for whom this so admirable Theater of his power wisedome and goodnesse is discovered Let us therefore make use of this our right and rather sit ourselves in this Theater in a rationall contemplation of all things than surrendring our places to suffer it wholly to be possessed by such as are profane Lastly wee would have all things ordered together and respectively subordinated one to the other that by all inferiour things the mind may by degrees be raised to all things more sublime For it is certaine that there can be no commodious assent unto the height of things but by degrees and this is as certaine that all Naturall things as also artificiall are as Alphabeticall elements to the children of God whereby they are prepared for to read and understand better the higher dictates of the Law of God Which DAVID sheweth where he telleth us that much is to be learned out of the ordinary course of Heaven and Nature but much more by the prescript of divine Law Psal 19. The third reason why wee would have the word Pansophie used is drawne from the more ample way of handling things than can be used either in Philosophie or Divinity severall by themselves For that which ARISTOTLE required in a wise man who should as much as is possible know all things the same is necessary in Pansophie I meane universality of Principles A continuall and well ordered series of Things without interruption from the beginning to the end and infallibility of Truth The Principles which are here laid are truly universall whereby all demands may be satisfied Sense Reason and Divine Revelation The method which is here taught is as easie as may be beginnnig from things most certainly knowne untill it end in those which are most obscure yet with such a perpetuall gradation as is without either gap or breach Whence the third issueth of it selfe I meane certainty of knowledge and Truth whereby the learner being alwayes in the light seeth assuredly that he goeth forward and not backward without either stay or doubt and knowing he knowes that he knowes and that he is not deceived Seeing therefore that vve teach hovv all men may be altogether vvise in All things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vvhy may not that vvhich vve teach be called and esteemed Pansophie But vvhat is the reason vvhy vve call it not onely Pansophie but Christian Pansophie First because they onely can frame Pansophie or reap fruit by it vvho are furnished vvith sufficient principles such as are Sense Reason and Faith in Divine Revelations But Christians onely have the world in their eyes Gods word in their mouthes and his Spirit in their hearts according to the promise Isaiah 59. 21. And therefore AUGUSTINE argues very strongly that onely Christianity is true Philosophie lib. 3. contra Academ cap. 19. Secondly all pious and faithfull Christians even the simplest of them in as much as they are good Christians are possessed of this Pansophie Because they relish heaven more than earth eternall things more than temporary and do possesse Christ in whom all the treasures of wisedome are hid mystically indeed yet truly in like manner as every seed doth truly containe in it selfe the whole tree or herbe with their fruit But perhaps this might have rather beene called Humane Pansophie because according to the intention of it which is universall instruction leading from universall and easie Principles to those things which are more obscure it ought not to be appropriated to Christians onely but so disposed that all men may partake of it that if God so please it may be a means of enlightning and convincing the minds of unbeleevers As also to cleare our selves from all imputations of inconsideratenesse in attempting things above the Sphere of humane abilities Though indeed we urge nothing but humane that is things possible and due to man To conclude whether this or the former Title pleaseth best it mattereth not much for our part we thought fit to use the word Pansophie for this onely end because we desired to sharpen mens appetites toward wisedome that All men in All things may altogether seeke to fill their minds with Truths and realities rather than with the smoke of fancies and opinions Laying aside this consideration we care not though it be called Aristosophie or Chrestosophie i. excellent and choyce wisedome or about such things as are excellent yea even ignorance For wee are very willing with SOCRATES to professe that wee know this onely that wee know nothing As the Apostle saith If any man thinke that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1. Corinth 8. 2. The next thing we are to speake of is why we say that the structure of this Temple of Pansophie is framed according to the Rules Lawes and Idea's of God the supreme Architect The Reason is at hand Because we follow in the generall dimensions the severall parts their situation use the very pattern which Gods wisdome it selfe did before delineate First to MOSES for the erecting of the Tabernacle then for SOLOMON in the building of the Temple Lastly to EZEKIEL for the glorious restauration of the Temple that was demolished For first God speakes thus to MOSES Exod. 25. 8 9. Let them make mee a Sanctuary that I may dwell amongst them according to all that I shew thee c. and vers 40. And looke that thou make them after the patterne which was shewed thee in the Mount Againe God sent by the Prophet Nathan as is probably held the patterne of the Temple and all the parts thereof to David who delivering it to Solomon charged him not to depart from the forme thereof protesting thus to him 1 Chron. 28. 19. All this the Lord made mee understand in writing by his hand upon mee even all the workes of this patterne Lastly
them worldlings imploy themselves If indeed they do so imploy themselves and settle their rest hereupon yet wee alwaies mindfull of our plus ultra will not be imployed therein but imploy them as steps and degrees for our more easie and speedie attaining unto things of an higher value 3. If Christ taught not such things himselfe yet he hath taught them by others and if not then yet now at least he teacheth them For he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. to wit that wisedome of God by which all things are made Prov. 8. v. 22 c. Therefore whatsoever wisedome light or order is any where or in any time or person to be found it all comes from him and is derived out of his treasury When hee came into the world his worke was not to speed forward these things of smaller moment but that he might give his life a ransome for many Matth. 20. 28. Therefore he committed the writing of the Gospels and constituting of outward order in his Church unto his Disciples care promising to be with them and their successours even unto the end of the world Therefore this worke if profitable or what ever good thing otherwise shall at any time breake forth even unto the worlds end must be all accounted to proceed from Christ who maketh every thing beautifull in his time Eccles 3. 11. Now if our designe for the rearing up this Temple of Universall wisedome do go forward it will be meete for us to consider 1. That according to DAVIDS instructions to SOLOMON the Temple to be builded must be great and magnificall of fame and glory throughout all countries 1. Chron. 2. 5. Therefore workemen should be sought out who are worthy of such employment and who are skilfull to find out every thing that is thereto necessary 2 Chron. 2. 7. 14. 2. SOLOMONS Temple was builded by Gods command upon the mount Moriah which signifies the vision of God and the ground-worke of wisedomes Temple shall likewise be the vision of God that is all visible things shall be used as Perspectives for our minds to behold the invisible Ruler of the universe with his power wisedome and goodnesse richly mantling over all things 3. The matter whereof SOLOMONS Temple was built was of three sorts stones wood and metals the stones were all of great value as marble and pretious stones the woods were fat and odoriferous as the firre and the cedar the metals most pure as gold perfectly refined The matter of wisedomes Temple shall be supplyed out of the store of three sorts of principles Sense Reason and divine Revelation of which Sense resembles the nature of stones in the grossenesse of its perception Reason for its ever flouring quality may well be compared to the spreading of trees and Gods word which remains for ever is like unto pure incorruptible gold 4. Of the stones were made the walls of the woods seeling for to cover the walls and the seeling was over-laid with plates of gold 2 Chr n. 3. 5 6 7. Moreover the marble floore there of 2 Chr. 3. 6. was over-laid with gold 1 King 6. 30. but the sacred vessels the Altar the Table the Candlestickes the Lamps the Censers all were made of most pure gold 2 Chron. 4 19 c. So the foundation and walls of wisedomes Temple shall be reared onely of such Truthes as are palpable evident to the sense to which reason shall supply the causes why every thing must needs be so as it is and lastly the lustre of divine testimony shall thereto be added that truth may every where retaine its native majesty But the sacred furniture hereof which hath reference to the mysteries of faith and salvation shall be the most pure gold of the Oracles of God 5. SOLOMONS Temple was built of stones that were hewed perfectly aforehand so that there were neither hammer nor axe nor any iron toole heard while it was in building 1 King 6. 7. So in the building of wisedomes Temple it will be very unseemly to have the noise of disputes and brawles heard it is more fitting that it should be reared of Truth already squared that is not of such tenets and opinions as are promiscuously taken upon trust and when they come to be laid in the building must then be new hewed and squared to fit them for the understanding and to bring them to some similitude of Truth but such as being exactly wrought in the shop of Principles come forth without any crackes ruggednesse or other inequality so that being applyed they fit fully on every side with things going before with and after them By this only meanes can Truth be settled in the light and recovered from contradiction 6. The parts of that materiall Temple were of most exact proportion and therefore in the story of the building thereof you may find every where mention made of numbers and measures 1 King 6. And the Angel which was to imforme the Prophet concerning the building of the mysticall Temple came provided of a line of flaxe and a measuring reed Ezek. 40. 3. In like manner in this Temple of wisedome all things must be reduced to such an universall Symmetrie that the wandring thoughts of our minds may be contained in their just certaine and immoveable bounds 7. There were added artificiall ornaments by graving and embossing of Cherubims Palme-trees and Flowers 1 King 6. 29. Answerable thereunto this Temple of wisedome must be framed in an apt method and elegant stile that so the outward palate may be therewith delighted as much as may be 8. All things contained in the compasse of that Temple were holy for the outward wall thereof onely was to separate the sacred from that which was prophane Ezek. 41. 20. So let every thing that comes into the content of wisedomes Temple be holy erther in it selfe or else in reference to sacred uses I meane as a step for our easier finding and attaining our ends which are Gods glory and our eternall blisse in him to which all things both great and small every one in their severall order are here directed 9. And as God for the encouragement of those who did reedifie the ruined Temple of Jerusalem promised them abundance of blessings together with his presence and assistance Hagg. 1. 2. the same may the builders of wisedomes Temple be confident of according to that promise of Wisedome from above I love those that love mee and I will fill their treasures Prov. 8. 17 21. 10. Lastly according as when the builders laid the foundation of that materiall Temple the Priests and Levites stood in their apparell with Trumpets and Cimbals to praise the Lord and all the people shouted with a great shout while they praised the Lord Ezra 3. 10 11. So it will well become all good Christians that are any way privy to this pious designe to add their good desires and prayers while the foundation of Wisedomes Temple is in laying that