intellectuall Idea's which are the seals of Gods sensible works for before the earth sent forth herbs there was even then Saith Moses herbs in Rerum Natura and before the grasse grew there was invisible grasse Can you desire any thing more plain and expresse But to make thee amends for laughing at thy division of the Idea which had but one member and hopped like one of the Monocoli upon a single legge I will give thee another Idea besides this out of the same Philo and such as may be truly called both an Idea and a naturall one a thing betwixt thy Ideal vestiment and the Divine Idea it self {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pag. 6. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is But the fruits was not onely for nourishment for living creatures but preparations also for the perpetuall generation of the like kind of plants they having in them Seminall Substances in which the hidden and invisible forms of all things become manifest and visible by circumvolutions of seasons These are the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Rationes seminales the seminall Forms of things Observ. 11. Page 48. line 9. Mastix is deliver'd of a Bull This is a Calf of thy own begetting but I have forgot all this while to render thee a Calf for a Bull as I promis'd thee I am not toyish enough for thee my little Phil. Do I say heat and siccity are Aqua vitae bottles But may not heat and siccity and Aqua vitae be consentany arguments what repugnancie is there in it Answer Logician Therefore there is no Bull here till thou be grown up to thy full stature Observ. 12. Here I told you that you incompassing all with the Empyreal substance you had left no room for Evening and Morning upon the Masse of the Earth What do you answer to this That the Empyreal substance was a fire which had borrowed its tincture from the light but not so much as would illuminate the Masse of it self No Philalethes Do not you say it retain'd a vast portion of light and is not that enough to illuminate the Masse of it self Nay you say it made the first day without the Sunne but now you unsay it again Pitifull baffled Creature But as for those terrible mysterious radiations of God upon the Chaos dark Evaporations of the Chaos towards God which thou wouldst fain shuffle off thy absurdities by I say they are but the flarings of thine own phansie and the reeks and fumes of thy puddled brain Dost thou tell me this from Reason or Inspiration Phil If from Reason produce thy arguments if from Inspiration shew me thy Miracle Page 51. line 25. The clouds are in the Aire not above it c. But if the clouds be the highest parts of the world according to the letter of Moses which is accommodated as I shall prove to the common conceit and sense of the Vulgar then in the judgement of sober men it will appear that thy Argument hath no agreement neither with Philosophy nor common sense Now therefore to instruct thee as well as I do sometimes laugh at theee I will endeavour to make these two things plain to thee First that Scripture speaks according to the outward appearance of things to sense and vulgar conceit of men Secondly That following this Rule we shall find the Extent of the World to be bounded no higher then the clouds or there about So that the Firmament viz. the Air for the Hebrews have no word for the Air distinct from Heaven or Firmament Moses making no distinctiō may be an adequate bar betwixt the lower and upper waters Which it was requisite for Moses to mention vulgar observation discovering that waters came down from above viz. showers of Rain and they could not possibly conceive that unlesse there were waters above that any water should descend thence And this was it that gave occasion to Moses of mentioning those two waters the one above the other beneath the firmament But to return to the first point to be proved That Scripture speaks according to the outward appearance of things to sense and vulgar conceit of men This I say is a confessed truth with the most learned of the Hebrews Amongst whom it is a rule for the understanding of many and many places of Scripture Loquitur Lex secundùm linguam filiorum hominum that is That the Law speaks according to the language of the sonnes of men as Moses Aegyptius can tell you And it will be worth our labour now to instance in some few passages Gen. 19. V. 23. The sunne was risen upon the Earth when Lot entred into Zoar. Which implies that it was before under the Earth Which is true onely according to sense and vulgar phansie deuteronom. 30. V. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Implies that the earth is bounded at certain places as if there were truly an Hercules Pillar or Non plus ultrá As it is manifest to them that understand but the naturall signification of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For those words plainly import the Earth bounded by the blue Heavens and the Heavens bounded by the Horizon of the Earth they touching one another mutually Which is true onely to sense and in appearance as any man that is not a meer Idiot will confesse Ecclesiastic cap. 27. V. 12. The discourse of a godly man is alwayes with wisdome but a fool changeth as the moon That 's to be understood according to sense and appearance For if a fool changeth no more then the Moon doth really he is a wise and excellently accomplished man Semper idem though to the sight of the vulgar different For at least an Hemisphear of the Moon is alwayes enlightned and even then most when she least appears to us Hitherto may be referr'd also that 2. Chron. 4.2 Also he made a molten Sea of ten Cubits from brim to brim round in compasse and five Cubits the heigth thereof and a line of thirty Cubits did compasse it round about A thing plainly impossible that the Diameter should be ten Cubits and the Circumference but thirty But it pleaseth the Spirit of God here to speak according to the common use and opinion of Men and not according to the subtilty of Archimedes his demonstration Again Psalme 19. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sunne which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to runne his race This as M. John Calvin observes is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the Vulgar whom David should in vain have indeavoured to teach the mysteries of Astronomy Haec ratio est saith he cur dicat tentorium ei paratum esse deinde egredi ipsum ab una coeli extremitate transire celeriter ad partem oppositam Neque enim argutè inter
Philosophos de integro solis circuitu disputat sed rudissimis quibusque se accommodans intra ocularem experientiam se continet ideóque dimidiam cursûs partem que sub Hemisphaerio nastro non cernitur subticeti e. This is the reason to wit the rudenesse of the vulgar why the Psalmist saith there is a tent prepared for the Sunne and then that he goes from one end of the heaven and passes swiftly to the other For he doth not here subtily dispute amongst the Philosophers of the intire circuit of the Sunne but accommodating himself to the capacity of every ignorant man contains himself within ocular experience and therefore saith nothing of the other part of the course of the sunne which is not to be seen as being under our Hemisphear Thus M. Calvin I 'le adde but one instance more Joshuah 10 V. 12. Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajalon Where it is manifest that Joshuah speaks not according to the Astronomicall truth of the thing but according to sense and appearance For suppose the Sunne placed and the Moon at the best advantage you can so that they leave not their naturall course they were so farre from being one over Ajalon and the other over Gibeon that they were in very truth many hundreds of miles distant from them And if the Sun and Moon were on the other side of the Equatour the distance might amount to thousands I might adjoyn to these proofs the suffrages of many Fathers and Modern Divines as Chrysostome Ambrose Augustine Bernard Aquinas c. But 't is already manifest enough that the Scripture speaks not according to the exact curiosity of truth describing things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to the very nature and essence of them but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to their appearance in sense and the vulgar opinion of men Nor doth it therefore follow that such expressions are false because they are according to the appearance of things to sense and obvious phansie for there is also a Truth of Appearance And thus having made good the first part of my promise I proceed to the second Which was to shew that the Extent of the world is to be bounded no higher then to the clouds or thereabouts that it may thence appear that the upper waters mentioned in Moses are the same with those Aquae in coelo stantes mentioned by Pliny lib. 31. his words are these Quid esse mirabilius potest aquis in coelo stantibus and these waters can be nothing else but that contain'd in the clouds which descends in rain and so the whole Creation will be contain'd within the compasse of the Aire which the Hebrews call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ibi aquae because it is sedes nubium the place of clouds and rain And that the world is extended no higher then thus according to Scripture it is apparent First because the clouds are made the place of Gods abode whence we are to suppose them plac'd with the Highest There he lives and runns and rides and walks He came walking upon the wings of the wind in the 104 Psalm Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariot and walketh on the wings of the wind Laieth the beams of His chambers in the waters to wit the upper waters which are the clouds The Almighties lodgings therefore according to the letter are placed in the clouds There about also is his field for exercise and warre Deut. 33.26 There is none like to the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the Heavens for thy help in his excellency on the sky that is upon the upper clouds as Buxtorf interprets it and indeed what can {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly signifie above but clouds for below it signifies pulvis tenuissimus small dust and the clouds are as it were the dust of heaven Vatablus also interprets that place of Gods riding on the clouds And this agrees well with that of Nahum chap. 1. V. 3. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of his feet Here he is running as swift as a whirlwind and raiseth a dust of clouds about him You shall find him riding again Psalme 68.4 and that in triumph but yet but on the clouds sutably to that in Deut. Sing unto God sing praises unto his Name extoll him that rideth upon the heavens by his name J A H and rejoyce before Him That rideth upon the Heavens the Hebrew is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which I would be bold with Aben Ezraes leave to translate that rideth upon the clouds For clouds cause darknesse and the root from whence {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies obtenebrari obscurari But for the ground of this Rabbies interpretation to wit upon the heavens it is taken out of the 33 verse of the 68 Psalme To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens of old But if we read on there we shall find that those heavens of heavens in all probability reach no higher then the clouds For let 's read the whole verse together To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens that were of old Lo he doth send out his voice and that a mighty voice what 's that but thunder and whence is thunder but out of the clouds and where then doth God ride but on the clouds The following verse makes all plain Ascribe ye strength unto God His excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the clouds which doth notably confirm that the Extent of the Heavens according to the letter of Moses and David too are but about the height of the clouds For here the heaven of heavens is the seat of thunder and Gods strength and power is said to be in the clouds Nor doth this expression of this height to wit the heaven of heavens of old imply any distance higher For sith all the Firmament from the lower to the upper waters is called Heaven it is not a whit unreasonable that the highest part of this Heaven or Firmament be called the Heaven of Heavens And this is my first argument that the heaven or firmaments Extent is but from the Sea to the Clouds because God is seated no higher in the outward phrase of Scripture My second argument is taken from the adjoyning the heavens with the clouds exegetically one with another for the setting out of that which is exceeding high as high as we can expresse And this the Psalmist doth often Psalme 36.5 Thy mercy O Lord is in the Heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the Clouds And Psalme 57.10 For thy mercy is great unto the Heavens and thy truth unto the Clouds And Psalme 108.4 For thy mercy is great above the Heavens and thy truth
reacheth above the Clouds Where heaven and clouds set off one and the same height that which is exceeding high the mercie and truth of God My last argument is from the Psalmists placing the Sunne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the clouds or in the cloudy heaven For the word must so signifie as I did above prove both from Testimony and might also from the Etymon of the word For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies comminuere contundere to beat to dust and what are clouds but the dust of heaven as I may so speak Psalme 89. v. 36 37. His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the Sunne before me It shall be established for ever as the Moon and as the faithfull witnesse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in heaven that is in the sky the place where the clouds are The drawing down therefore of the Sunne that faithfull witnesse in heaven so low as the clouds implies that the letter of the Scripture takes no notice of any considerable part of the firmament above the clouds it terminating its expressions alwayes at that Extent And this sutes very well with Moses his calling the Sun and the Moon the great lights and making nothing as it were of the starres as is manifest out of the 16 verse of the first of Genesis And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night He made the starres also But they come as cast into the bargain as not so considerable when as indeed a star of the first magnitude is according to the calculation of the Astronomers twenty thousand times bigger then the earth and the earth five and fourty times bigger then the Moon so that one star of the first magnitude will prove about nine hundred thousand times bigger then the Moon Which notwithstanding according to the letter of Moses is one of the two great lights the sole Empresse of the night But here the letter of Moses is very consistent with it self For sith that the Extent of heaven is not acknowledged any higher then the clouds or thereabout wherein as I shewed you the Sun is and consequently the Moon and it will not be more harsh ro make the starres stoop so low too nay they must indeed of necessitie all of them be so low they having no where else to be higher according to the usuall phrase of Scripture the appearances of the starres will then to our sight sufficiently set out their proportions one to another and the Sun and the Moon according to this Hypothesis will prove the two great lights and the starres but scatter'd sky-pebbles Wherefore from all this harmony and correspondencie of things I think I may safely conclude that the Extent of the Firmament according to Moses is but the distance from the sea to the clouds or there abouts as well as it is to our sight which cannot discern any intervall of altitudes betwixt the clouds and the Moon the Moon and the Sunne and lastly betwixt the Sunne and the fixed Stars Which interpretation I am confident any man will admit of that can bring down the tumour of his Philosophick phansy unto a vulgar consistencie and fit compliance with the sweetnesse and simplicity of Moses his style And thus Philalethes have I proved that there is no room for thy interstellar waters within the compasse of Moses his Creation unlesse they run into one and mingle with the rain or clouds Observat. 13. Here I called the Ptolemaick Systeme a rumbling confused Labyrinth So you did Philalethes I perceive you will do so again But prethee tell me dost thou mean the Heavens rumble and so understandest or rather hearest the rumbling harmony of the Sphears or dost thou mean the Labyrinth rumbles I perceive the man hath now some guts in his brains and he is troubled with the rumbling of them in their ventricles and so thinks there is a noise when there is none I tell thee Philalethes a wheel-barrow may be said to rumble for to rumble is to make an ill-favour'd ungratefull noise but no body will say the heavens or a labyrinth doth rumble but such as are no Englishmen as you say somewhere you are not and so do not understand the language Pag. 53. A confused wheelbarrow is a bull Is a wheel-barrow a bull what a bull is that But confused I added not confused to wheel-barrow that 's thy doing thou authour of confusion Line 18. The Epicycles in respect of their orbs are but as a Mite in a cheese Do you say so Mr Lilly No. Do you say so Mr Booker No. Look thee now Phil how thy confident ignorance hath abused those two famous Artists They are ashamed to utter such loud nonsense And now they have denyde it darest thou venture to say it Anthroposophus Tell me then how little and diminutive those Epicycles will prove in respect of their orbs that have their diameters equall to the diameter of the orbit of the earth or which is all one of the sunne Thou wilt answer me with the Cyclops in Erasmus Istiusmodi subtilitates non capio I do not not believe thou understandest the Question though it be plainly propounded and so I shall expect no answer But come thy wayes hither again Phil. thou shalt not scape thus I will not let thee go til I have called thee to an account for thy great bull of Basan as thou wouldst call it Thou sayest That the Epicycles of Ptolemy though they are too bigge to be true yet that they are very diminutive things in respect of their orbs that sustein them as little and diminutive as mites in a cheese in respect of the cheese To speak the most favourably of this assertion of thine that may be it is sublime Astronomicall Nonsense And if we could find any Nonsense sublunary to paralell it it would be some such stuff as this Although the cannon bullets in the tower be as bigge as mount Athos yet they are so little that they will not fill the compasse of a walnut This is a bundle of falsities and so is that That is Both the parts of these compound Axioms are false and the composition it self also illegitimate These are Discrete Axioms Eugenius and both the parts ought to be true but they are both false here And there ought also especially these notes Quamvis and tamen being in them to be onely a Discretion of parts but here is an implacable Opposition things put together that imply a contradiction In the latter of these Axioms it is manifest but I will shew you it is so also in that former of yours For first the Epicycles of Ptolemy are not too bigge to be true For they do not suppose them bigger then will be conteined within the thicknesse of their own orbs And you your self say that they are but as mites in a cheese in respect of their orbs So that it is plain according
signature of the Eye sees or feels no more then the pulp of a wal-nut that hath the signature of the brain doth understand or imagine Observ. 39. What a pitifull account dost thou give me here of the difficulties I urged thee with My Queres were these You making two spirits in a man the Rationall and Sensitive First Whether the Rationall Spirit doth not hear and see in a man Here you distinguish The Sensitive Spirit sees the Object say you and the Rationall the Species But I say unto thee that sensation is nothing else but the perceiving of some present corporeall object and that the rationall soul doth For when two men discourse that in them that reasons hears the words and sees the party with whom it reasoneth does it not Therefore they both see the object But you will say One sees by a species the other without I say nothing can be discerned without a species that is without an actuall representation of the thing discerned So that that distinction is in vain And I would adde this further That every sentient spirit must perceive by its own species and not by anothers But thou sayest This sensitive Spirit like a glasse represents the species of externall objects Then it seems the Sensitive spirits office is to be the glasses of the soul to see things in but glasses themselves Magicus are not sentient nor need this Spirit be so that is the souls glasse and it is plain it is not For if these two were two different sensitive spirits then they would have two different Animadversions but there is but one animadversive spirit in a man and therefore but one Sensitive And that there is but one animadversive spirit in a Man is plain from hence that if the Rationall animadversive bestow its animadversion fully elsewhere the Sensitive in man cannot perform the thousandth part of that which is performed in brutes We should loose our selves in the most triviall matters when notwithstanding this sensitive spirit in man would have as quick a vehicle as in most brutes Besides this sensitive spirit having this animadversion would have also a Memory apart and would be able while the Rationall is busied about something else to lay up observations such as beasts do by it self and then long after to shew them to the Rationall to its sudden amazement and astonishment But none of these things are And in my apprehension it is in a very grosse and palpable way sensible to me that there is but one Animadversive in me and I think I am no monster If I be it is it seems in that I am all rationall spirit and have had the luck to misse of the sensitive the beast Page 77. line 3. If this be true then there be two hearing and seeing souls in a man This is my second Quere I ask'd if there be To this you answer Ha ha he A very profound answer This is no laughing matter my friend Have I not already shew'd you some difficulties this asserting two sensitive Spirits in a man is laden with Answer them Phil. I should gladly heare thee use thy tongue as well as see thee shew thy teeth by laughing For that slender faint reason that follows thy loud laughing viz. The objects are different and the senses are different that is taken away already For the sting of my Argument is not this that there would be two sensitive souls of the same nature in the body of a man but that there should be two sensitive souls at all And indeed considering that the superiour soul contains the faculties of the inferiour it is altogether needlesse And that is a very sober truth Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate Which is to the same sense with that so often repeated in Aristotle and Theophrastus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God and Nature do nothing in vain And the right organization of parts and due temperature of the body and proportion of animal spirits this is all the glasse the soul of man wants in this life to see by or receive species from But this glasse hath no more sense it self then an urinall or looking-glasse hath Where are you now Phil. with your Ha hahe Line 10. I could Mastix teach thee an higher truth Yes truly Magicus you are best of all at those truths which dwell in the Highest You love to soar aloft out of the ken of sense and reason that you may securely Raunt it there in words of a strange sound and no signification But though thou fliest up so high like a Crow that hath both his eyes bor'd out yet I have thee in a string and can pluck thee down for all thy fluttering Thou sayest that a soul may understand all things sine conversione ad Phantasmata this I suppose thou wouldst say to contradict Aristotle but I do not suspect thee of so much learning as to have read him He tells us in his book De Anima {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that there is no understanding without Phantasmes You say that we may understand all things without them What think you of Individualls Magicus of which it is controverted amongst the Platonists whether there be any Idea's of them or no But being you are so confident an assertor let 's heare how stout a prover you are of your assertions Know you this you have spoken by Sense Reason or divine Revelation By this string I have pluck'd this blind Crow down I have him as tame in my hand as a Titmouse look how he pants and gapes and shews the white tip of his tongue but sayes nothing Go thy wayes Phil. for a pure Philosophick Thraso Observ. 41. Three quarters of a year hast thou spent c. O Magicus Magicus thou art youthfull and vain-glorious and tellest thy Tutour that this hasty cookery thou entertainest him with was dispatch'd and dress'd up some ten daies after the Presse was deliver'd of my Observations How many ten dayes doest thou mean by thy some ten dayes Thou wouldst have thy Tutour to stroke thee on the head for a quick-parted lad I perceive Eugenius But hadst thou not better have staid longer and writ better sense more reason and with lesse rayling But I poore slow beast how long dost thou think I was viewing and observing that other excellent piece of thine I confesse Magicus because thou forcest me to play the fool as well as thy self I was almost three quarters of a Moneth about it and how much more is that then some ten dayes though but twice told over and I will not be so curiously vain-glorious as to tell thee how great a share of this time was daily taken from me by necessary imployments This is to answer thy folly with folly But I thank God that I glory in nothing but that I feel my self an Instrument in the hand of God to work the good of Men The greatest strength of a man is weaknesse and the
which are so evidently destructive of humane felicity then to edge their spirits with fiery notions and strange Phantasmes which pretend indeed to the semblance of deep mysterious knowledge and divine speculation but do nothing hinder but that the black dog may be at the bottome as I said before But you will ask me How shall we be rid of the Importunity of the impostures and fooleries of this second Dispensation But I demand of you Is there any way imaginable but this viz. To adhere to those things that are uncontrovertedly good and true and to bestow all that zeal and all that heat and all that pains for the acquiring of the simplicity of the life of God that we do in promoting our own Interest or needlesse and doubtfull Opinions And I think it is without controversie true to any that are not degenerate below men that Temperance is better then Intemperance Justice then Injustice Humility then Pride Love then Hatred and Mercifulnesse then Crueltie It is also uncontrovertedly true that God loves his own Image and that the propagation of it is the most true dispreading of his glory as the Light which is the Image of the Sunne is the glory of the Sunne Wherefore it is as plainly true that God is as well willing as able to restore this Image in men that his glory may shine in the world This therefore is the true Faith to beleeve that by the power of God in Christ we may reach to the participation of the Divine Nature Which is a simple mild benigne light that seeks nothing for it self as it self but doth tenderly and cordially endeavour the good of All and rejoyceth in the good of All and will assuredly meet them that keep close to what they plainly in their consciences are convinced is the leading to it And I say that sober Morality conscienciously kept to is like the morning light reflected from the higher clouds and a certain Prodrome of the Sunne of Righteousnesse it self But when he is risen above the Horizon the same vertues then stream immediately from his visible body and they are the very members of Christ according to the Spirit And he that is come hither is a pillar in the Temple of God for ever and ever for he hath reached to the Second Covenant which he can in no more likelihood break then lay violent hands on himself to the taking away of his naturall life Nay that will be farre more easie then this For a man may kill himself in a trice but he cannot extinguish this Divine life without long and miserable torture If this be to be a Puritane Eugenius I am a Puritane But I must tell thee that by how much more a man precisely takes this way the more Independent he will prove And the pure simplicity of the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ will shine with so amiable a lustre in his inward mind that all the most valuable Opinions that are controverted amongst Churches and Sects will seem no more comely then a fools coat compared with the uniform Splendour of the Sunne But if thou meanest by either Puritane or Independent one in the second Dispensation I should dissemble in the presence of Heaven if I should not say I am above them as I am above all Sects whatsoever as Sects For I am a true and free Christian and what I write and speak is for the Interest of Christ and in the behalf of the life of the Lamb which is contemned And his Interest is the Interest of the sonnes of men for he hath no Interest but their good and welfare But because they will not have him to rule the Nations of the world by a Divine Nemesis are given up into the hands of Wolves Foxes and Lions The earth is full of darknesse and cruell habitations Wherefore Eugenius thou doest very unskilfully in endeavouring to tumble me off from the Independents to cast me amongst the Puritanes as thou callest them For it is not in thy power to cast me so low as any Sect whatsoever God hath placed me in a Dispensation above them and wilt thou throw me down No Eugenius I shine upon them both as the Sunne in the Firmament who doth not wink on one side or with-draw his Rayes but looks openly upon all imparting warmth and light Thou hast encountred with a Colosse indeed though thou callest me so but in sport and scorn far bigger then that stradling Statue at Rhodes and that reacheth far higher And yet no Statue neither but one that will speak what nothing but Ignorance and Hypocrisie can denie Wherefore with my feet lightly standing on the shoulders of all the Sects of the earth for I would not tread hard like a statue to hurt them with my head stooping down out of the Clouds I will venture to trie the world with this sober question Tell me therefore O all ye Nations People Kindreds of the earth what is the reason that the world is such a stage of misery to the Sonnes of Men Is it not from hence that that which should be their great Guidance their Religion and highest Light of their minds is but Heat and squabbling about subtile uncertain points and foolish affectation of high mysteries while the uncontroverted sober truths of Vertue and Piety are neglected and the simplicity of the life of God despised as a most contemptible thing And I had no sooner uttered these words in my mind but me thought I heard an Answer from all the Quarters of the earth from East West North and South like the noise of many waters or the voice of Thunder saying Amen Halelujah This is true Nor is this any vain Enthusiasme Philalethes but the triumph of the Divine Light in my Rationall Spirit striking out to my exteriour faculties my Imagination and Sense For my head was so filled with the noise that it felt to me as bound and straitened as being not able to contain it and coldnesse trembling seised upon my flesh But you will say All this is but a triviall truth that you are so zealous and triumphant in But verily Eugenius is it not better to be zealous about those things that are plainly true then those that are either uncertain of false 'T is true what I have said to thy soaring soul may seem contemptible But if thou once hadst the sight of that Principle from whence it came thou wouldst be suddenly ashamed of that patched clothing of thy soul stitch'd up of so many unsutable and heedlesse figurations of thy unpurged phansie and wouldst endeavour to put on that simple uniform light And now Eugenius that I find my self in an advantageous temper to converse with thee come a little nearer me or rather I will come a little nearer to thee Hitherto I have play'd the part of a personated Enemy with thee give me leave now to do the office of an open Friend I perceive there is in you as you have made it manifest to