own eyes nor misbelieve their dictates no more nor so much as we may those of our outward senses Wherefore to men recovered into a due command of their reason and well-skill'd in the contemplation and experience of the nature of things to propound to them such kinde of Mosaical Philosophy as the boldnesse and superstition of some has adventured to do for want of a right Literal Cabbala to guide them is as much as in them lies to hazard the making not only of Moses but of Religion it self contemptible and ridiculous Whence it is apparent enough I think to what good purpose it is thus carefully to distinguish betwixt the Literal and Philosophick Cabbala and so plainly and fully to set out the sense of either apart by themselves that there may hereafter be no confusion or mistake For beside that the discovering of these weighty Truths and high but irrefutable Paradoxes in Moses his Text does assert Religion and vindicate her from that vile imputation of ignorance in Philosophy and the knowledge of things so does it also justifie those more noble results of free Reason and Philosophy from that vulgar suspicion of Impiety and Irreligion THE LITERAL CABBALA CHAP. I. 2 The Earth at first a deep miry abysse covered over with waters over which was a fierce wind and through all darknesse 3 Day made at first without a Sun 6 The Earth a floor the Heavens a transparent Canopy or strong Tent over it to keep off the upper waters or blew conspicuous Sea from drowning the world 8 Why this Tent or Canopy was not said to be good 9 The lower waters commanded into one place 11 Herbs flowers and fruits of Trees before either Sun or seasons of the year to ripen them 14 The Sun created and added to the day as a peculiar ornament thereof as the Moon and Stars to the night 20 The Creation of fish and fowl 24 The Creation of beasts creeping things 27 Man created in the very shape and figure of God but yet so that there were made females as well as males 28 How man came to be Lord over the rest of living creatures 30 How it came to passe that man feeds on the better sort of the fruits of the Earth and the beasts on the worse 1 WEE are to recount to you in this Book the Generations and Genealogies of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah from Noah to Abraham from Abraham to Joseph and to continue the History to our own times But it will not be amisse first to inform you concerning the Creation of the world and the original and beginning of things How God made Heaven and Earth and all the garnishings of them before he made Man 2 But the Earth at first was but a rude and desolate heap devoid of herbs flowers and trees and all living creatures being nothing but a deep miry abysse covered all over with waters and there was a very fierce and strong wind that blew upon the waters and what made it still more horrid and comfortless there was as yet no light but all was inveloped with thick darknesse and bore the face of a pitchy black and wet tempestuous night 3 But God let not his work lie long in this sad condition but commanded Light to appear and the morning brake out upon the face of the abyss and wheel'd about from East to West being clearest in the middle of its course about noon and then abating of its brightnesse towards the West at last quite dis-appear'd after such sort as you may often observe the day-light to break forth in the East and ripen to greater clearnesse but at last to leave the skie in the West no Sun appearing all the while 4. And God saw the Light for it is a thing very visible that it was good and so separated the darknesse from the light that they could not both of them be upon the face of the earth together but had their vicissitudes and took their turns one after another 5 And he called the return of the light Day and the return of darkness he called Night and the evening and the morning made up the first natural day 6. Now after God had made this Basis or floor of this greater edifice of the world the Earth he sets upon the higher parts of the fabrick He commands therefore that there should be a hollow expansion firm and transparent which by its strength should bear up against the waters which are above and keep them from falling upon the earth in excess 7. And so it became a partition betwixt the upper the lower waters so that by virtue of this hollow Firmament man might live safe from the violence of such destructive inundations as one sheltred in a well-pitch'd tent from storm of rain For the danger of these waters is apparent to the eye this ceruleous or blew-coloured Sea that over-spreads the diaphanous Firmament being easily discern'd through the body thereof and there are very frequent and copious showers of rain descend from above when as there is no water espyed ascending up thither wherefore it must all come from that upper Sea if we do but appeal to our outward sense 8 Now therefore this diaphanous Canopy or firmly stretched Tent over the whole pavement of the earth though I cannot say properly that God saw it was good it being indeed of a nature invisible yet the use of it shows it to be exceeding good and necessary And God called the whole capacity of this hollow Firmament Heaven And the evening and the morning made up the second natural day 9 And now so sure a Defence being made against the inundation of the upper waters that they might not fall upon the earth God betook himself the next day to order the lower waters that as yet were spread over the whole face thereof at his command therefore the waters fled into one place and the dry land did appear 10 And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters he called Sea and I may now properly say that God saw that it was good for the Sea and the Land are things visible enough and fit objects of our sight 11 And forthwith before he made either Sun Moon or Stars did God command the earth to bring forth grasse herbs and flowers in their full beauty and fruit-trees yeilding delicious fruit though there had as yet been no vicissitude of Spring Summer or Autumn nor any approach of the Sun to ripen and concoct the fruit of those trees Whence you may easily discern the foolishnesse of the idolatrous Nations that dote so much on second causes as that they forget the first ascribing that to the Sun and Moon that was caus'd at first by the immediate command of God 12 For at his command it was before there was either Sun or Moon in the Firmament that the earth brought forth grasse and herb yeilding seed after his kind and the tree yeilding fruit whose seed was in
he was taken 24 So he drove out Adam and his wife was forced to follow him For there was no longer staying in Paradise because the place was terribly haunted with spirits and fearful apparitions appeared at the entrance thereof winged men with fiery flaming swords in their hands brandished every way so that Adam durst never adventure to go back to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life whence it is that mankinde hath continued mortal to this very day THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 The world of Life or Forms and the Potentiality of the visible Vniverse created by the Tri-une God and referr'd to a Monad or Unite 6 The Vniversal immense matter of the visible world created out of nothing and referr'd to the number Two 7 Why it was not said of this matter that it was good 9 The ordering of an Earth or Planet for making it conveniently habitable referr'd to the number Three 14 The immense Aethereal matter or Heaven contriv'd into Suns or Planets as well Primary as Secondary viz. as well Earths as Moons and referr'd to the number Four 20 The replenishing of an Earth with Fish and Fowl referr'd to the number Five 24 The Creation of Beasts and Cattel but more chiefly of Man himself referr'd to the number Six 1 OUR designe being to set out the more conspicuous parts of the external Creation before we descend to the Genealogies and Successions of mankinde there are two notable objects present themselves to our understanding which we must first take notice of as having an universal influence upon all that follows and these I do Symbolically decypher the one by the name of Heaven and Light for I mean the same thing by both these tearms the other by the name of Earth By Heaven or Light you are to understand The whole comprehension of intellectual Spirits souls of men and beasts and the seminal forms of all things which you may call if you please The world of Life By Earth you are to understand the Potentiality or Capability of the Existence of the outward Creation This Possibility being exhibited to our mindes as the result of the Omnipotence of God without whom nothing would be and is indeed the utmost shadow and darkest projection thereof The Tri-une God therefore by his eternall Wisdome first created this Symbolical Heaven and Earth 2 And this Earth was nothing but Solitude and Emptinesse and it was a deep bottomless capacity of being what ever God thought good to make out of it that implyed no contradiction to be made And there being a possibility of creating things after sundry and manifold manners nothing was yet determined but this vast Capability of things was unsettled fluid and of it self undeterminable as water But the Spirit of God who was the Vehicle of the Eternal Wisdome and of the Super-essential Goodnesse by a swift forecast of Counsel and Discourse of Reason truly divine such as at once strikes through all things and discerns what is best to be done having hover'd a while over all the capacities of this fluid Possibilitie forthwith settled upon what was the most perfect and exact 3 Wherefore the intire Deity by an inward Word which is nothing but Wisdome and Power edg'd with actual Will with more ease then we can present any Notion or Idea to our own mindes exhibited really to their own view the whole Creation of spiritual Substances such as Angels are in their inward natures the Souls of men and other Animals and the Seminal Forms of all things so that all those as many as ever were to be of them did really and actually exist without any dependency on corporeall matter 4 And God approved of and pleased himself in all this as good but yet though in designe there was a settlement of the fluid darknesse or obscure Possibility of the outward Creation yet it remained as yet but a dark Possibility And a notorious distinction indeed there was betwixt this Actual spiritual Creation and the dimme possibility of the material or outward world 5. Insomuch that the one might very well be called Day and the other Night because the night does deface and obliterate all the distinct figures and colours of things but the day exhibits them all orderly and clearly to our sight Thus therefore was the immateriall Creature perfectly finisht being an inexhaustible Treasury of Light and Form for the garnishing and consummating the material world to afford a Morning or Active principle to every Passive one in the future parts of the corporeal Creation But in this first days work as we will call it the Morning and Evening are purely Metaphysical for the active and passive principles here are not two distinct substances the one material the other spiritual But the passive principle is matter meerly Metaphysical and indeed no real or actual entity and as hath been already said is quite divided from the light or spiritual substance not belonging to it but to the outward world whose shadowy possibility it is But be they how they will this passive and active principle are the First days work A Monad or Unite being so fit a Symbole of the immaterial nature 6 And God thought again and invigorating his thought with his Will and Power created an immense deal of reall and corporeall matter a substance which you must conceive to lie betwixt the foresaid fluid Possibility of Natural things and the Region of Seminall Forms not that these things are distinguisht Locally but according to a more intellectual Order 7 And the thought of God arm'd with his Omnipotent will took effect and this immensely diffused matter was made But he was not very forward to say it was good or to please himself much in it because he foresaw what mischief straying souls if they were not very cautious might bring to themselves by sinking themselves too deep therein Besides it was little worth till greater polishings were bestowed upon it and his Wisdome had contrived it to fitting uses being nothing as yet but a boundlesse Ocean of rude invisible Matter 8 Wherefore this Matter was actuated and agitated forthwith by some Universal Spirit yet part of the World of Life whence it became very subtile and Ethereal so that this Matter was rightly called Heaven and the Union of the Passive and Active Principle in the Creation of this Material Heaven is the second days work and the Binarie denotes the nature thereof 9 I shall also declare unto you how God orders a reall materiall Earth when once it is made to make it pleasant and delightful for both man and beast But for the very making of the Earth it is to be referred to the following day For the Stars and Planets belong to that number and as a primary Planet in respect of its reflexion of light is rightly called a Planet so in respect of its habitablenesse it is as rightly tearmed an Earth These Earths therefore God orders in such sort that they neither want water to
lie upon them nor be covered over with water though they be invironed round with the fluid air 10 But he makes it partly dry Land and partly Sea Rivers and Springs whose convenience is obvious for every one to conceive 11 He adorns the ground also with grasse herbs and flowers and hath made a wise provision of seed that they bring forth for the perpetuation of such useful commodities upon the face of the earth 12 For indeed these things are very good and necessary both for man and beast 13 Therefore God prepared the matter of the Earth so as that there was a vital congruity of the parts thereof with sundry sorts of seminall forms of trees herbs and choicest kinds of flowers and so the Body of the Earth drew in sundry principles of Plantall Life from the World of Life that is at hand every where and the Passive and Active Principle thus put together made up the Third Days work and the Ternary denotes the nature thereof 14 The Ternary had allotted to it the garnishing of an Earth with trees flowers and herbs after the distinction of Land and Sea as the Quinary hath allotted to it the replenishing of an Earth with fish and fowl the Senary with man and beast But this Fourth Day comprehends the garnishing of the body of the whole world viz. That vast and immense Ethereal matter which is called the fluid Heaven with infinite numbers of sundry sorts of lights which Gods Wisdome and Power by union of fit and active principles drawn from the world of life made of this Ethereal matter whose usefulnesse is plain in nature that they are for Prognostick signes and seasons and days and years 15 As also for administring of light to all the inhabitants of the world That the Planets may receive light from their fountains of light and reflect light one to another 16 And there are two sorts of these Lights that all the inhabitants of the world must acknowledge great every where consulting with the outward sight from their proper stations And the dominion of the greater of these kinde of lights is conspicuous by day the dominion of the lesser by night the former we ordinarily call a Sun the other a Moon which Moon is truly a Planet and opake but reflecting light very plentifully to the beholders sight and yet is but a secondary or lesser kind of Planet but he made the Primary and more eminent Planets also and such an one is this Earth we live upon 17 And God placed all these sorts of lights in the thin and liquid Heaven that they might reflect their rayes one upon another and shine upon the inhabitants of the world 18 And that their beauty and resplendency might be conspicuous to the beholders of them whether by day or by night which is mainly to be understood of the Suns that supply also the place of Stars at a far distance but whose chiefe office it is to make vicissitudes of day and night And the Universal dark Aether being thus adorn'd with the goodly and glorious furniture of those several kindes of lights God approved of it as good 19 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fourth days work and the number denotes the nature thereof 20 And now you have heard of a verdant Earth and a bounded Sea and Lights to shine through the air and water and to gratifie the eyes of all living creatures whereby they may see one another and be able to seek their food you may seasonably expect the mention of sundry animals proper to their elements Wherefore God by his inward Word and Power prepared the matter in the waters and near the waters with several vital congruities so that it drew in sundry souls from the world of Life which actuating the parts of the matter caus'd great plenty of fish to swim in the waters and fowls to flye above the earth in the open air 21 And after this manner he created great Whales also as well as the lesser kindes of fishes and he approved of them all as good 22 And the blessing of his inward Word or Wisdome was upon them for their multiplication for according to the preparation of the matter the Plastical Power of the souls that descend from the world of Life did faithfully and effectually work those wise contrivances of male and female they being once rightly united with the matter so that by this means the fish filled the waters in the seas and the fowls multiplyed upon the earth 23 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fift days work and the Quinary denotes the nature thereof 24 And God persisted farther in the Creation of living creatures and by espousing new souls from the world of Life to the more Mediterraneous parts of the matter created land-serpents cattel and the beasts of the field 25 And when he had thus made them he approved of them for good 26 Then God reflecting upon his own Nature and viewing himself consulting with the Super-essential Goodnesse the Eternal Intellect and unextinguishable Love-flame of his Omnipotent Spirit concluded to make a far higher kinde of living creature then was as yet brought into the world He made therefore Man in his own Image after his own Likenesse For after he had prepared the matter fit for so noble a guest as an humane Soul the world of Life was forced to let go what the rightly prepared matter so justly called for And Man appeared upon the stage of the earth Lord of all living creatures For it was just that he that bears the Image of the invisible God should be Supreme Monarch of this visible world And what can be more like God then the soul of man that is so free so rational and so intellectual as it is And he is not the lesse like him now he is united to the terrestrial body his soul or spirit possessing and striking through a compendious collection of all kinde of corporeal matter and managing it with his understanding free to think of other things even as God vivificates and actuates the whole world being yet wholly free to contemplate himself Wherefore God gave Man dominion over the fowls of the air the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth for it is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better 27 Thus God created Man in his own Image he consisting of an intellectual Soul a terrestrial Body actuated thereby Wherefore mankinde became male and female as other terrestrial animals are 28 And the benediction of the Divine Wisdome for the propagation of their kinde was manifest in the contrivance of the parts that were framed for that purpose And as they grew in multitudes they lorded it over the earth and over-mastered by their power and policy the beasts of the field and fed themselves with fish and fowl and what else pleased them and made for their content for all was given to them by right of their
even to God himselfe when as I think I have no lesse then demonstrated in my Antidote against Atheism that it is impossible but God should have the power of Creation or else he would not be God But because our Will and Minde can create no Substance distinct from our selves we foolishly conceit measuring the Power of God by our own that he cannot create any Substance distinct from himself Which is but a weak conclusion fallen from our own dulnesse and inadvertency Ver. 2. Solitude and Emptinesse The very word signifies so in the Original as Vatablus will tell you Which being abstract tearms as the Schools call them do very fittingly agree with the Notion we have put upon this Symbolical Earth affirming it no real actual subject either spiritual or corporeal that may be said to be void and empty but to be Vacuity and Emptiness it self onely joined with a capacity of being something It is as I have often intimated the Ens Potentiale of the whole outward Creation But the Spirit of God Not a great Wind but the holy Ghost This is the Interpretation general of the Fathers And it is a sign that it is according to the true Mosaical Cabbala it being so consonant to Plato's School which School I suspect now has more of that Cabbala then the Jews themselves have at this day Having hovered a while The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a hovering or brooding over a thing as a Bird does over her nest or on her young ones Hence it is not unlikely is Aristophanes his Egge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense Vnder the wind below in dark some shade There the black-winged Night her first Egge laid And this manner of brooding thus is an Embleme of dearest affection and who knows but that from this Text the Poets took occasion of feigning that ancient Cupid the Father of all the Gods the Creator of all things and Maker of Mankinde For so he is described by Hesiod and Orpheus and here in this place of Aristophanes from whence I took the forecited verse Simmias Rhodius describes this ancient Love in verses which represent a pair of wings I will not say according to this conceit of Aristophanes his Egge which they should brood and hatch But the longest Quill of one of them writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense I am the King of the deep-bosom'd Earth My strength gave to the Sea both bounds and birth This Spirit of God then or the divine Love which was from everlasting will prove the third divine Hypostasis The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies strength and a word rather common to the whole Trinity But Jehovah as the Rabbines observe is a name of God as he is merciful and gracious which may be answerable to Plato his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that name is also communicated to Christ as we have already acknowledged The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Wisdome as has been prov'd out of the Proverbs and answers to the Platonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third we have now light upon which must be Love and it has a lucky coincidence also with the third Hypostasis in the Platonick Triad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom Plotinus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Celestial Venus And to this after a more immediate manner is the Creation of the world ascribed by that Philosopher as also by Plato as here in Moses the Spirit of God is said to lie close brooding upon the humid Matter for the actual Production of this outward world Ver. 3. Exist independently of Corporeal Matter That which exists first it is plain is independent of what follows and Philo makes all Immateriate Beeings to be created in this first day Whence the Souls of Men are removed far from all fear of fate and mortality which is the grand Tenent of Plato's School Ver. 5. Matter meerly Metaphysical See Hyle in my Interpretation general at the end of my Poems where you shall find that I have settled the same Notion I make use of here though I had no design then of expounding Moses Monad or Vnite The fitnesse of the number to the nature of every days work you shall observe to be wonderful Whence we may well conclude that it was ordered so on purpose and that in all probability Pythagoras was acquainted with this Cabbala And that that was the reason the Pythagoreans made such a deal of doe with numbers putting other conceits upon them then any other Arithmeticians do and that therefore if such Theorems as the Pythagoreans held be found sutable and compliable with Moses his Text it is a shrewd presumption that that is the right Philosophick Cabbala thereof Philo makes this first day spent in the Creation of Immateral and Spiritual Beeings of the Intellectual world taking it in a large sense or the Mundus vitae as Ficinus calls it The World of Life and Forms And the Pythagoreans call an Unite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Form and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life They call it also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Tower of Jupiter giving also the same name to a Point or Center by which they understand the vital formative Center of things the Rationes Seminales and they call an Unite also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Seminal Form But a very short and sufficient account of Philo's pronouncing that Spiritual Substances are the first days work is That as an Vnite is indivisible in Numbers so is the nature of Spirits indivisible you cannot make two of one of them as you may make of one piece of Corporeal Matter two by actuall division or severing them one piece from another Wherefore what was truly and properly created the first day was Immaterial Indivisible and Independent of the Matter from the highest Angel to the meanest Seminal Form And for the Potentiality of the outward Creation sith it is not so properly any real Beeing it can breed no difficulty but whatever it is it is referrable fitly enough to Incorporeal things it being no object of Sense but of Intellect and being also impassible and undiminishable and so in a sort indivisible For the Power of God being undiminishable the Possibility of the Creature must be also undiminishable it being an adaequate consequence of his Power Wherefore this Potentiality being ever one it is rightly referred to the first day And in respect of this the Pythagoreans call an Vnite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as the Binary as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which names plainly glance at the dark Potentiality of things set out by Moses in the first days Creation Ver. 6. Created an immense deal c. He creates now Corporeal Matter as before the World of Life out of nothing Which universal Matter may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For extension is very proper to Corporeal
Animadversion of the Order and Oeconomy of the Universe And Philo who does much Pythagorize in his Exposition of Moses observes That this number Four contains the most perfect proportions in Musical Symphonies viz. Diatessaron Diapente Diapason and Disdiapason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the proportion of Diatessaron is as Four to Three of Diapente as Three to Two of Diapason as Two to One or Four to Two of Disdiapason as Four to One. We might cast in also the consideration of that divine Nemesis which God has placed in the frame and nature of the Universal Creation as he is a Distributer to every one according to his works From whence himself is also called Nemesis by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because he every where distributes what is due to every one This is in ordinary language Justice and both Philo and Plotinus out of the Pythagoreans affirms that the number Four is a Symbole of Justice All which makes towards what I drive at that the whole Creation is concerned in this number Four which is called the Fourth day And for further eviction we may yet adde that as all numbers are contained in Four virtually by all numbers is meant Ten for when we come to Ten we go back again so the root and foundation of all the Corporeal Creation is laid in this fourth days work wherein Suns Earths and Moons are made and the ever whirling Vortices For as Philo observes Pythagorean-like Ten which they call also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World Heaven and All-perfectnesse is made by the scattering of the parts of Four thus 1 2 3 4. Put these together now and they are Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Vniverse And this was such a secret amongst Pythagoras his disciples that it was a solemn oath with them to swear by him that delivered to them the mysterie of the Tetractys Tetrad or number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By him that did to us disclose The Tetrads mysterie Where Natures Fount that ever flowes And hidden root doth lie Thus they swore by Pythagoras as is conceived who taught them this mysterious tradition And had it not been a right worshipful mysterie think you indeed and worthy of the solemnity of Religion and of an Oath to understand that 1 2 3 4. make Ten. And that Ten is All which rude mankinde told first upon their fingers and Arithmeticians discover it by calling them Digits at this very day There is no likelihood that so wise a man as Pythagoras was should lay any stress upon such trifles or that his Scholars should be such fools as to be taken with them But it is well known that the Pythagoreans held the Motion of the Earth about the Sun which is plainly implied according to the Philosophick Cabbala of this Fourth days work So much of his secrets got out to common knowledge and fame But it is very highly probable that he had the whole Philosophick Cabbala of the Creation opened to him by some knowing Priest or Philosopher as we now call them in the Oriental parts that under this mysterie of numbers set out to him the choicest and most precious conclusions in Natural Philosophy interpreting as I conceive the Text of Moses in some such way as I have light upon and making all those generous and ample conclusions good by Demonstration and Reason And so Pythagoras being well furnished with the knowledge of things was willing to impart them to those whose piety and capacity was fit to receive them Not laying aside that outward form of numbers which they were first conveied to himself in But such Arithmetical nugacities as are ordinarily recorded for his in dry numbers to have been the riches of the Wisdome of so famous a Philosopher is a thing beyond all credit or probability Wherefore I conceive that the choicest and most precious treasures of knowledge being laid open in the Cabbala of the Fourth day from thence it was that so much Solemnity and Religion was put upon that number which he called his Tetractys which seems to have been of two kindes the one the single number Four the other Thirty six made of the four first Masculine numbers and the four first Feminine viz. of 1 3 5 7. and of 2 4 6 8. wherein you see that the former and more simple Tetractys is still included and made use of for Four here takes place again in the Assignment of the Masculine and Feminine Numbers Whence I further conceive that under the number of this more complex Tetrad which contains also the other in it he taught his disciples the mysterie of the whole Creation opening to them the nature of all things as well Spiritual as Corporeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a certain Author writes For an even Number carries along with it divisibility and passibility But an odde Number indivisibility impassibility and activity wherefore that is called Feminine this Masculine Wherefore the putting together of the four first Masculine Numbers to the four first Feminine is the joining of the active and passive Principles together matching the parts of the Matter with congruous Forms from the World of life So that I conceive the Tetractys was a a Symbole of the whole Systeme of Pythagoras his Philosophy which we may very justly suspect to be the same with the Mosaical Cabbala And the root of this Tetractys is Six which again hits upon Moses and remindes us of the Six days work of the Creation Ver. 20. Fish and Fowl are made in the same day And here Moses does plainly play the Philosopher in joining them together for there is more affinity betwixt them then is easily discerned by the heedlesse vulgar for besides that Fowls frequent the waters very much many kindes of them I mean these Elements themselves of Air and Water for their thinnesse and liquidity are very like one another Besides the sinnes of fishes and the wings of birds the feathers of one and the scales of the other are very Analogical They are both also destitute of Vreters Dugges and Milk and are Oviparous Further their motions are mainly alike the fishes as it were flying in the water and the fowls swimming in the Air according to that of the Poet concerning Daedalus when he had made himself wings Insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos Cast in this also that as some fowls dive and swim under water so some fishes fly above the water in the air for a considerable space till their finnes begin to be something stiffe and dry Ver. 23. And the Quinary denotes Philo does not here omit that obvious consideration of the Five senses in Animals But it is a strange coincidence if it was not intended that living creatures should be said to be made in the Fift and Sixt day those Numbers according to the Pythagorical mysterie being so fitly significant of the nature of them For Five is
two extremes the first and the last that makes up the Creation of the Spiritual Adam or Christ compleated in us and includes the middle which is Blood First therefore is Repentance from what we delighted in before Then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us which is resisting to blood as the Apostle speaks And the 1 Epistle of John ch 5. v. 4. What ever is born of God overcomes the world Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus Christ the divine Light and Life in us is the Son of God and therefore indued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us This is he that comes by Water and Blood by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin not by repentance only and dislike of our former life but by the mortification also of it Then the Spirit of Truth is awakened in us and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true And according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially That no man can say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God but by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere affirms This is the heavenly Adam which is true Light and Glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead and into whom God hath breathed the breath of Life without which we have no right knowledge nor sense of God at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are thâ— words of Philo upon the place For how should the soul of man says he know God if he did not inspire her and take hold of her by his power Ver. 8. To the Kingdome of Heaven And the end of the doctrine of John which was Repentance was for this purpose that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described and therefore it was a motive for them to repent For though sorrow endure for a night yet joy will come in the morning For the new Jerusalem is to be built and God is to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men and to rule by his Spirit here upon Earth which if I would venture upon an Historical Cabbala of Moses I should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years according to the Chronology of Scripture when the world shall be so spiritualized that the work of Salvation shall be finished and the great Sabbath and Festival shall be then celebrated in the height A thousand years are but as one day saith the Apostle Peter And therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day Wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years the Kingdomes of the Earth will be the second Adams the Lord Christs as Adam in the Sixt day was created the Lord of the world and all the creatures therein and this conquest of his will bring in the Seventh day of rest and peace and joy upon the face of the whole Earth Which presage will seem more credible when I shall have unfolded unto you out of Philo Judaeus the mysterie of the number Seven but before I fall upon that let me a little prepare your belief by shewing the truth of the same thing in another Figure Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared they died not enjoying the richness of Gods goodness in their bodies But Enoch who was the seventh from Adam he was taken up alive into Heaven and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body The world then in the Seventh Chiliad will be assumed up into God snatch'd up by his Spirit inacted by his Power The Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon Earth God will as I said pitch his Tabernacle amongst men And for God to be in us and with us is as much as for us to be lifted up into God But to come now to the mysterie of the Septenary or number Seven it is of two kindes the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Septenary within the Decade is meerly seven unites The other is a Seventh Number beginning at an Vnite and holding on in a continued Geometrical Proportion till you have gone through Seven Proportional Terms For the Seventh Term there is this Septenary of the second kinde whose nature Philo fully expresses in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense For always beginning from an Vnite and holding on in double or triple or what Proportion you will the seventh Number of this rank is both Square and Cube comprehending both kindes as well the Corporeal as Incorporeal Substancâ—e the Incorporeal according to the Superficies which the Squares exhibite but the Corporeal according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the Cubes As for example 64. or 729. these are Numbers that arise after this manner each of them are a Seventh from an Unite the one arising from double Proportion the other from triple and if the Proportion were Quadruple Quintuple or any else there is the same reason some other Seventh Number would arise which would prove of the same nature with these they would prove both Cubes and Squares that is Corporeal and Incorporeal For such is sixty four either made by multiplying eight into eight and so it is a Square or else by multiplying four Cubically For four times four times four is again sixty four but then it is a Cube And so seven hundred twenty nine is made either by Squaring of twenty seven or Cubically multiplying of Nine for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made and so is both Cube and Square Corporeal and Incorporeal Whereby is intimated that the world shall not be reduced in the Seventh day to a meer Spiritual consistency to an Incorporeal condition but that there shall be a co-habitation of the Spirit with Flesh in a Mystical or Moral sense and that God will pitch his Tent amongst us Then shall be settled everlasting righteousnesse and rooted in the Earth so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof And this truth of the Reign of Righteousness in this Seventh thousand years is still more clearly set out to us in the Septenary within Ten. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls it the naked number Seven For the parts it consists of are 3 and 4 which put together make 7. And these parts be the sides of the first Orthogonion in Numbers the very sides that include the right angle thereof And the Orthogonion what a foundation it is of Trigonometry and of measuring the altitudes latitudes and longitudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in Mathematicks And this prefigures the uprightness of that holy Generation who will stand and walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inclining neither this way nor that way but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart And by this Spirit of Righteousness will these Saints be enabled to finde out the depth and breadth
nakedness came into the world but the toil and drudgery of Tillage and Husbandry the grievous pangs of Childe-bearing and lastly what is most terrible of all Death it self Of all which as of some other things also I shall give you such plain and intelligible reasons that your own hearts could not wish more plain and more intelligible To what an happy condition Adam was created you have already heard How he was placed by God in a Garden of delight where all his senses were gratified with the most pleasing objects imaginable his eyes with the beautie of trees and flowers and various delightsome forms of living creatures his ears with the sweet musical accents of the canorous birds his smell with the fragrant odours of Aromatick herbs his taste with variety of delicious fruit and his touch with the soft breathings of the air in the flowry alleys of this ever-springing Paradise Adde unto all this that pleasure of pleasures the delectable conversation of his beautiful Bride the enjoyments of whose love neither created care to himself nor pangs of childe-bearing to her for all the functions of life were performed with ease and delight and there had been no need for man to sweat for the provision of his family for in this Garden of Eden there was a perpetual Spring and the vigour of the soil prevented mans industry and youth and jollity had never left the bodies of Adam and his posterity because old age and death were perpetually to be kept off by that soveraign virtue of the Tree of Life And I know as you heartily could wish this state might have ever continued to Adam and his seed so you eagerly expect to hear the reason why he was depriv'd of it and in short it is this His disobedience to a commandement which God had given him the circumstances whereof I shall declare unto you as followeth Amongst those several living creatures which were in Paradise there was the Serpent also whom you know to this very day to be full of subtilty therefore you will lesse wonder if when he was in his perfection he had not onely the use of Reason but the power of Speech It was therefore this Serpent that was the first occasion of all this mischief to Adam and his posterity for he cunningly came unto the woman and said unto her Is it so indeed that God has commanded you that you shall not eat of any of the trees of the Garden 2 And the woman answered unto the Serpent You are mistaken God hath not forbid us to eat of all the fruit of the trees of the Garden 3 But indeed of the fruit of the Tree in the midst of the Garden God hath strictly charged us Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die 4 But the Serpent said unto the woman Tush I warrant you this is only but to terrifie you and abridge you of that liberty and happinesse you are capable of you shall not so certainly die 5 But God knows the virtue of that tree full well that so soon as you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall become as Gods knowing good and evil 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eye and a tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit and did eat and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat 7 And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew they were naked and were ashamed and therefore they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons to cover their parts of shame 8 And the Lord God came into the Garden toward the cool of the evening and walking in the Garden call'd for Adam But Adam had no sooner heard his voice but he and his wife ran away into the thickest of the trees of the Garden to hide themselves from his presence 9 But the Lord God called unto Adam the second time and said unto him Adam where art thou 10 Then Adam was forc't to make answer and said I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid because I was naked and so I hid my self 11 Then God said unto him Who hath made thee so wise that thou shouldst know that thou art naked or wantest any covering Hast thou eaten of the forbidden fruit 12 And Adam excus'd himself saying The woman whom thou recommendedst to me for a meet help she gave me of the fruit and I did eat 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman What is this that thou hast done And the woman excus'd her self saying The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat 14 Then the Lord God gave sentence upon all three and to the Serpent he said Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field and whereas hitherto thou hast been able to bear thy body aloft and go upright thou shalt henceforth creep upon thy belly like a worm and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 15 And there shall be a perpetual antipathy betwixt not only the woman and thee but betwixt her seed and thy seed For universal mankind shall abhorre thee and hate all the cursed generations that come of thee They indeed shall busily lie in wait to sting mens feet which their skill in herbs however shall be able to cure but they shall knock all Serpents on the head and kill them without pity or remorse deservedly using thy seed as their deadly enemy 16 And the doom of the woman was Her sorrow and pangs in childe-bearing and her subjection to her husband Which law of subjection is generally observed in the Nations of the world unto this very day 17 And the doom of Adam was The toil of Husbandry upon barren ground 18 For the earth was cursed for his sake which is the reason that it brings forth thorns and thistles and other weeds that Husbandmen could wish would not cumber the ground upon which they bestow their toilsome labor 19 Thus in the sweat of his face was Adam to eat his bread till he return to the dust out of which he was taken 20 And Adam called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all men that ever were born into the world and lived upon the face of the earth 21 And the generations of men were clothed at first with the skins of wilde beasts the use of which God taught Adam and Eve in Paradise 22 And when they were thus accoutred for their journey and armed for greater hardship God turns them both out and the Lord God said concerning Adam deriding him for his disobedience Behold Adam is become as one of us to know good and evil Let us look to him now lest he put his hand to the Tree of Life and so make himself immortal 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence
to wit the Essential Will of God which is the true root of Regeneration but to so high a pitch Adam as yet had not reacht unto and the fruit of this Tree in this Ethereal state of the Soul had been Immortality or Life everlasting And the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was there also viz. His own Will 10 And there was a very pleasant River that water'd this Garden distinguishable into four streams which are the four Cardinal Virtues which are in several degrees in the Soul according to the several degrees of the purity of her Vehicle 11 And the name of the first is Pison which is Prudence and Experience in things that are comely to be done For the soul of man is never idle neither in this world nor in any state else but hath some Province to make good and is to promote his interest whose she is For what greater gratification can there be of a good soul then to be a dispenser of some portion of that Universal good that God lets out upon the world And there can be no external conversation nor society of persons be they Terrestrial Aereab or Ethereal but forthwith it implies an Use of Prudence Wherefore Prudence is an inseparable Accomplishment of the soul So that Pison is rightly deemed one of the Rivers even of that Celestial Paradise And this is that wisdome which God himself doth shew to the soul by communication of the divine Light for it is said to compasse the Land of Havilah 12. Where also idle and uselesse speculations are not regarded as is plainly declared by the pure and approved Gold Bdellium and Onyx the commodities thereof 13 And the name of the second River is Gihon which is Justice as is intimated from the fame of the Aethiopians whose Land it is said to compasse as also from the notation of the name thereof 14 And the name of the third River is Hiddekel which is Fortitude that like a rapid stream bears all down before it and stoutly resists all the powers of darknesse running forcibly against Assyria which is situated Westward of it And the fourth River is Perath which is Temperance the nourisher and cherisher of all the plants of Paradise whereas Intemperance or too much addicting the minde to the pleasure of the Vehicle or Life of the matter be it in what state soever drowns and choaks those sacret Vegetables As the earth you know was not at all fruitfull till the waters were removed into one place and the dry land appeared when as before it was drowned and slocken with overmuch moisture 15 In this Paradise thus described had the Lord God placed Man to dresse it and to keep it in such good order as he found it 16 And the divine Word or Light in man charged him saying Of every tree of Paradise thou mayest freely eat For all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant if thou hast a right care of thy self and beest obedient to my commands 17 But of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil that is of thine own will thou shalt not by any means eat For at what time thou eatest thereof thy soul shall contract that languor debility and unsettlednesse that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth and be buried in humane flesh and become an inhabitant of the Region of mortality and death 18 Hitherto I have not taken much notice in the Ethereal Adam of any other Faculties but such as carried him upwards towards virtue and the holy Intellect And indeed this is the more perfect and masculine Adam which consists in pure subtile intellectual Knowledge But we will now inform you of another Faculty of the soul of man which though it seem inferiour yet is far from being contemptible it being both good for himself and convenient for the terrestrial world For this makes him in a capacity of being the head of all the living creatures in the earth as that Faculty indeed is the mother of all mankinde 19 Those higher and more Intellectual accomplishments I must confesse made Adam very wise and of a quick perception For he knew very well the natures of the beasts of the field and fowls of the air I mean not only of the visible and terrestrial creatures but also of the fallen and unfallen Angels or good and bad Genii and was able to judge aright of them according to the principles they consisted of and the properties they had 20 And his Reason and Understanding was not mistaken but he pronounced aright in all But however he could take no such pleasure in the external Creation of God and his various works without having some Principle of life congruously joyning with and joyfully actuating the like matter themselves consisted of Wherefore God indued the soul of man with a faculty of being united with vital joy and complacency to the matter as well as of aspiring to an union with God himself whose divine Essence is too highly disproportioned to our poor substances But the divine Life is communicable in some sort to both soul and body whether it be Ethereal or of grosser consistence and those wonderful grateful pleasures that we feel are nothing but the kindely motions of the souls Vehicle from whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of reflexion strengthned and advanced Of so great consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul to the matter of the Universe 21 Wherefore God to gratifie Adam made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards Intellectual things but Lassitude of Contemplation of Affectation of Immateriality he being not able to receive those things as they are but according to his poor capacity which is very small in respect of the object it is exercis'd about brought upon himself remisnesse and drowsinesse to such like exercises till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep At what time divine Providence having laid the plot aforehand that lower vivificative principle of his soul did grow so strong and did so vigorously and with such exultant sympathy and joy actuate his Vehicle that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retain'd this became more dear to him and of greater contentment then any thing he yet had experience of 22 I say when divine Providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his Vehicle in him 23 He straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto was more lifelesse and evanid and seemed lesse congruous and grateful unto him and more estranged from his nature but this was so agreeable consentaneous to his soul that he looked upon it as a necessary part of himself and called it after his own name 24 And he thought thus within himself For this cause will any one leave his over-tedious aspires to unite with the Eternal Intellect and Universal Soul of the world the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too
recited I hold probable enough they being not unbecoming the worth of the Person but those that suppose the transmigration of Humane Souls into the Bodies of Beasts I look upon as Fables and his whispering into the ear of an Oxe to forbear to eat Beans as a loudly But it seems very consonant unto Divine Providence that Pythagoras having got the knowledge of the holy Cabbala which God imparted to Adam and Moses that he should countenance it before the Nations by enabling him to do Miracles For so those noble and ancient Truths were more firmly radicated amongst the Philosophers of Greece and happily preserved to this very day Nor can his being carried in the Air make him suspected to be a meer Magician or Conjurer sith the holy Prophets and Apostles themselves have been transported after that manner as Habakkuk from Jewry to Babylon and Philip after he had baptiz'd the Eunuch to Azotus But for my own part I think working of Miracles is one of the least perfections of a Man and is nothing at all to the happinesse of him that does them or rather seems to do them For if they be Miracles he does them not but some other power or person distinct from him And yet here Magicians and Witches are greatly delighted in that this power is in some sort attributed to themselves and that they are admired of the people as is manifest in Simon Magus But thus to lord it and domineer in the Attribute of Power with the Prince of the Air what is it but meer Pride the most irrational and provoking vice that is And with what grosse folly is it here conjoin'd they priding and pleasing themselves in that they sometimes do that or rather suffer that which Herns and wlde Geese and every ordinary Fowl can do of it self that is mount aloft and glide through the fleeting Air But holy and good men know that the greatest sweet and perfection of a virtuous Soul is the kindly accomplishment of her own Nature in true Wisdom and divine Love And if any thing miraculous happen to them or be done by them it is that that worth knowledg that is in them may be taken notice of and that God thereby may be glorified whose witnesses they are But no other accession of happinesse accrues to them from this but that hereby they may be in a better capacity of making others happy which I confesse I conceive here Pythagoras his case And that men may not indulge too much to their own Melancholy and Fancy which they ordinarily call Inspiration if they be so great Lights to the world as they pretend and so high that they will not condescend to the examination of humane Reason it were desirable that such persons would keep in their heat to concoct the crudities of their own Conceptions till the warrant of a Miracle call them out and so they might more rightfully challenge an attention from the people as being authorised from above to tell us something we knew not before nor can so well know as believe the main Argument being not Reason but Miracle Lastly for the strangeness of the Philosophical Conclusions themselves It were the strangest thing of all if at first sight they did not seem very Paradoxical and strange Else why should they be hid and conceal'd from the Vulgar but that they did transcend their capacity and were overmuch disproportioned to their belief But in the behalf of these Cabbalistical conclusions I will only note thus much that they are such that supposing them true which I shall no longer assert then till such time as some able Philosopher or Theologer shall convince me of their falshood there is nothing of any grand consideration in Theology or Nature that will not easily be extricated by this Hypothesis an eminent part whereof is the Motion of the Earth and the Prae-existency of Souls The evidence of the former of which Truths is such that it has wonne the assent of the most famous Mathematicians of our later Ages and the reasonablenesse of the latter is no lesse There having never been any Philosopher that held the Soul of Man immortal but he held that it did also prae-exist But Religion not being curious to expose the full view of Truth to the people but only what was most necessary to keep them in the fear of a Deity and obedience to the Law contented her self with what meerly concerned the state of the Soul after the dissolution of the Body concealing what ever was conceivable concerning her condition before Now I say it is a pretty priviledge of falshood if this Hypothesis be false and very remarkable that it should better sute with the Attributes of God the visible events of Providence the Phaenomena of Nature the Reason of Man and the holy Text it self where men acknowledge a mysterious Cabbala then that which by all means must be accounted true viz. That there is no such Motion of the Earth about the Sun nor any Prae-existency of humane Souls Reader I have done what lies on my part that thou maist peruse this Defence of mine without any rub or stumbling let me now request but one thing which thou art bound to grant which is that thou read my Defence without Prejudice and that all along as thou goest thou make not thy recourse to the customary conceits of thy Fancy but consult with thy free Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle somewhere speaks in his Metaphysicks For Custome is another Nature and therefore those conceits that are accustomary and familiar we unawares appeal to as if they were indeed the natural light of the Minde and her first common Notions And he gives an instance not altogether unsutable to our present purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Philosopher may be as bold as he pleases with the Ritual laws and religious stories of the Heathens but I do not know that he ever was acquainted with the Law of Moses But I think I may speak it not without due Reverence that there is something of Aristotles saying Analogically true in the very History of the Creation and that the first impressions of the Literal Text which is so plainly accommodated to the capacity of meer children and Idiots by reason of custome have so strongly rooted themselves in the minds of some that they take that sense to be more true then the true meaning of the text indeed Which is plain in no meaner a person then one of the Fathers namely Lactantius who looking upon the world as a Tent according to the description in the Literal Cabbala did very stoutly and confidently deny Antipodes So much did a customary fancy prevail over the free use of his Reason Thus much for better caution I thought fit to preface The rest the Introduction to the Defence and the very frame and nature of the Defence it self I hope will make good to the judicious and ingenuous Reader THE INTRODUCTION TO THE DEFENCE Diodorus his mistake
the same thing by both For besides that those actuall conspicuous Lights are in Heaven viz. the Sun and Stars Heaven or the Aetherial Matter has in it all over the Principles of Light which are the round Particles and that very fine and subtile Matter that lies in the intervals of the round Particles He that is but a little acquainted with the French Philosophy understands the business plainly And in the expounding of Moses I think I may lay down this for a safe Principle that there is no considerable truth in Nature or Divinity that Moses was ignorant of and so if it be found agreeable to his Text I may very well attribute it to him At least the Divine Wisdom wherewith Moses was inspired prevents all the inventions of Men. But now that I understand this Heaven and Earth in the first verse as things distinct from Heaven and Earth afterwards mentioned the very Text of Moses favours it emphatically calling this Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when as the Heaven and Earth in the second and third days Creation he calls but plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may adde also the authority of Philo who expounds not this Heaven and Earth of the visible and tangible Heaven and Earth which are mentioned in the second and third day but of an Heaven and Earth quite different from them As also the suffrage of S. Augustine who understands likewise by Heaven and Light one and the same thing to wit the Angels and by Earth the first Matter which is something like the sense of this present Cabbala only for his Physical Matter we set down a Metaphysical one that other belonging most properly to the second day and for Angels we have the World of Life which comprehends not Angels only but all substantial Forms and Spirits whatever And that Heaven or Light should be Symboles of the World of Life or Form it is no wonder For you may finde a sufficient reason in the Cabbala it self at the fift verse of this present Chapter and Plotinus assimilates Form to Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Form is Light And lastly in the second verse of this same Chapter there be plain reasons also laid down why the meer Possibility of the outward Creation is called the Earth according to the description of the Earth in the second verse of the first Chapter of Moses his Text unto which you may further adde that as the Earth is looked upon as the Basis of the world so the Possibility of the outward Creation is in some sense the Basis thereof The Tri-une Godhead The Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do handsomely intimate a plurality and singularity the Noun being in the Plural the Verb in the Singular Number Whence I conceive there may be very well here included the Mysterie of the Trinity and Vnity of the Godhead or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Vatablus himself though he shuffles with his Grammatical Notions here yet he does apertly acknowledge three Persons in one God at the twenty sixt verse of this Chapter And that this was the Philosophick Cabbala of Moses and the Learned and Pious of the Jews it is no small argument because the Notion of the Trinity is so much insisted upon by the Platonists and Pythagoreans whom all acknowledge and I think I shall make it more plain then ever to have got their Philosophy from Moses By his Eternal Wisdome Ambrose Basil and Origen interpret In Principio to be as much as In Filio and Colossians the first there the Apostle speaking of the Son of God he saith that he is the First-born of every creature and that by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth And that he is before all things and by him all things consist This is the Wisdome of God or the Idea according to which he framed all things And therefore must be before all things the Beginning of the creatures of God And very answerable to this of the Apostle are those two attributes Philo gives to the same subject calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The First-born Word of God or the First-born Form of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning He calls him also simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Word Form Reason or Wisdome And one of the Chaldee Paraphrasts also interprets In Principio In Sapientia And this agrees exceedingly well with that of Solomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord possessed me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principium viae suae that is operum suorum as Vatablus expounds it and the Text makes it good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oriens operum suorum ab antiquo The Sun-rise of his works of old For there is no necessity of making of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adverbs they are Substantives And here Wisdome is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principle and Morning of the Works of God not by way of diminution but as supposing the East and the Morning to be the womb of light from whence springs all Light and Form and Form is Light as I told you before out of Plotinus And this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sutes well with that passage in Trismegist where Hermes speaks thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the divine Intellect the bright Morning Star the Wisdome of God To which Wisdome called in the eight of the Proverbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beginning and Morning of his Works is ascribed the Creation of the world by Solomon as you may there see at large I will only adde that what the Hebrew Text here in Genesis calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Essential Wisdome of God not an habit or property but a substance that is Wisdome For true wisdome is substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the same that Plotinus speaks Whence he is called in the Apocalyps 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is but a Periphrasis of Jehovah Essence or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains the future present and time past in it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zanchius observes This is the second Hypostasis in the holy Trinity the Logos which was in the beginning of the world with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made John 1. First created this I cannot impute it to any reason at all but to the slownesse of Fancie and heavy unweildinesse of Melancholy or the load of Bloud and Flesh that makes men imagine that Creation is incompetible
this third Element necessary to make an Earth habitable the dry Land the Sea whence are Springs and Rivers and the Air and lastly there are in Vegetables which is the main work of this day three eminent properties according to Aristotle viz. Nutrition Accretion Generation and also if you consider their duration there be these three Cardinal points of it Ortus Acme Interitus You may cast in also that Minerals which belong to this day as well as Plants that both Plants and they and in general all Terrestrial Bodies have the three Chymical Principles in them Sal Sulphur and Mercury Ver. 16. Such as is the Earth we live upon As the Matter of the Universe came out in the second day so the contriving of this Matter into Sunnes and Planets is contained in this fourth day the Earth her self not excepted though according to the Letter she is made in the first day and as she is the Nurse of Plants said to be uncovered in the third yet as she is a receptacle of Light and shines with borrowed raies like the Moon and other Plants she may well be referred to this fourth days Creation Nor will this at all seem bold or harsh if we consider that the most learned have already agreed that all the whole Creation was made at once As for example The most rational of all the Jewish Doctors R. Moses Aegyptius Philo Judeus Procopius Gazeus Cardinal Cajetan◠S. Augustine and the Schools of Hillel and Samai as Manasseh Ben Israel writes So that that leisurely order of days is thus quite taken away and all the scruples that may rise from that Hypothesis Wherefore I say the Earth as one of the primary Planets was created this fourth day And I translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primary Planets Primary because of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emphatical and Planets because the very notation of their name implies their nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vstio or burning and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extinction Nouns made from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to unexceptionable Analogy And the Earth as also the rest of the Planets their nature is such as if they had once been burning and shining Suns but their light and heat being extinguished they afterwards became opake Planets This conclusion seems here plainly to be contained in Moses but is at large demonstrated in Des Cartes his Philosophy Nor is this Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervated by alledging that the word is ordinarily used to signifie the fixed Stars as well as the Planets For I do not deny but that in a vulgar Notion it may be competible to them also For the fixed Stars according to the imagination of the rude people may be said to be lighted up and extinguished so often as they appear and disappear for they measure all by obvious sense and fancie and may well look upon them as so many Candles set up by divine Providence in the Night but by Day frugally put out for wasting And I remember Theodoret in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has so glibly swallowed down the Notion that he uses it as a special argument of Providence that they can burn thus with their heads downwards and not presently sweal out and be extinguished as our ordinary Candles are Wherefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be attributed to all the Stars as well Fixed as Planets but to the Fixed only upon vulgar seeming grounds to the Planets upon true and natural And we may be sure that that is that which Moses would aim at and lay stresse upon in his Philosophick Cabbala Wherefore in brief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emphatical in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contains a double Emphasis intimating those true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Planets and then the most eminent amongst those truly so tearmed Nor is it at all strange that so abstruse conclusion of Philosophy should be lodged in this Mosaical Text. For as I have elsewhere intimated Moses has been aforehand with Cartesius The ancient Patriarchs having had wit and by reason of their long lives leisure enough to invent as curious and subtile Theorems in Philosophy as ever any of their posterity could hit upon besides what they might have had by tradition from Adam And if we finde the Earth a Planet it must be acknowledged forthwith that it runs about the Sun which is pure Pythagorisme again and a shrewd presumption that he was taught that mysterie by this Mosaical Cabbala But that the Earth is a Planet besides the Notation we have already insisted upon the necessity of being created in this fourth day amongst the other Planets is a further Argument For there is no mention of its Creation in any day else according to this Philosophick Cabbala Ver. 17. Inhabitants of the world The Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I have made bold to interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of this one Individual Earth but of the whole Species and therefore I render it the World at large As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the twenty seventh of this Chapter is not an Individual Man but Mankinde in general And so ver 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are interpreted after the same manner rendring them the greater sort of Lights and the lesser sort of Lights So that no Grammatical violence is done to the Text of Moses all this time Ver. 19. And the number denotes This fourth days Creation is the contrivance of Matter into Suns and Planets or into Suns Moons and Earths For the Aethereal Vortices were then set a going and the Corporeal world had got into an useful order and shape And the ordering and framing of the Corporeal world may very well be said to be transacted in the number Four Four being the first body in numbers an Aequilateral Pyramid which Figure also is a right Symbole of Light the raies entring the eye in a Pyramidal form And Lights now are set up in all the vast Region of the Aethereal Matter which is Heaven The Pythagoreans also call this number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Body and the World intimating the Creation of the Corporeal world therein And further signifying in what excellent proportion and harmony the world was made they call this number Four 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harmony Vrania and the Stirrer up of divine Fury and Extasie Insinuating that all things are so sweetly and fittingly ordered in the world that the several motions thereof are as a comely Dance or ravishing Musick and are able to carry away a contemplative Soul into Rapture and Extasie upon a clear view and attentive
acknowledged by them to be Male and Female consisting of Three and Two the two first Masculine and Feminine numbers It is also an Emblem of Generation for the number Five drawn into Five brings about Five again as you see in Five times Five which is Twenty Five So an Eagle ingendring with an Eagle brings forth an Eagle and a Dolphin ingendring with a Dolphin a Dolphin and so in the rest Whence the Pythagoreans call this number Five Cytherea that is Venus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marriage and in Birds it is evident that they choose their mates Concerning the number Six I shall speak in its proper place Ver. 26. That it is so free so rational That the Image of God consists in this rather then in the dominion over the creature I take to be the right sense and more Philosophical the other more Political and Philo interprets it after that manner we have made choice of which is also more sutable to Platonisme and Pythagorisme the best Cabbala that I know of Moses his Text. Ver. 27. Male and Female It is a wonder sayes Grotius to see how the Explications of the Rabbines upon this place and those passages in Plato's Symposion agree one with another which notwithstanding from whatsoever they proceeded I make no question sayes he but they are false and vain And I must confesse I am fully of the same opinion But this strange agreement betwixt Aristophanes his Narration in the forenamed Symposion and the comments of the Rabbines upon this Text is no small argument that Plato had some knowledge of Moses which may well adde the greater authority and credit to this our Cabbala But it was the wisdome of Plato to own the true Cabbala himself but such unwarrantable Fancies as might rise from the Text to cast upon such a ridiculous shallow companion as Aristophanes it was good enough for him to utter in that Clubbe of Wits that Philosophick Symposion of Plato Ver. 28. They Lorded it The Seventy have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to domineer with an high hand Matth. 20. Ver. 31. And the Senary denotes The Senary or the number Six has a double reference the one to this particular days work the other to the whole Creation For the particular days work it is the Creation of sundry sorts of Land Animals divided into Male and Female And the number Six is made up of Male and Female For Two into Three is Six The conceit is Philo's and hence the Pythagoreans called this Number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matrimony as Clemens also observes adding moreover that they did it in reference to the Creation of the world set down by Moses This number also in the same sort that the number Five is a fit Embleme of Procreation For Six drawn into Six makes Thirty Six The conceit is Plutarchs in his De Ei apud Delphos though he speak it of an inferiour kinde of Generation But me thinks it is most proper to Animals Here is something also that respects Man particularly the choicest result of this Sixt days labour The number of the brutish Nature was Five according to Philo but here is an Unite superadded in Man Reason reaching out to the knowledge of a God And this Unite added to the former Five makes Six But now for the reference that Six bears to the whole Creation that the Pythagoreans did conceive it was significant thereof appears by the titles they have given it For they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The articulate and compleat efformation of the Vniverse the Anvill and the World I suppose they call it the Anvill from that indefatigable shaping out of new Forms and Figures upon the Matter of the Universe by virtue of the Active Principle that ever busies it self every where But how the Senary should Emblematize the World you shall understand thus The world is self-compleat filled and perfected by its own parts so is the Senarius which has no denominated part but a Sixt Third and Second viz. 1 2 3. which put together make Six and Euclide defines a perfect Number from this property 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A perfect Number is that which is equall to its parts Wherefore this number sets out the perfection of the world and you know God in the close of all saw that all that he made was very good Then again the world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mas Foemina that is it consists of an active and passive Principle the one brought down into the other from the World of life And the Senary is made by the drawing of the first Masculine Number into the first Feminine for Three into Two is Six Thus you see continuedly that the property of the Number sets off the nature of the work of every day according to those mysteries that the Pythagoreans have observed in them and besides this that the Numbers have ordinarily got Names answerable to each days work which as I have often intimated is a very high probability that the Pythagoreans had a Cabbala referring to Moses his Text and the History of the Creation And Philo though not in so punctual a way has offered at the opening of the minde of Moses by this Key But I hope I have made it so plain that it will not hereafter be scrupled but that this is the genuine way of interpreting the Philosophick meaning of the Mosaical Text in this first Chapter of Genesis CHAP. II. 3 The number Seven a fit Symbole of the Sabbath or Rest of God 7 Of Adams rising out of the ground as other creatures did 11 That Pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes Prudence The mystical meaning of Havilah 13 That Gihon is the same that Nilus Sihor or Siris and that Pison is Ganges The Justice of the Aethiopians That Gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes that virtue 14 As Hiddekel Fortitude 17 That those expressions of the Souls sleep and death in the Body so frequent amongst the Platonists were borrowed from the Mosaical Cabbala 19. Fallen Angels assimilated to the beasts of the field The meaning of those Platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moses that signifies Angels as well as God 22 That there are three principles in Man according to Plato's Schoole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this last is Eve IN this second Chapter Moses having spoke of the Sabbath returns to a more particular Declaration of the Creation of Adam which is referrable to the Sixt days work Then he falls upon that mysterious story of Paradise which runs out into the next Chapter Ver. 3. And the number declares the nature The Hebdomad or Septenary is a fit Symbole of God as he is considered having finished these six days Creation For then as this Cabbala intimates he creates nothing further And
vitae aerumnis That it is the mercy of God that he made man mortal that he might not always be tormented with the miseries and sorrows of this present life Passing through his fiery Vehicle The following words explain the meaning of the Cabbala it is according to the sense of that Plato amongst the Poets as Severus called him Virgil in the sixt Book of his Aeneids Donec longa diês perfecto temporis orbe Concretam exemit labem purúmque reliquit Aethereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem To this sense Till that long day at last be come about That wasted has all filth and foul desire And leaves the Soul Aethereal throughout Bathing her Senses in pure liquid Fire Which we shall yet back very fittingly with the two last Golden Verses as they are called of the Pythagoreans who adde immortality to this Aethereal condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rid of this body if the Aether free You reach henceforth immortal you shall bee The Greek has it you shall be an Immortal God which Hierocles interprets you shall imitate the Deity in this in becoming immortal And Plutarch in his Defect of Oracles drives on this Apotheosis according to the order of the Elements Earth refined to Water Water to Air Air to Fire So man to become of a Terrestrial Animal one of the Heroes of an Heros a Daemon or good Genius of a Genius a God which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to partake of Divinity which is no more then to become one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immortal Angels who are instar flammae as Maimonides writes they are according to their Vehicles a versatile fire turning themselves Proteus-like into any shape They are the very words of the forenamed Rabbi upon the place And Philo Judaeus pag. 234. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For there is saith he in the Air a most holy company of unbodied Souls and presently he adjoins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these Souls the holy Writ uses to call Angels And in another place pag. 398. he speaking of the more pure Souls calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Officers of the Generalissimo of the World that are as the Eyes and Ears of the great King seeing and hearing all things and then he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These other Philosophers call the Genii but the Scripture Angels And in another place he says That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a Soul Genius and Angel are three words that signifie both one and the same thing As Xenocrates also made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one adding that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happy that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a virtuous Soul Wherefore not to weary my Reader nor my self with overmuch Philogy we conclude that the meaning of Moses in this last verse is this That Adam is here condemned to a mortal flitting and impermanent state till he reach his Aethereal or pure fiery Vehicle and become as our Saviour Christ speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one of the Angels This I say is the condition of mankinde according to the Philosophick Cabbala of Moses Let us now take a general view of this whole Cabbala and more summarily consider the strength thereof which we may refer to these two heads viz. the nature of the Truths herein contained and the dignity of those persons that have owned them in foregoing Ages And as for the Truths themselves first they are such as may well become so holy and worthy a person as Moses if he would Philosophize they being very precious and choice Truths and very highly removed above the conceit of the vulgar and so the more likely to have been delivered to him or to Adam first by God for a special mysterie Secondly they are such that the more they are examined the more irrefutable they will be found no Hypothesis that was ever yet propounded to men so exquisitely well agreeing with the Phaenomena of Nature the Attributes of God the Passages of Providence and the rational Faculties of our own minds Thirdly there is a continued sutablenesse and applicability to the Text of Moses all along without any force or violence done to Grammar or Criticisme Fourthly and lastly there is a great usefulnesse if not necessity at least of some of them they being such substantial Props of Religion and so great encouragements to a sedulous purification of our mindes and study of true piety Now for the dignity of the persons such as were Pythagoras Plato and Plotinus it will be argued from the constant fame of that high degree of virtue and righteousnesse and devout love of the Deity that is every where acknowledged in them besides whatsoever miraculous has happened to them or been performed by them And as for Pythagoras if you consult his life in Iamblichus he was held in so great admiration by those in his time that he was thought by some to be the son of Apollo whom he begot of Parthenis his known mother and of this opinion was Epimenides Eudoxus and Xenocrates which conceit Iamblichus does soberly and earnestly reject but afterwards acknowledges that his looks and speeches did so wonderfully carry away the minds of all that conversed with him that they could not withhold from affirming that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-spring of God Which is not to be taken in our strict Theological sense but according to the mode of the ancient Greeks who looked upon men heroically and eminently good and virtuous to be divine souls and of a celestial extract And Aristotle takes notice particularly of the Lacedemonians that they tearmed such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine men According to which sense he interprets that verse in Homer concerning Hector 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to return to him of whom we were speaking before This eminency of his acknowledged amongst the Heathen will seem more credible if we but consider the advantage of his conversation with the wisest men then upon Earth to wit the Jewish Priests and Prophets who had their knowledge from God as Pythagoras had from them From whence I conceive that of Iamblichus to be true which he writes concerning Pythagoras his Philosophy That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is a Philosophy that at first was delivered by God or his holy Angels But that Pythagoras was acquainted with the Mosaical or Jewish Philosophy there is ample testimony of it in Writers as of Aristobulus an Aegyptian Jew in Clemens Alexandrinus and Josephus against Appion S. Ambrose addes that he was a Jew himself Clemens calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew Philosopher I might cast hither the suffrages of Justine Johannes Philoponus Theodoret Hermippus in Origen against Celsus Porphyrius and Clemens again who writes
a Novice if it were but to be esteemed wise to adventure upon such things as would initiate him therein Ver. 6. But the wisdome of the flesh The Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which wisdome of the flesh he saith is enmity with God But the free and cautious use of Reason the knowledge of the fabrick of the world and the course of natural causes to understand the Rudiments of Geometry and the Principles of Mechanicks and the like what man that is not a Fool or a Fanatick will ever assert that God bears any enmity to these things For again these kind of Contemplations are not so properly the knowledg of Good and Evil as of Truth and Falshood the knowledge of Good and Evil referring to that experience we gather up in Moral or Political encounters But those men that from this Text of Scripture would perstringe Philosophy and an honest and gerous enquiry into the true knowledge of God in Nature I suspect them partly of ignorance and partly of a sly and partial kinde of countenancing of those pleasures that beasts have as well as men and I think in as high a degree especially Baboons and Satyres and such like letcherous Animals And I fear there are no men so subject to such mis-interpretations of Scripture as the boldest Religionists and Mock-Prophets who are very full of heat and spirits and have their imagination too often infected with the fumes of those lower parts the full sense and pleasure whereof they prefer before all the subtile delights of Reason and generous Contemplation But leaving these Sanguine-inspired Seers to the sweet deception and gullery of their own corrupted fancy let us listen and keep close to him that can neither deceive nor be deceived I mean Christ and his holy Apostles and now in particular let us consider that grave and pious Monition of S. Peter Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul Wherein this holy man instructed of God plainly intimates that the soul in this world is as a traveller in a strange Countrey and that she is journeying on to a condition more sutable to her then this in the body Whence it follows that the tender patronizing of those pleasures that are mortal and die with the body is a badg of a poor base degenerate minde and unacquainted with her own nature and dignity Ver. 7. How naked now he was and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things This was Adams mistake that he thought he could serve two Masters The will of God and the dictates of the flesh But thus he became estranged to the divine Life and Power which will not dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the holy Spirit of discipline will fly deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding viz. such as are suggested and pursued at randome and will not abide when unrighteousnesse cometh in Ver. 8. Could not endure the presence of it For the divine Light now was only a convincer of his miscarriages but administred nothing of the divine Love and Power as it does to them that are obedient and sincere followers of its precepts and therefore Adam could no more endure the presence of it then sore eyes the Sun or Candle-light Ver. 9. Persisted and came up closer to him This divine Light is God as he is manifested in the Conscience of man but his Love and Power are not fit to be communicated to Adam in this dissolute and disobedient condition he is in but meerly conviction to bring him to repentance And after the hurry of his inordinate pleasures and passions when he was for a time left in the suds as they call it this light of Conscience did more strictly and particularly sift and examine him and he might well wonder with himself that he found himself so much afraid to commune with his own heart Ver. 10. Ingenuously confessed For he presently found out the reason why he was thus estranged from the divine Light because he found himself naked of that power and good affection he had in divine things before having lost those by promiscuously following the wilde suggestions of his own inordinate will as you see in the following verse Wherefore he had no minde to be convinced of any obligation to such things as he felt in himself no power left to perform nor any inclination unto Ver. 11. The sad event upon his disobedience Adams Conscience resolved all this confusion of minde into his disobedience and following his own will without any rule or guidance from the will of God Ver. 12. His rational Faculties and said Like that in the Comedian Homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto And so commonly men reason themselves into an allowance of sin by pretending humane infirmities or natural frailties Ver. 13. That he kept his Feminine faculties in no better order That 's the foolish and mischievous Sophistry amongst men whereby they impose upon themselves that because such and such things may be done and that they are but the suggestions of nature which is the work of God in the world that therefore they may do them how and in what measure they please But here the divine Light does not chastise Adam for the exercise of his Feminine faculties but that in the exercise of them they were not regulated by an higher and more holy rule and that he kept them in no more subjection unto the Masculine To which he had nothing to say but c. The meaning is that Adams temptations were very strong and so accommodate to the vigorous life of the body that as he thought he could not resist But the will of man assisted by God as Adam's was if it be sincere what can it not doe Ver. 14. Then the divine Light began to chastise the Serpent From this 14 verse to the 20. there seems to be a description of the conscience of a man plainly convincing him of all the ugliness and inconveniencies of those sinful courses he is engaged in with some hints also of the advantages of the better life if he converted to it which is like a present flame kindled in his minde for a time but the true love of the divine Life and the power of grace being not also communicated unto his soul and his body being unpurg'd of the filth it has contracted by former evil courses this flame is presently extinct and all those monitions and representations of what so nearly concerned him are drowned in oblivion and he presently settles to his old ill ways again That it crept basely upon the belly See what has been said out of Philo upon ver 1. Ver. 15. But might I once descend so far This the divine Light might be very well said to speak in Adam For his conscience might well re-minde him how grateful a sense of the harmless joyes of the body he had in his state of obedience
that no man can adde any thing to it But then for comparison of persons what dotage is it for any man because he can read the common Alphabet of Honesty and a Pious life in the History of the Old and New Testament finely allegorizing as is conceiv'd those external Transactions to a mysterious application of what concerns the inward man to either place himself or for others to place him in the same level with Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour of men and Prince of the highest Angelical Orders who rose out of the grave by the Omnipotent hand of his Father and was seen to ascend into Heaven by his Apostles that gazed upon him as he passed through the Clouds and whom all true Christians expect visibly to appear there again and re-visit the world according to the promise Now it seems to me a very unreasonable and rash thing if not impious and blasphemous to acknowledge any man whatsoever comparable to so sacred a Person as our Saviour Christ every way approved himself and was approved by a voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son hear him If any man therefore having none of these testimonies from above nor being able to do any thing more then other men shall be so unmannerly as to place himself in the same order and rank with Christ the Son of God because he has got some fine fancies and phrases and special and peculiar interpretations of Scripture which he will have immediately suggested from the Spirit I cannot forbear again to pronounce that this man is overtaken with an high degree of either pride or madness and if he can perswade any others to look upon him as so sacred a Prophet that it must be in them at least Inadvertency or Ignorance Nay I think I shall not say amisse if I attribute their mistake to a kinde of Pride also For Pride affects nothing more then Singularity and therefore undervaluing the plain simplicity of ordinary Christianity such as at first sight is held forth in the Gospel of Christ they think it no small privilege to have a Prophet of their own especially they getting this advantage thereby that they can very presently as they fancy censure and discern the truth or falshood of all that venture to speak out of the Rode of their own Sect as if every body were bound to conne their lessons according to their Book And it is a fine thing to become so accurately wise at so cheap a rate and discover who is Spiritual or who is the Carnal or meer Moral man This is indeed the folly of all Sects and there is no way better that I know to be freed from such inveiglements then by earnestly endevouring after that which they all pretend to and to become truly more holy and sincere then other men for the throughly purified man is certainly delivered from all these follies These things I could not forbear to speak in zeal to the honour of my Saviour and the good and safety of his Church For if men once get a trick to call the world Christian where the death of Christ on the Crosse at Jerusalem is not acknowledged a sacrifice for sin nor himself now in his humane Person a Mediatour with God the Father and the Head of his Church Militant and Triumphant nor that there is any Eternal Life nor Resurrection but that in the Moral or Mystical sense assuredly this will prove the most dangerous way imaginable quite to take away that in time which is most properly called Christian Religion out of the world and to leave meerly the name thereof behinde But a Religion so manifestly established by God in a most miraculous manner and being so perfect that the wit of man cannot imagine any thing more compleat and better fitted for winning souls to God It can be nothing but giddiness or light-mindedness to think that this Religion can be ever superannuated in the world but that it shall last till Christs Corporeal appearance in the Clouds For there is no reason at all that the holy Ghost should be thought to come in the flesh of some particular man no more then God the Father did under the Law For what can he tell us more or better then Christ already has told us or what himself may tell us without any personal shape And there is no Prophecie of any such thing but onely of that which is better that Christ will procure for all those that are his faithful and obedient followers the Spirit of Truth and Righteousnesse and indue them with the divine Life and that it shall so at length come to pass that Justice Peace and Equity shall more universally and fully flourish in the world then ever yet they have done And that faith in God and of the Life to come shall be more vigorously sealed upon the hearts of men and that there shall be a neerer union and conjunction betwixt the humane and divine nature in us then ever and more frequent and sensible commerce betwixt the Inhabitants of the Aethereal and Terrestrial Region according as I have already declared concerning the Seventh day in this Defence of the Moral Cabbala But in the mean time though that full Sabbatisme be so far off yet I doubt not but there have been and are very sweet and joyful praelibations of it in sundry persons which quickens their hopes and desires of the compleatment thereof and divine Providence is not idle all things working towards this last Catastraphe and the heads of Sects themselves though I never saw any yet that my light and judgement could pronounce infallible and perfect as I think there never will be any till Christ himself come again who will appear in no Sectarian way for himself hath given us an intimation that if any one say Loe here is Christ or there is Christ believe it not yet such is the grosse ignorance or hypocrisie of ordinary carnal Churches as they call them that some heads of Sects I say have spoken very true and weighty things against them very lively setting them out depainting them in their own colors insomuch that they will be able not only to turn from them the affections of all plain hearted men that are fast friends to the eternal Righteousness of God and prefer that before the most specious devices of arbitrarious Superstition but also to raise their anger and indignation against them But it does not presently follow that because a man can truly discover the gross faults falsities that are in another that therefore he is utterly blameless himself and not at all imposed upon by his natural complexion nor speaks any thing that is false nor omits any thing that is both true and necessary But be these Sects what they will be the grand Churches themselves are so naked and obnoxious that unlesse they cast away from them their hypocrisie pride and covetousnesse they will in all likelihood raise such storms in all Christendome
of Euphrates Pison Phasis or Phasi-tigris That the Madianites are called Aethiopians That Paradise was seated about Mesopotamia argued by six Reasons That it was more particularly seated where now Apamia stands in Ptolemee's Maps 18 The Prudence of Moses in the commendation of Matrimony 19 Why Adam is not recorded to have given names to the Fishes 24 Abraham Ben Ezra's conceit of the names of Adam and Eve as they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25 Moses his wise Anthypophora concerning the natural shame of nakednesse 124 CHAP. III. 1 How much it saves the credit of our first Parents that the Serpent was found the prime Author of the Transgression That according to S. Basil all the living creatures of Paradise could speak undeniable reasons that the Serpent could according to the Literal Cabbala 9 The opinion of the Anthropomorphites true according to the Literal Cabbala 14 That the Serpent went upright before the fall was the opinion of S. Basil 16 A story of the easie delivery of a certain poor woman of Liguria 19 That the general calamities that lie upon mankinde came by the transgression of a positive Law how well accommodate it is to the scope of Moses 23 That Paradise was not the whole Earth 24 The Apparitions in Paradise called by Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130 THE DEFENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHICK CABBALA CHAP. I. 1 Why Heaven and Light are both made Symbols of the same thing viz. The World of Life That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimate a Trinity That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of the Eternal Wisdome the Son of God who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well in Philo as the New Testament That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the holy Ghost 2 The fit agreement of Plato's Triad with the Trinity of the present Cabbala 5 The Pythagorick names or nature of a Monad or Unite applyed to the first days work 6 What are the upper waters and that Souls that descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Naides or water Nymphes in Porphyrius 8 That Matter of it self is unmoveable R. Bechai his notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very happily explained out of Des Cartes his Philosophy That Vniversal Matter is the second days Creation fully made good by the names and property of the number Two 13 The nature of the third days work set off by the number Three 16 That the most learned do agree that the Creation was perfected at once The notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strangely agreeing with the most notorious conclusions of the Cartesian Philosophy 19 That the Corporeal world was universally erected into Form and Motion on the fourth day is most notably confirmed by the titles and propertie of the number Four The true meanning of the Pythagorick oath wherein they swore by him that taught them the mysterie of the Tetractys That the Tetractys was a Symbole of the whole Philosophick Cabbala that lay couched under the Text of Moses 20 Why Fish and Fowl created in the same day 23 Why living creatures were said to be made in the Fift and Sixt days 31 And why the whole Creation was comprehended within the number Six 135 136 CHAP. II. 3 The number Seven a fit Symbole of the Sabbath or Rest of God 7 Of Adams rising out of the ground as other creatures did 11 That Pison is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes Prudence The mystical meaning of Havilah 13 That Gihon is the same that Nilus Sihor or Siris and that Pison is Ganges The Justice of the Aethiopians That Gihon is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denotes that virtue 14 As Hiddekel Fortitude 17 That those expressions of the Souls sleep and death in the Body so frequent amongst the Platonists were borrowed from the Mosaical Cabbala 19 Fallen Angels assimilated to the beasts of the field The meaning of those Platonical phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Platonisme is the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Moses that signifies Angels as well as God 22 That there are three principles in Man according to Plato's School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this last is Eve CHAP. III. 1 The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Pherecydes Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names of Spirits haunting Fields and and desolate places The right Notation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 That Satan upon his tempting Adam was cast down lower towards the Earth with all his Accomplices 15 Plato's Prophecie of Christ The reasonablenesse of divine Providence in exalting Christ above the highest Angels 20 That Adams descension into his Terrestrial Body was a kind of death 22 How incongruous it is to the divine Goodnesse Sarcastically to insult over frail Man fallen into Tragical misery 24 That it is a great mercy of God that we are not immortal upon Earth That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one A Summary representation of the strength of the whole Philosophick Cabbala Pythagoras deemed the son of Apollo That he was acquainted with the Cabbala of Moses That he did miracles As also Abaris Empedocles and Epimenides being instructed by him Plato also deemed the son of Apollo Socrates his dream concerning him That he was learned in the Mosaical Cabbala The miraculous power of Plotinus his Soul Cartesius compared with Bezaliel and Aholiab and whether he was inspired or no. The Cabbalists Apology 172 THE DEFENCE OF THE MORAL CABBALA CHAP. I. What is meant by Moral explained out of Philo. 3 That the Light in the first day improv'd to the height is Adam in the sixt Christ according to the Spirit 4 In what sense we our selves may be said to do what God does in us 5 Why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred Ignorance and Inquiry 18 Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Fourth days progresse 22 That Virtue is not an extirpation but regulation of the Passions according to the minde of the Pythagoreans 24 Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applyed to the Sixt days progresse 26 What the Image of God is plainly set down out of S. Paul and Plato The divine Principle in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Plotinus 28 The distinction of the Heavenly and Earthly Man out of Philo. 31 The Imposture of still and fixed Melancholy and that it is not the true divine Rest and precious Sabbath of the Soul A compendious rehearsal of the whole Allegory of the Six days Creation p. 194 CHAP. II. The full sense of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that keeps men from entring into the true Sabbath 4 The great necessity of distinguishing the innocent motions of Nature from the suggestions of Sin 5 That the growth of a true Christian indeed doth not adaequately depend upon the lips of the Priest 7 The meaning of This is he that comes by Water and Blood 8 The meaning of Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The seventh thousand years the great Sabbatism of the Church of God That there will be then frequent converse betwixt Men and Angels 9 The Tree of Life how fitly in the Mystical sense said to be in the midst of the Garden 17 A twofold death contracted by Adams disobedience The Masculine and Feminine Faculties in Man what they are Actuating a Body an Essential operation of the Soul and the reason of that so joyful appearance of Eve to the Humane Nature 209 210 CHAP. III. A story of a dispute betwixt a Prelate and a Black-Smith concerning Adams eating of the Apple 1 What is meant by the subtilty or deceit of the Serpent That Religion wrought to its due height is a very chearful state And it is only the halting and hypocrisie of men that generally have put so soure and sad a vizard upon it 5 6 That worldly Wisdome not Philosophy is perstringed in the Mysterie of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil 10 The meaning of Adams flying after he had found himself naked 20 Adam the Earthly-minded Man according to Philo. 21 What is meant by Gods clothing Adam and Eve with hairy Coats in the Mystical sense 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Paradise of Luxury That History in Scripture is wrote very concisely and therefore admits of modest and judicious Supplements for clearing the sense 24 What is meant by the Cherubim and flaming Sword Plato's definition of Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A more large description of dying to Sinne and of the life of righteousness That Christian Religion even as it referres to the external Person of Christ is upon no pretence to be annull'd till the Conflagration of the world 224 ERRATA PAg. 39. lin 24. read sacred p. 79 l. 19. r. Sensus p. 87. l. 14. r. wilde p. 126. l. 26. r. goodly p. 204. l. 35. r. run p. 230. l. 34. r. generous FINIS
Matter Castellio translates it Liquidum and this universal Matter is most what fluid still all over the world but at first it was fluid universally Betwixt the aforesaid fluid Possibility c. But here it may be you 'll enquire how this Corporeal Matter shall be conceived to be betwixt the waters above and these underneath For what can be the waters above Maimonides requires no such continued Analogy in the hidden sense of Scripture as you may see in his Preface to his Moreh Nevochim But I need not fly to that general refuge For me thinks that the Seminal Forms that descend through the Matter and so reach the Possibility of the parts of the outward Creation and make them spring up into act are not unlike the drops of rain that descend through the Heaven or Air and make the Earth fruitful Besides the Seminal Forms of things lie round as I may so speak and contracted at first but spread when they bring any part of the Possibility of the outward Creation into act as drops of rain spread when they are fallen to the ground So that the Analogy is palpable enough though it may seem too elaborate and curious We may adde to all this concerning the Naides or Water Nymphs that the Ancients understood by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All manner of Souls that descend into the Matter and Generation Wherefore the watry Powers as Porphyrius also calls these Nymphs it is not at all harsh to conceive that they may be here indigitated by the name of the Vpper waters See Porphyrius in his De Antro Nympharum Ver. 7. What mischief straying Souls The frequent complaints that that noble Spirit in Pythagoreans and Platonists makes against the incumbrances and disadvantages of the Body makes this Cabbala very probable And it is something like our Divines fancying Hell to be created this day Ver. 8. Actuated and agitated This is consonant to Plato's School who makes the Matter unmovable of it self which is most reasonable For if it were of its own nature movable nothing for a moment would hold together but dissolve it self into infinitely little Particles whence it is manifest that there must be something besides the Matter either to binde it or to move it So that the Creation of Immaterial Beeings is in that respect also necessary Rightly called Heaven I mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this agitation of the Matter brought it to Des Cartes his second Principle which is the true Aether or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is liquid as water and yet has in it the fierce Principle of Fire which is the first Element and most subtile of all The thing is at first sight understood by Cartesians who will easily admit of that Notation of the Rabbines in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water For so R. Bechai The Heavens sayes he were created from the beginning and are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fire and Water which no Philosophy makes good so well as the Cartesian For the round particles like water though they be not of the same Figure flake the fierceness of the first Principle which is the purest Fire And yet this Fire in some measure alway lies within the Triangular Intervals of the round Particles as that Philosophy declares at large And the Binary How fitly again doth the number agree with the nature of the work of this day which is the Creation of Corporeal Matter And the Pythagoreans call the number Two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter Simplicius upon Aristotles Physicks speaking of the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They might well sayes he call One Form as defining and terminating to certain shape and property whatever it takes holds of And Two they might well call Matter it being undeterminate and the cause of Bigness and Divisibility And they have very copiously heaped upon the number Two such appellations as are most proper to Corporeal Matter As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnfigured Vndeterminated Vnlimited For such is Matter of it self till Form take hold of it It is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the fluidity of the Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it affords substance to the Heavens and Starres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contention Fate and Death for these are the consequencies of the Souls being joined with corporeal Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Motion Generation and Division which are Properties plainly appertaining to Bodies They call this number also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Subject that endures and undergoes all the changes and alterations the active Forms put upon it Wherefore it is plain that the Pythagoreans understood Corporeal Matter by the number Two which no man can deny but that it is a very fit Symbole of Division that eminent Property of Matter But we might cast in a further reason of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being created the second day for the Celestial Matter does consist of two plainly distinguishable parts to wit the first Element and the second or the Materia subtilissima and the round Particles as I have already intimated out of Des Cartes his Philosophy Ver. 9. It is referred to the following day You are to understand that these Six numbers or days do not signifié any order of time but the nature of the things that were said to be made in them But for any thing in Moses his Philosophick Cabbala all might be made at once or in such periods of time as is most sutable to the nature of the things themselves What is said upon this ninth verse will be better understood and with more full satisfaction when we come to the fourth days work Ver. 13. And the Ternary denotes In this third day was the waters commanded into one place the Earth adorned with all manner of Plants Paradise and all the pleasure and plenty of it created wherein the Serpent beguiled Eve and so forth What can therefore be more likely then that the Pythagoreans use their numbers as certain remembrancers of the particular passages of this History of the Creation when as they call the number Three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Triton and Lord of the Sea which is in reference to Gods commanding the water into one place and making thereof a Sea They call also the Ternary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former intimates the plenty of Paradise the latter relates to the Serpent there But now besides this we shall find the Ternary very significant of the nature of this days work For first the Earth consists of the third Element in the Cartesian Philosophy for the truth of that Philosophy will force it self in whether I will or no and then again there are three grand parts of