A discourse of the freedom of the will by Peter Sterry ...

A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedome of the Will. The FIRST PART.

CONTAINING The Definition of the Free-will in question, and the Arguments opposed to it.

Libertas est facultas ejus quod cui{que} facere libet (ut Romani de∣finiunt) faith Grotius upon Genesis. This is liberty to do that which we like to do. Liking is from likeness. Nihil est, quod ad se rem ullam tam alliciat, tam attrahat, quàm ad amicitiam similitudo (saith Cicero.) Nothing so allures, and so attracts, as similitude and likeness doth to liking and to love. Liking then is founded in the nature and harmony of each essence. Every thing moves, and rests freely, at liberty, when it moves and rests according to its own nature, according to the harmony of its own essence.

Zeno defines liberty to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a power of self∣acting. The Philosopher defines nature to be the principle of motion and rest there, where it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by it self, and not by accident. Our nature is our true-self. Then have we the power of self-acting, when we move and rest according to our own natures, being acted in them by our own natural and essential Principles.

We meet with this Rule often in Aquinas, Vnumquod{que} operatur prout est; Every thing acts as it is. The being or nature of each thing is the Root, and the Rule of its operation.

By these things which I have spoken, two marks present them∣selves to us, to guide us in our judgment of liberty.

1. Liberty is a relation or harmony between the essence or nature of each thing, and its operations.

2. According to the Orders and Degrees of Being, are the Orders and Degrees of Liberty.

According to these two Marks, we shall find a two-fold measure of Liberty:

• 1. The Principle.
• 2. The Sphere of Activity.

I shall then upon this ground distinguish liberty into a four-fold Order:

• 1. The freedome of the Elements and Coelestial Bodies.
• 2. The freedome of Plants.
• 3. The freedome of brnit Creatures.
• 4. The freedome of intellectual Agents.

1. The freedome of the Elements and Coelestial Bodies consisteth in that motion and rest, which is generally esteemed and stiled simply natural. The principle of their motion and rest, is nature guiding their motions and rests, in the figure of Divine motions and rests (their invisible Patterns and Originals,) either by way of instinct, or by the assistance of intelligences, (as the Peripateticks Schools assert) or informed by Intellectual, Angelical, Divine Souls, (as the Academy teacheth.)

The sphere of their motion and rest is their own proper place, Adae∣quate to their Dimensions. They move and rest naturally within themselves. This is their liberty. Such also is their liberty in their parts and mixtures, which also being by violence carried out of their proper places, naturally tend to them by a simple motion in a strait line.

This is the first Order in the liberty of things, a liberty from out∣ward force or constraint, with a confinement to a single simple motion and rest, at least in their material and corporeal part.

Thus the Peripateticks make the Spheres of the Elements the first and lowest order of Corporeal substances and compleat being, con∣fining them to Forms meerly natural, and in a manner allowing them only single and simple local motion. After the same manner also they circumscribe the Coelestial Spheres, giving them only this two-fold preheminence,

1. One of a fifth essence, compounded of a distinct matter and form.

2. The other of assisting forms, or intelligences moving them.

With these their grounds agreeth the Ptolemaiical System. But (as before I toucht) the ancient Academy sets these spheres of the world in a higher rank, attributing to them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, making them rational Beings, Angels, Gods. Copernicus also sets them at li∣berty, altering the whole design of their local motions, and inlarging them to a greater variety.

2. In the second place, is the liberty of Plants, which is a vital liberty. The principle of their motion and rest, is animate, a vegeta∣tive Soul, which hath in it self a variety of formal Acts or Virtues,

according to which it formeth to it self an Organical body, composed of differing parts, framed to be proper Instruments for the diversity of these vital Acts. In like manner doth this soul of the plant put forth it self into diversity of motions in its proper body; yet are all these motions confined to the body of the plant it self, or to a very narrow sphere round about it.

The plant also it self is fixt by its root in one place, and immove∣able there: The Ratio seminalis, the seminal harmony, which is the essen∣tial form, and the proper soul of the plant (as it is a vegetative soul) gives measure both to the principle of motion in the plant, and to the sphere or compass of its motion, being thus the ground and bound of this vital liberty.

This seminal harmony is the contracted and fainter off-spring of the imaginative form, as those are freer, clearer, livelier Births and Images of rational forms, which are the living pictures of the intel∣lectual and essential Ideas;

either

• In superiour Souls, or
• In superiour parts of the same Soul.

These intellectual Ideas or essences, are also rich and ample streams of light and life, flowing from their Divine Unities and springs in the supream eternal Unity, the first seat and head of all liberty.

3. The liberty of bruit Creatures hath the third place; this is the liberty of sense. The principle of this liberty, is the sensitive soul, which hath its chief seat in the imagination. Here is the amplitude of its Kingdom, and the power of its Rule. This being immediately subordinate to the rational intellectual power, is that Sea whence all the springs and streams of the inferior and outward senses (as of the local motions) go forth, and into which they again flow with all their force and efficacy. Here they are united, here they have their various mixtures, here they have their greatest amplitude and height∣ning. The motions here are no more fixed in one place, nor con∣fined to the compass of their own proper Subject, but enlarge them∣selves after their several manner, according to the amplitude of the object of sense, which is the whole Corporeal world.

There are indeed divers ranks of sensitive Creatures, which have divers degrees of liberty.

• 1. Some are confined to particular Elements.
• 2. Others have the liberty of distinct Elements.

All that are perfect in the order of sensitive being, agree in this; that they have the liberty of progressive motion, of motion from place to place, variously, according to the variety of their appetites, go∣verned by the ample light of their imaginations.

This chiefest freedom of sense is placed in the imagination, this be∣ing the first and highest faculty of the sensitive Soul, where it is in its perfection, is as ample as the universal object of sense, the whole Corporeal world. Some Philosophers teach us, That the imagination is the immediate former of this universal Image, which comprehends

all corporeity, the visible Heavens and Earth, in it self. Others, that it hath a commanding power upon this universal Image, and all the parts of it, having the force of all magick in its self, to alter the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the Constitutions of the Elements. This is more universally understood, that it not only takes in and enjoys the sensitive forms of all the objects of sense, uniting and varying them according to its own pleasure, but also that it espouseth in it self the spiritual and corporeal world to each other, receiving the im∣pressions, the similitudes, the illapses of the invisible Glories as the Originals into their sensitive Image, and heightning the sensitive Image to a greatness and glory above it self by this communion with its invisible patterns.

The sensitive appetite hath an inseparable conjunction with and con∣formity to the imagination. They mutually influence, excite, and govern each other. They have both objects of equal extent. The good of the sensitive being (which is the object of its appetite) is not only the pre∣servation of its own being, but its pleasure and proper happiness in the fruition of the sensitive forms of things, which fruition is com∣pleated in the imagination.

4. The liberty of intellectual beings, is the utmost point of liberty, comprehending in the general nature of it, God as the Original, and Angels and Men as the immediate, immortal, clearest, compleatest Copies of that Original. This is properly the liberty of Spirits, of the Father of Spirits, and of the Sons of the eternal Spirit. The ground of this liberty is the Divine essence, and the Divine Image of that essence. The sphere or compass of this liberty is being it self in its greatest extent, in its first, highest, and most universal form with all its unbounded self-bounding varieties, and in its descent into all forms of things, figuring or shadowing it self upon them, filling them with it self.

Thus the Schools teach us, That ens quà ens, est objectum intel∣lectus. Being it self in all its fulnesses and forms under the formality of truth (that is, in its own most proper, formal, and essential Image, which is beauty it self) the beauty of truth; the truth of beauty in all its riches and varieties) is the proper object of the understanding, adaequately suited to it, its entertainment, its food and feast, its light and life which actuates it, its perfection which determines it and compleats it in its proper form and essence. It is an acknowledged Maxim, That good is the object of the will. All things desire good. Good is the object of every appetite, natural; and sensitive also. But these are particular goods, proper to those particular Orders of Being; the mark to which the rational appetite directs it self (the Firmament, in the face of which this Dove with its wide-spread-wings flyes) is the Heaven of the first and universal Good, as it comprehends within its embraces all inferiour goods.

Thus the Will hath the freedome of all good before it, a freedome for all good in its self, an essential suitableness, inclination, and capaci∣ty to good, absolutely as good. The soul of man hath a three-fold liberty, the liberty of its Essence, Understanding, and Will.

1. The liberty of its Essence, is the fulness of Being, All Being in the highest, amplest, and most substantial Image, next to the Origi∣nal it self, the Divine Essence. For it is the immediate birth of the Supream Original, its darling and best beloved Child, although it be the younger Brother to those Sons of God, the Angels; yet is it as Isaac to Ismael, and Jacob to Esau, their Lord, the Heir of all; the Nur∣sling of the Angels, while it is in its minority, for whom they are made to be ministring Spirits to it. So hath the soul of man (as an intellectual Spirit) all things in its own essence, within it self, the supream and eternal Being in its fairest and fullest Image beneath it self, all inferior Beings, fairer and fuller then they are in themselves; as the Face in the Glasse excels a Picture, or as a Statue exactly framed in Gold or Marble excels the shadow cast from that Statue.

2. The Soul, or intellectual Spirit, hath a liberty of understanding. Here it is a clear and spacious light, the immediate lustre and out∣shining of the Supream Light unconfined; like to that, as the clear∣est and compleatest Copy of it, next to it self. In this Light it free∣ly contemplateth all forms of things above it, beneath it, of the same order with it; all are present before it, it comprehends them all within its own circle. In the same Image of it self, in which it con∣templateth it self, it freely and unconfinedly rangeth in the midst of them; taking in their various beauties distinctly, and all their beau∣ties (with their most delightful proportions and harmonies) united in one: at its pleasure, freely doth it put on all these beautiful forms, the truths and essences of all things, being made all things in their truest and conpleatest beauties, both distinctly and unitedly. So it appears to it self in the sweetness, beauty, reality, truth of each form, each figure of the Divine truth and beauty apart. So it ap∣pears to it self in the unconfined sweetness, beauty, majesty of the forms, the truths of all things united in one. This, with unexpres∣sible delights it looketh upon as its own proper and compleat Image 5 in this it beholdeth all scenes of things at once within it self, it seeth it self in all persons, and shapes with the beautiful dresses of Divine truths, acting all parts in the most beautiful harmony with the Divine truth it self in its eternal Original. In all it enjoyeth within it self the truth of reality, of distinction, of unity, as in the highest Copy; and the life-picture of the supream life it self, far above all other Copies.

This Aristotle expresseth to us, when he teacheth us this Lesson, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The understanding is made all things. This also we learn from him, and his Followers, That the understanding alone doth touch, take in, embrace the essences of things, while all that presents it self below the understanding to the senses, is only a various combination of accidents and shadows. So also we learn from Plato's School, That 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Understanding, is the Son of God, the Word of God, the first and most substantial expression of the Divine Unity, with all its incomprehensible fulness, next to the Divine Unity it self. This is in that School the only Seat of the Essences, and the essential truths of all things. Beneath it, in the discourses of reason,

are the forms of these Essences, as lively Pictures without; in the senses the shadows only. Agreeable to this also doth the sense of the sacred Scriptures seem to be, which maketh man that similitude and Image, in which God with all his holy Angels, in all created forms of things, unite, center, and terminate, as the end and perfection of all. Upon this ground is the second Person of the Trinity, the Godhead in its essential Image, as the most adaequate Image of it self, most answer∣ing, and most suited to it self, and so fittest for the most perfect Uni∣on with it self, as of the proper and most immediate Image with its own proper Idea.

3. The liberty of the Will is equal to, and ariseth from this liber∣ty of the Understanding. The Understanding, as the eye of the Soul, first feasteth upon the beauties presented to it in the truths of things, and so inviteth the will as the mouth of the Spirit, to tast the sweetness and goodness of them. The good of all these forms and essential truths, is that which St. Peter calls the sincere milk of the living Word. It is peculiarly the Divinity, that of the Original and Supream Unity, which is in them. The nature of good is defined by a sutableness or agreeableness. This hath its root in an unity. All things that agree, agree in aliquo tertio. The agreement of things, is their meeting in an unity. The Soul in its essence is the most complete and immediate Image of the Divine Unity, in which all varieties of things lie virtually and eminently, as in their first spring. The understand∣ing, and all forms or truths of things in the understanding, are the effulgency of this Divine Unity, with all its varieties contained in it, as they shine forth in the essence of the Soul, and so become the re∣flexions of it self upon it self, and as the highest figure of the eter∣nal Son of God, the brightness of its own glory to it self. Thus the essence of the Soul, and the essential Images of all truths of things, according to their Divine beauties in the Soul, have an essential sutableness and agreeableness to each other; from that two-fold unity, their unity in their Original, their unity in their own proper form, as it is the Image of that Original. The essential inclination of the Soul to these forms of Being, and Images of the Divinity (and to the Divinity it self in these Images) presented to the Soul by their essential truths in their understanding, is that power which we call the Will. The sutableness and agreeableness of these forms of things to the Will: The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (and so more principally the Divine Unity in them, the root and life of this agreeableness) is the good, which is the Object of this inclination, the Will of the intellectual Spirit.

Love is defined the union of the Lover, and the Beloved. The will, as it is an essential inclination to its Object; the good (shining forth in its proper Image, and beautiful forms of truth in the understand∣ing) is love it self, the essential love of the Soul. The Soul in this essential power, which we call the Will, is the Lover. This is that which Plotinus seemeth to mean, when discoursing of the Soul, he saith, That every Soul comes forth with a Cupid, or love proper to it, and inseparable from it. It is commonly known, that the Soul is re∣presented by Venus (the Queen of Beauty, and the Mother of Love)

the Daughter of Jupiter, of Jehovah. As the intellectual Soul is the •…•…enus, so is this essential inclination of the Soul to good (which is its will) the Cupid or Love born of it, and born with it, inseparable from it.

As is the intellectual Spirit, so is its Will or Love; the highest and loveliest Image of the first Spirit, and the first Love: so hath it in it, next to the Divine Love, the highest, the most potent, the most universal force of inclination, and love to the highest and most uni∣versal good. The Beloved, or the Object of this Love and this Lover, the intellectual Soul and the Intellectual Will, is the highest and most universal good, as it presenteth it self in its highest lustre, in its richest, amplest, most unlimited variety of beauties in the Un∣derstanding. This good being an agreeableness to the Will, and so meeting with a mutual and answerable agreeableness in the Will to it self, presenteth it self thus by the Understanding in these forms of truth, (which is the Divinest beauty,) as a lover and a beloved both to the Will, that they may be equally and mutually happy, by equal, by mutual embraces and fruition.

This is the liberty of the Will consisting in two parts, mutually answering each other. The first is the vigour and amplitude of the principle, the inclination or love carrying the Soul to, rendring it capable of, good in its absolute and universal form. The second is the vigor and amplitude of its Object, which is the highest good, the Divinity of good it self, presenting it self in its absolute, universal, or intire truth, beauty, and essential form, presenting it self in all va∣rieties of distinct truths, beauties, and forms, as they are represented in their highest, completest Image, next to the Original it self in the Understanding. Here is the Will, like a Bee in a Garden, or flourish∣ing Field, or rather in an heavenly Paradise, flying at liberty over all forms of truth and beauty, as the Flowers and Plants in this Paradise, resting at pleasure upon every one of them, sucking 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sweetness, the virtue, the good, the unexpressibleness of the Divi∣nity, and the Divine Unity from them, as the Honey which is its Di∣vine Feast, Nourishment, Life, and Treasure.

This is the liberty of the Soul, of the Understanding, of the Will, in its proper Nature, and primitive State. This is the liberty which it still enjoys inseparable from its essence, under the fall it self, so far as by the promised Seed putting forth it self in the moment of the Fall, the essence of the intellectual Spirit is renewed and maintain∣ed universally by common Grace, in the midst of the ruines of the Fall. I have this one thing only to add, under this fourth Head, (the Liberty of intellectual Spirits,) that, as God is the Original Spirit, as Angels and intellectual Souls are Image-Spirits; so is the liberty of the Divine Essence, the Original liberty, and the liberty of all other intellectual Spirits, Humane or Angelical, is the Birth, and so the Image of that liberty.

Having thus passed through the several degrees of liberty, in the several Orders of Being, we come now more particularly and di∣stinctly to state the question concerning the Liberty of the Will, which is the subject of our present Discourse.

There is a two-fold liberty of the Will.

1. One by all acknowledged inseparable from the Will, in all States and acts.

2. The other hath been through all Ages, Religions, and Philoso∣phyes, the ground of many learned, eloquent, deep Discourses and Disputes between persons eminent in all kind.

1. The first uncontroverted liberty of the Will, is that which is built upon the grounds already laid. It consisteth in two glorious preheminencies:

1. The liberty of acting from an internal, essential, universal Prin∣ciple of inclination or love, which is confined or restrained in its na∣ture and power by no particular differences; which is by nothing determined in its actings, except only as it determines it self by the Laws of its own universal nature, in which it bears the immediate and most express figure of the Divine Nature, and so of the Divine freedome or liberty.

2. This Principle hath for the sphere and compass of its activity, the absolute and universal good in the entire freedome of his uncon∣fined form or Essence, in all the varieties of its descents and ascents, its divisions and compositions. The Will of the Intellectual Spirit is free here in the chase and pursuit of all good, unconfined to any par∣ticular form of good, determined by it self alone, and its own inter∣nal essential motions, to the choice and embraces of every good.

2. The second liberty of the Will, which hath so different as∣pects to the differing understanding of excellent persons (for the most part, in all places and times) is generally known by these terms of Li∣bertas contradictionis, & libertas contrarietatis; Liberty of contradiction and of contraricty. Suppose an intellectual Spirit, in the moment imme∣diately preceding its Action, positis omnibus requisitis ad agendum, now ready for action, in the constitution and concurrence of all circum∣stances essential, accidental, from above, from below, from the first universal cause, from all second and particular causes, from within, from without, in respect to any Essence, Power, and Operation, in respect to any thing in any potentiality or act: The Will of this in∣tellectual Spirit without any change in any circumstance, in any de∣gree, may act, or not act, which is the liberty of contradiction; may act either in this way, or in the way directly contrary to it, which is the liberty of contrariety.

This is also expressed by a liberty or power in the Will to determine it self in the moment of acting by its act, without any predetermina∣tion in the Will it self, in the power of acting, in its proper Essence, and the laws of its own Nature, in the connexion of causes, or in the first, and universal Cause.

The method of my treating upon this Question, shall be,

1. An humble proposal of those Arguments, which seem to fight against this liberty.

2. To state and examine the Arguments brought to establish this liberty, with all the clearness and candour that I am capable of.

To these also I shall annex those answers, which may appear proper to give any satisfaction to those Arguments.

These two sorts of Arguments I shall digest into so many Books.

1. The first Book shall contain the first sort of Arguments opposed to this liberty in question, divided according to these five Heads, from which they are drawn,

• 1. The Divine Nature.
• 2. The Nature of the Creature.
• 3. The Mediation of Christ.
• 4. The Soul intellectual with its Will.
• 5. The proper form and essence of liberty.

1. Head of Arguments.

The first Head of Arguments is the Divine Nature.

From this Head we shall draw seven Arguments.

1. Argument.

The first Argument, from the Divine Nature, is the Being of God. God is Being it self in its simplicity and absoluteness, the first, the su∣preme, the universal Being. This is his Name by which he makes Himself known to Moses, I A M; Being it self in its absoluteness, un∣divided, unrestrained, unconfined, unallayed by any differences of mixtures; Being it self at the utmost heighth of all Eminencies and Transcendencies; Being it self in its fulness, in its greatest Ampli∣tude and Majesty; Being it self in its Truth, in its substance; the only true Being, the universal Being, comprehending the excellencies of all Beings, heighthned to a transcendency above all Being and all Excellency, all Being in one, all Being complete in one complete Per∣son, which is a perfect number of Persons, Three Persons in One; that it may entertain and enjoy it self in a perfect immortal Circle of all Being and blessedness. This is God, this is his Name, I A M.

His Name Jah imports the same sense, Being it self: His Name Jehovah expresseth the same thing, the universal Being; All Beings past, present, and to come, with all their distinctions and differences, in one.

Every thing that I S beareth written upon it this Name of God, I A M. All things that be declare a Being: While all things agree in this, That they be, they demonstrate an universal Being. Being, as it is divided and restrained by particular Differences (in all things par∣ticular and different one from another) by being lessened, contracted, and obscured, is imperfect. Nothing that is imperfect can subsist, exist of it self, or by it self; for so far as it is imperfect it is not. Im∣perfection is so far a privation or negation of Being. Before then that which is imperfect, is that which is perfect, from which and by which that which is imperfect existeth. Thus Socrates in Plato, from the beauties of sense scattered and divided among divers beautiful Sub∣jects or Persons, leads us to all the beauties of sense united in one Person compleatly beautiful. From this perfection of beauty, where it is an accident seated in a subject of dark matter, ever changing, he raiseth us to the innumerable forms of beauty, the unchangeable essences and immortal substances of beauty, where beauty is the whole substance, pure, and immaterial. These manifold forms of immaterial and essential beauties, awakened into the intellectual

Spirit, he maketh as golden wings, by which we fly upward into the bosome of that first Beauty, where all beauties meet in an entire and transcendent Unity.

Thus all particular and imperfect Beings carry us up to the perfect and universal Being, abstracted from them all, set on his Throne high and listed up above them all, from which, as their proper Head, they flow, by and in which, as in their proper Root, they subsist, being the beams of this glorious Sun, and Rivers from this full Sea. This is God in his high and holy place of Eternity. This universal Being, where all Beings meet in one, is Eternity. This is the holy place of Eternity. Being it self in its most exalted Purity abstracted and sepa∣rated from all differences, mixtures, allayes, from every thing for∣reign. This is the high place of Eternity. Being it self in its first and supreme Unity, comprehending all Beings, all perfections of Being, heighthned to a perfection so far above themselves, that no Being, the most perfect, is able to look up to it.

Can now any thing, any where, any Essence, Power, Act, any Will, or motion of the Will, be, and not be originally contained in this first Being, and not be subject, subordinate to this supreme Being, and not lie within the compass, be full of, be universally filled with this uni∣versal Being?

In Metaphysicks we are taught, That God, as He is Being it self in its simplicity, is the proper, immediate, and formal Cause of all Being, every where; and that the modifications only of each Being proceed from it by the mediation of second Causes. Is it not clear then, that these modifications themselves, so far as they be, or have any Being in them, are the immediate and formal effects of the first and universal Being?

If now the motion, the modification, the determination of the Will in its Acts be not, it is no more the subject of any dispute, dis∣course, or thought, it hath no more any place or effect in the nature of things, to bring forth any Consequences, or to make any Differen∣ces. If it be, if it have any Being at all, Can it have any place without the comprehension and embraces of the universal Being? Shall it not yield the Power, the Preheminence, the Soveraignty to Him, whose Name alone is I AM, and I AM that which I AM? Shall it not confess to him, and say, Thou only art the only true Being, the universal Being; I am a shadow, and empty figure. Thou art the truth, the substance of my Being. Thou fillest all in all of me. Thou art that which thou art. I am a shadow of my self only; I am only That, which I am in Thee, That which Thou art in me: I am my true self only, so far as I am in Thee, the Original truth of all Being; only so far as thou art in me, the Substantial truth of all Being.

Object. Do we make the Creature nothing? Do we make God All? Do we confound God and the Creature?

Answ. Far be it. VVe speak the Language of the general stream of Divines, Philosophers, Poets, Heathen and Sacred, through all Ages. VVe speak their Language with their sense, and upon their grounds: But we chiefly build upon the foundation of the holy

Scriptures, in which we read such characters of men, of the world, of all things in it, that they are a scheam or figure, that they are not, lighter than vanity, less than nothing, a vapour, a vain shew, a tale that is told, a dream in sleep. All that we converse with, is stiled by Plato, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that which is not, and distinguished from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that which truly is. Aristotle stiles God, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Being of Beings. We learn of him that, that is True which terminates and gives rest to the Understanding, and that to understand things, is to know them by their causes; which plainly infers, that God alone is the Truth of every Creature and in every Creature, that He alone terminates and gives rest to our Understandings, in as much as He is the first Cause.

Our design and desire is to establish most firmely and clearly the immutable and everlasting bounds between God and the Creature. The Creature truly really is in the proper rank and order of its own Being; but all that it is, in the presence of the Divine Being, in com∣parison with it, is like a dream, when one awakes, less than nothing. Every Creature at its best estate is vanity, an obscure, empty shadow of its Divine Original in God. The Creature is nothing of it self, or by it self, but a momentany emanation from God, sent forth from him, sustained by Him, comprehended by him, and filled with him. God is not the Creature, yet is he in the Creature, not Circumscriptivè, nor Definitivè, confined to the Creature, or defined by the Creature; but Repletivè, filling all in all, in every Creature.

St. Paul saith of him, That he is above all, in all, and through all: Above all, as incomprehensibly transcending all, as the eternal uni∣versal Head of all: In all, as the truth, the fulness of all, by each Idea in each Creature (like the Seal in the Impression): Through all, as the perfection and end of all:

2. Argument.

The second Argument is the Trinity in God. God is the first, and so the most perfect Unity, every way undivided, every way un∣confined, in all-comprehending, all-transcending, incomprehensible Unity, eminently transcendently, one in all, one with all, uniting all, most full, most fruitful, the Spring of all things. This is God the Father, the God-head in its fountain, as it is its own fountain. This is the first Person, the universal Being, in its most complete existence and subsistence, in an entire Unity.

All our senses, our intellectual powers, every where present to us an unity, and a variety, equally inseparable: the inclinations of all our faculties carry us equally to both these: these two joyntly consti∣tute and compose all essences and forms of things, all our objects, entertainments and delights. Unity without distinction or variety, is a barrenness, a melancholy, a solitude, a blackness of Darkness, a death beyond any thing existent, or imaginable in the nature of things. A distinction or variety without unity, is a confusion, a wilderness beyond the wildest fancy, a distraction beyond all madness.

Variety is every way equal to an Unity; as positive, as real, as ample, as high; As the first and most perfect Unity, comprehends all Variety in it self (as one with it self, and so is as properly, as for∣mally, variety as unity;) so doth the first, and most perfect Variety comprehend the Unity in it self, in its own proper essence and forma∣lity; for if the Variety were not all things, and so the highest Unity, it were not a full Variety. Thus are both these every way equal, equally all, most perfectly one, most perfectly distinct; by being both the proper character of each, the first and highest Unity, the first and fullest Distinction or Variety.

The God-head in the second Person is the first Distinction or Vari∣ety, and so the most perfect Variety, equal with the Father, equally a Divine Person, All variety of Being in a most complete, most distinct existence, or subsistence, in an entire Unity. All fulness, All the fulness of the Godhead is said to dwell in him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, bodily or personally; that is, essentially, substantially, entirely, distinctly, in the highest and most perfect Unity, with the clearest and compleatest Variety.

Thus is this Person at once, most perfectly one with the Father, having the Father in himself, and being himself in the Father: Thus is He also distinct from the Father, with the highest and most perfect Distinction, being Himself the first, the fullest Distinction and Va∣riety, in its most abstracted form, and so in its greatest ampli∣tude.

Jesus Christ, as He is this Second Person, is known peculiarly by this Name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as it comes from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which signifieth to gather toge∣ther: the proper Name of Christ, as He is the first and most uni∣versal Variety. Upon this ground also he is stiled, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the manifoldly various Wisdom of God. This is the brightness of the Glory of God, that is, the effulgency of the Divine Glory or God∣head, shining out clearly and distinctly into all beautiful and blessed Varieties, so richly (beyond all number and limit) contained in it. This is the effulgency of the God-head, shining out into an essential Image, a clear distinct Image of it self, in the fulness of its Divine Essence, and into all Images, all forms of things, eternally springing up fresh and new, in the brightness and glory of this essential Image, which is it self ever entire, ever new, and distinct with the highest Distinction in every one of these. This is the first and fullest Distin∣ction; this of the Image from its Original in the Divine Nature. This is Variety it self in its abstracted and essential form, where it is most absolute, most free, and unconfined, being it self entire; the first, the freshest, the fullest Variety, an ever springing fountain of all Varieties, in every part of the Variety. This is the proper form, the unvailed face, the uncircumscribed Amplitude and Ma∣jesty of God, Variety it self, with its most unlimited fulness, with its clearest light and lustre, in a most absolute, most entire, un∣divided Unity. This is the Second of the Three in the adored Trinity.

God, the third Person, the Holy Spirit, is the Union of these two. He proceedeth from these two, as the spiration or conspiration of

these two, meeting in one. As the Father and the Son are one by the first and highest Unity, as they are distinct by the first and fullest Distinction; so are they at once equally one, and equally distinct. This is the proper form of Union, a concurrence of Distinction and Unity, where two as two are one, retaining their distinction in their Unity. Thus meeting in a third, this third is equal to the other two, containing them both in it self. It is one with the other two, and in the other two, by having the Unity in it self: It is distinct from the other two, by having the first and highest Distinction in it self.

The Union of variety and Unity is the essence of Harmòny; Uni∣ty of a variety, variety in an Unity, is the essential form of Harmony. God then being in Himself the first Unity, the first Variety; in their first Union is the first harmony, the most perfect, the most exalted, the universal Harmony, the fountain of all Harmonies. All things lie here in a perfect Harmony. This Harmony comprehendeth all things in it self, diffuseth it self through all. Every thing, every where, lieth within the bounds and measures of this Divine Harmo∣ny, is measured and governed by it, springeth forth from it, beareth the figure of it, beareth a part in it, is Harmony in this Harmony. Every nature and form of each thing, in each kind and degree, to the lowest divisions and least distinctions of things, is expressed universally by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Greek, by Ratio in Latin, which both properly express Harmony; A variety bound up in an Unity, an Unity diffu∣sing it self through a variety.

This is God, the third Person in the Trinity, Harmony it self. The first Harmony, most perfect, most absolute, diffusing it self through all things, endlesly and unboundedly unfolding it self into all forms of things, by its Divine force, as the force, as the fulnesses and streams of this Harmony, in its own soft and spacious Bosome, en∣folding all forms of things in the same Bosome, as Harmonies of this Harmony, Harmonies in this Harmony, in each of which the universal Harmony is new and complete.

Can there be now any one thing in the nature of things, any one thing in the will of any Spirit, any one essence, form, power, act, accident, or circumstance which lies not in, which flows not from this first and universal spring, the Divine Unity? Or shall we deny this Divine Unity, to be the first Unity, to be an entire Unity, the fountain of the God-head, the only fountain of all?

Is there any where, in any Will, any distinction of power, or of act, of an indeterminate power, and determinate? Is there any va∣rying of the Will from power to act, from an undetermined, to a determined State? Is there any distinction in the Will, any distinct qualification, modification of any kind or degree, which lies not most distinctly, most clearly, most compleatly, with all its variations, in this Divine, this first, this universal and unconfined Variety, which flows not from it?

Hath any Spirit, any Being, a Will? Hath any Will any liberty, any motion? Hath any Spirit, any will, any liberty, any motion?

Have all these, either joyntly in relation to each other, or each a part in it self, rationem aliquam, any form, any agrecableness, which is not enfolded, and wrapt up in the Divine, the sirst, the universal, unconfined Harmony, which doth not arise from, which doth not feel the force, and flow in the course of this Harmony? Then must the Divine Harmony it self be out of tune, being in a discord to this, that lies without it, being stopt and checkt by it. Then must this it self, what ever it be, have no Harmony, no agreeableness with any thing, no not so much as with it self; then must it be a discord to all Being; then must it be divided from all Being, and so not be at all.

3. Argument.

The Wisdom of God comes in the third place, to oppose this Liber∣ty of the Will in question.

The Divine Wisdom thus expresseth it self by the mouth of Solo∣mon in his Proverbs, I Wisdom dwell with Prudence, and find out witty inventions. The Philosopher seemeth to furnish us with a fair Com∣ment upon this Text, when he divideth the intellectual habits or perfections of the mind into these five, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. The first is the eternal truth of things in their immediate Principles and Springs, as they lie in the eternal mind, and thence shine forth in the Understandings (the superior parts of the inferior and created Spi∣rits.) The second comprehends all forms of Knowledge, as streams flowing from these springs running along together in the mind, re∣presenting in one view, in one entire Image, the whole nature of things, as a Copy of the Divine Nature, and of the Original Image in the Divine mind. The third Perfection, in the account of the Philosopher, is Wisdom, which he describeth to be the union of both these foregoing Perfections in the same mind or spirit. Prudence in the fourth place, is the lustre or brightness of this Wisdom shining forth in our Manners, in our moral Actions and Conversations. This is the light of Wisdom flowing forth upon all the motions of our Will, of our sensitive Appetite and Passions, with their proper effects, forming and figuring them according to (in an harmony with) the Divine Image, in the universal nature of things, and in its Original, the Divine Nature it self, as this Image shines forth in the mind. Lastly, That Art which compriseth all witty Inventions, is composed of the emanations of this Wisdom, as beams from the Sun, by which Inferiour Spirits bring forth external effects, works without them∣selves, in the similitude and imitation of the Divine Work in the Divine Nature, for the use of life in its necessities, conveniencies and delights.

Thus Wisdom above and below dwells with Prudence, and finds out knowledge of witty Inventions. Agreeable to this is that Doctrine of another sort of Philosophers that, as Wisdom is the perfection of the Understanding, so the Understanding in its perfect state is the first seat and spring of Order. Therefore they say, where-ever there is Order, where-ever there is Harmony or Beauty which consists in Order, there is an Understanding. The Understanding, say they,

in its proper and native state, is the immediate Son and Image of God beneath God himself, the first and fullest effulgency of the God-head in its essential Image, so it becomes Omniform, being all forms in one, with a richly heighthned Light, and a Divine Order. Here Order hath all its Springs and Measures, here Judgment hath its Throne and Scepter, comparing and measuring all forms of things according to the Order in which they lie here, accordingly deter∣mining order and disorder in things below.

Moses in that sweet and dying Song of his, where he representeth the Order and Beauty of the whole Work of God in the Nation of the Jews (as a principal part of that Work, and as a mysterious figure of the whole Work) expresseth the whole force and form of the Divine Wisdom, as the ground of his Song, in the beginning of it: He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his wayes are judgment, Deut. 32. 4. Behold here the three parts of Wisdom; the Rock, the Judgment, the perfection of the Work.

1. The eternal truths of things in the Divine Mind (the first prin∣ciple and spring) where they shine immediately immutably; These are the Rock.

2. The universal Image of things in all variety of Forms, with a beautiful Order drawn forth from these springs, joyned immediately to them, exactly and most agreeably suited to them, most harmoni∣ously answering them, in all mutual Comparisons and Relations within the Divine mind: This is the Judgment.

3. The production of the whole work in an apt correspondency with this inward Image, that the whole answer the whole, part answer part, universally through the whole. This is the perfection of the Work, the perfection of Wisdom and Judgment in the work. Thus the wayes of the Work-man in his work are Judgment.

If now any part of the work of God, if a principal part of his work, the will of intellectual Spirits, in those motions, in those moments, which are as the hinge upon which the whole Work of God chiefly turneth about, in respect to its Beauty and Deformity, its Misery and Felicity, its Eternity, have no Connexion with or De∣pendance upon the other parts of the work, the Image or Original Model in the Divine mind; Can there be an Order here in the whole, Can all the parts in the whole have an harmonious proportion to each other? Can the Work outward agree with the inward Model, the whole agreeing with the whole, and each part answering each part? Can this work be perfect? Can it be wrought in Judgment? Is the whole way of this work the way of Judgment? Is there in each step of it, the foot-step of a Divine Understanding, the im∣pression of a Divine Wisdom, which is an entire uninterrupted Or∣der? Do all the parts in this Work, according to the Model or Image in the mind of the Work-man, lie together in one whole piece, in one beautiful body, knit together by fit joynts and bands, ministring to each other by these joynts and bands mutual strength, beauties, and perfections, from the same Head, whose Unity runneth through, shineth in the whole, and all its several parts, thus uni∣ting them as one body to each other, and to its self?

Doth not this supposition of such an independent Liberty in the Will to Contrarieties and Contradictions, naturally lead us to an imagination of two Gods, one Good, the other Evil, striving toge∣ther in the composure of the same work, bringing in consusion upon it by crossing and interrupting each other, according to the sense of the Manichees? Or doth it not favour that Opinion of some Platonists, of a matter, the subject of the Divine Work, co-eternal with the Divine Spirit, the Work-man, which being in some parts of it altogether intractable, resisting the skill and power of the Ar∣chytect or working Spirit, receiveth not the Divine form which that would introduce, could not be made beautiful, and so brought Confusion, War, all Evil into the Work? Or (if that seem more probable) would it not incline us to the belief of fortuitous motions, of numberless Particles confusedly concurring, which have neither beginning, rule, nor end of themselves, their shapes or moti∣ons?

What skilful Poet makes his Poem so, that the great Chain, and final Catastrophe, in the conduct and government of which the chief beauty of the whole Work is plac'd (from which arise the greatest Consequences, together with the perfection and praise of the whole piece) should be derived from a meer Contingency, which hath no coherence with any antecedent part, which receiveth no force from any thing of any reason, proportion, or order in the whole, which hath no place nor form in the design of the Poet?

Would any wise Work-man, who had an absolute power over his work, who brought forth from himself entirely both the matter and form of it according to his will, frame a work, in which the great end of the principal parts and of the whole, should be unde∣termined, by being dependant upon the great and chief motion of the work, which can have no complete Idea in the mind of the Worker from which it may receive its form, which is uncapable of having any certain conformity to the will of the Workman, to derive from thence an agreeable sweetness and goodness through the veins of the whole and of all the parts, that the spirit which hath wrought it may have rest and complacency in the work it self, in the harmony of the work within it self, and in the harmony of it with the Model in its own Understanding? Would he frame a work which in this its principal motion should be altogether out of its own power, should have no natural, no moral necessity or certainty from any an∣tecedent causality and reason, which should be altogether fortui∣tous, which should be thus rendred altogether uncapable of being one entire piece, where all the parts first contained in the Potentiality and Unity of the whole, flowing forth from it by virtue of that Uni∣ty, are united among themselves by their mutual Relations and Pro∣portions, making up a beautiful harmony in the whole?

This in all learning and observation hath been esteemed the first and chief part of wisdom, to fix determinately, with full strength of inclination, thought and contrivance, the end of every work. This the second part next to it, particularly stiled Prudence, to dispose

and direct all the means efficaciously and infallibly to those ends.

Object. 1. Perhaps some one will say, That the parts of the Divine Work have their coherence, connexion, and proportion, while this grand motion of which wespeak, the determination of the Will, flows from the power of the Will, which flows from God, the Foun∣tain of causality, in the centinued stream of second causes.

Answ. This indeed is often spoken of, Let us see if it be well un∣derstood, if there be no fallacy or ambiguity latent or manifest in this Assertion: If the power of the Will be the cause of its determi∣nation, if God in the order of second causes be the Author of this Power, then also is the determination of the Will from Him; after the same manner, by the force of that Rule, Quicquid est causa causae, est causa causati: The cause of any cause, is also the cause of the effect produced by that cause. Now is the Will no more free, with an un∣determined freedome or liberty, being thus predetermined in its superior causes, from which it receives both the power of determi∣ning, and the determination of its power. Now is the power of its Will in its state of acting, not undetermined, or indifferent to contradictory and contrary terms or bounds of its motion.

If it be replyed, that the power of the Will, in determining it self, is from God in the natural course of things; but the act of that power in the determination of it self, from the power of the Will alone, with an absolute and universal independancy upon all things antecedent to it, either natural or moral: Although this be very difficult to be understood, yet I shall not at present make any other opposition to it than this, that it leaves my present Argument un∣toucht in its full strength and vigour.

Object. 2. There is something of greater moment, which perhaps may seem to shake the structure and strength of this Reason. The great and Ultimate ends of God in his Work, are the glories of his Goodness and his Justice. In this the Divine Wisdom shines out with a lustre, dazling the eyes of our Reason (of every created Un∣derstanding) in finding out this the most proper and effectual way to these ends, viz. The setting up of intellectual Spirits, free in the de∣termination of themselves to good or evil, and compensating this good and this evil with suitable torments, suitable triumphs.

Answ. Three Answers offer themselves to this Objection.

1. Answ. This also yieldeth that on which the whole weight of the Argument against Free-will lieth, the righteousness and wickedness of intellectual Spirits; that is, the highest Beauty, the foulest De∣formity upon the principal parts of the Divine Work, to which all the other parts serve. The great and Ultimate ends of these intel∣lectual Spirits, unexpressible eternal joys or miseries, hang all upon a meer contingency, upon the motion of the Will, which hath no place, no part in the Divine Design, which receives no form, no measure from any model in the Workman, or any part of the work. Thus are the great consequences, the great ends of the work, in the great, the principal parts and passages of it, altogether undetermined and uncertain, in the nature of the work, and in the continuance of the Worker.

2. Answ. Doth not this seem much rather a reflection upon, than an exaltation of the Divine Goodness, Justice, and Wisdom; that the righteousness and wickedness of intell•…•…ctual Creatures, the high∣est good and evil in the whole work, the eternal blessedness and misery of its own so great, so glorious Births and Images, should be of so little moment to the Divine Nature, to the Divine Goodness, Justice, and Wisdom, that they should be left entirely out of the Divine contrivance and conduct, without the compass of all reason and proportion, to an uncertainty, an indeterminateness of which no account can be given, as effects of the blindest chance which was ever entertained into the most blind and confused imagination of the most vulgar Spirits? But this subject of the Divine Goodness and Justice, and the Argument taken from them to justifie this freedom of the Will, belongs properly to the second Book, where the Reader may meet with a large discourse upon it. I shall therefore thus lightly pass over it here.

3. Answ. The inconsistency of the setting up intellectual Spirits, in this freedome, by the Divine Power and Wisdom, with the very essences of all Power and wisdom, with the whole nature of things created or uncreated, will also find its proper place in other follow∣ing Arguments, which is therefore only toucht here.

4. Argument.

Next to the Wisdom of God, the Power of God, seemeth to furnish a fourth Argument against this Liberty of the Will.

We have it proclaim'd from Heaven by the mouth of God Himself, That Power belongeth to God. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, That Power belongeth unto God, Psal. 62. 11. Joseph saith to Pharaoh, That his dream was repeated, to declare the certainty of it. A Repetition also is design'd to express the weight and consequence of that Truth, which is twice over affirmed. No Truth hath a clearer certainty, or beareth a greater weight upon it in the whole nature of things, than this, That Power belongeth to God. Jesus Christ, who is the only true God, is said by the word of his Power to uphold all things, to bring forth, and to bear up all things, as the Greek word manifestly and commonly signifies. This alone bringeth forth all things, all spirits. This alone beareth upon its bosome all its own Births, as a root the plant with all its fruit. Here only in the sense of this truth, with an immediate repose upon it, do all things, all hearts find rest.

Power is here by the Psalmist expressed absolutely, unlimited, in the abstract; all Power is Gods, and of Him: So the Hebrew phrase imports.

God is the first Seat and Spring of all Power, in every kind. All Power supernatural, natural, civil, moral; All Power in every State undetermined, determined; All Power in every degree, the Power of acting; the Power in act hath its first seat in God, and cometh down from Him.

There is a three-fold Power,

• 1. An Active Power.
• 2. A Passive Power.
• 3. A Power in Act.

1. The Power of Acting, which as it belongeth to the forms of things, which are either Spirits or spiritual, so it self is a Spirit or a spiritual form. This is defin'd to be a principle of Acting. This is it self an eminent and universal Act, or active form like a Spring; containing and sending forth from it self variety of Acts or forms, as a Spring doth streams. This Power is more excellent than the Act which is produced by it.

2. The Passive Power, is that of matter, which as an obscute shade, comprehending or hiding variety of Acts or forms in it, like Plants; obscured and contracted there, like Plants in their seeds in the Earth, or the Intellectual and sensitive Soul, with all its treasure of Intel∣lectual, of sensitive forms, in a sleeping Body. This Power is inferior to the Act, which, when it is brought forth, is the exaltation of this Passive Power to an higher degree of Being; it is indeed, as a spiritual Act or form, encompast with, obscured within its own shade. As the Sun calleth up the Plants out of their seeds and beds in the dust, so the Spirit it self, the Spiritual Act or form shining forth from the Active Power upon this shade of matter and of the Passive Power, awakeneth it into a beautiful form.

3. Power in Act. All Power purely Active is ever in Act. Such Power is alwayes abstracted from matter and a spiritual essence or form, eminent above all things in matter, an universal comprehend∣ing variety of Acts or spiritual forms in it self.

Every Active Power, in matter is compounded, being partly Active, and partly Passive. This Power is never brought into Act, but as it is excited and awakened, from without, by its Object, from above, by power abstractive and purely active, shedding its beams upon it. Thus in the Schools they distinguish between the Active Un∣derstanding in man, separated from matter in its operations, and the Passive, which ever worketh in Conjunction with the material and imaginative faculty; like the Moon, having some obscure light in it self, but depending upon the illuminations of the Active Under∣standing, as its Sun.

Power and Act are distinguished, not as two several Beings, but as the same Being in several states, modifications, or degrees of Being. When Power, as it is a spiritual and universal Act, comprehending all its own Acts formally and eminently in it self, being all at once in Act within it self, brings forth it self into any particular or single Act in matter, This is the same Power contracted, and so in a less degree of perfection. When a Passive Power in matter springs up into Act, This Act is the perfection of the Power. The Power and the Act here are the same form, sleeping and awakened, in the seed and in the flower.

All Power is Gods. As he is the most pure, perfect, and universal Spirit: so is Power in Him, the most pure, perfect, and most uni∣versal Act. God gives this Testimony of Himself, I am Alpha and

Omega, The beginning and the ending, (saith the Lord) Which is, and which was, and which is to come, The Almighty, Rev. 1. 8. As the Power of God comprehendeth all Powers, most eminently and most actually, in •…•…imself; so all Powers in Him are ever most per∣fectly in Act, being themselves pure Acts: God is said to work all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph. 1. 11.

Power is the principle of Activity. The Will is the inclination or spring of internal motion in a Spirit, whence all external motions flow, as commanded by those internal, and immediate, or elicite motions. So is the Will also the principle of Activity, and the same with power in every Spirit.

Power is a principle of Activity, a spring of Action or Motion; Motion, Action, are the form in communication, diffusing and pro∣pagating it self. The Will of God is goodness it self, the Object being the Actuation, the perfection of the Will: The object and the perfection of the will being most perfectly one with the will, in the Divine Nature. Goodness is properly and formally the principle of communication: The more there is of the nature of good in any thing, so much the more communicative and diffusive it is. Thus is, upon this ground also, the Will and the Power of God the same; both being that Divine Goodness, which being the supream and universal form, comprehendeth all forms of things most perfectly in it self, and diffuseth it self endlesly into all forms.

Neither let this trouble any person, that there are evil Powers as well as good, that there are Powers of doing evil as well as of do∣ing good, that there are communications and diffusions of evil as well as good, which is manifest in Original Sin. For all Power in every state and degree in its own nature, is a participation of the Divine Power, and truly good. As all good in every rank is truly good, and a stream from the Fountain of good, yet may every subordinate good be turned by accident into evil, if it be broken off from its subordination to the supream good, and be terminated in any other principle or end: so also is every communication, or propagation of things, in its own nature good; each form, which is propagated in every communication, being good, and a branch of the first good. As Evil and Sin are themselves privations, and deficiencies of Being; so is the propagation of these by Accident, or rather no propagation in truth, but a deficiency in the propagation and communication, from the deficiency in its principle.

But as the VVill and Power, so also the Will and Wisdom in the Divine Nature are properly and formally the same in their most pro∣per, most formal conceptions and definitions. The Divine VVill is goodness it self. Goodness is the suitableness, the agreeableness, the harmony of things, by which they are desirable to each other, by which they become the perfection of each other, being as one self, diffusing it self into many forms within it self, in each of which as a distinct-self, it entirely answers it self. This Harmony is the proper and essential form of VVisdom, which thus falls in with goodness, and so with the VVill, by giving to all things their pro∣per

forms, measures, weights, bounds, and all manner of proportions in which the Agreeableness and Harmony consisteth.

Saint Paul seemeth plainly to instruct us in this, That the Will of God being goodness it self, The first, the supream goodness, being the Spring of all the Divine inclinations, motions, and communicati∣ons, giving to each thing its Being, Form, and proportions, is proper∣ly both the Power and the Wisdome of God, when he saith, That he worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will. The power of working, and the Counsel in working (which is Wisedome) are both here attributed to the Divine Will.

At the same time, the holy Apostle signifieth also, That this Divine power comprehendeth all powers in it self, and is one pure, perpetu∣al, universal Act, comprehending all things, in their highest and most eminent acts, within it self, diffusing it self into power, all acts of power, when he expresseth this in the present Tense, which, according to the Rule of Grammarians, doth also imply a continued act, That God worketh all things, according to the Counsell of his Will. As the Divine Power is one pure, eternal, universal Act within it self, (which is the Divine Goodness, the Divine Will, the Divine Wisdom in the highest and amplest activity;) so from their eternal Originals in this universal Power, in this universal Act, spring by a Divine emanation all Powe•…•…s, all Acts in all seasons, in their proper forms, measures, and proportions, through the whole Creation.

Having thus laid the ground, let us build up our Argument upon this ground. There is implyed and supposed in Discourses upon this Question, a three-fold Power in the VVill.

1. The VVill it self, is the power of the Soul, by which it wil∣leth.

2. The VVill hath a power of Acting freely.

3. There is the power of the VVill in Act, as often as it acteth: and now in this joynt sense of having its power in Act, it is no more free. VVe will not now dispute the distinction of these powers: Only as we have before asserted the Power of acting, and the Power in act are both the same Being, the same form in different states or de∣grees of Being, Accordingly, both are eminently originally seated in God, and formally derived from God, who is the seat and spring of all Power.

As I have before touched a great part, if not the whole weight of this question of the power in the VVill, to determine it self, and to act, (which is confessed to be an effect of the Divine Power) and of the determination (the acting of this power in the determination of it) which is ascribed to the power it self, without any dependance upon the supream Power, How doth this ground of the freedome of the VVill, laid in this distinction, vanish in the light of this Truth (like a shady Ghost, before a Divine appearance) That the supream Power is a most pure and perfect Act, and so comprehendeth all Powers in its self, not only in their potentiality, but in their seve∣ral acts? If the Divine Power be omnipotence it self, that is, all Power, it is Power in every state, Power indeterminate or determinate, Power in Act as well as the Power of Acting.

I shall seal up this Argument with the signature and impression of the Divine VVill, as it is goodness it self, power it self, under one Formal conception. Goodness hath this essential to it, to be diffusive. Every good, the more it communicates it self, hath the more of good in it. Goodness then most simple, most absolute and perfect; diffuseth it self most simply, absolutely and universally. This is that Sun which encompasseth the Heavens from one end to the other, which penetrates to the neithermost parts, to the center of the Earth, from whose heat and force nothing can hide it self. This toucheth most intimately, most powerfully, disposeth most sweetly and beautifully all things, every state, every distinction of things, the Will of each Spirit, each determination and motion of the VVill. The goodness of God is upon, above, and over all his Works, saith the Psalmist. It not only extends it self adaequately through all, but transcendeth all. It not only fills, but overflows all.

Although the simplicity of the Divine Nature suffereth it not to be the subject of any relation to the Creature, yet doth it terminate re∣lations from the Creature to it self. Thus doth the Divine goodness, in the Divine VVill, terminate the relation of every created VVill to it self, in the agreeableness or disagreeableness of every Act. This supream goodness then hath in it self the measure of this agree∣ableness and disagreeableness which it receiveth not from without, but hath originally in it self. So all the acts of the VVill, according to their conformity with, or deformity from the first goodness, derive themselves from their proper Original in that goodness.

Accordingly the Goodness and the Will of God, hath a complacency in every Act of the VVill if it be agreeable to it, or an aversion from it if it be disagreeable. Thus is the created VVill, in all its motions, with their several most exact distinctions, the Object of the eternal VVill in its love or hatred. Every faculty or power hath an essential relation to its proper object, and dependance upon it. It is drawn forth by it into the most proper Acts of its essence, and re∣ceiveth from it the perfection of its essence, which consisteth in its Activity. The supream VVill, the supream Goodness, being per∣fectly, eternally in Act, hath all its Acts, all its Objects, by which it is actuated perfectly, eternally, from and in it self.

Object. You will say, How can this be? Can the Divine VVill, which is infinitely pure in the beauties of Holiness, in the joys of all blessedness, comprehend in it self Good and Evil, agreeableness and disagreeableness to it self, which are the proper measures, and essential forms of all good and evil? Can it comprehend in it self Objects of Love and Hatred? Can this Fountain send forth from it self sweet and bitter waters? How is it holy, if there be these mixtures? How is it happy, if it be thus divided within it self?

Answ. The Flats and Sharpes, the Bases and Trebles, the Concords and Discords of Musick, are all comprehended by the spirit of the Musician in one Act of Harmony, in one simple and undivided Act of Harmony. This single Act of Harmony, by its proper force, first invented and formed all Musical Instruments, prepared them

for it self through all the diversity of touches and motions, actuated them, that it might compleatly figure and display upon them and upon all things round about them, it self, in its own full sweetness, according to all those rich varieties, virtually and eminently com∣prehended within it self, in one simple Act. So in one indivisible Act, or Idea of beauty in the Spirit of the Painter, lie together all the differing lines, lights, shades, and colours, by which that Idea reflecteth it self in Picture upon the eyes and spirits of the Beholder. In like manner, the far greater perfection, the Will of God, being a simple 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Goodness, supreamly indivisible and eternal, con∣taineth originally eminently within it self complacency and aversion, love and hatred, with their several objects, in their several forms and degrees, in their several risings and fallings, most properly and harmoniously suited to each other. From it self doth this supream Goodness bring forth its own Objects, like tuned Instruments wound up or let down, every way prepared for the diffusion and discovery of it self upon them, in those Varieties of love and ha∣tred, complacency and aversion, with their several steps or modifi∣cations, which, as so many distinct forms or virtues of the Divine Goodness, dwell together there in the highest and most absolute Va∣riety, as in the fullest and most unconfined Unity.

The Will of God is commonly and rightly distinguished into positive and permissive. Evil is by the permissive, Good from the positive Will of God. All the determinations and motions of the Will in every Spirit, are, at least, from the permission of the Divine Will. I will not now enquire, how the most perfect Goodness can be permissive in that, in which it is positive: This only I take, which is universally granted, That there is no permissive Will in God, without a positive Act. He permitteth nothing, without a positive Act of his Will for that permission. If the permission of any Act in the will of man antecede that Act, then is that act or motion of the humane will the Object of a positive Act of the Divine Will for the permission of it, before it be brought forth here below. This objective existence in the Divine Will, is either the Copy or the Original to that motion in the will of the Creature. If it be universally received by all Understandings from the universal Har∣mony and principles of Truth, that the Divine Nature can take no Copy, receive no Impression of any thing, from any thing without it self: it necessarily followeth, that all motions in the will of man flow from that antecedent existence, which they have in the Divine Will, as the Objects of that.

Thus, that I may not be too long upon this Head of Arguments, drawn from the Divine Nature, I have contracted three sorts of Arguments into one. Those from the Will, the Goodness, the Power of God being drawn together under that of the Divine Power. I have in it built upon this sure ground, The VVill of God is the first, the supream, the essential Goodness: The Goodness of God is his Power. As every thing depends upon the VVill of God, in its permission or positive Act, As all things in their mea∣sures

of Good or Evil, lie together in the Divine Goodness, the Original, the eternal measure of all Good and Evil; so have all Powers, all Acts and Motions of Power, their first spring, their exact form and rule in the Power of God.

5. Argument.

The fifth Argument is the Knowledge of God. This is in our present cause, a most celebrated Argument. I shall therefore endeavour to represent the state of it, with all exactness, clearness, and integrity, that I can bring to it.

I shall divide this Argument into two parts:

• 1. The first is the perfection of the Divine Knowledge.
• 2. The second is the Original.

1. Part. The first part is the perfection of the Divine Knowledge. This consisteth in two things:

• 1. The Comprehensiveness.
• 2. The distinctness of the Knowledge.

VVe then know perfectly, when we know all things capable of being known, when we know each thing in its proper distinction, in all its distinct forms, properties, and relations.

Shall not He who made the eye see? Shall not the Fountain of Know∣ledge contain all Knowledges, after the most exact and eminent manner? Shall not He know all things most accurately, by whom all things know, and are known? St. Peter saith to Jesus Christ, as to God, Lord, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. See two things remarkable here:

1. The universality of Christ's Knowledge, extending its self to all things.

2. A confirmation of this, by a particular instance; Thou knowest that I love thee. The instance is most pertinent to our present pur∣pose: It is that peculiar Object of Knowledge, which is the ground and subject of this Discourse, the Will of Man, the motions of the will, the freest of these motions, acts of Love; Thou knowest that I love thee.

Object. Here it may be said, and is said by some, The knowledge of all things doth not contribute to the perfection of Knowledge. There are many things in knowing of which, there is neither beauty, nor any beautiful delight. The Orator makes it the property of a wise man, to seek the knowledge only of things excellent and worthy to be known.

1. Individual and particular things are below the Knowledge of God. Philosophers teach us, That there are no Ideas, no Forms, no Images in the Divine Mind of individual and particular things. All the Ideal Forms and Images seated there, are universal, eternal Sub∣stances, Essences, and Truths, sixed in most beautiful, harmonious, unchangeable proportions. Individual and particular things are uncertain, undetermined, composed of changeable, tumultuous, confused accidents, slight, and ever fleeting like shadows. Upon this ground the Philosopher concludeth, That individual, or singular things, can be no Objects of Science, or true Knowledge. This

Master also teacheth us, That they are the Objects of Opinion only, which is like these things ever fluctuating, unsubstantial, ungrounded, obscure, unsatisfactory, unworthy, not only of God, but of all sepa∣rated and Divine Spirits.

2. Many things are too mean, and too vile for the knowledge of an excellent Spirit. The Understanding is transformed into the Image of that which is known. Mean and vile Objects embase the Mind and Spirit, into which they are received. The similitudes and forms of froth and filth in a Divine Spirit, are like Rats and Croco∣diles in the Egyptian Temples, or dead Carcases in the stately Pyramids.

Answ. That God knoweth all things, to the lowest, the last division and distinction, that He knoweth the least, the obscurest, the vilest of all things, the Scriptures testifie by their whole design, by plain affirmations and instances every where. From these, which are innumerable, I will cite only two:

1. The first is that Heb. 4. 12. where we read of the living Word of God, That it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The words in Greek properly import this sense; A critical Distin∣guisher and Judge of the motions or agitations in the Will, and sensitive Appetite, of the notions or images in the understanding or fancy. The Word of God in the verse following is clearly declared to be a Person, God Himself in Person; For these are the words, And there is no Creature which is not manifest in his sight: But all things are naked and bare in his eyes, with whom we have to do.

There is nothing more universal, great, or glorious, than thought; which raiseth it self to the heighth, and extendeth it self to the am∣plitude of the visible Heavens, and the most vniversal Glories. There is nothing more particular, more low, more vile, than thought, which levels it self with every single atome and dust, which sinks down to the depth of all divisions, darknesses, deformities, and con∣fusions, as low as the neithermost Hell. Yet is God a Critical Distin∣guisher of the thoughts, singling every thought, setting it naked in its own proper form, clear with all its circumstances, in his light and sight. There is one thing in this Scripture, which hath an eminent sense in it self, and suitableness to our purpose. The 12. verse be∣gins this Argument with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Word of God; the 13. verse con∣cludes this Argument with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Word. In this last place, we translate it thus, With whom we have to do. The Greek phrase lite∣rally sounds thus, To whom the Word is to us. The Greek term first signifieth Reason, which is the internal Word, or the Understanding; their Speech, the external Word, the Image of the internal, of Reason, of the Understanding. The Holy Ghost seemeth by this expression in the end, answering and ecchoing to that in the begin∣ning, to design this sweet and rich sense; that our Reason, our Un∣derstanding, in its internal form, in its outward Image, which is our speech, so far as it is right and true, answering to Jesus Christ, turneth it self to him, formeth it self according to him, fixeth it self upon him, flows back into him, who is the first Reason and Understand∣ing in the Godhead within, and its Image without in the Creature.

The inward or outward word of Angels or Men, is to this word, as the Eccho to the Voice, the Face in the Glass to the living Face, the reflection of the Beam to the direct Beam, the Stream to the Foun∣tain. The same term signifieth also, the proportion of things.

All things then, which fall within the compass of any created Un∣derstanding, of any expression in discourse, lie first, most clearly, most compleatly in Jesus Christ, the Divine Understanding, the Divine Word, as the Original spring and measure of all understandings and expressions. What ever, in the nature of things, beareth any propor∣tion of great or little, universal or particular, beautiful or deformed, lieth according to that proportion most distinctly in this Divine Word, the Divine Understanding, which is the first, the most uni∣versal proportion and harmony, the Original spring and measure of all proportions.

2. I will add another Scripture, which, as in a Picture wrought by a most skilful hand, sets with lively force before our eyes the least, the lowest things, shining with highest beauty in the Divine Mind, embrac'd with the dearest sweetnesses by the Divine Love. You shall see there the Divine Understanding and Affection encom∣passing all things after the most universal manner, and insinuating them∣selves into each thing, with the most exact distinction of singulars and individuals.

Jesus Christ, endeavouring to bring us into a Divine Liberty, by being free from solicitous cares and fears, endeavouring to fix our Spirits upon the Divine Goodness, by a full Trust, and sweet Rest, an absolute and delightful Resignation, affirmeth, That even the hairs of our head are numbred. Therefore saith he, Fear not, Luke 12. 7.

Number is defined to be quantity discrete, because it doth most ac∣curately discern and distinguish all the differences of things, as they lie in the whole and apart, both at once. What so sleight, of so little weight, as a single hair of the head? yet God taketh an ac∣count of every single hair, while he numbreth all our hairs.

The numbring of things, marketh each single Unity, for a treasure, for the object of esteem and of care in its preservation. This ap∣peareth by the Latin Poet, who bringeth in the Shepheard Swain speaking thus to his Companions upon the Downs, when they were to strive for the mastery, in their Rural Musick.

I from my flock, dare nothing lay with thee. A Father, a Step-Mother hard agree To number both each day, the bleating sheep; One of the wanton Kids, the tale doth keep.

Each single hair then is a Divine Treasure, attracting the Eye of eternity, which diligently and delightfully watcheth for its eternal preservation; for all our hairs are numbred in eternity. As it is said of the Stars in Heaven, God there calleth them all by their names, none of them is wanting, every one shineth as a fixed Star in that supream Orb of Glory.

God hath made all things, in number, weight, and measure. Number is here interpreted to be the Character of the species, or kinds of things, according to their distinct essences. The first and supream link in this Chain of essential forms, is the Idea, or the eternal Pat∣tern or Spring of each Essence, in the Mind of God. The Pythagorean Philosophy foundeth its heighest mysteries of Divinity upon the nature of numbers, as the most agreeable figures of it. The Ideas or eternal Images of things in God so seem to shine forth most clearly, with the sweetest and fullest beauties, in abstracted numbers.

Our Lord saith, That little Children have their Angels, which al∣wayes behold the face of their Father in Heaven. Behold here each single hair of our heads, which is an excrement only; how much more each part of our Bodies, each motion of our Spirits, each moment of our Lives, or circumstance in our affairs hath its Idea, its first Image and Truth, its Original first true Being and Beauty eternal; in the heart of God. These at once are the Eyes of God, which by day and by night circle round, watch over, and guide them, the in∣visible Chambers and Treasures of God, where they are laid up, and kept safe, as his Jewels.

Number hath been reputed the first seat and measure of proportion, Harmony, Musick, and Beauty in every kind. Number, and Beauty or Harmony, are both by Philosophers and Divines appropriated to Intellectual Spirits, who alone are capable of them as their proper operations and objects. Both agree in this definition, which seemeth to comprehend not only the proper objects and operations, but the Essence also of immortal Minds; an Unity diffusing it self into Va∣riety, keeping it self undivided and entire through the whole Varie∣ty, bounding the Variety with its self, and binding it up within it self. A great and learned Divine teacheth us, That there is a vast difference as between the natures, so between the numbers of the Humane, the Angelical, the Divine Understanding. The numbers which men apply to corporeal and material Subjects, divide, break, and lessen the subject. In these numbers that holdeth true, that the whole is greater than any single part. The numbers with which the Angels number things, retain through all, the indivisibility of the Unity, with diversity of forms. Here each form or essence compre∣hendeth under its own undivided Unity all forms of things, accor∣ding to their proper and compleat amplitude, agreeable to the An∣gelical State, but under the Character of its own peculiar and distinct property. But the Divine number, transcending all divisibility and diversity joyneth in one, the simplest Unity, with the amplest and most distinct Variety.

Thus after a Divine manner, by this Divine Art of Numeration, are all the hai•…•… of our head numbred in the mind of God. Thus every single hair there, maketh up a Divine Harmony, composed of a rich Variety of Divine Proportions, according to the number of all the other hairs, as in the whole, so in the several parts, and single unities. Euery single hair is a center, and a seat to the various pro∣portions between it self and all the rest in particular, as well as also to the Harmony of the whole.

I shall now give a brief answer to the Objections alledged against the Universality of the Divine Knowledge:

1. No Object, however low, however base, embaseth the Divine Understanding. The figures of Mice and Emraulds formed in Gold; lessen'd not the lustre, or preciousness of the Gold, neither did they detract any thing from the sacred Worth, Majesty, or Divinity of the Ark, by being put into it. This Ark was t•…•…e Figure of our Jesus, the essential Image, the Divine Mind, Understanding, and Wisdome of the Father. Lazarus with his Rags, his running Sores, and the Dogs licking them, represented to the life in an excellent Picture, done by the hand of Vandike, of Titian, or some great Master, is a worthy and most agreeable entertainment for the eye and fancy of any Princess, a rich Ornament and rare Jewel for the Chamber or Cabinet of a Prince. The Plague with all its loathsome and horrid attendance, conceived in the mind, formed to a most exact Image in Virgil's fancy, from thence transferred into his inimitable Poems, becomes worthy of the Ear, the Fancy, the Mind of that great and most polite Prince, Augustus Caesar; yea, cloathed thus with this Image, the mind and fancy of the Poet transfuse, and present them∣selves to the spirit of that Prince, as of all learned and judicious Readers, with a heightned Beauty, and kind of Divinity.

That is a certain Rule, That every thing received, is received ac∣cording to the nature and manner of the Recipient. The Divine Un∣derstanding cloathing it self with the Images and Forms of all Ob∣jects, desormeth not it self, but maketh them Divine: To the Pure all things are pure, but to the Unclean nothing is pure, but even their minds (the Angelical part,) their Consciences (the Divine part of their Souls,) is desiled.

2. Individuals and particulars, together with Universals, appear distinctly to the Eye of God, at once, in one view. The Philosopher of old, affirmed all things to be in all. The shady blueness in the clear Heavens above us, which seemeth to terminate our sight, is said to be the deficiency of our sight, which is uncapable either of ex∣tending it self to so remote an Object, or of having any Commerce with a Body so pure, so glorious, and so near to the nature of a Spi∣rit. Thus the contraction, the obscurity, the materiality, which seemeth to be the bound of our eye and sense when we look to in∣dividual things here below, are in truth the weaknesses of our senses, falling short of the glory shining in the nature of things.

The light of God, which is alone the true Light, having no dark∣ness in it, and so the measure of all Truth, is stiled by St. Peter, A marvailous Light. This is one of the wonders in the Divine Light. All things here are transparent; each particular, each part is seen di∣stinctly in the whole, and the whole compleatly in •…•…h part.

The Psalmist singeth of this holy and high mystery, That with God the Darkness and the Light are both alike, Materiality and corpo∣reity, as they appear before him, are spiritual and Divine forms. In the face of each material, individual object, shineth the whole na∣ture of things. This is manifest upon a three-fold ground:

1. All things in Heaven above, and Earth beneath, meet in the constitution of each individual. In Jacob's Vision Angels were seen descending and ascending upon each step of the Ladder, from the Throne of God Himself above, down to the Earth below. Thus by the Scale of Praedicaments in Logick, and in Metaphysicks, we are taught, That universal and superior Beings, even Being it self in its absolute and unlimited fulness, descend into the essential constitution of each inferior Being. In them also the inferior Being is seen ascen∣ding again, according to their several steps, inasmuch as it is eminently comprehended in them.

Thus the Descent and Ascent of things is presented unto us in the first Philosophy, by division, composition, and resolution. Being it self in its absolute fulness, divides it self into potential parts, which are therefore called potential, because it self remaineth potentially, and undividedly in each of these parts. As in abstracted numbers, the Unity divideth it self into many Unities; then this Unity, or first Being, by its own unconfined power and virtue, joyneth or compoundeth these several Unities or Parts, into the common Unity of one particular form, as a particular number. Again, the first Uni∣ty, or Being, according to the Laws and Measures of all Harmony in it self, dissolveth the common Unity of this inferior form, into its several parts or unities. These are gathered up into their superior Unities, and so return to their first Original, as they return, retain∣ing their distinction still, but becoming more and more absolute and universal, according to the nature of those •…•…perior Unities, by which they ascend.

2. Each Being in its lowest division, and narrowest contraction, beareth imprinted upon it, and inseparable from it, the figure of the first and supream Being. For this is the first, efficient, and exem∣plar, the last final cause of all things. Having the figure of the first Being, it hath in that, the figures of all Beings, in all their various Unities and Distinctions. As every shadow is inseparable from its pro∣per Body: so, where the figures of things are, there are the truths themselves, as the Original, exemplar, formal causes of those figures, which flow by perpetual emanations from them, as Beams from the Sun.

3. The Omnipresence of God, filling all in all, even in the fullest sense, as the Essence of all Essences, as the Form of all Forms, as the Being of all Beings, in every the most contracted, most obscure degree of Being, as in a clear Chrystal Glass, presenteth Himself with open naked face to Himself, and so all things in Himself.

After this manner God, whose Knowledge as Himself, is one pure, perfect, eternal Act, at once beholdeth all Particulars in their Uni∣versals, all Universals in their Particulars, according to all their seve∣ral Modes and Distinctions. He, to whom all things are naked and bare, seeth all things in every one, and every one in all forms at once. The night of materiality and corporeity, before him shineth with a determinate Beauty, with a bright Transparency, as the day of spi∣ritual substances. The contracted shades and darknesses of Indivi∣duals

and Particulars, are as the ample and full sight of Universals. From this, which I have said here, will easily slow my third An∣swer.

3. Nothing is mean and vile, seen in a right and universal Light. Every degree of Being to the least, the narrowest, and obscurest Point, hath Being it self in its amplitude and majesty in it, without which it could not be. Every thing that is in any kind or degree, hath the Throne of Being set up in it, with God the supream King, and Fountain of Beings, sitting upon it and filling it with the train of his Glories. Thus look upon each Being, and you will see it as a spacious Palace, a sacred Temple, or a new and distinct Hea∣ven.

Being it self, in its universal Nature, from its purest heighth, by beautiful, harmonious, just degrees and steps, descendeth into every Being, even to the lowest shades. All ranks and degrees of Being, so become like the mystical steps in that scale of Divine Harmony and Proportions, Jacobs Ladder. Every form of Being to the low∣est step, seen and understood according to its order and proportions in its descent upon this Ladder, seemeth as an Angel, or as a Troop of Angels in one, full of all Angelick Musick and Beauty.

Every thing as it lieth in the whole piece, beareth its part in the Universal Consort. The Divine Musick of the whole would be changed into Confusion and Discords, All the sweet proportions of all the parts would be discorded, and become disagreeable, if any one, the least, and least cons•…•…red part, were taken out of the whole. Every part is tyed to the whole, and to all the other parts, by mu∣tual and essential Relations. By virtue of these Relations, All the distinct proportions, of all the parts, and of the whole, meet in one, on each part, filling it with, and wrapping it up in the rich Garment of the Universal Harmony, curiously wrought, with all the distinct and particular Harmonies.

Every Distinction, and so every distinct degree of Being, hath its proper Original, its exemplar Cause, its distinct Idea in the first Di∣stinction, the Son of God in the Trinity, the Divine Wisdome or Mind, the essential Idea or Image of the Godhead. The distinct Idea or original Image of each distinct Being, is here in the form of God, comprehending clearly and compleatly all distinct Ideas, all the Original and eternal Truths, or Images of things, with their highest Distinctions, in a perfect Unity, in it self. Every thing in its proper form, is the figure and impression of this Idea. The Idea, and its impressed form, mutually enfold and wrap up each other. The lowest and obscurest form of Being, reigneth, shineth virtually, eminently in its highest Truth, with the full and distinct Glories of all the Divine Ideas, united in its own proper Idea, as a Throne in eternity, or as in the bosome of its Father and Bridegroom, both in one. In like manner the Idea, with all the Divine forms of things, lieth seminally, in each particular Being derived from it, like a Di∣vine Sun, in the center of it, forming it and all its motions every mo∣ment, drawing its own Picture, and figuring its own Glories upon them all.

Every degree of Being, as it is a part of the whole, is a Divine Variety, springing forth from, and comprehended in the Unity of the whole. The Unity of the whole comprehendeth all parts in∣divisibly in it self. If it were not so, how or where should all the parts be compared each with other? How should a judgment be made of their suitableness and proportions to each other? The Uni∣ty of the whole, with the full variety of all the parts, resteth en∣tirely in each part. In what way, or by what force otherwise shall each part be figured, bounded, acted to an agreeableness and corre∣spondency with all the other parts, that the universal Musick may be full and entire?

Reader, I only offer it now to thy thoughts, to be determined by thy judgment, whether all that which we call materiality and cor∣poreity, do not by the charms of this Musick awaken into a Divine Company of beautiful Spirits. If this be the proper Character of a Spirit, an Unity indivisibly comprehending a Variety, all Variety, ac∣cording to its rank and degree in it self, diffusing it self through the whole Variety, and yet resting entire in the bosome of each Variety.

Doctor More, whose Books full of excellent Wit, Learning, and Piety I alwayes read with much pleasure and profit, although I be not alwayes so happy, as to find my Understanding tuned to a con∣sort and harmony with his, seemeth to me like a Prophet as well as a Poet, to sing this mystery, drawn forth from the sacred retreats of the divinest Philosophy in his Poems. There he painteth out with liveliest colours the whole Universe, as a great Soul and Spirit, as a Contexture, as a Quire, or as a Dance of many Souls or Spirits, where materiality and corporeity are seen, not as distinct substances from the Soul, but as figures wrought by the Soul her self, in the low∣est part of that Vestment, with which spun forth from her self, she is cloathed, and comes forth upon this lower Stage; As the lowest point of that beam, whose head is in the bosome of the Sun. So with him matter and body seem to be the lowest shade, into which the Soul descends within her self, and the various forms which she puts on in this shade.

That seemeth to be most pleasantly harmonious to this, which the same Author hath in that pleasant piece of his Cabbala, upon the be∣ginning of Genesis. There he figures out to us the Soul and the Body, which he calls her Vehicle or Chariot, that is, the Image into which she descends and rides forth here below, by the Male and Female, or the Bridegroom and the Bride, which are also Father and Daughter. The Body thus appears as a beautiful Image of the Soul, springing forth from the Soul, abiding by a mystical marriage in the eye and bosome of the Soul. In it, as in a clear and chrystalline Glass, the Soul, with ravishing delights, seeth her self in all her own beauties and sweetnesses. Of it she saith, This is life of my life, beauty of my beauty, my self springing forth from my self in a beautiful Image, and so represented to my self. Thus is the Soul tyed by ir∣resistible Charms to its Body. This way the Soul falls from her puri∣ty, and the joys of her immortality, while she sinks into, and looseth her self in this shadowy Image, as if this were her only true, her

only beautiful form. She hath now drowned in a deep oblivion her Angelical, her Divine Beauty and Being, unto which she should have risen, as to the Original Glory, by those inferior and fading figures of her self in this shade. On these Original Glories, as her golden full-spread wings, she should have descended into this shadowy Image, and upon the same wings have carried up in her embraces this shadow into the eternal Light. This divinely pleasant figure of Dr. More, brings to my mind some thing of Plot•…•…nus, in his Discourses upon the Soul, not unsuitable to him, and to our pre∣sent purpose. He teacheth us, as from a sacred Oracle, That every Soul cometh down into this World as a Caelestial Venus, or an hea∣venly Beauty, the beautiful Daughter and Image of the supream God, attended with a Caelestial Cupid, or an heavenly Love, her own Birth, ever with her, ever before her, her dear delight and glory. By this Love, the seed of the Divine and eternal Beauty in the Soul, sprung up into a Child, into a pleasant youthful growing Image, upon his wings she springeth up, and takes her flight abroad into all forms of things, as so many scattred figures and births of the first Beauty, until, with her Love, she return into the bosome of that.

Dr. Cudworth, who by giving us a short relish of that rich treasure of Knowledge and Learning, remote from the Vulgar, causeth also a regret in us, that he entertaineth us with no fuller a Feast, when that Feast might be a Divine Feast, Sacrifice, and Marriage all in one, enformeth us from the Jewish Doctors, That all Souls come down from above in a married, or Conjugal state. This seemeth to make one entire piece with Plotinus and Dr. More. The ever blessed Trinity is the first Marriage, and glorious Prototype of all Marriages. Here the Father is the Lover and Bridegroome, the eternal Word or Wisdome is the Daughter and Bride, his essential Image, in which his own glories and sweetnesses offer themselves to his Divine View and embraces. The Holy Spirit is the Love, which springeth forth from these two, which is the Fountain of the Divine Birth and Ge∣neration between these two, which uniteth them in eternal embra∣ces, in a Divine fruitfulness, by which they Spring up within this Marriage-bed, into innumerable Births and Images of themselves, in this their Love-Union.

Souls, as they are the Birth, so do they bear the Image of this Tri∣nity and Marriage. The Soul bringeth forth within her self this sen∣sitive Image, which is her Daughter and her Bride. The love which unites these two in a Conjugal state, which springs mutually from both, as they are living Images each of other, as they are one self or sub∣stance in two distinct forms, which is the same in both, is the Spirit of life and motion. This makes the sweetness of life, and of all vital motions, That Love is their Spring and their Spirit. From this Love, as from the Marriage-bed, doth the Soul by her own pro∣per Bride, which is its Body, bring forth it self into all sensitive and corporeal forms, which furnish and fill this visible World. Thus Souls come down in a Conjugal state, while each Soul brings down its Bride and Body in its bosome, out of which it springs, as Eve

sprung forth out of the side of Adam, his fair and flourishing Image, while he flourished in his pure and Primitive Beauties. I confine not that sentence of the Jewish Rabbies to this sense, which yet seemeth to me (although perhaps not the only sense) as proper in it self, as it is pertinent to our Discourse. If these grounds be good and firm, clear will it be, That there is nothing vile or mean in the nature of things, rightly seen, when as all things are Spirits, or Souls in their married state; that is, heavenly Beauties, and heavenly Loves in vari∣ous forms and postures, where all their motions are the loves of these Souls in their lovely flights. Some one may think this to be under∣stood and confirmed by that of the Psalmist, cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews, He hath made his Ministers Spirits, or Winds, his Angels a flame of fire. The Fire, the Air, all the Elements in their various composition, the Coelestial Bodies, are Spirits, in their proper Vest∣ments, Vehicles, or Chariots, with their proper Brides.

These heavenly Beauties and Loves may be cast into a deep sleep here, yet are they still sleeping Beauties and sleeping Loves, beauti∣ful and lovely in their sleep. Although, like Abraham, they may have disorderly, deformed, distracting Dreams in their sleep. In these Dreams an horrible darkness may fall upon them, strange Visi∣ons may be presented to them. They may see dreadful fires in the midst of this darkness, themselves, their dear Bride the sensitive Image, like Doves, lying dead, and divided one from another, like innocent Beasts of Sacrifice slain, and cut into several pieces, with the brands of fire, or burning Lamps passing between them. In the horrour of these Dreams, and in this sleep, they may lie, till •…•…hey be awakened, by that joyful sound of a Trumpet from Heaven, or of an Arch-angel, Arise and shine, for thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; Which St. Paul expresseth thus, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, for Christ shall give thee light. Then shall these Bridegroom-Souls, with their beloved Brides, their Bodies, appear after this dark and tempestuous night of their sleep and dreams, in the fresh and pleasant morning of a new day, as new Heavens and a new Earth, with their Beauties, all new married anew to each other.

Some have imagined, that these Souls, together with their Bodies lying yet in their bosomes above, before their descent and fall, had a prospect of this terrible dream in that Image of the Divine Wisdom, which did then shine clearly in their Natures and Essences. It seem∣ed to them an horrible Pit without any bottom, a vast and howling Wilderness full of deformed and dreadful Monsters, to which their sweet Beauties and Chastities, dearer than their Lives, would be ex∣posed to be deflowred and defiled by them, full of Dearths and Droughts, full of fiery Serpents, which with stings fixed in them, with their infused Poyson would fill them all over with pains and horrors, would subject them to that most deformed and most dread∣ful Monster, the King of Terrors, death it self. Thus were they for their own sakes most averse to this descent and exile from their na∣tive home, from themselves, from their own true, sweetest Purities, Beauties and Beings.

But in that Divine Glass, in which they saw this Prospect, they saw also that this terrible Dream had a Divine mystery of wisdome and love in it, that out of it was to arise from every part and circum∣stance in it, a far more transcendent Glory to the supream Love, their Father and Bridegroom. They saw, that this Love it self would go along with them through all, though hidden and vailed, reserving his own Purities and Sweetnesses in the midst of all. They saw, that he in the midst of those hidden Purities and Sweetnesses, would pre∣serve that Love which he had to them in eternity, when he beheld them in that first-born Image of all loves and lovelinesses, and that in these loves and lovelinesses he would conduct them, and direct their way through this Wilderness. They understood, that he would be a seed of hope to them, by the virtue of which they should certainly in the set time, in their proper season ascend out of this Pit, return home from this Exile: then should they be received with an universal shout of Joys and Glories, resounding from all things with∣out them, and within them, when they should see all these sufferings break up into the most heightned Glories of the supream God, the supream eternal Love, and themselves with Raptures of highest pleasures, transcending all Humane or Angel-like thoughts, taken up into the fellowship of these Glories.

This imagination seemeth to some to be well-grounded upon, and naturally to arise from that Scripture, The earnest expectation of the Creature (or the Creation) was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him (or for his sake) who subjected the same in hope; be∣cause the Creature (or the Creation) it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of Corruption, into the glorious liberty of the Children of God: For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain till now.

Reader, I hope it will not be unacceptable to you, that I have endeavoured to divert thee and my self by these Speculations, which seem to be very pleasant, representing to us the Soul, as a Coelestial Bridegroom with its Bride and Bridal Chariot both in one, its Body descending and returning, as in a Caelestial Dance, measured by the Musick of the Divine Harmony. Let these things have with thee that weight of probability or truth which thou thy self shalt give to them in thine own judgment. However I have thought them pro∣per to my present end, the illustration of that truth, the harmony of things in the whole, and of the several parts as they lie in the whole, which seemeth to me to be clearly character'd in all the beautiful and bright lineaments of Reason it self, which its essential form, is an universal Harmony, and to be expressed through the whole Scrip∣tures as their proper design, which are a Divine Draught or De∣scription of the Divine Harmony in its eternal Original, and in its Figure.

St. Paul saith, That all things work together for good for those that love God. The only true love of God, is the immediate and proper Birth of the Divine Love, its clearest and fullest effulgency, and its most perfect reflection upon it self. This is the essential Character

of a Saint, as he is the Spiritual man. To this person St. Paul saith, All things are yours, this world, lise and death, things present, and things to come; you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods.

God is the Head, the beginning, the end, the measure of Christ. Christ is the Head, the beginning, the end, the measure of a Saint. A Saint is the head, the beginning, the end, the measure of all things. All things through the whole World, through the whole compass of time, in both those bright and black Regions of Life and of Death, are exactly tuned each to other, and struck with a Divine Hand of Power and Skill with all manner of sweetness, to make the most agreeable and charming Musick to God, to Christ, and to a Saint, as they dwell together in one heavenly Image, and in one eternal Spirit. All things, even the most distant and most con∣trary, meet together by a most admirable and ravishing consent, in one most beautiful Harmony of a perfect, universal, eternal good, to a Saint, as he is in Christ, as Christ is in God, as all three lie toge∣ther in the pure, the soft, the spacious bosome of Divine and eternal Love.

But I shall speak more fully of this universal Harmony in the Se∣cond Part, when I shall have occasion to shew, what place Sin hath in this Harmony, how Disorder it self is reduced into Order by its powerful Charms, how the Harmony is made perfect by a full Va∣riety; The Variety cannot be full without a Contrariety; how in the contrariety the Law ariseth, as a ministry of wrath, out of which Sin takes its birth as a Contrary, which is the proper correlate, or mark, or object of the Divine Contrariety and Wrath, how this Divine Contrariety heightning it self to the utmost upon Sin and Sinners, to declare to the utmost their irresistible contrariety to the Divine Na∣ture, and prevailing over them, in the Person of Christ consuming them, consumes it self together with them as a flame with its fewel, like a flame it vanisheth into the pure Air, Light and Heaven, where all things now spring again, and are seen new in the beautious Glo∣ries and ever-flourishing sweetnesses of an Universal and Divine Harmony, through the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

But we will leave these things to their proper places: In the mean time this Truth seemeth t•…•… be firmly established upon unmoveable grounds, that nothing, as it lies in the whole, in all its causes, con∣currences, relations, and circumstances, is mean, vile, or little, un∣worthy of the Divine Mind, which if it were a stranger to any the least circumstance of things, even the first, most unperceptible motions of the Will, were uncapable of judging of the Harmony of the whole, of Good and Evil, which consist in order and disorder, especially of mo∣ral Good and Evil, the chief Good and Evil, of the chief pieces of the whole Work, Intellectual Spirits, whose Good and Evil in order to an eternity of Happiness or Misery, are defined and determined by every motion of the Will.

If I have been at the expence of much time and pains upon this Subject, the Omniscience of God, or the universality of his Knowledge, and the exactness of it in this Universality, I humbly conceive that

I have not done it impertinently, being moved to it by these two Reasons,

1. Learned men know, that this Flower in the Crown of the Great King, this Attribute of God, hath been denied to him in the face of the whole World with great confidence, with bold pretences of Rea∣son and Learning opposed to it. I have heard this perfection of the Divine Nature, in the Process of a Discourse upon this freedome of the Will, questioned, Whether it were proper to God, or a Perfection? and this Question made soberly there, where modesty, goodness, and learning have met together.

2. This Argument of the Divine Omniscience appeareth to mewith so great weight in this cause, that if this be freely granted, and clearly understood, I cannot at all comprehend by what way or means the liberty of the Will, now examined, can suppart it self, with∣out the overturning the whole fabrick of our Philosophy and Divi∣nity, with the absolute ruines of all their beauties and strengths. I hope in a few words to manifest this in the Second Part of this Argu∣ment, which now follows.

2. Part. The Second Part is the Original of the Divine Know∣ledge.

This knowledge of God ariseth not from without, but from within himself. This Truth seemeth to carry the full and sweet light of its own evidence brightly shining in the face of it. If God receive any thing from without, he is no more immutable, impassible, independent, a pure Act, a perfect eternal Act, a simple Unity, but a composition of divers and different ingredients. If any Species or Image, if any Knowledge flow in upon the Divine Understanding from any external Object, not only all the Properties, Perfections, and Attributes ascri∣bed to God, but his Godhead it self, with all its most essential Glo∣ries are shaken, overthrown, and utterly demolished. If God be re∣ceptive of any thing from any other, he is no more the first, the uni∣versal Being, the Fountain of all Being, and so no more God. It is generally and rightly affirmed, That the Essence of God and the Ope∣rations are the same, that his Knowledge is Himself. If then He re∣ceive the knowledge of any thing, He receiveth also Himself, and his Godhead from a Forreign Spring. W•…•…o, saith St. Paul, hath been his Counsellor? or who hath given to Him first, that He should repay?

Object. Some eminent Divines seeming to understand, the force of the Reason in this Point to lie in the fore-knowledge of God, have believed themselves to have gained a full Victory over it, by an imagined co-existence of God with the Creature. For, say they, God is infinite, as in his Essence, so in his duration. By virtue of this infiniteness he after an immutable manner co-exists with the Crea∣ture in all its changes. Eternity, which is the duration of the Divine Essence in its undivided and unchangeable but unconfined Unity, co-exists with time, the duration of the Creature in all its numerous and successive motions, in all its undivided moments. Thus, say they, God properly foreknows nothing, but knoweth every

Creature, as it is present with Him in its own proper existence and time.

Answ. If all this in the full Latitude be freely granted, I humbly conceive, that the present Argument remains still in its full force, unshaken, untoucht. But first, I shall crave leave to offer some in∣congruities and mistakes, which make me uncapable of satisfying my self with this co-existence, thus formed and founded:

1. This seems to take away out of the mouth of God Himself, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah, one Principal proof of his Godhead, which he pleaseth to make use of several times over, and in which he glories, challenging all the gods of the Heathen to come and try their Divinities by this Test; This is the Power of Prophecying, the declaring of things to come.

2. Doth not the Co-existence mentioned commensurate God with the Creature, make God the Subject of a Relation to the Creature, establish a proportion between Him and the Creature; which are all contrary to the infiniteness of God, as to the most uncontroverted Principle of Divinity shining in upon us by the light of Nature, or of Revelation.

3. If God by Co-existing with the Creature, in the moment of the Fall, at the beginning of time, declares that full Victory of Christ over the Serpent at the end of time, which he knows only by co∣existing with that action in its proper scene and duration, at the winding up of all Ages; Doth it not follow, that the beginning, and the end of time in their proper seasons and durations, co-exist and fall in with each other? For this is a Maxim of universal force, That those two things which meet in a third, meet in themselves.

4. The best Understandings, pure and clear as the Sun it self, clouded with flesh, while they see through so thick a medium, are capable of various and disproportionate views of their Object. A weaker sight fixed on, and confined to some narrower and more particular Image, may in that sometimes discover to better eyes, which extend themselves to a more spacious Object, an error in that smaller Point. Accordingly those great Spirits, with whom I now treat, perhaps may find themselves mistaken in their sense of the Di∣vine Co-existence with the Creature, if they please to consider this which I shall now propound.

God indeed is infinite. By this infiniteness he is above all propor∣tion to, all commerce with every thing that is finite. By this infinite∣ness he comprehends in himself all Creatures, with all theirExistencies, Formalities, and Modifications, after an infinite manner, eminently, and with the highest transcendency. Thus he beholdeth, thus he converseth with all things within Himself.

Divines generally place the Joys of glorified Spirits in that Beati∣fical Vision, which is the sight of all things in the most amiable face of the most highly adored Trinity, as in the only clear Glass of all Images of things, in their eternal Truths. Is not God Himself blessed in the first place with this Beatifical Vision? Doth not He much more certainly, with a delight proportioned to a God, behold all things

in this Glass of the Trinity, in the supreamly beautiful face of our Jesus, his own eternal Birth, his own essential Image, the full reflecti∣on of himself upon himself? Is not this first and full birth of the God∣head its most universal Birth, where by bringing forth him, he brings sorth all things at once in him, according to their first and fairest Births, as beautiful lineaments composed of Divine Lights and Shades in this face and Divine Form, where all pleasantnesses dwell.

Thus, of a truth, God co-exists with all Creatures, hath in Himself, in his Essence, Existence, and Duration, the exact measure of all Essences, Existencies, and Durations; but this is according to the manner of the Divine and Uncreated, not of the created nature, as he comprehends all in himself.

5. I come to that now, which I promised, as my chief and con∣cluding Answer.

Here I shall endeavour to make it appear, that all this established in the most desired sense falls short or flies wide off our present Ar∣gument, leaving it altogether untoucht. For let it be, that God doth exist, together with the Creature, in the proper and formal ex∣istence of each Creature; yet still we fall upon this Dilemma, The knowledge of each Creature, in the Divine Understanding, arriveth from without, or ariseth from within.

The first of these hath following it an horrid train of direful incon∣veniencies represented above, such as I may well tremble to menti∣on and the holy Angels stand amazed to hear, the passibility, mu∣tability, dependency, imperfection of the Divine Essence in it self, compositions, divisions in the Divine Nature: in a word, the despo∣sing of God from being God. The Devil indeed in all forms pra∣ctiseth this as his chiefest Artifice, the establishing of such imagina∣tions and opinions in our Spirits, as by the dividing of the Godhead in it self, may divide God from Himself in our sense of Him, and so in truth separate us from the supream Unity, the only Crown of all Righteousness, Rest and Joy, that by dividing he may Reign.

If I deceive not my self thus this imagination of Gods receiving his Knowledge of created things from the objects themselves, existing in their own proper forms out of their causes and present before him, is thus attended with such a troop of infernal Monsters, as can∣not but affrighten us from entertaining any such conception. The first part of the Dilemma being then removed, the second is esta∣blished, namely, that the knowledge of all things in the mind of God, hath no spring from which it streameth besides God Himself. All the Attributes of God, all the sense which all Nations, all Spirits have of God from the light of Nature or of Revelation, his All-sufficiency, his Being the beginning, the end of all things, testifie with great concurrence to this Truth. It seemeth to me indeed Impertinent to use many words to clear or confirm it. If then God have his Know∣ledge of every Creature from within, he comprehendeth all the Creatures in his own Divine Essence, either formally, in their own proper Natures and Existencies, or virtually and eminently, as in

their first cause. No other way seemeth to me imaginable, by which the Divine Mind should be at once both the Eye and the Glasse, to behold all things in it self.

If we place any Creature, according to its proper form, in the Divine Essence, we place it upon the Throne of the Godhead, and cloath it with the form of God. It remaineth then, that the Divine Knowledge is the intuition or view of things in their first and eternal Original.

Moreover, Knowledge is the Im•…•…ge of the thing known, in the un∣derstanding of him who knoweth it. There are only three sorts of Images: 1. The Original Image, the exemplar cause and p•…•…ttern. 2, The essential form, which is the thing it self. 3. A Copy or Fi∣gure of this, as the Picture taken from the life, and the shadow cast from the substance. Thus the Lord Jesus in his spiritual Glories, as He is the Divine Understanding, is the Original form of the Sun, the Suns Sun. To him agrees that, which Plutarch delivereth to us from the ancient Philosophers, that the God of the Sun, which inhabits the Sun, excels the Sun in the sweetness, beauty, and glory of his Light, ten thousand times more, than the Sun doth this Earth, or the darkest Cloud. The Sun it self shining in these visible Heavens, is the essence or essential form, framed by this pattern, sprung forth from it. The Light, the Sun-shines, and Suns which we severally take in with our eyes, are so many figures, and pictures, or shadows rather of this Sun flowing from him.

If we believe the Creatures in their essential forms, or in their shadowy figures, to inhabit the Divine Understanding, we either exalt them to an heighth too far above them, by bringing them into the Divine Unity, and so making them one God with God; or we debase the Divine Nature, by bringing it down to a composition with things forreign and inferior to it.

The Philosopher teaches us, that Science, or clear and certain Know∣ledge, is only the knowledge of things in their causes. The first and most perfect Spirit is only capable of this knowledge, which alone is most perfectly clear and immutable, the knowledge of things in their first and universal cause. Thus the Divine Essence in the Person of our Jesus, the Divine Wisdome and Understanding, the brightness of the Divine Glory, the Image of the Godhead, pure, naked, full, substantial, eternal, is both the only Object of the Divine Eye, worthy of it, and compleatly suited to it, and also the Species or Image, in which and by which alone all Creatures, all forms of things in Heaven, Earth and Hell, are presented to it. This is that Unity, which in its pure simplicity, being free from all division of parts, or diversities of forms, is absolutely unbounded, and so diffuseth it self into the most perfect and unconfined Variety, comprehending it entirely, altogether undivided within it self, as in a spiritual most spacious Palace of Light, and Paradise of the Divine Life, upon the high and flourishing Mount of Eternity. This is that Unity in its first distinction, and so in the most full Variety, our Jesus; in whom all fulness of Nature, Grace, and Glory dwelleth in its sweetest repose,

in the most perfect Harmony of all the most heightning Beauties and Delights. This is the Beatisical Vision, in which God clearly con∣templates, compleatly enjoys Himself, and all things in Himself, as in the Christalline Fountain of the Godhead.

Let me now bring home to my present mark, this present Argu∣ment, by drawing up my whole Discourse upon it, into three short Propositions:

1. God, who knoweth all things distinctly and exactly, knoweth every Act of the Will, every actual determination of it in each Act.

2. God, who only knoweth all things, by beholding them in the Glasse of his own Essence, in the divinely beautiful, the only be∣loved Person and form of his only eternal Birth, his own Son; there hath the view of the Will of Man in every distinct motion, act, and determination, as in its first exemplar cause in eternity.

3. The will of man then in every motion, act, and determination of it, is from eternity predetermined in the Divine Understanding, as in its first cause and Original form. Upon these grounds, the Know∣ledge of God is at once a fore-knowledge of future things, and a know∣ledge of things present: 1. It is a fore-knowledge, as it sees things in their first cause, in a state far above and transcendent to the state of their proper existency, as they stand forth out of their causes. 2. It is a knowledge of things present, as eternity and the Divine du∣ration containeth in it self the measures, the exemplars, and so the most exact forms of time and every successive duration, in its several aspects of past, present, and to come. Besides that, as the Sun looking forth, makes the Day and the Light, with all the visible Images, with which it beholds the Heavens and the Earth, so the Divine Eye is at once a Glass to it self, and a Fountain to all things; by behold∣ing things every moment in it self, it doth formally every moment send them forth from it self: so at once it seeth them in their formal cause and present existence.

6. Argument.

The sixth Argument drawn from this Head, is the infiniteness of God. This is a Negative expression, representing to us a Positive Per∣fection, which surmounts all Assimilations, all Similitudes or Images, which the highest understanding of men or Angels is capable of taking in, or the whole Creation united in its most abstracted and heightned Excellencies of bringing forth. We figure it to our selves only by a Negation, or removal of all figures, of all terms or bounds. We seem to touch it with the Top point, and simplest Unity of Spirits, by a silence and cessation of all created powers or faculties in us. We seem to apprehend it only by being comprehended of it, and lost in it. If we knew and tasted the unexpressible Sweetnesses, the high Rap∣tures, with the Divinest Pleasures, in the contemplation of the Divine Infiniteness, how far should we be from streightning or darkening its Glories by limiting, and in limiting, dividing them? If God be God, that is, before all things, and above them, he is absolutely unchangeable: As He is unchangeable, He is every where,

every way the same, equal and entirely perfect, equally and endlesly removed from all bound and limit. If God be God, that is, the first of all things, He hath the Fountain of Life in himself. Thus he is ever fresh and new, ever springing into fresh and new Glories, ever equally, endlesly removed from any conclusion or confinement in his Births and Beauties.

The Divinity and Poetry of the Heathen from their most ancient, most sacred mysteries, teach us, that Love is the Eldest and Youngest of all the gods▪ Our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, is the God of Love in the truest, the sweetest and the best sense. He alone is Love it self, in an abstracted eternal Divine Essence and Substance, pure Love, altogether unmixt, having nothing in it self different, or divers from it self; thus is an infinite Love, a sweet and clear Sea, which swalloweth up all bounds, all shores and bottoms, into it self. This Love, as it is every way the same, is the ancient of Dayes, the eldest of all the Gods. This Love, as it ever flourisheth with a perpetual Spring and Youth of all Beauties, of all beautiful Delights, is the youngest of all the Gods. Thus is this most high and holy Love, the God of Gods, the First and the Last, containing all things within its own blissful bosome, as the bound of all, but being it self every way beyond all bounds, without all bounds, infinite.

How infinite are the joys and blessedness of this Infiniteness! How is this infinite God, our God, the only true God, a Paradise of Love, infinitely heightned in all the beauties and sweetnesses of Love, infi∣nitely diffused through all things, beyond all things? How is He at once the Paradise of Love, with its infinite heightnings, with its in∣finite amplitudes in every part, in every point of things, entirely per∣fect? How is it every where the same, every where new, to the satis∣faction, to the swallowing up of all the most fixt, most various, most vast desires, into an Aybss or Ocean of Delights equally uncon∣fined and undivided! Shall we then limit the holy One of Israel? If we do not, we must ascribe this greatness to Him, that He contains all things in Himself. In Him all things live, move, and have their Being. We must attribute this immenseness, or immensurableness to Him, to fill all in all, as the only distinct, exact measure of all things; himself still transcending all, and being measured by nothing. It is said of Christ, That the Church is the fulness of him, who filleth all in all. The Humane Soul, or Intellectual Spirit, is a rude imperfect shadow of the Divine Infiniteness. Our thoughts are living Images in various postures and motions. They are in a manner the Creation, the Creatures of our Souls. They live, move, and have their being in our Souls. Our Souls alone fill all in them all. How far greater is the distance between God and his Creatures, than between the Soul and its Creation? How much more less, even less than nothing are all the Creatures to God? How much more truly, more entirely are they all that they are in Him? how much more absolutely is he their ful∣ness, silling them all in all? All things then, all Essences, all Lives, all Vital Powers and Faculties in each Essence, all Motions of life, all Acts or Operations of every power and faculty, are in God. He

alone filleth all in every Essence, Life, Power, Faculty, Motion, Act. All are in Him, have all their distinct forms, degrees, modes of being in Him, to the least degree, or shadow of Being.

Thus Angels and Men, the Understanding and Will of each Man, of each Angel, every act, motion, determination of each Under∣standing, of each Will, are comprehended in God. God entirely filleth all, every Person or Spirit, every Understanding and Will, every Determination and Motion. Where we exclude him out of any Spirit, Essence, Power, or Operation, there we set a bound to the eternal Spirit, there we limit the holy One, that pure Essence and Act, there we say to Him, Thus far shalt thou go, no farther.

If God be acknowledged for Being it self in its purest simplicity, it is Being alone which can bound him. All without him, where he ceaseth and terminateth, is not Being. But who understands not this, that that which hath no Being can be no bounds?

7. Argument.

The seventh Argument is the causality of God. The celebrated Ar∣gument of the Philosopher, by which he asserts the Divine Being, is the necessity of one first mover. For, if the causes of motion did not terminate in some one first mover, but did proceed to an infiniteness of successions, all things will be at a stand, motion will universally cease. For an infinite succession of causes could never be past through, nor arrive at any effect.

This determinates the truth of a God, and the Nature of a true God, that He is the first Mover, the first Cause.

The force and dignity of this first Cause declareth it self to us in these following Maxims, which stand fixed in the eternal Reason of things, as in their proper root, and shine clearly in the evidence of their own Light, and have their Truth sealed by an universal Testi∣mony.

1. The first Cause is the universal Cause. All things, all causes and effects, all causalities and efficacies, all order and connexion of things, are virtually and eminently comprehended in the first Cause, from which, according to their proper places, and eternal patterns, they flow.

2. The first Cause is most of all, most truly and most fully, most pro∣perly and most powerfully the cause of every effect.

3. The first Cause is more intimate to every effect than any second Cause. It is most intimate to every effect, with an intimateness of pre∣sence and power, it is immediately omnipotent with an immediateness of Person and of Virtue, of Operation and of Efficacy.

4. Every second Cause hath its causality, acteth and produceth its effect, in the virtue of the first Cause. Therefore Philosophers and Di∣vines have taught us, that all Causes and Effects, in their orders and connexions, are onely explications or modifications of the first Cause.

5. That which is the Cause of the Cause, is also the Cause of its Effects. The Operation of each thing followeth its Essence. All Operations, which are second Acts, are folded up in the first Act,

which is the Essence, and flow forth from it, as that unfolds it self in them, within the compass of its own proper Orb and Sphere.

All these Maxims reign with an universal Soveraignty of Truth and Power through all orders of things, over all minds. They seem to be unmoveably established upon the Basis or Foundation of that Principle, That which is the first in any kind of things, is the uni∣versal Root, Rule, Truth, and Life, to all things of the same kind. That alone is such by it self. All other things of the same kind are such in the force and virtue of that, by its presence and power in them.

Let us now bring this down to the particular Subject of our Discourse. If God be the first Cause, if the Will be a second Cause, if the Acts of the Will, and the determination of the Will in these Acts, be the effects of the Will, then is God the universal cause of all these, then is he more truly and effectually the cause of each act and determination of the Will, than the Will it self, then is he in the immediateness of his Person, Power and Operation, more intimate to each act and determination of the Will, than the Will it self, then doth the Will, with all its acts and determinations, in their several Or∣ders, Connexions and Circumstances, lie virtually and eminently in the Divine Will, as in their first Cause, from which, in their pro∣per seasons and places, they flow distinctly forth, as that first Will, which is one pure eternal Act, unfoldeth it self into them.

A great Philosopher and Divine representeth all Births and Pro∣ductions, those of Flowers and Trees in Gardens, of Beasts in the Fields, of Fishes in the Sea, of Birds in the Air, of Celestial Light, of Men and Angels, as so many Songs of Praise celebrating the first Birth and Production, the eternal Generation of the Son from the Father in the Trinity. For, saith he, all other Productions or Births spring up and stand, in the virtue of this.

All causes and effects in like manner are so many Divine Songs, sounding forth through the whole Heavens and Earth the Praises, the Power, the Efficacy of the first Cause. For in the womb of that, as they all immediately fall in the bosome of that, they lie to∣gether in its virtue and presence, they spring and flourish, its sacred Image and Impression they all bear divinely engraven upon them. I have now finished my Arguments drawn from the first Head, the Nature of God.

Gentle Reader, Perhaps I may seem to thee to have drawn out to a great length, and to have made frequent large Digressions upon this Head of the Deity. I have indeed willingly taken every fair occasio•…•…, as I have past along through this Land of Life and Bliss, amidst the Gardens of true Adonis, the eternal Son, to stay thy self and me some moments, upon the contemplation of the charming Prospect, as also to gather and present thee with some of the Paradi∣sical Flowers and Fruits which grow so plentifully here. I have en∣deavoured in my way, according to the narrow measure of my weak capacity, far below the Glories of this Object, if not to open, yet to point out to thee the Excellencies of the Godhead, as they lie in their first and fairest ground of eternal life.

Two Reasons have moved me to this,

1. God is the first and fairest Ground, the clearest and sweetest Light of Truth. The Philosopher hath taught us, That demonstra∣tion is only by first and immediate Principles. The first and imme∣diate Principle is that, which hath the Light of Truth immediately seated and shining in it self, which receiveth not its evidence from any Superior Medium or Argument, which immediately displayeth its beams from its own face on the eye of the Understanding, without the interposal of any inferior Medium or Argument. This is the only Principle of Demonstration, and this is God alone. He is the Father of Lights, the Intellectual Sun, God unvailing Himself in our Spirits, setting Himself, as the golden Seal of purest Light, upon our Spirits. Thus, by his immediate embraces, he impregnateth them with the Divine forms of truth. In this sense St. Paul saith, That our Faith is in the demonstration of God. Accordingly he describeth the truly Evangelical or Spiritual Knowledge, to be the shining of God in our hearts, unto the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.

He, that in a clear Evening fixeth his eye on the Firmament above him, beholdeth by degrees innumerable Stars, with springing lights sparkling forth upon him. If God lift up a little of his Vail, and by the least glimpses of his naked Face enlighten and attract the eye of our Soul to a fixed view of Himself, with what Divine Raptures do we see the eternal Truths of things, in their sweetest Lights, springing and sparkling upon us, besetting us round in that Firmament of the Di∣vine Essence, as a Crown of incorruptible Glory?

The heavenly Bridegroom in the Canticles singeth thus, I am come into my Garden, my Sister, my Spouse, I have drunk my Milk with my Wine, I have eaten my Honey with my Honey-comb. If this lovely Bridegroom lead our Souls, his Bride, into the Celestial Gardens of the Divine Mind, in the eternal Spirit, then they with a pleasure unexpressible sit and sing in those Gardens. Now we drink in the Christal Streams of all Truth, now we drink in the Light, as warm Milk, most sweet and lively, from the warm and living Breasts of Truth, now we eat the living Honey of Divine Wisdome, as it drops and distills upon our Lips, from the Honey-comb it self of the Divine Nature.

2. God is the Pleasantest, the only pleasure of all Objects. He alone is the proper Object, the true and perfect Pleasure of all Fa∣culties, of the Understanding and of the Will, the only sweet Rest, the only and full Feast of them both. God, as He is the Light, which hath no Darkness in it, so is He Love without any allay. He is that Love, which is Goodness it self, Beauty it self, Sweetness it self, all alone, unmixt, at the utmost heighth of purity, sweetness and simplicity, all in all of Him, and all one in Him. This is that Trini∣ty, which is the fulness and majesty of the Divine Essence, out of which all the Attributes, Properties, and Perfections arise to our Understanding, and into which, in the clearest Light, they most clearly resolve themselves.

Goodness here is Beauty and Sweetness in their spring. Beauty is Goodness in its proper native and compleat form. Sweetness is Goodness and Beauty flowing or in motion, or goodness, as it springs up into beauty, and in the delicious bosome of that beauty, multiplies it self endlesly into innumerable births and forms. Goodness is the ever flourishing, ever youthful Father and Bridegroom, Beauty the most lovely Daughter and Bride, Sweetness the Marriage of these two.

Goodness, as it is the spring of all Beauty and Sweetness, is power in the abstract, in as much as Evil, the only opposite to Goodness, is the weakest of all things, weakness it self. Beauty, being the essen∣tial and full form of Goodness, being the abstract and exemplar of Harmony, is Wisdome it self, the only Intellectual Beauty, of which all the inferior Beauties of sense are only shadowy impressions and foot-steps. The Divine Sweetness being Goodness and Beauty in motion, is upon this account the first and highest Activity.

The Fowler draws the soaring Larks to his Net, by the reflection of Heavens Light, from a piece of glass upon the Earth. Thus the best Spirits, whose Musick and Flight excited or directed by no earth∣ly Interest, no force of Flesh, mount upward to Heaven and eternity, are most properly, most powerfully drawn to any Opinion, when it appears, as the pure unmixt reflections of the Divine Beauties falling from their heights of eternal Glory upon any Understanding, and from thence diffusing themselves to enlighten the darkness of this in∣ferior Region.

The first Beauty, and the first Truth, are one Being, both the first Form or Image, in which the Godhead represents it self to it self, in the most full and entire Harmony of all Perfections, at their utmost heights, as they rise up immediate and fresh in their eternal spring, and of it self with it self, as the first Image with the first Original. Thus every Truth in all its descents, springing from the first Truth, is also a Divine Beauty, in the Face of which the Divine Goodness shineth, smileth, and poureth forth it self in the most charming and attractive sweetness. If then it were rightly represented and rightly seen, it would by irresistible Charms draw at once the Understanding and the Will of every Spirit into its embraces.

We easily believe that which we desire. Reader, Set before the eyes of thy Spirit a God, whose Essence is Love. Represent to thy self a Love, which subsisteth in a Trinity of Beauty, Goodness, and Sweetness, all three raised to the uttermost heighth of Purity and Holiness, that being altogether without any mixture or allay, they are also without any bounds, all three so absolute and unbounded in Perfection, that they mutually unfold one another, most compleat∣ly and most clearly, all three, so heightned to the supream Point of Intellectual, or rather Superintellectual Life, that as they are Love, the band of all Perfection and Pleasantness, and so every Perfection in the Abstract and Unity, they are also in like manner compleat, living, and immortal Persons. When thou hast thus represented God to thy self most perfectly, most universally amiable in all Lights of

Nature and Grace, in every posture, in every glance, dost thou not at once most ardently desire this God to fill all, to be all in all, in this work? The work of some excellent Painter is known by this, that it is a finisht piece. Every part, every point hath its just and full proportions, as from a spring of life opening it self there, as if Na∣ture her self were a vital sense. This gives the life, the beauty, the sweetning to the whole piece, a living form to the Workman. Can we then think, that God, who is beauty and sweetness it self, who works immediately and alone, by beauty and sweetness in the highest Perfection, in as much as he works only and immediately by his Es∣sence, which is one and the same with its Operations, will leave any point of his work without the sweetning touch from his own hand? Can we think that God, whose Beauty is his Wisdome, whose Goodness is his Power, whose Sweetness is his Life, his Joy, his Glory, will leave this piece, his Creation, which he hath drawn from Himself, to be in the whole a Divine Picture of Himself, unfinish'd? Will he suffer any part of it to pass without its just and full proportions, in an in∣violable order to the whole and to the parts, upon which the life, the beauty, the sweetness of the whole depends?

We read in the Canticles, That the heavenly Image of God, that new Creation which is the spiritual Bride in a Saint, the joynts of the thighs are like Jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning work∣man. Cunning in Hebrew is there properly word for word, trusty and faithful. It implies a truth of skill and care in the workman, by which he exactly answereth the relation in which he stands to his work, the trust in him, the dependance upon him, and expectation from him. Motion is the chiefest part of Beauty, in as much as it is the most proper expression of Life, and the spring of Variety. This first Creation, the work of Nature taken together in its invisible and visible parts, from its beginning to its end, is a living Image of God, his Daughter and Bride, although it be a shadow only of the heaven∣ly Image, or the heavenly Image in a shadow. Are not the Wills of Intellectual Spirits here, the joynts of the Thigh of this Image, the manifest and most principal Instruments of motion, by which it ascends or descends, it turns it self about, and moves every way? Shall not then the faithful Creator, whose Truth, whose Goodness, whose Skill is the Idea of all Beauty in Himself, infinitely transcends all trust, all expectation, make these Joynts, Jewels? Shall he not here express the most beautiful Ideas of his Skill and Wisdome? Shall he not here lay on the greatest Riches of his Divine Goodness? Shall he not stamp on these the most glorious Seal of his Truth, his Faithfulness to the work of his hands? Shall he not give the most heightned life and sweetning to this Seal of his Goodness, Truth and Skill? Doth not he understand, that the perfection of the whole work lies, that the praise and glory of the Workman depends, principally if not en∣tirely, upon these Joynts, on which the motion of the whole in so high a degree depends?

I will briefly conclude this part of my Discourse. Reader, think of God as Sweetness it self, all pure, unmixt, unconfined. Think

of God, as the Spirit of Love, Beauty, Joy, all in one, in their most abstracted Essences, in their highest Exaltation, in their greatest amplitude, in their most potent vigour, incorruptible, eternal. Think of God, as the purest and richest Spring, without beginning or end; as the clearest Sea, without bottom or bounds, of all Per∣fections, in the highest degree of Pleasantness, of all Pleasantness in the highest Perfection. Think of all things together with thy self in this God, the Unchangeable Original of all, according to their first and truest forms, according to their eternal Truths, one Goodness and Sweetness together with this goodness and sweetness it self, one Spirit with this Spirit of all Loves, Beauties and Joys, in Divine figures, divinely distinct, as the first and fullest Variety, in the first and entirest Unity.

When thou hast thought thus of God, now think whether all things within thee do not with the fullest concurrence meet in this one only most passionate desire, that this God may alone conduct his whole Work, the whole course of all things, that he may be pre∣sent, may act, may appear alone, in every part, in every motion of it, as filling so many figures and shadows of Himself. After all, con∣sider whether that ground, in which is founded the desire of this, as the most perfect good, the Object of all desires, be not as firm a foundation for the belief of this, no less agreeable Truth to the Understanding, than it is of good to the Will. Can Goodness and Truth be separated, when Truth is Goodness in its essential Image, in its fullest, fairest reflection? Shall not the most perfect Workman bring forth the most perfect Work; the best from the best? Shall not the highest God, the most true of Himself thus do, who is the supream Good, whose Will is Goodness it self, where (as Ficinus upon Plato speaks) the highest Voluntariness, and the highest Necessity, most beautifully and most pleasantly meet, in the most inviolable band of the most true, the most perfect Good.

2. Head of Arguments.

I pass now to the second Head of Arguments, taken from the Me∣diation of Christ, and opposed to that Liberty of the Will, which is placed in a freedome from the predetermination of its Acts, in its essen∣tial Principles and superior Causes.

My method of treating of the Mediation of Christ, and directing my Discourse upon it to the service of my present design, shall be this: I will endeavour with all humility and holy reverence, by the con∣duct of that sweet Light which falls from the Face of Christ (by the guidance of his Eyes, the only Fountain of Grace and Truth) to set before us the Lord Jesus in those three principal Parts of his Me∣diation, as he is, 1. The ground. 2. The way. 3. The end of the whole Work of God.

1. Jesus Christ is the ground of the whole Work of God. This is the first and principal part of Christ's Mediation, in which he is the Golden Head of the whole Image of things in Grace and Nature. This well understood (according to the weak capacity of our Understanding here below) seemeth to make all the other parts of the Mediatorship, with the whole tract of things, plain and pleasant.

That, which in Divinity and Philosophy is understood by the name of a Person, is an Intellectual Being, compleatly existing. There∣fore God, Angels, (which are called Gods) and Men, made in the Image of God, which are also dignified with the Name of God in the holy Scripture, are only stiled and esteemed Persons. The reason of the Name, I humbly conceive to be this, Every Intellectual Spirit, ac∣cording to the propriety of its Nature and Essence, comprehendeth en∣tirely within it self, the principle of its own Essence, its essential form and operation, by comprehending in it self the whole nature of things.

The Understanding in its perfect Act, and Being in its largest com∣pass, are said (by Philosophers) to meet in a mutual proportion and union; the one being the proper and adequate Object of the other. Therefore the Greeks call every Intellectual Spirit, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the whole.

The prime operation of every Intellectual Spirit is contemplation. The first and immediate Object of its contemplation is its own Essence. In this Glass of living and immortal Light, all other things, according to their proper essences, in their several and essential forms, appear to it most clearly and delightfully, as its own Births and Beauties. God, the first, and most perfect, the Father and King of all Intellectual Spirits, is the truest Person. He alone in truth subsisteth in himself, exist∣eth without, and above all things. He truly containeth the whole com∣pass of things, in their unchangeable Truths and Substances within himself, although he Himself be the most absolute, and most abstracted Unity. Angels and Men, in the perfection of their Natures, are no more than shadowy persons. They have only shadowy Essences, a shadowy compre∣hension of shadows.

God then alone most perfectly and substantially enjoyeth Himself in the contemplation of Himself, which is the Beatifical Vision of the most beautiful, the most blessed Essence of Essences. This Act of Con∣templation is an Intellectual and Divine Generation, in which the Divine Essence, with an eternity of most heightned Pleasures, eternal∣ly bringeth forth it self, within it self, into an Image of it self.

According to the Perfection in which God knoweth Himself, and enjoyeth Himself, so is the Perfection of this Image. As those are, so is this clear, distinct and full. The more distinct the beam is from the first Light in its emanation, the more strong and full is the reflecti∣ou. This Divine Image then is at once most perfectly distinct from its Divine Original, most exactly equal to it, and most perfectly one with it. As then God is, so is this essential, eternal Image of God, a compleat and distinct Person in it self, in every point with the highest and most ravishing agreeableness, answering the Divine Es∣seunce in its spring out of which it ariseth.

If this Image were not a compleat Person, Gods knowledge and frui∣tion of Himself would be incompleat, without the pleasing and pro∣portionate returns of an equal Loveliness, Life and Love. If this Image were not most perfectly distinct from the bosome out of which it flourisheth, the knowledge and enjoyment of God would be con∣fused, more like to the blindness, the barrenness, the cold of darkness and death, than the life and fruitfulness, the warmth of beauty, life

and love, which all have their Perfection and their Joys in the pro∣pagation of themselves into most distinct forms, and the reflection upon themselves from these forms.

This is the first, and so the most universal Image, the first seat of all Images of things. In this all the fulness, the unchangeable riches of the Godhead display themselves in their first, their fairest, their fullest glories. All forms of things are here most proper, most per∣fect, most distinct, substantial, and true. Philosophers and Divines call the first Images of things, as they rise up from the Fountain of eternity in the bosome of this universal and eternal Image, Ideas. The Idea, in this sense, is the first and distinct Image of each form of things in the Divine Mind; The universal Image, of which we speak, is that Divine Mind or Understanding. This is the proper Idea of the Godhead, the universal Idea, the Idea of Ideas, and so that Mother of us all, which is above. Every Idea of each Creature is this Idea, bringing forth it self, according to the inestimable Treasures of the Godhead in it, into innumerable distinct figures of it self in the un∣confined Varieties of its own Excellencies and Beauties, that so it may enjoy it self, sport with it self, in these, with endless and ever new Pleasures of all Divine Loves.

Thus in every Idea of each Creature doth this universal Idea dwell at large, and freely shine forth with all its fulnesses and sweetnesses in a distinct form, as it self in another form.

The Ideas or Images being the only and eternal Truths of all things, do from themselves, as the true Heavens in eternity, send forth, as shadowy figures, the Heaven of Angels, these visible Hea∣vens, the Earth, all the Elements with their Inhabitants and Fur∣niture.

Each Idea containeth its own created figure, as the proper place of it; giveth it its essence and existence in it self, sustaineth it, and sup∣porteth it in its own bosome by new Births, or emanations from it self every moment; it filleth it throughout, as the Light doth the Air, or rather the beams in the Air. This alone is the unchangeable Truth, the true substance of each thing, the golden Head above, the inward spring below, the Christal Vessel which holdeth and en∣closeth every created Being, the living water of all Truth and true Being, which filleth every created Vessel.

Place is affirmed by the Jews, to be one of the Names of God. Christ saith in the Gospel, In my Fathers house are many Mansions. This universal and eternal Image, of which we speak, is a Divine Person: This is our Jesus, the God of all Glory, in the clearest, the fullest effulgency or brightness of all his Glories in his own most proper and most glorious form. This is the House or Palace of the Father upon the Mount of Eternity, the House of Ideas, or the first and eternal Images of things, which are at once, as so many Children of this Great King, the Father of all, and as so many Mansions in this House. Here in this House of God, as David speaketh, each Bird hath its Nest, hath its place to sit and sing near his holy Altar. Thus God, in each of these distinct and eternal Images, is the distinct and eternal Place of each thing.

As the golden Seals were the only place of the Impression, if there were nothing besides the golden Substance and the Impression; so is the Idea, or the Divine Image in our Lord Jesus, the only place of each thing. How sweet a Contemplation is this?

Every created Being, as a Figure or an Impression, which hath no ground, no foundation to sustain it, besides the Seal which makes it, riseth, flourisheth, fadeth and falleth, hath the whole compass of its beginning, way and end, in the soft and beautiful bosome of its own Divine Image or Idea in the Person of our Lord Jesus. Thus all things live, move, and have their being in Him. It is the Rule of the Philosopher, That all motion is made upon something unmoveable. We read in the first of the Hebrews, a place cited out of the Psalms, where it is thus said to Jesus Christ, The Heavens and the Earth are the work of thine hands, they perish, but thou remainest; They all wax old as a Garment, as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, thy years fail not. Behold Jesus Christ, as he is the eternal Image of the Godhead, containing the first Images of all things eternally in Himself, is the Divine and unmoveable ground, upon which the Heaven, the Earth, with all things in them (whose whole being is a perpetual motion and change) perpetually move.

Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God, as he is the first and most perfect Image of the Divine Essence within it self, and in this Image con∣tains those Images which are the first Patterns, the eternal Grounds, Truths, Measures of all things. The same Jesus is the Power of God in respect to that seminal or propagative Power in those first Patterns, by which, as sacred Springs, they multiply themselves by various streams, receiving all along from them the continuation of their Be∣ings, in continual motions, till by circling about they return to, and rest in the bosome of their Fountain. This is that pure and clear Sea of Ideal Lights and Lives, from which all their Rivers of Being go forth, and into which they return again, while that still is equally full, and capable of no diminution or increase.

This ground of the Work of God in Christ, and of the Mediation of Christ, seemeth to be the fundamental sense, though perhaps not the only one, nor that principally intended by the Apostle in those words, where he saith, That our Lord Jesus is the Image of the invisible God, and the First-born of every Creature. This last expression is di∣vinely contrived to be both in one, a collective and a distributive: with equal propriety of sense, you may read of all Creation, of eve∣ry Creature.

The holy Scripture in the Epistle to the Hebrews distinguisheth between the shadow and the Image, the very Image, the self Image of good things to come. The whole Creation, with the Law in its Angelical Glories, as it is the Crown and Ground of this Creation, according to the Doctrine of the Jewish Masters, and of all the Scrip∣ture, is a shadow of good things, and no more. Jesus Christ alone is the Image of God, and so of all good things, the very Image, the self Image, that Image which by its exactness is one self, with its Original God, in all those Glories, in which (by reason of their

excess of Light) He is in this Image equally glorious, and perfectly visible to Himself.

Jacob stileth his first-born, the Excellency of Dignity, and the Ex∣cellency of Strength. Jesus Christ being the first Image of God, is also in that the first Image of the Creation in the whole, the first Image of every Creature, in its distinct form, in its whole compass, as a part of the whole. Thus is He the First-born, the Excellency of Dignity, the Exceliency of Strength, both in respect to the Father of all, and of every Birth. He is the first effulgency, or shining out of the Di∣vine Glory, in every form imitable or inimitable.

If this Nail were fastned by a Master of the Assembliés, how un∣moveably would it be fixed, and be the frame of my design. So∣crates in Plato professeth to love his beautiful Friend▪ because he alwayes generated in his mind within, and his sp•…•…ch without, rational Discourses, harmonious Forms of things, beaut•…•…ul Images, con•…•…ting of agreeable porportions. Reason in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 intellectual Spirit, is a trea∣sure of Divine pr•…•…portions, the patterns and principles of its Activity. Every Intellectual Spirit by its Reason is a sacred Field, replenished with Divine Powers, Divine Springs and Forms of proportions and harmony, which compose reason in the essence of it, are at once Divine Flowers of Intellectual Beauties and Divine Springs, a pro∣lifick virtue of seminative and formative force, by which they propa∣gate themselves. Our Jesus is this Field, and this Paradise of Flowers and Springs in the Godhead, the Understanding, the Reason of the Godhead.

Every Workman, according to the measure of his reason and wisdome, hath in himself, before he beginneth to work, the form and perfection of his work. This is the end which first moveth the Agent, and setteth him on work. This is the reason, the rule of his works, which giveth him both life to it, and light in it. This Har∣mony of skill or reason within, is the Angelical Musick in the mind, to which all things in the work without do move; like Amphion's Lute, by sound of which the Walls of Thebes were raised.

Thus the Workman works by wisdome; For his God teacheth him. Shall not the only wise God much more work in Wisdome? Shall not He have the form of that Work, which he intendeth, per∣fect and plain, with all its proportions in his Spirit, before He begin∣eth it? Shall not He have his end, the pattern, the principle, the reason, and the rule of His Work in Himself? Or doth He work blindly, or by chance? Or is He enlivened or enlightned from with∣out for his Work? Doth He not from the treasure and measure of all harmony in his own mind give to it its proportions and perfections? Solomon bringeth in Wisdome, as a Person in eternity, speaking after this manner; When God stretched out the Heavens, when he laid the foundations of the Earth, when he digged up a place for the Sea, then I was with him. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel takes the Vail off from his Person, and discovereth this Wisdome in an eternal Per∣son, to be the Lord Jesus. For he saith, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and by

him were all things made. This is the internal Word of the Mind, the Wisdome of God, the essential Image of the Godhead, the Origi∣nal, the eternal Image of all things. In this Word, are eternally contained the Patterns, the prolisick Virtues, by which the whole Creation, with all things in it, are brought forth and formed. This is the Word in the Mind of God, in which the whole Creation is drawn forth, in which it lieth in the first and most proper draught of it, from the beginning to the end, before it cometh forth in it self. This is our Jesus bred with the Father in eternity, ever before Him, who thus day by day sporteth Himself, and playeth with Him, whiles in all his Work, •…•…e multiplieth and spreadeth forth round about him to the uttermost bounds of things, Divine Figures of those Arche∣typal and exemplar Glories which he seeth in him.

Can this then be? Can Jesus Christ thus be the ground of the Crea∣tion, and of the whole Work of God in it? Can the whole piece in all its proportions and perfection, lie here in the Person of this Jesus, in its first draught, in its exactest patterns, and the will of man with the motions of it be left out of this model? Is not the Will of every In∣tellectual Spirit, are not the motions of this Will the principal parts of this Work, are they not those Hinges and Engines by which the whole is turned about in all the great revolutions of it? Doth not the Ca∣tastrophe, the final change, doth not the finishings and perfections, the Ultimate and most glorious closes of the whole, on which the expectations of Men and Angels are fixt, in which the full Harmony of the whole Work, the full glory of the Workman do consist, and are discovered, depend upon these, the Will, and its motion?

If therefore these also lie in this Jesus, the essential, the personal Wis∣dome of God, their first ground, their most perfect pattern in eternity, are they not here determined, as in their first cause? But thus much of the Mediatorship of Christ, in the ground of it, as the first ground of the whole work of God lies most fair, most full, and flourishing in his Person in eternity.

2. Jesus Christ in his Mediatorship is the way of the whole work of God from the beginning to the end of it, a most beautiful and a most pleasant way. I shall set this way before us in two parts.

1. Part. Jesus Christ is the first and universal Creature, the first created Head, the first, the fairest Copy of the whole Angelical Na∣ture with all its Glories, of the whole Creation, the Life-Picture, taken immediately from the Life it self. I shall not insist much on this, as seeming perhaps not so clear, not having been generally re∣ceived, neither doth it bring any new Argument to this Cause, but only add new force to the Argument immediately before, taken from the ground of the Mediatorship in Christ.

Yet am I not willing to pass it by, without a brief offer of those Reasons, which seem to give clearness and countenance to it, and that upon a two-fold Consideration:

1. I gladly thus far gratifie the Arians and Socinians, by com∣plying with them, in giving to our Lord Jesus, as a Creature, this pre-existency to the whole Creation, and preheminence above it. I

cannot but conceive fair hopes, that clear and candid Spirits among them, will by this link in the golden Chain of Christ's Mediatorship, in which God, and all his Works, are by an inseparable and harmo∣nious order fastned each to other, be easily lead to that first and highest Link of the Godhead of Christ, the original, eternal, essen∣tial form of the Divine Essence, sweetly conceived, and compleatly finisht there, as the womb and bosome of the first Love. Neither can any more doubt, but that those intelligent and ingenious Per∣sons, of which I speak, will as delightfully by this same Link, upon a wise contemplation of it, be carried to those other lower Links of Redemption and Justification, Sanctification and Salvation by Jesus Christ, as the purchase, the power, the pattern, the meritorious, the efficient, the formal cause of all this, in his Humiliation and Exalta∣tion.

If Jesus Christ be a created form, living, immortal, glorious, containing in himself the whole Creation, with all its Vicissitudes of Lives and Deaths in one entire Beauty, more fresh, more fair, more full, then ever it can be in it self, if it be seen at one view, at the uttermost heighth of all sweetness, softness, amiableness, lustre, that it is capable of, (although that be true, which some say, that the World in the whole is the most beautiful of all things, or which others say, that it is an Angel.) This created form then hath a Pro∣totype, its Original Image, its exemplar Cause in eternity, in God, on which it depends, and from which it flows; otherwise it is not a created form, but uncreated, absolute and eternal. This Original Image is one with the first, the supream Image of eternity, and of God. For all things are there, as in the fullest Variety, so in the most entire Unity. This then is the God∣head of Christ, that essential Image of the Divine Nature, in which Jesus Christ, with all his created Glories, pre-exists in eternity, from whence he descends into a created state, and hath there an existency antecedent to every other Creature.

If this Jesus be the first and universal Creature, the whole world, in one Spirit and Person, who takes flesh of the Virgin Mary, then doth the whole world live, die, and rise again in him. Now is his Death the Death of the whole world, his Resurrection is the universal Re∣surrection of the whole world in its Divine Head, and in its immortal Root. Now is Jesus Christ a Sacrifice for our Redemption, Sanctifica∣tion, Salvation; not by an imaginary, notional, arbitrary Imputation, but a judgment founded upon the Divine Nature of things, and a real immediate Union between Christ and the World, as a Divine Seed, and a Divine Plant, which with a Divine eminency is compre∣hended in that Seed, and virtually produced out of it, receiving every moment its alterations from it, according to the seminal and Divine proportions treasured up in it. Thus Christ takes away the Sin of the World; thus he makes all things new. These are only glances by the way.

2. The second Consideration which moved me to touch this string, is the perfection and the heightning which it seems to give

to the whole mystery of Divine Truth in the Scripture, and in the Gospel. A sweet and beautiful line would probably arise from this Point, to illustrate many and principal Scriptures, many and principal Mysteries of the Gospel, if it were found consonant to the letter of the Scripture, to the Analogy of Faith, and so generally received. I will now therefore offer in few words, a reason or two in this case, leaving the judgment of it and the full prosecution, to those who have either Humane or Divine Learning in these things above my self.

1. The first, or rather cluster of Reasons, lieth in that Scripture, Col. 1. 15, 16, 17.

1. Christ is here described in the proper Character of his Divine Person (as the general ground of his Mediatorship) by these words, Who is the Image of the invisible God. He is the Image of God by way of eminence, the first, the supream, the most perfect Image, repre∣senting the Essence, the Substance, the Unity of God to himself within himself, essentially, substantially in his own proper Unity. He is the Image of the invisible God, as he is invisible in that Glory of his own eternal form, in which he is visible by no Light, to no Light, to no Eye, in no Spirit besides his own. He is the only Image of God in every Image, the Image of God in its first state upon the Throne, in its descent through all states, in the Grave, unto the nethermost parts of the Earth, until it return and re-ascend above all Heavens thither where it was at first.

2. Jesus Christ is here described in the two parts of his Mediator∣ship, one relating to the state of Nature, the other to the state of Grace. At the 25. verse he is stiled the first-born of every Creature, at the 18. verse, the first-born from the dead. These two being con∣tra-distinguished from each other, seem to point at, and paint forth Jesus Christ in two different forms, agreeing both in this, that they have their ground in his eternal form, and are subordinate to it. These two being contra-distinguished, and answering each other, seem to be interpreted one by the other.

Jesus is the first-born of the Resurrection in a two-fold sense. He is the first of those that rise from beneath the shades of this Creation into the true Heavens, the Holy of Holies, the unvailed Glory of God. He is the fulness of the Resurrection. He, as a Divine Head, comprehendeth clearly, compleatly, eminently in himself all these, who are to rise as Divine Members of himself, inseparably joyned in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit. They all rise together with him at his Resurrection. He is the Fountain of the Resurrection. Eve∣ry one in his own proper person and season riseth up out of him by his Power, in the Virtue of his Resurrection.

After the same manner is Jesus the first-born of every Creature. He is the first, the fulness, the fountain of the Creation. He is the first Creature. So in the 17. verse, in the illustration of this state, as he is the first of every Creature, it is said, He is before all things. He pre-existed in a created form, when there was yet no other Crea∣ture formed. All things were made in him, whether visible or invisible,

Principalities, Powers, or Thrones, things in Heaven, or on Earth, and all things stood together in him, saith St. Paul, verse 17. So the Greek words in both verses are most properly rendred. Great men in the mystery of Philosophy and Divinty affirm, That which is below to be the same with that which is above. Every Flower on Earth is a Star in the Firmament. Each Star an Angel in the Heavens above. If this be St. Paul's sense, which we have represented from these words, the Elements with all of them, the visible Heavens with all in them, the innumerable Company of Angels in their invisible Heavens, have all met and subsisted together in one created Form, in one Divine Spirit and Person, which is our Jesus. In this Person they are not Flowers of Beauty, not Stars of Light, not Angels of Glory, but Divine Forms, antecedent and transcendent to the brightest Cheru∣bims, the highest, the most flaming Seraphims.

Thus they exist in Christ. Thus with the unsearchable Riches of all agreeable Varieties they make up the Body of Christ, as he is the created Head of all. Thus as he is the first of all Creatures, so is he the fulness of the whole Creation.

He is also the Fountain. St. Paul addeth also this, All things were made by him, verse 16. All Creatures flow from him, as second Lights are cast from the first brightness by various reflections and refractions.

3. The design of all this discovereth it self to us in these words, That he in all things might have the preheminence, verse 18. The first sense of the Greek word is this, that he in all things may be first. So you have a plain allusion to that word of First-born twice applied to Jesus, once in respect to the Creation, another time to the Resurrecti∣on. Jesus Christ as God (if so we may speak of him after the manner of Man) is alike the first of all things, not as by design, or any act of the Will, but by Nature and his Essence, as in our Conceptions it antecedes every act of Council or Will. This primacy then, which is attributed to Christ, as founded in a Divine contrivance, properly respecteth him as in a created Form, in which he, who, as God, is by Nature the first of all things, so by design of the Godhead, as a Crea∣ture, becometh the First-born Son of God in Nature and Creation, the First-born Son of God in Grace, in Glory, in the Resurrection: Until he in his created Nature, by his Resurrection, became a new Creature, anointed with the eternal Spirit, and entred into the Holy of Holies, by the rending of the Vail of Flesh: The Seed of the New-Creature, of the spiritual Man, and the heavenly Image, was not yet come up into its proper form, nor risen up out of the Earth of the first Creation, where it lay buried.

4. The ground of this design appeareth, verse 19. For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. The Greek word signi∣fies a perfect and most agreeable rest of all our faculties, a sweet and full complacency in the presence and appearance of an Object most entirely, most universally amiable and pleasing. Thus the joy of the Father is full, to see in the same Person of his beloved Son (the dear and entire reflection of himself) to dwell together at once in

One, the fulness of his Godhead, the fulness of all his designs and works, in Nature, in Grace, in the Creation, in the Resurrection. Thus is this Son of his Love ever before him, his Delight day by day, all along, through time and eternity. All his works are love-sports with this his Son and Bride, various parts of Divine Love which he act∣eth, various forms of Divine Beauty and Joy into which he casteth himself in the Bosome and Person of this lovely, only beloved One. Now his Soul resteth in all his Counsels and Works, while he seeth the Face of his Son with all pleasantness there. Now his Soul resteth in his Son, while he seeth all his Counsels and Works, as the finished Beauties, and unsearchable Riches of his Person. Now is the Person of his Son a compleat Paradise, while out of this ground he makes to spring every Plant that is desirable for Beauty, for Pleasantness, for Wisdome, for Food, for a Feast to Men, to Angels, to God him∣self.

2. I pass now to my second Reason, the Lord Jesus thus set in a created form, rendreth the order of the Creatures proceeding from God, more harmonious and entire, its connexion more immediate and inviolable, its dependance more firm and sure: for thus the Creature cometh forth from God, first in a distinct Nature from him, but in the Unity of the same eternal Person with him; then in a di∣stinction both of Nature and Person. While the universal nature of the Creature subsisting in the Person of Christ, reposeth it self im∣mediately upon the Godhead, and becometh it self the ground of all the Creatures in their several subsistencies and essences, reposing themselves in the bosom of this first Creature; How perfect is the order of things without any gap or leaps? How full is the Harmony in this entireness of the Order? With what clearness and delight∣fulness are the Links of the Chain in the whole frame, by mutual em∣braces fastned to each other? How doth the beautiful blissful Unity and Union of the Divine Love, in the connexion, in the mutualness of influencies and dependencies, shine through all, sustain, animate, beautifie, and sweeten all? How clear now is the passage between God and the Creature, time and eternity, by this milky way in the bosom of Christ?

That Scripture seemeth under that covert of rich expression to contain the riches of this sense, where Christ is said to be the bright∣ness of the Glory of God, the engraven Image of his Substance, and so to bear all things by the Word of his Power, Heb. 1. That word Bear signifieth both to bring forth, and to sustain, as a Root the Plant.

The Sun hath a three-fold effulgency or light; 1. The essential and internal Image of the Sun within it self. 2. The Sun-shine im∣mediately fastned to the body of the Sun, and flowing from it. 3. The Light cast upon the elementary World, as the figure of this Sun-shine. Thus is Jesus Christ a three-fold Light, or effulgency of the Divine Glory; by one, he shines as the essential Image of God in the bosom of God; by the other, he shineth forth, as the first Creature, fairest, freshest, and fullest, like a knot of beams springing

immediately from the face of the Sun, and subsisting inseparably in it; by the third, he shineth out in the distinct forms and existences of all the Creatures.

The figure of a living substance first engraven upon a golden Seal, from thence impresseth it self on manifold & various pieces of white, or yellow, or red, or black wax; so the essential Image of God en∣graveth it self first in a created form upon the Person of Christ, as a golden Seal, from thence multiplieth it self into innumerable figures, in the various forms of all the several Creatures.

Power and Glory are frequently Names of God in the Scripture: The Power of Christ is his Godhead. The Word of his Power is three∣fold; 1. The internal Word, which is Christ in his Divine Nature. 2. The Word upon the Lips, is the Person of Christ in the first crea∣ted form. 3. The Word from thence multiplied and figured upon the Air all round about, are the Creatures, in all their various forms, thus encompassing their King, as figures all round about him, flow∣ing out from him. Thus Jesus by the out-shining of the Divine Glory, by the engraven Image of the Divine Substance, by the Word of the Divine Power, in an order altogether Divine for beauty and strength, bringeth forth, beareth up all things.

3. I shall propound only one Reason more, to give light or strength to this Opinion, submitting it entirely to the judgment of the Reader. Jesus Christ saith of himself, I am the Light of the World, 1 Joh. 8. 10. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel, manifestly al∣ludes to the beginning of Genesis, while he attributes the Creation of all things to that Word with God, which is God. In the same place he teaches us this mystery, That the Life of all was in Christ, and that life was the light of man, both Intellectual and Sensitive, this latter being the shadow of the former. Then he adds, The Light shined in Darkness, but the Darkness comprehended it not. This seemeth to be a clear allusion to the work of the first day, when God called Light out of Darkness, dividing at the same time between the Light and the Darkness. The Light now shined in the midst of the Darkness, enlightning the Darkness, so that it still remaineth incomprehensi∣ble to the Darkness, as that abode in its own natural form divided from the Light.

All generally agree, that Moses comprehended the History of the whole Creation in this Chapter. And under the Covert and Vail of the visible part as a figure, divinely describeth the Intellectual, An∣gelical, and more Divine part, as the immediate Original and Life of this Figure. We have an Image of this in the Body of Heaven, with the Sun-shining in it by day, or the Moon and Stars by night, when they present themselves to our eyes, by plain figures of them∣selves, formed in a flowing stream here below.

The Jews therefore say, That a man of Flesh and Blood, cannot understand the first Chapter of Genesis. St. Paul affirmeth, That the invisible things are perceived, being understood by the things that are made. By these words he seemeth plainly to signifie, that while Moses painteth out to us the visible world, and framing of it, his

design is to set before us a lively Picture of the invisible part of things, which is, as the heavenly Person, whose Picture is drawn on this Table.

The Light then, which is the work of the first day, being not only Sensitive, but Intellectual, is the first Creature, the first and most immediate effulgency, irradiation, or out-shining of the Godhead, the beginning of the Creation of God. St. Paul saith, That which makes manisest is Light. Then the first Light is the first, the most eminent, the amplest, the clearest, the compleatest manifestation of God, and so of the whole Creation, as its golden Head.

The first day, according to the Hebrew, Idiom is the one day, which Idiom hath this mystery wrapt up in it, That the Unity, the Fountain of numbers, is the first in order, from which we begin to number. This Light, which is the first Creature, the work of the first day, is the first procession of the Divine Unity without it self. It retains therefore the highest Image of this Unity, and partakes of it in the highest degree, that any created Nature is capable of. This is the Unity of the Divine Person, or subsistency, in a distinct crea∣ted Essence or Form. Thus you have in this lovely Form of the purest, the sweetest of all created Lights, the Person of Jesus Christ, as he is the first Creature, divinely subsisting in the Godhead. This is that Light, which while it shineth with a derived brightness, in the midst of that darkness which is the first matter of every Crea∣ture, it remaineth, in the Unity and Divinity of its Person and sub∣sistence, vailed to the highest and most glorious of all Creatures. For even in this blessed Person the darkness is a dividing Vail be∣tween the Nature and the Godhead, in which that Nature sub∣sists.

The Jewish Masters by a two-fold tradition, seem to seal up this mystery for Posterity. First, they number the Soul of the Messias among those sacred and sublime Glories which were before the world. Secondly, They mysteriously affirm the Light of the first day to be a Light, in which the whole work of Creation in all the parts of it, with all its Revolutions from its first beginning to its last end, are clearly and distinctly seen. But say they, at the fall of man by Sin, this Light was hid beneath the Throne of God, until the days of the Messias. Can any thing more plainly express our Jesus, as He is the first and universal Creature? the first, the fairest, the clearest draught of the whole Creation, in the whole course and conduct of it, pre-existent to every Creature, comprehending all the works of God, from the first line to the last finishing of it, in one most delightful View, in one most agreeable Prospect, in one Spirit and Form of purest, sweetest life, more than Angelical, only less then Divine, yet subsisting in a Divine Person? If the will of man, with its motions, be seen and pre-exist here, are they not here predetermined?

But I have said before, that I would neither insist long upon this Point, nor lay any thing of the weight of this Cause upon it, being it self by few received or understood.

I divided my discourse of the Mediatorship into three Heads: 1. Christ, as he is the ground of all the Works of God, in which also lies the ground of his Mediatorship. 2. Christ, as he is the Way. 3. Christ, as he is the End of the whole Work of God. There are two parts in the way; 1. Christ, as he is the beginning of the Works of God, the first Creature. 2. Christ, as the coming forth and the conduct of every Creature (from the beginning to the end) is in him, and by him. This I am now to take in hand.

Christ is Mediator, as he is the way of the coming forth, and the conduct of the Work of God, in the whole and every part of it. As in a Plant, the seminal Spirit hath treasured up in it the seminal Rea∣sons, the whole Harmony, all the proportions of the Plant, in the whole Plant, and in every part of it, as this seminal Spirit hath in it self the formative power of the Plant, according to the proportion, as this Spirit putteth forth it self into every part of the Plant, spring∣eth up together with it, gives it its proper measures and proportions suited to the Harmony of the whole Plant, appears in each part as a living Image of that particular proportion or harmony which with an invisible Beauty flourisheth within it self, resides on every part of the Plant with the full harmony of the whole, being one and the same, altogether undivided, in the whole Plant and in all its parts; Thus is Christ after a more eminent and divine manner the seminal Spirit of the whole Creation.

I have before represented him, from clear Scriptures, as the Wis∣dome and Power of God, by virtue of which he is clearly a Spirit, containing in himself the seminal Reasons, and the formative Power, by which every Creature is formed universally in its production, and in its conduct.

Jesus Christ is frequently known in the Scriptures by that Name of the Seed, which though it relates eminently to the state of Grace and Glory, where it cometh up into its ripe fruit and entire form, yet doth it relate to the state of Nature. For by virtue of this Seed Adam was the Son of God. By this Seed, and in it, were all things made, as Plants springing forth from it, although the Seed were yet come up in them only into the green Leaf, or smiling Blossoms at the best. That Name given in Greek to Jesus, which is translated the Word, signifieth as properly Reason. Jesus Christ is the Reason of God, the Reason of the Divine Nature, the universal Reason of the whole Creation, in which lieth the particular Reason of each Crea∣ture, in its Essence, in its Operations. Thus is Jesus Christ the univer∣sal Harmony of the Godhead, and of the whole Work of God. He is that Harmony, according to the measure of which the whole work of God is formed.

The Reader is desired to take notice, That the Authors Papers upon this Head were imperfect, and that he will find what can be recovered of them before the finishing of this Work, together with a large Discourse upon this whole Argument of the Mediation of Christ at the end of the Book, where it was thought most convenient to place it, because of its length.

The third Head of Arguments in this Cause of Free-will, is the Universal Nature of the Creature, Every Creature is a shadow. That that is first in every kind is such by it self, and every other thing by that. God is the first Being, the only Original. All created Being, in every kind, degree, or manner of being, is a shadow of this Original, and so is all that which it is, in every distinct form, motion, or circumstance, in its Essence, Subsistence, and Operations, distinct∣ly by this. It hath its Being by the first Being. It subsists, it acts by the subsistency, and by the acting of this first Being, this first subsist∣ency, this first activity in it. The whole Creation in its best state, is no more than a shadowy Image of the Great Creator. Man, who is stiled the Glory of God, as being the band, the sealed sum, the circling Crown of the whole Creation, is said to be made in the Image of God. The various Powers and Beauties dispersed thorow the se∣veral Creatures, to make the whole a compleat Image of the Divine Nature, meet in one in Him, as a comprehension of the whole, in whom the Divine Image is as entire, but more heightned and refined, as being more finisht here, being drawn out further, being more ela∣borate, and having the last hand put to it. Thus was He made wor∣thy to be the Son of God, the Figure of Jesus Christ, in order to lie eternally in his bosome, as his Bride, and to be a Fellow-Heir of God together with Him.

Yet was this Image, in which man was thus made, a shadowy Image only. The word by which it is express'd in the first of Genesis, is Tselem. This word hath in it entirely the name of a shadow. It hath also the first and chief letter of Death with which it ends. It signi∣fies properly such an Image, as is an empty, vanishing, dying shadow; the shadow of a substance, without any substance; a shadow of life, without any true life.

The same word is used Psal. 39. 6. Man walketh in a vain shew, and disquieteth himself in vain. The word here rendred, a vain shew, is Tselem, the same with that by which the Image of God in Man is express'd, Gen. 1. The words immediately preceding in this Psalm are these, Man in his best state is all of him all vanity. The Reason is added, Man walks in a vain shew. Man himself in the purity of his Nature, in the unfaded, the unstained flower of all his senses, in the primitive heighth of all his Intellectual Glories, was a vain shew. The Paradise of his Understanding, the invisible World of Angels, with all the Virgin beauties and sweetnesses of both in the midst of which he walketh, were a vain shew. For they, round about him, with all their pomp and pleasantness, were no more than a shadowy Image of the Divine World, lying in the bosome of it. He himself was a shadowy Image of the Divine Essence and Person, in the midst of a world of shadows.

We have this word us'd again, Psal. 73. 20, As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their Image. Image here is Tselem, which before was translated vain shew. God the supream and eternal Spirit is here presented, bringing forth this World, as a man doth a dream in his sleep. The darkness at

the beginning of the Creation, described Gen. 1. seems here to be alluded to, as a mysterious sleep into which the first Spirit, the Fountain of all, the Father of all, after a Divine manner cast its self. Then the Light, with the work of the six days, and so the whole Creation, springeth forth from this Spirit in this sleep as a dream.

The Devil, with his Ministers or Creatures, Angels and Man, by the Fall become Princes and Lords of this Creation. They possess the Powers, Treasures, and Glory of this World. But all this while, themselves with all these created Riches, Honours and Joys, in which they swim and swell, are only shadows in a dream, beneath the shining and anointed feet of those true, substantial, immortal Beau∣ties and Sweetnesses, to which their hope, their sight, their imagina∣tions can never raise themselves. When this eternal Spirit in whose sleep, like painted forms in a dream, they vainly flutter about, awakeneth himself, he at once dissolveth them into their own nothing∣ness, and despiseth them, as having never been any thing, yea, less than nothing in the Light of Divine Truth, and in the glorious face of the eternal substances.

Thus we see the universal Nature of the Creature and of Man, in their first form, to consist in a shadowy Image. If the Creature were its own Original, and had the truth, the life of its own Being, its Original form in it self, it were no more a Creature, but a God. As then the Face in the Waters, or in the Glass, in all its powers, parts, colours, and motions, dependeth upon the living face, being deter∣minated by it every moment; so are all Creatures, all Spirits, An∣gels, or Men, in their Essences, Powers, or Operations, continually figured by those forms in which the eternal Spirit from above pre∣senteth it self, as the reflections of that Spirit, like the shapes of the Clouds, or the Face of Heaven in a clear stream.

This truth seemeth to be with a Divine elegancy set forth, Cant. 5. 12. It is said there of Jesus Christ, That his Eyes are as Doves, above th•…•… Rivers of Waters, washing in milk, full set. Thus the words in Hebrew most properly render themselves. A learned Jew in his Paraphrase, hath this gloss upon those words, Full set; The whole world is the fulness of his Eyes. There seemeth to be in this verse, a plain allusion to that expression, Gen. 1. of the Spirit moving upon the waters, or above the waters. The Chaldee Paraphrase makes this to be in the form of a Dove.

The Lamb in the Revelation is said to have seven Eyes, a perfect number expressing a full Variety. The Ideal forms, or the first Images of things, those eternal Truths and Lights of Life in the Per∣son of Christ, as the essential Image, the sweetest, the only living Light of the Godhead, are these Eyes of the Bridge-groom here cele∣brated. These Eyes are Doves, pure, eternal Spirits of Divine Love and Beauty, in the bosome, in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, the hea∣venly King and Bridegroom of all Spirits. These Doves are the lovely Eyes with which this Spirit is all over thick set, like the wings of the Seraphims full of eyes within and without.

These Doves are washing themselves in Milk. So the Hebrew hath it, as a present perpetual Act. They lie washing and bathing eter∣nally in the springs of Divine Light and Beauty, in the softnesses, sweetnesses, and walks of the Divine Love. These are the Milk of the Godhead, and of blessed Spirits; These Eyes are full set. For each of these Ideal Original forms in Christ comprehendeth in it self under the character or property of its own distinct Variety, the whole Divine World, and all Worlds in their first forms.

These first eternal Images of things in Christ are his Eyes, the sweet∣ly shining Springs of all Light, Life, Love, and Joy. For he ever beholds all things with these, in these. By these, as he looks forth with them, he guides all things. In these is he, as the supream Spi∣rit of truth and beauty, seen in his liveliest and loveliest appearan∣ces. These Eyes are Doves, being each of them one Spirit com∣prehending all things in its Unity, a Spirit of purest Light and Sweetness, the chast and beloved Mate of the eternal Spirit, eternally springing up, lying eternally in the Bosome and Unity of it.

These Doves in the Firmament of Divine Glory spreading their Wings, flying every where to and fro over the water of this Creation, figure themselves and their motions in shadowy Images upon them. Thus are all things here formed and mov'd, as the face in the Glass by the living Face.

This similitude hath in it a signal difference from the Truth repre∣sented by it. The living Eye or Face sendeth forth its Image. But this Image hath its reception and subsistence in another substance, the glass or the water. But the Creation hath no ground to bear it up, but that alone which bringeth it forth. These Divine Eyes of which we speak, at once send forth and support these Images of themselves. They are the clear Springs from which they stream, and the Christal Looking-Glasses in which they appear. In this eternal Spirit, in this living Light all things as varied shadows of this Light, as shadowy forms of this Life, live, move, have their being and appearance: Not as accidents in their subject, but after a manner far more eminent, a•…•…d altogether transcendent to any resemblance in the Creature.

This is the Universal Nature of the Creature.

How pleasant? how Divine a Spectacle is this? All things in their primitive purity are spotles Doves, Coelestial Loves, Virgin-Spirits like Angels clothed in white, Eyes that are Springs of purest light and sweetness, looking up from a Divine Light, vailed with a Di∣vine shade, to their Life, their immortal Mates, their Divine Origi∣nals, those Doves, those Eyes above, which looking down meet themselves here beneath, in shadowy figures, in sweetest reflections of themselves from the midst of loveliest shades upon a ground of eter∣nal Light.

It is time now to close this Argument. All the Creatures are shadowy Images, both Men and Angels. As are they, so is their Liberty, so are all their motions shadowy, as figures they are all formed and determined by the Life in eternity.

I pass now to the second Argument under this Head.

2. Every Creature is an emanation or stream from the Divine Essence, the emanation of a moment. This is a truth generally establisht upon all the clearest, the firmest Principles of truth, in Philosophy or Divinity, by the most universal consent and harmony in the spirits of learned men, in the nature of things. •…•…sse Creaturae est emanare, The Being of the Creature is the beam∣ing sorth from God, like light from the Sun. The preservation and continuance of things is a continued Creation.

The whole Creation, with every Creature comprehended in it, thorow all the moments of time, to the end of time, riseth up immedi∣ately, entirely out of God, as in the first moment of its Being at the beginning of time. The white sheet full of all living Creatures, was let down out of Heaven thrice in the sight of St. Peter. The World is a Divine Light, with all forms of things Angelical or Humane, visible, invisible, appearing in it, let down out of the Heaven of the God∣head, as often as there are moments in its duration. Thus are all things a new World, a new Creation, each twinkling of an Eye brought forth a new, by a fresh glance of the Divine Eye.

If any Creature could subsist one moment apart from God, the first and supream Being, without the particular dependance, a particular derivation, of that moment, it would have the principle of Being in it self, and so eternity in that moment, and so a Godhead.

The connexion, the dependance between God and the Creature, the first, the universal Cause and every Effect, is much more univer∣sal, intimate, immediate, inseparable, than that between any effect and any second Gause. We have a demonstration to our sense from the interposal of a Cloud between our eyes and a clear Sky, that the beams are continued streams of light from the body of the Sun. In that moment in which they cease to flow from the Sun, to subsist in the Sun, they cease to be.

It is affirmed of all things material and visible, Fiunt, non sunt; They are sent forth, but subsist not. They are only in the making; in the same moment in which they are brought forth, they are no more.

This is universally true of all Creatures, Men and Angels. They have only a transient, no permanent Being. No eye ever takes in twice the same beam of Light. No man standing upon the bank of a River sees twice the same water present with him. Before he can cast his eye upon it the second time, it is past by, and gone: So is no Creature no appearance the same two moments. We can never say of created Beings or Beauties, of our sweetest Solaces, or bitterest Sufferings, they are. For while we are saying it, they fly away, and are no more; like Lightning, or the shadow upon any point of the Dial. As our Afflictions in the Language of St. Paul, are Afflictions of a moment; so are all our Joys, Glories, and Beings in the Creature. No one of them lasteth two moments.

The Scripture testifies to Jesus Christ of the Heavens and the Earth, As a Garment thou roulest them up, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years fail not. Again, in another

place, Jesus the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. Nothing below Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day, the last moment and this. This is one part of the Vanity mark'd by Solomon in all things beneath this Sun of the Godhead, fixt in the mid-day point of eter∣nity; that thorow their whole Being, they are ever in motion, like the Rivers, and the Wind, In each point of time, one breath, one beam, one stream from the eternal Spirit, succeeds new in the place of the other sprung forth from it in the point of time immediately preceding. The whole Creation, each particular Creature is no more the same, hath no continuance, hath no Unity with it self, save only as it is in Jesus Christ, in its first and eternal Form, its truest Form, its truest Self, in Him, who alone is the true, the substantial, the universal Image of God, the express Image of his Substance, Unity, and Eternity. All created forms are so far only the same, and one in a figure or similitude, as they are sealed with the impression of their Ideal and Original form in Christ, as they subsist in this Root, as they are Garments with which this their eternal Truth and Sub∣stance cloathes it self.

In the my stical Fables of the Heathens, the Goddess of Wisdome contending with the God of the Seas, for the tutelage of Athens, made suddainly at once to spring up out of the Earth an Olive-tree in its perfection, with its branches and leaves all green, laden with ripe Olives. When an Olive-tree or an Apple-tree riseth up by de∣grees from its Kernel to a perfect Plant, when it successively putteth forth it self thorow the Spring and Summer, in buds, in leaves, in blosomes, in fruit, unto a fulness in Autumn; then in that state of maturity, with its leaves, and fruit in full growth and beauty upon it, it standeth up immediately and entirely out of its Ideal, or first Cause, out of the Divine Omnipotency or Almightiness, as if it had never before existed, as if no Summer, no Spring had ever gone before. Yea, the whole Creation round about that Olive-tree, in its present posture with all Plants on Earth, with the present face of Heaven, with the present configuration of all Bodies, of all Hu∣mane or Angelical Spirits comes forth from God, as immediately, entirely, absolutely, as when on the third day, all Herbs, Flowers, and Trees first appeared, and rose up in a moment, at once perfect out of the Earth; or as if this present Autumn had been the first, and the beginning of the World, as some suppose that season to have been.

All things in the Creature upon this ground have their order and connexion, not by virtue of any dependance upon each other, but by the force of the eternal Order, the inviolable Harmony in the first Cause, the Ideal, or exemplary World in the Divine Mind. If the Being of the Creature be an emanation, or beaming forth from the first Being; then as the emanation, or flowing forth is distinct, new, and fresh every moment, so is there every moment a new, fresh, di∣stinct World, or Creation.

If man thus with his Soul, his Powers, his Operations, with all the modifications of his whole Person, Body, and Spirit, in each moment

spring forth fresh and full that moment from his first and universal Cause, as Philosophers say, the Sun and his beams were concreated at the beginning of the World; What then is the liberty of the Will in determining it self? Is it any other than this, the truest, the hap∣piest, the only desirable freedome of coming forth as it is sent forth from God, the first, and the best of all things, in a conformity to its eternal Truth, its Original Form, in the highest Beauty, the highest Bliss, the Divine Wisdome and Will?

Reader, if any difficulties arise in thy mind, about the reconciling of the appearances of things in the World so mixt with Good and Evil, the evil of Deformity, the evil of Sin, the deformity of In∣tellectual Spirits, the most hateful Fountain of all Deformity, the evil of Sufferings, consequent to this Deformity, with this pro∣ceding of the Creature distinct and new every moment from God, the pure Fountain of Good, I entreat thee to carry this along in thy thoughts, that the second part of this Discourse is designed for a clear stating, and full examination of all Objections. I am un∣willing therefore to disturb my method, to prevent my self, or make Repetitions by bringing in these things here, which are there to be treated of. I entreat thee here only to mark with a skilful and curious eye, whether the foundation of Truth be firmly laid, and whether the building arise regularly out of it. In the second Book, it will be thy part to see whether this building stand fast against the assaults of all contrary appearances, which like the Rivers, the Wind, the Rain, from above, from below, on every side beat upon it. This is enough upon this Head, the universal Nature of the Creature.

4. My fourth Head, from which I draw my Reasonings upon this Subject of Free-will, is, The Nature of the Soul. From the Nature of the Soul we thus reason; the Essence of the Soul, and its Faculties the Understanding, and the Will differ not really, but formally alone. All three are one and the same. Every one is all three in one. They are distinguished according to the distinct forms in which they appear, ever appearing with all their forms in each form.

1. The Essence of the Soul is immaterial, a substantial Act, an undivided Unity, and essential Form, which comprehends the forms of all Essences essentially in it self. We speak all this while of the Intellectual Soul. This Soul then essentially comprehends it self, reflects upon it self, and all forms of things in it self. Thus it springs up into an essential Image of it self, and of all Essences to it self, within it self. Thus is the Essence of the Soul its own Understand∣ing, by virtue of its immaterial Substance, and its substantial Unity.

2. The Understanding of the Soul differs from the senses in two things: 1. The Senses touch and take in their Objects only by ma∣terial accidents, as shadowy figures. The Understanding touch∣eth, taketh hold of, and embraceth the Substances themselves in∣corruptible, immutable in their eternal Truths. 2. The senses take in the Images of their Objects from without, but the Understanding

brings forth its Object in an essential Image from within, which is therefore called Verbum mentis. The Senses being material, are thus passive; but the Understanding, as an immaterial power, altogether active. If the Understanding bring forth from it self, and compre∣hend within it self the essential and substantial forms of things, it can be no less than a substance it self, and one substance with the Soul in the essence of it. For nothing unsubstantial can receive into it self that which is substantial. We have also said before, that the Soul in its essence or substance essentially comprehends all things in their essential and substantial forms. Let me add this upon the same ground, that if the Soul understand it self, the understanding is every way adequate and equal to the Soul, in as much as it adequate∣ly comprehends it.

The Will is described by Thomas Aquinas to be the Inclination of the Soul. It is also a Rule, That every Power or Faculty is distinguished and defined by its Object. The Object of the Will is Good. Good is the perfection of every thing. The suitableness and convenience makes the Goodness. Every thing hath essentially in its nature an inclination to its Good, to its Perfection, to every thing suitable and agreeable to it. Suitableness is from Similitude. Similitude is from Unity. For it is an agreement in the same form. Every thing then hath in its essence an inclination to a suitable Object, to its Perfecti∣on, to its Good, as to it self presented distinctly to it self, and to the compleating of it self in the embraces of it self. Thus it appears, that the Soul essentially is its own Will, in as much as its essence taken most abstractedly, being a substantial Act, is in that Act an essential inclination to its own Good and Perfection. Thus also it appears, that the Understanding of the Soul is the Will of the Soul, in as much as in its distinct formality it is an inclination to Truth, as to its proper Perfection and Good.

Again, the most proper and most perfective Act of the Will in its most perfect state is Love. Love is an Union. The Object of the Will is Good in its full Latitude, the essential, substantial, univer∣sal Good. The Act of the Will in Love is then a mutual, intimate Union with the Object, by which it adequately comprehends it, and is adequately comprehended by it. The Will then, which is ne∣cessarily equal to that which it comprehends, can be no other than the essence or substance of the Soul it self, of which we have before said, that it hath all Essences of things essentially within it self, and so the whole compass of Being compleat within it self. As it represents it self in this whole compass of Being to it self, in a distinct Image, and so reflects upon it self, it is its own Understanding. As it doth by this distinct Image with mutual embraces, mutually comprehend and enjoy it self in Love, and Joy, it is its own Will, its own Love and Joy. So we seem to have proved, that the Will, as it is a distinct faculty, is really, and formally the same with the essence and sub∣stance of the Soul.

We will endeavour also to prove, that the Will comprehends the Understanding in its own proper and distinct formality.

1. When the Soul Loves it self, and understands it self, both these Acts fall under the same definition of comprehending it self in a distinct and compleat Image of it self. This Act cannot but be mu∣tual, if the Image of the Soul be adequate to the Soul, and so are Love and Understanding both in one.

2. The Acts and Motions of the Will do imply sense in their essential Formalities. Sense in the Intellectual Soul is Understanding.

3. The Object attracts and acts the Faculty by impressions of it self. The impression of Good upon an Intellectual Subject, is an Intellectual tast or relish of the Good. The impression of an Intel∣lectual Good, which is the proper Object of the VVill, is an Intel∣lectual impression.

4. The VVill, as it is essentially distinguished from the natural Appetite, which inanimate things are naturally moved by; and from the sensitive Appetite proper to bruit Creatures, is defined to be a ra∣tional Appetite. Thus it comprehends Reason or Understanding in its essential Form.

So we have attempted to make it plain, that Those three, the Es∣sence, the Understanding, the VVill of the Intellectual Soul, mutually comprehend one another in their essential Formality, and are perfectly adequate one to another, so far as the Soul is in a state of Perfection, perfectly understanding and loving it self.

By the way, In this Glass you may have a pleasant glimps of the Trinity: 1. The Soul in its essence is an Unity comprehending it self, and all created forms of things intirely in one substantial and indivi∣sible Act, as the Fountain of all. This is a shadow of the Father in the Trinity. 2. The Understanding of the Soul is the essential and adequate Image of this Unity, in which it bringeth forth, and contemplates it self within it self. This is the Son, the Word. 3. The VVill is the essential, the intellectual, and adequate Union of these two, with the most full communion and highest com∣placency, by which they propagate and multiply themselves within themselves into an endless Race of innumerable Forms, in each of which they are still themselves intire and compleat. This is the figure of the Holy Spirit.

Thus he that knows God knows the Soul, as the Picture by the Life; and he that knows the Soul knows God, as the Life by the Picture. Each of these is all to it self within it self: God as the Original Life-World, the Soul as the shadowy VVorld, the World of shadows.

But to conclude this Argument, If the Essence of the Soul, the Understanding and the VVill, be really one, and formally distinct, so that every one comprehends all Three, in its proper Formality, where is that freedome of the VVill, by which it may act indepen∣dent on the Understanding?

VVe will seal up this Argument with that confirmation of it, which seems to have great strength and clearness. Powers and faculties are distinguished according to their Objects. The Essence of the Soul, the Understanding, and the VVill differ as Being, Truth, and Goodness; not really, but formally only, formally comprehending the formality of each other.

The Reader is desired to take notice, That how ever the Author, in one of his Copies, intended only this short accompt of this Argument taken from the Nature of the Soul; yet a larger Discourse upon this Head being found amongst his Papers, it is judg'd most fitting in this place to pub∣lish it.

The chief Praise of this Age is, that it runs along in a stream di∣rectly contrary to the Romish Church, having little veneration for an implicite Faith, Tradition, Antiquity, Universality in the per∣suit of Truth. Its labour and glory is with its hands, eyes, and spi∣rit, to penetrate and view the first grounds of Truth. I desire it may be as happy, in distinguishing between the upper part of the beam of Light, where it unites it self to its Sun and Fountain, where it is firmest, fullest, brightest, warming, enlivening as well as shining; and the lower part of the beam, which touches the Earth, and the Senses, where it is weak, wavering, obscure, mixt with and vanishing into the darkest shade.

I shall therefore endeavour (taking my rise somewhat high from the Fountain of things) to open the Nature of the Soul with as much clearness and plainness as I am able, and the nature of the Subject will bear, in these three Propositions.

1. Prop. The Intellectual Soul in Man is an Unity altogether indivi∣sible, comprehending Variety, Diversity, Contrariety of Forms, Powers, and Parts, without and above all Division.

2. Prop. This indivisible Unity, containeth in it self the full Variety of all forms created, uncreated, after its own manner, according to its own proper Character.

3. Prop. The most perfect and full Image of God in the midst of the Creation, resulting from the Harmonious Union of the Unity and Variety, is the Soul's Essence, and essential Form.

I design, and hope, so to open and establish these Propositions, that the true Liberty of the Soul in its Operations, may all along shine clearly forth from the Divine ground and form of its proper nature.

1. Proposition.

The Intellectual Soul in Man is an indivisible Unity, comprehending Variety, Diversity, Contrariety of Forms. This is the first Proposition. There is a three-fold Unity.

1. There is an Unity in the Division of Parts. This is the most im∣perfect Unity, or rather a shadow of Unity, the Unity of shadows, of Corporeal substances or bodies.

2. There is an Unity in Diversity of Forms or Essences, above all divisibility of parts. This also is an imperfect Unity. This is the Unity of Essences, of Intellectual Substances, of all created Spirits. The Unities of this sort are the Essences of things in their created state, which are said to be indivisible.

3. Above all Divisibility, or Diversity is the first, the supream, the perfect Unity, having in it self the first, the fullest Variety, and di∣stinction. This is the Unity of the Divine Nature, or the Divine World. This for its infinite heighth, above all expression or compre∣hension, by any created Image or Understanding, for the equal con∣currence of the first, the most entire Unity, and the first, the most full Variety, both alike boundless and infinite, is well termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Above an Unity.

The Humane Soul is an Unity of the second Rank, whether you ascend or descend, in the number of Intellectual Substances, like the Angels, above all Division, but subject to Diversity.

This is an Unity in a Diversity. Diversity (which is Variety con∣tracted and obscured) by a mixture of the Contrariety with the Unity, overshadows the Unity of the Soul, and rendreth it a shadowy Unity. The Divine Unity and Variety lie hid and vailed beneath the Diver∣sity, in the shadowy Unity of the Souls natural Form.

This Diversity, as it over-shadows, so it also bounds the Unity, and renders it finite, infinitely beneath the first and supream Unity in the Divine Nature.

This is the Unity of the Intellectual Soul, an Unity free from, raised above all Division, or divisibility of parts, lying one without another, as they appear in Bodies, or Corporeal Substances.

The explication of this Unity in the Intellectual Operations of the Soul, as I humbly conceive, will be a full demonstration of it.

There seemeth, according to common sense and language, to be manifest in us, a Life, a Power, which compareth and judgeth things; which discerneth the differences of things, relations, proportions, agree∣ments, disagreements; which is delighted with Harmony, Beauty, Mu∣sick; which taketh in, entertaineth it self with the Essences of things, the whole, Universals, as its most native, and most suitable Compani∣ons; which adorneth it self with Sciences. The Sciences are an An∣gel-like building, which this Life or Power hath framed by single no∣tions, or forms of things regularly composed into Propositions, by Propositions in a most beautiful order laid one upon another, and by fit joynts, like Jewels knit together into one Body of Divine Light, which setteth its Feet on the Earth, and raiseth its Head into the un∣seen Glories of the highest Heavens.

This Power and Life within us, which makes good all this, or a similitude of this, with more or less degrees of Perfection, is that which we call the Intellectual Soul in Man.

If the Object, or its Image, be extended, and so composed of parts, which lie all one without another, if the Subject, which receives into it self the Object, or the Image, be of the same nature, Now the one part of the Object is taken into, and seated in one part of the Subject; Another part in another. Thus all lie diffused differently in different parts; not only divisible, but actually divided from each other. Now they no where meet together in one, they are no where compared and judged, the Discord, the Harmony, the Whole, is no where understood.

Yea, These are no more in the nature of things. There is no such thing as Picture, Prospect, or Person, Life, Love, or Joy, Death or Suffer∣ing. All is an unimaginable heap of unconceivable Atomes, which have no Relation to, no Commerce with each other, if there be no indivisible Unity, in which things meet, in which they are compared, judged, and proportioned. How an Atome it self, or any thing of whole, or part, can be without Unity, which constitutes it, which con∣nects it, into which it Ultimately resolves it self, from which it first ariseth, is of all things to me most hard to comprehend.

But this is a digression, and more than is necessary to my present design.

Let us return. The two essential Operations of the Intellectual Soul, are to understand, and to will. The Objects of these, are Truth and Goodness, real or apparent.

1. Truth is a representative conformity of the Image to its Ori∣ginal.

2. Goodness is a mutual, perfcctive Conformity, or suitableness of the Original and Image, or of the Object to the Faculty, Power, or Spirit, to which it relates.

These two are the Divine Meat and Drink of the Soul, like the Ambrosia and Nectar of the Gods, or separated Spirits, with the Poets.

But where there is any impression, any sense or relish of these two, Truth or Goodness, in the lowest forms of things, These three must meet undividedly in one, The two terms or bounds of conformity or suitableness, the relation between these two, their suitableness and conformity to each other.

The Intellectual Soul riseth an higher pitch, according to the Doctrine of all the Schools, and its own innate testimony of it self, in all its Motions, in all its Virtues and Vices. It is carried up upon these two soaring wings, as the wings of an Angel, quite out of the sight of sense, above all the tumult of Individuals and particulars, to the invisible Glories, and Harmonies of universal Forms. The universal Truth and Good are its only mark and rest, where its motions terminate.

The heavenly Beauty of the universal Truth, can be no where seen, the heavenly sweetness of the universal Good, can be tasted by no Spirit, but that alone, where all Truths, all kinds and degrees of good, all things in their friendships and enmities are met and con∣centred with a full, with an exact Harmony, in one indivisible Point, or in a perfect Unity.

It is indeed a Divine Unity, running like the Spirit of Musick through all these, terminating them all by it self, recollecting them all entirely (with their several Divisions) after the most undivided manner into it self, which makes this Harmony, the Joy, the Glory, the Divine Life of Angels, of God, and God-like men.

This Divine Unity can be no where received, but into an Unity like it self. This Unity in the Intellectual Soul, makes it a Divine •…•…ye, Ear, and Spirit, capable of taking in the Beauty, enjoying the

Musick, being entertained at the heavenly Feast of the universal Truth and Goodness, in the Society of all blessed and immortal Spirits.

Keep the Unity of the Spirit, saith St. Paul, in the bond of peace. Peace in Hebrew is the same with Persection. The word signifieth the Harmony of things, mutually answering each other in fit and full proportions. In Greek, peace signifieth the harmonious Union of things, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, peace, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to knit or joyn together.

Without Union, without Order and Harmony in the Union, Many things can never become One; there can be no Beauty to the Eye, no Musick to the Ear, no Life, no Light of Sense or Under∣standing, no Form of things, no Peace, no Perfection, no Power, no Pleasantness, no Person. Without an undivided Unity, where all meet in one, which is One, the same undivided in All, there can be no Union, no Order, no Harmony.

The eternal Spirit is the first and supream Unity. Intellectual Spi∣rits, next to this Spirit, are Similitudes and Births of it. Substantial, undivided Unities, the Springs, the Seats of the universal, the su∣pream, the incorporeal Beauties, Musicks, Perfection, Order, Har∣mony, through the Creation; the only Persons; the bonds of all Union, Order, Harmony, Peace, Perfection, Beauty, Life, Loveliness, Virtue, Joy, Power, Personality, in all Bodies, in all Corporeal Forms.

By one Spirit, saith that Spirit, we are all baptized into one Body. In spirituality, by meeting together undividedly in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, which is undividedly one and the same in all, by which all are one, and the same in every one, All the Saints become one heavenly Body. This Unity of the Spirit, springing up into eve∣ry one, as a Divine and compleat Image of it self, having thus the Whole, the Image, the Life, the Spirit of the whole in it self, is the bond of their fellow-membership.

This is the ground and spring of their Sympathy, of all their Mo∣tions, by which in a Divine Love and Harmony they exactly accord with each other. We have the shadowy figure of this mystery in natural things.

How inexplicable is motion in Bodies, without the understanding of this Unity? What shall excite Motion in any Corporeal Subject? Accidents, Virtues, Qualities, pass not from one Corporeal Substance to another. They are essentially inseparable, from their Individual Subjects. Corporeal Substances are impenetrable each to other, and so cannot operate immediately one upon another.

In what order shall Motion be advanced, if it be excited? Shall the part immediately touched move first? How can it, until that part next before it, give place to it? Upon what account shall this before move, until that behind it on which the impression is first made, thrust it forward?

How Beautiful? how Harmonious? how Easie is all? If an Intel∣lectual Spirit, containing the whole Body, the whole Corporeal frame, in an undivided Unity, being undividedly entirely one and the same

through the whole Body, and in each part, immediately, at once, by it self Act all the parts in a mutual exact Correspondency to each other, like persons in a figure-Dance? All is now it self, in so many shadowy figures of more substantial and sublimer Variety, in the Uni∣ty, and Harmony of its own Essence.

This is a clear reason for that Sympathy, by which all the parts most remote of the same Body, have a present sense of, are acted and moved together with, all the essential acts and motions of each other. They are all by one Spirit baptized into one Body. They all are comprehended together in the undivided Unity of the same Spirit. So they mutually penetrate, possess each other in One; as One in the Fountain of their Being, Life, and Motion, the same Spirit. This Spirit is each Intellectual Soul to its own Body.

Let us sum up this whole Argument into a brief and clear conclu∣sion.

The Intellectual Soul, in the perfection of its natural form, un∣derstands, compares, judges, not only particular Beauties and Har∣monies, but the Beauty and Harmony of the whole Universe, the Uni∣versal Truth and Goodness. All particular Beauties and Harmonies, all Agreements and Disagreements, Strifes, Friendships, all forms and parts, as they make up the Beauty of the Universe: Then all forms of things, in all their Similitudes and Differences, Conformities and Contrarieties, in all their Essences and Accidents, in all their several distinct Proportions and order, in their Beauties and Harmonies, with all the Parts and Elements which compose these, as they make up the universal Harmony and Beauty meet together, clearly, compleatly in the undivided Unity of the Souls Essence.

Thus also this Soul contains within it self its own Body, its Image and Organ, in all the forms, parts, and proportions of it. Neither doth it so comprehend this alone, but the universal Body, as it relates to its own particular Body, as it stands in the senses of this Body, like Images in a Glass.

Here, in this Unity, is the Corporeal Image, as in a Divine Mould, formed in all its parts and proportions, to answer to their Original in the Soul, and to each other, for here only are they seen together, to be compared and judged, from hence they come forth, by this Unity they consist in their Union, are acted every moment unto mo∣tions corresponding with each other, and to a Sympathy; for one Spirit springs up through the whole Body, as it self descended into a shadowy figure of it self, and abiding ever with it self, within the Unity of its own Essence.

The most eminent Character of the eternal Spirit, is its Unity. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. How glorious an Image of God, in this Character of the Divine Glory, is man in the perfecti∣on of his natural form? What is the amplitude, the majesty of this Divine Unity, in which the whole Creation, with all its beauties and fulness, appear together at once, in One, as upon its Throne?

Thus, I hope, I have from common sense, and principles universally received, made plain in some imperfect degree, this indivisible Unity of the Intellectual Soul in man.

2. Propos. The Humane Soul is an indivisible Unity, containing in it self all Variety of forms.

The Argument before taken from the Operations of the Soul, in knowing and judging things, to explain its Unity, declares also this Variety in its Unity.

The Soul hath naturally a desire, and power, or potentiality of knowing all things, especially the Harmony of things, which is the Intellectual Beauty. The Harmony in no part can be understood without the knowledge of the whole. If the Soul then in the primi∣tive, and pure state of the Creation, did actually enjoy it self in the perfection of its natural form and faculties, it contained within it self, in the Unity of its Essence, all Variety of things in all their Distincti∣ons, Differences, and Divisions, Originals, and Copies, Causes and Effects, Substances, and Circumstances, or Accidents, Essence•…•…, and Operations.

The power or potentiality in the Soul of Man, is not Passive but Active. It is a pure Act, free from the passiveness, which is the con∣sequent of corporeal or bodily matter. The Intellectual Spirit ha∣ving alwayes in it self the judgment of all things, in the potentiality or power of it, which either is its Essence, or inseparable from it, hath also all forms of things in the same Capacity, or Power, and so in its Original Act. Indeed as it subsisteth in the Body, this plenitude in the Original Act, or power of the Soul, is very much vailed by mat∣ter, or corporeity, at least under the fall.

But I pass from this Argument, to another, drawn from the Unity of the Soul, established in the former Proposition.

The Soul being in its Essence, by Virtue of its essential Unity al∣together undivided, and so above all place or time, which consist of divided parts, is thus uncapable of Absence, Distance, or Division from any thing. All things then are ever present with it.

There is only a two-fold presence imaginable, Corporeal, and Spiritual.

1. The Corporeal, or bodily presence is after the manner of Cor∣poreal Substances or Bodies, with Division, a divided presence.

This is the presence of two Bodies, one containing the other as its proper place, or of two Bodies, contained in one Body as their common place, one common space of Air, one Field, one Chamber, one Bed.

2. The spiritual presence is a meeting in one Incorporeal Form, or in one Spirit, which is an Indivisible Unity. This the Schools express by the penetration of Spirits, which penetration, where there are no extensions or dimensions, as in Bodies, seemeth to me, uncapable of any other sense, in the strict examination of it, than their subsisting together in the same undivided Unity, and their mutual subsistencies in the undivided and essential Unities of each other.

Harmonious with this, are those two well-grounded and unshaken Axioms in Philosophy,

1. The Essences of things are Indivisible.

2. The understanding alone reacheth to, and comprehendeth the Essences and Substances of things, whiles sense feeds only upon empty shadows, Aiery, accidental Forms.

Proclus thus teacheth us, That all things are in the Soul 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ac∣cording to the peculiar property and character of the Soul. In like manner the Lord Jesus saith to the unbelieving Jews, which look for signs of the Divinity, for a Pomp and Glory without, in their senses, The Kingdome of Heaven is within you.

The Heathen Philosophers stiled the Unities of things, Gods. This Unity, to which all things were present, was, with them, the Character of a God. The Scriptures upon the same ground, stile all Intellectual Spirits, both Angels and Men, Gods. He calleth (saith Christ) them Gods, to whom the word of God came. That living Word, which is the Image of the invisible God, (and so containeth all Forms, the whole nature of things in it self) cometh by Nature, and by Grace, although after a divers manner, to all Intellectual Spirits. That Scripture, which our Lord Jesus relates to, seemeth peculiarly to regard Humane Souls, I have said, ye are Gods, but ye shall die like men. Ye Intellectual Spirits, which in your abstracted forms are immortal, impassible, undivided, comprehensive Unities, To which all forms of things, in their immutable Essences, are ever present by my presence with you, who am the eternal Word of the Divine Mind, the Divine and Universal Image of things, Ye being humbled be∣neath the Angels, into a Body of Dust, a Corporeal Form, in this, by your sympathy with this, are subject to the Government of the Elements and Coelestial Bodies, of the Powers ruling in them, as Tutors over you, and so to their Laws of Time, Place, Division, and Death, until you grow up to the full Age of the Intellectual Life, by returning into the Bosome of your first Divine Ideal Unity in me.

All diversity of Forms are in this manner present with the Intel∣lectual Soul, meeting together, and being contained in the Unity of its Essence, as in an invisible Palace, or City, like the City of God de∣scribed by the Psalmist, which is compact in it self.

Object. Is God then, are all the Angels, is this visible World so present with the Soul, so contained in its essential Unity, as to be one Essence, one Spirit with it?

Answ. I shall give three distinct Answers to the three parts of this Objection,

In relation,

• 1. To God.
• 2. To Angels.
• 3. To the visible World.

1. Answ. This comprehensive Unity, which is the proper Cha∣racter of Intellectual Spirits, is called by Philosophers, the Apex, or supream Point, the Head of the Soul, hid in a Divine Glory, the Divine part of the Soul, in which it symbolizeth with, is capable of Commerce with the Divinity it self, and of enjoying in it self the Di∣vine presence, as in its most proper and beloved Temple.

I shall humbly present to the Readers Candor four Distinctions, for the unvailing of this Divine presence in the Soul.

1. Distinction. God is not present in the Soul, as in a place Divisible, but as in an undivided Unity; for he were otherwise no more a pure, an infinite Spirit, the first, supream, simple Spirit of Being, Beauty, of all Excellency and Virtue, a Life of Sweetness, a Light of Glory, without allay, shade, or limit: He were now Corporeal and finite.

Of this Local Circumscription (which hath no place here) is that Rule rightly understood, The container is greater than the con∣tained.

2. Distinction. God by his Omnipresence, and undivided Unity, is every where, in every Creature, in every part and point of the Creation, with the fulness of his Glories and Godhead after a two-fold manner,

1. God is present to himself in every Creature, Secundum modum Dei, after the manner of a God.

2. God is present in each Creature, to that Creature, Secundum modum Creaturae, according to the manner of the Creature.

1. God is present to himself in every Creature, after the manner of a God.

Where-ever he is present, He is entirely present with all the Joys and Glories of eternity, ever undivided, His own Heaven to him∣self, in the Depths of Hell beneath as in the Heighth of Heaven above, in the dust of the Grave, in a wave of the Sea, as in the most shining Cherubim or flaming Seraphim.

God is not thus present to any natural Spirit, no, not in the purity ofits Creation, with his unvailed Beauties, shining forth in the bright∣ness of his Glory, in the fulness of his Godhead. Then should he transfigure that Spirit into the same Image of one Divine Form and Glory with himself. Then would there be no difference between Adam in Paradise, the Angels in Heaven, and Jesus Christ in his Pa∣radise and Heaven above all Heavens, the Bosome of the Father. No, after this manner God dwells in Jesus Christ alone, as he is risen from the Dead, in the eternal Spirit, in the Glory of the Father.

2. God is in every Creature present with that Creature, accor∣ding to the manner of that Creature, By the divers manners of his Appearance, as by the ingraving upon the Seal, setting divers impres∣sions upon the Creature, and giving divers forms of Being to it like the Seal in the impression upon the Wax. He thus becometh the fulness of every Creature, filling all, in all parts of it, and so Omni∣present to it.

Therefore the School-men say of the sending, giving, powring forth, the coming of the Spirit to us, to be in us, That it is only Novus modus apparendi, A new manner of appearing. The Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, from whom the other two Persons are ever undivided, God blessed for ever, is ever in every Creature, in every Spirit. He only changeth his Appearances and Effulgencies there. By the change of his Appearance, he changeth and formeth each Creature, each Spirit in all its Changes. Thus he turneth to himself

the Heavens and the Earth, as the Clay to the Seal, according to the Language in the Book of Job.

How divinely pure and pleasant a prospect, or living Picture, is now the nature of things, while God himself, according to the distinct Idea, or eternal exemplar of each Creature, cometh forth, and appeareth together with it, as Twin-brothers, as Twin-Loves, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, one the reflection of the other? while a Third Love breaks from both these, in which they are blest, and made per∣fect, with a mutual Union, and the fruition of each other.

The ever-glorious, and eternally-joyous Trinity of the highest, and first Love, seems to multiply and figure it self in each Creature. All Creatures now seem to be in a lively and living Beauty, repre∣sented by the two Breasts of the heavenly Spouse, Like two Twin-Roes of a lovely kind, two Twin-Loves, the Births of their heavenly Mother, the Universal and Divine Image in the Person of Christ, feeding among the Lillies, the Ideal, eternal Lights and Beauties of her soft and shining Bosome.

But all this is to be understood of simple Nature, abstracted from the Corruption by Sin, with which, in the midst of the pure, peace∣ful, pleasant Varieties, the charming Harmonies, the golden Calms and Gardens of Divine Love, cometh in a scene of War and Death, of tempestuous Seas, fields of Blood, Contrariety and Enmity, God willing to shew the Power of his Wrath. That God, who is the God of Love, that Will, which is Love it self, All Love in the beloved Soul, to the beloved Soul here in its faln state, puts on this strange person of an Enemy. Under this dark Disguise, and horrid Vizat, he hideth all his Beauties and Sweetnesses, he acts a part of Wrath. But this it self at last appears to the beloved Soul, to be a most de∣lightful Love-part. While, by it, the Variety is made more full, being extended to the greatest Contrariety, and utmost extreams. While in the reconciling of these, the Divine Harmony is more full and ravishing, The Divine Love heightned to an excess of Sweet∣ness, and triumphant Joys, The Wisdome of the Design more admi∣rd and adored in its rich and glorious Depths, All expectations of Men and Angels are suspended, most happily deceived, and in the end infinitely transcended.

But how have I wandred, and delightfully lost my self, by drink∣ing in eagerly this Wine of Angels and glorified Saints, the Sweet∣ness of this Divine Light and Love? I will now pass from this second Distinction to the third, for the illustration of the Divine presence in the soul.

3. Distinction. God is one with the Soul, not formally, but tran∣scendently.

God is not one with the Soul formally, as the formal and proper Essence of the Soul or of any created Spirit, much less as a Constitu∣tive part of its Essence. This would make God and that Spirit essen∣tially one. The Essence of that Spirit would reciprocally be the Essence of God. That Spirit would be essentially God. Is not this the utmost heighth of Ignorance, Profaneness, Impiety, Blasphemy,

Giant-like, Lucifer-like to war with God, for the Throne of his God∣head?

Besides all this evil, how great were the loss to every Spirit, of Angels and Men? Their Sun, which makes the eternal Day and Spring, were now set in an hopeless Night of Clouds and Confusions. All their Loves, Hopes, and Joys, aspiring to an infiniteness above themselves, would now all droop and die in their own Bosome. The beginning, the end of them all is taken away. That distinction of things, which is the Mother of all Lives, Loves, Beauties, and Plea∣sures, as Unity is the Father of them, would now sink into a rude undistinguished Darkness; the first and the fountain of all Distincti∣ons being taken away, in taking away the Distinction of the Divine Nature from the created form of things.

How unpleasant were it to the Eye below, to be perswaded that there were no Sun, besides it self, above it self? Now the joy in be∣holding the face of the Sun and of Heaven, the taking in of the sweet Light of Heaven and the Sun, the charming Delights in the Varieties of Lights and Shades, of Colours and Pictures, in the Light and the Sun-shine, were no more.

2. God is transcendently one with the Soul, as he is with all things by the transcendency of his Unity, and his Infiniteness. He compre∣hendeth all things in one in Himself, after a manner altogether in∣comprehensible. As he is the first, the Universal Cause, the most immediate, the most intimate, the inseparable, the Ideal Cause of all things, He is the Unity of every Unity, the Being of Beings, the Essence of every Essence, not formally, but transcendently, not after a finite, but an infinite manner.

Cusanus, saith, God is the Sun in the Sun, not formally, finitely, but after a transcendent, infinite manner. He is so the Sun in the Sun, that he is all things with the fulness of the Divine Nature and eter∣nity in that form.

4. Distinction. God is present with, and in the natural form of the Soul, as in an earthly and shadowy Image. He is present, according to his heavenly, his eternal form in this shadow, as vailed and hidden beneath it.

As Jesus Christ at his Incarnation, so the first man by his Creation, was made under the Law, (the Law, the Glory of the created Image improved and heightned.) The Holy Spirit saith of the Law, That it is a shadow of good things to come, not the very Image. It is com∣monly said, That the Law is the Gospel vailed, the Gospel, the Law unvailed.

Jesus Christ, as he is the essential Image, the brightness of the Glory of God, is the first Adam, vailed, beneath a shadowy Image. He is there, as the Truth, the Original, the Root of this shadow, bring∣ing it forth, bearing it in himself, comprehending it. He is in it, as the Spirit and beautiful form of a Plant in the Seed, ready to spring forth through it, to transfigure it into the similitude of its own Beauties, to fill it so transfigured with its own Divine Life, Virtues, and Fruits in the proper season.

St. Paul makes the first man, in his pure State and in his Fall, a Type or Figure of Him, who is to come, Jesus Christ, Rom. 5.

God in the Light of his Glory, Jesus Christ, according to his heavenly Image, hidden in God, The Soul, according to its Divine Life, in the state of Grace, are all present vailed in the natural man, as in their proper shadow.

Some think this following sense to be intended by St. Paul in these words, [Christ is the Image of the invisible God, the first-born of the whole Creation, or of every Creature,] Col. 1.

God in that same second Person, which is the Godhead in its essen∣tial Image, (which in the fulness of time, took flesh of the Virgin Mary,) in the beginning of Time came forth from the secret and un∣accessible Light of Eternity, in a shadowy Image. This Image was the full figure of his Person, with all its Divine Glories, according to the capacity of a shadow. This was the whole Creation compleat in its first Draught. All the Glories of the Divine Nature, which are imitable, were here first distinctly figured in the primitive, and pure forms of all the Creatures. Thus was he the Image of the Invisible God, the first-born of the whole Creation in general, and of each Creature in particular.

Thus was He in the Language of the Jews, the great Adam, who brought forth the little Adam in his own likeness.

Thus was Jesus Christ in Adam, at once, the life of all, in his essen∣tial Glories, the Original Copy, or first Draught of the Creature, in the whole compass of it, of each Creature in particular. All this in the Humane Soul, in Adam, as the only perfect and proper Figure of this Original.

I understand nothing in this interpretation of St. Pauls words, con∣trary to the Analogy of Faith, or the Scriptures. There seemeth to be in it a compleat Harmony, and order in the nature of things, ac∣cording to this sense.

1. All things stand first in an Uncreated Subsistence and Essence, Then in an Uncreated Subsistence or Person, they come forth into Created Essences or Natures, Lastly, By this medium uniting all, they pass in Created Subsistencies and Essences, into created Persons and Natures.

2. Jesus Christ gradually descends from his essential Glories, into an Universal, Original Figure of himself, of the whole Creation, of each Creature. Through this He passeth into the particular form of faln man, in the Womb of the Virgin. So he descends to the nether∣most parts of the Earth, ascends again through all forms of things, with all, united in his own Person, above all Heavens, and fills All.

After this manner, the Lord Jesus is the Mediatour of the Creati∣on, as well as of the Reconciliation and Regeneration. All things are made by him, and nothing that is made (or brought forth from the be∣ginning of things to the end) comes forth without him. As according to his appearances in Grace or Glory, the Saints appear together with him; so according to his Appearances in Nature, all things appear

together with him. He lives and subsists in the form of every Crea∣ture. Every Creature subsists by its transcendental Union with him in Nature.

Thus it is most true, That we are in this World, as he is in this World. We are Sojourners together with him in his Land. He suffers in all our Sufferings, is straitned in all our straitnings. He is in all things made like unto us, Sin only excepted. He carries along in every par∣ticular form the Universal Harmony, the Divine Glory, even in all the sufferings and straitnings of every Creature. The Universal Har∣mony and Divine Glory is to him the liberty, the joy of Paradise, Heaven, Eternity, in each straitning and suffering. Sin only is the breach of this Harmony, the violation of this Glory, not by a priva∣tion only, but a Contradiction and Enmity founded in the privation. This can bear no part in the Divine Harmony, save as it is reduced into Order, and the Harmony carried on through the Wrath and Righteousness of God, in the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

But I desire to leave my self, and my Reader free in this Point.

I have now finished, in four Distinctions, my Answer to the first part of the Objection, made against the Variety of forms in the Uni∣ty of the Soul. In this part of my Answer I have endeavoured to state the presence of God with and in the Soul of man, as perspicu∣ously as my dark and narrow mind is capable of taking in, and ex∣pressing a Divine Mystery of so great an amplitude, and such an heigth of Glory.

I pass now to the second part of my Answer, which concerns the Angels.

2. Answer. Angels, with the whole Company of invisible substan∣ces, or separated Forms and immortal Spirits are contained in the Unity of the Soul these two wayes,

1. They are Superior and Universal Causes, subordinate to the first Cause. Thus they are most intimately, and inseparably present in the Constitution of the Soul. As Entity, or Being, and substantiality in their Superiour and Universal Nature descend into incorporeal Spi∣rits, and through these, into Corporeal Shapes and Bodies; so do all the Angels, greater in Might and Glory, cloath themselves with the Incorporeal Form of the immortal Soul, communicating all their divers Virtues, Powers, and Glories to this Form in which them∣selves subsist, and live together with it, being an head of Glory to it.

2. All Angelical, Immortal Spirits, are another way in the Soul, as making up the full diversity of all Forms in it, and so composing its Essence. Thus all Angels, all Essences, all Forms of things in their immortal Substances, as Intellectual Spirits, meet in the proper Unity, under the peculiar Character and Diversity of each Intellectual Soul, as, in some obscure resemblance, Variety of colours in a particular colour, or as all the Elements in each Element, in each mixt Form, under the proper Character of the predominant Element or Form.

3. Answer. The Intellectual Soul containeth all Corporeal Forms or Bodies in it self, two wayes,

• 1. Virtually.
• 2. Formally.

1. The Soul hath in it self all Bodies virtually from the Angels above it, as the shining Bosome, where the eternal Spring through Jesus Christ powres forth its living streams. Here the Soul drinketh in the Essences, and essential forms of things, in their Angelick Truth and Goodness. These feast and fill the Understanding and the Will. In the Understanding, or Angelick Light of the Soul, they shine as the Exemplars or Patterns of all below in the visible World. In the Will, as in the Angelick Love of the Soul, they lie as in the Womb, or in the seminal Virtue, or executive Power, which brings them forth.

2. This Soul comprehends the Corporeal World in it self formally. The Essences of all Bodies, as they are Objects only of the Under∣standing, and not of Sense, so are they, according to the Nature and Law of all Essences, Intellectual Unities, and Forms, in the Unity or essential Form of this Intellectual Spirit. The Soul in these distinct Essences floweth forth into these shadowy forms, with which our Senses, the shadows of the Intellectual Light, are entertained.

The Intellectual Unity diffuseth it self into the continued parts of these divisible Forms. This Unity formeth the Proportions of the parts in their mutual Correspondencies, knitteth them together unto a mutual sympathy in each natural Body. For as I have before said, a mutual correspondency of parts suited exactly each to other through the whole Corporeal Frame, a concurrence in all the parts of the sensations, mutations, or impressions seated in each distinct and divided part, seemeth altogether unimaginable, if there be not an undivided Unity, which is one and the same in all the divided parts, where all the parts meet in one, and are one. By this Unity alone can all the parts have a mutual proportion, a comprehension, pene∣tration, sensation, or feeling of each other through out, as they have of themselves, and in the same undivided moment. This rend the sympathy true and perfect.

The Unity then of the Intellectual Soul, as it diffuseth it self into all Bodies, in all their extended forms and divided parts, so it bind∣eth them all up within it self. This is the substance to these shadows, and Contextures of shadowy Forms or Accidents in which they sub∣sist. This is the Spring out of which they rise up every moment. This is the band which joyns and tyes them together in one. This is the Bosome or proper place, which incompasseth, imbraceth, brings forth, sustains, and cherisheth them.

I have now answered the Objection, and so endeavoured to clear from all Clouds the beauty of the Soul, as all Varieties shine most pleasantly in the face of it, in the diversity indeed of the shadowy Image, but an Angel-like Diversity, and a God-like Image.

Thus I have finished the two Propositions in the Description of the Souls Essence. Asserting, 1. The Unity, 2. The Variety in the Diversity.

3. Prop. The Image of God resulting from the most harmonious Union of these two, the Unity, and the Diversity of Forms, is the proper Essence, and essential form of the Soul.

This Harmonious Union consists in a two-fold Perfection.

1. The Unity and Variety of things under a form of Diversity, meet in the Essence of the Soul, with the Character or Propriety of the Unity and Harmony.

When God had drawn the several parts of his Divine Image in the several Angels and Creatures, according to the Diversities of their several Characters or Properties, He now summons them, and calls them all together to meet in Man, in him to be united and com∣pleated in the entire Unity and full Harmony of the Divine Image. Thus he speaketh to himself in the Trinity, to all the Quires of Angels, to all his fore-going Works, Let us (saith He) make man in our Image, in our own likeness. The expression is doubled, to give the more force and emphasis to it. So afterward God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created he him. The entireness, the Eminency, the Principality of the Divine Image in man is thus set forth, and therefore the Dominion is immediately added to it.

Angels, and all other Creatures, have their distinct Ideas in the Divine Mind. But God himself in his own essential Image, in the Person of the Son, the Idea of Ideas, is the Idea of Man. This there∣fore alone, as it is his glorious beginning in Nature, is his Beatifical End in Grace and Glory, his Righteousness, Rest, Eternal and full Blessedness, in his full, immediate, entire Union, Conformity, Com∣munion with it.

The Lord Jesus is the Head, the Unity, the Harmony of the whole Creation, in this Region of Diversity. The Angels, in the heights of a Created Glory next him, are like Notes in a Musical Lesson, Diversities in the Harmony springing forth from this Unity.

But each of these Diversities, as the top of the Beams next the Sun, standing in the highest degree of Diversity, beneath the Unity, bear in themselves the Universal Harmony, the Universal Nature of Diversity, the whole Creation, in the shadowy figure of the God∣head. Therefore are they in Scripture stiled, Thrones, Principa∣lities, Gods. They are so many Divine Unities in a shadowy Image, but under the Character and Property of so many distinct Diver∣sities.

Thus are they ministring Spirits; As they are shadowy Unities. They are shadowy Gods. But as they are Unities under the several Characters of Diversity, they are ministring Deities, or ministring Spirits. They are Servants to the Lord Jesus, the proper Unity and Harmony in its own full Character, and Divine Property. From him they minister the whole Creation, in the several Diversities of the Universal Forms, and undivided Essences unto man. In man they all meet, as in their proper Unity and Harmony answering exactly to the Person of the Lord Jesus. So the Sun in Heaven, by his seve∣ral Beams, figureth himself into a Sun in a Cloud, by his side, or in a clear stream beneath him.

Thus are the Angels, so many Chariots, and the whole Society of Angels one Chariot, in which Jesus Christ rides forth into the Humane Nature, unto a compleat Image of himself in man.

After this manner Angels Rule over Man, are superior to him in Glory and Might, as he is the shadowy Image, in which all the lines of Nature meet, and terminate themselves. He is now the Heir un∣der Age, subject to Tutors and Guardians. But the spiritual man made lower than the Angels, in its shadowy Image, upon the stage of the first Creation, grown up to its Age of maturity, in the Resur∣rection of Christ, is now crowned with Honour and Dignity, is Heir of all things, Lord of the Angels. Together with Jesus Christ he rideth forth upon the Angels, as the Chariots and Horses, which he now governs.

Thus in this shadowy Image, and state of Diversity, the Unity and the Variety meet in man with the most Harmonious Union, the fullest Character of the Unity in the Variety. So man becomes the principal, the compleat Image of the Godhead in the whole Creation, ministred from the Lord Jesus, the Head and Harmony of the whole Diversity, by the concurrent service of all the Angels, as the whole Creation, in so many Diversities.

2. The Harmonious Union, constituting the Divine Image in man, consists in the Unity of the Soul, in its undivided Essence, sub∣sisting in all diversity of Forms, circling through them all, returning ever into it self. As the same spacious, and delightfully various Prospect, seen through several clear Glasses, diversly, but delicately shaded. So the Soul by the Unity of its Essence subsists, and con∣templates it self within it self, in all forms of things from the highest to the lowest, according to their several Angelical Diversities, as so many pleasingly new, and richly distinct, but sweet and transparent shades. This is the Soul in the perfection of its natural Form, a Di∣vine Cir•…•…le, a compleat Paradise. Every where presenting the whole, the form of a man, in the Divine Image, the Beginning and the End, meeting themselves in each Point.

The Intellectual Soul by its Unity at once subsisteth diversly in all Diversity of Forms, and circleth through them all within it self.

The Soul by its Idea, and Divine Unity, hath its Throne in the Divine World. By its Intellectual Life, and Intuitive Light, it spreads its self in flames of heavenly Love, in beams of heavenly Beauty among the Seraphim and Cherubim. In its sensitive powers and parts, it stretcheth forth it self through those lower Worlds, the Coelestial and Elementary. In its rational and discoursive faculty, it makes a distinct World of its own, at once dividing and uniting the invisible and visible Worlds, filling up the internal or middle space between them.

The Soul, from its Divine Unity, in its most immediate Union with its eternal Idea (where all Unities of things in their God-like forms do meet together in one) descendeth into its Angelick Image, or Intellectual Form. Here all things in Angels shapes dwell toge∣ther, as in a Palace of Angels. Here the Soul in her own face,

as in a Glass, beholdeth all things in their universal Forms, rouling through them all, so that in each form she is Omniform, comprehend∣ing in open view all things in their universal Forms, under the Pro∣perty or Character of that universal Form, in which she at present appears. From thence she passeth into her rational Form, in which she is a contexture of universal and particular Images mutually in∣folding each other, mutually springing up and shining forth, in a beautiful Harmony from the Christalline Bosomes of each other. So this Spirit slides by degrees into the most divided shapes in sense, and on Earth, through these into the lowest and obscurest shades beneath the Earth.

Again by answerable Revolutions, and in the same proportions, she gathereth her self up again into her first and supream Unity.

Three things make the Soul in these Circlings a most beautiful and delightful Prospect, which three Beauties and Pleasures all flow by á sweetly-natural necessity, from her Divine Unity.

1. The Changes of the Soul through all these Diversities of forms, are all most orderly and harmonious, all together make up one most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty and Musick. For the Unity spreadeth it self through all this diversity of Forms and Changes. The Unity preserveth it self entire in the whole composure of these Changes, and in each part, in each turn of the whole. Upon this ac∣count hath the Soul been defined to be Harmony and a self-moving Number, or a numerous Motion, a numerous spring of Motion. Harmony consisteth in, is measured, and expressed by Numbers: Inasmuch as Number is Unity diffusing it self, Unity going forth from it self, in a just order, by Multiplication or Division of it self returning again into it self, and all this within it self.

2. The Soul, through the whole Circle of its Descent and Re∣turn, carrieth along with it all diversity of Forms into every Change. For the Unity of the Soul is her self every where inseparable from the Soul, and indivisible in it self. This is clearly signified in that Maxim concerning the Soul, universally taught in the Schools; That the Soul is divisible and mutable in her Operation, that is, in re∣spect to her Change into diversity of forms; but through all this mutability of Operations, and Changes, indivisible and immutable in her Essence.

Thus is the Essence of the Soul, as a Christalline Heaven, or as a Palace composed all of purest and firmest Looking-Glass, after such a manner, that all the parts of the wonderful structure, all the per∣sons in all the Apartments, all the Changes and Motions, are seen at once, in every point of the Divine Building. All the Glories, all the Inhabitants of this Heaven in all shapes, in all postures of Light and Life, meet the Eye every where, not only by a most clear transpa∣rency, but by the Spring, or Fountain of Light and Life, which in winding streams floweth through the whole, openeth it self, with all its various streams, and all their curious windings in its Bosome every where.

3. The Soul rouleth through all these Changes, circling from the highest Lights above, to the most shady depths below, and through those shades into the brightnesses above within her self. Her own Essence is within it self, the Spring, the Center, the Seat, the Circle of all those mysterious and harmonious Revolutions. For this is the Essence of the Soul, An Unity containing in it self all diver∣sity of Forms.

This is the Soul in its Essence, in the perfection of its natural form, the Universe within it self, like God comprehending, conversing with all things, within its self alone. All this indeed was in a shadowy figure; yet such, as the Life it self, brought forth, supported, filled, illustrated, and acted. But alas! now by the Fall, this great and glorious Spirit contracted, obscured in death, wandreth within it self as a Ghost, or shade of it self, among the Dead. It looketh up, it beholdeth it self, all things round about it, and wondreth at their strange shapes, as the shades of the Dead. It understandeth, know∣eth nothing of it self, or them; not so much, as that it is dead. It calleth this state of Death, Life, This the World, which is it self be∣come its own Tomb.

Perhaps this Picture which I have drawn of the Soul, in her proper Essence, or Nature, in her true and essential form, may seem rather a fancy, than any thing taken from the Life. I shall therefore at∣tempt to touch it over again, that I may give more lustre and life to it, that I may at once make it more clear, and confirm it. I shall to this end make use of two Authorities: The one Humane, the other Divine. I shall begin with Humane Authority, that I may prepare the way to, and close all with the Divine Authority, as the seal of Truth.

The Humane Authority is taken from a Person eminent, as a Phi∣losopher and Divine, for a profound Knowledge in all manner of Learning, for a heighth of Beauty in his Life, the suitable Birth and Image of that Divine Light in his Mind, for a Death, which was an ascent to the eternal Mansions in a flame of Martyrdome and Divine Love, agreeable to both the Light of his Knowledge, and the Beauty of his Life. His Writings are universally esteemed. His Testimony universally received, and often cited as Authentick, by the greatest Persons through many Ages. He hath the stamp of Antiquity upon him.

Boetius, that great Roman, is the Person of whom I speak. The Au∣thority I cite from him, is the Meeter in the Book of the Consolation of Philosophy. It is a part of this Meeter, which describes the nature of the Soul. But the whole seems to me so pertinent to the general Subject of my Discourse, so excellent in it self, drawn forth from the inmost Treasuries of the Platonical, Pythagorean, Mosaical, Christian Philosophy and Divinity, that I thought I should oblige the Reader to set it down entire. I have therefore first transcribed it in Latin, for the sake of the learned Reader: and then rendred it into English for the benefit of all, that shall take any pleasure in those sa∣cred Mysteries of Truth presented in her richest Robes, at the

whitest heighth of her never fading Beauty and Majesty.

The Latin.

O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernas, Terrarum Caeli{que} sator, qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes, stabilis{que} manens das Cunct a moveri; Quem non externae pepulerunt singere Causae Materiae fluitantis opus: verum insita summi Forma boni, livore carens. Tu cunct a superno Ducis ab exemplo, pulchrum, pulcherrimus ipse Mundum mente gerens, simili{que} in imagine formans, Perfect as{que} jubens perfectum absolvere partes. Tu numeris Elementa ligas, ut frigora flammis, Arida conveniant liquidis; ne purior ignis Evolet, aut mersas deducant pondera terras. Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta moventem Connectens animam, per Consona membra resoluis. Quae cum sect a duos motum glomeravit in orbeis, In semet reditura meat, mentem{que} profundam Circuit, & simili convertit imagine Caelum. Tu causis animas paribus, vitas{que} minores Provehis, & levibus sublimeis curribus aptans, In Caelum terram{que} seris; quas lege benigna Ad te conversas reduci facis igne reverti. Da pater Augustam menti conscendere sedem; Da fontem lustrare boni; Da, luce reperta, In te conspicuos animi Desigere visus. Deiice terrenae nebulas & pondera molis, At{que} tuo splendore mica; tu nam{que} serenum; Tu requies tranquilla piis, te cernere finis, Principium, Vector, Dux, semita, terminus idem.

The English.

O thou, who by the golden linked Chain Of reason's Musick, with an even strain Conductest all from thy bright Throne on high, Father of shady Earth, and shining Skie. By undiscovered Tracts, Time's stream and spring, Thou from Eternity's vast Sea doest bring. Motion, and change ever unknown to thee, From thee deriv'd, and by thee guided be. This work of floating matter, which we see, By inbred form of good, from envy free, By sweetest force of Native Loves rich seeds, Without external cause from thee proceeds. In Loves eternal Garden, as its flowers, Flourish in their first forms, and fullest powers

All Beauties. These are the life, the living Law, From which thou dost all forms of Being draw. As light to dazled eyes, all things below From these pure Suns, in fading circles flow. A World all fair, from thee supreamly fair, Shines in thy mind, above controul or care. In an harmonious Image thou the same, By perfect parts dost to perfection frame. By potent Charms of sacred numbers bound, The waving Elements keep their set round. Fire, Aire, Earth, Water in mysterious Dances Move to thy Musick through all times and chances. Mixt into various figures with sweet grace, In each form undivided they embrace. Earth sinks not, nor doth fire to Heav'n fly, Frosts, Flames, Droughts, Floods, meet in an Unity. The three-fold Natures golden Knot, mid-band, The Soul thou tyest in one, by Love's bright hand. Then it by thee, unloosned, spread doth lie In Limbs well suited to a sympathy Of motion, and distinct melody, Diffus'd through things below, or those on high. This is the Spring, and Circle ampler far, And purer, than the Christal Heavens are; The universal Beauties charming face, Where sweetly spring and dance each lovely grace. Within it self divided this great Soul Into a double Globe it self doth roul. One hidden from us by excess of light, One with shades sweetly temper'd to our sight. As thorough these it moves, it still returns Into it self, still with Love's fire it burns. By force of this it still doth circle round Th' eternal minds great deep. Heav'n thus doth found, And in like figure of those unseen Lights, Doth turn about these Glories in our sights. Brought forth from causes like Souls, and less lives, Thy will aloft in airy Chariots drives, And sows in Heaven, in Earth, which by Love's Law Turn'd back to thee, thou to thy self dost draw By the innate returning flame. Grant Father, to our minds thy glorious Mount To climb, to view of good the sacred Fount: In thine own Light, which doth within us shine, To fix the clear eyes of our Souls on thine. Cast down the mists, and weight of earthly mold. The joyous splendors of thy face unfold. Thou art to holy minds the golden Calm, The sweet repose, the grief appeasing Balm.

To see Thee our Beginning, is our End, Guide, Chariot, Way, our Home, to which we tend.

I mean to take no notice of any thing in this Poem, besides that alone, which immediately concerns the Soul. In that part I shall, after the manner of a brief Commentary, present the Reader with some few Notes upon the several Passages, for the illustration and confirmation of my fore-going Discourse upon the Nature of the Humane, or Intellectual Soul.

1. Passage. The three-fold Natures golden knot, Mid-band:

The Soul.	Thou tiest in one.	Triplicis.
Naturae mediam	Connectens Animam.

1. Note. The three Natures here are manifestly, The Invisible, In∣corporeal Nature, Immortal Spirits: The Visible, Corporeal Na∣ture, Bodies, Mortal, or Immortal: The Soul, the middle between both these.

2. Note. The Soul is a middle-nature between both these, not by Abnegation or Separation, but by Participation and Connection. So that word imports, Connectens, the Golden Knot lying all in one. The Soul is a middle-nature three wayes,

1. The Soul extendeth her self through both Natures, to their utmost Heighths above, and Depths beneath, by her Idea, which is her Golden Head, by her Angel, which is her Arms and Breast of her Silver, her immediate Image and Birth, as she springs forth from her Idea, her incorruptible Essence, above all motion, the first seat of her Life, Understanding, Virtue, Power, as they flow from her Ideal Spring. Thus Plotinus believed the Soul her self, in her Essence, in her Intellectual Form, at its first abstracted heighth and purity to be her own good Angel. But the Soul dissuseth her self also by her Coe∣lestial Garment or Body, through the wide-spread Heavens. These are her Belly and Thighs of Brass, the Springs of Generation, the first seat of Motion, Division, and successive Forms. By her Elemental Body, she swims in this uncertain Sea of Generation and Corruption. The Elements in their Orbs, compose her Legs and Feet of Iron. Here is the lowest Region of Division, Motion, and Change. Here is the scene of Corruption, here is the Soul most obscured. In the lowest parts of this Earth is she resolved into a shade.

2. The Soul is a Nature distinct from the other two. Angelical Spirits are Omniforme, or Universal. Bodies are extended into divi∣sible parts. The Intellectual is composed of both universal and par∣ticular Forms, all which it contains in an indivisible Unity. The Soul circles through all forms of things, universal and particular, as they subsist apart, or united, appearing mutually, infolding each other within the undivided Unity of its own Essence, whilst, in the Unity and Majesty of its undivided Essence, it rouls through all forms and parts of it self, as the Sun through the whole compass of the Heavens. In this is a more glorious Sun and Heaven, that it is in each point of

it self, at once, as a distinct Sun in its full glory, and every Sun, a spa∣cious, transparent Glass, in which the whole Heaven of its Essence, with all its harmonious Motions, and most regular diversity of Forms, appear together by virtue of the Unity every where indivi∣sible.

3. Within the Unity of the Soul lie both the other Natures in a way proper to the nature of the Soul. The Angelical, the Divine Natures above are there, with contracted and dimmer Glories, appear∣ing through Images of less brightness, and less Majesty. All Corpo∣real Natures are there exalted into Spirits, in their Intellectual Pat∣terns and Powers, in their rational Forms and Virtues, in their Ima∣ginative figures and force, in their seminal Reasons, and plastical or formative Power.

That mystical Picture which the Prophet Esay draws of the Sera∣phim, from the Life it self, when he saw them, will serve in its pro∣portion for the figure of the Intellectual Soul. They had each six wings, with two they covered their Face, with two their Feet, with two they flew. Spirits are described by Wings. The Images of things, springing up within them, are their Wings, not by change of place without them, but by these inward Images are they present with things, and in each place. By these they work after the way of a Natural, or rather Angelical Magick. By raising and converting themselves to Images in their minds, they bring forth new forms without, as the Off-spring or Emanations from those Images, like shadows from Bodies. Upon this account Angels are said to work Cognoscendo, by the force of figures in their minds.

Each Soul hath, like a Seraphim, six wings. The face of the Soul is his Divine, his Angelical Idea, in which the face of God, and the face of the Angel, in their proper forms, are seen. The two upper∣most wings, with which the Soul covers her Angelical Face, and within that her Divine Face, is the Divine Image shining in the An∣gelical Image. These wings are full of eyes within and without. As by the eyes without, they see the Images of Angelical and Divine Glories. So by the eyes within, they see the Faces of Angels and of God, and in them their own faces, vailed beneath these Images, full of eyes.

These Eyes are the living Light, the reflection of the Angelical and Divine Glory, of which these Images are composed, and by virtue of which they, according to their pure Natures, stand in a mutual, inseparable Union with the Angels, and in the Angels with the Di∣vine Glory. By vertue of this Union, they at once look inward to their Ideal Beauties, and outward to the Images of these Beau∣ties.

The two lowest wings are the Images of all Corporeal Natures, of all Bodies which cover these, as the feet of the Soul. Nymphs, which are Souls, according to Porphyrius, are described in Poets with silver feet. Bodily Natures, in their extended and divisible parts, are the feet of the Soul, its lowest descent, the lowest and shadowest forms figured upon it. These in the Soul it self, which is an Unity,

appear only in their seminal Unities and Beauties, as Spirits in the Harmony of this Universal Spirit. For this cause are they repre∣sented by silver feet, shining, and incorruptible; for the same reason are they said to be covered with wings, which are those Spirits, the lowermost forms of things in the Soul, the seminal Unity and Har∣monies, out of which Bodies immediately flow, and in which they are seen, as in a mystical Glass.

The middle-wings of the Soul are the proper Image of the Soul it self, by which it performs its own proper Motions and Operations, flying between those Angelical, those Divine Images above, and the shady forms of Bodies below.

The Images, or Natures of Spirits are exprest by pairs of wings, not only for congruity, and the decency of the Parable, but from the Truth of the mystery; for in Spirits, each Image distinguisheth it self by a most substantial Variety into its own Original and Image, by that self-reflection, or spiritual Generation, which is the essential Act of each Understanding, of each Intellectual Nature, of each Spirit.

Thus much of this first passage, the three-fold Nature united in the Soul.

2. Passage.

Then it by thee unloosened, spread doth lye, Through Limbs well suited to a sympathy.

—Per Consona membra resoluis.

Note. How elegantly doth this Divine Philosopher, and Poet, at once, paint out to us the Soul extended into Corporeal Forms, in divisible parts; languishing, obscure, with a faint, and fading light; weak, with a feeble and dying force; as also present in its Divine Uni∣ty, the spring of Light, of Life, through the whole extent of these Bodies, and binding them up into an indivisible Unity. This Unity every where present with all the parts of the wholy Body, This Unity comprehending them all in one, making them all one by a mutual comprehension of each other in it self, is the only ground of the Con∣sonancy, the Harmony and Sympathy. The Unity of the same Spi∣rit answering to it self every where, presenting all the parts in an Uni∣ty in it self, is every where in all Corporeal Forms, the Beauty, the Musick, the Harmony.

3. Passage.

Of motion and divinest Melody, Diffus'd through things below, or those on high. This is the Spring and Circle.

Cuncta moventem.

1. Note. The difficulties in Motion, are inexplicable, if Motion have not for its Spring and Seat an essential, substantial Unity, which con∣tains at once in it self the terms of the Motion, its Beginning and End;

the Way; the Forms or Parts of that which is moved. Without this, how shall the Motion be directed? How shall the Forms or parts of that which is moved, give place to, or pass into the place of each other? How shall the Impression, or force of Motion be com∣municated? But now all things move by a divinely natural Magick; that is, by the force of Harmony, in the Unity of the same Soul or Spirit inhabiting and acting all, presenting it self in every form, part, and motion. Now all motions present themselves to our eyes, as exact and Divine Dances of persons to a Divine Musick, from unseen Musicians sounding entirely, and distinctly in the ear of each person, to which they all at once, in their order, move most agreeably.

2. Note. Immutablity; Mutation, or Change; Motion, differ after the same manner with Eternity, Aeviternity, Time. This is best ex∣plained by the three-fold Unity, the Divine, the Angelical Unity, the Unity of the Soul.

1. The Divine Unity is alone a true and perfect Unity, substantial, supream, unbounded. This hath a perfect boundless Variety in it, with an Uniformity. All forms of things here, as they are most per∣fectly distinct, by the perfection of the Variety; so are they most per∣fectly one, by the perfection of the Unity. This is the Divine World, containing innumerable Divine Worlds within it self, of which every one is infinitely new, and various from all the rest; yet entirely one with all the Rest, including at once innumerable Divine Worlds, all new, and all the same. As the Variety there, comprehends all di∣stinctions below it, and infinitely transcends them; So each, the minutest, the least distinction here, being a Variety there, is a new Divine World, having all the other Varieties compleat in it self, as so many Divine Worlds, all new. This is Eternity above all change.

2. The Angelical Unity follows. Here the Divine Unity de∣scends into a shadow, beneath which it shades it self. This is a shadowy Unity, the first and most perfect of all shadowy Unities. The shade here bounds, and diversifieth the Unity. But the Light, and the Unity in the shadow, predominate over the Darkness and Diver∣sity. The Divine Variety is here contracted and obscured in a di∣versity of Forms. But in this diversity of Forms, is an Omniformity. Each Form is Universal and Omniform. Each Form hath this Angelical Unity in it, where all diversity of Forms meet to compose it, and shine together in it, according to the diversity and property of that Form. Thus every Form of things here is an Angel, every Angel is the whole World in himself; the whole World, and a new World of Angels.

In this World is motion, not properly or simply, but with a predo∣minancy of station, over the motion: for, as the Unity is continu∣ally rouling through diversity of Forms, so it is Omniform, Univer∣sal, cloathed with, possessing, and enjoying in it self, all diversity of Forms, and so the full compass of the whole Angelical Harmony in each Form. This is Aeviternity, where mutability or change begins.

3. The Unity of the Soul is the last, this is mixt of Eviternity and Time; Of Change, where station predominates over motion, and motion single in its own kingdom. The Soul in its superior part is in the form of an Angel; In its Angelical Unity it comprehends and rouls through all diversity of Forms, in their Universality and Omniformity, carrying the whole pomp and full splendor of all uni∣versal Forms, of all Angelical Beauties along with it, in the face of it, into each diverse Form.

Thus it is all Forms in every Form.

In its inferior part, the Soul descends into all particular Forms, where the Unity in its Angelick majesty and lustre, in its universal Form and Glory, is gradually contracted and obscured by the encrea∣sing shade. The Soul now becomes each particular Form.

Here, in this inferior part of the Soul, Motion and Time have their first birth and seat. Time is defined to be the number of Motion, in an orderly Priority and Posteriority. Accordingly the Soul in re∣spect to its inferior part, most properly is described to be a self-moving number. As numbers, by a just order, spring up one out of the other, the succeeding numbers, being ever less universal, removed further from the Unity, and multiplied more into particular Unities, then the fore-going numbers. So doth the Soul after the manner of num∣ber, which is the measure of all proportion and order from its su∣pream and universal Unity, descend and re-ascend through all particular Forms, in the most just order, and most exact pro∣portions.

The Soul, being the first seat of Motion and Time, is also the first seat of Musick, which is a motion, measured by Time, and by the order of Ascents or Descents. It is therefore defined by an Harmony. There is a three-fold Harmony in the motions of the Soul,

1. All the motions of the Soul, through all particular Forms, lie together after a most agreeable and harmonious manner in the supream Unity of the Soul, in its universal Form, which is its Es∣sence. By the Harmony here are measured all the motions of the Soul, in its passage through inferior Forms, and so all Time.

2. The Soul in its Unity diffuseth it self through all its particular Forms and Motions, dwelleth as an hidden seed of Harmony in each of them, figureth it self upon each particular, and upon the whole, uniteth and bindeth up all by it self in it self into one entire piece, into one universal Harmony, which includes all particular Harmonies, all sorts of Musick in it self.

3. The Soul by virtue of its Unity, and universal 'Form, within the embraces and incompassings of that, descends most regularly to the lowest Forms. Then ascends again, ending in that Point, that Unity, where it first begun. So it finisheth in it self the Divine Circle of Musick or Harmony, within which lies all Harmony and Musick in all its most delightful diversity of Modes or Figures.

Thus the Soul in it self, as it spreads it self through time and motion, the first, the universal Musick, the measure, the Spirit of

all Musick, all time and motion here, make up the universal Musick. Again, as all universal and particular Forms, all motion and time appear at once, in one view, in the Unity of the Souls Essence, and universal Form; so is the Soul, the first, the universal Beauty, the Measure, the Spirit of all Beauty, Forms, and Harmony. This is spoken of the Soul in comparison with the Corporeal Beauties, Mu∣sick, and Harmony, Coelestial or Terrestrial. But the Harmony of the Angelick Nature transcends this of the Soul. That also is infinitely surmo•…•…nted by those unexpressible, incomprehensible Harmonies of the Divine Effence, which it is not possible for any created sense to take in.

4. Passage.

—It still returns. Into it self— It still doth circle round. The eternal minds great deep, Heav'n thus doth found. And in like figure of those unseen Lights, Doth turn about these Glories in our sights.

In semel reditura meat, mentem{que} profundam. Circuit, & simili convertit imagine Caelum.

1. Note. How the Soul in all her motions returns into her self? you see in the Harmony of the Soul described, in the last Note, upon the fore-going Passage. I will here only add this, The Soul is an indivisi∣ble Unity, yet spacious, enriched with a Variety of Powers and Forms, far beyond the compass or glory of this visible World, with all its Starry, Christalline, or Empyrean Heavens. This Soul, from it self, within it self, circles through vast and various Forms of richest Lights, deepest Shades, with all their mixtures in a most exact and ravishing order, making all one Piece, one Structure, one Palace, one Person, one Face of Beauty, most divinely beautiful, where all forms of Beauty meet in one. As it is thus from it self within it self, circles through all forms; so in each form it springs up, and brings forth it self entire in the Unity of its Essence. Thus in every Point, the beginning and the end meet; the circle of the Souls Essence, and of all Beauties; the Divine Piece, the Divine Palace, with all its bright Inhabitants, and shining Furniture; the Divine Person, the Face of Beauty, is all finisht and compleat, with all the sweet and beautiful Varieties in every part, in every point. Thus the Soul in all its motions, by virtue of the most charming Harmony, and transporting Unity, every where entire and undivided, is ever returning into it self.

2. Note. The Souls Original, the manner of its Divine Procession, from its eternal King, is with an admirable brevity, perspicuity, and depth represented to us, in the Souls circling round, the Minds great deep. The Platonists distinguish all invisible Being into three ranks; The Unity, which is God, the Mind, the Soul. The Mind

they call the Son, the World of God, the first seat of all Ideas. But with us Christians, this Mind is the Angelical Nature, the chief of those ministring Spirits, to which we in the Language of the Scrip∣ture, give the Name of Angels, The Son of God, the World of God, in the first and most proper sense, is the Uncreated Mind and Wisdome, the Lord Jesus, who, as he is the second person in the Trinity, is the supream Unity, the one only true God. The Godhead in its essential Image, where first are seated, and shine all forms of things in their Original Glories, in their eternal Patterns, as they are the Variety in the Divine Unity, every one God entirely in it self, in all the full Glories of the Godhead, and all one God, ever undivided, indivi∣sible.

Plutarch calleth Life, a Depth; This Mind is exprest by a Deep, in∣asmuch as it is Life it self, the first unbounded Life, which hath no ground, no limit, the fountain of Life, where endlesly spring up in an unconfined Circle, in a bottomless Depth, forms of Glory innumera∣ble, one within another. Thus St. Paul speaketh, That the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of a Saint, is a Spirit of Revelation, which takes the covering off from this Deep of Light and Glories in the Soul, searching out the Depth of God.

The Soul circleth round this Deep of the Divine Mind, not after a Corporeal, or Local manner, but as one Spirit encompasseth ano∣ther without Circumscription extension or distance.

1. The Soul without consinement or adaequation, contains in its Unity and Center this glorious Deep of the Divine Mind through the Angelical Mind, as the Unity of its Unity, the Center in its Center.

2. The Soul springs forth by a continual emanation, a continual irradiation or process from this Divine Mind, into an entire Image of it. As it •…•…ees the various Glories in the circle of this Deep. So doth it spring up within it self, into the similitude and forms of the same Glories, in the same Order and Harmony, to the filling up and compleating of the same circle within it self. The Lord Jesus in the Gospel, at his Transfiguration, appeared as the Sun in its strength, and his Garments as the Light. Thus the same Jesus, the Divine Mind is here a Circle, a Depth of substantial Light and Glories, fil∣ling the Light with all Variety of forms. The Soul springs forth from him, all round about him, as a Garment of Light, a Circle of Beams, all wrought with the beautiful Figures of those Glories.

Plato saith, That there are three Kings, round whose Thrones all things dance; God, the Mind, the Soul; this continual procession of the Soul from the Divine Mind, through the Angelical Mind, in the entire Image of it, with all its Divine Forms, and their Order, their Harmony, their Unity in the whole compass of their Variety, is the mystical Dance of the Soul round the Throne of her King, her Bridegroom, by which at once she contemplates, enjoys, springs up into his Divine Form in all its Beauties, and is filled with him. He in like manner hath her ever before him, as the Looking-Glass of his own Beauty, lying and playing in himself, as the Image of a Flower,

or Tree in the water, every way circled in by him, as she is cen∣tered in him.

As the Divine Mind, through the Angelical is in the Soul, so are the Divine, the Angelical Mind through the Soul in this visible World centring it in themselves, riding forth upon the Circuit of the Hea∣ven and the Earth, as the lowest figure of themselves, at once standing up out of them, and standing in them.

The Soul, as the Exemplar Form, as the Unity, the inmost cen∣ter, the outmost Circle, sendeth forth this Corporeal Image, as a figure of it self, formeth, moveth, acteth it throughout, sustaineth it in it self, filleth it with it self, every way boundeth and containeth it within it self.

The vast all-containing Unity of the Soul figureth it self, the circular, globous, round form of the Heavens and the Earth, in the Union and Harmony of all the parts, suffering no where any dis∣continuity, or vacuity, nor any deformity or discord in the whole.

From the variety of invisible Forms within it self, the Soul spring∣eth up into all the innumerable Army of heavenly Bodies in the Coe∣lestial Orbs, into all the diversity of Elementary shapes and figures in the Regions below. The Harmony and Order of the Soul in all its forms and motions through them floweth forth, figureth it self, as a Light of Beauty shineth, as a Divine Musick soundeth through all the parts and changes of the Coelestial, the Elementary Sphears, charming those Souls that have awakened and purified senses to take them in.

As the Soul within it self springeth up into each form, in its pro∣per Order, bringing forth it self at once with the entire Unity of its whole undivided Essence anew, in that distinct form; so doth the Soul from that Original, in the likeness of the same Image, each new moment, spring forth anew according to the innate Law of the uni∣versal Order and Harmony into the whole Heavens and Earth, in a new posture and figure. Thus after the similitude of its own circlings through all forms within it self, the Soul incessantly turneth round the Heavens, and the Elementary Orbs, which by their perpetual circling through each other, turn about by day and by night the rest∣less wheel of Generation and Corruption, as of all change. Thus as the Soul danceth round the Throne of the Divine and the Angelick King, these Heavens and the Elements dance round the Throne of their King the Soul.

Before I pass from the Authority and Testimony of this great Phi∣losopher, concerning the nature of the Soul, give me leave to direct this Arrow, to the white, and mark, which I aim at through this whole Discourse.

According to this Doctrine, the Divine, the Angelick Mind, the Soul, the Coelestial and Elementary Orbs, through all their powers, parts, forms, and motions, meet in, make up one Universal and Divine Harmony, one Beauty, one Musick. All exactly in the lowest, the least, the weakest stroak, touch, or shade, in most exact measure and proportion, answer one another; As the Face in the water answers

the living Face: So doth every lower Orb or Circle of things answer the superior. As the reflection of it self, in its own water or lustre, shining forth from it, and abiding in it; like the water of a precious stone. Each Orb or Circle of things is filled with, knit together by, bounded in its own Unity, which floweth through all, as the Spirit, the Life of Order and Harmony, disposing all the parts and motions in a most just measure to preserve it self, and its figure entire in the whole. The supream, the Divine Unity sits upon every one of these subor∣dinate Unities, rideth forth in them, uniteth, filleth, bindeth up, boundeth in it self all the Orbs and Circles, all in them all. This shines through them, runs with its beams, playing over every form, as one universal Beauty, one sparkling Image of the supream, uni∣versal Good, in the whole face of things. This is a Musick, sound∣ing through all, where each various form, the obscurest, the most minute, is a string upon the golden Lute, of the whole Image of things. Each motion a touch of the chief, the invisible Musitian. The Spirit of the whole, the Spirit of Unity and Harmony; each touch a part of the Musick, exactly answering in all Musical proportions to every other part, and to the whole, making perfect the Divine Consort, in which all the Angels, all the Ideal, the first Glories in the Divine Mind bear a part with every Worm and Dust on the Earth, every Wave and Drop in the Sea, every Dragon and Owl in the Desert, every flake of Snow in the Air.

How beautiful now is the Work of God in all! how worthy of a God! As his Glory is above all Heavens, the highest and purest forms of Light; so is his Name, which is that Glory, in the full ex∣pression, and fair Images of it, excellent through all the Earth, to the lowest shades.

Plato saith, That there is that, which is the least of all things, which cometh between the lowest Divisions, the least parts of things, which uniteth all one to another. Ficinus in his Comment teacheth us, That this, in the sense of Plato, is God, who by the absoluteness and simplicity of his Unity, is at once, the Greatest and the Least, the Highest and the Lowest, the Outmost and the Inmost of all things, the Band of all, that can no where be excluded.

If this be true, where, now through the whole Universe of things, is there found a place for that Liberty, which breaketh the Band of the Divine Unity and Harmony, which discontinueth the Links in this Golden Chain by uncertain, arbitrary, independant motions and forms arising from those motions? What jarring Motion or Division springeth up without its Divine Ground, without its orderly Con∣nexion, without its Patterns, and Spring above, to which it answers, without its fellow Notes, round about it, to which it is tuned? Where is this motion which thus jarreth with, disturbeth and spoileth the universal Musick? Certainly, it lies without the supream, the all∣comprehending Unity, It excludes from it self that Divine Unity, which filleth all, which bindeth all up into one.

Aristotle expresseth the Soul, by a word, which seems to have a full and deep sense to this present purpose. Those, that followed

him have with great labour and pains digged in it, with their sharpest wits, as in a Mine, from which they expected much fine Gold of Divine Wisdome and Truth. It is reported of one, That he raised a Spirit to intepret this word to him. It is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which seemeth most properly and clearly to express that Divine Unity of the Soul, replenished with all Variety Forms in the most beautiful Order, as we have described the nature of it. It is that which hath its per∣fection, its end, and so its beginning, and so its whole way in it self.

This Perfection of the Intellectual Soul, is the comprehension of all Truth in its Understanding, the fruition of all good in the Will. The universal Truth and Good are then the beginning of the Soul, its Original, all forms of things in the Beauties of their clearest and fullest Truth, which is the eternal Light of their Ideal Glories, smiling in the face of them, all forms of things in the sweetness, de∣lightfulness, joy, in the unexpressibleness of Good, the true Good, all Good, which is the eternal Life. The eternal Love of those Ori∣ginal Beauties in their sacred Spring rising up fresh in the bosome of each Form; this is the end, this is the perfection of the Soul. Thus all things were made for Christ, in him, by him, who is the universal Truth and Good. How? St. Paul explains it, All things are yours, and you are Christs. All forms of things meet and unite in the Hu∣mane Soul, as their Perfection, their Beginning, their End. Jesus Christ, as he is the first, the fairest, the fullest Image of all Forms in one, in their most exact Order and Harmony, is the Father, the Bro∣ther, the Bridegroom of the Soul, her beginning, her exemplar Form or Perfection, her End.

That Definition of the Soul, the Act of an Organical Body, con∣tains the same Doctrine of the Soul in it. An Organical Body, is a Corporeal, or visible Image, composed of various members, various parts and forms, to be instruments and expressions of the various Beauties, Powers, and Virtues of the Soul, by which they propagate themselves in an inferior Birth, and figure themselves in a new, but narrower Orb, in a new, but obscurer light of sense. Thus the whole visible World, is one Organical Body, of which all particular Bodies are so many Organical parts.

Beauty is described to be the predominancy of the form over the matter. A substantial or essential Act is all form, a pure form sepa∣rated from every thing of Corporeal matter. The Soul then, as it is an Act, is all Beauty, Beauty abstracted from matter, a pure Light of Beauty, the Essence, the substance of Beauty, and so of Harmony, of Order.

It is a Maxim in Nature, That the last, the lowest, the least in a superior Order, or rank of things, every way excels the first, the highest, the greatest, in a lower rank and order. According to this Rule, every Soul in the excellency, beauty, virtue, compass of its Being, transcends this whole Corporeal World in the widest Circuit of its Form, and largest extent of its Duration.

Thus the Intellectual Soul is the Act of this Universe of Sense, the whole Corporeal World. The Intellectual Soul is all this World, with all Forms of things contained in it, with all their courses and changes, according to their Connexion and Order from the begin∣ning to the end, in one essential, substantial, undivided Act; One pure Act of transparent Beauty and Order, which is the Souls Unity and Essence. By this, the whole Coelestial, and Elementary World, in the emanation and springing up of all forms of things, in all their motions and orders, are uncessantly acted; In this they subsist as sha∣dows, which have no ground of substance in themselves. In this they actually are that which they are; As Mathematical figures in the mind, the Soul it self alone, filling those figures, being all the Es∣sence, Substance, Power, Virtue, and Form in them. Like shadows they vanish, as they go forth from this Bosome, where alone their Essences, which are so many distinct, substantial Acts and Unities, shine and move together in a most beautiful Harmony, as fixed incor∣poreal Stars in their proper Heaven.

Thus is each man a compleat world in himself. Thus doth each Soul cloath it self with an Aethereal, Aerial Robe, on which it puts on this earthy Garment; Like the Tabernacle of white Linnen, wrought with all fine and rich Colours, with the figures of Cheru∣bims, which had three Coverings, one over another upon it, of Goats-hair, of Ram-skins died red, of Badgers-skins.

Thus the Soul rides forth in her three-fold Chariot, Heavenly, Airy, Earthly, upon the Circuit of the Heavens, the purest Air, and the Earth, the true Venus? the true Queen of Love and Beauty, by which all things spring, shine, live, and love, through her Marriage-Union with her Lord and King, the true Adonis, or Adonai, the Lord Jesus, who died, and lives again with his beloved Bride, in the secret of Paradise, in the midst of the Field of the Coelestial Light, the pure Air, in the bosome and nethermost parts of the Earth. This is the Soul in its first make and proper state.

Plotinus teacheth, That the first Soul, which is the immediate Workman of this World, in the order of its procession, from the separate Intelligences or Angels, and from God, the only supream Father of all, hath its face ever turned to the face of God, and un∣moveably fixed upon it, from his Face, it continually takes in, as the Nectar of the Gods, the Divine Light, the Divine Life and Love, it continually takes in, as at an heavenly Feast, as the heavenly Ambro∣sia, the Ideal Beauty, the first, the Archetypal Forms in their most immediate, sweetest, freshest, fullest Effulgency or Images. This God-like Soul thus bred, thus divinely formed, thus nourished, thus impregnated, sends forth from it self this whole visible World, in the figures of those first Glories, in the similitude of their Unity, Variety, and Order, without thought, care, or trouble, without ever turning a look to this World. As a Person with his Face to the Sun, casts his shadow upon the ground behind him. There is only this difference, as this great Soul casts the shadow of this Corporeal World from it self, there is no ground for it to fall upon, besides the Soul it self.

All these Heavens, this Earth, and Sea, with all their roulings, springings, fadings, and floatings are then the soul it self in her lowest Form, bearing the figures of all her superior Glories most curiously and delightfully wrought in deeper shades. The Soul in this her lower form is her own living Looking-Glass of shadowy, shaded Light, in which she sees with a grateful Variety, with a pleasing Re∣flection of her own Divine force and fruitfulness, her own Beauties in a weaker, fainter, fading Image, maintained only by continual beams from her self.

All Souls, as they flow in their Order, and successions from this first Soul, by virtue of the first production, bring forth to themselves, and bear within themselves the whole World in its fairest and fullest measures.

Object. If any ask these Philosophers, what sign or appearance there is of this sublime state, this amplitude, this majesty in the soul of Man, they will give you such answers as these?

Answ. 1. The Soul hath now lost her wings, by which she flyes through the whole Heavens and Earth. She now lies languishing, contracted, clouded, divided, wounded, sick, dying, upon the ground of this earthly Body. You can take no more any measure of the true nature of the Soul, of the Soul in her own proper Divine Form and Image, by her present state, then you can of the humane Form, Spirit, and Life, by a worm grown out of the putrified body of a man dead.

Answ. 2. As the Soul of a man sleeping, is to the Light of this World; so is the Soul in this Body to the Light of its own Intel∣lectual, Invisible, Divine Form and Beauty. As a Prince sleeps in some private Room, with the Curtains drawn about him, within his own Palace, in the midst of all the splendors and splendid Persons of his Court, seeming to himself in his dreams, as he sleeps, to be a naked, forlorn Prisoner, at the bottome of a dark and deep Dun∣geon. In such a dream doth the Soul appear to her self, sleeping in this Body, in the midst of all her own Immortal Beauties, in the Palace and Court of her own Divine Unity and Essence.

But I have now done with Humame Authority and Philosophy in its Testimony. But as I part, I will leave Philosophy with this Honourable Testimony. The only and true Philosophy is the Light of Nature, in its primitive purity, as the scattered Beams, and dispersed remainders of it in the midst of the ruines of Nature, are collected, strengthened, and reflected from the most excellent of natural, or Divine Spirits, like Sun-beams, centered in a burning-glass.

The second Authority.

I pass now to the Divine Authority, which is the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. I shall cite only two Scriptures, one from the first of Genesis; the other from the first of the Romans. I being with the last, which seems clearest and fullest.

1. Scripture. The first Testimony from the Scriptures, is Rom. 1. 19, 20. From this Text to the end of the third Chapter, you have the Soul, with a profound Depth; Like a River rouling along,

with all her various serpentine windings, from the Sea of Love, the Divine Bosome, till she return thither. This Divine Philosopher, after a Divine manner, sets the humane Soul before us, in the whole com∣pass of her Essence, in all her circlings, through all forms of things, as he saw her by a Light of Revelation, in the eternal Design, in her Idea, in the heart of the Father, the Fountain; in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus, the first seat of all Divine Designs and Ideas.

This Design is divided into three parts,

1. The Soul in its primitive and pure state of Nature, presented to us, Chap. 1. vers. 19. & 20.

2. The Soul in her fall, as she passeth through the shades beneath, of Sin, Suffering, Death, and Wrath, from the 21. verse of the first Chapter, to the 20. verse of the third Chapter.

3. The Soul in its return, and re-ascent to a greater Glory, from the 22. verse of the third Chapter to the end of that Chapter.

I shall very briefly, with all the perspicuity that I can, point out the Heads of things in these three parts of the Souls course and design in the Divine Mind.

1. The Soul in its primitive and pure state of Nature is presented to us, Rom. 1. 19, 20. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them, for God hath manifested it to them. For the unseen things of him from the Creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are made, both his eternal Power and Godhead. I shall make two Notes upon the Grammar of the words,

1. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them. This re∣lates to the pure state of Nature, not to the Corrupt. For of that it is said, vers. 21. Their foolish heart was darkned. Things are manifest only in the Light. The expression runs in the present time, after the manner of the Divine and Prophetick stile, which sets before our eyes all forms of things, as they appear in the Divine Light, where all things are ever present, and appear at once in one. Besides this, as Paradise, so the pure Image of God in the Soul, seems to some not to be lost or destroyed, but hid beneath the ruines of the fall. Thus Knowledge springing in the Soul, seems to be a remembrance, the Life of all good, an awakening by reason of the primitive Image of pure Nature raising it self by degrees, and sparkling through the Rubbish, the confusions of the present state. Thus also hath the Sou•…•…n her self the measure of all Truth and Good in this pure •…•…age, which hidden in the Center of the Soul, containeth all Forms of Truth and Good in it self.

2. That Clause in the 20. vers. From the Creation of the World, relates not to the sight, but to the invisibility of God, as appears by the place, the point, the sense. For otherwise there were a Tauto∣logy in the Creation of the World, and the things that are made. There is a Scripture like to this, Ephes. 3. The mystery of Christ is there mentioned, which is the unvailing of God, that he may be seen in the Light of his own essential and eternal Glories, in his own proper, naked, and sweet form of Love, unmixt, unlimited. Thus he appears in the Face and Person of Christ, who as he is the

Godhead, in its essential and eternal Image, comes in the Spirit of the Gospel, full of Grace, or Love, and Truth; the Light, the Life of the Godhead in its unvailed Sweetnesses and Glories.

This mystery is said to be hid in God from the foundation of the World. The Creation of the World was a Vail cast upon the Face of God, with a figure of the Godhead wrought upon this Vail, and God himself seen through it by a dim transparency; as the Sun in a morn∣ing, or Mist, is seen by a refracted Light through the thick medium of earthly Vapours.

But I shall now attempt from the Life, in this Scripture, to draw the Picture of the Humane Soul in its natural Perfections, and para∣disical Beauties. In order to this, I shall present to you three Propositions, into which this Text seems naturally to resolve it self.

1. 1. Proposition. God is present, and shines forth in the Soul of Man, in the highest and fullest appearance, in which any created Under∣standing is capable of receiving him, in which he is capable of being manifested, or communicated by any Image beneath or without him∣self. This is the plain sense of those words, That which may be known of God, is manifested in them. Every Being, in every kind and degree, is a Beam or Emanation, and manifestation of the first, the supream Being, which is God.

The whole Creation then, all the Creatures in it, with all their Essences, Substances, Accidents, in all their Orders, Places, Postures, Motions, with every Circumstance of Being, are as real, in their full proportion, as much according to the life in the Humane Soul, as in themselves. They all, as so many lines and features, drawn from the Face of God, form the Essence of the Soul, by forming it into a living Image of God.

God himself, as he is the Author of Nature, is as a Sun with all the Creatures, as a Ring of Beams round about him, which at once hide him and discover him. So the Sun, the Figure, with a Vail of Beams, hides from every eye the too bright Glories of that naked Body of Light: But by the same Beams is himself seen in a most beautiful, though shadowy Image.

Thus this eternal Sun, surrounded with this Ring of Beams, forms a Pare•…•…s, t•…•… similitude of himself by himself in the Soul of Man. In the mean time God himself, as he is before this similitude of himself, shining upon it, is also within it, the vital Centre in the midst of it, the Root, the Truth, the Life of it. Thus are these two Suns, two Eyes, full set each with other, as they look forth through this Image, this Vail of Beams.

The Soul by its senses takes in only the accidental forms of each Creature, the shadow of the shadow. The Understanding takes hold of, takes the essential Form, the Substance. The whole visible World is the World of sense, the Object of sense. The Invisible, the Ange∣lical World is the Intellectual World, the proper Object of the Understanding.

If that, which may be known of God, be manifested in the Soul, if every distinct degree of Being be a distinct manifestation of God, a distinct mode or form of the Divine appearance, then doth the Humane Soul contain the whole World, visible, invisible with it self, in its full greatness and glory, in all its most exact Distinctions and Varieties. It penetrates it, it fills it all within and without with its Intellectual Light; In its Unity, as the Divine Centre, it sits, and unites all. In its Variety, as in the full majesty of its Divine Essence, it spreads it self into all Forms, and so many Divine Figures, in a most beautiful and Divine Order.

All Being in its whole compass, is Intelligible, the adoequate Object of the Understanding. The Understanding is all in potentiality in its natural capacity, tendency, and desire. These are the Doctrines of the Schools. The Understanding then in Act, in the perfection of its primitive state, is actually, perfectly all. It is married by an Angeli∣cal marriage, as in the Marriage of Spirits into a most intimate Union of Essences, into a most essential Unity with the whole Creation, as it is one Divine Figure of the Divine Beauty; and so through this figure, with Jesus Christ, with God, who lives and appears in it.

2. Proposition. All these forms of things spring up to the Soul, from within it self, from its own Fountain, from God the Fountain of the Soul, in the Centre of it, the Fountain of all in the Soul to the Soul. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them, for God hath manifested it to them, vers. 19. The last Clause, well observed, in the force of the words, and the Connexion, will appear to every judicious eye, as I humbly conceive, to have no common or vulgar sense. They seem to contain in them this two-fold mystery,

1. God, the proper Idea of the Humane Soul, that is, its most in∣ward inseparable Principle, which hath in it self the Pattern, the ex∣emplar form of the Soul, sends it forth from it self, forms it, furnisheth, filleth it with all forms of things.

He also comprehends, and conserves it, in himself, as its own proper place and habitation, as a Light sprung from him, and abiding in him, the Father of Lights. He fashioneth it into an Under∣standing, as an Intellectual, Angelical, Divine Sun. This is the greatest Light in the Soul, its utmost Centre, and outmost Circle, en∣compassing the whole Essence of the Soul, the whole nature of things, in all their Forms, Operations, and Motions. This shines in the day of the invisible World. This, as the Region of Angels, contains the Essences and Intellectual Forms of all things in it self, as so many Angels, or Angelical Spirits, each of which is a distinct Sun, a di∣stinct world of Angels, of all Angelical Spirits, and Intellectual Forms.

In the next place, God figures this Light, which is the substance of the Soul, into the inward, the common sense, the phansy or imagi∣nation; Now it is as a full Moon in the night of this visible and Cor∣poreal World. It is replenished with all the shady Forms of this night, which shine in the face of it, as in a Glass, where they all meet and make one pleasant Night-piece.

Last of all, The eternal Spirit, the inward former and workman of the Soul, contracts it, and divides it into the outward senses, into innumerable particular Forms. These are as so many living Stars, or Star-like eyes, sparkling and dancing round about the Queen of this Night, the Moon, the common sense or imagination.

Through these Stars, and this Moon, in the Night-piece of these shady and Corporeal Forms is seen, as in a Perspective, as at a great distance, the Intellectual and the Ideal Land of Angelical, of Divine Glory, which seem to cast forth these less and contracted Lights, as faint-glimpses of themselves, or like small sparks, the seeds of the great flames.

As the Soul accompanied with her Original Pattern and Principle, by its force thus descends: so doth it, by the same force, in like man∣ner ascend. All the particular Forms of the outward senses, the Beauties of the Eye, the Musick of the Ear, all Perfumes and delightful Odours, the various Delicacies of the Tast; the softnesses, firmnesses, the agreeable rests, motions, aequalities, inaequalities in the Touch. All meet more pure and heightned in the common sense, in the inward senses, as in that Moon, which is described to be an heavenly Earth, or an earthly Heaven. From thence they raise themselves, resining them∣selves, as they rise, to the Intellectual Region. As some believe the Sun, to be the Habitation of the Blessed, and to have the Blessed Fields Paradise in it: So here in this Intellectual Sun, all shady forms break up out of the mists of matter, and corporeity, into clear Suns, into Angelical Essences and Spirits.

From hence the Soul, as a bright Skie, set with innumerable Suns of sweetest Light, and most temperate, pleasant, vital warmth, or as an Heaven replenished with Angels, entertaining each other in a Divine Consort, with Dances and Songs, returns into its first Nest, and its final Rest; the Bosome of its Idea, the Bosome of Christ in God. In this Bosome, of a truth, hath it ever abode, hath it circled round, descending and ascending without going forth from it. Thus hath God manifested himself in all possible Forms, to the Soul, according to the first part of the Apostles sense.

2. God, as the Souls proper Idea, or exemplar Form, every where present with it, in every Form, sets himself as a seal upon each form, and upon the Soúl in that form. So he is to the Soul the Impression, the Evidence of the truth of each appearance by himself, and of him∣self, in each appearance. Thus it is said of the Lord Jesus, as he is the eternal word, the Idea of all Ideas, the proper Idea of man, In him was life, and that life was the light of men, Joh. 1. The first life, as it is in its Ideal Spring, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, the first, the essential Image of God, (and so the Fountain of all Images) shines forth into a Light, of which is framed the Substance and Es∣sence of the Soul. Then it figureth this Light with its own Glories, in their Divine Harmony and Order.

This Light, these Figures, are in themselves empty without force or efficacy. All fullness dwells in Christ, the Ideal Life in him forms and fills them. This is the face of Beauty, that looks forth through

these Lattices. This is the never-fading Flower in the heavenly Pa∣radise, which springs and puts forth it self through these Windows. This rides forth upon every form into the bosome of the Soul, and gives it self reception in the Soul.

As this first life in Christ is the Divine Seal upon every Form, up∣on the Soul, through every Form, so is it the Divine ground in the Soul, which receives and sustains this Seal, which dissuseth in its Di∣vine force and impression through the Soul, by virtue of its Ideal Unity and Omnipresence.

The Original and Exemplar Life in Christ is the light of man, ob∣jectively and formally; It is the light in the Object which sheds it self on the Humane Spirit. It is the light in man, the form of his form, the eye in his eye, the power in his powers, which taketh it in. All sense is founded in a suitableness between the Object and the Faculty, all suitableness in an Unity.

3. Proposition. God cloaths every created form, in the eye of the Soul, with an Intellectual or Angelical Image of himself. By the things that are made, are seen, (being understood) the invisible things of God, his eternal Power and Godhead, saith our Evangelical Philoso∣pher, that word [understood] is carefully chosen, and emphatically brought in.

The word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, derived from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the peculiar and proper word, by which the most Divine among the Philosophers in St. Pauls time expressed the Angels or Angelical Minds.

These Spirits were the chief Springs, Powers, Glories of the whole World, in the number of the Creatures. They were the Gods of this Creation, and had the name of Gods given to them in the Holy Scriptures. The Presence, the Power, the Authority, the Glory of the Godhead, next to Jesus Christ, resided in them. Jesus Christ, the Lord and King of all, reigned, acted, and appeared in these An∣gels of Might and Glory, as the highest Representation of himself in his Divine Form and Majesty. All this was not for their own sakes, but for man, as they were Guardians and Tutors to this Heir, the Lord of all.

Each Angel was a diverse Figure of a distinct Variety in the eter∣nal Glory, in that diversity the full Glory in its Universal Image rest∣ed upon every Angel, as a ministring Spirit, to minister to man, the full Glory. He was the Heir of God, the perfect Harmony, the Unity, in the which the whole Variety was most perfectly one, married toge∣ther, with the Unity, into the most perfect Beauty and Melody of the Universal Image of the whole Creation, most exactly, with the most charming agreeableness, answering the Beauty, the Melody of the Divine Nature, as the Face in the Glass, the living Face, the liveliest Eccho, the living Voice.

Each Creature hath (as its Ideal Glory, in the Divine World, so) its Angel in the World of Angels. In the pure state of things, every inferior Creature had its Angel visibly, sensibly present with it. Its Angel formed it a Figure of it self in the diversity of its own pro∣per Essence. Its Angel cloathed it with an Intellectual, Angelical

Image of the Supream, the Universal, the Divine Beauty. Its An∣gel dwelt constantly within this Image, and shined through it.

After the same manner the Ideal Life and Glory in Christ made the Angel its Tabernacle in the Heavens, and through the Angel each Creature below on Earth. Every Angel, every Creature, was a Garment of Light, sweetly shaded in different degrees and manners of diverse Fashions, but all Divine, in which Jesus Christ, the essen∣tial full Image of the Godhead, walked in the midst of Paradise. Thus in all the Creatures, as in diverse Figures of his distinct Glories, he walked forth, conversing with himself, and entertaining himself in the compleatness of his Divine Person through all.

Thus as all things were made by Christ and for him, so nothing was made without him, apart from him, until Sin made the wound, which let out the Divine Life of all Beauty, Love and Joy, to let in Death with its deformity and horrors. The Divine Unity was entire every where. All things stood together in Christ.

Christ with all his Glories in every Angel, with all the Angels in every Creature, rode forth as in his Chariot. The whole Creation was as a Contexture of Angels; As the Chariots of the Lord, thousands and ten thousands. All were every where composed into one Cha∣riot. All were as wings of pure Light, and perfumed Air, on which God flies through all, spreading and scattering abroad the ravishing Glances, the Divine Impressions of his Beauties and Sweetnesses, as he flies.

What a Paradise, transcending all Description, by any words, the richest Image in any fancy, was the whole World now in its primitive state? What a Paradise was the Humane Soul, when it comprehend∣ed, when it enjoyed this Paradise with its full and distinct Glories within it self? Now the Soul within it self saw within it self the eter∣nal Power and Godhead, with all their invisible Glories in an Ange∣lical Light and Form, together with all the Angels in every thing that was made.

4. Proposition. The Soul, seeth within her self, God in his own di∣stinct and Divine Form shining forth through the Intellectual, Ange∣lical Image, in the universal Composure, in the full Harmony of all created Forms, and through the particlar Angel, or Intellectual Image in every diverse Form. Those are the words of the Apostle, By the things that are made, are seen, (being understood) the invisible things of God, his eternal Power and Godhead. This is brought in as an Ar∣gument, to illustrate and confirm the foregoing assertion; That which may be known of God is manifest in them.

Those two words have an aspect of deep Wisdome, of a lively sweetness upon each other, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Things not seen, or uncapa∣ble of being seen, are seen. The word (seen) importeth a two-fold sense,

1. A distinct discerning sight.

2. The sight of an Object, through a diverse intervening form. God is seen through the form of the Creature in his own Form, infi∣nitely distinct from it, and transcendent to it.

In that Character of the Fall, [They glorisied him not as God.] It is clearly implyed, that man in the pure state of nature glorified him as God, which could •…•…ot be, if he saw not his Glory, as the Glory of God, in its distinction from all the Creatures, from all Similitudes, and Representations in his supream Unity and Infiniteness. This is that which is clearly presented to us in those full expressions, His eter∣nal Power and Godhead. Power, saith Proclus, is an Unity, which like a spring comprehendeth in it self variety of Forms, sendeth them forth from it self, appeareth in them, without, as it pleaseth. An eternal Power, which is not lessened by any Acts or exertions of its self, is an infinite Power, never to be exhausted, ever fresh, full, and flourishing. This is an absolute, unlimited Unity, spreading it self within it self, after a Divine manner, distinctly, without any Division or Diversity, into the glorious and majestick amplitude of an unbounded, equally-beautiful, ravishingly-harmonious-variety. This is the eternity, as it is the infiniteness of the Divine Nature. These two, Eternity and Infiniteness, being the measures of the Es∣sence, and the Existence or Duration of the Godhead; are both one in this Unity, inasmuch as the Essence, and the Existence, or Durati∣on, are here the same. This Unity, in which both these meet, is also the Godhead it self, which describeth it self to us by no Character like to that; The Lord thy God is one God. These expressions [His eternal Power and Godhead. Eternity, Power, (in its absoluteness and infiniteness) the Godhead] are exegetical explications of each other. All these are names of one thing, the supream and soveraign Unity. God in the High and Holy Place of his own proper Form, set infi∣nitely above the Head and Eye of every Creature, in its most exal∣ted Glories.

Object. How is the Soul capable of the sight of God, or any In∣tellectual Image of transmitting his Divine Form. All Sense, Un∣derstanding, Commerce is founded in suitableness and similitude. The ground of this, is an Unity, a meeting in some one thing. God is infinite, every Creature is finite. Between infinite and finite there can be no proportion?

This Objection lies so plain before every common Eye, that it is not easie to miss it. I wish the Answer were as near, or capable of being made as clear, to the Understanding of every Reader. I hope, and shall use my best skill, that every Understanding may see some light breaking through this obscurity, which may be at once sweet, and in some degree satisfactory.

Answ. 1. I shall first give a general Answer, which I shall after∣wards make more plain in two particular Answers.

We are taught by our Masters in Divinity, That God is the subject, of no Relation to the Creature: For then he were compounded, and not a simple, unmixt Unity; yet doth he terminate in himself Rela∣tions to the Creature. Upon the same ground it is unsafe and un∣sound to say, That God is like to man. It is very sound, and very safe to say, That man was made in the Image and Similitude of God. A finite Creature may bear a similitude, and so a proportion to the

infinite God, although there be no mutual proportion or likeness be∣tween them.

God in himself converseth with nothing without himself. All things to him are himself, a pure, undivided Unity. God in the Creature cloaths himself, as the Scriptures and the Jewish Rabbins speak, with Garments of Light and Darkness, Similitude and Dissimilitude, Uni∣ty and Contrariety. He turns the Heavens and the Earth as the Clay to the Sea. He first himself putteth on every form, so he formeth every Creature, as the reflection, or shadow of himself, upon him∣self.

The sight of the eternal Power and Godhead in the Soul, is the work of that eternal Power and Godhead. God in the Creature beareth a proportion to himself, and hath an Unity with himself, as he is above the Creature. By the same absolute Unity and Infinite∣ness, by which he is present with each single dust in the fulness of his undivided Glories and Godhead, doth he also appear in the Soul. His presence is suitable, and suitably virtual to each degree of Being, whither it be essential, in meer Being, Vital, Intellectual, or Super∣intellectual, more then Intellectual. All things according to their several Natures, have their Being, their Life, their Motions, or Ope∣rations in him, as their proper Element, their Root, their Exemplar Form, their terminating Object and End. As he is the term from which all their motions flow: So is he both the medium or way, and the term, the bound, to which they tend, in which they end. By him, their radical principle, in the power and virtue of which Act the exemplar form of their Essence and Actions are they suited, and pro∣portioned to him, as the Object, End, Fruit, and Perfection of their Operations. God in every Form is like Adam in Paradise, the Fa∣ther, the Brother, and the Bridegroom. Each Creature is like Eve, the Daughter, Sister, and Bride, from her Bridegroom. This Bride flows, to him she turns in all her motions, in him alone she terminates, in her production, progress, end; all along this Bridegroom and Bride are joyned by an inseparable Marriage-Union, their Faces ever turned to each other.

As God by his absolute Unity and Infiniteness comprehends all forms of things within himself, in a most simple and undivided Unity. So by the same transcendent Unity and Infiniteness, doth he in this undivided Unity accompany all forms of things in their procession from himself, turning them to himself, essentially, vitally, intellectu∣ally, or super-intellectually, in a manner more then Intellectual.

This Unity fills all, is all in all, the Eye, the Light, the Glass, the Object, or Image, the Union, the Light. This Unity is the power of sight in the eye, of shining, of uniting the Eye and the Object in the light, of receiving and transmitting Images in the Glass, of being and appearing in the Object. The Union of all these, and the Act, in the Act of vision or sight. This Unity is the first principle of see∣ing, and the last, the terminating bound of sight.

This is the general Answer. Now follow the two particular An∣swers, which are more distinct applications and explanations of this general one.

Answ. 2. The Humane Soul, according to Philosophers, they say, rouleth it self into a four-fold Orb, or Globe; The Sensitive, Ratio∣nal, Intellectual, or Angelical, its Divine Unity.

1. The first, the lowest Orb of the Soul, is the Sensitive. The Soul in this part is all set and adorned with the sensitive and shadowy forms of things, as a Meadow with the Trees, and Flowers by a Riverside, are seen, by their shadowy Figures, playing in the water. So this visible World, with all its Parts and Ornaments in their Order, as the sh•…•…dows of invisible and immortal Forms inhabit this obscurest and most shady Region of the Intellectual Spirit.

2. The rational Orb is the second, a more ample and more Lucid. Yet here the Angelical Forms and Essences of things are seen through the grosser and cloudy medium, through the material and corporeal shades of sensitive Images. This is as the Face of Heaven, or the Trees and Flowers of the Neighbouring fields seen from beneath the water of an adjoyning River.

3. The Intellectual part of the Soul, is the Orb or Sphere of An∣gels. This is the Souls Angelical part. Here the Soul's abstract, and separate from the Body, (which is called the Divine Death of the Soul) beholds the Intellectual Forms of things, the immortal Essen∣ces and Substances, the Angels in their own bright and universal Glories, in their own Intellectual Air and Light, which is the Air and Light of Paradise. As a man sees the pleasant Plants of a flou∣rishing Land, walking upon the Land in the midst of them. At the same time, while the Soul thus walks in this paradisical Land, she en∣joyeth the pleasure of seeing the River, as a shady lustre or water cast from her self, within her self, the shadowy figures of this Para∣dise, with her own reflection playing in these waters, and her self from beneath them, with the same Land of Gardens and of Angels, answering exactly, looking to her self above them.

Give me leave to interpose one word in this place, for the sake of the more learned Reader; This is the Intellectus Agens, or the Actual, and Active Understanding of the Schools. The Soul in its Intellectual part above the River. This is the Passive Understanding. The Soul in its Intellectual part beneath the River. As that above, like the living Face before the Glass, appears at the brink of the waters, up∣on the shore, with all its Angelical Glories round about it, in their Paradisical Region, which lies within the Soul it self. So the Soul beneath appears, looking up from its pearly Cave, at the bottom of the River, like the God of the River, answering and meeting it self above.

4. The last, and Divine Orb, the highest Point, and amplest Cir∣cuit of the Soul, is its Unity. In this it hath the most immediate resemblance to, and Conjunction with the supream Unity, the Divine Nature.

The Soul according to this its Divinest part, its Unity in birth, in similitude, in place, if I may so speak, in order of approximation is nearest, most immediately joyned to the Divine Essence in the abso∣luteness, the incomprehensibleness of its most secret, most sacred Unity.

Here the Soul, as by a Divine Contract or Touch, takes hold of God, takes in the sense of him, in his Divine Form, after a Divine manner, far transcending all Sense, Understanding, or Expression.

Here the Soul, in its Divine Unity, seeth, feeleth, enjoyeth God in his Unity, which is his proper Essence, in which he is most himself transcending all similitudes, all commerce, all bounds, by a Divine sympathy, the sweetness, the reality, the divinity of which no Hu∣mane, no Angelical Understanding can form to it self any Image of, or raise it self to any sense of.

This Unity of the Soul is the most immediate reflection of the Di∣vine Unity without it self, and so at once a Divine Looking-Glass, in which it most immediately contemplates it self, and a Divine Eye, which it feasts with it self, setting it self fully in it.

All this while, this still is to be understood that there is a three-fold Immediateness, 1. Of Persons. 2. Of Power or Virtue. 3. Of Form or Appearance. St. Paul teacheth us, That the invisible things of God are seen, being understood by the things that are made.

God and the Soul in their Unities, which are their Essences, at their utmost heighth, in their highest Glories, meet immediately in a sight of each other, above all sight or understanding. This immedi∣ateness in the Perfection of Nature, is an immediateness, not of virtue only and power, but of person; yet is it mediate in respect to the Form or Appearance. These Unities which penetrate and fill all in all their several Orbs, with their immediate virtue, person, and essen∣tial presence, see not each other in the Air, and light of their own naked, eternal Beauties; But through that Garment of Light, the Intellectual, Angelical Image, which they put on, as they come forth into this Creation.

Some imperfect figure of this you have in two Swimmers, seeing and embracing each other beneath the waters; or in the Beams of the Sun, passing through a coloured Glass, and so uniting it self to the Eye: Or in a Royal Bridegroom, which, in the habit of a Shepheard, presents and marrieth himself to the beloved Maid in the midst of the Woods.

Answ. 3. The Soul acts, as it is, not in it self, nor by it self, nor ac∣cording to it self; the Idea, the first eternal Pattern and Principle of the Soul in God, is the Root, all the force, the only measure of the Soul in its Being, and in its Operations.

St. Paul saith, I live not, but Christ liveth in me; This was spoken of the New-Creature, and so hath its peculiar sense. It is as true pro∣portionably of every Creature, especially of the Soul in primitive and pure nature. I have said before, that Christ is the Idea of Ideas, and so the proper Idea of the Humane Soul or Person. Upon this ground, He affirmeth of himself, I am the Truth and the Life.

The Idea is the truth of each thing. Nothing is that, which it is, but in its Idea, by its Idea penetrating and filling it in every the least part. The Conformity to the Idea, is in the Schools, defined to be the first, the most proper truth of each thing. This Conformity is imperfect, where there is any Diversity. A perfect Unity alone makes a perfect Conformity.

The Idea is the only Unity of each Person, Essence, or Form. The Soul is one in all its parts, is one with it self, in all the parts of its duration, only by the Unity of its Idea. The Soul (as every Crea∣ture) is a perpetual Emanation, flowing fresh every moment from God, as a Beam from the Sun, as the stream of waters from its Fountain. If it subsisted one moment in it self, it might subsist eternally so, and have a Godhead in it self, by having in it self the first Principle and Foun∣tain of Being. The Soul like a Beam, or Stream, flows forth from its Spring, in Diversity of parts. If it were a pure Unity, it had a Divi∣nity in its own Nature.

The Soul then, as every Creature, is one in it self, one with it self, the same in each part of its Being and Duration, in all the parts of Life, in Death, in the Resurrection, only by the Unity of its Idea, which alone is absolutely indivisible, unchangeable.

Accordingly the Soul lives and moves in its Sensitive, Rational, Angelical, and Divine Life, by the force of its Idea, containing it in it self, and communicating it self to it.

The Idea, contains the Soul, communicates it self to the Soul, not mediately or partially. The Idea is the Truth, the Unity of the Soul; therefore are they most intimate, most immediate, most intimately, most immediately united to each other. The Idea is a simple Unity, indivisible, unchangeable, uncapable of being communicated in part.

The Idea is not received, or participated by any thing, as without it self, for then it were both divisible and changeable.

The Idea then communicateth it self to the Soul, immediately in its entire Unity, as by a Divine, unexpressible Generation or Propagation within it self.

Thus the Soul subsisteth and operateth in its Idea, by the force, and according to the measure of its Idea in it self. This is that seed of infiniteness in the Soul, and in all its Operations, from which they receive touches, glimpses of Infiniteness, Eternity; of infinite eternal Joys and Glories, which are altogether invisible to every Eye, un∣capable of being represented by any Image sensible or Intellectual. This is that seed of Infiniteness and Eternity, which by an irresistable instinct inclines the Soul so evidently, so forceably in all its Desires, in all its Operations to immortality, and to an unbounded good, nor suffers it to rest in any the softest or dearest Bosom on this side these. This is that Seed, the Idea of the Soul in its entire Unity, which is in it self Infiniteness, Eternity, the purest unmixt good, every where full of it self, every way uncompounded, undivided, and so necessarily un∣confined.

This Idea, as it is the root, the force, the measure of the Soul, so is it also its ripe fruit; When gathering up all the parts of the Soul into its Divine Part, unto its highest Point, its Unity, it at once heightneth that to the most perfect Image of it self, and bringeth forth it self into it, filleth it with it self, taketh it into its own embra∣ces, in its purest Form, by a most perfect Union, as an heavenly Mar∣riage, eternally established in its own unconfined Unity.

But I will now conclude this Point. Thus the Soul, by the force of its Idea, which hath an infiniteness in it, is capable of taking in that which transcends all Capacities, of seeing that which is invi∣sible to every eye of Men or Angels, the eternal Power and God∣head.

Behold! What a Divine spectacle of Beauty and Delight in Paradise, in the primitive state of things? What an Universal Paradise Nature is? the Soul is? as it is in it self, the whole nature of things, from the head of Nature, crowned with Intellectual, Angelical Light in the invisible World, to its feet upon the ground of the lowest shades in corporeity and matter. Jesus, the first, the full, the essential Image of the Godhead, and so the Idea of Ideas; the Soul, the first, the fairest Reflection, and the dearest Off-spring of this Jesus, and so the Divine Image of Images. These two, as Bridegroom and Bride, by an Union transcending all Unions, Natural or Moral, among Angels or Men; Yet being of all most natural, the Fountain of Nature, lie inseparably shining and smiling in the embraces of each other; They perpetually seek and find, see and enjoy themselves in the Face and Bosom of each other; They perpetually seek and find, see and en∣joy each other within themselves, in their own Face and Bosom: They spring up together in all forms of things, in an Angelical Image within themselves. The Angelical Image is as their Chariot, in which they ride forth together into all forms of things within themselves. They present themselves unitedly in the whole nature of things, in each distinct form of Nature, with continual changes, cloathing all, themselves in all, with the Angelical Image, in a new Light and Glory; That their Loves and Beauties may be ever fresh and full, ever a fresh and full entertainment to each other in new and varied shapes of Delight.

Judicious Reader, be pleased to Contemplate awhile the Unity and Harmony of the Soul in this its pure, its primitive state. See how the Idea of the Soul, and the Soul; See how all the Orbs, all the parts of the Soul, are knit together into a Divine Harmony, a Divine Unity, by which it becomes an Universal Beauty, an Universal Musick. See how the Idea and the Soul, the superior parts of the Soul answer one another, lie infolded each in other, the inferior in the superior, as the Copy in the Original, the Plant in the Spirit of the Plant, in its semi∣nal power and form; The superior in the inferior, as the Original in the Copy, as the Spirit of a Flower, its seminal power and form in the Flower, where it appears, as a Flower from beneath the water of a pleasant stream.

Judicious Reader, can a place be found or imagined here for any Arbitrary Liberty, for any extravagant Liberty, for any Liberty, be∣sides that only true, only desirable, only agreeable Liberty, the Liber∣ty of the Harmony and Unity? Is there any Liberty besides this, the Liberty of the part, in the Harmony of the whole, keeping its pro∣per place, order, course in the whole, with all most pl•…•…asing, most charming agreeableness to it self, to the whole, to every part; and the Liberty of the whole in the part, freely, fully, pos•…•…essed,

enjoyed in each part, by the virtue of the Unity in the Har∣mony?

Object. But you will say if there were not in the primitive state of the Soul another Liberty, a Liberty of Discord, a Liberty of breaking the Unity and the Harmony. How was the Harmony ever changed into Enmity? How fell the Soul from the Heaven of this Harmony, from the heavenly Throne of this Divine Unity, in which it reigned over all, through all, with such a full Joy and Glory to it self to all?

Answ. I shall attempt the removal of this Difficulty, in my Discourse upon the Soul in her second state. I hope there to represent the Fall springing from the Divine Harmony and Unity in the Essence of the Soul, contained in it, and a part of it.

2. The second state, into which the Soul passeth, is the Fall. This is the second Scene, which openeth it self in the Soul, a Scene of Trouble and Tumult, of Darkness and Storms, of Witch-crafts, De∣vils, Death, and Wrath; of Privations and Contrarieties, which make the Variety more full, which heighten, set off, enlarge the Har∣mony and the Unity. In this Scene all this World riseth up, and appears.

This the Holy Spirit, with Divine skill, clearly and fully openeth to us, in this Scripture, which is the ground of this part of my Discourse, Rom. 1. 21. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginati∣ons, and their foolish heart was darkned, &c.

I will only touch the Heads of things, lightly passing over them. I shall comprise that which I have to say of the Fall in these four Propositions,

1. Proposition. The first change at the Fall of Man, was in his Un∣derstanding. All the expressions in this, and the two following verses, plainly and alone describe the Disorders in the Understand∣ing, as we shall clearly see.

The first Instance in the Fall, is the not glorifying God as God. T•…•…lly affirmeth, Glory to be, as it were, the Eccho of Virtue. Glory is the Image of some excellent Object, shining forth from it, reflecting upon it, and upon all things round about it. Thus Christ is the Glory of God, a Saint is the Glory of Christ. Man glorifieth God as God, when the true and proper Image of God, in the Excellencies and Perfections of the Divine Nature, shineth in his Understanding, from thence reflecteth and multiplieth it self in its be•…•…ms, in its continual shinings upon God himself, upon all Under∣standings, all Spirits round about it. Contraries are seated in the same subject. The glorifying of God, is the Act of the Understanding. Ac∣cordingly the not glorifying of God, is a defect in the Understanding, the want of the Divine Image, and its reflections there.

The holy Apostle, in the following words, sets forth the Fall, by fuller expressions of that Defect, which is opposite to the glorifying of God; But they became vain in their imaginations, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, properly reasonings, their foolish heart was darkned.

Every word here points to the Understanding, as the seat of the first, the principal, the leading change in the Fall of Man.

They became vain in their reasonings. Vanity is an emptiness. It is the same with falshood, in the Language of the Scripture, an empty, false shew, without the substance, the truth. Reason is the Divine Image, which is the only Light of all Truth springing and shining in the Understanding, or the Understanding it self.

The reasonings of man in his primitive state, were the several Parts, the several Truths in this Image, calling to, answering one another by virtue of the Sympathy and Unity, comparing themselves in that Unity with each other. This Image in the Fall vanisheth into a coun∣terfeit Image, breaking it self into innumerable false Images full of disorder, confusion, and contradictions, ever fighting with each other.

The foolish heart in the Text, as the Greek word imports, is the Heart without Understanding, deprived of the Divine Image, which is the Light. Upon this immediately follows Darkness, which is the privation or absence of Light. Thus their foolish hearts were darkned.

The Concomitant and formal effect of this Darkness, or rather the proper Form of this Darkness, is further amplified by a two-fold Illustration, if we may attribute forms or effects to privations.

When they professed themselves to be wise, they became Fools, vers. 22. How manifestly is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil here figu∣red with man eating of it. The Divine Image withdrawn, the false Image, composed of darkness, is embraced in the Soul, as the true Light, the true Image, the true Wisdome, in which Man now seems to himself, to have the power and the perfection of his own Being in himself. Now the false shew of a counterfeit Liberty in the Will, springs up through this Darkness. Thus is the Wisdome of Man become Foolishness, verse 22. They turned the Glory of the Incor∣ruptible God into the similitude of the Image of a corruptible Man, of Birds, &c. verse 25. They turned the truth of God into a lye. Man was made a total, but a shadowy Image of God. The rest of the Creatures were as several parts of this Image, partial Representations of that Glory, each a differing Figure from the other, in which something of the Glory was seen, which appeared not in the other. The Divine presence in its own proper and eternal Image, stood in this shadowy Image, filled it, shined through it, was the Light and Truth of it; As a Sun-beam penetrates, fills, enlightens, appears through a shady coloured Glass, so was the Divine Form in the Form of Man. The Truth in its shadow.

When the Divine presence in its own Divine Form withdrew it self into it self, the ensuing Darkness fills the shadowy Image. As he, that looks through the clear glass in a Window, sees the face of Heaven. When he, who casts his eye upon a Looking-Glass, be∣holds only his own face, the shadow on the back-side of the Glass, terminating the beams and the sight upon the Glass. So the Dark∣ness, in the Fall, terminates the eye of the Soul upon the shadowy

Image, the shadowy Figures of the Divine Glory, as the true Glory, the true God.

Yet these Forms, which now appeared, were not the true shadows, the true Figures of the Divine Glory, nor the true Forms of Man, or of any Creature. These disappeared, together with the Divine presence, and the Glory. The darkness, now in the place of these, formed it self into false, deformed, monstrous Images in man, in eve∣ry Creature, which had indeed some resemblance of the true and primitive Images, which were in Paradise. As a Monkey hath the similitude of man, but in proportion, height, beauty, life, greatness, power, majesty, differed from them, as a lye from the truth. The expressions of the Holy Ghost seem skilfully chosen, to declare this change to us, verse 23. He saith, They turned the Glory of God, not into the Image, but the similitude of the Image of Man; verse 25. They turned the truth, not into the Image or shadow, but into a lye.

These false Images of the Night, and the blackness of Darkness, were inhabited and acted by so many Devils, so many dark Spirits, the first Springs and Seats of this Darkness. As an Angel filled each Form in Paradise, figuring it self upon it, so were all forms in the Fall filled ahd figured by Devils. Thus they became Idols, of which St. Paul saith, They that worship Idols, worship Devils. Angels in Paradise were pure and sweet Lights springing freshly forth from the Divine Glory, rendring every Creature pure and transparent, with a Light of Glory shining in it, as clear Christal, all over replenished, enriched, and heightned with the Sun-beams. This Light every where transmitted the eye, and the glory through each Creature, to each other, married them one to another, in each Creature. This was a Paradise indeed of Divine Plants, full of Divine Beauties, Fragrances, Virtues, and Fruits.

The Devils, as Clouds of Night and Darkness, resting on each Creature, suffer not the Light from above, nor the sight from below, to pass through them. They at once exclude the brightness of the Divine Glory, and draw the eye to themselves in each Form, to rest in themselves. This is the Head, the Well-spring, the Mystery of all Idolatry, whether it be of the grosser or finer sort.

But I pass now from the first, to the second Proposition.

2. Proposition. The immediate cause of the first change made in the Understanding at the Fall, was the Divine Glory with-drawing or with-holding it self. The immediate, the proper cause of the de∣formity and disorder in the change, was the defectibility, the nothing∣ness of the Creature, of it self, sinking down to nothing, as the Glory removes it self from it, or the Variety of the Divine fulness, the Order in the Divine Wisdome, the Harmony of the Divine Beauties, by the power of which the Unity descending to its lowest state, to a shadow of it self in Paradise, and having there acted all the parts proper to that shadowy scene or state, having carried it to the utmost, now passeth from that shadowy Unity into a new Scene, or state properly arising out of the darkness of the shadow, and the lowest degree of Unity, which is that of Contrariety. As

the Unity is the scene of Light, Life, Love, Harmony, Beauty, Joy, all Good; So is this of Darkness, Enmit, Death, Deformity, Disor∣der, all Evil.

But I touch this transiently here, and return.

The Perfection of the Understanding is Light or Truth. The Cor∣ruption of the Understanding is darkness or falshood. That which makes manifest, is Light, saith St. Paul. Every Image then, so far as it is an Image, is Light. Each Image is a composure of Beams, sent forth from every part of the Object, represented by the Image. The first Light, is the first Image, the Image of God, the brightness of the Glory of God. As colours, which are shaded Lights, are constituted by this Light, and actuated in their appearance to the eye; so is every other Light, Light only by, and in this Light, as a shadow of it.

Darknese is the absence or privation of Light. Privations have no proper, but accidental causes only. Thus the Divine Glory, re∣tiring from the Understanding, or ceasing to shine in it, is by acci∣dent the cause of the Darkness there; As the setting or departing of the Sun is the cause of Night, which is not a blemish to the Sun, but its Glory; that in its presence are all the Beauties and Joys of Light, in its abscence all the Disagreeablenesses and Melancholies of night and darkness.

But, if at the ebbing of the Tyde, when the Sea sucks into it self again the streams of water; which at the Floud it powred forth from it self in the River Tagus, or Pactolus, a beautiful Form of golden sand present it self to our eyes, in other Rivers a black ill-sented Mud offend our senses. The emptiness of the Chanel, the absence from the Waters is indeed from the Sea; But the pleasing or displeasing Forms appearing in the absence of the waters, are from the Rivers themselves. In like manner, all Defects have deficient Causes. The change in the Fall, is from the Divine Glory drawing into it self that stream and tyde of Beauties, which it powred forth upon the under∣standing of man. The Darkness, Deformity, Disorder in this change, proceeds from the nature of the Creature, from its natural tendency to that nothingness, which alone is its own, and its native Element, as it is in it self. This nothingness hath the same relation to the beautiful Essences, the essential Beauties of all Forms of things, of all Creatures, while they stand in the Divine Image, as the Contrariety hath to the Divine Unity.

A Cloud looseth all its lustre in a blackness and darkness; a cold of Earth hath no more any sweet light to entertain the eye, when the Sun takes his golden beams off from them. But the Stars and Diamonds sparkle and shine in the absence of the Sun, in the depth of night. The reason of the difference, is the opacity or shadiness in the nature of the Cloud and clod of Earth, the native light in the Diamond and the Stars. Thus the Creature being nothing in it self, tends to nothing, as the eternal Sun goeth down upon it. This ten∣dency to nothing is the proper, the formal cause of all Deformities and Disorders, as the springing of the Light in the Morning is of all those lovely colours, which then adorn the Sky.

But thus much for this second Proposition.

3. Proposition. The change in the Will and Affections followeth the change in the Understanding, as its immediate and proper Cause. This lies plain in the Text, verse 22. They turned the Glory of God to the similitude of a man, &c. verse 24. Wherefore also God gave them up to their hearts lusts, to all uncleanness, &c. verse 25. Which turned the truth of God unto a lye: verse 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections. But you have this most fully asserted and amplified, verse 28, 29, 30, 31. As they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, God also gave them up to a Reprobate mind, to do things not convenient; being filled with all Unrighteousness, Fornication, Wickedness. So he goes on enumerating in the three following verses, all the Evils of Sin in the Will of Man from thence breaking forth in his life.

As Nature is distinguished in Natura, Naturans, and Naturata; that is, Nature in the Fountain, God, the Divine Nature; Nature in the stream, the Copy to that Original: So the Scripture attributeth that to God, which he in the natural order of things hath connected and linked, as in a Chain, for its proper cause. Thus God is said to give up men to all disorders in their Will, for the darkness in their Minds.

The phrase hath also this depth of sense in it, That God, as the first cause, is every where in the whole Chain of Causes most intimate∣ly present, and immediately operative in every effect. He is the Spi∣rit, the Beauty of the Order in the whole. He is the band in every step or joynt of the whole Order, tying each Link to the other, each Effect to its Cause, each Cause to its effect. He is the sole force in every Cause, the sole Cause of every Effect in particular.

Thus God gave them up to vile affections, who had changed the truth unto a lye. All Imagery is the furniture of the Mind. All Images are formed there. The motions of the Will are raised and governed by the Images in the Understanding, as their formal Cause, from whose impressions they flow as their final Cause, to which they tend, in which they end.

The Understanding is a Power in the Soul of generating Images of good within it self, which Images are the only Truth, the only Beauty of it. The Will is the Spring and Seat of a mutual Love-Union and Love-Communion, which the Soul hath with it self in these Images, infusing, and taking in a mutual Sweetness, Complacency, and Joy. They the Images in the mind are the Objective Cause of all the mo∣tions of the Will, raising and laying them, as the Winds do the Waters.

So God gave them over to vile Affections. This manner of speak∣ing hath a clear signification of that principal mystery in Divinity, so sweet, so sure, so deep. All good is from the presence of God, the shine, the smiles of his unvailed Face, the Reflections of him, as he appears in his own Likeness, in his proper Form. This makes all Light, Beauty, Joy. All Evil is from the absence of God, from his Back-parts, from the Clouds and Disguise upon his Person, without the Vail.

I cannot well proceed any further, until I have cleared my way, by removing an Objection or two, which may be made against the Interpretations, which I have made of these Scriptures, and the Pro∣positions drawn from them.

Object. 1. The Apostle seemeth to make this the ground of the inexcusableness of men in their sins, that they knew God, yet sinned in the Face of that Light. Upon this ground sin seemeth to arise first in the Will, rather then in the Understanding.

This Objection is confirmed by the Apostles attributing this know∣ledge of God to man in his faln Estate. To the Heathen, as he seem∣eth clearly to do.

Answ. 1. If man hath this knowledge of God in his faln state, yet was that Perfection, in which we have described it only in Paradise.

Answ. 2. The Holy Spirit seemeth expresly to place the Knowledge of God antecedent to the first Sin; the not glorifying him as God, for this was either the same, or Concomitant with, or resulting from the vanity of the reasonings in man, the want of Understanding, the darkning of his Heart.

Answ. 3. There is indeed a constant Glory from the Face of God shining in man through all changes and states. A Light, which can never be extinguished by any storms. But this Light of Divine Glo∣ry shineth in the midst of the Darkness, which arose upon it, within which it withdrew it self in the first moment of the Fall, and hath ever since dwelt. This Darkness comprehendeth not the Light, re∣ceiveth it not, rejecteth it, as a Reprobate, a false Light, so casts it down from the Throne in the dominion of the Soul, and reigneth it self in the place of it.

This truth is with Divine Authority affirmed, with a Divine clear∣ness and elegancy illustrated, in those words, As they liked not to re∣tain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a Reprobate mind, to do things not convenient. What a manifest Connexion of these four things have you in this Scripture?

1. A Knowledge of God in the Mind.

2. A Rejection or Reprobation of that Knowledge.

3. A Reprobation or Corruption of the Mind, in the Rejection of this Light of Glory.

4. All Evil generally mentioned under the Character of Inconve∣niency or Uncomeliness, in the end of this verse, particularly and distinctly recited in three following verses, flowing all from this Re∣probate or Corrupt Mind.

But we shall more evidently, more delightfully behold this mystery of the Fall, this Mixture, this War of Darkness, with the Divine Light, its triumph over it; the presence of the Divine Light, in the midst of this Darkness, maintaining its Glory unshaken, unstained in a con∣stant opposition to the darkness in the mind of faln man, if we ob∣serve and unfold the elegancy of the Holy Ghost in these words.

Those words, [They liked not to retain.] A Reprobate Mind,] are in Greek the same in their Root and Essence. They manifestly

allude to each other with a great power and pleasantness of sense.

The Original word primarily and properly signifieth the trying the truth of any thing, as the Gold is tryed by the Touch-stone, or by the Fire.

God, in the presence of his Glory, resides in every Creature, be∣neath the form of that Creature, as a Vail wrought with a Figure of himself. Thus he constantly resides in each Creature, as the Root, and Being of its Being; In the pure nature of man, he shines through the Vail of the Angelical or Intellectual Image, as a transparent Vail of finest Lawn, or sweetest Light, sprung from his own Face.

In the Fall, God drawing in the Beams of his Glory, by the my∣sterious Operations of the Divine Wisdome, in the place of this pure and pleasant Light, thick Darkness fills the Angelical Image of God in man.

The Divine Presence and Glory stands in this Image, presenting the Light of its unchangeable Beauties to the eye of the Soul, in the midst of this darkness.

The Understanding now taking in the Divine Glory through this dark medium, through the darkness, takes in a dark and falfe Image of it. It tryeth and toucheth the Glory in this false Image upon it self, now darkned and depraved. It receives the Image as a true Image, but rejects the Glory, rejects God, as reprobate Gold, as a false counterfeit Divinity and Glory.

God, in like manner, by the presence of his Glory, toucheth and tryeth the Understanding, rejecteth that, as a Reprobate Mind. This Reprobate Mind he leaveth to it self, and man to this Reprobate Mind; from this source issues forth all the Evils of Sin and of Suffer∣ings.

Object. 2. How in this order of things is man rendred inexcusable, which seems to be a principal Care and Work of the Holy Spirit in this Scripture?

Answ. An excuse is the removal of just blame, by the removal of the cause. As Praise and Glory are the Eccho or Reflection of Virtue, of some good; so Blame and Shame are the Eccho, the Reflection of some Fault or Evil.

The fault in man is the deficiency, which ariseth from the defectibi∣lity or nothingness inseparable from the nature of the Creature in its shadowy state, in the purity of its first Creation.

This defectibility and deficiency, this nothingness and tendency to nothing in the Creature, is evidently discovered, past all denial or excuse. For when God hath cloathed the Creature with the Glo∣ry of his own Image, in all Knowledge, Righteousness, and Blessed∣ness. The Creature hath no power in it self to retain or maintain this Glory, or the least glimpse, the least stricture of Light from it one moment. In the same moment that God with-holds his Beams and In∣fluences, the Soul sinks into the depth of darkness, in which dark∣ness it springs up the same moment into all the evils of Sin, Defor∣mity, Death, Wrath, Torment. Thus man in his best state is Vanity, a

shadow, which hath nothing of its own, but nothingness, a tendency to nothing. Thus being in Honour, he continueth not, but sinketh into his own nothingness, when once he is left to himself.

This nothingness, in the nature of the Creature, is not to be un∣derstood a meer simple nothing; for this hath no existence, no expression, no attribute, no effect, nothing can be said or thought of it.

This nothingness, of which we speak, or Not-Being, is a contra∣riety to Being; so to all the Beauty, the Blessedness of Being. This is the Contrariety it self, which is a part of the Variety of things in the Unity of the whole. This taken apart in it self, is the breach of the Unity and the Harmony, the first and blackest ground of all Discord, Division, Darkness, Enmity, Death, of all the evils of sin and sufferings.

Object. 3. How is God inexcusable, who frames a Creature with this defectibility, this Contrariety, this Necessity of all Evil in its nature, then leaves it to it self to fall inevetiably into all Sin; then condemns it, and casts it into all manner of Torments, into all the Evils of suf∣fering for Sin?

Answ. Sufferings are the immediate, inseparable Companions of Sin. The Contrariety, when once it hath broken the Harmony of the shadowy Image of God in the Paradise of pure Nature, by the with∣drawing of the Divine Unity, which by its presence tuned it to, and bound it up in a Divine Harmony, now breaks forth, over∣runs all with all manner of Evils of Sin, of Shame, of Sufferings of all kinds.

But that, which seemeth to me alone, to justifie God, is the design in the whole. My desire is here, with all humility and submission, to conceive and express so high mysteries, the way, and the Glory of God in so great and Divine deeps.

The design, which with all humility I conceive not to clear God, but to represent him through all his way most glorious in the Beau∣ties of Holiness, in the most spotless, the exactest Justice, in the richest lustre, the highest sweetness, the most exalted Grace of all Goodness and Love, hath several steps or parts.

1. The first step is, the Discovery of man, and the Creature in its primitive nature, in all its good and glories to be shadowy, an earth∣ly and shadowy Image, in an earthly, a shadowy Paradise.

2. The second step is, the Declaration of God to be the only foun∣tain and fulness of all good, in whose Face and Presence alone are the Beauties and Pleasantnesses of all good, whose absence makes the Night of all trouble and evil.

3. The opening of new, fuller, higher Glories in God, then did shine forth in the first Creation, in the most exalted Natures of all the Creatures, of Men or Angels.

These new Glories of the Godhead open themselves in the last step, the full, harmonious, triumphant close of the whole design, after this manner.

1. The heighth of the Contrariety between the good in God, and the evil of Sin, between the purity, the beauty of Holiness in the

Divine Nature, the filth, the deformity of sin, display the Beauties in the Face of God with a new heightning, a new lustre, infinitely more sweet and ravishing.

2. The Power of the Divine Wrath brings forth a new Scene, a new World, full of new Forms of things; New Wonders in Heaven, and eternity, in the Divine Nature, the Divine Wisdom and Work.

3. What is the Glory in the force and riches of the Divine Unity, spreading it self into so vast a Variety? unto so remote a distance from it self, to such Contrarieties, to such Extremities, comprehending them all in it self, gathering them up, tuning them all, and binding them up into a Divine, most agreeable, eternal Harmony of all most ravishing, most pure, most perfect Beauties and Sweetnesses in it self; discovering them all to be most melodious, musical parts of the Di∣vine Variety and Harmony, eternal Varieties of Beauty and Sweetness in the Divine Unity?

4. Lastly, The shadowy happiness of the Creature is changed into a substantial one. There is wrought out by these changes a far more exceedingly exceeding weight of Glory in Man, a Glory infinitely transcending that of the first Paradise. Now open themselves all these newer, fuller, higher Glories of the Godhead to man in man: Now is man formed to a Divine Image, infinitely newer, fuller, higher, in the most immediate similitude and fruition of these highest Glories. Now is man brought from the shadowy Union with God, in the shadow of the Angelical Image, through the dissolution of that Union and Image, to the most intimate, immediate, inseparable Union, the most perfect Union with God, in the utmost Perfection of all his Excellen∣cies, wholly unvailed, in the purest Essence of all his Glories, in the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of all the Divine Beauties, Loves, and Joys; in the most heightned Unity, in the most ample and uncon∣fined Variety of the Divine Nature; in the highest and sweetest Union of both these.

Now man sees, enjoys God, as he is, in his own Likeness, perfectly without, transcendently above all Vails, all Clouds, all Shadows, all Mixtures, or Mutability. Now is man, as he is in the same Likeness together with him; without, above all Vails, Clouds, Shadows, Mix∣ture, or Mutability▪ Now God and Man awakened together, as out of a sleep, and the dreams in the sleep, into the same Righteousness, are satisfied with the same likeness in each other, reflected from man as the Son, the Image of God, the Father of Lights, the Original Glory.

But I now am sliding into my last Proposition, and have indeed, in a great degree, prevented my self in it.

4. Proposition. The change in Man at the Fall, did fall from the Divine Harmony, in the Universal Design; was comprehended in it, and part of it. I shall add to that which I have already written above, only one Scripture, with a short gloss upon it, for the establishing of this Proposition.

St. Paul thus discourseth, Rom. 8. 19, 20, 21, 22. For the earnest ex∣pectation of the Creature, waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of

God. For the Creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but for him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the Creature it self shall also be delivered from the bondage of Corruption, into the glorious liberty of the Children of God. For we know that the whole Creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together, until now.

Observe here, that Creature and Creation are both the same word in Greek. Where you read the Creature in the 19, 20, 21. verses, you may as well read it, the Creation, that which you read the whole Creation, verse 22. is as properly every Creature.

There are two Questions which here naturally arise, and are abso∣lutely waved by me, as having no necessary Connexion with my pre∣sent purpose.

Quest. 1. The first Question is this, In what sense the Creature or Creation is understood by the holy Apostle. Is the whole Creation one entire, living, sensible Image of the Divine Nature, in which every Creature, as a part of this Divine Image, partakes of the same life, according to the Doctrine of Campanella? Shall we say with Plato, Every thing that is, is an Act of Life, and so nothing of Being without life?

Or may it seem agreeable to the Scriptures, that all the Creatures stood together at first, before the breach, made by the Fall, in the Unity of the Spirit, in Christ, the Head of the Creation; without whom, or apart from whom, nothing was made that was made, as St. John teacheth us? Did every Creature stand now in Union, with its proper Angel, through its Angel with its proper Idea in Christ, the Divine Mind, and the Universal Idea? Was every Creature thus cloathed with the Angelical Image, partaker of the Angelical Life? Did it through these receive the Divine Image, the Divine Life of its own Idea? That the whole Creation might seem a Contexture of Angels, filled with Ideal Lights, all meeting together in one chief Angel, and one Universal Idea, which is the Lord Jesus? Had every Creature thus a sight and sense of the Divine Design in the Fall? was it thus capable of a willingness and an unwillingness in its submission to it, as it considered that particular state, or the general design with the Divine end of all; As it considered it self in this dark part, to be acted by it, or the eternal Spirit in its universa•…•… •…•…ontrivance, and the Mark, the heighth of Glory, to which it directed all? Do the Crea∣tures still, though bound in Chains of Darkness, retain so much of this Angelical Ideal Light, and Life, as to hope, to groan for a return from their Captivity, into these Angelical, Ideal Forms, and so into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, whom St. James saith, to be the First-fruits of the Creation?

Whether this be so, or all these terms of Will, of Hope, of Groans, be by a figure attributed to Subjects without life or sense; or some other sense be righter than either of these, I consider not now, as being unconcerned?

Quest. 2. The second Question is, whether the individual Crea∣tures did all pre-exist, being together in Paradise, before the Fall, in their Angelical Spirits and Forms? Was among these Mankind,

with all individual Persons, not only in a Representative, but a Col∣lective Adam; unto whom Adam in his own distinct Person was the Head, and the first born? Did those thus, who now groan under the ruines of the Fall, then fore-see it, in the Divine Design, having an aversion to it in it self, yet subjecting themselvns to it for God? Are these, who now through all Generations groan and travel in pangs, for the delivery of the Divine seed in them, unto the Birth of a new Glory, the same who then had this Divine Seed of a sure Hope sown in them for their return? And not for their return only, but for their Resurrection, unto a sight of the Face of God with a new and fuller Glory, shining forth without any shadow or Vail, purely, and immediately upon them all, through them, taking them up into it self, as a new, Super-Coelestial eternal Paradise, as far ex∣celling their first Paradise, as the Heavens are above the Earth, as Eternity transcends Time?

But these then, where have they been since the Fall? Were they thrust down to the nethermost parts of the Earth, imprisoned in the deep shades of the Earth below, and bound there in Chains of Dark∣ness? Are they there reserved in the silence and sleep of that Death which came upon all by the Fall, until, as Seed buried in the ground, they, according to their several seasons, spring up into Corruptible Forms, and a wretched Life, for a moment upon the stage of this World to act new parts, in order to a refining, through a Baptism with Christ in the fire of his Sufferings, of his Death, and the making of all new by this refining, in the Glory of his Resur∣rection?

Dear Reader! these Questions may be thought by some curious and difficult, without use, fruit, or ground in the Word of God. To others, perhaps they may seem of great moment to open the mystery of God, to unvail his Glory in the wonder of his Works, which are sought out by all those who love him. Some may esteem them of great advantage, to enlighten the Daknesses, and make easie the Difficulties about Principal Doctrines of the Christian Religion, as that fundamental Truth of Original Sin, that most sweet and sacred Mystery, which is the Antitype to this Type. Our justification by Jesus Christ, the Return of all to life in the last Adam, as all died in the first. Others may believe, that as God sheds abroad richer Anoint∣ings of the Light of his Spirit, we shall see lying fair before us greater and stranger things than these, which now like fresh colours in a beau∣tiful Object, appear not at all, for the want of light in the Air, in our Spirits. As the eternal Sun shineth, as the Heavens in the Scriptures, and the Spirit shall open themselves; they expect to see the Angels of Glory, and of God, the Divine Glories descending and ascend∣ing upon the Son of Man, the Person of the Lord Jesus, as a mysti∣cal Ladder, reaching through the whole Creation, from the top to the bottom, where each rank of Creatures is a step in this Ladder, a Divine Glory, in the Angelical Form, upon the Wings of its proper Angel, descending and ascending.

But I leave these things to the freedome of every Spirit, as bring∣ing no weight to my present purpose, begging thy pardon, Christian Reader, for this mention of them, as being fairly led to by the pre∣sent Scripture, and willing to take the occasion of diverting thy self and me, as I hope, not without some spiritual pleasure and profit, through the candour of thy Mind.

I shall take hold of that alone, which seems to lie clear in the words of the Text, and gives a full confirmation to my Proposition, which is this,

That the Fall springs from the Harmony of the eternal Design in the Divine Mind, being comprehended in it, as a part of it.

I shall proceed by a few short steps,

1. The Intellectual soul, in the first Man, is manifestly, eminently comprehended in this Scripture, by a Reason from the stronger. This not only is a principal part of the Creation, but contains in it self, according to its primitive state, the whole nature of things, together with the compleat Image of God in Nature. This is the Essence of the Intellectual Soul.

2. This Soul, in this Image, and so in its own Essence, as in a Glass, beholdeth the Harmony of the Divine Work, as it hath the Harmony of the Divine Nature figured upon it in its Perfection, from the beginning to the end. Through this Image, as a finely-shadow∣ed Vail, it hath a view of God himself in the invisibility of his Power and Godhead. In the same view it taketh in the Universal Harmony of the Divine Work and Design, as it lieth in its first ground, in his invisible Power and Godhead; Invisible to the purest eye of Nature in their own naked Glories, but visible through the Divine Cloud or Sky of the Natural, the Angelical Image of God in Man.

3. In this Image, light and view of the Godhead. The Soul now seeth the Fall in the Divine Harmony, in the Harmony of the Divine Image, and its own Essence; it seeth this, as the next Scene, ready to open it self, as the next state into which it is immediately to pass, by the force of the Divine Harmony.

The Soul seeth this state, in this Glass, apart by it self, as a state of highest Contrariety to the Purity, the Light, the Peace, the Calm, the Incorruption, the Virtues, the Joys, the Harmony, the Life, the Love, the Divinity of its present state. It hath a Prospect of it, as a Scene of monstrous Defilements, Shames, Confusions, Troubles, Darknesses, Tempests, Horrors, Enmities, Deaths, where there is no Light, no Rest. Thus the Soul hath the highest aversion to this state.

But at the same time, the Soul hath a view of this Scene, as it stands in the Universal Harmony, so it sees shadowed out to it through the natural Image, in this shady light of Nature, a Glory of the God∣head springing up through it, by the Power of the Divine Harmony incomprehensible to the Soul in its purest Light, infinitely transcending

all those Divine Glories which have hitherto appeared to it in the Godhead, and all those which it is by any means capable of figuring to it self.

It became him, (saith the Author to the Hebrews) being to bring many Sons to Glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through Sufferings. Thus the Soul in Paradise beholding (in the Glass of its own Essence) this state of Sufferings to rise up out of the un∣searchable depths of the incomprehensibly ravishing, and transcen∣dently perfect Harmony in the Divine Essence, understanding also the Harmony to be made perfect, and the Glory of the Godhead raised to its utmost, its purest heighth, and beyond the reach of every Intellectual or Angelical Eye, by this Variety in its proper place, Now, for God, is subject to this bondage of Vanity and Corruption.

This Soul in like manner sees in that same Glass an Hope that cannot fail, set before it. The Seed of a Divine Hope, Jesus the Hope of Glory, the force and power of the Universal Harmony sown in it. A sure Hope that shall accompany it through this Wilderness of Wast∣ness, Tempests, and Horrours, where no water is, no Light 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Life, no Truth of any good, but empty and black shades in a dark and dreadful Night. In this Hope it sees the assurance of a passage out of this Wilderness into a good Land, a Land flowing with Milk and Honey, a Land flowing with Rivers of Waters, and full of Springs, A Land of Rest and Bliss.

4. The Soul thus, by this prospect in Paradise, is submitted and sub∣jected to its change and fall, with an unwilling willingness. God now according to the Law of the Divine Harmony in his own Image, and in the Essence of the Soul, withdraws the Light of his Presence, with∣in a dark Cloud from this Cloud, falls a deep sleep, the sleep of Death, a death to the only true, the Divine Life upon Man. The Soul now like Abraham falls into a terrible dream, a blackness of darkness, full of horrour passeth over. It seeth it self, the whole nature of things, visible, invisible, within it self, dead, divided, dissolved, all broken and scattered into pieces. A burning Lamp, the burning Torches of Lust, Rage, Divine Wrath, pass between these mangled pieces.

Thus the Soul lies in this sleep and dream, with hope only, as a gleame of heavenly Light, now and then breaking upon it, through these melancholy shades, until Christ, the Seed of Hope, revive in it. When he awakens himself in the Soul, he awakens the Soul by his Voice, sounding through it; Awake thou that sleepest, stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee Light. At the awakening of the Soul, the dream flies away, as if it never had been. The Soul now sees her lost Paradise, her lost Purity, her lost Peace, her lost Love and Joy, her lost self, with the whole nature of things in its Virgin-Image pre∣sent with her, as if they had never departed from her. All past seems as the dream of a moment, while she slept upon a Bed of Spices in Paradise, in the Bosome of her Beloved.

But her Beauties and Paradise are not now as before. They are no more shadowy Images, shady Lights, and Mediums, or means, through which her God appears to her, which his Glories dim'd,

and refracted by the Vails, through which they pass. No, being now awakened into the Resurrection of Christ, God himself in his naked Beauties, in the purest and sweetest Light of his Divine Es∣sence, appears to her as to himself. He in the Light of his unvailed Glories, is both her beloved Object, and the blissful Medium or means through which she sees him. The Soul now is in the Light, as He is in the Light, his Face shining like the Sun of Eternity in the strength of all its Glories, the Glories of his supream loveliness, and Loves, is the Glass in which she sees her self, her lost Purity and Paradise, the whole nature of things within her self, as they all lie in the Harmony of the Divine Nature. In this Glass she sees and enjoys her Fall it self, as a part, and the perfecting of this heavenly Harmony. All the storms and darknesses in that Scene have now their Vizors taken off, and appear to be living Glories, glorious Spirits, glorious Varieties in the Unity of the eternal Spirit. Thus the Soul enjoys her self with all past, present, or to come, as eternally present with Christ in God.

Now this Bride repents not of her subjection to the Fall, by which she hath passed into this last state more excellent then the first, which indeed is the first. Now she seeth that all her changes were but cir∣clings through the various parts of the Divine Harmony within her self, within the heavenly compass of her own Divine Essence. While all that while, she with her beautiful Essence and Form lies in the embraces of the Divine Essence it self. There compleating in her self the circle of the Universal and Eternal Harmony returning thither, as into the Bosome of her Beloved Bridegroom, from whence she first came forth, as from her everlasting Father, and first Cause.

Thus I have endeavoured to bring to the Eye, the Ear of our Un∣derstanding, the Beauty, the Musick of the Divine Harmony in the discords of Humane Nature, in the Fall of Man; which excludes all undetermined Liberty in the Will, as altogether inconsistent with this Harmony, and the Divine Unity, the band of this Har∣mony.

I pass now to the Essence of the Soul, in the third Scene, into which it opens it self, or that third state into which it rouls it self within it self. My design is the same here, to shew how the sacred and irresistible force of the Divine Harmony restores the Soul, without any thing of Free-Will in the sense, in which we have stated it, inter∣mingling it self in this Work.

3. State. This third state of the Soul is its return or restitution. This is clearly and compleatly described by St. Paul, after the lively Picture which he hath given us, of the storm in the Fall; But now the Righteousness of God is made manifest without the Law, being witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets, Rom. 3. 21. Even the Righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ on all that believe, verse 22. Be∣ing justified freely by his Grace, through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ, verse 24. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his own Righteousness for the remission of Sins, verse 25. To declare, I say, at this time his own Righteousness:

that he (by his, his own Righteousness, or Justice,) might be just, and by the same his, his own Righteousness) the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, vers. 26.

Take here four brief Notes upon the words,

1. The Righteousness of God is with great care and skill distin∣guished here, and specificated in its distinction from the Righteous∣ness of Man under the Law, in the state of Innocency. You have this distinction emphatically set out and sealed with a deep impression four times over. The Right eousness of God without the Law, vers. 21. Even the Righteousness of God, vers. 22. God to declare his own Righte∣ousness, vers. 25. To declare, I say, his own Righteousness, or Justice; That he may be just or righteous, and the Justifier, or the Maker righteous, by his own Righteousness. This is the Righteousness of the Gospel, by which we have the pardon of Sins, and are justified. This the Law, the Prophets, Nature in its Purity, in all its natural Improvements point out to us, in shadows and pictures; But cannot set before us, nor give to us no more than the Picture can give a sight or fruition of the Life, the living Beauty.

2. Grace, free Love alone, without the Conjunction of Free-will, discovers and brings in this Righteousness. This Righteousness is the Beauty of the Divine Harmony; Grace or Love is the sweetness, the sweet force of this Harmony, or the Unity in this Harmony, which alone carries it on through all things, and makes all things per∣fect in it.

3. Jesus Christ with his Blood, and Faith in him, are means to this end, the declaration of the Righteousness of God. This Divine Har∣mony, which is the Beauty and the Righteousness of the Divine Na∣ture, as the last end, is the first Mover, carries on it self by its own sweet, most agreeable and irresistable force, which is the Grace and Love in the Godhead. This forms and fashions all its own means, brings forth Jesus Christ to die for us, to live in us by Faith, and it self in this Jesus, through the death and the life of this Jesus.

4. The essential Righteousness of God, as it brings forth it self through Jesus Christ, is that in which we have the pardon of Sin, and Justificati∣on. It is his own Righteousness, or Justice, by which God is just himself, and maketh us just. In Greek the words are all the same, his Righte∣ousness, that he may be just, and the Justisier. You will understand this, and the elegant force of this Scripture, which is very much lost in English by the change of the word in the Translation from Righteous∣ness, to Just and Justifier; When you know, that in Greek, Righte∣ousness and Justice are both one word; as in the sense, and in nature, they are both one thing.

This essential Righteousness of God alone, hath an infiniteness of value and virtue in it, to be a satisfaction for the infinite Demerit and Guilt in Sin; to make a Saint infinitely amiable and lovely, that it may be proportioned to the Eye and infinite Love of an infinite Spirit.

We say, our Jesus was Man, that he might Suffer; God, that he might Merit by suffering. We are rightly taught, That it is the

Person in Christ which gives the value to his Active and Passive Obe∣dience; That gives the value and virtue to the whole work of his Mediation. The Person in Christ is God, the second Person in the Trinity, the essential Image of the Godhead, eternal, unchangeable, infinite. It is then the essential, eternal, infinite Beauty, Value, Virtue, Righteousness of this Person, which declares it self through the Hu∣mane Nature of Christ in the Humiliations, the Exaltations of that, unto the Remission of Sins, unto Justification, to make us infinitely amiable in the eye of an infinite God, the worthy Objects of an in∣finite Love, the worthy Subjects of an infinite Glory and Blessedness, in the eternal, unlimited, free, and full fruition of an infinite Object, infinite in Loveliness and Delights.

But let us endeavour, according to the meanness of our capacity, in taking in so great Glory, to give some Light to this so sweet, and so high a mystery.

Righteousness and Justice in Greek are the same.

Justice is defined, that which giveth every one its own. That is, to every thing its own, due, and proper to it, which makes up the Harmony and Unity of the whole in that part. The Harmony and Unity of the whole is the perfection of the whole, and of each part. Every part is in order to the whole, as its end. As it is perfection, which is due to each thing: So the end of each thing is its per∣fection. Thus Justice consists in the Harmony and Unity of things.

Righteousness is that by which we are right, and do right. Right is a conformity to its rule. The first in every kind is the measure and rule of all the rest. God is absolutely, universally the first of all things: so is He the absolute measure and rule of all.

The Righteousness of God then is the conformity of the Divine Nature to it self, in its Essence and Operations, in its self, and in all its works. Thus is Righteousness also as Justice, the Harmony and Unity of things. The Divine Righteousness is the Divine Harmony and Unity diffusing it self through all things, and knitting all things together, as Links in one Golden Chain.

The perfection of Harmony is the Unity in Variety. The Har∣mony is perfect, when the Unity is entire, and the Variety full. A full Variety is that, in which nothing of Variety is wanting. A principal part in the Variety, extending it to a greater amplitude, is the Con∣trariety. This then is the Divine pleasure and glory in the Harmony; when the Unity by its Divine fruitfulness and force brings forth it self through all degrees of Variety, into the remotest forms, the most opposite Contrarieties and Extreams: When it brings forth it self through these into it self again, and reigns triumphantly at once, as over the whole, so over each part of the Variety; residing on the whole, as one Throne, one Kingdom, and on each part, as a distinct Throne, a distinct Kingdom, equal with the whole.

The Divine Harmony is Three-fold.

1. The first Harmony is that of the Godhead, of the Divine Es∣sence in it self. This is the essential Righteousness of God. As it is

the Righteousness, so is it the Love, the Joy, the Loveliness, the Wisdome, Power, Glory of God. All the Excellencies of God in one, one and entire in every Excellency by the Unity. Yet in eve∣ry Excellency most highly distinct by the Variety in the Harmony. The Harmony of the Divine Essence is that sacred and adorable my∣stery of the Trinity, the mystery of God.

2. The second Harmony is the Harmony of the Divine Nature, as the Original; And the Harmony in the Nature of the Creature, as the figure, married together into one Divine Harmony, by a mutual and mysterious Union. By this Union these two mutually subsist in each other, shine upon, shine in and through each other. The Original Harmony is the Principle, of subsisting and shining. This is the Head, the Person which gives Being, Beauty, Subsistency, Lustre to its own Figure in the created Harmony, shining upon it self in and through it.

This is the Mediatory Righteousness, or the Righteousness of God in Christ, the Righteousness of the Gospel, of our Justification, Sancti∣fication, Glorification.

This Righteousness in Christ, as our Head, comprehending us in it self, by virtue of the mutual Union cloathing us, filling us, over∣flowing us, is our Justification, the Beauty of our Persons shining in the Glory of our Head, entire from the first moment, and unchange∣able.

This Righteousness, by virtue of our mutual Union, with our Jesus in the Unity of the Spirit, as our Root, springs forth in us, transforms us into its own heavenly Image, carries us up into a Com∣munion with it self, in its own Divine Life, Beauties and Joys. Thus by the gradual growths of this Righteousness in us, are we gradually sanctified; through all changes of life, doth this Plant grow in us, by Night and by Day; In Death it arrives at its perfect growth. Our Sanctification thus in Death made perfect, is the glorification of our Persons.

In one moment doth this Divine Righteousness, this heavenly Har∣mony take us up into it self, unto the justification of our Persons in its spotless, eternal, universal Beauties, to the filling of us with the un∣expressible Peace and Joys of its most sweet, eternal, universal Mu∣sick, and in the same moment it springs up in us unto our Sanctifica∣tion, to the framing of us by degrees unto the same Beauty, and the tuning of us to the same Musick in our selves. This is the moment of our New-Birth, our Marriage-Union with our Jesus, our be∣lieving.

This is the second Righteousness.

3. The third Righteousness, is that of the shadowy Image in the primitive state of the Creation. This is the Righteousness of Man, a shadowy Righteousness, the shadow of the eternal Harmony. This is the essential Form of Man in pure nature. This is the Reason of Man, the shadow of the eternal Reason, the Word, the essential Harmony in the Divine Mind.

The Lord Jesus being the first, the supream, the essential Image of God, is also the first, the supream, the essential Harmony, the Essence of Harmony in its eternal Spirit, the essential Harmony, the essential Righteousness of the Divine Nature.

The Lord Jesus is the Original, the Universal Image, the Image of Images, the Idea of Idea's, the Spring, the Seat, the Truth, the first of all Ideas. He is the Idea of the Godhead, of the whole Crea∣tion, of Man, of every Creature. Thus is he the Root, the Rule, the Harmony, the Righteousness of the whole Creation, of Man, of every Creature.

Having laid these grounds, for the illustrating of the Doctrine of St. Paul, I will now from St. Paul, and upon these grounds, sum up into a close, this part of my Discourse, concerning the nature of the Humane Soul, or Man.

The Essence of the Soul containeth the fulness of all thing in it, in one substantial, indivisible Act. The Soul opens it self into this ful∣ness of things, by a three fold Revolution within it self, within the spacious Palace of its own glorious Essence.

1. From the Bosome or Womb of its own Ideal Glories, which are the Original, the Measure, the Bound of the Souls Essence and Perfection; the Soul descendeth into a shadowy Image. Thus it first appears upon the beautiful Stage of this World in its first Crea∣tion.

God himself in his invisible Glories with eternity, in his eternal Power and Godhead is now in the Soul, is seen by the Soul, but shadowed by this shadowy and vailing Image within which he resides. Thus hath the Soul within her self her Idea in Christ, in God, in Eter∣nity, as her Fountain in Eden, which flowing forth all through the Soul in this shadowy Image, makes it all a sweetly-shadowed Paradise. This is the first Revolution.

2. As in the Harmony of this shadowy Image lies the Contrariety, a part of the Variety in the Harmony. So from the Divine force of this Harmony, acted by the Ideal Harmony lying hid in it, the Soul rouleth it self out of the lowest and remotest degree of the Unity in∣to the Contrariety, as a Note in a Musical Lesson upon the Lute, struck and sounding in its proper time.

Now is the Beauty, the Integrity, the Sweetness of this shadowy Image, in Deformity, in Ruines, in Bitterness and Enmity, Sin and Death swallow up all.

The Soul stands in a Contrariety to the Divine Purity, Love, Light, Immortality. In the place of Purity, is Filth; of Light, Darkness; of Love, Enmity; of Immortality, Death.

God now being the Supream Unity and Harmony, opposeth him∣self, as most directly, most highly, most irreconcilably contrary to this Contrariety, to the breach of the Unity, to the discord in the Harmony, that he may subdue it, and reduce it unto an Unity, for the making up of the Harmony, and so making it more full by the Contrariety, more sweet by the Enmity.

Thus the Divine Love in the shadowy Image, having lost it self in the enmity at the Fall. The Divine Love it self in its eternal Image disguiseth it self in a form of wrath, flaming forth with un∣quenchable burnings, until it have devoured the Enmity, and the shadowy Image it self in the Enmity, unto the discovery of the eter∣nal Love, vailed beneath its shadow, and buried in the Enmity. All thus consumed meet again in the triumphant and pure flame, in which the Divine Love meets with and embraceth it self.

But thus much of the second Revolution.

3. Now the Soul with the whole nature of things in the shadowy Image, the shadowy Harmony, the shadowy Righteousness of its first Creation is lost, by the dissolution of the Unity in discord and Deformity, Sin, Death, and the Divine Wrath.

Now G•…•… in the essential Image, the essential Harmony, the essen∣tial Right•…•…usness, which is Love it self, loveliness it self, Power, Wisdome, the Essence of God, declares himself our Jesus, our Saviour. He declares himself, without the Law or the Prophets, not from any Merit or Power in the Creature, but of meer Grace, from the sweet innate force of the Divine Harmony in himself, by the beauties of which he is powerfully attracted and acted, to the Musick of which he moves in all his actings with highest pleasure.

This essential Image and Harmony, from the beginning lies hid beneath the shadowy Image, at the bottom of it, as the substance to the shadow, which hath no possibility of subsisting in any point or degree of Being without it. St. Paul calls this, The mystery hid in God from the foundation of the World; that is, hid beneath the foun∣dation of the World, which was a Vail cast over the eternal Glo∣ries, while they figured themselves in Divine shadows upon this Vail.

But now our Jesus, the second Person in the Trinity, the essential Image, the essential Harmony, the Righteousness of God, becomes a Creature, springs up from beneath the foundations of the Creation into an Humane Soul and Body in the midst of it ruines.

This Jesus is the Original Image of the Creation, of Man, of eve∣ry Creature, the Root, the Rule, the Actor of all, who virtually, eminently comprehends all in their distinct Ideal Forms within him∣self, as so many eternal Beauties in his own eternal Beauty, who bringeth them forth from himself, beareth them in himself, as Flow∣ers in their Garden-beds, who figureth himself in the riches of his glorious Varieties upon them, to make of the whole one beautiful Figure of his own Beauties, a Daughter, Sister, and Bride to him∣self.

He therefore now, the Seed of Hope, of Promise sown in the Soul, dying together with the Soul in the Fall, now comes up through this death in the form of a man, faln man, the Image of the whole, which contains the whole in it self.

Thus he reduceth the Contrariety to the Unity. He restores the Harmony, he atones and reconciles all, all manner of wayes,

1. He bringeth all the Contrariety into the Harmony, by bearing the Fall, Guilt, Shame, all Deformities, all Deaths, the Divine Wrath, the ruines of the Fall in himself, who is the eternal, universal Harmony and Righteousness. Thus eternal Life dies without Death, giving an eternal Life and Glory to Death in his Person. Thus the Righteousness of God is made Sin for us without Sin. He is altogether lovely; every thing of him is not only lovely, but loveliness it self. Yea more loveliness, a knot, a spring of loveliness. So sings the spi∣ritual Bride of her Beloved in that Song of Loves, The bushes of his Hair black as a Raven, (the Bird of Death) in their order and place springing forth from his head of finest Gold (the purest light of Glory) encompassing it with their deep shade, and setting it off, are Divine Beauties.

2. This Person, the eternal, the universal Image and Harmony of the Godhead, of all Glories, of all things gives hims•…•… in the ex∣tremities of all Sufferings unto Death, to be a Sacrifice to the Holiness, Justice, Wrath and Glory of God. He is a Sacrifice of infinite va∣lue and force, a Sin-Offering, expiating all Sin, with a transcendency of Merit. A Peace-Offering, which charms the most offended spirits, which changeth into a Golden Calm of Divine Love and Joy, the most raging tempests of wrath, raised through the whole nature of things, from the breast of the eternal Spirit.

3. He bears in his own Person the whole Contrariety, the Con∣trariety of evil in the enmity of Sin, to the Divine Good in its Love and Glory: The Contrariety of the Divine Good in its Love and Glory to the evil in the deformity and enmity of Sin. All the fiery darts of both these Contrarieties, in their utmost force and fury, meet in his Bosome, the Bosome of Div•…•…e Beauty and Love, exposed nakedly to them both. Thus he fills up the design of his Father, to make known the power of his Wrath. Thus he draws forth to its largest compass, and heightens to its utmost point, this Scene of wrath, to make the Variety full, and the Harmony absolute.

4. Jesus, the supream Harmony, the everlasting Righteousness, by dying, carries the descent of things to the lowest point. He makes an end of Sin, Sufferings, Death and Wrath for ever, by the dissolution and end of the seat, the subject of all these, the shadowy Image, the Creation of Nature in his own person. The death of Jesus Christ is as the midnight of things. The Sun of the eternal Image and Glory, having by its course, in the shadowy Image, touched the utmost bound of distance from it self, now begins its return to it self again.

5. This Jesus by his Resurrection carries up with him, in his own Person, all things, the whole Creation, the shadowy Image, with its Primitive Purity and Paradise, the shadowy Image, with its fall, ruines, and deaths into the Glory of the eternal Image, unto an Union with it, immediate, naked, entire, eternal, in one Light, in one Spirit. Where there is now no more any vail or shadow. Now all appear Beauties and Glories, divinely-harmonious, being seen in their proper place and order in the Divine, the Eternal, the Univer∣sal Harmony.

6. Lastly, The Lord Jesus now, in an humane Soul and Body, be∣ing risen from the Dead, and ascended up on high, comprehends, reconciles, fills all things, shining through all, assimilating all to him∣self in the spiritual Glory of his own essential, eternal Image in his own Person, the most glorious, unbounded Head of all. Now ac∣cording to the fulness, the fruitfulness, the Divine Order of the Ideas; the Original Images of all things, in the most ample and blissful Harmony in his Person; He comes up, he springs forth in his Spirit; in the Spirit of this Divine Image, this Harmony and Glory, with the fulness of his Person, of this Divine Image, Harmony and Glory in the Soul of Man.

As he springs up, he rends the Vail, behind which he ever resided, he reveals himself to the Soul in the Universal Harmony of his Person; and his whole work, from the beginning to the end. He presents himself to the Soul, as its Idea, its Original Image, its beginning; its way, and itsend; in whose bosome the Soul hath alwayes lien; there meeting with every change, every scene of things springing up within it in that bosome, while the same Jesus hath lien in its bo∣some, as the seed of its Being, and of every Change. This is the Souls Father, Brother, Bridegroom and Perfection.

As Jesus Christ thus appears and unvails himself within the Soul, he at once gathers up the Soul into the most intimate, the most entire Union with it self. He transforms it into the likeness of the same Image with himself, in the full Glory of the Divine, the Universal, the eternal Harmony, in the Unity of the same Spirit, the Spirit of this Harmony and Glory.

The Lord Jesus, as he is the universal, the eternal Image and Har∣mony of the Divine Nature, of all Variety in the Divine Nature, as he is the Idea of Ideas, thus is he the Original Image, the Idea of the Intellectual Soul, or of Man. As then he forms himself in this Soul; he also formeth all things in it, that man comes forth from the bosome of his Idea, replenished with the Ideas of all things. He is now the whole Creation, the universal Nature within him∣self.

This Jesus then, being risen, springs up into Man in the virtue of his Resurrection, and together becomes the Resurrection of all things in man to man. In like manner through man; as the head of all, he riseth again in all the particular Forms of things, as they stand without man in themselves in their own proper Exist∣encies.

In the Lord Jesus, God, through Christ, the universal Image in∣habiteth in the proper Ideas of each Creature, with the fulness of his Divine Glories, in the Unity of the blessed Spirit. According to this Original, Jesus Christ, the Universal Harmony through the humane Nature, his immediate, his full Image, his compleat Birth and Bride, rests entirely and distinctly upon each form of things; as the Divine Race of this heavenly Marriage-Bed in the Resurrection. As all together make up the Universal Harmony in the Soul, in Christ the end of them all: So each one enjoyeth the whole Harmony in it self,

being upon its own proper Form, cloathed with the Universal Form, the Form of the heavenly Man, and of Christ in Glory. So all dwell together in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit, the Spirit of a Saint and of Christ. In the Unity of this Spirit, all mutually are Divine Palaces each to other, clearly, compleatly comprehending, and comprehended by each other, eternally feasting upon the hea∣venly Beauties and Virtues, drinking in the Sweetnesses, the Lives, the Spirits of each other; And of Jesus Christ, of God, the Unity, and the Variety in all.

This is the Kingdom of God, which is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ, the essential Image of God, the Divine and eternal Harmony, is the Righteousness, the mutual Peace and Joy of this Kingdom.

In this Kingdom Jesus Christ cometh with his own Glory, the Glo∣ry of his Father, and of all his holy Angels united in one, in each form of things. The lowest form of things here is an Angel, an An∣gel made new in the Resurrection of Christ, where each Angel being only a distinct part of the Harmony, yet hath the Universal Harmony resting upon that part.

This is that new Jerusalem, where the street, the lowest form of things, is as Gold and Glass. The pure Glory of the eternal Spirit, as the finest Gold, shineth in each Creature, like the Cherubim, or the Angels standing up out of the Mercy-Seat, made of the same piece of massy Gold together with it. The lowest Creature here is an Angel of Glory, the street that sustains us is composed of Angels, Angelical Glories. In every Angel as a particular Glory, all the Angels with their several Varieties of Glory; the Glory of Christ, and all the Saints, which is the full, the Universal Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature, the Original, and its best beloved Image in Union. The Glory of God, as the Father, in its simplicity, in its paternity and transcendency over all; meet all in one. This Unity of the Spirit in each Creature renders it divinely transparent, like the finest glass. In the beauty of every Face, we have the prospect of Eternity. We see in each single Face fresh Beauties, all Beauties, with an endless Variety opening themselves one within another, one beyond another, all equally clear, present, and pleasant in every one.

Thus Jesus Christ becomes, according to St. Paul, the first-born from the dead, and the first-born among his Brethren the Saints. The Saints in the Language of St. James, are the first-fruits of the Creation, which is brought forth in its proper time and order, into the liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God.

Thus is our Jesus the great Jubilee, where all Debts are remitted, all Servants go free, all persons return to their Inheritances, to the free Possession, the full fruition of themselves and them. In the Re∣surrection of the Lord Jesus, from him, as the Root springing up into the Body of the Saints, through them into the rest of the Crea∣tures as Branches of the same Tree. All Sins are pardoned, the whole Creation is set free from its bondage to Vanity and Corruption.

All things return to a free fruition of themselves, of all Beauties and Joys in their native Inheritance, their Original Images, their proper Ideas in Christ; first Christ, then the Saints through them, Heaven and Earth, and the Seas, with all things in them, are made new, by being married anew, by being newly reinvested with the Glories of their Original.

The Reader is again desired to take Notice, That neither the remain∣der of this Fourth Argument, nor any thing upon his Fifth could be found amongst the Authors Papers.

Notes

• The same in the Arg. of Kleg.