CHAP. I.

1 WEE are to recount to you in this Book the Generations and Genealogies of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Joseph, and to continue the [Page 2] History to our own times. But it will not be amisse first to inform you concerning the Cre­ation of the world, and the original and be­ginning of things; How God made Heaven and Earth, and all the garnishings of them, be­fore he made Man.

2 But the Earth at first was but a rude and desolate heap, devoid of herbs, flowers, and trees, and all living creatures, being nothing but a deep miry abysse, covered all over with waters, and there was a very fierce and strong wind that blew upon the waters; and what made it still more horrid and comfortless, there was as yet no light, but all was inveloped with thick darknesse, and bore the face of a pitchy black and wet tempestuous night.

3 But God let not his work lie long in this sad condition, but commanded Light to ap­pear, and the morning brake out upon the face of the abyss, and wheel'd about from East to West, being clearest in the middle of its course about noon, and then abating of its brightnesse towards the West, at last quite dis-appear'd, after such sort as you may often observe the day-light to break forth in the East, and ripen to greater clearnesse, but at last to leave the skie in the West, no Sun appearing all the while.

4. And God saw the Light, (for it is a thing very visible) that it was good, and so separa­ted [Page 3] the darknesse from the light, that they could not both of them be upon the face of the earth together, but had their vicissitudes, and took their turns one after another.

5 And he called the return of the light Day, and the return of darkness he called Night; and the evening and the morning made up the first natural day.

6. Now after God had made this Basis or floor of this greater edifice of the world, the Earth, he sets upon the higher parts of the fabrick. He commands therefore that there should be a hollow expansion, firm and trans­parent, which by its strength should bear up a­gainst the waters which are above, and keep them from falling upon the earth in excess.

7. And so it became a partition betwixt the upper & the lower waters; so that by virtue of this hollow Firmament, man might live safe from the violence of such destructive inundati­ons, as one sheltred in a well-pitch'd tent from storm of rain: For the danger of these waters is apparent to the eye, this ceruleous or blew­coloured Sea, that over-spreads the diaphanous Firmament, being easily discern'd through the body thereof; and there are very frequent and copious showers of rain descend from above, when as there is no water espyed ascending up thither; wherefore it must all come from that upper Sea, if we do but appeal to our out­ward sense.

[Page 4] 8 Now therefore this diaphanous Canopy or firmly stretched Tent over the whole pave­ment of the earth, though I cannot say pro­perly that God saw it was good, it being in­deed of a nature invisible, yet the use of it shows it to be exceeding good and necessary. And God called the whole capacity of this hollow Firmament, Heaven. And the evening and the morning made up the second natural day.

9 And now so sure a Defence being made against the inundation of the upper waters, that they might not fall upon the earth, God betook himself the next day to order the low­er waters, that as yet were spread over the whole face thereof; at his command therefore the waters fled into one place, and the dry land did appear.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he cal­led Sea: and I may now properly say, that God saw that it was good, for the Sea and the Land are things visible enough, and fit objects of our sight.

11 And forthwith before he made either Sun, Moon▪ or Stars, did God command the earth to bring forth grasse, herbs and flowers, in their full beauty, and fruit-trees, yeilding delicious fruit, though there had as yet been no vicissitude of Spring, Summer, or Autumn, [Page 5] nor any approach of the Sun to ripen and con­coct the fruit of those trees. Whence you may easily discern the foolishnesse of the idolatrous Nations, that dote so much on second causes, as that they forget the first, ascribing that to the Sun and Moon, that was caus'd at first by the immediate command of God.

12 For at his command it was, before there was either Sun or Moon in the Firmament, that the earth brought forth grasse, and herb yeilding seed after his kind, and the tree yeil­ding fruit, whose seed was in it self, after his kinde; so that the several sorts of plants might by this means be conserv'd upon the earth. And God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning made up the third natural day.

14 There have three days past without a Sun, as well as three nights without either Moon or Stars, as you your selves may hap­pily have observ'd some number of Moonless and Starlesse nights, as well as of Sunlesse days, to have succeeded one another: and so it might have been always, had not God said, Let there be Lights within the Firmament of heaven, to make a difference betwixt day and night, and to be peculiar garnishings of either. Let them be also for signes of weather▪ for seasons of the year, and also for periods of days, months, and years.

[Page 6] 15 Moreover, let them be as lights hung up within the hollow roof or Firmament of hea­ven, to give light to men walking upon the pavement of the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater one, the most glorious & Princely ob­ject we can see by day, to be as it were the Go­vernor and Monarch of the day; the lesser, the most resplendent and illustrious sight we can cast our eyes on by night, to be Governesse and Queen of the night. And he made, though for their smalnesse they be not so considera­ble, the Stars also.

17 And he placed them all in the Firma­ment of heaven, to give light upon the earth.

18 And to shew their preheminence for ex­ternal lustre, above what ever else appears by either day or night, and to be peculiar garnish­ings or ornaments to make a notable difference betwixt the light and the darknesse, the super­addition of the Sun to adorn the day, and to invigorate the light thereof, the Moon and the Stars to garnish the night, and to mitigate the dulnesse and darknesse thereof. And God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning was the fourth natural day.

20 After this, God commanded the waters to bring forth fish and fowl, which they did in abundance, and the fowl flew above the [Page 7] earth in the open Firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales also as well as other fishes, that move in the waters; and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit­ful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply on the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning made up the fifth natural day.

24 Then God commanded the earth to bring forth all creeping things, and four foot­ed beasts, as before he commanded the waters to send forth fish and fowl; and it was so.

25 And when God had made the beast of the earth after his kinde, and cattel, and eve­ry creeping thing after his kinde, he saw that it was good.

26 And coming at last to his highest Ma­ster-piece, Man, he encouraged himself, saying, Go to, let us now make man, and I will make him after the same image and shape that I bear my self; and he shall have dominion over the fish of the Sea, and over the fowls of the Air, and over the cattel, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own shape and figure, with an upright stature, with legs, hands, arms, with a face and mouth, to speak, and command, as God himself hath: I say, in [Page 8] the image of God did he thus create him. But mistake me not, whereas you conceive of God as masculine, and more perfect, yet you must not understand me, as if God made mankinde so exactly after his own image, that he made none but males; for I tell you, he made fe­males as well as males, as you shall hear more particularly hereafter.

28 And having made them thus male and female, he bad them make use of the distin­ction of sexes that he had given them; and blessing them, God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth with your off­spring, and be lords thereof, and have domi­nion also over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, as well as over beasts and cattel, and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I give you eve­ry frugiferous herb which is upon the face of the earth, such as the Straw-berry, the several sorts of Corn, as Rye, Wheat, and Rice, as also the delicious fruits of Trees, to you they shall be for meat.

30 But for the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air, and for every living thing that creepeth upon the earth, the worser kind of herbs, and ordinary grasse, I have assign'd for them: and so it came to passe that mankinde are made lords and possessors of the choicest [Page 9] fruits of the earth, and the beasts of the field are to be contented with baser herbage, and the common grasse.

31 And God viewed all the works that he had made, and behold, they were exceeding good; and the evening and the morning was the sixt natural day.

CHAP. II.

1 THus the Heavens and the Earth were fi­nisht, and all the creatures, wherewith they were garnisht and replenisht.

2 And God having within six days perfect­ed all his work, on the seventh day he rested himself.

[Page 10] 3 And so made the seventh day an holy day, a festival of rest, because himself then first rested from his works. Whence you plainly see the reason and original of your Sab­baths.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, which I have so compendi­ously recounted to you, as they were created in the days that the Lord made heaven and earth, and the several garnishings of them.

5 But there are some things that I would a little more fully touch upon, and give you no­tice of, to the praise of God, and the manife­sting of his power unto you. As that the herbs and plants of the field did not come up of their own accords out of the earth, before God made them, but that God created them before there were any seeds of any such thing in the earth, and before there was any rain, or men to use gardning or husbandry, for the procuring their growth: So that hereafter you may have the more firm faith in God, for the blessings and fruits of the earth, when the ordinary course of nature shall threaten dearth and scarcity for want of rain and seasonable showers.

6 For there had been no showers when God caused the plants, and herbs of the field to spring up out of the earth; onely as I told you at the first of all, there was a mighty torrent of [Page 11] water, that rose every where above the earth, and cover'd the universal face of the ground, which yet, God afterward by his almighty power, commanded so into certain bounds, that the residue of the earth was meer dry land.

7 And that you farther may understand how the power of God is exalted above the course of natural causes, God taking of the the dust of his dry ground, wrought it with his hands into such a temper, that it was matter fit to make the body of a Man: which when he first had fram'd, was as yet but like a senslesse statue, till coming near unto it with his mouth, he breath'd into the nostrils thereof the breath of life; as you may observe to this day, that men breath through their nostrils, though their mouths be clos'd. And thus man became a living creature, and his name was called Adam, because he was made of the earth.

8 But I should have told you first more at large, how the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward of Judea in the Countrey of Eden, about Mesopotamia, where afterwards he put the man Adam, whom he after this wise had form'd.

9 And the description of this Garden is this: Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every Tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. But amongst these [Page 12] several sorts of Trees, there were two of sin­gular notice, that stood planted in the midst of the Garden; the one of which had fruit of that wonderful virtue, as to continue youth and strength, and to make a man immortal upon earth, wherefore it was call'd the Tree of Life. There was also another Tree planted there, of whose fruit if a man ate, it had this strange effect, that it would make a man know the difference betwixt good and evil; for the Lord God had so ordain'd, that if Adam tou­ched the forbidden fruit thereof, he should by his disobedience feel the sense of evil as well as good; wherefore by way of Anticipa­tion it was called the Tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And there was a River went out of E­den to water the Garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first was Phasis, or Phasi-Tigris, which compasses the whole Land of the Chaulateans, where there is Gold.

12 And the Gold of that Land is excellent; there is also found Bdellium and the Onyx­stone.

13 And the name of the second River is Gi­hon, the same is it that compasseth the whole Land of the Arabian-Aethiopia.

14 And the name of the third River is Ti­gris, that is that which goeth towards the East [Page 13] of Assyria, and the fourth River is Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man Adam by the hand, and led him into the Garden of Eden, and laid commands upon him to dresse it, and look to it, and to keep things handsome and in order in it, and that it should not be any wise spoil'd or misus'd by incursions or careless ramblings of the heedlesse beasts.

16 And the Lord God recommended unto Adam all the Trees of the Garden for very wholesome and delightful food, bidding him freely eat thereof.

17 Only he excepted the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which he strictly charg'd him to forbear, for if he ever tasted thereof, he should assuredly die.

18 But to the high commendation of Matri­mony be it spoken, though God had placed Adam in so delightful a Paradise, yet his hap­pinesse was but maimed and imperfect, till he had the society of a woman: For the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him.

19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had form'd every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and these brought he unto A­dam, to see what he would call them, and what­soever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattel, and [Page 14] to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field, but he could not so kindly take ac­quaintance with any of these, or so fully enjoy their society, but there was still some considerable matter wanting to make up A­dams full felicity, and there was a meet help to be found out for him.

21 Wherefore the Lord God caus'd a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; & lo, as he slept upon the ground, he fell into a dream, how God had put his hand into his side, and pulled out one of his ribs, closing up the flesh in stead thereof:

22 And how the rib, which the Lord God had taken from him, was made into a woman, and how God when he had thus made her, took her by the hand, and brought her unto him. And he had no sooner awakened, but he found his dream to be true, for God stood by him with the woman in his hand which he had brought.

23 Wherefore Adam being pre-advertised by the vision, was presently able to pronounce, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: What are the rest of the creatures to this? And he bestowed upon her also a fitting name, calling her Woman, because she was ta­ken out of Man.

24 And the Lord God said, Thou hast spo­ken well, Adam: And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall [Page 15] cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh: so strict and sacred a tie is the band of wedlock.

25 And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed; but how the shame of being seen naked came into the world, I shall declare unto you hereafter.

CHAP. III.

1 AND truly it cannot but be very obvi­ous for you to consider often with your selves, not onely how this shame of nakedness [Page 16] came into the world, but the toil and drudgery of Tillage and Husbandry; the grievous pangs of Childe-bearing; and lastly, what is most terrible of all, Death it self: Of all which, as of some other things also, I shall give you such plain and intelligible reasons, that your own hearts could not wish more plain and more intelligible. To what an happy condition Adam was created, you have already heard; How he was placed by God in a Gar­den of delight, where all his senses were grati­fied with the most pleasing objects imaginable; his eyes with the beautie of trees and flowers, and various delightsome forms of living crea­tures, his ears with the sweet musical accents of the canorous birds, his smell with the fra­grant odours of Aromatick herbs, his taste with variety of delicious fruit, and his touch with the soft breathings of the air in the flowry alleys of this ever-springing Paradise. Adde un­to all this, that pleasure of pleasures, the dele­ctable conversation of his beautiful Bride, the enjoyments of whose love neither created care to himself, nor pangs of childe-bearing to her: for all the functions of life were perfor­med with ease and delight; and there had been no need for man to sweat for the provision of his family, for in this Garden of Eden there was a perpetual Spring, and the vigour of the soil prevented mans industry; and youth and [Page 17] jollity had never left the bodies of Adam and his posterity, because old age and death were perpetually to be kept off by that soveraign virtue of the Tree of Life. And I know, as you heartily could wish, this state might have ever continued to Adam and his seed, so you eagerly expect to hear the reason why he was depriv'd of it; and in short it is this, His diso­bedience to a commandement which God had given him; the circumstances whereof I shall declare unto you, as followeth.

Amongst those several living creatures which were in Paradise, there was the Serpent also, whom you know to this very day to be full of subtilty, & therefore you will lesse won­der, if when he was in his perfection, he had not onely the use of Reason, but the power of Speech. It was therefore this Serpent that was the first occasion of all this mischief to Adam and his posterity; for he cunningly came unto the woman, and said unto her, Is it so indeed, that God has commanded you that you shall not eat of any of the trees of the Garden?

2 And the woman answered unto the Ser­pent, You are mistaken, God hath not forbid us to eat of all the fruit of the trees of the Gar­den.

3 But indeed of the fruit of the Tree in the midst of the Garden, God hath strictly char­ged us, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

[Page 18] 4 But the Serpent said unto the woman, Tush, I warrant you, this is only but to terri­fie you, and abridge you of that liberty and happinesse you are capable of, you shall not so certainly die.

5 But God knows the virtue of that tree full well, that so soon as you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall become as Gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked, and were asha­med, and therefore they sewed fig-leaves toge­ther, and made themselves aprons to cover their parts of shame.

8 And the Lord God came into the Garden toward the cool of the evening, and walking in the Garden, call'd for Adam; But Adam had no sooner heard his voice, but he and his wife ran away into the thickest of the trees of the Garden, to hide themselves from his pre­sence.

9 But the Lord God called unto Adam the second time, and said unto him, Adam where art thou?

[Page 19] 10 Then Adam was forc't to make answer, and said, I heard thy voice in the Garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and so I hid my self.

11 Then God said unto him, Who hath made thee so wise, that thou shouldst know that thou art naked, or wantest any covering? Hast thou eaten of the forbidden fruit?

12 And Adam excus'd himself, saying, The woman whom thou recommendedst to me for a meet help, she gave me of the fruit, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said unto the wo­man, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman excus'd her self, saying, The Ser­pent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 Then the Lord God gave sentence upon all three; and to the Serpent he said, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattel, and above every beast of the field; and whereas hitherto thou hast been able to bear thy body aloft, and go upright, thou shalt hence­forth creep upon thy belly, like a worm, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

15 And there shall be a perpetual antipathy betwixt not only the woman and thee, but be­twixt her seed and thy seed: For universal mankind shall abhorre thee, and hate all the cursed generations that come of thee. They indeed shall busily lie in wait to sting mens [Page 20] feet, which their skill in herbs however shall be able to cure; but they shall knock all Ser­pents on the head, and kill them without pi­ty or remorse, deservedly using thy seed as their deadly enemy.

16 And the doom of the woman was, Her sorrow and pangs in childe-bearing, and her subjection to her husband. Which law of subjection is generally observed in the Nati­ons of the world unto this very day.

17 And the doom of Adam was, The toil of Husbandry upon barren ground.

18 For the earth was cursed for his sake, which is the reason that it brings forth thorns, and thistles, and other weeds, that Husband­men could wish would not cumber the ground, upon which they bestow their toilsome labor.

19 Thus in the sweat of his face was Adam to eat his bread, till he return to the dust out of which he was taken.

20 And Adam called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all men that ever were born into the world, and lived upon the face of the earth.

21 And the generations of men were clo­thed at first with the skins of wilde beasts, the use of which God taught Adam and Eve in Paradise.

22 And when they were thus accoutred for their journey, and armed for greater hardship, [Page 21] God turns them both out: and the Lord God said concerning Adam, deriding him for his disobedience, Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil: Let us look to him now, lest he put his hand to the Tree of Life, and so make himself immortal.

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out Adam, and his wife was forced to follow him: For there was no lon­ger staying in Paradise, because the place was terribly haunted with spirits, and fearful appa­ritions appeared at the entrance thereof, wing­ed men with fiery flaming swords in their hands, brandished every way, so that Adam durst never adventure to go back to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Life: whence it is that mankinde hath continued mortal to this very day.

CHAP. I.

1 OUR designe being to set out the more conspicuous parts of the ex­ternal Creation, before we descend to the Genealogies and Successions of man­kinde; [Page 23] there are two notable objects pre­sent themselves to our understanding, which we must first take notice of, as having an uni­versal influence upon all that follows: and these I do Symbolically decypher, the one by the name of Heaven and Light; for I mean the same thing by both these tearms; the other by the name of Earth. By Heaven or Light, you are to understand The whole comprehension of intellectual Spirits, souls of men and beasts, and the seminal forms of all things which you may call, if you please, The world of Life. By Earth, you are to understand the Potentiality, or Capability of the Existence of the outward Creation: This Possibility being exhibited to our mindes as the result of the Omnipotence of God, without whom nothing would be, and is indeed the utmost shadow and darkest projection thereof.

The Tri-une God therefore by his eternall Wisdome first created this Symbolical Heaven and Earth.

2 And this Earth was nothing but Solitude and Emptinesse, and it was a deep bottomless capacity of being what ever God thought good to make out of it, that implyed no con­tradiction to be made. And there being a possibility of creating things after sundry and manifold manners, nothing was yet determi­ned, but this vast Capability of things was [Page 24] unsettled, fluid, and of it self undetermina­ble as water: But the Spirit of God, who was the Vehicle of the Eternal Wisdome, and of the Super-essential Goodnesse, by a swift fore­cast of Counsel and Discourse of Reason truly divine, such as at once strikes through all things, and discerns what is best to be done, having hover'd a while over all the capacities of this fluid Possibilitie, forthwith settled upon what was the most perfect and exact.

3 Wherefore the intire Deity by an in­ward Word, which is nothing but Wisdome and Power, edg'd with actual Will, with more ease then we can present any Notion or I­dea to our own mindes, exhibited really to their own view the whole Creation of spi­ritual Substances, such as Angels are in their inward natures, the Souls of men, and o­ther Animals, and the Seminal Forms of all things, so that all those, as many as ever were to be of them, did really and actual­ly exist without any dependency on corpore­all matter.

4 And God approved of, and pleased himself in all this as good; but yet though in designe there was a settlement of the fluid darknesse or obscure Possibility of the outward Creation, yet it remained as yet but a dark Possibility: And a notorious distinction in­deed there was betwixt this Actual spiritual [Page 25] Creation, and the dimme possibility of the mate­rial or outward world.

5. Insomuch that the one might very well be called Day, and the other Night: because the night does deface and obliterate all the di­stinct figures and colours of things; but the day exhibits them all orderly and clearly to our sight. Thus therefore was the immateri­all Creature perfectly finisht, being an inex­haustible Treasury of Light and Form, for the garnishing and consummating the material world, to afford a Morning or Active principle to every Passive one, in the future parts of the corporeal Creation. But in this first days work, as we will call it, the Morning and Eve­ning are purely Metaphysical; for the active and passive principles here are not two distinct substances, the one material, the other spiri­tual. But the passive principle is matter meer­ly Metaphysical, and indeed no real or actual entity; and, as hath been already said, is quite divided from the light or spiritual sub­stance, not belonging to it, but to the out­ward world, whose shadowy possibility it is. But be they how they will, this passive and active principle are the First days work: A Monad or Unite being so fit a Symbole of the immaterial nature.

[Page 26] 6 And God thought again, and invigorating his thought with his Will and Power, created an immense deal of reall and corporeall mat­ter, a substance which you must conceive to lie betwixt the foresaid fluid Possibility of Na­tural things, and the Region of Seminall Forms; not that these things are distinguisht Locally, but according to a more intellectual Or­der.

7 And the thought of God arm'd with his Omnipotent will took effect, and this immense­ly diffused matter was made. But he was not very forward to say it was good, or to please himself much in it, because he foresaw what mischief straying souls, if they were not very cautious, might bring to themselves, by sinking themselves too deep therein. Besides it was little worth, till greater polishings were be­stowed upon it, and his Wisdome had contri­ved it to fitting uses, being nothing as yet, but a boundlesse Ocean of rude invisible Mat­ter.

8 Wherefore this Matter was actuated and agitated forthwith by some Universal Spirit, yet part of the World of Life, whence it became very subtile and Ethereal; so that this Matter was rightly called Heaven, and the Union of the Passive and Active Principle in the Creati­on of this Material Heaven, is the second days work, and the Binarie denotes the nature thereof.

[Page 27] 9 I shall also declare unto you, how God orders a reall materiall Earth, when once it is made, to make it pleasant and delightful for both man and beast. But for the very making of the Earth, it is to be referred to the follow­ing day. For the Stars and Planets belong to that number; and as a primary Planet in re­spect of its reflexion of light is rightly called a Planet, so in respect of its habitablenesse, it is as rightly tearmed an Earth. These Earths therefore God orders in such sort, that they nei­ther want water to lie upon them, nor be cove­red over with water, though they be invironed round with the fluid air.

10 But he makes it partly dry Land, and partly Sea, Rivers, and Springs, whose conve­nience is obvious for every one to conceive.

11 He adorns the ground also with grasse, herbs, and flowers, and hath made a wise pro­vision of seed, that they bring forth, for the perpetuation of such useful commodities upon the face of the earth.

12 For indeed these things are very good and necessary both for man and beast.

13 Therefore God prepared the matter of the Earth so, as that there was a vital congruity of the parts thereof, with sundry sorts of semi­nall forms of trees, herbs, and choicest kinds of flowers; and so the Body of the Earth drew in sundry principles of Plantall Life, from the [Page 28] World of Life, that is at hand every where; and the Passive and Active Principle thus put toge­ther, made up the Third Days work, and the Ternary denotes the nature thereof.

14 The Ternary had allotted to it, the gar­nishing of an Earth with trees, flowers, and herbs, after the distinction of Land and Sea: as the Quinary hath allotted to it, the repleni­shing of an Earth with fish and fowl; the Se­nary with man and beast. But this Fourth Day comprehends the garnishing of the body of the whole world, viz. That vast and immense Ethereal matter, which is called the fluid Hea­ven, with infinite numbers of sundry sorts of lights, which Gods Wisdome and Power, by union of fit and active principles drawn from the world of life, made of this Ethereal mat­ter, whose usefulnesse is plain in nature, that they are for Prognostick signes, and seasons, and days, and years.

15 As also for administring of light to all the inhabitants of the world; That the Planets may receive light from their fountains of light, and reflect light one to another.

16 And there are two sorts of these Lights that all the inhabitants of the world must ac­knowledge great every where, consulting with the outward sight, from their proper sta­tions. And the dominion of the greater of these kinde of lights is conspicuous by day; the [Page 29] dominion of the lesser by night: the former we ordinarily call a Sun, the other a Moon; which Moon is truly a Planet and opake, but reflecting light very plentifully to the beholders sight, and yet is but a secondary or lesser kind of Pla­net; but he made the Primary and more emi­nent Planets also, and such an one is this Earth we live upon.

17 And God placed all these sorts of lights in the thin and liquid Heaven, that they might reflect their rayes one upon another, and shine upon the inhabitants of the world.

18 And that their beauty and resplendency might be conspicuous to the beholders of them, whether by day or by night, which is mainly to be understood of the Suns, that sup­ply also the place of Stars at a far distance, but whose chiefe office it is to make vicissitudes of day and night: And the Universal dark Aether being thus adorn'd with the goodly and glori­ous furniture of those several kindes of lights, God approved of it as good.

19 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fourth days work, and the number denotes the nature thereof.

20 And now you have heard of a verdant Earth, and a bounded Sea, and Lights to shine through the air and water, and to gratifie the eyes of all living creatures, whereby they may see one another, and be able to seek their [Page 30] food, you may seasonably expect the mention of sundry animals proper to their elements. Wherefore God by his inward Word and Power, prepared the matter in the waters, and near the waters with several vital congruities, so that it drew in sundry souls from the world of Life, which actuating the parts of the mat­ter, caus'd great plenty of fish to swim in the waters, and fowls to flye above the earth in the open air.

21 And after this manner he created great Whales also, as well as the lesser kindes of fish­es, and he approved of them all as good.

22 And the blessing of his inward Word or Wisdome was upon them for their multiplicati­on; for according to the preparation of the matter, the Plastical Power of the souls that de­scend from the world of Life, did faithfully and effectually work those wise contrivances of male and female, they being once rightly united with the matter, so that by this means the fish filled the waters in the seas, and the fowls multiplyed upon the earth.

23 And the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Fift days work, and the Qui­nary denotes the nature thereof.

24 And God persisted farther in the Crea­tion of living creatures, and by espousing new souls from the world of Life to the more Medi­terraneous parts of the matter, created land-serpents, [Page 31] cattel, and the beasts of the field.

25 And when he had thus made them, he approved of them for good.

26 Then God reflecting upon his own Na­ture, and viewing himself, consulting with the Super-essential Goodnesse, the Eternal Intellect, and unextinguishable Love-flame of his Omnipo­tent Spirit, concluded to make a far higher kinde of living creature, then was as yet brought into the world; He made therefore Man in his own Image, after his own Like­nesse. For after he had prepared the matter fit for so noble a guest as an humane Soul, the world of Life was forced to let go what the rightly prepared matter so justly called for. And Man appeared upon the stage of the earth, Lord of all living creatures. For it was just that he that bears the Image of the invisible God, should be Supreme Monarch of this vi­sible world. And what can be more like God then the soul of man, that is so free, so ratio­nal, and so intellectual as it is? And he is not the lesse like him now he is united to the terre­strial body, his soul or spirit possessing and striking through a compendious collection of all kinde of corporeal matter, and managing it, with his understanding free to think of other things, even as God vivificates and actuates the whole world, being yet wholly free to con­template himself. Wherefore God gave Man [Page 32] dominion over the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the earth: for it is reasonable the worser should be in subserviency to the better.

27 Thus God created Man in his own I­mage, he consisting of an intellectual Soul, & a terrestrial Body actuated thereby. Where­fore mankinde became male and female, as o­ther terrestrial animals are.

28 And the benediction of the Divine Wis­dome for the propagation of their kinde, was manifest in the contrivance of the parts that were framed for that purpose: And as they grew in multitudes, they lorded it over the earth, and over-mastered by their power and policy the beasts of the field; and fed them­selves with fish and fowl, and what else pleased them, and made for their content, for all was given to them by right of their Creation.

29 And that nothing might be wanting to their delight, behold also divine Providence hath prepared for their palate all precious and pleasant herbs for sallads, and made them ban­quets of the most delicate fruit of the fruit­bearing trees.

30 But for the courser grasse, and worser kinde of herbs, they are intended for the wor­ser and baser kinde of creatures: Wherefore it is free for man to seek out his own, and make use of it.

[Page 33] 31 And God considering every thing that he had made, approved of it as very good; and the union of the Passive and Active principle was the Sixt days work: and the Senary de­notes the nature thereof.

CHAP. II.

1 THUS the Heavens and the Earth were finisht, and all the garnishings of them, such as are Trees, Flowers, and Herbs; Suns, [Page 34] Moons, and Stars; Fishes, Fowls, and Beasts of the field, and the chiefest of all, Man him­self.

2 Wherfore God having thus compleated his work in the Senary, comprehending the whole Creation in six orders of things, he ceased from ever creating any thing more, either in this outward Material world, or in the world of Life: But his Creative Power retiring into himself, he enjoyed his own eternal Rest, which is his immutable and indefatigable Nature, that with ease oversees all the whole Compasse of Beings, and continues Essence, Life, and Acti­vity to them; and the better rectifies the worse, and all are guided by his Eternal Word and Spirit; but no new Substance hath been ever created since the six days production of things, nor shall ever be hereafter.

3 For this Seventh day God hath made an Eternal Holy day, or Festival of Rest to him­self, wherein he will only please himself, to behold the exquisite Order, and Motion, and right Nature of things, his Wisdome, Justice, and Mercy unavoidably insinuating themselves, according to the set frame of the world, into all the parts of the Creation, he having Mini­sters of his Goodnesse and Wrath prepared every where: So that himself need but to look on, and see the effects of that Nemesis that is neces­sarily interwoven in the nature of the things [Page 35] themselves which he hath made. This there­fore is that Sabbath or Festival of Rest which God himself is said to celebrate in the Seventh day, and indeed the number declares the nature thereof.

4 And now to open my minde more fully and plainly unto you, I must tell you that those things which before I tearm'd the Gar­nishings of the Heaven and of the Earth, they are not only so, but the Generations of them: I say, Plants and Animals were the generati­ons, effects, and productions of the Earth, the Seminal Forms and Souls of Animals insinua­ting themselves into the prepared matter thereof, and Suns, Planets, or Earths were the generations or productions of the Heavens, vi­gour and motion being imparted from the world of Life to the immense body of the Uni­verse, so that what I before called meer Gar­nishings, are indeed the productions or gene­rations of the Heavens and of the Earth so soon as they were made; Though I do not take upon me to define the time wherein God made the Heavens and the Earth: For he might do it at once by his absolute Omnipo­tency, or he might, when he had created all Substance as well material as immaterial, let them act one upon the other, so, and in such periods of time, as the nature of the producti­on of the things themselves requir'd.

[Page 36] 5 But it was for pious purposes that I cast the Creation into that order of Six dayes, and for the more firmly rooting in the hearts of the people this grand and useful Truth, That the Omnipotency of God is such, that he can act above and contrary to natural causes, that I mention'd herbs and plants of the field, before I take notice of either rain or man to exercise Gardning and Husbandry: For in­deed according to my former narration there had been no such kinde of rain, as ordinarily nowadays waters the labours of the Husband­man.

6 But yet there went up a moist vapour from the earth, which being matur'd and con­cocted by the Spirit of the world, which is very active in the heavens or air, became a precious balmy liquour, and fit vehicle of Life, which descending down in some sort like dewy showers upon the face of the earth, moistned the ground, so that the warmth of the Sun gently playing upon the surface thereof, pre­pared matter variously for sundry sorts, not only of Seminal forms of Plants, but Souls of Animals also.

7 And Man himself rose out of the earth af­ter this manner; the dust thereof being right­ly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers and balmy droppings of Heaven. For God had so contriv'd by his infinite Wisdome, [Page 37] that matter thus or thus prepar'd, should by a vital congruity attract proportional forms from the world of Life, which is every where nigh at hand, and does very throngly inequitate the moist and unctuous air. Wherefore after this manner was the Aereal or Ethereal Adam con­veyed into an earthly body, having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain: And thus Adam became the Soul of a Terre­strial living Creature.

8 But how it is with Adam before he de­scends into this lower condition of life, I shall declare unto you in the Aenigmatical narration that follows, which is this; That the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden, where he had put the Man, w ^ch afterward he formed into a Terrestrial Animal: For Adam was first whol­ly Ethereal, and placed in Paradise, that is, in an happy and joyful condition of the Spirit; for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine Intellect, and the Sun of Righteous­nesse then shone fairly upon him.

9 And his Soul was as the ground which God hath blest, & so brought forth every plea­sant Tree, and every goodly Plant of her hea­venly Fathers own planting; for the holy Spi­rit of Life had inriched the soil, that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits: And the Tree of Life was in the midst of this Garden of mans soul, to wit, the Essential [Page 38] Will of God, which is the true root of Regene­ration; but to so high a pitch Adam as yet had not reacht unto, and the fruit of this Tree in this Ethereal state of the Soul, had been Im­mortality or Life everlasting: And the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was there also, viz. His own Will.

10 And there was a very pleasant River that water'd this Garden, distinguishable into four streams, which are the four Cardinal Vir­tues, which are in several degrees in the Soul, according to the several degrees of the purity of her Vehicle.

11 And the name of the first is Pison, which is Prudence and Experience in things that are comely to be done: For the soul of man is never idle, neither in this world, nor in any state else, but hath some Province to make good, and is to promote his interest whose she is: For what greater gratification can there be of a good soul, then to be a dispenser of some portion of that Universal good, that God lets out upon the world? And there can be no external conversation nor society of per­sons, be they Terrestrial, Aereab, or Ethereal, but forthwith it implies an Use of Prudence: Wherefore Prudence is an inseparable Accom­plishment of the soul: So that Pison is rightly deemed one of the Rivers even of that Cele­stial Paradise. And this is that wisdome which [Page 39] God himself doth shew to the soul by commu­nication of the divine Light; for it is said to compasse the Land of Havilah.

12. Where also idle and uselesse speculati­ons are not regarded, as is plainly declared by the pure and approved Gold, Bdellium, and O­nyx, the commodities thereof.

13 And the name of the second River is Gihon, which is Justice, as is intimated from the fame of the Aethiopians, whose Land it is said to compasse, as also from the notation of the name thereof.

14 And the name of the third River is Hid­dekel, which is Fortitude, that like a rapid stream bears all down before it, and stoutly resists all the powers of darknesse, running forcibly a­gainst Assyria, which is situated Westward of it. And the fourth River is Perath, which is Temperance, the nourisher and cherisher of all the plants of Paradise; whereas Intemperance, or too much addicting the minde to the plea­sure of the Vehicle, or Life of the matter, be it in what state soever, drowns and choaks those sacret Vegetables. As the earth you know, was not at all fruitfull till the waters were re­moved into one place, and the dry land ap­peared, when as before it was drowned and slocken with overmuch moisture.

15 In this Paradise thus described, had the Lord God placed Man to dresse it, and to [Page 40] keep it in such good order as he found it.

16 And the divine Word or Light in man charged him, saying, Of every tree of Para­dise thou mayest freely eat. For all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant, if thou hast a right care of thy self, and beest obedient to my commands.

17 But of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, that is, of thine own will, thou shalt not by any means eat: For at what time thou eatest there­of, thy soul shall contract that languor, debili­ty, and unsettlednesse, that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth, and be buried in humane flesh, and become an inhabitant of the Region of mortality and death.

18 Hitherto I have not taken much notice in the Ethereal Adam of any other Faculties, but such as carried him upwards towards virtue and the holy Intellect; And indeed this is the more perfect and masculine Adam, which con­sists in pure subtile intellectual Knowledge: But we will now inform you of another Fa­culty of the soul of man, which though it seem inferiour, yet is far from being contem­ptible, it being both good for himself, and con­venient for the terrestrial world; For this makes him in a capacity of being the head of all the living creatures in the earth, as that Fa­culty indeed is the mother of all mankinde.

[Page 41] 19 Those higher and more Intellectual ac­complishments I must confesse, made Adam very wise, and of a quick perception. For he knew very well the natures of the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air: I mean not only of the visible and terrestrial creatures, but also of the fallen and unfallen Angels, or good and bad Genii, and was able to judge aright of them, according to the principles they consi­sted of, and the properties they had.

20 And his Reason and Understanding was not mistaken, but he pronounced aright in all. But however, he could take no such pleasure in the external Creation of God, and his vari­ous works, without having some Principle of life, congruously joyning with, and joyfully actuating the like matter themselves consisted of: Wherefore God indued the soul of man with a faculty of being united with vital joy and complacency to the matter, as well as of aspiring to an union with God himself, whose divine Essence is too highly disproportioned to our poor substances. But the divine Life is communicable in some sort to both soul and body, whether it be Ethereal, or of grosser con­sistence: and those wonderful grateful plea­sures that we feel, are nothing but the kindely motions of the souls Vehicle; from whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of refle­xion strengthned and advanced. Of so great [Page 42] consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul to the matter of the Universe.

21 Wherefore God to gratifie Adam, made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards Intellectual things, but Lassitude of Contem­plation, & of Affectation of Immateriality, (he being not able to receive those things as they are, but according to his poor capacity, which is very small in respect of the object it is exer­cis'd about) brought upon himself remisnesse and drowsinesse to such like exercises, till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep; At what time divine Providence having laid the plot aforehand, that lower vivificative princi­ple of his soul did grow so strong, and did so vigorously and with such exultant sympathy and joy actuate his Vehicle, that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retain'd, this became more dear to him, and of greater contentment, then any thing he yet had experience of.

22 I say, when divine Providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his Vehicle in him,

23 He straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto, was more lifelesse and evanid, and see­med lesse congruous and grateful unto him, and more estranged from his nature: but this was so agreeable & consentaneous to his soul, that he looked upon it as a necessary part of [Page 43] himself, and called it after his own name.

24 And he thought thus within himself, For this cause will any one leave his over-tedious aspires to unite with the Eternal Intellect, and Universal Soul of the world, the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too highly rais'd for us to continue long in their embracements, and will cleave to the joyous and chearful life of his Vehicle, and account this living Vehicle and his Soul one Person.

25 Thus Adam with his new-wedded Joy stood naked before God, but was not as yet at all ashamed, by reason of his Innocency and Simplicity; for Adam neither in his reason nor affection as yet had transgressed in any thing.

CHAP. III.

1 NOw the life of the Vehicle being so high­ly invigorated in Adam, by the remissi­on of exercise in his more subtile and immate­rial faculties, he was fit with all alacrity and chearfulnesse to pursue any game set before him; and wanted nothing but fair external opportunity to call him out into action. [Page 45] Which one of the evil Genii or faln Angels observing, which had no small skill in doing mischief, having in all likelihood practised the same villany upon some of his own Orders, and was the very Ring leader of rebellion against God, and the divine Light; For he was more perversely subtile then all the rest of the evil Genii or beasts of the field, w ^ch God had mad [...] Angels; but their beastiality they contract [...] by their own rebellion. For every thing [...] hath sense and understanding, and wants the divine Life in it, in the judgement of all wise and good men is truly a Beast. This old Ser­pent therefore the subtilest of all the beasts of the field, cunningly assaulted Adam with such conference as would surely please his Feminine part, which was now so invigorated with life, that the best news to her would be the tidings of a Commission to do any thing: Where­fore the Serpent said to the feminized Adam, Why are you so demure, and what makes you so bound up in spirit? Is it so indeed that God has confined you, taken away your Li­berty, and forbidden you all things that you may take pleasure in?

2 And Adam answered him, saying, No; we are not forbidden any thing that the divine Life in us approves as good and pleasant.

3 We are only forbidden to feed on our own Will, and to seek pleasures apart and with­out [Page 46] out the approbation of the will of God. For if our own will get head in us, we shall assured­ly descend into the Region of Mortality, and be cast into a state of Death.

4 But the Serpent said unto Adam, Tush, this is but a Panick fear in you, Adam, you shall not so surely die as you conceit.

5 The only matter is this; God indeed [...]ves to keep his creatures in awe, and to hold them in from ranging too farre, and reaching too high; but he knows very well, that if you take but your liberty with us, and satiate your selves freely with your own will, your eyes will be wonderfully opened, and you will meet with a world of variety of experiments in things, so that you will grow abundantly wise, and like Gods know all things whatsoever, whether good or evil.

6 Now the Feminine part in Adam was so tickled with this Doctrine of the old Deceiver, that the Concupiscible began to be so immode­rate, as to resolve to do any thing that may promote pleasure and experience in things, & snatcht away with it Adams Will and Rea­son by his heedlesnesse and inadvertency. So that Adam was wholly set upon doing things at randome; according as the various toyings and titillations of the lascivient Life of the Ve­hicle suggested to him, no longer consulting with the voice of God, or taking any farther [Page 47] aim by the Inlet of the divine Light.

7 And when he had tired himself with a rabble of toyes, and unfruitful or unsatisfacto­ry devices, rising from the multifarious wor­kings of the Particles of his Vehicle, at last the eyes of his faculties were opened, and they perceived how naked they were; he having as yet neither the covering of the Heavenly Na­ture, nor the Terrestrial Body. Only they sewed fig-leaves together, and made some pretences of excuse, from the vigour of the Plantal Life that now in a thinner maner might manifest it self in Adam, and predispose him for a more perfect exercise of his Plastick Pow­er, when the prepared matter of the Earth shall drink him in.

8 In the mean time the voice of God, or the divine Wisdome spake to them in the cool of the day, when the hurry of this mad Car­reer had well slaked. But Adam now with his wife was grown so out of order, and so much estranged from the Life of God, that they hid themselves at the sensible approach thereof, as wilde beasts run away into the Wood at the sight of a man.

9 But the divine Light in the Conscience of Adam pursued him, and upbraided unto him the case he was in.

10 And Adam acknowledged within himself how naked he was, having no power, nor or­naments, [Page 48] nor abilities of his own, and yet that he had left his obedience and dependence upon God: Wherefore he was ashamed, and hid him­self at the approach of the divine Light mani­festing it self unto him to the reprehension and rebuke of him.

11 And the divine Light charg'd all this misery and confusion that had thus overtaken him, upon the eating of the forbidden fruit, the luscious Dictates of his own Will.

12 But Adam again excus'd himself within himself, that it was the vigour and impetuosity of that Life in the Vehicle which God himself implanted in it, whereby he miscarried: The woman that God had given him.

13 And the divine Light spake in Adam concerning the woman; What work hath she made here? But the woman in Adam excu­sed her self; for she was beguiled by that grand Deceiver the Serpent. In this confusion of mind was Adam by forsaking the divine Light, and letting his own will get head against it. For it so changed the nature of his Vehicle, that (whereas he might have continued in an Ange­lical and Ethereal condition, and his feminine part been brought into perfect obedience to the divine Light, and had joyes multiplyed up­on the whole man beyond all expression and imagination for ever) he now sunk more and more towards a mortal and terrestrial estate, [Page 49] himself not being unsensible thereof, as you shall hear, when I have told you the doom of the Eternal God concerning the Serpent and him.

14 Things therefore having been carried on in this wise, the Eternal Lord God decreed thus with himself concerning the Serpent and Adam: That this old Serpent, the Prince of the rebellious Angels, should be more accursed then all the rest; and, (whereas he lorded it aloft in the higher parts of the Air, and could glide in the very Ethereal Region, amongst the innocent and unflan souls of men, and the good Angels before) that he should now sweep the dust with his belly, being cast lower to­wards the surface of the Earth.

15 And that there should be a general en­mity and abhorrency betwixt this old Serpent, as also all of his fellow-rebels, and betwixt Mankinde. And that in processe of time the ever faithful and obedient Soul of the Messias should take a Body, and should trample over the power of the Devil, very notoriously here upon Earth, and after his death should be con­stituted Prince of all the Angelical Orders whatever in Heaven.

16 And concerning Adam, the Eternal Lord God decreed that he should descend down to be an Inhabitant of the Earth, and that he should not there indulge to himself the [Page 50] pleasures of the body, without the concomi­tants of pain and sorrow, and that his Feminine part, his Affections should be under the chastise­ment and correction of his Reason.

17 That he should have a wearisome and toilsome travail in this world,

18 The Earth bringing forth thorns and thistles, though he must subsist by the Corn of the field.

19 Wherefore in the sweat of his browes he should eat his bread, till he returned unto the ground, of which his terrestrial body is made. This was the Counsel of God con­cerning Adam and the Serpent.

20 Now, as I was a telling you, Adam though he was sinking apace into those lower functions of life, yet his minde was not as yet grown so fully stupid, but he had the know­ledge of his own condition, and added to all his former Apologies, that the Feminine part in him, though it had seduced him, yet there was some use of this mis-carriage, for the Earth would hence be inhabited by Intellectual Ani­mals: wherefore he call'd the Life of his Vehicle, EVE, because she is indeed the Mother of all the generations of men that live upon the Earth.

21 At last the Plastick Power being fully awakened, Adams Soul descended into the prepared matter of the Earth, and in due pro­cesse of time Adam appear'd cloth'd in the skin [Page 51] of beasts; that is, he became a down-right ter­restrial Animal, and a mortal creature upon earth.

22 For the Eternal God had so decreed, and his Wisdome, Mercy, and Justice did but, if I may so speak, play and sport together in the businesse. And the rather, because Adam had but precipitated himself into that condition, which in due time might have faln to his share by course; for it is fitting there should be some such head among the living creatures of the earth, as a terrestrial Adam, but to live always here were his disadvantage.

23 Wherefore when God remov'd him from that higher condition,

24 He made sure he should not be Immortal, nor is he in any capacity of reaching unto the Tree of Life, without passing through his fiery Vehicle, and becoming a pure and defecate E­thereal Spirit: Then he may be admitted to taste the fruit of the Tree of Life and Immor­tality, and so live for ever.

CHAP. I.

1 WEE shall set before you in this History of Genesis, several e­minent examples of good and [Page 53] perfect men, such as Abel, Seth, Enoch, Abra­ham, and the like: Wherefore we thought fit, though Aenigmatically, and in a dark Pa­rable, to shadow out in general the manner of progresse to this divine Perfection; Looking upon Man as a Microcosm or a Little World, who if he hold out the whole progresse of the Spiri­tual Creation, the processe thereof will be fi­guratively understood as follows Wherefore first of all, I say, that by the will of God every man living on the face of the Earth hath these two Principles in him, Heaven and Earth, Divi­nity and Animality, Spirit and Flesh.

2 But that which is Animal or Natural o­perates first, the Spiritual or heavenly Life ly­ing for a while closed up at rest in its own Prin­ciple. During which time, and indeed some while afterwards too, the Animal or Fleshly Life domineers in darknesse and deformity; the mighty tempestuous Passions of the flesh con­tending and strugling over that Abysse of unsa­tiable Desire which has no bottome, and which in this case carries the minde to nothing but emptinesse and unprofitablenesse.

3 But by the will of God it is, that after­wards the Day-light appears, though not in so vigorous measure, out of the Heavenly or Spi­ritual Principle.

4 And Conscience being thus enlightned, offers her self a guide to a better condition; [Page 54] and God has fram'd the nature of man so, that he cannot but say, that this Light is good, and distinguish betwixt the dark tumultuous moti­ons of the Flesh and it:

5 And say, that there is as true a difference, as betwixt the natural Day and Night. And thus Ignorance and Enquiry was the first days progresse.

6 But though there be this principle of Light set up in the Conscience of Man, and he cannot say any thing against it, but that it is good and true, yet has he not presently so lively and savoury a relish in his distinction betwixt the evil and the good: For the evil as yet wholly holds his Affections, though his Fancy and Reason be toucht a little with the Theoretical apprehensions of what is good; wherefore by the will of God the heavenly Principle in due time becomes a Spirit of sa­voury and affectionate discernment betwixt the evil and the good; betwixt the pure waters that flow from the holy Spirit, and the muddy and tumultuous suggestions of the Flesh.

7 And thus is Man enabled in a living man­ner to distinguish betwixt the earthly and hea­venly life.

8 For the heavenly Principle is now made to him a Spirit of savoury discernment, and be­ing taught by God after this manner, he will not fail to pronounce, that this Principle, [Page 55] whereby he has so quick and lively a sense of what is good and evil, is heavenly indeed: And thus Ignorance and Enquiry is made the second days progresse.

9 Now the sweetnesse of the upper waters being so well relisht by man, he has a great nauseating against the lower feculent waters of the unbounded desires of the flesh; So that God adding power to his will, the inordinate desires of the flesh are driven within set limits, and he has a command over himself to be­come more stayed and steady.

10 And this steadinesse and command he gets over himself, he is taught by the divine Principle in him to compare to the Earth or dry land for safenesse and stability; but the de­sires of the flesh, he looks upon as a dangerous and turbulent Sea: Wherefore the bounding of them thus, and arriving to a state of com­mand over a mans self, and freedome from such colluctations and collisions as are found in the working Seas, the divine Nature in him could not but approve as good.

11 For so it comes to passe by the will of God, and according to the nature of things, that this state of sobriety in man, (he being in so good a measure rid of the boisterousnesse of evil Concupiscence) gives him leisure so to cultivate his minde with principles of Virtue and Honesty, that he is as a fruitful field whom the Lord hath blessed,

[Page 56] 12 Sending forth out of himself sundry sorts of fruit-bearing trees, herbs, and flow­ers; that is, various kindes of good works, to the praise of God, and the help of his neigh­bour; and God and his own Conscience wit­nesse to him, that this is good.

13 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the third days progresse.

14 Now when God has proceeded so far in the Spiritual Creation, as to raise the hea­venly Principle in man to that power and effi­cacy that it takes hold on his affections, and brings forth laudable works of Righteousnesse, he thereupon adds a very eminent accession of Light and Strength, setting before his eyes sundry sorts of Luminaries in the heavenly or intellectual Nature, whereby he may be able more notoriously to distinguish betwixt the Day and the Night; that is, betwixt the con­dition of a truly illuminated soul, and one that is as yet much benighted in ignorance, and e­stranged from the true knowledge of God. For according to the difference of these Lights, it is signified to a man in what condition him­self or others are in, whether it be indeed Day or Night with them, Summer or Winter, Spring time or Harvest, or what period or progresse they have made in the divine Life.

15 And though there be so great a diffe­rence betwixt these Lights, yet the meanest [Page 57] are better then meer darknesse, and serve in some measure or other to give light to the Earthly man.

16 But among these many Lights which God makes to appear to man, there are two more eminent by far then the rest. The greater of which two has his dominion by day, and is a faithful guide to those which walk in the day; that is, that work the works of righ­teousnesse. And this greater Light is but one, but does being added, mightily invigo­rate the former day-light man walked by, and it is a more full appearance of the Sun of Righ­teousnesse, which is an hearty and sincere Love of God, and a mans neighbour. The lesser of these two great Lights has dominion by night, and is a rule to those whose inward mindes are held as yet too strongly in the works of dark­nesse: and it is a Principle weak, and variable as the Moon, and is called Inconstancy of Life and Knowledge. There are alsoan abundance of other little Lights thickly dispersed over the whole Understanding of man, as the Stars in the Firmament, which you may call Notiona­lity or Multiplicity of ineffectual Opinions.

17 But the worst of all these are better then down-right Sensuality and Brutishnesse, and therefore God may well be said to set them up in the heavenly part of man, his Understand­ing, to give what light they are able to his [Page 58] earthly parts, his corrupt and inordinate Affe­ctions.

18 And as the Sun of Righteousnesse, that is, the hearty and sincere Love of God, and a mans neighbour, by his single light and warmth with chearfulnesse and safety guides them that are in the day: so that more uneven and change­able Principle, and the numerous Light of Notio­nality, may conduct them, as well as they are able, that are benighted in darknesse: And what is most of all considerable, a man by the wide difference of these latter Lights from that of the Day, may discern, when himself or a­nother is benighted in the state of unrighte­ousnesse. For multifarious Notionality and In­constancy of life and knowledge, are certain signs that a man is in the night: But the sticking to this one, single, but vigorous and effectual Light, of the hearty and sincere Love of God, and a mans neighbour, is a signe that a man walks in the day. And he that is arrived to this condition, plainly discerns in the Light of God, that all this is very good.

19 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry is made the fourth days progresse.

20 And now so noble, so warm, and so vi­gorous a Principle or Light as the Sun of Righ­teousnesse, being set up in the heavenly part of the Soul of man, the unskilful may unwa­rily expect that the next news will be, that e­ven [Page 59] the Seas themselves are dried up with the heat thereof, that is, that the Concupiscible in man is quite destroyed: But God doth ap­point far otherwise; for the waters bring forth abundance of Fish as well as Fowl innumera­ble.

21 Thoughts therefore of natural delights do swim to and fro in the Concupiscible of man, and the fervent love he bears to God causes not a many faint ineffectual notions, but an a­bundance of holy affectionate meditations, and winged Ejaculations that fly up heaven-ward, which returning back again, and falling upon the numerous fry of natural Concupiscence, help to lessen their numbers, as those fowls that fre­quent the waters devour the fish thereof. And God and good men do see nothing but good in all this.

22 Wherefore God multiplies the thoughts of natural delight in the lower Concupiscible, as well as he does those heavenly thoughts and holy meditations, that the entire Humanity might be filled with all the degrees of good it is capable of; and that the divine Life might have something to order and overcome.

23 And thus Ignorance and Inquiry made the fift days progresse.

24 Nor does God only cause the Waters to bring forth, but the dry Land also, several living creatures after their kinde, and makes [Page 60] the Irascible fruitful, as well as the Concupi­scible.

25 For God saw that they were both good, and that they were a fit subject for the heavenly Man to exercise his Rule and Dominion over.

26 For God multiplies strength as well as occasions to employ it upon. And the divine Life that hath been under the several degrees of the advancement thereof, so variously repre­sented in the five fore-going progresses, God at last works up to the height, and being com­pleat in all things, styles it by the name of his own Image; the divine Life arrived to this pitch being the right Image of him indeed. Thus it is therefore, that at last God in our na­ture fully manifests the true and perfect Man, whereby we our selves become good and per­fect, who does not only see and affect what is good, but has full power to effect it in all things: For he has full dominion over the fish of the sea, can rule and guide the fowls of the air, and with ease command the beasts of the field, and what ever moveth upon the earth.

27 Thus God creates Man in his own I­mage, making him as powerful a Commander in his little World, over all the thoughts and motions of the Concupiscible and Irascible, as himself is over the Natural frame of the Uni­verse or greater World. And this Image is [Page 61] Male and Female, consisting of a clear and free Understanding, and divine Affection, which are now arrived to that height, that no lower Life is able to rebel against them, and to bring them under.

28 For God blesses them and makes them fruitful, and multiplies their noble off-spring in so great and wonderful a measure that they replenish the cultivated nature of man with such an abundance of real Truth and Equity, that there is no living Figure, Imagination, or Motion of the Irascible or Concupiscible, no ex­travagant or ignorant irregularity in religious meditations and devotions, but they are present­ly moderated and rectified. For the whole Territories of the Humane Nature is every where so well peopled with the several beau­tiful shapes or Idea's of Truth and Goodnesse, the glorious off-spring of the heavenly Adam, Christ, that no Animal figure can offer to move or wagge amisse, but it meets with a proper Corrector and Re-composer of its motions.

29 And the divine Life in man being thus perfected, he is therewith instructed by God, what is his food, as divine, and what is the food of the Animal Life in him, viz. the most virtu­ous, most truly pious, and divine Actions he has given to the heavenly Adam to feed upon, fulfilling the Will of God in all things, which is more pleasant then the choicest sallads, or [Page 62] most delicate fruit the taste can relish.

30 Nor is the Animal Life quite to be star­ved and pin'd, but regulated and kept in sub­jection, and therefore they are to have their worser sort of herbs to feed on; that is, Natural Actions consentaneous to the Principle from whence they flow; that that Principle may al­so enjoy it self in the liberty of prosecuting what its nature prompts it unto. And thus the sundry Modifications of the Irascible and Con­cupiscible, as also the various Figurations of Religious Melancholy, and Natural Devotions, (which are the Fishes, Beasts, and Fowls in the Animal Nature of Man) are permitted to feed and refresh themselves in those lower kindes of Operations they incline us to; provided all be approved and rightly regulated by the heaven­ly Adam.

31 For the Divine Wisdome in Man sees and approves all things which God hath crea­ted in us, to be very good in their kinde. And thus Ignorance and Inquiry was the Sixt days progresse.

CHAP. II.

1 THUS the Heavenly and Earthly Na­ture in Man were finisht, and fully re­plenisht with all the garnishings belonging to them.

2 So the Divine Wisdome in the Humane Nature celebrated her Sabbath, having now wrought through the toil of all the six days travel.

3 And the Divine Wisdome looked upon this Seventh day as blessed and sacred; a day of Righteousnesse, Rest and Joy in the holy Ghost.

[Page 64] 4 These were the Generations or Pullulati­ons of the Heavenly and Earthly Nature, of the Divine and Animal Life in Man, when God created them.

5 I mean those fruitful Plants, and pleasant and useful Herbs which he himself planted: For I have describ'd unto you the condition of a Man taught of God, and instructed and che­risht up by his inward Light, where there is no external Doctrine to distil as the rain, nor out­ward Gardener to intermeddle in Gods Hus­bandry.

6 Only there is a Fountain of Water, which is Repentance from dead works, and bubbles up in the earthly Adam, so as universally to wash all the ground.

7 And thus the nature of Man being pre­par'd for further Accomplishments, God shapes him into his own Image, which is Righ­teousnesse and true Holinesse, and breathes into him the Spirit of Life: And this is that Adam which is born of Water and the Spirit.

8 Hitherto I have shewed unto you how mankinde is raised up from one degree of Spi­ritual Light and Righteousnesse unto another, till we come at last to that full Command and Perfection in the divine Life, that a man may be said in some sort thus to have attain'd to the Kingdome of Heaven, or found a Para­dise upon Earth. The Narration that follows [Page 65] shall instruct you and forewarn you of those evil courses, whereby man loses that measure of Paradisiacal happinesse God estates him in, even while he is in this world. I say there­fore, that the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden, and there he put the Man whom he had made; that is, Man living under the Intellectual rayes of the Spirit, and being guided by the morning Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse, is led into a very pleasant and sweet Contentment of minde, and the testimo­ny of a good Conscience is his great delight.

9 And that the sundry Germinations and Springings up of the works of Righteousnesse in him is a delectable Paradise to him, pleasing both the sight and taste of that measure of divine Life that is manifested in him: But of all the Plants that grow in him, there is none of so soveraign virtue, as that in the midst of this Garden; to wit, the Tree of Life, which is, a Sincere Obedience to the Will of God: Nor any that bears so lethiferous and poisonous fruit, as the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, which is, Disobedience to the Will of God, as it is mani­fested in Man. For the pleasure of the Soul consists in conforming her self faithfully to what she is perswaded in her own Conscience is the Will of God, what ever others would insinuate to the contrary.

10 And all the fruit-bearing Trees of Righ­teousnesse [Page 66] are watered by these four Rivers, which winde along this Garden of Pleasure, which indeed are the four Cardinal Virtues.

11 The name of the first is Pison, which is Prudence, not the suggestions of fleshly craft and over-reaching subtilty, but the Indications of the Spirit or divine Intellect, what is fit and profitable and decorous to be done.

12 Here is well tryed and certain approved Experience, healthful Industry, and Alacrity to honest Labour.

13 And the name of the second River is Gihon, which is Justice.

14 And the name of the third River is Hid­dekel, which is Fortitude; and the fourth Ri­ver is Euphrates, which is Temperance.

15 This is the Paradise where the Lord God had placed the Man, that he might further cultivate it and improve it.

16 And the divine Light manifested in the Man, encourag'd the Man to eat of the fruits of Paradise freely, and to delight himself in all manner of holy Understanding and Righ­teousnesse.

17 But withall he bade him have a speciall care how he relisht his own Will or Power in any thing, but that he should be obedient to the manifest Will of God in things great and small, or else assuredly he would lose the life he now lived, and become dead to all Righ­teousnesse [Page 67] and Truth. So the man had a spe­cial care, and his soul wrought wholly towards heavenly and divine things, and heeded no­thing but these, his more noble and Masculine Faculties being after a manner solely set on work, but the natural Life (in which notwith­standing, if it were rightly guided, there is no sin) being almost quite forgot and dis-regar­ded.

18 But the Wisdome of God saw that it was not good for the soul of man, that the Masculine Powers thereof should thus operate alone, but that all the Faculties of Life should be set a float, that the whole humane Nature might be accomplisht with the divine.

19 Now the powers of the soul working so wholly upwards towards divine things, the se­veral Modifications or Figurations of the Ani­mal Life (which God acting in the frame of the humane Nature, represented to the Man, whence he had occasion to view them and judge of them) by the quick Understanding of Man was indeed easily discern'd what they were, and he had a determinate apprehension of every particular Figuration of the Animall Life,

20 And did censure them, or pronounce of them, though truly, yet rigidly enough and severely; but as yet was not in a capacity of taking any delight in them, there was not any [Page 68] of them fit for his turn to please himself in.

21 Wherefore divine Providence brought it so to passe, for the good of the Man, and that he might more vigorously and fully be enrich'd with delight, that the operations of the Masculine Faculties of the Soul were for a while well slaked and consopited; during which time the Faculties themselves were something lessened or weakned, yet in such a due measure and proportion, that considering the future advantage that was expected, that was not miss'd that was taken away, but all as handsome and compleat as before.

22 For what was thus abated in the Mascu­line Faculties, was compensated abundantly in exhibiting to the Man the grateful sense of the Feminine; for there was no way but this to Create the Woman, which is to elicite that kindly flowring joy or harmlesse delight of the Natural Life, and health of the Body; which once exhi­bited and joyned with Simplicity and Inno­cency of Spirit, it is the greatest part of that Paradise a man is capable of upon Earth.

23 And the actuating of the matter being the most proper and essential operation of a soul, man presently acknowledg'd this kindly flowring joy of the Body, of nearer cognation and affinity with himself then any thing else he e­ver had yet experience of, and he loved it as his own life.

[Page 69] 24 And the Man was so mightily taken with his new Spouse, which is, The kindly Joy of the Life of the Body, that he concluded with him­self, that any one may with a safe Conscience forgoe those more earnest attempts towards the knowledge of the Eternal God that created him, as also the performance of those more scrupulous injunctious of his Mother the Church, so far forth as they are incompetible with the Health and Ioy of the Life of his Na­tural Body, and might in such a case rather cleave to his Spouse, and become one with her; pro­vided he still lived in obedience to the indis­pensable Precepts of that Superiour Light and Power that begot him.

25 Nor had Adam's Reason or Affection transgressed at all in this; concluding nothing but what the divine Wisdome and Equity would approve as true. Wherefore Adam and his wife as yet sought no corners, nor covering places to shelter them from the divine Light; but having done nothing amisse, appeared na­ked in the presence of it without any shame or blushing.

CHAP. III.

1 BUT so it came to passe that the Life of the Body being thus invigorated in Man, straightway the slyest and subtilest of all the Animal Figurations, the Serpent, which is the inordinate Desire of Pleasure, craftily insinuated it self into the Feminine part of Adam, viz. The kindely Joy of the body; and thus assault­ing Man, whisper'd such suggestions as these unto him. What a rigid and severe thing is [Page 71] this businesse of Religion, and the Law of God, as they call it, that deprives a man of all manner of Pleasure, and cuts him short of all the contentments of Life?

2 But the Womanish part in Adam; to wit, The natural and kindly Joy of the body, could witnesse against this, and answered, We may delight our selves with the operations of all the Faculties both of soul and body, which God and Nature hath bestow'd upon us.

3. Only we are to take heed of Disobedi­ence, and of promiscuously following our own will; but we are ever to consult with the Will of God, and the divine Light mani­fested in our Understandings, and so doe all things orderly and measurably: For if we transgresse against this, we shall die the death, and lose the Life of Virtue and Righteousness, which now is awake in us.

4 But the Serpent, which is the inordinate desire of Pleasure, befooled Adam, through the frailty of his Womanish Faculties, and made him believe he should not die; but with safe­ty might serve the free dictates of Pleasure or his own Will and the Will of God, that Flesh and Spirit might both rule in him, and be no such prejudice the one to the other:

5 But that his skill and experience in things will be more enlarg'd, and so come nearer to divine Perfection indeed, and imitate that ful­nesse [Page 72] of Wisdome which is in God, who knows all things whatsoever, whether good or evil.

6 This crafty suggestion so insinuated it self into Adams Feminine Faculties, that his fleshly Concupiscence began to be so strong, that it carried the assent of his Will away with it, and the whole Man became a lawlesse and un­ruly Creature: For it seem'd a very pleasant thing at first sight to put in execution what e­ver our own Lusts suggest unto us without controll; and very desirable to try all Con­clusions to gain experience and knowledge of things. But this brought in nothing but the wisdome of the flesh, and made Adam earthly minded.

7 But he had not rambled very far in these dissolute courses, but his eyes were opened, and he saw the difference, how naked now he was, and bare of all strength and power to di­vine and holy things; and began to meditate with himself some slight pretences for his no­torious folly and disobedience.

8 For the Voice of the divine Light had come unto him in the cool of the day, when the fury and heat of his inordinate passions was something slaked: But Adam could not en­dure the presence of it, but hid himself from it, meditating what he should answer by way of Apology or Excuse.

[Page 73] 9 But the divine Light persisted, and came up closer to him, and upbraided unto him, that he was grown so wilde and estranged from her self, demanding of him in what condition he was, and wherefore he fled.

10 Then Adam ingenuously confessed that he found himself in such a pitiful poor na­ked condition, that he was ashamed to appear in the Presence of the divine Light; and that was the reason he hid himself from it, because it would so manifestly upbraid to him his Na­kednesse and Deformity.

11 And the divine Light farther examined him, how he fell into this sensible beggerly nakednesse he was in, charging the sad event upon his Disobedience, that he had fed upon, and taken a surfeit of the fruit of his own Will.

12 But Adam excused his rational faculties, and said, They did but follow the natural Di­ctate of the Joy of the Body, the Woman that God himself bestowed upon him for an help and delight.

13 But the divine Light again blamed A­dam, that he kept his Feminine faculties in no better order nor subjection, that they should so boldly and overcomingly dictate to him such things as are not fit. To which he had nothing to say, but that the subtile Serpent, the inordi­nate Desire of Pleasure, had beguiled both his faculties, as well Masculine as Feminine, his [Page 74] Will and Affection was quite carried away therewith.

14 Then the divine Light began to chastise the Serpent, in the hearing of Adam, pronoun­cing of it, that it was more accursed, then all the Animal Figurations beside; and that it crept basely upon the belly, tempting to Riot and Venery, and relishing nothing but earth and dirt. This will always be the guise of it, so long as it lives in a man.

15 But might I once descend so far into the Man, as to take possession of his Feminine fa­culties, I would set the Natural Joy of the Body at defiance with the Serpent; and though the subtilty of the Serpent may a little wound and disorder the Woman for a while, yet her war­rantable and free operations, she being actua­ted by divine vigour, should afterward quite destroy and extinguish the Seed of the Serpent; to wit, the Operations of the inordinate desire of Pleasure.

16 And she added farther in the hearing of Adam concerning the Woman, as she thus stood dis-joyn'd from the heavenly Life, and was not obedient to right Reason, that by a divine Ne­mesis, she should conceive with sorrow, and bring forth Vanity; And that her husband, the Earthly minded Adam, should tyrannize o­ver her, and weary her out, and foil her; So that the kindly Joy of the Health and Life of the [Page 75] Body, should be much depraved, or made faint and languid, by the unbridled humours, and impetuous Luxury and Intemperance of the Earthly minded Adam.

17 And to Adam he said, who had become so Earthly minded, by listening to the Voice of his deceived Woman, and so acting disobedient­ly to the Will of God; That his Flesh or Earth was accursed for his sake, with labour and toil should he reap the fruits thereof all the while he continued in this Earthly mindednesse.

18 Cares also and Anxieties shall it bring forth unto him, and his thoughts shall be as base as those of the beasts in the field; he shall ruminate of nothing but what is Earthly and Sensual.

19 With sweat and anguish should he la­bour to satisfie his hunger and insatiablenesse, till he returned to the Principle out of which he was taken; for the Earthly mindednesse came from this animated Earth, the Body; and is to shrinke up againe into its owne Principle, and to perish.

20 After all these Castigations and Premo­nitions of the divine Light, Adam was not suf­ficiently awakened to the sense of what was good, but his minde was straightway taken up againe with the delights of the flesh, and dearly embracing the Joy of his body, for all she was grown so inordinate, called her My Life, pro­fessing [Page 76] she was the noursing Mother and chiefe comfort of all men living, and none could sub­sist without her.

21 Then the divine Wisdome put hairy coates made of the skins of wilde beasts upon Adam and his Wife, and deservedly reproached them, saying, Now get you gone for a couple of brutes. And Adam would have very gladly escaped so, if he might, and set up his rest for ever in the beastiall Nature.

22 But the Eternall God of heaven, whose Providence reaches to all things, and whose Mercy is over all his workes, looking upon Adam, perceived in what a pitifull ridiculous case he was; who seeking to be like unto God for knowledge and freedome, made himselfe no better then a Beast, and could willingly have lived for ever in that baser kinde of nature; Wherefore the Eternall Lord God, in compas­sion to Adam, designed the contrary, and deri­ding his boldnesse and curiosity that made him transgresse, Behold, sayes he, Adam is become like one of us, knowing Good and Evill: and can of himselfe enlarge his pleasure, and create new Paradises of his owne, which forsooth must have also their Tree of Life or Immortality: and Adam would for ever live in this foolish state he hath plac'd himselfe in.

23 But the Eternall Lord God would not suffer Adam to take up his rest in the Beastial [Page 77] delight, which he had chosen, but drove him out of this false Paradise, which he would have made to himself, and set him to cultivate his fleshly members, out of which his Earthly mind­ednesse was taken.

24 I say, he forcibly drove out Adam from this Paradise of Luxury; nor could he settle perpetually in the brutish Life, because the Cherubim with the flaming sword that turned every way, beat him off; that is, the Manly Faculties of Reason and Conscience met him ever and anon in his brutish purposes, and convin­ced him so of his folly, that he could not set up his rest for ever in this bestial condition.

CHAP. I.

THE first Rule that I laid down in my Intro­duction to the Defence of my Threefold Cab­bala, I need not here again repeat, but de­sire the Reader only to carry it in minde, and [Page 112] it will warrant the easie and familiar sense that I shall settle upon Moses his Text in the Literal meaning thereof. Unto which, if I adde also reasons from the pious prudence of this holy Law-giver, shewing how every passage makes for greater faith in God, and more affectionate obedience to his Law, there will be nothing wanting I think (though I shall sometimes cast in some notable advantages also from Critical Learning) that may gain belief to the truth of the Interpretation.

Vers. 1. In this first verse I put no other sense of In the beginning, then that it denotes to us the order of the History. Which is also the opinion of Mai­monides, who deriving [...] from [...] signifying the head, rightly observes the Analogy; that as the head is the forepart of a living creature, so [...] signifies that w ^ch is placed first in any thing else. And that thus the Creation of the world is the head or fore­part of the History that Moses intends to set down.

Wherefore Moses having in his minde (as is plain from the Title of this book, Genesis, as well as the mat­ter therein contained) to write an History and Gene­alogy from the beginning of the world to his own time, it is very easie and obvious to conceive, that in reference to what he should after add, he said, In the beginning: As if the whole frame of his thoughts lay thus. First of all, God made the Heavens, and the Earth, with all that they contain, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, the Day and Night, the Plants, and living crea­tures that were in the Air, Water, and on the Earth, and after all these he made Adam, and Adam begot Cain and Abel, and so on in the full continuance of the History and Genealogies.

And this sense I conceive is more easie and natural then that of Austin, Ambrose, and Besil, who will [Page 113] have In the Beginning, to signifie In the Beginning of Time, or In the Beginning of the world. And yet I thought it not amiss to name also these, that the Reader may take his choice.

God made Heaven and Earth. Maimonides and Manasseh Ben Israel observe these three words u­sed in Scripture, when Creation of the world is attri­buted to God, viz. [...]; and that [...] sig­nifies the production of things out of nothing, which is the Schools Notion of Creation; [...] is the making up a thing perfect and compleat, according to its own kinde and properties; [...] intimates the dominion and right possession that God has of all things thus created or made. But though [...] according to the mind of the Learned Jews, signifies Creation properly so cal­led, yet the Seventy observe no such Criticisme, but translate it [...], which is no more then made. And vulgar men are not at leisure to distinguish so subtilly. Wherefore this latter sense I receive as the vulgar Li­teral sense, the other as Philosophical. And where I use the word Creation in this Literal Cabbala, I un­derstand but that common and general Notion of Ma­king a thing, be it with what circumstances it will.

Neither do I translate [...] in the plural num­ber, the Trinity; Because, as Vatablus observes out of the Hebrew Doctors, that when the inferiour speaks of his superiour, he speaks of him in the Plural Num­ber. So Esay 19. 4. Tradam Aegyptum in manum dominorum duri. And Exod. 22. 10. Et accipiet do­mini ejus, for dominus. The Text therefore necessa­rily requiring no such sense, and the mysterie being so abstruse, it is rightly left out in this Literal Cabbala.

Vers. 2. In the first verse there was a summary Proposal of the whole Creation in those two main parts of it, Heaven and Earth. Now he begins the [Page 114] particular prosecution of each days work. But it is not needful for him here again to inculcate the ma­king of the Earth: For it is the last word he spake in his general Proposal, and therefore it had been harsh or needless to have repeated it presently again. And that's the reason why before the making of the Earth, there is not prefixed, And the Lord said, Let there be an Earth. Which I conceive has imposed upon the ignorance and inconsiderateness of some, so as to make them believe that this confused muddy heap which is called the Earth, was an Eternal First Mat­ter, independent of God, and never created by him: Which if a man appeal to his own Faculties, is im­possible, as I shall again intimate when I come to the Philosophick Cabbala.

The sense therefore is, That the Earth was made first, which was covered with water, and on the wa­ter was the wind, and in all this a thick darkness. And God was in this dark, windy and wet Night. So that this Globe of Earth, and Water, and Wind, was but one dark Tempest and Sea-storm, a Night of confusion and tumultuous Agitation. For [...] is not in the Letter any thing more then Ventus in­gens, A great and mighty wind. As the Cedars of God, and Mountains of God, are tall Cedars, great Mountains, and so in Analogy, the Wind of God, a great Wind.

Vers. 3. But in the midst of this tempestuous dark­ness, God intending to fall to his work, doth as it were light his Lamp, or set up himself a Candle in this dark Shop. And what ever hitherto hath been mentioned, are words that strike the Fancy and Sense strongly, and are of easie perception to the rude peo­ple, whom every dark and stormy Night may well reminde of the sad face of things till God comman­ded [Page 115] the comfortable Day to spring forth, the sole Author of Light, that so pleases the eyes, and chears the spirits of Man.

And that Day-light is a thing independent of the Sun, as well as the Night of the Stars, is a conceit wondrous sutable to the imaginations of the Vulgar, as I have my self found out by conversing with them. They are also prone to think, unlesse there be a sensible wind stirring, that there is nothing betwixt the Earth and the Clouds, but that it is a meer vacuity. Where­fore I have not translated [...] the Air, as Maimonides somewhere does, but a mighty wind; For that the rude people are sensible of, and making the first deformed face of things so dismal and tempe­stuous, it will cause them to remember the first morn­ing light with more thankfulness and devotion.

Vers. 4. For it is a thing very visible. See what is said upon the eighth verse.

Vers. 5. By Evening and Morning, is meant the Artificial Day, and the Artificial Night, by a Synec­doche, as Castellio in his Notes tells us. Therefore this Artificial Day and Night put together, make one [...], or Natural Day. And the Evening is put before the Morning, Night before Day, because Darkness is before Light. But that Primitive dark­ness was not properly Night: For Night is [...] as Aristotle describes it, one great Shad­dow cast from the Earth, which implies Light of one side thereof. And therefore Night properly so cal­led could not be before Light. But the illiterate peo­ple trouble themselves with no such curiosities, nor easi­ly conceive any such difference betwixt that deter­minate Conical shaddow of the Earth, which is Night, and that infinite primitive Darkness, that had no bounds before there was any Light. And there­fore [Page 116] that same Darkness prefixed to an Artificial Day makes up one Natural Day to them. Which Hesiod also swallows down without chewing, whether fol­lowing his own fancy, or this Text of Moses, I know not.

That is, ‘But of the Night both Day and Skie were born.’

Vers. 6. This Basis or Floor. That the Earth seems like a round Floor, plain and running out so e­very way, as to join with the bottome of the Hea­vens, I have in my Introduction hinted to you alrea­dy, and that it is look'd upon as such in the phrase of Scripture, accommodating it self to our outward sen­ses and vulgar conceit. Upon this Floor stands the hollow Firmament, as a Tent pitched upon the ground, which is the very expression of the Prophet Esay, describing the Power of God; That stretch­eth out the Heavens like a Curtain, and spreadeth them out as a Tent to dwell in. And the word [...] which is usually rendred Firmament, signifies diducti­on, expansion, or spreading out. But how the Seventy come to interpret it [...] Firmamentum, Fuller in his Miscellanies gives a very ingenious reason, and such as makes very much to our purpose. Nam coe­lum seu [...] saith he, quandoquidem Tentoxio sae­pissimè in sacris literis assimilatur, [...] dicitur, quatenus expanditur. Sic enim expandi solent Tent [...] ­ria, quum alligatis ad paxillos in terram depactos funibus distenduntur, atque hoc etiam pacto firman­tur. Itaque [...] immensum quoddam ut ita dicam [...], ideóque & [...] non ineptè appelletur. The sense of which in brief is nothing but this: That the Seventy translate [...], that is, Firmamen­tum, [Page 117] because the Heavens are spread out like a well­fastned and firmly pitched Ten. And I add also, that they are so stiffely stretched, that they will strongly bear against the weight of the upper waters; so that they are not able to break them down, and therewith to drown the world. Which conceit as it is easie and agreeable with the fancy of the people, so it is so far from doing them any hurt, that it will make them more sensible of the divine Power and Providence, who thus by main force keeps off a Sea of water that hangs over their heads, which they discern through the transparent Firmament, (for it looks blew as o­ther Seas do) and would rush at once upon them and drown them, did not the Power of God, and the strength of the Firmament hold it off.

Vers. 7. See what hath been already said upon the sixt verse. I will only here add, That the nearness of these upper waters makes them still the more formi­dable, and so are greater spurs to devotion: For as they are brought so near as to touch the Earth at the bot­tome, so outward sense still being Judge, they are to be within a small distance of the Clouds at the top. And that these upper waters are no higher then so, it is manifest from other passages in Scripture, that place the habitation of God but amongst the Clouds, who yet is called the most High. Psalm 104. 3. Deut. 33. 26. Nahum 1. 3. Psalm [...]8. 4. But of this I have treated so fully elsewhere, that I hold it needless to add any thing more.

Ver. 8. I cannot say properly that God saw it was good. In the whole story of the three first Chapters, it is evident, that God is represented in the person of a Man, speaking with a mouth, and seeing with eyes. Hence it is that the Firmament being of it self invisi­ble, that Moses omits the saying, that God saw it [Page 118] was good: For the nature of the eye is onely to see things visible.

Some say, God made Hell the second day, and that that is the reason it was not recorded, that he saw it was good. But if he did not approve of it as good, why did he make it? However that can be none of the Literal sense, and so impertinent to this present Cab­bala.

Ver. 10. And I may now properly say, &c. See what hath been said already upon verse the eight.

Ver. 11. Whence you may easily discern, &c. This Observation is Philo the Jew's, which you may read at large in his [...]. And it was very fit for Moses who in his Law, which he received from God, does so much insist upon temporal blessings, and eating of the good things of the Land, as a reward of their obedience, to lay down such principles as should beget a firm belief of the absolute power of God over Nature. That he could give them rain, and fruitful seasons, and a plentiful year when he pleased; when as he could cause the Earth to bring forth without rain, or any thing else to further her births, as he did at the first Creation. The Meditation whereof might well cause such an holy resolution as that in the Pro­phet Habakkuk, Although the fig-tree shall not blossome, neither fruit be in the Vines, the labour of the Olive fail, and the fields yeeld no meat; yet I will rejoyce in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my sal­vation. But that prudent and pious caution of Mo­ses against Idolatry, how requisite it was, is plain if we consider that the power of the Sun is so manifest, and his operation so sensible upon the Earth for the production of things below, especially of Plants, that he hath generally drawn aside the rude and simple Heathen to idolize him for a God: And their nimble [Page 119] Oracles have snatched away the sacred Name of the God of Israel, the true God, to bestow upon him, calling him Jao, which is Jehovah, as is plain from that Clarian Oracle in Macrobius:

Which I have translated thus in my Poems:

This Oracle Cornelius Labeo interprets of Bacchus, which is the same with the Sun, who is the God of the Vintage, and is here described according to the four Quarters of the year.

And so Virgil, Heathen-like attributes to the Sun and Moon under the name of Bacchus and Ceres, that great blessing of Corn and Grain.

[Page 120] But of this I have said so much in my Introduction, that I need add nothing more.

Ver. 12. See ver. 11.

Ver. 14. See ver. 3. I have there shown how ea­sily the fancie of the rude people admit of days with­out a Sun. To whose capacities the Prophet Jeremy accommodating his speech, Her Sun, sayes he, is gone down while it was yet day. How can it be day when the Sun is down, unless the day be Independent of the Sun, according to the fancie of the rude and illi­terate? Which is wonderfully consonant to the out­ward letter of Moses, that speaks not of the Sun as the cause of the Day, but as a badge of distinction from the Night, though he does admit that it does increase the light thereof.

Ver. 15. In the hollow Roof &c. Though the cae­ruleous upper Sea seems so neer us, as I have already signified, yet the Lights of Heaven seem something on this side it, as white will stand off drawn upon a darker colour, as you may see in the describing solid Figures on a blew slate; they will more easily rise to your eye then black upon white: so that the people may very well, consulting with their sight, Imagine the Firmament to be betwixt the Lights of Heaven, and the upper Waters, or that blew Sea they look upon, not on this side, nor properly betwixt the Lights or Stars.

Ver. 16. Two great Lights, &c. This is in coun­ter-distinction to the Stars, which indeed seem much less to our sight then the Sun or Moon, when as not­withstanding many Stars according to Astronomers computation, are bigger then the Sun, all far bigger then the Moon: So that it is plain the Scripture speaks sometimes according to the appearance of things to our sight, not according to their absolute affections [Page 121] and properties. And he that will not here yeeld this for a truth, is, I think, justly to be suspected of more Igno­rance then Religion, and of more Superstition then Reason.

For their smalnesse, &c. The Stars indeed seem ve­ry small to our sight, and therefore Moses seems to cast them in but by the by, complying therein with the ignorance of the unlearned. But Astronomers who have made it their business to understand their magnitudes, they that make the most frugal compu­tation concerning the bigger Stars, pronounce them no less then sixty eight times bigger then the Earth, others much more.

Ver. 18. To be peculiar garnishings. See verse 14.

Ver. 20. Fish and Fowl. I suppose the mention of the Fowl is made here with the Fish by reason that the greatest and more eminent sorts of that kinde of creature, most of all frequent the waters, as Swannes, Geese, Ducks, Herons, and the like.

Ver. 20. In his own shape. It was the opinion of the Anthropomorphites, that God had all the parts of a Man, and that we are in this sense made according to his Image: Which though it be an opinion in it self, if not rightly understood, vain and ridiculous; yet theirs seem little better to me, that imagine God a fi­nite Beeing, and take care to place him out of the stink of this terrestrial Globe, that he may sit [...], and so confine him to Heaven, as A­ristotle seems to do, if he be the Author of that book De Mundo: For it is a contradiction to the very Idea of God to be finite, and consequently to have Figure or Parts. But it is so difficult a thing for the rude multitude to venture at a Notion of a Beeing Imma­torial and Infinite, that it seems their advantage to [Page 122] conceive of God as of some all-powerful Person, that can do what ever he pleaseth, can make Heavens and Earths, and bestow his blessings in what measure and manner he lists, and what is chief of all, if need be, can personally appear to them, can chide them, and rebuke them, and, if they be obstinate, doe horrible vengeance upon them. This I say, will more strongly strike the inward Sense and Imagination of the vul­gar, then Omnipotency placed in a Thin, Subtile, In­visible, Immaterial Beeing, of which they can have no perception at all, nor any tolerable conceit.

Wherefore it being requisite for the ignorant, to be permitted to have some finite and figurate apprehensi­on of God, what can be more fit then the shape of a Man in the highest excellencies that it is capable of, for Beauty, Strength, and Bignesse. And the Pro­phet Esay seems to speak of God after this Notion, God sits upon the circle of the Earth, and the inhabi­tants thereof are as Grashoppers; intimating that men to God bear as little proportion, as Grashoppers to a man when he sits on the grasse amongst them. And now there being this necessity of permitting the people some such like apprehensions as this, concerning God, (and it is true Prudence, and pious Policy to comply with their weakness for their good) there was the most strict injunctions laid upon them against Idola­try and worshipping of Images that might be.

But if any one will say this was the next way to bring them into Idolatry, to let them entertain a conceit of God as in humane shape; I say it is not any more, then by acknowledging Man to be God, as our Religion does, in Christ. Nay, I add moreover, that Christ is the true Deus Figuratus: And for his sake was it the more easily permitted unto the Jews to think of God in the shape of a Man.

[Page 123] And that there ought to be such a thing as Christ, that is, God in Humane shape, I think it most reaso­nable, that he may apparently visit the Earth, and to their very outward senses confound the Atheist and mis-believer at the last day. As he witnesseth of himself, The Father judges none, but he hath given all Judgement unto the Son. And, that no man can see the Father, but as he is united unto the Son. For the Eternal God is Immaterial and Invisible to our out­ward senses: But he hath thought good to treat with us both in mercy and judgement, by a Mediator and Vicegerent, that partakes of our nature as well as his own. Wherefore it is not at all absurd for Moses to suffer the Jews to conceive of God as in a corporeall and humane shape, since all men shall be judged by God in that shape at the last day.

He made Females as well as Males. That sto­ry in Plato his Symposion, how men and women grew together at first till God cut them asunder, is a very probable argument that the Philosopher had seen or heard something of this Mosaical History. But that it was his opinion it was so, I see no probability at all: For the story is told by that ridiculous Co­median Aristophanes, with whom I conceive he is in some sort quit, for abusing his good old Friend and Tutor Socrates, whom he brought in upon the stage [...], treading the Air in a basket, to make him a laughing-stock to all Athens.

The Text is indeed capable of such a sense, but there being no reason to put that sense upon it, nei­ther being a thing so accommodate to the capacity and conceit of the vulgar, I thought it not fit to admit it, no not so much as into this Literal Cabbala.

Ver. 29. Frugiferous. Castellio translates it so, Herbas frugiferas, which must be such like herbs [Page 124] as I have named, Strawberries, Wheat, Rice, and the like.

CHAP. II.

IN the four first verses all is so clear and plain, that there is no need of any further Explication or De­fence, saving that you may take notice that in the se­cond verse where I write Within six days, the Seventies Translation will warrant it, who render it [...], on the sixt day.

Ver. 5. See what hath been said on the eleventh verse of the first Chapter.

Ver. 7. The dust. The Hebrew word signifies so, and I make no mention of any moistning of it with water. For God is here set out acting according to his absolute power and Omnipotency. And it is as easie to make men of dry dust, as hard stones. And yet God is able even of stones to raise up children unto A­braham.

[Page 125] Blew into the nostrils. Breathing is so palpable an effect of life, that the ancient rude Greeks also gave the Soul its name from that operation, calling it [...] from [...] to breathe or to blow.

Ver. 8. Eastward of Judea. For so Interpreters expound Eastward in Scripture, in reference to Ju­dea.

To prevent any further trouble in making good the sense I have put upon the following verses concerning Paradise, I shall here at once set down what I finde most probable concerning the situation thereof, out of Vatablus and Cornelius à Lapide, adding also some­what out of Dionysius the Geographical Poet. In ge­neral therefore we are led by the four Rivers to the right situation of Paradise. And Gihon, saith Va­tablus; is tractus inferior Euphratis illabens in sinum Persicum; is a lower tract or stream of Euphrates that slides into the Persian Gulph. Pison is Phasis or Pha­sitigris, that runs through Havilah, a region near Persis; so that Pison is a branch of Tigris, as Gi­hon is of Euphrates. Thus Vatablus. And that Gi­hon may have his Aethiopia, Cornelius à Lapide notes, that the Madianites and others near the Per­sian Gulph, are called Aethiopians; and therefore he concludes first at large, that Paradise was seated about Mosopotamia and Armenia, from these reasons fol­lowing.

First, because these Regions are called Eastern in Scripture, (which as I have said is to be understood al­ways in reference to Judea) according to the rule of Expositors. And the Lord is said to have planted this Garden of Paradise Eastward.

Secondly, because Man being cast out of Paradise these Regions were inhabited first, both before the Floud, (for Cain is said to inhabite Eden, Gen. 4. 16.) [Page 126] and also after the Floud, as being nearer Paradise, and more fertile, Gen. 8. 4. also 11. 2.

Thirdly, Paradise was in Eden, but Eden was near Haran; Ezek. 27. 23. Haran, and Caunuch, and Eden: but Haran was about Mesopotamia, being a City of Parthia where Crassus was slain; Authors call it Charra.

Fourthly, Paradise is where Euphrates and Tigris are. And these are in Mesopotamia and Armenia. They denominate Mesopotamia, it lying betwixt them.

That is,

Fiftly, because these Regions are most fruitful and pleasant. And that Adam was made not far from thence, is not improbable from the excellency of that place, as well for the goodliness of the men that it breeds, as the fertility of the soil.

That is,

As the same Geographer writes.

Sixtly, and lastly, there is yet a further probability alledged, that Paradise was about Mesopotamia, that [Page 127] Countrey being not far distant from Judea. For it is the tradition of the Fathers, that Adam when he was ejected out of Paradise, having travelled over some parts of the world, that he came at last to Judea, and there died, and was buried in a Mount, which his po­sterity, because the head of the first Man was laid there, called Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified for the expiation of the sin of Adam, the first transgressor. If the story be not true, it is pity but it should be, it hath so venerable assertors, as Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil, Origen, and others of the Fathers, as Cornelius affirms.

But now for the more exact situation of Paradise, the same Author ventures to place it at the very meet­ing of Tigris and Euphrates, where the City of Apa­mia now stands in Ptolemees Maps, eighty degrees Longitude, and some thirty four degrees and thirty scruples Latitude.

Thus have we according to the Letter found Para­dise which Adam lost, but if we finde no better one in the Philosophick and Moral Cabbala, we shall but have our labour for our travel.

Ver. 9. That stood planted in the midst of the Gar­den. For in this verse the Tree of Life is planted in the midst of the Garden, and in the third Chapter the third verse, the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil is placed there also.

For the Lord God bad so ordained. Expositors seem not to suspect any hurt in the Tree it self, but that the fruit thereof was naturally good, only God interdict­ed it to try the goodness of Adam. So that this law that prohibited Adam the eating of the fruit, was meerly Thetical, or Positive, not Indispensable and Natural.

Ver. 10. From thence it was parted. This is the [Page 128] cause that Paradise is conceived to have been situated where Apamia stands, as I have above intimated.

Ver. 11. Phasis. See verse 8.

Chaulateans. The affinity of Name is apparent betwixt Havilah and Chaulateans, whom Strabo places in Arabia near Mesopotamia.

Ver. 13. Arabian Aethiopia. See verse 8.

Ver. 17. See verse 9.

Ver. 18. High commendations of Matrimony. Moses plainly recommends to the Jews the use of Matrimony, & does after a manner encourage them to that condition: which he does like a right Law-giver and Father of the people. For in the multitude of people is the Kings honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the Prince, as Solomon speaks, Prov. 14. Besides, there was no small policy in religi­ously commending that to them, that most would be carried fast enough too on their own accords. For those Laws are best liked that sute with the pleasure of the people, and they will have a better conceit of the Law-giver for it.

Ver. 19. These brought he unto Adam. viz. The Beasts and Fowls; but there is no mention of the Fishes, they being not fitted to journey in the same Element. It had been over harsh and affected to have either brought the Fishes from the Sea, or to have car­ried Adam to the Shore, to appoint names to all the Fishes flocking thither to him. But after he might have opportunity to give them names, as they came occasionally to his view.

Ver. 20. See verse 18,

Ver. 21. Fell into a dream. For the Seventy have [...], God cast Adam into an extasie; and in that extasie he might very well see what God did all the while he slept.

[Page 129] Ver. 23. See verse 21. & 24.

Ver. 24. So strict and sacred a Tye, &c. That's the scope of the story. To beget a very fast and in­dissoluble affection betwixt man and wife, that they should look upon one another as one and the same person. And in this has Moses wisely provided for the happiness of his people in instilling such a Principle into them, as is the root of all Oeconomical order, de­light, and contentment: while the husband looks upon his wife as on himself in the Feminine gender, and she on her husband as on her self in the Masculine. For Grammarians can discern no other difference then so, betwixt [...] and [...] Vir and Virissa. But R. Abraham Ben Ezra has found a mysterie in these names more then Grammatical. For in [...] and [...] sayes he, is the contracted name of Jehovah contained, viz. [...], for there is [...] and [...]. So long therefore as the married couple live in Gods fear and mutual love, God is with them as well as in their names. But if they cast God off by disobedience, and make not good what they owe one to the other, then is their condition what their names denotate to them, the name of God being taken out, viz. [...] and [...]. The fire of discord and contention here, and the eter­nal fire of Hell hereafter. This is the conceit of that pious and witty Rabbi.

Ver. 25. And were not ashamed. Matrimony and the knowledge of women being so effectually recom­mended unto the Jewes in the fore-going story, the wisdome of Moses did foresee that it would be ob­vious for the people to think with themselves, how so good and commendable a thing should have so much shame and diffidency hovering about it. For there is a general bashfulness in men and women in these matters, and they ever desire to transact these affairs [Page 130] in secret out of the sight of others. Wherefore Moses to satisfie their curiosity, continues his History further, and gives the reason of this shame in the following Chapter.

CHAP. III.

IN this third Chapter, there are causes laid down, of some of the most notable, and most concerning accidents in Nature. As of the hard travail and toil upon the sons of men, to get themselves a livelihood. Of the Antipathy betwixt Men and Serpents. Of the incumbrance of the ground with troublesome weeds. Of the shame of Venery. Of the pangs of childe­bearing; and of Death it self. Of all these Moses his wisdome held fit to give an account accommodate­ly to the capacity of the people. For these fall into that grand Question in Philosophy, [...]; [Page 131] whence sprung up Evil? which has exercised the wits of all Ages to this very day. And every fool is able to make the Question, but few men so wise, as to be either able to give, or fit to receive a sufficient answer to it, according to the depth of the matter it self.

But it was very necessary for Moses to hold on in his History, and to communicate to them those plain and intelligible Causes of the Evils that ever lay be­fore their eyes; he having so fully asserted God the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and Contriver of all things that we see: Adding also that the Laws that he propounded to them were delivered to him from God, and that all prosperity and happiness would ac­company them, if they observed the same. That they should eat the good things of the Land, and live a long and healthful age.

Now it was easie for the people, though they were but rude, and newly taken from making Bricks for Pharaoh in Aegypt, to think thus with themselves; If God made all things, how is it that they are no bet­ter then they are? Why do our wives bring forth their children with pain? Why are we obnoxious to be stung with Serpents? Why may not God give us an endlesse life, as well as a long life? and the like. To which Moses in general answers, (to the great ad­vantage of the people, and for the faster binding them to the Laws he delivered them from God) That it was disobedience to his will, that brought all this mis­chief into the world; which is most certainly true. But by what particular circumstances it is set out, you may here read in this third Chapter.

Ver. 1. The Serpent also. It had been too harsh and boistrous, and too grossely redounding to the dis­honour of our first Parents Adam and Eve, if they had immediately done violence to so express a com­mand [Page 132] of God, and shown themselves professed rebels against him. And their posterity would have been scarce able to have remembred them without cursings and bitterness, for being so bold and apert Authors of so much misery to them. But so it came to pass, that it was not of themselves, but by the subtilty of the Serpent that they were deceived into disobedience, be­ing overshort by his false suggestions. So that their mistake may be looked upon with pardon and pity, and our selves are fairly admonished to take heed that we forfeit not the rest.

But the power of Speech. I cannot be so large in my belief, as S. Basil, who affirms, That all living creatures in Paradise could speak, and understand one another. But according to the Literal Cabbala, I think it is manifest that the Serpent could; and that it was not the Devil in the Serpent, as some Interpre­ters would have it. For, why should the Serpent be cursed for the Devils sake? And beside, the whole business is attributed to the cunning and subtilty of the Serpent, as doing it by the power of his own na­ture. Therefore this were to confound two Cabbala's into one, to talk thus of the Serpent and the Devil at once.

Not eat of any of the Trees. So Chrysostome, Ru­pertus, and S. Augustine; as if the cunning Serpent had made use of that damnable Maxime, Calumniare fortiter, aliquid adhaerebit: So at first he layes his charge high against God, as if he would debarre them of necessary food, and starve them, that at last he might gain so much, at least that he did unnecessarily abridge them of what made mightily for their pleasure and perfection.

Ver. 4. See verse 1.

Ver. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened. [Page 133] Some gather from hence, that Adam and Eve were blinde till they tasted of the forbidden fruit. Which is so foolish a glosse, that none but a blinde man could ever have stumbled upon it. For the greatest pleasure of Paradise had been lost, if they had wanted their sight. Therefore as grosse as it is, that can be no part of any Literal Cabbala, it having nothing at all of probability in it. It is not [...].

Ver. 9. God's walking in the Garden, his calling after Adam, his pronouncing the doom upon him, his wife, and the Serpent, and sundry passages before, do again and again inculcate the opinion of the Anthro­pomorphites, that God has an humane shape; which I have already acknowledged to be the meaning of the Literal Cabbala.

Ver. 13. Here the first Original of Mischief is resolved into the Serpent, whereby Adam and Eves credits are something saved, and the root of misery to mankinde is plainly discovered.

Ver. 14. Creep upon thy belly. It is plain accor­ding to the Letter, that the Serpent went upright, which is the opinion also of S. Basil, else his doom signifies nothing, if he crept upon his belly before.

Ver. 15. Perpetual Antipathy. See verse 1.

Ver. 16. Her sorrows and pangs in childe-bear­ing. See verse 1. But these pains are much increa­sed to women by their luxury and rotten delicateness, that weakens Nature, and enfeebles the Spirits, so that they can endure nothing, when as those that are used to hardship and labor scape better. There is a notorious instance of it in a woman of Liguria, who, as Diodorus Siculus writes, being hard at work in the field, was overtaken with that other labour. But she went but aside a while, and disburthening her self, with a quick dispatch, laid her childe as gainly as she could in some [Page 134] fresh leaves and grasse, and came immediately again to her task, and would not have desisted from her work, but that he that hired her, in commiseration to the infant paid her the whole days wages to be shut of her. As if Providence had absolved her from the curse of Eve, she voluntarily undergoing so much of Adams, which was sweating in the field.

Ver. 18. See verse 1.

Ver. 19. Observe the great wisdome of Moses; The Statutes and Ordinances which he delivered unto the people, they being most of them not [...], but [...], not natural and intrinsecally good, but positive and dispensable in themselves; here according to this History, all those grand evils of toil and labour upon a barren ground, of pains in child-bed, and of death it self, are imputed to the transgression of a Law that was but meerly Positive; whereby the Law­giver does handsomely engage the people with all care and diligence to observe all the ceremonies and ordinances he gave them from God; the whole po­sterity of Adam finding the mischief of the breaking but that one Positive Law in Paradise, the eating of the fruit of such a tree that was forbidden. When as otherwise Positive Laws of themselves would have been very subject to be slighted and neglected.

Ver. 20. Called his wife Eve. [...] signifies life.

Ver. 21. The use of which God taught. The two great comforts and necessaries of life, are Food and Clothing. Wherefore it was fit to record this passage also to indear the peoples mindes to God, and increase their devotion and thankfulness to him, who was so particularly and circumstantially the Author of those great supports of life.

Ver. 23. Forth from the Garden of Eden. That shews plainly that Paradise was not the whole Earth, [Page 135] as some would have it. For he was brought into Paradise by God, and now he is driven out again; but he was not driven out of the world.

Ver. 24. Haunted with Spirits. This phrase is very significant of the nature of the thing it is to ex­press, and fitly sets out the condition of Paradise, when Adam was driven out of it, and could no more return thither by reason of those Spirits that had vi­sibly taken possession of the way thereunto, and of the place. Nor am I alone in this Exposition, Theodo­ret and Precopius bearing me company, who call these Apparitions at the entrance of Paradise [...], and Spectra terribili formâ. And I think that this may very well go for the literal sense of this verse, the existence of Spirits and Apparitions being ac­knowledged in all Nations, be they never so rude or slow-witted.

CHAP. I.

I Have plainly and faithfully set forth the meaning of Moses his Text, according to the Literal Cab­bala, and made his incomparable Policy, and pious Prudence manifest to all the world. For whether he had this History of Adam and Eve, and of the Crea­tion immediately from God on the Mount, or whether [Page 137] it was a very ancient tradition long before in the Ea­stern parts, as some Rabbines will have it, but ap­proved of by God in the Mount; Moses certainly could not have begun his Pentateuch with any thing more proper and more material to his scope and pur­pose then this. And it is nothing but the ignorance of the Atheist that can make him look upon it as con­temptible, it being in it self as highly removed above contempt, as true Prudence and Staidness is above Madness and Folly.

And yet I confess, I think there is still a greater depth and richness of wisdome in it, then has been hitherto opened in this Literal Cabbala, and such as shall represent Moses as profoundly seen in Philoso­phy, and divine Morality, as he is in Politicks. And against which the Atheist shall have nothing at all to alledge, unless ignorance and confidence furnish his brain with impertinent arguments.

For he shall not hear Moses in this Philosophick Cab­bala either tasking God to his six days labour, or bounding the world at the Clouds, or making the Moon bigger then the Stars, or numbring days with­out Suns, or bringing in a Serpent talking with a woman, or any such like passages, which the Atheists misunderstanding and perversenesse makes them take offence at; But they shall finde him more large and more free then any, and laying down such conclusi­ons as the wisest Naturalists, and Theosophers in all Ages have looked upon as the choicest and most pre­cious. Such, I say, are those in the Philosophick Cabbala you have read, and I am now come to de­fend it, and make it good, that it is indeed the mean­ing of Moses his Text. And one great Key for the understanding of it in this first Chapter, will be those Pythagorical Mysteries of Numbers, as I have inti­mated already in my Preface.

[Page 138] Ver. 1. I mean the same thing by both. And there is good reason there should be meant the same thing by both. For, besides that those actuall conspicuous Lights are in Heaven, viz. the Sun, and Stars, Hea­ven or the Aetherial Matter has in it all over the Principles of Light; which are the round Particles, and that very fine and subtile Matter that lies in the intervals of the round Particles. He that is but a lit­tle acquainted with the French Philosophy, under­stands the business plainly. And in the expounding of Moses, I think I may lay down this for a safe Principle, that there is no considerable truth in Na­ture or Divinity, that Moses was ignorant of, and so if it be found agreeable to his Text, I may very well attribute it to him. At least the Divine Wisdom wherewith Moses was inspired, prevents all the in­ventions of Men.

But now that I understand this Heaven and Earth in the first verse, as things distinct from Heaven and Earth afterwards mentioned, the very Text of Mo­ses favours it, emphatically calling this Heaven and Earth [...] and [...], when as the Heaven and Earth in the second and third days Creation he calls but plain [...] and [...].

I may adde also the authority of Philo, who ex­pounds not this Heaven and Earth of the visible and tangible Heaven and Earth which are mentioned in the second and third day, but of an Heaven and Earth quite different from them: As also the suffrage of S. Augustine, who understands likewise by Hea­ven and Light, one and the same thing, to wit, the Angels; and by Earth the first Matter: which is something like the sense of this present Cabbala, only for his Physical Matter, we set down a Metaphysical one, that other belonging most properly to the second [Page 139] day; and for Angels we have the World of Life, which comprehends not Angels only, but all substan­tial Forms and Spirits whatever.

And that Heaven or Light should be Symboles of the World of Life or Form, it is no wonder: For you may finde a sufficient reason in the Cabbala it self, at the fift verse of this present Chapter, and Plotinus assimilates Form to Light, [...], for Form is Light.

And lastly, in the second verse of this same Cha­pter, there be plain reasons also laid down, why the meer Possibility of the outward Creation is called the Earth, according to the description of the Earth in the second verse of the first Chapter of Moses his Text: unto which you may further adde, that as the Earth is looked upon as the Basis of the world, so the Possi­bility of the outward Creation is in some sense the Ba­sis thereof.

The Tri-une Godhead. The Hebrew words [...] do handsomely intimate a plurality, and sin­gularity, the Noun being in the Plural, the Verb in the Singular Number. Whence I conceive there may be very well here included the Mysterie of the Trinity and Ʋnity of the Godhead, or [...]. And Vatablus himself, though he shuffles with his Gram­matical Notions here, yet he does apertly acknowledge three Persons in one God, at the twenty sixt verse of this Chapter. And that this was the Philosophick Cabbala of Moses and the Learned and Pious of the Jews, it is no small argument, because the Notion of the Trinity is so much insisted upon by the Platonists and Pythagoreans, whom all acknowledge (and I think I shall make it more plain then ever) to have got their Philosophy from Moses.

By his Eternal Wisdome. Ambrose, Basil, and O­rigen [Page 140] interpret In Principio, to be as much as In Filio; and Colossians the first, there the Apostle speaking of the Son of God, he saith, that he is the First-born of every creature, and that by him were all things cre­ated that are in Heaven, and that are in Earth. And that he is before all things, and by him all things con­sist. This is the Wisdome of God, or the Idea ac­cording to which he framed all things. And there­fore must be before all things the Beginning of the creatures of God. And very answerable to this of the Apostle are those two attributes Philo gives to the same subject, calling him [...], The First-born Word of God, or the First-born Form of God; and [...] the Beginning. He calls him also simply [...], which is, the Word, Form, Reason, or Wisdome. And one of the Chaldee Paraphrasts also interprets In Principio, In Sapientia. And this agrees exceedingly well with that of Solomon [...] The Lord possessed me [...] Principium viae suae, that is, operum suorum, as Va­tablus expounds it, and the Text makes it good. [...] Oriens operum suorum ab anti­quo, The Sun-rise of his works of old. For there is no necessity of making of [...] and [...] Ad­verbs, they are Substantives. And here Wisdome is called [...] and [...] the Principle and Morn­ing of the Works of God, not by way of diminuti­on, but as supposing the East and the Morning to be the womb of light, from whence springs all Light and Form, and Form is Light, as I told you before out of Plotinus.

And this Notion of [...] sutes well with that pas­sage in Trismegist, where Hermes speaks thus; [...], &c. where [...] which [Page 141] is the same with [...] must signifie the divine Intellect, the bright Morning Star, the Wisdome of God: To which Wisdome called in the eight of the Proverbs [...] and [...] the Beginning and Morning of his Works, is ascribed the Creation of the world by Solomon, as you may there see at large. I will only adde, that what the Hebrew Text here in Genesis calls [...], the Chaldee calls [...], which is all one with [...]. Wherefore [...] is the Essential Wisdome of God, not an habit or property, but a substance that is Wisdome. For true wisdome is substance. [...], it is the same that Plotinus speaks. Whence he is called in the Apocalyps, [...], which is but a Periphrasis of Jehovah, Essence, or [...], which name [...] contains the future, present, and time past in it, in [...] and [...] as Zanchius observes: This is the second Hypostasis in the holy Trinity, the Logos, which was in the beginning of the world with God. All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made, John 1.

First created this. I cannot impute it to any reason at all, but to the slownesse of Fancie, and heavy un­weildinesse of Melancholy, or the load of Bloud and Flesh, that makes men imagine, that Creation is in­competible even to God himselfe; when as I think, I have no lesse then demonstrated in my Antidote a­gainst Atheism, that it is impossible but God should have the power of Creation, or else he would not be God. But because our Will and Minde can create no Substance distinct from our selves, we foolishly conceit, measuring the Power of God by our own, that he cannot create any Substance distinct from him­self. Which is but a weak conclusion fallen from our own dulnesse and inadvertency.

[Page 142] Ver. 2. Solitude and Emptinesse. The very word signifies so in the Original, as Vatablus will tell you. Which being abstract tearms (as the Schools call them) do very fittingly agree with the Notion we have put upon this Symbolical Earth, affirming it no real actual subject, either spiritual or corporeal, that may be said to be void and empty; but to be Vacui­ty and Emptiness it self, onely joined with a capacity of being something. It is, as I have often intimated, the Ens Potentiale of the whole outward Creation.

But the Spirit of God. Not a great Wind, but the holy Ghost. This is the Interpretation general of the Fathers. And it is a sign that it is according to the true Mosaical Cabbala, it being so consonant to Pla­to's School, which School I suspect now has more of that Cabbala, then the Jews themselves have at this day.

Having hovered a while. The word in the Origi­nal is [...], which signifies a hovering or brooding over a thing as a Bird does over her nest, or on her young ones. Hence it is not unlikely is Aristophanes his Egge.

To this sense,

And this manner of brooding thus is an Embleme of dearest affection; and who knows but that from this Text the Poets took occasion of feigning that ancient Cupid the Father of all the Gods, the Creator of all things, and Maker of Mankinde? For so he is de­scribed by Hesiod and Orpheus, and here in this place [Page 143] of Aristophanes, from whence I took the forecited verse.

Simmias Rhodius describes this ancient Love in verses which represent a pair of wings. I will not say according to this conceit of Aristophanes his Egge, which they should brood and hatch. But the longest Quill of one of them writes thus:

To this sense:

This Spirit of God then, or the divine Love which was from everlasting, will prove the third divine Hypo­stasis. The first was [...], which signifies strength, and a word rather common to the whole Trinity. But Jehovah, as the Rabbines observe, is a name of God as he is merciful and gracious, which may be an­swerable to Plato his [...], but that name is also communicated to Christ, as we have already ac­knowledged. The second is [...], which is Wis­dome, as has been prov'd out of the Proverbs and answers to the Platonical [...]. The third we have now light upon, which must be Love, and it has a lucky coincidence also with the third Hypostasis in the Platonick Triad [...], whom Plotinus calls [...], the Celestial Venus. And to this after a more immediate manner is the Creation of the world ascribed by that Philosopher, as also by Plato; as here in Moses the Spirit of God is said to lie close brooding upon the humid Matter for the actual Pro­duction of this outward world.

[Page 144] Ver. 3. Exist independently of Corporeal Matter. That which exists first it is plain is independent of what follows, and Philo makes all Immateriate Bee­ings to be created in this first day: Whence the Souls of Men are removed far from all fear of fate and mor­tality, which is the grand Tenent of Plato's School.

Ver. 5. Matter meerly Metaphysical. See Hyle in my Interpretation general at the end of my Poems; where you shall find that I have settled the same No­tion I make use of here, though I had no design then of expounding Moses.

Monad or Ʋnite. The fitnesse of the number to the nature of every days work, you shall observe to be wonderful. Whence we may well conclude, that it was ordered so on purpose, and that in all probabi­lity Pythagoras was acquainted with this Cabbala; And that that was the reason the Pythagoreans made such a deal of doe with numbers, putting other con­ceits upon them, then any other Arithmeticians do; and that therefore if such Theorems as the Pythagore­ans held, be found sutable and compliable with Mo­ses his Text, it is a shrewd presumption that that is the right Philosophick Cabbala thereof.

Philo makes this first day spent in the Creation of Immateral and Spiritual Beeings, of the Intellectual world, taking it in a large sense, or the Mundus vitae, as Ficinus calls it, The World of Life and Forms. And the Pythagoreans call an Unite [...], Form, and [...], Life. They call it also [...], or the Tower of Jupiter, giving also the same name to a Point or Center, by which they understand the vital forma­tive Center of things, the Rationes Seminales: and they call an Unite also [...], which is Semi­nal Form. But a very short and sufficient account of Philo's pronouncing that Spiritual Substances are [Page 145] the first days work, is, That as an Ʋnite is indivisi­ble in Numbers, so is the nature of Spirits indivisible; you cannot make two of one of them, as you may make of one piece of Corporeal Matter two, by actu­all division or severing them one piece from another. Wherefore what was truly and properly created the first day; was Immaterial, Indivisible, and Indepen­dent of the Matter, from the highest Angel, to the meanest Seminal Form.

And for the Potentiality of the outward Creation, sith it is not so properly any real Beeing, it can breed no difficulty, but whatever it is, it is referrable fitly enough to Incorporeal things, it being no object of Sense, but of Intellect, and being also impassible and undiminishable, and so in a sort indivisible. For the Power of God being undiminishable, the Possibility of the Creature must be also undiminishable, it be­ing an adaequate consequence of his Power. Where­fore this Potentiality being ever one, it is rightly re­ferred to the first day. And in respect of this the Py­thagoreans call an Ʋnite [...], as well as the Binary, as also [...], and [...], which names plainly glance at the dark Potentiality of things, set out by Moses in the first days Creation.

Ver. 6. Created an immense deal, &c. He creates now Corporeal Matter, (as before the World of Life) out of nothing. Which universal Matter may well be called [...] For extension is very proper to Corpo­real Matter. Castellio translates it Liquidum, and this universal Matter is most what fluid still, all over the world, but at first it was fluid universally.

Betwixt the aforesaid fluid Possibility, &c. But here it may be you'll enquire, how this Corporeal Matter shall be conceived to be betwixt the waters above, and these underneath. For what can be the [Page 146] waters above, Maimonides requires no such continued Analogy in the hidden sense of Scripture, as you may see in his Preface to his Moreh Nevochim. But I need not fly to that general refuge. For me thinks that the Seminal Forms that descend through the Matter, and so reach the Possibility of the parts of the out­ward Creation, and make them spring up into act, are not unlike the drops of rain that descend through the Heaven or Air, and make the Earth fruitful. Besides, the Seminal Forms of things lie round, as I may so speak, and contracted at first, but spread when they bring any part of the Possibility of the outward Cre­ation into act, as drops of rain spread when they are fallen to the ground. So that the Analogy is palpa­ble enough, though it may seem too elaborate and curious. We may adde to all this concerning the Naides or Water Nymphs, that the Ancients under­stood by them [...], All manner of Souls that descend into the Matter and Generation. Wherefore the watry Pow­ers (as Porphyrius also calls these Nymphs) it is not at all harsh to conceive, that they may be here indi­gitated by the name of the Ʋpper waters. See Por­phyrius in his De Antro Nympharum.

Ver. 7. What mischief straying Souls. The fre­quent complaints that that noble Spirit in Pythagore­ans and Platonists makes against the incumbrances and disadvantages of the Body, makes this Cabbala very probable. And it is something like our Divines fancying Hell to be created this day.

Ver. 8. Actuated and agitated. This is consonant to Plato's School, who makes the Matter unmovable of it self, which is most reasonable. For if it were of its own nature movable, nothing for a moment would hold together, but dissolve it self into infinitely little [Page 147] Particles; whence it is manifest, that there must be something besides the Matter, either to binde it or to move it; So that the Creation of Immaterial Bee­ings, is in that respect also necessary.

Rightly called Heaven. I mean [...]. For this agitation of the Matter brought it to Des Cartes his second Principle, which is the true Aether, or rather [...]. For it is liquid as water, and yet has in it the fierce Principle of Fire, which is the first Ele­ment and most subtile of all. The thing is at first sight understood by Cartesians, who will easily admit of that Notation of the Rabbines in the word [...], as being from [...] Fire, and [...] Water. For so R. Bechai, The Heavens, sayes he, were created from the beginning, and are called [...], because they are [...] and [...] Fire and Water; which no Philosophy makes good so well as the Cartesian. For the round particles, like water, (though they be not of the same Figure) flake the fierceness of the first Principle, which is the purest Fire. And yet this Fire in some measure alway lies within the Triangular Intervals of the round Particles, as that Philosophy declares at large.

And the Binary. How fitly again doth the num­ber agree with the nature of the work of this day, which is the Creation of Corporeal Matter And the Pythagoreans call the number Two [...] Matter. Simplicius upon Aristotles Physicks, speaking of the Pythagoreans [...]. They might well, sayes he, call One, Form, as defining and terminating to certain shape and property whatever it takes holds of. And Two they might well call Matter, it being undetermi­nate, and the cause of Bigness and Divisibility. And they have very copiously heaped upon the number [Page 148] Two, such appellations as are most proper to Corpo­real Matter. As [...], Ʋnfigured, Ʋndeterminated, Ʋnlimited. For such is Matter of it self till Form take hold of it. It is cal­led also [...] from the fluidity of the Matter. [...], because it affords substance to the Heavens and Starres. [...], Contention, Fate, and Death, for these are the consequencies of the Souls being joined with corporeal Matter, [...], Motion, Generation, and Division, which are Properties plainly appertaining to Bodies. They call this number also [...], because it is the [...], the Subject that endures and undergoes all the changes and alterations, the active Forms put up­on it. Wherefore it is plain that the Pythagoreans understood Corporeal Matter by the number Two▪ which no man can deny but that it is a very fit Sym­bole of Division, that eminent Property of Matter.

But we might cast in a further reason of the [...] being created the second day: for the Celestial Mat­ter does consist of two plainly distinguishable parts, to wit, the first Element, and the second; or the Ma­teria subtilissima, and the round Particles, as I have already intimated out of Des Cartes his Philosophy.

Ver. 9. It is referred to the following day. You are to understand that these Six numbers, or days, do not signifié any order of time, but the nature of the things that were said to be made in them. But for any thing in Moses his Philosophick Cabbala, all might be made at once, or in such periods of time, as is most sutable to the nature of the things themselves. What is said upon this ninth verse, will be better understood, and with more full satisfaction, when we come to the fourth days work.

Ver. 13. And the Ternary denotes. In this third [Page 149] day was the waters commanded into one place, the Earth adorned with all manner of Plants, Paradise, and all the pleasure and plenty of it created, wherein the Serpent beguiled Eve, and so forth. What can therefore be more likely, then that the Pythagoreans use their numbers as certain remembrancers of the particular passages of this History of the Creation; when as they call the number Three, [...] and [...], i. e. Triton and Lord of the Sea; which is in reference to Gods commanding the water into one place, and making thereof a Sea. They call also the Ternary [...], and [...]: The former intimates the plenty of Paradise, the latter relates to the Serpent there. But now besides this we shall find the Ternary very significant of the nature of this days work. For first, the Earth consists of the third Ele­ment in the Cartesian Philosophy, (for the truth of that Philosophy will force it self in whether I will or no) and then again there are three grand parts of this third Element necessary to make an Earth habitable, the dry Land, the Sea, (whence are Springs and Ri­vers and the Air; and lastly, there are in Vegetables, which is the main work of this day, three eminent properties, according to Aristotle, viz. Nutrition, Accretion, Generation; and also, if you consider their duration, there be these three Cardinal points of it, Ortus, Acme, Interitus. You may cast in also that Minerals which belong to this day as well as Plants, that both Plants and they, and in general, all Terre­strial Bodies have the three Chymical Principles in them, Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury.

Ver. 16. Such as is the Earth we live upon. As the Matter of the Universe came out in the second day, so the contriving of this Matter into Sunnes and Planets, is contained in this fourth day, the Earth her self not [Page 150] excepted, though according to the Letter she is made in the first day, and as she is the Nurse of Plants, said to be uncovered in the third, yet as she is a receptacle of Light, and shines with borrowed raies like the Moon and other Plants, she may well be referred to this fourth days Creation.

Nor will this at all seem bold or harsh, if we con­sider that the most learned have already agreed that all the whole Creation was made at once. As for example, The most rational of all the Jewish Do­ctors, R. Moses Aegyptius, Philo Judeus, Procopius Gazeus, Cardinal Cajetan [...], S. Augustine, and the Schools of Hillel and Samai, as Manasseh Ben Is­rael writes. So that that leisurely order of days is thus quite taken away, and all the scruples that may rise from that Hypothesis.

Wherefore I say, the Earth as one of the primary Planets was created this fourth day. And I translate [...] Primary Planets. Primary, because of [...] Emphatical, and Planets, because the very notation of their name implies their nature; for [...] is plainly from [...] Ʋstio, or burning, and [...] extinction, Nouns made from [...] and [...] as [...] and [...] from [...] and [...], according to unexceptionable Analogy. And the Earth, as also the rest of the Planets, their nature is such, as if they had once been burning and shining Suns, but their light and heat being extinguished, they afterwards became opake Planets. This con­clusion seems here plainly to be contained in Moses, but is at large demonstrated in Des Cartes his Philo­sophy. Nor is this Notation of [...] enervated by alledging that the word is ordinarily used to signifie the fixed Stars, as well as the Planets. For I do not deny but that in a vulgar Notion it may be compe­tible to them also. For the fixed Stars according to [Page 151] the imagination of the rude people, may be said to be lighted up, and extinguished, so often as they appear and disappear; for they measure all by obvious sense and fancie, and may well look upon them as so many Candles set up by divine Providence in the Night, but by Day frugally put out, for wasting: And I re­member Theodoret in his [...], has so glibly swallowed down the Notion, that he uses it as a spe­cial argument of Providence, that they can burn thus with their heads downwards, and not presently sweal out and be extinguished, as our ordinary Candles are. Wherefore the word [...], may very well be attribu­ted to all the Stars as well Fixed, as Planets, but to the Fixed only upon vulgar seeming grounds, to the Planets upon true and natural. And we may be sure that that is that which Moses would aim at, and lay stresse upon in his Philosophick Cabbala. Where­fore in brief, [...] Emphatical in [...] contains a double Emphasis, intimating those true [...] or Planets, and then the most eminent amongst those tru­ly so tearmed. Nor is it at all strange, that so abstruse conclusion of Philosophy should be lodged in this Mosaical Text. For, as I have elsewhere intimated, Moses has been aforehand with Cartesius. The anci­ent Patriarchs having had wit, and by reason of their long lives leisure enough to invent as curious and sub­tile Theorems in Philosophy, as ever any of their po­sterity could hit upon, besides what they might have had by tradition from Adam. And if we finde the Earth a Planet, it must be acknowledged forthwith that it runs about the Sun, which is pure Pythago­risme again, and a shrewd presumption that he was taught that mysterie by this Mosaical Cabbala. But that the Earth is a Planet, besides the Notation we have already insisted upon, the necessity of be­ing [Page 152] created in this fourth day amongst the other Pla­nets, is a further Argument. For there is no mention of its Creation in any day else, according to this Phi­losophick Cabbala.

Ver. 17. Inhabitants of the world. The Hebrew is [...]. And I have made bold to interpret [...], not of this one Individual Earth, but of the whole Species; and therefore I render it the World at large. As [...] in the twenty seventh of this Chapter, is not an Individual Man, but Mankinde in general. And so ver. 16. [...] viz. [...] and [...], are interpreted after the same manner, rendring them the greater sort of Lights, and the lesser sort of Lights. So that no Grammatical violence is done to the Text of Moses all this time.

Ver. 19. And the number denotes. This fourth days Creation is the contrivance of Matter into Suns and Planets, or into Suns, Moons, and Earths. For the Aethereal Vortices were then set a going, and the Corporeal world had got into an useful order and shape. And the ordering and framing of the Corpo­real world, may very well be said to be transacted in the number Four; Four being the first body in num­bers an Aequilateral Pyramid, which Figure also is a right Symbole of Light, the raies entring the eye in a Pyramidal form. And Lights now are set up in all the vast Region of the Aethereal Matter, which is Heaven. The Pythagoreans also call this number [...], & [...], Body, and the World, intimating the Creation of the Corporeal world therein. And fur­ther, signifying in what excellent proportion and har­mony the world was made, they call this number Four: [...] and [...], and [...]. Harmony, Ʋrania, and the Stirrer up of divine Fu­ry and Extasie; Insinuating that all things are so sweet­ly [Page 153] and fittingly ordered in the world, that the several motions thereof are as a comely Dance, or ravishing Musick, and are able to carry away a contemplative Soul into Rapture and Extasie upon a clear view, and attentive Animadversion of the Order and Oecono­my of the Universe. And Philo, who does much Pythagorize in his Exposition of Moses, observes, That this number Four contains the most perfect pro­portions in Musical Symphonies, viz. Diatessaron, Diapente, Diapason, and Disdiapason, [...], &c. For the proportion of Diatessaron is as Four to Three, of Diapente as Three to Two, of Diapason as Two to One, or Four to Two, of Disdiapason as Four to One. We might cast in also the consideration of that divine Nemesis, which God has placed in the frame and nature of the Universal Creation, as he is a Distributer to every one according to his works. From whence himself is also called Nemesis, by Aristotle, [...], Because he every where distributes what is due to every one. This is in ordinary language Ju­stice, and both Philo and Plotinus out of the Pytha­goreans, affirms, that the number Four is a Symbole of Justice. All which, makes towards what I drive at, that the whole Creation is concerned in this num­ber Four, which is called the Fourth day. And for further eviction, we may yet adde, that as all numbers are contained in Four virtually, (by all numbers is meant Ten, for when we come to Ten, we go back again) so the root and foundation of all the Corpo­real Creation is laid in this fourth days work, wherein Suns, Earths, and Moons are made, and the ever whir­ling Vortices. For as Philo observes, Pythagorean-like, Ten (which they call also [...], and [...], the World, Heaven, and All-perfectnesse) [Page 154] is made by the scattering of the parts of Four: thus, 1, 2, 3, 4. Put these together now and they are Ten. [...], The Ʋniverse. And this was such a secret amongst Pythagoras his disciples, that it was a solemn oath with them to swear by him that delive­red to them the mysterie of the Tetractys, Tetrad or number Four.

Thus they swore by Pythagoras as is conceived, who taught them this mysterious tradition. And had it not been a right worshipful mysterie think you in­deed, and worthy of the solemnity of Religion and of an Oath, to understand that 1, 2, 3, 4. make Ten. And that Ten is All, which rude mankinde told first upon their fingers, and Arithmeticians discover it by calling them Digits at this very day.

There is no likelihood that so wise a man as Pythago­ras was, should lay any stress upon such trifles, or that his Scholars should be such fools as to be taken with them. But it is well known that the Pythagoreans held the Motion of the Earth about the Sun, w ^ch is plainly implied according to the Philosophick Cabbala of this Fourth days work. So much of his secrets got out to common knowledge and fame. But it is very highly probable, that he had the whole Philosophick Cabbala of the Creation opened to him by some knowing Priest or Philosopher (as we now call them) in the Oriental parts, that under this mysterie of numbers set out to [Page 155] him the choicest and most precious conclusions in Na­tural Philosophy, interpreting as I conceive, the Text of Moses in some such way as I have light upon, and making all those generous and ample conclusions good by Demonstration and Reason. And so Py­thagoras being well furnished with the knowledge of things, was willing to impart them to those whose piety and capacity was fit to receive them; Not lay­ing aside that outward form of numbers, which they were first conveied to himself in. But such Arith­metical nugacities as are ordinarily recorded for his, in dry numbers, to have been the riches of the Wis­dome of so famous a Philosopher, is a thing beyond all credit or probability.

Wherefore I conceive, that the choicest and most precious treasures of knowledge, being laid open in the Cabbala of the Fourth day; from thence it was that so much Solemnity and Religion was put upon that number, which he called his Tetractys, which seems to have been of two kindes, the one, the single number Four, the other Thirty six, made of the four first Masculine numbers, and the four first Fe­minine, viz. of 1, 3, 5, 7. and of 2, 4, 6, 8. where­in you see that the former and more simple Tetractys is still included and made use of; for Four here takes place again in the Assignment of the Masculine and Feminine Numbers. Whence I further conceive, that under the number of this more complex Tetrad which contains also the other in it, he taught his disciples the mysterie of the whole Creation, opening to them the nature of all things as well Spiritual as Corporeal. [...], as a certain Author writes; For an even Number carries along with it divisibi­lity, [Page 156] and passibility. But an odde Number, indivi­sibility, impassibility, and activity, wherefore that is called Feminine, this Masculine.

Wherefore the putting together of the four first Masculine Numbers to the four first Feminine, is the joining of the active and passive Principles together, matching the parts of the Matter, with congruous Forms from the World of life. So that I conceive the Tetractys was a a Symbole of the whole Systeme of Pythagoras his Philosophy, which we may very justly suspect to be the same with the Mosaical Cabba­la. And the root of this Tetractys is Six, which a­gain hits upon Moses▪ and remindes us of the Six days work of the Creation.

Ver. 20. Fish and Fowl are made in the same day. And here Moses does plainly play the Philosopher in joining them together; for there is more affinity be­twixt them then is easily discerned by the heedlesse vulgar: for besides that Fowls frequent the waters very much, many kindes of them I mean, these Ele­ments themselves of Air and Water, for their thin­nesse and liquidity, are very like one another. Be­sides, the sinnes of fishes and the wings of birds, the feathers of one and the scales of the other, are very Analogical. They are both also destitute of Ʋre­ters, Dugges, and Milk, and are Oviparous. Fur­ther, their motions are mainly alike, the fishes as it were flying in the water, and the fowls swimming in the Air, according to that of the Poet concerning Daedalus, when he had made himself wings;

Insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos.

Cast in this also, that as some fowls dive and swim under water, so some fishes fly above the water in the air, for a considerable space till their finnes begin to be something stiffe and dry.

[Page 157] Ver. 23. And the Quinary denotes. Philo does not here omit that obvious consideration of the Five senses in Animals. But it is a strange coincidence, if it was not intended that living creatures should be said to be made in the Fift and Sixt day, those Num­bers according to the Pythagorical mysterie being so fitly significant of the nature of them. For Five is acknowledged by them to be Male and Female, con­sisting of Three and Two, the two first Masculine and Feminine numbers. It is also an Emblem of Gene­ration, for the number Five drawn into Five brings about Five again, as you see in Five times Five, which is Twenty Five. So an Eagle ingendring with an Eagle, brings forth an Eagle; and a Dolphin ingen­dring with a Dolphin, a Dolphin; and so in the rest. Whence the Pythagoreans call this number Five Cy­therea, that is, Venus, and [...], Marriage; and in Birds it is evident that they choose their mates. Con­cerning the number Six, I shall speak in its proper place.

Ver. 26. That it is so free, so rational. That the Image of God consists in this rather then in the do­minion over the creature, I take to be the right sense, and more Philosophical, the other more Political; and Philo interprets it after that manner we have made choice of, which is also more sutable to Platonisme and Pythagorisme, the best Cabbala that I know of Moses his Text.

Ver. 27. Male and Female. It is a wonder, sayes Grotius, to see how the Explications of the Rabbines upon this place, and those passages in Plato's Sympo­sion agree one with another, which notwithstanding from whatsoever they proceeded, I make no questi­on, sayes he, but they are false and vain. And I must confesse I am fully of the same opinion. But this [Page 158] strange agreement betwixt Aristophanes his Narrati­on, in the forenamed Symposion, and the comments of the Rabbines upon this Text, is no small argument that Plato had some knowledge of Moses, which may well adde the greater authority and credit to this our Cabbala. But it was the wisdome of Plato to own the true Cabbala himself, but such unwar­rantable Fancies as might rise from the Text, to cast upon such a ridiculous shallow companion as Ari­stophanes, it was good enough for him to utter in that Clubbe of Wits, that Philosophick Symposion of Plato.

Ver. 28. They Lorded it. The Seventy have it [...], which is to domineer with an high hand, Matth. 20.

Ver. 31. And the Senary denotes. The Senary or the number Six has a double reference, the one to this particular days work, the other to the whole Creation. For the particular days work, it is the Cre­ation of sundry sorts of Land Animals, divided into Male and Female. And the number Six is made up of Male and Female. For Two into Three is Six. The conceit is Philo's; and hence the Pythagoreans called this Number, [...], Matrimony, as Clemens also observes, adding moreover that they did it in re­ference to the Creation of the world, set down by Moses. This number also in the same sort that the number Five, is a fit Embleme of Procreation. For Six drawn into Six, makes Thirty Six. The conceit is Plutarchs in his De Ei apud Delphos, though he speak it of an inferiour kinde of Generation: But me thinks it is most proper to Animals. Here is something al­so that respects Man, particularly the choicest result of this Sixt days labour. The number of the brutish Nature was Five, according to Philo; but here is an [Page 159] Unite superadded in Man, Reason reaching out to the knowledge of a God. And this Unite added to the former Five, makes Six.

But now for the reference that Six bears to the whole Creation, that the Pythagoreans did conceive it was significant thereof, appears by the titles they have given it. For they call it [...]. The articulate and compleat effor­mation of the Ʋniverse, the Anvill, and the World. I suppose they call it the Anvill from that indefati­gable shaping out of new Forms and Figures upon the Matter of the Universe, by virtue of the Active Prin­ciple that ever busies it self every where. But how the Senary should Emblematize the World, you shall understand thus: The world is self-compleat, filled and perfected by its own parts; so is the Senarius, which has no denominated part but a Sixt, Third, and Second, viz. 1, 2, 3. which put together make Six, and Euclide defines a perfect Number from this property, [...]. A perfect Number is that which is equall to its parts. Wherefore this number sets out the perfection of the world, and you know God in the close of all, saw that all that he made was very good. Then a­gain the world is [...], Mas & Foemina, that is, it consists of an active and passive Principle, the one brought down into the other from the World of life; And the Senary is made by the drawing of the first Masculine Number into the first Feminine, for Three into Two is Six.

Thus you see continuedly, that the property of the Number sets off the nature of the work of every day, according to those mysteries that the Pythagore­ans have observed in them; and besides this, that the Numbers have ordinarily got Names answerable to [Page 160] each days work; which, as I have often intimated, is a very high probability, that the Pythagoreans had a Cabbala referring to Moses his Text, and the Histo­ry of the Creation. And Philo, though not in so pun­ctual a way, has offered at the opening of the minde of Moses by this Key. But I hope I have made it so plain, that it will not hereafter be scrupled, but that this is the genuine way of interpreting the Philoso­phick meaning of the Mosaical Text in this first Chapter of Genesis.

CHAP. II.

IN this second Chapter Moses having spoke of the Sabbath, returns to a more particular Declaration of the Creation of Adam, which is referrable to the Sixt days work. Then he falls upon that mysterious story of Paradise, which runs out into the next Cha­pter.

Ver. 3. And the number declares the nature. The Hebdomad or Septenary is a fit Symbole of God, as he is considered having finished these six days Crea­tion. For then, as this Cabbala intimates, he creates nothing further. And therefore his condition is then very fitly set out by the number Seven. All num­bers within the Decad, are cast into three ranks, as Philo observes. [...]. Some beget, but are not begotten; others are begotten, but do not beget; the last both beget, and are begotten. The number Seven is only excepted, that is neither begotten, nor begets any number, which is a perfect Embleme of God celebrating this Sabbath. For he now creates nothing of anew, as himself is un­creatable. So that the creating and infusing of souls as occasion should offer, is quite contrary to this Mo­saical Cabbala. But the Cabbala is very consonant to it self, which declares that all souls were created at once in the first day, and will in these following Chapters declare also the manner of their falling into the body.

Ver. 4. Productions of the Heavens. The Origi­nal hath it [...]. Here the Suns and Planets are plainly said to be generated by the Hea­vens, [Page 162] or Aethereal Matter, which is again wonder­fully consonant to the Cartesian Philosophy, but after what manner Planets and Stars are thus generated, you may see there at large. It cannot but be acknow­ledged; that there was a faddome-lesse depth of Wisdome in Moses, whose skill in Philosophy thus plainly prevents the subtilest and most capacious rea­ches of all the wits of the world that ever wrote af­ter him.

Take upon me to define. That no set time is under­stood by the six days Creation, hath been witnessed already out of approved Authors, and the present Cabbala plainly confirms it, shewing that the mysterie of numbers is meant, not the order or succession of days.

Ver. 6. Like dewy showers of Rain. Vatablus plainly interprets the place of Rain. But I conceive it better interpreted of something Analogical to the common Rain, that now descends upon the Earth, which is lesse oily a great deal, and not so full of vi­tall vigour and principles of life.

Ver. 7. And Man himself rose out of the Earth. That God should shape earth with his own hands like a Statuary, into the figure of a Man, and then blow breath into the nostrils of it, and so make it be­come alive, is not likely to be the Philosophick Cabba­la, it being more palpably accommodated to vulgar concern. But mention of Rain immediately before the making of Man, may very well insinuate such prepara­tions of the ground, to have some causal concourse for his production. And if it be at all credible, that other living creatures rose out of the Earth in this manner, it is as likely that man did so likewise; for the same words are used concerning them both: for the Text of Moses, ver. 19. sayes, That out of the ground God [Page 163] formed every Beast of the Field, and every Fowl of the Air, as it sayes in the seventh verse, that he for­med Man of the dust of the ground. Whence Eu­ripides the Tragedian (one that Socrates lov'd and respected much for his great knowledge and virtue, and would of his own accord be a spectator of his Tragedies, when as they could scarce force him to see other Playes, as Aelian writes) this Euripides, I say, pronouncing of the first generation of men, and the rest of living creatures, affirmed that they were born all after the same manner, and that they rose out of the Earth. And that Euripides was tinctured with the same doctrines that were in Pythagoras, and Plato's School, both the friendship betwixt him and Socrates, as also the [...] or Moral and Philoso­phick sentences in his Tragedies are no inconsidera­ble arguments. And as I have already intimated, the best Philosophick Cabbala of Moses that is, I suspect to be in their Philosophy, I mean of Plato and Pythagoras.

Ver. 8. Where he had put the Man. For there is no Praeterpluperfect Tense in the Hebrew, and there­fore as Vatablus observes, if the sense require, the Praeterperfect Tense stands for it.

Wholly Aethereal. For that's the pure Heavenly and undefiled Vehicle of the soul, according to Pla­tonisme.

Beams of the divine Intellect. I have already more at large shewed how the Son of God or the di­vine Intellect is set out by the similitude of the Sun­rising, or East, which I may again here further con­firm out of Philo; [...]. In his [...]. So that the placing of Paradise under the Sun-rise, signifies the condition of a Soul irrigated by the rayes [Page 164] of the divine Intellect, which she is most capable of in her Aethereal Vehicle. But that the souls of men were from the beginning of the world, is the general opinion of the Learned Jewes, as well as of the Py­thagoreans and Platonists, and therefore a very war­rantable Hypothesis in the Philosophick Cabbala.

Ver. 9. The Essential Will of God. By the Essen­tial Will of God, is understood the Will of God be­coming Life and Essence to the Soul of Man; where­by is signified a more thorough union betwixt the di­vine and humane nature, such as is in them that are firmly regenerated and radicated in what is good. Philo makes the Tree of Life to be [...], that is, Piety or Religion, but the best Religion and Piety is to be of one will with God: see John 1. 12.

Ver. 10. The Four Cardinal Virtues. It is Philo's Exposition upon the place; and then the River it self to be [...], That general goodnesse distinguishable into these four heads of virtue.

Ver. 11. Is Pison. From [...] or [...] to spread and diffuse it self, to multiply and abound. This is Wisdome or Prudence, called Pison, partly because it diffuses it self into all our actions, and regulates the exercise of the other Three virtues, and partly because Wisdome and Truth, fills and encreases, and spreads out every day more then other. For Truth is very fruitful, and there are ever new occasions that adde experience of things.

According to our English Proverb, The older the wiser.

In the Land of Havilah. From [...] and [...] or [...], Deus indicavit, God hath shown it.

Ver. 12. Pure Gold, &c. An easie Embleme of [Page 165] tried Experience, the mother of true Wisdome and Prudence. And the virtue of Bdellium is not unpro­per for diseases that arise from Phlegmatick lazinesse; and the very name and nature of the Onyx stone also points out the signification of it, though there be no necessity, as I have told you already out of Mai­monides, to give an account in this manner of every particular passage in an Allegory or Parable. Where­fore if any man think me too curious, they may omit these expositions, and let them go for nought.

Ver. 13. River is Gihon. According to the Hi­story or Letter we have made Pison, Phasis, and Gi­hon a branch of Euphrates. But the ancient Fathers, Epiphanius, Augustine, Ambrose, Hieronymus, The­odoret, Damascen, and several others make Pison, Ganges, and Gihon, Nilus. And they have no con­temptible arguments for it. For first, Jerem. 2. 18. Sihor, is a River of Aegypt, which is not questioned to be any other then Nilus, and its Etymon seems to bewray the truth of it, from [...] denigrari, from the muddy blacknesse of the River. And Nilus is notorious for this quality, and therefore has its deno­mination thence in the Greek, quasi [...], acor­ding to which is that of Dionysius.

That is,

But now to recite the very words of the Prophet, What hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? the Latine has it, ut bibas a­quam turbidam. This is Nilu [...], But the Seventy [Page 166] translate it [...], To drink the water of Gihon; which is the name of this very River of Pa­radise: And the Abyssines also even to this day call Nilus by the name of Guion. Adde unto this, that Gihon runs in Aethiopia, so does Nilus, and is Siris, as it runs through Aethiopia, which is from Si­hor it is likely, and then the Greek termination makes it Sioris, after by contraction Siris.

That is,

As the same Author writes in his Geographical Poems. And that Pison is Ganges, has also its pro­babilities. Ganges being in India a Countrey fa­mous for Gold and precious Stones. Besides, the notation of the name agrees with the nature of the Ri­ver. Pison being from [...] multiplicare. And there is no lesse a number then Ten, and those great Rivers that exonerate themselves into Ganges: as there must be a conflux of multifarious experience to fill up and compleat that virtue of Wisdome or Prudence. So that we shall see that the four Rivers of Paradise have got such names, as are most advantageous and favou­rable to the mysterious sense of the story.

Wherefore regardlesse here of all Geographical scrupulosities, we will say that Gihon is Nilus or Si­ris, the River of the Aethiopians, that is, of the Just, and the virtue is here determinately set off from the subject wherein it doth reside: For by the fame of the Justice and Innocency of the Aethiopians, we are assured which of the Cardinal Virtues is meant [Page 167] by Gihon. And the ancient fame of their honesty and uprightnesse was such, that Homer has made it their Epithet, calling them [...], The blamelesse Aethiopians; adding further, that Jupiter used to banquet with them, he being so much taken with the integrity of their conversation. And Dio­nysius calls them [...], The divine, or Deiforme Aethiopians: and they were so styled [...], by reason of their Justice, as Eustathius comments upon the place. Herodotus also speaking of them says, they are very goodly men, and much civilized, and of a very long life, which is the reward of Righteousnesse. So that by the place where Gi­hon runs, it is plainly signified to us, what Cardinal Virtue is to be understood thereby.

Notation of the name thereof. The name Gihon as you have seen, fairly incites us to acknowledge it a River of Aethiopia. The notation thereof does very sutably agree with the nature of Justice, for it is from [...] erumpere. And Justice is [...], Bonum alienum, as the Philosopher notes, not confined within a mans self, but breaks out rather upon others, bestowing upon every one what is their due.

Ver. 14. Is Hiddekell. The word is compounded, says Vatablus, from two words that signifie velox & rapidum, and this virtue like a swift and rapid stream, bears down all before it, as you have it in the Cabbala.

And stoutly resists. Philo uses here the word [...], to resist, which he takes occasion from the Seventies [...], which he interprets a­gainst the Assyrians. The Hebrew has it, Eastward of Assyria, and therefore Assyria is situated Westward of it. Now the West is that quarter of the world [Page 168] where the Sun bidding us adieu, leaves us to darkness, whence [...], the West wind, in Eustathius, has its name from [...] and [...], the wind that blows from the dark Quarter. Assyria therefore is that false state of seeming happiness, and power of wick­ednesse, which is called the kingdome of darknesse. And this is the most noble object of Fortitude, to de­stroy the power of this kingdome within our selves.

Perath. From [...] Fructificavit.

Ver. 17. In processe of time, &c. This is accor­ding to the minde of the Pythagoreans and Origen. And that Pythagoras had the favour of having the Mosaical Cabbala communicated to him by some knowing Priest of the Jewes, or some holy man or other, I think I have continuedly in the former Cha­pter made it exceeding probable.

The Region of mortality and death. Nothing is more frequent with the Platonists, then the calling of the body a Sepulchre, and this life we live here upon Earth, either sleep or death. Which expressions are so sutable with this Cabbala, and the Cabbala with the Text of Moses, that mentions the death and sleep of Adam, that it is a shrewd presumption that these Phrases and Notions came first from thence. And Philo acknowledges that Heraclitus, that my­sterious and abstruse Philosopher, (whom Porphyri­us also has cited to the same purpose, in his De antro Nympharum) has even hit upon the very meaning that Moses intends in this death of Adam, in that famous saying of his, [...]. We live their death, (to wit, of the souls out of the body) but we are dead to their life. And Euripides that friend of Socrates, and fel­low-traveller of Plato's, in his Tragedies speaks much to the same purpose. [Page 169]

Who knows whether to live, be not to die, and to die, to live? So that the Philosophick sense concern­ing Adams death, must be this, that he shall be dead to the Aethereal life he lived before, while he is re­strained to the Terrestrial, and that when as he might have lived for ever in the Aethereal Life, he shall in a shorter time assuredly die to the Terrestrial: That the sons of men cannot escape either the certainty or speed of death.

Ver. 18. Both good for himself, &c. For the words of the Text doe not confine it to Adams conveniency alone, but speaks at large without any restraint, in this present verse. Wherefore there being a double convenience, it was more explicite to mention both in the Cabbala.

Ver. 19. Fallen and unfallen Angels. The fallen Angels are here assimilated to the Beasts of the Field, the unfallen to the Fowls of the Air. How fitly the fallen Spirits are reckoned amongst the Beasts of the Field, you shall understand more fully in the follow­ing Chapter. In the mean time you may take no­tice that the Platonists, indeed Plato himself, in his Phaedrus, makes the Soul of Man before it falls into this Terrestrial Region, a winged Creature. And that such phrases as these, [...], and [...], and [...], and the like, are proper expressions of that School. And Pla­to does very plainly define what he means by these wings of the soul, (and there is the same reason of all other spirits whatsoever) after this manner, [...]. That the nature of the wing [Page 170] of the soul is such, as to be able to carry upward, that which otherwise would slugge downwards, and to bear it aloft and place it there, where we may have more sensible communion with God, and his holy Angels. For so [...] in the plural number, is most sutably trans­lated in such passages as these, and most congruously to the thing it self, and the truth of Christianity. And it may well seem the lesse strange, that [...] should signifie Angels in the Greek Philosophers, especially such as have been acquainted with Moses, when as with him [...] signifies so too, viz. Angels as well as God. Wherefore to conclude, the losse of that Principle that keeps us in this divine condition, is the losing of our wings, which fallen Angels have done, and therefore they may be very well assimila­ted to Terrestrial Beasts.

Ver. 20. A faculty of being united, &c. This vital aptitude in the soul of being united with corpo­real Matter, being so essential to her and proper, the invigorating the exercise of that faculty, cannot but be very grateful and acceptable to her, and a very considerable share of her happinesse. Else what means the Resurrection of the dead, or Bodies in the other world? which yet is an Article of the Christian Faith.

Ver. 22. This new sense of his Vehicle. There be three Principles in Man according to the Platonists, [...]. The first is Intellect, Spirit, or divine Light; the second the Soul her self, which is Adam the Man, Animus cujusque is est quisque, the Soul of every man that is the Man; the third is the image of the Soul, which is her vital Energie upon the Body, wherewith she does enliven it, and if that life be in good tune, and due vigour, it is a very grateful sense to the soul, whether in [Page 171] this Body, or in a more thin Vehicle. This Ficinus makes our Eve. This is the Feminine Faculty in the Soul of Man, which awakes then easiliest into act, when the Soul to Intellectuals falls asleep.

Ver. 24. Over-tedious aspires. [...], is a solemn monition of Aristotle somewhere in his Ethicks. And it is a great point of wisdome indeed, and mainly necessary, to know the true laws and bounds of humane happinesse, that the heat of melancholy drive not men up beyond what is competible to humane nature, and the reach of all the faculties thereof: Nor the too savoury relish of the pleasures of the flesh, or Animal Life, keep them down many thousand degrees below what they are capable of. But the man that truly fears God, will be delivered from them both. What I have spoken is directed more properly to the soul in the flesh, but may Analogically be understood of a soul in any Ve­hicle, for they are peccable in them all.

Ver. 25. Stood naked before God. Adam was as truly clothed in Corporeity now as ever after; for the Aether is as true a body as the Earth: But the meaning is, Adam had a sense of the divine Presence, very feelingly assured in his own minde, that his whole Beeing lay naked and bare before God, and that no­thing could be hid from his sight, which pierced also to the very thoughts, and inward frame of his spirit. But yet though Adam stood thus naked before him, not­withstanding he found no want of any covering to hide himself from that presentifick sense of him, nor indeed felt himself as naked in that notion of naked­nesse. For that sense of nakednesse, and want of further covering and sheltring from the divine Pre­sence, arose from his disobedience and rebellion against the commands of God, which as yet he had not faln into.

[Page 172] Not at all ashamed. Shame is, [...], the fear of just reprehension▪ as Gellius out of the Philosophers defines it. But Adam having not act­ed any thing yet at randome, after the swing of his own will, he had done nothing that the divine Light would reprehend him for. He had not yet become ob­noxious to any sentence from his own condemning Conscience; for he kept himself hitherto within the bounds of that divine Law written in his soul, and had attempted nothing against the Will of God. So that there being no sin, there could not as yet be any shame in Adam.

CHAP. III.

THE first verse. This old Serpent therefore. In Pherecydes Syrus, Pythagoras his Master, there is mention of one [...], Princeps mali, as Grotius cites him on this place, which is a further argument of Pythagoras his being acquainted with this Mo­saical Philosophy. And that according to the Philo­sophick Cabbala, it was an evil spirit, not a natural Serpent, that supplanted Adam, and brought such mischief upon mankind.

The Beasts of the Field. But now that these evil spirits should be reckoned as beasts of the field, be­sides what reason is given in the Cabbala it self, we may adde further, that the haunt of these unclean spi­rits is in solitudes, and waste fields, and desolate places, as is evident in the Prophet Esay his descripti­on of the desolation of Babylon, where he saith it shall be a place for the [...], and [...], the Fauni and Sylvani, as Castellis translates it, or [...], and [...], as the Seventy: And these Onocentauri in Hesychius are [...]. A kinde of spirit that frequents the woods, and is of a dark colour. There is menti­on made also by the Prophet (in the same description) of the [...] and [...] and of [...], all which Expositors interpret of Spirits. For [...] are in­terpreted by the Seventy [...], by Castellio Sa­tyri, [...] Castellio renders Fauni, the Seventy [...] [Page 174] Clamores, Strepitus, Grotius suspects they wrote [...]. Out of both you may guesse, that they were such a kinde of spirit, as causes a noise and a stir in those de­solate places, according to that of Lucretius:

To this sense:

But the Poet puts it off with this conceit, that it is only the Shepheards that are merry with their Lasses. But no man can glosse upon this Text after that man­ner: For the Prophet says, No shepheard shall pitch his fold there, nor shall any man passe through it for ever. The last strange creature in these direful solitudes, is [...], which Interpreters ordinarily translate Lamia, a Witch; and for mine own part, I give so much credit to sundry stories, that I have read and heard, that I should rather interpret those noi­ses in the Night, which Luoretius speaks of, to be the Conventicles of Witches and Devils▪ then the merriment of Shepheards and their Shepheardesses. But the Jewes understand by [...] a she devil, an ene­my to women in childe-bed; whence it is, that they write on the walls of the room where the woman lies in, [...] Adam, Eve, out of doors Lilith.

And what I have alledged already, I conceive is [Page 175] authority enough to countenance the sense of the Cabbala, that supposes evil spirits to be reckoned a­mong, or to be Analogical to the beasts of the field. But something may be added yet further, Matth. 12. 43. There our Saviour Christ plainly allows of this doctrine, that evil spirits have their haunts in the wide fields and deserts, which Grotius observes to be the opinion of the Jewes, and that [...], Daemo­nes, have their name for that reason, from [...] Ager▪ the Field; for if it were from [...], it would be ra­ther [...] then [...], Shiddim, then Shedhim, as Grammatical Analogy requires.

Ver. 2. And Adam answered him. Though the Serpent here be look'd upon as a distant person from Adam, and externally accosting him, yet it is not at all incongruous to make Eve meerly an Internal Faculty of him. For as she is said to proceed fromhim, so she is said still to be one with him, which is won­derfully agreeable with the faculties of the soul; for though they be from the soul, yet they are really one with her, as they that understand any thing in Philo­sophy will easily admit.

Ver. 5. Know all things. [...]. All men have a natural desire of knowledge. It is an Aphorisme in Aristotle; and this desire is most strong in those, whose spirits are most thin and subtile. And therefore this bait could not but be much taking with Adam in his thinner Ve­hicle. But what ever is natural to the soul, unlesse it be regulated and bounded with the divine Light, will prove her mischief and bane, whether in this lower state, or in what state soever the soul is placed in.

Ver. 7. Neither the covering of the heavenly na­ture. For Adam by the indulging to every carelesse suggestion, at last destroyed and spoiled the pure frame [Page 176] of his Aethereal or Heavenly Vehicle, and wrought himself into a dislike of the sordid ruines and dis­tempered reliques of it, and in some measure awake­ning that lower Plantal life, which yet had not come near enough the Terrestrial matter, and with which he was as yet unclothed, found himself naked of what he presaged would very fitly sute with him, and ease the trouble of his present condition: See 2 Cor. ch. 5. v. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Ver. 8. That they hid themselves. They hate the Light, because their deeds are evil. This is true of all rebellious spirits, be they in what Vehicle they will.

Ver. 9. Pursued him. Praestantiorem Animae facultatem esse ducem hominis atque Daemonem. It is Ficinus his out of Timaeus, viz. That the best faculty that the soul is any thing awaked to, is her guide and good Genius. But if we be rebellious to it, it is our Daemon in the worse sense, and we are a­fraid of it, and cannot endure the sight of it.

Ver. 10. No power nor ornaments. For he found that though he could spoil and disorder his Vehicle, it was not in his power so easily to bring it in order a­gain.

Ver. 12. It was the vigour and impetuosity. There is some kinde of offer towards a reall excuse in Adam, but it is manifest that he cannot clear himself from sin, because it was in his power to have regulated the mo­tions of the Life of his Vehicle, according to the rule of the divine Light in him.

Ver. 13. What work has she made here. Adam touched in some sort with the conviction of the divine Light, be­moans that sad Catastrophe, which the vigorous life of the Vehicle had occasioned; But then he again excuses himself from the deceivablenesse of that facultie, e­specially [Page 177] it being wrought upon, by so cunning and powerful an Assailant as the old Serpent the De­vil.

Imagination for ever. That is, [...].

The Eternal God. It being a thing acknowledg­ed, that God both speaks in a man, as in other intel­lectual creatures, by his divine Light residing there, and that he also speaks in himself, concerning things or persons; which speeches are nothing else but his decrees: It is not at all harsh, in the reading of Moses, to understand the speakings of God, accor­ding as the circumstances of the Matter naturally im­ply, nor to bring God in as a third Person, in corpo­real and visible shape, unlesse there were an exigency that did extort it from us. For his inward word, whereby he either creates or decrees any thing that shall come to passe, as also that divine Light where­by he does instruct those souls that receive him, Phi­losophy will easilier admit of these for the speakings of God, then any audible articulate voice pronounced by him in humane shape, unlesse it were by Christ himself, for otherwise in all likelihood it is but a message by some Angel.

Ver. 14. The Prince of the rebellious Angels. For the mighty shall be mightily tormented; and the na­ture of the thing also implies it, because disgrace, ad­versity, and being trampled on, is far more painful and vexatious to those that have been in great place, then to those of a more inferiour rank. From whence na­turally this Chieftain of the Devils, as Mr. Mede calls him, will be struck more deeply with the curse, then any of the rest of his Accomplices.

In the higher parts of the Air, &c. This is very consonant to the opinion of the ancient Fathers, whe­ther [Page 178] you understand it of Satan himself, or of the whole kingdome of those rebellious spirits. And it is no more absurd, that for a time the bad went a­mongst the good in the Aethereal Region, then it is now that there are good spirits amongst the bad in this lower Air. But after that villany Satan committed upon Adam, he was commanded down lower, and the fear of the Lord of Hosts so changed his Vehicle, and slaked his fire, that he sunk towards the Earth, and at last was fain to lick the dust of the ground, see Mr. Mede in his Discourse upon 2 Pet. 2. 4.

Ver. 15. Messias should take a Body. That the Soul of the Messias▪ and all souls else did pre-exist, is the opinion of the Jewes, and that admitted, there is no difficulty in the Cabbala. Plato, whether from this passage alone, or whether it was that he was in­structed out of other places also of the holy Writ, (if what Ficinus writes is true) seems to have had some knowledge and presage of the coming of Christ, in that being asked, how long men should attend to his wri­tings; he answered, till some more holy and divine Person appear in the world, whom all should fol­low.

Notoriously here upon Earth. As it came to passe in his casting out Devils, and silencing Oracles, or making them cry out.

Christ bruises the head of Satan by destroying his kingdome and soveraignty, and by being so highly ex­alted above all Powers whatsoever. And it is a ve­ry great and precious mysterie; That dear Compassion of our fellow-creatures, and faithful and fast Obedi­ence to the will of God, (which were so eminently and transcendently in Christ) should be lifted above [Page 179] all Power and Knowledge whatsoever, in those high­er Orders of Angels. For none of them that were, as they should be, would take offence at it, but be glad of it. But those that were proud, or valued Power and Knowledge before Goodnesse and Obedience, it was but a just affront to them, and a fit rebuke of their Pride.

But now how does Satan bruise the heel of Christ? Thus: He falls upon the rear, the lowest part of those that professe Christianity, Hypocrites, and ignorant souls, such as he often makes witches of; but the Church Triumphant is secure, and the sincere part of the Church Militant. So Mr. Mede upon the place.

Ver. 16. The Concomitance of Pain and Sor­row. And it is the common complaint of all Mor­tals, that they that speed the best, have the experi­ence of a vicissitude of sorrow as well as joy. And the very frame of our bodies as well as the accidents of Fortune, are such, that to indulge to pleasure, is but to lay the seed of sorrow or sadnesse by Diseases, Sa­tiety, or Melancholy▪ Besides many spinosities and cutting passages that often happen unawares in the conversation of those from whom we expect the grea­test solace and contents. To say nothing of the as­saults of a mans own minde, and pricking of Consci­ence, which ordinarily disturb those that follow after the pleasures of the body. Lucretius, though an A­theist, will fully witnesse to the truth of all this in his fourth book, De rerum Naturâ, where you may read upon this subject at large.

Ver. 18. Thorns and Thistles. Moses instances in one kinde of life, Husbandry, but there is the same reason in all.

Ver▪ 20. Euripides the friend of Socrates, and a favourer of the Pythagorean Philosophy, writes somewhere in his Tragedies, as I have already told you, to this sense; Who knows, says he, whether to live, be to die; and whether again, to die, be not to live? Which question is very agreeable to this present Cabbala: for Adam is here as it were dying to that better world and condition of life he was in, and like as one here upon Earth on his death-bed, prophec [...]es many times, and professes what he presa­ges concerning his own state to come, that he shall be with God, that he shall be in Heaven amongst the holy Angels, and the Saints departed, and the like: So Adam here utters his Apologetical Prophecie, that this change of his, and departure from this present state, though it may prove ill enough for himself, yet it has its use and convenience, and that it is better for the Ʋniverse; for he shall live upon Earth, and be a Ruler there amongst the Terrestrial creatures, and help to order and govern that part of the world.

The Life of his Vehicle Eve. For Eve signifies Life, that life which the soul derives to what Vehicle or Body soever she actuates and possesses.

Ver. 21. Skin of Beasts. This Origen understands of Adams being incorporated and clothed with hu­mane flesh and skin. Ridiculum enim est dicere, saith he, quòd Deus fuerit Adami coriarius & pellium sutor. And no man will much wonder at the confi­dence of this Pious and Learned Father, if he do but consider, that the pre-existency of souls before they come into the body, is generally held by all the Lear­ned of the Jews, and so in all likelihood was a part [Page 181] of this Philosophick Cabbala. And how fitly things fall in together, and agree with the very Text of Mo­ses, let any man judge.

Ver. 22. But play and sport. This I conceive a far better Decorum, then to make God sarcastically to jeer at Adam, and triumph over him in so great and universal a mischief, as some make it; and de­stitute of any concomitant convenience; Especially there being a Principle in Adam, that was so easily deceivable, which surely has something of the nature of an excuse in it. But to jeer at a man that through his own weakness, & the over-reaching subtilty of his adversary, has fallen into some dreadful and tragical evil and misery, is a thing so far from becoming God, that it utterly misbeseems any good man.

Ver. 24. He made sure he should not be immortal. For it is our advantage, as Rupertus upon the place hath observed out of Plotinus. Misericordiae Dei fuisse, quòd hominem ficerit mortalem, nè perpetuis cruciaretur hujus vitae aerumnis. That it is the mercy of God that he made man mortal, that he might not always be tormented with the miseries and sorrows of this present life.

Passing through his fiery Vehicle. The following words explain the meaning of the Cabbala; it is ac­cording to the sense of that Plato amongst the Poets, (as Severus called him) Virgil, in the sixt Book of his Aeneids:

To this sense:

Which we shall yet back very fittingly with the two last Golden Verses, as they are called of the Pythago­reans, who adde immortality to this Aethereal con­dition:

The Greek has it, you shall be an Immortal God which Hierocles interprets, you shall imitate the Deity in this, in becoming immortal. And Plutarch in his Defect of Oracles, drives on this Apotheosis, according to the order of the Elements, Earth refined to Wa­ter, Water to Air, Air to Fire: So man to become of a Terrestrial Animal one of the Heroes, of an Heros a Daemon, or good Genius, of a Genius a God, which he calls [...], to partake of Divinity, which is no more then to become one of the [...], or Immortal Angels, who are instar flammae, as Maimonides writes, they are according to their Vehicles, a versatile fire, turning themselves Proteus-like into any shape. They are the very words of the forenamed Rabbi upon the place.

And Philo Judaeus, pag. 234. [...]. For there is, saith he, in the Air, a most holy company of unbodied Souls; and presently he adjoins, [...], and these Souls the holy Writ uses to call Angels. And in another place pag. 398. he speaking of the more pure Souls, calls them, [...] [Page 183] [...], i. e. The Officers of the Generalissimo of the World, that are as the Eyes and Ears of the great King, seeing and hear­ing all things; and then he addes, [...]. These, other Philosophers call the Genii, but the Scripture Angels. And in another place he says, That [...], that a Soul, Genius, and An­gel, are three words that signifie both one and the same thing. As Xenocrates also made [...] and [...] all one, adding that he was [...], happy, that had [...], a virtuous Soul. Wherefore not to weary my Reader, nor my self with over­much Philogy, we conclude, that the meaning of Moses in this last verse, is this: That Adam is here condemned to a mortal, flitting, and impermanent state, till he reach his Aethereal or pure fiery Vehicle, and become, as our Saviour Christ speaks, [...], as one of the Angels. This, I say, is the condition of mankinde, according to the Philosophick Cabbala of Moses.

Let us now take a general view of this whole Cab­bala, and more summarily consider the strength thereof; which we may refer to these two heads, viz. the nature of the Truths herein contained, and the dignity of those persons that have owned them in fore­going Ages. And as for the Truths themselves, first, they are such as may well become so holy and wor­thy a person as Moses, if he would Philosophize; they being very precious and choice Truths, and very high­ly removed above the conceit of the vulgar, and so the more likely to have been delivered to him, or to Adam first by God for a special mysterie.

Secondly, they are such, that the more they are ex­amined, the more irrefutable they will be found, no [Page 184] Hypothesis that was ever yet propounded to men, so exquisitely well agreeing with the Phaenomena of Na­ture, the Attributes of God, the Passages of Provi­dence, and the rational Faculties of our own minds.

Thirdly, there is a continued sutablenesse and ap­plicability to the Text of Moses all along, without any force or violence done to Grammar or Criti­cisme.

Fourthly and lastly, there is a great usefulnesse, if not necessity, at least of some of them, they being such substantial Props of Religion, and so great encourage­ments, to a sedulous purification of our mindes, and stu­dy of true piety.

Now for the dignity of the persons, such as were Pythagoras, Plato, and Plotinus, it will be argued from the constant fame of that high degree of virtue and righteousnesse, and devout love of the Deity that is every where acknowledged in them, besides whatso­ever miraculous has happened to them, or been per­formed by them.

And as for Pythagoras, if you consult his life in Iamblichus, he was held in so great admiration by those in his time, that he was thought by some to be the son of Apollo, whom he begot of Parthenis his known mother; and of this opinion was Epimeni­des, Eudoxus, and Xenocrates, which conceit Iam­blichus does soberly and earnestly reject, but after­wards acknowledges, that his looks and speeches did so wonderfully carry away the minds of all that con­versed with him, that they could not withhold from affirming, that he was [...], the off-spring of God. Which is not to be taken in our strict Theological sense, but according to the mode of the ancient Greeks, who looked upon men heroically, and emi­nently good and virtuous, to be divine souls, and of [Page 185] a celestial extract. And Aristotle takes notice par­ticularly of the Lacedemonians, that they tearmed such as were [...], very good, [...] i. e. [...], divine men. According to which sense, he interprets that verse in Homer concerning Hector.

But to return to him of whom we were speaking be­fore. This eminency of his acknowledged amongst the Heathen, will seem more credible, if we but consi­der the advantage of his conversation with the wisest men then upon Earth; to wit, the Jewish Priests and Prophets, who had their knowledge from God, as Pythagoras had from them. From whence I con­ceive that of Iamblichus to be true, which he writes concerning Pythagoras his Philosophy: That it is [...]. That it is a Philosophy that at first was delivered by God, or his holy Angels.

But that Pythagoras was acquainted with the Mo­saical or Jewish Philosophy, there is ample testimo­ny of it in Writers; as of Aristobulus an Aegypti­an Jew, in Clemens Alexandrinus, and Josephus a­gainst Appion. S. Ambrose addes, that he was a Jew himself. Clemens calls him [...], the Hebrew Philosopher. I might cast hither the suffrages of Justine, Johannes Philoponus, Theodoret, Hermippus in Origen against Celsus, Porphyrius, and Clemens again, who writes, that it was a com­mon fame that Pythagoras was a disciple of the Pro­phet Ezekiel. And though he gives no belief to the report, yet that Learned Antiquary Mr. Selden seems inclinable enough to think it true, in his first Book [Page 186] De Jure Naturali juxta Hebraos, where you may peruse more fully the citations of the forenamed Au­thors. Besides all these, Iamblichus also affirms, that he lived at Sidon, his Native Countrey, where he fell acquainted with the Prophets, and Successors of one Mochus, the Physiologer, or Natural Philoso­pher. [...]. Which, as Mr. Selden judiciously conjectures, is to be read, [...], with the Prophets that succeeded Moses the Phi­losopher.

Wherefore it is very plain, that Pythagoras had his Philosophy from Moses. And that Philosophy which to this very day is acknowledged to be his, we see­ing that it is so fitly applicable to the Text all the way, what greater argument can there be desired to prove that it is the true Philosophick Cabbala thereof?

But there is yet another argument to prove further the likelihood of his conversing with the Prophets, which will also further set out the dignity of his per­son; and that is the Miracles that are recorded of him. For it should seem Pythagoras was not only initiated into the Mosaical Theory, but had arrived also to the power of working Miracles, as Moses and the succeeding Prophets did, and very strange Facts are recorded both in Porphyrius and Iamblichus: As that Pythagoras when he was going over a River with several of his companions, (Iamblichus calls the River Nessus, Porphyrius Caucasus) that he speak­ing to the River, the River answered him again with an audible and clear voice, [...], Salve Pythagora. That he shewed his Thigh to Abaris the Priest, and that he affirmed that it glistered like Gold, and thence pronounced that he was Apollo. That he was known to converse with his friends at [Page 187] Metapontium, and Tauromenium (the one a Town in Italy, the other in Sicily, and many days journey di­stant) in one and the same day. To these and many others which I willingly omit, I shall only adde his predictions of Earthquakes, or rather, because that may seem more natural, his present slaking of plagues in Cities, his silencing of violent winds, and tempests; his calming the rage of Seas, and Rivers, and the like. Which skill Empedocles, Epimenides, and Abaris having got from him, they grew so fa­mous, that Empedocles was surnamed Alexanemus, E­pimenides, Cathartes, and Abaris, Aethrobates, from the power they had in suppressing of storms and winds, in freeing of Cities from the plague, and in walking aloft in the Air: Which skill enabled Py­thagoras to visit his friends after that manner at Me­tapontium, and Tauromenium in one and the same day.

And now I have said thus much of Pythagoras, (and might say a great deal more) there will be lesse need to insist upon Plato and Plotinus, their Philosophy being the same that Pythagoras his was, and so a­like applicable to Moses his Text. Plato's exem­plarity of life and virtue, together with his high knowledge in the more sacred mysteries of God, and the state of the soul of man in this world, and that other, deservedly got to himself the title of Divine, [...].

But as for Miracles, I know none he did, though something highly miraculous happened, if that fame at Athens was true, that Speusippus, Clearchus, and Anaxilides report to have been, concerning his birth, which is, that Aristo his reputed father, when he would forcibly have had to do with Perictione, she being indeed exceeding fair and beautiful, fell short [Page 188] of his purpose, and surceasing from his attempt, that he saw Apollo in a vision, and so abstained from medling with his wife till she brought forth her son Aristocles, who after was called Plato But that is far more credible which is reported, concerning the commending of him to his Tutor Socrates, who the day before he came, dreamed that he had a young Swan in his lap, which putting forth feathers a pace, of a sudden flew up into the Air, and sung very sweetly. Wherefore the next day when Plato was brought to him by his father, [...], he presently said, this is the bird, and so willingly received him for his Pupil.

But for his acquaintance with the Mosaical Learn­ing, as it is more credible in it self, so I have also better proof; As Aristobulus the Jew in Clemens A­lexandrinus▪ S. Ambrose, Hermippus in Josephus against Appion; and lastly, Numenius the Platonist, who ingenuously confesses, [...]; what is Plato, but Moses in Greek? as I have else where alledged.

As for Plotinus, that which Porphyrius records of him, falls little short of a Miracle, as being able by the Majesty of his own Minde, as his enemy O­lympius confessed, to retort that Magick upon him which he practised against Plotinus, and that sedately sitting amongst his friends, he would tell them; Now Olympius his body it gathered like a purse, and his limbs beat one against another. And though he was not instructed by the Jewish Priests and Pro­phets, yet he was a familiar friend of that hearty and devout Christian and Learned Father of the Church, Origen; whose authority I would also cast in, toge­ther with the whole consent of the Learned amongst the Jewes. For there is nothing strange in the Me­taphysical [Page 189] part of this Cabbala, but what they have constantly affirmed to be true. But the unmannerly superstition of many is such that they will give more to an accustomed opinion, which they have either ta­ken up of themselves▪ or has been conveyed unto them by the confidence of some private Theologer, then to the Authority of either Fathers, Churches, Workers of Miracles, or what is best of all, the most solid reasons that can be propounded; which if they were capable of, they could not take any offence at my ad­mittance of the Cartesian Philosophy into this present Cabbala. The Principles, and the more notorious con­clusions thereof, offering themselves so freely, and unaffectedly, and so aptly, and sittingly taking their place in the Text, that I knew not how with Judgement and Conscience to keep them out.

For I cannot but surmise, that he has happily and unexpectedly light upon that, which will prove a true restauration of that part of the Mosaical Philosophy, which is ordinarily called Natural, and in which Pythagoras may be justly deemed to have had no small insight. And that Des Cartes may bear up in some likely Equipage with the forenamed noble and divine Spirits though the unskilfulnesse in men com­monly acknowledge more of Supernatural assistance in hot unsettled fancies, and perplexed Melancholy, then in the calm and distinct use of Reason; yet for mine own part, (but not without submission to better Judgements) I should look upon Des Cartes as a man more truly inspired in the knowledge of Nature, then any that have professed themselves so this six [...]een hun­dred years; and being even ravished with admira­tion of his transcendent Mechanical inventions, for the salving the Phaenomena in the world, I should not stick to compare him with Bezaliel and Aholiab, [Page 190] those skilful and cunning workers of the Tabernacle, who, as Moses testifies, were filled with the Spirit of God, and they were of an excellent understanding to finde out all manner of curious works.

Nor is it any more argument, that Des Cartes was not inspired, because he did not say he was, then that others are inspired, because they say they are; which to me is no argument at all. But the suppression of what so happened, would argue much more sobriety and modesty, when as the profession of it with sober men would be suspected of some spice of melancholy and distraction, especially in Natural Philosophy, where the grand pleasure is the evidence and exercise of Reason, not a bare belief, or an ineffable sense of life, in respect whereof there is no true Christian but he is inspired.

THUS much in Defence of my Philosophick Cabbala. It will not be unseasonable to subjoin some­thing by way of Apology for the Cabbalist: For I finde my self liable to no lesse then three several im­putations, viz. of trifling Curiositie, of Rashnesse, and of Inconstancy of Judgement.

And as for the first, I know that men that are more severely Philosophical and rational, will condemn me of too much curious pains in applying Natural and Metaphysical Truths to an uncertain and lubricous Text or Letter, when as they are better known, and more fitly conveied by their proper proof and argu­ments, then by fancying they are aimed at in such ob­scure and Aenigmatical Writings.

But I answer, ther is that fit and full congruity of the Cabbala with the Text, besides the backing of it with advantages from the History of the first rise of the Pythagorical or Platonical Philosophy, that it [Page 191] ought not to be deemed a fancie, but a very high pro­bability, that there is such a Cabbala as this belong­ing to the Mosaical Letter, especially if you call but to minde how luckily the nature of Numbers sets off the work of every day, according to the sense of the Cabbala.

And then again, for mine own part, I account no pains either curious or tedious, that tend to a common good: and I conceive no smaller a part of mankinde, concerned in my labours, then the whole Nation of the Jewes, and Christendome; to say nothing of the ingenious Persian, nor to despair of the Turk though he be for the present no friend to Allegories.

Wherefore we have not placed our pains inconsi­derately, having recommended so weighty and use­ful Truths in so religious a manner to so great a part of the world.

But for the imputation of Rashnesse, in making it my businesse to divulge those secrets or mysteries that Moses had so sedulously covered in his obscure Text: I say, it is the privilege of Christianity, the times now more then ever requiring it to pull off the vail from Moses his face: And that though they be grand truths that I have discovered, yet they are as useful as sublime, and cannot but highly gratifie every good and holy man that can competently judge of them.

Lastly, for Inconstancy of Judgement, which men may suspect me of, having heretofore declared the Scripture does not teach men Philosophy: I say, the change of a mans judgement for the better, is no part of inconstancy, but a virtue, when as to persist in what we finde false, is nothing but perversenesse and pride. And it will prove no small argument for the truth of this present Cabbala, in that the evidence [Page 192] thereof has fetch'd me out of my former opinion wherein I seemed engaged.

But to say the truth, I am not at all inconsistent with my self, for I am still of opinion, that the Let­ter of the Scripture teaches not any precept of Philo­sophy, concerning which there can be any controver­sie amongst men. And when you venture beyond the Literal sense, you are not taught by the Scripture, but what you have learned some other way, you ap­ply thereto. And they ought to be no trash, nor tri­vial Notions, nor confutable by Reason, or more so­lid Principles of Philosophy, that a man should dare to cast upon so sacred a Text, but such as one is well assured, will bear the strictest examination, and that lead to the more full knowledge of God, and do more clearly fit the Phaenomena of Nature, & external Providence to his most precious Attributes, and tend to the furthering of the holy Life, which I do again professe is the sole end of the Scripture. And he that ventures beyond the Letter without that guide, will soon be bewilder'd, and lose himself in his own fancies. Wherefore if this Philosophick Cab­bala of mine, amongst those many other advantages I have recited, had not this also added unto it, the aim of advancing the divine Life in the world, I should look upon it as both false and unprofitable, and should have rested satisfied with the Moral Cabbala. For the divine Life is above all Natural and Metaphysi­cal knowledge whatsoever. And that man is a per­fect man that is truly righteous and prudent, whom I know I cannot but gratifie with my Moral Cab­bala that follows. But if any more zealous preten­der to prudence and righteousnesse, wanting either leisure or ability to examine my Philosophick Cabbala to the bottome, shall notwithstanding either condemn it [Page 193] or admire it, he has unbecomingly and indiscreetly ventured out of his own sphere, and I cannot acquit him of Injustice, or Folly.

Nor did I place my Cabbala's in this order, out of more affection and esteem of Philosophy, then of true holinesse, but have ranked them thus according to the order of Nature: the holy and divine Life being not at all, or else being easily lost in man, if it be not produc'd and conserv'd by a radicated acknow­ledgement of those grand truths in the Philosophick Cabbala, viz. The existence of the Eternal God, and a certain expectation of more consummate hap­pinesse upon the dissolution of this mortal body: for to pretend to virtue and holinesse, without reference to God, and a life to come, is but to fall into a more dull and flat kinde of Stoicisme, or to be content to feed our Cattel on this side of Jordan in a more discreet and religious way of Epicurisme, or at least of degenerate Familisme.

CHAP. I.

WEE are now come to the Moral Cab­bala, which I do not call Moral in that low sense the generality of men under­stand Morality. For the processe and growth, as likewise the failing and decay of the divine Life, is very intelligibly set forth in this present Cabbala. But I call it Moral, in counter-distinction to Philosophical or Physical; as Philo also uses this tearm Moral, in divine matters. As when he speaks of Gods brea­thing into Adam the breath of Life, [...], saith he, [...], God breathes into Adams face Physically and Morally. Physically, by placing there the Senses, viz. in the head. Morally, by inspiring his Intellect with divine knowledge, which is the highest Faculty of the Soul, as the Head is the chief part of the Body. Wherefore by Mora­lity. I understand here divine Morality, such as is ingendred in the Soul by the operations of the holy Spirit, that inward living Principle of all godliness and honesty. I shall be the more brief in the De­fence of this Cabbala, it being of it self so plain and sensible to any that has the experience of the life I de­scribe; but to them that have it not, nothing will make it plain, or any thing at all probable.

Ver. 1. A Microcosme or little World. No­thing is more ordinary or trivial, then to compare Man to the Universe, and make him a little compen­dious World of himself. Wherefore it was not hard to premise that, which may be so easily understood. And the Apostle supposes it, when he applies the Cre­ation of Light here in this Chapter, to the illumina­tion [Page 196] of the Soul as you shall hear hereafter.

Ver. 2. But that which is animal or natural ope­rates first. According to that of the Apostle, That which is Spiritual is not first, but that which is A­nimal or Natural; afterward that which is Spiri­tual. The first Man is of the Earth, earthy; the second Man is the Lord from Heaven. But what this earthy condition is, is very lively set out by Moses in this first days work. For here we have Earth, Water, and Wind, or one tumultuous dark Chaos, and confusion of dirt and water, blown on heaps and waves; and unquiet night-storm, an unruly black tempest.

And it is observable, that it is not here said of this deformed Globe, Let there be Earth; Let there be Water; Let there be Wind; but all this is the [...], The subject matter; a thing 'made alrea­dy, viz. The rude Soul of Man in this disorder that is described; sad Melancholy like the drown'd Earth lies at the bottome, whence Care, and Grief, and Discontent, torturous Suspicion, and horrid Fear, are washed up by the unquiet watry Desire, or irregular suggestions of the Concupiscible, wherein most emi­nently is seated base Lust and Sensuality; and above these is boisterous Wrath, and storming Revengeful­nesse, fool-hardy Confidence, and indefatigable Contention about vain objects. In short, whatever Passion and Distemper is in fallen Man, it may be re­ferred to these Elements. But God leaves not his creature in this evil condition; but that all this dis­order may be discovered, and so quelled in us, and avoided by us, he saith, Let there be Light, as you read in the following verse.

Ver. 3. The day-light appears. To this alludes S. Paul, when he says, God who commanded the light [Page 197] to shine out of darknesse, shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Where the Apostle seems to me to have struck through the whole Six days of this Spiritual Creation at once. The highest manifestation of that Light created in the first day, being the face of Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Adam, fully compleat­ed in the sixt day. Wherefore when it is said, Let there be Light, that Light is understood that enlightens every man that comes into the world, which is the di­vine Intellect as it is communicable to humane souls. And the first day is the first appearance thereof, as yet weaker and too much disjoin'd from our affecti­ons, but at last it amounts to the true and plain I­mage and Character of the Lord from Heaven, Christ according to the Spirit.

Ver. 4. And God hath framed the Nature of Man so, that he cannot but say, &c. God working in second causes, there is nothing more ordinary then to ascribe that to him that is done by men, even then when the actions seem lesse competible to the Nature of God. Wherefore it cannot seem harsh, if in this Moral Cabbala we admit that man does that by the power of God working in the soul, that the Text says God does; as the approving of the Light as good, and the distinguishing betwixt Light and Darknesse, and the like; which things in the mystical sense are competible both to God and Man. And we speaking in a Moral or Mystical sense, of God acting in us, the nature of the thing requires that what he is said to do there, we should be under­stood also to do the same through his assistance.

For the soul of man is not meerly passive as a piece of wood or stone, but is forthwith made a­ctive by being acted upon; and therefore if God in [Page 198] us rules, we rule with him; if he contend against sin in us, we also contend together with him against the same; if he see in us what is good or evil, we, ipso facto, see by him; In his light we see light: and so in the rest. Wherefore the supposition is very easie in this Moral Cablala, to take the liberty, where ei­ther the sense or more compendious expression re­quires it, to attribute that to man, though not to man alone, which God alone does, when we recur to the Literal meaning of the Text. And this is but consonant to the Apostle, I live, and yet not I. For if the life of God or Christ was in him; surely he did live, or else what did that life there? Only he did not proudly attribute that life to himself, as his own, but acknowledged it to be from God.

Ver. 5. As betwixt the Natural Day and Night. It is very frequent with the Apostles to set out by Day and Night, the Spiritual and Natural condition of man. As in such phrases as these; The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Walk as children of the Light. And elsewhere, Let us who are of the day; and in the same place, You are all the sons of light, and sons of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darknesse. But this is too obvious to insist upon.

And thus Ignorance and Inquiry. The soul of man is never quiet, but in perpetual search till she has found out her own happinesse, which is the heavenly Adam, Christ, the Image of God, into which Image and likenesse when we are throughly awakened, we are fully satisfied therewith; till then we are in Igno­rance and Confusion, as the Hebrew word [...] does fitly signifie. This Ignorance, Confusion, and Dis­satisfaction; puts us upon seeking, according to that measure of the Morning light that hath already visi­ted [Page 199] us. And [...] is from [...] to seek, to consider, and inquire. This is the Generation of those that seek thy face, O Jacob, that is, the face of Jesus Christ, the result of the Sixt days work, as I have intimated before.

Ver. 6. Of savoury and affectionate discernment. Wherefore he will not assent to Solomons whore, who says, Stoln water is sweet; but will rather use the words of the Samaritane woman to Christ, when he had told her of those waters of the Spirit, though she did not so perfectly reach his meaning; Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. For who would seek to satisfie himself with the toilsome pleasures of the world, when he may quench his desires with the delicious draughts of that true, and yet easie-flowing Nectar of the Spirit of God?

Ver. 10. To compare to the Earth. Origen com­pares this condition to the Earth for fruitfulnesse; but I thought it not impertinent to take notice of the stea­dinesse of the Earth also. But the condition of the un­godly is like the raging waves of the Sea; or as the Prophet speaks, The wicked are as the troubled Sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Esay 57.

Ver. 11. He is a fruitful field. This Interpretation is Origens, as I intimated before.

Ver. 14. According to the difference of these lights. What this difference is, you will understand out of the sixteenth and eighteenth verses.

Ver. 18. To this one single, but vigorous and ef­fectual Light. For indeed, a true and sincere sense of this one, comprehends all. For all the Law is fulfil­led in one word; to wit, in this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and [Page 200] thy neighbour as thy self; and, to do so to others, as we our selves would be done to. Wherefore for men to make nothing of this Royal Law of Christ, and yet to pretend to be more accurate Indagators into matters of Religion, and more affectionate Lovers of Piety then ordinary, is either to be abominably hypocriti­cal, or grossely ignorant in the most precious and ne­cessary parts of Christianity; and they walk by Star-light, and Moon-light, not under the clear and warm enlivening raies of the Sunne of Righteous­nesse.

It is an excellent saying of Plato's, in an Epistle of his to Dionysius, [...], That Truth lies in a little room: and assuredly that which is best and most precious does; when as the folly of every man notwithstanding so mis-guides him, that his toil and study is but to adorn himself after the mode of the most ridiculous fellow in all the Grae­cian Army, Thersites, of whom the Poet gives this testimony, that he was

That he had a rabble of disordered Notions, and fruit­lesse Observations; but that neither he, nor any body else could make either head or foot of them, nor him­self became either more wise or more honest by ha­ving them.

That Precept of the Pythagoreans, [...], Simplifie your self, Reduce your self to One, How wise, how holy, how true is it? What a sure foundation is it of life, liberty, and easie sagacity in things belonging to Virtue, Religion, and Justice? I think no man is born naturally so stupid, but that if he will keep close to this single Light of divine Love, in due time, nay, in a short time, he will be no [Page 201] more to seek what is to be done in the carriage of his life to God or man, then an unblemished eye will be at a losse to distinguish colours. But if he forsake this One Light, he will necessarily be benighted, and his minde distracted with a multitude of needlesse and uncomfortable scrupulosities, and faint and inef­fectual Notions; and every body will be ready to take him up for a night-wanderer, and to chastise him for being out of his way; and after, it may be, as friendly offer himself a guide to another path, that will prove as little to the purpose, unlesse he bring him into this Via Regia, or [...], as Saint James calls it, This Royal Law of the sincere love of God, and a mans neighbour.

Ver. 20. That is, that the Concupiscible in man. That the waters are an Emblem of this Concupisci­ble, Venus her being born of the Sea does intimate; which were not so much to the purpose, did not Natu­ral Philosophy and Experience certifie, that Concu­piscence is lodg'd in moisture. Whence is that of Heraclitus [...] (in Porphyrius his De antro Nympharum) i. e. Anima sicca sapientis­sima. And without all question the inordinate use of the Concupiscible, does mightily befor the soul, and makes her very uncapable of divine Sense and Knowledge. And yet to endevour after an utter in­sensibility of the pleasures of the body, is as ground­lesse and unwarrantable. But concerning this I shall speak more fully on the 22. and 31. verses of this Chapter.

Ver. 21. Winged Ejaculations. Whether men­tal or vocal, they are not unfitly resembled to Fowls, according to that of Homer,

[Page 202] And if vocal words have wings, the inward desires of the soul may well be said to have wings also, they being the words of the minde, as the other are of the mouth, and fly further for the most part, and get soo­ner to Heaven then the other.

Note also, that Origen likewise makes a difference here betwixt the Fish and the Fowl, and makes the Fowl to be good cogitations, the Fish evil. But I account them rather both indifferent, and to be regu­lated, not extirpated by the Mystical Adam Christ, the Image of God in Man. And these strong Heats and Ejaculations are the effects of Melancholy, where­in the divine Principle in man, when it actuates it, works very fiercely and sharply, and is a great wa­ster of the delightful moisture of the Concupiscible, and weakens much the pleasures of the body, to the great advantage of the minde, if it be done with discretion and due moderation, otherways if this pas­sion be over-much indulged to, it may lead to Hecticks, Phrenzies and Distractions.

The contrivance of the Text mentioning only such Fowls as frequent the waters, naturally points to this sense we have given it; but if our imagination strike out further to other winged creatures, as the Fowls of the Mountains, and sundry sorts of Birds, they may also have their proper meanings, and are a part of those Animal Figurations, that are to be subdued and regulated by the Mystical Adam, the Spirit of Christ in us.

Ver. 22. Might have something to order. But if you take away all the Passions from the Soul, the Minde of man will be as a General without an Ar­my, or an Army without an Enemy. The Py­thagoreans define Righteousnesse, [...], The peace of the whole Soul, the [Page 203] parts thereof being in good tune or harmony; accor­ding to that other definition of theirs, describing Righteousnesse to be [...], That it is the Harmony or Agreement of the Irrational Parts of the Soul with the Rational. But quite to take away all the Passions of the Minde in stead of composing them to the right rule of Reason and the divine Light, is as if a man should cut away all the strings of an Instrument, in stead of tuning it.

Ver. 24. And makes the Irascible fruitful. Re­ligious devotions help'd on by Melancholy, dry the body very much, and heat it, and make it very sub­ject to wrath; which if it be placed upon holy mat­ters, men call Zeal; but if it be inordinate and hy­pocritical, the Apostle will teach us to call it bitter zeal. This more fierce and fiery affection in man is Plotinus his [...], The Lion-like nature in us, which if Adam keep in subjection, there is no hurt in it, but good. And it is evident in the Gospel, that our Saviour Christ was one while deeply impassionated with Sorrow, another while very strongly carried away with Zeal and Anger, as you may observe in the stories of his raising up Laza­rus, and whipping the Money-changers out of the Temple. And this is no imperfection, but rather a perfection; the divine Life, when it has reached the Passions and Body of a man, becoming thereby more palpable, full and sensible. But all the danger is of being impotently passionate, and when as the body is carried away by its own distemper, or by the hypo­crisie of the minde, notwithstanding to imagine or pretend, that it is the impulse of the divine Spirit. This is too frequent a mistake God knows, but such as was impossible to happen in our Saviour; and [Page 204] therefore the Passions of his Minde were rather Perfe­ctions then Imperfections, as they are to all them that are close and sincere followers of him, especially when they have reach'd the Sixt days progresse.

Ver. 26. By the name of his own Image. What this Image of God is, Plato who was acquainted with these Mosaical Writings, as the holy Fathers of the Church so generally have told us, plainly ex­presses in these words, [...]. To be like unto God, is to be Just, Holy, and Wise. Like that of the Apostle to the Colossians, And have put on the new Man, which is renewed in Knowledge, after the Image of him that created him: And that more full passage in the fourth of the Ephesians; And that you put on the new Man, which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse. There are all the Three mem­bers of that divine Image, Knowledge, Righteousnesse, and Holinesse, which are mentioned in that fore­going description of Plato's, as if Plato had been pre-instructed by men of the same Spirit with the A­postle.

The true and perfect Man. Plotinus calls that di­vine Principle in us [...], the true Man. The rest is the brutish nature, the [...], as I said before.

But has full power. Wherefore if this definition of the Image or Likenesse of God which Plato has made, does not involve this power in it in the word [...], according to the description of Justice by the Pytha­goreans, above recited, (which implies that the ra­tional and divine part of the Soul has the Passions at its command) I should adde to [...], this one word more, [...], that the description may un thus; To be like unto God, is to be Holy and [Page 205] Just, together with Wisdome and Power. But I ra­ther think that this Power is comprehended in Holi­nesse and Justice: For unlesse we have arrived to that Power as to be able constantly to act according to these Virtues, we are rather well-willers to Holi­nesse and Righteousnesse, then properly and formally righteous and holy.

Ver. 27. In his little World. They are the words of Philo, [...], That Man is a little World, and that the World is one great Man; which Ana­logy is supposed, as I said at first, in the Moral Cab­bala of this present Chapter, and Origen upon this Chapter calls Man Minorem Mundum, a Micro­cosme.

Ver. 28. The Heavenly Adam, Christ. Philo makes mention of the Heavenly and Earthly Man, in these words; [...]. Man is of two sorts, the one Heavenly, the other Earthly. And S. Paul calls Christ the Heavenly Adam, and Philo's heavenly Adam is [...], Created after the Image of God, as Saint Paul in the forecited places to the Colossians and Ephesians also speaks concern­ing Christ.

Ver. 29. The heavenly Adam to feed upon, ful­filling the Will of God. As Christ professes of him­self, It is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me.

Ver. 30. Nor is the Animal Life quite to be star­ved. For a good man is merciful to his beast. See Origen upon the place.

Ver. 31. Approves all things which God hath cre­ated in us to be very good. Not only the divine Principle, but also the Fishes, Beasts, and Birds▪ Vult [Page 206] enim Deus ut insignis ista Dei factura, Homo, non so­lùm immaculatus sit ab his sed & dominetur eis: For it is the Will of God, saith Origen, not only that we should be free from any soil of these, (which would be more certainly effected, if we were utterly rid of them, and they quite extirpated out of our nature) but that we should rule over them without being any thing at all blemished, or discomposed by them. And for mine own part, I do not understand, how that the Kingdome of Heaven which is to be within us, can be any Kingdome at all, if there be no Subjects at all there to be ruled over, and to obey. Wherefore the Passions of the Body are not to be quite extinguished, but regulated, that there may be the greater plenitude of life in the whole man.

And those that endevour after so still, so silent, and demure condition of minde, that they would have the sense of nothing there but peace and rest, striving to make their whole nature desolate of all Animal Figurations whatsoever, what do they effect but a clear Day, shining upon a barren Heath, that feeds neither Cow nor Horse, neither Sheep nor Shepheard is to be seen there, but only a waste silent Solitude, and one uniform parchednesse and vacuity. And yet while a man fancies himself thus wholly divine, he is not a­ware how he is even then held down by his Animal Nature; and that it is nothing but the stilnesse and fixednesse of Melancholy, that thus abuses him, and in stead of the true divine Principle, would take the Government to it self, and in this usurped tyranny cruelly destroy all the rest of the Animal Figurati­ons; But the true divine Life would destroy nothing that is in Nature, but only regulate things, and order them for the more full and sincere enjoyments of man, reproaching nothing but sinfulnesse and enormity, en­tituling [Page 207] Sanguine and Choler to as much Virtue and Religion as either Phlegme or Melancholy▪ For the divine Life as it is to take into it self the humane na­ture in general, so it is not abhorrent from any of the complexions thereof. But the squabbles in the world are ordinarily not about true Piety and Virtue, but which of the Complexions, or what Humour shall a­scend the Throne, and fit there in stead of Christ him­self. But I will not expatiate too much upon one Theme; I shall rather take a short view of the whole Allegory of the Chapter.

In the first Day there is Earth, Water and Wind, over wh [...]ch, and through which, there is nothing but disconsolate darknesse, and tumultuous agitation; The Winds ruffling up the Waters into mighty waves, the waves washing up the mire and dirt into the wa­ter; all becoming but a rude heap of confusion and desolation. This is the state of the [...], or Earthly Adam, as Philo calls him, till God command the Light to shine out of Darknesse, offering him a guide to a better condition.

In the second day, is the Firmament created, divi­ding the upper and the lower Waters, that it may feel the strong impulses, or taste the different relishes of either. Thus is the will of man touch'd from above and beneath, and this is the day wherein is set before him Life and Death, Good and Evil, and he may put out his hand and take his choice.

In the third day, is the Earth uncovered of the Wa­ters, for the planting of fruit-bearing trees; By their fruits you shall know them, saith our Saviour, that is, by their works.

In the fourth day, there appears a more full accessi­on of divine Light, and the Sun of Righteousnesse warms the soul with a sincere love both of God and man.

[Page 208] In the fift day, that this Light of Righteousnesse, and bright Eye of divine Reason may not brandish its rayes in the empty field, where there is nothing either to subdue, or guide and order; God sends out whole sholes of Fishes in the Waters, and numerous flights of Fowls in the Air, besides part of the sixt days work, wherein all kinde of Beasts are created.

In these are decyphered the sundry suggestions and cogitations of the minde, sprung from these lower Elements of the humane nature, viz. Earth and Water, Flesh and Blood; all these man beholds in the Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse, discovers what they are, knows what to call them, can rule over them, and is not wrought to be over-ruled by them. This is Adam, the Master-piece of Gods Creation, and Lord of all the creatures, framed after the Image of God, Christ according to the Spirit, under whose feet is subdued the whole Animal Life, with its sun­dry Motions, Forms and Shapes. He will call every thing by its proper name, and set every creature in its proper place; The vile person shall be no longer called liberal, nor the churl bountiful. Wo be unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that call the light darknesse, and the darknesse light. He will not call bitter Passion, holy Zeal; nor plausible meretri­cious Courtesie, Friendship; nor a false soft abhor­rency from punishing the ill-deserving, Pity; nor Cruelty, Justice; nor Revenge, Magnanimity; nor Unfaithfulnesse, Policy; nor Verbosity, either Wis­dome or Piety. But I have run my self into the se­cond Chapter before I am aware.

In this first Adam is said only to have dominion o­ver all the living creatures, and to feed upon the fruit of the Plants. And what is Pride, but a mighty Mountainous Whale; Lust, a Goat; the Lion, [Page 209] and Bear, wilful dominion; Craft, a Fox; and worldly toil, an Oxe? Over these and a thousand more is the rule of Man; I mean of Adam, the I­mage of God. But his meat and drink is to do the will of his Maker; this is the fruit he feeds upon.

Behold therefore, O Man, what thou art, and whereunto thou art called, even to bee a mighty Prince amongst the creatures of God, and to bear rule in that Province he has assigned thee, to discern the Motions of thine own heart, and to be Lord o­ver the suggestions of thine own natural spirit, not to listen to the counsel of the flesh, nor conspire with the Serpent against thy Creator. But to keep thy heart free and faithful to thy God; so maist thou with innocency and unblameablenesse see all the Motions of Life, and bear rule with God over the whole Cre­ation committed to thee. This shall be thy Para­dise and harmlesse sport on Earth, till God shall trans­plant thee to an higher condition of happinesse in Heaven.

CHAP. II.

TO the fift verse there is nothing but a recapitu­lation of what went before in the first Chapter; and therefore wants no further proof then what has already been alledged out of S▪ Paul and Origen, and other Writers. Only there is mention of a Sabbath in the second verse of this Chapter, of which there was no words before. And this is that Sabbatisme or Rest, that the Author to the Hebrews exhorts them to strive to enter into, through faith and obe­dience. For those that were faint-hearted, and un­believing, and pretended that the children of Anak, the off-spring of the Giants, would be too hard for them; they could not enter into the promised Land wherein they were to set up their rest, under the con­duct of J [...]shua, a Type of Jesus. And the same Au­thor in the same place makes mention of this very Sabbath that ensued the accomplishment of the Cre­ation, concluding thus: There remaineth therefore a Sabbatisme or Rest to the people of God: For he that has entred into his Rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest, lest any man fall after that example, of disobedience and unbelief. For the Greek word [...], may well include both Senses, viz, Disobedience, or the not doing the Will of [Page 211] God, according to that measure of Power and Know­ledge he has already given us; and Ʋnbelief, that the divine Life and Spirit in us, is not able to subdue the whole Creation of the little World under us, that is, all the Animal Motions and Figurations, be they Lions, Bears, Goats, Whales, be they what they will be, as well as to cast out the children of Anak before the Israelites, as it is in that other Type of Christ, and of his Kingdome in the Souls of Men.

Ver. 4. The Generations of the Animal Life when God created them. For these are as truly the works of God, as the divine Life it self, though they are nothing comparable unto it. Nay, indeed they are but an heap of confusion without it. Wherefore the great accomplishment is to have these in due order and subjection unto the Spirit or Heavenly Life in us, which is Christ; and that you may have a more par­ticular apprehension of these generations of the Ani­mal Life, I shall give you a Catalogue of some of them, though confusedly, so as they come first to my memory.

Such therefore are Anger, Zeal, Indignation, Sor­row, Derision, Mirth, Gravity, Open-heartednesse, Re­servednesse, Stoutnesse, Flexibility, Boldness, Fearful­ness, Mildeness, Tartness, Candour, Suspicion, Per­emptoriness, Despondency, Triumph or Gloriation. All the Propensions to the exercise of Strength, or activity of Body; as Running, Leaping, Swimming, Wrestling, Justing, Coursing, or the like: Besides all the Courtly Preambles, necessary Concomitants, and delightful Consequences of Marriage, which spring up from the Love of Women, and the Pleasure of Children. To say nothing of those enjoyments that arise from correspondent affections and meer natural friendship betwixt man and man, or fuller companies [Page 212] of acquaintance; their Friendly Feastings, Sportings, Musick and Dancings. All these and many more that I am not at leisure to reckon up, be but the genu­ine pullulations of the Animal Life, and in them­selves they have neither good nor hurt in them. Nay, indeed to speak more truly and impartially, they are good, according to the Approbation of him that made them; but they become bad only to them that are bad, and act either without measure, or for un­warrantable ends, or with undue circumstances; o­therwise they are very good in their kind, they being regulated and moderated by the divine Principle in us.

And I think it is of great moment for men to take notice of this truth for these three reasons: First, because the bounds of sin, and of the innocent Moti­ons of Nature, being not plainly and apertly set out and defined, men counting the several Animal Fi­gurations and natural Motions for sins, they heap to themselves such a task, to wit, the quite extirpating that, which it were neither good, nor it may be pos­sible utterly to extirpate, that they seem in truth hereby to insinuate that it is impossible to enter into that Rest or Sabbath of the people of God. Where­fore promiscuously sheltring themselves under this con­fused cloud of sins, and infirmities, where they aggra­vate all, so as if every thing were in the same mea­sure sinful; if they be but zealous and punctual in some, they account it passing well, and an high testi­mony of their sanctimony. And their hypocrisie will be sure to pitch upon that which is least of all to the purpose; that is, a man will spend his zeal in the be­half of some natural temper he himself is of, and a­gainst the opposite complexion. But for the indispen­sable dictates of the divine Light, he will be sure to [Page 213] neglect them, as being more hard to perform, though of more concernment both for himself and the com­mon good. But if it were more plainly defined what is Sin, and what is not Sin, a man might with more heart and courage fight against his enemy, he appear­ing not so numerous and formidable, and he would have the lesse opportunity for perverse excuses, and hy­pocritical tergiversations.

The second reason is, That men may not think bet­ter of themselves then they are, for their abhorrency from those things that have no hurt in them, nor think worser of others then they deserve, when they do but such things as are approvable by God, and the divine Light. And this is of very great moment for the maintaining of Christian Love, and Union amongst men.

The third and last is; That they may observe the madness and hypocrisie of the world, whose reli­gious contestations or secret censures are commonly but the conflict and antipathy of the opposite Figurations of the Animal Life, who like the wilde beasts, with­out a Master to keep good quarter amongst them, are very eagerly set to devour one another. But by this shall every man know, whether it be Complexion or Religion that reigns in him, if he love God with all his heart, and all his soul, and his neighbour as himself: And can give a sufficient reason for all his actions and opinions from that Aeternal Light, the Love of God shed abroad in his heart; if not, it is but a faction of the Animal Life, sed up and foste­red by either natural Temper or Custome; and he is far from being arrived to the Kingdome of Christ, and entring into that true Rest of the people of God.

Ver. 5. Where there is no external doctrine. Pul­pits, and Preachings, and external Ordinances, there [Page 214] is no such noise of them amongst the holy Patriarchs, whose lives Moses describes; and therefore I con­ceive this sense I have here given the Text more ge­nuine and warrantable. But besides Moses unvail­ed, being Christianity it self, the manner of the growth of the true Christian is here prefigured. That he is ra­ther taught of God, then of Men, he having the Spi­rit of Life in him, and needs no man to teach him: For he has the Unction in himself, which will teach him all things necessary to Life and Godliness.

Ver. 6. Which is repentance from dead works. In this verse [...] in the Philosophick Cabbala, signified a Vapour, but here I translate it a Fountain of Water, which I am warranted to do by the Seventy, who ren­der it [...]; but that Water is an Embleme of Re­pentance, it is so obvious that I need say nothing of it: John's baptizing with Water to Repentance, is fre­quently repeated in the Gospels.

Ver. 7. And breathes into him the Spirit of Life. In allusion to this passage of Moses in all likelihood is that of the Psalmist; Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me, O give me understanding and I shall live; as if like Adam, he were but a statue of Earth till God breathed into him the Spirit of Life and Holiness.

Of the Water and of the Spirit. The Water and the Spirit are the two extremes; the first and the last that makes up the Creation of the Spiritual A­dam, or Christ, compleated in us, and includes the middle which is Blood. First therefore is Repentance from what we delighted in before. Then the killing of that evil and corrupt life in us, which is resisting to blood, as the Apostle speaks. And the 1 Epistle of John ch. 5. v. 4. What ever is born of God, overcomes the world; Who is he that overcomes the world, but [Page 215] he that believes that Jesus Christ (the divine Light and Life in us) is the Son of God? and therefore in­dued with power from on high to overcome all sin and wickednesse in us. This is he that comes by Water and Blood, by repentance and perseverance till the death of the body of sin, not by repentance only, and dislike of our former life, but by the mortification al­so of it. Then the Spirit of Truth is awakened in us, and will bear witnesse of whatever is right and true. And according to this manner of testimony is it to be understood especially, That no man can say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but by the Spirit of God, as the Apostle elsewhere affirms. This is the heavenly Adam, which is true Light and Glory to all them that have attain'd to the resurrection of the dead, and into whom God hath breathed the breath of Life, without which, we have no right knowledge nor sense of God at all, [...]; They are th [...] words of Philo upon the place. For how should the soul of man, says he, know God, if he did not in­spire her, and take hold of her by his power?

Ver. 8. To the Kingdome of Heaven. And the end of the doctrine of John, which was Repentance, was for this purpose, that men might arrive to that comfortable condition here described; and therefore it was a motive for them to repent. For though sor­row endure for a night, yet joy will come in the morn­ing. For the new Jerusalem is to be built, and God is to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men, and to rule by his Spirit here upon Earth; which, if I would ven­ture upon an Historical Cabbala of Moses, I should presage would happen in the seventh thousand years, according to the Chronology of Scripture; when the world shall be so spiritualized, that the work of Sal­vation [Page 216] shall be finished, and the great Sabbath and Festival shall be then celebrated in the height: A thousand years are but as one day, saith the Apostle Peter, And therefore the seventh thousand years may well be the seventh day: Wherefore in the end of the sixth thousand years, the Kingdomes of the Earth will be the second Adams, the Lord Christs, as Adam in the Sixt day was created the Lord of the world, and all the creatures therein; and this con­quest of his will bring in the Seventh day of rest, and peace, and joy, upon the face of the whole Earth. Which presage will seem more credible, when I shall have unfolded unto you out of Philo Judaeus the my­sterie of the number Seven; but before I fall upon that, let me a little prepare your belief, by shewing the truth of the same thing in another Figure.

Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, they died, not enjoying the richness of Gods good­ness in their bodies. But Enoch who was the se­venth from Adam, he was taken up alive into Hea­ven, and seems to enjoy that great blisse in the body. The world then in the Seventh Chiliad, will be assu­med up into God, snatch'd up by his Spirit, inacted by his Power. The Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven, will then in a most glorious and eminent manner flourish upon Earth. God will, as I said, pitch his Tabernacle amongst men. And for God to be in us, and with us, is as much as for us to be lift­ed up into God.

But to come now to the mysterie of the Septenary, or number Seven, it is of two kindes, the one is [...]. The other [...]. The Septe­nary within the Decade is meerly seven unites; The other is a Seventh Number, beginning at an Ʋnite, and holding on in a continued Geometrical Proportion, [Page 217] till you have gone through Seven Proportional Terms. For the Seventh Term there is this Septenary of the second kinde, whose nature Philo fully expresses in these words: [...]. To this sense: For always beginning from an Ʋnite, and holding on in double, or triple, or what Proportion you will, the seventh Number of this rank is both Square and Cube, comprehending both kindes as well the Corporeal as Incorporeal Substanc [...]e; the Incor­poreal, according to the Superficies which the Squares exhibite; but the Corporeal, according to the solid dimensions which are set out by the Cubes.

As for example; 64. or 729. these are Numbers that arise after this manner; each of them are a Se­venth from an Unite, the one arising from double Pro­portion, the other from triple; and if the Proportion were Quadruple, Quintuple, or any else, there is the same reason, some other Seventh Number would a­rise, which would prove of the same nature with these, they would prove both Cubes and Squares, that is, Corporeal and Incorporeal: For such is sixty four, either made by multiplying eight into eight, and so it is a Square, or else by multiplying four Cubical­ly. For four times four times four is again sixty four, but then it is a Cube. And so seven hundred twenty nine, is made either by Squaring of twenty seven, or Cubically multiplying of Nine, for either way will seven hundred twenty nine be made; and so is both Cube and Square, Corporeal and Incorporeal. Where­by is intimated, that the world shall not be reduced [Page 218] in the Seventh day to a meer Spiritual consistency, to an Incorporeal condition, but that there shall be a co-habitation of the Spirit with Flesh, in a Mystical or Moral sense, and that God will pitch his Tent a­mongst us. Then shall be settled everlasting righte­ousnesse, and rooted in the Earth, so long as mankind shall inhabite upon the face thereof.

And this truth of the Reign of Righteousness in this Seventh thousand years, is still more clearly set out to us in the Septenary within Ten. [...], as Philo calls it, the naked number Seven: For the parts it consists of are 3 and 4, which put together make 7. And these parts be the sides of the first Orthogonion in Numbers, the very sides that include the right angle thereof. And the Or­thogonion what a foundation it is of Trigonometry, and of measuring the altitudes, latitudes, and longi­tudes of things every body knows that knows any thing at all in Mathematicks. And this prefigures the uprightness of that holy Generation, who will stand and walk [...], Inclining neither this way, nor that way, but they will approve themselves of an upright and sincere heart. And by this Spirit of Righteousness will these Saints be enabled to finde out the depth, and breadth, and height of the Wisdom and goodness of God, as somewhere the Apostle himself phras [...]th it.

But then again in the second place, this three and four comprehend also the conjunction of the Corpo­real and Incorporeal nature; Three being the first Superficies, and Four the first Body: and in the Se­venth thousand years I do verily conceive, that there will be so great union betwixt God and Man, that they shall not only partake of his Spirit, but that the Inhabitants of the Aethereal Region will openly [Page 219] converse with these of the Terrestrial; and such fre­quent conversation and ordinary visits of our cordial friends of that other world, will take away all the toil of life, and the fear of death amongst men, they being very chearful and pleasant here in the body, and be­ing well assured they shall be better when they are out of it: For Heaven and Earth shall then shake hands together, or become as one house, and to die, shall be accounted but to ascend into an higher room. And though this dispensation for the present be but very sparingly set a foot, yet I suppose there may some few have a glimpse of it, concerning whom accomplish'd Posterity may happily utter something answerable to that of our Saviours concerning Abraham, who ta­sted of Christianity before Christ himself was come in the Flesh; Abraham saw my day, and rejoyced at it. And without all question, that plenitude of hap­piness that has been reserved for future times, the pre­sage and presensation of it, has in all ages been a ve­ry great Joy and Triumph to all holy men and Pro­phets.

The Morning Light of the Sun of Righteousnesse. This is very sutable to the Text, Paradise being said to be placed Eastward in Eden, and our Saviour Christ to be the bright Morning Starre, and the Light that lightens every one that comes into the world, though too many are disobedient to the dictates of this Light, that so early visits them in their mindes and consci­ences, but they that follow it, it is their peace and happiness in the conclusion.

Ver. 9. Which is a sincere obedience to the Will of God. The Tree of Life is very rightly said to be in the midst of the Garden, that is, in the midst of the soul of man, and this is the will or desire of man, which is the most inward of all the faculties of his soul, and is as it [Page 220] were the [...], or vital Center of the rest, from whence they stream or grow. That therefore is the Tree of Life if it be touch'd truly with the di­vine Life, and a man be heartily obedient to the will of God. For the whole Image of divine Perfection will grow from hence, and receives nourishment, strength, and continuance from it. But if this will and desire be broke off from God, and become actu­ated by the creature, or be a self-will, and a spirit of disobedience, it breeds most deadly fruit, which kills the divine Life in us, and puts man into a neces­sity of dying to that disorder and corruption he has thus contracted.

What ever others would insinuate to the contrary. For there is nothing so safe, if a man be heartily sin­cere, as not to be led by the nose by others; For we see the sad event of it, in Eves listening to the out­ward suggestions of the Serpent.

Ver. 10. The four Cardinal Virtues. It is the Ex­position of Philo. Till verse 17. there is no need of adding any thing more then what has already been said in the Defence of the Philsophick Cabbala.

Ver. 17. Dead to all Righteousnesse and Truth. The mortality that Adam contracted by his disobedience in the Mortal or Mystical sense is twofold; The one a death to righteousness, and it is the sense of Philo upon the place, [...]. The death of the soul is the extinction of Virtue in her, and the resuscitation of Vice; and he adds, that this must be the death here meant, it being a real punishment indeed to forfeit the life of Virtue. The other mortality is a necessity of dying to unrighteousness, if he ever would be happy. Both those notions of Death, are more frequent in S. Pauls Epistles, then that I need to give any in­stance.

[Page 221] His more noble and Masculine Faculties. What the Masculine part in man is▪ Philo plainly declares in these words, [...]. In us, saith he, the Man is the Intellect, the Woman the Sense of the Body. Whence you will easily understand, that the Masculine Fa­culties are those that are more Spiritual and Intelle­ctual.

Ver. 18. That the whole Humane Nature may be accomplished with the Divine. Which is agreeable to that pious ejaculation of the Apostle, 1 Thess. 5. And the God of Peace sanctifie you wholly, or throughly; and I pray God your whole Spirit, Soul and Body, may be kept blamelesse, [...], by the presence or abode of Jesus Christ, the divine Life or heavenly Adam in you. This is the most easie and natural sense of that place of Scripture, as it will appear to any man, whose minde is as much set on holiness, as hard Theories. And it is very agreeable to the My­stical sense of the second Psalm, where the King­dome of Christ reaches to the utmost ends of the Earth; that is, as far as Soul and Life can animate, so that our very flesh and body is brought under the Scepter of Christs Kingdome.

Ver. 19. The Figurations of the Animal Life. That the motions of the Minde as they are suggested from the Animal Life of the Body, are set forth by Fishes, Beasts and Birds, I have already made good from the authority of Origen.

Ver. 20. In a capacity of taking delight in them. For melancholy had so depraved the complexion of his body, that there was no grateful sense of any thing that belong'd to nature and the life of the Ve­hicle.

Ver. 22. The greatest part of that Paradise a man [Page 222] is capable of upon Earth. This is a Truth of Sense and Experience, and is no more to be proved by Rea­son, then that White is White, or Black is Black.

Ver. 23. Essential operation of the Soul. The ve­ry nature of the Soul, as it is a Soul, is an aptitude of informing or actuating a Body; but that it should be always an organized Body, it is but Aristotles saying of it, he does not prove it. But for mine own part, I am very prone to think, that the Soul is never destitute of some Vehicle or other, though Plotinus be of another minde, and conceives that the Soul at the height is joined with God and nothing else, na­kedly lodged in his arms. And I am the more bold to dissent from him in this exaltation of the Soul, I being so secure in my own conceit of that other suspe­cted extravagancy of his, in the debasement of them, that at last they become so drowsie and sensless, that they grow up out of the ground in that dull function of life, the efformation of Trees and Plants. And I am not alone in this liberty of dissenting from Ploti­nus: For besides my own conceit this way, (for I must confess I have no demonstrative reasons against his o­pinion) I am emboldened by the example of Ficinus, who is no small admirer of the forenamed Author.

That which I was about to say, is this; The infor­ming or actuating of a body being so Indispensable and Essential an act of the Soul, the temper and condition of the body that it thus actuates, cannot but be of mighty consequence unto the Soul that is con­scious of the plight thereof, and reaps the joy of it or sorrow, by an universal touch and inward sense, spring­ing up into her cognoscence and animadversion. And we may easily imagine of what moment the health and good plight of the body is to the minde that lodges there, if we do but consider the condition of [Page 223] Plants, whose bodies we cannot but conceive in a more grateful temper, while they flourish and are sweet and pleasing to the eye, then when they are withered by age or drought, or born down to the Earth by im­moderate storms of rain. And so it is with the body of man, (where there is a Soul to take notice of its condition) far better when it is in health by discretion and moderation in diet, and exercise, then when it is either parched up by superstitious melancholy, or slocken and drowned in sensuality and intemperance; For they are both abaters of the joyes of life, and lessen that plenitude of happiness that man is capable of by his Mystical Eve, the woman that God has given e­very one to delight himself with.

Ver. 24. So far forth as they are incompetible with the health of the body. This is an undeniable truth, else how could that hold good that the Apostle speaks, That Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of this world, and that which is to come; when as without the health of the body, there is nothing at all to be enjoyed in this present world? And certain­ly God doth not tie us to the Law of Angels, or Su­periour Creatures, but to precepts sutable to the na­ture of man.

Obedience to the precepts of that Superiour Light▪ For if the life of the body grow upon us so, as to ex­tinguish or hinder the sense of divine things, our de­pendence of God, and joyful hope of the life to come; it is then become disorderly, and is to be castigated and kept down, that it pull not us down into an aver­sation from all Piety, and sink us into an utter obli­vion of God and the divine Life.

Ver. 25. Without any shame or blushing. See what has been said upon the Philosophick Cabbala.

CHAP. III.

IN this third Chapter is the said Catastrophe of the story, the Fall of Adam, and the Original of all that misery and calamity that hath befallen mankind since the Beginning of the World. Of so horrid conse­quence was it, that our Mother Eve could no better suppress her longing, but upon the easie perswasion of [Page 225] the Serpent, ate the forbidden Fruit; as a famous Pre­late in France, once very tragically insisted upon the point to his attentive Auditory. But it should seem, a certain Smith in the Church, as Bodinus relates, when he had heard from this venerable Preacher, that U­niversal Mankinde, saving a small handful of Chri­stians, were irrevocably laps'd into eternal damnati­on by Adams eating of an Apple; and he having the boldness to argue the matter with the Prelate, and receiving no satisfaction from him in his managing the Literal sense of the Text, (and his skill it should seem went no further) the Smith at last broke out into these words, Tam multas rixas pro re tantilla ineptè excitari; as if he should have said in plain English, What a deal of doe has there here been about the eat­ing of an Apple? Which blasphemous saying, as Bo­dinus writes, had no sooner come to the ears of the Court of France, but it became a Proverb amongst the Courtiers. So dangerous a thing is an ignorant and indiscreet Preacher, and a bold, immodest Audi­tour. Bodinus in the same place does profess it is his Judgement, that the unskilful insisting of our Divines upon the literal sense of Moses, has bred many hundred thousands of Atheists. For which reason, I hope that men that are not very ignorant and humorous, but sincere lovers of God and the divine Truth, will receive these my Cabbala's with more fa­vour and acceptance, especially this Moral one, it being not of too big a sense to stop the mouth of any honest, free, inquisitive Christian. But whatever it is, we shall further endevour to make it good in the several passages thereof.

Ver. 1. Inordinate desire of pleasure. It is Phi­lo's, [...], That the Serpent is a Symbole or representation of Pleasure; which he [Page 226] compares to that creature for three reasons;

First, because a Serpent is an Animal without feet, and crawls along on the Earth upon his belly.

Secondly, because it is said to feed upon the dust of the Earth.

Thirdly, because it has poisonous teeth that kill those that it bites. And so he assimilates pleasure to it, being a base affection, and bearing it self upon the belly, the seat of lust and intemperance, feeding on earthly things, [...], but ne­ver nourishing her self with that heavenly food, which wisdome offers to the Contemplative, by her precepts and discourses.

It is much that Philo should take no notice of that which is so particularly set down in the Text, the sub­tilty of the Serpent, which me thinks is notorious in pleasure, it looking so smoothly and innocently on't, and insinuating it self very easily into the mindes of men upon that consideration, and so deceiving them; when as other passions cannot so slily surprise us, they bidding more open warre to the quiet and happiness of mans life, as that judicious Poet Spencer has well observed in his Legend of Sir Guyon or Temperance, Cant. 6.

[Page 227] What a rigid and severe thing, &c. This is the con­ceit of such, as are either utter strangers to Religion, or have not yet arrived to that comfortable result of it, that may be expected. For God takes no delight in the perpetual rack of those souls he came to redeem, but came to redeem us from that pain and torture which the love of our selves, and our untamed lusts, and pride of spirit, makes us obnoxious to; which men being loth to part with, and not having the heart to let them be struck to the very quick, and pulled up by the roots, the work not accomplished according to the full minde and purpose of God, there are still the seeds of perpetual anxiety, sadness, and inevitable pain. For to be dead, is easement, but to be still dying, is pain; and it is most ordinarily but the due punish­ment of halting and hypocrisie. And mens spirits being long sowred thus, and made sad, their professi­on and behaviour is such, that they fright all inexpe­rienced young men from any tolerable compliance in matters of Religion, thinking that when they are once engaged there, they are condemned ad Fodinas for ever, and that they can never emerge out of this work and drudgery in those dark Caverns, till they die there like the poor Americans, inslaved and over­wrought by the merciless Spaniard.

But verily if we have but the patience to be laid low enough, the same hand that depressed us, will ex­alt us above all hope and expectation. For if we be sufficiently baptized into the Death of Christ, we shall assuredly be made partakers of his Resurrection to Life, and that glorious liberty of the Sons of God, ac­cording as it is written, If the Son make you free, then are you free indeed; free from Sin, and secure from the power of any Temptation. But if Mortifi­cation has not had its perfect work, too mature a re­turn [Page 228] of the sweetness of the Animal Life, may prove like the Countreymans cherishing the Snake by the fire side, which he had as he thought taken up dead in the Snow, it will move and hisse, and bite, and sting. The strong presages of the manifold corporeal de­lights, and satisfactions of the flesh, may grow so big and boisterous in the minde, that the soul may deem her self too straitly girt up, and begin to listen to such whispers of the Serpent as this; What a rigid and severe thing is this business of Religion? &c. and account her self if she be not free to every thing, that she is as good as free to nothing.

Ver. 2, 3. But the womanish part in Adam. 'Tis but one and the same soul in man entertaining a dia­logue with her self that is set out by these three parts: The Serpent, Adam, and the Woman. And here the soul recollecting her self, cannot but confess, that Re­ligion denies her no honest, nor fitting pleasure that is not hazardous to her greater happiness, and be­thinks her self in what peril she is of losing the divine Life, and due sense of God, if she venture thus pro­miscuously to follow her own will, and not measure all her actions and purposes by the divine Light that for the present is at hand to direct her.

Ver. 4. But the Serpent, &c. The sense of this verse is, that the eager desire of pleasure had wrought it self so far into the sweetness of the Animal Life, that it clouded the mans judgement, and made him fondly hope that the being so freely alive to his own will was no prejudice to the will of the Spirit, and the life of God w ^ch was in him, when as yet notwithstan­ding the Apostle expresly writes, What fellowship is there betwixt righteousness & unrighteousness? What communion betwixt light and darkness? What agree­ment betwixt Christ and Belial? And he elsewhere tells [Page 229] us, That Christ gave himself for his Church, that he might so throughly purge it and sanctifie it, that it should have neither spot nor wrinkle: but that it should be holy and unblameable, a true Virgin Bride clothed with his divine Life and Glory. And those men that are so willing to halt betwixt two, the Flesh and the Spirit, and have house-room enough to en­tertain them both, (as if there could be any friend­ship and communion betwixt them) let them seri­ously consider whether this opinion be not the same that deceived Adam was of, and let them suspect the same sad event, and acknowledge it to arise from the self-same Principle, the inordinate desire of pleasing their own wills, without the allowance of the divine Light, and consulting with the will of God.

Ver. 5. Skill and Experience in things. And some men make it no sin, but warrantable knowledge to know the world, and account others fools that are ignorant of that wicked mysterie. For man would be no Slave or Idiot, but know his own liberty, and gain experience, as he pretends, by the making use of it.

But that the accurate exercise of Reason in the know­ledge of Gods marvellous works in Nature, or those innocent delightful conclusions in Geometry, and A­rithmetick, and the like; that these parts of know­ledge should be perstringed by Moses in this History, it seems to me not to have the least probability in it: for there are so very few in the world, whose mindes are carried any thing seriously to such objects, that it had not been worth the taking notice of. And then again it is plain that the miscarriage is from the affe­ctation of such kinde of knowledge, as the Woman, the flowring life of the body, occasioned Adam to transgresse in. Wherefore it is the fulfilling of the various desires of the flesh, not an high aspire after [Page 230] Intellectual Contemplations; for they respect the Masculine Faculties, not the Feminine, that made way to the transgression.

Wherefore I say, the wisdome that the Serpent here promised, was not Natural Philosophy, or Mathe­maticks, or any of those innocuous and noble ac­complishments of the understanding of man, but it was the knowledge of the world, and the wisdome of the flesh. For the life of the body is full of desires, and presages of satisfaction in the obtaining of this or the other external thing, whether it be in Honour, Ri­ches, or Pleasure; and if they shake off the divine Guide within them, they will have it by hook or by crook. And this worldly wisdome is so plausible in the world, and so sweetly relished by the meer natu­ral man, that it were temptation enough for a No­vice, if it were but to be esteemed wise, to adventure upon such things as would initiate him therein.

Ver. 6. But the wisdome of the flesh. The Apostle calls it [...]. Which wisdome of the flesh, he saith, is enmity with God. But the free and cautious use of Reason, the knowledge of the fabrick of the world, and the course of natural causes, to understand the Rudiments of Geometry, and the Principles of Me­chanicks, and the like; what man that is not a Fool, or a Fanatick, will ever assert that God bears any enmity to these things? For again, these kind of Con­templations are not so properly the knowledg of Good and Evil, as of Truth and Falshood, the knowledge of Good and Evil referring to that experience we ga­ther up in Moral or Political encounters.

But those men that from this Text of Scripture would perstringe Philosophy, and an honest and ge­rous enquiry into the true knowledge of God in Na­ture, I suspect them partly of ignorance, and partly [Page 231] of a sly and partial kinde of countenancing of those pleasures that beasts have as well as men, and I think in as high a degree, especially Baboons and Satyres, and such like letcherous Animals. And I fear there are no men so subject to such mis-interpretations of Scripture, as the boldest Religionists, and Mock-Prophets, who are very full of heat and spirits, and have their imagination too often infected with the fumes of those lower parts, the full sense and pleasure whereof they prefer before all the subtile delights of Reason and generous Contemplation.

But leaving these Sanguine-inspired Seers, to the sweet deception and gullery of their own corrupted fancy, let us listen and keep close to him that can nei­ther deceive nor be deceived, I mean Christ, and his holy Apostles; and now in particular, let us consider that grave and pious Monition of S. Peter, Beloved, I beseech you, as Strangers and Pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that warre against the soul. Wherein, this holy man instructed of God, plainly intimates that the soul in this world is as a traveller in a strange Countrey, and that she is journeying on to a condi­tion more sutable to her, then this in the body. Whence it follows, that the tender patronizing of those plea­sures that are mortal and die with the body, is a badg of a poor, base, degenerate minde, and unacquainted with her own nature and dignity.

Ver. 7. How naked now he was, and bare of all strength and power to divine and holy things. This was Adams mistake, that he thought he could serve two Masters, The will of God, and the dictates of the flesh. But thus he became estranged to the di­vine Life and Power, which will not dwell in a body that is subject unto sin; For the holy Spirit of disci­pline will fly deceit, and remove from thoughts that [Page 232] are without understanding, (viz. such as are suggest­ed and pursued at randome) and will not abide when unrighteousnesse cometh in.

Ver. 8. Could not endure the presence of it. For the divine Light now was only a convincer of his mis­carriages, but administred nothing of the divine Love and Power, as it does to them that are obedient and sincere followers of its precepts, and therefore Adam could no more endure the presence of it, then sore eyes the Sun or Candle-light.

Ver. 9. Persisted and came up closer to him. This divine Light is God, as he is manifested in the Con­science of man, but his Love and Power are not fit to be communicated to Adam in this dissolute and diso­bedient condition he is in, but meerly conviction, to bring him to repentance. And after the hurry of his inordinate pleasures and passions, when he was for a time left in the suds, as they call it, this light of Conscience did more strictly, and particularly sift and examine him, and he might well wonder with himself that he found himself so much afraid to com­mune with his own heart.

Ver. 10. Ingenuously confessed. For he present­ly found out the reason why he was thus estranged from the divine Light, because he found himself na­ked of that power and good affection he had in di­vine things before, having lost those by promiscuously following the wilde suggestions of his own inordi­nate will, as you see in the following verse. Where­fore he had no minde to be convinced of any obliga­tion to such things as he felt in himself no power left to perform, nor any inclination unto.

Ver. 11. The sad event upon his disobedience. A­dams Conscience resolved all this confusion of minde into his disobedience and following his own will, [Page 233] without any rule or guidance from the will of God.

Ver. 12. His rational Faculties, and said. Like that in the Comedian.

And so commonly men reason themselves into an allowance of sin, by pretending humane infirmities or natural frailties.

Ver. 13. That he kept his Feminine faculties in no better order. That's the foolish and mischievous So­phistry amongst men, whereby they impose upon themselves, that because such and such things may be done, and that they are but the suggestions of nature, which is the work of God in the world, that there­fore they may do them, how, and in what measure they please; But here the divine Light does not cha­stise Adam for the exercise of his Feminine faculties, but that in the exercise of them they were not regula­ted by an higher and more holy rule, and that he kept them in no more subjection unto the Masculine.

To which he had nothing to say, but, &c. The mea­ning is, that Adams temptations were very strong, and so accommodate to the vigorous life of the body, that, as he thought, he could not resist. But the will of man assisted by God, as Adam's was, if it be sincere, what can it not doe?

Ver. 14. Then the divine Light began to chastise the Serpent. From this 14 verse to the 20. there seems to be a description of the conscience of a man plainly convincing him of all the ugliness and incon­veniencies of those sinful courses he is engaged in, with some hints also of the advantages of the better life, if he converted to it, which is like a present flame kind­led in his minde for a time, but the true love of the divine Life, and the power of grace being not also [Page 234] communicated unto his soul, and his body being un­purg'd of the filth it has contracted by former evil courses, this flame is presently extinct, and all those monitions and representations of what so nearly con­cerned him are drowned in oblivion, and he presently settles to his old ill ways again.

That it crept basely upon the belly. See what has been said out of Philo upon ver. 1.

Ver. 15. But might I once descend so far. This the divine Light might be very well said to speak in Adam. For his conscience might well re-minde him, how grateful a sense of the harmless joyes of the body he had in his state of obedience and sincerity; and if the divine Light had wrought it self into a more full and universal possession of all his faculties, the regula­ted joyes of the body, which had been the off-spring of the woman, had so far exceeded the tumultuous pleasures of inordinate desires, that they would like the Sun-beams playing upon a fire, extinguish the heat thereof, as is already said in this fifteenth verse.

Ver. 16. So that the kindly Joy of the health of the body shall be much depraved. The divine Light in the Conscience of Adam might very well say all this, he having had already a good taste of it in all likelihood, having found himself after inordinate sa­tiating his furious desires of pleasure in a dull, languid, nauseating condition, though new recruits spurred him up to new follies. For the Moral Cabbala does not suppose it was one single mistaken act that brought Adam to this confusion of minde, but disobedience at large, and leading a life unguided by the Light and Law of God.

Earthly minded Adam. Philo calls him [...], the earthly minde, pag. 332.

Ver. 17, 18, 19. Adams Conscience was so a­wakened [Page 235] by the divine Light and Reason, and Expe­rience so instructed him for the present, that he could easily read his own doom, if he persisted in these cour­ses of disobedience, that he should be prick'd and vex'd in his wilde rangings after inordinate pleasure all the while the Earthly mind was his light & guide. But after all this conviction, what way Adam would settle in, did not God visit him with an higher pitch of superadvenient grace that would conveigh Faith, Power, and Affection unto him, you see in the verse immediately following.

Ver. 20. Adam was not sufficiently. For meer conviction of Light disjoin'd from Faith, Power, and Affection, may indeed disturb the minde and confound it, but is not able of it self to compose it and settle it to good, in men that have contracted a custome of evil.

Called her, My life. So soon as this reproof and castigation of the divine Light manifested in Adams Conscience was over, he forthwith falls into the same sense of things, and pursues the same resolutions that he had in designe before, and very feelingly concludes with himself, that be that as true as it will, that his Conscience dictated unto him, yet nothing can be more true then this; That the Joy of his body was a necessary solace of life, and therefore he would set up his happiness in the improvement thereof. And so adhering in his affection to it, counted it his very life, and that there was no living at all without it. They are almost the words of Philo, speaking of the sense of the body, in which was this corporeal Joy, [...], i. e. which corporeal sense the earthly minde in man, properly therefore called Adam, when he saw efformed, though it was really [Page 236] the death of the man, yet he called it his life. This is Philo's Exposition of this present verse.

Ver. 21. Put hairy Coats. The Philosophick Cabbala, and the Text have a marvellous fit and ea­sie congruency in this place. And this Moral sense will not seem hard, if you consider such phrases as these in Scripture; But as for his enemies let them be clothed with shame; and elsewhere, Let them be clothed with rebuke and dishonour; besides other pla­ces to that purpose. And to clothe men according to their conditions and quality, what is more ordinary, or more fit and natural? As those that are fools they ordinarily clothe them in a fools coat. And so A­dams will and affection being carried so resolvedly to the brutish life, it is not incongruous to conceive that the divine Light judging them very Brutes, the re­proach she gives them is set out in this passage of clo­thing them with the skins of beasts. The meaning there­fore of this verse is, that the divine Light in the Con­science of Adam had another bout with him, and that Adam was convinced that he should grow a kinde of a Brute, by the courses he meant to follow. And indeed he was content so to be, as a man may well conceive, the pleasure of sin having so weakned all the powers of that higher life in him, that there was little or nothing, especially for the present, able to carry him at all upwards towards Heaven and holi­ness.

And of a truth, vile Epicurisme, and Sensuality will make the soul of man so degenerate and blinde, that he will not only be content to slide into brutish immorality, but please himself in this very opinion that he is a real Brute already, an Ape, Satyre, or Baboon, and that the best of men are no better, saving that civilizing of them and industrious education has [Page 237] made them appear in a more refined shape, and long inculcate Precepts have been mistaken for connate Principles of Honesty and Natural Knowledge, o­therwise there be no indispensable grounds of Religion and Virtue, but what has hapned to be taken up by over-ruling Custome. Which things, I dare say, are as easily confutable, as any conclusion in Mathematicks is demonstrable. But as many as are thus sottish, let them enjoy their own wildeness and ignorance, it is sufficient for a good man that he is conscious unto him­self that he is more nobly descended, better bred and born, and more skilfully taught, by the purged facul­ties of his own minde.

Ver. 22. Design'd the contrary. The mercy of the Almighty is such to poor man, that his weak and dark spirit cannot be always so resolvedly wicked as he is contented to be; wherefore it is a fond surmise of desperate men, that do all the violence they can to the remainders of that Light and Principle of Religi­on, and honesty left in them, hoping thereby to come to rest and tranquillity of minde, by laying dead, or quite obliterating all the rules of godliness & morality out of their souls. For it is not in their power so to do, nor have they any reason to promise themselves they are hereby secure from the pangs of Conscience. For some passages of Providence or other may so a­waken them, that they shall be forced to acknowledg their errour and rebellion with unexpressible bitterness and confusion of spirit. And the longer they have run wrong, the more tedious journey they have to return back.

Wherefore it is more safe to close with that life be­time, that when it is attained to, neither deserves nor is obnoxious to any change or death; I mean when we have arrived to the due measure of it. For this is [Page 238] the natural accomplishment of the soul, all else but rust and dirt that lies upon it.

Ver. 23. Out of this Paradise of Luxury. The English Translation takes no notice of any more Paradises then one, calling it always the Garden of E­den. But the Seventy more favourable to our Mo­ral Cabbala, that which they call a Garden in Eden at first, they after name [...], which may signifie the Garden of Luxury. But whether there be any force at all in this or no, that Supplement I have made in the foregoing verse will make good the sense of our Cabbala. And in the very Letter and History of the Scripture, if a man take notice, he must of necessity make a supply of something or another to pass to what follows with due cohaesion and clearness of sense.

So in the very next Chapter, where God dooms Cain to be a Vagabond, and he cryes out that every man that meets him will kill him, according to the concise story of the Text; there was none but Adam and Eve in the world to meet him, and yet there is a mark set upon him by God as if there had been then several people in the world, into whose hands he might fall, and lose his life by them. And then again at ver. 17. Cain had no sooner got into the Land of Nod, but he has a wife and a childe by her, and he is forthwith said to build a City, when as there is no mention of any but himself, his wife, and his childe to be the Artificers; but any ingenious Reader will easily make to himself fitting supplements, ever sup­posing due distances of time and right preparations to all that is said to be acted. And so in the story of Samson, where he is said to take three hundred Fox­es, it may be rationally supposed, that Countrey was full of such creatures, that he had a competency of [Page 239] time, a sufficient number to help him, and the like. That the History of Scripture is very concise, no body can deny; and therefore where easie, natural, and agreeable supplements will clear the sense, I conceive it is very warrantable to suppose some such supplies, and for a Paraphrast, judiciously to interweave them.

But now that Paradise at first should signifie a state of divine pleasure, and afterward of sensual voluptu­ousness, it is no more harsh then that Adam one while is the Spiritual or Intellectual Man, another while the Earthly and Carnal. For one and the same na­tural thing may be a Symbole of contrary Spiritual Mysteries. So a Lion and a Serpent are figures of Christ, as well as of the Devil; and therefore it is not so hard to admit that this Garden of Eden may em­blematize, while Adam is discours'd of as innocent and obedient to God, the delights of the Spirit; but after his forsaking God, the pleasures of the Flesh; and consequently, that the fruit of the Tree of Life in the one, may be perseverance and establishment in the divine Life; in the other, a settlement and fixedness in the brutish and sensual.

Ver. 24. The manly faculties of Reason and Con­science. These I conceive may be understood by the Cherubim and flaming Sword. For the Cherubim bear the Image of a man, and Reason is a cutting, di­viding thing like a Sword, the Stoicks call it [...], dividing and distinguishing Reason. For Reason is nothing but a distinct discernment of the I­dea's of things, whereby the minde is able to sever what will not sute, and lay together what will. But if any body will like better of Philo's interpretation here, of the Cherubim and flaming Sword, who makes the Cherubim to signifie the goodness and power of God; the flaming Sword, [...], the effectual [Page 240] and operative Wisdome or Word of God; it does not at all clash with what we have already set down. For my self also suppose, that God by his Son the Eter­nal Word works upon the Reason and Conscience of man: For that Word is living and powerful, shar­per then any two-edged Sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are na­ked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Heb. 4.

That he could not set up his rest for ever. Assu­redly a mans heart is not so in his own hand, that he can do himself all the mischief he is contented to do. For we are more Gods then our own, and his Good­ness and Power has dominion over us. And there­fore let not a man vainly fancy, that by violently run­ning into all enormity of life, and extinguishing all the Principles of Piety and Virtue in him, that he shall be able thus to hide himself from God, and never be re-minded of him again for ever. For though a man may happen thus to forget God for a time, yet he can never forget us, sith all things lie open to his sight. And the power of his ever-living Word will easily cut through all that thickness and darkness, which we shrowd our selves in, and wound us so, as to make us look back with shame and sorrow at a time that we least thought of.

But that our pain may be the lesse, and our happi­ness commence the sooner, it will be our wisdome to comply with the divine Light betimes; for the sooner we begin, the work is the easier, and will be the more timely dispatch'd through the power of God working in us. But this I must confess (and I think [Page 241] my self bound, to bear witness to so true and useful a mysterie wrapt up in this Mosaical covering) that there is no other passage nor return into happiness then by death. Whence Plato also that had been acquain­ted with these holy writings, has defined Philosophy [...], The meditation of death, viz. the dying to the lust of the flesh and inordinate desires of the body; which Purgatory if we had once passed through, there would soon spring up that Morning Joy, the resurrection from the dead, and our arrival to everlasting life and glory. And there is no other way then this that is manifestable either by Scripture, Reason, or Experience.

But those that through the grace of God and a ve­hement thirst after the divine Righteousness, have born the Crosse till the perfect death of the body of sin, and make it their business to have no more sense nor relish of themselves, or their own particular per­sons, then if they were not at all, they being thus de­molished as to themselves, and turned into a Chaos or dark Nothingness, as I may so speak, they become thereby fitted for the new Creation.

And this personal life being thus destroyed, God calls unto them in the dead of the Night, when all things are silent about them, awakes them and raises them up, and breathes into them the breath of ever­lasting life, and ever after actuates them by his own Spirit, and takes all the humane faculties unto him­self, guiding or allowing all their operations, always holding up the spirit of man so, that he will never sink into sin; and from henceforth death and sorrow is swallowed up for ever, for the sting of Death is Sin.

But whatever liberty and joy men take to them­selves that is not founded in this new life, is false and frivolous, and will end but in sadness, bitterness, and [Page 242] intolerable thraldome. For the Corporeal life and sense will so deeply have sunk into the soul, that it will be beyond all measure hard and painfull to dis-in­tangle her.

But as many as have passed the Death, have arri­ved to that Life that abides for ever and ever.

And this Life is pure and immaculate Love, and this Love is God, as he is communicable unto man, and is the sole Life and Essence of Virtue truly so cal­led; or rather, as all colours are but the reflexion of the Rayes of the Sun so all Virtue is but this One va­riously coloured and figured from the diversity of Ob­jects and Circumstances. But when she playes with ease within her own pure and undisturbed Light, she is most lovely and amiable; and if she step out into zeal, Satyrical rebuke, and contestation, it is a con­descent and debasement for the present, but the design is, a more enlarged exaltation of her own na­ture, and the getting more universal foot-hold in o­ther persons, by dislodging her deformed enemy.

For the divine Love is the love of the divine Beau­ty, and that Beauty is the divine Life which would gladly insinuate it self, and become one with that particular Principle of Natural life, the Soul of man. And whatever man she has taken hold upon, and won him to her self, she does so actuate and guide, as that whatever he has, she gets the use of, and improves it to her own interest, that is, the advancement of her self.

But she observing that her progress and speed is not so fast as she could wish, (that is, that mankind is not made so fully and so generally happy by her, as she could desire, and as they are capable of) she raises in a man his Anger & Indignation against those things that are obstacles and impediments in her way, [Page 243] beating down by solid Reason such things as pretend to Reason, and such things as are neither the genuine off-spring of the humane faculties, nor the effects of her own union with them, discountenancing them, and deriding them as Monsters and Mongrel things, they being no accomplishment of the humane nature, nor any gift of the divine. She observing also that mankind is very giddily busie to improve their natural faculties without her, and promise themselves very rare effects of their art and industry, which if they could bring to passe, would be in the end but a scourge and plague to them, and make them more desperately bold, sensual, Atheistical, and wicked, (for no fire but that of Gods Spirit in a man can clear up the true knowledge of himself unto us) she therefore taketh courage (though she see her self slighted, or unknown) and deservedly magnifies her self above all the effects of Art and humane industry, and boldly tells the world, what petty and poor things they are if compa­red unto her.

Nor doth she at all stick to pour out her scorn and derision unto the full upon those garish effects of fa­natical Fancy, where Melancholy dictates strange and uncouth dreams, out of a dark hole, like the whis­pers of the Heathen Oracles. For it is not only an injury to her self, that such Antick Phantasmes are preferred before the pure simplicity of her own beau­ty, but a great mischief to her darling the Soul of man, that he should forsake those faculties she has a minde to sanctifie and take into her self, and should give himself up to meer inconsiderate imaginations, and ca­sual impresses, chusing them for his guide, because they are strongest, not truest, and he will not so much as examine them.

Such like as these and several other occasions there [Page 244] are, that oftentimes figure the divine Life in good men, and sharpen it into an high degree of zeal and anger. But whom in wrath she then wounds, she pities, as being an affectionate Lover of universal mankind, though an unreconcileable disliker of their vices.

I HAVE now gone through my Threefold Cab­bala, which I hope all sincere and judicious Christi­ans will entertain with unprejudic'd candour and kinde acceptance. For as I have lively set out the mysteries of the holy and precious life of a Christian, even in the Mosaical Letter, so I have carefully and on purpose cleared and asserted the grand essential Principles of Christianity it self, as it is a particular Religion, avoiding that rock of scandal, that some who are taken for no small Lights in the Christian world have cast before men, who attenuate all so into Allegories, that they leave the very Fundamen­tals of Religion suspected, especially themselves not vouchsafing to take notice, that there is any such thing as the Person of Christ now existent, much lesse that he is a Mediatour with God for us, or that he was a sacrifice for sin, when he hung at Jerusalem upon the Crosse, or that there shall be again any appearance of him in the Heavens, as it was promi­sed by the two Angels to his Apostles that saw him ascend; or that there is any life to come, after the dis­solution of the natural body, though our Saviour Christ says expresly, that after the Resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like the Angels of God. But to be so spiritual as to interpret this of a mysterious resurrection of a man in this life, is in effect to be so truly carnal, as to insinuate there is no such thing at all as the Life to [Page 245] come, and to adde to Sadducisme, Epicurisme also or worse, that is, a religious liberty of silling one ano­thers houses with brats of the adulterous bed, under pretence that they are now risen to that state that they may without blame commit that, which in other mortals is down-right adultery. Such unlawful sport­ing with the Letter as this, is to me no sign of a spiri­tual man, but of one at least indiscreet and light min­ded, more grosse in my conceit then Hymeneus and Philetas, who yet affirmed that the resurrection was past, and so allegorized away the faith of the people.

For mine own part I cannot admire any mans fan­cies, but only his Reason, Modesty, Discretion and Miracles, the main thing being presupposed (which yet is the birth-right of the meanest Christian) to be truly and sincerely Pious. But if his imagination grow rampant, and he aspire to appear some strange thing in the world, such as was never yet heard of, that man seems to me thereby plainly to bewray his own Carnality and Ignorance. For there is no bet­ter Truths then what are plainly set down in the Scri­pture already, and the best, the plainest of all. So that if any one will step out to be so venerable an In­structer of the world, that no man may appear to have said any thing like unto him either in his own age, or foregoing generations; verily I am so blunt a Fool as to make bold to pronounce, that I suspect the party not a little season'd with spiritual Pride and Melancholy: For God be thanked, the Gospel is so plain a Rule of Life and Belief to the sincere and obedient soul, that no man can adde any thing to it.

But then for comparison of persons, what dotage is it for any man, because he can read the common Al­phabet of Honesty and a Pious life, in the History of [Page 246] the Old and New Testament, finely allegorizing, as is conceiv'd, those external Transactions to a mysteri­ous application of what concerns the inward man, to either place himself, or for others to place him in the same level with Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Sa­viour of men, and Prince of the highest Angelical Orders, who rose out of the grave by the Omnipotent hand of his Father, and was seen to ascend into Hea­ven, by his Apostles that gazed upon him as he pas­sed through the Clouds, and whom all true Christi­ans expect visibly to appear there again and re-visit the world according to the promise.

Now it seems to me a very unreasonable and rash thing, if not impious and blasphemous, to acknowledge any man whatsoever comparable to so sacred a Person as our Saviour Christ every way approved himself, and was approved by a voice from Heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him. If any man there­fore having none of these testimonies from above, nor being able to do any thing more then other men, shall be so unmannerly as to place himself in the same order and rank with Christ the Son of God, because he has got some fine fancies and phrases, and special and pe­culiar interpretations of Scripture, which he will have immediately suggested from the Spirit; I cannot forbear again to pronounce, that this man is over­taken with an high degree of either pride or madness, and if he can perswade any others to look upon him as so sacred a Prophet, that it must be in them at least Inadvertency or Ignorance; Nay, I think I shall not say amisse if I attribute their mistake to a kinde of Pride also. For Pride affects nothing more then Singularity; and therefore undervaluing the plain simplicity of ordinary Christianity, such as at first sight is held forth in the Gospel of Christ, they [Page 247] think it no small privilege to have a Prophet of their own; especially they getting this advantage thereby, that they can very presently, as they fancy, censure and discern the truth or falshood of all that venture to speak out of the Rode of their own Sect; as if every body were bound to conne their lessons according to their Book. And it is a fine thing to become so ac­curately wise at so cheap a rate, and discover who is Spiritual, or who is the Carnal, or meer Moral man. This is indeed the folly of all Sects, and there is no way better that I know, to be freed from such invei­glements, then by earnestly endevouring after that which they all pretend to, and to become truly more holy and sincere then other men; for the throughly purified man is certainly delivered from all these fol­lies.

These things I could not forbear to speak in zeal to the honour of my Saviour, and the good and safety of his Church. For if men once get a trick to call the world Christian, where the death of Christ on the Crosse at Jerusalem is not acknowledged a sacrifice for sin, nor himself now in his humane Person a Me­diatour with God the Father, and the Head of his Church Militant and Triumphant; nor that there is any Eternal Life nor Resurrection, but that in the Moral or Mystical sense: assuredly this will prove the most dangerous way imaginable, quite to take a­way that in time, which is most properly called Chri­stian Religion, out of the world, and to leave meerly the name thereof behinde.

But a Religion so manifestly established by God in a most miraculous manner, and being so perfect, that the wit of man cannot imagine any thing more compleat, and better fitted for winning souls to God: It can be nothing but giddiness or light-mindedness, to think [Page 248] that this Religion can be ever superannuated in the world, but that it shall last till Christs Corporeal appearance in the Clouds. For there is no reason at all that the holy Ghost should be thought to come in the flesh of some particular man, no more then God the Father did under the Law. For what can he tell us more or better, then Christ already has told us; or what himself may tell us without any personal shape? And there is no Prophecie of any such thing, but onely of that which is better, that Christ will pro­cure for all those that are his faithful and obedient followers, the Spirit of Truth and Righteousnesse, and indue them with the divine Life, and that it shall so at length come to pass, that Justice, Peace, and Equi­ty shall more universally and fully flourish in the world, then ever yet they have done. And that faith in God, and of the Life to come shall be more vigo­rously sealed upon the hearts of men; and that there shall be a neerer union and conjunction betwixt the humane and divine nature in us, then ever, and more frequent and sensible commerce betwixt the Inhabi­tants of the Aethereal and Terrestrial Region, accor­ding as I have already declared concerning the Se­venth day in this Defence of the Moral Cabbala.

But in the mean time though that full Sabbatisme be so far off, yet I doubt not but there have been and are very sweet and joyful praelibations of it, in sun­dry persons, which quickens their hopes and desires of the compleatment thereof, and divine Providence is not idle, all things working towards this last Cata­straphe; and the heads of Sects themselves, though I never saw any yet that my light and judgement could pronounce infallible and perfect, (as I think there never will be any till Christ himself come again, who will appear in no Sectarian way, for himself [Page 249] hath given us an intimation, that if any one say, Loe here is Christ, or there is Christ, believe it not) yet such is the grosse ignorance or hypocrisie of ordinary carnal Churches (as they call them) that some heads of Sects, I say, have spoken very true and weighty things against them, very lively setting them out & de­painting them in their own colors, insomuch that they will be able, not only to turn from them the affections of all plain hearted men, that are fast friends to the eternal Righteousness of God, and prefer that before the most specious devices of arbitrarious Superstition, but also to raise their anger and indignation against them. But it does not presently follow, that because a man can truly discover the gross faults & falsities that are in another, that therefore he is utterly blameless himself, and not at all imposed upon by his natural complexion, nor speaks any thing that is false, nor omits any thing that is both true and necessary. But be these Sects what they will be, the grand Church­es themselves are so naked and obnoxious, that un­lesse they cast away from them their hypocrisie, pride, and covetousnesse, they will in all likelihood raise such storms in all Christendome, that in processe of time, not onely Ecclesiastical but Civil power it self will be involved in those ruines, and Christ alone will be exalted in that day. For before he deliver up the Kingdome to his Father, he is to put down all Rule, and all Authority and Power; For he must reign till he have put all his enemies under his feet; The last e­nemy that shall be destroyed is Death: which as I have already signified unto you, though he be now the King of Terrours, will in that great Festival and Sabbatisme, by reason of so sensible and palpable union betwixt the Heavenly and Earthly nature, be but a pleasant passage into an higher room, or to use [Page 250] that more mysterious expression of the Rabbins con­cerning Moses, in whose writings this Sabbatisme is adumbrated, God will draw up a mans soul to him­self by an Amorous kisse; For such was the death of that holy man Moses, who is said to have died in Moab [...], in the kisses and embracements of God.

This shall be the condition of the Church of Christ for many hundred years; Till the Wheel of Providence driving on further, and the Stage of things drawing on to their last Period, men shall not onely be freed from the fear and pain of death, but there shall be no capacity of dying at all. For then shall the day of the Lord come, wherein the Heavens shall passe away with a noise, and the Elements melt with fervent heat, and the Earth with all the things in it shall be burnt up. Thus Christ having done venge­ance upon the obstinately wicked and disobedient, and fully triumphed over all his enemies, he will give up his Kingdome to his Father, whose Vice­gerent hitherto he hath been in the affairs of both Men and Angels. But till then whosoever by pre­tending to be more Spiritual and Mystical then other men, would smother those essential Principles of the Christian Religion, that have reference to the exter­nal Person of Christ, let him phrase it as well as he will, or speak as magnificently of himself as he can, we are never to let go the plain and warrantable Faith of the Word, for ungrounded fancies and fine sayings.

Wherefore let every man seek God apart, and search out the Truth in the holy Scripture, preparing himself for a right understanding thereof, by stedfast­ly and sincerely practising such things as are plainly and uncontrovertedly contained therein, and expect [Page 251] illumination according to the best communication thereof, that is, answerably to our own faculties, o­therwise if we bid all Reason, and History, and Hu­mane helps, and Acquisitions quite adiew, the world will never be rid of Religious Lunacies and Fan­cies.