A philosophical treatise of the original and production of things writ in America in a time of solitudes by R. Franck. Franck, Richard, 1624?-1708. 1687 Approx. 193 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 99 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A40386 Wing F2065 ESTC R20723 12117526 ocm 12117526 54367 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A40386) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 54367) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 68:14) A philosophical treatise of the original and production of things writ in America in a time of solitudes by R. Franck. Franck, Richard, 1624?-1708. [26], 170 p. Printed by John Gain, and are to be sold by S. Tiamirsh ... and S. Smith ..., London : 1687. Caption title: Rabbi Moses. "Epistle to the reader" and preface signed: Philanthropus. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Creation -- Early works to 1800. 2003-05 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-05 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-07 Jennifer Kietzman Sampled and proofread 2003-07 Jennifer Kietzman Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Philosophical TREATISE OF THE ORIGINAL AND PRODUCTION OF THINGS ▪ Writ in AMERICA in a Time of Solitudes . By R. FRANCK . LONDON , Printed by Iohn Gain , and are to be sold by S. Tidm●rsh at the King's Head in Corn-hill : and S. Smith at the Prince's Arms in S t. Paul's Church-Yard . 1687. WHereas several Literal Errors have passed the Pr●ss : The Reader is d●sire● either to Correct , or put a favourable Censure upon them . TO THE SEDULOUS SONS OF Science . Gentlemen , THIS Epistle directs you a Prospect of the Original , and Production of things ; where , if in any thing I dev●at from the truth of Philosophy , Natures Progeny , and Scriptural A●thority ; I stand at the bar of every mans censure : but if otherwise , as I 'm conscious I have offered no violence ; let me hope and expect a generous Approbation . h'●● true , the sublimest speculations I can raise , are but faint , uncultivated , and unpr●fitable endeavours , when presenting them to the shrines of clearer judgments . For as ridling of water through a serce or sieve , makes no decisional separation of the recrements , and impurities , nor the holding up a taper at the Sun's meridian , add any lustre to his luminous brightness ; such peradventure some will interpret these ●y Suggestions upon th●s admirable subj●ct , when so slenderly to approach , and attempt a survey upon such sublime , and divine Discoveries : and because not raising my scenes high enough ; they 'l doom me to encounter their uncharitable Opinions , when modestly , and piously , I come to present th●m with my Notion● , and Speculations of this imbellished Creation . H●aven is Gods Throne , and the Earth h●s Foot-stool ; from whence I conclude , that the property and quality of every individual devolves in him that gave it a being : otherwise , how could the benignity and bounty of the Donor so splendidly shine in the Fabrick of the Creature ? and because to contribute a ray of his Essence-Royal , Adam was dignified Vice-roy of the Creation . Let no man therefore oppose himself to the Divinest by sacriligious Oblat●ons , and impious adorations ; le●t he prophane the Altar , and make void the Offring , when to send up his Orisons to an unknown God. Hermes in his Book of the Divine Pimander , has pointed out unto us a prospect of Heaven . So Rabbi Moses in the desarts of Arabia , by divine inspiration , had a vision of the Creation . Nor was Job ignorant of Seraphick intelligence , when to range himself sublimly above the most sedulous Mathematicians ; who with an angelick stile left unto us such Lectures , whereby to read in the frontispiece of H●aven . The Jews also , so did the Talmudists by M●saical Ord●nation , find the tracts to Jerusalem ; whiles divine Paul , and the Primitive Christians by spiritual Revelation , became illuminated with t●e Go●pel . But Nature all this while by H●avens permission went on in Operation , and the Sophi as amazed stood gazing upon her , till the Divinest in his Son discovered himself , which struck amazement , and astonishment amongst them ; because when to shine on them the Majesty of himself in the glorious mystery of the blessed Incarnation ; the sublime Divinity assuming Humanity : which in parallel lines directs us to inspect this visible World so miraculously drest up , the beautiful outside of a more glorious inside . This invited me to contemplate , and seriously consider , how that every creature , and created being by a fermental law radicated in Nature , makes progress to the act of Germination , and Vegetation . Nor can the law of necessity ( I speak of the Creation ) impose any other Doctrine upon the Classes of Individuals , till the final Exit , and the periods of Time. This great World 't is true represents unto us a large and copious volumn of Intelligences , sprung up in the beginning from the divine Fiat . And because the Divinest divin●ly 〈…〉 with such admirable varieties as the Orbs , and Elements ; those beauteous , shining , luminous bodies ; for such are the Stars stuck round to adorn it : it denotes unto us every C●eature God has made , as Animals , and ●nan●mates to replenish the Earth ; was made to explain the excellency of hims●lf , that so divinely dr●st up this stupendious Creation . Thus Moses our Prophetick Oracle , in the first Chapter of Gene●●● , makes obvious unto us the Creation in general ; when in this Philosophical Treatise , if sedulously examined , you 'l find it parce●●'d out into many Particulars ; yet not so as to prophane , or diminish Holy Writ , whereby to expose it to sale , or sacriledge ; but rather to elucidate , and illustrate to every Man the more glorious mysteries , and Seraphick Discoveries of the sacred Scriptures ; pointed out unto us by the Patriarchs , and the Prophets ; and imprest on us by a Divine impression , to legitimize us heirs of the glorious Eternity , by the mys●●cal Vnion betwixt Christ and his Church ; and the admirable Effects of his invincible Love , when to lay down his Life for an Vnregenerate Generation . To contemplate therefore this imbellished Creation , is to study the tracts and the high way to heaven : and led on by such eminent and convincing Authority as Moses , the Patriarchs , the Prophets and Apostles ; confirms it beyond dispute our Christian Duty devoutly to implore , and seriously admire the Creators bounty and goodness in creating ; his infinite and superlative Wisdom in preserving : but above all his works , his unparalell'd love to inspire Life and Vertue into the humane Race of degenerate Mankind ; because when to restore him to a more Regal ●'state than Adam our Protoplast enjoyed in Paradice . From whence I conclude all visible Beings that are made obvious , and perceptible to us , were designed also by the Maker intelligeable ; however the envious and malicious misinterpret , and would every way if possible mascarade the Truth , thinking thereby to make things less discoverable , than they really and trully are in themselves . For were it as some Sciolists fictitiously imagine , what benefit could any man expect from his Studies , more than the Knowledge of Insects , and Animals ; when omitting the superiour Dignity of Celestials . Such with their Admirers only gaze upon them as the ignorant , and the arrogant too frequently do , that amuze themselves only with foreign curiosities . Nor do I strain my charity when to assert such Men think the Ornaments of the Creation an unprofitable Study : who by their Arguments endeavour an Arrest of judgment , since reputing them dull , and insipid contemplations ; endeavouring thereby to disswade the more ingenious simply to consider them as impoverish'd Effects . But God that made them , and still maintains them ; because willing that Man above all created Beings should read daily Lectures in their glorious frontispiece , inspired him to contemplate their internal purity ; which indubitably points some of them signa●●y out as Guides , and Land-marks to light us up to his more sublime , and superlative Habitation . To consider things therefore as they are in themselv●s , what matters it if any Man oppose my Ass●rtions , and call them it may be Imaginary Presumptions ; if wh●n because to dive into the mysteries of the Creation : Surely such Men have not well considered that what God in his wisdom has made legible to us , that thing by his clemency was intented intelligible . The superscription of a Monarch any Man may read , but none except of Councel dare examine the contents . So God assignes it our duty to study the Creation , since discovering things to us by invisible Mediu●●s ; but not that we by a foreign faith pay our Orisons and our Adorations unto them : No , rather as Christians , we must learn God in them , and in knowing him admire his Operations . But our Prophet Moses seems to some ambiguous , when undressing the Hoil of this admirable Creation , wherefore some spare not with their Proselytes prophanely to decry him , and such others as himself studious in the Creation ; who resolving among them elves nev●r to labour due m●asures of Knowledge whereby to convince their own Incredulities , makes them uncapable , and altogether unserviceable , when attempting to enform the Vnderstanding of others . So that such Sciolists as these do but darken the lustre of the History of God in this stupendious Creation , yet propound to themselves to know the Divine Mysteries of the Holy JESUS in the Miraculous Incarnation , Glorious Crucifixion , and Divine Ascension : which to mortal astonishment is the Te●esm of Wisdom , and Miracle of this World , lockt up in the Bosom of GOD , and Eternity . So that should this Generation level Arguments against me , it will little avail ; for the Standard of Truth will defend it self , and the Authority of Scripture vindicate my Assertions . If therefore you but priviledge me farther to proceed , I assume to intitle this imbellished Creation the Almighty's Common place-Book , wherein we may read h●s Divine Operations ; And si●ce he himself has made things visible , as also leg●ble , and ●ntelligible to our capac●ties ; his s●cred Sanctions , and Divines Oracles , ought always to be our daily Contemplation . I also consider that Angels as Mess●ngers are m●de Ministring Spirits , to administer to us the Revelation , and Manifestati●n of the Vision of Truth : that the Sun , Moon , and Stars are the Or●inanc●s of Heaven ; that Elements and Prin●●pl●s are Marg●nal Notes ; and the glorious Prospect of this ●ivie 〈◊〉 : that the Con●onants and Vowels of this Blessed Creation are the particular Indiv●duals contained therein . Otherwise how were it p●ssible such a p●rpetual Harmony should con●inue betwixt the great , and the ●●sser World ; were th●re not a contiguity , and continuity of par●s , whereby to c●ntract a Correspondency betwixt them . For invisible things when clothed with Matter , become obvious , and perceptible to every one ; consequently visible . Every thing therefore is most certainly governed by the Divine Wisdom of Him that made it ; who made Nature a so by his Praeordinate Counc●l , and adapted her Substitute to operate in the Vniverse . But to Adam only , and his Humane Race were committed the distinct Classes , and Families of the Creatures ; as also the Dignity of a Vniversal Monarch . This none will deny , yet perhaps some will say my Suggestions are invaluable , and confusedly mixt ; so was the Chaos if to consult the B●g●nning . It may also be alledged that Im no Grammarian , however from my Youth I venerated Learning ; yet the Scriptures I always prefer'd before Grammar : but I 'll struggle no longer about Grammatical Preference , since so learnedly controverted by Men in most Ages . Give me leave therefore to conclude my Epistle , and in the Conclusion assert , and affirm , that without for●●l hypocrisy , or a foreign Faith ; I am , and have been since truly to know Vertue , devoted to subscribe my Name , Philanthropus . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . FOrasmuch as Wisdom , and Divine Knowledg ( preexisting Time ) had its Original from God the Father of Light , and immaculate Fountain of all pure Beings ; resplendent from the glorious Ray of himself , that holds the Po●ze and Ballance of the Periods of Life , and Death , by a Soveraignty of Right to govern the World. It becomes us therefore , and the rather as Christians , to sollicite this admirable Corona of Wisdom , since woven in the Web of the Eternity of Life ; and by how much it concerns us to acquire this Secretum Naturae , by so much the rather ought we to hope , and expect it , that offer up our Orisons with the pious Adepti that expose their Charity in this modorn Age. Since many such are , and I doubt not were in former Generations , as in this of ours ; tho modestly to conceal themselves , under a pleasant taciturnity . Whose generous protection of Hermetick Philosophy has amuz'd , and astonish'd most part of the World ; since to breath forth in this , as in former Ages , Mysterium Magnum . Rabbi Moses was a Student in this blessed Science ; and so was his Sister , the fair Mirian : Medea and Experience tutilaged them both . And Moses we read was morally educated in all the Skill and Knowledg of the Egyptians ; thank Hermes for that , formerly King of Egypt , and intituled by the Magi , Prince of Philosophers . Who also laid the Rudiments , and Foundation of Science , several Generations before Moses was born , and yet notwithstanding the Antiquity of Hermes , Moses was inspired by a divine permission , to talk with God in the Holy Mount Horeb. Job also that famous , and most accurate Mathematician ; whose Library was the Firmament , and every Star an Author , whereby he mentally inspected the Orbs ; consequently the Constellations , and Machine of the Creation . And who personally discoursed his Creator , as did Moses ; but confused , and astonished , as appears by his Writings . So Paul , that devout , and divine Apostle , taught only of God , and bred up by Gamaliel ; he exceeded in Rhetorical Learning and Knowledg : Who also had a Glance and a Vision of Heaven , as appears by those elegant , and most excellent Epistles , Exhortatory to the Romans ; when to the Corinthians , most profoundly Philosophical . And such were the Lives of the Holy Men of God ; which piously to trace , what is it other than a heavenly Progress . And the Soul that inhabits in this mortal Tabernacle , any other than the correspondent God himself converseth ; which in Clarity displays such a beautious Brightness , from the soveraign Beams of the Son of God , that divinely shining in the inward parts , influenceth the Altar , and beautifies the Temple . The Soul therefore , could she but content her self with divine speculation of Ideas only , what need she travel beyond the Map ? But as excellent Patterns commend their own Mines , Nature because so fair and beautiful in the Type , could not dispence with sluttishness in the Anagliph : and who , whiles more strictly she examines the Symetry ; Models and Forms it into various Figures ; whose Descent to describe , promulges her Original : but the frailty of matter , and because hovering about her ( and impendent on the Elements ) is excluded Eternity . Ignorance therefore to delude the Vnwary , intitles this Release by the Sirname of Death ; which more properly to describe is the Magna Charta of Life ; that has several ways to break up House , but her best , if duely considered , is without a Disease ; and , who when she takes air at this Avenue or Port-hole , is much without detriment or prejudice to her Tenement . Nor does she only exerc●se her Royalty at the Eye , as having some blind Iurisdiction in the Pores : For this were to measure Magical Positions by the Superficial Strictures of common Philosophy . Whose Assertors , too confident of the Principles of Tradition , labour not to understand what others speak ; but to make others speak what they themselves understand . For it is in Nature as appears in Religion ; some are still hammering and fashioning of old Elements , but seek not the Eutopia that lies beyond them . This Body therefore let 's consider it the Temple , and the Soul that 's within it the Sanctum Sanctorum , for the Majesty to dwell in . Which if so , this Earth must be rarified , to make a pure Heaven ; and Heaven must be purified , before the Divinest will inhabit within it . Great and Iust therefore is the Original Good , whose Incomprehensible Beauty and Divine Majesty , neither the Heavens , nor the Earth , nor the Orbs , nor the Ocean , nor the expatiated Abyss , can any ways contain him : Which certainly to know , is Speculum Sapientiae , scraw'd out in the fair Frontespiece of the beautiful Creation ; as also in that Divine Manuscript of Holy Writ , where the Patriarchs and the Prophets are Marginal Notes ; and the Holy Men of God , with our pious Ancestors , the lively Records and divine Remembrancers of the Sacred Oracles of the Majesty of Truth . Thus far the Ark of the Covenant travelled , and thus far the Talmudists transported themselves ; but some of the Cabalists went some degrees farther , when they met with Christ and his Twelve Apostles ; yet could they not see the great Messiah . But Gabriel the Angel salutes the Blessed Virgin with Hail Mary , full of Grace ; blessed art thou among the Daughters of Women : For the Holy of Holies shall overshadow thee with Beauty , and thou shalt conceive , and bear a Child , and he shall be called the Son of God. John Baptist also he confirms the Miracle ; who , when Jesus with him coming forth of the Water , the Heavens themselves most gloriously opened , and the Holy Ghost divinely descending ( like a Dove ) rested the Glory of the Majesty upon him ; and then was there a Voice heard from the Divinest , This is my Son , my beloved Son ; let the Nations hear him . Now to the Jews this became a stumbling-block , as to some of the Rabbies a Rock of offence : but to the Gentiles that sat in the Suburbs of Darkness , and , the Scriptures tell us , in the Shadow of Death , the most glorious Mystery of the Revelation of God , and the everlasting Gospel was preached unto them . So that from these two eminent and most sacred Primordials , the one of the Law , and the other of the Gospel , Religion , or something like it , took its native Original : yet so strangely masqueraded , disfigured , and disguised , that were not a Man well assured what it was , it would be found difficult to resolve what to call it . And thus the Sun , Heavens major Luminary , when because at once falling upon several Angles , represents the Light in various forms : So Christianity , though a familiar Appellation , yet admits it of such Variety in its progress , and peregrination , because when to mingle it self with all sorts of Professions , that Professors themselves have been puzled how to rate it ; whiles the noble Berean searches the Scriptures , and as the Scriptures manifestly testifie of Christ , so Christ himself saith , they testifie of him . The great Oracle therefore , and the Miracle of Faith , is Christ himself ; and Christ is God : From whence the Mystery of our Eternal Salvation , the blessed Regeneration , and the spiritual Birth , that internally breaths in every pious Believer , is , Christ in us , the hope of Glory ; the Sovereign Revealer of the Wisdom of God , whose Light is the Beauty of the Majesty of Light , that enlightneth every one coming into the World ; and is our saving and our sanctifying Light , before Time had a Being , God blessed for ever . Thus in brief I present you with a Sacred Summary of my pious Conceptions of the Scriptures of Truth , divulg'd to the World as a Treasure of Mysteries , calculated for the Assiduous , and only such whose Integrity and Fidelity internally shine forth , as their Faces externally in a Glass respond , and answer a due and exact Proportion . From whence I conclude this Philosophical Axiom , As are the Writings of Moses the Standard of Truth , that God the Creator has by a Royal Law imposed upon Nature eternally to operate , the Vniversal Spirit therefore is but One in all her Operations , ( viz. ) in the Fire , to influence ; in the Air , to impregnate ; in the Water , to germinate ; and in the Earth , to vegetate . Where note , The Elements , consequently the Principles were divinely preordained by the Sovereign Power of him that 's Supream , who constituted Nature to conserve the Creation ; or solemnly I declare , I understand it not . Nor would I be thought either rash or unreasonable , to reassume a Priviledge in what I distribute : but as Words are my own whiles yet in my Mouth , and every bodies else when unconfined ; so let them be , and have a charitable Reception , when to run their Risque in the Worlds great Lottery ; because , when to fall under various Conceptions , yet , if so happy to meet with the Ingenious in Science , meaning such as dread and honour their Creator , and imitate Nature in her solitary Operations ; which every expert Artist , and experienced , will do , provided his Inquisitions be after the Truth ; to such , and such only I dedicate my Labors , together with my Endeavours to Wisdoms elaborate Shrine , that with vertuous Inclinations they may seek after Discoveries , and the abstruse Tracts of their Friend , Philanthropus . RABBI MOSES . IN the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth . Which directs me to contemplate this World is a great Machine , or an Engine-royal , adapted for Motion by the Power of Him that created the Creation ; that not so much as an Atom can move or stir , save only by a derivative Vertue from him that thro Wisdom and Providence gave a Being to the Whole ; who knows all the Parts and Particles of his Work. How can he then be thought ignorant of its Motion , or in any thing be deficient ? when he that made the World , knows how to influence the hidden Springs and Parts thereof ; he knows for what End and Duration he design'd its Motion , and the time when all things shall pass away : So that when the Divinest withdraws the Springs of Life , ( viz. ) his supporting Providence , from any Creature in the Creation , or from the Elements , or the whole World it self , it must sink into a state of Inactivity , consequently become a meer Annihilation . Now , That Heaven and Earth are Corelates , who doubts it ? That they sprung spontaneously from one Principium , who disputes it ? And that they had in themselves ( by Divine Ordination ) Ends and Beginnings most properly adapted and insinuated into them , who so Impious and Atheistical to suspect it ? That the World had a Beginning , is manifest . That Eternity preceded Time , is most manifest . And that every End terminates in its own proper Beginnings , nothing more manifest . Every End therefore , separable from its native Principium , is subject to Mortality : but Death is the Destruction of all Elemental compounded Mixts : All Compounds therefore are subject to Mortality ; which Nature endeavours with all her might to preserve , if possible , from the Periods of Death , and whose Champions to purchase this heroick Victory , Fire and Water are instituted and appointed the most proper and immediate Agents and Instruments ; the last to discharge by immersive Calcination , all exteriour and superfluous Adustion , whiles the first by Sublimation claims a Superiority , because when to separate by the intense Action of Fire whatever Recrements and Impurities adhere to the Center . These , and no other , are the lineal Tracts that Nature has trod in since the nonage of the Universe ; whose Seeds , void of Form , and confusedly mix'd in a Hoil or Chaos , were dissolved in Water , but rarified and sublimed by pure Argument of Fire . Calcination and Sublimation therefore were purposely invented to purge and separate the Pure from the Impure ; as is Solution and Distillation the more terrestrial Dregs that stiffly adhere to the Parts extraneous . Now whatever remains without any beginning , that Subject is altogether uncapable of end : But all Beginnings sprung up from Eternity , as is Eternity the Ray of the Majesty . Eternity therefore is the Parent of Time , from whence Generation lineally descended ; and Generation , because the Infant and the Child of Time , has its Periods lock'd up in the Prisons of Death : and doom'd and predestinated by the Law of Sin : the Apostle tells us , is Death in the abstract ; yet improperly the End of any thing save Elements , whereby to remonstrate their true Beginnings but now to bud , and to blossom forth , because directing towards an eternal State ; which I call the new Breathings from a State of Corruption , precedent to Putrefaction ; the immature Offspring and imperfect Birth of infirm Ancestors and Elementary Principles . For the Body no sooner dismantles it self of the exteriour Form , and Elementary Faetor , when the indivisibility of the more purer Parts begin at once to display themselves : for the Treasures of Life are most strictly lock'd up , and which also begins to perspire and breath forth by the glorious Ray of God's Soveraign Power ; whose refulgent Beam illuminates the World , and stirs up the hidden Life therein , which before seem'd to sleep passively perdue in the silent Sepulcher of Divine Contemplation . If therefore debasing our selves by Sin , be Argument of Death , and God's eternal Displeasure ; a Regenerate state implies the Sanctity of Renovation , which is a clear Demonstration of a real Conversion . Otherwise , how comes it to pass , that the unbelieving Wife is sanctified by the believing Husband ? Now if Husband and Wife are constipated one Flesh by the Conjugal Celebration and Law of Matrimony ; why not Heaven and Earth under the like Divine Ordinance , since by a Supream Law from the Sovereign Legislator ( whose powerful Edicts are for ever irrevocable ) made and established Synonima Regalia . Thus th● Celestial Sun in the clarified Firmament influenceth and impregnates this embellish'd Creation ; as do's the Supercelestial Son of the Majesty of God most illustriously shine in every Believers Soul , and is the true Light that illuminates the Universe , and every Man that cometh into the World. So that in this short and compendious Paragraph you may read the Divine Progeny of the whole Creation ; the Exaltation and Dignity of the Micro , as the Macrocosm ; the great End why the World and Man was made ; the Reason also why the Divinest made Man , and drest up so beautifully this stupendious Creation : All which was only but to see himself and Sovereign Majesty by way of Reflection ; wherefore he built up a Tabernacle in Man for his Divine Residence , and Man's Redemption . Now Adam was made this Supream Monarch , whom his Maker dignified with such eminent Qualifications , as not only to see , because having the faculty of Sense ; but to inspeculate and admire the Majesty of his Maker that hung up aloft in the Firmament of Heaven , so many Luminous and Beautious Bodies , impregnating every one with the Blessings of Vegetation : but Moral Reason ( and barren Apprehension ) because uncapable to exalt it self to these eminent , sublime , and superlative Elevations , of necessity sinks under them . And here Moses tells you , That in the beginning , the Divinest created both the Heavens and the Earth : Now creating or making , what implies it more than manifesting Invisibles by Visibles ; or discovering such things as lay hid in the Chaos , occultly concealed from occular view ; which in time appeared , but not until such time as the Waters , by the Fiat , were separated from the Waters , and then the purer matter ascended upwards , because disintangled from its impure Fecula ; which Celestial , Clarified , and Pure Crystalline Body , is by the Scriptures interpreted the Firmament ? And Hermes tells you in his Smaragdine Table , That the likeness of that which is placed above , is also beneath , coinhabiting below , to work the Myracle of one single thing . There must therefore of necessity be some assimilation in Earth , Soveraignly qualified with the same existence of Celestials ; otherwise , pray tell me , where 's the harmony betwixt them ? And why should God select the little World , called Man , for his Divine and Glorious Reception , rejecting , as I may so say , the more copious or great one , as the more commaculate and impure habitation ; had not he divinely dignified the less by Soveraign Wisdom for his Royal Entertainment ? There is therefore not only the likeness of Superiours ; but the same Vertue , Beauty , and Excellency also in Inferiours : Christ in you the hope of Glory . This is that Magnet of Vertue and Swavity , whose illustrious Ray attracts the Soul to those transcendent Mansions of Beatitude and Immortallity ; For the Kings Daughter is all glorious within , because made glorious by the King of Heaven ; where note , by way of Digression , when to admit of a faint comparison ; the Anima , or Sulphur of Sols beauteous inside , when duely examined by a sedulous Adept , a Celestial Corporiety displays it self , whose glorious appearance gratifies the solicitous with Wisdom's Oracle , and the Treasures of Art , by every one acquirable , and by most admired . But the Hoil or Chaos presents unto us a subject matter as yet indigested , when macerated , mingled , or jumbled together ; and such we are to consider it in the Act of Fermentation ; when nothing but darkness had its Region in the Deep , nor did any thing appear upon the Face of the Waters , until Darkness by the Divinest was utterly separated by the glorious Beam of the Majesty of Light ; for till then the Stars roll'd not in their Orbs , nor did the Fluctuating Ocean move its Vital Pulse , till actuated by the Law of its Soveraign Maker , which daily remonstrates the Flux of the Ocean . Nor till then did the Earth , nor the Barren Mountains know any thing of the Law of Life , and Vegetation . Nor was there any Prolifick Vertue , or propagating Quality hitherto as yet incorporated into them ; when at once the Fountains of the great Deeps broke up , out of whose exuberant and miraculous Womb , not only those innumerable and inexhaustible Treasures , as the Principles , and Elements , but also whatever besides them was made visible , was by Wisdom drawn forth out of this immense Deep : And to whatever had Sense by Life and Motion , Nature by Ordination gave it a beginning ; but Light and Life she had not power to give ; for that sprung spontaneously from the Divine Fiat ; which great work with the great Creator took up but seven days , tho seven times seven is adjudged too little ; nay , had I said Months , are supposed little enough , if when attempting to compleat a Philosophick Operation . So that now the Darkness because disappearing , the glorious and beautiful Ray of Light suddenly and at once invades all the Universe ; for after Separation by Divine Ordination , every individual as to Vertue and Purity in its innate Quality arose up from obscurity : And because relinquishing its Earthy fecula , elevated it self according to Dignity , correspondent also with the Purity of Matter . The Sun therefore with the Moon , and the Stars exalted themselves ; and surmounting the Aether , were supreamly ranged in a Divine Order . The Elements also they separated themselves into four Divisions , or distinct Classes , whereby to illustrate this imbellish'd Creation ; and the Principles because lock'd up in every individual , whereby to make permanent by the Law of Perfection , began to ferment , which the Vulgar understand not ; for should they be separated , purified , and reconjoyned , a new Creation would inevitably ensue in the Microcosm , or the little World ; as by Divine Appointment it never ceases daily to influence and operate in the Macrocosm . From whence all Celestials appear immortal ; most fiery , luminous , subtile and bright ; and by the Divinest made distant , and remote , were separated from all impure and immund dregs : and because excavated into Rotundity , they elevated themselves , and flew up at once ; for which cause also Nature of her self desires a round form for things Eternal , as being most perfect , permanent , and indeficient . On the contrary , it follows , that Terrestial things are subject to corruption , mutation and death ; because contrarieties are joyned in their elementary Composition ; and wherewith the dreggs , and impurities of matter were mixed , as at first with what was impure ; otherwise the produce that had proceeded from them , would have been beyond dispute Subjects immortal . Nor could there ever have been any Generation ; for without contrariety of qualities in Elements , there had never been alteration , nor mutation of form ; and all would have had but one Face without distinction , remaining equally in purity and subtilty : And tho cloathed with its own Ornament of Beauty and Swavity ; yet wanting matter whereon to impress formation , would become deficient , indigent , and destitute of Creation . It was necessary therefore to mix subtilty of substance with the gross and impure faecula of matter ; for where nothing but Clarity and Purity remains , there of necessity can be no Action ; and where no Action is , there can be no Patient , seeing what is pure wants act of Power over that also which is as pure ; and this End and Operation is Natures Work of Separation for preservation of its Essence , and Vital Encrease ; For if the Earth and her Fruits were as pure as the Heavens , all Animals would live as long as Celestial Incholasts . But Nature by the Divinest has ordained a Law , that whatever partakes of Matter , or Corporiety , should dwell about that which is also Corporial ; and that which is most corruptible and inquinate , about that which is also likest unto it : but the Earth , as subordinate , is the most precipitant of Bodies ; consequently most gross , and of all things most corruptible : nothing therefore can proceed , or be deducible from it , but what is naturally most agreeable unto it ; wherefore its Corruption , Sordities and Impurities must also be rarified by progress of Separation . When therefore it s more pure Substance is extracted , and exalted by a true and Magnetick Philosophical Medium ; Nature of necessity begins there all her Actions , and in separation all is found . And the Spirit of God moving upon the Face of the Waters , was by Incubation ( or supream Act of Power ) by the determinate Wisdom and Counsel of God , the immediate and proper cause of Separation ; for here you may read , that the Spirit of God divinely moved upon the Face of the Waters : And here also you may consider , and deliberately understand , that the Spirit of God inspired them with Vegetation ; otherwise of themselves how could they bring forth ? For the Chaos had a Passive , but no Active Spirit in it , till God by Wisdom roused up the Ferch , or the hidden Life therein concealed ; and illuminating or kindling the Commassated Matter , by the Ray and Majesty of his Divine Spirit that separated the pure from that that 's impure , which could be no otherwise , since no impure thing can enter , nor center where the whole is pure . And thus the Angel Gabriel salutes the Blessed Virgin with Hail Mary , full of Grace , God is with thee , the glory of Females . Now this Virgin was a Native and true Israelite , and had not hitherto known her Husband ; which Virgin conceives by the Holy Ghost , and was a Miraculous and a Spiritual Birth ; so that we may consider , there 's nothing impossible with God the Creator that made the World ; when in love to incarnate himself to redeem it . And Moses he tells you , That when God had breathed into Adam , our Protoplast , the breath of Life , he then became a living Soul ; not that Adam was destitute of a Natural Soul , but of a Divine and Spiritual Life , which also implies a supernatural state ; in which excellent state our Protoplast stood , when God had transformed his Earth into Heaven ; and in which pure state he for ever had stood , had he stood in simplicity , and the Will of his Maker ; for what we sow , that shall we reap ; and nothing is quickned except it die . Mortification therefore precedes Regeneration ; we must all die to Sin , to live to Righteousness . But the Spirit of God moved upon the Waters ; which Act of Power was no sooner performed , but the Waters of themselves incessantly brought forth ; and every created thing that God had made by a Divine and Soveraign Act of Power , began to Operate , Vegetate , and Fructuate ; who surrounded the Constellations with a Crystalline Firmament ; and cloathing the Principles which stood naked before him , with a Body suitable to their necessity , gave Laws and Ordinances to Nature , as Substitute , immediately to let loose the Universal Spirit , whereby to vegetate , encrease , and multiply ; to form also , to animate , and impregnate Bodies ; but Nature of her self , because bounded with periods , admits Death inevitably to invade all Compounds ; for were it otherwise , there needed no Separation ; and Nature , preadventure , would become sloathful , and idle : Consequently the Fabrick of the whole Creation would again redact , and result in a Chaos . Separation therefore is of absolute necessity , whereby to distinguish the pure from the impure ; the fair and immaculate from the most pollute and unclean ; which after Purgation to rectify and conjoyn , and then advance , if it could be , to a plusquam perfection , whereby to imitate Nature , as she by president imitates the Creator ; what admirable thing would the Operator bring forth ? Wherefore the Apostle he bids you be perfect , as your Heavenly Father is also perfect : And what can advance to a state of Perfection , but that which separates from Sin and Impurity ? Thus the Heavens are pure , and infinitely clarified ; yet much more pure is he that created them ; which state to know , is never to know Death . Wherefore as by imitation some Bodies are made always to live in the Phylosophick World , which the Adeptest intitles and superscribes Transmutation ; but the Theologist in the Super-celestial , that of Regeneration . And as one is the period of Principles and Elements ; such also is the other of Corporification , leading Death into Captivity , and transforming every impure Being into a Celestial Clarity and Purity ; and the Souls of Righteous Men into endless Glory ; but this Operation is performable only by the Heavenly Arcanum , or Medicament of Life : which Sacred , Soveraign , and Divine Elixir , is the Christ of God , the Wisdom of the Father : to whom devoutly be everlasting Praises . And as Christ is called the Light of the World , &c. Light may properly therefore be asserted the Manifestation of God , and the Oracle of his Truth ; for if what visible Light is , or appears unto the Bodily Eye ; the same , but infinitely more glorious , is the invisible Light that illuminates the Understanding in the Eye of the Mind : The want of Light , it 's true , makes Man deplorable ; so is Ignorance of the Mind to be lamented : And as Generation that sprang out from Corruption of those things which were esteemed the best , so the Light that shines in Man when it becomes eclipst by the shades of Sin , how dreadful and dismal is that Darkness ? As Light therefore of all things is accounted most desirable , the want of it to the Mind makes the Man most miserable : So of all Ignorance , that Ignorance is the worst which hath reference to the most Noble and Sublimest Object , and by how much the subject of Knowledge is better , by so much is the deprivation of that Knowledge intollerable : As any one therefore , by putting out a Mans Eyes , whereby to intercept him the injoyment of Light , is reputed cruel ; so he that prevents the means of Knowledge , is no less , if not infinitely more ( by a Scriptural Authority ) adjudged condemnable . Light therefore , because exalted above all Created Beings , it confirms it the Standard of Wonder and Admiration , whose beauteous Beam displays it self , the uncreated Being before the Creation , consequently superexcelling all the rest in Dignity ; but the created luminous Ray of the Sun , that strikes the Poles from East to West , nay farther its possible , could we apprehend it ; is sacredly held forth as the Almighties Taper , whereby to illustrate the Visible World , as do's the Light of his Sovereign , All-glorious Son invisibly shine in the Souls of Saints , to convince the World of Sin and Unbelief : And tho Laban usher Leah unto Iacob's Bed , by introducing her instead of his beautiful Rachel ; so every designing Imaginarist do's , when describing only exteriour things , but states nothing essentially . Such I may say dwell meerly in the Face , or at the best , on the superficial parts of the Body ; never aspiring after the fulness of Beatitude , which Philosophy in my Opinion looks like to a Church that 's drest up with Discipline , when wanting sound Doctrine . So that if when to consider the exteriour form of complicated mixts shall melt away , probably we arrive at the fiery principium , whose Elevations lead on to a state Immortal , co-uniting us to that invisible Nature , that admits not of any thing save Purity intense , by the continued ardency of a Pious Devotion . As in Operation it 's evident , and egregiously true , that the Elements themselves assume all Colours before the Beauty of those colours egrede ; wherefore they begin with Blackness first , because the Antecessour and Parent of Putrefaction ; after it passes thro other middle Colours , till at length it arrives at a Celestial Whiteness , which then is Air , from whence it ascends to a fiery Complexion , in which the Power of Art , and Dominion of Fire , when to speak Aenigmatically , is compleatly terminated , and beyond which , in my Opinion , there 's no natural progress . And God no sooner divinely said , Let there be Light ; but immediately there was Light , so that his Commands were in a moment answered ; for how soon did the Light spontaneously spring up , and amounting aloft , fill the Universe with Splendor ? So that now the Creation became altogether visible , and every concealed Treasure that lay hid therein , exposed it self unto occular view ; whereby to discover the Chaos commaserated , and Water and Earth by previous digestion ( without contention , or strong ebullitions ) began of themselves distinctly to separate ; and the Earth as rejected to precipitate downwards , by reason of its Gravity , and solid Ponderosity ; so that these two Elements were only made visible , but the Fire and the Air , they fled our sight , which by reason of Purity became also invisible ; whose Sublime Bodies by the Creators Will , elevated themselves to influence the Earth , whereby to impregnate it with Prolifick Vertue . This was , and is that beautiful Order , wherein the Divinest so divinely placed things , when the Earth as an Embrio lay hid , and concealed in the Exuberant Womb of the unweildy Waters : And this is that great and stupendious work of Separation , which Act or Operation was fit only for God , who separated the Light from the mists of Darkness ; which glorious Operation the Prophet Moses points at , as a thing principally to be minded and considered , if provided any one would imitate the Creator , when in the beginning he created the Universe ; but the end of the Creation stands still in the Ternary , of which , more at large in its proper place . Christ therefore is our Soveraign and our Saving Light , that comprehends the Darkness , yet the Darkness knows him not , whose beauteous brightness illuminates the World , and is that Glory and Majesty of Light that was from God , that never had beginning , which Incomprehensible Light shined before the beginning to illuminate the Throne of the Majesty of God , and is the true Essential Word of God , and the Word is God , the Wisdom of the Father , as is manifested to us by Moses and the Prophets . But the created Luminaries , as Sun , Moon , and Stars , these are but Elementary , subject therefore to corruption , when God shall please to extinguish their Light , by withdrawing the Beauteous Ray of himself ; and as the Light of the Sun is the Beauty of the Creation , how much more beautiful is the Son of God , the All-glorious Beauty of the Majesty of God ? The Created World therefore was made to discover visible Objects , and things Corporeal ; but the Increated and most Sovereign Being , to make obvious to us things Invisible ; the Natural , to inspect both Elements and Principles ; but the Supernatural , to reveal the Glory of the Father , in the Face and Fulness of Jesus Christ. And God saw the Light , and behold it was good ; the consequence follows , for God he made it , and God divided the Light from the Darkness , as by his Wisdom the Day from the Night : Separation therefore from adust impurity , makes it Sublime , Immaculate , and Pure : So Divine out of a Moral , and a Celestial out of a Terrestrial State , is a transmutation by the Grace of God ; for if nothing that 's impure can subsist in his presence , whatever comes there must be spiritually pure : and such are Invisibles separated from Elements , the Waters above the Firmament of a pure Nature , existent with Life , but the Waters beneath , Elementary and Fluctuating : The Universal Spirit therefore inspiring Life and Motion , the whole Creation began to breath , and bud forth . And God after separation of the Light from the Darkness , of the pure and sublime from that that 's inquinate , of Heaven from Earth , of the Waters from the Waters , of the Translucid and Diaphanous Bodies from Corruptible Recrements , and Sordid Impurities : Then was there a Noble and Divine Separation , because when to raise an immortal Seed out of the Principles and Rudiments of Elements . And such also is the Regenerate state in Man , when born of the Royal Seed from Heaven ; for Flesh and Blood , because Transient and Elementary , are inconsistent with the Eternity of God , uncapable therefore to inherit the Kingdom : This is that Divine and Heavenly Transmutation , by which Christ Jesus , the Wisdom of the Father , with one regal grain transmutes our Nature , and our Mortal Bodies , into an Immortal State ; and is that Elixir of Life and Vertue that defends it for ever from torture and destruction , and eternally delivers it from the periods of Death . But some will object , What Body is this ? And Paul solves the Doubt by a Scriptural Explanation , telling us , it s a Body increate and incorruptible , consequently uncapable of any mutation , and because impregnated , and animated with Life , is under protection , divinely blessed , absolved , and acquitted the assaults of Death . What Body then , some will say , must it be ? and he tells you , It 's a Body as it pleaseth God. But this you 'll object is also insufficient . To speak more plainly then , it 's a Regenerate Body , born from the Spirit , and not from Elements , but of a pure and immaculate nature , that never knew nor consented to Sin : Such a Birth will triumph over Death , because it can never be made to die , nor subject it self to the periods of Death , since bound up in the Volume of the Infinite Eternity . But Darkness is the Vmbra , or promiscuous shadow of the beautiful and amiable Glory of Light : And because separated from the Beam of Light , and gathered to its self , is the Representation of Death . Where note , we may call it the Mantle or Covering of some solid Substance , or some material thing ; and such is the Night by Earth's Interposition , retirements of Light , or the Suns bright absence : Corpulences also are Stellat Ecclipses , because from Globical Bodies intermediating ; for Night is only the Suns bright absence , when deprived the beautiful Beam of his Light ; and the Day ( as I may so say ) the Infant of Light , because it sprung up from Light Original . The created Light therefore pray tell me what is it , if not the beautiful Aurora of Eternity , as is Eternity the Ray of the Majesty ? Thus the Light , as appears , shines still in Darkness , and yet the Darkness comprehends it not . Now what is this Darkness but the shades of Death ? and what is Death but a separation from Life , and Life it self the amiable Infant , that sprung from Eternity , as Generation from Time ? But Darkness abhors the lustre of Light , lest peradventure fearing the Light should inspire it . Gold therefore , like the Salamander , lives eternally in Fire , without detriment , destruction , or diminution of parts ; whiles imperfect Metals , when examined by the test , evaporate and vanish , so become imperceptible which displays some impurity in their natural Composition ; for were they of a regal stamp and condition , no force of Fire would be Argument strong enough to make in them the least separation ; so Darkness , when made pure by the Beam of Light , it then becomes a natural brightness ; and Mortality , transchanged by the Grace of God , becomes Immortal by Divine Transmutation . The Day therefore sprung natively from Light , as a Legitimate Heir from the Loins of his Parents ; nor could it do otherwise , because by the Divinest destinated and determinated to such an end by the Counsel of God. And thus the Beam , or Ray of the Sun , as its Integer Light , can be no otherwise , because the proper Effect from that efficient Cause ; for the Celestial Sun , if sedately to consider it , was kindled by a virtual spark of invisible Light : And this invisible Light , the Son of God , is the Essence , Wisdom , and the Beauty of the Father , and is that Soveraign and Saving Light of the Divinity and Majesty of God himself . As pure Religion therefore is such in it self as it pleads Precedency long before Error ; consequently it 's a bright and most illustrious Taper that directs to the standard of Divine Truth , in whose Frontispiece Devotion displays Christianity , and which truly is the most Eminent , and Divine Encomium that ever was attributed to Men , as Mortals , and is in a Scriptural sense the new way of Conquering , because through Christ we are more than Conquerours , and fight in this Field without Carnal Weapons ; for no Gladiators arm here to Combat , nor is there any Banner but the Cross of Christ , and whose Enemies are Abaddon , and the Hierarchy of Hell ; and whose Engins are Sin , and the Toils of Death , endeavouring therewith to obstruct our passage , when attempting the triumphant Joys of Heaven . But a Nominal Christian ( with grief I speak it ) which signifies no more than a formal Professor , if when wanting the Vital Power of the living Act of Faith , such a profession makes no Man a Christian any more than reading the Alcharon compleats a Saint ; nor is every Professor a true Minister of God , except of God ordain'd to preach : For the Gospel is free , and the love of God free , and it was the free Act of Christ to give himself freely for the Sins of the World. Christs Redemption therefore was a free Act of Grace , to blot out Sin , and usher in Repentance ; and all that 's required for so great a suffering , is only conformity to a Holy Life , and sanctified Obedience to that Living Power , in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells : He therefore that prays , and pays not his Orisons to this great Oracle the Wisdom of the Father , stands still indebted for his Life and Freedom , and proclaims himself an Alien to the Court of Sion , as also a Stranger to the New Ierusalem . Now in opposition to Light stands this formidable Darkness , a Figure of a Creature that was found folded up after the Divine Act and force of Separation ; not improper therefore to intitle it Darkness , since separabel from the beauteous Beam of Light : and such is Sin , and such also is Death , since by Adam's Transgression , who consenting to Sin , violated Gods Divine and Regal Command , so wounded himself with his own Sting . Death and Sin therefore , Van Helmont calls Accidents , or some impious malignity that lurk'd about the matter , whereby to lessen Light , and abscond or ecclipse its beautiful Lustre ; which when removed by the Divine Grace of God , the Body then seems to appear Celestial : Nor can it be otherwise , since if when to consider there 's no difference , nor distinction betwixt Heaven and Earth , save Clarity of the one , and Impurity of the other : and this is a State we daily discourse of , nay , we hourly wish for 't , and long to enjoy it ; yet so great is our Zeal to these ambiguous uncertainties , that we dare not trust our selves to entertain it . And because so adhering to the World , and its allurements ( kind answering kind ) whose Luscious Breast seems sweet and pleasant , and whose surprizing Charms luxuriously satiating , we gulp down Avarice , and drink down Oppression : so like Diana with the Ephesians , cry , Gain is sweet ; thus tainting our selves , become infectious to others ; for a stinking Breath , tho loathsome to the Company , yet is it to it self a natural perfume ; so Sin and Impiety in its habitual dress , tho ugly , seems amiable ; and tho faetid , smells fragrant , and knows no impediment . Thus Paul by Faith fought with Beasts at Ephesus ; and Philanthropus with Monsters in the Desarts of America . 'T is true , and as true as the Sun 's the great Luminary , whose luminous Body illustrates the Creation ; yet is not the Sun that Soveraign Light that adorned the Throne before the Creation , when the Divinest said , Let there be Light , and immediately the Light of it self sprung up ; which Light by his Wisdom he called Day , and dignified it also with the Title of Good ; nor could it be otherwise than good in the Abstract , since the Divinest had called it Good , and because proceeding from the Fountain of Good , its Original can be no less than God. Now the Day had its Original , as has the Sun its Aurora ; and the Sun , tho the Major Luminary of the Universe , whose refulgent Ray illustrates the Creation , by Rapidity Circulating and Patrolling about it ; yet is it by Wisdom and the Guidance of God another Aurora of the increated Light , which never ceaseth invisibly to shine , when the Sun withdraws from our occular view , as imaginarily supposed towards the Western Fountains , whiles this pure Light never ceaseth to shine in the Heart of Man , and the Throne of the Majesty , tho to the World and ignorant it appear invisible : and because too sublime for the weak Vision of Sight , whereby a dimness seems to overshadow it , as gazing too much at the natural Sun , in some measure astonisheth the Purlue of Sight ; so the Soveraignty of the Glory of the Son of God , whose excessive brightness seems to cause a blindness , when as indeed it 's the Purity and Soveraignty of Light , we are therefore to reduce it under this consideration , that nothing that 's impure can behold what 's pure , nor Carnality partake of what is Spirituous . There is therefore this difference betwixt Natural and Supernatural ; as also betwixt Celestial and Terrestrial things ; that all Spirituous Bodies can pass the Purgatory of Fire without any detriment , or diminution of parts ; when as Corporeals , if but to touch the Flames , are at once in a Moment destroy'd and consumed . Purification of Bodies must therefore necessarily precede , whereby to dignifie and make them Celestial . Natural things therefore are in one distinct state , but Spiritual things are found in another : and by how much our Nature is made more spirituous , by so much are we nearer to the Nature of God. And as the Sun shines naturally more bright and distinctly , more pure than our Culinary Fires ; how infinitely brighter , and much more pure is the Majesty of that Light that invisibly shines from the Son of God : But our new Philosophers ( or Erra Paters ) are much of the Cast with Figure-flingers , that presume to step into the Prerogative of Prophets , and antedate events in Configurations , which is a Consequence I perswade my self of as much Reason , and for ought I know , to as great Satisfaction , as to see the Auxiliaries draw out and exercise , and the Spectators to read their designs by their postures . But I proceed to discourse the Firmament of Heaven , the Fluctuating Ocean also , and the Waters in the Creation , which presents to our consideration matter of Admiration , consequently a suitable Subject for every Philosopher , if sedately to contemplate their admirable separation , when God divided the Waters from the Waters , and the Firmament of Heaven stood stationary between them ; which denotes those rarified and invisible Waters Moses points at above us , are an Act of Faith , because of Invisibility , whilst these below us are demonstrable to us : which Argument as formerly confirms our Philosophy , that the likeness of that which is remotely above , is also beneath , co-inhabiting below , to work the Miracle of one single thing , so that the same Act of Power and Providence that made them separable , made them also invisible , as by the Law of demonstration these are made visible to us . But what are these Waters , these invisible Waters , that surmounting the Aether , and because above us perpetually fly our sight , what are they , and what were they in the Fiat of the Creation , more than the pure and spirituous part , separated from impurity and all aquosity , whiles the pinguous moist faecula , and indigested Vapours stifly adhere to the visible form , which by reason of inconcocted crudities and indigestions , when celebrated to warmth , lie fermenting in themselves , and are the daily cause of Natural Production , animating and exerting the Earth to Vegetation . These Invisible Waters therefore above the Firmament , must of necessity be a Rarefaction of Air ; and the Firmament , because intermediating betwixt them , remonstrates it Celestial , and a clarified Earth . For if to consult the Creation and created Beings , we are to consider them in a two fold Capacity ; the Visibility of the one , and the Invisibility of the other ; Elementary Bodies , and Bodies Celestial ; where note , sublunar things are influenced by Celestials , as are Celestials governed by super Celestials . As the Sun in his progress , because ruling the Day , is by Divine appointment the Parent of Vegetation . So has the Moon her Nocturnal Government , whereby she also operates the Ocean , influencing Fluidity and the Female Sex : Nor are the Stars and Constellations deficient or destitute , whereby not to effect and influence Inferiors ; so that a perpetual motion is continually maintained , and a constant rotation perpetually continued , otherwise the Compound would admit of decay , and a defect in any one part of the Creation would inevitably draw on an inconveniency upon the whole . Thus the great Frame and Fabrick of the Creation was ranged into a most excellent and beautiful order , which the Creator foresaw in the Idea or prospect ; nor rested he there until the final Complement of his Divine Counsel and Determinate Purpose : And then it was that Adam was made , which the Divinest created no less than a Monarch , and intrusted by the Creator with the Creatures in the Creation , inraged Lucifer , that infernal Prince to emulate the Dignity of this new Favorite , who reflecti●g on his Ambitions that so lately dethron'd him , which obliged him to forfeit his Regal Possession , he therefore undermines to blow up this Favourite , who tainting our Protoplast , infects his Posterity . And thus the bright and beautiful Morning is sometimes sullied with a louring Sky : For did not the Sun 's early blazing smiles shine upon Sodom , and her accurst Inhabitants that soon after ended in a fatal Tragedy : what must we call this if not a dismal Eclipse ? nay , altogether a deprivation of life , save only to Lot , and his preserved Family , on purpose kept alive by the meanes of Miracle , when all the rest were made most miserable Morts . Whiles therefore we live here in this Natural State , we only reap supplies of Aliment from Elements : but when we shall be discharged the Manicles of Sin , and releast from the horrour and amazements of Death ; we shall then appear under a more spirituous form , and where we shall see things as they really are in themselves ; by which we may know till then we knew nothing : Nor are these Moral Beings , or Natural Apprehensions any other than signitures or the deliniated Figure of that super-excellent Beauty we shall see hereafter . And God by Wisdom divided the Waters from the Waters , the Celestial from the Terrestrial , Heaven from Earth , the Invisible from Visible things , and so disposed them by the Law of Providence , appointing to every one Dominion and Operation , in order to bring about his determinated Creation . And who knows but that these elevated and invisible Waters , are the Waters Moses speaks of that Bathe the Banks of the New Ierusalem ; and that the spangled Firmament is the Pavement of Heaven , or the solid part thereof , if not improper to say so ; nor is 't impertinent to think so , when Invisibles are pointed at by Visible Objects , otherwise I understand not the design in the Text , which supposing I do , I am unwilling to be refuted , if when only to hear another Mans contradiction . But that there was , and still is a Division or an Interposition betwixt Superiours and Inferiours is past dispute ; Moses asserts it , and the Text affirms it ; where note as a Christian it concerns me to enquire , and as a Philosopher as gladly desire to be advised , and informed the Nature and the Quality of these divisional Waters ; the Vertue and the Office of that that 's Elementary , as the Dignity and Operation of that that 's invisible : the first , because Elementary we daily converse with , and frequently apply it unto servile uses ; but the latter , since invisible we assign that to Moses , except otherwise the Divinest by Oracle from Heaven be pleased to inspireus as the Prophet was inspired . Faith therefore is the evidence of things invisible , as is demonstration of visible things . The Waters above the Firmament we have supposed them Celestial , because of Sublimity , Purity , and Rarification , which in the great and admirable work of this stupendious Separation , the Chaos no sooner felt the Examen of Heat , but Water began immediately to operate , and presently became convertible into Air , and this I call Aetherial Rarification , by reason it s not only separated from Aquasity , but apparently becomes to the World invisible . Why not then by the same Argument all the Fountains and Aquoducts ( nay the Ocean it self by the Law of Necessity evaporate into Air , since minutely it operates without intermission , ( this is obvious to every one ) but the Sours of the Sea you 'll object is so deep ; her Springs and Supplies so manifestly numerous , that it 's almost impossible to exhaust her Treasures , whereby to render her barren or impoverish'd ; to that I answer , God has placed such a Magnet in the very Bowel and Center of the Waters , of that attractive and magnetick Vertue , that were not the Waters bounded by the Law of Limitation , the Earth peradventure would soften and melt ; consequently become convertible into Water , and for ought I know , resolve at last into a moist , and a soft thin Air. But God the Creator has placed such a Bar betwixt the Visible and Invisible Waters : He , I say , it is , that by Wisdom and Providence hung up a Spangled Vail or Covering betwixt them , and calls it the Firmament , which intersects , or divides betwixt Celestials and Terrestials ; yet so , that a sympathy and continued harmony is by the Divinest correspondent betwixt them ; and the Text tells us , that Heaven it self forbears not to sigh , if at any time the Sinner be sadned to mourn ; but is filled with Alacrity and Heavenly Joy , even at the Conversion of one single Penitent : Nay so great is the triumph among the Saints and Angels when a Sinner becomes victor over Sin and Impenitency ; that all our Faculties as if Divinely exirted , muster up themselves in open Hostility , to oppose the Invador of our everlasting Tranquility : but I intend not to common place upon this Divine Subject , otherwise than to elucidate the Mysteries of the Creation : And where Rabbi Moses has drawn the Curtain , I shall modestly by permission endeavour to withdraw it ( provided it be thought neither Sacriledge nor Impiety ) since to confider behind this Mystical Interposition the Magi have concealed the Sanctum Sanctorum , nor Prophane I , when to say , The Beauty of Holiness . So that we may read , and begin to understand the Firmament by Interpretation is called Heaven , which certainly is the Basis and Celestial Superstructure of this most admirable and stupendindious Creation ; tho to us and our Ancestors seemingly invisible : wherefore let us resort to Heavens great School , where Christ himself is Dictator and Pilate to conduct us , and chief Rabbi to instruct us , for the Divinest himself will become our Interpreter ; so that God in due time will certainly manage us to that Seraphick Society of Saints and Angels , where we shall Daily be Divinely taught , and by Jesus Christ the Son of God made so Prophetical and Evangellically Intelligeable , that the Alphabet of Heaven will be the Christ-Cross-Row , whiles about these Sublunar Orbs , our Modern Didacticks and Learned Academicks are hourly so impinged that they sore no higher than Custom , and President of Profest Arts ; and if without offence I may freely speak it , rather of Litteral than Liberal Science . Where note , some Anti-Scripturist's have been lately so Prophane as to imagine God like to a Country Mechanick that builds up with Stone , and finishes with Timber , without any Infusion of Life and Motion ; as if the whole Creation was a Creature inanimate , when the voluminous World which is Gods great Library , is filled full of Life , Activity , and Motion , which Life is Spirit , and the cause of Multiplication , and the natural Production of all created things , that by Copulation are engendred , or otherwise by Putrefaction have received a new State through Fermentation ; all which Productions are manifest Arguments of Life and Spirit , as also of Vegetation . The Texture therefore of this great World clearly discovers , and demonstrates its animation ; where the Visibility of Earth manifestly represents the Impure , Gross , and Natural Basis ; and the Elemental Waters because circulating about it , assimilates also the Venal Blood , actuating and fermenting in every Body , where the vital Pulse also operates as is seen in the admirable Flux and Reflux of the Ocean ; and the Air of necessity the Vehickle for Spirits , wherein this vast Creature ( meaning the Creation ) breath's invisibly ; tho peradventure not altogether , nor in any part insensibly , and the Interstellar Skies , and Aetherial Waters , the Vital Parts ; whiles the Sun , Moon , and Stars are the animating Spirits , and supersensual Fires that warm the Creation . But this kind of Philosophy will puzle the Putationer , as the Primitive Truth of the Apostles confounded the Romans . So Moses's Philosophy in the Rudiments of the Creation , will be as little understood as the Tracts of Hermes , the T●●mudist's , Cabalist's , Caldeans , Egyptians , aud Arabians , if when to consider the possibility of Nature , which is impossible without supernatural discoveries ; and should we otherwise conclude than by Divine Authority , we lick up the Froth of every sottish Generation , so usher to posterity that Atheistical Opinion calculated by Imaginarist's , that the Creator slept whiles the Chaos of it self without Divine direction fell into this beautiful Order , as we now behold it ; which , if but to think so is a Sin of Impiety , and an Error so enormous never enough to be lamented . But all such Inquietudes we remit them to their destiny , since to carry such , and so many Furies in their own Bosoms whereby to hurry and torment themselves ; whose unwholsome Principles , because nautious to themselves would stamp their impression on those that suck them in ; so that one would think such Souls mingled with Clay , and because in the limit and circumstance of Time are i● some measure confin'd to Earth's sublunar mixts , and by the World so severely intangled , that like Birds in Limetwigs , the more they flutter the faster they find themselves intangled ; in such a state I perswade my self there 's no Divine Speculation , nor Visional Faith whereby to see the invisible state of things as they stand nakedly , simply , and purely in themselves , of which these Visible Objects are but Natural Representatives . This perswasion directs to me an unregenerate state , because when not to partake of a Supernatural Birth : the Soul therefore that 's immerged with Sin , Darkness conducts it to a dismal destiny , deeply shadowed under the decays of Elements , and impossible without a Miracle to make a flight above the World , since by innate inherency its partaker of the World. But the Stars if when to consider them the Almighty's Library , where every Star is the Volumn of a World , and every World a sumptuous Globe , divinely held in the Hand of its Maker , for such they were , and such they are ; not that these sublime and eminent Elevations were only made for Mortals confusedly to gaze at ; no , I 'me perswaded rather to excite and stir up admiration , whereby to elevate and quicken our Devotion above our selves , when to behold such Majesty fixt in the Creation ; for are not these Luminous and Illustrious Bodies ( which we behold hung up in that great Vortrice of Heaven ) Celestial Lamps , to illuminate the Universe ; and not only to illuminate , but animate and vegetate , so in conclusion , influence and impregnate the Creation . 'T is true , that Heaven is a Paradise for Souls , and a Divine Reception for the Divinity it self ; but not that I prophane to term it a Habitation , when alluding that Heaven contains the Divinest , since Heaven is every where where ever God is , whose Holy Presence institutes it Immutable , Immeasurable , and Eternal like himself : whose Nature transmutes it into his own likeness , and puts it into such a Divine Capacity , that for ever its uncapable of the periods of Death . Heaven therefore is the Divine Habitation of God , and the Light of Heaven the Divinity of God ; the blessed Society there , Saints and Angels ; and there it is that the Prophets and Prophetesses , with Apostles and Evangelists daily Prophesie ; for there every Day is a daily Sabboth , and Elohim betwixt the Cherubs is the Lord Iehovah . But the Evening and the Morning were the second Day , so that twenty four Hours , nor more nor less , do but compleat a Natural Day ; when as the whole Tract of Time in its Natural Progress , appears to me but one Day Super-natural , of which our Ancestors , as also our selves from Sacred Authority had these Divine Speculations : so that if to consider that two Days natural could operate such a change in the great Creation ; we may rationally conclude , and as modestly determine the residue an Argument to evince the Generations : For could I but seriously point out to the Creature the Blessed Creators mystical Operation ( which is altogether impossible ) I might then peradventure prove an Instrument to some whereby to moderate and disintangle Passion , pursuant only after perishing Objects , and for ought I know , blot out the Prejudice and Animosity of others , meaning such as seditiously sow Discention among the Brethren , endeavouring thereby to reap the fruits of their own conjectural Imaginations ; which to do , but undoes one another , by violating the Sacred Laws of God , as that also of Nature , and of true Religion , since the Scriptures by a Divine Authority require that every one examine himself , and seriously and sedately study a Reformation . Then were the Waters beneath the Heaven by Divine Appointment gathered together ; and those Invisible Waters above the Heavens rallied themselves , and separated apart ; which admirable and wonderful Act or Operation occasioned a trepidation all over the Chaos ; for till then the Waters intermingled with the Waters , and the Elements as Inmates spread themselves among them , till God in his Wisdom stirred up the Magnet , and then the Waters immediately attracted , so by Collision broke the Bond of Unity ; for when so great a change happned in the whole , of necessity every individual separated apart . In which admirable progress every one had its station , yet was it by appointment , and the Providence of God ; so that the more sublime the matter was , by so much the higher it ranged it self , removing more remotely from its own Faecula : when on the contrary , to admiration , the more Gravity it had , by so much the closer it adhered to its Recrement ; and in this Operation the Fire claim'd the Precedency ; but next the Fire the Air pleaded Succession ; so that these two Elements become as it were invisible , and which also by reason of a Spirituallity , administred only to the Vital parts : But Water and Earth , when to consider their Corporiety , their Gravity , their Unity , and more Consubstantial Parts ; and because also Synonimous with the Creature , it cloathed and fed it with Prolifick Vertue : for whatever any thing is of it self , of the same likeness it naturally produceth ; and such as are the constitution of Elements and Principles , such also are our Native and Corporial Constitutions . To consider things therefore as they are in themselves , we need not to borrow Spectacles from others : for if when to consider the Sun universally shines , notwithstanding the Blind Man he seeth it not : and so of Eclipses , tho some have seen them ; what then , their natural Reason and Understanding can't reach them , however Credit go's a great way in the case . The Blind-man perhaps he swallows a Fly , and if he do and feel it not , what prejudice is there in it , when a Fly in the Glass to him that hath Eyes , is not only disturb'd , but in some measure terrified , because fearing to surfeit if not to suffocate . Circumspection therefore , and the Vertue of Temperance circumscribe to us the Mediums for long Life , when excess of any thing overthrows the whole , and would even do so to this stupendious Creation , should it in any thing exceed with intemperance . The Vertue therefore , and the Office of Water is to cleanse , to moisten , to mollific , and dissolve ; to wash also and purific the the outside . And this peradventure was Iohn Baptists Ordinance , when only to blot out the Character of Circumcision , which indeed was then prevalent among the Iews till the Baptism of Jesus , of more Energy and Vertue took place to purge out Sin by Internal Purification , and which also is that Baptism of the Holy Ghost which Iohn proclain'd was the Baptism of Fire ; so that these two Ordinances and Divine Operations were vastly different , and distinct from one another , for the one only washes , but the other purifies ; the first to brush off the outward defilements ; but the latter to blot out Internal Pollution . Consider it therefore , you Christian Professors , and live not by Profession , but the life of Christianity . And the Divinest said , Let the dry Land appear ; which was no sooner said but it immediately appeared . Now dry Land which is the solid and fix'd part of the Creation : all Interpreters agree that its literally Earth ; and properly is such , and generally so received , as is by Expositors and others concluded . And this dry Earth I have also considered was that only which was left after separation of the Elements : to which also was added the dignity of an Element ; and because ranged and superscribed in the fourth Clasis of the Macrocosm , is confirm'd the most solid , and most fix'd part of the whole , concentring it self upon its own proper Basis , and impending on nothing by a Divine Ordination , but it s own equal Poize and the Will of God ; so that neither upwards nor downwards , Extension nor Demension can any ways remove , displace , or unlodge it ; because God through Wisdom has inspired into it the Magnet of Fixation , Gravity , and Station which confirms it a central and fixt residence , and the Waters to rowl perpetually about it . The Air also to incircle and surround it ; and the Fire above all to surmount above it , yet every of them is restricted by Providence , within the Circular Globe or Firmament of Heaven . But where are we now , got above the Elements ? no probably , but as far as our Eyes will carry us ; no mortal sees farther . Our Basis I perceive then will be understood the Earth , and Earth and Water compleat but one Globe ; so that of the whole , and visible appearance , here seems to remain but one moity left : and the rather to confirm it , it 's obvious to every one , that the Firmament of Heaven intersects betwixt them ; for the Elements of Fire and Air disappearing , they become invisible ; so that what remains now save only Earth and Water , which are Subjects most solid and visible to us : Not that I impose this Doctrine upon any Man , nor do I offer it as a noval of my own : since therefore of it self it is so demonstrable , let it carry its evidence in the Frontispiece of Time. Earth therefore and Water are constipated Corelates , as hitherto we have observed them visible Elements ; and the difference betwixt them is easily reconcileable , when to consider the Gravity of the one and Fluidity of the other ; yet both impregnated with Vital Faculties , and to each is super added a Prolifick Vertue : and because daily influenced by Stars and Planets , are by the Divinest inspired with Life and Vegetation . But Earth is the Nurse and Supply of Elements , as is Water the Sister and the Mother of Earth : and because both filled with Vertual Production , they fail not to send forth their daily encrease ; whose Prolifick Breasts minutely sprung up , naturally replenished to supply the Universe . But I must caution my self what I say now , least peradventure there are some will decry any Hypothesis ; and what if they do , I matter not much , since to leave behind me Proselites enough after my Death to assert and maintain , That the World had a beginning , this is undeniable . That Time sprung from Eternity , this is also indisputable . That Generation succeeded Time , this is beyond all dispute unquestionable . And that Generation terminates in Death , is altogether infallible . That the Elements and Principles were lodg'd in the great Mass of the Chaos , is true . That Fire because of its Dignity superceeded the rest , is most true . And that Air because of its purity climb'd up after the Fire , is certainly as true : leaving the Waters rolling too and fro , fluctuating , incircling , and inspiring the Earth ; and the Earth as Central to all the rest , by Wisdom and Providence was concentrate on its Basis. Now tell me ( if you please ) what false Doctrine's here ? and I 'll tell you , that our Modern Philosophers will allow it Orthodox , as the precedent Generations and Philosophers before them , so govern'd themselves as to assert and vindicate it . So that as I design no Captivity by my Discourse , nor intend I any Conquest or Triumph over others ; only the exercise of every Man's Reason , compelling no Man to the dictates of my conclusions : Give me leave therefore , such to advise as converse with Scripture , or correspond with Reason , and the possibility of Nature ; such I mean as profligate those Fictious Notions of Heathens , and Infidels , and Atheistical Antiseripturists , whose suggestions are only of an imaginary Being of that Superlative Being , whose real Essence is existent in himself , pre-existing Time , and is the God of Nature . God blessed for ever . And the Earth brought forth Grass ; Here 's Natural Production , and this Natural Product spreading it self abroad , in a very short progress run into multiplication ; and because the Creator destinated it to the Creatures use , it became Nutritious and Salubrious to them ; consequently agreeable and convertible to their Nature . But the Apostle tells us , That all Flesh is Grass ; and as the Grass fadeth and withereth away , so Flesh and Blood , our daily Morts , prognosticate them also in a state of Corruption ; and in process of time to admit of Solution : Every thing therefore that is in a capacity of being dissolved , that thing most certainly becomes invisible ; and such a posture stands the whole Creation in , since daily to admit of Transmutation . And the Herb yielded Seed , and the Fruit-tree his Seed , and the Roots and Fruits also , after their kind , which are radicated and impregnated in every individual ; nor are they found in another Specie . And Sandivogius tells us before the separation of Elements , that every individual had then in it self Vertuality but one single primordial Seed , yet denies not that this primordial Seed had the Specimen Vertue of all the rest , vertually and primarily radicated in it . However there be some that will oppose this Doctrine , and lead by a perverse Biass , would gladly refute it ; but blessed is he that receives and believes it ; for it is a secret , and the gift of God sealed up from ignorant and obstinate Men ; not only in this , but in every Generation . Nor can any Man , I perswade my self , know God in the Abstract , except otherwise by the Work of God in the Creation ; which Commissions me also to say in the Creature as Paul says , Christ in you the hope of Glory . If therefore another Man's knowledge profit me nothing except he enforms me the Measures he knows ; he but exposes my Faith to a rambling search , to find out the truth by a dubious Examine : How miserable therefore , and much to be lamented is that implicit Putationer , whose Zeal truckles under every form of Religion , and bows his Knee to every new model of Conformity . Let us therefore but examine this stupendious Creation , wherein God has made himself obvious to the Creature , and which ought to be the Study of every Enquirer , when because to read Lectures in the Stars and Elements : The copious Volumns , and visible Folio's of God the Creator , that gave then a Being , and are his Oracles , that by Divine Interpretation are made visible , conspicuous , and intelligible to us : For here we may read , that Generation it self presents unto us the Marginal Notes ; and Genus and Species , the Vowels and Consonants , the Magi of old learnt us to spell by ; so that the Letters and Syllables of this blessed Alphabet , points out unto us the Manuscript of the Universe ; over which great School , God himself is chief Rabbi ; whose Students and Prosolites are Nature and Religion ; and their daily Lectures , and solemn Declamations , the Visibility and invisibility of this Voluminous Creation , wherein God makes manifest himself in the Creature , which teacheth us to live by the Vertual Act of Faith , whereby we may hope , what at present we cannot enjoy ; so labour to find out the hidden Mystery of Truth , and the unfrequented Tracts of Wisdom and Experience ; which is , or ought to be the study of every Man born into the World ; more especially to Christians : For truly to know God is to know Life Eternal ; for he that knows him but as he is told , I can hardly perswade my self he knows him at all . Search well within therefore , peradventure thou wilt find him ; and if thou look without , there is he also to be found . So that in every thing , and in every place , is his Mercy , or his Justice : where his Power is also , and the Majesty of his Presence ; for nothing is , nor can subsist without him . Is not this enough to enamour the Creature , whose dependance is wholly upon the Creator ; for if when to inspect Heaven by Divine speculation , with confidence we may assure our selves , his habitation is there : and if we dive into the Center of the Earth ; there also is his Instrument , by which Nature operates . The Superficial parts also , and the Soil of Earth ; visibly , and manifestly declare his Vegetation : and the celestial Incholists , as Planets , and Constellations , do not they influence this blessed Creation . So that the whole , and every part thereof declare him admirable ; therefore to be admired , till led by admiration to the Corona of Beatitude , which to the Religious seems a pleasant short Stage ; since the Life of Man is measured but a Span. Earth therefore must to Earth , and Elements to Elements ; and all compounded mixts submit themselves to solution ; which properly terminates in the periods of Death ; but Eternity , stands for ever in the presence of God ; and is therefore most permanent , durable , and everlasting . But the Earth budded forth , because fill'd with Vegetation ; and every Tree , from the Cedar , to the Shrub ; so the Oak , the Asp , the Poplar , and the Ash , had its Seed radicated , and inated in its self ; Plants and Herbs also in due time producted , and variously multiplied to adorn the Creation and not so only to the praise of him that made them ; but to sustain , refresh , and gratifie the Creature : the mighty God , the Lord Iehovah , his mighty Arm has wrought this Creation ; and who shall compensate for so Divine a Work , if when to consider that we are but Earth , and our earthy Ornament but the blossom of Vegetation ; and Vegetation it self , what is it more , than the antecessor , or forerunner of Mortification ; and Mortification what is it but the prospect of putrefuction , which leads on directly to the prisons of Death . Every thing therefore that is naturally produced ; results , and terminates in its native beginnings : For whatever thing is Elemental , or had inicience from thence ; falls under the same predicament , and destinated to die ; whose ends because fliding into the periods of inactivity , partake of the common destiny of all compounded mixts . For such are the Elements , and all Elementary Beings , ever since they had a Being , and Birth in the Creation : But here to Philosophize , when duely separated , and afterwards co-united , and re-conjoyned again ; it represents the invisibility visible to us ; which then resulting in an Astrum , or Quintessentia , is in a capacity to dignifie other Bodies , and make them glorious , as it self is transcedent . But who has considered this great Conservator , besides him that reads daily lectures in the Orbs , and makes it his business to consult the Creation : that makes the Host of Heaven his daily Common-place-book , and he that made Heaven , his hourly Contemplation : which priviledges me to say , he that made Man , made not Man for himself , but to admire his Maker : till then we shall never be truely devoted , nor know what God is , nor what is his truth , notwithstanding so often by others reminded : but like to the World , and pratling Parots , talk to others those things we understand not our selves . In this kind of Zeal I was morally Educated , and suckt my Religion in with my Learning , too copious Theams to be taught in one Academy , when the Universe it self is too compendious for a University . I grant its true , that the Press made a noise , but you must grant me the Pulpit made a greater , till to me there seem'd a defect in both : the first because I found in a great measure impractible ; and the latter peradventure as unexperiental . This conducted me to search after the wisdome of him that alone is the Divine Miracle of wonder ; and my daily Speculations were animated with discovery , when every Signature unfolded it self ; and every Classis brought forth a Clavis , wherewith to unlock the Meanders of Nature . Diana in this Vision seem'd almost unvailed ; and every thing naked , in its native simplicity : This represents somewhat an Admical state , but unsatisfied in mind as to these discoveries , I was led to contemplate the Mysteries of the Incarnation ; how the Divinity when cloathed with Humanity , took not only our Nature , but our Infirmities upon him ; and was a bright and shining Light , illuminating the World , and every thing therein , and is that Light which saveth the World ; that shines in darkness , yet the darkness knows it not : a Light of that Beauty that illustrates Eternity , and regenerates us Plants in the Paradice of God , to legitimize us Heirs of the New Ierusalem : which if duely considered , here 's a prospect of Life ; when at a distance stands hovering the issues of Death : So that Good , and Evil seem to stand in a Poiz ' till Earth be found lite by the counterpoiz of Heaven ; and here it was also I see my self naked , waiting for a change , for God is all . This leads me on to a farther consisideration , if when to contemplate what 's more visible than Earth ; and Earth , and Water to compleat but one Globe ; whilst the Air is drest up with the blessings of Vegetation , whereby to inrich and impregnate the Earth : As may be seen in the very front and surface of the Soil , since dekt , and adorn'd with such beautiful Greens ; as Ornaments of Superiours , illustrating inferiours : So that the Earth was spread with prolifick Vertue , and production from thence immediately ensued , by discovering the prodigious plenty of Grass ; a word large enough to express it universal , had not some laboured tho' to little purpose , because when to shroud it under the denomination of Herbage . Grass therefore admits of a large extension , when because to comprehend both Animals and Vegetables : and is peradventure the Original word , notwithstanding the various interpretation of Expositors , because directing it self to the level Paul speaks of , as two intersecting Angles direct to the Centre of one and the same single gnomen . So that we need not to cavil about the word Grass , where the property of the thing is so well understood . Herbage therefore is Grass , and Paul tells us , Flesh is Grass : and Grass by interpretation is the most universal Vegetable . Trees and Plants also are of the same Linage , save only from a larger size of more maturated Grass . Stones , and concressions also what must we call them , if not coagulated , and petrefied Grass . So that Grass in one respect is every thing that Earth vegetates , tho modified after various Formations , and Figures ; differently drest up by the hand of Nature . And because haveing respect to time , and place ; by supplement of Air , and moist soveraign Vapours , causeth it to grow , and spreading It self on the Superficies of Earth , spires out into Grass . Which when otherwise concealed in subterranean Cavities , grows up into Metals , and the race of Minerals . As for Example , have not all Trees their Roots in the Earth , when their loaden Boughs hang burdned with Fruit. And are not all Metalline Roots radicated in the Air , when the Centre of the Earth is burdened with their Fruits ; what 's more intelligible . Now there is but one universal Spirit in Nature , from whence things Originally have all their supplies ; and the three Clauses also of Animals , Vegetables , and Minerals ; are they not so many Marks , Sigels , and Characters , which the Creator has imprinted , and stampt upon them , whereby the Creature might read , and know them . But Man above all , because Lord of the Creation , is made most intelligible , whereby to understand them : wherefore he calls them by Names , for distinction ; when as the rest of the Creatures know them only by instinct . And this vegetating Spirit has its Seed in its self , and the Air is plentifully replenished with it ; which Seeds scatter'd , and spread about the Vniverse , furnisheth the Creatures in all parts of the Creation . The Americans can tell you that Trees grew naturally where the Native Indians never had a being ; and were it not for Europes agriculture , and industry ; her florid Fields , and flourishing Pastures , would soon feel the fatal stroke of disorder ; so become Forrests , and barren Desarts , fit only for beastial , and salvage inhabitants . For God never made nor sent any thing into the World that was either indigent , defective , or imperfect ; every Creature , nay , the Plants themselves were furnished with prolifick , and seminal qualifications ; sterility was a thing utterly unknown , till disobedience disinherited our royal Protoplast ; which had for ever so remained to the periods of time , had not the Cross obliterated the Curse . Our Ancestours oft laboured to strike out the Eyesore , which the succeeding Generations have thought no impediment , because to study new Modes of Sinning , whereby to improve impiety by consent ; which has rarely ceased to follow every Generation , as naturally ( in my opinion ) as Rust attends Copper ; fretting , and corroding the natural Body , till time , and other comodes blot out its Character ; so permits the compound to slide into Atomes , and yield it self Captive to the Prisons of Death ; waiting from the Artist a Resurrection . But such Bodies as these we call imperfect , because of a Leprosie impendent on them ; when as indeed there are other dignified Bodies , that fear not to die , because uncapable of Death : whose peluced anima like Stars in the Firmament , make glad the Adepti , and solicitous in Art. In the next place , I purpose to speak something of Light ; and since Light by the Text is the Oracle of God , it was by his Wisdome apparently made manifest , when undressing the Hoil of this beauteous Creation ; which Light also leapt out of the bosome of Eternity into the Vision , and perspective of Time ; and because expatiating it self in the Chaos was the Cause of this admirable Separation of the Waters , when by Divine Ordination they divided themselves ; and then it was that dry Land appeared : Nor could it be otherwise because then the purer parts immediately began to feel the force of Separation , so let the recrements subside to the bottome , because of their feculent and impure Centre , and thus by the Fiat were all impurities Separated , from that which of it self was altogether pure ; and this Act of Separation we attribute to God , who substituted Nature daily to operate : For should there happen but the least Cessation , the whole Compound would annihilate , so become invisible . But every Separation of separable Things creates the Unity , and perpetuates the Harmony ; since the Life of one Element is dependent on another ; nor lives the one without the breathings of the other . The Waters perpepetually moistening the Earth , whiles the Earth inspires , and ferments the Water ; but the soft sweetnings , and breathings of Air impregnates both ; as do the Stars in their station , and Celestial Rotation , actually influence , and penetrate the whole . From whence we morrally and rationally conclude that Earth made dissoluble converts into Water ; and Water by heat is ra●ified into Air. Air consequently by circulation is convertible into Fire , and this I call Motion , and the perpetual rotation of this admirable and imbellished Creation , notwithstanding Copernicus asserts the Contrary , when to tell us that the Earth of it self has a motion : however , I know none , except that of Vegatation . And now the great Creator that made the Light commands that Lights appear in the 〈◊〉 Number ; and divinely ranging them in the Frontispiece of Heaven , it denot●s unto us the aforesaid Separation of that which is pure from that that 's im●ure . Fo● 〈◊〉 Firmament at once 〈…〉 with 〈◊〉 whose Bodies were innumerable , 〈◊〉 , and luminous , and 〈◊〉 made to shine all over the Universe●●hey also illuminate and impregnate the Creation ▪ and that to admiration , he hung the●●●word in his sublime Sanctuary , to discrim● 〈◊〉 Day from the obscurities of 〈◊〉 and to mark out the Winter 〈◊〉 Summer Season : For they 〈◊〉 made Signs , and Expositors of Seasons to remonstrate days , 〈◊〉 ●imes to prognosticate : Thus we ●●ad , and as constantly we observe the Heavens adorned with these beautiful Bodies , so that their operations we feel , and sometimes their effects ; but their ends as hitherto are not generally understood , tho frequently th●●ght 〈◊〉 and descanted by putatio●●rs ; who fancy it Sacriligious when to mediate on them , or if but to enqui●● into the order of the Creation ; supposing the Creator like thems●●ves but nigardly , when to conceal such an excellent and admirable 〈…〉 ; least peradventure every 〈◊〉 should p●● into the Model , so 〈…〉 Maker by the Mediums of Art● But Gods divin● Oracles surpasseth mans reason , 〈◊〉 wisdome instructs us the ●●●●ods of the Creation ; nor was 〈◊〉 ignorant of these Celestial 〈◊〉 who pointed out to us the Divin● 〈◊〉 of Stars , how some of them 〈◊〉 , and how some move themselves : who cites to us the motion of 〈…〉 Constellations ; the forms , and ●●nfigurations also of the Signs of the Zodiack ; with the blazing . Meteo●s , and formidable Apparitions ; the beauty of Orion , and the splend●ur of the Pliades : the lustre of Bootes ●ubulus , or Arctophylax : the celerity of Mercury , and the Rotation of Ursa Major , incircling Ursa Minor , in opposition to the Crosiers , Directors to Artick , and the Antartick Poles . But what edifies all this to an illiterate Person , any more than a Clerum at the Commencement in Cambridge : ignorance I must confess is an o'rgrown Infant , and the greatest Enemy and Opposer of Art , which ought to be shun'd as a Monster in nature ; and above all things abhor'd as some mortal Contagion ; or thing worse , could worse be supposed : For ignorance , and impudence they poison our Faith , and of future hope would have us to suspect the enjoyment of the excellency of those divine things whereof now we know little more than part . For to read in the beautiful face of the Firmament , we discover the invisibillity of things made visible , which manifests to us the end of the Creation : So that I prophane not , nor would I be thought erronious , when if only to assert that the Stars made visible are Angels only explicated ( and the Saints shall shine as the Stars in Glory ) consequently that Angels are Stars complicated ; and as the Star Hesper is the Suns Aurora , so the day Star of Regeneration is the Son of God , to light us up to his glorious habitation : it is true , that as the Night is opposite to the Day , so Sin interposeth betwixt God , and the Creature ; we must carry the Cross to purchase the Crown , and divide the Day from obscurities of the Night : which without a Metaphor is the Light from Darkness , Sin from Sanctity , Death from Life ; and which indeed are sublime operations , fit only for him that divinely operates . The frontispiece therefore or visibility of the Firmament , God noted out to us for Signs , and for Seasons ; so for Days , and for Years ; whereby to prophesie of those fatal Events , frequently impendent ore impenitent people : but the Seasons declaratively make demonstrative of heat , so do they of cold ; as at other times of rain , and ●lso of fair weather ; because visibly read in the face of the Stars , Exhalations , Corruscations , and Embodied Clouds . The days also numerate the date of the Creation , and the Nights direct us to read Lectures in the Heavens . Thus we see that we see nothing , except we see and understand by the Wisdome of God , the excellency and beauty of those sublime things , pointed out to us in the mysteries of the Creation , viz. how the Ray of Light profligates Darkness ; and the Glory of the Majesty mortifies Death ; the consideration whereof sweeteens all difficulties ; but the blessed fruition ravishes the Soul , and makes it infinitely more pleasant and dilectable , than temporal sweets affect the sence . And God the Creator made two great Lights , the Sun and the Moon ; whose different progress directs unto us a different appointment : the Sun as abovesaid , to rule the Day , but the Moon by reflection to govern the Night . So that the Sun by Divine ordination , and the Providence of God superceeds the Moon ; but the Moon by a peculiar virtue influenceth the Ocean , and adorns the Universe : The Majesty of the Sun is admired by the Persians , so is that of the Moon adored by the Indians . Now the Suns warm body moderates the Earth , and would peradventure in some measure callifie it , did not the moist Air generously intermediate . And the Moon perhaps would frigidate the Ocean , did not the Suns soveraign warm Beams mildly , and sweetly by influence nourish it . What illuminates the Orbs , and what inspires the Ocean , if not Sun , and Moon by the Providence of God ▪ that vegetates , and impregnates the Creatures in Creation . So that if when to consider the Majesty of the Sun , that incessantly moves without intermission , in the Central Orbs , and every Angle of the Universe ; whose defused Ray spreads upwards , and downwards ; and every way to influence with heat and motion : and because enricht , and adorned with such eminent qualifications , as the majesty of Light , and the excellency of Beauty ; it might probably invite Sandivogius the Philosopher to superscribe him the Vehic●lum , or Tabernacle for God : which Hypothesis is refuted by Basil Valentine , and contradicted by Scriptural Authority . For I will build my Tabernacle , and dwell among men ; and the Saints they shall shine as the Stars in Glory . But the Sun beyond dispute is the most glorious Creature that God has Created in this stupendious Creation , because of its purity , and superlative Clarity ; since totally separated from all its dregs : whose inside and outside we made Synonimous , formd out of pure Principles of Life and Heat ; whose rapid motion gives action to the Orbs , and cloaths all the Stars with his Lustre , and Splendour ; making them shew beauteous by the lustre of his brightness : and because by the Divinest deckt , and adorn'd with Glory ; he lives without compeer , nor has he any Corival ; where note he 's a Monarch , and the Parent of Vegetation . And such is the Moon , tho a faint flattering Ray ( if when compared with the Sun ) yet she illustrates unto us from the same Original : and because adapted from adequate primordials , in her occidental Cressant she naturally displays a Lunar clarity ; when in her Oriental purity an incomparable brightness : and tho' by reason of distance She wants a natural warmth , yet in her Progress she spreads forth of splendour , whereby she sends Beauty to the ends of the Ocean . The Tides themselves also are a Lunar flux , and such is the frail imbicility of Females : For the Moon has a Monarchy within her self , yet directs She by the generous Beam of her Soveraign , who by Wisdome and Providence of the Supreamest Good that governs the whole , and also the parts ; is made to nourish , and refresh the Creation : so that to make things plain , by explaining my self , peradventure , may bring my Discourse into suspition , were the Vulgar my Judges ; who , I fancy by this have already doomed , and brought me under the calamity of a Lunatick . The residue of the Stars , the Divinest also he placed them in order by particular classes , and gave to every one by a grant from Heaven , a peculiar vertue , and different operation : one to dignifie Earth into the purest Gold , another to make Silver shine in the Mines : a third to scatter Iron Stone , underneath the Surface ; a fourth to discover Quick●silver fluid ; a fift lays open the Mines of Tin : and a sixth the beauteous Mettalline Copper : but the seventh creates the Earth into Oar , which by smelting at the Mills , is convertible into Lead : but there are Other , and various coagulations , besides these seaven ; as allowed by Philosophers , the product and progeny of Erratick Stars : and such is Cat-silver , Mine Oars , and Minerals ; mixt Metals also , with various complications . Then their 's Talk , and Realgar ; with Zink , Bismuth , and Cobolt ; and the regal Cements of Hal , and Malk , besides Markasites , and Pierites ; with innumerable concressions of opacous Bodies , enough to astonish the Reader , if to name them . Precious Stones also are of the same progeny , and legitimate heirs of Stars and Constellations : and tho' some coagulations out-lustre one another , as the Cristal , because having a polite and shining face ; so has the Crisolite a Diaphinous-body : but the Saphir , the Hiacinth , the Smaragdine and Emerald , together with the Amethist , Diamond , Ruby , and the Carbuncle , are all gloriously tinged with a Mettalline Tincture : but there are other , and Opacous Bodies , directing to the Topax , beside the Turchas ; and such is the Onix , and admired Granat ; with the Cornelian , needless to nominate , in regard by the Mobile so generally understood . All which have their Officine , and Shops in the Earth , where Illiastes , and Archeus , are Rector , and Operator ; the one to find stuff and the other labour : but Demogorgan assists both by the help of Vulcan . Thus in brief I have given you a short view of Celestials , and how they are adapted Parents of Terrestials . Now these glorious and luminous Lamps , the Stars , were kindled by the Divinest to illuminate the World : and God lifted them up , and set them in the Firmament as Oracles , and Ornaments to adorn the Universe : whose signature and impressions are perpetually imprest upon Earths soft Table , to influence and impregnate it with prolifick vertue : For the Sun and Moon , shews us Heaven and Earth in a lesser Character than most men dream of : and because having a magnetick vertue , and principle in themselves ; the first fills the World with heat , and activity , but the latter because immerg'd with passive qualifications , influenceth fluidity , and the race of Females . The Sun therefore we superscribe him Masculine , but the Moon every one intitles Feminine : where note , as these Luminaries are made to move , consequently so moves the Wheels of Generation and corruption , which mutually dissolves all compounded Bodies . But the Moon most properly is the Organ of Transmutation , as is the Sun the Parent of Generation : and these two Luminaries multiply and fructifie every individual as to generation , and multiplication ; for what compound ever was , or is there to be found in whole nature that holds not in it self some proportion of the Sun , and so of the Moon , whereby to confirm it with life , and motion ; so that what Offices soever are performable by these two Luminaries , either for preservation of the whole , or conservation of part ; as is the performance for one , such also and after the same manner is the like office for all . Since therefore such Vertue shines from Celestials , what may be expected from Super-Celestials is not Christ the Wisdome , the Beauty , and the Glory of the Majesty , whose admirable amazi●g and astonishing brightness shines in the Tracts to the new Ierusalem . The holy men of God in former Ages read daily Lectures in this Divine Manuscript ; and the same Starry Folio since the beginning of the Creation , has lain unfolded to this very Generation : So that wanting Solomons wisdome , and Iobs inspection ; very few , or none do read in it now . Surely our Rabbies have lost the Clavis . Hermes its true , and the Egyptians before him understood , and stiled God , Minos Solitaria ; but our great Prophet Moses ; Iehovah , and Elohim ; so the Cabalists intitled him Aleph Tenebrosum , from whence some conjecture the Delphians in their inscriptions direct their Orisons to the unknown God. But the Arabs — their Orisons : but the Arabs and the Caldeans marks him out Aleph Lucidum . So that doubtingly the Key of Knowledge in some measure may be lost , otherwise the Alphabet would not seem so unintelligeable ; unless we have made new Heavens of our own , so study them only , and forget the old one . But the Creation of Harmony who can forget , and not forget him that adorns the Universe : so fill up his Lamp with Foetid Oyl , whose stinking Empyruma instead of Aroma's , infects the Altar , and offends the Omnipotent . But man by the Divinest was Created twofold , Visible , and invisible : Corporeal , and Celestial : his Elementary Body , or visible part of a pure fixt Earth ; or a deep red Clay : but his Soul or Invisibility of an Essence Royal , not to be found in the Texture of the great World , more intellectual therefore , and more supernatural ; from whence Montanus that great Pantheologist , calls Man a small or little Incarnation , in which work God was pleased to multiply himself . Nor was Man the primitive Work in this blessed Creation , but the great World was , out of which Man was made : whose Principles , and Practice ought to be well examined ; should we resolve to take part for the whole ; so guess at the frame by a regular proportion . And as Man was taken out of this copious World , so was the Woman also taken out of Man. For God in his Eternal Idea foresaw that whereof as yet there was no material Copy . The Goodness and Beauty of which invited him to Create Man like unto himself ; and beholding that divine and lively Image of his own , inwardly to shine in the Tabernacle of Man ; he became therewith enamoured with divine Ardency ; and so loved the Creature , that when Sin had defaced it ; he again restored it by the suffering of that Power by which Man at first was made and created . But the Sun and the Moon were made to operate , and man in a sence was made to imitate ; whose Masterpice is Invention , and whose Study should be that to repair which Nature because interrupted left somewhat imperfect : but not that Nature cannot perfect her Operations ; rather we are to consider all scientifical Artists but dull Operators , and Imitaters of Nature , who works by her own Copy , slighting all Artifice , and artificial Presidents ; since such seem useless , and altogether improper to her , that of her self , can perfect the whole . Health craves no method for Phisick , nor Diet ; 't is Disease only that claims the priviledge of Medicine : then why so preposterous to seek sickness in health , and daily enquire the state of new Worlds , when the old one by Providence is still so good , and upheld by his Power can never die . The wise Creator has put therein such a renovating faculty , that of it self by attraction and repercussion , it receives what 's suitable , and agreeable to its nature , rejecting whatever is unagreeable to its resentments , as a thing that 's loathed by a disdainful appetite : let every student therefore study the knowledge of that which God in his Wisdome has already made ; since Man with all his Art can make nothing like it . And now since the Stars are commissioned to Rule , Saturn as Superiour , and Lord of the Universe , assumes the precedency : and who because of his ancient and paternal Dignity , claims a prerogative above all the Planets ; exalting himself in the supreamest Orb : whose Wife by allusion of Poetical Fixion was surnamed Ops , the Daughter of Caelas ; of whom is begot the fair Androginas , as also the beautiful and the Florid Vesta : to whom the Votaries , and the Vestal Nimphs in the days of Numa Pompilius , offered up their Orisons . Of Metals , therefore Saturn is Lead ; of Minerals Antimony , but of Stones the Granate . Next unto Saturn's Superiour Orb , benevolent Iupiter assumes the Throne ; who sways the Scepter in a peaceable Dominion , and himself as his Government is also peaceable : a Monarch that 's surrounded with Senators and Statesmen ; made happy in his choice when celebrated to Iuno , had not his Royal Consort been wounded with jealousie . Now this fair Goddess as the Poets have conceived sprung from the loins of Saturn , and Ops : whose Metallick progeny was only Tin : and of Minerals Zink , but of Stones the Iacinth . Now Trinus Magnus or Valorous Mars , he mounts the Chariot ; who by Poetical Fixion is the Son of Iuno . This great Martialist and Champion of the Gods , ascends his triumphant Throne next unto Iupiter , and Rules by the Sword : whose Law as is asserted , is the force of Arms : however the Poets have prescribed him no Wife , but inamoured with Venus , some suppose her his Paramour : rich in no Child but Iron , and Vitriol , save only the Soveraign and Medicianal Heliatrope : whose Markasite is Bismuth , and whose Minera is the Magnet . Most illustriously adorned , Sol himself advanceth : whose dazling Ray ●ills all the World with Lustre : but his Consort is known by the name of Lune , whose fair beauty some say equalizeth his brightness ; yet no Child he had but Gold , and the Carbuncle ; excepting the Ruby , and Lapis Luzuli , with some Minerals , and Markasites tinged with his Lustre : otherwise of themselves they could never shine . But Venus succeeds , and because the Queen of Heaven , She 's reputed the Speculation of all the Philosophers . Who was thought as by Fiction the fair Daughter of Caelus but her Mother the Ancients have prescribed the Ocean : if so , this fair Goddess she sprung from the Sea , and was the supposed Wife of Vulcan , Master of the Cyclops : she had no Child indeed excepting Copper , yet is she rich to excess in Vitriol , wherein lies her Treasure : whose nativity of Stones is the beautiful Emerald ; but her Markasite is Cobolt . Mercury next to Venus he ranges himself , and among the Planets is stiled Intelligencer : a universal lover of Metals , and Minerals ; principally all those of a regal condition ; we read of no Wife that ever he had , because an Hemaphrodite , and compleat in both Sexes ; whose progeny is Quick-silver , and the sparkling Diamond . Next to Mercury the Empress of the Orbs Lune's Silver Horns they polish the Sky . But we have told you already whose Wife she is , tho' some among the Philosophers superscribe her Masculine : whose native Child is the burnisht Silver , and the beautiful Saphir : but her Artificial , as hinted by Basil Valentine ; is the first born Daughter of all the Philosophers . But the Stars , I have considered , ought not to be thus discourst , nor ought we to discipher them after this manner ; nor was it indeed my primitive intention ; however since so bluntly to blab it out : let it serve only therefore to commode the ingenious , and direct the Sons of Science into the Tracts of Philosophy ; making the Elements Natures Common-place-book ; in whose legible Index if well examined , you may there find all that ever she did , or for the future intends to do . And in this thin tiffeny she wraps up her Principles before she embark them into coagulation : and which also retains the Species of things , and is the immediate receptacle of Spirits after solution of their natural Bodies : from whence , and through which the good ones pass to a Superiour Limbus , or Emperoeal Heaven ; where all pure Essences have their eternal Residence . And thus we have determined by a Philosophical Liberty to liken Nature to a beautiful Lady , shaded sometimes under a Cyprus Vail ; metaphorically interpreted a thick Mettallick Mantle : or rather a complication of Elements , and Principles : which when it shall please the Divinest to unvail , and draw it off from before the Creation ; we shall not only see Nature really naked ; but the very beauty of things themselves , whereof these we now behold are but representatives : when on the contrary should ignorance invade us ; how an outward dimness , and an inward darkness would presently ensue : from which we pray , Libera nos Domine . But all complicated Bodies are Elemental , and Spiritual ; which by medium of Celestials become magnettically united : and is the true , and the only cause of Production , and also Vegetation : Natures Fundamentals , and the Philosophers Speculation . And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth Day , but every day since the beginning of Time is Gods Day only , and properly his ; and so will remain the whole progress of Time ; and will be so when Time is no more . But the Divine harmony of things in the Creation were manifest in Time , in which all ends and beginnings have their natural period . The beginning therefore was in creating ; and creating was an act of making things manifest . The periods also , or results of which , are manifestly discovered , by solution of parts . Thus the World and all therein had a beginning in Time , when the Divinest undrest the Hoil or Chaos ; and then invisible things were made visible to us : which by Reason of an Elementary composition , are in time lockt up in the periods of death . This is all the Philosophy hitherto I have known ; or it may be shall ever be known by another . In the next place we discourse the Element of Water , imagined by some a solution of Earth , or a moist coagulum of ambient Air , made fluid only by an internal flux ; which surrounding the Earth compleats but one Globe : and which aquous fluidity separates only the impurities from the more extraneous and superficial parts ; but cannot reach to the Core , or Centre , whereby to examine the internal impurities ; which an intence Fire naturally purgeth forth , by reason of its ardent activity ( and not improper to say its vulcanick nature ) where the Waters of themselves can never reach . Two Elements therefore are destinated to putrification ; and as the matter to be purified is visible , or invisible ; consequently such are the Agents for purification . Since the Fire therefore is an invisible Agent , and that other of Water most obvious and visible ; the visible and invisible parts of things are therefore so mended , and cleansed by subtile Operation ; whereby they seseparate the more inquinate impurity , that stifly adheres to the immaculate nature , and prestine state of Virgin purity . But as the Soul within the Body is not bett'red by the Corporiety of all , or any of the natural composition ( or impendent matter hovering about it ) but is rather stained , poluted , and infected with noxious Sapors arising thence from : So you are to consider that the Vessel has its honour from the dignity of the Arcanum ( or glory of the Subject matter ) therein contained . And as the Scripture instructs us , that Gods surprizing Light illuminates every pious act of the Creature ; it obligeth us to consider that the Goodness of God is as great to forgive ; as by his Clemency and Bounty he is just to pardon . Where note we observe God made things proportionable , and in all respects , suitable to himself . The great World he made therefore to contain the less , but the lesser World he made to contain himself that contains the greater . And thus you have the Mystery of the Creation , the Majesty of Reason , the Divinity of Scripture , and authority of Philosophy . But the Waters brought forth every moving Creature , because in them was the Spirit of Life : For the Spirit of Life by Divine incubation made ingress into them , filling them with a prolifick vertue : and the first form'd Creature that the Waters brought forth , was the great and unweildy body of Earth ; most recluse , and solitary , because inwardly concealed ; which till then never felt the operative fo●ce of Fire . Nor did the luminous Ray of the Sun , nor the vertual influence of Stars , nor the Divine order of Constellations , nor the treasures of Hail and Rain , of Lightning and Thunder ; nor the Seasons of Heat and Cold , Frost and Snow ( besides innumerable living Creatures to whom Heavens plentiful Breast daily administred ) till then none of them knew the potency of Life , nor the force and energy of the universal Spirit which God by Wisdome inspired into them . But some will object , and peradventure say , how , and after what manner does the Earth vegetate . Shew us also the rationallity and probability whereby the Earth and the Water become living Creatures : to which I readily and briefly answer ; the Soul of the Divine World is God himself ; but that of the Created the universal spirit of Nature : and this Soul lives by vertue of the Divine World , but acts by imagination only in the Created , whereby the Earth conceives , vegetates , and buds up ; so does the Waters protrude , and bring forth even to the period and perfection of its predestinated end . Nor can they otherwise do ; because the Law of Providence and Necessity is by Divine ordination imposed upon them . And that which enriches them are the sublime treasures of Elements , and Principles . For wanted they those active , and ingressive instruments , they were of all things in Nature most imper●ect ; and would be altogether void , and unprofitable ; so become as it were a meer annihilation ; and not improper should I call it , a Caput Mortuum . For it were impossible that any Created Being , if when wanting the Vital Faculty of Life , could be any ways at any time in a capacity to live ; consequently to move , vegetate , and protrude . But the great and the lesser World is fill'd with animation , whereby it daily and hourly buds forth : All which are signal and demonstrable tokens of the Spirit of Life that animates , and actuates in every Creature . Life therefore is that active and universal Spirit of Nature wherewith she infusseth , the whole Creation , impregnating every individual therewith ; whereby the Character of Life is no sooner stampt , infus'd or imprest upon any material Subject , but it inwardly lives , as does the invisible World ; which no sooner appears to move forward into act , but the model and frame of the Subject matter at once admits of exteriour Motion . Life therefore as it is the Radix of every thing , so it acts demonstratively in every Body . The motion of the Sun we daily observe is necessarily occasioned by this active spirit of Life . And such is the vital pulse in Man , as also that large and greater pulse of the Ocean . Earth vegetates only from this operating Spirit , and the Air is replenished , and fill'd full of it : Every thing that is , lives not without it ; nor can any thing subsist deficient of it . O wonderful Nature the Miracle of the Creator , how intelligeable art thou in all thy Operations ; and tho' so simple , naked and demonstratively plain , yet how difficult is it for the Artist to find out . So that were we minded to imitate Nature in her solitary Operations , and Fermentation of Elements ; we ought first to consider in order to what Nature in her daily progress points out unto us , whereby to manidge and introduct us : whose mediums because primarily separation , and solution of parts ; therefore from thence begins manual Operation . Let solution therefore be the first step , since in separation all is found . Then proceed to Filtration , Evaporation , Congealation , Cristalization , Distillation , Digestion , Putrefaction , Ceration , Albification , Rubification , and Fixation . Then will Diana appear from under her Vail , which none but the Eyes of a true Philosopher , since the beginning ever yet saw . But now I suspect I 'me beyond the Paraphrase of the Text , when only designed to discourse the Creation ; so of Elements and Principles , Natures own Rudiments . How that Elements subsist not without previous Fermentation of their complicated com●xture of invisible Parts ; so that a compleat separation is no where found whereby to unlock , and disintangle the unity of Bodies , without a Philosophical Clavis to display their Principles ; which otherwise are limited , and by Nature confined to submit to the law of coagulation . Of all which I cease farther to disclose ; lest peradventure this secret be already too manifest , when because to devulge it to the root of ingratitudes : so we leave that Subject to discourse the Leviathan . And , God made great Whales , &c. Iob calls him Leviathan , who after his Creation by the permission of God , rolls to● and fro the fluctuating Ocean : Whose unctuous Scales pollish the Sea , that ●o amaz●ment it shines like a Pot of Oyntment ; and whose magnitude amazes his fellow Creatures . Whose Empire is the spacious and bottomless Ocean , but himself a Monarch over all in the deeps , whose Subjects are the several Clases of Natatiles , that pay tribute to him with the loss of their Lives . So that what to say of this prodigious Creature , I know not ; nor is any Pen capable to discourse his concealments , or fathom the unfathomed depths that conceal him . Is not he one of the wonderful Mysteries of the ways of God ? Whose shining paths discover his ways , and whose motion terrifies the eyes of his beholders ; ● Creature he is that lives void of fear , and is as Iob says , a King over all the Children of Pride . Leviathan therefore if thought requisite to describe him , I shall rally him under three several distinctions ; and the rather because to make him yet more obvious , give me leave to rumidge the Ocean , and dress up my method whereby to illustrate him in the following order . First , then by Tradition we entitle him Grampus , when because to consider him in his prestine Minority ; but successively in his Peregrination he assumes to himself that dignity and magnitude , that some call him Iubartas . When in process of time , and becoming yet more formidable , some are pleased to superscribe him the Whale or Leviathan ; whose motion upon the slippery tracts of the Ocean , represents him as it were a floating Island . And whose excessive bulk , and incredible bigness is enough to astonish every beholder : when otherwise to consider him on the silty Owse , his own weight peradventure hazards to sink him ; whereby he becomes a prey to the Merchant , or otherwise must lie till death release him . But of this admirable and eminent Subject , there are some so precipitant to preconjecture Iob too copious ; whiles othersome of a contrary opinion have determined him too brief , and altogether concise , when because as to their apprehension not to enlarge enough upon him : wherefore to reconcile them which is not without difficulty ; the ignorant and unlearned think he has said too much , when by reason of their ignorance they cannot understand him : but to the Wise and more Judicious he has said too little , and the rather in regard they 'r desirous of knowledge ; for Wisdome is always known of her Children . But Iob that humane Oracle of Learning and Eloquence ; and as learnned as any man in the study of Astronomy , has given such eminent and convincing Encomiums , with such solid Arguments of this admirable Creature ; that every description save that of his own strikes a Discord in the Readers ear : whose Mute I confess my self to be , and am unwilling therefore to attempt to encounter what neither my Language nor Experience can boast of , otherwise , than that I have seen this formidable Creature sporting himself in the vast wide Ocean ; yet this wont priviledge , but rather precaution me ( with reverend submission ) to a sedate taciturnity , and to affix no more Arguments upon this invincible Subject : But rather with my Author lay my hand on my mouth , and remembring the battle , do so no more . Since therefore to consult him without any compeer , and a Monarch of such a magnitude , and vast Dominions ; should we rumidge all the Elements for a Mate to match him , none but his own is found to contain him . Wherefore we represent him the Majesty of Mortals , whose search we relinquish to correspond with inferiours ; such are the Porpus , the Bottle-Nose , and the Shark , the Selk , Boneto , and the Albicore , the Moura or Sea Serpent , with the Conger , Bass , Remora Torpedo , and the American Snite . There is also the Turbet , Scate , Dolphin , Grooper , and Cavalla ; besides the Sturgeon , Salmon , Trout , Lucit , Mullet , Umbar , Barble , Tenche , &c. and thousands more in Salts and Freshes . Moreover there are Shell-fish , as the Turtle or Tortoise , Conct , Lobsters , Oysters , Crabs Cockles , Mussels , Craw-fish , Prawns , and Shrimps ; but these are arm'd all over . Another Brigade are Alegators , Crocadiles , Guianas , Bevers , Otters , and Manitees , with many other , but such are Amphibious , whom I care not to converse with . Living Creatures therefore , and such as move , and have their motion by the mediums of Water , are our Subject matter . And that God created every invidual , made it to live , and gave it motion , is the strength of my Assertion ; And that the Waters were the cause of their Life and Motion , is the Argument of the Text : but that God gave Life and Motion to the Waters that gave Life and Motion to the Creatures therein , is my positive and final Conclusion . Life then as naturally attends the Creation as the Ray of Light follows the Sun. Nor can any Life issue but what flows from Light , as Light it self flows from the Divine Fiat ; which immaculate Light sprung up from Eternity , as Eternity it self shines from the Majesty . But since the determinate and original end of Water was not generally understood , its nature and office but imperfectly considered , its wonderful Vertue and Operation intelligeable only to such whom Wisdome and Nature have duly Educated in God's great School , where nothing is taught without wonder and astonishment ; so that all I can offer relating to this admirable Subject , is little more than to say nothing , since if I speak any thing , I say too much ; and silence peradventure would better become me , rather than so publickly declame , and devulge to the World these my Notions , and it may be by some thought barren apprehensions , that like a Chase in Arra's figurates only the design , but wants real power of Life to prompt forward into Motion . Which implies , such Phaenonima's discover nothing where the genuine truth of any thing admits of a doubt ; and who will be so presumptous to determine possitives by his own own hesitant and imperfect Conclusions . But the Sea as one great and copious Body is acted only by the spirit of Life , that in the beginning inspired the Creation : and all the Rivers and Rivulets that fluctuate in Islands , consequently all those that spread themselves on the Continent , what are they but such and so many Meanders running up and down in every Angle , representing the Arms , Boughs , and Branches of this prodigious and Miraculous Creation ; whose Trunck or Bole is the Ocean it self : whose Radix or Root in the Nonage of Time lay conceal'd among the admirable Mysteries of the Creator . So that after what manner the Fountains and the Rivers , with the Springs and Rivulets became incipid , whiles the Ocean it self is impregnated with Salt ; is another Mystery , till serioussy to consider the Quellem or Sand , and the multiform variety of Soils in the Earth , as also to examine the Bottles of Heaven , the burdned and impregnated Clouds that fall , and daily distil to replenish the Earth , with Aerial Spirits , and Prolifick Vertue . These also were once one Saline substance ; when in the great Mass or Volumn of the Ocean ; whose Texture was alienated in the act of Separation because rarified and purified by Mediums of Air ; which more properly admits of an explanation , directing to a ra●efaction and transposition of Elements : whiles we direct our intention to the Progress of multiplication , by Divine grant and praeordinate Council . And now the Heavens shine a blessing upon the Creation , as also upon all Elementary Constitutions ; for God himself looked down upon the Ocean , not only to bless it , but all her Inhabitants . Thus were they blest , and all that was in them were also blest , when God bid them fructifie , grow up , and encrease . Now how can they otherwise than propagate and multiply , since his Divine Word has already commanded it . We therefore conclude the Creation blest , and the Creatures in the Creation , because being blest , become a blessing to every partaker . For the Bounty of the Creator can know no limit , tho' the Creation it self is bounded with limitation . He therefore that made it had power to confine it , but being himself eternally unmade , neither Art , nor Power , nor can any thing confine him . Where 's Peters objection now to raise a scruple , because when to eat what 's common or unclean , since what God has cleansed is undoubtedly clean : but this was a Trope or Type of Religion , whereby to denote God no respecter of persons ; nor relates it to any thing if I Calculate right than variety and distinction of judgements and opinion : For probably Peter thought none but the Iews were worthy the dignity and honour of Christianity , when God thought otherwise ; because having chosen the Gentiles as a people approved more worthy than the Iews ; who not only betrayed the Lord of Life , but barbarously and inhumanly they murdered their Messiah . Be fruitful , says the Word , encrease , and multiply ; here 's a Commission large and great enough , Sealed and Signed under Heavens great Charter : So that now the Rivers , the Lakes , and the Rivulets , nay the Ocean it self is fill'd with variety . And every Classis strives to exile sterility , and obliterate if possible the fate of barrenness . Can any Element in the Creation excepting the Ocean proclaim such multitudes as there are of Fish , which surpasseth the Art of Arithmetick to number them . For who has not seen that the Belly of one Female was enough of it self to accommodate a River , and has not also considered that if every individual had the Ray of Life shine in it , and common Providence attend it for its natural preservation ; to admiration so great would be the encrease , that the Waters themselves would even suffocate . But as there is a magnetick quality , and a sympathetick harmony in the Creation ; so is there a natural antipathy in the Ocean , as there is the like in other Elements . The Falcon in the Air , the Shark in the Ocean , and the Angler to bait with a Fish , when design'd to catch a Fish ( but such we call Troling ) so some sets Fellons to ●rapan Thieves . It s usual for the great ones to prey upon the little ones , as the Grampus upon the Surai , the Shark upon the Boneto , the Sturgeon upon the Shad , the Porpus upon the Salmon , the Pike upon the Dace , and the Pearch upon the Minue , &c. This I call Antipathy ; but Simpathy if I mistake not is the mutual Concordance , and Harmony among the Creatures . I have read in Helmont of a prodigious Pike , that lived as he says to an amazing bigness , and not then to have died a natural death ; when if to consider the whole progress of Life , what tribute would such a Smelter ( supposing this to be such ) bring to the Waters . But lest I fall into a Piscatorian Error ( which vanity since my youth I can hardly withstand ) let me therefore commend you to my Contemplative Angler , where at large you may read the Historical part of Angling . For in the high Sea there 's no soundings , what Art then must be used to catch Fish ? And so profound is this Subject that I plough but the Surface , whiles others more Mathematical measure out the Circumference , and dive into Natures more hidden Mysteries by a secret and pious profound Speculation , the Eye of Faith and Reason introducting . But we shall put ashore now , to tread on Terra Firma . And God said let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind ; Cattle , and creeping things ; and the Beast of the Earth after his kind . Then the Earth brought forth in great abundance , since by the Divine grant of Wisdome and Providence it had now in it self the three distinct Clases of Vegetables , and Minerals ; besides innumerable and various forms of Insects , and Animals , surpassing the Art of Numeration . Every Cave now was fill'd with Concressions , and the Surface of the Soil was covered with Herbage . The Florid Meadows also were perform'd with Odorates , and the flourishing Fields were scattered with Corn. The Banks also that bounded the murmuring Streams , were strewed with Arbories . The Mountains with Mines , the Valleys with Herds , the Plains with Flocks , and the Pastures with Cattle ; but the moist and more boggy Swamps in Vallies , were crouded and covered with Amphibious Creatures : besides innumerable Fowl of all sorts , and kinds hovering in the Air , under the Canopy of Heaven . Fish also they floated in the brinish Streams , whiles some others contented themselves with freshes ; so that every place , and every thing was fill'd with plenty whereby to enrich this stupendious Creation . Nor was any part of Earth , as well as the Ocean , exempt or denied those primary blessings from her great Benefactor that had blessed every thing : who not only made her , but such provision for her , that to the periods of time she can know no want : Who commissioned Nature also by an eternal decree , as a Supream Governess not only to govern ; but also to labour the Elements accommodation . The Lion and the Lioness roar'd then in the Desart ; and the Ass with the Mule bray'd in the Common ; but the Hart with the Hind bellowed in the Forrest : and the Leopard with the Panther , besides the Wolf and the Tigre were heard to howl in the barren Wilderness . But the Grey or Badger he yelpt in the Earth , whiles the subtle Fox in his obscure Den lay Barking conceal'd in cavities under ground : The Horse he neighed in the open Field , and the Cattle lay lowing in the Florid Meadows : But the Sheep and the Lambs , true patterns of Innocency ( poor Animals ) they lay bleating in every Pasture . Chantecleer in those times he rose with the day , and the early Lark took Wing with the Morning ; who admiring the beauty of the rising Sun , mounts the fair Welkin to partake of his splendour ; whiles the Black-Bird and Thrush , with the Winters intelligencer ( little Robin-red-breast ) mannage the Consort till almost evening ; and then pritty Philomel or the Summer Oracle , closes up day with sweet Epithalamiums . Thus the Creation in a perpetual harmony melted the Air with melodious Consorts of unterrified Quires of innocent Birds , that as well as they could , exprest their gratitude , for the bounty and generosity of their great Benefactor ; who gave them a being , and the blessings of accommodation ; the Earth to nourish , and gave them food ; but the Windows of Heaven were set open , to refresh and gratifie their thirsty appetite . And thus the Creation was unacquainted with fear , whiles our Ancestor stood in a state of Innocency ; and had for ever so remain'd without contradiction ( by authority of the Text ) had not Sin struck out the Character of simplicity . The timerous Hare fled not then for fear , nor did the Cunney shelter her self in the burrough . The Hind calv'd naturally without corruscations ; claps of thunder were then no help to disburden her . Nor did the Bear lick her Cubs into shape or form , for in the beginning was no deformity . The Pellican in those days I perswade my self pickt not those wounds in her tender breast infeebling her self to relieve her young ones . Nor did the Ostridge conceal her Eggs , dreading or fearing the crush of the Elephant . Nor can I hardly perswade my self in these halcion days that the Swan as now sang a lacrimy to her Funeral ; nor the Phenix fire her Vrn to generate her Species . Aligators surely in the minority of time were not so ravenous as to prey upon Passengers . Nor did the Crocadile dissemble his tears to moisten the Funerals of his fellow Creature . The Plover I discover flew then with the Tassel ; and the Pheasant I fancy kept flight with the Falcon. Nor did the Partridge know Engin , nor Noosie-thread ; nor dreaded nor feared he the flight of the Goshawk . Nor can I think otherwise than to say in those days the Lark was any time dared with the Hobby Surely Nature in those days was divinely exercised to preserve in Unity , and unite in Harmony the Creatures God had blest , in this blessed Creation ; because then to know no other Law but that of Sympathy , which is naturally of kind : but so alienated now , and in a sense so degenerated as if no other Law was ever established . Now the Generations past , and our worthy Ancestors ; as the vertuous in this Age will labour to abolish this unnatural antipathy , if when mutually to strengthen one another in the doctrine of Christianity , which ought to be the standard among the pious in profession ; lest peradventure we relinquish our soveraign health , so draw on our heads the Curse of Disease : For to fly from Sanity to seek a cure in Sickness ; is to run head-long into the Water to preserve our selves from drowning . In the beginnings of time ( as it was of old ) no noise of oppression allarm'd the Land , nor dreaded any man the sence of invasion . Then it was that priviledges were as sacred as life , and the whole Creation seem'd all in common . Ianus I fancy liv'd not in those days when the inside was made legible and intelligible by the outside . Modesty and innocency were then alamode , and simplicity with piety the newest dress . For Heaven was pleas'd then to dwell upon Earth , but Earth must now be rarified into Heaven . God then immediately converst the Creature , as by Mediation Christ interceeds the Father . And were it not that Christ is our Saviour and Advocate , we should be left without a Plea , and Sentence denounc'd beyond dispute against us . But Christ is risen , in whom we hope to rise ; and lost Adam is restor'd by the Redeemer of the World : So that what Adam lost on the one hand in Paradise : Christ our Mediator has redeemed on the other . Thus was the Beast and the Cattle made ; and thus every Creature made after its kind , knew no other Law than the Law of kind : for instinct of kind was naturally inated and ingrafted into all , as into one : and if so , it were impossible for the Creature to degenerate , where a command as hitherto was never violated . Then it was that the Divinity of the Majesty of God most splended and gloriously shin'd on the Creation ; for how could it be otherwise when the beauty of the Creator like a new risen Star reflected on the Creature In Edens fair Field no Brambles grew , nor was sterility known in her borders : The Trees then lookt big because burd'ned with Fruit , and their blushing heads bowed down themselves to the courteous hand that endeavoured to reach them . The Earth knew nothing but fulness and plenty , since every thing was supplied with prolifick Vertue ; and nourish'd in it self by the primar cause , Nature directs the ends of Germination . No Cankers nor Caterpillars bred out of putrefaction , nor were Northern blasts injurious to any thing ; nor was there any fatal stroke of Diseas , for every thing stood in its primitive purity ; and Death was out-lawed , and Sin an Exile , or at leastwise a rerrour unknown , or unthought of ; nor do I err when to say at that time uncreated . O blessed Creation , because God had blest it from the beauteous Ray and Beam of Himself . Whose radient Morning could scarce raise a blush before Titan was ready to unvail his face . Whose pleasures were boundless because then unlimited , for excess and intemperance were strangers in her Courts . And whose Garden full frought with Flowers and Aroma's , flourish'd with encrease since hitherto the Serpent had not tainted the Fruit. And the Earth of it self brought forth in abundance , whose Womb was the Storehouse , and Factory of Treasures . Gold grew in Ophir as naturally in those days , as Lead is drawn up in the Peek of Derby-shire . And Cattle by kind were raised and encreased , as putrefactive Excrements convert into Insects . But I cease not to wonder since thy Works are so wonderful and to admire thy ways because so miraculous . Thus Heaven and Earth were seemingly united ; and the Creation bended no Knee to any Government , save that of its Soveraign Lord and Maker . Nor was any thing made that knew any Lord , excepting the Lord of Heaven and Earth . Nor had the Creator as yet made man a King or Vice-Roy of the Creatures in the Creation . All the World all this while was but one Common-Weal , and the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden : and nothing as hitherto that God had created , had tasted the bitter effects of Death . Oblessed and sacred Government upon Earth , when Governed by the Royal Law of Heaven ; which certainly had remained in that blessed State , had not Sin by consent eclips't and defac'd it , almost to extinguish this beautiful Aurora . But let 's tack about now , and begin to examine the genuine nature and complication of Animals ; together with the natural composition of Man , whom we find at this day complicated of Elements ; of all which he consists if when to consider his material parts . And as Adam was abstracted from the Womb of the great World ; so was Woman her self an abstract from him : whose Soul as an Astrum , or an Essence Royal is no where to be found in the Texture of the Universe . Wherefore we have considered Adam super-natural , whose Creation to me seems a small incarnation ( as Montanus says ) as if God in this Work had multiplied Himself . And tho' Adams Original keep not time with the Creation ; however we are Children of Adams Generation . But the World because daily fill'd with revolution ever since the fatal Act of Sinning ; and that every Man because subject to Sin , and the slavish Law of his lustful Appetite , becomes captivated by the man of Sin ; so yields himself captive to the Prisons of Death : whose outward progression is actually moved by irregular motion of the desires inward . But the Heavens we see , and the Celestial Incolists , how they never since the Creation consented to Sin : and as they were , so are they still carried about with a rapid motion . The reason whereof must necessarily spring from an internal cause , and intrinsick principle ( since intelligences are so ambigious ) and what is this principle if not the Soul of the World ; or the Universal Spirit God has put into Nature , whereby as a Magnet it retains the matter ; which labouring to re-assume its former liberty , frames to her self a habitation in the Centre : and branching into the several Members of the Body makes more room to act , and bestir her faculties . No wonder therefore that natures are compounded , since nothing but the Almighty is without composition . Nor is it the great or the lesser World that which transmutes nutrition into blood ; but the active Spirit of Life , and transmutation is that which is indeed the Life of the Body . Since material principles therefore are only passive , and can neither alter , nor purifie the parts ; we find them in a state to be altered , and purified ; tho not to communicate or dispose themselves to another substance beyond their native intention . Wherefore we have considered them altogether finite , and therefore have concluded them also determinate . Now if this be a secret , you may call it so ; but , as truth needs no voucher it s a substantial truth . Wherefore to conclude this philosophick Hypothesis ; let us throw away if possible those two celebrated crutches of pretended modern sanctity , and the solemnity of Ceremony : and what results but primitive purity , which since the Creation has known no deformity . And God said ( in the Text ) let us now make Man ; in our own Image let us make him , and after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the Fish in the Sea , the Fowl in the Air , ( over the Cattle also ) and over all the Earth ; and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth . By this the Creation seem'd to want a Head , and less than a Prince is too little to govern it . Adam must therefore be a Universal Monarch , and sway the Throne , and the Regal Scepter . And Adam must not only wear Heavens Livery ; but personate the King of Heaven himself . Here the Divinest seems to Summons a Councel , and God said in himself let us now make Man , not like to any thing already made ; but let us make him in likeness like our self : in our own similitude and likeness let us make him ; and enlarge his Empire by giving him dominion over all the Fish that swim in the Sea , and over all the Fowl that fly in the Air , over the Cattle also that move on the Earth , and over every living creature that creepeth and moveth ; the Wisdome of God so divinely ordered . This was a large and copious Commission that God intrusted a single Subject withal ; yet such was the good opinion the Creator had of the Creature , that God intrusts Adam with the Stock of the Creation , and all the Creatures , and every complicated Being that was made , comprehended , and contained in it . And Adam drew all his supplies from above , since enricht with the Stock and the Treasures of Heaven ; nor converst he with any inferiour Subject , nor any thing in any respect unsuitable to himself ; whereby he might indignifie or diminish his Authority . In the cool of the Evening he walked with God , and in the heat of the day the Aquaducts refresht him . Aurora sent him Summons of approach of Day : but the Night , nor was darkness dreadful to him . The Celestial Sun was his daily Tapour , and the Catalogue of Stars his hourly Contemplation ; but the Son of God his perpetual Lamp. So that his outside was bettered by his inside , and because richly adorned and divinely beautified , he saw no darkness , nor the shadow of Death ; whiles he stood in this innocent State of Perfection . For God in the Idea beholding a shape , or as I may so say a representation of himself , became therewith inamour'd ; and extreamly loving it , would cohabit with it : when immediately upon the resolution the operation ensued ; and then was this great Image the beautiful World ( or rather the representative of his Maker ) brought forth , and created . And God said to himself ( or the holy Word ) increase in increasing , and multiply in multitudes . But to Man only because Lord of the Creation , I have endowed him with mind , and made him immortal . So that if he die , the cause of death must necessarily proceed from excess of the body , and inequallity of Elements ; and pray tell me what death is ? if not a cold icy touch , or a dismal darkness of the compounded moist nature , adhering only to the sensible World. Let no Man wonder therefore that the light of God which illuminates the World is unlike the Beam or Ray of the Sun , that by reason of its fiery , and excessive brightness , immediately and at once strikes the eye with blindness : but rather to the contrary , Heavens brighter Glory never at any time dazles the mind , since the mind is the Souls ingressive eye , that soars up aloft to those elevated Mansions , where that light shines that enlightneth every Man , already come , or to come into the World : and is the beauty and glory of light , and our saving health , that influenceth , illuminates , and beautifieth the Creation ; and every Creature , and created Being . But Man above all , because made a Monarch ; and capable to receive this blessed influence proceeding from God , the Majesty of Light , and superexcellent brightness , that diefies the Soul whiles yet in the Body : it s he that 's only blest to contemplate this divine beauty ; and live up to the Vertue of Piety , and Holiness . So that Adam in a state of innocency represents ( as Montanus says ) a Mortal God ; and our Heavenly Redeemer an immortal Man , if when to consider the blessed Incarnation . And thus the things that are , were made manifest in time ; but the things that are , and not yet made manifest ; lie hid , and conceal'd in the Divinest himself ; who is all things in all , yet subsists without them : manifest only in the mind of Man , but invisible to the World , and the visible eye , except in the act of creating only . And as the eminency of all appearing beauties are in the Essence much more pure ; so great and greater is the disproportion of beauty betwixt this of Earth and the Beauty of Heaven . All things therefore subject to the Eye , represent to us only things subject to sence ! or more fully to explain it , visible operation ; whiles the Fabrick of the Body needs and requires those similar things that it cannot with conveniency live well without them . But the Beauty , and Majesty of invisible Beings , are inspected only by intellectual Converse : since the Angles of God are made ministring Spirits ; and the Spirit of God the Divine Comforter that leads us spiritually into the Vision of Glory . And Adam was the favourite God only converst with , in whom the Divinity divinely shin'd , when our Protoplast stood in a State of Innocency ; then it was that no impure thing could approach unto him , because then in the favour , and presence of the Majesty , our Progenitor , in Paradise was admitted to stand . For Adam was constituted with a Divine Soul , like to the likeness of him that infus'd it ; which was the likeness of God himself , whose glorious Aspect shin'd then on the Creature ; otherwise the Creatures had never contributed so great humility , and veneration to Adam ; when flocking about him as some sacred thing , whereby to honour and give them protection : so that to what place Adam was pleased to direct , his Life-guard of the Creatures continually went with him . But Adam too remiss in this great concern , becomes negligent and careless to examine his affair , notwithstanding Emulation follows at the heels of Prosperity ; for can favourites be without the peoples frowns , tho' under the umbrage of their Princes smiles ? No surely , the Hierarchy of relapsed Angels had an ambitious Emulation against his present State ; that if not counterploted by the Wisdome of his Maker , they 'l conspire his ruine , and perpetual overthrow . For revenge against the Will of God carries a kind of sweetness with it ( solamen miseris ) and thus sorrows seem to extenuate sorrow , when others as our selves are in a suffering state . It is true that Adam was adorned with more inward Lustre than the outward beauty of the whole Creation . For in his Temple the bodily Fabrick , the Holy of Holies inhabited therein . For it is the residence of the Divinest himself , in whom alone dwells the Beauty of Holiness . Let us stand in this station , we shall see our Salvation : for he that made us , knows how to deliver us . Then shall we find a holy Guide to direct us the Tracts to the Paradice of God. The Soul therefore whiles yet in the Body , represents a Candle conceal'd in a Lanthorn ; or a glance of Fire in a manner stifled , when because wanting the benefit of Air. Who in extremity strugles with her Elemental Chains , yet spans the World with a single thought ; and enjoys that inwardly she 's dismist of outwardly : that in a moment flies to the uttermost parts of the Earth , and what ever is absent she at once makes present ; and dead things by imagination she restores to life : nothing can conceal or hide any thing from her , who in an instant surmounts the Stars . Thus Adam by his Maker was made a Monarch , and one of the Creators holy Senators ; who read Lectures in the Heavens , the Almighties Common-place-book ; and conducted the Creatures created in the Creation : to whom God gave Voice , and the ornament of Speech , but above all the glorious intellect of Mind ; which Angellical State our Protoplast stood in so long as he stood in opposition to Sin : which gift was ungiven to the rest of the Creation ; yet none of them denied the benefit of Sence , lapt up only in this thin Tiffeny Web of Mortality ; for Sin is but a bulk of emptiness , and impiety ; that like a Pageant does nothing it self , but hinders others from doing good ; seducing by the lust and pleasures of the Body , whiles the Soul is meerly starv'd with penury . Innocency was then the best guard of our Ancestor , when he stood in the presence of his God in simplicity ; for the more pure that any thing is , the more sublime is that thing also . Wherefore we consider Adam in an Angelical State , when cloathed with Piety , and adorned with Purity ; then he stood his ground like a Heavenly Champion , for God had made his Earth Celestial . This answers something to the Doctrine of Hermes , that God inhabits in the Mind of Man ; the Mind in the Soul , and the Soul in the Body : and that he is all things in All , both Act and Power ; for he is God. From the matter therefore the subtilest part is Air ; of the Air the Soul ; of the Soul Mind ; of the Mind God. And the Soul of Eternity is God himself ; but the Soul of the World is Eternity ; and Heaven as he saith is the Soul of the Earth : So that nothing , nor part is deficient of Soul ; nor is the Soul deficient of God. Thus in innocency and simplicity o● Protoplast stood , in this Divine posture without sensual guards , when his Maker selected him a representative at the great Assembly of the blessed Creation ; where all the Creatures were convocated together . Then it was that Adam like a Magestrate ; and a Legislator ( for such then he was ) gave forth his Edicts unto all the Creatures his natural Subjects . The Golden Rule was kept then amongst them , when every one did justice by kind ; and not that the dread of punishment compell'd them . For the Ray of Justice was so generally distributed , that it naturally shined in every individual . The Earth in those days was unburdned with Tillage , nor do we read it was wounded with Culture : the Creatures in the Creation liv'd purely by instinct ; not making their Bodies Sepulchres to bury dead Carcasses in . There was no Temple in those days to prophane ; but now we have Temples , nor want we Prophaners . Wherefore let 's consider the glorious Work of the Creation , that by the hand of God was no sooner made , but by the will of Man was endeavoured to be unmade . Creation is not therefore Generation , nor have we considered Generation is Life , but by way of allusion it may be called sence . Nor is Change Death , though commonly so asserted ; but rather a forgetfulness , or obliteration of Elements . Generation therefore is improperly called a Creation ; but rather a production of things only to sence , in time made manifest : nor is Change Death , but an occultation or hiding of that , that in it self seemed once to live . Here methinks I see both Sexes in our Ancestor shine through the lustre and beauty of Adam ; for Male and Female God created them , so that both Sexes liv'd under one Species ; and Adam in appearance was then Hermaphrodite , because having both Natures and Similitudes in himself . And whatever Adam listed should then be done , was accomplished before the desire could grow into act : in so great subjection was every thing to him , that obedience was held more Sacred than Sacrifice . All the Beasts in the Field came to him for Names , so did the Fish , and the Fowl of Heaven ; and whatever he called them , that was their Name . God gave him Wisdome , and he wisely improv'd it ; till the Tempter by a temptation leudly deprav'd him : so that whiles he steer'd both Sexes in one bottome , his success in every thing was more than miraculous ; but to Pilot the Helm of two distinct Vessels , and both at once in a storm under Sail ; surpasses the skill and methods of Navigation . And God blessed them with blessings in bidding them be fruitful ; which blessing was doubled by multiplication : this was a token of Love to the Creation , when God daily renewed his blessings upon the Creature . For the blessing upon Adam was by divine appointment transferred to succession upon Adam's Generation : which afterwards in time perverted through corruption , by a passive neglect in Adams Posterity . Now as every good thing is the Gift of God , and since whatever God gives is certainly good ; the Fruit of Paradice could be no otherwise than good , because the Gift of God that gave it : and the Fish in the Sea , and the Fowl in the Air which God gave unto Adam , were supreamly good . So that every thing in the Creation , and created being , had the tincture and sweetness proceeding from God ; who through Wisdome ordain'd it , and by Providence maintains it ; the consequence therefore must needs be good . Yet above all the blessings that ever God gave us , was in giving unto us himself in his Son ; the glorious Mystery , and Revelation of God ; which Gift of God was greater than the World , and was the Gift of him that gave himself for the World. To all the Creatures in the Creation , God bid them be fruitful , and in multiplying multiply , and replenish the Earth . But in Adam peculiarly as in a Divine Garden-Plot , God sowed there the Seed of Everlasting Life ; from whence by cultivation , and the Goodness of God , he might expect to reap an ever-living Crop ; for the Seed was the Seed of Eternal Life , and not the effects of Sin , and Dead Works . No Brambles grew up in this heavenly Vintage , whereof God himself was the Vine-roon . This is the new and the holy Ierusalem , wherein Paul may Plant , and Apollo Water ; yet if the Sons of Adam be barren Sciens , how can they produce this soveraign Fruit , without the heavenly Dews of the Son of God. Adam may multiply , and replenish the Earth ; yet if wanting the blessing of God his Benefactor , what profits it . To be good therefore is to be like unto God , and likeness in every thing creats love ; since every thing naturally loves its like : and this love in Man is the abstract of God , in as much as God is Love original . Whatever goodness therefore shines in Man , is really a derivative from God himself . So that should we trace the dimensions of Adam with the extent of his Monarchy ; how large his Commission runs , over the Earth and the Ocean ; it would be endless ; for his limitation was boundless : the Fowl of Heaven knew no Lord but Adam ; and the Fish in the Sea no Soveraign but himself : and every created thing that had breath , and moved ; and every moving thing that breathed , and was created ; had no Supream , nor Superintendent but Adam . For Adam as a Star shin'd then upon Earth , and made great by him that 's all goodness , and greatness ; was blest in his Posterity , and glorious Nativity , or heavenly Birth ; since two Divine Natures shin'd splendidly in him : For God had implanted both himself , and his Son , to make Adam beautiful , as himself is glorious : the nature of the one was to live and never die ; but the nature of the other was to die to live . This seems a Paradox , I 'll therefore explain it . That Power that lives and never dies , is the Divinity of the Majesty of God ; when the Almighty before the Creation divinely calculated the Nativity of Life ; for God said in himself , let us now make man , like unto our self ; in our similitude let us make him : which likeness or similitude was uncapable of death , consequently of diminution , or division of parts ; because the similitude of God himself ; for God breathed into Adam the breath of Life , and he became a living soul : who therefore so vain , precipitant , and idle as to imagine the Breath of God can extinguish . Time shall wear out , and Gerations walk off , and Death it self become an Exile ; and all things terminate , and drop into decay : but the Breath of God which is that illuminating light that enlightens the World , and the Soul of Man ; when that glorious light shall co-unite with darkness , which is altogether improbable , and utterly impossible : then shall that hidden life God breathed into Adam be capable of death , and not before . So that two Lives liv'd at once in our Ancestor ; a created Life , and a Life regenerate : a created Life , as from a heavenly Birth ; which sprung Originally from the Womb of Eternity ; and because made like to the likeness of his Maker , it gave him Victory to triumph over Sin ; putting into his custody the secrets of Life , and placing in his hands the Keys of Death : So that he knew nothing but absolute freedome ; and unprohibited the use of the whole Creation , one Tree only by the Divinest excepted ; in which God had placed a peculiar property , fit only for himself in wisdome to know : God therefore imposed his commands upon Adam , not to taste thereof , lest peradventure he die . The other Life was that of Regeneration , which is Christ incarnate , God in the Creature ; this Life liv'd invisibly before the Creation , and is that hidden Life in Christ ( manifest by the Apostle ) Christ in you the hope of Glory . Which remains a mystery to this very day , as in former Ages a secret to our Ancestors : which Life is the Power of God to Salvation ; and was in the beginning with God himself : and it was God , and was made Flesh , and by the Will of God dwelt among men . This is that Word that spake in the beginning , and moved in the Patriarchs our Ancestors to speak ; that liv'd immaculately in the blessed Virgin , that was made Flesh , and dwelt among men ; that bore our infirmities , and was Crucified at Ierusalem ; that in spight of Death took captivity captive , and in despite of Hell captivated Death : and which also is that Eternal Word that now is , ever was , and for ever shall be to convince the World of Sin , Impenitency , Incredulity , and Ingratitude ; which Monster of a Sin is worse than Witchcraft : and tho' a Witch be superscrib'd a Rebel in Physicks ; yet reversing the Point , a Rebel is a Witch in Politicks . The one because acting against the Law of Nature ; but the other because striving against Order , and Government . But God gave unto Adam a Charter Royal , that was sign'd and seal'd with those glorious Characters of Sun , Moon , and Stars ; and all the Host of Heaven to witness to it . This was that great and superlative Grant that God gave unto Adam when he placed him in Paradice : and wherewith to refresh him , he gave him every Herb , and of every Tree that was burd'ned with Fruit ; whereof he might eat , and live before him . These Royal Priviledges God gave unto Adam , and Heavens Benefactor confirm'd them unto him . Now Adam may freely eat and live , or he may eat , and assuredly die ; for Life and Death stand as it were in a poiz ; and because to our Protoplast seemingly mingled , they seemingly presented one single Existence , as if Property and Quality were intirely one : 't is true one Mantle overshadowed both , till God out of compassion made more visible discoveries . And as light shin'd forth by reason of purity , unmasking or unveiling the scenes of darkness , that lay hudled up in the hoil of obscurity ; light as a thing strangely surprized , seem'd suddenly to startle , because then not to know such a horrid deformity , as this we call darkness , was in the beginning co-inhabitant with it ; or conceal'd beneath it : for the light of it self was most pure and immaculate , in as much as it never entred into unity , nor into any association with obscurity or darkness . But darkness represents the solitary shadow of some Elementary thing , or something substantial ; wherefore we shall want some solid substance whereby to form our darkness out of ; and what is more solid than the fixity of Earth , or more copious than the bulk of the great Creation ; when as yet in the Hoil or confused Chaos , it lay intermingled , and blended together . Light must necessarily therefore appear a most glorious Creature , which by Divine Act operated in the Separation : For God no sooner said Let there be Light , and obedient to the Command it immediatly sprung up ; which by reason of its purity , and sublime clarity , exalted it self , and fill'd all the Universe ; so made visible discovery of things that lay conceal'd in the commassated mixture , or Mass of Elements . And this miraculous Work was accomplisht for Man that he might admire the excellency of his Maker , and raise his speculations to such a divine pitch , that by visibles he might conclude since such ornaments of beauty and swavity hung about them , that greater excellencies , and diviner curiosities of necessity must adorn the more invisible part ; by reason what 's circumferated and made visible to us , is only the shadow of that more glorious invisibility ▪ visible only to Seraphins , and Cherubims ; Arch-Angels and Angels ; together with the Saints , and the Sons of God. Farther yet to comfirm these Royal Priviledges , Adams prerogative seems infinitely enlarged ; for all the Beasts on the Earth , with the Fowl of the Air , and the Fish in the Sea , were given him for Food , by a Royal Grant from Heaven , to eat of ; but not to riot , so dishonour his Creator : and every Vegetable , besides the Race of Animals , were not only allotted him ; but given for nutrition . So that in effect the whole Creation , consequently every individual production , by Commission from the Divinest , was given him for sustentation . And so great a favourite was Adam in Paradise , and such great kindness had his Creator for him , that he made him Lord over all the Creation ; and every thing that was , was made serviceable to him ; nay in such veneration he stood with the Creatures , that all the Creation doubled their obedience . Here I fancy the innocent Lamb ( because then not knowing the terrours of death ) proffered his Throat to the Shrines of the Altar ; and the fatted Calf was so far from fear , that he dreaded not the formidable stroke of Separation : the Kids with the Flock sported then with the Wolf , and ran about the Bear sometimes for diversion . Thus the Creatures made sport and pastime with danger , as if Death and Destruction were sanctuary to them ; so naturally was Innocency implanted in Eden ( or the Suburbs of Heaven ) that nothing knew its enemy , because no enemy to know . Unity and Harmony were inseparable Companions ; and every individual knew no Argument but Love ; whose Law was alike forcible to others , as the Law of Harmony was united in it self . The Mallard in those days soar'd with the Falcon , and the timerous Hare lay down with the Hound : The Leopard , and the Tigre sported with the Herds ; and the Herren with the Shad swam without dread of the Porpus : the Dove and the Lark took flight with the Tassel , nor was any thing of Emulation known then in the Creation : Innocency shin'd naturally in every thing , and its excellency in the beginning knew no limitation : for nothing could sorrow , nor any thing grieve ; in as much as there was no real cause of suffering : Nor could any thing languish , nor be sensible of smart ; because as hitherto pain was uncreated . Fear was a thing altogether unexperimented , and Death and the Grave such eminent strangers , as never to be apprehended . What a pure State the Creation then stood in , worthy our contemplation , and the admiration of all Men. But Adam too niggardly he consults the Elements ; and Elements because having periods of their own ( by praedestinated Ordination ) are lockt up in death . Adam therefore mixing simplicity with impurity , which of it self stood in the limit of disobedience , cojoyned himself with finite adherences , so drew down upon himself the shortness of Life , and on the succeeding Generations the issues of Death ; which in time diminished , so by degrees extinguished the beauteous and luminous Ray of Life , that shined gloriously within him , and was sanctuary without him ; and would ever have gloriously shined in his Posterity , had not ●e remisly by one single consent , complyed with his Consort so vainly to extinguish it . Now when God had made a survey of the Creation , the Workmanship of his hands , and divinely blessed it ; he placed therein the likeness of himself , the single identity of his Divine Goodness ; which could not go forth , because the everlasting Arms of the Majesty of God so sacredly limited , and so sweetly confined it ; that in this Divine , and Cristalline Coagulum , the Majesty of Heaven beheld himself : who viewing the several Classes of the Creatures , which by Wisdome he divinely had foreseen in the Idea ; it so greatly renewed the ardency of his Love , which continued and augmented the blessing upon them : for Love has that singularity to shine in it self , and in its operation always to renovate . Thus God so loved the World he had made , that he gave us Himself in giving us his Son ; that whosoever believed and persevered in him , should never die , but have Life everlasting . Thus God made the World to protrude , and vegetate ; and because it should conceive , and daily bring forth ; he placed an appetite , and an immortal Soul therein ; and fill'd it as Hermes says , with Divine imagination ; so that the Sun , and Celestials fell in Love with the Harmony ; and because it was beautiful , they married with it : and this great Solemnity was Celebrated at first , when God laid his Ordinance of Multiplication upon it . Which Divine Institution has been punctually observed , and kept inviolable ever since the beginning ; and will undoubtedly so long remain , and so long continue , till Generation and Time shall be no more . And now the Deeps began to break up , when the Rivers and Rivulets with murmuring Streams silently invaded the florid Plains . The Mountains , and the Hills also look'd big with Flocks , whiles the Valleys and Savannas , with the fragrant Meadows were abundantly crowded with Herds of Cattle . All the Birds in the Air now turn'd Serenades ; and every Flower , and flourishing Blossom perfum'd the Air with delicious Aroma's . The lofty Cedar then lifted up his head , and the Martial - Oak , and the Ash stood by him ; so did the Poplar , and the spreading Elme ; but the trembling Asp shak'd his Palsie Head. The Vine in those days embraced the Olive , and the Eglantine intangled himself with the Rose . Thus every thing whilst naturally inamoured with its like , the Woodbine or Hony Succle tied knots about the Hedges . The Bee return'd home with loaden Thighs , and the Flocks of Sheep laid down their Fleece . The Oestridge deplum'd his feathery Crest , and the Stork retaliated kindness with gratitude . The Horse in those days spurn'd not at this Rider , nor did the Lion know the Tyranny of Invasion . Alegators in the beginning were not devourers ; no● were there known any Birds of Prey . The Vulture , and the Tigre liv'd not then upon Vermine , for Morts were altogether unknown ; nor was any thing infectious that might nautiate the Elements : every thing God had made stood in the beauty of Harmony : and whatever was made , and by wisdome created ; that thing beyond dispute was most certainly good . Adam was invited to this great Solemnity , which was then of it self but one single Family : nor had he any compeer , nor was there any to controul him except the Divinest , that great Oracle of Heaven that breath'd Life into him . And every Act that Adam made , was registred by the Creatures in this blessed Creation ; and most sacredly and inviolably kept in Paradice , till Sin , and Impiety spoil'd his Principallity : And then it was this great Parliament broke up , and the Members discontented began to withdraw ; so by degrees refused his Protection : And Adam considering himself neglected , and uncapable any longer to maintain his Prerogative ; folicits new favourites , but they forsook him , or rahter Adam forsook himself , but did not know it ; for Sin had so strangely disfigured and disguised him , that none of his Subjects could remember to know him , or think , or believe him their natural Prince ; suspecting him rather some forreign Invader , previously insinuated to divest them of Community ; and supplant them of those supernatant Priviledges , granted them in the beginning from their Soveraign Donor . So that the Creatures at once desert him , and not him only , but his Government also ; which look'd but little now , when formerly so great , that all the Creatures in the Creation paid servillity unto him . Thus Adam amaz'd to find himself forsaken , makes a League with the Elements to reinforce his Authority ; but they when examin'd could not cement the breach , nor in whole nor in part re-establish , enthrone , and eternize his grandure ; because having ends , and periods of their own : he therefore complies to walk the shades of Death ; and Deaths frigid Zone , and cold Icy touch no sooner approaches , but invades the Elements , so lets the compound crumble into dust ; which is the ultimate period of all Elementary mixts that ever was , that at present is , or ever shall be in the progress of time . Thus the Heaven and the Earth were finished , and all the Host of them ; and on the seventh day God ended his Work , the Work which he had made ; and rested on the seventh day from all his Work which he had made ; and blessed , and sanctified it . So that now the great Work of the great Creator , was by the word Fiat determined , and finished ; when the beauteous Earth most sumptuously adorned with Celestial Ornaments , like the Queen of Honour came splendidly forth with Virgin purity to celebrate her Espousals ; whose Bride-maids were Nature , and the Celestial Incholists : but the Spectators , and Relations were the various sorts of Animals ; together with the multiform generation of individuals , that with general applause , and unanimous consent , gave an approbation suitable to the present occasion . Here might be seen all the Beasts in the Forrest , hand in hand as it were coupled together ( if not improper to say so ) and ranging themselves into an excellent order , came forth to illustrate this great Solemnity . And here also all the Fish that swam in the Ocean , embodied themselves as if they were but one Fin ; and with the Fowl of the Air , so exactly moved ; and with such a reserv'dness so equal was their order ; as if all of them had but one single Wing to accilerate , and celeritate their admirable motion . In this excellent posture all the Creation stood , when attending the approach of this admirable Union . At length the Sun appears , her amiable beloved ; who came cloathed with Lustre , and excessive Beauty ; and all the Host of Heaven his illustrious Convoy : Whose Harmony was the Spheres ; and every thing that had Life exirted it self to move by measure ; as if all the Creation by gradual motion , with a reserv'd gravity mov'd the Orbs at once . Thus the Creation was compleatly finished ; and Heaven and Earth became Husband and Wife ; and God himself Divinely blessing them , bid them go forth , encrease and multiply . And on the Seventh Day when God had ended his Work ; He constituted a Sabbaoth , or a day of Rest , exempt from Labour , and other Servilities : but upon the Elements were no such imposition , nor were they under any breach of Command , as legibly construed by this Divine Injunction . Read Rabbi Moses in Sacred Writ , and you 'l find it extends to Man , and Beast only ; if when to consider the Minority of Time , with the Earths inhabitants that knew no Servility ; but Agriculture , and Grazing . Wherefore to look back on the Nativity of Affairs , you 'l meet Cain , and Abel intrencht in this toil ; when as the residue of the Creation knew no Limitation : but stood intirely as hitherto unconcern'd ; as if all days were but one day , or the Almigty's great Holy-Day ; wherein every Creature , nay all the Creation with humility rejoyced , and with elevated Praises exprest their thankfulness to the great Creator . It was then by Proclamation , and a Royal Command from Heaven , that Man and Beast only should Rest from Labour . For did not the Sun continue his course , and all the Stars move in their proper station . Did not the Orbs , the Elements , and the Heavens turn round with a Rapid Motion then as now ; and were they not then , as they now are in a perpetual , and circular Rotation . Did the Tides seem to stop their natural Flux , or the sullen Waves lay down their brinish Heads . Had the Fountains no issue , did the Winds cease to hover in the ambient Air , and grow remiss in transporting embodied Clouds . Did the Pulse of the great World neglect to beat , Sea-Monsters to roar , Hurecanes to invade , Earth , Hail , and Rain , Thunder and Lightning , did they associate together , and proclame a Sabbaoth , or a Universal Cessation . None of these things we read of hapned since the Creation ; and what 's the reason ? God in his Wisdom governs the Creation , but unreasonable Man was to Pilot the Creature . We therefore consider that this most sacred Ordinance relates more peculiarly to Man , and Beast ▪ and that the residue of the Creatures in this stupendious Creation stand intirely exempted , and acquitted from it . And God blessed the Seventh Day as a Day of Sanctity , who through Wisdome and Providence divinely hallowed it ; which to consider , is a manifest Proof to confirm the excellency of a Sabbaoth unto us . For God by Ordination appointed six days for Labour ; but the Seventh he set apart for Man and Beast to Rest in . The Mind and the Body therefore seem under different exercises , by which I conclude ought to have different entertainments ; the last if we consider solicites temporals , but the first if well observed she contemplates Eternals : Where note the one relates to our present State , but the other if I mistake not to our future Felicity : wherever therefore the treasure is , the desire of the Soul will also be there . But Heaven contents it self with a small allowance : is one day in Seven such a great exaction ? What a slender Service is required of us Mortals for so great kindness from so good a God ; how shall , or dare we detract from our selves , whereby to violate the Commands of Him that so sweetly by his Wisdome puts a Divine force upon us : and because unwilling to do our selves good , the Divinest is pleased to do good unto us . It 's true at the best we are but formal Penitents , that slash our own sides to raise a pity in others ; so wounding our selves make the Spectators cry . O where 's the Vision of Piety , and the Mediums of Charity ; when to run and embrace a veneal Polution , as if so sweet and luscious were the sence of Sin , that we 'l choose to die , rather than live without it : so sacrifice our selves to the fury of Flames , fancying thereby we burn the World , when as indeed , we but scorch our selves in the fiery Trial of a self-will Devotion . And God rested from his Work of finishing the Creation , which he made , and adorn'd for the good of the Creature ; which points out to us the Alpha and Omega , the beginnings of Time , and the end of the Creature . For when to say the Creator rested , it implies that Nature began then to Opeperate ; after the Divinest had put bounds and periods to every Creature , and created Being . To the Stars , and Constellations ; so to Elements , and Principles ; the Sea exceeds not her natural Course , nor does her swelling Flux prevail . Nor the luminous Sun tho' incircling the Heaven with a rapid Motion , what does he more than illustrate , vegetate , and illuminate the Universe : and the Stars which by Wisdome he made to shine , what do they but inspire , and influence the Earth ? And did not he also impregnate the Air , with the conceal'd treasures of Rain , and Hail ? whereby the Earth as the Air is fill'd with Life , consequently the Ocean , as the Earth with Vegetation . What can I say more ? Nor indeed offer less ; where-ever therefore God is said to be , of necessity Heaven must also be there : And the Apostle tells us , God is All in All , and the fulness of all dwells abundantly in him ; to whom for ever be everlasting Praises . Amen . FINIS .