A WORK For none but ANGELS & MEN THAT IS, To be able to look into, and to know ourselves. OR A BOOK Showing what the SOUL Is, Subsisting and having its operations without the Body; it's more than a perfection or reflection of the Sense, or Temperature of Humours; Not traduced from the Parents subsisting by itself without the Body: How she exercises her powers in the Body the vegetative or quickening power of the Senses.  
Of the Imagination or Common sense, the Fantasy, Sensative Memory, Passions, Motion of Life, the Local Motion, Intellectual powers of the soul.  
Of the Wit, Understanding, Reason, Opinion, Judgement, Power of Will, and the Relations betwixt Wit and Will.  
Of the Intellectual memory, which is the Souls store-house, wherein all that is laid up therein, remaineth there even after death and cannot be lost; that the Soul is Immortal, and cannot die, cannot be destroyed, her cause ceaseth not, violence nor time cannot destroy her; and all Objections answered to the contrary.  
Thomas Jenner has lineas composuit.  In faelix qui pauca sapit spernitque doc●ri 
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it,  Psal. 139.6. 
LONDON: Printed by M. S. for Thomas Jenner, at the South-Entrance of the Royal EXCHANGE. 1658.   

Of the Soul of Man, and the Immortality thereof.  
Why, since the desire to know, did corrupt the root of all mankind, did my parents send me to School that my mind might be enriched therewith? for when our first parents clear and sharp reason's eye, could have approached the eternal light, as the Intellectual Angels, even then the Spirit of lies suggests, that because they saw no Ill, therefore they were blind and breathed into them a curious wish, which did corrupt their will: for that ill they strait desired to know, which ill was nothing but a defect of good, which the Devil could not show while man stood in his perfection; so that they were first to do the Ill, before they could attain the knowledge of it; as men by tasting poison know the power of it, by destroying themselves. Thus man did ill to know good, and blinded reasons eye to give light to passions eye, and then he saw those wretched shapes of misery, and woe, nakedness, shame, and poverty by experience; Reason grew dark and could not discern the fair forms of God and truth, and man's soul which at first was fair, spotless, and good sees herself spotted, haunted with spirits impatient to see her own faults; therefore turns herself outward, and sees the face of those things pleasing and agreeable unto her senses, so that she can never meet with herself. The lights of Heaven, which are the fair eyes of the World, they look down upon the World to view it, and as they run and wander in the Skies, they survey all things that are on the Centre, yet the lights mine eyes, which see all objects far and nigh, look not into this little world of mine, nor see my face in which they are fixed since nature fails us in no needful thing, why do I want means to see my inward self, which sight might bring me to the knowledge of myself, which is the first degree to true wisdom, that power which gave me ability to see externals, infused an inward light, to see myself by means of which I might have a perfect knowledge of my own form. But as the eye can see nothing without the light of the Sun, neither can the mind see herself without Divine light, for how can art make that clear which is dim by nature, and the greatest wits are Ignorant both where she is, and what she is, one thinks her to be Air, and another fire, and another Blood, defused about the heart, and that she is compounded of the Elements, Musicians say our souls are Harmonies; Physicians, the complexions.  
Epicures makes them swarms of Atoms, which by chance fly into our Bodies, some again that one soul fills every man, as the Sun gives light to every star, others that the name of soul is a vain thing, and that it is a well mixed body: and as they differ about her substance, so, also where her seat is, some lift her up into the Brain, others thrust her down into the stomach, some place her in the heart, and others in the liver. Some say that she is all in all, and all in every part, and that she is not contained, but contains all, and thus the learned Clerks play at hazard, and let them say, it is what they will; there be some that will maintain it, the only wise God to punish the pride of men's wits, hath therefore wrought this confusion, but he that did make the Soul of nothing, and restored it when fallen to nothing, that so we might be twice his▪ can define her subtle form and knows her nature and powers: To judge herself she must transcend herself, for fettered men cannot express their strength, but now in these latter days, those Divine Mysteries which were laid in darkness, are brought to light: and this Lamp of God which doth defuse itself through all the Region of the brain, doth show the immortal face of it.  
UNDERSTANDING.  
I once was Aegle ey'ed full of all light.  
Am owl eyed now as dim as dark as night,  
As through a glass or Cloud I all things view.  
Shall on day see them in there proper hue.  
MEMORY.  
A common Inn all comers to retain.  
A Sieve where good rune out & bad remain.  
A Burrow with a thousand vermin hides.  
A Den where nothing that is good abides  
This she doth when from particular things she abstracts the Universal kinds; which are immaterial and bodiless, and can be lodged no where else but in the mind. And thus from divers acts and accidents which fall within her observation; she abstracts divine power and virtue; again, how can she know several bodies if she were a body; the eye cannot see all colours at once, nor the tongue relish all tastes at one time, but successively: nor can we judge of Passion except we be free from all passions, nor can a Judge execute his office well if he be possessed of either party, if lastly this quick power were a body, were it as swift as fire or wind, which blows the on one way, & makes the other a spier, her nimble body yet in time must move, & not slide through all places at an instant, she is nigh and far above, beneath, in point of time which thought cannot divide, she is as soon sent to China, as to Spain, and returns as soon as sent, she as soon measures the heavens as an ell of Silk.  
As then the soul hath a substance besides the body in which she is confined; so hath she not a body of her own, but is a spirit, and a mind immaterial.  
Since the body and soul have such diversities, we may very well muse how this match began: but that the Scripture tells us, 
That the soul is created immediately by God, Zach. 12.1.  Zachariah 12.1. saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the Heavens, and layeth the foundations of the Earth, and formeth the Spirit of man within him▪ he makes the body of Earth, and in it a beam of heavenly fire, now in the womb before the birth, 
Erroneus opinions of the Creation of souls.  inspires in all men their souls, and without a mother sends daily millions into the world which neither from eternity, nor at once in one time lay them up in the Sun or Moon, nor in some secret cloister where they sleep till they be awaked, neither did he make at first a certain number, infusing part in beasts, and part in men, and being unwilling to take further pain would make no more; so that the widow soul should be married to the next body that should be born, and so by often changing men's souls should pass from beasts to men, these are fond thoughts; since there are far more born than die, than thousand souls should be abortive, or others deaths should supply their souls; but as nature God's handmaid doth create bodies in time distinct and in due order, so God gives souls the like successive date, which himself forms in new bodies, which himself makes of no material thing, for unto Angels he hath given no power either to form the shape, or bring the stuff from Air or Fire, nor in this doth he use nature's service, 
That the soul is not traduced from their parents.  for although she can bring bodies from bodies, yet she could never traduce souls from souls, as light springs from light, and fire from fire as some learned fathers that were great lights of old did hold, for say they, how can we say that God made the soul, and yet not make him the Author of her sin, for in her lies the corruption, for Adam's body did not sin but his soul, and so brought the body to corruption, So we would fain make him the Author of the wine, if we knew whom to blame for her dregs; none were yet so gross, as to contend for this, that souls may be traduced from bodies, between whose natures there is no proportion, but many subtle wits have justified that souls may spiritually spring from souls, which if the nature of the soul be tried would even in nature prove as gross, for all things that are made are either of naught, or of something that is already made of naught, no Creature ever form aught, for that is proper for the Almighty; if then the soul make another soul, she must take it of some former stuff or matter, but there is no matter found in the soul: 
Reasons drawn from nature.  then if her heavenly form do not agree with any matter in the World, then must she needs be created of nothing, and that is only proper to God alone; again, if souls do beget souls, 'tis either by themselves, or the body's power, if by themselves what hinders them but that they may engender souls every hour, if by the body, how can understanding and will join with the body in this act; only since when they do their other works, they do abstract them themselves from the body; moreover, if souls were begotten of souls, they should move and change into each other, but motion and changes brings at last corruption, and then how should it be immortal? If lastly souls did use generation, than they should spread incorruptible seed; and than what becomes of that which they do loose, when the acts of generation do not speed? but if the soul could cast spiritual seed yet she would not, because she never dies; mortal things desire to breed their like that so they might immortalize their kind, therefore the Angels who are called the sons of God neither marry nor are given in marriage, their spirits and ours are of one substance, 
Matthew 19  and have one father the Lord of Heaven. Who would at first that in each other thing, earth, and water, living souls should breed, but man's soul which he would make their king, should immediately be produced from himself; and doubtless when he took the Woman from the side of the man, he alone inspierd the soul, for 'tis not said he did divide man's soul, but took flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone; and lastly, God being made man for man's sake, and like him in all, save only in sin, took his body from the womb of the Virgin but all agree, God form his soul within▪ him than is the soul from God, so say the Pagans which saw by nature's light, her heavenly kind, naming her kin to God, and Gods bright ray, a Citizen of Heaven, confined to the earth.  

Reason drawn from divinity.  This cloud may be further cleared by heavenly light, for questionless God made her, and made her good, and engrafted her in the body there to grow, which though it be corrupted flesh and blood, yet can it not bring corruption to the soul; yet this soul at first made good by God, and not corrupted by the evil of the body, yet in the womb is accursed and sinful ere she can judge by wit or choose by will, yet God is not the Author of her sin, though of her being; and if we dare judge him in this, he can condemn us, and yet be clear himself, first God from eternity decreed, what hath been, is, or shall be done, and that every man in his turn should run his race of life, and did purpose to make all souls that ever have been or shall be, and that they should take there being in humane bodies, or not to be at all; was it then fit that such a weak event, weakness itself, the sin and fall of man should prevent his execution, and counsels fixed, and decreed before the world began, and that one penal law broke by Adam, should make God break his own eternal law; and revoke the settled order of the world, and change all forms of things which he foresaw; could Eves weak hand extended to the Tree, rend a sunder that Adamantive chain, whose golden links of causes and effects remain fixed to Gods own chare; O could we see how cause doth spring from cause, how they are mutually linked and folded, and that on disagreeing string doth rather make then mar the harmony, and at once view how death is brought by sin, and how a better life doth arise by death, how in one his justice is seen, and his mercy in the other, we would praise this his decree a wise and right: but we measure time by first and last, and see the sight of things successively, when the Lord sees all at once and at an instant he sees all things in himself as in a glass, for from him, and by him, and through him are all things. His sight is not discorsive by degrees, but he seeing the whole, seeth every single heart. He looks on Adam as a root, or spring and on all his heirs as Branches, and streams; and sees all men as one man, though they dwell in sundry Nations and City's; and as root and branch makes but one Tree, and the spring and stream make but one River, so that if one be corrupted the other is corrupted also; So when the Root and Fountain of man kind did draw corruption and Gods curse by sin, this was a charge that did bind all his off-springe, and so they all grew corrupted: as when the hand sins, the man offends, for part from whole in this, the law doth not sever: so Adam's sin extends to whole mankind, for all natures are but part of his Therefore this sin of kind was not personal, but real and hereditary; the guile and punishment whereof must pass by course of nature and law: for as that easy law was given to all, to Ancestor, to heir first and last, so the transgression was general, in our law we see some foot steps of this which take her root from God and nature: Ten thousand men make but one corporation, and these and their successors are but one, and if they gain or lose their liberties, they harm and profit not themselves alone, but their Successors: and so the Ancestor and all his heirs, if they should increase as the Sand, their advancements and forfeitures are still but one, his civil acts do bind and harm them all.  
There are a Crew of fellows I suppose,  
That angle for their Victuals with their nose  
As quick as Beagles in the smelling sense  
To smell a feast in Paul's 2 miles from thence.  
Truth and a Lie did each a Lodging lack,  
And to a Gallants Ear their course did take:  
Truth was put by, (being but meanly clad)  
And in the Ear, the Lie the Lodging had.  

Smelling.  Next she useth the smell in the nostrils, as into them at first God breathed life, so now he makes his power to dwell in them, to judge of all Airs whereby we live and breath, this sense is Mistress of an Art, to sell sweet perfumes to soft people, yet it imparts but little good, for they have the best smell that cannot away with any perfumes, yet good scents do awake the fancy, refine the wit, and purify the Brain, and old devotions did use incense to make men's spirits, more apt for divine thoughts.  

Feeling.  Lastly, the power of feeling which is life's root, which doth shed itself through every living part, and extends itself from head to foot by sinews; as a net covering all the body, or much like a spider which setteth in the midst of her web, and if the outmost thread of it be touched she instantly feels it by the touch; we discern what's hard, smooth, rough, what's hot, and cold, and dry, and moist, 
The Imagination or common sense.  these are the outward instruments of the soul, and the Guards by which every thing must pass into the Soul, or aproacheth unto the minds intelligence, or touch wits lookingglass; the Fantasy, yet these Porters which admit all things themselves, neither discern nor perceive them, one Common power which sits in the forehead brings together all their proper forms; For all those Nerves which carry spirits of Sense, and go spreading themselves to the outward Organ, are there united as their Centre, and there they know by this power those sundry forms, the outward Organs present things do receive, the inward sense retain the things that are absent, for she straightways transmits' what she perceives unto the higher Region of the Brain.  
Where sits the Fantasy which is the hand maid near to the mind, and so beholds and discerneth them all, 
The Fantasy.  and things that are divers in their kind compounds in one: weigheth them in her Balance, and so some she esteems good, and some ill, and some things neuterall, neither good nor bad, this busy power is working night and day, when the outward senses are at rest, a thousand light and fantastical dreams with their fluttering wings keeps her still awake; yet all are not always afore her, 
The sensative memory.  she successively intends this and that, and what she ceaseth to see she commits to the large volume of the memory; This Leaguer Book lies behind in the Brain, like Janus eye, seated in the Poll, and is the storehouse of the mind, which much remembers and forgets more, here senses apprehension ends as a stone cast into the Pond of Water, one Circle makes another, till at last it toucheth the Bank. 
The passions of sense.  But although the apprehensive power do pause, yet the motive virtue is lively, and causeth passions in the heart, as joy, grief, fear, hope, love, and hate; and these passions bring forth divers actions in our lives, for all actions without the light of reason proceed from passion; but since the powers of sense lodge in the Brain, how comes passions from the heart, it ariseth from the mutual love and kind intelligence betwixt the Brain and the Heart. From the kind heat which reigns in the heart, from thence the spirits of life takes their beginning, these spirits of life ascending to the brain causeth a sensablenesse, and immediately judgeth whether it be good or ill, and sends down to the heart where all affections dwell a good or ill report, and if it be good, it causeth love, and longing hope, and well assured joy; If it be ill, it annoys the heart with vexing grief, and trembling, fear, and hatred. Now if these natural affections were good, or if we had such strength of reason, and especially grace for to rectify nature's passion we might be happy, and not so often miscarry as we do, for we were but blocks without them; besides there ariseth another motive power out of the heart, 
Motion of life.  which are the vital spirits, born in arteries, and causeth continual motion in all parts, 
Local motion.  it makes the pulses to beat, and lungs respier, and holds the sinews like a Bridle, so that the body retires; or advanceth, turns or stops as she strains or slackens them, thus the soul tunes the body's instrument, with life and sense fit instruments, being sent by the body, although the actions do flow from the soul's influence, 
The Intellectual powers of the soul.  sometimes I will this, yet I have not a power to express the working of the wit and will, for though their root be knit to the body, yet use not the body when they use their skill.  
WILL.  
Free to all ill, till freed to none but ill  
Now this I will anon the same I nill  
Appetite ere while, ere while Reason may  
Near good but when God's Spirit bears the sway  
To these high powers there is a store-house, 
The Intellectual memory.  where lieth all Arts, and general reasons which remain unto the soul even after death which cannot be washed away by any Loethean flood of forgetfulness.  
This is the soul and these be her virtues, which although they have their sundry proper ends, and one exceed another, yet each one do mutually depend on the other, our understanding is given us to know God, and he being known, our will is given us to love him, but he could not be known to us here below, but by his word and works which we receive through the senses, and as the understanding reaps the fruit of sense, so the quickening power feeds the senses, and while they do thus dispense their several powers, the best needeth the service of the least, even as the King serves the Magistrate, and the commons feed them both, the Magistrate preserves the commons by the power they have from their Prince; The quickening power would be, and there it rests, the senses are not contented only to be, but would be well, but the soul desires endless felicity; these three powers do make three sorts of men, for one sort of men desire as plants only to fill themselves, and some like beasts think the world is only to take their pleasure in it, and some men as Angels love to live in contemplation, therefore the 〈…〉 turned some men into flowers, others into beasts, 〈…〉 to Angels, which still travill, and still rest. Yet these three powers are not three souls, but one as one, and two or both contained in three, 3 being one number by itself alone; a shadow of the blessed Trinity.  
These meditations may draw from us this acclamation, What is man that thou adornest him with so bright a mind, 
An Acclamation.  madest him over all thy creatures a King, and an Angel's Peer? O what hast thou inspierd into this dying flesh, what a heavenly life, power, and lively life, spreading virtue, and a sparkling fire! In other works of thine thou leavest thy print, but in man hast written thine own Image; there cannot be a creature more divine, this exceeds man's thought, to consider how highly God hath raised man, since God became man, the Angels are astonished when they view and admire this mystery, 
That the soul is immortal, and cannot die.  neither hath he endowed man with these blessings for a day, neither do they depend on this life, for though the soul was made in time, yet lives for aye, and though it had a beginning, yet hath no end Her only end, is never ending bliss, and that consisteth in beholding the eternal face of the Almighty, who is the first of causes, and last of ends, and to do this she must needs be eternal, then how senseless or dead a soul hath he that thinks his soul dieth with his body, or if he think not so, yet would fain have it so, that he might sin with the more security; Although light and vicious persons say our souls are but a smoke, or Airy blast, which while we live plays within our nostrils, and when he dies turns to wind, although they say so, yet they know not what to think, for ten thousand doubts do arise in their minds, and although they strive against their consciences, there are some sparks in their flintey breasts, which cannot be extinct, which though fain they would, yet cannot be beasts; but whoso makes a mirror of his mind▪ and with patience views himself within, shall clearly see the soul's eternity, though all other beauties of the soul be defaced because of his sin.  
For first, 
Reason 1. Drawn from the desire of knowledge.  we find an appetite in every man's mind to learn and know the truth of every thing, this is connatural and born with him, on which the essence of the soul depends, she hath a native might with this desire to find out the truth of every thing, if she had time the innumerable effects to sort a●ight, and to climb by degrees from cause to cause; but sithence our lives slide so fast away through the wind, as the hungry Eagle, or as the ships which leaves no print of their passage, of which swift little time we spend while some things we strain through the senses, that our short race of life is ended ere we can attain the principles of skill, so that either God who hath made nothing in vain, in vain hath given this appetite and Flower, or else our knowledge which is begun here, must be perfected in heaven. To one whole kind the Almighty never gave a power, but most part of that kind did use the same, as though some eyes be blind, yet most eyes can see perfectly, so though some be lame in their limbs, yet most can walk, but no soul can know the truth in this life so perfectly, as it hath power to do; if then perfection is not to be found here below, he must ascend higher where it is to be obtained. Again, how can she but be immortal, 
Reason 2. Drawn from the Motion of the Soul.  when with the motion of her will and understanding she still aspiers to eternity, and is never at rest tell she attaineth thereunto; water in conduit pipes can arise no higher than the well head, from which they springe.  
Therefore since she doth aspire to the Almighty she must be eternal, the nature of all movable things, are to move to things of their own kind, as the earth downward, and the fire ascends tell both touch their proper elements; 
The Soul compared to a River.  and as the thirsty earth sucks her moisture from the Sea to fill her empty veins, and so glides along her grassy plains, she stays long as loath to leave the land, out of whose sides she came, she tastes all places, and turns on every hand, unwilling to forsake her flowery banks, yet nature doth so carry and lead her streams, that she makes no final stay tell she return into the bosom of the Ocean. Even so the Spirit of God doth secretly infuse into this earthy mould our souls, which at first doth behold this world, and at first her mother's earth she holdeth dear, and embracerh the world and worldly things, she flies close to the earth, and hovers here, and mounts not up with her celestial wings, and cannot light on any thing which doth agree with her heavenly nature, she cannot rest nor fix her thoughts, neither can she be contented with any thing, for who ever found it in honour, wealth, or pleasure; and having his health, ceased to wish, or having wisdom, was not vexed in mind, as a Bee that lights on every flower, and sucks and tasteth on all, but being pleased with none at last ariseth and sores away, like Noah's dove flies into the Ark from whence she came.  
When Hearing, Seeing, Tasting, Smelling's past:  
Feeling (as long as life remains) doth last  
Maid reach my Lute, I am not well indeed:  
O pitty-mee, my Bird hath made me bleed.  
FANCY.  
Apelike I all things imitate,  
Dreame-like I them vary-straite.  
New projects fashions I invent,  
All Shapes to head & heart present.  
Hence it is that Idiots, although they have a mind able to know the truth, and choose that which is good, if she could find such figures in the Brain, as she might find provided, she were in her right temper, but if a frenzy do possess it, it so blots and disturbs the forms of things, Phantasie proves altogether vain, and brings no true relation to the understanding, than the soul admits all for truth, and builds false conclusions, flies the good, and persewes the Ill, believing all that this false spy propounds, but purge the humours, and appease the rage which wrought this distemper in the Fantasy, then will the wit which never had disease, discourse as it ought, and judge discreetly, for the eye hath its perfect power of sight, although the stream be troubled, than these defects are in the senses, and not in the soul, she looseth not her power to see, although her windows be choked with mists, and clouds, the imperfections are not in the agent, but instrument, the soul hath one intelligence in all; in infants, and old men, although too much moisture be in the brain of the one, and too much dryness in the other, which makes them that they cannot attain the outward prints of things, than the soul wanting work is idle, and we call the one childishness, and the other dotage; yet the soul hath a quick and active wit, if she had apt tools to work withal, and stuff, for give her but Organs fit, and objects fair, give but the aged man the sense of the young man, and she will strait way show then her wont excellency, and as an old harper, although he hath all his Crotchets in his Brain, yet can he not express it when the gout is in his fingers; then dotage is no weakness of the mind, but of the sense, for if that did waste, we should find it in all old men, but most of them even at their dying hour have a mind more quick and lively, and use their understanding power better than in their youth, and their dying speeches are admired.  
But it may be further objected, if all her Organs die, 
Objection.  then hath the soul no powers to use, and is extinct because she cannot reduce them to act, and if her powers be dead, than what is she, for some power springs from every thing, and actings proceed from them, therefore kill her power, and act, and destroy her. It's very true, the death of the body is the destruction of the senses, so that she cannot use those faculties, although their root still rest in her substance, but as the body when it lives by the wit and will, can judge and choose without the aid of the body, so when the body can serve her no longer, and her senses are extinct, yet can she discourse in heavenly contemplation all alone, of what she hath heard and learned: and as a man that hath good horsemanship, and can play well on a lute, if thou take both horse and lute away, yet he still retains his skill, and can put that forth if they be returned unto him, when the body revives they shall be able to fulfil all their wanted offices. But it may be further objected, How shall she employ herself, seeing all her senses be gone? she may keep and enjoy what she hath got, but hath no means to understand or to get more, then what do those poor souls which get nothing, or those that cannot keep what they have got, like lives which let all out, these souls must sleep for want of exercise.  
See how man argues against himself; Why should we not have other means to know? as children in the womb live by the navel, but being come forth are nourished otherwise, children if they had use of their senses, and could hear their mothers tell them, that in a short time they should come from thence, they then would fear their birth, more than we fear our death, and would cry out, that if their navel strings were cut, how should their lives be preserved? since no other conduit brings their food; and if a man should reply unto those babes, and tell them when they come into this fair world, they shall see the Sun, Moon and Stars, Sea and earth, and meet with ten thousand dainties, which they shall take in with pleasure in their mouths, which shall be cordial as well as sweet and their little limbs shall grow unto tall bodies they would think it a fable, as we do of the Story of the Golden age, or as among us many sensual spirits hold the world to come a feigned stage, yet those infants shall find it true. So when the soul is born, for death is nothing but the soul's birth, she shall see ten thousand things beyond her imagination, and know them in an unknown manner, them shall she see no more by spectacles, nor hear no more by her double Spies, herself in instant will all things explore, for every thing is present to her, and lies before her.  
But still it may be objected, if the souls departed do live, why do they not return to bring us news of the strange world wherein they see such wonders, vain man we do believe that men live under the Zenith of both the frozen poles, although none come from thence to tell us: So cannot we have the like faith of our souls, the soul hath no more to do here, than we have to return into our mother's womb, what man did ever covet it, although we all come from thence: and that shows the soul hath a good being that they never desire to come hither again; doubtless such souls as mount up so high as to see their Creator's face, holds this in so base an account, as that she looks down and scorns this wretched place. As for such as are detruded to hell, if they would come here, yet they cannot, but still there are some wicked ones as say, that politic men have spread this lie of heaven and hell only to make men virtuous, so than it seems moral virtues be good, but they speak this for their private gain, for that is the standing of Commonwealths, wherein their private benefit is interested, but how can that be false that the Christian, Jew, Turk, Persian, Tarter, Cannibal hold to be true, this doctrine entered not into the ear, but is native in the breast, if death should destroy man for whose sake all things was made, then should he be more miserable than Daws, Trees, and Rocks, which last longer than he who is taken away at an instant, but blessed be that great power that hath blessed man with longer life than heaven and earth, and hath infused into man mortal powers not subject to the grave, for although the soul seem to bear about it her grave, and almost buried alive in this world, she needs not to fear the death of the body, for when this shell is broke, there comes forth a chicken, for as there are three essential powers of the soul, the quickening power, and power of the Sense, and also of reason, there be also three kinds of life defined her, in her due season to perfect them all; The first life which is vegitive is that nursing power spent in the womb, where when she finds defects of nourishment, she expels her body and grows too big for that place, and comes into the world where all his senses are in perfection, where he finds flowers to smell, and fruits to taste, sees sundry forms, and hears varieties of sounds, and when he hath passed sometime upon this stage, his reason begins to be awaked, which although she springs when senses begin to fade by reason of age; yet can she make here no perfect practice.  
Then doth the aspiring soul leave the body, which we call death, but were it known to all what life our souls receive by this death, they would rather call it a birth, or Gaol delivery; for in this third life reason will be so bright, as her sparks will be like the Sun beams, and shall the real ●●ght enjoy of God, being still increased by divine influence. Then let us take up this acclamation: O ignorant poor man, what bearest thou locked up in the casket of thy breast, what Jewels and what riches, and what heavenly treasure hast thou in so weak a chest. Look into thy soul and thou shalt see such virtues, honour, and pleasure, and whatsoever is counted excellent in this life. Think of her worth, and then know that God did mean thy worthy mind should embrace worthy things; Blot not her beauties with unclean thoughts; neither dishonour her with thy base passions; destroy not her quickening power with surfeitings and drunkenness; let not her sensitive power be marred with sensualities and fleshly desires; & let not her serious thoughts be employed on idle things, and enslave not her will to vanity, and whensoever thou thinkest of her eternity, have not this evil thought of her, that death is against her nature, no assure thyself it is a birth in which she is brought forth to a better being, and when thou comest to die, sing and rejoice as a swan, that thou art a going to bliss; if thou have faith to believe in Jesus Christ that thy sins may be forgiven thee, and whereas before thou didst fear as a child which is in the dark, fear not now having this light brought into thee: and now O thou my soul turn thine eye inward, and view the rays and beams of thy divine form, and know that whilst thou art clouded with this flesh of thine, thou canst not know any thing perfectly; study the highest and best things, but retain an humble thought of thyself, cast down thyself, and strive to raise the glorious and sacred name of thy Maker and blessed Redeemer; use all thy powers to praise that blessed power which gives thee power to be, and also power to use those powers thou art endued withal, and thus shut up all and say, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his Judgements, and his ways past finding out, Of him and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever.  
FINIS.   

WHAT HEAVEN IS, VINDICATED From the Vulgar mistakes, and gross conceivings of many; some of which mistakes is mention made in this Title, the rest of them manifested and enlarged in the ensuing Treatise.  
AS 

I. Mistake of Heaven is, that fancy the happiness of Heaven to consist only in things without them, and look upon it only as an outward place, and not as an inward state and disposition of the Soul.  
II. Gross conceit of Heaven is, as if it were nothing but a Theatre, a place of sights and shows, and God himself were nothing but a more Pompious spectacle, there to be gazed upon by these bodily eyes, whereas we are never at a distance from him, but only in the dispersion▪ multiplicity, distraction, and scattering of our bo●●●s, and in the dissimilitude, and disproportion of our souls unto him.  
III. Another Vulgar and common mistake is that God doth not require any endeavours or activity of ours in the business of Heaven, and that he deals with us in matters of Grace and Glory, as mere stocks, and stones, and inanimall creatures, and not in any way suitable to us as free and rational, for although we cannot make alive the new man in us yet we may concur to the kill, and destroying of the old, by refusing to satisfy the lusts and cravings of it.  
FOUR Neither are we to entertain this conceit, that God hath found out any other way to save his people from Hell and destruction, without saving of them from their sins and wickednesses.    
Infaelix cujus nulli sapientia prodest.   

What Heaven is, vindicated from the Vulgar mistakes and gross conceivings of many.  
False Gospelers undermine the true righteousness of God, and make the Gospel nothing else but a slight imagination; we should not entertain any such conceit, as if Christ came with any new devise to bring men to heaven without the hard labour of mortifying their lusts, as if the intent of his coming was to promulgate ease and liberty to the flesh, and by his being crucified for us upon the Cross, to excuse our crucifying the old man in our hearts, as if he had found out a way to save his people from hell and destruction, without saving of them from their sins and wickednesses 1. The possibility of attaining that righteousness that is required of us in the Gospel it is by the power of Christ attainable, or else none could enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. He that is born of God sins not, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God, and must we needs say that he that is born of God can and may do nothing else but sin? is the immortal seed of God's holy spirit, of God's eternal word in the hearts of true believers, is nothing else but the seed of the Serpent, and the Cockatrice Eggs, it is possible that the divine nature that the Scripture speaks of, should be nothing else but the nature of the Devil, that God's holy spirit in us should make us habitations for itself to dwell in, and yet suffer us at the same time to be vessels of sin and Satan; is the end of the holy Gospel not at all to free us from sin by the power of Christ, but only to spread a Purple veil over us, not all to destroy the works of the Devil in us, but only to cover them from God's avenging eye; Is the end of the Gospel nothing else, but to palliate over the diseases of our corruptions, which remain in us ever sense the fall, and not at all to cure them. If so then, surely the reason of this is either, because Christ is not able to overcome sin and Satan in us, as the Manikees of old dreamt, or else because he is not willing, and that is a greater disparagement to him then the former, for the other robs him only of the Glory of his power, but this spoils him of the Glory of his goodness; as if Christ should envy that to us, which of all other things is the most necessary to make us happy; or as if God were not as careful to advance his Kingdom of light, here in the world, as the Devil is to enlarge his Kingdom of darkness, as if God did not love his own butifull Image, his own son and nature, but would willingly suffer it to be choked and smothered here in the world by those Fiends of darkness, whom he hath long since locked and fettered up in chains of darkness, and reserved for the judgement of the great day. Says the Philosopher no man sets up a mark on purpose that men might miss it, and shall God set up this mark of righteousness in the Gospel as a Butt for us to aim at, for this very end and purpose, that all the world should miss it; Can he that is the faithful and true God put such a trick of fraud and mockery upon his creatures? No surely, righteousness, evangelical righteousness is the only thing intended per, see in all God's Commandments, and sin which is nothing else but a missing of the mark, comes in by accident, sin is that which God will either destroy and banish out of the World by the clear discovery of his truth in the hearts of men, or else he will at last chain it in the bottomless pit to all eternity, and make the blackness of it to be a soil to set off the glory of his justice.  
But it is suggested by some, that Christ will not therefore bestow any true righteousness, holiness, or sanctification upon a Saint, on purpose that he might keep him humble, as if the only way to make men truly humble, were to make them wicked, and as it men would be so much the more proud, by how much the more holy, and made truly partakers of the image of God. Away then w●th this fond conceit, whereby we do nothing else but gratify men's lusts; And smother and extinguish the life of God in the world, it is the sluggard that says there is a Lion in the way, but the true believer saith, Who art thou O great mountain before, Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, nay, the truth itself saith, All things are possible to them that believe, we may undoubtedly by the power of God in us, prevail every day more and more over the power of sin and Satan, the weapons of our warfare are very powerful and able to batter down the strong holds of Satan in our hearts▪ he that is indeed born of God shall overcome the world, and the flesh, and the Devil to, by the power of God in him, he shall destroy the law of sin in his members, by the true Law▪ the Law of the Spirit of life, and if we should with unfeigned simplicity of heart apply ourselves to God, and resigning up our selus to him, to be taught & led by him, we should certainly find that his free spitit would inwardly lead us into all ways of obedience, and that it would be as natural and as delightful to us, to walk on in those pleasant paths of holiness and righteousness, as ever it was to wander in those crooked ways of sin and wickedness; nay the true Regenerate christian, is so far from delighting secretly in the ways of sin, as the false hearted hypocrite thinks he doth, that there is nothing that more hurts and wounds his soul, then that he hath not a more lively sense of evil; for the divine life in him being a delicate and tender thing hath the most quickest sense of any thing that is contrary to it, and is most ingenious and industrious for self preservation against it, wisdom is easy to the wise, says Solomon, and her ways are ways of pleasantness to them, and all her paths are peace, and sin is the most ugly and forlorn thing in the world Let not therefore these evil spies that bring an evil report upon this Land of Promise, dishearten and discourage us, but let us go on in the Power of God and his strength, and exercise our faith in this, not only that we shall be freed from Fire and Brimstone here after, but that we shall be delivered from the power of sin, and Satan in our own hearts, this is that faith whereby we overcome the world; and if we had more of this faith in the power of Christ to destroy our corruptions in us, and to tread down Satan under our feet, and all that fond and ungrounded confidence, that God intends to save us while we continue under the power of sin, we should go on more successfully and prosperously in the way to Heaven.  
And it is a dangerous mistake now under the Gospel, to conceive that God will save men out of a fond affection towards them, without renewing of their natures, and begetting his own son the new Creature in their hearts. Merely for believing this very thing, that they shall be saved, as if it were possible for men to be made happy, without being delivered from the power of sin, which is all one, as if we should say that it were possible for men to be saved without salvation, surely such as these think heaven nothing else but a mere place without them, a fine glistering place, whose gates are of pearl, and the walls of Jasper, and the bottom paved with stars, a very Turkish Paradise, for had they once tasted of the true pleasures of the soul purged from sin, and really established in the life of God, they would then see so much deformity in sin, that they would not accept of heaven upon such terms as those that is to be placed in an outward heaven, without the inward change and renewing of their minds, without the conforming of their souls to the Image and likeness of God; I am sure a true Saint would not take heaven on such conditions as these are, that he might enjoy all the outward pleasures that are possible, that he might have a shining glistering body, that he might tread upon Stars, and fly upon the wings of the wind, that he might converse with Cherubims and Serafims, Angels and ark Angels, if all this while he must continue filthy within, full of noisome and stinking lusts, void of divine wisdom that purges and purifies the soul, having a dark and sottish mind, unruly affection, continually struggling and quarrelling within.  
God he may indeed dispense with the punishment that belongs to sin, he may forgive and pardon in respect of punishment, but he can never account those truly holy, that are truly wicked, and bond slaves to sin and Satan. Now this can never make us happy to be freed only from the punishment of sin; we can never be happy, till we be made partakers of the life of God himself, till we have the same mind and life in us that is in God himself.  
If God should account us righteous, except we were truly possessed of a righteousness within us, I may speak it with reverence, this could do us no good, no true christian would be contented with it, no more than a man that is sick, could be contented to be accounted whole, or one that is poor and naked, could be contented to be accounted rich and clothed, no more than one that is frozen in a cold winter night, could be contented to be accounted hot, nothing without us can make us really happy, till we be inwardly made partakers of the Image of God.  
But it is very plain and easy to discover the ground of these mistakes, because carnal men desire not so much to enjoy heaven, as to be freed from hell, or if they desire heaven they desire nothing at all in it, but only their own ease and carnal pleasure, it would serve their turn well enough, if they could but have an artifice to get their sins pardoned, that they might be freed from the punishment that is due to them, and might be admitted into a sensual heaven, though they live to all eternity under the power of sin and wickedness, and never have the lest taste of the true heavenly Manna, nor any knowledge of the name written on the white stone, which no man knows but he that hath it, and therefore it will serve these men's turns well enough, if they may be freed from the punishment of sin, while they love sin with all their hearts, The true hearted christian is really departed out of wicked Sodom, out of this noisome state of sin, he is not so much solicitus about his state, as about his life, that he may still continue that heavenly life that is begun in him, he is not so anxious about his justification in a preposterous method, as about the sanctification of his heart and affection; that is the best way to be assured of his justification, he feels the divine life in him, and that he knows can never sink him to hell, he drinks of the true springs of everlasting life, and knows he shall never see death, he is not so much perplexed about his future salvation, because he finds he is already saved, because itself hath taken him upon its wings, and carries him away swiftly far from the region of death and Hell. I beseech you let us not deceive ourselves, without such an inward frame of spirit as this is, that is really crucified to the world, and planted into Christ, sucking life and influence from him. God himself with what he can do without us, would never make us happy.  
Besides the destroying of this corrupt, natural, and fleshly life, we must also have a new and spiritual life begotten in us; For as Christ and the divine nature did assume the humane nature to itself, so likewise in every christian the divine life, or the life of God must as it were assume the humane and created life of man, and totally act it and enforce it, this is the essence of the new creature, this is the life and soul of christianity, the marrow and quintessence of all religion, to have a life wrapped up in man, that is the very life of God himself, and whosoever doth not partake of this life, whatsoever opinion he entertains in religion, whatever outward forms of discipline he contends for, whatever sects he belongs to, he is either carnal or devilish. For nothing of man's is pleasing unto God, but that that God works in man, and by man, and whatsoever works with God according to that that is in God, this is in a manner one spirit with God himself, and whatsoever it doth, it doth it in Forma Dei, that is, God using this man's soul and life, and abilities, doth act it in him. But whatsoever particular created life, lives otherwise then the eternal life of God lives, this sets up itself against God, and this is the life of corrupt nature, and the life of the Devil, this is sin and nothing else, to live otherwise then the eternal life of God lives, and this was that that Christ came into the world to destroy, and how doth he do this? surely no otherwise then by bringing Gods own life into the humanity; Again, for he himself was nothing else but a Tabernacle of God pitched amongst men, nothing but a humane nature acted, and disposed, and guided by the life of God, so that whatsoever Christ lives, God lives in him, now this must not only be done by Christ without us, but the same also must be done within us.  
One gross mistake among men, that yet pretend much to Religion that is very prejudicial to the advancement of this spiritual righteousness that the Gospel requires of us, and that is a conceit that men have whereby they think that salvation is a mere outward work, and therefore may be wholly effected by outward means, whereas it is nothing else for the substance of it, but the inward transforming of ourselves into the likeness of God, the real translating of us out of the life of nature, into the divine life, or life of God, or the begetting of a new and heavenly life in the soul of man, that is the very same that doth every way agree with the life of God himself; I say it with reverence God himself cannot make us happy by any thing without us, but only by forming his own nature and likeness in us, they are carnal and earthly minded men, and no way suitable to the state of glory and happiness, that fancy the happiness of heaven to consist only in things without them, and look upon it only as an outward place, and not as an inward state and disposition of the soul; I say therefore that salvation it is an inward thing, and consists chiefly in being saved from our sins, and being delivered from our own life, and being translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light and righteousness, and it is not a Heaven without us, though never so glorious and glistering a place, nay, it is not God without us that can make us truly and really happy, but it is God inwardly, setting himself in our souls, and so dwelling in us that our sins may be so ruled and guided by the life of God, as the members of our bodies are acted by our souls, and when this is once done, we shall at once live both the life of God, and enjoy the joy, peace, and happiness of God himself, which will all at once flow in upon us, I would not be mistaken, I do not here deny but that there be some other inferior circumstances belonging to the state of happiness, as the changing of these vild bodies of ours, and instead of this earthly tabernacle that weighs down the mind, as Solomon speaks, when as our souls were as it were now buried in a heap of flesh, they shall receive an other more divine Tabernacle that Paul calls a spiritual body, a more fit companion for our souls, and many other such things answerable hereunto, I say these things I do not deny, but yet all these things are of an inferior nature, and all depend upon the former, the inward frame and disposition of the soul, in which the substance of heaven and hell consist. Now this being well considered and understood, it is very plain that to think we can be saved without inward righteousness, merely by something done without us, without the inward and real change of our souls; is all one as to think we can be saved without salvation, or we can be made happy without the possession of happiness, though we must still remember the only procuring cause of our salvation, is the death sufferings and satisfaction of Christ, who was made a propitiation for our sins, this is therefore the reason for which this inward righteousness before spoken of is to be urged in the Gospel▪ not as if we could thereby merit any thing at all at the hands of God, for we can merit no thing, but there is nothing that God himself can bestow upon us in heaven better, than the partisipation of his own life and nature, this inward change of the soul, this new creature is salvation itself, and if we be not possessed of it in some measure here, we have little reason how ever we may fond flatter ourselves to think it shall be done hereafter, that is the first mistake that I shall take notice of, that we are apt to conceive that salvation is an outward work, and may be wrought only by outward means.  
2. There is another mistake that is very near a kin to that in matters of religion, and that is, when we seek for God we look for God wholly abroad without ourselves, whereas the only way to find God is to turn ourselves inward, and to look for him in the bottom of our own souls, for if we could be carried up beyond the spheres, and pry into every corner of the stars in heaven above, certainly we should as little find God there as we did on earth, if we could find God any where abroad without us, this could not make us happy, for then God would be really at a distance from us, but our happiness consists in such a real communion with God, as our Saviour discribes, 17 Joh. 22. The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one as we are one; I in them, and they in me, that all might be made perfect in one: The heaven where God dwells in, and where alone he is to be found, is in a regenerate soul, and he that will indeed find God and be united to him, must not gaze and gad abroad, and turn his eyes wholly outward, but he must look to find him within, Intimis animis, for there he may at once both see him, feel him, taste him, and be united to him, God is never distant by place from us, for in him we live and move and have our being, but all our distance from him is only in the dispersion, multiplicity, distractions, and scatter of our hearts, and in the dissimilitude and disproportions of our souls unto him, and when these things are once removed, than God appears to us who was never absent from us, but only our eyes are now unvailed to see and behold him, God is every where alike to him that can feel him, he is only not present to him that cannot receive him, as the sun shines not in a house where the curtains are drawn, and the windows stopped up. This is the reason why many have so much ado to find God, because they look for him as a corporal thing, they still employ their fancies and imaginations to find him without, and send them a roving, gadding, and wandering abroad after God, and have such natural and gross conceits of heaven, as if it were nothing but a Theatre, a place of sights and shows, and God himself were nothing but a more pompous spectacle, there to be gazed upon by these bodily eyes; God I say is to be sought by a Christian within his own soul, and the way to find him there is, not by knowledge; or study, or speculation, but by a leaving off all things, even our own wit and knowledge, and especially our lives, and by abstracting of ourselves from the love of the world, and of ourselves, and dying to them, and then out of this death will spring the true and heavenly light in which alone God is seen and known.  
3. There is yet another mistake that is very vulgar and common, and that is, that men are generally very apt to conceive that God doth not require any endeavours, any activity of ours at all in the business of Religion, and that God deals with us in matters of grace and spiritual things, as mere stocks, and stones, and inanimal creatures, and not in a way suitable to us, as we are free and rational; This I conceive to be another mistake that damps and chokes men's endeavours of subduing and mortifying their lusts, for by this means we lazily lie down under the burden of our sins, and think we may cast the blame of our wickedness upon God himself, he hath not given us strength, he hath not given us power and ability, this is a strong castle of sin, in which men are apt to garrison themselves against all the hearty exhortations and instructions which the Word of God, and the messengers of God bring unto them, whereas the Scripture every where calls upon us, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to make our calling and election sure, to gird up the loins of our minds, to fight the good fight of faith, and Christ himself tells us, That he with his spirit stands at the door and knocks, if any man open, and will hear his voice, I will come into him, saith he, and sup with him, and he with me; It is true, indeed it is not in our power to make ourselves new creatures, to be regenerate and born again when we please, but as our Saviour tells us, the wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it comes, nor whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit, but yet let us not deceive ourselves, though this change in us be a new birth, and we cannot make ourselves the sons of God, no more than we can make ourselves the Sons of men, we can indeed but Pati Deum, lie down and suffer while he prints his own Image on our hearts, while he forms himself in our souls; yet notwithstanding let us not deceive ourselves, there is something for us to do, and that the Scripture every where calls upon us for, and that is, not to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, to put off the old man that is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, to mortify and subdue this body of death, that we carry about us, for though we cannot make alive the new man in us when we please, yet we may concur to the kill and destroying of the old, by refusing to satisfy the lusts & cravings of it, & then by looking up to heaven, & imploring God's assistance that he would come down upon us the second time, & breath into us the breath of supernatural life, we have therefore many gracious promises made to us in the Gospel, on purpose to encourage us to faith in God, that he will be always ready to prevent us with his goodness, & to remove the wretched infidelity of our hearts, whereby our confidence in God is choked & all heavenly endeavours are dampt in us, the whole Gospel was written to this end & purpose, to destroy this infidelity, and assure us that we may come to God, & that he is a rewarder of those that seek him.  
FINIS.